Monday 9 February 2004

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

Pay parents to raise children, says bishop

The Bishop of London would back a move to pay women to stay at
home to raise their children.

In an interview for GMTV’s Sunday Programme, he said he found it
“bizarre and unfortunate” that childcare was seen as being “of less
worth and value than standing on a production line”.

Source:- The Times Saturday 7 February  page 15

Arsonist jailed for paedophile home attack

A man who burnt down a convicted paedophile’s £1m Grade II
listed home was jailed for eight years yesterday.

Roy Eveleigh said that Peter Hamilton-Harvey had shown him
photographs of boys being abused which caused him to attack the
house.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 7 February  page
7

Officials to resist NHS racism findings

Three recommendations from the official inquiry into the death
of David “Rocky” Bennett, which exposed racism in the NHS are set
to be rejected or watered down by officials.

They do not want to accept the recommendations of the official
report when it comes out on Thursday and are not convinced of the
need for an ethnicity “tsar” to help reform mental health
services.

They are also unwilling to accept the report’s view that
institutional racism is rife in the NHS.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 7 February page 8

Young to get £3 an hour minimum

A new minimum wage of £3 an hour is being introduced for
workers under 18.

It is the first time young workers will benefit from having a
minimum wage.

The £3 figure has been recommended in a report to ministers
by the Low Pay Commission, an independent statutory public body
that sets the minimum rates.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 8 February  page 3

Coroner seeks inquiry into ‘mass euthanasia’ at
hospital

A coroner is concerned that Britain’s first case of forced ‘mass
euthanasia’ may have taken place at a hospital in Derby.

Coroner Peter Ashworth is demanding a public inquiry into
allegations that 11 older patients were deliberately starved to
death at Kingsway Hospital.

There is growing concern about the way hospitals appear to be
hastening the deaths of older patients.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 8 February page 7

Migrants to be targeted in new ad campaign

Ministers are planning a hard-hitting advertising campaign to
discourage migrants from abusing the benefits system and deter
illegal immigrants.

Initial talks are understood to have taken place between the
Home Office and officials at COI Communications, the agency which
works on government advertising campaigns.

The government is preparing for an influx of thousands of
workers from 10 countries, including Slovakia and the Czech
Republic, which join the European Union in May.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday
8 February  page 6

Militant fathers’ group to step up road and rail
disruption

The group campaigning for guaranteed rights for estranged
fathers to see their children is drawing up plans to further
disrupt road and rail travel.

Fathers 4 Justice is holding a summit meeting in the Midlands
after another round of demonstrations caused traffic disruption in
London, Bristol and Newcastle last week, resulting in eight arrests
and police raids on the homes of those involved.

Fearing police are about to arrest the organisation’s central
figures, co-ordinators will also be given detailed instructions of
what is believed to be a plan to disrupt almost every major
motorway in Britain.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 8 February
page 19

Defiant mothers could lose driving licenses

Mothers who stop fathers seeing their children could have their
driving licenses confiscated under radical proposals to give family
courts greater powers to enforce child contact orders.

The idea is borrowed from America and Australia, where it has
been found that taking a mother’s driving licence away is a
more successful method of bringing recalcitrant parents to heel
than other more draconian punishments.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs has said that
ministers will respond to the driving licence confiscation orders,
along with other recommendations, by Easter.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 8 February
page 19

$90m payout over child abuse drug

The company behind the controversial drug cisapride, whose
side-effects on young children may have led to false accusations of
abuse against their parents, is to pay out millions of pounds in
compensation.

The payments will raise further questions about the theory of
Munchausen’s Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP), which suggests that
some parents harm their children to draw attention to
themselves.

The US-based Janssen Pharmaceutica, which markets cisapride, is
to offer up to $90m to settle claims involving 4,000 individuals
affected by the drug, of whom 300 are alleged to have died.
Cisapride is used to treat digestive problems but was taken off the
US and UK markets three years ago amid concerns about its
side-effects.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 8 February page 6

Violent men will be sent to class

Violent men are to be sent to American-style classes under a
nationwide programme to reduce domestic violence.

The training will aim to prevent abusive men attacking future
partners or taking revenge on former wives.

Men will have weekly sessions for up to 10 months on everything
from “sexual respect” to how violence affects children, in the
first nationwide approved programme, to be introduced in April.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 8 February page 7

Shock survey reveals ‘violation of
rights’

Almost one in six women imprisoned while waiting for trial goes
on to be acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence, according to
the biggest survey ever conducted into women on remand.

The Prison Reform Trust survey also found that 40 per cent of
women on remand have received help for a mental health problem in
the year before imprisonment.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 8 February page 11

Asylum rejections show ‘staggering lack of
knowledge’

Amnesty International has accused the Home Office of a
“staggering” lack of knowledge about human rights
abuses.

The organisation said that 14,000 asylum appeals were granted in
the last full year for which figures are available, an average of
one in five of the 64,405 appeals heard.

Amnesty highlights a number of cases, including an Algerian
woman who claimed she was raped and tortured with soapy rags
stuffed in her mouth, who were later told that these crimes against
them were not evidence of persecution.

Source:- The Independent Monday 9 February page 1

UK opens door to migrants

The home secretary has strongly rejected calls for Britain to
ban jobseekers from states that will be joining the EU in May.

David Blunkett revealed that preparations are under way to
encourage new migrants to go to Scotland as well as London and the
south-east of England.

He has joined Scotland’s first minister Jack McConnell in
arguing that Scotland needs an influx of new workers for
demographic and economic reasons.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 9 February page 1

Abuse survivors attack
‘whitewash’

A report has found that a national child abuse inquiry in
Ireland set up to uncover the truth behind 60 years of state denial
is being obstructed by the department of education and science and
the Catholic orders who ran the notorious institutions.

Around 150,000 children were interned by such institutions
between the 1920s and 1980s but survivors’ groups in Ireland and
the UK have condemned the inquiry as a whitewash.

The commission’s former chairperson, Ms Justice Laffoy,
denounced it as “devoid” of independence and also
criticised many of the Catholic orders which ran the institutions
for contesting every point.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 9 February page 11

Police close in on gangs behind cockling
deaths

More than a dozen addresses on Merseyside were raided yesterday
as police attempted to close in on the gangmasters behind the
deaths of 19 young Chinese cockle pickers at Morecambe Bay.

Officers seized computers, mobile phones and documentation.

Source:- The Times Monday 9 February  page 5

UC urges more action to reduce child
poverty

Next month’s Budget should take more steps to reduce child
poverty and reform the pension system for women, the Trades Union
Congress has said.

The union has called for the Child Tax Credit to be increased by
an extra £2 per week on top of the £3.50 rise already
announced in the pre-budget report. It says this will bring 40 per
cent more children out of poverty.

It also calls for the government to improve the pension system
with only 49 per cent of women qualifying for the state pension
compared with 92 per cent of men.

Source:- The Financial Times Monday 9 February page
4

Maxine: Let me go on TV

Maxine Carr is planning to give a television interview in an
attempt to “clear her name”.

Carr will be released from prison within weeks after being
jailed for lying to protect her ex-lover Ian Huntley, who murdered
Soham school-girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 9 February page 1

Scottish newspapers

Social workers miss out on colleagues’ pay
rise

Social workers in schools, residential units and those working
with foster parents will not benefit from pay rises of up to
£3,000 that other social workers will get under a new pay deal
in Edinburgh.

Their highest-paid colleagues in child protection and criminal
justice will have their salaries raised from around £24,000 to
£27,000 and staff who obtain extra qualifications will be
given a £650 bonus.

Cash incentives are being targeted at frontline child protection
social workers in a bid to prevent a mass exodus in the wake of the
damning inquiry into the handling of the case of Caleb Ness.

Source:- Evening News Saturday 7 February

Jail term ‘too lenient’

A five-year jail sentence given to a man who raped a child is to
be increased after it was branded too lenient by Scotland’s
senior judge yesterday.

The Court of Criminal Appeal, headed by lord justice general
Lord Cullen agreed that James Taylor’s sentence should not be
allowed to stand after it was greeted with public outrage.

The new sentence will be announced in a few weeks to allow fresh
background reports to be prepared.

Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 7 February

Mother’s grief at killing of her baby
son

The mother of a nine-month baby whose step-father has been
charged with his murder has spoken out about her devastation.

In a statement, Karen Ullah said she felt that part of heart was
missing following the death of her son, Kyle Mutch.

Mohammad Ullah appeared in court charged with the child’s
murder last week.

Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 7 February

£15m IT system to help save children

Social workers in the capital are to benefit from a new £15
million computer system.

The project will replace current “medieval”
equipment, which city leaders admit is hampering the work of
frontline staff.

The integrated system aims to improve information sharing
between the social work department, health service, police and
other agencies.

Source:- Evening News Saturday 7 February

Scots child killer cases set for review

The Crown Office is to review the cases of 19 child killers in
Scotland, including that of Edinburgh toddler Caleb Ness.

The move follows a review of cases of child killing in England
where many defendants were convicted on the back of evidence from
expert witnesses.

The Lord Advocate Colin Boyd QC will now scrutinise every
Scottish case of murder or culpable homicide of a child under two
years old during the last 10 years.

Source:- Evening News Saturday 7 February

Alexander calls for action over birth rate

A former enterprise minister will claim this week that ministers
have failed to tackle Scotland’s looming population crisis
and should give working women incentives to have children.

Wendy Alexander will argue that the Scottish executive ignored
imaginative plans to help with childcare costs, placing Scotland in
Europe’s “slow lane” on family-friendly policies.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 8 February

Fire chiefs demand care home sprinklers

Sprinkler systems should be fitted in all Scottish care homes,
Scottish fire-masters urged last night.

Fire service leaders said the systems were the “only
way” to protect older and vulnerable people who were
difficult to evacuate from buildings when a fire alarm is raised.
It would cost an estimated £30 million.

Fourteen older residents died as a result of a fire at Rosepark
Care Home, Uddingston, last week.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 8 February

Minister blocks plans to stop gangs exploiting
immigrants

A government is to block a bill before parliament to outlaw
gangs exploiting immigrants like those involved in the Morecombe
Bay drownings, because it claims it would be over bureaucratic.

A private member’s bill put forward by Scottish Labour MP
Jim Sheridan to license the gang-masters who organise gangs for
casual labour, has received only luke-warm support from a key
government minister this week, despite outcry over the deaths.

Rural affairs minister Alun Michael said there was no
“magic wand” to solve the problem.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 8 February

Drugs tsar to target organised crime

The new head of the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency has said
police need to tackle the “underlying logic of crime”
as seizing large quantities of heroin or cocaine on the way into
Britain was virtually useless in the fight against drugs.

Graeme Pearson said he would steer the agency towards a broader
crusade against around 100 major league organised criminals active
in Scotland.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 8 February

Tribunal finds city guilty of serious
racism

Glasgow Council has been accused of institutional racism after
one of its race equality officers was found to have been
discriminated against when he applied for a job on an asylum seeker
project.

An employment tribunal decided in favour of Kuldip Dhesi, ruling
that the discrimination on the part of the council had been
serious. It awarded Dhesi a total of £6,173 in
compensation.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 8 February

Tagging ‘breaches child rights’

Electronically tagging children under-16 would breach the
European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, a Scottish lawyer has claimed.

The former head of the Scottish Human Rights Centre, professor
Alan Miller, said the measure in the proposed Antisocial Behaviour
Bill conflicted with the UK’s commitment to article 8 of the
ECHR and article 40 of the UN Convention which says children should
be treated with dignity.

Source:- The Herald Monday 9 February

Welsh newspapers

Wales ‘to get Euro-cash boost’

Leaked plans suggest that Wales could be in line for a new
regional aid regime from the European Commission.

Euro MP Eluned Morgan says that, following meetings with EC
officials, she is optimistic that Wales will receive money to help
improve economic performance and increase wealth in the
principality, which has high levels of poverty and deprivation.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 9 February page 2

Teens ignorant on finance

The UK’s 16-year-olds are worth £2.1 billion but
almost half do not understand the difference between a credit and a
debit card, according to a new survey.

Eight out of 10 teachers, who responded to the survey by the
Royal Bank of Scotland Group, said teenagers needed to learn more
about how to manage money but that timetable pressures made this
difficult.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 9 February page 5