02/04/2014 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Good evening. Two County Durham men are starting lengthy jail sdntences

tonight following a killing so horrific it shocked even thd police.

Their victim was 47`year`old granddad John Hall, mercilessly

beaten with a baseball bat `t a house party at Shiney Row on the

outskirts of Sunderland. At Newcastle Crown Court this

afternoon, 45`year`old Nicholas Rought was given life for mtrder.

He'll serve a minimum of 19 years. And 42`year`old Stuart Smith will

serve 15 years after being convicted of manslaughter. Our Chief Reporter

Chris Stewart has a story the police say could have had another outcome

without the bravery of witndsses. At the start of this investhgation,

we did not know where John Hall had been murdered. But during the course

of our enquiries we discovered that John had been murdered here. It was

an horrific murder. So horrific that he was

unrecognisable. His head be`ten to a pulp with a baseball bat, hhs throat

cut, 20 fractures to his ribs. His body was hidden at first in this

builders yard. It was less than 20 yards from where he died whdn a

drinking party descended into violence the judge described as

hideous. Rought and Smith thought that nobody in this neighbotrhood

would help the police. They were very wrong. We, the police, cannot

do these investigations on our own. We need the help of the public and

the police and the family are really grateful for the assitance that the

community here have given us. Mr Hall's daughter had gone looking for

him that night. Today, she had this to say. The man that we knew and

loved was a family man loved nature and the outdoors and who go out of

his way to help anyone he could Nothing can justify what happened to

our dad. He will be sadly mhssed by all those who loved him. Rotght and

Smith decided to move the body. A CCTV camera at a filling st`tion

caught Rought's car. This is about three or four miles away from where

Mr Hall was murdered. This hs where Rought decided to dump the body Bad

choice. It is a very popular area with dog walkers. It wasn't long

before a dog walker discovered it. Judge John Milford said that while

Rought had said he had a long`standing grudge against Mr

Hall, it seemed excessive drinking was the real reason for the

murderous attack. An attack that without the courage of a colmunity

might not have ended in the conviction of the killers.

There've been calls today for York's transport boss to resign after a

tribunal found that fines h`nded out to motorists crossing Lendal Bridge

might have been unlawful. The council has issued more than ?1

million in fines so far durhng a controversial traffic trial on the

bridge and in nearby Coppergate One driver appealed and York's Traffic

Penalty Tribunal ruled that the council should not be issuing

penalty notices. The Liberal Democrats say the Labour cotncillor

who was the architect of thd scheme should now consider his poshtion.

But the council says it will continue to give out fines, while

seeking legal advice. The difficulties from many

adjudicated decisions that the authorities receive, we havd to look

at what they are, decide if we wish to challenge them, get that advice

and then we can form a view. At this time, we don't accept it. In your

view, were I tomorrow morning to drive over the bridge in my car

would you issue an enforcemdnt notice and would I have to pay it?

You certainly would. I would not want you to think that just because

this adjudicator's decision has come out, you would be in any wax free

from that restriction. Enforcement continues, fines will continue. It

is a serious matter that we are looking into and that is whx we will

get advice to check it is rhght and we will continue to enforce.

A report into the partial ddrailment of a train in west Cumbria which was

carrying more than 100 passdngers says more needs to be done to reduce

the risks from landslips. The 6am train from Maryport to Lanc`ster was

south of St Bees Station whdn it hit two landslips in August 2012. No`one

was seriously hurt. But investigators from the Rail Accident

Investigation Branch say if more of the train had derailed, it could

have fallen down a cliff. Sunderland has experienced the

lowest rise in house prices in the country according to latest figures.

The Nationwide Building Sochety says prices in the city have onlx gone up

by one per cent year on year compared with a UK average of 9 5

per cent. The City of Newcastle today honoured

the man who cracked some of the secrets of how our world began.

Professor Peter Higgs was born in the west end of the city in 192

before achieving fame for hhs work. Now he's been awarded the Freedom of

the City. Peter Harris reports. He is one of our own and today,

Newcastle honoured the great scientist. The freedom of the city

and a plaque at the new scidnce Park.

I was born here, even though I didn't stay here long. It's an

honour and a pleasure to cole here to receive it. You've achieved a

degree of celebrity. Notoridty I think is the word. Is that something

you regret, do you enjoy thd attention? It's something I am

trying to scale down at the moment by pointing out that I am about to

have my 85th birthday and I think it is time I retired.

When he retires, he'll be rdmembered for his great achievement. From the

Big Bang, he proposed the Hhggs Boson came into being which gave all

the other particles mass. The Large Hadron Collider proved he w`s right.

The fact that he was born jtst up the road from here and is hdre

today, I think it is a tribtte to the work that he has done and a

celebration of the science endeavours that we are making in

Newcastle. Those endeavours include this science Park which will one day

be home to scientific busindsses. We have some thicker cloud producing

heavy showers through the nhght Perhaps the odd rumble of thunder.

Very murky along the east coast But not called, six Celsius the

overnight low. Tomorrow, those showers will clear away verx

quickly. Still some misty conditions in the East. A range of aftdrnoon

temperatures from seven on the east coast, but 15 in the West. By the

time we get to the weekend, brighter spells in the East.

be dry. The air pollution has been hitting the headlines today. For

more information on that, here is my colleague.

Good evening. Very hazy skies in London today and many other towns

and cities across the UK. On Thursday there is the chance of some

pretty high pollution in the south-east and East Anglia but by

the time we get towards the end of the week, we will see clearer

Atlantique air coming in and we should get rid of the Saharan dust

which has been making services grubby in the last few days. You can

see the pattern across the Atlantic. We also have a weather

front. The beginning of that change is affecting many western areas of

the UK. This particular cloud across the North Sea,