A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.

Multiple murder conviction joins queue of appeal
cases

The man sentenced to life for murdering five members of the
family who adopted him, could be free at the end of the year.

The court of appeal confirmed yesterday that it would hear
Jeremy Bamber’s case in three months.

Bamber has always maintained his innocence of the killings at
the family farm in Tolleshunt, D’arcy, Essex, 17 years ago.
He was convicted at Chelmsford crown court in 1986

The six-week appeal, which will start on October 14, is expected
to focus on DNA evidence from blood on the silencer of the murder
weapon. Bamber’s legal team has had the blood subjected to
tests using DNA related techniques that were not available at the
time of the original investigation.

The move follows an announcement earlier this week that Sally
Clarke, the woman accused of killing her two babies, would have her
case heard again.

Source:- The Independent Thursday 4 July page 4

Bullied girl wrote diary on suicide, inquest
told

A 15-year-old girl, who took an overdose, wrote her intention to
kill herself in a diary she shared with a school friend, an inquest
heard yesterday.

Elaine Swift was stabbed in the back with pencils and had her
chair pulled away from her as she sat down, after she donated her
bone marrow to her younger sister Christine and gained “celebrity”
status in Hartlepool five years ago.

Her father Bernard believes the publicity and the bullying led
Elaine to take the 15 paracetamol tablets last November. She died
in hospital 10 days later despite undergoing an emergency liver
transplant.

The inquest is expected to conclude tomorrow.

Source:- The Independent Thursday 4 July page
6

Truants’ mother fined for breaching
order

The first woman jailed for allowing her children to play truant
narrowly escaped returning to prison yesterday, after she breached
a community order.

Patricia Amos was fined £750 at Oxford crown court. She had
failed to attend any meetings with probation officers, or to
complete any of the 120 hours of community service for stealing a
handbag in January.

The judge warned her: “You cannot go on behaving like a
teenager.”

Source:- The Independent Thursday 4 July page
6

Labour chief denies Alice snub

Labour party chairman Charles Clarke denied yesterday that he
ignored the plight of a 108-year-old woman when she began starving
herself in protest at her nursing home being closed down as a
result of new government regulations.

Clarke, in whose Norwich South constituency Alice Knight died
last month, said he sent a letter to her granddaughter, Diane Self,
after she had written to him in May.

The new regulations demanded more space and facilities in care
homes.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Thursday 4 July page 8

Privacy fear over ID plans

Proposals for a national register of everybody lawfully resident
in Britain as part of an identity card scheme, were announced
yesterday.

The register could cost around £3 billion to set up, and
would hold data including the employment status of every UK
resident, who will be assigned a “unique personal number that could
be used across the public sector”.

But backbench Labour MPS admitted “very deep anxieties” over the
idea, which has David Blunkett’s backing. They fear the
privacy implications of such a powerful government database.

The home secretary tried to reassure Labour MPs that personal
data would only be transferred to other government agencies “for
very specific purposes”, and only with the consent of the
individual.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 4 July page 1

Boys, 16, on murder charge

Two 16-year-old boys have been charged with the abduction and
murder of Richard Parker, whose body was found in a ditch in Hurst,
near Reading.

Both youths will appear in Oxford magistrates court today.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 4 July page 4

Six are freed on bail

Six men suspected of being British members of the ‘Shadowz
Brotherhood’ internet paedophile ring were bailed by police
yesterday pending further inquiries.

The six will remain on bail while detectives sift through
material on their computer hard drives.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 4 July page 4

Scottish newspapers

Older people defy closure by occupying care
home

A group of 17 older people are set to defy the Church of
Scotland’s plans to close their care home, Leslie House in
Glenrothes, Fife, by refusing to move.

The Church’s Board of Social Responsibility, which manages
social care services, admitted the move was unprecedented in its
experience.

The impasse comes after the church decided to close Leslie House
and several other care units for financial reasons. Relatives of
the older people warned they are prepared for a lengthy stand off
“until the physical, mental and social well-being of the residents
is secured”.

Source:- The Herald Thursday 4 July page 1

Welsh newspapers

‘Instant deportation fury’

Asylum seekers are being detained and deported without adequate
warning, a solicitor said yesterday.

Milan Simic from Croatia, who has lived and worked in Cardiff
for more than two years, was detained without warning and told he
would be deported after he made a routine weekly registration visit
to a city police station.

Simic had planned to marry his partner Nicola Blake and has a
brother who has already been granted asylum in Britain.

Blake was told of the planned deportation as she sat waiting for
her partner outside the police station. She said that she was
amazed that the deportation papers say that he has no family or
friends living in the UK.

Solicitor Jovanka Savic who is acting for Simic, said that
asylum seekers were being locked up at the weekend with removal set
for Monday or imminently, and that their representatives were being
given no prior warning.

She has made representations to the home office, and is waiting
for a response.

Source:- Western Mail Thursday 4 July page 1 and page
5

Baby is still kept in care

A baby boy abandoned more than five months ago in south Wales is
still in the care of social services.

The baby named Oliver by police, who found him, was left in the
garden of a house in Newport in January. Police and social services
launched an extensive search for his mother, and she eventually
came forward in May.

Oliver, who is thought to be the oldest baby ever to be
abandoned in the UK, was believed to be between 22 and 24 weeks old
when he was abandoned.

The case is also unusual because most abandoned babies are
reunited with their parents within 48 hours.

Oliver has been placed with foster parents, and a high court
judge will now decide his future.

Source:- Western Mail Thursday 4 July page 7