Tuesday 2 September 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Stay-home mothers ‘forgotten’

The government has given mothers who stay at home to look after
their children the cold shoulder, according to a new report from
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The research said that while the government has been spending money
to help single parents, mothers who give up their jobs to raise
their children have been neglected.
Other findings said that the government’s policy of pumping money
into childcare is against many mothers’ preference to work less
when they have young children.
Source:- Daily Mail  Tuesday 2 September
Boy, 11, was treated like a slave and tortured, court
told

An 11-year-old boy who was sent to England from Bangladesh by his
family in hope of a better education was abused and tortured and
treated like a slave, a court heard yesterday.
The boy was made to work as a “household slave”, not allowed to use
the lavatory, and made to take cold baths as a punishment for
soiling himself. He also alleged he had once been tortured by
electric shocks, caused by inserting a wire into a socket.
Mohammed Ahmed, a friend of the boy’s family, was charged with one
count of assault causing actual bodily harm at Southwark crown
court in southeast London in relation to this case.
He denied the charge. The trial continues.
Source:- The Independent Tuesday 2 September page 2
Poverty ‘robs a million of their childhood’
Nearly one in 10 children is growing up in “severe and persistent”
poverty, according to a new report from charity Save the Children,
but the finding has been challenged by a free market
thinktank.
The Adam Smith Institute said the charity’s definition of poverty
was “clearly faulty”.
Save the Children’s research said a million children suffer from
extreme deprivation often missing meals and going without proper
clothes.
The institute said that the scale of poverty was not the picture
painted by the report. “To be poor in Britain today includes things
like owning a colour TV and a video,” said Dr Madsen Pirie, the
institute’s president.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 2 September page 4
Doctor ‘led girl to believe she was sex abuse
victim’

A child psychiatrist yesterday became one of the first British
doctors to be accused of serious professional misconduct for
leading a teenager to think she had been sexually abused by
uncovering previous memories.
A tribunal heard that John Eastgate “led” a 13-year-old girl into
thinking she had been indecently assaulted by another doctor.
He is also alleged to have contacted social services and the police
about the abuse without having properly investigated whether the
charges were true or not.
His actions were described as acting as a “seed” to the girl making
further allegations against three other men, including the her
father.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 2 September page 10
Why all that jazz can mean mental illness
Many of the world’s top jazz musicians suffer from psychotic
disorders and other mental health problems, according to new
research.
The findings add weight to the theory that artistic talent may
often be linked to mental instability.
The research, carried out by Dr Geoffrey Willis, a retired clinical
psychologist based in Stockport Greater Manchester, also found high
levels of drug and alcohol abuse, and family histories of mental
health problems present in the lives of the 40 musicians it
covered.
Source:- The Independent Tuesday 2 September page 7
Scottish newspapers
Hearts of evil

The woman who threw her murdered daughter’s body into a canal
was jailed for eight years yesterday at the high court in
Edinburgh.
Tracey Reid’s partner Lee Gaytor was also ordered to serve a
minimum of 18 years for battering the five-year-old girl to death
and then pushing her down the stairs to her death.
Experts say Danielle Reid would have survived the ordeal had help
been summoned.
Lord Hardie rejected claims that Reid was suffering mental health
problems at the time of the murder last autumn.
Source:- Daily Record  Tuesday 2 September page 13
Jodi will pass lane of death
Murdered schoolgirl Jodi Jones will come home for the last time
tomorrow when she will make her final journey past the path where
she was found murdered.
Her body will be taken from her home in Easterhouses, Midlothian,
to a nearby cemetery where she will be buried next to her
father.
Hundreds of mourners are expected to line the streets tomorrow as
the cortege makes its way to Gorebridge and on to Jodi’s
final resting place.
The funeral will take place 65 days after she was found murdered
near her home.
Source:- Daily Record  Tuesday 2 September page 14
Sex attack on Iris, 78
A pensioner told yesterday of her ordeal at the hands of a sex
attacker who fled her home with just £30.
Iris Mckay was beaten to the ground by the intruder who then
demanded money. When the 78-year-old handed over just £30, he
indecently assaulted her before fleeing the woman’s home in
Whitburn, West Lothian, during the early hours of Saturday
morning.
The police have appealed for anyone who may have seen the attacker
to come forward.
Source:- Daily Record  Tuesday 2 September page 15
We can cut off the ‘ned’ booze
supply

Communities are to be given more powers to shut down off-licences
which blatantly sell alcohol to underage children.
Residents living in areas blighted by underage drinking will have
more powers over where ‘off-sales’ shops are sited and
when they can open.
First Minister Jack McConnell will announce the crackdown on the
“ned culture” today.
He believes off-licences selling alcohol illegally have become a
magnet for anti-social behaviour which has created misery in
communities.
Source:- Daily Record  Tuesday 2 September page 16-17
Welsh newspapers
Valleys projects to get £617,000

Deprived communities in the south Wales valleys are to benefit from
a new fund targeted at helping poorer areas.
The New Opportunities Fair Share Trust will allocate £617,500
to a range of community projects in Blaenau Gwent over a five to 10
year period. Blaenau Gwent is one of only five areas to be chosen
by the Welsh assembly to receive funding under the new
scheme.
It is possible that match-funding grants from the European
Objective One scheme could also be used to double the money
available to community projects.
Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 1 September page 4
Youngsters miss out as parents battle to meet costs of
school

Almost one in five Welsh children will return to school today
without adequate clothing and food, according to the Child Poverty
Action Group.
The parents of as many as 100,000 children will be unable to afford
school uniforms and school meals, said the charity and it is
warning that the costs associated with education are
significant.
The charity is calling for a simplification of the benefits system
to make it more user friendly, and a range of measures that will
help parents on low incomes cope with additional costs like school
trips and music lessons.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 2 September page 7

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