Sinister South

This week Han is living her best funemployed life (interviews pending, privilege duly checked, pottering about as a fun auntie), which means that before we get anywhere near a murder we get into: the great "she's not mine" saga, in which she spent an entire festival being mistaken for Will's wife and handled it with all the grace of a woman several ciders deep; the Broadstairs...

This week starts with the usual...tattoo double-bookings, a very inebriated weekend, Will doing himself a mischief in the pit at The Offspring, and a knife-wielding, mozzarella-eating stand-off with the ghost of Luther. Standard. In the early hours of 28th May 2021, a young woman answered a FaceTime call from her partner, Jack Forde. What she saw on the screen was him attacking his own grandfather...

Once we've covered the essentials (Hannah's official unemployment era, a Duran Duran Father's Day card with some truly phoned-in puns, and the ongoing scandal of Rach absolutely not saying the words "Henry Cavill"), we get into the actual case.  In the spring of 1954, a box of sweets went round a London office. By the end of that night, two of the young women who took a pi...

One hundred episodes. We genuinely can't believe it either. To mark the milestone we've torn up the format. There's no case this week. Instead, Rachel and Hannah are in the hot seat, and for one episode only their long-suffering editor Will steps out from behind the desk to host. Expect Sinister South by the numbers, including the oldest case we've ever covered and exactly how...

But first, the important business: Rach's new hair (currently being hated on a strict day-two schedule), Will's ongoing obsession with the Sidcup goose tattoo man, and the small matter of a Netflix documentary sending a flood of brand-new Trevors our way. If you're one of them, welcome. We have cookies, chocolate, and pins we will absolutely never send you. Then Han takes us back to...

On the morning of 10th October 2011, 58-year-old Sally Hodkin left her house in Bexleyheath for her usual walk to work. She was 500 yards from her own front door when she was attacked and killed by Nicola Edgington, a woman who had murdered her own mother six years earlier and had been released back into the community by the NHS. In the hours before Sally's death, Edgington had told police sh...

This week, we go back to 1831 and the Croydon Canal, where two empty boats were found drifting on still water. A week later, the body of a pregnant woman surfaced. Her name, or at least the name history gives us, was Mary Clarke. Mary had been seen days earlier preparing to meet the father of her unborn child. She was dressed in a fine cotton gown, a black silk cloak and a white straw bonnet, with...

This week, after a truly chaotic opening involving a pork pie-related road traffic incident, pocket hummus at the Palladium, Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Mondays, and the questionable social etiquette of bringing a meze board into a theatre, we turn to the heart breaking unsolved murder of 16-year-old Andrea Troupe. In May 1983, Andrea was found dead in Warwick Gardens, Peckham. She had been stabbed...

Welcome back, Trevors! It's season four and we are BACK, although you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise given the chaos of recording this one (third intro, second go at the case, Hannah's suitcase touring Luton solo). Stick with us. This week, Hannah takes us to a quiet Wednesday night in October 1993, when a 44 year old former maths teacher turned beat bobby cycled onto Cato Roa...

In February 2003, nineteen-year-old Marsha McDonnell stepped off a bus yards from her front door in Hampton and never made it home. Eighteen months later, twenty-two-year-old Amélie Delagrange was found dying on Twickenham Green after missing her stop on a late-night bus. Two women. Two streets we know. One man responsible for both — and for so much more besides. This week Rachel tells the story o...

This week’s episode comes with a very serious warning. We’re covering the case of Ellie Butler, a six-year-old girl whose death shocked the country and exposed devastating failures within the child protection system. Before we get into the case, we talk honestly about how difficult this one has been for us to research and record, and why we felt it was important to flag that upfront. This is not a...

This week, we start where we always do… somewhere between a rant about marketing “safe spaces” and a full-blown identity crisis over snake trousers 😅 But very quickly, things take a turn. We’re telling the story of 23-year-old Natalie Jarvis, a young woman from Swanley who went out for what she thought was a casual late-night drive… and never came home. Natalie was loud, funny, warm, and deeply l...

After a bit of chat about pub quizzes, questionable general knowledge, and why some people should never be trusted with a quiz answer sheet, we turn to a story that is anything but light. In March 2025, 16-year-old Lethanial Burrell was shot dead on his own street in Stockwell, in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon. What followed was the unravelling of a calculated attack involving a stolen moped,...

We start this week as we usually do, a bit of chaos, questionable life updates, and an Oreo milkshake that frankly had no business being that big… before we move into one of the most difficult cases we’ve ever covered. Shirley Oaks was meant to be a safe place. A village of cottages in Croydon, designed to give children in care a sense of normal life. Instead, it became the centre of one of the mo...

HanFan Trevors... have we got good news for you! We're back... slightly frazzled, mildly sleep deprived and very much doing our best.  Tune in for chat about chaotic coach journeys, questionable life admin, Mother's Day highs and lows, and a near full-scale household meltdown involving a missing cat (don't worry, she's fine...)  In January 1992, on a quiet residential street in...

#Trevors, journey back with us to 1573 and Shooters Hill in the Tudor period, where Rach walks us through one of the oldest cases we've covered on Sinister South, the murder of George Saunders by another George, and two Annes...  We take you through what happened on the highway to Kent and the coast and all that lay beyond, when a man who decided he wanted someone else's wife for himself...

We kick this one off the only way we know how. A bit tired. A bit dramatic about adulthood. Slightly over-analysing targeted ads that know we’re stressed. There’s chat about mini retirements, South London buses, and whether four ciders was really necessary on a school night. And then we talk about Wayne. On 19 February 1990, 11-year-old Wayne Taylor left his home in Kennington with a pound in his...

We start this week exactly how you’d expect. A bit of chat. A bit of South London waffle. Probably a side quest before we’ve even technically started. We mention Electric Avenue. Yes, the song. Yes, we sing it. No, we’re not sorry. And then we get serious. Because on Saturday 17 April 1999, Brixton was doing what Brixton does. Market traders packing up. Families out shopping. Iceland just being Ic...

This week, we’re back together after a short break and doing what we do best. Catching up, oversharing, laughing at ourselves, and gently easing into the darkness. Then we turn to Croydon. In 2008, 26 year old builder Mark Corcoran was found stabbed in the heart. Despite a violent Valentines Day attack, potential witnesses, and years of investigation, no one has ever been charged. His case remains...

In this week's episode, Rachel takes us back to the chilling atmosphere of 1952 Croydon to unravel the tragic and highly controversial case that gripped Britain: the fate of Derek Bentley. What started as a routine callout to a warehouse roof quickly descended into chaos and tragedy, leaving one police officer dead, one injured, and two teenagers under arrest for murder, setting the stage for...

A first date. A December night. A man who looked confident, capable, and in control. In this episode, we tell the story of Charlotte Brown, a thoughtful, ambitious young woman who went out for dinner in London and never came home. What followed was years of delay, denial, and a justice system playing catch-up, as her family fought to prove that what happened on the Thames was not a tragic accident...

This week on Sinister South, we do what we do best. There’s midweek chaos, including Rach questioning her own judgement after agreeing to a gig with the kids in tow, celebrating her slow and inevitable demise (also known as her birthday) on release day, and of course the continuing saga of #JenAneatenbyleopards. The truth will come out. Probably. Eventually. Then we get into the case of Tom “Tommy...

In this episode, we head back to Victorian Brixton and into one of the most disturbing cases we’ve ever covered on Sinister South. Before we get there though, we do what we do best and chat absolute nonsense. There’s an unexpected fifth cat, a house that smells like a crime scene for all the wrong reasons, the slow realisation that our bodies are ageing at an alarming rate, and a surprisingly seri...

It's 2026!! Happy Bloody New Year Trevors! This week, after a bit of our usual rambling about poorly dogs (get well soon Ted), questionable New Year resolutions and why Rachel should probably never do another English Literature degree, we turn to one of the most shocking cases to come out of South London in recent years. In August 2012, 12-year-old Tia Sharp went missing from her grandmother’...

It’s our Christmas crime compendium, and yes, we’re wrapping South London horror in tinsel again. Before we get into the cases, there’s a bit of festive nonsense. Questionable Christmas cracker jokes, South London takes on classic Christmas films, and the usual gentle chaos as we attempt to bring some cheer to stories that absolutely do not deserve it. This year’s main case takes us back to Victor...