04/10/2011 North West Tonight

Welcome to North West Tonight with Ranvir Singh and Tony Livesey. Our

top story: The elaborate police sting which trapped an underworld

dealer trading in guns in Manchester.

Find out how a fake shop led to a gun dealer being jailed. Also

tonight, hundreds of mourners pay their respects to a Royal Marine

from Lancashire who was killed in Afghanistan. It is devastating for

the family but they should know what an enormous impact he had.

The hit and run death of a Blackburn schoolgirl leads the Home

Secretary to call for changes in the law over foreign criminals.

Less of your sauce. Why chefs from France are seeing Red over one of

our most famous exports. If you start putting the ketchup with

everything, everything tastes like Also tonight. Are you being served?

Andy Gill's in Liverpool with the undercover shoppers.

That is right. Why the typical Liverpool experience for shoppers

is these days by and large a rather good thing, whereas in the past it

was maybe something else. A gun dealer is behind bars tonight

after being snared by an elaborate police sting. Marc Billingham

believed he was selling weapons to criminals. In fact, they were

undercover cops. And the ruse they used to catching could have come

straight from the plot of a TV drama. It involves setting up a

fake shop and waiting months to finally spring the trap. Our chief

reporter has the story. He was described in court as a daft

lad. But Marc Billingham was a daft lad who had serious firepower for

sale. He was caught in an elaborate police operation codenamed Hook.

The idea was to try to recover as many firearms as possible from the

south Manchester area. The police opened a burkas shop here on

Princess Road in Moss Side. -- A bogus shop. The staff were actually

entirely made up of local police officers and they let it be known

on the great find that they were only interested in doing legitimate

business. -- they were not only interested. 12 months later, Marc

Billingham walked in and offered to sell them guns. This is one go and

he sold them, converted to fire live ammunition. In total, he sold

them four weapons and told them he could supply a sub-machinegun and

an assault rifle. He was described as a daft lad in the crown court.

It is quite worrying in the first instance, if a daft lad can provide

us with firearms. This was a complex operation. It involved

police officers working in the shop for a year before they got a First

bite. Was it worth it? Absolutely. These firearms would definitely

have been used in shootings in the area. I am sure that in the

recovery of them, we saved people's lives. At Manchester Crown Court,

Billingham was jailed for ten years. His associate, Elliott Harrison,

got five. Utterly loyal, selfless, courageous.

The words used in memory of Royal Marine David Fairbrother from

Blackburn. Hundreds of people attended his funeral today at the

town's cathedral. The 24 year-old was shot dead in Afghanistan when

his patrol was ambushed. He had been protecting colleagues from a

suspected bomb at the time. A guard of honour for a fallen comrade. The

Royal Marines came to say farewell to one of their own. They came, too,

with a message for David Fairbrother's family. When you lose

someone at the age of 24, it is devastating for the family, but

they should know what an enormous impact he had. He upheld the finest

traditions of the Royal Marines. Marine Fairbrother was shot on

September 19th in Helmand province. He had been at the front of his

patrol, searching for improvised explosive devices. His mother and

sisters, comforted in knowing he died doing the job he loved. They

played one of his favourite songs, words from which he had used in a

letter home to his girlfriend. And she had her own words for him.

thank you for his life, lived doing the job he loved. For his bravery

and for giving his life in the service of his country. As we try

to come to terms with his untimely death, we pray that we will not be

overwhelmed by grief and loss. Instead, with pride in his courage,

we help and support each other through our tears and paying, as he

would have wished. -- tears and pain. As the cortege left for a

private burial, a spontaneous round of applause from the many who had

turned out. Other news. A man has pleaded not

guilty to murdering a prostitute in Liverpool six years ago. Anne Marie

Foy was found strangled and beaten in undergrowth near the city centre.

64 year-old David Butler from Wavertree was charged with her

murder in June. Butler was remanded back into custody and will stand

trial at the beginning of next year. Police investigating the death of a

baby found in a stream near Kirkham on Sunday have issued a fresh

appeal. They believe a teenage girl was spotted pushing an empty

pushchair close to Carr Lane on Monday the 26th September or the

day after. The police say it's vital this person comes forward so

she can be ruled out of the inquiry. 400 jobs are to go at a credit card

company in Chester. MBNA is being sold by parent company the Bank of

America, who say the current economic climate means it needs to

streamline its operations as they look for a buyer. It hopes the cuts

can be achieved through voluntary redundancy.

It is the first day of official business for the 24 newly-elected

MHKs on the Isle of Man. They were sworn in this morning for their

five-year term and unanimously re- elected Steve Rodan as the Speaker

of the House of Keys this afternoon. It is a time of huge challenges for

the new Government. Over half the house now has been

elected with less than five years' experience and these difficult

times, we are dealing with the economic situation and Government

finances. That is going to be quite a challenge. People will have to

hit the ground running on day one. This is not a time for

apprenticeships, unfortunately. To the Conservative Party

conference in Manchester now and the Home Secretary, Theresa May,

wants to make it easier to deport criminals who are from abroad. She

wants the change partly because of what happened after the death of 12

year-old Amy Houston, who was hit by a car in Blackburn in 2003. Our

political editor is following events at the conference centre.

This case is something we have covered on the programme many times.

Remind us of his feet. -- remind us of it.

I should point out that Theresa May did not specifically mention this

case in her speech but I bumped into her afterwards and I asked her

if this was the one she was thinking of and she said it was an

example at the forefront of her mind. This has been a complex

criminal case in which a failed asylum seeker ran over and killed

Amy Houston. He drove off and was later convicted of driving while

disqualified and failing to stop after the accident. There were

attempts to deport the man in question, Aso Mohammed Ibrahim But

the Court of Appeal ultimately ruled that because he had two

children after being released from prison, he had a right to family

life under the Human Rights Act Well, today, the Home Secretary

said she wanted to change that. -- and under the Human Rights Act he

could not be deported. Today the Home Secretary said she wanted to

change that. I will write it into our laws that when criminals are

convicted of an offence, when they should be removed, they will be

removed. And that will have gone very down -- gone down very well in

the conference centre but the question is, how will this be

implemented, and how is it? That is absolutely the question. It is

worth asking, what actually is the problem here? Because in a sense,

absolutely you can disagree with the decision, but it is not

necessarily a problem with the system. It may well just be that

the duty to it -- the judge has decided this was the correct ruling,

and the Home Secretary herself in the speech made it clear that had

the judges wanted to rule otherwise they could have done. It was not

specifically the Human Rights Act. So as far as I can work out, or the

Government is going to do is write to judges, explained the situation

and their position, but I am not sure that ultimately they will be

able to change the way it works. Having said that, could they face

opposition from the Liberal Democrats? Undoubtedly, because the

Liberal Democrats two weeks ago were very supportive of this whole

human Rights Act and also Europe in general. The very much a contrast

to conference here where it went down very well, but they could be a

struggle over issues like this in Government. Like all party

conferences, this one has a large number of fringe events but none

more unusual than the small camp of protesters who have set up their

base in the city's Albert Square. Many are camping just yards away

from where the conference is taking place.

I am here representing Occupy Manchester because 12 months ago I

tended to agree with the Conservative Party. It is easy to

be swayed by newspapers. In that time, my opinions have changed so I

am here showing solidarity and making sure people can have saved

spaces to discuss new ideas and solutions. I have been here since

Sunday and I intend to stay indefinitely. I am here to take

part in the occupying movement. The beautiful thing about this is I

have been on marches and protests before but there is always a set

agenda and said idea. What we are saying here is we do not have a

solution, maybe there is not one solution, but let's open a dialogue

with everybody. We started listening to the Conservative Party

conference and a lot of people are feeling disconnected from politics.

They feel like they are not being represented. I do not want to sound

like a radical leftist because that is not what we are. All we want is

Lancashire Police believe the body of a man discovered in a remote

part of East Lancashire could have been there for three weeks. The

body was spotted by a rambler in the Trough of Bowland on Saturday

afternoon. Walkers are once again being advised to make sure they

tell someone exactly where they are going before setting off.

The dramatic and bleak landscape of Lancashire's Trough of Bowland

where on Saturday afternoon there was a grim discovery. A man's body

on Saddle Fell, about two miles north of the village of Chipping.

Police say ID suggests he is a 75 year-old from the Liverpool area. A

train ticket from 10th September means he had probably been there

for three weeks. Despite the warm weather last week it has been a wet

summer and there are lots of deep Pons and peat bogs up there. Once

you get stuck, it take us a bit of a struggle to get yourself out.

Unfortunately, this gentleman appears to have been walking on his

own and there would have been nobody to assist him. It took 15

members of mountain rescue more than five hours to pull the body

out. They had to dig a trench around it to drain the water.

Walkers come to this part of Lancashire because it is so remote

and remarkably untouched. You can go the whole day without seeing

another person but that does mean that if you do get into trouble,

with potentially note mobile phone reception out there, it is very

difficult to raise the alarm. Walkers are once again being

advised to always take a map and compass out with them and make sure

somebody knows where they are and when they are due back. The man's

body is expected to be formally identified in the coming days.

Still to come in North West Tonight:

Saddling up for the Olympics. We meet another young athlete hoping

to go for gold. And the appliance of science in the

birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Could graphene hail a

new revolution and really change the world in which we live?

Liverpool is rightly known as one of the friendliest cities in the

country. Visitors often talk about the warm Scouse welcome they get.

But friendliness has not always meant great customer service in

shops, hotels and restaurants. Now though, researchers have discovered

that customers think Scousers are getting a lot better at looking

after them. Our Merseyside reporter is in Liverpool city centre now.

Andy, what exactly has been the problem with service in Liverpool?

Some people get rather touchy about this and say it was an urban myth

that a lot of people, Liverpudlians included, if they got poor service

in a restaurant or shop, would roll their eyes and say typical

Liverpool. Anecdotal evidence the baby. The problem with anecdotes is

that one person tells another person and a place gets a

reputation. So the people who run the city centre here decided to do

something about it. A report just out suggested what they have been

doing may be working. Rapid Hardware is one of

Liverpool's best known independent retailers. Last year it scored a

rather lowly 35% on customer satisfaction. This year it is up to

100%. People can come into the store and get that friendly

atmosphere but at the end of the day it is not just about been

friendly. It is about making sure we have what the customer is

looking for. Chain-stores also improved their ratings. If you can

get some sort of understanding of the person they are, you can help

them get what they want. Last year, one in 10 shops scored 50% or below.

This year it is only one in 20. So what to do today's shoppers make of

the Liverpool experience? In some shops rather than others it could

be a bit better, maybe due to the numbers of staff but all in all,

good service. When I first came here, I thought people were quite

reach in the shops. People are very helpful. The people who organised

the survey agreed that some shops, restaurants and hotels here did

have a poor reputation. But not necessarily a deserved one. It was

something which Liverpool was branded with and unfairly, I could

argue, in the past. Some of it fair, some of it not fair. A research

company got mystery shoppers to check out how well shops treated

them. It says Liverpool shops need to squeeze a bit more out of their

customers. If somebody goes into a store to buy a shirt, the easiest

thing to do is to offer them a time with that and there is quite often

a fear amongst retail staff to do that. The shops who have improved

most will pick up awards at a ceremony tonight. Of course, there

are very good reasons for improving your customer service. Things are

very tough on the high street. Retailers are finding it hard and

the customers are thinking carefully about where they put

their money. So if you look after them and make them feel welcome,

they will spend their money in your shop. That at least is the theory

in Liverpool. Now, if I said the word "graphene",

would it mean anything to you? If the answer is no, fear not, because

it is a discovery at Manchester University which you will be

hearing a lot more of. What is new is it is incredibly thin, and

unbelievably strong. One academic reckons it would take the weight of

an elephant balanced on a pencil to break through a sheet of graphene

the thickness of clingfilm. Esterday, the Government announced

a �50 million investment which could help take it out of the labs

and into production. It is hailed as a miracle material,

the strongest ever measured. Graphene was pioneered here, at

Manchester University. Science awarded the Nobel Prize. The Nobel

Prize committee said a hammock of perfect graphene could carry a cat.

But the hammock would weigh less than one of the cat's whiskers and

would be virtually invisible. Incredible stuff, but knowing what

it is, is a world away from knowing exactly what you can do with it.

That is where George Osborne stepped in yesterday. We will turn

it into something that can be used in a factories across the world. It

is about taking the discoveries in our best universities and turning

them into something that graze jobs and wealth. So �50 million given to

create a hub of graphene knowledge and ultimately, production,

announced here in Manchester. Manchester hope they will win it.

If we do get it will be the next level. We will be looking for

investment from big companies that we would hope would have an even

greater interest in graphene and come to Manchester. Look at what

happened in California with the innovation of silicon chip.

SiliconValley, to this day, leads hi-tech innovation in America.

Could graphene be as significant? Scientists are so excited about

graphene that they really do not know where it could be in the next

five or ten years. The possibilities are almost limitless.

Today, 200 companies are researching graphene. More than 400

patent applications have been made, 3000 research papers published.

They really think it could be the next big thing. Manchester thinks

it could be at the heart of that. So you and down are the size of an

elephant. All we need is a pencil - - you and Dianne.

Sport and Everton's Jack Rodwell has had his red card received on

Saturday and rescinded. He was dismissed from this challenge on

Luis Suarez midway through the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool. The decision

was welcomed by the manager said it provided little comfort to the fans.

It was never a sending off. Boxing - and Bolton's Amir Khan has

announced he'll defend defend his WBA and IBF light-welterweight

titles against the American Lamont Peterson in Washington DC on

December the 10th. It will be the last time he fights at the weight

and is likely to step up to welterweight to fight the unbeaten

Floyd Mayweather next summer. Training to Olympic standard in one

sport is hard enough. So imagine trying to reach perfection in five

different disciplines. That's the challenge of the modern pentathlete,

Steven Mason from Blackpool - if he's to make it to London 2012.

Steve is one of five athletes we're following in our Olympic Dreams

series. Stuart Pollitt has been watching him train.

Five sports, five separate carriages, one game. I have chosen

to train and train and trained to get to the top. It is just hard

work. Hours and banners and arrears. Modern tent athletes -- modern

pentathlon its have to shoot, ride a horse and run. In competition,

the horse is selected at random says Steve and his coach practice

on lots of different ones. It is a beast that has its own mind. It is

not like holding a gun. The horse can have a day where it does what

it wants. You aim to get around the fences. Because Stephen is very

calm in his own manner, that helps, but horses can sense from the

minute they look at new the type of move that you're feeling, and so we

have done a bit of psychology. did you feel she went. Really well.

An injury-plagued season has put Stephen on the back foot for London

qualification but he's not giving up. Fingers crossed I can still get

there. I would say it is not crucial this year to qualify

because there are more opportunities next year. Next it is

the junior championships in Argentina next month. He will find

out a week today if he has made this far.

You may have had a bit of this with your tea tonight. Do you like

tomato ketchup? In this country did personal taste but in France, it is

apparently a matter of national honour. Ketchup, which for many

years was produced at the big Heinz factory in Wigan, is to be rationed

in French schools because they think it will corrupt the taste

buds of the young. It is hard to imagine a world

without ketchup. Heinz have their biggest and finest food processing

plant... Heinz have not made ketchup in Wigan or elsewhere in

the UK for decades but they sell 650 million bottles of the stuff

every year. Mostly to go with chips and burgers. Beyonce likes hers

with bananas, but then she is pregnant. But cultural purists in

France have persuaded the Government to ration it in schools.

They fear it is a hindrance to the development of good taste. The

French have always been a bit suspicious of the red stuff and

there was one famous occasion when a French chef through someone out

of his restaurant simply for asking forget it. -- asking for ketchup.

La Boheme in Lymm is far too glacier restaurant to go that far.

In fact, they keep a bottle feeding in the fridge just in case, but the

restaurant chefs are French, all right. I only put it sometimes on

my chips. To get the ketchup down in France or even in England or

anywhere else is a good idea because you start putting kept them

with everything, everything tastes like ketchup. The French are

resisting get up but you cannot help feeling they are losing the

bottle. I mean, battle. Now she's someone who needs no

extra spice. It is down with the We will see the weather changing in

the next couple of days. Whether France will still need to take a

run at us. -- weather fronts will be taking a run at us. It will be

windy and at times it will be rather wet. Through this evening

and overnight, it turned cloudy through the afternoon and the cloud

continues to thicken hour-by-hour. You can see the first signs of rain

moving in by 9pm or 10pm. This will dampen the ground for a large part

of the North West. The breeze is still coming from the South West,

so that his own mild direction so do not expect the temperatures to

fall too low. I can imagine them staying at 12 Celsius or 13 Celsius

and even 14 Celsius on the coast. Tomorrow the best of the weather

will be in the South of the region. For parts of Lancashire and the

Isle of Man, the rain is there from the beginning. The weather front

will work its way down through the day. Perhaps Dee Time by the time

it gets to Merseyside and Greater Manchester. -- teatime. The wind

will be a real feature. 40mph from time to time. In terms of

temperatures, a high of 19 Celsius. You are about to meet a man who is

a familiar face to make it will be brand new to you but he will become

a massive part of our North West Tonight team. He is our brand-new

And he would never call his female presenters and elephant! He told me

to say it! Do not start on him. This is a chance to say up a proper

hello. You can say hello to everyone at home. This is Roger

Johnson. Thank you. I used to work with down in the mid- 1990s at

Radio Manchester. I am not that old! I was starry-eyed at you,

weather present on the telly. Really looking forward to it.

Honoured to be joining the team. And greatly honoured to be