31/10/2013 BBC Points West

the News of the World. That's all from the News at Six.

Good evening and welcome to BBC Points West. Our headlines tonight:

Why was he allowed to leave Britain? A convicted paedophile is arrested

in Cambodia after "buying" an 8`year`old boy.

The great tobacco scam ` a gang is in court for illegally importing

cheap cigarettes. This man's shock after his

mother`in`law's body is taken from hospital by the wrong undertaker. It

was just complete shock, because we didn't find out until ten days after

it had been removed. And Come Dine with Ed ` the Labour

leader in the West tonight for a ?50`a`head fundraiser. Good evening.

Questions are being asked tonight about how a convicted paedophile

from Stroud was able to travel to Cambodia days after being released

from prison. Richard Fruin was arrested in the country's capital on

Sunday, in a guesthouse. Police say he was with an 8`year`old boy. He

faces charges of purchasing a child for sex, and up to five years in

prison. Andrew Plant reports. Richard Fruin is a convicted sex

offender ` released early from prison this year. But these pictures

show his arrest just four days ago in a hotel room in Cambodia, and the

company, police say, of an eight`year`old boy. He was first

arrested in 2005 for making indecent images of children, but before

standing trial, he fled the country and was not seen again for seven

years. But on returning to the UK in 2012, she was arrested, and in

November last year, jailed for 2 months and added to the sex

offenders register. But when he was released this year, he again left

the country. It seems the last time he lived here was back in 2005,

shortly before he disappeared abroad. The eight years in between

seen to have is raised most traces, but then he started making headlines

again when he was identified in Cambodia for dumb act by an

organisation, which aims to stop sex offenders getting access to

children. Today, the director said they had been watching Richard Fruin

since he arrived. We identified him as a convicted sex offender from the

UK from some open source is, and we were also of the belief that he

would pose a great danger to Cambodian children, so we took very

fast action, I decided to inform the police right away, after we dusted

the De mac `` conducted the investigation, and we also told the

UK authorities so that we could coordinate. The local MP says there

are questions to answer about why he was able to travel abroad. We have

to think about the probation service and how he was treated well he was

released, and is as pro`important police have appropriate records

because at the end of the day, it is linkage between agencies in

situations like this that lets us down. UK law allows offenders to

serve up to half their sentence outside jail, but offenders released

early are rarely given permission to leave the country. Despite dozens of

phone calls to police and probation services today, it's still not clear

whether Fruin was legally free to travel abroad. He faces charges of

purchasing child prostitution and could face a sentence of up to five

years. Police in Bristol have charged 1

people in connection with the disorder at Ashton Gate last month.

Officers carried out dawn raids across the region yesterday, making

40 arrests. Trouble flared at the end of the derby match between

Bristol City and Bristol Rovers when some fans invaded the pitch.

The charges relate to criminal damage, assault and the throwing of

missiles. A GP from Wiltshire who was jailed

for 12 years after secretly filming female patients is to appeal against

his sentence. Davinderjit Bains pleaded guilty to 39 sexual offences

in May this year. He used concealed cameras in two watches and a clock

to film intimate examinations at his surgery in Royal Wootton Bassett. He

was struck off the medical register. He's now approached the Court of

Appeal in a bid to have his sentence reduced.

A woman was rescued from a river near Chepstow town centre in the

early hours of this morning. Police say she fell from the A48 bridge

between Chepstow and Sedbury in Gloucestershire. A lifeboat found

her in the River Wye and took her to an ambulance. She is now in a stable

condition at Frenchay hospital in Bristol.

Six men will be sentenced in December after admitting their

involvement in the sale of illegal tobacco in Gloucester worth tens of

thousands of pounds. The gang were caught several times selling the

cigarettes from a store in the city. Anti`smoking charities have

condemned the illegal trade, saying the cheaper prices encourage

children to smoke. Our Gloucestershire reporter, Steve

Knibbs, was in court. These are the cigarettes that we seized from the

shop over a ten month period. The haul is worth over ?120,000

It's thought much of it was smuggled in from the Far East, via Eastern

Europe. Some is genuine, but without the legal health warnings and

designed to be sold abroad, but much of it is fake. Whereas a general

packet of cigarettes, would be tested for the quantity of nicotine

and car, you really wouldn't know what was in these. It could be

anything. Following complaints from other shops in the city, Trading

Standards investigated a store in the centre of Gloucester, and

despite repeated warnings, staff there continued to sell illegal

tobacco. Surveillance pictures showed members of the gang

transferring the cigarettes into the shop. Some was hidden under a

display shelf of real cigarettes, some in a child's play house near to

the back of the store. As trading standards continually targeted the

shop, they had to come up with other ways to hide the stock, for example,

this television, which held up to 40 card and stomach cartoons ``

cartoons of illegal with obtained cigarettes. The offenders and this

case were partly exploiting demand. They have taken advantage of that.

They have taken advantage of the economic situation at the moment.

They have seen a way to make money. There is a lot of money to be made.

This case started by complaints in the area. Figures suggest that one

in ten cigarettes sold in the region are illegal. Obviously, they are not

selling as much as there `` as they were, and that is a concern. But

there are wider concerns ` that the availability and cost of the illegal

tobacco is attracting younger people to smoke. The price of cigarettes is

one of the things that motivates people to quit, so that is a

powerful one we would support. Smuggled tobacco undermines that

makes it cheaper. People still eat, Arquette start, that is a concern.

We have to do everything we can to help people quit and stop kids from

starting. Five men appeared in court today. Blund Tofiq, Jamal Mahmood,

Ari Ali Ahmed, Ako Ahmed and Najmadin Karim. They'll be sentenced

next month. Haitham Karim, who has also pleaded guilty, didn't turn up.

The court was told he may have fled the country and a warrant has been

issued for him. The tobacco seized will now be destroyed.

A Bristol hospital has been criticised for allowing a woman s

body to be collected by the wrong funeral directors ` without any

paperwork. Peter Williams says he was shocked to discover his

mother`in`law's body had been taken from the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

His MP has taken the issue to Parliament, calling for processes

around the release of bodies from hospitals to be tightened. Katy

Austin reports. Dealing with the death of a relative

is always hard, but Peter Williams suffered additional distress when

funeral directors turned up at the Bristol Royal Infirmary to collect

the body of his mother`in`law, Gertrude. They were told that the

body was already gone. It was just a complete shock, you know, because we

didn't find out until ten days after it had been removed. Another funeral

director had already taken away the body. Peter said he hadn't hired

them to do the job, and crucially, the BRI hadn't asked them for the

body release paperwork. Peter complained to Bristol's NHS

Foundation Trust, and they wrote back. They apologised and said they

would never normally give out a body to a funeral director without the

correct paperwork. They insist their procedures are robust and blame this

incident on individual error. I just didn't really accept it could be one

person's fault. When people are turning up with no paperwork, that's

a process fault, rather than just one individual's fault. The

Department for Health said there is no legal requirement for hospitals

to request release forms, but it expects processes to be in place for

the safe and appropriate release of bodies. Peter's MP thinks more needs

to be done. The Department of Health guidelines need clarifying so this

should not happen again to another family, and also, undertakers need

to take responsibility and make sure they have the correct paperwork

before they go to mortuaries to take away bodies of the deceased. The

health ombudsman is now looking into the case.

A father and son from Somerset have been fined over ?1,300 each after

admitting blocking badger setts on their farm and piping car exhaust

fumes into the earth to gas the animals inside. David and Philip

Bown said they did it after finding a sick badger on their land, which

they feared could pass bovine TB to their dairy herd. Zoe Gough reports

from Yeovil Magistrates' Court. Father and son, David and Philip

Bown both appeared before magistrates today, both cattle

farmers who both farmed at Batcombe Vale Farm near Shepton Mallet. The

court heard he had suffered an outbreak of TB in 2011, which

resulted in 54 of their dairy cows being put down. The cases self was

brought by the RSPCA. Both men admitted joint charges of wilfully

killing badgers and interfering with a badger set. The court awarded them

`` asked them both to pay one thousand ?375 each. Following the

verdict, and RSPCA officer gave me this reaction. I don't think the

defendants are bad people. They have been foolish in blocking the dog

badger setts and putting the hose pipes done it, but we are

sympathetic to the fact that they had TB, and they were desperate

So, overall, I'm happy with the sentence that the magistrate has

given out. The magistrate `` RSPCA officer also told me that had been

difficult in deciding how to proceed, but because of the serious

nature of the charges, they decided to bring it to court. He also

pointed out that with the following badger cull, he gave credit to the

two farmers for not having used that as an excuse, but simply saying that

it was down to their concerns for their own livestock.

Still to come: You're watching Points West with David and Alex on

this Halloween night. No tricks coming your way ` only treats,

including: Marching through Malmesbury. We meet the troops

charged with bringing everything home after more than a decade of

British forces in Afghanistan. And trouble for the Bluebirds `

Chippenham Town sack their manager after a 9`0 defeat, but he wasn t

even at the game. That's coming up. Win seats across the West, and we'll

win power in Westminster ` that s the message from Labour leader Ed

Miliband to supporters this evening. He's in Bristol for a gala

fundraising dinner. The party lost most of their MPs in the region at

the last general election, so what happens here will help decide

whether he becomes our next Prime Minister. Our political editor Paul

Barltrop joins us from Filton. Good evening, at this social club,

the dinner is about to get underway. The guest of honour is Ed

Miliband, who is on a whistle`stop tour around the area. The short time

ago, he was on the Southmead estate, popping into a cafe and meeting

people on low wages. Labour lost this area in the last general

election, so they are keen to get it back. They have selected candidates

in Bristol North West, but where I am talking to you in Filton and

Bradley Stoke, they haven't started selecting. It doesn't look like they

will come next year, and it is even worse in Kingswood extort, which is

a key target, but they have had a difficult time there. The candidate

this dumb act they selected was forced to step aside in an

embarrassing entity Dominic incident.

She was meant to be the next MP for Kingswood. But Josie Channer lasted

just three months as Labour's candidate ` forced out after

revelations she owed the London council on which she sits ?2,00 in

parking fines. Winning here often mirrors the national result. In the

'70s and '90s, Labour took it as they ousted the Conservatives from

government. One of their former MPs, today a local councillor, is unhappy

at the way the recent selection was run. Well, I think it was

embarrassing, because due diligence wasn't done by the officials of the

Labour Party to make sure that the candidates are all kosher, shall we

say? I'll go no further than that. But I did think at the time, and I

still think, that Kingswood is best represented by people who are local.

To boost morale, Ed Miliband's visited several key seats. This was

Stroud, their top target in the West. Here and elsewhere, they've

made some gains in council elections, but the 2015 general

election is still a daunting challenge. You always get issues

with candidates that emerge. I think she did the right thing by standing

down, and we will select a new candidate soon, but I'm very, very

confident that when people hear what we're talking about, on the

substance of our issues, and when people see the representatives for

Labour with fresh ideas about how we can turn things round for them,

people will respond to our message. Today it was Bristol. Next time he

comes West, it may be Gloucester or Swindon, as Ed Miliband looks for a

way into Downing Street. The demo should be getting underway

shortly, and they're expecting 00 guests around this earth De mac

Southwest, as far south as Dorset. They are paying ?50 per head,

raising money for the party and Ed Miliband open to abuse their

morale. His evening will be a long one, because after he leaves, he is

setting Dominic Headington Bristol to meet cleaners and talk about the

living wage. Consultants at the Bristol Eye

Hospital say that a new private clinic is helping them to treat

patients on the NHS. The Bristol Laser Vision is run privately, but

its facilities are leased to the NHS Trust so patients can access the

latest technology without having to travel to London. Here's Jules Hyam.

For almost three years, this was how Melissa Werret saw the world `

through blinking, painful, streaming eyes, blurring her vision as one eye

filled with liquid. A small part of her cornea had become damaged after

she got a tiny piece of plastic stuck in her eye. I could wake up in

the morning, going, I really need to get to work, but I cannot drive into

work. It was very problematic, and when I am at work, you can't really

see the screen or when you are in meetings. It is very embarrassing.

Melissa's pain and embarrasment are now at an end because of this piece

of kit. If it looks high`tech, that's because it is. These

different devices help to analyse the audience, and build up a 3`D

picture, and how to use them `` the laser. It has been great, it has

been life changing. You don't realise how much you rely on your

fishing until something goes wrong with it, and how painful something

like that can be, until it happens to you. So to not have that pain and

to hopefully be reassured that that is done going to come back, `` not

going to come back, is brilliant. We are able to treat patients with the

most advanced technology that we weren't able to before. It used to

be that patients were referred by the private companies, but not any

more. But now, by leasing the equipment from a private clinic NHS

patients can get that treatment here.

A ship which helped rescue thousands of soldiers from the beaches of

Dunkirk left the Bristol Docks this afternoon after undergoing a major

restoration. The Medway Queen was originally intended to be a pleasure

cruiser before being enlisted into service in the Second World War She

fell into disrepair and has recently been completely rebuilt here in

Bristol. The paddle steamer is today being towed to Cornwall, before

eventually going on display in Kent. Sad to see her go! Bon voyage!

Now, as British forces prepare to scale back operations in Afghanistan

by the end of 2014, thoughts are very much turning to homecomings and

medal ceremonies. Yesterday, we were in Tidworth with Royal Electrical

and Mechanical Engineers and today it was the turn of the nine Theatre

Logistic Regiment in Malmesbury These are the men and women who are

actually in charge of making sure all the kit and supplies come home `

no easy job, as Laura Lyon has been finding out.

It's the long road back from Afghanistan. As British forces scale

back their presence in the country, soldiers from the West have been

involved in the huge operation to bring equipment to the UK. Nine

Theatre Logistic Regiment paraded through Malmesbury this lunchtime to

celebrate their return from a six` month tour based in Camp Bastion.

The regiment has been working as part of the Larger Theatre Logistics

group in Afghanistan. Now, they ve am working to bring back all the kit

the UK forces have been using in Afghanistan. It's been described as

the biggest logistical enterprise since the Second World War. British

Troops were once based in over 30 locations across Afghanistan, so

salvaging everything down to these brass ammunition casings, which will

be resold in Britain, is of vital importance. Everything has to be

checked so no bugs or infections will be brought back to the UK. Some

really important equipment, vehicles, communications equipment,

surveillance systems, weapons, all of that will be brought back the

United Kingdom, and we need to make sure that we account for it

properly, that we prepare it, clean it, that we have the correct

paperwork, and are prepared for any future training or operations.

Recognition back here of their hard work is an added bonus for many of

the troops. I think it's really overwhelming to look around and see

how many people have taken time out of their day to stand and watch what

we're doing and take an interest, really. It's sort of like the end.

You've done the job, got the medal, that's that chapter done now. And

for the soldiers, their families and friends, the formalities mark the

beginning of a two`month break to spend time together. And a very warm

welcome home. Now, a question for you.

What's the worst thing that's happened to you while you've been

away? Maybe you forgot to stop the milk or lock the garage? Or someone

forgot to feed the cat? Now we need to make it clear that the Manager of

Chippenham Town Football Club was given permission to go on holiday `

but the score line in his absence couldn't have been any worse. Here's

Tracey Miller. He's the manager who was told he

could go away, and now he has been asked not to come back. While Steve

Winter was in Egypt, his chairman was in the stands. While Steve was

relaxing, his team was falling apart. From our point of view, the

match fell down when we lost two players in the first 15 minutes It

just felt that some of the guys had lost their spirit, and heads were

done. We should have had everyone back behind the goal, and that

wasn't happening. The goalkeeper was left vulnerable. Against the team as

good as Stourbridge, who are going to stuff, and deeply intimate and

made us pay. The results, Chippenham Town ` zero, Stourbridge, nine. When

I read the papers, I thought, no, it will be a pub team or something like

that. 9`0, that is incredible. And then when I saw the manager was

away, I don't think they should have sacked him, really, it was when he

is the they don't lose 9`0! Maybe it was because he was on holiday!

Disappointing. We should have done much better. Yeah, obviously teams

have bad days, but no one should ever lose 9`0. But Chippenham Town

dead, and it has cost the manager his job. I contacted Steve Winter,

he is still on holiday. I wanted to see if he had any comments what has

happened, but understandably, he said, no thanks. Now the chairman

and the team are looking for their third manager this season. The next

game is on Saturday, are we to Bognor Regis. `` are we to Bognor

Regis. Children in Need is now just over

two weeks away. As you can see, Pudsey is already flying in, ready

for action. Friday November the 15th is the date for your diary, so

there's still plenty of time to think about all those fundraising

ideas. On the night, Alex and I will be at one of the West's most

historic and beautiful locations. Here's The Great British Bake Off's

Mary Berry with more. Children in Need is coming to the

Roman baths in Bath, which is my home town. If you're thinking about

raising money for children in need, why don't you have a bake sale? You

needn't be A* baker, and it won t matter if there are soggy bottoms.

Pudsey won't mind. Just raise money by having a bake sale, and all that

money will go to Children in Need. There's still time to get your

fundraising pack. Head to the website for details. Please do let

us know what you're up to. Let's take a look at the weather. What has

it been like today? take a look at the weather. What has

it been It's been dry and then wet, at least do the course of the

evening, and it will continue to be the case as we run through tonight

and tomorrow. Rhodri similar, albeit that some of you will see more of in

others will stop it certainly won't be homogenous. For the broader

outlook, we could summarise it is generally extensively cloudy with

patchy rain for some, but to particularly in the south, more

persistent rain. The broader look at things is showing this very

fragmented affair of showery rain cost the West Country, and it will

be more of that as we head through tonight. Tomorrow, despite some

drier phases, who will always be some light rain in the central slice

of the West Country, but towards the south, the threat of somewhat

heavier rain. At the moment, we have some showery outbreaks of rain

across South Gloucestershire and elsewhere, with dire slots

elsewhere, this oscillation of wet and dry going through the night

with always some cloud. Temperatures will be much of a likeness, about

seven Celsius or eight Celsius. Tomorrow, we start with we left off

the evening tonight. Dry for the first part of the morning, but then

the reintroduction of rain, and there will be a sandwich, if you

like, of heavy rain in the South where we have Met Office yellow

warning from the day, and further north, some heavier rain up towards

parts of Wales, and the likes of Bristol, the rain will be

intermittent. Temperatures tomorrow again much of a likeness wherever

you are, not much more than a creep is `` than the degree's difference.

A later start to Saturday, with some fog, which will bring in some windy

and wet weather through the course of the afternoon, and through the

evening on Saturday, it will remain a decidedly windy story with some

significant swirls up through the Bristol Channel. Some big waves

unsure. You have to bear this in mind for Saturday evening for

fireworks displays. There you can see there will be more heavier rain

on Sunday into Monday. You're quite right.

Worth keeping in mind. If you switch over to BBC Two now, there's more

with Mary Berry on the Great British Bake Off Masterclass at seven. I saw

a bit of that last night. It was really good. We'll be back at 1 pm.

Goodbye. Planet Earth - it's unique.

It has life. To understand why, we're going to

build a planet...up there.