Tuesday 7 January 2003

By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Doctor told nun her habit would incite
‘murder’

A psychiatrist tried to ban a nun from wearing her habit because
she feared it might provoke patients with mental health problems to
murder her, the General Medical Council was told yesterday.

Dr Helen Bright allegedly told Sister Bernadette Onwuzuruigbois,
a social worker at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow North London,
that her uniform could put them at risk from patients with mental
health problems, who had suffered abuse from religious
institutions.

The doctor is accused of serious professional misconduct after
incidents in which she was allegedly rude and aggressive to
patients’ relatives, threatened to sue a colleague for defaming her
in a reference, and swore at a hospital manager trying to get her
to leave the building.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 7 January page 4

Mayor refuses Samaritans call on traffic
charge

The largest Samaritans’ centre in Britain is facing a shortage
of volunteers for the busy night shift after Ken Livingstone
refused to grant them exemption from the central London congestion
charge.

The Samaritans had appealed to the mayor to recognise the
special circumstances of volunteers arriving after midnight at its
Soho centre, which handles 70,000 calls and 7,000 visitors a year,
whose shifts finish at 8.30am when the congestion charge applies.
Many drive to the centre because public transport is limited in the
early morning.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 7 January page 5

Third bin bag victim named as man in
remanded

Tony Hardy, who had been treated for mental health problems, the
man accused of murdering prostitutes and dumping their dismembered
bodies in dustbin bags, appeared in court yesterday as police named
a third alleged victim.

She has been identified by DNA records as Bridgette Cathy
MacClennan , a prostitute and drug addict from New Zealand.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 7 January page 11

Blunkett’s gun get-out clause

Young people caught carrying an illegal firearm will face a
five-year minimum sentence David Blunkett announced yesterday.

But his crackdown includes a get-out clause that will allow
judges to avoid imposing jail terms in ‘exceptional cases’.

The home secretary was forced to make the concession due to
judges’ fury, who said that the proposal would ‘straitjacket’ the
judiciary.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 7 January page 6

Diana fund hands out £1m to asylum
seekers

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund to award almost a
million pounds to asylum seekers and refugees.

A total of £895,169 out of grants worth £2.3million is
going to a range of groups helping young migrants.

The awards follow the controversy over the amount of money going
from National Lottery money going to similar groups.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 7 January page 15

Behavioural experts to be sent into schools

Behavioural consultants are to be sent into secondary schools
across England as part of a drive to stop disruptive acts by
pupils.

From September a national network of behaviour experts will show
teachers how to control anti-social students while keeping the
attention of the rest of the class.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 7 January page 1

Child protection plan could backfire, social services
warn

David Behan, president of the Association of Directors of Social
Services, warned the government yesterday that the setting up of a
national service to combat child abuse might backfire.

He said that this could create “another boundary” that local
police, social services, health and other child protection workers
would have to confront.

The warning came as the government received a report by Lord
Laming, a former chief inspector of social services, with the
findings of the inquiry into the death of eight-year-old Victoria
Climbie.

The report will be published in the next few weeks and the
government is due to issue a green paper on protecting children
next month.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 7 January page 6

Link to delinquency

Lead in water, food and paint can help make children into
teenage delinquents, according to a study published yesterday.

Researchers found that children appearing in youth courts had
significantly higher concentrations of the toxic metal in their
bones than typical teenagers.

The study by Dr Herbert Needleman, a psychiatrist at the
University of Pittsburgh, compared 194 child criminals with 146
non-offenders.

Source:- The Telegraph Tuesday 7 January page 5

Scottish newspapers

Scots fear violence at work, claims survey

Workers in one in three Scottish workplaces are worried about
the risk of violent assault, a TUC survey has revealed.

Stress, long hours and bullying are hitting workers across the
country, with some employees facing “appalling problems”.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 7 January page 7

Adverts warn young net users

A joint £1 million advertising campaign was launched by the
Westminster and Holyrood governments yesterday to highlight the
potential dangers of internet chatrooms.

Predatory paedophiles have used chatrooms to “groom” youngsters
for abuse. Ministers insisted they did not want to demonise the
net.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 7 January page 2

Prostitute tolerance zones are criticised

Scotland will move a step closer to legalising prostitution if
local authorities are given the power to establish tolerance zones,
MSPs will be told today.

Support groups will argue that it is an “out of sight, out of
mind” act that abandons prostituted women to a life of violence.
The warnings will be made to the local government committee which
will meet to consider the Prostitution Tolerance Zones (Scotland)
Bill.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 7 January page 3

Outcry at failure to end mixed sex hospital
wards

Patients’ organisations and nursing representatives are
criticising the executive for breaking its promise to end mixed sex
wards by April 2002.

Campaigners claim there are still 34 wards across Scotland where
male and female patients have to share all facilities.

The problem came to a head in 2000 when an 83-year-old woman
died a week after allegedly being assaulted by a male patient in a
Fife hospital.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 7 January page 3

Shame of sick-note Scots civil servants

Sick leave for executive staff cost the taxpayer almost £2
million last year, fuelling concerns of a sick-note culture within
the civil service.

Coughs and colds, aches and pains and stress cost £1.8
million in civil servant absenteeism. The executive has an annual
payroll of £140 million.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 7 January page 2

Welsh newspapers

Two years’ jail for babysitter who threw
four-year-old at door

A babysitter who threatened a six-year-old with a knife and
threw a four-year-old boy at a door, has been jailed for two
years.

The judge at Cardiff crown court said Lee Mugliston, who had
previously been found guilty of wounding with intent and cruelty to
a child, presented a risk to children.

Mugliston, who had trained as a psychiatric nurse, was witnessed
by neighbours attacking the boy when he arrived to babysit.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 7 January page 3

Disgrace as cold kills elderly

Poor housing and damp conditions are causing the deaths of
thousands of older people, the charity Help the Aged has
warned.

The charity said that excess deaths over the winter months were
inextricably linked to poor housing and heating. Figures show that
over the course of last winter 25,100 older people in England and
Wales died from avoidable causes, an increase of 7 per cent on the
winter of 2000-1.

Help the Aged wants a twin track approach to tackle the problem.
It is calling for an extensive government initiative similar to the
central heating programme set up by the Scottish executive, to
ensure all older people are kept warm in the winter.

The charity also wants more research into the factors that
contribute to the high numbers of deaths of older people in the
winter.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 7 January page 5

Young offenders unit plans proposed

A secure training unit for young offenders that would double the
number of secure places in Wales is being planned.

The new facility that could provide 80 places is under
consideration by the Youth Justice Board, and a site at Glynneath
in the Neath Valley in west Wales is being looked at as a suitable
location for the new centre.

The proposed facility would provide beds for persistent young
offenders, but those guilty of the most serious offences would be
sent to young offenders institutions elsewhere.

A spokesperson for the Youth Justice Board said that the
proposal was being discussed with Neath council but that nothing
had been finalised.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 7 January page 9