27/07/2011 BBC Wales Today

The headlines: 16 years old and guilty of make do. -- murder. The

police give the families reaction. She was killed in a senseless and

barbaric act at the hands of somebody she loved had trusted. We

will never forget what he did to her or forgive him for destroying

Lorry that burst into print taken away, business leaders asking for a

better road network. Snowdonia National Park celebrates his 60th

birthday. We will be looking at how it looks after visitors.

The mayor of London communications director hits back at the Welsh

government for complaining Wales missed out on her Olympic events.

Meet Olympic hopeful, Frankie Jones, the rhythmic gymnast. Can she get

She was only 15 when she was battered to death with the rock.

Herr ex-boyfriend Joshua Davies was found guilty of her murder. The

attack happened near Bridgend. Swansea Crown Court heard he had

threatened to kill her and there had even been a pet of a free

breakfast if he went through with it. -- a bet.

Plenty of drama and emotion at Swansea Crown Court this afternoon.

The defendant showed little emotion when the verdict was read out, just

shaking his head as he was taken down to the cells. His mother was

weeping in the public gallery, she reached out to try and touch him.

Upstairs in the other public gallery several members of the

victim's family chat tds as the guilty verdict was read out. --

shouted yes. He killed his girlfriend in a secluded wood

leaving her body face down in the debt. A jury took nearly 20 hours

to reach its verdict. Rebecca's family clapped and cheered when the

verdict was delivered. The pain and horror of losing Rebecca in such a

run Dick circumstances cannot be put into words. Since that Saturday

in October 2010, our lads have stopped. She was killed in a

senseless and barbaric act -- our lives. We will never forget what he

did to her or forgive him for destroying our family. We would

like to thank the prosecution for their hard work.

She came here to meet her ex- boyfriend. The court heard there

was a possibility she would be getting back together. She was

wearing new clothes. His intentions were far more sinister. He had no

at her in order to kill her. -- he had endured her here. Her body was

found the next day when her mother reported her missing. The post

mortem found she died from head injuries, her school was broken in

four places. During the trial the court heard how Joshua would

regularly meet his friends at a local cafe and that during these

meetings the subject of killing Rebecca came up. It was claimed one

friend offered to buy him breakfast if he went through with it. Two

days before the murder Joshua Davies sent a message to a friend

saying don't say anything, but you might just only a breakfast. The

reply came, best text I ever read He dismissed these texts saying he

and his friends were messing about but the jury disagreed. And a crime

that has hung over a small community for nearly a year has

finally been solved. Family, friends, fellow teachers,

governors, school staff, and all who knew her have supported and

cared for each other during these few months. It is a mark of our

deep respect of love, both for Rebecca, her family, and each other.

Rebecca was described by those who knew her as a bright and popular

girl. She was due to suit her GCSEs this summer. Instead her life was

indeed in a mist brutal and senseless manner. -- in a most.

Senseless because there was no apparent motive. He apparently

hated her after they split up but there was nothing to suggest he was

capable of committing such a violent crime. Until today we could

not name the defendant because of his age but the judge decided to

live that anonymity this afternoon saying the public had a right to

know because of the seriousness of the crime. Sentencing has been

adjourned until September pending a psychological Review but the judge

did warn Joshua Davies he faces a long period in custody before he is

eligible for parole. It caused traffic chaos across

south-east Wales when this lorry caught fire. It's renewed the

debate on whether there should be a relief road for the region, amid

claims it's damaging the economy. A few hours ago the lorry was finally

removed allowing repair work inside the tunnel to gather pace. Sian

Lloyd reports. It had been carrying a load of

steel in yesterday morning's rush hour.

Now just a burnt-out shell, the lorry which caught fire during

yesterday mornings rush hour was towed away just after four o'clock

this afternoon. This was the scene facing engineers after the accident

happened. The lorry caused an explosion in the heart of the

tunnel and a fire quickly spread. It caused chaos with traffic at a

standstill for hours leading to misery for motorists.

It's 8.30 in the morning, almost 24 hours after the incident happened

traffic management schemes are in place and as you can see traffic is

now flowing. It was a case of break lights and some build up at peak

times for traffic approaching the tunnels on the M4 today where a

contra flow is in operation. The Welsh government says reopening the

road is a priority but it is not expected that the westbound panel

will reopen for at least a couple of days. -- westbound tunnel. It

has led to renewed calls for a relief road.

Yesterday was a disaster. I had from people who didn't make planes,

couldn't get to meetings and employees couldn't get to work.

There is a long-term solution to a problem that is only going to get

worse. The Welsh government says re-

opening the tunnel is a priority but its expected the west side will

remain closed for a few days. The Welsh government says its doing all

it can to resolve issues of safety and the number of cars that can use

the M4. This footage shows yesterdays events as they unfolded.

Filmed by the man who pulled the lorry driver to safety. He was on

his own, the fire was getting bigger, so I decided to go in and

accelerate towards him and stop by the side of the lorry and I've

fully the passenger door open and he got in. Miraculously no-one was

injured in the explosion. The cost of repairing the damage has yet to

be calculated. As we saw significant anger at the

disruption. Our Business Correspondent takes a look at how

some companies have been counting the cost and what might be done to

help. Haulage companies in South East

Wales like this always face the brunt of problems with the tunnels.

It is impossible to know how much the destruction has cost the

economy with late deliveries, lost for good -- productivity and missed

appointments. Some individual firms are all too aware of it. This

company says the congestion cost up to �10,000, half of the typical

day's takings. When something like that happened

as it did yesterday they feel sorry for us because we have got the

problem that in most other areas didn't seem to have. What can be

done to ease congestion? Work has begun here on a new access road and

an existing private road is being developed. The idea is Newport's

southern distributor road will be extended. Ennoblement link to the

M4 to the east of Newport. -- it will then link. It should reduce

volumes in the tunnels by one-tenth. Business leaders today have been

used their call for an M4 relief road with a price tag of a billion

pounds at his door too expensive, it appears in the medium term they

will have to make do -- it is still too expensive. Since 2000 donate

�150 million has been spent on road widening, and introducing variable

speed limits. So the M4 is being improved, the critical problem

though it is the tunnels at peak rush hour. Short of building a new

motorway it seems there is little that can be done to prevent

accidents like we saw yesterday happening again.

An aide to the Mayor of London has hit back at the Welsh government

for complaining Wells missed out on Olympic events. Becomes a

celebrations were held in Cardiff to mark the one-year countdown to

the opening ceremony. There's a year to go and the preparations in

Cardiff are on target. Today's event is trying to get more people

involved in London 2012. And for the special guests, the Australian

and South African Paralympic teams, it's a chance to settle in to their

training camps here. The campus about assessing facilities,

acclimatising our athletes to the time-zone, travel, and getting used

to the facilities we will be using next year and making sure

everything is in trade. A we are using it as a training week.

Everybody has been friendly, inviting, I will do for a comeback

for a holiday. And while the competition's getting serious on

the court, there's a row brewing off it too. Earlier this week, the

First Minister Carwyn Jones said the 11 football matches Cardiff

will host at the Millennium Stadium wasn't enough. It is a shame more

of Wales used rain wasn't being used, for example mountain biking.

I understand an artificial mountain bike track is being built some

Arabs. It would be a lot easier to come to Wales -- somewhere else.

But Boris Johnson's Communications Director, Guto Harri, said it's too

late for politicians here to moan and they should act like adults,

not like children complaining. Some of the people at today's event

agreed. It is too late to get anything else,

so we have to just get involved. would be nice to have some more

events but to have something here is good. But with one year to go,

today's celebrations just focused on getting everyone ready for

We are making our way across Wales three national parks, last night

Pembrokeshire, tomorrow the Brecon Beacons, but tonight we are in

Snowdonia. The oldest and biggest of our three parks that was given

its status 60 years ago. Good evening. This is the farm the

National Trust are hoping to buy, more on that later. This a popular

tourist destination. Half-an-hour ago there were people kayaking and

sailing in that lake. It is also home to more than 26,000 people and

it is quite a tough job for the park authority to keep everybody

happy. There are many ways to experience

Snowdonia. As a film extra shooting on steps designed to look like

India. High-speed during the race last weekend, or sat with a family

drinking in the scenery. But ever since it was first created farmers

have been wary of the impact of too many visitors.

People seem to think because it is called National, it has been

nationalised, and they are free to go where they like how they like,

and behaved exactly as they like. 60 years on farmers' share those

frustrations. The sheep had been attacked by a dog down there. We

asked the National Park many times to help us. The authority says his

role is to protect the environment. Our role is to manage people when

they arrive here. The main management issues are footpath, car

parking, getting people in and out. The authority has also accepted it

needs to allow up to 830 new homes to be built in its boundaries with

half being affordable, a sign to local people, and with restrictions

stopping them being sold on as I have a representative from

Snowdonia National Park. How awkward cannot be to have their

balance between visitors and people who live here?

Since is they assignation in 51 our purpose has changed. We have to

look after a landscape but we also have a duty to preserve and enhance

the landscape wildlife and cultural heritage and promote enjoyment

opportunities. In undertaking those duties we are charged with the

associate economic well-being. part of that is the 800 new homes

will be needed -- associate economic well-being. Could that

have an effect on the tranquillity? We launched our plan and that

figure is there for the local need element. The plant addresses were

and how many are approved. I was just referring to how many

people come here. Tens of thousands of visitors. Does that have a

detrimental effect. I'm thinking about slogan mostly -- Snowdon are

mostly. We have 10 million visitors in Snowdonia, 600,000 trekking up

and down. There will have an effect on the park. We need to make sure

that impact doesn't affect the special qualities of the park and

we investigate. It is it from Snowdonia. We will be

So, London today marking a year until the opening ceremony of the

Olympic games. All this week, on Wales Today, we're meeting five

Welsh athletes with dreams of competing next year and walking out

onto the Olympic Park a year today. Tonight we hear from rhythmic

gymnast, Frankie Jones. Shopping on the streets of Birmingham she looks

like any other young woman going about everyday life, but this is a

Welsh 20-year-old with a dream, an Olympic one. Her dedication and

determination on getting to London is inspiring. Gymnastics isn't just

something she loves, it is a way of life.

I drive to Birmingham from Northampton which is about an hour-

and-a-half away, then trained for about five hours, then drive back

home again. I have spent my whole life really building up to it. I

have just been training so much from one I was 15, and moved away

from home and train full-time. Together we mean I had actually

done it. Despite training in the Midlands because that is where the

best facilities are she is proud to be Welsh with her dad's roots in

Pontypool. My dad is so proud. He really supports me, drives me

everywhere and my mum when I was younger, she coached me and went

with me to all competitions and they have supported me so much. It

would be good to share it has been worth it. Warming up in the sport

is essential. There is no doubt Frankie is one of the then East

people you are ever likely to make. There are four disciplines to

master in rhythmic gymnastics, the hip, the ribbon, the ball, and the

club. They hurt if they hit you, obviously. Like yesterday, it

worked me on my head. With the ball than most. You get is with throws

and catches. Any roles or bouncing, trying to trap it on your body,

things like that. The best thing is doing patterns like coils and

snakes. Does it have to be continuously moving? You cannot

leave it on the floor, it has to stay off the floor and move around

you all the time otherwise you get deductions. He is one of my

favourite because there were no Mechan -- medal at the, moths with

that. -- Commonwealth Games. I never really liked it so much until

then. This is that silver-medal winning performance, the reason she

worked so hard. That success and her reign as UK number one has

secured her funding from the International Olympic Committee and

every single penny helps. Her custom-made Leotard starts at �500

each to be made. Herr Olympic dream will be in her own hands at the

World Championships. It is very simple. If she can finish as the UK

number one she is in and she is determined to get there. It has

been such a struggle to get to this stage, there is no way I am not

putting everything into get to the last bit. Someone who knows all too

well about giving everything for the cause is cyclist Geraint Thomas.

He made his name winning Olympic gold on the track in Beijing. But

since then he's developed into one of Great Britain's top road

cyclists, excelling this month at the Tour de France. So, as Ashleigh

Crowter discovered, Geraint now faces a dilemma. Can he race on the

road AND the track in the lead-up to 2012?

A cyclists focus had its to be absolute even just to finish the

Tour de France. It is the toughest by grace in the world covering 2000

miles in the space of three weeks. It has been impossible for him to

get caught up in preparations for the Olympics in the middle of the

road race season. It is definitely in the back of my mind but there is

so much racing to be done before then, I probably want start

thinking about it until the end of this raid season -- will not stop.

I will probably be riding in October, so that is when the whole

Olympic cycle really starts and the road next year, I will still be

racing, but in the back of my mind it will all be in preparation for

the Olympics. At the minute it seems like a lifetime away.

In 2008 he was a specialist on the track. He was part of the Great

Britain pursuit team which smashed the world were court to take an

Olympic gold. -- the world record. Another world record, an

astonishing world record! That race brought his talents to a wider

audience and it wasn't long before he was drafted into the British

road race outfit which competes in the Tour de France and other major

races. Its boss is Welshman David Brailsford he grew up in Snowdonia.

He is in charge of Great Britain's Olympic cycling team and it will be

his job to help Geraint do his best in both road and track discipline.

He focuses on the Olympics because he wants a gold medal big -- but he

wants to continue huge void racing. -- his road racing. Thankfully, my

situation means I can find the best possible situation for him and his

career. It is possible to be brilliant up by a question mark

without doubt. Now I will probably say I am a road cyclist but in

November I would probably say track cyclist said bit of both. Now I

have started to get a few results on the road, it definitely gives me

confidence to keep pushing and go for those road victories and in the

past it was all about the track, especially up until Beijing, the

road was a tool I used to get fit for the track but that has changed.

One sacrificing may have to make his missing next year's Tour de

France so he is fresh for the London Games were defending his

Olympic title will be the number one goal.

St Helens and one-seat the venue for the championship match against

Northampton. The home side won the toss but they were all out this

afternoon. In reply the visitors reached 67

without loss at the close of play. Let's go back to Snowdonia now,

we're marking National Parks Week and Iolo ap Dafydd is there for us.

This farm is part of the appeal by the National Trust which was

launched to try and raise �1 million. The campaign has gone

three-quarters of the way and they are doing quite well and what they

want to do is buy this land of Ken Owen and his wife and eventually

have conservation here but also have a farmer here to farm the land.

With me is Tristan Edwards from the National Trust. How far have you

gone with this appeal for �1 million?

A couple of weeks ago we reached the milestone of three-quarters of

the way. It has slowed down but we are confident with some great

encouragement, some fantastic activities, we will make the one

million over the next few months. You have got 3 million members so

you should be quite confident by the autumn. Let's hope so. Our hope

is that by the autumn we will be there and we can start the

discussions of how we will manage the place and continued the work.

You work in Snowdonia, you are aware there are farmers not too far

away and even in other areas would say National Trust and farming, it

is all about conservation. It is a unique farm. It has been founded in

a particular way, Mr Owen has worked with the National Parks and

the location is such that we cannot allow it the risk of falling into

hands that may mean that management is not the way... Are you concerned

about watersports on the lake? is one of the issues, the impact of

noise, landscape, the whole conservation of the place, the

great stone walls, the heathland, there were and, -- the dry-stone

walls, the wet land. There is a lot of work that has been done and we

need to make sure that is conserved in the future.

Let's see what the weather will be A beautiful evening here in

Snowdonia, fine and warm, the sun is shining. Look at the view behind

me. Just around the corner from here we half the what can path,

write to the top of Snowdon. -- Watkin Path. The weather can vary

enormously. It has been clear and sunny in some parts but in and we

have seen clouds building up, invective in full. The outlook is

for more drier weather forced Loganlea but tomorrow a fly in the

ointment -- for Snowdonia. It will be Calder tomorrow. -- it will be

called a tomorrow than today. Find across the country this evening.

Overnight most of the country is drive. Little Red will reach

Pembrokeshire, Anglesey -- a little rain. A fairly warm night.

Tomorrow's chart shows a week front moving across Britain bringing

cloud and moisture. High pressure to the west of Ireland heading our

way for the weekend. Tomorrow, not as nice as today. A few bright or

sunny intervals, a lot more cloud, and the card bringing a little

patchy rain and drizzle. -- the cloud. Very little, if any rain,

reaching the South East. Calder tomorrow. -- it will be colder

tomorrow. Across the Snowdonia Park tomorrow he will be cloudy and damn

for a time. Drier later. -- cloudy and damp. Tomorrow night the odd

spot of drizzle, otherwise drive. Mainly drier on Friday. Looking

fairly promising for the weekend. Some sunshine, pleasantly warm.

That is it from Snowdonia. Tomorrow we're heading to the Brecon Beacons