Tuesday 6 April 2004

By Natasha Salari, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

Infants weaned on TV ‘cannot
concentrate’
Children under two should not watch television as it increases the
risk of them developing attention deficit disorder, a scientific
report from the US has claimed.
Watching too much television increased a child’s likelihood
of being unable to pay attention in school and each hour spent in
front of the TV each day increased by 10 per cent the chance that
the child would show signs of the disorder, the study found.
The report, by Dimitri Christakis of the Children’s Hospital
and Regional Medical Centre in Seattle, was published in the
journal ‘Paediatrics’.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 6 April page 5
Ministers consider ‘daddy month’ for new
fathers
The government is looking at introducing a “daddy
month” for men who want to spend more time with their
children.
Ministers are also considering extending maternity pay so that
women can take a year’s paid leave when they give birth
rather than the current six months.
‘Daddy month’, which already exists in Sweden, reserves
at least one month of parental paid leave per child to the father,
allowing him to take a month’s leave at 80 per cent of pay
around the time his child is born.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 6 April page 5
Psychiatrist used paedophile site
A psychiatrist treating child abuse victims paid for 90
hours’ viewing of a paedophile website called “sweet
early age”, the General Medical Council has been told.
The doctor, who accessed a site that showed images of naked
children, was caught in a sweep by British police. Julian Morrell
was sacked as a consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry in
Berkshire after his arrest last year.
Morrell, a married father of two from Oxford, did not appear before
the hearing at the GMC, but he claimed he had accessed the site for
research purposes to help him during difficult therapy sessions.
The hearing continues.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 6 April page 6
Strip Blunkett of migrant role, urge MPs
Tony Blair has come under pressure from Labour MPs to strip David
Blunkett of responsibility for immigration and asylum policy amid
claims that the home office was “incompetent” and too
overstretched to solve the crisis engulfing the government.
Labour backbenchers fear that the immigration row could hinder
campaigning for June’s european and local elections. On idea
gaining ground among backbenchers is to have a dedicated
“crisis management” unit under the control of a former
cabinet minister to deal with immigration issues.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 6 April page 8
Employers face higher illegal worker fines
Employers found guilty of using illegal workers will face higher
fines as a deterrent under government plans.
Courts can fine employers up to £5,000 per illegal worker, but
the home office wants to increase the limit.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 6 April page 8
Beaten to death by the man she called Daddy
A man who battered his girlfriend’s three-year-old daughter
to death after turning up the stereo to drown her screams was
jailed for life yesterday.
Steven Barton, aged 24, punched, kicked and stamped on Jade
Sinclair in an hour-long attack after subjecting her to weeks of
abuse.
Barton was supposed to be caring for the child while her mother was
at work. When she died in hospital two days later more than 100
injuries were found on her body.
Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 6 April page 7
90-hour week of the locum who killed a
patient
A locum doctor who killed a 63-year-old patient with a massive
drugs overdose had worked 90 hours in the week leading up to her
death.
Dr Narendra Sinha has been jailed for 15 months for the
manslaughter of Maureen Lyth. Sinha, now 68, was called out to see
Lyth after she complained of “excruciating” pain from
her arthritis. Despite being told by her husband that she had only
one kidney, Sinha failed to check her medical charts and gave her
an injection or more then three times the recommended amount of
morphine. She was found dead the next morning.
Source:- The Daily Mail Tuesday 6 April page 28
Council to hand over £1m home to resident
squatters
Three squatters who have lived rent-free in a grade-II listed house
for the past 31 years are to be given the £1 million terrace
house for free.
The squatters, who moved into the four-storey property in
Clerkenwell, London, in 1973, applied to a county court to become
the registered owners, and will not be challenged by the local
authority.
Camden Council, which had owned the property, said it had made
repeated attempts to evict the trio.
Source:- The Financial Times Tuesday 6 April page 2
Scottish newspapers
Mothers say nurseries prefer parents who
work
The children of parents who work are being given preferential
treatment by nursery schools during the current strike action, it
was claimed yesterday.
A group of women in Edinburgh who look after their children
full-time have written to Roy Johnson, Edinburgh Council’s
head of education, to express anger at what they claim is
“discrimination against children whose parents have chosen
not to work outside the home”.
The women state that a three-tier system has been created which
places children with parents who care for them full time last,
behind children with learning difficulties and children whose
parents work.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 6 April
Princess Royal opens RNIB centre at capital
college
A £2.5 million centre aimed at getting blind and partially
sighted people into employment, was opened by the Princess Royal
yesterday.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind hopes its news learning
centre can help reduce the 80 per cent unemployment rate among
people whose sight is affected.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 6 April
Tenants in debt face losing their homes
Council house tenants in Edinburgh have been warned that they face
losing their homes if they run up thousands of pounds in unpaid
rent.
City housing chiefs have launched a month-long publicity campaign
aimed at ensuring people pay what they owe before their debts
spiral out of control.
Source:- Evening News Tuesday 6 April
Fury at £340 bill for OAPs’ lifeline
alarms
Older people in Edinburgh are being charged more than £300 for
a lifeline service that was previously free of cost.
Every home in the council’s sheltered housing accommodation
is linked to an emergency alarm system which has traditionally been
provided free.
But now older people are being billed £338 a year to stay
connected to the service.
Around 10,000 residents in Edinburgh currently use the service,
which is also available to older people in private houses.
Source:- Evening News Monday 5 April
Mother and daughter ditch surrogacy plan
A mother has abandoned a plan to let her teenage daughter carry her
child for her in a surrogacy arrangement.
Nicola Hunter volunteered to bear a child for her mother Celena
Anderson after she suffered two miscarriages with her second
husband.
But Anderson, who lives in Edinburgh, said she has scrapped the
plans as she feels her daughter is too young to understand the
implications.
Source:- Evening News Monday 5 April
Welsh newspapers
Welsh families are eating their way to cancer
timebomb
Experts have warned that Welsh families face a cancer timebomb
because of their eating habits. It is feared that obesity will
result in the same number of deaths from cancer as smoking causes,
unless overweight adults and children take action.
The local authority areas of Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent were
recently named as two of the top 10 UK hot spots for obesity, and
Wales already has some of the highest cancer rates in the UK and
Western Europe.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 6 April page 1
Paedophile found with knife, chloroform and camera
jailed
A convicted paedophile has been jailed after police caught him with
chloroform and a camera.
Serial sex offender, Christian John, aged 28, who was also found
with a knife, a syringe and duct tape while he lay drunk and asleep
had been banned from having a camera, to prevent him taking
pictures of children.
John was sentenced to two-and-a half years in prison for flouting a
sex offender’s order.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 6 April page 7
Act of kindness
A half-page feature looking at the issues surrounding surrogacy.
Carol O’Reilly is head of Surrogacy UK a non-profit
organisation that helps women willing to act as surrogate mothers,
contact infertile couples.
She is herself a mother of three and a three-time surrogate mother
and she talks about her own experiences and the problems faced by
couples desperate for a child.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 6 April page 10