Monday 19 January 2004

By Amy Taylor, Natasha Salari, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

M25 rapist’s victims include 10-year-old girl, court is
told
A rapist’s nine victims included a 10-year-old, a court heard on
Friday.
Antoni Imiela is accused of attacking five women and four girls in
five counties around the M25.
The schoolgirl is from near Imiela’s home in Kent.
Source: The Independent Saturday 17 January page 2
Treasury move over baby bond concerns
Poor parents could be discouraged from saving money in baby bonds
under new measures forcing parents to make a minimum payment of
£10 a month into the accounts.
The Treasury’s plans are designed to end fund managers’
criticisms that there will be high charges unless people contribute
large sums.
Source:- Financial Times Saturday 17 January page 2
Ill mother gets life for killing child
A mother with mental health problems was jailed for life on Friday
for killing her five-year-old daughter.
Aisling Murray, aged 23, pleaded guilty to stabbing her daughter
Chloe, at Manchester crown court.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 17 January page 12
Chosen inmates asked to befriend Huntley
Ian Huntley has been moved to a suicide proof “normal” cell where
he can mix with other inmates who have been asked to befriend
him.
Each of those chosen will spend an hour a day with the Soham
murderer jailed for life for the murder of Jessica Chapman and
Holly Wells.
Huntley is being held at Belmarsh prison in South East
London.
Source:- The Times Saturday 17 January page 7
Teacher flees to US and escapes pupil sex
trial
A music teacher charged with having sex with a pupil will not be
extradited after fleeing to America because it is not in the
“public interest”.
Dr Nicholas Rast, from Attleborough in Norfolk, resigned as head of
music at Old Buckenham High School in Norwich, after it began
investigating allegations of an “inappropriate 
relationship” with a pupil. He was later charged with having
sex with a 16-year-old pupil while in a position of trust.
But the Crown Prosecution Service is taking no action to force his
return from America.
Source: The Mail on Sunday 18 January page 44
Drugs plan for schools abandoned
At last half of Britain’s 150 school drugs advisers will be
made redundant after central government funding for their posts
ends in April.
The government had hoped that local education authorities would
fund the posts, which are seen as a critical part of a bid to stem
the rising tide of drug misuse by young people, but many have
insufficient resources to cover the new burden.
The news comes just over a week before cannabis is reclassified
from B to a C.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 18 January page 1.
Action on prison suicides as boys are found hanged
The prison service is set to radically overhaul its
suicide policy after two teenage boys were found hanged in their
cells at different youth prisons yesterday.
Philip Rustell, aged 19, was discovered in his single cell at
Reading Young Offenders’ Institute and James Skelly, aged 18,
was found at Portland Young Offenders’ Institute.
Changes are due to be introduced in April after a wide-ranging
review of suicide policy.
The measures being introduced include training for prison staff to
identify suicidal signs and more outside expertise from
psychiatrists to drugs experts.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 18 January page 4.
‘We can’t reunite thousands of mothers with
children wrongly taken from them’
Thousands of parents whose children were taken away on the evidence
given by the paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow, will not have them
returned.
Ministers will review up to 5,000 civil cases of families affected
by the Professor’s discredited theory of Munchausen Syndrome
By Proxy.
But Margaret Hodge, minister for children, has ruled out any
widespread return of children to their families. She said it would
be wrong to raise the hopes of families whose lives were torn apart
by Meadow’s theory.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 18 January page 1
Autism rise may be a myth
A leading medical team believes that Britain’s fourfold rise
in cases of childhood autism is due to a change in the way doctors
diagnose behavioural disorders and has nothing to do with the MMR
vaccine.
The two American academics at Boston University school of medicine
based their research on 280 GP surgeries with three million
patients. They say the rise in autism cases corresponds with a
decline in the diagnoses of other development disorders.
Source:- The Sunday Times 18 January page 3.
SOS call gives bullied pupil a new life
A gifted pupil from a council estate who became frustrated
by bullying and teaching standards at his state school, has won a
scholarship to a top private school after putting in a call to a
Tory parliamentary candidate.
Mark Coote, a prospective Tory candidate, recognised that Joshua
Turner, aged 14, had talents that were not being developed. Coote
rang the headmaster of Tonbridge school in Kent to organise a visit
for the family. The headmaster was so impressed with Joshua that he
offered him a full scholarship.
Source:- The Sunday Times 18 January page 10
Britain faces influx of Europe’s gypsies
At least 100,000 gypsies are expected to arrive from
Eastern Europe as Britain opens its borders to 70 million former
communist bloc citizens from May.
New arrivals will receive the same access to health, education and
pension benefits as Britons. The Home Office has asked the
International Organisation for Migration to launch an advertising
campaign in the Czech republic, home of about 250,000 gypsies, to
portray the downside of life in Britain.
Source:- The Sunday Times 18 January page 14
Campaign by NSPCC ‘poisons families’
Relationships between children and their parents could be damaged
by an NSPCC advertising campaign, academics have warned.
The campaign encourages children to talk to the NSPCC or ChildLine
about any concerns they have if they don’t feel they can talk to
family or friends.
Frank Furedi said the campaign, which is launched tonight, said
that encouraging children to turn to professional organisations
when they are finding it difficult to talk to their families could
undermine family life.
Source:- The Times Monday 19 January page 8
£1m campaign to explain drug laws
A £1m campaign to remind people that cannabis remains illegal
is being launched by the government in light of the drug’s
reclassification from class B to class C next week.
The message will be spread on advertisements and millions of
leaflets from Thursday.
They will also warn of the health dangers with research findings
that pro-longed use of cannabis could  cause mental health
problems.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Monday, 19 January, page 8
Scottish newspapers
11-year-old blamed for 100 crimes a year
An 11-year-old boy, who has committed more than 100 offences in the
past year and been reported by the police 43 times, has emerged as
one of the most prolific offenders in Scotland.
The youngster has been involved with vandalism, theft and car
break-ins, but the lack of secure accommodation for child offenders
means there is no choice but for him to remain in a care
home.
Superintendent Paul Gilroy, of Lothian and Borders Police’s
community safety unit, said the present system for dealing with
persistent young offenders was “very slow”, which
exacerbated the problem.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 18 January
Children with disability at risk of victimisation
Children suffering from autism or attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder could end up in the criminal justice system
as a result of the Antisocial Behaviour Bill, campaign groups have
warned.
The National Autistic Society (Scotland) and Overload Network, the
ADHD campaign group, have expressed their fears that 12,000
children in Scotland, who suffer from these conditions, could be
caught up in the criminal justice system because of the loose
definition of “antisocial behaviour” in the bill.
The repetitive or unusual behaviour of children with autism or ADHD
could be misinterpreted as antisocial behaviour, they warn.
Source:- Sunday Herald 18 January
Executive ‘dumps inclusion
policy’
The Scottish executive’s flagship projects to help
disadvantaged people back to work have closed due to a lack of
money.
Successful schemes run under the New Futures Fund umbrella must now
be “mainstreamed”, and seek backing from councils,
employment agencies, charities or other sources.
However, none of the seven projects whose funding ends in March has
yet found “mainstream” backing. Only a handful of the
64 projects whose funding ends next year have secured funding to
continue.
Senior figures in the voluntary sector believe the executive has
gone “off the boil” on social inclusion.
Source:- Sunday Herald 18 January
Blunkett to create Scottish visa to halt population
decline
Home secretary David Blunkett is considering introducing a
“Scottish visa” to allow foreign students studying in
Scotland to stay on for two years after graduation, in a bid to
reverse the national depopulation.
The visa extension is currently being negotiated between Home
Office and Scottish executive officials.
The Scottish economy faces an uncertain future because of declining
birth rates, an increasing population of older people and zero net
migration figures.
Source:- Sunday Herald 18 January
Health plan suffers lack of funding
A health initiative to improve the fitness of young people in one
of the most socially deprived areas of Scotland, is being ignored
by ministers, despite first minister Jack McConnell’s
commitment to tackle childhood obesity.
The scheme will be introduced in Northern Ireland and the Irish
Republic, but has failed to attract enough funding to be rolled out
across Scotland.
The Sports Interactive project was developed by Sportscotland to
urge secondary school children towards a healthier lifestyle. The
initiative, piloted in 12 schools in Easterhouse, Glasgow, improved
both diet and physical activity.
Source:- The Herald Monday 19 January
Mobile firms to stop the young accessing
porn
Mobile phone companies said yesterday they would be joining forces
to stop children accessing pornography, gambling and other adult
services on the internet.
The industry is launching a joint scheme to classify adult sites
that can be accessed with the latest models of third generation
handsets as 18, mirroring long-established schemes for films,
videos and video games.
The self-regulation code of practice has been agreed by operators
Orange, 02, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone and 3.
Source:- The Herald Monday 19 January
Welsh newspapers
Ecstasy police charge two men
Two men have been charged in connection with a drug related
incident that left five people, including a 13-year-old girl, in
hospital.
The girl spent Saturday night on a ventilator in intensive care at
Wrexham Maelor Hospital after she is thought to have taken an
Ecstasy tablet from a rogue batch. Her condition is now
stable.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 19 January page 1
Homework and cash worry pupils
Children are more worried by the pressures of schoolwork and lack
of money than by sex, drugs or bullying, a new report has
found.
Taking exams, falling out with friends and worries over homework,
were at the top of a list of concerns of 11 to 16 year olds from
all social backgrounds, according to the research from the
NSPCC.
The charity wants the government to appoint school counsellors so
that young people can talk to someone about their concerns. The
assistant children’s commissioner for Wales, Sara Reid, has
backed the call.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 19 January page 3