16/08/2011 North West Tonight

Good evening. Welcome to North West Tonight. Our top story:

Trial and retribution, but a week after the riots we ask if justice

is really being done. We will be talking to the head of

the Crown Prosecution Service in the North West about how the

rioters have been dealt with. 4,000 jobs at risk. MBNA announce

they want to sell their credit card division, but at what cost?

Relief at last. The teenager who suffers the agony of arthritis is

given a trial drug which has changed her life. It took six weeks

until I noticed a proper deference when I could get out of the

wheelchair and walk. And how one couple have been

reunited with an old friend, thanks to the local council.

And that story about the couple who have been reunited with the bench

they did their courting on is our e-mail subject tonight. Let us know

what reminds you of your courting and why. E-mail, Facebook or Tweet

us now. But first, the sentencing of those

convicted of taking part in the rioting and looting has been the

subject of some controversy with claims that the magistrates had

been told to dish out tough sentences. Today in Manchester the

first Crown Court cases were heard and the Judge, Andrew Gilbart QC,

explained exactly why he believed those who had taken part in mob

violence should be dealt with more severely than if the offences had

been committed in isolation. If the magistrates court had wanted

it to be seen to be tough on the rioters, this charge was not in any

mood for going soft on them. He said that the acts they had

admitted committed -- committing could not be judged in isolation.

There were four defendant in the dock today. He said, those who take

part in these activities must No doubt, his words will come as

some comfort to the victims for lost property, businesses and homes

in those disturbances. I have been to meet one of those victims today.

This is what's left of the internet cafe Raaz Sathwilkar spent years

building up. But the mob didn't stop at ruining his business. They

rampaged upstairs they set fire to the flat where Raaz, his wife and

five children lived. This is the living room. Everything has gone.

What was over here? My children's computer. Everything has gone.

Having completely ransack your business, they have come up here

and set fire to your home? Yes. What you think about people who

could do something like that? Animal People. A human life cannot

do that. What sort of punishment should they get? They should go to

jail and not come out. His sense of anger at all this and his desire

for justice is understandable. The police and the courts have been

keen to ensure people such as Raaz get justice. Hundreds of arrests

have been made. Dozens have already been processed by the courts. Today,

the first four to face a Crown Court judge appeared in Manchester

Crown Court for sentence. This woman's 14-year-old son is

currently locked up waiting to learn of his punishment for

burglary during the disturbances in Manchester. She has no doubt he

must be punished. I fully support the fact that he is on remand at

the moment because he has done something wrong and he has accepted

that. I have tried everything to keep him on the straight and narrow.

He is very vulnerable to suggestions from other people.

feels she and the rest of the family are also being punished for

events that were outside of their control. I could be affected. I

have a one-year-old son and it is scary. But with memories of all

this still raw, the need form justice to be done, and be seen to

be done, will be paramount. Let me tell you more about the four

people who appeared here at Manchester Crown Court today.

Stephen Carter is 26. He admitted picking up bags of clothes which

had been stolen from the city centre store. David Essex --

another man admitted collecting a TV screen which had been stolen.

118 year-old -- and 18-year-old man was given two years in a young

offenders' institution. A heroin addict got 10 months, suspended for

two years, for picking up a bag of look. In Chester, two men have

appeared in court today, charged with inciting riots through the

internet. They got for your sentences each. -- they got four

year sentences each. So, seven days on from the riots,

what has the impact been on businesses? Are shoppers staying

away from the worst hit areas or defying the criminals and

reclaiming their streets? Dozens of stores at Salford's Shopping City

were attacked by looters. Five are still too badly damaged to reopen.

Our reporter has been back to speak to some of those affected.

No stock means no income for Wayne and Stephen. They spent six years

building this business up. It took rioters a matter of minutes to

destroy it. It will take �60,000 and four weeks of hard work before

they can reopen. We don't know how much business we will lose from

this. That is the scary thing. are not frightened of it happening

again. The big fear is trying to get the public backing to the shop.

-- back into the shop. That is not a problem for Nasser Iqbal.

Business is booming because on the other side of the precinct one of

his competitors had his shop destroyed. It is sad to see it

happen this way. My heart goes out to the other gentleman whose

business was affected. The man in charge of the centre says visitor

numbers were on the rise for. the first couple of days, the

figures were lower. As of yesterday, it seems to be back to normal.

Slowly but surely, we are getting back to normality. Has this pitch

you off? No, why should it? atmosphere is awful. One week after

we saw the worst elements of this community, here is the best. These

Army Cadet are giving up their time to improve the look of this

shopping centre. We're not all that bad. It is a small minority of

teenagers that are for. Near enough of this has been done. I am proud.

Despite their best efforts, it will take more than a lick of playing --

lead of paint to erase what happened here. Bosses say the

fightback has started and the fortunes of this centre will

improve. Joining me now is Nazir Afsal who

is head of the Crown Prosecution Service in the North West. Let me

ask you whether you are comfortable with the speed in which these cases

are being rushed through the courts and whether there can be proper

preparation and assessment of these cases? They were not rushed. These

are unprecedented times. What we saw last week is unprecedented,

solar response must match that. I have been making sure that all my

prosecutors apply the code and bring the cases to court that need

to be kept -- need to be brought to court. This is about swift justice,

not rushed. Last week, people were shocked. The need to see their

confidence in justice has been restored. We want to help, by

bringing these cases into court. Some of those accused are saying it

is too fast and too bewildering and they're not getting a chance to

prepare themselves, which has the right. That is not true. They will

undoubtedly have legal representation in court. We had

overnight courts running. They have been given legal advice and the

evidence against them. They have then entered a guilty pleas. The

people who were seen today accepted their guilt on the basis of

evidence. The judge had all the information about them before the

court and sentenced them accordingly. The lot should be calm

and considered and free of emotion. Are you convinced that it is or has

there been an knee-jerk reaction here to issue a big deterrent to

other people? With tougher sentences than normal? Deterrence

has always been allowed in terms of sentencing. Context is important.

Last week, we had the worst disturbances we have encountered in

decades. It was important for us to be able to demonstrate that we

recognise what happened last week and those were response will have

to pay the consequences for their actions. Sentencing is a matter for

the judge, but I don't think any decision made by the judge today

could be criticised. He made it very clear that the context was

import and. There was a young mother who slept through the riots

but received one pair of shorts the next day from friends. She was

jailed for five months for that. That sentence would not have been

anything like that, had it been a week before the riots. Is it right

that it should be so much harsher because of what happened?

Absolutely. Without Handlers, there are no thieves. Whoever has

properties that was stolen on the night, whoever was involved in the

damage that happened, they have to be aware that the sentence they

will be given will fit the crime because of the impact it had on our

local communities. Thank you. 4,000 jobs are in the balance in

Chester as the biggest private- sector employer plans to leave the

city. Bank of America runs it's UK credit card division from MBNA

offices in Chester. But the company's announced it's closing

that arm of its business. Our Economics Correspondent joins us

from Chester Business Park now. That is a bit of a finance hub in

the North West, isn't it? It certainly has. Almost every

single building you can see behind three is a finance house of some

kind. By far the biggest player is Bank of America. Lloyds Banking

Group, Marks and Spencers money and some others are also here. Between

them, they employ 8,200 people. Over the past couple of years,

there have been losses in the sector of 270 jobs. That is about

20% of the sector. The last thing they want her anymore job losses

here at Bank of America. Tell me more about the recent

announcement. Yesterday, employees were told that

the company wants to exit from this division. That could mean that the

pull-out and lose all of the jobs or it could mean that they sell the

company as a going concern. Yesterday, they did that in Canada.

That is the hope for here. Why are the ditching this part of

their business and will they find a light we buyer? -- a likely buyer?

They say they are going to move into more profitable commercial

business. The financial press and America is highlighting the bad

mortgages that were sold at the start of the housing crisis. Are

they likely to find a buyer for this business? Let me just tell you

that at the start of this year, Barclaycard what one credit card

company as a going concern. At the end of this year, they will close

out -- closed down that head office with the loss of 600 jobs. The hope

is that history will not repeat A man who died after a crane

collapsed in Lancashire has been named as Lindsey Easton. He was

from Halifax and he died at the Scout Moor Quarry at Ramsbottom

yesterday. They held their executive -- Health and Safety

Executive and the police are investigating.

No further action will be taken after Liverpool Community College

after a government report found it had taken money for students that

should not have been on courses. It was said that the Skills Funding

Agency had already dealt with the matter and the college has been

ordered to pay back �80,000. Coming up: Where did you meet the

love of your life? For this couple, it was that bench. Let us know your

story. And the Manchester City new boy

impressed us all, but despite this Cracker, his boss expects more.

Adding he needs to improve with the 18th. -- I think he needs to

improve with the team. A driver fatigue was the likely

cause of a train rolling backwards at 50 mph in the north-west. It was

close to derailment when the driver finally put the brakes on. The

incident has led to calls for changes in the way that night

shifts are managed. The thousands of tons of freight

moving along the railways without incident every year. But in the

early hours of August 17th last year, on this stretch of the West

Coast main line on Cumbria, there was near disaster. The train was

travelling uphill between T Bay and chapeau on routes to Glasgow, but

it claimed to a halt and started rolling backwards. -- it came to a

halt. It weighed 715 tons and was 500 metres long. It rolled

backwards for four-and-a-half minutes and cover 2.2 miles at a

reach of 50 mph. Signals blocked the line to prevent any collision

and luckily there were no trains in the area at the time. Nobody was

hurt and the train was stopped by the driver before heading the side.

-- hitting. Rail accident report said that it happened because the

driver was suffering from fatigue. It warned that the matter of the

mathematical model would need to be adopted for people working night

shifts. This stretch of line has seen tragedy before. In 2004, four

workers were killed by a runaway train her. The report recommends

that companies look closely at shift patterns. They should limit

the duties of drivers when they worked the first in a series of

night shifts. The company is working on the recommendation and

the Office of Rail Regulation is reviewing guidance on the way that

companies manage driver fatigue. For years, 16-year-old Dannii

Rowley lived in almost constant pain. She spent much of her time in

a wheelchair unable to do the simplest things like walking,

swimming and playing. She has a type of juvenile arthritis that

affects one in 10,000 people. Then, she was offered the chance to

take part in the trial of a new drug by doctors at Alder Hey

Children's Hospital. She says the drug, Tocilizumab, has changed her

life and hopes that one day it will help people like her.

Two-and-a-half years ago, this, the simplest of tasks, would have been

impossible for Dannii Rowley. The pain was routine, often constant

and always debilitating. What was the pain like? It was like somebody

was stabbing me over and over again. She was diagnosed with systemic

juvenile arthritis at five years old. I could not walk for a far

distance. It was painful to walk. I was in a wheelchair. I could not go

to school and I could not spend time with my friends. They stopped

asking me to come out eventually because they knew would that I

could not. A lot of the time, she didn't even know when she was in so

much pain because it was so severe that we would have to go to the

hospital or are we would have to go because the pain was just a way of

life and she would not tell us until the last minute. The doctors

tried drug after drug. The pain was temporarily reduced but then came

back with a full force. A couple of doses and a sick child can be a

wild child. Then she was given this, and you drug on trial called

Tocilizumab. It has made a dramatic difference for some patients.

Within one or two doses of the treatment, their condition can be

switched off, even. We are able to virtually stop all other treatment.

Within one day, she had noticed an improvement. After a month, she was

back on her feet. He took about six weeks until we noticed a proper

defence where I could get up out of the wheelchair and walk. What was

it like? Amazing because I could join in with everyone. NICE that

makes recommendations to the NHS is studying the trial information. She

now wants to start college and wants to become a research next. --

research nurse. A remarkable change.

Hundreds of screaming girls had been out since 5am this morning to

catch a glimpse of X-factor finalists, One Direction, at

Salford Quays. The band have been promoting their new single which is

out next month. Manchester United's owners are

considering selling shares on the Singapore stock market to help

reduce debt. It is one of the number of refinancing options being

examined by the Glazer family. Their only considering selling a

minority stake, but if successful, it could raise �400 million.

Manchester City's sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways is to be

investigated by UEFA. The ten-year deal reportedly worth �400 million

is an attempt to get around European football stripped finance

rules according to critics. The club as that responded to claims.

Meanwhile, the Blues got off to a flying start last night in a 4-0

win over Swansea. Swansea did well to hold off

Manchester City in the first half, but the second half showed why they

could be early title contenders with Edin Dzeko adding to the

scoresheet. All eyes were on the new signing. The Argentinian

striker, Sergio Aguero scored after 10 minutes. He helped David sell-by

get a third. Then he showed off with this 25 yard strike. Value for

money for Manchester City but for the manager, Roberto Mancini, the

end of Match report read, will do better. He will need to play with

his team-mates and play better. But he is an incredible player. He is

like David Selbourne. They speak the same language. He needs to

improve, I think, with the team. 4-0 win ties them with Bolton at

the top of the table, a team they face on Wednesday.

At terrific player. I think Roberto Mancini could be a

BBC manager, no matter what you do, they want more!

He can be my line manager and the day!

The weather went exactly as planned, cloudy, one or two showers. The

shares have been moving through the region. Moving in from the Irish

Sea in land. In the last couple of hours, sprinkles of rain. The

latest picture, at the showers moving away up over the Pennines.

Some spells of sunshine. Tonight, one or two clear spells already in

evidence. They were spread out through the night. Tonight, a bit

cooler than the last few nights. In theory, one or two places as low as

eight or nine degrees. Along the coast, 11 or 12 degrees. Could be

chilly and the morning first thing. The breeze, that has been strong

all day today, that will ease down, so we touch of mist in places in

the morning. When that goes, it is a nice day. One of the better days

of the week. Quiet. He won it is much more sunshine than today. --

you will notice much more sunshine. A nice that day, one in the

afternoon. -- warm in the afternoon. 16 or 17 degrees. Could reach 20

degrees in land. For Thursday, this area of weather is far too close

for comfort. It looks like if it goes to plan, it will be wet

through Thursday afternoon. After that, settling down a bit with more

rain on the forecast for Saturday. There is there, too close to call.

-- Thursday, to close to call. We will have more details on that

tomorrow, but at the moment, Where did you do your courting? At

the cinema? In the pub? For Marjorie and David from Chester, it

was by the river. In their 58 years they have spent countless hours

chatting and cuddling at the City's groves area.

The redevelopment of the area means they would use an old friend until

the council came off the bend to have them. -- they would lose an

old friend. In February 1953, I was sitting

here and we were chatting and getting to know one another.

blossomed from that. We could not go out much so we used to just come

and sit here and have a cuddle and a case. And always on the same

bench. They married after seven years. They brought their children

and grandchildren here and always sat in the same place. But time

marches on and the Groves began to show its age. Work has begun to

rework the airy and there was no place for the old bench. -- rework

the area. It be said that the old seeds would be scrapped and that is

when I said we have been courting here for 58 years. The cancer were

contacted. As a council where did it recycling. We happen to recycle

this and a slightly different way and the result that came out of it

is fantastic. Last week, they were finally reunited with their bench

in their own back garden. It is fantastic. Later in years' time we

have passed on, hopefully one of the family will take it and keep it

in their memories of us where we He's the! It's teatime!

We have had lots of e-mails about where you have met your loved ones.

Natalie met her fiance through Facebook three years ago. He has

been living around the corner and they had been together ever since.

Mary said that she would meet her future husband at Victoria station

in Manchester and go to Old Trafford. They did their courting

watching Manchester United. Even when they were on their honeymoon,

they travelled back to watch the match. Victoria Station is very

popular, Elisabet said that her husband proposed to her on Black --

on platform 14 at Victoria. Dave said he went to school in

Didsbury in 1964. He said he fancied a girl called Linda but

lost touch after leaving. 30 years later, she got into his taxi in

Manchester and they eventually got married in Memphis in 1999.