21 May 2006

21 May 2006

Rapist faces life in jail for teen murder

A convicted rapist who abducted a teenage girl, strangled her and dumped her dismembered body in bin bags was jailed for life on Tuesday and told he would never be released.

John McGrady, 48, snatched 15-year-old Rochelle Holness from the street last September as she went to a phone box to call her boyfriend. He took her back to his flat on a rundown estate in Catford, south London, where he killed her.

Afterwards McGrady, a former butcher, cut her body up into five pieces using a hacksaw, the Old Bailey heard.

Blind workers forced to quit

A CHARITY has slammed a town hall for cutting off the cash that keeps two blind people in employment.

The council had been paying a grant for the pair to work at a factory in New Cross but in April informed them the money would be withdrawn.

The factory is run by Action for Blind People (ABP) and a spokes-woman said: "Lewisham council has made a very disappointing decision to withdraw funding, which will mean Mark Anderson and Jacqueline Gittens, who are registered blind, losing their jobs and being forced to live on state benefit."

Hospital staff are spat on, sworn at and racially abused

ACCIDENT & Emergency departments are never nice places to be, but for some members of staff they are proving downright dangerous.

Last year hundreds of hospital workers were kicked, punched, spat at and verbally abused and A&E staff take the worst of it.

Heart disease shock for Lewisham women

LEWISHAM women have the highest rate of heart disease in South London, it emerged last week. Figures from the British Heart Foundation showed levels of disease were the ninth highest in the capital with a death rate of 13 women per 100,000. The London average is 10 and the England average, 11.

The rate for men in Lewisham is 45 per 100,000, putting the borough in 18th place. Dr Mike Knapton, of the heart foundation, said: "These statistics help inform where most work needs to be done to reduce premature heart disease deaths in future.

Residents all shook up about vibrations

FED-UP residents brought a road to a standstill when they protested against buses bumping over speed humps.

Neighbours living in Sandhurst Road, Catford, say their houses are being "shaken to the core" every time a bus or heavy vehicle passes over the newly-installed speed humps.

Council moves datacentre to reduce costs

The London Borough of Lewisham is to transfer its datacentre to a new outsourcing provider in autumn.

The move will involve up to 70 former council employees, who five years ago were transferred to outsourcing supplier Fujitsu Services, transferring again as the council aims to save 20% of its IT and telecoms support costs....

Under the deal signed last week, the council will move 213 servers, including a storage area network, from Fujitsu Services to SunGard Vivista, said Roger Fowles, Lewisham’s head of ICT strategy.

1 comment:

chrome said...

mr moe how you? caught some festival that's been going on over at deptford market for the last few days (think it's over now). thought I might catch some info here.