Archbishop tells parents to grow up
The pressures of modern life are eroding the time and space
children need to develop, the Archbishop of Canterbury said
yesterday.
Dr Rowan Williams said children were forced to sit too many tests
at school and were being damaged by infantile adults.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 12 April 2005 page 2
Mother freed as judges narrowly reject retrial
A mother who spent the last seven years in jail after being wrongly convicted of murdering her two children has been freed by the Court of Appeal. Donna Anthony, 31, who always denied smothering her children had been jailed for life following evidence from paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 12 April 2005 page 3
Man beaten to death with plank after challenging vandal gang.
A man was killed yesterday after confronting yobs who police were said to have repeatedly failed to tackle. John Dabell, 25, was beaten over the head with a plank on waste ground in Linby, Nottinghamshire. Violence flared after a group of youths began vandalising fences, it was claimed.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 12 April 2005 page 6
Parties warned against inflaming racial tensions
Commission for Racial Equality chair Trevor Phillips today warns political leaders that they risk inflaming ugly tensions in the general election. He cited a spate of incidents against travellers’ camps last month.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 12 April 2005, page 1-2
One in four at risk of cannabis psychosis
One in four people carry the genes that increase vulnerability to psychotic illnesses if he or she smokes cannabis as a teenager, according to research by the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College, London.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 12 April 2005, page 7
Carer sentenced
A babysitter who murdered her neighbour’s son by beating
his head against banisters will serve at least 10 years of a life
sentence, a judge has ruled.
Kyle Fisger, 2, was being looked after by Suzanne Holdsworth, 34,
at her home in Hartlepool last July while his 19-year-old mother
was out.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 12 April 2005, page 15
Murder charge
A teenage girl was charged last night with the murder of Charlotte Polius, 15, at a birthday party at the weekend.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 12 April 2005, page 15
Access to justice should not depend on where people live
Liberty director Shami Chakribarti looks at the dismantling of legal aid.
Source:- The Times, Law, Tuesday 12 April 2005, page 4
Police issue warning as teenagers take to guns
Teenagers as young as 16 are increasingly using guns, often to resolve “trivial” disputes, a Scotland Yard review has discovered.
Source:- The Independent, Tuesday 12 April 2005, page 10
Child Support Agency admits it tricked families into losing cash
Child Support Agency staff have admitted deliberately introducing errors into a database and deleting files for no legitimate reason to cope with the agency’s administrative overload. The blunders resulted in hundreds of thousands of families being denied payments they were entitled to from absent parents and the government. The revelations come in a report commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, released onto the department’s website last month.
Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday, 12 April, page 1
Howard’s manifesto gamble
Conservative leader Michael Howard has claimed that immigration officers at some airports are using suspect processes. Speaking at the Conservative general election manifesto launch, Howard said he had been told that if someone presented themselves with suspect papers they were allowed to be in the country for two days as long as they said they would come back at the end of this period.
Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday, 12 April, page 1
Scottish Newspapers
Social workers ‘using outdated methods’
An interim report of the 21st Century Review team has said
social workers are using outdated methods and work in services that
respond only in a crisis.
Departments have become so risk-averse and bureaucratic it has
become impossible for social workers to do their jobs, the team
adds. Their report suggests change will be necessary, and may
involve encouraging communities to take greater responsibility for
tackling social problems and using more para-professionals and the
voluntary sector.
Source:- The Herald, 12 April
Shamed care firm in fresh scandal
Care home company Four Seasons Healthcare has been investigated by the Care Commission for poor practices following complaints. The commission found staff were hired for Hall House Lodge in Fenwick, Ayrshire, without criminal checks, references and interviews. They also found staff shortages were so severe that most worked double shifts.
Source:- The Record, 12 April
