Monday 23 August 2004

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom, Shirley Kumar and Alex
Dobson

The saviour of street children wanted on sex abuse
charges

A charity that helps street children in Tanzania is being run by a
Briton who is wanted on charges of sexual abuse against boys in
India, it has been revealed.

The Indian authorities took out an international arrest warrant on
Duncan Grant, 61, two years ago.

It is alleged that he beat and sexually abused street children in
Bombay. Grant was traced to Tanzania this week.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Saturday, 21 August, page 1

Ministers target migration critic

Home Office ministers told civil servants to carry out a propaganda
campaign against the founder and chairman of the thinktank
MigrationWatch UK, it has been revealed.

Sir Andrew Green, a former British ambassador in Saudi Arabia and
Syria, used the government’s access to information code to
obtain Home Office files on himself and on MigrationWatch UK.

The documents also reveal how the Home Office successfully made a
deal with the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS) to
delay publication of migration figures for political gain.

Source:- The Sunday Times, Sunday, 22 August, page 1

Fire victim dies

An 89-year-old woman died in a fire that destroyed the roof at the
St David’s Nursing home in Cleveland yesterday.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 22 August,  page
2

Police suspect mercy killing

Police investigating the death of a terminally ill 62-year-old
woman think she may have been involved in a mercy killing.

Three men, aged 67, 34 and 32 were arrested on August 14 in
connection with her death at Queen Alexandra Hospital in
Portsmouth.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 22 August, page
2

Inner city youngsters face trial by teens

The Department of Constitutional Affairs could introduce a radical
scheme where by children as young as 14 will train to serve as
judge and jury in trial of their peers.

A two-year pilot scheme based on the Red Hook Justice Centre in New
York will take place in Liverpool from next year.

Source:- The Observer, Sunday 22 August, page 2

Big fall in numbers seeking asylum

Asylum applications have fallen to roughly the same levels that
Tony Blair inherited in 1997, new statistics are expected to reveal
this week.

The figures, around 2,590, are expected to trigger a political row
on whether clampdowns on asylum have worked or whether people are
entering the country as illegal immigrants and working on the black
market.

Source:- The Observer, Sunday 22 August, page 7
 

Divorce ‘causes exam stress’

Pupils from broken homes endure more exam stress than pupils from
stable two parent families.

Poor performance in boys and low number of working class students
at university could be addressed by tackling the rise in divorce
rates.

Source:- The Mail on Sunday, Sunday 22 August, page
11

Build camps to defuse asylum ‘time bomb’
says EU chief

Former Italian minister Rocco Buttiglione is calling for asylum
camps to be set-up in North Africa to tackle a time bomb of
European immigration.

Buttiglione, the EU’s justice and security commissioner said
there should be camps in Libya or Tunisia trying to enter the EU
from sub-Saharan Africa.

Source: The Daily Mail, Sunday 22 August, page 8

‘Cool’ drug charade

Research by the Home Office drug helpline, Frank, shows one-fifth
of teenagers say their friends pretend to take drugs to look
cool.

Source:- The Guardian, Monday 23 August, page 6

Brown accused of ‘baby bonds
bribe’

Government plans to give out baby bond vouchers shortly before the
likely date of the next election was labelled a “cynical
bribe” by the Tories yesterday.

Vouchers worth either £250 or £500 will be sent out to
more than a million parents of children born since September 2002
shortly before the scheme officially starts in April.

Many MPs think Tony Blair will call an election in late spring or
early summer next year even though he does not have to call one
until summer 2006.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Monday, 23 August, page
1

Scottish newspapers

Dead baby’s mother tells of violent upbringing

The mother of a baby who was allegedly murdered by his
step-father yesterday admitted that her mother, who has also been
implicated in the child’s death, was violent towards her when
she was young.

Karen Mutch told the High Court in Forfar that her mother Marlane
Low may have been responsible for the speech impediment that she
suffers. She also admitted that at the time Kyle Mutch died, she
was keen to find someone to replace her mother as the eight month
old’s childminder.

Mohammad Ullah is charged with the baby’s murder and
attempting to pervert the course of justice by offering his wife an
inducement of £5,000 to falsely testify that she had witnessed
her mother assault the baby.
Ullah denies murdering the child.

Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 21 August

Children as young as five suffering racist
attacks

Five-year-old children are being subjected to racist attacks in
Scottish schools, it has emerged.

The number of racist incidents among pupils in east Dunbartonshire
has more than doubled in the past two years to 96 in the school
year just ended, according to local authority figures.

Racial equality campaigners claim the problem is not confined to
one authority and are calling on the Scottish executive to
introduce national guidelines for the recording of racist incidents
in schools to reveal the true extent of the problem.

Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 21 August

Pants protest against Scots prison

Solicitor Tony Kelly, who successfully challenged the Scottish
executive over slopping-out in prisons, is taking on ministers of
behalf of a remand prisoner who claims he has been issued with just
four clean pairs of pants in the past three months.

John Higgins, an inmate at Saughton prison in Edinburgh, claims the
situation is a breach of his human rights as it is as degrading as
slopping out.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday  Sunday 22 August

Suicidal refugee: Dungavel liars branded me violent to
get me thrown into prison

A 27-year-old refugee priest from Nigeria has claimed he was sent
to Greenock prison indefinitely because he became suicidal after
spending eight months at Dungavel detention centre.

Supporters of John Oguchuckwu claim he was moved to the prison as
Dungavel feared that another suicide among inmates would ruin its
already tarnished reputation.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 22 August

Reliance loses first prisoner to suicide

A prisoner guarded by troubled security firm Reliance has committed
suicide.

William Stewart died in hospital after he was found unconscious in
a holding cell at Glasgow Sheriff Court after trying to hang
himself.

The man had been remanded to custody and was about to be escorted
to Barlinnie prison when he was found by Reliance staff. Managers
of the escort firm have pledged to investigate the death in
addition to Strathclyde Police’s investigation.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 23 August

McConnell rebuffs free care doubter

A Labour minister who predicted free personal care north of the
border would have to be scrapped was rebuffed by Jack McConnell
yesterday.

The first minister said comments by health minister Stephen Ladyman
showed a lack of experience of how the policy was being implemented
in Scotland.

McConnell’s claims came after Ladyman said the policy of free
personal care was “not sustainable” in the long
term.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 23 August

Mental health patients at risk from new legal
rights

Fears that staff shortages and secure units will threaten legal
rights for mental health patients has been raised by one of
Scotland’s leading experts on the issue.

Solicitors have earned the Scottish executive could face
compensation claims is patients are denied rights they should
receive under the measures due to arrive in stages.

One potential problem is patients being held in the state hospital
at Carstairs even though doctors claim they are well enough for
lower security units. A shortage of psychiatrists has also been
highlighted as a possible problem.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 23 August

Huge rise in cocaine puts pressure on
clinics

Cocaine use in Glasgow has risen dramatically over the past year,
according to one of the city’s drugs clinics.

Drugs forums fear a new generation of users could end up addicted
to cocaine and stress opiate-based treatment services will be
unable to cope with the growing number of addicts.

The soaring number of cocaine users is revealed in the first report
by the joint addiction partnership.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 23 August

New support system needed for abused children, says
report

Victims of child sex abuse need a new support network because of
failings with the current system a Scottish-executive commissioned
report has found.

The social care and health systems had little overall strategy for
dealing with the care of survivors, the study found.

It also confirmed that the effects of sex abuse often included
self-harm, drug use, low self esteem with some going on to commit
suicide or replicating their abuse on future generations.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 23 August

Welsh newspapers

Sick list puts the Welsh last

Agreements authorised by the Welsh assembly mean that
patients from Wales who need surgery in hospitals across the border
have to wait nearly five times as long as they would in England.
One victim of the policy says that it is shocking that she has been
treated as a second-class citizen because of Welsh assembly health
funding policy.

Source Western Mail Monday 23August page 7

Junior doctors role for nurses

Nurses will take on extended roles in Welsh hospitals at
night as new working time restrictions are imposed on junior
doctors hours.
The move come as Welsh hospitals move toward implementing the
European Working Time Directive which will prevent doctors working
more than 48 hours a week by 2009.

Source Western Mail Monday 23August page 7