12/05/2017 BBC Wales Today

Jailed for causing the death of a 22-year-old woman

Outside court, Sophie Taylor's mother described her disappointment

I feel people can go out into their vehicle

and use it as a weapon, which was exactly what happened to

Wales could follow England's lead and abolish University tuition fees.

Mountain rescuers in a potentially life-saving operation.

Why one of Wales' biggest teams is raising concerns

Their Premier League survival could be secured this weekend

And thousands of jellyfish lurking off the Welsh coast

Why experts say there's a mega swarm.

A 24-year-old woman has been jailed for six and a half years,

for causing the death of her love rival in a late night car

Melissa Pesticcio, and 23-year-old Michael Wheeler, who's been jailed

for seven and a half years, followed Sophie Taylor at high

speed, in what the court heard, was as a "Fast

The judge described the incident as terrifying,

and said their actions were like a pack chasing its prey.

They released a pink balloons on the steps of the court today,

Pink had been the 22-year-old call centre worker's favourite colour.

She died in a late-night car crash last year but the fatal

Today, those responsible for her death were jailed.

She was loving, giving and trusting and those qualities in her work

completely abused by these two, I can't even call them human beings.

All three had been involved in a love triangle.

Caught on CCTV last August, Sophie Taylor is seen being chased

by Melissa Pesticcio, who was angry and jealous.

Also giving chase was Michael Wheeler, who had been

The pursuit of Miss Taylor's BMW by Melissa Pesticcio in another

BMW and Michael Wheeler in his Vauxhall Corsa

lasted three miles from the Rumney area to Adamsdown.

They reached speeds of 56 mph along the narrow backstreets

in what was described in court as a fast and furious style chase.

As they entered Adamsdown, Sophie and her passenger Josh

was so frightened that they dialled 999, reporting that they were

Then, on the emergency call, a loud bang is heard.

Sophie's car had been violently rammed, sending it into a spin,

Sophie was killed, her passenger suffered life changing injuries.

He spent 101 days in hospital and was in a medically

He told the court the injuries had robbed him of his dignity.

I had a brain bleed, I had brain swelling,

I have got a permanent frontal lobe injury.

Four of my ribs broke, which punctured my lung.

The court heard Melissa Pesticcio had sent a text message to another

friend discussing Sophie Taylor which read, I will find her

That text and the chase was the culmination of a period

of hostility between the two women, which amounted to a campaign

of intimidation over a stolen boyfriend and an argument

It can be distressing for families to hear details

The family of Sophie and Joshua maintained their dignity

and we are grateful for their support throughout

And we are glad that justice has been achieved in the end.

When the pair were jailed, there was applause and loud cheers

Outside, Sophie 's parents spoke of their loss.

I few people can go out into their vehicle and use it

as a weapon, which was exactly what happened to our

Sentencing, the judge said you were both consumed

by a self-righteous, jealous rage, chasing Sophie,

He said it was like a pack chasing its prey.

He jailed Melissa Pesticcio for six and a half years and Wheeler

Wales could follow England's lead and abolish tuition fees if Labour

University funding is devolved to the Welsh Government,

but the First Minister, Carwyn Jones has told BBC Wales it

would be difficult to conceive a scenario where tuition fees

are abolished in England but not in Wales.

Well, let's get more on this now from our political

What's the situation with tuition fees in England?

All universities in England, Wales and Scotland charge ?9,000 per year

for tuition fees. In England, there is no help from the government. The

Welsh Government puts ?5,000 per year in and it costs around ?230

million a year. There are plans to change that next year. There is a

contribution towards living costs. But if the Welsh Government wanted

to, they could abolish tuition fees now but it would cost hundreds of

millions of pounds that they do not have. Yesterday, we saw that pledge

to abolish tuition fees in England costing ?10 billion. That means

there would be money coming to the Welsh Government to abolish fees in

Wales but more importantly, if you can imagine the scenario where

universities in England are essentially free, you could not have

universities in Wales charging ?9,000 because nobody would go there

and they would go bust. What kind of reaction has there been to this? The

Conservatives has said that Carwyn Jones should not be making more

spending promises that have not been thought through. Plaid Cymru have

said that they don't think Carwyn Jones would keep to this promise.

Ukip saying this promise is meaningless. The Liberal Democrats,

it is a tricky one, it is a labour Welsh Government but the person in

charge of education is a Liberal Democrat. They are saying they

should be concentrating on living costs, not on fees.

Specialist teams have joined the search for

Tracy Kearns from Kinmel Bay has not been seen since last Sunday.

A 48-year-old man, who is known to Miss Kearns, has been arrested

A newspaper editor from Pembrokeshire who published

information likely to identify a sex offence victim has been ordered

Health services in England have been hit by a large-scale attack. NHS

Wales says it has already but proactive protection measures in

place. A 25-year-old man has been

arrested in Flint for affray St Mary's Catholic primary

school and several streets in the area were shut,

after armed officers were called to Maes Alaw at around seven

o'clock this morning. It followed reports of a man

behaving in an aggressive Pagers may be technological

relics for most of us, but they're still widely used

by our emergency services. NHS staff, the fire service,

lifeboats and search and rescue teams rely on these devices

because they have good signal A mid-wales mountain

rescue team has told this programme they're concerned,

after warnings prices could rise Here's Teleri Glyn Jones

with the story. A rescuing the Brecon Beacons back

in March. In an emergency situation like this, communication is

critical. It is really simple. It is just a little box and it has a

display on it. Mark Jones from the rescue team says they use pagers and

mobile phones to mobilise volunteers because phone reception could be

unreliable. We respond to different types of calls, searches and medical

emergencies. If somebody is having chest pains, you want to be

responding to those calls immediately. We don't want to be

half an hour behind the game. But that service is under threat since

Vodafone decided to close down its pager business. There is one other

company that provides the service. The companies were considering a

merger but there were concerns that a monopoly could mean higher prices

and worse signal coverage so Vodafone decided to stop its service

anyway. We have quite a dispersed membership throughout South and mid

Wales and we want as many of those, ideally all of those, to get the

message immediately. Without a reliable service that we can afford,

we cannot guarantee that. The Competition and Markets Authority

says there is nothing they can do to stop companies choosing to exit the

market which could leave emergency services across Wales out of reach.

We return to our election coverage now and one issue which has forced

itself onto the political agenda is immigration.

It played a big part in last year's Brexit debate

Different parts of Wales have experienced different

The north east of the country, Wrexham and Flintshire are among

the areas which have proved most popular.

Roger Pinney has been to Queensferry and Shotton on Deeside

It is where they go for a taste of home.

At this shop in Queensferry, the stock is from Slovakia

and the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria,

And in the main, those countries are where the customers come from.

Attilan and Livia arrived four years ago from Hungary.

Did you feel it was a big step for you, coming

Yeah, it was a childhood dream for me.

We have a better job here, we have a better life here.

And do you plan to stay, would you go home sometime?

Yeah, of course, we want to stay here.

The shop is run by Betsy and her mother.

Tried it and it's turned out really well.

In the decade they've run the shop, it's doubled in size

and in the same ten years, that's more or less

what happened to the non-UK born population of Flintshire.

Now, rightly or wrongly, they feel uncertain

For us, being here, for so long now, working hard, having salaries,

paying taxes, paying our rents, the bills, everything,

our children go to school over here now and it is hurting

To be fair, none of the mainstream parties say that but the scale

of future immigration is an issue in this election and in the Brexit

The Conservatives have renewed their promise to reduce it

And we will hear from the other parties soon.

This corner of North East Wales has much in common with

Here, the old mainstays were the steel and textile industries.

40 years ago, life on Deside was pretty certain.

People grew up together, worked together, then came the steel

When steel-making ended, 6500 jobs were lost in one day.

But from the ruins, new opportunities arrived.

The Deeside Industrial Park on the old steelworks

Little wonder then so many East Europeans are being drawn

in and you don't half to spend long here chatting to local

people to discover that makes seven feel uneasy.

What do you think the big issues are going to be around here?

There's a lot of foreign people around here.

A lot of people take issues with them taking

Very difficult to get into the doctors.

When you go, they are all foreigners.

A lot of politicians are talking about that today.

Struggling to get another job because obviously, immigration,

people are coming over here and taking our jobs really.

They are keeping wages down as well, yeah.

And according to the Bank of England, in the lowest skilled

industries, a ten percentage point rise in the proportion

of immigrants is associated with a 2% reduction in pay.

If they all go, who will have those jobs then?

There's not enough people around here for those jobs.

There's an awful lot of big factories over there now.

So, do recent immigrants put pressure on local services,

Or are they helping to drive the economy forward?

Some big questions for the politicians.

Meanwhile, on the election campaign trail today,

The Foreign Secretary used his visit to Newport market to tell voters

that the Conservatives will deliver a Strong and clear approach

to defence, whereas the Labour party, under Jeremy Corbyn,

Elsewhere, Labour's deputy leader has also been

Tom Watson has been on a mini whistle-stop campaign tour,

visiting areas such as Cardiff, Pontypridd, Merthyr and Caerphilly.

During his visit, Mr Watson praised the party's record running

And with the election just weeks away, we're asking what you would do

What would you do if you were in the top job?

We want to know which issues are important to you.

And we've had plenty of ideas already but we'd like to have more

so that we can take them all to the decision-makers

after the results of the election on June the 8th.

Swansea City's Premier League fate could be decided this weekend.

If they win and other results go their way,

they will be safe come Sunday afternoon.

3,000 Swans fans will make the trip to Sunderland tomorrow,

and with so much at stake, boss Paul Clement says

it's all about who can handle the pressure.

Swansea City, masters of their own destiny, are looking to capitalise

on last weekend where their win over Everton saw them leapfrog howl. --

Hull. It is Sunderland tomorrow afternoon but the boss is taking

nothing for granted. They have a good manager with plenty of

experience who wants to win every game he is involved in. Although

they have had a difficult season, they will want to finish strongly.

Mentally we are prepared for a tough game. It is certainly a crunch

weekend. Victory for Swansea would apply huge pressure on rivals Hull

and Crystal Palace will face each other on Sunday. The relegation race

could be decided if Swansea win and Hull lose. We don't cheese nothing.

We look for our work and the next game is the most important for us.

We need to win the game. The pressure lies on all of us to win

the game. We have to draw it. If we are defensively sound and solid like

we were against Arsenal, then we are bound to create some chances at home

and hopefully score. Swansea have spent almost the entire season

struggling at the wrong end of the table and staying up would not

normally be cause for celebration but this has been an extraordinary

season. Three managers in, they look doomed before Paul Clement to change

were macro charge. Another Coach has pulled out

of Wales' summer tour games After Danny Wilson last week,

the Scarlets have confirmed Stephen Jones won't be part

of Robin McBryde's backroom team because of

commitments with his region. The Scarlets play Leinster

in the Pro12 semifinal next week. Lions captain Sam Warburton

says his side needs to become the best in the world,

in a matter of weeks, if it wants Warburton leads the Lions

for a second successive tour and knows the tourists must gel

quickly ahead of the first Test I think it's going to

be very difficult... Four years ago, there were chances

where the guys could have a little bit of a social together,

we might be able to go out, have a couple of beers

and do things like that. Which is quite a good way

to get to know players. But the games are coming so thick

and fast, there's not going to be I think going through difficult

training and games will help. Welsh Cyclist Geraint Thomas remains

in 2nd position overall, Caleb Ewan of Australia was first

over the line, just. he was a fraction of a wheel ahead

of Fernando Gaviria of Columbia, Thousands of giant jellyfish have

washed up on Welsh beaches The barrel jellyfish have been

spotted in Pembrokeshire, New Quay has been a hot spot,

with over 300 seen in what's been They are known as barrel or even

dustbin lid jellyfish And they have been washing up

on the beaches of Wales Science officers from

Cardigan Bay Marine wildlife Centre have counted over 300

on beaches at New Quay alone. And while this happens annually,

they say this number is rare. And have described

it as a mega swarm. We don't normally get as many

as we are seeing now. Last year was an unusual year

in that we didn't see them This year we have seen them

sort of April-May time And they seem to be a lot bigger

than we usually see. I don't think I've ever seen them

quite as big as they are this year Numbers have grown in recent

years because of mild winters and warm waters,

allowing plankton, their main And the fine weather

lately has sparked this recent boom in jellyfish,

which can grow up to These barrel jellyfish end up

on the beach because they head inshore for the warmer water

but they have a limited ability So they end up washed up

on the beach in huge numbers. We have been coming here 40 years

and I just never seen anything like this in terms of the numbers

and the size of them. The last time we saw so many

hundreds of these jellyfish washed up like this was when we had that

really hot summer of 1976. There is advice not to touch or move

the jellyfish as they do give a mild staying,

similar to a nettle. And conservationists hope this

will scratch the sea creatures' main predator,

the large leatherback turtle. So this ancient sea creature could

attract another to our beaches. some welcome rain in the forecast.

Some sunshine to look forward to. Here is the radar from earlier. It

was patchy in nature. It was pretty heavy. More showers to deal with

tonight. They will tend to ease through the night. It'll start to

feel fresher as we go through the night. The winds change in

direction. Still fairly mild. Temperatures down to nine Celsius.

Tomorrow we have a brief break from the rain but there is a weather

front nearby that will bring the wet conditions as we head into tomorrow

night. First thing tomorrow morning we do have a few showers running

across mid Wales and across northern parts we have a few showers first

thing as well. Temperatures in double figures. A mild start of the

morning. As we head down into Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and

Carmarthenshire, a lot of dry weather to start the day. Maybe even

some sunshine first thing. I am hopeful most of us will see the sun

shining. First thing tomorrow morning, those showers will tend to

clear and it will become brighter. A few showers along the coast later on

in the day. Top temperature around 18 Celsius and late afternoon, we

will start to see that front approaching. That will bring with it

rain and cloud as well. Tomorrow night, a wet night as that front

pushes its way north-eastwards. Behind it a few showers but also a

lot of dry weather. Feeling fresher than tonight. A brief break on

Sunday but later in the day, we will see that area of low pressure

pushing in, bringing more... On Sunday, some sunshine, the odd

isolated shower. Temperatures reaching 17 Celsius. More persistent

rain to come by the time we get to Monday. A woman and her ex-boyfriend

have been jailed for killing a woman in a fatal car chase. 22-year-old

Sophie Taylor died when her car hit a block of flats in Cardiff in

August last year. Tonight Michael Wheeler is starting a seven and a

half year jail term while Melissa Pesticcio will serve six and a half

years. We'll have a quick update at 8,

more after the BBC Ten o'clock News. From all of us on the

programme, goodbye.