Catching Britain's Killers: The Crimes That Changed Us

Double Jeopardy (1x2)

Air date: Oct 16, 2019

Beginning in 1989, this episode tells the story of a murder in Billingham in Teesside that would lead to one mother challenging an 800-year-old law. In November 1989, Julie Hogg, a young single mother, disappeared without word, leaving her parents and young son distraught. Three months later her body was found and a suspect arrested. Weaving together interviews with Julie’s mother Ann and Julie’s son Kevin, as well as friends, journalists, police officers and leading politicians, the programme tells the story of how the failure to convict her daughter’s killer led Ann Ming to overturn the law on double jeopardy. After a jury failed to convict her daughter’s murderer, Billy Dunlop, Ann fearlessly took on the political and legal establishments in a campaign to overturn the ancient law of double jeopardy. Ann knew that unless the law was reformed, Dunlop could never face a re-trial. After years of tireless campaigning, Ann finally succeeded and in 2006 Dunlop was tried again and became the first person to be convicted under the newly reformed double jeopardy law. As this episode traces the twists and turns of Ann’s campaign, the story of other cases that benefited from the legal changes are also explored, from Gary Dobson and Clifford Norris, the killers of Stephen Lawrence, who were convicted in 2012, to the killer of Surjit Chokkar, finally convicted 18 years after his murder. Exploring the ripples of one single case, the programme explores how one mother’s determination to get justice for her daughter would lead to an historic change in the law that has benefited other families who had also seen the killers of their loved ones walk free.