02/03/2016 BBC Wales Today

Three soldiers died as a result of neglect on an SAS training

Now, the Ministry of Defence is to face the highest possible

The march was held here on one of the hottest days of 2013.

The Health and Safety Executive say the MoD failed to manage the risks.

Also tonight - he flew to the United States to rape

Tonight, this former lifeguard from Gwynedd is starting

The child has insisted they had multiple compensations about it and

she had informed him she was ten years of age. -- conversations.

The cost of tackling serious crime, the debate if policing

And a familiar accent on a BBC primetime show.

But there are calls for the corporation to spend

millions more on programmes that better reflect Welsh life

The Ministry of Defence is to be given the strongest reprimand

possible over the deaths of three soldiers in the Brecon Beacons.

Reservists Edward Maher, James Dunsby and Craig Roberts

collapsed on what was one of the hottest day of 2013,

The Health and Safety Executive has announced it's to pass it

The law does not allow the MoD to be prosecuted.

It is the toughest of testing grounds, the Brecon Beacons in any

weather can be unforgiving but on the hottest day of summer in 2013,

three young men on selection for the SAS lost their lives. The inquest

into the deaths of reserve fists Craig Roberts, James Dunsby and

Edward Maher found neglect played a part in their deaths. Today the

Health and Safety Executive has published its findings, saying the

MOD would have faced prosecution for the failings if it did not have

Crown immunity. At the end of the inquest, the families were clear

they believe the Ministry of Defence last sight of its own values. They

displayed no responsibility, no accountability and no humility for

their role in creating the culture which led to the events of the 13th

of July 20 13. Even an ounce of this would have gone such a long way in

acknowledging the vast catalogue of errors which were so clearly made.

So what went wrong? The men set off on the 16 mile march just before

seven, all carrying GPS trackers so the commanders could track their

movements. By the time Craig Roberts reached checkpoint five, two

soldiers had already been withdrawn with heat illness. He collapsed just

a few hundred metres from the finish line. Edward Maher took a different

route. His GPS tracker stop moving for almost two hours before anyone

noticed. James Dunsby was also on the final leg of his March. He had

been down for more than an hour before the medics arrived. The

investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found at a failure

to plan to assess and to manage the risks during the training which took

lace up here resulted in their deaths. These failures they also

found caused ten more soldiers on the March Saturday to suffer heat

illness. In a statement they say: the Ministry of Defence has

acknowledged the censure and apologised for the failings. In a

statement they have said that they made improvements to reduce risks

and an enquiry is underway to identify further lessons to be

learned. They say their thoughts remain with the family.

A former lifeguard from Gwynedd has been jailed for 50 years by a judge

in America, for raping a ten-year-old girl.

22-year-old Gareth Vincent Hall from Talysarn met the girl online,

and flew to the United States, where he committed a number

He continues to be the subject of a separate police investigation

Police arrested Gareth Vincent Hall. Gareth Vincent Hall admitted four

counts of rape, two further serious sexual offences and sexual

corruption of a child online last month. He travelled to Oregon in

April last year to see the ten-year-old girl after making

contact online and spent five days in various motels meeting her

readily. He told prosecutors he thought she was 17. He made a claim

he thought she was close to the age of majority which from the

prosecutor 's standpoint seemed pretty ridiculous. The child has

insisted over and over again that they had multiple conversations

about it and that she had in fact informed him she was ten years of

age. He was arrested when he tried to re-enter the USA in Chicago

following a complaint to police from the girl 's family. A judge said he

was getting the sentence he deserved. But the lengthy statements

-- centres does not necessarily mean the end of a separate investigation

by North Wales Police into alleged online offences committed by Gareth

Vincent Hall here. In a statement it says the devices seized from Gareth

Vincent Hall have yet to be properly examined and until they are rigged

would be inappropriate to comment further. Gareth Vincent Hall worked

as a light -- lifeguard at this leisure centre. Gwynedd Council say

no complaints made against him there. There had been concern from

the FBI that Gareth Vincent Hall had made efforts from his home in

Talysarn to contact other girls via the Internet. His family were in

court to watch the sentencing hearing anti-used a Welsh language

interpreter during proceedings. Wales would still receive economic

aid for its poorest areas, even if Britain votes

to leave the European Union. That's according to the leader

of the Welsh Conservatives, Last week, the Prime Minister told

this programme voters could not be certain that the UK Government

would spend the same amount here, Well, let's discuss this

with our political correspondent, And today's comment seems

to contradict David Cameron? Yes, we are talking about these

European Union funds that are used to give a need boost to those parts

of Wales that are quite a bit poorer than the average. ?1.8 billion will

be coming to Wales shortly. When he was here last week, David Cameron

said if the UK left the European Union committee was not sure what

would happen to that money. Were we to leave, I believe

there could be quite We might see higher interest rates,

we might see higher unemployment, And in those circumstances,

of course the United Kingdom government would always want to do

everything it could for all the different parts

of the United Kingdom and you cannot guarantee these things

because we might be in quite Mr Davies says that would not be the

case. Yes, he wants us to leave the European Union and the point there

is this is not the European Union 's money, it is UK money sent to the

European Union. Speaking to the Wales report programme this evening,

he says he is almost certain that many would still be there.

I can guarantee that a UK Government would make sure that many would be

redistributed around the regions of the United Kingdom,

otherwise it would be failing in its re-met to deliver health

and support to the nation that it is elected to govern

and frankly, we cannot continue with operation fear,

of driving people into the ballot box because you are scaring them

Take out the sort of white heat of a referendum campaign and what you

have is David Cameron saying he thinks if we leave the European

Union that the economy would go through a difficult patch so he is

not ruling out that they would be more money coming to those poorest

parts of Wales but that the same time you have Andrew Arty Davies

saying the money would come but he is not saying how much money would

come all-weather that many could be spent anyway that you want to. Can

you have a cast-iron guarantee that the same money would come to Wales?

Probably not. But could there be more money because there will be

more money in the cough is? Probably yes but you cannot say anything more

than that. Much more on this story

on the Wales Report, with Huw Edwards, is

on BBC One Wales at 10:40pm. The bullet which killed a young

Welsh soldier could have been fired by her or someone else,

an inquest into her death has heard. Cheryl James from Llangollen died

from a bullet to the head A German ballistics expert told

Woking Coroner's Court that the bullet was

fired at close range. Former footballer Ched Evans

will have his appeal for his rape conviction heard

in three weeks' time. The former Wales international

was jailed for five years in 2012 after being found guilty of raping

a 19-year-old woman at a hotel A Coroner has found that medication

prescribed to a pensioner from Swansea did not

cause her death. 80-year-old Patricia Thomas died

in October 2013 after a severe bleed A narrative verdict was recorded

by Paul Bennett, who believes the effects Warfarin and miconazole

gel may have contributed A preventing further deaths report

has been ordered by the coroner. She was such a special person, a

wonderful mother and grandmother. Our grief at her loss has been made

worse by the devastating evidence that we have heard during this

inquest that her dentist and her pharmacist made fundamental errors

in prescribing and dispensing medicine.

The ability to tackle serious crime would require "huge" investment,

That's according to the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent.

Ian Johnston believes Welsh officers would have to go cap in hand

to England to access expertise like the National Crime Agency,

But not every Police and Crime Commissioner here agrees.

Wales versus France in Cardiff on a Friday night.

Policed by around a hundred officers and a few horses.

And while events like this aren't unique to Wales,

the Welsh Government believes policing here could be improved

But could serious crime like this be tackled as effectively?

These drugs came from an Albanian crime group smuggled to a Welsh

The gang was brought down by Gwent Police

But the man responsible for the Gwent force believes

the ability to fight serious crime and other specialist skills would be

There is a real danger that we will have local policing

in Wales, which is covered, but if we need anything at a higher

level, whether it be the National Crime Agency,

some parts of the criminal justice system, we will have to look

to England and we will be isolated and we could actually

And the Welsh Police and Crime Commissioners,

who are up for re-election in May, are split on the matter.

Ian Johnston in Gwent doesn't want policing devolved.

Nor does Christopher Salmon in Dyfed Powys.

But Alun Michael in South Wales does want policing devolved.

Winston Roddick in North Wales is also broadly in favour.

Unless it can be demonstrated that devolving responsibility

for the police would result in a deterioration

in the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service then

In Westminster yesterday, Plaid Cymru said devolving policing

was the only way to address community needs in Wales.

Keith Vaz, the Chair of the influential

Home Affairs Committee, said he believes Wales does

This is what the fight against crime and terrorism looks

like in Scotland, which has full power over policing and justice.

The ?75 million Scottish Crime Campus.

One expert here believes the Welsh Government wouldn't have

to spend money like that, but would have to appoint policing

ministers and civil servants, which could lead to wider mergers.

The natural step forward if we had policing policy in Cardiff would be

perhaps the formation of a national police force for

Now, I don't see there being a Welsh College of policing.

What I see is it might be a hub, regional hub, that is linked

It's said there's a growing desire among senior officers here to see

But the UK Government says PCCs already have that power and it

won't be handing control of the police to Cardiff Bay.

Still to come on the programme, tonight's sport with Iwan.

The countdown to the European Championships.

100 days before the finals in France.

And we'll catch up with the World Champion from Barry,

who dreams of a title fight at a sold out Principalty Stadium.

The BBC should spend more on programmes that reflect

That's the verdict of an inquiry by Assembly Members into the future

It's called on the BBC to invest an extra ?30 million

in new productions, and it wants more Welsh people to feature

on programmes that are broadcast across the UK.

Here's our arts and media correspondent, Huw Thomas.

If someone had given me that when I was 17, I would have bitten their

hand off. Swansea City of back playing in North London tonight.

Despite taking the lead, they lost to toss a number, but a win would

let them six points clear of relegation -- Tottenham. It'll be

the first major football tournament for Wales 1958 World Cup. It's been

a long wait, and before a ball has been kicked, club say they are

seeing a benefit at a grassroots level. It was a fairly subdued

affair in Paris this morning, as five men in suits gathered around

the trophy to mark 100 days until kick-off. A far cry from the scenes

in Bosnia for mums ago when Wales learned they had qualified their

first major tournament in A.D60 years. It has had a positive impact

on football teams around the country. Here, the chairman of the

University club says they are already seeing the benefits. You can

see how it is bleeding down to the grassroots level, everyone is

enjoying it. It has been beneficial. We felt that, even in the fourth

tier. It has been a long and frustrating wait for the fans, and

to add to the sense of excitement, Wales have been paired with England

in the group stage. Getting England was massive, but as long as we have

got Gareth Vale we can do anything. I'm very excited. These five aside

teams are gearing up too, and believe it could be down to one man.

We have Gareth Vale, and he is the key. -- Bale Chris Coleman is a top

manager. Organisers of the competition say the terrorist

attacks in Paris have forced them to strengthen security, but stressed

there when thinking of playing matches behind closed doors about

bands, which had been reported. But security concerns have not deterred

funds, and that this travel agency, the phone has been ringing off the

book. It has been busy this past few weeks. The first game against Novak

your household out. We have two chartered aircraft -- against

Slovakia has sold out. After more than one month out of playing, Bale

is back playing. Just 100 days until Europe's best teams do battle to

determine who will lift the trophy. Can't wait. Onto boxing, and Lee

Selby says fighting at the stadium in Cardiff would be a dream come

true. The boxer will defend his title against Eric under next month,

but then hopes for a world title showdown in front of a sell-out home

crowd. He didn't even have time to stop his rigorous training sessions,

but between bouts, the world champion was able to share words of

wisdom to date with keen athletes. As well as the daily routine, the

main topic of conversation was his next mandatory fight. He will defend

his title against American Eric Hunter next month. He is the number

one champion, he is a good fighter. He is from Philadelphia soapbox is

that the traditional style. It has not been confirmed, but it will

probably be at the O2 Arena on the 9th of April. After that, he hopes

he can perform in front of a sell-out, home crowd. You have seen

the big fight on the weekend. I'm more than tempted to fight against

them. 80,000 people. It would be amazing. That your preference? Yes,

it would be nice. I am in a great position, two great fight is calling

me out. He has certainly made a name for himself in the featherweight

boxing circles. But it has taken hard work and dedication. His

attitude is an inspiration for these young students. This is a big shock,

definitely. Honestly it is true because of where he is now. It is

eight tough ask. It is a big ask, you trained a lot. He has impressed

me. There's been a long line of famous Welsh boxers. Lee Selby has

his sights on becoming one of the greats. That is your sport, time for

a weather check. It has been a day of wintry showers and strong winds.

Some very strong gusts, 81 mph, 77, and a much quieter day in store for

tomorrow. Largely dry with some bright spells. Tonight, winds not a

strong but remaining blustery. Wintry showers will slowly ease,

generally turning dry overnight. An ice and frost risk first thing

tomorrow. A respite tomorrow, spell of dry weather before this next

front pushes from the Atlantic late in the day. An early frost and ice

risk, but a quieter, drier day. Any showers easing with a brighter

spells, variable cloud but turning cloudy later wish I was pushing in

from the west as that next front arise. Lighter winds, but still on

the chilly side, six Celsius, eight in Newport. This weather front

proves problematic on Friday. It pushes through overnight and then

swings Brack overnight, bringing rain and snow. Tomorrow night, a

band of rain, sleet and a warning of snow above 200 metres, especially

across North Wales, as that front moves through. Colder weather nice

rest, and then fried is cold. Maybe try a further south, but the

position of this front could change, so a wintry feel for the end of the

first week of spring, but looking colder and more settled as we head

into the weekend. Our top story tonight, the Ministry of Defence

will be given a strongest reprimand possible over the deaths of three

soldiers in the Brecon Beacons. They collapse on one of the hottest days

of 2013 whilst on an SAS selection exercise. I'll have a quick update

at eight and a four round up at ten, but that is it for now. Goodbye. --

a full round-up.