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Jessica Rothwell

I am a journalist  who loves to make an impact. Aged 17, I came runner up for my age group and category in the BBC Young Reporter competition for a piece on the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health. I then produced this piece as an audio diary for BBC Radio Manchester. 

Studying with News Associates to obtain my NCTJ Diploma and my BA Hons degree in Multimedia Journalism, I am perfecting how to become an adaptable journalist who can work with many forms of news. I have been dedicated to providing accurate, reliable news since a young age and am constantly striving to improve the work I do.

I have worked with The Times, alongside their Crime Correspondent David Woode and Chief News Correspondent David Brown. I also frequently work with the North West local Newsquest titles, such as the Bury Times and Bolton News.

My biggest reporting interests are surrounding crime and investigation and really want to help bring important issues to light. 

Bury Times •

Parent speaks out over daughter's suffering at school after toilet rule change

Tottington High School has introduced a new rule to ban students using the toilets during lessons and has even installed extra locks on toilet doors to enforce it.

Students who have medical reasons for the toilet or menstrual needs are able to gain access to separate, disabled toilets.

The pupils this applies to are given black wristbands to indicate their exemption.

Students who are menstruating have to notify staff, usually at the start of the day, to obtain a band.

A parent has spoken to
Bury Times •

Retired soldier from Bury to solo-row the Atlantic in World’s Toughest Row

Since 1999, on his ‘milestone nought’ birthdays, Alan Fortuin has undergone an endurance challenge to raise funds for the charity

He is now planning to hit the waves with his one-man mission of rowing the Atlantic in the 2025 World’s Toughest Row event.

After serving in the army for 35 years, with both the Airborne and Commando forces, he said: “A challenge is there to be taken on and I’ve taken them on all through my career.

"This is just another challenge. A very tough one.”

He’s been trai
Mancunian Matters •

Watch: Reactions to Rishi Sunak's key pledges at Conservative Party Conference

Following the Conservative Leader’s closing speech in Manchester, Mancunian Matters spoke to HS2 minister Huw Merriman and Conservative Home Author Tim Montgomerie.

Rishi Sunak has closed the Conservative Party Conference at Manchester’s Central Convention Centre with his speech outlining policies he wishes to implement.

The speculation around the fate of HS2 dominated the conference this year, with Sunak finally deciding to scrap the West Midlands to Manchester route and instead invest the £3
The Times •

Windsor Castle intruder ‘swapped sexually explicit messages’ with AI bot

A former supermarket worker who broke into Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow and threatened to kill the late Queen shared thousands of sexually charged messages with a chatbot that encouraged him to carry out the assassination, a court was told.

Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, climbed over the castle walls with a rope ladder on Christmas Day 2021 and roamed the grounds for two hours before being arrested near the Queen’s apartment, where she and other members of the royal family were staying.

Chai
The Times •

Queen’s would-be crossbow assassin ‘egged on by chatbot’

A former supermarket worker who entered the grounds of Windsor Castle with a crossbow and threatened to kill Queen Elizabeth was encouraged by an artificial intelligence bot to carry out the plot, a court was told.

Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, climbed over the castle walls with a rope ladder on Christmas Day 2021 and roamed the grounds for two hours before being apprehended at 8.10am near the Queen’s apartment, where she and other members of the royal family were staying.

Chail, who was 19 at the
The Times •

Kevin Spacey trial: actor a ‘snakey predator’, driver tells court

Kevin Spacey is a “slippery, snakey and difficult” person who allegedly “groomed” then sexually assaulted a man a dozen times, a court has been told.

The Oscar winner, 63, is said to have stroked the complainant’s leg, rubbed his neck, touched his penis over clothing and smacked his bottom several times in the early 2000s.

Southwark crown court was told that the actor placed the man’s hands over his groin “quickly and hard” before laughing it off.

The man, a former driver, claimed: “He was fo
Mancunian Matters •

Watch: Families of the Manchester Arena bombing victims react to damning report on MI5

Sir John Saunders today revealed his devastating findings into MI5 in the third and final volume of the Manchester Arena Enquiry.

Saunders said there was a “realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained which might have led to actions preventing the attack”.

This follows the inquiry in November which identified a catalogue of mistakes by the emergency services following the terror attack, where one victim, John Atkinson, could have survived had the emergency respo
Mancunian Matters •

Big screen bounce back: how UK cinemas are recovering from the pandemic

COVID-19 lockdowns hit cinema where it hurts, but the industry is clawing it way back.

Analysis conducted on data released by the UK Cinema Association shows the extent of the UK cinema industry’s recovery.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, UK cinemas closed for months at a time on two separate occasions – causing the industry to lose out on millions of pounds.

Many people in this time began subscribing to streaming services, with a survey by finder showing that nine out of ten Brits have used a
Mancunian Matters •

Mother from bury accuses The Range security guard of assault

A mother from bury has accused a security guard at The Range of assault.

Abbie Murray was enjoying Christmas bargains at the newly opened store with her 5-month-old baby and 11-year-old stepson when the incident occurred on Saturday 27 November.

Murray, from Bury, who took to Facebook to share her ordeal, says she spent £25 at the till.

However, she had made the common mistake of forgetting to give the checkout operator two packets of paracetamol, that she’d placed on her sons pram.

The next