10/01/2014 BBC News at Six

fellow officers and Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell at the gates of

Downing Street. Mr Mitchell says it is sad that a serving officer had

behaved in this way, a comment echoed by his fellow MPs.

For a serving police officer to admit to fabricating evidence to

bring down a cabinet minister is about as serious as it gets.

The head of the Metropolitan Police apologises to Mr Mitchell and admits

trust in the police has been damaged.

Also tonight, the care home in Lancaster where staff have been

jailed for abusing and tormenting residents with dementia.

The rain may have stopped for now but the flood waters are still

rising. The French president threatens legal

action after a magazine prints details about an alleged affair.

Why Jessica Ennis-Hill won't be in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games.

Four days of Tube strikes announced, as the row over ticket office

closures escalates. And more people living near the

Thames are told to prepare for flooding.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News At Six.

A police officer has admitted lying about witnessing the row in the

so-called plebgate affair, which led to the resignation of a cabinet

minister. PC Keith Wallis originally said he had seen the argument

between police officers at the gates of Downing street and the then

Conservative Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell in September 2012. Today PC

Wallis has pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and

offered to resign. The head of the Metropolitan Police has apologised

to Mr Mitchell. Tom Symonds has more.

A minister, his bike, the police, the press and the expletive is.

Today's guilty police still does not resolve the question of what was

said on the 19th of September 2012 in Downing Street, but it is a

significant development. PC Keith Wallis was not on duty and did not

see what happened, but he e-mailed his MP with his account number less,

and that landed him in court. His e-mail backed up the police log of

the event, which had already been released -- Licht, and accused

Andrew Mitchell of swearing and calling officers plebs. It helped

pile the pressure on the Chief Whip and he later resigned, but this

morning Keith Wallis has admitted he was lying. Keith Wallis has pleaded

guilty to misconduct in public office. He could be jailed. This

morning Andrew Mitchell described the admission as worrying in a

statement. His friends went further. For a serving police officer to

admit to fabricating evidence to bring down a Cabinet minister is

about as serious as it gets, and it really does beg the question, if it

can happen to a cabinet minister and politicians, it can happen to

anybody. And backing Mr Mitchell's Sutton Coldfield constituency, this

was the reaction. I actually think that is really, really shocking. I

think most of the police officers in this country are quite outstanding

and uphold the law for the rest of the country, so it is quite

surprising that he told a lie. You are supposed to trust the police and

that makes me think to myself, I cannot trust the police because they

are lying. So more questions about police integrity for The Met Police

Commissioner. His statement today, to lie about witnessing something

and provide a false account falls way below the standard that I am PC

Wallis's colleagues expect of police officers. His actions have also

negatively impacted on public trust and confidence in the integrity of

police officers. By and large, the public have more faith in police

officers than they do in politicians, journalists or even

doctors these days. But the real way to keep trust is for officers on the

street on a day by day basis to deal properly with members of the public.

That is where the trust comes from. That's where it needs to be. The

truth about this incident remains elusive. Prosecutors say they cannot

decide from these CCTV pictures if the word blurb was used. Mr Mitchell

is suing the Sun newspaper which ran the original story. The officer he

confronted is suing the MP for calling him a liar, and four other

Metropolitan Police officers are facing disciplinary action.

Our Home Editor, Mark Easton, joins me. This whole business is far from

over. I think many people tonight will be deeply shocked, actually.

This was a police officer who lied, and lied to try to damage a member

of the British Cabinet. There is nothing more important in the public

having trust that the police will use their powers with honesty and

integrity, and as you say, this is far from over. It is a chronic

problem for the commission of The Met Police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.

He is ready under intense pressure. Some politicians are even suggesting

that at some point his whole position may be in jeopardy.

Actually, I think what this whole affair does is it which is

politicians against police. There are many who suggest this episode

has its roots in the fierce argument is over police reform in England and

Wales, changes to job and the police contract, which have gone down

really, really badly. So you have here a situation, an encounter that

lasted less than a minute which has cost the taxpayer hundreds of

thousands of pounds, a Cabinet minister his post, a police officer

his career and quite probably his liberty, too. This, I think, has

been another dark day for the Metropolitan in.

Three care workers who abused elderly residents at a nursing home

in Lancaster have been sentenced to between four and eight months in

jail. A fourth member of staff has been ordered to do community

service. The victims, who suffered from dementia, were bullied and

assaulted at Hillcroft nursing home during a period lasting over a year.

Their tormentors told fellow staff they were bored and doing it for

their own entertainment. From Preston Crown Court, Judith Moritz

reports. Would you like to say sorry to the

family? She did not do anything, why say sorry? Gemma Pearson was

supposed to care for elderly dementia patients. Instead, she

tried to push one out of his chair. Given a community order, she left

court without comment. She was one of four care workers who abused

vulnerable residents at this care home near Lancashire. Eight

pensioners were abused, some were slapped and stamped on and others

had balls and beanbags thrown at their heads. Carole Moore, on the

left, was sentenced to four months in prison for slapping a resident.

Katie Cairns on the right has been jailed for five months for physical

abuse. Darren Smith through beanbags at eight pensioners. He was given an

eight-month sentence. These people could not speak out or defend

themselves. Their behaviour was utterly contemptible, and I can only

hope that when they reflect on their actions they see how cowardly their

conduct has actually been. I think we are very happy with the custodial

sentences. Michael Rowlinson's father was one of those abused. He

spoke inside court, asking how they could have treated the residents

with such disrespect. How important was that for you? Extremely

important because I think it is part of the process of justice, really.

My father could not be here and I stood on his behalf in court and

said what, hopefully, he would have wanted me to say, and addressed that

direct me to the people who carried out these crimes. The vulnerable

residents of Hillcroft were in such an advanced stages of dementia they

were unable to come forward themselves and described the abuse.

If it had not been for other staff members at the home acting as

whistle-blowers, this case would never have come to court.

Even though there is to be a brief respite from the recent rain,

floodwaters are expected to continue rising. The Environment Agency is

warning communities in southern England in particular of the risk of

further flooding from swollen rivers. The River Thames, for

example, is carrying 400 tonnes of water through Surrey every second,

ten times more than normal for the time of year. There are currently

over 90 flood warnings across England and Wales. Duncan Kennedy

has more. From this height, it is hard to see

where the Thames ends and land begins. A watery blurb for mile

after mile, and it is still rising. At Marlow in Buckinghamshire, the

river spilled over, whilst at war grave in Berkshire, the flooded

house on the right belongs to magician Paul Daniels. He treated he

was OK. There is a bridge from here to the house. At Ray Berry, we met

market has flown in from Belgium to resupply his stranded mother. He

inched forward into her submerged guard and knowing that the water is

going up. Do you think you will still stay? Yes, of course. I mean,

we have a basement and I have to keep hunting the water out of that.

If I don't, we'll be inundated. So I have to stay. Residence here say the

next 48 hours will make the difference between inundation and

salvation. What everybody along the Thames is telling us is that they

want up-to-date information with all this water continuing to rise. What

they are being advised to do is to go to the Environment Agency website

and a tap in their location. If I put in Wraysbury, where we are, you

can see that a lot of the map is deep blue, which means a very high

risk of flooding. The Prime Minister was in Oxfordshire today, meeting

people whose homes are ready under water, but defended his record on

flood protection. We are spending ?2.3 billion on flood defences. That

is an increase on the 2.1 billion spent in the previous period, so

spending on flood defences is going up. The row about building new

houses in flood prone areas surfaced again today. Government and

developers simply can't agree on whether drainage gardens like this

one in Sheffield are the answer. Yellow mac wrote capturing water on

the surfaced from this housing development, the pollution is

removed because it goes through vegetation, providing for

biodiversity and landscape benefits for the community, but also

providing flood prevention by controlling the flow into the stream

locally. Many more gardens might disappear on the Thames this

weekend. There is not much rain, just bucketloads of worry.

And there's a special programme later this evening on BBC One

looking at the cost of more than a month of bad weather. Sophie Raworth

presents Battered Britain: Storms, Tides and Floods, at 7.30pm here on

BBC One. The French President, Francois

Hollande, is threatening legal action against a magazine after it

published details of an alleged affair. Closer magazine printed

seven pages of pictures of the president with a French actress. Mr

Hollande has not denied the story but called it a deplorable invasion

of privacy. Tonight the publication says it will remove the story from

its website. Our Europe Editor, Gavin Hewitt, reports from Paris.

This is a story about the French president, scooter rides and an

actress. This was the president today and his entourage, crossing

the street near the early say Palace. But a French magazine

alleges that President wand made similar short journeys to this

apartment, just 200 metres from his office mother on the back of a

scooter and disguised by a helmet. President Hollande. He was said to

be meeting Julie Gayet, a film actress and one of his prominent

supporters. During his election campaign she described him as humble

and a good listener. The magazine says this was the secret love of the

president. Over the revelations of this apartment, the early say Palace

said Francois Hollande greatly deplores the invasion of his

privacy, to which he has a right, along with any other French citizen.

They did not deny the story. I think politicians have a right to have a

private life. The president is just a hoot -- human being, like

everyone, and he has the right to a private life, including a sexual

life. The president's partner lives at the early say Palace. These

revelations come at a difficult time for president on armed. He has the

lowest approval rating of any modern French president. There have been

recent protests against taxes, and employment remains stubbornly high

and the colour me hovers near recession. It is probably not very

good for the president to be seen as gallivanting and frolicking in the

streets of Paris when the economic situation is so dire. Next week, the

president hosts his first news conference of the year. Many saw it

as an opportunity to relaunch a troubled presidency. Now he is

involved in a scandal. The French might respect the sea, but on most

news stands today, Closer was sold out.

Bitter sectarian violence is continuing in the Central African

Republic which has left over 1000 people dead since last month alone.

The president resigned today less than a year after he seized power,

leaving the country with a dangerous power vacuum. While some are

celebrating in the streets, there are also fears of revenge attacks

and more bloodshed. Paul Wood and cameraman Fred Scott report from the

capital, Bangui. There was joy in Christian areas,

even before the President's resignation was confirmed. Go, just

go, he screams, what happened to us will happen to you. They are

singing, today we kill Muslims. French troops watched as more and

more Christians came out. Muslims stayed at home. This was the moment

the Christians heard the president had stepped town. -- down. The bow

and arrow belong to a fighter with the Christian militia. Their arms

are crude, the rifles home-made. Magic amulets stop bullets from the

enemy's machine guns. My amulets made it easy to kill Muslims

soldiers, he says. They helped force a president to resign. Today's

events are their victory, they believe. There is quite a mood of

triumphalism among the Christian vigilantes. The question now is

whether the President's resignation will spur them on to try to seek

revenge. The Seleka slaughtered our people like animals, says the

commander. We had to kill them to make them afraid of us. But, he goes

on, there has been enough killing, it should stop now. Christian

civilians in the main hospital in Bangui. They were attacked by the

Seleka militia, or just by their Muslim neighbours. This man had gone

to a local market and was kidnapped off the street. His hands were

tied, his brother tells me, then they cut his throat. The hysteria on

display today is a toxic mix with a simmering anger among some

Christians. The President's resignation might just take the

steam out of this conflict but it is too soon to say the bloodshed here

is at an end. A police officer admits he lied in

the plebgate affair which led to the resignation of a Cabinet minister.

Also, still to come: It will be a dull and wet start to the day. Some

things never change - even though it is 60 years since the first TV

weather forecast. Later on BBC London - three bodies are found in a

house in brent. It seems a mother killed her children before taking

her own life. And we hear from the new man at Spurs. Spurs on his

ambitions for White Hart Lane. It is an award that has brought

about some of the biggest rewards - the annual BBC sound Sound of 2014

competition. This year's winner is hoping to be as big as Adele, who

scoped the prize back in 2008. She has sold over 30 million albums

worldwide, has nine Grammys and just to complete the set an Oscar on her

mantelpiece. Who has won this year's competition. Our entertainment

correspondent reports. # Lay me down tonight

A singer with an extraordinarinarily soulful voice. Sam Smith says he has

been influenced by some of the biggest names of recent years as

well as other artists on this year's list - a list which he is now the

winner of. It is just insane. I didn't expect it because some of the

people on that list were unbelievable. I am so inspired by

current music. I rarely actually go back and listen to music from the

past. I love the charts. I live in the charts and you know, being

amongst names like Ellie, Jessie J, is wonderful. He's referred to three

winners, Ellie Goulding, Jessie J and Adele.

# We could have had it all Although a few winners like Little

Boots have not gone on to fullful their initial promise.

It is no guarantee of success. There are artists who have won in the past

that have fallen by the wayside. The fact it is chosen by 170 die-hard

music fans, critics, blogger, journalists you would hope they

choose the most talented. Sam Smith has featured on Naughty Boy's

single, La-la-la. One of the year's best selling songs, it reached

number one last May. # I live by your side

Expectation will now be high that Sam Smith will enjoy success as an

artist in his own right. Plans for a referendum on Britain's

membership of the EU have cleared the first hurdle in the Lords today.

If the bill becomes law there'll be a vote in 2017. Our political

correspondent, Carole Walker, has been watching the debate. Britain's

relationship with the European Union is at a critical phase with heated

debate over the powers of the EU, the rights of its citizens and

whether we should remain a member at all.

The Lords have been debating a bill which would ensure a referendum on

our membership of the EU by the end of 2017.

We politicians have made a regular mess of it. Over decades.

That's why we need to get the people to decide.

Labour have not ruled out a referendum, but say this bill could

cause uncertainty, which would damage our economy. The bill is not

about changing or improving the EU. It is in indeed stage one in raising

impossible demands of the European Union in order to create the pretext

for leaving it. The Lords will demand changes to the

bill, which will require further consideration and there's a real

danger the bill will run out of time to become law.

David Cameron wants to reclaim a raft of powers from the EU before we

get to the referendum which has been debated here today. To achieve this,

he needs the support of our European partners, but he has angered some

potential allies by suggesting curbs on the freedom of movement of EU

citizens and their rights to claim benefits here. That has prompted a

senior member to accuse British politicians of pedalling myths about

an invasion of foreigners. I am mostly frustrated about the

political leaders, because what is a leadership if you are just a tribe

with pop lis tick movements and speech to gain votes? You are

destroying the future of your people, actually. A UKIP peer said

he was grateful for such comments. For remaining us how damaging and

humiliating our membership of this club is. So, whatever happens to the

Referendum Bill, there'll be no let up in the wrangling over our

relationship with Europe from now until the election.

Jessica Ennis-Hill won't compete in this summer's Commonwealth Games in

Glasgow because she is expecting her first child. She said she was

excited and overwhelmed by the news and she planned to bid for a second

gold in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Natalie?

Well, she is a big-named ambassador for the Games here. She admitted

2014 will be very different to the one she had planned. She made it

clear she's not about to give up the sport she loves. A warning my report

does contain some flash photography. Sense Ennis-Hill is the Olympic

champion. It is a perfect day for Jessica... Ennis-Hill might well

have been describing her golden Olympic moment, but was instead

talking about her biggest challenge yet, pregnancy. The 27-year-old, who

married last year, said her plans for 2014 have been completely turned

upside down. She is 100% set on trying to retain her Olympic title

in Rio once her baby is born. I think now taking this period of time

might actually lengthen her career with the World Championships in

London, in 2017. The games in 2018. There is always a

championship year. Even by Ennis-Hill's ferociously high

standards that will be tough according to Louise -- Denise Lewis.

Not only are you dealing new emotional, the new emotional

relationship you have with your baby, but with the goals that you

have set for yourself. Yes, I want to be back competing at the

Olympics. Here at Hampden Park, preparations are well under way for

the Games this summer. Congratulations have been sent to

Jessica Ennis-Hill. Ticket sells have been excellent. The question

now is - just which of those box office names will they actually get

to see? Sir Chris Hoy, who has hadded a stadium named after him

here has retired. He'll remain an am boss dor. Mo Farah may -- ambassador

for the names. Mo Farah may not compete. Bolt may run the 200

metres, but is undecided. Ennis-Hill has missed out on her second

consecutive Commonwealth Games. The one medal miss from a glittering CV.

Another title will be added this summer - that of mother.

Now, I have always fancied a go at this, and now the weather... There

will be more rain. No surprise there! I expect you knew that of

already. I am standing here because tomorrow marks the anniversary of

the first ever TV weather man. It is 60 years since it was predicted to

be dry weather for -- perfect weather for drying clothes. Nick

Higham has looked at how the technology of the daily forecast has

changed. It will be a dull and wet start... 60 years ago and the map

from the Met Office auditions for television weather man. Jack

Armstrong became a familiar face. It was his colleague, George Cowling

who actually delivered the first forecast. We had been briefed to be

a bit human. I mentioned tomorrow was going to be a good day for

hanging out the washing. This was something which had never been said

before and the press really took this up and thought that was a jolly

good thing. The forecasters became familiar personalities. You swine!

Hello! So, that is the picture this

morning. Watch out for ice around... Some forecasts become notorious.

Earlier today a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a

hurricane on the -- hurricane on the way. If you are watching, don't

worry. There was a terrible storm that night. It is not as easy as it

looks when the amateurs sometimes have a go. In the west, rain light

and patchy. A few interludes over Dumfries

house, in Ayrshire. Actually he was not bad. This is one of the studios

at broadcasting house. One of the things which has not changed is

forecasters have to be able to talk for up to four minutes, precisely to

time, without any kind of script and in this studio, at any rate, without

a map or chart on the wall behind them, although they do see a chart

if they look at themselves in the screen. The thing which has changed

completely is the technology involved. Hand-drawn charts gave way

to magnetic symbols which stuck to the charts, or sometimes didn't...

Let's do it again! Computer graphics arrived in the 1980s. Today's

forecasts are more detailed and they claim more accurate than ever. Now

there are 18 forecasters in the studio. Just now they are not short

of work. Now a time for a look at the

weather, with a real presenter. At least we are not short of work at

the moment - it has been turbulent weather. This weekend looks quieter.

Still some showers to come for Scotland and Northern Ireland and

clearing skies after that. Temperatures will come down

markedly. There'll be a risk of isolator on tonight and on to

tomorrow morning. Eastern England spared the frost, here because the

rain and cloud will linger on. Clearing skies set us up nicely for

Saturday morning for lots of sunshine. A reminder there could be

icy stretches on the roads across the south-west of England and Wales.

By 9am I am hopeful we'll see some sunshine. Beautiful blue skies to

get the day under way. For Northern Ireland and Scotland, a risk of ice

as well. Perhaps some showers close to the north coast of Northern

Ireland and some fog here. Wintry showers over the higher grounds of

the Highlands and showers across the Northern Isles. For Saturday, a much

quieter day. Light winds, plenty of sunshine. Temperatures down on

recent days because it has been exceptionally mild. Back to closer

values for the time of year. Five to six in the north and eight to nine

further north. Temperatures will fall away over the British Isles. A

wide-spread frost developing. By the end of the night temperatures will

come up in the West. Cloud will return. Eastern areas start off on a

chilly note. Stubborn mist and fog around here.

The wind and rain will move in quickly through the morning and then

it will transfer further eastwards as the day goes on. Saturday, the

brighter -- brightest and the drier of the two days. Sunday, the wet

weather will make its way back in from the Atlantic. Thank you very

much. That's it from us. On BBC One we can