Monday 26 April 2004

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson

It will cost the taxpayer up to £1m to protect Maxine
Carr when she is released from prison, it was revealed last
night.

Carr is due to be released next month. She was imprisoned for
conspiring to pervert the course of justice in the case of the
murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 24 April page 1

Boy’s death a mystery

A police investigation has been launched into the death of
a 15-year-old boy who collapsed after being restrained by staff at
a secure unit.

Gareth Myatt, who was sentenced on assault and theft charges, died
at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre.

A post-mortem examination failed to determine the cause of
death.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 24 April page
8

A senior judge is arrested over child pornography
allegations

A senior judge has been arrested in connection with child
pornography allegations.

Police have interviewed David Selwood, the resident judge at
Portsmouth Crown Court, over allegations of possessing indecent
images of children.

Selwood has sentenced dozens of paedophiles over his 12-year career
as a judge.

Source:- The Times Saturday 24 April page 5

Liberty to challenge town’s youth curfew

The legality of a town’s curfew, which banned
children under-16 from a being on the streets after 9pm, is being
challenged by the civil rights group Liberty.

The curfew scheme was launched for a fortnight over the Easter
holidays in the Cumbrian Market Town of Wigton.

The police were also given the power to order any group of two or
more young people, whatever the time, to leave the area and not
return. The scheme was designed to cut down anti-social behaviour
by young people.

However, Liberty believes the curfew was in breach of the European
Convention and is set to challenge it in the High Court.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 24 April page 7

Mother of abandoned baby boy held in connection with
neglect

The mother of a baby who was abandoned in Walthamstow,
east London, last week has been arrested in connection with
neglect.

The boy, thought to be aged between 12 and 19 months, was left
outside a butcher’s shop.

The mother went to Forest Gate police station where she was
arrested.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 25 April page 12

Dangerous paedophile hunted

Police were last night hunting a missing paedophile who is believed
to be a danger to young boys.

Officers warned that Craig Preece should not be approached by the
public.

Preece, who is free on licence, left a hostel in West Yorkshire on
Friday night.

Source:- The Observer Sunday  25 April page 12

Do they know they’re breaking the law?

All sexual behaviour between under-16s will be
criminalised under a new sexual offences act that comes into force
this week, according to campaigners.

The Sexual Offences Act, which comes into force on May 1, makes
“sexual touching” with anyone under the age of consent
illegal.

A number of campaigners tried unsuccessfully to make an amendment
to the bill to exempt consensual relationships between similarly
aged young people.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday 25 April page 9

Asylum seekers? Not here, not even for a few minutes

Home Office plans to interview asylum seekers in a government
office located in Portishead in the West of England, have divided
residents.

Uproar amongst some residents came when the Home Office made a
planning application to change the use of the office. Those against
the plans dismiss claims that they are being xenophobic and racist
and cite concerns about increased traffic and late working hours by
staff at the office.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 25  April page 5

Race chief blasts homophobia

Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality,
has warned that homophobia in Britain’s African community is the
cause of the fastest rising rate of new HIV infections in
immigrants.

Phillips said that in Britain expertise in fighting HIV was in the
gay community but that African men in particular did not like to be
associated with anything gay.

“[The] argument that we should be sensitive to the culture of this
community only makes sense if you are ready to put the right for
African men to hold their homophobic views about sexuality ahead of
the right of British African women to equal protection,” he
said.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 25 April page 9

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the
brink

Six suicides in 12 months made Styal women’s prison notorious
and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for
serious failings. But things are changing. The Observer was allowed
rare access to Styal and found it striving to change, with a scheme
to help newly arrived drug-users, and inmates trained by the
Samaritans to help women in despair.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 25 April page  11

Fresh doubts case on MMR study data

A key study seen as critical evidence that the MMR vaccine
causes autism in children, has been called into question.

The High Court in London has called for all the raw data from the
study by Dublin pathologist Professor John O’Leary to be handed
over and re-examined by experts. The action has been prompted by
allegations made in the High Court about anomalies in O’Leary’s
laboratory reports on samples from autistic children alleged to
have got the condition from the MMR vaccine.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 25 April page 11

Teenager released in error turns himself in to police

A teenager who was released from custody by mistake turned himself
in to police yesterday.

James McCormick from Glasgow went missing from Hamilton Sheriff
Court in Lanarkshire on April 8. He was being escorted by the
security firm Reliance when he was incorrectly released.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 26 April page 6

Girl, 3, rescued from abduction in her street

A three-year old girl was rescued from a suspected
paedophile by a neighbour who saw the man taking her towards some
woodland near her home.

Martine Emerson was playing with friends outside her house in
Mapleford Sweep, Essex when she became separated from the group
when they went in for lunch.

The stranger then led her towards nearby woodland but Stuart Wilson
saw what was happening and chased the man, who put down the girl
and ran off.

Essex police are searching for the suspect.

Source:- The Times Monday 26 April page 5

Schemes shift jobseekers to other benefits

Government schemes designed to get people into employment
have instead shifted more than 160,000 people onto other
benefits.

A parliamentary question showed that many unemployed people who are
on job seekers allowance, an unemployment benefit received by those
actively looking for a job, have moved onto other benefits that do
not require any commitment to look for work.

Source:- The Financial Times Monday 26 April page 3

Scottish newspapers

Lanarkshire nursery nurses latest to end industrial action

Nursery nurses and council leaders in North Lanarkshire have become
the latest area in Scotland to reach a pay deal.

The breakthrough came two days after union leaders backed down over
their demands for a nationwide pay deal.

Midlothian Council has also agreed a deal with nursery nurses
yesterday and now 15 of the 32 local authorities in Scotland have
reached a settlement.

Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 24 April

‘Bribes’ to stop city care workers
leaving

Social workers are to be offered loyalty bonuses in a bid to
prevent them leaving the capital.

Employees who remain in their posts throughout a year-long period
of restructuring will be offered the bonus payments. Social work
services will be split into two separate departments by next
May.

The plan was branded an “insult” by union chiefs who
claimed it would not be enough to prevent an exodus from the
capital.

Source:- Evening News  Saturday 24 April

Stitched-mouth asylum seekers facing eviction

Three Kurdish asylum seekers who stitched up their mouths during a
four-week hunger strike were last night due to be forced from their
bed-sits.

Fariborz Gravindi, Faroq Haidari and Mokhtar Haydarty, who all fled
to Glasgow from Iran, were due to be evicted by bailiffs last night
after their deadline for leaving the accommodation expired at
midnight.

The men went on hunger strike in February after the Home Office
rejected their claim for asylum.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday  Sunday 25 April

Drunk tank to help city cope with bingeing

A ‘drunk tank’ is to open in Edinburgh to provide a
place for dangerously intoxicated people to sober up in a bid to
tackle the growing number of stag parties being held in the
capital.

Police plan to take weekend binge drinkers and street drunks to the
facility until they are fit to look after themselves again.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 25 April

New children’s tsar slams Executive’s youth
justice plans

The new official champion of Scotland’s children has spoken
of her concern that young people will be branded criminals without
breaking the law as a result of ministers’ approach to youth
crime.

Children’s commissioner professor Kathleen Marshall also said
the justice system for young people is turning into a punitive
attack which breaks international agreements on human rights.

The Glasgow University legal professor warns that the controversial
move in the Antisocial Behaviour Bill for police to disperse groups
of two or more youngsters was “a very vague and subjective
test” and risks discrimination against young people.

The European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child say children have a right to
freedom of association and freedom of peaceful assembly.

Marshall said there were strict conditions for denying freedom and
she did not think the conditions were met by the bill as it
currently stands.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 25 April

Attacks increase in psychiatric wards

There has been a dramatic escalation of violence against staff and
patients in psychiatric wards as a result of drink and drug
abuse.

A leaked Scottish executive commissioned report found that some
patients were so concerned, they had asked for nurses to be given
additional powers to search fellow patients and visitors.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 25 April

Schools ‘need outside help to tackle
bullying’

Schools alone cannot tackle bullying alone and staff in dining
rooms, janitors, lollipop people and shopkeepers should be enlisted
in the fight to tackle the persecution that makes some pupil’
lives a misery.

Brendan Byrne, a counsellor and teacher, told the Children in
Scotland event in Inverness yesterday that it was no longer enough
for parents to expect schools to deal with an issue that often has
its roots in the community.

Bullying needed to be placed in a wider community context and
others should have a role in countering it, Byrne added.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 25 April

Pressure grows on jails chief for Reliance inquiry

Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons is facing calls for an
urgent inquiry into the private security firm that mistakenly
released three people from custody.

Critics have accused the inspectorate of failing to take the lead
following several errors involving Reliance Custodial Services
after the prison escort system was privatised earlier this
month.

Last night, a senior prisons source said pressure was growing on Dr
Andrew McLellan to intervene in the fiasco.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 26 April

Training course for custody guards questioned by senior
police

The training provided to Reliance Custodial Services staff has been
questioned by senior officers at Strathclyde police.

Serious concerns have been raised about the training and experience
of security staff who guard courts and escort prisoners. Last night
one senior police source said the fact that Reliance trained their
staff for only six weeks before putting them on the job had been
raised in several meetings.

The fact that staff could be handling murderers and serious
criminals after only six weeks training was causing “serious
concern” within the police.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 26 April

Children’s tsar gives a warning to Executive on
Dungavel

The new children’s commissioner in Scotland has warned that
she will report ministers to the United Nations if she finds that
they have failed to address problems at Dungavel detention
centre.

Professor Kathleen Marshall said she would secure data on the
number of children being kept at the centre and would forward any
serious breaches of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by
the government to the UN Committee responsible.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 26 April

Don’t share your bed with baby

Parents are being urged not to share a bed with their
babies after a study has revealed their children would be eight
times more likely to suffer sudden infant death syndrome.

Research from scientists in Glasgow indicated that the risk of Sids
is far higher than a recent European study suggested and the
executive is revising its guidance following the latest
research.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 26 April

Fundraiser launches holiday home for the disabled

A charity is to open a cottage in Scotland to give severely
disabled people and their families the opportunity to have a
holiday.

Lin Berwick, who has suffered from cerebral palsy since birth, is
the creative force behind the project on the Duke of
Hamilton’s estate in East Lothian.

She set up the trust to provide specialist breaks after being
disappointed when she took a holiday that was supposed to cater for
the disabled.

The accommodation should be completed for summer 2006.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 26 April

Welsh newspapers

Wales falls to all-time low in health spending

Wales has plummeted to an all-time low in health spending despite
massive increases in the budget.

Northern Ireland and the north east of England have now overtaken
Wales in the official health spending league table, and it is
expected that the principality will fall even lower as health
spending increases in the north west of England.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 26 April page 1

Wait for a home has reached 1,300 years

The shortage of social housing in Wales is now so acute
that in one area of Cardiff people can now wait up to 1,300 years
for a home.

Liberal Democrat assembly member Peter Black, who chaired a Welsh
assembly inquiry into homelessness, says that there is now an
urgent need for action.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 26 April page 6

Project to keep children safe in Wales

An innovative project designed to teach children to be
physically and emotionally safe has started in a Welsh school for
the first time.

The Devon CAP (Child Assault Protection) project aims to tackle
both bullying and abuse by adults and the initiative will teach
children about their basic rights and help to empower them.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 26 April page 7