Thursday 1 May 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Mother sobs as murder jury hears 999 baby death call
A mother who is alleged to have murdered three of her
babies broke down in court yesterday when a 999 call she made when
her first son stopped breathing was played to the jury.
Reading crown court listened to Trupti Patel pleading with 13-week
Amar to “please wake up”.
In the call, made in December 1997, Patel tells an operator she had
found her son lifeless shortly after 9.30am, having last checked
him at 4am.
Source:- The Times Thursday 1 May page 7
Watchdog angry about chocolate sport
campaign
Stricter control before any minister or government department
endorses a food campaign is being demanded by the Food Standards
Agency, after a row over a Cadbury promotion that offers free
sports equipment to schools.
Senior officials at the agency are unhappy they were not consulted
before Richard Caborn, the sports minister, gave his support to the
campaign, which gives sports equipment in return for chocolate bar
tokens.
Source:- The Times Thursday 1 May page 11
Your nine to five days are over, council workers
told
Schools and libraries could soon be open at times that suit the
public rather than the staff, with council workers being told to
end their “nine to five” mentality and work more flexible
hours.
The measures are a part of a radical package of reforms announced
by ministers yesterday that also included a demand for what
amounted to a no-strike deal.
Leaders of over 400 councils want more flexibility to set wages and
conditions locally. A move unions fear will undermine their power
and say that national industrial action could take place.
Source:- The Independent Thursday 1 May page 14
Top up plan to help poor in capital
Childcare subsidies may be offered to unemployed mothers in London
in a bid to lift them out of poverty.
Parents in the most deprived areas of the capital would be given
help to find jobs in the proposals unveiled by mayor of London Ken
Livingstone.
Research carried out for the mayor indicates that nearly a third of
households with children in inner London are lone parents
households, and in greater London 23 per cent of households with
children have no adult in employment.
Source:- The Guardian  Thursday 1 May page 8
Children losing out on sleep as computers replace bedtime
stories
Up to two thirds of children in Britain are not getting enough
sleep and have missed out on 4,500 hours by their seventh birthday
according to research published today.
One in 10 of the 500 parents surveyed admitted they had never read
their child a bedtime story, and instead children are now falling
asleep to television shows, computer games and videos.
Source:- The Guardian  Thursday 1 May page 11
Women ‘more prone to winter
depression’
Women are more likely to suffer from “winter blues”
than men, according to research published today.
The British Journal of Psychiatry report also found that seasonal
affective disorder (SAD) is more common among people not born and
brought up in the place they live.
Source:- Daily Telegraph  Thursday 1 May page 8
Scottish newspapers
Danielle ‘thrown down stairs’
A 25-year-old man will appear at the high court in Glasgow
next week charged with murdering his girlfriend’s
five-year-old daughter.
Lee Gaytor is accused with the child’s mother, Tracey Reid,
and his brother Christopher of disposing of the body of Danielle
Reid, who died after being thrown down a staircase, according to
court papers.
It is claimed they put her body in a suitcase weighed down by
bricks and dumped it in the water at Muirtown Basin,
Inverness.
Police divers discovered the body of Danielle, who is alleged to
have been murdered around November last year, in January.
Gaytor is alleged to have repeatedly struck Danielle on the head at
a house in Inverness and he is accused of pulling her by her hair
and throwing her down a flight of stairs where she died of her
injuries.
Following the discovery of Danielle’s body, an investigation
was launched into social workers’ handling of the case.
Highland council chief executive Arthur McCourt confirmed the child
protection committee is commissioning an independent investigation
into all the circumstances concerning Danielle’s
disappearance and death.
Source:- Daily Record  Thursday 1 May page 5
Heroin pal cleared in death trial
A 20-year-old woman who supplied the heroin which killed a friend,
has been cleared of blame at the high court in Glasgow.
Pamela Degnan was told she could not have known that her friend
Robert Waddell had such a low tolerance to the drug.
Degnan admitted supplying the drug to Waddell at Currie near
Edinburgh in August 2001. The crown accepted her plea of not guilty
to culpable homicide.
Lord Kingarth placed Degnan on probation for 12 months yesterday
saying it would not be in the public interest to jail her.
Source:- Daily Record  Thursday 1 May page 17
School pool perv jailed
A former school swimming pool attendant was jailed
yesterday for sexually abusing two girls.
Clive Hunt, of Livingston, West Lothian, was found guilty of three
offences of indecent behaviour which took place 20 years ago at an
earlier trial.
At the high court in Edinburgh yesterday, Judge Lady Cosgrove gave
Hunt a six-year sentence.
Source:- Daily Record  Thursday 1 May page 37
Welsh newspapers
Care rise ‘Just a kick in the guts’
A severely disabled man who cannot see, hear or walk, is
facing a 500 per cent increase in his council care charges.
Huw Jenkins needs round the clock care from his parents since being
diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child.
His parents were incensed when shortly after his 21st birthday the
Vale of Glamorgan council increased their son’s care charges
from £10 a week to £52.20.
A spokesperson for the council said there was a duty to charge for
community care services, and each individual’s assessment was
reviewed annually. Huw’s parents intend to appeal against the
decision.
Source:- South Wales Echo Wednesday 30 April page 20
Suicide pact mum-of-one’s death leap as boyfriend
looked on
A woman leapt to her death from a tower block in what was to be a
suicide pact with her boyfriend.
Lisa Paget jumped from a tower block, but her boyfriend Lee Morgan
failed to go through with the couples intention of committing
suicide together.
Paget had a history of depression and Morgan has now been sectioned
under the Mental Health Act, and was not called to give evidence at
the inquest into her death.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 1 May page 6