19/03/2018 London News

traditional Brexit transition deal

but

Tonight on BBC London News.

The families of the four men

murdered by serial killer

Stephen Port learn of missed

opportunities and failures

by the police in their

initial investigation.

Officers were interviewed and some

of them remain under the microscope

for damning failings.

We'll hear how the victims families

are frustrated about how

long investigation into the police

response is taking.

Hundreds of homeless people leave

a central London building they'd

been squatting in during cold

weather, ahead of bailiffs arriving.

A court hears how a French nanny

living in south London was held

captive and badly beaten

before her death.

We'll hear from Russians living

in the capital concerned

for their safety after the nerve

agent attack in Salisbury.

Thank you. Thank you from you

specifically.

And we'll be finding out

why our school reporters got a big

thank you from Star Wars

actor John Boyega.

Good evening and welcome

to the programme.

I'm Louisa Preston.

First tonight - the families

of the men murdered

by serial killer Stephen Port have

learnt of "multiple

failures" and "missed

opportunities" by the Met.

Port drugged and raped four young

men and dumped their bodies

in a graveyard near his

home in Barking.

He was given a life sentence

for their murders in 2016.

The families of the victims say

they are frustrated about how slow

the investigation has been.

Frankie McCamley reports.

The graveyard in Barking where

Stephen Port dumped three of his

four victims' bodies. He invited

them to his home using dating apps

before killing them with a gleeful

dose of a

-- with a lethal dose of a drug.

Police were asked multiple times

whether they thought the deaths had

been connected, but officers missed

all signs there was a serial killer

at work. Today the victims' families

say they have been told a report

into the net's response to the

murders will be damning.

We have

been told the reporter is likely to

be critical of the Metropolitan

Police and a good number of officers

employed by the Met. 17 officers

have been interviewed and a fair

number remain under the microscope

for some damning failings.

The force

refuses to comment that the

Independent office for police

conduct launch the enquiry after

families raised concerns.

If they

had done what they were supposed to,

lives would have been saved. People

would not have gone through what

they went through.

Anthony Walgate's

mother accused the force of ignoring

the death simply because the men

were gay.

It was homophobic. They

refuse to investigate anything. No

matter what you said to them.

The

former chef was given a life

sentence despite a catalogue of

errors by police. But questions

still remain. Why did it take so

long for police to take notice and

what can be done to stop it

happening again?

Frankie joins us now.

You spoke to the lawyer working

with the victims families today -

how are they feeling?

The families have spoken to the BBC

on a number of occasions expressing

frustration towards the police and

since their meeting with the

independent office for police

conduct I still think that is the

case, especially as they are not as

far down the line in this as they

wanted. It is a complex enquiry,

looking into more than a dozen

officers and also sadly into a

number of deaths and the family are

unaware of that. They say they are

understanding towards that because

their main priority is to get to the

bottom of what happened in the

investigation. Are we clearer on

when they will find out more

information? We understand the

report will be sent to the

Metropolitan Police by May. It does

not mean the findings will be made

public and the families will see it,

that will happen further down the

line but we know 17 officers are

being investigated, seven of whom

could be sacked if found guilty of

gross misconduct. The Metropolitan

Police say it is inappropriate to

comment and it is said that the

independent office does not have

views on the findings.

Lots more to come including....

The people living on the River Lea

who say it's taking too long

to clean up the the worst oil

spill in years.

Some homeless people who have been

squatting in a central London

building during the cold weather say

they don't know where they will

sleep tonight, after leaving ahead

of a court deadline.

More than 150 people were staying

in the Great Portland Street site,

and left voluntarily.

But many were worried

about where they would end up,

as Helen Drew reports.

Midday today, the deadline for

around 150 homeless people to leave

this building.

They waited for the bailiffs,

who did not show up.

But they left anyway.

Nearly all without a plan.

Where are you going to go now?

This is the thing, we don't know.

We have not got

a clue at the moment.

We could be heading

back to the streets.

The doorways.

In corners, with rubbish.

We could be eating out of bins.

We don't know.

We don't know what's

going to happen tonight.

They have had somewhere to sleep

since the beginning of the

month, when activists took over this

four-storey building on great

Portland Street because

of the cold weather.

The primary object of this building

was to try and beat the

Beast from the East.

To try to raise awareness

of empty buildings.

Trying to save people'slives.

I have been speaking

to volunteers who have

told me stories of the amazing

generosity they have experienced

from strangers.

They tell me supermarket

shops delivered straight

to the door here.

And one lady told me

when she gave the man a pair of

socks he cried and said

it was the first time he had had

a pair of socks for years.

But there are local residents

who say they have seen

people urinating outside

and are worried about aggressive

and drunken behaviour.

Last week, the building's

landlord went to court

saying these people had

no right to be here.

And the judge backed

their eviction order.

Westminster Council tells us

they are aware of the

situation and have been offering

support to those with a genuine

housing need.

They say they offer over 400

bed spaces every night

through local partners and the Mayor

of London says his team have spoken

to Westminster Council and

made sure help is at hand.

But most of the people we met

did not have a bed for

tonight and volunteers

feel frustrated.

They will have food

in their bellies,

they would have had

a

hot cup of coffee.

That is the best we can do.

We will keep in touch

with them as best as we can.

It is absolutely terrible.

People are going to go

out on the streets to

die.

With all the buildings spare in this

country, I don't understand

what is going on.

I think it is disgusting.

After we spoke to Andrew,

he headed out to Bexley for

a meeting with the charity

about a place to stay,

but they have nothing just yet

so tonight he has come back

to central London.

He may well rejoin the group.

It is not confirmed, but many told

us they had found another

building just down the road.

But they would not say where.

A French nanny, whose body

was found in a garden

in South London, was held captive

and badly beaten before her death,

a court has heard.

21-year-old Sophie Leonnet

was discovered at a

house in Southfields.

Her former employers are on trial

at the Old Bailey for her murder.

Richard Lister was in court.

Opening the prosecution, the QC told

the jury that Sophie Leonnet's last

hours must've been truly wretched.

He said she was found with four

broken ribs, a broken jaw and

fractured sternum and said the

defendants tried to conceal her body

by burning it in their garden. He

told the court that Sabrina had a

fixation with the former member of

the band Boyzone. He's said that she

had accused her nanny of conspiring

with him, an accusation he denies.

The court said he had not met Sophie

Leonnet and not in touch with her

and lives in Los Angeles. The court

heard that other allegations were

made against the nanny, that she had

beat and interrogated her and refuse

to let her go home. Sophie Leonnet's

parents were in court to hear the

sometimes distressing account of her

life. Both defendants deny murder.

Police are looking for a man

who burgled an elderly

woman as she lay in bed.

The 90-year-old was in her home

in Blackbrook Lane in Bromley

when a man forced open the window,

climbed inside her bedroom

and took her jewellery.

climbed inside her bedroom

Her family had installed CCTV in her

home as she suffers from Alzheimers.

A man has been charged

with attempted murder after a car

was driven into a busy nightclub

injuring at least 13 people.

It happened in Gravesend

on Saturday night.

21-year-old Mohammed Abdul

from Deptford has been remanded

in custody and will appear

in court next month.

The incident isn't being

treated as terror-related.

Residents in Croydon

were evacuated from their homes

overnight after a car drove

into an energy plant

and caused a gas leak.

It happened on Whitestone Way

and cordons were put in place.

Roads have now reopened

and residents will be able to return

home once safety checks

are carried out.

Two men found guilty

of organising hundreds

of cockfights have escaped jail.

The RSPCA says the case against

Bill Ripley and Moses Brinkley,

who both live in Kent,

is the biggest of its kind

they've ever seen.

More than 45,000 pieces

of evidence were gathered,

showing the men were obsessed

with the illegal sport, often

forcing birds to fight to the death.

They were handed a 14-week

suspended sentence.

In May, Londoners will be

heading to the polls

for the local council elections.

Today a campaign to crack down

on voter fraud was launched.

One of the measures being trialled

in some parts of the capital

will require people to show

ID to vote.

But as Marc Ashdown reports,

some are questioning

what difference it will make.

Your vote belongs to you. Your

voice, your vote is the message

behind the campaign to tackle voter

fraud. Three areas in London will

run a pilot at local elections and

voters will have to present photo ID

to cast their ballot. But it has

prompted a group of 40 charities,

campaign groups and academics to

write to the government to outline

their concerns. The letter

effectively says it is like using a

sledgehammer to crack a nut and

notes according to official figures

there were 44 allegations of voter

impersonation in 2016, compare to

3.5 million voters in the UK who do

not have access to photo ID and

concerned that the 7.5% of the

electorate might be put off trying

to vote.

I think it is a concern

that is not founded and risk

scaremongering.

People have said it,

the electoral reform Society and

organisations saying people do not

have access to photo ID.

The

authorities who have taken part in

the pilots have made sure everybody

has an alternative method. If you

are concerned you do not have the

IDE, you do not need to worry, speak

to the council if they are part of

the pilot and they will help with an

alternative method.

In Tower Hamlets

they are focusing on postal ballots

after the 20 14th scandal. There

will be checks and home visits were

multiple people registered. The main

challenge is getting people engaged.

Will you vote?

Yes. In the local

elections, do you know when they

are?

I don't know.

I am not

interested.

Probably not.

Would it

put you off if you had to show ID?

No. You would still vote?

This is a

solution looking for a problem and

people should focus on getting the

turnout up and not creating new

barriers at the polling station.

Turnout can be 40%, or lower, so we

should focus on people exercising

their democratic right.

People say

this is keeping democracy safe.

It's more than a month since the oil

spill on the River Lea

and people living on the north

London canal are calling

on the government to investigate

the inadequate clean up.

Boaters and businesses say it's

taken too long to clean the polluted

stretch of the canal,

and they've been

exposed to toxic waste.

Gareth Furby reports.

Today it look pretty but five weeks

after a massive oil spill on the

River Lea, some patches have still

not been cleared up. The lorry lives

on a canal boat and showed as one

location -- Laurie Watkins.

It is

not healthy for wildlife and for

people living on the boats. If it

happens again I want to make sure

there is something in place to

prevent it from spreading to the

scale it has.

No one yet knows who

is to blame but the theory is it was

dumped into a Zurich chip pipe that

went into the river. Some think it

is wrong they had to play such a

large role in the clean-up.

An

industrial spill of this size should

not come down to volunteers. When

the agency who are responsible have

not done enough about it after

weeks, that is where we felt we

needed to step in.

An open letter

has been written calling on the

authorities to rethink their

approach. So that if it happens

again, the response is better

organised.

We would like to see a

faster response in future if a

future disaster happened, in order

to contain the oil quicker and not

allow it to spread as far as it has

this time.

Today we filmed as the

official clean-up continued. This

was the Environment Agency.

This is

unprecedented. This event that has

happened to us has never happened in

the past. We have never had anything

on this scale. We have kept up with

it but because of the flow of the

river it continuously comes in. In

future we would deal with it the

same way, working multi-agency and

responding quickly.

Today at last

the canal was reopened. The blooms

that have blocked traffic finally

removed. But some river users will

not rest until all remnants have

gone and they have been reassured

that any future emergency will be

dealt with differently.

Still to come....

Talking school, stardom

and science fiction.

What happened when our

school reporters met

Hollywood actor John Boyega.

At last, today the sun was out and

the snow was melting. Could we at

last be about to see Spring? Join me

later.

Some Russian families living

in the capital have told this

programme that they feel anxious

about their safety after

the nerve agent attack

just over two weeks ago.

Few are willing to speak on camera

for fear of getting into trouble

with the authorities

in their home country.

But as Sarah Harris reports

the mayor is keen to reassure them

they are living in a safe city.

Queensway in west London. Known

locally as little Russia. That is

where many of the shop and stall

owners and customers originate from.

It is eerie quiet. Nothing much to

do that count the stock. Katya came

to the capital with her family when

she was nine will stop her child

goes to a Russian school here. She

is not surprised many of her friends

and family are lying low.

I have had

a few of my friends cracking jokes

and telling me, better that I don't

eat from your house because you

might poison me. When I meet

strangers over the last month they

are like, I need to be careful

around you, I do not know if I

should make friends with you. It is

weird and silly. What the

politicians are doing has nothing to

do with us.

A luxurious £24 million

house for sale in an exclusive

square in Belgravia. The ideal pad

for a Russian oligarch, to Google

client for estate agent Becky, who

also runs a concierge service or her

wealthy clients.

-- a typical

client. They're looking at close,

personal security and air that comes

into rebuilding. We have certain

requests from the IP clients for

masks with a charcoal filter,

because that is the best for

counteracting an attack.

The Mayor

of London is keen to reassure

Russians living here.

It is really

important to distinguish and

separate Londoners of Russian origin

or Russians in London on business

from reactions of what appears to be

the Russian government. My message

to law-abiding Russians is you are

welcome here.

With President Putin

now serving his next term in office,

many Russians in London are hoping

to get on with their lives, even if

any that means for now staying at

home and keeping a low profile.

They're a common sight

in the capital.

Box trees cut into hedges

of all shapes and sizes.

But, they're under threat

from box tree caterpillars.

Now horticulturalists in Surrey

are trying to find the best

way to tackle the pest.

Our Environment Correspondent, Tom

Edwards, has been finding out more.

The boxtree caterpillar

arrived from China

around 2011 and since then,

it has been destroying the capital's

boxtrees, leaving them

looking like this.

Last summer this was eaten

completely by caterpillars of the

Boxtree moth.

And in particular it seems to be

a problem in gardens in

south-west London.

They can completely

strip the plant of

leaves and do not

look very attractive.

They covered them in webbing.

It does not look or smell

very nice at all.

At the Royal Horticultural

Society in Surrrey, they

are now breeding the caterpillars,

because they want to test the best

way to tackle them, including

when and how to apply insecticide

or natural control methods

such as nematodes.

We probably start off quite simple

or basic with how well do these

nematode biological control work

on the Boxtree Caterpillar?

Perhaps how well does

some pesticides work on

them, are there different ways

we can apply them to make them more

effective and eventually

we would piece together the separate

research projects into the advice

we can give

to gardeners.

The other alternative is to use

other types of hedges that

the caterpillars do not eat.

Experts believe these pests will be

difficult to get rid of. And we will

see changes to the capital's and is

permanently. -- Gardens.

Now it's not very often you get

to see behind the scenes

when a new Hollywood film

is being promoted but as part

of the BBC's School Report we sent

two students from Lewisham

to experience it first hand -

and for their first assignment

they spoke to Star Wars'

actor John Boyega.

Wendy Hurrell was also

there to give them some pointers.

Welcome to the baffling world of the

movie junket, into which we have

brought our intrepid school

reporters.

We are here in a 5-star

hotel...

To interview John Boyega

about his new film.

Don't give up.

He plays Jake Pentecost, fighting

off sea monsters in Pacific Rim

Uprising. We are in a small room at

a posh hotel filled with production

staff and a startling array of

light, sound and camera equipment.

We are really nervous. It is an

intimidating situation. In a holding

room, a pep talk from me.

There will

be people hiding in the corner and

you are wondering what they are

doing.

Ignore them and that is fine.

The movie stars have been sitting

here all day answering pretty much

the same questions over and over.

Taking presents always goes down

well.

Do you know what, other people

keep the mind me it is my birthday

and I had totally forgotten. Thank

you for this.

Thank you so much.

There was a battle scene in the film

and there were weapons like light

sabres from Star Wars.

I wish we

could have won from Pacific rim.

You

are known as a peck boy. Does this

help to fulfil your acting dreams?

-- peck. I am blessed. I have had a

good time in theatre schools with

friends who were aiming for the same

thing as myself. I was there when I

had the biggest role in my life.

What a brilliant start!

Let's find out when it's going to

get a bit warmer with Matt Taylor.

Plenty of snow across London during

the weekend. Today at least we will

see some sunshine. Probably felt

warmer when you are out there but

still a cold wind out of the wind

and sun it felt nice. It has started

to snow -- it has stopped snowing in

and around London. A few problems

with the graphics of the Locatelli

what will happen for them tonight at

the moment clear skies around for

the temperatures are set to plummet

for that there will be a frost here

and there to take us into the

morning. A keen, north-easterly wind

which will bring more cloud later

on. As the cloud rolls in in

Hertfordshire and Essex, there could

be the odd spot of light rain. Maybe

sleep as well. Nothing too

significant. The clearest conditions

in the first part of the night for

the plenty of cloud with a few

breaks here and there. For morning

commuters, be prepared. It will be

on the cold side. Temperatures

hovering between -1 and minus to.

You will have to wrap up first thing

in the morning. The morning cloud we

start with will break up. Some good,

long sunny spells. A few spots of

light rain towards the east. It

would be predominantly dry. More and

more sunshine developing as you go

through the day full stop the winds

will be lighter than they were

today. Temperatures are lifting up

nicely. Temperatures around 79

degrees. A big improvement on what

we have seen in the last few days.

-- between seven and 9 degrees. The

frost will be back. Temperatures at

lowest on Wednesday. In Bedfordshire

and Buckinghamshire we could get

down to minus three. Some good, long

sunny spells to take us through the

day. Temperatures on Wednesday will

lift up to around eight, 9 degrees

once again. For the rest of the

week, as high-pressure drifts to the

south, instead of the wind coming in

from the East they will come from

the West. The westerly wind will

bring rain to the western side of

the UK and will of course dry out.

Westerly winds, a boost in the

temperature was up through Thursday

and Friday there are good, sunny

spells around. The wind is coming in

from the south-west and temperatures

will peak at anywhere between ten

and their team. Tomorrow is the

start of the astronomical spring. --

and 13. The weather might just about

feel like that as well.

A look at the main

headlines tonight.

A large part of the arrangements

for Britain's withdrawal

from the EU has been agreed.

Michel Barnier and David Davis said

the deal was a "decisive step",

though they conceded that issues

around the Northern Ireland

border remain unresolved.

International chemical weapons

experts have arrived in Salisbury

to examine the nerve agent used

to poison the former Russian spy,

Sergei Skripal, and his daughter.

The presenter, Ant

McPartlin, is to give

up his television commitments

after being arrested

for drink driving.

ITV says he's taking time

off to seek treatment.

The families of the men

murdered by serial killer

Stephen Port have learnt

of "multiple failures" and "missed

opportunities" by the Met.

Port drugged and raped four young

men and dumped their bodies

near his home in Barking.

And over 150 people

who were squatting

in a building in central London had

to leave this afternoon

after an eviction order.

The property in Great Portland

Street was taken over

during the cold weather.

That's it.

I'll be back later during the ten

o'clock news, but for now

from everyone on the team thanks

for watching and have

a lovely evening.

Goodbye.