Tuesday 29 July 2003

By Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson
Diana fund crisis hits youth charity
A project that helps young disabled people is likely to be
the first forced to close as a result of the loss of grants from
the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
‘Life Options’, a scheme which supports young people
with disabilities and their families, will fold in three weeks
unless new donors can be found by Friday.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 29 July page 8
Paynes to sell up
The grandparents of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne, who was
abducted from their home in West Sussex three years ago, are to
sell their house because their remaining grandchildren are too
frightened to visit them.
They plan to move 200 miles from Kingston Gorse to Dartmoor.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 29 July page 8
Failed asylum seekers to be denied free care
Failed asylum seekers are to be denied free routine hospital
treatment under proposals to be announced by the government today
to ease the pressure on the National Health Service.
Health minister John Hutton will set out a range of measures
designed to prevent illegal immigrants abusing the system.
Source:- Financial Times Tuesday 29 July page 2
Government ‘failing to hit drug-related crime
targets’

The government’s aim of ensuring drug-addicted street robbers
receive treatment within 24 hours of release from custody has
failed, according to a report today.
There has been a “significant mismatch” between
“reported success” in meeting the 24-hour target and
the “reality in practice”, according to the report by
several inspectorates into the ‘street crime
initiative’ in 10 police “hotspots”.
The inspection found that drug addicts were not offered treatment
until between nine and 12 weeks after their release from custody,
by which time there was a drop-out rate of as high as 97 per
cent.
Source:- Financial Times Tuesday 29 July page 4
Rise in recruits ends VSO crisis
Six months after reporting that there had been a 40 per cent fall
in applications, there has been a 20 per cent rise in the number of
volunteers at development charity, VSO.
The charity has sent 35,000 mainly British people to the developing
world over the last 45 years.
Earlier this year it was in crisis after the number of volunteers
fell as a result of fears of terrorism, Sars and the uncertain
economic climate.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Tuesday 29 July page 8
Lottery fund awards £500,000 to drug trials that will
give addicts free heroin

The National Lottery’s Community Fund has awarded a
£500,000 grant to fund a scheme that will provide drug addicts
with heroin.
In the first study of its kind, 100 heroin users who previously
failed to respond to detox will be provided with the drug under
controlled circumstances to see whether they can be weaned from the
drug.
Source:- The Independent Tuesday 29 July page 9
Scottish newspapers
Crowded jails becoming more violent
New figures showed last night that the record number of
inmates in Scotland’s jails has led to a surge in attacks on
prisoners and staff.
The Scottish prison service figures show a 130 per cent increase in
serious assaults on prison officers and a 50 per cent rise in
assaults on prisoners.
The prison service stressed that jails were coping with record
numbers of inmates, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to
maintain the levels of discipline needed to prevent violence.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 29 July page 2
Byers’ asylum warning
The government needs to tackle asylum or pay a heavy price at the
next election, Stephen Byers will warn tomorrow.
The former cabinet minister will say in a speech to the Social
Market Foundation thinktank in London that Labour cannot ignore
people’s legitimate concerns over “one of the most
important issues facing our country”.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 29 July page 4
Who is best judge of how much child abuse victims should
get?

Merits of the jury system fall flat when presented with emotive
arguments.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 29 July page 11
Appeal by the Home Office in Algerian’s asylum
case

The home office is to appeal against the decision by an independent
adjudicator that an Algerian, who murdered his Scottish wife, can
remain in Britain.
Officials reviewing the determination are expected to lodge appeal
documents later this week following controversy surrounding
Mohammed Khelifati’s political asylum.
Khelifati repeatedly stabbed his estranged wife Mary in Edinburgh
in 1984 in an argument over their daughter, Louisa. He was released
in December 2000 when he had been due to be deported for the
‘public good’.
He was granted leave to stay at an immigration appellate authority
hearing in Glasgow. But it emerged yesterday that not all the facts
surrounding Khelifati’s history appear to have been placed
before Isabelle Murray, the adjudicator.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 29 July
Identify abuse case workers, MSP demands
The people responsible for allowing a woman with learning
difficulties to be sexually abused by her carer and two other men
should be identified to prevent the case being repeated, according
to a Nationalist MSP yesterday.
As a senor social work expert began examining plans from Scottish
Borders council to stop any recurrence, Christine Grahame renewed
her criticism of the original investigation.
Grahame called for an independent inquiry into the case of a woman
known as Miss X.
Three men were convicted of raping and torturing the woman last
year.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 29 July
Witness support scheme extended
The witness service, introduced to those giving evidence in sheriff
courts seven years ago, has proved so successful that it will now
be available to help those who appear in Scotland’s high
courts.
Witnesses who give evidence in cases concerning the most serious
and violent crimes will now be able to obtain expert support and
advice to help them cope.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 29 July
Officers review murder inquiry four weeks after Jodi was
killed

A review of the investigation into the murder of 14-year-old Jodi
Jones was launched by an independent team of police officers
yesterday.
At the same time, the squad led by chief superintendent Douglas
Watson started work making a fresh appeal for information about her
killer, four weeks after her murder.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 29 July
Parkinson’s sufferer says he was forced out of his
job
A senior college head of department claimed yesterday that
his employers effectively forced him out of his job when he told
them he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Ian Duncan told an employment tribunal the only advice his
employers gave him when he informed them of his condition was to
refer him to a website on the illness.
Duncan worked for Cumbernauld College for 22 years.
The hearing continues.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 29 July
Welsh newspapers
Born a heroin addict

The parents of a baby girl who died after being born with an
addiction to drugs, say that they have been branded child
killers.
Carlie Batchelor was found dead in her parent’s bed, and an
inquest found that the four-month-old baby died of natural causes.
She is the second child in the family to die of sudden infant death
syndrome and Darren Batchelor; Carlie’s father says that the
tragic death of their first child was what led to he and his wife
Caroline becoming addicted to heroin.
Source:- South Wales Echo Monday 28 July pages 1 and
2
Children need to play on the streets
More than a third of Welsh children will spend their
summer holidays playing on a street corner, and new research says
that such activity is good for them.
The study from the charity Save the Children found that young
people often ignore play and leisure facilities if their friends do
not use them.
The charity is calling on the government to stop looking at
children and young people as a source of problems, and says that
new legislation like the Antisocial Behaviour Bill, could ride
roughshod over their human rights.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 29 July page 1
Sex fiend jailed for attacks on boys
A property developer who groomed young victims for sexual abuse by
giving them presents and foreign holidays, has been jailed for
two-and-a-half years.
Rhys Davies, aged 63, had already served nine years in a Spanish
jail for abusing children before returning to Wales where he was
arrested for a number of sexual offences against young boys.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 29 July page 3
‘Let our children be free to climb
trees’

Difficult children are the result of poor parenting and not
learning disorders it has been claimed.
According to Priscilla Alderson, professor of childhood studies at
the University of London, it has become convenient for neglectful
parents to blame their children’s challenging behaviour on a
range of special needs.
But parents and children’s charities say she is ignoring a
wealth of research into conditions such as autism and have
condemned her comments.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 29 July page 7

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