20/04/2017 Channel Islands News

That's it from us. They will be continuing coverage throughout the

night on the Reoffending - almost

all the new inmates in Jersey's courts weren't making use of the

services that we had on offer and sending first offenders to prison.

Good evening and welcome to the late news from BBC Channel Islands News.

Also tonight: Guernsey's digital revolution -

the plans which could bring workers and millions of pounds

Almost all of the new inmates sentenced to Jersey's Prison last

That's the findings of the annual report released

While it shows overall numbers of prisoners were slightly down last

year compared to 2015 - over half of them were

The number of criminals being locked up dropped in 2016

but those that were are not new to crime.

According to the Prison Report, of the 260 new inmates sent

to prison last year, 97% had previous convictions

and 60% had already served time behind bars.

Although this level of re-offending sounds alarming,

the Probation Service say it's expected.

Because it's unusual for people to be sent to prison

Instead they are usually given fines and community service.

Sentences in the community are more likely to be successful

than sentences in custody because someone can

maintain their employment, maintain their family ties,

The courts are typically sentencing people to custody when they have no

other options available either because of the seriousness

of the offence or because that person has exhausted the courts'

patience with the alternatives and hasn't responded to them.

The Prison Report has been released in the same week

as the new independent Prison Monitoring Board

Although the board say they can't comment on the re-offending rates,

they will monitor the welfare of prisoners which can

That can potentially have a huge impact in relation

to how people can adapt, modify behaviour if that's

actually what is required, and I think it's good to see a lot

of the training programmes that are already in place and that

will be one of the areas that we will be keen to look at.

What is actually being delivered, what are the results, and if

anything can be kind of fine tuned further.

And it's through constructive regimes and programmes the prison

hope to achieve its primary aim to reduce re-offending in future.

Emma Chambers, BBC Channel Islands News, Jersey.

A 30-year-old man from Jersey has been found not guilty of rape.

Kevin Irving had been accused of getting into bed

with a woman in St Helier last July and trying to have

sex with her while she mistook him for someone else.

Julie Flanagan was at the Royal Court where he was acquitted.

The jury of six men and six women took less than two hours to decide

This trial was expected to last four days but this morning the court

decided Mr Irving should face one lesser charge of attempted rape

rather than the original charges of indecent assault and rape.

The jury was told the woman had met a man on an internet dating site.

While out with friends, she and the man were texting

When they did, Kevin Irving was with them.

He went back to the same house as them to call a taxi

but in the hours that followed, the woman claimed Irving got into

She claimed she only realised it wasn't the man she thought

it was when there was shouting and someone turned

The court heard that afterwards she was scared and confused

and her lawyer said very clearly she would never have consented

His defence advocate Ian Jones told the jury:

"with the woman there was no evidence that Mr Irving

"I would suggest these are the actions of someone

And today the jury agreed, clearing Mr Irving of any wrongdoing.

When the verdict was read out Mr

left the court without making any comment.

Julie Flannigan, BBC Channel Islands News, Jersey.

There's been a huge increase in the amount of time police

in Jersey spend dealing with mental health related issues and checking

increase over the past five years in mental health issues

that required police attention and action,

and welfare checks were up by a third since 2012 too.

It comes on the day a UK watchdog is warning that public safety

is being put at risk there, because police in England and Wales

are being used to handle mental health issues.

Jersey police have named the driver of the car that crashed

on the Five Mile Road, late on Sunday.

18-year-old Fraser Armstrong remains in a critical

He was one of four sixth formers from De La Salle College in the car.

Their headteacher says the school's thoughts and prayers are with them.

The three passengers are recovering in Jersey.

It's being called the future of Guernsey - a plan to attract more

digital businesses to the island along with the benefits

which go with it, including up to 5,000

workers and an additional ?14 million in income tax.

But it comes at a cost - so will it get the funding it needs?

It promises to drive economic growth by investing in the digital sector.

The new strategy also promotes Guernsey as a choice

location for business, with big benefits to the island.

Here at the Digital Greenhouse, a place that encourages

technology business, the report has been welcomed

The challenges ahead are many, the

The new digital strategy strategic

framework is a fantastic document, a

real wish list of how we would love

how is it going to be funded, how

But I think it is really important for people to

worth investing our time and money

and because it's the future of Guernsey.

By 2026, it is hoped the number of people working

But the deputy behind the plan is worried the States might not give

We're looking at budget prioritisation that is extremely

difficult to be able to properly fund these very sensible, pragmatic

But then you're told you've got to achieve 2%

cut this year, and then 5% and then 9%, and then how can you do that?

in a digital industry in Guernsey, but it's argued it'll be up

to the States to invest both time and money to fully

Chris Harrison, BBC Channel Islands News, Guernsey.

Cutting maintenance costs by reducing the need to cut the lawn.

That's the idea behind a project to plant large areas

Although it may look a little bare now that won't be the case for long.

The States say it'll be good for bees, butterflies...

On this particular site we have got about 11,000 square metres of

We have taken 2500 for the wild flower areas.

So the reduction in cutting is obviously

25%, and so that is a saving on not only

man-hours and fuel but also on

After two weeks without meaningful rain, Guernsey and Jersey

Despite a dry April so far, reservoirs are nearly full -

and tests on the desalination plant are due to top them

Nevertheless, Guernsey and Jersey Water are both urging

It is just that season, the nice weather has started

so the garden takes off and so everyone is out and

about doing the things they love to do which makes Jersey

We are reminding them to take the opportunity to remind our

Let's take a look at the weather now with David Braine.

Thank you. Hello. Good evening. It is probably not a surprise to most

of us that it has been so dry this month that it is causing some

problems. But a meteorological drought is a bit different, which

means just more than 15 days without any official rain, but it has been

very dry. We should be seeing around 56 millimetres of rain. There is the

risk of a great deal of rain over the next few days. Fine and dry like

this with some lovely sunshine. It looks like we will continue in the

same type of weather tomorrow and into the weekend, fine and dry with

sunny spells and generally light winds. The rain bearing cloud is

away our peer across the north of the Atlantic, but it is slowly

making progress towards us. One weather system will travel down to

Britain across to the islands through the afternoon on Saturday.

It is a very weak affair. Virtually no rain associated with that. I

pressure still for Sunday. Then a weather front comes in from the

North on Monday. This one has the potential for some spots of light

rain and drizzle. Behind it, not only is there much colder air, there

is a great rush of showers as we begin Tuesday. Overnight tonight,

still a bit of cloud around. Some breaks in that cloud and

temperatures going down into single figures. Tomorrow should be a

largely fine, dry day. Sunny spells to enjoy and very light winds. 13

Celsius. Not too bad for the weekend ahead. On Saturday there could be a

lot of cloud but it should break up for sunny spells. Sunday is fine and

dry. More cloud on Monday and some rain possible for Monday night and

into Tuesday. You're up to date with the news

from the Channel islands. week for much of the UK and for more

about that and the UK outlook, Helen Willetts.

The sunshine make such a difference this time of year, only 12 or so

degrees under the cloud today but 19 in eastern Scotland not far away

from St Andrews. Also in north-east England, where we had the majority

of the decent sunshine. Even under cloud it was dry for the most part.

We have this week whether forgiving showers in the