29/01/2016 BBC Wales Today

Tonight's headlines: A world first for Wales.

Work starts to transform an empty factory on Anglesey into a green

energy plant that could create 1,700 jobs.

I'm at the heart of Anglesey Aluminium. It closed three years ago

but it's being offered a new feature generating electricity and growing

vegetables and prawns. Also tonight, Sian Davies

from Tregaron lost all contact with her family after joining

a cult in the seventies. Today, its leader is

jailed for 23 years. It was the biggest "crash for cash'

insurance fraud scam ever Today, a further five

people are sentenced. Cheryl James died

at Deepcut Barracks. Ahead of a new inquest, her father,

Des, tells of his torment over I am sure most fathers, if not all

fathers, that is a protective instinct. That is my job, that is

what they should be doing. And testing the Landrover prototype

on a Welsh beach. As the last one rolls off

the production line, how its origins trace

back to Anglesey. Work is starting on a billion pound

combined food and power plant on Anglesey, which could create more

than 1,700 jobs. It's being built on the former

Anglesey Aluminium site, The company behind the technology,

Orthios, say they'll produce The excess steam will then be used

to help to grow food in what's been Here's our Economics

Correspondent, Sarah Dickins. It dominated the area

and the economy for decades. More than 1,000 people worked

at Anglesey Aluminium Derelict for three years,

it's about to be transformed so this vast site

produces energy and food. It's the result of an engineer

and architect developing We need to put mechanisms

in the world that are going to get us out of the quogmire

we are in and this is the solution. Use the heat, use

the power, combine it Each element of the business has

already been produced and is up and running

somewhere in the world. All we are doing really

is that we have all the bits of the jigsaw and we are putting it

all in one box and we have the team Waste wood would be burnt

to generate electricity for homes. Rather than lose excess heat up

the chimneys Orthios would use it Their waste in the

water will act as a Steve Mallon worked

for many years at Anglesey It was a hot, heavy

and dirty industry. But now we are onto this

completely new venture. The mind boggles,

some of what they are Hydroponics, the growing of fish,

prawns, vegetables, lettuce plus the biomass part

of the facility as well. It's going to be a new

venture and we are really Plans offer 1200 construction

workers to transform the site while 500 people will have

permanent jobs producing Communities ride across

the island were shaken But if these plans come

to be there will be a new industry here not just power

but food as well and people from around the world

will come here to But at a moment the challenge

to develop the energy sector Energy Island may seem like a moat

concept but for people living here it could be the difference

between work and no work. What's important about this

development is it's the first renewal project that looks

like it's going ahead. There's a drive to make sure as much

as possible goes to local We have to try and make

sure that the right kind of training provision

is available to young people in particular and equip them

with the appropriate skills so that they do take advantage

of the opportunities. As with all innovations the project

needs to prove itself. This is definitely pushing

the boundaries of innovation and its takes an experiment

like this on a commercial scale to explore

whether the systems work. If it works, then I expected to be

much more widely adopted As the site takes on a new life

many will be watching Sarah, this is an ambitious project

with a massive budget of ?2 billion. How likely is it to

get off the ground? What is really interesting is that

the business plan has been long in the making. This has been a 10-year

project. They have not asked for any grants or loans from government

because they have worked out the business plan differently. They do

have Chinese backing if they want to turn to that. They have an offer of

?1 billion for this particular plant and another billion for another

plan. We need to remember that as the scientists say, with things this

-- that I knew we don't really know if it's going to work until it's

been built. A few months ago the compare notes plans for a similar

site in Port Talbot. What is happening with that? They want to do

a similar thing they of burning waste wood and turning it into

energy and power. What a fantastic thing that would be in terms of

employment for the Port Talbot area with those 700 jobs going in the

near future. But that project is at a different stage. There is no

building there yet and they are still working on the finality is of

that. But it is one of their long-term plans so in theory you

would see two of these plants, one input Albert and one in Holyhead.

Sian Davies from Tregaron and Ceredigion was an intelligent,

attractive woman who lost all contact with her family

after joining a Maoist cult in the seventies.

Today, the leader of that cult, 75-year-old Aravindan Balakrishnan,

who committed a string of sex assaults and kept his and Sian's

daughter captive in London for three decades,

The 75-year-old called himself Comrade Bala

and brainwashed his cult into thinking he had god-like powers.

Described as feisty, intelligent and head strong

But by 1975 Sian Davies from Tregaron had given up

possessions and joined a Maoist cult in south London.

Led by this man, Aravandian Balakrishnan, described

as controlling he convinced his followers into thinking

For four decades he manipulated and terrorised them and had a secret

Balakrishnan kept her as a slave for 30 years before she escaped.

Today, Katy Morgan-Davies waived her right to anonymity

to speak out about the years of psychological and physical

bullying she endured at her father's hands.

I was a caged bird with clipped wings. When I came out I was not

able to make my way around the tall. I was completely disorientated and I

had no idea how to do the simplest things.

Aravindan Balakrishnan left Singapore in 1963 to study

at the London School of Economics, where he became involved

It was in 1970 when he first set up his own Maoist commune called

the Workers Institute in Brixton, where he carried out sex

In 1975 Sian Davies joined the commune.

In 1983 she gave birth to Balakrishnan's daughter.

13 years later, on Christmas Eve 1996, Sian Davies fell

from the second floor window of the house in Brixton.

She wass left paralysed and died of her injuries

Over a decade passes and Sian's daughter runs away from the commune

for the first time, but is returned to her father by police.

In October 2013, the daughter, now 30 years of age,

is severely ill with diabetes and manages to escape

from the commune with the help of a charity.

Police later arrest and charge Balakrishnan.

In December last year, the 75-year-old is found guilty

of a string of sex assaults, child cruelty and false imprisonment.

I am just pleased it's all over. I want to get on now and get to know

Katie a lot better, to take her to Wales and to see where her mother

and her grandmother lived. Perhaps you might find what it's like to be

locked behind a door as she was. The whole sequence of events has

shocked Sian's hometown of Tregaron. She was laid to rest

here alongside her parents. Sian Davies' father was a doctor he

ensure Darren. People believe his death could have been one of the

factors that triggered the total personality change in Sian Davies

and led to adjoining this cult. One friend who met up with her year

after joining the commune said she seemed like a totally different

woman. She said Sian was from a privileged

background but always generous. She would come up to the farm, I

remember her coming up with all this make-up and stiletto shoes and

things I had never seen because my mother was from a farming

background, but she would enjoy being with us.

While Sian Davies was unable to escape Balakrishnan,

their daughter Katy now wants to rebuild her life and is planning

on visiting her mother's grave and hometown of Tregaron.

It was the largest "crash for cash" insurance fraud case

Today it ended with five people being sentenced to nearly four years

in prison for their part in the scam,

The two men and three women from Newport, Cardiff

and Caerphilly County Borough fraudulently claimed

From Newport Crown Court, here's Jordan Davies.

The more police delved into this giant conspiracy,

the wider the web of fraudsters became.

And today the last five were brought to justice.

One of them, Stephen Pegram, already serving a five year

In total, 81 people from Caerphilly County Borough,

Cardiff and Newport were convicted for defrauding insurance companies

out of three quarters of a million pounds.

At the start we had no idea this fraud was going on. We were looking

for stolen vehicles and it turned into one of the biggest insurers

frauds the UK police have ever investigated.

The police descended on it, the conspiracy's HQ,

a small lock-up garage in Pengam near Blackwood.

Only then did they discover the extent of the fraud.

Cars were being deliberately damaged, like this one,

And then the owners were coached into what to say to insurers

Gwent Police are calling on insurers to do more to make sure

the damage on one car matches the damage on another.

This draws to an end the largest fraud trial ever seen in the UK.

Such was the scale of the investigation that Gwent Police

has built up a body of expertise in this area.

It now hopes others will be deterred from committing similar crimes.

Cheryl James from Llangollen was one of four soldiers found dead

at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey between 1995 and 2002 amid claims

20 years on, her father has called on a second inquest into her death,

which starts on Monday, to listen to all the allegations

of bullying at her base before she died.

Des James has been speaking to our reporter Paul Heaney.

Private Cheryl James from $1 and. At 18 years old she was found with a

single bullet wound to ahead. Three weeks later an inquest recorded an

open verdict into a death. The family only found out by accident a

year later the army held its own review in secret. They said it was

suicide and filed it away. No participation bias, no contact with

us. Cheryl was one of four recruits found dead at the cut barracks

between 1995 and 2002. The army said they were all suicides at a BBC

investigation revealed widespread allegations of bullying and sexual

assault. Serious questions about the culture there at the time.

Everything was in navigation. I agree with that. That doesn't mean

every person who served there is bad. But it does mean that a lot of

the officers either knew it was going on and ignored it or didn't

know it was going on. By the way, they need to account for that.

Surrey Police investigated her death twice and found no evidence of

third-party involvement. But in 2005 Devon and Cornwall please review the

case. The conclusion was the original officers had adopted a

mindset in favour of suicide. That had affected the original

investigation. Typically High Court judge Nicholas Blake QC led the

review that criticise Army training but also found Cheryl 's death was

probably self-inflicted. The Blake review was a review of evidence

collected so the very credibility of the Blake review was in question. It

was only in 2013 when human rights group liberty forced the release of

more evidence from police that the High Court throughout the original

verdict into her death. Bullet fragments were only retrieved from

the body for the first time late last year. 20 years of campaigning.

Next week 's new inquest is the last chance he says the allegations to be

heard in public. I think the MOD could actually gain a lot of brownie

points by taking that approach rather than sitting in the shadows

as they are objecting to witnesses coming forward because it might

raise the whole issue again. It really isn't about them any more.

Those allegations include claims that Cheryl was forced to have sex

with a senior colleague before she died. I am sure most fathers if not

all fathers of kids, girls of that age anyway, that is a protective

instinct. You think that is my job. I should not have left her there

alone. Surrey Police says it's supportive

of the new inquest The Ministry of Defence

says its thoughts remain with the family and it

will cooperate with the coroner Still to come in the programme:

Gone but not forgotten. The Japanese sailors

who died off the Welsh coast Japanese victims of the First World

War were washed up on temperature's shores. Buried in an unmarked --

unmarked grave but now there are plans to remember them.

It's the end of the road for one of Britain's

Production of the Landrover Defender is over after nearly 70 years.

It may have been made in England, but the Defender can

trace its origins back to Anglesey, as Jamie Owen explains.

Few cars have left their mark on the world quite the same way.

The Land Rover has conquered every corner of Earth from deserts

to jungle and most recently the urban jungle.

The end of production has left its fans

It's a great shame that the Defender is coming to the end of the line.

People who drive it for the first time who are used to driving

conventional cars can't see what the attraction is.

They think it is old and out of date but

it is just a purposely strong vehicle and it is so much fun

to drive in any weather conditions and

it will get you anywhere and do anything.

It says England on its badge but it's Wales which should

take the honour of inspiring the inventor of the Land Rover.

Rover car's chief engineer Maurice Wilkes

My father and my uncle sat down on the sand somewhere

here and they drew in the sand like this and they were drawing

Morris sketched the shape in the sand on this beach

near his home, Red Wharf Bay on Anglesey.

His idea was to build a rival to America's Jeep.

The testing of the prototype took place

That sketch in the sand on a Welsh beach was launched

The two millionth vehicle has the coastline of North Wales etched

into its paintwork and its seats, a lasting tribute to its ancestor

Though fetching ?400,000 at auction, it's a far cry

Land Rover's engineer Maurice Wilkes is buried on his beloved

He is remembered with a modest gravestone.

As the final Land Rover Defender comes to the end of its production

life nearly 70 years after that sketch in the sand on a beach

in Anglesey, perhaps its memorial should read 'Made in England,

And Jamie Owen's series, 'Land Rover - The Great Welsh Idea',

begins on BBC Radio Wales tomorrow lunchtime at 1:30pm.

Tomos is here now with all the sport.

The Cardiff City manager has admitted he had to sell their top

goal scorer, Joe Mason, to help balance the books

following their transfer embargo for breaching financial rules.

Russell Slade said the fee, thought to be ?3.5 million,

would give the club a better chance of having the transfer embargo

The club's allowed to make loan signings though and hopes to bring

in striker Kenneth Zohore from Danish club OB.

The Chievo striker, Alberto Paloschi, is having

a medical at Swansea City ahead of a possible ?8 million move

The 26-year-old striker has scored eight goals in 21 Serie

Meanwhile, Swansea City are at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

It's over a dispute about the transfer of their former

The Dutch club, Utrecht, say they're owed a 30% sell-on fee

from Vorm's move to Tottenham two years ago.

Swansea insist it was a free transfer and owe Utrecht nothing.

They're Wales' most successful amateur rugby league side

and tomorrow Bridgend Blue Bulls will play in the oldest rugby

knock-out tournament in the world for the first time.

In the past, they've decided against entering the Challenge Cup

because it coincides with the rugby union season.

Many of their players play for union sides too and the coaches

were worried they wouldn't be able to fill a team.

It's a rugby league side on union soil.

Bridgend Blue Bulls train here at Pyle RFC for free.

Some of these players also turn out for their union hosts.

But running a rugby league side with so many union clubs close

Players have been tempted away and worries over fulfilling fixtures

has meant Bridgend hasn't entered the Challenge Cup until now.

There are a lot of boys who have have day work and we often have

shift workers so Saturdays and Sundays do become a problem.

Union is a massive problem in this area Wales obviously but these boys

are all committed to the Challenge Cup.

The aim is to face a big club, the likes of Leeds Rhinos who won

the cup last year in front of a full Wembley Stadium.

The prestige of a cup final is a world away for this amateur

team of pipefitters and steelworkers.

But those running the game here hope a good cup run will help increase

interest in the sport six years after Super League rugby moved

We did have super League here a few years ago.

That moved out and that was a minor setback and probably still is.

It has been a bit of a rebuilding stage here for the last

It's not as strong as in other parts of England or indeed Wales

where there are a lot of committed players.

And there is no doubting their commitment.

Their first appearance in the cup sees them rewarded with the longest

of away trips, a 600 mile round journey to Cumbrian side

They leave at 6:00am tomorrow morning and we wish them well.

An unmarked grave in Angle in Pembrokeshire has

A campaign has begun to erect a memorial to seven Japanese victims

who were buried there nearly 100 years ago.

Their bodies were washed ashore during the First World War.

The First World War was mainly fought on land, but there were also

frequent attacks at sea to resources and supplies.

During World War One, Japan was our ally and her merchant

ships were a target for German u-boats.

On the 4th of October 1918, just one month before Armistice,

one such vessel was torpedoed off the Irish coast.

There were 320 people originally but only 29 survived.

Those that died either through hypothermia or drowning

or injury were washed up on the coasts of Ireland and

15 bodies were found and buried around the county's coastline

There are seven in Angle but unfortunately the wooden marker

So I feel it would be polite to restore the memorial and have

In the burial records of Angle churchyard only one of the victims

from the time is named - Shiro Okoshi.

This is where seven of your countrymen lie.

They were brought here after their bodies were found

Mr James wants to replace this simple earn with a memorial

headstone, enlisting the support of the Japanese embassy

and a retired officer living in Swansea.

It's really tragic to see the history of civilian casualties

and many Japanese and more than 40 vessels were attacked by around

Several other war graves stand in Angle churchyard.

The campaign for one more is about keeping that promise made

each November the 11th to remember them.

Let's take a look at the weather forecast now.

Less windy and colder for a while with a few wintry

showers, but there is more rain on the way.

This picture was taken in Porthcawl by Steve Jones.

81mph at Aberdaron on the Llyn Peninsula.

Tonight, less windy but still blustery and turning colder

with a warning of heavy rain for Mid and South Wales.

Over an inch possible on high ground with poor travelling conditions.

So this evening, a spell of wet weather for South Wales,

This will clear overnight followed by showers.

Turning colder tonight with a risk of icy patches in the north.

Here's the picture for 9:00am in the morning.

Less windy but still breezy and colder.

Some sunshine but with scattered showers.

Falling as hail, sleet and a little snow.

Noticeably colder tomorrow with lower temperatures.

The westerly wind fresh to strong on the coast.

If you're heading into the hills and mountains tomorrow,

Bitterly cold on Pen y Fan with a few snow showers.

Tomorrow evening, one or two showers but otherwise dry.

After midnight, clouding over with some rain,

sleet and a little snow on higher ground.

So a cold snap over the weekend but it won't last.

Milder Atlantic air will return and spread

Much cloudier, some rain, drizzle and hill fog.

The wind picking-up again and turning milder.

Next Monday, another deep low will pass to the north of Scotland.

It hasn't been given a name yet but could become Storm Henry.

Bringing more strong winds and severe gales.

Tuesday, less windy and turning colder again.

The main headlines from the BBC: A British mother who took her young

son to Syria has been found guilty of membership

26-year-old Tareena Shakil is the first British woman to return

to the UK to be convicted of the offence.

I'll have another update for you at 8:00pm and then again

Enjoy your weekend. Goodbye.