A man who had served 12 years of an 18-year sentence for three brutal rapes struck again within months of being released, a court was told yesterday.

Richard Ewing, 41, planned the attack while staying at a bail hostel in Weymouth, Dorset. He selected his 17-year-old victim and got to know her movements before attacking her in a disused farm building where he had prepared a lair. Ewing, appearing at Dorchester Crown Court, pleaded guilty to two charges of rape, attempted rape, kidnap and sexual assualt. He was sent to prison for life and warned that he might never be freed. Baby car seat 'risk'

Farm head sacked

The former head of the Rural Payments Agency, which bungled £1.5 billion worth of payments to farmers, has been dismissed after of £80,750. Johnston McNeill received a lump sum of £99,000 and is entitled to a £12,000-a-year pension, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

Baby car seat 'risk'

Babies should not be left to sleep unattended in standard car safety seats because they risk being asphyxiated, it is claimed. Some experience reduced blood oxygen and loss of breath when strapped in recommended semi-reclining restraints, a New Zealand research team reports today in the British Medical Journal.

Gays to 'divorce'

Darryl Bullock, 42, and Mark Godfrey, 32, who were among the first same-sex couples to have a civil partnership are set to make legal history for again by getting “divorced”. They and about 1,000 other same-sex couples exchanged vows in England and Wales on December 21 last year when the laws took effect.

Asronist jailed

An animal rights extremist was jailed indefinitely yesterday for conducting an arson campaign against people whom he thought had links to the vivisection industry. Donald Currie, 39, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Reading Crown Court in August to arson and to possessing incendiary devices.

Veiled threat to pull out of speech

The Muslim woman due to star in Channel 4’s alternative Christmas speech says that she is considering pulling out of the broadcast because she did not realise that she would be going head-to-head with the Queen.

Khadija Ravat, a lecturer in Islamic studies from Leicester, who wears a full veil, said she did not know that it would be aired in competition with the traditional royal address.

Channel 4 insisted that the broadcast would go ahead.

A spokesman told The Times: “As far as we are concerned, it is business as usual.” He said that he did not know if the significance of the alternative 3pm broadcast had been made clear to Mrs Ravat.

General’s lecture 'was not a surprise'

Ministry of Defence sources admitted yesterday that they had been expecting critical remarks from General Sir Mike Jackson, the former army chief, since his retirement in July (Michael Evans writes).

In a controversial Dimbleby lecture on Wednesday night, General Jackson attacked the MoD for being obsessed with petty bureaucracy and for failing to give soldiers in the front line the pay and equipment that they deserved.

An official said that General Jackson was writing a book, and suggested that the lecture was a precursor to a more detailed outline of his views, expected next autumn.

Nato aircraft may have killed Marine

The British Armed Forces in Afghanistan have begun a full investigation after fears emerged that the latest fatal casualty of the fighting in the south, Marine Jonathan Wigley of 45 Commando Royal Marines, had been hit by a Nato aircraft called in to bomb Taleban positions.

Military sources in Helmand province said that Nato aircraft had been operating close to where Marine Wigley had been positioned during a ten-hour battle.

One British soldier said that he believed an American A10 may have been involved in the fatal shooting. Two other marines were also injured, one of them seriously.

No remorse option for wife beaters

Controversial plans to let wife beaters avoid jail if they appeared genuinely remorseful were dropped yesterday (Frances Gibb writes).

The Sentencing Guidelines Council, the watchdog chaired by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, has changed its plans after ministers intervened. Instead it has outlined guidance for new sentences.

The range of possible offences includes criminal damage, assault and grievous bodily harm. Penalities can range from a non-custodial sentence up to life.

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