30/11/2017 London News

Join me now on BBC Two.

Here on BBC One it's time

for the news where you are.

Good evening.

for the news where you are.

Police are hunting a man

who they believe has carried out 25

sexual assaults on women

and children in south-east London.

One was just eight years old.

Detectives have released CCTV

footage of the suspect,

who attacked his victims

in broad daylight.

Ayshea Buksh reports.

He appears to target young women

on their way to work or school.

In the last year it's thought

the same man has carried out 25

attacks in south-east London,

sometimes within

hours of each other.

And this is where the latest

incident happened, at 8:30am

on the 22nd of November

here on Sandbourne Road,

a residential street in Brockley.

Just the week before,

the same man, it's thought,

carried out another assault,

that time on an

eight-year-old child.

The majority of attacks have

happened in the Borough of Lewisham

but there have been similar assaults

in Greenwich, Bromley,

Southwark and Bexley.

Police say they are looking

for a white man in his 40s,

with fair hair and blue eyes.

The suspect attacks victims

by grabbing their intimate parts.

And this is a very, very serious

offence and we are treating it

with the utmost seriousness.

A number of victims have been

traumatised as a result of this

offence, which is why it's very

important for us for the public

to try to help us by looking

at the CCTV and perhaps providing us

with some names of the people

they think is on that CCTV.

The police say there could be other

victims who've yet to come forward

and they are working with local

schools and community

groups to raise awareness.

The victims are all traumatised

as a result of the offences that

have been committed against them,

and what I would say, the reason

we have linked the offences

is because the description

of the suspect is often very similar

and the actual nature

of the offence is very similar.

But our age ranges differ.

Around a third of our victims

are adults, our oldest

victim is 35 years of age.

Our youngest victim is eight

and we do see a number

of offences committed

against early teenage

schoolchildren.

Anyone with any information should

call Lewisham police

station on 0208 284 8346.

These assaults have increased

since the summer and police hope

this man will be caught before

he commits any more.

Ayshea Buksh, BBC London News.

Is London facing a rat epidemic?

Councils are receiving more than 100

rodent related complaints a day,

according to a report

by the Conservatives

on the London Assembly.

And they claim the problem

is getting worse.

Our political editor Tim Donovan

joined one pest controller in north

London this morning.

Nice to meet you.

Pest control, not exactly a welcome

visitor to a house-warming.

But when Jess bought this place last

month she found it wasn't

quite vacant possession.

They were coming in

through a hole in here.

We blocked it off.

They got in through the sewer,

so Jess stuffed the pipe with wire.

We shoved steel wall down both the

holes.

We are not living

here at the moment.

That shifted the problem

upstairs to the bathroom.

This is what tends to happen.

It is made of plastic.

They come up and chew

through it and before

you know it you have rats.

There is a fresh dropping here.

Sorry!

That is very fresh,

within three days easily.

Helping to highlight

the problem was this street

in Harrow over the summer.

Since when the woman who filmed it

says things have improved.

The Tories say it has become

a big political issue.

Rats bother a lot

of people in London.

They want the streets to be cleaner.

We need to look at bin

collections again.

There's more rubbish on the streets.

None of us like that.

Sadiq Khan is in charge of London.

He needs to do an awareness campaign

and he needs maybe to have a word

with some of the places

where rats are worst.

In Jess's kitchen the

poison is being laid.

I'll just put down

some tracking dust.

That identifies the

movement of the rats.

That is the dust that

reveals important stuff

under ultraviolet lights.

It shines up nice and bright.

You will see any footprints.

You don't think you will be coming

into a house and dealing

with a rat problem.

It's not very nice to deal with.

How would you describe

London's rat problem?

Chaotic.

It is, yes.

For me, it's fantastic

for my business.

I feel for my clients.

Jess is hoping to move

in before Christmas.

Next - the temporary accommodation

for struggling families in south

London where conditions were so bad

it was raised in Parliament

a few weeks ago.

But councils insisted it met

all the regulations.

Now BBC London has learnt

there are plans to move families out

into better housing.

Chris Rogers has the story.

Welcome to Connect House, emergency

housing for homeless families.

This small room is home for Victoria

and her ten-year-old daughter.

When I got here, I said to them,

I'm disabled, I have pain condition,

I really can't share a bed

with my daughter.

It's going to cause me a lot of pain

and a lot of trouble.

And they said, that's it,

take it or leave it.

They were evicted when their

landlord decided to sell up.

So you're on housing benefits.

I'm on housing benefits.

So you need to find a landlord

that is willing to take

on someone who is relying

on the state, basically.

And none of them will.

So she ended up here.

Take it hour by hour.

It's very hard.

How they can charge £210

a week for this room,

I think it's disgusting.

Connect House is on an industrial

estate in converted

offices in Mitcham.

It's used by four councils.

Although temporary, many

struggling families have been

here for more than a year.

Victoria's daughter is one

of 200 children here.

Honestly, I feel

depressed, I feel sad.

This place isn't a place to live in.

There's no playground round here.

Some people, they will come out

and shout if we're too loud.

This isn't the first

time we've been here.

When we first exposed these poor,

cramped conditions,

councils insisted everything

was within regulations.

Now they are offering

residents like Samantha,

her partner and two children

a deposit to secure private rent.

They came round to visit

everyone in the building.

They offered people private rent

either in the borough

or out of the borough.

But there's a problem.

Those who have been offered

privately rented accommodation fear

that eventually money may run out

or that the landlord

will kick them out.

And then they end up back

somewhere like this.

For now there are few alternatives

for people like Victoria who have

fallen on hard times.

It's a very hard thing

to ask someone to take

you in and I can't do it.

And I don't have anyone to ask.

Tonight, all four councils have

confirmed, if they haven't already,

they are now determined

to move all families out

and end their use of Connect House.

Chris Rogers, BBC London News.

It's a first for a principal dancer

- exploring depression

through underwater ballet.

The film, aimed at younger

audiences on social media,

is a collaboration between a mental

health charity and the Royal Ballet.

And the idea is to raise awareness

in a compelling new way,

as Tarah Welsh explains.

She might make it look effortless,

but this wasn't the easiest role

for this rising star.

I'm actually not a very

good swimmer at all.

I'm also allergic to chlorine.

I don't like watching

myself dance on camera.

I find it really hard.

The clips in the underwater

are the only times I've enjoyed

actually watching me.

Francesca Haywood has been dancing

since she was three.

From next week, she'll be starring

as the Sugar Plum Fairy

and Clara in the Nutcracker,

but it's this short film to raise

awareness of mental health that

she's proud to watch.

The dancers met with

people who've experienced

depression before filming.

They were able to inform how

to portray the performance,

so the fact it is an underwater

piece brought to life how

it can feel when you have

depression and it can feel

like you are fighting

against the tide, or trying

to struggle to get your

head above water.

It's hoped social media will help

get it through to an audience that

might not normally engage

with the ballet.

We wanted to target people

in secondary schools.

We feel like this is a time

that is a vulnerable age

and has a lot of pressures.

As audiences arrive to see this

festive favourite next week,

this production will also be

released, aiming to touch

viewers in a different way.

That's it for now from me,

but let's find out what

the weather's up to with Nick

Miller.

After the excitement of the flurries

we saw today, there will be more

around overnight, more substantial

wintry showers to the north of

London are tending to die out as

they get closer to the capital, but

some winter refueller is around, not

amounting to much. Risk of icy

patches. Temperature is not going

down as far as last night, because

we have more cloud around. Many of

us will be above freezing as we

start off on Friday. Milder air

starts to move in. A lot of the

showers early on will turn to rain

as we go through the morning, before

fading away and leaving us with a

fair amount of sunshine into the

afternoon. Temperatures will be a

bit higher tomorrow compared to

today, not as cold or wintry. We get

the sunshine coming through after

the early showers. There is a change

to less cold, milder air, coming in

over the weekend. It's a slow

process, more so we