Friday 1 July

 Young binge drinkers are blamed as street attacks
rise

Alcohol-fuelled violence and attacks by strangers have increased
since Labour came to power, according to government figures
released yesterday showing that young adult binge drinkers were
committing a disproportionate number of crimes.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Friday 1 July 2005, page
2

 Man who was psychologically damaged by a decade of
sexual abuse at the hands of a Roman Catholic priest awarded
compensation of more than £600,000

The award, the first of its kind to be set by High Court judge,
was the largest so far in Britain and could open the floodgates to
fresh claims totalling millions of pounds. The 35-year-old man, who
now suffers from schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder,
was abused between the ages of seven and 18 by Fr Christopher
Clonan, his parish priest at Christ The King at Coventry.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Friday 1 July 2005, page
4

 Limited coverage

Victims, witnesses and jurors would not be shown if cameras were
allowed into courts, the Lord Chancellor said. Lord Falconer of

Thornton said that the responses to a consultation paper on
televising trials had confirmed his strong view about the limits of
allowing trials to be televised.

Source:- The Times, Friday 1 July 2005, page 2

Fall in pregnancy

The number of teenage pregnancies in England has dropped by
nearly 10 per cent since the introduction of the Government’s
Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 2001, independent research
suggests.

Source:- The Times, Friday 1 July 2005, page 2

Wheelchair victim

Three men in their twenties attacked a disabled man in his
wheelchair. The victim, 50, was tipped into a main road in
Bridgwater, Somerset, verbally abused and struck on the foot with a
baseball bat.

The attack happened at about midnight on June 20-21. Avon and
Somerset police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.

Source:- The Times, Friday 1 July 2005, page 4

BMA drops opposition to doctor-assisted
suicide

The British Medical Association voted yesterday to abandon their
long-held opposition to a change in the law permitting them to help
terminally ill patients commit suicide.

The association decided to adopt a neutral stance when private
member’s legislation on the issue returns to parliament.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 1 July 2005 page 3

Illegal immigrants could top half a million

The number of illegal immigrants living in Britain is likely to
be between 310,000 and 570,000, according to official figures.

The government stressed the new figures were nothing more than a
“guesstimate” with the most likely figure being 430,000
or 0.7 per cent of the population.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 1 July 2005 page 4

 Depression risk for tiny babies

Babies born weighing less than 5.5 lbs are 50 per cent more
likely to suffer from depression later in life, a study by Bristol
University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
has revealed.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 1 July 2005 page 5

 Doctors vote to keep 24-week abortion
limit

The British Medical Association voted yesterday to maintain the
present abortion limits, restricting abortions to the first 24
weeks of pregnancy except in extreme cases. The debate was prompted
by medical advances which have made it possible for some babies to
survive when born at 22 or 23 weeks.

 Source:- The Guardian Friday 1 July 2005 page 7

 Meadow should not have been charged, says
Lancet

Sir Roy Meadow should never have faced a disciplinary tribunal
over discredited evidence he gave in the case of a mother jailed
for killing her children, according to the editor of the
Lancet.

In an editorial, Richard Horton says that the proceedings
against Professor Meadow are inappropriate and threaten the
delivery of child protection services.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 1 July 2005 page 7

Medical staff misled in run-up to asylum seeker’s
deportation

The Home Office has deported an Angolan asylum seeker after
detention centre officials allegedly told medical staff waiting to
assess him that he had been taken to court for a hearing.

When staff from the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims
of Torture contacted Colnbrook detention centre near Heathrow to
confirm an appointment for a psychiatric assessment on the man they
were told he was scheduled to go to court. Instead he was taken to
an isolation cell and later escorted to an airport for the flight
to Angola.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 1 July 2005 page 10

 Suicide of CSA father “left with just £10 a
week”

A father was driven to suicide after demands by the Child
Support Agency once left him with just £10 a week to live on,
his family said yesterday. The nurse became increasingly desperate
as money deducted for his ex-wife to look after their three
children left him unable to get by.

 Source:- Daily Mail Friday 1 July 2005 page 9

 Blair faces showdown on hunger strikers

 The president of South Africa will quiz Tony Blair about
Britain’s treatment of the Zimbabwean hunger strikers, who
are demanding all deportations to the country are stopped, at the
G8 summit.

 Source:- Daily Mail Friday 1 July 2005 page 23

Scottish digest

 Council not liable over man’s death

Local authorities should not have to pay damages to the victims
of anti-social neighbours, a judge has ruled. In a landmark
decision, the family of a man who was killed by his neighbour lost
a claim for £150,000 against Glasgow Council. Lord Bracadale
said at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that there would have
been potentially far-reaching consequences if he had decided that
landlords could be found liable for the criminal or antisocial acts
of one tenant towards another.

Source:- The Scotsman, 1 July

Welsh digest

Innovative scheme could solve bed-blocking

An innovative idea is being considered to tackle bed-blocking in
South Wales.

The development of an “extra care” home in Cardiff
is being proposed as a way to slash the number of people being left
in hospitals waiting for beds in nursing homes.

The plans represent a radical step because local authorities are
meant to be banned from running nursing homes.

Source:- South Wales Echo, 1 July, Friday

Free home care for elderly ‘extremely
difficult’ says Morgan

It would be “extremely difficult” for Wales to
afford to provide free home care for the elderly as happens in
Scotland, first minister Rhodri Morgan said yesterday.

Elderly people in Scotland received free personal care but there
are worries from some quarters that the policy is more expensive
than anticipated.

Source:- icWales, 30 June, Friday