A summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Clare Jerrom.

Driver who killed 58 Chinese gets 14 years

A Dutch lorry driver was jailed for 14 years yesterday for
killing 58 illegal Chinese immigrants.

Perry Wacker was condemned by a judge for adding to the climate
of hostility to immigrants in Britain.

Wacker drove 60 illegal immigrants on the last leg of their
journey from Fujian province in June last year and closed the air
vent to the sealed container they were being transported in, during
the five-hour ferry crossing from Zeebrugge to Dover. Just two
people survived the ordeal.

He received six years for 58 counts of manslaughter plus another
eight for conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants into
Britain.

Interpreter Ying Guo was given six years for her part in the
conspiracy. She helped Snakehead gangs gain control of immigrants
once they were in the UK. It emerged after the case that Guo had
dealings with 366 applications in 18 months to June last year.

The transportation of the 60 Chinese was masterminded by Dutch
and Turkish racketeers helped by Snakehead gangs in China, who
recruited desperate immigrants by promising them a better life.

The case has lifted the lid on a £16 billion worldwide
organised crime racket.

Source:- The Times Friday 6/4/01 page 1

Crime gangs find slave trade more lucrative than
drugs

The 60 illegal Chinese immigrants would have made people
smugglers around £1.2 million.

Human cargo is worth £16 billion a year and growing,
according to confidential documents provided to Tony Blair and
other European leaders.

Chinese immigrants are charged around £20,000 to be
smuggled to Britain with the promise of a better life. Unable to
pay that sum, they offer a down payment and are kept as virtual
slaves until they pay back double the amount to the smugglers.

Police discovered more than £160 million transferred from
accounts in London last year to a branch of the China Central Bank
in Bejing. The cash is from migrants forced to do menial jobs to
pay back Snakehead smuggling gangs.

Investigators believe ten Chinese gangs dominate the global
trade although smaller outfits were responsible for 80,000 illegal
immigrants being transported to Britain last year.

Source:- The Times Friday 6/4/01 page 4

Rapist GP who lied to get job is jailed

A Dutch family doctor who lied about his sexual abuse
convictions to get a job in England, was jailed for 12 months
yesterday in Birmingham.

Peter de Bruijn raped three of his patients and sexually abused
a 10-year old child, but lied about the convictions and went on to
work for six months as a GP in Oxfordshire.

The General Medical Council admitted last night there was
nothing to stop this happening again. “When de Bruijn came to us
for registration we did not know about his Dutch convictions. That
was a result of legislation which was not within our control and
which we cannot change.”

A Dutch court found de Bruijn guilty of sex offences in 1993 and
sentenced him to 24 months in prison. His appeals took nearly five
years, during which time he was not sentenced and was allowed to
remain on the medical register.

During the appeals process, he moved to England in 1998 and
applied for a job at the Deer Park Medical Centre in Witney. He
signed a contract saying he had no previous convictions but his
past was uncovered by another doctor at the practice.

Source:- The Times Friday 6/4/01 page 7

Suspension over child in custody

A social worker has been suspended from Lewisham Council in
south London

following an investigation into why a 12-year-old girl spent
three days in custody.

On Tuesday the girl admitted shoplifting and was given a
conditional discharge.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 6/4/01 page 10

Police failed to protect man killed in cell, says
report

Police officers have been criticised for their conduct after a
report into the killing of a 30-year old man, who was beaten by a
mentally ill cell mate.

Christopher Edwards had been arrested for a minor breach of the
peace and was placed in a cell at Chelmsford prison with Richard
Linford, who had a history of mental disorder, hallucinations and
violence, according to the report. Essex police has been blamed for
the placement.

Edwards was so badly disfigured by the attack, he had to be
identified by dental records. One ear was missing, presumed
eaten.

The report said Edwards, who also had a history of mental
illness, should have been examined by a police surgeon on his first
arrest. It said officers failed to complete forms which would have
warned the prison service that both inmates were “exceptionally
high risk.”

Linford was convicted of manslaughter due to diminished
responsibility.

No officers have been disciplined and Essex police are not
planning to start proceedings.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 6/4/01 page 7

Single mothers failed and fathers
persecuted

The Child Support Agency persecuted good fathers and failed
single fathers, according to Alan Simpson (Lab, Nottingham South),
when he called for a Commons debate on the agency so that MPs could
know more about the CSA.

Simpson said: “It is important for the House to have a debate on
the extent to which we continue to miserably fail the women who get
no support from their former partners and continue to pursue and
persecute men who are good fathers.”

According to Simpson, there was an “immovable backlog” of cases
awaiting the attention of the independent case examiner.

Leader of the House, Margaret Beckett, said that every MP
probably had constituents who had experienced difficulties in
dealing with the CSA. She supported Simpson and said he was right
to identify “the great distress and difficulty that is caused”.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Friday 6/4/01 page 14