13/11/2013 South Today

That's all from the BBC News at Six so it's goodbye from

Hello, I'm Sally Taylor, welcome to South Today. In tonight's programme:

The two children unlawfully killed by their own father.

A compensation pay`out for a girl left disabled after a court hears

about a doctor's pager being mislaid.

Nothing can prepare you for the events of last September. When we

have the news of what this man had done to a grandsons, the world

change for us and it will not be the same again.

We put our trust in them and they messed up. I hope they can live with

that. We have to. Sent home on her first day at work `

the teenager who had every right to work in this country.

And a different kind of medal for the Olympic rower back from a tour

of duty in Afghanistan. A coroner has concluded that two

boys found dead at their home in Tidworth were killed by their father

before he took his own life. 11`year`old Jack Anderson and

three`year`old Bryn were most likely smothered by Graham Anderson. The

family was well known to social services but an independent panel

has found that the boys' deaths could not have been predicted or

prevented. James Ingham reports from Salisbury Coroner's Court.

Jack and Bryn Anderson ` young boys killed at home by their own father.

Pathologists couldn't ascertain for certain how he died, but it's most

likely they were suffocated by Graham Anderson who then took his

own life. Harrowing events and indeed a harrowing investigation. It

is clear from the inquest that both Berlin and Jack died at the hands of

the father. Mr Anderson was awarded sole custody of his sons after a

period spent in foster care. Despite a history of violence, anti`social

behaviour and drink and drug abuse, social workers considered him fit to

care for the boys, more so than their mother, who was drinking

heavily. Behind the scenes, there were problems. Mr Anderson was in

debt, was facing eviction from his flat after failing to pay rent and

was worried about ongoing custody of his children. It was an act of

vengeance over our daughter, Victoria. After being subjected to

ten years of domestic violence, suffering in silence, she was at

last attempting to put her life back together after a turbulent two years

following the circulation. `` separation. He was losing control

and as we heard, was unable to manage his life or be a responsible

parent. But no`one will know for sure why Graham Anderson killed his

sons. It's a question for both sides of their family. We are completely

devastated by this tragic event. It has been over one year, but it feels

like yesterday. The pain still doesn't go away. There are so many

unanswered questions. So could the boys deaths have been prevented? I

could see no evidence that the deaths could have been predicted. I

can see there is evidence for learning from the review and, as is

the case with many other serious case reviews, there is evidence that

there could have been a more effective sharing of information.

The coroner said he was satisfied that nobody, including any of the

agencies involved with this family, could have possibly known the boys

were at risk of death. It included that they had been unlawfully killed

by the father and passed on his condolences to the families in court

today. He said that this had been a particularly harrowing case.

A Royal Navy sailor says his daughter was left severely disabled

after a delivery room doctor in Portsmouth mislaid his bleeper while

on duty. Luke Robinson and his wife Margaret have accepted a

compensation settlement from Portsmouth NHS Trust to help with

care costs for their daughter Rachel. The trust settled on 80%

liability, but said an earlier delivery would probably not have

changed Rachel's condition. Lewis Coombes reports.

The birth of a child is meant to be one of the happiest days of your

life, but for magnet and Luke Robinson, a trip to what was then

the Mary Rose mechanically unit in Portsmouth 12 years ago was anything

but. `` maternity unit. I asked to see Rachel will stop she was in the

intensive care unit. I was not allowed to touch her. She had severe

swelling on the brain. That is all we were told. Rachel suffered oxygen

starvation during the final dramatic minutes of labour. She now has

cerebral palsy, affecting all four limbs. A midwife had spotted a

heartbeat and put out an emergency call. The obstetric registrar had

lost his bleeper and arrived in great. `` late. Why has it taken 12

years to reach this point? In a situation such as this, it seems

painfully obvious as to whether negligence or cold. `` were the

negligence occurred. But you have to boil down to the issues that each

individual medical practitioner has contributed to the situation. The

NHS trust insist that an early delivery would probably have made no

difference to reach a's condition but settled an 80% liability. The

compensation is not to be in a region of 2`?3 million. For work and

Margaret, it has never been about the money. We hold them fully

responsible for what they have done. We put our trust in them and they

messed up. I hope they can live with that, because we have to. Rachel has

to. Luke Robinson they are, finishing

that report. A Portuguese teenager says she was

sent home on her first day in a new job after her boss said her national

identity card wasn't sufficient proof of her right to work here. The

Argos store in Poole said the Home Office had initially told it not to

accept the Portuguese ID card, despite it being valid legal proof.

Katy Austin reports. The first day of Rossana's first

part`time job at her local Argos also turned out to be the first time

she was sent home. I waited for an hour until they told me they

couldn't get me on the system because my European card wasn't

sufficient enough and they didn't know if I was valid to work in the

UK. The Home Office website lists national identity cards as

acceptable proof of right to work. Rossana had shown her Portugese

citizen card during her application process and was surprised by it

suddenly being turned down when she turned up for work. I can't even

begin to explain how much stress that really caused me. Right now, I

want an apology. Argos says it complied with Government rules, and

that the Home Office had told Rossana's manager not to accept her

card. But the firm said they've since been told Portugese citizen

cards can be used to prove right to work here at the company's

discretion. They sent the BBC a statement saying the Portugese

authorities need to make sure their citizen cards are accepted by the

Home Office. The Home Office told us employers should ask employees from

the European Economic Area for documents proving they're living

here legally. One lawyer says the situation for some foreign workers

seeking jobs could be confusing for companies. On the one hand, I can

see why Argos would need to satisfy themselves that this particular

employee was an EU national and not just a citizen of Portugal, but on

the other hand they may have perhaps acted a bit roughly in what they've

done by simply not accepting this form of ID. Argos has now invited

Rossana back to work. They said they would be happy to have me back and

it was all a confusion. And that I could go back to work on Saturday,

as usual. Olympic gold medallist Heather

Stanning has returned from a six month tour of duty in Afghanistan

and is already focused on the 2016 Games. Captain Stanning maintained

her punishing exercise regime during the time she spent in Helmand

Province, and is now preparing to compete in Rio. Caroline Wyatt saw

her receive her Afghanistan medal today in Hampshire.

The moment Heather Stanning and her rowing partner Helen Glover powered

their way to victory. It was Team GB's first gold of the 2012 Olympic

games, a result of years of hard work, as well as training. Today,

she was awarded a medal for a different kind of service to our

country. Six months in hell mind on an operational tour. `` in Helmand

Province. We filmed with Heather and Camp Bastion and the Olympian was

simply another British officer but a crucial part of a different sort of

thing. For Heather and her comrades, it was a gruelling six months. They

were working through the night, living in a tent and working in a

Portakabin. Not the way most Olympians would have spent the

summer. Our task was to run a team operating UK surveillance planes

watching over British troops in a place where that can mean the

difference between life and death. For all the friends and family

gathered here, there is an enormous sense of pride but also relief that

their loved ones have now returned from the lengthy two of duty in

Helmand Province. Very comforting to see her back. This is the third

period we have attended. We have two boys also in Afghanistan and it is

last `` nice to know the last one is back with a whole battery complete,

as it were. I will have a couple of weeks with my family and aid to get

training again, to be fair. My team of already started training for next

season and I am quite a long way behind. If I want to be serious

about competing in the World Championships next summer, I have to

get myself selected for the squad. Heather Wilson get back to some

serious training, but only after some well earned leave.

Still to come in this evening's South Today:

The autistic drumming group we're taking on a journey for Children In

Need. An elderly Hampshire man who

couldn't call for help because his phone and internet were mistakenly

cut off for two weeks has now had his line reconnected. 89`year`old

Cor Laan, from Emery Down in the New Forest, has a heart condition and

needs to be able to contact family and emergency services. For the last

16 days, his family spent hours on the phone to BT urging them to

reinstall the line. BT has apologised and admitted it ceased

the line in error. The latest employment figures were

released this morning, showing that the South has some of the highest

rates for people in work in the country. In the South East, the

employment rate for people aged between 16 and 64 rose slightly to

76%. In the South West, the rate also increased between July and

September ` up a fraction to 74%. That's compared to the national

employment rate of almost 72%. While these figures are a welcome boost,

some businesses are warning that growth is being held back by a

shortage of skills. Vacancies at IT firms in the Thames Valley often

take months to fill. The education sector is looking to address the

demand, and for the first time in the country, Reading University is

offering a free online computer programming course. Our business

correspondent, Alastair Fee reports. IT skills are in short supply, so

Reading University is stepping in. But you won't find students in the

classroom. Instead, they're all at home. Through this course, I will

introduce you to... This free online course teaches basic computer

programming ` learning how to build a game in seven weeks ` knowledge

that is in demand. It is not rocket science. You might not go out and

get a job with it, but you will def my know if this is something you

want to work on down the course. That is very valuable. We have very

good connections to many of the industries here, Microsoft, IBM, all

the big ones in this area. They do feel they have difficulties finding

good programmers and computer scientists. From his home, John is

among the first intake of students. Learning like this is big in America

and it's starting to catch on here. Companies are looking for people

like him, so this could be the path to employment. It will improve my

computer skills. I will learn stuff I have never learnt before. This

will give me the introduction I need to perform better at college and in

the workplace. Loxone specialise in transforming the way we control

everything in our homes. At their office near Reading they have five

vacancies, but filling those positions hasn't been easy. We are

looking for people who are not necessarily going to write code but

have a code but have awareness of programming. And we have been

finding it hard to fulfil these roles. The applicants are just not

suitable. That is slowing us down. I believe it is slowing down companies

across the whole of Britain. That need is matched by those seeking

training. Reading University filled 10,000 places on its free

programming course in just 24 hours. Thousands more will start in the new

year. While it's been welcomed by those in business, it will still be

some years before there is a workforce to meet the demand.

Elsewhere, there's a global shortage of airline pilots. That might seem

surprising, as most people see the life of a pilot as glamorous,

globe`trotting and well`paid. But perhaps they are put off by the huge

cost of learning to fly. ?90,000 is a typical fee, and the pilot pays

it, not the airline. Our transport correspondent Paul Clifton reports

from one of the largest pilot training companies, which is in

Southampton. Laming to land an airliner at

Gatwick. Not a real one, we're in a simulator, tucked away on the edge

of Southampton. This place trains 300 pilots a year for airlines which

include British Airways and easyJet. I think it was ?84,000. You want to

get into a job like this, you have got to be fully prepared to take the

financial hit. CTC Aviation highlights a skills gap. Almost a

quarter of a million extra pilots will be needed within seven years.

Partly, that is because passenger numbers worldwide are expected to

double in 15 years. The Far East is driving that growth, but if this or

that will be in Europe. `` one fifth of it will be in Europe. Airlines

expect recruits to pay for training themselves. Is that putting people

off flying as a career which are marked `` as a career? It is a

barrier. But it is also a tremendous career. If you do have the funding,

I think it is very attractive as a career. A junior first officer with

easyJet is about the same as a train driver. A senior captain M is the

same as a family doctor. Unlike other carriers, training is not part

of the deal. It was more sucking up to parents, I'm afraid. They have

paid for this. I have taken ?10,000 odours alone myself. It is like

going back to being a student. You have beans on toast until you get

onto a bit more of a permanent contract and you are eligible to

work up the skills. For this training company, demand for pilots

is good business, but increasingly, trainees are coming from other

countries, up sixfold in three years.

I was just been told he wasn't doing well on a very similar simulator,

but there you go. You crashed it, do you? Let's hope you do better with

the sport. It is that age`old problem of how to

get youngsters involved in sport. How do you encourage youngsters to

play cricket when you haven't got any grass, let alone a cricket

pitch? One answer is cage cricket. It's an initiative to get children

playing the sport in inner cities and new facilities were unveiled at

a school in Portsmouth a few hours ago.

This school doesn't have a cricket pitch, but that doesn't stop the

pupils playing cricket. It looks a bit what `` it looks a bit boring,

but when you play it, it is good. I wouldn't play it normally. You just

got to hit at five or ten yards. If you want to hit big fours and

sixes, you have to have big muscles to slam it over the boundary. It is

fast`paced and I enjoyed. In cage cricket, everyone gets a chance to

bat and field. The sport was developed just down the road and

Somerstown. The English team currently playing the Ashes. One of

the team came from a local area. Apart from him, the other players

are public school pupils. Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams came from a few

tips on how the sport works and also opened the school's new ?1.3 million

sports Hall. I am keen to have a go myself, but I think for

up`and`coming players, it allows you to explore different areas and keeps

interest in the game moving forward. The last amateur player to

come from a state school in Portsmouth was in the 1930s. The

authors cage cricket might inspire the next generation to take up the

sport. `` the hope is cage cricket. Swindon Town are through to the area

semi`finals of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy but they left it late against

Wycombe Wanderers. After going a goal behind to the visitors on the

stroke of half`time, Town's Nicky Ajose struck twice in the final 15

minutes at the County Ground to secure their progress to the next

round. Portsmouth were knocked out of their

second cup competition within four days last night. A disastrous

opening 20 minutes saw Pompey ship two goals, Conor Washington putting

them on the backfoot after just four minutes. Newport added a second

before David Pipe saw red for this foul. But Pompey couldn't make the

extra man count and they lost 3`0. There's been heartbreak again for

the two youngest sailors competing in the Transat Jaques Vabre race

from Le Havre in France to Brazil. Sam Goodchild, from Southampton, and

Ned Collier`Wakefield were leading the Class 40 race aboard Team

Concise early on. But their boat suffered damage to a rudder in rough

seas off Spain last night and they've been forced to abandon the

race for the second time in as many years.

They must be bitterly disappointed. Third time lucky, maybe.

There's just two days to go until Children In Need. And we've been

following a group of autistic drummers called DrumA on a journey

that will end up with them playing live on South Today on Friday night.

As our youngsters are new to performing, we decided to give them

a masterclass from some experts. Stomp is a Sussex`based percussion

show that has been travelling the world. So when Stomp came to

Bournemouth this summer, they gave DrumA a special workshop they'd

never forget, as Sarah Farmer discovered.

Stomp have turned percussion into an artform. They can drum anywhere with

anything. Today, they are giving our autistic

drummers a taster in the limelight. Let's grab a pair of sticks. Find a

friend to stand next to. Let's make some noise. First steps, let's bang

a bin. Keep that up, keep that up. As the

drummers get more confident, the rhythms get more complicated? ``

more, located. As they beat sounds out, Dunedin stumper `` Canadian

Stomper gives them more confidence. When we practice, we kind of go...

You concentrate really hard. You want to change your body to tell

them to watch it. The drums sound great and the rhythm sounds great,

and now you got to tell everybody out there, listen to us, we are that

good! Everyone watching would be like, they aren't that good. `` they

are very good. Ready to start? That looks good. You would go. One,

three, 4... It connects with everyone no matter

what. We'll have a heartbeat, we worked in the them `` we all have a

heartbeat, we walk in rhythm. It makes it easy to perform in a group

and make lots of noise. I think the kids have a lot of

skills and entertainment they have to give. It is very natural for them

to be playing the rhythms and cover them together `` coming together as

a group. Amazing. It was really fun to drum around. I am really shaky

now. I am really need of water, but apart from that, it was brilliant.

Awesome. Hard work, but fun. One of the best experiences of my life. You

see them on the DVD and you just want to be in it. We had the chance

to actually do it, so it is great. Good luck, DrumA, play hard and have

a lot of fun. All those youngsters are fundraising

for the big night and so are you. Here is a selection of how you're

raising money for this fantastic cause.

The shopping Southampton held a patsy party, raising ?233. `` held a

party. This women did a deer for a beer.

She learned to eat fire. Do not try this at home, she spent hours

practising. Elderly residents at Belmore Lodge

were joined by to make cupcakes to be enjoyed with afternoon tea.

Listeners to BBC Radio Solent took part in us for patsy in the New

Forest. `` pause for Pudsey. They do stay healthy amount. `` they had

raised a healthy amount. Now, the weather.

A lovely day, and we do it all again tomorrow.

Shaun Roster captured Canadian geese taking flight over Fareham Creek

soon after sunrise. Claire Wilson took this autumnal

photo in Horsham in West Sussex. And John House captured a lone boat

in the sunshine from Alum Chine in Dorset.

Tonight is very different from last night. We expect more cloud and

strengthening north`westerly winds. That will take the edge off the

bridge was tomorrow. With that wind, we will see rain pushing. It will

last for one or two hours through the course of the night and then

fade away. The skies will clear in places but the badgers will not be

as low was last night. We rule out the chance of frost, with rows of

6`8 Celsius. In marital start tomorrow, but any impetus to start

will fade away quickly. We will expect sunny conditions. A risk of

showers in some areas, but it should be slightly drier into the afternoon

with a high of 10 Celsius. The main feature tomorrow is the strong

north`westerly wind. At any open, it will feel chilly. Tomorrow evening,

the skies will clear, the odd shower, but most places dry. The

badgers will fall rapidly with lows in towns and cities to 2`3 Celsius,

perhaps freezing in the country outside `` countryside. The risk of

a touch of frost first thing on Friday morning. A chilly start to

Friday but the good news is, high pressure is not far away. Ice bars

will widen, which means the wind will die down. It will not be as

chilly in the sunshine. There will be decent sunny spells, so as we

head through the rest of the week, we expect decent sunshine on

Thursday and Friday. Workload into the weekend. The strengthening

north`westerly winds will take the edge of temper just tomorrow. Highs

of 9`10 Celsius. Friday, sunny spells and conditions, lighter winds

than tomorrow, pleasantly warm. As we head towards the weekend, there

is a chance on both Saturday and Sunday of a touch of rain. The

winds will stay like. Temperatures are around 8`10 Celsius. Into next

week, an early warning. It will come colder. `` it will become colder.

That is it from us. We have more at 8pm and 10:25pm. Good night, have a

good evening. I'm Nigel Slater, a cook.

And I'm Adam Henson, a farmer.