Tuesday 21 June 2005

By Simeon Brody and Amy Taylor

Pathologist is struck off

Professor Dick van Velzen the Dutch pathologist who took thousands
of organs from dead children at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool
without the consent of parents, was struck off the medical register
yesterday.

The professor, who did not appear at the General Medical Council
hearing, is no longer thought to be working as a paediatric
pathologist.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 21 June 2005 page 2

Drive to boost voluntary work

A government-led initiative to raise one billion minutes of
volunteered time for good causes by the end of the year is being
announced by the Home Office today.

The aim of the Give a Billion Minutes programme is to create a
central log of all the minutes of voluntary activity completed in
England and Wales as part of celebrations for the Year of the
Volunteer.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 21 June 2005 page 24

Executives’ pay rises by 9.5%

Local government chiefs had their pay rise by 9.5 per cent last
year with almost all enjoying six figure salaries.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 21 June 2005 page 24

£1bn spent on crime schemes, but no one can tell the
difference

Almost £1billion has been spent on projects to reduce crime
but the government cannot say what difference they have made, a
report finds.

Less than half of the schemes designed to curb crime in England and
Wales were able to say they had helped in a
“measurable” fall in criminal activity, the report by
the Commons Public Accounts Committee says.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 21 June 2005 page 29

Island’s special school is threatened with
closure

Ysgol Y Bont, the only school for children with special needs on
Anglesey, faces closure. Parents are worried that pressure will
then be applied to them to put their children into mainstream
education.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 21 June 2005 page
10

Atkinson makes final bid to stop religious hate Bill

Comedian Rowan Atkinson is leading a final attempt to scupper the
government’s “creepy and disturbing” plans to
bring in legislation banning the incitement of religious
hatred.

Atkinson said he had told jokes during his career that could have
landed him in court and said comedians might steer clear of
sensitive religious subjects for fear of prosecution.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 21 June 2005 page
19

Unrepentant

The young mother who left her three young children behind with a
15-year-old babysitter to go on holiday to Turkey refused to cut
her trip short.

She said she left the children with their 20-year-old godfather and
the 15-year-old is his sister who was only taking the children for
a walk.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 21 June 2005 page 3

Mental wards “packed with cannabis
victims”

Many psychiatric units have become little more than “cannabis
wards” because of the huge numbers turned psychotic by the
drug, Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of Sane said
yesterday.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 21 June 2005 page 26

Barrister in coma after gang attack

A barrister was in a coma yesterday after being attacked by a gang
of nine boys and girls while he was walking along the street in
Poole, Dorset.

The attack happened when Peter Wareing was walking home from a
barbeque at about midnight on Saturday night with two
friends.

The friends were also attacked by the gang.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 21 June

I’ll go to jail rather than pay tax, says
pensioner

A 73-year-old was given a jail sentence for refusing to pay a
council tax bill because she says it is unfair.

Sylvia Hardy was given a seven-day jail term from magistrates in
Exeter, Devon suspended for 8 weeks. If she pays the £50 bill
within this time period she would be allowed to escape jail but
Hardy said that she would rather go to prison than pay it.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 21 June

Special needs children ‘suffering’

Children with special educational needs are being denied access to
services due to the Department of Health not wanting to commit the
Department for Education and Skills to having to spend money, MPs
and Lords have warned.

The joint group said that the DfES needed to take a “fresh
look” at the way the special needs system worked.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 21 June

Welsh news

Man, 81, died after scalding in a care home bath

A coroner recorded a verdict of death by natural causes brought on
by lack of care after an 81-year-old man was put into a scalding
bath, had a fit and died.

John Davies’ skin on his legs went red raw and blistered
because a carer had not checked the temperature of the bath
water.

The incident took place at the Brooklands care home near
Saundersfoot.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 21 June