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In the News

  • Guardian: Woman awarded £25,000 sexting damages in legal first
    November 30th, 2015
    A woman has received £25,000 in compensation in the first award of damages for a civil case involving sexting.
     
    The woman was encouraged as a 16-year-old schoolgirl to send naked photographs of herself to a teacher at the New School, a private school near Sevenoaks in Kent.
     
    William Whillock, former vice-principal at the school, was given a three-year community order in 2010 after admitting possessing indecent images of a female pupil who he had encouraged to send him sexually explicit pictures.
     
    In a separate civil case, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sued Whillock for damages. In September, she was awarded £25,000, her lawyer, David McClenaghan from abuse specialists Bolt Burdon Kemp, confirmed.
     
    McClenaghan said the prevalence of the use of mobile phone apps such as Snapchat would result in many similar payouts as more victims of abuse in cases involving sexting came forward.
  • Times (£): Appeal over 'unfair' law on assisted dying
    November 30th, 2015
    A severely disabled grandfather will return to court today in his latest attempt to change the law on assisted dying.
     
    Gordon Ross, who has medical conditions including Parkinson’s disease, claims he is being “discriminated against” because of his disability.
     
    Unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair, he cannot feed or dress himself, nor attend to his personal needs. He said that he does not want to die, but fears that a time may arrive when he has “had enough”.
  • Birmingham Mail: Children told that art is 'unislamic', teacher disciplinary panel hears
    November 30th, 2015
    Pupils were ordered not to take part in art classes at a school implicated in the ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal because it was ‘unislamic’ a hearing was told.
     
    Pupils at Golden Hillock, a school in Sparkbrook implicated in the ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal , were also allegedly made to call out “Allah Akbar”, a professional conduct panel has heard.
     
    Frank Bruce, vice principal of the school since September 2012, alleged at the National College for Teaching & Leadership hearing in Coventry that acting principal Monzoor Hussain called out ‘Takbir’ at the end of a prayer session after which pupils would respond saying “Allah Akbar” three times.
  • Guardian: Tory MPs will oppose watering down Freedom of Information Act
    November 30th, 2015
    More than a dozen Conservative MPs would oppose proposals to water down the freedom of information act if they are put to parliament, according to Tory MP David Davis.
     
    The former Conservative home secretary said the fight to defend the legislation was “eminently winnable”, even if the government tried to bypass parliament to introduce measures such as higher charges for requests.
     
    “Whatever they come up with, we can find an appropriate response in one house or another,” Davis told an all-parliamentary briefing organised by the cross-party campaign to defend freedom of information. “I think this is an eminently winnable campaign to protect what I think is the strongest constitutional legacy of the [Tony] Blair government.”
  • BBC: NI abortion law 'breaches human rights'
    November 30th, 2015
    Abortion legislation in Northern Ireland is in breach of human rights law, the Belfast High Court has ruled.
     
    The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) brought the case to extend abortion to cases of serious foetal malformation, rape or incest.
     
    The 1967 Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland.
     
    Termination of pregnancy is only allowed if a woman's life is at risk, or if there is a permanent or serious risk to her mental or physical health.
     
    A judicial review found the grounds for abortion should be extended in Northern Ireland.
  • Mirror: New head at 'Trojan Horse' school says pupils felt they had to choose between being British or Muslim
    November 29th, 2015
    The new headteacher of a school linked to the so-called Trojan Horse scandal claimed "confused" pupils felt they had to "choose between being British and being a Muslim".
     
    Fuzel Choudhury is the new principal of the former Park View School in Brimingham.
     
    It was one of the five schools plunged into special measures last year amid allegations of a plot by hardline Muslims to take control of governing bodies, oust teachers and Islamise the curriculum.
     
    A number of senior leaders were axed and currently face disciplinary action by the National College for Teaching & Leadership - including former executive headteacher Lindsey Clarke and acting principal Monzoor Hussain.
     
    Its chair of governors, Tahir Alam, also became the first governor in Britain to be banned from any involvement in schools over allegations that he had put pupils "at risk of vulnerability to radicalisation".
  • Mail: Church calls in 'equality police' over cinema ban on Lord's Prayer advert
    November 29th, 2015
    Britain's biggest cinema chains are facing an investigation by the Government's discrimination watchdog for banning the Church of England's Lord's Prayer film.
     
    The Church has complained to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), warning that the decision by Odeon, Cineworld and Vue to refuse to show the one-minute film in the run-up to Christmas was discriminatory and an assault on religious freedom.
     
    It could see the Commission launching legal action against the cinema giants in what would be a major test case of the Equality Act, which prevents commercial organisations from treating religious groups differently.
  • Mail: IVF revolution that signals end of the 'test tube' baby era
    November 29th, 2015
    An IVF breakthrough could signal the end of the 'test tube baby' by allowing fertilisation to occur inside a woman's body for the first time. 
     
    The development, to be offered within weeks to British couples having trouble conceiving, means the crucial first stage of embryo development can take place in the natural surroundings of the womb rather than in the laboratory – just as in normal conception.
     
    The cutting-edge process involves inserting a device smaller than a matchstick, containing a mixture of sperm and eggs, into the woman's body. It is removed after 24 hours to allow doctors to assess which of the resulting embryos are healthy enough to be implanted in the hope of achieving a successful pregnancy.
  • Telegraph: Former DPP 'encouraged abortion on demand'
    November 28th, 2015
    Britain's abortion laws will be challenged in a ground-breaking High Court case this week over the failure to prosecute doctors accused of agreeing to terminate a pregnancy on the grounds of gender.
     
    Lawyers acting for a 22-year-old pro-life campaigner will accuse Sir Keir Starmer, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, of making a political decision not to bring charges against the doctors.
     
    Sir Keir quit as head of the Crown Prosecution Service two years ago and is now a Labour MP and one of Jeremy Corbyn’s front-bench spokesmen on home affairs.
     
    But a month before he stepped down as DPP, Sir Keir ruled against bringing a prosecution on the grounds of carrying out a termination based on gender.
     
    The High Court case, which begins on Tuesday, will seek to overturn Sir Keir’s ruling. The CPS’s decision followed an investigation by The Telegraph in 2012 in which two doctors – Dr Prabha Sivaraman and Dr Palaniappan Rajmohan –were secretly filmed apparently agreeing to arrange terminations because of the gender of the foetus.
  • TIME: Wisconsin school cancels book reading about transgender teen after lawsuit threat
    November 28th, 2015
    The book “I Am Jazz” is based on the real life of transgender teenager Jazz Jennings.
     
    A Wisconsin elementary school has cancelled plans to read a book about a transgender girl after it was threatened with a lawsuit.
     
    The Mount Horeb Primary Center had planned to read and discuss the book “I Am Jazz,” a children’s book based on the real life of the transgender teenager Jazz Jennings, the Associated Press reports.