Jail for care worker who set woman, 83, on fire

Jail for care worker who set woman, 83, on fire

A care worker who killed an elderly dementia sufferer by setting fire to her bed has been jailed. Leanne Devenny used a cigarette lighter to ignite 83-year-old Irene Watling’s bed clothes while the pensioner slept at her residential home in July last year, Leicester Crown Court was told.

Source:- The Times, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 5

Parents get the blame for rise in bad behaviour

Parents get by far and away the most blame for the rise in antisocial behaviour and violent street crime involving children and teenagers, a new poll for The Times shows.

Source:- The Times, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 27

The figure that shows it pays to be a man

The pay gap between male and female managers has widened for the first time in 11 years from 11.8% to 12.2%, figures released by the Chartered Management Institute have shown.

The gap was lowest in the public sector and charities, where it was 0.7%.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 3

Brown widens review of impact media violence has on children

The government is to hold a wider than expected review into the impact of media violence – on television, in video games and on the internet – on children, which could lead to voluntary controls on excessive depictions of violence.

In his monthly press conference at Downing Street yesterday, prime minister Gordon Brown said he did not believe in state censorship but called for rules governing coverage on the internet and videos.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 6

Tories turn their backs on Thatcherite reforms

A Conservative policy review group has called for inner-city children to be bussed to suburban and village schools, on the basis that pupils do better in smaller institutions.

The group, headed by former health secretary Stephen Dorrell, also admitted that Thatcherite reforms to schools and the NHS had undermined the roles of public service professionals and called for this to be redressed.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 14

Trapped by a culture of disbelief

The author of a new book on modern slavery in Britain has estimated that around 25,000 people may be affected, typically immigrants, whose passports are in the hands of traffickers, employers or a spouse.

Rahila Gupta, author of The New British Slavery, said fear of being deported to a place where they might be tortured, raped or killed, coerces people into being enslaved to others.

In an extract from the book, Naomi Conte explains how she was enslaved in Freetown, taken to the UK as a child, and forced into domestic service and then prostitution.

Now a mother, she has been granted temporary leave to remain but this may not be renewed when she turns 19.

Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 1-2

‘I want to put them behind bars’

A 22-year-old multi-millionaire has developed a product he claims is 99.9% effective in identifying adults online who are looking to groom young people for sex.

The Anti-Groom Engine, developed by Adam Hildreth, who runs online child protection company Crisp Thinking, uses more than 200 factors to ascertain whether a suspect is grooming a young person online.

John Carr, chair of the Charities’ Coalition for Internet Safety and a government adviser, welcomes the software but says he is cautious about how effective it will be.

Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 3

Pupils ‘haunted by fear of test failure’

Pupils in England and Wales face more tests than other schoolchildren around the world, leaving them emotionally and intellectually drained.

On average, pupils will complete 70 tests and exams before they reach school leaving age.  This results in high anxiety levels in children as young as nine, affecting their creativity and confidence.  

The research was carried out at the Institute of Education, a college of the University of London.

Source: – The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 4

Britain slips to 17th place in the quality of life league table

Britain fell two places in the international quality of life league table this year – from 15th to 17th – with Norway taking the top spot.

The research judges 182 countries over 200 categories and is based on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, which evaluates adult literacy, life expectancy and income levels.

Britain came up as one of the world leaders for crime figures, house prices and had the third highest number of asylum applications – but took 16th place as one of the richest countries, according to the annual Economist’s Pocket World in Figures.

Source: – The Daily Mail, Wednesday 5 September 2007, page 12

Fight to save Remploy jobs

The GMB union is calling on the government to give lucrative contracts to Remploy factories to keep them open. Remploy is planning to close 43 plants which will mean a loss of 2,000 jobs. It is urging the government to give the factories contracts for supplying nurses and military uniforms.

National officer Phil Davies said: “These contracts are coming up for re-tendering. Unions are insisting that the Government steps in and insists that some of these contracts are given to the Remploy factories that are threatened with closure due to the lack of work.”

Source:- www.icwales.co.uk