Throughout the late evening of August 15, 2019, PC Andrew Harper and his colleague PC Andrew Shaw were working overtime. They answered the call of a suspected burglary. A gang of masked assailants with weapons were trying to steal a quad bike. The two uniformed officers travelled to the scene in an unmarked BMW fitted with emergency lights and a police siren. They came head to head with the suspects’ vehicle at 11:28 pm in the dim light of an unlit narrow country lane (Part 2 of 2).

On July 1, 2020, accompanied by a judge and several barristers, a jury disembarked a coach in Berkshire after travelling from the Old Bailey in London. A mist of light rain fell, as several police officers, who spoke few words, watched on. The jury were not to be disturbed as they examined the reconstruction of a crime scene. Two vehicles were positioned facing each other on a narrow lane bordered by trees and high hedgerows that exited the village of Stanford Dingley (Part 1 of 2).

He was alarmed by the long trail of blood in the aisle. It reached at least twelve feet long. In the artificial light of the carriage, it almost looked black. As the train pulled away, with no emergency stop signal or no way of contacting the driver, it was twenty minutes before it ground to a halt at the next station. A second passenger boarded the carriage. In a state of shock, the two strangers conversed, deciding what to do at the next stop. Whoever had lost such a great deal of blood was severely injured or possibly dead, but there was no sign of them on the train.

When you choose a partner in life, you take on their family too. Ideally, you get on, and you live in harmony. Some people invite their in-laws into their homes with open arms, unaware that their new family member has left behind a murderous past.

Ian Simms was in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court. He was accused of murdering Helen McCourt who vanished in February 1988. Her body was still missing. Despite the overwhelming forensic evidence, Simms insisted he was innocent (Part 2 of 2).

A woman in her early twenties goes missing on a journey home from work. A few days pass, and some of her belongings are found, discarded just under 20 miles away. Police suspect foul play and a murder charge is laid. But why was she killed and where was her body? (Part 1 of 2).

"We have seen cases where young people have been groomed online, but it is rare for it to culminate in such a dreadful and violent murder. The degree of planning and manipulation by Daynes is shocking, and when you consider the young ages of perpetrator and victim, it stands out as one of the most cruel, violent and unusual cases we have dealt with"

— Chief Crown Prosecutor Jenny Hopkins, outside Chelmsford Crown Court, January 2015

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a three-year-old that went missing from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007, has been widely covered by the media. Back in 1985, another three-year-old went missing while at a holiday park. This is the case of Leoni Keating.

Paul Bint is known under many aliases. He would convince his unsuspecting victims that he was a doctor, a lawyer, an aristocrat, or even a millionaire. Through his twenties and thirties, Bint had spent a total of 10 years in and out of prisons or mental health facilities. However, this did little curb his desire to convince his victims that the fantasy world he inhabited existed (Part 2 of 2).

"People have this picture of me which is completely inaccurate, and I don't see how I am ever going to get around this problem. I don't think I would describe myself as a conman, or King Con Man or King of the Swindlers, as the newspapers call me. I'm someone who lied about myself and my status. It made me forget what the reality was, and for me, it was a way of escaping. It always has been" — Paul Bint, Southwark Crown Court, 2009 (Part 1 of 2).

It is a scene reserved only for your worst nightmares. You live alone, but there is suddenly a stranger in your bedroom. He does not have to unfasten the zipper over his mouth on the black leather mask he is wearing to say why he is there. Prominent, against the dim light and the dark leather, there is one word scrawled crudely in white capital letters across the forehead of the mask… RAPIST.

Red stains on the carpet, red stains on your knife, oh, Dr Buck Ruxton, you murdered your wife. The nursemaid saw you and threatened to tell, oh, Dr Buck Ruxton, you killed her as well…

— Lancashire nursery rhyme, parody of the song ‘Red Sails in the Sunset’, latter half of the 1930s

Raoul Moat had been on the run from the police. Using a double-barrelled shotgun, Moat fired the weapon at his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart. She suffered life-threatening injuries. In the same attack, Moat murdered her new partner, Chris Brown. Moat was obsessed and could not face the fact that his six-year relationship with Samantha had ended (Part 2 of 2).

A highly volatile former nightclub doorman is released from prison. He is in a jealous rage. The carnage that followed saw one person dead, and two left with life-threatening injuries. The attacks would spur one of the biggest manhunts the UK had ever seen culminating in a stand-off that resulted in yet another life being taken... (Part 1 of 2).

Meeting a partner on the internet is common practice in this day and age — its popularity is on the rise. One group, the elderly seeking companionship, have become the preferred target for romance scammers trying to extort money...

On April 21, 2013, a 19-month-old was rushed to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge after a seizure. Doctors informed the boy's parents that his condition may be some form of congenital disorder, and surgeons had to undertake emergency surgery, removing part of his skull to reduce pressure on his brain. It was discovered he had suffered a subdural haematoma. After consultation with doctors, his parents made the extremely difficult decision to remove him from life support, and he continued to breathe unaided until he passed away three days later. At first glance, this would seem like an unfortunate and unavoidable tragedy. But investigators began to look deeper into the circumstances surrounding the boy's death...

Stuart Lubbock’s family would not see the justice they rightfully deserved but Michael Barrymore felt he too was a victim — he claimed his arrest on suspicion of murder in 2007 was a miscarriage of justice (Part 4 of 4).

On September 13, 2002, at the offices of Epping Forest district council, the inquest into Stuart Lubbock’s death was concluded. The frustrations during the proceedings were felt no more so than by the coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray who believed that she was left with no other choice than to pass the verdict she did (Part 3 of 4).

Stuart Lubbock, a father to two young children, was 31 when he was found lifeless, floating in a swimming pool that belonged to celebrity entertainer Michael Barrymore. Stuart was naked apart from a pair of boxer shorts. He had suffered severe internal injuries that would later be described as “horrific”. Essex police undertook an investigation that lasted almost a year, and several arrests were made. Still, no one was ultimately charged, and the inquiry wound down (Part 2 of 4).

At 5:46 am, on the morning of Saturday, March 31, 2001, a call was made to the emergency services. The operator was told that a male, who would later be identified as 31-year old Stuart Lubbock, was found lifeless and hyperthermic in a swimming pool. The pool belonged to celebrity entertainer Michael Barrymore who lived at 4 Beaumont Park Drive in Roydon — a village in Essex in the southeast of England (Part 1 of 4).