Five Teesside stories you may have missed this week
A soon to be 80-year-old mountain rescue volunteer, a statue unveiling of a cat that became a "local celebrity" and two brothers who competed in the TV series Race Across the World share their experience. Here are five stories from Teesside you may have missed this week.
'You just do it because it helps people'
Most people celebrating their 80th birthday do not run the risk of being called away to a work emergency - but that will be a possibility for Gari Finch. The soon-to-be octogenarian from Great Ayton, in North Yorkshire, has been a volunteer at Cleveland Mountain Rescue for 54 years, and so far he has at least 1,500 call-outs to his name.However, Mr Finch's teammates know better than to suggest that after this latest milestone, he should hang up his distinctive red uniform and enjoy retirement.Read more about Mr Finch's service to Mountain Rescue here
Boats back in leaky lake ahead of further repairs
Boats are sailing once again in an historic, but leaky, lake ahead of further repairs.The lake, at Newcomen Terrace in Coatham, Redcar, has had low water levels for years, forcing a model boat club to race radio controlled cars there instead.A test refill in April failed, prompting an investigation, and more repairs to a pump and the structure's base will be carried out this month.Read more about the mini vessels here
No translation help for riot forms, PCC says
The office for a police and crime commissioner has said the Home Office did not help translate riot compensation forms to help those affected by last summer's disorder.In the wake of a stabbing attack in Southport, rioting broke out across the country, with disorder in Hartlepool on 31 July, followed by Sunderland on 2 August and Middlesbrough on 4 August.A spokeswoman for Cleveland's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) said that many of those affected did not speak English and so they would have expected some translation help with the forms designed to offer support.Read what the office of Cleveland PCC said here
Crowds gather for cat statue unveiling
A cat that became a "local celebrity" has had a statue unveiled in its honour.More than £4,000 was raised to place a bronze statue on Saltburn's pier in Redcar and Cleveland, where Hendrix was a familiar face - often visiting cafes and arcades.The feline, who previously lived in Whitley Bay and was known to hop on Metro trains, was much-loved by locals and tourists alike.Owner Nathan Bye thanked the people of Saltburn, Hendrix's international social media fanbase and Redcar Council who had supported the campaign to memorialise him.
Race Across the World 'surreal' for brothers
Two brothers who competed in the TV series Race Across the World say the experience and associated public recognition still does not feel real.Melvyn and Brian Mole, who are both in their 60s, formed one of five teams who raced more than 14,000km (8,700 miles) across China, Nepal and India to try to win £20,000.Ahead of Wednesday's final episode, Melvyn, a driving instructor who lives in Middlesbrough, said appearing on the show was "a surreal journey" which did not end with filming.Read what else Melvyn and Brian say here
Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Shaughna Phillips shows off her bump on Love Island AfterSun as Maya Jama congratulates the former contestant on her pregnancy
Shaughna Phillips showcased her bump on Love Island AfterSun on Sunday, hours after announcing she is pregnant. The former islander, 31, who is also a mother to Lucia, two, looked radiant as she appeared as a special guest on the ITV 2 spin off show. To discuss her her happy news, the blonde beauty wore an elegant white wrap dress. Appearing alongside Demi Jones, Shaughna was congratulated by host Maya Jama after she revealed she is expecting her second child. Walking over to the two guests, Maya said: 'Hello, congratulations are in order, Shaughna!' The host continued: 'I mean amazing. Baby number two?' which the blonde beauty replied. 'two, here you go and busy!'. Taking to Instagram earlier on Sunday, Shaughna revealed she was expecting as she posted a video of herself taking a pregnancy test and showed off her growing bump. She also shared a sweet video of her daughter Lucia wearing a t-shirt saying 'Big Sis' and 'In my big sister era' to go with the announcement. Shaughna did not reveal who the father of her baby is as she wrote: 'Adding a little more love to our family…' Following the birth of her daughter Lucia in April 2023, Shaughna's boyfriend of four years, Billy Webb, 29, was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply 4.5kg of cocaine worth at least £360,000. However Shaughna revealed in November that the father of her little girl had been released after serving only 12 months of his sentence and the family reunited to enjoy a Christmas grotto together. The blonde bombshell has been very open with her fans throughout the ordeal and previously revealed on her podcast Oh, Baby with Shaughna and Holly that she had struggled to come to terms with the situation. She said: 'It's the most gut-wrenching position to be in. Taking to Instagram on Sunday , Shaughna revealed she was expecting as she posted a video of herself taking a pregnancy test and showed off her growing bump 'And, I mean, before I even answer this question, I want to just put it out there that you can judge me all you want, but please don't let me know, because I feel like unless you've been in this position you can't really have an opinion on it. 'Because before I was in this position, before I had a baby, if you had asked me would I ever, ever take my child into a prison, the answer would be absolutely not. Anyone that does that is crazy. 'And then, lo and behold, I'm now in this position. And I think the thing is, we're always going to be co-parents. 'And I know that me and my dad had the best relationship ever, and to me, my dad is the best person in the world. 'And I don't want Lucia to think differently of her father. I would never, ever stop him from seeing her, ever.' Sharing an adorable video to her Instagram announcing he had been released, the reality star revealed that she and her partner had taken Lucia to see Santa and added she never thought this day would come. She captioned the clip: 'If you had told me this time last year, that me and Billy would be taking Lucia to see Santa next Christmas, I probably wouldn't have let myself believe you 'The best couple of days, this Christmas is going to be so special'. The star also revealed to MailOnline that she had struggled raising her daughter as a single mother. She said: 'Having a newborn baby, hormones are all over the place and I was just struggling' 'Anyone who's had kids they'll probably say that when they're a newborn it's easiest because they just lie there and need to be fed but as they get older and they can talk back and say no... It's exhausting.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
DOMINIC LAWSON: The no-nonsense police chief restoring faith in law and order - and why he's got no time for Labour's misguided prison reforms
Amid the general dissatisfaction with the state of our public services, which is the most dangerous element in this national malaise? It is the precipitous loss of confidence in our police forces. Less than half of those questioned last year in the Office for National Statistics Crime Survey said their local police were doing a good job; ten years ago almost two-thirds gave a positive response. This matters so much because, while the Government burbles about 'defence of the realm' being the first responsibility of the state, our sense of security derives principally from how it is manifested in our daily lives. That comes from policing. I have never heard the risks to this fundamental element in the pact between government and the governed put with such urgency as by the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Stephen Watson, addressing the country's pre-eminent political think tank, Policy Exchange, last week. The 56-year-old Watson lamented that 'our natural constituency' – by which he meant the law-abiding – 'are now asking, what the Hell is going on with policing?' He then set out how destructive this is: 'The policing mission is essential to our country, it is essential to our life-blood, it is essential to our economy, it is essential to the fabric of family and community life, it is essential to a country that prides itself on abiding by the rules.' To listen to some within law enforcement, the impression is given that, without a vast increase in funding, they are defenceless to stem the decline. Not so this particular police chief, who describes such an attitude as 'abhorrent defeatism, telling the public we can't do x or y, that it's all too difficult'. Watson is entitled to such an implicit criticism of others in the crime prevention business, because of the transformation he has wrought within the Greater Manchester Police (recognised with a knighthood in this month's King's Birthday Honours). When he took over GMP in 2021, having made the previously lamentable South Yorkshire Police the 'most improved force' for three successive years, it was in special measures. The GMP had failed even to record 80,000 crimes and its 999 response times were the worst in England. That was turned around within a year, with a quadrupling of 'stop and searches' and, in 2024, progress was stepped up, increasing arrests, answering emergency calls in an average time of two seconds, and attending serious incidents, also on average, in under eight minutes. All this has had a marked effect on offending rates – downwards. Last year, GMP recorded a reduction of eight per cent in total crime: residential burglaries down 11 per cent, theft down 28 per cent and vehicle offences down over 18 per cent. It must be deeply frustrating for Watson and his officers that the Government, concerned about jail overcrowding, and arguing that short sentences don't help prisoners to reform, is pursuing a policy of replacing so-called 'short prison sentences' with electronic tagging. As Sir Stephen remarked to those of us at the Policy Exchange meeting: 'Short sentences may not work for offenders, but they do work for victims, and I'm on the victims' side.' Many blame the requirement to investigate so-called 'non-crime hate incidents' as a reason for police forces' distraction from dealing with what used to be the bread and butter of crime-fighting. These were introduced in the wake of the Macpherson Report, following the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence, and designed to log acts of prejudice or hostility towards people with a 'protected characteristic'. Watson didn't raise this, but, asked by a member of the audience if the policy of collecting 'non-crime hate incident data' should be scrapped, he responded that it should: 'What it morphed into was pretty much anyone with a protected characteristic who perceived themselves to be a victim of an incident because of that, was automatically recorded. I think that's a mistake. It went too far.' Not that he has any tolerance for delinquent police officers, declaring that recent years have revealed 'the most appalling misconduct and criminal acts by serving officers who should never have been recruited and who should have been kicked out of the force long before dreadful things happened'. Under Watson, GMP has kicked out hundreds of officers deemed to have been corrupt or simply useless (he introduced a new test for aspirant officers, having been stunned to discover how many were functionally illiterate, unable even to fill out an incident report). In a sense, Watson is trying to reintroduce what is sometimes called 'good, old fashioned policing'. This was clear from an interview he gave to the Daily Telegraph a year ago, when he said one of his first decisions was to replace what he called officers' 'scruffy kit', which didn't even have the force's insignia, with smart new uniforms. 'If you turn up to work, if you're a female officer, you tie your hair up, if you're a man, you've had a shave, you press your clothing, you polish your boots, you look smart.' It is perhaps not surprising that Watson comes from a military family background. His father had been a Royal Navy officer in Rhodesia but the family left the country along with many other Britons when Robert Mugabe took power. Sir Stephen himself was 18 when he returned to Britain and still has a faint Rhodesian accent. I noticed that especially when sitting close to him at lunch after the speech was delivered. I also saw that he was wearing Union Jack cufflinks. Some of the other attendees at the lunch were former Metropolitan Police officers, who felt the Met desperately needed his brand of leadership. On all the vital measures, such as arrests per officer, and reducing crime rates, that most emblematic force, the original one created in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel, has been eclipsed by Manchester. Sir Stephen didn't rise to the bait but emphasised how supportive the Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, had been. When film emerged a year ago showing one of Watson's officers kicking and stamping on the head of a 19-year-old, Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, during a fracas at Manchester Airport, Burnham made sure to see the police footage of the whole incident. This showed that Amaaz had, just before, broken the nose of a female police officer in a sustained assault. Burnham went on the radio to warn those marching in support of Amaaz: 'There are two sides of this complicated situation... people's careers are put on the line. We feel for the police officers who were injured.' Would London's mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, have done the same? And do the Home Office apparatchiks want someone like Watson to be the country's top cop? When I asked a former Met Detective Chief Inspector, David Spencer, now Policy Exchange's head of Crime and Justice, he was not encouraging: 'The Government should replicate the Watson playbook of police leadership across every force. 'My biggest fear is that the current system is more likely to suppress future Watsons coming through.' If that is the case, public confidence in the police will slide still lower – possibly with consequences that no government could survive.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Neighbours' fury as Rochdale grooming gang leader throws parties in house fitted with police panic alarm after using legal loophole to dodge deportation
Furious neighbours of Rochdale grooming gang ringleader Qari Rauf say they are terrified to let their children out of sight - after discovering he's still living freely on their street, having used a legal loophole to dodge deportation. The convicted paedophile, 55, was one of nine men jailed in 2012 for raping and trafficking vulnerable girls across northern England in a case that shocked the country. Rauf was told he would be deported to Pakistan in 2014 after serving just two-and-a-half years of a six-year prison sentence – but he remains in the UK more than a decade later. He was supposed to be deported after his release, but avoided removal by destroying his passport and claiming to be stateless. Despite losing an appeal against deportation in 2018, he has never been sent back - with Pakistan refusing to accept him without valid travel documents. Now residents say he is back living in a terraced house in the same area where his victims were targeted - and throwing parties with 'loads of people' coming and going. While victims continue to rebuild their lives, Rauf has reportedly been given extra protection, including a panic button in his home linked directly to Greater Manchester Police. One woman said she was told by officers he had 'done his time' when she demanded that they remove him. Angie Harrison, 45, a mum of two girls aged seven and eight, said: 'He has loads of people there, having parties and we don't like the look of the people who come. The convicted paedophile, 55, was one of nine men jailed in 2012 for raping and trafficking vulnerable girls across northern England in a case that shocked the country. Rauf was told he would be deported to Pakistan in 2014 after serving just two-and-a-half years of a six-year prison sentence – but he remains in the UK more than a decade later 'We are back-to-back with his house. I don't like letting the kids in the garden. I have told them all about him. It is disgusting. 'We have tried everything to get him out. We asked him who was taking photos out the back window. 'The street is full of kids. I am constantly checking and checking. 'It is horrible. It is awful when you have to sit out watching your kids. We're the ones watching over our own kids like prison guards.' She added: 'He is two doors down from a child minder. He went to prison and came out and moved back to this street.' Nodding in agreement, child minder Anita Howarth, 58, said: 'I will pay for him to get a new passport if it gets rid of him. 'It is a constant reminder that our country does not care. I sit out watching the girls and who they are talking to. 'Every time I walk past, I think of grooming gangs. It is pathetic. It is just horrible. Our country has let us down big time. 'I don't get it. The authority does not seem to care. 'I know it is not just Asians who do it. It white people as well. But we don't like any paedophiles no matter what colour they are. 'But I think it is disgusting. We don't want our own paedophiles, let alone ones from other countries.' Lena Carter, 64, who has lived on the street for nearly 30 years, said her daughters used to play in Rauf's back garden. 'The two youngest used to play in his back garden. They were never allowed in the house thank God. He broke the law but he knows how to play the system. 'I can't believe he is still there. But I am not moving. I have been here nearly 30 years and will be here forever. 'All of Rochdale has gone bad now. All the shops are shut. It is only big places like Marks and Spencer's that can afford the rents. The small retailers cannot. 'I never thought he would have the cheek to come back on the street. He is very blatant. He walks around as if to say "I have abused the kids and I am all right". 'I understand he has been banned from the mosque. He walks around in Western clothing now unless his friends are around. 'What can we do to get him out if the law says he can stay? The police will turn up and remove you if you are near his house. 'They tell us to leave him alone. I don't think any of them work apart from the son who sometimes runs the father around in his car. 'He comes out, gets in the car and goes. 'It makes me wonder what he has told his girls about why he has been away. I cannot believe his wife took him back. 'The police told me I cannot say anything to him because he has done his time. I said "What about the poor girls?" But they weren't interested. 'When his children were younger, he was still doing the school run and was allowed to sit in his car outside schools. The police said he was allowed to do the school run. 'He is still being driven around by his son and is all smiles. He seems to have disappeared for a while. But he will be back again.' Her daughter's boyfriend added: 'I was going to smash his windows but am not allowed to.' Another female neighbour said: 'His son drives him around in his car. He just walks along the street. He has been a bit more cagey since he got out of prison. 'He was never supposed to have come back to this house. But he just doesn't care. There is not much we can do. 'I think he owns the house and we cannot get him off the street. We think he has gone into hiding again until the fuss dies down.' Another said: 'When I have got the windows open I just shout 'paedo'. But he just does not care. 'I have not seen him since the week before last. He walks around here like he owns the place. He doesn't care at all. 'It's like he does not have a care in the world. I am surprised his windows have not been smashed to be honest. 'I am really surprised. But I have heard he has police alarms in his house. It is disgusting. Then you hear about it happening again. 'One of the other ring leaders used to work down Rochdale market where I used to buy my clothes. 'My daughter has just turned 16 and she wonders why I don't let her go out and about. I don't like her going off the street to be honest.' Another woman whose daughter lives nearby added: 'It is crazy he is still living here. Before we knew what had happened we thought he was a really nice guy. 'He used to make curries for everyone. They always seemed friendly. Everyone wants him out now but it's his own fault. 'My daughter is 27 but when it was happening she was a teenager so it is worrying.'
