Baby of 11 months ‘shaken to death by her childminder’

By Mithran Samuel, Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes

Baby of 11 months ‘shaken to death by her childminder’

Registered childminder Karen Henderson shook 11-month-old Maeve Sheppard to death in March 2005 after losing her temper, Reading Crown Court heared yesterday.

Henderson, who qualified as a childminder in 2000, and looked after children at her home in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, denied manslaughter. The trial continues.

Source:- Daily Mail 4 October 2007 page 29

£500k bill as Hodge cuff dads cleared

Two Fathers for Justice campaigners were cleared of the false imprisonment of former children’s minister Margaret Hodge in a case that cost £500,000 and took three years to come to court.

Jonathan Stanesby, 41, and Jason Hatch, 35, were cleared of the charges, which related to an incident in which they handcuffed Hodge at a conference.

Source:- The Sun 4 October 2007 page 35

A care workers was shot dead on her way home after being caught in the crossfire of a gun battle.

Magda Pniewska, a Polish national who had lived in Britain for four years, was hit in the head by what was thought to be a stray bullet in south London on Tuesday evening.

She worked as an activities coordinator at Manley Court Nursing Centre, 50m from the scene of her death.

Source:- The Guardian 4 October 2007 page 6

Some victims of sex traffickers rescued from prostitution in a national police crackdown will face deportation, home secretary Jacqui Smith said yesterday.

Police said yesterday that three women had been rescued since Monday as a result of Operation Pentameter 2, which unprecedentedly involves all police forces across Britain and Ireland, but Smith said that she could not guarantee some would not be deported as illegal immigrants.

Source:- The Guardian 4 October 2007 page 8

Immigrants ‘tortured’ before return to Sudan

Asylum-seekers from Darfur suffered appalling torture and beatings after being deported to the Sudanese capital Khartoum by the Home Office, according to a report.

Source: – The Independent, Thursday 4 October 2007, page 14
 
 
Funding shortfall ‘will mean more cuts to services for elderly people’

Services for the elderly face damaging cutbacks over the next three years if the government fails to provide additional funding, local council chiefs claim.

Source: – The Times, Thursday 4 October 2007, page 33

Scottish news

Police force rapped after boy, 14, held in adult cell for two days

Scotland’s biggest police force has been criticised for holding a 14-year-old boy in adult cells for more than two days.

Police Complaints Commissioner Jim Martin called on Strathclyde Police to apologise to the youth and his mother after an incident he said pointed to a “systemic failure” in the way the force detained children.

The boy – identified as X – was locked up for 59 hours last year in two separate police stations after he was found carrying a knife and drunk at 2.30 on a Saturday morning in September 2006.

Source:- The Herald, Thursday 4 October

Axing health visits linked to rise in child behaviour issues

The axing of routine calls by health visitors after babies reach six weeks old has led to growing behavioural problems among young people, a senior Edinburgh councillor has claimed.

Nursery school headteachers are worried by the number of children whose problems are not being picked up before they get to three or four, the city’s education leader, councillor Marilyn MacLaren, said.

The routine visits after six weeks were stopped two years ago on the advice of the Scottish Government, to concentrate resources on the most vulnerable children. Parents can still ask to see a health visitor after six weeks whenever they have concerns.

Source:- The Scotsman, Thursday 4 October