:00:00. > :00:00.Hello and welcome to South Today, I'm Anjana Gadgil.
:00:07. > :00:13.The top stories this evening: No more going on a term time holiday -
:00:14. > :00:17.the ramifications as an Isle of Wight
:00:18. > :00:19.father loses his case at the Supreme Court.
:00:20. > :00:23.anguish, as the man who climbed into his daughter's bed is found not
:00:24. > :00:26.And veterans reunited as one of the most terrifying weapons
:00:27. > :00:40.of the Second World War goes on display in Dorset.
:00:41. > :00:42.It's a case with ramifications for parents across the country.
:00:43. > :00:45.Isle of Wight father, Jon Platt, lost his legal challenge
:00:46. > :00:47.today against a fine for taking his daughter on an
:00:48. > :01:09.The Supreme Court ruled against Mr Platt, who had won
:01:10. > :01:11.earlier legal battles against what started as a ?60 fine.
:01:12. > :01:14.in a case brought by the Isle of Wight Council.
:01:15. > :01:16.It means, after two years, the case will now be returned
:01:17. > :01:22.The Isle of Wight has long been on the map as a holiday destination
:01:23. > :01:25.but in the last two years, it is the foreign holiday plans
:01:26. > :01:27.of one island family which have hit the headlines.
:01:28. > :01:30.In 2015, Jon Platt refused to pay a fine for taking his daughter
:01:31. > :01:33.to Florida during term time, winning his case at the Magistrates
:01:34. > :01:35.and High Court, arguing despite the holiday her overall
:01:36. > :01:37.attendance was regular, as required by the law.
:01:38. > :01:40.I looked at the legislation and it said children must attend frequently
:01:41. > :01:42.and I made the decision that my child had done.
:01:43. > :01:45.And the one decision I made was not to pay that penalty notice
:01:46. > :01:47.and I was taken to court and everything that's happened
:01:48. > :01:52.His company normally handles PPI claims but since the publicity over
:01:53. > :01:54.the case they have had hundreds of cases from parents
:01:55. > :01:58.Crowdfunded money has successfully been used to challenge fines
:01:59. > :02:02.for term time holidays around the country.
:02:03. > :02:07.I was shocked at how many people it has affected.
:02:08. > :02:11.And the situations people are in where they are being refused
:02:12. > :02:18.time off for their children and the reasons to me seem
:02:19. > :02:23.Now the process of overturning fines has been stopped in its tracks.
:02:24. > :02:26.The Supreme Court ruled today regular attendance means
:02:27. > :02:29.in accordance with school rules, meaning a good overall
:02:30. > :02:34.attendance is not a defence for unauthorised absence.
:02:35. > :02:36.Jon Platt said it was a shocking decision.
:02:37. > :02:39.The issue is no longer, if it ever was, about turn time holiday.
:02:40. > :02:42.It is the state taking the right of parents away when it
:02:43. > :02:47.comes to making decisions about their children.
:02:48. > :02:54.You cannot take your child away from school without permission.
:02:55. > :02:56.You can't say it is all right if you attend 95%
:02:57. > :03:03.Take a child away from school for a day and you risk
:03:04. > :03:08.The council said the judge provided clarity for what constitutes regular
:03:09. > :03:14.It was echoed by the Department for Education, saying that it
:03:15. > :03:20.But on the island there is much support for the local father
:03:21. > :03:28.The prices that tourist companies charge you for taking kids on school
:03:29. > :03:36.As long as you're not doing it every week, take them,
:03:37. > :03:40.There should be a certain amount of time that parents are allowed
:03:41. > :03:44.Jon Platt must go back to the Magistrates Court.
:03:45. > :03:56.If convicted he faces a ?1000 fine and a criminal record.
:03:57. > :03:58.Teaching unions applauded the Supreme Court's decision -
:03:59. > :04:02.one local member told us the focus now has to be on making holidays
:04:03. > :04:07.And speaking a few hours after the verdict, Jon Platt said
:04:08. > :04:11.he stood by his decision to take his daughter out of school.
:04:12. > :04:14.Taking your children on a family holiday correlates positively
:04:15. > :04:23.If every absence had the same negative impact
:04:24. > :04:30.on children's education, that would justify never taking,
:04:31. > :04:33.the school never taking them to a museum or a library.
:04:34. > :04:36.All absences are not the same, and the impact that they have
:04:37. > :04:38.on children's attainment is not the same.
:04:39. > :04:40.And family holidays, the DfE research shows,
:04:41. > :04:43.children with up to 20 days' absence do better than children with none.
:04:44. > :04:47.It's an average 60% price rise in holidays during school holidays.
:04:48. > :04:51.This is really where we think the focus of this
:04:52. > :04:55.To regulate the holiday companies and put something in place
:04:56. > :04:58.Because it's punishing working families trying
:04:59. > :05:04.to take their children on what are very valuable holidays.
:05:05. > :05:10.A man who broke into a house in Weymouth and climbed into bed
:05:11. > :05:13.with a six-year-old girl has been found not guilty of sexually
:05:14. > :05:17.Jervaise Kevin Jones was asleep in the bed when police arrived.
:05:18. > :05:19.He maintained throughout that he had not interfered with the girl.
:05:20. > :05:26.The case centred on the events that took place early one morning
:05:27. > :05:28.in a terraced house in Weymouth last October.
:05:29. > :05:31.In court there was no dispute that the 26-year-old
:05:32. > :05:34.Jervaise Kevin Jones had broken into a house and got
:05:35. > :05:40.The question at the heart of the trial was whether he had
:05:41. > :05:45.Today, after deliberating for almost four hours the jury found him not
:05:46. > :05:49.guilty of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13 and not
:05:50. > :05:54.guilty of trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offence.
:05:55. > :05:58.For legal reasons the girl and her family cannot be identified.
:05:59. > :06:01.Her father spoke to us after hearing the not guilty verdict.
:06:02. > :06:05.His words are spoken by a BBC journalist.
:06:06. > :06:13.It's something we're feeling very deeply.
:06:14. > :06:16.It's not something that's going to go away.
:06:17. > :06:22.The court was told police found Jervaise Jones asleep
:06:23. > :06:25.and naked from the waist down when they arrived at the house.
:06:26. > :06:28.He had been out drinking in Weymouth and said he had no recollection
:06:29. > :06:34.The jury heard he had a series of previous convictions for theft,
:06:35. > :06:40.Defence barrister Nick Robinson said Mr Jones had not committed any
:06:41. > :06:47.He told the jury it was remarkable that none of Mr Jones's DNA
:06:48. > :06:54.Next Monday, in a separate and unrelated case, he is due to be
:06:55. > :06:57.sentenced for drug offences and an assault
:06:58. > :07:05.One person has been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking
:07:06. > :07:08.and six men have been arrested on suspicion of being illegal
:07:09. > :07:12.entrants following an incident on the M27 in Hampshire.
:07:13. > :07:19.Police were called to junction two near Cadnam at 6:20 tonight.
:07:20. > :07:22.It was one of the most terrifying weapons of the Second World War.
:07:23. > :07:23.And today an exhibition opened in Dorset featuring
:07:24. > :07:27.the German Tiger Tank and the people who manned them.
:07:28. > :07:29.To mark the event, four veterans from that conflict,
:07:30. > :07:33.two German and two British, had an extraordinary meeting.
:07:34. > :07:43.It is wonderful we can meet like this 70 years afterwards.
:07:44. > :07:54.The men here today know the Tiger Tank inside and out.
:07:55. > :07:56.He drove one with the seventh Panzer division.
:07:57. > :07:58.Ernest fought against them after D-Day.
:07:59. > :08:00.When we heard it on the radio, there was a Tiger around,
:08:01. > :08:06.TRANSLATION: It was a very impressive tank.
:08:07. > :08:08.Much more advanced than other designs.
:08:09. > :08:14.It was the bees knees when it came to technology.
:08:15. > :08:18.Such was the fear of the Tiger in Dorset,
:08:19. > :08:21.Britain developed a special version of the American Sherman tank,
:08:22. > :08:25.squeezing in an extra powerful British gun into the turret.
:08:26. > :08:28.Ken helped to accrue one of the so-called Sherman Fireflys.
:08:29. > :08:34.I was in action when one of the Fireflys knocked out three
:08:35. > :08:47.The man in the Tiger Tank was still in danger.
:08:48. > :08:50.TRANSLATION: Even in a Tiger you always had fear for your life.
:08:51. > :08:58.Those who said they were not frightened were lying.
:08:59. > :09:03.For these men, who knew it on the battlefield,
:09:04. > :09:10.It was a secret guilt of those who had been in the front line
:09:11. > :09:15.and therefore knew that when a man was surrendering, you were probably
:09:16. > :09:20.responsible for doing to his comrades what he had been
:09:21. > :09:25.TRANSLATION: It is a shame we could not have this
:09:26. > :09:37.That's all from the South Today news team this evening.
:09:38. > :09:41.We're back tomorrow with bulletins in BBC Breakfast and there's more
:09:42. > :09:44.Here is our regional weather forecast.
:09:45. > :09:50.Are we actually going to get the warmest weather at the weekend this
:09:51. > :09:54.week? We certainly are. Temperatures are on the up, even into the 20s by
:09:55. > :09:57.Sunday. That'll be the warmest day of the week. Tonight, quite chilly
:09:58. > :10:03.with clear skies and fairly light winds. Last temperatures dropped to
:10:04. > :10:07.just below 1 degrees in Dorset, but tonight we are expecting very
:10:08. > :10:11.similar temperatures. These are temperatures in urban areas. It will
:10:12. > :10:14.feel chilly in the countryside first thing tomorrow morning. Plenty of
:10:15. > :10:18.sunshine throughout the day, the wind will be light and variable and
:10:19. > :10:22.through the afternoon we could see temperatures reach a high of around
:10:23. > :10:26.15, maybe 16 Celsius, similar to what we had today. But the wind will
:10:27. > :10:29.be slightly lighter, particularly in the land. That is where we will have
:10:30. > :10:33.saw Mr Bridges. Cooler on the coast with the sea breeze and three Isle
:10:34. > :10:38.of Wight as well. Tomorrow night, the cloud increases in places, but
:10:39. > :10:42.we're mostly looking at clear skies. High-pressure pulls away towards the
:10:43. > :10:46.near continent through Saturday. That means we will draw in some warm
:10:47. > :10:50.out coming from Spain and through France. The southerly breeze will
:10:51. > :10:53.make it feel very warm through Saturday afternoon. More so on
:10:54. > :10:59.Sunday, because Sunday because he temperatures reached 20, maybe 20 to
:11:00. > :11:00.Celsius. Coastal stretches will be cooler with the increasing breeze on
:11:01. > :11:01.Sunday. to rise into the weekend. We'll see
:11:02. > :11:11.22 Celsius on Sunday. Hello. There was some warm sunshine
:11:12. > :11:16.around today, but it's set to get even warmer this weekend. 18 Celsius
:11:17. > :11:19.in London this afternoon. This was the scene in Chiswick, much quieter
:11:20. > :11:23.than it was on Sunday for the boat race. Under the cloud for example
:11:24. > :11:27.here in Cumbria, temperatures struggled to make double figures.
:11:28. > :11:31.Through the night we're going to hang onto a lot of cloud across
:11:32. > :11:33.north-west England, North Wales, Northern Ireland and western
:11:34. > :11:37.Scotland, where there will be a bit of drizzle on the breeze. Zero skies
:11:38. > :11:39.across many southern and eastern parts of England, together with