12/04/2017 Look East (West)

Tonight, failed by school authorities. A woman abused by her

teacher for years is awarded compensation. Kettering General

Hospital goes into special measures over concerns about safety and

management. The latest on the Easter weekend weather is coming up later

at the end of the programme. A woman groomed and abused

by her teacher from the age of 15 has been awarded more than half

a million pounds in compensation. Cambridgeshire County Council,

who ran the school she attended, had allowed her abuser to carry

on teaching despite previous allegations against him,

and warnings from social workers. Noel Phillips has her story

and a warning, the report does contains some graphic descriptions

of the abuse. Abigail, which is not her real name,

was just 15 when she says she was A man who she claimed used his

profession as a cover to sexually On several occasions,

you tied me to a radiator with a dog collar and

told me not to move, For the first three years,

it would happen in the classroom. After five months,

he started getting me to go He could get me in the back

of the car, sit behind the seat and be covered by a blanket,

so when we got to his house, He would drive into the garage,

and them I would have to For legal reasons, we cannot

name the teacher, but documents show he was

arrested in the early 80s after being accused

of sexually abusing girls

in a school in Cambridge. Afterwards, in the early 90s,

a number of chances were missed by the county council

to monitor him before he went on to There was sufficient evidence

for him to be charged. The most serious offences against

children and he's in a position of He is then moved to the school

where Abigail is, and if that had been in place,

this would have never happened. A social worker had

previously written with concerns about the teacher,

but despite this, he was still It is either a conspiracy

or a cock up. Colin was a Labour

county council at the If you look at all

the evidence that was around at the time, I cannot see how

somebody would have missed it. I just don't know what on earth

they were thinking about. Nobody here from Cambridge

county council would talk to me on camera,

but in a statement they have apologised

and have agreed an out-of-court

settlement of over ?500,000. The teacher has been banned

from teaching for life, but Abigail hopes her story

will encourage other Well Abigail's abuse

took place in the 1990s and there are now calls to make it

compulsory for teachers to report any suspicion

of abuse within schools. I spoke to Jonathan West

from the group Mandate Now, and asked if things had improved

enough in two decades. The law hasn't changed

in that time and it's still possible for a teacher to know that

someone is being abused and has no legal obligation to report

anything to anyone. In addition, I've taken a look

at the school's child protection policy and it doesn't

clearly say how you should be I believe they have a designated

member of staff and there There are guidelines

but there aren't any actual procedures clearly stated

in the school's policy as to how a teacher would report concerns

and how the designated safeguard

lead would pass them on. So what would you

like to see happen? I understand you are

calling for some sort of In just the same way

that seat belt laws persuade more people to wear seat

belts in cars, we are looking for something called mandatory reporting

where those who work with children have a legal obligation to report

their reasonable suspicions of abuse so that they get into the hands of

social services and can be acted on. Do you think a lack of reporting

is down to bad systems and bad procedures or is it down to people

being terrified of smearing their colleagues in case

it's a false allegation? It is a combination

of both but certainly lots of people are concerned with

the questions of what if I'm wrong? Because evidence is not terribly

clear at the time of an initial report, they think there

must be an innocent explanation and In Australia, which does

have mandatory reporting there was some very fine research

conducted recently which showed introducing mandatory reporting

nearly tripled the number of reports and more than doubled the number

of children protected. Do you think teachers

will take this idea of mandatory reporting well because it

is kind of another layer of bureaucracy and what

if they get it wrong? What would the repercussions

be for them? I'm sure teachers may be concerned

about this but the idea of the law would actually be

to protect those teachers who do report so that is clear that

what they are supposed to do, they are protected

from legal repercussions from making reports in good faith, so it's

actually a good thing for teachers. Kettering General Hospital has been

rated inadequate in a report Their inspectors visited

the hospital in October last year, and raised concerns

about safety and leadership. The hospital was however rated

as good for providing care, A hospital in special

measures, its inspection Rated inadequate for

being safe and well led. Services for children and young

people needing urgent improvement, staff, struggling after growing

demands on emergency care. Our A Department,

we are seeing from the last CQC inspection in 2014 to now,

an additional 1000 patients a month arriving in our

emergency department. This is a department

that was actually built Staffing, as everybody knows,

is a national issue, so we've had to share staff

across our escalation areas It is the latest in a line

of reports criticising services In special measures,

Kettering General will receive external support, its ability

to make its own decisions, reduced. As a result of the inspection,

they've gone into special measures and that means they'll now get

additional support from NHS improvement which is a body that

will provide expertise and support. We will go back in the coming months

and see if the improvements that the trust is telling us that

they've made, if they've Services here under pressure

providing care to a catchment of 320,000 people with 600 beds

and around 3000 staff. Having been adequate for well led,

clearly clearly has This is about processes that have

not been in place at ward level and department level

and what we've got to make sure, processors are implemented

as quickly as we can in accordance with the plan that we

agree with the CQC. Despite the pressures

that they face, the majority of staff here, inspectors

said, are hard-working, What do you think of

the hospital, good and bad? Yes, my husband is in there

on the Lilford ward, on the cancer ward, and it's

been absolutely brilliant. But apart from that, yeah,

they are really good. It's a friendly hospital,

the staff are very good. A report critical of the hospital

for not learning lessons, but Kettering General say a recovery

plan is in place. It is an old hospital

with a growing population, trying to find a way out of special

measures that despite the pressures they face,

the majority of staff here, inspector said, are hard-working,

passionate and caring. Mike Cartwright, BBC

Look East, Kettering. A bank in Milton Keynes has been

targeted by ramraiders. Four men wearing balaclavas used

a dumper truck to smash into the Metro Bank in Oakgrove just

before 4.30 this morning. They escaped with a cash machine,

driving away in a dark The bank was targeted in May

last year, when money was taken from a cash machine

in an overnight raid. It follows a number of ramraids

across the region, including one yesterday at a Co-op

store in Cambridgeshire. Police are appealing

for anyone with mobile phone I'll leave you with

the weather from Alex. Hello there. Lots of dry weather for

the Easter weekend but it will be much cooler than last weekend. We

have clear skies tonight and temperatures expected to be lower

than last nights. There could be some patchy frost around. These are

the values we could expect in towns and cities. The dominant theme

tomorrow is high pressure and this cool north-westerly breeze. A bright

start to the day with some clear spells of sunshine. Increasing cloud

coming in from the north-west and the chance of isolated shower but

many places should have a dry day. Temperatures around 11 Celsius and I

like to moderate north-westerly winds. Here is the outlook. Friday

is Brighter on Saturday but cloud again

on Sunday. Here is Tomasz. Good evening.

The weather in