Woman arrested after baby boy found dead by church



A woman has been arrested after a newborn baby boy was found dead in a carrier bag outside a west London church.

The boy's body was discovered inside a Marks & Spencer bag outside All Saints' Church, off Talbot Road, in Notting Hill last Tuesday.

The woman, believed to be the baby's mother, was detained on Saturday on suspicion of concealing a birth, neglect and infanticide, the Metropolitan Police said.

Supt Owen Renowden said she had been taken to hospital to "receive the support she needs while officers continue their work to understand what took place".

Over the last week, NHS and local council officials joined the police investigation into the boy's death, which helped lead to the arrest.

The force said that arrests in these cases were necessary so that officers could investigate the circumstances surrounding the baby's death.

A post-mortem examination is due to take place later this week, but officers remain open-minded about what happened, the Met said.

Supt Renowden, who leads policing for the area, said: "This is an ongoing, fast-paced investigation, with officers working tirelessly to ascertain the circumstances of the baby boy's death.  I recognise that the news of this arrest may cause concern among our community, but when dealing with investigations of this nature our priority is to ensure the welfare of all involved and ensure that all lines of inquiry are fully explored."  He added that the force was still appealing for anyone who has information about what happened to come forward.

Graham - can I suggest you turn off your predictive text? It doesn't work, I suggest you request a refund! 

Graham - can I suggest you turn off your predictive text? It doesn't work, I suggest you request a refund! 

PRESS RELEASE

OUTRAGE OVER MISSING ENTRANCE GATE AT PILNING STATION

Local residents are furious over the recent theft of the entrance gate at Pilning station—a crime that underscores the neglect and vulnerability of the station in its current state. Once again, the lack of essential facilities and services at Pilning has created an environment where criminal acts go unchecked.

Pilning Station Group Chair Olga Taylor said,

“If Pilning station were treated as a fully functioning station—with proper CCTV surveillance, regular stopping services, a safe and accessible footbridge, and a steady stream of passengers— such blatant vandalism or theft would be far less likely to occur. Instead, the station remains forgotten and undervalued, leaving it open to these disgraceful incidents.”

“Pilning deserves better. It is high time for investment and revitalization, not just to deter criminal activities but to serve as a proper transportation hub for the community.”

GWR have been approached for comment.

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS

a) Pilning is located on the South Wales Main Line and is the last station in England before the Severn Tunnel. Its service suffered progressive rundown and was reduced in 2006 to one train each way on Saturdays only. Trains can only call during daylight hours as the station lighting has been removed.

b) Despite stiff local opposition, the station’s footbridge was controversially demolished in 2016 to make way for electrification wires, cutting off access to the westbound platform altogether and rendering the service “one direction only” (towards Bristol). To return, passengers have to go through the Severn Tunnel into Wales, change at Severn Tunnel Junction and return the way they have just come, extending a 20-minute journey to one-hour-plus.

Further information and background: see www.pilningstation.uk

They might be 'specialist parts' but they clearly wear out, degrade or fail regularly (otherwise why do so many trains need the part).

That sort of suggests the stores manager, or company contracted to maintain them doesn't know what they are doing, and forgets to order in time sufficient replacement parts.   If something has a lead time of many months, then you need at least that many months stock, and bit extra in case more than average fail.

It's not like they are parts for classes of train about to be withdrawn, so run down the stock, these are parts for trains they expect to have for years/decades, so should still be ensuring they have spare parts.

This is management spin, someone somewhere didn't get the spare parts, and now they are making excuses for the one job they are supposed to do (run sufficient trains per their business commitments with DfT).  Someone ought to fall on their sword.

This is management spin, someone somewhere didn't get the spare parts, and now they are making excuses for the one job they are supposed to do (run sufficient trains per their business commitments with DfT).  Someone ought to fall on their sword.

I - totally - agree with you on reliability of information; ..................

A number of train services between Birmingham, Hereford and Worcester are being temporarily cut, with a shortage of carriages blamed.

West Midlands Railway (WMR) has halted four of its 48 daily services on these routes including a rush-hour morning train, with the changes starting on Monday and expected to last until early summer.

The company was currently short of specialist parts needed to fix some carriages' wheels due to "a blip" in its supply chain, WMR public affairs manager Andrew McGill said.

"Our message to customers is: Please do bear with us, we're very, very sorry for this inconvenience," he told BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester.

The halted services include the 07:23 BST train from Worcester Foregate Street to Birmingham New Street, as well as the 17:50 train from Birmingham New Street to Hereford.

The 19:50 train from Hereford to Birmingham New Street, plus the 22:00 service from Birmingham New Street to Worcester Shrub Hill, have also been withdrawn.

Mr McGill said WMR hoped to have enough parts to begin reinstating services in June or July, but it was not yet possible to give an exact date.

"These are really specialist parts" and "it's not like Tesco has run out of something and you can pop to Sainsbury's to pick up what you need," he said.

Mr McGill said WMR had considered all options before withdrawing the services, adding that the company still ran several services from Worcester to Birmingham for commuters in the morning peak period.

After a successful 3 commutes last week I got up nice and early again to catch the 06:32 Melksham to Trowbridge service, only to see that it hadn't left Gloucester - 'delayed'. Kept checking it (National Rail, phone (app) & laptop), but no change. So I was resigned to reverting back to the 07:21 Melksham Chippenham service.

And I was checking that the 7:21 was on time just before 6, when I noticed that the 06:32 was showing as on time! The revised timings were now showing it as having left Gloucester 2 mins late, followed by lots of 'Information Unavailable' at subsequent stops, but on time at Swindon and beyond.

I just managed to get out of the door and jog a significant portion of the 1.6 miles to Melksham to catch it, but honestly I'm not sure what's worse - unreliable trains or unreliable train times