Season 3

2003-04-27 · 60m

Walking home from football practice in Liverpool in August 2007, 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead. The incident caused an outpouring of sympathy and re-ignited fears that gun crime and gang-related violence were blighting Britain's streets. But behind the headlines lay a human tragedy as Rhys's parents Melanie and Stephen struggled with bafflement and grief. Real Crime's Mark Austin interviews the couple, whose decency shines amid the depressing details of the feckless lives led by Rhys's murderer Sean Mercer and his fellow gang-members and protectors. Melanie Jones recalls a blase Mercer and his cocky little group in the dock in court during their trial: "You'd think they were up for shoplifting." Mercer, 18, was jailed for 22 years. His co-accused were convicted of helping him to evade justice. They whooped with delight as they were sent down, says Stephen Jones, and his wife still cannot get to grips with their lives: "Why don't they aspire to be someone?"

2003-09-29 · 60m

In 1992, the TV news constantly ran footage of an attractive young woman dancing gaily across Wimbledon Common. It was Rachel Nickell, who had been brutally murdered in front of her two-year-old son. The police became convinced that she was killed by Colin Stagg, a loner who fitted the profile suggested by forensic psychologist Paul Britton. It took 16 years, a revolution in DNA technology and another, even more violent murder of a young mother before the real killer, Robert Napper, was convicted. Mark Austin pieces together the string of staggering mistakes and oversights by the investigation team that led to the wrongful conviction. What we will probably never know is whether it was mainly Britton's input or the police's determination to get a result that almost let Napper get away with it.

2003-10-14 · 60m

In 2005, Sally Anne Bowman, an 18-year-old model, was stabbed to death and sexually assaulted outside her south London home. Her boyfriend had dropped her there after an argument. But he wasn't her killer -- his DNA didn't match that found at the scene. A media appeal for help produced no suspect. Neither did a voluntary DNA-screening programme in the area. Instead, a brawl the next summer outside a local pub showing World Cup football led to an arrest and a chance DNA match that caught the killer.

2009-06-07 · 60m

Hannah Foster was a bright, happy and good-hearted 17-year-old who was looking forward to pursuing a career as a doctor. But her promising life was cut short when she was raped and murdered by Maninder Pal Singh Kohli as she walked home after a night out in Southampton in 2003. Real Crime outlines the long and complex police investigation that followed, and that ended only last October when Kohli was jailed for a minimum of 24 years. After the murder he had fled to India, assumed a new identity and even bigamously married. He was tracked down after Hannah's parents went to India to make a series of emotional media appeals for information. Detectives are unstinting in their praise of Trevor and Hilary Foster, and of Hannah, who had the presence of mind, even during her extreme terror, to dial 999 on her mobile phone after her abduction, thus giving police vital clues.

Air date TBA · 60m

A look at one of the most mysterious murder cases in recent years - the apparently motiveless shooting of his wife and baby daughter by 30-year-old Midlands-born computer engineer Neil Entwistle at their home in Massachusetts in 2006. The film has unique access to murder case files, plus testimony from friends, police and defence lawyers. It also provides the first credible explanation for the murder by an eminent forensic psychiatrist who believed Entwistle may have suffered from the autism-related condition Asperger's Syndrome.

Air date TBA · 60m

When thieves broke into Tony Martin's remote Norfolk farmhouse, three shots were fired, killing a 16-year-old burglar and wounding his accomplice. Martin was convicted of manslaughter but went on to become an unlikely tabloid hero. Mark Austin looks at the case and investigates how it sparked a national debate on self-defence. Featuring exclusive testimony from Martin, interviews with his family and friends, insights from the professionals involved in the case, and access to police footage.

2009-06-08 · 60m

Exclusive archive footage, police and witness testimony and reconstructions of key events tell the story of the hunt for the Tesco Bomber, who attempted to extort millions of pounds from the UK's biggest retailer through a campaign of bombings in Autumn 2000.

2009-12-01 · 60m

An insight into the plight of police who came face to face with terror suspect Yassin Omar following the attempted bomb attacks that disrupted part of London's transport network on July 21, 2005. Just two weeks after the July 7 bombings, four men wearing rucksacks packed with explosives tried to commit mass murder, but when their devices failed to detonate, officers faced a race to capture them before they could strike again.