24/01/2017 South Today - Oxford

Welcome to South Today. and Emily Thornberry of Labour.

Coming up: 22 arrests in one morning - the dawn raids to tackle organised

Also: The motorist who was using his mobile phone when he killed

And from exploring virtual worlds to interacting with robots -

the university hoping to benefit from Government

Police have arrested twenty-two people in a major operation

to tackle organised drug dealing in Oxfordshire.

In a series of dawn raids, officers targeted almost 40 homes in Oxford,

Organised policing tackling organised crime.

This Oxford address is one of 37 raided by Thames Valley Police

in Oxford, Abingdon and London this morning.

180 officers were involved in what the force is calling

The start of a campaign to stop the flow of Class A drugs

We've made some really good arrests today.

That'll have a disruption impact on the people

One of the things we'll look at is working with partners

We want to target key locations in future that we know these

We want to make it very difficult for them to come back.

Detectives say gangs from the capital come to the county

These locations, the police say, are often the homes

We have criminals that often operates through

runners out into the counties, dealing drugs in our area.

These operations are very organised and they target vulnerable people,

probably the most honourable people in our communities.

An obviously a real threat to local policing of the area.

Police are continuing to patrol in the areas where the raids took

place this morning in an effort to reassure the public.

The force says there will be similar operations in the future to stop

drugs gangs operating in the Thames Valley.

A motorist from Oxford has admitted he was using his mobile phone

when he caused a fatal crash on the A34.

Lewis Stratford veered across the central reservation

near East Ilsley last summer killing 28-year old Gavin

He's pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

It was late in the evening of Saturday 11th of June

when Lewis Stratford seen here entering court today

was going southbound on the A34 near East Ilsley.

Over a 35-minute period, he was said to be speeding

and to have made three emotional phone calls.

It was on the third of these that he lost control of his car

and crashed through the central reservation and into

That car was being driven by 28-year-old Australian Gavin Roberts

He was on his way to work for Network Rail.

Mr Roberts was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital

but died of his injuries four days later.

Following his death, Gavin's girlfriend Meg

I was due to wake him up at home on Sunday morning and I just wanted

I wanted to stop him from going to work on Saturday night.

It genuinely didn't feel real, sitting at his bedside.

As much as the machines were keeping him alive,

he was still warm and he still looked like Gavin because,

head to toe, all he looked like was just a bruise

and on his right eye and the rest of him was perfect.

The defence argued that Stratford had not been holding his phone

They it was in a cradle attached to his dashboard but admitted it

Representatives from Thames Valley Police

were also in court today, with the force keen to stress

When we do a live at these scenes, people expect you have mobile phones

seized if we believe they have been utilised at the time immediately

We seize the phones and download the information kept on that phone

to try and interpret whether it was in use

Stratford has been disqualified from driving with immediate effect.

He will be sentenced next month and has been told a custodial

A mother whose baby daughter drowned after she left her in a bath has

had her jail sentence increased by 18 months.

Judges at the Court of Appeal said Jasmine Gregory's three-year

sentence for manslaughter was too lenient.

She'd been drinking cider on the morning she left 14-month

old Robyn the bath at their home in Grove in 2014.

Three people have appeared before magistrates, charged with the murder

outside the Co-op in Great Linford early on Saturday morning.

Thames Valley Police's response to his death has been referred

to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Funding is to be stopped for most of the day centres run

Money will only provided for 8 of the 22 centres which provide

support for older people and those with learning disabilities.

The change is to save more than ?3 million.

The council says it will still help people in need of support.

Staff and students at Oxford Brookes University are hoping

to benefit from a Government pledge to invest an extra ?2 billion a year

They showed off their work in the robotics laboratory

to the chair of the MPs' Science and Technology Committee.

Robot Tai Chi - just one display on show for MP Stephen Metcalfe

on his tour of Oxford Brookes University.

This was a chance for the chair of the Science

and Technology Committee to see some of tomorrow's technology today...

It's really important that universities and particularly

scientists in universities have a good connection with Government,

which will open the way for future development and funding sources.

A quick gear change from robots to racing in the university's

Students here hope they'll benefit from an extra ?2 billion a year

of Government funding for research and development.

Oxford Brookes is in the perfect location,

right in the heart of the Valley, teaching hands on experience

Back in the robotics lab, students are taught about artificial

intelligence, a robot's ability to think and act like a human.

You'll like what experience will you be taking away with you today?

Apart from having the opportunity to sit in a Formula 1 car,

I will take some information back to Parliament about where this

The robotics team has now applied for funding for its next project,

and now have all eyes on the Government to

This week we're looking at the life-saving work carried out

at the Oxford Children's Hospital as it marks its ten

Tonight, how the staff helped four-year-old Alan from Banbury,

who was diagnosed with blood cancer last year.

A chance to play with his friends and enjoy himself.

Up until last September, he was a healthy, boistorous,

young boy, but when Alan's stomach swelled up and he had trouble

breathing, his parents took him to the doctor in Banbury.

Within days, Alan was in intensive care at the children's hospital.

He made no fuss about anything that was done to him,

which is amazing, considering some of the things he went through.

Some of the side effects of the first two rounds of chemotherapy

I think a grown adult would probably cry and lose patience

His mum has no doubt that the commitment of staff

at the children's hospital went a long way towards saving her son.

Friends and parents at Alan's nursery group in Banbury also

He is part of the nursery family, and a lot of the families here know

It was really important for them to feel like they were

We are really pleased to see him do what a four-year

Alan is still here with us and he's pretty much back to normal.

We could see that quite early on in the treatment,

that Alan was starting to come back, but there were periods

I hope the worst times are over now and there

Alan's mother ending that report by Jeremy Stern.

A tough 2016 - we wish Alan and his family well for 2017.

Overnight tonight we're expecting some freezing fog patches

and the possibility of ice as well, which is why the Met Office have

issued a fog and a nice morning through the course of tonight

There's the possibility of disruption to travel.

Widespread fog overnight tonight and also freezing in places

with temperatures dropping to around -1 Celsius in towns and cities,

Widespread frost tomorrow morning and that freezing

Once it does, we're expecting one or two bright spells,

more likely the further west you are, slightly more cloud

for eastern areas and generally it's quite a cloudy day all in all,

with temperatures reaching a high of 4 to 6 Celsius with light,

Through the course of tomorrow into Thursday, we're expecting some

very cold air to push up from the south-east and the breeze

will increase as well, so on the face of it,

on the thermometer, we're expecting a high of 4 to 5 Celsius,

but feeling more like freezing with the wind strength

As we look ahead to the rest of the week, a cold day tomorrow.

Sunny spells, but bitterly cold on Thursday, and the chance

For all of us, it'll get colder and then milder again come the weekend.

This shot taken earlier by a weather watcher in East Anglia. The fog

becoming extensive over the next few hours in many south-eastern parts of

England. Much, much milder, further north and

west. Let's concentrate on that fog. I think it is going to be a problem