northernecho.co.uk REGIONAL NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2010 33 NEWS IN BRIEF Church’s 12-hour Christian event A 12-HOUR Christian meeting is being planned for this weekend. The Durham Burn meeting will be held in The Durham Centre, the home of Emmanuel Church Durham, on Belmont Industrial Estate, Durham, from noon to midnight on Saturday. There will be teaching, live music and prayer. Guests will include Steve Lincoln, from Eagle’s Wings Ministries, Ben Alder and Luke Finch. Visitors are invited to drop in any time or stay for the whole 12 hours. Children are welcome. Admission is free. There will be a freewill offering for guest leaders. For details, email williamb@theburn247. com HALLOWEEN FUN: On Sunday, October 31, Head of Steam – Darlington Railway Museum will host a Halloween fun day from 11am to 3pm. People are invited to visit the museum in fancy dress. Admission prices on the day are the standard museum entry fee, which is adults £4.95, over- 60s £3.75, six-to-16-year-olds £3, under-fives free, family pass £10. WORLD RECORD: Dancers in York are hoping they have helped break a world record for the most number of people tap dancing at the same time. They were taking part in the national Tapathon and about 200 people took part in York. NEW APPOINTMENT: North Durham Labour MP Kevan Jones has been appointed by The Queen to serve as a Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner. Mr Jones said: “I have long been a supporter of the excellent work the commission does.” MAN DIES: A worker who suffered serious injuries after falling 15ft down a lift shaft at Sunderland’s Masonic Temple has died. The 53-year-old man, who has not been named, was working on a dumb-waiter in Douro Terrace, when he fell. JOINING THE FIGHT: Students from Durham Johnston School take part in the workshop with Hasinah Halim from dance4life, front, an iniative to involve young people in the fight against Aids Picture: DAVID WOOD Dancing students join the battle against aids STUDENTS took to the dance floor to boost the fight against Aids. Youngsters from Durham Johnston Comprehensive School, in Durham City, performed a dance4life drill as part of the international charity’s eight-week school tour. Charity bosses hope the 35-stop national tour will teach teenagers about HIV/Aids policies and how the condition affects young people across the world. Students had the chance to listen to HIV-positive speakers, learn how HIV/Aids affects lives and discuss their opinions on the subject. Charity volunteer Chloe Whitley, 16, said: “People think young people like me don’t care about what’s going on in the world, but we do. The way dance4life gets us involved is great, because it’s fun and it really gets the message across. “It made me realise I can make a difference even by doing something as small as writing a letter.” A total of 83,000 people in the UK have HIV, more than a quarter of whom are unaware of their condition. For further details, visit dance4life.co.uk Nurse’s tears of joy after being cleared of assault A NURSE wept in court yes- terday after overturning a conviction for assaulting care home residents. Irene Nene was initially un- aware her good name was re- stored when Recorder Peter Johnson announced that he and two magistrates sitting with him at Durham Crown Court were upholding her ap- peal. But, when it was explained she was free to go, having won her case, the 60-year-old South African-born nurse held her arms wide, shouting repeat- edly: “God is great!”. It ended a near year-long or- deal for the mother-of-five, a nurse for 34 years. She was accused of two counts of common assault stemming from separate inci- dents on October 15 and 16 last year, during night duty at Hawthorn Care Home, in Pe- terlee, east Durham. Two colleagues accused her of slapping a female resident three times on the leg, as the woman in her 60s, who suffers learning difficulties, was re- fusing to get up from a chair. She was also accused of slapping an agitated 89-year- old dementia sufferer on the arm as he lashed out when she tried to put him in bed. Ms Nene denied both counts, claiming she slapped neither resident, and she could not understand why her colleagues would make such allegations. But she was con- victed after a trial at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court in May and later sentenced to 26 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, with an order to perform 150 hours’ unpaid work, plus £250 costs. Before the closure of the Crown’s case in response to her appeal yesterday, Recorder Johnson and the two magistrates retired for 20 minutes before returning to prematurely end the case. Referring to evidence heard yesterday from two col- leagues who made the allega- tions, Recorder Johnson said: “We were unable to say, bear- ing in mind the burden and standard of proof, whether ei- ther of their accounts came anywhere near satisfying us to the right standard. “We noticed numerous in- consistencies in their ac- counts now compared to what they said at the time. “The evidence does not meet the criminal standard of proof.” By Bruce Unwin [email protected]