19/12/2016 London News

We did not want to hear that. That is all from us.

Tonight on BBC London News: Stabbed to death as she tried

to protect her children from a scizophrenic intruder -

I don't think there should be much blame attached to anyone. The person

was extremely ill and what happened could not really have been foreseen

or prevented. The fallout from too

much festive fun - London Ambulance report one

of their busiest weekends ever. Plus the Met release recordings

of 999 calls NOT needing Plus from the strikes of the '70s

to the present day - calls for legislation to tackle

an age-old problem. A Christmas dinner with a

difference, the alternative locations serving up turkey and

trimmings. Good evening and welcome

to the programme. A man who killed a mother-of-two,

while her husband listened helplessly on the phone will spend

an indefinite time in a secure psychiatric unit after pleading

guilty to manslaughter on grounds Nicola Cross was stabbed to death

by a complete stranger who was suffering from paranoid

schizophrenia as she tried to stop him from kidnapping her two

children at the family home in Hemel Despite officers being called

earlier in the evening, he was allowed to go home,

before breaking into the victim's Her family said she enjoyed the

perfect life. 37-year-old Nicola Cross from Hemel Hempstead had a

loving husband and two adored young children but a random and brutal act

of madness took it all away. Warehouse worker Martin was

suffering from paranoid schizophrenia when he broke into her

home in September last year, stabbing her ten times. That led to

an outpouring of grief on the road where Nicola Cross was a much loved

member of the community. In sentencing, the judge said the

circumstances in which you killed Nicola Cross were actually horrific

and senseless and represented every parent and husband's worst

nightmare. He said you've left the family utterly devastated and two

young children without the wonderful mother who so loved and cared for

them. When she discovered the break-in, Nicola called her husband

Danny, seen here leaving the court, who was away for work. He told the

judge in a statement, that phone call plays over and over in my head.

With no history of violence, experts say there was no way in predicting

such brutality. I think it was really a tragic and unforeseen

instance, I don't think there should be much blame attached to anyone.

The person was extremely ill and what happened could not really have

been foreseen or prevented. Friends and neighbours who live on this

tight-knit estate in Hemel Hempstead supported the family through the

court proceedings and the judge paid tribute to the dignity they showed

throughout. Martin admitted killing Nicola Cross, telling doctors he had

to sacrifice her to save his own family. He will serve an indefinite

term at a psychiatric unit. The judge described the young mother as

a heroic but ultimately defenceless in trying to protect her children.

The chief inspector of schools warns of bigger class sizes and fewer

teachers in the capital as he is outgoing.

Now you'd expect London Ambulance crews to be busy at this time

of year, but last weekend was the busiest for

The service says incidents involving alcohol were the most common cause

for a callout to people in their twenties and Londoners are

Gareth Furby joined paramedics covering Friday night's late shift.

We are with a paramedic who's duty is to respond

in minutes to emergencies, but in the early hours

This call is to a kebab shop in Hackney, to a

What's happened is too much to drink, a condition

that is entirely self-inflicted, but the emergency services

It seems that she does need to be looked after and is vulnerable,

to a level where she can get home safely by herself.

That safe place was in hospital and at the weekend

it seems this issue was repeated again and again.

In London, there were more than 16,000 emergency calls

to the ambulance service, making it the busiest

Another call-out was to the City of London

where they were several exclusive Christmas events, but at one,

I think he'd been out on a work do and a lot of people intoxicated

and caused a fight and he's taken a few punches to the face.

An arrest was made but after being examined by the paramedic,

the victim decided to decline hospital treatment and an ambulance

wasn't required, but in many other cases at the weekend,

it was a different story and pre-Christmas drinking

If someone is unconscious, we need to get to those patients

really quickly because there could be an underlying condition

like a head injury or a serious illness that is causing

the patient to be unconscious so we have to prioritise those

patients and clearly when it is just alcohol-related we do have other

critical patients that we need to get to so we've managed it,

But on the street, it was often challenging.

Here, the paramedics' vehicle was flagged down

And the paramedic called the police as well as treating the man.

Londoners will continue to celebrate the build-up to Christmas,

but the emergency services have to deal with the fallout

Well, it's not only the ambulance service who are dealing

The Metropolitan Police has released recordings of 999 calls they've

received over the past year from Londoners not requiring

They dealt with around 5 million 999 and 101 calls last year.

And the number's rising - up 200,000 on last year.

So the last thing the police need are calls like this.

Somebody was concerned because there was a fox outside the house. Aside

from the ones we put out, people phoning my operators at Christmas

asking how to cook a turkey. They're stopping genuine calls getting

through any genuine emergency and that is the message behind this

campaign. The Met say just 220 Londoners

were responsible for 66,000 improper What can you do? Is it a case of

telling them not to ring again? Or did you say you will come round to

knock on their adored if they do it again? My operators attain to give

advice and we work with neighbouring teams across London. We had 25

arrest this year, three of which have ended up with custodial

sentences, the most recent a lady from Hackney was given a sentence at

the beginning of December. The message is a clear one -

work with us by not wasting our time Scotland Yard will trial the use

of spit hoods across north east London despite plans to use

the controversial hoods was halted after the election

of Sadiq Khan as Mayor. It will now rollout the three-month

pilot across five custody suites following consultations

in the boroughs involved. The mesh masks cover a suspect's

head and prevent violent offenders from spitting and biting officers,

exposing them to the risk Another day, another strike

on Southern Rail services and with no sign of an agreement

on the horizon, commuters face a New Year with

the same old disruption. So is it time for legislation to ban

or at least limit industrial action? We'll discuss the issues

in just a moment. First this from our transport

correspondent Tom Edwards. The empty stations were proof

of London's considerable January 1979 and there's

a strike on Southern Rail. If that sounds familiar,

so too will the commuter anger. It is merely hitting

the wretched commuter They're putting up fares but not

giving anything to us in return. We're a lot busier

than we anticipated. Last week this was Brockley

overground as another strike meant Londoners had to find other routes

and now there's there a work to rule on the tube strikes

on airlines and this was a communication worker's

demonstration this morning. We're in a position now

to convince the list --rest of the world,

London post-Brexit is a place you want to set up your

business and thrive. It's not going to help

anybody if the image around the world is one of strikes,

delays, not being able to go on trains, not

being able to get on planes. In 1979, the winter of discontent

left rubbish in the streets. Compared to 2015, the amount

of action has increased this year but it is still a long way

from the levels of the late '70s. If you actually look

at the statistics, the number of days lost to strike action

in 2016 was 300,000. Compare that to the winter

of discontent in 1979 and it was 29 million,

100 times worse. Despite what's happening this week,

industrial relations are so much better is much harder for trade

unions to go on strike. They have to ballot members,

give them notice, and that's going to get tougher in the New Year

with legislation coming in so that The Government says these strikes

show contempt for ordinary people. Unions say the dispute uncoordinated

but there is widespread discontent. Joining me is the Conservative MP

for Croydon South and a representative from the RMT union.

You save Southern strike action is all about safety, but this system

has been widely used since the 1980s on trains. Why are you now saying

it's not safe? It has only spread out to 30% of the old British

Railways. It is fraught with problems and danger. It isn't about

passenger safety, though, is it? It's about job security. It isn't,

job security has been offered. But you've lost anyway because it has

been ruled out on Southern trains so why are you continuing to strike?

We're trying to stop the erosion of safety on the railways. We are

saying it is not safe and enough is enough. Broadly speaking, the

travelling public on Southern support us. I disagree, there is no

evidence there is a safety issue. 1.5 million trains in the last five

years have operated bus driver operated doors. There hasn't been a

single fatality. The only single fatality in the last five years

across 5 million journeys was where the guard was operating the door.

Most of continental Europe works with driver operated doors and

Liverpool City Council yesterday voted to use driver operated doors

on the rail line they control. This is a red herring, it's about

industrial muscle. The RMT want to keep control of the guard pressing

the button to open the door so in future if they go on strike, they

can shut down the network and that is not acceptable. Nonsense. To

trivialise this dispute as being about who presses a button shows a

total lack of understanding. Chris and other conservative MPs in the

South East have prolonged industrial action by the support for this

basket case company. He's not representing the constituents, he is

pursuing a political agenda and that is to bash her union. You say

passengers are behind you, do you really believe that? Absolutely. I

understand that upset and they are upset with the trade union, with the

Government, with the management. Broadly speaking, they understand

what the RMT are doing. These people are injured misery under this

company and a half. For someone to come on TV and trivialise it about

who presses a button is an absolute disgrace. I remember Parliament to

treat his constituents with such content is incredible. Let's broaden

out this message. Is legislation something you are looking to go

down? Yes, and it is the units are inflicting the misery. On the

question of legislation, what we've seen in the last few weeks is a few

hundred guards and drivers preventing 300,000 people from

getting to work on getting home to see their loved ones. I accept the

right to strike and I understand if workers think they are unfairly

treated should have that right, but the right to strike should be

balanced with the right of the public to get to work and see their

family. The only problem with that as it is with Spain and Italy, it

becomes something that doesn't even affect the service. If there's a

strike on public infrastructure, it should be proportionate and

reasonable in the High Court should adjudicate that. In Canada, only 50%

of the network can get shut down so I accept the right to strike but I

also want to defend the right of my neighbours and constituents to get

to work and see their loved ones. That balance is iffy thing and even

a Labour MP said yesterday that the unions have pushed us too far. I

honestly believe the travelling public support and understand the

reasons why we want to keep the railways safe will stop I think it

is Chris that is not listening to his constituents and perhaps at some

point you will have to start listening to them because the

realism of an election is coming at some point and it'll give them

something to think about. London schools could be facing

bigger class sizes and fewer That's according to the out-going

chief inspector of schools. Sir Michael Wilshaw leaves office

next week after five years. to prevent vulnerable pupils

being exposed to radicalisation. Our education reporter Marc Ashdown

has been speaking to him. "Ofsted rates the school as",

one phrase which can make or break For five years, Sir Michael Wilshaw

has been at the helm. London schools he says are the best

year ever but a new funding formula I think it's going

to be more difficult. There's no question any

funding cut or any funding It might mean larger classes,

it might mean there will be it might mean that schools might not

be able to appoint support staff in the numbers they were previously

doing, but these things happen and it's really up to head

teachers and governors to accommodate their staff and

requirements to meet any shortfall. For most of his tenure, Michael Gove

was Education Secretary. To say he was controversial

is an understatement. I didn't agree with him

on everything but his was the questions that have to be

asked are, is giving more power to people

on the front line a good thing? Was the examination system not

competing with the world? Yes, yes, it wasn't competing,

so we address those issues and somebody had to do that

and he did it and occasionally, problems were poured upon him,

but I supported him He cites the Trojan horse affair

as his biggest challenge. Possible plots to radicalise

schools, partly focused One of the great dangers of autonomy

in some of the schools, most of the schools were talking

about, the Trojan horse Those governors did what they did

partly because they realised that there wasn't sufficient

scrutiny taking place. The local authority had

washed its hands of these schools They felt they could bring

in their own particular ideologies and I think we've got to learn

from that, that all schools, whether academies

or free schools, need We don't do enough to promote good

leadership in the country. I'm sad at the demise

of the National College of School Leadership,

which was Tony Blair's idea, How do we get great leaders

into unfashionable places? That's going to be the big

challenge over the next few years, particularly

with diminishing budgets. Do you think it has been

an astounding performance? That's rather astute

to make a judgment. I've challenge the education

system in this country That has caused trouble from time

to time and I have spoken out from time to time and I challenged

the Government from time to time but lovely people,

when they look back at my time in office, will say,

he was in it for the right reason, Greenwich Park, Buckingham Palace,

the Tower of London - all protected because of the special

contribution they make to London, but now some lesser-known sites have

also been given similar protection One in particular is a small patch

of land in south east London. Our reporter Thomas Magill has

been to find out why. It may look like an ordinary patch

of green space but this little hill is anything but. In fact, it's a

4000 year old burial ground now -- known as a barrow. It could have

been twice the height it was now. Historic England have decided to

give this ancient burial spot special status, meaning protection

from development for ever. Its significance isn't immediately

apparent, for those walking past it today, it is the movie welcome.

There is no door to get inside so it's got to be something. It's

history. I think we have to protect it. I'm really surprised, I thought

it was just a random patch of land! This year alone, over 1000 sites

have been given protected status, this being one of many in London and

it's significant because it is the last barrow support from a group of

six in this area. The others were all destroyed to make way for these

homes. That's not uncommon. Many similar sites have been lost in

London over the centuries as it drew and expanded -- grew, and that is a

concern for experts to see places like this can tell is vast amounts

about the way we lived in the past. It's like a pyramid and it is

positioned at one of the highest points in London which means it was

probably the Bronze Age equivalent of the Shard and it would have been

the best vantage point. This war memorial dedicated to over 2000 city

employees at the church of Saint Michael also made the list. As for

shrews barrow, now safe, but who and what lies beneath is yet to be

discovered. It's that time of year for eating

too much and enjoying In London, there are hundreds

of restaurants offering a special But, as our reporter Victoria Cook

has been finding out, there are some places slightly more

unusual than others. You know, I think it's

time to find something First stop, a special

school dinner for wizards. This is Christmas dinner

here at Hogwarts in the Great Hall. Quite a few people have got dressed

up for the occasion. And, of course, the

dreaded Death Eaters. I've come all the way from Canada

just for the Harry Potter dinner. The chance to have dinner

in the Great Hall feels like you're re-enacting those parts

of the movies. It's a present from our

parents for Christmas. Well, this is my next

stop in Old Street. Inside, it's a seven-course

Nordic yule feat. I'm not sure I have much room

after visiting Hogwarts. It's a Scandinavian

winter wonderland. All this pops up for Christmas

and then disappears again. We didn't want to go

for a traditional Christmas-cracker lunch, we wanted to do

something different. I've tried everything and I'm

so full, but I think I have got room This is my final stop ?

Christmas dinner on the Tube. This disused carriage

sits in Walthamstow, a four-course meal on board is ?75,

but they don't take Oyster cards. We're used to being

on the underground, but it's nice I've eaten on trains that move,

but not on one standing still! To eat in a Tube carriage,

it doesn't get much Well, I never thought I'd get

to eat Christmas dinner I am completely full

and definitely can't walk. The good news is, I'm on the Tube,

so I'm going to see if the driver Let's get a check on the weather

with Elizabeth Rizzini. Another grey, gloomy start to the

day. My favourite picture is this one of the market. A lot of mist and

rain around today. The rest of the week will be unsettled. We have a

strengthening jet stream and it will turn wet and windy at times but

tomorrow is the nicest day of the next few. Try and break with

sunshine around and after that it turns unsettled and windy as we head

towards the end of the week and there will be some outbreaks of

rain, fluctuating between mild and cooler weather, but will it be a

white Christmas in London? Unlikely, but it is possible, so keep an eye

on the National forecast for other part of the country. This room

wasn't amounting to much at all and is clearing overnight tonight. We

will see clear spells develop even there. Whatever patches of fog

possibly and even some frost into tomorrow -- watch out for patches of

fog. Lows of four or five Celsius. Into tomorrow, we lose the grey

weather and it should brighten up and we will see sunshine he learned

there, the nicest day of the next few, we are looking at temperatures

between six and eight Celsius. On Wednesday, it will turn milder and

it will be quite drab again. I think we'll see Opec 's of rain here. A

mishmash of weather. Christmas Eve is looking blustery and there could

be showers at times. Now the main headlines:

Russia's Ambassador to Turkey has been shot and killed in an attack

at an art exhibition A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman

said Andrei Karlov died of his wounds after he was attacked

while making a speech at a gallery. The UN Security Council has approved

the deployment of observers to Aleppo as thousands of people

are evacuated from We'll be back later during the ten

o clock news, but for now, from everyone on the team,

have a lovely evening.