Including headlines from Saturday and Sunday.
(scroll down for Scottish and Welsh newspapers)
By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.
Crackdown on internet paedophiles
Police are to be given new powers to enable them to arrest internet paedophiles before they hurt children, as part of an overhaul of sex crime to be announced by the government this autumn.
The Sexual Offences Bill will include a specific offence of "grooming" children for abuse amid growing fears of paedophiles who pose as children themselves in chat-rooms before arranging meetings with their victims.
The legislation will also include a new civil protection order designed to prevent suspected sex offenders contacting individual children in any way.
Those who breach the orders will face prison sentences of up to five years.
Source:- The Times Saturday 10 August page 1
Mother charged
A housewife has been charged with murdering her nine-year-old son, David, in August last year.
Petrina Stocker was released on bail at Hendon magistrates’ court, London, to appear at the central criminal court on August 29.
Source:- The Times Saturday 10 August page 4
Youth crime war won on playing fields of St Paul’s
A project that allows young offenders to use the facilities of a leading school has proved successful in reducing crime in the area.
Police in Barnes, west London, say that criminal activity has fallen by more than a third since children from local estates joined a sports camp at St Paul’s school.
The idea, which will be copied across the country, comes as the government puts pressure on independent schools to open their facilities to the public to justify their charitable status, worth around £83 million a year in tax benefits.
Source:- The Times Saturday 10 August page 9
Paedophile campaigner jailed over child snaps
A man who has campaigned for sex with children to be legalised was jailed yesterday after eluding the police for 20 years.
Thomas O’Carroll, who was supported in the court’s gallery by other paedophiles, was jailed for nine months for three counts of importing indecent photographs of children into Britain.
O’Carroll, of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, was co-founder of the Paedophile Information Exchange, and had lobbied parliament to lower the age of consent.
He was caught last October when customs officials seized three albums containing 94 photographs, 54 of which were of naked or scantily clad children.
Source:- The Times Saturday 10 August page 10
Three-year-olds to grade teachers
Children as young as three are to be asked to grade their nursery teachers as part of the government’s drive to make public services more accountable.
Before they learn to read, children will become part of the Ofsted inspection when the schools watchdog for England pilots questionnaires next term in primary and secondary schools.
The questionnaire will only play a small part in the inspection process.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 10 August page 1
1 million on hospital waiting lists
The number of people on hospital waiting lists has increased by 17,000 compared with this time last year, according to the latest statistics.
The department of health said yesterday there were more than 1 million people waiting to be admitted to hospitals in England during June, which is a rise of almost 17,000 on the same time last year.
More than 20,000 patients had been waiting for more than a year. However, the total waiting fell by 770 between May and June this year, and there has been a drop of 103,300 compared to March 1997.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 10 August page 10
Lottery money helps illegal asylum seekers
Two senior cabinet ministers yesterday questioned the award of hundreds of thousands of pounds of lottery money to a campaigning group that helps illegal immigrants stay in Britain.
Home secretary David Blunkett and culture secretary Tessa Jowell, who oversees the national lottery, both condemned the granting of lottery money to organisations that engage in political activity.
Their criticism followed the disclosure that the lottery’s community fund has given three grants totaling £723,000 to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.
The fund is now reviewing its grants to the coalition, which organises support for failed asylum seekers.
Source:- The Sunday Times 11 August page 2
Paedophile ring hunted inside armed forces
A network of suspected paedophiles in the armed forces, who are downloading child pornography from the internet are being investigated by military police.
There are growing numbers of paedophile inquiries in which members of the Royal Marines, the RAF and Royal Navy are being targeted by ministry of defence police, legal experts say.
Source:- The Sunday Times 11 August page 9
Fines for thugs
People indulging in antisocial or drunken behaviour are to be given on-the-spot fines by police in the west Midlands.
The year-long pilot project follows a rise in rowdy behaviour and vandalism.
Source:- The Sunday Times 11 August page 22
Police make two arrests in search for missing pair
Detectives investigating the abduction of two girls from Soham, Cambridgeshire, have arrested two local men.
As Cambridgeshire police staged a reconstruction of the last known movements of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, they were continuing to question the men, who were detained separately on Friday afternoon and yesterday morning.
As police intensified the search for the two girls, they announced that they would begin interviewing suspected paedophiles across Britain tomorrow.
The two girls have been missing since last Sunday evening, but police believe they are alive.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 11 August page 1
10,000 asylum seekers allowed to disappear
More than 10,000 asylum seekers who were sent to a detention centre set up to deport unfounded claimants have been sent back into the community despite having their asylum applications rejected.
When the Oakington detention centre in Cambridgeshire was opened two years ago, ministers promised that it would "fast-track" 13,000 asylum seekers each year, assessing claims within seven days and deporting those rejected.
Last night the home office said that although it was assessing initial asylum applications as promised, it was unable to deport those rejected because they were entitled to appeal. Immigrants were being released while the appeal process was underway because Oakington, which holds 400, could not contain them all.
Figures show 12,152 refugees have been processed in the centre’s first 22 months to the end of December last year. Of these, 10,075 were refused the right to stay, but not one had been sent home. All had been released to other addresses.
It was not clear if any of the 2,077 applicants processed had been deported.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 11 August page 10
Lib Dems endorse ‘IoS’ fight against Mental Health Bill
The Liberal Democrats are to use their annual conference to highlight the "dictatorial and distorted" government plans to change mental health laws, and to back the Independent on Sunday’s campaign on the issue.
The party’s health spokesperson, Dr Evan Harris, will ask the Lib Dems to call for a reform of the Mental Health Act 1983 based on respect for patient autonomy and care with consent.
The party’s concerns centre on the government’s failure to strike a balance between public safety and civil liberties.
Source:- Independent on Sunday 11 August page 1
Playgrounds full of racial abuse
Many ethnic minority children in mainly white schools are suffering a constant stream of racist abuse and hurtful name-calling, according to government sponsored research.
The worst cases of abuse take places in areas where race-hate groups such as the British National Party have been active, the study for the department for education and skills shows.
It reveals that one in three children from ethnic minority groups were the victims of verbal abuse either at school or on the way home.
Twenty six percent said they had suffered race-related name calling in the past week.
Source:- Independent on Sunday 11 August page 14
Chips part of get-fit scheme for children
Free chips and fizzy drinks are being offered to children to bribe them to turn up for a publicly-funded get-fit scheme for the school summer holidays.
Warwickshire council has donated £5,000 for the scheme to help occupy their six-week break.
Organisers said the scheme had been a success and youth crime in the town had dropped dramatically, so they had been forced to extend the age qualification.
The scheme, called "Chips and Sport" runs two afternoons a week and coaches children in football and basketball. Around 40 youngsters regularly turn up.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 12 August page 6
£1.8 million
The man who spent 27 years in jail for the ‘Bakewell Tart’ murder is due to receive a record £1.8 million in compensation.
Stephen Downing is to be offered the huge damages by the home office and the police.
He was 17 when Wendy Sewell was murdered in the cemetery where he worked in his home town of Bakewell, Derbyshire, in 1973.
In January this year the appeal court quashed Downing’s murder conviction, paving the way for him to receive compensation for wrongful imprisonment and the trauma of spending so many years in prison.
Source:- Daily Mail Monday 12 August page 5
Scottish newspapers
Postcode lottery for hyperactivity pill
Hyperactive children in certain areas of Scotland are seven times more likely to be treated with the controversial drug, Ritalin.
Scottish executive figures show that children living in Fife, Tayside and Grampian regions are several times more likely to be prescribed Ritalin for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those living in Lanarkshire, Glasgow and Ayrshire.
Ritalin has provoked fierce debate within the medical profession and family support groups with one side singing its praises while the other believes labelling a child as suffering from ADHD and prescribing the drug which keeps them quiet does long term harm.
Source:- Sunday Herald 11 August page 6
MSPs to push gay marriage on Whitehall
The Scottish parliament’s equal opportunities committee is to press Holyrood and Whitehall to introduce a form of gay marriage.
The committee is carrying out an inquiry into sexual orientation issues, and is to report later this year. It is expected to recommend a form of same sex marriage similar to that allowed in Holland, Germany and France.
The Scottish executive has already said that such issues would have to be dealt with jointly with Whitehall to prevent major inconsistency of rights within the UK. At the same time, the executive is believed to be desperate to avoid a repeat of a morality debate similar to that surrounding the repeal of Section 28 in Scotland last year.
Source:- The Sunday Times – Scotland 11 August page 2
Dunblane handgun ban under review
The national ban on handguns imposed in 1992 after the massacre of school children in Dunblane is being reviewed by Westminster to improve Britain’s medal prospects at international pistol-shooting competitions.
The controversial move follows a one-off lifting of the ban to allow small calibre pistol shooters to take part in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. A reversal of the legislation would put hundreds of pistols back in the hands of marksmen at a time when police forces are becoming increasingly concerned about the circulation of illegal weapons. Any relaxation of the law is bound to face strong opposition in Scotland.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 11 August page 1
Executive to ignore new rules on right to buy homes
The Scottish executive is set to ignore its own proposed limitations to the right to buy of council homes fearing it will prove too unpopular in next year’s election.
In spite of being the first administration in the UK to propose such a ban, the executive is set to proceed with certain aspects of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 next month, but will suspend the restrictions on council house sales in the meantime. The move is designed to slow the depletion of public housing throughout Scotland.
Source:- The Herald Monday 12 August page 1
‘Bullied’ pupil sues school
A teenage girl is to sue her local authority for failing to prevent her being bullied in what could be a landmark case in Scotland.
Natalie King, aged 13, is seeking compensation of up to £20,000 from Aberdeen council for psychological damage allegedly suffered by her as a result of bullying at Dyce Academy.
Source:- The Scotsman Monday 12 August page 1
Welsh newspapers
Parents’ fear must not stop child’s play
Children need independent play to help them develop as individuals, experts say.
But high profile cases like that of missing Cambridgeshire 10-year-olds, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, have highlighted the dilemma that parents face when deciding how much freedom to allow their children.
Catriona Williams, chief executive of the charity, Children in Wales, said that research shows that children are more likely to be harmed by accidents in the home or on the roads or by someone known to them, than by strangers.
She added that while cases of child abduction and murder were deeply upsetting it was very important to realise that they are rare.
Marianne Mannello, of national play charity Play Wales, said that she understood parents fears, but that play was a key part of child development and that exposing children to small risks helped them to develop skills that would assist them later in life.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 12 August page 5
Council to increase truancy prosecutions
A local authority is getting tough with the parents of truants.
Pembrokeshire council in west Wales has warned that if parents do not ensure that their children attend school regularly, they will be prosecuted.
The council says that it will be increasing the number of prosecutions when the school year begins in September.
The move follows two recent convictions of parents in the county.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 12 August page 5
