21/12/2016 Midlands Today

Good evening. for the news where you are.

The Head of G4S prison services, the company which runs

Birmingham Prison, says he was "surprised" by last

That's despite a recent report which said urgent action was needed

to prevent an attack on prison officers.

More than 400 inmates have been transferred to other

jails, following 12 hours of disturbances last Friday.

They started after an inmate stole some keys from a prison

Havoc and hi-jinks captured on mobile phones

as hundreds of prisoners took control of HMP Birmingham.

Lighting fires in stairwells, burning paper records.

Five days on, order restored and a visit

Just a few months ago Sam Geemah was in charge

I have been here today meeting the staff who were on duty last

Friday and talking to them about their

experiences and I can't emphasise how proud I am of some of the

individual acts of bravery that took place here to make sure the

situation was contained on the wings where it happened.

Even so, the bill for the damage is estimated at three

The company's also got the worry that inmates may have made copies

of keys they got hold of during the trouble and

then there's the wider matter of staffing.

There was a riot because the prisoners were not

There are to officers to four floors.

The Government says lack of staffing and the use of illegal

drugs are the main factors behind Friday's riot.

This has been coming for a least two months. They believe it has been

ignored and it has culminated in the riots. People I've talked about

staffing levels and in my view, based on 35 years of work in this

industry, they were entirely appropriate and entirely safe.

The minister says problems at HMP B'ham are replicated in jails

The Government is already announced major investment to deal with this.

We have plans to strengthen the front line and give staff tools and

resources to challenge and support prisoners and turn them around.

Turning around this place will not be simple or quick.

Violence against both officers and inmates is soaring.

in their worst state for over a decade.

Five men have been found guilty of sexually exploiting teenage girls

The six victims, most of them underage, were promised

But instead they were raped, assaulted and trafficked

Exploiting vulnerable teenage girls in the most horrific way.

Waqaar Khan, Kadeem Bourne and Kenan Kelly

have been convicted of multiple rapes.

Along with two other men, Marcus Woolcock and Zahid Chaudhary,

they trafficked teenagers after initiating contact on Facebook.

A relative of one whose identity has been protected, says the men are

I think they are absolutely despicable.

They are exactly what I say they are.

They are out there, prowling through social media,

acting on vulnerable girls and abusing the life out of

them for their own satisfaction and videoing them for their own

The teenagers, most of them underage, were driven to

grubby, secluded areas of the city and threatened.

One victim was knocked out and woke up to find the

men watching a phone video of herself being

It was the brazen nature of their offending, that

actually they thought they were almost untouchable.

They thought these girls wouldn't dare report through

fear, so I'd like to thank the girls for their bravery in coming forward

Coventry City Council says it has recently put more resources

into helping vulnerable and exploited teenagers.

It wants parents and the victims to contact

the authorities with their concerns and suspicions.

The exploitation of children is something

that can affect anyone and if there are other children out

there who have been affected in a similar way,

I would encourage them to speak to trusted adults.

Alternatively, they can speak to police or telephone

The defendants, who are all unemployed,

They will be sentenced on January 20.

Officers in the public protection unit noticed that the gang leader,

Waqaar Khan was cropping up as a mutual friend of vulnerable young

girls on their Facebook sites. At the same time, two girls reported

missing in Warwickshire were links to him. He was arrested and an

examination of his phone revealed thousands of sexual text messages

and several videos of graphic sexual abuse and that enabled police to be

that a picture of what had happened. And the police think there may have

been more victims? Yes, they are currently sifting through all these

text messages and they believe that could lead to clues of the identity

of other possible victims. Thank you.

The police have released new CCTV images of men they want to trace,

as they continue to hunt the killer of Hereford father Christian Bagley.

It's 18 months since the 30-year-old was stabbed on a footpath

The images show to men police want to speak to.

Detectives say they're convinced somebody in Hereford

A Coventry man has pleaded guilty to sending money to his brother

who is currently fighting in Syria with Daesh.

35-year-old Nadeem Hussain has admitted to three counts

of being concerned in arrangements to make money available

There's a new appeal tonight for help in solving

the mystery of two young boys, who disappeared without trace

David Spencer and Patrick Warren are now feared dead,

but the police say they're still hopeful of

David Spencer loved boxing, here he is in the ring, competing

Just weeks later on Boxing Day, the 13-year-old disappeared

along with his 11-year-old friend, Paddy Warren.

conference, Christmas has never been the same since.

A day has not gone by when I haven't thought of

There were three brothers, Lee was nine when David disappeared.

He was my older brother, he looked out for me,

The boys were seen playing on a frozen lake

near their home in Chelmsley Wood and a policeman

Patrick's prized red bike, a christmas present the day before,

Over the years police have dug and made arrests,

questioning child killer Brian Field in prison.

There could be one person responsible for their disappearance

and there could be several who know what happened to them.

My appeal today is to anyone who knows anything about

what happened to the boys to come forward and tell us what they know.

It's an enduring mystery, and for the family, an open wound

Two youth football teams in Birmingham have been banned

from wearing their new shirts, because they're sponsored

Both companies are owned by parents who have children in the Under-10

and Under-8s teams, but the Football Association says

they breach its rules about appropriate sponsors.

But at the minute, they're going nowhere fast.

the rules ON the pitch, but everything to do

Grassroots football does not get help.

The FA says it gives us money, and the Premier League,

So, a thousand pounds donated by the two companies was very welcome.

Strict FA regulations to safeguard children have been in place for many

years and unfortunately these to businesses are not seen

What are they going to do, ban David Beckham from having

It wasn't about advertising for us, but about helping in the community.

Unfortunately the Concordes are grounded

They've been suspended by the FA until they can get new shirts.

The weather's next, with Rebecca Wood.

We did have plenty of dry today some stunning skies. It will be a chilly

night though. The wind is dropping out and we will get a widespread

frost. There will be a breeze as we head into tomorrow. But for tonight,

without those winds, our skies clearing and temperatures falling

away. We already down to -1 on the Welsh border and temperatures

continue to fall. There will be fog patches, but our temperatures down

to -1, so a sheltered spots, it will be called to start tomorrow. As we

head through the day, it will be a dry and bright day. A few showers

pushing in from the West, but staying dry. Quite a chilly,

temperatures between 5-6 ulcers. The breeze increasing. That is all ahead

of storm Barbara can begin on Friday. Heavy rain and stronger

winds. An exceptionally mild Christmas Day to come also and this

is the album. good for us. Mild by the time we

reach Christmas Day. Hello there, there is wet and very

windy weather on the way in the run-up to Christmas. The worst of

the weather to the northern half of the UK. We have a strengthening jet

out of North America that is propgating across the Atlantic.

Rushing our way. Picking up low pressure, deepening them, tracking

them to the north-west of Scotland, hence the wind and rain. Tonight, we

have gale force winds in the north-west of Scotland. Wintry

showers here. There is still come rain to clear from the south-east.

It will go. The skies will clear. We get patchy fog in the south-east of

England. Chilly where skies clear, particularly in the countryside, not

far away from freezing. Further north we keep the showers going

through the night