13/01/2017 South East Today

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

Life in jail for an Afghan born man who attacked

Sussex Police officers with a hammer, but he had previously

MPs question how he was ever allowed into the country.

Jackknifed lorries, drivers stuck in snowdrifts

and passengers stranded on the rails -

Awful experience. I feel absolutely shattered, very cold, fed up. Cannot

help but feel like we were something abandoned there.

There are questions over why some schools turned pupils away

We're live in Aylesford and Sevenoaks tonight.

The extraordinary sculptures created by a Kent artist highlighting

the damage being done to our marine life by man.

The perfect warm-up for the Australian Open -

Johanna Konta's fantastic form continues

He was jailed for the horrific murder of a woman in

the Netherlands, but after seven years behind bars, Dutch national

Jamshid Piruz was allowed to enter the UK unchallenged.

This afternoon, he's been sentenced to life in prison

at Hove Crown Court, after attacking two Sussex

police officers with a hammer as they questioned him

Tonight, MPs say the case raises serious questions about

Britain's international security agreements.

Piers Hopkirk's report contains video footage

released by Sussex Police, which you may find distressing,

showing the attack recorded on police bodyworn cameras.

Camera footage shows officers responding to reports of a burglary

in Crawley, searching out buildings for the cupboard. But what happened

next is truly terrifying. Wielding a claw hammer and brushing off the

wires of the Taser which had been fired at him, convicted murderer

Jamshid Piruz charges at officers. BC Jessica Chick is trapped behind a

pillar, hammer blows aimed at her head and body. She screams in fear

for her life. Finally subdued, Piruz is arrested and today, sentenced to

life in prison. The officers involved telling the court how they

feared for their lives. Both genuinely believed that their time

was up. And that they were not going to be able to go to their families

and see their friends again. For anyone to suffer an attack under

such circumstances just because they are at work and doing their job is

absolutely unacceptable. An attack on police officers is an attack on

society. Piruz was already a convicted murderer, cutting the

throat of his lodger at his home near Amsterdam in 2007. Today, anger

for the man -- that a man so dangerous should have been let into

the UK. I just think it is very lax at best, and deeply disturbing at

worst, for one jurisdiction not to inform another when somebody clearly

with that kind of serious record is seeking to travel. Piruz had come to

the UK to visit family. His criminal record, though, was not flagged.

There is a watch list but it relates from information from different

sources, including other countries, and if that is not provided either

by the EU or by the member state concerned, of course there would be

no indicator to the officer at Gatwick that this person was a

convicted murderer. Jamshid Piruz is tonight beginning a life sentence.

Officers say it was sheer luck that nobody was killed in the attack.

Questions remain, though, about the border system which allowed him into

the UK in the first place. Piers Hopkirk with that

report, and he's live What has been the ongoing impact on

the officers? Well, as you have seen from the footage, this was both a

very, Dick and a very traumatising attack. Three of the officers

involved took to the witness stand to deliver victim impact statement.

-- -- very traumatic. Easy Jessica Chick said, I have never been so

scared in my life. -- Pisi Jessica Chick. I have never been in a

situation where I thought, this is it, I'm going to die. The judge said

Piruz was a very dangerous man, prone to potentially fatal outbursts

of violence. He sentenced him to life, saying he owed it to the

protection of the public. In a moment, an inquest hears how

a doctor involved in treating a woman who died giving birth

in a Kent hospital had been involved in "startlingly similar

circumstances" previously. Snow and ice brought chaos

to the roads and railways across Kent, Surrey and Sussex,

leaving cars stuck in snowdrifts, while jackknifed

lorries have blocked roads. Several houses in Kent

were damaged by a tree falling during the storm,

and a Southeastern train, full of passengers, was left

stranded without heating for hours. Our environment correspondent

Yvette Austin has more. A morning of misery for these

commuters put up the 5.45 did during ground to a halt between stations.

After nearly four hours stranded on the train, with no heat or working

toilets, the 80 passengers were eventually allowed out onto the

tracks and walked to the nearest station, Chislehurst. Awful

experience. I feel absolutely shattered, very cold, fed up. I

cannot but help feel like we were something abandoned there. It was

compacted ice on the live rail which led to the train failing. A rescue

train failed also. Icy roads this morning caused this car transporter

to overturn on the A249. The road will remain closed this evening. And

all the result of last night's snow. Up to ten centimetres in places,

arriving during the rush hour to make journeys long and difficult.

People have complained the roads were not encrypted, so what happens?

It was a difficult forecast because we knew we would have heavy rain

followed by the snow. That is exactly what happened. We cannot

send the critters out to put salt down when we have got rain because

all that will happen is that it will wash the salt away. So we got the

critters out -- the critters Ederson is the rain but then the started. I

think the way the weather turned suddenly did not help. Elsewhere it

was the wind last night that brought this tree down in Folkestone. Fire

crews had to remove branches so that the residents could get out and

spent the night in safety. My car is a write-off. The tree came down on

that. The front of my house is damaged, the tiles are off. I do not

know structurally whether there is damage to that, I will have to get

an engineer to reassess my house. Tonight, the gritters will be on the

roads again, but ice remains a risk. Yvette is live for us

at the Kent Highways The authorities confident they can

keep the roads safe tonight? They say they are doing all they can.

This huge pile of rock salt is being dramatically eating into other

yesterday alone, 900 tonnes was spread across the county's primary

and secondary roads. The lorries were loaded again this afternoon and

had gone out ready for it got tonight when the temperature is

expected to go below zero and the gritters will be out again tomorrow

morning. So, just how severe

has the weather been? Last night, up to five centimetres

of snow fell in the space Subzero overnight temperatures

left roads and pavements covered in black ice,

leading to the closure of Our education correspondent,

Bryony MacKenzie, The vast majority of schools did

manage to remain open today. So why did some of them feel they had to

turn pupils away? Well, this is not about schools not being able to

correct their playgrounds, but this school is in a residential area and

they have not been gritted, which made it too dangerous for pupils to

get in. Other schools opened a bit later, allowing teachers who live

further away to come into school a bit later. All in all, it has been a

fairly cautious school run today. This was the scene at the camera

school in Sevenoaks this morning, slippery underfoot and a closed

school gate. Parents had to make other plans. I was a big surprise. I

am a country girl and used to working through snow, driving in any

conditions. But the children have have a -- have had a great time.

Later when you come to pick up, it is getting dark and icy, so I think

it is a good decision. It is really dangerous, particularly around this

area when it is icy. In honesty, the kids have had a brilliant time.

There were just 20 schools out of 860 schools and colleges in Kent and

Medway that could not open. One MP, a former teacher, says snow flurries

should not stop schools from opening. The impact is huge, to

parents in terms of their work, so if you replicate every work

situation, you will see it has a dramatic effect, so it absolutely

has to be that very, very last resort. But the majority of schools

ploughed on. Teachers at Shoreham School near Sevenoaks came up with a

solution when their caterers did not make it in. We decided to have

physically a school picnic, and again, because we have a breakfast

club, we have an after-school club, so we have staff trained in food

hygiene and they went out to a supermarket and bought some

groceries, and we all got together in the hall and made some bridges.

Kent County Council says it encourages schools to open in story

conditions, but only if it is safe for them to do so. -- snowy

conditions. It is down to the individual schools

and headteachers to make that decision, some others may disagree.

We have been here all day, it was black ice this morning and it has

turned to puddles. Monday should be business as usual.

We've been getting lots of pictures from you via Twitter and Facebook,

and we'll be taking a look at some of them a little later

It's been revealed today that creditors of the troubled Margate

amusement park Dreamland are likely to lose more than ?5 million.

A new report by administrators for the struggling attraction

says it's "uncertain" whether there will be

It has also revealed that the theme park's operator, Sands Heritage,

has incurred losses of more than ?1 million since it went

A lorry driver accused of causing the collapse of a pedestrian bridge

over the M20 motorway in Kent will appear before Maidstone

The bridge was hit by a lorry and collapsed in August -

a 73-year-old motorcyclist had to throw himself off his bike

to avoid being crushed, and was taken to hospital

The lorry driver, who's 63 and from Darlington,

has been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving

A doctor involved in the care of a mother who died

after an emergency caesarean section had been part of another

serious medical incident just seven months before,

Frances Cappuccini died in 2012 at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital

after losing more than two litres of blood,

Today it was revealed that anaesthetist Dr Nadeem Azeez

had been investigated for mismanaging the resuscitation

of another woman in "startlingly similar circumstances".

The family of Frances Cappuccini thank their legal team today,

now that all the evidence in this inquest has been heard.

But the enquiry into how this young mother died took

a dramatic turn today, with evidence that one of those

who had been caring for her had made mistakes seven months earlier.

The original NHS Trust report into the death of Frances Cappuccini

stated that her anaesthetist, Dr Nadeem Azeez, had been involved

in the care of another woman only the same year who had also

The report stated that Dr Azeez had mismanaged her fluid resuscitation

and it was recommended he undergo a period of supervised practice.

But details of his earlier mistake had been removed

from the copy of the report given to Mrs Cappuccini's family,

the coroner and the Strategic Health Authority.

The nurse who compiled the report was Karen Woods,

Neil Sheldon, the family's lawyer, asked her:

Ms Woods went on to tell inquest that no pressure had been applied

to anyone at any stage to remove the section from the report.

The coroner will deliver his findings on Monday.

Jon Hunt, BBC South East Today, Gravesend.

A Dutch national who attacked two Sussex Police officers with a hammer

Before coming to the UK, Jamshid Piruz had spent seven years

behind bars for murdering a woman in the Netherlands.

Go and look for tennis balls, Mr Emerson.

Celebrated actor Julian Sands on his latest performance,

a celebration of the playwright Harold Pinter in Sussex.

We have seen several centimetres of snow over the last 24 hours,

freezing conditions again this morning. So, can we expect any more

snow over the weekend? I will have the details in the forecast a little

later. Artist Jason deCaires Taylor has

been building an extraordinary reputation internationally

for creating large-scale public sculptures which are very

difficult to go and see. That's because he places

them deep underwater. The Canterbury based artist

is passionate about protecting the marine environment,

and his sculptures serve to highlight issues

as well as provide a new home His latest work has been

officially unveiled this week, the Museo Atlantico,

off the coast of Lanzarote Lynda Hardy has tonight's

Special Report. They are mystical, mesmerising,

moulded to the sea bed. It is beneath the waves where

Jason deCaires Taylor is free - free to express, sculpt,

create, both a new tourist attraction and a new home

for the local wildlife. The museum consists

of over 300 sculptures - they are laid out in 12

installations and we've tried a museum tour, so there is actually

an entrance point and an exit point, and we have trained a series

of guides to actually take divers around in a sequential tour

of all the exhibits. This sprawling artwork,

the sculptor's first architectural project,

needs its vast canvas - a towering 100 tonne

underwater wall, a circle of 200 interconnected life-sized

human figures and solitary sculptures too

of suited businessmen in a playground, the artist's

impression of a clash His other installations include 500

life-sized sculptures in the waters Back in his home city,

Alluvia is a sculpture featuring two female figures lying

fixed to the bed of And in 2015, his first London

commission, The Rising Tide, featured four large concrete

horsemen in the Thames. Well, first of all,

it was to create an artificial reef, to create a habitat space,

but it was also to almost create a portal to the underwater world,

to make people realise It is a constantly

changing hidden world, On to tennis, and British number one

Johanna Konta from Eastbourne has had the perfect preparation for

next week's Australian Open. She did not drop a set on the way

to winning her second WTA title, with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over

the world number three, Agnieszka Radwanska,

in the final of Other than Eastbourne,

there is nowhere Johanna Konta is more popular than her place

of birth, Sydney. That support appeared

to help her raise her game to new heights this week,

and having broken serve early in the match,

Jo perhaps unexpectedly dominated her experienced

opponent, world number three What has impressed everyone

over the last 15 months It is a love game to

close out the first set. And despite a recent

unexpected change of coach, her confidence and self belief

appear to be growing. Having taken the first set,

she rattled through the next few games, to the evident pleasure

of her new coaching team, before clinching the match

and her second ever title in front I'm most happy about the fact

that my family were able to be here, that is what's most special to me,

the fact that my sister and my brother-in-law

and my little nephew, although he will have no

idea what's going on, he'll be focused on the milk,

but that they were able to be Now the big question is,

can Jo improve on last year's Australian Open,

where she reached the semifinals? I think there is a good opportunity

for her to get into the finals. She's played great

this season so far. She's going to have to do it

the tough way, though - if you look at her sections,

she starts with Flipkens, she's got Cibulkova and she's got

Serena in the quarters, so Jo is playing probably the best

tennis of her career right now. She is the winner

with the winning smile. Jo Konta is also now one of the most

feared opponents in women's tennis. In this weekend's Football League

action, Championship leaders Brighton Hove Albion will be

looking to extend their unbeaten run The Seagulls will be

without Lewis Dunk, who is serving the second game

of a two match suspension Our games against them

in recent seasons So, we certainly

know what to expect. Theirs is a manager that's done

very, very well in the period of time that he's been there,

since they were promoted, and we would expect

a very tough game. Charlton Athletic face

Millwall at the Valley And Crawley Town are at home

to Hartlepool in League Two. The actor Julian Sands has had

a glittering film career, with starring roles in movies

like The Killing Fields, A Room With A View,

Leaving Las Vegas and Warlock. between Los Angeles and

Tunbridge Wells. This weekend, he's back

in the South East, on stage in St Leonards, in a show described

as a passionate tribute to Harold Pinter -

originally put together by the celebrated playwright

and poet himself For an actor like Julian Sands,

going to work usually means a flight, but this week,

it's been more of a flit down the A21 from his home

to the Kino Teatr Arts Centre, a venue on his doorstep he only

discovered recently. I wandered in here and I thought

it was just a magical gem. It evokes New York, Paris,

London in the '30s. It is a welcome compliment

from an actor with a career in theatre, television and movies

dating back more than three decades. Go and look for

tennis balls, Mr Emerson. He's here to perform his

one-man show, a celebration of Harold Pinter, the revered writer

and intellectual who died in 2008. I tell you what, then,

I might do that, What I find I'm doing

most days is checking up this little thing here,

and writing a poem... The performance brings Pinter's

first and last loved Everything we do corrects the space

between death and me and you. Pinter had asked Julian Sands

to perform the poems before he died. It has grown into this

touring performance. He was a man of immense, um,

presence, animal magnetism. I think I've described him before

as being around a bird of prey It is an homage from an admirer,

but you don't have to know Pinter When you come here, it's me,

it's them and we may as well be in a cave 30,000 years ago,

round a fire, exploring stories Robin Gibson, BBC South East Today,

St Leonards. Such a resident acting voice! --

resonant. The snow and ice has

caused transport chaos for many across Kent,

Surrey and Sussex today, but for others, of course,

it's been a cause of excitement. It's been the first snowfall

we've seen in five years, and for many of our children

and pets, it's the first time Here are some of the pictures

and videos you've been sending in since it started

coming down last night. An actual polar bear! That was in

green hive, apparently. Good work. Some lovely pictures,

thank you for sending them in. We will check on the weather now with

Rachel. Any more snow inside? Not

particularly, but I love those snowmen! There will be one or two

snow flurries around tomorrow but nothing like the snowfall we have

had so far. We started to see it last night, several centimetres in

just under an hour. It eased off a little bit, but again, as we went

through the first part of this morning, we were seeing more on the

way of snowfall. Lots of you upload your photographs. As we started the

day, temperatures were minus four Celsius so much of the snow has

stayed with us. And icy start to the day, is further snow flurries during

the morning. They have been clearing and we have had clearer skies to end

the day. We will hold onto those overnight. Another bitterly cold

night, temperatures in rural spots dropping as low as -3 or minus four

Celsius. Widely dropping as low as minus one. Tomorrow, we still have

warnings in force for the risk of ice, do take care if you're driving

on untreated roads. But the day itself although it stays bitterly

cold will see lots of sunshine. By the afternoon, temperatures will

reach highs of around three or four Celsius. But we have really bitterly

cold and blustery northerly winds. So it will be fuelling a good deal

colder. Frosty and icy start to the day, you should wrap up warm. Lots

of sunshine around. Temperatures of three, four or five Celsius. All

change from Saturday into Sunday. We will be seeing slightly milder air,

more cloud, temperatures not as cold, hovering around freezing.

Starting the day on Sunday, it is cold with a lot of cloud and very

quickly it will turn wet. That will be falling as rain, temperatures

less cold by the afternoon, eight or nine Celsius. Into the new week,

stating how little less cloud. So less snow!

That is about it for now, we will be back at eight o'clock and at 10:30.

Have a great weekend. Watch out for polar bears!

Parents are facing an explosion in the number of children saying