27/11/2017 London News

fell into my life, I fell into her

life. It

Tonight

on BBC London News.

Turning her

back on extremism -

the mother who fled Syria

before her ex husband went on to

fight for so called Islamic State.

There were snipers,

the bullets were flying -

I remember passing my kids out under

the barbed wire, putting

the stroller under -

it was so scary.

Now she's campaigning

to educate other vulnerable women.

Also tonight.

I'm in Surrey where an investigation

has been launched into

allegations of child sex abuse

spanning three decades.

Plus calling time

on the decline of the British pub...

the Mayor's plan to reverse

the downward trend.

And heading for

a new life in London.

As Harry and Megan announce

their engagement we get reaction

to news of a royal wedding.

We can't wait for the day.

Congratulations, Meghan and Harry.

Good evening and welcome

to the programme.

I'm Victoria Hollins.

First tonight

a woman from north-west London,

who married the American leader

of so-called Islamic State

has spoken to the BBC

about turning her back on extremism.

Tania Georgelas, who grew up

in Harrow, travelled

to Syria with her children -

but fled the country before her now

ex-husband went on to fight for IS.

She's now dedicated her life

to countering extremism and wants

to warn other women about how

an ill-judged mistake cost her,

her family and 10 years of her life.

She's been speaking

to Rickin Majithia

from the BBC's Asian Network.

My name is Tania Georgelas.

For a decade I was

an Islamic extremist.

My ex-husband became a leading

member of the Islamic State and now

I'm hoping to counter his ideology.

In the late 1990s, Tania went

to high school here in Harrow.

It's a middle-class,

diverse London suburb.

I grew up here myself,

and went to school just three

miles down the road.

I didn't know her at the time

but know many people who did.

They have all described her

as a pretty normal teenager.

They say that she sometimes had

boyfriends and played

truant from school.

She wasn't known to be

especially religious or even

politically engaged.

So when did it all change?

I turned to religion

in my life when I was 17.

I just wanted to change my identity.

I didn't want to be Tania

from Harrow any more.

I wanted to be someone pious,

someone that people

didn't call a tart.

So it gave me structure in my life

that I needed and helped me feel

like I belonged somewhere.

In her late teens and early 20s,

Tania mixed with various

radical groups in London.

They changed the way

she looked at the world.

Our minds were being

filled with these images,

terrible, disturbing images.

They would give examples of what

happened in Srebrenica and Bosnia.

We were made to feel this shared

sense of guilt because we're

a community and it was our duty

to do something.

And that something was jihad.

In 2003, she married

John Georgelas, an American

convert she had met online.

Over the next eight years,

they lived across the UK,

the US and the Middle East.

By the time they reached Syria

in 2013, Tania was pregnant

with their fourth child.

I stayed in abandoned

homes by ex-military.

The windows had been blown out

and every single night,

I had become accustomed

to hearing gunfire.

By this point, Tanya

said she had started

to question the life of jihad.

She wanted to take

the children back to America.

After three weeks in Syria,

she pleaded with John

to let them escape.

He agreed.

There were bullets,

like snipers, on these towers,

shooting, and we could see

the bullets flying everywhere.

I remember putting my kids

through the barbed wire

and the Syrian refugees,

they were just guys,

they were helping us

as much as they could.

I put the stroller in and then John

passed me another baby.

It was so scary.

John remained in Syria

and went on to join

the so-called Islamic state.

Until earlier this year,

the group controlled vast

areas of Syria and Iraq,

where it implemented brutal rule

and killed thousands.

Tania says she hasn't heard

from John in over a year,

and doesn't know if he's

alive or dead.

The last thing he told me, the last

message, was that he apologises

for the wrong that he's done to me

and the children, and that

if I don't hear from him in six

months, it's most likely

because he's dead because he has

to fight, because the fight

Tania now lives

in the United states.

Her children are looked

after by John's parents and seem

well adjusted to American life.

Why should America give you a second

chance?

I think they should give me

a second chance because I realise I

was wrong and I've made mistakes. I

really want to make up for my

mistakes.

She says she's turned her back

on extremism in order

to use her experiences to deter

others from making

the same mistakes.

If you were to meet a woman

who was thinking about going down

the same path that you once took,

what would you say to her?

I would say, I lost my family,

I lost my home, I lost ten years

of my life that I should have been,

you know, working towards

an education and my career.

I have four children

who don't have a dad now.

Is this the situation

you want to be in?

Lots more

to come including....

The former councillor

who claimed he could walk zero

metres in zero minutes

walks free from court after being

convicted of benefit fraud.

A man who seriously

injured a model and her cousin

when he threw acid at them

through a car window has admitted

intentionally causing the pair

grievous bodily harm.

The attack happened in Beckton

in east London last June and left

both victims with scars

on their faces and bodies.

Ayshea Buksh reports.

They were two relatives travelling

through East London on their way to

celebrate a birthday. Rashid Khan

had just turned 21 and returned to

England after returning from abroad.

Her cousin Jamil was driving and had

an argument with a passer-by. When

they stopped the became victims of a

terrible acid attack. Jamil

described what happened.

He had some

sort of liquid bottle, it looked

like water to me and he started

squeezing it in our faces and all

over me. A lot of it went on her.

Within seconds she was screaming,

her eyes were blistering, her face

was melting, my clothes started

burning there was smoke coming off

the seats. Their attacker was John

Tomlin, from Canning town. He went

on the run and slept rough in Epping

Forest before handing himself into

the police. Both Resham and Jameel

suffered severe injuries and Jameel

was placed in an induced coma. This

arm is a mess, this part of my rest,

my arm, my back and legs.

Today in

Snaresbrook John Tomlin pleaded

guilty to two ounce of GBH with

intent. The judge asked for

psychiatric reports on Tomlin to be

prepared in order for her to

ascertain his dangerousness to the

public. Has posted images of her

recovery and Jameel is in terrible

pain from his injuries.

Tomlin will be sentenced early next

year.

Surrey police say a "large

and complex" investigation

is being carried out into historical

allegations of sexual abuse

at a children's home near Woking.

17 people have been arrested

or questioned about allegations

from former boarders

at Kinton Approved School,

also known as the Oaks Centre.

Marc Ashdown is at

Guildford Police Station.

The police say they lost the

investigation in May, 2013 when they

received allegations of child sex

abuse between 1970 and the early

2000 global Mac at this residential

children's home. It has long since

closed, we don't do much about it,

we believe it was a home for boys

aged 13-18. They stayed and studied

there. The figures involved are

quite staggering. The police say

they've spoken to 200 people in

their search for victims and

witnesses and say they have

interviewed or arrested 17 people

and question some under caution and

say they have 1500 separate lines of

enquiry. This children's home was

won by Surrey County Council between

1974 and when it closed in the early

2000s it was known latterly as the

Oaks Centre. They haven't been very

helpful today, we asked questions

about how many pupils would have

studied there, how many members of

staff and so far we have had no

answers. Safe to say the

investigation is vast.

Interesting

because there has been a case about

this school before.

That's right, in

2006 a man named Keith Hammerton,

aged 69, had been a house warden,

was convicted of a string of sex

assaults against two boys aged under

16 and was jailed for six years.

There's nothing to say that this

investigation is to do with him but

what is alarming is that the police

have launched this wide-ranging

investigation in 2013 and yet seven

years earlier a prominent figure at

the school was convicted of child

sex offences. Surrey County Council

say they are cooperating fully but

the police they that more victims

and potential suspects are coming to

light all the time and they urge

anyone who has anything to do with

the Oaks Centre in the 70s, 80s and

90s to get in touch with them

urgently and in confidence.

Thank

you for joining us.

Nine out of ten councils

raking in the most money

from parking charges are in London.

And between them, they net

more £200 million.

The RAC Foundation found

Westminster topped the list, making

more than 70 million last year.

That's almost double the amount

of the council in second place,

Kensington and Chelsea.

A former councillor

who claimed disability benefit

but was then caught driving

and building a shed

has escaped a prison sentence.

Robert Woodbridge, former

Labour deputy leader

of Swanley Town Council,

claimed he could walk "zero

metres for zero minutes"

because of the pain he was in.

He was convicted after

an investigation by the Department

of Work and Pensions.

Peter Whittlesea reports.

Captured on camera,

Robert Woodbridge pulling

a trailer across a road.

This footage taken by surveillance

teams from the Department of Work

and Pensions and prove the former

councillor from Swanley could easily

carry out everyday tasks and had

fraudulently claimed more

than £3,000 in benefits.

It was working in his allotment,

he was sawing fences,

he was pulling trailers along,

opening and closing doors,

walking along at a normal place.

The covert surveillance was done

over three months and we did 14-16

days and picked different days

throughout the week.

Very unlikely we'd actually

catch him on a good day every day.

Woodbridge claimed he was

so disabled he could walk zero

metres in zero minutes,

and throughout his trial

maintained the footage was taken

while he was having a good day

or had overdosed on painkillers.

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC told

Woodbridge that he was a man

of standing in the community,

someone who should have been a role

model to others, but by his actions

had betrayed those who were entitled

to look up and respect him.

Mr Woodbridge, the judge

said you failed to take

responsibility for your actions,

what do you say to that?

No comment, I'm not

commenting at all to you.

The judge also said you betrayed

all those people you stood

for as a counsellor.

What would you say to those people

who voted for you over the years?

We have no comment, thank you.

Investigating officers say

he refused to comment even

when he was confronted

with the covert surveillance

and showed no remorse when his

dishonesty was exposed in court.

Still to come.

The Londoner whose career

is going downhill fast -

we catch up with the 21-year-old

hoping to secure a place

at the Winter Olympics.

And...

I will be reporting from Windsor

where many residents are keeping

their fingers crossed this will be

where Prince Harry marries his

fiancee, Meghan, in these bring.

Pass in the spring.

For many of us,

going to the pub for lunch

or a drink with friends

is a popular past-time.

But there's been a big drop

in the number of bars

here in the capital in recent years.

In 2001 there was almost

4,900 pubs in London,

but last year that had dropped

to just over 3,500 -

a fall of 25%.

Now the Mayor Sadiq Khan has pledged

to do something to stop the closure

of these much loved institutions,

as part of his wider

plan for London.

More on that in a moment.

First Frankie McCamley has

been guaging reaction

at a pub in Central London.

Welcome to the old Cheshire cheese,

one of London's oldest pubs, right

in the heart of Fleet Street.

Downstairs here was built in the

13th century and survived the great

Fire of London. This is one of

London's in many pubs that have huge

cultural importance but what Sadiq

Khan wants to do is to make sure

developers across London are taking

pubs like this into consideration

when building new homes, making sure

they are soundproofed for example so

that when new homes are built,

people living in them will not then

complain about the noise that some

of these pubs have. However in

London over the last 15 years there

has been a 25% loss of pubs. Joining

me now, Tom from the campaign for

real ale. We've lost a lot of pubs

in London. Sadiq Khan wants to save

some, is it too little, too late?

No, we are encouraged by the movie

has made in terms of recognising the

huge value that pubs have two our

culture and our economy. They employ

9000 people across the UK and bring

in 20, 30 billion to the economy so

it's reassuring to see how important

he feels they are to London and the

country.

Why are some money pubs in

the city struggling?

A lot of

reasons, pressure from developers,

people make more money out of a plot

of land as residential Buttler

convenience stores. At the moment we

are seeing taxation threatened by

the late-night level, adding money

to the cost that consumers have to

pay at the bar.

Why is the local pub

so important to us?

They are vital,

I've already mentioned employment

but we've done studies showing they

are incredibly important in terms of

the social well-being and happiness

they bring. Just by going to a pub

you become part of a social network

that you don't get in any other way.

What we would call on, Sadiq Khan

has done a lot but with the London

boroughs we need to take it to heart

and ensure what was in doubt is

built into their local plan so it

isn't just talk, it is doing.

Thank

you for joining us. I'm going to

leave you with this historical pub

question, how many Tube stops in

London are named after pubs? I got

three but there are more.

Well that's

the picture down at the pub.

But it's just one of a range

of issues where the mayor is setting

out policy this week.

Our Political Editor

Tim Donovan is here.

And Tim, this is because he has

significant powers to shape

development in the capital?

Yes, later in the week it's called

the London plant, the draft of it,

is 600 pages. There's virtually

nothing about the look and feel of

the capital that this won't deal

with in terms of development. He has

started to pre-announce such as the

announcement on the pubs, and has

said he will add extra protection is

on the green belt. He said the

pressure is beginning to build, the

number of applications to build on

green belt has doubled over the last

couple of years. He wants fast food

to be enshrined in local planning

permission is that you don't build

fast food restaurants anywhere

within 400 metres of the school. Men

tomorrow we are led to believe there

will be stuff on cycling and walking

and the use of public transport. The

idea here, trying to achieve a modal

shift in the end. He once a 2% to

use those forms, and there will be

recommendations about more cycle

parking for instance on new housing

estates.

I'm sure one thing that

cannot be ignored is housing.

Yes,

and it's fundamental to nearly all

the other conditions such as cutting

down on the number of car parking

spaces, increasing the number of

cycling spaces. The big focus will

be on him reinforcing, saying again

he thinks we should be building

66,000 new homes per year, and there

will be a real emphasis this time on

how you build them, whether you we

are building densely enough. He

thinks there should be more density.

Lots to get through, thanks very

much indeed.

Charlie Raposo left

the UK at the age of 13

to follow his dream

of skiing at the Olympics.

Now 21, he's close to securing

a place in the Giant Slalom

at the 2018 Winter Olympics

in South Korea next February.

When he's back in the UK,

he calls Chelsea home,

and Sara Orchard caught up with him

at the Hemel Hempstead snow centre.

It's that time of year again.

Ski Sunday is coming

and so are the 2018 Winter Olympics

and whilst London might not

be famous for its mountainous ski

slopes, Charlie Raposo is thankful

for his family holidays

in Switzerland that have allowed him

to get within touching

distance of his dreams.

It's everything I've wanted

since I was a really young kid,

the Olympics by me up,

people running fire me up,

I love watching it and actually

being able to do it,

doesn't happen all the time

but when it does, it's amazing.

The Olympics is where I want to be.

When he's back in the UK he calls

Chelsea home but it he took

a calculated risk to get to the top

of the sport by moving to Vermont

in the USA to join a ski

academy and it paid off.

He is a three-time British champion

and this time the world

Junior Championships,

he finished sixth.

The reigning giant slalom

champion is the USA's

Ted Ligarty and as he continues

to collect points for

the Olympics in 2018,

Charlie hopes it will normalise

the skill of competing for Team GB.

It doesn't seem like a race

I will be doing in two weeks' time,

I have to treated the same,

you are standing at the opening

ceremony, thousands of people

there watching, not specifically

you but you as a whole,

the athletes, you get used to it,

I've done World Championships,

four world junior championships.

Charlie's time in London is brief

but when he's here he's training

and feeds off the city's energy.

I come back and the first day I come

back I am walking to the gym,

feeling the city buzz around,

watching these people

who have their own hustle

and fight going on.

Everyone is busy trying

to make their way in life and I get

a lot of energy from that.

The Winter Olympics start

on the 9th of February.

It's the one story that's

dominated the headlines -

news of a Royal wedding next spring.

Following days of intense

speculation, Prince Harry

and Meghan Markle

today announced their

much-anticipated engagement.

Now come the questions surrounding

the arrangements for the big day.

From Windsor, Sarah Harris reports.

A lot of people excited here in

winter, as they have been everywhere

we've gone in London today. Harry is

a popular member of the Royal family

and most people are happy that he is

happy. A lot of eagle eyed residents

have known that they pull the 20th

seems to have been booked out but no

official word yet. Meghan making

London her home now, where she is

already established herself on the

social scene.

Soho house, one of the most

exclusive private members club in

London, it's where behind closed

doors Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

hit it off at the start of their

relationships. Members were

celebrating the news of their

engagement.

I can't wait for it.

Just like William's where everyone

was united and loved it, we cannot

wait for the day.

My mum said if

everybody had a child with someone

who was a different race from them,

it would solve all the wars in the

world and racism.

Congratulations!

Prince Harry is one of the most

popular members of the Royal family

and the goodwill extends to best

wishes for his wedding.

In a way it

is good, it is good for us lot in

this country that he's getting

married, he's a good boy.

This time

last year Prince Harry and Meghan

came here to Battersea Park to

choose their wrist mystery for

Nottingham Cottage where they live

at Kensington Palace. This year

there's a few brokenhearted ladies

wishing it was them.

Absolutely

gutted. He is so amazing.

We were

trying to hunt him down but we

couldn't find him and now Meghan has

got him.

But she is amazing and

gorgeous so fair play to her.

Meghan

was already established on the

social scene here in the capital.

She is often seen buying flowers and

whole foods in the Royal Borough of

Kensington and Chelsea. But will the

old families living near the Kings

Road take her into the fold?

It's

great for morale in the country at

this point.

Are you pleased with his

choice of bride?

Yes. Could have

been a lot worse, couldn't it?

Not

everyone agrees with the monarchy

but most like a wedding and a love

story, and a royal one at that.

So

the guessing game is on. No one

knows officially yet exactly when or

where this royal wedding will be but

I can tell you that Prince Charles

married Camilla here at St George 's

Chapel, as did Prince Edward, who

married Sophie. One of the owners of

the souvenir shops has said he's

already sent off Prince Harry and

Meghan's photograph to go on the

Windsor tea towels so I hope for his

sake he is right.

Now let's check on the weather

with Elizabeth Rizzini.

And it's felt a little bit chilly

today, I have to say.

It is chilly this afternoon but

actually it was really quite mild

this morning.

It was quite a wet start and

temperatures peaked at 10 degrees

which is a lot milder than it was at

the weekend. Then we have the older,

more sunny stuff coming through the

afternoon. If the weekend was too

cold for you, it's time to look away

now because it will get even colder

as we had through this week,

progressively colder. We will see

this cold air coming from the Arctic

and temperatures will drop away with

a chilly northern wind around to

boot. This week we are talking about

it turning colder again and that

hanging on for quite some time. It

should stay mostly dry but there

could be showers towards eastern

areas, then it will turn briefly but

only briefly milder as we had

through the weekend. This is

tonight, we are into the colder air

so it will feel chilly. There will

be cloud coming and going, in the

more sheltered spots away from the

brisk wind we will probably see

temperatures drop a little bit below

freezing but otherwise hanging on at

around three Celsius into tomorrow

morning. Chilly start the day

tomorrow. There will be cloud around

in the morning but it will clear

away quickly. It should stay dry

through the day and we could season

sunshine but we still have the brisk

north-westerly wind around and that

will make everything feel cold.

Temperatures reaching 8 degrees so

much colder feeling day, maybe some

showers as we head towards the end

of the day. That was Tuesday.

Wednesday is looking similar. The

best of any sunshine is likely to be

towards western areas, where further

east there will be quite a bit of

cloud. The wind could drive some

showers a way as we had through into

Thursday and Friday. Some of those

showers turning icy at times and it

showers turning icy at times and it

is turning a lot colder. Thank you

very much indeed.

Now the main headlines....

Clarence House has

announced that Prince Harry

is to marry his girlfriend,

the American actress

Megan Markle, next spring.

The couple, who will live

at Kensington Palace,

became engaged in the capital

earlier this month.

Two pharmaceutical firms

have announced they are investing

more than a billion pounds

in the UK, creating more

than 1800 jobs in

London and Manchester.

A man who seriously injured

a model and her cousin when he threw

acid at them has admitted

intentionally causing the pair

grievous bodily harm.

That's it.

I'll be back later during the ten

o'clock news, but for now

from everyone on the team

have a lovely evening.

Goodbye.