Dangerous Duo

A gun wielding father and son were convicted for armed robbery last Saturday.

The pair, who attempted armed robbery last October, were sentenced to a total of 33-years imprisonment.

Andrew Roberts, 42, and Mark Roberts, 23, were both convicted for possession of firearms with intent to commit robbery at Allied Irish Bank in Finchley Road.

The Central Criminal Court sentenced Andrew Roberts to a longer incarceration after his assault on a police officer during his attempted escape.

DS Neil Williamson of the Finchley Flying Squad, in reference to Mark Roberts firing shots while attempting escape said: “The sentence today should send a stark message to those engaged in this type of criminality".

This story was found through the local police press-release website which I was directed to after telephoning my local station. It was an easy piece to write as all the information necessary for short copy like this was already in the release.

One of the problems with this was that if I wanted more information I did not have access to it as the local police operate a no assistance to student writers policy. Next time I will use my part-time local Gazette paper position to extract more information.

The angle for the story jumped out at me right away as it seemed rather rare to have a father-son duo convicted of acting criminally together. Not only its rarity but also the tragic nature of a family in turmoil was a deciding factor in choosing this story.

My writing was as concise as possible due to the nature of the report. As it simply covered the court result and not the original crime story it would not be as interesting or the original, meaning the paper would not want as much of it.

Perhaps over sensationalising it by calling them a ‘duo’ sparked my ethical meter to life but not enough to warrant change.

Halloween Horror

Ghosts and ghouls are coming to town, but even these paranormal fiends don't scare the Metropolitan Police, who have issued a Halloween crime prevention guideline.

The Halloween Code states that children shouldn’t be out without adult supervision, and care should be taken to not scare the vulnerable.

Aviva Investor found that more than three-quarters of spooked out Brits admit to hiding from trick-or-treaters. Their fears seem well founded with Norwich Union figures revealing claims increases of 150% on Halloween.

The Halloween story was decided by the timing of the holiday event. The information was attained from the local police press-release bureau. It was approached with a relatively light-hearted nature but not too much so as to cater for the serious nature of the evening’s possible outcomes.

The police press release was very basic so the internet was use for further research to attain figures adding punch to the power of the story. Since this was a short story for a local paper the readers would largely be elderly which made this story perfect for their attentions. Also as it was a fairly simple point it was a short story so as not to milk too much the fear factor involved with a holiday experience.

The story avoided references to local areas and remained concise so as to afford its availability to all newspapers. Since it was a rather bland story without figures I added those and complemented them with a photo to further the attraction. I used a standard Halloween image so as to attract the eye of the reader to a topic that would be in their mind anyway at the that time of year.

I found keeping the issue concise and to the point rather challenging as it was tempting to use puns and jokes with regard to a holiday issue. However since the crux of the story was serious I endeavoured to avoid these things and stick to facts.

TV agony aunt takes a hand-on approach in battle to combat hospital super bugs

TV agony aunt Claire Rayner has joined the battle against super bugs by visiting the children's ward at Northwick Park Hospital.

Mrs Rayner joined nurses dressed in giant cat and dog suits to teach young patients the importance of washing their hands with a special hand wash to kill germs.

Mrs Rayner, a former nurse, attended the hospital in Watford Road at the beginning of the month as part of a three-year campaign to combat MRSA and other potentially lethal infections.

Mrs Rayner said: "Infections are a very real and current problem in hospitals. The weak, young and elderly are most at risk with the worst outcome being death."

She went on to say: "By encouraging patients to ask doctors and nurses to wash their hands, and staff to inform patients of the same, these unnecessary infections can be avoided."

The Harrow resident aims to raise awareness of the issue nationally.

Schools and old people's homes are her next priorities.

This story was something I found while trawling the local hospitals for press releases. They provided me with Claire Rayner’s telephone number so that I could conduct a telephone interview. Claire, a busy woman, was hard to get details out of initially but once I had her in the flow of conversation she forgot about the other issues she had to attend to and we had quite a long and detailed interview.

This piece was about the time of the MRSA scare so it was well suited to the local paper. Also the fact that she is famous further influenced my decision to choose the piece as one that would appeal to the local reader. Also the child angle was good since a large number of this suburban local paper readers would be families.

I tried to keep it concise and to the point while also being light-hearted where possible as it was a story about positive effort to make a change. The level of seriousness was maintained as the issue which washing hands aims to avoid, is a very sobering one.

The fact that this event was happening at Northwick Park Hospital which had just be in the news, with regards to testing gone wrong, made it more eye caching to the reader.

The length of the story was governed simply by the depth of the story. Since it held a certain value to the reader, but would turn into a health lecture if delved into further, the length of the story was kept short and punchy.

Interview with award winning 'Tracy Beaker' script writer Elly Brewer, printed in local paper about her new book.

BEING plucked from a peaceful nap on the bus to discover you have
been transported to a different world is a scary prospect, so imagine the horror of schoolboy, Jerry Patterson when just that happened to him.

Jerry's fear of finding himself in an alien world is matched only by his
shock of realising he has become the pet of his new alien family, the
Jannans.

Jerry is the main character in Elly Brewer's new novel, Jerry and the
Jannans. Elly, 50, who was born and now lives in Kenton, is best known for her work as lead writer on BBC1's Tracey Beaker.

Her jump from script to novel writing has resulted in the creation of a whole world of intricate alien detail. If you look close enough you may be able to spot a few choice local mentions, from Kenton road names, such as Ebrington and Illmington, which in the book are names for alien technical equipment; to Jerry thinking back to his Grandad playing bowls at home, the description of which is based on Elly's own memories of her father playing bowls at Woodcock Park in Kenton.

Jerry's home, where his mother waits anxiously for his return, is in Dovedale Avenue, where one of Elly's friends used to live. Elly took inspiration from everyday life when she wrote the book. Many waiting room visits at the orthodontist with her daughter led to the idea for a brace that works as a radio. A Tesco employee character was based on a friendly lady Elly was served by at the fish counter on one of her many trips during writing.

When asked about a sequel to Jerry and the Jannans, Elly, who has one daughter, Amy, 18, says: "I'm open to it but it's not planned. I'm currently two chapters in on another alien based story."

The original Jerry and the Jannans was 96,000 words long and she was told to cut it down by a third.

"Cutting it down," Elly says,"was a good process for me, allowing me to up the pace, while cutting down the overly detailed description."

When asked what advice she would give budding writers, Elly says: "Keep practicing to improve and be more concise."

She adds: "Find the names of who works where you want your work to go, then send it in. Don't be disheartened if it isn't wanted first time."

To join Jerry and the Jannans in this off-world adventure, pick up a copy for £5.99 at your local bookshop.

While working for the Harrow Observer I was given the opportunity to contact Elly Brewer. Having a little sister I had heard of Elly’s TV show Tracey Beaker and jumped at the opportunity to interview her. On telephoning her I found her very forthcoming, too much so in fact. This interview tested my ability to politely move the conversation on to issues I needed to cover in the story without offending her sensibilities.

Being a children’s novel I chose a very jolly and simple writing style so that it could appeal to adults and children alike. I tried to put emphasis on the book with links to Tracey Beaker as many younger readers would jump at the chance to read anything associated with such a hit children’s show.

This was a lengthy article as there was a lot of local information that related to the book. This is gold dust in the eyes of the editor who is effectively a local area pimp trying to link in as much as possible about Harrow, confirming it as the reason for great things growing from the area.

The introduction was of quite an off-world, story-like nature so as to interest children. It does not go into facts of the local area until a few paragraphs in so as to maintain that youth interest for as long as possible.

Research invested before the interview proved useful for linking her previous endeavours to stories related to this release. Especially in moments of silence having her information was useful in moving things forward. Also in writing up the story my background research helped place everything into an understandable context.