06/04/2017 South Today - Oxford

In tonight's programme: The fight against firearms.

Thames Valley Police deal with three gun crimes every week.

We'll hear claims that growing numbers of children are getting

Also: Given ketamine to treat depression.

Why doctors in Oxford want the drug, that's used as a horse tranquiliser,

Thames Valley Police has to deal with at least three crimes

A BBC investigation has revealed that between January and October

last year "firearms" were involved in 158 crimes.

A former gang member, who set up a charity to help young

people away from gangs, claims children as young as ten

The latest weekly haul of guns seized by, or surrendered to,

Around 2,000 weapons come to this armoury each year but,

despite all of them being destroyed, police have still had to deal

with more than 1,000 gun crimes since 2011.

This investigation took into account all crimes

in which a gun was present, regardless of whether

The most commonly used weapons were this, a rifle, a shot gun,

however the biggest problem for Thames Valley Police

are the moment are these, BB guns or replicas which,

as you can see, look a lot like the real thing.

Certainly in recent times we have had some good successes

when targeting serious and organised criminality and we have managed

to seize not only automatic weapons but also ammunition for those

So to take those off the streets is saving lives.

In the year ending March 2016 there were almost 8,400 firearm

This figure is significantly lower than knife crimes,

which saw 20,000 more incidents for same period.

Gun crime makes up a small proportion of overall crime,

So how does Thames Valley compare nationally?

It is way below the national average.

I think it was about four gun crimes per 100,000 population.

That is the scale we are talking about in Thames Valley compared

There may be pockets in Thames Valley where

And it's these pockets causing concern.

In 2007 charity Gangsline was launched to discuss

The man behind it is former gang member Sheldon Thomas.

You've got to understand where we are talking

about the Thames Valley, everywhere has a gangs problem,

and we have to stop using geography as trying to,

well, they've got the problem there, we haven't got the problem.

I was not able to hold a gun until I was about,

These guys can get guns now at ten, 11, 12.

That is the reason why I say that it is worse now

than it was when I was around about 20 years ago.

In a response to serious and organised crime

Thames Valley Police have now launched Stronghold,

a scheme encouraging residents to take ownership of their local

Police say they're extremely concerned for a missing

Emily Henslowe from Highworth was last seen leaving

for Warneford school this morning but she never arrived.

Officers along with search and rescue crews and the helicopter

An inquest has opened into the death of a five-year-old boy found dead

Police launched a murder investigation after the body

of Tyler Warmington was found at Bromsgrove Cottages.

A 40-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of murder was released

The inquest is due to resume in July.

Could taking ketamine help treat severe depression?

The drug is known as a horse tranquiliser.

It's also taken by some people as a party drug although it's

Now a study in Oxford has found ketamine has helped some people

who haven't responded to other treatments for depression.

There's a call for it to be prescribed more widely in the NHS.

This is the best she has felt in seven years.

Depression and anorexia took their toll but taking part

in this NHS drug trial has stopped her from feeling

as if she is drowning in her own thoughts.

I can take my kids to their friends' birthday parties, go on the odd play

date every now and then, actually be present in my kids'

lives, which is the most important thing to me.

Helen is among the first patients to have this experimental treatment.

Doctors can prescribe ketamine as a licensed drug.

All the patients in this trial had moderate or severe depression

and other treatment had failed but 42 of the 101 patients felt much

The doctors in Oxford hope other hospitals will take

up their approach and contribute to a central register

so side-effects can be monitored, but the Royal College

of Psychiatrists is urging caution, saying there

are still significant gaps in our knowledge about ketamine.

We still do not know what the most effective dose will be,

what the most effective dose regime will be, and we do not know

what the long-term potential harms of using ketamine are,

so I think we have to do more studies before

Patients in Oxford receive the drug through a drip in carefully

The doctors here believe thousands more people could benefit from this

treatment but they warned ketamine should only be taken under

Earlier I spoke to Dr Rupert McShane who has been leading the research

into the use of ketamine to treat depression.

I asked him why a drug used as a horse tranquiliser would help

It's actually also used as an anaesthetic.

It is the safest anaesthetic in the world, very widely used.

It is used in depression, probably because we have

We found that it works acutely but the real challenge

is to maintain the effect once that has started.

When you gave the drug to the patients you gave it

to them intravenously, which people might be surprised

So we used an infusion of about 40 minutes,

and people feel very peculiar when they are having the infusion,

but those side effects wear off within about five minutes of the end

And then they would come back to be topped up

So what we have been doing is just trying to see how we can

maintain that effect, and that does involve

For some people that means keeping on with ketamine.

For others, what we have found is that some people seem to do well

enough that they can stop the ketamine.

But the majority I have to say have not benefited from it.

But because we are treating a population that have

resistant depression, nothing else seemed to work,

What about the concerns raised by the Royal College

of Psychiatrists that you do not know enough about the long-term

We do not know all the long-term effects, and that is really

What we think we need to be doing is collecting

I think it is really important to understand that ketamine

is actually a licensed drug already and in the US what is

happening is that ketamine clinics are starting up,

so what we want to do is to actually monitor all the treatments that

are given in this country and also to harness the information

that we get from those treatments so that we can work out who to treat

Some people use ketamine recreationally, it is known

It is illegal to buy it on the streets.

How much concern is there about people who hear about this

research and may feel depressed and may try to self-medicate?

That would be a really silly thing to do.

It would be really silly because we have certainly known

of people who have tried doing that and it has

simply got out of control, and that is a real risk.

This is not the end of your research.

What we really want to do is get this registry sorted out

so that we can monitor all the treatments that

I think it would be helpful if there were a few other specialist

centres that were interested in taking it on.

Bicester library's been celebrating its first year

in its new home with a visit from children's

The new library's attracted 3,000 members since it opened last April.

As well as providing more space for books and public computers,

the library hosts regular children's activities, a local history group

You know, there are so many things going on that the library has had

to be very proactive in attracting people and doing modern

It is not a case of libraries being shh, quiet.

They are noisy exciting places and that is how

they should be and that is how they will attract people.

A young boy has raised more than ?30,000 for an Oxfordshire

charity, after a story about him and his support dog

13 year old Joel Sayer is autistic and says his world

changed when Caddie, who was trained by Dogs for Good,

Their friendship captured the hearts of the nation after they reached

the final of the Friends for Life competition at Crufts this year.

He's more than a friend, he's a guardian angel for me.

After people saw their inspirational story, Joel set about raising money

to give another child a friend for life, like he has in Caddie.

He's now raised enough to sponsor another dog through training.

At that time before we got Caddie, we had the diagnosis,

we had Joel as he was, but there was nobody listening

To think that someone else in that situation is going to get the light

at the end of the tunnel like we had with Caddie is fantastic.

Caddie came into Joel's life through the charity Dogs

They train dogs to support people with physical disabilities,

learning difficulties, and conditions such

For some of the children the social interaction,

particularly children with autism, is quite difficult and yet

dogs don't judge us in the same way as humans do.

So building a relationship with a dog is a much more

neutral focus for the child and through building that

relationship with the dog they learn other social skills they can take

Dogs can really give children the opportunity for children

And as their friendship continues to grow so does Joel's confidence.

It was eyes to the skies at one Abingdon school this afternoon.

Much to the delight of the pupils, parachutists from The Royal Logistic

Corps Silver Stars Display Team landed on the Larkmead

They'd taken off from nearby Dalton Barracks.

It was a chance for the army to meet the local community while carrying

The action from last night's Oxford United match is coming up.

With the rest of South Today, here's Allen Sinclair.

crimes for every 100,000 - that's below the

Joel Campbell is in Dorset for the launch of a new exhibition. We will

hear from some of those who fought in these tanks and others who found

themselves at the sight of the rest of the Tiger family.

A soldier who murdered his former girlfriend at her Bournemouth

home has been sentenced to life in prison.

Jay Nava, who's 27, will serve a minimum of 21 years behind bars.

He was found guilty of stabbing 26-year-old Natasha Wake 11 times

Academics from Portsmouth have looked for the first time at the

effect on social media of children running away from home. Around

140,000 under 18 go missing from the UK each year. A report says

publicity appeals trying to find them can remain online for years

leaving a negative aftermath difficult to shake off. It suggests

children need better protection from a digital footprint and possibly

asking old sites to remove stories. Bournemouth's unbeaten run is now

five games in the top flight. Tony, they are going great. I was a

bit worried about them a couple of months ago. Another valuable point

in the Premier league last night. Before kick-off...

Anfield remembered the 28th anniversary of the Hillsborough

were in front early on as Benik Afobe capitalised

on this error, Bournemouth had to show their character though,

Phillippe Coutinho levelled and then after half time, Divovk Orgi

But Eddie Howe's side dug deep and in form Joshua King grabbed

I thought we showed a really good mentality in the game.

I thought we defended excellently at times.

In the end I don't think anyone can argue we got the draw.

I was at St Mary's last night, where Southampton produced

an impressive second half display to end Crystal Palace's

but there was some new turf on the Saints penalty spot.

Palace took the lead with a fine goal from Christian Benteke

Palace complained vocally about the equaliser from Nathan Redmond

after an apparent push by Steven Davies on Wilf Zaha.

In a second half full of chances, Palace hit a post before

Maya Yoshida got the last touch to Redmond's cross.

Just a minute or so later, James Ward-Prowse competed a fine

move to seal a win which lifts Saints to 10th,

Where you aggrieved at the nature of Southampton's equaliser?

Assistant referee's totally out of order.

It is not nice going behind in the game but I

think it shows the character we have got in the dressing room and the way

the fans got behind us, you know, they really spurred us on.

Oxford's promotion hopes were damaged by defeat against Fleetwood

last night. But conceded the early goal. The visitors are now third and

went back in front through Ashley Eastern and scored a third goal late

in the game, as well. In a year's time we'll be

into the first few days of competition in the Commonwealth

Games. And two Bournemouth-based beach

volleyball players hope to be bidding for gold in the inaugural

staging of the sport at the Games. Jake Sheaf and Chris Gregory play

on the international circuit but missed the Olympics last year

when Chris was injured, so they're determined not to miss

out on another big event. Think of beach volleyball, think

Sun, sand and sea. In this case it is under a roof in Bournemouth. For

Jake and Chris it is training. This hard work should result in a place

in the England team at the Commonwealth Games were beach

volleyball makes its debut. It is huge for the sport. The Commonwealth

Games is highly recognised as an event in England. Everybody watches

it as they do the Olympic Games. Having beach volleyball there will

put it on the map a bit more. And hopefully bringing a medal home will

make the country proud of having a beach volleyball team. The pair

still work part-time to support their sporting endeavours, and being

a close partnership is not without challenges. We have clashes

sometimes. And I think when the dynamic is good if those naturally

and sometimes one thing outweighs the other but on the court, we share

captaincy sometimes, and depending on who is under pressure, somebody

will take the lead over the other. Aggressive. You had to adapt always

in situations in any type of sport and find a way to win. That is what

we try to do. Jake and Chris have a punishing schedule ahead. Up to 12

world tour events around the globe. They have to sustain their world

ranking to make sure they get their places at the Commonwealth Games. I

think we are going for gold. I don't think anything... We are going to

win the thing, those of our aspirations. We are going to be

working towards that. The Gold Coast will host 23 sports at the 21st

Commonwealth Games. These beach buddies could bring a slice of gold

home as well. Meanwhile on the first day

of the Grand National meeting at Aintree Dorset trained Cue Card

was edged out in the Grade One Bowl chase by Lizzie Kelly aboard

Tea for Two. The Colin Tizzard trained Cue Card,

with Paddy Brennan aboard made a desperate attempt to haul tea

for two in, but was Meanwhile Sam Sunderland has claimed

victory in the Abu Dhabi desert The motorcyclist, originally

from Poole triumphed after several First round of the US Masters golf,

it is going on right now. We featured Hampton and Scott Gregory.

Not a great day for the British amateur champion, six over on the

back nine. Justin Rose, former Hampshire player, one under early in

his round. Coverage on five live and BBC TV across the weekend. Thank

you, Tony. Now it was one of the most iconic

and terrifying weapons of the Second World War,

the German Tiger Tank. Today, a new exhibition

has opened in Dorset, featuring the fearsome fighting

machines, and the people To mark the event, four

veterans from that conflict, two German and two British,

had an extraordinary meeting. This is the Tiger Tank. One of the

most feared weapons of the Second World War and just beyond you can

see a collection of the relatives. The biggest gathering since the

conflict itself, as it were. Coming to the belly of the beast as it

were. Four inches of steel armour to keep the crusade. And this is the 88

millimetre gun which was guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of

those who faced it. Today some of those who fought their war from

inside these cramped positions and some of them who were in their

sights, came together once more. It is wonderful we can meet like

this 70 years afterwards. Almost unbelievable, isn't it? Enemies no

more. The men here today no the Tiger Tank inside and out. He drove

one with the seventh Panzer division. Ernest fought against them

after D-Day. When we heard it on the radio, there was a tiger around, we

were scared. We knew what it could do. TRANSLATION: It was a very

impressive tank. Much more advanced than other designs. I was pleased to

operate it. It was the bees knees when it came to technology. Such was

the fear of the Tiger in Dorset, Britain developed a special version

of the American Sherman tank, squeezing in an extra powerful

British gun into the turret. Ken helped to accrue one of the

so-called Sherman firefly is. I was in action when one of the fireflys

knocked out three of these things in seven minutes. It was not a

one-sided story. The man in the Tiger Tank was still in danger.

TRANSLATION: Even in a tiger you always had fear for your life. You

felt vulnerable. Those who said they were not frightened were lying. The

Tiger still draws the crowds. For these men, who knew it on the

battlefield, it ties them together still. It was a secret guilt of

those who had been in the front line and therefore new when a man was

surrendering, you were probably responsible for doing to his

comrades what he had been doing to our comrades. TRANSLATION: It is a

shame we could not have this relationship before. We are all

comrades now. Everything else is forgotten. I am with David, the

curator at this museum. Was this such a fierce opponent as our own

commanders think it was? It was certainly impressive. A good thing

brought the British and the allies is that they never made that many of

these famous Tiger Tanks. They were too few to make a difference,

luckily. We know they were not perfect. Look behind us here. One of

the once you have got here for this show is actually effectively a

prototype of one of the versions which did not work at all, the

elephant here. They were notoriously unreliable. A lot of them broke

down. Not that many were made in the production runs. Thankfully, even

though they look big and impressive and with the audience everybody

knows they are called Tiger Tanks, fortunately for the Allies they do

not do that much damage on the Western front. We are so lucky of

course having a range of them here so everybody can see them and see

the idea. You can understand why the crews were frightened of them. The

chances of meeting one, honestly in wartime, fairly thin. Thank you,

David. These tanks will be here for the rest of the summer and beyond.

STUDIO: Thank you, Joe. He was in his element! A boyhood dream

realised. Alexis had joined us on the sofa. Lovely day again.

The good news is it is warming up for the weekend. Sunday potentially

the hottest day with a high are potentially 21, 20 two. Some unusual

weather photos. This was photographed by Chris in Winslow in

Buckinghamshire. A vertical shaft of light formed when sunlight reflects

from the services of ice crystals associated with high-level clouds

such as Cirrus. This was captured in Portsmouth by Maureen. Thank you.

And one more, in Weymouth, taken earlier today, this is the sun

pillar here. Clear skies overnight. Chilly temperatures courtesy of

clear skies and light wind. Temperatures falling away. In the

countryside we could get down to two Celsius, in towns and cities, those

of 7-9. First thing this morning, at Bournemouth airport, around 0.5

Celsius, similar first thing tomorrow morning, we could have. A

lot of sunshine on the tomorrow. Maybe cloudier than today.

Particularly further north and east. Generally in the sunshine

temperatures up to around 14, may be 15 and even 16 Celsius. Similar to

what we had today, especially for cell third spot. Wind light and

variable. Similar damages to deny. -- similar spots. Temperatures in

the countryside could get down to three or four Celsius. This is in

towns and cities. Over the weekend, drawing in warm air from the near

continent. We can see high-pressure starting to pull away towards the

east. That means we develop a southerly breeze. Fairly light in

the course of Saturday. Warm air moving in on Saturday afternoon. On

Saturday, ten bridges in the high teens in Celsius. On the coast with

sea breeze it will feel fresher. -- temperatures in the high teens.

Maybe 14 or 15 at best. Looking at the weekend as a whole, sunny

spells, Chile each morning and maybe a touch of frost each morning. Warm

on Sunday. Could go up to 21 or even 22 Celsius. Outlook for the rest of

the week and into the weekend and next week when it gets cooler.

Tomorrow, lots of sunshine, lovely conditions over the weekend, a high

of 21 Celsius on Sunday. A warm southerly breeze, fairly light,

bringing temperatures into the low 20s in Celsius. All changing next

week. A cold front moving in on Sunday night making conditions

fresher on Monday, back to the seasonal average. I do, a lot to

look forward to. You might remember at school you might have had a class

pet, gerbils, rabbits, perhaps. School pupils in Berkshire have been

looking after trout! It is part of a major project where schools were

given hundreds of trout by a conservation group. Tom Pett work

went to reading-macro to find out more. You remember what a brown

trout nest is called? -- reading-macro. A school of fish in a

tank in a classroom. -- Reading. Children took delivery of these eggs

in January. They are now ready to be released into the wild but the

journey has not been without jeopardy. All the trout was sucked

up into the filter. But some of them survived. How many do you have left?

Yesterday the teacher said we had 13. How many did you start with?

About 100. It is tougher in the wild. Just 5% of brown trout

survived more than one year. It is time to say goodbye to these fish,

one by one. Goodbye. Are you sad to see it go? Yes. What was the best

part about looking after them? Probably learning about them. Very

nice to see children that might not have visited a river or ever thought

what lives in it, nice to introduce them to something new. Maybe in

future with their parents and grandparents they will return to

that part of river. This tributary is now home to the Ridgeway brown

trout. After Easter the children are getting eels.

Wiping their trout on its way! It is time for us to say goodbye, as well.

The next news is here on BBC One at eight o'clock and more at 10.30. We

are back tomorrow. We hope you can join us again. Have a good evening.

Good night. Stacey and Chris are preparing for

marriage by spending a few days living alone with

their in-laws to be, and asking them all kinds of

questions. Did you get a kiss on

the first date? No. What does their in-laws' marriage

tell them about each other's I expect you'll want to become

a schoolmaster, sir. That's what most of the gentlemen

does that get sent down for indecent behaviour.

Evelyn Waugh's classic novel.