‘I’ve seen people running that way and I’ve gone back in to try and help people …’ ibid. Chris Parker to TV crew
Amid the horror, for the media there was a hero: Chris Parker, the homeless man who had gone back into the arena to help the injured and dying. ibid.
The CCTV showed Chris Parker stealing a credit card from a badly wounded woman and a mobile phone from a 14-year-old girl. He ignored incoming calls from her relatives desperate to find out if she was alive. ibid.
A quiet road in Cobham, Surrey … But this Friday in June 2009 was different because at this house the wheelie bin was different: ‘The bin was too heavy. The rubbishmen refused to remove it, then the landlords turned up, and on his way out he looked at the bin and he saw a foot sticking out the top.’ As word spread of the discovery, police asked if anyone could remember the woman who lived at the house. Melanie Wallner, aged 30. It was while working at this exclusive hotel in Surrey she met the chef – Peter Wallner recently arrived from Germany. ibid. dude
Peter Wallner told different stories to different people. ibid.
‘His solution is to put her out with the rubbish. And he thinks that because the rubbish is collected mechanically that she will be tipped into the garbage disposal, probably crushed, end up on a landfill and no-one would be any the wiser. And that so nearly could have happened.’ ibid. Kerry Daynes, psychologist
The former television weather man Fred Talbot has been found guilty of seven charges of indecent assault on teenage boys … Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e3: Talbot & Thompson
Fred the weatherman, famous for leaping around a floating map on ITV’s This Morning, was jailed for five years … Fifteen cases would go to court … ibid.
After years of obstruction and non-cooperation Fred Talbot finally and for the first time pleaded guilty. Fred Talbot was given an additional eight months bringing his total sentence to just under ten years. ibid.
Carlisle June 2015: At midnight a teenager lies amongst the gravestones. He screamed out for help before being murdered. But it would not be until the following morning that his body would be discovered. The victim was Jordan Watson aged 14. ibid.
Very soon the police had a suspect: George Thompson, 18 … Police found traces of blood on one of the knives in his bedroom, and the glove at the cemetery contained Watson’s DNA. ibid.
For the first time ever, analysing the words and actions of Britain’s most prolific serial killer: the moment Harold Shipman appeared paralysed by fear. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e4: Harold Shipman
For the leading QC who put him behind bars: ‘At no stage in those six days of cross-examination did I detect any sense at all of regret on his part or for anything he’d done.’ ibid.
The biggest mass murder in British criminal history. Hundreds killed by one man, a local GP Harold Shipman. A position he believed gave him power over life and death. ibid.
But his power was draining away. Linking Mrs Grundy to local drug dealers was wrong and desperate. ibid.
A mystery unsolved for 33 years: Yianoulla Yianni. An amazing breakthrough. And the lies that exposed the killer … January 2016: In North London a man [James Warnock] is questioned by police … ibid.
Yianoulla Yianni was seventeen years old … ‘He decided to come up with a cock-n-ball story of how the two were having a secret affair …’ ibid. Kerry Daynes, psychologist
In an unrelated investigation, in January 2016 police arrest a local man – James Warnock, aged 56. His DNA is a direct match for DNA retrieved at the crime scene. ibid.
‘The girl. I knew her. The poor girl that got murdered, I knew her … We hit it off really big time …’ ibid. Warnock
Warnock’s face and ears start to give him away … ‘His cheeks and nose are increasing in redness’ … Then, arms and shoulders betray him too.’ ibid. Cliff Lansley
He killed their child then moved in on the family. The bus driver who hijacked the search for an eight-year-old boy … The judge described his actions as truly wicked. He killed their son, now he was manipulating the family. The leader and incredibly the lodger. On a May bank holiday in 1997 passengers on a Manchester bus noticed something unusual – a small boy alone being allowed by the driver to do anything he liked. The boy is Jamie Lavis, eight-years-old; the driver, Darren Vickers. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e5: Darren Vickers & Jordan Matthews
‘How does he know that he was the last person to see Jamie alive?’ ibid. Kerry Daynes, psychologist
It was his TV experiences that would seal his fate. ibid.
Cardiff, August 2016: Detectives are investigating the death of a young woman, a foreigner named XiXi Bi, aged 24. The prime suspect her partner, Jordan Matthews, also 24. ibid.
We see no remorse. We don’t see any anger. And there’s no indication of emotion here. Is he a psychopath? ibid. Cliff Lansley, body language expert
He had stalked Shana Rice for months. A murder investigation with only one suspect … Aged 19, Shana Grice had been discovered dead in her bedroom. What had happened would lead to a major investigation into the conduct of one of Britain’s most prominent police forces and a revision of the nation’s laws on stalking. At work she met Michael Lane, a mechanic aged 26. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e6: Michael Lane & Danny Shepherd
‘Michael Lane had something of a track record of obsessive behaviour towards women, particularly younger women.’ ibid.
An emergency dash to hospital. An infant death. Under questioning, what the suspect says and what the suspect doesn’t say. In April 2016 in a seaside town a call was made to the emergency services. A five-month-old baby had stopped breathing. His name was Eli Cox. Neighbours heard screams and rushed to help. Inside the house were Eli’s mother Catherine Cox and her partner, Danny Shepherd … Shepherd had shaken him violently and hurled him into his cot. ibid.
The TV actress, the partner and the cover up. London, October 2013: at 12.46 a working mother is messaged from home. Then her mobile phone rang … It was the tragic end to the story of Ellie Butler, a little girl who had endured abuse at the hands of a violent, unstable father; her weak and terrified mother let it happen. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e7: Ben Butler & John Cooper
September 1985: a fire destroys a manor house near Milford Haven. Inside were Richard Thomas and his sister Helen. Both had been murdered. The police believed an armed intruder targeted the house thinking Helen was alone. When her brother came home, the gunman, fearing he’d be recognised, panicked and fired. ibid.
‘He [Cooper] is violent, he is sadistic, far far removed from the person you see in public.’ ibid. Kerry Daynes
Weeks later in June 1989 Cooper continued to believe he would get away with his crime by striking again, and once again striking close to home. This time the victims were Oxfordshire couple Gwenda & Peter Dixon. ibid.
We had 45 officers on that initial investigation and immediately we recovered vast amounts of stolen property. Property from these previous burglaries, some dating back 15 years or more. ibid. rozzer
Murder in the family [Beck Watts] : one teenage victim, two prime suspects. The dark secret that points to guilt … When she disappeared, her tablet, laptop and mobile phone were missing too. And at the same time all her online activity ceased. In a massive search that quickly went global, detectives were deeply suspicious about what was happening close to home. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e8: Nathan Matthews & Shauna Hoare
The fingerprint in Becky’s blood belonged to Nathan Matthews … His bizarre confession and his desperate attempts to get his partner off the hook … They found CCTV of Matthews buying gloves, a facemask and a circular saw. ibid.
Now in her third interview, Shauna Hoare was under pressure and struggling … ‘She’s pointing the finger severely at her partner.’ ibid. Cliff Lansley
‘I am convinced that Hoare is the architect of the act of killing Becky Watts.’ ibid.
Four deaths all very similar. The killer who remarkably went undetected for months. And the body language that proved his lies. A serial murder case that would rock Britain’s police force. Four men dead on the streets of London. A prime suspect the police knew all about. And how body language betrayed his guilt. ibid.
‘The police were more incompetent than he was.’ ibid. Kerry Daynes, psychologist
Death on the beach. A young wife killed, her husband wounded but is he faking it? … August 2002 a young married couple went on a late-night walk … April and Justin Barber … Right from the start Barber’s story was suspicious. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e9: Justin Barber
‘A two-million-dollar insurance policy might be the solution to all his problems.’ ibid. Kerry Daynes, psychology
Justin Barber claimed he’d tried and failed to stop the mystery gunman from shooting April. In the struggle he said he’d only just escaped with his life. ibid.
Police recreate the last moments of two little brothers. Their mother’s story. It would take six minutes for the car to sink with the boys inside: Michael & Alexander. It was a story that gripped the world. Michael Smith, aged 3, and his brother Alexander, 18 months, had disappeared both reportedly in the backseat of a hijacked car. ibid.
Expecting her first child but then Laci Peterson disappears. Her husband said he’d gone fishing. But is he faking it? Secret phone calls, a secret lover. The missing person: Laci Peterson, aged 27. Laci’s husband, Scott Peterson, aged 30. The 911 call was made not by Laci’s husband but by her step-dad. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e10: Scott Peterson & Stephanie Lazarus