Boy robber wins rights case ruling
The trial of an 11-year-old Merseyside boy in an adult court was a breach of his human rights, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in Strasbourg.
The judges ruled 5-2 against the British Government, saying that the unnamed boy was unable to participate effectively in the legal proceedings because of his youth and his low intellect. They awarded him £3,500 in costs and expenses.
The boy was sentenced to two and a half years’ detention after he and a friend tried to snatch a bag from an 87-year-old woman in June 1999, making her fall and fracture her arm.
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Growing pains
Babies born into larger families are more likely to struggle to put on weight during the first nine months, researchers at Bristol University have found. Their study showed that a fourth child is twice as likely to develop more slowly than a first child. Even second and third babies are more likely to “fail to thrive”.
Policemen jailed
Two traffic police who set up a private business as haulage safety consultants while on sick leave were jailed by a Manchester court. Former Sergeant Geoffrey Roberts, 46, of Bacup, and PC Howard Jones, also 46, of Bury, were both in Greater Manchester Police’s Oldham division. Roberts was sentenced to 15 months, Jones to 6 months.
Student injured
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Douglas Neilson, a social work student at Strathclyde University, is in a critical condition in hospital in Larnaca after being found with head injuries in a street in the Cypriot resort of Ayia Napa. Mr Neilson, 19, from Wishaw, Lanarkshire, had become separated from three friends with whom he was on holiday.
Party girl crushed
A partygoer died from head injuries after a 6ft wall collapsed as she tried to climb into her backyard, an inquest heard. Lydia Martin, 21, from Exeter, Devon, had left her keys in the garden because she did not want to carry a handbag. She had been drinking heavily. The Greater Devon Coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Petrol prices cut
Petrol price wars escalated with each of the main supermarkets claiming to sell the lowest cost fuel. Sainsburys and Tesco said they would undercut Asda after it cut 1p a litre off unleaded petrol and diesel bringing the price to 78.9p on the company’s 150 forecourts. Morrisons and Safeway will cut prices by 1p to 78.9p.
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Animal inquiry
The Royal Society is to investigate the costs of protecting university laboratories against animal rights terrorism. Professor Eric Keverne, chairman of the society’s animals in research committee, has written to every university asking for a breakdown of how much they spend on security measures for animals and staff.
Guilty organist
The Queen’s former choirmaster was found guilty at Reading Crown Court of a string of indecent assaults on boys and girls stretching back 30 years. Jonathan Rees-Williams, 55, who quit as organist and master of the choristers at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in 2002, will be sentenced on July 26.
Trafficker jailed
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An international crack cocaine trafficker known as “Father Fowl”, who used the music industry as a front for a drugs empire, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court to 13 years’ jail. Owen Clarke, of northwest London, ran one of the largest drug-trafficking organisations in Britain from his suburban bungalow.
A black labrador was rescued half a mile off the coastline in the North Sea after a game of fetch got out of hand. Martin Weaver and his wife Muriel, of Chester-le-Street, rang the coastguard after their dog, Ben, followed a ball out off Seaburn Beach, Sunderland. Mrs Weaver, 45, said: “We kept calling but he would not come back without it.”
Task force for Asian offenders
London: A task force to combat serious crime among South Asian communities is being planned amid concern at rising numbers of murders and kidnaps. Gun crime is beginning to spread in the Tamil, Sikh, Indian, Pakistani and Bengali communities and the murder rate has tripled in the past decade. Senior Scotland Yard detectives want to prevent the rise of powerful, violent criminals who could dominate Asian communities and provide dangerous role models. There were only 10 murders involving South Asian victims in 1993 and 38 in 2003. The number of kidnap cases has risen from 90 in 1998 to 228 in 2003.