File on 4 Investigates

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Ireland's Far Right Riot Jan 30, 2024

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When three young children and their carer were stabbed outside a school in Dublin, protests against immigration began, fuelled by rumours on social media. A night of rioting then followed, with shops looted, vehicles set alight, and police attacked. The rioting has placed immigration centre stage of Irish politics, with one of the country’s most famous sports stars, mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, claiming Ireland is “at war” and saying he wants to be president. File on 4 investigates what caused the riots, and asks is Ireland at a turning point in its history?

Reporter: Shane Harrison Producers: Fergus Hewison and Surya Elango Technical Producer: Sue Stonestreet Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Bailiffs Behaving Badly Jan 22, 2024

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Councils in England and Wales are owed half a billion pounds - mainly in uncollected taxes and fines; money that's needed for essential services. Now, more and more, many are turning to bailiffs to recover the money. File on 4 hears from those on the receiving end - and industry insiders who say their colleagues are incentivised to behave badly. Mark Lobel also speaks to those at the forefront of industry reform who believe say the industry still needs to clean up its act.

Reporter: Mark Lobel Producers: Phil Marzouk Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Lethal Weapons: The Blank-Firing Guns Converted to Kill Jan 15, 2024

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Handguns which fire blanks are being converted into deadly weapons by criminals. File on 4 has discovered they're now being used more often than real handguns. Adrian Goldberg meets victims of gun crime and explores the UK's trade in illegal firearms. He discovers how easy it is to buy a blank firing pistol which can be illegally converted into a lethal weapon in 20 minutes, and hears from a former gangster who warns the law has too many loopholes. The UK has some of the strictest firearm laws in the world. So as some criminals struggle to obtain genuine guns, they're now getting blank-firing weapons converted into deadly weapons. As reporter Adrian Goldberg discovers how easy it is, gun campaigners call for tighter regulations around the manufacture and sale of blank firing weapons.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg Producer: Paul Grant Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Escaping Anna Jan 11, 2024

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A group of women turned to a private specialist eating disorder clinic in Bath hoping they would receive life-changing treatment.

They say their mental and physical health deteriorated while the psychologist in charge subjected them to psychological abuse. The clinic has since closed its doors, but the former patients say they have been left with life-long scars

Reporter: Divya Talwar Producer: Ellie Layhe

Second Class Citizens: The Post Office IT Scandal Jan 09, 2024

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The story of the Post Office IT scandal has gained new momentum in the wake of an ITV dramatisation about how dozens of subpostmasters were falsely accused of theft and fraud and hauled through the courts. After 20 years, campaigners won a legal battle to have their cases reconsidered and in 2019 the Post Office lost a High Court battle and agreed to pay nearly £60 million to more than 550 of its staff. Some ended up in prison, others bankrupt - many more have been left with their health and reputations in ruins. A public inquiry is ongoing, but many victims are still fighting to have their convictions overturned or to secure full compensation.

In this episode of File on 4 - updated since its first broadcast in February 2020 - Hayley Hassall meets some of those whose lives were destroyed. She returns to the Post Office in the East Riding seaside town of Bridlington with former subpostmaster Lee Castleton. There are still buckets and spades in the otherwise empty shop - a business he'd taken on after deciding to give up his job as a stockbroker for a better quality of life. She hears from Tracy Felstead who was convicted of fraud and sent to Holloway Prison when she was just 19 years old.

One whistleblower reveals how he warned the Post Office the Horizon system was unsafe and, in his first ever interview, forensic accountant Ron Warmington reveals how he struggled to get straight answers from Post Office management after he was brought in to carry out an investigation.

Reporter: Hayley Hassall Producers: Mick Tucker and Nick Wallis Editor: Carl Johnston

Doctor of Deception Jan 03, 2024

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For more than twenty years, Zholia Alemi worked as a psychiatrist for the NHS. She practiced the length and breadth of the country, treating vulnerable patients with dementia, learning disabilities and mental illness. And then she was caught in a lie. Alemi was found guilty of forging a dementia patient’s will. But this deception was only the beginning. From Crowd Network, Doctor of Deception investigates how one woman’s web of lies reveals historic flaws in the system designed to keep patients safe. If you were treated by Zholia Alemi, or have concerns about her practice, there is a support page available on the General Medical Council’s website: https://www.gmc-uk.org/news/news-archive/zholia-alemi---information-for-patients

Presenter: Saleyha Ahsan Producer: Louisa Adams Technical Producer: Phill Brown Executive Producer: Samantha Psyk

The Murder of Brianna Ghey - A File On 4 special Dec 20, 2023

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File on 4 tells the story behind the brutal killing of 16-year-old transgender schoolgirl Brianna Ghey. She was attacked in a park near Warrington in Cheshire on a Saturday afternoon in February 2023. Two teenagers, who were obsessed with murder and torture, have been convicted of her murder. In the build-up to the killing, they'd exchanged text messages outlining a details of their plan. Reporter Katie Barnfield speaks to Brianna’s mother and the detective involved in bringing her killers to justice.

Reporter: Katie Barnfield Producer: Hayley Mortimer Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Uninsurable Planet Dec 19, 2023

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Felicity Hannah explores how climate change is leaving communities 'uninsurable' because of the rising risk of them being hit by extreme weather events.

She speaks to one businessman living in 'Hurricane Alley' in Louisiana, who has seen his premiums rise by $200,000 in just three years, and learns how many residents are now having to run the risk of living without insurance, because the cost is just too high.

In Australia, she speaks to residents resigned to the fact that their hometown is considered too much of a risk for the insurance industry. Instead, the government has bought their homes and they have been forced to leave.

In the UK too, Felicity meets business owners already deemed 'uninsurable' because of the frequency of flooding they have faced. Meanwhile British homeowners relying on a temporary fix that has helped reduce their premiums must hope flood defences are built before time runs out.

Could rising premiums be the canary in the coalmine for taking more decisive action on climate change?

Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Nick Holland Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor Richard Fenton-Smith Sound Design: Graham Puddifoot

Shoplifting and organised crime Dec 12, 2023

Show notes

File on 4 reveals how hundreds of vulnerable women and children are being trafficked to the UK by organised crime gangs to work as shoplifters. The victims are forced to live in squalor in overcrowded houses in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Investigators have discovered there are 154 known members of one gang which is making millions for the gangmasters from Eastern Europe. High street stores have reported a 25 per cent increase in the number of shoplifting incidents over the last year.

Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam Producers: Holly Clemens and Kate West Editor: Carl Johnston

Whistling in the Wind: The NHS doctors sacked after raising concerns Dec 05, 2023

Show notes

Lucy Letby was allowed to continue working with new-born babies despite her colleagues raising concerns about her for months. Her conviction highlighted how NHS executives put the reputation of the Countess of Chester NHS Trust ahead of patient safety. But what happened in Cheshire was far from a one-off. File on 4 hears from doctors with unblemished medical careers who were sacked after raising patient safety concerns. The programme follows one medic through an Employment Tribunal as he attempts to save his career, and hears the emotional, brutal toll the process takes on him. For the first time, a top doctor who won record damages talks about the extraordinary steps her managers took to undermine her. Their tactics included relocating her to an empty office with a broken chair and telling colleagues that she agreed with their assessment she was incompetent. And a former NHS executive tells the programme that trusts are more interested in “flying LGBT flags” than tackling concerns about patient safety. With widespread calls for NHS managers to be regulated, File on 4 asks who should take on the role, given the willingness of the NHS to redeploy managers found to have ignored patient safety concerns, or even punished those who dared to raise them.

Reporter: Michael Buchanan Producer: Katie Langton Editor: Carl Johnston

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