Monday 6 June 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Mithran Samuel, Clare Jerrom, Derren
Hayes and Amy Taylor

Exorcist trio face jail for torturing ‘witch’, 8

Three people are facing long jail sentences after being convicted
of child cruelty yesterday.

Sita Kisanga, Sebastian Pinto and the child’s aunt who cannot
be named were found guilty of subjecting a child to 15 months of
beatings and starvation.

The eight-year-old is believed to be among hundreds of African
children in the UK subjected to abuse due to a belief in
witchcraft.

Source:- The Times  Saturday 4 June page 3

Girl aged 12 charged over Anthony attack

A 12-year-old girl was last night charged in connection with the
attack that left a five-year-old boy with serious neck
injuries.

The girl, who cannot be named, was charged with inflicting grievous
bodily harm on Anthony Hinchliffe and attempting to pervert the
course of justice.

She is due to appear at Dewsbury youth court on 10 June.

Source:- The Times  Saturday 4 June page 5

TV gardener has plan for ex-offenders nipped in bud

Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don had planned to take
offenders into hand and teach them about gardening as part of a
scheme to rehabilitate them.

However residents of Monkland near Leominster voted by 98 to 36 to
reject the project.

Source:- The Times  Saturday 4 June page 16

Pathologist in Sally Clark trial is found guilty of
misconduct

A Home Office pathologist who failed to disclose evidence which
could have helped to clear Sally Clark of the murder of her two
sons was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the
General Medical Council yesterday.

Alan Williams was accused of misconduct over tests on Christopher
Clark in 1996 and his eight week old brother Harry.

Source:- The Times  Saturday 4 June page 27

Cannabis may ease depression

Severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or bi-polar depression
could be eased with cannabis according to research by Newcastle
University.

Source:- Independent  Saturday 4 June page 16

Victims of the child traders

It’s the latest immigration scandal: thousands of young
children smuggled into Britain by ruthless gangs who use them to
milk the benefits system of billions.

Source:- Daily Mail  Saturday 4 June page 12 and 13

Are the middle class to blame for Yob Britain

Ashamed of the values that once made Britain such a civilised
nation, it’s the social cowardice of the middle classes
that’s to blame for many of our problems, says a provocative
new book.

Source:- Daily Mail  Saturday 4 June page 33

Prisoner found hanged

A remand prisoner at Gloucester prison was found hanged in his
cell. Leighton Davies faced charges of supplying class A
drugs.

Source:- The Guardian  Saturday 4 June page 7

Cannabis use rises tenfold among children

The number of schoolchildren using cannabis has increased more than
10 times since 1987, according to a study of 350,000 teenagers to
be published this week by the Schools Health Education Unit.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 5 June 2005 page 2
 
Pamela wins right to tell her story

The Sunday Times and Channel 4 have won a landmark legal case to
secure the right of a woman suffering from a rare personality
disorder to tell her own story.

St Helens Council, the local authority responsible for her care,
and the official solicitor, a government legal officer, sought a
High Court injunction preventing any details of the life of Pamela
Edwards, 32, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID)
formerly known as multiple personality disorder. They argued she
did not have the capacity to consent to publicity but Mr Justice
Munby endorsed Pamela’s right to freedom of expression last
week.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 5 June 2005 page 7

Living on just £3 a day: the UK’s hidden
underclass

A rundown building in east London is the last haven for thousands
slipping below the breadline. A report on the plight of our new
poor

Source:- The Observer Sunday 5 June 2005 page 8-9

Self-harm epidemic now starts at age eight

Children as young as eight are cutting and injuring themselves as
the rates of self-harm in Britain increase.

Experts leading a national inquiry into the problem have received
information from patients which suggests that some are very young
when they start deliberately harming themselves.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 5 June 2005 page 11

A story of witchcraft and the church raises spectre of
ritualistic child abuse

Horrific treatment of girl, aged 8, opens door on fundamentalist
sects and the world of the small-ad exorcists

Source:- The Observer Sunday 5 June 2005 page 15

Pupil barred from GSCE

A pupil was sent home before his first GCSE exam for wearing
trainers.

Adam Gevaux, 16. was barred after teachers at Temple School in Kent
spotted the “non-uniform” footwear he has worn to
school for the past two months.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 5 June 2005 page
2

Then and now: how a new diet changed this little
boy’s life

Schools are waking up to the link between processed food and
disruptive behaviour. Now ministers must catch up.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 5 June 2005 page
13

Row over jails plan

Ministers are considering plans for up to five new large jails to
tackle the soaring prison population in a £107 million
scheme.

Prison reform groups attacked the plans, saying more should be
spent on rehabilitation to stop criminals re-offending.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 5 June 2005 page
2

Teenage mothers are given make-overs to raise their
self-esteem

Teenage mothers are being given make-overs and portraits by
professional photographers in an effort to raise their self-esteem.
The project, funded through Sure Start Plus – a £3.4
million government initiative intended to give support to pregnant
schoolgirls, teenage parents and their children – has been
condemned as a “ridiculous waste of public money” by
critics.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 5 June 2005 page
10

‘Twelve is far too young to be a mum, I’m still
a kid myself’.

Chaos at mealtimes, school run problems and incredibly complicated
child-minding arrangements are revealed in the first interview
given by the family of four unmarried mothers

Source: – The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 5 June 2005 page
11

Sex offender hunt

A violent sex offender has gone missing from a hostel.

Police are looking for Philip West, 55, last seen at the hostel in
West Yorkshire at 3pm on Friday.

Source:- The Times Monday 6 June 2005 page 4

Abandoned baby abducted

A newborn baby who had been left in a car seat outside social
services in Queen’s Park, West London, on Friday morning was
later abducted.

Scotland Yard yesterday said that detectives from a child abuse
unit had joined the search and that the incident was being treated
as “serious or sinister” because checks revealed no
trace of the child, said to be black or mixed race.

Source:- The Times Monday 6 June 2005 page 8

Rapes dismissed

Police will conduct a review of rape investigations after figures
indicated that 35 per cent of the 2,500 allegations made last year
in London were dismissed.

Researchers at London Metropolitan University found that there was
a “culture of scepticism” towards rape victims among
police and prosecutors.

Source:- The Times Monday 6 June 2005 page 9

Beat the blues with a cyberdoc

Computer programmes to defeat depression have been cleared for
widespread use in the NHS.

An appraisal of computerised cognitive behavioural therapy by the
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends
that two computer programmes be offered as treatment for mild and
moderate depression, panic and phobia.

Source:- The Times Monday 6 June 2005 page 11

Home offer may reach the poorest

Council and housing association tenants with low joint incomes
could be eligible to buy a share of their homes under the
government’s shared ownership scheme, Social HomeBuy.

Source:- The Times Monday 6 June 2005 page 22

£30 a week for homework

Pupils between 16 and 18 from low-income homes will be entitled to
grants of up to £30 a week if they turn up at school regularly
and hand in coursework.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 6 June 2005 page 7

One pupil in every four admits trying cannabis

An academic has warned that increasing cannabis use among teenagers
will put more people at risk of schizophrenia and other mental
health problems.

Professor Colin Drummond, head of addiction psychiatry at St
George’s medical school, Tooting, said the earlier you
started taking the drug the more likely you were to develop mental
health problems.

His comments follow evidence showing more than one in four under
16s had tried cannabis.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 6 June 2005 page 6

Asbo girl, aged 11

An 11-year-old girl has become the youngest person in the country
to receive an anti-social behaviour order.

Siobhan Blake has been banned from damaging property and harassment
causing alarm across Hastings for two years.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 6 June 2005 page 11

Let premature babies die, says expert

A medical ethics expert has called for a minimum age for below
which premature babies should be allowed to die, to prevent them
growing up severely disabled.

Baroness Warner’s comments come while researchers at the
Nuffield Council on Bioethics are investigating the merits of
refusing intensive treatment to babies born before 24 weeks.

However Warner, a leading advocate of euthanasia, has been
criticised by a patients’ group as a “danger to the
vulnerable”.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 6 June 2005 page 23

‘Penny pinchers’ keep arthritis victims in
pain

One in three specialist doctors say they cannot prescribe vital
drugs to people with arthritis because of insufficient funding from
primary care trusts, according to a survey.

The study found that almost 2,000 people are going without
anti-tumour necrosis factor drugs, which reduce pain and prevent
joints deteriorating, despite the National Institute for Health and
Clinical Excellence saying they should be available to all who need
them.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 6 June 2005 page 26

Abandoned baby ‘stolen by passer-by’

A woman posing as a “childcare professional” may have
abducted a newborn baby abandoned outside a West London clinic last
Friday.

She was spotted driving off with the baby, who had been left in the
back of another car outside Queen’s Park Family Services
building.

No baby has been reported missing in the area, leading to
speculation the alleged abductor is a relative.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 6 June 2005 page 32

Scottish news

Care homes viewed as ‘warehouses for elderly’

The charity Alzheimer’s Scotland has called for an
improvement in the quality of care for people with dementia.

Its report out this week estimates 40 per cent of people with the
condition are living in care homes or hospitals where only 3 per
cent of their time is spent participating in constructive
activities. It has called for an end to care homes being seen as
“warehouses for the elderly”.

Source:- The Sunday Herald Sunday 5 June

‘Re-offending will rise with new justice
bill’

A Scottish executive senior official has said the new justice bill
will fail to reduce re-offending levels.

Tony Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, said
recidivism would keep rising and insisted that measures such as
tagging would backfire.

He warned the justice minister, Cathy Jamieson, that her focus on
non-custodial sentences would actually lead to a rise in the prison
population.

Source:- The Sunday Herald Sunday 5 June

Welsh news

Runaway abducted by waiter

A train buffet car waiter has been jailed for taking a 12-year-old
runaway home for the night.

Carl Ferris’ lawyers said that he was only trying to help but
Judge Jonathan Durham, sitting at Cardiff Crown Court, said that
his actions had been inappropriate and sentenced him to 15 months
in prison.

Source:- South Wales Echo Saturday 4 June

Council chief streets ahead in housing help

A boss at a Welsh council is helping to tackle homelessness by
renting out his own properties to families.

Paul Marfleet, cabinet finance chief for Denbighshire Council said
that there was an overwhelming demand for homes in the area and
that he was trying to help.

Source:-  Wales on Sunday Sunday 5 June

Missing teenager talked to friend on internet

A 17-year-old boy who went missing from a caravan park said that he
was going home to talk to somebody on the internet it has
emerged.

Robert Marshall, told his brother his plans before disappearing
from the Ogwen Bank Caravan Park and Country Club, in Bethesda last
Wednesday.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 6 June