30/03/2017 South East Today

Welcome to South East Today, I'm Natalie Graham.

Tonight's top stories - life in jail for committing murder

over a Facebook post - the judge branded John Dickson's

We'll be live at Maidstone Crown Court with the details.

An aeroplane crashes into the sea off Shoreham -

two men have to swim to shore to safety.

There's a suggestion that the plane has lost power and the pilot has

glided the plane safely onto the water.

Also in tonight's programme - the primary school asking parents

to donate toilet rolls - the head teacher says

The nurse sacked for preaching Christianity to patients at a Kent

hospital takes her case to an employment tribunal.

And remembering the English defeat at the hands of the Dutch

A judge has branded the murder of a man over a Facebook post

as "totally senseless", and issued a warning

27-year-old John Dickson was today sentenced to life in prison

for the murder of Carl Gregory in Broadstairs last October.

Dickson held his victim in a choke hold for two minutes.

It followed an argument over a picture and comment

Gregory had posted online, referring to his former girlfriend.

In sentencing Dickson to a minimum of 18 years,

Judge Adele Williams called it a "futile online row".

The picture posted on social media - too graphic to show here -

that sparked a row that led to a meeting that left a man dead

The image was published as a joke by Carl Gregory last October.

Within hours, he'd been choked to death by John Dickson from Margate.

Today, the judge gave him a life sentence

Carl Gregory's death is an absolute tragedy that has had a devastating

impact on his family and his friends.

He was a popular, well-liked, hard-working young man

who had his whole life in front of him.

That life was cruelly cut short by John Dickson.

Following an exchange of angry words on social media,

Carl Gregory met two men at Westwood Cross shopping centre.

The 27-year-old gardener put his victim innate choke hold

After letting him go, he began stamping on his head.

In her sentencing statement, the judge said that Carl Gregory

was goaded into going into the Westwood shopping centre

She went on to say that this illustrates

the dangers of social media because of the speed

I do think the message from here is if you are posting online,

people can get inflamed very, very easily and therefore,

I always think it's best to think before you post.

Following sentencing, Carl Gregory's family issued

The last six months have been a nightmare for all of us.

Carl was a loving son, grandson, brother and friend to many people

and we miss him every day. In sentencing, the judge told

Dickson he must serve at least 18 years in prison.

She added, you may never be released from jail.

Ian Palmer is in Maidstone now ? Ian, the judge described

this as a futile row and it escalated quickly.

So quickly that the argument played itself out, the events play

themselves out in a matter of hours. In a single day. Which is what

concerned the judge so much. She described John Dickson as a cold and

calculating and very dangerous individual who showed Carl Gregory

no mercy and not a flicker of remorse or regret for what he has

done. A light aircraft has

crashed into the sea off Emergency services were called

shortly before 4pm this afternoon. Two people escaped from

the submerged plane - They swam ashore after it came down

ten metres from the beach. I was just surprised

and you can't believe it, you just see a plane and you know

something is going to happen. It was so quick, it all happened

so quick, the thing was to run to it to see if there was anything that

you could do. On arrival at the scene, a small,

light aircraft was just off Two people within the plane have

swum ashore and thankfully would only appear to have minor

injuries, just in shock. Accounts of witnesses

that has seen the event, suggesting the plane has lost power

and the pilot has glided the plane Our reporter Claudia Sermbezis

is live at the scene. Claudia, the emergency

services are still there? That's right. The reason being you

can clearly see now the plane is resurfacing and what they want to do

is they want to hopefully drag it out now, back onto the beach,

because they want it out of the water as quickly as possible because

of the environmental implications of leaving it in there. They are hoping

in the morning they can begin then taking it away from here. The

eyewitnesses I spoke to said it was absolutely incredible, they said it

was very surprising rather than shocking. They saw this plane sort

of glide in apparently with no engine is working and the pilot

ditched it into the sea and everybody said it was a textbook

landing, the two men literally walked out of the plane, apparently

unharmed and when you look at the plane, there, it really is

incredible. A man who he was living with

actually murdered his father, coming up.

Pupils at an East Sussex primary school were asked to bring in toilet

rolls and pencils today - after parents were told finances

The children were taking part in a non-uniform fundraising day,

but instead of donating money, they were asked to

The head teacher at St John's Primary in Crowborough says schools

everywhere are being put under huge financial strain.

Our Education Correspondent Bryony Mackenzie reports.

Basically, we've asked them to bring in essentials,

so things like pencils, rubbers, sellotape, pens, paper.

Right down to tissues, toilet roll and these are things

that actually we are struggling now to be able to afford.

People will listen to that and think that's quite shocking.

To be fair, it is meant to be quite shocking.

?500 worth of essentials, money that can now be spent elsewhere.

This school says funding cuts are hitting them hard.

If we can divert money from buying these sorts of essential resources,

we can then fund the education of our children to a greater extent,

so making the curriculum interesting for them rather than having to worry

and monitor loo rolls and glue sticks.

We have protected schools' budgets and we are putting record

So why are schools claiming a funding crisis?

There's ?40 billion in the school budget but more pupils and increased

contributions means that schools will get less money per pupil over

And how that pot of money is shared is changing with some getting up

to 3% more and others getting 3% less money.

This school will lose money in both cases so what to do parents think

It's a shame that the education system has become such that,

fundamentally, education is no longer free and that worries me.

The Department for Education said overall, East Sussex schools

will receive more money from next year.

The school is now considering permanent donation

Our Education correspondent, Bryony MacKenzie is here now -

The school clearly feel they are struggling.

Bryony, what else has the Department for Education said tonight?

The government has said it believes this new system is fairer and the

schools I spoke to says there are a lot of positives in the change. But

this is the point, the part of Perth pupil funding is going to get

smaller over the next few years. That's why wreath seen schools

clubbed together and being their own government on behalf of the area.

Education conference is coming up in the next few weeks and there will be

some tough questions for Justine Greening as to how she is going to

plug this gap. A Sussex teenager has been

speaking about the weeks he spent living with the man

who murdered his father, without Speaker he now says he feels angry

and unable to trust anyone. 19-year-old Kane Manning

from Portslade, moved in with Colin Gale after his dad

Mark - a former bomb disposal Gale pretended to be one

of Mark Manning's best friends - and lied about his movements

on the day his victim went missing. Kane Manning was left vulnerable and

devastated after the loss of his father. Without my dad, it's very

hard. I have got my mum and she is there for me. It's not the same. I

had an lot of bonding with my father. He needed somewhere to live

and turned to a long-standing family friend, Colin Gale. I thought Colin

has got four kits and his close to my dad and when dad goes away

sometimes, I stay with Colin. I thought he is the sort of person I

could trust. Mark Manning worked for a mine-clearing charity supported by

the late Princess of Wales, last seen on the 19th of April in 2014.

Three days later, reported missing by his family. In June 2014, police

change the enquiry to a murder investigation. His remains were

eventually found in undergrowth in Sussex last May, more than two years

after he disappeared. He'd been beaten to death by Colin Gale after

a row over a substantial debt. Kane Manning did not realise Colin Gale

had anything to do with his father's disappearance until police

discovered the body. I feel angry, shameful. He brainwashed me. He lied

and lied. I was 16 years old and of course people are gullible when you

are 16. Just take advice from the older person.

I can look back right now and say to myself,

Colin Gale was convicted of manslaughter last month.

A nurse who looked after a mother from Dartford before

she was discharged from hospital just hours before she died has told

an inquest today that she did tell the doctor in charge that

Sian Hollands was experiencing chest pains.

Previously Dr Kamran Khan said that if he had been made aware of those

symptoms he would have considered the possibility of a pulmonary

embolism - which caused Sian's death in 2015.

Instead, he discharged her from the Darent Valley Hospital.

The hospital Trust has since accepted seven failings that

Glitches in Dartford Crossing's online payment system have saved

According to the National Audit Office, Highways England cancelled

or decided not to issue penalty charge notices to some drivers

because technical problems meant there was uncertainty over who had

Highways England says there has been now substantial progress

A nurse sacked for gross misconduct after patients complained

she "preached" Christianity at them has taken her case

Sarah Kuteh was dismissed after two warnings about what managers

at Dartford's Darent Valley Hospital called inappropriate behaviour.

In one complaint a patient said she implied he'd only be cured

if he believed in God. But Mrs Kuteh said she'd only talked

about her religion to comfort those preparing for surgery.

Sarah Kuteh's job included filling out questionnaires with patients but

when it came to asking whether they had a religion to make sure any

religious requirements were understood prior to surgery, it

didn't end with a simple tick in the box. She admits engaging people in

conversation. The hospital Trust says her manner was inappropriate

but she doesn't agree. Where do you draw the line? Who do I talk to, at

what stage to carry on talking to the patient and at what stage do you

think, we shouldn't go there. There is a line that isn't quite distinct.

She was sacked after ignoring warnings after a list of complaints.

Patient said she preached and made them feel awkward. One cancer

patient due to have major surgery, said he was told that if he prayed,

he'd have a better chance of survival. Another was given a Bible.

He said he'd been subjected to religious fervour. It's totally

inappropriate, for someone to use that opportunity someone receiving

care to push their religious beliefs them. I would rightly expect to be

fired for that sort of misconduct. But Sarah Kuteh says she was

offering comfort and usually only brought her Christianity up if the

patient had initiated the conversation. A fundamental question

about freedom, for people like Sarah Kuteh to go to work, to be a nurse

in the workplace and to speak about their faith naturally. Sarah Kuteh

is claiming unfair dismissal and seeking reinstatement and

compensation. The tribunal judge will give his decision in the coming

days. Well, Sara joins us live now.

Sara, the Trust has insisted this is not about Mrs Kuteh's

religious beliefs, hasn't it? It says it certainly is not that she

held those beliefs but the way she conveyed them to the patients which

was a problem. She said the conversations were excessive,

unwanted and nonconsensual. She had been asked to stop and been given

official warnings but she had not. She even suggested the only reason

she hadn't acted in the same way when she was in intensive care was

because patients there were generally unconscious and couldn't

communicate with her. The Trust said it had no choice but to dismiss her.

The time is nearly quarter to seven and this is our top story. A murder

over a Facebook post has been branded totally senseless and futile

by the judge. John Dickson has been jailed for life for choking Carl

Gregory to death in a car park in Broadstairs last October.

Also in tonight's programme - a piece of Dambusters history

washes ashore in Kent - the bouncing bomb which

It's been the warmest day of the year so far with 22 degrees in Kent.

Will it last? Details in the forecast a little later.

A mother from Burgess Hill says she's terrified her daughter

with end up dead because there are no mental health inpatient

Tracey Hodgson's daughter Vicki has overdosed more than a dozen times

in the last year but has been sent home from hospital each time.

In the past 12 months, the average occupancy rate

for mental health beds in Sussex has been more than 98% -

That compares to 80% three years ago.

The CQC says the highest safe level for any hospital is 85%.

Amanda Akass has tonight's special report.

Tracey Hodgson lives in fear that one of her daughter's regular

overdoses will end up being her last. I constantly wonder how she is

going to live, will that phone call beat to say that she has succeeded

in killing herself? Most of the time she takes overdoses, it's a cry for

help. She says she has been told there are no beds fought Vicki 12

times in the last year, the last one just two weeks ago. I've called an

ambulance, 19 hours to be seen, they talk to her for an hour and sent her

home because there wasn't a bed. And then within days, she does the same

again. Vicki herself didn't want her face to appear on camera. All you

want to do is feel safe and yet you are kind of fobbed off. I do worry

sometimes that one day, I will do something that, even if it's not

intentional, I'll take a really big overdose or I'll cut myself and I

panic. There's been a long-standing agenda to reduce the number of

psychiatric beds because it's a most expensive part of the care. For one

person in a bed for a year, you can treat, they say, minimally 44 people

in the community. 70 adult mental health patient beds here, out of 600

across the whole of Sussex, a reduction of 10% in the last three

years. Demand for services has never been greater but they are committed

if someone really need a bed to finding one as soon as possible,

they say. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry are

highlighting the issue today, a campaign in listing celebrities. The

government is investing ?11 million to make sure the right local

services can be put in place but Tracey says such statements just

make her angry. The bouncing bomb found

in Reculver, Herne Bay. Credited with helping to bringing

the Second World War to a close. They were tested off the north Kent

coast and now a large piece of those bonds has been discovered on the

seashore, causing much excitement at her and a museum. -- Herne Bay

museum. A fragment of a test bomb has been

discovered and it's causing quite a stir. Wow! That some find! Can't

believe I've come on the very day after they picked this up. We have

to get to the high tide, it comes out there so we can wade in and find

the bombs. Through the film, millions know about barns Wallace

and his bouncing bomb and how it was tested. At the time, it was top

secret, even the air crews could only guess what their task was going

to be. This was a few days before they went out on the dambusters

raid. It was spinning backwards 500 revolutions per minute. 60 feet only

above the sea. Yesterday, the beach was cordoned off and bomb disposal

teams were called in to make sure the fragment was safe. We were all

sitting here wondering what was going on so I sent my husband off to

go and check it out. He had a word with the police and she told us it

was a bomb that had been washed up. We were all really excited. I didn't

break this half, it was already broken off but these are parts of

it. The concrete can still be seen on the inside. Proof that this

episode of history will never be forgotten.

It's 350 years since the Dutch launched an audacious attack

They sailed a vast fleet up the River Medway and subjected

the English navy to one of its most humiliating defeats.

England was still reeling under financial pressure

from the Great Plague and The Great Fire of London

in September 1666 - when in June 1667 the Dutch sailed

to Chatham and caught the English unprepared,

capturing King Charles II's flagship the Royal Charles.

It's estimated the Dutch lost up to 150 men in the battle,

Robin, they've just announced plans to commemorate the Battle of Medway

Yes. Just been the end of a press conference announcing this. They say

they are expecting tens of thousands of Dutch people to come here in June

for a festival of art, music, sport and culminating in a giant firework

display. How is this story remembered? Earlier this week, I

travelled to Amsterdam to find out how the history of our little bit of

the world figures in their national story.

It was a time when Britain did not rule the waves.

What with the great plague and the Great Fire of London, the

flashy but impoverished restored King Charles II was stuck in a war

with the Dutch he didn't have the money to fight.

The argument was all about trade, yes, just like our

But at the heart of that in the 17th century

were ships and sea power, both here in Holland and at home.

So when you wanted to force someone to negotiate,

they did things a little bit differently.

In a nutshell, the Dutch made the king look stupid by

attacking his fleet more or less in their backyard and picking his

flagship, a forgotten piece of history at home.

What about here in the middle of Amsterdam?

We fought about two or three wars and we won both of them.

Came over, sunk loads of our ships and stole our flagship.

Are you shocked? I'm sorry.

So, what a wonderful job we did, isn't it?

You can uncover the story of what happened on the River Medway

all those years ago here at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

They have more pictures, more artefacts than perhaps you'll

Artists of the golden age of Dutch painting depicted

the dash into the Medway, of fighting on land and sea

with fire ships destroying the British fleet at anchor.

The hero was the Dutch commander Michiel de Ruyter.

And to the victor went both spoils and trophies.

And this is just absolutely spectacular.

It's the stern carvings of the Royal Charles,

the flagship captured by Michiel de Ruyter.

This is the coat of arms of English king, so it is

as personal as it can be. A bit like taking the King's crown

and using it as a trophy? Yeah.

A movie revived interest in 1667 in Holland.

It graphically portrayed the brutality for those

But the Dutch invaders, it seemed, were

under strict instructions not to harm civilians.

There is this story that some of the Dutch troops, when

they had landed, kicked in the door of the church of grain and those who

heard about this story said, this is not going to happen and the king

sent his own carpenter to repair the door.

Many people say, "I didn't know the Dutch did this in the 17th

century and how amazing that you have a battle in such

What an endeavour, in a way, to do this."

The greatest prize, Chatham dockyard was saved from destruction

by the solid resistance of gun batteries and the arrival of the

enforcements saw the Dutch head for home.

In June, they will be back in numbers to commemorate the 350th

anniversary of the greatest battle you've never heard of.

Behind me is the castle with the Dutch attack was eventually stopped.

They do remember it there, they re-enact it every year and that's

going to be the focal point of the great firework display. It will be

called Medway in flames, music and fireworks on the banks and no doubt,

a giant international party. STUDIO: We look forward to that. Spectacular

stuff. It's been an incredibly warm day. A

glorious afternoon, a taste of summer. Temperatures reached 22

degrees with clear blue skies during the afternoon, even along the coast,

temperatures in the top teams. The cloud stayed well to the west

and we had a warm, southerly airflow. Across-the-board,

temperatures reaching highs of 21 degrees. Through tonight, initially,

we will stay dry and that a bit more cloud around and potentially some

drizzle but of course, staying mild. Temperatures only dropping to around

ten or 11 degrees and these are the sorts of values we normally expect

to see during the afternoon. Once again, very mild as we start the day

for Friday. A bit of a different day, first thing, this cold front

around, not really a lot of heavy rain but a slightly different feel

during the morning. A good deal of cloud around and at times, some

drizzle. By the afternoon, once again, the sunshine will be back

again and temperatures very mild for this time of year, if a touch cooler

than today. We will also notice the winds will be picking up tomorrow

around 15 to 20 mph so slightly fresher as we go from Friday to

Saturday. Temperatures again in single figures but still eight or 9

degrees. One of two halves for the Saturday, more cloud and at times,

some showers, some could be quite heavy. They clear and high pressure

back for Sunday but quite a chilly start. This is what it looks like, a

lot of blue on the map for Saturday and then high pressure builds back

again. Sunday afternoon, temperatures comfortably around 15

or 16 degrees. It stays lovely and bright for the next week. The

sunshine back again for tomorrow, not quite as warm as today. Lots of

sunshine and staying warm. Not a bad forecast at all. I will be

back with the APM and late news. See you tomorrow. Goodbye. -- 8pm.

Call the police! Is anyone hurt? Is anyone in the car?