DESPITE nine months of planning for a perfect delivery, a baby eventually arrived into the world on the passenger seat of a Renault Laguna in a hospital car park.

On January 3, 2017, Rebecca Jennings, 28, was parked just metres away from Darlington Memorial Hospital’s maternity ward when she started giving birth to her son following a frantic three-mile drive from her home to the hospital.

Her partner, George MacSorley, 37, was at the wheel of the family car during the early hours when Miss Jennings felt her waters break as they drove down nearby Woodland Road.

The couple had hoped to deliver their second son together in hospital, however Kieran Derek MacSorley had other ideas.

Mr MacSorley, of Chestnut Drive, Darlington, said Rebecca woke at 3am on Tuesday, January 3, with her contractions starting to get stronger and closer together.

“We phoned the hospital who told us to stay at home for a few more hours and to have some paracetamol and a bath so Rebecca’s mum, Amanda, came over and looked after her.

"Rebecca said she needed to go to hospital and when we were in the car, she felt her waters pop and she started to push.

“When we got to the car park she said she couldn’t get out and that the baby’s head was already there.

“She asked me to go and get help, so I took a few steps, but came straight back because I couldn’t leave her and we rang the ward instead.

“We delivered the baby with Rebecca’s mum and wrapped him in a towel straight away because it was a freezing cold night. She was absolutely amazing to do it all without pain relief, I’m so proud of her.”

Mr MacSorley cut the umbilical cord in the hospital car park before the family were taken inside and told they had a healthy baby boy.

A wanted man who was on the run for almost 20 years was put behind bars on January 10, 2017, for his parts in two drugs plots – but said: “It’s a relief.”

Trevor Bowman, from County Durham, skipped bail and vanished in 1997 – cutting off all contact with his family and living under a false name.

His fugitive life – which he described as “miserable” – finally ended when police raided his seaside home in North Wales.

Acting on intelligence, officers found £70,000-worth of cannabis plants filling two floors of the three-storey Colwyn Bay property.

He gave false details – those of his brother, whose name he was living under – but confessed his real identity during later questioning.

Finally, a dog was reunited with its owner after surviving five days stuck down a rabbit hole in subzero temperatures during the New Year of 2017.

One-year-old mini schnauzer Jarvis went missing during a walk near the Hury Reservoir, in Baldersdale, Teesdale, on New Year’s Eve 2016.

Owner Rebecca Durrani said she was sick with worry when she was told her pet had run off from her mother during the walk with the family’s two other dogs, Luna and Zena, both three.

Despite searches covering more than 100 miles which included everything from printing posters and putting out a police appeal to using infrared technology, Jarvis was nowhere to be seen.

Hopes of finding the pup alive were dwindling when he was eventually found stuck in rabbit hole on the edge of the reservoir by another dog walker.

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