24/04/2014 BBC Points West

Good evening. A Wiltshire policeman who fired a Taser at a naked suspect

claimed today he did it to prevent the man assaulting fellow officers.

PC Lee Birch denied he was `ngry and upset when he shot Daniel Dove in a

police cell in Melksham two years ago. Our Home Affairs Correspondent,

Steve Brodie, was in court. PC Lee Birch takes a break from

giving evidence in the trial, where the jury have watched CCTV showing

him firing a 50,000`volt Taser into the chest of a naked suspect.

Defending, Stephen Mooney told the jury, "This is not the prodtct of

anger as has been suggested by the prosecution. PC Birch is a

confident, calm and well`tr`ined police officer." PC Birch ddscribed

to the jury how he and colldagues were called to the Moo Moo night

club in Trowbridge on December 3rd 2010. Standing in the witness box,

the 30`year`old officer said that Daniel Dove was drunk and there was

a struggle in the street before he managed to handcuff him. Whdn Daniel

Dove was brought back here to Melksham police station, he was

taken into the custody suitd, where he was booked in while handcuffed.

During a strip search, Mr Dove took out his mobile phone and took a

picture of injuries to his face Stephen Mooney asked PC birch, Did

that antagonise you?" "No," he replied. "Did it make you angry "

"No," he replied again. When asked why he had taken out his Taser when

they entered the cell, the policeman said, "I wasn't happy with his

behaviour." When asked why he fired the Taser after the underpants had

been thrown at him and standing just a couple of feet away from his

prisoner, PC Birch said, "Obviously, it was an unexpected action. I

wanted to prevent him assaulting anyone else." He was also asked if

he kept its finger on the trigger. He replied, yes. PC Birch ddnies

allegations of causing actu`l bodily harm and misconduct in a public

place. `` kept his finger on the trigger.

Honda has announced it will be making compulsory redundanches at

its plant in Swindon. The c`r manufacturer needs to cut ndarly 500

jobs because of falling salds in Europe. A 191 staff have applied for

voluntary redundancy but th`t still leaves a shortfall. The company says

it will now work with unions to agree a process for the rest of the

job losses. A three`year`old boy from Bristol

has donated his bone marrow to save the life of his older brothdr, who

has leukaemia for the second time. On their last afternoon at home

together before seven`year`old Kenzie spends two months in

hospital, they talked to Fiona Lamdin about what lies ahead.

Kenzie Rowe doing what he loves best, playing with his brothers out

in the sun. But this little boy is incredibly poorly. Tomorrow, he

begins eight weeks of treatlent in solitary confinement at the

children's hospital. His frhend said to him, " what are you doing? " He

said, "I have to have an opdration but if it doesn't work, I h`ve to go

to heaven." He should not know things like that. But he dods,

because this isn't the first time this seven`year`old has had

leukaemia. Just before Christmas, doctors told Kenzie he'd relapsed.

And, this time, the only hope of a cure was a bone marrow transplant.

His parents and three brothdrs were all tested but the only match was

his youngest brother, Chase, who is three ` an almost impossibld

position for any parent. It was very difficult. I don't want to do it,

personally. Stephen was upsdt. He did not want to put Chase through

it. But if it will save Kenzie, you have to make sacrifices. But, once

the decision was made, it soon became part of family banter. They

argue. When they are arguing, Chase will say to Kenzie, " you are not

having my blood! " It is quhte funny. And so, earlier this week,

Chase had bone marrow removdd from his back. What did you give Kenzie?

Did you give him some of yotr blood? Will that make him better? Xeah Is

it good that Chase is giving some of his blood to save your life? Yeah.

And to save Kenzie's life is what everyone here is praying for.

Almost half a million pounds was spent by the fire service t`ckling

the Somerset floods this ye`r. The figures, from the brigade in Devon

and Somerset, show nearly h`lf the money went on buying in extra help.

But there's been criticism from the union, who say the response from the

fire service was uncoordinated and could have been better planned.

Tenants who've been told to move off land owned by the state are

appealing for the Government to help them. The tenants are living on

Crown land, which is technically owned by the Queen, although she

doesn't have any say in its running or receive an income from it. Now 45

homes are being put up for sale and many of the tenants say thex can't

afford to buy them. Awful. It has turned our lives

upside down. Couldn't get to sleep, work up in the morning crying. Just

the thought of having to le`ve here, where we have been for so

long. It is just devastating. We would never find anything lhke this

again. The Crown Estate says it s sympathetic but the law dictates

that they must operate on a commercial basis.

Now, just before we go to the weather, volunteers cleaning up a

beach in North Somerset tod`y came across an array of weird and

wonderful items. Among the rubbish were old false teeth and a lotorbike

chain which had rusted in the ocean. Pupils from a school in

Weston`super`Mare worked alongside members of the Marine Conservation

Society on Uphill Beach, making it nice and clean for summer.

That's the new from across the West tonight. Newsnight is starthng now

over on BBC Two. I'm going to wish you goodnhght and

leave the last word with Ian, who has the weather forecast for our

part of the world. Thank you. Showers and long

outbreaks of rain will char`cterise the weather tomorrow. Not

everywhere. The distributional closes open to doubt. As a rule of

thumb, the further east you are the more you will see of the wet

weather. Through tonight, a dry night. There will be a lot of low

cloud around across eastern areas. Temperatures hit will be mild, eight

or 10 Celsius. Cooler towards the West. Tomorrow morning, manx

districts will start on a dry note. Showery outbreaks. To push tp from

the south coast and this room of warm air from France. Most of this

is towards the east was of the Western bias is under some doubt.

Showers will follow one as we go into the evening. By that point

many places will be dry. It will remain around 1213 Celsius

typically. An unsettled weekend Not raining all the time. Some brighter

spells as well. weekend, you can see what is going

on. Sunday might be brighter. Now over to Louise Lear for the national

weather. Good evening. Today has been a day

of sunny spells and a few scattered showers, but where we see the

sunshine, we have also seen some warmth, with temperatures in the

high teens. A slightly disappointing story across the far north-east of

Scotland. We keep that easterly feed through the night to night, but

looking out into the Atlantic, we also start to pick up the

south-westerly circulate in, and area of low pressure bringing in

some blustery winds for the start of the weekend. Tonight it stays mostly

dry, with some fog around. And we pick up the risk of a few showers in

the far south-east. Clearer skies at the the South West, and cloudy,

murky start our day tomorrow the showers gather in strength and then

start to march north and west. Some of those showers quite heavy and

possibly thundery as well. The further west you go, perhaps away

from