They Walk Among Us - UK True Crime

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, months to years, years to decades. Roy's murderer was free to travel around the countryside and towns across the United Kingdom, undetected. Almost 33 years later, the law would catch up with him, but perhaps some of his crimes were left behind…    *** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***  This episode was researched and wri...

"Many people who consume too much alcohol can become aggressive. The prosecution say what the defendant did on July 7 last year… was done in anger and fuelled by drink” — Rachel Brand QC, Birmingham Crown Court, February 2018 *** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***  This episode was researched and written by Benjamin Fitton.  Narration, audio editing and production direction also by Benjamin...

PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODE 33’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS TWO-PART CASE. In the final days of spring 2017, the police and paramedics were called to an address in Manchester City centre. At the scene, they found a male in his mid-thirties, incapacitated, left bloody and bruised following an altercation with another man who was barely into adulthood… (Part 2 of 2)  If you have any important...

Normawati Sinaga was startled when the phone rang. The voice on the other end of the line told her that they worked for the Greater Manchester Police. Trying to understand why on earth someone would be calling an Indonesian home from the other side of the world, she quickly thought of her son. He was studying in England… (Part 1 of 2)  *** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***  This episode wa...

It was the middle of summer — Sunday, July 22, 1990. At 11.30 pm, a musician, Gordon Wilson, was walking back from a late-night recording session on Holloway Road in London. He noticed the women and presumed they were just in a deep sleep. He was in a rush, and the last train was due to leave from Holloway Road underground station. Wilson didn't pause on his journey; it was dark, and he had n...

THIS IS A CASE UPDATE. PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODES 13 & 14’ FOR MORE DETAILS. PC Andrew Harper was killed while on duty only four weeks after his wedding. The three people involved in his death were tried at the Old Bailey for murder. Following the trial, towards the end of July 2020, Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole were acquitted though they would each be facing time behin...

The crime was compared to ‘Single White Female’, the 1992 film where a young woman imitates everything her new flatmate does, what she wears, even how she cuts her hair — then the obsession turns deadly… *** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***  This episode was researched and written by Rosanna Fitton.  Illustrations and production direction also by Rosanna Fitton. Narrat...

In the years following the murders of Alexander and Dorothy Wood, urban legend surrounding the case spread, with unsubstantiated claims published in the newspaper pages across Britain. Rumours suggested that the killer had posed the bodies, their glassy open eyes staring out through a basement window. It was said, they were positioned to face the direction of the church across the road,...

Valentine's Day in 1945 began like any other day for 74-year-old Charles Walton. Despite his advanced years and rheumatic joints, which required Charles to walk with a stick, he had worked as a labourer when local farmers had work available. He left with the tools for the job: a pitchfork and slash hook. It was at the edge of Meon Hill, an isolated spot around a mile from the main road, where they...

Maida Vale, West London, 6:20 pm, Sunday, March 24, 1996 — George Fraghistas locked his blue Lincoln Continental in a secure car park on Lanark Road. He walked to the exit. He had plans that evening and wanted to prepare. George was just about to open the door of the dimly lit concrete building, when a man suspiciously dressed for a spring day, in an anorak, gloves and a balaclava, took him b...

“The defendant had become so acutely conscious of what was contained within that freezer, and the risk of discovery – if not just from the odour that emitted from the freezer, that it appears that he had chosen to abandon the address” - Duncan Penny QC, Southwark Crown Court, July 2020 *** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***  This episode was researched and written by Benjamin Fitton.  Narra...

In 2018, one week after the New Year's celebrations, a middle-aged woman enters Cheadle Heath police station in Stockport. She had travelled almost 5 miles on foot from her home in Reddish, Greater Manchester. She has a blank expression on her face. In a quiet and subdued voice, the woman calmly tells an officer that she has killed someone. The body is buried in her back garden… *** LIST...

PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODE 24’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS TWO-PART CASE.  An off-duty police officer is arrested and charged with murder in May 2020. He claims it was an accident. The victim, a mother to two children, worked as a nurse. The pair had been having an affair for the last decade. But after they agreed to meet in a pub car park in West Parley, South-East Dorset, a row...

"If you apply that amount of force, significant force, resulting in severe injuries, for at least ten seconds, what else could you have intended than at very least a really serious injury" — Richard Smith QC, Salisbury Crown Court, October 2020 (Part 1 of 2) . *** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***  This episode was researched and written by Benjamin Fitton.  Narration, audio editing and pr...

It was a typical room for a teenage boy in the 1980s: football programmes on his desk with his homework, a well-used Amstrad HI-FI system with a tape cassette and radio, used to record the top chart hits on a Sunday, hitting the pause button before the DJ fades back in. Posters of his favourite musical acts covered the walls: Mel and Kim, T'Pau, Madonna, Samantha Fox — standard fare in 1988. His s...

PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODE 21’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS TWO-PART CASE.  Throughout Spring 1993 five men were murdered in London at the hands of the same killer. He had met them all in The Coleherne, a bar in Earl's Court. The murderer went back to the victims’ homes and strangled them while they were tied up. The killings were not initially linked by Scotland Yard. However, after t...

A dead body was found in Harrow, Greater London, at the end of May 1993. The officers at the scene quickly came to the conclusion that it was death by misadventure. The man, 37-year-old Christopher Dunn, was a librarian who worked at Harlesden Library in Brent, 7 miles from his located on Byron Way in Wealdstone. He was discovered in bed. The death was later ruled undetermined, but detec...

A text alert bleeped on the mobile phone; another strange and uncharacteristic message from her best friend flashed up on the screen. Over the last couple of days, a number of messages had left the phone and found their way into the inboxes of friends and colleagues, much to their confusion. In just a few texts, she mentioned hot tubs, liposuction, cosmetic surgery, and more concerningly...

"He obviously overreacted and assaulted her. He has no recollection of doing what he did next. This was a frenzied night terror” — Peter Rouch QC, Swansea Crown Court, June 2020 *** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***  This episode was researched and written by Benjamin Fitton.  Narration, audio editing and production direction also by Benjamin Fitton. Script editing, illustrations and produ...

When Sheila Stroud fled the scene with her two accomplices, she thought her problems were over. She could pay off her mortgage, keep her horses that she loved so dearly, and not have to worry about her troublesome ex-partner ever again. She thought that the blaze burning in a Cotswolds beauty spot would bring to an end the continuous arguments of an acrimonious separation and allow her to bask in...

Halloween is supposed to be the creepiest time of the year; the nights draw in early, and scary stories are told. When it’s a true story, and the murder is unsolved, it's even more unsettling. The killer could be someone you know, a person in your family or a kindly neighbour. On October 31, 1963, the night sky was illuminated by a full moon. Two children noticed a woman peering out of a wind...

On October 7, 1987, in Bristol city centre, a young woman was sat in her car at Canon’s Marsh car park. She had left a party at a nearby public house. Before she started the engine, she noticed a man, who she did not know, slowly walking towards the car. He pried open the door and put a gun into his intended victim’s face. The dark-haired man told the woman that providing she did what he said...

In a photograph of the couple on their wedding day, widely circulated in the press, Roselane can be seen looking into the camera with a broad, natural smile on her face. The groom is staring to the side, teeth together with a strained smile. Sokol Drenova was hiding something… *** LISTENER CAUTION IS ADVISED ***  This episode was researched and written by Rosanna...

Gordon and Derek finally managed to get into the house. They knew something strange was going on. The lights were off, and the curtains were drawn. Gordon’s fiancée wasn't the sort of person to just disappear nor was her father Matthew. In the darkness, searching for the light switch, Gordon and Derek noticed something strange on Matthew’s favourite armchair. It was a deep red stain. When the...

PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODE 13’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS TWO-PART CASE.  Throughout the late evening of August 15, 2019, PC Andrew Harper and his colleague PC Andrew Shaw were working overtime. They answered the call of a suspected burglary. A gang of masked young men with weapons were trying to steal a quad bike. The two uniformed officers travelled to the scene in an unmarked BMW...