The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 5

HOME NEWS 1 5 Tti Guardian Wednesday April 9 1997 ITV spends to blunt impact of Channel 5 Andrew Cutf Modla Correspondent Hbb 4b9F'lflHEaHE3aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaM 'aaaVaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH -'Baaaaaaaaaaaaal iBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb raaaSfiiBaaVaBBBBaaBBBBi BHbbbbbbbbbbI DRAMA: 2020. film drama set in futuristic Manchester; Bliss, starring Simon Shepherd as a leading itnmunologist: Touching Evil, crime thriller with Robson Green; Ain't Misbe-havin', return of Robson Green and Jerome Flynn's wartime romp; Sharpe, starring Sean Bean; Cad-fael, starring Derek Jacobi; Wycliffe, with Jack Shepherd; Bodyguards, starring Louise Lombard and Sean Pertwee. FACTUAL; Network First: Victoria and Albert, Prince Michael of Kent on his great great grandparents' marriage; Situation Critical, a debate on youth lawlessness; Neighbours from Hell, a documentary on neighbourhood feuds. aaaaB fflVJR Wk '4HaaaaaH8aaK iBbVpb faAaTaaaaVL iBTaBBBBBBBBBBBi VaaHaaaaVP BaW 'a mbbmJk' b88888888888888888888888i BaBaBaBaBaaiBiaaBaBaBHB' JSBI (x, liiaTaTaTaTaTaTaTaTaTaTaJ aTaTaTaTaTaTaTaTJrv jdaTararaa ITV yesterday unveiled a strategy to attract younger viewers and blunt the im pact of Channel 5. The network's schedule for spring and summer will include a new late night comedy zone, a science fiction week and 30 per cent fewer repeats than last year.

ITV denied that the 170 million schedule was a panic reaction to the arrival last week of Channel 5. claiming its audience share had so far been the least affected of any terrestrial broadcaster. But the strategy is clearly designed to reinforce ITV's position as the market leader, and the targeting of younger adults takes it head to head with Channel 5. Marcus Plantin, ITV's network director, did nothing to dampen increasing speculation that the channel is again considering moving News at Ten to an earlier slot Channel 5's advertising campaigns have stressed its ability to run films at 9pm, uninterrupted by a half-hour news break. ITV's attempts four years ago to move News at Ten were thwarted by the Independent Television Com mission and pressure from politicians.

Mr Plantin said the push for younger viewers aged 16 to 24 had been demanded by advertisers The Comedy Zone apparently mimicking Channel 5's nightly 11.40pm comedy slot will feature the return of Gayle's World, and Live at Jongleurs, featur ing acts from an alternative comedy venue. The Into the Unknown sea son, dedicated to the paranormal and bizarre, will launch Trompe l'oeil A sunbather on her lounger dreams of nothing, while an elderly couple stare into the void. Duane Hanson's sculptures blur the distinction between the real and the counteifeit to suggest the emptiness in everyday life. They are on show at the Saatchi Gallery in St John's Wood, London, until July photograph david silutoe Mentally ill teenager held in prison Health authority criticised over failure to find secure hospital bed under the Mental Health Act if magistrates are satisfied he has committed criminal offences. His lawyer.

John Carter, said the teenager had been let down by the health authorities on numerous occasions, including a failure to implement a care plan which recommended residential care. "This young man is forced to stay in prison while psychiatrists hawk him around the country. He should never have ended up in prison in the first place. The fact that he has is due to a catalogue of failures by the local statutory-agencies to ensure that he doesn't know what's happening. He has the mind of a ten-year-old.

He has a cleft palate and has problems breathing. He needs a lot of care and attention. He was doing well with the help of a voluntary-social worker while he was living with me but now he is right back to square one." Mrs Saunders, who has four other children, said she would not be able to afford the 300-mile journey to Lancashire if her son was moved to Calderstone. Her son, who dropped out of school at the age of 14, was very close to his family and would not be able manage without her. received adequate care and support." South and West Devon health authority admitted it was not "ideal" that Saunders should be remanded in custody but the authority, like many others, was confronted by a national shortage of secure accommodation beds.

A bed had now been found in Calderstone hospital near Blackburn in Lancashire but it would not become available for another month. "This is an unsatisfactory situation and the authority acknowledges that. However, the patient needs to be in secure accommodation and that cannot be provided in the district." The authority denied services in the region had been run down it has two acute psychiatric units with 130 beds or that there was a funding crisis. Every effort had been made to find secure accommodation and the authority was still trying to find a place nearer to Plymouth. However, Mrs Saunders, who has visited her son once a week in the hospital unit of Exeter, said she was not satisfied with the authority's efforts and disputed the psychiatrists report which suggested her son was a danger to the public.

He had become frightened and tearful in jail. "He Drugs charge Britons on trial tion has deteriorated. His mother. Rosie Saunders, claims her son. who was recently diagnosed as a paranoid psychotic, has lost weight and is unable to cope with being left alone for hours on end.

He was remanded on February 17 by Plymouth magistrates after being charged with five counts of assault and one of criminal damage. He is due to appear again before magistrates in two weeks, and could be sectioned Alison Daniels A TEENAGER with the mental age of 10 has been held on remand in Exeter prison for two months because his local health authority was unable to find him a place in a secure psychiatric unit. The lawyer representing Christopher Saunders. 18. from Plymouth, claims that since his incarceration his already unstable mental condi- News in brief A BRITON is to go on trial in Holland today charged with running a 100 million racket to flood Britain with heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and hashish.

Curtis Warren, a businessman from Liverpool, is one of seven Britons in the dock in The Hague for a two-day hearing. The court will hear claims of how a six-month Anglo-Dutch police and Customs operation smashed one of Brit ain's largest organised drug rings. The three judges will hear claims that the gang con trolled its international smuggling operations from the north west of England. Warren had homes in the Wirral and Amsterdam from which he is alleged to have co ordinated an illicit trade which flooded Europe and in particular Britain, with vast quantities of drugs from South America. The seven are charged with trafficking in drugs and illegal possession of guns, hand grenades and CS gas canisters.

A Colombian is also charged with involvement in the same smuggling racket. They were all arrested last October after a joint operation by Dutch and British Customs officers who seized 75 million of cocaine in a container aboard a Venezuelan freighter which had docked in Rotterdam. Inside the container was a collection of giant aluminium ingots. Hidden in a metal box Millennium, the new series from Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files. The week includes a crime thriller.

2020, set in Manchester years from now. ITV is spending 10 million a week on network programming, compared with Channel 5's annual budget of 110 million. The network's invest ment in drama alone runs to 70 million for the season. Mr Plantin said ITV had hit the jackpot with new quality drama, including McCallum, Reckless and Midsomer Murders Last weekend's opening episodes of The Grand and Where the Heart Is, delivered 10 million plus audiences. Formula 1 motor racing and European football had led the "renaissance'' of ITV sport, an area where spending had doubled over two years, he claimed inside one ingot was 800kg of Colombian cocaine.

Investigators who had been tracking the shipment with the help of information from the North West regional crime squad, followed the suspect container from the ship to a warehouse near The Hague where a raid was staged. Follow up raids in Rotterdam and Amsterdam uncovered caches of hand grenades and automatic weapons as well as more drugs which included of heroin and 50kg of ecstasy a total drugs haul worth about 100 million. Most of it was destined for the North West of Kngland for distribution throughout the country via criminal networks. Dutch prosecutors say War ren. aged 32, was the organiser of the drugs ring.

The others in court are said to be his henchmen. They include Stephen Mee, aged 38, also from Liverpool. Mee and another defendant, Ray Nolan. 28. from Liverpool, allegedly gave false names to Dutch police.

The other defendants are John Farrell, 34, from Manchester. Stephen Whitehead, also 34. from Oldham; William Fitzgerald, 55, and William Riley. 47. both from Liverpool No verdicts will be announced because the judges will require at least two weeks after completion of the hearings before delivering their judgments.

ing of bodies without consent. "A search has been carried out at an address in southwest London and of a venue in Kent where a number of body parts have been found. A 41 year-old man was arrested on April 2 and has been bailed to return to Vauxhall police station Mr Kelly's solicitor, Mark Stephens, last night told the Mirror newspaper: "This is subject to a police investigation Mr Kelly is co-operating. He is somewhat surprised that this action has been taken." Mr Kelly's supply of bodies is believed lo have come from medical colleges. The 1994 Anatomy Act permits parts of corpses to be kept for up to three years.

The sculptor's work is produced by pouring glass-fibre on to the moulds of heads, torsos and feet. The works are finished by being painted in silver or gold. Mr Kelly recently said of his method: "I have no qualms about doing this. I wouldn't wish to hurt anyone. While I find beauty in death, these are nevertheless rotting bodies You look at them and remind yourself, this is how we all end up Boy.

1 1 facing male rape charge A BOY of ll will appear before a Nottingham crown court judge next week charged with the male rape of a 12-year-old. in what is thought to be one of the first such cases to be heard by an adult court Police said the incident allegedly took place in Nottingham last October when the boy. who cannot be named for legal reasons, was aged 10. He is also charged with robbery Rods save anglers' lives A MAN and his teenage son were recovering last night after saving their lives by using fishing rods to avoid being swept away by an incoming tide The pair jammed their carbon-fibre rods into a sandbank after they became trapped in the swirling waters of the Bristol Channel near their home. Hank Vandorn, aged 50.

then blew up a plastic bin liner to act as a float for himself and his son Henry, aged 17. With water up to their necks, they hung on to their rods for two hours before lifeboatmen found them Mr Vandorn later told how the 9ft rods were tumed into life-saving stilts near Kidwelly Quay in Carmarthen Bay. west Wales, adding: "It was the most frightening two hours of my life." IRA claims Aintree hoax THE IRA yesterday admitted it caused the bomb hoax which postponed Saturday 's Grand National race at Aintree. A caller to the newsroom of the Irish state broadcasting service RTE used a recognised codeword and claimed responsibility for the disruption, saying such incidents would be a thing of the past if "John Major had attached as much importance to negotiating an end to conflict in Ireland as he had to the disruption of a single sport ing David Sharntck A policeman searching a suspect's home during Operation Bumblebee in London yesterday photograph martin Godwin Bumblebee raids sting thieves Artist who uses body parts arrested in corpses inquiry Top chef's 400,000 tax bill ONE of Britain's best-known restaurateurs and his wife could face an estimated 400.000 bill after a High Court judge yesterday ruled the Inland Revenue was entitled to penalise them over a tax avoidance scheme. Michel Roux, who now owns a restaurant near Maidenhead.

Berkshire, accused the Inland Revenue of acting unfairly and unlawfully by imposing a hefty penalty after he opted for a new pension scheme in July. Rejecting Mr Roux's application for judicial review. Mr Justice Tucker said: "The Revenue ere justified in withdrawing ap proval for the old scheme." Clare Longrigg FOR one small baby, born in Eulham on Monday afternoon, it was not an auspicious start. On his first morning, his parents were awoken by a sharp knock at the door. Six police officers entered the first floor flat and snapped handcuffs on his father's outstretched wrists.

Mother and father, both in their early 20s, sat side by side on the sofa as detectives searched the flat looking for stolen property. Two bicycles were removed from the balcony, along with a number of mobile phones officers on five separate raids to arrest seven suspected burglars, including a 15-year-old boy. One team arrested an 18 year old suspected burglar when they found him in bed with a 14-year-old girl who had been reported missing. Police also uncovered drugs and illegal weapons during a number of raids. At the new baby's home, officers found two shotgun cartridges and part of a flare gun a prohib ited weapon.

Stolen goods recovered in the Bumblebee raids will go on display at the Road Show at Uird's cricket ground in London on April 11-13. Among the booty is said to be a quantity of ecclesiastical robes. tracts awarded to another company, Trem, based in Doncaster. the court heard. He was charged in this year.

Mr Cox objected to a prosecution request that proceedings be delayed until next month, but the case was adjourned for three weeks. tent thieves are being stopped. The tenth London-wide blitz in seven years deployed more than 2.000 officers in raids on hundreds of homes. At Sam. squad cars and police vans moved out across the city By 10am.

360 suspected burglars and fences had been arrested, and officers had removed property including iredit cards, jewellery and bicycles. Detectives discovered 500,000 in cash hidden under a bed in a house in Hounslow, west London, where a man was arrested in connection with illegally imported alcohol. Fulham police sent out 25 lifted. Geoffrey Cox, defending, told the court that inves tigations started in 1993 after an unnamed former minister complained to the MoD that Dince Hill, an arms dealing company, was not being awarded contracts. Mr Fenley was arrested in 1994 in connection with con and a duvet cover set, still with its electronic security tag attached.

Two pictures were taken off the wall. "We're looking for a victim with no taste." said one of the officers. A Samurai sword found in the bedroom was consigned to one of the raid team for safekeeping. The baby, as yet unnamed, slept soundly as the officers, already well known to the man and his girlfriend from previous arrests and repeated searches, laughed and joked with them. The raid was part of Opera tion Bumblebee, a Metropolitan police initiative to crack down on burglary and reas sure householders that persis- The 'disclosure was made at Tower Bridge magistrates court, south London, during pre-trial hearings into the case of Robert Fen ley.

an MoD official charged with conspiracy to defraud the ministry over the sale of large quantities of weapons. Reporting restrictions were Man accused over timeshares John Palmer, 47. a builder, of Battlefields, Bath, was charged with eight counts of conspiring to defraud others in connection with timeshare interests between January 1990 and July 1996, a Scotland Yard spokesman said last night. His girlfriend Christine KetJey. 37, a manager, of Brentwood, Essex, was also charged with eight counts of conspiracy to defraud in connection with the same matter.

Owon Bowcott THE remains of a number of corpses used by a sculptor to mould gilt plaster casts have been recovered by officers from Scotland Yard's organised crime unit. The gruesome discovery was made earlier this month after the alarm was raised by a little known public official, Her Majesty's Inspector of Anatomy, l)r Laurence Mar tin. He supervises the way in which bodies are used for research by medical colleges. Officers arrested a 41 -year old man, understood to be Anthony-Noel Kelly who works for Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture in central London. He is a cousin of the Duke of Norfolk.

Police examined two sites and found parts of several human bodies. They are thought to have come from elderly patients who had died recently. The Scotland Yard state ment said: "Following a request from Her Majesty's Inspector of Anatomy, two officers from the organised crime group are investigating allegations of theft and bury Former minister (helped arms dealer get MoD contract' Spice Girls top 1 0m sales THE Spice Girls have sold 10,185,000 copies of their debut album Spice, their record company. Virgin Records, announced yesterday. Such worldwide sales put the quintet among the elite of British rock, and compare with Pink Flovd's 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon (28 million), the Beatles' Sgt Pepper (24 million), Oasis's What's The Story Morning Glory9(13million)and Simply Red's Stars (9.6 million).

A Virgin Records spokesman said: "Our projected UK sales were about 300,000." That compares with 2.62 million to date. Richard Norton-Taylor A FORMER Conservative minister intervened to secure a lucrative Ministry of Defence contract for a private arms dealer who bought large stocks of surplus weapons, it was revealed yesterday..