Real Crime Season 2
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Real Crime Season 2 Full Episode Guide
Walking home from football practice in Liverpool in August 2007, 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead. The incident caused an outpouring of sympathy and re-ignited fears that gun crime and gang-related violence were blighting Britain's streets. But behind the headlines lay a human tragedy as Rhys's parents Melanie and Stephen struggled with bafflement and grief. Real Crime's Mark Austin interviews the couple, whose decency shines amid the depressing details of the feckless lives led by Rhys's murderer Sean Mercer and his fellow gang-members and protectors. Melanie Jones recalls a blase Mercer and his cocky little group in the dock in court during their trial: "You'd think they were up for shoplifting." Mercer, 18, was jailed for 22 years. His co-accused were convicted of helping him to evade justice. They whooped with delight as they were sent down, says Stephen Jones, and his wife still cannot get to grips with their lives: "Why don't they aspire to be someone?"
Investigating the mystery of the Earl of Shaftesbury, who went missing on the French Riviera in November 2004. A colourful character, the Earl was a frequent visitor to hostess bars and lap dancing clubs, and his third wife - a former nightclub hostess living in Cannes - soon had the finger of suspicion pointed at her. But with no body, the case drew a blank. Was this the perfect crime?
Programme investigating the deaths of twenty-three Chinese cockle pickers on Morecambe Sands. This shocking case revealed part of the hidden world of human trafficking and the awful conditions for the victims, and sparked a government investigation. But who were the people who had drowned? And who had sent them to their deaths? The tragedy led detectives to China, and to the heart of a people-smuggling operation here in Britain.
The killing of two-year-old James Bulger in February 1993 still provokes a sense of horror. Ten-year-olds John Venables and Robert Thompson abducted James from a shopping centre in Merseyside, took him on a three-mile walk, then murdered him on a railway line. Real Crime looks in detail at how the police investigation and trial unfolded. It also interviews James's mother, Denise, who reflects on the impact of the murder. There are chilling details: referring to James's injuries, one police officer notes that "sometimes it's best not to know exactly what happened". He also recalls that during questioning, Thompson's legs would waggle under his chair when he was lying. At first, nobody could believe such young children had done what they did deliberately, but gradually the truth emerged. It's a story that has been told and re-told, but it retains its power to disturb and fascinate.
Nurse Colin Norris murdered four elderly patients, and attempted to murder another by injecting them with massive doses of insulin. If a suspicious colleague had not stopped him in his tracks, police believe he could have gone on to rival Britain's most notorious medical murderer Dr Harold Shipman. Real Crime has exclusive access to their investigation, including taped interviews with Norris.
The story of American bodybuilder David Bieber, who became a wanted man in both the UK and the US after the murder of PC Ian Broadhurst. In December 2004 he was jailed for life, but is still trying to escape justice years later.
Documentary following the true story of how the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad foiled the would-be robbery of the millennium. Using interviews, exclusive archive footage and dramatic reconstruction, the programme investigates how a gang of villains plotted to steal the world's largest perfect diamond from the Millennium Dome and escape up the River Thames, and how they were stopped by one of the most daring police operations ever. But how dangerous was this Hollywood-style heist?
In Christmas 1998, 21-year-old mother of two Lynsey Wilson went missing without a trace. Her husband Mitchell Quy quickly became the prime suspect, after he claimed that she had walked out on him. But unlike any murder suspect before him, Quy went to extraordinary lengths to use the media in order to stay out of jail. He taunted police and even allowed a documentary crew to follow him as he spun his web of lies. Almost 10 years on, we revisit the case, and find out how the police finally managed to convict Lynsey's killer.
This is the story of the spate of killings in Suffolk in the run-up to Christmas 2006 that caught the attention of the world's media. A serial killer went on the rampage, targeting prostitutes in the Ipswich area, leaving one of the country's smallest police forces to investigate. As the bodies kept being discovered, media interest mushroomed. The killer became known as The Suffolk Strangler and the pressure on the Suffolk Constabulary to catch the murderer increased dramatically. In all, five women were murdered between November and December 2006. Steve Wright (pictured) was a dark and troubled man. A former steward on the QE2, he was a lorry driver, a barman and, more recently, a fork-lift truck driver. On 21 February 2008 he was found guilty of all five murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge recommended that life should mean life. Wright is currently appealing against his convictions.
In July 2000, Lucie Blackman disappeared while working as a hostess in a nightclub in Tokyo. It was the beginning of a desperate seven month search by her family to find her - one that would lead police to a predatory killer.
The story of the investigation into special constable Nisha Patel-Nasri's death in Wembley, 2006. The case initially looked like an attempted burglary gone wrong, but police discovered that her husband Fadi had arranged her murder to claim her life insurance and flee with his prostitute lover. Family and friends of Nisha reflect on the emotional impact behind the headlines.
Interpol took the unprecedented step of launching a global public appeal for information after Canadian Christopher Neil published pictures of himself on the internet abusing children. Neil had camouflaged his face using editing software, making his features vanish into a swirl pattern. But he was quickly identified by Interpol experts who immediately began a manhunt. The detective who led the inquiry says of Neil's decision to publish pictures of himself committing abuse, "It's a badge of honour [among other paedophiles] ... your stock in the community goes up." The programme interviews Neil's brother, the woman who worked with Neil when they both taught in South Korea (she identified his unscrambled photograph) and Neil's transvestite boyfriend, who was with him when he was arrested in Thailand.
The story of Lesley Molseed is heart-wrenchingly sad on so many levels and for so many people. Lesley was abducted and murdered in 1975 as she visited the corner shop near her home in Rochdale to buy a loaf of bread. Real Crime does an exemplary job of piecing together the many elements of a complicated case that was to result in an infamous miscarriage of justice when local misfit Stefan Kiszko was convicted of the killing after a botched police inquiry. Only in 2007 was the culprit, Ronald Castree, finally brought to justice after a new investigation secured the breakthrough. The programme features interviews with Lesley's family, the solicitor who took up Kiszko's case after years of campaigning by Stefan's mother, and with the wife and son of Ronald Castree. Of course, there is nothing from Kiszko, who died a broken man in 1993, just 18 months after his release from prison.
"Who knows how people's minds work?" muses an interviewee here. She's well placed to ask the question, as the former wife of serial killer Colin Ireland. In 1993 Ireland, frustrated with his life, made a New Year's resolution - to become a multiple murderer, a resolution he saw through with chilling efficiency, going on to torture and kill five gay men in south London. It's a gruesome but fascinating story, not for the faint-hearted. Some of the details of Ireland's methods are horrifying, but some are oddly banal: he meticulously cleaned his murder scenes, then sat with the corpses watching TV or listening to the radio. The question that hangs over the programme is: why? To help answer it, there's extensive police video of Ireland calmly describing his activities. This makes him very human, a monster but all too ordinary. "In some moods," he explains, "I'm quite happy to burn the world down."
Police officers and forensic scientists reveal how they traced the killer of eight-year-old Sarah Payne, who disappeared in 2000 while on a family day out to the Sussex seaside. Sarah's mother also talks frankly about her tireless campaign for a change in the law to give parents the right to know if a convicted paedophile is living in their area.
The inside story of Britain's most famous crime, in the words of the men who carried out the Great Train Robbery, as well as their wives. Although Ronnie Biggs may be the most famous of the gang, the programme reveals that, in fact, he was just a bit-part player. And it explains how the money first brought happiness but then misery.
An examination of the murder of beauty consultant Clare Bernal, who was shot dead in top London department store Harvey Nichols in September 2005 by the ex-boyfriend against whom she had lodged a police complaint for stalking. Featuring reconstructions and statements Clare had given to the police about her former boyfriend.
Former Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Booth recalls the hunt for multiple killer Donald Neilson, the so-called Black Panther, whose reign of terror culminated in the kidnap and murder of teenage heiress Lesley Whittle in 1975. Only after Neilson's arrest did it emerge that he had previously killed three sub-postmasters and a security guard, and carried out hundreds of armed robberies.
Documentary chronicling the series of events that led to the arrest of serial killer Dennis Nilsen in 1983 for the murders of 15 men. Including dramatic reconstructions and an interview with one of Nilsen's intended victims
It was a tragedy that would spark national outrage and lead to rumours of conspiracy and corruption at the highest levels of the Belgian judicial system. More than ten years after the paedophile Marc Dutroux was jailed for the kidnap, imprisonment, rape, torture and murder of terrified young girls, questions about the case remain
Dramatic documentary about the police manhunt for David Copeland, the nail bomber who targeted three London minority groups in a series of brutal attacks during April 1999, which killed three people and injured 129. The hunt for the killer soon became a race against time, as authorities tried to track him down before he struck again.
He was the double glazing salesman turned killer. What made Kevin Cotterell's crime even more shocking and scary was that he murdered Connie and Janice Sheridan in their own, quiet, Fenland home - they knew and trusted him so they let the killer in. The deaths shocked the world of dog breeding where the Sheridans were popular and hardworking animal lovers, and Norfolk police launched its biggest ever manhunt in the search for the killer who came calling
The story of 19-year-old murderer Brian Blackwell, whose confidence, charm and intelligence masked a serious underlying personality disorder which caused him to be obsessed with fantasies of power and brilliance. He took out credit cards in his father's name, and when his parents quizzed him about how much he spent on his lavish lifestyle, Blackwell savagely stabbed and beat them to death before treating his girlfriend to a luxury holiday the following day as if nothing had happened
The story of Canadian man Albert Walker, now serving a life sentence for the murder of Ronald Platt - whose identity he assumed, and who managed to fool close friends and associates for almost a decade. The programme features interviews with the police officers who bought Walker to justice, the murdered man's girlfriend, Walker's friends and the Rev David Hoskins, Walker's vicar
The conviction of Antoni Imiela, the man known as the M25 rapist. The programme follows both the police investigation into the attacks across the south of England and the domestic strife that played out in the criminal's home with wife Christine
The story of Rena Salmon, who shot beauty salon owner Lorna Stewart with a double barrelled shotgun in September 2002. Rena's husband had a history of womanising, and when he refused to end his affair with friend's wife Lorna, Rena became increasingly unstable. She began to stalk Lorna and threatened her with abusive messages before taking the ultimate revenge on her adulterous husband by killing the other woman. She was convicted of murder, but was the verdict too harsh?
In July 1996, 13-year-old Caroline Dickinson was on a school trip to France, staying at a youth hostel where she was raped and murdered - the killer escaped without anyone raising the alarm. The police arrested a homeless man who confessed to the crime, but by the time DNA tests had eliminated him, the trail had gone cold. This is the story of how Caroline's parents refused to let the case rest, and how a US Customs officer helped track down Francisco Montes, their daughter's killer
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