In a school in Pontypridd, Wales, Christopher May sat peacefully playing a piano — oblivious to the firefighters around him. He continued to play as the flames circled, flames from the fire he had started. The arson was just one in a string of offences, this former butcher, would commit before being arrested for murder.

Anne Fitzpatrick, a market stall holder, lived with her Yorkshire terrier on Church Lane in Moston, Manchester. On the evening of May 30, 1983, at 11:30 pm, the 29-year-old dressed in her pyjamas, secured the front door of her flat, and got into bed. She switched off her bedside light and drifted off to sleep.

Anne was abruptly woken in the early hours of the morning by her dog barking loudly. In the darkness, she saw the outline of someone standing in the doorway of her bedroom.

You drop the kids off at school at nine in the morning. The next six hours of their day are spent in the care of trustworthy professionals. The majority of the time they are safe, in the hands of their tutors. It’s a rare occasion, when the friendly teacher isn't the honourable person they appear to be.

After receiving a 999 call in the early hours of Thursday, July 7, 2016, two police officers from the Avon and Somerset constabulary arrived at a property on Wells Road in Bristol. The caller confessed that he had killed someone.

In the American embassy, the telephone rang. Special agent Jaclyn Zappacosta picked it up. The call marked the end of a decade of crimes so bizarre, that if they were translated into a book of fiction, it would be deemed too outlandish to publish.

Overlooking an estuary, the small village of Bosham, West Sussex sits on the South coast of England. Located a few miles south from the built-up village centre, a sizeable six-bedroom property called ‘Hove To’ on Smugger’s Lane lies off the beaten track affording a view of a natural inlet of Chichester Harbour.

On December 30, 2013, a woman was found dead in one of the downstairs bedrooms.

He got into the stolen car, started the engine and left his mothers home. The vehicle wasn't the only thing that he had stolen. Concealed under a blanket, in the boot of the car, was a pump action shotgun and some ammunition taken from his stepfather. 

Women in the south-east were not safe. The severity of his crimes escalated fast.

After Michael Ross was charged with the murder of Shamsuddin Mahmood, a trial begin at the High Court in Glasgow on May 12, 2008.

Off the northeastern tip of Scotland, many of the 70 isolated Islands in Orkney, are unoccupied. The sandy beaches, lush green fields and rugged white cliffs look like something you would see on a postcard. With a population of roughly 20,000 people crime is rare. On the odd occasion when an offence is committed, it doesn’t take long for police to apprehend the culprit as everyone knows everyone else’s business. There hadn’t been a murder in Orkney in a quarter of a century but in 1994 all that would change.  (Part 1 of 2)

Stephen suddenly felt a pain in his chest and momentarily blacked out. After hitting what he thought was a brick in the centre of the road it startled him and looking for the brake he accidentally put his foot on the accelerator. Before he could get the vehicle under control it ploughed through a gap in the trees and plummeted into the freezing waters of the Bridgewater canal.

The early spring evening was spent at the George Hotel in Pangbourne, Berkshire. Raymond and June Cook enjoyed their meal while overlooking the Thames. Nights like these, alone, were a rare treat, and they were making the most of it.

Extramarital transgressions can cause anger and destruction. But add to that mix another element. The people having the affair are related by marriage.

The following two cases cross the boundaries of family, sex and murder.

Sally Clark had been arrested and charged with murdering two of her sons.  Sally was adamant she was innocent, but a magistrate at a committal hearing believed there was enough evidence to go to trial.

Two police officers arrived at Hope Cottage. They took photos of the bedroom and were sympathetic to the couple's loss. Their visit was expected and Sally and Steve were not alarmed.

Jeeves jumped into the back of the Bentley. The chauffeur was escorting him from London to Scotland. Jeeves was looking peaky, maybe a break from the city for a walk in the Scottish countryside might help freshen him up. After a short trip, they would make the roughly eight-hour drive home, refreshed. 

Jeeves was used to the more exceptional things in life, sometimes he devoured the best fillet steak purchased especially for him from Harrods.

Stefano Brizzi had just been found guilty of murder. Throughout his trial, Stefano denied the allegations made by the prosecution. He insisted that it had been a terrible accident. It was always going to be difficult to explain what the police found at his home… partially dissolved human remains. 

Margaret got into the driver's seat. She heard her husband call, “Drive carefully darling”.

She turned the key in the ignition. BOOM!

After Robert Allan’s abduction and torture, the theft of ammunition and grenades from a barracks in Kent, a drugs bust of nearly three-quarters of a million pounds, and a shooting at a family home, police would bring down one of the most sophisticated and brutal crime gangs Scotland has ever seen.

The alien abductions in Scotland have nothing to do with little green men from another planet. In 2009 members of one of Scotland’s most dangerous crime gangs began kidnapping their rivals at gunpoint.

Her dream wedding dress hung on a door in her parent's home. She had spared no expense buying a £2,000 gown. Today, September 6, 2003, was meant to be her big day, she was supposed to be getting ready. 

Instead, Deborah Pemberton was waiting anxiously with plain-clothes police for the phone to ring.