In Today's Papers

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.

Huntley faced rape charge in 1998, Old Bailey jury told
Ian Huntley, the caretaker accused of murdering Soham schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, was charged with rape in 1998 the jury at the Old Bailey heard yesterday.
He was acquitted of the charge involving a young girl when CCTV evidence showed he was elsewhere at the time the attack was alleged to have taken place.
Huntley's ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr told police about the charge after the couple were arrested. She said she had lied about being in Soham when the girls went missing in August in order to protect Huntley who had a nervous breakdown after the rape charge.

"The reason why I told the police I was at home was because my partner, Ian, he was accused in 1998 of attacking a girl, of raping a girl," she said.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday November 27 page 3
'Racist' panto reprieved
A pantomime banned from being shown in a village hall in Devon due to concerns that it was racist, has been given the go ahead.
The pantomime, entitled ‘Snow White and the Seven Asylum Seekers’, was halted after advice from the Commission for Racial Equality and Devon and Exeter Racial Equality.
The pantomime will be put on five miles down the road from its original home at the village hall in Merton, near Oakhampton, to the village hall in Langtree.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday November 27 page 4
Truants caught shopping with parents
Police in Kent found over one hundred children out of school when they conducted an anti-truancy operation last month - most of whom were out shopping with their parents.
The five-hour operation carried out in Maidstone found 104 children not at school, 80 of them shopping with one or both of their parents.
Despite parents being able to be prosecuted for condoning truancy, the police said that no charges would be brought as a result of last Friday's operation.
Instead they have sent warning letters to all the families involved and are working with Kent Council, the local education authority, to monitor future school attendance for all of the young people caught.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday November 27 page 3
Migrants could lose children
New asylum legislation will be published today to coincide with the latest figures thought to show that the numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Britain will be around 50,000, half the number in 2002.
The new bill reduces benefits for those who refuse to return home, and will reduce appeals against rejections.
Other proposals include local authorities taking children into care if their health and wellbeing is put under threat due to their parents being destitute.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday November 27 page 13
Children tracked through life
The proposed Children's Bill aims to change the law in response to the Laming inquiry into Victoria Climbie.
The bill includes measures to appoint a children's commissioner, create a post of director of children's services and a lead council member for children.
It also puts forward giving every child in England a unique identifier number attached to an electronic file enabling workers to track the child and see which other services they have come into contact with.
Source:- The Times Thursday November 27 page 12
Scottish newspapers
Cold statistics
The number of older people who died as a result of cold increased by 700 last year.
At least 2,510 pensioners in Scotland perished through cold-related illnesses and older people’s charity Help the Aged claimed last night that more older people are dying as they have to choose to heat or eat.
The charity’s Scottish director Liz Duncan has urged the government to act or face even more disturbing figures next year.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 27 November page 8
Scotland: home of the booze and blade culture
The number of Scots murdered last year was one of the highest in Europe, new figures released yesterday showed.
More than half of the 127 people killed were victims of stabbing – the highest total for a decade – and alcohol and drugs were implicated in almost two thirds of cases.
The emergence of Scotland’s “booze and blade” culture will be embarrassing for first minister Jack McConnell, who has pushed tackling antisocial behaviour and crime to the top of the political agenda.

Source:- The Herald Thursday 27 November
Teen birth rate falls but poor record stays
Fewer Scottish teenagers are becoming pregnant, but the nation still has one of the worst records in Europe, it emerged yesterday.
The rate of conception among teenage girls fell to the lowest level for six years. At the same time, the Scottish executive report also shows that the proportion of 13-15 year-olds aborting or miscarrying babies has reached 57 per cent, the highest rate since 1991.
The number of teenage girls giving birth in Scotland dropped to 24.1 per 1,000 last year from 25.5 the previous year. This compares to 9.3 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 in France, 9.9 in Belgium and 6.2 in the Netherlands, according to a Unicef report.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 27 November
Handbook on the hardest thing to tell a child
Social worker Leigh Jolly was compelled to write Mary’s book after her experiences found little literature to help young people understand why they may not live with their parents.
Four-year-old Mary went to live with her grandparents because her mother had a drug habit. But Jolly found it difficult to answer a lot of the little girl’s questions so went in search of books to help her give the answers in the right way.
Having found few sources of help she wrote ‘Mary’s Book’, which tells Mary’s story, and encompasses the author’s experiences and observations while working with several children.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 27 November
Welsh newspapers
No to training funds
A row over funding between a charity that helps to train disadvantaged young people and the education quango ELWa, is still unresolved.
The charity Rathbone Trading is having to scale down and close premises because according to its chief executive, Darrel James, it receives £800 less per trainee in Wales than in the rest of the UK.
But ELWa says that the charity has rejected new proposals from them that include offering a one-off package of transitional support of £225,000.
Source:- South Wales Argus Wednesday 26 November page 11
Killer could sue his hospital over care
A man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, who stabbed another man to death at a seaside resort, may sue the Cardiff hospital that was providing his care in the community.
Paul Khan is now serving a life sentence for the crime, but according to a local TV documentary feels that he and his victim were let down by the system that was meant to protect mental health patients and the public.
Khan had previously attacked a stranger in a Cardiff library, but was later released back into the community and killed 72-year-old Brian Dodd in a frenzied knife attack.
Source:- South Wales Echo Wednesday 26 November page 7
Minister advised against social services takeover
Welsh assembly members have been warned that any direct intervention in the running of Cardiff’s social services could be open to legal challenge.
Assembly health and social services minister Jane Hutt had been challenged by opposition members to intervene after a recent damming report on children’s services in the capital.
But a legal adviser told the assembly’s health and social services committee that such intervention should only be used as last resort because it could prompt a legal challenge.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 27 November page 7