South Live: Wednesday 4 April

1. Updates from Wednesday 4 April

BreakingFour guilty over man's shooting

Solent News and Pictures

Jamie Sibley was critically injured in the shooting

Three men have been found guilty of attempted murder after a shooting which left a man critically injured.

Jamie Sibley suffered a "life-changing" head injury in the attack in Athena Avenue, Waterlooville, Hampshire, in February 2017.

Jordan Smith, 22, of Surbiton, was handed a 31-year prison sentence at Winchester Crown Court.

Jordan Perry, 27, of Mitcham, Surrey, and Ricardo Livingston-Wright, 31, of Brighton, were each jailed for 30 years.

Sara Hodgkinson, 32, of Waterlooville, has been jailed for four years after being found guilty of assisting the offence by luring Mr Sibley outside to be shot.

Vince Cable on Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn

Peter Henley

Political editor, South of England

Speaking on a visit to Portsmouth, Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable has criticised Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's comments over the Novichok nerve agent saying "He's not proving to be a good ambassador for Britain, his attempts to be a joker have backfired many many times."

On Jeremy Corbyn and anti-semitism in the Labour Party he said: "If you're in charge of a major party you've got to be absolutely clear this is completely unacceptable and the people responsible have to be drummed out. The response appears to be belated and rather weak."

BBC

Dorchester children's home to close

Dorset's only home for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties is to close following a decline in occupancy.

A public consultation on the future of Maumbury House in Dorchester began last year.

Dorset County Council's cabinet voted to shut the home earlier today, describing it as "no longer viable operationally or financially".

The authority said foster care was a preferred option for children with complex needs.

Google

Rescued pier wins national award

George Munson

A restored Victorian pier which recently reopened after being deemed at risk of collapse has been voted Pier of the Year.

The National Pier Society said the Grade II listed South Parade Pier in Southsea, Hampshire, had been brought "beautifully back from the brink".

It was shut in 2012 when Portsmouth City Council served the previous owners with a dangerous structure order.

The new owners partially reopened the pier in April 2017 after a reported £5m investment.

Police divers search Thames

A team of police divers is searching the River Thames for Frederick Lawson.

He was reported missing to Thames Valley Police in Shiplake at about 09:50 BST this morning.

The force says Mr Lawson - who is in his 80s - was last seen wearing trousers, sweatshirt and brown slippers.

Fixture changes for Southampton's run-in

BBC Sport

A couple of fixture changes for Southampton's crucial Premier League run-in have just been announced.

Their away trip to Swansea has been re-arranged for the final week of the season - Saints will head to the Liberty Stadium on Tuesday, 8 May.

And three days earlier, their match at Everton will now kick-off at 17:30 on Saturday, 5 May.

Port Meadow after the rain

Jeremy Bickerton took a picture this morning of Port Meadow in Oxford, which is looking a little waterlogged after the recent heavy rain.

Jeremy Bickerton

Girl, 15, used school knife in stabbings

Spring weather set to return

Coastal areas worst-hit by heroin deaths

BBC

Seaside resort towns are among those with the highest rates of death from heroin and morphine, figures show.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Bournemouth was among locations to have more than 4.5 heroin and opiate deaths per 100,000 people.

Many seaside towns struggled as foreign holidays increased in popularity, the ONS said.

The rate in Blackpool, which topped the list, is twice as high as anywhere else in England and Wales.

'Cannabis factory' found in Bournemouth

Dorset Police

A "cannabis factory" was discovered in Bournemouth during a morning raid, police have said.

Dorset Police said it searched the property in Green Road shortly after 08:00 BST and seized "a quantity of what are believed to be cannabis plants".

A tweet posted by the force said the find had been a "great result".

A spokesman confirmed a 29-year-old man from Bournemouth was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the production of a Class B drug.

The spokesman said the value of the items uncovered was still being analysed.

A wet and windy afternoon ahead

Rain is expected to fall across the region for much of the afternoon with wind gusts reaching up to 46mph.

Conditions are forecast to clear overnight ahead of a brighter day tomorrow.

BBC

PC sacked for biting woman's nose

Google

The attack happened in in Addison Road, Banbury

A police officer has been sacked for biting a woman on the nose.

PC Rebecca Barnett, 33, pleaded guilty in February to causing grievous bodily harm at Easington Football Club in Banbury.

Thames Valley Police said while off duty she argued with the woman at the venue on 10 June last year.

She grabbed and bit the 29-year-old victim on the nose, causing an injury which required surgery and left permanent scarring, the force said.

Sickness-hit US trip pupils back home

Air ambulance set to appear on new TV series

Bucks Free Press

Thames Valley Air Ambulance is set to appear in a new TV series that will follow its emergency crews as they battle to save the most critically ill and injured patients across the region.

Sickness-hit US Waterlooville school trip pupils back home

Pupils and staff taken ill while on a school trip to the US have arrived back home.

Students from Crookhorn College in Waterlooville first became sick with stomach bug symptoms shortly after arriving in New York on Thursday.

The group of 51 pupils and five staff then travelled to Washington DC where 48 children and three staff were taken to hospital from their hotel on Sunday.

The cause of the illness remains a mystery.

BBC

Council agrees to take six further Syrian families

AFP

Syrian children flee their homes in the town of Beit Sawa in Syria on 4 March

Six additional families from Syria will be resettled in north Oxfordshire.

The decision was agreed by Cherwell District Council at a meeting of its executive last night.

Five families have been resettled in the area since January 2016 as part of the government's Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme, with a sixth due to arrive later in the spring.

They will be housed in private rented housing to avoid taking social housing away from local residents who need it.

Stonemasons survey Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace

The stonework at Blenheim Palace is checked annually

Stonemasons have been checking Blenheim Palace for damage as part of an ongoing £40m restoration programme.

The stonework is surveyed each year for damaged sections which are measured to enable exact copies to be carved and reinstalled.

Checks took place around a bust of Louis XIV mounted on the southern part of the palace.

It was taken from the city gates of Tournai by the First Duke of Marlborough in 1709 during the War of Spanish Succession against the French.

Blenheim Palace

The bust of Louis XIV was transported back to Blenheim by the First Duke of Marlborough

Sprinklers save Didcot flat from 'far worse' damage

Firefighters were called to a kitchen fire in a second-floor flat at 10:20 BST yesterday at Great Western Park in Didcot.

The flat has a domestic sprinkler system which activated and helped put out the fire.

Station manager Paul Webster said without the sprinklers the fire "would have continued to grow".

He added: "If the flat had not got a domestic sprinkler system, then the whole flat would have become involved in fire so the level of damage would have been far worse."