:00:00. > :00:12.Now on BBC One, it's time for the news where you are.
:00:13. > :00:18.And here in Look North tonight - A 17-year jail sentence
:00:19. > :00:22.A West Cumbrian mother, who told her youngest son
:00:23. > :00:24.to kill his brother, is starting a long
:00:25. > :00:26.Alison Murphy, who's 52 and from Whitehaven,
:00:27. > :00:29.encouraged her son, Gary, to kill his 26-year-old brother,
:00:30. > :00:32.Today, a judge at Carlisle Crown Court jailed Alison
:00:33. > :00:35.He ordered Gary Murphy to be detained indefinitely
:00:36. > :00:39.in a secure hospital while he receives treatment.
:00:40. > :00:43.Mark MacAlindon has been following this extraordinary case.
:00:44. > :00:45.This is the story of a dysfunctional family,
:00:46. > :00:48.namely Alison Murphy and her two sons, Tony, who's 26,
:00:49. > :00:54.Gary had a real resentment of his brother, exacerbated
:00:55. > :00:59.by the Asperger's syndrome he has, where conflict festered in his mind.
:01:00. > :01:01.One night last April, Tony had rowed with his mother Alison,
:01:02. > :01:04.and it's then that she'd exchanged these texts with her younger son,
:01:05. > :01:08.Gary, that were key to the case, effectively instructing him
:01:09. > :01:12.One said, I think he should be killed, although I'm not sure
:01:13. > :01:18.Gary replied, I'm fine with whatever, as long as he dies.
:01:19. > :01:20.Now Gary arrived at his mother's house in Whitehaven,
:01:21. > :01:24.Tony lost a litre and a half of blood from a gaping
:01:25. > :01:26.wound but he did survive after hospital treatment.
:01:27. > :01:29.Tony left court today, unwilling to talk to us.
:01:30. > :01:31.He did give an impact statement inside the court.
:01:32. > :01:34.He said he felt sorry for his mother, that her life was ruined,
:01:35. > :01:39.and he hoped she would win an appeal so she could come home.
:01:40. > :01:42.He was prepared to look after her house and her dog
:01:43. > :01:46.The judge in this case, Peter Davies, said the plot
:01:47. > :01:49.was crude and unsophisticated, but it was premeditated.
:01:50. > :01:52.He therefore jailed Alison Murphy for 17 years and sent Gary Murphy
:01:53. > :01:59.I've been speaking to the police officer who led the investigation.
:02:00. > :02:07.It is so unusual that a mum and son plan together to kill the other son.
:02:08. > :02:17.I think it's affected Anthony immensely.
:02:18. > :02:21.Anybody who is family-oriented will understand what closeness
:02:22. > :02:26.of family means, and to find out how you've been betrayed by your brother
:02:27. > :02:31.A desperately sad case, but one thankfully that we
:02:32. > :02:39.A man's been arrested by police investigating a rape
:02:40. > :02:41.in the Northumberland town of Morpeth last month.
:02:42. > :02:44.The incident happened in the early hours of Saturday, February the 4th.
:02:45. > :02:47.An 18-year-old woman was walking near Morpeth Golf Club
:02:48. > :02:50.when a man in a car stopped and offered her a lift.
:02:51. > :02:54.She got in, and after driving a short distance, he raped her.
:02:55. > :02:56.Police say they've arrested a 55-year-old man, who's
:02:57. > :03:01.been released on bail pending further inquiries.
:03:02. > :03:04.It may sound unthinkable, but a council boss has warned a lack
:03:05. > :03:07.of maintenance could force the closure of local parks -
:03:08. > :03:09.unless there are changes in the way they're run.
:03:10. > :03:13.Newcastle Council is consulting on a plan to transfer parks
:03:14. > :03:17.to a charitable trust, after a sharp fall in funding.
:03:18. > :03:19.It says the new body will be better able to raise money.
:03:20. > :03:23.But critics question whether the approach will work.
:03:24. > :03:27.Here's our political correspondent, Luke Walton.
:03:28. > :03:30.Many date back to Victorian times and they've been at the heart
:03:31. > :03:36.But parks like Leazes in Newcastle are feeling the financial pinch.
:03:37. > :03:40.Austerity has pushed funding down by more than 90% and the man
:03:41. > :03:48.My personal opinion is that over the next few years maintenance
:03:49. > :03:50.will slip so much that we'll have to close some parks,
:03:51. > :03:58.That's what we're not going to do, but that will be the inevitable
:03:59. > :04:03.Newcastle Council is consulting on plans to transfer parks
:04:04. > :04:06.and allotments to a charitable trust it says would be better
:04:07. > :04:12.Sunderland Council is also looking at a similar approach
:04:13. > :04:16.for some of its parks, over a longer time scale.
:04:17. > :04:19.They'd be following the example of a parks charity in Milton Keynes,
:04:20. > :04:26.which looks after around 5000 acres of greenery.
:04:27. > :04:29.There are so many advantages of having a trust that is dedicated
:04:30. > :04:32.We're not up against other demands for other services.
:04:33. > :04:37.By having good, well maintained parks, where all the income
:04:38. > :04:39.is ring-fenced to use back in those parks, means we can
:04:40. > :04:44.Back in Newcastle the woman who represents park volunteers says
:04:45. > :04:49.the impact of cutbacks is already evident.
:04:50. > :04:52.She worries the new organisation won't fill the gap.
:04:53. > :04:54.We don't know how much it's going to cost to maintain
:04:55. > :04:57.parks and green spaces, and on the other hand,
:04:58. > :04:59.the councillors aren't telling us how much the social enterprise
:05:00. > :05:04.The council says it's still examining how much income
:05:05. > :05:08.a parks charity would need, but it insists parks would remain
:05:09. > :05:12.in the ownership of the local authority and free to use.
:05:13. > :05:15.That's unlikely to silence further questions about the future of these
:05:16. > :05:24.And there's more on that story this Sunday morning
:05:25. > :05:31.Police are investigating after a 14-year-old boy was spotted
:05:32. > :05:36.Northumbria Police found the car parked in a lay-by
:05:37. > :05:40.in South Shields, and seized it for not having insurance.
:05:41. > :05:42.The force's roads unit tweeted that the boy "denied all knowledge,
:05:43. > :05:48.but forgot his books were in the boot".
:05:49. > :05:51.A new survey suggests people in parts of the North are drinking
:05:52. > :05:55.The survey of 2000 people says while nearly a third of people
:05:56. > :05:57.nationwide have cut back in the last year.
:05:58. > :06:00.That figure rises to more than 40% in the North East.
:06:01. > :06:03.Many said the main reason was to save money.
:06:04. > :06:07.Others that it was about improving their health.
:06:08. > :06:14.I don't know whether it's just as you get older,
:06:15. > :06:32.I'm a teacher, so I'm definitely drinking more.
:06:33. > :06:34.However you're relaxing this weekend, I'll wish you a good one.
:06:35. > :06:37.Let's find out what the weather will have in store for
:06:38. > :06:44.We hang on to the cloud through the night tonight and that
:06:45. > :06:47.means Saturday is going to start off on a very mild note.
:06:48. > :06:50.There will be a few patches of mist across the Cumbrian fells
:06:51. > :06:53.and as we go through the morning we're going to see things turn
:06:54. > :06:57.We have this band of rain sinking down from the north.
:06:58. > :07:02.Generally, Saturday, lots of cloud, quite a grey and misty feeling day.
:07:03. > :07:05.Temperatures getting up to a high of around 11 Celsius.
:07:06. > :07:10.Fast forward to Sunday, we start off with some rain.
:07:11. > :07:12.Again, it's a fairly cloudy, misty start.
:07:13. > :07:15.Some dry weather through the morning for a time.
:07:16. > :07:18.But then another band of rain pushes in from the West as we head
:07:19. > :07:22.Once again it will be fairly light and patchy.
:07:23. > :07:26.Temperatures up to a high of 11 Celsius.
:07:27. > :07:45.Sarah Keith-Lucas has the national forecast.
:07:46. > :07:50.Where the sunshine broke through to the North of Cornwall temperatures
:07:51. > :07:53.rose to 17 degrees under the blue skies. For many of us the cloud
:07:54. > :07:58.didn't break up through the day, keeping temperatures pegged at
:07:59. > :08:02.around about 13 degrees. That was the high today in the London region.
:08:03. > :08:04.Mild over night with the blanket of cloud