Thursday 21 August 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

Soham policeman cleared of child porn charges after
computer evidence blunder

The police officer who worked closely with the family of Soham
schoolgirl Jessica Chapman was cleared yesterday of indecent
assault and  possession of child pornography due to a lack of
evidence.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) provided no evidence against
detective constable Brian Stevens on charges of indecent assault
against two girls, and of distributing and possessing indecent
photographs of children.
He remains suspended from duty by Cambridgeshire police as they
conduct an internal disciplinary inquiry.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 21 August page 3
Operation Ore Vast number of suspects slowed down work of
investigators

Senior police officers have admitted that no-one was prepared for
the number of names involved and how long Operation Ore would
take.
The names of more than 7,000 subscribers to a child pornography
website were handed to the UK’s national crime intelligence service
in April last year.
Some police forces say it is taking up to nine months to analyse
computers that have been seized because of a lack of experts.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 21 August page 3
Inquiry into 20-year abuse of daughter
An investigation has been launched into how a man who sexually
abused his daughter for more than 20 years and fathered six
children with her went undected for so long.
The father began abusing his daughter, now 31, when she was eight
or nine. He was convicted of sexual abuse, including rape,
committing incest, and indecent assault  at Swindon crown court on
Tuesday and jailed for 15 years.
The abuse was only uncovered in November despite three of the
victim’s children being born with genetic disorders and being
severely disabled.
An inquiry into the case began in April by Swindon’s vulnerable
person’s committee, which is made up of social services, Wiltshire
constabulary and Swindon primary care trust.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 21 August page 10
Elsie, 103, ‘on hunger strike’
Friends are concerned that a 103-year-old lady is starving herself
in protest at plans to shut the care home where she has lived for
over a decade.
Elsie Ife has been told that she must move, but her friends fear
that she would rather die than go to another home.
Ife is to be moved from Hillfield residential home in Reydon, near
Southwold, by Suffolk council in November. The site is to be sold
for housing as it would be too costly to update the home to meet
stricter standards.
Source:- The Daily Mail Thursday 21 August page 23
Paedophiles look for cover online
Internet paedophile networks are teaching people who have been
arrested about the monitoring techniques used by the police and
internet watchdogs, to view images without facing detection.
Network members are also learning counter-surveillance methods to
avoid their web movements being followed.
The new measures adopted by internet paedophiles are outlined in
annual serious crime threat assessment issued today by the National
Criminal Intelligence Service.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday 21 August page 12
Asylum centre: why only Prescott’s word
counts

John Prescott has been accused of a “stitch up” over his decision
to override planning inspectors, and approve an asylum complex in
Oxfordshire.
The comment, from the Tory MP for Banbury Tony Baldry, echoes the
views of many local residents.
Prescott’s actions have raised new criticisms of ministers’ powers
to ignore local opinion.
They have led George Reynolds, the leader of Cherwell district
council, which rejected the proposal, to claim the deputy prime
minister has ignored the democratic process.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday 21 August page 16
Scottish newspapers
Jodi’s boyfriend in fury at school ban

Education officials banned the boyfriend of murdered schoolgirl
Jodi Jones from attending school yesterday leaving the teenager to
stay at home while his fellow pupils returned to the
classroom.
Luke Mitchell obeyed an exclusion order banning him from St
David’s RC High School in Midlothian for his “own
safety and well-being” as his classmates returned for the
beginning of the new school year.
The order expires tomorrow and the 15-year-old’s family said
they would consider legal action if the order is extended.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 21 August page 4
‘Neighbours from hell’ to be named and
shamed

West Lothian Council is set to introduce a new way of stamping out
anti-social behaviour – by ‘naming and shaming’
so-called neighbours from hell and posting their names and
photographs on lampposts.
The plan is believed to be the first in Scotland although other
councils in England use similar schemes. Human rights campaigners
have described it as a “gimmick”, and said the West
Lothian scheme is a cut price attempt to police problem
estates.
Source:- The Herald  Thursday 21 August
Salmond: Treatment of Ays was shameful
Labour’s treatment of the Ay family of Kurdish asylum
seekers, who were detained at Dungavel detention centre for a year,
will cause Jack McConnell “lasting shame”, according to
Alex Salmond.
The SNP’s Westminster leader accused him of paying lip
service to the need for more talented incomers to Scotland in a
speech in St Andrews.
Salmond said: “When it came to the appalling treatment of the
Ay family in Scotland – a mother and four children jailed for
over a year at Dungavel before being forcibly deported from the
country – Scotland’s first minister did and said
nothing.”
He added that the first minister of Scotland should articulate the
hopes and ambitions of the country.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 21 August
Patients wanted for operation cannabis
Patients due to undergo surgery will be asked to take part
in trials to discover whether cannabis can be an effective
painkiller.
The tests will be conducted in 36 hospitals in the UK in the hope
of measuring the effects of cannabis against other pain-relieving
drugs given after operations.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 21 August
Aberdeen’s beggars earn £14,500 a year
Beggars in Aberdeen are earning an average of £7 an
hour making a total a £14,500 a year which is forcing homeless
Big Issue sellers off the streets.
However, the beggars are doing so to fund drug or alcohol addiction
and as a result Aberdeen Council, the Cyrenians and Grampian Police
are working on a strategy to deal with their problems on an
individual basis to remove them from the streets.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 21 August
Welsh newspapers
Baby is with sex offender

A baby boy missing from social services care is believed to have
been taken to France by his parents.
The eight-month-old child’s father is a convicted sex
offender and police say they are treating the family’s
disappearance seriously, and are appealing for them to get in
touch.
Helene Baker collected her son for an unsupervised contact visit
from social services in Ebbw Vale on Monday, but failed to return,
and it is thought that she and the child’s father Gerald
Baker have taken the baby to France.
Source:- South Wales Argus Wednesday 20 August page 1
Lack of cuddles puts young children at
risk’

Staff who look after young children are increasingly reluctant to
cuddle them because of fears over abuse allegations, said a child
psychologist.
Jennie Lindon, writing in the magazine Nursery World, said that in
some cases staff are told not to cuddle children in day care
settings and nurseries “due to a misunderstanding about child
protection”.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 21 August page 9

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