“The Family Doctor whose Duty was to preserve life confirmed now as a mass murderer the full extent of his crimes as yet unknown. Dr Harold Frederick Shipman of Hyde Manchester murdered 215 of his patients over a 20-year period. His reputation as a caring GP in a close-knit town was a thin veil for his evil killings. He committed the ultimate betrayal in patient doctor trust and callously murdered with lethal injection making this a crime That Shook Britain.”
“It’s the last thing that you would expect is a well respected doctor in a small town you know might be killing his patients. A man who exercised the ultimate power of controlling life and death as far as he was concerned he was a doctor uh it wasn’t for people to question what he had done and it certainly wasn’t a matter for the police to be question him about even when everything came out people still couldn’t believe that it was Dr Shipman.”
“The prosecution alleged that the high GP enjoyed killing his patients.”
“Whenever M spoke spoke about ship and he was wonderful man and he was very caring and very loyal and did whatever he could and it seemed very odd that all of a sudden when she died he turned into this monster.”
“Harold Shipman ran a busy one-man surgery in a town of 22,000 people. His patients held him in high regard but Shipman held an unimaginable secret one that goes against the oath of any doctor he was killing his patients.”
“In 1998 his cover was blown and 2 years later he was convicted of murdering 15 patients. Dr Shipman is now the biggest single mass murderer the world has ever seen after he was finally accused of 215 killings.”
“When I met Dr Shipman he wasn’t a particularly friendly person he was uh quite arrogant and aloof most of the time with his fellow doctors. He reduced a rep from a pharmaceutical company to tears because he was just so aggressive in in the way he was dealing with her.”
“Shipman was very respected in the community um with families patients and other professional people.”
“Mom was always over the moon about how wonderful he was how well he treated my dad how well he treated my mom uh what a a brilliant doctor he was and I was obious blind me this came across as a bit of a Superman.”
“This film will tell the story of serial killer Har Shipman through the eyewitness accounts of his colleagues from the other local practice and the relatives forced to live with his crimes.”
“November 1997 Dr Shipman is conducting house calls today. He’s visiting Marie Quinn a 67-year-old local lady who has been a loyal patient of his for 20 years. Shipman claims to find Marie unconscious and takes the decision not to resuscitate. He apparently makes a call to a loved one delivering the devastating news that she has died of a stroke.”
“We received a call to say that Mrs Quinn had passed away at home we were told that um we couldn’t move her body at the time because there was nobody in the house to let us in therefore we had to wait until after Shipman’s surgery had closed and he was going to let us in.”
“Shipman has a reputation for visiting his elderly patients at home so when Debbie receives a call from his surgery it isn’t unusual but today something seems a Miss.”
“We took Mrs Quinn to the Chapel of rest but we couldn’t quite understand um why he had a key to let us into the house.”
“Hello je.”
“The funeral directors have started to feel uneasy about some of Shipman’s deceased patients certain elements just aren’t adding up and now more alarm Bells Are Ringing.”
“His wife was also with him um which wasn’t normal but um we were told that she was there to take the cat away.”
“Shipman certifies the death from a stroke paperwork is filed and and friends are left to mourn. Marie didn’t appear to be ill but the expert has given his opinion. Life in hide continues.”
“But on the 10th of December another patient of Shipman dies Suddenly at her home. Bianca pomfrit is just 49 years old.”
“She lived alone uh and had done for some years uh for many years she’d suffered from depression. The day before when uh the support worker had spoken to her she had been well and had not been complaining of any condition certainly any serious condition.”
“Bianca thought very highly of her doctor and was well known at his surgery but her medical complaints were not life-threatening.”
“Now she lies dead yet apart from her free frequent ailments she hasn’t complained of any other conditions.”
“On the day that she died she’d been seen by a neighbor later on that day uh one of her support workers uh called her to home uh knocked on the door and couldn’t get any reply as a result of that she contacted uh Bianca’s son who came around um they got access to the house found that the door in actual fact was unlocked and they found Bianca sat in a chair uh Dead uh fully dressed.”
“Here is another death that doesn’t add up.”
“In the following months the funeral directors grow increasingly concerned more of Shipman’s patients are found in unusual circumstances. By February 1998 Debbie is compelled to share their concerns.”
“We were a bit uneasy really with um the numbers of his patients that were dying at home. The majority of them were always women. We didn’t quite know who to talk to so I made a decision one day when Dr boo came to our Chapel of rest to sign some cremation forms to have a word with her.”
“She was worried that the way that they were being found they were didn’t seem as though they’d been lying in bed ill they weren’t in their night clothes they were sat in a chair fully dressed and said don’t you you think that you’re coming to do too many of to countersign too many of Shipman’s forms? It could be that they died at home quite peacefully and naturally but on the other hand if if things weren’t quite right then we needed to speak to somebody we needed to reach out to someone.”
“I was quite shocked as well at what she might be suggesting um that she was suggesting that do shipment might be killing his patients.”
“A number of patients now lie Dead with no previous major ill health and the doctor with one of the best reputations in medicine is now under scrutiny.”
“Really my first memory was when uh Su boo came knocking very very agitated. Unfortunately Dr Patel was in surgery he was just just as horrified and shocked as I was you know and I thought well we have to discuss it with the whole partnership together and decide what we’re going to do.”
“The undertakers had made some remarks about uh about Shipman which she had found very uh upsetting and and also very alarming and that she really wasn’t sure what to do next.”
“More alarming news is about to follow as Sue Booth is called upon once more that weekend.”
“Dr Reynolds rang me at home and said she had suspicions about Dr Shipman being uh a murderer and she was very concerned and she wanted to discuss it anyway.”
“As the GPS at the neighboring practice call an urgent meeting Shipman goes about his daily duties unaware he is Under Suspicion. He is again conducting house calls today he is visiting one of his loyal patients 77-year-old aah wton.”
“She was a fanatical pressure cooker person she was really well-nourished and a fruit and veg fanatic she took really good care of herself.”
“Shipman has made an unannounced visit to AER but she welcomes him in regardless. Meanwhile Raj Sue and colleagues voiced their growing concerns.”
“Normally we had our practice meetings on the premises but because of the sensitive nature of the discussion we decided that we’d hold it away from hide so we met in a in a pub in Heaton Mo.”
“Harold chip told me that Auntie aah had been in contact with him she wondered if she’d had a stroke.”
“Can I ask you to roll your sleeves on right it won’t take long any long won’t be.”
“And he then said that he would go and check on her later in the day.”
“We knew there was a discrepancy but but one which simply seemed to be anecdotal and observed by people rather than anything based on numbers or figures. We then discussed whether we were talking about possibly uh some kind of professional incompetence or some kind of malpractice.”
“Linda at that point said well she thought that he was perhaps deliberately harming his patients and this was just um a turning point I think for all of us. Once somebody has made that statement there is no going back.”
“He told me that he had found my telephone number by rooting through the bureau when he had come across her will. He’d found my name in her will and he continued roting then until he’ found an address book with my telephone number.”
“We decided that one of the doctors would look at our number of deaths in the previous two years in the practice and compare it with the number of certification requests we’d had from Dr Chipman.”
“If a person wants one of their relatives to be cremated um you need a cremation certificate which has to be signed by two doctors.”
“He never told me anything it was really weird and then he said that um he thought she’d had a stroke at this stage I had to stop him and say well where is she now you know is she in the hospital did it not amount to anything is she at home?”
“And he then told me that she passed away a few days later.”
“The doctors nervously await the results they urgently need to analyze the death rates between their surgery and Shipman across the road. Then the figures come through.”
“There was just astounding that uh there were something like 41 occasions when Shipman had asked us to counter sign cremation forms uh over uh over many months and during the same period of time uh we had only had 14 deaths from around 10,000 10,000 people.”
“You know you at the back of your mind you’re thinking well this it can’t be true it can’t be true that a doctor is killing his patients it’s just unbelievable.”
“March 1998 officers from greater Manchester police launch an investigation into the allegations against Harold Shipman. GPS from a surgery just 20 yards away have discovered an alarming number of deaths from his practice and decide to contact police via the coroner.”
“We were entirely prepared to be wrong at the time and I think certainly Linda probably felt more acutely aware of this than anybody else that she here she was coming from outside of Hy uh into an area where she had only been practicing for a short time and she was challenging somebody else’s reputation.”
“Despite the doctor’s reservations matters have to be investigated. Di Smith is assigned to the case. His first Port of Call is Dr Linda Reynolds.”
“The rest of us only worked in hide had only our limited experience of working with Dr Shipman across the road as a as a neighboring doctor was Linda had come to us from another practice in reddish and and certainly her experience about doing uh cremation forms was that she was doing far more for Dr Shipman since she had arrived in Hyde than she had been at a previous practice.”
“She also found it suspicious that he’d been present at quite a few of the deaths.”
“We really did not want any of this to be true uh we we genuinely wanted somebody just to look at the difference in death rates and simply to say these differences were entirely understandable.”
“As di Smith and Dr Reynolds discussed the concerns one of Shipman’s patients 88-year-old Martha Marley has just come off the phone to her daughter.”
“It was the habit of her daughter to actually telephone a mother around about 9:00 each morning and around about 6:00 each evening. Her daughter Ranger as usual around about 9:00 her mother didn’t complain of any illness uh she seemed uh well uh and bright uh and she arranged then to ring her uh mother later on in the day as usual.”
“But later that day routine is broken as Martha’s daughter struggles to contact her. Meanwhile Shipman takes open surgery at his Clinic whilst across the road police are being told he might be murdering his patients.”
“It is the details from this initial meeting that determine the nature of the rest of di Smith’s inquiry. From his time with Dr Reynolds he doesn’t Place importance on Vital Information the relevance of a second doctor signing a cremation form the availability of a body to autopsy the difference between the death rates at the two surgeries and the relevance of interviewing any other doctor doctor at the practice. But this is a unique case and Smith isn’t experienced in this kind of Investigation. Now as di Smith leaves Brook surgery Dr Shipman is busy with his other patients. At 6:45 p.m. Martha Marley is found dead at her home.”
“The paramedics were uh summoned to uh Martha’s home uh and obviously found that she had died um the cause of death uh given uh by Shipman subsequently was that she had died from old age.”
“A body Now lies in the morg with similar characteristics of other patient deaths alone at home and with no major health complaints. But the investigation heads in another Direction and doctors at Brook surgery carry on as normal. Police haven’t advised to do anything different should another death occur.”
“But just 2 Days Later another cremation form arrives from Shipman.”
“I was far more aware that this particular death May well be under police scrutiny.”
“As the investigation gets underway and Mara Marley’s body waits to be put to rest another of Shipman’s recently deceased patients adah wton whose Shipman visited 6 days ago now also lies dead.”
“When I was told that she had died I was absolutely stunned I was stunned because I spoke to her very often and had she been ill she would have mentioned it.”
“Two bodies could now hold the key to Shipman’s crimes but this Avenue remains undetected. Di Smith instead turns his attention to the town hall to discover how many deaths have been registered by Shipman in the last 6 months.”
“It appears that um in C in registers uh that some of the uh deaths were actually missed and there was a smaller number actually given to di Smith than uh an actual fact Shipman have been involved in.”
“Police are led to believe they are dealing with a lower number of potential deaths than is the case. Discret investigations continue. There’s nothing to go on. All the while Shipman goes about his duties as normal and two potential victims Li in the Mory about to be crated. Dr Reynolds believed these might hold the vital Clues needed.”
“You had mentioned at one point2 C that that there were two bodies at The Undertakers uh that could have been examined by postmortem. Linda thought that the police would be looking into that just as a normal followup to that inquiry.”
“I’m now of the opinion that that uh that the police didn’t look at that.”
“When Shipman phoned me on the Friday night when he told me that HTI had died he told me that he’d informed the police because the house had to be secured so whilst he was speaking to me the policeman actually came into the room the policeman took the telephone from shipment and he was the first to mention postmortem in less than 10 seconds. It was quite apparent that Shipman had somehow he managed to tell him that this wouldn’t be necessary.”
“No autopsies have been ordered. Vital evidence could be lost forever. Later that day aah wton is cremated.”
“Anyone who knows me knows that had I been discreetly asked to give permission for postmortem I wouldn’t have liked it but I would have gone along with it to help an investigation.”
“The coroner nor di Smith is aware of A’s death. They are also unaware of Martha Marley’s death who was cremated the very next day.”
“It is now one week into the investigation. Di Smith needs to see if there are any discrepancies in the deaths registered by Shipman. He decides to visit Dr Banks at the West penine health authority. Dr Banks deals with complaints about health practitioners in the area.”
“Dr Banks’s opinion was that there was nothing out of the ordinary with those uh notes and the action that was taken by Dr Shipman. It may well have reassured him that there was no uh medical evidence to suggest that Shipman had been involved in the deaths of these individuals. Shipman on the other hand seemed to have uh appeared to have a lot of elderly patients and retired people and again this seemed to indicate that they were there were differences in what he would experience in what we would experience.”
“If police were to search Shipman’s practice profile they discover he has a less than average list of elderly patients and a smaller percentage of females than any other practice in tamide blowing the myth that most of his patients are old and female.”
“The chance for autopsies has now passed and to di Smith there appears to be nothing of concern in Shipman’s records. But before closing the case di Smith visits the local Cemetery to look into the number of cremations.”
“What he wanted from there was uh details of the undertakers that had been involved in the uh burying or in The Cremation of individuals in order that he could conduct inquiries.”
“Meanwhile Debbie Massi the funeral director who first raised the alarm hasn’t been contacted about the deaths.”
“We were surprised that we hadn’t been interviewed um and asked questions on our concerns.”
“Relatives of the deceased are also unaware Shipman may have killed their loved ones.”
“At the time of ati’s death I knew absolutely nothing of the rumors of the police investigation afterwards of course with hindsight it’s very to say if I’d have been there I’d have said I want to postm to you can’t say that I had no no need to ask for one no reason to ask for one because I didn’t really understand um why they should be why it should be necessary.”
“Police who attended some of the deaths haven’t been contacted either. No checks have been made on the police national computer or with the General Medical Council to see if Shipman has any previous criminal history. If Smith were to look he’d discover Shipman is a man with a sketchy past.”
“Shipman was convicted uh of um offenses relating to his abuse of pethadine uh what he was doing was obtaining drugs illicitly by forging uh orders which he was then using to inject uh himself uh he was convicted at the uh local magistrates court and received a heavy fine. Although the General Medical Council took the view at that stage that no punishment should be uh imposed on him by themselves he received a period of treatment uh and uh resumed practice around about 6 months later.”
“A vital piece of the jigsaw is missing. Police are unaware they are dealing with a man with a history of drug abuse. Possible victims have been crated tests may have revealed high levels of diamorphine but the case is closed.”
“I just breathed a huge relief at the time just you know I just thought that was good news as far as I was concerned as I really didn’t want there to be any truth in any of those observations.”
“Dr Reynolds was still unhappy with the outcome of the investigation so we agreed that we would just keep a close eye on the situation but the bottom line had to be that the police said everything was okay.”
“Police seem convinced the popular GP is guilty of nothing more than caring for his patients but Dr Shipman goes on to kill three more women. 3 months have passed since police investigated claims that Dr Shipman was murdering his patients. His colleagues remain on edge while Shipman remains in practice and seemingly Untouchable.”
“Today he’s visiting the home of Mrs Kathleen Grundy the former Mayes of Hy. It is 8:30 a.m. and he has allegedly come to take a blood sample.”
“She was a lovely lady. A really lovely lady um very friendly uh extremely friendly with my mom despite the fact that she was in her early 80s. She helped to serve meals to the elderly she was certainly very active in that. Whenever I saw her she was always very well and she was always another one who bushed around everywhere.”
“It’s a busy day for Kathleen she’s an active woman who Rises early and gets on with her day. In a few hours time she is due at the community center to help out as usual but finds time for Dr Shipman beforehand.”
“It is now 11:55 a.m. and Friends John Green and Ronald Pigford are concerned Kathleen hasn’t shown up at the lunch Club. They make the short walk to Joel Lane to check on her.”
“They found her door unlocked they went inside uh because there was no answer to repeated knocking and they found Kathleen dead on the CTI in the lounge fully dressed.”
“God.”
“Dr Shipman is called out immediately and certifies Kathleen’s death as old age. Her family and friends although massively shocked by the sudden death pay tribute to her. The following week she’s laid to rest at Hy Chapel near to her parents.”
“But Kathleen’s Legacy doesn’t end here. Her message from Beyond the Grave is about to blow the lid on the country’s biggest serial killer.”
“Angela Woodruff was contacted by Hamilton Ward solicitors only a few days after her uh Mother’s burial and tell her that uh they were in possession of a will allegedly made by her mother in which um all her assets had been left to Dr Shipman.”
“Kathleen’s daughter Angela is left baffled by the news. Why leave a legacy to someone who wasn’t particularly close? After a copy of the will is fact through Angela a solicitor herself heads straight to Hyde to investigate further.”
“In the body of the um will it talks about leaving my house in actual fact her mother owned two houses and obviously would have known that so consequently had she genuinely prepared that will she would have talked about two houses. The general uh condition of the will the way it had been prepared uh it looked uh very very amateurish. Kathleen Grande had been a very particular individual very neat uh person and um in actual fact hand wrote everything.”
“Having seen the documents Angela uh became uh extremely concerned. She decided that before she went to the police she would make some inquiries of her own. One of the things that she did was to get out the paying in slips for the age concern shop where Kathleen grandi did the paying in. She wanted to compare the signatures on that with the signatures supposedly made by a mother on the will.”
“The signatures don’t match. Angela needs to probe further. When she quizzes Witnesses on the document her fears grow.”
“Several days before he killed her he actually got two members of the public who were sitting waiting in the waiting room to come into his surgery to sign a form. They believe that that was uh probably an insurance proposal form something similar.”
“What he said was uh that uh it was probably an insurance form she asked him to sign it he wouldn’t get involved in anything like that so he asked two members of the public.”
“If that’s the case he would never have seen the the will form and he would never have touched it but his fingerprints were on it.”
“Kathleen had also been a picture of Health shortly before her death chatting with an old friend. Her meticulous diary showed she was expecting Shipman on that day to take a blood sample.”
“Subsequent inquiries uh revealed that no such survey was taking place uh and in in fact in respect of Shipman’s explanation um the blood sample that he allegedly took that morning um did not turn up. It had not been sent to the Pathology lab and it still and it wasn’t still in his surgery.”
“For a second time Harold Shipman comes to police attention and now the devastating facts are going to be irrefutable. No blood was taken from Mrs Grundy. Shipman’s elaborate plan is about to be foiled. He has callously murdered Kathleen and tried to forge her will to inherit nearly £400,000.”
“There was a headline on Radio 4 a tamide doctor accused of murder and forging a will. As soon as I heard that news report I was convinced he was guilty of my mom’s death.”
“It’s a cold summer evening in Hyde Manchester. Police take the dramatic decision to exume the body of Kathleen Grundy. Detective superintendent Bernard pel now leads the case. They fear Kathleen has been killed by her GP Harold Shipman. Whispers in town are now in overdrive. Has the doctor with over 3,000 patients been killing those who gave him their unquestionable trust?”
“By the 1st of August uh only 5 days after Angela expressed her concerns we exume the body of her mother uh forensic tests uh needed to be carried out. In addition to that um the typewriter had been recovered from Dr ship surgery which we believed had been used to prepare the will and the letter that accompanied it.”
“Mid August Shipman is well aware he is Under Suspicion for murder and forgery but he carries on regardless seeing patient after patient and even joking with those he treats whilst officers swoop on his surgery to seize other potential evidence. He shows only contempt for the inconvenience caused.”
“There appear to be further new concerns somewhere along the line that we haven’t been involved with but clearly you know somebody’s looking into this again. We thought we’d put it all behind us and then now it’s starting again and of course the horrific numbers that were going to come out subsequently we no idea it was going to be as big as that.”
“The town of Hyde Manchester is in turmoil. Dr Harold Shipman one of its most popular GPS is under police scrutiny suspected of murder. Officers have now exhumed a body for tests and property has been seized from Shipman’s home and surgery.”
“September 1998 Dr Harold Frederick Shipman is arrested. To avoid a media scrum they allow him to make his own way to a police station with a solicitor. The police now have damning evidence.”
“The results came back from the toxicology tests indicating that uh it was diamorphine that was in Kathleen grund’s body. In terms of the will uh the tests that were carried out showed that the will had been prepared on the typewriter uh which was owned by Dr Shipman and that the signatures on it uh were probably forgeries.”
“Dr Shipman’s fabricated world is closing in but he still defiantly keeps his composure. He strongly believes he’ll be released after questioning later that day but he never steps out of custody again.”
“Uh he appeared in a confident um manner uh that this was perhaps an inconvenience to him and uh my belief is that uh he fully expected to be leav in the police station within a few hours.”
“The devastation and magnitude of Shipman’s crimes is overbearing for the whole Community. As Shipman is charged with Kathleen’s murder police decide to exume further patience. Ironically shipment surgery is flooded with support from some loyal patients hoping this is nothing more than a Witch Hunt or terrible misunderstanding.”
“He was so well respected in the town and well liked the patients loved him you know they all wanted to be on his list he was a very popular doctor.”
“Harold frerick Shipman Harold Shipman has stood trial for the last four months. It became apparent something was about to happen um and we got a whisper that they’ve comes a decision.”
“It was getting more and more difficult to question the amount of evidence that seemed to be mounting up against him. Then it came to the first one of cremation guilty and then the his big sigh and then guilty of the next one and the various relatives then who were St behind me whose um relatives had been cremated. It was it’s wrong to say a sigh of relief it’s a relief I think that it was over but a s of horror that their relative had been murdered.”
“Shipman is convicted of 15 counts of murder and forging a will. Tight lipped and defiant as ever he has led away way to start 15 life term imprisonments and a concurrent 4-year term for forgery.”
“And I think um I think by that point all of us were expecting that he was going to be found guilty of uh of some of the deaths um but it still came as an enormous shock to find that he was convicted of 15.”
“My recommendation is that you should spend the remainder of your days in prison.”
“He shows No Remorse nor gives any explanation.”
“The fact that Shipman never spoke about the murders suits me fine. I had got no desire to listen to anything that that man had to say.”
“Shipman’s colleagues from Brook surgery and the funeral directors were right all along. From their first suspicions it now transpires the doctor went on to kill three more women before finally being charged.”
“When my sister phoned me to say mom’s died I had an appalling reaction. I said you’re joking. Well of course you don’t joke on something like that. I just didn’t know what to say because having seen her two days before in the picture of Health how could she die?”
“You know could could we have prevented their deaths during that summer? You know he feel terribly saddened for the families of those those ladies.”
“He was really cold nasty uh rather derogatory about my mom saying that she’d been suffering from angina she’d been an awkward cantankerous old lady she wouldn’t take a tablet and it’s not his fault she died. And it seemed very odd that all of a sudden when she died he turned into this monster.”
“He was going out to harm the very people who were supposed to help and that was probably the single lowest point for for me personally and to a certain degree we we almost felt guilty by association.”
“No comment Dr Shipman we have reason to believe you have murdered Kathleen.”
“The big downfall for Dr Shipman in actual fact was the way that he had actually maintained records. They weren’t consistent uh certainly the medical records which he had altered weren’t consistent with other records kept around about the time of the deaths. With the death certificates with the cremation certificates uh and with the actual paper uh medical records they weren’t consistent uh with the stories that he told uh to members of families uh or to uh Neighbors at the time.”
“It was towards the end of the uh interview in relation to the first death that he was faced with irrefutable evidence that he had altered computerized medical records that he uh actually uh broke down and from that point on was uncooperative uh in any interviews that took place.”
“No people are also questioning the motive apart from forging a will there appears to be no clear reason. Rumors that Shipman asked for a Keepsake after a death are our R and some relatives report missing jewelry but no answers are given. Shipman reveals nothing.”
“Her sister anesta she bought her the most beautiful necklace and personally this beautiful necklace was Thank You from One sister to another and we’ve never seen that since.”
“Harold Shipman went through the bureau uh my mom’s wedding ring wasn’t on a finger um but it was a band it was a gold band there no way you could identify it with the dozens and dozens of other gold bands that he found but that wasn’t the the the motive for killing these people it couldn’t have been just for little bits of trinkets like that that was just something he took after the event.”
“Shipman has now been in prison for 4 years. In the aftermath of his trial a full quiry looked into the death of every single patient Shipman ever had suspecting there to be more victims and now the true horror comes to light.”
“Uh this was an enormous case I don’t think that um there has ever been a case as large as this uh certainly in terms of the numbers of deaths to to find that that the figure was well above 200 set at 215 at at the very least if not more was deeply deeply crushing and it really damaged my confidence as a doctor.”
“I knew it was a lot I had no idea he was going to run into the hundreds.”
“Shipman’s Killing Spree spanned more than 20 years with his first victim allegedly in 1975 Mrs Eva Lions. Despite the growing number of victims now coming to light police decide not to press any more charges.”
“23 families um had been in contact with the police and they understood that there would be a second trial and when they discovered afterwards that there was to be no second trial they were very angry. There were two reasons. One the trial judge had said that the uh sentence of Life imposed on Harold Shipman would actually mean life and that he would never leave prison. The second reason was that the enormous publicity which had surrounded the trial meant that any future trial uh could not be fair. They were particularly angered because they were notified of it by letter and if memory serves me right the letter was posted through their doors in the early hours of the morning and yet the story had clearly been released to the newspapers the day before.”
“How could a serial killer go undetected for so long? Some would say the warning signs were there but this is a calculating dishonest man who fooled those who trusted him for over two decades. Shipman managed to obtain drugs dishonestly for years. His drugs bill at the surgery was also 60% above the health authority average. And as much as there were suspicions being aroused at the time the level of trust that existed in doctors allowed him to dissipate these suspicions with relative ease and to deceive everyone around him including myself who he deceived over and over again.”
“There were other families who just simply didn’t believe that it was true um and thought that the the judge and the jury had got it wrong and I think that even during the inquiry and even after the report came out there were still families who just didn’t believe what they were hearing.”
“As a result of the murders the Shipman inquiry made some major recommendations to the health authority in monitoring practitioners. There have been massive changes in regulation of doctors and health professionals since shipment. Doctors now face a a scheme of revalidation where they will have to undergo a kind of MOT style of of check uh to allow them to keep their uh registration in order to practice as a doctor. There will also be systems put in place that allow uh recording of concerns around um behaviors conduct practice.”
“The General Medical council is now becoming a body Which is far more concerned about the well-being of the public and its patients than the profession it previously represented.”
“Will this ever prevent another Shipman?”
“He was a oneoff I don’t think there’ll ever be any like that again. I mean obviously there are serial killers in various different types of life. He just had the access to kill people and maybe got away with it longer because he was a doctor.”
“Impossible I think to stop somebody doing it again what we can stop doing again is if actually count out 215 times.”
“Over a 23-year period Dr Harold Shipman murdered 215 loyal patients by Lethal Injections. The true death toll could actually be closer to 500. Countless families are now left picking up the pieces from one man’s actions and his betrayal of their trust.”
“I think the hardest thing for the families um was actually thinking about um their relative dying um what was it that he said when he was injecting them with diamorphine?”
“She’s thought of pretty much every day. She’s missed so much. There’s an engagement in the family there’s a baby born she’s the first person everybody wanted to tell and she’s not there. You you can’t afford to let bitterness and hatred dominate everything you do um because you just become a bitter and twisted person yourself and and Shipman’s won.”
“Harold Shipman committed suicide in Wakefield prison in 2004. He never offered any explanation for his crimes. Procedures have been tightened up now but I wouldn’t put money on it not happening again.”
“In 1992 25-year-old Stephanie Slater was kidnapped and locked inside a coffin for eight torturous days. Her attacker Michael Sams had already killed before. If Stephanie’s employers didn’t give into his demands and release thousands of pounds she would be murdered making this a crime That Shook Britain.”
“In a few minutes you’ll hear the voice of the man who kidnapped Stephanie Slater. It’s the voice of someone who may well have been involved in other major crimes of course including murder.”
“We had the knife at my throat he’s over me he’s panting and he just says if you move again I’ll slit your throat.”
“The Ransom money was dropped near the village of oxspring in the barnesley area of Yorkshire. The kidnapper escaped with the money.”
“This man had also committed a murder in the past we potentially have got a situation where one Stephanie’s life was in gra danger.”
“He said the only way your phone slides is when she’s dead. If you ain’t got her back in 24 hours that’s it.”
“Stephanie Slater was an intelligent young estate agent. She had a whole life ahead of her. But on the 22nd of January 1992 this all changed. Michael Sams kidnapped Stephanie at knif point and held a company to Ransom. He wanted £175,000 in return for her life.”
“This film will tell the story of Stephanie Slater through the eyewitness accounts of the people at the center of the kidnap.”
“Wednesday morning Stephanie has been with Birmingham estate agent shipways for just 6 weeks. Today she has an appointment in the diary arranged by letter last week.”
“People would just normally phone up to book an appointment you take their details over the phone and then you go to the appointment when you’d arrang the time to do that but with this it was a letter. There was no phone confirmation whatsoever. So the day in question on the Wednesday morning um myself and Jane the other girl looked through the diary and I said look I tell you what Jane I’ll do this appointment cuz he hasn’t confirmed so he probably isn’t going to be there so you go with Kevin on that valuation and I’ll do this.”
“Stephanie deals with other inquiries before rushing to the viewing 2 minutes away on turnbury road.”
“I just said Mr Southall he said yes and I said oh I’m sorry I’m a bit late. He didn’t say anything.”
“The house has been vacant for some time. The Man shows some interest before being shown upstairs.”
“It was a normal house viewing. I’ve done hundreds and hundreds in my time um to hurry up the viewing because I had the feeling that he wasn’t interested in the house so I said do you want to go upstairs have a look up there? I think he said something about is that double glaze referring to the side window um which I said yes it was because all of the upstairs I believe um was was double glazed especially well the bathroom definitely was.”
“An unsuspecting Stephanie allows the man a cursory look around the top floor while she waits in one of the bedrooms. But what is about to happen will change her life forever.”
“This moment in time he was looking around the house. I didn’t think he was that interested so I just walked off into one of the rooms because it’s early in the morning you want to get back to the warm office in your cup of coffee and and sometimes that’s how it is you know you don’t want to be in a a freezing cold house and I don’t know sometimes you get a bit complacent.”
“So I walked past him and started to walk down the stairs. It was at this point he suddenly took an interest. He said what that up there so in order to answer his question I have to walk past him to see what he’s actually pointing at and it was just a hook on the wall. I said what this this is just for a a a flannel or a towel to be hung on and he didn’t answer me which I found strange cuz he’d asked a question so as I turned around he just suddenly changed.”
“All I can remember was him he seemed to grow bigger huge he seemed to be flying through the air at me his face was all contorted. It takes a couple of seconds for your brain to register that this is danger and it was absolute and total sheer Terror because you realize now oh my God that’s the only thing that goes through your head is oh my God.”
“He pulled his hands up in front of him and he got flashes of silver coming out of his hands. The flashes of silver were weapons one one was a knife the other was a a flat chisel with a hook on the end of it horrible things.”
“I just thought I’ve got to get past him I’ve got to get around him I’ve got to get out of here now.”
“He’s shouting at me he’s screaming at me he’s got the weapons in my face he’s trying to overpower me. I’m in this fight with this grubby little man you know this doesn’t happen surely to God and I I just thought he was going to cut me um or rape me.”
“There was nothing to to pick up to help myself to to attack him back with there was nothing to defend myself with I got nothing on me apart from a key.”
“My face was getting nicked with the knife bits of my hair were coming off because he was cutting it with the knife. I reached out for the weapons I grabbed them and we were fighting over them now cuz I wouldn’t let go and I bent the Chisel. I thought well that’s one I’ve got rid of and I don’t know what happened to it it was useless to him but the other knife I’ve still got in my hand and he’s saying let it go let and I won’t you say cuz that’s what is going to hurt me with what I’ve got here is what could kill me I’m not letting it go and I didn’t I held on to it and then of course to get it back he pulled it hard down through my hand.”
“I looked down at my hand and he then jumped on me and he grabbed my hair from behind and twisted it around so he wrenched my head back and then he pushed me over the side of the bath and he was going go on get your legs in get your legs in and I can just remember looking up up at this mirror and in this mirror I could see okay my face and my neck and the knife sticking right here.”
“He’s above me holding the knife to my throat saying I’m going to Slit your throat I’m going to cut your throat if you start screaming.”
“Wednesday 22nd of January 15 minutes ago Stephanie Slater was confronted in a frenzied attack what she thought was a normal viewing of a property has now turned into a struggle to save her life.”
“And I said all right you’ve got me all right you’ve got me don’t harm me please remember I’m human.”
“And that that did seem to work.”
“Stephanie is overpowered and forced downstairs at knife point.”
“I thought he was going to tie me up and in that house he was going to rape me um then he tied and new around my neck so then I thought no he’s going to hang me and then he said where are your keys and I said what keys? He said the car keys and I thought he wants the car he wants the he can have the bloody car so I said I left them down on stairs on the cabinet in the entrance hall.”
“And so now he’s walking me down the stairs one step at a time holding me by this rope that’s at the back of my neck cuz I the Rope I thought he was going to hang me from he wants it as a dog leash so so I I can’t run off and he’s got the knife sticking into my back and he’s walking me down the steps one step at a time.”
“We get to the bottom and I realized it isn’t the key he wants it’s me and so I said the keys are in my pocket.”
“Despite Stephanie’s Cry for Help nobody comes to the rescue.”
“Okay this was the worst time for me because I’m I’m sitting on the stairs I can look up in front of me and I’ve left the front door open like you always should and as I went to push down on my legs to quickly Leave myself up to get me out that front door it was like I didn’t have legs from the knees down it was like they weren’t there I gone into shock so much I couldn’t even feel my lower legs.”
“By now he’s blindfolded me anyway and I’m thinking that’s it you’ve just signed your own death warrant.”
“The Petrified and vulnerable estate agent is now forced from the house with a knife to her side and led to the attacker’s waiting car. Stephanie now vanishes from Birmingham Without a Trace.”
“Unbeknown to Stephanie she is being driven over 70 M Northeast to Newar. Although blindfold she tries to take in details of the journey you know the timings how long she’d stopped. She recalled at one stage them stopping at the and she heard trains going by you know did she have the sun in the face was it on this side that side so all this information is being pulled together.”
“As Stephanie slips further away concerned colleagues are now aware she hasn’t returned to the office.”
“You’ve not heard from her?”
“Kevin and the other girl in the office Jane they actually drove past turnbury Road and my car was still outside and they commented to each other that oh she’s been there a long time hope she’s okay.”
“And as her boss and colleagues now grow increasingly worried the attacker’s car grinds to a Hal and the journey takes an unusual twist.”
“He stopped the car we were somewhere quiet away from traffic and he kind of half sat me up uh said no screaming I have the knife and he took down the gag and he said I don’t know whether you realized but you’ve been kidnapped.”
“I almost laughed because I thought well my family’s got no money you’ve got the wrong person here you know and then he said I’m going to be asking shipways for £175,000 for your safe return and he said we’re going to make a tape to your boss he said I I’ve written out the ransom note he said but you’re going to speak it so I’ve got a type recorder here.”
“Stephanie has now been kidnapped for 3 hours and the horror is about to unfold with her boss Kevin Watts.”
“Kevin wats the police first heard about Stephanie’s disappearance when a phone call was made uh to shipways which was where Stephanie worked to the manager Kevin wats. Now they knew that Stephanie had gone to this house to allow a viewing with a client. There was an indication that there was going to be a letter on.”
“As Kevin Watts takes in the enormity of what he’s just been told Stephanie is being driven further from their reach. Kevin doesn’t know what to do so he phones his boss and tells him what’s happened and his boss sort of says words to the effect that well this is bigger than us Kev we’ve got to do something we’ve got to tell the police but you tell them quietly what’s happened tell them they’re not supposed to know and we’ll do all this covertly.”
“Well within 5 minutes of his phone call there were uniformed officers at turnbury Road and at shipways.”
“The kidnapper could still be watching the house he could be watching here if he sees police everywhere she’s dead.”
“Police now take on board the seriousness of Stephanie’s disappearance. All the while her ordeal deepens the kidnapper has just pulled in to a quiet layby.”
“He turned off the engine and he said something like oh do you want a cup of tea and a ham sandwich and I thought what you’re you’ve done all this to me I’m cut and bleeding and bruised and you’ve injured me and now you’re offering me a bloody picnic.”
“Stephanie’s colleagues and police have no idea of her whereabouts as officers search the property she vanished from they find some alarming Clues.”
“There had been a struggle in the bathroom there was evidence of a small amount of blood there was also evidence that they gone out through the back French Windows probably into the garage.”
“Stephanie’s nowhere to be found.”
“A vehicle there the scenes of a struggle and uh it was looking Fair Grim at that stage.”
“Police make the difficult decision to inform Stephanie’s parents.”
“And when I home there was a a police sergeant and another girl and Stephanie’s gaffer Kevin wats and I straight away and I said what’s the problem what’s the trouble? And I said well Stephanie went to an house this morning and we haven’t seen her since she disappeared dinner time.”
“You actually think the worst at the M you think well what could have happened say and there’s all different things running through your head.”
“It is now 6:00 p.m. as Stephanie’s parents take in the devastating news the kidnapper pulls in to their final destination.”
“He said no screaming not that anybody’s going to hear you out here.”
“He shuffled me across like a gr travel driveway and I heard him pull open a very heavy sounding metal door. He led me in threw on cobblestones I can remember them being under my feet and they were inside the workshop and he took me through to the back and sat me on a chair and um tied me with thick rope to the chair. I can remember thinking this is it you’re going to die in here.”
“A state agent Stephanie Slater has been kidnapped from an empty property blindfold and held at knife Point she has been driven over 70 M from her hometown in Birmingham. Her colleagues are aware of her disappearance after a terrifying phone call from her attacker. Police have now scrambled to the property to find her blood in the bath.”
“Stephanie has now been missing for over 7 hours.”
“In the first instance it was very very low key but we did have a police station that was uh more or less given to us as the joint inquiry uh you know I had officers down from West Yorkshire working uh with the West Midlands officers.”
“Over 2 hours from home an exhausted Stephanie has been dragged into a filthy Workshop her attacker has rendered her defenseless and Stephanie is becoming more confused by his behavior.”
“He went behind me he was touching my hair pulling his hands through it and you just see in your mind horror stories and horror films over and over again where someone’s behind you stroking your hair and then suddenly there’s an axe coming down on top of you or something that’s what was going through my mind. Why is he doing that? It was creeping me out and he said right take your clothes off I’ve got clothes here for you to wear and I thought suddenly no chance no way you’re not you’re not addressing me no you’re not taking my modesty as well.”
“And I flatly refused and they started to make him angry and he said I’m not having this take your clothes off. You’re sitting there blindfolded and you can’t see anything and all you can hear is a footstep here or there and where you hear the footstep you turn cuz you know he’s there or he’s there behind you and suddenly he was here right next to me and he said something like what about suie lampl and I thought oh my God.”
“It was like a bolt of ice went through me of course I knew the name because I knew she was an estate agent she was like me she went missing in ‘ 86. I don’t know what was behind that remark but if he was trying to frighten me he was doing a damn good job.”
“Stephanie has now been missing for over 9 hours an apparent victim of a kidnap attempt she has limited knowledge of what lies ahead just as she is led to believe she’s being held for ransom her ordeal becomes even more horrific.”
“So in the end when he threatened me again with the knife I undressed. He took my hands via the Handcuff chain in between and with one of his hands he pulled my hands above my head and with his other hand he said write your line back and he with his other hand he pushed it into my chest and he pushed me back hard onto the mattress and then he crawled on top of me at an angle and he proceeded to rape me and he bit me you know that was the worst was the biting my face and my neck my chest my shoulders you really bit me but I thought no you know what I’m not going to scream I’m not I’m not going to shout out you’re not going to get off on this if you’re going to kill me then so be it but you’re not going to go out in any glory.”
“And then he got off in silence he wiped me down all over with a damp cloth and then he gave me men’s clothes to wear and he said and that was won’t happen again not that it were much.”
“And this changed me the rape it changed me completely because I wasn’t scared anymore I wasn’t frightened anymore because I felt so dead inside and as a woman he’s kind of done everything he he can do to me now to hurt me. There’s nothing else. I feel indestructible now because you know what I really didn’t care anymore.”
“As the threat to Stephanie’s life increases police are unaware they are dealing with a violent rapist back in Birmingham they pull in resources from West Yorkshire from officers working on a similar case. Their next step is to reach the package sent to shipways as quickly as possible.”
“The police looked through the Sorting office um that night to try and try to sort of uh getting a little bit of a match on uh on the kidnapper. If they could get the letter a little bit earlier they might be able to to have more time to make decisions.”
“Stephanie’s attacker has carefully constructed a makeshift coffin inside a bin indicating this is a man who has calculated his attack. He now reminds her of the chilling danger she is facing.”
“I didn’t care if I lived or died anymore. I felt nothing and so when he said to me I hope you’re not claustrophobic I Shrugged my shoulders and I said no and he said that’s good cuz you’re going in a box within a box.”
“In Birmingham police are desperate to uncover the package sent to Stephanie’s boss. It could hold vital Clues to her whereabouts. Eventually they uncover it.”
“Within the that first letter were the demands there was a tape where um the kidnapper had hurridly um recorded Stephanie’s voice obviously to give it authenticity and some demands in the letter. He found them to say there was a type in the post at Birmingham and they got down the sting office and found this type and they bought it back and they blly to betti and I just to confirm it was Stephanie.”
“This is Stephanie Slater. The time is 11:45. I can assure you I am okay and unharmed providing these instructions are carried out I will be released on Friday the 31st of January for next Wednesday you will need an ordinance survey map.”
“As Stephanie’s Voice rings out to those closest to her she has no idea if the tape has even been sent. The threat to her life is increasing by the minute and now the kidnapper inflicts more terror.”
“He said you’ve got to get into it like a sleeping bag so I get halfway down I can’t get in any further it’s too narrow it’s too tight and I told him this and he said that’s rubbish he said you’ve got to go in there I got in there early when I tried it out he said um it’s Tas easy push yourself in get down you’ve got to go in he said no two ways about it.”
“Then he told me there were Boulders above the bar above my head and if I pulled on them they come down and they crush me to death. And then my hands were pulled above my head to the left of me um via the Handcuff chain they were attached to a metal bar that went across the top of the box so I’m in a cork screwed kind of position totally twisted my back was in terrible terrible agony and now he’s pushing something very sharp up my right trouser leg. He said can you feel that and I said that is really hurting and he said good it’s supposed to those are electrodes you move around in that box and they’ll electrocute you they’ll kill you instantly.”
“Stephanie Now lies in grave danger. One slight move will cost her her life. As police try to decipher The Ransom note they call for an immediate media blackout. They can’t risk agitating the kidnapper. Another concern is some horrifying similarities in the ransom to a crime West Yorkshire officers are also trying to solve.”
“I mean we were dealing with the murder of Julie Dart which we link to an extortion with British Rail which was in uh uh the murder was in July 91 and the extortion in October. We’d received um a demand letter for um in the Julie dark case. The phraseology used in the letters was similar there were similar misspellings of words in the letters so we were able to put this sort of circumstantial case together that this could well be the same man.”
“I was always in fear for my life and I thought yes he could get the money and he could kill me.”
“25-year-old estate agent Stephanie Slater has been kidnapped and brutally raped at the hands of a ious attacker. She has now been forced to lie in a makeshift coffin. If she moves she dies.”
“Meanwhile police officers have just picked up a ransom demand and chillingly linked her attacker to a murder 6 months previously. Their next move is crucial as Stephanie’s life hangs in the balance.”
“The kidnapper wanted Kevin watts to be the CER. There’s obviously very high level decisions to make here because if as we suspected at that time this man had also committed a murder in the past we potentially have got a situation where one Stephanie’s life was in grave danger and also potentially Kevin Watts.”
“The police have to carefully decide their next move. One wrong decision will end Stephanie’s life. Pressure mounts as the hours go by. They have no leads on her whereabouts. Meanwhile she has only just survived the night.”
“I was going into hypothermia and he said don’t pull on the metal bar cuz of the boulders so as my arms are getting numb they’re getting heavy and I can’t feel what they’re doing whether they’re pulling on the bar or whatever and I can still remember to this day lying in the box and I’ve got my thumb on my chin like that cuz I’m trying to hold it up. Then I I just couldn’t feel anything my whole body went um and then I was shivering and then I dropped my body kind of dropped and again I pulled on the bar but um the boulder stayed there but as the night wore on to be honest with you I didn’t really care if that bar came down I didn’t want to be there for him in the morning.”
“And then I saw a white light in the corner of the box and I said to myself quite openly oh right now you’re losing your mind you’re blindfolded in a black box and now you’re seeing a light and inside that light was the face of Christ. As I say I don’t go to church I’m not religious and I felt quite privileged to have seen this and I just felt at ease all of a sudden and felt peace. I thought I’d died I’d simply fallen asleep.”
“As each hour slowly Ticks by Stephanie Bears the brunt of the kidnapper’s strange Behavior his mind games are almost too much to bear.”
“He did come back not long after. I honestly think to this day he was really shocked that how close to death I probably looked and how ill and pale I probably was and he had to half carry me to a chair and he sat me on the chair and he gave me a cup of tea. He must have been watching me. He said um you can’t move your arms at all and I said I was frozen in that box last night.”
“And then the tea was abruptly taken away from me and I thought oh damn I’ve complained I’ve I’ve said something you are treading on eggshells all the time and then I didn’t know where he was. I couldn’t sense him I couldn’t hear that footstep or or any movement. He was down on his hands and knees and he takes my left arm and he rubs it hard say there you go is that better can you feel that now is that better is that getting warmer how about this one? Moves around that one how is that arm?”
“As surreal as this was and it was very strange I suppose it was at this stage initially I thought maybe just maybe there’s a spark of humanity in him maybe there’s something worth working on but police already fear they are now dealing with a man who was killed before and he could strike again.”
“As soon as possible in case he Rings after the kidnapper first Contact officers now decide to plant devices should he call again and as only me could answer the phone I had got to call me and press a button so you know I’d got a card what to say when the phone went Ellie came Tomy went to pick the receiver up and she press what button she got to so then she’d say right speak.”
“It would be important to as as an investigation to have a record of his voice. Also if you gave any instructions and he spoke to Stephanie’s parents there may not be in in in a you may be in a State of Shock and not remember the detail.”
“And other elements are now firmly in place as officers colleagues and family are poised for the kidnapper’s next move.”
“I mean there’s many different roles in a in a kidnapping chiry such as this uh and and one of them would be family liaz and officers who would be in this case with Stephanie’s parents. When went out the house to the night you came back but they made sure we H and they kept us occupied. So we have to keep them informed and also protect them and also be aware that there might be a phone call comes into their house.”
“Sunday afternoon 5 days into the ordeal the kidnapper surfaces again.”
“Hello.”
“Whater we might be having a sandwich or doing something and the phone went about 2:00.”
“Pick it up and it was Stephanie on the phone but it was a tape.”
“I want you to say hello this is Stephanie here. Hello it’s Stephanie here. I have allowed me to send a message to you just to let you know I am all right and unharmed. I hear that West Brom jelan lost yesterday to Swansea 32.”
“I looked at ell and then I said I said that’s definitely today I want you to know I love you I am not to say too much but whatever the outcome I’ll always love you. Look after the cats for me.”
“Hello what a CER.”
“Can I just ask is is she all right?”
“Two phone calls a tape and a ransom note the police understand this man is to be taken seriously. There is now increasing pressure placed on Kevin in Watts. Officers start to prepare him for what could be the hardest task of his life.”
“He had to be sort of trained to buy time ask if he if he The Voice come you know if he gets to the phone box ask the question twice try and buy some time.”
“As police gear up for a major operation Stephanie is constantly being pulled through a psychological nightmare. Her attacker switches between compassion and inflicting Panic reminding her she is at the mercy of a hardened criminal.”
“And I said something and I made him laugh and after he finished laughing he said oh I’m going to have to get rid of that now aren’t I. And I said what’s that? Get rid of what? What are you talking about? And he said over there in the corner I’ve got a bin to take your dead body out in and that kind of scratch the surface and I could feel all this emotion and this fear and everything and I reached out for him and I was saying Bob where are you? Bob come on where are you? Bob you’re not going to kill me are you not not now? But and I was sort of um like I couldn’t really breathe I couldn’t talk cuz I was in so much fear and I was I was crying. The blindfold was soaking wet and I was reaching for him like like a child would reach for a parent.”
“Tuesday Stephanie disappeared a week ago her whereabouts unknown and all the police have are a number of obscure demands from her kidnapper now he makes contact again.”
“Hello have you got the money?”
“Who’s this please?”
“Never mind. Have you got the money for tomorrow?”
“For tomorrow?”
“Yeah, have you got it?”
“I’m getting it, yeah.”
“When the instructions came into Kevin watchs that was when it was all systems go.”
“As officers make sense of the latest his message Stephanie’s disappearance is now taking its toll on those closest to her.”
“Bety that a serure on the frud serure the first one on the frud if to her art uh that a f the doctor but it was a start of a problems that was Stephanie was well.”
“Stephanie unaware her mother is in such turmoil is trying hard to stay positive so far she has contained her fear. This man has fed and clothed her for 7 days she hangs on his word that she will be released. Now she hears noises in the workshop once more as her kidnapper returns from the phone call to her boss.”
“He bought in a mattress and he also bought later on bought in a second mattra so there are two now. I slept on one and he was to sleep on the other. I’ve got milk and Kit Kats and and crisps and things. I’m putting them down the middle like a barrier like stay away from me don’t touch me sort of thing.”
“Later on that evening he said to me um how did he put it if I if I was to ask you to do what happened on the first night what would you say?”
“It was referring to the rape and I said I’d ask you not to ask that of me because I don’t want to and he said that’s all right I just thought I’d ask.”
“Through those eight days somehow i’ managed to get some respect from him from him it was a tremendous hurdle to get over but I’d done it.”
“Each day for Stephanie has been an emotional roller coaster her attacker on the other hand has made her ordeal part of his daily routine.”
“It seems totally incredible to me now that I was at the back of the workshop in the coffin and in the box and he opens up his Workshop to members of the public. I can hear him using a till I can hear him on the phone chatting to people laughing with people and having a joke and I’m at the back all chained up and locked away imprisoned.”
“Her capter runs a small tool repairing shop just yards away each day he opens up to regular customers. His wife even drops by with his lunch.”
“I think okay do I scream is that what I’m supposed to do do I shout for help? But what if he hears me and they don’t?”
“He was a man of very few words but he liked to talk to me you know when we sat down and had soup and that it was weird it was surreal because I knew in the back of my head that my life was on the line here and one wrong move and that’s it but the times that he would give me something to eat or drink or would pay me a compliment he even took my photograph once it was so strange.”
“You know it’s like the table’s really turning but it it was because I was compliant it was because I didn’t give him any reason to harm me.”
“Meanwhile the president is mounting on Stephanie’s employer. Kevin Watts has the horrifying responsibility of meeting the kidnappers demands. The whole operation lies on his shoulders neither he nor Stephanie make him out of this alive.”
“He was happy to do this. I I don’t know whether he realized until afterwards the the the potential but now from speaking with him and his wife afterwards um you know there were a few tears shed that morning when he knew when he left home that uh you know it depended on him possibly whether Stephanie came back alive.”
“As Stephanie anxiously waits to see how the day unfolds her attacker is leading her boss and the police through his carefully constructed game plan.”
“His first one was at glossip railway station where he was told to go to the kiosk inside the entrance of to the railway station and he would receive a phone call um he got there um he then received a message to go to another kiosk and he’s got his instructions to go to a telephone box an area called fallan ends which is uh in in the Sheffield area.”
“As Kevin follows his instructions and heads over the pen he travels deeper into the unknown. The kidnapper wants to shake the police should they be involved and so far it’s working.”
“That night the fog came down this really up the anti that meant Kevin Watts was now behind schedule. He’d been given times where he had to be at the next phone box because the phone would ring. He got to fail at for lane ends it was late.”
“He’s panicking a little bit by this stage. He gets his instructions which is then to go down this this Lane nearby and as he gets to the entrance to the Lane he sees a sign shipways uh dirting him which way to go.”
“The pressure is now immense. Kevin is behind schedule no clue of his whereabouts and alone with the kidnapper’s ransom. The attacker could pounce at any moment.”
“He’s now isolated is in a strange place down a narrow Lane feeling highly vulnerable. He gets halfway down the lane and there’s a big cone in the middle of the lane he tells him is to swap the money from one bag to another.”
“The kidnapper Now lies in wait as Kevin follows his final instructions. He lays the money on a wall unaware there is a 60ft drop right on the other side. As soon as Kevin is out of earshot the attacker pounces for his Ransom.”
“Sams is 60 ft below the bridge attached to the wooden tray is a fishing line. The tray stood on sand. Sam’s Yanks on the fishing line and down tumbles the money.”
“He’s actually he’s on his moped. He’s traveled there he’s had his moped in the back of his care um he puts the money into the back of the Pana and off he rides.”
“Meanwhile over 50 Mi away in Newar Stephanie now thinks she has been left to die.”
“That was one hell of a long day. You’re talking from 8:00 in the morning until half 11 at night that’s how long I was in there and you can imagine the panic I was in when he said I’ll be back at 9:30 and he wasn’t cuz then you think he’s got the money and he’s gone.”
“The kidnapper has successfully fled with £175,000 and the police have no trace on him. Kevin has made the drop but he has no idea if the attacker now has the money or if Stephanie is dead or alive.”
“I thought he’d abandoned me and he’d gone. I tried to commit suicide that night by Suffocation because I was so frightened. I just put the blankets that he given me in the Box in my mouth and over my face and push my face into the side of the Box.”
“Theon’s G we haven’t got a prisoner and we haven’t got Stephanie you know everybody was absolutely gutted.”
“In the distance Stephanie hears a faint noise. Although behind schedule her kidnapper has returned.”
“I shouted at him is that you? Where have you been? If you got the money please God get me out of here.”
“After a few minutes of that he actually came over to the box and opened it and got me out and i’ collapsed into his arms. I’ve never been so weak in all my life or so frightened.”
“Remarkably Stephanie’s attacker true to his word prepares her for the journey home. All the while police colleagues and family have no idea she’s about to return.”
“He said I’ve decided that I’m going to take you home because he said because I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. He said I was going to give you enough knife and put you in a phone box so you could call the police the knife to protect yourself if anybody came at you he said so to make sure that you get home safe I’m taking you home.”
“8 days after her disappearance Stephanie Slater arrives on a doorstep alone.”
“I was ringing the bell knocking the knocker. The door wasn’t answered for ages. The door started to bang you say he said leave it leave it and he come down open the door say and then when it was opened there was a young blond man stood there on the threshold of the door looking down at me.”
“He was mom and dad’s leaz an officer. He didn’t recognize me and there she was standing in front of me and he reached o over him and he grabbed hold of my um top of my coat and pulled me up into the porch.”
“Stephanie threw her own wit Instinct U saved her own life and uh you know uh highly admirable is that.”
“As Stephanie and her family face the country’s media glare and take in the enormity of her ordeal police launch a nationwide hunt to find her kidnapper a man they believe has also killed 18-year-old Julie Dart and attempted to defraud British Rail Michael Sams.”
“We got the information from Stephanie which she’d remembered. We’d got information from Witnesses we’d got an artist impression. We’d got witnesses who said he was when they saw him at the house so all these pieces were put together.”
“3 weeks after Stephanie’s abduction police appeal for her kidnapper on BBC’s crime watch.”
“In a few minutes you’ll hear the voice of the man who kidnapped Stephanie Slater.”
“Do you want her to give you a password? If you tell me a word I’ll get her to repeat it to say that she’s all right.”
“Yes, could I have a mother and father’s Christian names please?”
“A lady called Susan ORS an interest in this. She’d been following some of the information that had come out had started to develop this idea that it might be her ex-husband Michael Sams.”
“I dispatched the team off he wasn’t in his wife Tina was there. Said he wouldn’t be back till 5:00. There I said oh it’s no it’s not urgent.”
“We watched crime watch last night he said he might be getting a visit.”
“That had a NY 10-minute drive them from Su in Trent to the Swan and salmon yard where Sam’s work shop was and when they walked through the door they knew you know that that this was gold.”
“Mr Sams got some questions to ask you about Stephanie Slater.”
“Everything that Stephanie had said about this place she’d heard the Ring of you know the sound of a a dial on the old telephone the Ping of a microwave. Almost immediately confessed to the kidnapping of Stephanie.”
“Michael Sams was given four life sentences in 1993. He was found guilty of blackmailing British Rail murdering Julie Dart and Stephanie’s kidnap and imprisonment.”
“Sams is a very sad individual um he’s dyslexic um that was part of his downfall in the spelling mistakes in in his letters which which helped us track him down. He’s uh he’s a very bright man very arrogant very self-centered he can’t face up to his mistakes.”
“For years 50-year-old Sams had been a hardworking husband and father. His brush previously with crime had been for car theft. An illness led to Sam’s losing a leg and some said his attitude changed indeed his split personality was a major part of his game plan.”
“He also um tried to Fright me with talk that he had a mate who was in this with him but his mate apparently was a nasty piece of work and it was a good job that he wasn’t looking after me.”
“It was the other man who wanted to kill Stephanie it was the other man who’ murdered Julie D and it was the other man who had actually tried to uh extort £200,000 out of British a with This brilliant idea that the other man had stolen off him.”
“The other man is an illusion created by Sams.”
“Stephanie has moved on with her life and fought hard to get over her ordeal. Her mental strength and resilience is Testament to how she survived those horrifying eight days. Her continued courage and determination not to be beaten is an inspiration.”
“Everything changed from the day uh she went missing. Bo he did riper who that did stick in me claw you know of course there was no need to I complied with him all the time so ain’t a lot of compassion for him at all. I couldn’t care L what happened to him really you know that’s shit he he can rot he can R yes he was calculating yes he did plan it to a certain extent but he was no master criminal um at the end of it he was just lucky.”
“You can analyze him until the cars come out but it doesn’t matter does it? You know he doesn’t matter in this world he doesn’t matter.”
“He was an innocent victim killed by a hooded youth near a pub in Liverpool just yards from his home. He was only 11 years old. The shocking news of ree Jones’s murder made national headlines as a country faced the serious issue of escalating gun crime and gang violence.”
“It was a crime that terrified every parent in the country it was a crime That Shook Britain.”
“On the 22nd of August 2007 School booy ree Jones was walking home from football practice. He was shot dead by a teenage gunman on a bike.”
“My baby was only 11 he didn’t deserve this.”
“The search for his killer was to become one of the biggest investigations mercys side police had ever seen.”
“Today we’ve dedicated a further 100 officers to actually investigating this murder.”
“Whilst the nation demanded Justice for Reese’s family a small group closed ranks around the murder.”
“If you’re the Killer and you’re watching this turn yourself in.”
“This is the story of the senseless killing of ree Jones told from the inside through the eyewitness accounts of the family friends and detectives at the heart of the case.”
“11-year-old Reese Jones lived on the croi Parker estate in Liverpool.”
“Croi Park estate which is predominantly housing estat there’s something like three 3,000 privately owned houses and in the middle of the estate is the fur Tree Pub and I’m very close by is the only block of shops on that estate with a Medical Center School on a church nearby.”
“We’ lived on another state for 17 years I’ve never felt unsafe it’s it’s a lovely area that we live in obviously seeing group groups of kids knocking around but you know nothing nothing more than what you do as a as a youngster yourself.”
“Yeah it’s a really lovely looking estate you know you drive on it and there trees there’s Woods there’s plenty of greenery all the houses are nice with it being private everyone has a bit more pride in their homes and and it’s a lovely looking place.”
“I never had any worries about letting the boys go out and play we’ve never had any trouble up there.”
“Although it’s a massive estate I would say it was quite close really cuz there’s only a little block of shops and obviously that’s the center point of of the estate I think most people know each other.”
“Reese lived with his mother Mel father Steve and older brother Owen. It was a happy family life where Reese was thriving.”
“We were just like a normal family you know Steve Works permanent nights I had a little part-time job the the boys were both at school and both doing really well weekends were always a bit special cuz Steve was always off for the weekends and we always make sure we do things together as a family.”
“We gave him every encouragement to go go out and you know be active and have a good time.”
“Reese was a popular personality and adored by those close to him.”
“Reese was a very happy and energetic little boy he’s also very funny and just a really outgoing little boy he’s one of those Lads that he just couldn’t he couldn’t be mad at for for very long and even if you wear get mad at him he just make you laugh he’s just he’s just lovable and likable.”
“Reys was a he was cheeky cheeky little lad he was always smiling always laughing he was always playing tricks and he was dead mischievous he’d always make mud balls and start throwing them at the kids and then all the other kids would join in and and i’ just be tearing me air out like shouting at you know.”
“But Reese’s biggest passion was football.”
“I think the the passion for football that he has took up all of his life it was just football football football. Played for the fair Tre for about 12 months I think he played his first season he was going into playing his second season for them.”
“He was a good footballer he was you could see it from an early age he was he he could kick the ball further than other kids of his age and you could see that there was something special about him.”
“It was a warm and sunny day on the 22nd of August 2007.”
“I’d been to work in the morning I came home um and Le was starting see schools in the September so we started to go to town get him his new uniform.”
“I work permanent nights so I’ve been in bed most most of that day uh and I got up around about tea time obviously had me tea uh Ree and was going to go and train you they go training once a week and they’d play a match over weekend.”
“We decided that we would get together for an ex training session because the season was due to start on the following Sunday but he was more excited because England were playing that nice as well so there was quite a a buzz going around in the house cuz he wanted to get back for the match he just add a light snack and then he just run up and put his kit on.”
“Reese left home and made his way to football.”
“Re always used to take himself to training as you come out of our house it’ be a 5 7 minute walk on one straight road straight up to the um the football pitchers behind the shops.”
“The training ground would have been just to the right and slightly set back behind the pub more or less right next to it really.”
“Soon after arriving at football practice Reese realized he’d forgotten something.”
“The train session on that particular evening started about 6:00 i’ asked all the kids to get there. Re forgot his 5 signing on fee and he went oh forgot me money and you could see him start to panic a little bit and before I could even s it enough he’d gone he he’d run home.”
“Reath I was sitting on the the city watching the watching the TV when he came bed him back through the door cuz he he’d forgotten forgotten to sign on money and obviously Bader melt uh he just sat on the end of the end of the couch waiting patiently for to give him the money.”
“Instead of just leaving it and paying next time he wouldn’t so um I gave him his sign and on fee and because he was going to be late I put him in the car and I drove him the couple of minutes up the road to the trainer Fields he just kissed me on the cheek and said to our mom I’ll be home to watch England.”
“With his Subs fully paid Reese find finally joined his teammates.”
“We’d done a couple of little warm- up things you know we we’d run round the field uh then we do a couple of little stretching exercises you know there was just a couple of little exercises like that and we never really spent much time doing that because um I always thought it’s better if kids are playing football rather than you know doing exercises.”
“After a successful training session Reese was ready to make his way way home looking forward to watching England play Germany that evening.”
“I was at the back of the car with the boots Open putting stuff in and reach walk past the front of the car and he said to and I said where you going how are you getting home so he said all I tell War.”
“I asked Reese to get in the car two three times and I even said you no come on get in the car I’ll drop you off it’s no problem come on.”
“Ree was adamant.”
“He was well hey reys it was a pleasant evening as reys made his way home a journey he had made countless times before but one that would be his last.”
“11-year-old school boy ree Jones was a popular and passionate footballer adored by friends and family. He had a promising future ahead of him a future he would be denied.”
“Having turned down a lift from his football coach ree Jones was making his way home on foot. He took his usual short cut across the furree pub car park only 500 yard from his home. The 22nd of August was a hot summers evening and the pub was very busy. On that particular evening England were play in Germany.”
“A lot of people who sass outside because of the nice weather and also because of the smoking ban and Reese at that time had finished his football practice and was walking a short relatively short distance home from the football field.”
“I jumped in me car and I drove probably 50 yards and sha was in the passenger seat and he screamed screamed out Reese’s name and I looked back I’ve seen ree hit the floor and and I knew immediately he was hurt.”
“The first thing that entered me head was he slipped so I slammed the brakes on in the car and I jumped out but by the time I’d done that I had open the door and and jumped out so we got to reach before I did.”
“Just before I got there a girl got there she she worked in the PB girl had grabbed all the Reese she was trying to administer some sort of first aid. He was lying in like a pool literally a pool of blood.”
“The girl was shouting to me he’s been shot an ambulance.”
“It’s just that bit seeing him.”
“Sean was hysterical so I’m sh Sean he’ll be all right he’ll be all right but I I just froze.”
“It was no I couldn’t have done anything at all. The first thing I done was get me phone out and I phone the ambulance and the police and all the time Sean’s running around Hyer and I’m trying to say to Sean he’ll be okay he’ll be okay don’t worry.”
“A distressed Steve didn’t have Reese’s home number so he frantically called local resident and furree football coach Tony Edge.”
“I could hear the panic in his voice and he said Tony I don’t know what to do lece is being shot. I started to shout a little bit just get around there and get his mom and get it here now immediately.”
“I remember just thinking what what am I going to say what you say to to his mom or dad when down to the door shocked and panicked Tony raced over to the Jones’s family home.”
“Well I was just sitting on the set watching the T and there was a knock at the door um and I just opened the door and Tony was just standing there. I said Steve just rang me and he said Reese is being shot but I don’t know how bad it is at that’s all I know and he just me you just need to come with me now.”
“And I didn’t even have a time to think oh I just ran into the living room grabbed me Keys me phone and I just got in the car.”
“Well the the distance from ree’s house to the pub car parked about a minute in the car. We were just really in silence and we just wanting to get there as soon as possible. I think I was just in disbelief I I couldn’t comprehend what he said I didn’t even question what he said I don’t even think I spoke.”
“A stunned crowd had already started to gather around Reese.”
“It seemed like there was hundreds of people all around um I couldn’t didn’t see anything I face I just I got out the car and I just had someone shout as his mom.”
“And then as I heard that voice the the all the people up together just s of stood apart and reys was just on the floor and I just ran over.”
“I could nearly even see where he was here I could just see the Poo he was lying in a pool of blood.”
“I just put my hand under his head and I said come on you’re going to be okay come on you’re going to be okay I’m here now it’s going to be fine and people were screaming and but it’s the ambulance and but I was just come on he’s just look at me he be all right.”
“Tony never went over to ree he left Mel and Tony come over to me and I was sort of trying to explain to sh What had happened. When I saw Steve he was you know he was dist he was in tears and you know we he’s probably thinking if we hadn’t have had training that night it wouldn’t have happened.”
“It felt like anity till ambulance arrived it’s just it just felt like an eternity.”
“I was still there still holding on to him and then when the param arriving they working on them and I just I just wanted them to to help ree I just wanted them to to save them.”
“I think I was on the M57 driving the along when I got a call off Mel and it was a very very short call just saying that uh St you need to come home Reese has been shot uh and the first thing that went through my mind was that some kids had had a an air rifle or an air pistol and they you know let off a pallet or something and and it struck him and you lodged him or whatever it was I didn’t for one instant think that it was it was a a proper firearm that he’d been shot with.”
“Oh when we got to the hospital and everyone was there waiting for us they’re all working on them and there’s a whole team of people and you’re thinking it’s going to be okay they’re going to and they allowed me in steeve to go in and we were rubbing his legs and took his boots off me rubbing his feet and tell he were telling us to talk to him and while they were all waiting on him and I’m it’s going to be okay it’s going to be okay cuz they know what they’re doing and they can see they tried so hard didn’t they?”
“The doctor’s desperate L persevered to save ree but he never regained Consciousness.”
“I think the hardest thing for us was leaving re in the hospital we didn’t want to go home and leave him there.”
“You couldn’t touch him he was he wasn’t yours anymore he was a he was a crime scene.”
“And we just went home in shock wey you know we just went home and we were just sitting in Lisa’s room and we couldn’t we just all started crying we couldn’t understand what happened.”
“At 6:00 the murder of an 11-year-old boy in Liverpool. He was shot by another youth on a BMX outside the fur tree PB in C he shot in the neck last night in cith on his way home from football practice. He died later in hospital police know who this killer is. This is not a time for silence do the right thing and turn them in.”
“As the shooting made headline news across the country there was stunned disbelief. Merys side police quickly mobilized determined to find the school boy’s killer.”
“It’s probably one of the largest murder investigations that Mery side police has run. The fact that we had no involvement uh and we as an innocent victim in the middle of all this you know the pressure was there to solve this offense and to bring the people or person responsible for to Justice.”
“There’s a large number of detectives who were deployed immediately onto it to conduct the outside inquiries you’ve got the incident room itself there a lot of search teams involved all the scientists crime scene investigators.”
“In the early stages of the murder investigation it was clear to the police that the shooting was Gang Related.”
“The estate the croor park estate itself um is about less than a mile from the old CER Council estate um we were aware that there was gangs in mainly the Old cther State.”
“You’ve got a situation in Liverpool 11 where in effect two Clos geographical locations which is croi and Norris green acept relateded in effect by one road and over the years there had been a number of incidents uh involving almost like conflict between these two groups which had escalated and had started to actually use guns.”
“We were aware of certain things that had gone on in the past you know between you know Nish green and Crocs with crew and stuff like that but you know we’ve never been a part of it we never witnessed any of it we just never thought that over spill onto you know our estate.”
“The whole scenario of the being gangs on the estate and young boys having guns just seemed a world away from the life that we were living.”
“I just couldn’t comprehend it I just I just wanted to understand I just wanted to know what had gone on why someone could shoot an 11y old boy cuz I knew that reys didn’t hang around with those those type of people you know all those mates were all just good lads.”
“The very next day Reese’s parents conducted a press conference pleading for Witnesses.”
“Someone knows who’s done it and I know people must be frightened but they’ve got a think that they can’t leave this killer out there it’s could be their son could be their brother next time cuz it’ll happen again if he’s not C it’ll happen again.”
“As Witnesses close to the scene came forward they described a teenage boy riding a bike.”
“There were three shots fired in total by the gunman on the night um the first one was aimed at two lads who were riding their bikes across the pub car park they then rode off on their bikes and he’s obviously tracked them uh aiming at the again and as f a second time that ballet struck Reese and then amazingly The Gun Man continued and fired a further shot the third shot still obviously tracking his intended target at that time even though clearly Reese had already fallen to the floor having been struck.”
“There was eyewitnesses who told us they seen the gunman uh but unfortunately none of those were able to identify him.”
“The police quickly obtained CCTV footage of the killer on his bike hoping it would help their investigation.”
“The significant piece of CCTV footage that we had and was used in this case was that taken from the P system itself uh that showed the Gun Man obviously approaching from the rear um and going to either side of the pub.”
“At that stage is clearly looking for his in victims you see him come back across the rear of the pub uh and he then comes out the other side which is at the point where he stood ASR his bike and fired his weapon three times.”
“When the gunman left the scene we knew that he’d driven through the cro with Parker State on his bike he’d crossed over F Drive North and was narrowly missed by uh passing traffic and across into Dam wood which is a wooded area that separ seates cworth Park and the old croor estate unfortunately it wasn’t that clear with regards to the face of the gunman but what it did give us um which is quite crucial was the actual dimensions of the bike.”
“As the killer made off with the gun the pressure was now on the police to locate the gunman bike and the murder weapon. It was important to identify the offender at an early stage. Obviously there’s a youth out there who’s armed could well use that gun again or himself could become a target for Retribution.”
“Reese Jones was shot in the neck on his way back home from playing football in croi Liverpool. The gunman fled the scene with the murder weapon. His mother Mel raced to the scene where she cradled her dying son in her arms. Reese Jones’s death shocked a nation. The local community was struggling to make sense of the tragedy.”
“Was just staying inside that you know cuz people were frightened uh people were frightened that it was going to happen again you know cuz know if it could happen to Reese it could out to absolutely anybody.”
“I think the circumstances of Reese being shot and killed created an element of Fear And rightly So within the community. People knew that we hadn’t arrested the offender.”
“You’ve got to put yourselves in the position of a parent living in that location and thinking that could have been my child you you do have an instinct to keep your children safe especially after something like that’s happened.”
“The streets around here were empty of kids. People on the estate were obviously very protective of their young children. It certainly change my view on where Shan could go and who he play with. I wouldn’t let him go two three streets away on his own if he was going around to his friends I’d drop him off there and I’d pick him up.”
“In the early stages of the murder investigation the police already had a prime suspect. Postings on a social networking site had already named one boy as the alleged killer 16-year-old sha Mercer.”
“You did hear teenagers saying things and obviously M’s name was all over the Internet that night.”
“Mercer a number of previous convictions only a small amount for relatively minor crime. There was an asbo Force against them at the time but he was well known to the local police as being one of the youths who caused trouble and he was related to the cocor C.”
“Reese was shot on the evening of Wednesday the 22nd of August. By the Friday what we had them was a number of pieces of information and intelligence that had come into us to suggest who the potential suspects were in this. By the Saturday so you’re talking 3 days after the murder of Reese a number of arrests were made. On the morning sha Mercer was arrested on that date with a lad by the name of Dean Kelly as was James Yates.”
“Mercer because we thought he was the gunman was put on identification parade and five witnesses who’d actually seen the gunman fired the gun across the car park were asked to attend that parade. None of them were able to identify Mercer as the gunman.”
“When merer was initially interviewed he gave a prepared statement through his solicitor which said he’d been in the company of Dean Kelly a friend of his at the relevant time. He also said in that statement that the two bicycles we recovered from his house on the Saturday morning were the only bikes that he had. None of those two bikes matched the bike that we’d seen on the CCTV of the offender.”
“The COC crew gang Clos ranks around Shawn Mercer. Even his mother Janette merer who was present at the police interview vouched for her son. At this stage in the investigation there simply wasn’t enough evidence to categorically prove Mercer was the murderer.”
“We know that if these people are going to try and you know cover the tracks and hide we know it’s going to be difficult. We know it’s going to be a long hard slug. We just thought well this you know we’re in for a long hul here.”
“There was an element of Silence around the actual offender but only carried out by the people who knew and assisted him at the relevant time.”
“With no actual eyewitness no murder weapon and no bike merys side police had no choice but to release Mercer and his accompli thises back into the community.”
“It was frustrating Latin mer ago everything at that stage was pointing towards him being responsible for the murder of Reese and we knew at that stage that it was going to be quite a long and protracted inquiry.”
“The name of the the offender is being mentioned in the community um and was quite widely known.”
“May specifically asked that we didn’t want to know any names uh from the onset is that you know cuz there was a lot of rumors going around there was a lot of you know uh the reasons why and how and stuff like that. Personally we didn’t want to know. We knew there was names being bed about but we didn’t want it out until La was actually charged.”
“But Rec as may we didn’t want it out. We had to get the evidence sufficient to charge and build an appropriate case to put before the Crown Court. We just can’t put people away whilst We Gather the evidence.”
“If you’re the Killer and you’re watching this turn yourself in. Similarly if you know who is the gunman or who put the gun in his hand do the right thing.”
“And I think if someone had have walked into a a police station and held a hand up and said you know I’m the person responsible or you know I’m in I’m in connection with it then you know it makes things a lot easier you know not only for the police but obviously us.”
“Thousands of mourners gathered at Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral for the funeral service of ree Jones. The murdered school boy was laid to rest.”
“With emotions running High the pressure was on merys side police to find the gun and the missing bike which would crucially link Shawn Mercer to the murder of Rees Jones.”
“In a desperate bid to uncover the Killer’s movements the police pressed on their intelligence to reveal more.”
“There was two calls made to merer before the murder of Reese and obviously what we would infer from that is that they were caused to say that the intended victim uh was in the area.”
“Police used Mercer’s phone logs and CC TV footage to establish the sequence of events around the time of the murder.”
“He left on his bike just after 6:00 and from there he went into the old cro estate where he he was captured on a number of CCTV cameras riding his bike and we believe he actually collected the gun that he used to kill Reese from James y’s girlfriend’s house on Croc the the St.”
“We established that the the offender having taken possession of the gun he then went and carried out the shooting obviously striking Reese in that process.”
“Following the shooting Mercer rode off to the home of a 15-year-old boy referred to as boy M.”
“We Believe merca chose boy M’s house for a number of reasons. A it was the closest of his associates to the croi park estate so he could get there quickly and get off the streets as quick as possible and also boy M was only 15 years old at the time and while not a member of the cworth crew he had been involved in gang activity. He was young he had behavioral problems himself and Mercer knew he could tell boy M what to do and boy M would do it.”
“It was from boy M’s house that merca hatched his plan. Merca made a series of telephone calls to his associates and effectively he called his gang members in to assist him and they helped by making plans to dispose of the the gun uh dispose of his clothing D him in petrol to get rid of any forensic evidence and also to get rid of the bikes.”
“It it’s a belief the petrol will dispose of any of the residue that’s discharged from a firearm when you’ve been in close proximity to it being fired.”
“But which of the croi crew gang members were involved? Melvin Koy age 24. He made a phone call to Mera about 22 seven informing him of the people being present from the opposing group. Gary K aged 24. He made a phone call to sha Mercer just before 10 7 to Aller him to the fact that members of the opposing group were in the area on the P car park. James Yates age 19. James Yates was an associate of um sha Mera and he had actually given the gun to Mera on the night in question.”
“Nathan Quinn age 16. He attended at the friend’s address with James Yates immediately in the aftermath of the shooting of Reese. Dean Kelly age 16. He’s a friend of Mercer um he was actually with at the time when Mercer was arrested 3 days after the murder of Reese.”
“Dean Cali at that point gave an alibi in effect for sure Mercer.”
“On the night of the murder Mercer Yates and Quinn got into Melvin Coy’s Ford Galaxy. They drove probably a mile and a half two miles to the Kirby industrial estate where Melvin Koy had access to a lock up and it was there that Mercer’s clothes were burnt and Mercer was cleansed of any Firearms residue using petrol.”
“And as a result of examining CCTV we were able to identify Melvin and Co Ford Galaxy entering the estate. We did execute a search warrant there um the only things of significance that we found in that lockup were three empty petrol cans.”
“Having quite clearly established Shawn merca’s movements the police needed to trace what had happened to the murder weapon.”
“As a result of intelligence that we’d received a warrant was executed at the home address of boy x um in the Loft. We recovered Smith and Wesson revolver a self-loading pistol and ammunition that fitted both of those guns.”
“The type of residue that was recovered by the forensic scientist from the gun matched the residue that was recovered from Reese’s football shirt that he was wearing at the time.”
“Boy x was arrested and interviewed. He gave us an account that Mercer had found him told him to come to boy M’s house uh went into the house and was confronted by Mercer who gave him the package and told him to take it back and hide it.”
“My boy x was petrified he felt intimidated by Mercer. Mercer called boy x um because he knew of him I knew him from the area uh but boyx was not a member of the same group that mer it was.”
“Box took the gun to his home address and he left it in the back garden and then on the Sunday another associate of the uh the main offender move that gun into the loft of Box’s address.”
“With such a crucial statement merys side police took the unusual decision to file an application with the crown prosecution service to offer boy x immunity.”
“The use of that legislation is very very rare and particular where a youth is concerned.”
“Witness testimony from boy x was a major part in the inquiry. The evidence was slowly mounting against merer and his gang.”
“As the police were waiting to hear back from the CPS they still needed to track down a vital missing piece of the evidence that would bring Mercer to Justice.”
“In August 2007 school boy ree Jones was gunned down by a teenage killer riding a bike. Merys side police arrested and questioned various youths from Liverpool’s notorious Crocker crew gang including Prime Suspect Shawn Mercer.”
“But despite having to release Mercer and his gang members as They carried out further investigation the police were quickly converting intelligence into evidence.”
“Having recovered the murder weapon the police were now awaiting approval from the CPS to see whether boy x would be granted immunity if he testified against Mercer.”
“But there was still the question of the missing bike.”
“The bike that Mercer had used we knew had gone back to his home address later that evening from witness accounts. But prom his home address we didn’t know where it had gone and it remained outstanding.”
“The police launched a fresh appeal to help trace the bike.”
“Following our press appeal a member of the public came forward and said that he’d been cycling himself in the Kirby area near to the industrial estate and he’d found the bike frame minus its wheels and taking it back.”
“Forensic examination of the bike revealed merca’s DNA on the bike itself.”
“M’s mother knowing that he had possession of that bike she deliberately misled the police during the search by saying that bikes that we recovered at the offender’s home address were the only bikes that he owned and she repeated that fact Jordan later police interview.”
“I can see it there’s a huge difference between even believing that her son had done it and actually deliberately lying during police interviews during the police search and quite clearly trying to frustrate the police investigation.”
“Said it wasn’t his bik we’ recovered the bike frame we’d recovered the gun and we had other witness accounts which basically blew M’s Alibi away and the whole state know all that remained was a decision from the crown prosecution service on boy x.”
“In April 2008 the CPS had made their decision.”
“When the Attorney General had made the decision that boy x was going to be offered immunity from prosecution within days we reinterviewed boyx obtained his witness account. He entered into the agreement with the crown prosecution service that he would give truthful evidence in return for the immunity from prosecution.”
“On the 15th of April 2008 merys side police arrested 14 people including sha merer James Yates Gary K Melvin Coy Dean Kelly Nathan Quinn and boy M and they were subsequently charged. Mera with the murder of Reese and the others with assisting him to dispose of evidence.”
“When merca was was arrested on the 15th of April he was interviewed again. He produced a prepared statement in which he denied any involvement in the murder of Reese and chose not to answer any further questions.”
“Gary K and Melvin Koy basically denied being involved in assisting Mercer. The others when they were interviewed there was a mixture of people choosing not to answer questions saying no comments as well as the roer crew gang members a number of adults were also arrested because we knew Janette mer had lied to us when she’d made witness statements saying that sh merer had only had the two bikes we’d recovered from the house and because she had possession of his mountain bike on the night of the murder a decision was made to arrest her.”
“He said at his house she denied any involvement.”
“Unless someone Tak him.”
“James yates’s parents Francis and Marie Yates were heavily involved in trying to assist Mercer and their own son.”
“We know that Francis umber Yates burnt a SIM card that the police failed to find when they searched James yates’s house and that was the SIM card that he’d been using at the time and that was crucial evidence.”
“I think it it was shocking so it’s like that the help that they gotten it wasn’t so much as you know mer and his his his mats this so like you know took him away whisked him away and DED him at the petrol you know got rid of evidence got rid of the bike and stuff like that but it’s it’s the adults that were involved with it as well.”
“Almost 14 months after ree’s murder the trial took place at Liverpool Crown Court. Sha merer pleaded not guilty throughout the trial.”
“Mercer and his six Associates were in the dock and frequently would laughing and joking not listening to what was going on and it was an 11 week trial and it was a terrible ORD deal for us to go through and to listen to and you’re scared to let your emotions out cuz you think if you if you do you’re never going to stop crying you’re never going to pull yourself together again.”
“I think it’s fair to say that the behavior of sha merer and all those people in the dock with him at that time um was Paul to say the least. This was all done in front of Reese’s mom and dad as well. I think that is unforgivable um but I also think it actually shows the type of people that we’re dealing with here.”
“The jury found merca guilty of the murder of ree Jones. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Mercy showed no remorse at all even when he was sentenced very little emotion on his face.”
“This destroys us destroys our life.”
“In order to get your head round things you need somebody to be charged you need somebody to be found found guilty. You’ve got to have a sentence that you feel reflects the enormity of of what they’ve done.”
“We got Justice for because as the sentencing goes you know sha Mesa got the maximum what he could get and in the eyes of the law we’ve got justice.”
“But I personally feel life should mean life. He should spend the rest of his life in jail. These people should realize that you know if if they’re going to go around firing gun and and murdering people then you know they should spend the rest of the life in in prison.”
“There does need to be change regarding GS and gangs but as a parent I don’t know the answers to that. I think the police and the politicians need to sort that out.”
“I like any other cop is going to sit here and say to you that we would like it to be no incident of gun crime but unfortunately there are firearms out there there are people who are prepared to use them.”
“Something needs to be done. It could start with tougher sentence and give the judges the uh the tools to do the job. Get these people off the streets you know uh get them to learn the lesson that you know if you’re going to get caught with a gun you’re going to end up with a with a hefty sentence and you know and make them save that sentence.”
“But Reese’s death would not be in vain.”
“We’ve set a charity up in re’s now it’s the ree Jones memorial fund um the charity is to raise enough money to build a much needed Community Center in cord Park where we live. Some way for all the kids to go keep them off the streets keep them busy give them an interest.”
“I work quite closely with Steve gag which is we do a we do a soccer competition each year uh for the kids fa to take part you know the the old Lads that re used to play football with and it’s it’s a really really good competition.”
“Reese just lived for football everything evolved around football and in terms of keeping Reese’s memory alive then the most appropriate way to do it is through football.”
“I just remember Reese’s being a really a really bubbly lovable lb. He just made you laugh. I just remember he’s smiling he was always smiling he was always laughing always joking around and he was always his most happiest when he was playing football.”
“April 1999 London in the UK was the center of an unprecedented terror attack.”
“I pull me head that and it was like full of blood and then I put me hand on me head and there was like stomach sticking at me head.”
“The blast just caught me.”
“A lone right-wing fanatic went on a oneman rampage killing three people and injuring hundreds.”
“I feel nothing. I did what I had to do.”
“Edia within a minute just turned like a war zone.”
“Left a trail of Destruction through the capital lasting 2 weeks making this a crime That Shook Britain.”
“Saturday the 17th of April Brixton Market South London was packed with weekend Shoppers and Traders.”
“I was at brickton Market because my friends had to go to work up there and I went with them to spend the day.”
“As miles McLoud helped his friend on the market store Paul mascal was managing his staff and customers in a supermarket just yards away.”
“I was just like the day-to-day managing of the store doing starroot as just normal everyday managing of a retail unit. It was coming to the end of the day it it was all looking forward to going home.”
“As Paul’s day Drew to a close miles and his friend waited for some extra trade.”
“Everyone else started packing up kind of early because some people didn’t have a good day but we was going to stay a little bit longer because we don’t have to be anywhere till early evening.”
“The bustling Market was still heaving with people when miles noticed something suspicious.”
“I walked down to go to the shop and then on on the way back I noticed the bag and I I let my friend know and my friend come over and started talk walking around a bag asking people if it was their bag and they said no so my friend goes to me pick it up.”
“Miles went to investigate unaware the contents of the bag would change his life forever.”
“So I picked out and then we walked around to Electric Avenue and we opened the bag and that’s when we noticed it was a bomb. I had to actually look twice cuz you could actually see the nails the tupperware box The batteries the wires and then you knew it was a an explosive device.”
“Brixton was still packed full of Shoppers all unaware of what miles and his friend had discovered.”
“I took it seriously straight away because I’ve never seen anything like that before. As soon as I’ve noticed and I’ve told my friends to get away and we started to stop people trying to go trying to get people away from it.”
“As miles attempted to alert people of the danger others were not so wary of the device in front of them.”
“Some people heeded the warnings others didn’t and one man in particular went up to the bag. It was a nice bag a head bag and took the device out of the bag and walked off with the bag.”
“The little gentleman what was on the fruit store picked the bomb up from there and put it next to the green bin next to Iceland. At this time day it was a joke still they thought it wasn’t real and they it got move it got moved three times me moving the bomb the bomb getting toen out the bag and then the bomb getting put next to I.”
“The makeshift bomb packed with nails and stuffed into a plastic box had been sat at Brixton market for over 30 minutes.”
“Hello.”
“The security guard come in and told me he felt somebody left a bomb outside. I couldn’t really take that serious and just carried on the phone call really and ignored him.”
“Could see that he was getting quite agitated about the the events that were going on outside. He come in and told me and more or less assisted that I go outside now and have a look to see what was going on out there and uh went outside and uh there there was a crowd of people gathering around.”
“We wasn’t sure what a bomb would look like. We we felt it would be like a big alarm clock with with orange sticks underneath it but this one turned out to be in a shoe box with a tupperware box on top of it.”
“Paul along with the crowd now Gathering wasn’t convinced the device was real.”
“The guy was pointing out to me that there was like nails in the top and he could see wise and he was convinced that was a bomb and and we should do something about it. So I thought the first thing I should do is is go and find the police while while the the security guard was was trying to keep people back not too many people that time were taking much notice of him and uh he was doing as best as he could trying to keep people back.”
“I’ve seen police across the road so I’ve run across the road. I told him there’s an explosive over there there’s a bomb over there and he got his notepad out and goes was your name and address.”
“I went inside the store phone the police they told me I should Evacuate the store and and keep people away. Yet again I I couldn’t really believe it was a bomb so I took no noes to the police and and didn’t Evacuate the the place and uh went outside saying this just can’t be a bomb and we got within a few feet of it and uh then it went off.”
“A terrifying explosion has devastated the heart of Brixton in London.”
“An explosion in South London has injured dozens of people. The blast in Brixton is being treated as a major incident.”
“A hold containing more than a thousand nails and deadly explosives had been planted near the crowded Market. The Metropolitan Police had been given no warning and no motive. They were dealing with a ruthless terrorist whose intention was to kill and maim.”
“Everything went completely black.”
“The explosion threw Paul maskal off his feet.”
“When I came to I was leaning against one of the freezes in the store and I thought i’ I’d wet myself and and I thought myself am I going to survive the day there where I wet my trousers and I put my head inside me trousers and I pull my head out and it was like full of blood and then I put my end on me head and there was like stomach sticking at me head and I just thought I just didn’t know what was going on there.”
“It was just Havoc everyone was running everywhere there was smoke glass it was it was bad there was phone calls coming in that there was a possibility that there was a bomb had been discovered in brickston near the Iceland store and uh just as the information was being relayed then there was a call to say that uh it had gone off.”
“It had gone off there was no warning there was no suggestion of trying to prevent it happening. It was just armed put down and uh um and the person that put it down just walked away um uh they had the time then they could have made a telephone call but there was no communication then it was just smoke dust and glass falling in brickton high road.”
“You got high high houses at the top of the shops and them windows got more affected than any and it was like it was like raining glass and dust.”
“There were more than a thousand Nails in the bomb and of course they cut into people. There were various people had lots of Nails in and in particular a little child had a 4in nail stuck in their skull.”
“Well the initial priori is obviously rescue and recovery of the injured people anything to do with the crime scene Waits until that’s all been done.”
“We’ve got the explosion the sight of the explosion the distance of where all the debris there was a damaged bus damaged vehicles that had some of the device inside them so potential evidence eyewitness accounts even those that weren’t seriously injured were able to tell us what was happening.”
“So as much as CCTV was recovered many of the systems were poorly maintained of poor quality and they were all different so to play back the different types of CCTV in itself was a headache but you are then looking eventually at the scene of the explosion to recover what you can because in most explosions not all of the device um is destroyed it doesn’t all vaporize um there are bits left to recover and parts of the device were recovered and that become a major part of one of the lines of the investigation.”
“Keith Pierce and his officers discovered that the bomb had originally been placed at a bus stop then moved three times before detonating outside the Iceland store. 50 people had been injured as a result of the blast. Remarkably no one was killed but officers needed to track down the ruthless culprit and fast.”
“The IAL pressure I suppose is that people want to get their Streets back open to normality the shops want to open again and people want to go about their business so the initial pressure is more localized.”
“There is obviously then a local government concern and a national government concern because bombing is still um a fairly rare occurrence in the UK so there is an issue about what it’s about.”
“One thing about bombings is that uh usually once somebody makes one they’ve done it for a purpose or a reason so it was it’s always thought that uh can there be another one?”
“There was a fear no one knew who was responsible but the feeling in the community was that this was something to do with race that brickson was associated with black people uh but the Hope was that it was a a one-off.”
“Within days underground right-wing group combat 18 came forward claiming responsibility. Police were Keen to stress they were looking into other lead S as well as this Theory.”
“Hundreds of hours of police time were spent scouring CCTV for any leads in a rush to find the bomber.”
“When you’re trying to find one person from a busy Saturday afternoon shopping with no particular lead and no one had identified who put the device down by then it took all of that week still following um the various cameras and the different angles to try and plot the movement of it. It’s a very very long day slow process.”
“But the days of painstaking detective work paid off when Keith Pierce and his colleagues finally spotted something crucial on the footage.”
“The Breakthrough came when a man was identified carrying a bag across his back and then after the explosion he was seen minus a bag. This was a major lead.”
“A lone figure cutting through the bustling crowd of Shoppers could be the key key to the investigation.”
“He was focused on early on but the quality of the pictures is nothing like you see today. It was all very grainy distant you could just about do the shade of black and white very hard but that was a key start for us.”
“7 days after the explosion the community of Brixton were trying to come to terms with the attack as officers tried to work on the image from CCTV they continued searching for Witnesses.”
“The key thing the following Saturday as in many crimes you go over it again um you have an anniversary event to try and find witnesses who may have been there.”
“As police searched for further Clues to the tragedy 5 miles across the city on Brick Lane Dr hack and her family were heading home.”
“We are coming returning to our North London home. As we are passing near that brickland suddenly we decided that to do some little shopping and to buy some Bengali newspaper.”
“At that time I was stopped by one of my patient and we are chatting. We parked our car on the brck lane and just before 6 as we are just about to return so we are about to just cross the road my husband was on the other side side.”
“Whole area was really in Dark Cloud that you could not see what is happening and my whole body was covered with the glasses PLS all the windows were broken smashed and you didn’t know what is happening.”
“We had a team in Brixton at the time around the 5:00 time to um try and Jog people’s minds and while that was happening uh over in Brick Lane we then had another phone call to say somebody thought that they may have found another device and at that same time when they were when the phone calls were being made a second device had gone off almost similar time a week later to the one that had gone off in brickton almost to the hour.”
“7 Days on from Brixton police were dealing with another terrorist attack. The explosion had ripped through the heart of the Asian community in East London injuring 13 people and causing severe damage to surrounding buildings.”
“That was really really horrific horrifying and really really I have never experienced like that in my life.”
“Early indications are that the device had gone off in the back of a car. So of course again one of the initial thoughts were was this the bomber with the device in a car that had gone off and so therefore did we have um either the bomber with the car or some evidence to be obtained from the car?”
“But we found out fairly early on that similar to the verse device people do strange things when they come across a bag with a bomb in it and uh we weren’t to be as lucky as finding the bomb in the bomber’s car it was in an innocent person’s car.”
“Police discovered that the device had again been moved by a concerned member of the public. The bomb had been left in a side street to Brick Lane.”
“A man had seen it there in a bag had picked it up opened it and uh seen again what looked like a bomb inside.”
“They thought it might have been a workman’s bag with tools it obviously wasn’t and it was obviously the event the week before so the person left it in his car closed the boot went off to try and find a police station to report he may have found something. And again just ironically when the phone calls are being made about uh I think I may have found a bomb in a bag it’s in the back of my car the bomb goes off so um people are injured again um by the blast but the blast is contained within a car but the car was totally destroyed so again just by chance less people are injured because a member of the public had put it in the boot of their car.”
“Keith Pierce and his colleagues were now looking for a Hardline terrorist someone waging a hate campaign targeting specific communities. But whoever the culprit was they weren’t giving anything away.”
“Yet again no warning and no motive had been given. It was clear with his second bomb in Brick Lane that what was happening was someone out to get the ethnic minorities. Brixton full of black people. Brick Lane usually full of Asian people. So here was a racist bomber or bombers and they were out to kill and M people and it was amazing that up till then no one had been killed.”
“The pressure was Mountain cuz this was almost a week later to almost the exact time. We’ve got a description from um the man who found it and put it in his car and had a look at it so that gave us a bit of an indication and because people aren’t every day making devices and setting off um explosive devices it was a good indicator that it was the same or similar device.”
“Then within the next few days you can start finding that as an evidential fact that they run the same manufactured type of device.”
“Police were fairly certain they were now dealing with the same bomber but with little to go on and with pressure mounting officers were in a Race Against Time to identify who was responsible.”
“Finally after sending the grainy image to Specialists they get their first major breakthrough.”
“I would wish to question this man who I’m asking people to identify.”
“The Metropolitan Police have released an image of the Most Wanted Man in Britain. A lone figure they believe is responsible for two terrifying explosions in London having attacked communities in Brixton and Brick Lane over two weekends. Officers are in a Race Against Time to catch the culprit before he strikes again.”
“With the pressure building up after the bombings on The Saturdays obviously there’s an obvious consideration is there going to be a third one on the following Saturday and hence that’s why we decided to go public with the photograph.”
“We had a fair amount of CCTV footage and it was considered could it be enhanced as you see on the television to get um a better quality. It was trying to get a picture that you could at least maybe someone may be able to recognize by just changing the the coloring and the shading and the shadow on the picture and a picture eventually was prepared for a press release.”
“Despite the poor quality police believed they had enough for a public appeal. This was now their number one suspect. The image was released to the media in an urgent bid for Vital Information. With The Weekend approaching there was widespread fear in the capital.”
“It was clear it was a a racist bomber and a and a Serial bomber so people were worried that uh there was going to be another attack a third attack and the fear was uh no no one knew where that was going to be and who was going to be attacked. This was the second Saturday were we then going to be facing something on the third Saturday?”
“Despite the grain equality officers hoped someone would recognize the man in the image with a slight build Blue Jacket jeans and baseball cap. His appearance was fairly ordinary but thankfully information started to come in.”
“Photograph generates a lot of calls that have to be followed up. Incident room you have to make a judgment call which have a higher priority than other calls so the pressure does Mount.”
“Could I have your number please?”
“Long hours of working knowing that you might be the one that’s going to make that breakthrough to find the suspect and um hopefully prevent it happening again.”
“It was released on the Thursday lunchtime following the bricklane bomb and the police had for all that time since brickton been trolling through the CCTV that they had and they struck lucky eventually because he was wearing a white baseball cap from his pattern so far off officers had reason to believe the terrorist would strike again in 2 days time.”
“If no information came forward from the public they faced their third disaster in 11 days.”
“During the course of the Friday we had an incident room running because of the public appeal and there were many many phone calls coming in.”
“Police were inundated with calls from people desperate to help as officers followed up possible leads.”
“One particular call caught their attention at about 5:25 was from a man who said that he worked with somebody that he thought was the person in the photograph. It’s very vague and but he named him as David Copeland he identified um where he lived and um he based it on the fact that he worked with him.”
“David Copeland was 22 and from middle sex, one of three boys from a middle class family. His mother was a nurse and father an engineer. On paper there was nothing really to suggest he was going to carry out such crimes.”
“He just seemed to be a loner left school I think the expression was as if he was invisible. He wasn’t remembered by many people. He had no girlfriends he didn’t really have any friends at all.”
“He had an inferiority complex at school he was bullied. It was during his adolescent years that cracks began to appear. He was in his mid teens already a racist and he tried to avoid uh any contact with any racial minority uh and he’ also developed a taste for violence not he was a little violent himself particularly when drunk.”
“He had three convictions they were sort of Fairly minor one was for criminal damage one for assault on a neighbor and one for taking something away without paying for for it.”
“Other than his Petty crimes Copeland managed to stay off the police radar moving to London after leaving school to work as an engineer on the underground rail network.”
“He worked with his father and the father when he’d been presented with the photograph of Copeland in the newspapers by workmate. The father saw the photograph the workmate said that looks like David your son David and the father said no it couldn’t be couldn’t be it doesn’t look like him and anyway he always wears a dark baseball cap he hasn’t got a white baseball cap.”
“But Copeland’s colleague had his doubts and contacted police. Officers now had a firm lead and had to respond quickly. Meanwhile across town Gary Reid Was preparing for a night out.”
“On the day that it happened it was a day off for me and a beautiful day was the beginning of a bank holiday weekend. I’d had a sort of a lion and I thought I’ll walk into town see what see what’s going on.”
“As Gary set off for the heart of London Tommy Douglas was heading into Soho.”
“We traveled to the West End walked around the corner he was very busy and know every be happy enjoying myself typical B called you know AB Duncan opened it shuts.”
“I had originally intended to wander around uh and have a look at some of the theaters and then sort of wind myself home through the back way.”
“I’d heard of the Admiral Duncan I think I’d been there once wasn’t the most favorite place in the world but it was open and um there weren’t too many people in it and I thought I’ll go in for a half.”
“The Admiral Duncan in the center of Soho was starting to get busy for the bank holiday. As Tommy Gary Nick and Friends ordered drinks Keith Pierce and his officers were desperately trying to find more crucial information about their number one suspect.”
“Paul mood gave them Copeland’s name said he was fairly sure that he was the bomber uh and gave a telephone number for where he was living uh the trouble was the person in within BT who could check an address against the landline telephone number he’d gone off for the weekend.”
“The police pressed the urgency of this matter on BT and the person was contact acted at home had to come back in to find an address and it was through that that uh the police went to arrest him.”
“As officers quickly gathered intelligence revelers at the Admiral Duncan began to enjoy their weekend.”
“It was quiet but the music was going in the background and as I said that open up the whole front so there was a warm breeze there were people chattering yeah it was a you know a nice atmosphere a great so anyway.”
“As the pub started to get busier one of the bar workers noticed something suspicious.”
“Someone started looking at the bag and wondering about it and one of the people working behind the bar even in fact looked over the bar down at the bag and was about to inquire whose bag it was um as a result of the security briefing they’d been given.”
“The first ink cling I got of of anything wrong was a feeling of first of all was complete and utter silence. No noise at all gone from a bar where there was chattering there was noise there was music complete and utter silence.”
“I remember a lady I remember looking up at her but she had a red ber on and she caught me before I fell. So I was in in her arms and I was looking up at her and I could see her mouth opening and closing and I sure she was crying and I could tell she was screaming but couldn’t hear you know couldn’t hear a thing.”
“Couldn’t move my boy I felt I was kneeled to the floor. People have spoken of individuals being thrown 30t by the force of the blast and when I went to move anything at all it was from the waist down was was complete pain.”
“When this particular bomb went off it destroys the bar where it’s near it brings down the roof it blows the walls out and then sucks the walls back in so they’re all over the place. People are sitting near the device in fact two men are killed and a pregnant woman.”
“I believe that this is linked to the other cardly attacks that have occurred in London over the last few days.”
“Despite a nationwide appeal the terrorist had struck a third time. The device tore through Soho causing the biggest Devastation so far.”
“Well I had seen it on television and then mahaz said all this lots of people in Landon that it won’t be him but then he was a bit concerned and we hadn’t heard. We tried his mobile phone and he wasn’t answering it.”
“A nail bomb went off tonight in a crowded Pub in central London. The third such explosion in the capital inside a fortnite. The target a gay P the Admiral Duncan in Soho’s Old Compton Street. Two people died tonight when a nail bomb ripped through a packed Pub in central London.”
“A terrifying explosion has torn through a pub in SoHo. Of those caught in the blast one victim is Jeremy Moore’s brother Nick.”
“My father rang me at about halfast 6 7:00 in the morning and said I think you better come down. You’re really at that stage you’re just in a sense of shock and disbelief. It can’t happen to us why why would it happen to us?”
“Jeremy’s brother Nick Moore and his friend Andrea Dykes were killed in the blast. Andrea was 3 months pregnant and her husband Julian was seriously injured. Their best man at their wedding John light also died in the explosion. 142 people’s lives have now been devastated by the bombers terrifying campaign.”
“People are walking wounded and severely injured by the blast and the bar itself is now um becoming unstable to be in because of the nature of the Blast has made it um the roof is coming down and it’s very unsafe and obviously all people want to do is get outside.”
“And there were quite sort of some iconic pictures of people then just sitting on the pavement and being tended by their friends or passers by while they’re waiting to be um treated by the ambulance.”
“It’s a frustration for us that it happened. It was always a concern that when we went public would it cause um would it cause the bomber to stop or would it change the um the timetable so that stage three Bombs all uh aimed against minorities blacks Asians and homosexuals.”
“The fear was really increasing cuz people did wonder in the minority groups whether it was going to be getting too hot for the bomber in London with all the police activity that the bomber or bombers would be moving to other cities to do bombings there.”
“The terrorist had waged his hate campaign over three weekends. All attacks had been in the capital but now the rest of the UK was on high alert. Whilst the Metropolitan Police were dealing with the devastation a team of officers were scrambling to catch the killer.”
“On that evening a phone call came into the office and we were told to go down to Hampshire once we got the information about the yard being interested in this bit of information we went to the door. It just felt like forever that we were knocking banging there was not just we weren’t just knocking at the door we were knocking on Windows.”
“A lady came to the door who obviously was in a very deep sleep.”
“David Copeland live here?”
“We asked whether David Copeland lived at the address um and she said well there’s a David at the address but I don’t know what his surname is.”
“So we had walked up the stairs myself and two colleagues knocked on the door there was a reply from me who is it? We identified ourselves as police officers.”
“What do you want?”
“I said we wanted to speak to David Copeland.”
“Is that you? What do you want to talk about?”
“And I said well if you open the door I’ll um I’ll tell you. And sort of half expecting the door not to be opened and then I could hear some movement and a bang inside the address and with the information that we sort of had with them being interested and somebody been called David in the address and then the adrenaline sort of started flowing a little bit. The door then opened and standing in front of us was David Copeland definitely the person that was on the video wearing nothing but a pair of blue tracksuit bottoms. Then got in and arrested him straight away for the bombings at brickton Brick Lane and the one in the evening at Soo.”
“And straight away without any prompting he said yeah they’re all down to me I did them by myself.”
“David Copeland didn’t resist arrest and surprised officers with his immediate admission of guilt. But as they searched his bed said they discovered evidence that revealed his extreme beliefs.”
“Straight away behind was a big red black and white Nazi flag on the wall and next to that were cutouts of magazines or photographs of other bomb scenes of people with injuries and results of bombs with a whole raft of pictures on the walls.”
“Alarmingly his sickening Shrine also included pictures from the devastation he’d caused in London.”
“He said that there was 2 lers of nitrate which didn’t mean to me but bearing in mind he just admitted that he was the bomber there had to be something to do with explosives and there were some firework boxes underneath the bed that was an obvious risk so I spoke to one of my colleagues and said look you’re going to have to um Evacuate the the the houses nearby.”
“Copeland had purchased large boxes of fireworks taking out the gunpowder for his devices. He’d also heavily armed himself. Officers found a crossbow and gas powered pistol in his room.”
“He was rushed back to London for questioning where he freely discussed his reign of terror.”
“Here is Copeland’s actual police interview shockingly he reveals why he planted the bomb in SoHo the day before.”
“First afternoon when I open the radio there you I mean they got pictures of me.”
“Where were you at this point?”
“Sorry.”
“One of the shops.”
“As he left the shop he saw a copy of the evening standard which had a photograph photographs of the suspect bomber on the front page. He saw that it was him and he knew or felt that he was close to being captured.”
“Gone home back to far and I thought I was going to be you know I mean gra Thursday afternoon that’s right yeah.”
“So you want to ride home in far about what time?”
“I sorry I got back about 9:00 8 9:00.”
“And you expected what to be arrested immediately you waiting for me so you stayed in in the room?”
“I went in packed my bag left.”
“Despite his picture being in most of the national newspapers and a Manhunt involving seven forces up and down the country Copeland was determined to continue his bombing campaign.”
“He stayed in the capital and brought forward his next attack. This time targeting the gay community.”
“He wanted to bring the country to the boil which I have to say he was very close to doing and getting all communities um up in arms.”
“He walked into the PB carrying the device and it was already armed as the other two had always been armed when he was carrying them but he changed his appearance he no longer had the dark jacket or the baseball cap he now just had jeans on and a white T-shirt.”
“A lot of the bars and places have been visited with security about being aware of unaccompanied bags being left lying around but the unfortunate thing in the pub in question many people had put down sports bags and Ruck sacks. They were having a a nice time it was a nice early evening.”
“That’s what was the only empty spot at the bar. I went out to get a drink and as I slips off my shoulder and put it on the floor.”
“During all of the times that we had dealings with Copeland he showed no remorse for any of the injuries or any of the deaths. He thought it was a means to an end. The only time he asked about any think was about this brat whizzer how was whizzer being looked after?”
“I feel nothing. I don’t feel sadness but I don’t feel Joy. I did what I had to do.”
“Are you sorry?”
“I’m sorry for the woman the child I think the woman was pregnant. I feel sorry for her but I don’t feel no guilt for the others.”
“Copeland gloated over his actions and showed little remorse during his 4-Hour interrogation.”
“Murder mayem chaos damage you get on the news it’s top story right personally I wanted to get called. Why be famous if no one remembers who you were? You never existed.”
“During his lengthy interview Copeland also revealed the circumstances leading up to the attack on Brick Lane.”
“Why bricklin?”
“It’s like it’s like uh the heart the Asian Community I don’t like them. I want to about this country. I’m a national socialist Nazi whatever you want to call me.”
“There was speculation that the bomber could have intended it for the bricklane market but maybe assuming that the market took place on the Saturday. In fact it didn’t take place on a Saturday it was on a Sunday. If it had gone off at the time of the market then it really would have caused much more in the way of injury.”
“Copeland also held strong beliefs about the brickton community.”
“I presumes it was at the heart of the black community, right? Presume the brick L was the heart of the Asian community, right?”
“I doly say that the white race is the master race.”
“There was no doubt the bomber held extreme views. Police were Keen to establish whether he had acted alone in his hate campaign and did uncover a dark past connecting him to right-wing organizations.”
“He got involved in extreme right-wing groups like uh the BNP and uh a Hitler love group called the National Socialist movement. He become the southern unit leader of that group. They worship Hitler as well as all that he got involved in groups that believe in Christian identity and that is uh people who believe that white Europeans are the chosen race and everyone else is inferior.”
“The Daily Mirror had been given a photograph of Copeland at a BNP demonstration in 1997. Showed him standing next to the then leader John Tindle of the BNP and the anti-fascist groups had attacked this meeting and missiles have been thrown. People had been injured there was Copeland next to the leader of the BNP.”
“The BNP at that stage weren’t providing him with any action so he drifted away from them. We knew he’d had some connections with some right-wing organizations as they like to put it but none of those had any connection with Copeland um Copeland had had some association with him but there was no other involvement. There was no other um Witnesses or evidence either from the CCTV or witnesses that um had been involved you know with him making the devices um he told us early on that he’d made them by himself. He’d learned it from the internet.”
“I’m responsible, right? Just you just me me. Are you trying to hide anyone else? Anyone else’s involvement in it? No. Sure? 100% positive.”
“Copeland was adamant he had acted alone but officers were Keen to establish where he got his information on explosives from and how he had created such devastating devices.”
“The devices he made were quite crude but as We Know crew devices can still be deadly. He adapted the component parts that you can find in um Fireworks um Orit that he bought them in large numbers.”
“Copeland spent hours sourcing materials and testing his makeshift devices seemingly unfazed by the danger to him or his neighbors.”
“Got everything you want?”
“All of the items that he made he used for the component parts he bought in any shop that you and I can go to.”
“What did you practice this thing this?”
“In my bedroom.”
“What did you set off?”
“Small tiny tiny little bits at a time.”
“Anywhere in particular in your room?”
“S on my desk.”
“Did it leave a mark on the desk?”
“Lo marks on the desk any particular desk or there’s one desk it’s a dresser all saying how did you ignite these little bits?”
“Of cigarette lights.”
“They were just wires powder nails for shenel a box to put them in a bag to carry them in connecting them up and he used a simple um clock.”
“Copeland led a one-man trail of Destruction through the capital of the UK.”
“David Copeland on the three counts of murder and three of causing explosions how do you plead guilty or not guilty?”
“Guilty.”
“The public must be protected from you and assured that if you are ever released it will not be for a very long time. I sentence you to six life sentences, three for murder and three for causing explosions in Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho. Officer take him down.”
“14 months after the London nail bombers Campaign Of Terror six life sentences were passed down to him with a recommendation he should spend a minimum of 35 years in prison. Despite severing connections with right-wing organizations we will never know how much they influenced his beliefs.”
“It was a senseless crime and I don’t think we we will never get over it. It’s there’s not many days go past without some remembering some looking out the window and thinking of my brother.”
“But the way we we have sort of coped with this is the the love and the friends that we’ve actually made through this tragedy.”
“I thought I was dead. I said I must be going to heaven and then the next thing I woke up in St Thomas’s Hospital. Man is to two legs.”
“David Copeland has not achieved his aims of Fame and power. Today’s verdict prove his proves he is a dangerous pathetic nobody who is now where he belonged.”
“When I thought about what he’d done to my parents and to the people that had Lov me what he put them through um when I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth to life that’s when I got you know I got quite angry at him then.”
“The rest of the time when I went to his trial um saw how pathetic he was um what a waste of a life his I was dealing with him by letter.”
“It was clear that he was proud of what he’d done and he really thought that this that he would was going to be the spark that would cause racial conflict and and eventually that would lead to the installation of some extreme right-wing government. He really believed this.”
“I went back to Brixton and I I just couldn’t cope with the the pressures of that place anymore uh they put me into a different store. I couldn’t cope with the pressures of that one I couldn’t cope with everyday life issues uh and eventually I I got retired on the ground of ill health.”
“I don’t even think of him at all. I’m very very pleased that he’s locked up and he’s you know and I surely to God he won’t be lit out.”
“Everybody’s got their life to live and how they live it and who they are was up to them as you don’t kill people for being what they are.”
“I think the brid will have a right to I can help it. I have to do it. I’m not going to sit here lie to you but you know they dead they’re dead. I feel nothing.”
“Terrorism fear to terrorize people.”
“David Copeland the young fanatic who wor shed Adolf Hitler and planted nail bombs across London is in Broadmore tonight starting six life sentences. He may never be released.”
