Monday 12 January 2004

By Natasha Salari, Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

Boy arrested in school after girl, 14, is stabbed
A 15-year-old boy was arrested in school after a girl was
stabbed in an argument.
The argument was between three people and took place at Sir William
Ramsey Secondary School in Hazelmere, near High Wycombe,
Buckinghamshire.
The stabbed girl was taken to hospital while the other girl was
sent home shaken and bruised.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 10 January page 2
Refugee infected woman with HIV
A South African asylum seeker pleaded guilty to giving a woman HIV
during their year-long relationship.
Liverpool crown court heard Kouassi Adaye, aged 40, pleaded guilty
to inflicting unlawful and malicious bodily harm on the 48-year-old
woman who cannot be named.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 10 January page 8
New community care body created
In a move designed to create a more representative trade body for
private nursing and residential homes and care providers the core
part of the Independent Healthcare Association has merged with a
new long-term care organisation.
The merger with English Care will create a new body entitled the
English Community Care Association.
Source:- The Financial Times Saturday 10 January page 8
Foreigners who fleece the NHS will be barred from
Britain
Overseas visitors who leave the country without paying hospital
bills could be barred from re-entering in a renewed crackdown on
‘health tourism’.
British embassies across the world are to be given a
‘blacklist’ of people from abroad who have outstanding
NHS bills. If they apply for a visa to re-enter Britain they will
be reminded of the money that they owe, and this will count against
their application being renewed.
Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 10 January page 37
Nuisance law for private landlords
A new crackdown on antisocial behaviour will see nuisance
neighbours in privately-rented homes facing eviction.
Councils will be able to introduce the compulsory licensing of
landlords in designated neighbourhoods, to target landlords who
fail to vet tenants properly or curb the behaviour of those who
intimidate neighbours.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 11 January page 5
Anger over children locked alone in jail
cells
Disruptive children in young offenders’ institutions are
being stripped naked and kept in solitary confinement.
Over the past year more than 100 children were sent to punishment
cells which have no light, ventilation, furniture or sanitation. A
parliamentary answer to Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson
Mark Oaten, reveals that the cells have been used 153 times at
youth prisons across the country.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 11 January page 7
Conmen fleece trusting old folk of £100 million a year…
by abusing the system meant to protect them
Thousands of older people are being robbed of their life savings by
conmen exploiting the system intended to help older people
safeguard their finances.
Up to £100 million a year is thought to have been stolen from
older people who have been duped into signing away power of
attorney.
The government encourages older people to sign an Enduring Power of
Attorney (EPA) form, which hands over control of their financial
affairs to a carer, but fraudsters have found ways to abuse the
system.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday 11 January page 42
Where it pays to be gay if you want to adopt a
child
There has been an explosion in gay adoption since it first became
legal a year ago.
In some parts of London, rates have reached one in six of all
adoptions. But in Brighton, 50 per cent of couples being approved
for adoption are gay, according to the Local Government
Association.
Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 12 January page 8
Children to be shielded from abuse via mobiles
Children using new mobile phones will be blocked from
accessing pornography, gambling and chatrooms, in order to protect
them from paedophiles, under new regulations.
The six largest mobile phone operators have agreed to the new
measures. They place a duty on the companies to make sure a
customer is over 18 before allowing them to buy a phone with
unlimited access to such services.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 12 January page 3
Cut-price drugs hit the streets
Street prices of drugs have been slashed since 1997
suggesting that supply is increasing despite record seizures by
customs and police.
Cocaine is now 29 per cent cheaper than in 1997, a gram of heroin
is 18 per cent lower and ecstasy tablets are half price.
The National Criminal Intelligence figures also show that the price
of cannabis has fallen by 20 per cent in one year.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 12 January page 1
Internet is blamed for increase in child
porn
The growth of the internet has created a 1,500 per cent rise in
child pornography offences, according to a new study of the link
between computers and paedophile crime.
Between 1998 and 2001 the number of people prosecuted or cautioned
in England and Wales for making or possessing indecent images of
children has risen from 35 to 549.
The figures do not include the results of Operation Ore, a
nationwide investigation launched in 2002 into 6,500 British
subscribers to an American network of pornography websites.
John Carr, an internet consultant for the charity NCH, believes
that everyone in possession of child abuse images should be
investigated to see if they have abused children in the past, and
assessed to determine if they pose a future risk
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 12 January page 6
Scottish newspapers
Family of convicted paedophile claim victims lied to get
money
The family of a convicted sex offender face being sued for
defamation by one of the paedophile’s victims after calling
him a liar, claiming he made up allegations to get money from
compensation.
John Porteous was jailed in November 2002 for sexually abusing two
boys more than 30 years ago when he was the boys’ “
house father” when they were put into his care at Quarriers
“children’s village” for disadvantaged youngsters
in Renfrewshire. One of the boys David Whelan, waived his right to
anonymity.
Porteous’ wife Helen said Whelan had been motivated by money
and even suggested he could be suffering from false memory
syndrome. She now faces being taken to court by Whelan following
her defence of Porteous.
Source:- Sunday Herald 11 January
Fear that crime cash seizure unit is failing to net big
fish
Suspected drug barons risk being let off the hook because the body
set up to seize the assets of suspected drug dealers is being asked
to investigate a wide range of lesser offences.
Politicians in Scotland and the Irish Republic made the warning
following the first prosecution under Scotland’s Proceeds of
Crime Act 2002 where a man from Aberdeen was forced to surrender a
bank account with £24,000 in it.
The legislation was pioneered in the Irish Republic, and seven
years after the Criminal Assets Bureau was set up, it has come
under fire for pursuing lesser offenders rather than drug gang
bosses.
Source:- Sunday Herald 11 January
Fast–track panels ‘biased’ against
children in care
Almost a third of persistent young offenders targeted under the
Scottish executive’s fast track children’s hearing
pilots are in local authority residential care, research has
revealed.
Many did not have a record of offending before coming into care and
appear to be in trouble with authorities for relatively minor
offences, which take place in residential homes rather than the
community.
The report into the fast track experiment by researchers from
Glasgow, Stirling and Strathclyde Universities has called into
question whether the strategy is persecuting the “usual
suspects” and failing to deal with the most serious
offenders.
Source:- Sunday Herald 11 January
Private eating disorders hospital is seen as obstacle to
NHS provision
Doctors are hoping a new private hospital set up to treat
Scottish children with life threatening anorexia will close so they
can open a rival National Health Service unit.
For more than five years Scottish psychiatrists have campaigned for
NHS beds to treat anorexics. Plans for a national in-patient unit
at the Royal Edinburgh psychiatric hospital were derailed in
September when the private Huntercombe Edinburgh Hospital opened in
West Lothian.
However, in the four-and-a-half months since it opened, the private
hospital has received just one referral and believes there has been
a national campaign by the NHS to boycott the new unit.
This weekend, a doctor who refused to be named, suggested the NHS
could take over Huntercombe “if it were to
close”.
Source:- Sunday Herald 12 January 2004
Campaign to help child brain injury comes
north
The Child Brain Injury Trust is setting up north of the border in a
bid to raise awareness of the issues surrounding acquired brain
injury there.
Jenny Hill, a development officer for Scotland, is to interview
families to provide a needs assessment to the Scottish
executive.
It is estimated that 2,200 Scottish children suffer ABI, yet the
CBIT believes there is a dearth of neuro-psychologists in Scotland
able to diagnose and work with affected children.
Source:-Scotland on Sunday 11 January
Children’s groups warned of prison for not vetting
workers
Leaders of organisations running events for children have been
warned that they will face fines of £5,000 or imprisonment if
they allow people who have not been vetted to work with children to
be alone with minors.
Local authorities have sent the warning letters to organisers of
Scout and Guide groups, Sunday schools and other bodies that run
events for children.
The move could affect more than 40,000 people and organisers have
warned the amount of paper work and time involved will lead to many
activities being cancelled.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 11 January
Reforms ‘could free dangerous
prisoners’
Key proposals in the Scottish executive’s flagship bill to
reform the high court system has been criticised by
Scotland’s senior police officers who claim it could lead to
wrongful arrests and dangerous prisoners being released into the
community.
In written submissions to the Scottish Parliament’s justice 1
committee, which is scrutinising the Criminal Procedure (Amendment)
(Scotland) Bill, sheriffs warn they may be unable to cope with the
anticipated extra workload.
The bill includes proposals to extends sheriffs’ sentencing
powers, tag reluctant witnesses, hear cases in the absence of the
accused and extend the 110-day rule, legislation limiting the
amount of time people can be held on remand before being brought to
trial.
Sir Roy Cameron, chief inspector of Her Majesty’s
Inspectorate of Constabulary, warned against automatically
releasing people on bail if the new time limits in custody are
breached by the crown. He also warned that the provision to tag
people could lead to wrongful arrests.
Source:- The Herald Monday 12 January
Welsh newspapers
Vandal attack leaves charity in financial crisis
A vandal attack by a 10-year-old boy has left a Cardiff charity in
financial crisis.
The attack caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to buses used
by the charity, Voluntary Emergency Service Transport (Vest), which
provides transport for people with mobility problems.
As well as the cost of repairs to the vehicles, Vest also has to
find an additional £8,200 in extra insurance premiums, and
officials at the charity describe their plight as desperate.
The boy has been given a 12-month supervision order.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 12 January page 5