Friday 18 November 2005

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

Failed Iraqi asylum-seekers to be forcibly returned home
The first enforced removals of failed Iraqi asylum seekers to their homeland will take place this weekend, sparking anger among refugee groups who warn the lives of those being expelled could be put at risk.
Source:- The Independent Friday 18 November 2005 page 13

Prosecutors to set punishment
The head of prosecutions in England and Wales has called for prosecutors to be able to divert thousands of “low-level” criminals from the courts and impose their own punishments.
Ken MacDonald, the director of Public Prosecutions, said prosecutors should have powers to impose community or reparative orders, or other punishment on offenders, avoiding the need for them to go before the courts.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 November 2005 page 2

Paedophile jailed
A paedophile drug dealer who used cocaine to groom and bribe schoolgirls for sex has been jailed for eight years by Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court.
Victor Kelly, 62, a career criminal, was caught after police bugged his home.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 November 2005 page 4

Monk admits abusing boys at Ampleforth prep school
A priest from one of Britain’s leading Roman Catholic families yesterday admitted 20 offences of sexual abuse against boys at Ampleforth College near York.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 November 2005 page 17

Foster father ‘hit Billie-Jo in face’
Billie-Jo Jenkins accused her foster father of punching her in the face after she went to school with blood round her mouth and shirt, the Old Bailey was told today.
Sion Jenkins, 48, is being tried for the third time for her murder, which he denies.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 November 2005 page 23

Boy charged with gun death
A 15-year-old boy was charged with manslaughter after Alex Cole, 12, was shot in the head with an air rifle and killed as he played in a house in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, on May 1.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 November 2005 page 35

Twins detained
Teenage twins were sentenced by Teeside Crown Court for three year’s detention for attacking their family in May.
Source:- The Times Friday 18 November 2005 page 35

I panicked and ran from racist gang says girlfriend of murdered student
The girlfriend of Anthony Walker, the murdered black A-level student, broke down in the witness box yesterday as she recalled their desperate flight from a racist gang.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 18 November 2005 page 11

Blair attacks “myths” on school reform
Tony Blair seeks to dispel the “myths” surrounding his education reforms saying they are designed to unleash the “creative energy of schools” and help children in the poorest areas. He says the reforms would not extend selection.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 18 November 2005 page 1

Monks abused boys at top RC school
Dozens of boys were assaulted by monks at Ampleforth college, near Thirsk, and its prep school over a period spanning three decades to the mid-90s.
Father Piers Grant-Ferris, 72, pleaded guilty at Leeds crown court to 20 assaults on 15 children between 1966 and 1975.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 18 November 2005 page 1

Broadmoor secures future in £200m rebuilding plan
The bulk of Broadmoor hospital is to be demolished and rebuilt in a £200 million programme designed to bring the Victorian institution into the modern era.
The decision my ministers puts an end to debate about whether large high security units are the right place to treat severely disturbed and dangerous offenders.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 18 November 2005 page 4

Resistance to HIV drug treatment is on increase in UK
Nearly one in five patients with HIV in Britain may be resistant to at least one life-prolonging drug before they begin treatment. This raises fears many are having unprotected sex with people already infected and on treatment programmes.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 18 November 2005 page 15

Gene may hold key to mystery of depression
Researchers at Edinburgh and Glasgow universities believe the discovery of a gene linked to depression could lead to the development of drugs to cure the condition, along with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Source:- The Independent Friday 18 November 2005 page 21

“Prison is failing vulnerable women”
The prisons ombudsman has ordered a review of the treatment of female inmates after an investigation into a series of suicides concluded that too many women were being locked up.
Source:- The Independent Friday 18 November 2005 page 27                     

Police arrest girl of 14 who went missing with toddler
A teenage girl from Bradford who went missing with a family friend’s baby son for more than 24 hours was arrested last night on suspicion of abduction.
Source:- Daily Mail Friday 18 November 2005 page 43

Scottish news

Home-alone boy: now GP accused of missing signs
Health chiefs are investigating whether home-alone toddler Michael McGarrity would have been found sooner had the family GP reported that his drug-addict mother had failed to collect a methadone prescription.
A source close to the investigation said that although Anne-Marie McGarrity’s pharmacist had contacted her doctor to inform him she had not collected her prescription, this was not relayed to council or health chiefs.
Doctors are not obliged to pass on information about patients, but all GPs have been told they must inform NHS Lothian about drug-using patients with children who could be at risk, even if this breaches patient confidentiality.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 18 November

Scottish study offers new drug hope for mental illness
Scottish scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding the genetics of schizophrenia and manic depression.
Experts from Glasgow and Edinburgh universities have discovered that damage to a particular gene increases the risk of developing mental illness.
The teams also linked it to a gene called Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1, which they previously discovered, in research that might lead to new drugs.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 18 November

Welsh news

Drug could have caused children’s death
A mother has spoken out about her concerns that a medicine that she took while she was pregnant has caused her children to suffer from disabilities.
Pamela Dumayne alleges that her children’s ill health is linked to her taking the anti-epilepsy drug sodium valproate. Two of her seven children have died and the other five all have physical and learning difficulties.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 18 November