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00:00Hello and welcome to Kentonite live on KMTV.
00:29I'm Finn McDermid and here are your top stories on Tuesday the 25th of February.
00:35A royal welcome home.
00:36The Queen unveils new statue celebrating historical Canterbury pioneer.
00:41She'd be thrilled, she'd be absolutely thrilled and it really, it moves me to think that we've
00:46re-platformed a woman who has so long deserved it.
00:50Hundred hound heist.
00:52New figures show huge amounts of dogs stolen right here in Kent.
00:56There's 130 dogs that are still missing out there and if one dog is taken it's too much.
01:02Those poor families.
01:04And Dartford to Ghana, we meet the man walking 5,000 miles to bring his wife's ashes back
01:09to their home country.
01:10It's been a difficult time for all of us but I'll be honest with you I'm a little bit emotional
01:15talking about it now.
01:16I might not have seen you but it's a difficult thing to talk about.
01:19It's only three months ago.
01:26But first tonight, hundreds of people flocked to Canterbury's high street today all to see
01:34Queen Camilla as she arrived to unveil a statue of the city's literary hero, Aphra Behn, who
01:40was an author, playwright and even a spy.
01:43The bronze statue was created by sculptor Christine Charlesworth and revealed outside
01:47of the Beanie House of Arts and Knowledge in front of the excited crowd.
01:50Oliver Leader de Sacks has more.
01:53It may have been grey skies above Canterbury but even they couldn't put a dampener on a
01:58royal welcome home for a literary pioneer.
02:03Aphra Behn was the first professional female writer in the English language and for years
02:09campaigners have fought to have the trailblazing poet recognised with a statue commemorating
02:16her life in the city she grew up in.
02:19And it was earlier today that statue was unveiled by Her Majesty the Queen.
02:27It's really, really precious.
02:28I mean, we've worked on this for four years-ish and seeing someone like her taking true interest
02:36in it and taking her time out of her days to come and look at it is really, really precious
02:41to me.
02:43A lover of literature, Queen Camilla went on to tour the Beanie House of Arts and Knowledge
02:49where she met the next generation learning about the pioneering playwright.
02:55Though it's safe to say they were more star struck by royalty than by the restoration
03:00royalist.
03:01It was really fun.
03:02She was a really nice lady.
03:03I really enjoyed talking to her.
03:04It was so good.
03:05It was really good.
03:06It was surprising and so fun because I've never met any of the royal family before.
03:22Meanwhile, patient crowds waited outside to catch a glimpse of Camilla.
03:28After all, it's not every day a royal comes to town.
03:31Oh, we're so excited.
03:33Yeah.
03:34Yeah, it's a rare occasion so we're so happy.
03:37Yeah, it's such a beautiful university here so it was a bit of a surprise today.
03:42I was like, oh, great day to be inside.
03:44The thing is, she's a real person just like we are but of course she's royal and I'm ordinary.
03:54Whatever their motivation for being there, a question remains.
03:59How did a woman as fierce as Aphra Behn become forgotten in the city of Chaucer and Marlowe?
04:07I wonder what Chaucer and Marlowe have in common that Aphra doesn't and in all truth
04:13it's the fact that she was a woman.
04:15She was once the best and most prolific restoration writer in all of England and then she became
04:21too saucy for the Victorians to handle and now she's back.
04:25Hopefully that idea that you can say what you want, what you think, you can celebrate
04:30female sexuality and female fun, we know that's true and that's why we've put Aphra back exactly
04:36where she belongs.
04:38The crowds may have gone here on Canterbury High Street, the Queen departed but this statue
04:43of Aphra Behn, the grandmother of English literature, a pioneer for her plays that challenge
04:51gender and sexual stereotypes, still remains and only a few hours after being unveiled
04:59is capturing the hearts and minds of the people of Canterbury.
05:06Oliver Leeds of the Saks for KMTV.
05:12Well Oli joins me in the studio now.
05:14Oli, what was the atmosphere like in Canterbury especially with the Queen herself there?
05:18It was unbelievable.
05:19I've never seen Canterbury High Street quite like it Finn.
05:23Crowds as far as the eye can see stretching all along the high street near the Beanie
05:28House of Art and Knowledge.
05:31You can see some pictures on the screen hopefully now of Camilla talking to her subjects, talking
05:38to some of the most significant people in Kent, the Bishop of Dover, Rosie Duffield
05:42MP, independent MP for Canterbury and of course the people of Canterbury, the most important
05:48people there that day and it was incredible seeing how much they came out to support
05:53the monarchy but also to see her unveil this statue of a forgotten literary figure that's
05:59finally getting her due in the city centre.
06:02Absolutely and I'm a big history fan, you're a big literature fan so we know who Aphra
06:06Behn is but do you think this statue will really help people recognise her?
06:10I think that's a sentiment I heard today.
06:12Many people thought that the royalty will give it some sort of recognition to this hero.
06:17She's common on a lot of university syllabuses and she's becoming more and more well known.
06:22There's a Netflix show in the works with her as a main character, there's a bunch of other
06:26stuff like she might start appearing on the GCSE syllabus very, very soon but I spoke
06:32to the sculptor who actually designed her and she says she can put little easter eggs
06:37in there to help people really discover the true Aphra Behn.
06:42It's been my cunning plan to do her as a likeable figure, to tell the story of her
06:49life all around her figure.
06:52There's lots of clues for people to find, I want them to be intrigued enough to learn
06:57more about why are these things, what have they got to learn, read about her, learn about
07:03her, be proud of her and maybe there'll be one or two people out there because of seeing
07:09the statue will think to themselves, well, maybe I shouldn't be timid, maybe I should
07:15do whatever with my life and make something of it.
07:21Next tonight, figures obtained by Kent Online show more than 150 dogs were taken from their
07:25owners across the county last year, however just 21 of them were returned home to their
07:31owners.
07:32Medway was the highest area of Kent with these thefts, sitting at 34, whilst the most common
07:37stolen breed was an XL Bully.
07:39Co-founder of Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance, Debbie Matthews, joined us on the Kent Morning
07:44Show earlier.
07:45There's 130 odd dogs that are still missing out there and if one dog is taken it's too
07:50much for those poor families.
07:53And Debbie, you know exactly what it's like to have your dog stolen, it happened to you
07:57back in 2006, it's unimaginable how that must have felt for you.
08:05That's why I'm still doing what I'm doing today, trying to get things right, but at
08:08least we have got a change in law now, we have got the Pet Abduction Act, which came
08:12into force in August last year, so hopefully as time moves forward we will see more changes,
08:20but it's a devastating experience, it's heartbreaking, it affects the whole family.
08:26You don't eat, you don't sleep, you know, my two dogs were taken so I wondered if they
08:31were still together, if they were being looked after, if they were warm, if they were being
08:35fed.
08:36I mean, it never ends, the worry.
08:38Yeah, and Debbie, I want to come on to talking about that new bill, but just before we do
08:43that, what was the sort of resolution with your dogs, you managed to get back with them
08:49again or what happened?
08:51Yeah, well I was very, very lucky, I contacted Dog Lost who were going back then, if you
08:57can imagine what the web was like in 2006, 2006 wasn't very much around and they had
09:03great advice for me, told me what to do and because I've had a famous father, the idea
09:11was to go public, to tell people that my dogs had been stolen and she said, no, keep quiet
09:17for a week, let them be sold on, you know, they're seven years old, they're neutered,
09:22they won't be any good to anybody, they'll be just for cash, they'll just want cash for
09:26them.
09:27So after a week, my father, who's Sir Bruce Forsyth, we went on live breakfast television
09:32and the first morning we did an appeal, we got Widget back, he'd been sold in a livestock
09:37market, second morning we did another appeal and we got Gizmo back and he'd been sold in
09:44a park, just with a man in a park.
09:48But when you see how many dogs have been taken and this is back in 2006, you can't walk away
09:53from this and just leave it as it is when you can see that the police aren't doing enough
09:59for you and the microchip system isn't working.
10:02I had to keep going and here I am, still going.
10:07Absolutely and I suppose one of the shocking things for me, looking at these statistics,
10:11in Kent last year, only 21 of the 154 stolen ended up being recovered, I mean, does that
10:18surprise you?
10:20Well no, because I see every single day, I'm working with Dog Lost and we're sharing dogs
10:27all the time and there seems to have been another spate again at the start of this year
10:32which is worrying because with the Pet Abduction Act, we are seeing more action from the police.
10:38It was wonderful you sent me through all your results from the police report, which we've
10:43never had such an in-detailed report before and that's because of the Pet Abduction Act.
10:49Before, they were just categorised as property, so police could never give you an exact number
10:55or where the dogs were taken from.
10:57Now you can see that 70 dogs were taken from home, which is one of the places we always
11:01warn people about.
11:02You think you're safe in your home and your garden, but that's the top places, so people
11:08have got to be really aware of it and hopefully with the law as it spreads out, we'll be able
11:15to pinpoint across the country where the hotspots are so people are warned.
11:21How can a dog owner make sure their dog is safe in their own home?
11:26Because surely that is the place where the dog is the safest, at least you would think.
11:30Well, a lot of people, you just let your dog out of the back garden, you may not have your
11:35door locked, security cameras are very useful and also lights, automatic lights that come
11:42on at night time.
11:44Now time for a quick break, but afterwards we'll speak to the organiser of the Kent Food
11:49and Drink Awards.
11:50See you in a second.
15:14Hello and welcome back to Kent Tonight.
15:16I'm Finn McDermott and next, our next story is the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George
15:21Carey, is one of several members of the clergy who could face disciplinary action after failing
15:27to address the abuse of over 100 boys at the hands of John Smythe.
15:32The former Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, and Reverend Andrew Cornes are just some of
15:37the other names listed in an independent report.
15:40The Macon Review found that Smythe's abuse was known to various people in the church,
15:45but nothing was done for decades.
15:47The church's national safeguarding team have stated that in all cases it will be asking
15:51the church's president to enforce a sanction.
15:54However, they have also said that almost 30 other members mentioned in the report will
15:59face no disciplinary action due to a lack of evidence.
16:04In more news, two men have been imprisoned after they broke into a victim's made stone
16:08flat before severely beating him.
16:12Bader Mohamed and Lewis Rowley originally knocked on the man's door, asking to borrow
16:17some milk.
16:18They then reportedly forced their way in and repeatedly hit him with a bottle, causing
16:22severe injury.
16:23In the images you can see from Kent Police, both men were arrested and have now been given
16:28a combined sentence of 22 years in prison.
16:31In a unanimous verdict at Made Stone Crown Court, the jury found them guilty of assault
16:36with intent to commit robbery.
16:38The victim had surgery for some of his injuries and later picked his attackers out for identification.
16:45Now a man from Dartford is walking 5,000 miles to Ghana after promising his late wife he
16:51would take her ashes home, back to their home country.
16:55Daniel Forrester's fiancée, Caroline Sarpong, died three months ago from cancer at just
17:0045 years old.
17:02Now his challenge is no simple feat, both physically and politically.
17:06He'll pass through areas of extreme heat and political unrest.
17:10He joined us on the Kent Morning Show earlier.
17:13I've already planned a route from Romford to Gibraltar, which goes through London and
17:20Kent.
17:21From France down to Lourdes, because I want to make it a bit of a pilgrimage from Canterbury
17:27to Lourdes, and then from Lourdes to through Spain to Gibraltar.
17:33And after that, get a ferry over to Morocco, walk through Morocco, Western Sahara.
17:40The route's to be decided here, but we're probably going to go through Senegal, Guinea,
17:45Ivory Coast, and then into Ghana.
17:48Daniel, it's incredibly impressive, not only to be going the journey, but to be walking
17:54it as well.
17:56I'm wondering, logistically, how's that going to work?
17:58Will you have a support crew with you?
18:00And how long do you expect this to take?
18:03Yeah, that's a good question, actually.
18:04I've got a couple of independent travel companies helping me out at the moment with the logistics
18:08in Africa.
18:09I've already said to many people, I could literally get up right now and walk to Gibraltar.
18:15That's not a problem.
18:16But once you get into Africa, it gets a bit dicey.
18:18So yeah, I've got a few companies helping me out with logistics, so we can get water
18:23and stuff like that, and a few guides.
18:25So yeah, so I've got a few companies helping me out on that one.
18:28Have you done anything like this before?
18:30Have you done any sort of long-distance walks, runs, anything of the like?
18:33Well, yeah, I've been doing a lot of long-distance walking recently.
18:37It just started after Caroline's funeral.
18:40I'd already spoken to her about this a few days before she passed.
18:45I had been thinking about it for a while, because unfortunately, Caroline's ill and
18:49they're stuck, and I didn't want to, but I could see where it was going.
18:53And when she was in the hospice, I had a conversation with her, and she said, would you do that
18:59for me?
19:00And I was like, of course I would, babe.
19:01So yeah, so I'm 100% committed to this.
19:05To be honest with you, back in the past, I was a bit lazy.
19:07I'd get a taxi everywhere, but after Caroline's funeral, I just started walking.
19:11So I just started doing five miles here, six miles there, and then 10, then 15, now it's
19:1620, 25, 30 miles.
19:18And I'm finding it quite...
19:19It's a challenge to do 30 miles, but I'm finding it quite easy to do 20.
19:24It must be...
19:25I've got 50 miles coming up this weekend, actually.
19:28I've got a couple of walks I'm doing this weekend, so I should be doing 50 miles this
19:32weekend.
19:33In preparation.
19:34It must be amazing for the mental health side of things as well.
19:36What do you think Caroline would say to you if she knew that you were actually embarking
19:39on this challenge now?
19:41Well, she did know I was going to do it.
19:45She'd be very proud, yeah.
19:46And she'd believe me anyway.
19:47She'd know once I said I was going to do it, I was going to do it.
19:50So yeah, she'd be very proud indeed, definitely.
19:53And what's the support been like from your family as well?
19:55I know you're a dad of three, Caroline a mum of two.
19:58Yeah, the support from my family has been fantastic.
20:01I can't...
20:02I can't quote it.
20:03My mum's been amazing.
20:04All the family have been great.
20:05I mean, it's been a difficult time for all of us, but I'll be honest with you, I'm a
20:09little bit emotional talking about it now.
20:12I might not be a senior, but it's a difficult thing to talk about.
20:15It's only three months ago, but the support network I've got has been amazing.
20:20Of course, it must have been so hard.
20:22I mean, as you say, only a few months ago and it was actually just 10 months after your
20:27engagement as well.
20:28Yeah, that's true.
20:29Yeah.
20:30Yeah.
20:31We were actually due to get married September 20th this year, 2025, and that's the day I
20:36intend on leaving the hospice.
20:41That's incredibly, incredibly special.
20:43Tell us, because you're doing this to raise money for the hospice as well.
20:46That must be really special to both you and them.
20:49Yeah, it is.
20:51Definitely.
20:52I mean, I'm not going to name names, but I was going to do it for another charity, but
20:56there wasn't the support.
20:58And then I got off the phone with this charity and I turned on the radio and I heard the
21:05news about hospices struggling in this country.
21:07And I just immediately thought, oh, St Francis, because they were brilliant.
21:11They were so good with Caroline.
21:12So I called them up and we arranged a meeting and went down there and it's all just gone
21:17from there and they're really behind me.
21:20Now let's take a look at the weather over the coming days.
21:28Tonight it's going to be clear skies with temperatures of around five and six, four
21:32degrees down in Tunbridge Wells there.
21:35Into the morning there's going to be some rain over on the west side of the county.
21:38Wind speeds hitting at nine and ten.
21:40Then into the afternoon, picking up quite a bit with heavy rain expected across the
21:44board, around eight degrees on average.
21:48Now here's your outlook Thursday and Saturday, looking partly cloudy with Friday giving us
21:52some nice sunshine.
21:54Highs of eight expected on Thursday, rising to nine by the next day.
22:04Now after weeks of anticipation and hundreds of votes from the public, this year's Kent
22:09and Medway Food and Drink Awards, presented by the KM Group, have finally arrived.
22:14Keep your eye out for the winners in this week's Kent Messenger newspapers, Kent Online
22:18and of course, right here on KMTV, we'll have a special feature in tomorrow's morning
22:22show.
22:23But in the meantime, our reporter, Bartholomew Hall, has been at the awards ceremony speaking
22:26with organiser Sharon Marriott.
22:30So we're here with Sharon Marriott just before the start of the Kent and Medway Food and
22:34Drink Awards 2025.
22:36It's the second year that the KM have hosted these awards.
22:40Sharon, tell me what's gone into the preparation?
22:43A lot.
22:44Weeks and weeks and weeks.
22:45Months of hard work.
22:47An award ceremony doesn't just happen, there's a lot of moving parts and a lot of organisation
22:52that goes on in the background.
22:53So we've been liaising with all of our nominees, all of our finalists, collating our judging
22:59scores and working with lots and lots and lots of different people.
23:05And obviously we have the culmination of that today.
23:09And we'll get on to talking about some of the types of awards that are going to be handed
23:13out.
23:14But first of all, we're standing in such a beautiful venue today.
23:16Tell us about that.
23:17Chelston Park Hotel.
23:18I'd never been here before actually.
23:20It's an absolute pleasure to be here.
23:22The surroundings are amazing and they've made us feel so, so welcome.
23:27That's right.
23:28And obviously in just about an hour's time, we're going to have this place full in here.
23:31Tell us some of the awards that are going to be handed out today.
23:34Gosh, everything from street food pop-up of the year, farm shop deli of the year, hotel
23:40of the year, chef of the year, food and drink hospitality, food and drink hero.
23:46There's 11 categories and everyone will get something this year.
23:50And lots of nominees as well.
23:52We've got on all of the seats here, we've got all the lists of nominees for each award
23:56finalists.
23:57Tell us about some of the variety that's going to be here today in terms of, I mean, there
24:03are small businesses, large businesses, but for all of them, it's going to be so good
24:06for their future.
24:08Absolutely.
24:10Something like this is a huge boost to their, well, to give them their exposure in the local
24:16community.
24:17So we've got small, very small little pop-up restaurants with their trailers.
24:23We've got restaurants that are well-known in the area.
24:27We've got hotels in the area, lots and lots and lots of different sizes and different
24:33levels of businesses in the room today.
24:36And of course, it's the second year of the award.
24:38So is that, have you come up with anything new?
24:41What's that sort of year been like in learning from last year and what can we expect this
24:45year?
24:46I think we haven't changed the model too much.
24:49It is a model that works, but we've given our sponsors more exposure this year, which
24:53I'm sure they'll be pleased to see and to hear.
24:57And our finalists, our runners-up will go away with a token keepsake as well.
25:02So we won't just be inviting the winners to the stage this year.
25:05We'll give the runners-up their chance to shine as well.
25:08And there's a few returning names this year as well from last year.
25:12I mean, going forward into the future, if there's some businesses that are watching
25:15this wanting to get some of that exposure, what's the advice?
25:18They need to ask their customers to vote for them.
25:21They can't put themselves forward.
25:23They need to be voted for by their customers.
25:25And that's what's so nice about these awards is it's their customers and the people outside
25:31that have a chance to speak rather than the businesses themselves.
25:35And of course, the role that the KM Group has played in this, putting this on as well.
25:38It is the readers of Kent Online and the KM newspapers that have been able to vote.
25:43What's that sort of integration been like?
25:44Fantastic.
25:45I mean, we all work as one.
25:47There's been lots and lots of exposure through all of those channels, newspaper coverage,
25:53radio, online, TV.
25:56It's all there.
25:57Fantastic.
25:58And just finally, what are you most looking forward to as things go on?
26:01Can I say a drink afterwards?
26:02You absolutely can.
26:03You just did.
26:04Brilliant.
26:06Keep an eye out on Kent Online and in the KM newspapers and of course here on KMTV for
26:11all the winners as the night goes on.
26:13Yep, just like Bartholomew said, you can catch up with the winners on our morning show tomorrow.
26:18But for now, you've been watching Kent Tonight live on KMTV.
26:22There's more news made just for Kent throughout the evening.
26:25And don't forget, you can always keep up to date with the latest news across your county
26:29by logging on to KMTV.co.uk.
26:32You can also keep us on your social timelines.
26:34We've got Facebook, we've got TikTok and we've got Instagram.
26:37Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you soon.