15/01/2014

:00:16. > :00:22.children in the Philippines. A place shame. Dozens of families in this

:00:23. > :00:27.Filipino city are involved in webcam abuse. We have an exclusive report.

:00:28. > :00:31.This is, in effect, the epicentre of what NGOs call the cybersex

:00:32. > :00:35.industry. It takes place in rooms, in houses around here, undercover.

:00:36. > :00:38.No one really talks about it. This man organised and paid for

:00:39. > :00:43.abuse from his home in Northamptonshire. --

:00:44. > :00:46.Nottinghamshire. The National Crime Agency says he's just one of many.

:00:47. > :00:50.We'll be looking at how major crackdown on abusers is unfolding.

:00:51. > :00:55.Also tonight: A new row over bankers' bonuses. The

:00:56. > :00:58.Governor of the Bank of England says a cap on the size of pay-outs won't

:00:59. > :01:01.work. The William Roache trial - a witness

:01:02. > :01:06.says the Coronation Street actor wrote her a letter after indecently

:01:07. > :01:10.assaulting her. The Royal Marines to the rescue. A

:01:11. > :01:11.Cornish village gets some expert help after a Christmas Day landslide

:01:12. > :01:18.left them stranded. Tonight on BBC London:

:01:19. > :01:22.A teenager is found guilty of stabbing this schoolboy to death on

:01:23. > :01:26.a bus in a row over a hat. And the brother of a man who was

:01:27. > :01:45.shot dead in the Alps is told he won't face prosecution.

:01:46. > :01:52.Hello and welcome to the BBC News At Six. Tonight, we bring you a

:01:53. > :01:55.shocking story of child abuse carried out to order by British men

:01:56. > :02:00.on vulnerable, young children thousands of miles away in the

:02:01. > :02:02.Philippines. It follows a major crackdown by the National Crime

:02:03. > :02:09.Agency, which has tracked men here in Britain who use a webcam link to

:02:10. > :02:12.issue their instructions. Up to 100,000 children are victims

:02:13. > :02:17.of sexual exploitation in the country. Much of it occurs in

:02:18. > :02:20.Angeles City in the north of the country, a place now notorious for

:02:21. > :02:23.this kind of crime. Our correspondent Angus Crawford begins

:02:24. > :02:28.his report there. You may find parts of it disturbing.

:02:29. > :02:40.This street holds a secret. A house where children were sexually abused

:02:41. > :02:43.and raped by their own family. The room where police say the abuse was

:02:44. > :02:52.broadcast by a webcam to foreign paedophiles. This British man,

:02:53. > :02:58.Timothy Ford, directed that abuse from his home in the UK. A police

:02:59. > :03:03.raid in the Philippines last year sparked by what was found on Ford's

:03:04. > :03:06.computer. He was sent to prison for eight and a half years. 12

:03:07. > :03:14.children, the youngest just five, were taken into care. This 1... Some

:03:15. > :03:22.of the children are now back in the community. Her parents are still in

:03:23. > :03:31.jail. Ford planned to buy a house and open an internet cafe here, for

:03:32. > :03:39.him and other paedophiles to use. But we have discovered that Ford is

:03:40. > :03:43.just one of thousands. You can get easy money from cybersex. They call

:03:44. > :03:45.it cybersex. We travelled across the Philippines and found some

:03:46. > :03:49.neighbourhoods have been virtually taken over by it. The abuse of

:03:50. > :03:53.children online has become an industry driven by poverty. The

:03:54. > :04:03.families are in the cybersex business. Some of the father and

:04:04. > :04:08.mother and bring their children here to show and get paid by the owner of

:04:09. > :04:17.this house. This is Cordova, in the south of the country. It has become

:04:18. > :04:21.notorious for this type of crime. This is, in effect, the epicentre of

:04:22. > :04:24.the cybersex industry. It takes place in rooms, in houses, around

:04:25. > :04:28.here, undercover, no one really talks about it. All they need is a

:04:29. > :04:31.laptop and a USB. One recent survey showed that 80 houses were involved

:04:32. > :04:36.here in the family selling their children for sex online.

:04:37. > :04:39.This kind of webcam abuse has become rooted in the culture here and local

:04:40. > :04:48.charities find it difficult to convince families of the harm it

:04:49. > :04:51.causes. The customer that is buying from the other part of the globe

:04:52. > :04:55.gives the instruction to touch this, touch that, kiss this and kiss that

:04:56. > :05:00.and even sends sex toys to these children so they can use them. It is

:05:01. > :05:06.a myth that there is no touching, there is no actual contact. There is

:05:07. > :05:10.and what is deplorable is some of the parents or the relatives are the

:05:11. > :05:14.ones touching the children. A couple of streets away, another home raided

:05:15. > :05:20.and emptied. A two-year-old was rescued here. But it is something no

:05:21. > :05:24.one wants to talk about. How can I know when the house is closed and I

:05:25. > :05:29.did not look inside the house and see what they are doing? This is

:05:30. > :05:35.where our children live. Some children to escape the abuse. -- do

:05:36. > :05:38.escape. Here, at a shelter, where they can start to recover. They

:05:39. > :05:45.really feel small, they feel dirty about themselves. Many are deeply

:05:46. > :05:49.traumatised. Some talk of seeing on a computer screen the foreigner who

:05:50. > :05:55.paid to watch. Tens of thousands of children are thought to be victims

:05:56. > :05:58.of online sexual exploitation. But now at least police here and around

:05:59. > :06:08.the world are tackling what charities call an epidemic of abuse.

:06:09. > :06:10.Angus Crawford, BBC News, in the Philippines.

:06:11. > :06:16.With me now is Alison Holt, our social affairs correspondent. A

:06:17. > :06:20.shocking report, Alison. Just how new is this phenomenon?

:06:21. > :06:23.Well, more than a decade ago, I visited the Philippines with British

:06:24. > :06:27.detectives who, at that time, were trying to gather the sort of

:06:28. > :06:31.evidence they needed to prosecute so-called sex tourists. Back here,

:06:32. > :06:34.in the UK, in the courts. That was a tough job, but what they are talking

:06:35. > :06:40.about is people who physically travelled overseas to abuse a child.

:06:41. > :06:44.Angus's report shows how the spread of the internet has changed at least

:06:45. > :06:48.the nature of some of that abuse. Effectively, it means paedophiles

:06:49. > :06:51.can operate from the comfort of their own living room. It makes it

:06:52. > :06:57.all too easy for them to abuse someone at the click of a button.

:06:58. > :07:00.But even if the person who is paying for that is many miles away,

:07:01. > :07:06.nevertheless, a child is still being abused, it is at their direction, by

:07:07. > :07:10.someone else. It is very difficult to know the true scale of this but

:07:11. > :07:14.last November, on the Six O'Clock News, we reported on how a Dutch

:07:15. > :07:19.charity visited chat rooms and they used a computer-generated image of a

:07:20. > :07:24.ten-year-old Filipino girl who they named Sweetie. During the ten weeks

:07:25. > :07:29.that Sting, 20,000 men contacted her, 1,000 tried to pay her money to

:07:30. > :07:35.perform sex acts and as a result, the names of 110 British men were

:07:36. > :07:37.passed to the police here. Now, tomorrow, the National Crime Agency

:07:38. > :07:41.will detail results of its own crackdown and it will set out plans

:07:42. > :07:45.for working with authorities elsewhere, such as America,

:07:46. > :07:48.Australia and the Philippines, in tackling what is, in the end, a

:07:49. > :07:51.global problem. Alison, thanks very much.

:07:52. > :07:57.The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, says he does not back a

:07:58. > :08:00."crude cap" on bankers' bonuses. It comes after the Labour leader Ed

:08:01. > :08:02.Miliband challenged the Government to intervene if the largely

:08:03. > :08:07.taxpayer-owned RBS offered its staff bonuses that were greater than the

:08:08. > :08:10.employee's salary. But David Cameron says he would only veto an overall

:08:11. > :08:18.rise in pay and bonuses. Our Political Editor Nick Robinson has

:08:19. > :08:22.the story. It is back. The political row about

:08:23. > :08:27.the banks and whether they pay out too little to those who need their

:08:28. > :08:31.loans and too much to, well, bankers. In the spotlight once

:08:32. > :08:37.again, the bank owned largely by you and me, whose decisions on pay and

:08:38. > :08:42.bonuses need the approval of the men in Downing Street. RBS are expected

:08:43. > :08:46.to ask the Government to approve bonuses of over 100% on

:08:47. > :08:50.multi-million pound salaries. Does the Prime Minister think that is

:08:51. > :08:55.acceptable? If there are any proposals to increase the overall

:08:56. > :09:00.pay, that is pay and bonus bill, at RBS, at the investment bank, any

:09:01. > :09:03.proposals for that, we will veto it. Under a new EU law, bank bonuses

:09:04. > :09:08.will be capped at the same level of salaries, so a top bank are getting

:09:09. > :09:14.paid a million could get more would need the approval of the banks'

:09:15. > :09:17.shareholders, in this case the Treasury, and Labour says they

:09:18. > :09:22.should say no. Ministers say instead they will block any increase in

:09:23. > :09:26.RBS's total pay and bonus bill. That could be easy, though, because the

:09:27. > :09:31.bank is shrinking. RBS used to employ 250 highly paid bankers. The

:09:32. > :09:36.last figures were just over 90 and the number is still dropping. Not

:09:37. > :09:43.good enough, says Ed Miliband. When ordinary families are facing the

:09:44. > :09:45.cost of living crisis, surely he can say that for people earning ?1

:09:46. > :09:49.million, a bonus of 1 million should be quite enough? He comes here every

:09:50. > :09:53.week, he comes here every week to complain about a problem created by

:09:54. > :09:57.the Labour Party. Last week it was betting, this week, it is banking.

:09:58. > :10:02.Where is the apology for the mess they made RBS in the first place?

:10:03. > :10:05.Ministers say they have not even been approached by RBS yet, but the

:10:06. > :10:08.new law covers next year's not the new law covers next year's not this

:10:09. > :10:13.year's, bonuses, and besides, they are fighting it in the courts. It

:10:14. > :10:18.may be bonuses that really set people's pulses racing, but what

:10:19. > :10:22.worries policymakers is the fact that the big banks are not learning

:10:23. > :10:26.enough money to small businesses. The answer, everyone seems to agree,

:10:27. > :10:30.is more competition. Later this week, Ed Miliband will unveil a

:10:31. > :10:33.proposal to cap the size of those banks, to force them to off-load

:10:34. > :10:39.some branches, to try to get more competition. Ideas that seem to get

:10:40. > :10:44.a pretty cool reception from the Governor of the Bank of England. MPs

:10:45. > :10:48.first asked Mark Carney if he shared their view that a crude bonus cap

:10:49. > :10:54.was the wrong way to control bankers' pay. Do you agree with that

:10:55. > :10:59.conclusion? Absolutely. And there was more. Did he agree that a cap on

:11:00. > :11:04.the bank's market share might not actually work? The answer again, was

:11:05. > :11:12.yes. Just breaking up an institution doesn't necessarily create viable or

:11:13. > :11:16.more intensive competitive structure. For a short while, it was

:11:17. > :11:23.the big six energy firms getting the flak. Now, once again, it is the

:11:24. > :11:24.turn of the big five banks. Nick Robinson, BBC News,

:11:25. > :11:27.Westminster. A woman has told a jury how the

:11:28. > :11:30.Coronation Street actor William Roache sexually assaulted her in the

:11:31. > :11:34.men's toilet at the Granada Studios in Manchester when she was14. The

:11:35. > :11:37.alleged victim, who's now 63, is one of five women who accuse the

:11:38. > :11:44.81-year-old actor of sex crimes in the 1960s and early '70s. He denies

:11:45. > :11:47.five counts of indecent assault and two counts of rape. Judith Moritz's

:11:48. > :11:54.report from Preston Crown Court contains flash photography.

:11:55. > :11:57.William Roache arrived at court for the second day of his trial,

:11:58. > :12:04.accompanied again by three of his children. His is a household name,

:12:05. > :12:11.but here, he is the defendant in the dock. The actor has played Ken

:12:12. > :12:15.Barlow in Coronation Street for more than 50 years, having appeared in

:12:16. > :12:21.the soap since its first episode in 1960. But the prosecution say that

:12:22. > :12:25.in the 60s, he took advantage of his stardom to abuse teenage girls. The

:12:26. > :12:29.star's first alleged victims says that she went to the Granada Studios

:12:30. > :12:35.in Manchester, where the soap was filmed, in 1965, when she was 14.

:12:36. > :12:38.The jury heard she had gone to the studios to take part in a

:12:39. > :12:41.children's talent show and William Roache had pulled her from her

:12:42. > :12:43.dressing room into the men's toilets. -- from his dressing room

:12:44. > :12:47.into the men's toilets, where he indecently assaulted her. Now 63,

:12:48. > :12:57.she said she didn't tell anyone in the studios about it, adding...

:12:58. > :13:02.In the dock, the 81-year-old actor listened as the jury was told that

:13:03. > :13:04.soon after the assault, he had sent a letter to the girl, which included

:13:05. > :13:19.the lines... This afternoon, a second woman, also

:13:20. > :13:24.came to give evidence in courtroom number one. She says that in 1965,

:13:25. > :13:28.she was a 16-year-old actress and she also alleges that William Roache

:13:29. > :13:32.indecently assaulted her in the toilets at Granada television. Both

:13:33. > :13:34.of the women that came to court today confirmed that they don't know

:13:35. > :13:37.each other and that they have made their allegations independently.

:13:38. > :13:45.The actor is charged with seven sexual offences against five girls

:13:46. > :13:47.and denies them all. The case continues with evidence expected

:13:48. > :13:53.tomorrow from the third alleged victim. Judith Moritz, BBC News,

:13:54. > :13:57.Preston. At a separate trial, woman has been telling a jury that she was

:13:58. > :14:02.indecently assaulted by the former BBC One DJ Dave Lee Travis in a BBC

:14:03. > :14:05.studio in the 1980s, when she was a trainee newsreader. He denies 13

:14:06. > :14:09.counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault. June Kelly's

:14:10. > :14:17.report also contains some flash photography. Dave Lee Travis has

:14:18. > :14:22.been described as an "opportunist who targeted vulnerable young

:14:23. > :14:26.women". Today, the court began hearing from his alleged victims,

:14:27. > :14:31.who he has said are the money or media attention. None them can be

:14:32. > :14:35.identified. In the early 1980s, one was based at the headquarters of BBC

:14:36. > :14:40.Radio, Broadcasting House. She was a trainee in her mid-twenties. Today,

:14:41. > :14:45.she described her Dave Lee Travis, then a major name, came into her

:14:46. > :14:48.Radio 4 studio and indecently assaulted her while she was

:14:49. > :15:05.introducing a programme. Testifying from behind a screen, she said...

:15:06. > :15:11.She said she couldn't reporting because he was one of the big stars

:15:12. > :15:15.of Radio 1. She believed the management response would have been,

:15:16. > :15:19.you are a big girl, deal with it, and there would've been a black mark

:15:20. > :15:22.against her. During cross-examination by Dave Lee

:15:23. > :15:27.Travis's barrister, the witness denied making up the story to boost

:15:28. > :15:31.her media profile. He said his client maintained the incident had

:15:32. > :15:34.never taken place. The jury then heard from women who worked with

:15:35. > :15:41.Dave Lee Travis after he left the BBC. Two women described how, this

:15:42. > :15:45.radio station, he targeted them. One said they used to pray he wouldn't

:15:46. > :15:49.come near them. The court heard how on one occasion she shouted at him,

:15:50. > :15:54.don't touch me, you are a pervert. The former DJ of reading not guilty

:15:55. > :15:59.to 13 charges of indecent assault and one of sexual assault.

:16:00. > :16:06.Our top story this evening. Child abuse to order. How British men use

:16:07. > :16:12.the internet to abuse children in the Philippines. And still to come.

:16:13. > :16:14.The Calstock landings. How the Royal Marines came to the rescue of a

:16:15. > :16:26.Cornish village after a landslip. Later on BBC London, throwing out

:16:27. > :16:30.the big bins. Why Lambeth is the latest council to introduce smaller

:16:31. > :16:32.ones. And the cafe where you are not charged for food or drink. You pay

:16:33. > :16:42.to stay by the minute. Some of Birmingham's best known

:16:43. > :16:46.landmarks, including the NEC, could be sold off to help the city council

:16:47. > :16:51.pay more than ?1 billion in legal claims over equal pay. The authority

:16:52. > :16:58.has an estimated shortfall of ?550 million. It needs to settle with

:16:59. > :17:02.thousands of workers, mainly women, who for years were paid less than

:17:03. > :17:12.other employees on the same grade. From Birmingham, Jeremy Cooke

:17:13. > :17:20.reports. From the original concept in the early 70s... To the Royal

:17:21. > :17:25.opening ceremony in 1976. It's always been the National exhibition

:17:26. > :17:30.Centre but the pride of the city of Birmingham. Owned by the council.

:17:31. > :17:35.But today it seems the entire NEC group, including the LG Arena, the

:17:36. > :17:37.National indoor Arena, and the International Convention Centre,

:17:38. > :17:45.will soon be on sale to the highest bidder. A court victory for council

:17:46. > :17:48.workers, mainly women, who has been paid less than colleagues, mainly

:17:49. > :17:58.men, on the same grade, has left the council liable with back pain

:17:59. > :18:01.estimated ?1.1 billion. -- back pay. The need for cash is urgent and

:18:02. > :18:07.the council leader went on local radio to tell his city that the NEC

:18:08. > :18:11.group may have to go. We need to invest in the NEC in order to ensure

:18:12. > :18:17.the future of the next 20 years or so and it may be that, to do that,

:18:18. > :18:22.Birmingham City Council has to diversify either part or all of its

:18:23. > :18:26.ownership in the NEC. For a cash strapped council, selling this could

:18:27. > :18:31.be the quickest most simple way to raise the millions they need. But

:18:32. > :18:34.there are no easy decisions here. This is one of Birmingham's most

:18:35. > :18:40.iconic landmarks, a real asset to the city and letting it go, would be

:18:41. > :18:44.a one-off, irreversible decision. Birmingham is not alone in selling

:18:45. > :18:51.assets. Croydon council sold Chinese ceramics are more than ?8 million.

:18:52. > :18:54.Somerset raised ?18.5 million selling farms. Tower Hamlets council

:18:55. > :19:00.is considering selling this Henry Moore sculpture. Selling assets

:19:01. > :19:04.raises money fast and that's potentially good news for people

:19:05. > :19:09.like former Birmingham council worker, Rosemary. They need to

:19:10. > :19:13.consider the people at the soldier level rather than big businesses

:19:14. > :19:19.because it is affecting people at this level more than their public

:19:20. > :19:23.image. A lot of money. It take awhile to raise it I suppose? It

:19:24. > :19:27.took them a long time to take it from us, bit by bit, as well. The

:19:28. > :19:33.sell-off could generate ?300 million. Still leaving the council

:19:34. > :19:36.with millions more to raise. Two men and three boys have been found

:19:37. > :19:40.guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults in Peterborough.

:19:41. > :19:44.Zdeno Mirga, Hassan Abdulla and three teenagers who can't be named

:19:45. > :19:47.were found guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey. The group targeted five

:19:48. > :19:54.teenage girls including a 13-year-old with a severe learning

:19:55. > :19:57.disability. Two men and one boy were cleared of involvement in the

:19:58. > :19:59.attacks. The Chancellor, George Osborne, has urged the European

:20:00. > :20:07.Union to become competitive partly by cutting welfare spending. In a

:20:08. > :20:10.major speech in London, Mr Osborne said that the treaties underpinning

:20:11. > :20:13.the EU were no longer fit for purpose and a failure to renegotiate

:20:14. > :20:16.and reform would condemn the continent to further economic crisis

:20:17. > :20:19.and decline. Vicki Young reports. The promised to change Britain's

:20:20. > :20:24.relationship with the EU was supposed to calm the rows in the

:20:25. > :20:29.Conservative Party but some Tories are impatient for change. And the

:20:30. > :20:33.tone of the debate has riled senior figures in Brussels. The right of

:20:34. > :20:36.all citizens to move freely in Europe is one contentious area. The

:20:37. > :20:40.government has tightened the rules on migrant claiming benefits but

:20:41. > :20:47.today politicians were warned not to inflame tensions. Let's not use

:20:48. > :20:53.stereotypes and let's have a reasonable debate. Let us not give

:20:54. > :20:55.into scaremongering. But Conservatives hit back saying they

:20:56. > :21:00.went out to stigmatise any nationality. You need to be careful

:21:01. > :21:05.not to join others to drag the debate down because they can't argue

:21:06. > :21:09.against it and start accusing people of saying things they haven't said.

:21:10. > :21:13.But the Bulgarian Foreign Minister in London for a conference on EU

:21:14. > :21:21.reform said offence had been caused. The campaign that was going on

:21:22. > :21:25.especially last year was, I would say, a bit unpleasant. This

:21:26. > :21:30.situation, the signals coming from the UK, will be changed and I expect

:21:31. > :21:34.much more positive signals on both sides. Almost 100 Conservative MPs

:21:35. > :21:39.have called for the UK Parliament to have a veto over all EU laws. Today,

:21:40. > :21:44.the Chancellor George Osborne did outline a case for reform but he

:21:45. > :21:48.certainly didn't go that far. Instead, he insisted this wasn't all

:21:49. > :21:51.about Britain's does I had to pull back from Europe, change was

:21:52. > :21:56.essential to make the EU more competitive in global markets. The

:21:57. > :22:01.biggest economic risk facing Europe doesn't come from those who want

:22:02. > :22:07.reform and renegotiation. It comes from a failure to renegotiate. It is

:22:08. > :22:12.the status quo which condemns the people of Europe to an ongoing

:22:13. > :22:15.economic crisis and the continuing decline. But the immediate challenge

:22:16. > :22:21.for the Conservative leadership is to try to contain the party's

:22:22. > :22:24.disagreement over Europe. A barrister and part-time judge has

:22:25. > :22:27.appeared in court where she's been accused of lying to police about her

:22:28. > :22:29.role in exposing how the disgraced cabinet minister, Chris Huhne,

:22:30. > :22:33.avoided speeding points on his licence. The prosecution say

:22:34. > :22:40.Constance Briscoe helped Mr Huhne's former wife, Vicky Pryce, to expose

:22:41. > :22:43.his wrongdoing to the press. She is then accused of giving two

:22:44. > :22:51.inaccurate statements to the police. Ms Briscoe denies three counts of

:22:52. > :22:54.perverting the course of justice. The Liberal Democrats say one of

:22:55. > :22:56.their peers, Lord Rennard, won't face any further action in

:22:57. > :22:58.connection with claims that he sexually harassed female activists

:22:59. > :23:00.because there is insufficient evidence. Lord Rennard, who

:23:01. > :23:05.strenuously denied the allegations, has expressed a hope that he can now

:23:06. > :23:10.resume his roles within the party. Our Deputy Political Editor, James

:23:11. > :23:15.Landale, is in Westminster now. James, what happens now? Lord

:23:16. > :23:18.Rennard was once one of the most powerful men in the Lib Dems,

:23:19. > :23:24.running campaigns, picking candidates and last year he was

:23:25. > :23:27.accused of sexual harassment. Today's internal investigation

:23:28. > :23:31.found, yes, he did distress a number of women by violating their personal

:23:32. > :23:35.space, but it also decided it wasn't enough evidence to prove he had

:23:36. > :23:38.deliberately acted in a way that were sexually inappropriate. Now

:23:39. > :23:43.there's slightly messy outcome has angered senior Lib Dems, Nick Clegg

:23:44. > :23:46.has said he's not content and once Lord Rennard to apologise and says

:23:47. > :23:50.he's not going to have any role in the party's election campaign but

:23:51. > :23:53.Lord Rennard has issued a statement with no apology saying the

:23:54. > :23:58.investigation is over and is looking forward to resuming his role as a

:23:59. > :24:03.policymaker in the party. Not surprisingly, the women who made the

:24:04. > :24:06.complaint against him are not happy, accusing the party of cowardice and

:24:07. > :24:10.a cover-up, so a difficult day for the Lib Dems. A party that claims to

:24:11. > :24:15.be the fairest of them all being accused of being anything but.

:24:16. > :24:18.James, thank you. A ten-year-old boy has called in the Royal Marines to

:24:19. > :24:25.rescue cars stranded in a Cornish village. About 40 vehicles were

:24:26. > :24:27.trapped after a road collapse caused by a landslip on Lower Kelly,

:24:28. > :24:30.Calstock, on Christmas Day. Charlie Southcott suggested bringing in the

:24:31. > :24:37.marines after meeting a senior officer at a carol service. It

:24:38. > :24:42.happened on Christmas morning. This landslip left 40 cars trapped in a

:24:43. > :24:49.Cornish village. How would they get out? Enter ten-year-old Charlie,

:24:50. > :24:53.whose mother's car was among those stuck. He met Commodore from the

:24:54. > :24:59.Royal Navy at Cosmos carol concert and had kept his business card. So

:25:00. > :25:07.when the parish council asked for suggestions... I said I have the

:25:08. > :25:13.Navy's phone number. Well, the maybe -- Navy answered his call. Today

:25:14. > :25:17.they brought four landing craft to Calstock so the cars could be freed.

:25:18. > :25:22.The schoolboy watching closely as each vehicle was loaded up and taken

:25:23. > :25:28.away. How are they doing? Very good at the moment. They have got about

:25:29. > :25:33.ten cars off, I would've said for them and it's all because of you?

:25:34. > :25:36.Yes. For the drivers who thought their cars might be stuck for

:25:37. > :25:42.months, and unusual but very welcome rescue. I didn't expect this at all.

:25:43. > :25:52.It's fantastic and will mean a lot to the local community. Have you

:25:53. > :25:57.been rescued like this before? No. Four hours, Marines provided a car

:25:58. > :26:03.ferry on the River Tame. There is something very bizarre about being

:26:04. > :26:07.on a Royal Marines landing craft, glorified vehicle recovery service.

:26:08. > :26:11.As well as helping the community where they are based, the Marines

:26:12. > :26:17.said this exercise also had a serious purpose. This is training

:26:18. > :26:20.for us and helping the population because we could be called upon to

:26:21. > :26:27.do this in the future. Providing disaster relief. It was a ten minute

:26:28. > :26:31.journey from the village to a key where vehicles could be unloaded and

:26:32. > :26:36.driven away. Among them, Charlie, and his mum's car, now free. It's

:26:37. > :26:44.been really good and I enjoyed the day. Does a military career beckon?

:26:45. > :26:46.No, he wants to be a train driver. Time for a look at the weather.

:26:47. > :26:57.Here's Nick Miller. Hi, George. This time last, harsh

:26:58. > :26:59.winter but today, nothing like it. We're halfway through the

:27:00. > :27:03.meteorological winter and we have had temperatures like this, widely

:27:04. > :27:08.into double figures, just scraping it for many, but well above on the

:27:09. > :27:12.North Devon coast, at 13 Celsius. Many of us had to content with more

:27:13. > :27:16.rain and there's more pushing east across the UK tonight. The wind will

:27:17. > :27:18.ease in Scotland and Northern Ireland allowing patchy fog to

:27:19. > :27:26.develop under touch of frost and ice. Elsewhere, colder than last

:27:27. > :27:29.night but a few degrees above freezing and showers coming into the

:27:30. > :27:35.south-west later in the night, sign of things to come tomorrow. A breezy

:27:36. > :27:38.day but the shower was not evenly distributed across the UK. Some will

:27:39. > :27:43.have more than their fair share. A low pressure area to the west of

:27:44. > :27:49.Ireland swirling in here and some of those showers will be heavy with

:27:50. > :27:54.Halen Thunder. Not too much wet weather in Scotland that Taylor and

:27:55. > :27:59.thunder. The wind is strengthening, especially for Scotland. In Northern

:28:00. > :28:04.Ireland, we have to watch the rain tomorrow night into Friday morning.

:28:05. > :28:08.Rainfall totals mounting. The showers moving across bands in

:28:09. > :28:12.England and Wales. Further west, not many showers but along the south

:28:13. > :28:19.coast, the West, showers keep on coming with Halen and thunder.

:28:20. > :28:24.Friday, repeat of the same. Some bright and sunny spells. Look how

:28:25. > :28:27.windy it remains in Shetland and the weekend. As for the weekend, it

:28:28. > :28:32.looks like we will have to endure another spell of rain on Saturday.

:28:33. > :28:36.Some of it may be heavy. Sunday, though, some sunshine, a scattering

:28:37. > :28:44.of showers. At the moment, Sunday looks a better day this weekend.

:28:45. > :28:45.That's all from us. It's goodbye from me. And on BBC One we now