13/02/2017 South Today - Oxford

Coming up: Thames Water has denied acting recklessly after its sewage

systems caused serious problems in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

And a big setback for a children's farm in Chipping Norton,

after thousands of pounds of tools were stolen.

First tonight, police say a 10-year-old boy has died

from serious head injuries at a shop in Reading.

It happened at the Topshop in the Oracle Shopping

Police say the incident involved shop furniture.

The boy later died at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

Officers say his death is being treated as unexplained,

Thames Water has denied acting recklessly after failing

to control sewage spills in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

But the company has admitted breaching a number of environmental

Aylesbury Crown Court has heard billions of pounds is now

Today we heard more details about how stretches of the Thames

in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire came to be so polluted

And we heard from the company, Thames Water, that's responsible,

on what it's doing to make sure that what happened doesn't happen again.

Now, the company breached pollution laws in four sewage

treatment works in Aylesbury, in Didcot, in Henley

and Little Marlow, and at a pumping station in Littlemore.

Thames Water said it accepts responsibility for damage

But QC Richard Matthews told the court it was negligence

rather than recklessness, and that the company has improved.

It's investing ?4 billion in upgrading equipment.

There have also been changes to the structure

of the company at the top, and the QC argued that Thames Water

Judge Sheridan said the company did not live up to that standard,

or anywhere near it, in 2013 and 2014.

Thames Water is bracing itself for a hefty fine,

and the question was raised in court, who would pay for it?

Judge Sheridan said that it shouldn't be the customers,

and that the company should be punished.

Mr Matthews promised that customers wouldn't feel

Thames Water will be sentenced on March 24th.

A man is in a serious condition in hospital

Police were called to Windmill Road in Headington this afternoon.

A 27-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

It's believed the suspect and the victim know each other.

More than 7,000 BMW workers, including those at the Mini plants

in Oxford and Swindon, are threatening industrial

action over plans to close the final-salary pension scheme.

The car-maker, which made record pre-tax profits of more

than ?7.5 billion two years ago, intends to shut two pension schemes.

BMW has previously said schemes are "increasingly

It's agreed to hold talks with the union later this month.

A footballer on loan to Swindon Town has gone on trial charged

Rohan Ince is accused of deliberately hitting a bouncer

with a bottle near a nightclub in Windsor on Christmas Day in 2015.

Next tonight, the owner of a children's farm in Oxfordshire

has been expressing his anger after thousands of pounds

worth of power tools were stolen last week.

The theft at Fairy Tale Farm in Chipping Norton was caught on CCTV.

It's the early hours of the morning, and a thief is seen on CCTV carrying

away loot after breaking into a farm for disabled children.

He broke into this building here, he forced the door open, and now,

of course, it doesn't even lock properly.

He broke in there and he stole all of our power tools.

That was angle grinders, drills, saws, circular saws,

lots of other attachments and fixtures and fittings.

The farm reopened this weekend after its winter break but,

because they've lost their tools, work that should have been

It's expensive, the tools are expensive and going to be

We'll have to replace them over time.

It's almost like setting us back to when we first started.

We didn't have all these tools, we had to build them up.

We do most of the work at Fairytale Farm ourselves.

We don't have the funds to bring in lots of contractors.

To not have these tools has just made our life really difficult.

Rural crime in this area is a massive issue.

Latest figures from NFU Mutual show that while it went

down in the South East, it actually rose in

Until about ten years ago, farms were pretty safe from crime.

Unfortunately, they're now pretty much hot targets for thieves

because they've got expensive items, like welders and chainsaws,

that thieves can pick up and sell on for a profit.

Thames Valley Police has started a month-long campaign to crack

It's been holding property-marking sessions and online chats

Fairytale Farm says the response to the break in has been amazing,

with a number of strangers offering to donate tools.

It wishes now to move on from what's happened as quickly as possible.

More than 1,500 staff and students have moved out of one

of the Oxford University buildings because of asbestos.

It was discovered at the Tinbergen building on South Parks Road.

The site has now been shut while removal work is carried out.

This year, it's 50 years since homosexuality became

To mark that, and LGBT History Month, all the museums

in Oxford have created a special trail to celebrate it.

Earlier, I spoke to Beth Asbury and Clara Barker, who are both

I went to a lecture in LGBT History Month in February last year

by Prof Richard Parkinson, and he called for more explicit

rather than implicit representation of LGBT+ people

And the project itself, it's called Out In Oxford,

How did you go about finding the items?

I contacted members of staff and curators from the museums

and collections around the university, and encouraged them

to suggest items for inclusion, and then I held a workshop in August

with volunteers from amongst the LGBTQ+ community and allies

were invited to discuss the object and think about which ones they'd

The interpretations in the trail booklet are all written

by LGBTQ+ people and allies, rather than the curators.

It's really introducing accecssibility and multi-vocality

into the museum collections, which is a really important

And, Clara, you're heavily involved in this and you've written

Which ones have captured you the most?

There was a lot of different examples of non-binary

The blue headress fish was fantastic.

This is sequentially hermaphroditic, which means it changes from male

It means that we're thinking about the world in a slightly

different way than maybe we're used to when we're talking about humans.

Was there anything like this at all when you were growing up?

I'm a scientist as well, and I've met very, very few out LGBT

scientists until the last couple of years.

So I think this is a really important step, that we just need

more visibility and to know that we're not so different.

And, Beth, what's the feedback been like from people who've been

to the launch party and people who are hoping to visit this trail?

We had about 450 people at the launch party on Saturday,

and we've got a series of other events throughout LGBT

History Month, February, in the Pitt Rivers Museum over

And everyone had fantastic big smiles on their faces on Saturday

and had a really good time, I think, so I'm hoping this will be

the start of something really, really positive in the future

Beth, Clara, thank you so much for coming in to see us.

We're back in BBC Breakfast tomorrow morning.

Let's take a look at the weather for the week ahead.

This week is certainly a lot milder than it was last

week, with temperatures in low single figures.

This week we're looking at double figures.

Cloudy at times, one or two bright spells,

with the chance of some patchy light rain.

And overnight tonight it will stay mainly dry.

Where we have the clearing skies, the risk of frost in the countryside

Temperatures there could drop to around freezing.

So, a chilly start to the day tomorrow.

A lot of cloud around tomorrow, perhaps some mist and fog in places.

The cloud will thicken through the morning, and we'll see

But there will be some bright and sunny spells,

more likely the further north and east you are.

Temperatures tomorrow reaching a high of 8-9 C with the light

Slowly but surely, that wind direction is going to change

So tomorrow night, the chance of an odd shower.

Mist and fog patches are also a possibility during the early hours

of Wednesday morning, with temperatures falling

Quite a mild start to the day on Wednesday, a good deal

of cloud throughout the day, producing the odd spot of light

Once again, the chance of one or two bright spells,

And you can see the start of the change in the wind direction

to a more southerly airflow, with a high of 10-11 C.

And a further wind change direction on Thursday,

coming in from the south-west, drawing that milder

So it should stay settled on Thursday.

The chance of the odd spot of rain, but it should be mainly dry.

A fair amount of cloud as well once again.

And a similar scenario on Friday - quite a cloudy scene.

The old spot of rain here and there, temperatures reaching

So this week, temperatures are up into double figures.

As we head towards the weekend, it will be mild by day,

mainly dry with some quite chilly nights.

The chance of frost each morning with some mist and fog patches.

at the weekend it will be mild. Largely dry, perhaps a wind -- windy