31/10/2013 BBC News at Six

A day of revelations at the hacking trial - from a secret affair to

intercepting the voice mails of a government minister. Andy Coulson

and Rebekah Brooks were seeing each other for at least six years - the

prosecution says what one of them knew, the other did, too. The court

hears that Tessa Jowell, John Prescott and Lord Frederick Windsor

were named in an e-mail about hacking targets. We'll have the

latest details from the trial. Also tonight... Saving pounds by making

it easier to switch your energy supplier - the Government says it

wants to speed up the process. The Unite union is accused of

intimidating the families of Grangemouth bosses - they turned up

outside a director's home with this inflatable rat. Wherever I have been

able to, I have switched suppliers, but the prices keep going up. The

Unite union is accused of intimidating the families of

Grangemouth bosses. Hundreds of dangerous level crossings will be

closed - the rail regulator commits millions to improving safety. My

lord, I appeal to the applicant in this matter... That's something you

have not seen or heard before - cameras are in the Court of Appeal

for the first time. Good evening and welcome to the BBC

News at Six. The phone hacking trial has heard that Andy Coulson and

Rebekah Brooks had a secret affair when both were occupying senior

positions at Rupert Murdoch's media giant. The prosecution said a letter

from Ms Brooks showed how close they were and that "what Mr Coulson knew,

Ms Brooks knew, too". Both of them, along with the six other defendants,

deny the charges against them. Tom Symonds is following the case for us

- let's join him now. Yes, this is a complicated case, with eight

defendants, and of course, Mr Coulson and Ms Brooks at the centre

of it. This case is really about privacy, and therefore the

prosecutor really had to explain today why he was revealing intimate

details of their relationship, which he said was at the heart of the case

against them. Rebekah Brooks was criminally involved in a conspiracy

which resulted in phone hacking - the words of the prosecution today.

In 2004, she wrote to Andy Coulson, and the letter was found hidden at

her home. While both of them were working at News International, they

had been having a six-year affair. He was now breaking it off. In the

letter read out to the jury, she appears grief stricken...

Commenting on the letter, prosecutor Andrew Edis said...

Especially during 2002, when schoolgirl Milly Dowler went

missing. The court heard that during the search for her, the News of the

World was hacking her phone and preparing to write this

controversial story, suggesting she might be alive. While all of this

was going along, editor Rebekah Brooks was on holiday in Dubai, but

she was in constant contact by phone with Mr Coulson. The prosecution

says they were exchanging confidences, discussing

difficulties, and that she must have known about the Milly Dowler phone

hacking. In fact, the prosecution will try to prove that the editors

of the paper knew about much of the phone hacking commissioned by staff

on the newsdesk. The jury was told Ian Edmondson, a senior editor and a

defendant in this trial, had the job of tasking enquiries into targets

the newspaper was interested in. His key contact was Glenn Mulcaire, part

of the paper's special investigations team, who would

access the voice mails, reporting back on what was said. There will be

evidence that freelancer Glenn Mulcaire was given a pay rise when

Andy Coulson took over, and that another defendant, managing editor

Stuart Kuttner, agreed payments to him worth more than ?400,000. And it

was revealed today that the wife of Beaufort Colin Montgomerie will

testify that in 2005, over lunch, Ms Brooks told her all about stories of

alleged phone hacking. The jury -- the eighth tendency or deny the

charges. -- the eight defendants all denied the charges. But we have been

hearing today is not evidence, it is the long and details opening

statement of the prosecution. The evidence will come in the months to

come, and we are told today that that will include a tape of Andy

Coulson confronting David Blunkett, the former minister, with, it is

claimed, a story obtained through hacking. This trial is due to last

between five and six months. The Energy Secretary has accused the

big energy companies of trying to make it difficult for their

customers to switch suppliers. Announcing a review that will look

into competition in the energy market, Ed Davey also said he was

considering criminal sanctions for companies found to have manipulated

the energy market. Our industry correspondent, John Moylan, reports.

Millions of households are facing higher energy bills this winter,

prompting a raging political debate over how to fix what some call a

broken energy market. The Government's answer is a new test on

how well the market is working, with criminal penalties for those who

break the rules. That is why I intend to consult on the

introduction of criminal sanctions for anyone found manipulating energy

markets and harming the consumer interest. At how significant are

these energy proposals? At their heart is a new, annual assessment of

how competitive the market is. The first of these will be published

next spring. There will be a new probe into the financial accounts of

the energy firms, and the Government wants to encourage more of us to

switch, making it quicker and easier to change supplier, perhaps I'm just

24 hours. That would help people like pensioner David Godson from

Hampshire. He has switched supplier many times but he is still facing

higher bills, and he says the process is far from easy. It is not

quick enough, it is certainly not simple, and the tariffs are

unbelievably confusing. So, it makes it a very difficult job. I have done

it myself, but it is hard work. The energy firms were back in the

spotlight this week, attempting to justify they blame government green

levies for pushing bills higher, and they gave a cautious welcome to

today's plans. Transparency is a good thing, and today's plans are

sensible. Faster switching is a good thing, and the competition audit

seems to be the right thing to do. But the best way of getting bills

down will be to take -- would be to take these government levies off

tomorrow, immediately saving customers more than ?100. The

Government was accused of refusing to stand up to the big six energy

firms. We need action to fix the broken market, to break up the big

six by reading fencing -- by ring fencing their generation from

supply... Pressure is likely to mount on the Government to deliver

on its pledge to roll back the green levies.

Members of the Unite union involved in the bitter dispute at Grangemouth

have been accused of trying to intimidate company bosses - and

their families. In one case, Unite members turned up outside the home

of a director with an inflatable rat. David Cameron described the

incident as shocking. The union insists all its campaigning

activities have been legal and legitimate. James Cook reports.

Demonstrators from the Unite union, complete with a giant rat, on the

driveway of a Grangemouth company boss in Fife town. Two weeks ago,

the refinery dispute was brewing, and here in Dunfermline, the union

was piling on the pressure. This is a very quiet neighbourhood, and

people here do not want to go on camera to discuss the protests, but

the reactions have ranged from bemusement to shock, and one

neighbour told me she was disgusted by what had happened. Unite calls

the tactic leverage, and it has used it in other disputes. These were

demonstrations against construction companies in London. Today, the

Prime Minister defended the right to protest, and said the latest claims

were quite shocking. Nobody has a right to intimidate or bully, nobody

has a right to threaten people's families or to threaten people in

their homes. If these things have happened, it is very serious, and it

needs to be examined. As the dispute here in Grangemouth unfolded, it is

understood for directors of the owner, Ineos, were targeted by

demonstrators, three were in Hampshire, one in Fife town. It is

alleged that protesters set foot on private property, alarming children,

but the union leadership denies breaking the law. Faceless directors

who make decisions to close down fact is, to put workers and their

families out of work, destroy communities, need to understand that

if they think they are just going to disappear back into leafy suburbia,

then we have a right to protest. So, nothing illegal and certainly no

bullying or intimidation. The Labour leader declined to comment tonight.

His spokesman said the party condemned any intimidation by bosses

all workers, but accused the Tories of inflaming a difficult situation.

In this quiet suburb, it all feels rather like class war.

The family of a man who was stabbed to death in Sheffield as he

delivered his last pizza order have said they are devastated by his

death. 25-year-old Thavisha Peiris - here on the right with his family -

was found dead in his car on Sunday. He was about to start a new job as

an IT consultant. Speaking from their home in Sri Lanka, his parents

said that his murder has left them broken-hearted.

The former BBC radio presenter Michael Souter has been jailed for

22 years for a string of sex offences against children, spanning

two decades. Described as a "predatory paedophile", Souter was

previously found guilty of 19 counts of child sex abuse in a trial at

Norwich Crown Court. Souter, who had worked for BBC Radio Norfolk, denied

the charges. Syria's declared chemical weapons

facilities have been destroyed - that's according to international

inspectors. The announcement comes a day before the deadline set by the

United States and Russia. The inspectors will now turn to the

country's existing stock of chemical agents including sulfur mustard gas

and the nerve agent sarin. Our diplomatic corresondent, James

Robbins, reports. For weeks, specialist international inspectors

have been visiting Syria's declared chemical weapons factories. They

have tagged and sealed equipment so that no more chemical weapons can be

made. The Syrian government did much of the actual destruction, and often

that simply meant smashing up resident Assad, delivering on his

commitment, which was given under intense American and Russian

pressure. Now, the inspectors are confident they have met their first

deadline. We have personally observed one of the destruction

activities, and they are not now in a position to conduct any further

production or mixing of chemical weapons, as far as they're disclosed

capability is concerned. So, what has been achieved, and what remains

to be done? The inspectors were only able to make visits to 21 out of the

24 sites. Two are in areas being fought over in the surreal walk but

they are satisfied that all material there has also been destroyed. -- in

the civil war. But now a far tougher task lies ahead, given that they

have to destroy or remove all existing stockpiles of chemical

weapons by the middle of next year. Syria's government is claiming the

progress so far as its own victory, strengthening President Assad's hand

against the opposition rebels. I hope those who have always thought

of us negatively will change their mind, and understand that Syria

was, is and will be always a constructive partner in

international affairs. But the brutal reality in Syria remains a

civil war in which conventional weapons kill the vast majority of

victims. The rebels fear that pressure on them to negotiate,

coupled with President Assad's apparent political gains, put them

at a new disadvantage. Our main headline... The phone

hacking trial of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson has been told they were

having a secret affair while they were running the News of the World.

And still to come - the fight for fairer funding, as it is revealed

Londoners get the lion 's share of arts money in England.

Punctuality and safety are top of the list for millions of commuters,

and they are at the heart of the rail watchdog's new plans for the

next five years. The Office of Rail Regulation says ?21 billion will go

to Network Rail. It has set a target of nine out of ten trains running on

time. They have also earmarked more than ?100 million to improve safety

at rail crossing. For all who use the railways, today

is about setting the direction of travel on our train services for the

coming five years. The regulator has confirmed its target about

infrastructure improvements and efficiency savings. There is also

the question of safety. Nine people died at level crossings last year.

Now, some 500 most dangerous will be closed, with hundreds more improved

with funding adding up to ?109 million. With more people using

crossings, more cars, more vehicles on the road, there is increasing

danger, so we need to continue to invest and improve safety at level

crossings. For some, the changes come too late. 14-year-old Olivia

Bazlinton and her friend Charlotte Thomson were killed on a crossing in

Essex in 2005. Safety improvements must be made at all of them, such as

locking gate so that people cannot make their way onto the track. I

would like to see them get rid of half barriers, where people can

weave around them. We have seen recent examples of people who have

gone very close to death. This near miss in Cambridgeshire underlining

the danger. A lucky escape making the case for change. Much of today's

attention has been on safety, but there has been fresh focus on

punctuality, with the regulator telling the rail industry that

across most of the country, it should aim to have nine out of the

ten trains running on time. I have lived abroad a lot, and everything

runs on time. I don't understand why they can't in England. Most people

would expect a slight delay, but you don't want to be stood there for

hours on end, not knowing when the train will come. This is part of the

wider drive to improve the nation's railways. Network Rail is being

challenged to do better, predicting problems and fixing them before they

cause disruption. MPs have voted to allow the

government to start spending money on preparing the controversial HS2

line. There were 350 votes in favour, and 34 against the

legislation, which will release funds to pay for property and

compensation to evicted residents. Let's go live to our correspondent.

The government wins the vote. Does this mean HS2 will go ahead? Not by

a long chalk. This is just the latest stage in a long Parliamentary

process in favour of High Speed 2, this line that will stretch all the

way from London to Birmingham, and then divide, one mind to Manchester

and one to Leeds. What happened today is the government were told

they could spend money on the preparations. Next year, there will

be another piece of legislation that goes through the route in detail,

mile by a mile, and gives the government the detail to start

cutting this line. We are in for the long haul. The government hopes to

get it done by 2015, but that will still be pretty tight. Labour has

voted in favour today. Are they now on-board? Not entirely. For a

project like this, all parties agree you have to have cross-party

agreement because it is such a large objects, crossing parliaments and

governments. Although Labour voted in favour of the legislation today,

they are refusing to commit to the project long term, saying they

retain the right to say no if they think the costs are spiralling out

of control. This has caused some ruffles within the Labour Party. On

the one hand, some people are saying that the Labour Party can show it is

being prudent with the public purse, showing the public it can be

sensible with public money. On the other hand, Labour MPs and council

leaders are saying that this is madness, the party is just creating

unnecessary uncertainty. There was a meeting last night of Labour

backbenchers, in which they gave the Shadow Chancellor -- the Shadow

Transport Secretary a hard time. Labour's position at the moment is

constructive ambiguity, support in principle, but check the costs. I

think they will come under pressure to change that position as the

months go by. Thank you. Rescue workers in Niger have found

the bodies of 92 people believed to be migrant workers who died of

thirst after their vehicles broke down in the Sahara desert. Many of

the victims were women and children. It's not clear whether they were

attempting to travel to neighbouring Algeria or go further afield to

Europe. Police in Kenya have been handed a

petition complaining about the lax punishment given to three men

accused of raping a 16-year-old girl. The teenager was beaten and

raped as she returned from her grandfather's funeral. More than 1.5

million people signed the online campaign objecting to the men being

ordered only to cut the grass outside a police station.

Legal history was made today in the Court of Appeal, when proceedings

were broadcast on TV, radio and online for the first time. Judges

were ruling on the case of the man appealing against a seven-year

sentence for money counterfeiting. Our correspondent is in the Court of

Appeal. I am in court number four of the Royal Courts of Justice, the

truly magnificent court of the Lord Chief Justice. Today was a historic

day. It was quite a day here. History in the making, as cameras

move from the outside to the inside of the Court of Appeal. My lord, I

appear for the applicant... Capturing for the first time a

hearing in the Victorian splendour of the Lord Chief Justice's court.

Under the rules, and with the judges and the legal teams can be filmed. I

don't disagree that he was a prime mover in the custody and the

distribution. This is Alexander Cameron QC, the Prime Minister's

brother. He is arguing that his client, Kevin Fisher, imprisoned in

May for seven years for his part in what police believe was the largest

ever plot to counterfeit pound coins in the UK, was given an excessively

harsh sentence which should be reduced. Since 1925 it has been an

offence to film or take a photograph in a court room in England and

Wales, with the exception of the Supreme Court. Filming in Scottish

courts has been allowed since 1992, but only if all parties agree. Now,

cases like this can be seen by millions. Broadcasters, who have

campaigned for decades for the change, are delighted. Whether there

will be hours and hours of coverage from a court room I probably doubt.

I think audiences will find that dry and dusty. But I think we will be

able to convey some of the drama that goes on in a courtroom. It is

the thirst for drama that leaves some in the legal world is concerned

for where this will lead, but not one of the country's leading

barristers. I think this will be seen as a good thing, provided you

build on it, and don't just let it evaporate into the ether and make it

a one-off. This should be a possible way of building a new future. If

this first experiment in filming goes well, it could be extended to

sentencing in the Crown Court. Kevin Fisher lost his appeal today, and

for those expecting a full trial with cross-examination of witnesses

and defendants, they will be disappointed, but there will be very

important cases in this court, and we will be able to see them. Today,

Justice really did become a little bit more open and transparent.

Thank you. Funding for theatres, museums and galleries outside the

capital is being squeezed because London swallows the lion's share. A

new report looking at how money is allocated has found that government

spending on arts in London are mounted to nearly ?70 per resident

in the last financial year, compared to less than ?5 per person in the

rest of England. The Birmingham Royal Ballet,

currently performing at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. Two regional arts

theatres with a long history of collaborating. Both accept that arts

funding should favour London, but it is felt that the discrepancy is too

great. The extent of the balance clearly isn't acceptable. An extra

?100,000 into the massive cultural and creative economy in London is

minute. It is a drop in the ocean. ?100,000 spent in the creative

economy of Carlisle or Wolverhampton can really transform people 's

lives. The report found that of the ?320 million of taxpayers' money

distributed by Alps Castle -- Arts Council England, only ?3 60 per head

was given to the rest of England outside London. The amount given per

head in London was Lily ?70, but only ?4.60 in the rest of the

country. The amount London receives compared to the rest of the country

is not new. The report shows that the situation has become more

pronounced, not less. It also says that the additional money that has

come from the National Lottery since the mid-90s has compounded the

problem by following a similar problem. London has received three

times more lottery funds than everywhere else. It is far from

fair. They have just spent I don't know how much renewing the theatre

in Plymouth, but it is the only one for miles. I think it is

understandable, because there is such a high concentration of

cultural exhibits and places in London, but the contrast between the

two is too different. It has been argued that a production like

warhorse could only have emerged by a major sentence of -- centre of

excellence in London. But the Arts Council feels there is room for

improvement. It has just published its 10-year strategy. That sets out

what the Arts Council can do, including for the regions, and it

absolutely says that more should and could be done. That is what we've

got to do. It would appear that Arts Council England is reviewing its

funding arrangements, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have

their own. It is time for the weather now.

More spells of wet and windy weather to come over the next few days,

including the weekend. If you are heading out this evening, expect

some showers. A gusty wind is covering the country. The winds will

ease a little bit overnight, and the showers will fade. We will keep

outbreaks of rain across southernmost counties. Further

north, temperatures could drop to single figures. The winds will stay

strong in north-west Scotland, but elsewhere, they should be a little

lighter tomorrow. Outbreaks of rain moving across England and Wales, but

some uncertainty as to how far north it will go. For much of eastern

Scotland and Northern Ireland, a decent day. Showers will pepper

western Scotland. A largely dry morning across the north of England

is, but that rain could creep northwards. In the south, the rain

could be quite heavy, especially along the south coast. The winds

could start to strengthen and it could get very gusty once more along

the south coast. The rain here may well pep up throughout the evening.

That could cause a few problems during Friday night. A dry start for

someone Saturday, but another batch of wet and windy weather moves in

from the Atlantic. Some uncertainty about the extent of the rain, but

the winds will get very lively. Could get very gusty again on

Saturday night. A lot of events going on then, so if you are heading

out, bear that in mind. Sunday is another blustery day with sunshine

and showers, and mourn brain lurking down to the south-west. -- more rain

lurking. The trial of Rebekah Brooks and Andy

Coulson has been told they were having a secret affair while running

the News of the World. That's all from the News at