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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.
00:33As the search continues, police are warning villagers here to keep their children out of
00:37these isolated areas. The last that anybody saw was her setting off to go and see a friend.
00:47She never arrived there.
00:51There was a serial killer on the loose.
01:05In the woods, police now believe there's a nude male streaker.
01:08And this guy was just dropping his trousers.
01:12They work usually in the evenings or in the night time, in the parks, in the streets.
01:17Many of today's measures are aimed at children, especially teenage girls.
01:21If you think you're being followed, don't try and shake your pursuer off.
01:25Linda Mann's body was found just after seven this morning. She was attacked just half a mile from her home.
01:40Police believe Dawn's killer is probably the same man who strangled Leicestershire schoolgirl Linda Mann.
01:55The killer had the same enzyme and blood group. The clock was ticking. When would this man kill again?
02:15We've got to find the fiend, really, that did this. Stop it from happening again.
02:22The 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.
02:385,000 males, one of whom could be the perpetrator.
02:44All we had to do was match the DNA and catch the killer.
02:53I just burst into tears. I couldn't believe it.
02:56That's when we first knew that there was real evil in the world.
03:00I just burst into tears.
03:09The mystery of the death of the dead in the world.
03:13The mystery of the dead in the world.
03:18The creed of the dead in the world.
03:22Enderby, Gnabra and Little Thorpe, back in the 1980s, as they are today, they're all
03:32tightly knitted together.
03:35The three villages are connected by a network of small footpaths and lanes that go in between
03:42those three villages.
03:45They are all part of that sort of integral one community.
03:49All of the kids would know each other and therefore all of the families would too.
03:55If you asked anybody back in the 1980s in any of those three villages if there was any
04:00major crime, they would say no.
04:04It never happened in those villages.
04:11Serious crime was unheard of.
04:15But in 1983, the villages saw their first murder inquiry.
04:21In 1983, Linda and I were 15 years old.
04:35We were friends and we used to hang out on Saturdays.
04:40We'd have part-time jobs.
04:42Sometimes we'd do babysitting, which Linda used to do.
04:45I worked part-time in a shop around the corner.
04:49We used to go to Woolworths on a Saturday.
04:51We'd go shopping, maybe, and buy a new nail varnish.
04:55Fashion and music was everything we had.
04:58We had no social media, so that was our life, really.
05:03She lived in Gnabra, which was the middle village of the three.
05:07She lived with her parents, her mum and her stepdad, and she had an older and a younger sister.
05:14She was typical of most 15-year-old girls at that time.
05:17She was known by a lot of people in the community as a happy-go-lucky girl.
05:22She was enjoying the first semblance of independence.
05:41Linda was babysitting, then went home before setting off for a second babysitting job.
05:51When she arrived at the house for that, the family told her that they didn't need it.
05:55This is one of the problems of not having mobile phones or easy communication back in the 1980s.
06:00So she said goodbye to them and went off to another friend's house.
06:05At that time, catalogue shopping was really big.
06:10Families would buy clothing, they'd be delivered to the agent, and you would collect them.
06:15You'd send off for it, it'd arrive at your house, and then you'd pay something like £2 a week for the latest trend, and we used to love them.
06:22That was our way of keeping up with all the trends and paying with them from our part-time jobs.
06:28Linda already had a jacket which she bought from this friend's mum, who was the agent for the catalogue,
06:36and she went to that house to pay one of the installments of the payment.
06:42The last that anybody saw was her setting off from that house to go and see another friend.
06:49She never arrived there.
06:59Linda was seen making her way towards the Black Pad.
07:05The Black Pad is one of the footpaths in the villages.
07:11Although these were dimly lit, they were reasonably close to residential areas.
07:18Linda was so close to home.
07:27On the evening, Linda's parents went out to the pub, and Linda's elder sister was at home.
07:32When Linda's parents returned from the pub late in the evening, they found her sister alone at home,
07:39and her sister particularly worried, because they'd all been expecting Linda to be back much, much earlier.
07:45Panic ensued straight away.
07:55Linda's parents went out immediately, looking everywhere they could in the area,
08:00up and down neighbouring streets.
08:03It was a very, very cold night in the winter in November.
08:08It was very frosty on the ground, and it was getting colder as the evening went on.
08:13But they nevertheless did everything they could, looking everywhere they could,
08:17to see if they could find where Linda was.
08:19They informed the police.
08:21The police advised them that they would wait until the following morning before they took any action.
08:26Imagine 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, and presumably getting no sleep at all.
08:40That horror was even worse the following morning, when a hospital porter making his way to Carlton Hayes Hospital, where he worked,
08:47saw out the side of the path, behind some railings, to his own horror, the body of 15-year-old Linda Mann.
09:11So I received a call at home to say that her body had been found in the black pad.
09:23When I got to the scene, it was obvious that she'd been dragged down the hedgerow and through the hedge.
09:29She'd visibly been raped and strangled.
09:36We 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.
09:47We felt very much from the outset that 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.
10:12They were adamant that they thought that it was a local killer.
10:18And one of the reasons why they thought that, and certainly the police did, right from the early days,
10:23is 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.
10:36Linda 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 inquiry
10:54in grounds of Colton Hayes Hospital,
10:57which abutted where the body was found,
11:00and started a house-to-house inquiry 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.
11:16So 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.
11:23I did wonder if it was someone I knew.
11:27You just felt this desperate need to help and to know who it was.
11:42Every parent of a schoolgirl in the area was acutely aware
11:47this 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.
12:12The following days just felt like a blur.
12:16It was all surreal as if it wasn't actually happening.
12:20It just felt as if you were in some sort of really, really bad nightmare.
12:25It was just like crying.
12:29What Linda suffered was tragic and awful.
12:33But the police did have one clue.
12:37Forensic science in the police force was certainly in its infancy in 1983.
12:42But 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.
13:01Bearing in mind they already assumed that this was a local man, this was a key part of that early investigation.
13:10That was the closest we could get to the person and that was as far as we could take it.
13:17The path where Linda's body was found is tarmac and it's known locally as the Black Pad.
13:24Villagers avoid it at night because they're worried about being mugged.
13:28People expected the killer to be caught within a matter of days.
13:31Gnabra became known as the village of fear.
13:37Women 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.
13:48The pressure was on the police to catch the killer.
13:53And then there was another murder.
14:01At first light today the search for clues resumed.
14:14100 officers are now on the inquiry.
14:17Linda 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.
14:25Police are now anxious to trace any witnesses.
14:28We carried on with the inquiry.
14:31There was an area of fear and dread in the area.
14:50The resources available to police in the 1980s is a far cry from how it is today.
14:56They had to rely on an index system.
14:59There were no sophisticated computers.
15:02Door-to-door investigations, talking to people, photo-fit pictures of people that had been spotted in the area.
15:11These were all the sort of weapons in their armoury to try and find out who this killer was.
15:16The police rounded up the usual suspects.
15:19Initially the police contacted as many people as they could with any previous sexual offence convictions, whether that was flashing, assault or even rape.
15:33They 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, but it really didn't go anywhere.
15:46We didn't get hardly any sightings of Linda at all.
15:53In fact there was none.
15:54It's 15 days after the murder, but people in the village of Gnabra are still afraid.
16:10Afraid the killer may be someone they know and frightened he may strike again.
16:14I think young ladies should be very scared because we haven't found him, so we don't really know what's happening at all.
16:28People in the villages were suspicious of many things, but at the top of the list was the Carlton Hayes Psychiatric Hospital.
16:36Because it was so close to the Black Pad, lots of people worked there and it treated many, many patients.
16:45And some of them were treated for committing sexual offences.
16:51My name is Julie Breen.
16:54At the time of Linda Mann's murder, I was working at Carlton Hayes Psychiatric Hospital.
17:00I don't think anything as tragic had ever happened in my lifetime in that village.
17:10It's awful to say, but I did make some assumptions that it could be any man within the hospital.
17:22There was nobody that we could say was a significant subject.
17:30There was nobody that we could consider and we could talk to the film.
17:32That's why I did make these decisions that we should have made every single day.
17:33I haven't seen the film, so you might have seen the film.
17:39But I have seen the film have seen a lot of any characters happening, and this is so interesting.
17:44The film had made a film with a member of the film is a big man in the background of the film.
17:47The movie is a big man in the background.
17:51The film was a big man in the background.
17:52That's a very important work.
17:56I never really mean it was a famous girl.
17:57of a local baker who 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 early evening to a class
18:27and then picked her up a couple of hours later at around nine o'clock.
18:31For 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 that 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, it was just taking so long.
19:17We all felt anxious that we'd miss something that 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 who had exposed himself to other girls in the area.
19:35There were rumours that another woman had 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 from 150 initially right down to 8 or 9.
20:08Linda Mann's family had no closure.
20:14They were trying to grieve, but 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 on the 31st of July 1986.
20:43Dawn Ashworth was reported missing.
20:46Dawn was my niece.
21:08My sister is Dawn's mother.
21:11Dawn, in 1986, was living with 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 or normal,
21:27if families can be described in that way.
21:33I was very close to Dawn in primary school.
21:36We were in the same class.
21:38We were best of friends.
21:41We shared the same birthdays.
21:42When we used to have a birthday,
21:45we either had a party around my house
21:48or had a party around Dawn's house.
21:52Dawn was a really kind person, a 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,
22:31which was a part-time job that she had to earn some pocket money,
22:34and she'd gone off to visit her friend,
22:38taking 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.
23:09It was broad daylight on a hot, sunny day.
23:19But she never made it to the other end of the footpath.
23:25The 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.
23:39We took it as a missing-from-home report
23:42and set up a full-scale search of the area.
23:48We were told
23:50that immediately
23:52it appeared the worst.
23:56I was at work
23:58and I got a telephone call
24:00from family.
24:03The police
24:04almost moved in with my sister
24:06at the time.
24:07and I was predominantly
24:09providing 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
24:23to every bulletin he could hear
24:25on Radio Leicester and National News.
24:28Dawn was the apple of his eye
24:30and it just ate away at him.
24:36The villages were littered with police vehicles
24:38and police officers.
24:41There are a number of different sightings.
24:45One was a man who, it appeared from eyewitnesses,
24:49came through the three-bar gate,
24:51narrowly being missed by a couple of vehicles,
24:54and then ran up the embankment
24:57and crossed all six lanes
25:00of the M1 motorway.
25:03And there was also a man
25:04with a motorbike.
25:06A motorbike was spotted
25:07under the motorway bridge
25:08and a man was spotted
25:10pushing a motorbike.
25:12So these were all parts
25:13of 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
25:41that he shouldn't know.
25:43Snippets of information
25:44that hadn't been released
25:46to the public by the police.
25:48And so that made them
25:49more and more suspicious.
25:54We found he was in possession
25:56of a motorbike
25:57that was identical to the motorbike
26:00which was seen
26:02under the motorway bridge.
26:05There was one strong suspect.
26:07This was Richard Buckland.
26:11Dressed in clothes
26:29identical 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.
26:39We were all just
26:43on hold, I suppose,
26:46in every sense of the word.
26:49Just fearing
26:50the worst.
26:54A sense of dread
26:56on the brink of
26:58what you feared
26:59would come
27:00to pass.
27:01The police
27:22started to
27:23question
27:24in more detail
27:25the information
27:26that the 17-year-old
27:28had given them.
27:28The police
27:33thought
27:33he seemed
27:34to know
27:34information
27:35that wasn't
27:36generally known.
27:39He was more
27:40than a casual observer.
27:42His behaviour
27:43was highly suspicious.
27:46Richard Buckland
27:48came on the scene.
27:49He was a red-hot suspect.
27:51two agonising days
27:57went by
27:58and then
28:00Dawn's jacket
28:01with the lipstick
28:02in the pocket
28:03was found
28:04in a ditch.
28:06Her body
28:07was found
28:07nearby.
28:10This sick,
28:11sadistic killer
28:12had struck again.
28:14A constable
28:19came to
28:19the house
28:20of my parents
28:21when Dawn's
28:24body
28:25had been found.
28:32Well,
28:33what we'd all
28:33feared
28:34being realised,
28:35collapsing,
28:37screaming,
28:37weeping.
28:40my sister's life
28:42was never
28:43the same
28:44after that.
28:48We've got
28:49to find
28:50the fiend,
28:52really,
28:53that did this
28:53to my daughter,
28:55to our daughter,
28:57and, um,
28:59stop it
29:00from happening
29:01again.
29:02I thought
29:03I would be
29:03the last person
29:04that anything
29:05like this
29:06would happen to.
29:07Almost 150
29:14officers are
29:14now involved
29:15in the hunt
29:15for Dawn's
29:16killer.
29:17Operations
29:17have today
29:18centred on
29:18the isolated
29:19farm track
29:20where she
29:20met her
29:20death.
29:21The search
29:22for clues
29:22has been
29:23hampered
29:23by appalling
29:24weather
29:24and the
29:24thick
29:25undergrowth,
29:26some of
29:26which was
29:26used to
29:27hide
29:27the teenager's
29:28body.
29:33Dawn Ashworth
29:34making her
29:36way down
29:36£10 lane
29:37had been
29:38grabbed,
29:39dragged into
29:40the field
29:41next to
29:41the lane
29:42and brutally
29:43sexually
29:44assaulted,
29:45raped and
29:46strangled.
29:49On top
29:50of that,
29:52she screamed
29:53and that
29:54scream was
29:55heard across
29:56the fields
29:56by two
29:57workers at
29:58the nearby
29:58radiator works.
30:02There's a
30:03sense of
30:03almost disbelief.
30:06the torment
30:07of what
30:08she's
30:08gone through.
30:11I didn't
30:12want to
30:12believe it
30:13and it
30:14really upset
30:14me.
30:15I was
30:15really,
30:15really upset.
30:17I think
30:18it took a
30:19while to
30:19actually sink
30:21in that,
30:21you know,
30:22that Dawn
30:23had been
30:23murdered.
30:25I think about
30:27what she must
30:27have gone
30:28through,
30:29how frightening
30:30it must have
30:31been.
30:35What three
30:36years ago
30:37had seemed
30:38to be an
30:38isolated murder
30:39had now
30:40turned into
30:41the case
30:42of a possible
30:42serial killer.
30:47It was clear
30:48to everybody
30:49in the three
30:49villages and
30:50certainly to
30:50the police
30:51by this stage
30:52that there
30:53were a number
30:53of similarities
30:54between the
30:55two murders.
30:55The two
30:58girls were
30:58both 15
30:59years old
31:00and they
31:01were both
31:01walking down
31:02isolated footpaths
31:03and lanes.
31:05The major
31:05difference is
31:06firstly,
31:07Dawn was
31:08murdered in
31:08broad daylight.
31:09Secondly,
31:10her murder
31:11was more
31:12brutal,
31:12which led
31:13the police
31:14and everybody
31:14else to
31:14believe that
31:16he'd escalated
31:17and he was
31:18becoming far
31:18more brazen.
31:20The results
31:20of a post-mortem
31:21have confirmed
31:22fears that Dawn's
31:23murder is linked
31:24with that of
31:2515-year-old
31:25Linda Mann.
31:27Linda from
31:28a neighbouring
31:28village went
31:29to the same
31:29school as Dawn.
31:30Her body
31:31was found
31:32on a path
31:32less than
31:33half a mile
31:33away from
31:34the scene
31:34of Dawn's
31:35murder.
31:36Dawn was
31:37subjected to
31:38a horrific
31:39sexual attack
31:40and I had
31:41no doubt
31:41that the person
31:42that committed
31:42that was a
31:43very sick-minded
31:44individual indeed.
31:45There was
31:46one major
31:47thing that
31:48linked the
31:48two murders.
31:50They both
31:50had the same
31:51enzyme and
31:53blood group
31:53A,
31:54in tests
31:55and so
31:56the police
31:56knew that
31:57the killer
31:57was probably
31:58the same
31:59man.
32:09It was obvious
32:10then that it
32:11was the same
32:11person because
32:13things like that
32:14didn't happen
32:15and for him
32:17still not to be
32:18found and then
32:19it happened
32:19again.
32:20the fact
32:22that everybody
32:23thought they
32:24knew the
32:24person,
32:25if they knew
32:26them then
32:26they would
32:27know us.
32:29You did
32:30question
32:30everything.
32:33Throughout
32:34this period of
32:34time the police
32:35continued to
32:36question the
32:3717-year-old who
32:38had been hanging
32:38around the
32:39investigation sites.
32:40he had during
32:42the course of
32:43those investigations
32:44made a number
32:45of admissions
32:46which led to
32:47further questioning.
32:49He turned out to
32:50be a kitchen
32:51porter at the
32:52Carlton Hay
32:53Psychiatric
32:53Hospital.
32:55Many of the
32:55employees walked
32:57to work down
32:58the Black Pad
32:59and £10 lane.
33:02The eyewitnesses
33:03said they'd seen
33:04a motorbike under
33:05the bridge and
33:06somebody also said
33:07they'd seen somebody
33:08pushing a motorbike.
33:10Well, this man
33:11also had a
33:12motorbike.
33:14So we decided
33:16to arrest him.
33:17The breakthrough
33:22on the murder
33:22inquiry came in
33:23the early hours
33:24of yesterday morning
33:25when detectives
33:26acting on information
33:26received moved to
33:28arrest a 17-year-old
33:29local man.
33:30The youth is now
33:31being held for
33:31questioning at
33:32Wigston Police
33:32Station and will
33:33appear in court in
33:34Leicester on Monday
33:35morning.
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.
33:59He'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 that the
34:19killer was the same
34:19person and their
34:21biggest problem 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 and possibly
34:35biggest break.
34:35Richard John Buckland,
34:52the hospital kitchen
34:53porter from
34:54Larborough in
34:54Leicestershire,
34:55made a brief
34:56appearance before
34:57the county magistrates
34:58in Leicester this
34:59morning.
35:00David Baker was
35:01racking his brains.
35:02he needed to prove
35:03conclusively that
35:05this man killed
35:06both girls.
35:08We got no
35:08information,
35:10no forensic
35:10information,
35:12other than
35:12the semen from
35:14the body,
35:15which gave us
35:15the blood group.
35:17Samples taken at the
35:18scene revealed
35:19type A blood.
35:22Although this
35:22couldn't be used
35:23to identify the
35:24killer,
35:25it could be used
35:26to narrow the search.
35:27There were no
35:29sophisticated computers.
35:31This was old
35:32fashioned basic
35:33police work.
35:35There was no
35:35modern technology
35:36in play.
35:38And one day
35:39David Baker was
35:40reading a newspaper
35:41and in it an article
35:42about a professor
35:44at the University
35:45of Leicester.
35:46Alec Jeffries
35:47had been talking
35:48about a major
35:49breakthrough he'd
35:50made,
35:51his eureka moment,
35:52with something called
35:54genetic fingerprinting
35:54and that lit a spark
35:57in David Baker's
35:58head.
36:00I read this article.
36:03We were still
36:04convinced that the
36:06two murders
36:06were connected.
36:10Could he use
36:11this technique
36:12to establish
36:14this blood group?
36:20Alec Jeffries
36:21had been at
36:22the University
36:23of Leicester
36:23since the 1970s.
36:26The basic principle
36:27of this test
36:28is that everybody's
36:29DNA is unique
36:31to them
36:32and what Alec
36:33Jeffries wanted
36:34to do was
36:35to prove that
36:36and to show that
36:37and eventually
36:37he made that
36:38breakthrough.
36:39Pioneered at
36:40Leicester University
36:41by Professor Alec
36:42Jeffries,
36:42DNA is a means
36:43of identifying
36:44an individual's
36:45genetic makeup.
36:46Blood, saliva,
36:47semen or skin
36:48tissue will all
36:49show the same
36:50genetic pattern.
36:51The technique
36:52is revolutionary.
36:53Gene fragments
36:54are taken
36:55from the sample
36:55placed in a dye
36:56and some gel.
36:58Then an electrical
36:59current is applied
37:00which drags the
37:01charged gene fragments
37:02across the substance.
37:04An x-ray process
37:05makes the invisible
37:06genes show up
37:07and it's the pattern
37:08they make
37:08which is unique
37:09to the individual.
37:11The 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
37:17were potential
37:18very important
37:19forensic applications.
37:22In the 1980s
37:23I was working
37:24at the Home Office
37:25Forensic Science
37:26Service
37:27where I worked
37:28as a forensic
37:29geneticist.
37:30At that time
37:31the Home Office
37:32was expanding
37:33forensic science
37:34considerably.
37:36There had been
37:36a string of
37:37miscarriages
37:38of justice
37:38which had been
37:39propagated by
37:40poor forensic
37:42science.
37:43On the discovery
37:45of DNA profiling
37:47by Alec Jeffries
37:49I quickly got
37:50involved
37:51and we began
37:51a collaboration.
37:53Alec had previously
37:54pointed out
37:55that this might
37:55be useful
37:56for forensic purposes
37:57but we didn't know.
38:01Forensic scientists
38:02have to deal
38:03with less than
38:04ideal samples
38:06because they may
38:07have been lying
38:07around at a crime scene
38:09for maybe several
38:10days or even weeks.
38:13I developed
38:14a method
38:14whereby I was
38:16able to separate
38:17the male
38:18and female
38:19DNA
38:20and so for the
38:22first time
38:23we were able
38:24to analyse
38:24sperm
38:25taken from
38:27rape victims.
38:29Looking like
38:30a supermarket
38:31barcode
38:31this is the
38:32genetic fingerprint
38:33providing clear
38:34and unarguable
38:36evidence.
38:36So once we have
38:39a reference sample
38:40say from
38:41a suspect's
38:42blood
38:43we are able
38:44to compare
38:45that barcode
38:46with one
38:48that we've
38:48recovered
38:48from a crime
38:49scene
38:50and then we just
38:51see if the two
38:52match
38:53and if they do
38:54then that will
38:55be sufficient
38:56evidence
38:56to take that
38:58suspect to court.
38:59By the end
39:00of that year
39:01we had proof
39:03in principle
39:04that the
39:04technique
39:05would work.
39:11The police
39:13were convinced
39:13that he had
39:14committed
39:15both murders
39:17but they
39:19needed
39:20more evidence
39:22so that's why
39:24the police
39:24approached
39:25Alec Jeffries.
39:28Alec was
39:28able to show
39:29that the
39:30same DNA
39:31profile
39:32was obtained
39:34from both
39:35crime scenes.
39:37The same
39:38individual
39:39had murdered
39:40both girls
39:41but Richard
39:43Butler
39:44was innocent.
39:47Faced with
39:59this information
40:00the police
40:01had no option
40:02than to
40:03release
40:04the suspect.
40:06Well when I
40:06got that 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
40:17arrest of
40:1717-year-old
40:18Richard Buckland.
40:20He's appeared
40:20before Leicester
40:21magistrate
40:21several times
40:22charged with
40:23her murder
40:23but today
40:24the charge
40:25was dropped.
40:26The staggering
40:27results were
40:28that he'd
40:29killed
40:29neither girl
40:30and this
40:31was the
40:31first case
40:32in a criminal
40:33case
40:34of a man's
40:35innocence
40:35being proven
40:36by genetic
40:37fingerprinting.
40:38Richard Buckland
40:47could have
40:47ended up
40:48with a
40:48life sentence
40:49but he'd
40:51already spent
40:52nearly four
40:52months on
40:53remanding custody.
40:55Richard'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.
41:00It's a very
41:01big relief.
41:03You never know
41:04which way
41:04things are
41:04going to
41:05fall over
41:06the wall.
41:08Richard Buckland
41:09was a naive
41:11young 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 of
41:22go along
41:22with it.
41:23Because they
41:23said had
41:24anybody seen
41:25the girl
41:25at all that
41:27day?
41:28So he went
41:28down and said
41:29yes sure
41:29I've seen her.
41:30That simple
41:31admission later
41:32led to his
41:33arrest.
41:33They just
41:34say so much
41:35to you like
41:35you ain't
41:35going to
41:36get out
41:36of here.
41:38They just
41:38might as well
41:39own up.
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.
42:02Not 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
42:18isn't the
42:18right person.
42:20Back to
42:21square one
42:22but 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
42:35know that
42:35he's still
42:35out there
42:36and that
42:37he could
42:37strike again.
42:39You've always
42:40got that worry
42:41that could you
42:41be the next
42:42one.
42:42It was
42:44frustration that
42:45they couldn't
42:46find him
42:47and that
42:47we couldn't
42:48help.
42:49We were
42:50scared.
42:51There was
42:53a killer in
42:54their midst
42:55walking
42:57alongside them
42:58shopping in
43:00the same
43:00shops
43:01circulating
43:02within
43:03their community.
43:04There was
43:06a serial
43:07killer on
43:08the loose.
43:09Of course
43:10the police
43:11were frustrated
43:12and disappointed
43:13as well
43:13but they knew
43:14that this
43:15breakthrough
43:16with genetic
43:17fingerprinting
43:18could actually
43:18open up
43:19the case
43:20but of course
43:21that wasn't
43:23as 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
43:33when would
43:35this man
43:35kill again?
43:38All they
43:39had to do
43:39was match
43:41the DNA
43:42and catch
43:45the killer.
43:55I realised
43:57that I'd
43:58got to do
43:59something
43:59different.
44:00The authorities
44:00carried out
44:01the world's
44:02first mass
44:02DNA screening
44:03more than
44:045,000 men
44:05were tested.
44:06They knew
44:06that the
44:07killer
44:07lived locally
44:08but it was
44:09a bit of
44:09a needle
44:09in a haystack.
44:11There was
44:11tight security
44:12as a crowd
44:12gathered outside
44:13Leicester
44:14Magistrate's
44:14court.
44:15Women
44:15jeered
44:16and chanted
44:16abuse
44:17as he was
44:17driven away.
44:19He was
44:20living a
44:20double life
44:21secretly
44:22indulging
44:23his
44:23deviant
44:24sexual
44:25fantasies.
44:26I just
44:27burst into
44:27tears.
44:28I couldn't
44:29believe it.
44:29I was
44:30told
44:31to
44:31to
44:32help
44:33to
44:33get
44:33out of
44:34the
44:34way.
44:35I was
44:35not
44:35to
44:36what I
44:36could do
44:37in the
44:37way.
Recommended
41:31
48:41
32:47
48:53
1:18:27
1:06:47
3:39:41
59:15
1:06:46
1:00:49