”lava 1 w “a, that georgina's family and friends will continue to mourn and grieve for the rest of their lives. our condolences remain with those who have suffered her loss. detective constable elaine newbury of gwent police and the family liaison officer for deborah simmonds. the death of my daughter georgina simmonds has been a devastating tragedy for the whole of our family. our beautiful daughter has been left without a mum. georgina left a hole in our lives that will never be repaired. we respect the decision of the jury and the sentence that's been handed to peter morgan, but that will never compensate for our loss. we would now like to be left to grieve as a family in privacy. i would like to express our sincere thanks to gwent police. lleyton moore, cps. peter morgan's actions resulted in a young mother losing

her life. resulted in a young mother losing herlife. his resulted in a young mother losing her life. his relationship with georgina became an obsession which led to the events of 12th january. the actions he took the day before demonstrated his intentions and his preparation for the crime was careful and meticulous. the decision the jury arrived at today brings peter morgan tojustice the jury arrived at today brings peter morgan to justice for what he did to georgina. the prosecution team dealing with this case have worked hard throughout the year to bring this case to court and i would like to thank the family and friends of georgina for their continued support throughout the prosecution process. whilst today's outcome cannot take away the hurt and the loss felt by them, we hope that peter morgan's conviction maybe of some comfort to them as they move forward with their lives. thank you. we were just hearing from the

police, the crown prosecution service and also a family liaison officer representing the mother of georgina simmonds who said how devastating her daughter's death had been and also from the crown prosecution service there saying that peter morgan had carried out a cold, calculated and violent crime. his planning for that had been careful and meticulous said the cps. peter morgan sentenced to life with a minimum term of 25 years for the murder of his girlfriend georgina simmonds at newport crown court. this is bbc news. police in germany launched a nationwide hunt for a tunisian man

who is believed to have carried out the attack in berlin. he is thought to bea the attack in berlin. he is thought to be a migrant that arrived in germany last year and granted asylum in april. 12 people died and almost 50 injured when the lorry ploughed through the crowds on monday night. robert hall is in berlin. amid the chaos and the panic of monday night's attack, the man at the wheel of this truck slipped into the dark undetected. the man arrested, a 23—year—old pakistani migrant, has already been released without charge. now, we discover, there is a new suspect, said to be a tunisian asylum seeker still at large. german newspapers are carrying a photo of a 21—year—old man known as anis a, who used a mix of identities. he's said to be known to german police and was wanted on charges of assault. the truck, carrying 25 tonnes of steel girders, had travelled from poland to this factory in berlin. the driver was polish. lukasz urban, a 37—year—old family man, later found

dead inside the cab. his cousin, who owns the truck company, said they lost contact with him around four in the afternoon. he was called yesterday to identify the body. translation: there were stab wounds on the photo i was shown. it was clear he had been fighting. his face was swollen and bloodied. i learned about the gunshot wounds from police who told me that apart from being stabbed he was also shot. that struggle inside the cab has left important clues. there were papers found beneath the driver's seat. where might this suspect have intercepted the truck? on monday morning the driver arrived ahead of schedule at the steel

factory in berlin ready to unload, there was no space and he was asked to come back later. he never returned. at 8pm just a few miles from the factory, the lorry ploughed into the christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 49. the driverfled into the urban park. a 23—year—old pakistani man was arrested near the victory column monument but there was nothing to link into the truck and in those precious few hours the real suspect, mr urban, it seems, was kept alive. perhaps until the very moment of the attack. a gps tracker is reported to show that around 3.1i5pm the truck was driven erratically as if someone was learning to drive it. the blood spots found inside the cab could be that of the suspect, police have since checked all hospitals in berlin, where victims of the attack continued to be treated. eight of them are heavily injured, two of them died, and we have now here in this hospital four patients with severe trauma of the lower extremities and the pelvis.

one of the 12 victims is said to be this woman, a 31—year—old italian, who has not been heard of since the attack. her phone and metro pass were found at the scene. there's no doubt the early slip—up in this investigation piles more pressure on to the embattled chancellor angela merkel. it will not help her cause that the tunisian they are hunting appears to have slipped into the country earlier this year when she opened the doors to thousands of refugees. you go to france nowadays, you see military on the streets, a place like this would have had armoured vehicles protecting it. the germans said, we don't want to do this, we don't want our christmas feeling to be destroyed. it's an understandable, nice, gentle way of looking at things, but it's the wrong way. that's yesterday. things have got to change. even today, i think, there's not enough police on the street. the anxiety felt by people in berlin will be shared by many

others around europe. we've been here before. the simplicity of this attack, the background of the suspect, the clues that were missed. and, of course, the difficulty in trying to stop them. we'll have continuing coverage of the manhunt following the attack at the christmas market in berlin here on bbc news and you can also keep up to date with the latest developments online on the bbc news website. scotland yard has brought forward extra security measures for the changing the guard ceremony at buckingham palace, because of the berlin attack. roads around the palace have been closed for the ceremony. the restrictions are being introduced earlier than planned, but police say the change is "a precautionary measure" for the next three months, and is not based on any specific intelligence.

0ur correspondent, richard lister, is outside buckingham palace. people who are used to driving around this part of london would have noticed extra disruption this morning. usually there are some road restrictions during the ceremony for the changing of the guard, but now, and from now on, there will be much more extensive road closures. so all of the roads leading up to this side of the roads leading up to this side of the roads leading up to this side of the palace where the ceremony ta kes pla ce of the palace where the ceremony takes place are shut between 10.45am and 12.30 and that is sometime before and sometime after the ceremony and they are completely shut and they are shut for a greater extent. so today, there were temporary barriers at the end of the mall and at the end of the roads in that direction and that direction, so that direction and that direction, so people couldn't get close before, during and after the ceremony. i thought there were also more armed police than we usually see at this

event and certainly talking to some of the people who came here today to see the ceremony take place, they said the sight of those extra police made them feel safe. we spoke about it, but you can't let them win, can you? everybody that's here today is in support of what happened out there, but it is not going to stop us going anywhere. you should not be afraid of any terrorist at all. so we are going to do what we like to do. oh, very safe. safe. because the policemen are everywhere. reporter: has it put off coming here today? no. not at all. we came from paris. everything is fine. we are here from new zealand. we were going to come regardless. you have got to carry on life. changing of the guard attracts tourists from over the world. it takes place every other day at this time of year and the crowd here today, about 1,000 or so by our estimate was on a par with

what it usually is. it doesn't seem that people were really put off by what happened in berlin earlier this week and certainly the people we spoke to didn't really notice any change in the security, but certainly drivers would have noticed and during this three month trial period, certainlyjane, and during this three month trial period, certainly jane, i and during this three month trial period, certainlyjane, ithink and during this three month trial period, certainlyjane, i think the police will assess whether they have got the balance right in terms of the way they close the road and whether they need more permanent barriers than the cones and stop signs they had in place at the end of the major roads today. that was richard lister. with me is chris phillips, former head of the government's national counter terrorism security 0ffice. good to see you, chris, thank you very much. in terms first of all of the knock—on. let's talk about this country. how much will or can quite quickly be changed? how much do they react when something like this happens in another european country? we need to understand in the uk we

foresaw this kind of problem 11 or 12 years ago actually and we developed a project protecting crowded places. we have spent a lot of money putting in hostile vehicle mitigation so barriers and blockers and bus stops and things that would stop vehicle bombs or vehicles from attacking major crowds. that is an actual active policy, that people going out shopping don't realise that it going out shopping don't realise thatitis going out shopping don't realise that it is there and where would that it is there and where would that be in effect, in any large, urban area? yeah, most cities in the uk have had some work done. most major train stations are protected. arsenal has got hostile vehicle mitigation on the outside of it and you wouldn't necessarily know that it was doing thatjob, but you can use things that are in the environment to protect you, even trees and things like that. you can't, none of us can protect everything all the time, but i'm curious then given the work that you

have been involved with, what went through your mind when you saw what happened in berlin, whether you thought crikey, just not enough was done to try to prevent this sort of, this tragedy? well, there is two things. one, i know the countries in europe haven't done enough to protect their crowded places, but there is also the thing that you can't protect all places, 0xford street, regent street, all those places in london and every other pa rt places in london and every other part of the uk, if you really want to, if you get into a vehicle, a truck and you want to kill lots of people, you can do that. but what you can do is prioritise those types of locations that might be more attractive to terrorists and of course, places like winter markets are course, places like winter markets a re exactly course, places like winter markets are exactly that and we've actually seen terrorists try to attack strasbourg market back in 2000 when they were going to use a vehicle with a bomb in it and british intelligence actually did a

brilliantjob there to stop that from happening and tipped off the authorities and they were arrested. so when we think back to nice with the truly appalling death toll that we saw in nice, again, in your opinion was that a result of the structures that you are talking about that in place in some of our cities that they weren't there? yes. imean, is cities that they weren't there? yes. i mean, is it naivety, is it money, what is it that means some cities think about this sort of thing and others don't? i guess this thing doesn't come cheap? well, if i take you back 12 years ago when we were foreseeing this kind of attack in the uk, i actually did a little tour of europe and tried to review what they were doing over there to see if we could learn from them and actually we found that the idea that, the view of terrorism at that time across europe was that this was auk time across europe was that this was a uk anda us time across europe was that this was a uk and a us problem, that this was not something that affected mainland europe and you know, i spoke to people in belgium, germany, and they really did feel that it wasn't their

problem and i think that because of that, they are five or ten years behind our learning in the uk. now that doesn't mean to say that we cannot be attacked because obviously, you know, a terrorist decides what they want to do and it is the terrorist‘s decision as to whether they use a vehicle, a bomb oi’ whether they use a vehicle, a bomb ora gun, but whether they use a vehicle, a bomb or a gun, but we can put in defensive measures and we have put in defensive measures which will allay some of the attack methods. in defensive measures which will allay some of the attack methodsm that sort of work that is continually reviewed, continually ongoing, it is so fascinating to listen to you, but you are talking about an attack using a vehicle. nothing can stop an individual who is prepared to die for their cause, whatever that might be, withks i don't know, explosives or a gun, you can't do something about one single individual walking around on foot? terrorism once they get the gun, the bomb, the knife in their hand, then it is very difficult to stop them. however, our best opportunity is to

stop them from becoming terrorists in the first place so the radicalisation piece is the most important bit and we've done that quite well as well in the uk. again, it is not perfect, but we have done a lot of work on that. but there is an ongoing problem. when someone gets a gun in their hand or a knife, they can actually commit the terrorist attack without a doubt. chris phillips, thank you. former head of the government's national counter—terrorism strategy. live now to berlin and our correspondent damien mcguinness. damien as we get more information about this tunisian man the police are hunting, suggestions that he may have been known to the authorities, to the security agencies? yes, that's right. so the interior minister, the manhunt for this suspect, has officially confirmed

110w suspect, has officially confirmed now that the suspect comes from tunisia. he arrived in germany and applied for asylum in july tunisia. he arrived in germany and applied for asylum injuly 2015. that application for asylum was rejected in 2016 in the summer, but he wasn't deported because tunisia did not agree with the claim that he was tunisian. this morning, the authorities say they have received official confirmation that the man is in fact tunisian and they, berlin and german authorities in general are already aware of him as someone who is potentially dangerous because they have said they already knew that he had links tojihadi groups. there are thought to be between 500 and 600 potential islamist extremists living in germany and that's quite a sophisticated built up that's quite a sophisticated built up network and he is thought to have close contacts to those people and presumably they are the ones who are helping him now, so what we do know about him, he is on the run, no one

has any idea about where he is. the police have been sparse with details because they say they don't want to jeopardise the manhunt, but it is thought he could be injured because there were traces of blood in the cab which does indicate that you had on the one hand the dead body of the poor driver from poland who on the one hand the dead body of the poor driverfrom poland who had driven the truck to berlin before it was hijacked by this man. he was killed in what looks like a struggle. the suspect then fled, but it does look, police say, that he possibly be injured which is why they have been searching hospitals to see if the suspect is in fact in one of them. all right, damien, thank you very much. that's damien mcguinness there with the latest from berlin. the headlines on bbc news: german police have launched a manhunt for a tunisian man suspected of carrying out an attack at the

christmas market in berlin. extra security measures are in place at buckingham palace. a multi—millionaire property developer who murdered his girlfriend is jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years. in sport northampton saints escaped punishment after their handling of a head injury to gorge north. he has been out of action since landing on his head against leinster this month. the two time wimbledon champion won't hold a racket for at least three months. she had surgery to her playing hand after a knife attack at her home. and williams are paving the way for bottas to replace nico rosberg. i will be back with more on those

stories after half past. the queen and prince philip have cancelled plans to travel by train today to their estate in sandringham in norfolk, after coming down with heavy colds. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell gave me the latest details. buckingham palace has now said officially on the record the queen and the duke of edinburgh have heavy colds. heavy colds. and so have decided not to travel to sandringham today. the queen was as you mentioned due to catch a train from london up to king's lynn this morning to travel to sandringham to begin the christmas break. she normally catches the 11.01am. she didn't catch it and that started questions being asked what was the cause of this departure from the plan and it transpires that she as the duke of edinburgh have heavy

colds. they will wish to travel as soon as they feel able to. they won't want to miss the family christmas at sandringham. i'm sure they will return to their plan for christmas in the next day or so. they will return to their plan for christmas in the next day or som is part of the christmas tradition, lots of members of the royal family gathered at sandringham. the palace doesn't give indications as to when they hope they might get there? they are not, no. there was the big christmas lunch for members of the royal family at buckingham palace yesterday. the family were together. now, there was no suggestion then that anyone was blowing their nose rather unexpectedly, but it transpires today that the heavy colds and there is a lot of it about, everybody has a snivel at the moment, but i am sure they will wish to go as soon as they are able because other members of the family will be heading to sandringham. william and catherine are staying with the middletons' for christmas, but the rest of the family, colds or no colds, i'm sure will be there!

reports from eastern aleppo say that the evacuation operation has resumed for the remaining people in the rebel enclave. syrian state television says that five buses have left the area. it showed the buses arriving at a crossing outside the area. syrian army units are preparing to take full control after four years of fighting against anti—government rebels. 0ur correspondentjames longman is in beirut. yes, ben, we understand that the first buses have started to move out of east aleppo. it is very difficult to know just how of east aleppo. it is very difficult to knowjust how many. syrian state television are saying five, we have had reports up to 30. the important thing to say is thousands of people are now getting out of east aleppo. it has been extraordinarily cold

there. snow fell last night and there. snow fell last night and there has been a blizzard this morning. it has been a place where no one at the best of times would wa nt to no one at the best of times would want to stay and particularly not now given that people only have the bombed out buildings in which to live to take any kind of shelter. they will now be transported to the staging post just they will now be transported to the staging postjust outside of aleppo in the aleppo countryside where they can receive the medical care and the food, the blankets, all the things that they were missing over the last yea rs, that they were missing over the last years, that they have been living in east aleppo and they will have a choice about where they want to go next and we understand most will probably choose to go to idlib, which is the last basically, the last rebel stronghold in syria, a large pofens to the north—west of syria where they will go. as for aleppo, now the government will have its chance to in their words re—take its chance to in their words re—take it from the terrorists. the government has said that they plan to send the army in to the last rebel enclaves of east aleppo as

soon as rebel enclaves of east aleppo as soon as the evacuation is over and that would constitute an enormous victory for the government of bashar assad. already people in west aleppo are celebrating this event. we saw pictures of locals dancing around a christmas tree. this really is a big moment for the government to be able to say that the whole of aleppo is back under their control. it is important to say the war isn't over. all the actors that are still funding and rolling this war on from outside of the country and inside, are still very much engaged in it. so the war will continue. but the war in aleppo anyway seems, seems, to be drawing to a close. james, thank you very much. james longman for us in beirut. the little girl who caught the attention of the world, the

seven—year—old syrian who tweeted about life inside rebel—held east aleppo has met turkey's president. they sat on the president's knee in the presidential complex in ankara. the president sent a special representative to syria to collect bana and her family after they fled from east aleppo and her plight came to light after she joined the social media platform in september. police say victims in the national football abuse scandal could have been as young as four—years—old and there are now around four hundred potential victims. officers say the number of potential suspects has nearly doubled to 155. 148 football clubs are thought to have been drawn into the inquiries. with me is our sports news correspondent richard conway.

it is an update that they have given which shows the scale of the issue facing british football. 0ver which shows the scale of the issue facing british football. over 20 police forces now investigating claims, historical claims of sexual abuse within football. it runs from premier league sides, all the way through to amateur clubs. and the police saying today that they are trying to respond swiftly totalgations when they are brought totalgations when they are brought to their attention, but they are encouraging more victims to come forward and saying that they want it hear from them and they will treat their allegations seriously. and i mean, what are football clubs, the football authorities, over this period, these numbers have grown, what are they saying to you about the practical implications, the practical measures they are taking, the soul—searching, what's the overall response to this? the football league and the p0tion have been on the front foot trying to

reassure pa rents. been on the front foot trying to reassure parents. the safeguards are tighter and a lot better than they used to be, nevertheless there is serious concerns about what happened in the past and we are not talking about the 70s and 805, but in the past and we are not talking about the 705 and 805, but some claims coming up to the past few years as well. that's where people wa nt to years as well. that's where people want to know answers and want the football association is launching its own inquiry and looking at what the clubs knew and when. they are taking a back seat to the police and they say they don't want to hinder they say they don't want to hinder the police. there is a gap in knowledge where fan5 the police. there is a gap in knowledge where fans and supporters knowledge where fans and supporters know that the investigations are going on, but the victims know they are going on led by the police and the fa i5 are going on led by the police and the fa is looking as well, but not everything is out in the public demain. we are getting 5lowly a picture building of the scale of this problem, but there will be more to come certainly in 2017. what is so to come certainly in 2017. what is so striking, it is the breadth of it. we are talking about the big famou5 clubs, the rich clubs, but right down to the gra55—root5 of the

game and no one wants to stop the gra55—root5 from flourishing, you wa nt gra55—root5 from flourishing, you want children to get out there and be engaged in sport, but then that's potentially 5uch be engaged in sport, but then that's potentially such a concern for parents, isn't it, if we are saying some of the cases are still potentially relatively recent? exactly, that lifeblood of football i5 exactly, that lifeblood of football is the gra55—root5 coaching, the parents and people giving up their time to go and coach children on a saturday morning or after school. and also the paid positions as well. there is an industry around here where people want to come into it and want to be part of football. the authorities are trying to reassure people and say look, we have record checks in place now. we have safeguarding measures which mean that these types of issues, while they may never go away, it is tighter now and it is harderfor this behaviour to go on, but football has been slightly damaged by this, but that's what the authorities want to guard against. they don't want the lifeblood of the sport to wither because of the

historical problems which have now come to light. richard, thank you. richard conway, thank you. now the weather. the showers are starting to ease a5 we speak. they will stay with us for the next few hours. if we take a look at what to expect with the sharper shower5, they are spreading in from the north and the west. the showers will continue. some of them containing some sleet and snow and they will continue through the rest of the evening. now, further south, we will continue to see some rain ea5ing away from the south and then clearer skies and temperatures will fall close to two or three celsius. there i am! those showers will continue for tomorrow. some of them falling a5 continue for tomorrow. some of them falling as snow. chiefly to hills, but there will be to some to lower levels as well. it will be a cold day and a windy day. further 5outh,

we will have clearer skies and 5un5hine. the met office have issued an amber weather warning. be prepared for some disruption due to the strength of the winds as we move to friday. it is called storm barbara. it is the tightly packed isobars that are the concern particularly to the southern half of the flank and the low pressure where we could see gusts of winds in excess of 90mph. darren will keep you posted for the rest of the evening. hello. this is bbc news with jane hill and ben brown. the headlines at 3.30pm. german police launch a national manhunt for a tunisian man suspected of carrying out a lorry attack on christmas shoppers in berlin, leaving 12 people dead. multi—millionaire property developer peter morgan has been jailed at newport crown court for a minimum of 25 years for the murder of his escort girlfriend georgina symonds. we respect the decision of the jury

and the sentence that has been handed to peter morgan but this will never compensate for our loss. a european court ruling preventing the government retaining internet data, in what critics called the "snoopers charter", is to be challenged by the home office. the queen and duke of edinburgh have delayed theirjourney to norfolk for christmas after coming down with "heavy colds". we will catch up with the sports news now. good afternoon. let's start with the news that northampton saints have escaped any punishment relating to their handling of winger george north's head injury during their match against leicester earlier this month. the player landed on his head during the game and appeared to be lying motionless on the ground. however after assessment he returned to the field of play, prompting an investigation by the "concussion management

review group." 0ur reporterjames burridgejoins us from outside the club's ground, franklin's gardens. what was the panel's main finding today and have you found out any reaction? we are expecting a statement from northampton this afternoon but they will be hugely relieved. george north is one of their most famous players but he is also one of the most concussed players. this goes back to three weeks ago, the derby against leicester. north fell to the ground. too many people watching back home, he appeared to be concussed. he was certainly lying motionless on the floor. the club's medics ran onto the pitch and treated him. they gave a head injury assessment. the player was complaining of a neck injury. the club's medics thought he was fined to return so he did. but what they did not see was the immediate

replays which were available to everybody else. they are supposed to have the technology on their tablets to review but there was not a sufficient amount to view and the clu b sufficient amount to view and the club said had they seen that footage, there was no doubt that george north would have been off and he would not have returned to play. since then, north has been missing from training. he has seen repeated doctors and he may play this friday against sale. the panel has put together nine recommendations to make sure this incident does not happen again. in effect, they are blaming the system and not the club. thank you. another rugby union story to bring you, and cardiff blues lock george earle has been banned for eight weeks after being sent off in their european challenge cup match with bath. earle was red carded for eye gouging during cardiff's 38—3 defeat last week. he pleaded not guilty but an independent panel ruled otherwise. the ban will kick in on boxing day, meaning earle will miss cardiff's match against newport gwent dragons. he'll be free to play again on february 13.

the two—time wimbledon champion petra kvitova will miss the first grand slam of next year — the australian open — following surgery on her left hand. she underwent an operation lasting four hours yesterday and believes she's lucky to be alive, after a knife attack at her home in the czech republic. it's thought it was a random burglary and kvitova wasn't specifically targeted. england's chris jordan was on the losing side in the latest match in australia's big bash series, his adelaide strikers side lost to brisbane heat today. former new zealand captain brendan mccullum hit 25 in one over including two sixes to set up the heat. jordan took two wickets for adelaide strikers including this with the very last ball of the 20 overs. heat made 20—56 in their innings. batting at number seven, jordan madejust one run

as the strikers fell ten runs short in their reply, they reached 196—6 wickets. it's the sixth season of the competition. the finnish driver valtteri bottas looks likely to become lewis hamilton's new team—mate at mercedes. his current team — williams — have persuaded felipe massa to stay on for another season if bottas leaves to replace the retired world champion nico rosberg. mercedes have had one offer for bottas turned down but a deal is expected to be done in the new year. that's all sport for now. 0lly foster will have more in the next hour a multimillionaire property developer has been sentenced to life in prison after murdering his girlfriend. newport crown court heard he murdered georgina symonds.

0ur wales correspondent sian lloyd has the background to the case. georgina symonds, a 25—year—old mother of one, murdered by the man who called himself her sugar daddy. she had met peter morgan four years ago while working as an escort. the court heard the 54—year—old became infatuated with her. he was found guilty of strangling georgina symonds with bailing twine that denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. this was peter morgan before he met georgina symonds this that edge of him restoring an old windmill was shown in court. it was one of the places where the pair would later meet. the married father of two paid her £10,000 a month, took her on helicopter flights and bought her expensive gifts. she later moved into a bungalow on the grounds of a tudor mansion morgan owned. georgina symonds was reported missing after

failing to pick up her daughterfrom school. this footage was recorded on a body camp. but georgina symonds was already dead. peter morgan had hidden her body in the bar next to her home. he told the court she threatened to blackmail him and then leave him. morgan had been using a bugging device similar to this one disguised asa device similar to this one disguised as a plug. he had been using it to listening to georgina symonds's conversations. inside is a cynic are and microphone. the property developer could activate it using his own mobile phones. he called it 514 times over a two—month period and spent hours on end listening in. this was the moment when he told

police officers what he had done. the problem is once i attempted to murder her, i would be in a hell of a lot of trouble for that, and she would still have gone on and blackmailed me, couldn't she? peter morgan had told psychiatrists that he was having a midlife crisis. he was found to have asperger‘s syndrome but the court said this was not a defence. after the sentencing at newport crown court, the statement was read out on behalf of georgina symonds's mother deborah by a family liaison officer from gwent police. the death of my daughter georgina symonds has been a devastating tragedy for the whole of our family. her beautiful daughter has been left without a mum. georgina has left a hole in our lives which will never be repaired. all of our happy memories will be kept forever in our

hearts. we respect the decision of thejury and hearts. we respect the decision of the jury and the sentence that has been handed to peter morgan that this will never compensate for our loss. we would like to grieve as a family in privacy. i would like to thank gwent police who have been excellent throughout our ordeal. that was the family liaison officer from gwent police who had been working with the family of georgina symonds. a labour backbench critic ofjeremy corbyn has announced he is quitting the commons. jamie reed is standing down as an mp to take a job at the sellafield nuclear plant. jeremy corbyn has paid tribute to him and his service to the country. vicki young explains further. he has announced he is standing down as an mp. he will take a job in the nuclear industry at sellafield which is in his constituency in cumbria. jamie reed has been a very vociferous critic ofjeremy corbyn,

the labour leader. he stood down from his position on the labour front bench as soon asjeremy corbyn was elected as leader, but he insists this is nothing to do with his views on mr corbyn. they said they have a very good personal relationship. he said this is much more about wanting to serve his community in the best way possible. he has given an interview to the guardian newspaper. reading that it seems it is about his family life. he has four children. one is a teenager. he says it is a long journey, a long commute going from cumbria down to london and it sounds like that has been taking its toll and he thinks this is the best decision for his family. politically of course this could be tricky for labour. the majority in that seat is about 2500, the conservatives were second in the general election and ukip third. i think the significance

here is that it was a constituency which voted very much to leave the european union. about 62% voted to leave. ukip under the leadership of paul nuttall may feel they have a chance here if they could make inroads into the labour vote, something they have talked about doing, particularly in the north of england. this will be a real test for them and a very tricky by—election, probably in february, for labour. just to tell you some news coming through from the courts. sergeant alexander blackman has been refused bail pending a challenge to his conviction. you will remember sergeant alexander blackman is the royal marine and with serving life after being found guilty of murdering an injured afghan fighter. he hasjust been murdering an injured afghan fighter. he has just been refused murdering an injured afghan fighter. he hasjust been refused bail. we can go to our correspondent daniel boettcher at the royal courts of justice. explain what has happened.

a hearing has been going on forjust under two hours now. you can probably hear behind me there is a lot of support for alexander blackman here at the court. a lot of drivers hooting their horns as they come round. they have been doing that throughout the hearing. we have heard in the past few minutes that this application for bail has been refused. that means alexander blackman will stay in prison until his second appeal is heard. just to ta ke his second appeal is heard. just to take you through the background to the story, he was convicted in 2013 of murder, after shooting an injured taliban insurgent in afghanistan. he was sentenced to life with a minimum of ten years. he appealed in 2014. his appeal against conviction was not successful but his minimum turn was reduced to eight years. the case

then went to the criminal cases review commission. this body considers potential miscarriages of justice. earlier this month it decided that there should be a fresh appeal, a second appeal before the court martial court of appeal. and what today was about was a decision as to whether in the intervening time before that appeal was heard next year, he should be freed from prison in wiltshire but the two dredgers, the lord cheesejustice lord thomas and mrjustice sweeney have decided he should not be granted bail —— the lord chief justice lord thomas. thank you. the government has been told it shouldn't keep computer data under laws which critics have called the "snoopers' charter". the european court ofjustice has ruled that communications information can only be retained if it's used to fight serious crime.

the home office says it'll try to get the decision overturned. 0ur our legal affairs correspondent clive coleman has been looking at this further. we are really looking at the investigatory powers act which is known by many people as the snoopers charter. this concerns the retention of data. it is not the content of a phone call, text or an e—mail or even your internet browsing, it is the what, when, how and why, if you like. it paints a picture of what you have been up to, who you have been talking to, when you were talking to them and so forth. it can create a very complete picture of a person's life. the european court ofjustice today ruled that the general retention of data is illegal. it can only be used to combat serious crime. that gives the government

at the time of a real and present terror threat a headache. if it can only be used in the case of serious crime, presumably terrorism is what they are talking about? yes, it would be terror offences and so forth. what civil liberties groups have argued and it is interesting, this case was originally brought by david davis the brexit secretary. at the time david davis said this legislation was the forerunner of the investigatory powers act. he withdrew from this case after he became the brexit secretary. it is something of an irony that he has won a victory from europe's highest court which many who voted for brexit cannot wait to see the back of. the concern of civil liberties groups was this was being used in a very indiscriminate way, not attached to the investigation of

serious crime and there were no safeguards. you did not have to go to a judge to get a warrant to justify this. once the data is retained, it can be accessed by a huge number of public bodies, the police, the nhs, hmrc and even the gambling ccommission. that was the concern that it was too broad, too wide and too easy to access. this was the ruling today from the ecj, what can the home office do, if anything? it is difficult. the case was referred to the ecj by our court of appeal to get clarification on this point of law. there are now robust arguments to defend the current regime in the court of appeal, i think that will be very difficult because the ecj judgment takes precedence and they will be bound by that. what might be the better option for them, particularly at the time of heightened terror threat,

is to talk to their european is to talk to their european partners. this centres around a european directive which is prohibitive this mass collection of data, and to talk to those partners and see if they could get a directive which tighten things up and more accommodating to this broad retention of data. thank you. german police have launched a national manhunt for a tunisian man who is suspected of carrying out the attack in berlin. in london, extra security measures have been put in place including for the changing of the guard ceremony in buckingham palace. a royal marine serving life after being found guilty of murdering an injured afghan fighter has been refused bail perjuring further

conviction challenge. hello, i'm susannah streeter with the business news. government borrowing fell in november to £12.6 billion, according to the office for national statistics. that's down £0.6 billion from november 2015. however the fall was slightly less than analysts had been expecting. uk firms need to maintain "barrier—free" access to european union markets after brexit. the cbi warns that british companies should not be subject to trade tariffs, and face only "minimal" other barriers. the government said it was committed to delivering the best possible access to european markets for uk businesses. mp5 have called for the pensions regulator to be given much stronger powers to thwart rogue employers who fail to support their pension schemes. the commons work and pensions committee says the regulator should have the power to impose "punitive fines" of as much as £1 billion. following the collapse of the bhs pension scheme, the mp5 say the regulator itself needs to be reformed. it's tiny compared to the big boys

in the telecoms market — and doesn't even have to provide a customer service number. but the mobile phone network giff gaff has been named mobile network of the year by u switch. the company, which has no high street presence and instead relies on an online community to deal with customer queries, has repeatedly triumphed over better—known rivals such as ee and vodafone. it also operates a pay back scheme which allows customers to make money every time they recruit a new member or helps others in the giff gaff forums. it is called payback and monetary value is accrued via a points system. joining me now is the chief executive of giff gaff, mike fairman. hello. first of all, tell me more about why you don't need a customer services helpline. that must be frustrating for some people who sign

up. we find working with our members in close collaboration to help run large parts of our business goes down well with our other members. people appreciate the fact that another customer is helping them out on the forums and we find that people are very happy with that actually. what happens if you get bad advice on the forums? do members get a deduction from the point they earn? first of all you get a response remarkably quickly. 0n average if you ask a question the first response will come back within 90 seconds and there are usually half a dozen responses come back and the community are very good at correcting errors that people might make in there. also, the amount of points you get for a reward are determined by the accuracy of the a nswe rs determined by the accuracy of the answers so determined by the accuracy of the answers so it is are you relying

on people being tech savvy while others are left behind? we keep our costs down and provide a great service for those who are happy to buy online and be served online. we are not everyone but for those people we think we provide a great value service. you really keep your costs down but meanwhile, the competitors are muscling back in. they are offering low—cost bundles as well. how can you continue to compete? one of the things the community does do is contribute ideas as to how giff gaff can be made better. in our ideas for we have had 6000 suggestions about how to make the business better. those ideas are voted on by the members and the best ones we put forward and try to implement. 0ver and the best ones we put forward and try to implement. over the years we have implemented 600. it is approximately on every four days. we think it is something which keeps us

ahead of the competition because we listen really clearly to what our customers want. thank you for talking to us. in other news... the swiss competition commission has fined several european and us banks for rigging benchmark interest rates and related products. jp morgan chase received the largest fine — worth almost 34 million swiss francs — for colluding with royal bank of scotland over the swiss franc libor rate. barclays was also fined 29.8 millio swiss francs for its part in a cartel to rig euro interest rate derivatives. the italian parliament has approved a government plan for a possible £16.8 billion bailout of the country's banks. the italian treasury will probably have to rescue italy's third largest lender, monte dei paschi, by the end of next week. a consultancy firm has apologised to the government for the "disru ption" caused by a leaked memo that suggested ministers had no plan for brexit. deloitte said it regretted the publication, adding it had proposed a plan "to put this matter behind" them. trading is pretty light across stock

markets around the world — the so—called santa rally pushed up stocks to record levels in the us yesterday — but today the ftse 100 here in london is looking pretty subdued. in the financial sector the focus is once more on the italian bank monte dei paschi dei siena — the oldest bank in the world — whose shares have tumbled on fading hopes that it will avoid a state bail out. mining stocks were the top fallers, down 0.7 %. rio tinto was the biggest faller in the sector, down 1.2%, as a tropical storm headed towards a key iron ore belt in australia. top individualfaller on the ftse 100 was outsourcing group capita, after it was hit by a downgrade by goldman sachs. that is all the business news from me for now. we will have a full

round—up in the next hour. thank you. just to bring you some news coming through from the old bailey. there are just hearing that a royal marines reserves —— reservist, martin shannon, has been jailed for 14.5 years following an undercover sting to recover guns and ammunition he had stockpiled. and from chester crown court we are hearing that robert mak manyara has been jailed hearing that robert mak manyara has beenjailed for hearing that robert mak manyara has been jailed for trying to burgle wayne rooney's mansion while wayne rooney was playing a testimonial game —— robert mcnamara. he has been jailed for two years and eight months. and we will have much more from berlin. we will get more on the continuing search for whoever carried out the attack on the

christmas market. this is the site. the emergency services and authorities are now beginning to clear that site. 12 people were killed and nearly 50 injured. we will be live in berlin at four o'clock. now we will pause just before the top of the hour and look at the weather prospects with darren bett. thank you. good afternoon. the run—up to christmas looks very interesting weather—wise. we will find spells of rain and showers, some of which will be wintry. storm barbara is on the way in the next couple of days. there is some rain to move south eastwards away from england and wales. behind it, some patchy mist and fog. a chilly

old night as guys tend to clear. where we head towards the north and north—west with the wintry showers coming in, there could be some icy conditions in the morning, particularly on the high roots in scotland. a cold start given the strength of the wind. a lot of showers to come in. some showers get blown into the north—west of england and wales and the far south—west of england. temperatures will not be far away from freezing in the countryside and there will be fog around in the morning in the south—east in particular. it should tend to lift and will be quite sunny for the rest of the day. it is a lwa ys for the rest of the day. it is always dry and sunny towards the east. frequent wintry showers in scotland. more snow on the hills. terrible conditions in the mountains. a fresher feel for all of us mountains. a fresher feel for all of us but at least there will be some sunshine. as we head into friday we

have barbara to steam in from the atlantic. it is the strength of the winds which will have an impact. we have an amberwind winds which will have an impact. we have an amber wind warning from the met office, be prepared, there is likely to be some disruption given a lot of people are likely to be travelling. the worst of the weather is across the northern half of the uk. there are gusts of 90 mph. even as far south as north wales, northern england and northern ireland, gusts of 12 are developing but easing down on the morning of christmas eve. there will be some sunshine around, temperatures pretty good. the cloud amounts will increase. as we head into christmas day, we have potentially another storm, at least a spell of windy weather arriving with that area of low pressure. the risk of travel disruption. ahead of it, this weather front, some very mild air

across the uk. it could be a record—breaking christmas day. ahead of that some snow over high ground, particularly in scotland. this is bbc news. the headlines at 4pm: the royal marine serving life after being found guilty of murdering an injured afghan fighter, has been refused bail, pending a new conviction challenge. german police launch a manhunt for a tunisian man suspected of carrying out a lorry attack on christmas shoppers in berlin, leaving 12 people dead. there are vigils to those who died as the german interior state minister says the tunisian suspect had his asylum application rejected after arriving in the country last year. in london, extra security measures including for the changing the guard ceremony at buckingham palace. jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years,

the multi—millionaire property developer who murdered his escort girlfriend.