It found that the nurses from Darlington Memorial Hospital suffered harassment from their NHS trust, with the "effect of violating the dignity of the claimants and creating a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment for them".

The nurses took County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust to the employment tribunal over a policy that allowed their colleague, Rose Henderson - who was born male but identifies as a woman - to use the changing room.

Rose Henderson had used the facility since starting at the hospital as a student in 2019. The complaints from other nurses began in 2023.

"Women were in distress - their dignity and privacy was being violated," Bethany Hutchison, one of the nurses who brought the case, had told Sky News.

"Women should be allowed to have safe single sex facilities. Particularly when you're just about to start a shift - we have to undress to our bra and knickers. It's not appropriate to have a biological male in there."

The tribunal upheld the complaint of indirect sex discrimination as it concluded that by permitting a trans woman to use the female changing room, the trust was in breach of health and safety laws and had "infringed the claimants' right to respect for private life" under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

But it concluded that Rose Henderson had not personally harassed or victimised the claimants.

The tribunal also rejected the claim that the trust had victimised the claimants.

A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said: "We are taking time to review the judgment carefully and will comment further once we have had the opportunity to consider it in full."

Responding to the ruling, Ms Hutchison, said: "This is a victory for common sense and for every woman who simply wants to feel safe at work.

"Women deserve access to single-sex spaces without fear or intimidation. Forcing us to undress in front of a man was not only degrading but dangerous.

"Today's ruling sends a clear message: the NHS cannot ignore women's rights in the name of ideology.

"We stood up because we knew this was wrong. No woman should be forced to choose between her job and her safety.

"This ruling is a turning point, and we will keep fighting until every woman in the NHS is guaranteed the dignity and protection she deserves."

Rose Henderson had said the nurses were guilty of "direct discrimination and harassment that has created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment, due to my protected characteristics".

The nurses' claim included allegations that Rose Henderson had harassed colleagues inside the changing room.

One of the nurses, Karen Danson, told the tribunal that Rose Henderson repeatedly asked her whether or not she was getting changed yet - and said this triggered a panic attack due to prior trauma. Rose Henderson denied the allegations, which the tribunal rejected.

The case was originally brought by eight nurses but one had to withdraw due to ill health.

The Darlington case is one of the first to test out in the courts the Supreme Court's landmark judgment in April 2025. The ruling in For Women Scotland vs The Scottish Ministers defined 'woman' as someone who was born female.

The judgment has already had a far-reaching impact on transgender people and the use of single sex spaces.

In late 2025 both Girl Guiding and the Women's Institute announced they would no longer accept transgender girls and women as members.

In December 2025, Scottish nurse Sandie Peggie only won part of a tribunal case against NHS Fife following a transgender colleague's use of a female changing room.

The tribunal found the trust had harassed her Ms Peggie, but dismissed all of her claims against her trans colleague Dr Beth Upton.

Campaigners for transgender rights have criticised both the Supreme Court judgment and the way it has been interpreted.

Dr Victoria McCloud was the UK's first transgender judge, who is now mounting a legal challenge against the judgment - arguing that trans people were denied the opportunity to give evidence to the court.

"It simply isn't the case that the law says you must exclude trans women from changing rooms, lavatories, places like that," Dr McCloud told Sky News.

"The Supreme Court wasn't asked to, and didn't make any decision about women's spaces. I don't know any sensible lawyers who would say the For Women Scotland judgment was in any way clear."

In Dr McCloud's view the judgment has been "wilfully misinterpreted" to exclude trans people from single sex spaces, leading to a rise in abuse against the transgender community.

"Some people have been scared to leave their homes," she told Sky News.

"As a trans woman, I'm just at much at risk of rape as anyone else. We have been monstered, and aliened."

The government is yet to publish official guidance around the use of single sex spaces following on from the Supreme Court's decision meaning the debate continues on, both inside and outside the courts.

Robert Rhodes refused to attend his sentencing - because he maintains his innocence.

Addressing this directly Judge Mrs Justice Ellenbogen said the defendant had now added "cowardice" to his list of characteristics.

She described his acts as "wicked" and "callous", and said Rhodes murdered his wife in the "most brutal way" with "significant force", adding that his actions showed "significant premeditation and planning".

The 52-year-old carpenter from Withleigh, Devon, was convicted of murdering his estranged wife, Dawn Rhodes, by slitting her throat with a knife at their family home in Redhill, Surrey, in June 2016.

He was previously found not guilty after a trial at the Old Bailey in 2017, where he convinced jurors that he had acted in self-defence during an argument.

Police started to seriously doubt these claims when the couple's child came forward with new evidence in 2021, initially disclosed in therapy, that Rhodes had killed their mother and that they were involved in the murder too.

The child, who was under the age of 10 at the time of the murder, told Surrey Police they had been coerced into helping Rhodes kill her, and that they were manipulated by their father into lying about the true version of events.

The child's new testimony meant Rhodes's acquittal was quashed in November 2024, and permission was granted for a rare retrial in 2025, where the jury unanimously found him guilty of murdering Dawn Rhodes.

After more than 22 hours of deliberation, Robert Rhodes was also found guilty of child cruelty, perverting the course of justice, and two counts of perjury.

Previously, a person could not be retried for the same offence after being cleared. But the double jeopardy law in England and Wales changed in 2005 to allow a second trial for the most serious of offences, including murder, if new and compelling evidence came to light after a verdict.

Child addresses court

Speaking in court, the child said "the traumatic experience" they were put through "can never go away".

"The scar Robert Rhodes left me with when he sliced open my forearm will never go away," they added, saying the scar was a "constant reminder" of what their father did to them.

The child described having to testify against their own father as a "heartbreaking process", adding their mother "deserved justice for the agony she was put through".

"On that evening Robert Rhodes not only murdered my mother but he took my dad away from me as well," they added.

The retrial at Inner London Crown Court heard how the plot to kill involved the child - who cannot be named for legal reasons - telling their mother that they had drawn her a picture.

She was then told to close her eyes and hold out her hands, before the child left the room, and Rhodes came in to murder her.

On 2 June 2016, police found Dawn Rhodes lying on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood with her throat cut to the extent that all the structures in her neck had been severed.

During the retrial, eight years later, the court heard how the marriage had been in difficulty prior to Dawn Rhodes's death, and Robert Rhodes had filed for a divorce.

Both Robert Rhodes and the child were found with knife wounds at the scene, which were initially claimed to have been inflicted in an attack by Dawn Rhodes at the original trial.

Robert Rhodes said they were injured after she "flipped like the Hulk" during a row at their family home.

At the second trial, jurors heard that these wounds were actually part of a "cover-up", to make it look like the pair had sustained self-defence wounds.

After he killed his wife, Rhodes self-inflicted two wounds to his scalp before instructing the child to inflict two more on his back.

He then cut his own child's arm so deeply that it required stitches under general anaesthetic.

The child was under the age of criminal responsibility at the time, and holds no criminal responsibility for their role in the attack.

They told police that during supervised contact with Rhodes in 2016 and 2017, while he was on bail after being charged with murder, he had told them that they had "got some things wrong" and continued to give them instructions to stick to the plan.

Rhodes even hid a phone at his mother's house for when the child visited, on which he would leave messages for the child, reminding them about the agreement they had.

McKenzie Morgan, from the village of Llanfrechfa near Cwmbran in South Wales, can be named for the first time after he turned 18.

He has been detained for 14 months after admitting at the Old Bailey to possessing a document useful for terrorism.

Morgan had talked of emulating Axel Rudakubana who killed three girls aged six, seven and nine, during a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class during the summer holidays in July 2024.

Morgan, who was aged 17 at the time and living with his parents, conducted research into obtaining large knives and, in a chat with a friend on April 19 last year, sent an image of a large knife for sale online saying, "would this work?".

Police found a note saved on the youth's phone on April 28 headed "places to attack".

It included images of the Dance Stars Academy near his home, along with directions on how to walk there, taking 31 minutes. Location data on his phone suggested that he had been close to the school a few days earlier.

He had also researched other potential targets, including his own school, and told others on Snapchat of a plan to attack the first Oasis reunion concert on July 4 in Cardiff.

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His Snapchat account used a misspelled version of Rudakubana's name and he had researched the killer, saving images of him with words added that mocked the victims.

He had participated in discussions with other teenagers on Snapchat in which he praised Rudakubana, who was also aged 17, and said he wanted to participate in a similar "terrorist-style" attack.

In one chat Morgan said he had tried to make ricin poison - the same substance manufactured by Rudakubana - although he later told police that was not true.

One of those he was talking to on Snapchat reported him to the police.

His family also became concerned and booked him in for an appointment with a counsellor on June 2, during which he said he planned to commit a "Rudakubana-style attack", leading to a second report to the police.

At around 10.30am the same day, following the appointment, he researched knives and transferred an al-Qaeda manual between phones.

Morgan was arrested the same day for making threats to kill and released on bail while his phone was examined.

He was re-arrested on June 19 and told police that he did not really mean what he was saying.

Interviewed by police, he said he was unhappy, had suicidal thoughts and thoughts of launching attacks on a regular basis but did not intend to carry them through.

He said he had failed to purchase a knife because he could not prove he was over 18 and his mother had hidden the kitchen knives.

Morgan is second teenager to face charges after trying to copy Rudakubana

He is the second teenager to face charges after seeking to copy the Southport killer.

Neither youth was charged with preparing a terrorist attack which would carry a potential life sentence for an adult and are instead charged with the lesser offence of possession of a document.

Earlier this month a 16-year-old teenager from Merseyside who planned to copy the Southport killer by attacking a Taylor Swift-themed event wearing a green hoodie pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

He had visited Southport and taken pictures of the area, collected knives, researched a Taylor Swift-themed event and downloaded the same al-Qaeda manual used by Rudakubana to produce the poison ricin.

He was only arrested in August after making a 999 call to police to tell them what he was planning.

Morgan indicated a guilty plea to a single charge of possessing a document useful for terrorism at Westminster Magistrates' Court on June 21.

He accepts that he had a copy of the 188-page al-Qaeda Training Manual, the same document found in the possession of the Southport killer, on his phone.

He also had three similar documents of varying lengths which contained extracts of the same information, along with individual pages from the same document with instructions that included how to stab someone.

The documents, which had been accessed on numerous occasions, also included instructions on how to make explosives, a recipe for the poison ricin and details of how the terrorist group is structured.

Morgan told police he had only sent the messages because he was "bored" and was being bullied at school.

He added that he had sent the manual to other people online at random but had deleted his Snapchat account shortly before his arrest.

No winners from Morgan case say counter terror police

Sentencing Morgan on Friday, Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC imposed a criminal behaviour order to supervise him on his release from 14 months youth detention and a further year on licence.

She he was a danger to himself and "vulnerable to being bullied, groomed and radicalised".

Detective Superintendent Andrew Williams, from Counter Terrorism Policing Wales, said: "Mr Morgan was not born bad...

"As a teenager himself when he committed the offence, he was vulnerable to the malign influences that pray on our young people in today's online world.

"The fact that he was heavily influenced by the perpetrator of one of the most horrific attacks this country has seen in recent times, is a terrifying indictment of the abhorrent commentary, hateful opinion and violent imagery that too many of our young people are exposed to via the myriad of online sites, chat forums, and gaming and social media platforms."

He added: "There are no winners today, just a sense of sadness that highlights the need for us as a society to grip this issue and finally stop our young people being exploited in this way."

The former world heavyweight champion, 36, was travelling in the back of a black SUV last month when it struck a stationary truck on a major road near Lagos in Nigeria, killing Sina Ghami and Latif 'Latz' Ayodele.

Joshua survived the incident with minor injuries.

Despite warnings from his camp that he may be out of action for a while, the boxer shared footage online of himself hitting pads with a trainer on Thursday.

He captioned the clip, which he posted on Instagram, "Mental Strength Therapy".

On Wednesday, promoter Eddie Hearn played down suggestions that Joshua would be back in the ring soon.

He told Sky Sports: "That's not a conversation that I think anyone's comfortable in having in terms of asking what could be next or what he's thinking.

"That's something that has to come next. You need someone to have their time and to just be left alone, really, to get over, like I said, not just a terrible incident, but just one that you can never prepare for in life.

"You never, ever want to see anybody you know in any kind of this situation.

"It's heartbreaking. And when the time is right, I believe he will make his decision. You'll hear it from him.

"The future of Anthony Joshua will be told by Anthony Joshua. And that's the only voice you should listen to in that respect.

"And we'll give him his time to make that decision and to heal specifically in many different ways.

"What happened to him is not normal and it's heartbreaking for everybody involved, particularly the families of Sina and Latz, who were so incredibly loved."

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Joshua posted a tribute to the pair last week in a social media post.

He said: "Thank you for all the love and care you have shown my brothers. I didn't even realise how special they are.

"I'll just be walking with them and cracking jokes with them, not even knowing God kept me in the presence of great men.

"100% it's tough for me, but I know it's even tougher for their parents."

Mr Ghami, who had been part of Joshua's team for more than a decade, was a qualified sports and exercise rehabilitator specialising in musculoskeletal injuries and corrective exercise.

Mr Ayodele, an old friend of the boxer, was a personal trainer.

Earlier this month, Nigerian Police confirmed the driver of the Lexus SUV, Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, had been charged on four counts.

The charges include dangerous driving causing death, reckless and negligent driving, driving without due care and attention and driving without a valid national driver's licence.

Twenty-nine councils have confirmed to Sky News they have written to the government asking their local elections be postponed by a year, citing the resources needed to deliver the local government reorganisation (LGR) programme, and the cost of holding elections.

Twenty-one of those councils are led by Labour - either in majority, or leading a coalition administration. Four are Conservative, two are Liberal Democrat, one is Green, and one is independent.

All 63 councils offered a delay to their May elections by the government have now confirmed their positions to Sky News, after the deadline to request a postponement passed at midnight on Thursday.

Has your council requested a delay? Use our search tool below.

On the Thursday before Christmas, the government unexpectedly announced it would consider delaying 63 local council elections next year due to challenges around their LGR plans.

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed argued on Sky's Politics Hub on Thursday: "The vast majority of elections are going ahead on schedule. Where we have asked councils to let us know if there needs to be a delay or a postponement is where we're going through the biggest reorganisation of councils in decades."

He explained that a third of the country has two councils, rather than one, which is money that could be spent on local services, and so they are offering to postpone elections this year if holding them could mean a delay to elections next year.

Sky News has contacted all of the 63 councils offered a delay, and a total of 29 have said they will be requesting one, 33 have said they will not, and one could not agree internally whether to ask for a delay.

All the councils that have requested a delay cited the resources needed to deliver the government's LGR programme, and many said it would not make sense to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds to hold an election for councillor positions that would only exist for one year.

The final decision on whether an election will be delayed rests with the government, and opposition parties are furious.

At his news conference on Thursday, at which he announced Robert Jenrick's defection from the Tories, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "I had the full intention today to tell you how absolutely monstrous it is that elections for millions of people all over this country are being cancelled, in some cases for the second year in a row."

Instead, he will do that at a later date, and he said he is preparing to bring a legal challenge against the government's plans.

He has previously accused Labour and the Tories of working together to lock his party out of power - but just four Tory-led councils have confirmed they will be seeking a delay, while nine have said they will not.

The Conservatives have said publicly they want all local elections due in May to go ahead, with shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride telling broadcasters on Thursday it is "not right" that millions could be "denied the democratic right to seek change in their councils if they desire it".

"We don't want to see councillors serving seven-year terms. We need to get on with democracy," he added.

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The chief executive of the Electoral Commission, Vijay Rangarajan, has also criticised the potential delays to elections, saying in December he was "concerned" that some elections could be postponed, having already been deferred from 2025.

"Scheduled elections should, as a rule, go ahead as planned, and only be postponed in exceptional circumstances," he said in a statement.

"We very much recognise the pressures on local government, but these late changes do not help administrators. Parties and candidates have already been preparing for some time, and will be understandably concerned."

He said "capacity constraints" were not a "legitimate reason for delaying long planned elections", which risked "affecting the legitimacy of local decision-making and damaging public confidence".

The watchdog chief also said there was "a clear conflict of interest in asking existing councils to decide how long it will be before they are answerable to voters".

The councils that have asked for a delay:
• Adur District Council (Labour)
• Basildon Borough Council (Labour)
• Blackburn with Darwen Council (Labour)
• Burnley Borough Council (Burnley Independent Group)
• Cannock Chase District Council (Labour)
• Cheltenham Borough Council (Lib Dem)
• Chorley Borough Council (Labour)
• City of Lincoln Council (Labour)
• Crawley Borough Council (Labour)
• East Sussex County Council (Tory)
• Exeter City Council (Labour)
• Harlow District Council (Tory)
• Hastings Borough Council (Green)
• Hyndburn Borough Council (Labour)
• Ipswich Borough Council (Labour)
• Norwich City Council (Labour)
• Pendle Borough Council (Lib Dem)
• Peterborough City Council (Labour)
• Preston City Council (Labour)
• Redditch Borough Council (Labour)
• Rugby Borough Council (Labour)
• Stevenage Borough Council (Labour)
• Suffolk County Council (Tory)
• Tamworth Borough Council (Labour)
• Thurrock Council (Labour)
• Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (Labour)
• West Lancashire Borough Council (Labour)
• West Sussex County Council (Tory)
• Worthing Borough Council (Labour)