By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.
Official: Shipman murdered 166 of his patients
A public inquiry will rule this week that GP Harold Shipman killed at least 166 of his patients, and possibly as many as 209.
The judge heading the inquiry, Dame Janet Smith will give individual verdicts in the cases of 429 of Shipman’s patients who died between 1974 and 1998 in suspicious circumstances.
Sources say the judge is preparing to rule unlawful killing in 166 cases regarded as "highly suspicious" and declare that a further 43 patients died in "suspicious" circumstances. Smith is expected to record an open verdict in another 50 cases where records were unavailable.
Her interim report on the killings will be published on Friday.
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 14 July page 1
Super-prison to house UK’s eight worst inmates
A special top security "jail within a jail" is to hold Britain’s most dangerous prisoners
The new "exceptional risk centre" has been opened at Wakefield prison and can house up to eight prisoners judged to be too violent for a conventional jail.
The eight cells are believed to contain furniture made from compressed cardboard, preventing inmates from using it to make weapons.
The unit has proportionately more staff than a conventional prison and it will cost around £55,000 per inmate to run compared with the £28,000 per inmate in other prisons.
Prisoners likely to be housed in the new prison include Charles Bronson.
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 14 July page 10
Juries to hear of past crimes
Juries may be informed about the previous convictions of defendants – and of some witnesses - in a wide-ranging shake up of the criminal justice system to be announced this week.
Judges will be given the discretion to allow prosecutors to tell juries about any "relevant" criminal convictions of those who give alibis or evidence of good character in court.
The plans are likely to anger civil liberties campaigners who say the move could prejudice juries against defendants and undermine the principle of being "innocent until proven guilty".
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 14 July page 26
Blair’s £12bn school bet
Every secondary school budget will be boosted by a £50,000 increase, as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Gordon Brown is due to announce an increase in spending for the Department for Education and Skills, which will take the education budget to £12.5 billion over the next three years.
Each school currently has an average grant of around £100,000. The new money represents a 50 per cent increase over three years.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 14 July page 1
Drugs tsar warns of cannabis crime
Crime will soar as a result of increased cannabis dealing, according to outgoing drugs tsar, Keith Hellawell.
Hellawell, who announced that he was quitting the post last week, said the public thought the government had gone "soft on drugs".
He also revealed the prime minister was against downgrading cannabis to a grade C drug until after the general election last year.
His statement will fuel speculation that Downing Street is nervous about last week’s decision to change the classification of the drug.
Hellawell confirmed he is writing a "tell all" book to be published in the autumn.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 14 July page 2
Council workers ‘earn less than in 1979'
The prime minister has been accused of leaving council workers worse off than during the winter of discontent, as millions of staff prepare to strike this week over pay.
Social workers, and classroom assistants will stage picket lines as ministers announce billions extra in funding for hospitals and schools.
Local government workers earn less as a proportion of average earnings than they did in the 1970s, according to research by the General and Municipal Boilermakers Union released today.
Lowest paid workers earn £4.80 an hour, it says, arguing that soaring private sector salaries have left key workers behind.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 14 July page 6
Homeless in drugs epidemic
Four out of five of Britain’s homeless people are drug users and almost half have used heroin or crack cocaine in the last month, latest research shows.
The figures have shocked homelessness experts.
Shaks Ghosh of homeless charity Crisis, which commissioned the research, said: "What we never expected, in our worst dreams, was this level of use and addiction."
One in four of homeless people in Britain use cocaine or ecstasy and one in three use tranquillisers.
Only four per cent do not use drugs or alcohol at all.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 14 July page 12
Estelle Morris: jail parents who abuse school teachers
Violent parents who abuse school teachers should be jailed, according to the education secretary.
As her department is likely to benefit from a £10 billion boost to reform secondary education in the comprehensive spending review, Estelle Morris made clear that tackling discipline in schools is vital to the government’s vision.
In a GMTV interview with Steve Richards, she said local authorities should use existing powers if teachers are abused by parents.
"I’m giving a clear message to local authorities and head teachers that if their staff are abused, physically or verbally, take legal action and you will be applauded. Nobody will turn round and say ‘it must have been that the head teacher couldn’t cope'," Morris declared.
Source:- Independent Sunday 14 July page 1
Mentally ill tourists cost NHS millions
Mentally ill tourists, who are not eligible for free healthcare in Britain, are forcing the NHS to pay millions of pounds on private treatment.
Mental health patients in this country are losing out on treatment because hospitals are compelled to take foreign visitors who suffer mental breakdowns on holiday, health authorities across the UK say.
The problem results from a shortage of NHS beds, which means tourists are sent to private clinics if they are considered to be a risk to themselves and the community.
The worst affected areas are those covering the main tourist areas in London including Chelsea, Westminster and Kensington.
Source:- Independent Sunday 14 July page 11
Half of young killers to be freed
More than half of Britain’s most dangerous young killers are to be freed from prison early.
Lord chief justice Lord Woolf has ordered that 46 underage murderers had their sentence reduced. He is studying the files of every prisoner who killed while still a minor.
The move is as a result of last year’s ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. The Strasbourg court declared that sentences could no longer be set by the home secretary and only by the lord chief justice or judges.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday Sunday 14 July page 4
Most new HIV cases in UK are African patients
Immigrants from Africa are the largest group reporting new HIV infections in Britain according to latest figures.
Last year, 4,163 people were found to be HIV positive. Homosexuals accounted for 1,338 and more than 1,500 were heterosexuals from Africa.
Barry Evans, HIV consultant at the Public Health Laboratory Service’s centre for communicable disease surveillance, said: "The figures show that there were more newly diagnosed cases of HIV among African immigrants than gay men for the first time."
Source:- The Times Monday 15 July page 1
Council workers to strike despite ‘threats’
The first national council strike since 1979 will take place this week despite a campaign of "intimidation" by employers, unions said yesterday.
Unison, the Transport and General Workers’ Union and GMB predict that 1.2 million staff will join the walkout and will result in schools, council offices and leisure centres closing.
This is despite workers being threatened with redundancy, pay and pension cuts if they participate.
National organiser of the TGWU Jack Dromey said that it was immoral for councils to intimidate low paid workers. A survey by his union showed that council workers were being threatened with privatisation of the services they offer, followed by pay cuts.
The strike has been called in protest of a 3 per cent pay offer, which would see wages of the most poorly paid council staff rise to £4,94 per hour. The union wants a 6 per cent increase.
Source:- The Times Monday 15 July page 2
Children mix with offenders
Vulnerable children are mixing with male offenders, including sex offenders, as a result of a shortage of funds and staff in the agency in charge of children’s court cases.
Children attending offices run by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, Cafcass, share consultation rooms with the probation service.
The problems with offices were strongly condemned by the National Association of Probation Officers yesterday.
Its assistant general secretary said the sharing of facilities was "totally unacceptable".
The agency is also encountering problems in London, where the backlog of undecided cases is more than 150.
Source:- The Times Monday 15 July page 1
Probation service £8m in the red
A government spending watchdog was urged to hold an inquiry into the accounts of London’s probation service, which is currently £8 million in the red.
Lack of money has forced the service to cut the number of reports it prepared for courts about offenders, according to union leaders. Two hundred vacancies were being frozen and a third of temporary staff contracts were being terminated.
Judges who rely on the reports to help them decide on an appropriate sentence for offenders are infuriated by the reduction in the service being provided.
Assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, Harry Fletcher, called for the London probation service to publish its budget and for the National Audit office to consider an inquiry into the causes of the deficit.
Source:- The Times Monday 15 July page 2
Bureau in chaos
Chaos at the Criminal Records Bureau has resulted in the postponement of a service to allow employers to check prospective staff.
The government may shut the bureau and give Capita’s contract to run it to another company if there is not a rapid improvement.
Source:- The Times Monday 15 July page 4
Jail for dangerous offences only
Only violent and dangerous offenders are to receive prison sentences as part of a large shake up of criminal sentencing to be announced on Wednesday.
David Blunkett is to unveil a series of "new and innovative sentences" which will mean that most of the 45,000 adults sentenced to less than 12 months each year will no longer go to prison.
A leaked draft of the overview of the criminal justice white paper, says that short prison sentences for a further 15,000 young offenders will be replaced with intensive supervision and surveillance programmes in the community.
"The radical reform of sentencing policy should mean fewer people in prison and more time to rehabilitate those that are," it says.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 15 July page 2
Care home doors are tied up with Labour’s red tape
A 2cm shortfall in the width of doorways of care homes will mean the country’s largest operator of homes for older people will face a massive reconstruction bill.
The BUPA chain, which runs nearly 250 homes, must pay out £3 million to alter the doorways so they meet the new government standards.
A large chunk of the money will pay for doorways to be widened by two centimetres so they reach the specified 80cm.
Many of the BUPA homes are purpose-built and designed to meet the needs of older people. But in around 40 homes, the doors are 78 cm wide.
While BUPA is facing the bill to make the changes, many smaller operators are closing their homes because they cannot cope with the demands of the Care Standards Act.
Source:- Daily Mail Monday 15 July page 19.
Scottish and Welsh Newspapers
Housing finance plan behind schedule and still secret
The Glasgow housing Association (GHA), the new proposed landlord of Glasgow City Council’s 82,000 housing stock, has produced its detailed financial plans but said its contents will remain a commercial secret. The document sets out the case for the private sector lending the GHA £770 million, some £40 million more than was predicted last year. The plan has been sent out to more than a dozen leading financial institutions.
Source:- The Herald Saturday 13 July page 9
Social work under fire after sex abuse case
Social work services in Borders Council came under fire yesterday following a court case which revealed a series of sexual attacks by three men on a woman with learning disabilities. The 30-year old woman had been placed in the care of one of her attackers and was subject to horrific sexual abuse and prolonged humiliation by the three men who admitted the charges at the High Court in Edinburgh. The offences took place only yards from the council’s social work headquarters in the village of Newton St Boswells. A spokesperson for the council said that the acting director of lifelong care had already commissioned an external review prior to the court case and added that none of those involved had been subject to any formal supervision requirement.
Source:- The Herald Saturday 13 July page 7
War on soft drugs ‘abandoned’
Seizures of cannabis and amphetamine have plummeted up to 75% in Scotland reinforcing claims that the police have abandoned the war on soft drugs. New figures reveal that Scotland’s police forces had made just 648 seizures of amphetamine in the year 2000, a drop of 60% compared with the year before. The number of hauls of cannabis also fell by 10% to 11,973.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 14 July page 4
Councils' concern over proposals for redundant hospital
A local authority in west Wales is calling for urgent talks with the Welsh assembly over proposals to accommodate asylum seekers in a redundant psychiatric hospital.
Carmarthenshire county council has asked for urgent talks with health and social services minister Jane Hutt over the plans for St David's Hospital, Carmarthen, following reports that a private consortium wants to use it to house up to 1,000 refugees.
Council leader Meryl Gravell said that the reports were causing great concern to the local community and that the council was concerned that there had been no prior consultation. Source:- Western Mail Monday 15 July page 7
