30/01/2018 London News

That is it from us.

Welcome to BBC London News

with me Chris Rogers.

First tonight: A burglar

so sophisticated and violent police

believe he could be the work

of a 'highly professional soldier'.

A series of burglaries

across London, Kent and Surrey have

been carried out using cable ties,

covert surveillance and extreme

violence - he's been

dubbed the Night Watcher.

Tolu Adeoye has met one

of his victims who lost hundreds

of thousands of pounds worth

of jewellery and possessions.

Waiting for the perfect moment to

invade a house he's been planning to

steel from. The burglar police

believe may have had military

training. He enters through unlocked

back doors and windows usually while

victims are inside their homes.

I

was at my computer and I heard a

very loud voice behind me. I turned

around and saw a very, very large

man dressed all in black with the

balaclava. He shouted very loudly, I

want the jewellery, take me to the

safe.

Susan Morris was alone at home

back in October when she and her

home came under attack.

He hit me

three times on the face, it was

very, very painful and I could not

believe the blows kept coming. I

took him to the jewellery. I gave

him the jewellery. It had already

been very frightening. But he

actually said to me, get on the

floor. I actually thought he was

going to rape me.

It was the latest

of seven and violent burglaries all

targeting affluent homes and police

believe the same man is responsible.

These are some of more than £1

million worth of jewellery and

watches which have been taken over

three years.

We do not believe this

is an amateur, this is someone with

specialist skills. He uses firearms

and cable ties to do this. He has an

immense amount of planning and

prepping before he goes to commit

these offences.

There are trade

crafts we generally only see by

people with specialist or former

military experience which include

identifying pattern is of life, of

the owners of these properties.

Looking at the arcs of cameras and

their locations. Even the methods of

entry.

Despite the Ministry of

Defence seeing it is working with

the police investigation it is

asking for more evidence saying we

are unable to share unique taken

from personnel before they are

deployed on military operations as

it is restricted under data

protection. If service personnel are

convicted of a crime or under

suspicion DNA records are shared

with police. For his victims they

are now pervades the place they

should feel more safe.

Even letting

the dog out, we turn the alarm on

before it comes back, we lock

internal balls from the hallway into

the kitchen. It's not good.

With no

moral leads police say it's

important anyone with information

comes forwards before he strikes

again.

A school in Isleworth could become

the first in England

to reduce school hours by closing

lunchtime on a Friday to save money.

St Mary's Catholic Primary

School, are consulting

parents on the proposal.

Many are concerned about the extra

child-care costs they'll face

and say the process

has been mismanaged.

But is there a bigger picture?

Here is our Education

Reporter Marc Ashdown.

In classrooms across London the

school day finishes around 3:30pm

but here in aisles worth pupils

could be heading home on a Friday

almost three hours early. Due to

pressures on the budget the

governors at Saint Mary 's school

are proposing a move to a four and a

happy week. Which presents a

headache for parents like Marlon.

They are ten and eight.

Today they

are at school of course but come

September he has already been told

to start thinking about childcare

options.

The lack of consideration

for working parents is quite

striking. So at the moment, that is

the main problem, both the cost for

some parents and also the logistics

of actually who will pick up the

child?

The school wrote to parents

explaining the savings it has made

over the past five years, vacant

posts have not been filled, and

Italian language teacher was

replaced by a volunteer and some

music lessons have been cancelled

and the parent fund was sent up for

supplies like colouring pencils and

glue sticks. The school run a

consultation with the idea with £400

voluntary donation from each parent

and considered cutting classroom

assistants.

It is upsetting because

this will affect our children's

education. It is going to happen all

over the country.

Many of us have a

lot of suggestions we would like to

bid forward to try to help

supplement school funds. We need to

move forward.

On the half of the

school Hounslow Council said a

consultation are still underway and

no decision will be taken with the

backing of parents. The issues with

funding are being felt at schools

across London, headteachers far and

wide grappling with how to make the

figures add up. Last year a

delegation of heads descended on

Downing Street with a petition in

effect begging for more money. The

Department for Education says it

trusts heads to structure the school

day to support pupils learning and

says it is investing an extra £1.3

billion in schools.

They have not

taken into account the fact that

pensions are increasing, school

inflation is running higher than

normal inflation. All these

pressures are coming to bear on our

school system and that is why you

see schools making these decisions.

It is not clear if the shorter week

will now go ahead but schools facing

a similar squeeze will be watching

closely.

Knife crime in England and Wales

jumped by more than 20% last year.

On New Year's Eve alone,

four young men were stabbed

to death in London -

and teenage knife murders are now

at a ten year high in the capital.

But what about the loved

ones left behind?

Our Home Affairs Correspondent Nick

Beake has spent time with a family -

to hear the devastating impact that

knife crime can have.

Behind the police tape,

behind the forensic

search and behind

the

headline that will appear

in the newspaper there is a face.

And a family beginning to grieve.

We first met Michael's dad

and brothers the day

after the 17-year-old

was stabbed to death.

Michael said, daddy.

Did you cry?

But two months on relatives have

gathered in south London to say

goodbye.

I love him to the bottom

of my heart, rest in peace, Michael.

I know you are with

the angels in the

sky, it breaks my heart

to know you are gone.

It is really horrible,

it is really horrible, it is really

horrible.

How can they do it?

So many of them.

Murderer, blood

is on your shoulders.

Kill me today, you cannot

kill me tomorrow.

Michael was one of 20

teenagers stabbed to death

in London last year.

Our young beautiful boys

are going and I don't

know what to do is parent.

Knife crime is rising

across the country.

Families who should be organising

birthday parties are instead

organising where to

bury their loved ones.

I am hoping that my son, Michael,

will be the last one and

my son, Michael, his death

will change the world.

Six teenagers aged between 14

and 19 had been charged

with Michael's murder.

But case against them

has just been dropped

because of a lack of evidence.

Michael's brother has

a message for the

killers.

We don't know what Michael

was going to be and now we will

never get to know what

he was going to be.

Because of you and your

cowardly behaviour.

All I can tell you is you need

to look into yourself

and sort yourself out.

The Jonas family are

pleading with those who

robbed them of this young life

to come forward and confess.

Their faith in divine

justice remains strong.

This is a family willing to forgive,

but will never be able to forget.

Let the balloons free!

The first public consultation has

started into the expansion

of Heathrow Airport.

The airport's owner has put forward

a number of ideas for how

the project could be carried out.

One of them is to move part

of the M25 into a tunnel.

That's it for now from me,

but lets find out what the weather's

up to with Elizabeth Rizzini.

Thank you, early signs of spring

spotted today by weather watches,

happy daffodils blowing around in

the sunshine and will be more

sunshine for much of the rest of the

week. Also showers notably so

tomorrow. And it will be quite

chilly. Sunshine around by day, dry

weather and clear spells at night so

if you want to see the super bloom

and tomorrow evening I think your

chances particularly first thing

will be good. A lot of clouds

tonight and it is quite breezy. A

few showers around. Different start

to the day tomorrow, we started this

morning -2, -3 saw a lot more mild

tomorrow morning but it might be wet

for your commute to work. Those

showers were clear, on and off

through the afternoon but also

bright and sunny spells in between.

Breezy, top temperature and 9-10.

North-westerly wind developing on

Wednesday night so dry with sunshine

but still quite chilly