21/02/2012 North West Tonight

Good evening. Welcome to North West tonight.

Accused of grooming under-age girls for sex. The trial begins of a gang

of men from Rochdale. Eleven men deny the charges. All

the victims were from broken homes or in care.

Jailed for having a fake driving licence. This asylum seeker

considers legal action after proving it was real.

Save our nurseries, parents protest as the Isle of Man Government

threatens to axe childcare. More than a happy end, the author

who cheated death to finish her debut novel.

We talk to the star of South Pa civic -- Pacific and why Liverpool

"No child should be exploited as these girls say they were". The

words of a prosecutor as the trial began in Liverpool of 11 men

charged with sexually exploiting and trafficking schoolgirls. The

group are said to have plied the youngsters with drink and drugs

before abusing them and passing them on to their friends. It's said

to have happened mainly in Rochdale and Oldham over a number of years.

The men all deny the charges against them. Our chief reporter,

Dave Guest, joins us from Liverpool Crown Court. When the prosecutor

made her opening remarks to the jury in court here, she said it was

a case of very young, vulnerable children being exploited by a group

of adult men. She said that sometimes these girls were given

alcohol, food and money in return for sex. Sometimes they were

subjected to violence to make them comply. In the dock are a total of

eleven men. We have got some pictures of them arriving at court

today. All of the defendants are of Asian heritage, their ages range

between 22 and 59 and the men are connected with one another in a

variety of ways. They face a total of 22 counts including sexual

assault, rape and trafficking. They are said to have passed girls

between themselves and passed them on to their friends and associates.

They deny the charges against them. How is it said that they met the

girls in the first place? Well, of course, we can't name the

alleged victims in the case because they are under-age. But five girls

were named in the charges. Their ages at the time range between 13

and 15. For instance, of the girls was said to have fallen in with

these men when she fell out with her parents and another girl was in

care of the local authority. The prosecutor said these were classic

cases that were easy to target and exploit. One of the girls, a 13-

year-old, is said to have had an abortion before being made pregnant

by one of the defendants. They met the men through a couple of take

takeaway shops in Rochdale. It was said in court, these were the

places where the girls were softened up with offers of free

food and drink before things turned more sinister.

A large number of defendants on trial here. A sizable group of

victims too. One assumes the case will go on for sometime?

That's right, yes. If you think about it, there are eleven people

in the dock. They have got defence barristers hol want to cross -- who

will want to cross-examine the witnesses who are being called in

this case. Tomorrow, we are due to hear from one of the alleged

victims who has made many hours of video recordings to give her

testimony. The case is expected to last many weeks.

A boy is one of two teenagers in custody after a man was seriously

assaulted and left in a critical condition. This is after an

argument with a group of mouths in mercy -- -- youths in Merseyside.

Residents have spoken about their horror of the attack which took

place last night and they say more needs to be done to make the

streets safer. This street in Rockferry would have

been well lit lit just after 8pm last night as the victim named

locally as George Craddock, bought food before running into a group of

youths. It is thought that George Craddock approached the group. The

conversation is thought to have escalated into an argument. It is

at that point that another adult has become involved and thrown just

one punch that sent George Craddock to the ground. He was taken to

Arrowe Park Hospital before being transferred to the Walton Centre

for specialist surgery. George cad dock is well-known -- Craddock is

well-known in the area. Neighbours are confused as to why and how he

found himself in trouble. Harmless. He wouldn't go out to

pick a fight with anybody. If he got caught names, he would try and

avoid confrontation. Some neighbours say, they aren't

surprised this happened on the streets of Rockferry, where they

don't feel safe. You can't be safe around here. It

is horrible. REPORTER: Why is it? I don't know.

All you see is gangs of kids and all these people getting injured.

They get drunk and they start on anyone for anything. They are just

looking for trouble every night. A 13-year-old and an 18-year-old

man remain in custody. Police say on a street as busy as this, there

must be more witnesses to come forward.

An asylum seeker who spent four months in Strangeways Prison,

wrongly accused of having a fake driving licence says he is

considering legal action. Syed Mansoor, who lives in the Rusholme

area of Manchester, but is originally from Pakistan, was

arrested by traffic police who thought his document must be fake

because his photo was in colour. He has described the experience as

"hell" and says his health has suffered as a result. Ian Haslam

reports. Syed Mansoor has been in Manchester for four months, four of

those spent in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

It is horrible. I can't sleep, OK, because it was my first time in the

jail when I have been in the jail, OK. About four daysI was very, very

upsetpm. It started on 4th October last year. A car he was a passenger

in was double parked, when traffic officers approached and asked for

ID, he produced his provisional licence.

I showed them my ID. I showed my national insurance number. If my

licence is fake, why do I show my provisional licence? Police

contacted the DVLA who are responsible for maintaining a

database. The Crown Prosecution Service says a decision was made to

charge the defendant with possession of a false identity

document with improper intent on the evidence available at the time.

The case was kept under review by the CPS and on month, 30th January

2012, we received confirmation from the DVLA that the driving licence

was in fact genuine. The police could have checked out his version

of events, his story and if they did, they would have found out

quickly that the provisional driving licence was legitimate.

The DVLA told us the correct information was provided to Greater

Manchester Police as soon as it was requested. Greater Manchester

Police say they are reviewing the circumstances around Syed's arrest

and charge. A public inquiry is being called

for after damning report on adult social services at Wirral Council.

The authority's new leader says it is the only way to restore trust in

the council. Councillors met last night to discuss how they can move

forward after a review into allegations of abuse in social care.

It was brought to light by the whistleblower Martin Morton who

lost his job as a result. I know the Prime Minister has shown

an interest. I know that ministers in London are showing an interest

in terms of the Local Government ministers, and also social services

ministers. We will be speaking to them to see if we can get a public

inquiry. Salford City Council have announced

that 360 jobs will be lost in the next year with the council needing

to save �24 million. It's in addition to the �40 million of

savings that were made last year and will lead to an inevitable

reduction in services across the city.

A man has died after being injured when a heavy goods tyre exploded at

a Lancashire industrial unit. The incident happened in Preston.

A man has appeared in court charged with the manslaughter and robbery

of an Oldham grandmother. Nellie Geraghty died in November. She was

injured when her handbag, containing the ashes of her late

husband Frank, was stolen as she walked to a luncheon club. 37-year-

old Mark Royle, of no fixed address, was today remanded in custody and

will appear at Crown Court in Manchester next month.

The Tasmanian Government has agreed to pay for the repatriation of a

Lancashire girl currently in a coma on the island. Holly Raper fell off

a quad bike in December, but her holiday insurance won't pay any

expenses because she didn't have cover for extreme sports. Holly is

entitled to a worker's compensation scheme because she was employed at

the time of the accident. A High Court judge has ruled that

Ryan Giggs can now be named as the man behind an injunction which

prevented the details of an extra- marital affair being published. He

took out the legal order last year to block reporting of an alleged

affair with Imogen Thomas. Thousands of people broke the order

by naming him on Twitter. It has been announced this morning

that Sir Elton John will be the first artist to perform on

Blackpool's newly restored Tower Headland. The concert will take

place in mid June. The last time Sir Elton played in Blackpool was

30 years ago. Tickets go on sale later this month.

Any parent will tell you that a lack of childcare where you live

can mean the difference between working and having to stay at home

so when mums and dads on the Isle of Man were told 11 Government

funded pre-schools were closing down, it prompted big protests.

They were out in force today clearly angry that their service is

being cut as part of the Manx Government's drive to make �35

million of savings this year. Ministers say they have to go in

order to save other services. Kelly Foran has more. Keeping children

entertained over half term, but many parents had a day out with a

difference today, protesting outside Government offices against

the harsh cuts to free pre-school. The education of our children is

right. It is not the Third World. It is the Isle of Man.

These are the children that are going to be sorting out the mess we

have got the economy into. It is not fair on them to be denied the

chance to develop normally. As well as the hundreds of children

affected, jobs will be lost. reaction of the staff was just to

break down in tears. Not for themselves either, but for the

people who depend on their service. To say the time has come to cut

services and we're going to start with nurseries and libraries is

something people are not going to wear. This is just one of many

difficult decisions the mansion mansion had to make.

D Manx Government had to make. If we don't take hard decisions now,

we will have to take even worse decisions later on if we don't

start addressing how many people work for Government, how we provide

services. Time is ticking before September,

when these mums want their toddlers to start in education.

We hope to come up with a scheme that will give them some access

into private or voluntary provision. The department policy for many

years has been, we will open additional places as and when

additional places allow. In the Still to come on North West

Tonight: It is pancake tossing as you have

never seen it before! Join me to show you how it should be done.

Hi, I am Samantha Womack and join We will have your tips that you

have been telling us on Facebook. It seems unlikely that Carlos Tevez

will feature in Manchester City's Europa League match against Porto

tomorrow night with Roberto Mancini refusing to comment on the

Argentine today. Midfielder Samir Nasri says apologies need to be

made to help the club win trophies. If he has to apologise, he has to

do it and then he will be in the squad. We need a player of his

quality to win the league and to win the Europa League.

UEFA have announced they have opened disciplinary proceedings

against Porto for the "improper conduct" of its supporters during

the Europa League match against Manchester City last week. City

complained that Mario Balotelli and Yaya Toure had suffered racial

abuse from the crowd. In Rugby Union, Sale Sharks have

confirmed that their owner, Brian Kennedy, has made "tentative

enquiries" about buying Glasgow Rangers. The Scotsman was

previously linked with a takeover bid for Hibernian FC in 1998.

Rangers went into administration last week facing debts of up to �75

million. I have never written a book, but it

takes drive, determination and talent to get a book published and

particularly at just 29-years-old, but Alexandra Singer's story is

nothing short of inspiring. Just months after she started writing

her novel, she almost died from a nerve condition called cerebral

lupus. Alexandra spent the next three months in a coma and the next

two years in hospital. When she first woke up she had no memory of

her book and to finish it, she had to teach herself to write all over

again. Laura Yates has been to meet The light was diminishing. Most

writers would describe their book as a labour of love, but for

Alexandra that doesn't come close. A trainee solicitor, she loved to

travel and it was a trip to Morocco that inspired her book. She had

sketched out its story and just begun to write it when she suffered

an attack of cerebral lupus and spent the next three months in a

coma. I was in a lot of pain and I was on

so much medication. I came around. It may have been two months after I

came out of a coma when I asked my family if I had been writing a book

and at the time I didn't know if I had dreamt it or imagined it.

was Alexandra's brother who found her manuscript and her family

persuaded her her to start writing again.

At that time I was weak. I was still having medical procedures. I

was bed bound and my arms still weren't working and it was about

forcing my hands to write again. Every day in hospital, alongside

intensive physiotherapy, Alexandra set herself another target, to

write a certain number of words a day.

Creating this world and getting my fingers working again actually,

when I did, you know, despair because I was in hospital for two

years and I had a reason to get up and write and when I got three-

quarters of the way through, I thought, "There is no way I can

leave this. I have got to finish it."

In just a few weeks, the book will be on the the shelves. Alexandra is

That's amazing. It could be one for a few book

clubs. I hope she does really well with it.

He made his name as an actor in My Beautiful Laundrette and as a

writer with East is East, both successful films. Now Ayub Khan Din,

from Salford, has transformed one of the hit films of the 60s. All in

Good Time is his take on The Family Way. Both are set in Bolton, both

tell the story of newlyweds forced to live with the groom's parents.

Plenty of scope for drama there! So what's changed? Stuart Flinders

reports. It is a story about a couple finding it hard to let's say

consummate the marriage with the groom's family around.

As long as they are happy. Ayub Khan-Din's stage version was a

success worldwide. This is a promotion for the stage show.

Now there is a film version. Both were filmed in Bolton.

OK, Jeff, take it away. And don't keep me waiting.

Two films made 50 years apart, what do they tell us about the way towns

like this have changed and the way they have remained the the same?

Many of the buildings survived, but a working class family is almost as

likely these days to be Asian as height. They are superficial things.

Underlying that, there is family systems that might be there. They

might be more fragmented and complicated, getting on with your

parents, your in-laws, those things don't change. They feature in the

soaps we watch. Suppose Jenny comes down, it is not

nice a young girl seeing the hairs on a man's chest at breakfast.

The original story was by Bill Naughton, author of Alfie and it

reflects a bond with the community he wrote about.

It is a feeling of kind of deepest empathy and relationship and all

the rest of it. I have only to see the word "Bolton "I don't want to

say too much about it. All In Good Time opens in cinemas

There are universal scenes in Family Life, I think.

It is 20 years since me and my my wife lived with my parents.

We're more used to seeing her crying her way through the gritty

storylines of EastEnders, but tonight Samantha Womack will be in

cheerier mode as the musical hit South Pacific opens in Liverpool.

Yes, the actress has swapped the Eastend for the North West,

reprising the role of Nellie Forbush that won her rave reviews

when it opened in London last year. But as Kate Simms has been finding

out, her debut in Liverpool is giving her more than the usual

You have to admit it is a lot more inviting than Albert Square, but

Samantha Womack has been enjoying the change of scenery.

I have really, really enjoyed it. It is a tough world because you

have got your eight shows a week. It is a lovely show to do.

# # I am going to wash that man out of my hair hb. This production

opened in London last year and it is on tour and opens in Liverpool

tonight. Far from her Cambridgeshire home, Womack knows

the city well. She met her husband here while

filming the drama, Liverpool One. My husband is from here, my kids

are from here. I have got loads of friends and in-laws and so yeah, it

feels like a home away from home really.

That link and two weeks off with a chest infection left her feeling

the pressure tonight. This is my first time back. Not

only is it going to be in a place where I want to be great, but my

middle voice is husky at the moment so I have no idea what is going to

come out. If I sound terrible, please forgive me!

Don't cry. What about Albert Square. Womack

played Ronnie Mitchell for seven years. Has she washed her out of

her hair? I have lots of fond memories and of the character. I

played a character for four years. I have never done that in my life

before. You heard her, never say never.

South Pacific is at the Liverpool Now today is Shrove Tuesday or

Pancake Day. Many of you will be rushing home to mix up your batter

and then scrape your pancakes off the ceiling if, like me, you get a

little too enthusiastic! Today, Rochdale's celebrity chef Andrew

Nutter came to the BBC canteen to share a few tips on flipping the

perfect pancake. Although there were a few casualties along the

way! It was all in aid of Sport Relief as Abbie Jones explains.

Lunch time in the BBC canteen. The batter is sizzling and the

customers are hungry. Pancake is one of my favourite food.

I'm classy. I am a traditionalist, lemon and sugar, but today I might

go for maple syrup. That will be Andrew Nutter. Time

You need a non stick pan. A nice hot pan. A small amount of oil and

get a nice even colouring on one side and then quick flipping after

that. BBC staff seem to be traditional

when it comes to their pancake fillings, but Andrew has given his

a gourmet twist. We have chocolate fudge brownie and

lemon meringue cheesecake. Look at the calories. It is only

once a year. Go crazy. Andrew is hoping to get people

ready for Relief. A whole mile flipping pancakes.

is clear Andrew needs to get practise in!

She is a hard task master. She was bossing him around earlier. The

pancakes were lovely. I had one. I noticed you had two!

But it was all in aid of charity! If you need to run the Sport Relief

Mile, you can find out how to do it I hope it is not raining pancakes

in your household tonight. There is rain on the way. Some serious rain

actually. The weather is not playing along.

It is going to be wet. There is remarkable temperatures today. The

cloud cover broke more than we anticipate and there was less rain

rain than we anticipated. Temp Temperatures got up to 11 Celsius.

If you saw 20 minutes of sunshine, it makes a massive difference.

However, this is our picture right now, but had is nothing compared to

what is coming towards us. The Met Office have a yellow warning of

rain. This rain is going to be very, very heavy for Cumbria and

Lancashire. All the way through tomorrow as well. This is our

picture. It is largely cloudy. A couple of breaks in the southern

parts of the region. The story is for the clouds to continue to build

and for the rain to push into Cumbria. Into the Isle of Man and

Lancashire as well. Anywhere to the south is dry tonight. Because you

have got the cloud cover and we have got the south-westerly breeze,

it is mild, indeed. Temperatures 7 Celsius to 9 Celsius through the

night tonight. You could expect that at the day times at this time

of year. That is a mild night, but it is all about that line of rain

as it rises over the high ground and on the Isle of Man and into

parts of Lancashire as well. It will just keep on coming and there

will be a lot of rain through the day tomorrow. The sun is up 14

minutes past 7am tomorrow. You will You will not see sight of it

because look at this rain. It will linger and for Cumbria, there could

be up to 80 millimetres of rain falling. For Lancashire, there

could be 60 millimetres and we could add to the totals. You can

see it keeps on coming through the day. Wherever you are, it maybe

around 5pm before it starts to clear in places like the Isle of

Man, but that's a horrible, wet day. The wind will be strong as well,

gusting to gale force from time to time. You have got that to contend

with and because there is a south- westerly, Lancashire and Cumbria

will see the worst of the win, but look at the temperatures, they are

Now, you looked scornful when I said I put pancakes under the grill.

I outed myself on Facebook. Lots of people got in touch to tell me how

we should properly do it. Two viewers buy ready-made batter

from the shops. Angela gets her husband do them.

Top tips for tossing pancakes, josh says dangle a third off the edge of