this is bbc news — the headlines. the president of ukraine says the war with russia has entered an emotionally difficult stage after the city of severodonetsk fell to the russian army. in his nightly address volodymyr zelensky said he didn't how many more blows there would be before victory appeared on the horizon. demonstrations for and against the us supreme court's decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion have taken place in many parts of the country for a second day. hundreds of people — mostly opposed to friday's landmark ruling — gathered outside the supreme court building in washington. norwegian police say they are treating friday's deadly attack on a series of oslo bars and nightclubs — including a popular gay one —

as islamist terrorism. the threat level has been raised to the highest possible. the assailant — a norwegian citizen of iranian descent — has been detained. now on bbc news, the big cases — 27 years to catch a killer. rikki neave left for school but never came home. decades on, his killer has beenjailed. my son is missing and hasn't been back from school. six—year—old rikki neave never came home. posed in a star shape, his body was left in the woods. it's horrible to think it happened so close to home. there are children capable of killing other children. today sun has the headlines mean street where evil breeds.

the way was portrayed in the paper, i wasn't the greatest mother in the world but i wasn't worst. things became much worse. last night she was charged with murdering her son. detectives questioned her for hours. they treated me like nothing on earth. i get panic attacks and anxiety. ruth neave has been found not guilty. two questions need to be asked, who killed rikki and could his death have been prevented? 27 years after the murder, a breakthrough. the evidence was always there. he was 13, it was 20 years ago. it was _ he was 13, it was 20 years ago. it was insignificant. i just didn't think it was ever fair, why my child? when rikki died, i died.

at 12:10 today officers searching an area of scrubland discovered the body of a young boy. the child was naked and although there are no obvious signs of injury nor at this stage of any sexual interference, i am relatively satisfied that the boy did not die from natural causes. the death of this young child is a senseless. apparently motiveless and has shocked even the most experienced of police officers. that child was six—year—old rikki neave. he had left for school and never came home. he meant the world to me, he was my soulmate, he was my friend, a little chinwagger. he was just beautiful, he had a cheeky, chubby face.

ijust loved him so much and even thinking about it hurts. ijust miss him so much. ijust didn't think it was everfair. why my child? over the years, ruth neave has shared her story with us, remembering the last time she saw her son alive. i woke him up in the morning, and i had been up all night because my baby had been in hospital a week before and ijust got home, he got ready for school and i always take him to school. this morning, he actually ran out the house so quickly. apparently, he was meant to be stealing some barbie shoes for his sister. he said he would go straight to his friends. it got to 5pm and i thought, it's never this late.

my son is missing, he hasn't been back from school. and what is your son's name? rikki. i was out of my mind with worry. he was wearing a white shirt, a little blue coat. i will get an officer to come and see you. i blamed myself, that's what parents do, take response ability, i didn't know what to do with myself, it didn't feel real, it only happens to people on tv. he had been strangled and stripped. his body and he found it was from his home in a star shape. with discrimination of prejudice lee police to the wrong suspect?

400 calls from the public, nearly all of them from i welland, yet one week on, rikki neave's killer- is still at large. welland was the estate in peterborough where rikki lived with his mum, stepdad and sisters. it had a reputation for drugs and violence. there is something of a siege mentality. several national newspapers in this country have been highly critical of the estate and its residents. for instance, today's sun has the headline "the mean streets where evil breeds." we only moved because my husband at the time was getting death threats. so the only place we could have gone to was peterborough. he knew people on that estate, but i don't know, i didn't know anything about the estate at all. i never had much to do with it. i sort of... didn't speak to many people. i only spoke to people

that my husband spoke to. i didn't mind the kids playing out. that i had the door left open. i didn't mind that at all until it started getting like, rikki getting picked on and stuff like that that i had to keep wary of. and i tried so hard to keep him in, but he just wanted to go out. he was such a lovely little boy. while the boy's killer remains free, fear pervades the estate. police are convinced someone on the estate knows who the killer is. it was not unusual for him to be away from school and spend time with friends. neighbours say the six—year—old was streetwise and sociable. the unnatural death- of any child causes shock

waves over a vast area. and this was no different. there was national, - international press coverage. the added dimension in this case is the suspicion that i rikki's death is inextricably linked with where he lived. j it's hard to apply for a job i for insurance or credit rating with a welland dress. in the days that we're talking, 25% of the tenants on the welland wanted to move. john hilditch was a county councillor at the time. the council not let the properties on the welland, which didn't do anything for the quality of the community. i was involved with it then in terms of the city council, in terms of the housing situation, there were about 700 council houses built all together, which you just don't do anymore because it's too much of all together. it was an estate which was poorly designed.

a lot of escape routes for people that were being mischievous and a lot of trouble there. the mayor of peterborough in 1994 was bobbie day. she used to live on the welland estate. the major problem, youngsters go to a local play centre up to the age of 12. once they reach the age of 12, they want to be grown up and they kick about the streets. they cause a lot of damage, a lot of vandalism and they turn into absolute louts. could one of those youths be connected to rikki's death? it's something people began to wonder with the murder of merseyside toddler james bulgerfresh in their memory. two 11—year—old boys have been found guilty of abducting and murdering james bulger. suspicion and fear on the welland estate was rife and pressure on the police was building. anywhere in this country, there are children that are capable of killing other children.

it'sjust horrible. it can happen so close to home. everyone thinks of it happening everywhere else, but never here. and it'sjust horrible. it's a case of keeping your children under wraps. - it really is not letting them . go anywhere, not to the shop, not out in the back garden. it's really frightenening. it's not the stuffing out of me, — it's not the stuffing out of me. it _ it's not the stuffing out of me, it really— it's not the stuffing out of me, it really has - it's not the stuffing out of me, it really has come i it's not the stuffing out of me, it really has come a i it's not the stuffing out of- me, it really has come a living so close — me, it really has come a living so close to _ me, it really has come a living so close to him. _ so close to him. there's been a distinct lack of sympathy on the welland for the bereaved mother amidst the rumour and speculation about her son's death. she's been criticised for allowing him to roam so freely and because it was 6:00 before she reported him missing. soon, stories started to emerge in the press about ruth's treatment of her children. injanuary1995, police charged her with neglect. dressed in blue denim dungarees, a grey t—shirt and cream, zip—upjacket, ruth neave sat emotionless next to a woman police

officer throughout. the way i treated him was nothing, the way it was portrayed in the paper. i wasn't the greatest mother in the world, but i wasn't the worst. and the police decided to go into the neglect and cruelty and get all the ridiculous statements from people who wanted to be in the news. you know, i'm not going to be accused of hanging my son over a bridge or choking him half to death or starving him or beating him up or punching him because it's all all wrong. things were to get much worse for ruth. a small crowd gathered outside peterborough magistrates' court, hoping to catch a glimpse of ruth neave. but police had taken her there three hours earlier. last night, she was charged with murdering her son. detectives had questioned her for several hours. that october, ruth neave went

on trial, the prosecution claiming she murdered her son as part of a black magic ritual. that kind of stuff tends to stick out in my mind and it's like a trigger. i get panic attacks, i get anxiety... it's awful. i can never get away from it, really, because there's such awful times. after four weeks of evidence, a verdict was reached. the foreman of the jury said they had decided unanimously ruth neave was not guilty of murder, she was not guilty of manslaughter. she broke down and wept. there were gasps of disbelief from the public gallery. how do you feel about that original police investigation? revulsion, to be honest. treat me like... they treated me like nothing on earth. horrible people, they were.

but she was jailed for neglect. ruth says she felt she had no other option but to plead guilty. her daughters were taken into care. now that ruth neave has been found not guilty of both murder or manslaughter, two questions need to be asked — who killed rikki and could his death have been prevented ? five years later, ruth left prison and tried to live a quiet life, but with rikki's murder still unsolved, she couldn't rest. ruth met gary rogers through a friend on a day out at a football club. he's the man she would marry, the man who would painstakingly pore through the old evidence to get to the truth. i fell in love with somebody, made 'em a promise. this is all down to ruth finding somebody she could trust enough to look at it with an open mind, no preconceptions.

and i didn't look at it to say, "well, i'm going to prove who murdered your son." i said i would hope to find truth and justice, and that's what we done. we got to this point today because i worked on evidence that's 28 years old now. the evidence was always there. it's just the way the police tried to bury it, twist it, and if you imagine it like a jigsaw puzzle, they were trying to force pieces of a jigsaw puzzle into places they shouldn't be. in 2014, 20 years after rikki's death, ruth and gary persuaded the police to reopen the case. i never set out to solve a murder. paul fullwood asked me if i could give him some fresh, new and compelling evidence. we gave him all the fresh, new and compelling evidence. he's the one, he and his team solved this murder, not me. ijust kept a promise.

in one case, police records showed that ruth was spotted half a mile from her home the night rikki disappeared. in actual fact, she was at home at that time, being interviewed by three officers. ruth neave is pleased that we're reopening i the investigation because she wantsjustice for her son, - which is fair, and i think any. mother in those circumstances would be the same. but i think it's fair to say as well, from our own i perspective, we have to be very, very careful about, . you know, when and how. and the reasons to open this investigation. and from our own mind, - subjectively, we are satisfied based on the information that. we've reviewed and what we've seen, that there are fresh grounds to open this - investigation. it's never going to be over. not for me, because somebody has took a life of a little boy that was a super duper little chunk of monks. and if there's any prick of conscience of anybody that knows anything,

they need to come forward. and i know full well that they will find who done it. with you for the next hour, this is crimewatch. - in 2015, the bbc�*s crimewatch programme featured rikki's murder. advancements in forensic technology meant police were able to digitally recreate the crime scene and take another look at the original evidence. a year after the case was reopened, cambridgeshire police identified a suspect, james watson. he would have been 13 at the time of rikki's murder. if i was by myself and shut my eyes, or when i put my head on my pillow at night—time, i can't picture...i can't report it. watson was interviewed

by police as a witness back in 1994, but when interviewed again in 2016, his story about seeing rikki by a building site on the day he disappeared had changed. i remember bumping into rikki, having a chat with him, picking up the fence, you know, walking around. and then we left. i was 13, it was 20 years ago. and like i said, without being disrespectful, it was insignificant. james watson's claim that he lifted rikki up to see some diggers over a fence was a lie. in 1994, there was no fence. police also matched watson's dna to samples taken from rikki's discarded clothing. more than two decades after the schoolboy rikki neave was murdered, tonight, a man in his 30s is in police custody. that man would have been just a teenager when six—year—old rikki disappeared from an estate in peterborough in 1994.

but there are more twists and turns to come. while on bail, watson fled to portugal. watson was re—arrested in portugal in august 2016 and extradited back to the uk. initially, the crown prosecution service thought there wasn't enough evidence to charge him. after rikki's family appealed, watson was finally charged with murder in 2020. it took another two years for his trial to begin at the old bailey in london. the court was told that he was living in a children's home at the time and played truant from school an awful lot. he also dismissed suggestions that he had an unhealthy interest as a child in dead birds and images of young children in their underwear. after 11 weeks in court, watson was found guilty. it brought back memories

of when i was in court because i said i said to 'em, "there's no way i'm going in court. "i do not ever want to step in front of court again "because of how i was treated in there and everything else." so, yeah, i had to do it by video link, which was allowed, and he used more neglect and cruelty as his defense, and he thought he could get away with it. today, we finally secure justice for rikki and his family, following an almost 30—year battle to find the truth. nothing could take the pain of this heartbreaking case away, but we hope today's verdict gives rikki, the family the closure

they deserve and the answers they've longed for. our thoughts are very much with them at this time. we hope it's the end of it. for the city and certainly for the people that - live on welland. it's got to be a shadow lifted off them because they don'tl want people telling them all the time that - it's an estate where l a child was murdered. i think there should have been more multi—agencyj approach to the family. i think that rikki might well still be alive today, but it'si all down to social services. in those days, you really couldn't get other - agencies involved. now a man has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 15 years for the murder of six—year—old rikki neave almost 28 years ago. the schoolboy�*s naked body

was found near his home in peterborough the day after he disappeared in november 1994. james watson, who is now 41, was found guilty of his murder at the old bailey. ruth was unable to attend court on medical grounds, but in a statement after the sentence, she told us...

rikki's three sisters gave statements at the sentencing. rebecca harvey, rikki's eldest sister, told us... from rochelle orr... sheridan orr told us... his memory lives on through his family who will have to deal with loss for the rest of their lives. but now they finally know they have answers. they know what happened and they know who took rikki from them. and we really, really hope this gives them some peace.

for years, watson had hidden away, knowing he was responsible for rikki's murder and thinking he'd gotten away with it, but this is no longer the case. he will spend years behind bars and the truth is finally out. it actually fell to you to get this case reopened. we wouldn't be sitting here with what we know now had you not gone through all of that evidence. are you angry that it fell to you? hmm... in one way, yeah, but not really angry. it surprises me nobody else has done it. but then again, it all comes down to ruth finding somebody that she could trust. someone that believed her and she trusted. and itjust happened to be me that come along. i love you. i just can't thank you enough for what you've done for me. justice for rikki now turns

into justice for ruth and the fight to clear her name. while she pleaded guilty to neglecting her children, she maintains most of the claims against her were false. is there anything cambridgeshire police could do now? yeah, apologise. apologises for making my life hell. living under a cloud. everybody thinking i murdered my son. there's nothing left apart from apology. i don't like saying it to gary, but i go to gary to know if it alive. officer won't be here. i'm saying. if rikki was alive, you know, he would be a strapping lad and i'd have all the grandkids and all the kids around me. and, you know, so i always wanted a big family. i had four kids. i'd have friends, family

and stuff going on. but i missed out on that. i missed out my children's upbringing. i missed out on my grandchildren�*s upbringings. i missed out on everything, thanks to cambridge police. when rikki died, i died.

hello. we've had some dramatic skies across parts of the uk through saturday, especially in the west, where we saw the most frequent showers. and some of those showers brought thunder and lightning and impressive cloudscapes. and it's all been down to an area of low pressure which has been slow—moving

to the west of ireland. and that continues gradually north and eastwards through sunday, bringing the most frequent showers to the north and the west of the uk, and the strongest winds here, as well. so, through sunday morning, most frequent showers across northern ireland, northern and western scotland, north west england, parts of wales, perhaps a few into south west england. not so many getting further eastwards. in fact, the further east you are, the more likely it is to stay dry with the best of the sunshine, and hence the highest temperatures. but somewhat cooler further north and west where you've got the cloud, the showers and also the strength of the wind. so, for western coasts, particularly for irish sea coasts, we could see those gusts touching 45, maybe 50 mph through sunday afternoon. so, it's a blustery afternoon. it should push the showers through fairly quickly, and whilst we can't rule out showers at glastonbury, certainly through the second half of the afternoon, it's looking dry. we should see increasing amounts of sunshine as well to end the day. so, fingers crossed for much of the day it should stay mainly dry.

but as we head through sunday evening and overnight, thouse showers start to make their way a little bit further eastwards. once again, the further east you are, it should stay mainly dry with some clearer skies, and those showers just starting to ease across parts of scotland and northern ireland as we head through the early hours of monday morning. and it's a mild night, with most places will be in double figures. so, into monday, here's our area of low pressure. it's still close by, now to the north and west of scotland. we've got a second system starting to approach from the atlantic as well. so, once again on monday, it's a day of sunny spells and showers, but it looks by this stage that the showers will start to move their way a little bit further eastwards. so, nowhere immune from a shower, but there will be some lengthy spells of sunshine in between. the winds not as strong, but it's still a fairly breezy day. and in the sunshine, we'll be seeing temperatures quite widely in the high teens, if not the low 20s celsius. it looks like east anglia and south east england will probably see the warmest conditions on monday. but it is a fairly unsettled week ahead. there'll be showers or longer spells of rain for many, but temporarily it should get a little bit warmer across east

anglia and south east england. that's all from me. bye— bye.

this is bbc news — i'm ben boulos — with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. russian forces capture severodonetsk in eastern ukraine — after weeks of intense fighting. abortion clinics start to close in the us — after a supreme court ruling removed american women's constitutional right to abortion. 'i'm not going to change�* — british prime minister borisjohnson remains defiant — despite heavy defeats in two by—elections. if you're saying you want me to undergo some sort of psychological transformation, i think our listeners will know that is not going to happen. norwegian police say they're treating friday's deadly attack on a series of oslo bars and nightclubs as islamist terrorism. and — sir paul mccartney — the star of glastonbury —