23/11/2017 Spotlight

Good evening.

A 12-year-old Devon girl has spoken

out over the dangers of online

grooming, after she was blackmailed

into sending intimate

pictures over the internet.

Her parents say the experience

has been devastating

and they want to speak out to help

protect other young people.

In this report from Clare Casson,

we've disguised their identities.

Just a few stolen moments

on the daily walk to school.

No parents, no teachers,

but do you know who your child

is contacting on their phone?

For this 12-year-old,

a few minutes on her own each day

opened up a murky world

of sexual exploitation.

He began talking to me

so I befriended him, not knowing

what was about to happen.

I felt scared and like

I couldn't talk to anyone.

This person then showed her some

explicit images of other young girls

and told her if she didn't do

what they asked, they would spread

it amongst friends and family,

tell the world that these

images were her.

After I sent one picture,

I knew that I was trapped.

I felt scared and isolated.

He put me under pressure and he got

angry and aggressive.

It breaks my heart that there

was about three or four months that

I didn't know about,

she had been held prisoner.

It must've been soul destroying

for her to feel so trapped.

And this girl is not alone.

Across Devon and Cornwall sexting,

as it is known, is now the most

common form of child sexual

exploitation the police deal with.

Officers go into schools

to try to help educate young people

about the dangers but they've

told me it's a struggle to keep up

with what's happening

and the average age of victims

is getting younger.

We are certainly seeing either

a greater disclosure of incidents

with younger children or a greater

number of younger children doing it.

About ten years ago it

would be pretty unheard-of

that we would visit a primary school

and they would be talking

about dealing with this sort

of an event, now we do deal

with them increasingly.

And many children don't realise that

it's illegal to possess,

take or distribute sexual images

of someone under 18,

including themselves.

Police in Somerset are hunting

for a burglar who attacked

a 96-year-old man in his own home

with what's thought

to be a claw hammer.

The pensioner from Taunton is in

hospital with serious injuries.

Lee Madden reports.

Sweeping the Duchess of Cornwall

off her feet just two years ago

at a British Legion event,

but tonight World War II hero

Jim Booth is in hospital,

fighting for survival

after being hit with a hammer

by a distraction burglar.

Jim said, I've been attacked,

and that was how it

started, wasn't it, Tom?

Yes.

He was bleeding all down

over his face and everything.

We brought him in and

sat him in the chair.

He had been knocked

on the head with a hammer.

Police say a man knocked

at Jim Booth's door yesterday

afternoon and asked if he wanted any

work doing in the house.

When Mr Booth refused,

the man attacked him.

He managed to make it across

the road to his neighbour's house.

He has a fractured skull

and he was with the doctor

for a fair while and something

about his hand, he had a problem

with his hand because he had

a big bash on his hand.

As a lieutenant commander

in the Navy, Jim Booth was part

of the crew that took a submarine

across the English Channel and gave

the signal for D-Day to begin.

Tonight forensic teams are still

working at his home, looking

for clues about his attacker.

A white male around 30

or 35 years of age.

Clean-shaven, darkish hair,

described as athletic, stocky build.

Officers want anyone who saw

anything suspicious yesterday,

or who, over the last few days,

may have been approached by someone

knocking at their front door,

asking for work to get

in touch with them.

Tonight Mr Booth is conscious

in hospital, with his

children at his side.

Police say, given his age,

they are extremely worried

about the war hero who was said

to have been delighted

to dance with the Duchess,

but who now has been subjected

to a brutal attack in his own home.

There's anger over plans

by the French company EDF to change

the way it handles high level

radioactive waste at

Hinkley Point in Somerset.

The company wants to double the size

of a proposed waste store

on the Hinkley C site.

It also wants to introduce a system

of encasing the waste in concrete.

Clinton Rogers reports.

It's the idea that it's our

grandchildren's grandchildren that

will be picking up the pieces.

This area is going to be lumped

with X amount of nuclear waste

that will never go away.

And it's the high-grade waste.

Among those who live

in the shadow of Hinkley Point

there is a mixture of fear and fury.

My concerns are the long-term effect

of having a great lump of concrete

on the edge of an area

of outstanding natural beauty,

that's going to be there

essentially forever,

because then they're

talking about what they're

going to do with the very nasty

substance inside it.

EDF has always said that

all high-level radioactive waste

produced by Hinkley C,

and that includes the spent

fuel rods, will need

to be stored locally.

Right now there's nowhere

else for it to go.

Now EDF have applied

for permission to double the size

of their radioactive waste store

on this site, but they also

want to change the method

for handling radioactive waste,

choosing now a system that

will involve encasing

it in concrete blocks.

In a statement the company has told

us it's a safe and robust system

used across Europe and the USA,

but opponents say that switching

from a method where high-level waste

is held in water to what's known

as a dry system has dangers.

The problem with dry storage is it

relies on the integrity

of a concrete block, that a concrete

block containing waste

material will last forever.

The leader of West Somerset council

says he's more concerned

by the plans to increase the size

of the storage building.

It is going to be the last

building there on site.

When decommissioning takes place,

which will be a long time from now,

the reactors will go but that

building will be left

there when the rest of the site

has been flattened.

EDF has told us there is no plan

to increase the amount

of waste stored here,

merely to change the system,

but it's the Environment Department

which will make the final decision

and that won't be

for some while yet.

A Devon woman who uses a wheelchair

has described the lack

of a public toilet for disabled

people in Torquay town

centre as disgusting.

Both the women's toilet block

and the one for disabled people have

been closed for the last 11 weeks.

John Ayres has the story.

It's not very often

that you see this.

The gents are open but the ladies

and the disabled toilets are closed,

and it's been like this

for 11 weeks.

For wheelchair user

Shirley, enough is enough.

It's diabolical to think that

you can come into town

to spend your money,

but while you're here you can't

use the public toilet.

It's not a luxury, it's a necessity.

You come into town to shop,

you're bound to need to use

the toilet and I'm sorry but it

will put a lot of people coming

to the town centre shopping.

It's a feeling shared by others

with mobility assistance.

Joan is a tourist from Wales.

I will go to the gents,

but I think the toilets

here should be open.

Ladies need them more than men.

Men can stand there and go

in the corner and I think it's

absolutely disgusting.

And she did too, along

with some other woman.

The trouble is the nearest

alternative is some way away

and the closest are on private

premises, not public.

The nearest public loos

are at least twice the distance.

I have to go in the lift,

providing it is working,

up through the shop,

past all the other shops along

the walkway, to the bottom,

turn right, turn left,

turn right, and you'll find another

door that has the toilets there.

They should get up and do something,

come out onto the highway,

like a politician, and see what's

going on for themselves and do

something instead of doing nothing.

The toilets have been closed

because of a water leak

above and an electrical fault.

The delay has because the council

doesn't own the building.

I understand the concerns

of all the residents and traders.

These toilets have been out

of action for so long and the reason

is because we haven't got permission

from the landowners above

the property, above the toilets.

We now have that permission and it's

being dealt with as a priority.

The council hopes this will be

sorted in the next nine weeks

although for many women and people

with disabilities, that's

still a very long time.

Now let's find out

what we can expect

from tomorrow's weather.

David has the details.

David has the details.

Thank you. Good evening. You will

need an extra layer in the next few

days. The colder air is starting to

sleep in and some of it will arrive

tonight. The weather system will

trickle along the French coast and

along the English Channel in the

next few hours and keep a lot of

cloud over us and it gives rain

overnight and some of it is heavy

and places. It would turn showery

towards dawn and with a blanket of

cloud the temperatures should hold

up quite nicely but already there

was colder air seeping in.

Temperatures of just four or 5

degrees by dawn tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow in places there is a wet

start but the rain is largely

confined by the afternoon to

Cornwall and Devon. For the rest of

us it brightens up nicely. Quite

quickly temperatures tumble away.

Overnight and into the early hours

of Saturday widespread frost.

Temperatures first thing on Saturday

are as low as -1 or even minus two.

Saturday is bright and dry with

scattered showers. Some are wintry

over the high ground and a pretty

low temperature as well. Throw in

the wind and have all the airfields

and it will feel even colder than

that. Sunday is quite with a frost

in the morning. Morning sunshine

before it clouds over and then

temperatures start to come back up

again in the early part of next

week. Have a good night.

That's it from the late team

here at BBC Spotlight.

Andy Breare will be back with more

news from 6.25am tomorrow morning.

For now, from us, goodnight.