Tuesday 22 October 2002

By Clare Jerrom, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Baby murder

A woman who killed her former husband seven years ago was found
guilty of murdering her four-month-old son, Keith, in Hull in
September 1994 by Leeds crown court.

The conviction of Margaret Smith follows an earlier trial which
resulted in a split jury.

She was cleared of murdering her daughter Kelly in July
1992.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 22 October page 4

Milly identified

A DNA test confirmed yesterday that the remains of a body found
in Yateley Heath Forest, Hampshire were those of Amanda Dowler.

Surrey police said that a second post mortem examination was
unable to establish the cause of death.

Her parents will soon be allowed to plan Amanda’s funeral
following the result of the DNA test.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 22 October page 4

Morris to seek power on school expulsions

The education secretary is to seek powers to overturn decisions
by appeals panels to send expelled students back to their
schools.

Estelle Morris wants the right to call in rulings by the
independent panels if the return of expelled pupils would present a
threat to good order in schools.

The move follows the controversy earlier this month when two
15-year-old boys were allowed to return to Glyn School in Epsom,
Surrey, after making death threats against a PE teacher.

Morris publicly demanded the removal of the two boys after an
appeals panel concluded that the school had been wrong to expel
them.

Surrey council criticised the move and said she had “aggravated
the situation rather than helped”.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 22 October page 11

Victims may lose veto over prosecuting violent
men

The solicitor general is today urging crown prosecutors to press
ahead with domestic violence prosecutions even if the female victim
insists on the case being dropped.

“She might want to forgive him, but the next time he assaults
her she could be killed,” Harriet Harman will tell an Association
of Chief Police Officers conference today.

Harman will give her strongest backing yet to give victims of
domestic violence the same anonymity as that offered to rape
victims when they appear in court to give evidence.

The measures are part of a wider package in next month’s
criminal justice bill, which will see the systematic review of all
murder cases involving domestic violence.

The legislation on domestic violence will be the first for 25
years.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 22 October page 2

Murdered boy ‘dumped in bin’

A man battered and stabbed his girlfriend’s son, loaded
his body into a wheelie bin and dumped it on a golf course,
Manchester crown court was told yesterday.

The jury was told that Ronald Mariner, 23, who denies murder,
tried to blame the killing of seven-year-old Ryan Mason on his
mother, Lyn.

Alan Conrad QC prosecuting said that Ryan had been hit with a
hammer, stabbed five times and strangled. Mariner’s finger
prints were found on a hammer and kitchen knife at a house in
Bolton where Mason and her son lived, and where Mariner stayed the
night.

Mariner was later seen pushing a wheelie bin across a golf
course where Ryan’s body was found two days after his
disappearance in February this year.

The trial continues.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 22 October page 11

Ministers ‘bars’ doctrine use of lottery
cash

The culture secretary will warn lottery distributors today
against handing out grants to organisations which launch
“doctrinaire” political campaigns against the government.

Tessa Jowell will speak out as one of the distributors announces
that it is to attach strings to the £340,000 grant to the
National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.

The community fund reviewed the grant after the asylum group
accused home secretary David Blunkett of “colluding with
fascism”.

Chairperson of the community fund, Lady Brittan, will say today
the grant is to be upheld. But she will warn that the lottery money
cannot be used to fund political activities, and will call on it to
remove inflammatory material from its website.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 22 October page 11

Minister hid new aid cost to parents

A government minister failed to publicise figures showing that
single working mothers could lose an average of over £180 a
year under a new child support maintenance scheme, it emerged
yesterday.

Parliamentary under secretary at the department of work and
pensions, Malcolm Wicks, hid figures showing that a single working
mother with one child would lose nearly 20 per cent of her
maintenance income. A working mother with two children would lose
11 per cent – over £140 a year.

Wicks claimed that the government could not work out firm
average figures on losers and winners under a new assessment
system.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 22 October page 12

Privacy fear over teenage support service

Ministers are facing pressure to overhaul a support service for
teenagers amid fears that it violates the privacy of vulnerable
youngsters and their families.

Parents groups and opposition MPs are concerned that Connexions
service is gathering deeply intrusive information from children as
young as 13 and sharing it with a wide range of public and
voluntary agencies, often without parental consent.

The files which can be accessed by social services and police,
may include detailed questions about the youngsters’ personal
lives such as sexual activity or drug use as well as about the
personal lives of their relatives and friends.

Critics have also raised concerns about the expertise of
Connexions personal advisers responsible for assessing the needs of
youngsters.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 22 October page 13

Baby killer suspect is found hanged

A man suspected of killing his baby was found hanged yesterday
on the day he was due to appear in court on unrelated charges of
indecent assault.

Anthony Fell was found hanging at his home in Barrow-in-Furness,
Cumbria, after he failed to arrive at Preston crown court.

His six-month-old son died in December 1999 after he suffered
irreversible brain damage when he was shaken violently.

A coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing last month, and
said that Fell or his ex-wife Angela killed the boy and tried to
make it look like cot death to protect themselves.

Fell was accused of several indecent assaults on a girl aged
under 14, and faced cruelty charges for showing a pornographic
video to two children.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Tuesday 22 October page 7

Smacking will not be banned

Education minister Lady Ashton said yesterday that the
government will not ban parents from smacking their children.

Despite a suggestion from the UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child, she told peers that Britain would not ban this practice when
it was “reasonable chastisement”.

“The government is opposed absolutely to violence and abuse
against children. The law only allows what is reasonable. We want
to ensure that parents recognise their responsibilities,” Ashton
said during ‘Question Time’.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Tuesday 22 October page 14

Scottish newspapers

Anger at plan for suspended councillors

A plan to make unelected officials carry out constituency work
on behalf of suspended councillors was last night denounced by
Scotland’s largest local authority.

Glasgow council claims it could force impartial officials to act
as advocates on local issues, and says only fellow councillors
should deputise for politicians.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 22 October page 9

£1m extra goes on mental health
projects

An extra £1 million is to be spent on developing mental
health services in Scotland, it was announced yesterday.

Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 22 October page 15

Tumour turned teacher into a sex addict

A brain tumour turned a 40-year-old teacher into an uncontrolled
sex addict and paedophile, it was claimed yesterday.

When the tumour was removed, the man’s sexual obsessions
disappeared but, by then, the man had been found guilty of child
molestation.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 22 October page 2

Welsh newspapers

The 32p school dinners that will shock every parent in Wales

Welsh children are being served school meals that cost as little
32p to make, a new report reveals.

The report published by the Regeneration Institute at Cardiff
University, argues that more local food should be used to provide
school meals. The investigation by the institute has found that
tough competition rules are forcing caterers to rely on cheap fatty
foods that are said to be contributing to growing health
problems.

Author of the report, Professor Kevin Morgan, said he hoped the
findings would influence the Welsh Assembly to look at factors such
as nutrition as well as price in the provision of school meals.

The report is called Relocalising the Food Chain.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 22 October page 1

Church turns to spiritual skateboarders in bid to reach
youngsters

Church leaders in Swansea are using skateboarding evangelists to
try to forge links with young people.

Three young ‘missionaries-on-wheels’ from across the UK have
been invited by the leaders of the West Cross Community church in
the city to help support young worshippers.

Church leader John Tannock said the decision to invite members
of the agency Youth for Christ was not a last ditch attempt to
appeal to the next generation, but a response to the realities of
youth culture in Swansea.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 22 October page 5

Children may take the Assembly to court

A group of children fighting plans to rebuild their school on a
contaminated waste tip could make legal history by taking the Welsh
assembly to court in a bid to stop the plans.

The children, from Ysgol John Bright secondary school in
Llandudno, may seek a judicial review of plans to move the school
from the town centre to the proposed site on the outskirts of the
town.

Minister for the environment at the assembly, Sue Essex, is
currently considering whether to revoke the planning application.
If she decides in favour of the plans, then the parents of the
children say they would have no choice but to take the matter to
the courts.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 22 October page 6