08/09/2014 East Midlands Today

Edinburgh, on the vote that could reshape Britain. Now we join the

I'm Anne Davies. news teams where you are.

First tonight, a mother has told an inquest of her desperate struggle

to stab a pet dog which was attacking her four`year`old.

Lexi Branson died at her home in Mountsorrel, near Loughborough,

This report from Victoria Hicks contains graphic details.

Lexi Branson was attacked by a type of Aylestone bulldog in the lounge

She died from facial injuries and from being suffocated by the dog.

Her mother Jodie Hudson, on the right wearing a peach blouse,

had seen the dog advertised online and told

She said Lexi would give the dog cuddles.

Nothing to give her cause for concern in the four to five weeks

But on 5th November last year, Jodie Hudson described how

the dog went up on all fours, went stiff and stared at Lexi

before going straight for her throat and then round to her mouth.

She described how she tried to pull the dog's legs apart, tried smashing

a glass on its head, and tried to prise its jaws apart before rushing

into the kitchen to find the biggest knife she could, repeatedly stabbing

the dog before it finally released its grip.

The inquest heard Jodie Hudson bought the dog for ?50

from these kennels in Barrow upon Saul which re`homed council strays.

Police enquiries after Lexi's death found it had had

seven previous owners including two dog breeders before arriving here.

Detective Sergeant Kenny Henry from Leicestershire police told

the inquest that whilst the dog appeared placid it had

attacked without warning the dog belonging to the last owner.

That owner had contacted the RSPCA saying he had concerns over

his children's safety but when the RSPCA wouldn't collect

the dog, he contacted the city dog warden, saying it was a stray to get

That meant no information about the dog's recent history was passed on.

Nottinghamshire's Chief Constable has told us

Chris Eyre made the comment following a call

for forces across the country to be merged, to save money.

Mr Eyre's backing the idea even though he concedes it's a bit

The East Midlands already has regional policing teams

for investigating murders, and everything from forensics

But Chris Eyre thinks it's time to go further.

You do not need 43 chief constables and 43 sets of headquarters.

The money that goes into those should be forced

and pushed down into delivering better services for the public.

In a world where we have police and crime commissioners, whatever

services are going to be delivered locally will be held to account

We need to make sure the rest of the money that goes in policing is

pushed as much as we possibly can down into community services to do

Do you think your job should be scrapped?

Certainly I think there should be fewer police constables.

I guess if this is a turkey voting for Christmas,

We can't carry on in the way we deliver business.

If you look across policing at the moment, in many, many forces there

are collaborations being built between police forces where we've

got teams of people who are now trying to report through to two,

It's inefficient, doesn't make sense and creates

Let's speak to our social affairs correspondent.

Jeremy, how controversial is this idea?

You might remember the outrage eight years ago when our local police

Now, that time, there was so much opposition the

whole thing had to be dropped, but I do think the sands have shifted

because of partly because of financial pressures, partly because

The local forces there have already been merged.

Nottinghamshire police and crime Commissioner told me he is

I'm very keen that we do things on a more regional level,

whether that means greater collaboration, integration or

ultimately, changing the structure, but it is clear as crystal that

Whether we force people into mergers, I think is still up

legislation. Now, by that, he means a change in the law.

That's something that's not going to happen

There have been some concerns about this merger idea today

from the policing minister who is worried about compulsory mergers

could end of distancing the police from their local communities.

I think, though here in the East Midlands at least, this idea

This week a Nottingham teenager will become the youngest person in the UK

Ethan Buttress who's 17 and from the Lady Bay area hopes to help a

Our Health Correspondent Rob Sissons reports.

Most teenagers don't like being parted from their mobiles for long.

Ethan was in the bath when he read the e`mail from the Anthony Nolan

Bone Marrow Trust saying he was a potential match for someone.

I was looking at my phone, which was a stupid idea, electrical device.

It was only a potential match at the time.

I think they would have called if it had been more serious.

Ethan could change save a child's life.

All he knows is it's a boy somewhere in the world, someone who is very

If I can save a life why shouldn't I?

The amount of pain I'm going to be in compared

to the amount of pain this child is going to be in is nothing.

Why shouldn't I donate my stem cells?

It began with a session similar to this.

The Anthony Nolan trust takes spit samples to see

The age limit for donors was lowered in 2012 from 18 to 16.

Ethan's sixth form centre in Nottingham got involved

after a former student, Adrian Sudbury, died from leukaemia.

We're absolutely surprised and delighted.

We have about 400`500 students on the register now.

The chance of them being called up is fairly slim.

I think it's pretty amazing, a brave thing he's doing,

A lot of people go on to live full healthy lives so it would be

But with your weather now, here's Kaye.

High`pressure engulfing the UK now and it will be influencing the

weather in the next few days for the rest of this week, in fact, so we

will stay dry for most of this week. The cloud will vary from time

to time. More cloud as the week wears on and it will be a fairly

chilly and mystique start through the morning. Temperatures will be

responding and recovering but tonight it's certainly a cool night

tonight. We will see temperatures falling. 10`11 in the town. In the

countryside, 4`5. A misty start tomorrow morning and chilly start.

Then Mr will start to clear away quickly through the morning

revealing more sunshine once again. More cloud in the afternoon `` the

mist. Temp just getting up to 19`20. That is it from us to.

too bad for the next few days. Out of London, now the national

forecast. Good evening. A little bit of mist

and fog in the coming few mornings. Apart from that, we are set fair.

This high pressure has been drifting in through the day. It will stick

around through the week and into the weekend. So the rest of this week

looks very good indeed, a lot of dry weather in the forecast. This is

what we saw earlier today, a lovely afternoon across England and Wales,

lots of sunshine, high level cloud drifting south through the evening.

Essentially overnight, many of us dry, with clear skies. Light winds

as well that. Combination will lead to the mist and fog forming, mainly

across northern and western areas. 10 or 11 in towns and cities. In the

countryside temperatures down to three or four degrees. Rural

Northern Ireland and rural Scotland could be close to freezing. : In the

north of Scotland thicker cloud keeping temperatures up and

producing the odd spot of rain. Elsewhere, it's a dry start. Extra

cloud for eastern Scotland and England. We have fog patches to

contend with. I don't think it will be overly dense. It could be in one

or two places. Not too much fog in the south-eastern corner. If you

don't see fog through the morning, you should see sunshine. Any fog you