05/06/2014 BBC Oxford News

Hello, and welcome to South Today from Oxford.

The prisoner who warned he'd kill himself, and then did.

Sean Brock was in Woodhill, accused of raping a 14`year`old girl.

Three cash points and a village hall were set on fire using petrol.

Police believe one man is responsible.

The drive to get more students to spend time with elderly people.

We meet the veteran returning to his training ground where a vital

An inmate found dead at Woodhill jail in Buckinghamshire warned

police he planned to take his life days before he hung

21`year`old Sean Brock had been charged with raping a 14`year`old

The inquest jury was told he was anxious about going to prison.

His body was found in his cell last November.

The jury heard conflicting evidence about Sean Brock's state of mind

in the days leading up to his death in November 2013.

On November 6th, he was arrested on suspicion

After a court appearance in Northampton,

the 21`year`old was transferred to HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes,

a high`security prison, which houses some of the most

The court heard Mr Brock confided with his solicitor

before the transfer about his plans to commit suicide.

"He was anxious and scared of going to prison.

His words were along the lines of, I'll hang myself".

Ms Lockwood he also police he was suicidal.

Mr Brock was assessed by prison officers when he arrived

at Woodhill, but they said he was talking positively about the future.

He admitted to a history of self`harming,

He was also checked by a medical expert at the prison, Meta Norman.

"There was no obvious risk with Mr Brock.

His demeanour was not of someone who was in a suicidal state."

On November 10th, a prison officer checked Mr Brock's

When he came back two hours later, he found Mr Brock hanging

Staff tried to revive Mr Brock, but it was too late.

A note was later found by police, believed to be referring to

the 14`year`old girl Mr Brock was in a relationship with.

It said, "I miss and love my baby girl so much."

A village hall and three cashpoints have been set on fire in Banbury

All four fires were started overnight using petrol.

Police believe one man is responsible, and are appealing

But fire fighters quickly got to the scene of this arson attack just

If another incident had occurred in the Banbury area, then, whilst

we would have been able to deal with it quite comfortably, it is an asset

to the county that is tied up for a number of hours for no reason.

It is important to stress these types of calls do put stress

Three banks on the high street were targeted, Lloyds,

It's unclear why these particular sites were singled out,

There was no internal damage and no money was taken.

But police called the Fire Service back to the area an hour later,

This time, the Freemasons Hall in Marlborough Road.

Police investigating this incident are looking for a man riding

a bicycle on the High Street in the early hours of this morning.

He was wearing a floppy fishing hat, baggy jeans and a dark coat.

Detectives have released these images

And are asking for anyone else with information to contact them.

Thames Water has agreed to an ?86 million financial settlement, after

The firm has made the agreement with the water

regulator Ofwat, after admitting it got the number of properties

at high risk of sewer flooding between 2005 and 2010 wrong.

Thames Water will set aside ?2 million to help poor customers,

and put ?5 million into community projects.

People in South Oxfordshire are asking Oxfordshire County Council to

oppose the closure of the main road between Faringdon

Several road bridges have to be replaced as part

of the electrification of the Great Western Rail line.

Network Rail recently agreed to keep the A338 open,

but they and Oxfordshire County Council say there's no alternative

Oxfordshire County Council have a legal duty to keep the roads open.

This A417 provides a lifeline. To close it for four months is an

unacceptable solution. Oxfordshire County Council needs to do a deal

Network Rail, keep Faringdon and Wantage working. And until they do

A much`delayed plan setting out where thousands

of houses can be built in North Oxfordshire over the next decade has

This is something called the Cherwell Local Plan.

And what it does it set out where houses should be built up

For Cherwell, the district council was suggesting 16,750 homes,

and that most of them should go around Banbury and Bicester.

It means that any developers wanting to build outside

of those areas would find it more difficult to get permission.

The plan has to be signed off by the Government.

This week, an inspector opened a hearing on the plan.

The reason is that he doesn't think that 16,750 houses will be enough.

A recent study suggested Cherwell would need nearly 23,000 homes.

He's told the council to work out where to put

But the council's said it will start by seeing

whether it can add more houses to developments already planned.

And it will also prioritise urban and brownfield sites, to try to

All the time it doesn't have one in place, it's easier for developers

to come along and get permission for houses in those villages

and spaces where neither the council nor local residents want them.

The annual Banbury And District Show has been cancelled,

but has been called off due to a waterlogged ground.

Torrential downpours are also expected on sunday.

Safety of visitors to the show, and participants, is a priority. We must

ensure every precaution is taken. Because the ground is so water bed,

we feel and fortunately we had to cancel the show.

Old age is something that comes to us all.

But, for some, it can mean being left isolated and lonely.

That's why a group of volunteers from the University Of

Oxford are trying to increase their efforts to tackle the issue.

It's a Thursday at this Oxford care home, and that means only one thing.

This kind of help comes at a time when we're living longer and

mission. We are in Weymouth as we meet the

man who hopes to follow in the footsteps of Ben Ainslie.

Five children and three adults have been treated

for minor injuries after two school coaches collided in Berkshire.

One vehicle ran into the back of the other on a hill close to

The coaches were carrying 71 pupils and teachers from Westwood

All those on board were wearing seat belts.

The coach company TK Travel says it's cooperating fully with

We are still looking to investigate what the cause of the collision was.

What we can say is that the injuries resulting from that collision are

believed all to be very minor and are being treated as a precaution.

The children were a little bit surprised.

They were strapped up and in a collar and everything else.

We assessed them and got their x`rays and everything

A charity which supports asylum seekers has raised concerns after a

young man was found dead yesterday at The Verne prison on Portland.

The man was an immigration detainee and sources

say the prison authorities believe he died of natural causes.

But the charity says the prison regime at The Verne is

Perched high above Portland Harbour, The Verne closed last October

In March immigration detainees were moved in and the plan was for

The Verne to become an immigration removal centre with

The Prison Service decided it should still be run as a jail.

Yesterday morning, one of the inmates, Bruno Dos Santos,

The police are not treating his death as suspicious.

There are now over 100 detainees in The Verne, all foreign national

offenders who have served their prison sentence and are being

held indefinitely while the Home Office considers their status.

A charity that works for asylum seekers believes the prison regime

The main concern is that the regime is much harsher, the

lock`up is for far longer than in prison and communication with the

So people feel very isolated from family, friends and lawyers

The death of Bruno Dos Santos is being

investigated by the Independent Prisons and Probations Ombudsman.

A 48`year`old woman has been charged by police over a suspected

A 22`year`old woman was left with serious facial burns

after the incident at the Royal China restaurant

Sau Lin`Hin of Mulberry Way in Ryde has been charged with causing

Businesses are being warned that companies who call up and claim

they can reduce their overheads could end up costing them money.

An investigation by BBC South has found evidence that

some firms are paying to have their business rates reduced only to

find that the process is unsuccessful and leaves them

When this electronics company was contacted

by a firm that claimed it could reduce business rates, they signed

They gave us a very convincing case for why our

I do not believe that case was ever based on reality.

I think they were very happy to take the fee, do the minimum for it,

which was put in the application, and then just walk away.

Business rates are a tax on non`domestic properties.

They are based on size, location and rent.

The rate of the value of a premises is reviewed every five

years and collected by the local authority but it can be complicated,

which is why companies offer to look at them on your behalf.

What many businesses do not realise is you can get this done for free

by contacting the government department responsible,

There is a lot of work the government has to be doing on the

appeals process which would help in some way people to stop believing

they can short circuit the system and go through these companies and I

think the government needs to be doing more about that.

On a south Reading industrial estate, this company sells

They paid ?700 to have their business rates looked at.

Our rates are reasonably high for Reading but we seem unable to

It is like one of those people who ring you up and pester you who have

not really done the due diligence and are just taking advantage of us.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors are the professional

There are a number of companies that offer the service.

While some have declined to comment, one says they adhere to

a strict code of conduct, have served thousands

And while it is acknowledged that some customers on occasions

are dissatisfied, they say they always seek to put things right.

That is little comfort for those left out of pocket who say

they will just have to put up with this tax until it is next reviewed

Sport, and Bournemouth striker Lewis Grabban has joined

Chris Jordan has received his first call up to the England Test squad

after being named in the 12 for the first test against Sri Lanka which

London Welsh have won promotion act London Welsh have won promotion act

to the premiership. They beat Bristol in the second leg of the

play`off final last night, giving them a 20 point win on aggregate and

securing a return to the top flight season after being relegated.

He has been dubbed the next Ben Ainslie but he is keen to believe

his own trail. The Weymouth `based sailor certainly has the winning

habit. `` Weymouth`based sailor. Sailing to victory, Giles Scott has

been in for a double form. Is when this week was almost a procession at

the Olympic venue. It is two years to the next Games but he is hungry.

It is amazing how close the Games feels. You almost feel like you do

not have a great till of time. As you get closer, that imminent

feeling becomes greater. He was in the form of his life in 2012. It was

Ben Ainslie who represented Team GB and won gold. Now is the time for

Scots to emerge from his shadow. The next Ben Ainslie. How does that suit

you? I am not the next Ben Ainslie. I am Giles Scott. I will never be

Ben Ainslie. There is a lot I want to achieve in selling and hopefully

there is more to come. He has mixed emotions, having fought an intense

battle with Ben Ainslie and losing out to selection. It is where I lost

the Olympic trials and where I watched the Games. It was an

interesting situation was ultimately without the selection `` throughout

the selection then was trying to assert his dominance and I was

trying to break that down. The competition stayed on the water,

which is a good thing. The leading Olympic contenders will head to Rio

de Janeiro this autumn. I am a believer in wanting to win every

competition and I do. It is going to be a big learning calves. It will be

the first time I have been to Rio de Janeiro during Games time. He could

be the next big thing in British sailing.

We can return to the 70th anniversary of D`Day. We tangled to

what was a secret training ground for a top`secret D`Day mission. It

prepared them for one of D`Day's most important battles.

With its spectacular views across four counties, this is a mecca for

walkers but anyone who tried to come here in the spring of 1944 would

have found all of this countryside" as an elite unit appeared for a

secret mission. `` prepared. The mission was to disable four

placements built by the Germans on the Normandy coast so the Allied

forces could land. We covered the forces could land. We covered the

beach six miles away. We flew six miles a minute, it would have caused

carnage for the fellas landing. It had to be silenced. Photographs

reveal that bombing of the area had failed so The Parachute Regiment was

given the task to finish the job. It was so well fortified area liquor

was needed for the troops to practice on. The man who devised the

plan is, `` is in this picture. He decided upon here, one of the main

reasons was that was quite secret. It was very difficult for access.

The Hill would act as a but for the fire. To give us the best times of

success and survival. He was a hard past master `` past master. This man

has not seen these fields in 70 years. Most of the attackers were

planned by parachute at night but he was part of a smaller group with an

even more dangerous role. He wanted 60 men to volunteer to crash land

inside. One of the officers begged and pleaded to go in the glider, he

was a volunteer. He said, I am not going to send my regular officers on

a suicide mission. He did not tell me that. One officer referred to the

mission as a stink of a job. The cardinal was anxious about details

leaking out. He gave his men the night off and that has to come into

town. The young woman so eager to make conversation were members of

the workforce. Their task was to try to engage the men in conversation

and get them to divulge details of their secret mission. Despite the

pubs of nobody, not one man breathed pubs of nobody, not one man breathed

a word. Today, nothing remains of the training ground, the only key a

simple stone memorial. You can be the best soldier in the world, but

bullets can be fired. There's a lot of luck attached to survival. It is

very sad. The troops returned to their base on Salisbury Plain, ready

to put their plan into action, but little could prepare them for what

was actually happening on that daring D`Day mission.

We will have a special programme tomorrow night marking the 70th

anniversary of the D`Day landings. Our reporter is in France.

Join us for a special programme tonight live in France. 70 years ago

British soldiers came ashore here in Normandy. We will be telling the

story of one of those soldiers from Dorset. We will be finding out about

the mission to disarm the German gun battery which is just the few

colonic `` kilometres down the road. We will be with the veterans, so

many of them from the south, who have made the journey to remember

their comrades. Join us tomorrow night live in France.

That is at the later time of 7pm. At 7pm tonight we will be live in

Normandy. It was a much better day.

It goes downhill on Saturday. A display in honour of D`Day veterans

captured by Sean. Tonight is a fairly quiet night with

clear skies and the risk of one or two mist patches in the usual spots.

Under the clear skies, maybe the odd shower. Temperatures dropping away

to single figures. Possibly lower temperatures in the countryside. The

winds are fairly light. This and Falkirk will clear tomorrow with the

old shower. It is a decent and Friday like today. Temperatures will

reach 23 Celsius with a light southeasterly wind. The wins

tomorrow are southeasterly, drawing up the mild air from the continent.

70 years ago temperatures were around 10 degrees lower than that,

the winds drawing in cooler air, so choppy conditions on the 6th of June

1944. Tomorrow night we can expect some settled conditions until the

early hours of the morning when it turns fairly unsettled from the

south west and the south with the band of thundery showers moving up

from France. Quite a humid night to come. The winds will start to

pick`up. Band of rain or showers will reach its way up from the

channel on Saturday. The Met Office have issued a yellow weather

warning. There could be localised flooding full of that will clear

through Saturday night. You may have some sunshine on offer. The showers

may not affect everyone. Some areas could they drive. We have high

pressure coming in from the Atlantic. The thunderstorms will be

hit and mist. Join us tomorrow.