24/01/2018 BBC News at Six

The exclusive men-only charity

dinner which has been running

for more than 30 years cancels

all future events after hostesses

say they were sexually harassed.

The event at London's Dorchester

hotel was filmed by an undercover

reporter who says women working

there were told to wear skimpy black

dresses and matching underwear.

Women were bought as bait for men.

Rich men, not a mile

from where we stand as if that is

an acceptable behaviour.

It is totally unacceptable.

Charities like Great Ormond Street

who benefited from large donations

have said they're

handing back the money.

Also tonight:

Jailed for 175 years for molesting

young gymnasts over decades -

the disgraced USA gymnastics team

doctor, Larry Nassar apologises

to his victims in court.

Controversial monkey business -

20 years after Dolly the Sheep -

scientists in China have cloned two

monkeys.

Dame Tessa Jowell -

the former Labour minister -

gives her first interview

since being diagnosed last May

with a severe form of brain cancer.

I am not afraid.

I feel very clear about

my sense of purpose.

And just 11 years old -

the schoolgirl from Cardiff off

to the Commonwealth Games -

she's thought to be

the youngest ever competitor.

And coming up on Sportsday later

in the hour on BBC News:

The FA explains why it appointed

Phil Neville as womens head coach

and why they won't charge him

for historic sexist tweets.

Good evening and welcome

to the BBC News at Six.

The President's Club has held men

only charity dinners in London

for more than 30 years and raised

tens of millions of

pounds for good causes.

But tonight all future

dinners have been cancelled

after an undercover reporter -

employed as hostess -

says she and some of the other women

were groped and sexually harassed.

A government adviser who helped

organise the event last week

at the Dorchester has resigned.

And some of the charities

for which money was raised

are handing back the donations.

Here's our Special

Correspondent Lucy Manning.

The men appeared to be enjoying

themselves at their charity dinner,

the women working there much less

so, with claims that they were

groped at the men only event

for those in business and politics.

Women working as table hostesses

were made to wear revealing outfits,

their phones confiscated.

Madison Marriage is

the Financial Times

journalist who went undercover

to expose the dinner.

Multiple women told me

that they had been touched

inappropriately, and that

ranged from, you know,

holding their hands,

touching their bums, kind of

grabbing them, pulling

them into their laps.

Yeah, there was a complete range

of sexual harassment.

And did that happen to you?

Yes.

Yeah, I had three men

touch me inappropriately.

Were you surprised that this

was happening in this day

and age?

I am surprised by the

institutionalised scale of this

particular event.

The charity auction offered

the men only diners

hospitality with the Foreign

Secretary and Bank of England

Governor, although both

said they knew nothing

about it, or even

the

chance to, as it was put "Spice up

the wife with plastic surgery".

Some of the men are

now paying for their

attendance.

David Meller, one of the organisers,

resigned as a member of

the Department for

Education's board.

Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi

faced questions about his

decision to go to the dinner.

He tweeted "I do unequivocally

condemned his behaviour.

The report is truly shocking.

I would never attend a men

only function ever".

David Walliams, who hosted the

event, tweeted, I did not witness

any of the kind of behaviour that

allegedly occurred and am appalled

by the reports.

Down the road from the Dorchester,

where the dinner was

held last week, MPs couldn't

contain their anger today.

Women were bought as bait

for men, rich men, not a

mile from where we stand, as if that

is an acceptable behaviour.

It is totally unacceptable.

It is quite extraordinary

to me, Mr Speaker,

that in the 21st century,

allegations of this kind are still

emerging.

Women have the right to feel

safe wherever they work.

Charities are now returning money

donated by the Presidents Club.

Great Ormond Street

says it will hand back

half a million pounds.

BBC News has learned

of claims that it was warned

previously not to take the money.

We have been told

at a meeting that it

was raised with senior fundraisers

that the Presidents Club had

questionable practices

and whether money should

be taken from them.

Great Ormond Street has strict

policies and it was brought up

whether the Presidents Club

was the right organisation for

the charity to receive support from.

Great Ormond Street

said tonight: "We have

checked our records

and can find nothing

to suggest we were aware

of

all discussed any concerns

about the Presidents Club".

It's a charity event supposed

to help children that

left women feeling harassed.

The Presidents Club is no more, its

trustees and notes tonight it would

be shutting hosting no more charity

event and multiple charities are now

saying they will try to return the

money raised that these dinners. As

MPs pointed out it has to be

possible, these days, for charities

to raise money in a way that doesn't

leave women feeling harassed. And

feeling humiliated.

He was the doctor for

the USA gymnastics team

for almost two decades.

He treated young American gymnasts

at four Olympic Games.

Tonight 54-year-old Larry Nassar has

been sentenced to 175 years in jail

for molesting young girls.

More than 160 of his victims have

given testimony in court.

This afternoon he apologised to them

saying he would carry their words

with him for the rest of his days.

From the court in Michigan,

Rajini Vaidynathan reports.

The tables are turned, Larry. We are

here, we have our voices and we are

not going anywhere.

The amount of

physical, mental and emotional

trauma this man has forced upon me

is immeasurable.

Over the last seven

days their voices and their stories

have become hard to ignore. 156

women say they were sexually abused

by this man, Larry Nassar. During

the hearing, the judge invited other

women who had been abused to come

forward. The response was

unprecedented, what started as ten

convictions turned into an

outpouring of testimony. Today she

did not hold back when delivering

her verdict.

I'm giving you 175

years which is 2100 months.

years which is 2100 months. I just

signed your death warrant.

Today he

had this response for his victims.

And acceptable apology to all of you

is impossible to write and convey. I

will carry your words with me for

the rest of my days.

Described as a

monster and as Satan in court the

former USA gymnastics team doctor

treated hundreds of women over

decades. From decorating Olympians

and state-level gymnasts to the

children of family friends. Sent to

him for medical treatment instead of

taking away the pain, he stole the

lessons. Speaking on a podcast in

2013 before his abuse was uncovered,

he was recorded talking about his

views on the welfare of the children

under his care.

You screw up 1's

with one of those gymnasts and it'll

spread like wildfire.

spread like wildfire. You break the

chain of trust with them because

they will never trust you again.

They will tell the other gymnasts.

Jimmy dancer was part of the US

Bronze medal winning Olympic team.

I

do not feel like I had a choice even

if I felt something was wrong.

She

says car and other young women were

ignored when they tried to complain

about Nassar to officials. She says

the governing body USA gymnastics

has a lot to answer for.

I know

doctor Nassar is a monster but those

people around him who have been

protecting him, those are real

monsters too and they need to be

held accountable.

The focus of this

sentencing has been on the survivals

sentencing has been on the survivals

of Larry Nassar's abuse and perhaps

the biggest victory for them is not

just seeing him behind bars but

knowing that together they founded

the collective strength to confront

him.

A jury's been told that a man

accused of carrying out the Finsbury

park terror attack last June kept

smiling and even blew a kiss

at the gathering crowd

after ploughing a van

into muslim worshippers.

Darren Osborne from Cardiff

is accused of murder and attempted

murder after the attack

in North London which

left one man dead.

An imam who was one of the first

on the scene told the court how

he stopped the crowd attacking

the driver of the van.

From court, Daniel

Sandford reports.

Witness after witness described how

the van revved its engines just

before smashing into the group

of Muslim men and women.

Some survivors described how

they feared for their lives,

thinking someone would get out

of the van with a gun or a knife.

The jury heard this 999 call

made by Adnan Mohammed,

who was asking for ambulances.

Within the hour, 51-year-old Makram

Ali was declared dead at the scene.

Hamdi Al Faiq suffered

life-changing injuries,

including a broken pelvis,

broken ribs and a broken foot.

He told the court how friends

pulled him out from under the van.

People grabbed the man

they believe to be the driver

of the van to detain him.

The court heard that some

were punching and kicking him.

The imam of the local mosque,

Mohammed Mahmoud, stopped people

attacking the suspected driver,

telling the jury "He should answer

for his crimes in a court such

as this and not a court

in the street".

In a statement to the courts,

Adnan Mohammed, the man

been detained said to the crowd,

"I've done my job.

You can kill me now".

He was constantly smiling,

Adnan Mohammed recalled.

The man on trial, Darren Osborne,

denies charges of murder

and attempted murder.

The court was played video

from a police officer's body-worn

camera from the night,

in which Darren Osborne rants

about Muslims and says

"Have some of that.

Have some of your own.

At least I had a proper go".

Daniel Sandford, BBC News,

at Woolwich Crown Court.

It's emerged that the victims

of the serial sex attacker,

John Worboys, were given written

assurances about how long

he would spend in prison -

suggesting that he would effectively

serve a life sentence.

In the letters it was suggested he

would be unlikely to be charged with

further crimes as he was down for a

lengthy sentence.

Many of his victims are angry that

Worboys has been approved

for release from prison

by the Parole Board after serving

less than ten years.

Figures out today show

the number people in work has

risen to a record high.

Unemployment in the UK fell

by 3000 to 1.44 million

in the three months to November.

But the data from the Office

for National Statistics also shows

that wage growth remained below

the level of inflation.

The former Prime Minister David

Cameron has been overheard saying

that Brexit has turned out 'less

badly' than feared.

In comments caught on camera,

Mr Cameron, who campaigned

to remain in the EU,

said leaving the EU was a mistake

but 'not a disaster'.

Our political correspondent Vicki

Young is in Westminster for us.

How much of a surprise are his

comments?

Mr Cameron in the past has

been caught on camera saying things

when he did not know he was being

recorded and that doesn't seem to

have changed. The point is here that

those words are in stark contrast to

the campaign he headed to keep

Britain in the European Union. It

was dubbed Project Fear, dire

warnings about the effect on the

economy, that it would cost every

household thousands of pounds every

year and rising unemployment and

lower growth. I have been gauging

reaction here amongst Conservative

MPs. Those on the Brexit side of the

argument as you'd imagine are pretty

thrilled pealing David Cameron has

come to their way of thinking.

Another said they thought Mr Cameron

did not really believe the disaster

scenario anyway it was just part of

the campaign to stay in job and keep

Britain inside the EU. Another said

they were thrilled and I think it

does reflect the mood of some

Conservative MPs at least who made a

campaign for a remain but now think

time to make the most of any

opportunities that might be outside

of the European Union. It's not the

same for everybody, another

conservative only the Mane side said

it is far too early to judge the

consequences of Brexit, after all we

have not left yet.

Our top story this evening:

An exclusive men only charity dinner

has cancelled all events after

hostesses say they were sexually

harassed.

Phil Neville apologises for sexist

tweets on his first day as head

coach of the all England women's

football team.

coach of the all England

women's football team.

Coming up on Sportsday in the next

15 minutes on BBC News:

The Australian Open semi-final

line-up is complete

and Roger Federer is one step closer

to another Grand Slam title.

She was diagnosed with a severe form

of brain cancer last May.

Now Dame Tessa Jowell,

the former Labour Cabinet Minister,

has spoken publicly about it

for the first time.

She's called for more innovative

cancer treatments to be

available on the NHS.

She told the Today programme's

Nick Robinson that she was

absolutely 100% focussed on staying

alive and says she's not afraid.

Passion, determination, a sense of

mission, that is what Tessa Jowell

displayed as a minister who helped

bring the Olympics to London. Now

she is showing all that and more as

she speaks publicly for the first

time about the brain tumour she

discovered she had last May.

It came

with no expectation.

Nothing?

Absolutely nothing at all, I did not

have a single apparent symptom.

Her

symptoms now include a struggle to

find words which used to come so

easily. Everyone who has had cancer

knows that particularly for people

like you and for me, the hardest

thing is to get used to not being in

control.

I do not think I

immediately leapt to the

inevitability of cancer. I think

that to begin with I felt that I

would have this tumour, that it

would be operated on, and that would

be it. It is actually much harder

now because now my life is day by

day affected by this tumour. And it

is affected by the

is affected by the uncertainty of

what my cancer is actually going to

mean.

I can feel your frustration

because there are words occasionally

that do not come.

The tumour bloody

well does this to you.

Tessa Jowell

is not asking for sympathy, she is

demanding change, change to allow

cancer patients to switch from one

drug trial to the next, rather than

having to wait months when months

maybe all they have.

There is no

point in having another six months

of waiting for that trial because it

is not going to have any effect, so

let's go onto the next one.

A

patient might say, I am willing to

take the risk, I am willing to try

one, two, three things whatever the

side effects?

That is exactly the

kind of risk patients should be free

to take.

People listening to you

will be thinking, why do you car up

on the sofa, be with your family and

friends and look after yourself.

Absolutely impossible. I have so

much life. It is the most

extraordinary, blessed and...

And

recreating sense. I have been lucky

enough to read the speech you will

give to the House of Lords and you

end with some words from Seamus

Heaney the poet and you mean it. I

am not afraid.

I am not afraid. I

feel very clear about my sense of

purpose and what I want to do and

how do I know how long it is going

to last? I am certainly going to do

everything I can to make it a very

long time.

Dame Tessa Jowell talking

there to Nick Robinson.

First there was Dolly the Sheep,

now 20 years later scientists

in China have cloned two monkeys.

The move is both significant

and highly controversial.

Our medical correspondent

Fergus Walsh is here.

First of all, why?

Let me introduce you to eat baby

macaque monkeys, genetically

identical, clones, born in Shanghai,

exploring their incubator. They were

created using the Dolly the sheep

cloning technique which dates back

more than two decades and involves

simply transferring DNA to a donor

egg. Since Dolly, we have had cloned

cats, dogs, rats and pigs, you name

it. The technique itself is not new.

And it is very inefficient, it took

79 attempts to create these monkeys.

They have done it because the

Chinese scientists say the cloned

monkeys could help speed up research

into human diseases. But it is

controversial and not the first

cloned, nonhuman primate created

using the Dolly the sheep technique.

In theory that takes us one step

closer to cloning humans, but no

reputable scientist would want to do

that and it is illegal here.

Thank

you.

A nun has broken down in tears

and apologised if any child

at a notorious care home

in Lanarkshire suffered abuse.

But she refused to acknowledge that

children had been harmed

at Smyllum Children's Home

despite dozens of former residents

claiming they were attacked by nuns

between the 1940s and 1970s.

The order did acknowledge however

failing to investigate previous

allegations of abuse.

Michael Buchanan reports.

Former residents say a culture of

evil existed at Smyllum Children's

Home, a children's home in Lanark

run by the daughters of Charity and

dozens of people who lived here have

alleged they were abused. The BBC

investigation also suggested around

400 children had been buried in this

cemetery nearby in an unmarked

grave. Theresa Tolmie-McGrane said

she was sexually assaulted by a

priest and punished by a man who

discovered the abuse. She find the

fact they refused to admit what

happened is ridiculous.

It is just

like this red thread going through

everyone. They have been physically

and grossly abused.

Do you accept

the abuse took place?

Today the current head of the

charity came to Edinburgh to give

some answers in evidence to the

Scottish Child abuse enquiry. The

sister offered a sincere apology.

She said through tears:

She said through tears: But she

refused to admit abuse had taken

place. It is totally against

everything we stand for, I am

finding it hard to understand it.

The nuns did admit failing to

investigate more than 100

allegations of abuse made in the

1990s. Eddie McColl, who says he was

beaten by the nuns in the 1950s, was

appalled by today's evidence.

It is

if this happened and if that

happened. It is not if, it did

happen, they are in denial.

Today's

evidence will be of little comfort

to the former residents who said

they were abused. Some were hoping

for an apology, an acknowledgement

of what had happened and the

unwillingness to do that had really

infuriated them. The nuns could give

few details of how many children

were buried in the unmarked grave.

An expert was working with them to

identify each body.

An expert was working with them

to identify each body.

It's his first full day

in the job but already

Phil Neville, the new head coach

of the England Women's football

team, has had to apologise

for sexist remarks on Twitter.

The former Manchester United player

said the comments were not "a true

and genuine reflection"

of his beliefs.

Our sports correspondent

Natalie Pirks is at Wembley.

Somewhat embarrassing.

What kind of things was he saying?

Well, it is another day, another

fine mess for the FA. These tweets

around six years ago alluded to

things such as women being too busy

doing domestic chores to watch sport

and an ill-advised joke about

battering his wife. The tweets have

been heavily criticised with Kick It

Out asking the FA whether they plan

to come down on Phil Neville for

these comments. They have said they

will not do that and their

background vetting process and earth

some but not all of these tweets.

Phil Neville has deleted his Twitter

account and apologised, saying it

was not a true and genuine

reflection of his character and

beliefs. But the real issue is

whether Phil Neville is actually

qualified to do the job. He has

never worked in management before or

in women's football before and he

did not apply. The FA chief

executive Martin Belen confirmed

that two of the four final

candidates were women and they

withdrew. He said the process was

fair and rigorous, but women in

sport said it showed scant regard

for the process.

sport said it showed scant

regard for the process.

Anna Hursey is only 11 years,

but in April she will be heading

to Australia's Gold coast to compete

for Wales in the Commonwealth Games.

It's thought she's the youngest

competitor ever selected.

But she's taking it all in her

stride, practising three

hours a day after school.

Sian Lloyd went to meet her.

Anna Hursey has earned her place

in the Wales Commonwealth team.

Practising three hours a day

after school, the 11-year-old has

already proven her skills.

She won her first senior

international a year ago.

Anna is no stranger to competition,

but this will be her

biggest challenge yet.

Yeah, I feel really

special, really proud.

I just don't really want to go

there and be like I am small

and I can't compete,

so hopefully I will like try my

hardest and try and win a medal.

Anna's talent was spotted early.

She first picked up a bat aged five

and was taken to China to learn

from the best when she could barely

see over the table.

Since then she has been coached

closer to home in Cardiff.

Probably the best 11-year-old

I have ever seen.

Boys and girls, she is

up there with them.

I remember seeing Paul Drinkhall,

who is number one in the UK right

now and she is up there.

I saw him at 11 and

she is at that level.

Amazing.

Oh, my gosh.

Two at the same time,

that is amazing.

Anna is celebrating her exciting

news at school today,

teaching her friends how

to play table tennis.

She is not really a show-off

about it or anything, she like act

She is not really a show-off

about it or anything, she like acts

as if it is something normal.

Do you think she is an inspiration?

Definitely, for those kids

who like table tennis or any sport

they can achieve something amazing

just like Anna.

She will have to miss lessons to go

to the games in Australia

but is already thought to be one

of the youngest competitors at this

level, and will make history

if she does win a medal there.

Sian Lloyd, BBC News, Cardiff.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Tomasz Schafernaker.

Here's Tomasz Schafernaker.

Lots and lots of rain. Yes,

absolutely and in the word wet. It

was heavy everywhere today. But it

only lasted for a relatively short

period of time. But the skies were

great and we had hailstorms and

severe gales and storm force winds

brought by storm Georgina which

impacted north-western parts of

Scotland. The gusts were well in

excess of 80 miles an hour and in

the hills over 100 miles an hour.

The graphics are playing up just a

little bit but we will get there.

This is the radar. The rain has

mostly cleared away now. We have got

showers left over and storm Georgina

is approaching the coast of Norway.

In its wake are brisk winds and

showers around through the night,

particularly in western areas and

eastern parts of the country. A lot

of clear weather and it is not

desperately cold. 5 degrees is the

overnight low. Tomorrow it stars of

Sunny in central and eastern areas.

In the morning the weather is fine,

but in the afternoon wore winds

coming in of the Atlantic. You will

have clear blue skies followed by

billowing, dark clouds in the

afternoon and there might even be

some thunder as well. A different

day on Friday. It should be bright

and it should stay dry through the

day. A pleasant enough day on Friday

and come the weekend and the next

storm. The winds will pick up and

the weather front moves across the

UK on Saturday and there will be

outbreaks of rain on both days. But

at least it will be relatively mild.

That is all from the BBC News at

Six.