27/03/2017 Midlands Today

Good evening. for the news where you are.

A surgeon who is accused of maliciously wounding private

patients by carrying out unnecessary breast operations in order

to earn extra cash has been giving evidence in court.

It's been claimed that Ian Paterson, a breast cancer specialist

who worked for the Heart of England NHS Trust and private clinics,

lied to GPs and distorted medical results to justify

He denies 20 counts of unlawfully killing and maliciously wounding ten

Ian Paterson, a breast surgeon accused of carrying out unnecessary

At Nottingham Crown Court, he's on trial for allegedly causing

grievous bodily harm to ten patients over a 14-year period.

Today the 59-year-old took the stand.

Over the last few weeks the court has heard that the surgeon operated

unnecessarily on patients at two private hospitals.

The prosecution alleges his motives were obscure and may have included

Ian Paterson denies 20 counts of wounding with intent.

Sima Kotecha, BBC Midlands Today, Nottingham.

A multi-faith vigil has taken place this evening to remember the four

victims of the attack in Westminster last Wednesday.

Khalid Masood drove onto the pavement killing

and injuring pedestrians, before stabbing a police officer.

This meeting in Birmingham was organised by the Small Heath

Multicultural Faith Forum to pray for the victims of last

The family, communities needed to come together to see

that they have the ground, they have the platform to talk

Police say Khalid Masood had connections with Birmingham.

Over the weekend a 30-year-old man was arrested in the city.

A 58-year-old man, also arrested in Birmingham, remains in custody.

Once again the city is associated with extremism.

People here say they must not let this atrocity divide them.

When the person comes from Birmingham, and it makes

you realise that you can't keep on burying your head in the sand,

If you live in the centre of Birmingham, if you live

in London, if you live in Leicester, it's the same disgust.

We just want to express ourselves that we don't like it,

We're not supporting it and we don't want our children to support it.

It is good to show that we are not backing down for anyone.

Every faith is involved, it is a really good thing.

Tonight's vigil is an opportunity the people of all faiths,

Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, to get together

and reflect on the dreadful incidents of last week.

The key message here is that the community should be

And as the evening closed, a feeling in the room of optimism

that extremism must be confronted and challenged to prevent the next

generation from being at risk of radicalisation.

Nicola Beckford, BBC Midlands today, Birmingham.

A gun dealer from Gloucestershire has denied deliberately smuggling

hundreds of illegal firearms into the UK.

65-year-old Paul Edmunds is on trial for making and supplying home-made

bullets which the prosecution say were found at more than 90 crime

scenes, including fatal shootings and a gun attack

Police are continuing to search for a hit-and-run driver almost

24 hours after the death of a pedestrian who was struck

during a seven-mile police chase late last night.

One of Birmingham's busiest roads was closed for more than 12 hours

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is examining

Normally one of the busiest routes in the city closed to traffic,

a tent covering the spot where a 45-year-old man

It happened at twenty to midnight on Belgrave Middleway.

Paramedics worked into the small hours trying to save him.

After nearly about one hour, two hours, he's still in the ambulance

The car that struck him had been chased by police.

The pursuit began in the north Birmingham suburb of Erdington,

The Mondeo went through a red light and the police abandoned the chase.

Moments later the collision happened and the Mondeo then sped off.

Two police vehicles have been removed for examination.

Investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission spent

More than 12 hours after this accident, the road is just

about to reopen, the hunt for the driver continues.

Police are urging him to give himself up.

Locals say they're tired of traffic speeding past their doors.

I live in this area and I see these traffic lights,

I see cars lining up and they're going high-speed and they're racing,

To me, it is an accident waiting to go off.

Along this road it is like a racetrack.

And I would hope that they would put the cameras back because this

The road closure led to congestion and long delays for motorists

Specialist officers are supporting the family of the dead man.

Giles Latcham, BBC Midlands Today, Birmingham.

The challenges of growing up with autism in the 1980s

It's been a personal mission for Kevin Healey who wasn't

diagnosed with the condition until he was 26.

As a young child growing up in Staffordshire, he was labelled as

eccentric and he struggled through school life.

Here's our arts reporter, Satnam Rana.

I felt overloaded so I started to use my right hand as a puppet doll.

He became my close friend and was with me wherever I went.

Just some of the challenges Kevin Healey faced as a child

Dramatised in this film Twin Brothers Worlds Apart.

Neighbour Trish remembers how hard it was growing up for young Kevin

You were different and there was no other way of putting it

because I didn't understand what you had got but I knew your

heart was bigger than anything and I used to get angry and I used

to come in and stamp my feet and cry and I thought, hang on a minute.

He holds his head up high, which you always have done

and I am so proud of you, Kevin.

Back in the '80s no-one knew Kevin was autistic.

His twin brother was diagnosed with autism at 18 but his condition

Kevin was diagnosed when he was 26 with a milder form.

Satnam, this is the park I grew up in as a child and used to play

I know it's in the film, so why did you want to put your personal

To raise more awareness of autism and to move away

According to the National Autistic Society 700,000 people

are on the autism spectrum in the UK, that's

As a child, what was it like pre-diagnosis and what is it

As a child, I found it really hard to interact with other children

and communicate with them as a child growing up.

As an adult now, even though I can communicate quite

articulately, I still have problems with communication.

People not understanding me or certain things I can be quite

literal, or quite to the point, and sometimes I can be quite blunt.

Kevin's story will premiere tonight and then the film will be taken film

festivals as he continues to spread the word.

Satnam Rana, BBC Midlands Today, Newcastle Under Lyme.

I'll leave you with the weather from Rebecca.

The signs of spring with therefore this weekend but we have to look

harder to find it today. They were there eventually. This is why we

struggled, temperatures tensed Celsius under the cloud. At the

weekend we pushed 16 Celsius. This afternoon it started to break and it

was a real pleasant end to the day. Some glorious scenes taken by our

weather watchers. The rest of the week, a mixed picture. Some spun

this to come through the day. Some scattered showers will arrive. It

will be milder with temperatures mid to high teens rain arriving I the

end of the week. This is why, the battle between high-pressure and low

pressure. The weather systems. To work their way through. Overnight we

are plenty of cloud and our win direction is changing, a

south-westerly. It will bring milder air so temperatures between three

and six Celsius. We start tomorrow with sunny spells, some fog across

the East Midlands but some breaks in the car before showers pushed their

way in from the south, some will be heavy and there could be thunder but

temperatures much better than today, 14 or 15 Celsius. Tomorrow, the end

we will see showers from the West as the wind direction changes.

Temperatures between nine and 11. For the remainder of the week, we

continue to see these messy weather systems working their way. It will

come and go and bring some spells of rain temperatures will be hovering

at around 14 Celsius. I will leave you with a look ahead to the

showery on Saturday, dry and brighter on Sunday and if we go back

to the temperatures in the next couple days, you see those highs on

Thursday. He is John Hammond with the national

this cyclone Debbie crashes onto the Queensland coast with violent winds

and flooding rains, that will head southwards in the next few days in

the direction of Brisbane. We will keep an eye on Debbie. Meanwhile

back home, much more tranquil. This beautiful sunset taken from

Stevenage and Hertfordshire earlier this