Friday 2 July 2004

By Amy Taylor, Sally Gillen and Alex
Dobson

Sex abuse response criticised

The first major inquiry by the children’s commissioner for
Wales has heavily criticised two directors of education for their
response to reports of a drama teacher sexually abusing
pupils.

The allegations are against John Owen, a teacher at Rhydfelen
school in Pontypridd, south Wales, between 1975 and 1991. He killed
himself in 2001 aged 47 shortly before his trial for five charges
of sexual abuse of boys was to start.

The boys made the allegations in 1990.

Peter Clarke’s report says that David Matthews, who was then
an area director of education at Mid Glamorgan county council and
is now director of education at Bridgend council, may have
committed a criminal offence due to failing in his duty of care
towards the boys.

Matthews says the report is full of inconsistencies.

Edwin Roberts, education director at Mid Glamorgan at the time, is
also criticised in the report.

Source:- The Guardian, Friday, July 2, page 10

Pioneering drug project accused of failing clients

A pioneering project helping women involved in prostitution and
drugs has a back catalogue of complaints from clients, doctors and
referral agencies about the way it was run, it has been
revealed.

The claims allege that clients at the Working Women’s Crack
Project who had never previously been sex workers became involved
in prostitution and that some women had upped their drug
intake.

The project is based in Lambeth, a South London borough, and is a
multi-agency initiative led by the charity St Mungo’s.

Source:- The Guardian, Friday, July 2, page 11

Scottish newspapers

£50k clean sweep

A disabled mum whose bosses offered her a job lifting goalposts
yesterday won her job fight at the House of Lords. Susan Archibald,
38, is now in line for about £50,000 compensation after the
lords ruled Fife council discriminated against her.

An operation damaged Archibald’s knee leaving her unable to
continue her work as a streetsweeper. She asked for a desk job but
was sent to various departments to apply for manual jobs.

Source: Daily Record, page nine, Friday 2 July
2004

Huge rise for single parents

The number of Scottish children being raised by one parent has
more than doubled in 20 years, a report has revealed.

This means Scotland now has the highest percentage of single parent
families in the UK. The report by NCH Scotland revealed that 40 per
cent of children in Glasgow are raised by a lone parent.

Source: Daily Record, page 21, Friday 2 July 2004

Child pornography cop goes free

A policeman yesterday escaped jail for downloading child
pornography on his home computer.

Experts found 374 sexually explicit images of children were viewed
on the machine belonging to Tayside police seargeant Hamish Tocher,
46.

Tocher was fined £500 and put on the sex offenders register
for five years.

Source: Daily Record, page 32, Friday 2 July 2004

Asylum seeker ‘chained to bed before
operation’

An asylum seeker held at Dungavel was allegedly shackled
to a bed while waiting for an operation.

The woman, who is in her 20s and from Cameroon, was transported
from the Lanarkshire centre on Tuesday morning wearing handcuffs.
Linda Fabiani, the SNP MSP for Scotland Central, is now calling for
an inquiry, over what she describes as human rights abuses
“on par” with those at Guantanamo Bay.

Source: Herald Friday 2 July 2004

Welsh Newspapers

‘The Waiting Is Over’

Welsh assembly health minister, Jane Hutt has pledged that
patients will not have to wait longer than 12 months for
treatment.
Her promise comes in the wake of the revelation that hospital
waiting lists in Wales have made little or no improvement in recent
months.

Source South Wales Echo Thursday 1 July page 5

How our children were abused by this paedophile teacher
and shamefully betrayed by a ‘cover-up’

A cover-up by senior Welsh education officials allowed a
paedophile teacher to abuse his pupils and go unpunished for more
than a decade.

A report from the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, the
Clywch inquiry, found that drama teacher, John Owen abused children
in his care at a south Wales school but that failings by a local
education authority meant that children were not given the
protection they were entitled to.

Source Western Mail Friday 2 July page 1

Dead girl let down by social services

A teenage girl who disappeared from local authority care more
than four years ago was let down by social services who labelled
her a troubled adolescent, according to an independent
inquiry.

Fourteen-year-old, Sarah Benford disappeared in suspicious
circumstances from a children’s home in Northampton in April
2000 and detectives later launched a search for her body both in
south Wales and Northamptonshire.

Source: Western Mail Friday 2 July page 9

‘The Waiting Is Over’

Welsh assembly health minister, Jane Hutt has pledged that
patients will not have to wait longer than 12 months for
treatment.
Her promise comes in the wake of the revelation that hospital
waiting lists in Wales have made little or no improvement in recent
months.

Source: South Wales Echo Thursday 1 July page 5

How our children were abused by this paedophile teacher
and shamefully betrayed by a ‘cover-up’

A cover-up by senior Welsh education officials allowed a
paedophile teacher to abuse his pupils and go unpunished for more
than a decade.

A report from the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, the
Clywch inquiry, found that drama teacher, John Owen abused children
in his care at a south Wales school but that failings by a local
education authority meant that children were not given the
protection they were entitled to.

Source: Western Mail Friday 2 July page 1

Dead girl let down by social services

A teenage girl who disappeared from local authority care more
than four years ago was let down by social services who labelled
her a troubled adolescent, according to an independent
inquiry.

Fourteen-year-old, Sarah Benford disappeared in suspicious
circumstances from a children’s home in Northampton in April
2000 and detectives later launched a search for her body both in
south Wales and Northamptonshire.

Source: Western Mail Friday 2 July page 9