Monday 21 July 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Girl, 5, tortured to death for being too beautiful

A woman was found guilty of torturing and abusing her partner’s
five-year-old girl yesterday.
Christine Green, aged 25, was said to have repeatedly taunted
Annastacia Williams saying she was “too beautiful” to be her
partner’s daughter.
Annatasica’s mother had sent her daughter to England from her home
in Jamaica after she found it difficult to cope. Ken Williams,
Annastacia’s father, did nothing about Green’s abuse.
The Old Bailey heard how Annastacia was fit and well when she first
arrived to live with her father in Islington, north London, less
than a year before she died.
She died in hospital on September 2002 from head injuries, which
Green said had been caused by a fall.
Source:- The Times Saturday 19 July page10
Vicar jailed for 5 years for sex abuse of
girls

A church of England clergyman was found guilty of sexually abusing
two girls aged eight and 12 yesterday.
The Reverend Robin Everett, aged 69, received a five-year sentence
at Leicester crown court for assaulting the girls
The attacks took place between 1981 and 1985 while he was Vicar of
Castle Donnington, Leicestershire.
Source:- The Times Saturday 19 July page10
Cardinal is cleared over claims of child abuse cover
up

The Crown Prosecution Service has decided that the head of the
Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales will face no criminal
charges over a claim that he covered up allegations of child
abuse.
Sussex police investigated Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor over his
admission that he failed to report allegations of child abuse
against Michael Hill, a priest in his charge when he was Bishop of
Arundel and Brighton in 1985.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 20 July page 9
Diana charity pays £2.3m to princes
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which has frozen its
payments to abused children and refugees, had paid £2.3
million to Prince William and Prince Harry’s estate.
The fund is currently facing a financial crisis due to a  legal
battle with an American company.
Source:- The Sunday Times 20 July page 5
Marine Studabaker ‘wooed deaf girl over
internet’

The ex-US marine, who ran away with a 12-year-old girl he met over
the internet, had previously attempted to woo a deaf teenager that
he also met on the net.
Toby Studabaker, aged 31, is likely to face charges in Britain this
week for the abduction of Shevaun Pennington, who was reunited with
her family in Lowton, near Wigan, last week.
Relatives of Studabaker’s late wife claimed he had started a
relationship with a deaf teenager he met in a chatroom five years
ago.
They said the relationship ended when the girl’s mother confronted
Studabaker.
Source:- The Sunday Times 20 July page 7
BA charges woman £300 for guide dog
British Airways has issued an apology after refusing to allow a
partially sighted woman fly with her guide dog by her seat,
breaking new government guidelines.
Wheelchair user Gail Jones, who has multiple sclerosis and
arthritis and is registered blind, was told her dog
‘Magic’ would have to travel in the hold on her flight
to Toulouse, and said she would have to pay £300 plus VAT in
quarantine fees.
Guidelines introduced by the department for transport in March said
that firms should not charge extra for transporting
guidedogs.
Jones chose to take her custom elsewhere, instead travelling with
Air France who allowed Magic in the passenger cabin at no extra
charge.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday 20 July page 41
Hospital locked patient in room for 20 days
A hospital with high-profile patients such as the Moors murderer
Ian Brady has been found guilty of keeping psychiatric patients
locked in seclusion for weeks at a time.
The court of appeal has upheld a legal challenge by a 55-year-old
male patient, who changed his name to Colonel Munjaz. He claimed
staff at Ashworth hospital acted unlawfully by keeping him locked
in his room, for 20 days in one case with only limited contact with
other patients.
The staff’s actions break government guidelines which say that
seclusion should only be used for short periods of time to
segregate highly disturbed patients who are a risk to others.
 Source:- The Independent on Sunday 20 July page 16
‘Suicide pact’ mother held on murder charge in
Italy

A woman who called the police after she allegedly shot her
seriously ill daughter in an aborted suicide pact is in jail in
Italy facing a murder charge.
Margaret Pringle Allison, aged 65, from Scotland was arrested after
police arrived at her flat in Alta Mura, near Bari in southern
Italy, where she is believed to have killed her daughter who
suffered from toxoplasmosis, a painful stomach condition.
Allison said she could not turn the gun on herself after killing
her 24-year-old  daughter, phoning the police instead.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 21 July page 7
Master at top public school is arrested over abuse
claims
A senior master at one of England’s top public schools is
being investigated by police into claims of sexual abuse going back
almost a decade.
Peter Metcalfe, aged 51, a housemaster at Winchester College in
Hampshire, until four months ago, is accused of regularly showering
naked with boys, taking their clothes off and carrying out other
‘odd behaviour’.
There are also allegations of a “sustained cover-up” by other
masters at the school.
Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 21 July page 25
Migrants ‘will need million extra homes’
Over one million extra homes will need to be built within the next
20 years to house immigrants coming into the country, according to
a new study.
The study, by the pressure group Migration Watch UK, said that at
least one house will have to be built for every four existing
properties in London and the south east and the south west of
England by 2021.
Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 21 July page 35
Scottish newspapers
Outrage over witness tag plan
A high court judge, who suggested that reluctant witnesses
should be electronically tagged to force them to give evidence, has
caused outrage with his comments.
Lord Bonomy believes that the use of tags, which are currently used
as an alternative to jail, would help Scottish courts run more
smoothly.
There is concern at the number of trials that are delayed as a
result of key witnesses failing to turn up, and in a report
commissioned by the Scottish executive, Bonomy said electronic tags
would allow police to know the whereabouts of a witness to ensure
they appear in court on time.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 20 July
Highland doctors ‘illegally detained mental
patients’

Doctors have illegally detained seriously ill mental patients
without the authority to take away their liberty, it has
emerged.
At least 18 people were wrongly committed by Highland doctors,
according to a whistle-blower, who claims she has since been forced
from her job as medical records officer.
Aileen MacDonald said she told Highland Primary Care Trust two
years ago that at least one consultant was not on the list of
psychiatrists approved as competent to request detention in a
mental hospital under the Mental Health Act.
At least 18 patients in a period of nine to 12 months were
detained, mainly at New Craigs Hospital in Inverness, under invalid
orders made as a result of the oversight, she claims.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 20 July
Kirk calls for Dungavel unit to be closed
The Church of Scotland has called for a unit, detaining children
seeking asylum for more than a year, to close immediately.
The Kirk has called on the government to release all school-age
refugees from Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire and the
Reverend Alan MacDonald, convener of the Kirk’s church and
nation committee, also questioned whether any asylum seekers should
be held in prison-like conditions.
Source:- The Herald  Monday 21 July
Suicide pact Scot held after shooting daughter
A Scottish women is being held in an Italian jail after
she claims she shot her daughter in a failed double suicide
pact.
Margaret Allison, originally from Glasgow, is reported to be facing
murder charges after it is alleged she helped Emilia Mininni, who
suffered from a stomach disease, to kill herself then could not go
through with killing herself.
It is understood the women’s daughter shot herself in the
head with a semi-automatic pistol when the pair were alone in their
family apartment at Altamura near Bari, but she did not die
immediately. Allison is believed to have shot her daughter to end
her suffering but then could not shoot herself.
Source:- The Herald  Monday 21 July
Alcoholics sue booze companies
Twelve alcoholics are to try and sue the drinks industry for
failing to warn them about the dangers of addiction.
The group of 12, aged between 18 and 60, claim their lives have
been destroyed by alcohol and that they were not warned about the
risks.
Experts from Glasgow solicitors, Ross Harper, believe they can use
the arguments employed in successful prosecutions against American
tobacco companies in 2000 to win their case.
Source:- Daily Record  Monday 21 July
Blind girl’s family to fight in court
The parents of a severely disabled girl are to fight a
council, who is forcing the girl to move schools in order for them
to save money.
Anna Bartsch is blind and unable to walk and talk and has attended
Edinburgh’s Royal Blind School for four years, learning sign
language. But Edinburgh council want to move her to a school up to
an hour’s drive away.
Parents Uwe and Julie face a court bill of up to £30,000, but
her father said they will fight the case all the way.
Source:- Daily Record  Monday 21 July
New laws on net perverts
A criminal psychologist called for new laws after a man was caught
with a sex attackers guide he downloaded from the internet.
Psychologist Ray Wyre called for a new crime of planning to commit
rape and said, “These sites normalise violence against
women.”
Source:- Daily Record  Monday 21 July
Welsh newspapers
Concern for Esti’s welfare
Campaigners have expressed concern over the welfare of
four-year-old Esti Clayton, the child whose disappearance from her
home in Brecon, sparked a major international hunt.
Her father Simon Clayton has been charged with her abduction after
fleeing with his daughter to Portugal, and spent several weeks in a
jail there.
He has now been remanded in custody following his extradition from
Portugal, and the pressure group Fathers 4 Justice are concerned
about the continued separation between father and daughter.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 21 July page 2
Hills have eyes’ as 200-strong council fleet looks
for bogus callers

Bogus callers who prey on vulnerable householders in south Wales
are more likely to be caught thanks to a new early warning
scheme.
Details of conmen operating in the area are passed to Blaenau Gwent
council’s fleet of 200 vehicles, and workers across the
county are asked to keep alert for individuals and their vehicles
who may about to commit crimes against older people in their
homes.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 21 July page 7
Councillors say education focus hitting welfare
funds

Council leaders have warned the Welsh assembly that they must be
prepared to pay for better social services.
They claim that there is not enough leeway in local authority
budgets to focus on both high quality education and social
services.
The warning from two council leaders in west Wales came following
the publication of an inspection of Bridgend social services, and
the Wanless review on health and social care in Wales.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 21July page 7

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