22/02/2012 Look East - East

Hello and welcome to Look East. In the programme tonight. Apache

down - a helicopter hits power lines leaving hundreds of homes

without electricity. We saw an almighty blue flash in

the distance and saw the light of a helicopter which descended very

rapidly. Three men on trial for shooting two

teenagers - a jury is told it was a turf war over drugs.

Fast Eddie the fugitive - in court for the first time in the USA.

The rise and rise of double Brit First tonight: How the army's

newest hi-tech helicopter flew into high-voltage power lines leaving

hundreds of homes without electricity. The Apache attack

helicopter is one of the most fearsome weapons in the British

Army, but it has spent the day sitting in a field near Ipswich.

Last night it hit power lines carrying 132,000 volts and was

forced to make an emergency landing. The helicopter is based at

Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk. Richard Daniel is there now.

Wattisham Airfield is home to the Apache helicopter. Around 60 of

them. Last night they came perilously close to losing one of

the aircraft and its crew. But they didn't was probably down to sheer

good luck and the robust design of this formidable aircraft. This

morning officers from the Military Air Accident Investigation Branch

got to work. Their task was to find out why �45 million worth of

helicopter ended up in a field. It seems this was a major navigational

error. The high-voltage power lines is clearly marked on maps and the

crew were extremely lucky to escape unharmed. No more than 300 yards

away is the 132,000 volt cable the Apache severed shortly after 11

o'clock last night. This man was at home when it happened. If we were

watching television and electricity went off. We looked out the window

and the whole close was extremely dark and we saw an almighty blue

flash in the distance and saw the light of a helicopter which

descended very rapidly. Nearly 400 homes had their electricity cut off

of the most have now been reconnected. Repairs to the power

lines will not be straightforward. It has come down on and 11,000 volt

line, so two lines are affected. It runs adjacent to the network will

track. A good two crew were on a routine low-flying training

exercise. They regularly fly night- time sorties and dedication for a -

- in preparation for a colour style. Detailed flight plans for training

sorties usually avoid hazards such as power lines, but this time

something clearly went wrong. These helicopters are fitted with

wire cutting devices that can cuts trip through electrical cable. They

might have happened in this instance. Prince Harry has been

training here as an Apache pilots. The Ministry of Defence told us the

day he had no involvement in this incident. As for the aircraft,

engineers will return to the field tomorrow to check if it is

airworthy. If it is, they hope to fly it back here tomorrow for

repairs. Three men have gone on trial

accused of murdering two teenagers in an alleyway in Milton Keynes.

The pair, who came from Somali families, were shot on the

Fishermead Estate last May. The court heard it was a turf war over

drugs. Jo Black is in Milton Keynes now.

This is the Ali way with the two teenagers were shot dead. It

happened nine months ago around 10 o'clock at night. This is where

people live, really close. Muhammad Farrah, he was 19, died instantly

at the scene, but his friend he was 18 died the next day in hospital.

He never regained consciousness and was never able to tell police what

happened here. Two months later three men were arrested, so now in

the dock we have these three men. The prosecutor in this case says

the motor for the killing was likely to have been a drugs turf.

He said the one of the defendants was a drug dealer, another defender

had crowds at his house when arrested at the said the victim

Muhammad Farrah was selling drugs on the day of the shooting. We also

heard about a possible murder weapon. Yes, we heard that two of

the defendants had been making inquiries on how to get a gun and

she just laughed it off. Two of the defendants went to Holland to

trying get a gun. This is a six- week trial, over 60 witnesses have

been called and it is worth pointing out that the three men

charged with murder denied those charges. A teenage girl is still

unable to eat solid foods and her jaw is being held together by wire

nearly four months after a random attack while she was walking home

from school. 14-year-old Shannon Morgan was

punched in the face in the churchyard at East Dereham in

Norfolk. Her attacker still has not been found.

Shannon at home this afternoon having her latest helping of a high

calorie liquid food through a straw Mon-Sat to the UN could look -- the

unprovoked attack a dislocated jaw is a long way from being healed.

The attack happened in broad daylight in this churchyard. She

walked past a pension there were four youths sitting on it. One of

them followed her, grabbed her hair, pulled her backward and then

punched her very hard in the side of the face. He then kicked her as

she lay helpless on the ground. He and his three companions simply

walked away. All that was going through my mind at the time was is

it over yet, are they going to do any more? That was it, really. I

have had seven operations since November. I had four in one wee

country recently. They have fitted metal bars around their teeth, and

then there was going straight down which hold it all in place. We do

want this to happen to anybody else. They could have been an awful lot

worse, but bear in mind what she is going through and still my have to

go through. She is a credit to herself and her family. She has

done really well. We owe it to her, as does the community, to find out

who did this. A I of tissue wants him to suffer for what he has done

for me, go to prison, but I don't want him to did anybody else. He

could do to another teenager. is Shannon's main concern, about

the individual who has cost her so much pain. -- caused her.

Still to come on Look East: How one of the region's biggest, richest

companies is prospering in the downturn. The boss tells us how

they've done it. And Louise Holmes is down the pub,

for a very good reason! I am at Ed Sheeran's local getting reaction

from his success at the Brit Awards Eddie Maher, the security guard who

went on the run after �1 million went missing from a security van in

Felixstowe, has appeared in court in America. Fast Eddie, as he

became known, appeared before a judge in Missouri charged with

firearms offences. He has been on the run for almost 20 years and

used a number of different names. Stephen King, Mike Mayer and Eddie

Mayer, but today the Law finally caught up with fast Eddie. He

appeared in this court wearing a prison jumpsuit and handcuffs.

is in this country illegally, so the actual charges facing is

illegal alien in possession of a firearm. Actually for firearms.

one guard made a delivery, Eddie Mayer sped off. It was in 1993

there more than a million pounds went missing from a security van in

Felixstowe. Eddie May her disappeared from his house and went

on to run. Last week his daughter in law, just kicking, Dept of the

police and he was arrested in its Ozarks misery. The two months over

-- it two months ago Jessica King married his son. There was a

domestic involved. Lee was picked up by the police for domestic

violence and immediately Jessica went to a police officer and

reported that Eddie Maher was living in the country illegally and

wanted by the United Kingdom. May her has been refused bail and

will stay in prison in America while the process continues.

Suffolk police have said they will review the case before deciding

what the Crown Prosecution Service whether to start an attempt to

A man has been charged with the murder of a clergyman from Essex.

The Reverend John Suddards was stabbed to death last week.

Formerly vicar of Witham, he had recently moved to Gloucestershire.

47-year-old Stephen Farrow was tonight also charged with murdering

Worcestershire pensioner Betty Yates.

A man has been charged with murder after a 42-year-old man was stabbed

to death in Bury St Edmunds. The victim, Robin Linnet, was found in

Ashfield Road early yesterday. Mark Turner from Cockfield will appear

in court tomorrow. A man accused of being in charge of

a Rottweiler which badly mauled a seven-year-old boy has appeared in

court in Southend. Magistrates were told the attack happened on a

crowded beach last summer. The man covered his face when he left court.

He is accused of being in charge of a rot phyla that was dangerously

out of control and Malta a young boy. Magistrates heard how the boy

was playing in this sea here at Southend last August when a

rottweiler attacked him. The court heard that the dog as well done

double underwater and his grandmother had to drag the dog off.

In the weeks after the attack police released pictures of the

boy's injuries. He needed 16 stitches and several operations. He

will require treatment until he is 18. Mr Dietrich gave no indication

of his plea today and was released on unconditional bail. The next

hearing will be at Basildon Crown Court on 18th March.

The case of a fisherman from Essex who is facing a huge penalty for

breaching quotas has been raised in Parliament. Paul Gilson, who lives

in Leigh-on-Sea, says he is facing ruin after being fined nearly

�400,000 for catching too many fish. His MP raised the matter at

Westminster Hall. He is an honest hard-working man

and such a sentence I believe is an absolute outrage, especially given

that the two other recent sales node of the -- offences received

sentences of �3,500 and �6,000 respectively.

The Essex Fire Service has had to pay an unexpected tax bill of more

than �100,000, plus interest and a fine. It follows a Revenue and

Customs inquiry which showed the service wasn't paying enough tax on

cars it provides to officers and staff. Our political reporter Ben

Bland has been investigating. How did they make this mistake? No one

likes an unexpected bill and not one of this size. It is all to do

with the cars that the Essex fire surface -- Essex fire service

provider to some staff. Like any company car it counts as a benefit

in kind. The fire service was not paying enough in National Insurance

contributions on those cars, so as well as paying the outstanding

�100,000, this mistake has cost Essex taxpayers more than �17,000

in interest and a fine. The Essex fire service concluded this

afternoon that they had not broken the rules, but that the Revenue and

Customs had interpreted the rules differently to the way they had.

don't necessarily think there we are wrong on the interpretation,

however we accept that interpretation and will pave

whatever it is you're asking and we will do this under able to do this

without hitting our frontline services because of the way our

finances are run. We have also discovered that amongst the cars in

the service owned fleet there are five executive Audi's costing about

�30,000 each, but they won't say he uses those vehicles. This is

ringing alarm bells and Westminster. I am told by government sources

that Eric Pickles has asked his most senior civil servant in the

department at Whitehall to look into the use of cars at the Essex

fire service. In football, Southend United are

down to third in League Two after losing 2-0 at Aldershot. Manager

Paul Sturrock called the team gutless and told reporters he will

make changes. They have now lost Whitbread has been a big name in

this part of the world for generations, a brewing giant owning

hundreds of pubs in our towns and villages. But not any more.

Whitbread got out of beer years ago and now it is a very successful

company in the FTSE 100. As our business correspondent Richard Bond

reports, it is carved out a huge new business. Think of Whitbread,

and beer probably comes to mind. The company used to be one of her

biggest brewers producing arrange of eels. Among to its breweries,

this one and Luton. 12 years ago Whitbread did the unthinkable and

got out of beer in order to expand into coffee. In Costa Coffee it

owns the largest coffee chain in the UK with 1300 shots. Coffee

shots have risen in popularity at the same time as the demise of the

pub business. The coffee shot is the local pub. Communities meet.

The business sector, it is the heart of the community. Another big

part of the modern Whitbread is a business that has done no favours

to independent hotels up and down the land, or that is what its

critics might say. Premier in is the largest hotel brand in the UK

with 600 hotels and 44,000 rooms. If you are coming a wave for a

short break, do you really need to have a swimming pool? It is a nice

extra, but it would cost you a lot more money to do it. We are about

value. The modern Whitbread is one of Britain's top 100 companies and

its headquarters and Dunstable employs 650 people. Whitbread has

become one of her most successful companies because it spotted

important trends. It got out of the low-growth business, brewing, and

into high-growth ones, coffee shots and Budget hotels. In doing so it

stole a march and its competitors, but it faces challenges. Consumers

are under pressure. Whitbread is still growing, but not as fast as

it was. The faltering recovery could yet take the froth of its

prospects. -- although its In everything they do at Whitbread,

they like to say they offer good value. When I spoke to the Chief

Executive, Andy Harrison, I wanted to know if value is really another

word for cheap. No, value means we offer you a great product at

affordable prices. Delivered by a team members who really care.

easy is it for you to get people with the right qualifications to

come, because we have had a lot recently about the education system

not producing the kind of young people that business needs.

success is good that the dependent on her 30,000 people who serve are

11 million customers a month. The most important things there are

enthusiasm, aptitude, as smile, and we are prepared to do the training

in. Over the last three years we have done 3000 apprenticeships and

we have just opened three academies for our restaurant teams. Those

academies, everybody who comes to work in one of your restaurants

will be trained by you? To begin with we are pitting our chefs, the

assistance through those academies, so we expect 5000 people to go

through those academies. Doesn't that said that the education system

doesn't fit you need? The education system doesn't teach you how to

cook, so it provides some of the basic skills. What we're looking to

do is to provide more business specific skills. Looking at the

economy as a whole, what do you think is the main problem that

British industry with its service industry or manufacturing has?

Fundamentally, education and infrastructure are critical and all

of the businesses that we have in this country, which has a

relatively high rate company, depend on skills. We need to invest

in training, technology and finding better ways of doing things because

as you look across the world there is a lot of labour that is much

cheaper than Labour in this country. Are you saying we haven't done

that? Clearly we have because we live in a successful society.

People are much wealthier now than they were 10 years ago, but if

we're going to continue to compete we need to do more. It is a very

competitive world. Is the way a business survives, but it grows in

one area than it has to say, that is as much as I can do their and

the need to look around? Definitely. But this is that standstill die.

Consumer behaviour is changing and technology is changing, so

companies need to move with or ahead of consumer trends. If if you

had one message for anybody who is involved in maybe even a struggling

business, what with a message be? think most businesses are about

really understanding your customers, what they want and delivering what

they want and get endured teams, you people, due until we really

motivated to deliver it. Thank you very much.

A few years ago he was playing in people's living rooms for free, now

singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran from Suffolk is a double Brit award

winner. Last night he won Best British Solo Artist and Best

Breakthrough Act. As he arrived at the ceremony last night, Ed Sheeran

was feeling quietly confident. never like to expect things to

happen, but they do make plans, and this is one of them. He led the

nominations with four in total but he said it was best male artist he

really wanted to win, and she did. Ed Sheeran! It is the culmination

of an amazing year for the 21-year- old. He is none for being one of

the hardest-working musicians around and started by offering free

gigs in people's houses. At bottom to the attention Elf BBC Radio

Norfolk's new talent programme and they went to film him. There was

something very special about his songwriting. There was only about

20 people in a room at the said he had a new song. Back in his

hometown everyone was celebrating. We had known him at school for ages.

He did a thing at the main hall for �2. Since then he has really proven

so often done very well. I saw him a couple of weeks ago. It was

really good to see him. The local cafe where he spent hours writing

and drinking milkshakes has a prominent momentum of his success

and just last weekend he was back at his local celebrating his 21st

birthday. Kim had his friends were quite polite, although slightly

worse for wear to the end of the night. His family thoroughly

enjoyed themselves. He has centred he is working on new material with

two American rappers. As for the Brit Awards, he has described as

the best night of his life. I am so pleased. He is so talented

and a love his music. Most of them A disappointing day to day, cloudy

and damp. You can see this band of rain the mood in this morning. Her

it has left a lot of cloud around for tonight's. The last but the

rain should be clearing away by about 11 o'clock tonight and the

rest of the night should be set fair. Her there will be one or to

missed patches, but there should stay dry. It will be very mild

indeed. The wind will ease down as the night goes on. Looking at a

press return for tomorrow, you can see we are between two pressure

systems. There is some very nice warm air feeding up from the south-

west, sold for all this ridge of high pressure should bring us a

fair day tomorrow. There will be a fair amount of cloud around but it

will be miles and it should stay dry. Let's take a look at the

morning. It starts off on a grey notes with a fair amount of cloud

and patchy missed, but the cloud will start to lift and thin. But

the middle part of the day we will see sunny spells. With the help of

the sunshine it is going to feel very mild with temperatures up to

16 degrees. Another big difference tomorrow is the strength of the

wind, but it will be alight and moderate breeze. There will be some

more cloud coming in from the west near Tring the day, but there will

still be some spells of sunshine. Into the weekend, on Friday we have

got the call front slipping away to the south, then high pressure

building back in so what should be fine and settled through the

weekend. Looking at the next five days in more detail, you can see

the rain on Friday that will go away but the end of the morning. It

will be a touch cooler over the weekend. Although it turns or

cloudy 3 Sunday and Monday, it will turn more mild as well. The average

for this time of year is 89 degrees, so 14 degrees is very mild indeed.

There could be a touch of frost on Friday night into Saturday, but as