12/12/2013 BBC Newsline

Good evening, the headlines on BBC Newsline...

It is revealed that meat meant for pet food ended up in the human food

chain. Nelson McCausland apologises to a

Stormont committee saying he inadvertently misinformed them.

The family of a mentally ill patient who took his life in the grounds of

the Ulster hospital demand the area is made more secure. If these people

do something now and stop it happening again, that would be

something in memory of Patrick that would be more valuable than a

gravestone. This pensioner's labour of love and

20 year search for an uncle's grave.

I will be reporting on the unseasonably mild weather.

Temperatures soared into the teens today. Find out if we broke any

records. Driving ambition - rally star Kris

Meeke will take on the best in the world next year. He joins me here in

the studio. It was revealed today meat which was

meant to end up in pet food was fraudulently repackaged in Northern

Ireland and sold for human consumption. But the crime was never

investigated because the authorities didn't have the necessary resources.

The finding is one example in a report commissioned by the UK

Government following the horse meat scandal. In a moment we'll hear from

the Queen's academic who wrote that report, but first our reporter Conor

Macauley has more on the how that low grade meat ended up on our

dinner plates. Dairy farmers at Balmoral for the

annual Winter Show today. They've a keen interest in the integrity of

the food chain, as examined in this review. It was conducted by Queen's

academic Professor Chris Elliott and was commissioned after the horse

meat scandal. It found the UK had some of the safest food in the

world, but recommended setting up of a food crime unit to stop future

fraud. Fraud like that found here in 2005 and which is covered in the

report. A container load of beef from Asia stopped at a local port

led to an investigation at an unnamed cold store. There, beef

meant for pet food was being relabelled and sold for human

consumption. The potential profit put at ?3 million. The report found

there was clear evidence of criminal planning in relation to cold store

fraud but because there was no capacity for a proper investigation

it did not happen. The meat was seized and destroyed. Worryingly, as

far as the report is concerned, if the same thing were to happen again,

there still would not be enough resources to carry out a proper

enquiry. Farmers say our traceability scheme for fresh meat

is second to none. The problem is with processed meat which isn't

tracked. We were campaigning hard that that should be across all areas

after last winter's episodes. The consumer has every right to know

what they are buying and where it is coming from. That has not come

through for processed products. Anything labelled as locally sourced

is perfectly safe. Professor Elliott recommends a intelligence and

investigations unit. He says there's a worryingly lack of knowledge about

the extent to which criminals are involved in this kind of food crime.

Earlier I spoke to the man who led the review, Professor Chris Elliott,

and asked him what surprised him most when conducting the review.

When I looked at the food supply system in the United Kingdom, I find

that it was incredibly resilient. We probably have one of the safest food

supply systems in the world. But my review is very much about looking to

stop fraud happening, the type of fraud uncovered during the horse

meat scandal. Your review details one particular case in Northern

Ireland dating back to 2005. What should we take from that? What

comfort should we take about the standard of what is going into our

food chain in Northern Ireland today? The most important thing

about the case that happened in Northern Ireland was that there was

the mechanism in place to first of all detects the suspicious activity,

and then take action. What happened was there was a full investigation

about that particular facility will stop all the meat was seized and

destroyed and it is a model I would like to see taken much further

across the United Kingdom. You call it fraud on an industrial scale.

Whose job is it to monitor, regulate and police all of that? It is very

clear in EU law, it is food business operators' responsibility to make

sure the food is safe and authentic. Government has a major

responsibility were looking after our food security. In my review I

have talked about a partnership between industry involvement to make

sure the food supply chain is safe and authentic. So you think there

should be one body with teeth? What we have is the Food Standards Agency

and they have done a remarkably good job since its inception to deliver

safe food for us. I think it is now the role of that agency to go a step

further and to take food crime under their arm brother as well. And that

is something the politicians would have to get back into? Element

absolutely, and it is important to think about what I published today

as an interim report. I want to discuss with industry, government

and other people about those recommendations. Do they make

sense? Are they pragmatic? How long will it take to promote them?

The Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland has apologised to

a Stormont committee saying he inadvertently misinformed them about

who attended a meeting to discuss double glazing contracts for Housing

Executive homes. The issue was highlighted by a BBC Spotlight

programme. Our Political Correspondent Gareth Gordon reports.

Until today, the Social Development Minister has always denied changing

a letter about who he met to discuss double glazing contracts with the

Housing Executive in April 2012. As revealed in this BBC Spotlight

programme, the letter claimed the meeting had been with the Glass and

Glazing Federation and a company called Fusion 21, when in fact it

had been with a company called Turkingtons, who are alleged to have

supported Mr McCausland's party, the DUP, in the past. In the light of

the witness evidence and the document discovery in my department,

I acknowledge that I unintentionally misinformed the committee in this

letter. Let me in -- assure you that this was not deliberate. I realise

there has been confusion around the letter. I never saw staff from

Turkingtons at the meeting and I have held meetings with other

companies. He denied there'd been any attempt to mislead. The

committee chairman was unconvinced. There was a clear and concerted

focus on ensuring that Turkingtons was deleted from the record of that

meeting and I find it hard to explain. This former DUP member

claimed Mr McCausland had simply run out of road. Was at that you had

some sensitivity about putting up in lights that you had met with

Turkingtons as a party donor and therefore had an anxiety to divert

it to the Glass and glazing Federation? Mr McCausland replied

"absolutely not." He was pressed on Turkingtons' relationship with the

DUP. You also heard it stated clearly that Turkingtons were

funders and provided vans to your party and in fact, is it not the

case that they funded what is known in DUP circles as your battle bus

during election time? My interests are entirely within my constituency

and the remit of my department. I have no knowledge at all in regard

to the workings of internal financial regulations of the party

because I am not an officer. The inquiry into the Spotlight programme

will continue in the New Year. The father of a mentally ill patient

who took his life in the grounds of the Ulster Hospital, is demanding

the area is made more secure. Patrick Campbell was 26 when he died

after climbing over a fence. It's the second time in three years that

a patient from the hospital's mental health unit has died in that way.

The South Eastern Health Trust says it's now reviewing the area. Our

Health Correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly has the story.

Patrick campbell was a much loved son, brother and friend. But all

that was destroyed by depression - a demon he could never shake off. In

September, Patrick asked to be admitted to the Ulster Hospital's

Mental health unit for his own safety. Placed on suicide watch, he

managed to to get away from a nurse while smoking in the garden. He

scaled the fence and ran to another building where he fell and died.

Patrick was not the first person to leave that board over that fence,

and not the first to die having done that. I really demand that he is the

last. In 2010, 22-year-old James Fenton, who was also a patient on

suicide watch, managed to leave using the same fence. His body lay

undiscovered in the hospital grounds for ten weeks. A report by the

Police Ombudsman criticised the PSNI investigation. The BBC understands

that investigators believed much more could have been done to make it

more difficult to climb the fence. Three years later, and the issue is

now being addressed. I would like to offer my sympathies and condolences

to Mr Campbell's family. Our initial findings are that the nursing staff

could not have prevented his death, nevertheless we are doing a detailed

review. If that review identifies changes we can make, such as

building a curve into the fence, those will be actioned. The family

are angry that security cameras while operating weren't being

monitored, also that staff had no means of raising the alarm from the

garden. Patrick is gone. He is never going to come back. Sadly, there are

an answer questions as to why he was not kept safe in the hospital when

he thought he would be safe. Patrick's case raises many issues,

including appropriate facilities used to treat suicidal patients and

also the lack of continuity in care. Now they have gone public, his

parents want to meet the Health Minister.

Still to come on the programme before seven...

This woman's 20 year search for her uncle's grave in Shanghai.

The independent Bishop Pat Buckley has pleaded guilty to immigration

offences linked to sham marriages. He's to be sentenced next week.

Chris Page reports. Often controversial, and now a

convict. Pat Buckley admitted 14 charges of conspiring to break

immigration laws. He officiated at sham marriages in 2008 and 2009. The

prosecution did not go ahead with five other charges against him.

Outside court, Buckley said he wasn't going to hide. I feel a bit

lighter because that has been hanging over me and it has been

dealt with, but obviously I have a heaviness of heart because

technically, at 61, I now have a criminal conviction. A defence

lawyer said that Buckley's ministry of 37 years was renowned and that he

had been used by the operators of the scam. The court heard that

Buckley was not the instigator of the scam and that he was more of a

receiver of fees than a reaper of profits. A prosecuting lawyer said

although he might have been motivated by a desire to help

others, afterwards he had a certain knowledge that what he was doing was

wrong. The prosecution said it was accepted that because of his health

and his exceptional nature of the case, the court would be allowed to

suspend any prison term. He will be sentenced next week.

If your household finances have been feeling under pressure, some new

official figures explain why. They show that the typical full time

worker saw their wages fall last year. In comparison, workers

elsewhere in the UK saw a small rise in their pay

. What is this report? This is an annual survey and it looks at how

much people are and how many hours they work. It shows that for the

typical full-time worker in Northern Ireland, they will earn just under

?24,000 this year. That is lower than last year, it has fallen by

0.2%. Inflation currently stands at 2.2%, so that is really bad news for

household finances, because it shows prices are rising wide wages are

falling. That is why you feel a little bit less wealthy. We hear the

economy is recovering, so when will the sea wages recover? That is a

question for our lot of people. The answer is it will happen eventually,

as the economy gets stronger and wages catch up. It will probably

take until 2015. I am afraid that next year is going to be another

tight year for very many people. Difficult times. Thank you.

A stolen fuel tanker was reversed into the Quinn Group headquarters in

County Fermanagh and set on fire last night. Our South-west reporter

Julian Fowler has more from Derrylin.

This is the latest in a series of attacks on the company once owned by

Fermanagh businessman, Sean Quinn. The oil tanker was driven through

Barnard is at its headquarters just before 811 o'clock last night. --

driven through warlords. It was reversed three times through the

door. The Tiger did not explode after being set alight and

firefighters prevented the flames spreading. Quinn Group has recently

rebranded as Aventas. It is supposed to represent the arrival of

something new but the attacks on this company are becoming all too

familiar. The company said this latest incident is part of a

continuing campaign of sabotage, intimidation and vilification. Those

responsible, they said, had no regard for the impact on jobs or the

local economy. It said it would continue to face down this me guided

-- misguided minority with resolute determination.

The former Prime Minister Sir John Major has said he has no sympathy

for loyalists who claim the political process is eroding their

British identity. Sir John, who was in Dublin to mark the 20th

anniversary of the Downing Street Declaration, said there was no

threat to their Britishness. I think it is a phantom fear. It is

a phantom fear. It is perfectly clear from the Downing Street cat

might declaration that for so long as Northern Ireland wishes to main

British, they will remain British. No one is abandoning them, no one is

pushing them to one side. We are saying, if you look at everyday life

in Northern Ireland, it is in comparative better than it was 20 or

25 years ago. -- income parody better. -- it is much better.

There's more of that interview on The View at ten thirty five tonight

after our late news. Next to a labour of love and a

search that's taken 20 years. During that time Sarah Moran from

Londonderry has been trying to find the grave of her uncle, who was in

the British Army and was killed in Shanghai by the Japanese in 1937.

Patrick McGowan was one of a number of soldiers from the Royal Ulster

Rifles who died while serving as peacekeepers during the war between

Japan and China. A story of love and determination.

For 20 years, 74-year-old Sarah Moran has been trying to find the

grave of her uncle, Patrick McGowan. The 25-year-old joined the British

Army as a teenager following in the footsteps of his older brother John.

Both boys are pictured here with their mother Harriet when they were

aged seven and nine. She died a short time after this was taken.

Shanghai has fallen to Japan. China is forced to withdraw. In 1937,

China was at war with Japan. Private Patrick McGowan was part of an

international peacekeeping force which included American, Italian and

British soldiers. But tragically, he met his death while on guard duty.

The Japanese and Chinese continued to have a go at each other and

unfortunately, one of the Japanese planes was shooting at an area where

Mr McGowan was on post and he was hit in the chest and back and died

on his way to hospital. Back home in Derry, the family of Patrick McGowan

knew that British servicemen had been buried in Shanghai but still

the search continued for their graves. Growing up, they always

talked about Paddy. Because of all the cuttings we had, I was really

interested in finding out where he was buried. Chairman Mao's cultural

revolution resulted in all symbols of colonial rule disappearing -

including thousands of foreign graves. But after writing to David

Cameron the graves were eventually found with help from the Shanghai

Consulate and a military historian. The arrival of HMS Daring on a visit

to Shanghai paved the way for senior British military personnel to pay

their respects to the Royal Ulster Rifles' soldiers. They laid a floral

tribute at the grave in shanghai yesterday, much to the delight of a

pensioner back in Derry. I really think that is brilliant. I did not

expect that. The fact that they found a grave is good enough for me.

I think they have done a really good job. I think they have really

respected him now, so I am quite happy. The families of these people

are still interested. It still matters to them and I think the best

thing about today is it shows to the families that the services still

care about people, regardless of when they were lost. Sarah has been

involved in the campaign for almost 20 years. She says it has been well

worth the effort, so her uncle Paddy can be honoured and his memory

cherished. This time last year, temperatures

fell as low as minus six degrees Celsius at night, and the days

struggled to get above freezing. A year later, and we've had an

exceptionally mild winter's day. Barra Best reports.

It was a day for forgetting the jacket, scarves and gloves as

temperatures soared to 15 degrees. It is eight degrees above what it

should be at this time of year. It was just a degree below the 1994

record, when 16 degrees was recorded in County Down. The high

temperatures are courtesy of mild air from the equator. Temperatures

into the low teens in December, not frequent but not unusual. It is very

nice for getting your heating bills down. It is no joke that winter

temperatures have given us the slip but there are still two and a half

months left for the sub-zero temperatures to return. I am from

Africa, so I think it is quite cold. But I was expecting much colder. I

am a PE teacher. I have been outside and the weather has been fantastic.

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Very much. For the time being, it does

not look like it will be a white on the issue. Over the weekend,

temperatures are set to stay mild but with strong winds on the way it

will feel much colder. More on the forecast later in the

programme. Before that, a sportsman who's received a special early

Christmas present. The rally driver Kris Meeke joins Stephen Watson here

in the studio. This is a Christmas present that you

cannot buy. Kris Meeke from Dungannon has just been handed the

biggest opportunity of his career. Next year he will drive for Citreon

in the prestigious world rally Championship. Kris has been testing

for his new team for the last few days in the south of France - and

has just flown back from Monte Carlo.

Thank you for coming straight in Cialis. Is it fair to say after ten

years in the sport that this is a bit of a dream come true? Yes, it is

something I have worked all my career for. I have had a few

setbacks along the way, but this year it has all come good and in

2014 I will be on the Citron World Rally team. To learn from that team

and get the experience and built my knowledge for future success is a

bonus. We are watching pictures of you testing over the last few days

just outside Monte Carlo. This team is backed by Abu Dhabi, putting tens

of millions of pounds into this operation. Are you confident you can

deliver for them? I would not take on the challenge if I did not think

I was capable. You have two have self belief. We had been knocking

the door for a long time and never got the opportunity. It is great to

learn from a team with so much knowledge as Citroen. In 1964, Paddy

Hochberg won the Monte Carlo Rally. Can you repeat the achievement? I

learned the legend of Paddy Hopp Kirk. Such a feat he achieved back

then, even against the bigger cars. It is one of those legends that will

live for ever. It is great that 50 years on, I can get the opportunity

to try for the Monte Carlo Rally. It might be a bit soon to emulate his

success but I hope to build on my experience. Could we be sitting here

next year with you as a world Rally Champion? 2014 maybe a bit soon. In

Rally, experience is everything. It takes so many years to build up a

knowledge of the events. 2014 might be soon. I will achieve success next

year, but maybe 2015 and later, we could possibly dream of being a

world Rally Champion and that is the off call. We love motorsport in

Northern Ireland. Thank you. Alan's cricketers are in a

commanding position on the third day of the ICC in to an act of -- ICC

Intercontinental Cup Final in Dubai. They have set Afghanistan a target

of 347 to win and they were 136-5 at the close of play.

If you have ever wondered what it is like to be a passion in her -- a

passenger in a rally car, there is an old video of Stephen Watson on a

ferry rocky road. His face is a picture!

The mild weather will stay with us for at least one more day but then

it is all change come the weekend. There will be strong winds heading

our way. Tonight is another mild night. It starts off reasonably dry.

Then we get rain coming through later on this evening. It is going

to stay mild with temperatures in many places seeing double figures as

we go through this evening. The rain, by breakfast time, could be

quite persistent and sharp. A damp start by Friday. Things brighten up

nicely through the day. We will see breaks in the cloud and bright

weather. We will have top temperatures of 11 or 12 degrees.

Why we are playing a game of dodge the shower, if you manage to do that

it will not be a bad day. Because we have got clear skies tomorrow, the

temperatures drop down to something much more what we would expect for

the time of year. Overnight lows of two or three degrees. It will be a

wintry night. As we go into the weekend, everything changes. We have

some strong winds heading our way. They are being driven by these

low-pressure systems developing in the Atlantic. We have one heading

our way on Saturday and another one following behind on Sunday. That

means the weather on Saturday is going to have a very different feel

to it. We have a band of rain coming through, we have strong winds, it is

going to be wet and cold. It is really not going to be very nice at

all. The message is to make the most of tomorrow because Saturday is the

start of unsettled conditions for next week.

13 degrees on Friday the 13th, with a wind speed of 13? Is that ominous?

We are back at 10:15pm -- 1030 PM. Goodbye.