10/02/2014 Inside Out London

Hello there. I'm Matthew Wright you're watching Inside Out London.

Here's what is coming up on tonight's show.

We expose the criminals offering pay`TV channels for next to nothing.

That's you installing an illegal set`top box. We've been recording

you secretly for the last few months. We want to know why you have

been installing illegal set`top boxes, what's your explanation?

Offering new hope, how the bones of the Elephant Man are being used to

fight cancer. Whatever the underlying genetic

problem was, it is one that is relevant to the way in which a cell

grows and knows when to stop growing.

And how London was saved from the full onslaught of Hitler's

doodlebugs. Bringing the V1s down in Kent and

Sussex actually saved as much as 50% of the potential casualties that

might have been inflicted. Those of us who fork out for

satellite TV subscriptions to get our fix of the latest sport and

movies will know just how expensive they can be. But some customers are

risking prosecution by getting themselves a cut`price alternative.

Inside Out has discovered that criminal gangs are making a mint by

illegally selling and installing TV channels at knock`down prices. And

what's so amazing is the set`top boxes that make this crime possible

are being openly sold in high street stores. Guy Lynn has this exclusive

story. It's a scam costing the TV industry

millions a year. It's fraud, it s theft, it's a crime. These are the

pay`TV fraudsters who'd do anything to avoid detection.

They're hitting big companies and legitimate customers.

Me and all the other mugs who are paying for a service are going to

end up paying for people who are getting it for free.

Tonight, Inside Out finally catches up with them.

I just want to know why it is you have been installing illegal set`top

boxes. No. Yes you have, we have been recording you for the last few

months. What's your explanation It's early morning. We have been

given rare access to film a special anti`piracy unit of the City of

London Police. A suspected ringleader of a scam to illegally

screen satellite TV is led away from a quiet suburban house in Liverpool.

Undercover officers show me a haul of the illegal set`top boxes they

have seized. Experts say this kind of crime is increasing across the

UK. It targets a lucrative prize. 24`hour pay`TV. For the companies

that supply it, pay`TV is worth billions in the UK. Whether it is

via Virgin Media, BT or Sky, most of us get it legitimately. But industry

experts, consumers and shopkeepers have told us there was another way.

I started hearing of shops with cut`price deals that were too good

to be true. And hearing the name of this man, Gyula Markovits, a

Venezuelan in south London, the man to meet if I wanted to get to the

bottom of this trade. How are you?

Gyula does not operate from a shop. Customers come to him to get his

magic boxes. This is the way to get top pay`TV channels at a fraction of

the cost. He's not the only one. From the shop

front, you would think this place was one of Sky's official suppliers.

And they are big fans. Again, a box for ?150, the answer to the jewels

of the pay`TV world. This is how it should be done legitimately and

legally. Paying ?27 a month, it s not an easy thing to pay for when

you've got lots of other things to pay for as well.

Nicola and her grandmother weighed up several suppliers before opting

for Sky to get all their favourite TV channels.

I think if I'm paying ?27 a month and somebody else is getting the

same service I'm getting and not paying anything, why should they be

getting that service? They shouldn't be getting that service.

That service we found doesn't just stop at the boxes. Once you get one,

you need to pay the pirates a subscription. Here's how the

legitimate deals stack up. Deal of the century were it not for

the risk of that pesky jail sentence. And business is booming.

And tills are ringing too at this shop. We take the boxes to be

examined by experts. They discover they have been encrypted to allow

digital messages to be sent to the pirates. And hack into legitimate

Sky TV signals. People see a monthly subscription of

?30 or ?40 and they can get that much cheaper, so a lot of people

would jump straight in. Not realising what they are doing is a

criminal offence as well. Will they really sell us an illegal

subscription? Gyula runs through the criminal maths.

And the same story here. A monthly subscription, not to the programme

makers, but straight into the coffers of this shop. With any

payment method you fancy. The pirates keep telling us there is

absolutely nothing to worry about. Is that correct, this is basically

illegal? Hardly what the companies say.

If you buy or sell a pirated set`top box, you may get more than you

bargained for. This is a recent anti`piracy

campaign. Companies like Virgin are suffering damage.

Virgin Media take piracy very seriously and work with the police

to prosecute offenders. And so do the content makers,

cameramen, make`up artists who are behind the programmes.

Is it fair, right, just, that somebody should be able to steal

from somebody else and that person will not be paid for their work

That impacts not just on that one, single person, but on their family,

and other people who rely on that income.

That income goes on pouring into the fraudsters' pockets. There is one

thing left to find out. Although we purchased these boxes, what we

didn't know is whether this was just these men boasting or whether the

scam would really work. We have obtained a flat. It doesn't have

pay`TV. We're pretending to be customers. Watch them install the

full works. Hundreds of channels in minutes.

There is even some cheeky advice about what to do if the authorities

come round. We hear how this trade is a nasty

one with violence between criminals over customers. We show our footage

to the organisation in charge of policing this kind of theft.

Incredible, absolutely remarkable. Fact often deal with piracy on the

Internet. The Chief Executive believes the scale of the

profiteering we have uncovered is very different. It annoys me really

because I'm working hard on behalf of our member companies,

broadcasters in the UK to try to prevent this kind of crime. It's

straightforward criminal profits and I think that's why it's worse. Quite

a lot of things happen on the Internet where profit is not made,

but this money goes straight into the hands of the criminals. There's

no money going back to people who have a right to that money.

We asked Golsat at Upton Park why they were taken part in this fraud.

Straight after, the shop packed up, there is no one there now. But what

about Gyula? He ignored us as well. But he is still operating and has

boasted to us of all his customers. Surely he won't resist one more

Gyula thinks he's coming round here to install some satellite dishes.

But we have a couple of surprises for him. We have rigged this place

up with secret cameras and we are going to play him a video which he

might just recognise. Gyula arrives. Within seconds, he touts his

criminal services again. He's been so kind supplying

customers with illegal video, it's only fair he sees one of ours. Do

you know who that is? That's me That's you. Actually, that's you

installing an illegal set`top box. We've been recording you secretly

for the last few months. I'm Guy Lynn from the BBC. I want to know

why it is you have been installing illegal set`top boxes. We have been

recording you for the last few months. What's your explanation Are

you aware it is illegal to do what you're doing? Are you aware it is

illegal, a fraud? The last we see of him is as he

tries to reverse his van away. It's possible the authorities might want

to have a chat with him as well We will be handing them the boxes we

purchased and those from the other fraudsters we encountered. We heard

numerous reports of other operators across the country. It could be that

the scammers we found are just the tip of the iceberg.

Guy Lynn reporting there. Still to come on tonight's show.

Germany's indiscriminate bombing methods runs riot in the use of her

latest terror weapon, the flying bomb. They brought horror and terror

to the people of Kent and Sussex. Joseph Merrick, the elephant man,

was a celebrated figure of the Victorian East End. Most of us will

know his tragic story through the David Lynch film, and very little is

understood about the underlying disease that caused his

disfigurement. But now, thanks to tests, scientists are hoping that

his skeleton can help them unlock not just the secrets of his

condition but also help with the fight against cancer.

Joseph Merrick was intelligent, articulate and likeable. Yet because

of his appearance, he has gone down in history as the Elephant Man,

shunned and avoided, attacked and abused.

These are Joseph Merrick's bones, stored at Queen Mary University of

London. Inside Out has been granted rare access to film them and the

casts taken from his body. Merrick left his remains to science,

but previous attempts to extract DNA failed because the skeleton was

bleached to clean it. Now, 125 years after his death, new techniques mean

these bones may finally yield their secrets.

He suffered from a very severe form of overgrowth, where the tissues in

certain parts of his body were massively overgrown, hence the

reference to an elephant. Other parts of his body had quite a normal

appearance. This tells us, whatever the underlying problem was, it is

relevant to the fundamentals of the way in which a cell grows and knows

when to stop growing. The research has barely begun, but already there

is huge excitement about what may be uncovered. I would not predict that

he is sitting on the cure for cancer, but it is through studies of

this nature that we will have a better understanding of what it is

that determines how a cell moves from a normal state into this

abnormal process of this regenerative growth. Merrick's story

fascinates people throughout the world. Jeanette Sitton and Mae

Siu`Wae Stroshane have been researching why he continues to

intrigue us. He was such a brave individual. It

makes us feel OK, if Joseph could be brave like that, in the face of

everything that is going wrong with him, that could give me celebration

`` inspiration to cope with my lot in life. I was an orphan in Hong

Kong and adopted, so I went through abandonment, I had to grow up

finding my own quest for inner worth, self`worth and humanity.

There have been many theories about Merrick's condition. We still can't

be sure what it was, but it may have been Proteus Syndrome, an overgrowth

of skin and bones named after a Greek sea god who changed shape

There are several related illnesses, and despite changes in our

attitudes, they are hard to endure. We have had one suicide of a young

man in his 20s, as of the difficulties he had with the

condition. We have also dealt with a couple of families whose teenagers

were finding it difficult, and they had suicidal thoughts. It is not

something that goes away, it can get more difficult as the years go on.

Lee Street, Leicester. This is where Joseph Merrick was born, but

thousands walk through without knowing its history.

Inside Out has asked two historians, Richard Gill and Stephen Butt, to

devise a Merrick tour. And the first person to experience

it is Jon Merrick, whose great`great`grandfather was

Merrick's uncle. People come from all over the world

to see the birthplace of Joseph It was here. How would he have been

treated? Very badly, his stepmother threw him out of the house, he was

sent out to sell ribbons on doorsteps, but those were slammed in

his face. He came home, having made nothing, his father beat him

savagely. That decided it. He left home and voluntarily went to the

workhouse. In 1884, he left the workhouse, and this is where he

came, this is the famous theatre of the famous theatre authorises, not a

lot left here now. He must have been a bit like King Kong, but instead of

a gorilla, it was him. The proprietor would warn the audience

there was a terrible creature behind the screen. But for Joseph, it was a

living. The only living he could make, given the circumstances of the

time. He chose to go into the theatre. Jo this `` Joseph left to

legacies, his remains, which hopefully will lead to people being

killed or relieved of various conditions, `` lead to people being

Jordan or relieved of various conditions. He also leads a story,

which is being used to help break down prejudice, break down the fear

of people that are different, but that it is the tree or prejudice, he

is helping to break it down, because he is the common dominator.

It is 70 years since Britain came under attack during World War II

from the V1 rockets, the doodlebugs. They destroyed half a million homes.

But London could have endured even greater loss of life at the British

government not diverted them to less populated areas.

It was in the early hours of a summer's morning nearly 70 years ago

that an unidentified flying object was spotted over Kent.

The descriptions at the time said the mysterious aircraft omitted a

rhythmic low tone as it flew. Travelled at a terrific speed, with

flames and bright lights trailing behind it. The year was 1944, and

Britain was under attack by Robots. The doodlebugs. The flying bomb the

V1, the buzz bomb, call it what you will. Germany's indiscriminate

bombing methods. Heard latest terror weapon of the flying bomb. They

brought horror and terror to the people of Kent and East Sussex. Nazi

Germany had finally unleashed their secret weapon. It was the origin of

the modern cruise missile. In the first week of June 1944, Britain was

euphoric. The successful Allied D`day landings across the channel in

France, just seven days before the first doodlebug attack, had given

the nation a feeling that at last we were winning the war. But then, the

doodlebugs were launched from secret sites along the French and Dutch

coast. Their target, London. But the first one was a little off

target. Luckily enough, it landed in open farmland in North Kent. But it

was quickly followed by three other flying bombs.

One blew the doors off a pigsty in Sussex, another landed in Platt

Kent. And the other made its way to Bethnal Green, London and claimed

six lives. The first fatalities of the bombings. This was killing

Londoners at the same rate of the Brits, at its worst. The great

legend is that the fuel ran out and they came down, and it sounded like

that. It would stop, and the explosion would take place 15

seconds later. What happened would be that it dived, and its fuel

system could not overcome the force of gravity. In total, 2,419

doodlebugs fell on London. The effect on morale was devastating.

The terror of the Blitz was still fresh in the mind of many Londoners.

Many people left the city, believing rural areas to be a safe haven. But

were Kent and East Sussex any safer than the big city? We had control

over every German spy in Britain, and if we got them to send

misleading information back home, the Luftwaffe would shorten the

range. Looked at coldly, it was better that they landed in the

sparsely populated areas of Kent and Sussex than in the most densely

populated areas round here. It is estimated that ringing them down in

Kent and Sussex, sometimes on houses, saved as many as 50% of the

potential casualties that might have been inflicted. So, the Government

were prepared to sacrifice the lives of those in the countryside for

London. We can for the first time publish secret films photographed of

the killing fields in southern England. Intelligence plots, barrage

balloons, anti`aircraft guns and fighter`plane patrols made Kent

Sussex and Essex the two most dangerous places to be outside of

the capital. When one nursery school in London

was hit during the night, the officials took no risks and moved

the children into the Kent countryside. The children were moved

to Weald House in Crockham Hill On June 30th 1944, a doodlebug that had

been flying overhead was shot down. It has hit a tree, being deflected,

and it hit a children's home. They had just been evacuated from London,

and 22 of them were killed, along with eight staff. They were all

under the age of two. There were little bodies mixed up with all the

rubble and debris and the heavy rescue squad were there, it was a

total tragedy. Ken Munday is 83 and has lived in Westfield, Sussex all

his life. And today, he's tending one very particular unmarked grave.

Doris Lynch was 23 years old and six months pregnant when she died, on

the night a doodlebug hit Westfield. An event that was etched onto the

memory of a 13`year`old Ken. There was this massive explosion. The

emergency services were just arriving, locals were digging at the

rubble. I was standing there, watching it

going on. As I am digging around, do not know if somebody tried lift too

soon or something... Terrible. On September the 8th, a rumour that

Hitler had surrendered had reached London. People left work early,

flags began to fly. Doodlebug summer was at an end, the Second World War

was at an end. Or was it? At 6: 3pm, a rocket crashed into Chiswick.

Unlike the doodlebug, the rocket made no warning sound and took just

five minutes to reach London from the Dutch coast. The V`2 rocket had

replaced the doodlebug and brought with it even more destruction and

devastation. Albert Speer, Hitler's architect, mentioned in his book

that the V`2s could have been fully operational at a much earlier date

if they had received more support from Berlin. If that had happened,

the outcome of the war might have been very different indeed.

Remembering the doodlebugs strikes 70 years ago. That is all from this

week, before we go, let's have a look at what is coming up next week.

Facing eviction, the Lambeth residents being turfed out of their

expensive council homes. They have not spent a penny on this

property, they have sat by, knowing I have been improving it, and now,

we will have it back. Dealing with their demons. How

Shakespeare is being used to help war veterans conquer their traumas.

It is amazing how playing with somebody else's emotions, without

having to deal with your own, is liberating.

And, the new nature reserve being built from Crossrail's waste.

We are creating a legacy, it will be there for the protection of the bird

species, and we have done more than just ailed atonal.

That is all from this week. If you have missed any of the show, a chap

on the iPlayer. Click on London Thank you for watching, see you

again next week. Last month, we looked at the FSA's

star rating for food providers in London. The programme, broadcast on

the 6th of January, focused on this restaurant. It was inspected by

Westminster's officials for the first time in December and was

awarded five stars, its highest rating for hygiene. We inadvertently

suggested that it had previously been given a one star rating. This

was not the case. The one star had been awarded to a completely

unconnected Indian restaurant that had previously operated from the

same premises. We would like to apologise to the owners for this

error and for any misunderstandings caused.

Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 second update. More flooding

misery. Thousand of homes in Berkshire and Surrey are now

vulnerable as Thames river levels reach record highs. 14 severe flood

warnings are in place ` meaning lives are at risk. Full update at

ten. Two men have been convicted of helping triple killer Joanna

Dennehy. Gary Stretch was found guilty of one count of attempted

murder. Leslie Leyton was convicted of perverting the course of justice.

An online drinking game has been linked to another death. Police in

Cardiff are investigating