Monday 7 November 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Simeon Brody, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor
Cameron on defensive over call to downgrade ecstasy
The Home Office dismissed as irresponsible David Cameron’s remarks on Question Time in support of ecstasy being downgraded from its current status as a class A drug.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 5 November 2005 page 6

Muslim graves desecrated in Birmingham cemetery
Dozens of Muslim grave headstones were damaged in a Birmingham cemetery  triggering concerns about fresh race riots. Leaflets were also scattered among the grave stones attributed to an unknown group calling themselves Black Nation.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 5 November 2005 page 11

Five jailed for producing race hate magazine
Five white supremacists – members of the Racial Volunteer Force – have been jailed at the Old Bailey for producing and distributing race-hate material in an extreme right-wing magazine.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 5 November 2005 page 11

Blair puts welfare “hawk” into top job
Tony Blair has moved Gareth Davies, a senior civil servant from the Downing Street policy unit, to work alongside Pensions Secretary John Hutton. The move strengthens Blair’s grip in a department where Hutton’s predecessors have resisted interference.
Source:- Financial Times Saturday 5 November 2005 page 6

Three men guilty of honour killing
Two teenage brothers who stabbed to death a university student after being ordered to undertake an honour killing by their father were found guilty of murder yesterday. The father ordered the man killed because the victim was having a relationship with his daughter.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 5 November 2005 page 1

Schizophrenic went “berserk” on holiday jet
A paranoid schizophrenic who drank six cans of cider before going “berserk” on a holiday jet was spared jail. Alan Cooper, 41, from Bolton, punched and pulled the hair of cabin crew before eventually being overpowered by nine staff and passengers. Cooper had been hearing voices in his head since last year and the judge acknowledged that he had been suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 5 November 2005 page 11

Facing jail, the teacher who flirted with a boy aged 16
An English teacher could face jail after she admitted kissing a 16-year-old pupil.
Samantha Grixti, 30, began a relationship with the boy after giving him extra tuition  for a GCSE. She admitted abusing a position of trust at Chichester magistrates.
Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 5 November 2005 page 7

Christmas lights fail to shine in equality zone
Suffolk Council is planning to scrap grants for festive lights because Christmas does not fit in with its “core values of equality and diversity.”
A report drawn up by the council concedes that the move could lead to officials being accused of “no supporting the spirit of Christmas.”
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 6 November 2005 page 7

Mother to fight rules on teen abortion
A mother of two teenage girls will this week go to the High Court to stop the doctors carrying out abortions on children without their parents knowing.
Sue Axon, from Baguley, Manchester, has prompted a judicial review of government guidance that allows doctors to carry out abortions on children behind their parents’ backs.
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 6 November 2005 page 9

Hell of the carers driven to breaking point
As mother Wendolyn Markrow is spared jail after killing her son who had Down’s Syndrome, a study says even the meagre help now offered to such parents is to be cut
Source:- The Observer Sunday 6 November 2005 page 10-11

The Thames: awash with cocaine
The Thames is awash with cocaine as Londoners snort more than 150,000 lines of the class A drug every day, according to an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 6 November 2005 page 1 and 12

A new message for teenagers: don’t have sex
As concern grows over under-age pregnancy and soaring rates of sexual infections, a new schools programme, which teaches abstinence as well as contraception, is gaining ground.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph  Sunday 6 November 2005 page 13

Exams ‘cultural offence’ warning
Examination boards have been told to remove questions from A-level and GCSEs papers that reinforce stereotypes or might upset Muslim pupils or children who have suffered traumas.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 6 November 2005 page 13

Mine for £1,300: Ileana, the teenage sex slave ready to work in London. Reporter is offered ‘a bargain’ as he infiltrates the human trafficking gangs who forcibly import 6,000 girls a year from Eastern Europe
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 6 November 2005 page 19

Middle-class, middle-aged magistrates set for makeover
Thousands of younger and more ethnically diverse magistrates will be recruited as part of a drive by the Lord Chancellor to boost the standing of magistrates courts.
Source:- The Times Monday 7 November 2005 page 2

Murder charge
A 15-year-old boy has been charged with the murder and attempted murder after two brothers were stabbed in Shipley, west Yorkshire.
The dead man, Patrick Barker, 20, lived with his brother Robert, 21, who was injured. The boy is due to appear at Bradford Youth Court today.
Source:- The Times Monday 7 November 2005 page 2

Racism appeal
The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Birmingham, has urged Roman Catholics to fight racism after more than 40 graves were desecrated in the Muslim part of Handsworth cemetery.
Source:- The Times Monday 7 November 2005 page 2

Missing toddler
Police are searching for a two-year-old girl they fear may have been smuggled abroad. Natalija Lyustiger handed her daughter Lillian to her estranged husband Nikolai in North London on Friday but she was not returned.
Source:- The Times Monday 7 November 2005 page 2

Teacher’s fight
Ian Mackay, 55, the headteacher of Scotby Church of England School, near Carlisle, who was suspended after making two boys release a girl aged 10 they had forced into a cupboard, has vowed to fight to clear his name.
One of the boy’s parents claimed that Mackay left their son with a bruised arm.
Source:- The Times Monday 7 November 2005 page 4

Children moved up to 20 times in adoption wait
A shortage of adoptive parents means that children in care are being moved up to 20 times before a suitable home can be found, according to campaigners.
Source:- The Times Monday 7 November 2005 page 21

Gay inmates get cuddling rights
Gay prisoners are to be allowed to kiss and cuddle their partners during visiting time at jails in England and Wales.
The Prison Service is also planning to allow gay offenders to “marry” their partners when civil partnership ceremonies begin next month.
Source:- The Times Monday 7 November 2005 page 27

Charity drive at flick of a wrist
Colin Javens, who is paralysed from the shoulders down, is to drive 15,000 miles across Africa during the next five months, becoming the first tetraplegic to attempt such a journey.
Source:- The Times Monday 7 November 2005 page 28

Dodgy dads to be tagged
Mean dads who refuse to pay child maintenance face being tagged. They could also lose their passports under government plans to revamp the shambolic Child Support Agency, according to leaked plans.
Source:- The Daily Mirror Monday 7 November 2005 page 1 and 5

Force investigates claim that officer threw Qur’an into bin during arrest
An investigation is under way into claims by a British Muslim man that a Met police officer desecrated his Qur’an by throwing it into a rubbish bin while arresting him.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 November 2005 page 4

Child drinkers could face rehab clinics
So many Scottish children are addicted to drink and drugs that medical experts are calling for drying-out clinics for youngsters.
More than 500 children in Scotland received counselling for alcohol addiction.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 November 2005 page 10

Blair defends reform of incapacity benefit
Tony Blair says incapacity benefit reforms will not force claimants into work but remove the “incentives” that keep them on benefit.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 November 2005 page 11

Schools “use expensive uniforms to deter poor”
Primary schools are using covert selection to stop children as young as five from poor backgrounds winning places at the best institutions.
Schools demand pupils wear expensive uniforms from specialist shops and parents pay for school fund contributions, according to the report by ConfEd, which represents local authority leaders.
Source:- The Independent Monday 7 November 2005 page 11

Scottish news

Message on anti-social behaviour failing
The vast majority of Scots are turning to the wrong authority when reporting anti-social behaviour, despite a £684,000 Scottish executive awareness campaign.
Ninety-five per cent of those questioned in an official survey said they would report noisy neighbours, graffiti and other anti-social behaviour to the police.
But recent legislation has empowered councils to deal swiftly with these problems, many of which do not constitute criminal acts and are not acted on by police.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 5 November

Hundreds of Scots children treated for alcohol addiction
At least 500 Scottish children were treated for alcohol addiction last year, according to new figures.
The statistics, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that health workers are counselling and treating hundreds of children who are physically dependent on alcohol, some as young as 12.
Experts say some of the underage victims are middle-class children who have turned to drink because of emotional neglect by workaholic parents.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 6 November

Dentists failing to act over abuse of children
Dentists in Scotland are failing to report suspected cases of child abuse because of a lack of training and guidance on what action to take.
Many of the signs of physical abuse can be detected in the form of trauma to the face, teeth and mouth. New research involving almost 400 dental practitioners across the country found that nearly a third had encountered at least one suspicious case of abuse in young patients during their career yet only 8% of them had referred it on for further investigation by the relevant authorities.
Source:- The Sunday Herald Sunday 6 November

Film attacks Dungavel detention centre
A new film has been made attacking the Dungavel immigration detention centre in Lanarkshire.
Visit Dungavel (Monster of the Glen) stars James Douglas-Hamilton, the Tory MSP who was born and grew up in the area, and Gary Lewis, the Glaswegian actor and star of films Billy Elliot and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.
The film focuses on the treatment of asylum seekers by the Home Office, and particularly dawn raids and the locking up of children in Dungavel.
Source:- The Herald Monday 7th November

Free OAP care ‘to fail spectacularly’
The Scottish executive last night rejected a warning from council leaders that the flagship policy of free personal care for the elderly was about to “fail spectacularly”. A secret report prepared for Scotland’s 32 local authorities has warned that the money allocated in 2004 by the executive for the policy is “becoming exhausted”.
The report, prepared for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, COSLA, adds that there is “a real need to secure further funding” because of an increased demand for care.
Source:- The Scotsman Monday 7 November

Mental hell of third of sick staff
A third of Scots who take time off work do so because of a mental health problem, claims a report.
And the study for the executive’s See Me campaign revealed that many of these workers were too scared to tell their bosses the reason they were off because of the stigma of mental illness.
Of those who did tell employers why they were off, six out of 10 said they were treated differently as a result.’
Source:- Daily Record Monday 7 November

Welsh news

Haunted house girl told lies
A man accused of tricking a 13-year-old girl into having sex with him by pretending her home was haunted has accused the child of telling lies.
The 42-year-old denies abusing the girl while her mother was in hospital.
The girl alleges that her mother’s partner told her that the ghosts would only go away if she had sex with him.
Source:- South Wales Echo Saturday 5 November

Vulnerable kids need £1.3m more in capital’s schools
An extra £1.3 million is required to support children with special educational needs in Cardiff it has been revealed.
A review of special educational needs has found that the existing funding strategy does not meet the demands on the service.
Source:- South Wales Echo Saturday 5 November

‘I’ll stand by sick hubby’ insists wife
 The wife of a paedophile who abused a school girl said she would stand by her husband.
Sydney Tovey, who is 86-years-old and mentally ill, was sentenced for indecently assaulting an eight-year-old this week.
He has been placed into the care of Flintshire social services and is the subject of a guardianship order under the Mental Health Act.
Phyllis Tovey, said that the couple has been together 59 years and that she would stand by her husband.
Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 6 November