A courier who ran over and killed a pensioner after failing to stop at a Give Way junction in Canterbury has been spared jail.
The Middlesex woman struck Reverend Iain Taylor with her van as he crossed Station Road West while on his way to a retreat for respite from caring for his dementia-stricken wife.
Also today, you can hear from a former gang member who has told the KentOnline Podcast a ban on zombie knives has come in too late.
The weapons have been outlawed in a bid to reduce knife crime but there are fears it’s not enough to stop young people carrying them.
A mum is urging other parents to trust their instincts when it comes to their children’s health after her three-year-old son was diagnosed with leukaemia.
Lauren Russell, who runs a pub near Ashford, says she’s gone through “hell” and feared at one point that she would lose little Harley.
Our reporters have also been out on the streets of Kent to find out what people really think of the rise of self-service checkouts.
It follows an alleged boycott of one supermarket giant over their use of unmanned tills.
And the owners of a hotel, pub and restaurant near Cranbrook feel it's “now time to move on” after turning the business around in just a year.
The Royal Oak Hotel in Hawkhurst is booked through until the new year but despite it’s popularity it’s now one on the market.
For now, thank you for downloading today's podcast on Tuesday, September 24. Coming up today, we'll hear from a former gang member in Kent, who says the government's ban on zombie knives has come too late. We'll also get the opinion of people across the county about what they really think about self-service checkouts in supermarkets. But first, taking a look at our top story today, a woman who ran over and killed a pensioner after failing to stop at a give way junction in Canterbury has avoided prison. Reverend Ian Taylor was knocked down in Station Road West in September 2021. Nicola has been following this story for the Kent Online podcast. Nicola, what can you tell us about the day he was killed? Well, the 79-year-old clergyman was planning to catch a train from Canterbury West Station. He was on his way to a four-day retreat. It's the only break he took each year from looking after his 92-year-old wife, Doris, who had dementia. On September 28, 2021, he was pulling his wheeled suitcase across the road when he was hit by a van and trapped underneath, passers-by, including an off-duty firefighter, tried to help. But sadly, he died at the scene. And what do we know about the driver? Well, Kieran Koor was working as a courier who was employed to collect blood samples. She'd held a UK driving licence for two months, but had held an Indian one for around 20 years. A court heard how, on that day, she parked her delivery van in the lay-by outside the station before pulling away from the curb, but instead of stopping at the dotted lines at the junction, she continued straight into the road. Although she was driving at no more than four miles per hour, she failed to see the reverend, despite CCTV footage showing he'd been in the road for more than eight seconds by the time he was hit. And she has been sentenced but avoided prison. Yes, that's right. The mum initially denied causing death by careless driving and was due to stand trial at Canterbury Crown Court in July this year. But then she pleaded guilty before a jury was sworn in. When considering a sentence, the judge also took into account there was no evidence of mobile phone use, alcohol, drugs, adverse weather or vehicle defects. Koor also knew the road well, had a clean driving licence and no previous convictions. A 47-year-old who lives in Wentworth Crescent in Hays in Middlesex was handed a nine-month jail term suspended for 18 months as well as a year-long driving ban. She was also ordered to pay £900 towards the prosecution costs as well as carry out 280 hours of unpaid work and attend rehab. Thanks, Nicola. Kent Online News. Murder detectives investigating the death of a teenager in Peterborough have made an arrest in Kent, 19-year-old Ben Proctor was found unconscious in a car park earlier this month and died the following day. Five people have been detained, including a Margate man on suspicion of assaulting an offender. A man has been sent to prison after he was found to have breached a sexual harm prevention order. Ben Champion from Chatham was convicted in 2020 of making indecent images of children and given strict orders. The 31-year-old has been locked up for two years and eight months after officers discovered he had been in contact with children and been living at a new address. A man has been arrested and a knife being seized after an officer was reportedly assaulted in Chatham. It follows reports of a man acting suspiciously in a shop on Sunday afternoon. Witnesses say they saw nine officers attending the scene inside the Pentagon Shopping Center. A man has been arrested after cigarettes was stolen from a village shop near Ashford. Police were called to sealage in the early hours of Monday after the break-in was reported at the co-op on Main Road, the suspect was arrested nearby and officers found tobacco products and alcohol in his bag. Now a former gang member has told the Canton Line podcast a ban on zombie knives has come in too late. "I think certainly for the young people that I work with who carry knives who are involved in perhaps selling drugs where they need to have a weapon to protect the product and their self, and other young people who are afraid to walk the streets without something to protect their self, and for myself when I was in gangs carrying a knife, I don't think this law would have acted as a deterrent, certainly not for myself, and for some of the young people I deal with, it's not a deterrent. I think at the moment they don't think that the knife crime laws and sentencing is tough enough. They would still rather carry a weapon like a knife to protect their self. They think that their life will be in danger if they don't carry a weapon. I know parents who are allowing their children to carry weapons, they say they would rather someone else's child dies rather than their own, and so they won't let them leave the home without the weapon." Really, that's quite shocking when you think about it, especially here in Cairns. Have you seen a rise in people coming to refocus sessions who have been using knives? Are you seeing an uptick in people using your services because it's such a growing problem? Or is it something you think it's getting better here in Kent? I don't think it's getting better, you know, I've seen a rise in the referrals I get, but they're not just Kent, they're outside of Kent as well. And the young people I talk to in Kent, I think they're getting better at avoiding being caught. You know, so they've watched what's happened with other people, and they're taking different precautions. So I think it's still a rising problem. I just think that you're not hearing so much about some of it because people are taking other measures to avoid capture. But if there was, I think stop and search needs to continue, but there needs to be perhaps better training or even remove the police from doing that completely and have an independent group of people who are trained to do that. So that, you know, they're not starting with the stigma that some black people give them or you're just being racist. And I think that may be a way forward, but I think the young people, they're clever with avoiding capture and that, you know, they hide their weapons outside and in various places. But the general feel is that young people and adults are afraid there's too much life, crime violence and other violence, and they're afraid and they think if they carry a knife, they'll be safe. That's Lennox Rogers, who now runs the refocus project in Dartford to prevent young people getting into crime. Figures show knife offences rose by 7% in the year to December 2023, compared with the previous 12 months. Rules around the weapons change from today, Superintendent Peter Steenhouse is from Kent Police. Some people may want to use, you know, gangs may want to use. They don't be nice to be more intimidating and more threatening and to inflict harm, but we have specialist teams tackling those gangs. We have made hundreds of arrests over recent years taking countless knives off those gangs to really reduce the impact of them. And then we go into schools and we work with schools in a partnership way, with a violence reduction unit, which is a partnership body across Kent and Midway. And we do education to children. We've educated over 20,000 children around the dangers of knives. We've got them to sign up to the knife pledge. And since then in the last year, we've seen a 22% reduction in knife-enabled crime in Kent and only 1% of the children using knives in Kent, or can stop the knives in Kent. So, you know, we are making a real impact within our society through that education, through that partnership approach and through targeting that criminality and Kent is a really safe place to be. So why do people use zombie knives? What is the appeal? Why in particular are these being banned? I know you mentioned gang crime there. Is this something that's kind of more to do with organized crime, that sort of thing, drug dealers? Is this something that's kind of not your usual knife-carrying suspect that would be carrying a zombie knife? Well, I think it's a combination of everything. So gangs and county lines are organized groups. They may want those zombie style knives, as I said, to be more intimidating, but obviously other people, you can order these online. People get into the media of these big knives to put on their bedroom walls, to show their friends. Not a view of one wants to use them in crime, but they then can come out into society. So we are trying to make sure that people understand that these are now illegal and we need to kind of myth-bust the appropriateness of having such weapons and they serve no useful purpose. So intimidation of causing harm, there's no useful purpose for having them in society. So let's get them off the streets and keep making Ken safe. It follows a four-week amnesty where owners were encouraged to hand the weapons in. Kent Online News A delivery van has crashed into the front of a house near sitting-born. Emergency crews were called to Addisham Green in Kemsley after it happened at the juncture with Newman Drive yesterday afternoon. It's understood a mum and her four children were inside at the time. Five fighters who've been tackling ablaze at an outbuilding in Boxley. Crews in two engines were called to harp farm road late last night and initially told people nearby to keep windows and doors closed. That's now been lifted. It's not thought anyone's been injured. A medway dad says he's desperate for his son to get professional help for behavioural issues after being on a waiting list for two years. Trevor McDonald says he's struggling to cope with seven-year-old Matthew, who can hit out and kick him, has been speaking to Oliver from our colleagues at KMTV. Matthew 7 and a new maybe when he was four, his behaviour started to show symptoms of ADHD or autism or sometimes he's on the spectrum. Everybody knows his school knows he, social worker knows he, but even very good social worker. Why is it so important that Matthew gets an assessment for his needs? Matthew needs early intervention because if he's not seeing an intervention and therapies are not given to address his behavioural issues, it's not going to be very good for him in the future. It's going to get worse without intervention. It's going to get worse and it's going to end up with dysfunctional teenager and then dysfunctional teenagers end up getting in trouble with the police. They end up not having stable, stable, stable lifestyle. It's not just my child though, there's hundreds and hundreds of children waiting to be assessed at Snapdragons by the pediatricians, but the weight is absolutely horrendous to be seen. There's nothing you can do about here. Complaining's no good. They're just overrun with children's mental health services and they need to do something about it and put things in place. Do you think that you're going to get an appointment for him soon or what was the weightiness they told you? They've told me he's been on the waiting list for two years since 2022, but there is people still waiting on the list to be seen that have been on the list before him and it's horrendous. How can you make children wait and suffer and the parents, don't forget the parents. The parents have to deal with the children with the behavioral issues and it does affect the parents, so I don't know what the answer is but the system is broken in my way. Because you're a single parent and your other son also has SC&D needs, can you explain what the impact has been on you? It's ideal where I have good support around me like friends and a good social worker Lillian and Duma, she's a medway social services disability section, she's excellent. She tries to give me all the help and support I need but it is difficult to deal with because we do have two, I have two children with special needs and they're completely different special needs. So it's difficult to deal with but as a parent you just have to do it on you. You just struggle on, try to push and push and push and push to get the help you need and hopefully the help will come but how long that helps going to be is a different question isn't it? The Children's Centre, he's been referred to say they've been inundated with cases leading to long waiting times which they've apologised for. Almost 400 jobs have been lost in Kent after two big employers went into administration, Wixton Fixings which is a tools and hardware retailer has made 147 workers redundant, 240 employees at the Witzdable branch of construction giant ISG have also lost their jobs. A green energy storage facility near Sandwich has been given the green light despite fears it could pose a threat to the lives and health of residents. Retrospective planning commission had to be sought for the battery energy storage system at Richborough Energy Park after it was built to different specifications and layout than originally planned. It's been criticised for being a fire hazard as it stores power in lithium ion batteries council say they're satisfied with prevention plans. Kent Online News Amamas thanks the local community near Ashford for their support after her toddler's son was diagnosed with leukemia. Three-year-old Harley was diagnosed in December last year after Lauren Russell noticed he was constipated and had lost his appetite. The 36-year-old runs a pub in Ham Street and says it's been a tough 10 months. I feel guilty if I'm not doing enough for the pub then I feel guilty if I'm not doing enough with my children, it's just really hard work. I've got a really great team who since he's been poorly I've really stepped up and they do a lot for me and for the first eight months of his diagnosis my mum and dad moved in with me. So they basically took over the pub, helped me with my daughter's child care if I was taken into hospital, they were just really good but they live in Turkey so they've gone back now. So yeah, it is hard, day to day it is hard but we get through it. Yeah. When is it sort of it's most difficult? When I have to lock up at like half 11, 12 o'clock and then my daughter's up three times throughout the night then she gets up at four in the morning and I've still got to run the pub in the day. It's really, really hard, it is hard but I am lucky to have good staff that do sort of rally around. Even if someone finds a sick then there's always someone that will cover or help me out so they are really good. I'm lucky really that my business can still run. In regards to this fundraising tell me about when you started doing that. So it started off when Harley first got diagnosed it started off as like a bit of a joke between my three brothers and my dad there was like right next year in the summer once he's out the woods we're going to do like a little garden party and have our head shaved, raise a bit of money for young rises versus cancer because they've been really good. And then it just sort of grew and grew and grew and then it ended up being like this big festival. We closed the car park off, we had it in the garden. It was just people everywhere we raised 17,609 pound and then there's been another I think over 300 raised since then for young lives versus cancer so yeah it was amazing. That's really incredible, did you ever expect to raise that? No, I mean at the beginning my sister-in-law who organized it, she said that she wanted to raise 10,000 and I was like I think you've been a bit optimistic and then obviously before the day even happened we'd already got to like 4,500 because we'd had like a swab job behind the bar, we'd had a couple of quids nights to raise a bit of extra cash, a couple of people had done like sponsored walks so that we already had four and a half grand in the pot and we was like we only need five and a half to get to 10 maybe we might make 10 and then obviously on the day when we had a count on up and it was like 17,000 it was yeah it was amazing. Kent Online News The Kent Online podcast has been hearing from shoppers across the county about what they really think of self-service checkouts. It comes just months after the Waitrose in paddock would cause controversy by announcing it was adding a self-service tilt to meet the increasing number of people choosing to use unmanned tilts, other stores in Kent are also bolstering their self-service capacity as the popularity grows but it's also been met with skepticism with some shoppers choosing a traditional checkout to keep people in jobs, there's even been support for a self-service checkout boycott on Facebook reporter Ellie Hodgson has been out on the streets to find out what people really think. What's your thoughts on some people's concern that more self-service checkouts mean less social interaction for people that look forward to that in their daily shot? I possibly would agree with that statement, the more self-checkout you've got the less interaction you've got with Star and I presume that in the long run it would mean less jobs for people in the stores and supermarkets. They're really convenient and I'm pre-end social ourselves so if I can just get through my shopping and just go to a self-checkout machine and get it all done, I'm quite happy with that. Do you have any concerns in terms of the older generation for maybe a lone leader or socially isolated without those sort of conversations that are staffed here or is it about a balance or something? I think, yeah, I've balanced, like, I quite like, you know, as though they've got the normal man's tilt and then you've got your self-checkout area, I think it's quite good for such a few hours where they can go to the man's tilt. They're a good thing if you've got a small amount and the problem that you have with them is caught up in you have to call them this person over because those various licensed have to be approved. You can always go to a man's checkout if one's available but otherwise, no, don't write them at all. What is it that the main reasons you really don't enjoy using them won't? There's lots of snangs, aren't there? If you put things in the wrong place, I just don't like the whole idea of them. It just all depends on the way to shop it I do. If I just do a few bits, then I will go for the self-checkout but otherwise I'll go for the other one. If I do a full weekly shop. The owners of a hotel, pub and restaurant near Cranbrook say it's time to move on despite being fully booked into the new year. The Royal Oak in Hawkehurst has been an incredible turnaround in the last 12 months after being taken over by new owners. It was once ranked as one of the county's worst by Kent Online's secret drinker who visited in 2019 but since Lawrence Bowles took over in April last year, it's turned into a thriving business known as the pub of the community. He's decided it is time to move on and the Grade 2 listed building is now on the market for £765,000. An animal rescue team have saved a peacock who'd escaped and was roaming the streets of Graves End. Enya was spotted in Joy Road earlier this month. It's not clear where she'd escaped from but she's now been taken into the care of an animal sanctuary in Ashford. She's the third peacock to be found on the streets in six months. It's thought someone nearby may have started keeping them and isn't having trouble with their enclosure. A new visitor centre is open at item mode as part of plans to secure the 700-year-old site for the future. The upgrades to the Matterhouse near Tunbridge also include accessible paths and a new art installation, bosses at the National Trust site, say it's just a taste of things to come. Briefly in football, Jillingham are in EFL Cup action tonight. They're taking on Crystal Palace under 21s at Priestfield. It's the second of their three games in Group D. The opening match ended in a 2-1 defeat to Peterborough United. Now, that's all from us today. Thanks ever so much for listening. Don't forget, you can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and threads. You can also get the details on the top stories direct to your email each morning via the briefing to sign up just head to Kentonline.co.uk news you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. [BLANK_AUDIO]
