The Welsh-medium teaching union UCAC’s call for better safeguards for teachers will be debated at their annual conference in Aberystwyth.
The conference will debate the use of mobile phones in schools and better protection for teachers facing false accusations from pupils.
Mr Hughes said Ucac, which has 5,000 members, and other teaching unions in Wales are receiving increasing numbers of calls from teachers facing false accusations from pupils.
He said they often felt as if they were guilty until proven innocent and suffered unacceptable stress while investigations were carried out.
“A motion is going before the conference calling for safeguards for teachers facing false accusations.
“Teachers don’t want to have to teach pupils who have falsely accused them.
“Several false allegations are made against teachers in Wales every month. Those teachers accused are under a great deal of stress.”
Another increasing cause of strain for teachers is the inappropriate use of mobile phones in schools, Mr Hughes warned.
The conference will look at how schools can better control use of mobile phones among pupils to prevent text bullying and secret filming.
“Some schools have systems where phones are handed in to the office but teachers and schools don’t have a right to take phones away,” Mr Hughes said.
“Parents complain that their children have a right to carry phones and that they need them so they can be contacted. They can be contacted through the school office.
“I think teachers should have a right to take phones away and keep them if necessary.
“There are problems with text bullying and inappropriate pictures and film being taken on phones in schools and then being put on the internet or sent around the school.”
Mr Hughes said Ucac had dealt with cases of pupils taking pictures or film of teachers secretly.
This was an increasing concern among teachers who have no real way of ensuring it does not happen as long as pupils are allowed to carry phones in school, he warned.
“The trouble is the phones are often silent so you don’t know they are there.
“It’s a matter of searching pupils. Teachers should have the right to take phones away.”
Acknowledgement: ICWales 28th April 2007
A public inquiry into how the use of faulty forensic pathology evidence by Ontario prosecutors may have led to as many as 13 people being wrongfully convicted of killing children will be led by Court of Appeal Justice Stephen Goudge with assistance from the former coroner who inspired the television hit Da Vinci’s Inquest.
“Public confidence has been shaken. The commissioner’s job is to get to the bottom of what happened, and to make recommendations to prevent it from ever happening again,” Attorney General Michael Bryant told the legislature Wednesday.
“We will be receiving a report and recommendations in one year’s time to prevent this kind of unacceptable situation from ever reoccurring.”
The inquiry is the result of a recent investigation by Ontario’s chief coroner of 45 cases that involved forensic pathology evidence or testimony produced by pediatric pathologist Dr. Charles Smith.
The coroner concluded Smith’s work was erroneous in 13 cases where people were convicted of killing children.
Lawyers with the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted say they believe at least nine people were wrongfully convicted between 1991 and 2001.
A re-examination of Smith’s work on child death cases for the period 1981 to 1991 is underway and is expected to turn up other potential miscarriages of justice.
Bryant said that the matter of compensating the wrongfully convicted will be dealt with by the government separately from the inquiry.
He insisted Goudge will be looking into the individual cases as part of his investigation into what went wrong and how similar problems with the province’s pediatric forensic pathology system can be avoided.
Goudge, who was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1996, will be assisted by an expert panel of scientists and medical professionals that will be chaired by Senator Larry Campbell.
Campbell, a former chief coroner of British Columbia, former mayor of Vancouver and a 12-year veteran of the RCMP, was also the inspiration for Da Vinci’s Inquest.
Marlys Edwardh, a lawyer with the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted, said the group is pleased with Goudge’s appointment.
Defence laywer David Bayliss said he hopes the inquiry will examine the role of the police, the Crown and other pathologists as part of its work.
Bayliss is representing William Mullins-Johnson in a review of his murder conviction that is still before the federal justice minister.
The coroner’s review of Smith’s work found he’d misplaced crucial forensic evidence showing Mullins-Johnson didn’t murder his four-year-old niece.
He is currently free on bail after spending 12 years in jail.
“Charles Smith was the go-to guy,” in the coroner’s office when there was a suspicious death of a child in the 1990s, said Bayliss, but the lawyer suggested Smith’s attitude was common in the coroner’s office at that time.
“There was a tendency to see abuse everywhere,” Bayliss said.
Acknowledgement: Canada.Com
A teenage girl who lied about being raped by a taxi driver was sentenced to a four-month detention and training order today.
The 17-year-old, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at a hearing last month.
District Judge David Thomas, sentencing at Bradford Magistrates' Court today, told the girl she would serve two months of her sentence in custody.
The girl made the claim against Bradford taxi driver Aftab Ahmed, 44, in January last year.
She had been drinking in the city centre with her sister and friend when they put her in his taxi and sent her home.
Mr Ahmed reassured them she would be safe by giving them his registration number, the court heard. The 17-year-old was sick six times on the way home and had trouble directing the taxi driver.
Mr Ahmed asked a bus driver and a couple at a party for help before eventually finding her house, the court heard.
When she returned home the girl made the allegation of rape to the police and took them to a location on Baildon Moor where she said it had taken place.
The judge said: "What you did had disastrous consequences so far as Mr Ahmed was concerned.
"He couldn't find your home because you were not in a position to direct him to it and he took the trouble to ask at several places.
"You repaid that kindness by alleging that he had raped you.
"The consequences were disastrous for Mr Ahmed, who was arrested in front of his family."
The judge said that although the girl may have initially believed her own allegations, she continued to press ahead with them even when she realised she had been mistaken.
Acknowledgement: Evening Times Online 24th April 2007
Hobby clubs have become victims of “heavy-handed” child protection rules, according to a report that has found that many are now closing their doors to young people.
Some of the most popular clubs in Britain, which teach adults and children to fly model aeroplanes or climb mountains, routinely tell all under18s that they must be accompanied by a parent if they want to attend.
They are also running out of volunteers prepared to coach younger people because of the mountain of checks and paper-work that are now required.
The research was conducted by the Manifesto Club, a group that campaigns against red tape, which examined how Britain’s 780 model-aircraft clubs were coping with new child protection laws.
Josie Appleton, author of the report, said that most of the clubs would not now allow children to attend without a parent in tow, and that this had led to a collapse in attendance among under-18s.
“Clubs reported that the number of under18s attending has plummeted from about ten or twenty to one or two, or even none, following their decision to require parents to come too,” Ms Appleton said.
She said that the Government could not possibly achieve its ambition of getting more teenagers to join sports and hobby clubs unless it changed child protection laws.
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act, which comes into force next year, requires hobby clubs to conduct Criminal Records Bureau checks on all coaches and volunteers, or face a fine of £5,000. They must also appoint a child welfare officer, who must be trained for the role. Coaches must complete forms on why they wish to work with children and provide two written references from “persons of responsibility” that must then be checked.
John Bridgett, a member of the Retford Model Flying Club in Nottinghamshire, said that almost all the under-18s had left his club. “Due to the ridiculous situation now, not only must parents remain with their children but they too must join as a member of our flying club,” he said. “The net result is that junior membership has declined from fifteen down to one over a two-year period.”
Stuart McFarlane, the chairman of a flying club in Shropshire, said that no one was prepared to allow criminal-record checks, “hardly surprising when we discovered that the CRB had made a few mistakes and wrongly labelled people”. He also said that no one was prepared to become a child welfare officer.
Ms Appleton said that although her research concentrated on model-aircraft clubs, other clubs were complaining bitterly. Young mountaineers, for example, were finding it difficult to find adults to accompany them on expeditions.
Cameron McNeish, editor of The Great Outdoors magazine, said that it was virtually impossible to find volunteers to take young people mountaineering. “How do young people get experience of winter routes to-day? When I was a kid you joined a club and there was always someone who was willing to take young people out. Clubs don’t do that any more as they are scared of the litigation and paedophilia angle.”
The Manifesto Club started to examine the impact that the laws were having on hobby clubs after it was contacted by a number of model-aircraft flyers. “Over two or three years child protection policies have meant that flying clubs have closed their doors to children,” the report concluded. “As clubs keep children out, and adults become wary of helping them, young people are deprived of experiences that would help them develop into adults.”
Acknowledgement: The Times 5th April 2007
A man was murdered in an unprovoked attack by a gang because one of them falsely accused him of being a paedophile, a court was told on 17th April 2007
Brian Kitching, 68, from Portsmouth, suffered brain damage in the attack in Southsea in September 2005.
Paul Dewar, 27, of no fixed address, Amie Bartholomew, 19, and a girl, 17, both from Portsmouth, denied murder at the Winchester Crown Court trial.
Lewis Hoare, 19, from Portsmouth, has pleaded guilty to murder.
Paedophile taunt
Mr Dewar and Ms Bartholomew also deny causing Mr Kitching grievous bodily harm.
Mr Kitching was walking through a rock garden at Southsea seafront when he was attacked and repeatedly punched and kicked.
The jury was told that one of the gang, Amie Bartholomew, then 18 and pregnant at the time, started the attack when she shouted to Mr Kitching that he was a "dirty paedophile" and punched him.
Anthony Donne QC, prosecuting, said a girl, who was 16 at the time and cannot be named for legal reasons, Mr Dewar, then 25, and Mr Hoare, then 18, all joined in the attack on Mr Kitching.
One witness said they were kicking him like a football and afterwards they robbed him of his cash, the jury heard.
Victim's 'misfortune'
Mr Kitching died in March 2006 in a nursing home because his brain damage meant he could not cough and he suffocated on his own vomit.
Mr Kitching was not known to the group and there was no evidence at all he was a paedophile (more)
Accused man found dead
Posted by News Editor
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
A youth leader from Coventry accused of four child sex assault charges has been found dead in a hotel room. (23rd April 2007)
Jim Irvine, who had been suspended as leader of Coventry Boys' Club, was found in London on Wednesday morning.
It is not known how he died but it is understood there were no suspicious circumstances.
The 54-year-old had been charged with four separate counts of indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16 which dated back to 1978.
He had appeared twice at Coventry Magistrates' Court and had indicated he would deny the charges (more)
The National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers have reported on a number of issues to do with false allegations, at their annual conference.
- Pupils 'not punished' for false claims of sex abuse
- Call to expell malicious allegation pupils
- Ban puplis who make false allegations, union demands
- Deputy Head's torment after pupil's false claim
There have been several reports in the UK about whether or not the Government will introduce a Sarah's law. One MP has already persuaded the Government to inntoduce a pilot project.
It has taken years for government, employers, inspectors and even some parents to accept the simple, self-evident truth that teachers cannot teach, and pupils cannot learn, in an environment where there is disruption and violence.
Furthermore, such behaviour cannot be explained away simply by accusing teachers of being uninspiring, or failing to plan lessons appropriately. Thanks to the hard work of teachers, support staff and headteachers, the vast majority of schools remain relative havens of peace, security and good order.
Teachers captivate and educate successfully every day those youngsters who members of the public cross the road to avoid later in the evening, or at weekends.
However, maintaining these high standards of behaviour is increasingly difficult. This is not due to the impact of the growing weapon-carrying culture among young people spilling over into schools which is causing concern. Such incidents are still, thankfully, rare.
Nor is it serious, widespread violence and disruption - this is still confined to a tiny minority of pupils in an equally small number of schools.
The main concern for staff in all types of schools, and in all areas, is the growing pressure from what is now the most common form of poor behaviour, so-called "low level disruption".
Constant challenges to authority, a persistent refusal to obey school rules and frequent, regular verbal abuse of staff are the hallmarks of this behaviour.
Its effects, if unchallenged, are corrosive and when sustained over a long period can have a devastating impact on the health and welfare of teachers. Hundreds of teaching hours are being lost dealing with this behaviour.
Although this is now belatedly recognised by the Government as a serious problem requiring a zero tolerance approach, too many governing bodies and independent appeals panels still overturn the professional judgment of teachers and heads and make perverse decisions to inappropriately reinstate a pupil who has been recommended for permanent exclusion.
The challenge for teachers and headteachers is now not just confined to addressing the nature of the indiscipline, but the new tools at the disposal of the youngsters to aid and support their poor behaviour.
Mobile phones capture inappropriate videos and pictures of teachers at work and are transferred to the phones of other pupils within the class, across the school or uploaded on to the internet. Emails are used to abuse and insult, either directly or indirectly.
However, the most invidious use of technology is the introduction of websites such as Youtube, BeBo and Ratemyteachers. These not only extend the opportunities for pupils to humiliate teachers by providing the facility for them to post insults and false accusations, but they actively encourage the abuse of school staff.
The self-esteem and sometimes health of the victims is seriously affected and their career can suffer irreparable damage. A false allegation can lead to police investigation under child protection procedures.
These websites serve no useful purpose. Regulating them would be impossible. Schools, therefore, must be backed in applying the most serious of sanctions against those who misuse them.
The Government, in its new powers to discipline, has acknowledged and taken a strong stand on this behaviour, which has been dubbed "cyber-bullying".
If there was ever any doubt that teachers and headteachers had the right to discipline pupils, these new provisions remove them. The legislation and regulations send a powerful message to those pupils and parents inclined to challenge the authority of schools to issue disciplinary sanctions.
Schools will find particularly welcome the introduction of the provision to discipline pupils for incidents off-site. They can now be confident of their right to challenge youngsters who bully others on the journey to and from school, behave inappropriately on public transport or use technology in the comfort of their own home to abuse staff.
There is also well-intentioned guidance which seeks to give confidence to schools that reasonable restraint of pupils is acceptable. However, as it still remains the prerogative of the courts to define what constitutes reasonable restraint, the NASUWT will continue to advise members that such actions must remain as a last resort, only to be used when a teacher's own or others' personal safety is at risk.
The new guidance also emphasises the need for schools to have clear, consistently applied behaviour policies. This is critically important. The NASUWT welcomes the fact that its representations to Government to have specific reference in behaviour policies to disciplinary sanctions for those who make false and malicious allegations against staff have been adopted.
Not all of the provisions are, however, particularly helpful. The proposals relating to detention are ill conceived in a number of respects. Many schools find detention of limited use, often causing more problems and inconvenience for the staff than the pupils. Although there can be no doubt that the guidance clarifies the position of notice to parents and carers, the new provision for weekend detention is likely to cause more difficulties than it solves.
Apart from critical issues such as extending the working week for staff, which is unacceptable, and the logistics of opening and ensuring the building is safe and secure at weekends, enforcement will be an issue. Weekend detentions are likely to be met with resistance from pupils and parents, generating rather than resolving problems.
There is no doubt that the high profile now being given nationally to supporting schools in tackling behaviour will be helpful, but we know from extensive experience and expertise that there is no magic solution available to relieve the problems of pupil indiscipline overnight.
What is evident, however, is that at the heart of the solution must be a recognition that the responsibility of parents for their child's behaviour does not end at the school gates.
Teachers captivate and educate successfully every day those youngsters who members of the public cross the road to avoid later in the evening, or at weekends.
Acknowledgement:
Yorkshire Post. Chris Keats,
NASUWT
Teacher tells of false claim ordeal A former teacher from Northern Ireland falsely accused of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old pupil has said he no longer feels safe around children.
Teachers at a NASUWT conference in Belfast are to demand the government brings in legislation to protect them from malicious allegations by pupils or parents. Teachers want more protection from cyber bullying
David Bell who was suspended as a result of the allegation, but cleared two years later in court, said some pupils were now aware how vulnerable teachers were to such allegations.
"It's certainly a way of neutralising a teacher who they may have a grudge against," Mr Bell said.
"I don't think many teachers actually survive suspensions. It undermines their own confidence, it undermines their careers, their standing in the schools."
Mr Bell was foundafter returning to work he was the subject of another false allegation.
A pupil injured in a playground fight claimed the teacher had punched him in the nose. He dropped the allegation minutes later.
"But it highlighted to me the vulnerability of myself that I would be seen as fair game for any such allegation," Mr Bell said.
"It's terminated my career in teaching, I couldn't return to teaching with the prospect of endless allegations."
He said teachers facing such claims should immediately contact their union.
Mobile
Another teacher, Andy Brown, told a story about a fellow teacher who lost her mobile phone.
"Before she got it back she got a phone call from a very elderly relative, who had a number of boys calling her all the names of the day down the phone and they said they knew where she lived and they were going to kill her," Mr Brown said.
"She got the phone back and found that a pornographic film had been downloaded and her head and been superimposed onto that.
"Even worse the head of a pre-teen sibling of hers had been superimposed onto the top of the head and they had phoned that pre-teen sibling and said this is what we have done."
NASUWT Northern Ireland president Fred Brown said false allegations against teachers were becoming much more common and more sophisticated.
"The internet is used to make allegations and these allegations are totally anonymous," Mr Brown said.
He said those pupils found to have made false allegations should be moved to another school.
Acknowledgement: BBC News, 10th April 2007
Some pupils in Suffolk are destroying their teachers' careers by falsely accusing them of serious offences, according to unions.
The malicious allegations include claims of sexual harassment, assault and bullying and are happening in both primary and secondary schools, they say.
Now the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are calling for tougher penalties and a change to the current system.
Keith Anderson, Suffolk federation secretary for NASUWT, said while it was important youngsters felt comfortable in reporting inappropriate behaviour, there had to be a balance.
He said: “There have been several incidents, even in Suffolk, where teachers have been accused of offences and subsequently found to be completely innocent. The trauma it has on the accused is devastating and it can destroy careers.
“Not only are teachers hauled in front of the headteacher and escorted off the premises but there is then the subsequent investigation and police interview and all the while rumours are circulating between members of staff and between the students.
“At the end of all that, even if an individual is found to be innocent, there is the whole 'no smoke without fire' attitude.
“While we don't want to dissuade students from making allegations it is important that they know any claim has to be genuine otherwise they will be severely punished.”
Mr Anderson said the NASUWT, which starts its annual national conference today in Belfast, would now be calling for all students who make false accusations to be permanently expelled from their school.
He said: “Obviously nobody wants to see any child abused but at the same time we have got to counter balance that with the fact that students can make malicious allegations for all sorts of reasons.”
Martin Goold, Suffolk secretary of the NUT, which started its national conference in Harrogate last week, said the current system did very little to protect teachers.
He said: “The overall feeling is definitely one of guilty until proven innocent and there is an automatic assumption the teacher is at fault.
“Even if completely innocent the accusation is still kept on the record and our concern is that this can still count against an individual and can not only have a detrimental effect on their career in terms of pay and future prospects, but also their health.”
A Suffolk County Council spokesman said pupil allegations were investigated thoroughly and robustly in a measured and fair way.
He said: “Fortunately, in Suffolk, cases in which the allegations have been proven to be totally false are extremely rare. “To suggest that a blanket policy of permanent exclusion should be applied to any pupil found to be responsible for making a false allegation however, requires very careful examination.
“Such a policy might deter pupils from reporting genuine allegations for fear that, if they are not believed, they may find themselves permanently excluded.”
Acknowledgement: Suffolk Evening Star
The following excellent article by Carol Sarler appeared in the Times on 9th April 2007
Must the foot on the stair always lead to a salacious 'confessional'?
Should you be fumbling for a bank holiday read, your eyes might turn for inspiration to yesterday’s Sunday Times list of best-selling books — and there you will discover what is quite the literary vogue of the moment. Among the top ten paperbacks, you may choose between Don’t Tell Mummy at No 1 and “a memoir of childhood abuse”, Betrayed, in which a little girl accuses both her parents of sexual assault, and Silent Sisters, “siblings on surviving abuse” — especially piquant, this one, given that one of the siblings in question is the mother of erstwhile EastEnders actress Martine McCutcheon, no less, procuring her very own 15 minutes by telling tales on Daddy.
Promote yourself to the hardback top ten and there is yet more: Our Little Secret, “boy molested from age of four”, Daddy’s Little Girl — come on, you’ve guessed already, haven’t you? — And Damaged, wherein we meet a child abused by parents “involved in a sickening paedophile ring”, which suggests that as a nation we must be fearfully fond of feeling sick to have the book nestling right up there at No 7.
It’s not just books, mind. Paedophilia on a plate, with bonuses if it also involves incest, has rocketed in a single generation from suburban taboo to ubiquity. When the film Chinatown came out in 1974, and Faye Dunaway made her legendary confession — “She’s my daughter and my sister” — it was a belter; you could feel the ripple around the cinemas as members of audiences took varying numbers of seconds to grasp what she meant. Yet by the time Prince of Tides appeared, in 1991, you pretty much got to Nick Nolte’s boyhood anal rape before the script did; since then more than 100 films have been released with themes of the sexual abuse of children of both sexes — and as for television, in our house we beg of the screen, oh, no, please don’t make that the ending, please be more original.
Sadly, they rarely are. Lurid little secrets, usually involving a hand-held camera and a heavy foot climbing the stairs at night, have become easy, idle tools of motivation, explanation and exposition. Give us an establishing shot of a children’s home, or a glimpse of the dog collar of a man of the cloth, and we’re all ahead of the game.
The self-righteous defence for such repeated imagery is that these things do happen which, of course, they do, and that none among us would wish to return to the bad old days when they were swept under the carpet — which, of course, we don’t.
Nevertheless, there is something unsettling about the relish with which sexual abuse is turned into sheer entertainment and then enjoyed as such. A good deal of pretence attaches itself to the trend: the pretence, for instance, that readers are not indulging for pleasure but for greater understanding of the psychology or the sociology of a serious human ill. This, however, doesn’t wash; there simply aren’t enough psychologists or sociologists in the country to account for their “textbooks” reaching top tens. The vast bulk of the sales must, therefore, be attributed to the insatiable prurience of those who dress up their interest as an “ology”, thus buying themselves permission to be seen clutching books whose large appeal to them is, in fact, the sex.
This is not to suggest for a moment that those customers who make the books and films and television series so successful are themselves latent or nascent paedophiles. Most of them would never dream of hurting a child — their own or anybody else’s. But there is an unattractive quality, massively pandered to by the tabloid press, which manages to confuse sexual with sexy; in other words, if it involves a sexual organ it automatically becomes titillating.
Why else, after all, read the stuff? You and I might be fully prepared to believe that a delinquent is troubled because of past abuse without needing a jot of how, when or which way up; those who devour the detail, therefore, are not seeking knowledge more useful than yours or mine, they are seeking to get their rocks off.
By itself, that might not matter. Whatever turns you on and all that. But it’s not by itself; this carefully teased public appetit
is reinforcing a generalised paedophile hysteria that has already led to riots and effective lynch mobs fuelled by ignorant misunderstanding — a misunderstanding that will not be dented as long as the confusion continues unchallenged.
The fact is that in the stories so salaciously consumed by the apparently concerned, sexual organs might be the implements of the abuse but in the end, as with all rape, what we are really looking at is an abuse of imbalanced power. Not quite the same frisson, I grant you — but by eschewing intelligent analysis in favour of revelling in the frisky physicality of the tales we are told, the more hysterical we become and consequently the less rational.
We see paedophiles on every street corner, we warn our children to disproportionate extent, we leave our “sickening” accounts of “suffering” and “molestation” lying around the house — and in the process, we teach our children that even to those who would not harm a hair on their heads their small bodies are, after all, a currency of excitement.
This does not put the voracious readers of these “memoirs” up there with the properly bad guys. But it is, all the same, an abuse of sorts. Not to mention pretty damned grubby.
Parents are to be given the right to know if paedophiles are living near their homes as part of a pilot project.
The move follows years of campaigning by parents for Megan's Law - named after a similar rule which was introduced in the US.
North East Somerset will be the first area to test the scheme after the idea was championed by local MP Dan Norris.
Two other tests will follow after it is introduced to Mr Norris's constituency in Wansdyke.
'Prospective partners'
The law allows public access to some information on the history and whereabouts of some high-risk sex offenders, which supporters say has been a valuable deterrent and an important tool for curbing their activities.
Mr Norris was first approached about the introduction of a Megan's Law in the UK in 1998.
The former child welfare officer told BBC News: "I think there is an argument for full disclosure but it has to be done incrementally.
"At the moment we are concerned with three areas: lone parents, people who want to know if there are serial offenders in their area and for head teachers to be aware of any offenders around their schools.
"When there has been vigilantism, these people go underground and then we don't know what they're doing, that's why we're having these tests."
Michele Elliott, director of children's charity Kidscape, said the decision was a "massive breakthrough" for parents.
Ms Elliott said: "I am delighted that this is happening. It is happening with a great deal of planning and thought, and we will see how it works in these controlled circumstances."
'Greater risk'
But Martin Narey of the charity Barnado's told the BBC that the pilot schemes would put children at even greater risk, because convicted paedophiles would be driven underground:
"We at Barnado's are very clear. This will put children in more danger, not less danger.
"Sex offenders can be very dangerous people. Their dangerousness is reduced by the police and the probation service keeping them under rigorous supervision.
"We at Barnado's would say make that supervision more rigorous by using satellite tracking and giving them lie detector tests.
"But one thing is for sure. If they flee supervision then they will be very dangerous indeed and that's what we can't allow. That will lead, eventually, to the loss of children's lives."
Megan's Law is named after Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old who was murdered in the US by a neighbour who was a convicted sex offender.
Source: BBC
Also see
False claims 'on teachers' files' Teachers' lives are being ruined because false allegations by pupils stay on their records and turn up on employment checks, a conference heard.
The National Union of Teachers wants false or unproven claims removed from Criminal Records Bureau disclosures.
Delegates at its annual conference said allegations must be investigated, but teachers needed protection from events that may dog careers years later.
The government said employers should record how allegations were dealt with.
At the NUT conference, in Harrogate, Leicester teacher Ian Leaver said the problem arose with the CRB "enhanced disclosures" which teachers must have.
These include intelligence reports from police about anything they think might be relevant.
After the murders of two schoolgirls in Soham by caretaker Ian Huntley, police forces were criticised for failing to share intelligence about him.
So police now "take no chances and report all allegations", Mr Leaver said.
A London NUT official, Kevin Courtney, said a teacher he had supported had been the victim of a claim which police had decided was not worth investigating.
The teacher's school also felt it had no basis and the matter was dropped within three weeks.
Two years later the teacher applied for a post in a different area. The school asked for a CRB check - and the police repeated the allegation, without saying they and the school had taken no action.
The union's lawyers took up the issue with the police and eventually got the incident removed from the CRB check.
But Mr Courtney said the important issue was there was no established appeal procedure for dealing with such a case.
Leicester teacher Jane Rudon said: "You might think that it couldn't happen to you, but actually couldn't it happen to any one of us?"
She said: "How do you try to convince a prospective employer that you were innocent?"
A head teacher from Kirklees, Gill Goodswen, said: "Where a case is unfounded, unproved and dismissed it should clearly say so."
Rinaldo Frezzato from the London borough of Waltham Forest said allegations could be a reflection of serious difficulties in a youngster's schooling or home life.
He recalled an allegation in which it turned out the student was indeed being abused - not by the teacher against whom the allegation had been made, but by a male relative at home. "Therefore it's very important that all are investigated very carefully," he said.
"However the central issue for our members is the devastation of someone's life and career."
NUT officials accept there is Home Office guidance on what information should be held and passed on by the police - but they say in practice these are not always followed fairly.
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said child protection was paramount.
"Our guidance, which came into force last year, makes clear that employers keep a clear and comprehensive summary of allegations made, details of how allegations were followed up and resolved and of any action taken and decisions reached."
The department supported head teachers who took firm action to deal with pupils who made false allegations, including permanently excluding them.
Source: BBC
A teenager sparked a major police inquiry after falsely claiming a friend had raped her.
Perth Sheriff Court heard Sinead Robertson, 16, told officers she had been sexually assaulted following an argument with her male friend.
She pointed out where the alleged attack had happened and the area was "cordoned" off to preserve evidence.
On Thursday, Robertson admitted wasting police time by making a false rape allegation in Perth on 17 December....
Acknowledgment: BBC Scotland 5th April 2007
A RETIRED Welsh headteacher, once falsely accused of assaulting a pupil, recalled her nightmare yesterday after new laws were introduced to protect teachers,
Marje Evans said new laws giving teachers greater powers to break up fights, confiscate mobile phones and discipline pupils outside school, may not stop people like herself ending up in court.
The new laws, enshrined in the Education Act, have also received a mixed response from teaching unions.
The Cardiff-based national helpline, Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers, also warned those working with young people to be wary until the new laws had been tested.
Gail Saunders from Fact said there was a "steady stream" of teachers falsely accused of assaulting or touching pupils.
We get two or three calls to our helpline each week from teachers around the UK facing accusations. A majority of these eventually prove to be groundless," she said.
"We welcome the new laws as a start and a clarification, but it remains to be seen what protection will really be provided."
Mrs Evans, former head of St Mary's Junior School in Caldicot, recalled her "nightmare" and said she feared it could still happen again to someone else.
The school year had only just begun when she was falsely accused of slapping a 10-year-old pupil in September 1999. She was suspended for 18 months before a court and an internal investigation cleared her.
The first court case found her guilty of assault, but she was then cleared after a judicial review. This was not enough however. She then had to go through an internal disciplinary procedure at the school which took several months before also clearing her name.
Mrs Evans returned to her job in March 2001, 18 months after the original false allegation.
Recalling events, she said teachers were still at risk of being wrongly accused, despite the new law.
"It was like a nightmare. It was as if I was living in a different world. It's incomprehensible people can make allegations that aren't true," she said.
"A 10-year-old boy accused me of slapping him. He had been very disruptive so I got his mum in and explained the situation that I had to restrain him because he had started to punch and kick me. I told her everything and she went away apparently happily. A couple of days later I heard from Monmouthshire County Council that a complaint had been made against me.
"I went to county hall with my NUT representative the next day and talked about suspension without even being asked my opinion about what happened. The school governors supported me but the police were adamant I was not allowed on site. I was suspended for 18 months, went through various court cases and judicial review. I was found guilty, appealed and was exonerated.
"I was in my 50s when it happened. It could have destroyed a younger teacher. These false allegations have the potential to ruin lives."
Acknowledgement: 5th April 2007
Abbie Wightwick Western Mail ICWales
Over 350 people signed Charles Pragnell's-petition calling for the Prime Minister to Appoint a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Child Protection Services (more details)
The following article writte by Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent, appears in the Times (5th April 2007)
Hobby clubs have become victims of “heavy-handed” child protection rules, according to a report that has found that many are now closing their doors to young people.
Some of the most popular clubs in Britain, which teach adults and children to fly model aeroplanes or climb mountains, routinely tell all under18s that they must be accompan