15/02/2017 Points West

The respected councillor and his secret drug dens.

Councillor Donal Hassett was part of a gang renting houses and turning

Quite what he was doing at the centre of this conspiracy, only he

will now. In my opinion, he has lied through his back teeth in the course

of these proceedings and now he must face the consequences of the

sentence in court. Could speech therapy stop young

offenders committing crimes? Tomorrow is likely to start with fog

and low cloud. It will turn into a fine and dry days. Details at the

end of the programme. A councillor has been found guilty

of conspiring to grow vast amounts of cannabis in homes he rented

under fake names. Councillor Donal Hassett ? who is 56

? is one of a number He has already been suspended

from the Conservative Party, but he remains a representative

on the council in Bath. A respected Conservative councillor,

Donal Hassett has been suspended by his party,

though is technically still on the council

in Bath, despite now This was one of the raids we filmed

with police last year. Donal Hassett had rented this

Wiltshire home using fake names and cover stories

to access four properties. With the rental agreements secured,

Hassett's accomplices moved in, Rental properties you wouldn't

ordinarily think would be used for anything other

than normal families. Then electricians would come

in and after three months, you have millions of pounds worth

of cannabis, ready to cultivate. Four had already pleaded guilty

via Vietnamese interpreters. Bath Council said it could not

comment until Hassett Today the leader of its Conservative

group said Hassett was no longer a member and added,

we feel very let down as a party and I feel personally let down

as his group leader. Cannabis farms are often part

of a criminal portfolio. The farmers inside, often

Vietnamese, are sometimes, say police, trafficked

into the UK illegally. The young man we filmed in February

last year was left looking He has since disappeared, along

with another young Vietnamese man. Police are appealing for help

finding Thang Van Tran and Dang Chien, not for any crimes,

but to make sure they are not still The prosecution said

the cannabis growing operation Councillor Donal Hassett

was remanded in custody today. He will return to court to be

sentenced at a later date. When he does, it is very likely

he will face a prison sentence. Council tax across the West

is facing the biggest rise In Taunton, there were protests

as members voted through changes Council tax there will rise by 4%,

that's more than ?50 ?18 million in savings

will also have to be made We've got service users

who are suffering now and staff making impossible choices about how

to do their job to keep our services and communities safe, to protect,

as we have seen here today, the most vulnerable

people in society. There is nowhere else to go,

I think, these days. You know, there needs to be

something really radical And councils need to be really,

really brave about their decisions. The former Chief Inspector

of Prisons Lord Ramsbotham says councils in the West should be

offering a full-time speech and language therapy service

for young offenders. Government data shows more

than half of young offenders Our reporter Lee Madan

has travelled to Devon, where therapy is offered,

to see what difference it makes. In any month, where

does the 17th come? Gulliver has been working

with a speech and language therapist for three months,

but says his life has He spent his childhood

feeling out of place, I was mixing in with

the wrong crowd. I started using cannabis

to fit in with people. I think it is what

caused my offending. He was first caught

with drugs aged 15. Gulliver got into trouble again

after becoming angry while unable to explain himself and when others

couldn't understand It would cause a lot of frustration

because I felt stupid. Or the other person

was getting frustrated that Considering communication

skills such as empathy, to understand someone else's

point of view, these become increasingly dependent

on language as we get older. Gulliver has now realised

he is not stupid or bad, but has problems with memory

which he now manages. I take deep breaths

and count down from ten. I have a notebook to take notes

during long conversations. These techniques have

helped him avoid getting He gets on better with others,

can hold down a job Important factors that make it less

likely he will commit more crime. He received help because he lives

in Devon, where the council employs two speech and language therapists

specifically to work In the Points West region,

it is less likely he It is one of the scourges

of this century. I wish all councils

would think this through. This lack of communication

was the cornerstone and the cornerstone

of improving their prospects. Most councils in the West told me

they want to run a full-time service for young offenders,

but are struggling with limited Spending money on speech therapy

works and it is the reason he is Dave Gardner works for the charity

Key4Life which helps Earlier, I asked him

if speech therapy would I believe it's great and I think

it's part of the whole answer because we look

at a holistic approach. We see that speech therapy would be

brilliant, it's great as part of the initiative

to look at offending. We look at positive attitude,

we look at weather people change So it really important that they get

all the skills that they require We see that young offenders

are going back inside prison So anything that's going to help

a young offender to stop offending and become a really good member

of the community, it At a time when funding

for services is tight, do you think this is a bit

of a luxury? Well, there are no

luxuries, I don't believe. Like I said, it is going to cost

the taxpayer a lot more seen Like I said, it is going to cost

the taxpayer a lot more seeing that young man or person

going back inside. We are seeing figures of between 35

and ?50,000 to keep a person So anything that's going to stop

that from happening Playing devils advocate here,

some people might say, look, these offenders might turn

round and say, I didn't know how to communicate my feelings

and that's why I didn't. Well, they need to take

responsibility for their actions, We can look at where they have come

from, what's happened, what we find out is what they have

always done, if they keep doing So with the programme

that we are running, what we're finding is that they are taking

responsibility and they are changing their behaviour,

therefore, going forward, Have you seen the benefits

of this first-hand? I've worked with young offenders

in their communities and I've seen how they are now being part

of the community and not only going back to the community

and being a different individual and contributing, but also changing

the people around them, so we are asking them to be

a leading light themselves. Therefore, the community

is benefiting right across the wider part of the community,

to make sure these A fundraising bid has begun

to finish off massive structural The pool, which opened in 1962,

is beginning to show its age. One of the cracks is so big

the water level was dropping It is hoped the pool will open

in two months time, I will say good night and leave you

with the weather forecast. Thank you. We head off into tomorrow

with initially the risk of seeing some fog or some areas of low cloud

around. Want we gradually left that out of the way, it should be a fine

day. A lot brighter by lunchtime. A very low chance of an isolated

shower. Almost certainly pretty mild. For the rest of the evening

and into overnight, some mostly liked and patchy rain. Dying away.

The rest of the night is looking dry. Some fog forming in the South.

That might be a strip along southern areas where temperatures could be as

low as two or three degrees. Maybe some frost. The fog and low cloud

might take a while to lift. We are confident that process will get

under way during the morning. In the afternoon, much brighter. Some light

showers, but that shouldn't detract from an overwhelmingly mild day.

the weekend. Wouldn't promise you two dry days but you never know,

here is Nick with the national picture.

Hello. We put that cold weekend well behind us now. Temperatures edging

upwards and our weather watchers are seeing plenty of signs of spring.

Spending more time looking down than looking up at the skies, we see

these early blooms. They are set to continue as we are set to stay mild

for several more days to come. Average daytime temperature this

time of year around eight, but getting into double figures all the

way through the weekend. The start of next week into the mid-teens

potentially, very mild indeed. It was