A huge protest from the Somali community over the planned adoption of a child by a lesbian couple made the front page in February.

More than 50 women gathered outside Harrow Borough Council in opposition to the adoption of the Somali child. which they said was against their religious beliefs.

As a result of the protest Harrow Council said the adoption was suspended while officers re-examined the case.

The Harrow Times also reported how more than a dozen eastern Europeans broke into a disused public toilet and turned it into a makeshift flat.

In the abandoned toilet block in Whitchurch Lane, Edgware, the squatters had installed beds, a stove and plug sockets.

Harrow Borough Council officers and police raided the property and found a bed had been wedged into a corner of what had been the men’s urinal.

Traders near the former public convenience had no idea it was being used as a squat.

Since the discovery the toilet block has been sold by the council and plans proposed to build flats on the site.

Also in February a man was jailed for 15 years for a “frenzied attack” on his former girlfriend that left her paralysed from the chest down.

Donovan Golding, 36, of Atlip Road, Wembley, was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court for the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend Nicolita Ghette in July 2013.

The court herd how the victim had been stabbed seven or eight times in neck, chest and back.

The judge also commended the police who reacted to the incident and they had had acted “magnificently” to save the victim's life.