Tuesday 4 November 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Man who gave his lovers HIV is jailed

A man who infected two lovers with HIV after lying to get them to
have unprotected sex has been jailed for eight years.
Asylum seeker, Mohammed Dica, aged 38, left one woman pregnant,
after telling her he had had a vasectomy and promised the other
woman a relationship that would last a lifetime.
Both women now face death within a decade despite taking drugs to
prevent the disease turning into Aids.
Source:- Financial Times Tuesday 4 November page 3
Race to save new victims of child porn
Police fear that children are being abused on a daily basis to meet
the demand of paedophiles swapping hardcore images of child sex
abuse through file sharing technology.
The sharing of files, normally involving the swapping of music and
films, between paedophiles has increased rapidly and police state
that it is now larger than almost any other paedophile network they
have dealt with.
Source:-  The Guardian Tuesday 4 November page 1
Judge’s warning as Soham trial starts
The process of picking a jury for the trial of Ian Huntley, who is
accused of murdering Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica
Chapman,  began at the Old Bailey yesterday.
Huntley and Maxine Carr, who is charged with conspiring to pervert
the course of justice, were in the dock as a group of 100 jurors
was reduced to 25. From this the actual 12 will be selected and
sworn in today.
The judge told potential jurors that they had to disregard anything
they had read about the pair, and make their decisions based solely
on the evidence presented to them.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday November 4 page 5
Quite a panto over Snow White and the seven asylum
seekers

A decision to ban a Devon village pantomime entitled Snow White and
the Seven Asylum Seekers unless its title is changed has split
residents.
The community of Merton near Okehampton has been divided by the ban
and the play’s author Bob Harrod has pulled out criticising
political correctness.
The Village Hall’s Management Committee, the play was due to be
shown in the hall, contacted the Commission for Racial Equality,
the Devon and Exeter Racial Equality Council, and the Community
Council for Devon after becoming concerned about the play.
They subsequently asked Harrod to change the play’s title without
having seen the script.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 4 November page 7
My illness could help others, says Bruno
Frank Bruno said that he hoped his recent manic depression would
help to reduce the prejudice attached to mental health problems in
a television interview last night.
Speaking to Trevor McDonald, the former heavyweight champion said:
“One in four families go through this so it would be nice to make
it so people don’t condemn them and run them down and disown them
because of prejudice.”
Bruno was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in September, and
spent three weeks in hospital. He was diagnosed as having manic
depression with a compulsive disorder.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 4 November page 11
Judges ‘saving asylum seekers from starvation’
Youth sentencing ‘a lottery’

Young offenders in one part of England and Wales are 28 times more
likely to be sent to jail than in another part, according to new
figures from the Youth Justice Board.
The figures show the sentencing lottery faced by young offenders
throughout the country.
The Youth Justice Board said that although there was some
improvement in the level of consistency there was still
“significant variations” in the use of custody for those aged under
17.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 4 November page 4
Internet sex groomers face 10-year sentence
The Home Office has announced that paedophiles who groom children
in internet chatrooms could be sentenced to up to 10 years.
The maximum sentence, for a new offence of sexual grooming included
in the Sexual Offences Bill currently before parliament, was
previously proposed to be seven years.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph November 4 page 9
Figures ‘shatter the myth of easy adoption’
One in five children in Britain waiting to be adopted does
not have any inquiries from families wanting to adopt them,
according to a new report from the British Association for Adoption
and Fostering.
The charity looked at the levels of inquiries for 347 children who
were recently in its monthly newspaper ‘Be My Parent’.
It said the findings ended the myth that it’s easy to find adopters
for children in Britain.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 4 November page 9
Hidden homeless at 400,000, says first
survey

Around 400,000 people in Britain are living on friend’s floors, in
hostels, squats or bed and breakfast accommodation  because of
delays in helping them to find permanent accommodation, according
to a new report.
The survey, by homeless charity Crisis, also found that
one-in-three of this group have mental health problems and one in
four had a drug addiction.
Source:- The Independent Tuesday 4 November page 10
Judges ‘saving asylum seekers from
starvation’

Destitute asylum seekers are being saved from “starving in the
streets” by judges and the Human Rights Act, a senior appeal court
judge said yesterday.
The Asylum Act, under which asylum seekers have to claim asylum as
soon as “reasonably practicable” or be denied basic accommodation
and support, includes a provision that this denial must not breach
the asylum seeker’s human rights.
He explained that this enabled the high court to grant support to
such asylum seekers under the Human Rights Act.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 4 November page 11
Scottish newspapers
Kirk offers redundant churches to house refugees

Empty churches could be converted to provide refuges for the
children of asylum seekers, a church spokesperson claimed
yesterday.
The Church of Scotland has entered into talks with voluntary
organisations, charities and religious groups in a bid to get the
scheme off the ground.
Under the proposals, empty church buildings would be converted into
refuges similar to those that house victims of domestic violence,
and they would house the children of asylum seekers and their
families.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 4 November page 3
Charity says abused boys reluctant to seek
help

The charity Childline claimed yesterday that boys often have to
reach ‘breaking point’ before they seek help with
issues troubling them.
Many boys who contact the helpline feel that admitting they have a
problem makes them a failure and feel weak unlike “real
men”.
The charity has launched a six-month scheme to challenge
stereotypes which prevent boys and young men from seeking help when
they need it.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 4 November page 8
Girl death inquiry
Inquiries into the death of schoolgirl Marianne Shanks have been
completed by the police.
The 15-year-old, who was a pupil at Dundee High School, was found
hanged at her home near Perth in September.
Investigating officers said there were no apparent links to any
form of bullying in the tragic case.
Source:- The Daily Record Tuesday 4 November page 10
Babysitter’s sex attack on girl, 8
A teenage babysitter climbed into an eight-year-old girl’s
bed intending to rape her, the high court in Inverness heard.
David Norris molested the youngster and made her perform a sex act
on him in May last year. He was disturbed by another child who told
the girl’s mother the next day what had happened.
Norris was placed on the sex offenders register. He will be
sentenced later.
Source:- The Daily Record Tuesday 4 November page 14
Welsh newspapers
My Girl Slipped Into Drugs Hell

A south Wales mother whose daughter’s life has been blighted
by drug addiction, pleads with others not to follow in her
footsteps.
Carol Pringle says that her daughter Sarah Williams, who is now
serving a prison sentence for four years for armed robbery, is
finally beginning to turn her life around and has received training
as a drugs counsellor.
But she says that her daughter almost lost her life because of her
addiction to crack cocaine and heroin.
Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 3 November pages 1, 4 and 5
Still fostering at the age of 71
As part of National Adoption Week the newspaper reports on two
women who have cared for children by adopting or fostering
them.
At 71, Vi Gregory from Newport shows that there is no age limit to
giving children love and care. She began fostering in her sixties
after being assessed by social services, and says that she wants to
continue for as long as possible.
Denise Edmunds is also a foster carer and has adopted five children
through Caerphilly social services department. She is currently
about to adopt a sixth child.
Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 3 November page 13
Judge jails paedophile and puts life-ban on child
contact

A paedophile who was once in a charge of a children’s home
was yesterday jailed for six years by a court in Caernarfon.
The court was told that John Barnett had groomed an eight-year-old
boy and Judge Huw Daniel said that he was pleased that Parliament
had now made this a specific offence.
Barnett was given the six-year jail sentence for indecently
assaulting the boy and was banned from having any contact with
children for the rest of his life.
He had been put on probation for three years in 1971 for an
indecent assault on a boy, and gross indecency when he was acting
superintendent of a children’s home in Hackney.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 4 November page 3
Hospital consultant downloaded porn through pressure of
work

A West Wales hospital consultant who was arrested as part of
Operation Ore after downloading pornographic images of children
from the internet, had been pushed to the limit by pressures of
work, a court was told..
Radiographer Charles Bartlett escaped a prison sentence after
admitting 17 charges of making and possessing indecent images of
children. He was given a three-year community rehabilitation order
that includes attending a community sex offender’s treatment
programme. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for
five years.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 4 November page 5

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