"A dental student found guilty of sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl will face no punishment after being granted an absolute discharge." "Christopher Daniel, 18, denied carrying out numerous assaults on the girl while he was aged 15 to 17 and she was between six and eight." "He was granted the discharge by Sheriff Gerard Sinclair after being found guilty at Dumbarton sheriff court at the end of a three-day trial. It means that Daniel, from Glasgow, will not be placed on the sex offenders register and the guilty verdict was not recorded as a conviction." "The victim’s family were not allowed to see a report sent by the sheriff to the Crown Office explaining his `wholly exceptional` decision, an STV investigation has found." https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/student-guilty-of-sex-assault-on-girl-6-will-not-be-punished-rpzdx6bmv
Channel 4 Monday, 04 February 2019 12:10
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"The Children’s Commissioner for England has called for a compulsory home education register and strong measures to tackle ‘off-rolling’." "In a report, Skipping school: invisible children, Anne Longfield also said there should be more support for families who home educate, a greater oversight of home schooled children and decisive action against unregistered schools..." "Some children were completely out of sight of the authorities and ‘off the grid’ – with research by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS)/Dispatches showing 93% of councils say they are not aware of all the children in their area who are home educated. When local authorities offer to visit a home educating family, in 28% of cases the family refuses." http://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38016%3Achildrens-commission-calls-for-compulsory-home-education-register&catid=54&Itemid=22 Of course, one of the reasons for an increase in home education is the failure of many mainstream schools to cope with children with additional support needs. [ASN] Here is an example from Scotland: "The presumption to mainstream sees all children taught in mainstream schools unless certain exemptions apply. Currently, more than a quarter of the pupil population in Scotland (28.7 per cent) has ASN, an increase of more than 68 per cent since 2012 (in part due to an increase in awareness and identification). This, however, is against the background of 500 fewer specialist ASN teachers and a reduction in support staff, such as education psychologists and behaviour support staff..." "A lack of classroom support, driven in part by budgetary cuts, means that many of these vulnerable children and young people are not having their educational and social needs met. This is also putting pressure on fellow pupils and teachers, with many of the latter lacking the necessary training to provide the specialist support required."
Brian Gerrish is almost certain that Melanie Shaw is no longer being held in HM prison Styal.
"She`s definitely not been released. We are trying to establish where she is at the moment, but this is very very sinister that we`ve now got people simply disappearing inside Britain`s prison gulag to match those secret courts; the redacted information; and, of course, the violence by the state against its own citizens."
John Wedger - Police WHISTLE-BLOWER on CHILD ABUSE in UK [AV9] "I am a retired Police Detective who specialised in child abuse investigations. Whilst serving on Scotland Yard's Vice squad I uncovered a well organised and established child prostitution network involving children aged 9-14 years, all of which were subject to care orders. I disclosed the sheer extent of this vile criminality and those involved. I was then threatened and bullied in an attempt to silence me. I made an allegation of corruption against a senior police officer for the cover up and as a result I endured an horrendous campaign of bullying. I nearly lost my home, job, liberty and placement of my children for my efforts as a whistle-blower."
"I now work with victims and survivors in order to help them gain the justice they deserve as well as campaigning with other whistle-blowers to change the law to give us the adequate protection we deserve."
"The UK's biggest childcare charity yesterday claimed there had been no 'malice' in the mistreatment of children - as it formally apologised to youngsters abused in its homes." "Former Barnardo's executive Sara Clarke now works for the organisation as a consultant, helping it to tackle historic allegations of child abuse and neglect." "She said the charity was 'deeply sorry' for any 'hurt' that children in its care had suffered - and accepted that the charity was responsible for 'failures' that led to abuse..."
"The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SQAI) has heard a series of allegations that children in its homes were beaten and raped."
Here is what Xantura has to say about its Fusion platform:
"The Fusion platform is being configured to better target early help services and reduce financial pressures in several business domains, including;
Children`s Services Adult Social Care & Health Housing / Homelessness Community Safety
In all these deployments, very careful consideration is given by data owners as to what data will be supplied and under what circumstances it can be shared."
However the reality might involve breaches in a family`s right to privacy given that consent for data sharing is not always sought. For example:
"Hackney Council is refusing to release details about a profiling system which flags at-risk families in the borough to social workers." "The Town Hall has also confirmed that people whose data is captured through its services are not told it is being used for this purpose."
"The council has paid a total of £361,400 to private data analytics company Xantura since 2015, and says it is trialling the firm’s Early Help Profiling System (EHPS)..." "A spokesperson said the decision to keep secret what predictive indicators are used to profile families is at the request of Xantura, which argues the information is commercially sensitive."
But Alexandra Runswick, director of campaign group Unlock Democracy, said: `Commercial sensitivity should not override democratic accountability`. " "`Private companies like Xantura – that knowingly get into the business of local democracy – should expect to be open about how software is being used for targeting`." "`We know that human biases can be baked into profiling software design. This is a challenge that some of the largest companies in the world haven’t been able to iron out`." https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2018/10/18/council-360k-xantura-software-profiles-troubled-families/
"The sentencing of Melanie Shaw over three charges of prison arson has been adjourned for four weeks." "The 48-year-old was due to be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court today, Monday, after a jury in the same court in October had found that she had committed three counts of arson being reckless as to whether property was damaged or destroyed." "The October proceedings were a 'trial of facts' to establish if she had carried out the acts, rather than a formal trial with a 'guilty' verdict', because [she] was deemed unfit to stand trial." "During today's hearing, which lasted less than five minutes, Judge Belcher said she was not happy with a report that had been supplied by a doctor." "The judge said the case `can't be dealt with today`." "She requested further doctor's reports from the defence and adjourned the case until February 11, where she said she would decide on the sentence." "The judge said: `I adjourn this case for the 11th of February. Reports requested for a hospital order`." "Shaw did not appear in person for the hearing today. Around 15 of her supporters were in the public gallery for the hearing."
