17/05/2017 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Alice Ruggles was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Trimaan Dhillon.

After months of stalking, he cut her throat at her Gateshead flat.

Alice's friends and family have started a trust to raise awareness

of the signs of abusive relationships and stalking.

Today, her flatmate and best friend, spoke exclusively to Look North

about Alice and how they want to prevent a similar tragedy.

So, I kept moving down very close to see if I

Maxine McGill came home on October 12th last

year to find the body of her flatmate, Alice Ruggles,

Although I had seen what I've seen I still believed

I just wanted someone there to help her, to bring her back.

Deep down I knew that nothing would bring her

Is that an image that stays with you?

It is something that I do not ever think

What saddens me the most about it is that it shadows my

memory of Alice when she was alive and when she was happy.

Last month, Alice's ex-boyfriend Trimaan Dhillon

was jailed for 23 years by her murder.

He'd been controlling and mean repeatedly throughout their

She told me when she was in the shower one day, because he

needed the toilet he made her get out and stand in her kitchen with

What type of man would do that to anyone never mind

That is where it became abusive for me.

When Alice entered a relationship Trimaan Dhillon refused

to accept it and stalked her before finally killing her.

What with the real alarm bells for you?

The level of contact that he was trying to make

with Alice when she made it very clear that she did not want to have

The messages, the phone calls, the letters, the

He was watching her every minute of every day.

Alice's friends and family have now set up a trust

in her name to try and highlight the signs of abusive relationships.

It doesn't feel like she's gone but that is more of a testament

to her, she was so loved and she left such

She was harassed, he was controlling and

manipulative and emotionally abusive.

It doesn't just end there, this is what

it can escalate to and we people to know that because we didn't.

I just want someone else not to lose their Alice.

The friends of Alice Ruggles speaking earlier.

Armed police are still surrounding a street in County Durham,

where a man has been hurling petrol bombs at officers.

The standoff, in Burnopfield, has already lasted more than ten hours.

Negotiators have been trying to talk to the resident,

but so far there seems little indication of a resolution.

Unarmed police arrived here around lunchtime,

They say they attended as part of a mental health issue,

but during the afternoon matters escalated dramatically.

As officers tried to negotiate, several petrol bombs were thrown

The second burst into flames at the feet of the officers.

All sides of the street were surrounded but most residents

Many spent hours watching and waiting.

Police, fire and ambulance crews train together

for scenarios like this, but as a senior officer told me,

the commander on the spot has to make the decision

But there are a number of trained negotiators still around and it has

been indicated to me that, as long as the situation remains

stable, police are in no hurry to force an end to this incident.

The police cordon remains in place here tonight.

The man at the centre of it, a 47-year-old, is thought to be

He is also believed to be known to the police.

Two burst water mains in separate locations caused

Traffic ground to a halt during the rush hour

as the flooding overwhelmed roads, and parts of the Metro

Meanwhile, 1,500 homes were without water.

Not a canal, but one of the region's busiest rail lines.

This was the Tyne and Wear Metro in West Jesmond this morning.

Hundreds of metres of track under six feet of water.

Thousands of gallons sent into nearby gardens and then

cascading down an embankment and onto line.

Residents were woken at five this morning by police.

Looked out the window couldn't believe it.

It was like a waterfall coming from opposite,

through the allotment over the paving,

This is a flash flood from the burst water main that has affected

the busiest part of the Metro system.

That was clearly a huge disruption to our passengers.

Four miles away, up to 1500 homes were without water until lunchtime

after a second burst water main in the east of the city.

Bottled water was handed to residents.

Five days after an international cyber attack, patients

in our region's biggest health trust are still facing disruption.

Northumbria Health Trust cancelled over 20 operations today

and orthopaedic clinics at three of its hospitals.

Our news correspondent, Mark Denten, has been talking

to the Trust's Medical Director, Dr Jeremy Rushmer.

I think by tomorrow we will have got all of our elective activity up

There have been some cancellations for some elective

activity through this week, but the amount of work that we have

We're now processing GP samples, with reconnecting to other parts

of the NHS and we just, we can see the path back

It isn't just about updating the operating systems on a few

Microsoft computers, we are a very, very technology heavy

business, so we need to work really closely

about getting the appropriate software patches.

But your trust in that statement on Friday,

when all this started, said that you had robust continuity

plans in place for any unexpected circumstances,

They can't do that robust otherwise you would still not

The emergency department has been open through out all that time,

we've honoured a very large proportion, we have done far

I think we have really minimalist destruction to patients.

-- minimalise disruption to patients.

We have also been contacted by some of your staff,

some of your nursing staff who say that the weekend, and the situation

You have been playing this down, haven't you?

I don't think so, there was a very serious and appropriate response.

There are lessons for the whole of the NHS in the north-east.

It is about how we organise our business.

A century after he died in battle, a Yorkshire Regiment soldier

Private Henry Parker was 23 when he was killed

during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

But his body was lost, and his bones were only recovered

DNA tests have led to relatives being traced

and today he was buried with full military honours.

Football, and Sunderland's under-23's hopes of lifting

their first Premier League International Cup crown

were crushed by FC Porto at the Stadium of Light tonight.

Full marks for effort, but it just wasn't to be.

Time now for the weather with Paul Mooney.

Thanks very much. A lot of dry weather around tonight. The last

remnants of the weather front are clearing away over the North Sea.

Clear skies and light winds so temperatures will drop. Mostly dry

start tomorrow with one or two showers morning at -- across parts

of Cumbria. Then showers breaking out across the north-east but good

sunny spells in between. Sunny across most areas by the end of the

afternoon just some showers lingering in North Yorkshire.

A mostly light south-westerly breeze. Low pressure dominates over

the next few days. This low on the eastern side could bring more

persistent rain on Friday. But essentially it is sunny spells and

scattered showers for the next few days. The cloud thickens on Friday

and more prolonged rain through the middle part of the day, especially

in the east. For the weekend, Saturday will see sunny spells and

scattered showers. Fairly light wind and Sunday sees similar picture.

showers. But it will be a bit warmer.