30/05/2014 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands.

First tonight, a teenage neo`Nazi who built lethal

bombs has been cleared of terrorism offences after his

The court heard that Michael Piggin stockpiled weapons

But the jury couldn't agree if he was serious about carrying out

a Columbine High School style`massacre in Loughborough.

Our social affairs correspondent, Jeremy Ball, reports.

This is a crossbow. Just got it.

Michael Piggin was obsessed with weapons, guns,

This is footage of him testing Molotov cocktails behind

the leisure centre in Loughborough, one of a string

of home`made video clips showing him ranting about fighting Muslims.

We obviously treat this very seriously indeed.

Anything of this type, where a person is putting together

items such as improvised explosive devices, one has to assume that

they can prove fatal, if handled incorrectly.

And if someone has a particular mindset to use them

against other individuals, it can result in the loss of life.

The terrorism investigation was prompted by a search of

Michael Piggin's home. But it was the last thing the police expected.

They came here to look for a knife he used to threaten

They were horrified by what they found.

He had an arsenal of weapons, powerful airguns, a machete

They found detailed plans to repeat the Columbine massacre

In his bedroom, there was a swastika flag on the wall and a copy

of Hitler's Mein Kampf and the room was a shrine to notorious

plastered with newspaper cuttings about killers like Anders Breivik.

He used to come to school with swastikas stitched into his jumper

He was someone who stuck to himself. I think people were

We were so shocked and I think the shock masked

Michael Piggin portrayed himself as a revolutionary.

We are against the Muslim invasion of our country.

And recorded chilling threats to kill Muslims.

This is him spray`painting no more mosques.

He named the local mosque at the top of his list of targets.

But he insisted his plans were just a fantasy that helped him

cope with persistent bullying and the jury could not reach a verdict.

They also heard he had a form of autism

Awareness of Asperger's syndrome is growing

but still many people do not get diagnosed at the appropriate time.

It is really important we do pick up these youngsters so that they

Almost 20 people were named on Michael Piggin's hit list.

They were warned by the police they had been threatened.

The jury found the threat was not real but detectives are

convinced it is a threat that had to be taken seriously.

Our social affairs correspondent Jeremy Ball has been

Were there any concerns raised about Michael Piggin's behaviour?

There had been several complaints at his school about

his extremist behaviour, the school we're not allowed to identify.

We actually heard from a former teacher there who said

Piggin asked him which gun he would like to be shot with.

There are formal processes for dealing with concerns

like that through what is known as the Prevent programme.

But Leicestershire Police were never told about Michael Piggin

and his school says it is because the complaints it received

and that, essentially, they did not indicate what emerged

This is the second terrorism trial that has collapsed with no verdict.

Essentially because this case was not about what

Michael Piggin did, it was about what he was planning to do next.

He admitted he was making the bombs, he admitted he had

The jurors had to decide whether he was serious about going

At the end of the day, some of them believed him, others didn't.

That is why the terrorism charges have been dropped.

He is now going to be sentenced for less serious explosives

Let us leave it there for now. Thank you.

After 90 years of mining, Thoresby Colliery in Nottinghamshire

has started the slow wind down to closure.

270 redundancy notices have been sent out and will arrive

The Union of Democratic Mineworkers say there's still a way

of keeping the pit open for four years, but UK Coal say it

Absolutely gut wrenching for the people who will be receiving

those letters tomorrow morning, along with their families.

Asking them to come for interviews next week, telling them

Nearly ?17 million could be spent on improvements to schools

The county council says there is a huge backlog of school repairs

Priority is being given to buildings in the worst condition.

The proposals will be discussed by the authority's cabinet on Monday.

One of our major hospitals is to build a multi`storey car park

in the next 18 months to alleviate chronic parking problems.

Queues for the main car park at the Leicester Royal Infirmary

can stretch hundreds of yards at peak times.

Patients and visitors say the time spent waiting to park

We have to leave at least an hour in advance to be on time

If you come in yourself, you don't stand a chance of getting to your

You can queue for half an hour quite regularly.

If you are lucky, like we are at the moment, you're straight in.

Sometimes you can stop here for three quarters of an hour.

The solution is relatively straightforward.

It is to build a multi`storey car park

on the site you can see behind me. There are a couple of alternatives.

There will be some disruption while we do that

because we will lose car parking space, but it will be worth it.

We are looking at a 600`space car park.

Newsnight's starting now over on BBC Two and I'll have more news

I'll leave you with Kaye and the weekend weather.

And fairly decent weekend. I cannot rule out the odd shower. It is

largely dry. There will be more brightness as well. Things are

starting to warm up at last. Not a lot changing for us overnight.

Staying dry. Quite a lot of cloud. Temperatures could slide into single

figures. Most of us, staying in double figures. We kick off the

weekend dry. Quite a lot of cloud in the morning. Cloud breaking up in

the afternoon. It may trigger a couple showers. Most of us will

escape them. A more pleasant afternoon with temperatures up to 17

or 18 degrees. The outlook more sunshine and even warmer by Sunday.

showers into the early part of next week. Enjoy the weekend, if you can.

Now the national outlook. Hello, lots of outdoor plans ahead.

By and large, we are in pretty good shape. A quick look back at spring.

It was the third warmest on record but the dullest May in Northern

Ireland on record. It has been dull across many parts of the UK in

actual fact. Scotland had some sunshine and parts of East Anglia

and the south-east as well. Under the cloud tonight temperatures will

stay well up. But under the clear