Friday 26 November 2004

By Shirley Kumar, Amy Taylor, and Derren
Hayes

Benefits system hit by computer chaos

Pension and benefit payments face disruption after a massive
computer crash which has forced civil servants to write giro
cheques by hand.

The week long crisis in the Department for Work and Pensions has
created a backlog of unprocessed claims after the ministry’s
100,000 computers stopped working.

Source:- The Guardian, Friday 26 November 2004, page
1

Children get better start if they go to
nursery

Children put in pre-school have 1 year’s head start when
they get to infant school compared with children who stay at home,
found government research.

They benefit from care which includes attending a playgroup,
nursery school, children’s centre or day nursery, said the
study.

Source:- The Times, Friday 26 November 2004, page 2

Inquiry launched into Huntley tape

The prison service is to review recordings of phone calls to
child murderer Ian Huntley after The Sun newspaper printed
comments he made to a relative.

Huntley allegedly revealed he had lied in court over how Jessica
Chapman and Holly Wells died in Soham, Cambridgeshire.

Source:- The Times, Friday 26 November 2004, page 7

School suspends mob of schoolgirl bullies

More than 30 school girls have been suspended for bullying a 15
year old girl after being caught on closed-circuit television.

The mob of 14 and 15 year-olds told the victim she would be
killed if she returned to the school in Bournemouth.

Source:- The Times, Friday 26 November 2004, page
7
 
Husband beat ‘Lady in the Lake’ to death, court
told

A retired teacher who allegedly beat his wife to death and
pushed her body in a lake kept his secret for two years, a court
heard.

Carol Park disappeared from her home near Barrow, Cumbria, in
1976. Scuba divers found her body 21 years later. Gordon Park, 60,
denies murder.

Source:- The Guardian, Friday 26 November 2004, page
7

Therapy abuser is spared jail

A psychologist who abused his position to give supposed sexual
treatment to vulnerable women escaped jail after Manchester crown
court heard he was the sole carer of his elderly wife.

Reginald Kenworthy persuaded two women to have electric shocks
to the genitals and bottom as part of a fictitious cure for smoking
and other emotional problems.

Source:- The Guardian, Friday 26 November 2004, page
8

Ten-year-olds ‘primed to become
shopaholics’

Eight out of 10 children between 10 and 12 years old are
addicted to shopping, the National Consumer Council has found.

More than three-quarters of the 1,000 children polled said they
also believed people buy things they do not need.

Source:- The Independent, Friday 26 November 2004, page
7

Murderer detained indefinitely for assault

A murderer let out of jail only 12 months after being sentenced
to 36 years was ordered by a court to be detained indefinitely
under the Mental Health Act yesterday.

The order was made after Hakan Yagiz, 34, a paranoid
schizophrenic, with British and Turkish citizenship, attacked a
fellow inmate at Lewes prison last December while he was on remand
on charges of beating up his mother and sister.

Yagiz killed Gill Montgomery, 53, a Sunday school teacher, in
1995. He was sentenced to 36 years for her murder in Istanbul in
1999 but a year later he was freed by the Turks under a general
amnesty.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Friday, 26 November, page
13

Welsh newspapers

Raising a child in Wales costs £19 per
day

It costs £145, 000 to bring up a child in Wales from birth
to the age of 21 years, according to new research.

At £19 a day, Wales is one of the most expensive places to
raise a child after London, said financial institution Liverpool
Victoria.

Source:- Western Mail, Friday, 26 November 2004

Campaigners criticise access for disabled at new
museum

Disability groups in Wales have criticised poor access in a
£30m national waterfront museum in Swansea.

They said the toilets for disabled people were too small for
wheel chairs users and the museum’s café was
inaccessible because the seats were too close together.

The groups sent their report on the development to the National
Museums and Galleries of Wales.

Source:- Western Mail, Friday, 26 November 2004

Scottish newspapers

Abuse in Scottish homes soar

Women’s charity Scottish Women’s Aid say more than 83,000 women
have been victims of violence and domestic abuse, a 15 per cent
increase from the previous year, in a new report published this
week.

The figures were revealed as actor and director David Hayman
launched the local leg of a two-week international campaign aimed
at stamping out domestic abuse.

Source:- The Record, Friday 26 November 2004

Jodi accused’s fantasies of drugs and death

Luke Mitchell, the teenager charged with unlawfully killing Jodi
Jones, said it would be funny to “get stoned and kill”, a court
heard.
 
A sixth form pupil at the same school as Mitchell said he made the
remark after stubbing a cigarette out in the palm of his hand.

Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 26 November 2004

Man charged with teenager’s murder in
1967

A man has been charged with the murder of a teenage girl who
disappeared 37 years ago.

Seventeen-year-old Pat McAdam vanished in February 1967 after
hitching a lift home from a trip to Glasgow. Her body was never
recovered.

Police in Dumfries said a 70-year-old man from Grampian has been
charged with murder and a report was being submitted to the
procurator fiscal.

Source:- The Herald, Friday 26 November 2004

Cost of raising a child in Scotland rises to £139,
391

The cost of raising a child in Scotland has reached £139,
391 according to research published today.
 
This figure is £24,000 less than London (£163,322) and 4
per cent less than England overall.

The UK is most expensive major European country in which to
raise a child – UK parents spend 21 per cent more than the Germans,
43 per cent more than the French and 50 per cent more than Spanish
parents.
 
Source:- The Herald, Friday 26 November 2004

Leven village is worst-off in UK, says
charity

The tiny village of Leven on the Fife coast has been named the
worst-off area in the UK because of its low house prices, according
to figures by homeless charity Shelter.

A street of 24 houses in Leven could be bought for the price of
one in Kensington, London, said Shelter.

Local politicians said several regeneration projects would
increase prosperity in the area.

Source:- The Herald, Friday 26 November 2004

Waiting lists hit all-time high

Hospital waiting lists in Scotland have reached an all-time
high.

New figures revealed patients
queuing for overnight and day-case procedures in September
reached a record 112,537, up by 1876 on last year.

Hundreds face a delay of more than two years for a first
assessment before they can even join the waiting list for whatever
treatment they need.

Source:- The Herald, Friday 26 November 2004