28/04/2014 East Midlands Today

hear views on immigration. That's all from us. Now

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Anne Davies.

First tonight, a father has paid a moving tribute to his son who died

in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Flight Lieuten`nt

Rakesh Chauhan, from Leicestershire, was one of five servicemen killed

when their Lynx came down at the weekend. The 29`year`old worked in

the RAF's Intelligence Branch. And today, in an exclusive television

interview, his father Kishor Chauhan spoke to us from the family home in

Cropston. Rakesh was passionate very in what he did, anything he wanted,

he did. He wanted to do the best of his ability and wanted it done in a

particular way. He was meticulous. He was also very very livelx and he

was a natural leader of men. He was very straightforward. He always had

this passion to be in the ahr force. He has aways been in the cadets or

at university he was in the Air Corps and when he left univdrsity he

joined the air force. Of cotrse when somebody goes on a tour you always

are apprehensive for their safety but we felt that he was safd and the

first tour was the most difficult one though none of them werd easy.

The first was very difficult but by the third trip we were kind of

reconciled to the fact he would be safe. Unfortunately, this tragic

accident happened. We are not sure of the details yet, all I know is

the helicopter came down ne`r Kandahar Airport and we don't know

what the cause was. Only last Saturday, my wife talked to him on

Skype and saw his face after three months and she was...

..Very pleased to see him and that is the last we spoke to him. We had

so many dreams for him. We had this life planned out. I think hd had his

life planned out. And unfortunately things didn't turn out the way we

had wanted or planned. Rakesh was passionate about his work btt he was

passionate about the countrx. He was very proud of being British and he

was very proud to have done something for his country and now he

has paid the ultimate price. The jury in a murder trial left the

courtroom today to see for themselves the spot where a mother

and her three children died in a devastating house fire. A g`ng of

eight men are accused of thd alleged botched arson attack which claimed

the family's lives last September. Sarah Teale has been at the scene in

Leicester. The murder trial was taken `way from

the formality of Nottingham Crown's Number One Court to visit the scene

of the crime today. The jurx, the judge and the legal teams h`ve been

brought here to Wood Hill in Leicester to see for themselves some

of the key areas in this trhal and the house itself where Shehnila

Taufiq and her children died. Eight defendants are on trial acctsed of

deliberately setting fire to the terraced property in a revenge

attack on the wrong house. The jury, who we can't identify, were watched

by the judge, Justice John Griffith`Williams, and the

prosecution barrister Richard Latham QC. The jury spent several linutes

looking at the flowers placdd on the doorstep of the boarded up house and

heard how petrol was poured through the letterbox and ignited. The jury

have been told the defendants drove past the house here on Wood Hill in

two cars with their headlights off, vehicles parked up at the bottom of

the road before eight defendants walked back up the hill and set fire

to the house. The jury was shown a house two doors down, the alleged

intended target for the arson attack. The prosecution say this was

where the mother of one of the men lived who the gang believed was

involved in an attack on thdir friend, 20`year`old football coach

Antoin Akpom. The jury were taken to Kent Street where he had bedn

fatally stabbed just seven hours before the fire last September. The

eight defendants, seven men and a youth, all deny four separate counts

of murder. The trial contintes. The parents of a Leicestershire man

who died hours after being sent home from hospital are hoping a new

inquest which resumed today will finally reveal the truth. John

Moore`Robinson died eight ydars ago from a ruptured spleen after coming

off his mountain bike at Cannock Chase. The 20`year`old ended up at

Stafford Hospital. Today's hnquest heard the A department, which has

been at the centre of a hugd scandal, was understaffed when he

went there. His parents say they just want answers. We want `ll the

evidence to be heard and an honest and truthful conclusion to come out

of this. For the last eight years, we have lived his death and will

always grieve his death. He loved life, he was a fitness fanatic. He

was a gentle giant, he loved his work, loved life.

Mining communities can now `pply for a share of a ?1million fund for

projects operating near forler coalfields. The Coalfields

Regeneration Trust is distrhbuting grants of up to ?10,000 to community

organisations and social enterprises. The grants programme

was set up in 2011 to develop grass roots activities that have `

positive impact on coalfields communities. That's your news. So,

it's goodbye from me but with your weather now, here's Anna Chtrch

We have had weather now, here's Anna Chtrch

We have decent weather, warl sunshine at least and there will be

more developing through tomorrow but we will have to start off whth mist

and Merck. We have clear skhes at the moment, we will see low cloud

drifting in to the early hotrs of the morning and mist and fog forming

by the end of the night. We stay dry tonight and it will not be cold with

temperatures down to seven or eight Celsius. Tomorrow morning, ` murky

start, low cloud and mist, ht will clear quite quickly, the cloud will

be chopped up so decent spells of sunshine coming through, a small

chance of a shower but you will be unlucky a few catch one. Fedling

pleasant in the sunshine with temperatures up to 16 or 17

Celsius. The outlook, turning more and settled for the middle part of

the week, dry and bright by Thursday and then it will turn much

cooler as we go into the bank holiday weekend.

Hello, I am going to throw some numbers at you first of all. 22

Celsius was the temperature recorded at Aviemore making it the warmest

day of the year so far. At the other end of the country, this cloud has

produced a lot of heavy and thundery downpours. A lot of rain falling in

one hour at Hurn airport. There are some showers around the Bristol

Channel. There will be so increasing amounts of mist, fog and low cloud.

Tomorrow starts grade, Misty and murky in most places. We will see

the Sun breaking through in Cumbria and the North. You might get the odd

shower in western Northern Ireland in the afternoon but with more

sunshine across the country tomorrow, it should be warmer than