10/02/2017 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Two Newcastle MPs say they're angry that child heart surgery

NHS England says the Freeman Hospital needs

to bring all its specialist children's services together.

At the moment some are provided three miles away,

at the Great North Children's Hospital.

Our health reporter, Sharon Barbour, has the story.

Rachel in Middlesbrough knows how difficult it is to watch your own

Her son Theo has needed it three times.

We owe them everything, we really do, they are just outstanding.

And an outstanding team, and we still have contact with them, now.

On a three-yearly basis, now, which is fantastic.

We never, ever thought we would see that.

He's one of more than 2,000 heart and lung transplant patients that

have been saved by the Freeman Hospital.

But BBC Look North has revealed for the Freeman Hospital to be able

to continue its life-saving complex child heart surgery,

NHS England says it needs to be on the same site as other

And today Newcastle Hospitals confirmed it was drawing up

plans to move everything across to the Royal

NHS England have made it very clear that they really do wish us to move.

We would need to re-equip two operating theatres,

we would need what's called a cardiac catheterisation

laboratory, we would need a large dedicated children's intensive care

area, a high-dependency area, ward beds and an outpatient clinic.

The move will be a huge challenge and will cost many tens

NHS England say Newcastle Hospitals will have to find that money

The news has drawn strong criticism from Newcastle MPs.

Chi Onwurah is writing to the Health Secretary asking

"whether forcing it to move across the city is really

And Nick Brown was also shocked to hear the news.

The issue here is between rational argument, and the weight of evidence

is clearly on Newcastle's side, versus political decision-making,

and there of course we come down to the Secretary

of State Jeremy Hunt, so we'll both be putting pressure

on the Secretary of State to at least play fair.

NHS England says Newcastle will have extra time to draw up their plans.

The Hospital Trust says the actual move could mean building a whole

new heart and transplant unit on the RVI site and that the whole

process could take years, but they have no option.

Three men have appeared in court in connection with a shooting

A doorman was injured outside Tup Tup Palace in 2015.

Two men, both from the Walker area of the city, were remanded

in custody accused of conspiracy to murder.

A third man was released on bail charged with assisting an offender.

An internet troll from South Shields who made death threats to an MP has

been jailed for two years and three months.

Two related to emails he sent to the Merseyside Labour

He told her she would "get it like Jo Cox", the MP

The 28-year-old appeared before Newcastle Crown Court,

The judge said John Nimmo's need for notoriety grossly

outweighed his concern for others and that he terrified his victims

from his home, where he thought he could remain anonymous.

Today, the 28-year-old from South Shields was jailed

for nine charges relating to threatening and offensive

messages he'd sent to a number of victims via the internet.

In July last year, he sent death threats via email to Liverpool MP

Luciana Berger just weeks after her fellow MP Jo Cox

was stabbed and shot at her constituency office.

In one email to Miss Berger, Nimmo referred to the murder,

saying "she would get it like Jo Cox", accompanied

He was also sentenced today for sending offensive emails

to an anti-hate-crime organisation, in which he threatened

to blow up a mosque, saying "death will come

In a statement read out in court today from Miss Berger, she said...

In mitigation, Nimmo's barrister said he had Asperger's syndrome

He also said it was unlikely he wouldn't reoffend

without therapy, due to psychological problems.

It's not the first time Nimmo's been convicted for this type of offence -

in 2014 he was jailed for offensive tweets to a journalist and an MP.

Sentencing John Nimmo, Judge Robert Adams told him his

actions had been cowardly and caused fear, misery and paranoia

He also said it was of great concern that he had thought it was "fun"

to get reactions from people whilst abusing them anonymously,

and that his need for recognition had stopped any remorse.

Bradley Lowery, the five-year-old Sunderland football fan

who has terminal cancer, has had some special

The Black Cats' top scorer Jermain Defoe and goalkeeper

Vito Mannone popped in to see him, along with Seb Larsson

A photo of Bradley falling asleep cuddling Defoe has been liked

by tens of thousands of people on social media.

Finally, the Minster Police, who protect the grounds

of York Minster, are to get the same powers as regular police officers.

Thought to be the oldest police force in the country,

its officers have been looking after the cathedral

Although it's a private force, they've had specialist training,

Time now for the weekend weather forecast with Jen Bartram.

We start tonight's forecast with a yellow warning

for snow, falling as showers through the night tonight.

Not all of us will catch them but on higher ground

Those showers will be with us first thing tomorrow morning.

They'll gradually start to turn more to rain as we head through the day.

Parts of Cumbria staying largely dry but the showers will gradually start

to push over as we head into the afternoon,

Temperatures 4-6, but add on the strength of that brisk

north-easterly wind and it will be feeling much colder than that.

Into Sunday, many parts start off dry but there will be some further

showers to come in the forecast, again, falling as snow

Some brightness across western parts of Cumbria later on in the day

Temperatures up to four or five degrees.

Here's a reminder of the weather this weekend.

Now the national forecast with Louise Lear.

exception to that rule probably over the hills where again there could be

a bit of snow, but not accumulating. Another cold

However I paint this weekend's picture, I'll need a palette of

grey. Thereby a a lot of cloud around but I managed to find some

sunshine. I don't know how but there was a couple of hours towards the

south-west in Cornwall, a beautiful day. The south-west saw glimpses of

sunshine. Further east, cloudy, cold and grey with winds off the North

seep and a scattering of wintry showers. Yes, rain sleet and snow, a

dusting at lower levels through the day. It brought this beautiful

picture on the outskirts of Aberdeenshire. But enough of the

sun, let's get back to the nitty gritty and talk about the snow

showers that will continue across the eastern half of the UK

throughout the night. There will be some significant accumulations

higher ground. A dusting at lower levels, and it will 's be cold

further north and