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  • 5/3/2025
Britain's Countryside Killers S01E04
Transcript
00:00In a close-knit suburb in Greater Manchester,
00:08an 18-year-old student is nowhere to be found
00:10after completing her A-levels.
00:14She had messaged her friends and said she would meet them afterwards.
00:20However, that was the last anybody heard of Ellen that day.
00:25They are getting increasingly concerned
00:27because it is very out of character
00:29how she'd fallen and hurt herself, how she got really lost.
00:33Police launch a wide-scale search for the missing teenager.
00:37They were aware that this potentially could end badly.
00:41Is there something in their background
00:42that might give you clues to what happened?
00:44Did Ellen have any enemies?
00:46Was there anyone who wished her any harm?
00:48Was she in conflict?
00:49This has a really big effect on the village.
00:52There's concern about what's happened to her,
00:54something nefarious happened to her.
00:59Is there somebody in their midst
01:00who has potentially hurt Ellen?
01:02is there anybody in their midst still here?
01:10?
01:12I don't know.
01:14I want against her,
01:16I don't think so.
01:20Ah!
01:22Aurel is a suburb of Wigan in Greater Manchester in England.
01:49It is known for its natural beauty and historic ties to the coal mining industry.
01:58The small town of Aurel is quite a nice spot.
02:03It's described as somewhere that has generations of people living there.
02:10They have never moved out because they have no reason to.
02:14It's affluent. It's got nice coffee shops and other facilities. It's quite a nice spot.
02:21A very beautiful area. Everybody knows everybody else. Just a friendly, nice place.
02:28Not a high crime area. You know, there's quite well-to-do parts of that neighbourhood.
02:34Being a small village where everybody knows everybody else, crime will just be limited to your shopliftings, your maybe a Friday night punch-up or something like that.
02:45But nothing major or unexpected crime-wise really happens in Aurel.
02:52Aurel is home to 18-year-old student Ellen Higginbottom.
02:58She was a very popular girl. She lived in Aurel. She had lots of friends and a big circle of friends.
03:05She loved music and singing. She was very musical. But she also loved animals, particularly horses.
03:13And she wanted or she certainly aspired to be a vet one day.
03:18Ellen is an only child. She's very much interested in working with animals.
03:24And pretty much every photo that you see of Ellen subsequently is with animals and surrounding herself with animals.
03:31She went to Winstanley College where she was doing her A-levels.
03:36And she was in her second year at Winstanley College.
03:40Winstanley College would have a reputation as a place where high achievers go to.
03:46It has excellent academic grades and it attracts students from all over the North West,
03:51throughout Lancashire and as far away as Merseyside.
03:55And this is where Ellen, 18 years old, is studying psychology.
04:00Like many of the locals, Ellen often visits Aurel Water Park.
04:05Right in the middle of Aurel is Aurel Water Park.
04:09And this is a beautiful green area and, as it suggests, around a body of water.
04:16It's right on the edge of Winstanley College, so a lot of the children in their breaks will go and have their lunch around the lake
04:26or just go for a walk for a break in the sunshine.
04:29A very beautiful, picturesque water park.
04:34This is a beautiful area. It's a nature reserve.
04:37It's an area where it's adjacent to farmland.
04:40Lots of nature around there, ponds, people go fishing there, bird watching.
04:44It's somewhere where people will go for a walk, particularly in summer, nice day, like it was on the 16th of June 2017.
04:57Ellen has just completed her final A-level exam, so she's in a good mood.
05:06It's a beautiful summer's afternoon.
05:08She decides to leave the college and go for an afternoon stroll.
05:12She had messaged her friends and said she would meet them afterwards when they'd finished their final exams as well.
05:21And in the interim, while she was waiting for them, she said she was going to have a walk around Aurel Park
05:26where she liked to go to enjoy the sunshine and the water and just to clear her mind after her final exam.
05:35So it was always a bit of a standing joke amongst Ellen's friends that she was prone to getting lost.
05:41And sure enough, she had gone for a walk around the lake and at about 2 o'clock she had sent all of her friends a Snapchat
05:48saying that she had already got lost within 15 minutes of entering the water park.
05:53However, that was the last anybody heard of Ellen that day.
06:01There are a number of hours that pass and her friends have no further contact from her.
06:08They are getting increasingly concerned because it is very out of character for Ellen.
06:13And they think, has she fallen and hurt herself? Has she got really lost?
06:18They try contacting her, but her mobile phone is switched off.
06:23Her boyfriend and her friends start a search party.
06:27They start to search the area around Aurel Park looking to see if anyone has seen Ellen.
06:33Their emotions are bound to be very heightened.
06:36They are bound to be frightened, they are bound to be fearful, they are bound to be anxious
06:39because they just want to find Ellen and make sure she is okay.
06:42So because Aurel is such a small place and such a close-knit community, news spreads quite quickly of Ellen's disappearance and everybody becomes involved in trying to find her.
06:56It became clear, though, that without further assistance they weren't going to be able to find her.
07:03And at about twenty past seven that evening, Ellen's father called police to say his daughter was missing and that this was totally out of character for her.
07:13Police take this very seriously and because of her age as well and the fact that it is so out of character, they very quickly spring into action to try and find where Ellen has gone.
07:27Police begin their investigation by gathering information about Ellen and her last known movements.
07:34The SIO, the senior investigating officer appointed, was Detective Superintendent Howard Millington.
07:41He is the man given the task of finding Ellen.
07:45Police immediately took this very seriously and rightfully so, they immediately went into action because they were aware that this potentially could end badly.
07:56This was a petite young woman who had no reason to disappear or go missing or had no reason not to get in contact with anyone.
08:05She was in such a good mood because she had finished her A-level exams, she would have been in a mood of celebration.
08:11And she's doing a very normal thing. She's saying to her friends, I'm going to go for a stroll in the park.
08:16And then she disappears.
08:20Police were right to be worried.
08:24In the initial stages of any high risk missing person investigation, you have to clear the ground beneath you.
08:30So you have to establish the facts and what are assumptions.
08:34So what do you know? What do you think you know?
08:37And then you use inquiries to fill the gaps in.
08:43It's multifaceted.
08:45So you'll be interested in the missing person, but you'll be interested to know their network.
08:50You'll be interested to know if there's any precursor events.
08:52Has something happened on the build up to it?
08:54But you need to know their background.
08:56Is there something in their background that might give you a clue as to what happened?
09:00And in some cases, people have had mental health issues.
09:03Some cases, people might have financial pressures.
09:06They might have had relationship breakdowns.
09:08Those kind of things are all things that you want to explore and then either include or exclude, depending on what you find.
09:15Police contacted the local hospitals.
09:19They wanted to know had anyone come in injured who was given Ellen's name or matching Ellen's description.
09:26That proved not to be the case.
09:28They then spoke to Ellen's friends, Ellen's boyfriend, Ellen's family.
09:34They wanted to know as much as possible about Ellen.
09:38They wanted to know, did Ellen have any enemies?
09:41Was there anyone who wished her any harm?
09:43Was she in conflict of any sort with anyone?
09:48But there was nothing that came up.
09:50It just added to the mystery of why did this young woman disappear?
09:57Investigators turn their attention to Ellen's social media.
10:00Her friends were able to say that she had Snapchatted all of them at approximately 2 o'clock that afternoon
10:09to say that she was already in Oral Park but already got lost within Oral Park.
10:14But this was a big help to police because it put her last known location as being in the park
10:20and that's where they then focused their attention on searching for Ellen.
10:25Police would have walked round the park, they would have gone round the paths,
10:29they would have gone round the more used places in an attempt to see if they could locate Ellen.
10:35Once it was realised that in actual fact they couldn't find her,
10:39then the search would have stepped up a parameter and they would have called in search teams.
10:44As the hours pass and police intensify their search, Ellen's friends and family grow increasingly worried.
10:51So as it starts to get dark, police realise that something potentially more untoward has happened here.
10:59This has a really big effect on the village.
11:02There's concern about what's happened to her, something nefarious happened to her.
11:06Is there somebody in their midst who has potentially hurt Ellen?
11:10This is a really big concern for the village.
11:12The police then have to up their search again and in order to try and locate Ellen, they bring in the helicopter.
11:22This was something completely different for Oral.
11:26People were not used to seeing so much police activity.
11:28They were not used to seeing police cars flying about the place.
11:33They were not used to seeing so many officers and vans and things of that nature at the water park.
11:40It was surreal for the people of Oral.
11:42It was like something that they saw on television or in a movie or something that happened somewhere else.
11:47It doesn't happen here, but it was.
11:50Carrying out an area search if that last known place is vital, clearly.
11:54Because if something didn't happen there, you want to eliminate it, but if something has happened there,
11:59you want to be able to establish the facts before they're disturbed and before the scene is disturbed.
12:04In this case, they used the helicopter with thermal imaging to help see if there was anything of significance.
12:11Was it possible that she'd slipped and had an accident?
12:14She could actually have been harmed and dying, you know, perhaps had a head injury or something like that.
12:19They would have wanted to eliminate that as well as the criminal options that may have happened.
12:23Search efforts are focused on Ellen's last known location, Oral Water Park.
12:32It's a really large site.
12:33And the other problem with an area like this is there's a lot of foliage.
12:38There's wheat which grows quite high.
12:40And in order to get a scale of the area, you have to get above it.
12:45Because, let's be honest, you could be walking past something on one of these narrow pathways
12:50and something could be a few yards away from you and you might not be able to see it.
12:55Apart from the police officers on the ground, there shouldn't have been anybody else in that park.
12:59However, the helicopter is up there with its infrared camera
13:03and it notices a heat source running across a field which is adjacent to the water park.
13:09They then notify police on the ground that there's a heat source that isn't expected to be there and police move into that field.
13:21I received a phone call around about 2.45 in the morning from the night detective inspector
13:27to inform me that the body of a young female had been discovered in a field and seemed to have a significant injury.
13:35Though still to be formally identified, police are confident that this is unfortunately the body of missing 18-year-old Ellen Higginbottom.
13:44And the person seen fleeing on the thermal imaging camera could possibly be her killer.
13:53On the 16th of June 2017, the body of a young female is discovered in a field in Aurel, a suburb of Wigan in Greater Manchester.
14:15Earlier that evening, 18-year-old local student Ellen Higginbottom was reported missing after failing to return home
14:23after a planned meeting with friends in a local park to celebrate completing their A-levels.
14:28Given the description we had from the missing person reports and from her family
14:34and the clothing that was in the area and obviously the build and size and age that this young lady appeared to be.
14:44It was almost certain that it was Ellen.
14:55So when they find Ellen, they realise that she is deceased
15:00and she has two very large stab wounds to her neck, either of which could have killed her.
15:06Also lying next to her is a spade and tied around her ankles is a belt.
15:13As they look around, they realise that this belt potentially has been used to drag Ellen across the field.
15:22There was nothing else with Ellen. Her rucksack was missing, her Lenovo laptop was missing, her mobile phone was missing, her keys were missing.
15:30There were no other personal items with her body.
15:36Police knew obviously straight away they were dealing with the murder investigation and they obviously knew that this individual had to be caught.
15:43Upon arrival at the scene, I was met by the night detective inspector and together we entered the scene, familiarised ourselves with the area.
15:58and where the body was lay and then requested specialist crime scene examiners who will actually ensure that every potential evidential opportunity is recovered from the scene.
16:15With any potential serious crime of that nature, I, through the detective inspector, requested that certain actions were taken and taken immediately to ensure that the scene was preserved.
16:30Now this is a large area, so it's always easy to reduce a scene if you make it too large to start with, but not the other way around to cover the entire area so we could preserve any evidence within that area.
16:45And to cover any access, any groups routes and to ensure there was a common approach path.
16:52It was, I suppose you could say almost surreal in some ways, and that something so evil has happened to this wonderful young woman.
17:00And she was in a cornfield and surrounded by a beautiful part of the locality, a nature reserve, birds singing, beautiful summer's morning.
17:12It was a real contrast between the two things in the area at that time.
17:23This is a local beauty spot that everybody's familiar with, people have grown up there, they've then raised their own kids there.
17:30And this has been a place of safety, tranquility really, for many years.
17:36And this beauty spot has now become a place of horror.
17:41Now that the missing persons case has been upgraded to a homicide, detectives begin the search for Ellen's killer.
17:48Most people who are subject to homicide are actually known to the offender, known to each other, often in an intimate relationship.
17:58So it's quite reasonable in these circumstances to carry out what we call TIE enquiries.
18:06TIE stands for trace, investigate and evaluate.
18:10And within that process, you would look at the times when the offence is likely to have been committed.
18:16And if they can be alibied out at those relevant times.
18:21And we would initially focus on those closest to our partners and things of that nature.
18:27Anybody, any friends, maybe anybody whom they've had a fallout with.
18:33We did conduct that process.
18:35It was only a very small TIE policy because we're only looking at a small number of people.
18:40We very quickly were able to establish that these people were not involved in any way in what had happened to Ellen.
18:48Indeed, they'd been actively trying to search for her themselves and were in no way guilty of doing anything wrong whatsoever.
18:59They need to negate people quickly so that they can then narrow down their field of where they are looking.
19:04But obviously this didn't narrow it down. This broadened it to anybody.
19:09This could have been anybody within the area.
19:12There is a very apparent oxymoron in such a horrific crime taking place in such a place of beauty.
19:22It must have been devastating.
19:24It's a horrific crime.
19:26And for the community, they'll be, how did this happen?
19:30How was it allowed to happen in front of us?
19:32And of course, as you've moved forward, communities will think about, can it happen again?
19:36They would never have expected it to have happened before.
19:40So what are the chances it could happen again?
19:43And that creates fear.
19:44And suddenly people become fearful of going to the park,
19:47which is something we should all be able to enjoy whenever we want.
19:50You can imagine the impact on the community was significant.
19:56And there were significant concerns around the fact that nobody had been arrested.
20:02The offence had only just happened.
20:04And we have to reassure the public around their safety.
20:09And that's why in circumstances like this, we do increase patrols.
20:14That's part of the media strategy as well.
20:16That message goes out there.
20:18This is a very thorough investigation, which was being intensively resourced.
20:23And we would leave no stone unturned until we found who'd committed this horrific crime.
20:29Police are also relying on the public to come forward with anything suspicious they might have seen in the area.
20:39Not only has nothing like this ever happened in this area before, this is now getting huge national attention.
20:46And there's a genuine fear that this is an individual who has killed one young girl and is capable of doing so again.
20:57They're grasping for suspects.
21:01They're grasping for anyone who could do such an appalling thing.
21:04And in an area that small, in an area where most people know each other,
21:08there aren't a huge list of suspects.
21:12So in these cases, you want to identify any potential witnesses.
21:23This person has got to be apprehended as quickly as possible.
21:26So a proactive media release with face to the camera to various press outlets out there was really important to get that message out that we need information.
21:36Any information as to who's committed this crime.
21:40They need to put out messaging to the locals for anybody who might have seen anything that they deemed suspicious or was out of the ordinary for a day in Oral.
21:52And to do this, they have messaged, put out messages on social media that have been picked up by the public.
22:01And one of these members of the public has phoned in to say that they've seen something suspicious.
22:08This man was seen attempting to start a fire in a woodland nearby Billings.
22:13Police go to the location and they examine the dying embers of the fire.
22:20Within the dying embers of that fire, they find Ellen's Lenovo laptop and her keys.
22:32Police can then link this scene with Ellen's murder.
22:38The information we got subsequently led us to an area of woodland.
22:43There was actually a campfire there.
22:45And within the campfire was the burnt remains of a Lenovo laptop.
22:50Now we do know that Ellen had a Lenovo laptop.
22:53And there's also two Yale house keys.
22:56And we do know that Ellen had house keys as well.
23:01A 47-year-old man from Billings is arrested as a result of this.
23:06He is questioned.
23:08And he indicates to police that, yes, he did have her items, but he wasn't the only one.
23:14Investigators must determine if the man in custody is telling the truth
23:19by locating the two individuals he claims are in possession of Ellen's belongings.
23:24The body of 18-year-old Ellen Higginbottom was discovered in a field in Oral,
23:47a suburb of Wigan in Greater Manchester, on the 16th of June, 2017.
23:53The student was stabbed and her clothes were found in disarray, suggesting the attack was sexually motivated.
24:00Police have just arrested a 47-year-old man who was caught burning Ellen's belongings in a fire.
24:06But he claims he did not act alone.
24:08And he names two other people, a couple, a 31-year-old woman and 31-year-old man, also from Billings, as being involved.
24:21And they, too, are also arrested.
24:23Investigators question the three suspects in custody.
24:28The story that all three people were telling police was that the items were sold to them by a man called Mark Buckley from Oral.
24:41Buckley had given them a rucksack that contained the Lenovo laptop, the keys, a mobile phone, and he indicated to them that he had come across this rucksack and he was selling the contents on.
24:56It transpired that between the three of them, they'd agreed to buy the laptop and a phone belonging to Ellen, and there was a suggestion they would use the money for drugs.
25:11When the 47-year-old man opens the laptop, he sees the name Ellen Higginbottom on the laptop, and he realises this is the young woman who has been murdered.
25:24And he panics, and he attempts to burn the laptop.
25:28As a result of destroying evidence, which is what they did, and also handling this property that had been stolen from Ellen by Mark Buckley,
25:40they were all three of them subsequently charged with perverting the course of justice and handling stolen goods and subsequently pleaded guilty.
25:53Meanwhile, forensic examiners have been testing the evidence recovered from the crime scene.
25:58The belt that was found around Ellen's ankles was a male belt, and Ellen's family were able to confirm that she didn't own it, that it didn't belong to her.
26:11So police sent it away for forensic examination, and they found Ellen's blood, but they also found a DNA profile.
26:19And the DNA profile came back as a match to a man called Mark Buckley.
26:30Not only did we have the link through Mark Buckley's friends, and subsequently they named him as the person who brought the property to them,
26:38but we also had a good forensic connection as well.
26:41As soon as this result came through, that it was a match on the National DNA database to Mark Buckley, I immediately made the policy decision to declare him a suspect.
26:53The police start to make plans to arrest Mark Buckley at his mother's home in Oral, and they arrive at his house, they bang on his door.
27:03He opens the door and they immediately arrest him on suspicion of murdering Ellen Higginbottom.
27:10Police!
27:11You're under arrest on suspicion of murder. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defense.
27:23If you do not mention one question, something you're later aligning in court, anything you do say may be given in evidence.
27:29Would you like to make any response to that?
27:33Anything to say to that?
27:44Can you let me...
27:46Yes, have you got keys on you? Are the keys there? Are they right?
27:51OK. Well, we'll secure your property for you. Don't worry about that.
27:55We've got a warrant to service the property, which is here.
27:58So we'll do that at some stage.
28:01We're going to say that's a letter to mention it now for questioning and we'll continue our inquiries.
28:09When they read him his rights, he is stunned. He is very silent.
28:16He says relatively little. In fact, the only thing he actually says is,
28:22can you look after my personal property? Can you look after my items?
28:26And the police reassure him, yes, we will. But he is completely stunned.
28:29He is not being dragged kicking and screaming. He is just an assailant man.
28:35He's compliant. He leaves with the officers where he's immediately put in an interview room and questioned.
28:43So when he's questioned by police following his arrest, he denies any involvement.
28:49Despite the forensic evidence with the blood on the belt and despite the man saying that he had sold him the laptop and given him the keys,
28:58he's denying any involvement in this case.
29:02Police look into Mark Buckley's background.
29:06So when police look into Mark Buckley to ascertain some more information about him,
29:10they find that he's a 52-year-old male.
29:12A 52-year-old male, he's living with his mother in Oral, but he's not supposed to be living with his mother in Oral.
29:18He has previous time in prison for setting fire to a neighbour's vehicle.
29:24And following his time in prison for this arson, he moves back to Oral with his mother.
29:33But the public living within Oral complain that he is behaving very strangely.
29:39He comes into the pub and he's almost bragging about having served time in prison.
29:44The people of Oral find this very strange and they're unnerved by him.
29:49And they report back to police that this is not a reaction that they are comfortable with.
29:56And the police move Mark Buckley to a place in Preston to live in Preston.
30:03However, he finds a reason to come back and see his mother on a regular basis,
30:08meaning that he is spending more and more of his time within the area of Oral again.
30:14While in custody, police identify CCTV footage of Mark Buckley in Oral on the day of Ellen's murder.
30:23I've found CCTV evidence absolutely crucial in a large number of the cases that I've investigated.
30:32And this is no exception.
30:36They track CCTV from Oral Park to his mother's house.
30:41And they find a camera on the side of a house.
30:44And this camera shows Mark Buckley at approximately one o'clock in the afternoon of the day that Ellen was killed.
30:53They see him walking towards the park with his dog.
30:56And despite it being a warm day, he has a thick coat on, he has long trousers, and he's carrying a bag.
31:02But this bag is nearly empty.
31:05They then follow this CCTV and see him a number of hours later walking back in the opposite direction.
31:12But he has no coat on, he has just shorts on, and his bag is bulging with items.
31:21On CCTV, when police see Mark Buckley going to and from Oral Park, he's seen with his dog as well.
31:29Following the murder, he is seen with scratches.
31:32And when people ask him about these scratches, he explains them away as being his dog had got away from him.
31:39And he had to charge through some bushes to get his dog back.
31:42And these caused the scratches and also made him hot and bothered, which was the reason for taking his coat and his trousers off.
31:50I think we can think differently about the reality of where those scratches came from and why he didn't have his coat and trousers on any longer, as they would probably have been covered in blood.
32:07Police, when they viewed these two pieces of CCTV footage, really looked like this was a before and after of a murder scene, really.
32:17They had him walking towards the park, dressed inappropriately for a hot summer afternoon.
32:25And then two hours later, he's coming back after the murder has taken place, and he's changed his appearance.
32:30He's taken his, he's disrobed basically, and he has his clothes bundled into the bag.
32:36Bit suspicious looking.
32:39Police were able to question other people.
32:42And it's evident that Mark Buckley was in Oral Park from 5.30 in the morning.
32:50That was the first time he was visiting the park.
32:52And a number of females will say that he was walking around the park, stopping them to talk to them.
32:59He has then left the park, and the CCTV that was seen at him returning at one o'clock, clearly deciding he was going to try again.
33:07Faced with the evidence stacked against him, Buckley makes a shocking admission.
33:13There comes a point where Mark Buckley changes his tune.
33:20And he confesses to police that he murdered Ellen Higginbottom.
33:25The evidence is mounting, and it mounts to such an extent that he realises the game's up.
33:33He confessed to police that he had killed Ellen, that he had encountered her in Oral Water Park and had said hello to her.
33:46And then he had attacked her.
33:48The image that the thermal cameras from the helicopter caught were Mark Buckley returning to the scene.
33:59And he was returning to see if he could bury the body of Ellen Higginbottom,
34:05because he realised that police were getting close and he needed to bury the evidence.
34:09However, he maintained there was not a sexual element to the murder.
34:19The police, however, disagreed with that.
34:22They maintained this was a sexually motivated murder.
34:25We have to remember that Ellen's clothes were in disarray.
34:29They had been interfered with.
34:31Police search Mark Buckley's house in an effort to find evidence relating to a sexual motive for Ellen's murder.
34:39So police then go and search the home of Mark Buckley.
34:43And within his bin they find this bag full of bloodied clothes that he's clearly tried to dispose of.
34:50But also in the bottom of this bag is what police can only describe as a rape kit.
34:56It has condoms in it. It has lubricants in it.
34:59And they say that this clearly, to them, shows a sexual element to the crime.
35:10A witness came forward to say that she'd actually been in that area at the time.
35:14And she had heard what she thought was two people having sex in the undergrowth.
35:19Police believe that that was actually the time that Mark Buckley was attacking Ellen Higginbottom.
35:26Police say that Mark Buckley was attacked.
35:29Prosecutors now face the task of preparing for trial.
35:33While Mark Buckley has confessed to the murder,
35:36the question is whether they have enough evidence to establish a sexual motive,
35:40which could lead to a longer sentence.
35:43The body of 18-year-old Ellen Higginbottom was found in a field in Wigan, Greater Manchester, on June 17, 2017,
35:55just a day after she went missing while walking in Oral Water Park.
36:1252-year-old Mark Buckley is arrested and charged with her murder.
36:16Though he initially denies the crime,
36:18he changes his plea to guilty when confronted with the evidence against him.
36:25The 4th of September, 2017,
36:27that's when the case comes to Manchester Crown Court.
36:32Mark Buckley has pleaded guilty, so there will be no trial.
36:37We heard in statements given to the police and court
36:39that Buckley sort of starved himself as a local face who was famous for going to prison.
36:45But in court, we didn't see anybody that was remarkable in any way other than the crime that they committed.
36:53This was a pathetic, immediately dislikeable individual
36:58who was unable to hold the gaze of any investigation in court,
37:04stared at the ground most of the time.
37:06Although they were trying to deny exactly what happened,
37:09this was a pitiful figure that was being made to confront the enormity of what they'd done.
37:14and the gaping hole they'd left in this family's life.
37:20There was a huge level of media interest in this particular case.
37:24The press gave it a lot of coverage.
37:27Because this was such a desperately sad story,
37:29this was a young woman who was just beginning to start her life.
37:35She had finished her last A-level exam,
37:37she would have went on to further education
37:39and had a very successful professional career.
37:42And it was taken from her.
37:44And it's a beautiful spot.
37:48It's a place where a crime like this just doesn't happen.
37:53The press were all over it, and rightfully so, because...
37:58It was just horrific.
38:00Residents of Oral actually attended and several of them knew Mark Buckley.
38:05They went there in solidarity with Ellen's family because they were outraged.
38:10They were outraged that such a horrific crime could happen against anyone in their village.
38:15They were absolutely incensed that this had happened,
38:18and they wanted to go there to show their support.
38:20Oral residents who knew Buckley give statements at the sentencing hearing.
38:29They had said he was a weird man, a loner, an oddball, and someone that didn't fit in with that local community.
38:35They were ashamed of him.
38:37They were really ashamed of him and what he had done.
38:39Because they realised that through his actions, that was inevitably a bit of a stain on the area.
38:47Even though the vast majority of the community were totally horrified by it.
38:54Buckley pleads guilty to this appalling, violent, motiveless crime.
39:00But he doesn't expand on any of his reasons.
39:02He pretends almost in court as if it happened, but he almost had no understanding or control of it.
39:09His defence will say that he shows great remorse for the murder.
39:15He will say that he has no reason for the murder.
39:18He states there is no sexual element to it.
39:21Buckley continues to deny that this murder is sexually motivated,
39:26and yet he does not come up with an alternative motive as to why he did this.
39:30He cannot answer the question of why.
39:33One of the reasons why he may have denied his sexual motivation in murdering Ellen
39:42was that it does carry a higher prison sentence.
39:47However, I think the other side of it is that this was a man who had a bit of an ego.
39:55This was a man who thought he was it.
39:58And I don't think he wanted people thinking that of him, that he was a sexual predator.
40:10The judge, however, sees it very differently and states that there is a sexual element to this crime.
40:14And with the evidence brought forward by police, he deems that the murder was sexually motivated.
40:23There was no trial in the end because he offered what they call an early guilty plea.
40:27Because he offered an early guilty plea, he's entitled in sentencing guidelines to what they call a discount.
40:34Buckley was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment,
40:39which is the only sentence that can be applied for the offence of murder.
40:43And he was given a minimum tariff of 36 years to serve before he can be considered for parole.
40:51Because of his early guilty plea, because of his early guilty plea, that was discounted by five years to 31 years because of the sentencing guidelines in relation to an early guilty plea.
41:03So he was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 31 years before he can even apply for parole.
41:10It would be interesting to understand his history.
41:16Um, I suspect there had been other events that had impacted on him as a person.
41:22Um, and the criminal psychologists would undoubtedly, uh, be able to unpick that if he was willing to cooperate with them.
41:30Uh, and I guess if he was, that would be helpful because that might help us identify other people at risk of developing those kind of thoughts.
41:40Um, which in his case, uh, were, were clearly extreme.
41:44And sadly, he had the, uh, ability to carry them out.
41:50Despite the relief for Ellen's loved ones and the community of Oral in knowing that this dangerous predator is locked up,
41:57their grief is still immense.
42:00You can see where Ellen got her compassion and empathy from that set her on the early part of her course to be a vet.
42:07Her parents, Michael and Kay, despite going through, uh, uh, an appalling, unimaginable grief, released a statement that said we shouldn't call her killers animals.
42:19Innocent people love, or at least have loved, these monsters too.
42:24And I promise you, Ellen had also told you that nobody deserves the pain we feel right now.
42:30If her legacy is planting seeds in a garden you never get to see,
42:34then thanks to people like our remarkable Ellen,
42:37it's coming to beauty and love and kindness.
42:46Don't call her killers animals.
42:48People have also called for them to be strung up,
42:50but we've thrown enough stones in rivers whilst camping together with Ellen
42:54to tell you that ripples always reach the shore.
42:57The ripples of a murder like this in a small community like Oral are quite far-reaching.
43:12Uh, this is a murder that will pass through generations,
43:16particularly when people have their own children and their own daughters who are going out and going for a walk,
43:23and going to more quiet locations.
43:27It will have made people more aware of their surroundings,
43:31and maybe young women who would have went out on their own would now go out in company of another person or persons.
43:37It's also something that people through the years will remember and will talk about.
43:43It's not just something that appears in the newspaper for a couple of weeks and then it's forgotten about.
43:48It's something that through the years is always talked about.
43:51People will think back and remember it because it was such a significant event in this area.
43:56People are shaped by the place that they grow up, but also places are shaped by the people that live there.
44:05And an appalling crime like this, an atrocious murder and a horrifying loss of life of a young girl
44:13that had got everything to live for and had never acquired an enemy in her life.
44:19It marks a place like that.
44:23I think there's definitely a period during the case and afterwards where women no longer wanted to go out and walk the dog alone.
44:33People didn't want to go for a run on their own.
44:36They were going in pairs. They didn't want to go out after dark.
44:39It scars an area and it changes people's perception of what's a beautiful and well-loved spot of nature.
44:54The community of Oral come together to honour Ellen's life and ensure that she will be remembered.
45:00They wanted a lasting memorial to Ellen. They didn't want her to be forgotten.
45:05So they got a collection together and they created a bench and an area that was set aside as Ellen's area.
45:13And the bench has a plaque to her.
45:16And they also had a little box which has books in it where people can take books or leave them
45:24or they can take books away that they can read.
45:27And this is a real lasting tribute to Ellen who touched many people's lives in her short 18 years.
45:35I think Ellen's family, Ellen's parents were glad that they got that sense of closure.
45:45But they know that nothing can bring Ellen back.
45:48But they can be heartened by the fact that she is still loved and remembered.
45:53Not just by those that knew her, but by the people of Oral.
45:57They thought that far from them everything with her.
45:59So I think this is a genuine père of a being her, but it was racial and hopelessly it is truly special.
46:00But she met what people of Oral and Oral came together,
46:02and that she is still responsible for again like being her,
46:04And for her, that it was this life now that lies now or she is still really good.
46:05So I really just wanted to talk to her about mom,
46:06I guess so.
46:07So I just wanted to talk it out to yourா and she is of reward.
46:09That it was not very much for me to do.
46:10I thought it was the best of her with her awesome clothes.
46:11Yeah, I do think the greatest.
46:13So it went long and just the circuit,
46:15So you can't to add it to miss a place where I've to get indo.
46:17Because she's love amhneter he has a picture of some people's memories,