08/11/2017 Look North (Yorkshire)

Newsnight is coming up on BBC Two.

Here on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.

Welcome to the late Look North.

Tonight:

How lesbian and gay Asian people

in Yorkshire are pairing up online

to marry, and avoid shame

within their communities.

And delays and disruption for rail

passengers after a vandals attack

two high-speed services.

And, with news of some

cold weather to come

at the weekend, join me for that

live, updated forecast.

Good evening.

Gay and lesbian people

from south-east Asian communities

in Yorkshire are going online

to find partners of the opposite

sex for sham marriages.

Many of those seeking

marriages of convenience do

so because they fear being disowned

by their families.

An investigation by this programme

has found hundreds of people

using websites and forums

to find willing partners.

Sabbiyah Pervez has

this special report.

I wanted my family to

have the wedding that they wanted,

to make them happy,

to make them proud.

Khalid is a gay Muslim

living in Leeds.

For eight years he was married

to a lesbian in a marriage

of convenience that allowed them

both to hide their sexuality.

There was a lot to think about.

It wasn't just, yeah,

let's get married, that

will get our families off our backs.

There was where are

we going to live?

What are the living

arrangements going to be?

When are we going to see the family?

It took us three years in planning.

Their families believed

it was a typical heterosexual

marriage, but in reality the couple

lived apart and led

entirely separate lives.

We would meet up on the M62 and go

in the same car to see the family.

On an emotional level

because you are living an additional

lie on top of the lie of being gay,

it does get to you.

The pressures do get to you.

Marriages of convenience

are not new.

But whereas before Asians

who are lesbians or gay might have

found it difficult to find potential

partners, now the Internet makes it

easier and provides them

with the anonymity that they need.

One online forum we have

seen has over 1000 posts

about marriages of convenience.

Whilst another one has almost 300

current members from the UK.

Carmen Ivana Helpline,

how can I help you?

Carmen Ivana is a human rights

charity based here in Yorkshire.

They say they have seen a rapid

increase over the past two years

in the number of calls

they are getting from

Asian LGBT people.

We are dealing with

the tip of the iceberg.

I believe the story of the marriages

of convenience and the issues

of LGBT communities is a big,

hidden issue out there.

The extent of the problem

is going to be far more

than what we are seeing and hearing.

Being gay is not about sex,

it is about falling in love

with someone of the same

gender as yourself.

Matthew Mahmoud Oxton was engaged

to marry his partner Naseem,

but in 2014, Naseem committed

suicide just two days

after his family confronted

him about being gay.

Why can't people just accept me?

Matthew now goes into schools like

this one in Leeds to try and change

attitudes about homosexuality.

The way we change these

attitudes is to have

conversations like this,

more conversations, more school

talks, more university talks,

more work in the media,

but more importantly to go

into the communities themselves

and actually talk quite openly

about love, unconditional love,

and what might happen

to their own children

if they are not really

accepted for who they are.

I think the lack of awareness causes

a lot of trouble in society.

I think people need to be more

open-minded about different people

and the fact that it is not

a choice, it is how

they were actually born.

Khalid now regrets his marriage

and says he wouldn't do it again,

but he doesn't believe his family

would be upset by his deception.

I don't think they would be shocked.

I almost think my mother

would be proud that I did it

to save the family's name

and the standing

within the community.

But they wouldn't understand

the reason why I couldn't do it any

more and why it felt I wanted to get

a divorce and live

the life I wanted to live.

Sabbiyah Pervez reporting.

Passengers on rail services

across Yorkshire have faced

disruption today after a series

of attacks on intercity services,

and industrial action affecting

Northern Rail routes.

A service from London to Glasgow had

to be terminated in York

after vandalism near Doncaster,

and passengers on a train travelling

through Wakefield thought they'd

been shot at after a carriage

window was smashed.

Luxmy Gopal is at Wakefield Westgate

station for us tonight.

A service from London King's Cross

to Glasgow had to terminate at York

this afternoon after damage caused

by vandalism to the train near

Doncaster. British Transport Police

have told us they made an arrest at

Hatfield after an object was thrown

that a train, but they haven't

confirmed yet if that was the same

train that terminated at York. In

the past few hours, there has been

another, separate incident involving

a train departing from Wakefield

station, bound for Reading.

Passengers on that service is

thought they'd been shot at after a

window smashed from the outside. One

passenger tweeted a photo showing

the damage. He said he'd heard a

loud bang and the train was forced

to slow down. Cross-country trains

told us rocks were thrown at the

carriage. They say nobody was hurt

and passengers were moved away from

the affected area and the train

continued on its journey. They say

anyone with relevant information

should contact the police.

Aside from these incidents, it

hasn't been a great day for

passengers on Yorkshire's rail

network, has it?

Not really.

Northern Rail wound down services at

7pm this evening due to another 24

hour strike. Northern Rail operator

services across Yorkshire, the

north-east and north-west, and this

strike was part of a long-running

dispute over driver only operated

services.

Thank you.

A brief look at some

of the day's other stories.

Drax power station intends to stop

generating electricity from coal

and switch to burning gas.

People living near the power station

had the chance to look over

the plans at a meeting

in Selby tonight.

The power station says it plans

to stop burning coal completely

in the next eight years.

Detectives investigating a rape

in Sheffield have released CCTV

images of a man they want to speak

to as part of their enquiries.

Police believe this man could have

vital information about the attack

on a woman in her 20s which happened

in the early hours

of Saturday morning.

NHS bosses in Scarborough

and Ryedale are holding two

public meetings to discuss

their worsening financial situation.

They want to know what people think

about money-saving measures

including travelling further

for hospital appointments,

longer delays for non-urgent

operations and cutting the number

of prescribed medicines.

The Scarborough and Ryedale Clinical

Commissioning Group is one of three

NHS organisations in North Yorkshire

placed into financial special

measures, where spending is capped.

And Wakefield Council has unveiled

a brand new fleet of gritters.

It's hoped the 14 new

state-of-the-art vehicles

will help to maintain the county's

roads more quickly and

safely than ever before.

The authority claims they'll be 20%

cheaper than their previous fleet.

The high-tech machines have already

begun gritting the district's roads.

Finally tonight, as the evenings

draw in and the nights get colder,

thoughts are turning to Christmas -

and, for the staff at

Chatsworth House, it means

the huge task of putting up

the decorations gets under way.

This year, they're bringing some

of Charles Dickens's best-known

stories to life, with the help

of characters like Fagin,

Bill Sikes and Miss Havisham.

Tom Ingall has been to take a look.

Autumn is still catching

the breath at Chatsworth,

but inside the house life

is always moving forward.

The firs are being spruced,

the baubles dangled.

It's Christmas time, but is that

Christmas past or present?

Well, we have been thinking

about doing Dickens

for quite some time just

because it is so atmospheric

and everybody thinks

of A Christmas Carol and Christmas

stories to do with Dickens,

so it is something we

really wanted to do.

We have tried to liven it up a bit

because Dickens can be

a bit sad in places,

and we have taken it

into each of the rooms,

taken the main stories and given it

a bit of pizzazz.

In the State dining room,

the table is being dressed

for the wedding breakfast

Miss Havisham will never eat.

Scrooge sleeps uneasily

in a bedroom nearby.

And who knows what delights

will catch the eye in the window

of the Old Curiosity Shop?

How many people does it take to put

your decorations up every year?

It must take a while.

We have got two main

teams who get involved -

the decorations team -

and there are probably

about 20 of us altogether,

although we don't work

at the same time.

We have a shift system,

we start early in the morning

and finish mid-afternoon and then

the second shift comes

on until the night.

But even with double

shifting the decorating,

Dickensifying Chatsworth takes time.

They were not finished today,

so only the ghost of Christmas yet

to come can tell you if this story

came to a happy ending.

Thank you, Tom. Christmas

decorations on the go, a new fleet

of gritters, all we need now is some

wintry weather.

Well, cold at the weekend. I'm sure

that the gritters will be needed.

PROBLEMS WITH SOUND.

It's coming all the way from the

Arctic, so there will be widespread

frost. But the likelihood of

sunshine...

CONTINUED PROBLEMS WITH SOUND.

Cold but sunny. Tomorrow isn't

looking too bad. There will be some

cloud first thing in the morning.

We've had the low temperatures

already.

I'm sorry for the destruction, Paul.

There is a problem with your

microphone. Apologies for that. --

the disruption. But the weather is

getting a lot colder. If Paul

cancelled out his microphone,

hopefully we can hear again. How's

that?

It fell lot but it's back on! There

will be patchy rain and drizzle

heading in from the north-west,

lowest temperatures around four or 5

degrees. This is the way Thursday

morning looks, some patchy rain and

drizzle will slip southwards,

increasingly sunny skies and moving

in from the north-west. It's going

to be milder, temperatures around 12

or 13. Some patchy rain on Thursday

night, and Friday looks sunny, as

does the weekend. That's it from