15/08/2011 North West Tonight

of we welcome to north-west tonight. Our top story: Get open the door!

More arrests as police raid the homes of suspected rioters across

Merseyside. Special courts deal with offenders but some

Magistrates' question the speed of the sentencing.

Prescription addiction: We investigate why tens of thousands

of people across the north-west are hooked on illegal drugs.

A Aintree rings the changes after the deaths of two courses in this

year's Grand National. And blue-sky thinking: Could this

be the season Manchester City makes A week on from the riots in

Liverpool, police came knocking on the doors of more alleged offenders

today. The early morning raids involved a battering ram and an

element of surprise. Ever since the rioting, police have been trawling

through hours of CCTV footage looking for suspects.

So far more than 200 people have been arrested on Merseyside since

the two nights of May and which brought destruction to parts of

Liverpool and the Wirral. Dave Guest joined officers during this

morning's raids. A rude awakening for this household

in Toxteth. I open the door now! am getting dressed! Police arrived

early this morning in search of a young man believed to be involved

in last week's disturbances. have West Group -- search warrants

for the Liverpool area. The their target was led away in handcuffs,

on suspicion -- arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.

far more than 200 people have been arrested on Merseyside since last

week's riots. The is morning's Ray Police say new names have been put

to faces each day, so more of these rates are likely over the coming

days and weeks. -- raids. This is where officers have been working

their way through around 800 hours of CCTV and video images. Here I

have some video footage of the shopping centre. You can see where

the arrow is, we have a male wearing a blue jacket. We tracked

him down from the McDonald's earlier in the evening. We can see

them entering from the broken window. You must be working long

hours. I am looking at four minutes of video footage over the course of

two days because there are so many people to identified. Police say

they will be identified and then they will receive an unwelcome

early morning visit like this. Hundreds of people have now been

through special courts set up to deal with the writing. Some lawyers

and magistrates have questioned the speed of the sentencing of some of

those brought in. In a moment we will hear the views of a magistrate,

but first this from a mother who handed her son into police in

Manchester. He admitted one count of theft and another of unlawful

violence and was given a referral order for nine months. They have

treated him like an animal. He his 12th. I wouldn't be treated the way

he was treated. -- he is 12. you know where he was? No. I was

looking for him, I couldn't find him. I have other responsibilities

at the end of the day. Is he not a responsibility for you? Don't blame

me for it. Who is to blame for what your son did? Who is to blame?

is the government responsible? Joining me now is Richard Monkhouse,

a magistrate in Trafford and deputy chairman elect of the Magistrates'

Association. Are you worried that there has been a knee-jerk reaction

to all this, and magistrates had been caught up in its in their

sentencing? -- have been caught up. A I am not sure about sentencing

because it carries a strict process which we are bound by law to follow,

but the only issue that has been reported, certainly from London, is

that on occasion, paperwork has not been complete. Cases have been

brought to court incomplete, and defence solicitors have not had the

time to assess what the evidence is against their client because it has

all been brought to quickly. That is the allegation. I don't know

because I haven't seen any of this and I have not sat on these

overnight cases, but that has been reported. Certainly some lawyers

have suggested this. So instancing does seem to have been harsher than

it would have been, say if those sentences had been handed out the

week before the riots. We have one case of a mother of three young

children who slept through the riots and had nothing to do with

them, but next day accepted a pair of polluted shorts. She shouldn't

have done that but was given five months in jail. -- stolen shorts.

cannot comment on specific sentences because I don't have all

the information. The media does not have all the information either. It

is quite strange that people have suddenly become experts at

sentencing in five minutes. We have taken years to train, everybody has

taken years to train, had to develop sentencing. It is an art,

not a science, and there are many elements we must bear in mind.

Prime Minister calls for swift justice and severe punishment for

those involved. Does that not get through to magistrates and the

whole court system, where things are a bit harsher and too quick?

shouldn't, because there is a mechanism. The judiciary is

supposed to be independent. The judiciary is not supposed to be

ordered to be able to pass certain sentences against certain

individuals because politicians say so or the media say so. I

understand fully the concerns, but we are independent. Richard

Monkhouse, thank you. A other news from the region, two

people from Manchester had been charged following the discovery of

a body in a suitcase at a house in the city. Police were called to big

story -- Victoria Street in Openshaw last night after reports

of a burglary. Tracey Hurrell and David Hardman have been charged

with murder. A former so order and his family have been given the keys

to a new house after its South Lakeland District Council to go

over a derelict house in the town. Paul Kitching was given a house

after the council was granted an empty dwelling management ordered

for the property. The council will control it was seven years with

rental income paying for its upkeep. Loads of properties around, South

Lakes, there are not many because it is one of the areas people want

to live. When the council can get houses like these, the more the

merrier. People like yourself, there are many service leaders from

the area who are not getting housing. They want to go back where

they have been born and bred. Muhammad and Kevin are both drug

addicts, hooked on heroin or cocaine but prescription medication.

Legal drugs issued to them on the NHS. The north-west prescribes more

benzodiazepines, a group of potentially addictive

tranquillisers, than anywhere else in England. Some patients have been

on the drugs for decades with no help or hope of withdrawal. Abbie

Jones has this special report. Muhammad was put on prescription

drugs 16 years ago. He has never got off. Once a month I get a three

or four page prescription and go to the chemists and get the drugs.

easy as that? As easy as that. Kevin has also been addicted for

more than two decades after a nervous breakdown in his Thirties.

You have no short-term memory or concentration. An absence of affect.

You cannot feel emotions high or low. You are operating on automatic

pilot, like a zombie, basically. Oldham alone, there are more than

5000 addicts like Kevin and Muhammad looked on benzodiazepines,

or benzos, tranquillisers that, the treat insomnia and anxiety. Legal

drugs prescribed in the north-west more than anywhere else in the

country. Guidance from the English Chief Medical Officer is that these

kinds of drugs should be prescribed for no more than four weeks, but

between 1991-2009, more than a third of prescriptions were for

more than eight weeks, despite experts say that coming off benzos

can be harder than coming off heroin. I need you to breed them.

Add diction dependency Solutions helps addicts would draw to

counselling and acupuncture, and there Oldham's service is one of

the few funded by the NHS. Addicts have to help themselves. Support

group Oldham Tranx meets once a week working with the charity.

have people coming to Oldham Tranx from Staffordshire, Burnley,

Liverpool, Huddersfield, because there is nothing in their immediate

area. That is so wrong. We are ex- addicts doing this on a voluntary

basis. Where is the NHS and the Department of Health in all this?

The MP Jim Dobbin chairs and All Party Group on involuntary

tranquilliser addiction. government as far as I'm concerned

is in denial about the extent of the problem. Because of the

repeated prescription process, I know people who have been on, one

individual has been on in voluntary tranquillisers for 45 years. This

GP says doctors on the whole are aware of the dangers in tried to

prescribe -- and are trying to prescribe within the guidelines.

All repeat prescriptions are monitored by general practitioners,

and at i checked what that -- whether the patients are using it.

Some patients will misuse it. Muhammad and Kevin are slowly

breaking free from their prescription addiction, but some of

the damages irreparable. -- damage is irreparable. I have got my life

back in the past three years but I feel like to have been robbed

because I don't remember the other We wanted to put some of the issues

brought up in the report to an addict son, the Public Health

Minister, but she refused a request -- to Anne Milton. The Department

of Health said it would arrange a meeting of experts. There is more

information on the subject on the BBC Manchester website. But then

Rovers manager Steve Kean has been banned from driving for 18 months

after admitting drink-driving -- Blackburn Rovers.

He was twice over the legal limit when he failed a breath test on the

M6 in Cheshire. It was earlier this year. He argued there were special

reasons why he shouldn't be banned. Steve Kean, here in the middle,

today admitted he had been drinking on the day he was stopped by police

doing 90 mph on the M6, but he asked the court at Macclesfield not

to ban him from driving as he believed that day his drinks must

have been laced. The court heard that on 14th May, his team,

Blackburn Rovers, drew 1-1 with Manchester United's at home, a good

result for both teams and meaning Manchester United could claim the

Premier League title. As his football etiquette, Steve Kean told

the court, after a match he had a drink with the opposition manager.

In this case, two 1/2 glasses of red wine with Sir Alex Ferguson.

Later, he met friends in a nearby village where he had a bottle of

beer before heading south to his family home in Surrey. At the

ground and the village, he said, he had left his drink and attended.

Today Macclesfield Magistrates' Court heard a doctor's report

concluded and that had Steve Kean consumed what he claimed he would

have been under the limit, but Steve Kean's barrister told the

court there were times his drink could have been laced and that was

the reason why the reading was so high. The judge said today that

Steve Kean failed to prove his drink had been laced. Instead he

told the court the more likely explanation was that he had had

more to drink and he chose to tell the court. Steve Kean was banned

from driving for 18 months and was Still to come: Will an open

chequebook propel Manchester City to the top of the class this

season? Our long view of the riots in

Changes are to be made to the -- the Grand National course at

Aintree after two for horses died this year. Becher's Brook is to be

levelled off. Also, the height of other offences are to be altered

and it pre-race parade will be shortened to improve safety.

This year's Grand National brought a popular victor. The 14-1 shot

Balabriggs was the 5th winner for the McCain family, but it came at a

cost. The horse was taken back to Aintree stables after finishing

severely dehydrated. Perhaps even more controversially, two other

horses were killed in the race. The heat has been on National

organisers to improve safety. race is a fair test. These are

significant improvements and it is hoped they will reduce risks, but

in any racing, unfortunately we cannot eliminate risks. It is sad

when accidents happen. The grit, which consulted the RSPCA, to do

macro released its recommendations. -- today. It also wants to reduce

the height of the 4th fence and is considering a short mink or

removing the pre-race parade in hot weather and introducing a new post-

race washed down and cooling off area for horses. But for some, the

measures do not go far enough. think that it is the money that is

speaking now. They are trying to make it look good so that the

public will come in. If the public do not come in, they will not get

as much money. Aintree says the safety and welfare of the runners

and riders is its number-one priority. But it insists the

changes will not sanitise the race loved by millions across the world.

The Premier League is backed, you could not really have missed it.

Bolton are on the top of the league, but it is the champions who have

had a difficult start to one of their signings.

Good evening. Manchester United, even though they got off to a win

in the defence of their title, plenty of good things happened in

the match: Wayne Rooney looked really shop. Without dwelling on

the negatives that a lot of supporters will be talking about,

another mistake from their new goalkeeper of David de Gea. He was

at fault in the community Shield last week and he made an error

again yesterday against West Brom. That was it. Painful viewing for

the young man. His boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, is backing him and

pointing out that he is young, he is 20, and is still early in the

Premier League. During yesterday's match, we saw

Rio Ferdinand limping off, that man United have other injury problems

as the up -- as well. Yes, but on top of another player

being out, Ferdinand's central defensive player Nemanja Vidic will

be out as well. Raphael, one of the Brazilian full-backs, will be out

with a dislocated shoulder. On the plus side, United did get off with

a victory. There was an early strike from Wayne Rooney, ensuring

that all three points when to them at the Hawthorns yesterday.

That is the Champions' taken care of, but what about the rest of the

teams? Bolton lead the way thanks to their 4-0 win at QPR in the

Football League. Two north-west teams have 100 % records.

On paper, tricky away games for both sides. On the pitch, a breeze

for Bolton. The Trotters were rampant want Gary Cahill had given

We were looking to add to the score. That is common knowledge. We have

strengthened the team. Not such a happy start elsewhere. Optimism in

the first half for Liverpool gave way to frustration in the second

answer the Reds were held. Wigan were also held at home by newly-

promoted Norwich and Blackburn, despite taking the lead, were

despite taking the lead, were beaten by it waltz. Blackpool's bid

for a return to the top flight is going well. Kevin Phillips, a man

who knows a thing or two about scoring in the Premier League,

grabbed both goals on his debut to make it two wins for two. Tranmere

Rovers, their defenders keep popping up with goals like this one

so anything is possible. It was a great goal, wasn't it? You wouldn't

think he could kick it that far. have to improve, and to improve

this year, we have got to be in the top half. We were in the top half

at Easter and we have got another chance again. Morecambe followed

Cup victory at Hull in midweek with three goals and three points at

Hereford. Accrington Stanley, Crewe and Macclesfield were waiting for

Back to the Premier League, and if you are a Manchester City fan, I

bet you have had the odd butterfly in the stomach. City kick-off their

campaign tonight at home against Swansea with expectations growing

by the signing that this could be the year the Blues leave the

Premier League title. I have been talking to fans and the man who has

been reporting on the Blues since the 1980s about whether this year's

class is shaping up for top marks, Yes, I think about it every night,

just before I close my eyes! they are going to do it, this is

the year. After splashing out another �60 million in the transfer

window, the pressure is on from the start for city's head man to get

results. The expectation level now that the Bar has been moved up its

high. Mancini does have a new stop people in the shape of �38 million

man Sergio Aguerro. He has got the platform, the stage, he is a young

man who could be going places, this could be his season. I believe he

can beat whatever he wants to be. What about the problem pupils?

Mario Balotelli hasn't settled whilst Tevez wants out. If he is

there, great, but if he is not, there is a strong enough squad

there. If he wants to stay and work hard, I will happily keep them.

More properties are on the radar: Arsenal's summit Nazari is among

them. The manager says once he has a full register, that is when he

will be able to judge his squad's true credentials. We buy all the

players that we need and we complete our squad because at the

Fascinating to see how Manchester City go this season. Wigan

maintained their one-point lead at the top of the Superleague. Sam

Tomkins was the star of the show for the Warriors. They were

criticised by their coach for poor defending. Chris Bridge started the

route in the first minute. Congratulations as well to Swinton

Lions who are celebrating their first championship in 25 years.

They secured the championship One title with victory over South Wales

at the weekend. Not the whole South Wales!

What a player Sam Tomkins is. He It has been nice to see a bit of

sunshine over the past few days. But I have a horrible feeling of

Diane is going to tell us about is going to change.

You can tell you have not been out today because it has slipped away

over the past couple of hours. For this time of year, it is not great,

but all things considered, once we get to stay out of the way, it

should not be a bad week. It is staying settle, perhaps a shower

from time to time, but it will be mostly dry, a fairly bright. There

were some lovely spells of sunshine today. The winds were relatively

light and it felt like. Temperatures of 18 or 19 for most

of us. The picture is definitely changing because the sunshine has

gone over the past couple of hours. There is a bit of rain on his way

towards us, but the bigger story is that the cloud will be a thickening.

The stuff that was just of our frame will start to much but as we

head through the night. All the time, catching up hour by hour. It

will come regardless once the sun has gone down. It will sit over the

north-west of England towards tomorrow morning. It is fairly

patchy every now and again, but as we head towards dawn, it gets its

act together a bit more. Temperatures, it is 13 or 14

degrees. Tomorrow morning, a bit of rain will be a brand, perhaps until

breakfast. Then it starts to break up and die away. Behind it, they

will beat a couple of showers coming through so it will never be

completely dry. By 5pm, they should have left us, but there is not room

for any improvement for parts of Cumbria. But for most of us, a

disappointing day with temperatures up to 20 degrees.

Many people in Liverpool may find it difficult to forget last week's

rioting. Yet few recall how one Andrea's ago, there was a far

greater trouble in the City. Troops shot two man dead as

transport strikes and riots broke to Liverpool. The shootings were

kept quiet, but as our political editor has been finding out,

campaigners want memories revived. campaigners want memories revived.

campaigners want memories revived. campaigners want memories revived.

campaigners want memories revived. 100 years ago Liverpool was hosting

a revolutionary exhibition of post- modern art. But there was fear of

political revolution as well as dockers and railway workers

demanded better conditions and they went on to strike.

Maybe 100,000 people gathered on same jaws's plateau. It started

peacefully but went horribly wrong when the police charged. They

rushed out of their hiding place order to break up the demonstration.

They started lashing out, and in fact, there are press descriptions

of how all the people were pushed off the edge of the plateau. Almost

200 people needed hospital treatment after bloody Sunday. Two

days later, those arrested were taken to jail. People demonstrated

again and soldiers shot two men dead.

In-crowd situations, things can get out of control, as we recent --

witnessed recently. One of the meant was shot here and the other

500 metres down the road. Newsreel film was suppressed. There was no

public inquiry, only a few remember those who died. He was just an

innocent, hard-working young man. He was just shot in the crowd. For

nothing. It was very cool, what went on at the time. It took an

inquest jury just three minutes to acquit the soldiers, returning a

verdict of justifiable homicide. 100 years later, they are still

campaigning to have it overturned. Before we go, we are getting lots

of calls about a huge plume of smoke over the centre of Salford.

The Fire Service believe the fire is at a tyre depot. It is not

thought that anyone has been heard. That is a huge plume. I'm going to

have to mention is, you were saying how a sharp Wayne Rooney looks,