Monday 7 July 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
House is searched in hunt forJodi clues
A house has been searched by police in connection with the murder
of 14-year-old Jodi Jones.
The property is in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Jones’ home town.
Jodi was stabbed to death on a pathway near her home on Monday
night as she went to meet her boyfriend.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 5 July page 5
Police baffled by stories of asylum seekers barbecuing the
Queen’s fowl
Two tabloid newspaper’s ran stories claiming that asylum seekers
have been catching swans for barbecues on Friday.
According to the reports a “major investigation” had been launched
after an “official Metropolitan Police report” was published, which
put the problem down to “eastern European gangs”.
However, yesterday Scotland Yard said that there was no police
report.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 5 July page 11
Jodi boyfriend is quizzed by murder police
The 14-year-old boyfriend of murdered schoolgirl Jodi Jones has
been questioned by police.
Officer’s searched Luke Mitchell’s family home while he was
questioned at a Lothian and Borders Police station.
Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 5 July page 47
Hodge to take on her critics
Margaret Hodge is to answer to her critics in a key note speech
outlining her role as children’s minister to the Local Government
Association on Tuesday.
Hodge has been surrounded by controversy over claims that she
failed to ensure an adequate investigation into allegations of
child abuse in children’s homes in Islington in the 1980s when she
was leader of the council.
Some MPs believe the green paper on child protection has been
delayed in order to allow the controversy to blow over.
Source:- The Times Saturday 5 July page 13
Hodge’s care home blunders may have ‘let in ‘
paedophiles
The author into the original inquiry into the sex abuse in
Islington council-run children’s homes scandal surrounding
children’s minister Margaret Hodge has said that her failure to
investigate allegations fully when she was council leader may have
led to paedophiles working in care homes for years
afterwards.
Ian White, in his first comments since Hoge’s appointment, said he
stood by his inquiry, which reported in 1995, severely criticising
the council’s conduct under Hodge’s leadership.
Source:- The Sunday Times 6 July page 7
The granny state: grandparents bear brunt of
childcare
Grandparents now spend and six and a half-hours a week bringing up
children, according to a new Age Concern report published
tomorrow.
One in four grandparents are now routinely bringing up children and
single parents are finding it more and more difficult and expensive
to get childcare.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday 6 July page 6
Another year in prison for the child victims of the
immigration system
Four asylum seeker children and their mother who have been locked
up in a former prison for over a year while awaiting the outcome of
an appeal against deportation, could remain in detention for
another year.
Yurdugal Ay and her four children aged 14 and under are already the
longest serving family in a detention  centre.
Appeal judges rejected Ay’s claims that her children’s mental
health was suffering and their human rights would be breached if
they were made to return to Turkey.
The family has now applied to the House of Lords for leave to have
the decision overturned, but know that it could mean they have to
spend another year in detention, while waiting for the
result.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday 6 July page 8
Solicitors hand out gifts to grab lucrative asylum
job
Solicitors and immigration officers are breaking the law by
offering newly arrived asylum seekers gifts if they sign up with
them.
The gifts are being given out due to the competition between
lawyers to get a share of the £175 million of taxpayer’s
money spent on legal aid for asylum seekers.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 6 July page 9
Hodge vows to stay despite abuse scandal
Margaret Hodge, the new children’s minister, has vowed to stay in
her new position despite calls for her resignation over claims that
she failed to properly investigate allegations of sex abuse in
children’s homes while she was leader of Islington council.
Despite Hodge’s vow to stay last night, the government announced an
independent children’s commissioner to take over the responsibility
for child protection.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 July page 3
Melanie’s family knew she needed psychiatric help. But it
came too late to save her from suicide
Jo Revil reports on a crisis gripping Britain’s mental health care
system
Melanie Cook took her own life, suffering from paranoia and
anxiety, in the hospital where she had gone for help.
An inquest into her death, which ended last week, heard of Cook’s
family’s futile attempts to get her the treatment that she
needed.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 July page 10
Hodge’s history bites back
As calls mount for Margaret Hodge, the new children’s
minister, to quit. Martin Bright and Paul Harris investigate claims
against her as she tells her story for the first time
Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 July page 12
Tories call for tax credit deadline to be
shelved
The Conservatives are planning to call on the government to allow
people claiming tax credits to have their applications backdated to
1 April, with an estimated 1 million people set to lose money under
the current regulations.
At the moment claims cannot be backdated for more than three
months.
Source:- The Financial Times Monday 7 July page 5
Blunkett floats ‘one-stop’ centre to crack child
crime
The home secretary will reveal he is considering new
measures to tackle anti-social behaviour by children under the age
of 10 today.
Blunkett will announce that he is considering bringing
American-style community justice centres into Britain at a
conference in London.
Alex Calabrese, the judge know for “cleaning up New York”, and a
pioneer of community courts, will also be speaking.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 July page 9
Scottish newspapers
Officials criticise call to release family from
detention
The home office has reacted angrily to calls from the Scottish
clergy to allow a family of Kurdish asylum seekers, who have been
held at Dungavel detention centre for nearly a year, to live in the
UK.
In a letter published in ‘The Scotsman’ on Friday,
three bishops joined community leaders in branding the detention of
the Ay family as “a grave injustice”.
However, immigration minister Beverley Hughes said the government
could not trust the family not to abscond, and accused the mother
of dragging the case out.
Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 5 July
Cairns declares war on Capital beggars
The vast majority of Edinburgh’s beggars are
“professional conmen”, according to the city’s
new environment chief.
Bob Cairns has pledged to push through measures to tackle the
problems that he believes are blighting the city’s most
historic areas.
He said there was no need for people to be claiming to be homeless
on the capital’s streets.
Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 5 July
Specialist unit can’t take deaf son
A boy with hearing difficulties is being forced into a mainstream
school in Edinburgh because there is no room for him at a
specialist unit.
Edinburgh council has twice as many requests for places at its
speech and language units than spaces available. As a result
five-year-old Steven Milne will be forced into his local primary
school, despite experts claiming he needs specialised help.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 5 July
Ex-teacher fails to turn up for child abuse court
case
A former teacher failed to attend court yesterday to answer claims
that he sexually abused two of his former pupils.
Guy Antony Hills, who is accused of  indecently assaulting two boys
when he was their French teacher at Loretto School, East Lothian,
cited health problems for his non-attendance.
Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 5 July
Man guilty of sex attack
A man with paranoid schizophrenia, who claimed he had “raped
the devil’s daughter”, was found guilty of the sex
attack at the high court in Aberdeen last night.
The 23-year-old student who was raped by Damian Fowler told the
high court she feared she might have been killed during the
attack.
Judge Lord Mackay deferred sentence to the high court in Edinburgh
on 5 August for background reports. Fowler was placed on the sex
offenders register and remanded in custody.
Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 5 July
MSPs bid to win Scottish lottery
The Scottish executive should take advantage of the
government’s overhaul of the National Lottery and set up a
game exclusively in Scotland.
Central Scotland MSP John Swinburne, who has tabled a parliamentary
motion promoting the idea, said all proceeds would then go to good
causes in Scotland.
Source:- The Scotsman  Sunday 6 July
Jodi’s murder prompts free panic alarm plan for all
Scottish children
The Scottish executive has announced that councils will be allowed
to use money from a £4 million community safety fund to give
away free panic alarms to children to protect them from violent
attacks.
The announcement comes in the wake of the brutal murder of teenager
Jodi Jones.
The alarms cost as little as £6 each and emit a deafening
noise to repel attackers and attract help.
The announcement comes after Midlothian police, where Jodi’s
body was found, advised parents to consider buying the
devices.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 6 July
Stumbling block to integrated schools as councils protest
cost of disabled access
Scottish schools will fail to deliver equal access to mainstream
education for pupils with disabilities without greater Scottish
executive support, councils and lobby groups have warned.
Schools will be directed to provide mainstream education to all
pupils, including those with physical and educational special
needs, other than in ‘exceptional circumstances’ under
legislation to be introduced next month.
But councils fear they will not be ready to implement the new
policy because of the difficulties in providing access to sprawling
secondary schools in ageing buildings.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 6 July
Fury over Blunkett’s ID scheme
Home secretary David Blunkett was criticised last night as he
prepared to press ahead with proposals for compulsory ID
cards.
Civil liberties groups claim it could worsen race relations by
making ethnic minorities more vulnerable to harassment.
Source:- Daily Record Monday 7 July
Watchdog denies delay on Dungavel
A prison inspectorate report of Dungavel detention centre, which is
likely to slam the suitability of detaining children, has been
delayed by the home office, it was alleged yesterday.
Chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers was expected to publish her
findings earlier this year. But the report, alongside the one of
Harmondsworth detention centre in London, is now expected to be
published next month, prompting accusations by refugee groups that
the home office wants to avoid political embarrassment.
Yesterday in the ‘Sunday Herald’, Owers denied claims
that the report had been blocked, but said it will raise similar
concerns to those raised on several English detention
centres.
Source:- The Herald Monday 7 July
Welsh newspapers
Esti’s mother wants dad freed
The ex-wife of a man, whose alleged abduction of his daughter
sparked an international search, wants him freed from a Portuguese
jail.
Aneta Clayton said she sympathised with the plight of her
ex-husband, Simon, following his arrest after disappearing with
their four-year-old daughter Esti.
He is now being kept in Portugal awaiting extradition, and the
pressure group Fathers4Justice have taken up his case and are
travelling to Portugal to support him.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 7 July page 1
Come home to a grant – Cymuned
The pressure group Cymuned is calling for relocation
grants to help young people living in England return to rural
Wales.
The relocation grant plan was inspired by a scheme piloted by
Brighton and Hove council that gave families financial assistance
to move to areas like Wales to ease the demand for housing in south
east England.
Cymuned want to see the Welsh assembly offer a similar package to
young people, who want to return to Wales.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 7 July page 9