08/01/2018 London News

inspired by so-called Islamic State.

That

Good evening.

Coming up on BBC London news:

A mother whose sick daughter

could be placed in foster care

following a row with doctors

at Kings College Hospital

over her treatment.

All I've got at heart

is her best interests,

and for them to take her away

from me is going to kill her.

It will kill her.

She can't cope without us.

But the authorities say the mother's

intervention could be further

harming 11-year-old Melody.

Also tonight: A 17-year-old admits

Also tonight: A 17-year-old

admits to carrying out

a spate of acid attacks.

Plus, we meet the 67-year-old who

battled blood cancer

for years without success

and claims taking turmeric

helped her fight the disease.

And decades of history under threat

as London's historic India Club

faces closure.

A very warm welcome to the programme

with me, Riz Lateef.

The mother of an 11-year-old girl

who has a life-limiting illness has

been warned that her daughter may be

taken into foster care if she fails

to co-operate with doctors

at Kings College Hospital.

Melody Driscoll has a rare genetic

disorder that causes

mental and physical disability.

Croydon Council says it's

taking the legal action

on the advice of the hospital,

which claims Melody's parents

are "obstructing her care".

But they claim they are acting in

her best interests.

Marc Ashdown reports.

# You just hold me...

It's fair to say she's up

there amongst his biggest fans.

So when Melody Driscoll

received a surprise visit

from Ed Sheeran last year,

it was a dream come true.

But Melody's day-to-day

life is very different.

SHE CRIES.

Her mother says these bouts

of intense pain happen daily and can

last up to two hours at a time.

In the past, Melody has been

administered strong painkillers,

but King's College Hospital

is trying to wean her off them,

against her parents' wishes.

She starts attacking herself.

She can't keep her body

still on the bed, she starts trying

to throw herself off.

She tries to rip out every line

possible and she looks at you...

Sorry, she looks at you with these

eyes that say "Help me".

And there's nothing I can do,

because they won't let me help her.

We filmed in happier times last

year, when Melody was living

at home with her family.

She suffers from a range

of complex medical conditions,

and could die at any point.

It was decided four years ago

at Great Ormond Street

that it was about her quality

of life rather than quantity of life

because if we didn't

control her pain and her symptoms,

she was stuck in hospital

and she wouldn't have no life

and she was always in pain.

So by giving her these medications,

it got her home, she was happy

and she was going to school.

But in July, she fell ill and has

been in hospital ever since.

The dispute over her

care has escalated.

Croydon Council has now intervened.

They wrote to Mrs Driscoll saying:

We are concerned about your ability

to care for your child, citing her

refusal to allow medical

professionals to treat Melody by

obstructing and refusing to

co-operate with her medical plan.

Consultants have advised of the

harmful risks that continued use of

morphine could cause to Melody's

liver, which could eventually lead

to her death. They say are they are

concerned that if she were sent

home, Mrs Driscoll would not appear

to the advice of medical

professionals and Melody could be at

risk of suffering significant harm

in her care. There are now. The

letter states that the plan is to

place Melody in foster care.

Croydon told us these types

of cases are difficult

where there are complex health

and care needs and differing

medical opinions.

They say they always seek

to work with the family.

The trust which runs

King's College Hospital said

all the decisions taken

by their expert medical

team are done so in

the patient's best interest.

Karina is fighting on.

She's hired the solicitors

who represented Charlie Gard's

parents, who had a well-publicised

battle with doctors at Great Ormond

Street over his treatment.

These are medical experts.

Do they not know best?

If you have got something that

actually is working,

why take that away from her?

They say they are doing it

to give her quantity of life.

But is it fair to have a quantity

of life full of pain?

Coming up later in the programme:

New powers to prevent unsafe laser

pens from coming into the country -

and being used recklessly

against pilots and drivers.

A 17-year-old boy has admitted

carrying out a series of acid

attacks against moped riders.

On 13th July last

year, the teenager -

who cannot be named because of his

age - targeted six riders

in one night to try

and steal their vehicles.

Chris Rogers is at the scene

of the first attack in Hackney.

It was 10.25 on the evening of July

the 13th last year when a man was

found screaming in agony on the road

just behind me. He had had acid

thrown in his face. His moped had

been stolen and within minutes, 20

fellow careers from the same company

arrived at the scene. They had

already warned police they feared an

attack like this would happen. They

had heard his attack on their

communication system. Over the next

90 minutes, another five couriers

were attacked with acid in an

attempt to steal their bikes. The

17-year-old responsible for those

attacks pleaded guilty at the start

of his trial today. He has been

named as Derek John, from Croydon.

The judge lifted the reporting ban

on identifying him, saying there is

a huge public interest in knowing

who was responsible for these

horrific attacks, which left one

courier with life-changing facial

injury. The boy's mother left court

crying today. It comes after the

government announced new measures to

try and stop the spate of acid

attacks in London and across the

country with a voluntary code of

practice for retailers banning under

18s from buying corrosive liquids.

In the last 24 hours, victims and

their families have taken to social

media, saying the measures don't go

far enough.

Chris, thank you.

An academic who was viciously

beaten in his home in Wimbledon

by burglars believes he would be

dead if it wasn't for

his local police station.

That's why Paul Kohler is now

planning to take Mayor Sadiq Khan

to court over plans to close

local police stations.

Karl Mercer has been

speaking to him.

This was Paul Kohler more

than three years ago,

severely beaten after an attack

at his home.

This is him today, the bruises gone,

but not the memories of the night

four men burst into his home.

My wife and I were in

the back of the house.

There was a knock at the door,

I opened the door and four guys

rushed in and started beating me.

Something out of a gangster movie.

As the police rushed through

the door, he was about to bring

a heavy wooden door down on my head,

so we were seconds

away from oblivion.

The local police station is just

a couple of hundred yards away

from Mr Kohler's home in Wimbledon.

It was officers from here who burst

through his door to save him.

But this station, like others

in the capital, is set to close

under City Hall plans.

Mr Kohler is threatening a judicial

review of that decision.

I also feel a huge warmth

to the police for saving me,

so I want to stand up for them.

They are enduring these cuts

and I want to say on their behalf,

this has gone too far.

And police keep

telling me, carry on.

You're doing the right thing.

So to an extent, I'm

speaking on behalf of them,

because they can't speak.

Wimbledon is one of 37 police

stations the Mayor plans

to close over coming years,

but he says he's been left no choice

due to Government cuts,

which means the Met will have

to save more than £400 million

over the coming years.

Back in 2008, there were 149 police

front counters around London.

Boris Johnson shut more than half,

meaning there are 73

currently left open,

but 37 of those are listed

for closure, dotted

all around the capital

following a public consultation.

We see an enormous number

of public consultations.

They vary from the brilliant

to the abysmal.

Sadly, this was one

of the abysmal ones.

It really was bad.

City Hall insists every borough

will have a police station and fast

response times will not be affected

by the current plans.

The Grenfell Tower inquiry

has ended its contract

with the auditors, KPMG,

after campaigners claimed the

company had a conflict of interest.

More than 70 people had written

to the Prime Mminister to complain

that the firm had worked

for Kensington and Chelsea Council

and for companies involved

in the refurbishment of the tower

before it was destroyed

by a fire last year.

The supermarket chain Lidl

is to open five new London stores

and build its largest warehouse

to date in Luton.

The German-owned chain says it'll

create up to 1,000 new jobs

and underlines the scale

of its expansions

plans in the capital.

The Cabinet reshuffle

is still under way,

taking longer than expected,

but with the final pieces

being put in place.

It looks as if Justine Greening -

MP for Putney -

is moving from Education.

She's in Number 10 now.

Our political editor Tim Donovan

is at Westminster with the latest.

As we have been hearing, this is

turning out to be what is regarded

as a fairly limited, some would say

cautious reshuffle, all with the

emphasis on reappointment. But

Justine Greening has been, as you

say, in Downing Street. She arrived

about an hour ago and there has been

speculation over the weekend and

this morning that she would be moved

from the post of education. An hour

ago, David Gauke, the existing Work

and Pensions Secretary, was moved to

justice and there has been

speculation that Justine Greening

has maybe been offered that move.

But there has been talk of Justine

Greening, a nonselective

comprehensive school educated

politician who has been less than

keen to promote the grammar school

policy. She has perhaps not

displayed the requisite enthusiasm

for free schools, which is where the

speculation about her future at

education has arisen. She is a

former International Development

Secretary and did a stint as

Transport Secretary as well,

something she couldn't carry on with

because she was opposed to the

expansion of Heathrow, which is now

government policy. Talking of which,

Chris Grayling, someone who does

support the expansion of Heathrow

very much, and we believe after the

early speculation that he might have

been taking on the chairmanship of

the party. It was wrongly tweeted

out by Conservative HQ. That hasn't

emerged. It looks as if he may stay

in his position as Transport

Secretary. That for one will not be

welcomed by the Mayor of London, who

has clashed with Chris Grayling

repeatedly on the issue of

outsourcing, taking over the

franchise of overground rail routes

and Southern and so on more although

there is some speculation that he

could be offered the work and

pensions brief, which is a portfolio

he shadowed once before. We are

still waiting.

As you say, a lot of

speculation. While we wait, there

are a lot of new faces running

things at Conservative HQ?

Yeah, and

for those who study these things,

very much a freshened up look at

Conservative HQ with people like

James Cleverly. These are young

politicians who have only just been

elected. Kemi was elected this year.

James Cleverly in 2015. Both are

former London assembly members. The

London Assembly at City Hall is

turning out to be a finishing school

for some of these politicians.

Tim,

thank you.

New powers to tackle the sale

of unsafe laser pens,

which can cause blindness, have been

announced by the Government.

It comes after an increase

in incidents targeting

train drivers and pilots -

particularly at Heathrow Airport,

which has seen

the highest rate in the UK.

Here's our transport

correspondent Tom Edwards.

The dangerous misuse of lasers

has been increasing.

They're cheap and easily available

and many are unaware of the dangers.

Angela Marshall is

from Hertfordshire.

She wants to raise awareness

after her son damaged his eye

after looking into a laser he bought

at a school fair.

I shone it in my eye to see

what it looked like,

and then suddenly I just

saw this blur.

It was quite weird.

I thought it would go

away, so I left it.

But eventually, it started

knocking out my reading.

It was just a spot.

Lasers are an issue.

They are a weapon used by people.

People don't realise how

dangerous lasers are,

and it's down to a lot of people not

understanding the full impact

of laser and its technology.

Transport has often been

a target for lasers.

Two years ago, this plane was forced

to return to Heathrow after one

of the pilots was hit by a laser

shortly after take-off.

Since 2013, there have been

150 incidents

of eye injuries from lasers,

most of them children.

There were nearly 1,300 incidents

at airports in 2016.

Heathrow is the worst affected.

On the rail network, there have been

578 incidents over recent years.

The Government is now bringing

in new measures to stop high-powered

lasers getting into the UK.

A lot of these products

are imported from abroad,

so we're stepping up checks

at our borders and our ports

and providing more resources

and more training for officials

there so that they can spot

these items coming in.

The other thing we're doing

is to make sure they're properly

labelled so that if it's

a high-powered laser,

it has to have proper labelling

and it has to have warnings

and safety notices on it.

Johnny's eye has improved.

He was lucky.

His mum now wants the Government

to license all lasers.

They do need to look at the

lower-powered lasers as well

and make a difference there.

Our view is that all lasers

should be licensed.

New laws already mean

tougher sentences for those

who misuse lasers.

Further changes, it's hoped,

will make it much harder to get hold

of the high-powered lasers

themselves.

Commuters faced the first of three

days of disruption this week as

members of the RMT union began a

fresh wave of strikes. Today the

dispute over the role of Caltech

passengers on Southern and South

West Trains, with those travelling

into and out of Waterloo facing

further disruption on Wednesday and

Friday. Let's get more from Paul

Clifton, who is at Waterloo now. How

are things looking this evening?

There are strikes on three train

operators in the London area today

and later this week. On

south-western, as you can see, it's

pretty busy, but that is normal. On

Southern Railway, it is the 39th

straight day spread over 20 months.

There is also strike action on

Greater Anglia into Liverpool

Street. It is the biggest week of

industrial action on the railway in

decades, and yet a majority of

services have been running more or

less as normal. On Southern, nine

out of ten trains than today. On

south-western, seven out of ten

services have been running. Both

Southern and south-western say some

guards who have stopped work on

previous strike days have turned up

today. The union says it has been

rock solid. They can't both be

right.

Indeed. As you mentioned, a

big week of walk-outs. How much

longer can this go on?

This could

run for many months yet. The RMT is

demanding a guarantee never to

change the role of the guard, and

that is something to which the

railway cannot agree if it is to run

new trains the way they have been

designed and built. Politically, the

government will never give in to the

union's wishes. And likewise, the

RMT union can't afford to back down

on what it has always said is an

argument about safety. It is risking

its entire reputation on making this

long-running dispute work.

Paul,

from Waterloo, thank you.

Still to come this Monday evening...

This intriguing little doorway leads

up to a place an changed since the

1950s. But the future of the India

club is under threat.

Before that though: can

this spice, turmeric -

help cancer patients

fight the disease?

Well, the bold claim comes

from a 67-year-old woman,

who after three rounds

of chemotherapy for terminal cancer

without success, thought she had

nothing to lose by taking curcumin -

a component of turmeric.

The result has been remarkable -

so much so it's inspiring scientists

in the capital to find out more.

Sarah Harris has the story.

It was an internet search which led

to a discovery Dieneke

believes saved her life.

She had already had three rounds

of chemotherapy and four

stem cell transplants to put

a stop to her cancer.

In the end, it was a treatment using

curcumin found in a common spice

which she believes turned the tide.

It was soon after she started taking

the tablets that her white cell

count indicating the cancer started

to go down.

I had to go for regular blood

tests and for two months,

and it was very quick

that they weren't going up, and of

course they were supposed to go up.

If you don't have any

chemo that goes up.

It didn't occur to me

really to think about I'm

going to die, because you can't.

You just don't know.

I think with anything you don't

know when it's finished.

The health turnaround

has already featured

in the British Medical Journal,

and now scientists in the labs

at Westminster University are trying

to get to the bottom of how a powder

found in many of our kitchen

cupboards really works.

There are positive

results so far, yes.

We are seeing reduced inflammation

in cartilage cells grown in vitro

or in a petri dish and we are seeing

reduced proliferation of cancer

cells also in vitro.

But it is a big step between that

and seeing in a human clinical

effect which is what we're trialling

at the moment.

In Indian restaurants,

turmeric is used pretty liberally

here in its raw state.

It just smells pretty

pungent, but a recent study

at University College London showed

that even small amounts of this

used in cooking can have

anti-inflammatory effects.

Doctors say there is no alternative

explanation for her recovery.

Dieneke knows the curcumin

is keeping her cancer at bay,

and will keep taking it every day

for the rest of the life her family

thought she may never have.

Now tonight sees a first for

a competitive football game here.

Because the referee

in Crystal Palace's match

at Brighton in the third-round

of the FA Cup will not be alone.

For the first time, if required,

he'll be able to use

a Video Assistant Referee.

I spoke our sports correspondent

Richard Conway a little earlier

and asked him how it would work.

Well, video assistant refereeing,

the system, has been under

development for 18 months.

It has been a global experiment

to get it ready for competitive use.

A decision will be made on its full

authorisation in the coming weeks.

What we will see here this evening

as part of that wider experiment.

It can only be used in four

specific situations.

That is to determine

whether a goal should stand,

to determine whether a penalty

should be awarded, for a straight

red card and also to clear up any

confusion over mistaken identity

when the referee is trying

to punish a specific player.

So the referee can refer or ask

for a video assistant referee

who is located in Uxbridge

near Heathrow airport,

to look at the incident on replays,

look at various different angles,

and then make a decision there.

The ultimate decision will rest

with the referee on the pitch.

It will ultimately be his call

about whether to seek guidance

and whether to take that guidance

in the end.

If he wants, he can also come

to the side of the pitch

and view a monitor here, to look

at a replay for himself, if that

aids him in making a decision.

Now, for more than half a century

The India Club on the Strand

has been like a slice

of the sub-continent

in the heart of the capital.

Set up in the 50's it became

a popular meeting place

for south Asian ex-pats.

But the historic site is now under

threat from developers

with campaigners turning

to English Heritage

for help save it.

Wendy Hurrell has the story.

Lunch service at the India club.

They have been dishing up authentic

south Asian food here since 1951.

The bar and canteen has barely

changed since. It has its loyal

customers. Will self has a table in

the corner.

It is more like a

genuine Indian restaurant in India.

But as what it reminded me off in

the 1980s. As the years have gone

by, and the world has grown faster

and shinier, the India Club

restaurant has remained exactly the

same.

Does not only the decor and

cuisine which has made this place of

important for the Indian community

in London.

You go to a place where

you don't know a soul and the only

place you hoped to meet somebody was

in the India Club.

It was set up by

the first High Commissioner to

England. And it was a place to

discuss politics and India's new

independence.

I don't think there is

another place in the whole United

Kingdom which has this particular

platform for both the community is

to not only eat wonderful food, but

also to discuss and debate issues of

the day.

That next year, the lease

runs out, and there is a planning

application to turn the building

into a hotel. The family running the

India Club are now reluctantly in

the spotlight as custodians of its

heritage.

Some people have told us

why can't you just move it to

another building, but it is really

the memories and events which are

soaked up in the walls of this place

which you cannot replicate. What we

have tried to do is get in touch

with Historic England to get the

place listed and get heritage

status.

The owner of the buildings

says no decision has been made to

redevelop it, exploring planning

permissions is one option and it is

working with Historic England to

establish the heritage of this

place. One that is little known to

the people passing by on the Strand.

Now, here with all the weather news

for us it's over to Matt Taylor.

You are always optimistic even

though it is freezing outside!

I try my best.

Seems like this are not ones you

want to see on a Monday. You can

hardly see the south-east underneath

that cloud on the satellite imagery.

There are some breaks in the near

continent and one or two of those

may head our way. It is certainly

very cloudy tonight. Quite misty

over the hills. Where you have got

that cloud, it does mean if you are

up early to driving into work you

will not be scraping much frost off

of the car. It will be frost free

but rather grey into your Tuesday

morning commute. It is slowly

brightening up a touch. There will

be one or two brighter breaks

potentially into the afternoon. It

will not feel quite as chilly.

Temperatures up to six or 7 degrees

through the second half of the day.

As were go into Tuesday night and

into Wednesday morning, there will

be a change on the way. It does mean

we have some wet weather to content

with. With the rain pass on its way

through, temperatures will not be as

low as they have been in recent

nights. Maybe the sublist morning

commute on Wednesday. Not for

everyone. Then skies will brighten.

Mostly dry on Wednesday with good

sunny spells and feeling pleasant.

As for Wednesday night into

Thursday, this area of low pressure

is taking wet and windy weather oft

is -- off to France and Spain. There

are not many isobars on the chart

are not much in the way of wind

around. Wednesday night and Thursday

night there could be some frost and

lingering fog. I am always

optimistic that there can be some

sunshine as well.

I know, and we love it! Let's recap

the main headlines.

A couple who met on an internet

dating website have been convicted

of planning a devastating Christmas

terror attack inspired

by the Islamic State group.

Munir Mohammed, stored bomb-making

components at his bedsit in Derby

with his pharmacist girlfriend

Rowaida El-Hassan.

The Prime Minister has been

carrying out a reshuffle

of her Cabinet, but so far

the changes appear limited.

The Immigration Minister,

Brandon Lewis has been named as

the new Conservative Party chairman.

That's it for now,

thanks for your company.

I'll be back with the latest

for you during the ten o'clock news.

From all of us on the team -

have a lovely evening.

Bye for now.