24/04/2017 South Today

Hello I'm Sally Taylor. Welcome to South Today.

A violent attack on young gay women by up to 30 men.

Complaints that their case is not being treated seriously enough.

I was hit, and in that hit I felt all of my jaw just shatter.

A dreadful thing to do, says a judge after a hospice

manager steals money from the most vulnerable.

Who looks after Nathaniel when his parents aren't there?

With the rising cost in our care system, who pays the bill?

Not knowing where he was, was he safe, was he happy?

And training in the tunnels, the First World War soldiers

underground in Wiltshire ahead of the horror that was to come.

Punched in the face so hard one of them lost seven teeth.

Bruised internal organs, dislocated knees and shoulders.

These are the injuries sustained by a group of young gay women

on a night out in Portsmouth in what's believed to have been

Today, there was concern and bitterness, among

some of the victims, that the police were not doing

Recent Government figures show that the number of recorded

There were just over 7,000 such crimes in the past year,

At the same time, research by one gay charity showed that half

of those who reported hate crime said they did not feel

Our reporter Steve Humphrey is in Portsmouth for us.

The group of women were walking home from a local pub when it happened.

They were passing the snooker club just behind me

They say it happened out of the blue and it's shattered

Some of the victims have told us they are unhappy with the way

Bruises, black eyes, teeth knocked out.

In total, five women were hurt as they made their way home along

They were repeatedly punched and kicked by a group

The woman whose teeth were knocked out is amongst the victims

Before I even got to turn round, I was hit and in that hit,

I remember I could feel something had moved in my mouth,

but at that point, I didn't know it was my teeth.

I was just crying and screaming frantically.

The victims think the men who attacked them were Polish

and believe they were targeted because they are lesbians.

They say they are upset with the way Hampshire Police

I don't think they handled it well at all.

We were telling the police who assaulted people

and they were letting them go in taxis.

Neither witnesses got called to give statements.

There was 20 to 30 men involved, I don't understand how only

They didn't even come over and check if I was OK.

We had no photos taken of the injuries.

I've been groped and grabbed as well as the other girls.

We should have had a female officer there.

Hampshire Police say an ambulance was requested by officers as soon

as they arrived at the scene in Kingston Road.

The police have also revealed that four men -

one from Portsmouth and three from London - were arrested

They have been released but remain under investigation.

Well, today Hampshire Police declined an invitation

They say they can't comment on the details because it might

However, they say the victims are in regular contact with the force,

including a lesbian and gay liaison officer.

The force also says: "We have explained our complaints procedure

Robbie De Santos is from the gay rights group Stonewall.

I spoke to him earlier, from our central London studios,

and I started by asking him if homophobic attacks

Unfortunately, six in ten lesbian, gay and bisexual people have

experienced a hate crime in the last three years.

So they're actually quite common, really.

And that increase in the numbers that you talk about,

how much of that is the willingness of victims to report the crime?

We may be seeing a little bit more confidence from victims of hate

crimes, but it's still a drop in the ocean compared

So there's still a lot of work to be done building the confidence of LGBT

And is that because there is so much discrepancy between police forces

So we've seen a lot of police forces engaging really positively

with the local community, going to prides, running campaigns

specifically for them, but that isn't the case everywhere

and we'd like to see equality training across every

force in the country, so that everyone's got a really good

police force who understand LGBT hate crimes.

And what's your message to those victims of crime who don't to report

Please do come forward and report your hate crime

because every crime that's reported means that we can help the police

and the Government take it more seriously.

But we do need the Government to reconsider how hate

We want them to be seen as aggravated offences,

so that they carry a more weighty sentence and so that there's

more that can be done against the perpetrators

"You deserve to feel shameful for what you have done."

The words of a crown court judge today as he sentenced a hospice

finance manager for stealing thousands of pounds

Simon Plummer was given an 18-month suspended sentence

for taking the money from Oakhaven Hospice, in Lymington.

He used it to fund building work on his own house in Sway.

He was trusted to take care of the money at a place

What do you say to the staff and patients at the hospice?

But Simon Plummer abused his position to steal more than ?13,000.

Southampton Crown Court heard that between November 2015 and August

2016 Mr Plummer had diverted cash and cheque donations from being paid

Instead, he used the money to cover the cost of building materials,

The fraud was uncovered when the building company

Travis Perkins began sending invoices to the hospice.

After an internal inquiry, Mr Plummer was dismissed

from Oakhaven and the police were informed.

In court, he pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.

Taking that into account, Judge Francis Burrell gave

Mr Plummer an 18 month suspended sentence and told him...

No-one from Oakhaven wanted to appear on camera

"This has been a very sad and difficult period for us

We have in place a strong set of financial procedures

so the public and all our supporters can be assured that fundraised

income and donations are safe and secure."

And maintaining that goodwill from the public is crucial.

Like other hospices, Oakhaven only gets around 10%

a year through donations, legacies and fundraising.

Mr Plummer has written to staff at the hospice

expressing his remorse, but declined to comment

A long-serving black member of staff, working

for Thames Valley Police, says she felt bullied,

harassed and violated after a black toy monkey was allegedly put

Detective Sergeant Andrew MOTT-OWW is accused of making racist

comments and inappropriate behaviour last year.

Adina Campbell has just sent this report from Thames Valley Police HQ.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Mottau had been supervising a south-east

counter terrorism unit when these racist allegations were made

against him by a black female colleague last year.

At this stage, we can't name the woman for legal reasons

but she was working as a special investigator within his team.

At the time, she was only black person in the department and we

heard both she and Andrew Mottau had known each other for

This afternoon, we've been hearing details about how tea making duties

were divided up between team members last summer.

It's claimed Detective Sergeant Andrew Mottau had introduced

a black toy monkey - about the size of a key ring -

as a prop to signal whose turn it was to make tea and coffee.

After returning to work following leave, the black

investigator said on her first day back to work last August,

without any explanation, the toy had been placed on her desk.

Speaking in front of the hearing panel this afternoon she said...

"I'm a black person, serving the public.

I was shocked and offended to see a black money on my desk.

He was jeering me and harassing me about the black monkey.

I felt violated and grabbed my fags and walked out.

I felt offended by it and some members of my team

This gross misconduct hearing will continue

here at Thames Valley Police headquarters in Kidlington

If these allegations are found to be true,

Detective Sergeant Andrew Mottau could lose his job.

It's been described as a ticking time-bomb inside our care system.

A new report, published by Healthwatch in West Berkshire,

reveals the failure of many councils to put adequate plans in place

to look after vulnerable people with learning difficulties,

when their carers can no longer look after them.

As Nikki Mitchell reports, many parents are terrified

about what will happen to their children,

Severe autism means Nathanial is more like a two-year-old

He's a big baby and he's lovely, but we've had a toddler for 18 years

But what are the next 18 years and the 18 years after that?

Our social care system has neither the time or the money to plan

for what should happen when parents and carers can care no longer.

If I suddenly had to go into hospital long-term or god

forbid anything else happened, he could just be whizzed from this

safe environment and put anywhere with strangers.

He's not capable of communicating his displeasure, his needs,

We need an action committee formed of key professionals,

the voluntary sector, the parents and carers,

to actually look at potential solutions, and who knows, perhaps

This is a national problem, it's not just West Berkshire.

This piece of land is a desolate reminder of a supported living

The sort of community 45-year-old Karen Winters may have been able

to move into when her parents could no longer cope.

We wanted to be around to move her into something that...

To support her while she did the move.

The council just won't entertain anything other

The plain fact is that there is less accommodation

than the number of people we would like to provide for it.

And, therefore, perhaps we do step in rather later than some

We are hoping to put a proposal towards the council,

which will help to increase our capacity, and that would enable us

to perhaps step in a little earlier than we do.

The distress, for me, would be acute, not knowing

where he was, was he safe, was he happy?

Mummy! Yes!

An off-duty police sergeant will have to pay more than ?1600

after he head-butted a woman whilst wearing a crash

helmet during a row at a petrol station in Hampshire.

Worthing Magistrates heard Sergeant David Sanderson became

involved in an altercation on the forecourt, at

Chandler's Ford, over the woman's alleged use of a mobile phone.

He assaulted her, leaving her with a lump on the head.

He was fined more than ?800,000 plus costs and compensation,

If you want to know what the weather will be like this week stay with us.

I will look ahead to the weather for the rest of this week, we have got

an arctic blast were a couple of days but becoming less cold towards

the end of the week. Sussex Police still need

to do more to recognise the crime of stalking,

according to the county's Police It's emerged that more

than 200 people reported An investigation is already

underway into the force's treatment of Shana Grice,

a young woman who was killed by a stalker last summer.

John Young reports. Shana Grice is the name that

haunts Sussex Police. More than five times she told them

that Michael Lane was stalking her, but on one occasion they told her

she was wasting their time. Today, the county's Police

and Crime Commissioner admitted to the BBC that the forces' respond

to stalking in general, as she put it, wasn't

what it should be. I think it's very difficult

for police officers to understand in the first instance the severity

of the crime of stalking, because often incidents are reported

in isolation and what we want to see is police officers actually

joining up the dots and understanding that this

is about a pattern of abuse. So in a training centre

in Worthing today, officers Anything that sounds

concerning to you. The training, organised by a victim

of stalking herself, who now runs courses

to raise awareness. It's extremely encouraging

and they are engaging well with us, and that's the whole point

of what we're doing. We need to increase

the communication between all the services and to get

people to thoroughly There's plenty of evidence

it is a real problem. This man is pretending to be

a hospital doctor to get A stash of weapons was

later found in his van. The singer, Lily Allen,

helped campaigners by talking publicly about the moment a man

who'd harrassed her for seven years broke into her bedroom

when she slept. It's far too frequent that we hear

victims of stalking say to us that they've reported to the police

but they have been dismissed. The police have said they'll come

back when he does something or he may just go away or that

doesn't sound very serious. The research we've released this

week really does underline how The research has also led

to a list of tell tale signs from the obvious, perhaps,

hanging around outside a house, to the more bizarre -

rearranging furniture in a victim's garden,

or falsely reporting a victim to social services

for poor parenting. Victims that come forward

will often talk about, "I've asked them to stop

and told them no," therefore And I think that's a message

I would like to get across today is that actually be really clear

about what is wanted and unwanted. And if you do, Sussex Police

are now promising we will Time for sport now. You might

remember if you are watching on Friday, we were all excited as far

as Brighton and Hove Albion were concerned. They didn't do it. They

haven't done it yet. It is the waiting game. It will be like that

until the hopefully eventually live that title. The need to beat Norwich

to win the title but they had bad luck. Two own goals of the

goalkeeper and know they are relying on Newcastle not to do them a favour

tonight. Onto football, and after failing

to beat Norwich on Friday, Brighton now await to see

if Newcastle slip up If they lose, Chris Hughton's side

will be crowned Champions. We will have an update on our late

news this evening. While in the Premier League,

it was a successful weekend for Bournemouth which is where

we begin our goals round-up. 96 seconds is all it took

Joshua King to set the tone here. And in truth, the game

was all but over after 20 minutes. Benick Afobe doubled the lead,

before ex-Saint Gaston Ramirez turned sinner,

Boro soon down to ten. Marc Pugh's curling

effort made it 3-0, before Charlie Daniels

danced his way through the Boro We got where we got last year,

we want to finish high, we want to try and get

in the top half if we can. But it's such a difficult

league to get results in. We're not taking

anything for granted. Two goals from Assombalonga helped

Forest race into a 3-0 lead. And all but end Reading's

automatic promotion hopes. Yann Kermorgant scored

a brace of his own late-on, but it was too little too late

for the Royals who look Conor McAleney scored twice

as Oxford stunned promotion chasing The U's, who are just out

of play-off contention, made it 3-0 Not the way MK Dons wanted to sign

off their home campaign. Champions Sheffield United

celebrated in style with a 3-0 win. Portsmouth celebrated

their promotion from League Two A first-half strike from Karl Baker

and a superb free-kick from Kai Naismith eased

Pompey to victory. They just keep rolling on, don't

Luke List? On to cricket and Sussex have signed

West Indian pace bowler While in the County

Championship, Hampshire's bowlers were frustrated

by Yorkshire's Garry Ballance who batted for nearly eight hours

on his way to a double century While, at Edgbaston, Surrey also had

to settle for a draw, Tom Curran took 8 wickets,

but Ian Bell's knock of 99 ensured A fundraising appeal for Surrey

teenage driver Billy Monger has reached nearly three quarters

of a million pounds. The money raised is to help

Billy's rehabilitation, following his double leg

amputation last week. Fellow drivers, who carried stickers

of support during racing, will now join friends and family

at a fundraising event called Walk For Billy around

the circuit of Thruxton race track during the British Touring Car

Championships next month. Billy himself has

vowed to drive again. Surrey Scorchers are

through to the play-offs 18 points off the bench

for Gabriel McCray helped Scorchers to a 93-70 win over Plymouth

Raiders. They'll now play Leicester

Riders over two legs. The first will be streamed live

on the BBC Sport website on Friday. Isle of Wight athlete

Kelly Sotherton is set to be upgraded to her third

Olympic bronze medal. Sotherton who originally finished

fifth in the heptathlon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,

now climbs to third after a second athlete was disqualified for testing

positive for steroids. Congratulations to the thousands of

runners who took part in the Southampton and London marathons

yesterday. The first full marathon in the city for 30 years was won by

David Coke. It is his first ever marathon, not a bad start. He got

round in just under two hours and 14 minutes. Fabulous. Andy, for errors.

Fantastic effort. Also raising money for charity and as all those runners

at Southampton did as well. We saw one athlete helping and other in the

London Marathon, which was lovely. It was the novel "Birdsong",

by Sebastian Faulks, which most notably gave an insight

into the horrors of tunnel Well, now, a network

of First World War tunnels has been discovered -

NOT in France but on Ministry The tunnels were part

of an army training ground, used to get men ready to fight

in and under the trenches They were found on land set aside

for hundreds of new homes Larkhill, a building site today,

but home to an army secret This is the extraordinary system

of tunnels and trenches Built in 1917 to recreate

an entire battlefield, this was the Somme on Salisbury

Plain. Archaeologists say this was as close

as it came to warfare before troops They were using live ammunition,

they were training 24 hours a day on occasions in some

pretty hideous conditions, particularly in '16 and '17,

when the brutal winter kicked in. And this was the brutality

of the First World War the training tunnels and trenches

were designed to recreate. Thousands of troops passed

through Larkhill to get Dozens were killed through

accidents and exposure. Special computer mapping

shows the extent of The largest system of its kind

anywhere in Britain. In fact, they found around 8km

of tunnels and trenches here, and the emphasis across this whole

landscape was realism, right down to digging out the chalk

- the same kind of rock they encountered at the Battle

of the Somme. Some soldiers left their mark

on the walls here before Two sides facing off

across No Man's Land... Historians say military commanders

learned from earlier mistakes They're taking guys

who are no more soldiers than you or I and they put

them into a completely They have to learn how

to live in it, fight in it, survive in it, repair it,

build it, eat, drink, live, sleep. 450 homes will soon be

built here for troops The many tunnels and trenches,

with their wooden struts World One War from Wiltshire

to the Western Front. When you see something like that, it

brings it home to you. It is extraordinary. It is incredible what

those men went through. You have the weather for the whole week. So down

comfortably, we are about to begin. Some cool weather but warming up a

touch towards the end of the week. A beautiful start to

the day at Avon Beach. Some rays of sunshine too,

at Blandford in Dorset. And there may have been

grey skies in Farmoor, but the blossom certainly cheered up

this scene from Anthony Morris. We did have quite cloudy conditions

through much of the day, starting to see some outbreaks of rain through

the afternoon and we are continuing to see those through this evening.

We are turning cold for a little spell and we could see one or two

wintry showers, but Thursday and Friday we start to see those

temperatures going back up again. Overnight tonight, the cloud and the

fragmented rain gradually things southwards. By 10pm, clear of any

wet weather and clear spells overhead. We are into the Arctic air

mass, temperatures close to freezing in many parts, we will spot could be

a touch below. A wide spread frosty start the day first thing on Tuesday

morning. A bright start with some good sunny spells to get the day

going. The cloud will start to bubble up through the afternoon.

Given some good sunshine, highs of around 11 or 12 degrees. Sheriff

starter arrived through tomorrow afternoon and it looks as we go into

the latter part of the afternoon, they will become heavier and more

wintry, seeing some sleet, hail, possibly a rumble of thunder. They

do tend to easily through the course of tomorrow night, we are seeing

once again dry conditions and clear spells, a return to those frosty

conditions as temperatures near freezing. As we start the day on

Wednesday, a similar picture, some good brightness, feeling rather

fresh, showers earlier in the day but the -- they could be on the

wintry side. Hail, sleet and thunder possible. Top temperatures of 1112.

Thursday, milder conditions. We have a weather front thinking favoured

bringing extra cloud to the chorus every day. Patchy light rain towards

the end of the day, meant to Friday it looks as though we will see a

cloudy day in the most part, limited brightness but one or two showers

are possible. Look ahead to next weekend, quite cloudy, we will see

some good dry weather but the odd shower here and there.

That's it from us this evening. Do you remember Tracy Edwards and her

crew? We've got some news tomorrow about that. Thanks for watching,

goodbye. Good night. There are times in the life

of a nation when the choices we make define

the character of our country, times when people stand up

and demand real, significant change. we have the chance to shape

a brighter future for Britain and I believe we have the vision

and the plan to do it. That is why I have set out

my plan for Britain. It is a plan to make the most

of the opportunities ahead -