04/01/2012 South East Today

Welcome to South East Today, I'm Polly Evans.

And I'm Rob Smith. Tonight's top stories. The man killed by a

falling tree in Kent is named. We talk exclusively to the rescuer who

pulled his passenger from their crushed van. The treat came down on

the van, and we both ran out and we saw the Richie Woodhall people in

the van. -- there were two people. Beaten up on duty and accused of

lying about it - now former PC Fran Croucher wants to stand for

election as a Police Commissioner. We'll be reporting live on the

story from Kent Police Headquarters. Also in tonight's programme: A big

year age gap for the twins conceived at the same time but born

five years apart. The Sussex actress trying to solve

Dickens Mystery of Edwin Drood. Tazmin Merchant talks about her

latest role in a new BBC adaptation. And the rare manuscript discovered

in Kent which has helped Steven Speilberg recreate the First World

War in his new film. Good evening. Friends and family

have been paying tribute to the man killed by a falling tree in

yesterdays violent storms. Chris Hayes died when his van was crushed

while parked on a street in Tunbridge Wells. Remarkably, a

second person in the van was pulled almost uninjured from the wreckage.

Tonight we have an exclusive interview with one of the men who

rescued him. Simon Jones reports. He was crushed to death as he took

a break from work in his van. Chris Hayes, a father of three and a

local builder. In the van, a colleague that was rescued

uninjured thanks to the help of a man that Tuesday crowbar to get him

out. My daughter heard that tree coming down and we could see

outside that it had come across the van. Me and my friend ran out and

we were not expecting to see any body in the van because it was on

the side of the road, but there were two people end there. One was

trying to get out. We did our best. We try to get him out. What saved

his life was that he dropped his light from the floor and he bent

down to get it at the same time as he was, as the tree was coming down.

But Chris Hayes could not be saved. In this pub where he spent New

Year's Eve, there was disbelief. are devastated. When somebody came

and told be, I said, no, I could not believe it. It is totally

unexpected. You go out to work and something like that happens. It is

just so hard to get your head around. Not only for his blue

family, but for his friends and his relatives as well. The road has

been reopened, but the sign of what happened here is this tree stump,

and flowers have been left on the side, as there is a card that read,

Dad, I will remember the good times we had and I hope I can make you

proud, I will miss you. He leaves behind a son and two

daughters and his wife of 26 years. He was killed in a freak accident.

Simon Jones reporting, he is in Tunbridge Wells for us now, and

what more have we heard from the family? The police say the family

are struggling to come to terms with this sudden and unexpected

loss and speaking to some of his friends today, the overwhelming

emotion is one of utter disbelief. One neighbour who heard the tree

falling Down said that if the van had been packed one metre in front

or behind, this tragedy could have been avoided. A post-mortem

examination will happen tomorrow. The investigation will continue and

they are appealing for witnesses. This is not the end of the bad

weather, the wind is picking up again tonight in Tunbridge Wells,

and the QE2 crossing will be closed from 10pm, unlikely to reopen

before the morning, so more problems ahead.

Thank you. A Kent police officer who was

assaulted while on duty, and then accused of making the story up,

says she now intends to stand for election as a Police Commissioner.

Fran Croucher was taken to court accused of wasting police time -

but was acquitted in October. Now she's resigned from the force, and

is also planning to sue the organisation. Fiona Irving reports.

It is during a stop and search checked in Kent in 2010 that she

said she was punched and kicked unconscious. I remember a light

been shown in my eyes and when I came to, my eyes were extremely

painful and there was a lot of swelling. I could taste blood in my

mouth. I was also aware that I could not sit upright, buy-back was

hurt, my lower back. I had immense pain in my left side as well.

happened almost two years ago on 14th January in 2010. She was found

unconscious by colleagues while on duty in Swan Lake. Two weeks later

she was arrested, accused of falsely claiming she was attacked.

It was not until October the next year after a ten-day trial at

Maidstone magistrates court that she was cleared of wasting police

time. In summing up, the district judge said, I cannot accept that

she endeared herself and late in the mud pretending to be

unconscious. She was assaulted and I find her not guilty. Fred police

officer has resigned from the force and is considering suing Kent

Police for neglecting their duty in pursuing a of their attacker.

is an extensive case log that shows how she would be successful and

there are a number of hurdles she would have to overcome, but she may

have limited options. This may be one of the options that could give

her an opportunity to obtain a substantial award and that might be

why she is pursuing its down this route. I feel utterly betrayed. I

counted these people as a second family at one point. The police has

been a huge part of my life. Leaving them now is almost like a

bereavement in some way. She says she is looking to run for Police

Commissioner at elections later this year. She still wants to serve

a community she has been hoping for over a day kid.

-- over a decade. Fiona is in Kent Police headquarters now, what are

the police saying? They say that she is still subject to an internal

misconduct hearing and she remains employed by Kent Police until the

first February Viner resignation takes place. They say it is

inappropriate to comment further at this time. She says she cannot

complain to the IPCC, The Independent Police Complaints

Commission because she was a serving officer at the time. Her

father has also said he cannot complain because he is related to a

serving officer. This adds to the confusion from her, but when she

was attacked on duty, she ended up in court trying to defend herself,

but she had not made it up. Come in up: Away to beat the rising

cost of oil, a syndicate helping to keep prices lower.

The husband of a Kent nurse killed when a lorry crushed her car says

the two year jail sentence given to the driver is an insult. 71-year-

old Rose Parsons from St Marys Bay died in the summer of 2010. It

happened when the lorry went through a red light and overturned

onto her car at junction 10 of the M20. Colin Coveney pleaded guilty

to causing death by careless driving - but found not guilty of

dangerous driving. Jon Hunt reports. I cannot do anything else but think

of her every day. I did when she was alive. And I do now.

Terry Parsons was married to Rose for 53 years. Since she's gone, he

says he's given up on life, altogether. They don't really make

any body like that these days, I don't think. She was so caring,

thoughtful, it is really, it has just finished me. The investigation

found that the driver had passed through this set of traffic lights

while they were still red. Rose Parsons had pulled out from the

next junction on the roundabout, but Colin was travelling too fast

to stop and his lorry overturned ploughing into a vehicle. Colin

Coveney was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to causing

death by careless driving, but Mr Parsons can't understand why the

jury found him not guilty of dangerous driving. I think it's an

insult to my wife, actually, because she was hard-working, she

was a great nurse. I feel bitter about it, because you get more than

that were not paying the poll tax. Causing death by careless driving

can carry a maximum sentence of five years. Dangerous driving up to

14 years. But the two crimes are legally quite different. That

something is considered dangerous driving, at a speed of the us to a

competent, careful driver that what they have done it is dangerous. --

it must be obvious to a competent, careful driver. If your attention

is directed away from the road for a considerable period, that would

amount to dangerous driving. Parsons says he's not seeking

vengeance, but believes a jail term of 3-4 years would be more

appropriate for the man who took his wife's life.

A 30-year-old man has been arrested following a hit and run incident

that left a police officer unconscious. The officer was

carried 300 metres on the bonnet of a car when he was hit while on

patrol in Southborough last month. A woman has also been arrested on

suspicion of harbouring a wanted criminal.

A 22-year-old from Surrey has been extradited to Greece to face

charges for a brutal attack on a British holidaymaker. Footballer

Robbie Hughes needed four life saving operations after he was

beaten into a coma outside a nightclub in Crete in 2008. Joseph

Bruckland is the last of six men from Sussex and Surrey to be

extradited. The other five remain on bail in England but could now

face trial within months. A father and his two daughters have

denied attempting to murder one of the women's former lovers by

beating him with a baseball bat, and running him over with a car.

Barry Gordon suffered a fractured skull, severe chest injuries and

brain damage in the attack in Whitehawk in Brighton in July.

Patrick Lyons and his daughters Louise and Katie Lyons all deny

unlawfully and maliciously wounding him. The trial continues at Hove

Crown Court. A Sussex father is celebrating the

birth of twins - born five years apart. Confusingly, while Floren

Blake was born in November, her brother Ruben has already started

school. The pair were conceived in the same cycle of IVF treatment -

but some of the embryos were held back. So five years after Ruben was

born, and somewhat against the odds, Floren was safely delivered. John

Young explains. Meet the twins - the miracle twins,

some would say. Reuben, who started school today and Floren, his twin

sister, with plenty of catching up to do. All thanks to IVF. We were

lucky the first time that it worked, incredibly lucky, and they do not

think we would be lucky again. its they were, and now, the

grandparents are taking it all in. There five years apart! How can

they be twins?! It is like a science-fiction film! How can you

have the eggs kept for five years and have another baby? It is not

something you would consider. how can twins be born five years

apart? Some may dispute that they ARE, strictly speaking, twins but

the medics who made it happen at Southmead Hospital in Bristol have

no problem with the claim. More than six years ago, several eggs

were taken from their mother, and fertilized by their father's sperm.

The result: five embryos - one successfully put back into the womb

to create Reuben. The surviving ones kept in a freezer. Last year,

one of those "spares" was still healthy enough to go back into the

womb, too. Floren was born in November. A bit much for Reuben to

grasp at the age of five, perhaps. He tells his friends that his twin

came from the freezer with the chips and the chicken. The

consultant?? Is a bit more precise. We did the embryos out of the

freezer and they began to grow and we put them back into the womb.

Happily, she got pregnant. So, keep an eye out for them next time they

visit their grandparents in Sussex. But this is one set of twins that

won't be in a twin buggy. John Young joins us now from

Brighton, where the twins' father is from. John, the medics say this

is actually a very sensible way to go about having a family, if you

use IVF? That's right, they say if you go down the route of IVF, it is

better to carry one child rather than twins or triplets. Triplets

are much riskier. That is a message echoed by the family. They want to

publicise the work that hospitals do and they wanted to thank the

staff and to acknowledge that that they had been very, very lucky.

The top story tonight: Friends and family had paid tribute to the man

killed by a falling tree in yesterday's violent storms. Chris

Hayes from Tunbridge died when his ban was crushed on the street in

Tunbridge Wells. Also tonight, Tamzin Merchant on

her starring role in the BBC Dickens extravaganza.

And it's like something out of a movie, the forgotten manuscript

that has made public by in his story and that has been advising

Steven Spielberg on his new movie, War Horse.

As the cost of oil rises ever higher, Bryan Shaw from a man from

Kent has found a way to keep prices a little lower by setting up a

syndicate for people who use oil for their domestic heating. While

the typical cost of a litre of heating oil is 60p for individual

customers, for households making relatively small orders of less

than 500 litres, a premium is charged. That bumps the cost up to

62p. However if you bulk buy - the cost drops to 55p a litre - saving

the 120 people who've joined up to the scheme hundreds of pounds a

year. Lynda Hardy reports. Bryan Shaw shows me the 2,500 litre

oil tank in his garden that heats his home. That was becoming

increasingly more expensive to fill. It led him to start up a heating-

oil buying syndicate. Every time I topped up, which is a minimum of

500 metres, they put a premium on the prize. I spoke to some

neighbours and they experience the same problem. I decided to talk to

a few neighbours in the street and I've got my daughter lives three

houses away, so she was eager to join as well. I started with about

10 houses. That ten has grown to 128 homes in the syndicate over the

last six years. Stretching far beyond his own village in Stansted

from Erith down to Shipbourne. With more members, the former money

trader is in a strong position to approach heating oil providers on

behalf of the syndicate, and negotiate the best price for a bulk

deal. I joined about two years ago. I get 5p, approx 5p per litre of,

which is a massive when you take as much oil as I do. I found the

delivery is previously were unreliable. The creation of a

syndicate isn't new across the south east for heating oil

customers. Many live in more rural areas, where connecting to the main

grid might be too expensive or even impossible. It's a growing trend in

the domestic heating oil market, because people have seen big price

rises in winter, especially in winter 2010, there was a rise of 70

%. It is understandable that people are coming together and two

syndicates trying to get a better deal. That makes Bryan Shaw's

bargaining skills very valuable indeed to his neighbours and beyond,

meaning much cheaper prices to heat After the success of Great

Expectations over Christmas, the next big Dickens TV adaptation in

this bicentenary year is The Mystery of Edwin Drood. And the

woman at the heart of the dark tale of obsession and desire is Sussex

actress Tamzin Merchant. After featuring as Catherine Howard in

the Tudors, she has an increasingly high profile - and she's taking

advantage of that to support a Kent charity that helps provide

education for struggling communities in Africa. Sara Smith

has been to meet her. It is so absurd! What is so absurd?

Girls and servants scuffling around giggling! It is a novel that

Dickens never finished, with an ending written for this adaptation.

It might attack the original conclusion, but it has, perhaps, as

strong role for a woman. wonderful thing about her is that

she has a mind of her own, a strong will and a bit of a temper,

sometimes, which I love, because so many women in Dickens's novels do

not show much backbone. Brother, you must force her! It is

not the first time that Tamzin Merchant has donned historical

dress. She was in The Tudors and was also in pride and prejudice.

You will all dress in the French fashion like me when you come in.

One of the things that drew her to Dickens was that despite its

setting, it is a modern tale, a thriller. The characters are very

Dickensian, they're quite characterised and grotesque,

sometimes. They are very funny, a lot of the time. The interesting

thing about The Mystery of Edwin Drood is that it is a story about

stalking and drugs. But her later story is not a character, she is a

patron of the Tunbridge Wells charity that provides education and

work opportunities for people in rural Uganda and Kenya. She first

learnt about this project soon after graduating from Cambridge

University. As a warm and you're just completed my education and

gone through university, I found it incredibly moving understanding

that in Uganda and Kenya out, so few women had given the opportunity

to actually follow through with education and actually pursue the

right that they have to an education. That really moved me and

made me want to be involved and make a difference. She plans a trip

to Uganda this spring. The Mystery of Edwin Drood was broadcast next

week. As the opening ceremony to the

London Olympic games looms ever closer, one former Olympian from

Kent - who rode for Britain at the Mexico Games in 1968 - has been

reflecting on his former glories. 45 years ago, Reg Barnett from

Shoreham near Sevenoaks competed in a nail biting race at Hernehill

Velodrome which concluded with a spectacular photo finish. For the

first in our My Photo series this year here is Reg's story.

This is the most iconic a fall of the pictures I have ever seen. It

shows me competing with the two great sprinters a world cycling. It

was in 1967. It was Hernhill in London. It was my home track and

the crowd were going mad. The photographer is and the people that

attended after the track, the mechanics, the masseur, they said

it was the best finished they had seen at the Champion of Champions

sprint ever. Obviously, the season later this photograph, we went on

to the Olympics. You're talking about a different ball-game

altogether. I wanted to get rid of this are finishing second bit, but

unfortunately, when we went to the Olympics, it was a case of working

everything out what I wanted to do, and I came up to the quarter-finals

and I collided with about 25 metres to go. I finished in second place

to a French man. It seemed like I was destined to be the bridesmaid

instead of the bride! That was the story behind Reg

Barnett's photo. We'd like you to send us your memorable photos or

It lay unread for years, and was almost thrown away twice. But now a

manuscript written by a Kent Geography teacher - based on two

years he spent in the trenches of the first world war as a private

soldier - has been published. Called The Platoon, its

significance was only spotted through a chance encounter between

a relative of the author, and one of the historians who helped

Stephen Spielberg with advice on his latest movie, War Horse. Peter

Whittlesea has more. What is it? It is a horse they

found in no man's land. A miraculous horse. The historian

that helped Steven Spielberg turn War Horse into an accurate film

about the First World War has published a book revealing its

cherished family manuscript that was a first-hand account of the

Battle of the Somme. Two mornings later, Blake crawled out to Brixham

a wild flowers he had seen growing. His thoughts turned to his girl

when he got back to every man's land. Joseph John Stuart Senior on

the far right is the man behind the manuscript. He went to the Somme in

July 1916, but it was while he was on a school trip to France that he

was adviser could be a greater significance to the family document.

The manuscript came into my family when Joseph John Stuart died. We

thought that the manuscript was a novel, but the trouble was, he did

not read like a novel, it was that a page turner, and they did not

know what to do with it. It was when the manuscript was given to

Andrew, he suggested it was a diary and not a novel. So impressed by

this private account, he has woven the human touch is from this

manuscript into what is likely to become a Hollywood blockbuster her.

The great thing about having the script in front of me was the fact

that while I was working on the script of War Horse and on the

movie itself, I was able to bring a little bit of Joseph's experience

to the screen. Now 40 years after his death, many will get an insight

into life in the trenches thanks to John just have Stuart to until

recently was just an unknown It is very windy outside, so we

have called in Michael Fish, the expert!

Went is a big feature, nothing like yesterday. -- the wind is a big

feature. It will die down tomorrow. We have these strong winds at the

moment. The wind came from the south-west and today, and tomorrow

they will come from the north-west. Different areas affected. There

could be cuts of up to 55 mph. -- Goss says. Into Friday command into

the weekend, there is an area of high pressure building itself

across us. It is enough to calm things down. The isobars move apart

and things should settle down. It would be a while before this

happens. Today, we started OK, but some cloud came down from the

north-west bringing outbreaks of rain. Those outbreaks of rain will

be with us for the rest of the night, as well as the strong wind.

Gusts of 55 mph. A mile tonight, lowest temperatures of seven, eight

or nine degrees. Tomorrow morning, some showers around on and off. A

lighter showers, places staying dry. Gradually come as the day moves on,

starting windy, the wind will ease away as the time goes on. The wind

is strong enough to make it feel chilly tomorrow. Eight or nine

degrees. Tomorrow evening, the sky will clear and we will have a cold

night and there will be some frost in rural areas with temperatures of

three a 4 degrees. Things will settle down as we head towards the

end of the week. Mostly dry with sunny intervals and temperature is