Criminals 'are fishing through Facebook

The Police Minister gave warning yesterday that criminals were exploiting social networking websites to steal personal information and steal people’s identities (Richard Ford writes). Tony McNulty urged the public to be cautious about the personal details that they put on networking sites such as Facebook. He said: “There are certainly hints that there are people fishing through Facebook and other social network sites to elicit personal information which could go towards identity theft.”

His advice came as Brian Minihane, from Interpol, told the European Serious Organised Crime Conference in Liverpool that the rapid development of social networking websites was of growing concern to police.

Backpacker murder

A 14-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of Karen Aim, 26, a backpacker from Orkney in the Shetland Islands, who was killed in Taupo, New Zealand, in January. The unnamed boy, who was arrested earlier in the inquiry on other charges, appeared in court in Rotorua on the North Island.

Challenge to children

Troublemakers as young as ten are to be asked to sign good behaviour contracts under the Government’s “intensive intervention” scheme. A thousand of England’s most “challenging” children will be targeted under the £218 million programme and face going to court if they break the contract.

Dench’s Bafta hopes

Bonnets and bustles are tipped to triumph at the Bafta TV awards after the BBC drama Cranford and its star, Dame Judi Dench, received three nominations. Dame Judi, 73, competes for Best Actress against Dame Eileen Atkins, her Cranford co-star, also 73, who played her sister. timesonline.co.uk/tvandradio

Fighting fit

A 70-year-old fitness instructor will continue her pop mobility classes at a local leisure centre after a council reversed its decision to dismiss her. Celia Powis had appealed to Worthing council, West Sussex, to be allowed to continue teaching. She said: “I was merely fighting for my employment rights.”

Police want mugshot database for Games

Police equipped with handheld computers will be able to access mugshots, fingerprints and closed-circuit television images to help them to provide security at the 2012 Olympic Games in London (Richard Ford writes). The new technology will enable officers on the street to gain access to the police national computer.

Peter Neyroud, chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency, told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee that police also planned to create a database of mugshots of suspects that would enable CCTV cameras to “recognise” criminals.

‘Happy slap’ sentence

A teenage girl who filmed a “happy slap” killing on a mobile phone was sentenced to two years in a detention centre for aiding and abetting manslaughter. The girl, 15, who cannot be named, recorded the attack on Gavin Waterhouse, 29, by Mark Masters, 19, and Sean Thompson, 17, in West Yorkshire in September. She had pleaded guilty to the charge, the first of its kind, at Leeds Crown Court.

Immigrant values

Most Muslim immigrants say that democracy, fairness and justice are the qualities that they value most about living in Britain, a study has found. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that most recent migrants believed there was no conflict between “belonging” to their countries of origin and to Britain. “A perceived need to teach ‘common values’ may be overstated,” the trust said.

Virgin ads misleading

Four complaints about a magazine advertisement for Virgin Atlantic’s premium economy class service have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority. It said that readers might have been misled into thinking that larger seats were available in all its premium economy cabins. A footnote saying that the seats were available on 58 per cent of flights was “likely to be overlooked”.

Boy, 14, raped girl, 10

A 14-year-old boy has admitted to twice raping a ten-year-old girl in a shed. The boy, who cannot be named, admitted attacking the girl in Plymouth on May 5 last year. He was told by Judge Francis Gilbert at Plymouth Crown Court that a custodial sentence was inevitable. Two other charges of rape of a child were left on file. He was released on conditional bail until sentencing on April 11.

Man Booker judges

The £60,000 Man Booker International Prize for 2009 is to be judged by the writer, academic and musician Amit Chaudhuri and the writer and essayist Andrey Kurkov under the chairmanship of the writer Jane Smiley. The prize is awarded every two years to a living author for fiction published in English. The Nigerian Chinua Achebe won the 2007 prize.

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