Wednesday 8 January 2003

By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Brother linked to gang that shot girl

Police are hunting for the brother of the murdered Birmingham
teenager Charlene Ellis after it emerged that he may have been a
member of the gang that killed her.

Although detectives don’t believe that Marcus Ellis was in any
way involved in the New Year’s Eve drive-by shooting of his sister,
they do think he may have been present at the time and could
provide crucial evidence on the murders.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 8 January page 7

Teacher avoids jail for child porn

A teacher who downloaded 72 pornographic images of children,
left court a free man yesterday after a judge decided that the
public persecution he had suffered was sufficient punishment.

Timothy Coldwell, the former head of physics at The King’s
School, Peterborough, one of the country’s top comprehensives,
avoided prison after pleading guilty to 16 charges of making
indecent images of a child. He had asked for a further 56 incidents
to be taken into consideration.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 8 January page 9

Yesterday was the last chance for asylum seekers to
claim free housing and cash handouts ahead of a crackdown. So they
didn’t miss out, the Home Office put on coaches (with food and
drinks for good measure).

From today, asylum seekers who fail to register their claim as
soon as they enter the country will lose the right to benefits and
be left to fend for themselves.

Source:- Daily Mail Wednesday 8 January page 17

‘Reformed gangsters should give gun talks in
school’

Black community leaders attending a government “gun summit”
later this week will call for reformed gangsters to be allowed to
go into inner city schools to tell pupils about the dangers of gun
crime.

David Blunkett, the home secretary, will also be requested to
give children from the age of 11 a chance to meet the families of
gun crime victims.

Source:- The Independent Wednesday 8 January page 1

Inner-city teachers ‘should be given golden
handcuffs’

Teachers in deprived inner-city schools should be given “golden
handcuff” bonuses every five years to stop them moving to jobs in
the suburbs, the head of the teachers’ disciplinary body said
yesterday.

Carol Adams, chief executive of the General Teaching Council,
called for a multi-million pound deal to keep the best teachers in
the worst-performing schools, after a national survey found that
one in three teachers wanted to quit in the next five years. The
numbers wanting to leave were highest in schools in deprived
areas.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 8 January page 7

Owning a home is no bar to new class of
poverty

People who own their own home would usually regard it as a
shield against poverty and might consider themselves relatively
well-off.

However, research published today by the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation says that homeownership is no longer a barrier to
poverty.

The organisation says that half of all people living in poverty
own their own home outright or are buying one on a mortgage.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 8 January page
5

Portillo adds support to abolish section 28

Michael Portillo last night put himself at the front of the Tory
drive to back the abolition of Section 28, after the Tory
leadership said it was willing to compromise on the promotion of
homosexuality in schools.

Portillo backed a Labour plan to scrap the law introduced by
Margaret Thatcher, when he appeared in the Commons for the second
reading of the Local Government Bill.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 8 January page
10

Two neck-and-neck for top job at CRE

Trevor Phillips, the broadcaster and London assembly chairman,
is running neck-and-neck with Zahida Manzoor, former head of the
Northern and Yorkshire region of the NHS executive, in the contest
to become the new head of the Commission for Racial Equality.

A decision on the £110,000 position, Britain’s top race
relations post, is imminent after final interviews yesterday and
today with the home secretary, David Blunkett, for the three
shortlisted candidates. The third is Naaz Coker, chairperson of the
Refugee Council and race and diversity director for the King’s
Fund.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 8 January page 2

Ministers defend switch in asylum policy

Home office ministers last night defended measures that come
into force today which welfare organisations fear could cause
destitution for thousands of asylum seekers because they have made
a “late” claim for refugee status.

Immigration minister Beverly Hughes defended the measure saying
it was needed to prevent people from claiming asylum after working
illegally simply as a way of staying on at taxpayers’ expense.

Liberty, a civil liberties organisation, and refugee welfare
groups, confirmed yesterday that they are to mount a high court
human rights challenge to the policy, claiming it condemns those
who fail to claim asylum as soon as they arrive to vagrancy before
their cases are even considered.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 8 January page 5

Home Office grants asylum to Sudanese
‘slave’

The woman who escaped from the London home of a Sudanese
diplomat saying she was being kept as a slave has been granted
asylum in a change of heart by the British government.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 8 January page 7

Guardian Society

Pressure Points

From today, tighter home office rules could leave thousands of
asylum seekers destitute with no access to state support. Public
sector staff tell Raekha Prasad about the problems already faced by
services – and the growing tensions

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 8 January page
5

Children win

NCH says ‘yes’ to lottery funding

Leading children’s charity NCH has dropped its opposition to
accepting lottery money and has won £189,000 to improve
services for youngsters with disabilities and their families at its
centre in Caerphilly, south Wales.

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 8 January page
5

Refreshing change

A café in Brixton has its own recipe for getting people
back to work

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 8 January page
5

Fissure price

David Walker asks whether paying board members is the way to
attract sufficient high-calibre professionals to govern Britain’s
non-profit housing organisations.

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 8 January page
10

Dickensian twist

Profile of Malcom Hurlston, serial social entrepreneur

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 8 January page
11

Credibility gap

Liza Ramrayka on tensions over plans for cash incentives that
could help poorer students take a year out as volunteers

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 8 January page
12

Dash of inspiration

New coffee project offers hope to disadvantaged youngsters

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 8 January page
127

Centre grind

Chris Arnot reports on research that questions the legal right
of violent parents to retain contact with their children

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 8 January page
128

Scottish newspapers

Family fury as body of five-year-old found dumped in
canal

The family of a little girl, found yesterday dumped in a canal
in Inverness, claim they alerted social workers to the plight of
the five-year-old three months ago.

Relatives claim they expressed concern over the chaotic
lifestyle of Danielle’s heroin addict mum, Tracy Reid. The
family claim social workers failed to act quickly enough over the
child.

Source:- Daily Record  Wednesday 8 January page 4

Tolerance zones labelled ‘nimby’
issue

Plans to give local authorities the optional power to establish
tolerance zones, where street prostitutes could legally tout for
business, would fail to solve one of the biggest
‘nimby’ issues of all time, MSPs heard yesterday.

The warning was made to the Scottish Parliament’s local
government committee as it met to consider the Prostitution
Tolerance Zones Bill.

Source:- The Herald Wednesday 8 January page 6

Welsh newspapers

Father ‘had hatred of crying
children’

A father from south Wales with a pathological hatred of crying
children fractured his baby son’s skull just days before the
child died from an infection.

Cardiff crown court was told that the child’s death might
have been avoided if his parents had taken him to hospital sooner,
but that they were attempting to conceal an “awful secret”.

The four-week-old baby had at least five significant signs of
trauma and medical experts say he was likely to have come into
violent contact with a wall or cupboard.

The 35-year-old father denies seven charges of cruelty, which
were alleged to have been committed against five of his children
between 1995 and December 2001.

Source:- South Wales Argus Tuesday 7 January page 5

Prison ‘bed and board’ case
delayed

Dates set for a hearing on the decision over whether to charge
an innocent man “bed and board” for the 11 years he spent in prison
have been delayed.

A hearing at the high court would have ruled whether Michael
O’Brien’s compensation for wrongful conviction should
be reduced to cover his living expenses while in prison.

The hearing had been set for early February, but a decision to
move it back has been taken because lawyers want to deal with a
similar compensation case at the same time.

O’Brien was jailed in 1989 for the murder of Cardiff
newsagent, Philip Saunders, but was cleared by the court of appeal
in 1999.

Source:- South Wales Echo Tuesday 7 January page 2

Blind charity’s bus wrecked by
thieves

A minibus specially equipped for children with sight problems
has been stolen and vandalised just one month after it was donated
to them.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind Cymru’s
12-seater bus, which cost £30,000, was delivered in December
last year after years of fundraising.

The bus had its engine removed following the theft, and the RNIB
have been told it will be impossible to repair.

As a result the charity has had to cancel planned outings and a
spokesperson for the charity said that whoever stole it would have
been aware that it belonged to the RNIB Cymru because it had their
logo along the side of the bus.

Source:- South Wales Echo Tuesday 7 January page 4

Hidden problem of ‘poor
homeowners’

More than half of the UK’s poor own their own homes
according to a new report.

A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, published today shows
that Wales was one of the areas in the UK with the highest number
of impoverished homeowners.

The report by Professor Roger Burrows of the University of York
challenges the assumption that poverty is a condition usually
associated with those living in council or social housing.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 8 January page 7