Monday 16 May 2005

By Simeon Brody, Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy
Taylor

Missing: the mystery of 300 boys who have disappeared from
school

The Metropolitan police have revealed that in one two-month period,
300 black boys aged between four and seven vanished from school
rolls in London.

Child welfare groups warned that some of the missing children might
become victims of exploitation.

The depth of the problem was highlighted when police investigated
the murder of a young African boy – nicknamed Adam –
whose torso was found in the Thames.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 14 May 2005 page 3

Soho’s most famous trade fights to keep a way of life
that has thrived for 300 years

Westminster Council is threatening to compulsorily purchase flats
used by prostitutes in redevelopment of London’s most
colourful areas.

The English Collective of Prostitutes is meeting this week to
discuss how they can defend their turf.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 14 May 2005 page 4

How a top can turn a teen into a hoodlum

Tough talk about troublemakers makes an age-old question:
What’s wrong with kids today?

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 14 May 2005 page 8-9

Licensing confusion could close most pubs

Plans to reform drinking laws in England, paving the way for
24-hour opening, were in chaos last night as new figures showed
that only 5 per cent of the country’s 200,000 pubs and bars
had applied for the new licenses.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 14 May 2005 page 10

Record jail population

The jail population in England and Wales has reached a record
75,815, beating the 75,550 figure in April.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 14 May 2005 page 10

Woman cleared in witch trial

Kiwonde Kiese, 21, was cleared of aiding others to be cruel to a
girl, eight, whose family accused her of being a witch.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 14 May 2005 page 10

Doctor censured

The conduct of Camille De San Lazaro, 49, a consultant
paediatrician from Newcastle upon Tyne whose reports in 1993 and
1994 led to two nursery nurses being falsely accused of leading a
ring of paedophiles, fell short of that expected, the General
Medical Council ruled. She admitted exaggerating the reports.

Source:- The Times Saturday 14 May 2005 page 4

Yobs “will be forced to wear uniforms”

Teenagers convicted of anti-social behaviour could be forced to
wear military-style uniforms while they carry out community service
punishments.

Home Office minister Hazel Blears raised the idea to ensure
“justice is seen to be done” in the fight against the
“culture of disrespect”.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 15 May 2005 page
2

“A bully broke my daughter’s nose. The injury
nearly killed her – yet the school did nothing to stop the
attacks”

Investigation into parents whose children have been bullied but who
say their school was unwilling to tackle the issue.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 15 May 2005 page
8

Dramatic fall in crack price linked to sharp rise in
addicts

Crack cocaine is being blamed for an alarming rise in the number of
people seeking treatment for drug addiction, according to new
research.

Department of Health figures will show that growing numbers of
people are experimenting with crack while hooked on other drugs,
especially heroin.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 15 May 2005 page
17

Charities in fizz over “low-carb” drinks

Drinks companies are being accused of targeting weight-conscious
young women with special wines and spirits which have a reduced
calorie content.

Anti-alcohol charities say they new “low-cal” drinks
could fuel the nation’s abusive relationship with the bottle
because they do not necessarily contain less alcohol.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 15 May 2005 page
17

Unruly pupils sent to classroom “cooler”

A headmaster has introduced isolation rooms for badly behaved
pupils in an attempt to restore discipline to the classroom.

The pupils are confined to the rooms during school hours for up to
three days and are only allowed out for toilet breaks. Meals are
delivered.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 15 May 2005 page 1

Mother sues for veto on daughters’ morning-after
pill

The mother of two teenage girls is taking legal action to prevent
them being prescribed the morning-after pill at school without her
being informed.

Her daughters’ school is offering “fast-track”
appointments for girls below the age of sexual consent to be
supplied with the pill and for boys to obtain free condoms without
their parents’ knowledge.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 15 May 2005 page 7

Cannabis advisers don’t want rethink

Government advisers are likely to reject a tougher line on cannabis
despite mounting concerns about the drug’s potential
dangers.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will meet this week to
decide whether to review new evidence suggesting cannabis can cause
mental illness. A member of the committee said he would be
surprised if it advised a reversal.

Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 15 May 2005 page 7

Met warns immigrants

A senior Scotland Yard officer has warned Britain’s immigrant
communities that they must no longer tolerate organised
international criminal gangs in their midst.

Assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said networks of criminals
from eastern Europe and south Asia systematically abused the
immigration system to operate illegal businesses.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 15 May 2005 page 4

Blunkett plans clamp on benefits for disabled

Drug addicts could be forced into rehab programmes or lose cash
benefits under welfare reforms being drawn up by David
Blunkett.

The move would form part of controversial plans to coax up to a
million sick and disabled people off incapacity benefits and into
work.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 15 May 2005 page 11

Has Prescott got his sums right on housing crisis?

A Victorian terrace house in Liverpool has been modernised for
little more than it would cost to demolish in an exercise that has
cast doubt over value of the Government’s plans for knocking
down 200,000 homes across the North of England. Refurbishing the
house cost £24,000, whereas knocking it down and building a
new one would cost
£100,000.                                                                                

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 16 May 2005 page
3

Record number of staff too stressed to work

One in two workers claims to suffer stress and anxiety while
working, according to a report by mental health charity Mind.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 16 May 2005 page
9

Hospital managers could be charged over MRSA deaths

Managers who fail to keep their hospitals free of MRSA could be
charged with corporate manslaughter under proposals to be announced
tomorrow by Patricia Hewitt.

Health executives could eventually be held criminally responsible
for the deaths of patients.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 16 May 2005 page 2

Drink “damages women’s brains more
quickly”

Women who drink too much are at far greater risk of brain damage
than men suffering damage to their health more quickly, a study has
revealed.

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 16 May 2005 page 23

Revealed: how immigrants help the economy

Immigration is vital for the health of the economy, helping to
tackle jobs shortages, according to new academic research from
University College London.

Source:- The Independent Monday 16 May 2005 page 18

Riddle of pianist who will not speak

Police are trying to identify a man who seems unable to speak but
plays classical music on the piano. The man, who is now in a
psychiatric unit after being picked up in Sheerness, Kent, is
thought to have suffered a nervous breakdown.

Source:- The Times Monday 16 May 2005 page 5

Women more likely to develop drink addiction

Women can become addicted to alcohol more quickly than men and
suffer brain damage sooner from drinking, scientists have
found.

The charity Alcohol Concern said the findings were alarming.

Source:- The Times Monday 16 May 2005 page 7

Scottish news

Study reveals despair of addicts’ children

The hidden effect of parental drug and alcohol abuse on Scottish
children is revealed in the first academic study of calls to the
ChildLine charity.

It has uncovered worrying levels of physical abuse, neglect and
suicidal feelings.

The study of 9,300 calls reveals 31 per cent were worried about
their parents’ alcohol abuse … and 58 per cent of those
said they were actually being physically abused at home.

Source:- The Herald Sunday 15 May

Patients save beds at unique hospital

Hospital managers are set to back down over plans to close
overnight beds at Scotland’s only homoeopathic hospital.

The move will mean Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, which combines
alternative medicine and counseling with conventional healthcare,
will retain its unique status in the UK.

Patients have been fighting to secure the ward ever since, a number
giving powerful testimonies about how the facility, in the grounds
of Gartnavel hospital, has changed their lives.

Source:- The Herald Monday 16 May

Older victims of domestic abuse ‘suffer in
silence’

The needs of older women who suffer from domestic abuse are being
ignored because most services are focused on the young, according
to new research.

Linda McKie, professor of sociology at Glasgow Caledonian
University, has found that almost one in four domestic-abuse
victims is female and aged over 40.

She claims that the Scottish Executive’s national strategy on
domestic abuse fails to recognise or include older women.

Source:- The Herald Monday 16 May

MSPs call on Holyrood to probe council care killer

Politicians are demanding that ministers investigate how an
teenager who had been in council care was allowed out into the
community where he carried out a murder.

Colyn Evans killed 16-year old Karen Dewar, from Fife, in
January.

Fife’s social work department and police force are both
carrying out investigations but the case has already called into
question’s
Fife’s policy of allowing problem individuals to live in the
community.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 16 May

Welsh newspapers

Laura’s school cleared of blame over suicide

A coroner has ruled that the bullying of a girl who committed
suicide had was not the main reason behind her actions.

He said that the bullying of Laura Rhodes had seemed to have
stopped near the time of her death apart from two occasions outside
school.

Rhodes’ parents claim that Laura was bullied at school and
that this had driven her to kill herself.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday 14 May

Woman, 79, ‘clenched her fists and growled like a
dog’

A 79-year-old woman shouted at her neighbours while brandishing a
spade, a court heard yesterday.

Dorothy Evans is alleged to have made Gemma and Leon
Stafford’s lives hell by “ranting and raving and being
uncivil”.

Source:- Western Mail Saturday 14 May

Welsh father jailed for attacks on teen

A Welsh father admitted repeatedly raping a teenage girl almost 30
years ago at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.

Arthur George Carr began attacked the girl for four years starting
in the mid-1970s.

He was jailed for eight years.

Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 15 May