06/11/2013 Look North (Yorkshire)

from the west That

Good evening ` welcome to Wednesday's Look North.

Tonight` the police acting like burglars. Parts of Yorkshire have

the worst burglary record outside London ` now police are breaking

into homes to show residents just how vulnerable they are. A

surprising amount of people are not in when they leave their doors open.

How easy is it to break into your home? We'll meet the police who

break in and the residents they surprise.

Also tonight, a Garforth man is jailed for life for killing his

partner and their eight`year`old daughter.

A new machine for cancer treatment means advanced radiotherapy for more

patients in Sheffield. And revealed at last ` the touching

letters between World War I sweethearts.

Grey skies again but the promise of blue skies. Promise me for the

latest. `` jointly later `` join me later.

First this evening, it happens to thousands of households in Yorkshire

every year. Having your home broken into can be both distressing and

costly. Often people fall victim because they've left doors and

windows insecure. So, in an effort to tackle the problem, South

Yorkshire Police have been trying a rather unusual tactic. They're now

breaking into houses themselves. A kitchen window not locked. A back

door left open. To the people who live in this house, an oversight.

For a thief, an opportunity. But today, these residents are in luck.

I'm from South Yorkshire Police. We are coming round to check on people

who are leaving doors open. And in this part of Sheffield, many people

do just that. In the last seven days, there were 87 house burglaries

in South Yorkshire. Of those, 26 were because doors and windows have

been left unlocked. That is 30% of all break`ins. And it is students

who are most vulnerable. Like this young man. He has just `` he had

just moved over from China when he discovered the cost of unlocked

window. When I came back at midnight, I found my laptop was

stolen. I was very upset. I was distressed and worried that maybe

somebody had gone through my room. And he is far from alone.

Particularly at this time of year, when students have just come back

with new laptops and all the new gear. One in three doors and be

tried, it was open. People are sometimes in but there are a

surprising amount when people are not in. As it was in this house. The

officers were able to enter unchallenged. They left the police a

memento of their visit. But also, a warning. Next time, they might not

be so lucky. So how many of us are getting

burgled at the moment? South Yorkshire has the highest burglary

rate of anywhere in England and Wales outside of London. More than

six break`ins per thousand people. It has gone up by 9% over the past

year. West Yorkshire is the next worst area although the number there

has dropped by 18%. Things are better in North Yorkshire. It has

one of the lowest burglary rates. There has been a 9% fall in the past

year. Let's talk Toshiba 's vector James Forrest, who is leading this.

Why the shock tactics? `` Chief Inspector James Forrest. `` James

Forrest. The whole point of this is that it could have been a burglar,

it's memorable. Why South Yorkshire? Everybody this time of year gets a

spike in crime. In Sheffield, we get an influence `` an influx of 50,000

people a year because of the students. Sometimes they are new to

the country. They come with LH onyx which make them quite targetable

potentially. Is this approach proven to be effective? Yes, we are seeing

a reduction in burglary in South Yorkshire and it seems to be

working. With student housing, there is more one occupant and often they

think that the other one has locked the door. Seems like common sense,

doesn't it? But we saw people, the police, just wandering into homes!

And 30% of the burglaries last week were through insecure properties. ``

last year. Part of our plan in the lead up to Christmas is to get

people to lock the doors and keep their presence out of you. The idea

being that if you put a barrier in the way of the thieves, you make it

more difficult for them and they have to be out longer and make more

noise and there is more chance of us catching them. Is this something

that you will continue, because burglary affects all of us? Yes, and

there is the human cost. There is nothing worse than knowing somebody

has invaded your home and your things. Thank you for joining us.

A man from Leeds who killed his partner and one of their daughters

in a frenzied attack has been jailed for life. John Miller will serve at

least 15 years after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of

diminished responsibility. He used an axe to kill Sarah Laycock and

stabbed his daughter Abigail numerous times. Another young

daughter was left in the house for 12 hours before being found by the

police. Ian White was at Leeds Crown Court.

This is John Miller, described in court as a jealous man with a

controlling nature. Racist, paranoid and a regular drug abuser. Today, he

was jailed for life after admitting killing his partner, Sarah Laycock,

and their daughter Abigail. Their deaths were extremely violent, much

of the evidence to shocking to broadcast. It was a call to the

ambulance service about a distressed man which would eventually bring the

police to a quiet street in Darfur. The court heard how John Miller was

found at this nature reserve half naked. He was in an agitated state

when paramedics arrived. He was granted like an animal and beating

his chest. It took two hours for the police to restrain him. The

paramedics had had to run for their lives. After being taken to

hospital, he told police he had a secret, yet killed Sarah and Abigail

after hearing voices. The police searched the house and were

confronted with a terrible scene. Sarah Laycock was killed in the

kitchen, she had multiple stab wounds and had been slashed with a

knife. Abigail had suffered nine stab worms and died from massive

bleeding. A four`year Mac girl was found upstairs in the house. She had

been alone with the bodies of her sister and mother. The families have

been robbed of their lovely daughter, Sarah and their grand

daughter Abigail, who was only eight. They had to endure two years

to get to this point. They did that with great strength. Sarah

Laycock's family left court without comment. Described as a danger to

the public, John Miller is tonight starting a life sentence.

Later on Look North, the ten`year`old girl injured in a

hit`and`run. We see how Sabah Saleem is recovering after a motorist is

jailed for dangerous driving. A new ?1.7 million machine that can

target cancer cells with pinpoint accuracy has been installed at

Sheffield's Weston Park Hospital. The Truebeam machine is one of the

most advanced radiotherapy units in the country and it's hoped it'll

allow more patients to undergo the treatment to increase their chances

of surviving cancer. Here's Spencer Stokes.

With its slow, almost ballistic movement, you could easily

underestimate the power of the new true being. It is really just a

giant x`ray machine. `` to beam. But while x`rays argue `` delivered at

125 killer balls, `` killer `` kilovolts, the Truebeam machine puts

out at a much stronger race. There is a huge amount of computing power,

planning the patient's treatment in the background. When I first arrived

in the `` in Sheffield, there were a handful of computers in the

hospital. Truebeam is also incredibly precise. Ordinary therapy

would leave healthy cells damaged but this machine focuses on the

cancer cells. Donald Wade is undergoing treatment and has already

had 30 sessions. It is like the machine starts going around you. It

is a bit frightening at first, but it is no trouble at all when you get

used to it. The machine's position comes from is in terminal that

plagues which moved within a 10th of a millimetre to affect the shape of

a tumour, reducing side`effect for patients. We are always trying to

teach `` treat the cancer cells and avoid the healthy ones. This is more

precise we can use higher doses of radiation which will give us a

better chance of killing that last cancer cell. Many patients will now

benefit from the Truebeam machine, including those who were not

suitable for radiotherapy. In other news, a 25`year`old man has

been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman was found dead in a

caravan in Bradford. The 22`year`old woman, who hasn't been named, was

found in a caravan behind a house in Wood Lane in Swain House yesterday

afternoon. Emergency services were called after reports of an assault.

The case of missing Ben Needham from Sheffield has been raised at Prime

Minister's Questions this afternoon. The Labour MP for Penistone and

Stocksbridge, Angela Smith, said extra resources should be made

available to help find Ben, who disappeared on the Greek island of

Kos in 1991. In response, David Cameron said he'd look very

carefully at the case and "see what he could do".

A man from Sheffield has been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years

in prison for murdering his girlfriend's three`year`old

daughter. Delroy Catwell was found guilty yesterday. Lylah Aaron died

after what police called a "forceful and sustained attack" at her home in

Shiregreen in February. Leeds Rhinos have find a player ?500

for his lack of professionalism. He withdrew from the World Cup squad

last weekend and he has apologised for his behaviour. The exact

circumstances of the incident have not been revealed.

Plans for a discount on fuel in Hawes in North Yorkshire have been

delayed. It's one of ten rural communities that were earmarked last

month for a 5p a litre reduction in fuel duty. But other areas

complained they'd been missed out. The government says more work needs

to be done on the proposals. A motorist who failed to stop after

hitting two children in the road, leaving one of them critically

injured, has been convicted of dangerous driving. For a long time

it was feared ten`year`old Sabah Saleem wouldn't survive her

injuries, and the incident aroused widespread anger in the Hyde Park

district of Leeds. Mohammed Khalil Anwar has been warned by a judge

that he's likely to go to prison when he's sentenced later.

This was Sabah Saleem last March. Still visibly affected last March

after her horrific injuries. This was Sabah just a few days ago.

Making some recovery of from what are called her significant and

permanent injuries. Her family did not expect her to live. She had

severe head injuries. She had a fracture to her hipbone. She was

badly bruised as well. We were we thought we were going to lose her at

one stage. God has returned her back to us. She still has double vision.

Her balance still is not perfect and she has a shorter memory also. You

speak to her today, and tomorrow she will forget. Things like that, she

has been left with. Pretty bad injuries. It is 16 months since

Sabah and her brother were in the accident outside their home. They

have been buying vegetables. The children were hit by a car driven by

Mohammed Khalil Anwar who was travelling at 35 mph in a 20 mph

zone. He failed to stop after the accident and failed to report it. He

said he had panicked. It took the jury just two macro hours to find

Mohammed Khalil Anwar guilty. He was put on bail until November 29. The

judge warned him that it jailed sentence was at the forefront of our

mind. Now this man and two others are to be sentenced for attempting

to cover up evidence afterwards. Life for Sabah will remain tough.

How do you feel? OK, now. She is a real fighter. We don't know exactly

in terms of recovery. Will she be the same as she was before? We don't

know. It is hard to tell. But her family is strongly together after

the horrors of the hit`and`run ordeal 15 months ago.

With that wonderfully supportive family, let's hope the improvement

goes from strength to strength. . Before seven o'clock. They're

singing a song for sheffield ` Sheffield's Women of Steel hear a

special song composed in their honour for the first time. Everyone

get your hankies ready. Discovered in an attic in

Huddersfield, more than 100 love letters from the First World War,

written between a soldier fighting at the Front and his sweetheart.

Henry Coulter served in the 17th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment,

and courted his beloved Lucy Townend from 1914 to 1916. The letters, in

which Henry signs off "Yours to Eternity", were found wrapped in a

page of the Huddersfield Examiner. Our reporter Michelle Lyons has been

looking through them. " dear little girl, sorry to

disappoint you again, but I will not be with you as I have to be working

my late shift. be with you as I have to be working

was a clerk for the trains. Lizzie Townend worked in a shoe shop. In

this letter, unbeknownst to Lizzie, Henry had travelled to enlist to ``

it in a regiment. This is one of of a dozen letters he sends to Lizzie.

I'm sorry to say, I have lost the small piece of cardboard you sent me

a while ago, so I'm sending you another card of ring sizes to choose

from. I know it is careless of me, beloved, but don't be vexed, it must

have been `` is must have slipped out of the diary. Henry is buying

her an engagement ring and pledges his love for her. But she never sees

Henry again. In April 1918, he is sent to France. We had a visit last

night from our friends the Germans. The bomber dropped a couple of

Easter eggs which boast all over the camp. The final correspondences from

Lizzie, but her letter is returned unopened. Written on the 23rd of

October, 1916, she asks Harry is, after learning he has been injured.

`` she asks how he is. Well dear, how you? At the moment, we can do

nothing but hope for your speedy recovery. That Henry had already

died. The correspondence was found in a rusty tin in the attic of

Lucy's family home, more than 50 years after her death.

Now let's talk to Huddersfield historian John Rumsby, who's leading

a project to publish Henry and Lucy's letters to mark the centenary

of the start of the First World War next year. He ended his letters,

yours to eternity. Very poignant. Yes, I think that is going to be the

title of the book! Knowing what happened to him in the end, it seems

very poignant, yes. They are very tragic. It happened with a lot of

couples, I guess. What more can you tell us about this couple. They were

busy very much in love. Lucy was in her late teens, Henry was in his

early 20s. They had met up at the local Methodist church in

Huddersfield. But they were not a religious couple, they loved going

to the theatre and cinema. They had their favourite stars. Charlie

Chaplin, Gladys Cooper, George Formby senior, all these people they

are busily lights going out together. `` all these people. They

obviously likes going out together. Henry was a clerk for the tramways.

He was a good writer, wasn't he? Yes, better than Lucy's. She made a

couple of spelling mistakes. Thank goodness for the Huddersfield

Examiner, because they were preserved in an old paper there.

Yes, they were in a rusty tin with the newspaper around them. When I

started looking at the letters, I wondered if the newspaper had any

significance. So I opened at the newspaper very carefully and sure

enough, there was a photograph of Henry and in edges of his death.

What an amazing find. We know what happened in Henry, what about Lucy?

Lucy did marry in 1924. She went to live with her husband in

Huddersfield and then later on, probably a 1970s, she was widowed

and she went back to live in her family house, because her brother

was still there. She went back to her family house where she had lived

and where the letters still work, in the attic. These days, it is all

texts. E`mails, see you later, shall we meet for dinner? These are

beautifully expressed and they express the love they have for each

other. People don't like the letters these days. No, people do not write

two macro lines of kisses under the names! This is on YMCA paper, as

well. In a lot of them were written from training camp. The YMCA,

Salvation Army and other organisations had comfort huts where

you could go and buy a few extra bits of grub, as he calls it, and

they will provide stationery. So in a lot of them are on YMCA

stationery. It is really sad, something out `` like something out

of Titanic. So they will go on display next year? Yes, next year.

Now, here's a date for your diary. It's Children in Need day a week on

Friday and we're having our very own event at the National Media Museum

in Bradford. It's free to come along ` just turn up between 5.30pm and

9.30pm. There'll be entertainment and a chance to look around the

museum and of course we will be live on BBC One throughout the night. In

the meantime you can help us by telling us what amazing things

you're doing to raise funds this year.

This Saturday is sure to be a night to remember in Sheffield. The

city's musical alum Mike, like Martin Fry, Heaven 17 and Eliot

Kennedy the songwriter are playing on the same bill.

It is a song dedicated to the Women of Steel who kept the war effort

going at home while the men were called to fight. It is already a

Sheffield supergroup. John Parr, Eliot Kennedy and Jon Reily, jamming

through a brand`new song. Women of Steel. This weekend, the supergroup

gets even better. They will sing it on stage with Heaven 17, Martin Fry,

Tony Christie and a host of other steel city stars. This audience is

smaller, but hanging on every line. Dorothy Slingsby and Kathleen

Roberts were the inspiration and are hearing it for the first time. That

is brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. I loved it. Hilda Dixon, once a

Waitrose, is a furnace worker. Her job is to prepare the hot steel

bars. With many called away to fight, the steelworks, essential for

the war effort, were kept alive by women taking up their jobs. Three

years ago, a campaign began to recognise their work with a statue.

It has been so long, we were just keeping our fingers crossed that we

would still be here! Well, we are history now, aren't we? In the

nicest possible way. Yes, exactly. But when we have gone, in a lot of

the history of Sheffield will have gone as well. The monument will sit

in Barca 's pool, outside the city hall. However, tens of thousands of

pounds still has to be raised for it, which is where the concert comes

in. We all want to see the statue up in Sheffield. I want to walk past it

as an old man with my grandkids and say that we have something to do

with that. It is a global story, Sheffield steel, it is a global

story. Those ladies changed history. There are still tickets on sale for

the gay. With a line`up of South Yorkshire talent is unlikely to be

bettered in the short term, finally the Women of Steel have some rock

for their rolling mills. I love that line, she is a blonde

and a furnace worker! Wiwa discussing love letters. Before

I was married, my husband wrote the sonnets. Now it is a post`it note,

saying Kenya gets a milk! Cilla remembers dead.

I'm always romantic. Some pictures these pictures `` keep

these pictures coming in. Tweak them to me all get on the blog as well.

`` tweet them to me. Let's have a look at the headline for the next 24

hours. A much better day tomorrow. It will be much brighter with plenty

of sunshine around. We are in between systems. One weather front

across France, the other one in north`western parts of the British

Isles. Some showers in the West. You can see the extent of the cloud. It

is an awful evening out there. Rain and drizzle, Mr macro and low cloud

over the top of the Pennines. `` Mr macro. One or two showers following

new mist into the Pennines. It touch of ground frost in northern areas.

The sun will rise in the morning at these times. It will be a beautiful

day, lots of blue skies just about everywhere. Rain coming into the

Pennines but that will fizzle out. Some lovely, early November

sunshine. These are the top afternoon temperatures, we should

feel better than it has today. As you might expect, over the hills

near Skipton, a bit lower. But Sheffield and Doncaster, a pleasant

stay. One or two showers, mainly in the West. The uncertain theme

continues with the next few days. The showers get going, heaviest and

most frequent in the West. More of the same on Saturday. The risk of a

spell of rain on Sunday. You have a talking about a talking

about NUI says? No, the risk of a return of severe

winters over the next few decades. We will be back at 10pm. Goodbye.