08/07/2014 BBC Wales Today

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The Welsh Government Environment Minister Alun Davies has been

He asked his civil servants to dig up private information to smear

In ill-tempered exchanges at First Minister's Question Time, the

I find the answer deeply offensive because your minister was trying to

seek information to cause political damage to individuals

First Minister, since your judgement on these issues has been so very

flawed, surely now is the time to accept that we need independent

The sacked minister Alun Davies was already in the dog house over

his lobbying to build a race track in his constituency.

Tonight serious questions over the First Minister Carwyn Jones'

A man goes on trial in Newport accused of murdering six-week-old

The family of Alec MacLachlan, kidnapped and killed by Iraqi

militants, tell us in their first interview an apology from the group

We can't accept his apology, our boy is dead.

And we're with Welsh Police in Crete as they search new sites

Sunshine and Caribbean music in north Wales can only mean one thing

- the return of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod.

Sacked from his job as Welsh Government Environment Minister -

Alun Davies is tonight getting used to life back on the back benches.

He asked his civil servants to obtain

personal financial information about his political opponents which

He was already on final warning after using

his position to lobby for a racing circuit in his constituency,

Last week, he had to apologise for that.

Now, this latest behaviour got him fired.

Here's our political editor, Nick Servini.

And it has been called an attempt by Alun Davies to find out how much

many five opposition assembly members involved in farming received

in subsidies. They were Andrew RT Davies, his colleague Antoinette

Sandbach, Llyr Griffiths, Kirsty Williams and her partner. The e-mail

sent back said: Aled Davies had asked for this

information early on Wednesday morning. The night before he had

just about kept his job after breaking the ministerial code for

lobbying for a motor racing circuit in his constituency. He was forced

to apologise. The first Minister commissioned an

enquiry to establish the relevant facts and he concluded that I did in

fact reach some specific elements of the ministerial code. I have already

apologised to the first Minister and would like to do so again.

Asked me -- last week they stuck together but this time there was no

such support. He said his Minister's behaviour was

unacceptable and he sacked him. It was a bad-tempered session of first

Minister 's questions. Do you now regret not slacking Aled

Davies last week? And does that not speak volumes about a severe lapse

in judgement on your part? You have taken eight questions on

this subject today and not a word of regret has passed your lips. You

haven't passed on an apology to anyone of the five members of the

chamber through the information was stored by your minister. You are

responsible for the actions of your minister and you often tell us this.

Would you use this opportunity to extend an apology to the five

members of this chamber whose information was sought by this

minister when he was in your government?

Yes, because it is wrong that ministers should ask for

confidential information. For one of them, the information was in the

public domain. Matt has got personal when the first

Minister tried to attack the Tory leader.

Where was the last week when we were ready to meet the Prince of Wales?

He did not turn up and didn't give an explanation.

My apology was extended to the organisers. I was ill on Thursday. I

was also dealing with a stroke that my mother-in-law had just had the

night before. Emotions have been running high over

this throughout the day. Many thought Aled Davies had survived the

racetrack row but as they say, a week is a long time in politics.

The sacked minister has a colourful and a controversial career.

Once upon a time he supported Plaid Cymru before switching to Labour.

Our Environment correspondent Iolo ap Dafydd on the

Environment Minister never afraid to clash with farmers.

Alun Davies has become known in farming and conservation circles as

a bullish, straight talking minister - even controversial at times.

Since being appointed as minister for Natural Resources

and Food last year, he's repeated a stern message to farming

There were some things we agreed with but also quite a few things we

disagreed with, particularly the 15% pillar transfer at the beginning of

the year from single payment to the IDP fund. There was also the issue

of vaccinating badgers in Pembrokeshire when we felt the

previous government were going ahead to coal.

During the past year, he clashed with farmers often.

During the spring of last year, after some farmers in mid

and north Wales lost animals during the heavy snow, it took a while

But his response and Natural Resources Wales during last

Less critical too are the conservations groups in Wales,

who believe he did care for the environment.

The issues that he was passionate about the really fought for, such as

the restoration of blogs in Wales, getting the nature fund to put ?6

million back into halting the loss of biodiversity.

Before becoming a politician he was a lobbyist and a public relations

manager for a variety of companies including Hyder, S4C and also ran

Before switching to the Labour Party he twice stood for Plaid Cymru,

By the 2005 general election he stood for Labour in Ceredigion,

and two years later he secured the mid and west Wales seat

as an assembly member. He then stood and was elected as the assembly

During that time he was appointed Deputy Minister for Agriculture.

After that Alun Davies became Minister for Natural Resources

and Food before the new environment service was introduced last year.

Fred-mack He is a particularly robust character. He is bright and

sure of himself and he doesn't mind getting into scrapes. The plus side

of that if he is a minister who knows his mind and gets his way. I

think that is a good thing because he is not a creature of the civil

service. The flip side of that, he sometimes flies too close to the

sun. And that's been obvious

in his public and personal life. Nine years ago he famously had

an altercation with the actor In his ministerial role he's hit

the headlines on numerous occasions including

the reports of a relationship with The timing of his sacking,

just before the Royal Welsh Show is similar to when Christine Gwyther

was asked to go in 2000. Back then, Carwyn Jones became

the new Agriculture Minister - Alun Davies though will now sit

on the Assembly's back benches. We asked the First Minister

Carwyn Jones for an interview. Neither was Alun Davies's successor,

Edwina Hart. Aled Davies has not been speaking to

the media but if he does, we will bring you the interview as soon as

we get it. -- Aled Davies. We were told the first Minister was

disappointed and angry and you could understand that in the context of

what happened last week. The report showing that he broke the

ministerial code gave the first Minister enough after sacking last

week but he stuck with him and gave him a lifeline. You can imagine how

he must have felt after seeing that e-mail which, incidentally, was

released to us by the US government today, shoving that within an hour

of being back on work -- back in work on Wednesday morning, he asked

the officials for the information that subsequently led to him getting

the sack. Of all the criticisms that Carwyn Jones would have faced today,

I would have thought the most harmful is calling into question

that judgement call which he made as first minister a week ago.

People don't usually use the word dramatic about proceedings about

this place but today was a dramatic day towards the end of the political

tone. First Minister 's questions got very

nasty, as we saw earlier. Kind of, in a way it was similar to the big

debates we have seen about the state of the NHS. Carwyn Jones wasn't in a

real mood to be contrite about it. At one stage he was taunting Leanne

Wood and going on the attack with Andrew RT Davies, which blew up in

his face when it's turned out that he was unable to make a royal visit

because of genuine concerns. I think all of this is reflective of the

very personal element that came in today and something we haven't seen

in previous resignations and sackings.

We were supposed to be talking about local currencies reorganisation

today. -- local council reorganisation today.

The narrative they wanted with the start of the lawmaking process that

will see a huge reduction in the number of councils, the largest

reforms we would have seen since the start of devolution. A day like

today means that the Welsh government will need to regain the

initiative on that huge issue as we go into this summer.

More on the sacking of Alun Davies later - first the rest

A man has gone on trial at Newport Crown Court,

charged with the murder of his girlfriend's six-week-old baby.

Alfie Sullock, died of head injuries and extensive bleeding to the brain.

Six-week-old Alfie Sullock, a healthy happy baby,

loved by his mother Donna from Fairwater in Cardiff.

But in August last year Donna allowed her new boyfriend

Michael Pearce to babysit at his home in Nelson so she could have her

But just over an hour after she left little Alfie

in Pearce's care he suffered what would prove to be fatal injuries.

Prosecuting Counsel Michael Maher Lees told the jury here at

Newport Crown Court that in all probability the defendant had beaten

him with a shoe or sandal and with the bottom of a plastic bottle.

He said there was distinctive match pattern with the sole

of that shoe and with bruising on the baby's body.

He inflicted injuries that were to end that baby?s life, he said.

The baby was initially taken to hospital in Merthyr

but transferred to the University Hospital in Cardiff where

The court heard the preliminary cause of death was blunt trauma

The court heard how Michael Pearce had been texting Donna Sullock

saying the baby was fine just four minutes before he called

The jury heard a tape recording of the 999 call in which Mr Pearce

is attempting to give Alfie mouth to mouth resuscitation

In later police interviews he could give no explanation

He denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter

Officers from North Wales Police are searching new sites on the island

of Crete in an effort to find missing pensioner Arthur Jones.

Detectives say their Greek counterparts are doing everything

possible to locate the missing 73-year-old but

the search will have to be scaled if no new leads come to light.

This was Arthur Jones on Remembrance Sunday in Denbigh in 2003. He served

with the first Battalion Royal Welsh Regiment. It is no surprise to the

proud former servicemen visited this Memorial Cemetery. His name was in

the visitor book. Some who signed the register on the same day have

already contacted the police but it hasn't yet led to any new leads. We

now offer Jones signed the guestbook here on the 18th of June. There was

a possible sighting of him on the 25th of June here, the day after he

was meant to fly home. It is one of a number of possible sighting of the

police are looking into. Another of those possible sightings was on a

peninsula to the West. Its areas are of interest to the team who

travelled from North Wales. We had a good meeting with the Greek police

and I have been talking with the family, doing missing person

questionnaires, which is about profiling. This search now needs to

be intelligence led so we need to know a lot about the person. I have

been building a profile and spending time with the family, developing the

profile so we can anticipate what he might do in different circumstances.

We are developing the scenarios in terms of searching, we can

anticipate what he might do given a certain circumstance. Standing on

the peninsula give someone a rough idea of the mammoth task facing the

search teens looking for that proverbial needle in a haystack. We

met with the brilliant year -- with the brigadier in charge of the

search. They are being very extensive with a very senior level

he's in charge. Arthur Jones flew to Crete because he loved the outdoors.

It is that very to rain that is making it difficult to find him. The

brigadier said the search will continue but they are scaling down

their efforts. His family haven't given up. They are hanging on

because they still have hope. Your apologies mean nothing -

tell us who killed our son. That's the message tonight

from the family of Alec MacLachlan Yesterday,

we reported how the leader of the Shia militia who killed him

and three other bodyguards said he was sorry but blamed the deaths

on the British government. Tonight, in their first interview

since Alec's death, his family talk Helen and Colin Maclachlan are

still living through a nightmare. Their son Alec was kidnapped

and murdered seven years ago while working as a bodyguard for

a private security firm in Iraq. Yesterday Sheik al-Khazali -

the leader of the group which killed him and 3 of

his colleagues apologised - but it's no comfort to Alec's family, and

today they appealed for justice. It makes us very sad to be honest

that you've got four guys who died Their lives have been

absolutely wasted, young boys. I want him to give us

the information or give the British government the information to bring

the perpetrators to justice, We've suffered for seven years, it's

destroyed our family to be honest. This is the last picture taken

of Alec Maclachlan with his son Now aged ten,

he doesn't remember his father. It's very difficult you know, the

day they brought Alec's body back to Lyenham and we had to go into the

chapel of rest with Kyle, and that was the worst day of my life and I

remember Hailey telling daddy that he couldn't see Daddy but Daddy

could see him, heartbreaking. The Iraqi authorities are leading

the murder investigation. But the political landscape

has changed since 2007. Al-Khazali's group - the League of

the Righteous - are now a powerful political and military force siding

with the Iraqi government If the government now is reliant

on Khazali and his group, are we ever going to

find out or bring these people to justice? It doesn't suit them now to

continue the investigation. Colin MacLachlan there,

ending that report. The jury in the case

of a man accused of shooting his wife in Newport has

been sent home for another night. Caroline Parry was shot in

the back near her home last August. Christopher Parry was found

critically wounded nearby. He denies murder

but has admitted manslaughter. The chair of Wales' largest health

board has described a ?200,000 payoff to a former chief

executive as value for money. Dr Peter Higson, who chairs the

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in North Wales, told AMs that

the departure of Mary Burrows, could have become "more protracted"

had a settlement not been reached. The payment was part

of up to ?470,000 paid by the Health Most schools in Newport have

decided to close when the Nato The Celtic Manor is hosting

the event which will bring together 60 world leaders at

an estimated cost of ?50 million. Protests are expected to take place,

but police say there are no plans Organisers of the Llangollen

International Eisteddfod say they hope the festival's fortunes are

on a firmer footing than in recent There have been concerns

about difficulties in competitors getting visas to

travel to this year's festival, Matthew Richards is there

for us tonight. Despite the friendly atmosphere,

competition is fierce at Llangollen but this year the toughest battle

was getting here in the first place. Staff here are used to dealing with

these problems but said this year has been particularly bad. It has

been quite infuriating. There is an Indian dance group that have been

coming for years was never any problems. They come and perform and

they are very popular with the audience. This year, the dancers

have been given visas but they are musicians have been refused. So the

dancers have come but they will have to dance to pre-recorded music. That

is not allowed in the syllabus so therefore, although they will

perform, they cannot compete. These young dancers from Zimbabwe had a

smooth journey. It was quite easy because we had everything in place,

the acceptance letters. The guys here have been very supportive and

every document we needed, they have had in place. We didn't face many

challenges. From closer to home, Wrexham FC players took to a field

other than the racecourse to join the flag-waving. Now in its 68th

year, the Eisteddfod has been doing its bit for fellow senior citizens.

Numbers of the orchestra have been working with a care home to show the

medical benefits of music. It is an enormous impact on their well-being.

They engage more, they talk about it afterwards and it has a massive

impact on their lives. What we aim to do is bring enrichment to people

's lives. At first glance, there were many splashes of international

colour, as always. The parade through the town is a few flags

short on previous years. When Colin's welcome remains warm.

It has been an active day and we have seen reports of hail in

Swansea. Which, through tonight and we can look forward to something

drier and maybe some sunshine before sunset. Here is the radar showing

the extent of the showers. It did start off dry but the showers perked

up and some heavy ones, with the green across parts of made in South

Wales, where we had thunder. Much of that has cleared south eastwards.

Through tonight the showers will clear away and it will be dry with

clear spells. It will feel a touch cooler in the countryside.

Temperatures in the towns and cities between nine and 13 Celsius but in

those rural areas getting down to perhaps six or seven Celsius. The

pressure showing a weak ridge bringing settled conditions with it

but notice the two weather systems coming in from the east and west,

that will bring with it some unsettled conditions through

Thursday and Friday. Tomorrow is probably the best day of the week.

We can look forward to plenty of dry conditions and sunshine as well. We

might see a little bit of cloud bubbling up through the afternoon,

making the Centro hazy, but essentially it is dry and breezy

along coastal areas with temperatures between 17 Celsius and

21 Celsius in Cardiff. Through tomorrow night another quiet night

with clear skies overnight. Remaining dry with a bit of cloud in

parts of the West but for the majority of us, it is starry skies.

The winds light into Thursday morning. On Thursday we will see

that were different poaching parts of the East, bringing some cloud.

Much of the rain will stay in England with just some showers for

parts of the north-east and powerless. We can enjoy the rest of

the dry weather for the West. We have got brisk north-westerly winds

as well. Heading into Friday, we have got outbreaks of rain at times

and it will start to feel rather humid by the time we get to Friday

and Saturday. Outbreaks of light rain will play on Saturday and we

can look forward to some sunshine through the start of the weekend. By

Saturday afternoon there is the risk of showers and remaining unsettled

for the end of the weekend. Warmer for the end of the week. The best

day of the week probably on Wednesday.

The Environment Minister, Alun Davies, has been sacked after

asking civil servants to obtain personal financial information

about his political opponents that he would then use to smear them.

Let?s talk to our Welsh affairs editor, Vaughan Roderick.

Just how damaging is this? It is pretty damaging. Let's look at

the political context. Carwyn Jones has been a Teflon politician like

Rhodri Morgan before him, remaining popular in Wales more or less

whatever happens. That has started to change and over the last year or

so there has been a slow but steady drift downwards for Labour in the

polls, especially when it comes to assembly voting intentions. That is

because of the Pisa results in education, the attacks on the

stewardship of the health service and particularly the attacks from

the Labour MP Ann Clwyd. The Teflon Carwyn Jones is beginning to show

bits of rust. Privately MPs are saying he just wants to be picking

of Wales, that he is lazy. He has got counsellors who aren't happy

with his plans for local government reorganisation. The Teflon is

wearing out. And it doesn't do much for public

confidence in politicians, does it? Know, and part of the problem is

that party organisations are weakening. The head offices they had

to do research work, they have laid off a lot of people so the

temptation for them to use a civil servant or special adviser to elicit

information about the opponents, the temptation is there. Aled Davies --

Alun Davies walked over the line. He then asked twice. He didn't do it

once, he did it twice. That was a few hours after being reprimanded

for breaking the ministerial code. And all of this with election

campaigns on the horizon. Just ten months until the next

general election and 22 months until the next assembly election. The

Welsh government had a planned grade of announcements for these couple of

weeks before the summer. That has been thrown out of the window,

really. All the narrative that they were planning to rule out over the

coming weeks, you can forget it. Everything for the week or so and

likely right up to the summer recess is going to be about Alun Davies.

Opposition parties won't let this go.

Thank you. When they built this place they said

it would be different to Westminster - the walls made of glass,

transparent politics where we could Tonight we've all had a good hard,

long, look and as one opposition politician said it

looks pretty grubby. Thank you for watching from all

of us on the programme, good night.