27/02/2014 Look East - East

A Look East exclusive tonight, as the Cambridge woman gored by a

highland stag describes the moment she was almost killed. There I am

very, very lucky that I can talk at all, walk at all.

I am lucky to be alive. Hello and welcome to the programme with

Stewart and me. In other news tonight: A protest outside the

police HQ over plans to merge control rooms in Norfolk and

Suffolk. All stacked up and nowhere to go ` the trader paying the price

for one of the warmest winters on record. And I meet the pop star

turned vicar as he re`traces the steps of a First World War hero.

Hello. A scientist from Cambridge who was gored in the throat by a red

stag during a holiday in Scotland, has spoken about the accident for

the first time. She says she is lucky to be alive. Dr Kate Stone was

on a night out with friends, when the startled animal bolted. The

deer's antlers gashed her neck, almost hitting her spine. She was

critically injured, but is making a recovery. She has now spoken for the

first time about her ordeal to Look East reporter Alex Dunlop.

Seven weeks after she was brought out of a medically induced coma,

Kate Stone still has to feed herself through a tube. The stag's antlers

punctured her windpipe, stopping just a couple of millimetres short

of paralysing. It damaged my vocal cords, fractured my neck and went

into my spine. I am told it stopped a few millimetres from my spinal

cord. That is why I am very lucky that I can talk at all, walk at all.

I am lucky to be alive. Dr Stone had been enjoying a short break in the

Highlands with friends. After a late`night party in a pub, they were

invited by a local musician for a nightcap. Unbeknown to him, a stag

had wandered into the garden. As they approached, it panicked. I felt

a massive sword. `` thawed. Then I was on the ground. I knew I had been

hit by an animal. I knew that my neck was in a bad way. I remain very

calm. One breath out for about 40 minutes. You were giving

instructions? Yes. I think I was quite calm. I was very self`aware.

Red stags are common in the Scottish Highlands are by nature very shy.

Attacks on humans are virtually unheard of. The stag was panicked.

In the darkness, it ran into the first person along the path. After

two operations, Kate still faces more surgery. For now she is

managing heard technology company from Dundee, where she is

recuperating with her family. Weirdly, I don't wish it never

happened because I am alive. And if I could change anything, who knows

what the outcome would be? It strengthens how I feel. And when I

try to communicate with people about life and how to be positive, I can

give them one hell of a story. What do you hope to take away from this?

I am one of these people that tell my friends and people I meet that

life is short and that any moment anything can happen. I was told it

would be a carrot accident. I think a stag accident is much more my

style! While Kate lay in hospital, her

16`year`old knees wrote and dedicated this song to her. It is a

red family coming together, friends coming together and looking after

each other. `` it is about family coming together. It made me cry a

lot. Civilian staff working for the

police in Suffolk held a protest today over a plan to close the main

control room. The staff union says hundreds of jobs will disappear in a

plan to merge the two control rooms in Suffolk and Norfolk. It comes at

a time when both forces are trying to save money.

Control room staff outside the hall and today's meeting of the

collaboration panel. Moving staff to a joint control room at Wyndham to

save ?1.8 million a year, described by the union as a step too far. Lisa

Brown has worked in Martlesham for 20 years. Suffer this at the heart

of all of us. We are here to provide a service to Suffolk people. Having

worked here a long time and working with people I have known for so many

years, and not coming here for the first time ever since I left

school, not coming here to work, it will devastate me. Phil has just

worked `` moved from Oxfordshire with his family. We have moved a

long way for a job that six weeks after I started potentially is not

going to exist in 18 months. Not just disappointed for us but

disappointed for Suffolk. This is a critical policing role and it is a

real sign of the cuts operational services are being targeted. We have

relocated our children. We have put our eldest in a school. He is

settled, he is happy. Realistically for to Norfolk is not ideal. It is

an hour and a half. The Police and Crime Commissioners Suffolk insisted

the plan was no done deal. His approach appeared to be at odds with

Norfolk counterpart. The two chief constables put forward a second

proposal to move back office staff from Norfolk to Suffolk. Norfolk's

Chief Constable told the meeting he had addressed staff about that plan

with a heavy heart. But the harsh truth was the two forces faced a

funding gap in the next four years of ?36 million. Every option to save

money had to be looked at. When the meeting was over it soon

became apparent that an agreement was a long way off. One person told

me negotiations were trying `` were like trying to pin a jelly to a

wall. Stephen bet was unwilling to sit down with the Police and Crime

Commissioner for soft rock. I spoke to them individually and put the

ranters together. I think there is a difference of opinion. He is more

Suffolk centric. He feels that we can make these savings in Suffolk. I

feel we have to have a regional look at where we are going. And we are

doing quite a lot in the region at the moment. And to make these

savings, because there are cuts going to come and will continue

coming, they will still come. You say that financially you can cope

into the foreseeable future? No. I never said that. There are some big

changes. We need to look at a wider range of options apart from just a

control room shared service is the I am not paid to make a decision

until I have the evidence. If the decision is due base

He will fight for a place against Joe Hart. A murder investigation has

been relaunched into the murder of a young father seven years ago.

The victim disappeared after a visit to a local pub. A reward of ?5,000

is being offered. A family man with two children,

Terry disappeared after a night out. His body has never been found,

but detectives are convinced he has been murdered. I am certain that our

people out there who know why and how he disappeared and I am

confident that there is information that could help us and people felt

they could not come forward at the time. His last movements on the

night of the first and 2nd of March saw him spending the evening at this

up. He also visited the local Tesco before returning to his home. There

last year a judge dismissed the case against a Wisbech man. Today,

Crimestoppers have put up a ?5,000 reward for any information that

leads to the arrest or conviction of those responsible for Terry

McSpadden's Beth. `` death.

Still to come, we have just had one of the mildest winters on record.

That is bad news for the trader who has stocked up with everything you

need for cold weather. Next tonight, a vicar, a pop star and the

First World War. Do you remember this?

There Yes, that was the Communards from the eighties. Jimmy Somerville,

of course, and on the keyboards, Richard Coles. These days the

Reverend Richard Coles is a vicar and broadcaster. For tonight's World

War One at Home series, Richard came in to tell me about a fellow vicar

from Northamptonshire who won The Victoria Cross. Bernard Vann went

from being a man of the cloth, to a man of war.

How interesting if you find it, following in this priest's

footsteps, when you have so many similarities in your background? I

was completely fascinated. He is someone I can identify with,

although First World War. Do you remember

this? We are trying to get a feel for what he did here. Imagine it,

dense fog, he has to get his men across this canal anyway he can. To

dry them back. This is where he won his Victoria Cross. He fought and to

hand combat. He did see the whites of their eyes as he took their

lives. It is very intense, very personal. He is actually killing. He

becomes a killing machine. He shoots the Germans, and shows a marvellous

example and drive the whole line forward, and for that he gets The

Victoria Cross. He never got to receive it. Just weeks before the

end of the war, he was killed by a German sniper. It was just before

sunrise he fell, shot through the heart. He would never return to his

beloved wife, never see his son she was carrying. Just three miles away

is the British centre where I find his grave. According to his

obituary, he never forgot he was a priest of God.

A great priest who pleased God. In some ways I feel quite close to him.

We are both priest 's, we come from the same place, but in other ways I

cannot imagine what it must have been like to have led his men in

battle so heroically full is all I feel close to him again. In the

cemetery as he lies alongside his fallen comrades. It reminds us that

we all come to the same place. The souls of the righteous are in the

hands of God. Such an interesting story, but it

begs the question of how a man of the cloth would go and kill people,

literally, up to their eyes. It is hard to imagine how that happens.

Lots of warrior Christians in history. Whenever people content for

things, conflicts emerge and people get drawn into it. Perhaps they

discover themselves not to be the person they. They were. He probably

thought he was doing God's work. It takes a huge effort to imagine what

it must be like to raise a weapon as a priest and shoot and kill people.

I hope I do not find out what that feels like. Extraordinary to think

he was only 31 when he died. He lived such an enormous life in such

extraordinary circumstances. So many of those stories ended in that

church. Many of these young guys 18, 19, 20. You said you learn so much

by following one person's story. What do you take away from this? The

extraordinary tragic cost of the war, so many people cut down before

they really got going and it is terribly sad. People discovering

themselves not to be the people they. They were. I do not think

anything was the same. Thank you. Tomorrow, the tragic story of a

school in Norfolk and how 100 boys lost their lives in the war. Their

headmaster died soon after the war was over, it was said of the broken

heart. One of our universities received an

award for the tree surgeons of the sexual exploitation of children. The

University of Bedfordshire collected the Queens anniversary prize at

Buckingham Palace, the highest award available in higher education, and

reflects the growing problem of the sexual abuse of children often by

organised gangs and involving human trafficking.

We were driving through an area and we saw an opposite gang and they

were waving a gun at us. I was thinking, this is my life going to

be over. The tag line, it is wrong, but you get used to it, young women

talking about the fear and entrapment within gangs. Filmed the

complimentary University of Bedfordshire's ground`breaking

research into child sexual exploitation, violence and

trafficking. Today, at Buckingham Palace, awarded the anniversary

prize for further and higher education, the highest accolade

possible. We want to make some difference. We do not want to do the

search that sits on book shelves. We want to make a difference with

practitioners and policymakers. In the heart of Luton, the hub of

nationally important work into child sexual exploitation. The royal

anniversary trust described the work as exceptional and distinctive. Last

week, sentencing of two men, three teenagers, after the horrific sexual

abuse of five girls from Peter Brussels up another story on the

television, another tragic loss of innocence, proves there will always

be more to do. The destination has not been reached. This is a lovely

station to have passed through, but it is not a case of job done. The

University of Bedfordshire's work has influenced change and policy,

bettering the lives of young people like these.

It has been confirmed this winter has been one of the warmest in the

last 100 years, it has also been the wettest on record. The mild weather

has been good news if you dread snow and ice, but not so good for many

traders and companies. Last winter cold and snowy, this

winter mild and wet, it is a change that has caught many retailers.

Kevin and his son run a car park business with 45 shops across the

region. There might have a glut of stop including 100 pallets of

de`icer. Sales are down by ?250,000. The warehouse is bulging. Sledges,

snow shovels, all kinds of products. Not only that, if it is

wet, people do not come out unless they have to. The warm weather has

had us turning down the heating. This company supplies customers with

domestic heating oil from Norfolk. Demand has dropped about 25% on last

winter. It was a cold winter. Very wet this year. Not so much demand.

Every cloud has a silver lining. At this umbrella shop, they design and

supplies 700 types of umbrella. Sales are 50% higher than normal. If

it rains for one day we get areas enable interest `` a reasonable

increase in sales. It is as if everybody goes home and says, that

is it, I am getting an umbrella. They have not given up hope of

selling their stock, sledges do not have a best before date. Let's hope

it is going to sit there for a long time. I don't mean that in a

business sense. It is going to get quite cold tonight. Today's weather

has brought us all sorts. Rain first thing. Then the sunshine. And then

showers. Much of these showers have now cleared out into the North Sea.

For parts of ethics and Sussex, there are still a few around. They

will take time to clear away. The first part of the night looks

relatively calm. Overnight it will get chilly. Cold enough for Frost

and icy patches. For the second half of the night, it starts to change.

We have been closely following this area of low pressure. There was some

uncertainty about the track of it. As it moves in overnight, it is

expected to bring us here in the East mainly rain. There may be

something wintry across counties like Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire

and Hertfordshire. Heavy rain later tonight from most. This is really

going to set the scene for not the best of the day is tomorrow. ``

days. It is miserable, cold and wet. Into tomorrow morning. Outbreaks of

rain. Some could be on the heavy side. It will clear into the

afternoon and we'll see some showers. Not the best of days. The

winds picking up as well. Quite a cold day. Six or seven degrees. The

low is not really in a rush to go anywhere. It will hang on through

much of the afternoon. It is an improving picture through Saturday.

Although it may be cloudy and wet to start the weekend, it will gradually

improve. Then we have got the next low lining up. That will bring rain

but not until much later on Sunday. Much of Sunday does log drive. It

will stay quite cold by day. Still the risk of some frost. It looks

brighter on Sunday. The weather front gradually clearing away.

Sunshine on Sunday before the next low brings rain on Sunday night. An

unsettled start to next week. The winds picking up. A quick tap of

your barometer will give tonight's reading. 29.68 inches. Was it on

Tuesday when you said that spring was here? Yes! Goodbye.