News

By Clare Jerrom and Reg McKay.

Racist killer, 15, jailed for life

A teenager was jailed for life on Friday for a racist attack, which killed an Asian cook.

Judge Richard Hawkins ordered that Stephen Hansen, 16, should be detained for at least 13 years. He was 15 when he carried out the attack.

Hansen was convicted of murdering Shibula Rahman, who was beaten and stabbed outside his home in east London.

Terry Cooper, 18, and Ian Devlin, 17, were convicted of manslaughter and ordered to be detained for nine years.

Source:- The Times  Saturday 15 December page 12

Life for murder of Kurd refugee

A man who killed an asylum seeker in an unprovoked attack was jailed for life yesterday.

Scott Burrell was found guilty of murdering Firsat Dag after a six-day trial at Glasgow crown court.

Lord Kingarth who sentenced Burrell to serve at least 14 years in prison said the attack was “shameful and cowardly and totally unprovoked”.

Source:- The Guardian  Saturday 15 December page 13

Police chief calls for rethink on drug laws

A chief constable will call for a rethink on Britain’s drug laws saying the only way to win the war on drugs is to legalise them.

Head of north Wales police Richard Brunstrom will call for a Royal Commission on legalisation when he addresses his police authority.

In a statement released on Friday, he compared Britain’s policy to that of alcohol prohibition in 1920s America.

He argues that despite the huge amount spent on tackling drugs, cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin are cheaper and more readily available than ever before.

Source:- Independent  Saturday 15 December page 9

Study finds no cannabis link to hard drugs

Cannabis does not lead to the use of hard drugs, a study will say this week.

The survey based on drug users in Amsterdam over a 10-year period shows that cannabis users start using the drug between the ages of 18 and 20, whereas cocaine use starts between 20 and 25.

The study, which will be published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London, concludes that cannabis is not a step to using cocaine or heroin and argues that most of the evidence suggesting this to be the case is circumstantial.

Source:- The Sunday Times  Sunday 16 December page 5

Police want new powers to lock up paedophiles

Senior police officers called for greater powers to enable them to lock up known paedophiles without charge in a bid to prevent more murders like that of Sarah Payne.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens believes that the authorities should have the power to section high risk offenders, just as people with a mental illness can be removed from the community for treatment.

Scotland Yard released the names of four dangerous paedophiles whose whereabouts are unknown to a Sunday newspaper.

Further reports claim hundreds of paedophiles may have vanished after failing to register following their release.

Source:- The Observer  Sunday 16 December page 1

Family split up by homeless ruling

Hundreds of children could face 2002 in care as a result of councils exploiting a new legal loophole, housing experts have warned.

Chief solicitor at Shelter Russell Campbell said: “Homelessness has become a valid trigger for removing children from their families. Since the Court of Appeal upheld the new legal position last month we’re seeing more and more cases like this.”

The Children Act 1989 offered protection for families who fell through the housing net, but the recent judgement accepted that councils need only offer accommodation to children.

Shelter is in contact with families throughout Britain who expect their children to be taken into care within weeks.

Source:- The Observer  Sunday 16 December page 13

Sarah’s killer to be quizzed over unsolved child murders

The man convicted of murdering Sarah Payne is to be questioned about the killing of two girls 15 years ago.

Sussex police are still investigating “Babes in the Wood” killings of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in Brighton in 1986.

Police believe there are strong similarities between the abduction and murder of Sarah by Roy Whiting and the killings of the two nine-year old girls.

Whiting was convicted in 1995 of abducting and attacking a nine-year old girl which showed there was a pattern to his actions in Sarah’s case. Now they believe it could indicate he was involved with the earlier killings.

Source:-The Sunday Telegraph  Sunday 16 December page 1

Jailed sex attacker sues

A sex attacker, who was jailed indefinitely after committing horrific assaults, has launched an appeal for freedom under the Human Rights Act 1998.

Paedophile Peter Oates was told he would remain in hospital for life after committing sexual assaults at knifepoint. He has issued a writ against Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Health Trust and claiming he should be freed and paid £15,000 in damages for stress.

The case has caused outrage among MPs, just days after Roy Whiting was jailed for life for the murder of Sarah Payne.

Shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe said the court action exposed another flaw in the Human Rights Act: “Our first concern should be the protection of children.”

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph  Sunday 16 December page 8

Red Cross to close scores of charity shops

Forty British Red Cross charity shops are to close and the charity will shed 10 per cent of its staff in a drive to cut costs and direct more money into humanitarian crises.

The charity is also planning to move its headquarters from London’s Belgravia, which it considers “inappropriate”.

The reforms will begin in January and is aimed at eliminating all loss making enterprises in Britain - apart from those directly combating crises – including its work with residential care for older people.

Source:- Independent  Sunday 16 December page 6

Public to have say in guard on sex abusers

The official panels that decide how best to monitor sex offenders will include members of the public alongside child protection experts.

Home secretary David Blunkett promised an increased role for community representatives yesterday but rejected the idea of whole neighbourhoods knowing the whereabouts of paedophiles.

His decision was announced as deputy prime minister John Prescott praised the News of the World for naming and shaming four convicted paedophiles who have failed to sign the sex offenders’ register. Blunkett said people would have an increased role but it would not result in the introduction of Sarah’s law.

Source:- The Times  Monday 17 December page 4

Prisons chief ‘forced to quit’

Home office officials forced the former chief inspector of prisons out of his role in an “appallingly underhand way”, Sir David Ramsbotham has revealed.

By the end of his five-year term he was barely on speaking terms with the then home secretary Jack Straw, and he claims the Home Office was a “terrible place”.

Sir David was appointed by then Tory home secretary Michael Howard in 1995, but he was often admonished for “straying beyond his brief”.

Sir David became increasingly disenchanted with the red tape and inefficiencies of the system.

He hoped his contract would be extended to serve three more years by “mutual agreement”. But permanent secretary at the Home Office David Omand told him in December 2000 that his role would be merged with probation and asked him to sign  an agreement that he would work until July 2001 to oversee the change.

“I thought it was appallingly underhand to slip out an announcement like that without even consulting me,” he says.

Source:- Daily Telegraph  Monday 17 December page 1

Big fines imposed on disability assessment firm

Repeated fines have been given to the company responsible for managing controversial “MoT tests” on disabled people for failing to meet performance targets, the government said.

Secretary of state for work and pensions Alistair Darling has given SchlumbergerSema until next summer to improve or it faces losing the contract to perform medical assessments on people claiming incapacity benefits.

Ministers revealed financial penalties have been imposed on the company every month for more than two years.

Source:- Independent  Monday 17 December page 9

Scottish newspapers

From death comes hope in Sighthill

A page-length feature on the murder of asylum seeker Firsat Dag and the impact on race relations in Glasgow following the conviction last week of Scott Burrell for his murder. 

From the public outrage at the death and the resultant demonstrations and street violence comes hope that relations between the communities are improving and progress is at last being made.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday 16 December page 13

Social workers send young women to pro-life project

One third of the young women who resort to the Pro-Life Initiative established by Cardinal Winning in Glasgow are sent there by local authority social workers because there are no state-run alternatives. 

NHS primary care trusts also send a high proportion of women there who would otherwise have terminations. North Devon Family Planning service has now sent 21 women to the initiative for help with baby care equipment, clothes and other practical assistance.

Social work departments in Scotland claimed they had no policy on the use of the service. Jim Dickie, president of the Association of Directors of Social Work and director of North Lanarkshire Council, said:  “It would be a matter for the individual client to decide.”

Source:- Sunday Herald 16 December page 6

Health minister accused of hypocrisy

Health minister Malcolm Chisholm has been accused of hypocrisy in his dealings with people suffering from Hepatitis C as a result of faulty blood products issued by the NHS.  

Chisholm has just announced that those who contracted Hepatitis C prior to 1998 will not be compensated. In 1995 he was one of 259 MPs who signed a Commons motion demanding that all people who became ill as a result of faulty blood products be compensated.

Campaign groups and opposition MSPs have accused Chisholm of hypocrisy.  Chisholm refused to comment on the issue while a Scottish executive spokesperson said he was announcing executive policy.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 17 December page 1