British Murders with Stuart Blues

In the ninth episode of season 7, I tell the story of Mark Bridger and April Jones. On October 1, 2012, 5-year-old April Jones was abducted and murdered by 46-year-old Mark Bridger. April's disappearance sparked the biggest search for a missing person in UK police history after the national Child Rescue Alert (CRA) system was triggered. On May 30, 2013, Mark Bridger was found guilty of murdering A...

I welcome Kim Booth to the show in this interview episode. Kim spent 35 years in the Lincolnshire Police after joining as a cadet in the early seventies. He has been involved in investigating approximately 23 murders and is now writing books on true crime and crime fiction. Kim's first book 'A Cruel Deception: The true story of a wicked and cunning fraud... and the search for justice' , was releas...

In the eighth episode of season 7, I tell the story of Luke Mitchell and Jodi Jones. This incredibly divisive case began on June 30, 2003, when 14-year-old Jodi Jones was brutally murdered on an isolated footpath in Dalkeith, Scotland. Fellow 14-year-old Luke Mitchell, Jodi's boyfriend, was the one who found her body, and the police treated him as their key suspect from the very beginning. On Febr...

In the seventh episode of season 7, I tell the story of Leigh Ann Sabine. In 1997, John Sabine disappeared after moving to a flat in Beddau, South Wales, with his wife, Ann, who also went by Leigh. Neighbours assumed the couple had divorced, but the truth would come to light 18 years later. Less than a month after Ann succumbed to brain cancer in October 2015, the body of her husband, John, was fo...

I welcome Robin Jarossi to the show in this interview episode. Robin is a London-based journalist and true crime author who contributes to documentaries such as Murder by the Sea , Voice of a Killer , The Real Prime Suspect and Dark Son: The Hunt for a Serial Killer . He is currently working on a book about corruption and how the hit BBC drama Line of Duty echoes real-life wrongdoing in the police...

In the sixth episode of season 7, I tell the story of Henry Gaskin. On February 19, 1919, 27-year-old Henry Gaskin murdered his 25-year-old wife, Elizabeth Gaskin, in a wooded area of Hednesford Hills, later dubbed 'Gaskin's Wood'. After murdering Elizabeth, Henry dismembered her body and dumped it in a gasholder at Hednesford Gasworks. On February 23, 1919, a week after the murder, Henry confesse...

In this mid-season episode, I'm joined by Zevon Odelberg of Kinda Murdery, who will tell me (and you) the story of Hawley Harvey Crippen. Dr Crippen, or Dr Devil's Breath, was an American homoeopath charged with murdering his wife, Cora "Belle" Crippen, in London in 1910. Scotland Yard found the torso of a human body at Crippen's house in Holloway, and it was identified as Cora's, despite it being...

I welcome Dr Joni Johnston to the show in this interview episode. Dr Johnston is a US-based forensic psychologist, private investigator and crime writer. As a practising psychologist, Dr Johnston has worked in a medium-maximum security prison, for the Board of Parole, for the Superior Court of San Diego, and as a workplace investigator of misconduct allegations, including harassment, discriminatio...

In the fifth episode of season 7, I tell the story of Peter Chapman. On October 25, 2009, 32-year-old Peter Chapman kidnapped, raped and murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall and dumped her body in a farmer's field near Sedgefield, County Durham. He met Ashleigh on Facebook after posing as a 19-year-old named Peter Cartwright. The day after the murder, Cleveland Police arrested Chapman in connection...

In the fourth episode of British Murders Season 7, I tell the story of Colin Campbell. On August 28, 1981, Colin Campbell murdered 17-year-old Claire Woolterton and dumped her body by the River Thames. Three years later, in December 1984, he murdered 29-year-old Deidre Sainsbury. Campbell was convicted of murder in the case of Deidre in July 1985, but it was later reduced to a manslaughter convict...

I welcome Jackie Malton to the show in this interview episode. Jackie is a former senior police officer who worked in the Leicestershire and Metropolitan Police forces. She became one of only three female Detective Chief Inspectors in the Met. Since retiring, Jackie has been a script consultant on UK TV crime shows, including The Bill, Life on Mars, Cracker and Prime Suspect. Prime Suspect's DCI J...

In the third episode of British Murders Season 7, I tell the story of Lee Anstice. On August 26, 2011, Lee Anstice murdered his wife, Tracy, by stabbing her with a knife several times. Lee was in and out of psychiatric care in the months leading up to the murder and would go on to blame the voices in his head despite never mentioning such a thing throughout his time at mental health units. He was...

In the second episode of British Murders Season 7, I tell the story of Marc Shillibier. In the early hours of March 6, 1999, Shillibier viciously murdered 18-year-old Rebecca Storrs with a hammer and knife after sexually assaulting her. He was arrested in May 1999, found guilty of Rebecca's murder in December 2000, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a 22-year minimum. He was allowed leave to...

I welcome Zoë Apostolides to the show in this interview episode. Zoë has worked as a journalist for ten years, covering lifestyle, literature, art and education for the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and others. She has ghost-written several memoirs and biographies and combines this with editorial work as a literary agent with a particular interest in crime, horror and narrative non-...

In the first episode of British Murders Season 7, I tell the story of Anthony Hardy. Between January and December 2002, Anthony Hardy murdered Sally White, Elizabeth Valad and Bridgette Maclennan in Camden Town, London. He initially got away with the murder of Sally White in January 2002 due to an incorrect cause of death confirmed by disgraced pathologist Dr Freddy Patel. Between April and Novemb...

In the season 6 special of British Murders, I tell the story of Peter Manuel, "The Beast of Birkenshaw". Thought to be Scotland's first serial killer and one of the country's worst, Peter Manuel was convicted of killing seven people between January 2, 1956, and January 1, 1958. In part one, I discussed Peter's background and early life as well as the murders of Anne Kneilands, Marion Watt, Vivienn...

In the season 6 special of British Murders, I tell the story of Peter Manuel, "The Beast of Birkenshaw". Thought to be Scotland's first serial killer and one of the country's worst, Peter Manuel was convicted of killing seven people between January 2, 1956, and January 1, 1958. In this first part, I discuss Peter's background and early life as well as the murders of Anne Kneilands, Marion Watt, Vi...

In this episode of British Murders, I go on a European murder tour as aspiring author Christian Raphael tells me the story of the Hinterkaifeck murders. On March 31, 1922, the six inhabitants of a small farmstead in Bavaria, Germany, were brutally murdered by an unknown assailant. The victims were 63-year-old Andreas Gruber, his 72-year-old wife Cäzilia Gruber, their 35-year-old daughter Viktoria...

In this episode of British Murders, I am told the story of George Murdoch by Dawn of Scottish Murders Podcast. At around 8 pm on September 29, 1983, local taxi driver George Murdoch picked up a fare from the New Marcliffe Hotel on Queens Road, Aberdeen. A short time later, he was found dead by the roadside. He was the victim of a brutal and cruel murder. 39 years later, George's killer has still n...

In the tenth and final episode of British Murders Season 6, I tell the story of Ian O'Callaghan. On January 6, 1994, Ian O'Callaghan attacked, sexually assaulted, murdered and mutilated 66-year-old widow and grandma Shirley Leach at Bury Interchange. In September 2001, Ian exposed himself to an 11-year-old girl before raping her a few days later. He remained a free man until February 2006, when he...

In the ninth episode of British Murders Season 6, I tell the story of Louise Porton. Between January and February 2018, Louise Porton killed her only two children. Lexi Draper was 3 years old, and Scarlett Vaughan was 17 months. After trying and failing to pin the sisters' deaths on natural causes, Louise was finally arrested in January 2019, and her trial took place that summer. The jury found he...

In the eighth episode of British Murders Season 6, I tell the story of Gary Allen. In late 1997, Gary murdered 29-year-old mum-of-three Samantha Class in Hull, East Yorkshire. He was acquitted of her murder in early 2000. Just after Christmas 2018, Gary killed once more. This time, he murdered 38-year-old mum-of-four Alena Grlakova in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. His trial for both murders began in...

I welcome Steven Keogh to the show in this interview episode. Former Detective Inspector Steven Keogh joined the Metropolitan Police in 1991, spending most of his 30-year career as a detective. He joined Scotland Yard's elite Anti-Terrorist Branch in 2002, where he spent three years investigating terrorism. In 2005 he received a commendation from the then Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis,...

In the seventh episode of British Murders Season 6, I tell the story of Anthony Arkwright. In August 1988, Anthony murdered Stasys Puidokis, Raymond Ford and Marcus Law in 56 hours and was suspected of having killed Elsa Konradite. In the middle of his sadistic killing spree, he was arrested on suspicion of robbery but was released only to go and kill again. He was initially given a life sentence...

In the fifth volume of Killer British Murder Stories, I am told the story of Thomas Montgomery by Bobbie Holmes of Killer Stories Podcast. On September 15, 2006, 46-year-old Thomas Montgomery murdered his 22-year-old co-worker Brian Barrett in the car park outside their work. The two men were involved in an online love triangle story you must hear to believe. Thomas was sentenced to 20 years in pr...