15/01/2016 BBC Newsline

A female officer at Maghaberry Prison has been arrested over

an alleged sexual affair with a convicted loyalist killer.

The officer has also been suspended from duty, while it's understood

the prisoner involved has been moved to an isolation unit

This is the loyalist killer at the centre of an alleged sex scandal

which has seen a female officer suspended and arrested. Robert Young

is serving a life sentence with this brutal murder in 2003. Drug dealer

Jim Johnston was shot outside his Crawfordsburn home. Jailing Young

for a minimum of 22 years, the judge at the time said he had shown

supreme indifference to both the murder and his conviction. He said

Young, now 51, was guilty of a brutal, callous murder. Prison

chiefs here at Maghaberry began to suspect that relationship was

developing between officer and Young while both were working in the

prison kitchens. It is understood the officer was arrested last week

as she arrived for work. The authorities, however, have begun to

suspect something was wrong much earlier. -- had begun. A decision

was taken to lodge a covert intelligence gathering operation

which eventually led to the police being cold in. The officer was

arrested and questioned about a suspected sexual relationship with

the prisoner. She has been released on police bail pending further

investigations. She potentially faces a charge of gross misconduct

in public office. In a statement, the Department of Justice said...

Tonight, I understand Robert Young is being held in the jail's

isolation unit as the authorities here try to establish if what was

allegedly going on Gusev led to any breach of prison security. -- could

have led. Almost 400 motorists were arrested

over Christmas accused of drinking and driving - one of them

was a police officer. The number of arrests

amounted to a 40% increase In spite of all the TV adverts, in

spite of all the police warning, the number of people drinking and

driving is not going down. In fact, it is going up. Over Christmas and

New Year, 396 people were arrested, 71 women, 325 men. That includes 1

driver who was arrested twice within a few days, both on suspicion of

drink-driving. The 396 total number of arrests is much higher than last

year, a 40% increase. 1 of those arrested by the police was 1 of

their own officers. So, what happens to police officers if they are found

guilty of drinking and driving? A number of police officers have lost

their jobs in recent times and those people can certainly expect to find

themselves in front of a panel, 1 sanction available is the loss of

your job. This is the latest TV ad. The police hope drivers now get the

message. Everyone who has been drink-driving can expect to be taken

to court and can expect not a Matic disqualification from driving, they

will have to pass the driving test before being allowed back on road

and they can expect huge insurance bills. That is in addition to the

social embarrassment for being caught drinking and driving. So, who

are the people being arrested? Statistics show they are from right

across Northern Ireland and they are from all different ages, from

teenagers to 1 driver arrested this Christmas who was aged 83. The

holiday period may now be over, but the warnings and the testing will

continue. The police have arrested a man

they'd been searching for in connection with a serious

assault on a woman in Newtownabbey. Officers had appealed

for the 33-year-old man to contact them after the woman was critically

injured in the attack The police released a photo of him

and details of his car and had warned the public not

to approach him. He was arrested on the Newtownards

Road in Belfast this afternoon. There's been a verdict of accidental

death recorded at the inquest in England into the death

of Lord Ballyedmond, the Tory peer from Rostrevor,

his foreman Declan Small They were killed in March 2014

when the helicopter they were travelling in came down

in dense fog in Norfolk. The 70-year-old founder

of Norbrook Laboratories was one The inquest heard there

were no mechanical faults with the helicopter,

but that it would not have been allowed to take off

from a licensed aerodrome in such The first real cold snap

of the winter has caused problems Overnight snow falls and freezing

conditions meant people living on higher ground and in more

isolated areas were worst hit, particularly in County Tyrone

and across the North West. Even they gritters were finding it

difficult in the wintry conditions and this vehicle wasn't alone. As

motorists on high ground and untreated roads struggled to cope.

We started out from any club this morning, the main roads were fine.

Some of the side roads and byways, there was quite a covering of snow

and ice. They are at the treacherous. In Derry, gritters

treating roads in Creggan had to be withdrawn for several hours

overnight after they were attacked by stonethrowers. 10 past 10 last

night, driver reported they had come under attack on the estate by youths

throwing snowballs and stones. Policy is when that occurs, the

driver is removed from that area for his own safety. Unfortunately,

number of roads in that area were then left untreated. Life on the

farm is on made harder by any cold snap. Giving livestock fed and

watered is a priority. I didn't expect so much of it this morning.

You cannot get the tractors out of the sheds and you can't get them to

start because of the cold. It just makes everything take a wee while

longer. Despite the weather, only 2 schools were forced to close across

Northern Ireland, 1 in Tyrone and the other in the Glens of Antrim.

Alternative methods of transport were being tried out. Elsewhere, the

more conventional travellers were taking it easy. Concentrating on the

road ahead of them. While others were taking the opportunity to grab

some spectacular pictures with their aerial drones. It doesn't matter

what colour your will is, it is all the same in this weather. And set to

continue with the forecast warning of subzero temperatures, freezing

fog and more ice on the way tonight. The former Prime Minister,

Tony Blair, has refused to appear before the Northern Ireland Affairs

Parliamentary Committee to answer questions on compensation

for victims of IRA attacks, carried out with

Libyan-supplied weapons. The DUP MP Gavin Robinson,

who's a member of the committee, said the decision was a snub

to IRA victims who were injured That was the news, now the weekend

weather forecast with Geoff Maskell. Good evening. A very cold night

tonight. In some rural areas, temperatures could be done as low as

-7 and below freezing just about everywhere. A real risk of icy

patches on the roads and some freezing fog. The Met Office has

issued a severe weather warning for ice, which remains in place all the

way through tonight and tomorrow morning. As we head into the

weekend, it will be a cold start, break for some before skies over. It

might take a while for the freezing fog to clear, especially across the

East of Northern Ireland. A bit of a battle between the cloud cover

moving in. It might see some bright spells for a time during the

morning. There are still some very strong winds, particularly along the

East coast of England. Where the skies are clearest, temperatures

climbing around six Celsius. We will not see much in the way of

brightness because we will get skies coding overhead of this front. That

will mainly fall as rain, but the possibility of sleet or snow over

high ground. The extra cloud cover means that temperatures tomorrow

night will not be as cold as tonight. Sunday, we have high

pressure over us, but in the main, it will trap some cloud over

Northern Ireland, still temperatures might creep up again to around 6 or

7. Milder than they have been. But not expecting much more in the way

of snow. But I wouldn't put away the double duvet just yet.

Our next BBC Newsline is at 5:50 tomorrow evening.

From all of us here, goodnight and have a great weekend.