Monday 30 September 2002

By Clare Jerrom, Nicola Barry and Alex Dobson.

Soham accused to appear together

The man accused of the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica
Chapman could appear in the dock alongside his girlfriend within
the next two months.

Maxine Carr appeared before Peterborough crown court on a video
link from Holloway Prison, north London yesterday. She has not seen
her partner Ian Huntley since they were arrested last month.

Carr spoke on the video link to confirm her personal details,
but entered no plea to a charge of perverting the course of
justice.

Carr’s next court appearance will be on 12 or 15 November
at Norwich crown court. Huntley, who is charged with murdering the
10-year-olds will appear at Peterborough crown court on 8
October.

He is currently being assessed at Rampton high security hospital
to see if he is fit to stand trial. If he is, it is likely he will
appear with Carr in November.

Source:- The Times Saturday 28 September page 7

Detaining mentally ill seen as unworkable and
racist

Heads of the legal and psychiatric professions condemned the
government’s plans to lock up people with severe personality
disorders who have committed no crime.

Carolyn Kirby, president of the Law Society, said proposals in
the draft mental health bill published in June, were “unworkable”
and incompatible with the human rights act.

Mike Shooter, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists,
said the planned legislation would be “one of the most racially
discriminatory laws ever seen in the UK” because Afro Caribbean men
face a disproportionate risk of mistaken diagnosis and
imprisonment.

Shooter’s attack on the bill was quoted in the British
Medical Association’s newsletter following an address to the
British Pakistani Psychiatrists Association.

Kirby’s comments were made at the society’s annual
conference in Manchester. She said the plans were likely to lead to
the stigmatisation of people with mentally health problems.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 28 September page 6

Custody change

Home secretary David Blunkett described parts of the custody
system as “absurd and incompetent” in a speech to the Law
Society.

He said the outdated culture of the court system had to
change.

Source:- The Sunday Times 29 September page 30

Blair attacks UK ‘lack of
confidence’

Opponents to the government’s planned changes in public
services were condemned by Tony Blair, as he vowed he would not
compromise, in a defiant message ahead of the Labour party
conference this week.

The prime minister said the British disease of pessimism was
undermining progress towards better services and a strong
economy.

Public services needed fundamental reform to make them more
consumer friendly, Blair said, adding that many people’s
thinking was stuck in the 1940s.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 29 September page 1

Drinking blamed as teen girl suicides rise

The “ladette” culture of women drinking and taking drugs has
been blamed for a new rise in teenagers committing suicide.

As suicide rates are in decline for the rest of the population,
research has revealed that the number of 15 to 19-year-olds taking
their own lives is rising with the largest increase among teenage
girls.

There has been a 20 per cent increase in young women committing
suicide over the past 10 years, a leading psychiatrist found.

Dr Mike McClure, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist,
suggests that a reason could be the increase in young women
emulating the high risk behaviour of young men.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 29 September page 11

Cherie wants fewer women locked up

A major inquiry into the treatment of women criminals, which is
expected to push for fewer females to be imprisoned, is to be
backed by the prime minister’s wife Cherie Booth this
week.

The investigation, headed by a Labour MP, will look at why the
female prison population has more than doubled in the past
decade.

It coincides with new research suggesting that rather than it
being due to more women committing worse crimes, the courts are
losing sympathy with female defendants as the traditional
perception dissipates of women being gentler and more law
abiding.

Booth will unveil the report of the Commission on Women and the
Criminal Justice System set up by thinktank the Fawcett Society at
the Labour Party conference this week.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 29 September page 16

Boy, 14, locked up for child sex assaults

A 14-year-old boy, who was found guilty of assaults on two
children, has been detained for 18 months and placed on the sex
offenders’ register.

The boy denied three indecent assaults on a girl aged nine and
her 10-year-old brother in Weymouth, Dorset, at Bournemouth crown
court.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 29 September page
2

Helpline launched for paedophiles

An advice and information helpline to persuade potential child
abusers to seek help, was launched by police.

The Stop It Campaign, run with the government, charities and
child protection agencies, in Guildford, Surrey, could be rolled
out nationally.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 29 September page 2

Parents may face jail over compulsory drug
orders

Parents of children diagnosed with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who refuse to drug their children,
could face jail under proposals in the new mental health bill, a
psychiatrist has warned.

Dr Bob Johnson said the wide-ranging powers of the bill would
override the wishes of parents.

“The bill is so punitive it dispenses with all civil and human
rights. Parents who have reservations about pumping their children
full of drugs to control them would be classed as denying their
children treatment,” he said.

“It’s only a matter of time before parents find themselves
in breach of such orders which are fully backed by the courts,” he
said.

Johnson, a clinical psychologist for 40 years, said the rise in
the use of drugs was worrying.

The number of prescriptions for the most popular ADHD drug,
Ritalin, had increased by 2,000 from a decade earlier and stood
last year at 208,000.

Source:- Independent on Sunday 29 September page 2

2 in 3 voters lose faith in Blair reform

Many voters are losing faith in Tony Blair’s ability to
make improvements to hospitals, crime and transport, according to a
poll today.

Nearly two thirds of voters are dissatisfied with the prime
minister’s performance in power, according to the YouGov
survey.

The survey is likely to embarrass the prime minister at the
Labour party conference in Blackpool this week, which has the
slogan “Schools and hospitals first”.

The opening of the conference was overshadowed by a row between
the party and unions over the involvement of private firms in the
provision of public services.

Blair faces the prospect of defeat on the floor today despite
warnings from ministers that halting the private finance initiative
could cost jobs and stop new hospital and school building
projects.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 30 September page 1

Increase in work permits ‘won’t end asylum
problems’

Plans for a large increase in the number of foreign workers
allowed legally into Britain will act as a new gateway to thousands
of people wanting to settle here, a report published today will
show.

It will also fail to curb the numbers of illegal immigrants
arriving in Britain.

A record number of 175,000 work permits are hoped to be issued
next year, according to the home office, which compares to 30,000
annually throughout most of the 1990s.

The numbers have risen in recent years though, and last year
110,000 work permit holders and their families were admitted, a 19
per cent increase on the year before.

The government wants this number to increase this year opening
up the country to legitimate economic migration to boost growth and
to deter those who are using asylum as a back door route into the
country.

Research by independent thinktank, MigrationWatch UK, says the
work permit scheme could increase settlement by up to 80,000 people
a year including dependants.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 30 September page
14

Scottish newspapers

How homelessness became the new scourge of the
Highlands

“I come from Ullapool,” said Angus, as he offered a box of plums
around the day centre in Inverness, “and, if you’re homeless
there, well, it’s just too bad”.

Source:- Sunday Herald September 29 page 6

Rain Man in Scottish fight against MMR

The international autism expert, who created an Oscar-winning
role for Dustin Hoffman in the film ‘Rain Man’, is to join a
Scottish charity.

Dr Bernard Rimland, the brains behind Hoffman’s stunning
performance in the film, is to join a medical and scientific team
for the Scottish pressure group Action Against Autism.

Source:- Sunday Herald September 29 page 5

Scotland’s schoolgirls armed and
dangerous

One in seven 14-year-old girls carries a knife or other weapon,
according to disturbing new research which suggests young women are
embracing the country’s culture of violence. A third of boys
of the same age also carry a knife.

The research by criminologists at Edinburgh University could
explain why the country’s murder rate is much higher than
England’s.

Source:- Scotland On Sunday September 29 page 9

Welsh newspapers

Sex case ‘victims’ fume over bequest

Victims of alleged paedophile, John Owen, are angry at the
decision by the Welsh Language Society to accept up to
£100,000 from his will.

The Clywch Inquiry chaired by Children’s Commissioner for
Wales Peter Clarke is currently looking into the activities of Owen
while he was a teacher at a school in south Wales. He allegedly
abused pupils at the school near Pontypridd when he taught drama
there.

Now some of his alleged victims say that the money left to the
society, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg is ‘dirty money’,
and they are demanding that the society turn down the bequest.

A spokesperson for Cymdeithas, Ffred Ffrancis said the group had
only decided to accept the bequest because they believed it was
what the alleged victims Owen would have wanted.

Earlier this year, Plaid Cymru turned down a bequest from
Owen’s estate although they would not give their reasons.

Owen killed himself last year just before he was due to stand
trial on indecency charges against former pupils. The
children’s commissioner decided to hold an inquiry following
a campaign by alleged victims of abuse.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 30 September page 5

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