26/05/2017 Spotlight

A Devon student has been jailed for 15 years

for planting a home made bomb on a London tube train.

Damon Smith from Newton Abbot left a rucksack packed with explosives

His mum blames his Asperger's syndrome for his actions.

Hamish Marshall reports from the Old Bailey.

As he passed sentence, Judge Richard Marks QC told Smith,

the seriousness of what you did cannot be overestimated.

I'm driven to treat you as a serious offender.

He told the 20-year-old that it is fortuitous

that your device did not explode, if it had done, it could have

caused serious injury and damage along the carriage.

The judge said Damon Smith wasn't a terrorist, his mother said

he conducted a stupid prank which has ruined his life.

He said, Mum, I only wanted to make a smoke bomb.

He said, I didn't want to hurt anyone.

The intent to endanger life - he wouldn't even hurt a fly, Damon.

Damon and his mum left Newton Abbot last summer

She said he needed to support due to suffering with Asperger's

He got good grades and won a student of the year award at Exeter College

but just weeks into his university course he was arrested.

Was there any more you could have done, do you think?

I can't watch him 24 hours a day in his bedroom.

But Damon said to me, if I wanted to hurt somebody, he could have.

Because he had all the recipes to make an explosive that he found

So there was really no intent with the smoke bomb

because he could have done it, to hurt somebody but he didn't.

Damon Smith's legal team had been expecting him to get at least

The sentence was 15 with five years on licence after that and his legal

team as they left the court today told me they expect to serve

Thousands of letters are being sent out by Devon and Cornwall's

headteachers calling on parents to challenge General Election

Primary and secondary head associations are

supporting the campaign - and stress it's not meant

They say they're only interested in securing fair and adequate

funding because it's under severe threat.

Exam season - the traditional culmination of years at school.

But there is a growing band of headteachers speaking out

about the struggle to offer pupils the education they would like to.

Costs have never been so high right across the school

in terms of staff costs, national insurance contributions

and other associated costs and we had to undertake

a comprehensive savings review last year which involved reducing

staffing across the school, reducing curriculum budgets and

If you're a parent of a child at school, you may well have got one

The head here is just one across Devon and Cornwall and 12

other local authorities who sent it out to parents.

The letter highlights school finances saying that they're

in a dreadful state and urges parents to raise the issue

with parliamentary candidates before the general election.

It also offers suggested questions like how will you ensure

budgets are protected and what are you going to do

We tried not to but I daresay if you want to find a political

It is certainly political in as much as we need education to be up

We know the NHS, social care and the police need more funds,

so do our children's schools and our education system.

The letter originated in the south-east of England

after parents at protests like this recent one in Totnes asked

to have more information about school funding.

So do parents in Cornwall mind getting a letter like this?

I think the problem is with the world we are in at the moment,

Schools, you name it, it is related to politics

I did find it very useful and it encourages you to go and ask

the right questions if people come round trying to get your vote to ask

them the right questions about are they going to do anything

It is one way of doing things, and brings it to everyone's

attention, everyone needs funding these days.

The Conservatives say education spending is already at record levels

with ?4 billion more earmarked by 2022.

And they pledge the national funding formula will be changed to ensure

Labour promises a ?6.3 billion boost and the the Lib Dems ?7 billion.

Now, it's a massive weekend of sport for three of our sides.

Exeter Chiefs, Cornwall and Exeter City are all playing

First up the Chiefs are in the Premiership play off

final bidding to become the best team in the country.

They're playing Wasps at Twickenham tomorrow with a 2.30 kick off.

It's the second year in a row for them and this time they're

If you look at the form of the two sides, level on points

at the end of the season, it couldn't be tighter coming

As you say, we are the two high point scorers and try

scorers in the league, we're both in good form,

we both like to play good rugby so if you talk about potentially

good games, it does have everything, yes.

The 35th America's Cup which was due to start later today has been

is among five boats challenging for the right to face

the America's Cup defenders Oracle team USA.

The event will involve round robin qualifiers.

The British team have been under pressure during practice racing

but Ainslie, who grew up near Falmouth, remains confident.

Each day is absolutely critical right now.

Certainly for our team, we have been on the back foot

a little bit in terms of straight-line speed.

We are working really hard to rectify that,

we still have more components coming onto the boat which we hope

will increase speed and get us closer to some of the other teams

and it is an ongoing development, that is the nature of the game

in the America's Cup and we keep fighting and pushing

Time for a look at the weather with David.

Probably the same temperatures as Bermuda at the moment. We'll

continue with a lovely afternoon, with a top to butcher of 2526. Thank

you to the weather watchers who continue to send us great shots. And

some glorious blue skies across the Channel Islands. It looks like we'll

continue to see a problem with really high-temperature is only for

one day because it does start to feel somewhat cooler and fresher at

the weekend and the reason is this weather front edge to the west. It

will get somewhat closer over the next 24 hours, developing a line of

heavy showers, possibly thundery as it moves in and even though high

pressure is still in close by, tomorrow morning if not more cloud

around and if slightly fresher feel. The risk of showers at some point

through the day. More showers coming from the south into Sunday so again

in the risk of heavy showers for the bank holiday weekend. At the moment

the skies are clear, but to the rest of us there is a line of showers

affecting southern parts of Ireland and those showers, always overnight

tonight. A lovely afternoon, a Sunni one, EUV is up at eight, the highest

it was likely to be so be careful if you are enjoying the fine weather,

26 the top temperature. Overnight we see showers creeping in, one or two

thundery and heavy and the move quite fast so by the morning they

have pulled away and another muggy night, and tomorrow once we lose

that showers, a fair amount of cloud around and misty around the coast

but sunny spells and not quite the seat we have seen today so slightly

cooler, average temperatures of 20 or 21 and up to 23. For the Channel

Islands, rather cloudy and after some thunder overnight the

possibility of four patches and more showers to come on Sunday, mainly

dry on Mike holiday Monday. Have a nice afternoon.

Coming up tonight in Spotlight, we'll look ahead

to the big sporting fixtures this Bank Holiday weekend.

And a preview of the events taking place across the region including

the first music festival at Plymouth's Royal William Yard.

BBC Radio Cornwall's David White will be meeting one

I'll be back with Victoria Graham for more on that and all the latest

news from the South West in Spotlight tonight at 6.30.

From the lunchtime news, have a very good afternoon.

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