23/04/2014 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East of the UK is governed.

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Maurice Flynn. A

murder trial's heard how a lother and her three children died in a

fire at their home in a bungled revenge attack. Nottingham Crown

Court's been told a gang of men deliberately set fire to a house in

Leicester because they wantdd to avenge the death of a friend. Jurors

were told they got the wrong house. Sarah Teale reports. The fire ripped

through the house in Woodhill in Leicester in the early hours of

September 13th last year. Inside, sleep and unaware were Shehnila

Taufiq, Zainab, 19, and sons Bilal, 17, and Jamil, 15. Prosecutor

Richard Latham QC told the lurder trial at Nottingham Crown Court it

was a botched arson attack. He said it was part of a revenge pl`n for

murder just seven hours earlier of 20`year`old football coach @ntoin

Akpom. He was stabbed in thd back a mile away. A gang, friends `nd

associates had witnessed thd attack and they believed 19`year`old Abdul

Hakim had been involved. As retribution, they had intended to

set fire to the home of Hakhm's mum but she lived two doors up from the

family home and they simply got the wrong house. It was a tragedy. The

court heard how petrol had been poured through the letterbox of the

terraced house and was ignited. The fire took hold swiftly and dngulfed

the stairs, the family's only means of escape. One of the firefhghters

said it was the worst domestic fire he had seen in 15 years. Despite

valiant efforts from neighbours and the courage of fire crews, nothing

could be done to save Shehnhla or her children. The husband and

father, Dr Mohammed was in Dublin at the time where he worked as a

consultant neurosurgeon. Thd jury was told he had spoken to hhs wife

and use child individually just before the fire claimed thehr lives.

The gang on trial, Kemo Porter, Tristan Richards, Nathaniel

Mullings, Shaun Carter, Jackson Powell and Aaron Webb are all from

Leicester. Akeem Jeffers is from Leeds and another youth cannot be

identified. They all deny four counts of murder.

Detectives investigating thd disappearance of a Polish m`n,

missing now since January, have now started a murder investigathon.

22`year`old Bogdan Nawrocki was last seen in Radford. Police say they've

found forensic evidence which has prompted the change in the nature of

their investigation. Four mdn have been arrested.

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine LcCann

now know of six new incidents ` since an appeal was made last month.

Madeleine from Rothley in Leicestershire vanished nearly seven

years ago in Praia da Luz in Portugal's Algarve region. Police

are now looking at 18 potentially`linked cases, where a

lone intruder broke into villas in the region. The new cases include an

assault on a 10`year`old in 200 in Praia de Luz.

Next, the machine that recycles and returns patients' blood durhng major

surgery. It's called the He`mosep ` and it's made using techniqtes honed

in Nottinghamshire's lace industry. Jo Healey reports.

Julie needed major open`heart surgery. To have it she would

normally need blood transfusions but she is a Jehovah witness. Ghving

blood other than her own is against her beliefs. It was important for me

to have the surgery done without anybody else's blood as a

transfusion into my body. That is where this machine helps. It is

ground`breaking but how does it work? During any procedure, there

will be an element of blood loss. You can take this blood, concentrate

it in a concentrator bag, p`ss it into the blood bag and give it to

the anaesthetist to transfuse back into the patient. It is extremely

useful for patients because they are getting their own blood back and

their own clotting factors. In the past, they would have only got red

cells and the clotting cells would have been lost. This process is

quicker. It could also benefit costs.

Intriguingly, it has been m`de by a family firm at Kirkby in Ashfield

once known for its textiles and lace. It has used their expdrtise to

develop the filters and microscopic meshes needed to help patients like

Julie. It is wonderful. The device itself helped my surgery, mx

recuperation afterwards. Shd is one of the first patients to usd the

machine. Doctors in Nottingham are part of its first ever UK trials but

interest is growing across the world.

A Nottinghamshire police officer wrongly convicted of rape h`s been

suspended from the force despite an order to reinstate him. Trevor Gray

was sacked and jailed beford clearing his name during a retrial.

Earlier this month, the Polhce Appeals Tribunal ruled he could

return to his job. The Forcd says he's been suspended from duty

pending a gross misconduct hearing later this year.

A safety warning tonight about e`cigarettes. A fire chief says some

might overheat during battery charging. Kim Taylor's car was set

alight by an e`cigarette. It caught fire in Leicester after she left the

device charging on the back seat. Fire officers believe some

e`cigarettes could pose a rhsk. Their savings to be no safety cutout

which prevents them to `` there seems to be no safety cutout which

preserve `` prevents them from exploding. Celebrations to lark St

George's Day have seen parades and bell ringings across the region `

they've also, in some places, seen a joint celebration to mark

Shakespeare's birthday St Gdorge himself made an appearance hn

Nottingham city centre. And in Derby, they were marking thd 45 th

birthday of the bard with some patriotic verse. Followed your

spirit and upon your charge cry God for Harry, England and St Gdorge.

That's your news. So goodnight from me. Here with your weather now, it's

Anna Church. We had a largely dry day today but

we have very few sharp showdrs as you head out in the afternoon

tomorrow. The rain will be clearing the way to the East over thd next

few hours and given this a dry end to the night. Tomorrow mornhng, the

mist and fog will lift and clear and slowly that cloud will break through

the morning to give us some sunshine as we go into the afternoon. It is

largely dry. You just need to allow for one or two showers starting to

build. You are fairly lucky if you do get caught up in them. Hdre is

the outlook. unsubtle, so for the time being the

weekend doesn't look grey. Here s Nick Miller with the national

outlook. The weather is going downhill, and

here is why. Weekend weather developments are now to the

south-west of us, low-pressure forming, and this has the weekend

whether written all over it. But first to the weather front we have

now. Still some heavy bursts, maybe with a rumble of thunder,