In Today's Papers

By Natasha Salari, Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.

Boy arrested in school after girl, 14, is stabbed
A 15-year-old boy was arrested in school after a girl was stabbed in an argument.
The argument was between three people and took place at Sir William Ramsey Secondary School in Hazelmere, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
The stabbed girl was taken to hospital while the other girl was sent home shaken and bruised.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 10 January page 2
Refugee infected woman with HIV

A South African asylum seeker pleaded guilty to giving a woman HIV during their year-long relationship.
Liverpool crown court heard Kouassi Adaye, aged 40, pleaded guilty to inflicting unlawful and malicious bodily harm on the 48-year-old woman who cannot be named.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 10 January page 8
New community care body created
In a move designed to create a more representative trade body for private nursing and residential homes and care providers the core part of the Independent Healthcare Association has merged with a new long-term care organisation.
The merger with English Care will create a new body entitled the English Community Care Association.
Source:- The Financial Times Saturday 10 January page 8
Foreigners who fleece the NHS will be barred from Britain
Overseas visitors who leave the country without paying hospital bills could be barred from re-entering in a renewed crackdown on ‘health tourism’.
British embassies across the world are to be given a ‘blacklist’ of people from abroad who have outstanding NHS bills. If they apply for a visa to re-enter Britain they will be reminded of the money that they owe, and this will count against their application being renewed.
Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 10 January page 37
Nuisance law for private landlords
A new crackdown on antisocial behaviour will see nuisance neighbours in privately-rented homes facing eviction.
Councils will be able to introduce the compulsory licensing of landlords in designated neighbourhoods, to target landlords who fail to vet tenants properly or curb the behaviour of those who intimidate neighbours.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 11 January page 5
Anger over children locked alone in jail cells
Disruptive children in young offenders’ institutions are being stripped naked and kept in solitary confinement.
Over the past year more than 100 children were sent to punishment cells which have no light, ventilation, furniture or sanitation. A parliamentary answer to Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Mark Oaten, reveals that the cells have been used 153 times at youth prisons across the country.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 11 January page 7
Conmen fleece trusting old folk of £100 million a year… by abusing the system meant to protect them
Thousands of older people are being robbed of their life savings by conmen exploiting the system intended to help older people safeguard their finances.
Up to £100 million a year is thought to have been stolen from older people who have been duped into signing away power of attorney.
The government encourages older people to sign an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) form, which hands over control of their financial affairs to a carer, but fraudsters have found ways to abuse the system.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday 11 January page 42
Where it pays to be gay if you want to adopt a child
There has been an explosion in gay adoption since it first became legal a year ago.
In some parts of London, rates have reached one in six of all adoptions. But in Brighton, 50 per cent of couples being approved for adoption are gay, according to the Local Government Association.
Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 12 January page 8
Children to be shielded from abuse via mobiles
Children using new mobile phones will be blocked from accessing pornography, gambling and chatrooms, in order to protect them from paedophiles, under new regulations.
The six largest mobile phone operators have agreed to the new measures. They place a duty on the companies to make sure a customer is over 18 before allowing them to buy a phone with unlimited access to such services.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 12 January page 3
Cut-price drugs hit the streets
Street prices of drugs have been slashed since 1997 suggesting that supply is increasing despite record seizures by customs and police.
Cocaine is now 29 per cent cheaper than in 1997, a gram of heroin is 18 per cent lower and ecstasy tablets are half price.
The National Criminal Intelligence figures also show that the price of cannabis has fallen by 20 per cent in one year.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 12 January page 1
Internet is blamed for increase in child porn
The growth of the internet has created a 1,500 per cent rise in child pornography offences, according to a new study of the link between computers and paedophile crime.
Between 1998 and 2001 the number of people prosecuted or cautioned in England and Wales for making or possessing indecent images of children has risen from 35 to 549.
The figures do not include the results of Operation Ore, a nationwide investigation launched in 2002 into 6,500 British subscribers to an American network of pornography websites.
John Carr, an internet consultant for the charity NCH, believes that everyone in possession of child abuse images should be investigated to see if they have abused children in the past, and assessed to determine if they pose a future risk
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 12 January page 6
Scottish newspapers
Family of convicted paedophile claim victims lied to get money
The family of a convicted sex offender face being sued for defamation by one of the paedophile’s victims after calling him a liar, claiming he made up allegations to get money from compensation.
John Porteous was jailed in November 2002 for sexually abusing two boys more than 30 years ago when he was the boys’ “ house father” when they were put into his care at Quarriers “children’s village” for disadvantaged youngsters in Renfrewshire. One of the boys David Whelan, waived his right to anonymity.

Porteous’ wife Helen said Whelan had been motivated by money and even suggested he could be suffering from false memory syndrome. She now faces being taken to court by Whelan following her defence of Porteous.
Source:- Sunday Herald 11 January
Fear that crime cash seizure unit is failing to net big fish
Suspected drug barons risk being let off the hook because the body set up to seize the assets of suspected drug dealers is being asked to investigate a wide range of lesser offences.
Politicians in Scotland and the Irish Republic made the warning following the first prosecution under Scotland’s Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 where a man from Aberdeen was forced to surrender a bank account with £24,000 in it.
The legislation was pioneered in the Irish Republic, and seven years after the Criminal Assets Bureau was set up, it has come under fire for pursuing lesser offenders rather than drug gang bosses.
Source:- Sunday Herald 11 January
Fast–track panels ‘biased’ against children in care
Almost a third of persistent young offenders targeted under the Scottish executive’s fast track children’s hearing pilots are in local authority residential care, research has revealed.
Many did not have a record of offending before coming into care and appear to be in trouble with authorities for relatively minor offences, which take place in residential homes rather than the community.
The report into the fast track experiment by researchers from Glasgow, Stirling and Strathclyde Universities has called into question whether the strategy is persecuting the “usual suspects” and failing to deal with the most serious offenders.
Source:- Sunday Herald 11 January
Private eating disorders hospital is seen as obstacle to NHS provision
Doctors are hoping a new private hospital set up to treat Scottish children with life threatening anorexia will close so they can open a rival National Health Service unit.
For more than five years Scottish psychiatrists have campaigned for NHS beds to treat anorexics. Plans for a national in-patient unit at the Royal Edinburgh psychiatric hospital were derailed in September when the private Huntercombe Edinburgh Hospital opened in West Lothian.
However, in the four-and-a-half months since it opened, the private hospital has received just one referral and believes there has been a national campaign by the NHS to boycott the new unit.
This weekend, a doctor who refused to be named, suggested the NHS could take over Huntercombe “if it were to close”.
Source:- Sunday Herald 12 January 2004
Campaign to help child brain injury comes north
The Child Brain Injury Trust is setting up north of the border in a bid to raise awareness of the issues surrounding acquired brain injury there.
Jenny Hill, a development officer for Scotland, is to interview families to provide a needs assessment to the Scottish executive.
It is estimated that 2,200 Scottish children suffer ABI, yet the CBIT believes there is a dearth of neuro-psychologists in Scotland able to diagnose and work with affected children.
Source:-Scotland on Sunday 11 January
Children’s groups warned of prison for not vetting workers
Leaders of organisations running events for children have been warned that they will face fines of £5,000 or imprisonment if they allow people who have not been vetted to work with children to be alone with minors.
Local authorities have sent the warning letters to organisers of Scout and Guide groups, Sunday schools and other bodies that run events for children.
The move could affect more than 40,000 people and organisers have warned the amount of paper work and time involved will lead to many activities being cancelled.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 11 January
Reforms ‘could free dangerous prisoners’
Key proposals in the Scottish executive’s flagship bill to reform the high court system has been criticised by Scotland’s senior police officers who claim it could lead to wrongful arrests and dangerous prisoners being released into the community.
In written submissions to the Scottish Parliament’s justice 1 committee, which is scrutinising the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill, sheriffs warn they may be unable to cope with the anticipated extra workload.
The bill includes proposals to extends sheriffs’ sentencing powers, tag reluctant witnesses, hear cases in the absence of the accused and extend the 110-day rule, legislation limiting the amount of time people can be held on remand before being brought to trial.
Sir Roy Cameron, chief inspector of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, warned against automatically releasing people on bail if the new time limits in custody are breached by the crown. He also warned that the provision to tag people could lead to wrongful arrests.
Source:- The Herald Monday 12 January
Welsh newspapers
Vandal attack leaves charity in financial crisis
A vandal attack by a 10-year-old boy has left a Cardiff charity in financial crisis.
The attack caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to buses used by the charity, Voluntary Emergency Service Transport (Vest), which provides transport for people with mobility problems.
As well as the cost of repairs to the vehicles, Vest also has to find an additional £8,200 in extra insurance premiums, and officials at the charity describe their plight as desperate.
The boy has been given a 12-month supervision order.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 12 January page 5