Thursday 2 September 2004

By Shirley Kumar, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson

British Council sacks Muslim row officer

The British Council has dismissed its press officer Harry Cummins
for writing a series of articles for the Sunday Telegraph that were
deemed offensive to Islam.

Cummins wrote the articles in July under the pseudonym Will Cummins
criticising politicians and church leader’s the dialogue with
the Muslim faith.

Source:- The Financial Times Thursday 2 September 2004
page 4

Police hold ‘child abuse’ Briton

A former Royal Navy reservist is wanted for trial in India over
allegations of child abuse against young boys he housed in shelters
for the homeless.

Duncan Grant raised money for his Anchorage shelters through talks
at British schools and churches. He denies the allegations.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday 2 September 2004
page 4

NSPCC ‘still waiting’ for Climbié
reforms

Procedures in NHS hospitals for assessing whether children
have died as a result of child abuse by their parents or carers is
still chaotic, warned the NSPCC.

The charity said reforms promised following the death of Victoria
Climbié more than four years ago had still not
materialised.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 2 September 2004 page
6

Teenage gang members jailed for violence ‘beyond
belief’

Five members of a gang calling themselves the Stratford Crew were
jailed for five years by Middlesex crown court.

The group, including four juveniles, were part of the 50-strong
gang. They attacked travellers on London’s underground trains
and buses. The judge chose to name the juveniles aged 16 and 17
years, including youth cricket team captain Dennis Barrette of
Ilford.

Source:- The Times Thursday 2 September 2004 page 5

Eye in the sky tracks child sex offenders

Home secretary David Blunkett is set to announce new satellite
pilot schemes that will track paedophiles and domestic violence
perpetrators today.

Trials will involve 120 sex offenders, wife beaters, and prolific
juvenile and adult offenders in the pilot schemes due to take place
in Manchester, West Midlands and Hampshire.

Source:- The Times Thursday 2 September 2004 page 9

Breakthrough in battle to beat cot deaths as scientists
find link to problems in womb

Scientists have found a link between babies which have had problems
in the womb and cot death.

The study of birth records in Scotland shows mothers who had a
placenta defect were up to three times more likely to have a baby
that later suffered cot death.

Source:- The Independent Thursday 2 September 2004 page
18

GP clinic for asylum seekers is scrapped

A family clinic has been closed because not enough
immigrants signed up to attend.

The surgery in Derby became a practice dedicated solely to asylum
seekers two years ago.

Source:- The Daily Mail Thursday 2 September 2004 page
23

Travellers trash their own £500,000 campsite

A gypsy camp in Tintinhull, near Yeovil, Somerset, transformed by a
£500,000 government grant, has been destroyed by 100 Irish
travellers who went on a spree of vandalism and theft.

Source:- The Daily Mail Thursday 2 September 2004 page
26

Scottish newspapers

Stepfather killed baby ‘in moment of madness’

A man was yesterday convicted of murdering his baby stepson in a
“moment of madness” at the High Court in Forfar.

Mohammad Ullah was found guilty of the murder of eight-month-old
Kyle Mutch in January this year.

A senior pathologist had told the court that the massive internal
injuries sustained by the child were the worst he had seen in 25
years of practice.

Ullah had blamed the child’s grandmother, Marlane Low, for
killing Kyle. Karen Mutch, the child’s mother, said she was
certain the wrong person had been convicted.

Low had denied that she had anything to do with her
grandson’s death.
Ullah faces life imprisonment and will be sentenced at the High
Court in Glasgow later this month.

Source:- The Scotsman  Thursday 2 September

Benefit team warns of claims challenge

Welfare benefits officers in the Borders have warned that revised
claims processes are threatening to hamper the region’s
anti-poverty strategy.

It has been estimated that at least £15 million a year in
benefits is not reaching the Borders households entitled to income
support, tax credit and other payments. Almost 2,000 workers may
not be claiming family tax credits worth more than £8
million.

Source:- The Scotsman  Thursday 22 September

£500 fine for the owner of capital’s first
cannabis café

The owner of Scotland’s first cannabis café has been
fined £500 after admitting allowing the drug to be smoked on
the premises.

Paul Stewart yesterday admitted permitting cannabis to be smoked in
the Purple Haze Café in Edinburgh earlier this year on the day
cannabis was reclassified from a Class B to a Class C drug.

Source:- The Scotsman  Thursday 2 September

City prison’s back to work project hailed by
Jamieson

Justice minister Cathy Jamieson praised a pioneering project which
aims to cut re-offending by helping former prisoners into jobs as a
“win-win” scheme.

The Employability service at Saughton prison in Edinburgh, which
was launched in December, has helped more than 40 prisoners move
towards employment, work placements or further education.

Source:- Evening News  Wednesday 1 September

Child abuse teenager is spared jail

A teenage boy who molested little girls and took indecent pictures
of them has been spared jail.

Scott Kelly molested two sisters aged four and five and
photographed them in various states of undress.

Kelly admitted two indecency offences and making indecent photos of
children and a judge at the High Court in Edinburgh ordered the
18-year-old be placed on probation for three years.

Source:- Evening News  Wednesday 1 September

Inmates at open prison bullied into buying drugs, study
claims

Drug dealers bullied inmates at an open prison into buying drugs
they did not want, according to a prison visiting committee
yesterday.

The report from the Noranside prison visiting committee describes a
culture of bullying, high-level drug debt and absconding among
inmates.

Source:- The Herald  Thursday 2 September

Welsh newspapers

My family has hope at last

In a two-page feature, a mother tells how her son who suffered with
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder almost drove her to the
brink of suicide.

Michelle Gingell said she struggled to cope with her son’s
behavioural problems for the first 10 years of his life until he
was prescribed the controversial drug, Ritalin.

She describes how the drug has changed both her and her son
Ryan’s lives for the better.

Source:- South Wales Argus Wednesday 1 September pages
20-21

OAPs’ cybercafe takes the worldwide (digestive)
biscuit

A small room in a west Wales residential home for older people has
been voted one of the world’s top 10 internet cafes.

JJ’s internet café at the Ty Waunarlwydd home near
Swansea made the top 10 in a worldwide poll by leading internet
service provider Yahoo.

Source:- Western Mail Thursday 2 September page 8