28/04/2014 Midlands Today

Good evening. The NHS Trust running That's all from us.

Good evening. The NHS Trust running Stafford Hospital has been fined

over ?200,000 following the death of a diabetic patient seven years ago.

Gillian Astbury died after staff at the Mid Staffordshire trust failed

to identify she needed insulin. Gillian died on the 11th of April

2007, simply because she wasn't given insulin. She was failed by

nurses on a shift is, conducting 11 drug rounds. Unusually, the high

Sheriff sat next to the judge, who said responsibility lay firmly at

the door of management at the highest level. Every hospital

patient has the right to expect more. Serious safety management

flaws were identified by our investigation. We expect lessons to

be learnt across the NHS, to prevent this happening again. The carer

fought for seven years for someone to be held responsible for taking

everything from him. He has described the whole prosecution to

me as Monty Python but he said after seven years of talking common sense,

to those forced to defend the nonsensical, enough is enough.

Ultimately, a trust which is ?21 million in the red has to pay

?227,000. This was about getting messages out there, in the hope that

it will send some shock waves through the boardrooms of other NHS

trusts. So, why didn't the Health and Safety Executive prosecute

individuals? I said my statement, thank you. The judge talked of

accountability but family and friends feel no senior executive has

been held accountable. Our reporter Liz Copper is in

Stafford. Liz, do you expect there to be any more prosecutions?

Gillian's family have made it clear. They see this as the end of a long

and distressing process and in its statement, the trust said this was

the final stage of the investigations into her death. As

for other prosecutions, we know that prosecutors are looking at one other

case, that is the name `` that is the case of ivy. They are looking at

173 cases but we have no idea, if any, of those cases might lead to a

prosecution. There has been a second inquest into

another patient. What more can you tell us about that?

That is the case of John Robinson. He was 20 when he died in April

2006. The inquest into his death today, we heard from the coroner who

said the findings of the first inquest into his case had been

quashed and this was to be a fresh inquest, looking at fresh evidence.

Tributes have been paid to two Midlands servicemen who died in a

helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Oliver Thomas and

Flight Lieutenant Rakesh Chauhan were on board a Lynx helicopter

which went down 30 miles from the border with Pakistan on Saturday.

Three other servicemen on board were also killed, bringing the number of

British casualties in the Afghan conflict to 453.

Lance Corporal Oliver Thomas and Flight Lefttenant Rakesh Chauhan,

both servicemen in the prime of their lives, and both described by

the army and their families as bright, and gifted with a passion

for life. Oliver Thomas was 26 and from Kington in Herefordshire, where

he was head boy at Lady Hawkins school, voted into the job by both

teachers and pupils. The first day of term today was quiet as teachers

had planned a training day. Instead they mourned. We are absolutely

devastated today. We had a break to let the staff cleared their thoughts

and share their personal memories of Oliver. Oliver's former history

teacher remembers several trips to the First and Second World War

battlefields. You could see from an early age, he was interested in the

Armed Forces. He always showed the utmost respect for the war dead. He

would have a joke but he took his studies seriously. It is a double

blow for the school because all the's mum is a member of staff here.

I spoke to her earlier on the phone and she said a statement released

sums up her son. It said, all seized every opportunity and achieved in

all that he did. The pain of the Thomas family is matched by the

other family. I was concerned for his safety. It overshadowed the

pride we had for him and all he achieved at such a young age. And

another Midlands school is left to remember a fallen people with pride.

He was delighted to have been assigned the task in which he could

use his intellect and training to make a real difference to the world.

He was in the Royal Air Force. Oliver Thomas was in the

intelligence corps. Both were passengers on the helicopter when it

crashed in Kandahar. The bodies of both men are due to be flown back to

the UK next week. Within the next hour MPs will vote

on the proposed High Speed Rail link between London and Birmingham.

Around 30 backbench Conservatives have said they'll be voting against

the ?50 billion project, claiming it's too costly and will damage the

environment. Among them is the Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant who

was sacked as the party's Vice Chairman over outspoken opposition

to HS2. The Government won't be defeated, as Labour has given its

backing to the project. The remarkable fundraising campaign

by cancer patient Stephen Sutton has now topped the ?3 million mark.

Stephen's initial target was to raise ?10,000 for the Teenage Cancer

Trust. But the Staffordshire teenager's story has received

worldwide publicity and tonight the total stands at ?3,000,580.

That's all from me. Manish Bhasin will be here with Late Kick off at

11.25pm. I'll leave you with the weather from Shefali.

We had highs of around 16 or 17 Celsius and Midlands today but it is

not set to last for the bank today we can. It will be settled but it

will be cooler as well. `` bank holiday weekend. With the low clouds

starting to drift in from the east, we are seeing widespread for

developing, in low`lying areas particularly. Tomorrow will start

with a dull note but through the day, the sunshine will break through

and take the temperatures up to 16 or 17 Celsius. Very light winds from

the east. We have showers on Wednesday as well. Fairly heavy,

potent, thundery showers as well. Thursday and then it will turn much

cooler as we go into the bank holiday weekend.

Hello, I am going to throw some numbers at you first of all. 22

Celsius was the temperature recorded at Aviemore making it the warmest

day of the year so far. At the other end of the country, this cloud has

produced a lot of heavy and thundery downpours. A lot of rain falling in

one hour at Hurn airport. There are some showers around the Bristol

Channel. There will be so increasing amounts of mist, fog and low cloud.

Tomorrow starts grade, Misty and murky in most places. We will see

the Sun breaking through in Cumbria and the North. You might get the odd

shower in