In Today's Papers

By Simeon Brody, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

Refugee orphan “tortured as witch”

A child was tortured by adults who feared she was a witch, before she was stuffed in a laundry bag and threatened with being drowned, a jury heard yesterday.

Over several months the child was cut with a knife, starved, whipped with a belt and had chilli pepper rubbed in its eyes, it was claimed. Three women and a man deny child cruelty and two of the women deny trying to murder the child.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 2

PM finds jobs for Brown allies

Andrew Adonis, widely seen as the driving force behind many of Tony Blair’s education policies, will become an education minister.

Yvette Cooper, was promoted to run housing and planning and Beverley Hughes, who resigned as immigration minister last Spring, has replaced Margaret Hodge as children’s minister.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 4

Fourth man bailed as hunt for killer goes on

A fourth man has been released on bail in connection wit the murder of Mary-Ann Leneghan, the teenager who was sexually assaulted, stabbed and left to die in a Reading park on Saturday.

Mary-Ann and a friend were thought to have been abducted by six men who abducted them for hours last week before stabbing Mary-Ann and shooting her friend.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 7

Doctors call for hepatitis B jab for all children

Doctors have called for all children in Britain to be vaccinated against the potentially fatal liver disease caused by hepatitis B after a 135 per cent increase in cases since 1992.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 10

Lover loses murder appeal

A woman abused by men throughout her life lost her appeal against conviction for her boyfriend’s murder.

Joanne Cole, 36, claimed diminished responsibility in stabbing Patrick Hemmings in Hackney in 2000.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 11

Judge bans real-life Vicky Pollard from her own home

A teenager accused of turning her street into a battleground moved in with relatives yesterday after a court issued an antisocial behaviour order banning her from her own home.

Kerry McLaughlin, 19, has also been ordered not to enter two square miles of Wallsend, Tyneside, in an attempt to reassure terrified neighbours. The order was imposed after the 19-year-old spent the weekend in police cells for allegedly flouting a milder asbo which put her under a music playing curfew and alcohol ban and barred more than two visitors from calling at her at a time.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 13

“28 hours a day” man faces court

A social worker falsely obtained £66,000 from his employers over six months by claiming he was working up to 28 hours a day, Winchester Crown Court was told.

Jaswinder Bains put in the “blatantly dishonest” claims to help pay for his £5,000 a month mortgage on a luxury farmhouse near Swindon, the prosecution said. The trial continues.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 15

Deputy mayor accused of fraud

A Labour councillor, deputy mayor and magistrate appeared in court yesterday on benefit fraud charges.

Berni Callaghan used knowledge gained serving on the council tax housing benefit review board to make false housing benefit claims, magistrates in Peterborough were told. Callaghan denies five charges of falsely claiming £740 in council tax and housing benefit over a four-year period. The case continues.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 2

Secret smoker, 14, killed by spray to hide the smell

A Cardiff schoolgirl has died after spraying herself with a fabric deodorant in the bathroom of her family home to hide the smell of cigarettes.

Her family said the aerosol spray in the confined space made her choke and caused a haemorrhage in her throat.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 7

Abuse victims who kill may be spared a jail sentence

People convicted of killing their spouses could escape jail if they have suffered severe abuse over a long time, judges were advised yesterday.

Draft guidelines from an independent sentencing body say that in most cases victims of domestic violence should expect to go to prison if they kill but such offences should be treated differently from murder.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 10 May 2005 page 15

Scottish news

Prostitute’s body found dumped in woodland

The body of a missing Glasgow prostitute was found dumped in a remote area of South Lanarkshire yesterday, the eighth Glasgow prostitute to be murdered in the past 14 years.

The badly-decomposed body of 27-year-old Emma Caldwell was discovered in woodland between Roberton and Rigside, near Biggar.

Caldwell disappeared a month ago after leaving a hostel in Inglefield Street, Govanhill, on the south side of Glasgow.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 10 May

Four care homes face closure, say owners

Four nursing homes in the west of Scotland are being forced to close because they cannot afford to upgrade facilities.

Scottish Care, the nursing home umbrella body, said the closures showed that without proper support from the executive, demands from the Care Commission that nursing homes provide facilities such as individual bedrooms and ensuite bathrooms as well as increasing safety standards would decimate the sector.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 10 May

Use ASBOs - or no cash to fight crime, councils told

Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, is threatening to withhold up to £64 million in funding for tackling youth crime if councils and the police refuse to introduce anti-social behaviour orders for under 16-year-olds.

Speaking at the conference of the Scottish Association for the Study of Offending in Glasgow, Jamieson said the powers granted to councils in last years’ Antisocial Behaviour Act should be used.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 10 May

Welsh news

Jailed attacker is guilty of murder

A man jailed for beating up a drug user was also found guilty of his murder yesterday after the victim died.

David Davies, 26, of Swansea attacked Peter Bowen, 39, in a subway in the city in June, 2000.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 10 May

Doctor’s didn’t try to save my boy, mum says

A baby boy whose mother claimed died because doctors refused to keep him alive died of natural causes a coroner has ruled.

Liverpool coroner, Andre Rebello, found that Luke Winston-Jones died of cardiac failure caused by the congenital heart disease Edward’s syndrome from which he suffered.

Luke died aged 10-months-old at the Alder Hey hospital last November. His mother Ruth claimed that doctors did not try their hardest to keep him alive.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 10 May