09/09/2016 Reporting Scotland

That's all from the BBC News at Six so it's goodbye from me

A jury hears how a man accused of murdering Surjit Singh Chokhar

has already stood trial for the crime and been acquitted.

Grieving relatives who visited Elgin mortuary

describe the experience as appalling.

We were accompanied by police constables, approached the building,

and within two steps of being outside we were in front of my dad's

body, with very little preparation. They're calling for all Scottish

mortuaries to be inspected to make This British Airways

flight to the States had to be diverted so an unruly

Scottish passenger could be escorted A new, independent lifeboat arrives

in the Borders coastal town of St Abbs, a year after the RNLI

withdrew its facility. And Rangers and Celtic

play their first league match in four years when they meet

at Celtic park tomorrow. A grieving family is calling

for improvements to be made A jury has heard a man accused

of murdering a waiter in Lanarkshire nearly 18 years ago has

already stood trial The details emerged today

during the cross examination 48-year-old Ronnie Coulter denies

murdering Surjit Singh Chhokar in Overtown near Wishaw

in November 1998. From the High Court in Glasgow

here's our Home Affairs For the third day, Elizabeth Bryce

has been in the witness box recalling the events of November

four 1998. She was the partner of Indian waiter Surjit Singh Chokhar,

who was stabbed to death outside her house in Overtown, near Wishaw. His

family were watching when the jury were told the man in the dock has

already been tried for the crime. It's the third time Miss Bryce has

given evidence in a trial about his death. In March 1999, Ronnie Coulter

was tried for his murder and acquitted. A year later Ronnie

Coulter's nephew, Andrew, and a third man were tried for the same

murder and also acquitted. Now Ronnie Coulter is back in court

accused of the murder for a second time. Elizabeth Bryce was questioned

by the defence QC. She said on the night when her partner died, she

found him outside her flat bleeding heavily from a chest wound. She then

told police that three men had been involved, but she only named Andrew

Coltart. A police constable was first on the scene. He said he had

taken a statement in the ambulance taking Mr Chokhar to hospital. He

said Elizabeth Bryce had only given him the name of Andrew, and if she

had told him the names of the other two men he would have passed them

on. The trial of Ronnie Coulter at the High Court in Glasgow resumes on

Monday. A grieving family is calling

for improvements to be made to mortuaries around the country,

after branding conditions at their local one

in Elgin "appalling". The widow and daughters of a man

who died in a sailing accident were called to identify his body

but say they were shocked at facilities at the mortuary,

which didn't even include a toilet These are the waters of the Moray

coast which claimed the life of keen sailor Frank White in May. He had

set off in his boat to spectate on a race series run by the local yacht

club when his boat was overturned. Tragic enough for his family, but

when they were asked to come and identify his body at the mortuary in

Elgin, this is what greeted them. What looked like a disused, unkempt

building, outbuildings is what it looked like. Within two steps of

being outside we were in front of my dad's body, with very little

preparation. Are you ready? You think, OK, we will now move forward,

and actually, you are there with your loved one right in front of

you. NHS Grampian said they had immediately apologised to the family

and had taken steps to make sure what they had experienced did not

happen again. They are no longer using this mortuary for family

visits. But the family and their MSP are concerned there may be other

mortuaries in Scotland that provide a similarly dismal welcome for

families who are grieving for recently lost loved ones. The family

who have been through the horrific experience of identifying the body

of a loved one in mortuary facilities that were wholly

inappropriate, way below standard, they want to not have any other

family go through that and I agree with them that now is the time to

ensure standards are other mortuaries are checked. The MSP is

going to raise the issue at Holyrood, calling for all mortuaries

in Scotland to be checked to make sure they could -- they meet

acceptable standards. It felt so wrong. Nobody should have that lack

of dignity and respect, either for the living or the deceased. If this

was the position here, what was it like across the rest of Scotland?

The Princess Royal has cancelled her public engagements

next week because she is "feeling unwell", Buckingham Palace has said.

66-year-old Princess Anne is understood to have had some tests

at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on Wednesday.

Buckingham Palace said the Queen's daughter had been suffering

from a bad chest infection and had cancelled her engagements

She has been staying at Balmoral, the Queen's Aberdeenshire residence.

A British Airways flight from London to Florida

was forced to divert to Boston because of the "unruly" behaviour

The 24-year-old man from Glasgow was then removed by police officers

before the flight continued its journey to Orlando.

As it entered US airspace, this is the moment a routine flight from

London to Orlando had to make a sudden diversion because a passenger

had become too disruptive for the crew to handle. This is the

24-year-old Glaswegian, who passengers say was drunkenly

wandering around the plane and seemed to want to get off. The

flight left Gatwick on Thursday afternoon but made its unscheduled

stop on the coast of the US, meaning passengers reached their eventual

destination two hours late. One of the business people on the plane was

sitting directly in front of the man. He wanted off the flight. At

some stage, he did not even realise he was on a plane. He just wanted

off, he wanted out. How did the crew deal with him? They did not

physically restrain him. They would escort him back to his seat. On

several occasions they had to physically keep him in his seat

area, but the majority of the time he was standing up. Eventually, the

pilot radioed the ground. The pilot went on to warn that he

did not know what the passenger might do next.

The US authorities say the man will be returned to the UK on Saturday

but he will also be summoned to a Boston court. Airlines take this

kind of behaviour very seriously. British Airways has apologised to

the other passengers, saying disruptive behaviour will not be

tolerated. Motorists using the M8 and M74

on the outskirts of Glasgow are being warned they face even

longer delays from Monday, as the next phase of work to improve

the motorway network begins. The installation of new motorway

gantries means another three months Diane standing above the M8 motorway

on the outskirts of Glasgow, and the team behind a huge project to

reconfigure the M8, the M73 and the M74 in this area move onto the next

phase on Monday by replacing the overhead gantry is along there,

which will lead to a great deal of disruption. The project manager

joins me now to talk through what they will be doing. What will you be

doing with these gantries, and what is the impact on travellers? From

Monday we move on the M8 and we have to start constructing the

foundations, building large piles into the ground. We have to have two

lanes in each direction. This massive project has already led to

disruption. How much more delay will people face on Monday. The M74 has

already been down to two lanes and this is the first time the M8 has

been down to two lanes. We expect significant disruption and asked

drivers to use alternative routes or allow extra time. The work will take

three months and we will try to phase it to minimise disruption.

What will the impact be when the project is finished? In terms of

journey time in the morning, we will see a benefit of 20 minutes on M8.

On the M74 there will be a journey time benefit of 15 minutes. Lots of

change coming and the message for people driving between Glasgow and

Edinburgh on Monday is to leave extra time for your journey and if

possible, find an alternative route. They call it the hidden

problem of homelessness. Tens of thousands of people

across Scotland waiting to rent a house from a council

or a housing association. Some are in temporary

accommodation, others are living Jamie McIvor's been investigating

the pressure on the social housing. Linda never imagined she would be

homeless. Her marriage broke up and later a serious medical condition

stopped her from working, socially is living in this flat for the

moment until a more suitable place to rent becomes available. The

bottom line was that I had to sell my house. And when you have to do

that, you have to do that. You realise, I can't find another job. I

am not well enough to be doing X, Y, Z. Living on the ninth floor can be

a problem for someone using a wheelchair. While temporary

accommodation of any sort is far from ideal. All of our possessions

have been in storage for the and a half. What I am sitting with his

second hand goods. Stories like this may challenge misconceptions about

just who might become homeless. Across Scotland, 30,000 households

became homeless last year. Sleeping rough is just the tip of the

iceberg. The vast majority of homeless people do have a roof over

their head. In Aberdeen, almost 500 households are in temporary

accommodation. In Edinburgh, it is over 1000, and in Glasgow it is

2000. It could happen to anybody. That is the resounding message I

want to get across, because we work with a wide diversity of people. One

person this charity is working with is Carol Andrews soon, she hopes to

have a permanent home. For now, the charity is giving her accommodation

and teaching her new skills, which can help solve this team. I think

the way they are doing it, they are preparing you for moving into your

own house, whereas just giving you a house and putting you in, you could

end up back to square one. The Scottish Government wants 45,000 new

rigid homes within five years but 160,000 are on the waiting list for

all sorts of reasons. Campaigners worry that those in temporary

accommodation can easily become invisible statistics.

You're watching BBC Reporting Scotland.

A jury hears how a man accused of murdering Surjit Singh Chokhar

has already stood trial for the crime and been acquitted.

There's controversy at the Paralympics as Scot Libby Clegg

is disqualified and then reinstated in the 100 metres semi final.

The new independent lifeboat in St Abbs has been out on training

exercises 12 months after the RNLI withdrew its lifeboat

The boat, which was bought from funds raised by the community

and a major donor, will be officially launched next weekend.

They say this is the fastest lifeboat in the country. A year to

the day the RNLI withdrew its lifeboat, the St Abbs crew are out

training on the one they bought themselves. Brand-new,

purpose-built, they say this will save lives. This isn't all about

speed. This rocky coastline is great for swimmers and divers but very

dangerous for boats. That is why the St Abbs crew have chosen the

specialist lifeboat to be able to get in about the rocks to rescue

people. The area is world-famous for its diving. There can be hundreds in

the water over a weekend. We are really glad. A lot of people use the

sea, use the coast. We hope we never need it, but it is nice to know it's

in there and nice to know that if we needed it, it would get there

quickly. Wonderful to know there is a lifeboat there. If we get swept

out to sea, someone will come and rescue us. Let's hope it's never

needed, but it is there. It is a really good dive site with lots to

see, used by a lot of divers, and it's great to know there is a

lifeboat there for anyone that gets into difficulty. The RNLI said this

area could be covered by a station a few miles away. The risks did not

justify two Botes so close together. St Abbs disagreed. There are 30,000

individual dive is taking place. If a diver gets in trouble you need to

be there as quickly as possible. The RNLI have moved the boats about

three miles further from the dive sites. We are in the middle of them

and should be able to react quicker. The community have raised nearly

?500,000 to get this boat in the water and believe it is worth every

penny. The crew here say there is no hard feelings with the RNLI crew

around the coast. In fact, they were on a joint rescue a few days ago,

and the RNLI have issued a statement wishing this crew every success in

their new venture. A look at other stories

from across the country. Glasgow Airport is operating

as normal, after a gas leak forced the evacuation of about 200 guests

from a hotel near the main terminal. The alarm was raised

at St Andrew's Drive around 3am. Engineers spent the day trying

to resolve the problem. A military training camp,

where a Scots soldier was accidentally killed last month,

saw more than 100 other accidents in which soldiers were injured last

year, Ministry of Private Conor McPherson from Paisley

died after suffering a serious head wound while taking part in a night,

live-firing exercise 24-year-old Private McPherson

served in the Black Watch. A further batch of Dunsyre Blue

cheese is being recalled, following an outbreak

of E.coli which resulted Food Standards Scotland said

Lanarkshire-based Errington Cheese has instigated the "precautionary

recall" of a batch of the product. Health officials have been

exploring possible links The company says there's no

confirmed link between the E.coli More than 1 million passengers have

used the Borders Railway since it was officially opened

by the Queen. The figure was announced

by Transport Minister, Humza Yousaf, and ScotRail Alliance managing

director, Phil Verster, The first services ran on the route

from Tweedbank to Edinburgh on 6th Double gold medal-winning gymnast,

Max Whitlock, has performed in a specially-designed

suit for Prince Charles. The Olympic star spun on his hands

on a table in a woollen suit His performance, at Dumfries House

in Cumnock, received cheers from delegates at a conference

staged by the Campaign for Wool. Football now and Rangers and Celtic

play their first league match in four years when they meet

at Celtic park tomorrow. The Rangers manager Mark Warburton

says victory over Celtic would simply mean three

points for his side. Since their last league match,

the Ibrox club has endured financial Here's our Senior Football Reporter

Chris McLaughlin. For four years, this club has been

flying high at the top of Scottish football. Winning, but, perhaps,

also waiting. Waiting for the regular return of a fixture and a

rivalry so intense that even liquidation failed to kill it off.

It's honours even from two cup matches at Hampden, but this time

one side plays host. I've heard noise in stadiums at Celtic Park

that I haven't heard before, as a manager and a coach, wherever I have

been. Home or away. So, the passion and - that's why so many players

around the world, why they speak so fondly and highly of the atmosphere

at Celtic Park. It really is a unique atmosphere. The noise levels

are never in doubt but his opposite number is keen not to get caught up

in the hype. Mark Warburton says "You are never going to under

underestimate the importance of this occasion but it is just three

points. If you see the odds and belief them, there's not much point

in turning up, we're relishing it." Another man with big questions to

answer, is also turning U Tackling political issues is a hobby but his

job tomorrow could be tackling this man. The Celtic captain, Scott?Brown

is never one to shy away, either. Joey says if he reaches his level,

Scott?Brown can't live with him, he wouldn't get anywhere here his

level. Scott?Brown taunted him on Twitter for being a Celtic fan. Joey

Barton responded with a picture of Scott?Brown as a kid in a Rangers'

jersey. It is typical pre-Old Firm fayre but every fixture needs a

favourite. Celtic were favourites when they met in the Cup. Rangers

came out on top but much has changed here and across the City since then.

Players, managers, even owners come and go but the rivalry, well, the

rivalry always remains. There was drama at the Paralympics

in Rio for one Scottish athlete. After reaching

the final of the 100m, sprinter Libby Clegg

was then disqualified. The British team appealed

and in the last few moments Clegg - was her appeal successful? Libby

Clegg, tethered to her guide - and the pair were off in a bid to reach

the final of the 100m, an event she'd won silver medals in, at the

last two Games. COMMENTATOR: Libby Clegg. And job

done. Not just winning her semifinal... COMMENTATOR: A new

World Record. Delight for Clegg as she set a new World Record but, an

hour later, she was out of the final, disqualified, after her guide

Chris Clark was adjudged to have pulled her along here. Paralympic GB

appealed against the decision and, after a bit of a wait, it was

successful. Clegg, back in tonight's final. Earlier there was also good

news for Scottish long jumper, Stef Reid. 5.64 she has done. A silver

medal, her second in as many Paralympics. So, Reid gets her

medal. And Clegg gets another chance of trying for one.

Scotland's crime writing festival gets under way in Stirling tonight,

with a prize dedicated to one of the country's best known writers.

Our arts correspondent Pauline McLean is there

Scotland has a fine selection of crime writers. So many so that they

founded their own festival here in stirling four years ago. And this

year they've decided tie ward their stirling four years ago. And this

main prize. The Scottish Crime Novel of the Year, decided to dedicate it

to the man that many believe started it all, William Mcel veriy. And the

prize, just about to be announced. - McIlveny.

The winner of the prize is Chris... APPLAUSE

Well, we are joined by Christopher Brook myer, what does it mean to

win? A great deal. I was always such a fan of William McIlvanney so to

win the award in the year it has been named after him means more.

There is a wealth of Scottish crime fiction. Look at the people on the

long list, never mind the short fiction. Look at the people on the

list. It is a great, great honour. Also, this is my - 20 years since my

first novel and I was just talking to someone before and saying - my

first novel was published when I was 27. That's considered pretty young.

But 20 years on, I kind of feel like I'm just hitting my stride. And why

is Scotland so good at producing crime writers? What is it about

here? I think there is a kind of conglomerate economy. If people are

writing crime fiction and reading crime fiction, that's the genre they

are going to want to write. If you grew up somewhere where everyone is

writing aga-sagas, the Home Counties, maybe that's the book you

will aspire to write. The more crime fiction there is in Scotland, I

think the more there will be. Congratulations again, Chris. Chris

is here this weekend as are the other short listed finalists.

There's plenty of grim and gritty stuff n a good way, from now until

Sunday. Well, let's see what we can expect from the weekend weather,

Chris. Well, what a wet end to the day it

has been. You can see on the rainfall radar the weather sweeping

across the country. Difficult conditions on the road and weather

watchers have been out snapping pictures like that. Not only the

rain, windy as well. Galeforce up the west coast and a few hours of

wet and wupdy fayre to come. Overnight the rain clears. A few

showers over Highland and Islands but many areas dry with clear

spells. Temperatures in towns and cities holding around 10 to 12. A

touch cooler in the countryside. So, to the weekend and Saturday doesn't

look too bad. A small nose of high pressure just keeping the weather at

look too bad. A small nose of high bay. Actually a lot of dry, fine

weather in the forecast for Saturday. There will be a few light

showers akro cross Highland and Islands. Breezy in the south-west

but not the wind we have seen today. Else where the winds are lighter and

well-broken cloud, spells of sunshine, actually quite pleasant.

By mid-afternoon, we will have temperatures around 16-18. You may

see the odd light shower but you would be unlucky if you catch one.

More likely to catch one across the north-west, for areas to the

north-west of the great glen and through the Hebrides. Across most of

Grampian and far north and Northern Isles, cooler with some sunshine.

Temperatures close to average for the time offee. If you are hill

walking or climbing across the north-west ranges, the chance of a

shower at times. Elsewhere dry. The winds from a south-westerly, and

those are steady speeds. The eastern ranges, generally dry with some

sunshine overhead and the summit etch it tours there, too. So, for

the Old Firm derby in Glasgow on Saturday, well, generally dry. Some

sunshine overhead and light winds. If you are planning something

entirely different, heading off to the Proms in the Park come Saturday

night at Glasgow Green, dry and bright generally but after the rain

we have seen today, the ground will be sodden. You run the risk of a

soggy bottom or two. Saturday night, a number of showers,

some could be heavy across the north-west, maybe one or two in

towards the central belt. Sunday high pressure with us but a deep low

in the Atlantic threatening. However for most of Sunday we should escape

with things largely dry, some sunshine. Clouding over in the west

through the course of the day and winds will strengthen as well. By

the end of play, well that rain arrives and it'll turn wet and

indeed very windy overnight into Monday. That's the forecast, for now

Thank you very much. Watch these soggy bottoms.

Now, a reminder of the main news: accused of murdering a waiter

in Lanarkshire nearly 18 years ago has already stood trial

for the crime and been acquitted. 48-year-old Ronnie Coulter denies

murdering Surjit Singh Chhokar in Overtown near Wishaw

in November 1998. Surgeons in Oxford

have used a robot to operate inside the eye -

in a world first. The milestone for robotic technology

should mean that in future surgeons will be able to do more complex

procedures than are I'll be back with the headlines

at 8.00pm and the late bulletin just Until then, from everyone

on the team - right across the country -

have a very good evening.