14/12/2012 BBC News at Ten

For the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these

little children. And for the families of the adults who were

lost. The gunman is believed to have been the son of one of the

teachers. He is reported to have shot her dead. We will bring you

the latest on this unfolding story tonight. Nick Clegg becomes the

first serving minister to question whether possession of some drugs

should be decriminalised. Modern- day slavery. The family convicted

of forcing them to work for them as labourers, ruling them by fear and

humiliation. More demonstrations in Egypt on the eve of the

controversial referendum that has sparked weeks of violence and

protests. And the woman who had a relationship with the DJ John Peel

when she was just 15 says she doesn't feel she was abused.

totally wanted it. I wanted to be with him. And I didn't really feel

that he was so old. I wasn't going to tell him I was so young it

Good evening. The horrific details of one of the worst mass shootings

in America's history on folding tonight. 27 people, 20 of them

children aged between 5 and 10, have been killed after a gunman

opened fire at the Priory School in Connecticut. The gunman, reported

to be the son of one of the teachers, was found dead at the

scene. Traumatised children have spoken of how bullets flew past

them as they cowered in their classrooms. Pitiable President

Obama said the nation's hearts were broken at the loss of young

children with their lives ahead of them. The shooting took place in

the small town of Newtown at Sandy Hook Elementary School, just after

A Friday morning with Christmas looming. At Sandy Hook Elementary

School the children were gathering in their classrooms when the

shooting began. The police took the first call soon after 9:30am.

Moments later, heavily armed officers went in. Terrified

children, aged between 5 and 10, were being carried out. I saw some

of the bullets going past the hole. I was right next to it. Then a

teacher pulled me into her classroom. We heard shots and

everyone went on the ground. Mr Martin closed the door. We went

over to a corner and a teacher... Wall of the police officers had

machine guns. I was in the gym and I heard seven loud booms. The gym

teacher told us to go in the corner. So we all huddled. I kept hearing

these booming noises. As alarmed parents rushed back to the school,

early reports told of a gunman confronting a teacher, with three

people being taken to hospital. But by now the police Swat teams had

spread out. It soon became clear this was murder on a horrific scale.

There were fatalities. 18 children were pronounced dead at the school.

There were two that were transported to area hospitals and

pronounced dead there. There were six adults pronounced dead at the

scene at the school. As the governor's report of this shooter

he is deceased. You US networks say the killer was a man in his 20s

whose mother is thought to have been a teacher at the school. In

Washington, where the White House flag flies at half mast, Barack

Obama addressed the nation as a President and a father.

majority of those who died today were children. Beautiful little

kids between the ages of five and They had their entire lives ahead

of them. Birthdays, graduation so, weddings, kids of their own. Among

the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives

to helping our children fulfil their dreams. So our hearts are

broken today. Of the politicians he demanded meaningful action. A hint

perhaps at tighter gun laws in a country where the right to bear

arms is cherished. But that argument is for tomorrow. For now,

America is trying to comprehend the how and why of a mass killing in a

small, rural community. Newtown was supposed to be a haven, a world

away from the bustle of nearby New York. But today, Sandy Hook

Elementary School was robbed of innocence. Joining Columbine and

Virginia Tech on the grim roll-call Our correspondent is in Newtown for

us this evening. More details are emerging all the time of this

terrible tragedy. What more can you tell us? Officials have still not

confirmed the name of the gunman. What they are saying is there was

only one. What we are here in off the record and what locals are

reporting is it was a 20-year-old man whose mother was a teacher in a

kindergarten class at the school. The accounts we've been hearing was

he entered the school dressed all in black. He was carrying two

handguns. He stopped by the principles of this and shot the

principle as well as the school psychologist, killing them, and

injuring the vice-principal. Then proceeded to his mother's classroom,

where it seems most of the shooting took place. He is dead, that has

been said. It seems that this point that he shot himself, although that

has not been confirmed. We've also been told there was a x4 found in

his vehicle. The people here are still asking questions about the

details of what happened. But more than that, how this could have

happened in this small, peaceful town, especially to children of

such a young age. The Deputy Prime Minister has become the first

serving minister to question whether possession of some drugs

should be decriminalised. Nick Clegg says Britain is losing the

war on drug use and there should be a fundamental review of drugs

policy. Putting him at odds with the Prime Minister, who this week

ruled out any changes. The political consensus on drugs has

held firm for decades. No serving minister has dared publicly

question the policy of prohibition. Until now. I think it is important

that the break this conspiracy of silence, where politicians, when

they are in government at least, say, this is all too controversial,

we're not going to look elsewhere to make sure we're doing all we can

to help families and children in this country who are affected by

the plight of drugs. Some people would say that you are sending the

wrong message to young people. simply cannot be content with the

way things are. To many people are losing their lives to drugs.

Clegg wants the government to look at the system in Portugal, where

all drugs have been depenalised with a focus on treatment, not

punishment. Public concern about drugs there has fallen. He also

wants Britain to monitor the experience of the US states of

Washington and Colorado, where marijuana has recently been

legalised. Calling for a Royal Commission on UK drug laws, the

Deputy Prime Minister is exactly contradicting the Prime Minister.

don't personally think that a royal commission is the answer, and I

don't support the decriminalisation of any drugs that are currently

illegal. Without agreement from Downing Street there's no chance of

significant change to Britain's drug laws this Parliament. But, as

the First Minister of the ground in 40 years to call for a fundamental

review, Mr Clegg is looking to a debate in the 2015 election and

beyond. As a global drug reform campaign gathers pace, the UN is

true -- due to review national policy in 2016. Mr Clegg wants the

UK to be at the forefront of new thinking. But critics of reform say

drug use is actually falling in Britain. Among 16 to 24 year-olds,

11 % fewer have used drugs in the previous year and 15 years before.

With cannabis it has fallen 8.3 %, ecstasy 3%, but cocaine use has

risen by 2.8 %. Some drug workers say Mr Clegg's intervention is

irresponsible. I don't think we should have a softer approach to

drugs and their use. I've seen the enormous casualties used by not

only drug addiction but also curiosity around drug use,

particularly in the teenage population. If you are anti- drugs

you're a pro reform, is the message from Mr Clegg. But in making that

claim he's crossed into uncharted political territory. No one can yet

be sure how voters will respond to a call for a rethink on drugs. Five

members of one family had been found guilty of using forced labour,

subjecting workers to repeated violence and humiliation and paying

them as little as �5 a day. A court in Bristol heard that the ComRes

family, who were travellers, repeatedly beat labourers and hosed

them with freezing water in conditions that amounted to modern-

day slavery. -- the Connors family. Wiliam Connors, his wife, their

sons, John and James, and her son- in-law, Miles. In the far corner of

a caravan site near Cheltenham they kept their own private workforce.

Vulnerable men were forced to live in filthy conditions where they

would be beaten and made to use buckets as toilets. By day the men

had to lay patios and driveways. This man, who doesn't want to be

identified, says he was picked up by the family when he was drinking

alone in a graveyard and taken away to work for them. I had no way of

getting out of it all getting away. Once I was there, that was it.

Anything else, every part of life or anything, it's over. Gone.

police started monitoring the site they filmed Wiliam Connors beating

a worker. In all, 19 vulnerable men were eventually liberated. And

members of the family were arrested. Inside their properties the police

found evidence of a very different lifestyles. Been there toilets were

piles of cash. The jury was told the defendants had lived the high

life, luxury holidays and expensive homes. The family insisted they

were good Samaritans, providing the men with jobs and somewhere to live.

But the jury disagreed. This was behaviour against very vulnerable

people. Some of the worst I've seen in my career as a police officer.

The conditions they lived in, the things they experienced, these are

very serious offences. The five defendants sought in the dock as

the foreman of the jury read out the guilty verdict. In the public

gallery, members of their family also sheltered and cried. So much

so that the judge ordered the court to be empty. The five will be

The computer hacker Gary McKinnon, who fought successfully for a

decade to avoid trial in the US, will not face charges in the UK.

The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped all charges against the 46-

year-old, who in 2001 was accused of one of the largest ever breaches

Tensions remain high in Egypt night ahead of voting in a referendum on

the country's draft constitution. President Morsi, who drew up the

plans, says ratification is essential if Egypt is to move on

from the rule of Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown last year. There

have been widespread protests since the document was published. Lyse

Doucet has been gauging opinion among the Egyptians in the final

hours before voting. The mood in Tahrir Square was

festive but there have been days of protest. A draft driven by the

powerful Muslim Brotherhood, they say, too vague on freedoms and

women's right's. They where the majority of the people who were

writing it who came from the Muslim Brotherhood so definitely they

rotate and it does not represent Egypt. A presidential adviser

denies this charter has an Islamist agenda. We were fighting this for

the last six decades of autocratic system. Or individual rights, all

women's rights, all democratic balances were observed in the draft.

This quiet village is where President Morsi was born. Most

Egyptians live in rural areas, most are poor. This new constitution

affect every aspect of their lives, from rights, to religion, to the

role of the state. I will be the first one at the polling station,

with my wife and family, says this man. This constitution gives power

to the poor. But a half hour's drive away, in another town, the

president's family home is now encircled by barricades. It was

recently targeted by angry protesters. It is not hard to find

people's views here. Have you seen your constitution? Yes, we have

read it. A revolution gave Egyptians a new freedom to speak

their mind. No. Our stronghold in the streets quickly leads to

impassioned debate. This is very healthy for the people to say yes

or no. They are together. I say yes, but... Is this is representative of

Egypt now, it is a good sign, some voting yes, some voting no. One

hand is the slogan they have used that Egyptians are altogether.

Tomorrow's vote is a major stepping-stone in Egypt's

tumultuous journey from authoritarian rule to democracy.

But this nation is now deeply divided over where it is heading.

Our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen joins me now. We have been looking

into the Arab uprisings all week. From your experience, what

conclusions can you draw? Remember the incredible euphoria when Hosni

Mubarak was removed from office. People at that time thought

mistakenly, that things were going to get much better, much faster.

But when the weight of an autocracy of a police state is removed, all

kinds of things come flooding to the surface. It takes a long time

to digest them. What has emerged is it is clear the region will not be

a row of dominoes falling over, and a new dispensation emerging, it is

a generation long process of change and this week we have been looking

at some of the big forces reshaping the Middle East. The desire for

change by the under 30 s. Religion, the place of Islam, and the way the

uprisings have become entangled with existing conflicts like the

cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. What is coming up? Iran and

its nuclear plants, that could be a big stories. Sectarian tension

running right through the region. The civil war in Syria could belong.

What happens the day after Assad if he goes or read in the decade after

as one top diplomat said to me the other day. And the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict, of course, I could go on. One way of looking at

this, just to say, if this is a five at play, then around the end

of Act Two, the beginning of Act 3, there is an awful lot to come.

Thank you. Coming up on tonight's programme:

The debutant showing England the route to success in the Test series

in India. A woman who told a tabloid

newspaper she had a relationship with the BBC DJ John Peel when she

was just 15, says she now bitterly regrets going public. Jane Nevin

met John Peel in 1969. He was 30 at the time. She says she did not feel

abused and kept the relationship secret until the recent revelations

about Jimmy Savile. She has been talking to our correspondent David

Sillito. This is a picture of Jane Nevin in

1969. Her age? 15, 16, and yes I was a naughty girl, very

promiscuous in those days. 40 years on, Jane wanted to talk to me about

that time, to put the record straight about one specific sexual

relationship with the BBC DJ John Peel. You met him at a Black

Sabbath big, how young were you? Was that to be used? No, I totally

wanted it. I wanted to be with him. I did not feel that he was so Wald

and I was not going to tell him I was so young either. He did not

know? Of course he didn't. Am are going to say, by the way, I am 15?

Why did she speak to the papers? She said the Jimmy Savile

revelations had thrown up questions about other DJs. It has been

claimed that John Peel's wife was 15 when they married. She wanted to

make a point about what was and what was not abuse. John Peel has

perhaps got a bit of a tarnish on him now, which is partly my fault.

It should not be that way. He was marvellous. He was lovely to me.

was a time when boundaries were being blurred. Take the words of

this song, Vagabond Virgin. # you were 13, a child from the

villages... 30 in? In the 1960s, Virginia Ironside was a groovy rock

columnist. Today, she is an agony aunt and she feels free love

brought great unhappiness. You were expected to sleep with everybody.

The whole idea of no means no, in the 60s, that did not really exist.

As far as age goes, it was all blurred. It is curious how the

Jimmy Savile staff has sparked, in a lot of my friends of my own age,

a real feeling of misery of how things were in the 60s, and how

abused we felt. It was, she says, a time of sexual chaos. This is Jimmy

Savile's autobiography, written in 1974. On final page, his final

thought is all about sex, young ladies and the risk of going to

prison. Did no one question this at the time? And who could you speak

to? In the sixties and seventies, David Hughes was working in the

music business. As a PR man, what stands out is how few questions

were being asked. The press did not take an interest in any scandal,

where it over -- able to have arisen. For some, it was an era of

liberation but others took advantage. If you wanted to speak

out, who was listening? 40 years on, we are facing the reckoning.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has used his final

speech in the House of Lords before standing down at the end of the

year to make an impassioned plea for society to stop marginalising

the elderly. Dr Williams said the quality of life for older people

was a pressing issue, but one which was still largely ignored.

One in six of us are over-65s. They are an army the nation needs, says

Rowan Williams, but instead they are patronised. We are becoming

used to speaking of an ageing population. Of Dr Williams told

peers that contempt for the elderly in wider society had recently --

had even caused recent care home abuse. People think older citizens

are passive or a nuisance. The more easily they slip into abusive

patterns and behaviour. I think it would be harder for the terrible

abuse cases to have happened, it would have been harder if they had

been a more positive accepting attitude in society. In ten years

at Lambeth Palace, Romain Williams has frequently criticised Society

for valuing human wealth rather than the human qualities which

matter. He warned that the question of elderly abuse was being ignored,

while we look at our watches waiting for them to be off our

hands. They are people like eight- year-old Lorna Sinclair, whose

shops raised thousands for charity. Often, she says, older people are

wasted. They are very undervalued, they are forgotten and there is a

place for all of them. They have such experience but no one wants to

know about them. Today, people are only interested in young people.

in Bakewell, formerly the government's voice for older people,

backed Dr Williams' call for England to follow Wales and

Northern Ireland and appoint a special representative for the

elderly. My have called for a commissioner for older people and I

think that is very important to take on the problems which exist

with an ageing population and to address them as the Archbishop have

asked. A more than half of people aged over 60 volunteer or care for

family members, saving the economy billions of pounds. The elderly are

participants in society, says Dr Williams, not passengers.

The former BBC newsreader, Kenneth Kendall, has died in hospital on

the Isle of Wight. He was 88. Kenneth Kendall began his BBC

career as a radio announcer, before becoming one of the first

television newsreaders. He read his last bulletin in 1981, and was then

host of the popular channel 4 programme, Treasure Hunt. Paying

tribute, the acting Director- General of the BBC, Tim Davie,

called him one of the broadcasting greats, who will be hugely missed.

England's cricketers have put themselves in a commanding position

on the second day of the 4th Test against India. Joe Root scored 73

on his debut, as England finished on 330 all out. India have

struggled a reply, finishing the day on 87 for four. Joe Wilson

reports from Nagpur. Don't let it be said that lack poor

is unprepared, around the cricket ground they were taking no chances

-- Nagpur of. The stadium was built so far from anywhere that only be

devoted made there by morning. There were precious few inside to

see Matt Prior make a valuable 50. He is a well-established asset in

England's side. Joe route is his surprise, a gift. Few expected him

even to play here. He may look 21, going on 12, but he could not have

batted with more maturity. Graeme Swann bashed some timely runs as

well, making his 5th Test -- Fifth Test 50 in his 50th Test. The total

looked good but it depended on the other team. As the afternoon

progressed, the interest grew. Look at the queue here now for people

waiting to get in. What Indian fans really laugh is seeing their team

backed. Virender Sehwag only entertained England. Cleaned up 40.

Anderson had got rid of a big problem in the first over. By the

close, England have four wickets, Anderson, three, including Sachin

Tendulkar. He may never bat in a test again and India may not have a

way back from this match. There is more on the BBC News