08/11/2017 Points West

Good evening from BBC Points West.

In tonight's programme:

The woman accused of

killing her ex-boyfriend

with acid in a jealous rage.

Also tonight, out in all weathers.

The 94-year-old still turning out

to honour the fallen.

I don't feel the cold.

Too young for that.

And we will get under way under

a lot of cloud tomorrow

but it will brighten up eventually.

Details towards the end

of the programme.

A court's been told a man was left

"grotesquely scarred"

after his ex-girlfriend threw acid

over him as he slept.

Mark van Dongen ended his life

in a clinic in Belgium

15 months after the alleged attack

in Bristol.

His former lover denies murder

and throwing a corrosive substance

with intent to harm.

Here's our Home Affairs

Correspondent Charlotte Callen.

Mark van Dongen's father made

the 400 mile journey

from his home in Belgium

to be here at court today.

Also arriving this morning

was Berlinah Wallce,

Mark's former girlfriend,

in this van.

She's been in police

custody since the alleged

attack in September 2015.

Today we heard that Ms Wallace,

who is South African,

was 18 years older than Mark.

He moved here about five years

before the attack and they had

what was described as a 'turbulant'

and 'complicated' relationship.

Just a few weeks earlier

they had separated

and Mark had a new girlfriend.

The prosecution claim Ms Wallace

was jealous and bought a litre

of sulphuric acid from Amazon

and had been searching

acid attacks online.

The court were then shown a video

of Mark that the jury were warned

they might find distressing,

filmed in his bed in hospital

in Southmead.

He was badly scarred

and struggling to speak.

He says he had gone round to stay

at her flat for the night.

She, he claimed, was

going to stay in a hotel.

But when he woke up, she was

standing over him and shouted,

"If I can't have you,

then no-one can."

In the video, we heard that Mark

left his flat covered in acid,

shouting, "I'm burning I'm burning."

He went down this road looking for

help from neighbours, who came out,

called an ambulance, and took him

into a shower to wash him down.

Mark suffered what were described

as catastrophic injuries.

He lost an eye and ear,

his lower left leg and was paralysed

from the neck down.

He made the decision that his life

was simply unbearable.

He asked his father to arrange

a private ambulance to take him back

to Belgium, where

euthanasia is legal,

and on the 2nd of September

his life was ended.

Berlinah Wallace denies the charges

against her and instead claims

it was Mark who had filled

the glass with acid

and was going to poison her.

In a fit of rage,

she threw it at him,

thinking the glass contained water.

The case is due to last three weeks.

People living in Bath

and North East Somerset could be

among the first in the country to be

refused vasectomies

and sterilisations

on the NHS to save money.

A public consultation is now

under way which could see

the operations only carried out

in exceptional circumstances.

Here's our Health

Correspondent Matthew Hill.

There are around 150 men

in Bath and North East Somerset

who have vasectomies each year.

About six women go

for steralisation.

The NHS wants to save £200,000

a year by cutting the funding

for these operations,

apart from in exceptional

circumstances.

They also want to reduce the age

women can get IVF from 40 to 35.

The GP in charge of making this

decision says the NHS isn't getting

enough money to carry on providing

all services for free.

This is a really tough discussion

to have but this is the reality

of where we find ourselves,

with the budget that we have

not meeting the needs

that our population has.

Again, complete the questionnaire,

let us hear your views.

So what would be

an exceptional case?

The NHS has not yet

made up its mind.

It could mean free for women

with cancer or who are obese

or smoke, who can't take the pill.

So what could be the

implications of all of this?

It could mean men having to pay £500

for a vasectomy, for example.

The GP in charge of the existing

service has told me he thinks this

is yet another sign of the NHS

only being able to provide

the essentials.

He also thinks it could lead

to a rise in unwanted pregnancies.

The vasectomy is a very effective

form of contraception.

Some couples who aren't able

to have a vasectomy in the future

may use other forms of contraception

such as the pill or a coil,

which are unfortunately

a little less effective.

People have until the end

of December to make their views

known to the NHS either by phone,

online or e-mail.

After one of the coldest nights

of the autumn so far,

a new report has found the number

of homeless in the South West has

now reached over 8,000.

It's not just rough sleeping that's

rising, there are also many more

people in temporary accommodation.

Paul Barltrop went to a shelter in

Bristol for us earlier this evening.

There are 18 beds in here, there

are 70 in shelters across Bristol.

They will all be full this evening

because more and more people

are ending up on the streets

but it is the tip of an iceberg

because many more are being

accommodated in places like B&Bs

and in hostels.

Let's have a look at

some of the figures.

The charity Shelter say homelessness

has risen 11% in the past year.

More than 8,000 people now

technically homeless.

The worst place is Bristol.

2,600 in free accommodation.

And some 74 sleeping rough.

Followed by Swindon with 850

with no permanent accommodation

and 28 sleeping rough.

And in Gloucester the figure is 400

and 23 rough sleepers.

So it's a huge challenge

for charities trying to help out.

Let's talk to Ben Richardson

from Caring in Bristol.

How much have you noticed

this big increase?

It has been hugely

significant recently.

Our fellow charities,

Caring in Bristol, the City Council,

have all had to step up.

We traditionally have been

a Christmas shelter.

We still do that each year

with a thousand volunteers

but since March we have been running

a shelter in the centre of town

with 15 beds.

Money is tight and we are very

reliant on the goodwill

of our volunteers and partners

to keep our doors open.

And every person that comes

to a place like this,

there are ten or 15 times as many

being accommodated

in temporary accommodation,

possibly sofa surfing.

How much of an issue is that?

It is really significant

and it gets worse

the longer people are hidden.

By the time they are visible,

there are more issues

and they are more difficult to help.

Charities have got to

step up and innovate.

Caring in Bristol is running two

very exciting projects

using spare rooms in

the community with volunteers.

So we are very interested

in finding ways of getting

the community to help us.

Thank you very much.

One of the really striking things

about this is that it's not just

in the cities,

even in rural areas there has been

a big increase in homelessness.

Now you may remember we told

you last night about an appeal

to find a computer which had been

taken from a house in

South Gloucestershire.

Celyn, who is 13-years-old

and severely disabled,

relies on the device to communicate.

Now a member of the public has found

the computer so the police have

been able to return it.

It's not yet known

if it still works.

A man's been questioned as part

of the investigation.

As Remembrance Day approaches,

we've been speaking to one Somerset

veteran who is continuing to sell

poppies at the age of 94.

Stan Tooze braves the cold weather

ever day to help raise money

for the Royal British Legion.

He was part of the sixth

Airborne Division of

the Parachute Regiment.

He says his efforts are honouring

the memory of fallen colleagues.

One day my mate was there

and one second, the next thing,

he was knocked right down dead

and I was still left.

How long do you think

you will carry on selling poppies?

Stan feels he has at least four more

years of volunteering left in him,

so will hopefully become

a centenarian collector.

A blue plaque has been unveiled

in Bristol at the home of a soldier

awarded the Victoria Cross

for gallantry during World War One.

Hardy Falconer Parsons was a medical

student at Bristol University

when he volunteered to fight

and was enlisted in

the Gloucestershire Regiment.

In France, he held off a German

flame-thrower attack

almost single-handedly,

armed only with hand grenades.

Football, and Swindon

are through to the last 32

of the EFL Trophy after

beating Bristol Rovers

at the Memorial Stadium.

Swindon won the game 4-2.

As a result, Rovers,

who suffered a sixth defeat

in seven league and cup games,

are now out of the competition.

That is it from us tonight. We are

back with you in breakfast from half

past six tomorrow morning. Now the

weather forecast.

Tomorrow morning we should hopefully

be free of frost. That is courtesy

of the cloud cover which is

increasing tonight. That process

already underway. The legacy for

tomorrow morning will be as well as

a lot of cloud around, some patchy

outbreaks of light rain or drizzle.

That will fade away and as the day

unfolds it will start a brighter the

course of the afternoon. For the

rest of tonight, temperatures have

already been dropping away pretty

markedly with a clearer skies will

be lasting longer. That's down

towards the south and south-east of

the area. Towards the north, as the

cloud rolls in, the fall of

temperatures will start to be

arrested and that means by tomorrow

morning we will have a lot of cloud

around, some low cloud as well, some

patchy rain and drizzle at times,

and the odd pocket of something a

bit brighter. Towards lotion --

towards lunchtime, more in the way

of bright weather developing.

Temperatures tomorrow fairly mild.

They