2007
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2007 |
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2007 Sections
Tribunal rules Learco Chindamo, killer of Head teacher cannot be
deported |
26 August 2007 Sunday Times
Sunday Times article From August 26, 2007 Ministers 'covered up' gun crime
THE government was accused yesterday of covering up the full extent of the gun crime epidemic sweeping Britain, after official figures showed that gun-related killings and injuries had risen more than fourfold since 1998. The Home Office figures - which exclude crimes involving air weapons - show the number of deaths and injuries caused by gun attacks in England and Wales soared from 864 in 1998-99 to 3,821 in 2005-06. That means that more than 10 people are injured or killed in a gun attack every day. This weekend the Tories said the figures challenged claims by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, that gun crime was falling. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, tells her in a letter today that the “staggering findings” show her claims that gun crime has fallen are “inaccurate and misleading”. The political row erupted as Merseyside police continued to question a 15-year-old boy about the murder last week of Rhys Jones in Croxteth, Liver-pool. The 11-year-old was returning from football training when he was shot by a hooded teenager on a bicycle. Experts are examining a BMX bike abandoned in another area of the city. Six other teenagers, including two girls, from the Croxteth and Norris Green areas were in custody last night. Two others have been released on bail. + Full Sunday Times on line article 21 August 2007
Immigration judges ruled that expelling Italian passport holder Learco Chindamo, now 26, to Italy, where he was born would breach his right to a "family life". The Times newspaper obtained obtained a copy of the judgement despite the courts having initially considered preventing its publication. The judgment shows that the Home Office considers that Chindamo represents a genuine and present sufficiently serious threat to the public to justify his deportation. The Home Office goes on to say, “As a consequence it was considered that he posed a continuing risk to the public and that his offences were so serious that he represented a genuine and present and sufficiently serious threat to the public in principle such as to justify his deportation”. The tribunal ruled that Home Office attempts to kick out Chindamo would breach his human rights. It said deporting him would contravene his human rights because he has lived in the UK since he was six. The tribunal's ruling is based on a new EU law that protects its citizens from expulsion from other EU states except in extreme circumstances. Chindamo was told of his tribunal success at the weekend and was said to be “pleased”. Justice Secretary Jack Straw said, "What I have been able to glean is that it is very probable that most of this issue arises not from the Human Rights Act but from European Union law." On Monday the Home Office confirmed it would be appealing "robustly" against the decision. The widow of murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence said: "I am devastated, demoralised. More than that, I'm unutterably depressed that the Human Rights Act has failed to encompass the rights of my family to lead a safe, secure and happy life. "I have always been a staunch advocate of the Human Rights Act but there is a missing term in it. It must encompass some responsibility. "This isn't just about me and my family. I am not solely thinking of me. I may be a mother but I am a human being as well. I feel I can't fight any more. I feel I can't survive this." Opposition MPs said the human Rights Act had been brought into disrepute by a verdict which rated the bereaved family of a loyal public servant lower than that of a killer. Conservative leader David Cameron accused the Government of being "blind" about the Act's failings, he said that it would be common sense to scrap it altogether. He said, "The fact that the Human Rights Act means he cannot be deported flies in the face of common sense. It is a shining example of what is going wrong in our country. He is someone who has been found guilty of murder and should be deported back to his country... what about the rights of Mrs Lawrence or the victim?" (Daily Mail) The Police Federation’s Alan Gordon called the ruling “ludicrous”. He said: “What about the human rights of Philip Lawrence, his wife and children?” (Sun) Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said: "This is yet another case where the human rights of the criminal seem to be overriding. The short answer is to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights, as we are entitled to do, and write our own human rights law." (Daily Mail)+
Times on line article 20 August 2007 The Sun
Anarchy in the UK as yobs rule
By DAVID WOODING
BRITAIN is on the brink of ANARCHY after a weekend of yob violence, campaigners said last night. As figures revealed knife crime had DOUBLED in two years, a string of incidents left law-abiding citizens living in terror. A mob BESIEGED a police station. A man and a teenage boy were MURDERED in separate incidents and paramedics were ATTACKED as they tended a father and son. In one county, 999 callers were told there were only THREE police on duty in a town of 22,000 people. Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust and a serving cop, said: “Violent crime has reached epidemic proportions. “We are experiencing anarchy on the streets of Britain. There is no other way to describe it. Government doesn’t get a grip soon, I predict outbreaks of civil disorder within three to five years.” Mr Brennan branded Labour’s election winning tough-on-crime slogan “the biggest deception in British history”. 20 August 2007 The Mirror
Too scared to leave our homesEXCLUSIVE MIRROR POLL SHOCKER 42% frightened of yobs at night 62% think parents are to blameBy Nick Webster 20/08/2007A disturbing 42 per cent of people are too afraid of yobs to leave home at night, a Mirror poll reveals today. Half of those quizzed feel less safe than a decade ago. A third have called police about anti-social behaviour. And 62 per cent believe parents are to blame for their children's loutishness. Yob rule on our streets and estates is now so out of control Britain is a nation gripped by fear. Despite a record number of police on patrol half of us feel less safe than a decade ago, an exclusive Mirror/GMTV poll reveals today. An overwhelming 65 per cent of people believe that under-16s should not be allowed out unsupervised after dark. And 62 per cent believe the most blame for youngsters' loutishness lies with parents. The nationwide poll discovered that the fear of street corner gangs, hoodies and muggers is so widespread that 42 per cent of people would rather stay at home at night. Among women that figure rises to almost 50 per cent. Significantly, 11 per cent of people do not feel safe at ANY time. More than a third - 36 per cent - have had to call police about anti-social behaviour. A third also admitted they have been forced to confront thuggish youths. For their pains, one in every 25 was attacked, a quarter threatened and a fifth simply ignored. Only five per cent of those quizzed believed the easy availability of cheap alcohol was to blame. Instead, 89 per cent thought parents should be held responsible for their children's anti-social behaviour. Our exclusive poll was carried out in the days after dad of three Garry Newlove, 47, of Warrington, Cheshire, and graduate Evren Anil, 23, of Crystal Palace, South London, died after challenging louts. Yesterday the Victims of Crime Trust said: "The Mirror's findings are horrendous. "The reality of crime and lawlessness is that there is anarchy on our streets. Unless we try to reverse this, the next two generations of children will be behaving even worse." 19 August 2007 Times on line
19 August 2007 Times on line From August 19, 2007 Knife crime doubles in 2 years
THE full extent of Britain’s violent crime epidemic, which yesterday claimed the life of another teenager, is revealed in shocking new figures that show the number of street robberies involving knives has more than doubled in two years. Attacks in which a knife was used in a successful mugging have soared, from 25,500 in 2005 to 64,000 in the year to April 2007. The figures mean that each day last year saw, on average, 175 robberies at knife-point in England and Wales – up from 110 the year before and from 69 in 2004-5. The study, by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King’s College London, is based on the government’s own statistics. It shows that knives are used in one in five muggings, twice the frequency reported two years ago. The new figures will renew pressure on ministers to address the rising tide of violence and antisocial behaviour on Britain’s streets. The surge in knife crime was highlighted yesterday when police announced a murder investigation after Andrew Holland, 16, died following a stabbing in Bolton. The teenager was awaiting his GCSE results this week and wanted to join the army, his family said. In a separate attack, Northum-bria police charged a man after an incident on the Tyne Bridge in which a policeman was allegedly attacked with a knife. This weekend David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said ministers had been complacent. “This explosion in knife crime is the most astounding symptom of Britain’s broken society. The government has been slow to recognise and even slower to act to deal with this plague on the streets of our towns and cities,” said Davis. Richard Garside, director of the CCJS, said ministers had taken the wrong approach to tackling the problem. “The government has embarked on endless law and order initiatives, yet knife-related robberies appear to be increasing, if the latest figures are to be believed,” he said. “This challenges the notion that there is a policing or punishment solution to this problem. Success in tackling knife-related violence will require a concerted strategy to deal with the causes of violence, of which the social antagonisms caused by poverty and inequality are key.” According to the study, to be published next month, there were 320,000 robberies in the 12 months to April 2007. That contrasts with 311,000 last year and 255,000 in 2005.
02 August 2007 The Independent
Police DNA database 'risks criminalising non-offenders'By Ben Russell, Political CorrespondentPublished: 02 August 2007
People are being added to the Government's national DNA database at the rate of more than one a minute, figures from the Liberal Democrats have revealed. Their research showed that 547,020 profiles were added last year, the equivalent of 62 an hour, leading to claims that ministers were taking Britain into a "headlong rush" towards a surveillance state as numbers on the controversial police record topped four million. ... It emerged that senior police officers have warned the database might criminalise law-abiding people. Alex Marshall, Deputy Chief Constable of Thames Valley, said in a response to the Home Office's review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act that "extending the taking of samples to all offences may be perceived as indicative of the increasing criminalisation of the generally law-abiding citizen". ... The Home Office insists that the DNA database - the largest in the world - is a vital tool in the fight against crime. But critics warn that the system could lead to discrimination against ethnic minorities. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, who obtained the figures, said: "The Government's onward march towards a surveillance state has now become a headlong rush. They seem determined to hoover up the DNA details of as many people as they can, regardless of guilt or innocence."+ Full article; http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2826207.ece
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