Category: news

Prince Charles has visited flood-hit areas in Cornwall, meeting people affected by the floodwaters.

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The former auditor general for Wales has been jailed for eight months after possessing more than 170 indecent images of children.

Jeremy Colman, 62, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to 15 separate offences after indecent images of children were found on a computer at his offices.

The judge at Cardiff Crown Court told Colman he felt sick looking at the images shown in evidence.

Colman was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Colman has a home at Dinas Powys in the Vale of Glamorgan but has been living near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.

In sentencing him, Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, the Recorder of Cardiff, said he had caused considerable embarrassment for the Welsh assembly.

The Wales Audit Office is an independent public body which was established by the assembly.

Colman, who stood down from his £170,000-a-year post in February, had been remanded in custody since 1 November after admitting downloading and possessing images of child sex abuse.

Colman also admitted a charge of failing to disclose a password to allow police to access information on a USB memory stick.

The court heard 51 of the images were of level four, the second most serious level.

Prosecutor Roger Griffiths said: “A search of his computer found a large number of pornographic images of males over 18 and of pornographic images of boys.

“Colman had also googled websites for Turkish boys.”

Wendy Hewitt, defending, said Colman was twice-married but had been “confused” about his sexuality since a teenager.

She said: “He is not of just good character – but of impeccable character.

“Most of his concern came from his spouse finding out.”

As auditor general, Colman was one of the most senior civil servants in Wales overseeing more than £20bn of public money a year.

But while in his office in Cardiff he secretly viewed photographs of child sexual abuse.

The images were described by the judge as utterly revolting material.

In January, Colman told the audit office authorities he had emailed a naked photograph of himself to a contact on a social networking site.

IT specialists examined his computer and 12 days later the police were called in.

Some 172 images were found on both official and personal computers.

The court was told Colman destroyed the hard drives of four personal computers.

Colman admitted 10 charges of making indecent photographs of a child and four counts of possessing indecent images.

He admitted a further offence of failing to disclose his computer password to police.

He was jailed for eight months and ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

The judge added: “This is a personal tragedy for yourself and your wife but there can be no special treatment because of who you are.

“You have caused the Welsh assembly considerable embarrassment because it is a body which places the highest value on the welfare of children.”

The Wales Audit Office said in a statement after the hearing: “Now this difficult period for the Wales Audit Office has drawn to a close, we are looking to the future and moving forward as an organisation.

“We would again like to thank South Wales Police for their assistance, and thank all those across the public and private sector for their messages of support over the last nine months.

“Our new auditor general and our professional, hard-working staff remain committed to providing a first class audit and review service for citizens in Wales.”

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Nato members are preparing to meet in Portugal for what is being billed as one of the most crucial summits in the alliance’s 61-year history.

The 28 member states are hoping to reach a “New Strategic Concept” to shape the way Nato defends itself against threats over the next decade.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will also attend, in a sign of warming ties.

Afghanistan will be top of the agenda, with plans to bring Nato’s combat operations to an end by 2014.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is scheduled to address the summit on Saturday, has said he wants Nato to hand back control of the country by the end of 2014 – a deadline the US has described as realistic but not set in stone.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the deadline had existed for some time as “an aspirational goal” but that this did not mean all coalition forces would have to leave by that date.

The Lisbon talks are expected to shape the future of Nato at a time of shrinking budget cuts and expanding challenges, says the BBC’s defence correspondent, Caroline Wyatt.

Key to the future credibility of the alliance will be ensuring a workable transition in Afghanistan, our correspondent adds.

On Thursday, Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance had “underestimated the challenge” in Afghanistan but was confident it was now “on the right track”.

“I’m very optimistic about our Afghanistan operation and we’ll make a positive announcement in Lisbon – that the handover is about to begin,” he told Portugal’s Renascenca newspaper.

There are some 120,000 international troops attached to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan.

Mr Medvedev will meet the leaders on Saturday, becoming the first Russian president to attend a Nato summit since his country’s conflict with Georgia in 2008.

The alliance is keen to build bridges with Moscow, and a key issue at the summit will be agreeing plans for a joint study of missile defence.

The efforts have been aided by US President Barack Obama’s insistence that the US will ratify a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia

He said there was “no higher national security priority” for the government before the start of the new Congress in January.

Moscow is also promising logistical help for Nato in Afghanistan by easing restrictions on transit routes into the country.

The summit will also debate proposals on changing Nato’s command structure, in an attempt to reduce bureaucracy and expenditure.

The changes could see the number of Nato agencies which look after areas such as logistics, communications, research and training cut from 14 to three.

Meanwhile Portugal’s Defence Minister Augusto Santos Silva has said the resignation of the country’s spy chief will have no effect on security or intelligence gathering.

Jorge Silva Carvalho resigned on Thursday in protest over budget cuts being imposed by the government.

He is reported to have told colleagues he was quitting “to draw attention to the mistake that is being made” in closing seven of the agency’s overseas bureaux.

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David Cameron’s enterprise adviser Lord Young has quit after claiming most Britons “had never had it so good”.

The Tory peer said many people had gained from low interest rates during this “so-called recession”, remarks Mr Cameron said were “unacceptable”.

No 10 said Mr Cameron had accepted the peer’s resignation from the unpaid advisory role he took on last month.

Lord Young, an ex-cabinet minister, made the move after reflecting on media coverage of his remarks, it added.

It followed criticism of his remarks about the impact of the recession and future spending cuts and calls for his departure by Labour.

Shadow business secretary John Denham said Lord Young was completely “out of touch” with the day-to-day problems facing families and businesses, stressing his comments were “deeply insensitive”.

He told the BBC the affair “raises real questions about David Cameron’s judgement” in appointing someone with Lord Young’s views.

The 78-year old peer, who served in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet in the 1980s, was named peer of the year at the Spectator magazine’s annual awards this week, before his comments had been reported, and his recent report for Mr Cameron on health and safety was highly praised by the prime minister.

At a lunch with a Daily Telegraph journalist, Lord Young said that for “the vast majority of people in the country today, they have never had it so good ever since this recession – this so-called recession – started.”

He pointed to the savings that “most people” had made on their mortgages as a result of interest rates remaining at 0.5% for the past 18 months.

He also forecast that annual job losses of 100,000 over the next four years, due to coalition spending cuts, were “within the margin of error”.

Lord Young immediately apologised for the offence caused by what he said were “insensitive and inaccurate” remarks.

“He offered his resignation and the prime minister accepted it,” a No 10 spokeswoman said, adding that the peer had done “very good work” during his short time in the role.

Before his resignation had been announced, David Cameron said his adviser would be doing “a bit less speaking” in the future.

“Obviously he is extremely embarrassed,” Mr Cameron said of the remarks during a visit to Cornwall. “He was very quick to retract completely what he said. It was unacceptable.”

The BBC’s political correspondent Gary O’Donoghue said it was little surprise that Lord Young had chosen to leave after Mr Cameron’s critical reaction and the fact the story was likely to dominate the news headlines for days.

‘Not short of money’

Lord Young’s comments, he added, were completely at odds with the economic message of senior ministers who have emphasised that the cuts are not ideologically driven but are a painful step to securing long-term prosperity.

Lord Young told the newspaper that the government’s spending cuts, totalling more than £80bn over four years, would just take state spending levels back to what they were in 2007 – a time, he said, when people were “not short of money”.

“Now, I don’t remember in ’07 being short of money or the government being short of money,” he said.

“So, you know, I have a feeling and a hope that when this goes through, people will wonder what all the fuss was about.

“Of course, there will be people who complain, but these are people who think they have a right for the state to support them.”

Lord Young, a former successful businessman, was advising the government on how best to support small firms.

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Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere has received a caution after a brawl in a west London street.

Wilshere, 18, who won his first England cap against Hungary, was arrested on 29 August in Kensington High Street over a “fracas”.

Emergency crews were called after a man suffered minor facial injuries and a woman sustained a broken arm.

The Metropolitan Police cautioned Wilshere, considered one of England’s best prospects, for common assault.

A spokesman for the Met said: “An 18-year-old male has attended a west London police station where he received a caution for common assault.”

Shortly after the fight a spokesman for Wilshere insisted he was a “peacemaker” in the incident and was unlikely to face charges.

The youngster missed England’s 2-1 friendly defeat to France on Wednesday through injury.

In October Duane Brailsford, 18, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, was charged with affray and actual bodily harm over the brawl.

Adam Mardell, 21, also of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, was charged with affray.

The fighting broke out when the footballer was out celebrating Arsenal’s Premier League victory against Blackburn Rovers with friends.

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A man has been jailed for life at Belfast Crown Court on Friday after he was unanimously convicted of murdering his nephew.

Samuel Morrison, 47, stabbed his nephew George Morrison to death amid allegations George was a rapist.

The minimum tariff Morrison must serve before being considered for release would be set next month after pre-sentence reports are compiled.

Morrison stabbed his nephew in an alleyway in north Belfast in July 2009.

The jury heard how Morrison was overheard threatening his nephew George Morrison and calling him paedophile.

When he was arrested by police Morrison told them: “He was given every opportunity to leave the country and he never listened to me.”

In the hours before the killing, the jury heard that Morrison had been drinking in his sister-in-law Bridget Kelly’s flat across the street from where he lived at the time.

Prosecution barrister Gordon Kerr told the court Morrison left at about 0200 BST but came back half an hour later.

The lawyer said Morrison had shouted through Ms Kelly’s letter box.

“He told her had killed Geordie… that he had stabbed him about five times and slit his throat,” adding that when she asked why, Morrison said his nephew was a rapist.

When he was inside the flat, Morrison asked Ms Kelly to wash his track suit bottoms and used baby-wipes to clean blood off his chest.

The jury heard that police seized the wipes and bottoms later that day.

Mr Kerr said forensic tests showed that it was Morrison’s own blood on the wipes but that DNA from the track suit bottoms matched that of George.

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Poet Simon Armitage has collected his CBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace in London.

The 47-year-old said it had taken him a few days to realise he had been offered the honour, as he had put the message from the Queen to one side by mistake.

“I saw the letter and thought it was a tax demand,” he recalled.

American-born playwright Bonnie Greer and John Cale, a founding member of the Velvet Underground, also collected OBEs at Friday’s investiture ceremony.

Huddersfield-born Armitage said it was “flattering” to be honoured but played down suggestions it increased his chances of being Poet Laureate.

“Poetry doesn’t always get as much attention as I might like it to,” he told reporters.

“So it feels like a day to carry the flag for poetry.”

Greer, who became a British citizen in 1997, paid tribute to her late father as she picked up her honour.

She said she saw the medal as a way of thanking her GI father and other African-American soldiers for fighting for European freedom.

“To come here to the UK, to London, to see black men and women move freely through the streets and meet the Jamaican airmen in the RAF was huge for my father,” she said.

Her father, she said, had named her after an earlier Prince Charles – the 18th Century Jacobite pretender known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”.

Cale – who arrived at the palace with his hair dyed pink, white and blue – said it felt “strange” to receive an OBE.

“Someone has decided that you have done something right, and it is your job to figure out what that is,” he said.

“I had no idea it was coming. My mother would be very proud if she were alive today.”

Born in south Wales, Cale first began working with Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground in New York in the mid-1960s.

He left the band in 1968 and has since recorded more than 20 albums.

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Former BBC and ITV Chairman Michael Grade and Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes will be among more than 50 new members of the House of Lords.

The two – who will become Tory peers – will be joined by other well-known figures including Joan Bakewell, who will sit on the Labour benches.

The list also includes several major party donors.

These include Tories Bob Edmiston, Sir Michael Bishop and Stanley Fink, and Labour backer Sir Gulam Noon.

Critics have said the coalition is trying to bolster its position in the Upper House to limit future rebellions over controversial legislation.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has written to Prime Minister David Cameron expressing concern about the number of its own nominations to have been put forward compared with those by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

The SNP, meanwhile, has warned that elevating major party donors risks undermining confidence in the Lords and raising fresh questions about the link between party donations and peerages.

“David Cameron should be mindful of the mess Tony Blair found himself in over the appointment of party donors to the Lords,” Angus MacNeill, the MP who triggered the “cash for honours” inquiry” in 2006, said.

“There should be no link between donations and peerages.”

Those becoming Conservative peers are Bob Edmiston, a multi-millionaire car salesman, who gave £2m to the party before the 2005 election.

Mr Edmiston was nominated for a peerage in 2005 but was blocked by the Lords appointment commission. He was subsequently questioned by police, under caution, during their investigation into the “cash for honours” allegations.

Curry tycoon Sir Gulam Noon was also interviewed during the police inquiry into whether peerages were offered in return for donations and loans. No charges were brought as a result of the lengthy investigation, leading to criticism of the police inquiry and its cost.

He gave £737,826 to the Labour Party between May 2001 and April 2010, as well as donating £17,000 to David Miliband’s unsuccessful leadership campaign.

Other Tory supporters in line for peerages include Sir Michael Bishop, former boss of the airline BMI, City financier Stanley Fink, who has given £2,064,066 to the party since 2003, and Andrew Feldman, a close associate of Mr Cameron’s and a former chief fundraiser and chief executive of the party who has donated £55,270.

New Labour peers will include Dame Joan Bakewell, the broadcaster and spokeswomen for older people under the last government.

Former Labour MP Oona King, who failed in her attempt to become Labour’s candidate for London Mayor earlier this year, and the party’s former general secretary Ray Collins, who is standing down from the post, will be ennobled.

Labour is currently the largest single party in the Lords with 234 peers, compared with the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats which have 193 and 79 peers respectively. There are currently 181 independent crossbenchers.

With 53 new appointments, it will take the total membership of the House of Lords to nearly 750 – the highest number since the bulk of hereditary peers were abolished in 1999.

The coalition has said it will publish outline plans for future reform of the House of Lords before the end of the year, with many Lib Dems – and Labour MPs – calling for a fully elected chamber.

Peter Facey, of campaign group Unlock Democracy, said: “If politicians and prime ministers want to reward their friends, instead of sending them to the House of Lords, what’s wrong with a gold watch?

“People who make and amend our laws should be elected by the public, not selected for good deeds done in the past by grateful politicians.

“House of Lords reform is long overdue, yet despite much talk from this government we have yet to see concrete proposals.”

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Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti says claims that John Terry faces months out injured are exaggerated.

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Labour MP Eric Joyce has resigned as a shadow Northern Ireland minister after being banned from driving.

Mr Joyce, the MP for Falkirk, lost his licence for a year and was fined £400 after he admitted failing to provide a breath test.

He admitted the charge at Falkirk Sheriff Court, after spending the night in police cells.

Police arrested the 50-year-old MP near Grangemouth oil refinery late on Thursday night.

Kirsty Anderson, prosecuting, said guards at the Ineos petrochemical plant smelled drink on the politician’s breath at about 2315 GMT.

The court also heard that the MP was “not compus mentis”.

Miss Anderson said one of the guards had heard “what sounded like heavy metal rubbing very loudly”.

The court heard that the MP told the guard: “I think I hit something, maybe that roundabout back there”, and pointed in the direction of Grangemouth town centre.

Miss Anderson said: “The security officer was of the opinion that he was either confused, or under the influence of alcohol, and the police were contacted.”

After being arrested, Mr Joyce told police he was tired, had been “up the previous night”, and had just flown up from London.

Asked whether he had been drinking, he said: “I had one of those bottles of wine on the plane, but not excessive.”

He refused to give a breath sample, saying he wanted to speak to a solicitor first.

Mr Joyce was charged with failing to give a sample without reasonable excuse, and held overnight before appearing in court.

At the court, his pleas of not guilty were accepted by the Crown on two further charges.

One charge was driving carelessly and at excessive speed on Bo’ness Road, Grangemouth, causing an oncoming car to swerve out of his way, and colliding with, and damaging, a roundabout road sign.

The other was failing to take a preliminary roadside breath test when required to do so by a police officer who “reasonably suspected” he had been drink-driving.

The MP was represented by duty solicitor Willie McIntyre.

Mr McIntyre said Joyce had been returning to Falkirk for a hospital appointment about a matter that was “causing him concern”.

The solicitor added: “He is embarrassed. He has spent a night in the cells.

“The inevitable loss of his licence will be of great inconvenience to him, as is the publicity, and his party is not going to be at all happy about what happened.

“He apologises to all concerned.”

Sheriff William Gallacher banned Joyce from driving for a year and fined him £400.

This is the second time Mr Joyce has received a driving ban.

He was banned in 2008 for six months after he was caught speeding on the M9.

Mr Joyce has been an MP since he won the Falkirk West by-election in 2000.

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Many teachers believe pupils’ work is suffering because of an obsession with social networking, a survey suggests.

Two thirds of teachers questioned said children were rushing their homework and doing it badly so they could chat online.

Out of 500 UK teachers involved in the online survey by One Poll, three quarters said parents should limit the time their children spent online.

And 58% said spelling was suffering in the digital age.

A similar number said children’s handwriting was not as good as it should be because they were more used to keyboards and touchpads than pen and paper.

Half of those who took part said children’s “obsession” with social networking was affecting their ability to concentrate in class.

And one in four said they believed children with the poorest grades in school were those who did the most online social networking.

The survey was carried out JCA, a company which provides school trips.

Spokeswoman Janie Burt said: “Rather than relying on life experiences, educational travel and face to face interaction with others, children are becoming obsessed with social networking and this is shaping their attitudes instead.

“And as the teachers spell out, it is this obsession which has a direct impact on the future of our children – affecting their grades because they fail to complete their homework on time or to the standard required, and being unable to concentrate in class.”

The survey for One Poll was carried out online in the UK between 19 and 25 October.

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The disgruntled client of a faith healer who lured him to his death in Bedfordshire has been jailed for 10 years for manslaughter.

The body of Alfusaine Jabbi, 22, was found in Luton’s Leagrave park in 2006.

Rubina Maroof, 30, who lived in Pembroke Avenue, Luton, had consulted Mr Jabbi who advertised that he could “break spells”.

Prosecutors told Luton Crown Court Mr Jabbi was tortured to make him repay money he had charged Maroof.

Mr Jabbi offered to sacrifice camels in the Gambia and asked for money wrapped in clean underwear for prayers.

Maroof parted with cash, some of which he promised to return when his “spells” were finished, but he disappeared, the court heard.

Judge John Bevan QC said Maroof became “obsessive” about finding him and getting her money back.

Eventually, with help, he was lured to her home in Pembroke Avenue, Luton, where he was tortured to death in April 2006, the court heard.

His body was then dumped in a car park at Leagrave common, Luton, where it was found the following morning.

At Luton Crown Court she was cleared of the charge of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

She was also found guilty of conspiring to imprison Mr Jabbi.

Her brother Tarik Malik and a friend Imran Khan are both serving life sentences for Mr Jabbi’s murder following their trial in 2008.

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Scottish Power has announced increases in its standard domestic gas and electricity prices from next week.

The company said electricity bills will rise by an average of 8.9% while prices for gas customers will increase by an average of 2%, affecting about 2.5m people across Britain.

It claimed the increase was as a result of a 26% increase in the wholesale energy price since the spring.

British Gas and Scottish and Southern Energy have already announced rises.

Last month Scottish and Southern Energy said it would put up its domestic gas tariffs by 9.4% at the start of December.

British Gas customers also face a 7% rise in gas and electricity bills this winter.

EDF said it was keeping prices on hold.

E-On and nPower have yet to make price change announcements.

Scottish Power, which has its headquarters in Glasgow, is owned by Spanish energy firm Iberdrola.

It said the rise was its first in more than two years and that about 600,000 (20%) of the households it supplied would be unaffected because they were on fixed, or capped deals.

The company said it would freeze prices for another 60,000 customers on its Fresh Start package until the end of March.

A total of 1.6m people in England will be affected by the rises, as will 750,000 in Scotland and 150,000 customers in Wales.

Raymond Jack, Scottish Power’s director of energy retail, said: “We understand that times are difficult for many people, and we have done all that we can to keep energy prices as low as possible for as long as possible.

“Over the last two years our energy prices to customers have decreased and we are committed to being fair to customers and offering value for money over the longer-term.”

He said the rise was not only a result of wholesale energy costs.

“The rising burden of non-energy costs faced by Britain’s energy suppliers, including the cost of meeting government environmental and social programs and the cost of distributing electricity on the national grid, has also placed further upward pressure on energy bills,” he said.

However, the watchdog Consumer Focus has argued that companies should have reduced prices when wholesale costs were lower.

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Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn is to make her London stage debut opposite Keira Knightley next year.

Burstyn, who turns 78 next month, will play the grandmother of a pupil in The Children’s Hour, opening at the Comedy theatre in January.

US actress Carole Kane has also joined Knightley and Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss in the West End production.

Set in a New England girls’ boarding school, Lillian Hellman’s 1934 play was last seen in London in 1994.

Knightley and Moss – also making her West End debut – play teachers accused of having a lesbian relationship.

Tobias Menzies – Brutus in TV series Rome – has also been added to the cast of Ian Rickson’s revival.

Born Edna Rae Gillolly in 1932, Burstyn is best known for her roles in horror classic The Exorcist and 2000’s Requiem for a Dream.

In 1975 she won an Oscar for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

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The UK’s information commissioner has said that wi-fi data accidentally collected by Google’s Street View cars will be deleted within the next nine months.

Deputy information commissioner David Smith told the BBC that there would be no further enquiries into the matter.

He said there was no indication that any information collected “had fallen into the wrong hands”.

It will not appease critics who called for the search giant to be fined.

There were no grounds for fining Google, Mr Smith told the BBC.

“We’d have had to find that there was substantial damage or distress to individuals from the collection of snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords. We’d have to meet that criteria for a penalty to be imposed,” he said.

Google admitted earlier this year that it had accidentally collected information from unsecured wireless networks around the world.

The incident came to light during a routine audit by the Hamburg data authority.

It led to dozens of enquiries with some – notably the Canadian data commissioner – offering detailed findings about the nature of the breaches.

The Canadian investigation found that Google captured personal information, including a list of names of people suffering from certain medical conditions.

Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said thousands of Canadians had been affected.

The findings led her to conclude that the search giant “seriously violated” its privacy laws.

More training

Mr Smith admitted that the UK had conducted a much more basic investigation.

“We spent less time searching than others did. If we had searched for days and days we would have found more,” Mr Smith said.

Following this audit, the ICO ruled that “no significant breach” had occurred.

But following publication of the Canadian data commissioner’s findings, the ICO changed this to a “significant breach”.

Mr Smith said that the ICO had intended all along to base its final judgement on the findings of its counterparts.

“It is not a good use of the data protection authority to duplicate more in-depth enquiries,” he said.

“We have based our decision on the findings of other data authorities. It was exactly the same type of information found by them,” he said.

Mr Smith revealed that the ICO is only able to audit companies that have given prior permission for such an investigation.

Jim Killock, executive director of digital advocacy The Open Rights Group, thinks this is a “shocking state of affairs”.

“The ICO needs more powers and definitely needs more technical expertise,” he said.

“To my mind people’s privacy has been breached and they should be told about it. The ICO has a duty to let people know what has happened,” he said.

Mr Killock believes that Google’s data breach is more akin to unlawful interception, similar to opening someone’s post without permission.

The UK currently has no public body to investigate interception breaches, a gap that that led the European Commission to launch legal action against it.

The Home Office is currently consulting on how to make sure it complies with European legislation on the interception of communications.

Following the ICO’s ruling, Google has promised to offer privacy training to its staff.

Other data bodies and groups around the world are still investigating its capture of wi-fi data.

Mr Killock is hopeful there will be harsher punishments for Google down the line.

“I should hope it would be fined,” he said.

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