20/01/2014 Look East - East

the windscreen first thing in the morning. That is all from us.

Hello and welcome to the start of a new week on Look East with Susie and

me. The headlines tonight from Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. A

retirement couple's dream holiday in the Caribbean shattered by a brutal

killing. The killing of schoolboy Jay

Whiston. Witnesses at the birthday party where he was killed describe

what happened. Good news for chocolate lovers.

Researchers in Norwich claim it cuts the risk of diabetes.

This is the BBC, Allied forces in Singapore have surrendered...

And it's a movie premiere with a difference for the war veteran from

Suffolk. Hello. The Foreign Office is tonight

advising tourists that the Caribbean island of St Lucia is a safe

destination, despite an armed attack on a couple from East Anglia.

Roger Pratt, who grew up in Norfolk, was killed when three armed men

stormed his boat. His wife Margaret who has family in Suffolk was badly

beaten. They left Lowestoft in July last year to sail around the world.

By December, they were in the Caribbean. And on Friday, they were

at Vieux Fort on the coast of St Lucia. They were attacked and Mr

Pratt was killed trying to defend his wife. The details now from Alex

Dunlop. A final family snapshot of the yacht

before she set sail last summer. Roger and Margaret Pratt had planned

for this moment for 12 years. But at midnight, when robbers boarded their

vessel off the coast of St Lucia, that adventure of a lifetime became

their worst nightmare. In vain, Roger tried to protect his wife.

After the men fled, Margaret found her husband floating face down in

the water. The couple had lived in this village in Warwickshire, but

had just bought a house in Norfolk. It was to have been the next home.

We were devastated. Losing someone is bad enough. But when it is a

brutal murder, we were completely knocked sideways. Margaret's sister,

who lives in Beccles, said the family has been left shattered. She

said Roger was a talented engineer. Detectives in St Lucia have found a

small boat, believed to have been used in the robbery which contained

items stolen from their yacht. They will also look at Margaret's online

blog and photos. One last entry, on her 60th birthday, she wrote...

We will continue investigations, officers on the ground, on south of

the island to interview possible witnesses, the suspects, maybe

conduct searches. The flag at this yacht club flies at half mast. The

club did not want to go on camera, but said in a statement that they

were shocked and saddened to hear of Roger's death. Paul was an old

sailing friend, they had competed together many times. Absolutely

devastated. Just one of those things you do not expect to happen. They

were really enjoying themselves out there doing what they wanted to do,

and it is ended like this. Police are questioning three men, meanwhile

a postmortem examination is taking place to establish how he died.

Although traumatised, Margaret is helping detectives piece together

the devastating moments of last Friday.

A year ago, another Suffolk couple were shot and robbed in Barbados

during a round the world cruise. Philip Prior was shot in the groin.

His wife Ann was shot in her right leg. They join us now from their

home near Framlingham. Philip, did you feel threatened while you were

in the Caribbean? Not generally, we felt very happy. We were in the

wrong place at the wrong time. Ann, remind us what happened to you?

Well, I was attacked from behind. And it all happened so quickly, and

I cared to macro shots, looked down, saw that I was bleeding. `` I cared

to macro shots. I saw my husband on the floor. I just started screaming

for people to come and help us. Philip, high wattage with you with

the authorities? Were they concerned, because this will affect

the tourist industry. I think it does impact on something that is

their main source of income, and they were extremely helpful, doing

everything possible, continuing to do so since we returned. They did

not find the people who attacked you? Yes, they have been brought to

trial, and I think the judge was pronouncing sentence today. What

would you say, Ann, to anyone thinking of going to the Caribbean?

Well, obviously, you have to be very vigilant. It is very difficult to

know what to say. You must still go on holiday. You cannot just sit at

home. And just not do anything. You have to go and travel. Thank you

both for coming `` for speaking to us. You both look at and well. ``

fit and well. A teenage girl has described how

fighting erupted at a party in Colchester where a 17`year`old

student was fatally stabbed. Jay Whiston died in September 2012.

Edward Redman, who's 18, is standing trial for his murder. Simon Newton

sent us this report from Chelmsford Crown Court.

Today, we heard from the man who was supervising the party in Colchester

where Jay Whiston died. And from the teenage girl who organised it. Both

described how the atmosphere changed as the evening wore on. How a

scuffle erupted and how moments later paramedics arrived to attend

to a young man. Paul Gathercole told Chelmsford

Crown Court how everything had been done to make the party said. ``

safe. He had patrolled the garden and parts of the house in Marlowe

Way had been taped off. But at 9:30pm, the atmosphere changed. Mr

Gathercole said he was told that a scuffle had broken out. When he went

to investigate, he was attacked. A dustbin lid was thrown at him and

punches were thrown. Eventually, he pushed the young man down an alley.

Someone shouted that his name was Luke. Jay Whiston's mother, Caroline

Shearer, sobbed as Mr Gathercole described how, a short time later,

he saw emergency services arriving and a young man slumped in a

neighbour's doorway. Someone said they had seen a male with a knife,

he told the court. Jay Whiston, who was 17 and from Clacton, was stabbed

in the abdomen and heart and died soon afterwards. Edward Redman, who

is 18 and from Colchester, soon afterwards. Edward Redman, who

is 18 and from denies murdering him. The party was organised by a

15`year`old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons. She told

the jury she had used a private Facebook page to send out invites.

Asked about that night, she said should remembered two boys

wrestling. They had their heads down and were moving fast, she said. I

was very distressed. In the dock with Edward Redmond are his father

Gary and 19`year`old brother John. They deny perverting the course of

justice. Sitting alongside them, and also denying the same charge, is

18`year`old Shannon Fenlon. This evening, Jay Whiston's mother,

father Stafford Whiston, and stepfather Michael Shearer, left

court together. The trial continues. The girl who organised the party,

who is now 17, gave her evidence from behind a screen. She told the

court she didn't know Edward Redman or Jay Whiston. Tomorrow, we will

hear from other youngsters who attended the party about what they

recall of that fateful night. The Police Federation is planning a

meeting with senior officers to discuss the policing of club land in

Norwich after an officer was attacked. It happened early

yesterday after the police were called to Mojo's nightclub in Prince

of Wales Road. The officer was knocked unconscious and has a broken

a leg. The nature reserve where a

helicopter crashed on the coast of Norfolk has reopened to the public.

Four people were killed when the American military aircraft came down

on Cley Marshes nearly two weeks ago. The coast road has also

reopened. But the immediate crash site will stay sealed off.

A war of words has broken out between the Suffolk MP Tim Yeo and

members of his local party. It's over whether he should stand as

their Member of Parliament at the next election. The South Suffolk

Association decided last month to drop him as their candidate for

2015. Today they accused him of being largely invisible in the

constituency. But Mr Yeo says he has widespread support.

Tim Yeo is fighting hard to save his political career. This website has

been setup for people to pledge their support. And he's got some

high`profile backers. The MP is also said to have sent out more Christmas

cards than usual this year. After 30 representing South Suffolk, he is

not prepared to go quietly. It was back in November at this hall in

Sudbury that members of the association executive decided by

clear majority that they didn't want Mr Yeo to stand for them in 2015.

Today, for the first time, they went public with their reasons. After 30

years, we needed a change of face and a freshening up. We've obviously

got quite a few MPs locally that are making more of a mark. And I think

South Suffolk is losing out by not having a more dynamic MP. This

letter has gone to all association members today. It says that Mr Yeo

has one of the lowest attendance records in Parliament and is largely

invisible in the constituency. It also criticises his outside business

interests. From which, it says, he earns large sums of money.

This is a man who has served this constituency for 30 years. Is this

really the way to end his career? No, it's not. What he should have

done is actually said, I'm 70, I'll retire. Then we could all get behind

him and have a jolly good send off. Rather than have this animosity that

we've got now. A former minister in the Major government, a respected

expert on energy matters, Tim Yeo has refused requests for interviews.

But his friends say that he has played a major role in local issues,

lobbying to improve the Ambulance Service and the A14. And helping

remove Andrea Hill as head of Suffolk County Council. In his

constituency today, mixed views. I know that people have been

thinking that last term he didn't do that much. He's not here very often.

And he is my age and should go. I've been retired, why shouldn't he? He's

about in Hadley quite a bit. I think he does all right. Today, ballot

papers were sent out to all 600 members of the local party. They

will have the final say on whether he will stand again 2015.

Andrew is here now. How bad is this for Mr Yeo? Difficult when your

executive times against you. When this happened and Harrogate, Crispin

Blunt appealed and ended up winning. This could happen, Mr Yeo is proud

of his year could `` pride of his record, believes his outside

interests do not affect his work as an MP. But his critics say people

want to go. We will find out in two weeks time. Just another headache

for the Tories? Yes, another row in south`east Cambridgeshire, and in

Suffolk, the Tories lost two seats to UKIP in council elections, not a

great start to the year. Thank you. Listeners to BBC Radio Suffolk are

waking up to a new voice. From today, Etholle George has taken over

as presenter of the breakfast show. Etholle has been a regular weekend

presenter of Look East and the Sunday Politics programme as well as

a favourite on BBC Essex. She's taking over the breakfast show from

previous presenter Terry Baxter. Still to come tonight, the war hero

from Suffolk, who was given his very own movie premiere.

Plus the athlete from Milton Keynes booked today for the Winter

Olympics. We chocolate lovers got some good

news today. news today. Researchers at the

University of East Anglia say the ingredients in chocolate and tea can

ward off diabetes. But before you go reaching for a box

of your favourite soft centres, the researchers say they are talking

about dark chocolate in small quantities. In a moment, the

professor who led the research. That's after this from Mike Liggins.

Tom Trett was diagnosed with type two diabetes 17 years ago and since

then it's been a daily struggle to keep his sugar levels right. He

checks them six six times a day and inject insulin twice a day.

Frustration is the main thing, you are never on top of it all of the

time, you get days your blood glucose readings are particularly

high and there is no real reason. Today, researchers offer people like

Tom some comfort. In a survey, they found ingredients and berries, tea

and, yes, chocolate could help guard against diabetes. They say eating

high levels of flava nine is a good thing and at the Kinnerton chocolate

factory in Norfolk, this comes as no surprise. It is fantastic news.

Being a chocolate manufacturer, I would say that. And if it is part of

a healthy, balanced diet, it is good news for the consumer. It is about

eating healthily, which should be the same but everybody. That is the

key word. I do not eat any special diabetic food. The charity, Diabetes

UK, said the findings need to be interpreted with caution, and even

if... But for people with diabetes, like

Tom Trett, any step forward, no matter how small, is to be warmly

welcomed. The good news about chocolate comes

from Aedin Cassidy. She is a professor at the UEA. And this is

about prevention, not a cure? Absolutely. We want to focus on

people eating more fruit and vegetables and, in particular,

berries seem to be particularly important. As part of a healthy

diet, no question that small amounts of red wine, moderate amounts of

dark chocolate, may help. And this is the red colour in the vegetables

and fruits? Right, the contained powerful bioactive ingredients. And

there was one class that are responsible for that lovely red,

blue coloured you get in black currants, strawberries, blueberries,

for example. So a red apple might happen, angry man will not? Green

apple will not? Absolutely. And can I gorge on these to help? We look at

people who had tiny amounts, against people who had low levels, against

high levels. And some berries seem to be connected to better controls

of blood sugar levels and blood pressure. And presumably you will

need to have a controlled experiment to see this the truth? With funding,

we have a large trial starting at UEA medical school, and we are

looking for local volunteers who are generally healthy, overweight, aged

between 50 and 75, so contact us as we would love to have a trial

looking at different doses of berries over six months and look at

the effects. Getting lots of diet chocolate and wine? Unfortunately

not, this will just look at berries. Fascinating and important, thank you

very much. Thank you. Three weeks from now, the Winter

Olympics. In such a Russia. `` the Winter Olympics will begin in

Russia. Craig Pickering from Milton Keynes is set to join an exclusive

club of British athletes who have competed at both a summer and winter

Olympics. He'll be part of Britain's four`man bobsleigh team. They're the

ones that race down an icy slope at enormous speed. Craig learnt of his

qualification this weekend. Starts in three weeks.

It's agony when your Olympic place depends on someone else. Craig

Pickering's chances of an Olympic place depended on the B team's

qualifications time. But a last` minute tactical change of crew

meant, instead of thundering behind the Bobsleigh, he was left watching

and waiting in the Austrian air. The tactic paid off. Pickering is bound

for Russia. It's been a very tough couple of weeks. We could have

clinched qualification a number of times that we've just missed out. So

it has come down to the wire. It was difficult for us not being involved

in that team. But thank God, the team pulled together and did it for

us, really. We are over the moon. Pickering will be just the third

Briton to have competed at both a summer and winter Olympics. A former

sprinter, he raced in Beijing in 2008. He will now apply the brakes

for Britain in the second Bobsleigh crew in Sochi. I try and divide it

into two separate things. So there is the first thing is my job. That

is hitting the Bobsleigh as hard as I can and running with it and then

jumping in. The second aspect is where I am very passive. So I just

keep my head down and hope it goes OK. So, for me, I just tend to focus

on the first bit. And not be scared of the second bit, which is where

you are probably going to crash. Pickering's power and physicality

honed from athletics has helped. His nerves, though, have had to play

catch up. He described his first run down an ice chute a year ago like

being on a roller`coaster on acid. What does it mean to you that that's

led has not into the Olympics? Well, I'll be going to the Olympics now.

And that is why I do sport. I've been to one Olympic Games. To go to

another one is fantastic. I am so happy. Craig was hoping to form part

of Britain's A team bob. Instead, he is the B team brakeman, but still

making history. The price of domestic energy has

become one of the big political talking points. And it doesn't look

like going away. Latest figures show the average cost of heating a home

has risen to ?1200 pounds a year. These are so`called passive houses.

They are near Saffron Walden. The heating bills here are around

one`tenth of those of a normal house. Tonight's edition of Inside

Out is taking a look at them in the company of their architect Chris

Parsons. He's here now. What makes them so special? They are built to a

much higher quality than we would normally expect. We addressed the

five major factors which affect energy performance. For example, we

will address installation, thermal bridging, air leakage, and we try to

design so that we can make the best use of occupancy and solar gains.

Those combined will provide an energy efficient dwelling. Explain

how you keep your home? You do not need to use fuel at all in some

cases? You can get away with very small amounts of fuel, or none

whatsoever. We make the best use of occupancy games, so televisions,

computers, cooking, people themselves giving about 100

watts... Heating your home yourself? Yes, and we design the windows to

make best use of solar gains, getting used from the sun, keeping

that within the fabric of the building. But these kind of houses

cost more, putting people off, because they have to cough up quite

a bit more upfront? They do cost more, better in solution,

high`quality doors and windows. But the running costs are so

significantly low that the payback period is very short. How do we

compare with the continent? How many of these houses are being built here

compare to the continent? The standard is Passivhaus, originating

in 1999 in Europe. Thousands have been built in Europe, but we have

about 150 in the UK, although growing quickly, but quite slow and

catching up. Briefly, do you think this is the kind of house we will

live on in 50 years time? I do. The standards are increasing and the

government is putting as under pressure to produce better

buildings, but we are ahead of the curve with the Passivhaus standard.

Thank you very much. And there's more on energy saving,

and on the people who prefer to steal their energy from other

people, on Inside Out. That's tonight on BBC One at 7:30pm.

Next tonight, an unusual movie premiere. When actors Colin Firth

and Nicole Kidman recently posed for pictures on the red carpet, there

was someone missing. Their film, The Railway Man, tells the story of

wartime prisoners of war forced to build the so`called Death Railway.

Roland Baker from Suffolk was one of those POWs. And when the movie had

its premiere in London, he was invited. But at 93, the journey was

a bit too much. So instead of him heading to the red carpet, the red

carpet came to him. It wasn't quite Leicester Square,

but it was the next best thing. The Regal Cinema in Stowmarket just a

few miles from Roland Baker 's home held its own premiere of this new

film. And who better to be VIP on what was his 93rd birthday? The girl

said, you couldn't get to London to the red carpet. We will bring the

red carpet to Stowmarket. And they did. And I met with the Mayoress of

Stowmarket as well. And they got you a cake? Yeah, a big cake, yes. I've

still got some in the kitchen. I've never been to the Highlands

before. So suddenly, finding myself single again...

The film stars Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman and is based on the

bestselling book by Eric Lomax about the POWs who worked on the

Thai`Burma railway as captives during the Second World War. Roland,

known as Rolly, served with the Suffolk Regiment and endured three

and a half years of brutal treatment at the hands of the Japanese. He

weighed around 11 stone at the start. Just half that by the end.

Very tough. Lost 648 of our two regiments. They died on that

railway. Disease, you know. And you got rice and boiled water. Three and

a half years. We buried 30 in one day in the camp one dinner time. 30

dead. Yeah. Roland says the film stirred emotions. And, from other

guests at the screening, a recognition of what these men

enjoyed. Just ordinary blokes. But extraordinary blokes. They never

want to talk about it. They just want to have fun and tell you

stories. Funny stories and things like that. Good old British, you

know. Roland still has a map showing the railway and the graves of the

comrades they lost. More than 6000 men died. The key thing he says is

that people don't forget. Remarkable story. Now for the

weather. It was quite chilly this morning.

And and for many winter sunshine. High cloud turning the sunshine a

bit hazy, although Norfolk stayed misty all day. Mist, Mark and Fog is

the feature of tonight. Likely to form quite bravely. Some fog quite

dense. Likely to be freezing in some places as well. These are the lows

in towns and cities, but possibly minus one off two in rural spots.

That means frost and some icy patches on the roads. Tomorrow, a

front moves slowly towards us. That means the rain associated should not

reach as until Wednesday night. Tomorrow looking dry. But it looks

like the mist and fought for some could linger through the morning.

Eventually slowly lifting into low cloud. And some others might be some

brightness and sunshine, but on the whole, we expect cloudy skies.

Underneath that cloud, it will feel chilly. At best, temperatures are

around six Celsius. But we have the fog lingers tomorrow morning,

temperatures here actually could stay a few degrees lower, struggling

above three Celsius. The wind becoming stronger, but still light,

southerly in direction, bringing in some dried air, possibly lifting the

cloud, but a lot around still. Into Wednesday, it looks like the front

eventually pushes in from the West, bringing outbreaks of the rain, so I

cloudy start, outbreaks of rain, some brightness and rain in the west

of the region on Wednesday, and then drying out and becoming brighter,

but all depending on how quickly the rain pushes off to the North Sea. We

expected to be cloudy in the East, with continuing rain for much of the

day. I was late `` Thursday largely cloudy with rain. A cold and frosty

start on Friday, then largely financed right, but later on,

possibly after dark, we expect wet and windy weather to move in, and it

could turn to sleet and snow for a time, something we are keeping an

eye on. Well done. Your voice held out!

LAUGHTER. That is all from all of us. The night. `` good night.