Friday 17 September 2004

By Shirley Kumar, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson

Department to close 42 benefit offices

The department for work and pensions is to close 42 offices as part
of its cost-cutting plans.

More than 2,000 jobs would be slashed in the offices that help the
unemployed and people on benefits.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 17 September 2004 page
4

Blair shifts focus on failed asylum seekers

Prime minister Tony Blair announced a crackdown on deporting failed
asylum seekers yesterday.

New offences including destroying or throwing away passports or
other documents and failing to co-operate with efforts to replace
documents will come into force on Wednesday.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 17 September 2004 page
4

Persistent truants blamed for absences

Hardcore persistent truants were blamed for minister’s
failure to reduced unauthorised absences from schools.

There were 2,000 more cases of absenteeism without the
school’s permission during the past academic year.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 17 September 2004 page
4

Sixteen-year-old is jailed for life after callous knife
attack on jogger

Sixteen-year-old Elias Cecchetti was jailed for life yesterday for
two terrifying knife attacks including one on a woman jogging in
the park.

Cecchetti was electronically tagged at the time he attacked the
woman who cannot be named in Clissold Park in Stoke Newington last
December.

Source:- The Independent Friday 17 September 2004 page
16

5,000 held in summer blitz on alcohol and violence

Home Office statistics show more than 5,000 people were arrested as
part of a summer’s nationwide blitz on binge drinking and
alcohol-fuelled violence.

Around 4,000 were given fixed penalty notices for alcohol-related
street crimes with a further 9,500 adults and children had alcohol
confiscated from them for flouting bans on public drinking in
designated areas.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 17 September 2004 page
6

Teenager killed in street stabbing

A 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death after a confrontation
between two groups of school pupils.

The boy’s attacker allegedly fled after knifing the boy in
the neck close to the Technology and Learning centre in Hackney,
east London, at 4pm yesterday.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 17 September 2004 page

Grooming ring got off lightly, says Judge

Justice Holland has called for the crown prosecution service to
look at the limited jail sentence he could impose on two men who
groomed a 14-year-old who was sold to a national paedophile
ring.

Holland said the maximum seven-year sentence for people living off
the earnings of prostitutes was absurd.

Nathan Eyre and Raymond Hawthorne were jailed for a total of
15-years for their part in the two-year operation.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 17 September 2004 page
9

Health authorities bungle payouts to elderly

Health minister Stephen Ladyman has named and shamed health
authorities that bungled the administration of compensation for
thousands of vulnerable older people who were unlawfully charged
for NHS care.

Ladyman accused Surry and Sussex strategic health authority of
failing to deal with around two-thirds of the claims it should have
settled by March.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 17 September 2004 page
10

Asylum detention centres to be expanded by 1,000
places

Britain’s immigration centres are set to be expanded by 1,000
places in the next nine months.

The move is part of the drive to step up the expulsion of failed
asylum seekers announced by Tony Blair yesterday.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 17 September 2004 page
11

Youth bailed over killing

A youth from Swansea has been bailed for his connection to the
killing of an Iraqi Kurd refugee, Kalan Kawa Kalim.

A 30-year old man remains in custody and Lee Mordecai was remanded
in custody charged with murder.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 17 September 2004 page
11

Knifeman kills woman, 73

Police are searching for a knifeman who cut the throat of an
elderly woman outside her home on a housing estate in Southwick
near Brighton.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 17 September 2004 page
2

Deaf children invent a new sign language

Deaf children in Managua, Nicaragua have invented a language that
can be understood by American and British signers.

The children who were left to their own devices relied on instinct
and had no exposure to adult signing.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 17 September 2004 page
12

Kidnap excuse rejected by judge

Railway worker Dieter Graw from Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire
was jailed for life after a judge refused his excuse for trying to
kidnap a teenage girl.

Graw said he only wanted to lecture the girl on the dangers of
drugs.

Source:- The Times Friday 17 September 2004 page 7

Scottish newspapers

One third of child porn users are also abusers

New research has revealed that at least one out of three people
caught with child pornography have been involved in abusing
infants.

John Carr, internet consultant for NCH Action for Children, said it
was vital that when someone was caught with child porn, checks were
carried out to see if they were also physical abusers.

He told a child protection conference in Aberdeen that the US
Postal Inspection Service had investigated all 3,000 people it had
arrested since 1997 on suspicion of possessing child porn. More
than one third were thought to be guilty of abuse.

Source:- The Herald  Friday 17 September

Scottish police face study into race relations
policies

An independent review of race relations in Scotland’s police
service was launched yesterday after it emerged there had been
several incidences of racism in forces in England.

The Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland has commissioned the
exercise with the co-operation of all eight police forces and the
Scottish executive.

BBC documentary ‘The Secret Policeman’ exposed racism
among several trainee police recruits in October 2003.

Source:- The Scotsman  Friday 17 September

Mental health fears as teenage cases rise

The number of teenagers being treated for mental health
problems in Edinburgh has increased by nearly a quarter in three
years, according to statistics.

The figures show a massive rise in the number of young people
receiving psychiatric help for depression, anxiety and eating
disorders.

Experts have blamed the trend on stress related to exam results and
the effects of divorce.

Source:- Evening News  Thursday 16 September

Homeless rise sparks cash calls

Homelessness charity Shelter has called for action after figures
showed a dramatic rise in homelessness in Edinburgh.

The number of homeless people has risen by almost 50 per cent in
the last seven years and there are now nearly 2,000 more homeless
people living in the capital than there were in 1997.

Shelter is calling for more financial assistance from the Scottish
executive as it claims all councils are struggling to meet new
targets to house all homeless people.

Source:- Evening News  Thursday 16 September

Youngsters and police work it out

Police and school pupils in Edinburgh were set to meet today to
raise awareness about the law and youth issues.

Community beat officers from the West End Police Station organised
the ‘Having Our Say’ event at The Mary Erskine School
and topics for discussion include alcohol, antisocial behaviour and
vandalism.

Source:- Evening News  Thursday 16 September

Welsh newspapers

Home-alone mum is spared jail

A south Wales mother who left her child at home alone while she
went out drinking has been told to seek treatment for alcohol
addiction as part of an 18-month community rehabilitation
order.

Newport magistrates heard that the woman had begun drinking heavily
after a family tragedy. Following the incident where she left her
child who was under 10, alone at night while she went out clubbing,
she had suffered what was described as ‘mob justice’ at
the hands of her local community.

Source:- South Wales Argus Thursday 16 September page
1

Tormented to death

A man, who was falsely branded as a paedophile, died in hospital
only days after a street attack.

John Chick had been harassed on many occasions prior to his death
and had complained to the police about the harassment on 62
occasions.

The 63-year-old from Penrhiwceiber, near Merthyr Tydfil, had never
faced any charges in relation to paedophilia, but had been targeted
by local children.

An open verdict was recorded at an inquest into his death.

Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 16 September page
1

Counselling service can’t meet demand in RCT

A major growth in the numbers of young people seeking counselling
for stress and depression is going unmet because of cutbacks
according to counsellors.

A south Wales charity, Eye to Eye Youth Counselling, claims 11 to
25 year-olds in Rhondda Cynon Taf are not getting vital counselling
because head-teachers in local schools cannot afford the
service.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 17 September page 2