AN internet predator has been jailed for using the Bebo website to groom two 14-year-old schoolgirls for sex.

Andrew Beatson, 26, used the social networking website to befriend his first young victim after viewing her personal profile on the site.

The pair exchanged private messages over a four-month period before he coaxed the vulnerable young teenager to his Edinburgh flat and had sex with her.

The girl’s worried parents had reported her missing after she stormed out of the family home during an argument and stayed out all night. After discovering she had been with Beatson, the girl’s family alerted the police and had him charged.

But while on bail waiting to appear at court, jobless Beatson used the site to initiate a sexual relationship with another 14-year-old just four months later.

He was remanded in custody after being caught a second time with an underage girl he met through his “internet addiction”. In both cases, he was able to persuade the girls to pass on their mobile phone numbers and then befriend him.

Today, Beatson was sentenced to nine months in prison at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after admitting both counts of unlawful sex.

His solicitor, Angus McLennan, told the court that his client had sought counselling for his problems, including an internet addiction. But he insisted that Beatson had not been aware of his victims’ true ages and had merely been nave.

He said: “He did not seek out children. There was some degree of naivety as the girls described themselves as being over 16 and he did not think further inquiries needed to be made.

“There is nothing more sinister than that.”

But Sheriff Noel McPartlin rejected Beatson’s claims that he had been nave and branded him a “predator”.

He said: “The fact is that both girls were not much older than 14 when these offences took place. You initiated contact throught the internet, so it is very difficult to come to any other conclusion that your conduct is predatory by its very nature.”

He also advised Beatson that he would be supervised for a further nine months after his release and placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.

The offences took place in November 2006 and March 2007 at Beatson’s flat in Haileslands Gardens.

Following his plea of guilty six weeks ago, the former meter reader for Scottish Gas moved back to his parents’ home in Musselburgh.

The case has sparked fresh warnings from safety groups for parents to monitor their children’s use of websites like Bebo, Myspace and Facebook.

A spokesman for Bebo said: “Our site is policed very heavily but we have millions of users and so obviously problems do crop up. These kind of websites have taken off quite rapidly and so our safety guards are constantly evolving.

“We do take every issue very seriously and work in connection with a team of experts to try to improve our safety regulations.”

Bebo, which has 34 million users, now has a safety section in place on the website, which encourages its young users to report any unusual behaviour or indecent content.

Immigration contributed 6bn to Britain’s economic growth last year, according to new official figures today, prompting the government to claim Britain is better off with immigration than without it.

The Home Office figures provide the first full analysis of the impact of increased immigration in the last decade. The figures outlined in a 43-page report suggest many fears on the subject are unfounded.

It said that in 2006, 574,000 migrants came to live in the UK and that they contributed around a sixth of the total growth in the economy that year.

On average, migrants earned more than native workers and paid more tax, suggesting that they are more productive, the report said.

The report pointed out that migrants made up 9.6% of the population in 2003-04 but contributed 10% of government revenue in taxes while using only 9.1% of government expenditure in the services they consume.

The immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said: “In the long run, our country and exchequer is better off with immigration rather than without it.”

However, he conceded that in some areas increased migration has stretched services.

“In communities that do not have a history of absorbing migrants [it] has been unsettling and has created challenges for public services.”

Mr Byrne said the research would inform a government decision on whether to continue to block migrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria.

“What we need to do is strike the right balance for Britain’s national interest, starting with the decision on Bulgarian and Romanian workers a little later this year,” he said in a speech to public servants in Harlow, Essex.

Last month, three chief constables called for greater resources to cope with an influx of immigrants from eastern Europe.

Today’s report suggested that increased immigration had not increased unemployment and would reduce Britain’s dependency on the working population.

It pointed out that as the workforce ages the ratio of children and elderly people to those in work increases. Without immigration this ratio would rise to 82% by 2056. With projected increases in immigration this would rise to only 74%.

In terms of annual revenue, McKesson («www.businessweek.com») is the No. 1 pharmaceutical distributor in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the largest health-care IT provider, and the largest distributor of medical-surgical products to physicians and extended care markets. We believe that by leveraging its leading position in these markets to enhance “one-stop shopping” and increase cross-selling, the health-care distribution giant will continue to penetrate its core customer markets and generate above-average revenue and earnings growth.

We think that McKesson will continue to post above-average revenue and earnings growth over the next three to five years, at least, on rising demand for drugs and health-care IT products, and services and cost controls. Given our view of the health-care distributor’s promising growth prospects and its compelling valuation, we have a 5-STARS (strong buy) recommendation on the shares.

Beginning in fiscal 2008 (ending March), McKesson will report its results in two segments. The McKesson Distribution Solutions segment will include what was previously reported as the company’s Pharmaceutical Solutions and Medical-Surgical Solutions units. The McKesson Technology Solutions segment will include the company’s Provider Technologies unit and its Payor business, which provides services and software products to payors (e.g., health insurers), employers, and government organizations to help manage the cost and quality of care. (Our earnings model utilizes pro forma fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2007 income statements reflecting the new segment breakdown, as provided by McKesson from a recent 8-K filing, but adjusted for nonrecurring items.)

The McKesson Distribution Solutions segment (98% of total revenues in fiscal 2007) is a leading distributor of branded and generic drugs, medical-surgical supplies and equipment, and health and beauty care products throughout North America. This business also provides medical management and specialty pharmaceutical solutions for biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers as well as software and consulting and outsourcing services to pharmacies. Through McKesson’s investment in Parata Systems, it sells automated pharmaceutical dispensing systems for retail pharmacies. Overseas Opportunities

We expect revenues and operating margins to expand at the McKesson Distribution Solutions segment, fueled by the company’s concentration on the relatively faster-growing, higher-margin products and services in both pharmaceutical and medical-surgical distribution. In particular, segment revenues will benefit from the slew of new generic and specialty drugs that we foresee, as well as increasing enrollment in the Medicare Prescription Drug Program and higher penetration of Mexico and Canada. Margins should improve on cost controls and, in our view, generic drug volumes rising as a percentage of sales.

The McKesson Technology Solutions segment (2%) delivers enterprise-wide patient-care, clinical, financial, supply-chain, and strategic-management software solutions; pharmacy automation for hospitals; and connectivity, outsourcing, and other services, to health-care organizations in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. Its customers include hospitals, physicians, home-care providers, retail pharmacies, and payors.

Revenues will grow at the McKesson Technology Solutions segment, propelled mainly by strong demand for its high-margin clinical software and medical imaging solutions. We also see impetus from federal government initiatives to convert all medical records to electronic form, hospitals’ efforts to cut medical errors, and providers’ and payors’ interest in improving operating efficiency and reducing administrative costs. Moreover, we expect the segment to enjoy healthy growth not only in the U.S., but also overseas, and view the strong demand for its products and services as sustainable through at least the next three to five years. Segment revenue and earnings should continue to grow faster than those of the company as a whole, by our analysis. Better Mix of Products

We look for total revenue growth of 7.3% in fiscal 2008, following fiscal 2007’s 6.9% increase, with top-line growth accelerating on a quarterly basis. Significant generic drug launches and continuing healthy increases in medical-surgical sales to the alternate site market are key parts of this growth. (McKesson defines the alternate site market as consisting of physician offices, surgery centers, occupational health, home care, and extended care, which are benefiting from the migration of care and procedures out of the hospital.) In addition, we see a boost in Technology Solutions sales, on both the Per-Se Technologies acquisition (see below) and strong organic growth.

We project company-wide operating margins to continue to widen gradually over the longer term, partly on an improving product mix and cost controls in Distribution Solutions. Key drivers in this improving performance are: increased sales of generics and private-label products; McKesson’s intention to increase international product sourcing and product development; the September, 2006, divestiture of the underperforming acute care medical-surgical distribution business; and an ongoing Six Sigma operating efficiency program.

Also, we look for the high-margin Technology Solutions segment to grow as a percentage of total revenue. For fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009, we expect margins to benefit from synergies realized from the integration of Per-Se. We believe the segment’s operating margin would be even wider, if not for McKesson’s intention to increase R&D and sales and marketing spending, which we view as investments for long-term performance.

All told, we look for fiscal 2008 operating EPS to grow 17.5% to $3.35, and expect the March (or fourth) quarter to exhibit the strongest performance in fiscal 2008, partly owing to the timing of generics launches. In fiscal 2009, we see EPS of $3.85, representing growth of 15%.