In Today's Papers

By Shirley Kumar, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson

Protesters throw royal security into disarray

A security review has been launched after Fathers4Justice campaigners dressed as Batman scaled Buckingham Palace to hold a five-hour protest beside the royal balcony.

Sir John Stevens, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, has demanded a full report into how Jason Hatch was able to bypass security measures with such ease.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 1

Reforms pledged on mental health of children

Health secretary John Reid is to announce plans to provide 24-hour access to psychiatric services for the seriously disturbed and more help for troubled children through schools and local authorities.

The Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) will be instructed to include 16-17 year olds who have been previously treated as adults, and hospitals will be instructed not to put young people in adult wards.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 5

Victims of abuse challenge judges

Victims of child abuse are joining forces to challenge the judicial system over what they claim are lenient sentences to perpetrators.

Lord Goldsmith has been asked to review the penalties imposed on 55 paedophiles and child sex offenders in the past 20 months, according to Phoenix Survivors.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 6

Boy accused of raping teacher

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with raping a 28-year-old teacher at a school in central London.

The boy is due to appear at Inner London youth court on Friday.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 6

£25,000 reward for arrest of girl’s killer

Police are offering a £25,000 reward for the killer of Toni-Ann Byfield and her guardian who were shot dead in a drugs feud a year ago today.

The seven-year-old girl and Bertram Byfield were shot dead in a bedsit in north-west London. The killer may have left traces of DNA.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 8

Deprivation drive ‘fails most needy’

Labour’s drive to tackle deprivation is not benefiting the people with the greatest needs, reveals research by the government’s social exclusion unit.

Unskilled or unqualified adults, people with chronic illnesses or disabilities and some ethnic minority groups are just some of the groups helped very little by measures to promote social exclusion.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 12

Blair to act on sickness benefit

The prime minister has vowed to act on the multi-billion pound cost of paying sickness benefits to people capable of working.

Blair vowed to change the mindset which had allowed the unemployed to be pushed onto incapacity benefit to lower the unemployment figures.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 2

‘Death threat’ asylum seeker returns to Pakistan for wedding

Liquat Ali, a Liberal Democrat councillor who claimed asylum on the grounds he would be killed if he returned to Pakistan, has just returned from an 18-day break to attend a wedding.

Ali said he took a calculated risk to attend his son’s wedding and visit his sick mother.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 2

Jenkins plea in Billie-Jo retrial

Sion Jenkins pleaded not guilty to the murder of Billi-Jo Jenkins at the family’s home in Hastings seven years ago.

Jenkins was jailed for life in 1998, but the Court of Appeal had ordered a retrial in July this year after new scientific evidence made the conviction unsafe.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 2

Homeless set to top 100,000 households

Homeless households could hit 100,000 by the end of the year following government homeless figures that show a 9 per cent rise since June 2003.

The total 99,380 of those living in temporary accommodation is more than double the level since Labour came to power seven years ago.

Source:- The Financial Times Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 6

Colleges told to favour minority students

Universities are being told to give preference to ethnic minorities and the working class ahead of equally qualified non-minority students.

The government wants universities to do more to broaden their intake.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 14 September 2004 page 8

Scottish newspapers

Binge drink culture and rising rape rates: police study link

The link between women binge drinking and the soaring sex crime rates in the Edinburgh area is being investigated by police.

Figures showed reports of rape had increased by 58 per cent and the fear that binge drinking may have contributed to many attacks has prompted Lothian and Borders Police to commission the study.

Source:- The Scotsman  Tuesday 14 September

Tsar’s plea on child detention

Scotland’s children’s commissioner has argued that the practice of holding children at Dungavel immigration detention centre fell within her remit even though immigration is a policy area reserved to Westminster.

Professor Kathleen Marshall was due to meet immigration minister Des Browne today for talks on Dungavel where children of failed asylum seekers have been held.

Source:- Evening News  Monday 13 September

Elderly hospital patients ‘going hungry’

Charities and human rights groups have claimed that older patients are malnourished in hospitals across Scotland.

Lawyers have warned that health boards could be taken to court for failing to help frail patients eat.

The Scottish Human Rights Centre is set to write a letter to all Scottish boards warning them that not ensuring patients are fed properly is a breach of the patients’ human rights.

Source:- The Herald  Tuesday 14 September

Asylum seeker ‘locked up for 23 hours a day’ tells of despair

A South African asylum seeker has spoken out about her despair at being detained in a women’s prison in Scotland.

Sara Jane Richards said she was so stressed she was “vomiting blood” after being moved to Cornton Vale prison in Stirling from the Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire.

Richards said she is locked up 23 hours a day and is being ostracised by other prisoners because she is black and refuses to take drugs.

She believes she was moved to the prison as punishment for speaking to the press following the suicide of Tung Wang in Dungavel.

Source:- The Herald  Tuesday 14 September

MMR take-up rate still well short of target

The number of children receiving the triple vaccination MMR is still falling well short of government targets.

According to new statistics released yesterday, 88 per cent of two-year-olds received the injection for measles, mumps and rubella in Scotland.

The figure shows the Scottish executive still has some way to achieve the take up target of 95 per cent.

Source:- The Herald  Tuesday 14 September

Welsh newspapers

Bed-blocking change urged

Delayed discharge continues to fall in Gwent but local health boards (LHBs) need a common definition to work to so performance can be judged fairly, according to a Newport health chief.

Kate William chief executive of the LHB in Newport wants to see a Wales-wide definition of what constitutes delayed discharge.

Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 13 September page 11

Why are we waiting?

Labour has failed the NHS in Wales according to patients stuck on long hospital waiting lists.

In spite of record amounts of cash and a number of new initiatives, problems with the health service in Wales continue to grow with 300,000-one in 10 of the population of Wales, either waiting to be treated or waiting for a first hospital appointment.

Source:- South Wales Echo Monday 13 September page 2

Want our cash? You’ve got a nerve

The Children’s Society has been accused of reprehensible behaviour for continuing to solicit Welsh support after pulling out of the principality two years ago.

The charity was heavily criticised for its controversial exit and now the Church in Wales has taken the unusual step of criticising the society because it is continuing to seek financial support from the people of Wales.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 14 September page 1