A summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Clare Jerrom and Reg McKay.

Media warned on identities of Bulger
killers

The media were warned not to breach a ban protecting the new
identities of the killers of two-year-old James Bulger, by new
attorney general Lord Goldsmith, as the parole board prepares for a
hearing next week to decide their release.

The hearings of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables will both
separately start on Monday and are expected to last throughout the
week.

Issuing his first statement, Lord Goldsmith said he was
concerned at press reports that a recent photograph of Thompson
might be posted on the Internet.

High court judge Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has granted a
lifetime injunction, which bans publication of pictures of the
pair, or any details of their new identities.

A recent photograph of Thompson was brandished on Tuesday night
by the presenter of a Channel 4 programme, but not shown on
screen.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 14 June 2001 page
1

Crime bill ‘breaches human
rights’

A human rights lawyer has claimed that the powers in the
government’s crime bill to seize the ill-gotten gains of drug
traffickers, breaches the Human Rights Act 1998.

The bill, which will form part of next Wednesday’s
Queen’s speech, will not only “destroy the essence of the
presumption of innocence” but could also lead to “arbitrary and
irrational results,” according to Claire Montgomery QC.

The legislation will set up a criminal assets recovery agency to
target the assets of drugs traffickers. Its aim will be to follow
the “money trail” in each case, to convict them and remove their
money and passports.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 14 June 2001 page 12


Milburn abandons waiting list targets

One of the central pledges of the 1997 election was abandoned
yesterday by the government.

Alan Milburn announced that NHS waiting list targets would be
abandoned in England, five days after it was revealed that waiting
lists had grown by more than 16,000 in the month before the
election campaign. Efforts will now be concentrated on waiting
times.

The Health Secretary said: “Year by year, the maximum waiting
times for a hospital operation will fall from 18 months today, to
15 months by spring next year, then to 12 months and by 2005, it
will be down to just six months.”

Source:- The Times Thursday 14 June 2001 page 1


Killer convicted after 22 years

One of Britain’s longest unsolved murders finally ended
yesterday as a convicted child killer and paedophile was found
guilty of raping and murdering a teenage girl more than 22 years
ago.

Angus Sinclair was found guilty of killing Mary Gallacher on the
basis of DNA evidence, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

It was disclosed after the verdict, that Sinclair had been
convicted of the unlawful killing of a seven-year old girl in 1961.
He served six years in prison.

He is serving a life sentence for three rapes and a number of
other sexual offences for which he was convicted at Edinburgh High
Court in 1982.

It took more than two decades to link the killer with his crime,
after a sample from the victim that had remained unexamined gave a
DNA profile matching Sinclair.

Source:- The Times Thursday 14 June 2001 page 3


Autism link with MMR jabs denied

The link between the combined measles, mumps and rubella
vaccination and autism has been discounted in fresh evidence
published today.

Researchers studied the onset autism of 357 sufferers and found
similar patterns whether or not they had received the jab.

The study was published in the journal Vaccine, and adds that
autistic children who received a second dose of MMR as a booster
showed no difference in the time the condition was diagnosed.

The MMR vaccine was first linked to autism in 1998 after a study
of 12 children by Professor Andrew Wakefield, of the Royal Free
Hospital in London.

Source:- The Times Thursday 14 June 2001 page 8


Migrant fines threat to trains

The government fines of £2,000 for each illegal immigrant
found on board cross-Channel goods trains, could lead to the trains
being scrapped, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers will be told
today.

The Confederation of British Industry said the fine scheme will
undermine government policy of shifting goods from rail to road as
it will force more freight back onto the roads.

Since the introduction of the fines in March this year, English,
Welsh and Scottish Railways has handed over 274 illegal immigrants
and been ordered to pay fines of £548,000.

Source:- The Times Thursday 14 June 2001 page 12

Scottish newspapers

Health chiefs warn of private care crisis

It is only a matter of days before there is nowhere to place
older people needing care in Aberdeen, according to Grampian
University Hospital Trust.

With the embargo on council-funded admissions to privately-owned
residential and nursing home care starting yesterday, there was
only a few hospital beds capacity left in Aberdeen.

A spokesperson for the hospital trust said: “We are not at full
capacity at the moment but that situation could change very, very
quickly and have the effect we are dreading.”

Source The Scotsman 14/6/01 page 10

Law passed so housing stock can be
transferred

The Scottish parliament has passed the Housing (Scotland) Bill,
clearing the way for the controversial proposed transfer of Glasgow
Council’s 90,000 houses to the newly-formed Glasgow Housing
Association.

The council’s 70,000 tenants will now be balloted on the
transfer of landlord.

Also included in the bill are measures to transfer anti-social
tenants to designated housing where they will be closely supervised
by social work and housing staff.

Source The Scotsman 14/6/01 page 10

 

 

More from Community Care

Comments are closed.