Tuesday 21 January 2003

By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Blunkett attacks asylum hotel
‘incompetence’

David Blunkett last night warned that community relations in
Britain could spiral out of control if scare stories about asylum
and immigration are exploited.

His message came as ministerial plans for the network of 10
induction centres for asylum seekers were thrown into disarray when
Blunkett accused part of his own department of being
incompetent.

A full review has been ordered into how accommodation for asylum
seekers is secured following demonstrations by local people in
Sittingbourne, Kent, that there had been no plans to consult them
about plans to open an induction centre at a hotel in the town.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 21 January page 1

Blunkett links ID row to asylum

David Blunkett yesterday sought to use the controversy over the
asylum and immigration system to raise support for a national
identity card.

The home secretary, who admitted last week that members of the
cabinet held “different views” over ID cards, suggested that rows
over asylum policy would not end until they were introduced.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 21 January page 12

Paralysed man pays £40 to die legally

A terminally ill patient ended his life by assisted suicide
yesterday after going to Switzerland where the practice is
legal.

Reginald Crew, aged 74, had paid a Zurich clinic a £40
registration fee before boarding a British Airways flight at
Manchester.

He was driven to a nondescript flat in a suburb of Zurich, where
he was given a fatal dose of barbiturates at about 1.30pm. He
lapsed into a coma five minutes later and died at 2.04pm.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 21 January page
1

Care children ‘could go to private school’

Children in care could be educated at some of Britain’s top
private boarding schools under plans to reduce the numbers in
residential homes.

Local authority leaders have met the Independent Schools Council
to develop a scheme enabling children from deprived backgrounds to
live and share a classroom with some of the most privileged pupils
in Britain.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 21 January page
11

Locked up, a hellcat of 12

A girl of 12 arrested more than 40 times in a year-long violent
crime wave was locked up yesterday.

The girl, dubbed a ‘hellcat’, was sentenced to 12 months in a
secure unit for crimes including assaulting police, smashing
windows and burgling a supermarket.

She became infamous nationally last March when, aged 11, she was
caught on camera hurling a brick through the window of Sainsbury’s
in Bristol.

Yesterday the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons,
appeared before a court in north Wales to be sentenced for a
further 20 offences.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 21 January page 24

Asylum Britain

Out of control and costing billions, illegal immigration is
dramatically transforming British society. Yet any attempt to
debate this issue is met by cries of racism.

For the past two years a man who has worked selflessly for black
Africa has been researching the asylum crisis. His report is
dispassionate, but also deeply disturbing.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 21 January page 30

Scottish newspapers

Glasgow to spend millions on help for
homeless

Glasgow is to spend millions of pounds gearing up for an exodus
of vulnerable people from its hostels for the homeless, which are
due to close.

City councillors are expected to approve spending of up to
£41 million over the next three years on purchasing specialist
support services from charities and the voluntary sector.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 21 January page 11

Blind children’s vital cash dries up

Blind children in Scotland are the latest victims of last
year’s stock market crash.

Massive slumps in share prices left Scotland’s biggest
charity for blind people, Glasgow and West of Scotland Society for
the Blind, struggling for survival, after being told it will not
receive an annual grant of £80,000 from the Royal National
Institute for the Blind.

Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 21 January page 18

Welsh newspapers

Girl, 12, guilty of eight assaults on
police

A 12-year-old girl appeared in a youth court yesterday after
committing a catalogue of offences.

The offences included attacks on police, affray and burglary as
well as throwing slates at firemen after climbing onto the roof of
a care home.

A succession of police in different incidents had tried to
control her, but she had scratched and bitten officers and had run
amok on a motorway in the Midlands.

The girl asked to be able to stay at a Bryn Melyn care home in
north Wales rather than be locked up in secure accommodation, but
the court chairperson Alwyn Lloyd said the court had to protect the
public from serious harm.

The girl was sentenced to a year’s detention and training
order. She will spend six months in secure accommodation before
being released into the community.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 21 January page 3

Convicted child abuser still remains a Catholic
priest

A Catholic priest who was jailed three years ago for sex
offences against children, remains under the protection of the
Archbishop of Cardiff.

There has been criticism that the priest involved, Father Joe
Jordan, has not yet been deprived of the priesthood.

He was jailed for a total of eight years after two trials in
which he was convicted of 10 charges of indecent assault involving
three schoolboys and of possessing indecent images of children.

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Cardiff said that the
process to deprive Jordan of the priesthood had not yet begun. He
said though, that Jordan could not practice as a priest because his
licence had been withdrawn.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 21 January page 3