Licence to sell taser guns to British police under scrutiny

originally by: Sky News
14th February 2011

The Home Secretary is being asked why her department was apparently unaware of links between the new supplier – TSR Ltd – and the firm stripped of its licence to sell Tasers last year. Sky News has discovered that the men in charge of the two firms jointly own a third company, G3i Ltd, which has played a key role in selling millions of pounds worth of Tasers since 2002.

A spokesman for the Home Office admitted it was not aware of G3i or of its joint ownership until Sky News alerted them to it last week – but he refused to elaborate.

Continue reading

New centres ‘to detain child asylum seekers’ and families

Refugee & Iron Wire Fenceoriginally by: The Independent
4th February 2011

The Coalition is accused of watering down its promise to end the detention of child asylum seekers by setting up new centres to detain families refusing to leave the UK. The new “pre-departure accommodation facilities” will be run under a more lax system than the current imprisonment of failed asylum seekers and their offspring.

But the families will still be kept in “secure” units behind high fences for up to a week, reigniting concern over the Coalition’s flagship policy of ending child detention, announced by Nick Clegg in a fanfare of publicity last year.

Campaigners have long warned over the physical and mental impact of detention on children, 1,000 of whom were being held in British centres at the height of the practice in 2009.

Continue reading

Jeremy Bamber loses attempt to appeal

Jeremy Bamber
Jeremy Bamber

originally by: The Guardian
11th February 2011

Jeremy Bamber, whose convictions for murdering five of his relatives more than 25 years ago will not be referred to the court of appeal. Jeremy Bamber, who has spent 24 years in jail convicted of murdering five members of his family, a crime he has always denied, has lost his latest attempt to prove his innocence.

A panel from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) ruled it would not refer Bamber’s case back to the court of appeal. His lawyers plan to appeal. It was a bitter blow for Bamber, now 50, and his supporters, who believed they had uncovered new evidence that showed flaws in the crown’s case.

Continue reading