An elderly couple who fled the Nazis before fighting for Britain in the Second World War died following a suicide pact which they made years earlier, an inquest heard in March. Colin Anson, 94, and his 91-year-old wife Alice died of pneumonia in hospital after taking tablets which they had been ‘gifted’ by a doctor’s widow.

Also that month, shocking footage viewed by thousands of people showed the moment a man was brutally headbutted in the middle of a busy fast-food restaurant.

A financial adviser snared trying to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex by a group of vigilantes known as the “Internet Interceptors” was spared jail. Jonathan Hunt, 41, who ran the firm Cedars IFA from his home in Rickmansworth , set up a profile on the internet site Badoo. He was snared when he began chatting with a girl called 'Holly', whom he believed to be 15 years old, telling her she was attractive and asking if she was looking for a date.

Hertfordshire Constabulary was reported to have “serious systemic failings” in the way it processed calls from victims - and was rated ‘inadequate’ for the way it supports vulnerable victims. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary rated the force as ‘requires improvement’ in its annual police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy ratings.