08/02/2017 South Today - Oxford

Designed to stop suspects spitting at police

Now Thames Valley Police has issued them to all its front line officers.

Also, investigating the death of a motorist on a rail crossing.

The has been closed for more than 24 hours.

And later on - one man and his shed, but its more than just

Critics have described them as cruel and degrading,

but now so called spit hoods are being handed out to every

Thames Valley Police front-line police officer.

The device can placed on offenders to prevent

them spitting at police and the public or biting them.

They've been rejected by some other forces,

Here's our home affairs correspondent, Emma Vardy.

A third of police forces across the UK have used spit guards.

Now for the first time, officers from

Hampshire and Thames Valley will all carry them on duty.

We've seen instances where officers have had

This creates, not only is it a disgusting and vile

thing to do, but actually a risk of infection.

So, we have looked at the evidence that is available, we had

national advice that says that we should look to issue a spit

Over the past ten months, officers from the two forces

have reported being spat at more than 400 times.

Is there a danger putting a hood over someone's head will

What we have seen is that officers will understand the situation, will

closely monitor the situation, and at the point in which they stop

spitting, the spit guard will be removed.

I often speak to officers who have had to go through

medical processes to make sure that they don't

There is disagreement over whether they should be allowed.

The Met police had been consulting on

whether to introduce spit guards, but a pilot last year was cancelled

after London Mayor Sadiq Khan voiced concerns and Kent Police

decided against the use after considering the impact on a person

Health don't use spit guards, prison service don't use spit guards.

Europe and Northern Ireland don't use spit guards.

As soon as you start restraining people around the

head, accidents happen and people could get seriously injured and

Police says suspects will be told why a spit

guard is being used and there when their behaviour changes,

The railway line where a motorist was killed on a level crossing

yesterday is still being examined by investigators.

His An intercity train hit a Land Rover near

The line between Swindon and Gloucester has been closed

With the train and remains of the Land Rover moved away, the

meticuluos search for evidence began.

Specialist teams for the British Transport Police looking for

anything that could it explain why the victim

When we arrived on the scene at 3pm yesterday the afternoon, we

were dealing with the initial incident itself.

Clearly, the light got the better of us.

We wanted to make sure that we could recover

today when we had natural daylight available to us.

Investigators from Network Rail and the Rail

Investigations Branch started their own enquiries.

Great Western Railway are also offering support and help

A 60-year-old farmer has yet to be formally identified.

He used to keep animals, cows and sheep in the

field, just on the other side of the railway.

He would take around was to market and stuff like that.

The key question, of course, is why the victim was still on the track

We used to have animals cross there as

We know what it's like to

And I have been there when he has crossed.

I've chatted to him before he has

It's a normal everyday thing, really.

In 2014, a motorcyclist was killed on the

crossing and there have been two

Now, after yesterday's tragedy, there are calls

for the crossing to be closed to all

I just feel it's a rather dangerous crossing.

You can only see the trains for 100 metres.

By the time the whistle has gone, or their horn, they are upon you.

With the line closed today, replacement buses were laid

on for passengers between Gloucester and Swindon.

Disruption for many, but necessary for officers to find

out why someone lost their life here.

Acres of land near Thame have been damaged by illegal

hare and deer coursers - according to the National

It's believed as many as 50 people were involved in one incident

Police are investigating and say its work of criminal gangs.

Up to ten landowners have been affected in a five mile radius

and a vehicle has been left abandoned in one field

The Princess Royal has been in South Oxfordshire,

officially unveiling new technology to assist biomedical research.

Princess Anne spent the day at the diamond light source

facility in harwell, meeting scientists and marking ten

years since the site was officially opened.

Diamond has supported 10,000 scientists in that time,

with research ranging from antibiotics to

It's ten years since the Queen opened the Diamond Light Source

and today her daughter, Princess Anne, has been back

A decade of discoveries using light beams.

These big machines like the one behind me have billions of electrons

whizzing through and as they go through these giant magnets that you

can see, the red and yellow and green, bending magnet here,

the selector is controlled, pushed in different directions.

And as that happens, light is omitted.

The control of that light has enabled

the scientists here at the Diamond Light Source

over the last ten years to do some pretty amazing things.

Some of them, on this machine - I-11.

Here we are doing experiments that last a very long time.

I mean, a classic example is your mobile

Because when you use it everyday, you don't want a 24-hour

You want a battery that lasts a very, very long time.

We are trying to make new materials and look at

new materials that last these periods of time.

Other beams map the structure of viruses.

If you know the structure of the molecule you are

trying to target, you can design new drugs to fit

Having the structure is very useful for drug discovery.

We have plans, we have the technology that could

Ten times brighter means you find new drugs ten times faster.

You can look at the structure, the materials

for tomorrow ten times more effectively.

So, you know, those materials that go into your cell

phone, that go into jet air craft, going into cleaner technology, all

of those will be based on research that is done here at Diamond.

These plaques mark the synchrotron's 28th beam opening the way for new,

More than 3,000 items of Alice in Wonderland memorabilia

The collection, amassed over 25 years, sold for ?70,000.

It includes books, statues, tea cups and photographs.

It's thought to be the largest collection dedicated

to Lewis Carroll's character in the world.

There is Alice herself, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and many

other familiar characters from Lewis Carroll's

They have been popular for a century and a half and they are all here.

From Tweedledum and Tweedledee on a brass platter, to

Part of a huge and frankly rather bizarre collection.

There are any number of books, of course.

There are Mad Hatter teapots and hundreds of china ornaments.

There are advertising boards, that's the Walrus and the Carpenter.

There are Alice dolls, board games, tea trays and a

translation of Alice in Wonderland into Swahili.

One of the earliest of his signatures...

The collection was built up by Greta and her late

husband Thomas, an antiquarian book dealer.

The Mad Hatter, here's one of my favourites.

And he has stood behind our bar in the games room in the

At the auction, the collection fetched

Oxford was a fitting place for the sale, because this is

When Charles Dodgson a University don took a colleague and his three

daughters up the river and told them a story.

They had a picnic on the bank up there and, yes, you could

argue that was the most important picnic in the history of

You know, without that occasion, it's unlikely that the

Sir John Tenniel was the story's first illustrator.

Lewis Carroll was Charles Dodgson's pen name.

The weather forecast is coming up next, with Alexis.

There will be a good deal cloud here overnight.

It should stay mainly dry, but where we do have a view clear

spells, the chance of a frost in the countryside.

Temperatures there may fall to freezing or just below.

And already, we are seeing temperatures

And the winds will be fairly light from the

north-east, a mainly dry start to the day tomorrow,

but we will see one or two showers and it could be on the wintry side

during the course of the day, particularly during the latter

part of the afternoon and into the evening.

With that increasing east to northeasterly wind making it

A high of just one or two Celsius, but feeling

more like freezing or just below freezing, given the wind-chill.

Through the course of tomorrow into Friday, we are expecting

there to be a fair amount of cloud, wintry showers can't be ruled out

and we are still having this brisk, called north-easterly wind,

but becoming a more easterly wind through the course

of Friday daytime. With the odd wintry shower.

Wintry showers can't be ruled out over the next

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, a loss of

Temperatures will struggle to rise by day,

with that brisk east to north-easterly wind.

Highs of just two or three Celsius, but feeling

colder than that with the wind-chill.

cloudy and Ben Rich will take you through the bigger picture.

Good evening. Over the next few days I suspect it's going to feel like we

have been plunged into the deep freeze. Cold weather on the way and

not necessarily crisp cold weather, with blue skies. A lot of cloud,

there was some sunshine today across parts of west Wales, for instance.

That lifted temperatures up to 11. But further east as you