23/11/2017 Spotlight

he hopes to prove the earnings

forecasts wrong.

Good afternoon.

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 want to speak out to help

protect other young people.

In this report from Clare Casson

we've disguised their identity.

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.

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.

In other news this lunchtime:

The Government's promising help

for the hi-tech photonics industry

in Torbay after Conservative MP

Kevin Foster raised

the issue in Parliament.

Photonics involves the use of lasers

and optics in areas

such as aerospace and defence.

In the Channel Islands,

weak decision-making's being blamed

for the delay and extra costs

in building Jersey's new hospital.

A report's found it took too long

to decide on the best site.

Jersey's Health Minister has

admitted the process

could have been better.

Jersey's all-weather lifeboat

could be back in the island

by the end of this year.

The RNLI says lots of

volunteers want to help run

the station and crew the boat,

after the previous crew

announced they wanted

to operate independently.

In sport, Exeter Chiefs'

forward Sam Simmonds is set

to make his first England start

against Samoa on Saturday.

The 23-year old from Teignmouth

was named in the starting line-up

alongside Henry Slade,

with another Chief,

Harry Williams, on the bench.

It's been the moment of truth

for a group of students

who, with little or no experience,

have learnt how to build

boats in just 38 weeks.

Today they finally got

to test their designs

on the water at Lyme Regis.

Our Dorset reporter Anna Varle

was there to see the launch.

The boats are now launching

and so far so good.

It's incredibly windy here today

and they're not putting up sails

or going out of the harbour.

I have one of the students

with me, Sam Smith.

What is this you'll be launching?

This is a 16-foot two-seater

runabout speedboat.

We won't be going quite so fast

today in the harbour but a beautiful

sunny day for it and looking forward

to getting on the water.

How are you feeling?

This is the first time in the water

for this boat, isn't it?

Absolutely, always a few nerves

but she is beautifully built,

well engineered so feeling confident

and looking forward to it.

And your career before this,

very different, what did you do?

I was a musician, a clarinettist

in the Coldstream Guards Band,

so my daily work was playing

for the Trooping of the Colour

and Changing of the Guard ceremony

at Buckingham Palace and now

I'm down here building

boats in Lyme Regis.

Sam is going to be third in.

We've already had

one boat in already.

There is a shortage of boat builders

so all these students

are likely to get jobs

or start their own businesses.

Bright and breezy in Lyme Regis.

Let's

Bright and breezy in Lyme Regis.

Let's see how it's looking across

the region. Breezy but the wind is

not as strong as we saw yesterday.

This scene yesterday in Devon almost

like the calm after the storm with

plenty of blue sky but we have seen

one or two showers. This was the

scene in Cornwall and at the moment

we are between weather systems but

you can see a squeeze in the isobars

bringing breezy conditions and it

stays breezy this afternoon, a lot

of dry and bright weather, just a of

one or two showers especially for

Northern areas but it will feel

chilly. This evening it will be dry

for a time before the cloud thickens

and brings some rain and it will be

colder than recent nights,

temperatures falling to low single

figures for the motion states frost

free. Friday is mainly dry and

bright, we could see some cloud

pushing in with some outbreaks of

rain but with lighter winds it will

feel colder tomorrow, temperatures

struggling to reach beyond 10

Celsius. The Channel Islands seeing

sunny spells but also scattered

showers and a gentle breeze and as

we head towards the weekend it feels

colder with temperatures struggling

to reach double figures. A mixture

of sunshine, scattered showers and

they could turn wintry over higher

ground with some frosty nights to

come.

Coming up on Spotlight tonight,

Neil Gallacher is finding out

about the future

of a Plymouth landmark.

There's been a lot of talk

about hotel building

in Plymouth for Mayflower 2020.

Making it stack up financially

is always a challenge

but what happens if the hotel that

you want to build is on an island?

We'll have the latest

on Spotlight at 6:30pm.

More on that story and news from

across the West on Spotlight at

6:30pm. Have a very good afternoon.