A forensic team dressed head to toe in white overalls combed the field. In their hunt for clues, they stood several metres apart as they steadily manoeuvred through the muddy grassland which was bordered by trees and dense bushes. A nearby road was closed off, and tracking dogs were deployed around the scene. The discovery was made by refuse collectors near the Cheshire village of Ashley located on the boundary of Greater Manchester…

"He murdered because he wanted to, for sexual or other gratification, or perhaps to see what it was like to kill - like so many of his heroes who he had clearly been researching” — Brian Altman QC, The Old Bailey, July 2007

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, months to years, years to decades. Roy's murderer was free to travel around the countryside and towns across the United Kingdom, undetected. Almost 33 years later, the law would catch up with him, but perhaps some of his crimes were left behind…

"Many people who consume too much alcohol can become aggressive. The prosecution say what the defendant did on July 7 last year… was done in anger and fuelled by drink” — Rachel Brand QC, Birmingham Crown Court, February 2018

In the final days of spring 2017, the police and paramedics were called to an address in Manchester City centre. At the scene, they found a male in his mid-thirties, incapacitated, left bloody and bruised following an altercation with another man who was barely into adulthood… (Part 2 of 2)

Normawati Sinaga was startled when the phone rang. The voice on the other end of the line told her that they worked for the Greater Manchester Police. Trying to understand why on earth someone would be calling an Indonesian home from the other side of the world, she quickly thought of her son. He was studying in England… (Part 1 of 2)

It was the middle of summer — Sunday, July 22, 1990. At 11.30 pm, a musician, Gordon Wilson, was walking back from a late-night recording session on Holloway Road in London. He noticed the women and presumed they were just in a deep sleep. He was in a rush, and the last train was due to leave from Holloway Road underground station. Wilson didn't pause on his journey; it was dark, and he had no reason to think he needed to…

PC Andrew Harper was killed while on duty only four weeks after his wedding. The three people involved in his death were tried at the Old Bailey for murder. Following the trial, towards the end of July 2020, Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole were acquitted though they would each be facing time behind bars as they were either found guilty of or admitted to a charge of manslaughter. Long received 16 years with an extended licence period of 3 years. Bowers and Cole received 13 years detention in a Young Offender Institution. However, Bowers and Cole were now going to fight to have their convictions for manslaughter overturned, and all three believed their sentences were “manifestly excessive” and should be reduced. This case update follows what happened next...

The crime was compared to ‘Single White Female’, the 1992 film where a young woman imitates everything her new flatmate does, what she wears, even how she cuts her hair — then the obsession turns deadly…

In the years following the murders of Alexander and Dorothy Wood, urban legend surrounding the case spread, with unsubstantiated claims published in the newspaper pages across Britain. Rumours suggested that the killer had posed the bodies, their glassy open eyes staring out through a basement window. It was said, they were positioned to face the direction of the church across the road, where they stayed until they were discovered...

Valentine's day in 1945 began like any other day for 74-year-old Charles Walton. Despite his advanced years and rheumatic joints, which required Charles to walk with a stick, he had worked as a labourer when local farmers had work available. He left with the tools for the job, a pitchfork and slash hook. It was at the edge of Meon Hill, an isolated spot around a mile from the main road, where they found his body…

Maida Vale, West London, 6:20 pm, Sunday, March 24, 1996 — George Fraghistas locked his blue Lincoln Continental in a secure car park on Lanark Road. He walked to the exit. He had plans that evening and wanted to prepare. George was just about to open the door of the dimly lit concrete building, when a man suspiciously dressed for a spring day, in an anorak, gloves and a balaclava, took him by surprise and tried to wrestle him to the ground. George shouted, made a scene, put up a fight, but the assailant overpowered him. The element of surprise gave his attacker an advantage. For a brief moment they were alone, then a car stopped nearby. Three men hurriedly got out...

“The defendant had become so acutely conscious of what was contained within that freezer, and the risk of discovery – if not just from the odour that emitted from the freezer, that it appears that he had chosen to abandon the address” - Duncan Penny QC, Southwark Crown Court, July 2020

In 2018, one week after the new year's celebrations, a middle-aged woman enters Cheadle Heath police station in Stockport. She had travelled almost 5 miles on foot from her home in Reddish, Greater Manchester. She has a blank expression on her face. In a quiet and subdued voice, the woman calmly tells an officer that she has killed someone. The body is buried in her back garden…

An off-duty police officer is arrested and charged with murder in May 2020. He claims it was an accident. The victim, a mother to two children, worked as a nurse. The pair had been having an affair for the last decade. But after they agreed to meet in a pub car park in West Parley, South-East Dorset, a row erupted. The police were told a struggle ensued, leaving one of them dead. A jury at a crown court in Salisbury were to decide whether or not Timothy Brehmer intended to strangle Claire Parry (Part 2 of 2).

"If you apply that amount of force, significant force, resulting in severe injuries, for at least ten seconds, what else could you have intended than at very least a really serious injury" — Richard Smith QC, Salisbury Crown Court, October 2020 (Part 1 of 2).

It was a typical room for a teenage boy in the 1980s; football programmes on his desk with his homework, a well used Amstrad HI-FI system with a tape cassette and radio, used to record the top chart hits on a Sunday, hitting the pause button before the DJ fades back in. Posters of his favourite musical acts covered the walls; Mel and Kim, T'Pau, Madonna, Samantha Fox — standard fare in 1988. His single bed, pushed against the wall of his cosy room, with his black pyjama bottoms tucked neatly under his pillow to wear the next night, but there would not be a next night…

Throughout spring 1993, five men were murdered in London at the hands of the same killer. He had met them all in The Coleherne, a bar in Earl's Court. The murderer went back to the victims’ homes and strangled them while they were tied up. The killings were not initially linked by Scotland Yard, however, after the man responsible had called the police explaining that he wanted to be a serial killer, the metropolitan police went public with the information. A single fingerprint and a poorly recorded phone conversation were the only pieces of evidence detectives had until CCTV captured one of the victims making his final journey home in the company of a man that was likely the last person to see him alive. Following an appeal, surprisingly, that man came forward, but confidently denied he was the murderer. He was, however, unaware the police had found his fingerprint at one of the scenes, and the man was subsequently charged with multiple counts of murder. Following a court hearing, he eventually confessed to the string of killings.

So why had Colin Ireland made it his new year's resolution to be a serial killer?… (Part 2 of 2)

A dead body was found in Harrow, Greater London at the end of May 1993. The officers at the scene quickly came to the conclusion that it was death by misadventure. The man, 37-year-old Christopher Dunn, was a librarian who worked at Harlesden Library in Brent, 7 miles from his home located on Byron Way in Wealdstone. He was discovered in bed. The death was later ruled undetermined, but detectives thought it looked more like a tragic accident. Forensic analysis was kept to a bare minimum, and with little scrutiny, the police seemed to believe this was how the events unfolded. ‘After all’, the officers pondered, Christopher was dressed in a studded leather harness and a belt. It was assumed that Christopher died during an act of sadomasochistic bondage… (Part 1 of 2).

A text alert bleeped on the mobile phone; another strange and uncharacteristic message from her best friend flashed up on the screen. Over the last couple of days, a number of messages had left the phone and found their way into the inboxes of friends and colleagues much to their confusion. In just a few texts, she mentioned hot tubs, liposuction, cosmetic surgery, and more concerningly, a mystery man, she was going to meet…