BBC Sport

Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce looks to add to the four points picked up from a possible six since he took charge.

Villa are without suspended winger Jack Grealish while defenders Tommy Elphick and Micah Richards (both calf) are out.

Fulham have only lost once in their last eight league meetings with the Villains.

Image source, Getty Images

The match at Villa Park will be on BBC 5 Live and you can follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website. 

Steve Hermon
Journalist, BBC WM

The top headlines for Birmingham and the Black Country this afternoon include:  

- A police officer and scout leader who sexually abused boys and young men is convicted of 40 offences

- More than £5,000 has been raised for a group of vulnerable adults to replace money thieves stole from their Christmas party fund  

- A teenage refugee from Afghanistan has been re-united with his dad in Birmingham 

Kathryn Stanczyszyn
Political Reporter, BBC WM

A teenage refugee has thanked pop star Lily Allen and the UK after he was reunited with his father after 10 years apart. 

Shamsher Sherin, 13, had been staying at a Calais refugee camp where he met the singer last week. He was among dozens of child migrants brought to the UK on Wednesday.

His father Hazrat Gul Sherin fled Afghanistan in 2005 and now lives in Alum Rock in Birmingham. He said seeing his son again was like a dream.  

West Brom striker Saido Berahino is put on a weight-loss training plan in a bid to get him fit for the first team.

More than 6,000 boxing fans will be at the Barclaycard Arena tomorrow to see the all-Birmingham Welterweight clash. 

Frankie Gavin from Birmingham will take on Stourbridge's Sam Eggington.

Gavin holds the distinction of being Britain's only male world amateur champion and winning on Saturday will be critical to his hopes of getting another shot at a professional world title. 

Image source, Getty Images

A young refugee in Calais whose plight reduced singer Lily Allen to tears meets his father for the first time in 10 years after arriving in the UK.

Sian Grzeszczyk
Staffordshire Reporter, BBC Midlands Today

The public can now visit and see the new remembrance centre at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire as it's officially opened., external

Sarah Montgomery, Managing Director of the site, has today called it a "watershed moment" for them.  

The idea behind the centre, which has cost £15.7m, is to let visitors explore "how the practice of remembrance has evolved over time".

It also hosts films, exhibitions and learning facilities and the arboretum says people will have the opportunity to record and upload their own stories.  

Birmingham's first ever chocolate festival will arrive in Brindley Place tomorrow morning. Chocival , externalfollows on from last month's annual Birmingham Chilli Festival.  

Celebrating Birmingham's chocolate heritage, the festival in Central Square will feature stalls offering cookies, cakes, brownies and cocoa flavoured vodka and gin.

Someone who will definitely be looking forward to the event is Hayleigh Curtis, a chocolate scientist who has had her taste buds insured for £1m.

Hayleigh met up with BBC Midlands Today reporter Ben Sidwell earlier today. You can find out more from 18:30 on BBC One.

Monica Rimmer
Journalist, BBC Online

A 13-year-old boy has been reunited with his dad after arriving in Birmingham from Calais.

Shamsher Sherin came to national attention when he met the pop singer Lily Allen at the refugee camp known as the Jungle last week. 

He arrived in the UK on Wednesday and he's now in Alum Rock with his dad who fled Afghanistan in 2005.

Lily Allen shared her thoughts on social media.

Image source, Twitter

BBC Weather Watchers

Image source, JMo

Charlie Slater from the BBC Weather team told us it had been a cold, foggy start to the morning and this picture sent in from BBC Weather Watcher JMo certainly proves that.

You can just make out the fog patches on top of the hedges. 

If you have a photo of the region you'd like to share, you can email, tweet @bbcwm, external or visit the BBC WM Facebook page, external.    

Ged Scott
BBC Sport

BBC WM Sport presenters Paul Franks and Rob Gurney both regularly get told they look like popular Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.

Tomorrow, at Anfield, when West Bromwich Albion play Liverpool, Rob will be covering the Baggies for WM - and there is a chance that they might be in the same room at the same time.

But does Paul or Rob look most like the Reds boss?

Is it time to put it to the vote?

Image source, Ged Scott - BBC Sport

West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said the sexual abuse carried out on boys by a former officer was "the ultimate breach of trust".

David Jamieson said Allan Richards - today convicted of a raft of offences - "exploited his position".

Mr Jamieson has commissioned a public report into what he deemed the "failings" of West Midlands Police, for whom Richards served, to "ensure nothing like this can ever happen again".

He said: "The force has very serious questions to answer and I will make sure the Chief Constable provides the answers the public - and Richards' victims - deserve."

One teenager was abused in a Birmingham police station. Richards also told some of his victims that he was touching them to eliminate them from a criminal investigation.  

The Scout Association has condemned the actions of convicted sex offender Allan Richards and says it is "pleased" he has been found guilty.

It says Richards - who abused 17 boys and young men over decades - has not been a member of The Scout Association since 2004. The 54-year-old had also served as an officer with West Midlands Police.

A spokesperson said: "There is no place in the movement for anyone who abuses the trust placed in them by parents and fellow volunteers. 

"The Scout Association carries out stringent vetting of all adults who work with young people." 

Phil Mackie
Midlands correspondent, BBC News

Because Allan Richards pleaded not guilty to the charges of which he was convicted today, his victims had to come to Birmingham Crown Court to give evidence.

One of his two rape victims, who is now an adult, told me "it was horrific" to see the man who "turned my life upside down".

Image source, West Midlands Police

If West Midlands Police had fully investigated complaints made by victims in 2000 and 2004, Richards might have been brought to justice earlier.

In 2014, a third investigation was launched. This time detectives did a thorough job, searched his home and found the diaries in which he documented the abuse, which lasted more than three decades.

Allan Richards, the former police officer who subjected boys to sexual abuse over decades, kept a diary of the acts to which he subjected them.

West Midlands Police - the force for which the convicted 54-year-old served - said it found the logs during a search of his Birmingham home. They were dated between 1976 and 2015.

Inside, the force said, were hundreds of graphic entries detailing sexual contact with other men and boys, as well as information about children he had watched in a state of undress.

Police said that following enquiries it emerged Richards regularly visited Birmingham swimming baths where he would watch children getting changed and records from leisure centre systems revealed he would attend about three times a week.

For this, Richards was convicted of voyeurism. He was also found guilty of indecent assaults committed against scouts in swimming pools in the 1980s.

Image source, West Midlands Police

A man who carried out decades of sexual abuse against boys and young men served with West Midlands Police - which has this afternoon been explaining how he approached his victims.

Allan Richards' most serious crimes, the force said, happened either at his home or in a park, where he groomed many of the children while walking his boxer dog – a detail which helped corroborate his victims’ accounts.

According to the force, he raped another 15-year-old in the early 2000s after grooming two friends in a park while they were dressed in school uniform. 

Image source, West Midlands Police

A police officer and scout leader who sexually abused boys and young men is convicted of 40 offences.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has expressed concern how an ex-officer who sexually abused 17 boys and young men was able to use his position of authority for his criminal ends.

West Midlands Police, for whom Allan Richards, 54, served, said he started exploiting his status as an officer in the 1980s. 

According to the force, he told some of his victims that the reason he was touching them was to eliminate them from a criminal investigation and warned his victims not to tell anyone.

One of the offences, it said, was committed against a teenager inside Steelhouse Lane police station in Birmingham city centre after Richards purported to be carrying out a police inquiry.

In the late 1990s Richards raped a boy who was aged around 15 in an unknown location after initially luring him to a police station under the pretext of an official investigation.   

Phil Mackie
Midlands correspondent, BBC News

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has described former policeman Allan Richards' decades-long catalogue of sexual abuse as "truly shocking".

The IPCC says it will be carrying out a "thorough" independent investigation into the West Midlands Police's handling of the case. Richards, who served with the force, was today convicted of sexually abusing 17 boys and young men.

IPCC Commissioner Derrick Campbell said: "The fact that he was able to abuse his position of authority and trust as a police officer while committing many of his crimes is of great concern."

"His victims will not be alone in wanting to know if opportunities were missed, and our independent investigation will examine whether more could have been done by the force to uncover his activities sooner."

West Midlands Police has said despite investigating complaints about him, it failed to uncover the scale of his offending and protect the public properly. 

The four-decade sexual abuse of boys by a former police officer and scoutmaster has been described by the NSPCC as an "appalling campaign". 

Allan Richards, 54, formerly of the West Midlands force, has today been convicted of sexually abusing 17 boys and young men.  

A spokesperson for the charity said: "Richards used the authority and respect he commanded from parents and children to carry out the most appalling campaign of abuse for many years."

Image source, West Midlands Police

"He manipulated those who looked up to him, and took advantage of the access to vulnerable boys that his roles as a police officer and scoutmaster gave him.

"By denying these offences, he forced his victims to endure the ordeal of a crown court trial and relive the horrors of the abuse he inflicted upon them. These cases show that abuse victims will be listened to, no matter how long ago it happened or who their abuser was."