Tuesday 15 July 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Girl, 12, flies off with internet ex-marine

A 12-year-old girl has flown to Paris after joining up with a
31-year-old ex-marine from America she met over the internet.
By the time an all-ports warning had been issued and Interpol were
contacted Shevaun Pennington from Greater Manchester was already in
France with Toby Studabaker.
She left her home on Saturday morning after telling her parents
that she was going to meet friends, and was reported missing that
evening when she failed to return.
A closer inspection found her passport and some clothes were
missing.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15 July page 2
Costs soar for play schemes this summer
Working parents face significant rises in the cost of summer
holiday childcare compared to last year.
A child’s place on a summer holiday play scheme costs £67.70 a
week, compared to £58.46 in 2002, according to the Daycare
Trust, a national childcare charity.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15 July page 6
Sister ‘who killed grandmother was caught on tape’
A woman confessed to killing her grandmother at her
grandmother’s request in a secret tape recording made by her
sister, a court heard yesterday.
Julie Kenyon is alleged to have smothered Irene Waters, aged 89,
with a pillow after Waters, who had been ill for a long time, asked
for help in ending her own life.
Kenyon denies murder. She is said to have lied to police and to an
inquest about Waters’ death in 1996, stating then that the woman
had died of natural causes. However, five years later Kenyon
blurted out a confession to a friend who contacted her sister who
then got her to confess to her –  a conversation she recorded on
tape.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 15 July page 5
Curbs on chat Grooming to be outlawed
Legislation that criminalises the “internet grooming” of children
is due to receive a second reading in the House of Commons
today.
The sexual offences bill creates a new offence for any adult who
arranges to meet a child under-16 with the intent to sexually abuse
them either at that meeting or on another occasion.
The measures will provide protection to young people who use
internet chat rooms and are expected to become law by autumn.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 15 July page 3
Asylum seekers given a new weapon
A high court judge has ruled that in the future officials can no
longer decide young asylum seekers’ age by their appearance alone,
and in the future will be required to carry out checks to determine
their real age.
The situation arises from some refugees in their late teens and
early 20s being suspected of lying about their age, and pretending
to be children when they reach this country.
At present some councils, already struggling under the number of
asylum seeker children, have refused to believe refugees’ stories
about their ages and refused to support them because they look over
18.
Asylum seekers aged under-18 are covered by the Children Act which
places a duty on councils to provide accommodation to children in
need.
The checks will involve researching the “general background” of the
asylum seeker.
Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 15 July page 26
Scottish newspapers
Evil monk’s shocking sentence
A monk who tortured ‘problem’ children was
jailed for two years yesterday.
Former housemaster Brother Benedict, now known as Michael Murphy,
was found guilty of 10 charges of assault.
A former night-watchman who sexually molested boys at St
Ninians’s  List D school Stirlingshire, James McKinstrey,
also received two years in custody after he was found guilty of two
indecent assaults and two charges of indecency.
However, a former woodwork teacher at the school, Charles McKenna,
who was found guilty of two indecent assaults and one charge of
indecency, could not be dealt with yesterday as he had forgotten
his hearing aid.
The high court in Edinburgh heard horrific stories from former
pupils who were aged 10 and 12 when they were abused at the school
run by de la Salle monks in the 1960s and 1970s.
While St Ninian’s closed in 1982, monks of the de la Salle
order now face civil actions for damages brought by victims of
abuse there.
Source:- Daily Record  Tuesday 15 July page 10
Babysitter sex pest is locked up
A babysitter who fondled an 11-year-old girl was jailed for two
years yesterday.
Mark King was left in charge of the girl and her three-year-old
brother while her mother went to the shops. But when the mother
returned, her daughter revealed that King had touched her.
King admitted lewd and libidinous behaviour towards the girl at her
home in the Borders, at Selkirk sheriff court. Sheriff Ian Inglis
said King had an appalling record and a “very high
risk” of re-offending.
Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 15 July page 11
Come home
The parents of a 12-year-old girl, who has run away to France with
a 31-year-old marine she met on the Internet, made a desperate plea
for her to come home.
Shevaun Pennington has not been seen since Saturday when she left
the family home with her passport and spare clothes. Police said
she later met up with Toby Studabaker who had flown from Detroit
via Amsterdam to Manchester.
The pair then flew to Heathrow before boarding a flight to
Paris.
It is believed the two had been in contact in an Internet chat
room.
Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 15 July page 11
Welsh newspapers
Prison governor pledges to protect inmates
The director of a prison where a 20-year-old prisoner
hanged himself in his cell has pledged to do all he can to protect
vulnerable inmates.
David Smith from Newport in south Wales was found hanging by his
bootlaces in Parc Prison, Bridgend, five days after being given a
five-year sentence for arson.
The prison’s director Jim Mullen said following an inquest
into Smith’s death that he and his staff were fully committed
to reducing the risk of self-harm by inmates.
Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 14 July page 7
‘We felt we were at risk and had no option other than
to arrange a transfer’

Residents at a home for older people in Cardiff have been advised
to move because of concerns over care standards.
Cardiff social services and the local health board have contacted
relatives of 16 people living at Sister Nightingale’s
residential home, following concerns raised during an inspection by
the Care Standards Inspectorate for Wales (CSIW).
A notice to cancel registration of the home has been served by the
CSIW, but the majority of residents at the home say that they do
not want to leave.
Source:- South Wales Echo Monday 14 July page 4
Couch potato Welsh kids shun sun for TV
Children are more likely to watch TV than spend time outside in
good weather.
A survey of 1,000 Welsh parents found that on average some children
spend just one hour outside each week.
In contrast, some children were spending up to 23 hours and 41
minutes each week watching television, causing parents serious
concerns about their children’s health, according to the
study by the children’s activity group,
sportsfundays.com.
Steve Flanagan, co-founder of the group, said that many local
authorities had cut the funding available for outside activities
and that there was a real danger that a generation of children was
growing up that had missed out on the vital skills that sport could
bring.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 15 July page 1

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