06/04/2017 BBC Newsline

Good evening and welcome to BBC Newsline.

The Public Prosecution Service says they are planning a formal review

of the case against a self-confessed paedophile

Henry Clarke is a former pastor who admitted abusing children

from three boys homes in Northern Ireland.

He then went on to run a home for boys in Canada.

The move comes after BBC Newsline investigated the case.

The PPS has also said they've written to the Chief Constable.

Here's our investigations reporter Kevin Magee.

The police knew Henry Clarke's crimes in 1985 when he confessed

to the RUC during a family holiday in Northern Ireland.

I admitted that I had interfered with a boy at

Bawnmore House and one at Firmount Hostel.

I am not sure, my wife and I thought that I would probably finish

So a man confesses to police, expects them to

act upon what he has told them and are surprised

when there is not a knock at his door.

Clues as to how the authorities responded to his admissions

are contained in some of the documents released at the recent

Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry carried out in

The inquiry heard his first confession of abuse was made

in 1985, but the Director of Public Prosecutions

According to evidence heard at the inquiry,

because one of the offences happened 17 years before the

The DPP felt it would be inappropriate to pursue

One of the UK's leading child protection experts

In this instance, you had an admission, so you did not

need to go back, you did not have to worry that the allegation was old

and the evidence may be stale, you had a contemporary of mission.

And given that, I don't understand why

Henry Clarke returns to Canada, but he had more

So from there, he wrote a letter of confession,

admitting a third instance of abuse at a Boys' Brigade trip in

Given the previous refusal to mount a case

against Clarke, this time police did not even tell the DPP about this

Documents show the police said there should be no

We have in the documentation a statement by a very senior RUC

detective who oversees this investigation, making it quite clear

that in his view, this is not an offence punishable by law.

That decision not to see prosecution meant Henry

Clarke was free to resume his life in Canada,

looking after vulnerable children, before becoming a church pastor.

Two people working at a pharmacy in West Belfast have been stabbed

It happened this morning on the Falls Road and a man

A group representing pharmacists says security precautions

in chemists' shops may now need to be stepped up.

The note on the door gives little hint of a violent attack on two

pharmacists going about their daily work, providing a health service

A man with a knife went into McDonagh's about half past nine.

He threatened staff, apparently demanding they hand

He then attacked two men, one was stabbed in th chest

Other staff then held him back, reportedly immobilising

The attacker also suffered a stab wound in the lower back.

A 26-year-old man is now in custody on suspicion of attempted murder

Politicians at the scene condemned the attack.

They have traumatised a pharmacy, customers in the area, and this

community and this committee is angry these

-- community people have attacked a business and they have also

The two staff who were stabbed were both pharmacists in the shop.

The Pharmacists' Forum says it is shocking news.

It says front line healthcare staff face violence and abuse every day.

It has called for all workplaces to be safe.

It would be very sad if we had to have security guards

in pharmacies and hopefully this will be a one-off incident.

We will be addressing security issues with the PSNI in the

future to see how we can assist our colleagues

to prevent these sort of attacks from happening.

The police have appealed for witnesses.

The staff in the chemist shop who attacked and restrained the attacker

were praised for their bravery. The two men who were stabbed were taken

to hospital but their injuries are not said to be life-threatening.

Sending out letters to tell more than ?500,000

ratepayers their bills have been delayed due to the Stormont

crisis has cost more than ?40,000, and that doesn't include postage.

A Department of Finance spokesperson said the total bill would only be

known when the mailing process was complete.

The Minister in Wales responsible for the Welsh Language has said

Unionists should embrace the Irish language.

With the Irish Language Act one of the biggest stumbling blocks

in the Stormont talks, Alun Davies said his use of Welsh

adds to his identity and political outlook.

I am a Unionist and I speak Welsh, my children speak Welsh and go to

I speak Welsh when I am at home and at work.

my identity, part of my cultural experience and future and is part of

I don't need to choose between being British or

You can hear more on that story on The View.

As well as discussing the sticking point of

the Irish Language Act, we'll be looking

Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill says the next week is critical.

Tonight, we'll ask what chance of breaking the deadlock?

And we'll hear the concerns of former health

and Sinead McLaughlin, the Chief Executive

Join me straight after this bulletin here on BBC1.

Golf now, and Rory McIlroy has made a disappointing start to his opening

As one of the later starters, Rory McIlroy walked to the first tee as

the winds got even stronger. And his Masters challenge didn't start

according to plan. He dropped two early shots, finding it tough here

on the tricky third Augusta green. Soon, he found his touch. This putt

at the fourth steadied his round. But trouble wasn't too far away. In

the trees at the seventh, McIlroy battled hard to avoid another drop

shot holding this excellent part. CHEERING

There was better for Shane Lowry, for birdies on the first hole,

rocketing him up the leaderboard. But McIlroy's frustration was

evident. There may be a long way to go, still he has a lot of work to --

to do if used to win this tournament and complete a career grand slam.

McIlroy is currently three over after 12 holes,

Lowry is tied for third on two under after 13.

Now for the weather forecast. Angie Phillips has the details.

Good evening. There is little or no rain in the forecast until later in

the weekend and we will find even then that the amounts are small. The

emphasis is on a lot of dry weather, a lot of cloud as well as through

the night, giving the odd spot of drizzle over the hills but a dry

night for many of us and fairly mild. If we do get the odd break,

temperatures in the countryside could get lower. Into tomorrow, once

again looking at variable and often large amounts of cloud but mainly

dry. If you get any of those pockets of drizzle during the night they

will fade away during the course of the morning, so a mainly dry day

coming up. Looking across the rest of Britain and Ireland, the same

story, and a lot of cloud around, showery is feeding into northern and

western Scotland with the breeze, elsewhere the winds are alike. A

good deal of cloud to begin with but it will break up in the south and

the east and the southern half of Ireland towards the north and west

it will be more prone to cloud. Hopefully even for Northern Ireland

that cloud will start to break out a little bit and afternoon and we will

get the bright spells developing. High pressure is in charge at the

moment, starting to push out into the near continent as we head into

the weekend which allows a weather front to move into north-western

parts at some stage on Sunday. Saturday does look fine with some

sunshine, the cloud gathers on Sunday as that weather front

approaches, winning some light patchy rain later on.