MONDAY 9 JANUARY 2006

Kelly under attack for approving sex offender as teacher
Child protection agencies and teacher unions yesterday called for urgent reforms after it emerged that education secretary Ruth Kelly approved the appointment of a sex offender as a PE teacher.
The man had just started working at a comprehensive school in Norwich when police found out and protested, prompting his resignation. He had been arrested for accessing child porn websites but was never convicted. The man was placed on a sex offenders register after a caution.
When he applied for a job at the Hewett school, he disclosed his status as a sex offender but denied the allegations. However in order to receive a caution he must have admitted an offence in front of a senior police officer.
Children’s charities, social workers and teachers’ unions are astonished that Kelly approved the appointment.
Source:- The Times,  Monday 9 January 2006, page 23

Respect reduced
Thee prime minister will this week confirm that his plans to tackle antisocial behaviour will be drastically reduced following opposition from cabinet ministers.
The Respect agenda will receive around £25 million of the £90 million that was promised by Tony Blair last year.
Source:- The Times , Monday 9 January 2006, page 23

Man accused of assaulting girl, 3
Craig Sweeney, 24, of Newport, south Wales, has been remanded in custody charged with the kidnap and sexual assault of a three-year-old girl from Rumney, Cardiff.
Source:- The Independent, Saturday 7 January 2006, page 17

Teachers lambast Kelly as she tries to sell school reforms
Education Secretary Ruth Kelly was greeted with cries of “shame” as she sought to defend the government’s school reforms at the North of England education conference. She failed to convince an audience of teachers, governors and council leaders to support her plans to set up a network of independently run “trust” schools.
Source:- The Independent, Saturday 7 January 2006, page 21

Hanged man may be linked to girl’s abduction
Police on Tyneside were yesterday investigating possible links between the death of a man and the abduction of a six-year-old girl from her bath soon after Christmas. Lee Stephen Bayley, 30, was found hanged on Thursday in a flat a few streets away from the girl’s home in Willington Quay, North Shields.
Source:- The Guardian, Saturday 7 January 2006, page 12

Slimming clubs to admit 11-year-olds
Children as young as 11 are being admitted to Slimming World clubs that normally cater for adults – if they are accompanied by a parent and their GP’s approval.
Source:- Daily Mail, Saturday 7 January 2006, page 11

Million families miss out on £250m in child handouts
Around a million new parents who were sent child trust fund vouchers worth more than £250m over the last year have failed to do anything with them.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 7 January 2006, page 2

Sacked for favouring heterosexual couples over gays as adoptive parents
A Christian charity administrator is  banned from serving on an adoption panel – because his beliefs mean he cannot support gay adoptions. Ed Greening, 48, had been an independent member of Wiltshire Council’s adoption panel for five years.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday, Sunday 8 January 2006, page 11

They sent us to hell and back
The family wrongly accused of Satanic abuse in Rochdale tell of their ordeal when their children were stolen by the state.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday, Sunday 8 January 2006, page 23

Doctor warns of freed mental patients
A senior consultant in the NHS has revealed how unstable mental patients have been released against her medical advice into the community where they have committed serious crimes. Dr Rafat Roohanna, a consultant psychiatrist, claims she has been driven out of the NHS after complaining managers were blocking her recommended treatment for patients.
Source:- The Sunday Times, Sunday 8 January 2006, page 4

Girls of 13 given contraceptive implants on NHS
The NHS has been giving girls as young as 13 contraceptive injections and implants that make them infertile for up to three years, in an attempt to cut teenage pregnancies.
Source:- The Sunday Times, Sunday 8 January 2006, page 7

DNA of 750,000 juveniles stored
The government has admitted that the DNA of 750,000 juveniles has been stored in the past 10 years.
Powers granted to police by the Home Office in the past two years include the right to take DNA from people under-18 without permission from a parent or guardian.
Source:- The Guardian,  Monday 9 January 2006, page 20

Talks aim to avert job centre strike
Talks will be held today in a bid to avert a strike by thousands of workers at job centres and benefit offices.
Staff at the Department for Work and Pensions have voted to support a two day strike later this month in protest at job cuts.
Source:- Financial Times,  Monday 9 January 2006, page 4

Fish oil trial for problem pupils
Children with learning and behavioural difficulties are to be tested with fish oil supplements. Researchers want to find out whether the brain boosting omega-3 supplements can improve the disorders.
Source:- Daily Telegraph,  Monday 9 January, page 2

Academy to teach children respect
An academy designed to teach parenting skills is to be launched by Tony Blair. The National Parenting Academy will focus on teaching parents how to spot potential problems with their children and “nip them in the bud” before they develop.
Source:- Daily Telegraph,  Monday 9 January 2006, page 4

Text messages for parents of truants
Parents will receive text messages if their child plays truant from school under plans to be unveiled later this week.
School staff will contact parents within 60 seconds of the missing registration.
Source:- Independent,  Monday 9 January 2006,  page 16

Scottish news
 Police target under-3s in drive to cut violent crime
Police are to target children under three and teenage mothers-to-be as part of the national drive to cut violent crime.
Senior officers believe toddlers and struggling parents should be given classes in communication, empathy and compromise to prevent the development of violent characteristics later in life.
The move is founded on unpublished research commissioned by the Scottish Executive which suggests the mental and emotional skills which influence whether a person will become violent or not are developed by the age of three.
Source: The Herald, Monday, 9 January 2006

Islanders protest at care home closure
Residents of an island residential care home are to mount a mass picket to halt its closure. The owners of the home in Millport, Isle of Cumbrae, say they have been forced to give residents 90 days’ notice of closure. Some of the people have lived on the island for more than 80 years.
The owners say the reducing number of referrals made by the council means it is no longer viable meaning they will be forced to move to homes on the mainland.
Source: The Herald, Monday 9 January 2006

AA refuses to aid mum and disabled son stranded on M8
The AA has apologised for refusing to go to the aid of a retired nurse and her disabled son when their car broke down on the M8 on New Year’s Day. Mary Russell was going to visit her mother’s grave in Ayrshire when her car got into trouble.
After contacting the breakdown service she was told that unless she could pay a £95 fee on the spot, no assistance would be sent, so she was forced to flag down a passing car.
Source: The Scotsman, Saturday 7 January 2006

Heroin abuse rife in Scottish jail
Castle Huntly jail was criticised for the amount of drug abuse among its inmates after the most recent inspection.
Clive Fairweather, then chief inspector of prisons, said it had “unacceptably high” levels of illegal drugs in the prison and called for a crackdown. In the report, published in 2002, he said: “We were hugely disappointed to discover that high levels of recreational drug misuse were still evident.”
Source: The Record, Monday 9 January 2006

Controversial Tory council chief plans to save millions in overhaul
Scotland’s newest council leader is pledging to save millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money by sacking senior civil servants, capping councillors’ expenses and removing entire departments, in one of the biggest overhauls in town hall politics in recent years.
South Ayrshire Council is now bracing itself for Gibson T Macdonald’s radical cost-cutting politics which he hopes will lead to an eventual reduction in council tax at a time when Scotland’s other councils are threatening double-digit rises.
Source: Scotland on Sunday, Sunday 8 January 2006

Welsh news
MP raises fears over halfway house
A Gwent MP has raised concerns over a flat used to house newly released prisoners which was investigated as part of police inquiries into the rape of a three-year-old girl. The flat in Newport is a half-way house for prisoners.
Newport East AM John Griffiths said that “questions must be answered” over the flat.
Source:- Wales on Sunday, Sunday January 8 2006

We will take pervert fight to Europe, say parents
Parents trying to get a man on the sex offenders’ register removed from their community have said that they will take their campaign to the Court of Appeal. The police have admitted that they are unable to change a court ruling which allows Gareth Davies to continue living opposite the Dafen primary school in Dafen, Llanelli.
Davies, 40, was given a three-year community rehabilitation order at Cardiff crown court last year after admitting standing on his doorstep naked.
Source:- Wales on Sunday, Sunday January 8 2006


 

 

 

 

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