Tuesday 25 February 2003

By David Callaghan, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Pilloried

‘Subjected to a humiliatingly public arrest on child abuse
charges, Matthew Kelly endured weeks of vicious gossip and
innuendo. Yesterday police conceded they had not a jot of evidence
against him.’

Poice have decided not to charge television presenter Matthew
Kelly for child abuse offences after they admitted they had no
evidence against him. He said he was not surprised and always
insisted he was innocent.

A man had claimed he was molested by Kelly and three others more
than 25 years ago.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 25 February page 1 

Jackson takes action against Granada over
interview

Michael Jackson has started legal action against Granada
television over the documentary about his life. ‘Living with
Michael Jackson’, presented by Martin Bashir, revealed that Jackson
shared his bedroom with young boys, although the pop star insisted
it was entirely innocent.

Jackson has accused Bashir of betrayal and his company MJJ
Productions has demanded that Granada hand over unseen footage of
Jackson and his family.

The case is expected to be heard in the high court on
Friday.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 25 February page 9

Grant axe hits cheap housing schemes

The government has been warned that the planned withdrawal of
local authority housing grant will have devastating effects on the
country’s affordable housebuilding plans.

The move could mean 14,000 proposed homes are not now built, as
the government takes the housing development role away from
councils, as housing associations and new housing companies taking
over.

A redistribution of cash brought about under the recently
announced £22 billion communities plan has led to the grant,
which is worth £1.3 billion over two years, being
withdrawn.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 25 February page 8

Milburn scraps right to amend NHS files

Health secretary Alan Milburn has gone back on a pledge to allow
patients the right to amend their NHS records correcting mistakes
or inaccurate opinions.

The u-turn also includes increasing the charge for access to
records originally intended to be £10, up to £50, and
dropping plans to ‘fast-track’ access with 40 days now being
acceptable instead of 21.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 25 February page 10

Scottish newspapers

MSPS call for investigation into centre linked to drugs
turf war

MSPs have called for an investigation into a community centre in
Glasgow, run by a member of the family at the centre of a drugs
turf war, which was allocated more than £250,000 of
taxpayers’ money this year.

A group of parents have been campaigning for four years over
concerns about Edward Lyons’ suitability as co-ordinator of
the Chirnsyde Community Centre, due to his family links with
crime.

Sandra White, is to table parliamentary questions into
allegations surrounding the centre.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 25 February pages 1 and
2

Row over £300m disabled access bill for
stations

A row is looming over who should pay for £300 million worth
of improvements to Scotland’s railway stations to make them
suitable for disabled access.

Ramps, lifts and other measures are needed to ensure that
ScotRail, which runs 95 per cent of train services in Scotland,
complies with new rules coming into force next year.

The issue is whether the bill will be paid by the Scottish
executive, due to fund ScotRail’s £200 million annual
subsidy from April 2004, or by the government through the stategic
rail authority.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 25 February page 3

MSPs demand procedure change

MSPs will today demand that the Scottish parliament has the
right to make changes to its own rules without having to seek
permission from Westminster.

Members of the parliament’s procedures committee are
expected to approve a proposal calling on the UK government to
investigate ways of allowing the parliament the freedom to change
its own rules.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 25 February page 9

Welsh newspapers

Net child-porn sentence ‘just’

The sentence given to a south Wales teenager convicted of
downloading child pornography should act as a deterrent to other
young people, police say.

The 16-year-old was detained for four months in youth custody
after admitting 26 charges of making indecent images of children.
He asked the court to take another 1,222 offences into
consideration. At the time of his arrest he was 15, and is the
youngest person ever to be prosecuted in Gwent for downloading
child pornography from the internet.

Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 24 February page
8

Calls for a fairer deal for the elderly

Older people in Wales have been urged to use their power at the
ballot box to bring about change.

As Age Concern Cymru launched its pre-election manifesto, Welsh
politicians were warned not to ignore the needs of older
people.

The charity is calling for a commitment to bring an end to the
discrimination and poverty that blights the lives of many older
people in the principality.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 25 February page 6