this is bbc news, the headlines: russia has continued to shell various regions in ukraine despite calling for a 36—hour ceasefire for orthodox christmas celebrations. president volodymyr zelensky said vladimir putin's offer of a truce, now ended, was deceitful. he said peace in ukraine would only be restored when russian forces were expelled. kevin mccarthy has been sworn in as speaker of the us house of representatives, after 15 rounds of voting. a small group of republican rebels had derailed each previous attempt. the new speaker says it was the influence of former president trump that helped him secure the position. iran has been widely condemned after executing two more anti—government protesters. mohammad mahdi karami and seyed

mohammad hosseini had appealed against their sentences for killing a member of the security forces during nationwide protests against the government last year. now on bbc news, the big cases: killing my children's abuser. a warning — this programme contains themes some viewers may find distressing. a woman has beenjailed for stabbing to death a convicted paedophile. paedophiles tear lives apart. it's what they do. her children had been sexually abused. were you glad he was dead? yeah. oh, yeah. definitely. she stabbed michael pleasted repeatedly. he bled to death. 20 minutes later, she re—emerged. you can see the knife.

i bring life into the world. it never occurred to me that i would be guilty of taking life out of the world. did a man need to die? did children need to be hurt for the truth to come out? i had the knife in my left hand and i remember him trying to grab it. i had taken the law into my own hands, i had done that. in 2014, sarah sands, a single mum, and her young sons moved into their first proper home — a maisonette on this estate.

her elder son bradley wasn't much older than his twin brothers alfie and reece, so from the start they were always close. the family had been on a council waiting list for years, and sarah hoped their new home would finally give the boys a sense of security as they moved into secondary education. it was special to us, it was mine and my boys�*, it was our fresh start. we poured a lot of love into that little place, it was ours, we was happy, the kids were settling great at school. we could have been happy there, i... we could have been happy there. took everything from me...

sarah sands became friendly with a pensioner in a neighbouring block. michael pleasted was 77 and lived on his own. i genuinely thought he was just a lovely old man. i would watch him on the estate. pleased to see everyone, help everyone. everybody said hi to him, he was easygoing, always had something nice to say. yeah, just a nice man. absolutely no red flags whatsoever. cooked for him, looked after him, always kept him company when i had the time. so many regrets. i wish i didn't move here. i wish i'd never said hello. i suppose, in one way, it's like saying you wish you weren't kind and you wish you'd been mean and you wish

you'd been ignorant, and you wish you'd been, you know... a few of the children had saturdayjobs with him, just helping him out at the back of the shop, working in the corner shop, doing the papers in the morning, that kind of thing. they had saturdayjobs with him and he asked if it would be all right if brad could help out. brad was so excited, bless him. so excited. he then invited them back to his flat, where the assaults took place. it was all part of his grooming, but she was unaware, she wasjust looking at him as an old man who was lonely in the community. he definitely caught everyone off guard, definitely. do you think now he was targeting brad? yep. she'd given food to

the man that had sexually assaulted her children, she had kind of welcomed him into herfamily. he was, in all intents and purposes, grooming her children. he allowed the children, even at the young age they were, to work in his bric—a—brac shop at the back of a newsagents in the estate where they lived. 12—year—old bradley and the twins, who were 11, told her that pleasted had sexually abused them. still to this day, there are no words to describe how it eats you up from the inside out. he'd ripped my family apart, that's what he'd done. michael pleasted was arrested and charged with offences against her boys. while he was awaiting trial, he was allowed back on the estate. sarah sands couldn't believe a judge had agreed to let him return to the neighbourhood.

he was given bail by the courts. i can't comment on that decision because i wasn't involved, but from a personal level, i still don't understand why the courts gave him bail, and back to his home address, which was very close to where sarah and herfamily lived, which would have put them again under more stress and pressure, and more fear that there might be more repercussions. he'd ruined my life and he'd tried to take away the most precious thing in my life. them babies, we all know they're not going to wake up one day and this didn't happen. i'm never going to be able to take it away from them when they're screaming in the middle of the night. i can't say, "oh, it was just a dream." because it wasn't, he was a walking nightmare. it's horrendous, the guilt, the pain, the sheer shame. it's myjob to protect them.

i should have known. it... itjust eats you alive. but why are you feeling shame? because that's my baby. i'd give my life for my baby. in a highly emotional state, she set off from her home and made her way to michael pleasted's flat. she was carrying a knife.

don't know what i was doing there. it was a ridiculous... i didn't... it just. .. i realised i'd made a huge mistake. i was frightened, absolutely petrified. he had no fear. he was not remorseful in any way, shape or form. at first, he was very much, "0h, your children are lying." i was just standing there, everything froze, the whole world froze, there wasn't a world, ijust froze. once he realised i wasn't listening to the drool that was coming out of his mouth, because we both know my children ain't lying... the police aren't here any

more, you ain't got nobody to justify it to, we both know that you're lying. i didn't say that but i'm sure the look on my face was literally telling him that, because at the same time, hejust stopped... jumped out of his chair, went over to the window and then came towards me, and by that time, i had the knife in my left hand and i remember him trying to grab it. and then i remember leaving. yeah. 20 minutes later, she emerged. you can see the knife. she had stabbed michael pleasted eight times. he bled to death.

i didn't intend for it to end the way that it did. you didn't intend to kill him? no. hours later, she handed herself in to the police. i saw a very frightened, vulnerable woman. you could tell that she was scared. she came to the police station, she denied murder and obviously gave an explanation of what had happened and why it had happened, from her point of view. they absolutely have the right to demand answers from me. i had taken the law into my own hands, i had done that.

i've always been raised, my boys have always been raised to take responsibility for their actions. but i also understood this is the process that should have happened to michael pleasted. this is the process. when you learned what your mum had done, and that this man was now dead, because she had killed him...? like, so what? good. i ain't going to deny it. he was released on bail, what would make you think he is not going to go, i know i'm going to get caught and do time, let me go and get four or five more kids? it didn't stop any afterthoughts. we'd often wake up crying, going, "where's mum?" and then the nightmares. but it was nice knowing that he was dead. if we'd have known he was locked away, i'm sure that would have been just as satisfying. but obviously, he wasn't. so were you glad he was dead?

yeah. oh, yeah. definitely. if this guy's still walking about and i know what he has done to me, and he's still about, the government and so on... he'd be out doing it again. obviously, it doesn't. .. the nightmares and stuff, it. doesn't really slow them down but it does add more of a sense of security, because you - don't have to walk down the street thinking... i he's going to come round that corner. and he literally lived across the road from us. i could see the man's house, i could open that window over there and i'd see his house across the road. lots of tears, certainly, when she was giving evidence and when the verdicts were read out. at the old bailey, a woman has beenjailed for three _ and a half years for stabbingl to death an elderly neighbour who was a convicted paedophile. sarah sands was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder on the grounds

that she'd lost control, but some questioned whether her sentence was too lenient, and the court of appeal was asked to make a ruling. the offender took with her to the scene a knife, which was used in the infliction of fatal injuries. when the jury were sure that at the time she intended to cause at least serious grievous bodily harm. she did take some steps to cover her tracks. she had changed her clothing. she appears to have attempted to avoid her fingerprints being left at the scene. the offender, having fatally stabbed the deceased, did nothing to assist him in that she did not call the emergency services. seven and a half years — that is the sentence that will be substituted

for the sentence of 42 months. there were times in the beginning of going to prison i was suicidal. absolutely suicidal. and i think i cried every day for about six months. every single day, i didn't miss a day. even in that state, i was still calling them in the morning to say good morning, calling them after school to ask how their day went, calling them in the evening to say good night before they went to bed. we wrote letters, my mum never missed a visit. you go through several gates and empty out your pockets, they pat all your arms and legs, every inch of your body. you couldn't bring anything in even if you wanted to. open your mouth, move yourl tongue up to make sure you're not hiding something. having absolutely no say in what happens to them as children — you have no say. in holloway, you literally get one hour. so having them sitting there, my little one will be here,

trying to play with my hair, the boys will be like, "this happened!" everyone wants to talk to their mummy at the same time. as soon as they left, oh, as soon as they left... did you feel, though, sarah — did you feel remorse? absolutely. and why did you feel remorse? i bring life into the world. it never occurred to me that i would be guilty of taking life out of the world. single mother, you know, trying to raise her children the best way she could. she hadn't had it easy in life. i'm not condoning what she did, because you can't take the law into your own hands. she should have allowed justice to take its place,

which was happening. what sarah sands and none of her neighbours knew was that the man she had killed, the man accused of abusing her children, was a convicted paedophile who had changed his identity to try to bury his past. his original name was robin moult, and this is a newspaper report of his first case dating back to 1970. he had 2a convictions for sex offending. he had served jail terms for his crimes which spanned three decades. not even the local council was aware of this when it housed him in a block overlooking a primary school. even without knowing pleasted's history, sarah sands had tried to stop him living back on the estate after he was charged with the offences against her sons. i did go through all

the authorities... it's the government's fault at the end of the day- what happened — it's entirely their fault. i but i have to take responsibility... you've got to take - responsibility, but you've also got to take their responsibility. - if they did theirjob properly, | this wouldn't have happened. this is their fault because, j at the very end of the day, if they did theirjobs, we wouldn't be - here talking to you. if he was in prison after 24 convictions, then we wouldn't be sitting here today. personally, i have dealt with over 150 murders. this case particularly has stuck with me. i know she's now out of prison trying to rebuild her life, that's brilliant. i've lived around here - for years, before you came. that man was living on thel estate for how many years? and no—one had a clue. i didn't have a clue. - on an estate full of kids, i with a school at the end of the road, for how many years?

we were all living amongst it. he used to watch my dogs for me outside the shop. i he had children working for him every saturday. thought nothing of it — - look after the dog, it's only old mick, nothing of it. yeah, yeah. good to see a familiar face. a crime's a crime, people look at it like it's a bad thing, but really and truly, you was never a bad person, do you know what i mean? you're back now, that's what matters. that is what matters, definitely. thatjudge, if they'd have given him a longer sentence for his first crimes, if they had just done what they were meant to do... ..we would've been good. their lives would have been so different. instead, they had a mum in prison for years, you know?

we're good. you're always good. _ you're always going to be good. yeah. they had a mum that loved them and cared for them. i they definitely have that. how has what's happened in the family affected them, affected your relationship with them? we're closer than ever. closer than ever. nothing was ever going to stop me being their mum. i don't think i'm ever not going to baby them. i don't think it matters to me what age they're going to be! punk rock music. you only have one mum.

the rest of the world you have to be grown up and go to work and you got responsibilities. you have all that. your mum is the only one, she's always going to put that wing over you. our relationships of course had cracks. i had so much to catch up on. they went through so much, you know? there were cracks that we had to work on, but you couldn't break the bond, you couldn't. paedophilia is a pandemic. and, you know, we've got to get change. sarah has nowjoined others who are campaigning for tighter restrictions on sex offenders who change their names. here at westminster, meeting the labour mp sarah champion.

hello, i'm sarah. i know you're sarah as well! for me, there is a gaping hole in child protection. what i found most curious but worrying when i started looking into the restrictions and the conditions put on sex offenders, it's up to them to tell the police they've changed their name. yeah. so if they don't, if they change it and theyjust disappear, there is literally no way until they reoffend that the police can track them down. they could go to probation, change their name the next day, you don't know they're missing. exactly. they could be anywhere in the world within three weeks. the government says that offenders are legally bound to notify the authorities of any name change. but the campaigners are concerned that some are simply ignoring this, and using their new identities to get through dbs checks, which are needed for certain roles and which reveal criminal convictions. they are systematically

changing their names, some in prison, so they are able to create a new identity. but once they've changed their name, they are able to get a new driving licence in that name, a new passport in that name, and that enables them to get a new dbs check, which will be a clean dbs check. and what we're finding is these people are then going into schools, into places with young people, into places with vulnerable people, in positions of trust, and they are exploiting that in the most horrific ways. we are an example of. what happens when laws like that aren't imposed. they allowed him to change his name, he was within - 500 feet of a school, - he had children employees. theyjust let him on the streets. l if you are being abused or have been abused, try and talk. try and talk. if you don't speak up, whoever the man or woman that's abusing you or has abused you, they'll move onto someone else. the sooner you say it, the sooner you could potentially save more people

from being in the same pain that you're feeling. ifeel like it's better to get yourself out of that situation and talk as well, otherwise you're just putting yourself through worse and worse. you're eating yourself alive. when i went in, i was absolutely very bitter towards the authorities, towards the judge that had given him bail. that was going to eat me alive, it was eating me alive. for me to help build them up and to show them it's possible, i had to do it first. the real me, the strong version of me, she's got a lot more light now. yeah, she breathes a lot better.

hello there. the start of this weekend has been unsettled, thanks to low pressure, wet, windy, followed by blustery showers and sunny spells. part two of the weekend also unsettled with the same area of low pressure close by, it's going to stay pretty windy with plenty of showers rattling in from the south—west. here it is, this deep low, the centre sitting just to the north of scotland on sunday, some fairly strong winds close to its centre over the north and west of scotland. elsewhere, plenty of isobars

so it is going to be another blustery day, maybe not quite as windy across inland areas that we had on saturday but lots of showers around, forming bands moving from west to east, some of them heavy with some hail, some thunder mixed in, very windy across the north and west of scotland, gusts of 60, 70 miles an hour. tending to ease down a little bit later in the day but it's going to be a blustery day wherever you are. probably the best of the brighter and sunnier moments will be towards eastern scotland, eastern england. but a cooler day to come for all, temperatures of six to nine degrees, for most in single digits. sunday night, little change, it stays blustery, further bands of showers moving from west to east. wintry elements of them over the hills of scotland and we will see that throughout the day on sunday, maybe even down to lower levels for the early part of monday. it will turn a little bit colder across the north and the west. as that area of low pressure pulls away on monday, it allows this brief ridge of high pressure to nose in. that will tend to settle things down, kill off the showers across some southern and western areas, but they will continue to rattle into parts of scotland, maybe north—west

england again, wintry elements over the hills. but an increasing chance of drier and brighter weather in the south on monday, thanks to that ridge of high pressure, and we could be up to ten or 11 degrees, still quite chilly further north. that brief ridge won't last long, it will clear away during monday night. into tuesday, it is back to square one, wet and windy conditions with this next area of low pressure moving in. so some of that rain will be quite heavy as it splashes its way northwards and eastwards, snow on its leading edge as it bumps into the colder air across scotland but it will revert back to rain as very much milder air pumps up from the south. and we are looking at highs of 13 or 1a degrees across southern britain. and it will be initially cold at the start of the day across the north as the milder air will spread northwards. it stays pretty unsettled for the second half of the new week as well, with further spells of wet and windy weather followed by some quieter moments, too.

this is bbc news — i'm vishala sri—pathma with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. despite promises of an orthodox christmas ceasefire, russian missiles continue to strike eastern ukraine. there is still a heavy shelling coming down from the russian side. ukraine is holding onto the city, and it's not going to want to let go anytime soon. iran faces international condemnation after executing two more anti—government protesters. that was easy, huh? at the 15th attempt, kevin mccarthy is elected us house speaker — after making concessions to the