31/10/2011 Inside Out North West

Welcome to Inside Out North West. This week, I am in Cumbria where we

will meet an artist who swapped the tranquillity of the Lakes for the

front line in Afghanistan. To night, why more and more people

in the North West are relying on food handout to survive.

People cannot feed their families. Following Robert Black's conviction

last Thursday, we follow a Manchester father's quest to find

out what happened to his daughter of 33 years ago.

I would ask him, did you do it? Did you kill my daughter?

And soldiers tell their moving stories from the frontline in

Afghanistan. A these are raw, almost tales that

clearly these soldiers are carrying Food is something most of us take

for granted and even in these times, you do not expect to find people

starving here in the North West. Tonight we can reveal that every

day hundreds of people have to rely on food handouts and food banks

simply to eat. This man says he has not eaten for 48 hours. This

disabled father relies on three food given to him by a charity

every week to help feed his six children. -- free food. If I have a

choice of making them a full meal, and I will not get much, I will

give it all to them. It is the only way I live. I couldn't live that

myself if I let them go without. This woman says she regularly goes

without food to pay her bills. I haven't had a proper meal since

after Christmas. These are just some of the hundreds of people

across the north-west relying on food handouts. An investigation

into the effects of food poverty here reveals a region on the edge,

as part of its community find they no longer have the means to buy

food. One of the things we have been finding from parents we talk

to is they often sacrifice their own needs for the sake of their

children. The parent is not having a hot meal so the kids can. The

heating goes off as soon as the kids go to bed. The parents are

really sacrificing their own needs for the sake of their kids.

It is heartbreaking to know that people's cupboards are bare and

they cannot feed their families. This man used to be a quantity

surveyor. Now he feeds his family. He is the manager of this food bank.

We start today at the beginning of April for just six months and we

have fed so many people. Most of those when the last three

months. So there is a huge demand?

It is increasing. I foresee that the demand will become massive in

the next years. Food banks operate by giving help

and support and suppliers of food to people who are referred by

agencies like social services or the Citizens Advice Bureau. This

ensures that the food goes to people who need it most.

There is a food bank in the South of Liverpool that opened two years

ago. We opened six months ago. Now, I believe there is one in the North

of Liverpool. There is one in an area called Kirby. And another on

the Wirral. They are all opening around now. It is brilliant. I

think another one in Warrington as well.

It shows the demand there is. At huge need. Yes.

It is Friday afternoon and the team are worried about the condition of

one man who has just arrived. He tells them his name is Karl.

Who you are. When was the last time you eight. Are you enjoying that?

Carl, 41, came to Liverpool from his home town of Wolverhampton 13

years ago. He tells the team he has run out of money and has had no

food for 48 hours. He said he lost his job as a kitchen porter at a

Liverpool hotel six months ago and has failed to find another one. He

has no money because of a problem with his benefit payments. He is

given enough food to last for three days. We went with Carl to his flat.

He was keen to show us his empty cupboard. For a nothing else there,

as you can see. There is no food in the French

rider. That is all I have.

There is a growing fear that what we are seeing here is the beginning

of a real crisis. Can I give you one of these and ask

you to consider buying one or two items to give to the World Food

bank. If you do now is on the way out, we would really appreciate it.

A group of volunteers who are asking people to buy extra food

with their weekly shop to help those going hungry. It is to help

with a new food bank opening in Birkenhead soon.

I think there is a massive need on world.

I am a minister on religion and I think every minister on Merseyside

would tell you that there are constantly being contacted by

families who say, we are struggling to cope, can you help? It is all

around us in our society and it will get worse, I think.

The collection is going well and people are giving generously. But

why are so many people finding the need to turn to food banks?

19%, Gas has gone up, 20% electricity, the petrol in your car,

every family is affected. I think when you have plenty of money, it

is fine, but as a family living on the edge anyway, when these things

hit you, you are in a great crisis. Across in Birkenhead, the Wirral-

based Bread Of Life project is making its weekly drop of fresh

food to Ted Griffiths. He's a single parent to six children,

crippled with osteoarthritis, and he relies on the food for his

family to survive. He says he often goes without food to feed the

children. If I have the choice of making them a full meal, and I will

not get my share, I will give it to them. It is the only way I know. I

could not live with myself if I let them go without. Do you think that

people in the wider world realise that people like you exist and are

having to struggle like you do? I think a lot of people don't realise.

They just see people get on with it and do not realise what goes on

behind it. I think people should realise that sometimes it can be

hard for families, like ourselves. Earlier this year, Save the

Children revealed 25,000 children in Manchester are growing up in

severe poverty and many are suffering from a lack of food. It

is a huge issue because families are facing the perfect storm with a

VAT increase, rising living costs, food going up, welfare cuts, lack

of jobs in their local area. There is a perfect storm. This man wrote

the Save the Children report. He says that for many families in the

North West, food is the first casualty.

2011 has been a hard year for families and we are worried that

25,000 children living in severe poverty in Manchester has gone up

this year, and that is our real problem.

It is expected that food banks will begin opening in Manchester Lanette

-- next year. When they are never have thought she would be coming

here. She went without food to pay her bills because her benefits were

being cut. She says she used to work for Liverpool Council and was

a full-time carer for her husband, who died in January.

My life has spiralled ever since. I cannot pay the bills, I cannot

afford to eat. I have not had a proper meal since Christmas.

This time last year, I would never have dreamt that I would be in this

position. I just would not have dreamt it. Miss fortune can strike

anybody. But it is very demoralising to think that,

sometimes, I just think, am I going Coming up, have a Cumbrian artist

helped troops in Afghanistan express their true feelings.

Trained as if you will live forever. -- dream.

Remember the story of Genette Tay, the little girl who went missing

while delivering newspapers 30 years ago? And recent court case

has given her father hope that he might finally be able to put her

memories to rest. Last week, child killer Robert

Black was convicted in Northern Ireland of the up dead son and

murder of Jennifer Cadi, his fourth known victim. Was Genette Tay

another one? The story of Robert Black does not

end with this verdict. There are lines of inquiry that we are still

looking at. Is there more to do abound of Robert Black? I think

there probably is. Now Ginette's Seriously ill father

is pleading with black to come clean.

Please will you put us out of our misery and tell us what happened

and where? It was on 19th August, 1978, that

she does appear. I was panicking, going everywhere

all at once. John has terminal cancer. He is

going to make what could be his last trip from his home in

Manchester to the place that his daughter was last seen. Our last

known movements were reconstructed by police at the time. The 13-year-

old was doing her paper round and had stopped to talk to friends. Ten

minutes later, they found her bike with the papers scattered around

and no sign of Genette. I had no idea what might have

happened. I did not accept that she Ponds and wells within a 50 mile

radius have been drenched. It was the biggest missing person enquiry

Devon and Cornwall police had ever mounted. The investigation remains

open. The evidence is still held at police headquarters in Exeter.

Ginnette went missing about 3:20pm. In the hours and days that followed

it became quite quickly apparent that she had been abducted, because

there was a huge amount of inquiries undertaken. The case

shocked not just the local community but a whole country.

ask for volunteers to search a particular Common, and loads of

people turned out. More than we anticipated. The 7,000 people who

joined the search party in it -- became known as the welly army. But

the efforts were in vain. As the years have gone on, the family and

ourselves have had to accept that she was murdered. Even now, John

finds it hard to comprehend. I did not give up hope for a long time, I

do not think I have 100 % given it up. 30 years later. There is still

a tiny bit of me that hopes she is alive somewhere. John himself was

questioned by police. We were told, quite rightly so, that everybody

gets investigated. As it was explained to me, I accepted that it

was going to happen. He was quickly ruled out as a suspect, but even

now, John feels tainted by suspicion and Internet rumours that

persist. We try to get one particular Internet entry taken off,

but you cannot do it. I found it very distressing. For years, the

police investigation went nowhere. Then in 1990, paedophile Robert

Black was investigated. He has now been convicted of abducting and

killing four girls in the 1980s and is serving life in prison. He

always denied responsibility for her disappearance. His conviction

last week may have provided a breakthrough for Devon and Cornwall

police. As a result of the conviction against Robert Black in

Northern Ireland we will look at the evidence put forward to the

court in Northern Ireland and see if it influences this investigation.

Police have released an interview with Robert Black where he talks

about his fantasies. Similarities with this case are chilling. It was

just a narrow road, going downhill, driving along, I saw a young girl.

Talk to her, persuade her to get into the van. John believes Robert

Black has the answers to the questions that have plagued him

have his life, so he is writing to him. Dear Robert Black, would you

make the necessary arrangements to talk to you? I think I do not have

long to go, and I would like to get this out of the way before I die.

That is what I was thinking. I would like to give him a situation

where he could get forgiveness for what he has done. John begins the

long journey from Manchester where he leads down to the west country

lane where his daughter disappear. -- disappeared. 33 years to the day

of his daughter's abduction, he is at the place where she was last

seen. How do you feel coming back? It is a difficult question, I

wonder myself, but just to see if there is something we have missed.

She delivers you to these cottages. -- delivered here. The normal route

for the newspaper would have been the next field. This is the spot it

Like it was yesterday, almost. Nothing has altered in my mind.

Difficult. I have questions going in my head all the time. I would

like to have closer to it. Shall we go on to the village? -- closure. I

want to go to the churchyard, it is not far from here. In the

churchyard, there is a memorial. is basically to have a place to be

quiet and think. That is what I use it for any way. Just be at peace.

Robert Black did not answer John's letter. Should they ever meet, John

knows what he would say. I would ask him if he did it, if he killed

her, and if so can you put as a out of our misery and tell us what

happened and where? I want him to admit. If he had not done it, let

us know, so we can continue It is 10 years since the start of

the war in Afghanistan. An artist from the Lake District has just

opened a unique exhibition in which servicemen and servicewomen tell

their own stories in their own words. He is a former paratrooper

who spend a month on the front line in Helmand Province, helping to get

their handwritten accounts. There are two wars being fought, one

which is publicised and one which is quite. This could be a beautiful

walk, a forgotten world, but then reality hits you. Dream as if you

will live forever, live as if you'll die tomorrow. Derek Eland

from Penrith walks in the footsteps of war artists who've risked their

lives on the front line, capturing photographs, poetry and paintings.

In the history of war art, predominantly it's dominated by

painters and people who draw. And I wasn't sure that I could bring

something unique to peoples' perceptions of that conflict.

what Derek could bring was experience. He's a former

paratrooper, serving five years in the 16th Air Assault Brigade as a

Captain. I joined in '84 and everyone in my

platoon, the members of my platoon, had all been in the Falklands. And

I turned up from university without any experience, really. So it took

a while to get into that and to win their respect. It was critical to

do that. But after doing so it was a brilliant time, really enjoyed it.

Having swapped his parachute for a paintbrush, Derek became a

professional artist concentrating on the beauty of the Lakes.

I'm not a literal painter, I'm not a traditional landscape painter. I

interpret it and that interpretation forms the basis for

an abstraction of the landscape. And the use of black emphasises the

lines in the landscape and the impact we make on it.

Inevitably, he turned his attention to the art of war. He didn't want

to simply represent the conflict in drawings or paintings. Instead, he

wanted the soldiers to tell their own stories in handwritten notes.

So having got involved in what we call socially-engaged art,

particularly using text and getting people to write their responses on

cards and Post-it notes, I thought that maybe that was the thing I

could take to Afghanistan. It's Sunday, or is it Monday? Gosh,

I think it's Monday, and here I am in Camp Bastion. This is my little

place here and very comfortable it was too, had about six or seven

hours sleep, which was good. And got a few things to sort out this

morning, like get some better body armour. Got to get some masking

tape for the war story notes. And then I think at 1500 this afternoon,

fly out, helicopter out to Lashkar Gah to see James and Brigade

Headquarters and then from there find out what the general plan is.

Men have been to war before last. It is easy to think they were

warriors afraid of nothing, but they were men just like us.

Soldiers are very, you know, they're down to earth, gritty.

They're human beings. And they are faced with extreme conditions -

cold, heat, being soaked to the skin, being shot at, being bombed,

being hungry. And those things came out, but more as experiences I

think rather than, this is hideous get me out of here.

I am here to appreciate all the things I have taken for granted all

these years. The soliders mostly thought I was still a painter and

they asked me where are my paints, where is my easel, and I said, well

actually all I've got are hundreds Well, certainly lying in bed last

night worrying about it. Just running it through my head just how

it's going to work on the ground and how easy it is, or difficult

it's going to be to persuade the soldiers to write down their war

stories. Derek feared these battle-hardened

front line troops would be sceptical about his art project. He

knew that revealing emotions, fears and hopes could be seen as a

weakness. Would they put down their guns, and pick up their pens? He

was about to find out. I'm just going to take a look

inside, at this shipping container. It's pretty good actually. Had a

good few stories, some images, some drawing, some poetry. I reckon

we've got about 115 different stories and we've got about 150-odd

individual pieces of paper. And I think they very quickly got it,

that was the key thing. So the commanders, senior NCOs and

sergeants and people like this, they immediately got what I was

trying to do. And when I talked to soldiers on the ground, they also

very quickly got it. And then they just wrote away.

As the end of the two approaches, fear of being injured plays on your

mind. When my mate got blown up it really brought it home. I had to

clear up the blast site and pick up bits and pieces. It's not a thing

they would talk about between themselves. In their letters home

to their families they play down the dangers and incidents and they

talk about the fact they do do that. They normalise everything. These

are raw, honest accounts, that clearly these soldiers are carrying

around in their heads. Saying goodbye hurts, but saying goodbye

and not knowing if you're coming home is one million times worse.

think in reality I got further forward than I thought I would. I

was in an Ops meeting one night and someone came in and shouted,

contact. GUNFIRE. Whilst everyone else went and grabbed their weapons

and got on with things, I switched on my camcorder and filmed for

about 15 or 20 minutes this contact going on. I filmed these soldiers

who had written these stories doing their job. And the shouts and

commands in the darkness was very impressive actually. I have been

shot at loads of time but only seen the Taliban with a weapon once.

They are like ghosts. The sniper with a man in his sights. Can I

fire? Derek spent a month on the front line. Once he is home he is

able to reflect on the content of his stories. Tragedy is throughout

this project. Soldiers who rode cards and put their names to those

cards went on to be endured, shot or blown up. In some cases, they

were killed. The exhibition will run for nine months as part of the

war correspondents using it in Manchester. -- correspondence

season. It is the honesty of the stories that makes it important.