23/10/2017 Inside Out East Midlands

Hello and welcome to Loughborough University

in Leicestershire where world champions come to train

and where we have come to tell you about the stories that matter

closer to home.

Tonight, investigating the Craigslist criminals,

Jonathan Gibson is in Derby.

Thing is, mate, I work for the BBC.

And we're trying to find out, mate, why you're peddling cocaine.

Why is that?

How breaststroke Olympic champion Adam Peaty

is changing lives in Zambia.

Creating a legacy for me is probably one of the most important things,

it is how you inspire millions and millions of people

around the world to do exactly what you've done.

And any colour as long as it's not black.

Mike Dilger wants to know why these dogs can't find homes.

Look at that.

Absolutely gorgeous.

I'm Lukwesa Burak and this is Inside Out for the East Midlands.

First, classified ads.

Now, what would you be using them to hunt for?

Furniture, a new car perhaps?

Well, Jonathan Gibson has been sniffing around in Derby

where he is investigating one online site where criminals have an eye

for more than just a bargain.

As an investigative journalist, it's sometimes easier to work

when the office is nice and quiet.

When people aren't watching what you're doing.

Like investigating the dark web.

If you're looking for something illegal, it is the go-to part

of the Internet that's hidden from prying eyes.

The place where criminals use encrypted websites and virtual

currencies to trade.

Trade.

You don't need to bother with all that, mate.

I'm sorry?

You can get all of that on Craigslist.

Craigslist?

If you budge up, I'll show you.

Shouldn't you be getting on with the...?

No, it's fine, I've got ten minutes.

Brilliant.

OK.

Log on and you can look it up.

Craigslist.

Yes, Craigslist.

It was set up in America by a guy called Craig.

It is a website where people buy and sell everything,

and I mean everything.

Just say where you live and get started.

But lots of the stuff on Craigslist won't be in the buy and sell section

of your local newspaper, including bootleg tobacco.

The kind of cigs you'd probably buy from some dodgy

geezer outside a pub or, in this case,

a supermarket car park.

I've literally just started.

So are they knocked off then?

Yeah.

Oh, right.

They can't really sell them in shops any more.

So where do you get them from?

I don't...

Sorry.

And they import the tobacco.

Cool, OK.

So he's just a middleman.

He says his supplier's someone else on Craigslist.

I've seen some crazy stuff on Craigslist.

So have I.

That's why I've come to another car park,

ready for another dodgy deal.

It's counterfeit, yeah?

Yeah.

And that's why his tobacco is just a third of the price

of the real stuff.

Do you smoke it yourself, mate?

Yeah, I smoke it.

Can you tell the difference?

No, I can't tell the difference.

But there is a difference.

Because counterfeit goods are among the things Craigslist says you're

not supposed to sell on its website.

Stuff that's illegal.

Yeah, but no one takes any notice of that!

Do you mind?

But he's got a point.

Look at this.

It is as easy to find marijuana on Craigslist

as it is a second-hand sofa.

And you might need a seat because what I'm buying next

could knock you off your feet.

I'm on a Derby estate to meet a dealer selling

cocaine on Craigslist.

80, mate, yeah?

Yeah.

All right, mate, ideal.

Sound, yeah, see you later.

Cheers.

The deal done in seconds, but is it the real deal?

Turns out, as street cocaine goes, it's pretty pure stuff,

so what's it doing on Craigslist?

Well, I'm shocked.

I'm shocked at what's there because it's not difficult

for the Internet companies to put elements onto their websites

to police this sort of stuff and they should be policing it

and taking it down.

But if you have made money from crime, you won't want

the police to find it.

What you need is someone to hide it, perhaps in their bank account.

It's called money-laundering, but where would I find

someone to do that?

On a street corner I'm meeting Stacey.

She's offering her bank account on Craigslist to anyone

who wants to use it.

But we are walking into the bank to pay in what I've told her

is money made from crime.

She'll charge me a fee to get it back and there are plenty of people

on Craigslist offering to do the same thing, sometimes

through overseas bank accounts.

But if you've sent your money overseas, how are you

going to get it back?

What you need is a new identity, or better still, somebody else's.

You again?

Yeah!

And I know just the place you can get it.

Don't say it!

Craigslist.

The place where I can find a stolen passport.

And there are plenty more where that came from.

I've known some stories where it's taken people ten years to get

I've known some stories where it's taken people ten years to get

there credit ratings back again after it being completely

trashed by people who have stolen their identities.

But it will allow you to get on and commit other crimes

and that's why they're doing it.

On Craigslist there's also disorganised crime.

This guy wants someone to pass his driving theory test for him.

So what's the deal, mate?

I go in and take it.

But for 50 quid it's not that black and white.

For a start, he's black and I'm white and someone's going to notice.

They check your photo against their database.

There's no point, there's no way I'm going to get through.

When I later revealed I'm a journalist, he didn't

have anything to say.

And neither did Craigslist.

In fact, when we asked it for an interview,

this is what it told us.

And that came from the top, the chief executive's office.

I think whilst they are making money, and whilst nobody is turning

around and asking them, forcing them to try to change

what is going on, you will find sites like this using the ostrich

effect, sticking their head in the sand and ignoring it.

No wonder criminals can carry on regardless.

Well, unless they're really selling to a journalist.

I work for the BBC, if you look out there at the camera.

Oh no.

I knew this was going to happen.

I'd like to know why you're offering to sell...

Because I'm trying to get out of debt.

You're trying to get out of debt?

Yeah.

Oh my god, my mother's going to kill me.

But he's not the only one thinking about his relatives.

So why are you doing it?

I don't know why I'm doing it to be honest.

I'm trying to make money for my family.

But at least they are talking.

Take a good look at my cocaine dealer because he's

not around for long.

Thing is, mate, I work for the BBC.

And we're...

Trying to find out, mate, why you're peddling cocaine.

Why is that?

Well, he wasn't hanging about, was he?

So how about Stacey?

Will she want to talk?

I'm trying to find out why you're willing to launder money for people,

why you're actually doing that, Stacey.

You knew it was risky.

Would you like to explain...

I've got nothing to say to you.

Just like my passport thief.

I'm not buying a passport off you, mate, because I work for the BBC

and I want to know why you're selling stolen passports, mate.

Why are you doing it?

Why are you selling stolen passports?

The amount of organised crime that there is sitting behind

everything you have shown there is frightening and it's

critical I think that the police force or the law-enforcement

agencies force the likes of Craigslist to do something about it.

So what is the government doing?

When we asked to interview a minister, all we got was a Home

Office statement saying it's...

Well, we've kind of done that for them already.

Well, told you.

So maybe it's time the government forced websites like Craigslist

to clean up their act.

That was Jonathan Gibson reporting there.

Now, he's a world and Olympic champion and he also trains right

here at Loughborough University.

Swimmer Adam Peaty is arguably one of the biggest stars in the sporting

world right now but he says that what matters to him is his legacy,

not here in the UK but some 5000 miles away.

Natalie Jackson has the story.

Adam Peaty, Olympic and world champion.

No one's been faster than him in the history of mankind.

He is unstoppable right now.

25.95!

I never thought I would live to see the day...

You know, he's the Usain Bolt of swimming in terms

of what he does, the fastest man on the planet in two events

and by some considerable margin.

Britain's waited 40 years for a predator

in the pool like Peaty.

They call him the British Lion.

I'm very proud to be British and I'm not really intimidated

by anyone or anything.

I think that's why I got that nickname.

But what goes on behind the eyes and in the mind

of an athlete like Adam?

He's the figurehead people look to.

We know we can rely on him to deliver.

The nation knows that if we need to go to hunt, he's at the front.

And what the nation doesn't know is the surprising sacrifice made

by Peaty and the extraordinary journey alongside his swimming that

made him the all conquering champion he is today.

Each day Adam and his coach Mel are up at 6am completing two

three-hour sessions, six days a week.

At peak training Adam will swim seven miles a day.

So, on one of his few, rare weeks off a year,

what on earth is he doing in Zambia?

Who would want to eat that?!

The food is basic, the accommodation is too.

Adam and his coach, Mel Marshall, have got a team of 16 friends

together for a sporting challenge.

So it's 50 hours of sport in five days, five different

sports to raise ?50,000.

Mel's been out to Zambia seven times.

Every time I've been out before it's to either raise

funds or raise awareness.

You know, it is progressing but the problems are still the same.

It's the close bond between Mel and Adam that

first brought him here.

Five years ago Adam Peaty came out here to Zambia.

He was just 17, taking part in a charity bike ride to raise

funds for centres like this.

Back then he was swimming in local pools, no one had ever heard of him.

He has returned today as the Olympic champion and now making a difference

to thousands of young Africans' lives.

Today is a big day for them both.

They are opening the sports centre they raised ?35,000 to build.

The legacy for me is probably one of the most important things.

Yes, it is about the medals, it's about the world record,

but it's how you inspire millions and millions of people around

the world to do what you have done.

They don't have to be the next best breaststroker in the world

or world record-holder, but they can be the best teachers,

the best coaches and that's the beauty about sport.

I did say to Mel the other day, I think she'll have a tear

in her eye when she walks through the gates here this morning

because we can show you pictures of what this place looked

like a year ago and the transformation here...

This kind of thing doesn't happen in Zambia.

The facility we built from 2012, ?35,000, five years ago,

it is amazing to see such a place develop like that and the kids

using it and the whole families going in there and taking advantage

of the situation which is so empowering, that

what we can do here, maybe build another one

of them and in a few years build another one.

CHEERING.

This playground is the only one of its kind in the country.

This place used to be a dump a long time, people used

to kill each other here, they used to take drugs here.

But now it is a playpark and people can have fun.

Basketball has really done something nice to my life,

I have gone to places I have never thought I would go.

Even today I never thought I would be here but basketball

has brought me here.

Poverty in Zambia is extreme.

85% of the population is under 35.

Rob Day is part of the Sporting Challenge team and lived

out here for a year.

It's extremely poor in this area.

It's about one tap to every hundred households.

Kids don't have shoes, they have maybe one set of clothes,

but this is a community where you've got roughly about maybe 3000 or 4000

people who are HIV-positive.

So what Adam's doing out here is absolutely vital.

At 12, Blessings Muleng's mother died and his father deserted him.

On that night we were on the street and some others came and beat

up my sister and me.

And they got my sister.

Since that I never spoken to my sister again.

Blessings was left in a wheelchair.

His story, though, is not uncommon.

Steven Siame's parents both died when he was just 11.

Sport and this centre saved his life.

If I share my story with them, they can be motivated and say, yes,

I think my life can change too.

If Steven was in this situation, now he is changed, now

he is a football coach.

This programme, Adam Peaty and Mel Marshall and the group,

it has changed my life.

These sporting centres are for more than just sport.

They are schools and orphanages, safe places.

The coaches and volunteers here take on the role of the parents.

We have a lot of the kids kind of ask you, not even about sports

stuff but life skills stuff.

You get older kids approaching you about personal issues to do

with like stuff at home, and, as we know, some

of the issues they go through like domestic violence.

Many of the horrific stories come from the girls.

Almost 50% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced

gender-based violence.

I think the youngest we had was raped, that was a case

we had in Livingstone.

She was about 13 years old and this was a girl coming from school,

going home and she was raped along the way.

Almost half of all the cases of sexual violence reported

to the police are children under 16.

So here no one can touch them.

They all know that being touched on the body, if you don't want

someone to touch you...

The Sporting Challenge group were moved to tears on hearing

about three girls left alone to sleep in a dormitory

with a group of boys.

Girls here have a really hard time, they are just not treated the same.

Their childhood is filled with rape, with abuse, with hitting

and it's just accepted.

They've got no voice, no nothing.

What they need is beds, to create a separate girls dormitory,

so that's what they go out and do.

These are the programmes which are bringing my dreams back.

I'm smiling now from the child who was just nobody on the street,

not knowing anything.

Here I am today speaking on the camera!

I've been very fortunate to have Mel and kind

of realise from a young age, it's not all about the medals.

It's how you translate those, especially the Olympic

ones and the world ones, how you translate those

to a global cause.

You've got to help meet as many people as possible.

If I don't teach them about life as well as sport, what am I?

What am I to him in his life?

That is the two parts of sport.

There is the personal side and the performance side

and you have to take care of both.

It's just, make sure you're surrounded by the real world,

I think that's really important.

If we come together and help one another, we can change the world

through sports for so many things.

Yes.

We are one.

Zambia!

That was Adam Peaty and his coach Mel, proving that sport can

have an influence well beyond the medals podium.

Now, is colour prejudice alive and well here in the East Midlands?

No, I'm not talking about that colour prejudice.

It seems that when it comes to choosing our pets,

we are actually discriminating against black animals.

In fact, this Friday has been designated National Black Cat Day

to try to raise awareness of the issue.

Mike Dilger has been investigating a new phenomenon known as BDS,

or black dog syndrome.

We are a nation of animal lovers, as I know only too well.

I have made my living from filming all creatures great and small,

mainly out in the wild.

But we also adore our animal companions with around 8.5 million

dogs or 7.5 million cats, the UK's pet population

is definitely on the up!

But it seems we are pretty picky when it comes to choosing a pet.

Which do you love the most?

Is it chocolate, yellow or black?

There are three labradors there, which one do you like the most?

The one in the middle.

The chocolate one?

The chocolate one.

Thank you very much.

Double chocolate?

Yes.

So one yellow and one chocolate?

Yes.

Which of those dogs do you like the most?

I like the chocolate one in the middle.

Possibly yellow or black.

I like the yellow one.

Can I not pick all of them?

You can't pick all of them.

Which one do you like the most?

The middle one.

The chocolate one?

Yes.

The results are in, the votes have been counted

and the decision is final.

Winning, with an astonishing 15 votes, is Beef,

the chocolate labrador.

In second place, Beth gets eight votes.

And last is black labrador Lindy.

These 30 random votes were just a bit of fun,

however in a study published by Psychology Today,

it seems people perceive black dogs as being more aggressive.

With lighter shades being thought of as friendlier.

So is there any truth in all this?

Give me a paw.

Roger Mugford is a leading animal psychologist and he has his

own thoughts on BDS, black dog syndrome.

Roger, it's hard to believe that Oscar was on doggie

death row until recently.

And apparently the statistics are that thousands and thousands

of other dogs that are black or have, if you like,

monochrome colouration are in the same boat,

and cats too.

So there's a deep prejudice about the colours of dogs and cats.

If you look at dogs in fiction, Cerberus, the dog to the underworld,

and hound of the Baskervilles, all big, black, aggressive,

associated with death.

And of course their white teeth do show up.

So are they more aggressive?

No, no, no.

Maybe black dogs get avoided more by other dogs because other dogs

also have difficulty reading their facial expressions,

and by people, but it is entirely in the mind of the beholder.

The Greyhound Trust re-homes around 4000 retired racing dogs every year

and with a number of regional branches in the East Midlands,

they currently have around 800 dogs looking for new homes.

Many of these are black.

The charity say that colour prejudice is currently a big

problem, particularly with this breed, and they are overwhelmed

with black retired greyhounds.

Joe, what a lovely dog.

Who is this?

This is Captain, he is nine years old, he's actually been

with the Greyhound Trust now for a whopping six years,

he's one of our longest stay dogs in the country and I have

no idea why.

He's fabulous.

Did you think the fact that black greyhounds may be overlooked

is the same as it is with any breed of dog?

I think absolutely, any homing organisation does report that black

dogs tend to be the hardest to home, they tend to spend

the most time with them.

And it is a challenge for everybody but particularly for us

with greyhounds because recent racing breeding practices

have meant that so many greyhounds now are black.

Recently, well over half of all racing greyhounds were born black.

Many of these are related to a couple of successful racing

dogs called Head Honcho and his offspring, Top Honcho.

Both were prolifically bred from during the 1990s and carried

a dominant gene giving them black fur.

The Greyhound Trust say they now have difficulty re-homing hundreds

of black retired racing dogs.

It's all about personality, or it should be, really.

Especially with such a placid personality like this.

Look at that.

Isn't he absolutely gorgeous?

They are absolutely the best, they really are.

And the most important thing is, it's all about getting the right

character and the right match for your family because ultimately

your dog is going to be a family member so it's vital they're

going to fit in and enjoy life with you.

So can campaign change public opinion?

In Scotland members of the WI knitted coloured caps for black

dogs looking for homes.

In America, one chap started a photographic project

to try to highlight the issues in his hometown.

And his pictures, as a result, went viral.

Fred, in the UK black dog syndrome seems to be an issue,

particularly amongst animals being re-homed.

What is the case in the United States?

It's definitely an issue across the country and I think it's

just a matter of people having a better understanding of,

it's not always about matching furniture and making sure it looks

nice, it's the best personality of the type of dogs and black dogs

often get the short end of the stick.

So you think you're managing, with your photographs, to kind

of turn around this misperception?

Absolutely.

When I'm trying to create photos, a lot has to do with getting just

the right light and then making sure the dog is comfortable in that space

and being able to show the expression and the personality

of that dog.

It seems colour prejudice is not just confined to dogs.

Black cats can be unpopular too.

In a recent survey by Cats Protection, they found that

black cats would have to wait, on average, 22% longer before

finding a permanent home.

It's a real tragedy, especially for ones as friendly,

inquisitive and amiable as this little fella.

We're not sure how many black cats there are in Britain

or what percentage of the cat population they make up,

but just like the black greyhounds, they are certainly overrepresented

in animal shelters, like this one in Nuttall in Nottinghamshire.

Kevin, having done just a quick tot up, it strikes me over

half your cats are black or principally black.

That's right.

We don't understand it because at any one time

within Cats Protection, which has 5000 cats, almost half

will be black or black and white.

It's obviously not all just about looks.

I understand there is a national awareness campaign to try

to persuade people that black cats are just as exciting.

Absolutely.

It is Friday October 27th, National Black Cat Day.

We're trying to get across to people that colour does not come into it,

it should be down to the personality traits and exactly what would fit in

with your circumstances and family.

And I have to say, I really like the sentiment of your poster.

It's what's inside that counts.

Absolutely.

So we've been looking at black dogs and black cats throughout this

programme and looking at why they are not being chosen.

Is the problem with us?

It is absolutely with society and our perception of these animals

and we've got to change it.

Anybody watching this programme will have met I'm sure

lots of fantastic beautiful black cats and this beautiful black dog,

and they will want to rush out to the local re-homing charity

and see if there is one there for them.

So the message is clear, look beyond the coat because black

dogs like this and black cats have just as much personality and

charisma as their colourful cousins.

And surely a dog like Captain deserves a home after six years.

Come on, you know you want to!

Wasn't he gorgeous?

Well, that's it from us here at Loughborough University.

Here's a look at what's coming up next week.

Mia Ayliffe-Chung from Derbyshire was killed whilst trying

to extend her Australian visa.

Now her mother is campaigning for change.

Trying to bring kids like Mia home in one piece,

having had the time of their life, which is what travelling

is all about.

go. That's it for others to night

go. That's it for others to night from

go. That's it for others to night from the

go. That's it for others to night from the Medway

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