British Murders with Stuart Blues

Today marks 17 years since Claudia Lawrence disappeared. On the evening of March 18, 2009, the 35-year-old chef spoke with her parents before settling in for the night at her home in York. The following morning, she failed to turn up for work at the University of York and missed plans with a friend later that evening. She has never been seen or heard from since. Despite extensive investigations by...

In late February 2026, news broke that one of Britain’s most notorious child killers had been attacked inside prison. Within days, Ian Huntley, the man responsible for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, was dead. The man accused of carrying out the attack was another inmate, Anthony Russell, and almost instantly the internet lit up with celebration. But here’s the thing. While some pe...

In August 2002, two ten-year-old best friends left their homes in the quiet Cambridgeshire town of Soham to buy some sweets. It was a warm summer evening during the school holidays, and the sort of trip they’d made plenty of times before. But when Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman didn’t return home, a simple errand quickly turned into one of the biggest missing persons searches Britain had ever see...

In the early hours of the summer Bank Holiday weekend in 2016, a young man lay unconscious on a quiet street in Blackheath, south east London. Just minutes earlier, he’d been laughing with friends, chatting to strangers, waiting for a taxi home. Then a single punch knocked him to the ground. Within 24 hours, he was gone. Oliver Dearlove was 30 years old. He had a solid career in banking, a long-te...

In September 2023, police officers walked into house on Pump Hill in the village of Great Baddow, Essex. Standing in front of them was 35-year-old Virginia McCullough, who appeared calm and composed. But within moments, she was telling them her parents were dead, and that their bodies were still inside the house. For four years, John and Lois McCullough had seemingly vanished. Family was told they...

In this episode, I’m joined by two former Crime Scene Investigators, Angela Davies and Dionne Watson, the hosts of The Crime Scene Insiders Podcast . Between them, they’ve worked countless real-life investigations - the kind you don’t see neatly wrapped up in 40 minutes on television. We talk about what crime shows actually get right (if anything) and the many things they get completely wrong. Fro...

On May 12, 2020, during the first Covid lockdown, police were called to a quiet stretch of road in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Officers had already stopped a car for breaching lockdown rules and issued a fixed penalty notice. But just a short distance away, sitting at the side of the road in the darkness, were two suitcases. Inside were human remains. At the centre of this story are two w...

Fifty-two years have passed since Donald Neilson committed his first known murder - that of 54-year-old Donald Skepper on 15 February 1974. What followed was a violent campaign that would stretch across four English counties and culminate in one of the most infamous kidnappings in British criminal history. In the mid-1970s, sub-postmasters were targeted in a series of calculated and ruthless attac...

On a quiet Monday evening in May 2018, emergency services were called to a large Victorian house on a busy street in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough. At first, it was reported as a burglary gone wrong. A front door left open. A woman found unconscious on the living room floor. But very quickly, it became clear that this was something else entirely. At the centre of this story are Jessica and Mitesh Patel...

More than 25 years after the crime was committed, a man already serving a whole life order for five murders has pleaded guilty to killing again. This admission dates back to 1999, years before Ipswich became a crime scene, and years before his name was known to the public. This afternoon, serial murderer Steven Wright stood at The Old Bailey once more, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison for a...

In January 1977, a quiet Manchester neighbourhood was shaken by an act of sudden and brutal violence. Annie Walsh, a woman described by those who knew her as kind and unassuming, was found murdered inside her own flat. The scene left behind was one of extreme force, but very little clarity. What followed would become one of the most troubling chapters in British criminal justice. A teenage boy wou...

In July 2001, the disappearance of British backpacker Peter Falconio on a remote stretch of Australia’s Stuart Highway became one of the most high-profile missing person cases in modern criminal history. The case drew international attention, sparked an enormous police investigation across the Australian Outback, and would later result in a murder conviction - despite the fact that Peter’s body ha...

In the early 2000s, the death of five-year-old Danielle Reid became one of the most disturbing child murder cases in Scottish criminal history. What began as concerns around neglect in Inverness would later expose a far more troubling picture, involving repeated warnings, unanswered calls, and safeguarding failures that, in hindsight, are difficult to comprehend. Danielle was a bright, affectionat...

In November 1967, a gunman walked into a classroom at St John’s RC High School in Dundee. What unfolded that afternoon left a young teacher fatally wounded, a school traumatised, and a case that would echo through the Scottish justice system for decades. It became one of the most shocking crimes in Dundee’s history, yet one that is often reduced to a single moment, stripped of its wider consequenc...

Twenty-two years after Harold Shipman’s death, the consequences of his crimes still loom large over British medicine and public trust in GPs. In this remastered episode, I revisit a two-part series from my archives, now presented as one continuous story. This episode explores how Shipman abused his position as a trusted family doctor, the patients who were left vulnerable, and the failures that al...

On a winter’s night in December 1996, after a couple pulled into a lay-by in the West Midlands, the woman claimed they’d just been victims of a violent road rage attack. The man, her fiancée, lay dying from multiple stab wounds. What followed would become one of the most infamous murder cases in modern British criminal history - a case that split public opinion, dominated tabloid headlines, and in...

January 1, 2026 marks 31 years since Fred West took his own life while awaiting trial for a series of horrific crimes that shocked Britain. This special episode features a rare and insightful conversation with Geoffrey Wansell, the journalist and author commissioned to write West’s official biography following his death. Geoffrey brings a unique perspective shaped by extensive research, exclusive...

In place of a regular episode, this Christmas Day I’m sharing a short, heartfelt message - think of it as the Yorkshire version of the King’s Speech. This brief Christmas Day special touches on the importance of connection at this time of year, acknowledges how difficult the season can be for many, and reflects on the victims and families behind the cases we’ve explored throughout 2025. Thank you...

Christmas parties are meant to be a time to unwind - a few drinks, familiar faces, and a break from the everyday routine - but the festive season also brings real and often overlooked dangers. In this episode of True Crime Catch Up, Adam and I explore the deadly reality of one-punch killings, where a split-second act of violence can end one life and permanently destroy another. We examine how thes...

On Christmas Eve 2003, a quiet residential street in Willenhall looked exactly how it should. Lights in the windows, presents under the tree, and two young sisters excitedly counting down the hours until Father Christmas arrived. By the end of the night, three lives were lost, and a close-knit community was left trying to understand how something so devastating could happen inside what appeared to...

In December 1990, a young woman walked the final few yards towards her home in Cardiff, but never made it through the front door. What happened in those final moments remains one of the most unsettling mysteries South Wales Police had ever faced, sparking an investigation that would stretch across an entire decade. When 26-year-old Geraldine Palk failed to return home after her work’s Christmas pa...

In April 1996, a quiet council estate in Falkirk became the centre of one of Scotland’s most unsettling domestic murder investigations. When 35-year-old Eleanor Harrison suddenly disappeared, friends, neighbours, and relatives were left searching for answers, and detectives quickly realised her absence was far from ordinary. What followed was a deeply disturbing inquiry that exposed a volatile hom...

Five years ago today, on December 3, 2020, I released the first three episodes of British Murders . I had no idea what I was doing, no audience other than family and friends, no clue whether anyone would even listen. And yet here we are, half a decade later, still going strong. So, to mark the show’s five-year anniversary, I wanted to do something a bit different. This episode isn’t a deep dive in...

In November 2001, a crime unlike anything North Wales had seen before shattered the quiet Isle of Anglesey. Inside her cosy bungalow, 90-year-old Mabel Leyshon was discovered murdered in circumstances so disturbing that even veteran detectives struggled to comprehend what they had found. What unfolded next became one of Wales’s most unsettling investigations: a bizarre crime scene, an urgent publi...

Five years ago, convicted serial killer Anthony Hardy died in prison while serving a Whole Life Order, a sentence he received after murdering Sally White, Elizabeth Valad and Bridgette Maclennan in the London Borough of Camden. In the first-ever episode of True Crime Catch Up, Adam Lloyd (from the UK True Crime Podcast) and I discuss what went wrong with the Anthony Hardy case. We also examine the...