14/02/2017 South Today

Hello and welcome to South Today, I'm Laura Trant.

The top stories this evening: Topshop says it's "deeply saddened"

by the "horrific" accident which killed a ten-year-old boy

999 control centre staff at an Ambulance Trust,

left suicidal by a climate of fear, say union leaders.

of online dating from a woman who lost thousands.

Investigators have spent the day at the Reading branch

of Topshop following the death of a ten-year-old boy.

He suffered fatal head injuries in an incident

The death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious.

David Allard is at the Oracle shopping centre tonight.

Laura, tonight, messages of support and sympathy have been offered

to the family of ten-year-old Kayden Reddick.

We understand he's the boy who died following an accident in Topshop

on the upper floor of the Oracle Shopping Centre here.

The exact circumstances of what happened are still unclear,

though we know it involved some sort of store display barrier.

Today shoppers spoke of their shock and sadness

and Kayden's family paid tribute to him.

This is Kaden Reddick, who was said to have been

on the first day of his half-term holiday when the accident happened.

One relative was quoted as saying "He made me laugh, and smile."

These pictures show it shuttered, with security guards outside.

Inside, staff and police officers have been working

Emergency services were called to the Oracle yesterday afternoon

after reports of a ten-year-old boy being injured.

The police now say the incident involved what they call

Kaden was taken to the Royal Berkshire

hospital with serious head injuries and later died.

"The Topshop Board, together with thousands of staff are deeply

"saddened by the horrific accident that occurred in our Reading

"All our thoughts are very much with the family

"We are thoroughly investigating all the events surrounding this

Taking place in a shop inside a mall, this

was an extremely rare incident, one that's touched people

here as Kaden's family come to terms with their grief.

Union leaders representing 999 call handlers at

South East Coast Ambulance Service, which covers Sussex,

Surrey and North East Hampshire, are claiming that horrific acts

of staff bullying have been covered up.

The report was completed in May last year, but has now been leaked

It's said to describe a "climate of fear" with two call

handlers attempting suicide because of the abuse.

Behind these walls was a workforce subjected to a culture of fear,

according to reports carried out after four staff members complained

999 call operators suffered bullying, coercion and

Looking at some of the findings in this report,

I am beyond disappointed, I am very angry.

There will be serious questions to ask if

A culture of favouritism and nepotism

meant that some were threatened with the sack.

The trust declined an interview, but in

a statement described these as

historical allegations that had either been dealt with or had no

evidence to back them up, but they did say they take bullying

and harassment very seriously and are

working hard to address this area of concern.

The union which represents call handlers says that staff who

were responsible are still in place and more must be done.

They are still taking prime positions within the trust, so

I think that as an outright lie by the trust and if they have been

dealt with, but then had been dealt with behind closed doors.

It is very much a boys' club and these members are

the leading lights in the boys' club.

The need to be removed from the organisation.

It is hardly the first scandal to hit the trust.

It was alleged that ambulances were delayed

in a deliberate tactic to

A new chief executive has been appointed but has not yet

He will have a lot on his plate when he arrives.

A soldier's been charged with two counts of causing death

by dangerous driving after a car crash which killed two teenage

girls while they were out running in Aldershot.

16-year-old Stacey Burrows and 17-year-old Lucy Pigott died

after the collision on Queen's Avenue in early November.

24-year-old Michael Casey from North London has been bailed

and will appear before magistrates in Basingstoke next month.

The communications giant Motorola Solutions,

which has its European headquarters in Basingstoke - IS relocating

Around 300 people are currently employed at the site.

The company isn't the first high profile name to move

on from the town in recent years - the chinese technology firm

along with energy giant SSE last year.

They say love is blind - and that's perhaps what internet

Hampshire Police have chosen Valentine's Day to launch a campaign

about the dangers that online dating can sometimes pose.

A victim reports dating fraud every three hours to the police.

The average victim is 49 years old and loses ten thousand pounds.

And it typically takes 30 days from first contact for the victim

Today a victim of online dating fraud is sharing her experiences

of how she lost thousands of pounds and ended up with a conviction

Our Home Affairs Correspondent Emma Vardy has the story.

Very early on he was telling me how much he loved me.

A love story which became a nightmare.

When Jenny met a man online, he quickly gained her affections.

But later, he began asking for help to transfer money

I would go to maybe three different branches

and withdraw the funds and

deposit it into the other bank accounts.

Over three years, she lost more than ?20,000

of her own cash, and was convicted of money

And she has made this film with Hampshire Police to warn others.

I didn't think anything like this could happen to me.

The man who conned her has never been tracked down.

Police say a quarter of all so-called romance frauds

But often the fraudsters are operating from abroad,

and can be scamming hundreds of people online at once.

This type of scam can be so powerful, because they prey

on a victim's deepest desires and their longing for love.

Be aware of a few things, such as declarations of undying love

The number of people defrauded in the UK by online dating scams

They say something that they are generally not the person they say

they are. You cannot trust people if you know them. You'll hear more

about it, so be cautious. You can write anything you like and say

anything you want, but until you see them, it is different.

Now, on Valentine's Day, police are warning potential victims,

because the fraudsters themselves will very rarely be caught.

Peace talks between Southern Railway and the RMT union ended this

28 days of strikes have been held over the last

year in the dispute over the role of conductors.

The drivers' union, Aslef, has done a deal with the company

to modernise working practices and is balloting its members.

Onto football and in the Championship,

Brighton missed the chance to go top of the Championship

as they were held at home by Ipswich Town - one-all there.

as Reading came from behind to beat Brentford 3-2 and boost

Meanwhile in League Two, Portsmouth beat Blackpool 2-nil.

That's all from the South Today news team this evening.

We're back tomorrow with bulletins in BBC Breakfast and there's more

Time for our regional weather forecast now.

Quite murky tonight. A good deal of cloud and it will be mild. Tonight,

low cloud, mist and fog developing during the night and reducing

visibility. Lots of 7-8 C temperatures to start tomorrow. Mist

and fog may be slow to lift. A dry start and a bit fragmented rain

moving from the. Heavy at times, a bit of thunder. Temperatures will

reach 9-11 C. The rain will clear tomorrow night. Then, it is an

improving picture. A cloudy start Thursday, but through the day, the

cloud will break up with high-pressure dominating. Decent

sunny spells in the afternoon and into the evening. That high pressure

stays through Friday. Thursday Friday quite similar. Highs of

10-11 C. Cloudy to start each day, but sunny spells in the afternoon.

Cloudy tomorrow, rain at times, but heavy enough at times to produce

them be. Thursday cloudy, but drying weather into the weekend. A bit of

fog around to watch out for. Jon Hammond with the national forecast

now. Good evening. There is some rain in

the forecast but not a lot. Plenty of dry weather to look forward to as

we head to the weekend. Cloud delivering some rain but plenty of

spaces in between, hence my optimism. One of these blobs of

cloud is producing dampness right now. We could see a glancing blow

across the far south-east through the early hours and later some rain

arriving across the far south-west. In between some hill fog overnight,

not desperately cold, for most a touch of frost across the northern

Glens of Scotland. At the other end of the UK some wet weather first

thing for breakfast, pushing through Devon and Cornwall into South Wales.

It won't hang around. Things will brighten up later in the day. Ahead