By Clare Jerrom, Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex Dobson.
Paedophile fear leads to nativity ban
Parents attending their children’s nativity plays have been prevented from taking cameras and video recorders for fear that images may end up in the hands of child sex offenders.
A village school’s decision to ban the parents of 94 children recording their children’s performances was met with disbelief by parents.
Head of Sundon Lower School, near Luton, Bedfordshire, wrote to families advising them of the ban agreed by school governors, who feared the images could end up on the internet.
Some parents are unhappy that treasured moments in the lives of their children cannot be recorded and will be lost forever.
Source:- The Times Friday 29 November page 3
Runaways cash
Up to £3 million is to be spent on trying to prevent runaways turning to drug abuse and prostitution.
Ministers presented an action plan to help the 77,000 children who run away each year.
Source:- The Times Friday 29 November page 2
Immigration increases by quarter to a record
Immigration increased by almost 25 per cent last year to reach a record 126,000 people, according to official statistics published yesterday.
The difference between the number of people leaving the country and those arriving with plans to stay for more than a year rose in 2001 to reach a record number.
The latest migration figures were announced on the eve of the publication of asylum statistics today which will show a further increase in the number of people arriving in Britain seeking refugee status.
Yesterday immigration minister Beverley Hughes said that a new measure would be introduced in January to stop support for people who do not claim asylum on immediate arrival.
Source:- The Times Friday 29 November page 12
Class assistant on sex charge
A class room assistant from Northampton appeared at the town’s magistrates court charged with having sex with a 13-year-old pupil.
Susan Stevens, aged 32, was bailed until 12 December.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 29 November page 7
Police put on alert for mass Sangatte exodus
Police are standing by to deal with more than 1,000 refuges coming into Britain from the Sangatte refugee camp, near Calais.
Home secretary David Blunkett agreed to take at least half of those given refugee status as a part of the deal made between the British and French governments to shut the camp in September.
Despite this, plans to open a 24-hour drop in centre for asylum seekers in Kent has raised suspicions Britain will receive the majority of the camp's inmates. There have also been claims that chief police officers have been consulted on plans to admit a 'sizeable' number of refugees.
Blunkett meets, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, on Monday to discuss the end of Sangatte, and the precise number of refugees being let into Britain is subject to negotiations between the pair.
Sangatte is due to close in April of next year, but Blunkett is pushing for it to shut much earlier. A House of Lords report published yesterday predicts the growth of illegal immigration in the next few years.
Source: Daily Mail Friday 29 November page 4
Traffickers stealing identities, Lords warn
A vast number of children who die in infancy are having their identities stolen by people-trafficking gangs, according to a House of Lords report released yesterday.
A detective superintendent, giving evidence to the committee, said more than a 1,000 cases were uncovered in a single operation involving the cross-referencing of birth and death certificates with passport applications and national insurance numbers.
Project Reflex, was run at Heathrow airport as part of a new European-wide initiative to combat immigration crime, but police have complained it was hampered by a lack of resources, with just 41 false identities being investigated so far.
The Lords report warned the home secretary, David Blunkett, that if illegal immigration isn't controlled there would be a 'growing underclass' of people 'vulnerable to exploitation'.
Source: The Guardian Friday 29 November page 15
Scottish newspapers
Drink and drugs fuel dramatic rise in Scotland’s homicide rate
The homicide rate went up last year despite focused efforts by police and the Scottish executive to drive it down, new statistics have confirmed.
Echoing a rise in murders in England and Wales, police north of the border recorded 107 unlawful killings in 2001 compared with 105 the year before.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 29 November page 9
Festive purge against domestic abuse
A Scottish executive campaign against domestic abuse is to run this Christmas, social justice minister Margaret Curran confirmed yesterday.
The minister said police recorded 35,800 incidents of domestic abuse last year, a 5 per cent increase compared with 2000.
Source:- The Herald Friday 29 November page 6
Abused sisters win case against social workers
Four members of a family who accused social workers of negligence leading to them suffering years of physical and mental abuse as children, have won their 13-year campaign in the European court of human rights.
The landmark decision could open the floodgates for compensation claims against social workers in cases where children are not adequately protected from abusers.
Source:- The Herald Friday 29 November page 11
Exam system failing to help children in care
Almost two thirds of children in care leave school with the extra penalty of no qualifications to their name.
The first audit of how the most vulnerable children fare in Scottish schools reveals that they emerge worse off than their southern counterparts. Some 55 per cent leave school in England with no qualifications compared to 60 per cent in Scotland.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 29 November page 13
Welsh newspapers
‘Severe force’ caused baby’s fractures
A leading medical expert told jurors that fractures suffered by a six-month-old baby boy were caused by severe force.
Professor Jonathan Seiburt was giving evidence at Cardiff crown court in the trial of a 39-year-old man from south Wales, who denies charges of murdering his six-month-old son in 1998, and attempting to murder his seven-week-old son in 1999.
Seiburt who has 30 years of medical experience with children said that the fractures in babies were very difficult to detect, but he added that there was no possible accidental explanation for the injuries.
Source:- South Wales Argus Thursday 28 November page 5
Charity’s computers worth £5,000 stolen
A mental health charity in Cardiff has had vital computer equipment stolen.
The computers worth a total of £5,000 were stolen earlier this week from the offices of Mind, and staff and volunteers say it will take months to replace the lost information.
A spokesperson said the computers contained confidential information, and although it was protected by a security password, it would take a huge amount of work to replace.
Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 28 November page 4
Nurse gave man overdose of drug
Hospital mangers have confirmed that they have completed an investigation following the death of a patient who received a massive drug overdose from a nurse.
Retired miner Thomas Martin developed intestinal bleeding which contributed to his death, after he was given the overdose by Scandinavian agency nurse Suzanna Brusoyri at the University Hospital of Wales.
Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 28 November page 7
We don’t want problem pupils in our village
A specialist centre that will cater for pupils who have been excluded from school, is facing fierce local opposition.
But despite the fears of local residents, the centre that will cater for up to 24 students with behavioural problems is due to open next April in Pengam in Caerphilly.
The centre’s staff will work to improve the behaviour of young people who have or are in danger of being excluded from school.
One local resident said that protesters were still very opposed to the unit and that they would keep the pressure up.
Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 28 November page 11
Revolutionary wheelchair - £18,000 each
A revolutionary wheelchair that has four-wheel drive, can tackle tough terrain and can even climb stairs, has been developed.
Designers of the Individual Balancing Optimized Transporter (IBOT 3000), claim that it will give freedom to people with disabilities, but the wheelchairs come with a price tag of £18,000.
Will Bee, director of the Disability Rights Commission in Wales, who uses a wheelchair himself, said that such technical advances were welcome and that as more developments were made the price was likely to fall.
Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 28 November page 17
Hutt denies Wales lacks an anti-poverty strategy
Welsh Assembly minister for health and social services Jane Hutt has responded to the criticism that Wales lacks an anti-poverty strategy for children.
She has presented a long list of initiatives that she claims are helping to lift Wales out of its position as the country with the poorest children in the UK.
Her response came following the presentation of the annual report from the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Peter Clarke, who said in his report that one third of all children in Wales were living in poverty.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 29 November page 2
Mother escapes prison sentence after her truant daughter’s emotional plea
A mother who had been warned she could face prison because of her daughter’s failure to attend school, escaped sentencing following an emotional appeal by her daughter.
Magistrates were handed a letter from the 11-year-old begging them not to send her mother to prison. The girl from Flintshire has only a 12 per cent school attendance record.
Magistrates imposed a parenting order on the mother that includes a package of support to ensure that she sends her daughter to school. She also received a fresh two-year conditional discharge, and magistrates said she will have to maintain contact with an educational social worker.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 29 November page 3
