Updates on Friday 15 July 2016
Live updates for Devon and Cornwall have finished for the day, but we'll be back at 08:00 on Monday with the latest news, sport, travel and weather.
Don't forget Spotlight on BBC One this evening, the late bulletin at 22:30 and across the weekend. There will also be news on your BBC Local Radio station.
Saturday will be quite grey at first - perhaps with a bit of hill fog and a few spots of rain.
However, there may well be some sunny spells breaking out and if you're lucky enough to see some sunshine it will feel warm and muggy. Maximum Temperature: 23C (73F)
Traffic officers saved hundreds of battery hens on their way to a better life. The hens were being transported in a British Hen Welfare Trust van down the M5 when a rear tyre caught fire.
Image source, Highways EnglandTraffic officer Nick Wiltshire said: "As for the hens, they had already been saved from slaughter so I guess you could say they were saved twice in a day. Some of them had been laying in the crates, and I think that must have been the first free range eggs those chickens had laid.”
Police are investigating a suspected arson attack, external near Exeter College.
Miles Davis
BBC News Online
The University of Exeter’s new Chancellor Lord Myners of Truro, external, will preside over graduation ceremonies in Cornwall for the first time next week.
Image source, University of ExeterHundreds of students from the University’s Penryn Campus will receive their awards from the peer, who was brought up in Truro by his adoptive parents, a butcher and a hairdresser, and has gone on to a career in business and politics.
The ceremonies take place at Truro Cathedral on Monday, 18 July.
Claire Jones
BBC News Online
Police are appealing for witnesses to sexual assaults on two different women in the Wellswood area of Torquay.
Police said the first assault happened in Montpelier Road at 7.50pm on Friday 8 July.
Officers said the second assault happened the same evening approximately one hour later in the Meadfoot Road area of the town.
Officers believe the same offender is responsible for both offences. He is described as being aged between 18 and 21, of slim build, wearing a black or dark hooded top with the hood up and dark trousers.
Detective Inspector Nicky Seager said: “These assaults were deliberate acts which have been very distressing for the female victims, leaving them understandably shaken."
Plans are being worked on which could see a huge redevelopment of land next to Derriford Hospital to create a health care quarter, external for the city.
Miles Davis
BBC News Online
The volunteer lifeboat crew in Falmouth had a chance to thank their employers for their continued support by allowing staff time off work to crew Falmouth lifeboats when called out on a shout.
Image source, Falmouth RNLIEmployers from Pendennis Shipyard, A & P Falmouth, Falmouth Harbour Commissioners, SKB Sailmakers, 3WhiteHats and Spectrum attended the evening which included a trip out on Falmouth’s Severn class all-weather lifeboat the Richard Cox Scott.
South West Water said it does not expect "any noticeable impact on services" to be caused by industrial action from midnight tonight.
Workers have voted in favour of an overtime ban in a protest against pay levels.
A spokesman for South West Water said: "We believe the pay award for 2015/16 is a fair and reasonable settlement and look forward to progressing overdue discussions with the trade unions on this year’s settlement."
Britain's Got Talent is coming to Cornwall later this month, external to start auditions for its brand new series.
Exmoor adventurer Sir Ranulf Fiennes has set himself another death defying challenge.
He plans to become the first person to cross both polar ice caps and climb the highest mountain on every continent on Earth.
He's 72 years old and said he's still a way off being done with his charity work.
Image source, PA
James Law
BBC Sport Online
Exeter City boss Paul Tisdale says his limited budget meant he could not offer contracts to right-back Arron Davies and midfielder David Noble.
The pair made 286 appearances for the Devon club between them, but are now free agents after their deals expired.
Image source, Getty Images"They've both done very well for the club and I would've liked to have kept them," Tisdale told BBC Radio Devon. "On the other hand, they weren't first through the door in terms of priority and I was honest with them on that."
Charlotte Becquart is a French journalism student who is spending the summer working on the Cornish Guardian newspaper. Here, she writes in the wake of the latest terrorist attack, external to befall her homeland.
GMB trade union members at South West Water will take industrial action for the first time in over 30 years as part of a long-running dispute over pay.
A continuous ban on overtime will take place from midnight tonight.
GMB members rejected the company's offer of 1.8% as well as an eleventh-hour offer of a one off payment of £120 per employee.
Katherine Darcy, GMB regional officer, said "We remain open to talks with the employer at any time to resolve this dispute but GMB will not stand idly by while our members are treated poorly."
BBC Travel
Miles Davis
BBC News Online
Devon and Cornwall's Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez has announced funding to help child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.
Each will get a share of £140,000 provided by the Ministry of Justice to ensure practical and emotional support to victims.
The awards have been made to:
A wheelchair user has slammed Citybus, external after an impatient driver made her journey a 'nightmare'.
More than 200 battery hens being rehomed as pets were saved from death for a second time after the van they were being transported in caught fire last month.
Highways England traffic officers on routine patrol saw the British Hen Welfare Trust van turn off the M5 with a smoking tyre.
Image source, ReutersAlmondsbury-based Nick Wiltshire and Steve Mason contacted the Devon and Somerset Fire Service and helped unload the hens just minutes before the tyre caught fire and spread throughout the van.
They closed the slip road at the Bridgwater junction to keep other road users safe and allow the firefighters to deal with it.
James Law
BBC Sport Online
Cornwall's Melissa Reid has been selected for the triathlon at the Paralympic Games in Rio next month.
Great Britain will take 11 athletes to the inaugural event in Brazil - the most of any country.
Image source, Getty ImagesReid will compete in the PT5 category, and will be joined by her guide Nicole Walters.
Miles Davis
BBC News Online
Plymouth’s newest bridge is to be opened at an event designed to encourage local people to go wild.
Councillor Dave Downie will cut the ribbon across the bridge which spans Kinterbury Creek on the River Tamar.
The opening event, on Tuesday 19 July, will include activities for families with the Marine Biological Association’s Beach Rangers, foraging for wild food walks and wild refreshments.
Community ambassador Katie Thomas said: “It’s been really interesting seeing how projects come together and how we can all work to make something happen. The charms look great – it’s like a little piece of us on the bridge.”
