In Today's Papers

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Bullied girl used school tie to hang herself
A schoolgirl who used her school tie to hang herself after complaining of being bullied, was discovered by her four year-old brother, an inquest was told yesterday.
Kirsty Botto, aged 13 from Swansea, was found hanging at the end of her bunk bed after she failed to appear for breakfast.
Botto's mother, Angela Roper, and her partner Lee Wheatley rushed upstairs once the boy had alerted them, but it was too late.

PC Steven Daniels said that Botto had been having problems with a particular family in the area, one of whose members bullied her, among others.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 17 September page 7
Children's charities demand owners list pre-paid mobiles
The owners of all pre-pay mobile phones should be forced to register their details in order to prevent paedophiles from using untraceable mobiles to access illegal sites and chatrooms, children's charities have warned.
The Children's Charities Coalition on Internet Safety, consisting of seven large charities, called for a similar code of safeguards on mobile phones as there is in the fixed-line internet world.
Mobile phone operators said the move would represent a huge challenge as millions of pre-pay mobile phone users are reluctant to give out their details.
Source:- The Financial Times Wednesday 17 September page 4
Shot girl inquiry by social services
Birmingham social services has begun an inquiry into how a girl in their care was killed together with her father, a convicted crack cocaine dealer, by a gunman while staying in London.
Bertram Byfield and his daughter Toni-Ann died at the weekend in an attack police believe was linked to a personal dispute with the father.
It emerged yesterday that Toni-Ann was legally in the care of Birmingham Social Services.
After a period with a foster family in Birmingham, Toni-Ann was allowed to move to London to live with a different relative a month ago. However, she is alleged to have stayed with the relative during the week and with her father at a flat in Kensal Rise, north-west London, at weekends.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 17 September page 6
Sad plight of the elderly with nowhere left to go
A committee of MPs has criticised the "intolerable" level of older people who are fit to leave hospital, but are unable to do so due to a lack of care home places.
Around 3,500 people have their discharges from hospital delayed on any given day according to a new report from the House of Commons public accounts committee.
It goes on to state that that the situation is costing the NHS £170 million a year.
Source:- The Daily Mail Wednesday 17 September page 23
A raw deal
How can residents be expected to solve the problems of living in deprived communities? Polly Toynbee returns to check the rhetoric on how a tough south London estate is faring
Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 17 September page 2
Health policy thinktank banks on long shortlist
The King's Fund is currently recruiting for a new chief executive to succeed Rabbi Julia Neuberger.
A shortlist of 15 will be cut down to 5 or 6 this week with the aim of filling the post by the end of October.
The long shortlist is alleged to include the BBC's social affairs editor Niall Dickson, and the government's mental health Tsar Louis Appleby.
Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 17 September page 6
System addict
'I am a fan of targets…' Audit commission chief executive Steve Bundred tells Malcom Dean about his plans for the public spending watchdog
Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 17 September page 6
No blame no gain?
Scandal-hit Newham has improved its social-services department without pointing the finger
Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 17 September page 6
No longer cast adrift
Local authorities fear that a court ruling extending their duty of care to young asylum seekers will place heavy burdens on their resources
Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 17 September page 8
What else can I do?
Sally's two children have left home, and now the 46-year-old health visitor is keen to develop her career- but where to start?
Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 17 September page 128
Scottish newspapers
Young witness policy ‘flawed’
One of the Scottish executive’s principal policies has been condemned by children’s rights campaigners who have dismissed a new law on vulnerable witnesses as a waste of £5 million.

Far from being “a bill of rights” for minors, there is concern that the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Bill will leave too much to the discretion of judges and sheriffs.
The campaigners think that the thousands of children who come into contact with the courts each years will be failed by the law.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 17 September page 6
Council accused of ignoring rape case confession
A council, which has been accused of failing to act on a confession by a carer that he had raped a woman with learning difficulties, said it would contact the police over the allegations.
It has been claimed that carer James Mercer, who was among three men convicted last year of torturing and sexually abusing a woman known as Miss X, had confessed to raping her two years before the case came to light.
After receiving an anonymous tip-off Christine Grahame MSP alleged yesterday that Scottish Borders Council was in possession of the confession, but had failed to act.
The council’s chief executive David Hume last night rejected the allegations.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 17 September
New school hope for Luke Mitchell’s family
The family of Luke Mitchell expressed their hope yesterday for a swift end to the search for a new school.
Last week, the boyfriend of murdered schoolgirl Jodi Jones walked out of St David’s High School in Dalkeith following a dispute with the headteacher over plans to isolate him from other pupils.
Several schools in the area were proposed yesterday in talks held between the family and education authorities.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 17 September
Find our wee girl
A hunt was underway last night for a 14-year-old Scots girl who ran away from the family home in Spain with her boyfriend.
Amanda McDonnell and Steven Lane stole her parents’ car on Friday, and told friends they were going to find work in London.
Amanda’s family had taken Steven into their home after he was kicked out by his mother three weeks ago.
Last night the girl’s mother Carol Beech, originally from West Lothian and who moved to Spain a year ago, begged the teenager to contact her.
Source:- Daily Record Wednesday 17 August page 6 and 7
Welsh newspapers
Youth worker in child porn shame
A council employee who taught outdoor pursuits to young people in schools in Cardiff has admitted downloading almost 1,000 pornographic pictures of children.
Cardiff Council dismissed Phillip Chiappetti following the court case, but no ban has been imposed on him working with children in the future because such an order can only be made on sex offenders jailed for 12 months or more. He was ordered to take part in a rehabilitation programme and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
Source:- South Wales Echo Tuesday 16 September pages 1and 4
I just want to die – Carla, 14
A teenage girl claims that bullying has brought her to the brink of suicide, at her school in south Wales.
Carla Court, aged 14, from Newport says that she has been subjected to a catalogue of physical and verbal abuse at Duffryn High School in the city and both the police and the school are investigating the complaint.
Carla is currently being kept away from school and the education welfare service are working with her and her mother to explore the options available to her.
Source:- South Wales Argus Tuesday 16 September pages 1, 4 and 5
Mum listened on phone as dad gassed their boys one by one
A horrified mother listened on the phone as her children was killed by her estranged husband, an inquest heard yesterday.
Keith Young drove his four sons to a beauty spot in north Wales and gassed them by running a petrol lawnmower in the back of the family car.
As the children were dying Young called his wife to tell her what he was doing.
The coroner at the inquest in Wrexham recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on the four children, and said that Young had taken his own life.
Source:- Western Mail 17 September page 1