Wednesday 20 April 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Amy Taylor and Derren Hayes

Police cleared over addict’s death

Three policemen were cleared yesterday of the manslaughter of a
heroin addict who was found frozen to death.

The body of Michelle Wood, 25, a mother of three, was discovered a
month after officers drove her to the boundary with another police
force on a cold January night and left her, five miles from
home.

She weighed less than seven stone and was in a poor mental state,
Hull Crown Court was told. The prosecution said the policemen had
failed in their duty of care towards Miss Wood.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 20 April 2005 page 11

Conservatives use ‘cheap’ migrant
leafleters

Eastern European migrants allegedly earning less than the legal
minimum wage are delivering Tory party leaflets in a key marginal
constituency in Richmond Park, south-west London.

Source:- The Independent Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
6

UN says Tory plans will boost flow of asylum
seekers

The United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said yesterday
that Conservative plans to curb immigration and withdraw from the
Geneva Convention on refugees would increase the number of asylum
seekers.

The UNHCR has disclosed it met the Conservative frontbench twice in
recent months to express its unease about the party’s
plans.

The UN body said yesterday it would consider withholding its
cooperation were a Tory government to try and impose a quota of
refugees drawn from a UNHCR-supplied list.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
1

BNP qualifies for TV slot and mailshot

The British National Party is to field 112 candidates at the
election, entitling it to a five-minute election broadcast and free
mailshot to seven millions voters in the seats they are
contesting.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
6

Gay killed himself over asylum failure

A homosexual asylum seeker shot himself in the head in a car park
after his appeal to stay in the UK was turned down, an inquest
heard yesterday.

Hussein Nasseri, 26, was found dead in his car by a car park
attendant at a children play centre in Eastbourne.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 20 April page
6

Prison warder arrested over drugs

Police investigating the death of an inmate at a private jail
yesterday arrested a custody officer at the prison on suspicion of
being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs.

The 21-year-old man, from the Coventry area, is being interviewed
by police. Michael Bailey, 23, from Birmingham, was found dead in
his cell in the segregation unit of Rye Hill prison, near Rugby on
March 24.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
8

Father to face murder retrial

Andrew Wragg, 37, will face retrial in November on a charge of
murdering his terminally ill son. He said he smothered 10-year-old
Jacob last July in a “mercy killing”.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
12

Two-way mirror

Cindy Kiro, New Zealand’s commissioner for children, has a
clear message for her English counterpart: don’t be afraid to
rock the boat

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
8-9

Companions against crime

Victim Support has come a long way in 30 years – but
remains strapped for cash, despite a three-fold rise in its grant
in eight years

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
10

Merger to move forward the Institute of Community
Studies

Fifty years after Michael Young founded the Institute of
Community Studies it is being “revitalised” by a merger
with one of its offshoots, the Mutual Aid Centre. The Young
Foundation will be launched in the autumn.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
6

Green gauge

What happened when a rundown patch of inner-city London got a
makeover? For start, crime fell and property prices soared. But as
local resident Mandy Richard discovers, gentrification hasn’t
pleased everyone

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
2-5

Howard pledge to axe council tax review

Michael Howard will today promise to scrap a shake-up of the
council tax system in an attempt to woo Middle England by averting
what the Conservatives say is the risk of £1.8 billion stealth
tax rise.

Source:- The Financial Times Wednesday 20 April 2005
page 1

Gypsies’ race protest

Michael Howard is facing a police investigation following a
complaint that he has incited racial hatred.

Charles Smith, a Labour councillor and chair of the Gypsy
Council for Education, Welfare and Civil Rights, made the
allegations.

Source:-The Daily Mail Wednesday 20 April 2005 page
10-11

Scottish news

McConnell sparks racist row after speech attack on
Howard

Scottish first minister Jack McConnell has sparked a race row after
accusing the Tories of waging a racist election campaign.

In a speech to the Scottish TUC in Dundee, he defended his “fresh
talent” initiative to attract more people to Scotland, and devoted
part of his speech to an attack on Conservative leader Michael
Howard and Alex Salmond, SNP leader.

McConnell criticised Howard for running “a nasty little right-wing
campaign” and Salmond for complaining that Scotland was
haemorrhaging talent.

Source:-The Herald Wednesday 20 April

Pervert social worker is jailed

A senior social worker has been jailed for eight months after
admitting sexually assaulting a teenage girl in his care.

Peter Foulsham, a senior manager of North Yorkshire Council’s youth
development team, booked a hotel room to attend a conference in
Glasgow and took a 17-year-old girl who was visiting the
city’s law school with him.

They shared a hotel room where Foulsham put his hand inside her
pyjama top and kissed her.

Source:- Daily Record Wednesday 20 April

Welsh newspapers

Boy’s substance abuse death is warning

A boy died after sniffing petrol for the first time an inquest in
Bridgend heard yesterday.

Ricky Saunders, 12, sniffed the petrol with a friend in the back of
an abandoned car near his home in Sarn near Bridgend.

The friend, who cannot be named, said that they had both fallen
asleep for a long time but that when he came round he could not
wake Ricky up.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 20 April

Action to be taken as profile shows ill health among
elderly higher in Wales

Ill health among older people is higher in Wales than in England,
new research will reveal today.

The study, by the National Public Health Service, also found that
death rates are significantly higher in the deprived parts of Wales
such as: Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 20 April