By Sally Gillen, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.
George Harrison’s attacker released from hospital
The man with mental health problems who broke into former Beatle George Harrison’s mansion, attacked him with a table lamp and repeatedly stabbed him with a knife, was released from a secure hospital yesterday.
Michael Abram, who suffers from schizophrenia, was released from the Scott Clinic in Rainhill, Merseyside, after a mental health tribunal, presided over by a judge and involving an independent psychiatrist, agreed he was well enough to be released into the community.
It is understood the 36-year-old will now live in a hostel with support from a psychiatrist, nurse and social worker.
He was cleared of the attempted murder of Harrison and his wife Olivia at their home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, in December 1999, on grounds of insanity.
In November 2000, the trail judge at Oxford crown court ordered Abram to be detained at a secure hospital without time restriction.
Source: The Guardian Friday 5 July page 7
Clinic for child abusers forced to close
Protests by local residents, backed by the News of the World and their Tory MP, yesterday forced the closure of Europe’s only clinic to provide intensive residential treatment of child sex offenders.
The Wolvercote Clinic, run by the child protection charity the Lucy Faithful Foundation, is to close on 31 July after seven years during which it has effectively treated and assessed 300 men.
The home office said yesterday that since the clinic, which is based in Horton hospital, Epsom, Surrey, opened in 1995, no child had been put at risk.
The clinic was due to move from Horton hospital because of redevelopment to a site at Silverlands, near Chertsey, Surrey, but protests from local parents highlighted by the News of the World has blocked that option.
Source: The Guardian Friday 5 July page 9
I am not going to soften the law on Ecstasy says Blunkett
Ecstasy will not be legally downgraded to the status of a soft drug, the Daily Mail has learned.
David Blunkett will tell MPs next week that it can never be switched from the current A category to Class B because "even one tablet can kill".
And in a bid to wind up the year-long debate on relaxing Britain’s drugs laws, he will also rule out legalising cannabis.
Source: Daily Mail Friday July page 43
Doctors back sperm donors' anonymity
Doctors have voted for a motion protecting the anonymity of men who donate sperm. The British Medical Association's annual conference in Harrogate decided in a close vote that men's identity should not be revealed.
The vote was against the advice of the BMA's own medical ethics committee. Several doctors said donors would be put off if they knew children conceived from their donation could later find out who they were.
At present ,sperm donors have to register their names with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and although their identity cannot be revealed, the number of donors has fallen since the rule was introduced.
Source:- The Times Friday 5 July page 13
Scottish newspapers
Church in talks on care home dispute
The Church of Scotland is to meet with a campaign group of relatives who are refusing to allow their elderly relatives to move out of a care home marked for closure.
Leslie House in Fife was one of five care units designated for closure by the church due to heavy financial losses.
Relatives formed themselves into the Leslie House 21 Group, and carried out a campaign including petitioning the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Now residents are refusing to move until all alternatives to closure are considered including residents paying more, building a new home in the grounds and other private providers taking over Leslie House.
Source:- The Herald Friday 5 July page 11
MSP plans prostitute tolerance zones bill
Margot MacDonald MSP is to introduce a member’s bill to the Scottish parliament's next session proposing that local authorities be given the power to designate areas where prostitutes could safely and legally ply their trade.
The move comes seven months after Edinburgh council scrapped its high-profile scheme in the Leith area following sustained opposition from residents.
Source:- The Herald Friday 5 July page 10
Child sex abuse case dropped after crown delay
The crown office was last night at the centre of controversy as a case against a man accused of sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy collapsed because it had failed to bring the case to court for 25 months.
When the case was first brought to Aberdeen sheriff court, the accused claimed the delay had breached his rights under the European Convention of Human Rights.
The plea was rejected by the sheriff and the accused took the case to the appeal court. Yesterday, three appeal judges found in favour of the accused, and expressed their dismay that a case involving a young child was not accorded priority.
Source:- The Herald Friday 5 July page 2
Welsh newspapers
Care for vulnerable children is defended
A Cardiff councillor has hit back at criticism that vulnerable children on the child protection register are being let down.
Cabinet member Peter Perkins has written to councillors and staff after opposition Liberal Democrats criticised the authority for only aiming to review 85 per cent of cases on the register during the present year, which is fewer than in 2000-01.
Perkins said that children on the child protection register were reviewed far more frequently than the minimum requirement of twice yearly. He stressed that the council’s ultimate target was that 100 per cent of reviews of children on the register should take place by the due date.
Liberal Democrat spokesperson on social services, Jacqui Gasson said that the problem has been ongoing for some years, and that more effort would be made if the target was 100 per cent.
Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 4 July page 21
Teacher in Owen inquiry allowed to return to work
The former girlfriend of alleged paedophile, John Owen, has been allowed to return to her teaching post after being vindicated by a police investigation.
Theda Williams was suspended from her job as an English teacher at Rhydfelen Comprehensive near Pontypridd following allegations made during a public inquiry that she and four others were implicated in alleged abuse of pupils at the school.
The Clywch inquiry, chaired by children’s commissioner for Wales Peter Clarke, was set up to look into allegations of abuse by Owen, but was adjourned following the police inquiry. A spokesperson said that it would now resume in the autumn.
Source: Western Mail Friday 5 July page 2
