The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 8

THE GUARDIAN 1988 8 HOME NEWS 'Sincere and honest regret' as five plead guilty in kidnap case IBof dler Fox apoDogoses ffoir seecDimg cflemiftDSli's If Birogeirs- 4e Joyce In Dublin i' O'HARE "sin- Icerely. andj honestly" regretted the injuries he caused to the kid John O'Grady: 'excruciatingpain' Two others, Fergal Toal and Anthony McNeill, were described as Mr O'Grady's Toal, aged 25, a native of Armagh, also pleaded guilty to having a firearm at the Cabra house. MacNeill admitted having a firearm on November 11 in the house where he was Arrested. Wright, a 45-year-old barber, pleaded guilty to kidnapping alone. Mr Murphy said his role was mainly to provide two premises in which Mr O'Grady was held.

He agreed with Wright's counsel that other members of the gang told him they would give him information about the killers of his brother, assassinated after giving police information about a car used in a robbery. In a plea for mitigation of sentence, O'Hare's counsel, Mr John Rogers, said he had clearly acknowledged his guilt and had ensured that Mr O'Grady would be saved further unnecessary anguish by not having to give evidence. There had been no initial intention of causing Mr O'Grady any personal injury, which O'Hare sincerely and honestly regretted. The three-man court will hear further defence pleas today, and is expected to pass napped dentist, Mr John O'Grady, whose little fingers he mutilated with a hammer and chisel, his lawyer told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday. O'Hare, the so-called Border Fox, and four associates had earlier pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning Mr O'Grady whom they held for almost three weeks last year, seeking a ransom of 1.5 million from his millionaire father-in-law, Dr Austin Darragh.

The guilty pleas came as a su-prise and were entered after a brief adjournment at the start of what had been expected to be a protracted trial. O'Hare still limping from a leg wound suffered when he was shot by Irish troops during his capture last November also pleaded guilty to maliciously wounding Mr O'Grady with intent to maim and to having a firearm with intent to endanger life. Other charges against him were dropped. Detective Chief Superintendent John Murphy told the court that Mr O'Grady had Dessie O'Hare: sought 1. 5m ransom been gagged and had pillows put over his head while the tops of his little fingers were cut off with a hammer and chisel.

The wound was cauterised with a red hot knife which caused excruciating pain. Mr Murphy said that the gang had used considerable violence when they broke into Mr O'Grady's home, looking for his father-in-law on October 13. Later, in their hideout near Cork, Mr O'Grady had his underneath a barber's shop owned by one of the other accused, Gerard Wright, on Dublin's Parkgate Street. A concert ticket found in the Cork hideout eventually lead police to Wright's home in the Dublin suburb of Cabra, where Mr O'Grady was then being held. One of the two detectives who went there, Martin O'Connor, was shot at a range of two feet by another accused, Edward Hogan, with a sawn-off shotgun.

Hogan, a 33-year-old native of Cork, was described as O'Hare's second in command. He pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of the hands and legs chained together and was locked in a container with two of his captors for three days and nights. Mr Grady was new ini sentence later. tially in a dilapidated basement Health service Many of this weekend's London marathon entrants are running for Great Ormond Street hospital. Actress Stephanie Lawrence joined some outside St Paul's yesterday to promote their efforts photograph: frank martin Council! cash curb catches Tories devised by about 16 councils, many leftwine Labour-con homeless families under which the councils get nomination rights in return for a financial Alan Travis Local Oovcmment Correspondent trolled, to finance their budget kstake.

deficits. It was said Stat Cam- mm veiny specdafl meters ana outers naa wyimoicic nave lllilicu ai jjto capital allocations to com-piengate, but that would mean DUSTERS are refusing to relax a block on Mi However, Mr John Blundell lease-back and barter uitruviuucui LrcKUUUCIII having to give permission for deals by local authorities although it affects an estimated 200-plus councils, many of them a nuance oinciai wun tneAssoy ciation of District Councils', said: "I am sure that they (the to Environment Department officials that more than 50 of its member authorities will be affected by the moves. Question marks now hang over many partnerships with the private sector in leisure and housing projects. They include a barter scheme with Barratt to build bungalows for old people at Poole in Dorset; a plan by Carrick council in Cornwall to build a 5 million leisure centre in Falmouth and a new swimming pool in Truro; and a 40 million marina at Saltash in Cornwall which would create 300 jobs. Projects in Colchester, Suffolk, Norfolk and Oxford are also affected.

It is clear that many projects which the Government has encouraged will be hit. The measures announced by Mr Ridley on March 9 were said to be aimed at deals with banks eacn scneme moiviQuauy. Under the new rules the councils' deals will count towards "prescribed expenditure" limits. Mr Ridley yesterday firmly denied a Times report that he was planning to take control of Environment Department) could not be aware of the type of scheme that is affected and the impact that it is going to have on developers as well as local authorities." The controls, particularly those on barter deals in the, Local Government Fiiiance Bill Pj rrillinn raicori mainlv hv Regulations to be approved by the Commons tonight and new clauses to the Local Government Finance Bill to be debated next week will confirm the measures announced by the Environment Secretary, Mr Nicholas Ridley, last month against what the Government sees as attempts to evade its controls on capital spending. However, the Conservative- 'mm, shjrje counties from the sale of ana aiverc to inner mm have not only caught partner, shin schemes bv shjre dLStHcfar? if consultation paper propos Many councils irt ndoa vwill overnaui ot tne local au- oe worried aouui: ty capital spending con-is not exoected now until WJIllllll controlled Association-of Dis- hOUSjng it the May elections.

teaiDorary met councils has complained ctavaici in brief inews Strasbourg to decide whether refusal to reveal man social services file constitutes breach of rights Clara Dyer Log' Correspondent THE EUROPEAN Court of I Human Rights in Stras bourg is to decide whether the Government has violated the European Convention on Human Rights by not allow ing a man brought up in local authority care to see his social services file. Young love runaway returns An 11-year-old runaway boy was in council care last night after a six-day escapade with a mother-of-five more than three times his age. Mrs Janette Buckley, aged 37, of Corby, with whom he had disappeared, is still beings sought by Northamptonshire! police. A nationwide appeal was launched for the pair after they disappeared last Yesterday morning the boy tplei phoned police from a caUbojXlttl Kettering. 325,000 damages A woman who can never, wor again and whose prospectsiofj marriage have been ruined jiy i motoring accident was awarded damages of 325,855 in the High court yesterday.

Miss Diane Mack, aged 23, from New Zea Liverpool council later passed resolutions allowing him to see the files, but one council member won a court injunction to stop the council from handing them over. A victory for Mr Gaskin at Strasbourg would establish an important principle of retrospective access to social services files. The Data Protection Act allows access to computerised files except where it would cause serious physical, mental or emotional harm to the subject of the records or any other person, but most social work files are not kept on computer. The Access to Personal Files Act, 1987, will allow access to written social work records, but it applies only to records compiled after the date of legislation. About 40 local authorities The Government and the involves Britain.

A ruling is expected next year. Mr Gaskin, now 29 and living in Denmark with his wife and son, blames council care for raining his life. He went into care at six months after his mother committed suicide. He was moved from his first foster home at the age of four, and spent the next four years being shunted from one set of foster parents to another. For three months at the age of nine he was shut up in a men's psychiatric ward.

He says he suffered repeated sexual assaults at the hands of children's home staff. He took to running away and sleeping rough from the age of 10, supporting himself by petty theft. His teenage years were spent in approved schools, remand homes and borstals. After he left care in 1977, he sought access to his file with a view to suing the council for lack of care in his upbringing, but the application for release of the records was rejected both by the High Court and the Court of Appeal. European Commission on Human Rights have jointly asked the court for a ruling on the case of Graham Gas-kin, who has been trying to see records of his childhood spent in the care of Liverpool City council for the past 10 years.

Last November, the Com mission decided, by seven votes to six, that the refusal violated article 8 of the voluntarily allow access to Right now you can get 0 finance on a Special Limited Edition Yugo 45Att Supermini. But we'd advise you to be quick these new hatch human rights convention, which guarantees the right personal files. "People receiving personal to respect for an individual's private and family life. social services should, sud The case is one of only a ject tp adequate safeguards, backs are proving to be very popular. oe allowed to discover What is said about them in social That's because not only are we offering interest free credit but we are handful of complaints about alleged human rights breaches to reach the court each and the only one services records." a 1983 De partment of Health and of five recent referrals which Social Security circular says, also including some very stylish extras.

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More and more people are getting into Youth's hanging NUS picks new Labour woman leader and backs gay fight followed prank pected in the coming year. A YOUTH found hanging from from a tree had earlier "These range from attacks on DavM Ward, Northern Education Correspondent Wing The Yugo Range from 3190-4292" basic ngnts of access to education, to the introduction of stu been tied up and a wire looped round his neck by his friends, an inquest at Croydon coroner's court heard yesterday. dent loans and cutbacks on land, sutterea Dram damage after being knocked down by a car while on a visit to England. Porn priest sentenced Former parish priest Father Christopher Towner was given a two-month suspended gaol sentence yesterday for importing child porn. Magistrates at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, heard that the 44-year-old clergyman had been removed from the Sacred Heart Church at Cobham, Surrey, and his future with the Catholic Church was in doubt.

Amnesty for arms Wales' four police forces yesterday declared an amnesty for holders of knives and martial arts weapons. Specially-marked bins are being installed at police stations and for two weeks weapons can be surrendered anonymously. Shell shock The Army is investigating how a shell fired during exercises on Salisbury Plain went more than two miles off course and blew a crater 6 ft wide in a farmer's back garden. An ll-year-old boy was hit by a piece of shrpanel but not seriously injured. Crime hits new high A record level of crime during 1987 was reported yesterday by the Chief Constable of North-umbria.

Sir Stanley Bailey. courses." she said. Keece Collins, aged 15. was "If the full implications of a key issue like loans can be put left bound in a dark and derelict house. He was terrified of the dark and began crying and across, ana some of the mytns and distortions put out by the Government can be exploded, then I think that will find a snouunB for help before his friends returned and freed him.

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The election, which attracted 11 candidates, produced a few surprises, and suggested that even the NUS is not immune to the new realism. Mr Simon Pot-tinger, of the Trotskyite SSiN (Socialist Students in the National Organisation of Labour Students) was beaten into third place by Mr Lembit Opik, an independent who stood on an anti-factionalism ticket and told the conference: "It's time for student unity to take control of the NUS again. If you think there's nothing wrong with the union, then don't vote forme." After the election, Ms Sherlock, a Liverpool University sociology graduate, said her. priority would be to build a strong but united union capable of defending its members from the full range of attacks ex cept the verdict. They succeeded in getting it quashed in the High Court and a new inquest ordered.

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