Tuesday 14 December 2004

By Maria Ahmed, Clare Jerrom and Amy Taylor

New strategies to tackle poverty

Almost 60 per cent of children in Britain’s most deprived
areas lived in families relying on income support and means-tested
benefits, researchers said yesterday. 

Glasgow was named as the most deprived area, followed by Tower
Hamlets in east London, Liverpool, Manchester and Hackney in east
London, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found.

Source:-The Financial Times Tuesday 14 December 2004 page
4

Landlords begin action over housing bill

Private landlords are taking legal action in protest at government
plans to make them criminally liable for the anti-social behaviour
of their tenants.

The National Federation of Residential Landlords, which represents
more than 40 associations, is next month seeking a judicial review
in Northern Ireland, where legislation has already been
implemented.

Source:-The Financial Times Tuesday 14 December 2004 page
5

Council house 52 per cent of homeless in private
properties

The private sector now provides over half the temporary
accommodation for the growing number of homeless families,
according to official statistics.

The number of homeless families in private sector accommodation
rose by 1,180 to 52,870 since Labour came to power in 1997,
according to figures from the Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister.

Source:-The Financial Times Tuesday 14 December 2004 page
5

Hunt for paedophile rapist

Police were last night hunting a paedophile who raped a
nine-year-old girl.

Former teacher Benjamin Griffiths disappeared shortly before a
court hearing at which he was convicted in his absence and jailed
for 10 years at Chester Crown Court.

Source:-The Daily Mail Tuesday 14 December 2004 page
5

Farmer’s ASBO over unruly pigs

A farmer has been given an anti-social behaviour order because his
pigs kept escaping.

Brian Hagan, from Briston, Norfolk, admitted yesterday that his
animals had caused a nuisance. The order also applied to his six
geese but not his dog.

Source:-The Daily Mail Tuesday 14 December 2004 page
15

MPs blame prison conditions as a toll of jail suicides
reaches 93

The shocking toll of people who kill themselves while in custody is
condemned today by MPs and peers, who accuse the government of
breaching the basic human rights of society’s most vulnerable
members.

Source:-The Independent Tuesday 14 December 2004 pages
18-19

Prisons accused of ignoring age trend

A 70-year-old prisoner who uses a wheelchair has to pay
“unofficial helpers” six chocolate bars a week to help
him get around and collect his meals, according to an investigation
by Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons.

The inquiry into the growing number of elderly inmates found that
prisons were not equipped to provide appropriate care.

Source:-The Guardian Tuesday 14 December 2004 page 4

Remand inmate found hanged

Mark Franks,  who was on remand for breaching a sex offenders
order, was found hanged in his cell at HMP Liverpool
yesterday.

Prisons and probation ombudsman Stephen Shaw is to
investigate.

Source:-The Guardian Tuesday 14 December 2004 page 7

500,000 homeless, claims charity

Ministers were yesterday accused of underestimating the level of
homelessness in England. Officially, the homelessness level has
topped 100,000 for the first time but Crisis claimed this was
500,000, when children were taken into account, while Shelter said
a more accurate figure was 230,000.

Source:-The Guardian Tuesday 14 December 2004 page 7

Public sector strike threat over pensions

Five million public sector workers will go on strike unless the
government drops pension reforms which would force them to work
until they are 65, unions said last night.

Source:-The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 14 December 2004 page
2

Anonymity urged for staff in abuse cases

Teachers accused of abusing pupils should be given anonymity to
help protect them from malicious claims, the Conservatives urged
yesterday.

Source:-The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 14 December 2004 page
5

Murder charge

A resident of a care home in Surrey has been charged with murder
after the death of a woman aged 56 who was found unconscious in her
room at the centre.

Ronald Roberts, who lives at Whitepost Healthcare Centre in
Redhill, Surrey, is to appear in Reigate Magistrates Court
today.

Source:-The Times Tuesday 14 December 2004 page 4

Scottish newspapers

Jodi must have met ‘someone she knew’

The grandmother of Jodi Jones told the High Court in Edinburgh
yesterday that the school girl must have gone to the woods where
her body was found with someone she knew.

Alice Walker insisted that her granddaughter would not have gone to
the woods with a stranger. She also said that Luke Mitchell was the
first in a four-strong party searching a woodland path to climb
over a wall and raise the alarm and said she would not have thought
of looking there.

Mitchell denies murdering Jodi in June last year.

Source:- The Scotsman  Tuesday 14 December

Judge criticises short-staffed Reliance

One of Scotland’s leading judges yesterday criticised
Reliance Custodial Services after he was forced to postpone a rape
case because of an administrative error.

Lord Hardie chastised the company at the High Court in Forfar after
it emerged that there were not enough security officers available
to guard the alleged rapist who was appearing on the first day of
his trial.

Source:- The Scotsman  Tuesday 14 December

City bill for B&B housing doubles to £2.4m in
year

The cost of housing homeless people in bed and breakfast
accommodation in Edinburgh has doubled in a year.

Edinburgh Council spent £2.4 million to rent rooms in guest
houses last year.

It also emerged that the number of homeless people forced to stay
in B&Bs as a result of a lack of other available temporary
accommodation has trebled over three years.

Source:- Evening News  Monday 13 December

Fear women won’t report sex crimes as conviction rate
falls

A fall in the conviction rate for sex crimes risks
deterring women from reporting attacks, it was claimed today.

The percentage of sex offence cases brought to court which have
resulted in a conviction has fallen by nine per cent in five
years.

Margaret McGregor, who chairs the Zero Tolerance charitable trust,
said the figures could put women off reporting sex crimes to the
police.

Source:- Evening News  Monday 13 December

Group calls for sex trade tolerance zones

A working group on prostitution is set to recommend that councils
should be given the power to set up red light tolerance
zones.

The group will also urge more help for the estimated 5,000 women
working in the sex trade to leave the industry.

Source:- Evening News  Monday 13 December

New £18m fund goes to work for disabled

An £18 million scheme to help long term unemployed and people
with disabilities into work was launched by communities minister in
the city today.

Malcolm Chisholm unveiled the Futurebuilders Scotland project at
the Soap Co – a company which employees people with mental
health problems who would otherwise find it difficult to access
employment.

Source:- Evening News  Monday 13 December

Vetting law ‘will kill off thousands of youth
groups’

Thousands of voluntary organisations, youth groups and football
clubs will be forced to close because of new legislation designed
to protect children.

Groups representing 850,000 volunteers say they face months of
delays for new checks to work with children.

The Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 comes into effect in
January and under the legislation, it will become an offence for an
organisation to appoint a person to work with children if they are
on a new list with Disclosure Scotland of those considered
unsuitable to work with under-18s.

Source:- The Herald  Tuesday 14 December

Problem pupils are wrecking discipline, say teachers

Problem pupils are causing mayhem in the classroom and undermine
the Scottish executive’s inclusion policies in schools,
according to teachers.

In a readers’ survey by The Herald, nine out of 10 of those
working in education said the inclusion of children with
behavioural problems in mainstream classes was causing discipline
problems.

Source:- The Herald  Tuesday 14 December

12 hours stuck inside ambulance

A disabled man was forced to endure a 12-hour 570-mile ambulance
journey without food, drink or toilet stops.

Shocked nurses found Daniel Baldwin soaked and shivering when he
arrived at Raigmore hospital in Inverness from King’s College
in London.

Baldwinl wasn’t offered food or drink even though the driver
stopped twice for meals and he wasn’t offered a comfort
break.

Health chiefs launched an investigation after his shocked parents
complained.

Source:- Daily Record  Tuesday 14 December page 1

Welsh newspapers

ITV Wales Assembly storm

The National Assembly and ITV Wales are at loggerheads with each
other after the television company was accused of siding with the
campaign group Fathers 4 Justice.

Paul Silk, the Clerk to the Assembly, has written to Elis Owen, the
controller of ITV Wales, with concerns over the role of an ITV
Wales produced programme in a Fathers 4 Justice protest.

The protest involved Fathers 4 Justice campaigners attempting to
climb up the atrium in the Assembly building earlier this
month.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 14 December

Cash for drugs support group

European money has been allocated to a drugs and alcohol agency in
Mid-Wales to fund its projects over the next three years.

Cyswlt Ceredigion Contact, based in Aberystwyth, offers a range of
services for people who abuse drugs and alcohol.

The Objective One funding will help the agency to continue with a
training scheme to help people get back to work.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 14 December

Controversial Bill evidence to be heard

A joint committee of MPs and peers will sit at the National
Assembly for the first time tomorrow.

The committee will be scrutinising the draft mental health
bill.

Health minister Jane Hutt and David Melding AM, chair of the
National Assembly’s Health and Social Services committee, are
among those giving evidence.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 14 December

 

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