note for all students

detailed Student Crime Prevention Package
21-Sep-07
Prize draws, 999TV, and a Best Bar None initiative are among the strategies to keep students safe in West Yorkshire...


Police in West Yorkshire are gearing up to make sure thousands of new students to the county get a crime-free welcome.

They will be joining staff from universities and colleges around West Yorkshire to launch a major crime crackdown and awareness campaign aimed at the thousands of fresher students coming to study in the county.

Special joint operations will be launched in the areas around the universities, colleges and student accommodation as well as in areas frequented by students.

Students will be able to log in to the latest crime prevention tips on the Force’s website www.westyorkshire.police.uk where there is also access to 999TV featuring a short film on crime prevention advice.

There is also the opportunity to enter a prize draw to win £200 shopping vouchers, plus a special category for students to send in their best 20 second video clip via a mobile of a safety tip for use on the website.

The student site contains advice on property marking, how to look after your mobile phone and other electronic equipment and simple tips on personal safety. It also gives a guide to who to contact if you need more help or advice on crime prevention.

Students can also take advantage of West Yorkshire Police’s Best Bar None initiative, an award scheme which accredits safety and security procedures in bars, pubs and clubs.

The Force's Crime Reduction Officer, Detective Inspector Duncan Macnay, said: "For many students this will be there first period away from home and while we want them to have a great time and enjoy their studies, we want to ensure that they stay safe.”

During Freshers’ week, students will be able to attend scores of events, organised to ensure they stay safe and secure in the county’s towns and cities.

In Kirklees police will be at the freshers’ week activities and student safety meetings to promote crime prevention. They will also aim to set up Neighbourhood Watch schemes in Halls of Residence to pass on crime information to students.

In Leeds there will be high profile patrols by police and university security staff across the city around the universities and colleges as well as near student accommodation and pubs and clubs.

There will also be patrols by mounted officers on the A660 Otley Road where police aim to create a safe corridor for students travelling between their accommodation, their universities and the many events held in the area for fresher students in the first week.

Police in Leeds will also launch the ‘Knowledge’ campaign offering advice on how students can keep themselves and their property safe and avoid becoming a victim of crime.

Bradford Police will continue with their ‘Think Smart, Be Safe’ project which involves a series of safety and security presentations for all new students. Each new student will receive a drawstring sports bag with a Think Smart Be Safe wall planner incorporating seasonal safety messages and information, a pen, ruler and other useful information. There will also be a stand at the freshers’ fair staffed by the newly-appointed NPT officer for the area with local PCSOs who work in the area.

Reform Indefinite Sentencing

'Reform Indefinite Sentencing'
21-Sep-07
Report says that 'Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection' are 'ill-conceived and fundamentally flawed'...


Indefinite sentences - blamed for clogging up jails in England and Wales - should be imposed only in exceptional cases, a prison reform group has said.

The Howard League for Penal Reform published a report on the indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) introduced in 2005 for offenders convicted of a wide range of serious crimes. The organisation said IPPs are "ill-conceived and fundamentally flawed".

Justice Secretary Jack Straw is already reviewing the way the sentence is operating after a series of successful challenges by inmates in the High Court.

Howard League director Frances Crook said: "The IPP is a disastrous example of the Government failing to plan for the consequences of an ill-thought out policy.

"With official estimates that the number of IPPs will reach 25,000 by 2012 - almost a third of the current prison population - this sentence threatens to overwhelm a prison system that is already on its knees.

"If the Government's attempts to appeal the recent High Court judgments fail, then hundreds of prisoners classified as 'dangerous' will be released from custody. Either way, the public is not being well served."

She added: "The Howard League opposes the IPP as a matter of principle. It is wrong to imprison a person for what they might do rather than what they have actually done."

Senior judges ruled IPPs are unlawful if prisoners are not provided with the behaviour management courses and assessments they need to help demonstrate to the Parole Board that they can be released.

Being unable to access such courses has led to many prisoners being kept behind bars for longer than the minimum period set out by the court, adding to the jail overcrowding crisis.

Ten convicted of being involved in 'sadistic and pitiless' dog fight

Ten convicted of being involved in 'sadistic and pitiless' dog fight


· Seven told they could face jail, as onlookers are fined
· Vets unable to save two injured pit bull terriers

Sam Jones
Friday September 21, 2007
The Guardian

Ten men were yesterday convicted of involvement in a "sadistic" dog fight described by the RSPCA as one of the largest and most savage bouts it had ever come across.

District Judge Kal Qureshi found five men guilty of attending the fight and five others guilty of the same offence and more serious charges, including causing animals to fight, at the end of a three-week trial at Birmingham magistrates court.

He described the dog fight, which took place in February last year at the back of a kitchen interiors shop in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham, as "a sadistic event ... [that] involved inflicting unimaginable pain without any pity for the animals". The crowd at the fight - 26 spectators in all - was so big that the arresting officers had to flag down a double-decker bus to transport the men to the police station.

Article continues
The judge issued fines ranging between £750 and £1,400 to the five men found guilty of attending the fight. The other five defendants were remanded on bail for sentence in October, along with two other men who admitted several offences prior to the trial.

Ummar Ahmed, 26, of Birmingham, Zahir Ahmed, 31, of Perry Barr, Barkat Hussain, 42, and Waqqas Mughal, 18, both of Smethwick, Zahoor Hussain, 40, and Intikab Hussain, 31, both of Ward End, and Sohail Hussain, 27, of Saltley, were told they could be jailed. Fourteen other men were fined between £500 and £1,300 early this month after pleading guilty to attending the fight.

Despite its elaborate organisation, the bout was discovered by accident. Police were alerted after a member of the public, who was puzzled by the number of people going into the shop and the shouts and squeals coming out of it, called Crimestoppers.

PC Paul Foster, the first officer on the scene, told the court of hearing yelping and howling followed by waves of cheering from inside. The noises persuaded him to call for back up.

When he and 30 other officers smashed their way into the room they found a small carpeted arena ringed by kitchen cabinets and encircled by cameras set up to record the action. Close by was veterinary equipment, a treadmill and sponges to soak up the blood.

They also found two dogs. One of the animals, a black pit bull terrier named Elvis, staggered weakly towards the police as they approached. The other, a badly mauled brindle pit bull called Bullet, was discovered in a cupboard. Both were treated by RSPCA vets, but their injuries proved too severe. Bullet died within hours while Elvis had to be destroyed two days later.

PC Foster described the sight of the wounded animals as perhaps one of the most distressing things he had seen in his job. Worse, however, was to come when videos of the fight were examined. The films showed the bout had lasted almost two hours, during which time the dogs tore at each other until one had lost most of the fur on its face.

"The video was horrific," one RSPCA officer told the Guardian. "It was as graphic and gory as you would expect a dog fight to be. Anyone with any sympathy or empathy for animals would be sickened." He said it was probably the longest documented dog fight, adding that it was a sad measure of the dogs' strength that they had sustained such a ferocious fight for an hour and three quarters.

Eight weeks after the discovery of the Alum Rock Road ring, the RSPCA's undercover Special Operations Unit (SOU) launched Operation Lace, a series of raids on dogfighters in and around Birmingham. The operation led to the seizure of 51 dogs - including 45 pitbulls - and the recovery of dog fighting videos from the US and Pakistan, as well as veterinary kits, treadmills and breaking sticks, which are used to prise apart the jaws of a dog when they become locked on an opponent. Fourteen people were charged with various offences related to dog fighting and possessing banned dogs.

The RSPCA says the resurgence of dog fighting is a "nationwide problem" involving several hundred people. The society has also noted the emergence of a new kind of dog fighting.

"The old-style dog fighters of the 1970s and 1980s would train their dogs as you would a prizefighter, using treadmills and hanging tyres to prepare them for a fight," said Chief Inspector Mike Butcher of the SOU. "The fights would be in a regulation-sized pit with fixed rules and a referee, and would be stopped when one of the dogs had clearly won ... betting didn't really play a major part in these fights, it was more about the prestige."

Today, the fights have become more commercial and even bloodier, with young men and their tough-looking dogs meeting each other in parks and "rolling" their animals. "The emphasis [now] appears to be more on betting and fighting the dogs to the death," said Mr Butcher.

Although the RSPCA has prosecuted more than 150 people for dog fighting related offences since 2000, it is concerned about the rise and rise of a "sport" that was banned 172 years ago.

"Whichever way it's done, dog fighting is an abhorrent, cruel activity which is barbaric and sickening," said Mr Butcher.

Men hunted after school car blast

Detectives are continuing to hunt two men seen near a school in Liverpool where a home-made explosive went off inside a teacher's car.


For the full story from the BBC Click here

Famous Quotes in the Law

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others,
or strikes out against injustice,
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope."

- Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968, American Attorney General, Senator)

Law Quotes

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) British novelist.

Only a matter of days to go

Well only a few days now until I start cannot wait now to start my new carer path. Uni here we come!!!

Cant help thinking what the other people on my course are going to think given that I am older than them. Hoping all is going to work out well, given that they have all been on freshers week this week, I haven't because I am not living in halls or away from home I will not know anyone else there so could be interesting on the first day. Look forward to keeping you up to date with everything.