History > 2007 > UK > Violence (I)

4.15pm

MP urges

internet violence clampdown

Tuesday July 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Roxanne Escobales and agencies

A Tory MP has called on the justice minister, Jack Straw, to clamp down on internet images and videos of violence and criminal activity.

After watching Children's Fight Club, a BBC Panorama documentary broadcast last night, the MP for North Thanet, in Kent, Roger Gale, wrote to Mr Straw to urge him to change the law.

Mr Gale would like to see the same rules applied to the internet as to other media.

Mr Gale said: "All this violence and criminality, which is deliberately photographed so it can be shown on the internet with impunity, would be totally unacceptable if it appeared on terrestrial TV or in the newspapers.

"It would appear that anything goes without fear of prosecution," he added.

Yet it is unlikely that Mr Straw will jump into the fray of policing the internet. A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said the law was geared toward self-regulation, with websites such as the popular video-sharing site YouTube already having regulatory codes in place.

She said: "As it stands, if you are recording an assault, you can be charged with aiding and abetting or any number of crimes. If there is a video showing violence, and it comes to be prosecuted, then [the video] becomes an aggravating factor in the sentencing, leading to more stringent sentences."

As the most popular video site, YouTube garners the most criticism for such videos. If a viewer is offended by inappropriate material, such as hate speech, violence or humiliating acts, then he or she can notify YouTube, and the video then gets reviewed. If it is deemed to be out of step with the terms and conditions, then it is taken off the site. If users repeatedly break the rules, then their accounts are disabled.

A spokeswoman said a dedicated team of employees was available to review videos "24 hour a day, seven days a week". However, she added that YouTube was dedicated to its policy of self-regulation.

"We give people a platform to express themselves. We don't implement any censorship; we do promote freedom of expression," she said.

The Ministry of Justice said in 2006 it had consulted the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service. "They said they were not aware of any cases they were not able to prosecute because of a gap in the law," a justice spokeswoman said.

YouTube will not reveal how many visitors it attracts daily, but puts the figure in the hundreds of millions, with hundreds of thousands of videos being uploaded each day.

Figures released today by the internet tracking company comScore show the UK's online population is higher than it ever has been, with 31.7 million users. That's 63% of the country's population of people age 15 or older. The average UK internet user spent 35 hours online in June.

    MP urges internet violence clampdown, G, 31.7.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2138692,00.html

1.45pm

Man 'died after being pelted by children'

Tuesday July 31, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke and agencies

A pensioner died after being pelted with sticks and stones by a jeering mob of children aged between 10 and 13 as he played cricket with his son, a court was told today.

Ernest Norton suffered a heart attack and died after collapsing at outdoor tennis courts in February last year.

The 67-year-old was playing cricket with his 17-year-old son, James, at the Erith leisure centre, in Kent, when a group of 15 youths gathered at the fence and began shouting insults, the Old Bailey heard.

"As the abuse worsened, the group began throwing stones and pieces of wood at father and son," David Fisher QC, prosecuting, said. "Ernest Norton was struck at least twice on the head by these missiles.

"One of the stones hit him on the left side of his face causing a fracture to his cheekbone.

"He collapsed and suffered a heart attack. He received medical attention at the scene, but was pronounced dead later that afternoon."

The mob, allegedly including the defendants, ran away. Five youths, now aged between 12 and 14, deny Mr Norton's manslaughter and violent disorder.

Mr Norton lived with his wife, Linda, and son in Erith. He underwent a triple heart bypass operation in 1977 but had a "fit and active lifestyle", Mr Fisher said.

He said Mr Norton had been in good health on the Sunday when he died, but "the stress and trauma of abuse and a physical attack would make him vulnerable to a heart attack".

The defendants, two brothers aged 12 and 13, one boy aged 13 and two 14-year-olds, sat in the dock with their parents.

"Nobody relishes the fact that these five boys are on trial," Mr Fisher told the jury. "But their youth is no defence.

"They were quite old enough to know that to abuse Ernest Norton and his son was wrong and that to throw stones and pieces of wood at them was wrong.

"I expect they deeply regret the death of Ernest Norton and no doubt did not intend that he should die. But it was their joint course of conduct, quite probably with others, that caused his death."

The trial continues.

    Man 'died after being pelted by children', G, 31.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2138612,00.html

Killers strike while family grieves for murder victim

A drive-by shooting at a wake marks a new low in a grim spiral of gangland assassinations as fears grow over the police's ability to respond

Sunday July 29, 2007
The Observer
Mark Townsend


They are no strangers to the sound of gunfire. Yet even for the most hardened residents of Manchester's murder triangle, the latest killing to blight their neighbourhood is seen as a new low.

Gunmen opened fire at a wake, leaving a man dead and another wounded. They had been standing outside with a group of women, paying their respects to Ucal Chin - up to that point the most recent victim of the city's gangland shootings. Suddenly, three cars screeched into Frobisher Close, Chorlton-on-Medlock. Four shots rang out from the middle vehicle. A 23-year-old known only as Tyson was hit in the stomach and collapsed outside the front door of Chin's mother.

Now funeral arrangements are being prepared for Tyson. A 33-year-old shot in the leg during the drive-by shooting was last night recovering in hospital.

After the funeral, Chin's mother had invited mourners back to their terraced home. Her son had been murdered by gunfire from the passenger seat of a car three weeks ago - the fifth drive-by attack in south Manchester's notorious gangland in seven days. Six bullets were fired from a car that pulled up alongside him close to Longsight's Victoria Park.

In the hours following the shooting at the wake, police described how they gathered the remnants of bottles and glasses from the street while looking for evidence. The manageress of the nearby pub, The Gold Cup, said: 'They just opened fire. It is incredible when you think it was mainly women there. The lad who got killed was a friend of Ucal's, he was a lovely lad. Police gave the cortege an escort, so they must have been expecting trouble. The killers heard about the funeral and took a chance. It looks as if they took a pop at anyone there.'

Neighbours said that no one called an ambulance after the shooting: instead, they bundled the victims into cars and rushed them to Manchester Royal Infirmary. One said: 'I heard bangs, but I thought it was someone tapping on a window. Then I heard tyres screeching, but that's not unusual. This is a 20-mile-per-hour area, but sometimes it's like Brands Hatch around here.'

The drive-by attack at Frobisher Close has raised concern as to whether officers had received specific intelligence that a shooting was planned. An escort of two police motorbikes and three patrol cars had accompanied the funeral cortege to the city's Southern Cemetery.

Witnesses said their presence suggested that the police were 'expecting trouble'. Some neighbours even reported seeing an armed response unit in the vicinity of the shooting half an hour before the assassins turned up.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police yesterday claimed that the funeral escort was in the interests of 'road safety'. One local, who refused to be named for fear of reprisal, said: 'Funny that the police were in the cemetery as well.'

The mood throughout the funeral was described as tense. The officers surrounding the mourners were a constant reminder to the 300 who gathered that the gangland dispute that killed Chin, 24, had not been settled.

Yet these incidents were not the only shootings in a night when the city - and particularly Moss Side, Chorlton-on-Medlock and Longsight - once again lived up to the nickname of 'Gunchester'. Two hours earlier and half a mile away on Stretford Road in Hulme, a 14-year-old had been shot while riding his bicycle. Armed police were last night guarding the teenager and the 33-year-old wounded at Frobisher Close in the city's Royal Infirmary amid fears that gang members may attempt to finish off their targets.

The latest outbreak of violence in Manchester raised fresh questions yesterday over whether police are tackling a burgeoning gun culture centred in a tiny but heavily-populated area south of the city centre.

Gun crime is a problem for the whole of Manchester. Police logged more than 3,000 firearms incidents in the 15 months up to May. New figures for the Longsight division of Greater Manchester Police, which covers Moss Side, Chorlton-on-Medlock and Hulme, reveal that guns had been fired 115 times in the 12 months to April. Even before the attacks that followed Friday's funeral, police had responded to three other shootings last week.

Four months ago, Chief Superintendent David Keller, admitted that gun crime was increasing amid reports that teenagers had started walking around in body armour. Yesterday, he adopted a bullish tone in the face of the latest tragedy: 'We've had a lot of successes and we're just having a difficult time at the moment.' Armed patrols, he promised, would be stepped up to try and control the spiral of tit-for-tat shootings. Officers are particularly concerned at the young age of perpetrators and victims.

Patsy McKie, chair of Mothers Against Violence, said: 'I can't believe another mother is going through what I went through.' Her son, Dorrie, was killed in a gangland shooting eight years ago. None the less, she remains optimistic that a solution can be found.

'We have to find why young people are doing this,' she said. 'The fact that they are giving up their lives means they aren't thinking straight.'

City of shootings

· 15 June 2007 Ucal Chin, 24, from Chorlton-on-Medlock, is shot dead while driving his car. His 21-year-old passenger suffers a gunshot wound to his hand.

· 30 April 2007 A 16-year-old boy is held by police after allegedly shooting a 12-year-old girl in the head in Gorton.

· 9 September 2006 Jessie James, 15, shot dead in Moss Side in what detectives believe was a planned attack.

· 22 August 2006 Mark Daniels, 25, shot in the chest in Woodhouse Park, Wythenshawe, in what police say was a targeted shooting. Taken to Wythenshawe Hospital, but dies later.

· 4 July 2006 Ernest Gifford, 45, is shot dead after three men enter his home in Moss Side.

· 13 September 2005 Ramone Cumberbatch, 18, a member of the Doddington Gang operating out of Moss Side, shot dead in Hulme.

· 16 January 2005 Stacey John Lloyd, 31, shot through the head. His body is found in his burnt-out Subaru Impreza in Unsworth.

    Killers strike while family grieves for murder victim, O, 29.7.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2137151,00.html

1pm

Timeline: Teenager killings in the capital

Thursday July 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

The shooting dead of a 16-year-old boy in London was the latest in a number of high-profile gun and knife killings involving teenagers in the capital this year.

February 3: James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, of New Malden, Surrey, died after being gunned down at Streatham ice arena in south London. He was shot in front of hundreds of people attending a disco at the ice rink. So far no one has been charged with his murder, but four teenagers are on police bail.

February 6: Michael Dosunmu, of Diamond Street, Peckham, south London, was shot dead by gunmen who broke into his home days after he celebrated his 15th birthday.

Police believe Michael, a regular churchgoer, was a victim of mistaken identity. Two men have been charged with his murder, and three other men and a 16-year-old boy are on police bail.

February 14: Billy Cox, 15, was shot dead on the doorstep of his home in Fenwick Place, Clapham, south London.

The football-loving teenager was serving a 12-month supervision order for a burglary offence and was electronically tagged and restricted to a curfew from 7pm to 7am. One man is currently on police bail in connection with his murder.

March 14: Kodjo Yenga, 16, died from a single stab wound to the heart after being attacked in Hammersmith Grove, west London. Eight teenagers aged between 13 and 16 have been charged with his murder.

March 17: Adam Regis, the 15-year-old nephew of the Olympic sprinter John Regis, died from a single stab wound to the chest in Plaistow, east London, on his way home from the cinema.

No one has been charged with his murder, but 10 boys and men aged between 16 and 20 are on police bail.

April 6: Paul Erhahon, 14, was stabbed to death in Leytonstone, east London. A second boy, 15, was left critically ill in hospital following the attack.

Seven teenagers have been charged with Paul's murder, and with attempted murder and grievous bodily harm relating to the 15-year-old.

Also in April, Scotland Yard launched a hard-hitting "blood on your hands" campaign aimed at turning children away from gun crime and encouraging them to speak to the police.

June 23: Annaka Keniesha Pinto, 17, was shot during a fight in the Swan bar in Philip Lane, Tottenham, north London, in the early hours of the morning. Three people were arrested in connection with the death and later released on bail.

Later the same day, Ben Hitchcock, 16, from Penge, south London, was stabbed to death in a fight involving up to 40 youths in Beckenham. Fourteen teenagers were arrested in connection with the incident and later released on police bail.

June 26: Martin Dinnegan, 14, was stabbed to death in Islington, north London, after being pursued by a group of up to 20 youngsters.

July 26: A 16-year-old boy was shot dead after apparently being chased by a gang of youths on bicycles. He was killed on the Stockwell Gardens estate in Stockwell, south London, in the early hours of the morning.

    Timeline: Teenager killings in the capital, G, 26.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2135355,00.html

1.45pm update

Teenage boy shot dead

Thursday July 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke


Police launched a murder investigation today after a 16-year-old boy was shot while fleeing from a gang of youths on bicycles.

Officers were called after reports of shots fired outside Cassell House, on the Stockwell Gardens estate in south London, shortly after midnight.

They found the boy with a gunshot wound. He was declared dead by ambulance crews at the scene.

"Initial reports suggest that the victim was running away from a number of youths on bicycles prior to being shot," said Detective Inspector Geoff Whitehouse of the Metropolitan police's Operation Trident unit, which investigates crime among the black community.

A postmortem examination will be carried out this afternoon at Greenwich mortuary. Police said they believed they knew the identity of the deceased, but were awaiting formal identification. Next of kin have been informed.

The car park outside Cassell House was cordoned off with police tape and forensic officers in white suits could be seen carrying out searches.

A resident, Francis Gonzalez, said she heard what sounded like shots being fired shortly after midnight.

She looked outside and saw police and ambulances in the car park below her third-floor flat.

"We heard two shots but thought it was kids playing around, but then we saw police taping off the area," she said. "There is a problem in this area with a big group of teenagers who hang around outside and in the stairwell smoking and causing trouble.

"It's very intimidating and can be frightening. When I go shopping, I normally go with two or three people. I have lived here for 10 years. We didn't used to have problems, but now trouble is more regular."

Earlier this year the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir Ian Blair, launched a new taskforce after a series of fatal shootings of teenage boys in south London.

    Teenage boy shot dead, G, 26.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2135261,00.html

12.30pm update

Violent crime rises by 5%

Thursday July 19, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Tempest and agencies

Violent crime rose by 5% last year, according to new figures out today from the government.

The authoritative British Crime Survey showed a rise in reported robberies recorded by the police.

There were 101,370 robberies in recorded crime figures for England and Wales - the highest level for three years.

And a separate analysis of the impact the controversial licensing reforms have had on crime showed an increase in offences during night-time hours in the year after 24-hour drinking was introduced.

The BCS report came ahead of a crime reduction strategy to be outlined by the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, today.

She told GMTV there was still more the police could do to tackle crime but praised their efforts.

She said: "I think and the police themselves think ... that there is more they can do and more their partners can do to help reduce crime and reduce fear of crime."

Ms Smith added: "Technology can help but we do want our police, and our community support officers and others like those working for the council in our neighbourhood, to be visible, to be able to talk to them so that together it is possible to make a difference."

The figures show there were 940,522 violent crimes and cases of disorder and criminal damage committed from 6pm to 6am in the year after pubs and clubs were given permission to open later, compared with 933,701 in the previous year.

The Home Office said the number of more serious violent crimes fell after the licensing reforms overall but there were increases between 3am and 6am.

The report said: "The rise from 3am and up to 6am is likely to reflect the change in the closing hours of licensed premises and the increased numbers of people in a public place at these times, including the police, with greater resources being placed on the streets to deal with disorder."

Critics of the licensing reforms are likely to seize on the figures as evidence that later opening hours has simply pushed drink-related violence to a later time slot.

Causing death by dangerous driving or while under the influence of drink or drugs reached its highest level for 30 years.

There were 462 cases in the year, up 7%.

Recorded crime figures showed drug offences increased by 9% last year to 194,300 cases.

It included a 9% rise in possession of cannabis to 130,000 incidents, which Home Office statistics experts said was due to the police handing out more warnings to users following the drug's reclassification to class C.

Possession of other controlled drugs also rose, showing a 12% rise to more than 36,600 cases.

The total number of recorded crimes fell by 2% to 5.4m.

But there were large rises in the categories of trafficking people for sexual exploitation (up 30%) and sexual grooming (up 36%), which reflects greater police activity in combating such crimes.

In the BCS - which estimates total crime levels based on interviews with 40,000 members of the public - the Home Office claimed the 5% rise in violent crime was not statistically significant.

The only BCS category to show a statistically significant change was a 10% increase in vandalism, the Home Office said.

However, police chiefs have been criticised by the home affairs select committee, which said today that extra resources had not helped the police reduce crime.

The committee found that the drop in levels of crime had taken place before the injection of funds began.

But its acting chairman, David Winnick, said: "We know the police have had a major increase in funding over the past decade but it is much more difficult to tell what they have done with it."

The BCS - seen by the government as the most reliable indicator of crime trends - has previously been criticised for excluding offences against under-16s.

Now Home Office officials have disclosed that future rounds of the massive interview-based poll may include youngsters, as well as people living in group residences such as student halls of residence and old people's homes, which are also currently missed out of the poll.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said the rise in violent crime showed the government's "serial failure to protect the public" and accused ministers of acting "recklessly" on licensing reform.

"These figures show Labour continue to fail on crime," he said.

"The increase in violent crime betrays a serial failure to protect the public.

"The government need to realise that drugs fuel all other crime, ruin communities and destroy lives.

"If we do not tackle drugs, all our other efforts to fight crime are rendered worthless. This means doing more than just consulting on cannabis reclassification."

He added: "This increase in violent crime is also due to, and compounded by, the crisis in our prisons.

"With offenders being released early or escaping jail completely, criminals are not deterred from committing violent crime, nor do they receive sustained and proper rehabilitation.

"This is why half of all crime is committed by people who have been through the criminal justice system."

He added: "The fact a separate analysis has shown that night crime increased after the introduction of 24-hour drinking is yet more evidence why the government should have listened to our call to pilot the scheme and assess its consequences instead of recklessly unleashing it on our towns and communities."

    Violent crime rises by 5%, G, 19.7.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2130085,00.html

3.30pm update

Burglars rob Katona and family at knifepoint

Monday July 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Helen Carter and Paul MacInnes

The former pop star Kerry Katona was held at knifepoint early today with her five-month-old daughter by three men in balaclavas who burst into her home and stole a BMW car, as well as her engagement and wedding rings.

Katona, 26, and her daughter Heidi were held in a room while the burglars made her husband, Mark Croft, 36, lead them to valuables around the house in Wilmslow, Cheshire. The robbers burst in just before midnight armed with a sledgehammer, crowbar and kitchen knife, Cheshire police said.

"The husband was then returned to his wife and baby, and the family were secured in a downstairs room, while the offenders stole property and made their escape," said a police spokesman. "A pool table had been pushed against the door to prevent them escaping."

The family broke out of the room and raised the alarm around 12.30am. Police said they had not been harmed "but were left shaken."

About £150,000 worth of property was taken including a blue BMW M5, two laptop computers, video game consoles, two televisions including a 42-inch plasma screen, jewellery and watches.

Her two daughters with former Westlife star Brian McFadden - Molly, five, and Lilly-Sue, four - were staying with McFadden's parents at the time.

Max Clifford, Katona's spokesman, said she had phoned him this morning. The robbers had threatened to kill them, he said. "She was sobbing uncontrollably and is absolutely distraught," Mr Clifford said.

"You can understand why. She had been held up at knifepoint by men who made it clear when they took Mark off what would happen if they didn't get what they wanted.

"They ransacked the place. They took jewellery and valuables, her engagement ring and wedding ring, television sets. Obviously, because she is rich and famous she will be a target.

"She is a highly emotional thing who has had a lot of problems in her life and for this to happen when she was doing so well ... she has got a new house, a new husband and a baby and is getting back to her old self. It was such a horrible thing to happen."

The couple moved into the £1.3m house in February this year. It was previously owned by Manchester United star Louis Saha.

Katona rose to stardom with girl group Atomic Kitten but left six years ago after falling pregnant. She married McFadden in 2002 but they split up acrimoniously after he met another woman. In February 2004 she was voted the winner of the reality television programme I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

A neighbour, Anne Pater, 55, said she was frightened after hearing what had happened. Ms Pater, who has lived in the area for 14 months, said it was a target for crime.

"We had our car stolen from outside the front of our house a year ago and we didn't hear a thing, and we've had the slabs stolen from the garden wall," she said.

"I think this area's a target because it's wealthy, the type of cars we have outside attract criminals, perhaps.

"Police came to my door at 2am to tell us there had been an armed burglary at Kerry's house and to ask us if we'd heard anything. I'm a bit frightened and scared now - we'll be a bit nervous tonight."

Mrs Pater sent her best wishes to Katona and her family. "There's never been a dull moment since Kerry moved in," she said.

Katona left Atomic Kitten only weeks before the group registered its first No 1, Whole Again. Revelations of drug abuse soon followed her separation from McFadden.

She went into rehabilitation before bouncing back to become the face of the supermarket chain Iceland and writing for celebrity magazine OK!. Her new husband, Mr Croft, is a taxi driver.

    Burglars rob Katona and family at knifepoint, G, 16.7.2007, http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2127626,00.html

3.45pm update

Mother and children found dead in home

Friday July 13, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
James Sturcke, David Ward and agencies

Police today said they were following "strong lines of inquiry" after the bodies of a mother and her two children were found in a house in Manchester.

A murder investigation was launched after officers were called to the home in Thelwall Avenue, Fallowfield, at 7pm yesterday following reports that a woman had been found dead.

Inside, Greater Manchester police discovered the bodies of two women and a teenage boy, all with serious head injuries.

Police have yet to confirm the identities of the victims, who were named locally as Beverley Samuels, 35, a nurse; her daughter Kesha Wizzart, 18; and her son, Fred, 13.

Ms Wizzart, who was thought to have finished her A-levels at Parrs Wood high school, in Didsbury, a few weeks ago, was a promising singer who had appeared on ITV's Young Stars In Their Eyes in 2004.

"The deaths of these three people are being treated as suspicious and a multiple murder inquiry has been launched," Greater Manchester police said in a statement. It added that the deaths were not thought to be gang-related.

Superintendent Paul Savill, who is leading the investigation, said no arrests had been made.

He declined to give further details about how the three had been killed.

"We have strong lines of inquiry but it is critically important we do not get ahead of ourselves," Mr Savill told reporters at a midday press conference.

He said police patrols had been stepped up in the area but there was not believed to be any risk to the general pubic.

A spokeswoman for Manchester Royal Infirmary, where Ms Samuels worked as a nurse, said she was "very popular" and her colleagues were "devastated" by her death.

"Everyone at the trust was shocked and saddened to hear of Beverley's death and our thoughts are with her family," the hospital said in a statement.

Ms Samuels had worked in the NHS since 2000, and for the trust since April 2001.

"She was a very popular member of the team, liked and well respected by her colleagues, who are all devastated by the news," the statement said. "Beverley was a committed and hard-working nurse, who will be sadly missed."

As news of her daughter Kesha's death spread, her friends on Facebook said they would miss their "beautiful princess" who was "always smiling, always happy".

On her Facebook page, Kesha listed her activities as: "Being a recluse ... when not doing that kesha enjoys playing netball with the guardian angels ... swimming ... thai boxin (in case she needs to open a can of whoop ass!) ... runnin (away from reality) ... badminton ... dancin n singin :)."

The family had lived in the area for around 15 years. A local resident, Margaret FitzGerald, said the boy used to play with her grandson.

"He was in and out of my house. I would give him biscuits and sweets and he was Manchester United mad. I can't believe it. He was such a nice little fellow. He went to a special school and the bus used to pick him up every morning.

"He played with all the children in the street on his bike. I have been crying all night. It's hard to believe when it happens on your own doorstep. They were a nice family, never any trouble to anyone. They had lived there quite a few years."

Police were on duty outside the small mid-terrace, red brick property, which had a tent erected over the doorway by scene-of-crime officers.

    Mother and children found dead in home, G, 13.7.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2125569,00.html

Britain Bans Sales of 'Manhunt 2'

June 19, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:47 p.m. ET
The New York Times

An upcoming video game from the maker of the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series came under fire Tuesday in United States and Britain, where the government's ratings board banned sales for what it called an ''unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone.''

Rockstar Games' ''Manhunt 2'' was scheduled for a July 10 release on Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 consoles.

Players of ''Manhunt 2'' assume the role of an escaped mental institution patient who goes on a killing spree as he fights his way to freedom. It includes special death moves players can perform by moving the Wii's wireless, motion-sensitive controller at just the right moment.

''Manhunt 2'' is the first game to be banned by the British Board of Film Classification since 1997, when it barred the sale of ''Carmageddon,'' in which players rack up points by driving vehicles over pedestrians.

In a statement, BBFC director David Cooke said the board was unable to approve the game because it was ''distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing.''

Rockstar spokesman Rodney Walker said ''Manhunt 2'' was meant to be a horror game, something akin to gory films like ''Saw.''

He called the BBFC's decision a form of censorship because the public would never get to decide for itself.

''People think of video games as a kids' medium but the fans are so diverse and the games are diverse,'' he said. ''When you ban a game, you're putting a limit on what sort of creative choices people can make.''

But Cooke insisted that the game would ''involve a range of unjustifiable harm risks to both adults and minors.'' The BBFC said it had given Rockstar and parent company Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. six weeks to appeal the board's decision.

In the U.S., meanwhile, a national coalition of educators and child advocacy groups sent a letter to the video game industry's self-governed ratings board on Tuesday hoping to slap ''Manhunt 2'' with the strictest rating possible.

Though nobody at the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has seen or played the game, it wrote in a letter to Patricia Vance, president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, that ''Manhunt 2'' should be given an ''Adults Only'' rating instead of a more lenient ''Mature'' rating.

''If ever there was a time for the ESRB's strongest and most unambiguous rating, it is now,'' wrote Dr. Susan Linn, co-founder of the CCFC. ''An adults-only rating is the only way to limit children's exposure to this unique combination of horrific violence and interactivity.''

The ''AO'' rating means the game is suitable only for players 18 years old and older, while the far more common ''M'' rating is meant for players 17 and older.

The group said the Wii version was particularly troublesome because players would be able to act out the violence with the console's controller.

''It is reasonable to expect that being able to go through the motions of violence while playing Manhunt 2 will exacerbate its negative effects,'' the letter said. ''Given what is already known about the impact of violent games played on standard game controllers, it is irresponsible to make this game available to children and teens on a potentially more dangerous platform.''

''Manhunt 2'' maker Rockstar and Take-Two have long been at the center of the debate over video game violence and children.

Rockstar was embroiled in another ratings controversy two years ago, after a hacker uncovered a hidden sex scene in ''Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.'' Another of the company's hits, last year's ''Bully,'' was about a slingshot-wielding 15-year-old at Bullworth Academy boarding school, whose motto is ''Canis Canem Edit,'' Latin for ''dog eat dog.''

    Britain Bans Sales of 'Manhunt 2', NYT, 19.6.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Games-Manhunt-2.html

1.45pm

Report reveals 'epidemic' of domestic abuse

Tuesday June 19, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Sarah Boseley, health editor

Doctors' leaders warned of an "unspoken epidemic" of domestic abuse today, which they described as ultimately unquantifiable because some victims were not believed while others did not realise the abuse they suffered was a crime.

A new report from the British Medical Association says domestic abuse - which mostly affects women, but also some men - needs urgent attention and calls for doctors to be trained to spot victims and help them.

The full extent of domestic abuse cannot be known, the report says. More than 350,000 people in England and Wales alone are reported to suffer it, but the British Crime Survey found that 34% of women and 62% of men who had been victims have never told anyone.

"The figures we provide in this report are shocking, but perhaps more alarming is that they are likely to be grossly underestimated," said Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the BMA.

"Domestic abuse is an unspoken scar on our society, and many individuals never report that they are victims. Sometimes this is because of social stigma or simply because they do not know who to turn to. Other times it can be because the victims are so vulnerable that they are not in a position to seek help."

Some 80% of victims are women and among them are many elderly and disabled people. Around one in three women who arrive at inner city accident and emergency hospital departments have suffered domestic abuse, according to a study in the journal Emergency Medicine.

Many children suffer from seeing their mothers attacked by their father. Around 750,000 children each year witness domestic abuse, the report says. Around 30% of abuse begins when a woman in a relationship is pregnant.

Partner abuse is common and it happens as frequently in same-sex relationships as in heterosexual ones. The total bill from such abuse is estimated at around £3.1bn, taking into account criminal justice, health, social services, housing and legal costs, the BMA says.

The report calls for health professionals to be aware of the potential for abuse in ethnic minority groups, where the breach of codes of honour may be punished by violence. For example, it says, women in some Asian families may be expected to tolerate abuse by their husband rather than seek help or leave the family home.

Domestic abuse can take place in forced marriages, where the partners have been coerced and do not know each other and may not have consented to the arrangement. In extreme cases, "honour crimes" may take place, which can involve violence and even killings.

    Report reveals 'epidemic' of domestic abuse, G, 19.6.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2106559,00.html

4.30pm update

Two arrested after teenager's stabbing

Monday May 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

A 24-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were today arrested on suspicion of murder after a pregnant teenager was stabbed to death last week.

Sana Ali, 17, and her unborn child died after what police described as a "very violent" knife attack in Bury, Greater Manchester, on Friday.

Greater Manchester police have not released the names of the two people arrested.

Ms Ali, who moved to the UK from Pakistan five years ago, shared the house with her husband, his brother and her parents-in-law. Her parents-in-law were out of the country at the time of the killing, and returned to the UK yesterday.

Police, who have been speaking to them today, interviewed Ms Ali's husband and his brother over the weekend.

Ms Ali's sister-in-law discovered her in an upstairs bedroom at around 4.15pm on Friday. Emergency services were called and she was rushed to Fairfield Hospital, where doctors were unable to save her.

Police said post-mortem examination carried out on Saturday concluded that she died as a result of stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

"She has a number of injuries. It does look to be a violent attack," Detective Chief Inspector Keith Dillon said. "We are treating this as a murder inquiry, but have a completely open mind at this moment in time - it is very early on.

"Until we have more information, I would just like to make a general appeal for anyone with information to come forward. This is a nice, quiet residential area and I realise that it will have been a shock for those living here to realise what has happened."

Officers said there was no sign of a forced entry at the detached two-storey home, and nothing appeared to have been stolen. Extra patrols will be carried out in the Bury area in an attempt to reassure residents.

    Two arrested after teenager's stabbing, G, 14.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2079211,00.html

9am update

Teenager held after sister shot in head

Tuesday May 1, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and Press Association

A 12-year-old girl is in a "very critical" condition today after being shot in the head last night, Greater Manchester police said.

She was shot at her home on a council estate in Gorton, Manchester, shortly after 7.30pm.

The girl's 17-year-old brother has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, and is understood to have told police that the shooting was an accident.

One neighbour said a teenager ran from the house, screaming: "I've shot my sister, I've shot my sister."

"It could have been an accident," the neighbour said. "Lads often have air rifles and play with them. To them, they think guns are just toys." However, it was unclear what kind of weapon was involved.

A Greater Manchester police spokeswoman said officers were called to a house in Wembley Road, Gorton, after reports that a person had been shot.

"Police and ambulance crews attended, and a 12-year-old girl was taken to the Manchester Royal Infirmary suffering from a gunshot wound to the head," the spokeswoman said.

Two officers were standing guard outside the building today.

Neighbours said a middle-aged woman with one son and three daughters had lived at the house for a number of years. They said her husband, the father of the children, did not live there.

    Teenager held after sister shot in head, G, 1.5.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2069530,00.html

10.45am

Man cuts off his own penis in busy restaurant

Tuesday April 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

A man burst into a busy central London restaurant and chopped off his own penis with a knife in front of horrified diners, police and reports said today.

The man - identified by the Sun as a 35-year-old Polish national - ran into Zizzi, in the Strand, at 9pm on Sunday.

"This guy came running in then charged into the kitchen, got a massive knife and started waving it about," Stuart McMahon, who was eating at the restaurant with his girlfriend, told the paper. "Everyone was screaming and running out as he jumped on a table, dropped his trousers and popped his penis out. Then he cut it off. I couldn't believe it."

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said a man aged between 30 and 40 was the only person hurt in the incident, and that his injuries were self-inflicted.

He was taken to hospital, where his condition was described as stable. According to the Sun, the man was being assessed by psychiatrists and was expected to be detained under the Mental Health Act.

The paper reported that police had subdued the man with CS gas spray and recovered his severed penis, which surgeons at St Thomas' hospital in central London attempted to re-attach. It was not known whether the operation had been a success.

    Man cuts off his own penis in busy restaurant, G, 24.4.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2064406,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

Mother blames verbal bullying for death of her son, inquest hears

· Open verdict on boy, 11, found hanging in room
· School bus driver denies joining in name-calling

Friday April 20, 2007
Guardian
Matthew Taylor

An 11-year-old boy hanged himself from his bunk bed after being picked on by fellow pupils and the driver of his school bus, an inquest was told yesterday.

Ben Vodden was found unconscious by his father, Paul Vodden, with shoelaces wrapped round his neck and tied to his bunk, at the family home in Southwater, West Sussex, on December 12 last year.

The inquest heard that the driver, Brian McCullough, had been responsible for some of the abuse, allegedly labelling the schoolboy "Masterbate", "Billie No Mates", and "Dickhead" in front of fellow pupils.

Ben's mother, Caroline Vodden, broke down yesterday as she described seeing her son return from Tanbridge House school in Horsham, West Sussex. "Ben said 'I hate the bus and I hate school'," said Mrs Vodden. "He said 'It is Brian, the bus driver, he is horrible to me."

The inquest heard that on the morning of his death he left for school and sent his father a text message: "Please can you bring my gel. PS. They are doing it again."

Mrs Vodden said she and her husband interpreted the last comment to mean their son was being bullied again.

Later the boy returned home, appearing fine - until Mrs Vodden received a call from the school saying he had been taken off the bus on his way home, because he had been hitting the air vent and making a gesture at the driver.

Mrs Vodden said her son became frustrated when she asked him what had happened: "He said, 'I won't tell you, and I can't tell you'. I followed him and stopped him from leaving the room. I said, 'Sweetheart, you have got to tell me, because we can't help you unless you tell me what has happened'."

He retreated to his bedroom, before emerging and giving his mother a hug, telling her: "I'm sorry, mummy."

He went back into his bedroom and closed the door. Mrs Vodden said she heard him crying in a way he had not done before.

Her husband later returned and went to ask their son what had happened. Mr Vodden opened the bedroom door to find him hanging from the bunk bed.

The 11-year-old was pronounced dead at Worthing hospital.

Mrs Vodden said that their son had earlier confided the name-calling to his father, because he was concerned about using explicit language in front of her.

"Ben felt unable to tell me, as his mother, because of the language used," she said. "Ben told his father, 'Brian the bus driver has been calling me "Masterbate" because he says "I'm a little wanker",' and he said everyone on the bus was calling him 'Masterbate'." The inquest heard that Mr Vodden rang the bus company, and that Mr McCullough had subsequently denied the allegations. No further action was taken, because it was the driver's word against the boy's, the court heard.

Mrs Vodden said that she asked her son what else she could do to help. He replied: "I will try it for a little bit longer, Mummy, and see if it gets better."

Mr McCullough told the inquest that he was devastated by the boy's death. "Ben to me was always 'Jack the Lad', the aggressor on the coach. We always had banter between us." He denied calling him "Masterbate", adding: "If anyone had said to me at any time that I was picking on Ben, I would not have continued; but no one did."

Recording an open verdict, the deputy West Sussex coroner, David Skipp, said: "What was really in Ben's mind that Tuesday, I'm not sure. And I'm not going to speculate. The tragedy is that a life of great potential was cut short so terribly.

"I believe Ben's story highlights the vulnerability of some young people to outside influence, and our responsibility as adults to treat these youngsters with consideration and respect - however hard that may be at times."

In a statement outside the magistrates court at Horsham in West Sussex, the boy's parents said that, although there had been few physical attacks, it was the verbal abuse which had a devastating impact on their son.

"Bullying should not be classified by the number of bruises or broken bones suffered by the victim. The simple fact is that Ben would not be dead if he hadn't been bullied. We strongly believe that."

    Mother blames verbal bullying for death of her son, inquest hears, G, 20.4.2007, http://education.guardian.co.uk/pupilbehaviour/story/0,,2061853,00.html

Police call for tougher gun crime laws

Move to break down 'wall of silence'

Friday April 20, 2007
Guardian
Helen Carter

One of the UK's most senior police officers has called for new laws that would compel the public to give information to the police about gun crime - whether they want to or not.

In an interview with the Guardian, Bernard Hogan-Howe, the chief constable of Merseyside police and a contender to be next commissioner of the Met, said it was clear that more and more young people were getting involved in gun crime and that they were being protected by a wall of silence.

He said the only way to address this was to adopt laws similar to those in Australia "where people have a duty to report information about gun crime to the police". He also believes the laws should extend to victims of gun crime who survive being shot but refuse to make a complaint because of fears of reprisals.

"The challenge is: people who survive do not want to complain and the best witness is quite often the victim who can help provide a description and motive. By refusing to help it can put the investigation on to the back foot."

Mr Hogan-Howe, who was at the gun crime summit at Downing Street in February, said his force had been pioneering moves to disrupt the activities of those involved in gun crime.

Families are being evicted from their homes if they live with young people who possess firearms. They are moved out to other areas, while suspects are regularly stopped and searched by officers.

Mr Hogan-Howe is also a critic of any loosening of the laws relating to cannabis use and possession. He said there was evidence that the potency of cannabis is increasing and there needed to be more research about its long-term effects on people with mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. "If people are under 18 when they take skunk cannabis they are four times more likely to suffer mental illness and if they are under 15 they are 10 times more likely," he said.

However, it is his intervention on gun crime that is bound to be draw the ire of human rights campaigners. It reflects growing concern among the country's most senior officers about the difficulties of tackling the use of firearms among young people.

A fortnight ago Scotland Yard launched the hard-hitting "blood on your hands" campaign, aimed at turning children away from gun crime and encouraging them to speak to the police. It was unveiled on the day of the funeral of 15-year-old murder victim Billy Cox who was gunned down in south London, one of a number of shootings involving teenagers in recent weeks.

"If you know someone who has got a gun and don't report it, you could have blood on your hands," the ad says.

Last week Tony Blair sparked controversy when he said the spate of gun murders was being caused not by poverty, but as a result of a distinctive black culture.

The Home Office has already announced it is looking at the possibility of banning membership of gangs, tougher enforcement of the supposed mandatory five-year sentences for possession of illegal firearms, and lowering the age from 21 to 18 for this mandatory sentence.

Mr Blair's remarks appeared to put him at odds with Lady Scotland, a Home Office minister, who has argued that gun crime is a problem for the country as a whole and produced statistics to back up her view.

In 2004-05, there were 78 fatal shootings in England and Wales: 40 victims were white, 25 black, seven Asian. The figures do not record the ethnicity of the killers but, by and large, murderers tend mostly to target members of their own ethnic group. In 2005-06, there were 50 fatal shootings: 18 victims were white, 19 black and four Asian.

    Police call for tougher gun crime laws, G, 20.4.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2061735,00.html

2.30pm update

23 arrested in Rastafarian temple raid

Thursday April 12, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Riazat Butt and agencies

Police today arrested 23 people when they raided a Rastafarian temple in south London to search for drugs and weapons.

Around 250 officers, some armed, targeted the temple and cultural centre - housed in four Victorian terraced homes in St Agnes Place, Kennington - at just after 3am.

The buildings, decorated in the green, yellow and red colours of Rastafarianism and topped with an Ethiopian flag, are the last remaining part of what was once London's longest-established squatters' community.

Police cleared the remainder of the properties in November 2005, and Lambeth council, which owned them, said it had lost around £4m in unpaid rent over the decades.

Officers said the site had been taken over by drug dealers in recent months and was linked to "a high level of serious criminality".

Chief Superintendent Martin Bridger, the area commander for the London borough of Lambeth, said the raid had followed months of surveillance of suspected drug dealing.

"In the past few weeks, we've arrested around 200 people coming away from the premises and they have even had cannabis or crack cocaine on them," he said.

Senior members of the temple had contacted police to express their concerns, he explained.

"These other people have taken it over," he said. "It has a long history of being a Rastafarian temple, but that is not what it is being used for."

At a later briefing, Mr Bridger said police - who have so far searched only two of the 32 rooms in the complex - had found several kilos of cannabis, crack cocaine and six rounds of ammunition.

He said the temple was being used as a "market", adding: "We believe people wanting to buy drugs would approach the temple, speak to a man on the door, tell him what type of drugs they were after and be shown to a relevant room."

During a surveillance operation that began in October and became 24-hour over the past eight weeks, police saw up to 600 people a day visiting the temple.

Of those stopped as they left the building, Mr Bridger said 80% were carrying drugs.

One regular at the temple said police had unfairly targeted it, claiming it was suffering because of crime in the wider community.

"We don't know anything about class A drugs or firearms," Derrick Clarke, who has been going to the temple for more than 20 years, said. "It is a problem within the Kennington community. It is not as if we are harbouring criminals - we are victims of it."

However, another man who said he had worshipped at the temple until two years ago, claimed it had changed from being a community focal point once the area was cleared of squatters.

"I'm shocked that what was once a friendly, happy place to be seems to have been taken over by criminals," the man, who gave his name only as Ed, said. "Everyone locally supports the police when they take action against drug dealing."

    23 arrested in Rastafarian temple raid, G, 12.4.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2055324,00.html

Blair blames spate of murders on black culture

· Political correctness not helping, says PM
· Community leaders react angrily to comments

Thursday April 12, 2007
Guardian
Patrick Wintour and Vikram Dodd

Tony Blair yesterday claimed the spate of knife and gun murders in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture. His remarks angered community leaders, who accused him of ignorance and failing to provide support for black-led efforts to tackle the problem.

One accused him of misunderstanding the advice he had been given on the issue at a Downing Street summit.

Black community leaders reacted after Mr Blair said the recent violence should not be treated as part of a general crime wave, but as specific to black youth. He said people had to drop their political correctness and recognise that the violence would not be stopped "by pretending it is not young black kids doing it".

It needed to be addressed by a tailored counter-attack in the same way as football hooliganism was reined in by producing measures aimed at the specific problem, rather than general lawlessness.

Mr Blair's remarks are at odds with those of the Home Office minister Lady Scotland, who told the home affairs select committee last month that the disproportionate number of black youths in the criminal justice system was a function of their disproportionate poverty, and not to do with a distinctive black culture.

Giving the Callaghan lecture in Cardiff, the prime minister admitted he had been "lurching into total frankness" in the final weeks of his premiership. He called on black people to lead the fight against knife crime. He said that "the black community - the vast majority of whom in these communities are decent, law abiding people horrified at what is happening - need to be mobilised in denunciation of this gang culture that is killing innocent young black kids".

Mr Blair said he had been moved to make his controversial remarks after speaking to a black pastor of a London church at a Downing Street knife crime summit, who said: "When are we going to start saying this is a problem amongst a section of the black community and not, for reasons of political correctness, pretend that this is nothing to do with it?" Mr Blair said there needed to be an "intense police focus" on the minority of young black Britons behind the gun and knife attacks. The laws on knife and gun gangs needed to be toughened and the ringleaders "taken out of circulation".

Last night, British African-Caribbean figures leading the fight against gang culture condemned Mr Blair's speech. The Rev Nims Obunge, chief executive of the Peace Alliance, one of the main organisations working against gang crime, denounced the prime minister.

Mr Obunge, who attended the Downing Street summit chaired by Mr Blair in February, said he had been cited by the prime minister: "He makes it look like I said it's the black community doing it. What I said is it's making the black community more vulnerable and they need more support and funding for the work they're doing. ... He has taken what I said out of context. We came for support and he has failed and has come back with more police powers to use against our black children."

Keith Jarrett, chair of the National Black Police Association, whose members work with vulnerable youngsters, said: "Social deprivation and delinquency go hand in hand and we need to tackle both. It is curious that the prime minister does not mention deprivation in his speech."

Lee Jasper, adviser on policing to London's mayor, said: "For years we have said this is an issue the black community has to deal with. The PM is spectacularly ill-informed if he thinks otherwise.

"Every home secretary from [David] Blunkett onwards has been pressed on tackling the growing phenomenon of gun and gang crime in deprived black communities, and government has failed to respond to what has been a clear demand for additional resources to tackle youth alienation and disaffection".

The Home Office has already announced it is looking at the possibility of banning membership of gangs, tougher enforcement of the supposed mandatory five-year sentences for possession of illegal firearms, and lowering the age from 21 to 18 for this mandatory sentence.

Answering questions later Mr Blair said: "Economic inequality is a factor and we should deal with that, but I don't think it's the thing that is producing the most violent expression of this social alienation.

"I think that is to do with the fact that particular youngsters are being brought up in a setting that has no rules, no discipline, no proper framework around them."

Some people working with children knew at the age of five whether they were going to be in "real trouble" later, he said.

Mr Blair is known to believe the tendency for many black boys to be raised in families without a father leads to a lack of appropriate role models.

He said: "We need to stop thinking of this as a society that has gone wrong - it has not - but of specific groups that for specific reasons have gone outside of the proper lines of respect and good conduct towards others and need by specific measures to be brought back into the fold."

The Commission for Racial Equality broadly backed Mr Blair, saying people "shouldn't be afraid to talk about this issue for fear of sounding prejudiced".

Mr Blair spoke out as a second teenager was due to appear in court charged with the murder of 14-year-old Paul Erhahon, stabbed to death in east London on Friday. He was the seventh Londoner under 16 to be murdered since the end of January, and his 15-year-old friend, who was also stabbed, remains in hospital.

    Blair blames spate of murders on black culture, G, 12.4.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2054958,00.html

Family pays tribute to murdered daughter

Sunday April 8, 2007
The Observer
Jamie Doward and Andrew Wander

Friends of Krystal Hart, the woman shot dead in south-west London on Friday, told yesterday how she had brought joy to her boyfriend's life when she became pregnant. The tributes came as her stepfather revealed that a dispute with a neighbour had become so serious he had installed CCTV in his daughter's flat for her own protection.

She was shot with a handgun at 'very close range' in her home on Friday morning. As police studied the CCTV footage, Ms Hart's friends mourned the loss of a 'bubbly' 22-year-old who was three months pregnant by her boyfriend, David.

'I can't put into words how I feel,' David's sister, Nikki, wrote on gonetoosoon.co.uk, a website for people who want to pay tribute to murder victims. 'Krystal, you made my little brother's life light up when you got pregnant. You will stay in our hearts for ever, look after the little angel.'

'You were full of joy at the fact that you and David were going to be parents. We're all totally stunned,' reads another message from David's family.

Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, leading the investigation, said it was understood Ms Hart had been involved in a dispute over a parking space dating back 'many months'. The row had become so serious it was due to be heard in court next week.

However Sutton played down claims the row had been the cause of Ms Hart's murder. 'While we continue to investigate the possibility that the murder could have been the result of a neighbour dispute, we no longer believe that this was over a parking matter,' he said.

A post-mortem held yesterday at St George's Hospital, Tooting, gave the cause of Ms Hart's death as two gunshot wounds to the head.

The victim's stepfather, Clive Lawrence, 50, said that he hoped the CCTV cameras he had installed would help the investigation. 'The police seem to have some idea of what happened,' he said. 'They said they have got a good idea about who may have done it.'

Police want to speak to a white man aged between 30 and 50 in connection with the shooting. One neighbour who called police after the attack has been questioned, but is not under arrest and is being interviewed as a witness.

'We believe it was a handgun that was used although of what sort we don't know at this stage,' Sutton said.

    Family pays tribute to murdered daughter, O, 8.4.2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2052542,00.html

Police probe ‘web torture’ at top school

April 1, 2007
From The Sunday Times
Jack Grimston

ONE of Britain’s top independent schools is under police investigation over allegations of pupil bullying involving the use of internet images of torture, murder and child pornography.

Officers are examining computers taken from the school, in southeast England, for any evidence of such extreme websites being viewed.

They launched the investigation after being told that the bullying involved forcible restraint in front of computers while horrific images were brought up on screen by the perpetrators. The “cyber-bullying” is alleged to have happened on numerous occasions over a period of about a year.

Council social services and police officers specialising in child protection launched their inquiry last month.

Parents are also understood to have been concerned by what they claim was the school’s failure to respond adequately and have complained formally to the governors. The Sunday Times is not publishing the name of the school at the request of one of the parents who is aware of the allegations.

The head teacher said this weekend that the school was taking the allegations “extremely seriously” and that it had “very high standards of pastoral care and child protection”.

The abuses alleged to have occurred linked physical and cyber-bullying. They are said to have taken place in pupils’ common rooms. The bullies, not using their own user names on the computers, would then log on to websites featuring material such as sexual abuse of children, sexual torture of adults and explicit scenes of bestiality.

Any intended victim, according to the allegations, would be restrained in a chair and forced to watch. It has been claimed that the school failed to supervise pupils’ computer use adequately and did not act quickly enough when the abuse was brought to the attention of staff.

One parent said: “The school launched their own investigation but this failed to curb the abuse.”

Cyber-bullying is becoming an increasing concern in schools as the boom in communications technology has made pupils vulnerable to humiliation and intimidation by other children using mobile phones, e-mails, messaging software and social networking websites such as Bebo.

The head teacher denied that the school had failed in its responsibilities. “We are always vigilant and thorough in any matter linked to child protection, to the welfare and safety of pupils and to their pastoral care,” the head teacher said. “Bullying of any kind is not tolerated and we would always investigate any inappropriate behaviour.

“Although it would not be right to discuss the detail of the allegations at this stage because, at our request and with our full involvement and cooperation, they are being investigated by police and social services, we can say that when similar allegations arose last year they were thoroughly examined in cooperation with social services who did not find a case to answer.

“If there is any substance to these new allegations, then in cooperation with the police and social services we shall ensure they are investigated and dealt with.

Social services said: “As a general rule, if an allegation of this kind surfaces in any school in our area, private or state, then we liaise with the police but we would not be in a position to comment on any investigation.”

A police spokeswoman said that “inquiries are ongoing, there have been no arrests” at the school. She added: “Computer equipment has been removed from the school for analysis.”

The allegations come amid growing public concern about online abuse. New measures being introduced by the government include a statutory power for teachers to confiscate mobile phones if they suspect that they are being used for bullying. This power comes into force today.

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has also commissioned an agency to design material to be sent to children via text message and posted on websites warning of the dangers of bullying and giving tips on how to avoid online abuse.

The campaign follows research by Goldsmiths College, London University, and the MSN text messaging service which showed between one in 10 and a quarter of children had experienced some form of cyber-bullying. The MSN study found that almost half of parents are not aware of the phenomenon.

A DfES spokesman said cyber-bullying was “really insidious because it extends beyond the school gates and into the home. It means that there is no haven for those being bullied”.

He added: “Text messages in particular can be used as an especially nasty way for bullies to tease, harass or threaten people. The campaign will also address teenagers’ complacency and complicity, for example in forwarding malicious e-mails or giving out and passing on people’s details.

“Teenagers need to know how to protect themselves from the risk of cyber-bullying and what they should do if they are a victim of it. But they should also be aware of the ways they can passively perpetuate it – by forwarding offensive e-mails or contributing to a malicious threat on a noticeboard.”

For children’s charities and schools, online bullying has become an area of increasing concern. Norfolk county council, for example, has banned access to Bebo in every one of its schools, while in other areas the head teachers have spent thousands of pounds on monitoring systems.

Teachers have reported that cyber-bullying is also prevalent among primary schoolchildren as young as nine.

- Cheshire police sent two officers to question a 10-year-old boy after a parent complained he had called her son a "gay boy" in an e-mail. The boy's father said his son had been terrified and asked if he would be arrested. Inspector Nick Bailey said police took a proper view and considered the house visit reasonable.

    Police probe ‘web torture’ at top school, STs, 1.4.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article1596698.ece

5.45pm update

Children face 'criminal risk' tests

Tuesday March 27, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Alexandra Topping

All children could be required to take a test to find out if they are a risk of becoming criminals, new government proposals unveiled today say.

The government plans to "establish universal checks throughout a child's development to help service providers to identify those most at risk of offending," the report says.

It adds that the checks could "piggyback on existing contact points such as transition to secondary schools".

So far, it is unclear what form such tests could take or whether they would involve police or probation officers, a personal interview with the child or a review of school and police records.

"Today's government crime review appears to add over a hundred pages of platitude to ten years of legislative overkill," Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said.

"Who, for example, can disagree with the idea of 'early intervention'? But are we talking about supporting and educating young people or bar-coding babies at birth?"

Neera Sharma, the principal policy officer at the chuildren's charity Barnardos said: "If this means that parents might get early help and support, if it means that issues such as poor school attendance were to be addressed, this has the potential to reduce crime and keep young people out of trouble.

"But if a child is identified as at risk, is that family going to get the support it needs? The danger could be that they are labelled and they live up to the expectations of them. There is a risk of stigmatising the child."

Other plans set out in the document include maximising the potential of hi-tech gadgets - businesses will be encouraged to make "crimeproof" products such as fingerprint-activated iPods, and the development of technology could lead to the introduction of crowd scanners able to detect bombs.

The paper also suggests that immigrants entering Britain temporarily could be asked to take out "adequate health insurance" rather than being allowed to use the NHS.

Courts may be forced to publish efficiency data, with badly-performing courts facing measures to improve.

The policy review also recommends tougher community sentences and the removal of assets and driving licences as an alternative to sending convicted offenders to already overcrowded jails.

Other plans include keeping prisoners in contact with their children, more therapy and less reliance on drugs to treat mentally ill offenders.

The lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, this morning denied the shift in policy on sentencing was a recognition that the government had "got it wrong" on crime since 1997.

"It's not that we want less people in prison or we want more people in prison," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. "What the vital drive has got to be is the public and protecting them."

Tony Blair announced a review of the prison service, led by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Ronnie Flannagan, who will attempt to find ways of cutting red tape, boosting neighbourhood policing and managing resources more effectively.

Mr Blair also announced the creation of new prolific offender licences in order to limit the movements of people when they leave prison and preventing them from mixing with former associates.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said the review was "recognition of the abject failure of criminal justice policy in the last 10 years".

"This rag bag of ill-thought through ideas is likely to go the same way as government proposals for cashpoint fines for yobs and night courts," he added.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "If the reports of a real change of heart in the government's approach to crime are true, this is a welcome U-turn.

"We have been warning for years that New Labour's obsessive pursuit of headlines, over-reliance on ever-more illiberal legislation and fanatical 'get tough' rhetoric do little to tackle either the fear of crime or its root causes."

Richard Garside, the director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London, said: "There is an element of 'here's one I made earlier' about these latest plans.

"The government has spent 10 years reforming the criminal justice process and ratcheting up criminal justice expenditure to record level.

"But there is a lack of fresh and genuinely original thinking that takes seriously the fact that the problem of crime is deeply rooted in social, economic and political structures."

    Children face 'criminal risk' tests, G, 27.3.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2043903,00.html

Get on with it, said net audience as man hanged himself on webcam

March 24, 2007
From The Times
Joanna Bale

Kevin Whitrick logged on to an internet chat room and announced that he was going to commit suicide. He then switched on his webcam, stood on a chair, smashed through his ceiling to expose a joist, tied a rope around his neck and hanged himself.

Several visitors to the site thought that it was a hoax and egged him on, but one dialled 999. By the time police arrived at his flat, he was dead. The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Britain.

Friends of the 42-year-old electrical engineer said that he had become lonely and depressed since splitting from his wife and had started drinking heavily. He had also suffered serious injuries in a car accident last year and was distraught at the loss of his father, who had died from a heart attack.

Mr Whitrick is believed to have set up a chat room, Kels Friendly Chat, at paltalk.com and was logged on with about 50 other users to an “insult” chat room where people “have a go at each other”.

Visitors to the site said that they thought he was joking when he told them of his suicide plan. One said: “He tied a rope around an uncovered ceiling joist and stood on the chair as he tied the rope around his neck. Some of us chat-room users, talking to Kevin over text chat, microphones and video, tried to convince him to stop, but others egged him on, telling him to get on with it.

“We just couldn’t believe he was doing it — it was surreal. One chatter said, ‘F***ing do it, get on with it, get it round your neck. For f***’s sake, he can’t even do this properly.’ ” Another visitor to the site who did not wish to be named said: “When Kevin stepped off the chair and was left dangling, the mood in the chat room changed and people began to realise what they had seen. I think someone contacted the police, but sadly no one could get to him in time.”

Moderators then closed the feed from his webcam.

Mr Whitrick lived alone in a small flat on an estate in Wellington, near Telford, Shropshire. His former wife, Paula, and their 12-year-old twins live in less than a mile away.

Police said that an internet surfer alerted them to the suicide on late Wednesday. Officers broke into Mr Whitrick’s flat but, despite attempts to revive him, he was declared dead just after 11.15pm. There were tributes to him in the chat room yesterday under the heading “RIP Kevin”. One, from icemaiden 71, said: “I’m a mate of his and I’m shocked.” But another posting said: “I’m on the phone to the News of the World. I’m going to make a buck on this.”

Mr Whitrick’s former wife said in a statement: “Kevin was a loving father and family man. He was the life and soul of the party and an extremely considerate and kind person. He will be so sadly missed by us all.

“Unfortunately Kevin had a serious car accident in 2006 and he never fully recovered.”

Mr Whitrick was the brother of Mal Whitrick, an associate director and sponsor of Shrewsbury Town Football Club. They worked together at the family firm, RMW electrical services. Mal Whitrick was understood to be returning from holiday in India yesterday. Sharon Atwal, who works in a corner shop opposite Mr Whitrick’s flat, described him as “subdued” when she saw him on the night he died. She said: “Every night he’d take eight cans of Boddingtons bitter from the fridge and restock it with the cans from the shelf. He always seemed quite cheerful. On Wednesday night, though, he didn’t seem himself and it was the first night that he did not restock the fridge. It was as if he knew he wouldn’t be coming back.

“He always struck me as very happy. He was friendly and had two perfect kids. I cannot believe he has done this.”

Police said that they were investigating. A postmortem examination was carried out yesterday.

The case appears to echo that of Brandon Vedas, 21, from Phoenix, Arizona, who committed suicide online in 2003 by overdosing on a mix of alcohol and prescription medication. Some people in the chat room egged him on while others tried desperately to find his address.

Paltalk is the world’s largest online video chat community with more than four million members visiting chat rooms that allow them to see, hear and text each other.

    Get on with it, said net audience as man hanged himself on webcam, Ts, 24.3.2007, http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1560877.ece

Man commits suicide live on the internet

March 23, 2007
From Times Online
David Byers and PA News

A man has been found dead in his home after apparently killing himself live on an internet webcam.

Police said that another web surfer dialled 999 after spotting Kevin Whitrick, 42, of Telford in Shropshire, self-harming in a chatroom.

Officers broke into Mr Whitrick's house at Orleton Lane, in the Wellington area of the town to find him slumped on the floor.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, at 11.15 on Wednesday night, despite attempts to revive him.

Detective Chief Inspector Jon Groves of West Mercia Police, who is leading the investigation into the death, said that the emergency call had been received by neighbouring West Midlands Police, indicating that the person who reported the incident lived in the Birmingham area or its surroundings.

"Our enquiries to date have revealed that Mr Whitrick was using a chat room with a number of other people at the time of his death," he said.

"We are liaising with the internet service provider at this time to contact other users who were online at the time of this incident, and who may have information that could assist our enquiries."

A police spokesman added that the man, "who had been conversing with other parties on an internet messaging service, appeared to self-harm".

He added that a post-mortem examination was taking place today, and an inquest would be scheduled for next week. Witness support facilities are being made available for those who saw the incident and may have been traumatised by it.

The apparent suicide echoes that of Brandon Vedas, a 21-year-old from Phoenix, Arizona, who killed himself online in January 2003 using a mix of alcohol and prescription medicine.

In that case, some onlookers were believed to have cheered him on as he took the lethal dose while others desperately looked for his address to alert police.

The incident sparked a wave of soul-searching across the United States about chatrooms and webcams, and what they were being used for.

West Mercia Police today said they are treating the Telford death as "unexplained," and have asked for anyone with information to ring police on 08457 444888.

    Man commits suicide live on the internet, Ts, 23.3.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1557531.ece

Girls are main target of ‘cyberbullies’

March 22, 2007
From The Times
Alexandra Blair, Education Correspondent

Bullying of girls by text or e-mail is on the increase, with up to a fifth claiming to have been sent nasty messages last year.

A study by York St John University has found that girls are more likely than boys to report being cyberbullied. Over the past five years the number suffering from e-mail or text aggression rose from 14.5 per cent to 20.6 per cent.

Nathalie Noret, part of the research team presenting the findings to a British Psychological Society conference at the University of York, said that teachers and parents needed to realise that children’s mobile telephones and computers were not just means of communication, but also ways for bullies to reach their victims 24 hours a day.

“What we have found is, traditional bullying is moving out of the playground and off the school bus and being played out at home,” she said.

“Parents need to be aware this is happening, and children need to know that if they are receiving these messages they should talk to people.”

Ms Noret added that while common sense dictated that children were safe within their own homes, pupils were increasingly seeing nasty messages appearing on websites such as MySpace and Bebo. The trend was disturbing because it exposed more children to abuse. “Young people are very good at keeping up with the latest technology and have become very adept at setting up their own websites,” she said. “Bullying among girls has always centred more on indirect aggression, such as name-calling, and text-messaging and the internet are ideal vehicles for that.”

While boys continue to be prone to physical bullying and fighting in the playground, girls are more likely to exclude individuals or to call each other names.

Text bullying is another method of this indirect bullying, which, like gossip, spreads quickly outside of the playground. Ms Noret said that while other forms of bullying, such as name-calling and being hit or kicked, appeared to have decreased, bullying by text or e-mail had increased, particularly among girls.

The survey of 15,000 pupils over five years asked questions relating to their experiences at break times and how many friends they had.

The increasing levels of cyberbullying were consistent every year for girls, but the boys’ results showed increases and decreases over the same period.

Children who reported being victims of cyberbullying were also more likely to report that they had few friends and often felt lonely at school.

Last year a wide-ranging survey by Bullying Online found that 69 per cent of 4,772 children who completed it complained of being bullied. Name-calling was the biggest problem and 56 per cent of abusive remarks referred to weight and appearance. More than half of bullied pupils said that they were physically hurt, and 34 per cent of those needed to see a doctor. A total of 3 per cent of attacks involved a weapon.

    Girls are main target of ‘cyberbullies’, Ts, 22.3.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1550626.ece

How many more stabbings?

March 20, 2007 8:30 AM
The Guardian
Claudia Webbe

The implementation this year of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, which allows teachers to search pupils for weapons, will be of little comfort to the parents of 15-year-old Adam Regis and 16-year-old Kodjo Yenga who were recently stabbed to death in public.

Some of our young people in urban neighbourhoods are caught up in a culture of violence, where carrying a knife or carrying a gun seems part of the norm of belonging. Far too quickly the gang, which initially provided sanctuary and protection, becomes the very tool which perpetuates a more violent response. All too often this deadly cycle of abuse is enshrined in a culture of silence, which feeds from the depths of fear.

In the UK we are probably witnessing just the tip of the iceberg and more young people will be targeted and murdered unless we can stem this culture of violence and encourage more to speak up and speak out. It almost requires amongst other solutions an innovative collaboration between the charities Childline and Crimestoppers, who separately do much valuable work.

In London, the Metropolitan Police set up Operation Trident in response to the black communities' demands to tackle the disproportional effect of gun crime. Yet nobody would ever have predicted that the work of this dedicated investigative unit would be focused on children and young people as victims.

A worrying trend over recent years is that an increasing number of those arrested as a result of the work of Operation Trident are under the age of 19 years. By criminal standards the time span from young people's first offence to being charged with an Operation Trident type murder is relatively short, with many of them not even on the Trident "radar" in the first place.

Black young people at the heart of this culture of violence are particularly vulnerable because they suffer most, in my view, as a result of societal racism from poor self-esteem, poor self-worth and lack of a positive identity. This minority of young people who are otherwise unable to cope have very few positive role models in schools and for them all the evidence points to a future devoid of opportunity and hope. Their survival is thus on the streets, on our estates and neighbourhoods as glorified "urban soldiers".

Often, young people's first physical violent weapon is something called a "shank"; a sharpened piece of material, usually plastic or wood, made to resemble the sharpened point of a knife. Their progression into the use of an actual knife and their conversion of an imitation or replica weapon into a deadly gun happens in quick succession.

There are many who want to blame parents or rap music, but I would argue that drugs - from cannabis to crack cocaine - have been most responsible for fuelling this culture of violence, visible on our doorsteps, from which young people learn. Of course, drug taking among adults and its effects are still only symptoms and thus the cause lies much deeper still.

We are collectively failing to provide young people with the necessary emotional and cognitive prerequisites so that they can make informed choices. Our work with young people should be about empowering them to develop the necessary self-awareness, actions and decisions, which lead to their betterment and not to their detriment. We need to urgently review the style and quality of input being provided to our children and young people in the name of statutory provision.

Earlier this month I attended the home secretary's 11th round table discussions on guns, knives and gangs. The home secretary's action plan is now well developed into a focus on powers, policing and prevention. I argued for a greater emphasis on the multi-agency approach; more investment and support for witness protection; preventive support for young people in new forms of street style youth work and greater respect for community, voluntary and faith organisations, which have provided in the absence of statutory support and resources the desperately needed out-of-school and after school provisions.

While the government appears to be listening, in terms of preventive action and work we still have a long way to go.

    How many more stabbings?, G, 20.3.2007, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/claudia_webbe/2007/03/how_many_more.html

Comment

The war against teenage violence really is winnable

There aren't so many gangs. There is still time to reach these young people and help them back into a safer world

Monday March 19, 2007
Guardian
Jackie Ashley


A teenage boy, Kodjo Yenga of Notting Hill, is cornered by a gang shouting "kill him" then stabbed to death at 5.30 in the afternoon. He'd previously done a television interview in which he said stabbings were getting worse, but the media were exaggerating the problem. A couple of days earlier, there was a triple stabbing of teenagers in Hornchurch. Another teenager was stabbed to death in Plaistow over the weekend. So it's just London, then? Not at all. In the same short period, three men were stabbed to death in Manchester. Scotland has a knife crime problem too.
Is it just stabbing? Again, no. Last month three schoolboys were killed in south London - two 15-year-olds shot dead in their home and a 16-year-old shot at an ice rink, followed by another fatal stabbing nearby. Something terrible is happening in our inner cities. We all know this, but hardly talk about it.

Oh, we talk about the stabbings. There is a voyeuristic fascination at the final moments of a 15-year-old being chased down a street and killed by a chanting gang in broad daylight. News bulletins bring us the grieving parents, the stunned friends, the piles of flowers and the movingly inarticulate farewell messages in felt-tip pen. We learn about the famous people living nearby, and the spiral of violence among school gangs. But then the world moves on, until the next shooting, the next stabbing.

I suspect, though I cannot prove, that there is a racist tinge to the reaction of the majority. People think, but don't say, well, it's only black on black, or Asian on Asian for that matter. It is one gang of uncivilised young thugs against another (though Kodjo was neither a gang member nor a young thug). Keep out of their way, and these murders will continue but won't touch us. When the people involved are young and white, another defence mechanism kicks in: "Well, it happened outside a pub/nightclub in the small hours. If you're not young, male and drinking in the wrong place, this won't touch you."

There are two problems with this. There is the liberal problem. To say it is "only black on black" is a way of thinking that writes off a large group of people as being less than human. Two hundred years on from the abolition of slavery, it is not so different from the thinking that denied black people brotherhood. Some teenagers, with their hoodies, swagger and deliberate air of menace can challenge adult society to recoil, to write them off. But we have to do better than that.

There is also the conservative problem, which is that this spreading violence does touch people beyond the gangs and will do so more, the longer it goes on. The Metropolitan police says 60,000 fewer crimes were committed last year, as against 2005, the fourth year in a row that crime fell. Burglaries were at a 31-year low, which puts some perspective on the crime hysteria in many newspapers. The one area that remains very worrying is violent street crime - robbery - which was up 6 %. Behind the headline stabbings and murders, there is a simmering level of street violence that is growing.

It needs to be addressed. The same gangs whose self-proclaimed "soldiers" are dying in turf wars and confrontations about status, gain their macho strut through robbery and drug dealing. The less they are challenged, the more dangerous the streets will become for everyone. It isn't simply about proximity though, as it happens, Kodjo died just round the corner from my daughters' school. Most London teenagers I come across, whatever their skin colour and affluence, expect to be mugged, or have been, often several times. Recent examples include two 14-year-old girls held up with a sharpened screwdriver and a knife in separate incidents, and a young boy smashed across the head. This has become routine. Often, the police aren't even told. It is how things are - the streets are dangerous, get over it.

You sometimes hear the argument that muggings mostly happen between teenagers, keen for the latest mobile phone or iPod, and thus don't matter much in the longer run. Again, this is dangerously misconceived. Teenagers who get into the habit of carrying knives or guns are not automatically going to stop when they become adults. More than that, corrosive mutual suspicions form in young people's minds. The opposite of a multicultural society, a country of tribes, is in danger of forming because of what is happening on the streets. Childhood experiences shape adult attitudes.

Professor David Wilson, from the University of Central England in Birmingham, who has been researching knife-carrying, points out that it has become endemic, and that kids are going out armed for two reasons. First, because they are scared of being attacked themselves and think the adult world won't help. Second, knives offer a badge of masculinity, as do guns. Fear, and a sense of self, are among the most powerful human emotions. They aren't going to be overcome by a change to sentencing guidelines. Nor is the knife culture going to be dealt with by more knife amnesties. Knives are just too easy to get hold of. The author of one report last year, Chris Eades of Kings College London's Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, put it well: "Knives will be available as long as there is unsliced bread."

We need to listen to teenagers who want to see the problem taken seriously. It will mean a serious and sustained assault on gang culture; a huge injection of money into inner-city education; targeted help with employment, which will involve some positive discrimination; and an extension of visible policing in the areas affected, to try to remove some of the sense of fear. All this will have to be sustained for many years, a case of the government waging a war on terror that is more humble and closer to home than the other one.

But this war is more winnable. There aren't so many gangs. This is a social problem whose news impact and long-term danger is far greater than the number of kids involved. There is still time to reach them, and help them back into a safer world. Doing so will make our cities friendlier and people less suspicious. It will also save the lives of many bright, funny, insolent but much-loved teenage boys who, as things stand, would be remembered with a pile of dried-out roses and a "luv U bruva" card, while the wider world tuts, and turns the page.

    The war against teenage violence really is winnable, G, 19.3.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2037208,00.html

Detectives hunt two youths in hoodies
after 15-year-old becomes latest knife crime victim

· Second fatal London stabbing in three days
· Teenager was nephew of Olympic silver medallist

Vikram Dodd and Richard Lewis
Monday March 19, 2007

Guardian

Detectives hunting the killer of a teenager who was stabbed to death in the street after a cinema trip were yesterday looking for two youths wearing grey hoodies who fled the scene as the boy lay dying.
Adam Regis, 15, who was the nephew of the British Olympic silver medal-winning sprinter John Regis, was the second teenage boy to be fatally stabbed in the capital in three days after the killing of A-level student Kodjo Yenga in west London last week. Adam had gone to see a film with friends and was attacked at about 9.30pm on Saturday in east London.

As the latest killing reignited concerns over knife culture, the communities secretary, Ruth Kelly, moved to offer reassurances that the deaths were isolated incidents, even as the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, called for tougher penalties.

John Regis said last night: "We cannot put it into words what has happened. It is a nightmarish situation to be involved with." He said his nephew had a bright future . "He liked sport as any 15-year-old would like sport and, with the Regis gene, you never know. But he was an intelligent kid."

Adam had spent the afternoon at a cinema in Beckton, later boarding a number 104 bus which would have dropped him close to his home in Plaistow. He got off at least a mile early, leading detectives to two initial theories. One is that he got off the bus to visit relatives in the area and was set upon; the other that he had got into a row with his killers on the bus, and got off early to try to avoid trouble, but was followed. He suffered a knife wound to the leg, and at least one other knife wound. He also had other injuries consistent with being punched, police said.

Adam was found lying at the junction of Kingsland Road and Boundary Road by two youths who called an ambulance and by Sandra Wynands, 59, who saw the boy slumped on the floor in a pool of blood. "At one point a man in overalls came along and was tickling the boy's ear, saying, 'Stay alive'. He was still alive, but he wasn't conscious," Mrs Wynands said. Detective Chief Inspector Ian Stevenson said: "Passersby in the area heard shouting and raised voices at about 21:35 and saw the victim stumble and fall. Two black males wearing grey hoodies were seen running up Kingsland Road and we would urgently ask them to come forward or for anyone else with information about them to contact us."

Senior police sources said Adam was not a member of a gang and had no criminal past.

By yesterday a collection of floral tributes built up near the junction, one of which read: "Rest In Peace, Adam, you was a great friend of mine, you've gone to a much better place."

Local people and politicians were shocked by the killing. Ms Kelly said while the deaths were tragic, similar crimes were not "sweeping the country". "Even though they are more prevalent than we'd like, [these are] still relatively isolated incidents which cause extraordinary grief and agony in particular communities."

She added: "We've got again to think about the security response, but also to think about the nature of those communities, how we intervene to tackle the gang culture, how we create resilient communities, and work with families and voluntary organisations to combat that."

Sir Menzies called for tougher measures. "The Labour government refuses to accept that carrying a knife can be as dangerous as a gun. The sentence for carrying a knife in a public place should be made the same as that for carrying a gun."

Police said there was "nothing to indicate it was a gang-related act. But residents in Plaistow raised familiar concerns about youth crime. Aurora Correa, 43, said teenage gangs were a problem and she feared for the safety of her 14-year-old child. Ms Correa, who lives on Kingsland Road, said: "Every evening after 7pm, there are teenagers in gangs aged 15 or 16 taking drugs. My daughter has been robbed twice. She was robbed by other kids. My friend was robbed [of her mobile] by a boy on a bike. I feel scared."

Spate of attacks

The latest murder in east London follows a spate of knife crimes:

· Police in Manchester launched three murder inquiries at the weekend. The victims were killed in unrelated knife attacks. Seven people, aged 17 to 25, were arrested after a 21-year-old man died in Hattersley. Three men were detained after a 30-year-old man died in Farnworth. No one has been arrested in connection with the death of a 24-year-old stabbed at Moss Side community centre

· Last Thursday, 16-year-old Kodjo Yenga was stabbed to death in Hammersmith, west London. Two youths aged 13, one aged 15 and one aged 16 have been charged with murder

· On the same day, a boy aged seven stabbed a young woman 21 times as she fought with his mother in Norris Green, Liverpool. She sustained serious injuries

· On the same day, Sue Hale, 49, was found stabbed to death in her home in Southampton. A carer, Sarah Merritt, was also found dead in the flat. A 47-year-old man is being questioned

· Father Paul Bennett, 59, died from stab wounds last Wednesday afternoon in the village of Trecynon, south Wales. Geraint David Evans, 23, was charged with killing the father of two

    Detectives hunt two youths in hoodies after 15-year-old becomes latest knife crime victim, G, 19.3.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2037253,00.html

Vicar found stabbed to death in village churchyard

· Police arrest local man, 23, on suspicion of murder
· South Wales killing shocks parishioners of St Fagan

Thursday March 15, 2007
Guardian
Lee Glendinning


Police began a murder investigation yesterday after a vicar was stabbed to death in the grounds of his churchyard.

The body of the Rev Paul Bennett, 59, the vicar of St Fagan's church in Trecynon, near Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was discovered by his wife shortly before 3pm.

South Wales police last night arrested a 23-year-old man on suspicion of murder.

St Fagan's would normally be lit for the evening service, but last night remained in darkness as detectives sealed off the grounds and forensic teams moved in.

Chief superintendent Jeff Farrar, divisional commander for the area, urged anyone with information to come forward. "This is a horrific incident that will undoubtedly shock and alarm the people of Aberdare," he said.

"I would like to reassure the community that we have arrested a man, and are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident at this stage."

"There is no further danger to the public. However, there will be a high-profile police presence in the area over the next few days both to provide reassurance and support to the community of Aberdare."

Shocked village residents stood outside their houses watching as police stood guard at the church gates.

The 18th century building stands at the top of a small hill in the middle of the village, surrounded by trees. Behind lies the vicarage, where Mr Bennett lived with his wife Georgina, 58, daughter Emma, 32, son Nigel, 34, and grandson John, 11.

Police said that the vicar's family were "extremely distraught". Liaison officers were offering them support.

Detectives were last night unable to give any further information about the cause of Mr Bennett's death, or be precise about his injuries, until after a postmortem examination. A Home Office pathologist had arrived to examine the scene.

Mr Bennett came to the Church of Wales parish of St Fagan's four years ago after being vicar 0f parishes in the Rhondda valley.

In his role he was responsible for St Fagan's church, in Trecynon, St Luke's church in Cwmdare, and St James' church in Llwydcoed.

Parishioners spoke of Mr Bennett as a very popular member of the community whose efforts had increased the size of the congregation in the parish.

Dave Davies, a regular churchgoer, said: "Paul's most remarkable achievement was how many children he brought into the church. A year ago you would have seen maybe three on a Sunday morning. Last week we had 29."

"As a testament to what he done for the parish, last Sunday he had a congregation of 200 across the three churches."

Marion Godsal, another of Mr Bennett's parishioners, added: "He wasn't just the local vicar. He was everybody's friend. Whether you went to church or not, he was there for everyone."

Candlesticks have been set up in the church hall for parishioners to pray for Mr Bennett's family. A service was to be held at St Luke's church in Cwmdare at 9.30 this morning.

The Archbishop of Wales, the Rt Rev Dr Barry Morgan, arrived last night to pray with parishioners. "I am just totally shocked and couldn't believe it, when I heard about it at 3pm this afternoon that Mr Bennett had been killed tragically in the churchyard."

"I know how highly thought of he was, and a man of God, and that he personally really cared for other people."

"This is an awful, awful thing to have happened. Over the coming days and weeks, I will ask for the church to be available for parishioners."

Detective Superintendent Paul Kemp, who is leading the investigation, appealed for anyone who was in the area of the vicarage between 2-3pm yesterday to contact police.

    Vicar found stabbed to death in village churchyard, G, 15.3.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2034372,00.html

5,000 child sex slaves in UK

IoS special investigation: Young children sold into prostitution by criminal gangs in Britain

Published: 25 February 2007
The Independent
By Sophie Goodchild and Jonathan Thompson
 

More than 5,000 children are being forced to work as sex slaves in the UK, including thousands trafficked to this country by criminal gangs, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

An important study of global slavery exposes Britain as a major transit point for the movement of child slaves around the world. Commissioned by social research charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the report paints a shocking picture of an international web of gangmasters exploiting children as young as five, as well as vulnerable women. Many are threatened with violence, then sold into the sex trade or forced to become domestic servants, says the report, to be published tomorrow.

The human trafficking trade now generates an estimated £5bn a year worldwide, making it the second biggest international criminal industry after the drugs trade. Children's charities in Britain say there has been a "dramatic" rise in referrals of trafficked children to sexual exploitation services.

An investigation by The Independent on Sunday has found that gangs, especially those from Romania and Lithuania as well as Africa, are increasingly targeting Britain because markets in other European countries such as Spain and Italy are saturated.

Tony Blair pledged in January this year that he would sign up to a European convention to "stamp out" the "evil" of slavery, which was supposedly abolished 200 years ago next month. His move was in response to fierce lobbying by MPs and human rights charities.

But the report finds that the UK's response to trafficking is too biased towards law enforcement at the expense of victim protection. It also reveals that many victims are deported to their home country where they face assault from gangs and the threat of being retrafficked. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is urging ministers to draw up policies that treat those in slavery as victims, not as immigration cases.

From this month, police forces are being issued with specially adapted iPods. Officers will be able to play to women too afraid to testify against their abusers messages in their own language, reassuring them they will not be arrested.

Child protection charities also warn of the second-class status in the system of trafficked children. At least 48 children sold into slavery in Britain are missing, because of lapses in care by officials, according to a recent report by the Ecpat UK, which campaigns against the sexual exploitation of children. Ecpat's director, Christine Beddoe, said: "Child trafficking is a contemporary form of slavery but trafficked children are labelled 'undeserving' because they are seen as immigration cases."

Child trafficking is one of the worst violations of children's rights, believes Unicef. "There remains no specialised safe house for trafficked children or adequate care and support for victims," said Sarah Epstein of Unicef UK.

MPs are calling on law enforcement agencies to increase their efforts to catch human traffickers by setting up a central database of the DNA samples, gun profiles and fingerprints of those involved in the trade.

Anthony Steen MP, chairman of the All Party Group on Trafficking of Women and Children, said trafficked women and children are still not receiving the protection they deserved.

"Despite his promise Tony Blair has still not signed up to the convention. In the meantime, these girls who are victims of these gangs are having to look over their shoulders," said the Conservative MP for Totnes.

The Rowntree study was carried out by the University of Hull along with Anti-Slavery International and the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation.

    5,000 child sex slaves in UK, IoS, 25.2.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2303019.ece

Sex traffic: Danielle was 15 when she was sold into slavery in the UK

A major report into trafficking of thousands of children into sexual slavery in Britain.

Published: 25 February 2007
The Independent on Sunday
By Sophie Goodchild and Kurt Barling

Danielle was excited at the prospect of leaving her home in Lithuania for a summer job in Britain at the age of 15.

The work had been arranged through a friend who was unable to join Danielle until later and so put her in touch with a man who would take her to London.

Danielle suspected nothing until the stranger took her passport once they passed through customs and left her with two Albanians and a Lithuanian woman. It turned out that she had been sold for £3,500. The "holiday job" was working in a brothel in Birmingham.

"I was terrified but didn't know how I could escape. I spoke no English and knew no one," says Danielle who did eventually flee back home to Vilnius but is still terrified of the traffickers. She is now 18.

Thousands of children have been sold into sexual slavery in Britain according to human rights organisations, and many, like Danielle, have been trafficked from abroad. Until now, exact figures on the scale of this abuse have not been available. But a report published by social research charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) tomorrow says the figure is 5,000 and most are girls. The study reveals that, 200 years after the slave trade was officially abolished, trafficking for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and enforced labour is destroying young lives.

Police and human rights organisations warn that coercing vulnerable people into degrading or low-paid work and holding them against their will has increased massively over the past nine years. Cheap travel, the lure of easy profits and increased demand for sex services are all factors that have turned the modern slave industry into a £5bn-a-year business, second only to the illegal drugs trade.

Nearly half of those trafficked end up being sold for sex; these are overwhelmingly women and children. The typical age of a trafficked woman is between 18 and 23 but many are passed off as 18-year-olds when they are actually younger. More than three-quarters of women working in off-street massage parlours have been trafficked into prostitution. The men who control them will make them have sex with 10 clients a day then pass them on over and over again to other slavemasters. Threats of violence against their families guarantee their silence.

Trafficking gangs have a firm foothold in the poorest countries, including parts of Africa and Eastern Europe, where people can be ensnared by the promise of a better life.

Italy and Spain have always been the popular destinations for Romanian traffickers. But the UK is fast emerging as a new market. Exploiting women for sex is big business in Romania where the average wage is £100 a month. Here pimps are known as "fish",re especially in the small town of Cernavoda, tucked away in the country's poor south-eastern corner, where many of the town's single male inhabitants, and even married ones, have turned to pimping. The main legitimate source of employment is working at the nuclear plant whose reactors dominate the town's skyline. But jobs here are scarce and only for those who pass school exams.

On the street the pimps wear gold jewellery, designer biker jackets and drive top-of-the-range Audis and BMWs, which attract instant attention in a town where the traditional forms of transport are the horse-and-cart and patched-up Ladas.

For the women of Cernavoda who end up in the sex industry, there are no similar material rewards. Many of the young girls are from large Romany families and grow up in desperate poverty. Few can afford to attend school. As soon as they reach their teens, they become easy targets for men who reel them in with outings in their smart cars and promise them a glamorous future. All you have to do, say the Romeos of Cernavoda, is go abroad and make money for me then we can live happily ever after in a nice apartment.

Except there is no "happy ever after". The girls here are not naïve - poverty and deprivation have made them prematurely streetwise. But few expect to be beaten with electric cables, abused by the men who buy their services or forced to hand over their earnings to a middle-man.

Often their families do not object to this sex trade if it means that hungry stomachs are filled back home. But on their return, attitudes can shift;everyone knows that they have been selling themselves to any stranger who will pay €50 an hour.

Home for 20-year-old Beatrice is a ramshackle house shared with her mother and eight young siblings. Two years ago, she worked in a brothel in Spain.

"I can never have a loving relationship now with a man because he would know about my past," she explains through an interpreter. "Even if I wanted to forget about what happened, I never could. I'd do anything to stop my children doing what I did but I may have to go back if my family needs money."

Beatrice's tale is depressingly familiar to David Savage who gave up a well-paid job in Britain to run the Nightingales children's charity. When he first came to Cernavoda, Mr Savage organised classes for children whose families could not afford school. But out of a class of 10 teenage girls, only one finished her education - all the rest ended up in prostitution. His concern is that trafficking is getting worse and there are few alternatives for these girls or for the men, including their own brothers and husbands, who sell them.

"If you are 18 and you see young guys driving around in a brand new Mercedes then you too are going to find some girls to sell," he says.

Iana Matei runs a shelter for trafficked children in the town of Pitesti, two and a half hours from the capital, Bucharest. She has helped more than 127 victims of the sex trade including those as young as 12. Often from rural communities, many fall victim to traffickers posing as government job recruiters who promise them well-paid agricultural work abroad. As well as poverty, Ms Matei says family abuse is a typical experience for trafficked children. Victims are often sent back from the UK but then left without support, fearful that their traffickers will be waiting for them.

"Unlike drugs this is a low risk, high income trade - you can sell a girl 10 times. It's always the girl's fault in the eyes of the police and the traffickers can pay for good lawyers," she says.

The UK's response to this global problem has included Operation Pentameter, with police forces across the country targeting criminal gangs. More than 84 victims were picked up including 12 children. Two were only 14, and pregnant.

This led to the setting up of a special police unit dedicated to combating trafficking, the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre. Det Ch Supt Nick Kinsella, who heads up the unit,points out that British men are often unwittingly fuelling the trade: "You have to ask, who is using these women? Any responsible punter would not use a trafficked girl but there is a big thing now with stag weekends."

Many victims have legal documents but these are taken from them as soon as they reach Britain. Others are smuggled in without authentic papers, like 25-year-old Ade, from Africa, who was forced to work in a restaurant as a child. His younger brother now suffers mental health problems as a result of their ordeal. Both are under threat of deportation. Says Ade: "I lost count of the number of people we stayed with. My life is so full of pain and I've cried so much there's no more to come out."

The children forced to serve adults' needs

Amalia, 21, From Romania:

Amalia's husband forced her to go abroad, leaving behind her baby daughter, to sell her body for sex when she was still a teenager. When her family objected, he threatened her brother with a sword. She says: "It's really hard to sell your body for €50 an hour.

I was lucky - I knew of girls beaten with cables and fists. Not all the men were bad but there were people who were not nice to me and a lot of women are so desperate for the money that they will do anything. Men say, 'We can get that at home from our wives. If you don't do what we want we won't pay you.' I would say 'I've got a young daughter at home in my country'. I hoped it would make them nice to me."

The teenage sex slave promised an education

Adina, From Rwanda:

When she was 14, Adina Mukakalisa was told by the market trader she worked for to go with two men. They would take her to live abroad where she would be safe and go to school. When she reached Britain, a man picked her up from the airport and took her to a house. For two years, the teenager was forced to live in a locked kitchen with access only to a toilet and basin. Her job was to keep house. When another man joined them she was taken upstairs and raped. The men kept her as their sex slave until she escaped and flagged down a driver who took her to the police.

'It was usual to be woken with a beating'

Ade, 25, From Nigeria:

Strangers brought 11-year-old Ade and his nine-year-old brother to London after their father died.

They were treated as slaves, working first in the kitchens of a restaurant. They were then moved from family to family, missing school, and often had to go to the market to buy food for the restaurant where they worked. "We were constantly being beaten and sometimes even threatened with our lives to make sure we did our duties properly. It wouldn't be unusual to be woken with a beating," he says.

    Sex traffic: Danielle was 15 when she was sold into slavery in the UK, IoS, 25.2.2007, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2303020.ece

3.30pm update

Shootings 'tragic beyond belief', says Blair

Friday February 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Armed police today began patrols in south London following the fatal shootings of three teenagers in less than two weeks, with Tony Blair saying "specific solutions" were needed to address gun crime.

Mr Blair described the deaths as "tragic beyond belief", with his comments coming as the home secretary, John Reid, prepared to meet MPs to discuss the government response to the shootings.

The most recent victim was 15-year-old Billy Cox, who was killed at his home in Clapham on Wednesday afternoon. The teenager's father, Tommy, today urged the community to "get behind the police 100%".

While the Tory leader, David Cameron, blamed increasing gun crime on the breakdown of two-parent families, Mr Blair said the shootings related to a "specific culture".

"Let us be careful in our response," the prime minister said. "This tragedy is not a metaphor for the state of British society, still less for the state of British youth today, the huge majority of whom, including in this part of London, are responsible and law-abiding young people.

"But it is a specific problem, in a specific criminal culture amongst specific groups of young people."

Mr Blair, speaking at the Labour National Youth Conference in Glasgow, said it would "require specific solutions to deal with guns and gangs as well as confronting broader questions of community and family responsibility".

He said some of those solutions would be put forward following discussions with police and community groups.

Mr Cameron said that, if elected, he would "compel men to stand by their families", if necessary by directly taking child support money from their accounts.

Speaking prior to a meeting with MPs to discuss the shootings, Mr Reid said policing and prisons were only part of the solution.

He said the problem "will not be solved ... without firm police action, firm powers and sufficient prison places".

The home secretary was said to be "sympathetic" to yesterday's call from Sir Ian Blair, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, to lower the age at which those involved in gun crimes could receive the mandatory five-year sentence from 21 to 17.

Sir Ian ordered high-visibility police patrols around south London, some of them armed, in an attempt to calm fears and prevent further attacks.

A new taskforce will combine officers from Scotland Yard's gun crime unit, Operation Trident, with mobile teams and patrolling borough officers.

The killings began on February 3 when James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, died after being shot at least twice at the Streatham Ice Arena.

Three days later, Michael Dosunmu was gunned down in his bedroom in Peckham in the early hours of the morning, only days after his 15th birthday. A man was arrested today in connection with the latter killing, police said yesterday.

Friends and neighbours of Billy, who lived on the Fenwick estate, yesterday said it appeared he had been shot after becoming involved in a row with another youth.

Janine Easton, whose children were friends with the victim, said the row could have begun over a text message.

She added that Billy had apparently been arguing with another teenager via their mobile phones, with the situation escalating. "I think it was something to do with cussing each other on text messages - something as silly as that," she said.

"Kids round here get into trouble and get sent to jail and come out thinking they are tough. They are just children ... but they are children with guns."

Another friend of Billy's said he had fallen out with members of a local gang.

Police yesterday said the victim's younger sister, Elizabeth, was returning home from school at just after 3.30pm on Wednesday when she heard a loud bang from the family's maisonette.

She found her brother fatally wounded in his bedroom. Another friend arrived, and the pair tried desperately to save his life. Paramedics were not able to save the teenager.

"Apparently he was alive when she got back, but he was never going to make it," Samantha Poynter, whose son regularly played with Billy and his sister, said.

Yesterday, police said it appeared the teenager - who was serving a supervision order for a burglary offence and was tagged and restricted to a curfew from 7pm to 7am - had been deliberately targeted and knew his attackers. They said there were no signs of forced entry at the maisonette.

Sir Ian said there was no evidence to link the murders, though there were "evidential leads" linking some of them. "There is no evidence to suggest that they are tit-for-tat, but they are entirely unacceptable to the communities of London," he added.

    Shootings 'tragic beyond belief', says Blair, G, 16.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2014884,00.html

How text message may have cost 15-year-old graffiti boy his life

Friday February 16, 2007
Guardian
Matthew Taylor and Hugh Muir

Around the rundown walkways of the Fenwick estate in Clapham there were several theories about why Billy Cox had become the latest teenage victim of an outbreak of gun violence in south London, but all agreed on one detail: he had been involved in a row with another youth.

According to Janine Easton, whose children were friends with Billy, it may have begun with something as trivial as a text message. Billy, she said, had apparently been arguing with another teenager via their mobile phones; it had got of out of hand, and he had paid a terrible price.

"I think it was something to do with cussing each other on text messages - something as silly as that," she said. "Kids round here get into trouble and get sent to jail and come out thinking they are tough. But they are just children - but they are children with guns."

Another friend of Billy's said the 15-year-old had fallen out with members of a local gang, and this was their way of putting him in his place.

The theories were built around a few unavoidable and disturbing facts.

Billy had become the third teenager to be shot and killed in south London in 11 days. In all, there have been five murders in two weeks, a spasm of violent crime that led the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir Ian Blair, to take personal overall command of the joint inquiries, and the force's attempts to reassure the public.

Last night as forensic teams continued searches of the area, it emerged that Billy's younger sister Elizabeth was returning home from school just after 3.30pm on Wednesday when she heard a loud bang coming from the family's maisonette.

Moments later she found her brother bleeding, and fatally wounded in his bedroom. Another friend arrived and the pair tried desperately to save his life.

Police said Elizabeth had tried first aid, but the effort came too late. Paramedics arrived but were not able to save the teenager. "Apparently he was alive when she got back but he was never going to make it," said Samantha Poynter whose son regularly played with Billy and his sister.

Elizabeth, she said, had run into the street screaming. "At first they thought she had hurt herself but then they realised it was Billy." Last night police said it appeared Billy - who was serving a supervision order for a burglary offence, was tagged and restricted to a curfew from 7pm to 7am - was deliberately targeted and knew his attackers. Police said there was no sign of forced entry at the house.

Detective Chief Superintendent Helen Ball said: "We are appealing for anybody to come forward who knows whether anybody had a motive for attacking or injuring Billy in any way. We want to find out what Billy's movements were yesterday afternoon and if anybody saw him we would urge them to come forward."

A local youth worker said Billy had begun mixing with people - maybe gang members - from outside the area. But friends denied he had become involved in south London's gang culture.

John-Michael Baxter, 19, had seen Billy 30 minutes before he died. "He just walked past and said 'Hi!'. He was a good friend. We used to play computer games and he used to stay over sometimes. He was just an ordinary 15-year-old. He was kind. He was not in any of the big gangs - he may have been like little boys round here hanging out but nothing more serious."

Within hours of the shooting, Sir Ian had moved to step up security in the area, with high-visibility policing tactics to calm fears and prevent further attacks.

The taskforce will combine officers from Scotland Yard's gun crime unit Operation Trident with mobile teams - some of which will carry guns - and patrolling borough officers.

The commissioner said he had called the home secretary, John Reid, to seek his support for lowering the age at which those involved in gun crimes receive the five-year mandatory sentence. At present the mandatory sentence applies to those 21 or over. The commissioner said Mr Reid was "sympathetic" to the idea that mandatory sentences should be imposed on offenders as young as 17.

"One thing we must get over to offenders is the seriousness of the consequences of carrying guns and knives," he said.

Mr Reid is expected to address the issue of mandatory sentences after a meeting with London MPs later today.

Sir Ian said there was no evidence to link the spate of murders, though there were "evidential leads" that linked some of them. "There is no evidence to suggest that they are tit-for-tat but they are entirely unacceptable to the communities of London," he added.

    How text message may have cost 15-year-old graffiti boy his life, G, 16.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2014524,00.html

Random violence leaves five dead and locals in fear

Only common strands are proliferation of weapons and fact both killers and victims are getting younger

Friday February 16, 2007
Guardian
Hugh Muir

It was the manner of William "Billy" Cox's murder that caused the most shock yesterday among the communities of south London.

A young boy, just 15, shot in the chest at close range. But it was also the symbolism that prompted incredulity. Like Michael Dosunmu, the 15-year-old killed on February 6, he was murdered in his own home in the manner of an execution. If the first killing seemed unfathomable, the second showed that murder with such brutality, and involving those so young, could no longer be regarded as an aberration.

Uanu Shesmi, director of the Peckham based Boyhood to Manhood Foundation, a charity that works with local youths, said locals know the prognosis is bleak.

"We are trying to put this in context. We know gun crime is going down and I think the police are doing a good job. But we have a number of very damaged young men who are problem solving by killing people. The relationships they have developed with other people are very bad. They don't understand love, or nurturing. Their lives are brutal." He said local teenagers were afraid but the fear extends to primary school children. "I know of one primary school where they had to use 'circle time' with the children to reassure them that they are safe."

After three gun murders of teenagers in 11 days and five killings since February 3, community leaders will meet Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, at Scotland Yard today.

Lee Jasper, director of policing for the mayor of London and an activist in south London, said there was fear, anger, confusion and, in the absence of clarity, speculation. "I have heard one story locally which says that 600 weapons were sold off by a group of white guys in south London recently and that's why there are so many weapons about. I don't know if that is true but it seems that an awful lot of young people are getting their hands on firearms. The fear and bewilderment is palpable."

The south London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, in common with much of urban Britain, are scarred by drug and gang activity. The Peckham Boys achieved national notoriety in that two of its "members" killed Damilola Taylor with a broken bottle in November 2000.

There are others in the area, the Ruff Riders, the Ghetto Boys and the Firehouse Crew, any of which are liable to plunge into sporadic violence over drugs and money and turf. Their tentacles have a disturbing reach. They suck in vulnerable and marginalised boys, some as young as nine, to perform minor roles as drug runners. For those without viable family structures, they provide nurturing. As the boys grow older they graduate increasingly early into the front line of drugs and crime.

But this is not a situation that could reasonably be described as gang warfare and the identified groups do not appear to be playing any obvious role in the current spate of murders. Yesterday Sir Ian insisted there was no obvious pattern, though there may be a link between the murder of one victim, Javorie Crighton, 21, and the later killing of Mr Dosunmu.

It means the picture is chaotic; the violence random. The only common strands are the proliferation of guns and the fact that the shooters and their victims are getting younger.

Sir Ian can fairly argue that he has an encouraging story to tell. Gun crime across London is down 14% since last year and the homicide rate is just a third of that in New York. Crime across the board is down 14%. But he acknowledged that this is of little comfort to the families affected by the recent spate of killings.

Having absorbed the statistics prepared by his officials, he also knows the worrying trends. In 2003 there were 31 youths aged under 20 charged with a gun-related murder in London. In 2006 interim figures showed that number had risen to 76.

His unprecedented deployment of a "temporary task force" of armed and unarmed police to the streets of south London may result in the arrest of gun toting criminals. It may culminate in the seizure of many weapons. But what it will do is reassure a community profoundly affected by the murders and the perception that "gun law" now prevails. "When you have this many incidents in such a short space of time you have to be seen to be reacting," one senior Met source said.

The strategy will be four pronged. Trident detectives have been deployed to investigate the murders themselves. But in addition to that there will be an enhanced response from borough level.

Patrols, which are already conducted under the Safer Neighbourhoods initiative, will be increased and officers told to keep a high visibility. Mobile units from the territorial policing directorate will also be involved and some of the patrols will be armed. Police will lean heavily on intelligence sources and the use of technology such as automatic number plate recognition to target likely suspects.

The fourth strand is to harness the cooperation of the community and Sir Ian said that might be the most important in the long term. "It is up to the community to identify those who are at risk," he said. "This is a problem the Met can only tackle with the communities of London."

    Random violence leaves five dead and locals in fear, G, 16.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2014473,00.html

Schoolboy shot dead in south London home

Thursday February 15, 2007
Guardian
Sam Jones

The Metropolitan police commissioner has ordered an emergency meeting of senior officers after a 15-year-old schoolboy last night became the third teenager to be shot dead in south London in less than two weeks.

The boy, named locally as Billy Cox, was found by a relative at his home in Fenwick Place, Clapham North, at 3.40pm yesterday. Police and an ambulance were called but he was pronounced dead at the scene. His body remained in the house last night as forensic officers examined the property, a ground-floor maisonette in a block of flats which forms part of the estate. It is understood that there were no signs of forced entry. A postmortem is due to be held today.

A neighbour said the whole estate had been stunned by the shooting. "I know he was a good boy," said Christina Piludu. "He always respected all of us. I'm shocked."

She thought the boy lived with his parents and younger sister. She added: "They are very nice children. He was always in the square playing with his bike, talking with the other children, just normal."

Although the schoolboy is understood to be mixed race, of white and Thai parentage, a Met spokeswoman said the investigation would be handed over to Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime in the black community. She said the decision had been made "not because the victim is black, but because it is a shooting".

Yesterday's murder was the third fatal shooting of a schoolboy within a five-mile area of south London in the last 12 days.

James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, died after he was shot at least twice at Streatham Ice Arena on the night of February 3.

Michael Dosunmu was shot and killed by gunmen who broke into his home in Peckham in the early hours of February 6, just days after his 15th birthday.

Detectives said last night that they were keeping an open mind about the motive for the Clapham North shooting, but added that there were no apparent links between the three killings.

Yesterday's death prompted the Met commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, to order a meeting with senior officers to discuss the recent spate of gun murders in south London. He will meet officers from the Met's Specialist Crime Directorate - which includes Operation Trident - today.

In a statement Scotland Yard said: "As is routine, links with recent murders in south London will be investigated but we must retain an open mind as to any potential motive.

"We would like to reassure the communities in south London that we are taking the current situation very seriously and are doing everything in our power to find those responsible."

    Schoolboy shot dead in south London home, G, 15.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/gun/Story/0,,2013482,00.html

3.15pm update

Alert after seven letter bombs sent in three weeks

Wednesday February 7, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Peter Walker and agencies

Police today urged companies and organisations throughout the country to be alert to possible letter bombs after revealing that seven had been sent in the past three weeks, injuring six people.

The warning came after a letter bomb exploded at the DVLA centre in Swansea this morning, slightly injuring a woman.

It was the third such incident at organisations linked to motoring enforcement in as many days.

Today's statement, from the office of Assistant Chief Constable Anton Setchell, the national coordinator for domestic extremism, said all organisations, as well as members of the public, should be on their guard.

"The packages received so far have caused minor injuries but could have been more serious," Mr Setchell said.

"I am appealing today for companies, organisations and individuals to take extra care when handling mail. If they have any suspicions about any letter or package, they should leave it unopened and call the police immediately."

Today's blast reinforced growing fears that a disgruntled driver, or someone else with a grudge against motoring enforcement bodies, had launched a concerted letter bombing campaign.

The DVLA said the injured woman had suffered minor injuries and was being treated in hospital.

Three other workers who were nearby when the bomb exploded were also taken to hospital "as a precaution", it added.

The attack followed a blast at the offices of the accountancy and finance company Vantis, in Wokingham, Berkshire, yesterday. Two people were slightly injured.

Speed Check Services, which provides the technology for speed cameras, is a Vantis client. A spokesman for Vantis said the accountancy company had nothing to do with the collection or imposition of motoring fines.

On Monday, a bomb stuffed into a padded envelope exploded in the hands of a post room worker at the central London offices of Capita, the firm that collects the capital's congestion charge.

The woman, who sustained blast wounds to her hands and stomach, is recovering in hospital.

A spokesman for Thames Valley police, which is leading the investigation into the incidents, said today that officers had definitely linked the first two letter bombs but had not yet made a definite connection with the DVLA blast.

Also today, police in Kent said they were investigating a letter bomb that exploded at the home of a 53-year-old man in Folkestone on Saturday. He suffered minor injuries.

According to some reports, the man was the manager of a company providing security services to companies. He had collected the package from his business address before opening it at home.

A police spokesman said officers were investigating any possible links to the other blasts, but added that it was "too early" to say.

Three other letter bombs were also sent to companies in Oxfordshire and the West Midlands last month, according to police. In each case, the organisations received an A5 padded bag containing a crude firework-type device.

Each had a similar return address. Barry Horne, an animal rights extremist who died in 2001 while serving an 18-year jail sentence for a firebombing campaign, was named on the back of one envelope.

The home secretary, John Reid, said the letter bombs were "a cause for concern". "The police are on top of this," he told reporters outside the Home Office today. "They are keeping me informed here."

Tony Blair, asked about the explosions at prime minister's questions, expressed his sympathies to victims and said the attacks were being investigated "very closely".

This morning, police were called to an office in Pimlico, central London - close to the Capita building - following reports of a suspicious package.

A police spokeswoman said the alert was now over. "Police have now been stood down," she said. "Obviously, with what has happened over the past few days, people are being more cautious than normal."

    Alert after seven letter bombs sent in three weeks, G, 7.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2007604,00.html

Gun crime and murder rate fall but street attacks,
drug offences and vandalism increase

· Antisocial behaviour problems causing concern
· Big rise in use of firearms in residential robberies

Friday January 26, 2007
Guardian
Alan Travis, home affairs editor

Gun crime in England and Wales dropped by 14% last year, the murder rate was down by 9% and overall crime has remained broadly stable, according to Home Office figures published yesterday.

But ministers face worrying signs of persistent problems in street crime, with the number of armed street robberies rising by 9% to 1,439 attacks, and increases in drug offences and vandalism.

The quarterly crime figures also show the government is struggling to reassure the public over antisocial behaviour problems, with four out of the seven indicators used - including those saying drug users, teenagers hanging around and people being drunk or rowdy are a big problem in their area - are all going in the wrong direction.

The annual homicide and gun crime figures published yesterday reveal the decline of the traditional armed robbery, with raids on banks, post offices and building societies all falling sharply over the past 10 years. Alarmingly, however, this has been accompanied by a 46% rise in the use of firearms in residential robberies to 645 cases in the last year.

The three sets of crime figures published yesterday are: offences recorded by the police from July to September 2006 compared with 12 months previously; the latest sweep of the British Crime Survey, (BCS), which interviews 40,000 adults about their experience of crime, covering the same period; and the annual homicide and gun crime figures for the financial year to April 2006.

Overall, they show that the risk of becoming a victim of crime in England and Wales has gone up from 23% to 24% but remains at a historically low level after peaking at 40% in 1995.

The homicide figures show that 766 people were murdered in 2005-06, including the 52 victims of the July 7 London suicide bombings, a fall of 9% on the previous year. This is the third year in succession that the murder rate in England and Wales has fallen after a sustained 40-year rise from the 1960s, which peaked in 2002-03 at more than 1,000, including the 172 victims of Harold Shipman.

The fall in gun crime, down from 11,371 incidents to 9,728 in the year to last September, was welcomed by the Home Office minister Tony McNulty. But he acknowledged the small increase in residential robberies involving firearms: "We have some of the toughest firearms legislation in Europe. Anyone convicted of having a prohibited firearm faces a minimum five-year sentence."

The number of people killed in gun attacks was unchanged at 57 - down from a peak of more than 70 two years ago.

The rise in armed residential robberies from 345 in 2003-04 to 645 last year is an alarming trend but it may partly be accounted for by a similar decline of 200 incidents recorded by the police as firearm burglaries. The long-term decline in the number of armed robberies on banks, post offices and building societies revealed in the figures spells the death of the elite "blag".

The number of armed bank robberies has fallen from 240 in 1995 to only 59 and those involving post offices are also down, from nearly 400 to 108 over the same period. The decline is not explained by branch closures but rather by much improved security measures which have made such premises a "hard target".

The total number of armed robberies rose by 10% to 4,120 from 3,674 over the last 12 months but it is still below the peak of nearly 5,500 such attacks five years ago.

The quarterly crime figures also show that the police have some way yet to go on street crime, with vandalism rising by 11% to an estimated 2.9m incidents, according to the BCS. The 9% rise in drug offences recorded by the police is believed to be down to a surge in formal warnings for cannabis possession.

The police recorded crime figures show a 3% fall in all crime, with the BCS indicating a "statistically insignificant" 4% rise, leaving the impression of a broadly stable crime picture. Both sets of figures continue to show continuing falls in burglary and car crime. Violent crime fell by 1% on police figures and rose 2% according to the BCS.

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said that robbery was a serious violent crime and the figures illustrated Labour's continued failure on crime.

The Liberal Democrat leader, Menzies Campbell, said they showed that tough talk and endless new legislation had done nothing to make us safer, with street violence and vandalism still rising month by month.

Seasonal variations

January is the worst month for domestic burglary, possibly because thieves take a break over Christmas, according to Home Office research. The study of seasonal crime patterns for a decade shows violent assaults, sex crimes, arson and bicycle thefts all peak in the summer and drop during the winter.

The opposite seasonal calendar seems to apply to car crime and domestic burglaries, which peak in the winter and go through troughs in the summer. The researchers found 11% more burglaries in January than the annual average. "This may be due to burglars resting over Christmas, then having to over-compensate in January (when there are also more new goods in homes to steal)," the researchers said.

    Gun crime and murder rate fall but street attacks, drug offences and vandalism increase, G, 26.1.2007, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1999066,00.html

12.30pm update

Robbery continues to rise, crime figures show

Thursday January 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Mark Oliver

Robbery has risen by 1%, the Home Office said today, as it published the latest quarterly crime figures for England and Wales.

The robbery figures came from the Recorded Crime Statistics (RCS) kept by police, which were released by the Home Office at the same time as the latest British Crime Survey (BCS). This survey - which ministers say is the most reliable indicator of crime trends - showed a 14% surge in theft from the person.

Both sets of figures relate to the third quarter of last year, between July and September. The RCS figures are of crimes recorded by police, while the BCS figures come from a survey of the public about whether they were victims of crime.

Vandalism rose sharply in the survey, up 11% to 2,918,000 incidents. Total recorded crime fell by 3% but drug offences increased 9%, in a trend previously blamed on a surge in warnings for cannabis possession.

Today's figures also show that the risk of becoming a victim of crime has increased by 1% to 24%, though the Home Office insisted this was a "historically low" figure, having fallen by 43% since 1995.

The Home Office said overall crime in England and Wales "remains stable" and described the BCS figures on theft from the person as an "apparent increase" which was "not statistically significant".

The Home Office minister Tony McNulty conceded robbery had been of concern in recent statistics, but said there were 23,000 fewer robberies committed last year than five years ago.

He said the launch of a robbery action plan allowed police to "help areas quickly get to grips with the problem".

The home secretary, John Reid, whose department was recently castigated for its failure to keep track of offences committed abroad by UK nationals, is likely to have mixed feelings about the figures.

He will be disappointed that the continuing rise in robbery has not been stopped or reversed; a 5% increase in robberies in the previous quarter caused alarm.

But today's figures do not appear to have put Mr Reid under significantly greater pressure at a time when he has asked the judiciary to stop sending so many criminals to jail. With the prison service stretched, Mr Reid and other cabinet ministers wrote to judges and magistrates yesterday asking them to send only the most dangerous and persistent offenders to jail.

Today's BSC figures show violent crime has fallen by 1% compared with the same quarter last year. The RCS figures show that in the 12 months to September 2006, recorded firearm offences fell 14% to 9,728; firearm fatalities showed no change.

In a statement, the prime minister, Tony Blair, congratulated police on the figures, noting that they showed a 7% reduction in what he termed the "most feared crime", violence causing injury.

Mr Blair said: "Sexual offences are down 4% and crimes involving firearms are down 14% compared with last year. Tough laws - including a minimum five years' [jail] for possessing a gun - are bearing fruit."

He said neighbourhood policing teams were being put in place across the UK, with every London community now having its own team.

"And this has been achieved while still driving down burglary and vehicle crime. The number of burglaries has fallen by 55% since 1997 - that's 651,000 fewer homes being burgled."

However, the government's campaign against anti-social behaviour was dealt a blow, as results showed that people were becoming more worried about the problem in four out of seven categories used to measure results.

There was a rise in concern about people using or dealing drugs, teenagers hanging around on the streets, noisy neighbours or loud parties, and people being drunk or rowdy in public places.

On Monday, the Liberal Democrats launched their new crime policies, which they intend to make a centrepiece of their campaigning in May's local elections. Party leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said at the launch: "Shockingly, we live in a country where only one in every hundred crimes committed leads to a court conviction."

    Robbery continues to rise, crime figures show, G, 25.1.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1998421,00.html

11.45am

Suspects questioned

over school hammer attack

Friday January 12, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Sarah Bridge and agencies

Police were today continuing to question eight men over a hammer attack on a 15-year-old boy at his school in Wiltshire yesterday.

Police made the arrests after the white pupil, who suffered head injuries, was attacked by a group of Asian men at Ridgeway school in Wroughton, near Swindon.

Some parents of pupils at the school today voiced fears that the attack had been racially motivated.

"I've heard there's been some racial problems between the white kids and the Asian kids," one father said as he stopped outside the school gates to drop off his 15-year-old. "I hope this doesn't kick something off."

Last May, police said they would send extra patrols to the area after teenagers leaving the school were beaten up by a gang of men.

The headmaster, Steve Colledge, said a similar incident had happened at the school before he took charge in September, but added that race relations between pupils were generally good.

The boy's injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. He remains in the Swindon Great Western hospital, where police said he was "conscious and comfortable".

Parents have spoken of their shock after the attack. One mother, who did not want to be named, said: "It's incredible this could happen on school grounds in broad daylight ... it's horrific."

Mr Colledge said the incident had left pupils and parents "stunned". He was on patrol in the school grounds when a gang of at least four men jumped out of a car and attacked the boy on the tennis courts just before 4pm yesterday.

The headmaster said he understood the victim had been hit more than once but had remained conscious at all times and was able to help get himself onto a stretcher.

"Clearly, it's such a shocking incident and everybody has been very helpful in identifying the perpetrators to police," he added. "The car was quickly identified and given to the police, who I believe have now detained eight men.

"When [the boy] was at the school, he was speaking and able to tell us what had happened, and we were able to talk to him."

Mr Colledge said counselling would be offered to pupils who had witnessed the incident.

He added that he had heard the attackers were relatives of a pupil at the school. "If that's the case, I think it's even more sad," he said, urging pupils to respond "responsibly and sensibly" to what had happened.

The attack came as Ridgeway celebrated being rated as one of the top schools in Wiltshire, with 73% of its pupils achieving grades A to C at GCSE. "We started the morning in elation ... but we ended the day in tragedy," Mr Colledge said.

    Suspects questioned over school hammer attack, G, 12.1.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1989055,00.html

Girl died 13 years after assault

January 12, 2007
Patrick Foster
The Times

GWENT A man who tried to stop his four-month-old daughter crying by shaking her until she was unconscious caused injuries that resulted in her death 13 years later, a coroner has ruled.

But because Melissa Bennett died more than a year and a day after the injuries were inflicted, no one could be charged. Melissa died last February as a result of epilepsy caused by brain damage. She was taken to hospital in 1993, and again 2½.

Mr Bennett admitted placing a pillow over his baby’s head and shaking her violently. He was later jailed for grievous bodily harm with intent. Until 1996 no one could be charged with causing a death if a year and a day had elapsed after the injuries. The Act repealing the rule was not retrospective.

Girl died 13 years after assault, Ts, 12.1.2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2543537,00.html