File on 4 Investigates

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Grooming: A Life Sentence? Jun 11, 2013

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In the latest high profile grooming trial, 7 men from Oxford will be sentenced later this month for sexually exploiting and raping 6 schoolgirls. Police said the girls - some as young as 12 - were 'abused to the point of torture' for years. One girl was injected with heroin. Another was forced to have a backstreet abortion.

The police praised the young women for finding the strength to give evidence against the gang and protect other girls.

But, after the legal process ends, what support is there for victims?

After a string of such abuse cases around the country, Jane Deith finds there are many young women who say they've been let down by the authorities and are struggling, alone, with mental health problems and difficulties with education and housing.

More victims of grooming are being rescued. But does being sexually exploited as a child mean a life sentence?

Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Sally Chesworth.

Elderly Care: Neglected Questions Jun 04, 2013

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Operation Jasmine was the UK's biggest ever care home abuse investigation.

But in January this year proceedings against two key figures in the case collapsed, leaving dozens of families asking if they will ever get justice.

While relatives demand a public inquiry into what happened in the six Welsh care homes at the centre of the case, 12.5 metric tonnes of unpublished evidence lie in a Pontypool warehouse.

Experts say prosecutors too often face insurmountable difficulties in bringing people accused of neglecting the vulnerable to justice. Several high-profile figures are now calling for a change in the law: one barrister and academic tells File on 4 current legislation gives greater protection against cruelty to animals than against people.

With other major scandals such as those at Winterbourne View and Mid-Staffordshire still fresh in the public mind, Fran Abrams asks if the justice system is fit for purpose when it comes to dealing with abuse and neglect. Producer: Nicola Dowling.

Iran's Nuclear Standoff May 28, 2013

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There's mounting concern over the Iranian nuclear programme. Is Tehran is simply playing cat and mouse with the international community and buying time until it is ready to develop a nuclear weapon? Evidence is emerging that Iran is co-operating with North Korea, a country which has already developed its own weapon.

The latest report from the UN's international watchdog, the IAEA, is due out next month - but has the IAEA been strong enough in its dealings with Tehran and Pyongyang?

Reporter Rob Broomby charts the history of concealment of Iran's nuclear activities and its refusal to abandon the most controversial parts of its programme, despite numerous UN Security Council resolutions and a raft of sanctions. In a detailed interview with File on 4, Iran's ambassador dealing with nuclear matters, Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, denies his country is a "serial offender". But can protestations of innocence be taken seriously when Iran still refuses inspectors access to key sites and documents?

The programme also examines the role of the IAEA in dealing with Iran and hears from former nuclear inspectors, ex-Whitehouse officials, diplomats and experts. Is the Agency up to the job of preventing states from acquiring the bomb? Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane.

Superbugs May 21, 2013

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In the first of a new series, File on 4 asks whether recent stark warnings about the threat posed by growing resistance to antibiotics have come too late. The Chief Medical Officer of England, Professor Dame Sally Davies, has painted an apocalyptic picture where routine operations could become deadly in just 20 years if we lose the ability to fight infection. But the programme discovers growing concern among doctors that bugs found in our hospitals have already developed the ability to withstand drugs which are effectively the last line of defence. Has the Government drive to eradicate MRSA and C-Difficile left the back door open for more challenging strains of superbug to take hold? Does the health service know why numbers of healthcare infections of E. Coli are rising? And where are the new medicines to tackle the resistant strains? The programme hears there's little incentive for drug companies to produce new antibiotics because they won't be able to make enough money. Allan Urry meets the medics on the front line in the battle to stop infection killing patients. Can the NHS win the war against the microbes?

Producer: Paul Grant.

Rochdale Abuse: Failed Victims? Mar 26, 2013

Show notes

The high profile child sex abuse case in Rochdale last summer - in which nine men were jailed for more than 70 years for grooming underage girls - has been defined as a watershed moment in how the authorities deal with this kind of abuse. But were there crucial failings? In an exclusive interview for File on 4, one of the police officers involved in the case claims that flaws in the way it was handled meant important witness evidence was dropped and some abusers were never prosecuted - leaving a new generation of girls potentially at risk and victims seriously let down. Jane Deith also hears complaints that witnesses were left without adequate support to help them re-build their lives. Earlier this month the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, published new guidelines for police and prosecutors in such cases. But have they come too late for many victims?

Producer: Sally Chesworth Reporter: Jane Deith.

Dangerous Hospitals? Mar 19, 2013

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In the wake of the Mid-Staffordshire hospital scandal, investigations are going on at 14 other hospitals in England identified as having above average death rates among their patients. But why has it taken so long for enquiries to begin? Should the Department of Health and the hospitals regulator, the Care Quality Commission, have sounded the alarm much earlier?

It took a lengthy public inquiry to get to the bottom of failings in Mid-Staffordshire. Complaints of dangerous clinical practice and shoddy nursing standards were overlooked while whistle-blowers were treated as mere troublemakers and threatened with reprisals if they went public with their concerns.

Evidence is now emerging of a similar pattern in other places.

Gerry Northam examines the list of hospitals now under investigation and hears from doctors, nurses, patients and bereaved relatives. Have NHS managers done enough to address concern about high death rates?

How could it happen that the hospital reported to have the highest rate of excess mortality in the country - 20% above the expected level for its population of patients - was given a full seal of approval only three months earlier by the official regulator?

Producer: Rob Cave Reporter: Gerry Northam.

Mali: Europe's Terror Threat Mar 12, 2013

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The French authorities acknowledge their intervention in Mali has made them terrorist target number one. In recent weeks, the country has raised its threat level - with high visibility police patrols at tourist destinations and government buildings - and a number of people suspected of planning to join Islamic extremists in Mali have been arrested.

Jenny Cuffe examines concerns in France both about the rise of Islamist extremism and the tough action the authorities are taking in response. Last October, police uncovered bomb making equipment following a grenade attack on a Jewish butchers in Paris. Eight months earlier, extremist Mohamed Merah killed three soldiers and a rabbi and three children outside a Jewish school in Toulouse. Meanwhile more than 100 imams deemed to be dangerous have been deported in the last ten years and several more are currently under threat of being expelled.

The programme also examines the threat to the UK. Jihadist groups in North Africa have warned that they will target supporters of the French action in Mali. The British Government is currently seeking to deport a number of Algerian terror suspects and authorities are also investigating reports that a British man has been arrested trying to make his way to join jihadists fighting in Mali.

Presenter: Jenny Cuffe Producer: Paul Grant.

Britain in Flood Feb 26, 2013

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Has the Government done enough to protect communities from flooding? Were cuts in river maintenance work responsible for farmers land in Somerset being underwater for months? Why are planners allowing developers to continue to build on floodplains? A committee of MPs accuses the Coalition of being woefully slow to bring in measures to combat the problem. Allan Urry investigates. Producer Nicola Dowling.

Britain's Plutonium Mountain Feb 19, 2013

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The Government is currently deciding what to do with the UK's civilian plutonium stockpile - the largest in the world. Some are concerned that it could become the target of terrorists intent on making a dirty bomb.

The stockpile has come from nuclear waste that was reprocessed to extract plutonium which was to have been used to power a new generation of fast breeder reactors. But that project failed to be finished and now just over 100 tonnes of it is being stored at Sellafield in Cumbria. The stockpile grew even more when the UK received imports from Japan and Germany which it had hoped to convert into fuel - again this project has failed to deliver.

The Government is considering a number of options.

Convert the plutonium into mixed oxide (Mox) fuel and then burn the fuel in conventional, nuclear reactors. This would involve the construction of a second Mox fuel plant at Sellafield despite the fact the first plant failed to produce any significant amount of Mox and was closed in 2011.

Burn the plutonium in a new breed of Prism fast reactors. But critics say the technology is not proven and therefore risky.

Treat it as a deadly waste product and bury the plutonium currently stored at Sellafield deep underground for thousands of years. Again critics say burying waste is risky and even then the plutonium would have to be treated before it could go into the facility. Supporters of plutonium as fuel still claim that would be throwing away a potentially valuable asset. On top of that we are not likely to have a repository for decades and very few local authorities have volunteered to consider having it in their back yard.

Rob Broomby investigates the difficult questions facing the Government whose decision will potentially bring in a bill for the taxpayer of billions of pounds. And how much of gamble will it be choosing what to do with this most deadly of substances?

Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane.

The Bill for Brussels Feb 12, 2013

Show notes

21 years after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, Britain is trying to cut the cost of the European Union.

As the institution comes of age, Gerry Northam asks whether the EU's spending on itself has become excessive and - if so - whether member states do anything about it.

In Brussels, hundreds of millions of pounds have been found for projects described by Eurosceptics as "self-aggrandisement". An art deco showpiece is being transformed into a new headquarters for the European Council at a cost of around 300 million Euros (£250m). A further 55 million Euros (£46m) is going to create a House of European History - a museum celebrating European integration. A new 20 million Euros (£17m) visitors' centre at the European Parliament, called the Parlamentarium, has been dismissed as a multimedia tribute to itself.

Meanwhile alarm has been raised that money the United Kingdom designates as aid for developing countries is being diverted by Europe to encourage Turkey, Serbia and others to join the Union. MPs claim this money directly disadvantages Britain.

Critics say Europe's expansion comes with an unnecessarily large price tag. Are they right?

Reporter: Gerry Northam Producer: Chris Doidge.

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