Sinister South

We start this week chatting about Hannah’s all-consuming new farming obsession (no, not in real life – in a mobile game) and Rachel’s daughter delivering the line of the year to a would-be eight-year-old suitor.  But soon we turn to the devastating story of Lakanal House. In July 2009, a fire tore through the Camberwell tower block, claiming the lives of Catherine Hickman, Dayana Francisquini, her...

Camberwell, South London. A quiet flat just off the main road. Nothing about it stood out—least of all the man inside. But for over a decade, Frederick Diji was running a romance scam so insidious, one victim sent him money for 14 years. Using fake names, false promises, and a soft voice on the other end of the phone, Diji—and his accomplice Raquel Johnson—manipulated over 80 victims into handing...

A teenage boy. A knock at the door. And a mother who made a devastating choice. In this episode, we tell the story of 17-year-old Levi Ernest-Morrison — a kind, funny, and thoughtful boy from Sydenham with a love of motorbikes, dreams of building a home in St Lucia, and a future ahead of him. Until the evening of 10th April 2021, when he was hunted down in the street by a group of teenagers wieldi...

On a quiet summer night in Tooting, five litres of petrol were poured through a family's letterbox and lit. By morning sisters Nabiha and Maleha Masud were dying in hospital. The attack came without warning, leaving detectives and the girls grieving mother, desperate to understand why.  Join Hannah and Rachel as they unpick a case of shocking entitlement and the devastating consequences of un...

In this week’s episode of Sinister South, we revisit one of the most harrowing chapters in modern British policing – the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. On 22nd July 2005, just two weeks after the 7/7 London bombings, Jean Charles, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, was followed, misidentified, and shot seven times in the head by armed police at Stockwell Tube station. They believed h...

In the winter of 1988, 22-year-old Lorraine Benson left a work Christmas party in Clapham Junction and never made it home. Her murder shocked South London – not just because of its brutality, but because it exposed the serious failings in how violent offenders were being managed. In this episode, we look at the pioneering role of DNA in solving Lorraine’s case, the disturbing history of her killer...

In February 2011, 21-year-old Gagandip Singh was found in the boot of his burning car on a residential road in Blackheath. At first, police thought it might’ve been a stolen vehicle, torched for the hell of it, but what they uncovered was a calculated, deeply personal murder. Gagandip was a rising star in the Sikh community, running his own TV channel and trying to carry on his father’s legacy aft...

In this episode, recorded amid cat flap dramas, church hall trauma, and a frankly terrifying inflatable dinosaur, we dive into one of the most disturbing and under-reported cases in South London’s history: the murder of Bulic Forsythe. In February 1993, Bulic a civil servant working in Lambeth Council’s social services department was found bludgeoned to death in his Brixton flat. The flat had been...

This week we bring you the devastating story of two women, Naomi Hunte and Fiona Holm, both murdered by the same man: Carl Cooper. Both had warned police. Both were ignored. And both were lost because no one acted when it mattered. We talk about stalking, missed red flags, a crowbar attack that led nowhere, and a family forced to do the investigating themselves. Plus, the absolute fury of watching...

After a slightly chaotic opening involving anxiety spirals, pocket-based trouser strategy, and a traumatic passport photo, things quickly turn grim as we cover the brutal 2020 murder of 25-year-old Riches Obie in Elephant & Castle. He had no criminal past. No enemies. Just a quiet life with his mum — until he was fatally stabbed in their flat. Was it a robbery gone wrong? Or the fallout of a s...

A man shot in his kitchen. A Ming vase in a JD Sports bag. An iPad dumped in the Thames. This one has it all: a failed assassination, a Geneva museum heist, and three South London men who left a digital trail as messy as their getaway. Paul Allen, once part of Britain’s biggest cash robbery, ends up paralysed. But it’s what the attackers left behind that seals their fate. Also this week: Hannah’s...

In the summer of 2020, the quiet suburb of Mitcham was shaken by an unthinkable tragedy. Five-year-old Sayagi Sivanantham was found critically injured in her family’s flat, and what followed would unravel into a story that forced a difficult national reckoning. In this episode, we explore the human story behind the headlines – one of a vibrant little girl, a community in shock, and the quiet crisi...

This week, we’re off to Twickenham (yes, it is in South London—Han’s learning geography as we go), where a wealthy widow was found brutally stabbed and partially burned in her own home in 1936. Laura Mordaunt Chapman lived a quiet, reclusive life—until Albert Hadfield, a local sweetshop owner with a shady past and a bicycle, wormed his way in. With 47 stab wounds, no signs of a break-in, and a sta...

In the early 1990s, South London was a hotspot for gangland violence, with organised crime families like the Arifs and Brindells locked in a deadly power struggle. In this episode, we explore the interconnected murders of Arma Abdullah, David Brindell, and Stanley Silk – killings that reveal a chilling web of retribution, turf wars, and community silence. From a targeted hit in a Woolworth betting...

She travelled to London with dreams of adventure, language, and independence,  but instead, 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet found herself trapped in a house of delusion and cruelty.  In this episode, we uncover the disturbing murder of a young French au pair at the hands of a South London couple who convinced themselves she was a spy sent by a former boyband star. With twisted obsession, manipulation,...

In August 2012, 76-year-old Elizabeth Coriat was found dead in her Forest Hill flat. She had been killed – and decapitated – by her own son, Daniel. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, known to mental health services, and had made disturbing statements about Elizabeth long before her death. Despite this, he was discharged and deemed low risk. No safeguarding. No crisis intervention. No s...

It’s Hannah’s birthday 🎉 and in true Sinister South fashion, we’re celebrating with one of the most devastating public transport disasters in British history. This week, we’re in Croydon. In 2016, a packed tram derailed at high speed on a tight curve at Sandilands. Seven people lost their lives. Dozens more were injured. But behind the headlines was a tangled mess of missed warnings, ignored safe...

They didn’t need getaway cars or sawn-off shotguns just a killer wardrobe and a razor-sharp plan. In this episode, we dive into the world of the Forty Elephants an all-women crime syndicate that ruled the streets and department stores of London from the late 1800s well into the 20th century. Based in the Elephant and Castle, these women weren’t just shoplifters they were organised, ruthless, and d...

For 17 years, someone was targeting elderly people across South London, slipping into their homes in the dead of night. Behind the mask was Delroy Grant, a man living a quiet life in Lewisham, known to neighbours as a family man and carer. But the reality was far darker. In this episode, we explore the long investigation to uncover the truth, the mistakes that let him walk free for so long, and th...

This week, we start with a much-needed debrief on brain fog, Expo madness, and why Rachel may or may not be developing narcolepsy (spoiler: she’s not, but Hannah’s definitely worried).  Tai O’Donnell was just 19. A music student with plans, talent, and a mum who adored him. In March 2021, Tai was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Kamila Ahmad, in his flat in Croydon. She stabbed him in the leg, sever...

This week, Rach takes us on a wild romp through Victorian south London with the mysterious death of Charles Bravo – a seemingly respectable barrister who died in agony from antimony poisoning in his plush home near Tooting Bec Common. Was it suicide? A medical accident? Or did someone in the house have very good reason to want him gone? We unpack the tangled mess of coercive control, scandalous af...

 When 78-year-old Richard Osborn-Brooks awoke to find two intruders in his South London home, he made a split-second decision that would change his life forever. One burglar fled. The other, Henry Vincent, was fatally stabbed. But what followed was almost as shocking—the pensioner’s arrest, a furious public debate over self-defence laws, and a tense standoff between Vincent’s grieving family and t...

Right, before we get into this one, a quick heads-up - tech issues. The recording gods were not on our side, and there are a few little glitches in this episode. We’ve done what we can to tidy them up, but if you notice any weird jumps or crackles, just know we’re as annoyed as you are. Bear with us, we promise it’s worth it. Johanita Dogbey was just walking home when she was attacked in broad day...

On a warm August night in 2016, Oliver Dearlove was out with friends in Blackheath, South London, when a casual conversation with a stranger turned into an unthinkable tragedy. A single, unprovoked punch from a man he'd never met ended his life within seconds, shattering the world of those who loved him. In this episode, we discuss Oliver’s life, the dangers of one-punch attacks, and the deva...

Episode 7! South London, summer of '86. It's boiling, windows are open, and an unseen predator is creeping inside. One by one, elderly residents are found dead in their beds, strangled, their homes disturbed but not ransacked. The press dub him 'The Stockwell Strangler', and fear grips the city.  Who was Kenneth Erskine, and what drove him to prey on the most vulnerable? Han ta...