Always True Crime

In October 2006, 77-year-old widow Tilly Campbell was found dead in her home in Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland. The fire brigade had been called to her property, but it soon became clear that Tilly’s death was not the result of a fire. She had been murdered, and what initially appeared to be a tragic accident would soon become a murder investigation, with her next-door neighbour emergin...

In this episode, I’m joined by one of my real true crime heroes in Tom Wood, a retired senior police officer who spent almost 40 years in policing, working on some of Scotland’s most significant murder investigations. Tom has worked on some of Scotland’s most infamous murders and was Officer in Overall Command of a national investigation into the murders of five young Scottish women in the 1970s,...

A gang of armed robbers terrorised Bristol for more than a year, targeting banks, building societies and post offices with shotguns and other weapons. But how did they operate, and how did police finally bring them down? In this episode, I look at the robberies, the victims and the remarkable covert operation that eventually led to the gang's arrest and imprisonment - it is quite a story. I re...

Continuing the opening story of Series 11, and by 2007, the then 20 year cold cases of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce, the Tunbridge Wells 'Bedsit' murders, had been definitively linked by DNA as being the work of the same killer. But - he wasn't on the National DNA database. Skip forward 13 years, and by then, with the advancements in Familial DNA, it was to lead investigators to a v...

On Saturday the 28th of August 2010, 30-year-old Izabela Zablocka telephoned her mother and 9-year-old daughter, Kasia, as she did every few days without fail. That day, she vanished without a trace and would never be seen or heard from again. And although her killer thought they had got away with murder, after 15 years fighting to find the answers, Iza's body was finally unearthed, and the t...

Very occasionally, I recommend a podcast series to you and this is a show I have found really interesting and I hope you will too. This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new true crime series from Always True Crime. NOTE: I haven't been paid to promote this podcast It starts in the 1960s when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso...

In September 1965, six-year-old Margaret Reynolds disappeared while walking to school in Birmingham. Just a few months later, five-year-old Diane Tift vanished while making the short journey home from her grandma’s house in Walsall. Both disappearances sparked major searches, but neither girl was found until their bodies were discovered together on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. The discovery tra...

Today’s story takes us to Plymouth, where we look at the tragic story of Callum Hill and the events surrounding his death. At the heart of the story is a personal dispute between two men and the seemingly futile idea that problems can be settled by arranging a fight. What begins as an argument driven by pride, ego and a refusal to back down ultimately has consequences far beyond the people involve...

What does nearly 40 years of investigating serious crime teach you about murder? Tom Wood has spent almost four decades on the inside of Scottish policing, working as a detective on some of the country's most notorious cases before eventually becoming a senior-ranking police officer. Now a bestselling true crime writer, Tom joins me on British Murders to talk about the investigations, people a...

A building project that went badly wrong would lead to a lengthy and costly legal dispute between builder Michael Chudley and his customer, Christopher Sear. As the court case dragged on for years, the consequences for Chudley and his partner became increasingly serious, with both of them losing their homes. As the financial and personal pressures mounted, Chudley began looking for someone to blam...

This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new investigative series from Always True Crime. It starts in the 1960s when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso diamond. It’s the world’s largest uncut diamond and one of the Natural History Museum’s most important pieces. When a young window cleaner is arrested a few months after the theft, h...

True Crime Catch Up is back! I'm delighted to say that True Crime Catch Up is back with a brand-new episode, as I sit down with Stuart Blues, for episode one of our new monthly series. If you haven't listened before, it's a chance for the two of us to get together and chat about different aspects of true crime, from individual cases to our own experiences of researching and presenting...

Some true crime cases stay with you long after you've finished researching them. Maybe it's the unanswered questions, the sheer brutality of what happened, the mistakes made during an investigation, or simply the feeling that there’s something about the case you just can't shake. In this returning episode of True Crime Catch Up , Stuart Blues of British Murders and Adam Lloyd of UK Tru...

Sixteen-year-old Ruth Wilson disappeared after travelling by taxi to Box Hill in Surrey. She had skipped school and, after being dropped off, was last seen standing alone in the rain on a quiet bridleway as darkness was falling. Ruth had been experiencing difficulties in her personal life, having recently discovered the truth about her biological mother's death, something that reportedly had a...

It is great to be back for a brand new series of The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, and I begin Series 11 with at first, a case that I covered before the podcast was even a podcast, when it was a simple blog. Back in 1987, the Kent town of Tunbridge Wells was gripped by fear, with the murders of two young women, five months apart. They were crimes that for many years remained cold cases, until for...

On Monday the 26th of April 2021 at 12:15pm, 63-year-old retired Police Constable, Clive Porter approached Lock 14 at Broughton on the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union Canal. As a License Enforcement Officer, he placed a notice on an unlicensed boat... and then was brutally murdered by NOT the owner of that boat. But why? And what secrets was his killer hiding?  Location:  Lock 14, Broug...

In March 2014, 33-year-old James Attfield was found brutally murdered in Castle Park in Colchester, Essex. Just a few months later, 31-year-old Saudi Arabian student Nahid Almanea was attacked and killed while walking along a secluded footpath on her way to the University of Essex. The two murders appeared to have little in common, but detectives soon began asking whether they could have be commit...

This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new investigative series from Always True Crime. It starts in the 1960s, when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso diamond - the world’s largest uncut diamond, and one of the Natural History Museum’s most important pieces. When a young window cleaner is arrested a few months after the theft, his...

Carol Jarvis was a woman whose life was shaped by her family and, later, by a degenerative illness which left her increasingly dependent on others. As her health deteriorated, her husband took on the role of her carer, looking after her at home as she became less able to care for herself. But behind the closed doors of the family home, things were not quite as they appeared. Carol’s children began...

In January 1993, 37-year-old Madallin Jones was found dead beside a stream near Hawarden, North Wales, after what initially appeared to be a terrible road accident. But as detectives examined the scene and began looking more closely at the circumstances surrounding her death, they quickly realised that something wasn't quite right. Madallin's husband, Steven Jones, was a serving police ser...

Note: This epiosde was originally released in February 2022. High Wycombe isn't somewhere you would necessarily associate with violent crime, but in this case an apparently ordinary churchyard became the setting for a brutal and completely unnecessary murder. Lee Gillespie found himself caught up in a complicated situation involving jealousy, relationships and misplaced loyalty. What began as...

A weekend of music, mountain biking and entertainment at the impressive surroundings of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. But for one 18-year-old man with everything to live for, the weekend would end in tragedy. What happened during those final hours, and how did a celebration turn into a devastating event. This is the story of Alex Pilkington. I release new episodes of the UK True Crime Podcast e...

From Saturday 20th of March 2004 to Friday 15th of May 2004, in numerous lakes and rivers, across several countries, the head, hands, thighs, lower legs and feet, but not the arms, torso and pelvis of 63 year-old Ian Halls was found. He wasn't a criminal and hadn't double crossed anyone, so why was he brutally murdered and dismembered?  Location:  1 Tower Mill Road, Ipswich, Suffolk...

In the summer of 2012, 23-year-old Natalie Jarvis was enjoying life in Swanley, Kent. Outgoing, funny and hugely sociable, Natalie had a close family, a large circle of friends and a job she loved, but behind the scenes, she had become involved with a young man she had known for several years, and what Natalie believed was a relationship would eventually take a far darker turn. In the weeks that f...

The story today is from Cheshire, when two childhood friends visit a family property, Boarded Barn, unaware that their lives are about to be caught up in a terrifying chain of events. This is a case involving mistaken identity, an extraordinary sequence of events and a murder investigation that would eventually uncover the truth. It’s a story that raises some difficult questions about chance, circ...