i was so terrified, i got so terrified, and it was so disappointing, because this never happened in the area, we've lived in the area for six years, next year it will be seven years, and i've not seen such a thing. further violence on the streets of hong kong as police fire tear gas at demonstrators marching in defiance of a police ban. now on the bbc news we have the best of the week's exclusive interviews and reports from the victoria derbyshire programme. hello and welcome to the programme. over the next half—hour i will bring some of the highlights and originaljournalism from our show over the last week. first, ebay says it's banned sellers from its site as this programme found they were selling vaping

products to children as young as 13. trading standards also revealed to us that its spot checks this year found that 40% of shops in england were selling to kids. our reporter callum tulley has this exclusive film. i got a police officer here with me. you've just made this sale to a 15—year—old police cadet. a police officer saw you. a couple of packages arrived through the post. they had my son's name on them. it just didn't feel entirely comfortable, so i decided to open the packages. and that's when i discovered he'd bought an e—cigarette and some liquid. i say to the government, if you want your policies delivered effectively you need to provide appropriate resources and funding through to the front lines so we can do that. are you being provided with appropriate funding and resources? no — not across the police. trading standards have previously warned both the shops in this film for selling vaping products to under—18s. i never knew what i'm doing — purely gave me money, walked up.

now i realize — i can swear to anything that it is a mistake. undeliberately — unintentionally, i did that. i actually went into a real vaping shop. i said, "i forgot my id," and he just gave it to me. so easy to just go online and got something. and going in shops, no—one really asks for id. these two police cadets are under 18. they're trying to buy vaping products. any shop that sells to them is breaking the law. you got three? yeah. three for £5. he hasjust gone in that shop and actually bought three blueberry—coloured e—liquids with a warning on the outside of them not to sell to under—18s. these operations carried out by trading standards and the police are used to identify shops selling age—restricted products to under—18s. this clearly says, "this product contains nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance. "

clearly a successful bust for the team. colleague and i will be adding that to the evidence bag. so they weren't even id'd. there were no questions asked, according to the undercover police officer who witnessed the sale. this programme's learnt that for vaping products, four in every ten of the 227 shops tested this year didn't comply with age—restriction requirements — that's a 12% increase on last year. for tobacco products, the failure rate for this year was 18% — compared with 10% the previous year. 3.6 million of britain's population use e—cigarettes — that's a rise of 12.5% from last year. to many, vaping is an effective way to quit smoking. but whilst rates of vaping among young people remain low, there are concerns that it's being marketed at teens. a recent study which looked at data from online surveys of over 12,000

16—to—19—year—olds found that 38% of them said vaping adverts made e—cigarettes seem appealing. 36% said they believe non—smokers were being purposely targeted. in the uk we have regulations against ads being appealing to youth. so under the advertising standards authority, the ads shouldn't appeal to youth. so that is quite concerning that they are and it signals that that regulation isn't working as it should. my name's kasey. i'm19 years old and i started vaping when i was 16th. my name's sydney. i'm17 and i've been vaping since i was 16. my name is georgia smith. i'm 16 years old. i've been vaping for a year and a bit. how easy is it to buy e—cigarettes and vaping liquids online? very easy. yeah. click of a button? yeah. no id? it's so easy. there's nothing to say about it — it'sjust so easy. some companies you do get id'd, like when they delivery it you get id'd at the door.

how do you get your hands on e—cigarettes and vaping liquids? see, for me, ijust walked into the shop. they asked for id and was like, "bring it next time," so it was really easy the first time. i've never bought it online cos i don't trust it. i normally try before i buy and even in the shops theyjust give you a free tutorial, two free liquids, and then you're set. you're rarely id'd. rarely. 0nline you can get them easy but it was more like stores, market, stuff like that. theyjust sell them to whoever, you know. no—one was asking you for id? no. proper official sites— sometimes they might. but the high majority of the time you're never really going to get asked for id online. i mean, there's a little box sometimes that says, "are you 18 or over?" but that's it — anyone can click yeah. we've spoken to several mothers whose children have been able to order vaping products online. 0ne mother — whose son is 13 — agreed to speak to us anonymously. the first i knew of it was when two little packages arrived through the letterbox one day.

he's bought a couple of bits on ebay before but it was quite unusual for something to arrive with his name on and for me not to know what it was. so i decided to open the packages and that's when i discovered that he bought an e—cigarette and some liquid. i was surprised at how easy it was for my son to have access to these products. he knows that he's too young and so he wouldn't go into a high—street store and try and buy them. but it was scarily easy for him to order these products online. my first instinct was anger and frustration at my son for doing something that he shouldn't be doing because he's too young and he knows he's too young to be buying e—cigarettes. and then once i calmed down a little bit and thought it through a bit more, my frustration and anger really turned to the retailer because there hadn't been any age—verification checks, which i really think that there should be

on age—restricted items. an ebay spokesperson said... "ebay sellers are required to have an effective age—verification process to prevent the sale of e—cigarettes to minors. sellers who do not comply will be permanently suspended, and we have banned those referenced by the bbc. we have also launched an additional review of seller processes and practices to ensure businesses selling these products are carrying out the required age checks on buyers." it's really important that if these platforms are allowing sales of goods and services through their platforms, that they're taking appropriate steps to make sure that consumers are protected. are you guys doing enough and have you made enough progress to ensure age—verification checks? yes. yeah, within the confines we have of resources, yes, i would say we are doing enough. if you're talking about underage sales, where does vaping sit with alcohol, tobacco, knives and acids? you know? because you can only do so much with the resource you've got.

i say to the government, if you want your policies delivered effectively you need to provide appropriate resources and funding through to the front line so we can do that. and are you being provided with appropriate funding and resources? no, not across the police. we have a problem in our country. it's a new problem, it's a problem nobody really thought about too much, a few years ago when it was called vaping. .. us president donald trump plans to follow countries like norway, australia and japan, and place restrictions on what can be vaped. vaping has become a very big business, as i understand it — like, a giant business in a very short period of time. but we can't allow people to get sick and we can't have our youth be so affected. he wants to ban flavoured e—cigarettes because of health—related problems and because he thinks they appeal to young people. but would such a ban help prevent teens vaping here? it would be easierfor us in many respects if that was banned because you've got a very straight line then — you can't supply flavoured products. sydney, you didn't smoke cigarettes before you started vaping, did you? no.

would you still vape if there were no flavours? probably not because ijust feel like... it's the flavour that i'm mainly, like, attracted to. if there wasn't that many flavours, there wasn't a flavour that i liked i wouldn't do itjust because — what's the point? if you don't really like it, why even do it? and i feel as time's gone by about me knowing, it's slowly become a thing of, like, i can go days without it but then sometimes i will have that feeling of like, "oh, my god," yeah, ifeel i do need the nicotine in the vape. i had problems because of the vape. i went to hospital and they took my blood and said there's too much liquid in my lungs, and they gave me some tablets for a course of two weeks. and after that i'm still getting the pains today but it's not as bad as it was. because it's new, there's not much about it but i do feel like, in years to come, there will be cancers, there will be this, there will be that. and i do think that they need to look into it a bit more. this week public health england

doubled down on their assertion that vaping is 95% less harmful than smoking. they also told us there's no evidence that flavours are leading kids who don't smoke into vaping. meanwhile, trading standards continue to struggle to stop stores selling e—cigarettes to teens. next month the man who murdered this woman, more than 30 years ago, will be eligible for parole. that's helen mccourt, she was 22 when she was killed in 1988. she was an insurance clerk from billinge near wigan, looking forward to getting married one day and having children. helen's body has never been found. her killer, a local pub landlord called ian simms hasn't disclosed where her remains are. he is due for parole next month. for decades, helen mccourt‘s mum has been campaigning to prevent the release of murderers and paedophiles who don't reveal information about their victims, and this week marie mccourt secured a victory.

the government announcing moves to change the law but, and here is the sting in the tail, new legislation may not come in in time for marie. what would it mean, marie, in practical terms, when this law is enacted? well, it will end an awful lot of families who in the same situation as me. helen's case was only the third since the end of the second world war where there was a guilty without a body, but now because of dna so many killers plan what they are going to do. these are cold—blooded killers. they plan it first and they plan to get rid of the evidence because they know dna, just one little speck of their blood on their clothing, and they can be done for murder. so, if this were brought in, mr mcginn, it would mean what for those who are already in jail? it would mean when they come before the parole board, the fact they haven't disclosed any

information about their victim's remains will be a considerable factor in determining whether they are released or not. yes. it would be a legal duty, it would place a legal duty for the first time that the parole board would have to consider whether this individual has disclosed information or not. it will become the law, it won't be arbitrary, it will be compulsory for that to be considered. can you explain to our audience, marie, why it is so important for you as helen's mum to have her remains? well, to lose a child or to lose anybody very close to you is hard. you know, a bereavement is hard but when that person has been murdered and their life has deliberately been taken... murder is not a nice death in any way. the victims are probably petrified all the way through it and may be subjected to a lot of cruelty. and so, not to be able to have your child or your loved one

back, and you feel... and this is how we feel, we're just normal, that at least we've got them back. it's my child, i brought her into this world and i'll see that she has the last rites of our church and i could go and put some flowers. i can still, in a way, go there and talk, which you can't do when you are anywhere else and this is so important to all our families, and to anybody. you only have to look at harry dunn's case, his mum needs to speak to that lady. she will bear that... that grief will be tightened up in her until she can do that. and what has it been like for you for 30 years not knowing where helen is? well, the last 32, almost 32 years, i've been a totally different person. i stopped communicating

with friends, all i wanted to do was go out and find my child and that's what we did, as a family and helen's friends and neighbours, and there would be about 30—110 people each weekend, we'd gather and we'd go out. it was like a safari with cars. we'd have about three cars with sandwiches, biscuits, flasks of tea, coffee, to give the people because... but you were going out all over the north—west of england with spades and trowels? yes, yes. and literally digging? i've even hired a digger to go and go 15 feet down because we found an area where a big five foot drain was being put in and that was open at the time of helen's disappearance. but we were assured by the people who put this pipe in that we would not have to go any further than 15 foot because then they just shovel all the rubbish

back in whereas before that, they have to put sand and everything to make sure the pipes don't get cracked. why do you believe helen's killer ian simms has not revealed where he buried her body? ian simms is... everybody classed him, he even called himself psycho simms, you know, and he was known in the village as that. and the only thing i can think of is there is two reasons, i would think. 0ne, he either is disappointed that he didn't beat the law and get away with her murder and the other is he had two young children at the time. they were aged four and six and they've grown up with their father saying, "i'm innocent, i'm innocent," and i don't blame them children, you know, for believing their father but the evidence against him is so overwhelming, you know, you couldn't understand why

he was still saying he was innocent. why do you think, mr mcginn, that ian simms has not disclosed the location of helen's remains? i think listening to marie it is clear that the torture and turmoil that he has put the mccourt family through over the last 32 years is clearly motivation for that. we've had cases where other families have told us of similar circumstances and that's why these people should never be released from prison. the community in billinge and saint helens, which has provided incredible support to the family and to me in this campaign, feel very very strongly about it, that this man should never be released. unless he discloses where the remains are? unless he discloses. i don't think that is an unreasonable ask. oh no, i mean nobody would think that is unreasonable to ask. i think it's a privilege for him even at that stage to be considered for parole, given his crime. one of the things about them not being released until they've said where the victim is is that — how do we know, how can you be sure that they won't go out and do

the same thing again? but they will learn by the mistakes they made on the first time when they got charged. and this law, when it comes in, we'll talk about the timing in a moment because it is crucial for your case obviously, would also be relevant to paedophiles and i interviewed the parent of a child who believes they were sexually abused by vanessa george, the paedophile nursery worker recently. vanessa george was released last month without revealing which children she had abused, and this parent was absolutely tortured, the word you used, felt wretched that they didn't know for sure if this woman had abused their child and yet she was being released. this law would apply to them too? yes, i think from marie and our perspective we have been very clear that helen's law relates to murderers not disclosing information but the government, in a similar way, has brought forward measures to address the issue that you've had, which we are supportive of, but we are very

clear that helen's law is specifically about murderers. this legislation may not be brought in in time to have an effect on ian simms, your daughter's killer. i'm begging everyone to get in touch with their mps, to the government to say this cannot be right, the parole board judges should not considere them safe to be released unless they say and cooperate where their victim's body is. only then, can they start preparing them to accept what they did, maybe find that within them, they could be released and because they revealed where their victim's bodies are then i think we could class they would be safe then to be because for one, everybody, all the local people will know, yes,

he is a killer and they will be wary of him and he will be watched. you know? and that is so important to families because we don't know if he comes out, he could come into our village, you know, and i wouldn't know who he was, but he would know who i was, he could stalk me, he could stalk my family and all life, he has tortured us all these years, so why should he be allowed out to torture us even more? finally, a head teacher prosecuted for running an illegal school has vowed to keep it open. ambassadors high school in streatham in south london was found to be operating illegally because it was unregistered with the government. nadia ali who runs the school was also found by 0fsted to have wilfully neglected safeguarding children. despite the prosecution,

neither 0fsted nor the local authority nor the court had the power to close it. with this exclusive film is reporter zoe conway. at the end of a row of shops in streatham, south london, there's a school hidden from view. the only clue it's there is the sound of children playing in the back garden. ambassadors high isn't registered with the government, it has been operating illegally, its head teacher prosecuted last month. yet this private muslim school is still open. this is the head teacher, nadia ali and this is her first interview. nadia, you have been prosecuted, some people would say ok, time to close but you have decided to stay open, why? because when it comes to the children the work that we have put in place is quite unique, because i have been teaching for 15 years and i have seen how

children maybe need a different approach and that is what we are trying to do at ambassadors, and this is why i believe in what we're trying do because we have seen a lot of results within our children, they are happy learners. nadia doesn't normally wear the niqab or face veil. she says she wants to keep a low profile. she was sentenced to community service last month but the court couldn't order the school to close. neither could 0fsted or the local authority. the school which caters for 4—14—year—olds has twice applied to to be government registered and twice it has been rejected by 0fsted for not meeting the independent schools standards. in february this year, 0fsted inspectors found there was no plan in place to actively promote fundamental british values. they said the head teacher nadia ali had wilfully neglected to meet some basic crucial safeguarding responsibilities.

they found six out of 11 teachers had not been dbs or criminal record checked. they said teachers do not have the skills to help pupils progress and concluded there was no capacity for improvement at the school. nadia rejects 0fsted's findings. at the time, when we had the inspection, all members of staff that were working at ambassadors were checked thoroughly. so why do they think that six have not been checked? at that time we only had four members of staff in school, so the staff that had left, they were still on our central record so i don't know if there were some missing, i don't know what happened at that time but we did try to explain it to the inspector. what number do you think is missing? ten. number ten, what dos number ten look like? well done. 0k, your turn now. last year inspectors found books in the staff room that encouraged parents to hit their children

if they don't pray. they also found books that said that a wife does not have the right to deny her husband. but they didn't find any evidence that children had access to these books. do those books still exist in the staff room? no, no, basically we had loads of donated to us by a mosque. we were in the process of getting building works done to prepare this building for a registration for a school. everything was kept in the office and it was locked because i didn't have a chance to do quality checks and assurance and go through every single thing to see which is suitable and which is not for the school. do you accept that is not suitable? of course, yeah. i mean, the reason why i'm talking about this, it feeds into this idea that actually you don't want this school to be part of modern british society. i don't believe thatjust by finding some books or a paragraph

from a book like that makes us go against the fundamental british values because we are not, we are part of a society. our children and us, we have grown in this society. there is nothing in the british values that goes against the teachings of our religion, respecting democracy. we talk about that, we had taken the children to the parliament, you know, we have spoken about politics, we have talked about the recent political issues that are happening so i don't really believe that is what we want to do. one parent told us off camera that one reason she didn't want her child to go to a mainstream school is because they promote homosexuality. so, how can the school stay open? well, it argues that it is not breaking the law because it operates part—time for 18 hours a week only and so it doesn't have to register with the government. parents told us they like this flexible approach, they like feeling in control

of what their children are learning. this is the only parent who would talk to us on camera. flexible school, the closest one for me was streatham here and when i found out about it i was thinking that was great because thatjust covers everything for me. i can do the home ed and he gets to socialise, he gets to come to school and i believe he is not missing out on anything. these pupils used to learn the quran in school. now they are taught at the mosque opposite. nadia says these classes are run by parents yet the school website asks parents to pay £80 a month for these lessons. it is not clear how many hours a week the school is operating, over the road at the mosque pupils are getting two hours of religious instruction every day. two doors down behind this red glass, parents say they are running a home school tuition club. and then there's this timetable.

for pupils aged between 11 and 1a, it adds up to 21 hours a week. 0n the wall is a timetable and it is very clear how many hours each day... they are doing, yes, yes. and it adds up to 21 hours. how does it add up to 21 hours? because it said monday 10—1, tuesday wednesday thursday, 10—3 and friday, 10—1. which is 21 hours. ok, that is strange because tuesday and wednesday they don't come in so i don't know what's happened there, i have to check. ok, so it's the wrong timetable. so there is no one doing these hours? no. in this school? yeah, at the moment the school does not open above 18 hours at all. nadia is determined to keep the school open. she says she is getting her paperwork in order. she is applying once again to register the school in a few weeks' time. that's it for this week's programme.

a reminder you can contact us day or night. send us an e—mail or message me on twitter. thanks for watching. we are going to bring up to date following the death of 217—year—olds who were stabbed to death in milton keynes. thames valley police have been giving a statement, let's listen in what they been saying. my name is detective chief superintendent ian hunter, i am the head of crime. i will make a brief statement in relation to the double murder investigation in relation to milton keynes which we have launched this morning. i can only answer brief questions on clarification at this early stage of the investigation, i will ask you respected this. thames valley police was called at 11:59pm last night so

just before midnight to reports of a stabbing incident in milton keynes. tragically as a result of this incident 117—year—old boy died of his injuries at the scene and the second boy also 17, was taken to hospital where sadly he also died. two other males, one aged 17 and one aged 23 were also injured as a result of this incident which occurred at a private house party at that address. clearly, this is a dreadful incident and we are in the very early stages of the investigation. we have deployed significant resources and it is and will continue to be a fast—moving investigation led by our major crime unit. 0ur investigation led by our major crime unit. our thoughts go out to the families of the victims and we have deployed specially trained officers to support them. we remain on the

scene and a scene has been cordoned off while the investigation continues, this scene is likely to remain for several days. i fully appreciate the concern that this will cause the local community and beyond but at this early stage, i believe the people directly involved in this incident are all likely to have known each other. there will be an increased police presence and if you have anything you wish to raise 01’ you have anything you wish to raise orany you have anything you wish to raise 01’ any concerns, you have anything you wish to raise or any concerns, please don't hesitate to speak to our offices and staff. it is important of course that our investigation team receive all relevant information so i urge anybody who can help, no matter how insignificant you think this may be, to come forward. we also want to hear from anyone who was in the area of emerson valley between 11pm last night and of emerson valley between 11pm last nightand1am of emerson valley between 11pm last night and 1am this morning. please contact us by using the 24—hour

nonemergency number 101, quoting the unique reference number of 1761 of the 19th of october. that is calling 101 and quote reference number 1761 of the 19th of october. we will also be providing access via our major incident police portal and further details will remain shortly. if you do not wish to talk to the police you can of independent charity crimestoppers anonymously. i am now available for one or two clarifying questions. it is said it is believed the police sketch at people involved knew each other? how does that fit with what people look we are saying about it being gang—related? we are doing everything we can to gather information, a number of people were present at the party, officers will speak to those people and piece together what has happened, very early stages yet, i

don't want