Monday 30 June 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.

Right to ‘living will’ part of new
legislation

People would be given the right to appoint
someone to legally act for them over health and welfare issues
under “living wills” measures in one of the proposals in the new
Mental Health Incapacity Bill.

The measure presently only applies to
finances.

The person placed in this position would have
far-reaching powers, which would be subject to safeguards to
protect the interests of those they are responsible for.

Source:- The Times Saturday June 28
page 11

Mother held after girl, 5, stabbed to death

A mother was being questioned by police
yesterday over the murder of her five-year-old daughter, who was
found dead with stab wounds to her chest.

Chloe Fahey was found at her home in
Stretford, Manchester, in the early hours of Friday morning.

Two men and the girl’s mother were arrested by
police officers and the two men were later released without
charge.

The mother’s younger child had already been
taken into the care of social services.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday June
28 page 9

Chinese gang jailed over Dover deaths

Seven members of a Chinese gang, responsible
for smuggling 58 illegal immigrants who suffocated in a sealed
lorry trailer in Dover three years ago, were jailed last
Friday.

The people traffickers were imprisoned in
Rotterdam and were part of an organised crime syndicate who had
been charging immigrants up to £12,000 per person for their
passage to Britain.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph
Saturday June 28 page 4

Asylum family runs up £1/2m legal bill

The taxpayer is set to foot the £500,000
worth of legal fees run up by a family of Lithuanian asylum seekers
who alleged that their human rights had been breached by Southwark
Council by providing them with inadequate housing.

The Anufrijevas family has pursued more than
15 court actions, petitions and applications for judicial
review.

Source:- The Sunday Times Saturday
June 29 page 8

Paedophiles set picture phone trap

New 24-hour internet access via mobile  phones enables paedophiles to
reach children at any time, according to new research.

Built-in cameras also make it difficult for
young people to escape the pressure of sending the offenders
pictures of themselves, it finds.

The report, due to be submitted to the Home
Office next week, warns that there are presently no barriers to
prevent paedophiles from using the new technology to reach
children.

Source:- The Observer Sunday June
29 page 11

Refugees keep out – this is a British place

The riots in Wrexham last week were not an
isolated event. Attacks on asylum seekers are becoming the norm in
the UK.

Source:- The Observer Sunday June
29 page 14

Delays dog jail racism report

An official inquiry into racism in Britain’s
prisons, which has taken two and a half years to complete, is
expected to damn the Prison Service as it publishes the first of
its findings next week .

The first set of findings is expected to focus
on issues relating to the racially motivated murder of Zahid
Mubarek in Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution in West
London three years ago.

The second, larger part of the report, which
looks at allegations that high levels of racism are present in some
sections of the Prison Service, has been delayed until
September.

Prisons in Brixton, Feltham and Parc, in south
Wales, are expected to be highlighted as particularly bad.

Source:- The Guardian Monday June
30 page 8

Airport asylum staff step up strike action

Staff who screen asylum-seekers for diseases
at Heathrow airport are going on strike this week as public sector
union Unison attempts to gain an increase in the London weighting
given to workers.

Thousands of staff in some schools, libraries,
and local authorities will also be taking industrial action.

Source:- The Times Monday June 30
page 2

Mothers demand deaths inquiry

Parents who allege that they have been wrongly
accused of murdering or abusing their children are calling for a
public inquiry into a diagnosis defined by a professor whose
evidence was discredited in two recent cases.

Professor Sir Roy Meadow’s expert testimonies
were discredited in the cases of Sally Clark and Trupti Patel, two
mothers subsequently found not guilty of murdering their
children.

Meadows has acted as an expert witness in
dozens of cases in which babies have died suddenly, claiming that
mothers are suffering from a controversial diagnosis of
Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, where mothers harm or kill their
children and then claim that it occurred naturally.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday
June 30 page 5

Scottish news

Outcry as beds for young psychiatric patients fall to
nine

Just nine in-patient beds for children with
severe psychiatric disorders exist in Scotland, one sixth of the
number that existed in 1994.

A new Scottish executive-commissioned report
finds that the number of in-patient beds in Scotland has fallen
from 58 to nine, with all beds being concentrated at the Royal
Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in Glasgow.

The figures, which emerged in the Needs
Assessment Report on Child and Adolescent Mental Health, have been
described by doctors as “shocking” and a matter of
“grave concern”.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 29 June

Last minute ‘stay of execution’ for asylum
seeker

An African asylum seeker has had her
deportation halted at the eleventh hour following intervention by
her MP.

Danielle Koudou, who faces imprisonment,
torture and possibly death if she returns to the Ivory Coast, had
been living in the Gorbals in Glasgow until she was taken into
detention after her asylum claim was rejected by the Home Office.
Her brother, whose case is virtually identical, has been granted
refugee status.

Koudou was scheduled for deportation last
Thursday but protests have been so strong that the government has
agreed to wait until ministers have considered representations from
David Marshall, MP for Glasgow Shettleton, and other MPs.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 29 June

Police dismiss wardens as a waste of time

Police have condemned plans for an army of
community wardens to remove vandals from Scotland’s streets
as a waste of time and money.

The government scheme, which would see 1,000
full-time wardens patrolling the streets, is being trialled in two
communities.

But police have warned the Scottish executive
that plans have not been properly thought through. They believe it
will create extra work for officers and the £20m funding would
be better spent putting more ‘bobbies on the beat’.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday  Sunday 29 June

Your girl is Hungarian now so we won’t pay for
care

A disabled teenager has been informed that
funding for her specialist treatment in Hungary is being stopped
because she is no longer Scottish.

Victoria Shovlin, who suffers from cerebral
palsy, was sent to the Peto Institute aged nine after her local
council agreed to fund her education in a landmark ruling. They
also paid for here father Nick to stay in Hungary as her carer.

But, after nine years, Fife Council is pulling
the plug on the funding. Despite paying for her father’s
caring role, the council said it “did not realise”
Victoria was staying with her dad.

It said this made her an official resident of
Hungary and not Fife and that she was no longer their
responsibility.

Her father said he could not bring Victoria
home as Fife Council had failed to find similar facilities for her
treatment and he now faced applying for political asylum to stay in
Hungary.

Source:- Daily Record  Monday 30 June

Psychiatric drugs ‘are harming
children’

Hundreds of protesters will lobby an
international gathering in Edinburgh today, claiming that an
alarming number of children are harmed or killed as a result of
being prescribed psychiatric drugs.

The campaigners will urge the annual meeting
of the Royal College of Psychiatrists to end “the psychiatric
labelling and drugging of children nationally and
internationally”.

There are an estimated 20,000 children taking
psychiatric drugs in Scotland.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 30 June

Desperate measures to keep staff

Around half of the social work jobs at East
Dunbartonshire Council are vacant, according to a report presented
to the council’s policy and resources committee.

Although there should be a team of 59 people
looking after the region’s vulnerable population, at the
beginning of June 23 jobs were unfilled. Another five social
workers were considering handing in their notice. The report claims
there is now a high risk in terms of their ability to meet
statutory duties.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 30 June

Jobs cut to fund social workers’ pay
wars

Social workers are being offered “golden
hellos” of up to £5,000 as councils are engaged in a
cut-throat bidding war to recruit staff.

Smaller local authorities are being forced to
cut jobs and channel funding into a reduced number of key
staff.

But the strategy of fewer, better-paid workers
puts social workers at risk of breaching legal requirements in
their duty to care for vulnerable people in the community.

Social work directors have condemned the
situation and called for a national review of pay and conditions to
put an end to the “Dutch auction” created by the skill
shortage.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 30 June

Sexual health plan sparks fresh battle with Catholic
Church

The Scottish executive’s final draft of
its sexual health strategy has been criticised by the senior
catholic appointed to help write it, who claims it undermines the
sanctity of marriage.

Vice president of the catholic education
committee, father Joe Chambers has refused to put his name to the
document, which he describes as “a poor inadequate vision for
the future health of Scottish young people”.

He is now to draft his own version, which he
will send to health minister Malcolm Chisholm next week when the
main report will also be submitted.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 30 June

Child protection team

A team of experts has been appointed to shake
up Scotland’s child protection services, in a bid to prevent
cases such as the tragic deaths of Danielle Reid and Kennedy
MacFarlane being repeated.

The group of six will develop a
Children’s Charter for Scotland as well as looking at how
well bodies involved in child protection work together.

The members have been seconded from their
regular jobs and include a senior social worker and a consultant
paediatrician.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 30 June

Welsh news

Found, a boy like Ben

A Welsh private investigator believes that he
may have evidence that a toddler who went missing on Greek island,
12 years ago, is now living in Turkey.

The disappearance of Ben Needham, during a
family holiday when he was only 21 months old, sparked an
international search.

His family believe that he was snatched and
sold, and investigator Ian Crosby says that a photograph of a boy
with blonde hair taken recently in Turkey fits the description of
what Ben is likely to look like now and could be an important
lead.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 30 June
page 4