Skip to playerSkip to main contentSkip to footer
VidShow
  • 2 days ago
Who.Took.Lynda.and.Dawn.S01E01

Category

📺
TV
Transcript
00:00The path is known locally as the Black Pad.
00:16Villagers avoid it at night because they're worried about being mugged.
00:20Linda was seen making her way towards the Black Pad.
00:31As the search continues, police are warning villagers here to keep their children out of these isolated areas.
00:38The last that anybody saw was her setting off to go and see a friend.
00:45She never arrived there.
00:49There was a serial killer on the loose.
01:04In the woods, police now believe there's a nude male streaker.
01:08And this guy was just dropping his trousers.
01:11They work usually in the evenings or in the night time, in the parks, in the streets.
01:16Many of today's measures are aimed at children, especially teenage girls.
01:20If you think you're being followed, don't try and shake your pursuer off.
01:23Ask for help.
01:25Linda Mann's body was found just after seven this morning. She was attacked just half a mile from her home.
01:44Police believe Dawn's killer is probably the same man who strangled Leicestershire schoolgirl Linda Mann.
01:54What we'd all feared being realised. Collapsing, screaming, weeping.
02:01The killer had the same enzyme and blood group.
02:11The clock was ticking. When would this man kill again?
02:16We've got to find the fiend really that did this. Stop it from happening again.
02:23The authorities carried out the world's first mass DNA screening. More than 5,000 men were tested.
02:32The technique has been hailed as the greatest breakthrough this century in the fight against crime.
02:375,000 males, one of whom could be the perpetrator.
02:43All we had to do was match the DNA and catch the killer.
02:48I just burst into tears. I couldn't believe it. That's when we first knew that there was real evil in the world.
02:59Enderby, Narborough and Littlethorpe. Back in the 90s,
03:29as they are today, they're all tightly knitted together.
03:34The three villages are connected by a network of small footpaths and lanes that go in between those three villages.
03:44They are all part of that sort of integral one community.
03:48All of the kids would know each other and therefore all of the families would too.
03:52If you asked anybody back in the 1980s in any of those three villages if there was any major crime, they would say no.
04:03It never happened in those villages.
04:06Serious crime was unheard of.
04:13But in 1983, the villagers saw their first murder inquiry.
04:20In 1983, Linda and I were 15 years old.
04:32We were friends and we used to hang out on Saturdays.
04:37We'd have part-time jobs. Sometimes we'd do babysitting, which Linda used to do.
04:44I worked part-time in a shop around the corner.
04:48We used to go to Woolworths on a Saturday.
04:52We'd go shopping, maybe, and buy a new nail varnish.
04:55Fashion and music was everything we had.
04:57We had no social media, so that was our life, really.
05:01She lived in Narborough, which was the middle village of the three.
05:06She lived with her parents, her mum and her stepdad,
05:09and she had an older and a younger sister.
05:12She was typical of most 15-year-old girls at that time.
05:16She was known by a lot of people in the community
05:18as a happy-go-lucky girl.
05:21She was enjoying the first semblance of independence.
05:25Linda was babysitting, then went home
05:46before setting off for a second babysitting job.
05:49When she arrived at the house for that,
05:53the family told her that they didn't need it.
05:55This is one of the problems of not having mobile phones
05:57or easy communication back in the 1980s.
06:00So she said goodbye to them and went off to another friend's house.
06:08At that time, catalogue shopping was really big.
06:11Families would buy clothing, they'd be delivered to the agent,
06:14and you would collect them.
06:16You'd send off for it, it'd arrive at your house,
06:19and then you'd pay something like £2 a week for the latest trend,
06:22and we used to love them.
06:23That was our way of keeping up with all the trends
06:26and paying with them from our part-time jobs.
06:31Linda already had a jacket which she bought from this friend's mum,
06:35who was the agent for the catalogue,
06:37and she went to that house to pay one of the instalments of the payment.
06:41The last that anybody saw was her setting off from that house
06:46to go and see another friend.
06:48She never arrived there.
06:50Linda was seen making her way towards the Black Pad.
07:03The Black Pad is one of the footpaths in the villages.
07:09Although these were dimly lit,
07:12they were reasonably close to residential areas.
07:16Linda was so close to home.
07:18On the evening, Linda's parents went out to the pub,
07:22and Linda's elder sister was at home.
07:24When Linda's parents returned from the pub late in the evening,
07:38they found her sister alone at home,
07:40and her sister particularly worried
07:42because they'd all been expecting Linda to be back much, much earlier.
07:46Panic ensued straight away.
07:55Linda's parents went out immediately,
07:58looking everywhere they could in the area,
08:01up and down neighbouring streets.
08:04It was a very, very cold night in the winter in November.
08:08It was very frosty on the ground,
08:10and it was getting colder as the evening went on,
08:13but they nevertheless did everything they could,
08:15looking everywhere they could,
08:17to see if they could find where Linda was.
08:20They informed the police.
08:21The police advised them that they would wait
08:24until the following morning before they took any action.
08:28Imagine what it was like for Linda's parents.
08:31Eddie and Kath had to go to bed on that November evening,
08:35not knowing what had happened to Linda, where she was,
08:38and presumably getting no sleep at all.
08:45That horror was even worse the following morning,
09:00when a hospital porter making his way to Carlton Hayes Hospital,
09:04where he worked,
09:05saw out the side of the path behind some railings,
09:08to his own horror, the body of 15-year-old Linda Mann.
09:16So I received a call at home to say that a body had been found in the black pad.
09:23When I got to the scene,
09:25it was obvious that she'd been dragged down the hedgerow and through the hedge.
09:30She'd visibly been raped and strangled.
09:35I realised at the outset it was going to be a difficult incident to determine.
09:43We didn't know how long it was going to take at that stage.
09:53We felt very much from the outset
09:55that this was a local person responsible from one of the villages.
10:01One of the reasons why this was most shocking for local people
10:07was that everybody seemed to think it could be somebody that Linda knows.
10:13They were adamant that they thought that it was a local killer.
10:17And one of the reasons why they thought that,
10:20and certainly the police did right from the early days,
10:22is that she was murdered on this black pad,
10:27which wasn't the sort of place that people outside the villages would have known.
10:32There was a feeling that you got that it was a local murder.
10:39Linda Mann's body was found this morning near this footpath,
10:42which is used as a shortcut between the villages of Narborough and Enderby,
10:46near the main Leicester to Coventry road.
10:49I set up an incident room to deal with the enquiry
10:54in grounds of Colton Hayes Hospital,
10:57which abutted where the body was found,
11:01and started a house-to-house enquiry off in vicinity of where the body was found.
11:09The police came to my house and said that they were pretty sure
11:13that it was somebody that she knew.
11:15So I took them into Leicester and sort of walked round where we'd hang out on a Saturday.
11:21They just wanted to know what she got up to, really.
11:24I did wonder if it was someone I knew.
11:27You just felt this desperate need to help and to know who it was.
11:32Every parent of a schoolgirl in the area was acutely aware this was every parent's worst nightmare.
11:50Linda's family dealt with it all incredibly well.
11:56They were quiet and unassuming lovely people,
12:00dealing with the most hideous crime.
12:02Yeah, it must have been horrendous.
12:04And she was just a happy teenager.
12:06She loved music and danced.
12:09And she just, she was happy.
12:13The following days just felt like a blur.
12:17It was all surreal as if it wasn't actually happening.
12:21It just felt as if you were in some sort of really, really bad nightmare.
12:26It was just a lot of crying.
12:27What Linda suffered was tragic and awful.
12:34But the police did have one clue.
12:38Forensic science in the police force was certainly in its infancy in 1983.
12:44But one of the early clues that the police got from the scene was from semen samples.
12:49They found that the killer had the blood group A and PGM one plus,
12:56which was an enzyme that narrowed it right down to between 10 and 20% of the population.
13:04Bearing in mind, they already assumed that this was a local man.
13:07This was a key part of that early investigation.
13:11That was the closest we could get to the person.
13:16And that was as far as we could take it.
13:20The path where Linda's body was found is tarmac and it's known locally as the Black Pad.
13:25Villagers avoid it at night because they're worried about being mugged.
13:29People expected the killer to be caught within a matter of days.
13:34Narborough became known as the Village of Fear.
13:38Women and girls were terrified that they may be next.
13:42Men were left wondering if the killer could have been one of their friends or neighbours.
13:47The pressure was on the police to catch the killer.
13:52And then there was another murder.
13:55At first light today, the search for clues resumed.
14:01One hundred officers are now on the inquiry.
14:04Linda was wearing black plimsolls, blue denims, a donkey jacket and a mauve coloured sweatshirt when she was attacked just half a mile from her home.
14:10Police are now anxious to trace any witnesses.
14:13We've carried on with the inquiry.
14:14There was an area of fear and dread in the area.
14:15Fear and dread in the area.
14:16We've carried on with the inquiry.
14:17There was an area of fear and dread in the area.
14:21We've carried on with the area.
14:22We've carried on with the inquiry.
14:23We've carried on with the inquiry.
14:24There was an area of fear and dread in the area.
14:28The resources available to police in the 1980s is a far cry from how it is today.
14:33They had to rely on an index system.
14:34There were no sophisticated computers.
14:35The resources available to police in the 1980s is a far cry from how it is today.
14:40They had to rely on an index system.
14:52There were no sophisticated computers.
14:57Door-to-door investigations, talking to people, photo-fit pictures of people that had been spotted.
15:08of people that had been spotted in the area.
15:11These were all the sort of weapons in their armory
15:14to try and find out who this killer was.
15:17The police rounded up the usual suspects.
15:22Initially, the police contacted as many people as they could
15:26with any previous sexual offence convictions,
15:29whether that was flashing, assault or even rape.
15:34They went door to door. They spoke to as many people as possible.
15:39It was a hard task.
15:41It took an awful long time and they were studious,
15:44but it really didn't go anywhere.
15:48We didn't get hardly any sightings of Linda at all.
15:53In fact, there was none.
16:04It's 15 days after the murder,
16:07but people in the village of Narborough are still afraid.
16:10Afraid the killer may be someone they know
16:13and frightened he may strike again.
16:15I think young ladies should be very scared
16:17because we haven't found him,
16:18so we don't really know what's happening at all.
16:21People in the villages were suspicious of many things,
16:33but at the top of the list
16:34was the Carlton Hayes Psychiatric Hospital
16:37because it was so close to the Black Pad.
16:40Lots of people worked there
16:42and it treated many, many patients.
16:45And some of them were treated for committing sexual offences.
16:52My name is Julie Breen.
16:54At the time of Linda Mann's murder,
16:56I was working at Carlton Hayes Psychiatric Hospital.
17:01I don't think anything as tragic
17:04had ever happened in my lifetime in that village.
17:08It's awful to say, but I did make some assumptions
17:16that it could be any man within the hospital.
17:23There was nobody that we could say
17:25was a significant subject.
17:28The police knocked on the door of
17:49direction of a valley...
17:56The police knocked on the door of a local baker
17:59who had previously been convicted of indecent exposure.
18:06He had a wife and a baby son, just a few months old.
18:12He hadn't lived in Little Thorpe at the time of Linda's murder,
18:16so he was fairly low down on their list of priorities.
18:21His alibi for that evening was that he'd taken his wife
18:25early evening to a class and then picked her up
18:28a couple of hours later at around nine o'clock.
18:32For the rest of the evening, he was at home with his small baby son.
18:38His wife was there and she confirmed that was the case.
18:42So the police thought it was unimaginable
18:45that he would leave his small child at home
18:49and go out and sexual assault and murder.
18:52The police found him unremarkable, really.
18:58He didn't strike the police as being particularly suspicious.
19:02The manpower that they were putting in,
19:13it was just taking so long.
19:17We all felt anxious that we'd miss something
19:20that would help the police.
19:21Is there something, just the tiniest thing?
19:24You're racking your brains all the time.
19:26Rumours were circulating about a flasher
19:31who had exposed himself to other girls in the area.
19:35There were rumours that another woman
19:38had been sexually assaulted on the black pad
19:41and that someone else had been assaulted elsewhere.
19:44This had created a ripple effect of anxiety and fear.
19:49The police were baffled.
19:52The community wanted answers.
19:55As the months turned into years,
19:58the incident room and the number of officers involved
20:01was scaled down several times
20:04from 150 initially right down to 8 or 9.
20:08Linda Mann's family had no closure.
20:14They were trying to grieve,
20:16but without closure, that was almost impossible.
20:26Then three years after Linda's death,
20:29the villagers received more devastating news.
20:32There was a dramatic change
20:36on the 31st of July 1986.
20:43Dawn Ashworth was reported missing.
20:46Dawn was my niece.
21:08My sister is Dawn's mother.
21:12Dawn, in 1986,
21:13was living with her mum and dad and her brother.
21:16and the family dog.
21:19Middle-class home,
21:20children doing reasonably well at school.
21:23Everything ticking along is really ordinary
21:25or normal if families can be described in that way.
21:33I was very close to Dawn in primary school.
21:36We were in the same class.
21:39We were best of friends.
21:41We shared the same birthdays.
21:43When we used to have a birthday,
21:45we either had a party round my house
21:48or had a party round Dawn's house.
21:52Dawn was a really kind person,
21:54a really good friend,
21:55and we used to have lots of fun together.
21:58She was a bright girl.
22:00She was going to do something with her life.
22:02But the opportunity to evolve into that was taken from her.
22:09In the summer of 1986 in July,
22:2315-year-old Dawn Ashworth
22:24was heading off to see one of her friends.
22:28She'd been working at a newsagent,
22:30which was a part-time job that she had to earn some pocket money,
22:34and she'd gone off to visit her friend,
22:37taking a route not a million miles away from the Black Pad
22:41called Ten Pound Lane.
22:46Sadly, Dawn's friend wasn't there when she got to the house,
22:49so she said goodbye to her friend's mum
22:51and headed back across the dual carriageway
22:53towards the three-bar gate that led to Ten Pound Lane,
22:57and she was spotted crossing that road at 4.40 in the afternoon.
23:03Ten Pound Lane is a popular walking spot
23:06that runs parallel with the M1 motorway.
23:12It was broad daylight on a hot, sunny day.
23:19But she never made it to the other end of the footpath.
23:22The plan for the family that evening
23:28was that they were going to go to a barbecue.
23:33And when she didn't reach home,
23:35they contacted the police immediately.
23:40We took it as a missing-from-home report
23:42and set up a full-scale search of the area.
23:49We were told immediately
23:52they did worse.
23:56I was at work and I got a telephone call
24:00from family.
24:03The police almost moved in with my sister at the time.
24:08I was predominantly providing support to my parents.
24:13The incident room at Enderby
24:14has received over a thousand calls from the public.
24:17Police are now looking for a young fair-haired man
24:19seen running from the path.
24:21My father was anxious to listen to every bulletin
24:25he could hear on Radio Leicester and National News.
24:28Dawn was the apple of his eye and
24:30it just ate away at him.
24:34The villages were littered with police vehicles and police officers.
24:41There were a number of different sightings.
24:44One was a man who, it appeared from eyewitnesses,
24:49came through the three-bar gate,
24:52narrowly being missed by a couple of vehicles,
24:54and then ran up the embankment and crossed all six lanes of the M1 motorway.
25:03And there was also a man with a motorbike.
25:06A motorbike was spotted under the motorway bridge
25:08and a man was spotted pushing a motorbike.
25:12So these were all parts of that early information
25:15that the police were trying to collate.
25:22The police began to get increasingly suspicious
25:26about one 17-year-old
25:28who was on a regular basis
25:31hanging around the investigation
25:34and chatting to police officers.
25:38He seemed to know information that he shouldn't know.
25:43Snippets of information
25:44that hadn't been released to the public by the police.
25:48And so that made them more and more suspicious.
25:54We found he was in possession of a motorbike
25:57that was identical to the motorbike
26:00which was seen under the motorway bridge.
26:03There was one strong suspect.
26:09This was Richard Buckland.
26:28Dressed in clothes identical to Dawn's,
26:30policewoman Jane Beck
26:31walked down the main road
26:33towards the path
26:34known locally as Ten Pound Lane,
26:36police are hoping
26:36the distinctive flowered top
26:38will jog people's memories.
26:42We were all just on hold, I suppose,
26:45in every sense of the word.
26:49Just fearing
26:50the worst.
26:54A sense of dread
26:56on the brink of what you feared
26:59would come to pass.
27:01The police started to question
27:24in more detail the information
27:26that the 17-year-old had given them.
27:28The police thought
27:33he seemed to know information
27:35that wasn't generally known.
27:39He was more than a casual observer.
27:42His behaviour was highly suspicious.
27:46Richard Buckland came on the scene.
27:49He was a red-hot suspect.
27:51Two agonising days went by
27:58and then Dawn's jacket
28:01with the lipstick in the pocket
28:03was found in a ditch.
28:06Her body was found nearby.
28:10This sick, sadistic killer
28:12had struck again.
28:14The constable came to
28:19the house of my parents
28:21when Dawn's body
28:25had been found.
28:25Well, what we'd all feared
28:34being realised.
28:35Collapsing.
28:37Screaming.
28:39Weeping.
28:41My sister's life
28:42was never the same
28:44after that.
28:44We've got to find
28:50the fiend, really,
28:52that did this
28:53to my daughter,
28:55to our daughter,
28:57and, um,
28:59stop it from happening again.
29:02I thought I would be
29:03the last person
29:04that anything like this
29:06would happen to.
29:07Almost 150 officers
29:14are now involved
29:15in the hunt
29:15for Dawn's killer.
29:17Operations have today
29:18centred on the isolated
29:19farm track
29:20where she met her death.
29:21The search for clues
29:22has been hampered
29:23by appalling weather
29:24and the thick undergrowth,
29:25some of which was used
29:26to hide the teenager's body.
29:33Dawn Ashworth,
29:35making her way
29:36down 10-pound lane,
29:38had been grabbed,
29:39dragged into the field
29:41next to the lane,
29:42and brutally sexually assaulted,
29:45raped,
29:45and strangled.
29:49On top of that,
29:52she screamed,
29:54and that scream
29:54was heard
29:55across the fields
29:56by two workers
29:58at the nearby
29:58radiator works.
30:02There's a sense
30:03of almost disbelief.
30:06the torment
30:07of what she's
30:08gone through.
30:11I didn't want
30:12to believe it,
30:13and it really upset me.
30:15I was really,
30:15really upset.
30:17I think it took
30:18a while
30:19to actually sink in
30:21that, you know,
30:22that Dawn had been murdered.
30:25I think about
30:27what she must have
30:27gone through,
30:29how frightening
30:30it must have been.
30:31what three years ago
30:37had seemed
30:38to be an isolated
30:39murder
30:39had now turned
30:41into the case
30:42of a possible
30:42serial killer.
30:47It was clear
30:48to everybody
30:49in the three villages,
30:50and certainly
30:50to the police
30:51by this stage,
30:52that there were
30:53a number of similarities
30:54between the two murders.
30:55The two girls
30:58were both 15 years old,
31:00and they were both
31:01walking down
31:02isolated footpaths
31:03and lanes.
31:05The major difference
31:06is firstly,
31:07Dawn was murdered
31:08in broad daylight.
31:09Secondly,
31:10her murder
31:11was more brutal,
31:12which led the police
31:14and everybody else
31:14to believe
31:15that he'd escalated
31:17and he was becoming
31:18far more brazen.
31:19The results
31:20of a post-mortem
31:21have confirmed
31:22fears that
31:23Dawn's murder
31:23is linked
31:24with that
31:24of 15-year-old
31:25Linda Mann.
31:27Linda,
31:27from a neighbouring village,
31:28went to the same school
31:29as Dawn.
31:30Her body was found
31:31on a path
31:32less than half a mile
31:33away from the scene
31:34of Dawn's murder.
31:36Dawn was subjected
31:37to a horrific
31:39sexual attack,
31:40and I had no doubt
31:41that the person
31:42that committed that
31:42was a very sick-minded
31:44individual indeed.
31:45There was one major thing
31:47that linked
31:48the two murders.
31:49They both had
31:51the same enzyme
31:52and blood group A
31:54in tests,
31:55and so the police knew
31:56that the killer
31:57was probably
31:58the same man.
32:09It was obvious
32:10then that it was
32:11the same person
32:12because things like
32:14that didn't happen.
32:16And for him
32:17still not to be found,
32:19and then it happened
32:19again.
32:21The fact that
32:22everybody thought
32:23they knew the person,
32:25if they knew them,
32:26then they would know us.
32:29You did question everything.
32:33Throughout this period
32:34of time,
32:35the police continued
32:36to question
32:36the 17-year-old
32:38who'd been hanging
32:38around the investigation sites.
32:40he had,
32:42during the course
32:43of those investigations,
32:44made a number
32:45of admissions,
32:46which led
32:47to further questioning.
32:49He turned out
32:50to be a kitchen porter
32:51at the Carlton Hay
32:53Psychiatric Hospital.
32:55Many of the employees
32:56walked to work
32:57down the Black Pad
32:59and 10-pound lane.
33:00the eyewitnesses
33:03said they'd seen
33:04a motorbike
33:04under the bridge
33:05and somebody
33:06also said
33:07they'd seen
33:07somebody pushing
33:08a motorbike.
33:09Well,
33:11this man
33:11also had
33:12a motorbike.
33:14So we decided
33:16to arrest him.
33:21The breakthrough
33:22on the murder inquiry
33:23came in the early hours
33:24of yesterday morning
33:25when detectives
33:25acting on information
33:26received
33:27moved to arrest
33:28a 17-year-old local man.
33:30The youth is now
33:30being held
33:31for questioning
33:31at Whidston Police Station
33:33and will appear
33:33in court in Leicester
33:34on Monday morning.
33:37Once this man
33:38had been arrested
33:39and charged,
33:40the community's
33:40immediate reaction
33:41was relief.
33:43They could rest
33:44in their beds
33:45and their daughters
33:46and granddaughters
33:47were safe.
33:50But the police
33:51had major,
33:52major problems.
33:58He'd made
34:00certain admissions
34:01what amounted
34:02to confessions
34:03about certain things
34:04regarding the murder
34:05of Dawn Ashworth,
34:06but he denied
34:07any knowledge
34:09or any involvement
34:10whatsoever
34:11with the murder
34:12of Linda Mann.
34:14The police
34:16had from day one
34:17believed
34:18that the killer
34:19was the same person
34:20and their biggest
34:22problem now
34:23was trying to find
34:24some conclusive proof
34:25that he killed
34:27both girls.
34:29It was the reading
34:30of a newspaper article
34:31that gave the case
34:33its next
34:34and possibly biggest
34:35break.
34:50Richard John Buckland,
34:52the hospital kitchen
34:53porter from Narborough
34:54in Leicestershire,
34:55made a brief appearance
34:56before the county magistrates
34:58in Leicester
34:58this morning.
35:00David Baker
35:01was racking his brains.
35:02He needed to prove
35:03conclusively
35:04that this man
35:06killed both girls.
35:08We got no information,
35:10no forensic information,
35:12other than
35:12the semen from the body,
35:15which gave us
35:15the blood group.
35:17Samples taken at the scene
35:19reveal type A blood.
35:21Although this couldn't be
35:23used to identify
35:24the killer,
35:25it could be used
35:26to narrow the search.
35:28There were no
35:29sophisticated computers.
35:31This was old fashioned
35:32basic police work.
35:35There was no modern
35:36technology in play.
35:38And one day
35:39David Baker
35:40was reading a newspaper
35:41and in it
35:41an article
35:42about a professor
35:44at the University of Leicester.
35:46Alec Jeffries
35:47had been talking
35:48about a major breakthrough
35:49he'd made,
35:51his eureka moment,
35:52with something called
35:54genetic fingerprinting
35:55and that lit a spark
35:57in David Baker's head.
36:00I read this article.
36:03We were still convinced
36:05that the two murders
36:06were connected.
36:10Could he use this technique
36:12to establish this blood group?
36:15Alec Jeffries
36:21had been at
36:22the University of Leicester
36:23since the 1970s.
36:26The basic principle
36:27of this test
36:28is that everybody's DNA
36:30is unique to them
36:32and what Alec Jeffries
36:33wanted to do
36:34was to prove that
36:36and to show that
36:37and eventually
36:37he made that breakthrough.
36:39Pioneered at Leicester University
36:41by Professor Alec Jeffries,
36:42DNA is a means
36:43of identifying
36:44an individual's genetic makeup,
36:46blood, saliva,
36:47semen or skin tissue
36:48will all show
36:49the same genetic pattern.
36:51The technique
36:52is revolutionary.
36:53Gene fragments
36:54are taken from the sample
36:55placed in a dye
36:56and some gel.
36:58Then an electrical current
36:59is applied
37:00which drags
37:01the charged gene fragments
37:02across the substance.
37:04An X-ray process
37:05makes the invisible gene
37:06show up
37:07and it's the pattern
37:08they make
37:08which is unique
37:09to the individual.
37:10The chances
37:11of any two people
37:12having an identical
37:13genetic fingerprint
37:14are millions to one.
37:15When we first
37:16developed this test
37:16we saw that there were
37:17potential very important
37:19forensic applications.
37:22In the 1980s
37:23I was working
37:24at the Home Office
37:25Forensic Science Service
37:27where I worked
37:28as a forensic geneticist.
37:31At that time
37:31the Home Office
37:32was expanding
37:33forensic science
37:34considerably.
37:36There had been
37:36a string of miscarriages
37:38procedures of justice
37:38which had been propagated
37:40by poor forensic science.
37:44On the discovery
37:45of DNA profiling
37:47by Alec Jeffries
37:49I quickly got involved
37:51and we began
37:51a collaboration.
37:53Alec had previously
37:54pointed out
37:55that this might be useful
37:56for forensic purposes
37:57but we didn't know.
38:01Forensic scientists
38:02have to deal
38:03with less than ideal
38:05samples
38:06because they may have
38:07been lying around
38:08at a crime scene
38:09for maybe several days
38:10or even weeks.
38:13I developed a method
38:14whereby I was able
38:16to separate
38:17the male
38:18and female
38:19DNA
38:20and so for the first time
38:23we were able
38:24to analyse sperm
38:25taken from
38:27rape victims.
38:29Looking like
38:30a supermarket barcode
38:31this is the genetic
38:32fingerprint
38:33providing clear
38:34and unarguable evidence.
38:38So once we have
38:39a reference sample
38:40say from
38:41a suspect's blood
38:43we are able
38:44to compare
38:45that barcode
38:46with one
38:47that we've recovered
38:48from a crime scene.
38:50And then we just see
38:51if the two match
38:53and if they do
38:54then that will be
38:55sufficient evidence
38:56to take that suspect
38:58to court.
38:59By the end of that year
39:01we had proof
39:03in principle
39:03that the technique
39:05would work.
39:12The police were convinced
39:13that he had committed
39:14both murders.
39:19But they needed
39:20more evidence.
39:23So that's why
39:24the police
39:24approached
39:25Alec Jeffries.
39:28Alec was able
39:29to show
39:29that the same
39:31DNA profile
39:32was obtained
39:34from both
39:35crime scenes.
39:37The same individual
39:39had murdered
39:40both girls
39:41but Richard Butler
39:44was innocent.
39:46Faced with this
39:59information
40:00the police
40:01had no option
40:02than to release
40:04the suspect.
40:05and when I got
40:06that result
40:07back
40:08I realised
40:10then that
40:11Buckland
40:12was innocent.
40:14The massive
40:14police hunt
40:15that followed
40:16Dawn's murder
40:16led to the arrest
40:17of 17-year-old
40:18Richard Buckland.
40:20He's appeared
40:20before Leicester
40:21magistrate
40:21several times
40:22charged with her
40:23murder
40:23but today
40:24the charge
40:25was dropped.
40:25The staggering
40:27results were
40:28that he'd killed
40:29neither girl
40:30and this was
40:31the first case
40:32in a criminal
40:33case
40:34of a man's
40:35innocence
40:35being proven
40:36by genetic
40:37fingerprinting.
40:38But for DNA
40:44genetic
40:44fingerprinting
40:45Richard Buckland
40:47could have
40:47ended up
40:48with a life
40:48sentence
40:49but he'd
40:51already spent
40:52nearly four
40:52months
40:53on remand
40:53in custody.
40:54Richard's now
40:55back with his
40:56parents in
40:56Enderby.
40:57His father
40:58tonight spoke
40:58of the agony
40:59the family
41:00has gone
41:00through.
41:01Very big
41:01relief.
41:03You never
41:03know which
41:04way things
41:04are going
41:05to fall
41:06over the
41:06wall.
41:08Richard Buckland
41:09was a naive
41:10young man
41:12and a little
41:12bit vulnerable.
41:14He may have
41:15just been
41:15interested in
41:16the excitement
41:17of the police
41:18activity
41:18and it was
41:20easier to
41:21just sort
41:22of go
41:22along with
41:22it.
41:23Because they
41:23have said
41:24had anybody
41:24seen the
41:25girl
41:25at all
41:27that day
41:27so he
41:28went down
41:29and said
41:29yes sure
41:29I've seen
41:30her.
41:30That simple
41:31admission
41:31later led
41:32to his
41:33arrest.
41:33They just
41:34say so
41:34much to
41:35you like
41:35you ain't
41:35going to
41:36get out
41:36of here.
41:36They just
41:38might have
41:39us own
41:39up.
41:40No chance.
41:41No way.
41:43The knock-on
41:44effect was
41:45terrible.
41:46The parents
41:47were literally
41:49treated as
41:50heathens that
41:51had spawned
41:52this demon
41:52who had
41:54committed all
41:55these heinous
41:56crimes.
41:58I was relieved
41:59that Richard
42:00was exonerated
42:01not only for
42:03him but for
42:04his family
42:04as well.
42:06I mean
42:06what a
42:07terrible
42:07misjudgment.
42:14The man
42:15you're holding
42:15responsible for
42:16these murders
42:17isn't the
42:18right person.
42:20Back to
42:21square one
42:21but relieved
42:22that the
42:23search was
42:24still on
42:24for the
42:25person that
42:26was responsible
42:26and that
42:27did continue
42:28to pose
42:28a threat.
42:30When they
42:31announced it
42:32wasn't the
42:32right man
42:32it just
42:33makes you
42:33worry more
42:34because you
42:34know that
42:35he's still
42:35out there
42:36and that
42:37it could
42:37strike again.
42:39You've always
42:40got that
42:40worry that
42:41could you
42:41be the
42:42next one?
42:44It was
42:44frustration
42:45that they
42:46couldn't find
42:46him and
42:47that we
42:48couldn't help.
42:49We were
42:50scared.
42:52There was
42:53a killer
42:54in their
42:54midst
42:55walking
42:57alongside
42:58them
42:58shopping
42:59in the
43:00same
43:00shops
43:01circulating
43:02within
43:03their
43:04community.
43:05There
43:06was a
43:06serial
43:07killer
43:07on the
43:08loose.
43:10Of course
43:10the police
43:11were frustrated
43:12and disappointed
43:13as well
43:13but they
43:14knew that
43:15this breakthrough
43:16with genetic
43:17fingerprinting
43:18could actually
43:18open up
43:19the case
43:20but of course
43:21that wasn't
43:22as easy
43:23as testing
43:24just one
43:25man.
43:25If they
43:26were going
43:26to make
43:26this work
43:27they would
43:28literally
43:28have to
43:29test
43:29thousands.
43:32The clock
43:33was ticking.
43:34When would
43:35this man
43:35kill again?
43:38All they
43:39had to
43:39do
43:39was
43:41match
43:41the DNA
43:42and
43:44catch
43:45the
43:45killer.
43:45I
43:56realized
43:57that
43:57I
43:58had to
43:58do
43:58something
43:59different.
44:00The authorities
44:00carried out
44:01the world's
44:01first mass
44:02DNA
44:03screening.
44:04More than
44:045,000
44:05men were
44:05tested.
44:06They
44:06knew
44:06that
44:07the
44:07killer
44:07lived
44:07locally
44:08but it
44:08was
44:08a bit
44:09of a
44:09needle
44:09in a
44:09haystack.
44:11There
44:11was
44:11tight
44:11security
44:12as
44:12a
44:12crowd
44:12gathered
44:13outside
44:13Leicester
44:14Magistrate's
44:14court.
44:14Women
44:15jeered
44:16and
44:16chanted
44:16abuse
44:16as
44:17he
44:17was
44:17driven
44:17away.
44:19He
44:19was
44:20living
44:20a
44:20double
44:20life
44:21secretly
44:22indulging
44:23his
44:23deviant
44:24sexual
44:25fantasies.
44:26I
44:26just
44:27burst
44:27into
44:27tears.
44:28I
44:28couldn't
44:29believe
44:29it.
44:44have
44:47been
44:47to
44:48other
44:50things
44:50into
44:51a
44:54life
44:55and
44:56to
44:57be
44:57hungry
44:58and
44:58to
44:58have
44:59been
45:00to
45:01and
45:01to
45:01other
45:01people
45:01are
45:02going
45:02to
45:03have
45:03their
45:03time
45:04to
45:04have
45:04to
45:05come
45:05to
45:06them
45:07to