24/01/2018 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at ten...

Downing Street says

the Prime Minister is appalled

by allegations that women

were sexually abused at an all men

charity dinner in London.

An undercover reporter -

hired as a hostess -

filmed at the Presidents Club dinner

last week and said she was groped.

It's sparked outrage.

Women were bought as bait for men,

rich men, not a mile

from where we stand,

as if that is an

acceptable behaviour.

It is totally unacceptable.

After hosting exclusive dinners

for more than 30 years,

the Presidents Club has cancelled

all future events.

Also tonight...

Jailed for 175 years

for molesting young gymnasts -

the disgraced USA gymnastics team

doctor Larry Nassar

apologises to his victims.

Controversial monkey business -

20 years after Dolly the Sheep

scientists in China have

cloned two monkeys.

An exclusive report from inside

northern Serbia after Turkey opens

up a new front in Syria's seven-year

war. -- northern Syria.

Baroness Tessa Jowell

gives her first interview

since being diagnosed last May

with a severe form of brain cancer.

I am not afraid.

I feel...

Very clear about my

sense of purpose.

Not the best first day in a new job

for Phil Neville as the new manager

of the England women's football team

apologises for sexist treats.

Coming up on Sportsday later

in the hour on BBC News,

will it be Chelsea or Arsenal

heading to Wembley to

face Manchester City

in the League Cup final?

Good evening.

The exclusive men-only

Presidents Club, which has held

charity dinners in London for more

than 30 years, has cancelled

all future events after women

employed at the event say

they were groped and sexually

harassed by the guests.

Downing Street says

the Prime Minister is appalled

by the revelations.

An undercover reporter filmed last

week's dinner at the Dorchester.

A Government adviser who helped

organise it has resigned,

and some of the charities

for which money was raised

are handing back hundreds

of thousands of pounds in donations.

Here's our special

correspondent Lucy Manning.

All the Presidents Club men appear

to be enjoying themselves

at their charity dinner,

the women working there much less

so, with claims that they were

groped at the men only event

for those in business and politics.

Women working as table hostesses

were made to wear revealing outfits,

their phones confiscated.

Madison Marriage is the Financial

Times journalist who went undercover

to expose the dinner.

Multiple women told me that they had

been touched inappropriately,

and that ranged from,

you know, holding their hands,

touching their bums,

kind of grabbing them,

pulling them into their laps.

Yeah, there was a complete range

of sexual harassment.

And did that happen to you?

Yes.

Yeah, I had three men

touch me inappropriately.

Were you surprised that this

was happening in this day and age?

I am surprised by the

institutionalised scale

of this particular event.

The charity auction offered

the men-only diners hospitality

with the Foreign Secretary and Bank

of England Governor, although both

said they knew nothing about it,

or even the chance to,

as it was put, "Spice up the wife

with plastic surgery".

This is the contracts of the women

were made to sign at the dinner two

years ago. This event has many

influential people attending, remain

discreet. They had to sign along --

a nondisclosure agreement.

Absolutely nothing must be discussed

or disclosed before, during or after

the event to anyone, ever. Adding,

it will be fun. The company said you

to the calibre of the guests it

would be astonished if any claims of

sexual harassment were made.

Some of the men are now paying

for their attendance.

David Meller, one of the organisers,

resigned as a member

of the Department for

Education's board.

Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi

faced questions about his decision

to go to the dinner.

He was brought in to see the Chief

Whip. He said he unequivocally

condemned the behaviour.

Down the road from the Dorchester,

where the dinner was held last week,

MPs couldn't contain

their anger today.

Women were bought as bait for men,

rich men, not a mile

from where we stand,

as if that is an

acceptable behaviour.

It is totally unacceptable.

It is quite extraordinary to me,

Mr Speaker, that in the 21st

century, allegations of this kind

are still emerging.

Women have the right to feel

safe wherever they work.

Charities are now returning money

donated by the Presidents Club.

Great Ormond Street says it will

hand back half a million pounds.

But BBC News has learned of claims

that it was warned previously

not to take the money.

We have been told at a meeting

it was raised with senior

fundraisers that the Presidents Club

had questionable practices

and whether money should

be taken from them.

Great Ormond Street has very strict

policies and it was brought up

Great Ormond Street said tonight:

"We have checked our records and can

find nothing to suggest

we were aware of all discussed any

concerns about the Presidents Club".

Tonight the Presidents Club is no

more. Shuts down after the doors

were prised open.

The trustees of the Presidents Club

said it would no longer holds any

charity events. Downing Street

tonight said the Prime Minister was

appalled and it showed there was

still a long way to go before women

were properly treated as equals. The

doors have been opened on what

normally stays hidden and, for the

men who attended this dinner, some

are probably having to explain to

wives, daughters, female employees

and colleagues what went on here.

And what went on here certainly did

not look good.

Lucy Manning, thank you.

The former team doctor for America's

gymnastics squad, Larry Nassar,

has been sentenced to 175 years

in prison for sexually abusing

young female athletes.

More than 160 of his victims

testified in court.

The judge said the 54-year-old

didn't deserve to walk out

of prison ever again.

America's star Olympic gymnast,

Simone Biles, who was also abused,

praised those who'd spoken out

and said Nassar no longer had

the power to steal their happiness.

Rajini Vaidyanathan reports.

The tables have turned, Larry.

We are here, we have our voices

and we are not going anywhere.

The amount of physical,

mental and emotional trauma this man

has forced upon me is immeasurable.

Over the last seven days,

their voices and their stories have

become hard to ignore.

156 women say they were sexually

abused by this man, Larry Nassar.

I am giving you 175 years, which has

2100 months. I have just signed your

death warrant.

During the hearing, the judge

invited other women who had been

abused to come forward.

The response was unprecedented,

what started as ten convictions

turned into an outpouring

of testimony.

Today she did not hold back

when delivering her verdict.

Your decision to assault was

precise, calculated, manipulative,

devious, despicable.

I wouldn't send my dogs to you, sir.

You do not deserve to walk outside

of a prison ever again.

Today he had this

response for his victims.

An acceptable apology

to all of you is impossible

to write and convey.

I will carry your words with me

for the rest of my days.

Described as a monster

and as Satan in court,

the former USA gymnastics team

doctor treated hundreds

of women over decades.

From decorated Olympians

and state-level gymnasts

to the children of family friends.

Sent to him for medical treatment

instead of taking away their pain,

he stole their innocence.

You know, I think we saw yet another

example of Larry being a master

manipulator, that is something

society needs to understand better,

this is how predators operate.

He didn't think he did anything

wrong, his words are empty. They are

empty they are empty. You would

think by now he could take

ownership, and he just hasn't.

I think we have started a tidal wave

of people speaking up, because they

feel supported, they feel validated.

And that is not just for Nelson

victims, but every victim of sexual

assault and sexual abuse.

Mixed emotions as this hearing comes

to a close. Many here still wonder

how Larry Nelson was able to abuse

young and vulnerable women for so

long and not to be held to account,

but those same women demonstrated

sheer strength in this courtroom.

The judge described them as warriors

with Superwoman Steel.

The focus of the sentencing has been

on those who survived Larry Nassar's

abuse. Perhaps the biggest victory

isn't seeing the man who molested

them behind bars, but knowing that

together they found the collective

strength to confront him.

A jury's been told that a man

accused of carrying out

the Finsbury Park terror attack last

June kept smiling and even blew

a kiss at the gathering crowd

after ploughing a van

into mMslim worshippers.

-- into Muslim worshippers.

Darren Osborne from Cardiff denies

murder and attempted murder

after the attack in North London

which left one man dead.

Darren Osborne from Cardiff denies

murder and attempted murder

An Imam who was one of the first

on the scene told the court how

he stopped the crowd attacking

the driver of the van.

Daniel Sandford reports.

Witness after witness described how

the van der Gragt its engines just

before smashing into the group of

Muslim men and women. -- how the van

revved its engines. Some said they

feared for their lives, thinking

somebody would get out with a

Colonel Rene. The jury heard in 999

call for ambulances.

He ran over a

lot of people, a lot of people have

died.

In a van?

A big fan, he has

run over everyone when I was calling

you, he turned and ran over

everyone.

Within the hour, 51-year-old Makram

Ali was declared dead at the scene.

This man suffered life changing

injuries, including broken pelvis,

broken ribs and a broken lock. He

told the court how friends pulled

him out from under the van. People

grabbed the man they believed to be

the van driver to detain him. The

court heard how some people punched

and kicked him. The

and kicked him. The Imam of the

local mosque said he should answer

for his crimes in a court like this,

not on the street, and he stop

people from attacking him.

The man who made them I know nine

call said to the crowd, I have done

my job, you can kill me now. He was

constantly smiling, the 999 call

records.

Darren Osborne denies charges of

murder and attempted murder. He was

played video from a police officer's

body one camera in which Darren

Osborne rants about Muslims and says

hacked some of that, have some of

your own.

At least I had a proper go. Daniel

Sandford, BBC News, Woolwich Crown

Court.

Two decades after Dolly the Sheep,

scientists in China have now

used the same technique

to clone two monkeys.

The identical macaques

were born several weeks ago

at a laboratory in Shanghai.

Scientists say genetically identical

monkeys would help with research

into human diseases.

But critics say the work

raises ethical concerns.

Our medical correspondent

Fergus Walsh is here with me.

Tell us more about why they are

doing this?

Those rather cute baby

macaques you just saw, in an

incubator with soft toys around

them, those images will worry some

people and see it rather too close

to humans for comfort. The reality

is that since Dolly the sheep was

born in Scotland in 1996 we have had

loads of different cloned animals.

Cattle, pigs, dogs, cats, rats, you

name it. The significance is this is

the first time we have had a

nonhuman primate baby born using

other Dolly method which involves

transferring DNA to a donor egg, it

is incredibly inefficient and it

took 79 embryos to produce these

macaques. The DNA that created them

came not from an adult monkey but a

foetus. Why would you want to do

this? Why would you want a whole

laboratory full of genetically

identical monkey codes? Scientists

say it will enable them to study

primate biology and because of their

closeness to humans it will help in

research into human diseases, from

cancer to Alzheimer's and

Parkinson's. Critics will say it

will lead to cloned humans. They

have said that for the past 25

years, as far as we know it has not

happened. The Chinese team say they

are opposed under reputable

scientist wants to clone humans.

Fergus Walsh, thank you.

-- and no

reputable scientist wants to clone

humans.

Figures out today show

the number people in work has

risen to a record high.

Unemployment in the UK fell

by 3000 to 1.44 million

in the three months to November.

But the data from the Office

for National Statistics also shows

that wage growth remained below

the level of inflation.

It's emerged that victims

of the rapist John Worboys were sent

letters by police and prosecutors

after his conviction -

telling them he'd be

in jail for a long time.

Many are angry that the 60-year-old

former taxi driver has been approved

for release from prison

by the Parole Board nine

years after his trial.

The former Prime Minister David

Cameron has been caught on camera

saying that the UK's decision

to leave the European Union

was a mistake, not a disaster.

Mr Cameron was chatting

at the World Economic Forum in Davos

and heard saying that Brexit has

turned out "less badly

than we first thought."

Our political editor

Laura Kuenssberg reports.

Davos -

where the great and good

allegedly work out what is

going on in the world.

What happens to the UK

outside the European Union

is one of their concerns.

But how is the track record of those

types who gather here?

Look who popped up, admitting

he thought, privately,

his Brexit prediction was not

quite so good.

But in the expensive Alps,

there is a view a deal we'd

like to do will come with a cost.

There has to be some

price for access.

To what extent this access

is going to be available has

to be made dependent

on some other contributions.

Rather different to what ministers

tell us at home, where repeatedly

the government says the era of big

British payments to the EU is over,

without quite ruling

out specific costs.

What is making some Conservatives

scratchy, though, is not

how much we would pay,

but what happens on day one

after we leave the European Union.

There is a broad plan for a couple

of years of getting used to life

outside before we cut

all significant ties.

But some Brexiteers are fearful

almost nothing would change -

we'd hardly have left at all.

We are transitioning

from one state to another.

We are going from one state

to another and you can call it

what you like but not vassal.

All right, if not a vassal state,

in what sense have we left

the European Union, other

than we have no say...

We are leaving as in

leaving as in transiting.

Who is going to punish us

if we get on with it now?

Are we just still acting

as if we are in the European Union,

we are bound by the European Union,

we are lackeys of

the European Union?

And we are acting as a law-abiding

country.

Bolder.

Remember, Theresa May making her own

way to Davos desperately needs

Eurosceptic support.

Her first challenge, as ever,

keeping a handle on her own party.

I'm very concerned about

the bickering that is still going

on on the government side.

Transitional arrangements

are necessary and needed now

and we need to agree them.

The fact the government

still does not have a settled

position is deeply worrying.

There is some clamour

from the EU, too.

By the end of the week

the government will have shown

a bit more of its hand,

but as the Prime Minister

joins her fellow leaders

in Switzerland tonight,

there are multiple audiences

she needs to keep onside.

Laura Kuenssberg, BBC News.

Let's speak to our economics

editor Kamal Ahmed, who's

at the World Economics Forum

in Davos.

Theresa May has arrived.

What

reception can she expect tomorrow? I

think this is not her natural

habitat. Rather dismissively people

here are sometimes described as the

global elite and speaking to

business leaders they are baffled at

the decision for Britain to leave

the European Union but do not

forget, these are the type of people

who backed Britain staying in the

European Union. For businesses they

will want to hear from Theresa May

and open armed message about Britain

being open for business. I am not

sure they will quite get that. She

will talk about technology, the

importance of technology in

developments of economies and a

warning about technology, saying

technology companies had to do more

to stop the spread of extremist

material and terrorist material, so

a warning as well as the embracing

language that technology is good for

growth. It will not be her public

speech that will be the big issue

tomorrow, it will be the bilateral

with the other global leader

arriving tomorrow, that is President

Trump. This will be the first

meeting between the Prime Minister

and President Trump since that

rather embarrassing diplomatic

incident when President Trump

abandoned a plan to visit the UK,

and open the new embassy in London,

saying he did not like the building

very much. There will be bridge

building tomorrow between Theresa

May and Donald Trump but actually

the big excitement will be the

arrival of the US president, the

first time a US president has come

to Davos since Bill Clinton in 2000.

What message will he be sending on

Friday when he makes his big speech

to the World Economic Forum? Will he

be conciliar tree, say he does agree

with some forms of globalisation, or

will he be hard-nosed, we need

protectionism to protect the

American economy and American jobs?

President Trump has spoken

to the Turkish president

and urged him to de-escalate

Turkey's military operations

in northern Syria to stop any risk

of conflict between Turkish

and American forces.

On Saturday Turkey launched

an assault on Kurdish

forces on the other side

of the border in Syria.

Turkey believes the Kurdish militia

- known as the YPG -

is a terrorist group.

The YPG group controls all this -

more than 250 miles

of Syria's northern border.

But Turkey wants them out,

to stop the Kurds consolidating

their hold on the area.

Our Turkey correspondent Mark Lowen

is the first Western journalist

to be granted access to the border

town, from where the Turkish

operation is being launched.

The drill of war.

Syrian opposition police

training for a new front.

They are backed by Turkey,

the two working side by side

in the offensive against the Kurdish

militia or YPG.

The target, says Turkey, YPG

is linked to the PKK, the Kurdish

insurgents inside Turkey.

So some troops here are Kurds,

taking up arms against

the Kurdish militia.

This commander denies

he is betraying his people.

TRANSLATION:

I am taking

part in this offensive,

not to fight the Kurds

but to save them from

the terrorism of the YPG.

They planted terror

into the heads of our youth.

The shelling intensified today

as Turkey's President vowed

to neutralise every last terrorist.

Many of those involved are sent

from here to the nearby front line.

The terrain is bumpy.

The threat is constant.

Any car, any passer-by,

is scanned for explosives.

We are patrolling the front line

with Turkish troops.

The closest position of the YPG

militia just a few hundred

metres from the direction

where they fire artillery.

We just heard a couple

of incoming mortars.

The Turkish military offensive

is focused on clearing the villages

around this area of the YPG.

Turkey says it wants

to establish a buffer zone,

pushing the militia 20 miles deep

away from its border

into northern Syria.

Among local residents there is trust

in those keeping guard

and in the operation itself.

The Kurdish militia stole our

villages, killed our young people

and displaced us Arabs,

says this refugee.

God should bless the

military offensive.

But YPG resistance is fierce.

They are armed by the US,

which says the offensive

distracts from fighting

the Islamic State group.

The Kurds say civilians are being

killed by Turkish artillery.

Turkey denies it.

But for those in areas hit by air

strikes, it is hell.

TRANSLATION:

There is no

one here, I am alone.

There is no electricity

and they are firing on us.

They are shaking

the world with this.

Everybody has left.

Here it is scarred by the legacy

of a seven-year long war.

In Syria, territory is power

and as the country has fallen apart,

Turkey is determined

to stop its age-old foes

from grabbing a piece of it.

It's his first full day in the job

but already Phil Neville -

the new head coach of the England

women's football team -

has had to apologise

for sexist remarks on Twitter.

The former Manchester United player

said the comments were not "a true

and genuine reflection"

of his beliefs.

Our sports correspondent

Natalie Pirks reports.

Just everything about this

was the perfect opportunity for me,

and, literally, I haven't slept

because of the excitement.

Sleepless nights all round now,

though, as the FA get to grips

with another scandal

around their women's head coach.

Phil Neville's tweets from six years

ago alluded to such things as women

being too busy doing domestic chores

to watch sport, and another

ill-advised joke referred

to him battering his wife.

He's deleted his Twitter

account and apologised.

The FA says it was aware of some

but not all the tweets

before they hired him,

but the FA also confirmed

he won't be punished

because the comments don't

reach their threshold for a charge.

Was it discriminatory

in language, in nature?

Yes, it was.

Was it in context?

Yes, it was.

Did people find it offensive?

Yes, they did.

I kind of thought that was

what the threshold was.

But the Twitter storm seems to be

obscuring the real issue,

which is whether Phil Neville

is actually qualified for the job,

having never managed

before and never worked

in the women's game.

The FA confirmed tonight that two

of the four final candidates

for the job were female,

but all four withdrew

from the process.

The FA desperately needed

to get this one right.

Neville's predecessor

Mark Sampson had guided England

to third in the world,

before becoming embroiled

in a racism scandal, late last year,

and being sacked for inappropriate

behaviour, uncovered

from a previous role.

Phil Neville's friends in the game,

though, are backing him to do well.

A bit of flak, you've got

to be able to take that,

but all I can say is I have known

Philip a number of years,

he will do a really good job.

Many say a qualified

woman could have done

the job equally as well,

though, and Neville is fast learning

things don't always go

to plan when you step

into the Lionesses' den.

Natalie Pirks, BBC News, Wembley.

A nun has broken down in tears

at the Scottish child abuse inquiry

and apologised to anyone who may

have been abused at a notorious care

home in Lanarkshire.

Dozens of former residents

at the Smyllum Park orphanage claim

they were attacked by nuns

between the 1940s and 1970s.

From Edinburgh, our correspondent

Michael Buchanan reports.

Former residents say a culture

of evil existed at Smyllum,

a children's home in Lanark run

by the Daughters of Charity.

Dozens of people who lived here have

alleged they were abused.

A BBC investigation last year also

suggested around 400 children

from Smyllum are buried in this

nearby cemetery

in an unmarked grave.

Theresa McGrane, who lived

in the home in the 1960s and 1970s,

says she was sexually assaulted

by a priest then punished by a nun

who discovered the abuse.

She finds the refusal to admit

what happened ridiculous.

People have been battered,

people have been, like myself,

flung into a wall.

It is just like this red

thread going through

everyone's explanations.

They have been physically,

grossly abused.

REPORTER:

Do you accept

the abuse took place?

Today the current head

of the Daughters of Charity came

to Edinburgh to give some answers.

In evidence to the Scottish

Child Abuse Inquiry,

Sister Ellen Flynn offered

a sincere apology.

She said through tears...

But she refused to admit

abuse had taken place.

The nuns did admit

to failing to investigate more

than 100 allegations

of abuse made in the 1990s

against staff at Smyllum.

Eddie McColl, who says he was beaten

by nuns in the 1950s,

was appalled by today's evidence.

It is always "if" this happened

and "if" that happened.

It is not "if," it did happen,

and they are just...

They're in denial.

Today's evidence will be of little

comfort to the former residents

who say they were abused at Smyllum.

Some were hoping for an apology,

an acknowledgement of what had

happened, and the nuns'

unwillingness to do that will merely

infuriate them further.

The nuns could give few details

of how many children from Smyllum re

buried in the unmarked grave.

They said an expert was working

with them to identify each body.

Michael Buchanan,

BBC News, Edinburgh.

Mark E Smith, the singer

and songwriter who founded

The Fall, has died aged 60.

He was the driving

force behind the band

and the only constant

member for four decades.

# Hit the North!

# Hit the North!

# 95% of hayseeds (Hit the North!)

are corn-pones, guaranteed

# Hit the North.#

Mark E Smith who died today.

The former Labour Cabinet Minister

Baroness Tessa Jowell will lead

a debate in the House of Lords

tomorrow arguing that people

should be given the chance

to pursue all options

to try to beat their cancer.

She's given her first interview

since she was diagnosed last May

with a severe form of brain cancer.

Passion, determination,

a sense of mission,

that is what Tessa Jowell displayed

as the minister who helped bring

the Olympics to London.

Now she is showing all that and more

as she speaks publicly for the first

time about the brain tumour

she discovered she had last May.

It came with absolutely

no expectation.

No warning?

Absolutely none at all, I did not

have a single apparent symptom.

Her symptoms now include

a struggle to find words

which used to come so easily.

Anyone who has had cancer

knows that particularly

for people like you,

and maybe for me, the hardest

thing is to get used

to not being in control.

I don't think I immediately leapt

to the inevitability of cancer.

I think that to begin with I felt

that I would have this tumour,

that it would be operated on,

and that would be it.

It is actually much harder now,

because now my life is day by day

affected by this tumour.

And affected by the uncertainty

of what my cancer

is actually going to mean.

I can feel your frustration

because there are words

occasionally that do not come.

That is the tumour, sadly doing its

work.

The tumour bloody well

does this to you.

But Tessa Jowell is not

asking for sympathy,

she is demanding change,

change to allow cancer

patients to switch from one

drug trial to the next,

rather than having to wait months

when months may be all they have.

There is no point in having another

six months of waiting for that trial

because it is not going to have any

effect, so let's go

onto the next one.

So a patient might say,

I'm willing to take the risk,

I am willing to try one,

two, three things whatever

the side effects?

That is exactly the kind of risk

patients should be free to take.

People listening to you will be

thinking, why don't you curl up

on the sofa, be with your family

and friends and look after yourself.

Absolutely impossible.

I have so much love.

It is the most extraordinary,

blessed and...

..and re-creating sense.

I've been lucky enough to read

the speech you will give

to the House of Lords,

and you end with some

words from Seamus Heaney

the poet and you mean it.

"I am not afraid."

I am not afraid.

I feel very clear about my sense

of purpose and what I want to do

and how do I know how long

it is going to last?

I am certainly going to do

everything I can to make

it a very long time.

Tessa Jowell talking to Nick

Robinson.