11/07/2011 South East Today

Welcome to South East Today. A senior surgeon has spoken out about

a culture of bullying at Kent's An independent report in to a

complaint by Mr Gulzar Mufti, who has since left the trust, found

what could be construed as "a group campaign of bullying against him".

Accused of murdering her two young children and leaving them in the

boot of her car in Sussex, Fiona Donnison's trial gets underway.

Also in tonight's programme: She vanished without a trace. Now

police close the case of a Kent nurse who went missing in Germany

10 years ago. And her life in pictures: A Sussex

exhibition pays tribute to Dame Beryl Grey, the British ballet

great. From Royal St George's with love.

As players gear up for the open we look at James Bond's relationship

Good evening. A senior surgeon who is the former medical director of

Medway NHS Trust has spoken out about a culture of bullying. Mr

Gulzar Muft, who has since unless the Trust, asked for his complaint

to be investigated. -- who has Gulzar Muft reads the findings of a

report into complaints he made about bullying. I was the medical

director. I had to performance manager some consultants, and the

group comes together and bullies me. The report found that three doctors

had acted together in what could be construed as a campaign of bullying.

It said a referral letter written by colleagues was a malicious, and

also said it could be construed that colleagues put trash --

pressure on the Trust to remove Gulzar Muft. The Trust investigates

the bullying, the investigator labels them as guilty, and the

Trust does not then it take action. His experience is not isolated.

Medway NHS Foundation Trust is one of Kent's largest employers. Aim

recent NHS survey revealed the level of bullying was a amongst the

highest in the country, with one in five staff saying they had been

picked on, and 32% suffering from stress. A senior person like me is

not immune from bullying. How can the current administration insure

that there is no bullying among us the staff and the hospital? Gulzar

Muft has left the Medway Trust after two decades. He was medical

director for five years, a board member and also received a clinical

excellence Award. He is worried bullying could put patients at risk.

A harassed and bullied employee has to look after patients at the same

time. There is a risk to patient safety. He raised concerns with me

about the conduct at Medway Hospital, which are then it may

affect certain professionals carry out their job, which could have an

impact on frontline quality of service and care. Having seen those

concerns, I have said to Gulzar Muft I will raise them to the

Secretary of State for Health. Responding to the claims, the Trust

said it takes allegations of bullying extremely seriously. They

It had a huge impact on me, my wife, my children. I think the last two

years, we have lived through this nightmare. I think it is important

that no one else suffers the same thing as we suffered, as I suffered,

as my wife and children suffered. It was terrible.

Our political editor joins us now. What more has the Trust had to say

about this? The Trust said an internal process has to be

concluded. Perhaps this is not the end of the matter. They also stress

none of the findings give any reason to suggest that patient care

and treatment have been compromised. But the local MP, Rehman Chishti,

said he is concerned by the issues raised and the findings of the

report. He has pledged to raise that with Andrew Lansley.

You cannot read more about Gulzar Muft's story on Louise's blog.

A mother killed her two children and left their bodies in the boot

of her car because she was desperate to get back at her

partner, a court has heard. Fiona Donnison denies murdering Harry and

Elise in January. Her trial at Lewes Crown Court began today.

Fiona Donnison was driven into court with her face hidden under a

blanket. She is accused of suffocating her children in its

January last year. The prosecution told the court that after killing

her children, Fiona Donnison packed them into sports bags, put them in

the boot of her car, then drove close to her former partner's car.

Later, she walked into a police station, telling officers what she

had done. The motive: Revenge. The prosecution told the court that

Fiona Donnison had the personality traits of a narcissist. When his

palm ended the relationship, she wanted to make his life as

miserable as possible. -- partner. Harry and Elise were described as

the libel and well-mannered children. Their mother may have

been suffering from depression. -- delightful. She moved out of the

family home in Heathfield in 2009 after being made redundant. She was

also in debt, and suspected her partner of cheating. The trial

continues in the morning. In a moment:

How a bright idea on a trip to Bali led to a successful 20-year

business for a Kent couple. 10 years ago, Louise Kerton

vanished without trace. A decade on, it has emerged the German police

have closed the file on her case. Despite invest -- despite intensive

investigations, nothing has been seen or heard from her.

The letter from Germany, Louise's father had been dreading, the case

was closed. You go through all the emotions of bereavement once again.

Questioning and anger and disbelief. But not knowing the end is a burden.

Do you believe she is alive? No. I am sure, 10 years on, she is dead

somewhere. Louise was last seen at Aachen

train station after being dropped off by a border's mother. --

boyfriend's mother. The case is still featured on the missing

People's Website. A very small fraction of cases are open for this

amount of time. It is very unusual, and important for the police to

keep searching, and they are often relied on new sources of

information to find that a person. The German authorities say that

there is nowhere for the case to go. Its is very similar to that as you

have seen with Madeleine Wickham. The police have put on the blinkers,

and blame the parents or family. Despite their efforts, the family

feel they are further away from answers than ever. Simon Jones

joins us from Kent Police headquarters. What officers telling

you there? They say they have worked closely with their German

counterparts. It was they bear to convince the police to turn into a

criminal investigation. The German police say they still do not know

whether Louise Kerton was killed or chose to disappear, and I travelled

out to Aachen with the family. They said they could not bear the

thought of going back. Louise Kerton's mother also died last year

before she was able to find out what happened to her daughter. Two

17-year-old boys have been charged with arson after a fire at a major

retail park in Eastbourne last December. The fire caused millions

of pounds worth of damage to four major stores on one of the busiest

shopping weekends of the year. The teenagers will appear in court next

week. A group of peace campaigners

believed to have been arrested in Israel, including a man from Sussex

and a woman from Kent, have been deported back to the UK. 83 year

old John Lynes from St Leonards is among 12 people expected to land

this evening. According to the Scottish Palestine Solidarity

Campaign, the group was trying to join a protest in support of

Palestinians in the West Bank. 68- year-old Val Kitchen from Tonbridge,

also in the group, was arrested. The future of care homes in the

South East are in doubt after Southern Cross announced it is

pulling out of running its home following the loss of hundreds of

millions of pounds. Of the companies, they are 10 in Kent,

eight in Sussex, and six in Surrey. She had been overwhelmed with a

worry for weeks. The announcement that Southern Cross is to close

does nothing to allay those fears. During the war, Joan Robinson used

to chat to Winston Churchill. Today, aged 87, her family do not know if

she will be able to stay in the place she called home. I am very

upset and a bit angry as well, that they could have pre-war does. Where

else I would have sent mum, I do not know. Maybe we could have had

time to look round and find somewhere else they the locally.

A Peder's mother is 94 stop she also lives in a Southern Cross home.

The former pub landlady is aware of the difficulties the company are in.

Sometimes, the anxiety shows. worrying, what -- not knowing what

the outcome will be. You are in limbo at the moment, not knowing

what is happening. This is where both women have been living for the

past four months. They are happy living here, and their families are

happy for them to be here, but what everybody will want to know is what

happens next. The care home was completed

recently, and cost millions of pounds. It has been announced two

Southern Cross Care Homes had been taken over by another private care

provider. Families in other parts can only hope they too can get the

assurances they so desperately Southern Cross is not the only care

home company to be in trouble in the South East. Kent County Council

is closing three of its care homes, and it's replacing three others

with assisted flats and selling three more to the private sector.

Two weeks ago, a Royal Bank of Scotland care home in Canterbury

announced it would close with just three months' notice. The stress on

residents, some of whom are extremely frail and elderly, is

immense. Some older people who are forced to to move unfortunately do

not tend to live for very long afterwards. Just like us, moving

home is an extremely stressful thing to happen, but more so for an

older person in a nursing home or residential home, because they have

made that choice and the intention is very much to stay there.

As life expectancy increases, more Over the next 20 years, the number

of people living into their 70s will jump by 50%. And one in three

is likely to need some sort of care. One in ten is expected to need care

costing more than �100,000 in their Trying to find good quality care

for loved ones can also put a major strain on families. My mother

cannot choose and I cannot choose, because whatever happens, the place

closes or decisions are made for them, and it is all for the good of,

you know, the person we are caring for, but nobody really listens to

the carers. This autumn, Parliament's Health Select

Committee will be looking at the issues raised by the problems

Southern Cross has experienced, where the requirements of

businesses and the needs of an aging population need to be

balanced. This is our top story tonight. A

senior surgeon has spoken out about a culture of bullying at Kent's

biggest hospital, Medway Maritime. An independent report into a

complaint by Mr Gulzar Mufti, who has since left the Trust, found

what could be construed as a group campaign of bullying against him.

And forget the Open. We have the story of why Sandwich became the

scene for a famous showdown between James Bond and Goldfinger.

And getting straight to the point. A candid exhibition of photos and

memorabilia to Dame Beryl Grey. 20 years ago, a young couple from

Kent had a great idea for an up -- a business importing goods from

Indonesia. But they could not get the money they needed to start up.

And then, John Ayris and Anne Spratling did get the loan they

needed, and it came from the Prince's Trust. They now employ

several hundred staff and have some 2000 jobs globally. Now the Prince

of Wales himself has recognised their efforts.

It was the purchase of eight pig while backpacking in India which

led to a business which now has a �4 million annual turnover.

ended up in Bali and bought a wooden pig from a man who did would

carvings, and that was the seed of the business. That is how it

started. We thought it was a once- in-a-lifetime trip and it was

simply something, you know, little ornaments we would put on shelves.

But our friends and relations started to say, brilliant, next

time you are out there, why don't you get those for me? Butter was

only with money from the Prince's Trust, which helps young people

into work, did the couple managed to start up their gift company, and

his Royal how it -- His Royal Highness publicly recognised their

achievement at Clarence House at a celebration on Friday. They have

forged a long-term relationship between Bali and Folkestone. This

particular product is quite a collaboration because it is hand-

made and hand-painted in Bali, so they have carved the star and

painted his by hand, and there we add to the little heart here, which

comes from China, and then it is This gift shop has been packaging

their products for many years. is quite fun hearing people say,

David Hewitt here. It is fun and quirky. The collaboration is

continuing to expand and succeed. Not bad for an idea that began with

The 2011 Open Championship gets underway on Thursday, when the

focus of the sporting world will be on a small corner of East Kent.

Today, the 2003 Open champion Ben Curtis, who won the famous claret

jug the last time the championship was held in Kent, has been

practising at Sandwich. He was joined on the course at Royal St

George by Andy Smith, from Maidstone, and Francis McGuirk,

from Sandwich, who are both excited to be playing alongside the world's

best this week. I have a lot of friends and family

who are going to come down and watch and they are really proud of

me, saying, well done. Everybody has been trying to give me advice.

It has been so nice. For all my family to say, well done.

While the course at Royal St George will see some high-octane sporting

drama this week, what is perhaps less well known is that the

undulating dunes of the Sandwich course provided the inspiration for

one of the most famous golfing play-offs in cinema, between James

Bond and Goldfinger. Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, was a real golf fan

who was a member of Royal St George's and would have even become

club captain, but for his untimely death from a heart attack. Peter

Whittlesea reports. Straight rules of golf. Of course.

It is arguably one of the most famous golf scenes in film history.

In the book, Ian Fleming set James Bond's famous match with Goldfinger

in Sandwich. As Bond handed his club over, he smelled the sweet

smell of the beginning of a knock- down and drag out game of golf on a

beautiful day in May, with the larks singing over the greatest

course in the world. The location of this year's Open is special for

Kate Grimond. For her uncle, it was the place of inspiration. Iain

adored playing golf. It was one of his favourite pastimes. The scene

in Goldfinger is, essentially, a wonderful description of the Royal

St George's in the 1950s and 60s. Ian Fleming rode most of his books

at his home in Jamaica but the plot lines for Goldfinger were dreamt up

on the golf links which bills itself as the English rival to St

Andrews. Bond's handicap was nine, as was that of Ian Fleming, so when

you are reading about James Bond you are reading a lot about what

Ian Fleming was like himself. many of the competitors at this

year's Open, Bond had a few problems at his match. That is how

frustrated Goldfinger felt at losing a little over �6,000. So

imagine how a goal for will feel if the shot cost them the championship

and prize money of �900,000! No lethal bowler hats this week,

though. Dame Beryl Grey is one of the

greats of British ballet, who found fame on the stage dancing Giselle

in the 1940s and became the first English dancer to appear as guest

ballerina with the Kirov and Bolshoi Ballet. She's now in her

90s and living in Forest Row, and an exhibition featuring photographs

of her early career, taken by the celebrated cameraman Colin Jones,

has just opened. Robin Gibson has Not many people experience this

side of dance in the early 60s. Backstage, intimate, somehow or

evocative of the time. With pictures like these, the highbrow

world of the ballet is being opened up to everybody. I think they are

terrific photographs because they give you a feeling of being

backstage and all the agonies and the nerves before a performance.

And the relief and the exhaustion if you are touring. It is captured.

Every sort of emotion a dancer has. So when our own Belgrade takes the

Bolshoi Ballet by storm in Swan Lake, it is a British triumph of

the greatest magnitude. She joined Sadler's Wells Ballet at the age of

14 and was the first Western guest at a dance with the Bolshoi Ballet.

At her home in Sussex, she reminisced with Colin Jones. In

those days, he picked up a camera to just take pictures of friends

and colleagues. It is the first picture I ever took. I bought a

camera in Australia. Untrained but inspired, his ballet pictures

turned the clock back on a long career. There are this -- the

subject of a new exhibition. Did you know why you were taking these

photographs? They were for myself. It is when you take great pictures

as an amateur, and the -- you then become a professional, it is much

harder. Dame Beryl Grey is to open the exhibition this weekend. They

are evocative images of youth and beauty from half a century ago.

Beautiful photos. They are. She looks amazing for a lady in her

nineties. Let's get a check on the Good evening. We have had plenty of

sunshine. As we move through the week, we have rain on and off for

24 hours, but it will clear by Wednesday and it becomes

increasingly settled and fine towards the end of the week. Plenty

of blue skies around today with light and variable wind, and the

best of the temperatures up to 22 degrees. Some more in the way of

clearer skies as we move through the first part of tonight. We are

going to start to see that cloud thicken up and that will bring the

rain that we will see tomorrow morning. As a result of the cloud

cover, quite a close feel to the night as well. Temperatures not

dropping much below 14 degrees. Temperatures will drop for a time

tomorrow but then we have pressure moving up from the South East and

all of us will see some rain at some point. Over that time, we will

see between 5 and 10 mm of rain. The top temperature tomorrow,

around 20 degrees. Those winds moving at around 15 miles per hour,

adding a cooler feel to the day. The temperature will only be two

degrees cooler than today. The rain stays with us for the first part of

tomorrow night, eventually clearing towards the north-east.

Temperatures staying in double figures, with lows of around 11

degrees. During the first part of Wednesday, the rain will clear,

with things becoming increasingly settled and fine. As we move

through the week, we have high pressure nudging up from the south-

west. Things will be settled and fine, and by a time we get to the

weekend, we have this area coming in from the south-west. Rain is

likely on Saturday. Temperatures at around 20 degrees and through the

late part of the week, things will remain settled. Overnight lows

staying in double figures, so plenty of sunshine for the end of

the week and plenty of rain tomorrow.

If that is something for everybody. Before we go, do you remember the

magician we spoke to on Friday? sir, even more than we thought,

have tricked us. He was competing on the television showed for the

chance to support the two American magicians in their last Las Vegas

show. And he certainly did manage to trick them. He is going to be

flying to Las Vegas in October and will appear live on stage with

those two. I am still trying to figure out the elastic band thing