Thursday 3 April 2003

By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex Dobson

Jailed, the mother who let her son skip school to go
fishing

A mother has been jailed after allowing her son to play truant
on several occasions.

Pauline Wheaton was sentenced to six weeks by magistrates in
Peterborough, her third conviction for failing to send her son
16-year-old Thomas Heeson to school.

Wheaton is the second woman in Britain to be jailed for the
offence.

Source:- Daily Mail Thursday April 3 page 29

A vandal, aged 3

A boy of three has become one of the youngest people to have
their details taken down by the police after throwing a stone at a
passing car and hitting its windscreen.

Dwaine Pease’s details will be held on file for a year but no
other action can be taken because the current age of criminality is
10 years old.

Sandra Pease, Dwaine’s mother,  described the police’s actions
as “over the top”.

Source:- Daily Mail Thursday April 3 page 37

Scottish newspapers

Haney jailed for heroin operation

Margaret “Big Mags” Haney, the head of one of
Scotland’s most notorious families was jailed yesterday for
12 years for masterminding a major heroin operation.

Haney’s daughter, Diane, was jailed for nine years, her
niece Roseann for seven years and her son Hugh for five years, for
their part in an operation yielding up to £1,000 a day, while
Mags Haney also claimed benefits of £1,200 a month.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lady Smith said the drugs
operation was so brazen, so organised that Big Mag’s flat in
Stirling was known locally as “the shop”.

Source: The Herald Thursday 3rd April page 8

Jobs outlook to worsen as firms recruit
less

Job prospects north of the border look set to worsen as new
figures put Scotland bottom of the UK league table of employers
taking on new staff.

Experts blame the figures, published in a Manpower quarterly
survey, on uncertainty in the lead up to war with Iraq and a
temporary decline in the Scottish service sector.

Source: The Herald Thursday 3rd April page 10

Welsh newspapers

Take ten, urge Labour

Rhodri Morgan the First Minister in the Welsh Assembly has made
10 pledges to the people of Wales, in the run up to assembly
elections in May.

The Labour election promises include, abolition of prescription
charges and free breakfasts for all primary school children in the
Principality and a 100m crime-fighting fund that would pay for a
range of community safety measures.

Source Western Mail Thursday 3 April page 2

Young offenders sent over the border are bullied for being
Welsh

Young offenders from Wales, who are sent to England because of
an unacceptable shortage of secure accommodation in the
Principality, are being bullied for being Welsh according to a
Welsh assembly document.

The strategy document on youth crime that has been drawn up jointly
by the assembly and the Youth Justice Board highlights a number of
concerns caused by the shortage of secure accommodation in
Wales.

Source Western Mail Thursday 3 April page 8