25/07/2017 London News

I'm Katharine Carpenter. news teams where you are.

A review into the death of a baby in Luton, who was murdered

by his mother's partner, has found failings

in the way the local authorities handled his case.

The family had moved from west London and the report

calls on councils to do more to share information

Know that was just 13 months old when life was cut short. He suffered

multiple injuries over a sustained period. Should more have been done

to protect know ya? The -- Noah. The family moved to Luton weeks before

Noah's death. A Serious Case Review highlighted multiple failures in the

sharing of the information. There is concern that information is not

transferred between councils which means vulnerable children can slip

through the net. Health visitors described as the crucial eyes and

ears of the safeguarding system, but there are critical vulnerabilities

and flaws highlighted which lead to predictable errors. It means there

is no clear understanding of the risks the children, where there is

domestic abuse, better training and extra resources are needed, the

report says, to enable cases to be investigated more thoroughly.

Melanie has been a social worker 19 years. These findings were no

surprise to her. Every Serious Case Review says the same thing - social

workers need to step away from some of the bureaucratic processes and we

need to be allowed to work with families more, we need to be allowed

to spend more time on the ground. We are building that relationship with

families, young people, we need to do that, with professionals and then

in termsinformation, I think the information would flow more easily.

Both Luton and Ealing council say this review increases the need for

national guidance on transferring cases between boroughs. They insist

cases have been strengthened, but Noah's death brings into focus the

tragic cost when the system fails. The blow that killed a Polish man

has been described as a Superman punch in court. He died in a

shopping centre in Harlow last year. The defendant was 15 at the time,

he's not sitting in the dock, but behind his defence counsel and

beside his father. He is of small build and was wearing a shirt and

tie. No-one in the court is wearing wigs at all, not even the judge, the

idea behind that is to make the court less formal so that the

youngsters felt more comfortable giving evidence. Opening the case

for the prosecution, they were saying that the victim was out in

Harlow, he had been drinking vodka, eating pizza and they were drunk.

Their attention was drawn to a group of youths cycling around the area

when something was thrown or kicked in their direction so two of them,

including the victim, went over to talk to them, although his English

was poor and he couldn't say much to them. He said that there was some

laughter about his English. The court heard the defendant moved

deliberately around the back of the victim to take him by surprise and

that the 16-year-old jumped from the ground, used his full force and hit

him on the head and, as he fell to the ground, the youths scattered.

The victim was found with a pool of blood around his head. He suffered

catastrophic brain injuries, he never regained consciousness and

died in hospital two days later. The prosecution says the defendant will

claim he was acting in self-defence but there was that there was no

threat from the victim, so that there was no need for self-defence.

The prosecution say the defendant took a decision to use unlawful

violence. Plans to increase opening

hours for shops, museum, galleries and theatres

in the capital have been The industry is already

worth ?26 billion and the Mayor, Sadiq Khan,

hopes his 24-hour vision for the city will help bring

about further growth to the sector and not just involve

late night drinking. There are some parts of London where

there's not really much of a night-time economy at all and I

would like to see the possibility of our being able to even out provision

so as to provide greater jobs for local workers, so as to reduce some

of the stresses within the hotspots so as to improve sustainability and

so as to bring the economic opportunities to the night-time

economy to all parts of London. It's 100 years since the start

of one of the most bloody battles The Battle of Passchendael saw

the British launch a series of failed assaults against German

forces overlooking the city Nearly half 1 million

men lost their lives. Today a special sculpture has been

unveiled in Trafalgar Square It was one of the deadliest episodes

in one of the deadliest wars this country has ever known. The Battle

of Pashen deal near Ypres in Belgium. Exactly a hundred years on,

relatives of the victims have been paying tribute beside a specially

commissioned sculpture -- Passchendaele. Father and son Harry

and Ronald Moore house were killed on the same day. They were both in

the same battalion and when Ronald was wounded, the son was wounded,

the father set out to find a doctor. He was insistent that he'd get some

help for him, but unfortunately, he was shot as he went out to find a

doctor and by then Ronald was dead anyway so it was all a hideous waste

of life. This sculpture is made in part from the earth taken at

Passchendaele, earth which turned to mud in battle, killing thousands.

And whilst legions died, some survived, albeit with horrific

injuries. He was taken to a field hospital in Bologna, the 83rd Dublin

Hospital and he was there for about five months before he was then

transferred to Sidcup Hospital in Kent where there was some pioneering

plastic surgery going on. William Henry Nicholl lived until the ripe

old age of 91, one of the lucky ones. This mud soldier will survive

for the next four days in Trafalgar Square where it will eventually be

worn away with water, a symbol of the mud and slaughter of this

senseless battle. Now let's check on the

weather with Kate. How is it looking?

Not too bad. An improvement on the last few days. A bit of blue sky and

sunshine which is working a treat out there at the moment as the

temperature is rising that bit higher. It felt fresh yesterday.

Today is feeling a bit warmer. Brighter spells this afternoon and

yes, temperatures continue to rise. There is a fair amount of cloud

around but it should stay dry. We are getting some breaks in the cloud

or at least some thinner spells, so we are looking at some bright

spells, maybe a glimmer of sunshine, especially further west later

Onthank. The temperature, 23 is the maximum. If you manage to see some

sunshine, it will feel pleasant. A nice, fine dry evening with evening

sunshine. Overnight, we'll start to see a bit more cloud moving in from

the weather. Minimum temperature, dropping down to around 15, 16

Celsius, so it's going to be a mild night. For most of us, it will be a

grey start tomorrow morning. A bit of cloud around again. The settled

weather won't last. This rain pushes through. Heavier spells in there. It

will fragment in the afternoon turning lighter, so less persistent.

It's going to be that bit cooler tomorrow. A maximum of 21. The

weather fronts move away overnight Wednesday and through Thursday, we

are looking at a more showery regime, so there is still going to

be quite a lot of dry weather around, but the chance of some

showers over Thursday and through Friday and even into the weekend, it

stays changeable. Thank you very much.

Victoria Hollins will be here with our 6:30 evening programme.

But for now, from us all, a very good afternoon.

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