17/01/2017 Spotlight

A Plymouth Argyle footballer's been branded a rapist and ordered

to pay his victim a hundred thousand pounds in damages.

David Goodwillie hasn't been convicted in a criminal court,

but in a civil case, the judge said he accepted evidence

that the woman in question had been too drunk to give consent.

Preparations at home Park for tomorrow's FA Cup

But this player will not be starting.

David Goodwillie, who began his career at Dundee United.

It was there that Denise Clegg claimed he and his team-mate

They were sued and this morning a judge at the Court of Session

in Edinburgh ruled in her favour and order the footballers to pay

It raises questions about why there was no criminal prosecution.

If the Crown are going to take a criminal case forward they must

ask, have we have evidence it approved to a jury beyond reasonable

It is not the same question being asked in the two cases.

Experts say it could lead to far more victims of rape coming forward.

Most rapes reported to the police never make it to court.

That can be devastating to the person who was

It is the first civil case in living memory and people will see this case

I think there another way I can try and get justice and validation

that what happened to me was raped and it was wrong.

In a statement, Plymouth Argyle said it noted the judgment and added

that they are way to the full report which they said they will consider

Until such time, David Goodwillie will not be selected to play

A celebrity taxidermist from Devon who sold pickled lizards

and the heads of endangered monkeys online has been jailed.

42-year-old Daniel Stocks from Kingskerswell was discovered

when customs intercepted a package from America.

This industrial building in Newton Abbot is where

Daniel Stocks ran his business using monkey skulls to create

The National Crime Agency investigation revealed he had been

making up to ?20,000 a month trading in leopard cats, languor and green

He even persuaded Paignton Zoo to give him specimens of animals

which had died and been kept for research.

The zoo says it did it in good faith but realised now it was naive.

The court also heard he had tried to buy bat penises

Stocks' work includes props for films and television.

The 42-year-old from Kingskerswell has been jailed for six months

More than five thousand operations in the south west were cancelled

on the day they were due to be carried out last year.

NHS England says the numbers are relatively low, but a BBC

investigation as part of 'Inside the NHS' coverage,

found the cancellations had risen by a third over five years.

Here's our health correspondent, Jenny Walrond.

For Barry Neil, just getting around is a daily struggle.

He was born with a rare debilitating condition.

The pain in his leg was so bad, he decided to have it amputated.

His operation was cancelled three times.

It was painful, obviously I wanted to get rid of the pain.

I just take it as it comes, you know?

I just sit back and think, just get on with it.

Plymouth Hospital's NHS Trust said it is a difficult decision to cancel

any patient's operation and that it recognises the inconvenience

It said the hospital had faced unprecedented and sustained

And Barry's experience is not unique.

Last year, more than 5,000 operations were cancelled

And that figure has risen by around 30%.

And all of those cancellations were for non-clinical reasons.

Things like they lack of beds, of staff, admin error

When we have a population increasing in number whose conditions

are increasing in complexity, and we have more treatments we can

offer those patients, there does need to be more money put

into the health service so that we can deliver that.

NHS England says the level of cancellations remains low at just

1% out of the millions of operations performed each year.

While the experience can be frustrating and upsetting,

There's no two ways about it, they just cannot manage

with the influx of people that are wanting beds or whatever.

And throughout this week we'll look at the pressures on other parts

of the health services here in the South West.

On Thursday some of the region's key NHS decision

If you have a question or comment for them,

you can send them in to us, via email, Facebook and Twitter.

A 46-year-old man has appeared at Exeter Magistrates Court charged

It follows a stabbing in Exeter on Sunday,

in which a 30-year-old man suffered non-life-threatening

The accused has been remanded in custody to appear at Crown Court

A dead dolphin that washed up on a beach near Newquay had injuries

that could have been caused by a shark according to marine

A spokesman for the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme

said "the damage is potentially consistent with shark bite".

There's growing pressure on the Government to pick up

the full bill for a counter terrorism operation in Devon

More than one million pounds was spent on searches of woodland,

and guarding the area, near Exeter, last year.

The amount is the equivalent to two thousand eight

hundred days of policing, but the local force has been left

The Princess Royal has been visiting Devon today.

Princess Anne opened a 50 metre Olympic legacy swimming pool

Earlier she visited the Plymouth Highbury Trust,

which helps people with learning disabilities, to mark

A Dorset charity which provides support for very young children

with special needs is facing closure after twenty-five years.

The Dorchester Opportunity Group helps toddlers who've been referred

Sunny will have to go to a mainstream preschool.

We would be really worried about sending him off into the big

wide world without the support and care of the group.

Sunny loves coming here and playing with his friends.

Doctors think he has autism but because of his age cannot be sure.

He has also been diagnosed with communication problems.

He gets speech and language therapy here, he gets monitored every week,

we can work with him and make sure he progresses in the correct way

But the future of the group is in question after a national

The group here has got over ?280,000 from the National Lottery's big

lottery fund but the national lottery says demand is high

and those grants cannot be relied on as a continuous source of income

The group is not solely dependent on its lottery grant.

It also receives ?70,000 which comes from the county council

Losing ?40,000 a year could be catastrophic.

The worst case is we will close because it is hard to find ?40,000

from small charitable fetes, car-boot sales.

That does not generate enough to bridge that gap.

The group here has been rated outstanding by Ofsted

and with many of the children referred by the NHS,

the charity applied to the health service for extra funding

You know, it is tough on them as well and we understand that

but we do not want to stop what we're doing.

If the charity does not get the funds it needs,

it could close within the year, meaning this would be the last

Time now for a look at the weather. David has the forecast. This week we

have moved into a quiet spell of weather, an area of high pressure in

charge, brighter tomorrow, a better chance of sunshine. Still quite cold

because the air is coming from the east and we have high pressure

moving across southern parts over the next two days keeping us

settled. And also keeping the easterly winds going which have

formed frost across the south-east. Some clear sky will move along the

English Channel coast tonight so the most likely place for frost will be

the far south-east of Devon and the southern half of Dorset where skies

are clearing. A fair cover of cloud, temperatures not falling below three

or 5 degrees. Tomorrow, more sunshine, particularly for Cornwall

and South Devon and Dorset. Seven, eight or 9 degrees and the wind

comes from the east. Thursday, similar, Misty in places, the cloud

comes and goes but the chance for breaks in the cloud allowing

sunshine to come through but it stays cold and including the start

of the weekend but mainly dry. That's all the Spotlight news

and weather for now - from all of us here

- good night. from time to time. Staying settled

still. Nick has the national forecast this evening.

Hello. If you are watching the football earlier it turned out to be

an evening for football fans in Lincolnshire. This is how it looked

at the start of the day. No idea whether this weather watcher is a

football fan, it's a fan of weather that matters here. All sorts of

weather, from 13 in Aberdeenshire to two, despite the sunshine in Kent. I

wonder if this six in the cloud across the Midlands into northern

England and parts of Wales felt colder, particularly in these misty

and foggy conditions in this weather watcher view. Some drizzly rain

around at times still from the thicker cloud into parts of England

and Wales overnight, hill fog too. Cloud for Scotland and Northern

Ireland, although a few breaks in eastern Scotland and close to

freezing, but