Up to 450,000 children to lose their extra help for special needs

As many as 450,000 children could be removed from school special needs registers because they have been wrongly labelled as requiring extra help, the Government will announce today.

Campaigners fear the cuts could leave thousands of children "cut adrift". One in five school children in England is on the register.

The rules are designed to toughen up the diagnosis of behavioural and learning problems, amid concerns that schools are abusing the system to disguise poor teaching and climb league tables.

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Death Threats For Man Who Killed 'Giant Rat'

A grandfather who caught and killed a 'giant rat', has said he has been getting death threats from animal rights activists.

Brian Watson, from County Durham, says people have called him a murderer since he spoke on television about clubbing the large rodent with a piece of wood.

In an interview with Sky Tyne and Wear in April, he showed a photograph of the dead animal, which was so big some observers have said it was a coypu, also known as a river rat.

Mr Watson said: "Since my last interview we've had quite a few phone calls and letters off cranks saying I'm a murderer, that it should be me that's clubbed to death because they're saying it's a coypu.

"I know the difference between a rat and a coypu, because I've lived in the country most of my life and it's vermin, and vermin should be destroyed.

"Rats carry diseases, that's why they get killed, so you crankers out there, don't waste my time and don't waste your own time," he added.

Mr Watson said at the time that the rat was so big it may have been pregnant.

He had left it on the side of a river for several days, but decided to destroy the rodent in a fire as word of its size spread.

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94-Year-Old Beaten In Her Bed

This picture was released at the request of Mrs Winnall's family

Specially-trained police are preparing to speak to a 94-year-old grandmother who was attacked while she was asleep in her bed at home.

Emma Winnall, from Moseley in Birmingham, was assaulted after going to sleep on April 30, in an attack which left her with a fractured skull, a broken arm and wrist, a partially-severed finger and other injuries.

The grandmother-of-seven remains in hospital having undergone emergency surgery, including having metal plates inserted into her arm.

A picture of Mrs Winnall showing her in her younger years

Detectives have so far been unable to determine a motive for the attack - and it is not thought anything was stolen.

Police remain in the area to reassure locals and also to appeal for help in tracking down the attacker.

The photograph of Mrs Winnall - who worked during World War II in an armaments factory - in hospital was released at the request of her daughter as part of the police appeal.

Detective Chief Inspector Sarb Johal said police believed "an implement of some sort" was used in the attack.

He said: "This is a truly sickening attack on a defenceless, frail lady as she slept in her own home.

"Mrs Winnall had nothing of note to steal; it was a senseless assault."

One neighbour told Sky News: "It's disgusting. Only the lowest of the low would do that.

"It's just scary that it can happen on your doorstep and that someone could do that to an old woman."

Anyone with information is asked to contact West Midlands Police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555111.

 

Baby born with six legs

Umar Farooq was born with a rare genetic disorder called polymelia in which an embryo starts as conjoined twins in the womb.

Umar Farooq born with six legs has had four of his limbs successfully removed by surgeons in Pakistan, according to reports.

One of the twins eventually disintegrates, leaving behind extra limbs that get attached to the remaining foetus.

"A team of five experienced doctors have successfully separated the extra legs and limbs from the baby. He is very much safe and secure," Dr Jamal Raza, director of the National Institute of Child Health in Karachi, told Dawn.com.

"The extra limbs and legs were the result of a genetic disease which would affect only one in a million or more babies."

Dr Raza said that despite being born with extra limbs, Umar "was as normal as other children".

"Before surgeons could operate they said they had to work out which of the limbs belonged to the boy and which to his twin," Dr Raza told the International Business Times. 

Umar's father, Imran Sheikh, was able to pay for his son's operation after his plea for financial help was met by the governor of the Sindh province in Pakistan.

"We are a poor family. I am thankful to the government and doctors for helping in the successful operation of my baby," Mr Sheikh told the Pakistan Observer.

Baby-Snatcher Admits Killing Child's Mother

A nurse in Texas who had suffered a miscarriage has admitted to shooting a young mother dead and taking her three-day old baby.

In a case that has shocked America, the mother was leaving a paediatric clinic with her child when her attacker, Verna McClain, fired at her repeatedly.

The killer then drove away with Kala Marie Golden's infant son, who was then found on Tuesday evening unharmed.

McClain has been charged with capital murder over the death of 28-year-old Ms Golden. She has pleaded guilty to shooting her victim and abducting her newborn baby.

Police issued an alert when Keegan Golden was kidnapped

Authorities have confirmed McClain had suffered a recent miscarriage. She had reportedly told her fiance that she had given birth to his child and pretended Keegan was her own baby.

Prosecutors claim McClain shot the mother as part of a plan to kidnap any child that day. Golden was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Three-day-old Keegan Golden was found with Corina Jackson, McClain's sister. He has been handed over to his relatives.

Witnesses described seeing Golden being shot by another woman who then snatched her baby and began to drive away in a car.

The dying woman leaned into the vehicle and tried to take Keegan back, screaming: "My baby", but her attacker sped away.

McClain is thought to be a vocational nurse, married with two children but separated from her partner.

Wrongfully Jailed Police Officer Awarded £800,000 Payout

A police officer who was wrongfully jailed after a malicious prosecution brought by colleagues in Cleveland Police has been awarded more than £800,000 in compensation.

Sultan Alam was a police constable in 1994 when he was accused of being involved in a 'car ringing' scam.

He was jailed for handling stolen goods two years later.

The 49-year-old father of two said he endured ‘years of shame and humiliation’ that cost him two marriages and his health but claimed the result was all about the principle – not the money. 

He said outside court: It does not appear to me that lessons have been learned from the last 17 years. Safeguards need to be put in place or improved to ensure that this never happens again.

Cleveland Police  admitted offences including malicious prosecution at Leeds county court and will pay Mr Alam £841,430. 

The court heard the former traffic officer was ‘stitched up’ by fellow officers as a result of launching race discrimination proceedings in 1993.

Angry Ex Drives Boyfriend's Car Into Bowling Alley

CCTV pictures have been released, showing how a woman was - literally - driven to take revenge over a relationship split.

A jilted lover crashed her ex-boyfriend's car into the bowling alley where he worked after he changed his Facebook status to "single", a court heard.
Spurned Claire Holley, 31, got drunk and ploughed through the glass doors in her ex's Ford Focus.
She came to rest against the reception desk where he worked, Bolton Crown Court heard.
Her former boyfriend, Davy Jones, the father of one of her two children, had earlier ended the relationship and changed his Facebook status to single, the court heard.
Holley destroyed £14,000 of equipment at the Hollywood Bowl at Middlebrook in
Horwich, near Bolton, Greater Manchester, on January 25 this year.
She admitted at an earlier hearing to driving dangerously, drink-driving and two assaults on police officers as she was restrained.

The defendant was sentenced to nine months in jail, suspended for two years, when she appeared at the court.
She was also banned from the road for 18 months for drink-driving.
Holley was also given a two-year community order with a four-month curfew between 8pm and 7am.
Geoff Whelan, prosecuting, told the court Holley and Mr Jones had been in a two-year relationship and had one child together.
On January 25 she dropped Mr Jones off at his workplace but during the evening was texting him, pleading with him not to leave and to come back home.
Mr Jones turned his phone off and Holley wrote on Facebook that she was heartbroken and crushed.

Holley, of Seddon Street, Little Hulton, then left her children, aged 11 and five, with Mr Jones' sister and set off in Mr Jones's car.
She had drunk half a bottle of wine and a couple of large vodkas.
Witnesses saw her parked up and revving the engine before ploughing through bollards and the glass entrance of the bowling alley at speed.
Mr Jones was seen to run towards the smashed vehicle, shouting: "You have wrecked my car!"
Two off-duty police officers stepped in to help and were bitten and scratched by Holley as they tried to restrain her.

Recorder Robert Crawford, passing sentence, told the defendant she was spared jail by the "skin of your teeth".
Outside court, Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor for the North West, said: "It was extremely fortunate that no members of the public suffered serious harm as a result of her extraordinarily dangerous driving.
"She drove her car at the public entrance to the bowling alley with reckless disregard as to what or who she would strike. The consequences could have been horrific.
"Using the car as a weapon is dangerous driving at its worst. The Crown Prosecution Service is dedicated to prosecute those who drive without regard for others."

'I'm glad John Lennon is dead': Mel Gibson facing fresh outrage over rant claims

The Beatles icon was not the only target of Gibson’s attacks, according to claims by top screenwriter Joe Eszterhas.

Controversial Hollywood star Mel Gibson faced fresh outrage yesterday over claims he saidJohn Lennon deserved to die.
The astonishing allegation was made by top screenwriter Joe Eszterhas in a leaked nine-page letter to the Braveheart actor.
Eszterhas, best known for the Sharon Stone hit Basic Instinct, wrote the script for Gibson’s planned film about biblical Jewish hero Judah Maccabee.
But after his screenplay was rejected by Warner Brothers studio this week, he launched a string of attacks on Gibson, who he says sabotaged the project.
He alleges Gibson once ranted about the murdered ex-Beatle: “I’m glad he’s dead. He deserved to be shot.”
Gibson, 56, allegedly added: “He was f*****g messianic. Listen to the songs! Imagine. I hate that f*****g song,”

The music icon, who was shot dead outside his New York apartment by a demented fan in 1980, was not the only target of Gibson’s attacks, Eszterhas says.
In the letter, the screenwriter, 67, wrote that the star “hates Jews”, called the Holocaust “horses**t”.
Eszterhas – who is Jewish – also claimed Gibson only pitched The Maccabees to “deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism”.
During an arrest for drink-driving in 2006, the Oscar-winner reportedly launched an outspoken attack on Jews, saying they were “responsible for all the wars in the world”.
Eszterhas also said Gibson referred to Jews as “oven-dodgers” and “Jewboys” and said the only reason he was making the film was “to convert the Jews to Christianity”.
The letter also says: “It seemed that most times when we discussed someone, you asked ‘He’s a Hebe (Jew) isn’t he?’ You said most ‘gatekeepers’ of American companies were ‘Hebes’ who ‘controlled their bosses’.”

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2 Year Old Aliyah beaten then bled to death

Two-year-old Aliyah Johnson suffered a blow to her belly that was so forceful her liver ruptured, causing her to bleed to death.

Pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov, after performing an autopsy on Aliyah, determined she died as a result of blunt force abdominal trauma and acute internal blood loss. 

The pathologist spent almost three hours at the Forensic Science Centre, St James carefully examining the body of the young girl, who died on Easter Sunday, to determine the cause of her death. There was no sign of sexual abuse.

Blood, urine and tissue samples have been taken for further tests including toxicology.

Police reported, at about 7.45 pm on Sunday, they received a report by staff at the Siparia District Health Facility that an unresponsive two-year-old child had been brought to the hospital, bearing marks of violence about her body, and bleeding from her vagina.

Since then, two relatives who were said to be with baby Aliyah when she suffered her injuries at a house along Maria David Trace, Siparia, have been detained at separate police stations.

One of the suspects, a woman, told police that she last saw Aliyah alive on Sunday evening when a male relative took the girl for a bath.

However, it had also been reported that the teenager had told relatives that the girl had fallen off her bed.

With the results of the autopsy at hand, police investigators have informed Newsday that they intend to officially classify the death as a murder and would be approaching the Director of Public Prosecutions, Roger Gaspard SC, in the near future, possibly as early as today.

It was said that statements were expected to be taken from the two relatives in custody late yesterday as well as from baby Aliyah’s aunt Marisa Johnson. However, up to press time it could not be confirmed if the statements had been recorded.

Speaking to Newsday yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, following the autopsy, a very emotional Marisa Johnson said her family was still in terrible shock over the loss of baby Aliyah and that her father had taken the news the hardest, and was forced to visit his doctor repeatedly this week.

She said she was pleased so far with the work of the police investigators and she was hoping for a “proper outcome” now that the autopsy had been completed.

“According to the findings, Aliyah’s abdomen had been hit, causing her liver to rupture, which in turn caused her to bleed out through her private parts. Thankfully, there were no findings of sexual assault. The report also shows that she had several marks of violence on her skin,” Johnson said.

“Dr Alexandrov said that most likely she was beaten and the marks were a result of the acts of violence. Right now, we simply want justice for this atrocity. The person who did this must be put away,” Johnson said.

Johnson, a mother of four, explained that contrary to various media reports, baby Aliyah was not the result of an unwanted pregnancy, and she was very loved and appreciated by her mother.

“I don’t understand how this information is circulating. It is completely false. Her mother wanted that child so badly. In fact it was I who offered to take the baby from her when we found out she was having a girl, because at the time I had three sons, she was just a teen and I desperately wanted a daughter. But she said no. She was very excited to be a mom and she loved that child with all her heart,” Johnson recalled.

Funeral arrangements are expected to be made today, with the services most likely taking place on Saturday morning.

last 4 Pictures by Ian Alleyne

UK Border Agency unable to fulfil its basic functions, MPs warn

The UK Border Agency risks raising suspicions it is trying to mislead the public, according to the MPs. Photograph: Steve Parsons

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) must rid itself of its "bunker mentality" or risk raising suspicions that it is trying to mislead parliament and the public, MPs have warned.

The Commons home affairs select committee criticised the agency for providing data it said was so unclear even the agency's own chief executive, Rob Whiteman, had difficulty in following it.

"It is difficult to see how senior management and ministers can be confident that they know what is going on if the agency cannot be precise in the information it provides to this committee," the report said.

It added that the agency was failing to fulfil its basic tasks, and risked damaging public trust in the government.

"The agency must rid itself of its bunker mentality and focus on ensuring that parliament and the public understands its work," MPs said.

"Confusion over figures only risks suspicion that the agency is attempting to mislead parliament and the public over its performance and effectiveness.

"The only way the Home Office can allay and remove these fears is to clean up and clarify all the figures that are used in these reports."

Dame Helen Ghosh, the permanent secretary to the Home Office, should also set out how she "intends to clean up the use of statistics within the department", the committee said, adding that the agency was, in fact, "an integral part of the Home Office".

The wide-ranging report showed a fifth of foreign prisoners who finished their jail terms in 2010/11 – 1,060 criminals – had still not been deported by November last year.

But the agency was unclear over which obstacles were blocking deportation, and over the rights of more than 520 other foreign criminals who had been allowed to remain in the UK, the committee said.

It also found that six years after 1,013 foreign nationals were released from prison without being considered for deportation, only 397 have been removed or deported.

"Six years is far too long for this situation to be resolved, and these cases should have been concluded long ago," the committee said.

It called for the authorities to ensure foreign defendants have the necessary travel documentation as soon as they are sentenced so they can be deported once they have served their jail terms.

Almost 20,000 asylum cases also remained unresolved and 120,000 immigration cases were being written off because the applicants could no longer be found, it added.

Keith Vaz, the committee's chairman, said: "The reputation of the Home Office, and by extension the UK government, is being tarnished by the inability of the UK Border Agency to fulfil its basic functions.

"The foreign national prisoner issue and the asylum backlog were scandals which first broke in 2006, six years ago.

"UKBA appears unable to focus on its key task of tracking and removing illegal immigrants, overstayers or bogus students from the country."

He continued: "The so-called controlled archive, the dumping ground for cases where the UK Border Agency has lost track of the applicant, will take a further four years to clear, at the current rate of resolution. This is unacceptable."

The committee also questioned why 700,000 migrants were applying for multiple visas each year.

Its figures were based on records showing 120,841 of the 443,841 visa applications in August and September last year were from applicants who had applied previously.

The MPs questioned "whether an applicant could have legitimate reasons for applying for three or more visas" and called for the agency to assess "the implications of imposing a limit on the number of times an individual can apply for a visa".

They also criticised the agency's refusal to recognise the term "bogus colleges", and the fact that it gives advance warning of half of its college inspections. All inspections of colleges sponsoring foreign students hoping to study in the UK should be unannounced in future, the committee said.

It added that the mothballing of £9.1m Iris scanners at airports just five years after they were introduced "should not be repeated".

Any data collected on e-Gates - electronic border gates – trials should be published "to ensure it does not suffer the same costly investment in equipment which will not last", the report said.

The immigration minister, Damian Green, said: "At the same time as clearing up the mistakes of the past, we are taking the action necessary to ensure the same errors will not be allowed to happen in the future.

"We are starting the deportation process earlier and removing foreign criminals more quickly than ever.

"We are now making better asylum decisions, ensuring cases are properly tracked, improving intelligence and speeding up removals.

"This government has chosen to publish more information than ever before, information which members of the public and parliament can use to analyse our performance and hold us to account."