A look back at 2009 in your Sunday Sun

Dec 27 2009 by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

IT’S been another year when the Sunday Sun brought you all the news you need.

Your Sunday Sun gave you tons of exclusive hard-news stories and lots of life-affirming human interest stories.

We were there for all the major events of 2009 and followed the ups and downs of Newcastle United and all the region’s top teams.

Here are just a few of the highlights . . .

JANUARY

WE revealed how girls as young as 13 had been given the morning-after contraceptive pill at North schools without the consent of their parents.

Our reporters told how the credit crunch had sparked a rise in violent crime across the region as hard-up Northerners turned to criminal activity to make ends meet.

A Sunday Sun probe revealed how hundreds of North patient records – including their ailments and addresses – had been lost.

FEBRUARY

FORMER Sunderland manager Roy Keane revealed the real reasons why he had quit – including the arrival of American financier Ellis Short.

Shocking revelations of drug-taking, violence, and arson in Acklington Prison, Northumberland, and Deerbolt Prison, County Durham, were exposed in a special report.

TV weather girl Philippa Tomson – and her beloved pooch BG – joined the Sunday Sun as a columnist, immediately striking a chord with readers.

MARCH

EVIL loan sharks forced North women into prostitution to pay off their debts, according to a debts team based in Middlesbrough.

Your Sunday Sun was there to reveal how Gazza’s old house at Greystones, County Durham, was on the market for £1.2m.

Who told us she would like to swing a punch and knock someone clean out? It was the Duchess of Northumberland after she revealed a penchant for martial arts.

APRIL

THE Sunday Sun continued a tradition of telling you the best police stories when we revealed how cops injured in the line of duty had their pensions slashed.

Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, backed our Let’s Have It Off campaign to make St George’s Day a national holiday.

We told how furniture shop World Furnishings – which had been mentioned in our Mr Justice consumer pages on previous occasions following complaints from customers – closed their shops in Newcastle and Sunderland.