Tuesday 16 March 2004

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

Bullying KFC staff drove our daughter to
suicide
A teenager killed herself after being bullied by colleagues at the
KFC store where she worked, her parents have claimed.
Hannah Kirkham, aged 18, was called a “fat, spotty
bitch”, and had her uniform set on fire. She was also prodded
with the wooden skewers used to serve corn on the cob, had
mayonnaise squirted into her shoes and was drawn on with a
permanent marker pen.
Hannah, an A level student who was hoping to become a lawyer,
eventually took an overdose of paracetamol.
She had been working at the branch of KFC in Greater Manchester for
two years before she took the fatal overdose in December, An
inquest is due to be held in Oldham on Friday.
Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 16 March page 31
£6.8bn needed for families
Children’s charities have warned the government that
it will not achieve its aim of halving child poverty by 2010
without giving an extra £6.8 billion a year to poorer
families.
End Child Poverty, an umbrella group of charities and
organisations, said current policies would merely slow the widening
of the gap between rich and poor.
It added that 3.8 million children live in poverty in households
surviving on about £200 a week, half the national
average.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 16 March page 10
Boy set fire to friend, jury told
Two schoolboys locked a friend in a skip full of wood and cardboard
and one of them set it on fire, leaving their victim with fatal
burns.
The teenagers threw 15-year-old Michael Temperley’s bike and
baseball cap into the container to lure him in there before bolting
the lid.
Both boys tried to help passers-by re-open the skip in Gateshead,
but the boy had suffered 30 per cent burns and died later in
hospital.
The case, being heard at Newcastle crown court, continues.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 16 March page 10
Ministers retreat on asylum appeal
The government was forced to drop its plans to end asylum seekers’
right to appeal in court against asylum decisions after opposition
from Lord Irvine, the former Lord Chancellor.
Lord Irvine was due to attack the proposals in the House of Lords,
but ministers retreated knowing of his views.
At the second reading debate of the Asylum and Immigration Bill he
announced that that he would be tabling amendments to replace the
clause removing the right to judicial review of asylum decisions
with a system that would allow appeal to the courts.
Source:- The Times Tuesday 16 March page 2
Scottish newspapers
Ministers look at law after rise in under-16s sent to
jail
Ministers are considering changing the law which allows Scottish
children aged under-16 to be imprisoned, following a significant
rise in the use of prison for this age group.
In 2002, 33 under-16s were incarcerated, more than double the
number in 1999.
Experts claim a shortage of local authority secure accommodation
means children are being sent to prison as there is nowhere else
for them to go.
Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, has commissioned research to
see why the numbers are increasing and whether new laws are needed
to prevent it happening.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 16 March
MMR take-up rates continue to rise
A greater number of parents in Scotland are having their children
vaccinated with the triple MMR jab, according to new figures.
Take-up rates of the vaccine have increased for the third
consecutive quarter, and is now running at 87.6 per cent of
two-year-olds, showing that faith in the triple jab is slowly being
restored.
Despite the rise, MMR immunisation levels fall well below the 95
per cent level deemed necessary to protect the population.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 16 March
Pupils to pay price as lottery funding
Hundreds of city pupils are to lose out on after-school activities
when lottery funding runs out later this month.
Scores of classes will be scrapped when the three-year funding
finishes at the end of the month, according to letters which have
been sent out by the school to parents.
Community groups, opposition councillors and parents have condemned
the move and say education bosses should have stepped in to provide
funding when the lottery cash ran out.
Source:- Evening News Monday 15 March
OAPs in rush for benefits
More and more older people are claiming outstanding benefits as a
result of the Daily Record’s campaign.
In the first six months, more than 6,000 older people registered
their claims for pension credits and collected £13 million in
additional benefits.
Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 16 March page 2
Welsh newspapers
Police to get tough on truant’s parents
Police and education welfare officers in south Wales have vowed to
get tough on parents who allow their children to play truant.
In just one morning, a truancy patrol in Cwmbran found 39 pupils
playing truant, and 16 of them were with their parents at the
time.
Cwmbran’s crime reduction officer Darrell Dewar said that he
was concerned about the level of apathy shown by parents to their
children missing school.
Source:- South Wales Argus Monday 15 March page 7
‘Social worker’ escapes prison
A carer who admitted stealing £7,000 from a
92-year-old widow she was looking after, has escaped jail.
Patricia Probert stole money from Glenys Allen by using her cheque
book and a store card, but a routine council audit uncovered
irregularities in Allen’s account and the theft was
uncovered.
Neath Port Talbot magistrates sentenced Probert to a one-year jail
sentence for theft and deception, but the sentence was suspended
for two years. Magistrates took into account the fact that
Probert’s eight-year-old daughter may have had to go into
care if her mother was jailed.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 16 March page 1
‘Threadbare’ mental health
Patients are being put at risk by threadbare mental health services
in parts of Wales, according to a new report from the Commission
for Health Improvement (CHI).
The CHI report into mental health services at the Pembrokeshire and
Derwen NHS Trust found that chronic staff shortages and a series of
shortcomings in service provision meant that vulnerable patients
were not receiving the support they needed.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 16 March page 2