tv Inside Out BBC News March 26, 2017 4:30pm-5:01pm BST
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now on bbc news the week's strongest stories from the bbc‘s inside out teams... hello and welcome to inside out. stories and investigations from where you live. the grieving families fighting for answers from the probation service. he was just snuffed out in half an hour. no family should have to go what we went through. and the whistle—blowers worried about a service under strain. the probation service isjust waiting for somebody to be murdered, raped or very seriously wounded. also tonight, prepare for a transformation. this will be the last time we will see you like this. i would really like to have full hair again. a community helps one mum bounce back from cancer. and brace yourselves. here they come.
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we know there's 1000 people coming ashore in the morning and they haven't had lunch. helping to keep the isles of scilly afloat. hello, welcome to inside out, south west. every year, thousands of offenders are released from prison and put on the supervision of the probation service. a number of murders here in the south—west have thrown the spotlight onto how that service is being run and the concerns of families who have had to fight for answers. his whole life was just snuffed out in half an hour. no family should have to go through what we have gone through. for more than two years,
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andrea sharp has been trying to get to the bottom of a terrible family tragedy. today she is heading for london, where she hopes she will finally get some answers. itjust piles on the agony of dragging everything out, we shouldn't have to go through this. the answer should have been there. this is the last photo of her son, he was a popular local builder who grew up on the outskirts of plymouth and served in the navy. he loved his family, his friends and football. he was just 27 when he was brutally murdered here on new year's eve 2014. i can't do it. my son was so young and had
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so much life ahead of him. her son were stabbed to death outside this pub, he was on his way to a party with friends. trying to understand how you left your brother 15 minutes before and then for that to happen, it is, to me, unthinkable. i can't get my head around it. what if somebody had done theirjob and he hadn't been there to hurt anybody. what tortures andrea is knowing tanis might still be alive if his killer had not been on the streets that night. donald pemberton had a fascination with knives. at the time he attacked tanis, he was on police bail, because two weeks before he had been
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caught wielding a machete. the police have admitted that had he beenjailed instead of bailed, there is a chance he wouldn't been free to kill. but there was also in another organisation which was supervising pemberton at the time. the probation service. and internal report revealed his probation officer was new to the post and had not had appropriate training. risk assessments had not been properly recorded. the report found none of that is directly linked to the killing and the probation officer had taken steps to bring pemberton back before a court. but it has highlighted wider concerns about the state of the probation service. i have come to meet helen cowley, she works for probation for 27 years until she quit lastjune worried about changes been brought in. i could see that things would... would come to a nasty end.
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it was becoming too dangerous and difficult, i didn't want to be part of it any more. at the time of the killing, the state—run probation service was in the process of being broken up, ready for privatisation. a month later, a firm called working links took over the contract in the south—west, promising to change lives, creating futures. it has since proposed cutting 600 jobs, 40% of the workforce. the government says selling the service would improve it, but helen believes it has on the opposite. but helen believes it has done the opposite. the problem is, when you have got a service that is reducing staff and few are left. you'll be in a situation like this — less experienced staff are supervising high risk offenders. do you think that this compromises public sector? the probation service, what is left of it, it is waiting for somebody to be murdered, raped or seriously wounded. it could happen any day
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and it can happen anywhere. you think it is that serious? absolutely. working links has told us every single case that is dealt with on the phone will still have some face—to—face engagement. but the unions believe the company is struggling because its bid was based on up—to—date figures on offender numbers. the contract is locked into these arrangements, they are now going back whingeing to the ministry ofjustice with some justification, about what they were sold under these commercial contracts. many others suggested it was sold. they say they are confident they can deliver the performance target, but figures obtained by inside out show that died in the end of last but figures obtained by inside out show that in the end of last year, the firm had racked up around £1 million worth of fines, but not seen clients quickly enough.
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vicky, not her real name, is another working links probation officer. she says her workload doubled after privatisation. i am aware of colleagues who have resorted to going and sitting in their car in the car park, just so that they could weep. pick themselves up. and get back in the office to get on with theirjob. sometimes it is very difficult to make room to see everybody, that you need to be seeing. there have been delays, where people haven't been seen for months at the time. we put this to working links who told us it would at all times deliver a safe service and that its model was designed so the highest risk offenders got the most help. but we have found another family in devon who have questions about how well that model is working. sarah's brother was brutally murdered just over a year ago. we can't reveal her identity for legal reasons. it... horror. that is the only word for it.
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it is devastating, mentally. i was fit for absolutely nothing. her brother was vulnerable, groomed by a man with a history of violent crime. he stole money from her brother before beating and kicking him to death. at the time, he was under the supervision of working links. my brother was known to the services are being very vulnerable. how it possibly to the place in full view, i do not understand. why was there no closer supervision? somebody should have picked up on it. do you think if there had been better supervision, he could still be alive? yes, absolutely, totally. in cases like this, families are entitled to a summary of the probation service report into what happened.
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something sarah didn't know about until we got in touch. that was the first i had ever heard of the family having any access to the probation report or indeed that it was a probation report being completed. working links said it never withholds reports and it is the job of the police to liaise with families over this information. however the police told us that they had no record of being notified that a report existed. back in plymouth, the family of the murdered young man have also to fight for the facts. it is not clear at all, we have gotjust three pages. they are still waiting for access to the full internal probation service report into their son's death. it is just totally frustrating and upsetting.
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the emotional feeling that they are keeping information from you, that should be there for everybody to know, it is just totally unfair. andrea is taking her quest for answers to the top. i have never done anything like this before in my life. it is a huge step. she is meeting thejustice secretary, liz truss. i will tell her what we have gone through over the last year and how badly we have suffered. the meeting is overjust 20 minutes. but there is progress. just a huge relief, she said she is going to definitely look into it. she was shocked by the case. i am not totally gullible, so if i don't hear from anybody, i will be banging on doors. the ministry ofjustice is currently reviewing the probation service, the aim to ensure there are no more victims. for andrea, its findings
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can't come soon enough. we all hope our friends will be there for us when we need them most. that is exactly what happened for one plymouth woman. tonight we have the story of cat roberts who after years of illness had her dearest wish granted with more than a little help from her friends. we're going to go from a darker brown in the a medium brown. take a seat up here. we will cover up the mirror, 0k? this will be the last time we are going to see you like this. my husband is going to be very shocked. he is so used to seeing me with short hair. he is always saying to me that it doesn't bother him, that he likes it. sometimes i look like
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i have bald patches. it is annoying. but i know he loved my hair when it was long. so i think it will remind him. i was 14 when we met, but i was 16 when we got together, my first love, definitely. one day we got talking, laughing and joking around, and something just clicked. don't know whether i believe in the love at first sight thing, but it was kind of, if it was anything like that, that's what it would have been. when we first got together we knew that we wanted children and that we were trying majorly. and that we were trying
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from the age of 18. i've got marshall, who is nine, and phoebe, who is coming up six. i'm lucky to have one of each. i would rather look at the positives than negatives. there is a lot of negatives already. you try to ignore that and just have fun with everything we can. i found my lump when i was watching i went to brush my hair away with my hand and i felt something hard and i thought it was something down my top. i then went to look for it, and it was a lump but it was quite big and i don't know how i had missed it. i went to the doctors about it.
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i had just turned 26 and they said it is almost impossible to get cancer at my age, breast cancer, it is just a fatty lump. then five days later, i had a call, and it was the specialist asking to see me, and ijust knew. they literallyjumped straight to it and told me it was cancer. my husband just sat there in shock. he was speechless. it seem like a lifetime that i was sat there. i wasjust holding her hand, and out of nowhere i asked a question, is she going to lose her hair? that is when it hit him. it was horrible. that makes me cry, knowing he was... bless him. i had to have my surgery first, then i had to go straightaway three
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weeks after surgery, quite aggressive chemotherapy. after that i went... i had radiotherapy. five days a week for a month. i then went on to have my breasts removed and my ovaries removed as well. i went on instant menopause. it was really hard. it was awful. i am getting used to it now. at the moment i have just had my second scan in a row that has come back clear. so i am buzzing from that, still. my hair has never been right again since having it, this is two and a half years growth and it isjust not a lot for that time. it is so thin.
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i would really love full hair again. it would make me feel, i just feel so unfeminine, and my husband is always reassuring me... ijust can't move past it. sorry. it is really hard. i should cry over the cancer, but i'm crying over my hair. do you enjoy doing this? yeah, i love it. i decided that i really wanted to get into fitting the hair extensions for people who suffer with alopecia, cancer and severe hair loss, and i wanted to help them, so i thought they has got to be something out there that can give these people their hair back. because of how my hair is and how it
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has grown back, i am not able to have these extensions. because it is so fine, it wouldn't work. instead of a wig, we went for a great alternative well be just the hair ourselves and it's like having a wig but attached to your hair. it averages at about £900. gemma offered it to me slightly cheaper, but it is still really expensive. i said why don't we do a charity event and raise as much money as we can, and hopefully you can afford to get your hair done and we can also give the remaining money to charity? it is a lots of money to find. i'm offering glitter
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tattooes, cupcakes, face painting and haircuts. gemma is doing haircut now. is five minutes 0k? ideal. 0k, cheers, bye. getting everywhere today. about £500 so far, that is selling raffle tickets, and we're getting plenty of donations put in the bucket today. we should hit the target no problem. we have enough money so far to get their hair in, so that is done as she is all booked in for tuesday. this is a top piece that
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are you excited? yeah, i can't wait now. you have been waiting all day! all done. bet you can't wait to see it. are you ready for your reveal? stand up, my dear, lovely. ready? yeah. oh, my god! like a different person. i know, you look so much younger. do you like it? yeah, i love it. martin is going to freak. he's going to love it, isn't he? that is amazing. it is real hair.
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that is mad. do you like it? yeah, really nice. it is really good, isn't it? i have literallyjust seen it. it is utterly amazing, it has been a long time since i have seen her with hair, and it is worth every minute of the waiting for three years. i mean, she was pretty before the hair, but she looks amazing now. she loves it. it is amazing. i can't explain it. it really feels like it is mine. i love it. mum, you are pretty. the isles of scilly is one of the southwest's top
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tourism destinations, but what happens when the island's population doubles just for one day? andrewjohnston has been finding out. my name is steve hicks, and one of the boatman. the business is quite a significant chunk of our income. just over 50 cruise ships this year. it is earlyjuly and the isles of scilly are getting ready for a very busy day. did you take this booking? three adults and two children? yeah. two ships coming in today, and it is not a usual day. the harbour master is
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expected to welcome a large number of passengers. it is all hands on deck. we have 1000 people coming onshore in a morning and they haven't had lunch then it is time to batten down the hatches. how we welcome all these people this morning? i think they're going to have a very nice day here, there is not much wind and it is warm. it is just before 9am and the cruise ships at anchor and it is time to pick up passengers. 100 years ago, scilly boasted a huge pilchard fishing fleet, but today tourism is the archipelago's main industry. welcome to scilly in the sunshine, enjoy your day. the town is filling up. we knew they were coming, as long as we're ready and we can
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prepare, it is all good. the jewel in the scilly tour crown has always been these gardens. most of our clients are tender because of the climate, the gulf stream, the sea mists, where we are in the ocean, so all those combinations make the garden that completely different from anything in the world. as mike goes to meet more visitors to the gardens, one of scilly‘s unique combinations will test even the stiffest tourist resolve. the rain shower passes and they go on. but it has been a good month for the gardens. a normal cruise ship day you might get anything between 50 and 200 people depending on the size of the ship, but in total today just over 600. it is nearly 4pm and steve
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is getting ready to take the last of the passengers back. come to an end now, we've moved a few hundred people one way or another. in fact, today the boatman have moved 10% of the island's annual cruise tourists, and these visitors are increasingly important to the economy. people don't realise that these beautiful islands are here in the united kingdom and it is down to us to make absolutely certain that these people had a really good holiday, and i think generally that is what we do. it is time for steve to head back to port. but the scilly pushing hard to attract more to it, it won't be long before the next big cruise ship drops anchor. and that is it from all of us at inside out — join us again next monday at 7:30pm when we'll have plenty more stories. i will see you then.
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i hope you have managed to enjoy the sunshine at some stage during the course of the weekend. it has been an abundance across the uk, and much of north—west europe, we have joined in the fun, rain bearing weather fronts in the fun, rain bearing weather fro nts ke pt in the fun, rain bearing weather fronts kept well at bay. that will change over the next few days. it has been warm, a nice glow to this weather map. this wall across the highs of scotland where temperatures have reached the dizzy heights of 20 degrees! cooling down over the next couple of others, as the sun sets. temperatures will fall and it will be cold. single figures quite widely, and in some spots, as we have seen, getting down below freezing. in rural parts of north—west britain. the best of the sunshine in scotland first thing in the morning. not doing badly. more
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cloud will have coming to parts of north—east england and the midlands, may be east wales as well. fog patches for good measure. it will be a murky start for the central easterners. the best of the sunshine in east anglia and south—east scotland, more cloud around, especially in parts of north—east england, the east of the pennines in the coast of south—east scotland here. more cloudy, temperatures knocked on the head, nine or ten, but where there is sun, it will be a warm one. 15 or 17 degrees. the week sta rts warm one. 15 or 17 degrees. the week starts dry but it won't stay that way... this weather system pushes in from the north—west but between, reasonable sunshine and temperatures doing quite well. the first sign of change comes from the south west with a frontal band. fishing into south—west england and wales through the day. sporadic outbreaks of rain,
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no great amounts. hit and miss. but for some, a marked change in the weather. sharp showers around. chilly along the north sea coast but elsewhere, temperatures do well if you see sunshine. by wednesday, and other frontal system coming you see sunshine. by wednesday, and otherfrontal system coming in off the atlantic. heavy rain, directed to the west primarily but if you look further ahead through the week, it will move further eastwards. by the end of the week most of us will have seen some of the wet stuff. the latest weather is on the bbc weather website, back in 30 minutes... this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 5pm: home secretary amber rudd calls on technology firms such as whatsapp to allow security services access to encrypted messages in terrorism cases. whatsapp says it is corp rating with the authorities. we do want them to recognise, they have a responsibility to engage with
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government and law enforcement agencies when it is a case of terrorism. detectives say it took just 82 seconds for khalid masood to carry out his murderous assault before he was shot dead. he's believed to have acted alone. they say his motive may never be known. the family of the police officer who was killed, pc keith palmer, has thanked the people who tried to save his life. they say they're grateful he did not die alone. more than 30 people have been injured, two seriously, after a suspected gas explosion on merseyside. in russia, police clamp down on anti—corru ption protests held across the country.
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