Bang to Rights

In 2009, in Tracy, California, 8-year-old Sandra Cantu was caught on security camera, playing in the sunshine outside her trailer park home. Moments later, she seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. Her body was found 10 days later. Whilst authorities initially suspected a male sex offender was responsible, the true identity of the perpetrator would prove far more shocking. This is what hap...

On a summer’s night in August 2022, Liverpool, a ruthless criminal pursued a man through the streets with deadly intent. He had managed to injure him, but had failed to deliver the fatal shot. They were members of the city’s criminal underworld – people who only brought pain and misery to others like them. But this night, the lives of an innocent family and a 9- year-old girl would be forever shat...

In the UK, there have been many infamous, notorious criminals. However, one face stands out amongst the others – one that is instantly recognisable for all the wrong reasons. It’s the face of a man who has spent nearly 50 years behind bars, despite never having killed or raped anyone, or harmed a child. This year, he had the chance of freedom. But will he ever be fit for release, or has the prison...

In August 2021, Leila Borrington contacted emergency services, claiming her 3-year-old stepson had fallen and hit his head at her home in Nottingham, England. Tragically, the toddler subsequently died from his injuries. However, medical opinion concluded it had been no accident, but rather the culmination of a history of abuse inflicted on a defenceless, vulnerable child, whose disability meant he...

On a summer’s day in July 2011, Oslo was subjected to two horrific terror attacks, acts of mass murder, perpetrated by one man – someone who believed in male superiority, Christian fundamentalism and a white Europe, and who was vehemently opposed to the Labour government’s stance on immigration and multiculturalism. It was the worst attack on Norwegian soil since the Second World War and claimed t...

In May 2020, a young woman in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, posted a graphic account onFacebook, detailing the years of abuse. The post, complete with photos of the serious injuries she had suffered, rapidly went viral. These latest allegations followed earlier scandals in the north of England, increasing racial tensions and incidences of hate crime at a time of heightened unrest due to Covid lockdo...

In May 2008, an 18-year-old man vanished whilst walking in forests near his home in Woodland Park, Colorado. His disappearance remained a mystery for 7 years, until his body was finally found. However, this discovery only raised more questions – this time about how he died. Was it, as the coroner concluded, an accident, or was his demise something far more sinister? This is what happens when fact...

In October 2020, a 16-year-old disabled girl was found dead at her home in Powis, Wales. The smell of human waste and rotting flesh in her bedroom made even the most hardened of emergency responders physically sick, whilst the police investigation revealed she had suffered 6 months of appalling neglect at the hands of her own parents. This is what happens when Covid lockdown causes the most vulner...

In March 1987, a private investigator was found dead in the car park of the local pub. It would become the most investigated unsolved murder in the history of the Metropolitan Police. Multiple enquiries into the killing would reveal evidence of police cover-ups and corruption – it was a case which authorities wouldn’t, rather than couldn’t, solve. More than 3 decades on, no one has been convicted...

In November 2001, Columbia, Missouri, a sports editor was strangeled and beaten in the carpark of his workplace. With little forensic evidence and no leads, the case went cold – until 2 years later, when a teenager claimed responsibility for the crime and, in the process, implicated one of his friends. Both were subsequently imprisoned for murder – but had the right men been convicted, or had ther...

In April 1999, a famous TV personality was gunned down on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, London. Whilst a nation reeled in shock, a murder inquiry was launched that would become the biggest ever conducted by the Metropolitan Police and the largest criminal investigation since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. This is one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the 20 th century. This is the...

In August 1972, a teenage girl vanished after leaving her home in Springfield, New Jersey, USA. The discovery of her decomposed remains 6-weeks later would lead to decades of speculation as to how she died, along with rumours of witchcraft and the occult. 50 years on, the cause of her death remains unsolved and has become the stuff of urban legend. Was the girl a victim of ritual sacrifice, a seri...

In 2021, Dundee, Scotland, a young Filipino mum and her daughter were murdered. The police investigation and judicial process that followed uncovered details that would rank among the most harrowing in Scottish criminal history – the full facts of which will never be disclosed to the public. This is what happens when a predator goes online to hunt their perfect victim. This is the case of Andrew I...

In Cardiff, 2010, a teenager was killed in his home by 2 masked men. It was a brutal crime that shocked a community, and a nation, and which seemed to have no motive. The investigation that followed would prove one of the most complex ever undertaken in Wales and reveal a botched hit and a tragic case of mistaken identity. This is what happens when money and drugs cause the lives of decent people...

In June 2015, Missouri, a 48-year-old woman was found brutally stabbed to death in her home. Her disabled, wheelchair-bound daughter was missing, and neighbours feared the worse. Their concern, however, turned to disbelief after police quickly arrested 2 people. Not only was the missing teenager one of those under suspicion, but she was also able to walk. This is what happens when a mother’s love...

In Anchorage, Alaska, 2019, a 19-year-old woman was murdered – killed execution-style, shot in the head. The subsequent police investigation became a media sensation, uncovering a sinister plot to rape and kill, a fake identity, plus allegations of blackmail and child abuse. This is what happens when catfishing turns deadly. This is the murder of Cynthia Hoffman. Learn more about your ad choices....

In May 2018, County Kildare, Ireland, the body of a 14-year-old girl was discovered in an abandoned farmhouse. A lonely teenager, she had only craved friendship, but instead had been mercilessly bullied in school and online, before being brutalised and murdered. It was a horrific crime, made even more shocking when the perpetrators were identified – the youngest people ever to be charged with murd...

In November 2021, Sussex, UK, a female escort worker disappeared. After a male suspect was identified, the police investigation discovered that another female escort had vanished 6-months earlier and was linked to the same man. The search for bodies would focus on an area of remote farmland, leased by the suspect, and police would soon build a picture of the horrors that had occurred there. This i...

In January 2018, the dismembered remains of a young woman were found in Macerata, Italy. The suspected perpetrator – an African immigrant. Allegations of voodoo sacrifices and connections to the Nigerian mafia, combined with the politicisation of the murder by the country’s right-wing parties, inflamed tensions around the contentious issue of immigration – with devastating consequences. This is wh...

In June 1983, Houston, Texas, 2 people were killed with a pickaxe – the kind of grisly double murder that would dominate the headlines any day of the week. But this crime captured more attention than usual – because the killer was a 5 foot 3, 121-pound woman. Her brutal slayings, and her subsequent reformation as a Born-Again Christian, divided a nation when it came to her fate. This is what happe...

In September 2018, a white police officer fatally shot a black man in Dallas, Texas. Allegations of institutional racism and police violence in the US had been rife for decades, but the circumstances of this case made it all the more shocking. The officer in question was not on duty at the time, and the victim was in his own home. This is what happens when mistakes cost lives. This is the murder o...

It’s believed 1% of the population is a psychopath. The vast majority of these individuals will not be violent during their lifetime. A minority, however, will use their anti-social personality disorder to fulfil horrific warped fantasies – fantasies often formed in childhood and played out in their minds 1000s of times. This is the story of one such individual. This is the disturbing case of Kevi...

A recent study by the Femicide Census found that a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK. In June 2022, a violent predator was prowling the streets of Ilford, East London, looking for a victim. The brutal encounter that followed shocked the nation and added volume to a growing voice – a voice calling for action to address the serious issue of femicide in the UK. This is what happens...

Some murders are so horrific they live long in the memory. In 1995, Knoxville Tennessee, such a killing occurred. Victim and perpetrators were just teenagers, and the sadistic brutality of the crime caused a media sensation. It would only be after trial that the truth of the ringleader’s dysfunctional past would be revealed, dividing opinion across a nation. Should she pay the ultimate price in th...

In August 1993, a mother kissed her 4-year-old son goodbye as he set off to make the short journey to a park in the tiny, close-knit village of Savona, New York. 5 minutes later, he was deceased. The killing  was shocking enough, but when the perpetrator was finally identified, it caused a national sensation – the shockwaves from which still reverberate today. This is what happens when damaged chi...