Leveson Phone-Hacking Inquiry: JK Rowling Among 'Core Participants'

Judge names figures who will be able to give evidence to investigation into phone hacking and media ethics and practices.












Leveson phone-hacking inquiry: JK Rowling is among the 46 initial 'core participants'.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who famously guards her privacy, is one of a number of prominent public figures expected to give evidence to Lord Justice Leveson's judicial inquiry into phone hacking and media ethics and practices.

Rowling is one of 46 celebrities, politicians, sportsmen, other public figures, and members of the public who believe they have been the victims of media intrusion granted "core participant" status in the inquiry by Leveson on Wednesday.

This will mean Rowling and other core participants can give evidence personally, or via a lawyer, on her experience of alleged media intrusion to the inquiry, which begins in October at London's Royal Courts of Justice.

The Harry Potter author has previously expressed her displeasure with the press. In May 2008, she won a legal battle to secure the privacy of her children after photographs were published in the Sunday Express of her young son as he was wheeled down an Edinburgh street in a push-chair.

Others on the list including Anne Diamond's former husband, Mike Hollingsworth; former nurse turned model and TV presenter Abi Titmuss; Sheryl Gascoigne; and Mark Oaten, the former MP who had to pull out of the Liberal Democrat leadership race after tabloid revelations about his sex life.

The parents of murder victim Diane Watson also in Leveson's initial core participants list, along with the parents and sister of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler, and the parents of Madeleine McCann. The son of mass murderer Harold Shipman is also on the list.

Christopher Jefferies, arrested on suspicion of murdering Joanna Yeates in December but released without charge, has also been granted core participant status. He subsequently sued several newspapers successfully for libel.

Several celebrities who have allegedly had their phones hacked, including Hugh Grant, Sienna Miller and Calum Best, are among the 46 named on Leveson's list of core participants.

MPs Chris Bryant, Tessa Jowell, Denis MacShane, Simon Hughes, and former Labour deputy leader Lord Prescott also feature, along with a smattering of sports stars including jockey Kieron Fallon and former Premiership footballer Garry Flitcroft.

Rebekah Brooks, former News International chief executive and editor of the News of the World and the Sun, has been denied her application to become a core participant as she no longer works for the Murdoch company, but she will be able to give evidence as a witness. She has appointed a lawyer to act on her behalf who will under the rules of the inquiry will be allowed to apply to ask questions.

Jonathan Rees, a private investigator who was at one stage employed by the News of the World, also applied to be a core participant, arguing that there "might be significant criticism of him".

However, Rees was also denied the status of core participant on the grounds that he was not of significant enough interest to the first module of the inquiry. This will focus on the relationship between the press and the public and extends not merely to the allegations of phone hacking but also to other potentially illegal or unethical behaviour.

News International, owner of the paper at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, the now defunct News of the World, the Sunday Times, the Times and the Sun, has been given core participant status as expected, as has Guardian News & Media, the owner of the Guardian, which has published a series of revelations on phone hacking over the past two years.

Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers and Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell, owner of the Daily Express, the Sunday Express and the Daily Star, will also be core participants.

English PEN, a writers' freedom association, and Index on Censorship were also denied core participant status.

Barrister David Sherborne, who is representing a group of victims suing the News of the World alleged phone hacking, including Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan, had applied to represent 14 people who either believe their voicemail was intercepted or claimed to have their privacy invaded by the press.

However, Leveson said he was not prepared to give core participant status to those who could not be named.

Leveson has also decided the Metropolitan police can be a core participant.

Former UVF Man Robert Stewart Admits Being Alcoholic

A key witness in a major paramilitary trial in Belfast has admitted being an alcoholic and drug user who fled NI with money stolen from his parents.









A defendant wears a mask to conceal his identity as he arrives at court in Belfast ahead of the trial on Tuesday.

Robert Stewart, 37, is giving evidence against alleged former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) commander Mark Haddock and 13 other defendants.

It is the largest 'supergrass' trial for 25 years in Northern Ireland.

Fourteen men face 97 charges ranging from murder to hijacking. They deny the charges.

Former UVF man Mr Stewart is testifying for a second day.

He, along with his brother David, has turned state's evidence in return for a reduced sentence in pleading guilty to aiding and abetting the murder of leading UDA man Tommy English on Halloween night in 2000.

On Wednesday, he was cross-examined by Haddock's lawyer Frank O'Donoghue QC.

He asked him why he was unable to recall specific details about the day in July 2008 when he and his brother fled the north Belfast estate they lived in.

Mr Stewart blamed his consumption of vodka that day and went on to add: "I have been an alcoholic all my life."

He then confessed to taking ecstasy tablets, cocaine, cannabis, LSD, glue and prescription valium in the past.

"The last few years I would have cut down a lot, but there were times I took a lot of drugs and alcohol," he said.

Mr Stewart told the lawyer that he and his brother fled to Scotland, then England before returning to Northern Ireland to spend a week in the seaside resort of Portrush before finally handing themselves in.

He said they had funded the travel with £2,000 his brother stole from his parents' house, a theft he described as "terrible".

Mr Stewart has claimed Haddock planned and directed the murder of Mr English.

Mr O'Donoghue asked the witness if had he difficulty with his memory.

"Some parts," he replied. "Everybody has difficulty at some times. Large events I don't have any difficulty with."

Mr O'Donoghue accused Mr Stewart of fabricating his evidence that his client had plotted the shooting in a flat in the hours before the attack.

"I want to suggest to you that you have made that up, that's a cock and bull story and under no circumstances was Mr Haddock ever there (in the flat)," he said.

"Then I would say Mr Haddock is lying," Mr Stewart replied.









An artist's impression of the defendants and prison officers in the dock.

Earlier, he gave evidence about an assault he said a number of the defendants took part in.

He said a former neighbour in the New Mossley estate was beaten by seven of the accused after getting into a row over loud music and criticism of the UVF.

Also in the morning, there was a request from one of the defence teams for Mr Justice Gillen to recuse himself and stand down as judge. He did not do so.

The trial began on Tuesday amid high security inside and outside the court.

Thirteen defendants are in the dock - Haddock has been separated, sitting outside the dock surrounded by prison officers.

The accused

* Mark Haddock (42), Maghaberry Prison
* David Miller (39), Upritchard Court, Bangor
* John Bond (44), Essex Court, Carrickfergus
* Darren Stuart Moore (41), Mount Vernon Park, Belfast
* Alexander Thomas Wood (35), Milewater Way, Newtownabbey
* Jason Loughlin (35), Bryson Court, Newtownabbey
* Ronald Trevor Bowe (34), Ross House, Belfast
* Samuel Jason Higgins (35), The Meadow, Antrim
* Neil Pollock (35), Fortwilliam Gardens, Belfast
* David Samuel McCrum (32), Beechgrove Drive, Newtownabbey
* William Hinds (46), Ballycraigy Gardens, Newtownabbey
* Mark Thompson (36), Ballyvesey Green, Newtownabbey
* David Smart (37), Milewater Close, Newtownabbey
* Phillip Laffin (33), Bridge Street, Antrim

Two of his co-accused, Darren Moore and Ronald Bowe, were previously charged with trying to murder Haddock in 2006, but charges were dropped when he refused to give evidence.

Both the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) and UDA (Ulster Defence Association) are loyalist paramilitary groups responsible for the murder of hundreds of people during the troubles.

The 14 defendants are being represented by 24 barristers and eight firms of solicitors and the trial is expected to last for 11 weeks.

Shopkeeper Florist Raid Case: Ministers Plan Overhaul Of Self Defence Laws

Pressure is mounting on the government to speed up new legislation on self defence clarifying the law on self-defence in England in the wake of cases such as those of shopkeeper Cecil Coley












72-year-old shopkeeper Cecil Coley.












Police officers guard a house in Salford after a suspected burglar was stabbed to death during a break-in.












Police officers at the murder scene on Ethel Avenue in Salford.

Ministers are planning to clarify the law on self-defence in England, after a string of cases where home owners have faced prosecution for defending their property.

The arrest of Mr Coley, 72, on suspicion of murder following the death of Gary Mullings, 30, who had broken into his shop in Old Trafford placed the issue back in the national media spotlight.

Last month’s stabbing came just days after the Crown Prosecution Service decided no charges should be brought against householder Peter Flanagan, 59, who was arrested on suspicion of murder after the fatal stabbing of a burglar.

John Bennell, 27, was attacked after he broke into his home in, Pendlebury, Salford, in June.

The incident occurred just a few miles from Mr Coley's store in Old Trafford, Manchester.

The incidents led to calls for the Government to speed up new legislation clarifying the law on self-defence in England.

Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, had earlier said that householders who used “whatever force necessary” against intruders would not be committing a criminal offence .

David Cameron has also promised that the new Justice Bill would "put beyond doubt that home owners and small shopkeepers who use reasonable force to defend themselves or their properties will not be prosecuted".

Under the current law, home owners who use “reasonable force” – which is no more than is absolutely necessary – to protect themselves against intruders should not be prosecuted.

In late June Mr Clarke spelt out the sort of action that would be permitted under the new regime.

He made clear that it would remain illegal to pursue intruders to attack them or to shoot them as they fled.

Speaking about a person’s right to self-defence in their homes, Mr Clarke said there was "constant doubt" about the issue and the proposed legislation would make this "much clearer".

The Justice Secretary said: "It's quite obvious that people are entitled to use whatever force is necessary to protect themselves and their homes.

"If an old lady finds she has got an 18 year-old burgling her house and she picks up a kitchen knife and sticks it in him, she has not committed a criminal offence and we will make that clear.

“We will make it quite clear you can hit the burglar with the poker if he's in the house and you have a perfect defence when you do so."

He added: “We all know what we mean when we say a person has an absolute right to defend themselves and their home and reasonable force.

"Nobody should prosecute and nobody should ever convict anybody who takes those steps."

Labour said the law was "already clear" and the remarks were a "smokescreen" to hide confusion over sentencing changes.

Man In Court Over Killing Wife And Mum-In-Law

A man charged with murdering his wife and his mother-in-law at their home in Oxfordshire has appeared in court.












Turkish national Ensar Gol with his 28-year-old British wife Michaela.

Ensar Gol, 21, smiled at photographers as he was escorted, wearing handcuffs, by police into Oxford Magistrates' Court.

The Turkish national is accused of killing Michaela Gol, 28, and 50-year-old Julie Sahin in their home on Ireton Court, Thame.

The two women were found with fatal injuries by officers at the house in the early hours of Sunday morning.


















The suspect being escorted to Oxford Magistrates' Court.

Gol is also charged with the attempted murder of his wife's family friend, 19-year-old Casey Wilson who is in a stable condition in hospital.

He was detained by officers in Thame Market Place shortly after the bodies of Mrs Gol and Ms Sahin were found.

Post-mortem examinations will be conducted to determine how the women died.












The housing development where two women were found dead.

In court, Gol spoke through a Turkish interpreter only to confirm his name and date of birth during the brief hearing.

Prosecutions Sarah Mackay told the court that Gol had only just recently arrived in the UK. She added that he had no right to apply for bail.

Chair of the bench David Simmons told Gol he was sending him to trial and remanded him to appear before Oxford Crown Court on Wednesday.

Boy, 16, Charged Over Kilmarnock Schoolboy Murder

A teenager appeared in court last night charged with killing a schoolboy at the weekend.

The 16-year-old, from Kilmarnock, was charged with murder over the death of 13-year-old Jon Wilson.

The schoolboy, from Gateside Place in Kilmarnock, was found with serious head injuries and was left fighting for his life after the attack in Queen's Drive in Kilmarnock in the early hours of Sunday morning.
















Victim: A 16-year-old, from Kilmarnock, was charged with murder over the death of 13-year-old Jon Wilson, pictured in a sailor's hat.

He died at Crosshouse Hospital yesterday. His family are said to be 'devastated' at his death, a neighbour said.

Hundreds of Facebook messages have also been posted online paying tribute to the schoolboy.

Jon's aunt Irene Wilson paid tribute to her nephew.












Tragedy: Jon Wilson died at Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, pictured, with his devastated family at his side.

She told the Daily Record: 'Jon was a quiet boy who spent most of his time playing with his Xbox. He didn't run in gangs or bring any bother to his door.

'He was a generous boy and he would give you his last.'













Cathy Jamieson, Scottish Labour MP for Kilmarnock, said: 'This is such a tragic waste of a young life'.

She said the family, who were at his bedside when he died, had 'no idea' why he was in the street at that time of night.

The 16-year-old made no plea and no declaration when he appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court and was remanded in custody. No date was fixed for his next appearance.

Gillian Cochrane, a neighbour of the Wilson family, said Jon's death was a 'tragedy'.

'His family are devastated,' she said.

Pupils at Kilmarnock Academy, where Jon was a student, are being offered counselling over the schoolboy's death.

An East Ayrshire Council spokeswoman said: 'Our thoughts are presently with his family and friends, to whom we extend our sincerest condolences.'

Cathy Jamieson, Scottish Labour MP for Kilmarnock, said: 'This is such a tragic waste of a young life.

'My thoughts are with the family of the victim and members of the Kilmarnock community who are as shocked as I am that such a terrible incident could take place on the town's streets.'


















In court: The 16-year-old charged made no plea and no declaration when he appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court and was remanded in custody.

Security Tight As Terrorist Trial Begins In Northern Ireland

Belfast, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- One of Northern Ireland's biggest terrorist trials in decades started Tuesday at Belfast Crown Court amid tight security.











Police walk into the front of Belfast Court on September 6, 2011, ahead of the trial of 14 alleged paramilitary members.

Fourteen alleged members of the pro-British or loyalist paramilitary group known as the Ulster Volunteer Force are accused of a total of 97 offenses. The men range in age from 32 to 46.

Nine defendants are charged with murder in the October 2000 slaying of rival paramilitary leader Tommy English. The 40-year-old Ulster Defence Association member was gunned down in front of his wife and young children on Halloween night during a bloody feud between the rival groups.

The Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association were responsible for the killings of hundreds of people during the conflict between pro-British and pro-Irish forces in Northern Ireland over a 30-year period known as the Troubles. Most of their victims were Catholic civilians. The groups have remained active since the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998.

Two brothers -- David and Robert Stewart -- are giving evidence against their alleged former colleagues in the Ulster Volunteer Force. The Stewarts admitted to their part in English's killing and agreed to testify to get a reduced sentence.

One of the accused is Mark Haddock, 42, named as a police agent in a 2007 report on the Ulster Volunteer Force by former Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan. O'Loan said an Ulster Volunteer Force gang based in the Mount Vernon estate in north Belfast had been involved in up to 15 murders and that the Northern Ireland police special branch unit had allowed informers within the Mount Vernon group to act with impunity.

At trial, Haddock is sitting separately from the 13 other defendants, surrounded by prison officers for his own safety. Two of his co-defendants were previously charged with trying to kill Haddock in 2006, but murder charges were dropped when he refused to give evidence. A prosecutor opened the case Tuesday, saying Haddock had ordered English's murder.

Robert Stewart, 37, then started testifying Tuesday. He also said Haddock ordered the killing and told the gunman to try to avoid shooting the rest of English's family.

Supporters of the accused men staged a protest outside the court against the use of "supergrasses," or slang for informers. The term was first used in Northern Ireland in the 1980s when a number of terrorist suspects were convicted on the evidence of former comrades.

The trial is being held under 2005 legislation introduced by the United Kingdom -- the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act -- which allows a suspect to enter a written agreement to give evidence against other alleged criminals.

Victims' relatives are being given protection from supporters of the Ulster Volunteer Force attending the trial at Laganside courts in Belfast. Families are able to watch proceedings by video link in a separate, secure venue. Large numbers of police officers are inside and outside the court complex.

The trial could last three months and will be one of the most expensive ever in Northern Ireland. Police fear there could be unrest in Protestant/loyalist districts as the trial progresses.

MPs' Expenses: Labour's Margaret Moran Faces 21 Charges

Ex-Labour MP to appear before magistrates over charges including false accounting and forgery related to claims worth more than £60,000.












Former MP Margaret Moran, who is to face 21 charges in relation to claims she made for parliamentary expenses.

The former MP Margaret Moran is to face 21 criminal charges for allegedly making illegal parliamentary expense claims, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Tuesday.

The ex-Labour member for Luton South will be prosecuted on 15 charges of false accounting and six charges of forgery related to claims worth more than £60,000.

Investigations into Moran centred on allegations that she repeatedly "flipped" her designated second home, making claims for properties in London, Luton and Southampton over a four-year period.

Moran claimed more than £20,000 to have dry rot treated at her Southampton home, which is almost 100 miles from either her former constituency or Westminster, according to House of Commons documents. She has maintained that she is innocent of any wrongdoing.

She is the last of 10 MPs and peers whose parliamentary expense claims have been referred to a specially convened panel of police and prosecutors for assessment. Of those, seven have been referred for prosecution. The decision to prosecute comes more than two years after details of MPs' claims on their expenses were disclosed to a national newspaper. Detectives handed a file related to Moran's claims to prosecutors in December last year.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said that the charges followed a lengthy inquiry into claims made to furnish and improve her main residences.

"Having thoroughly reviewed the evidence gathered by the police, we have decided there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to bring criminal charges against Margaret Moran.

"The summons relates to 15 charges of false accounting, contrary to the Theft Act 1968. It is alleged that she claimed expenses for the furnishing and improvement of main residences between November 2004 and August 2008 through a scheme intended for the maintenance of second homes or offices.

"Ms Moran also faces six charges of forgery, contrary to the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, where it is alleged that she submitted forged invoices in support of some of her claims," he said.

A decision on whether to prosecute was held up because of Moran's ill health. She had claimed that she was too unwell to be interviewed by detectives.

She has been summonsed to appear at City of Westminster magistrates' court, central London, on 19 September.

On 15 May 2009, the director of public prosecutions and the Metropolitan police commissioner set up a panel of senior police officers and senior prosecuting lawyers to assess complaints about parliamentary expense claims.

In total 10 files of evidence related to 10 individuals have been submitted to the CPS for a charging decision. Of those, seven cases including that of Moran have resulted in charges. No further action was taken in two cases and the request for a charging decision on one file was withdrawn by the police. There are no longer any cases to be considered by the panel.Former MPs David Chaytor, Eric Illsley, Elliot Morley, Jim Devine, and peers Lord Taylor of Warwick and Lord Hanningfield have been jailed over the scandal. Devine was released in August after serving four months of a 16-month sentence. Illsley and Chaytor were released and were tagged.

In 2009, Moran married her long-time partner of 30 years, Michael Booker, who lives and works at Southampton University as the safety adviser. They have no children. She has written that her personal interests include céilidhs, visiting historical sites, walking and eating curry.

Starmer warned the media over reporting of Moran's impending prosecution. "Margaret Moran now stands charged with criminal offences and has the right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that nothing should be reported which could prejudice her trial," he said.

A Labour party spokesman said: "Margaret Moran is suspended from membership of the Labour party and is no longer an MP."

The Travellers Of Dale Farm Face Judgment Day

There is anger and resentment on both sides as the bailiffs prepare to make their move at Europe’s largest gipsy site.

Down a narrow lane and beyond the pile of old tyres and barbed-wire-wrapped scaffolding that marks the entrance to Dale Farm, a knot of men in T-shirts are standing shaking their heads and gesticulating.

Close by, a dozen or so women, hair raked back in ponytails, toddlers at their brightly painted toes, are clustered around a silver Mondeo. All are listening intently to a local radio station that is also blaring out of almost every caravan, car and chalet on each pot-holed track of this ramshackle site, the largest traveller site in Europe, near the village of Crays Hill in Essex.

“I’m very angry,” one woman shouts, face screwed up and emotions unchecked. “Why is that lady on the radio putting out all that c--p about us? I have three children. Where am I going to go?”

The immediate source of provocation is Radio Essex, which is running a phone-in on the 10-year battle between Basildon council and the travellers who have been living here illegally since 2001.

Understandably, the travellers don’t take too kindly to the locals ringing in to say they should “go back to Ireland”, and calling them, “a bunch of people who are trying to avoid paying tax and ignoring the rules of the land’’. But the real tension is caused by the knowledge that, for many of those who have made their homes here, time is running out. Tomorrow, a 28-day notice issued by Basildon council requiring them to vacate the site will expire. Judges at the High Court will hear a plea for a last-minute injunction against eviction. If this fails – it follows a tortuous process involving a tumult of appeals and judicial reviews, pronouncements from Amnesty International and the UN, and a BBC documentary (entitled, inevitably, My Big Fat Gypsy Eviction) – the bailiffs will finally be free to move in to restore this land to green belt.

What will happen when they do?

The answer is keenly anticipated by all those who have ever had an unwanted, and illegal, gipsy or traveller camp on their doorstep, as well as anyone who lives near a temptingly empty field. Travellers have a track record of invading and colonising such spots – often over public holidays when council offices are closed – and of bringing in mechanical diggers and laying concrete bases for their mobile homes in a matter of hours and then exploiting the impossible slowness of bureaucratic procedures to stay.

The facts are these. There has been an authorised traveller site, with permission for 34 pitches, here since the mid-Nineties. Ten years ago, a six-acre plot – Dale Farm – next to this site was bought by two English gipsies who subdivided it into plots and sold them on to other travellers. Today Dale Farm resembles a small derelict estate, with tarmac and gravel tracks, brick walls, railings topped with barbed wire, caravans, chalets and gateposts sporting elaborate finials. Around 240 people live here but Dale Farm does not have, and has never had, planning permission for any of its 51 pitches.

The travellers claim that, although the land is green belt, it was never a prized beauty spot. “It wasn’t all babbling brooks and big oak trees when we moved here,” says Bridget McCarthy. “It was a broken down scrapyard.” (The council confirms that a corner of the land had been used, without permission, as a scrapyard since the Sixties).

“How long did it take us to clear it?” continues Bridget. “Three weeks,” shouts someone else in the group jostling around me.

It’s certainly true that the camp is tucked away, out of sight of most of its neighbours. Of those who live on Oak Road, which backs on to it, only one has made vocal complaints. Three other families I speak to shrug and say that they don’t notice it’s there, but two others shake their heads and refuse to comment. Their reticence may have something to do with the fact that the one local who has made a very public fuss has received death threats. “If we go, he goes,” some travellers told film-maker Richard Parry.

But that’s not to say the presence of Dale Farm hasn’t made an impact. The local primary, Crays Hill, is now almost exclusively a travellers’ school; 107 of the 110 registered pupils are from the travelling community. They don’t always turn up for class – the Ofsted report cites “significantly below average attendance levels” – and tend to lag behind their peers academically. Local parents have felt pressured into bussing their children out of the area to other schools.

The proximity of Dale Farm has also wiped tens of thousands of pounds off property prices. On a nearby street, where houses are worth £500,000 to £600,000, one resident estimates that the value of his house has dropped by “around £100,000’’.

He says: ''My wife and I would have moved by now otherwise, but we can’t, unless we take a hit and move into somewhere smaller.” Another neighbour said: “The council reclassified all our council tax bands because of it; mine went down from a G to an F.” But property prices and the eyesore on their doorstep isn’t what really antagonises the locals. What most upsets them is a deep sense of injustice.

“It’s people who flout the law of the land when it should apply equally to everyone,” says Terry, who lives nearby with his wife Pam. His words echo those of David Cameron who spoke of, “the sense of unfairness that one law applies to everybody else and, on too many occasions, another law applies to travellers.” Others tell me that they feel that letting those on Dale Farm get away with it, will, “open the floodgates to who knows what’’.

Overturning what has happened here is proving expensive: the council have had to set aside £8 million to clear the site, but there is a strong feeling this is necessary to ensure that the law is upheld both now and in the future.

Basildon council is keen to stress that, “This is a planning row.” That’s not quite how they see things over on Dale Farm. One woman tells me she has been so stressed that she smashed all her windows.

What, of your own home? “Yes, every single one of them,” says Margaret Flynn, a 29-year-old mother of three who lives in an immaculate caravan. She predicts that any clearance will bring a death: “Every time talk of an eviction starts, someone dies.”

Candy Sheridan, a member of the Gipsy Council and a Liberal Democrat councillor in north Norfolk where she now lives, is a more reasoned voice. “This is political,” she insists, “Councillors always say no to us [when we ask for planning permission], it doesn’t matter what it is, or what party they’re from. They always vote against us because they want to be re-elected.”

Candy was born on a site in Bristol and says she has lived “up and down the M4 and all over England’’. Her parents were Irish travellers who came to London in 1958. ''The difference between them and me is that I went to school. And back then they made us do speech therapy, so I have no trace of my Irish accent,” she smiles wryly, and adds that it means she makes more headway on the phone when trying to sort out a planning application or a viewing of some land on someone else’s behalf.

She feels travellers are misunderstood. “It’s not a level playing field for us,” she says. She talks about the strong sense of community that is under threat at Dale Farm. Travellers look after each other, she says. Levels of adult literacy are low, so a few must read and write for the rest. Inter-marriage means the camp is, in every sense, a huge extended family – there are a lot of McCarthys and Sheridans – so children, the elderly and the sick are well cared for. This might explain why there is so much nervousness about being split up and sent to live in “bricks-and-mortar” council flats. Ironically, there are some elements of Mr Cameron’s Big Society to be seen in action here.

The trouble is that there isn’t the same consideration for the rights and wishes of those who aren’t travellers. A wily few of the travelling community have become adept at exploiting legislation that’s intended to protect those who’ve been hard done by, and where they lead the others follow. What will happen next week? There is fighting talk from some travellers who are threatening to fill ditches with petrol.

On Friday evening I took a call from a man who said he was phoning on behalf of Candy Sheridan. He told me the travellers had examined the emergency contingency plans put in place by surrounding counties to deal with any possible fallout from the Dale Farm clearance and that Suffolk seemed to have one of the best deals.

“If everyone at Dale Farm got in their caravans and drove towards Suffolk,” he told me, “I think they would find a field waiting for them.” Suffolk, you have been warned.

Faster Justice Does Not Have To Be Worse

The very public dispute between Eoin McLennan-Murray, of the Prison Governors' Association, and John Thornhill, of the Magistrates' Association, betrays the sectional interests of both sides.









John Thornhill of the Magistrates Association denied the judiciary were politically pressured.

Mr Thornhill maintains that magistrates' courts have done a stellar job in the wake of the riots and suggests lessons for the future. Mr McLennan-Murray, whose members have to cope with the consequences of the courts' decisions, says magistrates have indulged in a sentencing "feeding frenzy", pandering to popular emotion.

As a newspaper, we share Mr McLennan-Murray's qualms about the speed with which justice is being dispensed and the rate of imprisonment. We also ask whether custodial sentences are the best way of punishing rioters and, indeed, whether magistrates are on top form at, say, 2am. Justice Ministry figures show that almost 70 per cent of those brought to courts since the riots have been given jail sentences or remanded in custody; the figure for 2010 was 10 per cent. This is a big difference, even if some harsher sentences are already being reversed on appeal.

But Mr Thornhill has a point that should not be ignored, just because other questions are raised. In three weeks, magistrates have heard several thousand cases, by dint of working longer hours and requiring greater efficiency from all concerned. Yes, there have been problems – missing papers, poorly briefed lawyers and absent probation officers – but these, regrettably, are not unusual.

Against that, there have also been benefits in accelerating the process: events were still fresh in everyone's memory and the link between offence and court, often blurred by delay, was clear. Here, Mr Thornhill is right. Extraordinary circumstances have shown how the ordinary could be radically improved.

Sharon Shoesmith Wins Appeal Against Sacking Over Baby P Tragedy

Former Haringey council children's services boss Sharon Shoesmith has won an appeal against her controversial sacking in the wake of the Baby P tragedy after a judge upheld her claim that she had been unlawfully removed from her post.













The high court ruled that Ed Balls – children's secretary at the time of her dismissal – had failed to give Shoesmith the opportunity to defend herself from criticisms in a specially commissioned Ofsted report.

Balls used the report to support his dismissal of her at a live TV press conference in December 2008. In its ruling the court said: "She was denied the elementary fairness which the law requires."

The court also upheld her appeal against Haringey council, which formally sacked Shoesmith a week after Balls removed her. The ruling said the council's procedures were "tainted by unfairness".

Shoesmith said after the hearing: "I'm over the moon. Absolutely thrilled. I am very relieved to have won my appeal and for recognition I was treated unfairly and unlawfully." But she added that the sorrow of the child's death would "stay with me for the rest of my life".

An attempt by Shoesmith to quash an Ofsted report into the case was rejected, however. The ruling said Ofsted had complied with the requirements of the statute and of the common law.

Shoesmith was challenging a judicial review ruling made last year that cleared the regulator Ofsted, Balls and Haringey of acting unlawfully. Her lawyers had argued there was "procedural unfairness" in her removal from the £133,000-a-year post.

She had claimed that the manner in which she was dismissed was a breach of natural justice and the result of media pressure. She was seeking compensation for two years of lost salary, reinstatement of her pension rights, and a negotiated settlement from Haringey.

The court put off a ruling on compensation for Shoesmith, saying that the issue should be referred back to the high court for "further consideration".

It is understood the current children's secretary, Michael Gove, intends to launch an appeal against the court's ruling.

Shoesmith was sacked in December 2008 after the childcare regulator's report, ordered by Balls after the Baby P case, exposed failings in her department. The 17-month-old boy, since named as Peter Connelly, was on Haringey's child protection register when he died violently at the hands of his mother, Tracey Connelly, her lover Steven Barker, and Barker's brother Jason Owen, in August 2007.

James Maurici, representing Shoesmith, told the appeal court in March that "buck passing" between Ofsted, Balls, and Haringey had led to her being denied natural justice and a fair hearing.

He said Shoesmith had been a highly thought-of public servant with a successful 35-year career, but that she now faced ruin. She had held a number of senior education posts within local authorities and risen through the ranks before taking her post with Haringey in 2005. A year later she was singled out in an Ofsted report for providing "strong and dynamic leadership".

But in 2008, a "media storm" broke over Baby P's death and she became the victim of a witchhunt and political pressure which led to a flagrant breach of the rules of natural justice, Maurici said. He added: "On 1 December 2008, while trapped in her flat by the media, she had the extreme misfortune to see on TV Ed Balls at a live press conference announce he was directing that Haringey remove her from her post 'with immediate effect'." Balls told the press she was "not fit for office", and acted before Shoesmith had seen, or been given a chance to respond to, the report.

Maurici said, although high court judge Mr Justice Foskett had found her sacking lawful in a judicial review ruling in March 2010, he had said he did not think that "any fair-minded person could think that this was a satisfactory state of affairs."

The appeal judges were told of the "catastrophic" personal impact on Shoesmith following Baby P's death. Maurici said she had been unable to find any work since December 2008, experienced suicidal thoughts, and was still regularly hounded and vilified by the tabloid press.

James Eadie QC, appearing for the government, defended Balls's actions to the appeal court, saying urgent action had to be taken following Ofsted's "ghastly findings", which uncovered "dangerous" failings in Shoesmith's department that threatened local and national confidence in effective child protection.

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert welcomed the ruling, saying: "I am pleased that Ofsted has comprehensively won this case and that the original judicial review judgement in our favour has been upheld in every aspect on appeal.

"Ofsted carried out a robust inspection and came to a sound conclusion based on evidence. On any view, our inspection report was extremely critical and there has been no challenge to the finding that services for children in Haringey were inadequate. The fairness of our process and rigour of our inspection has now been confirmed through the scrutiny of not just one, but two court hearings.

"The most important thing, of course, is that Haringey's children's services are now much improved as a result and that children are better protected."

In a statement responding to the ruling, Balls declared "faced with the same circumstances I would make the same decisions again".

He added: "Ministers need to be able to exercise their legal duties and make judgments in the public interest based on independent analysis and advice. That is what I did - and I am concerned that this judgment will make it harder for ministers to do so in future. That is why it is constitutionally very important that the secretary of state has decided to appeal this judgment."