Friday 7 February 2003

By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Blunkett imposes tighter controls on asylum
seekers

Next Tuesday will see the beginning of new asylum laws making it
virtually impossible for migrants from some Balkan countries and
Jamaica to claim asylum or appeal against a decision to reject
their claim.

Home secretary David Blunkett last night announced the adding of
the new countries to a “white list” of states that the government
believes are safe.

Source:- The Times Friday 7 February page 2

Police ‘should protect children from
assaults’

Social workers do not have the training to investigate child
abuse in families effectively, according to a controversial
paediatrician, with him calling for the police not social workers
to be responsible for protecting children from physical and sexual
abuse.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Professor David Southall
has called for the police to take the lead where there is suspicion
of abuse, and that this should sometimes involve the use of covert
audio and video surveillance to get evidence.

Source:- The Times Friday 7 February page 13

Few abuse victims commit sex crime

The common perception that most male paedophiles were sexually
abused themselves as children is wrong, according to a new
study.

The research by the Institute of Child Health found that under
12 per cent of 224 victims of child sex abuse became abusers
themselves.

Source:- The Times Friday 7 February page 13

Checks on childminders in chaos after backlog
grows

Government aims to provide affordable childcare for working
parents could be far off with the growing backlog of safety
inspections on potential childminders.

The checks, being carried out by the education watchdog Ofsted,
are designed to register 70 per cent of minders within 12 weeks,
but there have been reports of some having to wait up to a year to
get clearance.

Source:- The Independent Friday 7 February page 4

TB tests prove negative in pilot screening
scheme

Only three out of 5,000 asylum seekers tested for TB under a
pilot home office scheme in Kent were regarded as suspect cases,
with no-one testing positive for the disease.

Further checks on the three showed that the infection, if
present, was not active or dangerous to others.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 7 February page 11

New blow for molested girl ‘denied justice by Lord
Woolf’

The actions of Lord Woolf who only gave a paedophile attacker a
short prison spell, saying that he was following guidance on
sentencing from the Lord Chief Justice, has been slammed by the
victim’s family.

The four-year-old girl’s relatives had hoped to take a case to
the court of appeal to try and get the sentence extended, but
yesterday the attorney general refused their wish.

Source:- The Daily Mail Friday 7 February page 10

Scottish newspapers

Watchdog to check spending on housing
transfer

The national spending watchdog is to examine the small print of
the controversial £4 billion Glasgow housing stock transfer.
The council is to sell its 82,000 houses to Glasgow Housing
Association.

Audit Scotland will assess whether the scheme, which has been a
key plank of Scottish executive policy, has also been an efficient
use of public money.

Source:- The Herald Friday 7 February page 7

It wasn’t my job to clear Sally Clark of
murder

The pathologist accused of failing to reveal test results which
would have cleared Sally Clark of murdering her two children, has
passed the blame to Clark’s lawyers.

Despite being singled out for criticism by the appeal court
which quashed Clark’s conviction, Alan Williams said
Clark’s legal team should have unearthed the evidence which
was “there for everyone to see”.

Source:- Daily Mail Friday 7 February page 37

Smacking ban could caused legal chaos

Radical plans to ban parents from disciplining children could
throw courts into chaos.

Justice minister Jim Wallace has put forward proposals to crack
down on parents who abuse their children.

But Scottish lawyers say that unless the executive modifies its
plans, innocent parents will be prosecuted and convicted over
trivial incidents.

Source:- Daily Mail Friday 7 February page 15

Welsh newspapers

Drug gangs targeting Wales

Dealers pushing heroine and crack cocaine are targeting Wales,
police officers have warned.

A conference to discuss the progress of Operation Tarian, an
all-force initiative to cut the spread of illegal drugs was told
that the numbers of crime gangs entering Wales meant that there
could be ‘turf wars’ and more drug related deaths.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 7 February page 8

Cruel father of three could be jailed

A man with a ‘pathological hatred of crying
children’ was warned yesterday that he faces a prison
sentence for cruelty to three of his children.

The man, who cannot be named, was cleared of causing grievous
bodily harm to his baby son, but was previously found guilty of
three counts of child cruelty.

He had been found guilty of cruelty to a five-week-old boy who
later died from an infection, by keeping him in conditions of
squalor and failing to seek medical assistance for him.

The defendant will be sentenced later this month.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 7 February page 3