Welcome to Broadclyst

THE Nursing and Midwifery Council has yet to set a date for the conclusion of a fitness to practice hearing launched after the death of a baby in Exeter.

Midwife Julie Duthie, of Ivybridge, denies failing to explain the risk of a home birth to clients and four other charges relating to the incident.

THE publication of a report into how a city house exploded in a massive blast has been delayed by more than a month.

The findings from an investigation into the incident at Antonine Crescent, in the Redhills area of the city, were due to be published at the end of last month but are not now expected to be released until October.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) document is expected to reveal whether or not the blast, which happened on Thursday, May 6, was caused by a faulty gas main outside the property.

As previously reported in the Echo, blast victims Wayne Moore, 37, and his mother Irene Stoneman miraculously escaped with their lives despite being blown out of the house by the blast and left with severe burns. The pair, who shared the house with Wayne's sister Wendy, 34, told the Echo they were 'lucky to be alive'.

The family lost all their belongings in the blast and have since been living in temporary accommodation.

The Echo was told last month that HSE investigators looking into the incident were in the advanced stages of their enquiries and would publish their report within a few weeks.

A spokesman for the HSE has now told the Echo that they are still looking at technical aspects of the investigation and will not reveal their findings until next month.

Gas company Wales and West Utilities ripped up the gas mains throughout Antonine Crescent after the blast.

They told residents the replacement of pipes was only a precautionary measure, but the move prompted homeowners in the street to speculate whether there had been a problem with the mains pipework.

Sections of the mains were sent away for forensic examination as part of the investigation into the blast.

Mr Moore, a catering manager at the Woodbury Park Hotel, near Exeter, said: "We're awaiting the results. Until then we won't know the full cause of the blast.

"It's been several months since the explosion now and we're looking forward to having the outcome so we can move on with our lives."

"The HSE have been in regular contact with the family throughout the investigation to keep them up to date."

LIFTING a ban on feeding meat to animals could resurrect the spectre of "mad cow disease" and hit public confidence in the safety of British beef, it has been claimed.

The European Commission has announced it is considering easing the rules to allow feed containing animal proteins, rules that were introduced to halt the spread of BSE 20 years ago.

It wants to reduce the cost of guarding against the disease and its human form, Creutzfeldt Jacob Disease (CJD), which has claimed the lives of 169 British people since 1995.

In a consultation document, the Commission claimed the changes would be based on sound science and would reduce farmers' dependency on crop-based alternatives and their volatile foreign markets.

The report admitted it was "impossible" to remove all risk of the disease entering the food chain.

Neil Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton and a former EU agriculture committee chairman, said the public needed reassurance that there was no contamination of the meat and bone meal feed.

"What was so wrong before was that we were feeding meal back to the same species," said Mr Parish, who is also a dairy farmer.

"The mills which produce these feeds are often in the same place and meal from poultry and pigs must be kept entirely separate from those for ruminants."

Since the first case of BSE was discovered in 1986, 181,114 cattle have been diagnosed with the prion disease and four million culled.

The condition was sparked by cattle eating animal feed containing infected proteins from a sheep which had died of a related disease, scrapie.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs has submitted a response to the Commission's consultation saying it supports its aims.

A COURT has adjourned the case against a man accused of attempting to rape a woman in a late-night stranger attack in a city street.

Gareth Lee Rousen, aged 25, from Coleridge Gardens in Machen, Caerphilly, Mid-Glamorgan in Wales, did not appear before Exeter Magistrates' Court this week and the case was adjourned.

He is charged with attempted rape and a public order offence. The allegation of attempted rape relates to an incident on Tuesday, August 10, when a woman is alleged to have been sexually assaulted in Ebrington Road at around 10pm. The public order offence is alleged to have happened on July 29.

The case was adjourned until September 9, when it will be sent to Exeter Crown Court.

Rousen will appear via video link from custody.

A MAN has admitted assaulting another with intent to rob him on the day his trial was due to start.

Defence counsel for Tobias Williams, 20, asked for a charge of assaulting Robin Merrington with intent to rob in Exeter, on May 22 last year, to be put to his client again and Williams pleaded guilty.

Rupert Taylor, defending, also asked that three offences of dishonesty be put to Williams and he also admitted those.

Little detail of the alleged incidents were given in court.

Judge Graham Cottle said the assault was a nasty incident where violence was used.

One of the dishonesty offences also involved Williams striking a police officer on the head with a bottle of wine.

Williams, of Pentire Avenue, Newquay, Cornwall, was remanded in custody.

Mr Taylor asked for psychiatric reports to be prepared on Williams before he is sentenced.

Judge Cottle told Williams: "You don't get any credit for pleading guilty on the morning of your trial. The court could have listed some other case.

"Court time is wasted by defendants coming to court on the day of their trial and pleading guilty with the knock on consequences that has."

A pensioner cleared yesterday of racially abusing a traffic warden is standing as a British National Party candidate in local elections tomorrow.

Christopher Stone, 67, is the far-right party's only candidate in the elections to Exeter City Council and is standing in the Priory ward.

Yesterday the retired lorry driver was acquitted of abusing the parking attendant, Sarah Marillier-Brown, outside a car boot sale in the Marsh Barton area of the city last July.

He was accused of launching a tirade of racist language after approaching her while she ticketed vehicles parked on a single yellow line.

During his evidence, Mr Stone said he had not been ticketed himself but was complaining because an elderly woman who had been given a ticket could not afford to pay it and that it was poorly signed.

Mr Stone claimed the traffic department in Exeter operated a ticketing system which discriminated against white people. Recorder Palmer QC suggested this was "an extraordinary view".

Mr Stone said he did not believe the case would affect his chances in tomorrow's council election.

"I'm very, very confident," said Mr Stone. "I'm not a racist. I want to stand up for the ordinary people in the street."

He added: "The BNP is not a racist party and we are not thugs."