By Clare Jerrom, Nicola Barry and Alex Dobson.
Judge lets abusive neighbour keep her home
A woman suffering from mental health problems, who makes her neighbours’ life a misery when she shouts and swears late at night, has been allowed to remain in her home.
A high court judge told Christine Brazier that moves to get her evicted constituted a breach of the Disability Discrimination Act, despite repeated anti-social behaviour.
A county court ruling made in October that ordered Brazier to leave her home in Burrington, Devon, was overturned by Mr Justice David Steel.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 1 April 2003
Prison officer wins £150,000 trauma payout
The prison service will pay damages of £150,000 to a retired prison officer for the psychological trauma he suffered as a result of counselling some of Britain’s worst sex offenders.
Ronald Johnson from Leyland in Lancashire has been unable to work since doctors diagnosed post traumatic stress disorder and depression. He claimed he had not been properly supervised or prepared for dealing with sex offenders at Albany jail on the Isle of Wight.
The award was agreed minutes before a four-day hearing at the high court was due to begin.
Lawyers estimated the prison service will face a costs bill of between £70,000 and £100,000. The service did not accept liability.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 1 April 2003
Nanny ‘shook child until brain bled’
A nanny shook a seven-month-old baby so hard that the baby girl suffered a brain haemorrhage, a court was told yesterday.
Michelle Petchey was employed by a couple to look after their seven-month
-old twin daughters, but after 23 days in employment she had shaken one so severely that her brain had started to bleed, Reading crown court heard.
The trial continues.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 1 April 2003 page 13
MP’s sword attacker obsessed with plot
A man who believed he was a victim of a conspiracy attacked his MP with a samurai sword, a court was told yesterday.
Robert Ashman seriously injured Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, Nigel Jones in the attack at the MP’s weekly surgery, and killed his assistant Andrew Pennington.
Ashman admits killing Pennington, but denies attempting to murder Jones in the same attack.
The prosecution has accepted Ashman’s plea of guilty of manslaughter of Pennington on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The trial continues.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 1 April page 13
Son knifed parents to spare their feelings
A teenager who was plotting to murder a youth, stabbed his father to death and tried to kill his mother to save them from the shame of a trial.
James MacDonald, aged 17, told police he spent weeks planning to murder a teenager, he claims bullied him at college and he had hoarded weapons to do so.
But he said he realised his parents would be “upset” by his trial so he decided to kill them to protect them.
MacDonald, who was 16 when he crept into his parents bedroom to stab them both, denies murdering his father, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The plea was accepted yesterday at Winchester crown court where MacDonald also admitted the attempted murder of his mother at the family home in Hampshire.
He will be sentenced on Monday, but Stewart Jones, QC for MacDonald, said doctors believed he needed psychiatric help and accommodation was being sought at Broadmoor security hospital.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 1 April page 15
Alarm over deaths in custody
Human rights group, Liberty, said in a study yesterday that the system for dealing with deaths in custody in England and Wales breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.
The report, which calls for radical changes to the way such cases are investigated, was backed by relatives of people, who have died in police custody or prison.
The study proposes a reform of the inquest system and the procedures for deciding on prosecutions of police officers, prison wardens and others involved in prisoners’ deaths.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 1 April page 14
GP ‘hit mental patient’
A GP hit a psychiatric patient with a frying pan, a wine bottle and said shooting such people was a “good idea”, it was alleged at a General Medical Council disciplinary hearing yesterday.
It was alleged that Charles Gould of Jordanstown, County Antrim, struck out at a patient after being called to assess him in June 2001.
Dr Gould denies acting violently and unprofessionally towards Patient X. He also denies two charges of making inappropriate and unprofessional remarks about psychiatric patients.
He has denied a charge of being guilty of serious professional misconduct in relation to the charges.
The hearing continues.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 1 April page 15
Drug warning
A British Journal of Psychiatry report claims that one in five teenagers who smokes cannabis will go on to become dependent on the drug.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Tuesday 1 April page 12
Scottish newspapers
COSLA says housing agency is in a mess
The £370 million housing agency set up by the Scottish executive is making a mess of its work, and is more likely to hinder local authorities than help them, the head of Scotland’s councils claimed yesterday.
Communities Scotland is also accused of trying to police councils instead of trusting them, and threatening to choke new initiatives with red tape.
The damning charges are made in two leaked letters written by Pat Watters, President of COSLA to Margaret Curran, who was social justice minister before parliament dissolved.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 1 April page 6
Eviction threat for problem youths
Teenagers and their families could be thrown out of their homes under a scheme being piloted by a Scottish council to combat anti-social behaviour.
The initiative, which has proved a success in several towns and cities in England and Wales, involves contracts between offenders, their parents and the authorities.
Edinburgh council admits that while acceptable behaviour contracts are voluntary and not legally binding, they can be used to support an application for an eviction order.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 1 April page 10
Welsh newspapers
Many prayed - but others wept
Prayers have been said for the victims of a paedophile priest at the church where they were abused.
Following the jailing of Canon Lawrence Davies, a senior Welsh cleric for sexual abuse against two boys in his parish, members of the congregation in the church where he served as a vicar broke down in tears during the first service held following his trial.
The Bishop of Llandaff, the Right Reverend Dr Barry Morgan, told parishioners that the abuse and subsequent conviction had divided the community.
Davies was jailed for 10 years last week after a jury at Cardiff crown court found him guilty of a number of sexual offences.
Source:- South Wales Echo Monday 31 March page 9
Pain in store
Parents with children who have disabilities say they face an endurance test each time they go out to the shops.
Research by the charity, the Family Fund, reveals that for the majority of families with a child with disabilities, the simple weekly chore that other people take for granted, is made difficult and frustrating.
Problems with access and parking and the unhelpful attitude of other shoppers made the task unnecessarily difficult, according to the research.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 1 April page 9
