18/12/2013 BBC News at Six

Sentenced to 35 years - the rock star, Ian Watkins, is jailed for a

string of horrific sex attacks on very young children.

The former Lostprophets singer used his fame to get the children of his

fans. The judge said the case was so horrific that it broke new ground.

He is a highly dangerous and manipulative individual who preyed

on his victims in a calculated manner. Now an international appeal

has been launched across Europe and America to find victims. Detect two

fear there could be more. Also tonight: The biggest drop in

unemployment for a decade, as it falls by almost 100,000 to 2.39

million. Plans to limit benefits for new

migrants to Britain are fast tracked, two weeks before Romanians

and Bulgarians get the right to work here.

The homeless charity, Crisis, says they are preparing to feed and

shelter more people than ever before over Christmas.

And the great train robber, Ronnie Biggs, has died at the age of 84.

Coming up in the sport on BBC News, Boris Decker is a surprise choice

for Novak Djokovic to be his new head coach. Becker will travel to

all four Grand Slam tournaments with him.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six. The rock star, Ian

Watkins, former lead singer of the Lostprophets, has been sentenced to

35 years for a string of sex offences on very young children. The

judge told Cardiff Crown Court that he had dealt with many horrific

cases in the past, but this one "broke new ground". 36-year-old

Watkins was described as a determined and committed paedophile

who had used his fame to get access to the children of his devoted fan.

What he had done, said the judge, plumbed new depths of depravity.

Our correspondent is outside Cardiff Crown Court.

Ian Watkins started to visibly shake as the judge handed down his

sentence. Side him in the dock, the two mothers he had convinced to hand

over their children and joining with the abuse, two women who started off

as fans of his band, two in the judge said had been seduced by

Watkins' power and status. An international rock star, adored

by his fans. Ian Watkins used his fame to be no -- manipulate others

while always keeping a veneer of normality. Whenever it gets too

much, just come home, have a cup of tea. Today, Watkins arrived at court

in a prison van, knowing he will not see home again for many years. His

actions have caused shock and revulsion. He is a dangerous and

manipulative individual who preyed on his victims in a calculated

manner. It is beyond belief that adults would commit such appalling

acts against children and young people, and our thoughts remain with

the victims and those close to them. In the dock, Watkins remained

impassive as the court heard how he showed no contrition for his abuse

of children. In a phone call recorded in prison, he said:

but a trial may have exposed long-term concerns about Watkins. A

former partner says she warned the police about him in 2008. I am

furious, because repeatedly, I would be either going to the police

station or I would be on the phone to them, saying, you need to do

something, and giving them details and names of victims, people I

suspected to be involved as well. South Wales police is one of three

forces now being investigated over those claims. Did Mr Watkins'

celebrity status have any impact on the way in which the forces

responded to the allegations? We have to get to the bottom of that.

Ian Watkins' actions have sickened not only his fans, but his

bandmates, who have called for any other victims to come forward. The

police said their ongoing investigation is now international.

There are enquiries going on in Germany and the United States. I

believe he has offended in those countries and possibly more in this

country. I have never seen anything like this in my 28 years of service.

The ongoing investigation means Ian Watkins may soon have two return to

court, as the full scale of his abuse unfolds.

As you saw, Ian Watkins' actions have called real -- caused real

anger and dismay. The question to be answered in the new year is whether

he could have been prevented from abusing and whether he could have

been caught by the police several years ago.

There has been a sharp drop in unemployment - it is down to its

lowest level for four years. The number of people out of work fell by

99,000 between August and October to 2.39 million. It was the biggest

drop in a decade and took analysts by surprise. The figures also showed

that the number of those in work has gone up by quarter of a million

compared with the previous three-month period. But in Northern

Ireland, the number of unemployed rose slightly. Our chief economics

correspondent has been looking at the figures.

A growing economy brings an expanding workforce, and that is

playing at this high-tech printing business. More companies want to

advertise, so they ordered display artwork from firms like this, which

means more staff are needed. So here, they have taken on nine new

employees this year, increasing the workforce by nearly 10%. My

confidence is as high as it has been for the last five years. We have

seen sustained activity that has had no drop-off in any areas. In that

respect, in terms of employment and investment, it is as good as it is

for me. Good news was the way the prime minister described the figures

in the Commons today. There are 250,000 more people in work, youth

unemployment is down, long-term unemployment is down, unemployment

among women is down. But the Labour leader highlighted what he saw as

weaknesses in the latest numbers. It is good that the economy is creating

more jobs, but too many of them are part-time, low-paid or insecure. One

of those who is part-time but once full-time work is Spencer, who

graduated this year and was hoping to land a job, but has so far only

managed to get some freelance work. It has been tougher than I expected.

I thought I would have a job I now, but it has been difficult. I have

had a cup love interviews -- a couple of interviews, but not a paid

full-time position yet. Overall, there was positive news for most

part of the job market. There is one bit they are watching particularly

closely at the Bank of England, the implement rate, the percentage of

the work force looking for jobs. The bank says it will not consider

raising the cost of borrowing until the implement rate comes down. The

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney set out threshold at 7%. It seemed

it might take three years for the unemployment rate dropped to 7%.

Today we learned it was down to 7.4, lower than expected. So now there is

speculation that interest rates could even rise next year. The bank

has made clear that it will consider a range of factors before deciding

to raise rates. Meanwhile, companies like this can only press on and hope

there is no unexpected change to the script.

The UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, has said David Cameron's plan to ban EU

migrants from claiming benefits in their first three months in the UK

is "too little, too late". The government is rushing through

legislation, so the ban will apply from one January, when millions of

Bulgarians and Romanians will have the right to work in the UK. The

prime minister said the move sends out a clear message, as our

political editor Nick Robinson reports.

They are waiting and watching in Dover. This town is the first stop

for many who come to Britain to make this country their new home. Downing

Street has announced that restrictions to make new European

Union migrants wait three months before they can apply for out of

work benefits will come into force on the 1st of January. In two weeks,

anyone from Romania and Bulgaria will be a tad come here and work,

just as Meyer came from Poland a decade ago. She says new arrivals

should wait longer than three months before they can claim benefits.

Three months is too short a period. I don't think that will put the ball

off coming. It is people's views of the Poles here that often shapes

their attitude to the future. There are no jobs for interest people, let

alone others. They are hard-working and go for it. People in this town

wonder whether today's announcement will make any difference to how many

come here. Sceptics say there was no official answer, because it is all

really about politics. We don't know if there is a problem. We know that

if there is a problem, it is small. It may not be there at all. These

look like phantom policies to address a phantom problem . What

Israel is public anxiety about immigration, which is why the prime

minister has taken to talking about it a lot. Today, immigration

officers showed him the scene of a dawn raid on illegal immigrants. 14

people were crammed into this three-bedroom West London house. But

was today really just for the headlines and cameras? The

announcements today make a difference, because there is a right

to go and work in another European country, but there should not be a

right to just go and claim benefits . The prime minister says he is

sending a signal by changing the benefit rules. It is clear that the

signal is meant for people here as much as people in Eastern Europe.

But dozens of his own backbenchers say that is not enough. What he is

proposing, which will probably be found illegal by the European Court,

is spitting in the wind when it comes to the problems we face.

Today, the Sun called on the government to get tougher and

published a poll which suggests that if many more come here, the public

would vote to get out of the EU, music to the ears of UKIP. If Mr

Cameron wants to regain the trust of the British people, he has to go to

Brussels tomorrow and see, we will not end the transitional

arrangements and open the doors. Will this Westminster row make much

of a difference to who makes it in Dover in two weeks' time? Almost

certainly not. For good or for ill, our borders are not about to be

closed. Specialist teams are searching a

graveyard in Didcot in Oxfordshire in connection with the missing

teenager, Jayden Parkinson. Jayden, who is 17, was last seen two weeks

ago. Her former boyfriend, 22-year-old Ben Blakeley, has been

charged with her murder. Officers say they have secured a specific

grave after receiving a tip-off. The search may take several days.

Russian MPs have backed an amnesty that may include some of the

country's best-known prisoners. It is expected to come into force in

the next few days and covers 20,000 prisoners including the protest

group Pussy Riot, who could be freed by the new year, and the so-called

Arctic 30, including six Britons, who were detained on a Greenpeace

ship. They are currently on bail, but can't leave Russia.

The brother of a British doctor found dead in a Syrian prison has

accused the Foreign Office of not doing enough to help him. Abbas

Khan, a surgeon from south London, was arrested in Syria last year

after entering the country to help victims of the civil war. The Syrian

authorities say he committed suicide. But the Foreign Office says

his death amounts to murder. Abbas Khan spent 13 months in Syrian

prisons. The British surgeon, father of two children, wrote anguished

letters home about his suffering. His family says Britain washed its

hands of his case. The Foreign Office treated his case with

disrespect. There has been a great deal of inaction. They have rotated

the family throughout and dragged their heels for no reason -- they

have placated the family. We feel that because he is a British Muslim,

he was treated differently from any other member of British society.

Britain pulled its diplomats out of Damascus last year. The Foreign

Office insists it worked through other embassies here and was in

frequent contact with the family. This is a tonic a. Today, the Syrian

government released more details of how Doctor Khan died. Self inflict

it hanging, no signs of violent struggle or use of force. It says

the family did not accept these findings, they could conduct their

own autopsy, and offer the family rejected. There was also criticism

of Britain from Syria's government. Their deputy foreign minister

condemned the politicisation of this issue at the hands of the British

prime minister and other officials and demanded that British officials

cease their misdirection and exploitation of this human issue to

serve British political interests. A war of words between London and

Damascus is escalating, but what will be the political fallout?

Resident Assad managed to emerge even stronger after the chemical

weapons attacks in August, widely blamed on his forces. So what will

be the diplomatic amateur for the death of a British surgeon? Abbas

Khan says he entered Syria trying to save lives in the northern city of

Aleppo. His tragic death is now part of a much bigger battle between

Syria and the West. Our top story: The former

Lostprophet singer Ian Watkins is sentenced to 35 years for offences

against children. An apple a day can really keep the

doctor away! In Sportsday: England cricket coach

Andy Flower is refusing to be drawn on his future following England's

Ashes defeat. He says he won't make any decisions until the end of the

five-match series. The homeless charity, Crisis, says

they're preparing to feed and shelter more people than ever before

this Christmas. From Monday, they'll have 9,000 volunteers serving up

food over the festive season. And for the first time, they're opening

a centre in Edinburgh. New figures show that in the last three years in

England, there's been a 34% rise in the number of people left homeless.

In London it's almost double that - with a 62% increase in those

sleeping rough. Crisis say they are expecting to feed 4,000 people over

Christmas at their centres in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle.

Jeremy Cooke has been talking to some of those living rough on the

streets of London. A Northern lad alone on the streets

of the capital. Graham is from Carlisle. We found him homeless in

Victoria - frightened. It is terrible. Awake all night, sleep

through the day, if you can get to sleep through the day. You are just

walking about, really. We are interrupted. A reminder that out

here violence is never far away. He's been beaten up. He is bleeding

and confused. REPORTER: Why don't you go home,

Graham? I haven't got a home, mate. He won't sleep until the safety of

daylight. We are moving, too. To Westminster, the heart of the

capital. The homeless numbers are rising across the country. Worst in

London. The number of rough sleepers here has increased by more than 60%

in two years. In each bundle, in each door way, there is a person, a

unique life story. REPORTER: Would you mind if I join

you for a second? Sit right down there. I stink, though! Alcohol is

my problem. That is my problem. I've got cirrhosis of the liver. I'm

still drinking. It's all too familiar to outreach worker Becky

Winter. Little pockets of chaos and sadness... She deals with the street

sleepers. She knows mental health issues drives this face of

homelessness. Every time you put someone on the pile, another one

falls off! This is a small part of the big picture. High and rising

rents are now forcing more and more people to leave their homes. It is

the speed of decline into homelessness which can be so

shocking. A year ago, Tony lost his job as a night porter and the

accommodation that went with it. Within weeks, he was sleeping rough.

You don't expect that. It is not something that any normal human

being would expect to experience. REPORTER: People are pretty tough.

They say you should have managed yourself better, come? They can say

that, but the reality is it is hard. And there's a saying that you are

one wage packet away from homelessness. That applies to us

all. A sobering thought, especially out here, with the festive season

meaning little more than cold and lonely nights.

Councils in England have been told that the amount of money they will

get from the Government next year will be cut by almost 3%. Ministers

say the settlement is fair to all parts of the country and they called

for more efforts to tackle waste. It gives councils an average of just

over ?2,000 per household. Mike Sergeant reports from Newcastle.

Newcastle thinks it's had a raw deal, as do many of the big cities

in England. Today, the council leader got an e-mail saying the

budget would shrink again next year. When I saw the figure, my heart

sank. This raises some serious questions about the long-term

viability of local government. It is not just bad news for Newcastle, it

is bad news for most councils around the country. Amanda Dyer lost her

job at Newcastle Council this year. Unemployment may be falling

nationally, but in local government it is a different story. We knew

there were going to be some cuts, but we didn't think they would be as

severe as deleting a whole service that had been around for a long

time. REPORTER: What did you think when

they told you? Absolute devastation. Services are under pressure, too. A

long campaign to keep the City Pool open-ended in failure. This is a

stark illustration of how the moon knee -- the money has been drained

out of some parts of local government. In many areas, services

have been maintained, or improved, despite reductions in funding. And

Ministers said today was a good news today. This year's settlement is

fair to all parts of the country, rural or urban, district or county,

city or shire. Councils can deliver sensible savings while protecting

frontline services. Many communities are already finding new ways to keep

moving. A Newcastle dance centre has had to find other sources of funding

as the council money disappears. The Government wants all local

authorities to keep council tax down and keep the most important services

going. That may not be possible everywhere.

The Bank of England is to issue plastic bank notes in 2016 after

more than 300 years of paper currency. The polymer notes are said

to be cleaner, more durable and harder to counterfeit. The ?5 note

with Winston Churchill on it will be first in circulation, followed by

the ?10 note featuring Jane Austen. One of Britain's most notorious

criminals, Ronnie Biggs, has died at the age of 84. He was jailed for his

part in the ?2.5 million Great Train Robbery of 1963. After escaping from

prison, Biggs spent more than 30 years on the run - most of it in

Brazil - before returning to Britain and jail in 2001. Duncan Kennedy

reports. The singing scoundrel, Ronnie Biggs

rocking it in Rio in his years as Britain's most notorious fugitive.

He was one of the 15-strong gang who stopped the Glasgow to London mail

train in August 1963 and robbed it of ?2 million. Equivalent to ?40

million today. Biggs' role was to provide the driver to move the train

that the gang had stopped down there to this point here. The trouble was

the man he came up with simply couldn't do it so someone in the

gang hit the real driver Jack Mills and forced him to move the loco to

this point while the rest of the gang off-loaded the money. The next

thing I remember I was on my knees on the floor. Mills never recovered.

Within weeks, most including Biggs were picked up and were later jailed

for up to 30 years. In keeping with the audacity of the crime, Biggs

made a pantomime escape from Wandsworth Prison by scaling the

wall and jumping down into a waiting truck. He ended up in Brazil, but

his ?150,000 cut from the robbery soon ran out so he turned himself

into a celebrity criminal, relishing and embellishing his minor role in

the heist with no remorse. It's given me a little place in history,

shall we say? I have made a mark for myself. For admirers, it was Biggs'

establishment-stubbing charm that helped manufacture his cheeky chappy

image. It didn't matter if it was a police officer, another crook, or

some rock star, they fell in awe of this guy who had no heirs and

graces. Ill-health forced him home. He was a criminal part of a violent

gang and the Great Train Robbery was an unpleasant crime in which real

people were hurt and stolen of their property. By coincidence, the BBC is

screening this film tonight. Unlike the raid itself, the drama gives

Biggs a walk-on part. Rogue, or rascal? Ronnie Biggs, seen here

earlier this year, was a villain of the old school, a chancer who ended

up in an iconic robbery and a small corner of criminal history.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away - that's what millions of us were

taught as children. And it turns out it may well be true. Researchers say

that if everyone over the age of 50 ate one a day, 8,500 deaths from

heart attacks and strokes could be avoided every year in the UK. Jon

Kay has been finding out more. So the proof of the proverb is in

the eating. At this market in Somerset today, news that the

Victorians seem to have been right. Lovely. Six of those. It is an old

wife's tale. Apple a day keeps the doctor away. We had free milk when

we were children, so why not a free apple? Cut down on the pills and eat

more fruit. REPORTER: Are you buying fruit? I

am. REPORTER: Are you buying apples

today? Yes. You will live forever! Hopefully! Researchers from Oxford

University claim that if you are over 50, an apple a day can give you

the same kind of health benefits as statins, the drugs commonly given to

reduce cholesterol. The scientists aren't saying stop taking the

tablets, but they are saying it's further proof that we should all be

eating more fruit. If everybody over the age of 50 were to eat an extra

apple a day, it would reduce the number of deaths from heart attacks

and strokes by 8,500. Researchers looked at apples because they

contain antioxidants and health-boosting compounds. There is

no reason why other types of fruit couldn't be just as good for us.

But, despite public health campaigns, two-thirds of us still

aren't having the recommended five a day. And 10% of us don't eat any

fruit and veg at all. That includes older people. As you get older, you

don't eat so healthy, or I don't. It is the fact of getting it and

cooking it and things like that, you know. Five a day? No. Not five. No.

Christ, if I had five a day, I wouldn't have time to do anything

else! Scientists say it is not just that apples are good for us, but

eating one fills us up so we are less likely to snack on junk

instead. Time for a look at the weather.

There's some terrible weather heading to the UK?

Yes, the weather has been going downhill all day, Sophie. A

combination of some potentially damaging winds and a short spell of

heavy, almost hoR don tall rain. It's all -- horizontal rain. It's

all driven by this area of low pressure. Squally winds, together

with that heavy rain sweeping through. We have the amber wind

warning for the Met Office. Gusts of 80mph, possibly more. Maybe the

worst of the winds should have cleared all but the Northern Isles

by the morning. The rain will have gone. Then a different sort of day.

Still windy, sunshine and showers. Wintry showers and not just in the

north. We will see a lot of sleet and snow showers coming in to the

North West of Scotland and across Northern Ireland. Not many showers

probably across Argyll Bute, more particularly across Dumfries and

Galloway and the Borders. We will see a lot of dry weather across the

eastern side of England and through the Midlands with some sunshine.

More showers to the west and those are getting more organised later in

the afternoon. It will feel cold everywhere. We have to keep an eye

on this band here. It is a mixture of rain, hail and some snow. Not

just snow up over the hills as well. It leaves Wales behind, runs across

Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, through the Midlands, possibly further south.

Don't be surprised if there is some snow falling for the rush hour

tomorrow. More snow showers in the north and maybe some icy patches on

Friday morning. We start dry and bright across England and Wales. It

will turn wet and windy across Scotland and Northern Ireland. The

reason why - yet another big area of low pressure. It will drive wet and

windy weather southwards across the whole of the UK, during the second

half of Friday. It continues very wet in the south on Saturday.

Further north, sunshine and showers and blustery winds. There is no

let-up. Thank you. That is all from the BBC News at Six. Goodbye. Now we

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