Kids pooling pocket money to buy ketamine off the playground pushers
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"I see kids as young as 13 sitting in alleyways taking ketamine. Dealers threaten your family, they threaten your mates. They put you in a position where you have to do it."
I’m George Hancorn, an ITV News Digital Reporter, and I’ve been spending a lot of time up in the north west of England lately investigating how ketamine consumption and availability is quickly becoming a ‘crisis’ - with people as young as 12 and 13 taking and dealing the drug in and around schools.
It was all pretty shocking to hear.
I’d been tracking the drug’s explosion in young people for a while, but it wasn’t until Cheshire Police invited us to join them on their raids, that we realised this wasn’t an issue that was going away overnight.
Faye's son started using the drug in his early 20s. He's now clean and in recovery, but she watched him deteriorate pretty quickly.
"I was watching my son crawl along the floor and the only way to ease the pain from those cramps was more ketamine," she told me.
From council leaders to dealers and clinic staff working in close-to-full rehab clinics, the north west appears to have a particular issue with the drug hitting the very young, hard.
Interestingly, what did every single person we interviewed say could legitimately be done? Education. But it’s just the start…
How UK homes are fronts for global scam network
Is there a scammer operating globally living right next door to you?
Using confidential data, documents and inside sources, ITV News, together with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Netherlands’ NRC, Germany’s Der Spiegel and Denmark’s Politiken have helped uncover what appears to be a global scamming operation potentially worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
And much of the money - made from scamming tens of thousands of people across the world - is funnelled through seemingly normal homes in Britain.
Victims are predominantly duped by ‘subscription scams’, where - as the name suggests - unsuspecting targets are signed up to bogus subscriptions.
The scams take a low-value, high-volume approach. Only relatively small monthly or fortnightly payments are taken, in the hope that the victim doesn’t notice.
And they rack up millions. Watch the report on ITVX or YouTube.
Starmer makes 'substantial u-turn' on welfare payments
Keir Starmer swept into No.10 a year ago on a wave of frustration and exhaustion after 14 years of Conservative rule.
Twelve months on, and his Labour leadership was facing a mass rebellion over welfare reforms.
In the face of that rebellion, the prime minister has seemingly blinked, promising concessions to placate the backbenchers.
See also: Starmer’s welfare crisis is about more than welfare and don’t forget you can catch our latest Talking Politics podcast here.
Soho, sexual assault and spiking: The dark side of a night out in London
An exclusive survey for ITV News London has shown the majority of women don't feel safe on the capital’s streets. A quarter say they have been physically or sexually assaulted.
Reporter Helen Keenan was hassled by a man as she joined a team of volunteers from Westminster Council that patrol Soho alongside uniformed police.
Within a couple of hours, they come across a young woman, out celebrating finishing her A-levels who has been sexually assaulted, her bank card and phone taken. A man was later arrested and the girl treated and dropped off at home.
In an exclusive interview, Jess Phillips, the minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, said she was “saddened” but not surprised by the figures adding: “Every woman I know has been harassed at some point in their life.”
You can watch the special report on YouTube.
Plus there’s more on our Instagram:
Newborn babies dying in Gaza as Israeli blockade causes dire shortage of formula
Nasser Hospital in Gaza still functions, though it’s been at the centre of Israel’s war with Hamas for 20 traumatising months, reports ITV News Correspondent John Ray.
Right now, we’re told, these tiny patients’ most basic need is their great weakness.
The Israeli aid blockage means there’s a dire shortage of formula feed that could prove fatal.
You can watch John’s harrowing film on ITVX.
Meanwhile, the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be holding after US president Donald Trump’s F-bomb… Our latest Talking Politics USA podcast can be found here.
'It’s getting more like a care home than a prison'
Glenochil prison in Scotland houses a high number of sex offenders and those serving life sentences, meaning many are growing old within their walls.
After months of arranging, ITV News Scotland reporter Louise Scott was given exclusive access inside Glenochil, to an area housing sex offenders and murderers.
“If it wasn’t for the cell doors and coordinated inmate uniforms, you could easily believe you were inside a care home, with most using wheelchairs and walking aids,” she says.
Meet Arthur, the ‘miracle baby’ who defied the odds
Arthur Ransom was still in the womb when he suffered heart failure due to a viral infection.
His mother Maisie, who was just 16 weeks pregnant, was told it "would take a miracle to save him". His chances of survival were so slim, they were given the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy.
But a miracle worker in the shape of Professor Asma Khalil was at hand. She put Arthur to sleep inside the womb and inserted a blood transfusion needle into his liver.
Now, six months old, he’s living proof that miracles do happen…
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Someone knows who killed my son
Ellis Cox, aged 19, was fatally shot in June last year at the Liver Industrial Estate in Liverpool. Since then a number of people have been arrested in connection to the murder, but no one has been charged.
Speaking 12 months after her son's death, Carolyn Cox said: "How are they still walking around? How are they enjoying the sunshine? Why should they get to hug their mum, and my Ellis can't."
She and police are appealing to the local community to help bring the killer or killers to justice.
Watch the report from ITV News Granada on ITVX.
Father of firefighter killed on duty speaks of final hours he spent with her
Jennie Logan, 30, was one of three people to die while tackling a blaze at Bicester Motion in Oxfordshire last month.
Speaking exclusively to ITV News Meridian, Ian Logan described firefighter Jennie as 'the perfect daughter' and recalled the moment police arrived to give the family the heartbreaking news.
He said: "It was just all surreal. We were in shock anyway but to see your daughter's picture on the TV every hour on the hour was bizarre.”
What’s coming up…
Monday June 30: All England Tennis Championships, Wimbledon begins. Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu lead British hopes
Monday June 30: Covid inquiry resumes, focusing on infections, monitoring and prevention within the care home sector
Tuesday July 1: The government’s controversial welfare reforms are due to be debated and voted upon by MPs
Friday July 4: First concert of Oasis reunion tour staged at the Principality Stadium in Wales
And finally… farewell Antarctica
ITV News Science Correspondent Martin Stew is on his way home from Antarctica after seeing first-hand the impact of climate change on the continent and the wider world.
He’s witnessed the pressures on wildlife with warmer winters and the environment as sea ice melts.