Teenage mothers to get NHS ‘minders’ until babies turn two

By Mithran Samuel, Maria Ahmed and Amy Taylor

Teenage mothers to get NHS ‘minders’ until babies turn two

A pilot scheme to provide intensive support from health visitors and midwives to babies in vulnerable families from birth until age two starts this month.

However, critics have warned that the scheme will fall foul of staff shortages for both sets of practitioners.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday 3 May 2007 page 14

Pupils need lessons in happiness, says adviser

Labour peer and economist Lord Richard Layard has called for schoolchildren to have lessons in being happy up to the age of 18 to combat growing levels of depression.

In a speech last night, he said being happy, like playing the violin, required “practice and repetition”, though his comments were attacked by educational traditionalists.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday 3 May 2007 page 15

Met chief: put gang siblings into care

Britain’s most senior police officer wants children who face pressure from their own families to join gangs to be placed on the child protection register.

Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair said policing alone would not tackle the threat of gang violence and a more preventive approach was needed to stop children joining gangs.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 3 May 2007 page 4

Sikh wife’s affair sparked honour killing by husband and his mother, Old Bailey told

A young woman was murdered by her husband and his mother because they thought she had brought disgrace on their Sikh family by seeking a divorce, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Surjit Athwal was last seen in 1998 and her body never found, but prosecutors alleged she was taken to India by husband Sukhdave Athwal and his mother, Bachan, and murdered, after she had an affair and filed for divorce.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 3 May 2007 page 4

Top judge attacks ‘trapdoor to prison’

Britain’s most senior judge yesterday called for an end to the automatic recall to prison of released offenders who breach their licences, warning that it has become a “trapdoor to prison”.

Lord chief justice Lord Phillips said he hoped automatic recall would be dropped by the new Ministry of Justice, which takes over responsibility for the criminal justice system from the Home Office next week.

He said the requirement detracted from the autonomy of probation officers who are best placed to distinguish between offenders who have no motivation to undertake a community sentence, who should return to jail, and those with a disorganised lifestyle, who may benefit from further work.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 3 May 2007 page 15

HRT ‘can lower the risk from Alzheimer’s’

Women can halve their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by taking hormone replacement therapy before they turn 65, scientists said yesterday.

Source:- The Daily Mail, Thursday 3 May 2007, page 6
 
Mentally ill mother ‘suffocated her son’

A four-year-old boy could have been smothered to death by his mentally ill mother days after she discharged herself from hospital.

Source:- The Daily Mail, Thursday 3 May 2007, page 36
 
Children abused with hot chilli

Two Mormon churchgoers who force-fed six children tablespoons of hot chilli powder were found guilty of child-cruelty offences.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 3 May 2007, page 29
 
PC ‘was ordered to change notes over honour killing’

A senior detective ordered a junior colleague to change police records that had failed to include a murdered Muslim women’s repeated claim that her father was trying to kill her.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 3 May 2007, page 30

Welsh news

A teacher has been suspended over allegations that she had an “inappropriate relationship” with a male pupil at a secondary school in Wales.

The alleged relationship came to surface when an exchange of emails between the teacher, who works at Holyhead High School in North Wales, and the pupil, who is thought to be 16, came to light.

Officers from North Wales Police’s family protection unit are now dealing with the case.

Source:- Western Mail, Thursday 3 May 2007

Asbo OAP has sentence reduced

An 81-year-old woman once described by a judge as “the original neighbour from hell” had her jail term reduced yesterday.

Dorothy Evans, of Abergavenny, South Wales, had her 6 months sentence for harassment and breaching an anti-social behaviour order, given out in April, reduced to 4.

Source:- icWales, Thursday 3 May 2007