30/10/2017 Inside Out North West

Button to Inside Out north-west,

with me, Dianne Oxberry. As gun

crime doubles on Merseyside, we

investigate why so many victims of

fatal shootings are teenagers.

I

have always associated guns that

hardened criminals, not children.

This is the alive.

50 years after

landmark legislation, we ask if it

is still comfortably gay in rural

communities than in cities.

What now

is classed other normal, it just

didn't really seem right to be gay

and a farmer at the time.

We examine

the mystery of two skeletons found

side by side at an archaeological

dig at Halton Castle. Why are they

here are? You don't get many

skeletons in Cassells. And they are

really quite rare.

Ten years after the shocking murder

of 11-year-old Rhys Jones,

young people are still being shot

and killed in Liverpool.

Five of the most recent fatal

shootings on Merseyside have been

teenagers aged 18 or younger.

I've been to investigate the rise

in gun crime in the area and ask why

the victims are so young.

This is another family devastated

by gun crime in Liverpool -

a mother now grieving for the loss

of her 18-year-old son.

Every day I'm crying.

Every day I can't sleep

because of what happened to Yusuf.

Poor Yusuf.

A handsome boy, somebody just

kill him just like that, very bad.

God help me.

Yusuf Sonko was one of a growing

number of young people

shot dead on Merseyside.

The student was killed nearly five

months ago on the 2nd of June.

He was due to sit his final

A-Level exam and had hoped

to go to university.

His killer has not been found.

In the year 2015/2016,

Merseyside police recorded 61

shooting incidents

resulting in two deaths.

One year later, the number

of shootings has increased

by 50% and the number

of fatalities has doubled.

Injuries too are on the rise.

And with five months still to go,

the next set of figures has already

just about matched those

from two years earlier.

So we are in Sefton Park -

how far away is that

from where Yusuf was killed?

It's just about half a mile

away from Lodge Lane.

It's quite a contrasting

environment though?

It is, we've got this

beautiful park, well used.

It does contrast, I guess for us,

the park can be a place

Tracey Gore organised a community

march following Yusuf's death.

I've always associated guns with

hardened criminals not children.

You're horrified but are

you surprised as it's something

that we seem to be seeing

more and more?

What I don't want is for our city

or for our country to become a place

where having guns and people

being shot is normalised.

When Yusuf Sonko was shot -

people were really shocked.

It was 8:30 of an evening,

a summer's evening,

it was still light, the area

where it was on Lodge Lane,

a really bustling street...and

for somebody to be shot in that

broad daylight was just shocking.

It was the residents and community

members who asked for that march -

they wanted to show the community

itself that actually guns and knives

were not acceptable on the streets.

The family of Yusuf Sonko

pleaded at the march

for witnesses to come forward.

I beg you, everyone, anyone who

knows the Keller, the police are

here. Everyone is crying for Yusuf.

You both strongly believe that

somebody has information,

somebody's withholding information?

Yes.

Definitely.

Somebody out of there seen

something, they know something.

But nobody out of there

is prepared to say anything

at the moment to the police.

That's what worries me a lot.

And Yusuf seemed to be in the wrong

place at the wrong time?

Yes, he was in the wrong

place at the wrong time.

And does it concern

you that this tragedy

could happen to another family?

After my son had been

killed, another little boy

was killed in Huyton.

And that will continue

until we all come together to say

you know, enough is enough,

let's try and stop these

guns on the street.

Let's make the children believe

there is a better life for them.

To combat a rise in gun crime

on Merseyside this year,

police have carried out gun

amnesties, raids on properties

and have driven a large

convoy of their vehicles

through Liverpool city centre.

These tactics are designed

to provide a show of strength

and are all are part

of an "extensive disruption plan"

targeting tthose suspected

of gun crime.

For me the statistics only tell part

of the story really,

because actually one firearms

discharge is one too many.

That is the mantra we go by.

We want to reduce

that number to zero.

So far this year Merseyside

Police have recovered 74

firearms from its streets.

That's nearly double the amount

from the year before.

There are firearms available

on the streets right

across our country.

Some are coming from Eastern Europe,

some from mainland continental

Europe and we have seen a slight

shift towards more handguns

used on the streets.

But that is a fluctuating picture

based on supply and demand coming

from the criminal networks.

I think we all would have imagined

that the murder of Rhys Jones

would have been a watershed moment.

And I think for a moment

we all believed that it was.

But recent events seems

like we're going back,

we're not moving forward.

There seems to me more guns,

there seems to be more firearms

discharges on the street.

It should have been

a watershed moment.

In communities like Croxteth

and Norris Green, we have seen

huge strides forward,

since the tragic death

of Rhys Jones over ten years ago.

Yusuf's family are still seeking

justice for their son's murder.

They want more people to speak out

and end the 'no grass' culture.

We need to come together,

we need to come together and we need

to fight this and we need to speak

to our children, we need

to say this is no good,

this is not allowed.

You don't have to do that.

Because it can happen to them.

Yusuf Sonko was killed on a summer

evening at 8.30 in the evening.

You know in High Street.

That seems incredible doesn't it,

that that can happen.

It's a shocking reality of what can

happen and we've got a number

of instances where people feel

comfortable and able to go out

in broad daylight and do that.

So there is a complete recklessness

by some of the cowardly individuals,

a total disregard for the law

abiding citizens who are just

going about their business.

James Riley was a probation officer

for 18 years in Liverpool,

working across some of the most high

profile cases of urban street gangs

and organised crime.

Reid they are calling young people

into thinking they will have the

lifestyle of a footballer, when

actually they are going to head up

in prison or seriously hurt.

He now delivers an educational

programme in schools to try

and change the type of language used

in the community and empower more

people to speak out in the city.

You've got young people

who are using this word grass

and snitch and they come out

with the phrases snitches get

stitches and I'm trying to challenge

that - that attitude

and that culture.

Because I say to young

people that the brave

If

nobody spoke up - it

means that our street are

becoming more dangerous.

You're out delivering this message

into schools and into the wider

community - how do you feel

when you put the news on or you look

at social media and another young

man in Liverpool has been shot?

It provides motivation

because it means I need to get

to more young people.

I'm dealing with people from year

six so it's ten, 11 upwards.

My work is all around prevention,

Prevention is better than the cure.

That I can turn just one way, I have

achieved everything I said how to

achieve, because I have stopped them

from committing a crime becoming

another victim.

The "Get Away and Get Safe

programme has gained the support

from a few famous sporting faces,

including Liverpool first team

player Trent Alexander-Arnold.

He's a Liverpool footballer,

but he's also a local lad,

he's a Liverpool lad who's done

fantastic for himself

and I brought Trent along to show

and share my message of get away

and get safe - but also this

is what happens when you work hard

because Trent has worked

hard to get where he is.

Inspired by success stories

like this, James hopes

a new generation can reject the gang

and gun lifestyle, learning lessons

from Liverpool's past.

Ten years after the murder

of Rhys Jones, we still have young

men shooting at and killing

other very young men -

that's a terrible thing for the city

to go through again isn't it?

We are in a very difficult

situation at the moment.

I'd love to sit here and be able

to say that it's not

Diana going to happen again

and again, sadly it probably will.

It's not a video game,

this is real life and its ending

somebody's life and it's

ending their life.

If you use a gun, you don't know

if it's going to ricochet,

you don't know if it's going to kill

somebody and you will spend

a significant amount

of time behind bars.

Have

Two families are torn apart

when a shooting happens.

For Yusuf's family

the pain continues.

All of these months down the line,

how does it feel that no

one has been charged

with your son's murder yet?

Very painful.

We are not going to have a rest

and my family are not going to be

goals

50 years ago we saw the start

of a social revolution

when legislations decriminalizing

homosexual acts between men

in England came into effect.

Since then we've celebrated same sex

civil partnerships and marriage.

But has everywhere embraced

change so readily?

have the local paper in 1959 has a

scoop.

This court report shocked

the Cumbrian town.

13 men in the dock.

The paper published their

names and addresses -

they would lose their jobs

and face disgrace.

And their crime?

The men - some of whom

were married- were gay.

Arrested on charges

of gross indecency.

The impact upon on the men

would be huge - one man,

a year off retirement

faced losing his pension.

Even the judge was sympathetic.

Listen to what he said.

"If there was anything I could do

to put right that injustice-

and I repeat the word injustice

I would do it.

I am satisfied you have suffered

more than you deserve.

Despite that sense of injustice,

it would be nearly another decade

before the Sexual Offences Act freed

men to be open about

Of

their relationships.

But there's lingering suspicion that

it's still tougher to be

gay in rural England

than in our big metropolitan cities.

True?

I'm going to find out.

they pack some punch.

They do.

I am

quite surprised by just how physical

they are.

It is like giving children

medicine.

That is easier than this.

Have you ever had a good boot off

one?

Yes.

Simon farms up in

the northern Pennines.

The farm has been in the family

for generations and he chose

a family occasion to come out.

Had you plan to make this part of

your 21st birthday?

Not really. I

had started dating somebody had I

thought, well, the whole family is

here, I would be better telling

everybody. Despite did they know you

are dating someone?

I hadn't said

anything to my father.

Pace but my

dad the day after, feeling a bit

better. After the hangover. We spoke

about it, and they said I would come

out when I was ready. Kiss have you

had any hostility directed to you

because you are gay? Yes, neighbours

and staff. Telling other neighbours

about as, and unfortunately --

fortunately they already knew and

were fine. Ed gets back to what they

say and think. That is just the way

they are, natty people. Ed Nash the

people.

Cumbria Pride, the county's

biggest LGBT event in

the calendar is under way.

Billie has been a Cumbrian drag

queen for more than 30 years.

This is the imperial crown. That is

very heavy to well. I am not wearing

it today, I am wearing the much

lighter one here. It has got a bit

of movement. It is a nice one.

And it was a long time before

he ever admitted being gay.

It was difficult in those days, got

when I used to do some of the clubs,

people used to say, are you gay? I

would say, no, no, I am married with

two kids. Once you start that, you

have to remember you have told that

alive.

Why did you need to tell the

light?

Because they would have taken

offence to the fact that you were

gay, and you were wearing a frock.

You are being judged?

Yes, in those

days. Even nowadays, there is still

a lot of homophobia.

But today in the city,

it's a chance for everyone

to express who they truly are.

Mike, another farmer,

wishes he'd done so years ago.

Crane I got married at the age of

21, had both my kids at the age of

25.

Pincer player I was living the

life, really.

Do you think you

continued with Eli because you lived

in a rural community?

Definitely.

Going to the action and seeing what

they classed as the norm, it just

didn't really seem right to be gay

and a farmer.

Simon has finished farming for the

day and is helping out back stage.

It has been really good, the weather

hasn't been too bad.

Everything has

run smoothly. More than happy.

Every year the Home Office collates

figures setting out the number

of reported hate crimes

against the LGBT community.

In Cumbria it's not

comfortable reading.

If you're gay here you are twice

as likely to experience a hate crime

as the national average.

In fact, proportionally that's

the highest in England and Wales.

Just last week a man was sentenced

to over two years in prison

for a homophobic attack on two

women in Penrith.

Any hate crime against anyone is

unacceptable. No questions. We have

to act on that. I am reassured that

our LGBT community feel confident to

come forward and report, and I want

them to do that. In some ways, I am

not concerned that the incident that

people report is necessarily the

problem, that shows they are coming

forward and telling us about it and

we can do something about it.

I've heard from two farmers

and the attitudes of people

more than 30 years ago.

So what's it like for young

people coming out today?

Do you know that I am gay?

No.

No.

You do now.

Yes.

You never had any

suspicions? No. I use your?

May be.

In Millom, Ross who's 19 is part

of the You Tube generation,

so he decided to film

telling his parents

for a documentary.

Miramax is fine? It is a life

choice, that is all it is.

I never

see another gay person around where

I live.

Ross decided to come out just

as he was leaving home to start

University in Salford.

I never thought there would be such

a big reaction online. I wasn't

expecting the town to come together

and show their support.

And that wasn't all.

One of the best outcomes of the

documentary was getting into a

relationship with someone from my

town which is quite unlikely,

because growing up I thought there

was hardly any gay people in my

town, and I am in a relationship

with that person because he saw that

I had come out and then he misses me

asking what it was like and if we

could meet up to talk about it.

Things developed from there.

This is a real celebration

of Cumbria's diversity - proof

of how far we've come since those

court reports from the fifties.

But the people I've met in Cumbria

today tell me that so long

as you can still hear stories

of hostility and downright

discrimination here as elsewhere -

it's important to stand up and be

counted.

A couple of years ago anyone call

and they found something very

unusual, and since then they have

been trying to work out what it

meant.

This summer they organised a

new date in an attempt to solve the

mystery, so we set along local lad

Tony Snell to see how they got on.

You know what they say -

you never ever visit places

on your own doorstep.

I've lived in Runcorn for over 20

years and I've never ever visited

Halton Castle, until today.

And what a day to visit -

the place is a hive of activity.

An archaeological dig

is taking place in what were

the grounds of the old castle.

and there seems to be one

thing on everyone's mind.

I'd like to find a person.

A skeleton like they did

a couple of years ago.

I think it would be nice

to find further skeletons -

there were a couple of skeletons

found here in 2015.

Sounds very interesting.

What they need here is

a specialist in the archaeology

of historic buildings.

And of course, they've got one.

Well we were here in 2015

when we found two skeletons -

one of which is now on display

in Norton Priory museum

so we've come back this year

because we want to put some context

around those skeletons.

The bodies actually date to a period

of time where the castle was in use

as an admin centre so we wanted

to know if these were people who had

perhaps been tried in the court

and maybe buried on site;

whether these were people

who are working in the castle

and this actually the site

of a chapel and perhaps this

is consecrated burial ground.

So it's possible we might

have a specific burial ground

for one reason or another

in a castle which is quite strange.

Why are they here?

You don't get many

skeletons in castles -

they're really quite rare.

That's been a real mystery for us.

It does sound like they've got a

first class mystery on their hands.

And I do like a mystery - especially

when it involves skeletons!

There's only one place to go next.

Now Mike said that one

of the skeletons they found

at the castle in 2015 is on display

here at Norton Priory museum.

Another place I don't

visit often enough.

Come to think of it,

my knowledge of Runcorn

history is pretty ropey!

Most people think of Runcorn

as being one of the new towns

- a 1970s new town -

but the history of

the area goes way back.

If

Particularly for what we now call

Halton Castle, we don't have any

evidence for it but it's quite

likely that it would have been

an iron age promontory hill fort

and that's really down

to the geography cos when you stand

up at Halton Castle you can see

at least five different

counties and shires.

We know it was used

in the civil war.

And as you move forward in time

the archaeology tells us it

would have been acted

as an administrative centre.

There were courts there in 1700

so it's always had some

sort of significant

role in the local area.

Thanks to the Barons that lived

there, Norton Priory was founded.

the

So the history of the two sites

is pretty much inextricably linked -

you can't tell the history

of Norton Priory without

the history of Halton Castle.

Funnily enough, there are a number

of skeletons on display right next

to where we were talking

but these were found -

not in the Castle,

but in the Priory.

What is it about Runcorn

and skeletons!?

it will be good to finally see one

of these for myself. It has been

established that one is male and the

other is female. The one on display

if the mail.

When they were first found

we were thinking, 17th century date,

perhaps related to the civil war

when perhaps unusual things happened

but we've had this chap carbon dated

to the 15th century,

the female skeleton a bit later,

maybe even 100 years later.

Again that just asks more

questions than it answers...

You can see in this picture here,

they were also buried

on an east-west alignment,

that's a very typical Christian

burial right the way

through the middle-ages.

Everything about it screams this

was a normal burial,

possibly a shroud

around them as well.

So why?

There's nothing that marks them out

as unusual except that context.

They don't seem to be aristocracy.

They don't seem to be

murdered in anyway.

It just makes no sense at all.

Hopefully this dig this year

will try and uncover why exactly

they were buried here.

One week into the dig

and they've found all sorts

of interesting stuff.

We've actually found four

big square features.

We've no idea what they are-

they're quite unusual.

So we're just in the process

of trying to excavate them and find

out what they might be.

But there's been lots of medieval

pottery come out of that area

and in fact lots of medieval pottery

from all over the site

really which is quite nice.

But no skeletons?

So far we haven't found a great deal

in terms of skeletons.

We haven't got those skeletons, that

doesn't mean it is wrong, it just

means we have a bigger mystery and

we have to think, well, what does

that mean in terms of Halton Castle

spar importers? -- importance.

It's now a month since I was last

here and there's been time

to evaluate what was found

and for some of the skeleton

theories to take shape.

Some of the key members

of the team have assembled

for a post-dig inquest.

Well Mike we didn't find any

skeletons but we found

a fair bit of stuff.

We did.

We have got quite a lot of material

here that is pretty much covering

the life of the castle.

We have got 13th century

halfpenny right through to

1980s soft drink cans.

But there are some one or two really

interesting pieces in here,

not least got some kiln furniture,

which we didn't expect.

That's probably from a pottery kiln.

We have also got some more material

from the 17th century,

and some late medieval material.

No skeletons but this

does tell us something

more about the context

of those skeletons.

And look at this -

the OTHER skeleton, found in 2015,

and taken out of storage

especially for me to see.

Wow!

What a bonus this is.

This is 'Miss Mystery' -

tell me about this lady.

She is a lovely skeleton.

You know, she is a female skeleton,

30 to 34 years of age

at the time of death.

And she is actually

quite a tall individual,

she is about five foot seven.

However it seems that for once,

science may have let us down

and helped create some

of the confusion around

the Runcorn skeletons.

We did have her subjected

to radiocarbon dating and she has

quite a long date range

unfortunately, from the early 1500s

right through the early 1600s.

So it's a good hundred year date

range which covers towards the end

later medieval right

through to the civil war.

So because this is such a wide range

we actually gonna do re-analysis

on her to maybe find

a shorter time frame for her.

We want to know whether those

skeletons are buried

at the same time.

They look as if they might be

but the dates we have at the moment

are 100 years apart.

Now radiocarbon dates

are funny things.

You really need more

than one sample from each.

So if we can do that we can

answer definitively

were they buried at the same time?

If they were then that's a whole

series of other questions.

Who were they?

Why were they buried

at the same time?

Either way we are looking

at exceptional activity in the outer

bailey at Halton castle.

Right I am gonna put

you on the spot now.

What is your theory, Mike?

If we can prove that the bodies

are the same date, I think

they will be from the civil war

siege in the 1640s.

If they are not, if they are still

100 years apart, haven't got a clue!

You know when we started this

I said, "You never visit places

on your own doorstep"?

I am so glad I did,

I've learned so much -

as for the mystery of the skeletons,

maybe not this time but once

that carbon dating comes

back, I'll be back.

'S

I love a good mystery. That is

all from us for this week, but

Inside Out is back next Monday.

Until then, goodbye. Next week,

former athlete Diane Nadal discusses

how sports stars cope with

retirement.

I lost my job, our

family house, had her two young kids

and a wife that I could not support

that is the depression started. --

when the depression.