Britain's Darkest Taboos

The first episode of the series explores the murder of 20-year-old hairdresser Hollie Gazzard, who was stabbed 14 times in broad daylight in front of colleagues and clients at the salon where she worked on 18 February 2014. The perpetrator was Hollie’s ex-boyfriend, 22-year-old Asher Maslin, who had subjected Hollie to domestic abuse since the previous year. Hollie tragically died two hours after the attack due to extreme blood loss. In July 2014, Maslin was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 24 years in prison. The episode marks the year anniversary of Hollie’s murder.

In a case police described as the worst example of abuse they had ever seen, April 1996 saw the horrific torture and murder of 17-year-old Kelly-Anne Bates at the hand of her boyfriend of three years, 49-year-old James Patterson Smith. Prior to her death, Kelly-Anne had suffered shocking injuries including scolding of her buttocks and legs, stab wounds inside her mouth and mutilation of her body. Patterson Smith was found guilty and in November 1997 was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1998, Sikh woman, Sarbjit Kaur Athwal, played witness to the arranged murder of her sister-in-law, Surjit Kaur Athwal, who was ordered to be killed by their mother-in-law, Bachan Kaur. Leaving her two young children behind, Surjit was lured to India by her mother-in-law and killed for shaming the family after threatening to end her unhappy marriage to Kaur’s son. Proud of her actions, Kaur revealed the truth to Sarbjit, warning her that she would be next if she also stepped out of line. Sarbjit had the courage to tell her father who, in turn, reported the crime to the police. Both Kaur and her son, Athwal, who acted as an accomplice, were sentenced to life in prison.

In March 2012, 19-year-old Elisa Frank was forced to watch helplessly as her former lover, Ahmad Otak, ferociously stabbed both her sister Kim and best friend Samantha, before bundling Elisa into a car and driving to Dover. Having been in an abusive relationship with Otak, the attack was sparked when Elisa had plucked up the courage to leave him. Elisa was lucky enough to escape on the way to Dover and run to a nearby house to find help. Otak has since been convicted and sentenced to life, with a minimum of 34 years in prison.

Dubbed as ‘Britain’s most sadistic mother’, Eunice Spry physically and mentally tortured her three foster children, Victoria, Alloma and Christopher, across a period of almost 20 years. Playing mind games with the children to justify the abuse and causing serious physical injuries, the three youngsters suffered for years at the hands of someone who was meant to protect them. Victoria, in particular, has had lasting damage from the ordeal, with surgery needed to mend the hearing in one ear from being repeatedly kicked by Spry and veneers fitted after her front teeth were knocked out. Spry was jailed in 2005, convicted of 26 counts of child abuse and sentenced to 12 years, but served only 7 years, and was released in June 2014. The programme will be the first time all three victims have formally told their story together.

In May 2008, anti-gun activist Pat Regan was viciously stabbed by her own grandson, Rakeim Regan, at her house in Leeds. Pat, whose son had been killed in a gang shooting years earlier, was attacked by the perpetrator who she was caring for after he had been admitted to hospital. Rakeim was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In her first TV appearance, daughter of the victim and mother of Rakeim, Franky Fenton, discusses the case alongside her brother Shane Fenton, who is continuing his mother’s legacy through his charitable projects and endeavours. Following the crime, Rakeim was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.

Stalker Al Amin Dhalla began a campaign of terror against former girlfriend, trainee doctor, Alison Hewitt, in 2012. Having met through a dating agency in January 2010, the couple were in a relationship for over a year before Alison’s mother became suspicious of Dhalla and hired a private investigator. The investigation soon revealed the string of lies that Alison’s boyfriend had told, but it wasn’t until Alison tried to leave him that the real Dhalla came out and he started stalking her, writing to neighbours and publicly accusing Alison of killing a patient using NHS drugs. The harassment continued until police arrested Dhalla, finding a torture chamber built in the back of his van including knives, tape and most shockingly, a loaded crossbow. However, when released on bail, Dhalla headed straight to Alison’s parents’ house which he torched. Luckily, the family were able to escape and, after a deadly game of cat and mouse, Dhalla was put behind bars and sentenced to a minimum of 6 years.

Care home worker and recluse, Mark Howe, blurred fiction with reality by killing his mother, Katrina Wardle, in July 2013 after becoming obsessed with TV series, Dexter. The 21-year-old from Leicester who was an avid viewer of the US series stabbed his mother 53 times with a 12-inch knife after an argument about his cannabis use. Police reported that the force of the stabbings was so severe that the tip of the knife was bent. The offender then chillingly proceeded to call his sister to confess his crime as he headed to work. Howe was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 21 and a half years.

Labeled the ‘Black Widower’, sociopath Malcolm Webster was a pathological liar, a serial seducer and bigamist who married three different women. The episode focuses on first wife, Claire Morris, who Webster married in 1993 and murdered in 1994, drugging and setting fire to the car she was in to fake a fatal car crash. Following Claire’s death, Webster married again twice – once in New Zealand and once in Scotland – and attempted to kill again before the law caught up with him. Webster was convicted in 2011, 12 years after Claire’s murder.

In September 2007, Gareth MacDonald was brutally killed by his lover and secret con-man, Glenn Rycroft, at a Travelodge on the way to London. Having met in a gay chat-room in 2005, MacDonald left his wife and children to be with Rycroft, but unbeknownst to him, the man he loved was a serial con artist recently released from a four-year prison sentence for fraud. Conducting a lavish lifestyle with his new partner, Rycroft continued to commit fraud to pay for their luxuries, but the lies began to unravel when MacDonald noticed money going missing. Rycroft murdered the man he supposedly loved in cold blood. In July 2009, Rycroft was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years in prison.