BBC Spotlight

A mother-and-baby unit that serves South West prisoners has failed to reopen after a water pipe burst 18 months ago.

The centre, at HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire, was the nearest for mothers from the region.

It is now due to reopen in the summer.

The closure means pregnant inmates are having to be transferred to give birth.

The Ministry of Justice said inmates from the South West of England and Wales could be accommodated at one of five other MBUs within the prison service.

BBC Radio Devon

Plans to scrap single-use plastics within Plymouth City Council are being discussed this afternoon.

The idea is to cut out the use of straws, cutlery and cups in all council buildings and council run events by summer 2020.

It also calls on local businesses to back the move to encourage the whole city to reduce single-use plastics.

Devon Live

A car has hit the front of a hospital building after crashing through several parked motorbikes, external.

Firefighters have welcomed prison sentences for two fireworks company bosses whose firm transported fireworks in Cornwall which could have caused damage comparable to a "land mine".

Steven Williams, 57, and Martin Edwards, 56, directors of Nottingham-based Big Bang (Fireworks) Productions Ltd, were sentenced at Truro Crown Court to 16 weeks in jail last week, suspended for two years.

They admitted at an earlier hearing, external to acquiring and storing HT1 [hazard type one, external] explosives without a licence, and failing to conduct a suitable and sufficient risk assessment.

The court heard the company stored the fireworks in Kingsand and they were discovered during a routine fire inspection in 2016.

Cornwall Council said the explosives, "about a small van load", would have "caused damage comparable to that of a military land mine".

The company was also fined £1,000 for each of the three charges they faced, and ordered to pay the prosecution costs after the case was brought by Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Mark Hewitt said: "In this case, the circumstances were serious enough to have created a very real risk of a serious explosion which could have cost lives."

Del Crookes
BBC News Online

Officers say they are trying to track down the person, or people, who carried out a number of incidents of criminal damage in Barnstaple over the weekend.

The first happened at 03:00 on Friday, when a reinforced panel of glass in the front door of the Pizza Hut on Station Road was smashed by an umbrella stand.

The second involved a shop on Station Road, which had its front window broken at 03:00 on Saturday.

The third incident happened at Poundland on Station Road last night. Its front window was also smashed between midnight and 01:15.

Police believe the three attacks are linked.

BBC Weather

It will continue to be a cloudy and damp afternoon, but rain will clear towards dusk, with clear spells emerging later.

Maximum temperature: 12C (54F).

This evening, clear spells behind the rain will lead to a sharp fall in temperature, with some frost and fog forming overnight, although the frost will be slight in larger towns.

Rain will approach from the west by dawn.

Minimum temperature: -1C (30F).

The victim was left with a punctured lung after the alleged stabbing outside a community centre.

BBC Radio Devon

• In Paignton, Marldon Road is blocked in both directions by a collision between Southfield Avenue and Smallcombe Road. Avoid the area if possible
• Also in Paignton, there are reports of slow traffic due to an accident on Cecil Road, near the A3022 Torquay Road. There's slow traffic

David Fitzgerald
BBC Radio Devon

Plymouth-born Olympic diver Tom Daley has been telling the BBC how content he is to be married.

Tom and his husband, American screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, tied the knot last spring. They both now live in London.

He said: "We're the happiest that we've ever been. Just being married and having the right to be able to do so is so exciting.

"At the end of the day, we're a normal old married couple now."

Johnny O'Shea
BBC News Online

A teenager accused of wounding a 14-year-old boy outside a community centre in Cornwall hit the victim in the head before stabbing him, a court has heard.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies possessing a knife in a public place, and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The victim suffered a punctured lung when he was stabbed in the back on 27 September last year.

Prosecutors told Truro Crown Court that the defendant had been at the centre with friends when a girl, who is a co-defendant, asked the victim to go outside with her.

She then left, and the defendant appeared wearing a black hooded top, tracksuit bottoms and a mask, and hit the victim in the side of the head before stabbing him below the right shoulder blade. He then went back inside and told staff the victim had been stabbed.

Staff called an ambulance and the victim was taken to hospital with a punctured lung.

On his way to the ambulance, the victim remembers somebody telling him: "As soon as you get out of hospital, you're going back in", the jury was told.

The jury heard the defendant had previously admitted a charge of wounding, along with the co-defendant, a 14-year-old girl, who was 13 at the time of the incident.

The trial continues.

BBC Radio Cornwall

In Launceston, there are reports of a road collision on a roundabout on the A388 Western Road at the A30 Western Road, Pennygillam.

Cornwall Live

The partner of a man who rubbed chopped chilli peppers into her eyes, refused to allow her to go to hospital for treatment after he broke her wrist and hung her out of a ninth-storey window apologised and shouted that she loved him as he was sent to prison, external.

Shane Waddington, 30, of St Austell, subjected his partner to regular beatings due to his paranoia regarding the security of their relationship.

English champions Exeter sign Argentina back Santiago Cordero from Super Rugby side Jaguares until the end of the season.

Johnny O'Shea
BBC News Online

A schoolboy accused of stabbing a 14-year-old boy outside a community centre in Cornwall said on Facebook he "had my reasons", and also admitted the stabbing to a social worker and a family friend, a court has heard.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies possessing a knife in a public place, and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The victim suffered a punctured lung when he was stabbed in the back on 27 September last year.

Outlining the case for the prosecution, Brian Fitzherbert told Truro Crown Court the defendant had written a post on Facebook saying: "About all the rumours going around, I did do it but had my reasons."

He had also admitted the stabbing to a social worker, claiming he had done it because he believed the victim had sexually assaulted a friend, Truro Crown Court heard.

A family friend of the defendant told police he had admitted the crime to him and, when he asked what he'd done with the knife, he said: "I dashed it in a garden", Mr Fitzherbert explained.

The jury heard the defendant had previously admitted a charge of wounding, along with a co-defendant, a 14-year-old girl, who was 13 at the time of the incident.

The trial continues.

Del Crookes
BBC News Online

A business run by a woman from Cornwall, who systematically exploited her workers, has been shut down by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).

An inspection found that Neringa Butkeviciute's firm, DNK Recruitment, which operated from Bosparva Caravan Park in Leedstown, Hayle, skimmed workers' pay, sent them to work double shifts without proper breaks and provided dirty and unsafe caravans to live in.

Image source, GLAA

The 29-year-old businesswoman from Camborne provided workers to harvest and process crops at a nearby vegetable producer as well as a seafood processing factory.

Inspectors found...

• Human waste leaking from sewage pipes under one caravan
• Broken doors and windows
• Mould on walls, curtains and windows
• A leaking shower that had caused the floor in one van to collapse
• General overcrowding
• Defective smoke detectors and electric heaters placed close to bedding
• Insufficient washing and laundry facilities, which left workers no choice but to wear damp clothes
• The laundry room floor covered in water despite the room containing electrical equipment

Image source, GLAA

In one example, inspectors found that a worker who started at 17:47 at a fish processing factory and finished at 04:17 the next day, was then supplied by DNK to work at another site from 06:00 to 18:30.

Over a two-day period the employee worked 24 hours and 43 minutes with a break of only 1 hour 43 minutes.

DNK Recruitment has now ceased trading and the affected workers have found other jobs.

Johnny O'Shea
BBC News Online

A masked schoolboy stabbed a 14-year-old boy outside a community centre in Cornwall, a court has heard.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies possessing a knife in a public place, and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The victim sustained potentially life-threatening injuries when he was stabbed in the back on the evening of 27 September last year, suffering a punctured lung.

The jury at Truro Crown Court heard the defendant had previously admitted a charge of wounding, along with a co-defendant, a 14-year-old girl, who was 13 at the time of the incident.

The trial continues.

BBC Radio Devon

The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital is changing its visiting hours from next month.

The hospital's managing trust said visiting would be allowed from 08:00 until 20:00, seven days a week, from Monday, 5 February.

People can currently only visit patients on general wards at set times in the afternoon and early evening.

The trust said the move was part of a bid to "make visiting patients in hospital easier and more accessible".

It added that it also hoped the move would benefit benefit patients, "in particular the vulnerable and the elderly, to see familiar faces around more often".

Brent Pilnick
BBC Sport

Four Exeter players have been called up to the 36-man England squad for the opening Six Nations match with Italy next week.

Image source, Getty Images

British and Irish Lions winger Jack Nowell, props Harry William and Alec Hepburn have been named along with back-row Sam Simmonds.

Henry Slade misses out due to a shoulder injury picked up against Glasgow earlier this month.

Tom Daley backs British 10m platform champion Matthew Dixon's bid for a place in England's Commonwealth Games team.

Del Crookes
BBC News Online

Police in Plymouth have released an image of a man they want to identify after allegations of a sexual assault by inappropriate touching.

The incident is alleged to have happened at the Walkabout pub on Union Street between midnight and 02:00 on Thursday, 30 March last year.

Officers say they would like to identify and speak to the man pictured as he "could hold information vital to the investigation".

Image source, Devon & Cornwall Police