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00:00Hello and welcome to Kentonite live on KMTV.
00:28I'm Cameron Tucker and here are your top stories on Monday the 15th of July.
00:33Canterbury murder latest, woman in court accused of husband's murder after human remains found
00:39at house.
00:40Devastating defeat, Kent reacts as England's men fall short once again in bid for Euros
00:47glory.
00:48We've played awful, we've played rubbish, we never win, we've never been able to see,
00:52will I ever see England win?
00:53Will I ever see England win a game?
00:56In awe of the orchestra, Leeds Castle's night of music saw both rain and rhythm.
01:01They seem so excited and ready to just enjoy this amazing evening.
01:16A woman has appeared in court accused of murdering her husband after human remains were found
01:21at their home in Canterbury.
01:23Maureen Rickards was arrested on Thursday by Kent Police investigating the disappearance
01:27of Jeremy Rickards, who'd not been seen by his family for weeks.
01:31Mrs Rickards appeared at Margate Magistrates Court for a brief hearing this morning.
01:35Now Abbey Hooke joins us live from the newsroom with more.
01:38Abbey, it's a story that's really rocked the community.
01:43Yes, Cameron, you're right, especially as Jeremy Rickards has not actually been seen
01:49since the beginning of June, more than a month ago.
01:52That's according to his family.
01:54Actually reported missing on the 5th of July, and it was nearly a week later, Thursday the
01:5911th of July, when the suspect, Maureen Rickards, Jeremy's wife, was arrested and that was after
02:04human remains were found at a property she lives at in St. Martins Road, and that's right
02:10near Canterbury city centre.
02:12There was actually a really large police presence at the time, forensics, police, a police cordon
02:17of course.
02:18It's a busy area of the city, of course it's a student city as well, Christchurch University,
02:23just at the end of the street in fact, and people were shocked, local students too, saying
02:28that they can't believe that something like this, human remains had been found, right
02:32near their term time address, and locals and students alike can actually expect a heightened
02:37police presence while the case and investigation continues for the coming days and weeks.
02:42Now what do we know from the court proceedings this morning?
02:47Well this morning, 50-year-old Maureen Rickards appeared before Margate Magistrates Court,
02:51as you mentioned, charged with murdering her husband Jeremy.
02:55That we know, but today was only actually a brief hearing.
02:58Prosecutor Neil Sweeney told magistrates that due to the severity of the case, it had to
03:03be sent to Maidstone Crown Court.
03:06Maureen will appear there on Wednesday, but no further details, no further information
03:10was actually revealed, but what we do already know, the family of the missing 65-year-old
03:15Jeremy Rickards have been informed, but police say inquiries to establish the identity of
03:20the deceased are still actually ongoing, but what we do know in way of verification, Mr.
03:25Rickards has been named as the victim in official charge details that were provided to the court.
03:31And now a crucial part of this case is and will be that time frame.
03:36Kent Police's missing persons team said his family had not heard from him for a number
03:39of weeks, as I mentioned at the top of my report there, just a little more than a month,
03:45and the alleged murder is said to have happened in that time frame, between the 7th of June
03:48and the 11th of July, the 11th being when Maureen was arrested, when those human remains
03:53were found at that property in St. Martins Road.
03:56But as I said, Maureen will appear at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday, as this investigation continues.
04:04And we'll be following that closely here on KNTV.
04:06Abi, thank you very much for those updates.
04:10Next tonight, as thousands across the county and country watched on in agony, it just wasn't
04:16meant to be for England at this year's Euros.
04:19Despite high expectations for Gareth Southgate's squad in Germany, there were no last-minute
04:23heroics this time around to end the 58-year wait for a major men's tournament trophy.
04:29Our reporter Bartholomew Hall was watching the drama at the Harbour Arm in Folkestone.
04:33Spain won Wimbledon, but they won't win this.
04:37Excitement, anticipation and hope, that's all you could see here at Folkestone's Harbour
04:43Arm as Kent watched on to find out if England's men could achieve what had never been done
04:48by them before, winning a Euros final.
04:51Drinks poured, laughter served and even the odd score prediction thrown about.
04:55We're going to win 2-1, 100%.
04:573-2.
04:582-1.
04:592-1.
05:00I'm going to go 1-0 England.
05:012-1.
05:02Agree.
05:032-1 to us.
05:041-0.
05:05I'm going to 10-0 England.
05:08Kick-off got underway here and all that energy quickly turned into nervousness.
05:1358 years without a win in a major tournament, and for the second Euros in a row, the Three
05:18Lions had a chance to turn that statistic around.
05:22Nothing scored in the first half, so it was back to the drinks for half-time, a reminder
05:26of the welcome boost England's success has brought to the local hospitality industry.
05:31Tickets for this went in less than 10 seconds and, you know, the screen site we've done
05:36since 2018, it was brought in for the World Cup then, there's nothing quite like it because
05:41historic sport on a big screen, I think with everyone here, it's just the best.
05:47As the match resumed, hopes remained intact at the first whistle, but it didn't last for
05:51very long.
05:55A Spain goal sent the crowd here into silence as England chances were beginning to slip
06:00away and the doubt was starting to creep in.
06:03Then again, it wouldn't be the first time this tournament England had scored after falling
06:07behind.
06:14A young, bright and fearless Cole Palmer brought England back into the game and sent the nation's
06:32football fans into raptures, with those here in Kent being no exception.
06:37A welcome celebration or not, perhaps a little pre-emptive as there were still 15 minutes
06:43of play left to go.
06:54The final whistle was blown and this time, England's hopes were not matched with success.
07:01Home time for now.
07:02We played awful, we played rubbish, we never win, for the ninth in a year, I've never been
07:06up to sea.
07:07Will I ever see England win?
07:08Will I ever see England win a game?
07:10I think it was going to go to penalties, so it's not the best, but 2-1 at least, at least
07:14we got one goal in.
07:15We thought it was coming home, but do you know what, I'm happy we scored a goal, it
07:19was a laugh, and at the end of the day, it made the best team win.
07:24I can't stand here and say we deserved it, but you got into the tournament as favourites,
07:29you scraped through the group stage, scraped through most of the knockout stages, put in
07:32one good performance the whole tournament and then we do that.
07:34The amount of potential in this team is incredible.
07:37We have a future, but it's not with Southgate on the wheel.
07:40Anger, dejection and even the odd shedding of a tear here in Folkestone, England have
07:45fallen at the final hurdle.
07:47Despite breaking the records to get to a consecutive Euros final, Gareth Southgate's men haven't
07:52been able to bring it home.
07:5458 years of hurt and counting.
07:57Bartholomew Hall for KMTV in Folkestone.
08:01Glum faces at the final whistle there in Folkestone, but England's run to the final has meant brighter
08:06news for the town's economy.
08:08We caught up with their newly elected MP, Tony Vaughan at half time, who said the Three
08:13Lions had provided a much needed boost to local coffers.
08:17This is the economy here in Folkestone High, there's so many different ways that the tourism
08:21industry is important to this area, there's hotels, there's so many ways that it's growing.
08:26I moved down here in 2014, I've been here for nearly 10 years, and in that time it has
08:31changed a lot.
08:32This wasn't all here, and this has all been here in the last few years, but every time
08:37there's something new it just brings more people in, and probably I'd say a lot of these
08:42people are locals.
08:44A man from Chatham's been arrested on suspicion of drink driving following a crash on Walder
08:49Slade Road.
08:50Emergency services were called to the scene just after 11 o'clock on Sunday evening, and
08:55a woman was treated before being taken to Medway Maritime Hospital.
08:59Footage taken from the scene show one car flipped on its head with debris scattered
09:04across the street.
09:05A 23-year-old man was taken into custody.
09:10With the summer holidays now in full swing for many families in Kent, Network Rail are
09:15launching a new summer campaign in hopes of educating young people on railway safety.
09:20Part of this campaign has been the release of never-before-seen clips showing several
09:25near misses at level crossings here in the county.
09:28Alex Skaife has more.
09:30A young couple dashing to safety, a near miss for a dog and its owner, cyclists in too much
09:37of a rush to consider the danger.
09:40Just some of the shocking footage released by Network Rail showcasing the reckless behaviour
09:44around Kent's railways.
09:47Network Rail, which owns, operates and maintains Kent's railways, have released these never-before-seen
09:53clips as part of their summer safety campaign, which hopes to increase awareness around rail
09:58safety.
09:59We've released it now just ahead of the school holidays.
10:04Usually we see a rise during the school holidays with children being bored, wanting to find
10:13something to do, thrill-seeking.
10:17So now is a great time to try and capture that before the school holidays start.
10:26These events have been reported all across Kent, with 258 incidents of misuse and 33
10:33near misses at level crossings recorded across the county from 2023 to 2024.
10:39And whilst these numbers do represent an 18 and 13 percent decrease respectively from
10:44the previous year, the numbers are still staggering.
10:47Some trains can travel up to 140 miles per hour, and with rails carrying enough electricity
10:52to seriously injure or even kill a person, reckless behaviour around level crossings
10:57can have devastating consequences.
11:00The other thing to bear in mind, when you're driving a car, you can swerve, you can try
11:06and move around an object or a person, but you can't do that in a train.
11:10You can't swerve.
11:11The braking distance is a lot, lot harder than a car as well, so it takes the train
11:16a lot further to stop.
11:18They're also much higher up, so their visibility, they can't always see directly below, so their
11:25visibility is also reduced.
11:27Over the summer months, Network Rail will be hoping this campaign gets young people
11:31to seriously think about their safety.
11:34This has been Alex Skaife for KMTV.
11:38Alex Skaife reporting there.
11:39Now it's time for a quick break, but coming up we'll be talking to a Kent-based American
11:44political expert about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, and we'll have the
11:48Leeds Castle Classical Concert Roundup.
11:51See you very shortly.
14:44Welcome back to KMTV.
15:14Welcome back to Kent Tonight Live on KMTV.
15:16Shocking, but unfortunately not surprising, the reaction from a University of Kent American
15:22politics expert in response to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
15:27The former US president was campaigning in Pennsylvania on Saturday when he was targeted
15:31by a gunman and received minor injuries, with the gunman and one bystander dying in the
15:36attack.
15:37Speaking to Dr Rubrik Began from the School of Politics and International Relations earlier
15:42on, he told us the political impact will be significant.
15:45Speaking with friends and family, unfortunately, it's not that surprising of an event.
15:52I mean, obviously, the United States really does struggle with gun violence.
15:57There was a mass shooting in Alabama yesterday.
15:59It's one of these events that is shocking when it happens, and the more you think about
16:04it, it's not, unfortunately, all that surprising, given the level of gun violence in the United
16:10States.
16:11So a lot of my friends and family are sort of concerned about what this means for the
16:15trajectory of the presidential campaign.
16:19But it's also something that it's also an incident that's kind of brought the issue
16:22of gun violence back into the forefront of people's minds.
16:25What is going to be the impact on, let's start with former President Trump.
16:29What impact is this going to have on his run into the election?
16:34I think it's difficult to know at the moment.
16:36It really depends on how or whether this attack changes the Trump campaign's messaging.
16:43Does Trump think about maybe changing the tone of his messaging slightly?
16:49The conventional wisdom coming out of the United States is that this does help Trump
16:52politically, at least for the short term.
16:56It's easy to see why when you see the images of him being defiant on stage after the attack.
17:01I think it gives a sense to his, you know, he's sort of conveying a sense of strength
17:07through this defiance.
17:08It might help him build emotional connections with his support base.
17:13I don't know that it will really help generate sympathy for Trump as much as we might think
17:18having survived this kind of attack.
17:19But if nothing else, it will, I think, solidify his emotional connections with his own support
17:26base.
17:27When he talks about defiance, looking at the other side of the aisle, Joe Biden's obviously
17:32been very defiant in recent weeks, saying he's still going to be standing.
17:37What do the events of Saturday in the last few days mean for his campaign?
17:42Trump was already leading in most national and swing state polls.
17:46Certainly Joe Biden's poor performance in the presidential debate seemed to put him
17:51further behind.
17:53So there's probably some consideration among Democrats that they may want to try and replace
17:57Biden with another nominee.
18:00That's very difficult to do for all sorts of different reasons.
18:03However, it does raise the possibility that, you know, the potential candidates would not
18:09want to swap places with Biden, because if they get the sense that Trump's in an even
18:13stronger position than he was a few weeks ago, there's very little incentive for them
18:17to try and take him on.
18:18So at the moment, I really think it's difficult to know what the Democrats will do strategically
18:23around the kind of fallout from this attack.
18:26And just finally, we've obviously just had our own election here, Kent's political landscape
18:33completely changing.
18:36What will the run up to the election, what will the election result mean for UK politics?
18:45Well, I mean, assuming Trump is elected, and that's probably the most likely outcome at
18:51the moment.
18:52It means that you have a kind of ideological divergence between the U.S.
18:56executive branch and the UK government.
18:59You'll have a kind of right wing populist government back in power in the United States
19:04and the center left government newly elected in the UK.
19:09I don't know that it'll have any major ramifications for U.S.
19:14UK relations going forward.
19:16I mean, it's traditionally been the case that often you have this kind of ideological
19:19divergence in U.S. and UK politics.
19:24So I don't know if it'll have any major, major impact on that moving forward.
19:29I mean, there will be some differences, key differences if Trump is elected in November
19:34on things like Ukraine.
19:36But on the whole, I think relations between the two countries will continue to be relatively
19:41stable no matter who wins in the U.S. in November.
19:45And don't forget, you can keep up to date with all our latest stories from across Kent
19:49by logging on to our website, KMTV.co.uk.
19:53There you'll find all our reports, including this one concerning the declining number of
19:57public toilets across the county.
19:59The county's toilets going down the drain.
20:03That is what the British Toilet Association fears is happening in Kent and beyond.
20:08With concerns over vandalism and the public losing their loose.
20:13Toilets are about health and well-being.
20:14They're about people being able to get rid of poisons from their body whenever they're
20:18out shopping or visiting or running, doing normal daily activities when they're away
20:24from home.
20:25They're about equality because people, a lot of people with accessibility issues, whether
20:30it be Crohn's, Diabetes, IBS, bladder and bowel, even partial sight, whatever it is.
20:37When these people are away from home, they need to have these facilities.
20:41Data obtained via the Freedom of Information Act by the Kent Messenger reveals that while
20:47some local authorities like Canterbury and Folkestone and Hythe are still flushed with toilets.
20:54Many councils like Maidstone, Dover and Ashford are operating far fewer toilet blocks today
21:02than they did 14 years ago.
21:04There are many reasons for this.
21:07Some have shifted responsibility to town and parish councils, others to community-based
21:13systems.
21:15But here on Rochester High Street, access to bathrooms is still a very real concern
21:21to the passers-by we spoke to earlier today.
21:25It would be useful if there were more.
21:27There's always a need for people to go to the toilet.
21:29It's one of just nature's natural things, isn't it?
21:32And if there's not enough places, then people are going to inevitably do the obvious thing.
21:38They're going to be in alleyways and all sorts of things.
21:43It's a slow decline, isn't it, once you get to that stage?
21:47It does call for maybe more higher quality public toilets and more.
21:52I mean, older people especially need them, don't they?
21:58As they're wandering around.
21:59Some cafes and restaurants don't want you to come in and use theirs if you're not buying
22:05a coffee or buying lunch.
22:06You know, like when you want to use the changing room because the little ones don't and you're
22:11out and you want to get a change.
22:13You want to be able to get in there and do it quickly and have a nice clean environment
22:17to do it in.
22:18So yeah, it's a bit of a concern.
22:20With a new government in place promising different ways of funding local authorities, we'll have
22:26to wait and see what the future holds for the local WC.
22:31Oliver Leeds for KMTV in Medway.
22:36The Med Office has issued a weather warning for heavy rain and flooding in Kent with the
22:40alert due to be in place until nine o'clock tomorrow morning.
22:43Now, let's take a look at the rest of the forecast.
22:52We're going to see some cloudy skies tonight with the temperatures around 15 degrees across
22:57the county.
22:58Tomorrow morning, temperatures will rise to highs of 17 with some rainy and sunny spells
23:03around Canterbury and Folkestone.
23:05Tuesday afternoon, we'll see those spells extend across the board with highs of 21 in
23:10Dartford.
23:11We'll have a much warmer following few days with temperatures rising to 25 degrees on
23:16Friday.
23:17Expect sunshine throughout.
23:27And finally, Union flags, a chorus of Jerusalem and a Spitfire flyover.
23:32Leeds Castle was treated to quite the spectacle for its classical concert.
23:36Thousands flocked to the annual festival for a sing-song in the rain, but the conditions
23:40failed to dampen spirits, as Finn McDermott reports.
23:45Thousands of people gathered this weekend at Leeds Castle, King Edward I's favourite
23:49home for an evening of food, music and dancing.
23:53The night marked the 50th anniversary of the Leeds Castle Foundation and donations towards
23:57the upkeep of the castle were given on the night.
23:59Yeah, absolutely.
24:00So this year is the 50th anniversary of the Leeds Castle Foundation, so it's a really
24:04special anniversary for us to be celebrating and to try and raise some funds for our charity.
24:10So it's the Leeds Castle Foundation, so we're a charitable organisation, so we do rely on
24:17fundraising and proportions of the ticket sale revenue to preserve the castle for future
24:23generations.
24:24The castle has seen performances from Cliff Richard and is a famous filming location for
24:28shows like Antiques Roadshow, Who Do You Think You Are and Doctor Who.
24:32The 900-year-old fortress has been putting on concerts for 40 years, but on the night
24:37performances from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as ABBA Tribute Act Capital Voices
24:42along with other solo artists like Lara Martins entertained entire fields of Union Jack-clad
24:47listeners.
24:48Honestly, just in soundcheck just then, I completely, I mean, forget my lyrics anyway,
24:52that's the sad point, I was just observing the whole orchestra, they sounded so unbelievable
24:57and I was just taken away by it, you got swept up in the amazing ambience that they were
25:01creating here.
25:02It's going to be, you know, it's not every day you get to work with 40 amazing musicians
25:06in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, it's very cool.
25:10At the beginning of the concert at 4pm, the cannons are fired and the floodgates open
25:14to the paying public, who march around the castle towards the hill like an army, equipped
25:19with folding chairs, picnic blankets and umbrellas.
25:21Reading, Glastonbury and now Kent, the fields of Leeds Castle haven't seen this many people
25:27since its medieval fortress days, but I think the people are going to be screaming today
25:31for a much different, better reason.
25:34The grounds themselves have been prepared to accommodate many, with furnished tents
25:38for certain groups as well as food and drink stalls, with the large single stage illuminated
25:42by bright lights so even the crowd on the distant hill can still see it.
25:47Unfortunately while the pre-show concert began, the heavens opened and while most came prepared,
25:52some simply enjoyed the music despite the weather.
25:55Others came with full tables of champagne, biscuits and other classic British treats,
25:59while some visitors came dressed to impress while they listened.
26:02I mean it's amazing, you've been here from, you know, 1 o'clock in the afternoon, obviously
26:08it was very quiet, and then suddenly all these people were just waiting outside to come in
26:13and it's incredible to see all these people coming in and filling the grounds and they're
26:18really big grounds and you know, you just, they seem so excited and ready to just enjoy
26:25this amazing event, yeah it's wonderful.
26:28Lara has a wide range of vocal disciplines, being able to reach operatic high notes and
26:32the fast pace of musical numbers, and said she was extremely excited to perform for everyone.
26:38Even though the weather was poor, spirits were still high throughout the night, and
26:41for everyone involved, it showed that Kent can do a concert just as well as any other
26:45county.
26:46Finn McDermid for KMTV
26:48Stick around for Invictus Sport, goodbye.