:00:00. > :00:00.Two, 11 o'clock in Scotland. That is it from us, now on
:00:00. > :00:08.Good evening and welcome to BBC Newsline.
:00:09. > :00:11.The Irish President has pulled out of attending a dinner
:00:12. > :00:14.at Belfast City Hall to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising.
:00:15. > :00:17.Michael D Higgins said he didn't want to become 'embroiled
:00:18. > :00:22.This is a copy of the invitation that was sent out for the event
:00:23. > :00:24.from the Belfast Lord Mayor and City Council
:00:25. > :00:28.with President Higgins as the guest of honour.
:00:29. > :00:32.The DUP has been accused of scuppering the dinner
:00:33. > :00:36.The party says it has no objection to the event going ahead
:00:37. > :00:48.BBC Newsline's Mark Simpson has more.
:00:49. > :00:55.Michael D Higgins was at the centre of Easter raising, directions at
:00:56. > :00:58.Dublin at the weekend. Next we can convert the Irish President was due
:00:59. > :01:02.to come to Belfast as guest of honour at a City Hall dinner to mark
:01:03. > :01:07.the rising. Unionists and oppose the idea of the dinner on it was
:01:08. > :01:12.included in a cross-party agreement which allowed events like the Ulster
:01:13. > :01:16.covenant and battle of the Somme centenary is to go ahead to. But the
:01:17. > :01:21.DUP recently announced they would not be attending next week's Easter
:01:22. > :01:27.Rising dinner and today, Michael D Higgins pulled out. The SDLP and the
:01:28. > :01:35.Alliance party accused the DUP of breaking a cross-party agreement.
:01:36. > :01:39.All parties agreed to support, even if one councillor, for none of them
:01:40. > :01:43.to attend is a snob and it is disrespectful to the significant
:01:44. > :01:50.proportion of the population have Belfast. I think it is very
:01:51. > :01:54.disappointing for the city and I think it is unfortunate that of the
:01:55. > :01:59.party politics coming up to the election is very much the case of
:02:00. > :02:02.this age. It is disappointing. In a statement this afternoon, a
:02:03. > :02:12.spokesperson for Michael D Higgins said that the President accepted the
:02:13. > :02:21.invitation... The President has no option other than to withdraw. So
:02:22. > :02:27.what do the DUP say? The accusation is that you have backed up in a
:02:28. > :02:30.cross-party deal. Did you? No, we did not. There was agreement that
:02:31. > :02:34.this event could take place but there was no obligation on people to
:02:35. > :02:38.go to the event, you can't force people to go to an event they don't
:02:39. > :02:44.want to. Do you blame the DUP for the Irish President pulling out? I
:02:45. > :02:48.think Michael D Higgins has made his own decision. I did it is clear. I
:02:49. > :02:52.think it is varied disappointing. This is the room where next week's
:02:53. > :02:56.dinner is supposed to take place. In spite of the controversy over who is
:02:57. > :02:57.going and who is not going, organisers say it will still go
:02:58. > :03:01.ahead. There have been calls for an inquiry
:03:02. > :03:04.looking at child sexual abuse to consider the case of a doctor
:03:05. > :03:07.who worked in Belfast in the 1970s. Dr Morris Fraser was the senior
:03:08. > :03:10.psychiatric registrar at the Royal Victoria Hospital
:03:11. > :03:13.at the time and continued to practice despite convictions
:03:14. > :03:16.for abusing children. A new study says failures
:03:17. > :03:18.by the authorities should be investigated by the Goddard inquiry
:03:19. > :03:21.which is looking at sex abuse cases David Maxwell's report begins
:03:22. > :03:36.with a recording of I think one must look at the way
:03:37. > :03:42.these children have grown up and the way they have grown up into separate
:03:43. > :03:48.communities. Born and socialised into two different nationalists or
:03:49. > :03:57.Protestant ideologies. Doctor Morris Fraser enjoyed a high profile. He
:03:58. > :04:03.was along the way back an expert. He was flexing his own lifelong damage.
:04:04. > :04:10.One of his victims now lives in the darts Texas. He had a camera, he
:04:11. > :04:15.started taking shots. He said not to worry, he's a doctor. I see no
:04:16. > :04:20.psychoactive registrar, Fraser was based at the Royal Victoria
:04:21. > :04:24.Hospital. In 1972, he was convicted of abusing a 13-year-old boy from
:04:25. > :04:28.Belfast in London. But the conviction was not reported to his
:04:29. > :04:32.employees by police. Allowing Fraser to continue working with children at
:04:33. > :04:38.the Royal. A year later, he was arrested in New York and convicted
:04:39. > :04:42.and abusing several children in America. This time, the casemate
:04:43. > :04:46.headlights and Fraser was suspended from his Belfast post. The new study
:04:47. > :04:52.published today called into question why it took so long for the
:04:53. > :04:55.authorities to act. Doctor Morris Fraser was left imposed freehold
:04:56. > :05:02.year after he is convicted of various serious offence. They did
:05:03. > :05:07.not inform the Royal Victoria Hospital but they were employing a
:05:08. > :05:14.child abuser. I charred bees are who had abused children to a number of
:05:15. > :05:21.different issues. He was a serial paedophile and this is well known to
:05:22. > :05:24.the authorities. Today, a law firm says it plans to use the information
:05:25. > :05:27.in the new study as part of its action against the authorities over
:05:28. > :05:36.the notorious East Belfast institution. The General medical
:05:37. > :05:41.Council investigated Fraser between 1973 and 1975. Despite the publicity
:05:42. > :05:45.around his conviction, it allowed him to continue practising with no
:05:46. > :05:48.stated restrictions. Today, the General medical Council said that 40
:05:49. > :05:57.years ago, the GMC was a very different organisation. The key
:05:58. > :06:01.question in all of this is why was this doctor are allowed to continue
:06:02. > :06:05.practising here at the Royal? Even though he had been convicted of
:06:06. > :06:10.child abuse. Was he being protected by the authorities for some reason?
:06:11. > :06:15.This new study suggests the case of Doctor Morris Fraser requires
:06:16. > :06:19.further examination, if they call backed by others. Even at this
:06:20. > :06:22.stage, after a long time, we would appeal for victims of sexual abuse
:06:23. > :06:25.to come forward and seek the help they need. They will have suffered
:06:26. > :06:29.over many years in silence but help is still available and we would urge
:06:30. > :06:33.them to come forward. If they continue to practice medicine for
:06:34. > :06:38.several decades. In 1994, he featured in a BBC documentary about
:06:39. > :06:44.abuse. The past is behind me and I'm saying absolutely nothing more. In
:06:45. > :06:47.1992, he was convicted of having a distributing child pornography. He
:06:48. > :06:50.was jailed for a year. He was last believed to have been living in
:06:51. > :06:55.Europe. The BBC hasn't been able to contact him today.
:06:56. > :06:58.40 people are set to lose their jobs in Antrim.
:06:59. > :07:00.The IT firm Fujitsu says it is closing its maintenance
:07:01. > :07:04.The Japanese firm employs more than 800 people in Northern Ireland.
:07:05. > :07:06.It says the work in Antrim will transfer to Belfast
:07:07. > :07:09.and Solihull in England and that it will offer relocation
:07:10. > :07:14.and redeployment opportunities to the workers.
:07:15. > :07:17.Thousands of fans of the pop group Little Mix were left disappointed
:07:18. > :07:19.today when their two concerts in Belfast were cancelled
:07:20. > :07:23.Organisers said one of the band was too ill to perform.
:07:24. > :07:27.The group was due to play a matinee and an evening show at the SSE Arena
:07:28. > :07:29.and the cancellation was announced after the doors had opened
:07:30. > :07:45.When news broke, it spread quickly. Some had travelled quite the
:07:46. > :07:53.distance to see the girl band. The little ones are all devastated. How
:07:54. > :07:57.much are you out of pocket? Properly a couple of hundred pounds. So they
:07:58. > :08:02.are crying all day. What has management said to you about this?
:08:03. > :08:09.Got a text at quarter past two to save them cancelled. Too late to
:08:10. > :08:14.cancel the hotel, no option to stay in Belfast. The reason for the
:08:15. > :08:20.cancellation? Jesy was sick. Where you angry when you heard? Yes, I was
:08:21. > :08:25.upset because it is my first concert. This is what they are
:08:26. > :08:32.missing. Here is Jesy. I couldn't stop crying earlier on, I was
:08:33. > :08:36.devastated. It is your 16th birthday, what are you going to do
:08:37. > :08:42.this evening? All of our plans were to come down and see Little Mix and
:08:43. > :08:46.stay in a hotel so, that was fun to be for my birthday so now,
:08:47. > :08:51.basically, it's not going to happen. Because Jesy is sick. I think they
:08:52. > :08:57.could have announced earlier than 1:20pm that the consul wasn't going
:08:58. > :09:01.to go ahead and not only Stacey, but there were thousands of other fans
:09:02. > :09:05.standing outside today and every single one of them were devastated
:09:06. > :09:09.and very angry parents. There must be something in the water, it is not
:09:10. > :09:12.the first time a band has cancelled at the last minute. Who can forget
:09:13. > :09:17.the scenes when one direction pulled the plug when one of them fell ill
:09:18. > :09:20.last year? The organising of the Little Mix Giggs is asking people to
:09:21. > :09:26.hang onto that it is because they hope to make a further announcement
:09:27. > :09:29.on possible we said to them. Last month,
:09:30. > :09:32.Northern Ireland has failed to meet its target times
:09:33. > :09:33.for treating patients urgently referred for suspected cancer.
:09:34. > :09:37.The target is for 95% of patients to be seen within 62 days.
:09:38. > :09:39.But Department of Health figures for the final quarter of last year
:09:40. > :09:41.show just over 70% of patients started treatment
:09:42. > :09:47.A cancer charity says the system here needs reformed.
:09:48. > :09:57.Northern Ireland requires a comprehensive Cancer plan, with the
:09:58. > :10:00.only part of the United Kingdom that hasn't got one doesn't plan to
:10:01. > :10:06.release one over the next 60 days or so. We believe other compounds
:10:07. > :10:11.Cancer plan would allow the Department, the board, etc, to
:10:12. > :10:17.define the specifics that they want to tackle, identify how to go about
:10:18. > :10:21.doing that, put money against that and have all of that laid out
:10:22. > :10:23.clearly over a five-year period, rather than just reacting to things
:10:24. > :10:28.when there is a problem. The chairman and vice chairman
:10:29. > :10:30.of Sport NI stood down today. Chairman Brian Henning resigned
:10:31. > :10:32.after just over three The Sports Minister Caral Ni Chuilin
:10:33. > :10:36.has appointed their interim replacements in Brian Delaney
:10:37. > :10:37.and Dr Catherine O'Mullan. The move comes following an internal
:10:38. > :10:40.investigation of Sport NI after concerns were
:10:41. > :10:41.raised by its employees. A third of staff said they had
:10:42. > :10:44.been subjected to bullying, Last year, nine members of the board
:10:45. > :10:49.resigned, and the chief executive Antoinette McKeown remains
:10:50. > :10:54.suspended. And there will be more on this story
:10:55. > :10:57.on tomorrow's Good Morning Ulster where they'll be speaking
:10:58. > :11:00.to the minister as well as her predecessor,
:11:01. > :11:02.Nelson McCausland. That's on BBC Radio
:11:03. > :11:06.Ulster from 6.30am. On tomorrow's BBC Newsline we take
:11:07. > :11:09.a trip down memory lane with one of the world's most
:11:10. > :11:12.famous motorcycle racers. 15 times world champion
:11:13. > :11:15.Italian Giacomo Agostini gets the opportunity to watch
:11:16. > :11:18.some rare archive of his victory at the Ulster Grand Prix
:11:19. > :11:23.almost 50 years ago. Now here's Geoff Maskell
:11:24. > :11:37.with the weather forecast The international trio of reverse,
:11:38. > :11:40.Andrew Trimble and also starting is Craig Gilroy who is expecting a
:11:41. > :11:43.difficult game. Now here's Geoff Maskell
:11:44. > :11:45.with the weather forecast Well, if the story of the last
:11:46. > :11:50.few days has been of sunshine and showers,
:11:51. > :11:53.all that is set to change overnight We have an area of low pressure out
:11:54. > :11:57.in the Atlantic and the associated weather front means that tonight
:11:58. > :11:59.the winds will build, the skies will cloud
:12:00. > :12:01.over and eventually, The last few days, it's been perfect
:12:02. > :12:05.conditions for seeing rainbows. Tomorrow is going to be a good bit
:12:06. > :12:08.more dull with that rain sitting over us right the way
:12:09. > :12:10.through the daylight hours. If we take the wider
:12:11. > :12:12.view across Britain and Ireland, you can see
:12:13. > :12:14.the contrasting fortunes Across Ireland and
:12:15. > :12:17.Scotland, that front sits there pretty much
:12:18. > :12:18.throughout the day. The further east you come,
:12:19. > :12:21.the brighter and warmer it gets. But for us, it is a wet
:12:22. > :12:24.and a windy day. A real contrast
:12:25. > :12:27.to the last few days. Now, eventually, that band
:12:28. > :12:31.of rain will move away. It will gradually sink south
:12:32. > :12:34.and east but the respite So overnight, we will see
:12:35. > :12:38.the skies over Ireland start to clear as that front
:12:39. > :12:41.moves across into Wales. But by the time we get to Saturday,
:12:42. > :12:44.the rain is on its way back. We'll get off to a dry start
:12:45. > :12:49.on Saturday morning but it won't take long for that
:12:50. > :12:51.front to start to push up The west staying driest
:12:52. > :12:55.for longer as we go through the day but it is going
:12:56. > :12:58.to be a pretty unpleasant feel Things do improve
:12:59. > :13:03.by the time we get to Sunday, the temperatures
:13:04. > :13:06.are on the up just a little bit. We are going to see some drier
:13:07. > :13:10.conditions too and that is the way things stay into the
:13:11. > :13:12.start of next week. But I'm afraid the next
:13:13. > :13:14.couple of days are going Our next BBC Newsline is at 6.25am
:13:15. > :13:23.during Breakfast here on BBC One. You can also keep updated
:13:24. > :13:26.with news online.