Puppy Farm Killer Jailed For At Least 25 Years

By Richard Suchet, Sky Reporter at Guildford Crown Court

An elderly puppy farm owner who murdered his partner and her daughter has been sentenced to life in prison - with a minimum term of 25 years.

John Lowe, 82, from Farnham, used a shotgun to kill 66-year-old Christine Lee and her daughter Lucy, 40, on 23 February this year.

Lowe denied murder and claimed the deaths were a "terrible mistake".

But the jury of six men and six women convicted him of their deaths after hearing that, following his arrest, he told the police he had "put down" the women because they had been "giving me s*** for weeks".

Prior to sentencing, Ian Lawrie QC, mitigating, conceded that "the reality is, whatever term is given, he is going to die in prison".

Meanwhile, the prosecution argued that Lowe, who turns 83 next week, should not receive a lenient sentence – as the minimal jail term for a double murder with a firearm is 30 years in prison.

Stacy Banner said her loved ones 'didn't stand a chance' in the shooting

"A defendant can't expect a dramatically reduced sentence simply because of the limited years they have to live," Mark Dennis QC said.

As Lowe entered the dock for the sentencing hearing, he was seen winking and grinning at the public gallery, where grieving relatives of the two women were sitting.

Video: Reaction From Victim's Daughter

Guildford Crown Court was also played a recording of the "desperate" 999 call made by Lucy Lee to report that Lowe had killed her mother on his Surrey farm.

She told the operator: "I don't know whether I'm going to be alive if I go back in there."

The younger woman was then shot twice, with Lowe reloading the .410 calibre double-barrelled weapon between shots.

Sentencing Lowe, Justice Singh said: "In an act of extraordinary courage, she went back to see if there was anything she could do to help her mother."

The prosecution said police were met with a "scene of carnage" at the farm.

Christine Lee had been shot in the chest from close range, and her daughter received a fatal shot to the back of the head.

Lowe was licensed to own the weapon, which he normally used to kill rats.

But Surrey Police took the gun - and other shotguns - away from him in March 2013 after Christine Lee's other daughter, Stacy Banner, was threatened by Lowe.

The weapons were returned to him - a decision condemned by Ms Banner after the verdict.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, she wrote: "Every time I close my eyes, I see [my mother and sister]. I have nightmares. I'm haunted by what John did to them."

Surrey Police has since apologised, and three employees are now being investigated for gross misconduct.

It is also reviewing all cases where guns have been removed and later returned to people within the last three years.

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Fireworks Warehouse Blaze: Two Bodies Found

The bodies of two men have been found in a fireworks warehouse following a huge blaze which gutted the building.

Specialist police teams have been searching the SP Plastics unit and surrounding industrial estate, which is just a few hundred metres from 150 homes.

The blaze in Stafford ripped through the warehouse and it took firefighters three hours to bring it under control on Thursday night.

There was an explosion before the fire and an investigation is now under way to find out the cause.

Two people had been reported missing before the bodies were discovered.

The warehouse was badly damaged by the fire

Police said families had been informed and were being supported by officers.

Two other men were taken to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire following the blaze.

One aged in his 40s suffered serious burns and his condition was described as "poorly". He has been transferred to a hospital in Birmingham.

The other had a back injury and they both remain in hospital.

Two women, one in her 40s and the other in her 50s, were assessed for smoke inhalation but discharged at the scene, police said.

Meanwhile, a 53-year-old man, arrested as part of the investigation, has been released and is being treated as a witness.

Superintendent Ian Coxhead said of the discovery of the bodies: "This is a tragic development in a rare and challenging incident.

The fire service was still at the scene the day after the blaze

"Our sympathies go out to the families of those who have sadly lost their lives. Our primary concern has been locating those who were unaccounted for.

"Our searches of the building will continue over the weekend as we work to establish the cause of the fire.

"But it will take some time due to the unstable structure of the building and dangerous environment we're working in."

A "significant volume of fireworks" was being stored on site, and the unit was all but destroyed in the ensuing blaze, he added.

At the height of the blaze in Tilcon Avenue there were 50 firefighters at the scene.

The council confirmed there have been "no safety issues" with SP Plastics, and it had been licensed to sell fireworks for four years.

Dramatic footage showed thick plumes of smoke and bursts of fireworks exploding in all directions from the factory - a scene described as "horrendous" by bystanders.

Witness Neil Kendall, 66, described the noise as "deafening" and "constant" as the fireworks detonated in the heat.

Stephanie Horton said she heard a "very loud explosion", followed by several more in quick succession.

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Huge Supercomputer To Boost Weather Forecasts

A 140-ton supercomputer that can perform more than 16,000 trillion calculations per second is set to give the UK its most accurate weather forecasts ever.

The £97m machine will be fired up at the Met Office next year and will crunch data at a blistering rate using the memory equivalent to 120,000 top-end smartphones.

It will be 13 times more powerful than the current system.

Met Office's chief executive Rob Varley said the machine would be a "step change", allowing hourly updates and highly detailed forecasts for areas as small as 300m.

For example, it will allow airports to pinpoint the timing and extent of fog disruption far more effectively.

Floods in Somerset brought weeks of disruption earlier this year

The High Performance Computer (HPC) will weigh the same as 11 double decker buses and is expected to be split between Met Office Headquarters in Exeter and a new purpose-built building at the city's Science Park.

Some £2bn of benefits are likely, according to forecasters, because it will allow the public and businesses to better plan for extreme weather, such as this year's floods in the south of England.

"The new supercomputer, together with improved observations, science and modelling, will deliver better forecasts and advice to support UK business, the public and government, " said Mr Varley.

"It will help to make the UK more resilient to high impact weather and other environmental risks."

The first phase of the supercomputer will be operational in September 2015 and the system will reach full capacity in 2017.

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Child Abuse Victims Face 'Postcode Lottery'

Sexually abused children have to deal with a "postcode lottery" in how they are treated by police, according to MPs.

Young people fleeing their abusers are often questioned on suspicion of crime but their status as abuse victims can go unnoticed, said the inquiry.

The 18-month cross-party probe also found victims were repeatedly questioned for the same information, leading to fears about not being believed.

A lack of trust in the police, with some children fearing officers, is a serious problem, said the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC).

It heard young victims often "profoundly distrust" the police and do not believe that they are there to protect them, with some feeling humiliated by officers.

Former Police Commissioner Shaun Wright resigned over the Rotherham scandal

The report follows the Rotherham abuse scandal, where police failed to stop the abuse of at least 1,400 children who were sexually exploited in the South Yorkshire town between 1997 and 2003.

Offending can often be a key indicator of sexual exploitation, according to the AAPGC.

Video: Twelve More Rotherham Abuse Victims

It says victims who had been trafficked or exploited often stole food or money when running away from their abusers.

"When these children come to the attention of the police under suspicion of having committed an offence, their status as victims can go unnoticed," said the report.

"Unfortunately, the inquiry heard that the police response to CSE (child sexual exploitation) and trafficking victims was a 'postcode lottery', leading to very different experiences and outcomes for children nationally."

Children with special needs, or a language or communication difficulty, can also sometimes have their needs overlooked, the report added.

However, it did find some positive examples of police treating abuse victims more sensitively as "children first".

"This report is a real eye opener," said Conservative MP Tim Loughton, one of the vice-chairs of APPGC.

Video: Rotherham Council 'Failed Children'

"It is more essential than ever that we have a much better position of trust between the police and our young vulnerable citizens.

"That must be in everyone's interest and whilst we found some examples of good practice, clearly more needs to be done to make good practice commonplace across the country."

Every force should have a senior officer taking charge of how best to deal with young victims, urged the report.

Deputy Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney, national policing lead for children and young people, said national statistics suggested 90% of young people felt they were dealt with fairly by police.

But she admitted that the "very detailed and balanced report ... deserves equally detailed and balanced consideration".

She added: "There is a challenge to be faced by officers who, as enforcers of the law, will not always be popular when having to deal with young people, but officers are here to protect the vulnerable and young people are vulnerable due to their age."

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Doctors Recruited In Battle To Keep Young Safe

By Lisa Dowd, Sky News Correspondent

Family doctors are being urged to look out for signs of radicalisation, child trafficking and cyber-bullying in their younger patients.

GPs are being sent a 'toolkit' of information by children's charity the NSPCC and the Royal College of General Practitioners to help them make informed and confident decisions about safeguarding youngsters.

"I would like to say we never see cases of abuse but we have seen cases in the surgery recently - some have involved cyber-bullying," said Dr Trish Wildbore, from the Hazelwood Surgery in Coleshill, north Warwickshire.

"What we've found over time is the way people insult or abuse others changes with technology.

"On a recent course of lectures I went on I was horrified to find there's a child trafficking hotspot just a couple of miles from the surgery. Obviously that's quite alarming."

Doctors are also being urged to be on the look out for child trafficking

Further north, in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, the scale of child sexual exploitation was missed or ignored by healthcare professionals and others.

A report found at least 1,400 youngsters had been abused over a 16-year period.

Video: 'Lawless Jungle' Of Online Abuse

While the search for victims and perpetrators has widened to other areas, so too has the definition of abuse to include forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

The long list of ailments GPs deal with is being extended to reflect other problems in a changing society.

RCGP chair Maureen Baker said: "Children and young people, today, are facing unprecedented pressures from all angles at a younger and younger age.

"The arrival of the internet and social media has opened up so many opportunities but has also brought many threats, including cyber-bullying, sexting, and revenge porn.

Video: 'I Had No Idea I Was In England'

"Because of the anonymity offered by the internet, many children and young people run a higher risk of being harmed or exploited.

"A consultation with a GP may be the only time that young people can be alone with a trusted adult and we have a number of roles to play in providing understanding, compassion and support."

But patients have mixed views.

"I think doctors generally are already quite busy and it's already hard to try and get appointments," said Brian Griffiths, from Coleshill.

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"And I'm not sure they're the right people to do this. Cyber-bullying? I'm not sure how a doctor's going to pick that up really."

But Helen Brownsword disagreed. She said: "I think it's a good thing.

"Doctors have got a heavy workload anyway but in the society we live and the things, particularly at a young age, children are into - the internet, that sort of thing - I think the more awareness we make in schools, the doctors, the better."

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Lords Consider Drone Laws Over Privacy Fears

By Tom Cheshire, Technology Correspondent

A House of Lords committee will hear from drone safety experts on Monday about whether legislation needs updating.

The committee is investigating the civil use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and is expected to report its findings in 2015.

The popularity of drones has surged as the technology has improved, leading to a consumer boom in cheaper, simpler models.

Among the questions the committee will seek answers to are the implications of drones for air traffic control, and whether drones will be affected by current data protection legislation.

Earlier this week, a report led by the former head of GCHQ and conducted by the University of Birmingham's Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security said that UAVs pose "significant safety, security and privacy concerns".

Video: Debate Over Paparazzi Tactics

It warned they could also be exploited by burglars, train robbers, poachers and the paparazzi.

But the report also said drones could bring "significant benefits". The commercial drone market is estimated to be worth £7.5bn over the next decade.

Jennifer Gibson, a legal expert on UAVs, told Sky News: "Parliament needs to step up. They need to make sure that outdated laws - which historically were used for things like CCTV cameras or manned aircraft - are updated to address this unmanned threat that is coming and can be used by the average person on the street, or by police forces.

Video: Dubai To Get Drone Deliveries

"There need to be codes of conduct, we need to have discussions about what privacy means in this new world where you can fly something up to someone's window.

"We need to have decisions around how to protect ourselves from the potential use of this in a threatening way."

This week also saw the first UAV conference held in London.

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