Monday 21 October 2002

By Clare Jerrom, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Pupil, 13, put on sex offender list

A 13-year-old boy became one of the youngest entries on the sex
offenders register yesterday after he admitted assaults on two
girls and a woman.

The schoolboy who carried out four attacks in a school uniform
within a week in April in Lewisham, south London, stalked his
victims, forced his way into their homes and assaulted them.

Judge Graham Boal at the Old Bailey placed the boy on a
three-year supervision order so that he can receive treatment at a
centre for sex offenders.

Source:- The Times Saturday 19 October page 7

New loyalty pledge to be imposed on head of
CRE

The government was criticised last night after it insisted that
the new chairperson of the independent race relations watchdog
should agree to a “loyalty” pledge to the home secretary.

The responsibilities for the new chairperson of the commission
for racial equality was set out in a document that stated the
organisation’s policies must not clash with those of the home
secretary.

Race relations experts said the government risks undermining the
commission’s credibility with ethnic minority communities by
making it appear too close to it.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 19 October page 1

Death threat pupils move on

The two pupils who were expelled from Glyn School in Epsom,
Surrey, for making death threats to a PE teacher have both agreed
to attend other schools.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 19 October page 6

Woman, 71, died of thirst because carer couldn’t
spell ‘Alzheimer’s’

A woman in a home for older people died of thirst after the
deputy manager failed to record that she was suffering from
Alzheimer’s disease because she could not spell it.

A pathologist told an inquest that Edith Pyett, aged 71, had
suffered the worst case of dehydration he had seen.

Pyett had been in the Belmont Care Centre in Eastbourne for a
week. The home’s deputy manager Annette Ducille-Horton
admitted failing to enter Pyett’s Alzheimer’s disease
in her care plan.

Pyett was unable to eat or drink without assistance and the
omission in the care plan meant staff did not realise the severity
of Pyett’s problems or understand her needs.

The jury returned a verdict of death by dehydration, aggravated
by neglect.

Source:- The
Independent Saturday 19 October
page 2

Maxine Carr in dash to hospital

Maxine Carr was rushed to hospital from prison on Saturday night
following reports that she has been suffering depression and an
eating disorder.

The woman accused of perverting the course of justice in the
murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman was taken to the
Whittington hospital, north London, from Holloway prison where she
is being held on remand.

A hospital spokesperson said Carr was on a ward and not in an
intensive care unit, and her condition was described as
“stable”.

Carr was questioned over night by Cambridgeshire police last
week and returned to prison on Friday.

She is referred to as a “2052 case” which means she is seen as a
threat to herself. She has been on 24-hour suicide watch since
arriving at the prison and there have been reports that she is
suffering from depression and bulimia.

Source:- The Sunday Times 20 October page 3

Child porn swoop targets 90 police

Care workers, police officers and teachers are among the
hundreds of welfare professionals identified as ‘extremely
high-risk’ paedophiles by an investigation into internet
child porn.

More than 7,000 names of UK subscribers to an American based
child porn website were passed on from US authorities. The police
examined the subscribers and found many worked with children.

Investigators now believe that as many as 90 police officers
have so far been identified from an initial trawl of 200 of the
British names found in the US.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 20 October page 1

Road death risk higher for deprived
children

Children in deprived areas are three times more likely to be
knocked down by a car than those in more affluent areas, a report
will reveal tomorrow.

Britain has one of Europe’s worst records for child
pedestrian accidents with more than 100 children killed on the
streets every year.

The ‘Streets Ahead’ report reveals more than a
quarter of the 16,000 child pedestrian casualties every year happen
in the most deprived tenth of the country.

The report said this was due to many of the deprived areas being
in inner cities where traffic is heaviest, but also because
deprived children often do not have playgrounds or gardens and are
likely to play in the streets.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 20 October page 16

Birds threaten base for asylum seekers

The government’s plans to open an accommodation centre for
asylum seekers in Worcestershire could be threatened after
protected birds have been spotted nesting on the proposed site.

Birdwatchers have seen barn owls and skylarks at Throckmorton
airfield near Pershore, and both species are protected by European
directives and the Wildlife and Countryside Act. This makes it an
offence to disturb their nests during the nesting season.

Head of planning at Wychavon district council, Jack Hegarty said
the bird’s presence was a serious obstacle to the home office
plan and could de-rail it.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 20 October page 11

Crisis over vetting in children’s
hospitals

Children’s hospitals face similar problems to those
encountered by schools last month as dozens of newly employed
nurses are having to wait up to five months for their criminal
record check before they can begin work.

The worst hit hospitals believe the understaffing is having an
impact on children. Up to 100 paediatric nurses have been forced to
wait before starting new jobs, and hundreds more cannot work alone
with young patients because the Criminal Records Bureau cannot keep
up with the demand for checks.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health called on the
government last night to intervene to prevent the problems
worsening.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 20 October page 18

Stop jailing mentally ill, says prison
chief

The head of the Prison Service has condemned the jailing of
thousands of people with mental health problems “shameful” this
week saying they needed treatment instead.

Martin Narey said that vulnerable prisoners with psychological
illnesses and at risk of suicide, were his “biggest single worry”
and created an “overwhelming burden” on prison staff.

“Care in the community has now become care in custody,” he
said.

Source:- Independent on Sunday 20 October page 17

Nagging experts put families under pressure

Family experts and politicians are undermining the confidence of
parents in their ability to raise happy, healthy children, a
leading parenting charity claims today.

Chief executive of National Family and Parenting Institute, Mary
MacLeod, said that dire warnings about the pitfalls of different
styles of discipline or child rearing had produced a crisis of
confidence among many parents.

“I think that the constant stream of headlines from research
that this or that is bad for kids does affect parents. It certainly
affects me,” MacLeod said.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 October page 7

Men need extra time off for childcare

Men’s childcare responsibilities must be recognised by
employers, according to a study this week.

Many men in their thirties are afraid of taking time off because
workplace culture is still defined by men in their fifties whose
wives tend to stay at home to look after the children, the report
by the Work Foundation says.

But now almost 60 per cent of mothers with pre-school children
and who are either married or live with their partner, also work,
placing pressure on more men to shoulder more responsibility for
childcare.

Many men use out of office meetings as a cover for time looking
after children rather than risk appearing less masculine or
committed than their colleagues.

Source:- The Times Monday 21 October page 7

Minister ‘squared up’ to drug
czar

The government’s former drugs czar has claimed that Alan
Milburn “squared up for a fight” with him in the House of Commons
in a row over how to combat drug abuse.

Tensions spilled over in a Commons committee room after Keith
Hellawell accused ministers of holding back figures that would
damage their credibility of their anti-drugs policies.

He alleges the secretary of state threw his papers on the table
in a fit or rage and jumped up to confront Hellawell.

“A furious secretary of state squared up to me for a fight,
physically pushing me and warning that it was dangerous ‘to
get on my wrong side’,” he writes in his memoirs.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 21 October page 6

Problem pupils on the increase

The number of children in primary schools, who have emotional
and behavioural problems are on the increase, according to a
survey.

Around 40 per cent of head teachers said the proportion of
children with special education needs, including behavioural
difficulties, rose over the last year, according to the National
Foundation for Educational Research.

More than half said the range of needs had increased and the
National Association of Head Teachers warned that more pupils faced
expulsion unless the government gave schools extra money for
classroom assistants to be specially trained.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 21 October page 6

Disabled major, 84, sues MoD for pension
tax

A war veteran is to sue the Ministry of Defence for thousands of
pounds in tax wrongly paid on his army disability pension for the
past 42 years.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed earlier this year that
large numbers of disabled veterans were owed millions of pounds in
tax charged.

Major Richard Perkins, aged 84, was specifically named by
veterans minister Lewis Moonie when he apologised to Parliament in
January for the blunder. Moonie told MPs he would resolve the
matter as quickly as possible.

But nine months later, Perkins is no closer to receiving his
money.

The MoD refused to comment.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 21 October page 10

Scottish newspapers

Executive’s £11m to beat youth
crime

The executive yesterday unveiled an £11 million blitz to
tackle youth crime.

The cash is to be made available to give local authorities and
voluntary organisations more power to deal with young offenders as
well as support victims.

Source:- Daily Express Saturday 19 October page 2

Sex fiend in bail blunder

A teenage thug who broke into the home of a young mother and
brutally raped her, was allowed out on bail two weeks later.

Four weeks after that Sandy McCutcheon, aged 18, was arrested
and accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old
girl.

Serious concerns have been raised about over the wisdom of
allowing an accused rapist out on bail and placing the public at
risk.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 19 October page 11

Deprivation causes twice as many deaths in Glasgow as
Edinburgh

Dr Harry Burns was driving from his office in Glasgow to a
meeting at Stobhill Hospital in the north of the city.

Source:- Sunday Herald 20 October page 18

Why social workers need a new image and more
money

Social workers must be given a new deal similar to the ‘McCrone
agreement’ for teachers to prevent a crisis in the profession, the
government has been warned.

Source:- Sunday Herald 20 October page 8

Executive blows millions on ads with no
impact

Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been wasted on
TV campaigns against speeding and drugs which have had no effect on
Scots’ behaviour, according to the Executive’s own
research.

Source:- Scotland On Sunday 20 October page 4

A former teacher of Tony Blair was sacked from Fettes
College in Edinburgh following complaints of sexual misconduct with
boys.

Source:- Scotland On Sunday 20 October page 5

Scotland a safer place for elderly to live

Scotland is much safer than the rest of the UK for older people,
according to a new survey which shows that pensioners are twice as
likely to be attacked in England than in Scotland.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 21 October page 10

Wallace criticised on figures for young held on
jails

The convener of a parliamentary committee has attacked Jim
Wallace, the justice minister, and the Scottish Prison Service for
not collecting vital information about the treatment of young
offenders.

Christine Grahame, the SNP MSP, who chairs the Justice 1
committee, has been gathering evidence to back claims of a lack of
secure accommodation in Scotland.

Source:- The Herald Monday 21 October page 6

Welsh newspapers

Paedophiles could evade security net

Paedophiles could be entering childcare jobs because voluntary
groups in Wales are unable to access criminal records or easily
obtain police checks.

Delays in checking systems by the Criminal Records Bureau mean
that there are hundreds of people working with children in the
principality that have not yet been given clearance by the
organisation.

There may also be many more who have not been through any formal
checks because the employing organisation cannot make the checks or
is unaware that checks need to be carried out.

A working group has been set up by the Welsh Assembly to tackle
the problem.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 21 October page 1

Order sought against boy accused of scarring
estate

A violent and aggressive 14-year-old boy scared adults as well
as children by his intimidating behaviour, a court was told.

He threatened a youth club leader with an eight-foot plastic
drainpipe, and was among a gang who hurled stones at the youth
leader’s car.

Magistrates at Llandudno were told that the boy had been
involved in 61 separate incidents, and has a record of seven
previous assaults.

The court order being sought would prevent the boy from using
threatening or abusive language, and includes banning him from an
area of Colwyn Bay in north Wales.

It is the first time this type of order has been sought in the
county of Conwy.

The case is adjourned until Thursday of this week.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 21 October page 7

If we do not protect vulnerable children, we are
betraying them

A page feature that is part of the newspaper’s commitment
to the NSPCC Full Stop Campaign, against cruelty to children.

The article looks at the role of the Children’s
Commissioner for Wales, Peter Clarke, who says that action needs to
be taken now to protect children, and adds that anything less would
be tantamount to a betrayal.

Clarke welcomes the NSPCC campaign as a really useful
contribution to the national debate about child abuse.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 21 October page 12