Monday 19 July 2004

By Alex Dobson, Clare Jerrom, Amy Taylor

Misconduct charge for police in Climbie
case

Six police officers face charges of misconduct for alleged failing
to perform their duties towards Victoria Climbie the Independent
Police Complaints Commission has announced.

The charges relate to the care the officers provided Victoria with
before she died. All the officers worked for child protection teams
in Brent and Haringey, North London.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Saturday, 17 July, page 2

Blunkett to target yobs in anti-crime strategy

Measure to tackle anti-social behaviour will be a central part of
the government’s five-year anti-crime strategy due to be
published on Monday.

The development of community policing is also set to be a major
part of the plans.

Source:- The Financial Times, Saturday, 17 July, page
2

Smaller charities ‘losing out on
funds’

Smaller charities are in danger of being pushed aside by larger
ones in the fight for funding, the National Council for Voluntary
Organisations warned yesterday.

The NCVO’s Voluntary Sector Strategic Analysis warns that
larger charities are benefiting more than small ones from £72m
of government investment in the voluntary sector. It says that this
is despite the fact that smaller organisations may have the
greatest local knowledge.

Source: The Financial Times, Saturday, 17 July, page
4

Asylum seekers draining legal aid from the
poor

Poorer Britons are being deprived of legal aid due to the
increasing cost of providing it to asylum seekers MPs have
warned.

The parliamentary constitutional affairs committee said that asylum
seekers and criminal defendants got legal aid almost automatically
causing the amount left for civil cases, such as employment
tribunals, to be reduced.

Source:- Daily Mail, Saturday, 17 July, page 26

New Witnesses to be called at Jenkins
retrial

Sion Jenkins the teacher accused of killing his foster daughter
Billie-Jo Jenkins intends to call new witnesses at his retrial in
an attempt to prove his innocence.

In an appeal judgement, Lord Justice Rose said the blood found on
Jenkin’s clothes after the murder was the crux of the case,
but the conviction at Lewes Crown Court in 1997 was unsafe as fresh
evidence emerges.

Source:- The Sunday Times, July 18, page 5

£1,200 to keep your child happy this
summer

Parents will spend £1.8bn on childcare this summer as less
take time off work to look after their children.

A survey of 2,000 working parents by Abbey bank found most spend
£1,200 on care arrangements for two children and a further
£1,200 keeping them occupied in the six-weeks summer
holiday.

Source:- The Observer, July 18, page 1

Homeless families hit crisis levels

Homeless families is set to hit 100,000 by the end of the year,
more than double the figure when Labour came to power, according to
Shelter.

The charity says the figure compares with 41,250 families who were
registered homeless in March 1997 and the average length of stay in
temporary accommodation has increased from 91 days to 381.

Source:- The Observer, July 18, page 7

Crack crisis

Once restricted to a black and working-class urban bases, crack
cocaine is now smoked by people of all backgrounds – and with
45,000 users in London alone, it has become an epidemic, leaving
violent crime and shattered lives in its wake.

Source:- The Observer, July 18, page 8

Trapped in a teenage wasteland

They’re wild, unwanted and utterly without fear. Mark
Townsend meets the children who still have dreams of a better
future.

Source:- The Observer, July 18, page 16
 

Union to sue councils over equal pay for women

Unison is to lodge equal pay claims in employment tribunals in
employment tribunals on behalf of tens of thousands of women unless
local authorities agree to pay women as much as men.

The union says that women are paid 19 per cent less than men on
average in public services and that local authority employers are
doing little to address the difference.

Source:- The Times, July 18, page 1

Boy in gun arrest

A boy aged 14 was arrested after allegedly taking a gun that fired
ball bearings to Perth Grammar School, Tayside and aiming it at a
teacher.

The boy is due to appear before a children’s panel.

Source:- The Times, July 19, page 10

90% of whites have few or no black
friends

Nine of out 10 white Britons have no or hardly any ethnic minority
friends, according to a poll by the Commission for Racial
Equality.

The poll reveals the continuing gulf between races and religions
more than 40 years after the UK became a multicultural
society.

Source:- The Guardian, July 19, page 1

Separated parents to be taught conflict
management

Separated parents embroiled in disputes over their children will be
taught conflict management skills in a pilot scheme.

The couples will be encouraged to agree a parenting plan with help
from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service,
Cafcass, under the family resolution scheme starting in
September.

Source:- The Guardian, July 19, page 3

Scottish newspapers

Youth who killed father gets five years’
detention

A teenager who killed his father after being “visited by
Satan” was sentenced to five years detention yesterday.

Daniel Leather used samurai swords to repeatedly stab his father,
John, after they had argued.

The 18-year-old has mental health problems and had lived like a
hermit in his bedroom. He was originally accused of murdering his
father in November last year but pleaded to the lesser offence of
culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished
responsibility.

Source:- The Scotsman  Saturday 17 July

Vice girl banned from city’s red light
zone

A prostitute has been banned from Edinburgh’s red light
district under antisocial behaviour laws.

The prostitute is one of a number of vice girls being targeted by
the council’s antisocial behaviour division.

The woman has been issued with an interim antisocial behaviour
order which bans her from entering the area at any time of the day
or night. If she breaches the order she will face arrest and
prosecution.

Source:- Evening News  Saturday 17 July

Grandparents’ child access hopes dashed

A bid to give Scottish grandparents automatic rights to see their
grandchildren seems unlikely after legal experts concluded family
disputes should continue to be settled in court.

Campaign groups argued that the law should be changed to allow
grandparents the legal right to access to their
grandchildren.

But the Law Society of Scotland has examined the idea as part of a
Scottish executive consultation on changes to family law and has
concluded that it is unnecessary.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday  Sunday 18 July

Barlinnie visits to be an education

A learning centre at Barlinnie prison in Glasgow is to be opened to
give offenders’ wives and girlfriends lessons in CV writing
and how to sit job interviews.

The Scottish Prison Service wants to open the centre to give
visitors the chance to retrain and learn new skills.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday  Sunday 18 July

Homeless Scottish footballers off to the World Cup

Football players representing Scotland in the Homeless World Cup
are preparing to take Sweden by storm next weekend.
Scotland is pitched against 31 other countries in the tournament in
Gothenburg next weekend.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 18 July

Miscarriage of justice victims seek rural
retreat

Justice minister Cathy Jamieson is considering plans to build a
rural retreat to help victims of miscarriages of justice make the
transition back to normal society.

Jamieson is set to meet campaigners from Miscarriage of Justice
Organisation to discuss plans for setting up a centre where former
prisoners who have been released on appeal can go for counselling,
learn new skills or come to terms with their feelings of betrayal
by the justice system.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 18 July

Telephones to keep tag on asylum seekers

Telephone tagging is to be used to track asylum seekers in Scotland
as part of a scheme to greatly reduce the numbers being held in
detention centres such as Dungavel.

The scheme will combine voice recognition with satellite and mobile
phone technology and will be run by Reliance Monitoring, a sister
company to reliance Custodial Services.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 19 July

Ministers press on with one agency for offenders

Proposals to set up a single agency incorporating the prison
service and criminal justice social work are likely to go ahead
despite 95 per cent of respondents to a consultation on
re-offending failing to back the idea.

The Scottish executive is looking into how such an agency could be
set up, but 79 of the 85 different groups which responded to the
consultation were either opposed to the move or did not comment on
the establishment of a single agency.

Opponents claimed that changing the structure would be expensive
and could lead to communities being less safe.
A draft bill is expected in September and the executive has set
aside a parliamentary slot in February for new legislation.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 19 July

Welsh newspapers

Heather Last aims to be first among inspirational
women

A Welsh occupational therapist, who founded a school and
helped hundreds of children suffering with motor neurone and
cerebral palsy, has been named as one of the most inspirational
women in Britain.

Heather Last from west Wales is a finalist in the National
Inspirational Women of the Year Award.

Source Western Mail Monday 19 July page 9

Bill proposes more support for carers

A feature looking at the Bill drawn up by Aberavon MP Hywel
Francis that aims to improve the lives of thousands of unpaid
carers in the UK. The proposed legislation places a duty on local
authorities to access carers needs and to work with education,
housing and health boards to meet those needs.

Source Western Mail Monday 19 July page 10