Smartly dressed in a suit with his hair smoothed back as he addressed the Lord's Public Services Committee, Simon Hunter said he was 'hugely proud' of the 'modernisation journey' on which he was taking the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).

The director of the government agency told the peers sitting in front of him that the high-tech improvements he had introduced were making it 'slick and more usable' and 'incredibly accessible through the digital channels'.

His upbeat assessment last year prompted utter disbelief from parents who had suffered huge financial hardships after a string of failings by the CMS so severe that some have branded it the 'new Post Office scandal'.

As our damning exposé last month revealed, suspected computer glitches and staffing problems at the government agency have led to parents – the majority of them fathers – being financially crippled, losing homes, suffering mental breakdowns and even being driven to suicide.

Some have been plunged into poverty and forced to survive off food banks after long-running problems with the service led to tens of thousands of parents being overcharged – some by vast amounts.

The CMS was launched in 2012 after widespread problems with its predecessor,

Animal lovers have condemned the decision to shoot dead a stag after it injured a man having a picnic while 'looking for food'. 

The animal approached the man's group in London's Richmond Park at around 6pm on Saturday afternoon. 

The man, in his 60s, was taken to hospital with chest injuries described as 'not life-threatening' after emergency services were called to the scene. 

The Royal Parks said the stag's 'behaviour' meant it had to be 'put down' after it was 'deemed to be a danger to visitors'.

The incident came after visitors were warned against approaching the park's resident wild deer and feeding them due to a 'real risk of serious injury'.

Dozens of people have now come to the stag's defence, arguing an animal should never be put down because humans cannot follow simple rules. 

'That was wrong. The stag learned to do that because of people feeding it. Not the animal's fault,' one wrote on social media. 

'Sad but I think inevitable,' another said. 'We walked the whole way around Richmond Park yesterday and saw several family groups - including kids no older than three or four - walking right

No longer do mountain lairs exclusively belong to the cat-stroking and eyepatch-wearing villains of spy novels. 

Now, you too can buy an ultra-high security vault that lies more than 330ft beneath a Swiss mountain range – as long as you have nearly half a million pounds spare. 

Swiss security firm Brünig Mega Safe is working to dig out up to 25 caverns from the limestone that makes up the Brünig massif. 

It is selling access to these vaults – which are intended to store valuable artwork, cars, wine, safety deposit boxes and other valuable assets – with the promise of near total security. 

The firm claims it is breaking ground in Brünig in January and it claims its vaults will be 'comparable to that of the Swiss National Bank'.

Thomas Gasser, chairman of Brünig Mega Safe, said: 'You'll first have to drive through a special checkpoint and get out of your vehicle: there will be several security checks, which obviously won't be disclosed to the public.'

Thanks to the depth of the vaults, they will have a natural temperature of 13C, which is ideal for storing wine and art. 

But in a world that has seen increased instability