Monday 23 February 2004

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

Teenagers’ care home killer gets life

A former abattoir worker who killed two teenagers in a care home on
the Isle of Man has been jailed for life.

In February 2002 Peter Newbery strangled 16-year-old Samantha
Barton and slashed her shoulders, back and thigh. He also stabbed
her friend, George Green, in the chest, before strangling him with
a shoe lace.

During the trial, which ended in December, evidence emerged of hard
drugs, shoplifting sprees and heavy drinking involving children at
the Leece Lodge care home, where Samantha was living
semi-independently.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 21 February page 12

Yobs evade Blair’s on-the-spot fines by being too
drunk

Police have been told that they cannot issue on-the-spot fines to
anybody who is too drunk to understand what is going on.

Fixed penalties for antisocial behaviour were introduced last month
to reduce paperwork and enable police to spend more time on the
streets. But new rules issued to officers secretly last week make
it almost impossible for police to issue the fixed penalties.

They were advised that they could not hand out the fines for many
reasons, including the offender being so drunk that he could not
understand what was happening.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 22 February page
1

Three months’ jail for mother who kept child from his
father

A mother in north Devon has been jailed for three months for
refusing to give her ex-boyfriend access to their four-year-old
son.

It is thought to be one of the longest sentences given to a mother
in a dispute over child access in Britain.

The decision comes as the courts and the government prepare to
crack down on mothers who repeatedly ignore court orders giving
fathers access to their children.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 22 February page
6

Prince’s Trust skills training
‘inadequate’

The Prince’s Trust has been criticised in a government report
for failing to train young people with skills that can be used in
the workplace.

An investigation by the Adult Learning Inspectorate said that the
leadership provided by one of the charity’s principal
programmes for the unemployed was “unsatisfactory”. The
quality of training was also criticised as “not
adequate”.

It is the first time that the Prince’s Trust, which
specialises in giving young people vocational skills, has been
faulted in a government report.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 22 February page
15

MMR doctor: My study was not ‘fatally flawed’

The doctor behind research which claims there is a link between the
MMR vaccine and autism defended his research last night.

The medical journal that published the study said that Dr Andrew
Wakefield’s work was flawed because it was compromised by a
conflict of interest.

The Lancet made the comments after discovering that Wakefield was
being paid for a second study looking at whether children who had
been damaged by the vaccine would be able to sue.

Source:- The Observer 22 February Sunday page 1

New royal oath for immigrants

The first new ceremony in which immigrants seeking British
citizenship must pledge their loyalty to Queen and country will
take place this week.

The ceremony, which is set to take place in London on Thursday, is
part of a drive for all those seeking British citizenship to show
their commitment to their new country.

More than 100,000 new British nationals a year are expected to take
part in citizenship ceremonies.

Source:- The Sunday Times 22 February page 1

School drug tests storm

Tony Blair is facing a backlash over plans to introduce random drug
testing in schools.

Guidelines will be issued next month to help heads bring in urine
tests to rid their schools of illegal drugs. They will also be
given advice on using sniffer dogs.

Headteachers and drugs experts have condemned the plans as
unworkable and poorly thought out. Heads’ organisations
warned that few schools were likely to adopt the idea.

Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 23 February page 1

Maxine: I’m glad I ended Huntley’s life of
hurting others

Maxine Carr has claimed she is responsible for putting Ian Huntley
behind bars and that she should be thanked for her help.

In a letter to one of Huntley’s past girlfriends and said:
“I’m glad I’ve ended his life of hurting
others”.

Carr was jailed for three and a half years at the Old Bailey in
December after she lied to protect her former boyfriend, who killed
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 23 February page 23

NSPCC demands inquiry into ‘sex abuse by
monks’

Child protection officers are demanding an investigation into a
possible culture of abuse by monks after revelations of sex
scandals at Ampleforth, the country’s leading Roman Catholic
school.

NSPCC staff are concerned by a pattern of recent incidents at the
Yorkshire school. Three members of teaching staff at the school
have faced claims about behaviour relating to the same short
period. Two of the monks have admitted the allegations while a
third is being investigated by police.

Source:- The Times Monday 23 February page 5

Disabled man in court to end mercy killings

A man with a degenerative brain condition is taking the General
Medical Council to the High Court in a case that may prevent the
mercy killing of patients by doctors.

Leslie Burke, who was born with cerebellar ataxia, is challenging
guidelines that allow doctors to stop artificial feeding and allow
patients to die.

Burke, whose condition has left him wheel-chair bound and unable to
speak, fears that as his condition deteriorates, doctors will
decide that his quality of life is so poor that he should not be
kept alive.

Source:- The Times Monday 23 February page 11

Cabinet urged to resist migrant crackdown

The government is expected to announce today that migrants coming
to Britain from the 10 countries joining the EU on May 1 who are
residents for less than a year will have to have a job or prove
they can support themselves and have no access to state benefits
before they register for work.

The register is also intended to allow the government to keep track
of how many people come to the UK.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 23 February page 4

Liberal heroin treatment in the dock at GMC’s biggest
hearing

Seven doctors accused of irresponsibly prescribing drugs are
appearing at a landmark General Medical Council hearing
today.

The hearing will involve arguments from those on two sides of
medical thought on how drugs should be prescribed to recovering
addicts.

The doctors all worked at a private drug treatment centre in Essex,
the Stapleford Centre, which prescribes controlled drugs to heroin
addicts.

They are accused of prescribing excessive amounts of drugs,
creating the potential for them to be sold on, and of not
monitoring patients properly. One patient died.

Source:- The Independent Monday 23 February page 1

Scottish newspapers

Charity hit by new missing cash claim

Edinburgh Council’s leaders demanded answers over fresh
allegations of missing money at a troubled capital homeless
charity.

Concerns about a £10,000 grant given to Four Square in North
Bridge were raised in an anonymous letter sent to the
councils’ housing director Mark Turley.

The letter comes just a week after it emerged the charity had
suspended three members of staff amid claims of
mismanagement.

Source:- Evening News Saturday 21 February

GP records row ‘putting kids at risk’

Children have been put at risk because doctors have failed to pass
on vital information to social workers.

In many cases, social workers claim that information about a
patient’s mental health or drug use is not being passed on
because GPs cite patient confidentiality and the Data Protection
Act. As a result there can be delays in children being placed on
the child protection register or taken into care.

Doctors groups hit back at the criticism saying child protection
always took precedence over issues of patient
confidentiality.

Source:- Evening News Saturday 21 February

Boot camp battling to survive

A controversial scheme for persistent young offenders is battling
to stay open after Scottish executive funding has been
withdrawn.

The executive decided to stop a grant of more than £550,000 to
the Airborne Initiative after a BBC documentary series showed
children taking drugs, drinking alcohol and absconding.

The Lanarkshire rehabilitation project is now being wound up but
last ditch efforts are being made to try to secure backing for its
work.

Negotiations were taking place with two unnamed organisations that
were interested in providing alternative funding, the project
claimed.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 22 February

Ministers told: we need to have more charities

Ministers have been warned that more charities are needed in
Scotland and a decline in the number of new ones being set up is a
worrying sign of the state of the nation.

The head of umbrella body Scottish Council for Voluntary
Organisations is calling for the government to make support and
information available to those setting up charities.

Martin Sime, chief executive of SCVO, said many Scots had become
disillusioned and no longer felt that they can make a
difference.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 22 February

Scotland needs influx of migrant workers

Scotland needs to attract 635,000 migrant workers over the next 20
years in order to redress the population decline, Office of
National Statistics figures will warn.

The ONS figures next month will show that Scotland’s slow
population decline is masking a sharp drop in children and workers
and a 16 per cent rise in older people.

This could have the economic impact of losing a city the size of
Edinburgh unless first minister Jack McConnell can make an
arrangement with Westminster officials to attract a greater share
of migrants seeking to work in the UK.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 23 February

Anger flares in nursery pay dispute

Local authorities have accused unions representing nursery nurses
of disrupting the lives of parents and children.

In a leaked report COSLA, the umbrella group for councils, said
Unison’s pay demands were “blatantly
unfair”.

Families across Scotland are facing chaos after nursery staff last
week voted to take indefinite strike action over pay.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 23 February

Parents criticise Labour plans to drug test pupils

The Scottish executive’s support for Tony Blair’s plan
to combat drug use in school with random urine tests for pupils was
criticised by parents last night.

Alan Smith, chairperson of the Scottish Schools Boards Association,
branded the prime minister’s plans unworkable and said they
risked turning teachers into prison wardens.

He added that paying for CCTV systems in schools would be a better
use of resources.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 23 February

Charity forced to close over volunteer shortage

Long-term financial problems and a shortage of volunteers are
forcing a charity to close down its operations for older people in
Edinburgh.

Age Concern Edinburgh, which visits 100 older people in their homes
a week, will cease its operations in the capital in March.

National body Age Concern Scotland will attempt to handle the 4,000
annual enquiries from older people, but will be unable to carry out
the home visits.

The city’s low unemployment has been blamed for the lack of
volunteers.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 23 February

Asylum seekers sew up mouths in protest

Three failed asylum seekers have sewn up their mouths in protest at
being deported from Scotland to Iran.

A solicitor for one of the men said she planned to take legal
action against home secretary David Blunkett claiming he had
breached human rights legislation by making her client
destitute.

Blunkett will today announce plans to prevent the
“abuse” of the benefits system by immigrants from the
new EU member states.

Source:- The Herald Monday 23 February

Welsh newspapers

Hutt called on to clarify move to drug test pupils

Head teachers have urged Welsh assembly education minister, Jane
Davidson to clarify whether she plans to introduce random drug
testing in schools in Wales.

Prime minister Tony Blair has revealed that guidance will be issued
to head teachers in England on how to tackle pupils they suspect of
drug taking.

A spokesperson for the assembly said that the guidelines, which are
being drawn up by the Department for Education and Skills (DFES),
would not apply in Wales, but she added that careful consideration
would be given to the proposals.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 23 February page 2

Diabetics found to be at higher risk of early
dementia

Women with diabetes are at a higher risk of mental decline and
researchers claim that preventing and controlling type two diabetes
could be crucially important for public health.

The report from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston found
that prevention and control of the condition could have a major
impact on delaying the onset of dementia in later life.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 23 February page 2