there's been a huge surge in support for pro—democracy candidates in hong kong's local elections. they're on course to take more than three—quarters of the seats, and sweep aside the pro—beijing establishment. the poll has been the first electoral test after months of often violent pro—democracy protests. leaked documents seen by the bbc have revealed that a network of high security prisons in western china is designed to brainwash hundreds of thousands of people, mainly muslims from the uighur minority. china has always insisted the camps in the xinjiang region offer education and training. days of heavy rain have left parts of italy and france under water — with hundreds of homes in the cote d'azur damaged. in northern italy part of a bridge was brought down by a landslide following torrential rains. officials say there have been no confirmed casualties following the collapse. now on bbc news, a year—long bbc

investigation has revealed that —— it's dateline london. inside the unregulated homes failing to protect our most vulnerable children. it was a little hellhole. living here was a punishment. our year—long investigation hears stories of abuse, exploitation, and despair. how many times did you attempt to take your life? i think about three times. that is actually disgusting. no—one should ever lay their hand on someone like that. people bringing in acids, knives, samurai swords, everything. that house was basically just a drug deal house. but i had to live there because i couldn't go nowhere else. we reveal the caravans and holiday homes being used to house our most vulnerable children, speak to a worker who witnessed failures. and that was it. that was the last time i saw her. trafficked, gone. yeah, gone.

and ask what needs to be change? it's not a loophole, it's a scandal. if action isn't taken on the back of this programme then we're colluding in letting groomers, predatory paedophiles go after those children. i was in my care home at a semi independent place and a car came up in the drive. i didn't know who it was. and then a bag put over my head, got flung in the boot, got taken to a random house out in the country, got flannels put over my face, got waterboarded, got stripped, got beaten. i was stabbed once in my shoulder and twice in my leg. when i got let go i was laying on the road dying. kidnapped while in care. this is the story of young people

in unregulated homes, often called semi—independent accommodation, mainly for those in or leaving the care system. this teenager is 17 and has been in care since the age of five. for the past two years he's been in unregulated homes. most weeks he goes missing — often to sell drugs. i was going missing every day for, like, months on end. did the unregulated home have your phone number? yeah. were they ringing you? no. how easy was it for you to get involved in county lines drug dealing? easy. if you live in an unregulated home checks are only made by council and not a regulator. this teenager was repeatedly exploited by drug gangs. i would be at one place, they would take me to another place. to sell heroin and crack cocaine? yeah. why didn't you say no? they said if you say no, you're going to get killed or your family's getting killed.

ourfigures indicate the number of times young people have gone missing from unregulated homes has more than doubled in the last three years. all the money i got from doing it — i was using it to get home. despite growing up in central london, he was sent to live in an unregulated home hundreds of miles away in north wales. there was no family around me. i had no friends. everyone was coming up to me, cause they knew i weren't from the area, can you do this for us, can you do that for us, because you ain't known around here. two months in being there i lost my mum. when i lost my mum they didn't try arrange to go to the funeral. so i didn't get to go to my mum's funeral. the care system made me, social services, and the government, made mejust feel like i didn't want to be around no more. did you try and take your life? yeah. i've tried a couple of times. what was going through your mind? that i wanted to see my mum for a last time and i could get out of this world where no—one cares about me. we've been told these pictures show young people in unregulated homes

with weapons and drugs. we found out more than 50 people were sexually abused or exploited after going missing last year. our information requests also revealed that around one in six missing episodes features a young person already known to be at risk of child sexual exploitation. we've learned that some children in care under the age of 16 are staying in caravans, narrowboats, and holiday homes. the care regulator in england says it's entirely legal for an unregulated home to accommodate children like this — if they offer support and not care. short holiday breaks or a mobile, like a narrowboat.

but we've heard of loopholes being exploited. here, near blackpool, care children would spend up to four weeks in one caravan before being moved to another in the same park, to try to get around rules governing short—term placements. what was happening? in a different case, a 15—year—old girl was placed in eight unregulated homes by dorset council, run by a number of companies, including at this holiday home. she picked the knife up and started waving it around into my face. she just didn't want to be here. an absolute nervous wreck. you know, she was upset. the two carers then started explaining why she's here — to be assessed and all that — and i said, well, you can't be here, that is not for that. dorset council said the girl was moved so much because there aren't enough registered placements to support children with very complex needs. she described it as a prison. one of the sad words was "wouldn't

it be nice to wake up with the same faces instead of getting different carers in every other day?" what i witnessed that night will stay with me for some time. the vast majority of residents in unregulated homes are over the age of 16. it's about halfway down, isn't it? a year ago we were told that vulnerable teenagers are being badly failed while living in many unregulated homes. but multiple people mentioned one company in particular. and what's the name of the one we're going to now? young people from six different council areas were placed in these homes, designed to provide support and not care. many were children in care who had faced some of the most challenging home lives imaginable, including childhood abuse and family tragedy. this one here. yeah. this is where she lived.

we obtained this confidential briefing sent around councils with claims of serious safeguarding failings in homes in essex and london run by a company called centurion care. we set out to find the young people affected. it was horrendous, drug taking, motorbikes being stolen, girls being taken out by policemen, early hours of the morning, kids would come running up here to run around the block. we've learned that police were conducting surveillance on this

home for young people caught up with criminal gangs. i saw them dealing drugs over the back wall. i heard the boys selling cocaine. selling cocaine from a care home? yeah. it's like they had their own operation on the second floor. they used to have baggies and scales and there was a lot of supplies... scales? yeah, like how... to weigh cannabis? yeah. to sell cocaine? yeah, they're not measuring flour. while other vulnerable people lived inside. erm, i used to live on this top floor. carla spent years in foster homes before being sent to centurion care. i would not recommend it for anybody to live here. so myself harm would be quite severe. there was a situation where it had been really bad and i'd lost a lot of blood. and i went down to the staff and i was like, "you need to take me to the hospital." and they were like, "no, i can't leave the boys unattended." refusing to take you to hospital? yeah. he was like, "oh, you should just go walk to the shop."

she says she was taken to a pharmacy an hour later. inside the home her mental health deteriorated. they knew i had issues with depression and anxiety. it was on paper. they were constantly reminded. i took 20 paracetamol in one go in an evening. how many times did you attempt to take your life? i think about three times. centurion care told us it was only aware of one incident where carla overdosed and on one occasion she was taken to hospital. all of their homes had first aid kits, incidents were recorded and sent to social workers, and they cooperated with police, installing cctv to prevent drug dealing. they keep calling it a care home but it's just a house where people profit from young

vulnerable children. with their move to another centurion care home, two miles away, where they looked after by with learning disabilities. that one, yeah. and there's a camera. and we obtained this. a recording outside the home showing the child in the yellow shirt in distress, lashing out. police were called here to an allegation of an assault by a boy on a worker. we can't be sure what led up to this. but watch how the worker responds. tia was also a resident at the time. that would probably have scared the life out of him. he looks like an older boy, like he's tall, he's quite big and bulky, but when you talk to him you can tell — it's like talking to a five—year—old child. like, they're supposed to be looking after the child, not attacking the child with special needs.

that is just vile. what would that have done? that would have probably scared the life out of him. that would scare the life out of me if i had someone do that to me and someone with his disability... what else did staff members do to him? they used to swear, scream in his face, tell him that they were going to take his balloons away. balloons was like — just his thing. he loved them. like he would come in with cars, princesses, everything. like there was not one balloon he did not have. and theyjust used to take them, pop them, sit there, threaten him with them, threaten him with police, saying, "ah, all right, if you don't put your plate in the sink, i'll call in the police." and what was his reaction when that happened ? he was absolutely petrified. he would grab his hair and pace and he'd be like, "nah, i ain't done nothing wrong." he would go to cry, be like "i ain't done nothing. i ain't done nothing. i don't need it." he would rush to do whatever they wanted him to do. centurion care told us police were given cctv. no—one was charged with an offence. and they weren't aware of any

allegation of bullying on this boy. we spent weeks trying to track down someone who knew the children involved. one worker agreed to meet us and talk. they were all very high risk. andy was a support worker across many of the homes. sexually exploited kids, drugs and alcohol abuse, some that had disabilities, all in one roof. he wanted to take us to this house. she was taken by people, brought back maybe, she wasn't even brought back to be fed.

he seemed most shocked about what happened here. andy remembers a girl who regularly went missing. ijust saw a bunch of boys in a car. and shejustjumped in, really. from this spot? from this spot, literally right here. and that was it. that was the last time we saw her. trafficked, gone? yeah, gone. days later he managed to reach the teenager on his phone. she just sounds really scared, like she wasn't talking — she was like... i've asked her where she is or where are you, when are you coming back sort of thing, she just that i can't talk right now. and then she started whispering. as she started whispering, i've heard like a voice, like someone shouting at her, a person has obviously come closer. it seems like she's been hit and that the phone drops and i can't hear too much but i can just hear shouting.

she was missing for more than a week before being found in the midlands. police ended up finding her. all sorts happened. there's no suggestion centurion care staff were involved in her trafficking. it took months to find out who she was and where she now lived. a lot of people go through things where, like, the care system where it's just. . .they give up, you're alone. what was the impact on you, being taken like that? a bad impact. it was the worst...you know. no—one deserves that. like many children in care, she was placed in a home outside of a local authority. i didn't have no friends oranything, so, like, ‘cause i was far away from, like... i mean, basildon is not an area

that i'm familiar with. i was always just running away, trying to get away from the home, i was trying to get away from the environment. what were you hoping it would be? just, like, a fresh start, so i canjust...move on and then get my own home, just start a fresh life. she says she was also sexually abused by a young person in the home. did the staff members phone the police? no. did the staff members remove the boys from the home who had been hurting you? no, theyjust told me that me and the guy were in a relationship. they told me that that's what i wanted. centurion care told us all staff had safeguarding training, missing person procedures were followed and they had no record of a sexual assault allegation. how do you sum up your experience? appalling. whoever did what they did, someone needs to pay a price

for the pain. during our investigation, we also heard stories of vulnerable children exposed to weapons, drugs and organised crime. a lot of drug dealing, people bringing in acid. this teenager also lived in a home run by centurion care. knives, samurai swords, everything. i don't know how they even get it past all the cameras. terrified, he'd lock himself in his room. how do you know it was acid in the bottle? 'cause i opened it up and smelt it and it burnt my nose. what was your reaction when that happened ? i nearly dropped the whole bottle on the floor! and what did you do? put it down, went straight into my room and barricaded my door because i didn't feel safe. he says strangers were coming and going from the home. the boy with the samurai sword actually didn't live there. they turned up with one of the boys

that lived there and that's when he pulled it out on the table and i see it as the door was open. what did you see? the samurai sword. how big was it? probably about... nine, ten inches probably. every ten minutes, the door's going, like, going straight in and out, in and out, going round the corner, doing their drug deals or whatever and then coming straight back. that house was basically just a drug deal house. but i had to live there because i couldn't go nowhere else. centurion care told us they worked with police and neighbours to prevent drug dealing, and any young person who smoked cannabis in the placement was asked to leave. of the eight young men whose stories we've followed in centurion care, we've learned that four were sent or have returned to prison since leaving the homes. emmanuel... one family agreed to let us talk to their son inside prison. fed?

you weren't eating inside there? like many unregulated homes, it's down to the young person to manage their finances and food. emmanuel repeatedly disappeared because he was involved in county lines drug dealing. how did they get you in the home? how did they find you in basildon? could you have said no? did you ever ask the staff inside centurion care for help? emmanuel was jailed for possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine. centurion care said they felt all children were safe and secure

across their placements. working for centurion care was andy's first job with young people. a lot of bad things have happened in there, so i don't feel too good about what was happening, so i wasn't too happy. he told us at times he felt hopeless. it was completely out of control, absolute manic, wild, like, some people had drugs in the house, there was some people that ended up having, like, you know, loads of amounts of cash and there was nothing you could have really done about it because other staff members didn't do anything about it. this confidential council briefing we've obtained on centurion care says some workers were known to police for arrests that didn't lead to charges. centurion care says

it's not aware of these disclosures on any of the workers‘ enhanced dbs checks, which were available at every local authority inspection and no concerns were raised. essex police was unable to tell us when this police involvement was discovered, and whether it should have been revealed to centurion care on the dbs checks. her vulnerability was quite high. andy says another girl reported being taken from one of the homes, given alcohol and drugs before having sex with a man who occasionally worked in the home. police said there was not enough evidence any crime was committed. the confidential briefing says the man had several convictions and had been previously investigated but not charged of an alleged sex offence involving a child. centurion care said the contractor didn't need to be dbs checked, his role was known

to the local authority, they cooperated with the police and there was no further action. thurrock council placed many of the children inside the homes. it said it was unable to comment on police matters or individual cases. the homes were closed in 2017 and the company dissolved when an investigation was launched into organised and complex abuse facing children living there. in and out, in and out, going round the corner, doing their drug deals or whatever and then coming straight back. that house was basically just a drug deal house. i am outraged. i'm outraged and upset in equal measure about what i've just seen. dame louise casey led an investigation into rotherham council after hundreds of children were sexually exploited in the town. it's a scandal. i want those homes regulated. how urgent is that? tomorrow. the shame is that it's taken the bbc — the same way it was in rotherham —

it took the media to lift the lid on it and say to the government, "this is what you should be doing something about." this story goes beyond one provider, city or council. dame louise fears young people are not being protected across unregulated homes. and you are exposing their voices, which i can only hope means that it's listened to in a different way. it's time for whitehall to wake up to this. it's a disgrace. if action isn't taken on the back of this programme, then we're colluding and letting groomers, predatory paedophiles go after those children, and that's our responsibility and that's why i find it so upsetting. you could be running a full—on crack operation in a care home and wouldn't no—one know anything. some of the young people we spoke to across the year had positive

experiences, but most wanted the care system to change. what should happen to these homes? they need to be watched more, they need to have inspectors and professional people who actually know what they're doing going in there, checking there and regulating the thing. i thought being in care would give me some sort of childhood. they're saying that they're there to support you. it's a lie. it's a recruiting game. they're going to put kids into homes, they're gonna get recruited, the same stuff's gonna keep going on. there are more than 5,000 children and young people living in unregulated homes across england and wales. tonight, on average, 30 will go missing. the association of directors of children's services says unregulated homes can provide a appropriate and flexible options, but it recognises and shares the concern that this is not always the case. the government repeatedly declined to be interviewed, but said councils have a legal duty to make sure accommodation for these children is suitable. they keep calling it a care home,

but it's just a house where people profit from young, vulnerable children. i've never really had any support. all i had was, basically, a bed. whoever was involved and whoever did what they did, someone needs to pay a price for the pain. across england and wales, there's been more than a dozen so—called organised and complex abuse investigations into failures to protect children in unregulated homes. the stories of those children are unlikely to ever be heard.

hello. as we move into the final week of meteorological autumn, there is more rain in the forecast. through the early hours of monday morning, the heaviest of the rain across south—west england, wales, into northern ireland. ahead of this, the rain a little patchier, but a lot of cloud, some drizzle further north and east, so it's a murky, misty, mild start to monday morning, but quite wet in places. and these spells of rain will gradually track their way northwards as the day wears on, perhaps not getting as far north as the far north of scotland, but still quite a windy day for shetland, and for all of the uk, it's another mild afternoon, if rather soggy. poor visibility in places as well, but temperatures 9 to 13 celsius on monday afternoon. we'll keep those outbreaks of rain going through the evening. slowly, they'll start to ease away northwards. drier, but cloudy for a time

before our next band of rain arrives into the south—west through the early hours of tuesday morning. with it comes some tropical air, so temperatures overnight into tuesday won't drop much lower than 7 or 8 celsius, and this is because in this area of low pressure is the remnants of what was tropical storm sebastien, and it's also going to pep up the rainfall and strengthen the winds on tuesday. so, across parts of south wales and south—west england, we could well see widespread gusts of a0 to 50 miles an hour coupled with further heavy rain. now, falling onto already saturated ground, we have a number of met office rain warnings in place on tuesday. this rain again spreading its way northwards across the uk, not raining all the time. there will be some breaks in that, maybe some brighter skies, but further heavy showers are never too far behind. and, again, it will be quite a windy day, particularly across parts of wales, south—west england, southern coasts too, and it's going to be very mild — 10 to 14 celsius the top temperature on tuesday afternoon. now, this area of low pressure continues to rotate around and pushing its way eastwards

across the uk on wednesday, so still a very messy picture and still quite wet, further heavy rain. again, we've got met office warnings in place for the middle part of the week and also some strong wind across northern scotland, still some gusty winds along welsh coasts down into south—west england and along channel coasts as well. 10 to 12 celsius the top temperature on wednesday afternoon. and then things slowly start to change through the second half of the week. as our area of low pressure drifts its way eastwards, we start to pull down a north—easterly wind and that will return some colder air across much of the uk as we go into thursday and friday. so, by the time we get to friday morning, most of us will be waking up to a frost again. so, to sum up the week ahead — mild and cloudy, wet and windy at times, but eventually, drier and colder later in the week. bye— bye.

welcome to bbc news, i'm simon pusey. our top stories: pro—democracy candidates in hong kong's local elections are heading for a huge victory, winning more than three—quarters of the seats. i'm sharanjit leyl in hong kong, where turnout at more than 70% is the highest ever recorded, in the first electoral test after months of protests against the pro—beijing leadership. leaked documents seen by the bbc reveal the vast network of high security prisons in western china designed to brainwash uighur muslims. days of heavy rain and floods drench parts of italy and france damaging homes and bridges. the billionaire former mayor of new york michael bloomberg announces he wants to run for us president as a democrat. location, location, location —

we take a look at a property