A BABY girl is recovering in hospital after undergoing a potentially life-saving liver transplant operation. Tegan Ross, from Darlington, was rushed to St James Hospital on Wednesday morning after a successful donor was found. Later in the day, the eight-month-old
A MAN has admitted starting a fire in his ex-wife's garage, while she slept in her adjoining house. But Paul Bell, 38, denies any intention to pose a threat to the life of Wendy Charlton. Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to a charge of destroying property
THE leader of a gang of youths who terrorised a couple in the centre of Darlington has been spared jail. Stephen Geoffrey Page, 18, of Fountains View, Darlington, appeared at Darlington Magistrates Court yesterday along with three other youths, aged between
COMMUNITY leaders have raised concerns about the effectiveness and cost of a town's security camera system. Town councillors in Richmond have been told coverage for the next financial year will cost £37,000. The cost to the town council will be £8,200
THE first phase of a £1.4m project to create a base for charitable organisations is due to be completed in the next two weeks. Officials at Ripon Community House say the ground floor should be open to the public in a fortnight. The building was scheduled
A PENSIONER has been attacked with wooden clubs late at night by two robbers, who followed him for almost a mile back to his caravan home. Jimmy Mundell, 75, was recovering at Darlington Memorial Hospital yesterday after the assault in Etherley Bank,
A NEWLY-FOUNDED branch of the Rotary Club has swung into action with two charitable donations before it has even received its official charter. The Rotary Club of Durham Elvet held its inaugural meeting in November, and is due to receive its official
A HEADTEACHER was in police custody yesterday - charged with being the best teacher in the world. The "allegation" was made against David Bellett, from Holy Trinity Primary School, Stockton. However, pupils from the school came to his rescue and donated
AN MP is calling for a review of the decision to grant planning permission to a multi-million pound city centre housing development. Labour MP Roberta Blackman-Woods is asking Government officials to call in the proposed £20m redevelopment of the former
REESE Witherspoon was sleeping off her jetlag in Berlin when her publicist woke her to give her the good news. Around the same time, Charlize Theron's plane was landing in London as her assistant turned on her phone and got a similar message. Both Hollywood
POLICE have joined forces with a rural crimewatch group to launch a pioneering course for pupils at a Darlington school. Darlington-based Countryside Crime Watch (CCW) and Darlington Police are working with Firthmoor Primary School on a project designed
VILLAGERS who say their homes could be swamped by a 100-house development have been told of a second application in neighbouring land. Wear Valley District Council was due to consider a bid by housebuilders Yuill's this week when a last-minute application
VETS were last night fighting to save a young lurcher whose owners dumped her in a field and left her for dead. The RSPCA is appealing for help to trace the owners after a passer-by found her in a field, in Greenfield Road, Bishop Auckland yesterday morning
THE search has begun to find a suitable location for a cluster of recycling firms to form Teesside's first ecopark. Three possible sites - their location a strictly guarded secret - have been identified, The Northern Echo can reveal. Dr Dermot Roddy,
FOUR men have been given extended prison sentences for their part in a violent rampage at a jail for young offenders. Teesside Crown Court heard that inmates at Deerbolt Young Offenders Institution, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, hurled pool balls
THE infantry training centre, at Catterick Garrison, has been in the media spotlight of late. Recent allegations of inappropriate behaviour and bullying have been levelled at the centre, re-igniting the controversial issue of alleged widespread bullying
PLAYING in the Premiership, particularly when you are rooted to the bottom, has its pitfalls. Being accosted in the street by disgruntled supporters is one of the worst. But instead of reacting angrily to any grief he may have received, Sunderland's Liam
SEVEN years ago, Paul Stephenson was part of the Hartlepool Untied side that kick-started their fight against relegation with a draw against Rotherham. Today he gets the chance to lead Pool's battle against the drop from the dug out as he leads the side
THE records of thousands of North-East soldiers who died in the First World War have been placed on a new searchable website, it has been revealed. By logging on to the family history website www.1837online. com it is now possible to discover online a
A COUPLE who had a miraculous escape from the south Asian tsunami are celebrating the birth of their first child. Harrison James Harrand was born at 13 minutes past midnight on Wednesday, weighing a healthy 8lb 9oz. His parents, Greg and Louise, both
DESPITE chairman Freddy Shepherd insisting he will not be rushed into appointing Graeme Souness' successor, Newcastle skipper Alan Shearer has urged everyone on Tyneside to forget about long-term planning in order to focus all their attention on today's
THOUSANDS of pounds worth of goods were ordered by a woman using other people's credit card details, a court heard yesterday. Donna Jenkins used the fraudulently obtained information to order wood flooring, boilers and other goods. Durham Crown Court
AS if he hadn't already got enough on his plate, Sven Goran Eriksson saw his troubles increase on Wednesday night. While Arsenal's Sol Campbell was being hauled off at half-time, Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand was being sent off after conceding four
This afternoon's game between Newcastle and Portsmouth has been described as the classic six-pointer. But, as Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson discovered, caretaker manager Glenn Roeder has already come through a more serious must-win situation THERE
STEVE McCLAREN believes striker Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink has shown the true extent of his professionalism by delivering peak performances despite the uncertainty surrounding his future hanging over his head. Throughout the month of January, Hasselbaink
THOUSANDS of pounds worth of goods were ordered by a woman using other people's credit card details, a court heard yesterday. Donna Jenkins used the fraudulently obtained information to order wood flooring, boilers and other goods. Durham Crown Court
BUMPER profits will continue to roll in for the City's biggest companies next week as BP and GlaxoSmithKline prepare to follow the record performances of rivals Royal Dutch Shell and AstraZeneca respectively. Investors will be interested in what GlaxoSmithKline
WITH the probability of a return to the Championship increasing by the game, under-fire Mick McCarthy has defended his record since being installed as Sunderland boss three years ago. The sacking of Graeme Souness at local rivals Newcastle United has
THE takeover battle for Sunderland car dealer Reg Vardy took another twist last night as Pendragon made an increased offer of 900p per share, valuing the company at £506m. Larger rival Pendragon also bought more than six million shares in the company,
LOCAL councils are likely to reject a key component of the so-called Darzi Plan when they meet on Monday. Health bosses across Teesside and Hartlepool have already backed a controversial plan to re-organise local hospital services. The plan, drawn up
A COMMUNITY partnership is celebrating hitting the jackpot after receiving tens of thousands of pounds to expand its base. The Cornforth Partnership has scooped a Big Lottery Fund grant of £132,268 to establish a dedicated space for young people in the
YOUTH clubs designed to give youngsters something to do on Friday nights are celebrating a successful start after more than 50 people attended one of the first sessions. Five leisure centres in Durham City are running the Friday night youth clubs, with
PASSENGERS on a far-flung bus route are being subsidised to the cost of £21.34p a journey, according to a report to county councillors. Tuesday and Friday journeys on the Sedbergh-Hawes-Thwaite service have been highlighted as the heaviest subsidised
A CAMPAIGN to encourage more workplaces in North Yorkshire to become smoke-free will be taken a step further later this month. A double-decker smoke-free bus will be visiting Northallerton and Richmond. On board will be health professionals and members
ARMCHAIR aerobics and tai chi are among the activities revealed yesterday as part of a programme to make sure leisure is open to all. Deerness Gymnastics and Leisure Centre has launched the Inclusive Fitness Initiative, which it says is designed to make
THOUSANDS of headstones on Teesside are to be restored after a council was forced to flatten them for safety reasons. Middlesbrough Council will invest about a quarter of a million pounds in the restoration scheme, which will see about 2,500 headstones
A NORTH-EAST college has exchanged contracts to give the official go-ahead for a new-look campus. The Gateshead College facility will be built at the Baltic Business Quarter, at Gateshead Quayside. The building, designed by Red Box Design Company, will
JUST as Cinderella went to the ball, five-year-old Victoria John and lots of other children went to the panto. Power firm px played fairy godmother to youngsters at South Bank, Middlesbrough - children who might not otherwise have had a chance of seeing
A HOLIDAYMAKER was greeted on her return home by being burgled by her next door neighbour. The victim had only just unlocked the property, in Burns Close, Stanley, County Durham, after the holiday in Cyprus, when the incident took place on September 25
THE first ones emerged all of a sudden by the back door. They'd been entombed in a plant pot of dumped debris and garden sweepings, but as the temperature dropped below freezing they'd heroically pushed their dainty white heads through the iron-hard earth
GANGS of youths are intimidating residents in part of Darlington. As reported in The Northern Echo this week, people in Stanhope Park are concerned about youngsters congregating in the area and drinking. Similar problems have also been reported in Nightingale
POLICE were last night hunting a would-be child snatcher after a young mother was involved in a tug-of-war for her baby. Lyndsey Grieves, 21, grappled with the stranger who pounced from behind and took hold of baby Matthew's carry seat. The mother-of-three
LOSS-MAKING technology firm Bede is making redundancies at its Durham base as it strives to reduce costs by 18 per cent. The troubled X-ray group announced last week that it was going through another phase of restructuring after losses nearly doubled
A SMALL primary school which keeps up to date with technology has been rewarded with a national award. The Blessed John Duckett RC school, at Tow Law, submitted an electronic portfolio to earn a Naace quality award for ICT. All of the school's 62 pupils
A 40-YEAR-OLD man has received a caution after claiming to offer British birds of prey eggs for sale over the Internet, it was revealed last night. Northumbria Police were contacted by the special investigations department of the Royal Society for the
DOES the leader of the British Nationalist Party have the right to stand before an audience and air his views, even if most of us consider them to be utterly abhorrent? Do newspapers have the right to publish cartoons which cause grave offence to the
FERDY MURPHY has always held L'Antartique (2.20) in the highest regard, a heady opinion that will be put to the acid test at Wetherby this afternoon. The Grade 2 £28,000 Brit Novices' Hurdle is the objective for L'Antartique, who represents the value
THE takeover battle for Sunderland car dealer Reg Vardy took another twist last night as Pendragon made an increased offer of 900p per share, valuing the company at £506m. Larger rival Pendragon also bought more than six million shares in the company,
DARLINGTON are hoping their goalkeeping problems are finally over when forgotten man Sam Russell ends his injury exile at Boston United today. After three months on the sidelines the 23-year-old is back and manager David Hodgson hopes it signals an end
MERMAID BABY: After watching Channel 4's Body Shock: The curse of the mermaid, I found myself completely appalled. At what point did a little baby's life become less important than a good news story or the perfect picture? The programme followed the journey
VICTIMS of a North-East horse box scam that saw customers across the country conned out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, last night hit out at their "pitiful" compensation payouts. Gary Upson and his son, Ryan, fled their Darlington business, Just
HAVING got married on the same day as Elton John, Royal Shakespeare Company associate director Greg Doran spoke this week about being a trail-blazer in his public and private life. Greg hit the headlines in December because he married his famous long-time
POLICE were last night hunting a would-be child snatcher after a young mother was involved in a tug-of-war for her baby. Lyndsey Grieves, 21, grappled with the stranger who pounced from behind and took hold of baby Matthew's carry seat. The mother-of-three
PLAYING in the Premiership, particularly when you are rooted to the bottom, has its pitfalls. Being accosted in the street by disgruntled supporters is one of the worst. But instead of reacting angrily to any grief he may have received, Sunderland's Liam
