Thursday 4 December 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

Men seen running from paedophile killing
Police are trying to trace two white men who were seen running from
the home of a convicted paedophile who was found battered to death
on Saturday.
Officers investigating the murder of 73-year-old Arnold Hartley in
Redcar, Cleveland, said that information had started to “trickle
in”.
Source:- The Independent Thursday 4 December page 9
HIV sufferers to be classed as disabled
People with cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis will be classed as
disabled under a disability bill published by the government
yesterday.
The new legislation will also increase protection from
discrimination for disabled people at work and place a duty on 
public employers to promote their interests at work.
Source:- The Independent Thursday 4 December page 10
Prisoners called me Myra Hindley Mk2, says Carr
Maxine Carr told the Old Bailey that fellow prisoners had
branded her “Myra Hindley mark two” yesterday.
Carr, aged 26, denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice
and two counts of assisting an offender.
She rejected allegations that she gave her former fiance Ian
Huntley an alibi knowing that he had murdered Soham schoolgirls
Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. She said that if she had thought
he was responsible for their disappearance she would have gone
straight to the police or “the nearest person” she “could talk to,
to tell them”.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 4 December page 1
Teenager guilty in torture case
A 19-year-old gang leader was found guilty of murdering and
torturing a 14-year-old  boy whose body was found
dismembered.
Matthew Welsh was the ringleader of a gang of three who tortured
and beat Adam Morrell at a house in Loughborough.
Another gang member, Nathan Barnett, pleaded guilty at Nottingham
crown court yesterday to Morrell’s manslaughter on the grounds of
diminished responsibility after admitting strangling him to death
and dismembering his body.
Welsh’s girlfriend, Sarah Morris, aged 17, was found guilty of
seriously assaulting Morrell, but was cleared of his murder.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 4 December page 7
Trials to prepare for compulsory ID cards
A six-month trial of new hi-tech passports will “lay the
foundations for a compulsory identity card scheme”, the Home Office
admitted yesterday.
The trial, which will be launched next month in the first of four
areas, features 10,000 volunteers being issued with personalised
smartcards containing a digital image of their faces based on a
passport photograph.
The immigration minister Beverly Hughes admitted that people’s
reaction to the use of such biometric information and its cost are
being assessed in preparation for compulsory identity cards, even
though the legislation has been delayed for a year.
The government hopes that the linking of  biometric data to a
national database will help to tackle identity fraud, immigration
abuse and illegal working.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 4 December page 9
Scottish newspapers
Grandparents to win rights over children
The legal rights of grandparents in families troubled by social
problems such as drugs could be strengthened under plans being
considered by ministers.
Cathy Jamieson, justice minister, is to send proposals for changes
to family law out to consultation over the winter and she has made
it clear that she wants the role of grandparents re-examined,
possibly to allow them to care for their grandchildren where
parents are incapable.
Legal experts immediately denounced the move as unnecessary, as
Scots law already allows for parental rights to be transferred to
grandparents.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 4 December
Welsh newspapers
Pimp put child in hell
A Newport man, who forced a child to work as a prostitute,
injected her with heroin and abducted and raped her, has received
two life sentences.
Newport crown court was told that Benjamin Johnson introduced the
girl to heroin when she was only 13, so that he could persuade her
into prostitution.
Giving sentence in the case, Judge Philip Richards said that
Johnson was extremely dangerous to young women and had acted
appallingly towards the girl.
Source:- South Wales Argus Wednesday 3 December page 1
Labour accused of U-turn on home care
The Labour-led Welsh assembly has allowed another of its flagship
commitments to slip from view, it has been claimed.
A pledge to scrap home care charges for disabled people was one of
Labour’s top 10 promises in the assembly election earlier
this year, but Kirsty Williams, Welsh Liberal Democrat health
spokesperson, has accused health minister, Jane Hutt of back
tracking on the promise. Williams said there was no provision in
this year’s budget plans for scrapping home care charges for
disabled people.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 4 December page 5