Three people have been arrested and a number of children have been taken into care as part of a Devon and Cornwall Police-led operation into convicted Devon paedophile Alain Charlwood-Collings.

Two women and a man were arrested on Friday in Biliran and Culaba over allegations of child abuse being carried out and live streamed through Skype.

Charlwood-Collings, 39, from Tiverton in Devon, was sentenced at Exeter Crown Court to 18 years in prison on 12 May 2017.

Throughout his trial, the court heard how he arranged for children to be abused in the Philippines while he watched online.

More to follow.

Devon Live

Bus drivers have raised the alarm over a series of verbal and physical attacks, external on colleagues in South Devon.

In one incident reported by a member of staff to DevonLive, a driver had a knife pulled on him by a young man.

Stagecoach South West said they investigate any complaints.

The number of areas where water voles are found across England has fallen by almost a third in 10 years, a study has revealed.

The river mammals, immortalised as "Ratty" in Wind In The Willows, were once common in ditches, streams and rivers across the UK. But habitat loss, development, water pollution and predation by invasive American mink introduced into the UK for fur farming led to massive declines.

The new analysis of records led by the Wildlife Trusts revealed a decline of 30% in the areas where water voles live from 2006 to 2015.

However, there has been a slight increase in their distribution in the last few years, thanks to conservation efforts by wildlife groups, the study also showed.

Image source, PA

Twitter

Kevin Thomas
BBC Weather Forecaster

Snow has already fallen across other parts of the UK as bitterly cold weather is swept in from Russia.

Yellow warnings of snow cover Devon and Cornwall on Tuesday, and Cornwall on Wednesday.

A yellow warning of wind and snow covers both counties on Thursday.

BBC Business News

Sales at Primark took a hit in autumn following a spell of warmer than usual weather, but the fashion chain expects profit growth to pick up this year.

Like-for-like sales - which ignore new stores - at the chain are set to fall 1% in the 24 weeks to 3 March.

Primark's owner, Associated British Foods (ABF), said sales were hit by "unseasonably warm weather" in October.

However, it also said profit growth was set to accelerate in the second half of the year, partly due to the weaker dollar.

In Devon and Cornwall, the company has branches in Barnstaple, Exeter, Plymouth (pictured), Torquay and Truro.

Image source, Google

Andrew Segal
BBC Local Live

Two Devon councils are to stop accepting cash or cheque payments at their offices or by post in a bid to save £35,000 each.

The South Hams and West Devon authorities said that, from 1 April, people who wanted to continue paying council tax by those methods would have to do so at a Post Office or in a shop with PayPoint facilities.

West Devon added, external that it was also to close its Okehampton Customer Service centre on 29 March to save a further £82,000 as part of efforts to deal with a predicted £1.2m budget shortfall.

Both authorities said the moves would allow money to be "be better spent maintaining essential services".

Twitter

Cornwall Live

Protestors wearing fox masks and costumes gathered at the National Trust’s Lanhydrock estate to protest about hunting, external.

Truro City boss Lee Hodges says he will try to bring in new players to end their poor run of form.

BBC Entertainment and Arts

Comedian and Cornwall resident Dawn French has led tributes to her former Vicar of Dibley co-star, Emma Chambers, who has died aged 53.

Known for playing Alice Tinker in Dibley, Doncaster-born Chambers also had roles in Notting Hill and a Martin Chuzzlewit adaptation.

She died from natural causes on Wednesday evening and would be "greatly missed", her agent John Grant said. She leaves a husband, fellow actor Ian Dunn.

French, who lives near Fowey and starred alongside Chambers for 13 years in Dibley, paid tribute to a "very bright spark and the most loyal and loving friend anyone could wish for".

"I will miss her very much", she said. "I loved her. A lot."

BBC Radio Cornwall

In Falmouth, there are reports of slow traffic due to an accident on North Parade, near St Michael's Church.

Andrew Segal
BBC Local Live

Image source, Family Picture

The family of a man whose body was found earlier this month say they are "heartbroken at the loss of a dear son and brother".

The body of 20-year-old University of Exeter student Rory Cattermole was found on 15 February in Longdown, near Exeter, two days after he was last seen.

His family said: "He brought great happiness and joy to our lives, and we now realise how much he touched the lives of many others too.

“We will miss him desperately, and are devastated that he will not be able to realise all his hopes and dreams.”

Police said they were not treating the death as suspicious and a file was being prepared for the coroner.

BBC Radio Devon

Plans for luxury new housing in a south Devon market town have been criticised for having no affordable homes.

A developer wants to build 17 new properties for over-55s on the site of the old Kenwyn nursing home in Ashburton, which is being sold off by Devon County Council.

Exeter-based Blue Cedar Homes said there was no obligation for it to provide affordable housing, but the Mayor of Ashburton, Sarah Parker-Khan, said she disagreed with that as the area "desperately needs" such accommodation.

She said: "If they say that they're community-minded, and they really want to help local areas, then now's the opportunity to demonstrate that."

Blue Cedar Homes said it had submitted the plans after research, concluding that type of housing fulfilled the needs of those in the area and its homes for retirees would "in turn, take the pressure off the existing housing stock in Ashburton and free up more housing for families".

The Daily Mail

When two big-name stars from Downton Abbey started filming a new movie about the Nazi occupation of Guernsey, tourist chiefs on the Channel Island should have been jumping for joy. But they had to watch from afar as the historic events were recreated not on their own streets and beaches but on those nearly 200 miles away – in Devon., external

It was thought Bovey Tracey in Devon had been dumped by its French twin for an Essex rival.

BBC Weather

Bitterly cold temperatures are forecast across the UK as weather blows in from Russia.

A wind chill will mean that during the day across the country it will feel like -10C to -15C.

But what is wind chill and why does it make us feel so cold?

BBC Weather's Tomasz Schafernaker explains.

BBC News England

Stalked by polar bears and running out of food in Antarctica - just what inspires the new generation of self-styled modern explorers?

Ben Saunders, from Plymouth, has completed 13 polar expeditions over 17 years.

He talks to the BBC about what drives him to carry out his expeditions.

Image source, Ben Saunders

BBC Radio Devon

• On the A361, there's slow-moving traffic in both directions between Tiverton and the M5 due to a contraflow and roadworks
• In Kingsteignton, there's slow-moving traffic on the A380 Besigheim Way southbound, approaching the Penn Inn roundabout, due to the ongoing roadworks

Manchester City's win at Wembley was not the only football cup event taking place over the weekend.

The 2018 FA People's Cup - the biggest five-a-side tournament in the country - kicked off with more than 50,000 players taking part across 278 venues.

Here's just a flavour of the action.

Read more about the first-round action here - and you can catch up with more of the action and stories from the matches around the country from our live text commentaries on Saturday and Sunday.

You'll also be able to watch a highlights programme of the FA People's Cup on the Red Button and Online on Saturday, 3 March (12:55-14:00 and 22:00-23:00)