Monday 10 November 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

Soham girls probably suffocated, trial
told
Ian Huntley probably suffocated Soham schoolgirls Jessica Chapman
and Holly Wells before dumping their bodies in a ditch, the Old
Bailey heard yesterday.
Prosecutor Richard Latham QC went on to tell the court that sexual
assault on the girls by Huntley could not be ruled out.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 8 November page 1
Beggar faces jail if he breaks ban
A beggar was told he would go to jail if he broke an antisocial
behaviour order banning him from asking the public for money
anywhere in England and Wales.
Andrew Manion was given what is believed to be the most
wide-ranging ban against a beggar at Manchester magistrates court.
He had been arrested for begging more than 50 times
previously.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 8 November page 7
Hull council loses control to Prescott’s
department
The government directly intervened in the running of Hull Council
yesterday after a damming Audit Commission report.
The report found that barely any progress had been made since a
damming report the previous year found failings in financial
planning, decision making and housing policy.
The council, which is only the second ever to receive government
intervention, will now have to work with a government
representative and a support team to improve.
Source:- The Financial Times Saturday 8 November page 2
Writer Janet Cresswell released from Broadmoor after IoS
campaign
Janet Cresswell, the award winning playwright, has been released
from Broadmoor aged 72 after spending 25 years at the high security
hospital.
Cresswell has now been transferred to a medium-secure unit where
she has much greater freedom.
She was kept at Broodmoor for longer than was necessary due to a
shortage of beds in lower security institutions.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday 9 November page 1
Blunkett letter reveals cabinet split over Brown’s baby
bonds
Home secretary David Blunkett is concerned that Chancellor
Gordon Brown’s plans for every newborn child to be given a trust
fund containing a sum from the government, are open to fraud and
are not generous enough.
Blunkett, who made the comments in a letter to cabinet colleagues,
said he also had concerns about children of asylum seekers getting
the benefit.
Brown and his supporters forced Blunkett’s plans for ID cards to be
shelved last week.
Source:- The Sunday Times 9 November page 1
Child abuse shown live on internet
Children are being abused to order for paedophiles who watch the
abuse live on the internet.
The abusers make a deal with paedophiles who pay a fee to watch a
child being abused on a set day. The paedophiles are also
increasingly being allowed to direct the abuser into what abuse
takes place.
Police knew that real-time abuse was taking place on the net, but
this is the first time they have uncovered it being sold for cash –
with it previously being swapped for other material.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 9 November page 5
Child slave smugglers will face jail at last
People traffickers who bring children into Britain to work as
domestic servants will be sent to jail for 14 years under new
proposals that could become law by the end of the year.
Under current law a legal loophole allows those who smuggle
children for prostitution to be punishable by jail while there is
no punishment for those who use children for non-sexual work.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 9 November page 10
Mental health ‘losing out’ despite extra cash for
NHS
Mental health services are still not receiving a fair allocation of
NHS resources, despite ministers’ pledge to improve services,
according to a new report.
The research, carried out by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental
Health, found that local trusts are not receiving money promised by
the government to improve mental health services.
The mental health budget is only increasing by 1.6 per cent in real
terms, when pay and prices are taken into account, compared with a
5 per cent growth in the NHS budget.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 10 November page 14
Law closing in on silent parents
Laws governing cases in which it is difficult to prove which parent
has killed or injured their child, are to be tightened.
Under the proposals, juries will be allowed to make an inference if
parents refuse to give evidence in their defence in court when the
case depends on trying to work out which parent was behind the
crime.
Other planned changes mean that judges will also have to let such
cases run their full course rather than withdrawing them from the
jury after the close of the prosecution case, if they not been able
to prove who is responsible.
Source:- The Times Monday 10 November page 10
Scottish newspapers
Vice girls set for ban from red light zones
Persistent kerb crawlers and prostitutes could be banned from parts
of Edinburgh under new plans to tackle problems in the city’s
notorious red light district.
The vice girls and their customers will be given antisocial
behaviour orders for the first time under plans to tackle mounting
fears about problems in parts of Leith.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 8 November
BlindCraft workers vote to go on strike
Disabled workers at a council-run factory are set to take
industrial action in a bid to protect their jobs.
Staff at BlindCraft have agreed to stage a two-hour strike within
the next 10 days followed by a further half day stoppage a week
later.
The strike is to prove staff dissatisfaction with the running of
the plant, according to the National League of Blind and Disabled
union.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 8 November
Antisocial behaviour crackdown ‘will set the young
free’
Jack McConnell has claimed that controversial measures to tackle
antisocial behaviour are designed to set young people free.
The first minister defended new legislation, which includes
electronic tagging for under 16s, on the spot fines and parenting
orders.
He told the Scottish Youth and Student conference that it was not
only older people who were scared to walk the streets at night, and
too often young people were the victims of crime.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 8 November
Groups to get active on crime
Activities are to be organised for young people in Stockbridge by
local residents in a bid to tackle a wave of vandalism, crime and
assaults on older people.
The community council will work with community groups, such as
Whale Arts Agency, which encourages young people to get involved
with arts, to line up a series of events for youngsters in the
community.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 8 November
Abuse mum jailed
A mother who neglected two children in her care and allowed them to
be sexually abused, has been jailed for two years.
Helen Ford was given the maximum sentence allowed under legislation
at the time of the crimes, which were committed between 1964 and
1971. Currently she would have faced a 10-year jail term for the
offences which took place in Edinburgh.
Ford was convicted of wilfully assaulting, ill treating, neglecting
and exposing a girl, then aged between five and 12.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 8 November
McConnell to praise firms’ disabled
role
The first minister is set to attend an awards ceremony at the
Scottish Parliament next week for employers of disabled
people.
Jack McConnell will go on Tuesday to the Remploy Leading the Way
Awards, which are designed to recognise employers who demonstrate
best practice in the employment of people with disabilities.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 8 November
Rowling joins campaign to end inferior MS care in
Scotland
Harry Potter author JK Rowling will join 200 multiple sclerosis
sufferers later this month to ask ministers to guarantee Scottish
patients the same level of care as they would be entitled to in
England.
The Department of Health in England is set to publish guidelines
promising MS sufferers access to a specialist nurse at diagnosis,
an appointment with a neurologist a month after diagnosis to
discuss their condition, access to specialist rehabilitation
services and a follow up appointment with the neurologist.
Despite years of lobbying for a national standard of care for
sufferers, the MS Society Scotland said there has been no progress
in Scotland, and the new guidelines will only apply in England and
Wales.
Source:- Sunday Herald 9 November
Sex tsar to tackle grim Scots record
A ‘sex tsar’ is set to be appointed to tackle
the high rate of unwanted births and sexually transmitted diseases
among school children in Scotland.
An expert panel appointed by ministers to devise a national sexual
health strategy and curb unwanted pregnancies among young Scots is
expected to call for the move when it publishes its report this
week.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 9 November
Snub by GPs leaves child anorexia hospital
idle
A new private hospital set up to treat Scottish children with life
threatening anorexia is lying empty because health boards and
doctors have refused to use it.
Huntercombe Edinburgh Hospital in West Lothian has not had one
patient since it opened in September.
Professor Bryan Lask, the hospital’s medical adviser,
believes the snub is because of ideological opposition to the use
of private hospitals in Scotland. However, political dogma is
putting the lives of vulnerable young people at risk, he
believes.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 9 November
Schizophrenia sufferers at risk from poor
diet
Thousands of people with schizophrenia in Scotland are at a greater
risk of early death from cardiovascular disease and poor diet than
any other section of society, research has warned.
Poor diet is widely acknowledged as a problem in Scotland and a
huge effort has been mounted to change the way people eat and
cook.
However, more than 20,000 schizophrenia sufferers in Scotland have
been ignored and left languishing with one of the worst health
records in the world.
Source:- The Herald Monday 10 November
Welsh newspapers
Lottery fund’s £9m for life’s
inequalities
Thousands of people across Wales are to benefit from £9
million of lottery money to combat chronic ill health, including
cancer and heart disease.
A number of community based projects aimed at improving
people’s diets and encouraging more exercise will receive a
share of £8.7 million and new projects will be established to
promote healthy living.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 10 November page 5
Pupils need PE lessons ‘as much as English and
maths’
The Sports Council for Wales wants children to take more
exercise that will have long-term benefits for their overall health
and fitness.
According to health experts, children need to do an hour of
physical activity five times a week and they are calling on local
education authorities and the Welsh assembly to give PE as much
emphasis as maths and English within the curriculum.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 10 November page 5