Basil and Avril Laitner’s day was filled with happiness. They watched their eldest daughter get married, and they spent the early evening at the reception, in a marquee tent in their back garden. When they waved their daughter and new son-in-law off on their honeymoon, they had no idea a stranger was watching too. The Laitners’ dream day was about to turn into their worst nightmare…

During September 2012, Dale Cregan opened fire on two unarmed police officers. After killing them both, he handed himself in at a local police station. His arrest ended a nationwide manhunt to find him, as he was also wanted in connection with the murders of a father and son in Greater Manchester. Along with Dale Cregan, nine other men would be charged in connection with the murders of PC Nicola Hughes, PC Fiona Bone, and Mark and David Short… (Part 2 of 2).

On Tuesday, September 18, 2012, PC Nicola Hughes and PC Fiona Bone arrived at a property in Abbey Gardens, ten miles east of Manchester City Centre. They were answering a routine call… (Part 1 of 2). 

After his release from prison in 1970, Roy Fontaine had accepted a job at Whittingham Hospital, and he was staying at a prison hostel nearby in Preston. Under the watchful eye of staff, Roy carried out his duties as the hospital porter. While waiting for his boyfriend, David Barnard, to get parole, Roy Fontaine started a fling with one of his co-workers, Mary Coggle. Roy used his leisure time, before the prison hostel curfew, to visit an RAF drinking club. While there, he began talking to Hazel Patterson, a well-liked widow who owned a newsagents… (Part 2 of 2).

To ensure his brother couldn’t lift his head above the water, Roy held it under for a moment as the last of the air left Donald’s lungs. As Roy and Michael stepped back from the bathtub, they patiently waited. After five minutes, Donald’s body bobbed to the surface… (Part 1 of 2).

Between 1975 and 1980, The Yorkshire Ripper used the North of England as a hunting ground. He spread fear not just in Yorkshire, but across the entire country. The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, killed thirteen women and attacked eight others. But before his capture, police were duped by a recording and three letters sent by a hoaxer. The voice on the tape claimed that he was the serial killer. This false evidence would derail the investigation and divert attention away from the real culprit. Police would later discover the recordings were made by John Humble. For over a quarter of a century, the answer to the question, Who is “Wearside Jack”, would remain unanswered, and John would lead detectives on a wild goose chase that may have cost three women their lives…

David Smith, a former member of the SAS, was due to receive a large sum of money as a company he owned was being sold. David and his partner, Elizabeth, were excited as the windfall meant they could buy their dream home and permanently move in together after a committed long-distance relationship. Life appeared to be going well. That was until Elizabeth suddenly fell ill. She was assessed by doctors and consultants, who broke the news that Elizabeth was likely suffering from the early onset of motor neurone disease. But not everything was as it seemed. Sometimes the sweetest lie is easier to swallow than the bitter truth…

Richard Buckland had spent the last three months in a jail cell. The 17-year-old had confessed to the brutal rape and murder of teenager Dawn Ashworth. A similar death had occurred nearby, three years before…

Alan Turing had served his country during the second world war, decoding Nazi communications at Bletchley Park. After the war, he moved north to work at Manchester’s Victoria University and purchased a property called “Hollymeade”. Near the end of 1951, Alan Turing met 19-year-old Arnold Murray… (Part 2 of 2).

Two police detectives arrived at Hollymeade, the home of a faculty member at Victoria University in Manchester. Alan, the occupant, had reported a burglary after a handful of trivial items had been stolen. The detectives did not dispute what Alan was telling them, and they believed the items were almost certainly taken. But they were not there to discuss a petty theft. They were there because while investigating the burglary, they uncovered evidence that led them to believe Alan was gay. In 1952, engaging in homosexual activity was illegal. Like many gay men at that time, he was arrested and faced charges of gross indecency, which could result in a prison sentence. At his trial, he pled guilty, was placed on probation, and made to undergo chemical castration, which would reduce his capacity to be sexually aroused. The hormonal treatment was gruelling and the side effects severe. The detectives who arrested Alan had taken his fingerprints and his photograph, but were unaware of the monumental impact he had on Britain during World War II. On the high end, some estimate the lives he saved at fourteen million, and his efforts were said to have shortened the war by two years. But two years after his conviction, Alan would be dead... (Part 1 of 2).

Olivia was woken up around 3:30 am on December 30, 1999, by the sound of something crashing to the ground. She prodded her husband awake. She was sure that somebody was in the house. She jumped out of bed and ran to lock the bedroom door. George, her husband, was wide awake now. He got up, put on his boots, before manoeuvring past his wife and making his way down the dark staircase. When he reached the bottom floor, he felt the cold December air coming in through a broken kitchen window. Amongst the shattered glass was a broken piece of a statue of St Michael that was usually kept in the conservatory. He went to another room and smelt cigarette smoke in the air. Someone was in the house. He decided to return to his wife upstairs, but by this time she made her way to the living room, which adjoined to their bedroom. She was calling for help. They could hear someone downstairs walking on the broken glass. What was going to happen to them, and who exactly was in their house?…

John Cooper was an unassuming man. He claimed to suffer from a frozen shoulder and near-debilitating arthritis. But John was living a double life…

A dangerous prisoner escapes from custody.  The events that unfolded are what worst nightmares are made of…

Monday, August 23, 2010. Officers from the central London police force visited the home of Gareth Williams at his top-floor flat on Alderney Street in Pimlico, London. Gareth had been working as a communications officer at the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham. The cypher and codes expert was seconded to the secret intelligence service headquarters on the bank of the Thames, around half a mile from his home. When Gareth didn’t turn up for work, his colleagues made attempts to track him down; however, when that failed, the authorities were notified. Police arrived at Gareth’s home, and after receiving no response, they broke down the front door of his flat. They spotted a mobile phone and SIM cards laid out on a tabletop. As they entered the bathroom, they noticed a large red North Face sports bag in the bath. They unzipped the padlocked bag, and Gareth’s decomposing body was found inside. But how did it get there? Did Gareth lock himself inside, or had he been murdered and his body placed there?…

On the evening of Friday, February 3, 2017, 95-year-old Denver Beddows and his 88-year-old wife, Olive, received a visit from their son and daughter-in-law at their semi-detached home in Woolston. Denver, or Charles to those that knew him, had been struggling to care for his wife of 65 years, as she had been involved in a car accident which had left her increasingly anxious. Both her physical and mental health had been deteriorating, and, in turn, this put an increasing strain on her husband. Denver’s son and his daughter-in-law left the property once they helped their father with the household chores. Less than twenty-four hours later, Denver would be in police custody, and his wife would be lying in a critical condition after being attacked with a hammer…

On June 30, 2003, a 14-year-old girl was found stabbed to death behind a wall on Roan’s Dyke Path, a countryside short-cut in Dalkeith, Scotland. The investigation into her death continued for nine months with little result, but all that would change in April 2004… (Part 2 of 2).

On the morning of Wednesday, December 8, 2004, a jury stepped on to a bus to travel from Edinburgh High Court to Roan’s Dyke Path, a countryside short-cut between the residential areas of Newbattle and Easthouses in Midlothian, Scotland. Wilted sunflowers, stuffed bears, candles and tributes marked the spot of a horrendous tragedy. A year prior, this countryside trail was the location where a 14-year-old girl was brutally murdered... (Part 1 of 2).

Scotland in the 1960s saw two murders, with each case centred around a complex love triangle. Even though the motives and methods of these crimes were strikingly similar, the outcome was very different…  

John Frederick Perry had been through a messy divorce and now found himself living alone with his cat, Katie, in the village of Higher Kinnerton in North Wales. John had saved up some money and decided to treat himself to a three-week holiday to Manila in the Philippines. On his travels, he met a young woman who he went on to marry. From the outside, it appeared that everything was going well, but John began to get jealous of the male attention his much younger wife received… 

Jennifer and June Gibbons were twins. They would shut themselves away in their bedroom, not coming down for meals, and even when they did, they would barely acknowledge their family. All this changed in the summer of 1981, but their actions would lead them to the gates of Broadmoor psychiatric hospital and a cocktail of antipsychotic medication… (Part 2 of 2).