History > 2007 > UK > Violence (III)

Schrank

cartoon

Melanie McDonagh:

The David Southall I know

is not the man the GMC condemns

IoS

9.12.2007

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3236067.ece 

The Abused:

Scandal of assaults

on children in custody

Staff at Young Offender Institutions routinely
hit youngsters in the face, bend back their thumbs
and limbs to breaking point, and force fists into their ribs.

In a report obtained by 'The Independent on Sunday',
the Children's Commissioner has condemned this as 'unacceptable'. Brian Brady and Jonathan Owen investigate

Published: 30 December 2007
The Independent on Sunday

Thousands of assaults are being carried out each year on children in custody by the people employed to look after them. Hundreds suffer cuts and bruises and some require hospital treatment for dislocated or broken bones.

Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commissioner for England, has highlighted the "over-use of restraint and force" in Young Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres, and is calling for an immediate ban on the practice of painful restraint, which includes hitting children in the face, twisting their thumbs and limbs, and pinning them down in painful stress positions as a form of punishment or to ensure compliance.

In a new report to a government-commissioned inquiry into the issue, he writes: "The use of violence and force to control and punish some of the most vulnerable children in society is unacceptable."

Physical restraint – which is supposed to be a last resort – was used 3,036 times in Secure Training Centres (STCs) in 2005/06. More than 50 cases were judged so serious that a report was made to the Youth Justice Board (YJB).

Staff at STCs, which house some of the country's most vulnerable children, are trained to subdue children using forms of physical violence such as sharp blows to the septum area of the nose, bending thumbs to near breaking point and forcing a fist against ribs in the back.

These methods, supposedly to be used only as a last resort, are euphemistically described as "painful distractions". In reality they are forms of assault that would be illegal if done anywhere else. The techniques are detailed in a "Physical Control in Care" training manual that details an array of such moves and holds, some of which involve several adults overpowering a single child in positions that could put the child at risk of suffocation. The Government has kept the techniques a secret, refusing to reveal them despite repeated requests from lawyers and journalists.

Young people in STCs, Youth Offender Institutions (YOIs) and Secure Children's Homes (SCHs) were subjected to more than 2,000 cases of restraint between April and June this year, according to figures from the Youth Justice Board. Eighty of these required medical treatment for injuries such as cuts, concussion, bruising or sprains; children in STCs were twice as likely as those in YOIs to suffer injury as a result of restraint.

Answers to recent Parliamentary Questions have revealed a catalogue of hundreds of injuries suffered by young people in 10 YOIs over the past two years. These range from severe nosebleeds, cuts, and bruising, to fractured or broken bones. Young people in YOIs face what is described as "pain compliant" control and restraint designed for adult prisoners.

Natalie Cronin, head of policy and public affairs at the NSPCC, says: "For too long, children as young as 12 have been subjected to dangerous, violent and degrading restraint techniques in Young Offenders Institutions. It should not be legal for anyone to deliberately inflict pain on a child as a method of restraint."

A government-commissioned inquiry into the risks of death or injury associated with physical restraints is under way. In his submission to the inquiry, obtained by the IoS, Sir Al concludes that there needs to be a review of the juvenile justice system and that restraints should be used only as a final option, and even then "only when the child poses an imminent threat of injury to themselves or others". He calls for improved training of staff to safeguard children and says: "The use of techniques to inflict pain is in violation of the child's right under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.... We believe the practice in relation to restraint in some YOIs and STCs is in clear breach of the UNCRC." In some circumstances it may also contravene the European Convention on Human Rights, he said.

The controversy comes in the wake of inquests held earlier this year into the tragic deaths of 14-year-old Adam Rickwood and 15-year-old Gareth Myatt, both of whom died in 2004 after several members of staff physically restrained them in separate incidents at Hassockfield and Rainsbrook STCs. They are among 30 children who have died in custody in the UK in the past 17 years.

Gareth died of asphyxia while being restrained by three staff, using the now banned double-seated embrace technique. Adam became the youngest person to die in custody in the UK when he hanged himself soon after he had been restrained by staff using the "nose distraction" technique.

The deaths prompted calls by children's charities for risky restraints and painful distractions to be abolished. But the Government responded to concerns raised during the inquests into the two deaths by broadening the rules on restraint techniques, allowing them to be used as a means of "ensuring good order and discipline" rather than merely to prevent harm, escape or damage to property.

Giving evidence to the parliamentary inquiry earlier this year, Ellie Roy, chief executive of the Youth Justice Board, was asked to give an example of enforcing good order and discipline. She recounted an incident when four teenage boys linked arms and refused to go to bed. Arguing that the incident would have escalated if they had not been restrained, she said: "The question is what can they do in that type of situation?"

The Children's Rights Alliance for England, which represents 380 campaign and welfare groups, has reported the crisis of children in custody to the United Nations and has accused the Government of "wilful neglect" over its repeated failure to implement the international treaty protecting under-18s, the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Earlier this month a delegation from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture took up the issue of child restraint with ministers.

"Some of the restraints could be viewed as assaults. We're doing things to children which they don't even do in Guantanamo Bay," says Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform. "Painful distraction is assault and I cannot see why the police aren't involved in investigating it," she says.

In evidence provided to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, the YJB admits that children in custody face varying levels of discipline depending on where they happen to be: "There is no single method of restrictive physical intervention (restraint) used across the different types of facilities for children and young people but the YJB has been working to develop common standards and principles."

Ministers recently announced the suspension of two of the most controversial restraint methods used on children in custody – the painful "nose distraction" and the "double basket" hold. The decision followed concerns by a new panel of medical experts that met for the first time last month to review the risks of restraint. But a series of alternative holds, including thumb and rib distractions, remain in routine use in child-custody institutions across the country.

Painful distractions are unnecessary and used out of ignorance, says Dr Theodore Mutale, a consultant psychiatrist who spent eight years on the board of the YJB until resigning in March this year. "I don't think you need to use pain to manage a youngster. Especially if they have been abused in the past, using painful distraction will just cause them further distress." He says that not all cases are reported. "Inspectors would witness restraint in the morning but when they looked at the log of restraints in the afternoon there would be no mention of it having happened."

Ms Roy of the Youth Justice Board says: "We all want to see a lower level of restraint but making it happen is quite a challenge." In an attempt to reduce the levels of force the YJB is piloting alternative behaviour management techniques, including therapeutic crisis intervention, and the government review into restraint methods is due to make its recommendations in April next year.

But this will come as little comfort to Pamela Wilton, mother of Gareth Myatt. "No parent expects to lose their child, particularly in the circumstances that Gareth died. I loved Gareth so much and my life will never be the same. Nothing can bring him back to me. My only hope is that the Government will listen to the voices of children in custody so that lessons can be learnt and other children can be kept safe."

    The Abused: Scandal of assaults on children in custody, IoS, 30.12.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article3293987.ece

Mother: 'Justice needs to be done'

Published: 30 December 2007
The Independent on Sunday
By Jonathan Owen

Adam Rickwood, 14, hanged himself in August 2004 after he was karate-chopped in the nose while being physically restrained by four officers at Hassockfield Secure Training Centre, 150 miles from his home in Burnley.

Before his death, Adam wrote a description of what had happened to him. He said he had been ordered to his room for no apparent reason. When he refused, four officers "restrained" him. "They all jumped on me and started to put my arms up my back and hitting me in the nose."

Adam's mother, Carol Pounder, is desperate for justice. "The people that restrained Adam can carry on tucking up their kids in bed at night. I can't," she said. "Other children are in danger of dying as long as these things are being done. What gives anybody the right to hurt children to keep them under control?"

An inquest into Adam's death earlier this year ruled it was a suicide. But his family is now pressing for a judicial review and Mrs Pounder is in no doubt who is to blame. "Justice needs doing and somebody to be made accountable for my son's death. The system failed him. The authorities have admitted behind closed doors that the restraint used on him was unlawful but wouldn't admit it in front of a jury."

    Mother: 'Justice needs to be done', IoS, 30.12.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article3293986.ece

Let boys play with toy guns,

ministers advise nursery staff

Saturday December 29, 2007
Guardian
Robert Booth

Boys should be encouraged to play with toy guns at nursery school because it can help improve their academic performance, according to government advice issued yesterday.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said boys aged between three and five had fallen behind their female classmates partly because nursery staff tried to curb their desire for boisterous play involving weapons. Boys were more likely to become interested in education and would perform better if encouraged to pursue their chosen play.

The advice has proved controversial with teachers' unions, which said that toy guns "symbolise aggression" and teachers were right to stop them being used. They also criticised the government for stereotyping boys.

The guidance, Confident, Capable and Creative: Supporting Boys' Achievements, said national data for 2004-06 showed that in nursery education, boys performed worse than girls across all areas of learning. It is a pattern which the government says continues up until GCSE stage. Better results can be achieved if nursery staff curb their "instincts" to stop boys from playing with toy guns and instead make better use of their interests.

"Sometimes practitioners find the chosen play of boys more difficult to understand and value than that of girls," the guidance states. "They may choose activities in which adults involve themselves least, or play that involves more action and a greater use of the available space, especially outdoors. Images and ideas gleaned from the media are common starting points in boys' play and may involve characters with special powers or weapons. Adults can find this type of play particularly challenging and have a natural instinct to stop it."

It said this was unnecessary as long as staff helped boys understand and respect the rights of other children. "Creating situations so that boys' interests in these forms of play can be fostered through healthy and safe risk-taking will enhance every aspect of their learning," it said.

Beverley Hughes, the children's minister, said the guidance took "a common-sense approach to the fact that many children, and perhaps particularly many boys, like boisterous, physical activity". But Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, warned that nurseries following the guidance risked incurring the anger of parents.

"I do not think schools should be encouraging boys to play with toy weapons," he said. "Many parents take the decision that their children won't have toy weapons. In addition to that, I think this is a clear example of gender stereotyping."

Steve Sinnott, NUT general secretary, said: "The real problem with weapons is that they symbolise aggression. We do need to ensure, whether the playing is rumbustious or not, that there is a respect for your peers, however young they are."

    Let boys play with toy guns, ministers advise nursery staff, G, 29.12.2007, http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2233029,00.html

One-year-old boy

killed by pet rottweiler

Saturday December 29, 2007
Guardian
Fred Attewill

A one-year-old boy has died after being attacked by a rottweiler while playing outside a relative's home, police said last night.

The boy, who has not been named, was in the back garden of the home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, when his mother discovered he had been mauled by the pet yesterday afternoon. He was taken by ambulance to Pinderfields general hospital but died hours later.

A police spokesman said last night: "After the dog released the child and he was taken to hospital a police marksman who was in the vicinity destroyed the dog to ensure the safety of others."

The spokesman added: "Inquiries are ongoing into the incident and a senior investigating officer has been appointed to the inquiry." No arrests have been made.

The emergency services were alerted at 3.30pm and the boy died of his injuries at 9pm. The spokesman said the child's family was being supported by specially trained officers and an investigation was under way.

The attack comes almost exactly a year after five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson was mauled to death by her uncle's illegally kept pit bull terrier. She was grabbed by the throat and shaken in an attack at her home in St Helen's, Merseyside, on New Year's Eve while her grandmother was babysitting.

The girl's uncle, Kiel Simpson, was jailed for eight weeks for illegally owning the dog, Reuben, contrary to the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Reuben, which had already bitten Ellie's younger sister, was later destroyed by a police marksman.

In a month-long amnesty after Ellie's death, Merseyside police were handed 200 animals and seized a further 47 dogs.

    One-year-old boy killed by pet rottweiler, NYT, 29.12.2007,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2233120,00.html

Rhys Jones's family

renew plea to catch killer

· Parents face their first Christmas without son
· Police say murder inquiry is making good progress

Saturday December 15, 2007
Guardian
Audrey Gillan


The parents of Rhys Jones yesterday renewed their appeal for information to help find their son's killer on the eve of the first Christmas they will spend without their 11-year-old, who was shot dead as he walked home from playing football in Croxteth Park, Liverpool.

In a statement issued by Merseyside police, Stephen, 44, and Melanie, 41, said: "Just contemplating Christmas this year is difficult. It's certainly going to be a quiet Christmas and we just don't know how we're going to face waking up on Christmas morning knowing that Rhys isn't going to be there to rip off the wrapping paper from his presents, posing for the video as we proudly record the events throughout the day."

The couple, who have another son, Owen, 17, added: "We wonder what the person who fired the shot that killed Rhys will be doing this Christmas, will he think about Rhys and the devastation he has caused? And those close to him, who know what he has done - how will they be celebrating? Are they getting ready for Christmas? How can they carry on getting ready to celebrate and not think about Rhys? Surely, they must realise the enormity of what has happened here. They must realise that our family has been left devastated following the death of our 11-year-old son and brother. Maybe Christmas and new year, a time for family and reflection, will hit home and they'll finally do the right thing."

Police have a strong sense of who the killer is and are trying to convert intelligence into evidence to have a watertight case to take to court and secure a conviction. They believe Rhys, an Everton supporter, was the innocent victim of gang rivalry between teenagers from the Croxteth estate and nearby Norris Green. The bullet that hit his neck after ricocheting off a parked car is believed to have been fired by a member of the Crocky Crew [from Croxteth] and was thought to be intended for a member of the Nogzy [from Norris Green].

The name of a teenage suspect was posted on YouTube in October but later removed. Police have also released CCTV footage of the suspected killer, showing a teenage boy wearing a hooded top and trousers with a distinctive white stripe riding a mountain bike outside the Fir Tree pub, moments before and after Rhys was shot on August 22. Yesterday Patricia Gallan, Merseyside's assistant chief constable, said: "The investigation continues to make good and steady progress. Merseyside police remain confident that we are moving towards a positive outcome to this complex investigation."

In their statement, the Jones family said: "Christmas is a time for family...but this year Christmas will be an empty experience for us. Like most families, once you have your first child Christmas takes on a new meaning. The run-up to Christmas day is frantic, getting all the presents in and watching your children's faces light up when they open their presents.

"Since our eldest son, Owen, was born we, like most families, have developed our own little routines over the years. We'd buy the kids new pyjamas to be worn on Christmas Eve. Rhys loved Christmas ... but the loss of Rhys has left a huge, empty void that can never be filled. And our lives, not just Christmas, will never be the same."

Rhys's father, who would take his sons to Goodison to watch Everton play on Boxing Day, yesterday released a poem that he wrote in memory of his youngest son.

Father's tribute

A Mother Holds Her Baby by Stephen Jones

Quietly she holds him, cradled in her

arms

Rocking oh so gently, protecting him

from harm

Her tears are flowing freely, off her

cheeks they race

Always heading downwards, then

dripping from her face

A mother holds her baby, as close as

close can be

And as his eyes stare skyward there's

only her to see

Now fast forward eleven years, the

scene is much the same

A mother holds her baby whispering his

name

Ruffling his matted hair, his face covered

in blood

Telling him to stay with her and

wrapping him in love

But the child will never answer, forever

to stay young

Dying on a car park, it's not where he

belongs

A mother holds her baby, her child her

world, her son

His life has been robbed from him, she

can't believe he's gone

One last hug, one last caress to his

cheek, a simple kiss

To thank that little boy for eleven years

of bliss

    Rhys Jones's family renew plea to catch killer, G, 15.12.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2227955,00.html

Melanie McDonagh:

The David Southall I know

is not the man the GMC condemns

The case of the struck-off doctor may deter others
from speaking out about parental violence

Published: 09 December 2007
The Independent on Sunday

There is no more contentious issue than the possibility that mothers wilfully harm their children, and there is no more contentious figure among the doctors who specialise in this area than Professor David Southall. Last week, he was struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC). The chairman of the panel, Dr Jacqueline Mitton, told him: "You have deep-seated attitudinal problems and your conduct is so serious that it is fundamentally incompatible with your continuing to be a medical practitioner."

The case she had in mind was of Mandy Morris, a mother whose son Lee died hanging from a curtain rail. According to Mandy Morris, Southall had wrongly accused her of drugging and killing Lee. Almost as shocking was the case that caused the GMC to ban Southall from engaging in child protection work. That was after he became involved in the case of Sally Clark, wrongly imprisoned for killing two of her children. Southall had watched a Dispatches programme in which her husband Steve described one child bleeding from both nostrils, and called the police to express his opinion that the children's father might have been responsible. To many, this appeared to put this distinguished paediatrician on much the same level as the pundits who watch programmes about Madeleine McCann and then turn to each other and exclaim, "It was the father!"

Two days later, Janet Alexander, mother of a boy who had been made a ward of court as a result of Southall's intervention, and who, she said, had been damaged by research the professor conducted on him, declared on the Today programme: "David Southall was using our son for research purposes." He is, she said, "a very dangerous doctor".

Another allegation, which the GMC did take seriously, was that Southall had taken children's records from their medical files – 4,500 of them – for his own purposes. Nonetheless, 38 senior paediatricians last week complained in The Guardian about Southall's punishment. There was, they said, a conspiracy "to deny the existence and reality of child abuse in all its forms". Some of them had worked with Southall. So, indeed, did my husband, several years ago, for his international children's charity. All of them say the same thing: that he really does care passionately about children.

But paediatricians are also worried that the GMC's treatment of Southall could affect them all. And not just because the panel that condemned him included three lay people and an orthopaedic surgeon – no one with any experience in child abuse.

In the case of Mandy Morris, Southall denies that he accused her of murdering her son. He was putting different scenarios to her to try to establish the truth. One of them was the possibility that she had brought about her son's death. The GMC accepted the mother's version. But the professor had brought along to this fraught interview a senior social worker who took notes, and who testified that he had behaved in an "exemplary way". So, the GMC discounted the evidence of two professionals in favour of that of a mother, testifying from memory.

As one paediatrician said: "What's the point of taking notes if they're disregarded in favour of an angry mother relying on her memory?" Margaret Crawford, another paediatrian asked: "Where does this leave us? What kind of witness do we need?" Crawford was herself a prospective witness in the case, on the question of whether Southall had wrongly appropriated children's notes from their files for his own private use. She read the evidence and thinks the charge is a result of the GMC's failure to understand that what seemed like aberrant behaviour is actually quite common practice.

"We all kept child protection records in a separate file," she said. "It's done all over the country. He didn't hide records." Paediatricians are still reluctant to keep sensitive child protection papers – solicitors' letters for instance – among ordinary medical records that do the rounds of hospital wards. Another colleague, Dr Martin Samuel, who worked with Southall for more than 20 years, explains that of the 4,500-odd files, almost all related to his work on breathing problems, which were entirely uncontentious. "The documents were not kept outside the hospital," he said. On the subject of Southall's research work on breathing – in which Janet Alexander said he harmed her son – Samuel is emphatic that he would never have harmed a child. "Any research was done with consent," he said.

There have been about 20 complaints about this research, suggesting that Southall deprived children of oxygen or administered carbon dioxide to them. But those involved explain that what he did – with the approval of his hospital's ethics committee – was give children the same levels of oxygen they would breathe on a plane, and that he never administered carbon dioxide. Remarkably, the police investigation into the allegations has still not been concluded after 10 years. So far as Janet Alexander's accusations against Southall are concerned, they were dismissed by the GMC.

So what about the serious allegation that he impulsively accused Sally Clark's husband of murder? The GMC says that he did not make clear, throughout his involvement in the case, that all he had to go on was the Dispatches programme. This is not true. In the first place, the bleeding from both nostrils described by Steve Clark, is a symptom that alarms most experts. Chris Hobbs, a paediatrics professor at Leeds, says that many doctors do not realise that nosebleed in babies very often has sinister implications. Now a research paper from Edinburgh by Neil McIntosh, professor of child health, which looked at a large database, has confirmed that.

And by the time Southall came to write a report on his concerns, he had spoken to expert witnesses and to the police, and sat in on a strategy meeting on the case. Certainly, he didn't have access to medical records. But this was because another doctor involved, who had already said that the Clarks' remaining child was safe with their father, had denied Southall access to them.

Southall rouses strong passions, both ways. But it would be a grim irony if the way his career has been concluded means that people who should be protecting children from abuse now feel too intimidated to do so.

    Melanie McDonagh: The David Southall I know is not the man the GMC condemns, IoS, 9.12.2007, http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3236067.ece

The Ipswich murders, 12 months on:

'It still does my head right in'

A year ago, Jo heard her best friend had been found dead. Now off the streets, she tells Cole Moreton why life for sex workers is more dangerous than ever

Published: 09 December 2007
The Independent on Sunday

A year ago Jo was selling herself for sex on the streets of Ipswich while her friends and fellow prostitutes were being murdered. "They found my best mate Annette's body on the Tuesday," she says. "It still does my head right in."

Annette Nicholls was discovered in wasteland near a road on 12 December 2006, and identified three days later. She was the last of five women killed in the Suffolk town just before Christmas. Until then Jo – not her real name – had carried on working the streets, despite knowing that the serial killer everyone was talking about was likely to be one of the men who paid her £40 a time for sex in their cars.

She needed five times that amount of cash a day for drugs. "I was a big mess," she says. "I was on crack cocaine. I was on heroin. I weighed seven and a half stone. I was living in toilets in the town centre. I was used to getting attacked and beaten up. You just don't care, you get up and do it again, because you need the money."

Jo doesn't do it any more. One year on, neither do all but one of the 28 women who worked the Ipswich red light area before the killings. "You won't see any girls in short skirts down there unless they're going to a night club," says Jo, 31, and she's right.

The Ipswich police have cracked down on kerb crawers, arresting more than 120 men in 2007. The only cars that move slowly are unmarked patrols. CCTV is watching. London Road is now weirdly quiet at night, although residents dread the return of the outside broadcast vans when their neighbour Steven Wright goes on trial for the murders in January.

Jo has changed as dramatically as the old red light area, thanks largely to a drugs charity that helped almost every woman on the streets get counselling, treatment for addiction, a place to stay, help with debts and even food as they struggled to live without their former earnings. The story she has to tell – in this, the only interview given by any of the women to mark the anniversary – is brutal, but may just have a happy ending.

Outside Ipswich, though, things have actually got worse for women like Jo. Astonishingly, those who know the trade say it is now more dangerous to be a street prostitute than it was before the killings happened.

The zero-tolerance approach has been copied across the country, but often without the accompanying care for the women. The need to do a deal quickly and go to more isolated places is putting them at risk, says Rosie Campbell of the UK Network of Sex Work Projects. "All the safety basics go out the window if you haven't got time to suss out if the man is safe."

It is hard for the police to carry out "the dual role of arresting clients and protecting women", she says. And it is going to get worse, believe other campaigners who say the Criminal Justice Bill now going through Parliament is a "repressive response" to the murders. Sex workers will be criminalised by the threat of jail if they do not attend a series of meetings with a counsellor, says Cari Mitchell of the English Collective of Prostitutes. "How can [they] be expected to attend rehabilitation meetings when no resources are being made available to address practical needs?"

But those things have all been available in Ipswich since it fell under the world's gaze. That was one reason the women did not just move on to neighbouring towns to ply their trade, although Jo is outraged by the suggestion. "Our mates have died and we'd do that? No! It's not like that. We have got feelings. We are people."

Instead they stayed and were helped by a local charity called the Iceni Project, which has a drop-in treatment centre by the river. "Without Iceni," says Jo, "I would be fucked. I would still be out there. So would everyone else."

She was taken to the centre by a police liaison officer earlier this year, instead of being arrested. Jo stopped selling sex in spring when she was given a prescription for methadone. "This place has been around for ages," she says, "They don't judge you. But it took something like the murders to shock me into coming here."

Acupuncture helped with the "twitches and pains" of coming off crack and heroin. Jo looks drained and still makes nervy, jerky movements when trying to sit still, but walking down the street in embroidered jeans and black top she just blends in with the crowd. Counselling was vital because "my head was a bit twisted with what happened to Annette. I haven't let it all out properly yet. I'm still in shock."

She became addicted to drugs as a teenager in the north-west of England, and couldn't ask her family for help. "My mum's dying of cancer. My brothers are all smackheads and dealers and idiots. My dad's an idiot as well."

Then she drops a bombshell. "All my children have been adopted and I don't know where they've gone." Jo was 17 when the first of three girls was born. All were taken away from her. "Then I had twins. They died. Still-born. The hospital said it was because I just came off drugs straight away when I found out I was pregnant."

A month after losing the twins she was back "on the beat" (another woman had a caesarian on a Thursday and sex with punters the next Saturday). Jo moved to Ipswich, her boyfriend's home town, to escape addiction but that went quickly wrong. "The first thing he did when we arrived was find a smackhead and score. He came up with prostitution as a way to make money," she says. "He beat me up if I wouldn't do it. When we split up I carried on, because I was hooked on drugs."

She worked hard. "People think because they see The Secret Life of a Call Girl on the telly that it's all glamorous like that. Is it fuck! I was standing out there for hours, freezing my tits off. No Jag pulled up to me and gave me a wad of money, or took me off to spend the night in a glamorous hotel with bubbles and Richard Gere." She laughs, bitterly. "A clapped-out Skoda stinking of fags. A greasy, horrible man with black teeth and smile that makes you think, 'Oh my God!' That's about as glamorous as it gets. The nicest car I ever got in was a police car."

We can't talk about what happened last year, for legal reasons. But she says: "Whatever anyone says, you can't tell who's a killer. He hasn't got it tattooed on his forehead."

Jo now has her own housing agency flat in another town, "so I don't just go and score if I feel down". She lives on £50 a week income support, when court fines have been taken off. After bills, that leaves £20 for food. "I'm on a diet," she says grimly. The electronic tag she got for drink driving hurts her ankle. But she says: "I feel a lot better now. Cleaner. I feel good about myself."

Jo still has a long way to go. But when she leaves, Brian Tobin, the project director says: "These women have suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse and need a total life overhaul, but they deserve so much credit for fighting so hard to change. They're not out of the woods, but what has happened so far is amazing."

    The Ipswich murders, 12 months on: 'It still does my head right in', IoS, 9.12.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article3236146.ece

2pm GMT

Sixth death heightens concern

about village suicides

Monday November 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Claire Truscott and agencies

A coroner has expressed concern after the body of a sixth man who is thought to have killed himself was found in the Staffordshire village of Gnosall.

Terry Ball, 35, a carpenter, is believed to have hanged himself at his home in the village at the weekend.

He takes to six the number of suspected suicides in Gnosall, which has a population of only 4,000, in the past year.

Ball lived with his wife in the same street as Peter Forrester, a lorry driver who committed suicide with an overdose seven months ago.

Detective Sergeant Chris White of Staffordshire police said: "Officers attended a home on Audmore Road, Gnosall, at 8am on Saturday November 24.

"A 35-year-old man, Terry Ball, was officially pronounced dead at the scene.

"It is not believed there are any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death."

The six deaths are not thought to be linked and have been investigated separately.

Last December, Craig Parsons, 40, a postman, was found hanged after leaving three suicide notes showing he was not coping.

Four months later, a 35-year-old widower, Peter Forrester, died after overdosing on his deceased wife's heart medication. His brother, John, said of Gnosall, a rural settlement made up of small cobbled streets and Tudor cottages: "Some people say the place is cursed, but I don't think so. I'm sure things will get better."

A third resident, Nigel Buckley-Robins, 50, died of an overdose of pethidine - a painkiller - and alcohol in April.

He had a history of violence brought on by alcohol abuse and battled depression.

The coroner said at the inquest: "Alcohol was his downfall and I am satisfied he intended to kill himself."

The Staffordshire South coroner, Andrew Haigh, recorded a verdict of suicide in all three deaths.

Later this year, Jessica Littleton, 17, was found hanged, and an open verdict recorded by the coroner.

In August, Ian Gould, 75, was also found hanged. He is said never to have recovered from the death of his wife. The coroner has not yet recorded a verdict.

Haigh said: "I am concerned why there have been so many fatalities of this kind in such a small village."

An official cause of death for Ball has not been established, the coroner's office said.

One villager, Doreen Sheldrake, 63, said the area needed spiritual leadership. "We need someone who people with problems can talk to. We've not had a vicar for about two years but a new one is due to arrive shortly. Hopefully he can provide some spiritual leadership."

A special church service was convened three weeks ago to support people affected by the earlier deaths.

Jim McGregor, a warden, said: "We invited all the people in the village who had lost someone to attend. As well as reading out their names a candle was lit, hymns were sung and prayers read out. The deaths have been a shock to everyone."

Beer-mats advertising the Samaritans helpline have been placed in the village's pubs.

A new health centre was finished last year in Gnosall to provide services for the rapidly expanding population in the large village, located between Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent and Telford in the Midlands.

The first reference to Gnosall, situated on the banks of the Shropshire union canal, is in the Domesday Book where it was called Geneshale.

    Sixth death heightens concern about village suicides, G, 26.11.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2217307,00.html

Second body found

at Peter Tobin home in Margate

November 16, 2007
From Times Online
Philippe Naughton and agencies

The father of the missing teenager Dinah McNicol said today that he would be "absolutely elated" if remains found at a house in Margate today turned out to be hers.

Forensic specialists searching the former home of Peter Tobin found a second body five days after finding the remains of Vicky Hamilton, who went missing in Bathgate, West Lothian, in February 1991.

The operation is being led by Essex Police investigating the disappearance of Miss McNicol, who was from Tillingham, Essex, but vanished 16 years ago, aged 18, after attending a music festival in Hampshire.

An Essex Police spokeswoman said: "Further human remains have been discovered and a post-mortem examination is being carried out later today. The McNicol family has been informed but there is no indication at this time that the body is hers."

But Dinah’s father, Ian McNicol, 68, said: "I have had a call from the police and they seem to think they might have found Dinah. I will be absolutely elated if they have. It will mean we will be able to grieve as a family.

"It has been long wait. I always said I wanted to know what happened to my daughter before I died and hopefully I will now. I don’t know how the police ended up going to that house in the first place. It’s a fantastic bit of police work if they have found her."

Today's discovery came after police resumed their painstaking search of Mr Tobin’s former home in Irvine Drive.

Around two-thirds of the groundwork had already been completed and today the patio was being lifted and the ground underneath excavated. Areas of concrete floor inside the house were also being drilled and any abnormalities or other areas shown up by radar were being examined, a spokeswoman said.

Mr Tobin, 61, appeared in court yesterday to be formally charged with the murder of Ms Hamilton, who disappeared close to where he was living at the time. Vicky’s father, Michael Hamilton, walked in front of the prison van carrying Tobin to Linlithgow Sheriff Court, while bystanders shouted abuse. He had to be restrained after Mr Tobin left court.

Mr Hamilton’s daughter was last seen alive in February 1991, eating a bag of chips at a bus stop in Bathgate while waiting for a bus to take her to her home in Redding, near Falkirk in Scotland.

Miss McNicol disappeared in 1991 after hitchhiking home with a man she met at a music festival in Liphook. He was dropped off at Junction 8 of the M25 near Reigate, and she stayed in the car with the driver. She was never seen again.

Police said it was "impossible to say" if there were more bodies to be found in Mr Tobin’s former home. They promised to continue their search, whether or not the second set of remains are Dinah’s.

"Even if there are no other human remains here, we have still got forensic work to do," a police spokeswoman said. "If Dinah is here, it’s a crime scene. We’ve still got a lot more work to do in that house."

    Second body found at Peter Tobin home in Margate, Ts, 16.11.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2884222.ece

9.15am GMT

Student killed in Liverpool street attack

Thursday November 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Press Association

A student has died after suffering multiple injuries in a street attack, police said today.

The 24-year-old victim, who is from north Wales, had been having a night out in Liverpool city centre when he became involved in a row and was assaulted.

An ambulance was called and he was taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital where he died of his injuries.

Detectives said the victim, who has not been named, may have known his killer.

A spokeswoman for Merseyside Police said: "The student had spent the evening with friends at the Medication Club in Wolstenholme Square.

"After leaving the venue he became involved in an argument while walking through a tunnel at nearby Turnage Road.

"Police were alerted by ambulance crews who had been called to the scene after the victim was assaulted.

"A postmortem will take place to establish the cause of death.

"We have also increased patrols in the area."

The scene of the attack remained sealed off this morning as forensic examinations continued.

Uniformed officers were visiting local businesses asking for any possible CCTV footage.

Police have appealed for witnesses.

    Student killed in Liverpool street attack, G, 15.11.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2211318,00.html

Police search house for second body

after girl's remains found

· Man was charged in July with murder of 15-year-old
· Hunt for missing Dinah McNicol goes on

Thursday November 15, 2007
Guardian
Esther Addley


Police are searching a house in Kent for a second body, after it emerged that the remains discovered there on Monday are not those of the missing 18-year-old Dinah McNicol but of another teenager who disappeared 16 years ago.

Detectives confirmed yesterday that the body uncovered at the house in Irvine Drive, Margate, is that of Vicky Hamilton, 15, who was last seen in February 1991 close to her home in Bathgate, West Lothian. The remains were found buried in a pit in the back garden.

A 60-year-old man, Peter Tobin, was charged in July with Hamilton's murder. Tobin was living at the address in Irvine Drive for part of 1991. He will appear today in private at Linlithgow sheriff court.

The house had initially been searched by officers from Essex police investigating the disappearance of McNicol, who vanished six months later, after they received information directing them to the property.

Yesterday the officer leading that investigation said he still believed her body might be buried there.

"We had reasons to come here. Those reasons still exist," said Detective Superintendent Tim Wills. "We came here for Dinah. And we haven't yet finished.

"There is a chance that she is here. In fairness to the family we need to fully answer the question as to whether she was here at any time."

Forensics officers were continuing to search the garden and to lift the floorboards inside the house yesterday. "I will not leave the house until I am satisfied that there is not any other human remains at this site," Wills said.

"Once we have completed work at ground level, a deep search and forensic examination of the fabric of the house will begin. This is a process that could take a number of days."

Asked about whether other bodies might be buried there he said: "I am here to search for Dinah and I have no reason at this stage to think there might be other bodies at the site."

Hamilton's disappearance led to Scotland's biggest missing person investigation, in which 7,000 people were interviewed and 4,000 witness statements taken. The case was reopened in November as a murder investigation.

Her father, Michael Hamilton, was informed of the discovery yesterday, but was unavailable for comment. Speaking in July, he said: "I have felt for a long time that [Vicky] was lying in some grave where she should not be.

"There was a time I thought Vicky had been forgotten. But I know the police were working hard to solve Vicky's case."

Dinah McNicol's father, Ian, said he was upset that the body was not that of his daughter, but that he still believed she might be buried at the house.

"My family hoped it was Dinah so we could put her to rest and go through our grieving process but obviously we can't now. But it's not finished, they are looking to see if there's more bodies there.

"They are going to wrap up the house and garden and tear it half down because they think there might be other bodies there."

The jazz musician and father of six said he had been told by police that his daughter's cash card had been used in Margate after she disappeared, leading them to believe she may have been at the house.

McNicol disappeared while hitchhiking home from a music festival in August 1991, after accepting a lift from a man who has never been traced.

Her father offered his condolences to Hamilton's family, saying: "I really feel for the poor girl's family but at least now they can grieve.

"I know what it's been like for them, waiting for news. In some ways I wish it was my daughter because at least they will be able to grieve now and bury her, but I feel so sorry for them too.

"I want to be able to grieve for Dinah, to be able to bury her or cremate her properly and go through the normal grieving process. Her being missing is worse, 10 times worse.

"I'm 68 now and I haven't got long left, because of this. I desperately want to lay Dinah to rest before my time comes."

    Police search house for second body after girl's remains found, G, 15.11.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2211089,00.html

3.30pm GMT update

Garden body

is missing Scottish teenager

Wednesday November 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke, Esther Addley and agencies

The body of the missing schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton has been found by police searching the garden of a house in Kent, it was confirmed today.

Police said the remains, discovered in the garden of the three-bedroom terrace house in Margate on Monday, belonged to Vicky, from Redding, near Falkirk, who went missing 16 years ago when she was 15.

They were found during a police search for another teenager, Dinah McNicol, from Essex, who also went missing 16 years ago.

A Lothian and Borders police spokesman said today: "We can confirm that the body found in the house in Margate, Kent, on November 12 is that of Vicky Hamilton.

"A man has been arrested in July 2007 and charged in connection with the disappearance of Vicky Hamilton, and a report submitted to the procurator fiscal."

The man cannot be named for legal reasons. The remains were uncovered by forensic archaeologists from Essex police.

Detectives said a second body belonging to 18-year-old Dinah McNicol could still be at the property in Margate.

Detective Superintendent Tim Wills, of Essex Police, told a press conference: "We had reasons to come here. Those reasons still exist. We came here for Dinah. And we haven't yet finished.

"There is a chance that she is here. In fairness to the family we need to fully answer the question as to whether she was here at any time."

Earlier Wills confirmed to Sky News that inquiries into "previous occupants" of the property were a "line of investigation".

Essex police said last week that the McNicol case would be re-examined following a review by its Serious Crime Review Team. A spokeswoman said that detectives had received information that led them to the house in Irvine Drive, Margate.

Officers have been keen to stress that the family who have lived there for the last 12 years "categorically have no involvement in this investigation". They have been moved to temporary accommodation while the property is searched.

McNicol disappeared in August 1991 on the way home from a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire. She was last seen by a male friend with whom she was hitchhiking.

Detectives believe the pair were picked up on the A3 by a man in a car, who dropped her friend off at junction 8 of the M25 near Reigate, Surrey. Neither the man nor the car have been traced.

Around this time, £500 was drawn from McNicol's account at cash machines in Sussex and Hampshire, officers said. She had saved around £2,000 to go travelling, after which she was planning to go to university.

The missing woman's father, Ian, 68, would not comment yesterday. "He's in bed, he's finding this very difficult," a friend said, speaking from his home in Tillingham.

Previously he had welcomed the search, saying: "There is 99% of me which thinks she's dead, but until the police can produce a body or find anything there is 1% of me that is still hopeful that she is alive.

"I am very pleased about the new investigation. Having someone go missing is worse than someone dying. I lost my wife in a car accident in 1980. I went through hell but got over it. With Dinah, I can't get over it because I don't know what happened.

"I want to die in peace knowing what happened to my daughter."

Detectives released a new photograph of the woman yesterday, taken at her grandmother's Lincolnshire home shortly before she left for the music festival. Wills said the picture could prove important as it showed "the vibrant bubbly girl her family describe".

"The photo publicised for the last 16 years shows Dinah sporting a striking gothic image in a formal pose," he said. "This image shows a distinctly different and more relaxed looking young woman and it may be enough to trigger someone's memory.

At the time when she disappeared McNicol wore her dark hair in plaits or dreadlocks, or covered in a headscarf, the officer said. She also wore black Dr Martens-style boots and carried a green drawstring bag.

    Garden body is missing Scottish teenager, G, 14.11.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2210844,00.html

3pm GMT

Murder hunt

after Omagh blaze kills family

Wednesday November 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Weaver and agencies

Police investigating a house fire in which seven members of one family died launched a murder investigation today after discovering petrol in the building.

Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter would not confirm who he believed was behind the attack in Omagh, Northern Ireland, which killed a mother and father and five children yesterday morning.

"This is a crime scene and we have commenced a murder investigation," he said.

"This is one of the most tragic and devastating murder investigations the PSNI has had to encounter with the loss of so many young lives."

A team of 30 detectives and support staff had been appointed, he said.

"Our initial forensic examination of the home has established that there was a significant quantity of accelerant discovered in the property."

The house in Omagh, Co Tyrone, was left a blackened shell and the roof destroyed during the fierce fire, from which none of the inhabitants are believed to have escaped.

Arthur McElhill and Lorraine McGovern died with their five children in the blaze, which neighbours reported at around 4.55am yesterday.

Neighbours reported hearing a row outside the home.

The oldest child to have died was believed to have been 13; the youngest was only months old.

Two of the children attended the nearby St Conor's primary school, which closed yesterday because of the tragedy.

    Murder hunt after Omagh blaze kills family, G, 14.11.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2210931,00.html

2.45pm GMT update

Boy arrested

over Merseyside bonfire death

Tuesday November 6, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Press Association

A 13-year-old boy was arrested today after the body of a man was found in the dying embers of a bonfire.

The victim, who has not been identified, had suffered head injuries and severe burns. He was found by a member of the public in Wirral, Merseyside, in the early hours of today.

Police said the 13-year-old boy was taken to a police station in Merseyside to be questioned about the death.

A Merseyside police spokeswoman said the body was found in the embers of a bonfire on grassland at the junction of Borough Road and Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead.

She said officers want to speak to people who were in the area between midnight and 1am, when the body was found. "Emergency services were called to the scene at around 1am when a man's body was found with head injuries and having suffered burns," she said.

"He was found in the embers of bonfire which had been built earlier in the evening. We have not yet established the chain of events leading to this man's death and to do so would be speculation.

"A post-mortem will be carried out to establish a cause of death and inquires are under way to identify the man. We are appealing for witnesses." Anyone with information should call Birkenhead CID on 0151 709 6010 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Boy arrested over Merseyside bonfire death, G, 6.11.2007,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2206186,00.html