Monday 28 April 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

Barnardo’s museum will tell ‘lost’ children’s
story

A £1.2 million museum telling the story of children helped
by Barnardo’s is to be built on the original site of one of the
charity’s first homes in north east London.

The site in Barkingside used to be home to the Village Home for
Orphaned  Neglected or Destitute Girls, and will chart the history
of all those cared for by the charity over the years.

The museum could be open by 2005, the centenary of Thomas
Barnardo’s death.

Source:- The Times Saturday 26 April page 8

Children’s champion ready to defy the law

When Camilla Batmangheldjh opens the gates to Kids Company, the
charity she founded for wayward children, on Monday she will be
breaking the law.

From Saturday the charity was ordered to leave their base under
railway arches in Camberwell south London because of a council and
court decision that it is an inappropriate planning use for the
building. But Kids Company is refusing to leave.

Source:- The Times Saturday 26 April page 9

Guinea Pigs Win Lottery

Over £420,000 of lottery money is being given to a group
that breeds fatter guinea pigs for Peruvians to eat.

A £423, 672 grant has been awarded to the Oxfordshire-based
Cusichaca Trust, which has a project to cross-breed Peruvian guinea
pigs with a larger variety, by the Community Fund as a part of
£6.8 million they donate to UK charities working overseas.

The trust has received a total of £720,000 from the
fund.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 26 April page 1

Head must take back ‘brawl family’ pupils

A headteacher has been forced to take six pupils whose traveller
families were involved in a playground attack back into his
school.

At first Colin Lowther went against education chiefs and
excluded the children from Southfield Primary in west London after
the attack which left two parents needing medical treatment.
However, he has now been forced to allow them back into classes
after the school governors failed to support his decision for fear
of being sued.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 26 April page 43

Fears over use of electronic tags on
elderly

Elderly patients with dementia are being electronically tagged,
like young offenders, to prevent them from wandering off under a
scheme that nurses will warn is open to abuse.

The scheme, under which tags trigger alarms if patients stray
out of ‘safe’ areas in hospitals or nursing homes, could become a
cheap substitute for personal attention nurses will hear on
Wednesday at the Royal College of Nursing conference.

They will then vote on whether to reject its introduction.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 27 April page 7

Queen’s organist charged over child sex
images

The Queen’s organist at Windsor Castle is to face criminal
charges following a paedophile investigation.

Jonathan Rees-Williams has been arrested and charged with 16
offences of making indecent images of a child, Thames Valley police
said yesterday.

Source:- The Sunday Times 27 April page 8

Children in care may be sent to leading boarding
schools

The cost of looking after young people with troubled backgrounds
could be cut by sending children in care to private boarding
schools, a new proposal currently being considered.

Local authorities would pay schooling and boarding fees of
children in council care under the scheme being looked into by
education secretary Charles Clarke.

The cost of looking after and educating the children is
significantly lower than keeping them in secure homes, according to
the schools.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 27 April page 4

Revealed: Rachel ‘did not die from a heroin
overdose’

The slumped body of Rachel Whitear – a syringe in her hand –
became a powerful symbol in the war against drugs, but three years
after her death serious doubts have emerged about the case.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 27 April page 6

Suicide rate in female prisons hits new
record

Up to two-thirds of women in prison are suffering from a mental
disorder with record levels being driven to suicide due to a lack
of quality care, according to a new report.

The research by the Prison Reform Trust found that over half
have a personality disorder, but are being locked up for hours on
end in overcrowded cells without proper psychiatric care.

Troubled Inside, due out next month, looks at the plight of
women with mental health problems in British prisons.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday 27 April page 9

£750 for victim of guide dog ban

A blind woman who was refused entry to seven restaurants in one
town while accompanied by her guide dog because of their “no dogs”
policies.

Glenda Holding, decided to sue after her party of 18 people was
refused entry to an Indian restaurant in Hemel  Hempstead,
Hertfordshire which said it couldn’t accommodate her guide dog.

She won her case at Watford county court under the Disability
Discrimination Act which exempts guide dogs from no dogs bans.

Source:- The Independent 28 April page 5

MPs to examine ‘secretive’ childcare inspections
regime

MPs are set to hold an inquiry into why Ofsted inspectors are
banned from telling parents anything about investigations into
safety standards at nurseries and playgroups.

The inspection service responds to complaints from parents about
nurseries, but does not tell them what actions, if any, are taken
to improve safety.

Parents are also unable to find out how many complaints have
been previously made.

Source:- The Times 28 April page 4

Stop and search report angers police chiefs

Black young people who break the law are more likely to be
caught than whites because areas where they live are over-policed,
according to a new report on stop and search.

The critical research by the Metropolitan police’s political
authority says that police in inner city areas, where most black
people live, may choose to “uphold the laws of the land” by using
stop and search tactics than to be politically accountable and
responsive “to the multi-racial public they serve.”

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 28 April page 8

300,000 face wait for tax credit cash

Three hundred thousand people have not had their benefits paid
under the new tax credit system despite putting in their claims by
the January deadline.

Up to 700,000 more who chose to have their benefits paid
monthly, but missed the deadline could also fail to receive their
money on 4 May, the date on which they should receive the
payment.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 28 April page 5

Charities urged to modernise techniques

New research into attitudes of giving has found that the British
have such a random attitude to giving that a third thrown money
into fountains despite having no idea what the money is for.

The research found that methods of fundraising are so
unsophisticated that spontaneous donations made through techniques
such as tin rattling, door-to-door collections and selling raffle
tickets account for around 80 per cent of all donations to
charities by individuals.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 28 April page 10

Scottish newspapers

Priest gets six years for sex abuse
A charity worker and former priest from Edinburgh has been jailed
for six years after pleading guilty to sexually abusing children as
young as five-years-old during the 1970s.

David Murphy was sentenced after admitting eight counts of
indecent assault relating to sexual abuse of girls and boys at St
Mary’s Home in Gravesend, Kent, at Maidstone crown court.

Murphy, who worked for a charity which provides support to
people with mental health problems, Penumbra, was arrested in
August 2001 in Edinburgh.

Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 26 April

Residents and staff in fight to save home

Residents and staff at a nursing home in East Lothian have
launched a campaign against the planned closure of the home.

Templedean Hall Nursing Home in Haddington is planned to close
in October and could result in dozens of residents facing
homelessness.

Over 200 people have signed a staff petition against the
home’s closure, which has been attributed to shrinking profit
margins and increase care costs.

Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 26 April

Child porn policeman spared jail

A police officer who admitted child pornography charges has been
shown mercy by a sheriff.

Church-goer David Mitchell downloaded 111 images of children
being sexually assaulted, Paisley sheriff court heard. The images
were found on Mitchell’s computer by his colleagues after a
list of names were uncovered at the website’s headquarters in
the US by the FBI.

Paul McBride QC, defending said Mitchell was “ashamed and
disgusted”, and had resigned from the police force after 15
years.

Sheriff Kavanagh placed Mitchell on probation for 18 months.

Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 26 April

Catholic church appoints child protection
director

The Scottish Catholic Church is to advertise for a national
child protection director following the scandals of young people
who are sexually abused by priests.

The new role, to be advertised early next month, has been
created in the wake of a spate of sex abuse cases across the world
in recent years.

The position will be the first time the Scottish church has
appointed an employee who is paid solely to act as a child
protection expert.

The director will be responsible for ensuring priests follow
child protection rules and the salary of the post is likely to be
in excess of £25,000 to attract “experienced”
social work professionals.

Source:- The Scotsman  Sunday 27 April

Sex abuse inquiry delay
‘astounding’

“Astounding and ridiculous” delays in completing an
inquiry into a horrific sex abuse and torture case is placing
Borders social work staff under unnecessary stress, a lawyer has
claimed.

The findings of the investigation launched by Scottish Borders
council chief executive David Hume will not be considered by
councillors until 25 June, even though staff interviews were held
in January.

But the time taken to complete a procedure which will determine
whether any social workers or their managers should be disciplined,
has angered solicitor Colin KcNab, who represents one of the staff
members.

The inquiry was launched following a damning report by a
consultant who identified serious shortcomings in the way the
social work department dealt with the case of a  woman with mental
health problems, known as Miss X.

Three local men were jailed last August for a total of 24 years
after they admitted sexually abusing, torturing, starving and
beating the 30-year-old victim who sustained 71 separate injuries
at the hands of the attackers.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 28 April

Afghan asylum seekers flown home forcibly

A group of Afghan asylum seekers are to be the first group to be
forcibly deported from Britain since the fall of the Taliban
regime.

Around 30 asylum seekers are expected to be escorted to a flight
leaving Gatwick airport today.

The home office stopped sending asylum seekers back to
Afghanistan eight years ago due to the instability of the country,
and failed Afghan asylum seekers were granted exceptional leave to
stay in Britain.

But after the fall of the Taliban the rules were tightened and
the “voluntary assisted returns” were unveiled last
August, offering single people £600 and families up to
£2,500 to go home by choice.

The scheme was expected to attract around 1,000 applicants, but
it emerged this month that only 39 people returned to Afghanistan
under the scheme. The home office then announced earlier this month
that enforced deportations would begin shortly.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 28 April

£1,000 for teacher’s tortures

A man, who was the victim of violence at the hands of a teacher
for five years, has been awarded just £1,000 in
compensation.

Raymond McLeod was 11 when former soldier William Brydson
started beating him and other pupils. One of the attacks saw McLeod
kicked repeatedly in the groin for failing a gym exercise.

Brydson was jailed for two years in January after admitting 12
child assault charges.

Yesterday McLeod branded the compensation offer “a kick in
the teeth”.

Source:- Daily Record  Monday 28 April

Welsh newspapers

Fears over care as inexperienced nurses put in sole charge of
hospital patients

Patient care is being put at risk in Welsh hospitals because
student nurses are being left in sole charge of sick people.

More than a third of student nurses have been left in charge of
patients in the absence of registered doctors and nurses, and a new
survey commissioned by the Royal College of Nursing has found that
more than a quarter of first year students were left alone to care
for NHS patients.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 28 April page 5