In Today's Papers

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

Bullying KFC staff drove our daughter to suicide
A teenager killed herself after being bullied by colleagues at the KFC store where she worked, her parents have claimed.
Hannah Kirkham, aged 18, was called a “fat, spotty bitch”, and had her uniform set on fire. She was also prodded with the wooden skewers used to serve corn on the cob, had mayonnaise squirted into her shoes and was drawn on with a permanent marker pen.
Hannah, an A level student who was hoping to become a lawyer, eventually took an overdose of paracetamol.

She had been working at the branch of KFC in Greater Manchester for two years before she took the fatal overdose in December, An inquest is due to be held in Oldham on Friday.
Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 16 March page 31
£6.8bn needed for families
Children’s charities have warned the government that it will not achieve its aim of halving child poverty by 2010 without giving an extra £6.8 billion a year to poorer families.
End Child Poverty, an umbrella group of charities and organisations, said current policies would merely slow the widening of the gap between rich and poor.
It added that 3.8 million children live in poverty in households surviving on about £200 a week, half the national average.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 16 March page 10
Boy set fire to friend, jury told
Two schoolboys locked a friend in a skip full of wood and cardboard and one of them set it on fire, leaving their victim with fatal burns.
The teenagers threw 15-year-old Michael Temperley’s bike and baseball cap into the container to lure him in there before bolting the lid.
Both boys tried to help passers-by re-open the skip in Gateshead, but the boy had suffered 30 per cent burns and died later in hospital.
The case, being heard at Newcastle crown court, continues.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 16 March page 10
Ministers retreat on asylum appeal
The government was forced to drop its plans to end asylum seekers' right to appeal in court against asylum decisions after opposition from Lord Irvine, the former Lord Chancellor.
Lord Irvine was due to attack the proposals in the House of Lords, but ministers retreated knowing of his views.
At the second reading debate of the Asylum and Immigration Bill he announced that that he would be tabling amendments to replace the clause removing the right to judicial review of asylum decisions with a system that would allow appeal to the courts.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 16 March page 2
Scottish newspapers
Ministers look at law after rise in under-16s sent to jail
Ministers are considering changing the law which allows Scottish children aged under-16 to be imprisoned, following a significant rise in the use of prison for this age group.
In 2002, 33 under-16s were incarcerated, more than double the number in 1999.
Experts claim a shortage of local authority secure accommodation means children are being sent to prison as there is nowhere else for them to go.
Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, has commissioned research to see why the numbers are increasing and whether new laws are needed to prevent it happening.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 16 March
MMR take-up rates continue to rise
A greater number of parents in Scotland are having their children vaccinated with the triple MMR jab, according to new figures.
Take-up rates of the vaccine have increased for the third consecutive quarter, and is now running at 87.6 per cent of two-year-olds, showing that faith in the triple jab is slowly being restored.

Despite the rise, MMR immunisation levels fall well below the 95 per cent level deemed necessary to protect the population.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 16 March
Pupils to pay price as lottery funding
Hundreds of city pupils are to lose out on after-school activities when lottery funding runs out later this month.
Scores of classes will be scrapped when the three-year funding finishes at the end of the month, according to letters which have been sent out by the school to parents.
Community groups, opposition councillors and parents have condemned the move and say education bosses should have stepped in to provide funding when the lottery cash ran out.
Source:- Evening News Monday 15 March
OAPs in rush for benefits
More and more older people are claiming outstanding benefits as a result of the Daily Record’s campaign.
In the first six months, more than 6,000 older people registered their claims for pension credits and collected £13 million in additional benefits.
Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 16 March page 2
Welsh newspapers
Police to get tough on truant’s parents
Police and education welfare officers in south Wales have vowed to get tough on parents who allow their children to play truant.
In just one morning, a truancy patrol in Cwmbran found 39 pupils playing truant, and 16 of them were with their parents at the time.
Cwmbran’s crime reduction officer Darrell Dewar said that he was concerned about the level of apathy shown by parents to their children missing school.
Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 15 March page 7
‘Social worker’ escapes prison
A carer who admitted stealing £7,000 from a 92-year-old widow she was looking after, has escaped jail.
Patricia Probert stole money from Glenys Allen by using her cheque book and a store card, but a routine council audit uncovered irregularities in Allen’s account and the theft was uncovered.
Neath Port Talbot magistrates sentenced Probert to a one-year jail sentence for theft and deception, but the sentence was suspended for two years. Magistrates took into account the fact that Probert’s eight-year-old daughter may have had to go into care if her mother was jailed.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 16 March page 1
‘Threadbare’ mental health
Patients are being put at risk by threadbare mental health services in parts of Wales, according to a new report from the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI).
The CHI report into mental health services at the Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust found that chronic staff shortages and a series of shortcomings in service provision meant that vulnerable patients were not receiving the support they needed.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 16 March page 2