Independent health inspectors have expressed concern at a child being confined to a locked section of a state-run special care unit on a continuous basis since April.

THE controversial Ballydowd residential care facility for children should be closed according to an inspections watchdog which said conditions there had worsened since a HSE U-turn on an initial plan to shut it down last year.

Four men have been arrested in Northern Ireland as part of a police probe into internet child porn, it emerged today.

THE country’s only secure facility for troubled teenagers has been severely criticised by State inspectors.