24/03/2017 Spotlight

Good evening. for the news where you are.

The former Royal Marine from Somerset, who shot dead

a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan, will have to wait

a bit longer to hear if he'll be freed from prison.

Alexander Blackman's murder conviction has already been

But today a decision on his new sentence was deferred.

Here's our Somerset correspondent Clinton Rogers.

To cheers from waiting supporters, Alexander Blackman's wife arrived

at the High Court full of hope that her husband might be

Two hours later, she left disappointed but philosophical.

We are obviously disappointed not to have a decision today

but we understand that the judges wish to consider this important

We will patiently await their ruling.

The same five judges that ten days ago reduced Blackman's conviction

from murder to manslaughter say they need until next Tuesday

He's already served three and half years of an eight-year

sentence for murder imposed by the original court martial.

But this case has now provoked calls for the whole court-martial

Members of the Armed Forces should not be disadvantaged...

In the House of Lords, Liberal Democrat peer Lord Burnett,

himself a former Royal Marine, said the system was flawed and more

A simple majority at a court-martial can convict a person.

In Sergeant Blackman's case, five of the panel found him guilty

That ratio would be insufficient to convict

And a former naval commander and one-time head of the UK

Royal Marines reserves has said important lessons need to be learned

from the Blackman case, not least to consider the mental

health of military men involved in such cases

Where there are serious charges of this nature,

where the accused have been involved in operational combat situations,

it should be mandatory that the mental health factors

are taken into account at the first opportunity.

Today at the Appeal Court Blackman's QC said the former Royal Marine

was the last casualties of a failed war and he should be

A look at some of the other stories making the news tonight...

A special tax should be ring fenced and used solely to pay for the NHS,

according to the Devon MP and Commons Health Committee

She says National Insurance should be used specifically to fund

Police are appealing for witnesses after a number of objects

were placed on the railway line in Devon causing damage to trains.

The latest incident this week involved a train hitting a traffic

sign at 65mph that was placed on the line at Lapford

The RNLI has released dramatic footage of this week's rescue

operation to free a whale caught in fishing nets and lines.

Crowds had gathered to watch the whale at Start Bay

in South Devon which has been putting in a regular appearance

The Royal Navy's largest warship HMS Ocean has returned home

after a six month deployment in the Mediterranean and Gulf.

Hundreds of family members were at Devonport Naval Base

to welcome the ship and their loved ones home.

The helicopter carrier and assault ship's crew of 500 now

have a period of leave before Ocean makes one final deployment

prior to being taken out of service next year.

Picking up where they left off, families reunited after more

It has been a long six and a half months away.

Especially without seeing the little ones and stuff.

Two weeks and I ended up having to move house

and had another baby, so now I will carry

This had been Ocean's longest deployment, and one of her last.

The helicopter carrier and amphibious assault ship is due to be

It is the penultimate deployment for HMS Ocean based

However, we have a follow-on deployment after this and we will be

sailing later in the year, so actually we're busy preparing

for that, believe it or not, even though we've come home today.

The Prime Minister, Theresa May, visited HMS Ocean during a trip

It's likely that many of the 500 strong crew will be required to work

For the crew, after a tour which has taken them thousands

of miles around the Med and the Gulf, there

Missed your birthday, missed Christmas.

We will be having Christmas when we go back as well now.

Great to see them back but are they coming back to decent weather? It's

David. We have had a few good sunsets this

evening and I think overnight tonight and into the weekend

we are going to see a lot of fine It's going to be quite windy,

that's a feature of the weather, It will be fine and dry,

a bit chilly at night but there will also be some sunshine

during the daytime. So, the high pressure

is pretty much with us. It's close to these two

areas of low pressure, so the isobars are really squeezed

up, that's the reason for the strength of wind,

which stays strong white through the weekend ahead

although even a little bit The few showers that we had

across the far west of Cornwall have now moved out of the way

and the skies are now clear and they will stay that way

overnight the night. Brisk winds from the North East

will develop late in the night and apart from a bit of patchy low

cloud floating past, it's clear, Temperatures could be as low

as three or four Celsius in towns and villages but I wouldn't be

surprised if it was one or two degrees below that in some

of the more countryside locations. Tomorrow it's a struggle

with the temperatures if you're right on the coast because of that

keen wind but inland out of the breeze we could easily see

14, maybe 15 Celsius and as you can A bit more cloud floating past

but other than that it is a fine, Don't forget on Saturday night

the clocks go forward and hour. And enjoy a decent day on Sunday.

Don't forget, Saturday, are next bulletin will be at 6pm. Good

evening. weather outlook for the whole of the

Good evening. It is good news on the weather front for most of the UK. We

have been forecasting fine weather for a few days. It has certainly

arrived. Beautiful picture