Friday 6 June 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson

Bigger EU may mean 10 per cent more migrants
The number of migrants coming into Britain could increase
by 10 per cent a year after the enlargement of the European Union,
according to new Home Office research.
The study warns that between 5,000 and 13,000 people from the ten
countries joining the EU could come to Britain each year.
Source:- The Times Friday June 6 page 4

Lost innocence of addicts’ children
Around 350,000 children have to deal with parents addicted
to hard drugs, according to new research from a government advisory
body.
The report from the Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs found that up to 3 per cent of children in England and Wales
and up to 6 per cent in Scotland are physically and psychologically
damaged due to their parents’ behaviour.
The increase in the use of crack cocaine is of particular concern,
it highlights.
Source:- The Times Friday June 6 page 5

Suicide of bullied boy who planned his own funeral
A 16-year-old boy terrified of going back to school this
week has committed suicide after experiencing years of
bullying.
On the eve of Karl Peart’s funeral, his mother Sonya yesterday
spoke of the years of misery he had gone through.
Peart was found dead in his bedroom due to an overdose of
painkillers on Sunday morning. He had written a letter to his
parents planning his funeral.
Source:- The Times Friday June 6 page 5

£19m bail-out to rescue criminal record office
The price of background checks on people working with
children and other vulnerable groups is to double in a government
drive to bail out the Criminal Records Bureau.
The bureau is also set to receive an emergency £19m to help
them deal with their problems but the service offered to the public
is set to be reduced, with the bureau admitting yesterday that
original targets for the numbers of checks were unrealistic.
Source:- The Times Friday June 6 page 12

Euthanasia backed by nursing head
Voluntary euthanasia should become legal, a senior nursing
representative has said.
Chairperson of the ethics forum of the Royal College of Nursing,
Karen Saunders, said she would have liked to have been able to
comply with her patients’ wishes to die.
Source:- The Times Friday June 6 page 14

Officials face sack in league tables
Senior Whitehall officials could face dismissal under
plans to rank all government departments by how they perform in
public services.
The measure is part of the prime minister’s attempt to improve
public services.
Source:- The Times Friday June 6 page 14

Father in jail over truant son
A father was jailed for two months yesterday for failing to ensure
his son went to school.
James Allen from Blackpool allowed his 14-year-old son to play
truant from Collegiate High School.
Local magistrates were told that his son attended school on 26 out
of a possible 154 occasions.
Source:- Daily Telegraph  Friday 6 June page 12

Refugee groups admit UK is asylum magnet
Refugee groups admitted yesterday that Britain is a magnet
for asylum seekers and criminal gangs in evidence to the home
affairs select committee.
The black market and ability to appear out of sight of the
authorities are major factors making Britain the asylum capital of
Europe.
The Immigration Advisory Service and Refugee Council warned that
the government’s crackdown on asylum was actually plunging
the process further into crisis by driving more illegal immigrants
underground.
Source:- Daily Mail  Friday 6 June page 21

Curbs proposed on aid in asylum cases
Asylum seekers’ access to legal aid will be reduced
to just five hours of help up to the point of their interview with
the Home Office under cost-cutting plans outlined by the Lord
Chancellor’s Department.
Legal aid lawyers and access-to-justice campaigners condemned the
plans, warning that they could lead to injustice for asylum
seekers.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 6 June, page 9

Coroner hedges on whether Prozac drove woman to
suicide
A coroner said yesterday that the antidepressant drug
Prozac “may or may not have contributed” to the death
of Wendy Hay, who committed suicide while taking the drug last
September.
The narrative verdict – an account of the circumstances of
the death without coming to conclusions – will have
significance for a newly-launched inquiry by the committee on the
safety of medicines into the serious side-effects of taking and
coming off this class of antidepressants.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 6 June, page 9

Jail fear for agony aunts as peers curb sex advice for
teens
Editors of teen magazines are concerned that their agony
aunts could be jailed under the Sexual Offences Bill, after
attempts to make giving “emotional advice” exempt from
prosecution failed.
The bill, which will target paedophiles for “grooming”
offences, will make it illegal to “arrange or facilitate the
commission of a sexual offence”.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 6 June, page 11

Pupils paid to turn up
William Crane comprehensive school in Aspley, Nottingham, is
offering 16 pupils bonuses to turn up to English, maths and science
classes in an attempt to improve examination results.
The school, due to close at the end of the year, is also offering
financial rewards for every GCSE pass at grade C or above.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 6 June, page 12

Scottish stories
Fears for future of special schools

Parents of children with disabilities are being
“forced” to place their children in mainstream schools,
even though it may be to the detriment of other pupil’s
education, a senior union leader has claimed.
Children, who are thriving in special schools, are being asked by
education authorities to transfer to mainstream schools and parents
of prospective pupils are being turned away, according to Alana
Ross, president of the Educational Institute of Scotland.
Speaking at the opening of the union’s annual conference in
Perth, Ross called for a rethink of plans to phase out special
schools.
Source:- The Scotsman  Friday 6 June page 2

Council to rejoin Cosla
Scotland’s largest council is set to rejoin the body
which represents the country’s local authorities.
Glasgow Council broke away from the Convention of Scottish Local
Authorities (Cosla) two years ago after choosing to spend the
annual subscription fee on other services.
Members of the council’s policy and resources committee voted
17 to two to rejoin the body and pay the annual fee of £2,000.
Cosla now represents all but one of Scotland’s councils, with
Falkirk being the only council not affiliated to the umbrella
group.
Source:- The Scotsman  Friday 6 June page 9

Detained Algerian walks free
An Algerian asylum seeker, who has been detained for four
months under the Terrorism Act but never charged, walked free
yesterday pending a fresh asylum claim.
Ali Serir was granted bail before a home office adjudicator at
Glasgow yesterday.
Supporters, including his six-month pregnant wife and the Scottish
Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan, welcomed his release.
Source:- The Scotsman  Friday 6 June

Child porn man quit health job
A leading health board official has left his
£45,000-a-year job after avoiding imprisonment for downloading
child pornography.
Tom Skinner was fined £2,000 and placed on the sex
offenders’ register for five years after he paid to download
images of naked children.
The father of two has left his job as secretary of Borders Health
Board, which confirmed there was no financial package attached to
his resignation.
Source:- The Scotsman  Friday 6 June

Inject addicts to stop births
A government report has proposed that drug addicts should
be injected with long-term contraceptives to prevent them having
children.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs called for the
controversial action after figures showed that twice the number of
Scottish children live with drug addict parents than anywhere else
in the UK.
The Hidden Harm report revealed that between 41,000 and 59,000
Scottish children live in households with drugs.
Source:- Daily Record  Friday 6 June page 1

Kirk centre for grieving kids
The Church of Scotland is launching a bereavement centre
for children.
Richmond’s Hope has been set up to help young people deal
with the grief of losing a parent or loved one.
Source:- Daily Record  Friday 6 June page 21

Social work chiefs promise shake-up after
survey
Scotland’s largest social work department has promised a
shake-up following a survey which found unrest about pay, managers
and working in a ‘blame culture’.
The majority of Glasgow Council’s 4,300 social work staff
also felt stressed and undervalued by employers. However staff did
feel satisfaction in their work and appreciation from the people
they worked with.
The results of the department’s first staff attitude survey,
conducted by Mori Scotland in February, are to be discussed in a
series of meetings this week designed to find new ways forward in
the department.
Source:- The Herald  Friday 6 June

Welsh newspapers
Carer accused of abusing boys
A member of staff at a children’s home in south
Wales has been accused of sexually abusing vulnerable boys in his
care.
Neil Wardell, a former senior residential child carer at Ty Mawr
home, near Abergavenny, which has since closed down, pleaded not
guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 22 charges including serious
offences against boys, assault occasioning actual bodily harm,
indecent assault, and battery.
The offences are alleged to have taken place over a four-year
period beginning in 1985.
Source:- South Wales Argus  Thursday 5 June page 5
Disabled worker escapes jail term
A childcare worker who was arrested under the internet
child pornography investigation Operation Ore escaped prison
because his disability means that he is ‘trapped in a world
of silence’.
Cardiff Crown Court heard that Justin Rixon had 556 photographs of
young children being sexually and physically abused stored on four
computers in his flat.
But Rixon, who works with children on a voluntary basis, escaped
prison because the court was told that as a deaf mute from birth a
custodial sentence would have a “crushing” effect on
him.
He was sentenced to a two-year rehabilitation order and ordered to
register as a sex offender.
Source:- Western Mail  Friday 6 June page 5