Monday 20 September 2004

Blunkett blitz on sale of drink to
youngsters

Home secretary David Blunkett is writing to more than 650 bars,
shops and off-licences after they were caught repeatedly selling
alcohol to under 18s.

Blunkett is also calling on magistrates to increase fines for
any licensees who break the law.

Source:- The Times, Saturday 18 September 2004, page
14

Mother jailed

A mother was jailed for 28 days for failing to ensure her
13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter attended school.

A spokesperson for Southend council in Essex said this was the
fifth time Maria Wavell had been similarly prosecuted.

Source:- The Times, Saturday 18 September 2004, page
15

Teenager killed for ‘defending his friend’

A 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death while defending his
friend.

Robert Levy was stabbed up to five times in the neck and chest
near Hackney Town Hall, east London.

Source:- The Times, Saturday 18 September 2004, page
5

Reinstated police chief shows he won’t be
silent

Humberside police chief David Westwood launched an attack on
home secretary David Blunkett for meddling in local policing.

The constable was suspended 11 weeks ago pending enforced
retirement after the Bichard inquiry condemned his force over the
handling of crucial intelligence on Soham killer, Ian Huntley.
Westwood was reinstated on the understanding he will retire next
year.

Source:- The Times, Saturday 18 September 2004, page
4

Island fungus may provide cure for disabling
tumour

A drug isolated from fungus that grows on Easter Island is
offering new hope to thousands of people who suffer from Tuberous
sclerosis, a genetic disease.

The disease can cause a wide range of problems including
epilepsy, learning difficulties, behavioural problems and lung and
kidney complications.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 18 September
2004, page 13

BNP secures council seat in London

The British National Party has won its first seat in London for
a decade.

The far right group beat Labour into second place by 470 votes
in the Goresbrook ward of Barking, and Dagenham, east London.

Source:- The Guardian, Saturday 18 September 2004, page
10

Race attack killer gets life

Daniel Palmer has been jailed for life for a racially motivated
attack on a south Harrow Indian takeaway owner.

Palmer, aged 20, battered the owner to death on Halloween last
year.

Source:- The Guardian, Saturday 18 September 2004, page
13

Shoplifters will not be given a criminal
record

Children as young as 10 may be given fines which their parents
will be liable to pay if they are caught shoplifting.

The Home Office plans, that are due to come into force next
month, will mean shoplifters will not be given criminal
records.

Source:- The Daily Mail, 18 September 2004, page 18

Joyriders would be taken to racing track

Teenage joyriders could be compelled to go out racing cars on
speedster tracks as part of a new approach to tackling antisocial
behaviour.

The Liberal Democrats also proposes to give teenagers who steal
cars a new type of antisocial behaviour order that would require
them to take car maintenance courses

Source:- The Independent, Monday 20 September 2004,
page 6

Family courts inquiry

The Common’s constitutional affairs committee is consulting
parents over how they are treated on issues such as custody or
contact as part of an inquiry into family courts.

Source:- The Guardian, Monday 20 September 2004, page
5

Premature baby problems

More than a third of babies who survive due to intensive care
suffer learning difficulties reveals a study for BBC1’s Panorama to
be aired next week.

Source:- The Guardian, Monday 20 September 2004, page
5

Nursery can seriously damage a two-year-old

Leaving children under two in nurseries can cause them long term
damage, claims a study by Oxford University’s Families, Children
and Childcare project.
The study followed 1,201 British toddlers from birth to school
age.

Source:- The Daily Mail, Monday 20 September 2004, page
10

Curfew challenged

A teenager has been granted legal aid to take the government to
court over its policy of curfews on under-16s.

The 14-year old boy from Richmond, south-west London, will
launch a challenge arguing that the policy breaches his human
rights.

The measures give the police and councils the power to remove
unsupervised youngsters in certain areas by 9pm.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, September 19, page 2

Olympic judge allowed to coach young gymnasts despite
paedophile claims

One of the top gymnastic judges in the world has been allowed to
work with children despite having previously been convicted for
indecently assaulting boys, it has been revealed.

Ron Smith, 63, has worked as a trainer for 35 years and as a
school teacher despite a number of allegations being made about
him.

Documents also show that he was given permission to continue
working as a teacher by a cabinet minister despite his past.

Source: The Sunday Telegraph, September 19, page 10

Health authorities told: GPs must be available for
night-time home visits

GPs must provide night-time home visits to all patients who need
them ministers are set to announce.

The plans come after Lincolnshire South West Teaching Primary
Care Trust withdrew all out-of-hours GP cover between 11pm and
8am.

Instead anyone who rings their GP during these hours is put
through to a nurse who can give advice, conduct a home visit or
sort out an admission to hospital.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, September 19, page
12

British doctors dispatch 25,000 a year, says euthanasia
expert

More than 25,000 people may be helped to die by doctors every
year in Britain, according to a leading expert on euthanasia.

The figure includes 18, 000 patients who are unaware that they
are being “helped on their way” by doctors, according to Dr Hazel
Biggs, director of medical law at Kent University.

Source:- The Sunday Times, September 19, page 14

Efforts to curb child smoking ‘a failure’

Measures to cut the level of underage smokers have failed,
according to new research out this week.

The study, carried out by the University of Leeds and funded by
the Economic and Social Research Council, is expected to show
attempts to target young people early are not stopping them from
smoking.

Other findings are also expected to show that girls are twice as
likely to smoke than boys.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday, September 19, page
7

‘I don’t want to plan my death, I want to enjoy
life’

Britain is one of few European nations where assisting suicide
is still a crime. Jamie Doward reports on the euthanasia debate and
meets people it most affects.

Source:- The Observer, Sunday, September 19, page
8 

Heroin policy has failed, say charities

Drugs campaigners have accused the government of shelving plans
to allow many more doctors to prescribe pure heroin.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, announced that the number of
GPs allowed to prescribe heroin should be increased from less than
50 to 1, 500 two years ago to try to reduce the number of criminal
supplying the drug.

However, new government figures show that by March of this year
only 123 doctors were allowed to prescribe the drug.

Drugs charities support the measure arguing that it would stop
addicts from being drawn into crime to pay for their drugs.

Source:- The Observer, Sunday, 19 September, page
10

 Fostering watchdog in abuse row

The Commission for Social Care Inspection has been accused of
‘very serious failures’ over the way it carries out its
investigations into sex offenders who are looked after in the care
system.

Probing questions have been asked about the role of the
Commission in the wake of a confidential inquiry that looked at how
a teenager who posed a risk of sexual abuse to other teenagers was
put with carers who had children.

The report called on the commission to investigate the agency
that placed the boy with the family but it has been accused of
being slow to act.

Source:- The Observer, Sunday, 19 September, page
13

Cinema chain forces end of website that helped disabled
people

A website designed to help disabled people to book cinema
tickets has been forced to close down by the Odeon cinema
chain.

The site named Accessible Odeon was designed by 23 year-old
Matthew Somerville because the official website’s script does not
work with programs that help blind people.

Odeon threatened Somerville with legal action as he was using
its name without its permission.

Source:- The Times, Monday, 20 September, page 10

Companies warned over disability changes

New legal requirements for the workplace to be more accessible
to physically disabled people are set to be missed by thousands of
employers, according to business groups and disabled people.

The requirements, which come in on 1 October, mean all
businesses will have to make “reasonable adjustments” to allow
access.

Source:- The Financial Times, Monday, 20 September,
page 3

Full-time nursery costs £134 per week

A typical full-time nursery place for a child under two costs
£134 a week, according to new research.

The study, by childcare charity The Daycare Trust, states that
there is a vast shortage of quality childcare.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Monday, 20 September,
page 5

Welsh papers

Wales ‘in danger of Climbie scandal’

The problems of recruiting and retaining experienced social
workers to work in child protection in Wales could mean that there
is a repeat of the Victoria Climbie scandal.

Recruitment problems in the principality are leading to
inexperienced staff being put in charge of cases and the extent of
the difficulties are outlined in a report by Flintshire county
council.

Source Western Mail Monday 20 September page 2

£500,000 boost for mental health

Money for extra emergency beds for mentally ill children has
been released by the Welsh assembly.

Health and social services minister, Jane Hutt announcing the
£500,000 cash injection said that the she was concerned about
the mental health of young people in Wales and that the 10-year
plan for children and adolescents that was launched in 2001 had
helped to raise awareness of the issues.

Source Western Mail Monday 20 September page 5