Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Abby Hook.
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00:00Hello, good evening and welcome to Kentonite live on KMTV. I'm Abbey Hook. Here are your
00:28top stories on Thursday 12th December.
00:32Attacked at home. Eight-month-old baby seriously injured by Excel bully in Hawkins.
00:38It is shocking. We sat there yesterday and we weren't expecting it. You know, you see
00:41and you hear about it all the time but you don't actually, you don't think it's going
00:45to happen to your own family.
00:46A new dawn for Syria but why does it matter for us here in Kent?
00:52What your monthly bill is every month, how much it costs to put petrol in your car, all
00:56of this is related to instability in that key part of the world.
01:00Spell casting surprise. Ancient witch artefact unearthed beneath a house in Cliftonville.
01:07Everything about it has just been a little bit creepy.
01:21Good evening. An eight-month-old baby is fighting for her life in hospital after she
01:26was bitten by an Excel bully at her home in Hawkins near Folkestone. Two people have been
01:32arrested whilst the dog in question has been destroyed by police. Officers including forensics
01:37have been spotted at the scene since the attack on Wednesday afternoon. Our reporter Bartholomew
01:42Hall was at the scene earlier today.
01:45Eight-month-old baby Arabella was rushed to hospital from her family home here in Hawkins
01:51after she was bitten by this, an 18-month-old Excel bully type family dog called Hunter.
01:58She remains in critical condition at a London hospital where she was airlifted to on Wednesday
02:03afternoon. Arabella's family say their dog is normally very friendly but it's since emerged
02:09that police have previously been called to the property in Siskin Close to report a dog
02:13had bitten its owner. This time however the dog was destroyed by officers at the house.
02:21They were like two peas in a pod. The baby would grab the dog, the dog would go over
02:24and check the baby, sniff the baby, go off and do its own thing. This was so out of character
02:29for Hunter. It had come out of nowhere. I just feel so sorry for the family. It is shocking.
02:33We sat there yesterday and we weren't expecting it. You know, you see and you hear about it
02:37all the time but you don't actually, you don't think it's going to happen to your own family.
02:40So if anything happens to that little girl, I don't know what's going to happen to his
02:43family because it's all happened so fast and it's just not fair or nice for anyone is it?
02:49Police have confirmed two people have been arrested following the incident. One a 78-year-old
02:54woman and the other an 18-year-old man. It's understood they are Arabella's great-grandmother
03:00and uncle. It's clear that what's happened here in Hawkins is yet another in the long
03:04list of incidents where an XL bully type has attacked somebody, adding more fuel to the
03:09debate around the breed's future in the UK. Children, particularly young children should
03:15never be left alone with dogs. It doesn't matter what the type of dog is. You know,
03:20she hasn't got any choice over where she is at any one point in time and what we don't
03:25know is what happened leading up to that incident and the problem with all the bull breeds is
03:32that if they do bite, they bite harder. Their jaws, you know, they've got very strong jaws.
03:39Since February, it's been a criminal offence to own an XL bully type without an exemption
03:43certificate. Those who are exempt must be kept safely at home and muzzled whilst out
03:48in public. But with their baby still in a serious condition this evening, Arabella's
03:54family say their focus is now on being there for one another. Bartholomew Hall for KMTV
04:00in Hawkins. Bartholomew joins me in the studio now. What more can you tell us about the dog
04:07in this case? Well, we know that Hunter had previously been seized by officers back in
04:11November 2023. They were called to reports of another dog bite and when Kent Police asked
04:18them to voluntarily surrender the dog for destruction, they declined to do so. Well,
04:23Kent Police told us today at the time there was no legal grounds for officers to retain
04:27the dog in the circumstances and they went on to say that the owner was asked to agree
04:31a number of conditions including keeping the dog secure and supervised. And are there any
04:37updates tonight on Arabella's condition? Well, this evening as we broadcast live at 5.30,
04:43there is no update from police on her condition. The latest is that she remains in hospital
04:47in critical condition. Bartholomew, thank you very much for this detail. Now, while
04:52nights may have fallen here in the county, halfway across the world from Kent, a new
04:56dawn is breaking on Syria following years of civil war. But while Bashar al-Assad may
05:02have been ousted from power, the future is uncertain and it could have ramifications
05:07for us here in the county. As MP for Tunbridge Wells, Mike Martin, who sits on the Defence
05:12Select Committee, has been telling us. Why that's important for us in Kent and in Tunbridge
05:18Wells is Syria is a huge country right in the heart of the Middle East and instability
05:24in that area pushes up energy prices, so what your monthly bill is every month, how much
05:30it costs to put petrol in your car, all of this is related to instability in that key
05:34part of the world. Well, our politics producer, Oliver de Sack, joins me on the sofa now.
05:41Oliver, this is obviously very complicated. Break it down for us, what's happened in Syria?
05:45Well, Abbie, we should make a map up on the screen now to show you the scale of the conflict
05:51because it's encompassed almost the entirety of Syria. You can see here different parts
05:57occupied as of the 24th of November. This is now a very different map today. But let's
06:03break down the beginnings of all of this. It was over a decade ago, back in 2011, that
06:08a series of brutal crackdowns by dictator Bashar al-Assad devolved into a full-blown
06:15civil war with numerous different factions, including ISIS, that we know caused so many
06:22national security threats here in Kent and beyond, becoming a proxy battleground for
06:27many of the big powers, the US, Russia, and an Assad ally. Since then, there's been more
06:33than 600,000 deaths with the Syrian resettlement scheme, leading to around 2,000 people coming
06:40to the southeast, places like Kent, between 2015 and 2020. In the last two weeks, that's
06:46all changed as the regime was toppled by rebel forces, seizing many major cities like Aleppo
06:52and Damascus and leading Assad to flee on the 8th of December.
06:57Tell me, why does this matter to us here in Kent, here in the county?
07:00Well, Abbie, we heard from Mike Martin there. It's all to do with how complicated war really
07:04is and how it impacts everything around it. Global conflicts, like the one in Syria, are
07:09tied to other conflicts, like the one in Ukraine, which saw skyrocketing oil and fuel prices.
07:16We actually have seen oil rise in the last week almost 10%. That's $78 a barrel. It's
07:24going to have a huge impact on people here in Kent. And the real question is what the
07:28future is going to hold and what Syria might look like. Continued instability will lead
07:33to a more unstable Kent, as Mike Martin has been telling us.
07:38Yeah, it all depends really on how Trump responds. And the reason for that is because there's
07:44this hugely difficult task of trying to rebuild a national government in Syria with all these
07:50different groups and different jihadi groups and Kurds and all sorts of different rebel
07:55groups. And the only country that could lead that effort, and of course it would be an
08:00international effort, the international community would come together and work on it, but the
08:04only country that could lead that effort would be the United States.
08:08And, Olly, very quickly, what are the impacts we're seeing now?
08:12Well, one thing we are seeing is the UK has pulled asylum claims from the country in what
08:18may be described as almost like a wait-and-see approach. Because, as I said, all these different
08:22rebel groups, they are divided. They're not all on the same page. And it is going to lead
08:25to a more unstable region going forward. What that means for Kent is anyone's guess.
08:31Oliver, thank you very much for those details. Very complicated issue.
08:34Now, don't forget you can keep up to date with all your latest stories across Kent by
08:38logging on to our website. That's kmtv.co.uk. There you'll find all our reports, including
08:43this one about a scammer who took £6,000 from a vet in Chatham.
08:48I felt absolutely awful. Words don't explain how awful I felt because it's something that
08:54could be such a smooth transaction and that should have been very straightforward.
08:58When you think of a scam, you may think of text messages or online links, but when this
09:03vet clinic in Chatham was targeted, the suspect was not hiding behind a screen.
09:07Just yesterday, Ammar walked into this vet to get treatment for his dog. The initial
09:13cost was only £20, but after being handed the machine, he tampered with the device,
09:17refunding himself almost £6,000. Apparently, it only took a few seconds.
09:22Clover Street Vets in Chatham has been a victim to a new kind of scam that has left them in
09:27shock, urging them to share their experience and warn others to stay vigilant during the
09:32busy Christmas period. The scam was done through their card machine that is commonly used by
09:37smaller businesses.
09:38I think it's awful, especially over Christmas, added on top of everything. I mean, small
09:42businesses struggle anyway. To be self-employed is really difficult, but for, you know, companies
09:49to have trust in their customers, not to scam them. But I think it's just something that
09:55people need to be more aware of and that it can happen in the blink of an eye. And I would
09:59just urge people, if something doesn't look right or feel right, then to definitely contact
10:03the card companies as soon as possible. And hopefully, the quicker the action, the better
10:08the outcome.
10:10Scams are vital for our pets, wildlife and animals that are in need of help. And when
10:15scams like this happen, it has a real impact on those who rely on the service, especially
10:20during Christmas time when animals are much more likely to be abandoned due to financial
10:24pressures and overbreeding.
10:26We work with Wisteria Cat Rescue. He's with us on a daily basis. And it's very, it does
10:34put a strain on the work that we're able to do with him at reduced cost to allow him to
10:39do the work that he needs.
10:42So we'll be here six days a week visiting the vets for all different things. At Christmas
10:47time, we do see a rise in, unfortunately, animals being dumped. Only last week, we was
10:51out at Raynham to five young kittens that had been dumped in a car park. So it's so
10:55important to have a vet that's readily available.
10:59In a statement, Kent Police have said that officers have spoken to the victim and an
11:02investigation is underway, including the review of CCTV.
11:06I hope it doesn't happen to anybody else. And just, you know, shopkeepers, particularly
11:11those that have terminals that can input amounts just to be extra vigilant.
11:17So in the midst of Christmas time and rising scams in Kent, it is important to stay aware.
11:23Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV in Chatham.
11:27Time for a very quick break now, but coming up, a Margate local discovers a relic from
11:31the 1600s underneath her house, which turned out to be a witch bottle. Find out what that
11:36is and what that means after the break. See you then.
15:07Hello, welcome back to Kentonite live on KMTV. Now, a hand dryer has been named as the cause
15:13of a fire at a school in Ashford. The incident yesterday is being treated as suspicious and
15:18saw the school evacuated. Two fire engines were called to Towers School in sixth form
15:23just before 9am yesterday and put out the fire in the toilet block. But it's not the
15:27only reason students had to stay away. Today, years seven to nine weren't allowed in and
15:32worked remotely because of ongoing water issues at the school since Tuesday. Southeast
15:37Water say they've taken water pressure readings from outside the school, which has shown there's
15:41a good level of water pressure going into the site and say the issue is internal, but
15:46the school disagree. Tomorrow, years eight, nine and ten will be working from home. More
15:50on that story on Kentonline.
15:52Now, we've all found something long forgotten in our homes, like a missing toy, a family
15:58photo perhaps, but I wonder how many have found something this spellbinding. A bottle
16:03used back in the 1600s to counteract a witch's curse wasn't what one Margate local expected
16:10to find in her floorboards. Finwit Dermot has been learning more about this creepy ancient
16:15craft.
16:16Everything about it has just been a little bit creepy.
16:26During some building work being done in our home in Cliftonville, Rhonda Kachef discovered
16:30a decorated bottle sealed with concrete. Not knowing what to do with it, she took it to
16:34an archaeologist who discovered it was a witch bottle, an item that could potentially date
16:39back to the 1600s.
16:40Well, I've come down to Maidstone to see what Kent's archaeological experts make of what
16:45could be a very magical discovery.
16:48So a witch bottle is a piece of apotropaic magic or protective magic. So the idea was
16:55in the height of the witch craze of the 16th and 17th century, you would fill a bottle
17:01with urine, bent nails, bone, worked pieces of wood, sometimes felt hearts. If you were,
17:09you or somebody you cared about was afflicted by witchcraft, the bottle would cause the
17:14witch who had placed the hex on you serious discomfort.
17:19It's one of up to 300 found across the country, but this bottle was unique. They scanned and
17:24dated it in a radiography lab and discovered it was actually from the 18th to 19th century,
17:30potentially 200 years younger than a normal find.
17:33In official documents, her house was listed as being more than 150 years old and used
17:37to be an alehouse, so she said she wanted to learn more about the history behind why
17:41the bottle was there and who might have put it there, as it was inside the foundations
17:45of the building when it was found.
17:47Though she doesn't believe in superstition, after Rhonda had removed the bottle from the
17:51ground, she started hearing things.
17:53As soon as the bottle was in view, the house felt weird. We were hearing noises in the
18:00wall and in the crawlspace that we'd never heard before. But as soon as the bottle left
18:05and went to Andy, we stopped hearing these noises.
18:09So she decided to make her own to replace the original, using red wine instead of urine,
18:14shells and seaweed from Margate's beaches, all contained in a bottle she'd gotten as
18:18a gift. She used materials all from the past four or five years, like a cork from 2023,
18:23meaning if it was found many years on, that historians would be able to date it back to
18:27today.
18:28Even though it might not be protecting Rhonda's house against the curses of a witch anymore,
18:32the archaeologists want to examine the layers of its exterior, with the idea to eventually
18:36find it a place in a museum in Margate, or stay with the Kent Archaeological Society
18:41in Maidstone.
18:42Finn McDermid for KMTV.
18:47Spooky stuff, and straight after Kent tonight we have a brand new episode of Kent Film Club.
18:51So joining me now is the show's presenter Chris Deasey. But Chris, thank you for coming
18:55dressed in your Christmas tights, Christmas jump day, which we'll be moving on to shortly
18:58in the programme. But I wanted to ask you, after watching that, it sort of inspires some
19:02sort of spooky ideas, and about artefacts found and used as the sort of premise of films
19:09as well.
19:10Well I was thinking that because we've got Wicked out at the moment, and of course the
19:13original Wizard of Oz, the Ruby Slippers, the magical amulet, you see it in Harry Potter.
19:18The film that came to mind was Click, an Adam Sandler film from 2006 with Christopher Walken,
19:25and you've got the magical remote control, and it functions a bit like Back to the Future,
19:29the idea that you can whiz forward or back to different parts of your life. So you've
19:32got something very material, something, and of course you associate this with Halloween
19:36as well with the broomstick, but something that transports you, and it sort of changes
19:41you, that magical Alexia, the idea of an artefact as a site of magical transformation.
19:46Yeah, and that really feels like the start of a film, doesn't it, who Phil was speaking
19:52to there. So what about any sort of films with themes of witches or witchery and sort
19:57of spell-casting?
19:58Well, the Harry Potter films are obviously one that come to mind, but you see that in
20:03Hocus Pocus, another one as well, and even in the film Wicked with the book, the sorcery
20:07book, that the idea that only one person, and it's not the wizard, careful what I give
20:12away if you haven't seen it, but the idea that maybe one of the witches has the power
20:17which somebody who we think has the power, namely the wizard, doesn't possess. So there's
20:21something really clever in that about the idea that somehow only somebody has access
20:25to it. It's a sort of prosaic material object, but it's one that has all this magical power
20:30that only the elite are able to possess. It's what Halloween films are predicated on.
20:36And let's bring all the magic, all the creepy magic, into Christmas as well. Alright, eclectic
20:39mix here. We're talking about witches, Christmas jumper day, and also what's coming up in Kent
20:45Film Club this evening. We have a very special guest. We have our very own Kristen. What
20:49do her film choices say about her?
20:51Well, two of her films are Hitchcock films. So I always think when somebody chooses Hitchcock
20:56and chooses horror, and the first two of her choices, I won't give away which ones they
20:59are, but they do say something very interesting about the, I'm not going to say the dark undercurrents
21:04of Kristen's mind, but the way that actually, which I'm sure is nothing of the kind, but
21:08it says something really interesting about the way that we use horror, and we mentioned
21:12witchcraft, but as a way of perhaps understanding all the sort of things in life which are kind
21:17of beyond our control. Oh, I'll give it away. The birds is one of them. Now, it's so interesting
21:22about the, we see birds all around us, but as Kristen will say in the episode, the birds
21:27in the film suddenly become something that when you leave the cinema, you think, hang
21:30on a minute, that actually might do something really dangerous, really horrible, really
21:34scary to us.
21:35So I should watch out for Kristen.
21:37Oh, yes.
21:38She should stay away from those witch artefacts as well.
21:41Well, when you see what her other Hitchcock film is, definitely.
21:43Okay, well, lots to look forward to in Clip Film Club this evening. Chris, thank you very
21:46much.
21:47Thanks.
21:47Now, it's time to take a look at the weather.
21:52Well, this evening there's some mist around the west side of the county clouds covering
21:59the rest, temperatures of around six to seven, five in some places. The mist clears heading
22:04into the morning, an average of four degrees. The wind picking up just slightly to four
22:08degrees there. The sun in Margate though, much of the same into the afternoon clouds
22:12though right across the county temperatures, pretty much four degrees, staying really chilly
22:17and much of the same into next week, except temperatures getting a bit warmer, staying
22:21cloudy, not much sunshine in sight.
22:30Now, as we saw with Chris here in the studio with me, it's National Christmas Jumper Day,
22:36a time for people to show their support for Save the Children, not only with donations
22:40but also some seasonal sweaters. Finn McDermott went to Rochester to see how many residents
22:45were wrapped up in Christmas cotton, like him, as you'll see, or if they're finding
22:49some festive cheer another way.
22:52Now I'm here in Rochester, which has been completely Christmased up. They've got lights,
22:56they've got trees, even a life-sized Santa. Well, I've been at the charity shop behind
22:59me and they've very kindly lent me this suit as we're going to be asking people about what
23:03they're doing for Christmas Jumper Day and how could I ask them if I was wearing just
23:06a plain old suit? So I think this will do me a lot better.
23:10We started the search for Christmas jumpers with a High Street Florists, where mum and
23:13daughter duo were sporting matching outfits.
23:16Every day is Christmas Jumper Day in December. It's how it works.
23:20We did know.
23:21Yeah, we did know.
23:22We do try and go bigger and better every year, don't we?
23:25This year we excelled ourselves with an infinity elf, a life-size infinity elf, which has brought
23:31a lot of happiness to lots of children of coming to see the elf and things like that,
23:35so it's nice.
23:36We then noticed a body-piercing shop decorated with some Disney-themed cheer.
23:41As you can see, it's quite spectacular. And then the stuff in the windows that we've done,
23:45we've pretty much done ourselves.
23:46And you're a big Disney fan, so I can get it.
23:48Yeah, my boss is a very much big Disney fan, yes.
23:51And right at the end of the street, we spotted someone out to ruin Rochester's Christmas.
23:56The Grinch is requested every year by the children, and a lot of adults come across.
24:01We do a lot of displays, so if it's not Christmas, it's Halloween or Remembrance Day, so there's
24:08always something going on in our window.
24:10After the early cancellation of some of Rochester's Christmas festival, plenty of businesses along
24:14the street were adopting some Christmas cheer to brighten the mood, even two weeks before
24:18the big day.
24:19I'm Finn McDermid for KMTV in Rochester.
24:22Well, Finn joins me in the studio now, looking a lot less festive, back in your work suit.
24:30You had to give the green one back to the charity shop.
24:33But tell us a bit more about Christmas Jumper Day.
24:36Well, I mean, it's a day when people can donate to Save the Children on their website.
24:43You pay £2 towards it, and if you signed up for it before today, you're able to get
24:47a fundraising pack and use that to spread awareness of the cause and also just to donate.
24:53But unfortunately, if you're only seeing this now, today is too late to get that fundraising
24:57pack.
24:58But you, of course, can still donate.
25:00And there's a lot of places across Kent that do this yearly tradition.
25:03I think we have some videos we can see some of the people giving it a go.
25:08In fact, there was a horticultural team down in Ashford, and they had a go as well, and
25:14they tell me they always like to take part in Christmas Jumper Day.
25:16It's a yearly tradition for them, and it helps them raise awareness of the great cause.
25:20And it's something everyone does year-on-year, but also comes with it an environmental concern,
25:24because perhaps all these lovely Christmas jumpers the workers are wearing there, but
25:28you only wear it once a year.
25:30So some issues with the environment there.
25:32Yeah, I mean, I'm certainly guilty of this myself, buying a Christmas jumper on the year
25:36and only really wearing it that one day out of 365.
25:40I've got some stats right here.
25:4212 million Christmas jumpers are sold in the UK each year, and one in five are only
25:47really worn around that festive period.
25:50And of those 12 million, 95% of them are partially or entirely made of plastic, which obviously
25:56isn't great for the environment, especially if people are throwing away their jumpers.
25:59So I'd advise definitely donate those to a charity shop, or just hand them down to your
26:03little brother or sister.
26:05And Finn, you are our history expert, as we saw from your report earlier, looking at artefacts
26:09found in the floorboards there.
26:12Tell us about the history of Christmas jumpers, very quickly.
26:14Well, history jumpers, they sort of came around...
26:16Christmas jumpers?
26:17What did I say?
26:18History jumpers.
26:19History jumpers.
26:20Maybe a history-themed Christmas jumper.
26:21That's what I should do next time.
26:22But for your Christmas jumpers, they really came around in the 1980s.
26:25I think, in fact, it was television presenters that first popularised them, so that's a little
26:30fun fact for you there.
26:31And they sort of became kind of embarrassing in the 90s and 2000s, and then here we are
26:35today where people like ironic Christmas jumpers.
26:37Maybe at the KMTV Christmas party we can see who has the best or worst one.
26:40Finn, thank you very much.
26:41That's all we've got time for.
26:42Goodnight.