25/09/2014 BBC London News

and on BBC One we now join the BBC's news teams where you are.

Tonight on BBC London News... As police reconstruct the l`st known

movements of missing teenagdr Alice Gross, we hear her parents `ppeal

for her return. We have the latest from the Latvian

Every day I passed her bedroom door and we expected to be in thdre and

she is not. We need her to come home. We have the latest from the

Latvian capital after a search for the main suspect. A warning that

children 's playgrounds are being used to train dogs to fight.

Jail for the police community support officer who tricked Gatwick

passengers into handing over cash. Plus: Meet the equaliser, the

one`man traffic patrol from Essex. And...

From Pride Rock... To recorded soul. The Lion King's latest musical

Welcome to BBC London News with me Riz Lateef.

We start tonight with more on the disappearance

Four weeks on, police have been reconstructing her

The 14`year`old was last sedn walking on a canal tow path just

Scotland Yard's investigation has taken them to Latvia to search

for their main suspect Arnis Zalkalns ` a builder who went

In a moment, we'll cross to the Latvian capital, Riga,

First here in London, Alice's family have been speaking about not giving

If anyone is with her, we would say to them to understand that @lice is

desperately missed in our f`mily. Every day without her coursds as new

heartache and new anguish. She needs to be at home amongst her f`mily and

friends, who love her. Such a hole in the family. Every day I passed

her bedroom door I expect hdr to be in there and she is not. Alhce, you

really need to come home. Whoever you are with, she needs to be home.

This is the place she needs to be. She needs to be looked after.

Well, the search for Alice has had a huge effect on people livhng

Her family say they've been overwhelmed by support

and have been uplifted by the yellow ribbon campaign and

Jean Mackenzie has spent thd day in Hanwell.

Virtually every tree, lamp post pillar and railing is now adorned

with a yellow ribbon ` official reminder that Alice is still

missing. Every day getting off the bus and seeing the yellow rhbbons

everywhere, you cannot not think about her. Seeing search unhts and

things like that down at thd hospital, you see them dredging it

up and you are going, is shd there is she not? What is going on? There

is always the worry that thdy might have found her and you are passing

by and you do not know. The constant sight and sound of the police

helicopter overhead means this investigation is never far from

people 's minds. It is the severity of what happened. People nedd to be

more careful and more aware. We have children ourselves. It is so close

to home and it must be upsetting for the family. Not to have heard

anything at all, it has shocked everyone in the community.

Widespread it has been a difficult month but this community wants to

help. `` it has been. The sdnse of community has been fantastic, as you

can see. It is a bit of both extremes. I heard people discussing

it, how terrible, and ways to help out. Everywhere I go, peopld are

saying, I have got this up hn my house. You are thinking of her. You

keep an eye out and you look at people and think, is that htrt?

Above all, people are thinkhng of her family and hoping for the best.

Well, the main suspect in Alice s disappearance is Arnis Zalk`lns

who was seen on the same towpath, and is missing.

It's thought he could have returned to Latvia.

Earlier, I asked the Metropolitan Police if there was enough dvidence

Let me remind you that being a suspect and applying for a Duropean

arrest warrant are two very different tests. At the momdnt, we

need to speak to Arnis Zalk`lns and we need to question him abott his

movements on that particular day and ask him some questions about it We

are not at that stage as yet. Arnis Zalkalns is 1 of the number of lines

of investigation that the Metropolitan police is `` is

pursuing and the investigathon team is pursuing.

Well, we can cross now to our correspondent, Jenny Hill,

Jenny, what have the police in Latvia been doing these last two

The joint investigation is firmly focused on finding Arnis Zalkalns,

as well as gathering as much information about him as possible.

To that end, we understand that British detectives have spoken to a

former girlfriend of his. To do that they had to travel several hours to

a town in the west of Latvi`. Latvia is a country where Arnis Zalkalns

still has family and acquaintances. It is a country where 16 ye`rs ago

he was jailed for the murder of his wife. Detectives say it is possible

he has come here. They say ht is difficult. They understand he does

not have his passport. Nevertheless, the search goes on. Latvian police

authorities have said if thdy find him they will not be able to arrest

him. There is no European arrest warrant for him and the Metropolitan

police is at pains to say this is an investigation into two misshng

people. Tonight, here in Latvia the search for him goes on. Thank you

very much indeed. The moves to stop

the growing number of betting shops There's a warning tonight that dogs

are being trained to fight Council officials

in Enfield say equipment is being wrecked by people using one space

at night and it wants local people A warning that viewers might find

some images in Emilia Papadopoulos's Two dogs pitted against each other

with no way out. Dogfighting is not just cruel, it is illegal, `nd it is

happening in London. It happened two weeks ago. As you can see, they have

done it again. This playgrotnd only opened in August but the eqtipment

has already been replaced 3 times. That is because fighting dogs are

being trained here at night, forced to hang from swings and treds by

their jaws. You can see the effects on this seat. They have chewed right

through to be hard rubber at the edge right to be called when the

metal plate is. One of the biggest worries is that these aggressive

dogs will associate a child's playground with where they get

trained. Is there a worry that could be a problem during the day? They

are conditioned to think chhldren's playgrounds are the place to be

trained. Enfield Council takes this very seriously. I would say, stop

being morons. Do not train dangerous dogs in children's playgrounds. To

think they could come while you are playing with your daughter, it would

put me off going to that pl`yground. You do not want to think people are

doing that. Dogfighting is still a big problem in London. Organised

fight still happen behind closed doors in places like warehotses and

garages. Indications to the public and charities like Batterse` dogs

home are huge. Many fighting dogs are suffering from serious hnjuries

and stab wounds and even cigarette burns, making it hard to re`home

them. Reggie was lucky. He has a new home. When he arrived here `fter

being forced to fight other dogs he was dirty, underweight and scarred.

They do not necessarily happen in daylight. We need people to

literally give us the inforlation, give the RSPCA and police the

information, so they can act on that as well. The covert nature of

dogfighting makes it hard to find reliable statistics. Incidents

involving dangerous dogs ard growing. Enfield Council will

install CCTV and increase police the information, so they can act on that

as well. The covert nature of dogfighting makes it hard to find

reliable statistics. Incidents involving dangerous dogs ard

growing. Enfield Council will install CCTV and enquiries please

park patrols. They want the public to be vigilant.

One of the police officers being investigated over the death of

a man in custody has lost hhs High Court battle to leave the force

Sean Rigg, who had schizophrenia, was arrested and later died

PC Andrew Birks wanted to ldave the force in May, but was m`de to

A police community support officer at Gatwick who tricked air

passengers into handing over money has been

Alexis Scott approached travellers flying out of the airport claiming

they were carrying too much cash which needed to be confiscated `

and that they could claim it back when they returned.

Police clean to support offhcer Alexey Scott used her uniform and

status to dupe passengers into handing over cash. She was sentenced

to six and status to dupe p`ssengers into handing over cash. She was

sentenced to strong message has been delivered today that there hs no

getting away with any behavhour of this nature for someone in this

position. She prayed on passengers, the court heard, who were sdconds

away from boarding their flhght The judge said she had used charm and

persuasion into fooling people they could not take more than ?1000 cash

out of the country. Over a period of weeks she conned passengers into

handing over ?13,500. Passing sentence, the judge told her...

This kind of police corrupthon for money is extraordinarily rare in

this country. It deserves the tough sentence it gets to send a lessage

it has always been unaccept`ble and it is still unacceptable. She stole

?13,500 from passengers, passengers she was supposed to protect.

There should be controls on foreigners buying property

So says the UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who thinks hotse

prices in the capital have got so out of hand, interventions to

Our political editor, Tim Donovan, who's at Westminster,

UKIP had disappointing results from the local elections in May. I think

they expected to pick up more than the 12 council seats in Brolley

Bexley and Havering, but ahdad of their conference their leaddr has

told me why he thinks the stper rich coming Hoare to London should not

have an exemption from paying VAT on luxury goods and there should be

restrictions on them buying property. I do not think th`t we can

allow the property market in London to go on being distorted to the

level it is. I do believe in free markets but when you get a

situation, where Hong Kong syndicates buy up flats, thdy don't

intend to rent to anybody, leaning that there is a whole gener`tion out

there, I have a son, you know, in his middle late 20, working in

London, doing a proeggs eggsal job, he saidly never be able to buy a

house. If it was easy, people would come up with the solution? What it

is not, what it is not is to allow unlimited foreign money and foreign

billionaires, to buy up vast tracts of the London property markdt. I

believe in free markets but we have got to the point where it is

disadvantaging the lives of Londoner. You would put controls on?

I think we have to. We have to charge a London premium, thd non`dom

tax status has to be looked at. The VAT except exemption needs to go.

The details are sketchy as to how the controls might be imposdd but

you can see not only today this week why this is kind of a very

interesting political territory at the moment, what to do with this

kind of high level, high prhce property. His idea is populhst but

the whole issue of this kind of property is a bit more nuanced that

we sometimes kind of hear. There was a cent survey or report dond about

property in Westminster, about 50 homes that changed hands in last

year, over ?2 million. Half went to foreign owner, but half of those

again, so a quarter of the total went to foreign owners who weren't

resident here, so most of the people were living in the these properties

and of course the report sahd they were bringing millions of ?to the

economy, through retail, thhngs they were buying and the people they were

employing. Dave sheerry isn't your average

cyclist. I have a rear camera. I have a point of view camera, for 360

And you should see what is on his back I had this personally lade

That whey they know they ard being filmed. And it seems to be the

tradition with venge listenty crime fighters he has an ail "yes" Some

people call me the Equaliser. This is how he operates I am looking for

careless reckless drivers who like using mobile phones. Filming a 0

mile route from Harlow to Ldighton and producing hundreds of vhdeos. I

have caught police being bad driver, I have caught assaulter, ro`d rager,

red light jumper, mobile phone users. Don't text and drive mate.

Especially when you are on camera. In this video he caught a bts driver

texting at the wheel. And hd says the driver lost his job as ` result.

At the end of the day, camera doesn't lie. If you do no wrong you

have nothing to fear. Other videos from other cyclists can be seen on

line, watch the scoot here, and what happens to a woman pedestri`n's

mobile phone. This footage was used in court, and the robbers wdre

jailed. Matt Stockdale runs a website which

focuses on crimes caught on people's cameras. There are literallx tens of

thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people recording their

journeys in the UK today right now. In five year, probably millhons I

think that is is a good thing, because it can only help in terms of

keeping people safer on the roads. Today the Association of Chhef

Police Officers said increasing use is being made by the public, of

digital technology to record evidence. This is a positivd move.

And the cyclist dubbed the dqualiser 2 would agree.

Still to come. I am in Lincoln's inn field to see how you can have a say

in how London is going to look in the future.

A new study suggests that three out of five Londoners believe groups

of betting shops on their hhgh street are bad for the area.

The survey, by London Counchls, which represents local authorities

in the capital, supports Government plans to give residents mord of a

say on where betting and paxday loan shops should be allowed to open

High street north, in this street alone, there are 18 betting shops.

Is this what local people w`nt? This is too much. It is a high poverty

area, no. No. There is too lany I use them for football. I don't spend

loads of time. People hang `bout. There is people hanging abott all

the time, on the machines and kicking them when they lose money.

It crates a more negative environment. There would be shops

that should benefit the comlunity. The concerns has led to the London

council's group asking for the public's view n a survey published

today the council say out of 1, 00 people questioned three out of five

thought groups of betting shops had a negative effect on high streets.

And two out of three wanted councils to have more power to enhance

shopping areas. For a number of years councils and London councils

together have been calling for greater regulation, through planning

process. That is all we are asking for, not a blanket no, just to be

able to say how does this application, how would this shop fit

into its local context? Would it contribute to a high street or would

it not? But gambling companhes strongly deny they are creating a

problem The one thing we wotld dispute is that we are damaging the

high street. We want, we ard a high street business. We want thd high

street to be vibrant. In most cases we occupy 2% of retail front Tang.

The debate over what kinds of shops we should have has been going year,

most of the people who took part in the London council's survey said

they would like locals to h`ve more of a say in planning matters. We

asked shoppers what they thhnk Children's clothe shops. More of the

chain stops, all the shops coming back, that is what makes it more

homely like you belong therd. The Government's considering whdther or

not to tighten up planning laws to stop so many betting shops opening

up. That's our high streets `

what about the whole city itself? Well, the London Society,

founded over century ago, is appealing to people to join them,

to help influence what the capital Asad Ahmad is at the John Soane

Museum at Lincoln's Inn Field, where More who can you tell us? The first

question has to be why would a society looking at the future

planning and development of London hold its meeting in an old

traditional historic yet be`utiful building like is this? The `nswer is

Sir John who lived here in the 8th and 19th St. He was the architect

behind the Bank of England. Believed that London should not only look

good in his day but for futtre generations too, that is wh`t the

London society is about tod`y. They are having their meeting ond floor

below. The reason we are not there is because there are so manx

precious artefact I think that wanted to make sure we didn't

accidentally knock something over. I am going to ask my cameraman

carefully walk round here, to speak to the chairman. The London society

it is there for every person who loves long. It is really thdre for

everyone? Easy to join up. Go to the website. And then join us in the

debate and discussion about London. Our motto is about looking `fter the

past, hoping best for the present and then looking to the futtre, so

we, like to visit places like this, to understand the wonderful thing,

hidden things about London, what a great place it is, but also to

debate what sort of shape of city do we want in the future. We think at

the moment, the debate isn't really good enough. You, once side you have

people who want to develop things, the other side you have people who

want to stop thing, we think there needs to be a much more considered

rational debate about how wd change in the future. When you look at the

skyline of London, how it h`s changed over the last, 5, 10, 1 , 20

years does it fill you with hope or dread? A bit of both. There are good

bibuildings, I have nothing against some buildings themselves, when they

are beautiful, The Gherkin the shard they are great additions, what we

have to watch is all the density which is going on because of the

expansion of London. It is growing hugely, we have to house many more

people. How do we do that in the best way? In the London sochety we

will keep an eye on it and lake sure they have the best possible

buildings. The meeting is t`king place below me. We will see what

comes off that in the coming weeks and month and whether Londoners

decide to take up the offer of having their voices here. This is

one of London's hidden gem, it is free to come in and it may give you

some inspiration as to how xou want London to look in the futurd.

self as one of the country's finest soul shngers.

But if you haven't listened to his music, you may have heard hhs voice

But despite doing 8 shows a week, he's still managed to record

his first album in seven ye`rs, as our Arts Correspondent,

# In my head now... # He has a voice reminiscent of the

soul stars that inspired hil. Shaun is set to showcase his talent once

more on his new album The Rdd Room It is more of a maturity, how far I

have grown, since the last, my last album but it is a thing of what is

going on, you know, in the world. I know it sound a cleesh but ht kind

of affected me. `` cliche. H just wanted to express it.

While months have been spent in the steed you it has to be juggled with

his current day job, starring in the hit musical the lie I Don't Know

King What is it is about musical theatre that inspires a soul sing

sner It is the fear of performing and challenges myself. I look at

myself as an all round artist, really, so it is just about

different ways of expression. Shaun is a seasoned West End performer,

his role The Lion King is sdt to continue but previous credits

include Tommy My agent calldd me. He said you have backbench nomhnated

for Best Supporting Actor in a musical. Tears came to my exe, I

thought you are having a latgh. This is something I love doing, `nd I am

never, I never sought out accolade or awards or thing like that. The

critics have been kind about the singer's latest album which has the

first single remix by his friend the celebrated actor Idris Elba. Do you

feel torn between two passions? I want to keep this going. I want to

keep performing. Keep singing, write, keep being inspired `nd

trying to inspire other people. Now over the a fan of The Lhon King.

A bit of African warmth if xou like. Temperatures could reach rotnd 3,

24 degrees by the time get to Monday. Satellite picture shows a

bit of cloud, although it w`s a fine sunny start to day. Things turned to

turn cloudy. Overnight it is that sheet of cloud, keeping temperatures

up. Could be an respond spot of rain, but look at the temperature

difference the cloud makes. Last might it was a cold night, with

temperatures down to round three degrees in parts of Sussex, Surrey

and Hampshire, but tonight, with that cloud cover, the overnhght lows

get down to 13, 14, 15, somdthing like that, so a real contrast in how

the weather will feel. That is into tomorrow and probably a clotdy start

to day, but the weather shotld cheer up as the day goes by. Therd could

be an odd spot of rain first thing, particularly over some of the hills

towards the south and west, but here comes the brightness as we head

through the afternoon, some holes in the cloud coming through, and given

some brighter or sunny spells temperatures will be more or less

what we had this afternoon. We are looking at highs of 21 C. Something

like that. By the time we gdt the afternoon, by and large the weather

will be dry for everyone. Hdading into Saturday morning we cotld see

some of this, mist and fog patches. That combination of mist, fog and

low cloud will take a littld time before it thins and breaks to give

some brighter or sunny spells as we head into the afternoon. A slow

brightening sproes, a lot of drier weather on the cards and

temperatures peaking at 21 C. Can this fine spell of weather last It

looks like it will. We will start to draw more of a southerly brdeze as

we head through the second half of the weekend, so cloud should break

up more widely. There will be a lot of dry weather round. The afternoons

will see hazy sunshine, temperature wise, through Sunday afternoon we

are looking at highs reaching 2 degrees Celsius. Not bad whdn you

consider we should be about 18 at this time year and by Mondax 24

degrees isn't out of the qudstion at all. So a little late taste of

summer. You can see more on the days story

on the website and Assad will tear himself away from the museul and

return for the late news. From me and all the team, thanks for

watching and have a lovely dvening. Bye.