By Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor
Cell death
A 26-year-old woman was found dead in prison cell, the Prison Service said. Victoria Robinson was discovered hanging in her cell at New Hall prison, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire. She was on suicide watch.
Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 2
Dentist struck off for child porn
A dentist who admitted possessing thousands of child pornography photographs on his computer must be struck off, a High Court judge ruled yesterday.
Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 2
Tearaways parted
A teenage couple were banned from speaking to each other for four years. A judge at Plymouth crown court issued an antisocial behaviour order against Jamie Leigh Brown and her boyfriend Stephan Brown, 15, who terrorised neighbours. They were each given an 18-month detention and training order.
Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 24
Little boy lost, the riddle of a toddler no-one has claimed
West Midlands police have been trying to identify a boy, around two years old, who was found by passers-by wandering in Woodstock Road, in the Harmondsworth area of Birmingham at around 9.30pm on Tuesday. No-one has come forward to claim him. He is currently with foster carers.
Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 27
Teacher fired airgun in gang row
A teacher who fired an air pistol during an altercation with a
group of youngsters told the police she “had enough” of
the law being on the side of criminals.
Linda Walker claims she suffered weeks of abuse and vandalism near
her home in Urmston, Manchester. The trial at Minshull Crown Court,
Manchester continues.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 4 February 2005 page 4
Police’s icy response to a child’s snowball
Amy Hodges, 13, from Ashford, Kent, spent four hours in a police cell after accidentally breaking the rear window of a Kent police vehicle with a snowball. She had her fingerprints taken and was obliged to give a DNA sample before being given a formal reprimand when officers decided not to proceed with a charge of criminal damage.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 February 2005 page 5
Doubt cast on health scheme for the elderly
An American healthcare corporation with close personal links to Tony Blair was last night embroiled in a row about its work for the NHS in England. The British Medical Journal cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Evercare programme, a scheme to provide extra care for older people at risk of emergency admission to hospital. It said government plans to adopt this approach “may be based on misleading data”.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 February 2005 page 11
‘Safe heroin use’ study criticised
Campaigners condemned the publication yesterday of research which suggests that heroin can be taken over a long period without destroying people’s lives. Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University identified 126 long-term heroin users in the city who were not experiencing the health and social problems normally associated with the drug. Scotland
Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 February 2005 page 12
Wanted: visionaries to change the world
Six “visionaries” able to convince the Joseph Rowntree Trust that they have got a brilliant and plausible idea for social reform will be awarded up to £40,000 for five years, annual office costs of £5,000, plus networking support to get it going.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 February 2005 page 12
Absentee children could fill 1,000 schools
The government has failed to but truancy in England despite spending nearly a billion pounds on measures to reduce absence from school, both authorised and unauthorised, the National Audit Office reported yesterday.
Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 6
Labour plans immigration crackdown
A crackdown on asylum and immigration will be announced by the government next week, with financial penalties, to deter would-be migrants repeatedly appealing against a decision to refuse them entry to the UK.
Source:- The Financial Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 2
Scottish newspapers
Blow for Labour as youth crime rises sharply
One in 20 Scottish children were referred to children’s
panels in 2003/04 reflecting a large rise in youth offending, the
agency in charge of youth justice has said.
The Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration report
showed the numbers of children reported to panels for concerns
about welfare and safety had risen by 12 per cent while those
referred for offending rose by 13 per cent.
The SCRA’s top official Alan Miller also announced he was to
resign after 10 years in the post.
Source:- The Herald Friday 4 February
Vulnerable victims of numbers game
An analysis of the politics behind the latest SCRA figures and the behind the scenes reasons for its top official’s departure.
Source:- The Herald Friday 4 February
1 in 20 Scottish children is born to fail
A breakdown in traditional family values and the increasing influence of alcohol and drug abuse have been blamed for a 12.6 per cent increase in referrals to children’s reporters in a year. However, opposition parties blame the executive for not being tough enough on youth crime.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 4 February
School kids run gauntlet of abuse
Children at Alva Academy in Clackmannanshire got a police escort
to protect them from gangs of teenagers waiting at the school
gates.
Teachers had been forced to call in the police three times in 10
days after pupils were attacked.
Staff have had to shield children in the face of abuse and threats
of violence to get them to the school bus.
Source:- Daily Record Friday 4th February
Welsh newspapers
Warning over Clywch findings
The children’s commissioner for Wales today warned that recommendations from his inquiry into sexual abuse at a South Wales school are not being implemented thoroughly enough.
Last summer Peter Clarke published a report finding that drama teacher and TV scriptwriter John Owen had abused pupils at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen, near Pontypridd, in the 1980s and 90s.
It also stated that education officials’ response was inadequate and constituted a cover up.
Source:- icwales.co.uk Friday 4 February
Boyfriend blames ‘gloom in his head’
A man accused of stabbing his partner to death told Cardiff Crown Court that he was hit by a “gloom” in his head every time his girlfriend went out socialising.
Paul Viner is alleged to have killed Donna Brough when she arrived home late after a night out.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 4 February
