Friday 4 February 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

Cell death

A 26-year-old woman was found dead in prison cell, the Prison
Service said. Victoria Robinson was discovered hanging in her cell
at New Hall prison, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire. She was on
suicide watch.

Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 2

Dentist struck off for child porn

A dentist who admitted possessing thousands of child pornography
photographs on his computer must be struck off, a High Court judge
ruled yesterday.

In the first case of its kind. Mr Justice Newman, sitting in
London, agreed with the council for the regulation of healthcare
professionals that a decision to suspend Alexander Fleischmann from
the Dentist’s Register for 12 months was unduly lenient.

Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 2

 Tearaways parted

A teenage couple were banned from speaking to each other for
four years. A judge at Plymouth crown court issued an antisocial
behaviour order against Jamie Leigh Brown and her boyfriend Stephan
Brown, 15, who terrorised neighbours. They were each given an
18-month detention and training order.

Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 24

Little boy lost, the riddle of a toddler no-one has
claimed

West Midlands police have been trying to identify a boy, around
two years old, who was found by passers-by wandering in Woodstock
Road, in the Harmondsworth area of Birmingham at around 9.30pm on
Tuesday. No-one has come forward to claim him. He is currently with
foster carers.

Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 27

Teacher fired airgun in gang row

A teacher who fired an air pistol during an altercation with a
group of youngsters told the police she “had enough” of
the law being on the side of criminals.

Linda Walker claims she suffered weeks of abuse and vandalism near
her home in Urmston, Manchester. The trial at Minshull Crown Court,
Manchester continues.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 4 February 2005
page 4

 Police’s icy response to a child’s
snowball

Amy Hodges, 13, from Ashford, Kent, spent four hours in a police
cell after accidentally breaking the rear window of a Kent police
vehicle with a snowball. She had her fingerprints taken and was
obliged to give a DNA sample before being given a formal reprimand
when officers decided not to proceed with a charge of criminal
damage.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 February 2005 page 5

Doubt cast on health scheme for the elderly

An American healthcare corporation with close personal links to
Tony Blair was last night embroiled in a row about its work for the
NHS in England. The British Medical Journal cast doubt on the
effectiveness of the Evercare programme, a scheme to provide extra
care for older people at risk of emergency admission to hospital.
It said government plans to adopt this approach “may be based
on misleading data”.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 February 2005 page
11

‘Safe heroin use’ study
criticised

Campaigners condemned the publication yesterday of research
which suggests that heroin can be taken over a long period without
destroying people’s lives. Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian
University identified 126 long-term heroin users in the city who
were not experiencing the health and social problems normally
associated with the drug. Scotland

Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 February 2005 page
12

Wanted: visionaries to change the world

Six “visionaries” able to convince the Joseph
Rowntree Trust that they have got a brilliant and plausible idea
for social reform will be awarded up to £40,000 for five
years, annual office costs of £5,000, plus networking support
to get it going.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 4 February 2005 page
12

Absentee children could fill 1,000 schools

The government has failed to but truancy in England despite
spending nearly a billion pounds on measures to reduce absence from
school, both authorised and unauthorised, the National Audit Office
reported yesterday.

Source:- The Times Friday 4 February 2005 page 6

Labour plans immigration crackdown

A crackdown on asylum and immigration will be announced by the
government next week, with financial penalties, to deter would-be
migrants repeatedly appealing against a decision to refuse them
entry to the UK.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 4 February 2005
page 2

Scottish newspapers

Blow for Labour as youth crime rises sharply

One in 20 Scottish children were referred to children’s
panels in 2003/04 reflecting a large rise in youth offending, the
agency in charge of youth justice has said.

The Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration report
showed the numbers of children reported to panels for concerns
about welfare and safety had risen by 12 per cent while those
referred for offending rose by 13 per cent.

The SCRA’s top official Alan Miller also announced he was to
resign after 10 years in the post.

Source:- The Herald Friday 4 February

Vulnerable victims of numbers game

An analysis of the politics behind the latest SCRA figures and
the behind the scenes reasons for its top official’s
departure.

Source:- The Herald Friday 4 February

1 in 20 Scottish children is born to fail

A breakdown in traditional family values and the increasing
influence of alcohol and drug abuse have been blamed for a 12.6 per
cent increase in referrals to children’s reporters in a year.
However, opposition parties blame the executive for not being tough
enough on youth crime.

Source:- The Scotsman Friday 4 February

School kids run gauntlet of abuse

Children at Alva Academy in Clackmannanshire got a police escort
to protect them from gangs of teenagers waiting at the school
gates.

Teachers had been forced to call in the police three times in 10
days after pupils were attacked.

Staff have had to shield children in the face of abuse and threats
of violence to get them to the school bus.

Source:- Daily Record Friday 4th February

Welsh newspapers

Warning over Clywch findings

The children’s commissioner for Wales today warned that
recommendations from his inquiry into sexual abuse at a South Wales
school are not being implemented thoroughly enough.

Last summer Peter Clarke published a report finding that drama
teacher and TV scriptwriter John Owen had abused pupils at Ysgol
Gyfun Rhydfelen, near Pontypridd, in the 1980s and 90s.

It also stated that education officials’ response was
inadequate and constituted a cover up.

Source:- icwales.co.uk Friday 4 February

Boyfriend blames ‘gloom in his
head’

A man accused of stabbing his partner to death told Cardiff
Crown Court that he was hit by a “gloom” in his head
every time his girlfriend went out socialising.

Paul Viner is alleged to have killed Donna Brough when she
arrived home late after a night out.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 4 February

 

 

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