Monday 27 September 2004

By Amy Taylor, Sally Gillen and Shirley
Kumar

Let me see my daughter

It was an inspiring story: A girl rescued from an orphanage in
war-torn Yugoslavia by the brilliant TV news reporter Michael
Nicholson, who then lovingly adopted her. Twelve years on, the Mail
has traced her natural mother, who paints a very different picture.
So what is the truth?

Source:- The Daily Mail, Saturday, 25 September, page
12

One murderer in 20 is a freed mental
patient

A senior detective accused medical experts of refusing to give
police vital information on mentally ill patients.
Commander Andy Baker, head of homicide at Scotland Yard, added that
rules on patient confidentiality encouraged them to withhold
details.

Source:- Daily Mail, Saturday, 25 September, page
26

Mobiles to let parents keep a track on
children
The five British mobile phone companies have drawn up a code of
practice that will allow parents to locate their children’s
mobile phones.

The code of practice was drawn up by the networks, police and
children’s charities.

Source:- The Guardian, Saturday 25 September 2004, page
2

Childcare for all is Blair’s conference rallying
call

The Labour party is to pledge access to flexible childcare
including guaranteed provision between 8am and 6pm near all
Britain’s schools at the conference next week.

The extension of help for childcare is being billed as the type
of support that Britain’s families want.

Source:- The Guardian, Saturday 25 September 2004, page
2

Sex abuse denial

The chairman of Humberside Police Authority has denied
allegations that he sexually abused a boy at a children’s
home in Hull.

Colin Inglis said the allegations were politically motivated and
a produce of homophobia. The police force was at the centre of a
report that accused it of failing to vet the Soham murderer Ian
Huntley.

Source:- The Times, Saturday 25 September 2004, page
1

Modern bullies are seeking victims through
cyberspace

Cyber bullying is on the rise warn police experts and
children’s charities.

The use of emails, chat rooms and text messages to threaten
children around the clock has risen 30 per cent.

Source:- The Times, Saturday 25 September 2004, page
3

Pub-goer faces jail for leaving baby

Robin Spandler of Gorleston near Great Yarmouth could face jail
for leaving his baby on the back seat of his car when he went to
the pub.

Spandler took a taxi home and left the six-week-old baby locked
in the car overnight.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Saturday 25 September
2004, page 7

Disability law to ‘name and shame’
shops

Around 73 per cent of disabled people have trouble accessing
goods and services, despite new laws to come into effect on Friday
that require shops to improve access for the disabled.

The charity plans to name and shame high-street giants that have
failed to make reasonable improvements to their buildings.

Source:- The Observer, Sunday 26 September 2004, page
5

Support for Blunkett’s migrant camp
plan

Home Secretary David Blunkett has won support from Germany and
Italy for plans to set-up detention camps in north Africa for
immigrants seeking to enter the European Union.

The first centres will be set-up in Libya under proposals to be
discussed this week.

Source:- The Sunday Times, Sunday 26 September 2004,
page 2

Private schools face charity test

Independent schools should be forced to spend as much on needy
children as they gain in tax breaks, reveals an all-party
report.
The report on the draft charities bill will also recommend the home
secretary David Blunkett should determine whether schools benefit
from charitable status rather than the Charity Commission.

Source:- The Sunday Times, Sunday 26 September 2004,
page 10

New youth centre opens in Dunblane

A £2m youth centre and sports hall has opened in Dunblane
courtesy of worldwide donations received after the 1996 massacre in
a primary school.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 26 September
2004, page 2

Students chant abuse at school asylum
seekers

Ten pupils at Parkside Community Technology College in Plymouth
have been suspended for chanting abuse at asylum seekers.
The incident has sparked concern over the dispersal of asylum
seekers.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, 26 September 2004, page
4

‘Inclusion’ policy fails pupils with special
needs

The Office for Standards in Education has criticised the
government’s policy of teaching children with special needs
to mainstream schools.

The report due out next month is expected to say the inclusion
policy where children with disabilities and learning difficulties
are taught with their peers is failing significant numbers of
children.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 26 September
2004, page 12

Doctors ask court for right to let ill baby
die

An NHS trust will ask the High Court for permission to allow a
baby born three-months premature to die against the wishes of her
parents.

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust will argue that Charlotte Wyatt
cannot survive in the long term because she has extensive heart and
lung damage.

Charlotte was born in October but has never left hospital
because she has such difficulty breathing.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Monday, 27 September,
page 5

EU asylum list prompts human rights fears

A list of 10 “safe countries” from which asylum
applications will be presumed to be false by all European Countries
is to set to be implemented despite human rights concerns.

The list covers seven African states including Benin, Botswana,
Ghana, Mali and Senegal, as well as Chile, Costa Rica and
Uruguay.
The list is based on the British system under which asylum
applications from “safe countries” are presumed to be
unfounded.

Source:- The Guardian, Monday, 27 September, page 8

Prescott shifts on new home policy

The deputy prime minister John Prescott announced that he
government would be adopting a policy of council house building at
the Labour Party conference in Brighton this week.

Under the plans councils given a top rating by the Audit
Commission would be allowed to bid for government funds to build
housing after a gap of 20 years.

Source:- The Guardian, Monday, 27 September, page
13

Scottish newspapers

Sentence fury as paedophile gets an extra three
years

A child rapist whose five-year prison sentence sparked outrage
was given three extra years. Appeal judges gave James Taylor eight
years. He was sentenced at the High Court in Dunfermline after
images of him abusing a girl between the ages of six and 10  and
others of him abusing another sleeping child between the  ages of
13 months and five were discovered. He had 2880 images of child
pornography. The sentence was revised after prosecutors said it was
too lenient.

Source Daily Record, page 21 Saturday 25 September
2004

13 Years for tot killer

A waiter who murdered his baby son will serve at least 13 years.
Mohammed Ullah, 25, killed his eight-month-old son Kyle Mutch. He
plans to appeal against his sentence.

Source Daily Record, page 24, Saturday 25 September
2004

Sex offender free to strike again

One is six violent criminals and sex attackers freed early under
the extended sentence system were sent back to prison last years
for breaching the terms of their licence.

The news follows case involving James Campbell who tried to
snatch a two-year-old girl while out on a licence for the attempted
rape of a 91-year-old woman.

The scheme has been branded a risk to public safety.

Source: Scotland on Sunday, page 1, 26 September
2004

Fear of bullies boosts home learning

School bullies are forcing record numbers of Scots parents to
educate their children at home. Around 500 children now receive
fill-time education at home, an increase of 40 per cent on 2001
figures. Over the past five years the numbers of children excluded
from Scottish schools for violent behavior has increased by 18 per
cent.

Source: Scotland on Sunday 26 September 2004

Jack plea on immigrants

Jack McConell wants Scotland to have more control over
immigration. He told a conference he does not believe the Home
Office’s UK-wide policy allowed Scotland to attract the
number of immigrants needed. The first minister said he wanted HIS
Fresh Start initiative to combat the falling population by
attracting 8,000 people a year.

Source: Daily Record, page nine, Monday 27 September
2004

Home Alone

South Ayreshire council has launched an inquiry after a
three-year-old boy managed to walk out of his nursery and walk home
across two busy roads. Owen MicMillan dodged traffic to complete
the 20-minute journey.

Source: Daily Record, page 15, Monday 27 September
2004

Welsh newspapers

Verdict of accidental death on elderly fire victims at
Tenby home

An inquest into the deaths of two elderly residents at a
residential home after a fire broke out has recorded a verdict of
accidental death.

Nelly Walsh, 84, died from the effects of smoke inhalation from
the fire at Old Rectory Residential Home near Tenby on 5 February,
while Albert Thomas, 88, known as Jack, died three days later in
hospital.

Source:- The Western Mail, Saturday, 25 September, page
3

Call for ‘Laura’s Law’ on
bullying

Campaigners have called for a law forcing schools to prevent
bullying after a girl took a suspected overdose due to being
hounded.
In a diary style letter written before she died Laura Rhodes, who
attended Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School in Neath, revealed how
her life had been made unbearable at the hands of bullies.

Terrie Dowty, director of children’s campaign group,
Action on Rights for Children said that a change in the Children
Bill, currently going through parliament, placing a duty on schools
to stop bullying could become “Laura’s Law”.

Source:- The Western Mail, Saturday, 25 September, page
5

Laura’s parents criticise school
The grieving parents of a girl who took her own life after being
bullied have criticised their daughter’s school.

Laura Rhodes’ father Michael claimed that the Welsh school
blamed his daughter for her situation in a newspaper interview.

He also alleges that education managers threatened to prosecute
the family for taking the terrified 13-year-old out of Cefn Saeson
Comprehensive school in Neath.

Source:- Wales on Sunday, 26 September

Community hospital’s GPs resign

Hundreds of GPs will start to leave Wales’s community
hospitals today because the doctors and trusts have failed to
strike a deal over pay and conditions.

One of Wales’s largest community hospitals in Chepstow is
the first to be hit with 27 resignations from GPs.

It is estimated that two thirds of GPs who work in community
hospitals could leave within the next month if no agreement is
reached.

Source:- The Western Mail, Monday, 27 September, page
6