Severe flaws in child safeguarding allowed a convicted paedophile to continue abusing two young victims, according to a report released today. The independent report, commissioned by the Devon Children Safeguarding Board covers the services repeated oversight during a five-year period of abuse and the circumstances leading up to the abuser coming into contact with his victims. The abuser, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a known child sex offender prior to coming into contact with the family. He was jailed last year for a series of offences against his victims, including rape and...
Fly-half Gareth Steenson insists performance is key for the Exeter Chiefs this Saturday as they look to overcome rivals Sale Sharks in the Aviva Premiership (3pm).
Having returned to winning ways with last weekend's 38-33 win at lowly Worcester Warriors, Devon's finest can expect another stiff examination against the visiting Sharks.
With qualification into Europe's new-look Champions Cup very much up for grabs, the need to accrue vital Premiership points has never been more important with just three rounds of the domestic season remaining.
This year marks Westpoint Exeter’s 25th birthday! And to kick off the celebrations Westpoint has announced it is offering four charities the chance to stage their own event at the venue for free.
Charities large and small are invited to apply for this unique opportunity with one of the south-west’s largest exhibition and entertainment venues. With free access to the Function Room, Wadsworth Pavilion log cabin and Showground, the charities can let their imaginations run wild.
The whole site lends itself to a variety of both indoor and outdoor events. Westpoint’s log cabin...
Work to collect data that will help to design a Beach Management Plan (BMP) for Sidmouth will take longer than expected, the project team announced this week.
The aims of the East Devon District Council-sponsored project are to ensure that Sidmouth's sea defences are performing as expected and to consider what may need to be done to reduce the rate of erosion at East Beach.
The working group managing the project now calculates that the information gathering exercise will take up to three months longer than was originally thought. The group has therefore postponed the next...
After raising over £5,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity in 2013, Gemfest is back.
This year the festival will be taking over the whole building, and with a daytime event for families, topped off with an evening of music and festival fun for adults, there’s guaranteed to be something for everyone.
Gemfest during the day (11am-4pm)
The daytime is a family orientated event and will be free of charge to attend. There will be arts and crafts, storytelling, stalls, facepainting, games, competitions and more. Most activities are free of charge or request only a small...
ELR is proud to present their first EP and are celebrating with a party on record store day.
From noon until 5pm, the Exeter Local Records pop up shop will be in Exeter Phoenix’s foyer, selling music from over 200 south west bands and artists on CD Vinyl and more.
Doors open at 8pm for a revue of bands we like, and which have all appeared on our latest compilation. Bands include:
The Alchemist’s Wardrobe
Some Sort Of Threat
Woodford Green
Super secret mystery 10 piece headline band!
World fusion from the Alchemists Wardrobe, acoustic...
An online Easter egg hunt in which players act as ‘predators’ to find hidden bird eggs will help scientists better understand camouflage and its evolution.
The new game, called Egglab, is a type of citizen science – a genuine scientific experiment that anyone around the world with a computer, smartphone or tablet can take part in, with the aim of understanding how different types of camouflage evolve in different habitat types.
It has been created by a BBSRC-funded research team led by Dr Martin Stevens of the University of Exeter, who have been investigating how camouflage...
Exeter Chiefs forward Kai Horstmann says he and his team are expecting a "real battle" when Sale Sharks rock up in Devon for this Saturday's crunch Aviva Premiership encounter (3pm).
With just three league games remaining for the Chiefs, the battle to get in the mix for next season's new-look European Champions Cup is beginning to intensify.
The Chiefs and the Sharks have made no secret of the fact that they want to be part of Europe's elite again next term, so the stakes are high ahead of what promises to be a keenly-fought encounter at Sandy Park.
Tickets for Breathe Fest, a music festival to raise money needed for the potentially life-saving treatment of an Exeter woman with two terminal illnesses, have now gone on sale. The festival, to be held in Exeter on Friday, July 11, and Saturday, July 12 will help raise the necessary money to support mother-of-one Jo Smith travel to and pay for her treatment which is only available in Thailand. Jo, 36, has a unique combination of diseases and doctors say the odds of suffering both is over five billion to one. She needs a heart and lung transplant to have any hope of beating the blood...
Book lovers in Devon are being invited to celebrate World Book Night at the County Council’s libraries next week.
This year, 250,000 World Book Night editions (12,500 copies of 20 titles) will be given by a network of volunteer reading enthusiasts and institutions focusing on reaching the 35.2% of the population who don’t read for pleasure
In Exeter, library staff and volunteers will be giving out free books outside Exeter Central Station from a specially set up pop-up library from noon-4pm just across the road from Exeter College. Great news for commuters who may be able...
