29/01/2014 BBC Newsline

independent Scotland. That is all from the News at six, so

Good evening, the headlines on BBC Newsline.

Four cars belonging to foreign nationals are set on fire in North

Belfast. This man says he won't be intimidated. I am not afraid from

nobody. An inquiry hears distressing evidence of physical and sexual

abuse at a children's home run by nuns. A change of UK government

policy over Syrian refugees. We hear from one family who've been in

Belfast for more than a year seeking asylum.

The Ulster Bank boss admits that there will be more branch closures.

As Russia promises unprecedented security at the Winter Olympics, our

top snowboarder outlines her concerns.

And tomorrow's weather may not be perfect but it's the best of the

next few days. A Polish man whose car was destroyed

in an arson attack in North Belfast last night says he's considering

leaving Northern Ireland. His vehicle was one of four targeted in

an attack which the police are treating as a hate crime. A man has

been arrested. He has been a released on police bail. Far from

home, for families try to make a life in Northern Ireland. They live

on this stretch of road. Late last night, four cars were set alight. It

is being treated as a hate crime, and the police are back again this

morning. Four different cars with one thing in common, they are all

owned by foreign national families, who work here and live here trying

to make ends meet, and they are really angry about what happened.

Seeking refuge from war Afghanistan, it has not been an easy transition

for this man and his young family. He has been living in Northern

Ireland for 15 years, and this is not the first time he has been

targeted. Someone burned my house previously as well, and I came from

work and I saw my house was burnt. The you intend to stay? -- do you

intend to stay? Yes. I am not afraid of nobody. The damage to this car is

extensive. They are just thankful the fire and rescue service was able

to prevent the fire from spreading to the property. For the young

Polish family living here, it is too close to home. We have been in this

house for about six weeks to the and I have lived here -- six weeks, and

I have lived here for six years. I do not know what to say. I am in

shock. I want to move as fast as I can from that house. Originally from

Slovakia, this man examined the damage of the car he so desperately

needs for work. No work, no car. No good.

A man who was jailed for shooting dead his former partner in

Portstewart has had his murder conviction quashed. 51-year-old Fred

McClenaghan, from Broad Street in Magherafelt, will now face a retrial

over the killing of Marion Millican at a laundrette three years ago. No

further details of the decision reached by the Court of Appeal can

be reported for legal reasons. The inquiry into historical abuse

has been told that those in charge of young boys at Termonbacca

children's home in Londonderry behaved like the Taliban. The

inquiry, which is investigating abuse at a number of children's

homes in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995, heard today from a man who

went into Termonbacca as a young boy in 1950. Some people may find

details in this report distressing. Desperate cries from scared children

regularly rang through the corridors of this building. The claim came

from a witness who gave his description of what happened while

he lived here as a child. He said it became the Holocaust of his lost

childhood. The environment of Nazareth House was such that no-one

was safe at any time. I was not safe. Since his childhood, the

alleged victim has tried to cope with his experience of the

institution, and today, he revealed his story to the inquiry. He told

how he was once hit over the head with a steel ladle, leaving blood

gushing from the wound. He then spoke of sex abuse. He said he

witnessed a boy of eight years being abused, and he said he saw a

ten-year-old boy being raped. He said he was so terrified he

delivered the wet himself many nights to avoid being sexually

abused. -- he tried to wedge himself. He described those in

charge as like the Taliban, he said, because of their fundamentalism and

sadism. Then, addressing the chairman of the inquiry, asked, in

the name of God and humanity, I ask the free world, how did any church

organisation is like that on me? The man said that as a 60-year-old he

told a priest what he had seen and the priest told him, you must never

speak about that. -- 16-year-old. He then added, you are the product of a

syntenic relationship. The entire experience left him with hermetic

memories. -- Satanic relationship. The entire experience left him with

traumatic memories. One boy would start crying for his mother in bed,

and you would hear him crying, and the next boy would start, and it

resulted in all of the boys, including myself, though we did not

have any idea what a mother was, would cry out for our mothers. Did

that echo around the dormitory? Several times a night. The man also

told of how later in life he made a discovery about his family. Two of

his others were also at the home while he was there, and five of his

sisters were at a nearby home he visited occasionally. He never knew

and the nuns did not tell them. A man accused of raping a child in

the 1990s has told a court the alleged victim is lying. He's one of

three men facing a series of sexual abuse charges. The alleged victims

are a brother and sister. Today the only defendant not related to them

took the witness box and told the jury at Coleraine Crown Court the

man accused is innocent of all charges.

Today was the first time one of the defendants has given evidence. He is

described as a family friend, and faces charges in connection to the

alleged female victim. He said he first met her father in the early

90s while out socialising. In later months, he would go back to the

man's house once the pub shot. He confirmed to the court that while

socialising there, he would drink and watch pornography, and on one

occasion, played a card game, but he denied any allegations of sexually

used -- abusing a child. The man said that the allegations were true

and the shark are untrue and never happened. He admitted he was aware

of children, saying he had seen them when he picked up their father to

play golf, but that he did not know them well. He revealed he was first

made aware that allegations were being made against him when to

unknown individuals shouted at him in a shopping centre. The defendant

was asked what impact the allegations have had on him and he

said the last 20 months had been bad for him and his family and rebuild

the was taking -- and revealed he was taking medication for anxiety.

In 1998, the alleged victim was 13, and she showed a photograph from

around that time. She was asked why she did not say more at the time and

replied that she was scared and ashamed I did not think she had the

words for what had happened. -- and ashamed, and did not think

she had the words for what has happened.

Plenty still to come before seven, including: Londonderry's year of

City of Culture brought world-class entertainment to the city, but did

it ring both sides of the divide closer together? -- bring both

sides. The bus driver who blacked-out causing his double

decker to crash and topple over on Belfast's Albert Bridge has won an

unfair dismissal case. The Industrial Tribunal has found that

following the incident in August 2011, and a subsequent black out at

work, Ernest Wardlow was unilaterally redeployed to a

Cleaners post. The Tribunal found that this mounted to a dismissal

that was automatically and substantively unfair. Mr Wardlow was

awarded over ?37,000 in compensation.

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that hundreds of the most

needy Syrians in refugee camps will be allowed into the UK. The move

follows mounting pressure for more to be done to help the 2.5 million

refugees whose lives have been impacted on by conflict in the

Middle Eastern country. We report on the plight of one Syrian who is

currently seeking asylum here in Northern Ireland.

The scale of the humanitarian crisis... The government is to allow

several -- several hundred of the most needy to come to the UK on

temporary visas for at least three years. It is estimated there are

3500 Syrian refugee asylum seekers already in the UK. This man is one

of them. He and his family ended up in Belfast after paying 1500 euros

to someone on the black market. I come to the UK just to save my

family. How did you get here? It was difficult, very difficult and very

expensive. We paid about 1,500 euros to get us just to the UK. We do not

have a choice. I come for my children. I think the best place, to

come here, and we paid a lot of money to come here, but I do not

know. The real life is not like our dream. During the past year, the

children have been integrating into the local community, attending a

nearby primary school. They quickly speak English. I think they speak

English only. I told them they speak English now. You can ask her if you

want. Tell me a little bit about your school. It is really good, and

today for my lunch I got chicken curry. What is your favourite

subject in school? Free time. This man says the situation has been made

worse by not knowing what has happened to his family left behind

in Syria. My mother, all of the family, I do not know where they

stay. Not really. I have one sister in Lebanon now and I have another

one in Turkey, and the rest of the family are in Syria, I don't know

where. The family say they have already had their asylum request

turned down once, but it is up for appeal next month, and they hope the

change in the government's tack might work in their favour.

Still to come on the programme tonight: Find out why this London

based soprano went back to school today.

Ulster Bank's Chief Executive has told an inquiry into the Northern

Ireland banking industry that he will have to close more branches.

The Westminster inquiry is looking at the way banks in Northern Ireland

are run, access to banking in rural communities and provision of finance

to business. Did the bank make clear today how

many branches would have to close? The boss of the bank was not able to

get that detail. He did have one very striking figure, by the end of

last year, just 16% of all the transactions the bank carry out

happen in a branch, so that means the vast majority of transactions

being done by the bank are happening online, and mobile phones, on the

phone itself or a hole in the wall, soap branch closures are being

driven by customer demand. We will not know the more detail about this

until later Lex -- next month when there is a big review of the banks

across Northern Ireland, and the night -- we might know more then.

The MPs who were questioning the bank today wanted to know if

something like the IT fiasco of 2012 happening again. What the bank told

them is, since that happens, their parent company, RBS, has spent a

fortune on IT systems. They say it will take about another two years

before they are happy that the systems are robust enough, but they

are no longer so dependent on the systems, so if they fall over, they

should not suffer the same consequences that they did in 2012.

Some slightly attorneys today, some new figures suggesting there was a

Bert in the economy over the summer. Really striking figures. They are

like the local version of GDP, which gives us a number for the growth of

the economy in northern islands. It grew by 1.6% between July and

September. -- in Northern Ireland. For the last three years, those

numbers are pretty striking, and when we compare them to read figures

in the UK, a are twice as fast than in the summer months, and we are

getting great in all parts of the economy. The service sector had a

good time. Manufacturing was having a good time and even the

construction sector was growing. One slight note of caution, these are

just the figures for one quarter, and our economy was really badly

damaged in the recession, and is still 10% smaller than it was in

2007. The Londonderry classical singer Margaret Keys returned to her

roots today as an ambassador for the Prince of Wales charity which

promotes Children and the Arts. The former teacher, who's now making a

name for herself as a Soprano in London, said a new project to get

young children involved in the arts was inspiring. Our North-West

reporter, Keiron Tourish, caught up with her. I'm here to congratulate

you today on the fantastic work you have been doing. It is like going

back to the classroom for Margaret Keys as she prays children for their

artistic efforts for the Prince Charles charity. They had been

working in conjunction with this gallery to produce an array of work.

Everything from paintings to clay models. Art is something that I

certainly have always enjoyed as a child. And obviously, as an adult

now, it is my career. So I think particularly getting children to

begin from a very young age is something which is very necessary.

If we are to create children of the future with some kind of creative

and artistic flair. It's all about inspiring confidence and promoting

creativity. Our teacher came in and we did work. We did artwork. It has

good crack. It felt really, really great. I was going to be proud of

myself. My mum will be proud of me too. The exhibition of 's work

continues at Centre for contemporary Art. So good news for the Arts in

Derry. But what impact did the UK City of Culture have on community

relations. Organisers promised a lasting legacy for the city. More

than ?16 million was spent. What difference did it make and did it

help bring the two sides of the Foyle closer together? Our reporter

Mark Simpson has been to Londonderry to find out. It has one big party.

And it lasted a whole year. But did it make any real difference? The two

names of the city came together, but what about the people? These people

all work on the waterside. They had some involvement in the city of

culture events, but did people from a Protestant and unionist background

really feel part of the big year? I think everybody was. One of the

things which came out of it, whether you call it Londonderry or Derry,

people looked at it in a different way. I played in three events in the

city. I did something in the Cathedral with a band. As a

musician, I had a great time. From a pot of some perspective, you get a

lot more involvement than we ever thought we would. -- Protestant.

Going forward, I don't think that will change now. It will be us going

forward. I think people are making the most of it. The Derry side feels

far close of it ever has been. This former priest is from the other side

of the river, and were surprised at how people from both banks of the

Foyle came together. Those who are against it because it was the UK

city of culture, and those who are against it because it was two areas,

I think all of them got involved. The big question is will they stay

involved? Were those relationships, which were improved, helps,

encourage, will they stay? The problems here run deep. And the

reality is that one year of culture is not going to solve decades of

division. Dissident Republicans bombed the city of culture's office

two years ago but, in the end, it didn't disrupt any of the actual

events. Stephen Marchand was in charge of policing the city last

year, so what was his secret of success? People power. The people in

the region came to the events in their thousands and they came to

look at the festival. When the public support events like that, it

is people power, people who wanted the city of culture. It wasn't a

year of complete harmony. But it was 12 months when people in the city

with two names, seemed to edge a little closer. Protestors have

gathered outside Ards Borough Council in support of the under

threat Exploris centre. The visitor attraction in Portaferry is

earmarked for closure because of a lack of funds. Our reporter Conor

Macauley is at the council building in Newtownards. The future this

tourist attraction has been in doubt for some time. First of all, give us

the background to the story. Yes, as you say, the aquarium has been under

threat since September of last year. It has 18 staff but has run a

deficit of ?600,000 a year, and towards the end of the year, Ards

Borough Council said they might not be able to continue to afford to run

it and might have to close. That led to a huge public outcry for that you

consider protesters here behind me and also an offer from the

Department of the Environment that Iraq be but some public money into

it. Capital grant to help refurbishment of the premises, and

also some help with running costs of the Seal Sanctuary. The processes

around that has led it -- to this council meeting tonight. Some people

say it's madness to close after 26 years. What exactly is happening

this evening? Essentially, what happened the council was told to go

away and come up with a business case for the long-term viability of

the aquarium. It was being done by a subcommittee which is bringing about

report to the council tonight for ratification. If the council doesn't

ratify that, then the business case will have to go to the Northern

Ireland executive who will look at it, see if there is nothing to

persuade them to release those promised public funds, but as far as

the people here are concerned, they say you need to hurry up and get on

with it because they want some commitment about the long-term

viability of what is, as far as they are concerned, and very important

tourism resource in that area. If the council votes to ratify that

report, there will public the another state execution for the

aquarium while we sort this out and see whether the executive is

prepared to release that public money. Thank you. The Winter

Olympics and Paralympics get underway in just over a week's time

in Sochi in Russia. Three athletes from Northern Ireland will be

competing as part of Team GB. Tonight we hear from one of them.

Thomas Niblock's here. Well, We've already heard from figure skater

Jenna McCorkill, and alpine skier Kelly Gallagher. Tonight its

snowboarder Aimee Fuller, who's due to arrive in Sochi tomorrow. And

she's admitted to being apprehensive. Fears of a terrorist

attack at the Games were heightened last month by a twin bomb attack on

the nearby city of Volgograd, which killed 34 people. Organisers have

promised the venue will be the most secure on the planet. Nial Foster

reports. It's been a tough track to the top four Aimee Fuller. But every

step along the way, the 22-year-old has proved she is perfectly

comfortable at the very highest level. Their main focus in Russia is

on the slopes. But security is an issue. It's a little bit concerning.

Definitely, I'm aware of the risks, but I have heard the security

measures are really good, so I think it's just about being smart and

staying in the right place. At the end of the day, we are going there

to the best we can in our sport, so I'm just going to try to stay

focused as I can on the job I'm going there to do. And just enjoy

it. She qualified for the 56 strong Great Britain team in Colorado last

week. And she believes her alternative training regime centred

at Sochi. It helps putting the work in on the slopes because you can

relate to those days where you have been pounding away in the gym. You

think, this is easier than that. I'm not in the gym, I'm on the slopes

and look at the surroundings. It's an honour to be wearing the sports

kit, and going to rush out to represent team GB. It's something I

absolutely love. -- Russia. Her career is on an upward curve and it

seems the sky is the limit for Aimee Fuller. We wish all the. Rugby.

Johnny Sexton who left Leinster this summer for a big money move to

France has admitted he felt like quitting Racing Metro in Paris and

returning home. Ireland open their RBS Six Nations campaign by hosting

Scotland in Dublin on Sunday, with this man expected to start fly-half.

Mark Sidebottom reports. The boy with ice in his veins has been slow

to settle in France. A change of scene and culture have left things

are just a little too topsy-turvy for his liking. Everything is just

stressful, tough going at the start. There been some games where I'm

walking in on Monday and telling them I'm going home. There's other

games where I have come off and thought, this is brilliant. I could

be here forever. His move to Paris pondered speculation of an exodus

from Ireland to France. He revealed Jamie he said and Sean O'Brien

sought his counsel on similar big-money moves. And he was glad

when he opted to spin the deals. -- Heaslip. They really stepped up to

the plate, the two lads. Playing for the provinces and the national team,

I hope to stay. The hope is this weekend that act in a green shirt

and Lansdowne Road, he will be more at home than ever. This weekend

marks the start of the Allianz Leagues in Gaelic football as the

new season gets into full swing. As for standout fixture from an Ulster

perspective, well that's an easy one. Old rivals Derry and Tyrone

clash at Celtic Park. Thomas Kane reports. Without many of the

established stars, a new look Tyrone give their supporters a glimpse into

the future during their cup campaign. The conveyor belt of

talent in the county is now said to be given a chance to impress and at

an even higher level. As a team, I think we are going to be a different

animal last year, we saw three or four new faces. This year, I think

we will see five or six which can only be good for Tyrone in terms of

who we can trust in the talent. I think there's another batch coming

behind them also. Derry have made a step up to division one. Their

opening two fixtures will be a serious test of their credentials.

Everyone is expecting us to go straight back down again. A big

first two games. We know we are up against it. If we put on a big

performance, we can get good results. In recent years, league

form has been the best indicator of success the following summer in a

championship. Something every county will be bearing in mind as they

prepare for the coming campaign. The match will be the live game on BBC

Radio Ulster at 6:30pm. Thomas, thanks very much. I love watching

those snowboarding pictures but never mind the snow come what about

the rain? Is it ever going to stop raining?

It's going to be very rainy by the time we get to the end of the week.

It's not going to be the wettest of nights tonight. Certainly not

compared to the last few nights. Yes, some showers around. Quite

chilly, though. Temperatures could get close to freezing. It's not

possible for there to be ice around tomorrow morning and these two doper

cabbie in the fields. A lot of us are feeling right at the moment. How

was supposed to like the puddles. Tomorrow isn't going to be nice.

Tomorrow, Chilean places. There will be some showers around Eastern

counties in particular. -- chilly in places. As you can see, 8am,

temperatures not too far away from freezing in parts of the country.

There could be a bit of ice and frost arriving. Through the day,

yes, you will need an umbrella. Showers, not heavy, and some dry and

bright spells, too, particularly over towards the east. Temperatures

just 4-5. Into what's coming our way for the weekend, a big area of low

pressure for the lots and lots of isobars abounded. Heavy rain on

Friday and then, as the low pressure comes towards us, some very strong

wind coming our way for this weekend. Already a heavy warning in

force, especially in the east. Look away if you don't like the rain

because it will be a wash-out. Localised flooding in Eastern

counties in particular. It may be a bit dry over the weekend but still

some showers around. Very windy. Possibly damaging winds on

Saturday. 60-70 mph wind. Still rain on Friday. Flooding in the east.

Heavy showers and scrawny winds on Saturday. If I had to pick a day out

of the weekend, Sunday is the best. It's a tough choice.

So the answer is, it's not going to stop raining. I buy. --