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Hacker loses extradition appeal

July 31st, 2009 | No Comments

Gary McKinnon

The long-running case of computer hacker Gary McKinnon could finally be settled later at the High Court.

Authorities in the US are seeking his extradition to face trial for breaking into American military computers.

Mr McKinnon admits hacking, but denies it was malicious or that he caused damage costing $800,000 (£550,000).

The 43-year-old, from north London, is challenging refusals by the home secretary and director of public prosecutions to try him in the UK.

Mr McKinnon faces up to 70 years in prison if he is convicted in the US of what prosecutors have called "the biggest military computer hack of all time".

In total, he accessed 97 government computers belonging to organisations including the US Navy and Nasa.

He has always insisted he was looking for classified documents on UFOs which he believed the US authorities had suppressed.

Asperger’s Syndrome

In February, the Crown Prosecution Service refused to bring charges against Mr McKinnon in the UK.

The decision followed a ruling last October by then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to allow his extradition.

Mr McKinnon has already appealed unsuccessfully to the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights and his latest judicial reviews in the High Court are likely to be his last chance.

His lawyers say the authorities have not given proper consideration to his Asperger’s Syndrome, which could have "disastrous consequences," including suicide, if he was to be extradited.

They argue he is "eccentric" rather than malicious and should be tried on lesser charges in the UK to protect his mental health.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Hacker’s ‘moral crusade’ over UFO

July 28th, 2009 | No Comments

Gary McKinnon

A Briton fighting extradition to the US for hacking into top-secret computers claims he was morally justified in breaking the law.

Gary McKinnon, 43, from Wood Green, north London, admits hacking into 97 US government computers, including Nasa’s and Pentagon’s, during 2001 and 2002.

He told the BBC he was on a "moral crusade" to prove US intelligence had found an alien craft run on clean fuel.

Results of judicial reviews into Mr McKinnon’s case are due on Friday.

They focus on whether Mr McKinnon should have been allowed to face trial in the UK and whether the decision to extradite him should have been reconsidered in light of his diagnosis as having Asperger’s Syndrome last year.

His lawyers say he is "eccentric" rather than malicious and that he should be tried on lesser charges in the UK to protect his mental health.

"It is actually a completely unbalanced extradition treaty"

Gary McKinnon

Mr McKinnon is accused of hacking into the computers with the intention of intimidating the US government.

His legal team fear he could be treated as a terrorist and face up to 70 years in jail.

The US government says his actions caused damage costing $800,000 (£500,000) at a time of heightened security in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Mr McKinnon told BBC Radio 5 live’s Victoria Derbyshire show: "I’m not blind to criminality but I was on a moral crusade at the time.

"There was good evidence to show that certain secretive parts of the American government intelligence agencies did have access to crashed extra terrestrial technology which could… save us as a form of free, clean, pollution-free energy.

"I thought if someone was holding on to that, that was actually unconstitutional under American law."

‘Two-way street’

Mr McKinnon also criticised arrangements between the two countries that meant the US only had to prove "reasonable suspicion" to force extradition of a British citizen.

To extradite an American from the US, the British must prove "probable cause".

"It is actually a completely unbalanced extradition treaty. It should be a two-way street," said Mr McKinnon.

Earlier this month, the Conservatives failed in a bid to force a review of the law when their Commons motion was defeated by 54 votes.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson told them the 2003 treaty had simplified extradition procedures while safeguarding defendants’ rights.

The burden of evidence required on each side is "essentially" the same, he added.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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New swine flu cases double in a week

July 24th, 2009 | No Comments

About 100,000 people caught swine flu in England last week, the chief medical officer revealed today, as the government’s online diagnosis service crashed within minutes of launch when thousands of people tried to log on at the same time.

The rapid spread of the virus was confirmed as the National Pandemic Flu Service – dispensing advice and anti-viral prescriptions over the telephone and online – went live to relieve pressure on GPs.

The world’s first government-run swine flu diagnosis website could not cope with the volume of traffic when it opened for business at 3pm today. Designed to handle 1,200 hits a second, the service was suspended just four minutes later when 2,600 people tried to access it every second.

The service’s inauspicious launch came as new official figures on consultation rates with GPs showed that:

• the infection has spread broadly across the country from the hotspots where it was initially concentrated;

• under-14s are the most affected;

• 840 patients in England are receiving hospital treatment for illnesses associated with the H1N1 virus, of whom 63 are in intensive care. Comparable figures for the previous week were: 652 in hospital and 53 in intensive care.

In another development, a pregnant woman critically ill with swine flu was transferred to Sweden for specialised treatment after suffering a rare complication.

The 26-year-old Scot was flown out because all five beds were occupied at the national unit in Leicester that provides the highly specialised procedure known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which involves circulating the patient’s blood outside the body and adding oxygen to it artificially.

Nationally, the Department of Health said there were hopeful signs, producing a revised death rate that showed lower than anticipated fatalities and suggesting there could be a lull in infections over the summer.

Following a rigorous investigation of reported fatalities, Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, said there had been 26 “provisionally validated” swine flu deaths in England since the beginning of the outbreak. Combined with four deaths reported in Scotland, the UK total stood at 30.

Unlike normal seasonal flu, which is a threat primarily to the pneumonia-prone elderly, the H1N1 virus appears to affect the young more severely. Of those who have died in England, a third were under the age of 15 while only 17% of fatalities have been among pensioners.

Within the same sample of 26 deaths, two-thirds of the victims had what were described as pre-existing “severe conditions” such as leukaemia, and only 16% were described as fully “healthy”.

The infection rate has almost doubled from an estimated 55,000 new cases in the previous week to 100,000 fresh cases. A slight dip in daily consultation rates with GPs within the last few days has given some health officials hope that the first wave of infections may have peaked in Britain, Donaldson said. “You will see a suggestion of a downturn but I don’t think you can read too much into it at this stage,” he added.

A scenario anticipated by Department of Health officials and those from other departments who meet regularly in the Cabinet Office’s emergency planning committee, Cobra, is for a slowdown in the infection rate during the summer when schools are closed. The outbreak may pick up pace again in the autumn.

Donaldson said there was no evidence of the virus becoming more virulent and stressed that for most people it would be relatively mild. He denied there was a danger of a shortage of respirators for children in intensive care beds. “We can expand capacity somewhat in the event of an emergency by cancelling some routine operations,” he added.

The fact that rates of influenza-like illness are running at a far higher level than those normally observed during high summer remains a puzzle for scientists. In previously severe outbreaks activity dipped.

“This level in July and August is highly unusual,” Donaldson said.

Tower Hamlets in east London continues to be the primary care trust with the highest number of GP consultations for people with flu-like illness. It is seeing 792 consultations for every 100,000 people, followed by Islington in north London with 488 consultations for every 100,000 people.

Other parts of England that are severly affected include Greenwich, south-east London, Leicester, and Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire. In Wales, 3,075 people contacted their GPs in the past week with symptoms of the H1N1 virus.

Swine flu infection rates in Scotland appear to have reached record levels, with the virus spreading uniformly across the country, despite hopes the outbreak may have peaked.

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Lily Allen ‘dating London painter’

July 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

Lily Allen seems to have a thing for painters, for the singer, after breaking up with multi-millionaire art dealer previously, is now dating a painter in north London, according to reports.
The 24-year-old was said to have found love in decorator Sam Cooper with no showbiz connections, an apparent preference for the star.
“Lil is tired [...]

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Harry Potter actor escapes jail term for growing cannabis in bedroom

July 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Harry Potter actor Jamie Waylett has escaped jail term for growing cannabis in his bedroom.
City of Westminster Magistrates Court has sentenced him to 120 hours of unpaid community work, reports the Daily Express.
Waylett, who plays Hogwarts school bully Vincent Crabbe, was arrested under anti-terror laws after he took a photo of a police patrol near [...]

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UK medical tests on animals rise 14%

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments

Animal rights campaigners round on government as expansion in biomedical research triggers ‘biggest increase’ in medical tests

The number of medical experiments involving animals has shown its largest rise since modern records began, the latest government figures reveal.

Nearly 3.7m experiments were performed on animals last year, a rise of 454,000 or 14% on the previous year, the Home Office said. The increase marks the greatest leap in animal use in medical research since 1986, when the government introduced new auditing procedures.

The growth in animal experiments reflects an expansion in biomedical research in Britain and is driven by advances in genetics and the development of new drugs that must be tested rigorously in monkeys before they are allowed to be given to humans. The experiments range from small procedures such as taking blood and tissue samples to invasive brain surgery and inducing incurable diseases such as Parkinson’s and cancer. Substantial numbers of animals are used to test the safety of new drugs before they are allowed to be used in human trials.

Animal rights campaigners deplored the latest rise, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of landmark proposals to find alternatives to animals in medical research.

Judy MacArthur Clark, chief inspector of the Home Office animals scientific procedures inspectorate, said the rise reflected an increase in “ethically justified research” in Britain. “If the research is ethically justified and has funding, it’s not our role to say you can’t do it, we’ve used too many mice this year,” she said.

More experiments on rodents and fish account for the vast majority of the rise and make up 97% of all experiments on animals. Of 197,000 more experiments on mice last year, most involve breeding genetically modified rodents to help scientists understand the role of individual genes in development and disease.

The figures reveal large falls in experiments on rats, domestic fowl, guinea pigs, rabbits and beagles, which together decreased by more than 40,000.

Britain has a longstanding policy that bans the use of great apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas in medical research, but the use of macaques and marmosets rose by more than 600 experiments, up 16%. This masks a reduction of more than half in experiments on marmosets and other new world primates, but the use of old world macaques in 1,000 more experiments, a 33% rise. Macaques have similar immune systems and physiology to humans and are increasingly being used to test advanced antibody-based drugs that target diseases with far more precision than older drugs.

Testing in monkeys has become more extensive after the disastrous clinical trial of an antibody drug at Northwick Park hospital in north London in 2006. The drug, which had been tested in primates, triggered a catastrophic immune reaction in the six trial participants which led to widespread organ failure.

Home Office inspectors investigated 45 cases where scientists had infringed their licences to do animal research. The most minor cases involved poor record keeping and retaining animals after licences had expired. Of the more serious cases, the worst occurred when mice in one study unexpectedly developed gangrene in their legs, causing greater suffering than the licence permitted. Two researchers involved in the study surrendered their licence before the inspectors’ investigation was completed.

The figures were met with dismay by animal rights campaigners who rounded on the government and called for a concerted effort to reduce the number of animals used in medical research.

“With the scientific expertise this country has to offer we should have seen far greater progress to replace animals with more advanced techniques,” said Dr Sebastien Farnaud of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research. The organisation called on political parties to agree to a “roadmap to replacement” to drive the use of animals in research down.

The animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said it was “profoundly disappointed” at the statistics and called on the government to be open about the fate of every animal used in experiments. “We have seen increases year on year in contradiction to public sentiment, but the numbers in this year’s statistics are shocking by any standards,” a spokesperson said.

The science minister, Lord Drayson, defended the figures and said the government was committed to reducing the use of animals in research where possible. “Britain has a high reputation for its standards of regulating research which uses animals. This work, described in today’s report from the Home Office, is critical to the development of new medicines and increasing the level of understanding of diseases,” he said.

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Pot-growing Potter actor sentenced

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments

Actor who plays Vincent Crabbe admits keeping plants in his mother’s home after being stopped with his friend

A Harry Potter actor was ordered to do unpaid community work today after admitting growing cannabis.

Jamie Waylett, 20, who plays Vincent Crabbe in the films, admitted growing 10 plants at his mother’s home.

District judge Timothy Workman said the cannabis cultivation was on a small, but sophisticated scale. He ordered Waylett to undertake 120 hours of community service during a hearing at City of Westminster magistrates court.

Waylett and his friend John Innis, 20, were stopped under the Terrorism Act in St John’s Wood, north-west London, after the actor took a photograph of a police patrol as they drove past. Innis’s black Audi was searched and police discovered a butterfly lock-knife under the driver’s seat and eight small bags of herbal cannabis.

When the officers examined the mobile phone on which the shots had been taken they found images of cannabis plants which Waylett admitted were his. They then visited his mother’s house in Kilburn, north west London, and found 10 cannabis plants growing in a tent in his bedroom.

They found a further three bags of cannabis at a search of Innis’s home in Barnet, north London.

Waylett, of Kilburn, admitted production of cannabis at a hearing last week. Innis admitted possession of a knife and having 11 bags of cannabis. The judge sentenced Innis to six weeks’ custody in a young offenders’ institution, and fined him £500. He also ordered that all of the drugs and cultivation equipment be destroyed.

Cheryl Rudden, defending both men, said they were “extremely sorry and remorseful”.

After the hearing Waylett said: “I extend my sincere apologies to the producers, cast and crew and all at Warners, and most especially to all Harry Potter fans.”

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PM ‘speechless’ after McBride email

July 20th, 2009 | No Comments

Read our exclusive Damian McBride interview

Damian McBride, the senior No 10 adviser who resigned after smearing senior Tories, has revealed that Gordon Brown was so angry when he learned about the slurs that “he could barely even speak to me”.

Talking about the affair for the first time, McBride told the Guardian: “I was brought down by the newspapers, and obviously my own stupidity.”

McBride was forced to quit after details of emails he sent to the former Labour aide Derek Draper were leaked to the press.

They contained salacious gossip about frontbench Conservatives, including speculation about David Cameron’s health.

“I let [Downing Street] down appallingly,” he says. “No 10 should have stuck the boot into me much harder.”

Recounting the weekend that the story emerged, he said: “It was running on the news that there was this scandal brewing, but not with any details. So I rang [Brown] and told him what was in the emails and that I knew I’d have to resign.

“I lost my dad three years ago. He was from a religious Scottish upbringing, very stern, and he would have hated reading those emails. I remember thinking, ‘Thank God my dad didn’t have to see this’, but the way Gordon reacted to me that day, it was as bad as telling my dad.” Brown “was just so angry and just so let down he could barely even speak to me”.

The prime minister’s former official spokesman, who was removed from his day-to-day briefing of journalists at the end of last year, said he was “sorry for the damage I did to Gordon and the reputation of No 10. And I’m sorry for the offence I caused to various people by writing those emails about them.”

However, he added he could not apologise for the fact the emails were printed “because that had nothing to do with me, and I never wanted it to happen. As far as I was concerned, those emails went in the bin shortly after they were written … and that’s where they should have stayed”.

Speaking about the aftermath of the affair, he said: “That is the only period when I went through what you would classically call an element of depression or sleepless nights.

“You feel genuinely devastated because of the impact you’ve had.”

McBride also confirmed he has kept an account of the weeks following his resignation and did not rule out publishing the diary. He begins a job as business liaison officer at his old school, Finchley Catholic High, in north London in a week’s time.

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Kate Moss ‘gets vocal chord-friendly sauna installed in London pad’

July 18th, 2009 | No Comments

Kate Moss is reportedly having a Nordic spa installed in her north London home.
And it includes a state-of-the-art piece of kit which is gentle on the old pipes, according to reports.
Moss has taken delivery of a samarium, claim sources.
The stunning supermodel, who has lately been in news for all the wrong reasons, is a [...]

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Mother-of-six among latest flu deaths

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

A woman who gave birth prematurely and a baby were revealed to be among the latest victims of swine flu as the number of UK deaths from the infection rose sharply.

Ruptara Miah, 39, had used a wheelchair for 15 years after a road accident but had brought up six daughters, relatives said. A statement from Whipps Cross hospital in east London, where she died said: “She was infected with pandemic H1N1. The trust can confirm that she had underlying health conditions.”

Her brother, Abdul Malik said she was admitted to hospital three weeks ago with a cough and chest infection, but her condition worsened and she died without regaining full consciousness. Her son, who was born prematurely, is being treated in an intensive care unit.

The baby who died on July 8 was less than six months old and was being treated at the Royal Free hospital, north London, on 8 July. A 70-year-old man also died at the Royal London hospital on Tuesday and an adult, whose age has not been revealed, died at the city’s St Thomas’ hospital earlier in the month. All the victims, the NHS said, “had serious underlying health conditions”. Tests are also being carried out on a seven-year-old Kent schoolboy who died on Tuesday to see if he had the virus. He suffered from other complications.

Professor Hugh Pennington, a leading microbiologist, yesterday questioned the Department of Health’s projection that as many as 65,000 people could die in the UK from swine flu. Pennington, chairman of an official inquiry into the Scottish E-coli outbreak of 1996, said: “There are all sorts of imponderables, which mean these figures are meaningless.”

He said the attack rate of 30% projected by the DoH was unlikely and he would be “very surprised” if the number of deaths came anywhere close to 65,000. “It would be a fantastically effective virus if it was doing that,” he said. “I’m surprised at the Department of Health putting out these figures in the way they have. I can understand them saying to emergency planners you have to be prepared but why are they going public in what seems like panic mode?”

Doubts over the government’s assertion that a vaccine would be available by the end of next month also surfaced yesterday. The government has ordered 132m doses, sufficient for everyone in the country. “If there is severe disease, countries will want to hang onto the vaccine for their own citizens,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the centre for infectious diseases research and policy at the University of Minnesota. About 70% of the world’s existing flu vaccines are made in Europe. The UK has ordered vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and Baxter International , which have production plants in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.

“Pandemic vaccine will be a valuable and scarce resource, like oil or food during a famine,” said David Fidler, a professor of law at Indiana university who has consulted for the World Health Organisation.

“We’ve seen how countries behave in those situations, and it’s not encouraging.” The Department of Health insisted that its suppliers would honour their contracts.

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Swine flu may keep schools shut

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Uncertainty over spread of pandemic could keep pupils away for start of autumn term

Some schools in England could remain closed in September if the swine flu pandemic escalates over the summer, the government has admitted.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) said that, while it was expected schools and nurseries would open as usual at the start of the academic year, it could not be “certain what the situation will be” in the autumn.

Decisions on closures would be taken shortly before the start of the autumn term, a message to schools across the country from the department said.

The DCSF guidance, issued as many schools broke up for the summer today, said it was monitoring the spread of the H1N1 virus on a day-by-day basis. A message will be sent to schools in the last week of August telling them what to do at the start of term, it added.

The DCSF said: “As the summer term is drawing to an end, it is important to ensure that everyone will be in a position to know what will happen at the start of the autumn term.

“We expect that schools and early-years and childcare settings will reopen as usual but at this time we cannot be certain what the situation will be then; we will need to monitor developments over the summer, and take decisions based on the best advice available shortly before the start of term.”

About 1,000 schools have already recorded cases of swine flu, although most have remained open, according to the DCSF.

The message to schools follows a warning from the government’s chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, that up to 65,000 people could die from swine flu in the UK in a worst-case scenario.

A planning document published by the Department of Health yesterday suggested that if the current growth in cases was sustained, the number of cases could peak in early September, with up to 30% of the population suffering illness.

There are also suggestions the spread of the virus could begin to slow over July and August before a resurgence in the autumn when schools reopen.

Margaret Morrissey, of the lobby group Parents Outloud, said ministers should have closed schools across the country early for the summer.

“I do think the government has had a major event of mismanagement here. They should have shut down schools and public places, not for ever, but to stop the virus spreading,” she said.

In swine flu hotspots, schools should remain closed until children had been vaccinated, Morrissey suggested. “We might have to, in some schools, keep them closed until the vaccine is in place,” she said.

The campaigner also called for the government to hand money to employers so that their staff can stay at home with their children if they are affected by swine flu.

“We helped the banks out, how about helping parents?” she said.

“There could be a decision that schools have got to say to parents, ‘If your finances can be supported, do you agree with having the school closed until the children are vaccinated?’”

But she added that if it was possible to open schools in September then that should happen.

At the start of the outbreak, affected schools were closed, but the Health Protection Agency is no longer recommending that approach because swine flu is now widespread within communities.

HPA guidance says: “People are likely to be repeatedly exposed to the virus in their everyday lives. Closing a school will no longer be effective in slowing the spread of the virus as people could still be exposed outside the school.

“In some special circumstances – for example, a school with children who are particularly vulnerable to infection – then school closures might still be recommended.”

Parents expressed concern yesterday about the now rapid spread of the virus, and some admitted they were scared and unsure how to respond to the situation.

Gloria Newell, 49, a housing officer, who was picking up her nine-year-old daughter, Natasha, from St Mary’s Church of England school in Islington, north London, said: “I am just astonished. The figures are quite shocking. There seems to be nothing really in place to cope with this. We have heard about a national vaccination scheme but we do not know when it might be in place.”

In north London, another mother, Amal Khaireddine, 30, was concerned about her sons Joseph, five, Shamus, six, and Ryan, eight, all pupils at Hugh Myddelton school in Islington, where there had been several cases of swine flu. “They had sore throats and temperatures and I did what you should do and called the GP. They said … not to worry. But I think they should have been tested, some swabs should have been taken … all you are told is check the NHS website, but that is not 100% safe.”

In nearby Culpepper Gardens, Richard O’Connell, 63, said he had taken his two-year-old grandson, Alfie, to the doctor because of a high temperature and had been told not to worry. “But you do worry because you don’t know what to do … it’s all very well telling people to look at the NHS website but what of those of us who do not have a computer?”

Anne Alexander, 62, a retired playschool worker from Highbury, north London, believed the publicity was causing “mass panic”. Collecting her nine-year-old granddaughter, Niamh Stepto, from school, she said: “The reality is that it may only be as serious as normal seasonal flu.”

Paola Domizio, a pathologist and mother of year-old twins Aron and Susha, said : “I’m undecided whether to panic or not. Certainly it is alarming that so many young children may be susceptible. But what can you do? Even if you keep them in all day there are no guarantees. If a vaccine is developed I suppose children will be vaccinated, but until then all you can do is follow the guidelines. So I can’t say that I’m particularly panicking, although the figures do sound alarming.”

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Backpacker father: My son’s no fake

July 16th, 2009 | No Comments

Jamie Neale ‘went to hell and back’, says Richard Cass after son’s 12 days lost in the Blue Mountains in Australia

The father of the British backpacker lost in the wilderness has denied claims that his son faked his ordeal in the Australian bush in order to make money.

Richard Cass told Australian TV that his son, Jamie Neale, was angry at suggestions that his account of being lost in the Blue Mountains for 12 days, was either embellished or completely fictitious.

“This is not a hoax,” Cass said. “My boy has been to hell and back.”

Sean Anderson, a Sydney-based agent, told the Times that he had signed Neale and his father to his agency to sell their story to the British and Australian media.

Another talent agent in Australia, Max Markson, told ABC News there that the backpacker could earn up to £49,000 for his story. “I think it’s worth A$100,000 immediately. And a lot of that money would come from the English press. There’s enormous interest in the story in England,” said Markson.

By tomorrow Neale, 19, from Muswell Hill, north London, could be discharged from the Blue Mountains hospital where he has been recovering from dehydration and exposure.

Neal arrived in Australia on 22 June, and, on 2 July, booked into a youth hostel in Katoomba, a popular destination for backpackers planning to explore the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. The following morning, dressed in a light shirt, jacket, jeans and a cap and carrying a small bag, he set off alone on a 10-mile hike. He then became disoriented and lost.

The alarm was raised after he failed to turn up for a prepaid tour of local caves the next day. A hunt involving 100 people – including police rescue teams, dog handlers, firefighters and volunteers – started that eventually cost more than A$100,000.

Superintendent Anthony McWhirter, of the Blue Mountain police, told Australia’s Channel 9 News that the force had no reason to doubt Neale’s story. “Questions are being asked, at the end of the day an incredible story is far harder to believe,” he said. “But [from] our preliminary reports and discussion with Jamie, he’s been there for 12 days.”

Cass said his son had survived after finding water and by eating seeds and “some sort of weed which was like [salad] rocket”. He was found alive but dehydrated by sightseers in the Blue Mountains national park, west of Sydney, yesterday.

A hospital spokeswoman said: “We’re taking it one day at a time. We’re waiting on test results. He is stable and resting comfortably, and has eaten well.”

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Baby P report: staff need training to spot abuse

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Many NHS doctors and nurses are inadequately prepared to spot and act upon signs of child abuse or neglect, a damning report on the aftermath of the Baby P scandal warns.

The detailed survey by the Care Quality Commission exposes a failure inside the health service even among some paediatric specialists and GPs to get to grips with the challenges of safeguarding children.

It says many clinicians have not received up-to-date mandatory training in child protection, while health visitors are overwhelmed by excessive case loads.

The review was ordered after it emerged that NHS staff in Haringey, north London, including some employed by Great Ormond Street children’s hospital, saw Baby Peter, as he is now known, on 35 separate occasions in his short life and, on all but one occasion, failed to realise he was in danger.

Highlighting the inadequate response by health trusts, Cynthia Bower, the commission’s chief executive, said: “Immediately after the Baby P tragedy, everyone agreed that everything possible must be done to prevent a recurrence. This must not prove to be hollow rhetoric. The NHS has got to play its part by getting these safeguarding measures in place.

“It is clear that safeguarding has not been as high on the agenda of trust boards as it should have been … In some cases NHS staff have not been given the support they need in terms of training and clear procedures for handling concerns. If that were to change, it would be an appropriate legacy for Baby Peter.”

The 17-month-old Baby Peter, who had been also monitored by social workers and police, was seen by a consultant paediatrician, Sabah Al-Zayyat, two days before he died in Haringey in early 2007. She had not been not given the full picture of Peter’s history before the examination, although a subsequent internal Great Ormond Street inquiry said she should have identified his injuries as signs of abuse.

After he died, Peter was found to have serious injuries including a broken back and fractured ribs. His mother, her boyfriend and a lodger were later sentenced for causing or allowing the child’s death.

The report says that only 54% of eligible NHS staff have received basic child protection training, a “worryingly low” proportion. According to the inspectors, in 20 of the primary care trusts surveyed, as few as 10% of GPs were up-to-date with what was said to be a “basic” level of training.

On health visitors, the investigation discovered that 29 out of 152 primary care trusts were dealing with caseloads of more than 500 children each, “well above [the] recommendation of 400″.

Among other findings were that only 37% of trusts have a dedicated budget for training staff in child protection issues, while 65% of GPs either do not have appropriate training or there is no data to say whether they do or don’t. Only 58% of A&E or urgent care staff have adequate training in child protection.

Last year about one in 10 GP consultations were with children aged 14 or under; nearly three million children under 16 attend A&E departments ever year.

In 2008-09, the year that the Baby P scandal erupted, more NHS trusts did admit that they could not comply with national core standards – one of which deals with child protection. The numbers declaring compliance fell marginally from nearly 97% to 94% – suggesting a slight increase in self-criticism.

More than one in 10 trusts “did not appear to comply with the statutory requirement to carry out criminal records bureau checks for all staffemployed since 2002,” the report said. “We are particularly concerned with the large proportion of trusts that do not have a process for following up children who miss outpatient appointments.”

Commenting on the findings, Jo Webber, deputy director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said: “Despite the progress many NHS organisations have made, and the commitment of individuals working in the health service, there is clearly much more that can be done to make sure children are protected properly. This means promoting a culture of questioning amongst staff.”

The Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Norman Lamb, said: “It’s disgraceful that some parts of the NHS are still failing to comply with basic child protection requirements like carrying out criminal record checks on staff.”

The health secretary, Andy Burnham, said: “I want trusts and PCTs to use this report to support a coordinated programme of action to assure and sustain essential levels of safeguarding in activities relating to children.”

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Missing backpacker is found alive

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Jamie Neale

A 19-year-old British backpacker missing in Australia for 12 days has been found alive.

Jamie Neale, from Muswell Hill, north London, went missing in dense bushland in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

New South Wales Police said two "bushwalkers" alerted emergency services after finding Mr Neale.

His father Richard Cass flew to Sydney to assist in the search. Mr Neale was taken to Katoomba Hospital suffering from dehydration and exposure. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Missing backpacker found alive

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Jamie Neale survived by eating seeds and wild plants after becoming lost in Blue Mountains

A British backpacker has been found alive 12 days after going missing in the Australian bush, having apparently survived by eating seeds and wild plants.

Jamie Neale, 19, from Muswell Hill, north London, disappeared on 3 July when he left his hostel in the town of Katoomba, New South Wales, and went for a walk in the Blue Mountains.

He was found by two walkers about nine miles from where he disappeared. His father, Richard Cass, said Neale had eaten seeds and grass to stay alive. At night he slept by huddling up in his jacket and on one night sheltered under a log. Neale was taken to Katoomba’s Blue Mountains hospital suffering from exhaustion and dehydration.

“He did think he was going to die, he was that scared,” Cass said at a press conference after visiting his son. “He has come back from the dead.”

Cass flew to Australia to join the search but had given up hope that Neale would be found alive. He was told the news while preparing to leave Sydney on a flight today and after holding a “little closure ceremony” and lighting a candle in the park to say goodbye.

He said his son was “gaunt and scrawny” and had been losing hope he would be rescued as search helicopters failed to spot him waving at them. “He’s still a bit depressed, a bit dazed about what happened to him. He said he was losing faith in the idea there was a God every time the helicopter flew over and he was waving and shouting and nothing happened. He thought he was going to die.”

Cass said he had thought his son had “probably fallen off a cliff” and he would get a talking-to about the trouble he had caused.

“When I’ve seen the mistake after mistake he’s made – I can’t say I’d kill him because it would just spoil the point of him being back. [But] I’m going to kick his arse ‑ the millions that have been spent on this search, the man hours and woman hours that have gone into it … all because he goes out on a walk without his mobile phone. The only teenager in the world who goes on a 10-mile hike and leaves his mobile phone behind.”

Officials said Neale was found near the Narrow Neck fire trail. Narrow Neck, south-west of Katoomba, is around 1,000m above sea level and surrounded by forested hills. Night temperatures in the area over recent days have been close to or below freezing.

Cass said his son survived by foraging in the bush. “He was eating seeds. He ate some sort of weed which was like rocket, as he described, a kind of lettuce,” he said. “What he was saying was he would go up on a height and see where the cliffs were and where he had to go, but as soon as he went down he couldn’t see where he was.”

A hospital spokeswoman said Neale was in a stable condition.

Neale went to Australia on 22 June as the first stop on a trip that was due to include Laos, Vietnam and Nepal. He was due back in the UK in September before starting a government and politics degree at Exeter University in October.

He checked into a youth hostel in Katoomba on Thursday 2 July and was last seen about 9.40am the next day.

A check of his room at the hostel revealed he had not taken any of his belongings with him including his mobile phone and personal papers. He booked and paid for a tour of some nearby caves for the Saturday but never turned up. His bank and email accounts had not been touched since his disappearance.

A wide-ranging air and ground search carried out by police, fire, mountain rescue and the park service failed to find Neale, despite the use of dogs.

New South Wales police said in a statement: “About 11.30am today, two bushwalkers alerted emergency services to advise they had come across a man who identified himself as Jamie Neale near the Narrow Neck fire trail, near Katoomba. Police rescue officers, using a rural fire service vehicle, made their way to the location and confirmed the identity of the man.”

Police inspector Carl Clark described the terrain as “extremely rough”, saying dozens of searchers advanced no more than a mile or so on some days. “We always hoped it might be one of those miracle scenarios,” Clark told Sky News.

Two officers spoke to Neale briefly as they were taking him to the hospital.

“At this stage we have no evidence other than what we believe to have have happened, which is that he was genuinely lost,” police spokeswoman Joanne Elliott, said. “Once he is well enough police will be seeking to obtain a formal statement from him simply to clarify the circumstances.”

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted local radio as saying one of the bush walkers gave Neale first aid.

Neale’s mother, Jean Neale, told Sky News: “I never gave up hoping, I always knew he’d be coming home. He’s determined and if he sets his mind to something, he will do it.

“I told all the family and his friends that he was coming home and I had no doubts about that. That kept them strong and in turn that kept me strong.”

Her son had been tearful and exhausted when they spoke on the phone, she said. “I spoke to him in hospital and he said he didn’t think he’d ever see me again and he just wanted to hear my voice. I told him, ‘you don’t get rid of me that easily’.”

She said that as far as she knew he had simply become lost. The trip was the first time that he had been travelling, his mother said, after working as a lab technician to save for the journey.

Mrs Neale spoke to her son in hospital bed. “He said to me ‘All I wanted to do was hear your voice’,” she said. “He said that thinking of me helped him get through this ordeal.”

In 2006 an Australian teenager, David Iredale, died in another part of the Blue Mountains park near Mount Solitary after becoming separated from his friends during a bush walk.

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Balls pumps £200m into classrooms

July 15th, 2009 | No Comments

Emergency funds made available to ease crisis in primary school admissions, but are too late for this September’s intake

The schools secretary, Ed Balls, will today announce an emergency £200m plan to build hundreds of new classrooms and ease a growing crisis in the primary school admissions system.

The funding comes amid claims by councils that the recession is forcing up demand for state school places. One in five local authorities say they face exceptional rises in demand for primary places as parents chose state instead of private schools to save money and fewer move house when their child starts school. The survey, by the Local Government Association, also revealed a hike in demand for free school meals in 15% of local authorities, which are worst affected by the recession.

Ministers will make the announcement in parliament today, but it will not be in time to ease the crisis in places for this September. Councils will be expected to bid for their share of the £200m funding, setting out their need and explaining why they could not foresee the problem when birthrates began to rise a few years ago.

Official figures show a rise in the number of reception-aged pupils between January 2008 and January 2009 in 126 local authorities – with a 3.3% increase nationally. A recent report by London Councils, which represents local authorities in the capital, said 25 out of the city’s 33 authorities had capacity problems, with a total shortfall of 5,000 places expected next year. In Camden, north London, the council announced last week it is to rent a church hall to teach 90 pupils from September due to the shortage.

Other areas with problems include Sheffield, Bradford, Bristol and Hove. But it is a patchwork problem with about half a million surplus places in the system overall after several years of falling numbers.

The government has insisted that local authorities should be able to predict changes in population rates but a spokesperson for the LGA said that the recession brought exceptional circumstances which they could not have anticipated.

The LGA survey of council bosses found that just under 20% of local authorities had already witnessed a rise in demand for places, which they attributed to the recession and another 13% are predicting future rises.

Les Lawrence, the chairman of the LGA’s children’s board, said: “Predicting how many school places will be needed from year to year is a complex issue. Councils do their best to produce accurate calculations on how many children will be starting in their schools, but it is not an exact science and will vary from area to area.

“In the short-term, councils will be working with schools to help them find extra capacity and draft in extra teachers and support staff, but there also needs to be an emphasis on improving methods of forecasting for the future.”

A cross party group of MPs, called Balanced Immigration, claimed that immigration is compounding the problem in some areas of England, where the proportion of births to foreign-born women has risen from 17.1% in 2001 to 24.0 per cent in 2007, increasing the birthrate overall in some areas.

Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, co-chairmen of the group, said: “The need to increase funding for primary schools is a direct result of mass immigration feeding into our population. The number of births to foreign mothers has risen by 65% since 2001 while the number of births to UK-born mothers has only risen by 6.4%.

“This is a major reason for the pressure on our primary schools, but the government remain in denial about the consequences of their losing control of our borders. Instead they refer to “local circumstances”. This is deliberately misleading.”

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Extraditing hacker ‘could be disaster’

July 14th, 2009 | No Comments

Gary McKinnon, who hacked into US military computers, will suffer psychologically if imprisoned there, his lawyers say

“Humanitarian considerations” that have arisen in the case of Asperger’s syndrome sufferer Gary McKinnon mean he should not face trial in the US for hacking into American military computers, the high court heard today.

In a last-ditch attempt to overturn earlier court decisions that the 43-year-old “UFO enthusiast” should be extradited, his lawyers accused prosecutors of ignoring the “disastrous consequences” of facing trial and a possible lengthy prison sentence in an American “supermax” prison.

The case also comes as the Tories are expected to devote an opposition day debate in parliament tomorrow to McKinnons’ extradition, after David Cameron said he was “deeply saddened and worried” about the case.

McKinnon’s barrister, Ed Fitzgerald, told the high court: “The Crown Prosecution Service wrongly failed to address the specific human rights issues, and the humanitarian issue, raised by the claimant’s Aspergers syndrome.

“The CPS, as a public authority, had a duty to consider whether its failure to prosecute [in the UK] has inevitably exposed him to an avoidable and unnecessary risk of serious psychological suffering,” he added.

The hearing comes after McKinnon signed a statement earlier this year admitting he had committed an offence under UK law by hacking into 97 computers belonging to the US navy and Nasa. The incident, which the US government says is the “biggest military hack of all time” and cost more than $700,000 (£430,000) in repairs, has led to talks between UK prosecutors and the US department of justice since charges were originally brought against the 43-year-old in New Jersey in 2002.

Although previous attempts to halt the extradition – which reached the House of Lords last year – failed, McKinnon’s lawyers have since obtained a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome after consulting two psychiatrists last year.

“Both experts referred to the grave risk to his health if he was extradited to the US, and [autism expert] Professor [Simon] Baron-Cohen referred to the risk to his life,” Fitzgerald said. “[The director of public prosecutions] failed to confront the human rights arguments for prosecutions in this country rather than in the US,” Fitzgerald added.

Both former home secretary Jacqui Smith and the current home secretary, Alan Johnson, have said they would comply with US requests for McKinnon’s extradition, while prosecutors argue that although McKinnon has admitted to “computer misuse” under UK law, it is less serious than the offence of “computer fraud” alleged against him in the US

The CPS, which defended its positiontoday , claims that the damage caused by the offence took place in the US, and that the investigation and most of the witnesses and evidence were located there. In February the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said there was not enough evidence to try McKinnon in the UK, an argument which McKinnon’s lawyers deny.

“This was inconsistent with the CPS’s own finding that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute,” Fitzgerald said. “McKinnon’s computer hacking conduct all took place in the UK, insofar as he was located here and using a computer in his home in the UK when he gained unauthorised access to the US systems.”

McKinnon, from Wood Green, north London, is described as “vulnerable” and “misguided” by his supporters, who contrast the efforts to extradite him with terrorist suspects who have been kept in the UK.

“I will not give up this fight until the government intervenes to protect my vulnerable son,” McKinnon’s mother, Janis Sharp, said. “When considering the extradition of Abu Hamza, the then home secretary said ‘Had we evidence in this country of a crime committed here then of course the police and the attorney general would have taken action’. Well, if that’s the approach for a convicted terrorist, why not for a gentle, misguided Asperger’s sufferer like Gary?”

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