MONDAY 19 DECEMBER

Probation service inquiry after fiasco of killer’s early release
An official inquiry into serious failings by the probation service following the conviction of two serial offenders for the killing of financier John Monckton will be announced by the home secretary.
Source:- The Guardian, Saturday 17 December 2005, page 1

Killer teenage gang acted “like a pack of wild dogs”
Four teenagers were “worse than a pack of wild dogs” when they beat a man to death outside his Chinese takeaway, a court was told yesterday. Michael Chen, 41, was kicked, punched and stamped upon during the attack in a shopping precinct in Wigan.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 17 December 2005, page 2

Orange mobiles still let children access web porn
Orange allows children to access pornography and gambling websites on its mobile telephones, despite a pledge two years ago to block unsuitable content for minors.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 17 December 2005, page 11

Head calls for Little Britain ban
The head of a primary school has got so fed up with pupils pretending to be “the only gay in the village” that she has asked parents to stop them from watching Little Britain. The Hildenborough primary school, near Tonbridge, Kent, has had its fill of girls muttering: “No but, yeah, but, no…”
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 17 December 2005, page 11

Quarter of crime suspects under 17
A quarter of those arrested by police in England and Wales are juveniles, Home Office figures reveal.
Source:- The Daily Mail, Saturday 17 December 2005, page 45

Cannabis medicine implicated in death
A coroner raised fresh fears over the link between the use of cannabis and mental problems yesterday after he ruled that an experimental medicine derived from marijuana plants was linked to the development of an illness that killed a pensioner suffering from severe diabetes.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 17 December 2005, page 10

Schools inspector comes over to government side
David Bell resigned as head of Ofsted yesterday to become the top government mandarin in the department for education and skills.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 17 December 2005, page 11

Life in jail for setting light to bin
A teenager has been jailed for life for setting light to two wheelie bins. Christopher Brown, 18, told social workers that he intended to commit serious offences if he was ever let out. Brown, of no fixed abode, caused little damage when he set light to two wheelie bins in Barnstaple, North Devon, and no one was injured in the fire.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 17 December 2005, page 22

Drugs epidemic in top public schools
A crisis over drug abuse in Britain’s top public schools has prompted the creation of rehabilitation and counselling schemes in a radical overhaul of ways of dealing with offending schools.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday, Sunday 18 December 2005, page 1

New website to help adopted children and parents reunite
The agony of almost two million parents and children, legally “lost” to each other and kept apart by bureaucracy, is about to end. Britain’s first “adoption reunion” website aimed at helping to reunite adopted children and their birth parents – will be launched next week by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday, Sunday 18 December 2005, page 13

Nursery owner in court after stopping toddler from hitting a baby
A nursery owner has been charged with common assault after intervening to stop a toddler hitting a baby with a wooden brick. Olive Rack, 55, who runs Tresco House Day Nursery, in Kettering, will appear in magistrates court this week in a case brought by Northamptonshire police.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 18 December 2005, page 7

Tougher law plan to jail more rapists
A radical overhaul of the rape laws, including a potential new definition of whether a woman is fit to give consent to sex, has been prepared by ministers to ensure more rapists are convicted.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 18 December 2005, page 12

Smoking ban would shift risk to children at home
Children’s health will be put at risk from passive smoking if the government bans smoking in all restaurants and bars, according to dramatic new research out today.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 18 December 2005, page 1

The secret love life of Laura-Anne, aged 9
Channel 4 faces fresh controversy over fly-on-the-wall film of pre-teen romance
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 18 December 2005, page 5

Children suffer intensive care crisis
Doctors are warning of an acute shortage of intensive care beds for children as staff spend hours ringing round to find places for those who are critically ill.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 18 December 2005, page 5

Priest faces sex charges
A Catholic priest appeared in court yesterday charged with indecent assault and facilitation of the rape of a 12-year-old girl. Father Jeremiah McGrath, 62, was in the dock at Liverpool magistrate’s court, following his arrest in Northern Ireland earlier in the week.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 18 December 2005, page 5

Still paying for last Christmas
More than two million people who used credit cards to buy last year’s Christmas presents have still not managed to pay off the debt, says debt solutions firm One Advice.
Source:- Daily Mail, Monday December 19 2005, page 3

Obesity backlash as junk food sales plummet
Millions of Britons are adopting a healthier lifestyle and drastically cutting back on fatty foods, an annual survey in The Grocer magazine has found.
Source:- Daily Mail, Monday December 19 2005, page 38

Mother “may have snatched foster girl”
A girl of two who went missing from a day care centre may have been snatched from her foster parents by her mother, police said yesterday.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Monday December 19 2005, page 6

120 calls to receive £3.50 disability benefit
When Lesley Richmond’s disability benefit of £3.50 a week was stopped due to a change in government criteria, her husband had more than 120 phone conversations with 58 different pension service staff to get the benefit restored.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Monday December 19 2005, page 12

Blair set to cave in on school reforms
Tony Blair is preparing to water down his controversial education plans next month in response to fierce oppostion from critics within his party, including the deputy prime minister.
Source:- The Times, Monday December 19 2005, page 1

Strike will close courts
The criminal justice system will be almost brought to a halt this week when magistrates’  courts throughout England and Wales shut for the first strike in their 800 year history.
Source:- The Times, Monday December 19 2005, page 11

Legal review will mean fewer murder charges
The first comprehensive review of the law of murder for more than 50 years will recommend a fundamental change that would see many killings downgraded to manslaughter.
Source: The Guardian, Monday December 19 2005, page 1

Swiss hospital to allow assissted suicide
A Swiss hospital is to permit assisted suicide from January 1, becoming the first institution in Europe to allow the practice.
Source: The Guardian, Monday December 19 2005, page 1

Rooney pipped by God in survey of under 10s
Money is the top priority for the nation’s children, according to a survey of under 10s.
Most famous person named by children is God, followed by footballer Wayne Rooney in second place.
Source: The Guardian, Monday December 19 2005,page 5

Recipe for success is be happy
Happiness, rather than working hard, is the key to success, according to research published today.
Source: The Guardian, Monday December 19 2005,page 7

Gay couple launch fight for right to “morning after” HIV drug
A legal action will accuse the government of denying people who have been exposed to HIV a treatment which acts like a “morning after” pill to prevent infectiion with the virus.
Source: The Guardian, Monday December 19 2005, page 10

Scottish news

Dementia drug bill doubles in just one year
The bill for prescribing drugs for people with dementia in the Lothians has doubled in the last year to almost £1 million. The ageing population and greater awareness of the condition means that more people than ever before are being diagnosed with the debilitating disease.
New statistics show that between March 2004 and March 2005, almost 7000 prescriptions were issued – twice as many as the previous year.
Source:- The Scotsman, Saturday 17 December 2005

Concern as antidepressant prescriptions rise by two million
The number of antidepressant drugs prescribed in Scotland has tripled over the past 12 years. More than three million prescriptions for antidepressants, including Prozac, were issued last year, compared with just over a million in 1993, the NHS figures showed.
The figures also showed a 11.7 per cent increase in the number of ADHD-related prescriptions, including the controversial drug Ritalin, in the last year.
Mental health campaigners and politicians expressed concern over the “phenomenal increase” and called for more alternative therapies to be made available.
Source:-The Scotsman, Saturday 17 December 2005

Welsh news

Megan killer’s inquiry battle
The man who murdered Lin and Megan Russell is to challenge the publication of a report on the services he received before the attack. In 2001 Michael Stone, was jailed for murdering the mother and daughter and for the attempted murder of Megan’s sister Josie.
An independent inquiry into the treatment Stone received from mental health services, probation and social workers prior to the incident is due to be published soon.
Josie and her father Shaun moved to Caernarfon after the attack.
Source:- Wales on Sunday 18 December 2005

Child loses appeal
A 15-year-old boy expelled from school after rude remarks about a teacher appeared in an internet chatroom has lost his appeal. An independent panel upheld the exclusion despite the boy’s argument that it was “a childish prank”. He had been a pupil at Bryn Elian secondary school in Old Colwyn.
Source:- Wales on Sunday 18 December 2005

 

 

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