Recently in crime Category

We love a salacious story here at Community Care, so I'm a little disappointed this one slipped below the radar last week.

Kirsty Green, a care worker in Bristol, was jailed for nine months having stolen £46,000 from an elderly woman to buy sex toys so she could start another career as an Anne Summers party hostess.

Now, as much as we love to bring you a bit of smut on a Tuesday morning, I am rather irked at the reporting of this story.

Both the Daily Mail and the Mirror describe Green as a carer. This is not true, she was a care worker and those two things are very different. One is a job another is something you do, sacrificing your time, with little reward for your own reasons.

It's endemic of the confusion about the role of carers in society, and their low status, that they are confused with professional careers like this so readily. They don't even have their own status in the public mindset. I would not hold up Green as a model of professionalism given this conviction though.

A man who spat on a social worker in court has been jailed for 18 months, the Paisley Daily Express reports.

The homeless man, who was determined to be locked-up, spat at a social worker and police officer when he was set free at an earlier court hearing. He then said "I'm hepatitis C," which meant the social worker had to go and get checked out in hospital for the disease.

He is still awaiting the results of tests.

A social worker stole £33,000 over a year from a mentally ill man she was supposed to be looking after.

Jeanette Breedon, 50, was jailed for 15 months at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester having admitted four counts of theft at a previous hearing.

Read more on this story in the Manchester Evening News

Jason Owen, the lodger at Peter Connelly's home who was jailed following the child's death, has won his appeal against his indeterminate sentence, according to the BBC.

More on this story to come on the Community Care website.

Amid the shock and outrage surrounding the recent sexual abuse case in Plymouth - where nursery worker Vanessa George was found to have abused children in her care - it's inevitable that questions will be asked about how we safeguard children from such abusers. If indeed we can. After all, George had passed all security checks, had no criminal record and was well-liked and trusted by parents and staff.

 by Emma Maier

One week, two stories about bomb threats at children's services buildings. What is so wrong in society that members of the public seek to harm those who are working relentlessly to protect some of the most vulnerable people in society?

A report published last month by the Care Leavers' Association highlighted how hundreds of children being looked after by local authorities go missing each year, and the increased dangers this poses for this vulnerable group.

 By Derren Hayes

The huge rise in knife crime announced today http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7844455.stm should come as little surprise.

By Bronagh Miskelly

Beware that child skulking behind the bins with his mobile or digital camera - he may look like he's playing at James Bond but in fact he is out to catch you in the act of dropping litter or some other antisocial or 'environmental crime'.

 By Derren Hayes

BBC drama Fiona's story (Sunday 31 August, 9pm, BBC1) promised an unsensational exploration of the fallout from a father and husband being busted for viewing child pornography on the internet.