08/02/2017 Midlands Today


08/02/2017

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Good evening. for the news where you are.

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Survivors of Hillsborough say they're hopeful

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prosecutions will be brought against West Midlands Police

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officers who investigated the 1989 disaster.

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96 Liverpool fans died as a result of a crush on the terraces

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After a long investigation into the conduct of both

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the South Yorkshire and West Midlands forces,

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the Police Watchdog the IPCC has sent files to the Crown Prosecution

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Service. Giles Latcham reports.

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April last year. It felt like the final chapter.

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An inquest jury at last agreeing with the families,

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the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster

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Questions persist though about the police, not just

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the South Yorkshire officers there on the day, but also the West

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Midlands officers brought in afterwards to investigate.

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to deal with what I had to deal with.

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Debra Martin admits she has no fondness for the police,

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and yet at one time in her life policing was all she wanted to do.

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She was a special constable on duty that day at Hillsborough.

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She says she cradled one of the youngest victims,

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15-year-old Kevin Williams, as he died.

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She claims she was later brow beaten into changing her statement,

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I was there that day and that child died

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There's as much blame to lay at West Midlands as well South

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Yorkshire, they should have behaved themselves and they should have told

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In terms of the number of victims, witnesses and statements,

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the Hillsborough inquiry was the biggest ever carried out

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This former senior West Midlands officer

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didn't serve on the inquiry, but says the team that

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I would like to have seen personally more experienced operational

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For all these years to pass by and certainly

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suddenly be caught on and dragged over the coals,

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They were interested in did I have a ticket,

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did I have a drink, did I

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Val Yates was a 20-year-old Liverpool fan who ended up

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on the pitch that day trying to help.

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She thought West Midlands officers arrived with a script already

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written and said so to the IPCC, who failed to pick up

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They said that I'd got no complaints against the

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West Midlands Police, I've got every confidence

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and that was just an absolute utter falseness.

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I never said it, I've got absolute criticism of them, they had

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an agenda, tried to confiscate this, wanted to blame drunken

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The Crown Prosecution services has files on eight police officers -

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Decisions on whether to charge them are due later this year.

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You can hope that those responsible for this

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The truth is pretty much now writ large.

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What's left to do then in this investigation?

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Well, of course as we have heard the IP CC has already sent files to the

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CBC, and this work focuses on what they call the controlling minds of

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the alleged cover-up, those taking key decisions. But enquiries

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continue into 170 allegations of misconduct, that's to say

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misbehaviour by officers not criminal offences. Now, if those

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officers were still serving, those allegations might lead to

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disciplinary proceedings, but the reality is that few if any are still

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employed by either force, so that process might not satisfy the

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families and survivors who have complained. West Midlands Police

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says it has cooperated fully with the investigation and its thoughts

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are with the family and friends of those who died.

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Hundreds gathered in Wolverhampton this afternoon

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to pay their last respects to Baroness Rachael Heyhoe Flint,

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St Peter's church was packed

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of sport including Olympic gold medallists,football and cricket

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The former England Women's Cricket Captain worked

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tirelessly for charity - she was also a passionate

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There was only one place to begin her final

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journey, the home of her beloved football club, following the very

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same path as her own favourite Wolves Legends Billy Wright, and

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She wanted her funeral to be like Sir Jack's, but

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And it leaves a gap that no one else can ever fill.

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Inside St Peter's, every seat was taken by

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family and friends from her sporting passions,

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cricket and football, from

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her political career as Baroness Heyhoe Flint

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in the House of Lords, and from her outstanding charity

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She was best known around the world as captain of the England

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women's cricket team, and the first woman ever to become

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I hope that it will make the MCC realise there are

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thousands and thousands of women who take cricket very seriously.

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Her heart was always in Wolverhampton.

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Educated at the girl's high school, and fiercely proud to be a vice

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president of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

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Rachel was also a good friend of Graeme Taylor, how ironic

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that they should both passed away within a week of each other.

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And he would have appreciated her mischevious sense of humour.

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MUSIC: Always Look On The Bright Side Of Death by Monty Python

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Your father, Sir Jack, had a very close place in Rachel's heart.

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So close, I think they were the greatest

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I think Dad if you asked Dad, now than he would say

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Only very small in stature but she packed a punch and she was always

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fighting for things that she believed in and what she's done for

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the women's and girls games is awesome.

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As a Wolverhampton girl yourself, you will know more than most

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just what she meant to the city.

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Yeah, I mean, she was a trailblazer, a pioneer and someone

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who said, you know, fight what you believe them.

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It was Rachel's dying wish that her funeral should be uplifting

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and inspirational, and everyone who was here

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at St Peter's today would

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agree that the service, just like her life,

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A man's been charged with murder after a woman turned up

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at a doctor's surgery with stab wounds and died shortly afterwards.

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Police were called to Hawes Lane Surgery,

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The victim has been named as 54-year-old Tina Billingham.

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Ronald Cooke of Granville Road in Cradley Heath, will appear

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A woman's been arrested on suspicion of obstructing police

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after a hit and run in Evesham, which involved a police officer.

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It happened on the junction of Chapel Street and Oat Street

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A 46-year-old man's already been arrested on suspicion

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The officer injured during the collision is recovering

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Investigators have confirmed that a fire at a plastics recycling

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firm in Stoke on Trent was started deliberately.

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More than 50 firefighters were sent to Hanbury Plastics

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It later emerged that the plant didn't have a permit

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and was operating illegally after the Environment Agency

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Coventry Council is insisting a new ?300 million development

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The authority recently gave the green light to the scheme known

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It's brutalist and, for many, ugly, but Coventry Point is one

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of numerous concrete buildings set to be demolished as part

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of a ?300 million City Centre South redevelopment.

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Previous schemes like the ambitious Jerde project failed but this time

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What is different here is, the money is in place,

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?200 million from the private sector,

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for the developer, who has done developments across the country.

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We've got ?100 million from the combined authority.

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The permission is in place. Now we want to see it happen.

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Coventry is already seeing a building boom.

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This former Royal Mail sorting office site will soon

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The first time I came here,

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the sorting office site was still operational.

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We acquired it from the Royal Mail when they vacated it.

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So it was a derelict site and it's great to be investing

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in the site and bringing it back to life.

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This is a sign of the regeneration gathering momentum.

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These are the former offices of the local newspaper,

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the Coventry Evening Telegraph, which were vacated

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The building is going to be converted into a boutique hotel,

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It's the brainchild of Coventry developer Ian Harribin.

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You can imagine some life coming back in this big room yet again

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when somebody has their wedding here, for example.

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Further down in the building, we're looking at using some

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of the former large print room spaces for maybe a couple

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of arthouse cinema screens so, you know, making the building work

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Stories from Coventry have been printed many times

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in this very building, and now a new chapter in the city's

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Time for the weather forecast with Shefali.

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Hello, good evening. The cloud is across most across the region this

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morning, with mist and fog like a hangover from last night. It

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continues through the rest of the week I'm afraid but with the cold.

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Today was a transition day, seeing temperatures of 5-6 Celsius, but

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starting to dig in now, values depressed right one dash to Celsius.

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Tonight I cloud across but unlikely to shift. Tonight a cloudy picture,

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but some breaks in the cloud with that easterly winds dragging those

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temperatures down to -1 that minors to Celsius, with the odd wintry

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element, the oddly gosh -- snow. Tomorrow we have the frost gradually

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clearing, because cloud is across us and averages struggle in that

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easterly wind to reach highs to Celsius. Again, the odd flake of

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snow but the oddly -- mainly dry picture. This is how it goes for the

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rest of the week, cloudy picture but a cold one as well, with fairly

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light winds. Very wintry indeed. I leave you now with the Outlook.

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cloudy and Ben Rich will take you through the bigger picture.

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Good evening. Over the next few days I suspect it's going to feel like we

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have been plunged into the deep freeze. Cold weather on the way and

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not necessarily crisp cold weather, with blue skies. A lot of cloud,

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there was some sunshine today across parts of west Wales, for instance.

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That lifted temperatures up to 11. But further east as you can see from

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the picture, there was a lot of cloud feeding in and that pegged

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temperatures down into single figures, because there is

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increasingly cold air heading in this

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