Monday 29 March 2004

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom, Lauren Revans, and Alex
Dobson.

Maxine Carr to face 20 charges of fraud
Maxine Carr is due to face allegations of benefit fraud and that
she lied about her qualifications for job applications.
Carr is due to face a crown court judge next month. She has been
accused of obtaining more than £3,000 in illegal benefit
claims and of making dishonest job applications.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 27 March page 26
Maxine is switched to a ‘softer’ jail nearer
home
Maxine Carr has been moved to a ‘softer’ jail from Holloway prison
in London to allow her to be nearer her family.
Carr has moved to Foston Hall, a former stately home in the
Derbyshire countryside.
Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 27 March page 5
Inside the grim world of the gangmasters
Special report: My name is Hsiao-Hung Pai. I have been living under
cover among the Chinese migrant worker community. I have
experienced how their lives are ruled by gangmasters who house them
in appalling conditions, steal their identity and put them to work
in dangerous, low-paid jobs that no one else will do. Like the
cockle pickers in Morecombe, they come to find work and a better
life. Instead they find misery. This is their story…
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 27 March page 1
Q. How many care workers does it take to change a light
bulb? A. Ask a risk assessor
The Department of Health’s new advertising campaign to recruit
social care workers features a worker changing a light bulb, but in
reality this may not be the case.
Many care home workers have reported that they are not allowed to
change a light bulb –  or not on their own at least.
One local authority said that it may take four people to do
this.
Some in the sector see the rules as over regulated state care gone
mad.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 27 March page 3
Children as young as seven drawn to trend for
self-harm
Britain has the highest rate of self-harm, according to new
research.
A report, by the Mental Health Foundation, found that children as
young as seven are deliberately self-harming themselves.
Other findings show that one in 10 teenagers self-harm as a way of
showing the pain in their lives.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday 28 March page 6
Stop locking up so many women, says Cherie
Blair
Cherie Blair has called for more women to be spared prison in order
to prevent them descending into a spiral of crime and poverty going
down the generations.
She condemned the separation of inmates from their children and
said that prisons were ‘harsh’ places for people with mental health
problems.
A major inquiry into women and crime is due to be published on
Wednesday.
It is expected to say that many women are locked up
unnecessarily.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 28 March page 1 
Living in fear: my week with the hidden asylum
seekers
As the police crackdown on the trade in illegal jobs, Anuska
Asthana reports from Salford on the reality of life on the
immigrant front line. Over the page, refugees tell their own
stories of struggle.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 28 March page 9
Children are starting on drugs at 13…
Children are starting to experiment with drugs aged as young as 13,
the biggest ever survey of drug addicts shows.
The study, conducted by charity Addaction, also found that those
who start using drugs at a young age are more likely to move on to
hard drugs such as heroin.
A large time lag was found between when a child first uses drugs
and the point when treatment is requested, with most addicts only
looking for help once they are 25.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 28 March page 12
Good luck. If your suicide doesn’t work I’ve some pills
that you can try
A woman who works for a National Lottery-funded organisation also
offers people advice on how to commit suicide on a website.
Penny Broderick’s works with the organisation to help people who
self harm, but she also writes online messages to people telling
them how to kill themselves.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday 28 March page  40
Instant £50 fines for yobs who spray
graffiti
On the spot £50 fines are due to be given out to vandals who
spray graffiti.
Under the measures, which are a part of the new Anti Social
Behaviour Act, community support officers, council officials, local
authority-employed security guards and police.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday 28 March page 42
Memo traps migrant row minister
Immigration minister Beverley Hughes personally authorised a policy
ordering staff at the immigration service headquarters to wave
through applications which had been on their files for more than
three months.
According to a leaked Home Office memo, Hughes approved a far wider
policy than previously disclosed to allow tens of thousands of
migrants into Britain without adequate checks.
Source:- The Sunday Times 28 March page 2
Health screening call over HIV increase
Leading figures at the government’s Health Protection Agency
have called for all immigrants to be screened for HIV, tuberculosis
and hepatitis when they enter Britain.
Last month the HPA revealed that 7,000 new diagnoses of HIV were
reported in 2003 – a 20 per cent increase in a year. Up to
half the new cases came from Zimbabwe.
Cases of tuberculosis in England and Wales have risen by 20 per
cent in the past 10 years.
Source: The Sunday Times 28 March page 2
Run schools like Tesco, Blair urged
Britain’s top civil servant has recommended to the Prime
Minister that schools in England and Wales be run like the
country’s biggest supermarket chain.
Under Andrew Turnball’s plans for the education system,
contained in a leaked memorandum, good schools would be able to
sell their “franchise” to less successful schools and
take over the management of schools. They would also be free to
link up with private sector firms to provide branded packages of
services.
Parents who would then be able to choose between chains of schools
in the way shoppers select supermarkets.
Source:- The Sunday Times 28 March page 2
Gay couples to be given equal marriage
rights
A government bill to be unveiled this week will propose officially
recognised gay marriages, giving gay couples similar rights to
those of married heterosexuals.
The Civil Partnerships Bill will include the possibility of local
authorities holding ceremonies similar to civil weddings.
Source:- The Sunday Times 28 March page 13
First state school agrees to random drug
testing
A comprehensive school in Faversham will begin randomly testing its
960 pupils from September after parents supported the move in a
consultation exercise this month.
The Abbey School’s decision follows Tony Blair’s call
in February for schools to adopt random drug tests. Other
comprehensives are expected to follow suit.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 28 March page 4
Harmful offenders ‘lack
supervision’
Dangerous offenders are not being supervised adequately in the
community it has emerged.
Probation officers had not visited the home of any offenders judged
to be of high or very high risk of causing harm to the public,
according to a probation report.
The inspection report of Hertfordshire Probation Service also found
that in two of three cases where there was a potential issue of
protecting the public, insufficient action had been taken by
staff.
Source:- The Times Monday 29 March page 10
MPs breaking law in children’s cases
Hundreds of MPs have been unwittingly breaking the law when taking
up care and custody cases involving children and local authorities
on behalf of constituents.
Though unaware of the legal implications, in disclosing any details
of a child’s case, MPs are in breach of the Children Act
1989.
The issue is now being reviewed by the law officers and Department
for Constitutional Affairs with a view to changing the law or
clarifying procedures.
Source:- The Guardian  Monday 29 March page 8
‘Police to blame’ for deaths of
drunks
Drunk or drugged detainees are dying because officers are not
properly trained to deal with them, according to a report.
Alcohol was a factor in 60 per cent of 58 such deaths in England
and Wales in 2000-2001 while drugs played a role in a further 34
per cent, according to a study by the Police Complaints
Authority.
Nearly a third of all cases had identifiable mental health
problems.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 29 March page 9
Benefits ‘need to be raised in line with wages’
to fight poverty
The Bank of England will recommend this week that benefits need to
be raised in line with wages rather than prices to help eliminate
poverty.
Stephen Nickell, of the Bank of England’s monetary policy
committee, will argue that the government must do more to tackle
the low level of skills in the UK if it is to reduce poverty in the
long term.
Benefits are currently linked to the retail price index, which is
currently 2.5 per cent while average wages are rising at around 3.5
per cent.
Source:- Financial Times Monday 29 March page 5
Scottish newspapers
Jobs famine hits plan to bring in foreign talent to
Scotland
The first minister’s plans to attract talented foreigners to
Scotland has been a dealt a blow after research has found that most
university graduates from overseas quit Scotland because of a lack
of well-paid jobs.
Around 70 per cent of graduates would like to stay in the country,
but only a tiny number do so because of a lack of opportunity,
according to the report written by academics at Edinburgh and
Strathclyde universities.
Jack McConnell wants foreign high-fliers to settle in Scotland to
boost the economy and tackle the declining population.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 28 March
Criminals get sent to open jails ‘too
early’
Several inmates at open jails have been returned to secure prisons
after an inquiry into the case of Roddy McLean.
The Scottish gangland boss absconded while only six years into his
21-year sentence for drug smuggling.
The move follows concerns that long-term prisoners were being sent
to Leyhill open prison in Gloucestershire and other prisons too
early and without proper screening.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 28 March
Stillbirth figures highlight poverty gap
Areas with the greatest levels of deprivation also have the highest
levels of stillborn children, according to the General Register
Office for Scotland.
Scotland’s overall rate for stillbirths, which is 5.5 per
thousand births, remains above the European average of 4.9, but
within Scotland there are dramatic variations. The figures have
shown that poorer areas in Greater Glasgow, Argyll and Clyde,
Lanarkshire and Fife have the highest levels of stillborn
children.
While many incidences of stillbirth defy explanation, experts
believe poverty is the most common factor.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 28 March
Brain test research finds key to mental
illness
Researchers believe they have made a breakthrough in the treatment
of schizophrenia by using brain imaging tests to predict the
illness.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Stephen Lawrie at the Royal Edinburgh
Hospital said his team had picked up specific changes in the brains
of people who would go on to develop schizophrenia.
Lawrie said the obvious implication was if the illness could be
detected early enough, doctors could intervene and maybe prevent
it.
Source:- Sunday Herald 28 March
Welsh newspapers
Mother attacks drug ‘low lives’
The mother of a 13-year-old girl who almost died after taking
ecstasy has hit out at the ‘low lives’ who gave her
daughter the drug.
The woman who cannot be named for legal reasons said that children
needed more warnings about the dangers of so-called designer drugs,
because even one tablet could be lethal.
Two men from Wrexham, have each been given custodial sentences of
15 months, after admitting supplying ecstasy to the teenager.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 29 March page 3
The hillside where her boys died
A year after her four young sons were murdered by their father at a
north Wales beauty spot, their mother Samantha Tolley reveals that
she still visits the site regularly to feel close to her
children.
Tolley was forced to listen on a mobile phone while her estranged
husband Keith Young gassed the four boys aged between seven and
three, in the family car. Young later killed himself.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 29 March page 5