WEDNESDAY 4 JANUARY 2006

Mum first to face new child murder charge
The mother of a two-year-old boy who died after he was found at home is believed to be the first person to be charged with the new crime of familial homicide introduced under the 2004 Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act, which closes a legal loophole. Hayley Kenny, 22, appeared in court yesterday with her son Keiron’s stepfather, Craig Pearce, 21, who was charged with murder.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 23

Doctor set online trap for children by posing as young girl
An eminent doctor posed as a teenage girl called Katie to swap photographs and sexually explicit messages with children in internet chatrooms, the General Medical Council was told yesterday. Dr Thomas Dent, 42, of Newbury, Berkshire, was highly regarded as a senior director at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which advises the government on patient care.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 14

Negligent fathers face tagging
Absent fathers who refuse child maintenance face curfews and electronic tagging under plans to rescue the failing Child Support Agency.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 22

Benefits plan rap
The government yesterday denied backtracking on plans to target incapacity benefit cheats. Downing Street insisted a government source was wrong to say the reforms had been scaled back.
Source:- The Sun, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 2

Drug lad spared jail
A drug dealer was allowed to walk free yesterday by a judge who said the jails were full. Addict Thomas Scarth, 19, was caught stashing 83 wraps of heroin in his Ford Escort. The judge said: “What are we looking at? The jails are full to overflowing. You are only 19 and knew exactly what you were doing. But we are urged not to imprison young men for comparatively minor offences.” Scarth, of Redcar, Cleveland, got custody suspended for 18 months, probation supervision and 100 hours community punishment.
Source:- The Sun, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 25

Rural residents mentally healthier
People who live in the countryside have better mental health than those who live in towns and cities, researchers writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry said yesterday.
Source:- The Financial Times, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 4

Angel of death to innocent victim
Nurse Amanda Jenkinson was accused of trying to kill her elderly patients and jailed for five years. Here she relives the battle to clear her name of a crime that cost her freedom, her home and the career she loved.
Source:- Daily Mail, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 28

Million pupils could lose their right to subsidised school milk
Milk subsidies for more than a million primary school children in England could be stopped as they cost too much and have little health benefit, says a government-commissioned report by consultants London Economics.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 2

Jail suicide figure still too high
The Prison Service was warned yesterday it should not be deluded over figures showing jail suicides fell by nearly a fifth last year to 78. Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform said the figures showed how low things had sunk in recent years.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 2

Closure of swimming pools damaging our health
Public swimming pools are being closed at an alarming rate by local authorities desperate to save money. The Amateur Swimming Association said it is important for the health of the nation to have a network of public swimming pools.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 4 January 2006, page 8

Welsh news
Kidnap girl, 3, rescued from car
A three-year-old girl who was kidnapped on Monday has been rescued after a car chase. The girl was lured away from her family home in South Wales by the kidnappers and was then driven to the Swindon area.Wiltshire police arrested a man in connection with the incident yesterday after spotting him driving erratically and following his car.
Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday 4 January 2006

Scottish news
Stuck in a spiral of dependency
One in five adults living in Glasgow – 66,900 people or 17.7% of the working population in Scotland’s largest city – is too sick to work, according to government statistics. For years, successive governments regarded invalidity and sickness benefit as a way to mask soaring levels of unemployment.
Now there has been a change of heart and the government wants to break the culture of dependency that has developed. But it won’t be an easy task as this feature explains. 
Source:- The Herald, 4 January 2006

A nation still divided by poverty and inequality
There is a 34 year gap in life expectancy between the wealthiest and poorest areas of Glasgow according to NHS data.  A child born in Calton, in the east end of Glasgow, is three times as likely to suffer heart disease, four times as likely to be hospitalised and ten times as likely to grow up in a workless household than a child in the city’s prosperous western suburbs.
Using NHS data, the Scotsman has compiled a deprivation index, with data for the country’s 830 postcode areas, and separated the top and bottom 100 neighbourhoods to show the scale of inequality in Scotland.
Source:- The Scotsman, 4 January 2006