17/03/2016 BBC Wales Today

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Welcome to Wales Today. Tonight's headlines.

It was abuse that spanned decades at children's homes in north Wales.

The latest review finds no evidence that

We are talking about dark and shameful events that are a stain on

our nation. These were children in the care of the state because they

were abominable, and the state let them down. -- were vulnerable.

Tonight, we hear from one victim who says the review was

Also tonight. A bill that could have seen

a partial ban on e-cigarettes. The First Minister says

Plaid Cymru voting against it was "childish".

The idea was to build a better system of policing -

but concern tonight that many of us don't know enough about

the Police and Crime Commissioner's role.

It was called the Cardiff City Asylum

Now hopes a new facility will revolutionize mental health care.

The row over calling one of Wales' players "Gypsy Boy" goes on.

The England head coach criticises the WRU -

suggesting its stance over the controversy

at the Waterhouse inquiry was tasked with looking again

into historical child abuse in north Wales, following fresh allegations.

Today, the Macur review was published and found no evidence that

politicians or national establishment figures were involved.

It said there was no reason to doubt the inquiry's conclusions.

The Welsh Secretary told the Commons that the long-awaited review

into the Waterhouse Inquiry found it had fulfilled its remit

into exploring a tragic period of Welsh history.

We are talking about dark, shameful events that are stain on our nation.

These were children in the care of the state because they were

abominable, and at the state let them down, the main founding of the

two was that she had found no findings to undermine Waterhouse in

respect of the scale and nature of the abuse.

Lady Justice Macur was asked to carry out her review

She even heard evidence in Wrexham to discover what,

if anything, was missed by Sir Ronald Waterhouse's inquiry.

Started in 1997, it contained 700 allegations of abuse

Commissioner for Wales. was the creation of a Children's

Today I am thinking of the victims of the North Wales scandals. They

need to be heard, they need to have justice, but also we need to make

sure that children today are kept safe and that if there are victims

that the we are able to respond to them properly and they get justice.

The Waterhouse report also found that a paedophile ring existed

but it said the inquiry had had seen no evidence

that prominent public figures were involved.

However, fresh claims resurfaced in 2012 when Steven Meesham,

a survivor of abuse, gave a Newsnight interview which led

wrongly to the naming of former senior Tory Lord McAlpine

as an offender, something that was later retracted.

broadened its scope. the Macur report should have

To see that the Waterhouse inquiry was not too narrow was an outrageous

statement. It did not go as far as Liverpool and Manchester, South

Wales, and air in mind people like myself who were abused in those

places, we were still in the care of Clwyd, and they were not able to

investigate that. Lady Justice Macur highlighted

concerns about the way relevant documents were stored and in some

cases destroyed - though that was

an innocent mistake by Welsh

government contractors she said. But for many who endured abuse

at children's homes in North Wales this review isn't the

conclusion they hoped for. Survivors, as many like to

describe themselves. They've included some

of the harshest critics Hundreds did tell their stories

there but many kept away only speaking out now to the

Operation Pallial National Crime Agency

investigation. Roger Pinney, who has followed this

story since the 1990s, It was supposed to draw a line

under the whole affair. Sir Ronald Waterhouse investigating

claims of abuse that dogged the care On the 21st January, 1997,

the first public hearings For 201 days, we sat here listening

to the evidence from abuse victims, from those who were said

to have done the abuse. To encourage the abusers

to give their evidence, they were even granted

immunity from prosecution. Convicted paedophile

John Allen was one. The owner of the Bryn

Alan care home. He simply stuck to his story

that it was all lies. To be honest I felt that it was just

me when it came out, I never knew anything different.

Many abuse survivors lost their trust in authority.

As a 12-year-old, he was plucked from the South Wales valleys

and sent to a children's home in Wrexham.

He didn't tell Waterhouse what happened to him.

What's the point of me standing up, saying anything to anybody?

When nobody's going to listen, anyway?

Doesn't matter whether you had ten, ten of them at that time,

it wouldn't have made any difference.

26 of his victims gave evidence

Sir Ronald Waterhouse was proud of his inquiry.

But he did make it clear it was never meant to be

Perhaps that's why so many have always felt

Malcolm King, a former social services chair in Clywd,

points to current, successful prosecutions of historical abuse.

The Pallial Inquiry now, having had lots and lots of people

well over 100, with scores of allegations about

and more and more people being prosecuted and convicted

in court, clearly says there were lots of things

Now, some of that, you could say people were not ready to come

forward, and so on, but a lot of it, you have to question,

Victims expected so much more. This man wishes to remain anonymous.

He was abused at the Bryn Alan care home.

His words are spoken by a member of our production team.

They wrote down everything what I told him.

They went away with that statement, leaving me thinking

that they were going to act on it. And do something about it.

And they've done absolutely nothing about it.

You know, the guy wasn't even spoken to until three years ago.

I thought it was an actual inquiry, that people were going to get

charged and convicted and may e imprisoned for what they had

done to children. But it was never done.

We were targets, we were sweets in a candy shop to paedophiles

There have been a string of them over the years.

For the victims, the horror of this has never gone away.

Our political correspondent Daniel Davies joins me from Westminster.

How's the review been received there?

MPs on all sides have been paying tribute to the victims, many of whom

waited decades to be heard. Some of them took their own lives before

that happened. Labour MPs have been asking questions about the names

that have been withheld or redacted from this report. Those are concerns

shared by the blade coming MP, Liz Saville Roberts. There are a

combination of issues about this report as it comes out now, with all

of these names being concealed, of names being held back. That is what

redaction means. Alongside the jaw-dropping announcement that a

database, the evidence of the database was so corrupted that it

was destroyed IE IT consultants in 2008. Those things they together,

the red actions, the destruction of information, means that there will

be more questions about whether we will get to the bottom of what

happened in these care homes. The government accept criticism on

record-keeping and says that were names are redacted it is done to

protect victims and police inquiries, and the Secretary of

State Stephen Crabb says that those reductions are crucial because as we

heard tonight, many victims have lost faith in the system what they

want to see is justice. He said that there have been prosecutions and

more are likely to take place. A full unredacted version of the Lady

Macur report will be read by another judge leading the UK- wide inquiry

into child abuse, which means that this review is unlikely to be the

last word in what was described today as "A dark chapter" in Welsh

history. First Minister Carwyn Jones says

he has never seen anything as childish as the behaviour

of Plaid Cymru - after it helped defeat a proposed ban

on e-cigarettes in public places. Plaid withdrew its support

when a Labour minister described a previous deal between the two

parties as a "cheap date". The parties have been accused

of playing political games Our political editor

Nick Servini has the latest. Labour called it theatre and

disagreement in the chamber. Played calmly called it belittling and

sexist. Yesterday's exchange certainly had consequences, as the

public Health Bill fell at the final hurdle. At the time I thought they

were a rather cheap date. Labour went on the attack, claiming that

years of work had been wasted as a result of an overreaction which,

they said, showed that played Camry were unfit to govern. -- cloud Camp

Nou. You could not say that it was mature

politicians prepared to make decisions on behalf of the people of

Wales. The former leader of cloud Cymru said he'd betrayed by his

party's opposition but overall, he said they felt United in taking a

stand. There was an assumption by Labour that they could depend on the

support of those members. It was an arrogant assumption in relation to a

controversial and, in my view, bad legislation, and that is why Labour

themselves jeopardised this bill. Labour and cloud Cymru have been

coalition partners in the past. Many believe that some kind of future

deal could be on the cards after the assembly elections. But this has

been a notch above the usual political knock-about. And the

question is how realistic that could be after such a bruising 24 hours. I

running out the details of the public Health Bill took five years.

The proposal to ban the use of e-cigarettes in some public places

what all the headlines. But it would also have created a compulsory

licensing system for tattooists and acupuncturists, and require councils

to ride more public toilets. Doctors and nursing unions like the DMA and

royal poll of nursing called on all parties not to play games with the

health of the nation. Their disappointment that time had run out

for the bill was shared by the owner of this tattoo parlour, who

supported greater regulation. At the moment, tattooing is on a

registration system and basically anybody can get registered. You

could get registered tomorrow. There is no minimum standards, no training

standards, and what we were hoping for was a tighter licensing system

which would have had a minimum standard and possibly hygiene

training before they are allowed to be licensed. A number of cancer

charities had opposed plans to ban the use of e-cigarettes because they

felt it helped discourage smoking. For them, the defeat last night was

welcomed. One of the things that we have actively spoken out against has

been the restrictions based on -- placed on e-cigarettes. We were

really quite concerned about the impact of putting electronic

cigarette users out with smokers in certain situations. Today, no word

from Leighton Andrews on his use of the term, cheap date. The only

reaction got on that was on Carwyn Jones who said that the public

services Minister had his time again, he would have said things

"It's time for a change" - differently.

the message from the Welsh Conservatives as they launched

their campaign for the Assembly election in Cardiff earlier today.

The Tories say they're the only party that offers a real alternative

to what they say has been 17 years of Labour failure in running Wales.

Our political reporter, James Williams, has more.

Kick-off for the Welsh Conservatives. With just under two

months to go until the Assembly Election, this is the team they hope

will be running Wales. After 17 years of bad results in government,

it is time to relegate Labour to the backbenches, they say. According to

the party leader, the Conservatives are the only alternative. We have

crafted out policy positions unique to the Welsh Conservatives such as

protecting the health budget and driving forward excellent and

education, dignity and security in old age and 30 hours of free

childcare, and it is only the Welsh Conservatives that can give that

security of real change. Labour's failure in running Wales was a

prominent narrative in the Tories' election campaign last year. It led

to their best election result in Wales in 30 years, a useful

springboard, they say, for the Welsh Assembly elections. Technically, if

we got all of those Conservative voters out in this election we could

win an outright majority. At the assembly level, the Conservatives

have increased the number of seats in Cardiff they in every single

election since the start of devolution in 1999 and they are now

the official opposition, but becoming a party of government will

be a much harder challenge. One issue that might potentially make

things more difficult for the Conservatives this year is that we

are seeing is let's in the Conservative Party on the EU

referendum. We don't know how that is going to impact on the

Conservative Party support here in Wales. It is quite possible that

there could actually hurt them. Our focus will remain on the Assembly

Election until the vote on made up with, say the Welsh Conservatives.

But for their team-mates in Westminster, domestic concerns might

play second fiddle to Europe. More like a hotel, than a hospital -

claims this new, state of the art facility will revolutionise mental

health care. And so far this month

is colder and drier than average. But how much longer will the high

pressure last They control of millions

of pounds of funding yet the vast majority of people

in Wales don't know who they are. In Police and Crime Commissioner

elections in 20-12, only 15%

of us turned out to vote. Elections take place

again on the 5th May. Gwent Commissioner Ian Johnston

is warning more needs to be done to make people aware of the role,

as he prepares to stand down. Paul Heaney has been

speaking to him. The idea was to build a better

system, listen to what local people want. Meet our Chief Constable, the

person in charge of running your police force day to day, ultimately

responsible for investigating crime, arresting people. A group of local

councillors used to hold them to account. In 2011 they were replaced

by a Police and Crime Commissioner. One democratically elected person to

look carefully at each police force. Some commissioners promised to spend

less time catching people speeding, others to reopen police stations.

They cannot interfere with investigations or arrests, but they

can hire and fire chief constables. In charge of millions of pounds of

funding from the Home Office and money seized from criminals, this

training video was paid for by the Commissioner in Gwent, Ian Johnson,

telling is forced to focus on victim satisfaction, the film aims to

educate people about stalking. I joined the Commissioner for a day

earlier this month to see exactly what his role has achieved. A drama

group telling people about the risks of drugs. Council funding was cut.

The Commissioner stepped in. Not the first time that they have picked up

the slack from local authorities. Lots of people after four years

don't understand what people use and Crime Commissioner does. And when

you look at the crime linked to money and link to prevention, linked

to educating children about making choices, that is a big part of it.

His office funded this skate park in Monmouth to reduce anti-social

behaviour. It runs a dedicated support centre for victims and has

responsibility for drug addiction services. He is worried that not

enough is being done to let people in Gwent and elsewhere know why they

should turn out to vote for Commissioner. This is the

Conservative government's idea, the concept of the Police and Crime

Commissioner. And I think a lot more effort could go in to raising the

awareness of the public. Which means more money. Yes, absolutely. You can

choose your next Police and Crime Commissioner on made up of, the same

day as the council elections. Turnout last time was just 15%.

Labour and cloud Cymru have disagreed with the position of

Police and Crime Commissioner in the past, but they will be fielding

candidates along with everyone else, promising to change your local

police service for the better. What springs to mind

to when you look at these images? You wouldn't immediately, perhaps,

think they're of a hospital. But it's claimed this new state

of the art facility will help transform mental health care in

Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Patients at Whitchurch hospital

will move to the new ?88 million facility in Llandough

following concerns about as our health correspondent

Owain Clarke explains. After 108 years you can forgive the

building for not looking its best, but would you want to come here?

When the hospital opened in 1908, it was called the Cardiff city are

silent. The way that we think about mental health has changed a lot

since then, but this building has not. -- Cardiff city at asylum. It

gives you the idea of being in an institution. It is very enclosed.

The ceilings are very high, but you feel very enclosed, you feel very

trap. This ward closed several years ago, yet around 120 mental health

patients are cared for here. But things are about to change. When I

was shown into this room I burst into tears, because the contrast, in

here, it feels like people care. This woman is a mother of three who

has had to be admitted in the past for help. She has bipolar disorder

and most of her care now happens at home, what if she needs to be

admitted again she will come here. Here, if you are stuck inside your

head with strange stuff going on, this is a place that you can be

drawn out of that, you can be drawn into the real walled in a very

comfortable way. What makes this place special? One of the wonderful

things about this building is that the services have been involved at

every step of the way, and what we try to respond to here is what they

have been asking for, they want something that is airy, that has

lots of natural light, with areas where they can have privacy and

calmness, and also areas where they can socialise. That has been the

focus of the strategy from the beginning. There are some hotels

that are less well equipped. But in its cutting-edge designer was

another question to consider, how to keep patients sake. Some of the

patients that'll be saying it will be monitored by staff to make sure

that they are safe. Now that happens with staff having to physically

enter the room, but that will not have to happen any more because in

each room a camera has been set up so that staff can check on the

patients without disturbing them. Each of the rooms has been

specifically designed. It does not look anything like a hospital, but

what is crucial about the design can be seen in the details. The

furniture has been weighed down so that it cannot be thrown. But the

key theme is to give a sense of normality. They might only be a few

miles apart, but Llandough is a world away from the old hospital at

Whitchurch. Here's Tomos now with tonight's

sport. The Welsh Rugby Union say that they

are surprised that Six Nations organisers are surprised that the

interplay has not been punished. Lee, who is from the Traveller

community, said that he accepted an apology from his opponent. I cannot

speak for myself, I speak for the organisation. We don't condone any

discrimination whether it be race, religion, sexuality, etc. As an

organisation, I think we probably slightly disagree with it but the

decision has been made, move on. The response from the Wales management

has been ridiculed by the England coach, Eddie Jones, who suggested

that the position of the WRU has been inconsistent after the Wales

head coach Warren Gatland initially played down the incident. If you're

the statements out by Wales yesterday, maybe they are not

interested in saying what is right and wrong, there was a decision

made. That is why we have those sort of judiciary 's and committees.

The Swansea coach says that his only focus is keeping his team in the

Premier League and that is not interested in the to the national

job. Now, I think only of Swansea and they are now my team, my club,

my players. I am happy my name is in the list, but I don't, I don't know

nothing. Chris Coleman names his squad

for the forthcoming friendlies against Northern Ireland

and Ukraine tomorrow. Gareth Bale could miss

the Ukraine game Wales are without Aaron Ramsey and

David was because of injury. Let's get a full check on the weather

forecast. Probably more cloud than sunshine over the weekend. Hardly a

cloud in the sky in Barry Island this afternoon. And the cloudy

morning in Powys. We're only halfway through March, and so far we have

had around two inches of rain, slightly less than we would normally

expect at this point in the month. Tonight, dry with a clear sky,

becoming cold, temperatures close to freezing or below. And the

widespread frost with one or two mist and fog patches forming as

well. High-pressure still with us tomorrow. Normally, our weather

comes in from the Atlantic. At the moment the atmosphere is locked. Low

pressure that normally brings rain is being diverted towards Greenland

and towards Portugal. This is the picture for eight o'clock in the

morning, the whole country drive, cloudy on the border from Wrexham to

Monmouth. Elsewhere, some mist and fog patches. Clear, bright and sunny

but the wind, light. Another dry day tomorrow, past of Powys, north-east

and south-east Wales might cloud over in the afternoon, most of the

North and south-west remaining sunny. Temperatures reaching 11-12

Celsius. Some cloud in the afternoon in poverty. -- in Breconshire.

Similar run Sunday, and high pressure will bring more dry weather

next week. Our picture tonight is from Stephanie Marshall. Sunset in

Burycourt. A lot of story, a review of the water out inquirer into child

abuse in Jordan zones in North Wales found no evidence that any national

figures were on board. No reason was found to undermine the conclusions

of the inquiry.