04/06/2014 Look East - West

In the programme tonight: That is all

Stabbed during a robbery, a victim sees his teenaged attacker detained.

You know, when you hear your daughter screaming and that you just

do what you do. I am not a hero I just did what I thought was best.

Back in court, multiple murderer Ang Zhiang Du appeals

against his 40 year jail sentence for killing a Northampton f`mily.

The taskforce targetting the multi`million pound scal that's

caught out hundreds of people in our region.

She's chef of the year and she's making anyone with jokes about

A man attacked and left for dead in a burglary that went wrong today

saw his teenaged assailant locked up for 12 years.

Tony Abrahams was stabbed four times during the raid on his home in Luton

His 16`year`old attacker was described as dangerous and defiant.

Tony Abrahams says November 16 last year was a day that changed his

family's lives for ever. He was woken by the sound of his d`ughter

screaming at their home in Luton. Three masked intruders had broken in

and when he tried to stop them he was stabbed repeatedly. I tried to

get to Jade `` had a bit of a fight and then a bundle and that hs when

it all happened. I did not think it was real. When you hear your

daughter screaming and that, you just do what you do. I am not a hero

or anything, I just did what I thought was best. One of those

responsible for the near fatal attack had only just turned 16.

Today he was sentenced at Ltton Crown Court for his part in the

crime which the judge said was vicious and merciless. Sentdncing

the 16`year`old to 12 years detention followed by a further five

years on licence, the judge described him as dangerous `nd

defiant. As the teenager was led away from the donkey turns towards

his victims in the public g`llery and waved. Luton Crown Court heard

that the juvenile suffers from a personality disorder and have spent

much of his childhood in care. His Victim Support they are strtggling

to sympathise. And have spent much of his childhood in care. Hhs Victim

Support they are struggling to sympathise. Hundreds of people it

does not give you the right to break into people 's houses and rtin

lives. I have no sympathy for him at all. Seeing how my mum and dad are

suffering and obviously that affects me more than what they did coming in

my house. The Abrahams say they are pleased dangerous young man has been

taken off the streets. They are determined they will not let him

Neil Bradford joins us from our Luton newsroom now.

Neil, a terrifying experience for the Abrahams family,

That is right. The two other intruders that night have ydt to be

traced. In mitigation the court was told that the 16`year`old w`s not

the instigator of this crimd but the judge disagreed, saying he was not a

follower in this case, but right at the forefront. Despite the fact that

two of the attackers are sthll at large, the Abrahams have taken some

comfort from today's sentencing and they say they are determined to

rebuild their lives after their terrifying ordeal. Thank yot.

It's emerged in the last few minutes that babies

at two of the region's hosphtals have become ill after being given

what appears to be a contamhnated batch of specialised feed.

Addenbrooks Hospital and Luton and Dunstable Hospital both reported

two cases of babies in the neo`natal intensive card unit

Four other hospitals across England are involved.

14 others are said to be responding well to antibiothcs.

We'll have more on that in our late bulletin.

He was sentenced to a minimtm of 40 years in prison for the murder

Now businessman Anxiang Du has failed to appeal against

Today his case was heard at the Court of Appeal.

The Ding family, in April 2011 or four were stabbed to death, their

killer of former friend and business partner, Anxiang Du. He wanted

revenge after losing a legal battle with them. He went to the f`mily's

home and first slaughtered the couple and then their two d`ughters.

He went on the run for 14 months and eventually he was arrested hn

Morocco. In November he was jailed for life with a minimum terl of 40

years. Relatives of the victims gave their reaction after he was found

guilty, a statement read on their behalf. Anxiang Du deserves what he

receives, justice has been served. We can now say our peace to our

family in heaven. Today the Court of Appeal considered a request from

Anxiang Du who had asked for permission to legally challdnge the

length of his sentence. Had one of these victims been murdered by an

life taken to the scene the criminal services act says an appropriate

starting point is 25 years. The murder of two persons requires a

starting point of 30 years. In our judgement it is simply an arguable

that the assessment of 40 ydars is either wrong in principle or

manifestly excessive. In other words the 40 year term remains. Wd agree,

A coroner has heard today how a family trip to Billing Aquadrome in

Two`year`old Mandy Munhuwa fell into a lake after going missing

She was rescued and resuscitated but died two months later in hospital.

Today the Northamptonshire coroner recorded a verdict

This afternoon Mandy's parents paid tribute to their daughter.

I just could not comprehend how this could have happened when I was

there, how it could have pl`yed out like this. I just had this big heavy

cloud of blame on me which H will probably carry to my grave. She was

lovely always smiling, she would jump and sing. She was just a lovely

New rules are to be introduced to crack down on the exploitathon of

The Modern Slavery Bill which was announced in the Pueens

speech follows a long campahgn by MPs in Cambridgeshire.

They say the new legislation which could see human traffhckers

jailed for life is the first of its kind in the world.

Andrew Sinclair is at Westmhnster now so who is this aimed at?

It is aimed at those who smtggle foreigners into this countrx, often

in very dangerous conditions and also those who employed illdgally

when they get here. You will remember last night we reported on

the case of Tommy Connors who was jailed last year for treating its

workers like modern slaves, people like him. It follows a long campaign

from MPs who have witnessed cases of human trafficking and also cases of

migrant workers being put in squalid conditions and paid next to nothing.

They are delighted that the law is being toughened. I think we have

seen some really sickening `nd tragic cases of human traffhcking

and modern day slavery, particularly in the Fens. Some nasty and

unscrupulous people. These proposals, enacted in law after a

long campaign of almost eight years, are very good news and they

will crack down on some unpleasant people and make sure that this

scourge of modern day slavery is reduced and hopefully eradicated in

our area. What difference will this ndw

lawmaker? There will be much tougher penalties, particularly for those

involved in human trafficking. At the moment you can go to prhson for

40 years but that will be rdduced to `` increased to life. For those

involved there will be true reparations to compensate pdople for

the suffering endured. Therd will be an anti`slavery committee to

coordinate the law response. At the moment there are five or six

different pieces of legislation that cover this and different agdncies

are involved, everything from the police to social workers and the

border agency. The idea is to have one person overseeing it all and one

main law that will make it dasier to crack down on offenders and make it

easier to have a better lifd for victims.

Police forces need to rethink the way they're organised,

their relationship with the public and their leadership

That's according to Adam Silmonds the Police and Crime Commissioner

Today he's addressed the national body for future police leaddrs.

I am really pleased with all of that. On his glossy board, @dam

Simmonds points to a list of all of his priorities and goals. It does

not stop there. He has big hdeas on how the police should changd for the

21st`century. We will see a force that is much more mobile, ldss

reliance on working out of ` police station and more likely working out

of a vehicle. Similar to st`te troopers in the United statds who

work entirely out of their vehicles. We will see a police force that has

links with the police service under Fire Service and the Ambulance

Service. The force will be better trained and better able to tse

evidence. Adam Simmonds says the police are primarily reactive and

should in future focus on predicting and preventing crime. In his speech

today he told future police leaders that the system had to be epuipped

to deal with the challenges of our modern age, more intelligence and

evidence `based, coordinated, joined up, coherent.

You have taken a bit of a pop at the old guard crusty type of police

officer that is set in their old ways. I basically said that the

future police officer, the ones we want to recruit in and the ones that

will be leaders in the future, will not be refined `` defined bx the

ones of the past. There will be less of that that have spent 30 xears in

the police service and people will have been running other companies. I

think the leadership experidnce will be wider and less service specific.

Adam Simmonds says the police service has to change to move with

the times, focusing more on victims and witnesses.

Police are trying to track down two people who were caught lying down

They've released these CCTV images of a man and woman seen loitering

That's between Woburn Sands and Bow Brickhill stations.

British Transport Police have called it foolish and extremely dangerous.

The incident was captured bx Network Rail cameras on Aprhl 1 th.

Now back to Stewart and Sushe for the rest of

A task force set up to tackle a phone scam in our region says in

the first four months of thhs year nearly 900 people were targdted

Not every attempt was successful Not every attempt was successful

but still ?313,000 was stoldn from victims here.

The work of the task force hs being featured on the BBCs Watchdog

programme tonight. She is a highly regarded

mathematician and the mother of Tim Berners`Lee who created the World

Wide Web. She had a phone c`ll from someone she believed was thd police.

They told me they had arrested two young men who had a clone of my

credit card. They told me to link the number on the back of mx card.

The man was not from the police but was a professional con artist. She

hung up and immediately picked it up again to make the cold. The

fraudsters were still on thd line. The fact is they have an opdn phone

line and even if you fallen the emergency services you would not

connect to that. You're convinced you're phoning a legitimate number.

The scammers told her to withdraw thousands of pounds from thd bank

and a career would pick it tp from her home because she thought she was

talking to the genuine fraud department, and so she agredd. I put

it into the bag. I handed the bag over. It was only later it dawned on

her that she might have been conned and when she called the polhce they

confirm that. I felt very foolish, dreadful. I felt I had been stupid.

Police are still investigathng the case and estimate many diffdrent

gangs are involved in the scams programme tonight.

This afternoon I spoke to Detective Inspector Danny L`wrence

who you saw in that report. He leads the task force targeting

the fraudsters and told me the worst affected areas

are the counties near London, but they operate across the region.

Those that commit this type of offence are very convincing and have

been doing this for a long time and one example only recent serhes of

warrants we executed, there was a book on how to speak with

confidence. They work out what they confidence. They work out what they

vulnerable, they are teachers and vulnerable, they are teachers and

insurance managers and formdr police officers, so if anyone has been a

victim do not feel you are stupid and do not feel embarrassed. How

much success are you having? It is almost a franchise. There are so

many distinct groups of indhviduals we have identified and condtcted

activity against. We have sdized property and cash and valuables One

gentleman gave over ?30,000 in cash and it was only after the third

occasion he thought something was not right and came to the police.

What are the banking industry What are the banking industry

actually doing? In that particular case you would have thought there

was alarm bells are ringing at the bank? We have spoken to staff and

told them to remain vigilant about people who they believe may be in

We have had people in us th`t they We have had people in us th`t they

have kept one of the customdrs in the bag because they felt it was

part of this scam and indeed it was, and they saved ?7,000, so the banks

have been very positive and supporting. Many people will think

they are just so many things to think about and worry about, what

would be your main message? The key message is that the bank and the

police will never ask you to hand over your possessions or crddit

cards or anything else to any courier company or anybody on the

doorstep. They will never ask you for a pen number over the phone or

to go to the bank to West brought anything. If you realise it is a

scam, use another fallen and contact the local police.

but they operate across the region. If you've been affected

by a scam and have a story to tell we'd love to hear from you.

You can contact us by phone, email, Facebook or Twitter

and please don't forget to leave a number so we can call you back.

This year we've been looking at how our region was affected by the First

World War and tonight the story of how one of our great Stately

Homes was turned into a hospital. Wrest Park in Bedfordshire hs owned

by English Heritage, but whdn war broke out, it became Britain's first

rest home for wounded soldidrs. A family home for 700 years, its

gardens crafted by capability Brown. Wrest Park is one of the code and

use of English Heritage. At the outbreak of war it was owned by Lord

Lucas. He saw what was happdning and gave Wrest Park to the nation as a

convalescence home but therd was a catch. They had to be ordin`rily

sold yours and not officers. He was quite an idealist and a libdral

intellectual and he thought it was his duty to do so. He wanted to help

the common man and saw it as seen his family have so much wealth. This

seemed like a suitable purpose rather than sitting empty. The

soldiers could not believe their surroundings, it was luxury, but as

more and more wounded were taken in, it was apparent that Wrest Park

would have to become a military hospital. Today it is quiet but it

would have been bustling with nurses, doctors, lots of thhngs

going on. The hospital was run by his sister who kept a diary

detailing every day at Wrest Park, including the happier times soldiers

spent recovering. Ordinarilx men treated as the Royals. The soldiers

in the photograph were sitthng right here, in the library which was back

then a war. There was 200 bdds and there around 1600 soldiers treated

here in total. Two years into the war it was hit by fire and never

reopen but those who stayed here always described Wrest Park as best.

rest home for wounded soldidrs. Some of Europe's leading senior

golfers are at Stoke by Nayland over the next five days

with the PGA Seniors Championship returning to the Suffolk cltb.

A number of former Ryder Cup players are

in the field with nearly a puarter of a million pounds up for grabs.

Today it's the Pro`am and following the recent success

of Paralympic sport, the totrnament is doing its best to raise `wareness

of blind and disabled golf. Tom Williams is at the club now

Thank you. We have done well today dodging most of the showers with the

seniors and celebrities impressing the crowds and showcasing their

talents. There is a nine`year`old from

Bishops Stortford who lost his leg to cancer. An elite teenage swimmer

who turned to grams six years ago. He is now aiming to become `

professional. So what sort of opportunitids are?

Off the back of London and the Paralympics, I think it has opened

everybody's eyes to what sole people can do. If it gets more people

interested in disabled golf and knowing we can play as well as

others. In the build`up to the PGA others. In the build`up to the PGA

seniors championship, is left, Carl Mason and defending champion Paul

Wessel Ling took part in thd challenge. Anyone can play with

anyone and with the handicap system, you can play against the best in the

world. It is wonderful to sde that today and try it on one leg. This

13`year`old struggles with `utism but golf has helped him deal with

life challenges. It has got me more social because can be awkward not to

talk to somebody and you have to socialise. What was it like playing

with the professionals? Nerve wracking. I could not talk. It is

hoped disabled golf will become a Paralympic sport in years to come.

Familiar faces have gathered with star is holding the game ahdad of

the seniors championship. You got a glimpse of him in the film `nd he

joins me now. Fantastic work going on to promote disabled golf.

Disabled players can be so hnspiring and had a good fortune to play with

a man with one leg who playdd better than many pro`s. The course is in

great shape and we're looking forward to a good championship.

There's free coaching for dhsabled golfers in this week call and in

fact for youngsters of all `ges and abilities.

There was a time when school dinners meant spam fritters,

Now the standard of cooking is so high there is a national

This year the title goes to a school cook from Bedfordshire

whose Spanish themed dinner wowed judges of all ages.

Anna Todd has been to meet her and her food savvy customers.

An extra lunch an hour before lunchtime. What a great job for

these schoolkids. The food was very nice, I would have more. It was very

juicy and not right. Really soft and enjoyable. It was so nice. Plating

up, Tanya Watkin, recently named the best new school chef in the country.

Judges liked her Spanish menu. She is a floating chef who works in

schools across Beds. She had just an hour and they have to creatd a two

course menu that was nutrithous balanced and ?1 60. She has entered

the competition six times. Hn 2 12 she forgot to put sugar in the

muffins and in 2013 and in 2013 her pan a court heard that not set.

There was almost a sponge dhsaster this year. `` pannacotta. I had to

get more ingredients and work very hard to make it in the time but it

was all good in the end. Colpetitors cooked all morning and then waited.

It was a nightmare. I was over the moon. The proof of heritability

is... In the pudding. Demolhshed by schoolchildren in seconds. `` have

ability. We heard they managed to dodge most

of the showers. Many parts of the region had dry

weather. Here is the radar picture and you can see a lot of rahn this

morning with much of it tow`rds the north`west. This is the art of rain

currently over Wales is working its way back towards us. Where ht is dry

at the moment things will go downhill through the second half of

the evening. Heavy rain working East Lords tomorrow morning, gradually

clearing towards the end of tonight. The weapons are also picking up with

moderate westerlys. Tomorrow will be a bit of a slow start thanks to this

easier of low pressure. Things will improve with time through the course

of the day saw a bit of a cloudy and upstart to day. Gradually clearing

with brighter weather from the south`west. And improving phcture.

Quite breezy with a moderatd westerly. 18 and up to 19 Cdlsius.

The Antiques road show is coming to Northampton tomorrow. Through

tomorrow night, clear skies and light winds mean it will be chilly

but into Friday, very warm `nd humid coming up from the south. Lots of

sunshine around and quite w`rm but on Saturday this weather front

destabilises the humidity and we could get some thunderstorms

developing through Saturday. Not a lot of detail but the risk of some

heavy downpours. High presstre builds from the south on Sunday and

it will be less humid late hn the weekend. Very war on a Frid`y night

with the risk of some thunderstorms.

That's all from us, have good evening.

When the first travellers crossed America, they were faced with this -