By Clare Jerrom, Nicola Barry and Alex Dobson.
Pair questioned
The man accused with the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman was removed from his prison cell and taken for further questioning by police.
Ian Huntley's girlfriend, Maxine Carr who is charged with perverting the course of justice was also removed from her cell and questioned.
The pair were taken to the same police station, but questioned separately.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 October page 4
Blair's gay adoption Bill faces fatal attack
The Conservative leader is planning to kill off Tony Blair's plans to allow unmarried couples to adopt children.
Iain Duncan Smith's decision to order his MPs and peers to vote down changes for a second time will infuriate senior modernisers in the shadow cabinet who were hoping he would adopt a more progressive stance when the Adoption and Children Bill returns
to the Commons shortly.
Following the defeat in the Lords earlier this week, the government is sending the bill back to the Commons to allow MPs to vote them back in.
The proposed changes are backed by Tony Blair and would change the law to allow cohabiting couples including same sex couples to adopt children.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 October page 12
Benefit shake-up to stop fraud incentive
A shake-up of the housing benefit system will enable thousands of benefit claimants renting homes from landlords to be paid a flat local housing allowance.
Work and pensions secretary Andrew Smith described the move yesterday as a "fundamental break with the past" that would speed up the processing of benefits claiming in England, Scotland and Wales and make it easier for claimants to find work.
The new rate will initially be introduced in 10 pathfinder areas from next year at a cost of £20 million and would normally be paid to tenants directly, based on the area and family size.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 October page 12
Soham officer charged with sexual assault on girl,13
A police officer assigned to support the family of Jessica Chapman following the girls' abduction and murder with her friend, Holly Wells, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, it emerged yesterday.
Detective Constable Brian Stevens will face two counts of indecently assaulting the girl when he appears in court at Bury St Edmunds next month.
Stevens and constable Anthony Goodridge were arrested last month as part of the worldwide operation into child pornography.
The two reported to a police station in Cambridgeshire on Wednesday and were charged with 17 other offences.
DC Stevens was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children in addition to three similar counts to the indecent assaults he was charged with last month.
Goodridge was charged with 12 counts of making indecent images adding to four child pornography charges he faced.
The charges followed further inquiries and a forensic examination of the pair's computers.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 18 October page 11
Top councils in line for greater freedoms
The deputy prime minister will be urged to give a group of top performing councils greater freedoms today as part of Tony Blair's drive to end "one size fits all" public services.
The Local Government Association yesterday endorsed the proposals and today they will be put forward at the quarterly meeting between central and local government, chaired by John Prescott.
The freedoms would be additional to those already planned by the government for all councils.
The Audit Commission is expected to name the group of between 10 and 20 top performing councils in December.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 18 October page 13
Refugees go for £1,200
Five Afghan asylum seekers are to accept £1,200 each from the British and French government and return home from the Sangatte refugee camp near Calais.
The group are the first to accept the offer to encourage them to leave Europe.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Friday 18 October page 2
Scottish newspapers
Abuser freed as fourth trial fails
A convicted paedophile once branded a "public danger" walked free from court yesterday, after standing trial an unprecedented four times on a charge of assaulting a teenage boy.
Source:- The Scotsman October 18 page 12
Scots women fall further behind on pay
More women might be breaking through the so-called professional glass ceiling, but, when it comes to gender, the pay gap is widening.
Source:- The Scotsman October 18 page 3
Stress at work doubles heart attack risk
Employees who are stressed in their jobs are twice as likely to die from heart disease as those in less demanding occupations.
Source:- The Scotsman October 18 page 3
Welsh newspapers
Delays leaving blind people without help
Blind people in Wales are not receiving the help they need to cope with their loss of sight.
A survey of blind and partially sighted people by the Royal National Institute for the Blind Cymru found that many were having to wait for up to a year for initial help with daily activities like cooking and washing.
Joyce Chatterton, director of RNIB Cymru, said the picture was unnecessarily bleak and that local services needed an urgent injection of cash.
Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 17 October page 25
Social services in Wales trail England
National and local government need to work together to improve social services in Wales delegates at the National Social Services Conference in Cardiff were told yesterday.
Welsh assembly minister for health and social services, Jane Hutt, was speaking in the wake of a damning report from the Audit Commission and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (SSIW), that revealed some Welsh social services departments are failing vulnerable people, and she said that some difficult challenges lay ahead.
Hutt said that the first line of responsibility for bringing services up to speed lay with local authorities, but that the assembly also had a role to play in supporting and guiding appropriate routes for change.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 18 October page 11
