Dario Iacoponi, 15, apparently shot himself with his father’s gun, which was licensed, at the family home in Ealing, west London, on Tuesday.
Staff and pupils at the Fulham school, attended by Tony Blair’s sons Euan, 14, and Nicky, 12, were said to have been shocked at Dario’s apparent suicide. The Appeal Court judges yesterday granted him leave and it will be heard next Thursday.Both mother and baby are to stay in the Whittington Hospital in north London until Monday.. A PUPIL at the London Oratory – the school attended by the Prime Minister’s sons – has been found dead with shotgun wounds to his head. The north London prison had refused the woman a place in the unit because of her alleged violent and disruptive behaviour.Studying the requirements for admission to the mother and baby unit, Lord Justice Thorpe said: “The five stated considerations seem to me a very poor summary of what that statute [the Children Act] seeks to achieve for children in our society.”The reality under Children Act legislation is that the separation of mother and child at this stage, to deny the child the opportunity of making the psychological bond with the mother, is a course which is only ordered in the most extreme cases where defects in the natural parent are so grave that the interests and welfare of the child would otherwise be jeopardised.”Eleanor Grey, representing the Home Secretary as responsible for Holloway Prison, conceded that there was no suggestion that the woman fell into that category.But she said there had to be a balance between the rights of the child and the welfare and safety of other mothers and babies in the unit.Leon Daniel, acting for the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sought a judicial review of the case. He came to Britain in early 1986 to look after the bank’s European operations.Damages awarded to Mrs Plitman were pounds 1,358,750 for Mr Yedid’s loss of earnings up to his death in March 1991; pounds 1,515,625 for her “loss of dependency”; pounds 85,000 for the suffering of Mr Yedid, and a pounds 3,500 sum for statutory bereavement compensation. Today’s exchange rates would put the total at almost pounds 3m, but a sum for medical expenses plus interest will still have to be added..

A FEMALE prisoner won the right yesterday to launch a High Court challenge to prevent her new-born baby being taken into care. The 24-year-old inmate gave birth to a girl on Tuesday night and is attempting to block the decision to refuse her a place in Holloway Prison’s mother and baby unit.
In what is the first case of its kind, three appeal court judges ruled that the woman was entitled to permission to argue that she had been the victim of procedural unfairness within the prison system.Lord Justice Schiemann, sitting with Lord Justice Thorpe and Lord Justice Brooke, urged that mother and baby should not be parted until the court had considered the case.Lord Justice Thorpe said only when there were the most extreme defects in the natural parent should a child be denied the opportunity to bond with its mother.Yet, he said, minutes of a meeting at which Holloway prison decided to deny the woman a place in the specialist unit suggested there had been no consideration of the 1986 Children Act. THE WIDOW of a multi-millionaire New York banker, who died after an operation at a London hospital, today won record damages of about pounds 4m at the High Court. The National Health Service Litigation Authority had admitted liability for the anaesthetic accident at the Westminster Hospital, but had challenged the widow’s claim for pounds 15m, plus interest.
Marilyn Plitman, who has remarried since the death of her husband, Joshua Yedid, in 1991, when she was 37, was awarded what is expected to be the largest sum ever made by an English court for a death caused by hospital negligence.A spokesman for solicitors representing the hospital said the award was not considered a defeat.”Obviously this will be a burden on the NHS but, on the other hand, it is very considerably less than the pounds 15m, plus interest, that was being claimed.”He said the size of the claim reflected that Mr Yedid was a “very wealthy and high-earning banker”.Mr Yedid, 60, was the vice chairman of the Republic Bank of New York when, in June 1986, he underwent exploratory surgery at the hospital after a bout of internal bleeding.Because of the anaesthetic problem that occurred, he suffered “catastrophic and irreparable brain damage”, which left him in a persistent vegetative state, said Mr Justice Gage at the High Court in London.He was cared for at various hospitals in London and Israel, but showed no awareness, and died in March 1991.The NHS had admitted liability, but disputed the damages claim, saying Mr Yedid had died of a heart attack which he might have suffered anyway.Mr Justice Gage ruled: “On the whole of the evidence, it seems to me that much the most probable cause of death was the persistent vegetative state caused by the defendants’ negligence, and I so find.”The judge had been told that the couple and their two sons had enjoyed an affluent lifestyle, with a country house in the Hamptons area of Long Island, and a New York flat.Lebanese-born Mr Yedid spoke five languages, and was one of the most highly-paid executives of the New York bank. We are constantly being videoed by the police – I’m worried as a law abiding person that we are coming under this kind of scrutiny. Peaceful demonstration is part of a democratic society – it is part of our rights.”John Wadham, director of Liberty, the civil rights organisation, argued that the unit would inevitably spend much of its time monitoring peaceful protests. “The problem is, without a right of privacy and a right of protest, there will inadequate controls and regulations,” he said.Ecology and green pressure groups have multiplied in the past few years and have become an increasing headache to the police.In May the organisation Reclaim The Streets caused serious disruption at the G8 summit in Birmingham and at other times has brought parts of London and Brighton to a standstill.The cost of covering the demonstrations against animal exports on the South Coast was more than pounds 6m..

“The information about how the police dealt with that will be useful to other forces,” he explained.Special Branches in forces in England and Wales, which gather intelligence about threats to national security, will contribute information to the unit.MI5, the Security Service, will also contribute details of individuals they believe to be involved in terrorist activities or serious disorder.John Callaghan, overseas liaison director for Compassion in World Farming, the pressure group responsible for organising many of the demonstrations at Brightlingsea in Essex and Shoreham in Sussex against the export of veal calves, condemned the extra monitoring of activists.”This is going to far. It’s about keeping a database on them – identifying the main individuals.”He said that people repeatedly involved in clashes during industrial disputes, such as the miners’ strike and the Wapping newspaper picketing, could also be targeted. He also cited the 1995 protests at Shoreham, Dover and Brightlingsea against live animal export to the Continent, which at times result in violent clashes, as suitable areas for scrutiny.”Special Branch officers at ports where trouble is taking place could use the system to communicate information to chief constables elsewhere.”He added that the unit could also be used to draw up information about National Front members and extreme leftwing activitists who are considered likely to become involved in violence.”All this information will be useful to chief constables – if you know certain groups are involved in an action you can anticipate greater disorder and violence and plan for it in advance,” he said.Chief constables also want to build up action plans for dealing with eco incidents throughout the country.Mr Speed gave the example of the police having to remove demonstrators who climbed into trees during protests at road building in the South West. The Animal Rights National Index, which lists details of protesters, is already based at Scotland Yard.Assistant Commissioner Anthony Speed of the Metropolitan Police, who chairs the Association of Chief Police Officers’ Public Order sub- committee, said: “Experience shows that the same people are involved in demonstrations – whether it’s disruption of building works and motorways, runways, live animals for export, or people ‘reclaiming’ the streets.”It tends to be the same people who support them and travel around the country. They argued yesterday that civil liberties and the right to peacefully demonstrate were being undermined.There are also fears that people on legal protests could be listed as troublemakers. The national unit, which is due to be operational by the end of the year, will be based at Scotland Yard. It is expected to be headed by Commander Barry Moss, head of Special Branch.The new outfit will include three existing police teams.

In south-west England an intelligence unit has been monitoring New Age travellers and people who occupy land illegally. While in northern England a small team has been logging details of hunt saboteurs. The unit will also draw up action plans that chief constables can introduce to head off potential disorder.The move follows growing concern among police chiefs that so called eco- warriors are becoming increasingly organised and creating an ever growing threat to public order.Green and civil rights activists reacted with anger to the disclosure of the new outfit, which is to be called the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. The intelligence squad, which will use information from Special Branch officers and MI5, will compile profiles of protesters and organisations considered to be potentially troublesome.
Among the people to be targeted are campaigners against road building and live animal exports, protesters at industrial disputes, hunt saboteurs and far-right groups. A NATIONAL police unit is being set up to track green activists and public demonstrations amid fears that “eco-warriors” are becoming increasingly disruptive and violent. In many senses, public opinion is ahead of Government policy.”The Soil Association is to press the agriculture minister, Nick Brown, about grants for organic farming.