01/03/2017 South Today - Oxford

Welcome to South Today. for the news where you are.

Coming up: the vulnerable brothers in Oxfordshire sexually

and physically abused by the man who was their guardian.

There are now questions over how they were placed in his care.

And tougher penalties for those caught using a mobile

First tonight, an oopportunity was missed to protect two

vulnerable brothers, who were seriously sexually

That's according to a report, published today, which concluded

suspicious bruising on the children, should have led to a more

The children's carer, identified as Mr K, has since been

The parents of the boys were unable to look after them

so they were placed into the care of Mr K and Ms L under what's known

That's because Ms L is distantly related to the boys' parents.

Now the boys both had special needs and neither Mr K nor Ms L had any

The boys lived with the couple for a year until March 2015,

but during that year Mr K physically and sexually abused the boys.

He was caught, arrested and charged and found guilty of rape.

He was sentenced to a long prison sentence.

Now, the report has found that there was no way anyone

could have known in advance that Mr K was going to be abusive.

There were opportunities to spot and stop the abuse earlier.

At one point, one of the boys were spotted with bruises

on his face, but they were explained away as being related

The report also says that the desire for the placement to be successful

inappropriately affected the child protection processes.

But under the framework that was in place under the time,

everything was done as it should have been.

The two key areas that we need to focus on are improving our work

with children with disabilities and ensuring that there

is a recognition that they may be a greater risk from safeguarding

perspective and understanding how forensically to test that.

The second, I think, is to ensure that we have robust

arrangements in place to assess those people who come forward

At the same time as this review was taking place,

the government was also tightening the rules around special guardians

to ensure that at-risk children are afforded the best possible care.

Now the two boys in this case are now with new carers,

An RAF pilot's been cleared at a court martial of lying

to investigators, after the military passenger jet he was

flying from Brize Norton, went into a nose dive.

Flight Lieutenant Andrew Townsend had been accused of lying

in a technical log and service inquiry, when he initially claimed

the incident had been caused by a technical fault.

At a hearing in Wiltshire, he has been cleared of two counts

of perjury and one count of making a false record.

People who use hand-held mobiles while driving are facing tougher

penalties in England, Wales and Scotland from today.

In Abingdon this morning, Thames Valley Police

were out stopping drivers still ignoring the warnings.

Using a mobile phone while driving can cost lives.

Undercover and in plain sight, nobody flouting the law

This woman was caught texting in slow-moving traffic.

Because I know I shouldn't have done but I texted that

Because the traffic a nightmare all the way from home.

The new rules mean that anyone caught using their mobile phone

behind the wheel now get a ?200 fine and six point on the licence.

New drivers get their licence revoked.

Eleven people were stopped during this morning's operation.

This 19-year-old told me why he was using his

I was just trying to find a garage to get my tyre changed

I didn't know the law was changing but he just informed me it is.

There have been several high-profile crashes involving drivers

Thomash Crowcer was jailed for ten years after his actions led

to the death of a mother and three children.

And earlier this week, BBC's Inside Out broadcast

the moment a driver who killed a man in a head-on crash met his

I'll never forget it, ever, and I can never say sorry enough.

But every time I say sorry I'm thinking it's bit cheap.

It's just not good enough but I am...

Thames Valley Police said it would continue to hold sting

operations to crack down on the problem.

The fact that we've caught 11 motorists today in just two

People need to get the message, do not use your mobile

Switch it off, put it in the glove box, put it in the boot.

From next Wednesday, drivers using their phones

in the Thames Valley region will no longer be offered a course

as an alternative to a fixed penalty notice.

They hope it will encourage people to send their texts, outside,

Oxford University says it is planning to take out

a possession order to remove squatters from one of its buildings

A group of around 20 homeless people have moved into a derelict power

They had been evicted from a former car showroom on Iffley Road,

which they had been living in for two months.

Thames Valley Police is hoping to recruit 200 new officers.

Candidates must have two A-level grades, A to E,

The Force says it's lowered the requirement from two

higher-grade A-levels, following recent proposals

It's also encouraging applicants from minority backgrounds, which it

Oxford Bus Company is warning passengers to expect disruption

to services because of strike action in the coming days.

It's been unable to reach a deal with the Unite union

in a disagreement over pay during Christmas last year.

Strikes are scheduled tomrroow and next Monday.

We're really disappointed and we do apologise to our customers

that their days are going to be inconvenienced on

We do hope that a resolution can be found and we wish to enter

meaningful discussions with Unite to try and bring this dispute

England's rugby stars are training in Oxford this week.

Eddie Jones's men are currently top of the Six Nations table.

England's finest being put through their paces this morning.

The squad will be staying and training in Oxford this week.

Their home away from home, the Randolph Hotel

It's brilliant that they've come back to Teddy's.

And wonderful for us that they are out there

on our fields, training, using our facilities and so on.

A close encounter causing much excitement for the pupils.

They are achieving their goals by training really hard,

it shows to students at our school that they can in fact

achieve their goals and use them in their sporting

It's created a massive buzz around the school when you have your role

models and idols training down the pitches near us,

it's amazing to see just how hard they train and what they do

So what have the visitors made of the city so far?

It's a brilliant place to come and train.

We're staying here in the centre of the city, the school have been

As you see in training this morning, I think they enjoyed having

the England team training there as well.

So what to expect to get out of the week?

We expect a great week's training, intense preparation as we get ready

But despite the sights on offer, it's very much

That's the only thing we are really concentrating on now,

we know what happened before and last week but it has worked well

for us so far in this Six Nations and in the tours before.

Focusing on what comes up in front of us.

And for now for us, that is Scotland.

Our training weeks are getting better, we are getting more

physical and quicker, the boys are getting better for it.

It's only a matter of time before we do get on that pitch

and everything is flying at the same time.

England is the only team left that could win the Grand Slam.

Next up, Scotland on the 11th of March.

And before we go some, some breaking news for Oxford United fans tonight.

The U's have made it through to the final of the EFL

It's the second year in a row that Oxford United will play at Wembley.

Last year, more than 30,000 Oxford fans saw their team lose in

They'll now play Coventry on Sunday the 2nd of April.

We're back in BBC Breakfast tomorrow.

We've had some blustery conditions recently,

and the odd shower today through this evening.

They will continue overnight tonight.

Maybe merging into longer spells of rain, but the main feature

tonight is going to be the brisk wind from the south-west.

Temperatures will fall away to around three or four Celsius.

So a chilly start to the day tomorrow, the winds tomorrow morning

not as strong as tonight but tomorrow it will be

Although there will be plenty of sunshine on offer.

Still, the risk of the odd isolated shower, more likely for the northern

Here, we will see more cloud during the morning.

Slightly more cloud arriving for south-western parts

That's ahead of a weather front, a rain band arriving tomorrow night.

That rain band will stay with us during the early

Temperatures tomorrow afternoon up into double figures,

So, it's Friday we will see that rain band slowly spread its way

northwards through the morning, following it, some dry conditions

through the afternoon but still the risk of some patchy

There will be one or two brighter spells Friday afternoon.

Low pressure is not far away and that will produce some

unsettling conditions as we head into the weekend.

Talking of the weekend, let's take a look ahead

to the rest of the week, sunny spells tomorrow, rain at first

on Friday which will clear during the afternoon,

Saturday, there will be the odd isolated showers and patchy rain

at times but the bulk of daylight hours should be mainly dry.

outlook. A whole load of 11 is. What does that mean? Maybe John Hammond

will tell you. We're in for a bumpy ride. The

weather chopping and changing keeping us on our toes. Rain never

too far away from our crystal ball. There has been rain around today

across southern areas. This band of wet weather pushing through Wales

and the Midlands. A little bit of the white stuff mixed in over the

high ground Snowdonia, some snow for an trans-Pennine routes as well.

Snow at low levels through the night. Further south the main