in sport today, delight for scottish side darvel. how the sixth tier side upset all the odds to knock out premiership side aberdeen in what s being called the biggest upset in scottish cup history. 0k, set, and. . .action. and it s one of the biggest hits of the year so far. we go behind the scenes with star of happy valleyjames norton. there s an energy about tommy. there s a kind of animal, vital and unstoppable kind of force. and so when he s allowed to let rip, like he was yesterday, it s so fun. good morning. the northwest, southeast split in the weather once again today. the north and the west and cloudy with some patchy rain, and cloudy with some patchy rain, and the south has patchy fog and frost. it s tuesday 24th january. failings by the probation service left a serial offender free to commit murder, just days after he was released from prison, according to a damning watchdog report. the chief inspector of probation said a catalogue of errors led tojordan mcsweene
Was jailed for killing the law graduate as she walked home in ilford lastjune. the report found he was wrongly assessed as medium risk . we ve been warning for years that mistakes are going to be made when the right information is not in the right place, and the wrong risk assessment is made by others. so there are a lot of mitigating circumstances among them, as reported by the inspector, not enough staff, inexperienced staff, and many staff under severe stress trying to do their work properly. the government s apologised to zara s family for what it calls unacceptable failings and says it s taking immediate steps to address the issues raised. leaseholders living in ex local authority homes say they re facing refurbishment bills of tens of thousands of pounds. campaigners have told bbc london many boroughs have issued section 20 major works bills. in islington, the council says it s determined to support residents
After admitting to carrying out a terrifying and ruthless attack on zara, as she walked home lastjune. the report highlighted a catalogue of errors that led to his crime but it s also outlined the need for standards to improve across probation services in england and wales. many teams are said to be short staffed especially in london with some filling fewer than half of the available positions. also in the capital, officers are routinely dealing with 80 to 100 cases where 50 is thought to be the acceptable limit. but the government says it has recruited 2,500 officers in the last two years and is promising to recruit a further 1,500 by march. of probation, and the report author, justin russell. good morning. thank you forjoining us. shall we start on that issue of
For rape and murder. jordan mcsweeney, who was arrested shortly after he killed zara, had already served nine prison sentences. and he had been released from jail just nine days before the murder. today s report by the probation watchdog describes how shortly afterwards, he d been recalled to prison for failing to attend probation appointments. but because he d been wrongly assessed as medium rather than high risk, he wasn t arrested as soon as he could have been. it really is impossible to know if zara aleena would have been alive today if things had been done differently, but certainly, if this risk had been correctly assessed and if more urgent action had been taken to recall him back to prison, that would have maximised the time that the police had to go out and find him. the man was known to the criminal justice system, and to the police. what can we do with criminals who are institutionalised,
How overstretched it seems probation officers are in many places, it securely in london? how significant do you think that was in the case of zara? ., ., ., ., , zara? you are right, london is chronically zara? you are right, london is chronically understaffed - zara? you are right, london is chronically understaffed in - zara? you are right, london is i chronically understaffed in terms zara? you are right, london is - chronically understaffed in terms of promotion probation services. last time we found they had over 500 vacancies and that some key grades in some boroughs in london, over 50% of key probation posts are vacant. in this particular case we found a very heavily overloaded senior probation officer supervising a probation officer supervising a probation officer supervising a probation officer who had 50% more workload than they should have had. so if there had been more probation officers, could this murder have been avoided? it officers, could this murder have been avoide