By Clare Jerrom, Nicola Barry and Alex Dobson.
Family courts in the dock
A test high court challenge is to be bought against the government’s family court service by two families because children are being taken into care without proper representation.
The families lawyers have won leave to seek judicial review proceedings against the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, over a national shortage of guardians ad litem. They say that cases to decide a child’s future are being delayed because guardians cannot be appointed.
In the two cases, the children were removed from their families without the children’s views being represented by guardians.
Mt Justice Scott Baker granted leave for the families to bring the test challenge, which will be funded by the Legal Services Commission.
The cases are likely to be heard this autumn by the high court.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 18 September page 2
Soham porn checks inquiry
Cambridgeshire police asked detectives from an outside force to investigate how two officers suspected of child pornography offences were allowed to work on the Soham murder case.
DC Brian Stevens and PC Antony Goodridge were on a list of 279 suspected paedophiles living in Cambridgeshire that was passed to the county’s police by the London-based national Criminal Intelligence Service. It had been given the names by the FBI.
The police received the list at the beginning of July yet took no action for nine weeks.
Police sources said the list wasn’t examined when it first arrived and a meeting was scheduled for 5 August to discuss it. The meeting was cancelled following the disappearance of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.
Cambridgeshire police finally studied the list of suspects last Wednesday and the two officers were arrested.
Detectives from west Midlands police began their inquiries yesterday.
DC Stevens faces three child pornography charges and PC Goodridge faces four of the same charges. They were released on bail on Monday, but have been suspended from duty.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 18 September page 3
Train asylum seekers, MPs told
MPs were told yesterday that taxpayers should pay for a plot of land for failed asylum seekers in their native country to encourage them to stay.
Charities also told the home affairs committee that training asylum seekers while they await the outcome of their case would also benefit the country they ended up in.
Such entitlements would not encourage illegal immigrants as they were small compensation for a long and expensive journey to the UK.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 18 September page 4
Tagging ‘murder’
A 16-year-old boy who was electronically tagged has been charged with murder.
The youth, who cannot be named, is accused of shooting a teenager in south London.
He was remanded into custody following a hearing at Balham youth court, south London.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 18 September page 4
Lecturer ‘lured under-age girl on the Internet’
A British college lecturer could face up to 40 years in jail in America after it is alleged he lured an under-age girl to have sex with him via the internet.
Jason Tsiricos was arrested in a hotel room in Madison heights, Detroit, at the end of last month. Police sources in America said Tsiricos had been in contact with the 15-year-old girl for two years, and that they had both set up web cameras so they could see each other.
The man from Bedfordshire is said to have first got in touch with the girl in an internet chat room and talked about music.
The pair first met on August 18 and saw each other for three days. The girl’s mother became suspicious about her behaviour and confronted her, before going to Tsiricos' hotel room. She called the police after he allegedly admitted having a sexual relationship with her daughter.
Officers arrested him and he will now receive bail if he can find £65,000.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 18 September page 8
Court told of cruelty by mother
The woman accused of killing her two-year-old daughter hated her daughter even before she was born referring to her as "bitch" and "slag" the court heard yesterday.
Leanne Labonte punched her belly while pregnant in a bid to harm her unborn child and failed to bond with her after her birth, the child’s father, Dennis Henry told the Old Bailey.
Ainlee Walker was found dead at her mother’s flat in Plaistow, east London, in January.
Labonte and Henry deny manslaughter and cruelty and blame each other for the child’s injuries.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 18 September page 8
Bail plan to keep police on street
New "street bail" powers are to be given to the police to deal with minor offenders such as shoplifters without taking them to the police station as part of a package to put more officers on patrol.
Police on patrol will also be encouraged to take meal breaks in restaurants to avoid wasting time going back to the station and provide a reassurance to other diners.
The scheme is already running in the west Midlands where it started as a way to provide reassurance to Indian restaurant owners who regularly faced disruptive customers.
Home secretary David Blunkett said he hoped the package would make best use of the time officers spend on the beat and cut down on paper-work.
Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 18 September page 2
Increase in prison assaults ‘caused by overcrowding’
Overcrowding in prisons has led to a sharp increase in assaults and suicide attempts by inmates and prison watchdogs fear for security, according to a report published today.
The Prison Reform Trust’s report, which brings together for the first time the views of official boards of visitors for more than 100 prisons in England and Wales, calls for urgent action over the prison population.
The official watchdogs for each prison said that overcrowding meant that many inmates were being held in either the wrong security conditions or in unsuitable parts of prisons.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "This unique report must act as a wake up call to the government to reduce prison numbers."
Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 18 September page 10
Blair pledges to eradicate child poverty by 2020
The prime minister will commit the government to eradicating child poverty by 2020 when he pledges today to redistribute power and wealth.
As figures are published showing the extent of poverty across the country, Tony Blair will announce the creation of 800 Sure Start children’s centres offering cash and advice in deprived areas.
Blair will promise that reducing the number of children on the breadline will be a "key test" of his second term.
Source:- The Independent Wednesday 18 September page 2
Guardian Society
Key stroke
Fears over cash for affordable homes
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 18 September page 4
Exit toll on older people
Government drive to beat ‘bed-blocking’ raises concerns
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 18 September page 4
Beyond bias
How a timely TV drama helps to challenge the stereotype of people with learning difficulties
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 18 September page 12
Model mates
Children here may now benefit from a mentoring service, long established in the US
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 18 September page 132-131
Patterns of protection
Service ‘hubs’ seek as key to child safety reform
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 18 September page 131
Scottish newspapers
Two years for each baby’s life
A father who killed his two baby sons was jailed for seven years yesterday.
If his behaviour in prison is good, Ian Metcalfe can expect to be freed in 2006, thanks to Lord Carloway’s sentence.
Source:- The Daily Record September 18 page 1 and page 4
Concern over Mental Health Bill
A mixed reaction greeted the bill proposing the most radical shake-up of mental health laws in 40 years.
Some experts and SNP MSPs are concerned about the powers to compel people in the community to take medication.
Source:- The Herald September 18 page 2
Assault victim to meet his female attackers
A court has ordered that a victim of a girl gang assault be given the chance to meet his attackers before they are sentenced.
Sheriff Andrew Bell called for a meeting to be set up between Neil Davidson, a 46-year-old psychiatric nurse and a gang of girls who beat him up so badly he did not return to work for six months.
Davidson wants to explain to the girls how their behaviour left him traumatised.
Source:- The Herald September 18 page 14
Welsh newspapers
Kilshaws pack theatre with chat show on twins
A show featuring the Kilshaws, the couple at the centre of the Internet adoption controversy, has packed a theatre in Chester.
The couple made headlines all over the world last year after their bid to adopt American twin girls, Kimberley and Belinda using the internet, failed.
They had been warned by publicity guru Max Clifford that their theatrical debut was likely to fail and that they would not sell a single ticket.
But after all the tickets were snapped up for ‘Meet the Kilshaws’ at Chester’s Gateway Theatre, the couple said they would now take the show to other venues.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 18 September page 1
Coach jailed for 18 years for sex assaults on boys
A swimming instructor who "robbed children of their innocence" was jailed for 18 years yesterday.
Paedophile John Glyn Jones, who used his position at a leisure centre in south Wales to "groom" his young victims, was found guilty of 11 serious sexual offences against two boys.
Judge Christopher Llewellyn at Cardiff crown court told Jones: "You systematically abused one of the boys from the age of 10 until he was 15."
Jones, of Roundhouse Close, Nantyglo, is currently serving a 10-year sentence for rape and indecent assault on five boys and a girl.
The judge ordered that the two sentences should run concurrently.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 18 September page 1 and feature ‘Abuse of Power’ page 2
Drama teacher child abuse inquiry reopens
The Clywch inquiry into allegations of child abuse at a south Wales school reopens today.
The inquiry was halted at the end of April following fresh allegations of abuse against five adults that were investigated by the police. In July, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to bring any charges against the five.
The investigation, chaired by Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Peter Clarke, resumes today and will look into all the circumstances surrounding alleged abuse by John Owen, a former drama teacher at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen school in Pontypridd.
John Owen killed himself just one day before he was due to stand trial for alleged abuse, and the families of the alleged victims mounted a campaign for a public inquiry.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 18 September page 2
