Catch up with all the latest news from across the county with Abby Hook.
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00:30Welcome to Kentonite live on KMTV. I'm Abbey Hook. Here are your top stories on Wednesday
00:35the 12th of February.
00:37Fresh charges for deal murderer. Andrew Griggs accused of asking his son to mislead Kent
00:44Police.
00:45A danger for dogs. Maidstone pet owner warns that littered vapes could harm or even kill
00:52our pets.
00:53Having to go through surgery twice was really upsetting for all of us.
01:02And life on Mars lands in Medway. Rochester Cathedral hosts out of this world installation.
01:08I was expecting it to be larger than this. I was expecting it to be redder than this.
01:23Good evening. Details have emerged of fresh charges against Andrew Griggs, the man from
01:31deal currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife more than 25 years
01:36ago.
01:37The remains of Debbie Griggs were uncovered in 2022. Buried in a house Mr Griggs had moved
01:43to two years after her disappearance.
01:46He's now being accused of attempting to falsely prove Debbie was still in fact alive.
01:50Our reporter, Bartholomew Hall, brings us more of those details with a bit of a warning
01:55that some of the details he's going to be telling us you might find distressing. Bartholomew,
02:01what do we know?
02:02Yes, that's exactly right. We reported a few weeks ago that new charges had been brought
02:06against Andrew Griggs. We now know more details on those. He's been accused of asking his
02:10son Jake Griggs to dig up his mother's remains and remove part of her hair before travelling
02:15to another country and then sending that hair with a letter in an attempt to prove that
02:20Debbie was still alive. Now, this was after he'd been convicted of her murder but before
02:25her remains had been found. In reality, she had been killed by her husband and that she
02:30would later be found, almost three years later, by police at a property in Dorset. And it's
02:36said that the intention was to pervert the course of justice.
02:40Bartholomew, what's going to happen now?
02:43Well, as we mentioned, he's serving that life sentence. He's currently at HMP Isle of Wight.
02:47He's going to appear at Medway Magistrates' Court tomorrow via a video link where he'll
02:51face these new charges. He's also being accused of obstructing a coroner in the execution
02:56of their duty by burying his wife's body in an unknown place, which prevented the inquest
03:02from taking place.
03:04This tragic story is actually in its 27th year now, a huge story across the South East
03:10and particularly, obviously, here in Kent as well. Take us back to where it all started.
03:15You're absolutely right. It all goes back to 1999 when Debbie Griggs was first reported
03:19missing from her home in Deal. She was actually pregnant at the time and there was no update
03:24until 2019 when her husband was found guilty of her murder and he was sent to prison in
03:30October of that year. It was something that was heavily covered both here on KNTV and
03:35across the national press at the time. Now, at that time in 2019 when Mr Griggs was sentenced
03:42to life, Debbie Griggs' body hadn't actually been discovered and it wasn't until police
03:48had received a tip-off and excavated the garden of a property in Dorset that some of her remains
03:54were finally found, later taken through investigations and confirmed that it was part of her body
04:00that had been buried in that garden. This was actually a property that Mr Griggs had
04:05moved into a couple of years after that first initial investigation into her disappearance
04:10had concluded. Now, since his conviction, Mr Griggs had tried to overturn it. He had
04:17appealed. It was eventually declined before in 2022, as I've said, her body was discovered.
04:24Despite her body being found, there was an inquest into her death in 2023 that classed
04:29it as uncertain, meaning that a cause is likely never to be established. That's what her family
04:35were told back in 2023. But just to sort of round things up, where we are today, obviously
04:41it's the day before Andrew Griggs is going to appear before Medway Magistrates' Court
04:45with those fresh charges that are going to be brought against him, that he's been accused
04:49of asking his son to dig up her body in an attempt to prove that she was still alive
04:56before it was eventually discovered by police. Bartholomew, thank you very much for those
05:03details. Now, a survey has found around a third of primary and secondary school students
05:09have been bullied or picked on online. I think I'm reading you the wrong story this evening.
05:14We'll go to our next one. Back in November, the government introduced the Tobacco and
05:18Vapes Bill with the aim of cracking down on certain flavours of the products. But after
05:23Dolly the dog swallowed part of a vape in Maidstone while out on a walk, vets worry
05:28they could be attracting our pets now too. Well, the vape pod was actually full of nicotine
05:33and she luckily had a successful operation to remove it from her stomach. But it could
05:37have ended a lot worse if her owner Beverly hadn't noticed something wasn't quite right.
05:41Vets are now starting to wonder if the sweet or food flavoured vapes could be the problem.
05:46Well, Finn McDermid went to meet Dolly following her operation and find out if these littered
05:50vapes are even more harmful to our pets. The sweet or food related flavours of vapes can
05:56be particularly attractive to pets with a keen sense of smell. And if they aren't disposed
06:01of properly, they can end up hurting animals like Dolly the Bichon Frise, who's lucky to
06:05be alive after swallowing an entire vape pod. She'd recently was just getting over dental
06:12surgery and she was due to come for a check up at the vets. And I explained to the vets
06:19that she was not improving. She was feeling under the weather. So yeah, it was very worrying
06:26time for her. And within a space of a few weeks, having to go through surgery twice
06:37was really upsetting for all of us. Beverly noticed something was wrong when Dolly became
06:43clingy and whiny. And once they'd done their x-rays and discovered the object, she was
06:48booked in for a surgery, which, because of her age, had fatal risks. But was this a one
06:53off instance or is it a problem with the disposal of e-cigarettes? Even though they're
06:57called Lost Marys, they're pretty easy to find. I've only just left the vets. I've already
07:02managed to find that, some liquid and even other brands of vape. And it just goes to
07:06show how big the problem is. Most people seem to think that, well, you know, if I'm vaping,
07:11it's only really hurting myself. But you could be potentially causing severe damage or injury
07:16or even death to someone else's pet. Now, even though dogs are known for eating things
07:20they aren't supposed to, that behaviour tends to be more common in younger dogs. So could
07:25this mean there's a wider issue with animals ingesting parts of vapes? The fact that they're
07:29flavoured, they're sort of sweet smelling, is obviously really attractive to dogs. So
07:34there's definitely a greater risk of them ingesting them, finding them when they're
07:37out and about. So I think from the pet owner's point of view, just being really vigilant
07:42about, you know, what they're snuffling around in when they're out on walks. And generally,
07:46you know, we just urge people to be really cautious about disposing of them properly
07:50because it's a risk obviously for dogs, but potentially for wildlife and maybe for children
07:54as well. This comes at a time when the future of e-cigarettes is up in the air, with the
07:59tobacco and vapes bill being introduced by the government in November, that allows ministers
08:03to regulate any flavours that could be considered childlike, which could prevent dogs and other
08:07pets from wanting to swallow them. But according to experts like Dr Bulse, we won't know until
08:12more cases like Dolly's start happening, which could place a strain on vets across the county
08:16and hurt not just our pets, but wildlife too. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Maidstone.
08:24A very lucky escape for Dolly. Our best wishes with her and Beverly as well. Now, a survey
08:28has found around a third of primary and secondary school students have been bullied or picked
08:32on online. The Kent Police and Crime Commissioner's Youth and Parents Survey is hoping to open
08:37up the conversation about phone bans in schools and safety while online. Well, on the morning
08:43show today, we carried on the discussion about phones, social media and internet safety
08:47too, which you can watch back on demand of course. But what do you think? We've brought
08:50the debate to people in Rochester and asked how safe our phones and the internet really
08:54is for both children and adults.
08:57There's so much on there as well that, you know, one site leads you on to another, leads
09:02you on to another, and before you know it, you've been on the computer for hours and
09:06it just takes you from one thing to another, as I say.
09:09I feel like they could spend less time focusing on news and then more time focusing on what
09:19other people are doing on the internet.
09:21I would say that it is a very safe place, but you have to know what you're doing on
09:26it. I think you have to be really suspicious of what's going on around you. So, yes, it
09:30could be safe.
09:31It needs to be a lot safer than it is. There's a lot of people in trouble because of it.
09:34Probably more regulations and more police knowledge, public knowledge as well, more
09:38maybe shows about it and sort of publications and posters and stuff, make people really
09:43aware of the dangers that are out there.
09:44I think it's obviously very important and increasingly important in this day and age
09:49where so much of your life is online, whether that be financial, socially or whatever else
09:57it be. So, I think it is really important and there's always more that can be done,
10:04but that's not necessarily easy with technology developing as quickly as it is. So, I think
10:14more can be done, but how easy that is, is a different question.
10:17Well, let's hear from CAME TV's health expert, Dr Julian Spinks, on that mental health impact
10:24and the impact on our physical health too. He joined us on the Kent Morning Show earlier
10:28talking all about what phones, social media and the internet and the impact it can have
10:33on our young people.
10:34It has a major effect and has always been because of the fact that children expect school
10:42to be somewhere where they're safe and they're protected and so on. Bullying really reverses
10:47that problem and if you have any sort of thing that makes you different, then they will zoom
10:52in on it and so on. And so, it is so important that we support young people who have been
10:57bullied and we also tackle that bullying culture for young people's mental health and also
11:03to stop them deciding that they can't go to school because they're being bullied there.
11:07And we're going to talk, you know, we've been talking all day about being safer online and
11:13a few moments ago you told us about the impact, the more negative side of health. I want to
11:20turn that on its head and look at maybe the more positive sides of online and social media
11:26and the benefits that that has had on medicine and on your practice. What maybe some come to mind?
11:35For me personally, I look back to the pandemic and having, you know, those daily briefings
11:41and being able to communicate those messages effectively to the public. For you, what have
11:46been the sort of the benefits that you've seen with social media for medicine?
11:52Well, you have to find out Julian's answer by watching back the Kent Morning Show on demand.
11:57I'll see you after this break.
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