04/10/2011 Reporting Scotland

Welcome to Reporting Scotland. Tonight. A serial killer or the

victim of a miscarriage of justice? A BBC investigation has uncovered

evidence that casts doubt over the conviction of Scots nurse Colin

Norris. Stabbed. The man set upon by a gang

of thieves who were trying to steal his neighbour's car.

The football legend backing new research which could help millions

of arthritis sufferers. And also tonight. Growing injury

worries for Craig Levein ahead of Scotland's remaining Euro

qualifiers. A BBC investigation has uncovered

evidence that could cast doubt over the conviction of a Glasgow-born

nurse serving life for the murders of four elderly patients. In total,

Colin Norris was found guilty of poisoning five patients with

insulin at two hospitals in Leeds. But new evidence has cast serious

doubt over those convictions. Mark He was described as an Angel of

Death who murdered his Patients in cold blood. But Colin Norris has

always protested his innocence. am putting it clear that you

But after a five-month trial, he was convicted of four murders and

one attempted murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The strength

of the case was that Colin Norris was on shift when a five different

women suffered extremely low blood sugar leading to hypoglycaemic

failure. But at least four of the woman could have died naturally and

that highs -- and that spontaneous hypoglycaemia is much more common

than the jury were led to believe her. I was surprised at how very

common it is in this particular group of elderly, sick people. In

one very detailed survey, thousands of patients, it was up to 10%. It

is not that unusual. Looking at all of the evidence, all I can say is

that I think his conviction is unsafe. They BBC has uncovered

evidence of similar cases of hypoglycaemia that occurred in the

hospital where Colin Norris worked, but a while he was off-duty.

lawyer believes there were serious flaws in the investigation.

only cherry-picked those investigations when Colin Norris

was on duty and ignored the others. A West Yorkshire Police spokesman

said that Colin Norris was convicted, prosecuted and sentence

based on evidence produced in court, but new evidence has given Colin

Norris's mother a glimmer of hope. I do believe that the system will

eventually prove there has been a miscarriage of justice and he will

be a free man. However long it takes, I do, I have got to believe

that that will happen. And a application to hear a French appeal

is to be submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

And you can see more of Mark Daly's investigation in Hospital Serial

A Jury In The Dark tonight on BBC1 Scotland at 10.35.

Police are treating as attempted murder an attack on a man who tried

to stop his neighbour's car being stolen. The 57-year-old was stabbed

in the assault involving three men outside his home in Coatbridge.

Detectives say he's lucky to be alive. Aileen Clarke reports.

This is a leafy and quiet area. When a couple living here heard

some lies at the back of the House yesterday morning, it was unusual.

-- summer noise. Ian Howson Went out to see what happened. He saw a

man across the road are breaking into his neighbour's car. The man

turned round, approached him and assaulted him. At that time, he was

joined by two other men and the three of them assaulted Mr Howson

on the street behind us. He managed to get away, make his way back into

his own garden here. But not content on the assault they carried

out on the street, they carried the assault into the garden where he

sustained multiple stab wounds. He is actually very lucky man that

he was not killed. Neighbours and colleagues cannot

believe what has happened to him. Everybody is shocked to learn about

what has happened to him. He is a very popular and conscientious

teacher and makes an enormous contribution with in our department.

Be it is a horrific attack on a man who was on the protecting his own

and his neighbour's property. Something which I am sure most

members of the public would also do. Police are looking for three men,

aged around 20. They believe they could be responsible for a number

of attempted break-ins in the area as well as this horrific attack.

A drug smuggling gang has been jailed for a total of 43 years for

importing and dealing cocaine worth up to �40 million. Ringleaders

Keith Blenkinsop and Lindsay Harkins were sentenced to 12 years

and 10 years at the High Court in Edinburgh. Three couriers - Andrew

Burns, Robert Dalrymple and James Elvin - were jailed for eight years,

seven years and six years. The men were convicted last month of

smuggling cocaine from Spain concealed in the lining of

suitcases. You're watching Reporting Scotland

from the BBC. Still to come before seven.

Glasgow gears up for a glittering awards show honouring music of

black origin. In sport, with the vital European

qualifiers looming, the injury list does not make good reading for

Craig Levein. Plus, Going for gold. Scottish

netball's search for the superstars Scientists in Aberdeen are to find

ways of using stem cells to help repair or even stop the spread of

osteoarthritis. An estimated eight million people in the UK suffer

from the bone disease. Former Aberdeen and Scotland captain

Willie Miller, who suffers from the condition, is backing the study, as

Steven Duff reports. He camped and the successful

Aberdeen -- he captained the successful Aberdeen team in the

1980s. He had a tough career that eventually took its toll. He now

suffers from osteo arthritis. was a tackle the cost of the Oster

arthritis in my knee. Fortunately, it was later on in my career and

they managed to play with that for several years. He is now backing

the new research at Aberdeen University into how the body's own

that stem cells can help appear joined to damage and to stave off

boss your arthritis. I they have the ability to repair themselves

and to form cartilage and bone and are our deal to form cartilage and

bone in patients with osteoarthritis. Researchers hear

hope they are some poor on the road to make the lives of sufferers of

osteoarthritis that bit better. -- they are somewhere on the road. The

next generation of Aberdeen players a warm-up for our youth game this

afternoon. Any stem cell treatment for osteoarthritis is some way off

and treatment would only take place in early stages. Hopefully,

generations coming through, if the get osteoarthritis, it will be

detected early and treated early. Researchers are hoping they will be

successful. Volunteers have given up try to rescue a whale beached on

the course of the South Uist. The wheel is now dying and a vet has

been brought in to try and keep it comfortable.

The NHS needs to offer more flexible working hours for female

hospital doctors or they will leave the profession. That's the warning

from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. They say

that patient care could be affected if things don't change. Suzanne

Allan has the story. This consultant has been working as

a hospital doctor for over 20 years. When she started, there was no such

thing as flexible working. When I was training, flexible working was

not an option. With retrospect, it might have been something that I

would have pursued if it had been available. It was quite difficult

at that time. I am in no doubt that flexible working has been of

enormous benefit to both men and women. During the First World War,

Scottish health pioneer LCD Ingle's cent teams to the front. Remember

still unusual in medicine, but times have changed. In the 1960s,

there were around 500 medical female students in the UK. Now

there are 5000. Traditionally, there have been more women working

as GPs, but with flexible working hours, hospital work is more

appealing. The colleges appealing on the NHS throughout Scotland and

the United Kingdom to try to be more flexible and creative to make

it easier for men and women. these students at Glasgow

University looking for a change? you change their hours just for

women, it will make women candidates less attractive postop a

I would like to be a surgeon at also have children, so if somebody

offered me flexible working hours, I would to take them. Should it be

up to us for the organisations they work for to change? Fewer young

people would end up in the prison system if schools ended their

policy of exclusion according to the Chief Inspector of Prisons.

Brigadier Hugh Monro says that by the time young people are jailed,

it's already too late. He claims figures show more than 40% of young

offenders jailed for the first time then go on to reoffend. Publishing

his annual report, he also repeated his call for a national strategy on

sex offenders to improve their access to rehabilitation.

The parents of a young man from Glasgow who has not been seen since

leaving for college last week have made an emotional appeal for his

safe return. 20-year-old Jordan McGinty was last seen by his family

early last week as he was leaving for Cardonald College where he is

training to be an electrician. Police have appealed for anyone

with information about Jordan to contact them.

Staff at the troubled Macau and sweet factory near Falkirk says the

work -- had been paid off. One hadn't three workers have lost

their job. A new plan to revive Gaelic has

been proposed with the aim of doubling the number of children

learning the language in the next five years. Over the past decade,

millions of pounds has been spent promoting Gaelic, but can money

time and effort really save endangered languages? Our education

correspondent Seonag MacKinnon has been to Condorrat primary in North

Thanks to public money and more learned there's. You do feel

special because you can speak that language and no one else knows and

you can teach your friends are different words. When I started

school, I did not know what this word means and all that, but I just

started speaking it naturally. Children pick up the language as

they speak it while learning all the subjects they would in an

ordinary school. Today a report calling for a number of pupils

entering this kind of education to be doubled. It does not matter if

they have been educated in Gaelic or English, the course is similar.

There is no real extra cost in providing Gaelic children -- for

children. Scotland lags behind other Celtic countries. Less than

1% of Scots RN bilingual education, compared to 7% in Ireland. That

compares with a healthy 21 % in Wales. But do money and effort

really save endangered Languages? It has worked in many different

languages, the bask language in Spain, the Catalan language in

Spain, some government interventions happened here but it

is the will of the people that is vital to continue their own culture.

But with millions of pounds spent on Gaelic's devolution, some may

question whether more money should follow.

Glasgow is gearing up to stage this year's MOBO awards. The awards show

which ought -- honours Music of Black Origin this first stage in

the city two years ago. But it is not just the Dell and Tinie Tempah

who at in the running for prizes, Glasgow could benefit to the tune

of �3 million. Tinie Tempah is just one of the

stars in the running for a prize or two get this year's MOBOs and

Glasgow has a lot to gain also. Not just from the immediate spend of

having these artists in town but having a wide profile event

broadcast and 75 countries. This bend of the MOBO is relatively

small but it is about Glasgow on an international stage. It helps

define what Glasgow is in people's minds said. That is reflected in

businesses across the city who say the event brings them marketing

opportunities as well as money. With the emergence of social

mediate you will have the ideas on the YouTube, on twitter and

Facebook which will mean there is more coverage and public coverage

as well. And with a quarter of a million people due to tune into the

TV coverage of the event, it is a bigger audience than ever, even if

some had their doubts when the MOBOs came to London. People asked

why Glasgow and we were petrified. Because it worked so well we have

now set the bar of really high, so we have to exceed expectations but

I am sure by what I have seen in the rehearsals we are all the way

there. All will be revealed shortly for this year's winners but with a

three-year deal to bring the USDAWs -- MOBO USDAW to Glasgow, it seems

we have already won. Craig Levein has the blues. He

certainly has. There is a growing injury list for

Craig Levein to deal with their head of the European qualifying

matches. He is already sweating over the fitness of his top striker

but his captain is in doubt also against the gains in Liechtenstein

and Spain. The Scotland squad being put

through the paces but without some familiar faces. A certain striker

is still struggling. Scotland's top scorer has turned it on so often in

the past but after hobbling off at the weekend he remains a doubt but

there is some hope. It is a case of the are hopeful for Saturday. But

certainly for Tuesday high hopes. Darren Fletcher of the Manchester

United Fielder has tonsilitis and will be assessed again tomorrow. He

will be given every chance to prove he can make it. Alan Houghton is

also a doubt. He did not train today. The injury worries do not

seem to be knocking confidence. We did be fair to say the squad go

into this double-header with more hope than expectation? I do not

think so. We expect and still believe that and hopefully the fans

will be the bid also. We believe we can qualify. If we go out and get

six points I believe that will get us in the play-off position. But he

will be available for the upcoming challenges? Plenty to ponder for

the Scotland manager. Col Bartley said he will play

anywhere to get backing the Rangers game, particularly with Dorin Goyan

and Carlos Bocanegra building a partnership in central defence. The

Arsenal defender has been missing since early August after undergoing

surgery on his groin. Bartley hopes he will return when Rangers face

Liverpool later this month. I am a team player and I am happy the team

has been doing well. I said when I first came here that I was not

going to start and I did not stop the first few games but they came

in midfield and I did well. If I have to play a different position

to get my place back, so be it. Celtic will be without Scott Brown

after he will undergo surgery on his damaged ankle. Brown has not

played since being substituted during his side's Old Firm defeat

last month with an aggravated injury.

Scottish sport's chief talent scout Tony's danger has turned his touch

for the next big thing to netball. Women over five foot 10 were

encouraged to apply for the Gold for Glasgow programme which has

recruited other athletes into other sports. We went to see if there are

any netball superstars out there. Meet the girls on the Gold for

Glasgow programme who think they have what it takes to play for

Scotland. I am 23 years old. I am A series of physical Tests and a

mine said interview will determine whether the girls will be fast-

tracked into the national netball squads. The project is really for a

particular body type, athleticism. We are looking for taller athletes

to give them more opportunity to enter netball. On the international

arena. But it was international rugby which produced Scotland's

We believe in this project that we could have a girl who could be

qualify and go through to Glasgow 2014. All want to do that but there

is the potential for someone to do it. This former runner competed at

a cyclist at last year's Commonwealth Games. It is

unbelievable to think when I came here in 2009, if I thought back

then I was going to India, I have would not have believed anyone that

said I could do it. Having done it, it is achievable, it has been great.

Are the girls on target for 2014? They will find out in the next few

weeks. Good luck to the girls.

A charity planning to plant 200,000 trees on bleak moorland above

Dumbarton have unexpectedly revealed a wartime secret which

helped protect the town from the worst effects of German air raids.

A bunker in the centre of the Lang Crags site was used to control

decoy lights which tricked air crews into dropping their bombs

harmlessly. We have been finding out more.

This rough moorland will soon be transformed by the planting of

200,000 trees, providing a wildlife haven and an amenity for locals but

it was not always so tranquil. On 5th May, 1941, the Germans raided

Dunbar 10. Ecru sort explosions and fires on the ground. But they were

a sham, decoys created from a bunker. It appears many of the

German bombs dropped harmlessly onto the Lang Crags more which was

littered with debris when 11-year- old Bill cycled up the next morning.

As I turned into the farm, that large barn that was there was smoke

coming out the top of that and there were too big craters in this

field here. There was an unexploded bomb over another side of that wood

fair. The bunker is now derelict but the charity creating the new

woodland wants to use it as a way of telling the unusual history of

the sight. We think there was a control room and an engine room.

Out on the mores there were fires which were meant to assimilate a

Dunbar turn itself was bombed. This tournament took a direct hit.

Devastating as it was to those involved, two months earlier, more

than 1,000 had died in Clydebank. 17 young trees are the first to be

planted in the new woodland. They represent the 17 people killed in

the Dumbarton raids 70 years ago. Two the weather.

It looks like the weather will stay unsettled. It will be mild tomorrow

and then it will be cooler on and then it will be cooler on

Thursday and Friday and mild again on the weekend. Today we saw highs

of 15 Celsius in Aberdeen. Through the course of the night we will see

rain moving in. It will to try across eastern areas to begin with.

Showers continuing across the Shetland Isles and they will gather

as this depression moves in. It will be heavy across Argyll but on

the upside with increasing winds it will be mild with 10 or 11 Celsius

as the low. Tomorrow, not a pleasant picture. A lot of rain

around. Heavy again across Argyll and the south-west but through the

afternoon it will improve. The eastern side is not too bad. The

heaviest of the rain will be to the west. Temperatures of 16 and 17

Celsius. Further north, the rain stays heavy. Chilly with showers

across the Shetland Isles. An improving picture through the

afternoon. Brightness appearing across the north and east. Thursday,

quite a different picture. Wednesday's low-pressure scoops to

the North. A squeeze of isobars coming from the north-west. So it

is starting to turn cooler. Brisk winds. Temperatures starting to

fall, 12 or 13 Celsius. Frequent showers to the north-west. The best

of the brightness to the east. On Friday we see this area of high

pressure nudging in. But it looks like things will settle down. Still

feeling chilly but windy again across the North.

A summer of tonight's top stories: the BBC investigation has uncovered

evidence that could cast doubt over the conviction of a nurse serving

the conviction of a nurse serving life for the murders of four

elderly patients. Colin Norris was found guilty of poisoning five

patients with incident. New evidence has cast doubt over those

convictions. The American student Amanda Knox is

returning home to the US after an appeal court cleared her of

murdering her British flat mate Meredith Kercher four years ago.

Miss Kercher's family said they respected the decision but

questions about the manned -- murder remain.

Police are treating as attempted murder an attack on a man who tried

to stop his neighbour's car being stolen. Detectives say the man is

lucky to be alive. And a pub landlady is hailing

victory in a legal case against the English Premier League, which could

change the way sports rights are sold. The European Court of Justice