08/05/2017 East Midlands Today

Here on BBC One, it's time for the news where you are.

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Geeta Pendse.

First tonight - East Midlands Today can reveal that more than 50

suspects in a historical child abuse inquiry, have died.

They've been reported to a long-running investigation

into the care system in Nottinghamshire.

The police have identified hundreds

of potential victims, but it's been hard to find evidence.

And one survivors' group says it's very concerned that more suspects

Our social affairs correspondent, Jeremy Ball, reports.

The police are listening and they are helping.

It took decades for Sharon to go to the

police to say she had been raped and repeatedly abused by a man that

worked at the children's home where she was a teenage resident.

But she has never had her day in court.

That's because Sharon has been assessed as

having a psychiatric condition, probably caused by childhood abuse,

which means she wouldn't make a credible witness.

I will never get justice for what he did to me.

He would get me to stay behind, help clean up

He punched me in the face and he raped me on a table.

That is why a lot of people stopped talking about

it, stopped telling, because people did not listen to us.

Sharon is part of a vast police investigation into child

abuse in the care system across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire over

She is one of more than 300 men and women who have come forward

They've made 680 separate allegations.

Detectives have recorded around 400 potential abusers.

And actually all of the unidentified subjects could be one

We know that over 50 of them are dead.

We rely so heavily now on forensic evidence,

telephone evidence, CCTV, things like that.

but when we are dealing with historic allegations

and historic investigations, such as what you see

in Operation Equinox, we don't have that benefit, and so

it makes it all the more challenging.

But this former social worker has been brought to justice.

Andris Logins was jailed for 20 years for sex

attacks on several youngsters he was supposed to be caring for.

It all happened at the old Beachwood children's home in Mapperley, where

the abuse enquiries began back in 2011.

We are very concerned with the number

of cases going to court, because actually, there

is absolutely no deterrent there to the people who

abuse and there is no incentive there are two people that have been

accused, including rape victims, to come forward.

It was our role to keep children safe and we clearly didn't.

But this public apology has been welcomed by

survivors and now they are working with the authorities in

Nottinghamshire, so victims get the help they need.

The support, traditionally, has been towards

Now Sharon is pinning her hopes on the

independent enquiry into child sex abuse.

That won't put anyone in jail, but it will try to establish

the truth, so the sins of the past aren't repeated.

..he was threatening, he was a nasty man.

So, Jeremy, is it too late for most victims to get justice?

Well, Geeta, the police are still investigating

and a handful of suspects are still facing prosecution, but the focus of

this, really, is shifting now to the independent child sex

Now, this Thursday, that is going to open its strand

It will be looking at whether there were

institutional failings by the

city or county councils, it'll be looking at whether lessons have been

learned and while it's not a court, it's not going to be deciding

whether anybody is guilty of abuse, there will be chances for survivors

to tell their stories - either privately or publicly.

The hope is, really, that that can also give them

OK, Jeremy Ball, thank you very much.

A woman who was found seriously injured at a house in Derby four

Jane Sherrett was discovered at her home on Avondale Road

Her husband, Paul Sherrett, was charged with attempted murder

The biggest-ever financial gift from an individual has been given

to the University of Leicester to boost kidney research.

More than ?3 million has been donated in total by Colombian

entrepreneur Jimmy Mayer, after his son was diagnosed

Today, the pair flew in from South America to see

the labs where their money will be spent funding vital research.

Scientists say the donation will transform their work and could be

I know there is no promises, there is no guarantees.

But if we can add just a little bit to the knowledge and help

Next the Nottinghamshire businessman who's on a crusade to make

mental health education compulsory in schools.

Adam Shaw's charity has gathered over 100,000 signatures

for an online petition, which means the plan will be debated

More from Rob Sissons, our health correspondent.

Adam is standing up to talk about mental health after years of

He battled from the age of five with anxiety, panic attacks and

Though a by-product of his obsessive-compulsive disorder,

was that he developed a very big successful legal business.

Anyone could look from the outside and I

had the houses, I had the cars, I had the holidays, but I didn't have

Adam sold his business and is now involved is what he

It is to get mental health taught in schools.

He insists it should be compulsory, but

at the Shaw Mind Foundation, a charity he set up in Newark,

they have gathered enough signatures now to

secure a Parliamentary debate on the school 's idea.

There is an absolute epidemic of mental health problems

in our children and it's only going to get worse with social media.

With no education around it, it's going

to get worse, it's going to get worse,

and it's going to be a

But the only way you can address it is to make it compulsory,

because what's going on in schools at the moment

by the Government as this reactive way of dealing with it is not going

It becomes a box ticking exercise, which lets the teachers

down, it lets the schools down, and lets the sufferers down.

We need to be careful that what we are not

doing is assuming that schools are the answer to everything.

There are some young people who are going to

And the Government need to make sure that

Adam realises mental health is a hot topic

during the election, with

politicians keen to show their credential.

But he says for years successive governments just haven't

Rob Sissons, BBC East Midlands Today.

Well, with me is Doctor Lucy Morley, who is a consultant

psychiatrist with Caams - the Child And Adolescent Mental

First of all, I mean, do you support this idea

of compulsory mental health education in schools?

I think we would support anything that removes the stigma and

shame surrounding mental health difficulties for children and young

We find that too many young people are suffering from

sometimes quite very serious mental health difficulties, such as eating

disorders, anxiety, depression, and self harming.

And aren't coming to services early enough.

And do you think, in that case, if they had

this compulsory education, it would mean that

perhaps by the time they

reach you, they're often at crisis point, it could avoid that?

We are moving as much as we can towards

early intervention and prevention to try

and get young people coming into

services before they ever reached crisis point.

That would lead to a better outcome for them and for

There was a bit of concern in the report, though, that

this could put too much pressure on schools.

Obviously, you are a qualified professional in this area.

Schools are under enormous pressure to deliver

They all work at the moment very effectively with all the other

agencies that they need to, To deliver the best for childrens'

Children are very stressed at the moment.

It's stats week and GCSEs week and schools are working as hard

as they can to support young people in very,

All right. We will have to leave it there.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Staff at Attenborough Nature Reserve in Nottinghamshire are clearing up

a load of rubbish which has been fly-tipped over the weekend.

Office chairs, an old vacuum cleaner and even a portable toilet

were hidden in bushes near the main car park.

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust says volunteers are having to spend hours

A Derbyshire man has fulfilled a lifelong dream

by seeing his screenplay turned into a film.

Interlude In Prague, which follows a turbulent few months

in the life of Mozart, has been co-written by 81-year-old

Brian was working on the script for 17 years and nearly gave up

It has its world premiere on Thursday.

I was close to giving up, to be honest.

Because I had gone down the wrong to try to get the screenplay filmed.

And I realised, you know, I was a complete amateur and so I could

That's when I realised that it was worth picking

So, it's goodbye from me, but with your weather

As we go through to the weather for the week ahead, to start off with,

it looks as though there is not much change.", mostly dried, some sunny

spells. As we go to the end of the working more unsettled and busy

times of sundry showers in there as well. As we have a look at the

detail over the course of tonight, quite a cloudy affair. Spectrum

spots of rain. Slightly cooler in rural slots is leaving. Looking at

tomorrow, quite a cloudy picture. Just a few very light showers and

places. Brighter spells where that crowd thins and breaks and highs of

around 30 degrees osseous. As we go through Tuesday night into the early

hours of Wednesday morning, that is when things start to change a

little. Cloud receding over Tuesday night. Expecting lows of around five

Celsius. Cloud staying away for the site of Wednesday. Looking as though

the brightest and funniest day of the week on Wednesday. Make the most

of it first thing in the morning, because I cloud will certain groups

of the course of the day. Cabbages matching Byzantine, highs of 16

Celsius. Low pressure starts to take charge of the weather. The system

moving up from the south, bringing some rain with it. Gardeners may be

happy about that, because we have had a very dry spell of weather

recently. Highs of 17 Celsius as we go through Thursday. On Friday, that

is when this showery rain starts to move north and it could be a little

boundary in nature with highs of 16 to 17 Celsius. I will leave you with

the will become drier and feel warm. Now

the National forecast. Good evening. A quiet day on the

weather front but we still managed to have some huge contrasts in the

weather. This was a beautiful picture from Cumbria, blue skies and

crystal clear blue skies in Argyll and Bute but closer to the north

coast, it sends shivers down your spine! Chilly and cloudy all along

that cost this bank of cloud that sliced the country in half, cool and

cloudy to the east and to the West had sunshine. But it still been dry

and it will stay that way for most of the week. As we get into Friday,

there is some rain on the way. In the short-term, not much happening

in the next few hours, quite a bit of cloud in most of England and

Wales but many northern and western parts, the stars are out.

Temperatures not too low, six