A 16-YEAR-OLD from Pembroke Dock has been sentenced after admitting intentionally strangling a woman on board a train.

The youth, who cannot be named because of reporting restrictions, appeared before Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (Jun 11) for sentence.

He had previously admitted intentionally strangling the woman on a train service between London Paddington and Reading on January 21.

He also admitted assault by beating at Reading Railway Station on the same date.

The court heard that a victim personal statement was read by the prosecutor.

Magistrates imposed a 12-month referral order to the Pembrokeshire Youth Offender Panel. A parent or guardian must attend panel meetings.

The teenager was also ordered to pay £100 compensation, £85 prosecution costs and a £26 surcharge.

Payments are to be made at £25 per month from July 9.

NEW figures have revealed a sharper fall in Welsh business activity, with firms cutting jobs at the fastest rate since September 2020.

The latest NatWest Wales Growth Tracker showed that while the decline in new orders eased for the second month running, overall output fell more quickly in May as businesses faced higher costs, weaker demand and growing uncertainty.

The headline Wales Business Activity Index fell to 45.8 in May, down from 47.9 in April. Any reading below 50 indicates contraction.

The drop was the sharpest since September 2025 and placed Wales among the weakest-performing UK areas, with only the East Midlands and Northern Ireland recording faster falls in output.

JOB CUTS DEEPEN

Welsh private sector firms also reported a further fall in staffing levels, with the rate of job shedding the steepest in almost six years and the sharpest of all 12 UK nations and regions monitored.

Businesses said lower new order intakes and the higher cost of employment were behind the reduction in headcounts.

Backlogs of work also continued to fall, suggesting weaker demand was allowing firms to clear outstanding orders more quickly.

ORDERS STILL FALLING

New sales fell for the fourth month running, although the rate of decline eased and was only slight.

NatWest said part of the improvement may have reflected temporary stockpiling by customers amid higher prices and supply challenges, rather than a sustained recovery in demand.

Business confidence also weakened, although firms remained generally optimistic that output would rise over the next 12 months.

INFLATION PRESSURE

The report said input costs rose at the sharpest pace since November 2022, driven by higher fuel, energy and material costs.

Welsh firms also increased their selling prices at a faster rate, with charge inflation reaching its highest level for more than a year.

Jessica Shipman, Chair of the NatWest Cymru Board, said: “May data indicated a softer decline in new orders at Welsh firms, however, some of the uplift in the seasonally adjusted New Business Index stemmed from a temporary bout of stockpiling at customers amid higher prices and supply challenges.

“In fact, activity levels dropped at a sharper pace and employment contracted at a rate not seen since September 2020.

“Although still confident of output growth in the coming 12 months, spare capacity and greater uncertainty led firms to lower their expectations for the year-ahead outlook.”

She added that inflationary pressures were continuing to influence business and customer decisions, with the conflict in the Middle East pushing up material, fuel and energy costs.

EXPORT CONDITIONS IMPROVE

There was better news for exporters, with the Wales Export Climate Index rising from 50.7 in April to 51.1 in May.

That signalled the strongest improvement in export conditions for three months, supported by stronger output growth in Ireland and the Netherlands.

Activity also continued to rise in the United States, although Germany and France remained in contraction.

The NatWest Wales Growth Tracker is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to Welsh companies in the manufacturing and services sectors.

WELSH colleges are changing the way they tackle misogyny, harmful online behaviour and peer-on-peer abuse through an international project backed by Taith funding.

The collaboration, led by ColegauCymru, links further education colleges in Wales with partners in Canada to share practical approaches to promoting respectful relationships and improving learner wellbeing.

The project was developed following concerns highlighted by Estyn about peer-on-peer sexual harassment in further education settings.

It also supports Welsh Government priorities around tackling gender-based violence, improving learner wellbeing and creating safe, inclusive learning environments.

Five Welsh further education colleges worked with five colleges and universities in Canada through an international Community of Practice, allowing staff to share experiences, develop ideas and look at new ways of addressing common challenges.

Knowledge-sharing visits between Wales and Canada focused on issues including misogyny, harmful online content, peer-on-peer abuse and the need to engage young men in open conversations about relationships and masculinity.

One of the main lessons from the project was the importance of involving young men directly in discussions about healthy relationships, online influence and harmful attitudes.

The work has also led to wider partnerships with She Is Not Your Rehab, a New Zealand-based anti-violence movement, and Our Voice Our Journey, a youth-focused social impact organisation.

Working with these organisations, ColegauCymru delivered regional sessions in North and South Wales to help colleges promote respectful relationships and challenge misogyny.

At one event at Cardiff City Stadium, around 400 young men from across South Wales took part in discussions led by international speaker Matt Brown on misogyny, masculinity and respectful relationships.

Staff involved in the project say it has already influenced how colleges approach learner wellbeing, with greater emphasis on training, early intervention and embedding conversations about healthy relationships into college life.

Siân Holleran, International Project Manager at ColegauCymru, said: “Taith funding has been critical in enabling us to connect with international partners and bring global expertise into a national priority for Wales.

“This has created space for honest conversations, practical solutions and lasting change for both staff and learners, while also positioning Welsh colleges as leaders in addressing these shared challenges internationally.”

Welsh and Canadian participants also delivered a joint workshop at the ColegauCymru Annual Conference, where they shared recommendations and discussed future priorities for the sector.

Susana Galván, Executive Director of Taith, said: “This project reflects Wales’s growing role as a confident, internationally engaged nation. Organisations across Wales are using international partnerships to address shared challenges while developing approaches shaped around the needs of Welsh learners and communities.

“Through Taith, we are supporting a uniquely Welsh approach that combines global partnerships with a strong focus on equity, wellbeing and inclusion; helping ensure that international learning directly benefits people across Wales.

“It also demonstrates the growing international interest in learning from Wales, as we share our expertise while working together to address shared global challenges.”

ColegauCymru has since secured further Taith funding to expand the work, including the development of new bystander training for learners and staff across the further education sector in Wales.

The organisation says the next phase will help ensure the impact of the international collaboration continues to grow across Welsh colleges.