15/02/2017 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Dominic Heale.

First tonight, a seven-year-old died after communication between care

The words of a coroner today after hearing the latest

evidence into the death of Shanay Walker in 2014.

Shanay's aunt and grandmother are currently serving prison

terms for cruelty to her, after she was found to have

The inquest into her death is into its second week,

and today heard from care professionals that despite concerns

for Shanay's welfare, her abusers were too readily

It's thought at least ten safeguarding referrals were made

But the inquest into her death is hearing about the missed

opportunities for the professionals involved to work together.

She was in the care of her aunt, Kay-Ann Morris, who was jailed

for cruelty to Shanay, along with Shanay's

1.5 weeks into this inquest, and we continue to hear that

concerns were raised about Shanay Walker,

The coroner, Mairin Casey, said there is evidence that

information was withheld from the local authority

Shanay's aunt, Kay-Ann Morris, was said to have dominated

interviews with professionals, and persuaded them that the injuries

were accidental, or even self-inflicted by Shanay.

Shanay went to Southglade Primary School in Nottingham.

Whilst safeguarding referrals were made, staff have been

questioned about how effective procedures were at the school.

Dr Emma Fillmore gave evidence in the criminal case,

and spoke again today at the inquest.

She is a consultant paediatrician, who wasn't involved with Shanay,

but gave an overview for the inquest.

She agreed there was a lot of significant information

about Shanay that should have been acted upon.

Referring to the aunt, Kay-Ann Morris, she said,

"It's very concerning that Shanay does not feel she can talk to Kay

about how she feels, when Morris is the person

who is supposed to be carrying for her."

The coroner said, "Communication channels failed miserably

between the school, the local authority and health professionals."

Giving evidence today was incontinence nurse Stephanie Joiner.

She had concerns, and said, "On reflection, I should have

She could not explain why she didn't.

The aunt, Kay-Ann Morris, was allowed to bring

so-called spiritual guardians to meetings with professionals.

They were her friends who backed up what she said.

Simon Ward, BBC East Midlands Today, Nottingham.

The number of people out of work in the East Midlands has gone up again.

That's despite figures nationally showing an overall fall.

Statistics from October to December show that a 114,000 people

That's 6,000 more than the previous quarter across the East Midlands,

though the Government points out that more than two-and-a-quarter

million people are in work - nearly a record figure.

A mystery donor has given ?10,000 to a young girl who needs

an operation after thieves stole a collection tin for her appeal.

Nine-year-old Kareena Hayes from Long Eaton in Derbyshire has

cerebral palsy and needs an operation to help

A charity box raising funds for her was stolen from a caf

Now an anonymous businessman's put up the money so that Kareena's

A nursery had to be evacuated after a digger broke through a gas

Firefighters set up a 50-metre cordon in Sneinton, and up to 50

Morning rush-hour, and traffic's brought to a standstill.

A digger hit a low pressure gas main, causing a severe leak.

Emergency services were called to deal

with the possibility of an explosion.

There was a very pungent, strong gas smell.

First priority is, how dangerous is it?

Because potentially I've got an explosion, and the explosion

range could have been anything up to 80 metres.

So my first priority was to evacuate the surrounding area.

We have been working closely with the other emergency services,

so it's been a joint emergency service project.

About 50 homes and businesses were evacuated.

So once we'd realised what we'd got, that's when the chaos started.

And it was arranging that chaos to make it calm.

And that's what we've done successfully.

A sports session was due to take place on the playing fields over

the road for around 90 children who are off school for half term.

Among the first businesses to be evacuated was the nursery next

It was breakfast time for around 25 children

I literally left with no bag, nothing.

I nearly walked out with my slippers on!

So it was just getting the children out.

We just put them into pushchairs and a cot, and we took them

to a youth centre around the corner who kindly opened up

for us so we could go in there and use the hall.

Residents were allowed to return to their homes by mid-afternoon.

The nursery should be open as normal tomorrow.

The National Grid, which is responsible for the gas supply,

said a temporary repair was done straightaway, and it has now carried

Steve Orme, BBC East Midlands Today, Nottingham.

A stretch of the A52 in Nottinghamshire is closed in both

directions this evening after a serious collision.

It's happened between the A46 near Saxondale and the A1 near Grantham.

Police are currently at the scene, where a light column

Both directions are closed, and drivers are being advised

East Midlands Airport's had a 15% rise in the number of passengers

Last month nearly 220,000 people travelled through the airport

In the previous January, about 190,000 people used it.

Airport managers hope new destinations and more flights

on popular routes will deliver the airport's busiest ever summer.

A Nottinghamshire MP's visiting Jordan, where she's gone to see how

millions of Syrian refugees are living in freezing camps.

Broxtowe MP Anna Soubry's travelling with a charity that's using British

aid donations to keep victims of the war alive.

She's gone to a large camp called Zaatari with the charity Oxfam.

She spoke to us from there via internet link.

This is basically like a great big piece of rubble.

There is no vegetation - there's no trees, there's no

But at the moment, the reality is it's going to be I think many

Finally tonight, Sean Fitzpatrick from Loughborough barely

He was too worried to go because of his health.

But now, a new invention is enabling Charnwood's youngest diabetes

For Sean Fitzpatrick, this monitor has changed his life.

The device prompts him to press a button to show he's well.

And if he misses a prompt, a family member or a warden are alerted.

Hello, you are through to Emma at Charnwood Lifeline,

Hello, I'm just checking my activity button and making

Yes, that's come through perfectly fine.

But if Sean needed help, an ambulance could be called.

Sean has heart problems and type-one diabetes.

He can fall unconscious if his blood sugar levels get too low.

Before he had the device installed, life was very different.

It's just made me more confident that I'm going to be found

I'm not scared, I'm not petrified, which I used to be.

The checks to make sure Sean is OK come from here -

Sean, who is 41, is the only person in Charnwood with diabetes

Normally, people think that this scheme is for older people,

and it's more an emergency response service, you know, for falls

And Sean's quite different because he's younger.

But it shows that the service can be used for people

1,700 people have signed up to the Lifeline Project in Charnwood.

The Council offers a 24/7 response, 365 days per year.

Just under ?4 per week for each household.

It gives him a bit more lease of life.

Because we haven't got to keep checking up on him,

and he hasn't got to ring us and say, oh, I'm going out.

A big change, because he's outgoing now and suchlike.

I feel comfortable knowing that somebody will find me

I feel that I can try and keep my sugars as low as I possibly can.

It just makes me feel happy, it makes me feel

Sean is now looking forward to spending more time out

of his flat, with his family and his new baby niece.

Helen Astle, BBC East Midlands Roday, Leicestershire.

But with your weather now, here's Lucy.

Thank you, and good evening. Well, it was a grey and wet and to the

day-to-day. Our weather watchers still went out though and sent us

this photo, sent by Pete in Leicestershire, lots of cloud and

rain. The good news, as we go into tomorrow, we will see brighter

spells. It will be largely dry, but we could see world to show us. Here

is what is good going on in the bigger picture. We have high

pressure building income it will be increasingly settled as we move

towards Friday. Through tonight, we have cloud around, that front is

clearing out to the east. Clearer spells in the mix, largely dry,

temperatures falling to an overnight low of around 5-6 C, a bit chilly of

an last night, but mild enough not to have a frost first thing. We

could see patches of mist and fog, which left quickly. Turning slightly

cloudy in the afternoon, temperatures in double figures, with

a south-westerly breeze. Into Friday, that is the high pressure

building up from the south. It looks like it will be a largely settled

and dry day, with one or two patches of fog first thing. The best the

sunny spells the further east you going. It will be mild towards the

weekend. Up the weekend. Wouldn't promise you

two dry days but you never know, here is Nick with the national

picture. Hello. We put that cold weekend well

behind us now. Temperatures edging upwards and our weather watchers are

seeing plenty of signs of spring. Spending more time looking down than

looking up at the skies, we see these early blooms. They are set to

continue as we are set to stay mild for several more days to come.

Average daytime temperature this time of year around eight, but

getting into double figures all the way through the weekend. The start

of next week into the mid-teens potentially, very mild indeed. It

was 14 in Lincolnshire today. A lot of heavy rain to end the day. That

clearing from Yorkshire to the North Sea. A few showers in the west and

the odd one may continue into the night. Many becoming dry, just this

rain still into western parts of Scotland gusty winds. Lighter winds

to the south, a few fog patches and the coldest rural spots may pick up

a touch of frost. For Thursday, low