Monday 11 August 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Asylum family sought
Two children of asylum seekers deemed to be “at risk” have
disappeared just before a court order was made to put them into
care.
The children aged three and four-months-old were last seen leaving
their home in Enfield, North London, with their Albanian-born
parents hours before the hearing was due at High Holborn family
court.
Source:- The Times Saturday August 9 page 11
‘Terrified’ Ay family go on the run
A family of asylum seekers who have spent just over a year in a
British detention centre have gone into hiding in Germany.
The Ay family now face deportation to Turkey, but state that if
they are forced to return to the country they will be persecuted
for being Kurdish.
The four children in the family were born in Germany, and have
spent the past four years in Britain – they have never been to
Turkey.
The children hold the record for spending the longest time
imprisoned in a British detention centre.
The family were deported from Britain last week after the Houses of
Lords rejected their last minute appeal to stay in the UK on a
human rights basis.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday August 10 page 4
Dungavel ‘unfit for children’
Dungavel detention centre in Scotland is unfit to accommodate and
educate children, according to a new report by the chief inspector
of prisons.
Anne Owers is expected to criticise the way children are treated at
the detention centre near Glasgow in an inspection report due to be
published this week.
The report is set to state there are only a few activities for
children, that they are only allowed outside to play for a few
hours a day, and that lessons are failing to meet the needs of
asylum children.
The findings are based on a visit to Dungavel in October 2002 by
Owers.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday August 10 page 4
Deadly cost of the trade in online prescription
drugs
An inquest decided last week that Liam Bracknell killed himself
after becoming addicted to drugs that he bought on the internet.
Here, ‘The Observer’ reveals the shocking scale of this
trade in Prozac, Ritalin, Seroxat and Zyban.
Source:- The Observer Sunday August 10 page 3
Delinquents get a £25m funfair ticket
Young people, who are seen as likely to commit offences are being
sent on activity days out during the summer holidays in an effort
to cut street crime, under a new £25 million government
initiative.
Around 70,000 young people will be allowed to go on trips if they
stay out of trouble under the Positive Activities for Young People
scheme. Activities include go-karting, paintballing and trips to
theme parks.
The scheme will be partly paid for by £12 million from the
National Lottery.
Young people who have caused the most trouble will be chosen to go
on the trips. Those with referrals from the police, social
services, a juvenile court and an education authority, are most
likely to be selected for the scheme.
Source:- The Sunday Times August 10 page 8
Beggar challenges council’s right to be rid of
him
Beggars may be swept from Britain’s streets and sent to
prison for up to two years as a result of a test case that comes
before the courts today.
Leonard Hockley, a persistent beggar, heroin and crack cocaine
addict has been arrested 97 times for begging, but walks free from
court because under the Vagrancy Act 1824 the criminal offence of
begging is not punishable by imprisonment.
Manchester council is seeking a civil injunction, which would ban
him from begging in the city. If its application is successful and
Hockley defies the order, he could be imprisoned for up to 24
months for contempt of court. It is believed several councils are
awaiting the ruling before following suit.
Source:- The Times Monday 11 August page 4
Police racism need not lead to dismissal
Not all police officers proved to have engaged in racist
behaviour need to be dismissed from the force, according to new
guidelines published today.
The Police Complaints Authority guidance said that in cases where
such behaviour is clearly unwitting there may be other ways of
dealing with it. They add that it is often difficult to prove
direct discrimination in such cases.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 11 August page 5
Scottish newspapers
Study finds fifth of 13-year-olds are in a gang
A fifth of 13-year-olds are members of gangs, according to a study
of thousands of young people by Scottish researchers.
Of these, only 17 per cent belonged to more serious gangs with a
name or sign. Members of gangs were typically from broken homes and
a lower class background.
The Edinburgh University research also found that teenagers who
group together to go to amusement arcades or late-night clubs are
more likely to commit crimes and become victims of crime.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 10 August
Human rights probe urged at Dungavel
The European Commission for Human Rights is being urged to
investigate allege human rights violations at Dungavel detention
centre in Scotland.
Leading nationalist MEP professor Neil MacCormick has written to
Alvaro Gil-Robles claiming the detention of children for long
periods is a breach of the UN Convention of Human Rights.
The Ay family, who had been detained in Dungavel for over a year,
were deported last week.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 10 August
Bullied kids ‘turn into MPs’
Children who were bullied at school want to become
politicians to get into power, according to a study published
today.
Children who were victimised are more likely to join political
parties because they have less chance of rejection, according to
the Institute of Social Economic Research.
Source:- Daily Record Monday 11 August
Family’s fears for missing dementia
sufferer
A family of a 77-year-old Alzheimer’s sufferer are concerned
after she walked out of a nursing home a week ago.
Lindsay Thomson disappeared when staff left a fire exit open in the
heat, and his family have vowed to take action.
Thomson was being cared for at Claythprn House in Anniesland,
Glasgow, while his wife was in hospital.
Source:- Daily Record Monday 11 August 
Patient battered
Two female nursing home workers face 20 years’ imprisonment
in Fordyce, Arkansas, after they beat an 81-year-old woman with
knuckledusters for being “disrespectful”.
Source:- Daily Record Monday 11 August
Pensioners push for £70m fund
Community workers, charities and civil servants have been working
flat out to ensure older people claim their benefits following the
launch of the ‘Daily Record’s campaign to urge
pensioners to claim their share of the £70 million in benefits
unclaimed each year.
The ‘Daily Record’ revealed that 58,000 Scots were
going without the benefits they were entitled to.
Source:- Daily Record Monday 11 August
Paedophile allowed to appeal against
deportation
A convicted paedophile living in Scotland is being allowed to
appeal against deportation to his native Jamaica despite a damning
judgement by an independent immigration adjudicator.
Courtney Burry is on the sex offenders’ register after being
found guilty in 1996 in England of gross indecency with a
nine-year-old girl.
Burry maintains his life is at risk if the home office deports him
to Jamaica where there is “stigma and superstition”
surrounding child sex offences, and he could become a victim of
vigilantes.
Immigration Appellate Authority adjudicator dismissed Burry’s
argument and upheld the home office deportation order. However,
leave to appeal has been granted by Michael Rapinet, a
vice-president of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal.
The case will be heard next month.
Source:- The Herald Monday 11 August
Welsh newspapers
Measles explosion on way, GPs warn
Wales risks an explosion in measles as parents continue to shun the
controversial MMR vaccine.
The principality has one of the worst take-up rates for the vaccine
in the UK, with more than one in five children, aged two
unprotected. Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh secretary of the British
Medical Association, warned that if the trend continued there were
very real concerns because of the morbidity and mortality issues
attached to measles.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 11 August page 1
Youngsters take decisions
Young people in Powys have set up the county’s first
community-based youth council.
Twenty three 14 to 17-year-olds in Llanwrtyd Wells have set up the
new body that will have direct links with the town council, and
will involve young people in events and initiatives in the
town.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 11 August page 5