Sarah Burgess

East Anglian Daily Times • 6th April 2022

'Filthy environment and uncaring staff': Woman slams hospital unit

Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust's Woodlands mental health unit is attached to Ipswich Hospital. Inset is Stuart Richardson, the chief executive of the trust - Credit: NSFT/ Lucy Taylor

A woman taken by police to a secure hospital unit has slammed the county’s mental health trust for its “uncaring staff” and “filthy environment”.

The patient, a 43-year-old woman from Woodbridge, was taken to the 136 Suite at the Woodlands mental health unit attached to Ipswich Hospital on March 16 late in

East Anglian Daily Times • 2nd April 2022

Mum gets £9k pay-out from council after it 'failed her children'

Emma Eveleigh and her husband Chris have two special needs children, but say getting them the right education has been a battle - Credit: Emma Eveleigh

Suffolk County Council has been ordered to pay compensation worth more than £9,000 to the mum of two disabled children for failing to provide them with alternative education when they were too anxious to attend school.

Emma Eveleigh, 40, lives in Needham Market with her husband Chris and three children – two of which have special educational ne

East Anglian Daily Times • 1st April 2022

Teacher accused of historic sex assault received pay-out worth £58k today

The letter, believed to have been written in late 1985, reveals that the ex-monk and music teacher was paid off after being accused of sexual assault - Credit: Archant/ Submitted

A Catholic boarding school housemaster accused of sexually assaulting a child was given a pay-out worth £58,000 today, we can reveal.

Brother Solomon, also known by his lay name Mike Mercado, taught at St Joseph’s College on Belstead Road in Ipswich for the first time in the 1950s, and left in 1961.

It was formerly r

East Anglian Daily Times • 29th March 2022

Cost of living crisis: Single mums face homelessness over 'sky high' rents

Rabab Elshrife is sharing a bedroom with her three children due to mould in house, but can't move anywhere else because she can't afford the rent PICTURE: CHARLOTTE BOND - Credit: Charlotte Bond

Two single mums with young families say they cannot afford to rent privately anywhere in Ipswich due to the cost of living crisis – with both now facing homelessness and an uncertain future.

Rabab Elshrife was made homeless for the first time alongside her three teenage daughters in December 2018 when

East Anglian Daily Times • 28th March 2022

Disabled tenants living without lifts at 'hellish' 16-storey tower block

Tenants in St Francis Tower say they are sick to death of the lifts breaking down - with those who are less able-bodied having to walk up and down hundreds of stairs to access their flats - Credit: Charlotte Bond/ Submitted

Tenants living in shrink-wrapped St Francis Tower in Ipswich say the suffocating vinyl plastic encasing their building is just one of a long list of problems that make living there "hellish".

An investigation by this newspaper has found the cladding remediation works taking

East Anglian Daily Times • 24th March 2022

Revealed: 17 police staff accused of domestic abuse - but only one sacked

In the last four years more than a dozen Suffolk police staff members were accused of domestic abuse – but only one was sacked from their job.

Research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism shows that between 2018 and 2021, 11 police officers and six civilian staff were the subject of domestic abuse reports made to the force, but none have faced prosecution.

A Freedom of Information Request revealed that only in 2018 did two misconduct hearings take place, following which one person was di

East Anglian Daily Times • 20th March 2022

Fears Ipswich tower block could be ‘structurally compromised’

Six months after surveyors identified a structural issue in an Ipswich high rise which they warned could mean the “integrity of the building is compromised”, the landlord still cannot reassure homeowners their building is safe.

Leaseholders at Cardinal Lofts on the Waterfront have faced two years of anguish over whether they will have to contribute to the estimated £9.2m cost of fire-proofing their tower block after safety defects were uncovered in 2020.

But now a fresh fear has been added to

East Anglian Daily Times • 15th March 2022

Mum battles to clear dead daughter's name by overturning 'archaic law'

A distraught Sudbury mum whose daughter fell to her death has slammed an "archaic, disgusting law" which means her memory will be "forever stigmatised".

"Bubbly" 33-year-old Emma Fraser died when she fell from a t

East Anglian Daily Times • 14th March 2022

'My son threatened suicide': Disabled children face years out of school

Parents say their disabled children face bare-bones school timetables because teachers can’t cope with their needs - but the council has confessed it doesn’t keep track of how many pupils are affected.

As reported by this newspaper, persistent school absence among special ne

East Anglian Daily Times • 9th March 2022

'It was disgusting': Landlords say rogue renters make their lives hell

You've heard of bad landlords – but what about bad tenants?

An investigation by this newspaper found that private landlords were the subject of 10,000 complaints to Suffolk councils in the last five years – with 249 health-threatening hazards identified in rented homes during that time.

We found there is little recourse available for tenants stuck in squalid h