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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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jeur road is one of the main
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thoroughfares in the little enclav of
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Brook green which sits between Hammer
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Smith and Shepherd's Bush Brook green
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which is an extremely well-to-do part of
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West Kensington a very nice part of West
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London it's made up of uh wide avenu
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treelined streets with um Victorian
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three-story buildings it's a very
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desirable place to live a popular place
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with families it I would say it is
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fairly affluent the houses in the area
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uh particularly on deur road probably
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one of the smartest roads in Brook green
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are probably worth on average 1.5 to3
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[Music]
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million on the 21st of October William
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swordens and Smith sets up a meeting
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with his personal assistant and his
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personal assistant attends the meeting
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but William doesn't show his personal
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assistant is
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concerned and when he can't reach him so
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he goes round to his property in jeur
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road which he has keys to and it's when
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he lets himself into the property that
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he finds his body in the Attic
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room when he discovers William's body he
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sees quite a lot of blood around him and
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a injury to his head
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and at that point he goes out to try and
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find some help and he sees one of the
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neighbors and they call
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999 we were informed of this case in
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October of 2011 and my team was actually
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on call for that particular
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week I received a call sometime after
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4:00 on the 21st to say that um they had
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received information that a male had
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been found in his attic
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bedroom the problem for us was that the
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property although it was high in value
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at some in the origion of 2.3 million it
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was actually a very difficult un tidy
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scene for my officers to
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manage your basement your ground floor
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your first floor and it also had an
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artic we had to therefore decide that we
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were going to do certain rooms because
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where we felt we were likely to
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establish where we knew that he would
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set up shop with his laptop top where we
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would eat and all those type of stuff we
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concentrated in that area to see if we
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could find stuff and then we would work
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our way through other parts of the
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building my understanding from the the
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crime scene manager was when they went
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into the attic room they identified uh
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the victim line on the floor he had what
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appeared to be significant blunt trauma
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injuries to his
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head the police were confronted with a
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with a a shocking uh murder scene when
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they arrived they was certainly a fairly
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gruesome scene that officers were
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confronted by and at that point it was a
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murder
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investigation a contact Direct messaged
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me a picture of uh some police tape uh
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and a tent in duur road so I immediately
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headed down to the
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[Music]
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scene when we find ourselves in a set of
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circumstances we're in a murder
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investigation the the golden hour is the
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the first thing we think of we want to
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preserve this scene to make sure that
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the investigation is certainly on a good
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footing going forward this was obviously
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a story of Interest it was in a in an
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affluent area it was a man seemingly
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attacked for no reason in a very
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expensive
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house we were going to have to obviously
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go through his home with a fine tooth
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comb and try and see if we could find
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anything that would give us some leeway
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even the weapon we knew could have been
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left at the address because the home was
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in such an untiy state
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State the place was in chaos uh there
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was rubbish everywhere Rubble forensics
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team um would be looking to establish
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the circumstances of of of the
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attack they will be looking for any
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blood stains that they found in their
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dress because not only is there a
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possibility the blood stains could
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relate to the victim they could have
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also related to The Suspect
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there would have been an awful lot of
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opportunity for us to identify the
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suspect possibly the weapon and ex and
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establish the facts as to what
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happened I FID to remember it because
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one of the officers said to the and I
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think he was going to say they had um
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found the weapon or something like that
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the officer opened a particular bag and
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it came across WS of cash
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and I said to him so are we
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talking1 200 and he said no thousands so
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I said a thousand he said no
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[Music]
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thousands the extraordinary thing about
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Williams living situation at the time
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was amidst all the chaos and the rubbish
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and the building work and the rubble
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there were bags of cash the police
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clearly uh realized that this was uh a
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robbery uh murder in the in the course
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of a Breakin A burglary uh and it must
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have been carried out by people who knew
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that serson Smith kept hundreds of
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thousands of pounds um in his in his
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property and were determined to find the
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police were able in fact to find best
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part of a quarter of a million uh pounds
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hidden in The Loft which the uh the
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murders had not found themselves they
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then found another £100,000 in cash in
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uh another property in Brompton um
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indicating that uh this is exactly what
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uh serson Smith did with his money one
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of the things I was concerned about I
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didn't want the finding of a significant
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amount of cash to jeopardize the
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Integrity of the investigation or the
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Integrity of the officers concerned as
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far as I was concerned at that moment in
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time we had a set process that we would
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follow we need recover large amounts of
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cash so we brought the unit in for them
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to photograph it video the what was
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happening take that cash
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away but I knew that it was going to put
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the investigation back by a Maybe a day
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or two simply because we then had to go
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through that particular area where the
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cash was found to make sure there was no
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other bags of money that were there and
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we had to do it meticulously so it was a
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challenge of course the first thing I
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wanted to know was who was this
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man most occasions when you go to a SE
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or you make inquiries with a victim you
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normally have family members who can
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give you some victimology about the
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individual
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concern William saunderson Smith was
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somebody who lived on his own there's
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very little background information about
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William sord and Smith we identified
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Neighbors on either side of where um the
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victim lived he's described as a bit of
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a loner his neighbors describe that he's
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outwardly very friendly to them but they
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know nothing about him from a very early
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stage we were well aware that the victim
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was somebody who was a recluse he didn't
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really have much contact with his family
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members I think what's interesting about
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this case is the lack of
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information it's it's quite rare for
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police to go to a case where they have
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absolutely nothing to go
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on in this case there's very few people
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who know this man and the people who do
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know him know very little about him so
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it was an incredibly difficult job for
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the police to um put a case together so
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it was going to now be what was
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recovered from the scene we retrieve
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correspondence so it was a question of
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now going through those items we want to
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build up a picture of the victim and
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when we look through for papers and
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documentation there was scant
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information to suggest that he had at
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least two properties in West London one
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was worth at least 2.3 the other one
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probably as much but we also then found
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out that he had properties in Spain and
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in
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Australia I think we need to understand
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just how rich this man was this man was
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a
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multi-millionaire when police started
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investigating uh serson Smith murder the
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really interesting aspect of this case
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was that he was a secret
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multi-millionaire so this was a man who
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was absolutely not short of cash and was
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probably worth upwards of5 six million
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he was a wealthy man he managed to
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contact a family member and that family
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member basically told us that um the
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victim had um his father had died when
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he was 8 years of age and that shortly
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after that his mother went into a mental
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institution for an 8-year-old child
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that's going to be immensely difficult
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there could be huge attachment issues a
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huge uge sense of loss he lost his
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father but also he lost his mother and
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he goes to live with a
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cousin but we can imagine that for an
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8-year-old child that would have been a
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really scary and lonely time we could
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hypothesize that because he didn't have
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his parents around he didn't have any
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siblings and he could only rely on this
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cousin that he lived with and and that
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their family in that he began to rely on
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himself certainly serson Smith never
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forgot got the kindness of the family uh
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who were distant uh relatives cousins
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who had brought him up he was extremely
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generous to the to that family and he
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would support them
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financially uh very quickly very openly
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and he would uh be particularly generous
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as they would remember uh with presents
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for the children at Christmas
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[Music]
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it wasn't long before the gravity and
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the the savagery uh of the crime became
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clear it was established that he had at
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least nine blunt trauma injuries to his
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head and there were significant enough
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to have caused his death and the fact
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that it was nine blows that seems
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excessive in some ways but it's
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certainly not overkilled the coroner's
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view was that it was more than likely a
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heavy blunt strument possibly a hammer
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or some other
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instrument in the early stages of the
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investigation there really was no
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obvious suspect there was no obvious
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reason why anybody would commit such a
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Savage act against a seemingly kind
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gentle maybe lonely man but what on
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Earth had William done to deserve
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this we established that he was a
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landlord stroke property developer
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having evicted his tenent William moved
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into the property in Dew Hurst Road
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around August of that year and he was
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actually living in the Attic whilst the
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extensive Renovations were going on
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sonis Smith was uh an enigma a very
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complicated complex man uh who lived a
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life of which seemed to be just a
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massive contradictions on the face of it
00:12:25
he was almost like a [ __ ] he uh uh was
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a shambling figure he dressed shab and
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he lived in a in a a tiny attic bedroom
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um which doubled as also as his office
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in his dining room but the fact was he
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was an extremely wealthy man he actually
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owned the building in which he lived in
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a tiny part of um he was uh a ruthless I
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would say uh businessman uh and yet he
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had none other trappings of wealth he
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had two significant properties in West
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London one which he was renovating and
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was living at and the other address he
00:13:01
rented
00:13:03
out another address that he used to stay
00:13:06
at we knew that it was going to be a
00:13:08
fingertip search of the venue and other
00:13:11
things which would probably support us
00:13:13
ultimately establishing what
00:13:16
happened and we recovered somewhere in
00:13:18
the region of £335,000 worth of
00:13:24
cash which in the time that I was on the
00:13:26
murder team or I was a police officer I
00:13:28
had never never been involved in
00:13:29
recovering that amount of
00:13:32
money so police were at first baffled as
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to why such large amounts of cash were
00:13:37
being kept at these properties but it
00:13:39
seemed became clear that he wasn't a man
00:13:41
that did things in an orthodox manner we
00:13:44
found this cash it doesn't necessarily
00:13:46
mean that someone went into the address
00:13:49
to take that cash because the cash was
00:13:51
still there so let's just park that for
00:13:54
a second and say to ourselves let's find
00:13:56
out a bit more about the individual
00:13:59
with most investigation you want to
00:14:01
establish the when where what why and
00:14:06
[Music]
00:14:07
who when William started working in
00:14:10
property in London he was described as
00:14:12
quite an unscrupulous landlord we knew
00:14:15
from having spoken to some of his
00:14:18
tenants that he had
00:14:21
taken what they described as significant
00:14:24
amounts of deposit from them and that he
00:14:27
only wanted to
00:14:29
um be paid in
00:14:33
cash he would choose tenants that were
00:14:37
temporary
00:14:39
students uh foreigners who were
00:14:42
traveling and he would give people very
00:14:44
short notice when he wanted them to
00:14:45
leave again this could be explained in
00:14:48
that he didn't have a need for close
00:14:51
relationships and friendships we can
00:14:53
only assume that the way he managed his
00:14:56
money in his businesses come comes from
00:15:00
the trauma that he suffered as a
00:15:05
child we found a very minimal amount of
00:15:08
Records or papers that we could find
00:15:10
about his business but that was you know
00:15:13
easy for us to establish and say right
00:15:16
he didn't want the tax man to be aware
00:15:19
of his income and therefore everything
00:15:22
was done in cash it meant that the
00:15:24
taxman was not aware of actually how
00:15:26
much he was worth I think when we
00:15:28
understand millionaires there's many
00:15:31
different types of millionaires and we
00:15:32
can't categorize them as as one uh
00:15:36
identity there's millionaires who have
00:15:38
had generational wealth there's new
00:15:41
millionaires something that we do see
00:15:43
sometimes in new millionaires is that
00:15:46
there's a tendency to be more flamboyant
00:15:49
with their money because it's new and
00:15:51
exciting um with wian we don't see that
00:15:55
he is relatively new to having such
00:15:57
wealth but he certainly doesn't flash
00:16:00
his
00:16:03
cash serson Smith was clearly a um a
00:16:06
very successful businessman a very
00:16:08
astute businessman a man capable of uh
00:16:11
buying low and selling High which is the
00:16:14
The Secret of of business success he was
00:16:17
able to convert houses update Flats um
00:16:22
very quickly uh because he employed um
00:16:26
cheap labor uh often e European uh labor
00:16:30
who had come to London perhaps uh under
00:16:33
the radar uh and were skilled build
00:16:37
Builders but prepared to work for cash
00:16:39
in hand William has found an assistant
00:16:42
through Gumtree to help him with his
00:16:44
business Affairs and his
00:16:46
finances he's made Millions from
00:16:48
property that's not easy to do however
00:16:53
despite that he makes a lot of very
00:16:56
dubious decisions he hides money he
00:16:59
doesn't pay tax his lifestyle and his
00:17:03
presentation and his living environments
00:17:06
don't represent a
00:17:10
multi-millionaire but something that I
00:17:12
find quite interesting with William is
00:17:15
that although he was obsessed with
00:17:17
making more and more money and keeping
00:17:19
cash he didn't seem to enjoy
00:17:22
it I think it's really interesting that
00:17:24
he hides so much money on one hand we
00:17:28
could say it's simply to evade tax but
00:17:31
it also presents in a way that many
00:17:33
older people used to hide money in their
00:17:36
houses and that's because they were a
00:17:38
generation who didn't Trust Banks it
00:17:41
feels almost like that this is a man who
00:17:43
doesn't trust
00:17:45
people we always had in the back of our
00:17:48
mind the question of could it have been
00:17:51
a tenant who he upset or was it uh some
00:17:55
other business relationship that went
00:17:57
wrong once we took a view that it was
00:17:59
going to be a who done it and it was
00:18:00
going to take a a a fair degree of
00:18:03
detective work to establish the facts
00:18:06
actually it's a challenge we saw it as a
00:18:12
challenge who would have perpetrated
00:18:14
such a terrible
00:18:17
crime within the first 24 hours of that
00:18:20
investigation the crime scene manager
00:18:22
would take control or responsibility for
00:18:25
the crime scene we couldn't find the we
00:18:29
anywhere on the premises the
00:18:30
circumstances as to um why he was
00:18:33
attacked and who attacked him um we
00:18:35
still were no way further
00:18:40
forward the police had to study the CCTV
00:18:44
uh uh from that area uh first of all to
00:18:47
find out uh when this murder must have
00:18:50
taken place uh and they were able to pin
00:18:53
it down uh from 7:00 uh of the previous
00:18:57
night uh to w when he was uh discovered
00:19:00
the following afternoon once they'
00:19:03
established that time frame they
00:19:04
re-examined the CCTV looking for
00:19:07
possible suspects in that street once we
00:19:09
were looking at the CCTV we were able to
00:19:13
identify what I would describe as some
00:19:15
grainy footage on the night that we
00:19:17
believe the attack took place of a car
00:19:20
pulling up on the opposite side of the
00:19:22
road about a 100 yards up from where the
00:19:25
victim lived and you could see at least
00:19:27
two people leaving the vehicle and then
00:19:30
walking onto the opposite side of the
00:19:32
road and walking in the direction of
00:19:34
where the victim
00:19:40
lived because it was grainy um we
00:19:43
weren't able to establish exactly the
00:19:45
full description of the individual's
00:19:47
concern but during the hous to house
00:19:49
inquiries we identified Neighbors on
00:19:53
either side of where um the victim lived
00:19:55
who said they can recall in the early
00:19:57
hours of the morning he hearing what
00:19:59
this sounded like people shouting and
00:20:02
what sounded like people running up and
00:20:03
down the steps we obviously had an
00:20:07
opportunity to get hold of some expert
00:20:09
advice they took photographs during the
00:20:13
nighttime and they also took photographs
00:20:14
during the day and then they brought in
00:20:17
a specialist team who were able to say
00:20:19
right following the movements of those
00:20:21
individuals as they're heading towards
00:20:23
what we believe is a victim's address
00:20:25
based on the photographs that were also
00:20:28
taken we could establish Beyond doubt
00:20:30
that they must have gone into the
00:20:32
victim's
00:20:33
address we subsequently found footage
00:20:36
that that vehicle was actually seen
00:20:38
driving around in the area of the victim
00:20:41
to dress a lot earlier on in the in the
00:20:45
evening in addition to that we were also
00:20:47
able to establish roughly the make the
00:20:50
color and the model of the vehicle
00:20:52
concerned further CCTV footage was
00:20:54
Unearthed which showed that the vehicle
00:20:56
was a gold Land Rover
00:20:59
and it was circling Williams house as if
00:21:01
they were casing the joint and even more
00:21:04
so my colleague actually established
00:21:06
that there was a dent to the near side
00:21:08
of the vehicle and that was very
00:21:10
significant because it meant that if and
00:21:12
when we recover the vehicle we would be
00:21:14
able to say conclusively whether or not
00:21:16
that was a vehicle
00:21:21
concerned when searching officers are at
00:21:24
a crime scene particularly a murder is
00:21:25
they're going to be trying to seek out
00:21:27
is a phone of the victim simply because
00:21:30
there could be so much information on
00:21:32
there that could direct the
00:21:34
investigation towards potentially the
00:21:36
suspects and towards potentially a
00:21:37
motive for why the murder
00:21:41
happened everyone has a mobile phone but
00:21:44
when you have your mobile phone you
00:21:46
leave a trace somewhere you leave an
00:21:49
information as to when you've used your
00:21:50
phone and where you've used it and who
00:21:52
you've
00:21:53
contacted we recovered 67 different
00:21:56
mobile phones
00:21:59
don't think we had any other
00:22:00
investigation when we recovered 67
00:22:02
phones what phones were we going to
00:22:05
prioritize that wasn't an easy decision
00:22:07
to make so my view was we're going to
00:22:09
have to look at every single one of
00:22:10
those
00:22:12
phones so every single phone would need
00:22:15
to be examined examined to see is it
00:22:18
live is there a SIM card in it when was
00:22:20
it last used what is on it what messages
00:22:23
photographs anything that is stored on
00:22:27
it we couldn't not look at all of them
00:22:30
because knowing your luck sometimes the
00:22:32
the ones you don't look at there's going
00:22:33
to be something on there this would have
00:22:35
been a huge task and it would have been
00:22:37
down to a laboratory to go through these
00:22:40
phones one at a time reporting back to
00:22:43
the investigators about exactly what was
00:22:45
on
00:22:47
it we had submitted at least 67 mobile
00:22:50
phones for um investigations to be done
00:22:53
on
00:22:53
[Music]
00:22:55
them in 2011 when these phones would
00:22:58
been seized and sent to what's known as
00:23:01
the phone laboratory what that
00:23:03
essentially is it's a it's a room full
00:23:05
of computers full of phone technicians
00:23:09
who will take each handset attach it to
00:23:12
a computer and use software to download
00:23:15
it so where we call it a laboratory
00:23:17
there's nobody in white coats but that's
00:23:19
the technical name for it after weeks of
00:23:23
plowing through the phones and it was
00:23:25
down to I think the the 67th phone that
00:23:28
there was a text that was sent by the
00:23:32
victim to someone about two months
00:23:35
previous to his death and that is the
00:23:38
starting point of when we did the
00:23:39
inquiries to establish who that text was
00:23:41
sent
00:23:42
[Music]
00:23:44
to was it relationship that he was
00:23:46
having we also knew that he he he
00:23:49
regularly frequented gay bars in London
00:23:52
but when we delved into it we found that
00:23:54
there was nothing to suggest that he had
00:23:56
a partner or anything like that the only
00:23:58
question is is whether or not he had met
00:23:59
somebody there brought them back to the
00:24:01
flat and then that individual attacked
00:24:04
him so we had an open mind and we were
00:24:06
looking at different possibilities as to
00:24:08
why he was
00:24:16
killed forensics then came across a
00:24:19
discovery that would change the course
00:24:21
of the entire
00:24:23
investigation a fingerprint on a sash
00:24:26
window on the ground floor of the house
00:24:30
so once the Mark had been lifted the the
00:24:33
first thing we had to establish is that
00:24:34
it didn't belong to the victim and after
00:24:38
the the results came back the next
00:24:40
question had to be therefore who did it
00:24:42
actually belong
00:24:45
to the initial mark on the window sash
00:24:48
was identified at an early stage within
00:24:51
the first 24 hours those officers who
00:24:54
were dealing with that part of the the
00:24:56
forensic um analysis they're seasoned
00:24:59
campaigners and the information they
00:25:01
provided me with at the time was that
00:25:03
the Mark was
00:25:04
fresh because the The Ridges and
00:25:06
everything were
00:25:08
obvious but by the time that Mark is
00:25:11
then lifted and is then submitted to the
00:25:14
forensic lab for
00:25:16
analysis it's looking at Beyond 72 hours
00:25:19
before we established that it belonged
00:25:21
to somebody called David Rymer
00:25:30
ryar was identified as a result of a hit
00:25:32
on the police national computer database
00:25:35
having come to the attention of police
00:25:37
in the past that was a significant
00:25:40
identification so at that point we're
00:25:42
thinking is David ryar a suspect or is
00:25:45
he a person of interest or is he just
00:25:46
going to be a
00:25:48
witness the police were able to identify
00:25:51
the phone that William sent the text to
00:25:53
having looked at the phone data we
00:25:55
established that the the the text that
00:25:57
was sent by the victim was actually sent
00:25:59
David
00:26:01
rhy So as an investigator as a detective
00:26:05
it can be hugely satisfying where
00:26:07
suddenly all that evidence starts to
00:26:09
come
00:26:11
together we were then able to piece
00:26:14
together that that individual was
00:26:16
someone who was known to the victim in
00:26:18
terms of um working for
00:26:21
him so at that point we were thinking
00:26:25
right we're off and running because we
00:26:26
were going to try and establish the
00:26:28
circumstan as to why David rayar's
00:26:32
finger marks were found on the sash
00:26:34
window on whether or not he could
00:26:36
explain that set of
00:26:39
[Music]
00:26:43
circumstances the victim had an
00:26:45
assistant and he was able to impart to
00:26:47
us certain information that he had
00:26:49
polish Builders who he normally used and
00:26:52
he normally paid them in cash the
00:26:54
personal assistant was aware that the
00:26:56
builders weren't particularly Happ happy
00:26:58
because they didn't feel that he was
00:27:00
paying them the correct
00:27:03
[Music]
00:27:04
amount so in relation to David ryar
00:27:08
officers were deputed to go to the
00:27:11
address that we identified he was living
00:27:13
at to make inquiries to see whether or
00:27:15
not they could identify whether he lived
00:27:17
there when the officers attended that
00:27:19
address they spoke to his girlfriend as
00:27:22
well as the landlord they established
00:27:25
that ryar hadn't been seen at the
00:27:27
address for a
00:27:30
week also it became apparent that he had
00:27:34
two friends who he worked with one was
00:27:37
called slir bugaj jeski and the other
00:27:39
was called iru
00:27:42
Midlock it became apparent to us very
00:27:45
quickly after that once their addresses
00:27:47
were visited that they were also not
00:27:50
living at that point at there was
00:27:51
address anymore and had it moved back to
00:27:55
Poland in relation to
00:27:58
David rimar slir bugaj jeski and irin
00:28:02
midad those individuals were known to
00:28:05
each other they had no other contact
00:28:08
with the victim other than they were
00:28:10
people who carried out um renovation
00:28:13
work to the properties that he had those
00:28:15
individuals had known each other for
00:28:16
some time and were all of Polish
00:28:20
extraction the three suspects had been
00:28:22
Williams preferred builders for many
00:28:23
years on his raft of properties but it
00:28:26
soon became clear that they felt under
00:28:28
paid and undervalued and that was a
00:28:30
potential motive for their crime even
00:28:33
though the mark on the saswi belonged to
00:28:35
David ryar we knew that there was always
00:28:37
a possibility that he could have had
00:28:39
legitimate access to that
00:28:43
property when we're talking about
00:28:45
suspects what's important there is
00:28:47
particularly the movement often what you
00:28:49
will see in Murder investigations
00:28:52
involving a number of suspects is the
00:28:54
phones starting to come together to the
00:28:56
point where they're all there at the
00:28:58
crime scene at the time of a murder and
00:29:01
then you see them leave leaving together
00:29:03
leaving the crime scene and going off in
00:29:06
whatever Direction they're going to
00:29:09
go we obviously had the phone data know
00:29:11
that was going to establish even more
00:29:13
significant facts because the
00:29:15
information that we got from the phone
00:29:16
data established that those three
00:29:18
individuals their phones were actually
00:29:22
triangulated actually in the vicinity of
00:29:24
the scene on the night in question we
00:29:26
were able to establish that they had
00:29:28
visited the address with ryar they knew
00:29:31
of the victim so the association was
00:29:34
quite easy for us they worked as a
00:29:39
group in a case where you have multiple
00:29:41
suspects looking at their interactions
00:29:43
in and around when a crime was committed
00:29:45
the communications on phones is really
00:29:48
important when you looked at their phone
00:29:50
data there was regular communication
00:29:52
between them before the attack on the
00:29:55
attack and even after the attack so they
00:29:57
knew one another so rayar's phone was
00:29:59
used to phone bugaj jeski and midad
00:30:03
shortly before and after the
00:30:07
event with more now being known about
00:30:09
the long-term relationship between
00:30:11
William and his Builders there was
00:30:12
speculation that the suspects have
00:30:14
perhaps discovered the money that
00:30:15
William was keeping in his home and that
00:30:17
was the motivation behind their
00:30:21
crime when bukaj jesi's address was
00:30:24
visited in Acton we established that the
00:30:28
vehicle we believe that was driving
00:30:31
around before the attack and seen
00:30:34
certainly positioned close to the
00:30:36
victim's address on the night that that
00:30:39
vehicle was actually still parked
00:30:41
outside bugaj
00:30:43
jesis although the police suspect wasn't
00:30:45
there the gold Land Rover
00:30:49
was we couldn't have asked for anything
00:30:52
more significant once we have
00:30:53
established that that vehicle um was
00:30:56
still outside the address so that was
00:30:58
vehicle was taken away for forensic
00:31:02
examination we are then at that point
00:31:05
what 3 weeks into the investigation and
00:31:08
we know that we are on the right
00:31:10
[Music]
00:31:14
track given all the information that we
00:31:17
had at this stage we had identified what
00:31:20
I would describe as our Prime suspects
00:31:22
David rimar slavomir bugaj jeski and
00:31:26
irin new midad were the people that we
00:31:29
were focusing on so we were able to
00:31:30
triangulate and get them back at the
00:31:33
address and on top of that there was
00:31:35
also phone data to say that the mini cab
00:31:38
had been called by by one of them and
00:31:41
that the cab then ultimately picked up
00:31:44
bu jeski and midad and they were heading
00:31:49
in the direction of Victoria code
00:31:51
station so essentially every time a
00:31:54
phone connects to a cell Mast that will
00:31:57
leave some kind of footprint what
00:31:59
sometimes criminals don't understand is
00:32:02
that you yourself don't have to have
00:32:05
instigated that transaction between your
00:32:07
phone and a cell tower for instance if
00:32:10
you have apps running on your phone they
00:32:13
could be running in a background connec
00:32:15
to a cell tower and you're completely
00:32:17
oblivious to
00:32:20
this in this case what the police were
00:32:22
able to identify is that after the
00:32:25
murder the suspects left the country
00:32:27
they went to Victoria and from Victoria
00:32:31
went to
00:32:33
Paris the fact that the suspects are in
00:32:35
Paris makes this now an international
00:32:38
case there's evidence located showing
00:32:41
pictures of them in Paris at the Eiffel
00:32:44
Tower spending money on designer Goods
00:32:48
so these are three men who have taken
00:32:50
the life of a
00:32:52
man once they leave Paris they then flee
00:32:55
to Poland
00:32:58
all three were spending an awful lot of
00:33:00
cash far more cash than you would have
00:33:02
expected from someone hardworking
00:33:05
Builder uh to have in hand looking at
00:33:08
the behavior of the suspects it's really
00:33:10
quite interesting they are fleeing to
00:33:13
the place that they feel safe Poland
00:33:15
they know once they're there they will
00:33:17
feel safe and they'll be protected where
00:33:19
they think they will never be caught
00:33:21
they are so arrogant that they will get
00:33:24
away with this they know this man had no
00:33:26
friends they know he was ler all we had
00:33:28
to now do is find out conclusively where
00:33:32
they were in Poland and then consider
00:33:35
International arrest warrants to then
00:33:38
bring them back to the UK for them to be
00:33:45
arrested as part of of a murder team
00:33:50
investigation you always are going to
00:33:52
find that there are challenging moments
00:33:54
we've identified who we believe are the
00:33:56
suspects but there are not
00:33:58
within touching distance in terms of
00:34:01
arresting them because they've fled the
00:34:02
country so we knew that that was
00:34:04
therefore going to be a bit of a
00:34:06
hindrance because when you go for
00:34:08
International arrest warrants those
00:34:09
things take time they're very
00:34:11
bureaucratic um and therefore it could
00:34:14
be 2 three four even longer could be
00:34:17
could be months before we actually got
00:34:19
hold of them and brought them back to
00:34:20
the the UK in the background we're going
00:34:23
to do something quite straightforward
00:34:25
which is we had the telephone numbers we
00:34:27
know the had their phones so why not
00:34:29
ring them but there's nothing stopping
00:34:31
us from ringing them and say as we did
00:34:33
this is the Metropolitan
00:34:35
Police there's an investigation of
00:34:38
murder that we were investigating we'd
00:34:40
like to speak to you about it um would
00:34:43
you be prepared to come back to the UK
00:34:45
to have this matter resolved and that's
00:34:48
the the route that we took the first two
00:34:51
came back um came back of their own
00:34:53
accord we had officers who went to visit
00:34:56
the address and they were expecting us
00:34:58
to turn up and they were arrested and
00:35:00
brought into the police station and I
00:35:02
think the reason why they were happy to
00:35:04
come back they were reasonably confident
00:35:07
that we would probably didn't have
00:35:09
enough evidence to charge them with
00:35:12
murder ryar took a bit longer we were in
00:35:15
communication with him expressed The
00:35:17
View that he didn't have money to return
00:35:20
and we therefore facilitated it by
00:35:22
paying for um a flight for him to return
00:35:25
and when he got back to the UK ltin
00:35:28
airport he had a solicitor that was
00:35:30
present he was arrested and then brought
00:35:32
to the police station and
00:35:34
[Music]
00:35:37
interviewed the fact that ryar agrees to
00:35:40
return to the UK smacks of absolute
00:35:43
arrogance he wouldn't have returned
00:35:46
unless he absolutely thought that he was
00:35:48
going to get away with it it was a
00:35:50
smooth transition from the point of
00:35:53
making contact with those three
00:35:55
individuals and saying look
00:35:58
we're investigating you we're not going
00:36:01
to stop this investigation and we're
00:36:03
going to keep ringing you and ultimately
00:36:05
we will contact the local police and
00:36:08
we'll do the International arrest
00:36:10
warrant and all the things that
00:36:11
necessary to get you to come
00:36:14
back when the vehicle was forensically
00:36:16
examined it became apparent that there
00:36:18
was um blood stains in the vehicle and
00:36:23
they were submitted for
00:36:25
analysis theyna that had been recovered
00:36:28
was the victim's blood but it was a
00:36:32
mixed profile also with David
00:36:36
rayar's the one thing that the uh The
00:36:38
Defenders couldn't uh dispute was that
00:36:41
somehow sonis and Smith blood had ended
00:36:44
up in baji's car which all three of them
00:36:48
were traveling in U that was beyond
00:36:51
dispute and then there's a mixed profile
00:36:54
which would indicate that there must
00:36:55
have been a fight or something for there
00:36:57
to be transfer of blood between ryar and
00:37:01
our victim and therefore at that point
00:37:04
it would be
00:37:05
reasonably um assumed by anyone that
00:37:08
ryar would have to explain those set of
00:37:14
circumstances all three suspects were
00:37:16
arrested and interviewed and at the time
00:37:19
of when we're preparing for an interview
00:37:21
we normally have an interview strategy
00:37:23
and I would have identified officers
00:37:25
that would have um conducted that
00:37:26
interview uh um my recollection of that
00:37:28
interview is that they didn't provide us
00:37:30
with anything significant other than to
00:37:32
say that they they knew of the victim um
00:37:35
but didn't actually say anything that
00:37:37
was
00:37:39
incriminating we had all three of those
00:37:42
individuals charged um with murder and
00:37:45
awaiting um a crown court
00:37:52
hearing the pressure is always there but
00:37:55
when you have three people that have
00:37:56
been ched
00:37:58
there's another added Dimension to it
00:38:00
because you have to make sure that you
00:38:02
get everything
00:38:04
right as the three defendants were led
00:38:06
into doc uh it seemed to me that they
00:38:09
had an air of self-confidence about them
00:38:11
that they actually believed they were
00:38:12
going to get away with this it's always
00:38:14
tense on the first day of any big murder
00:38:17
trial particularly at the Old Bailey
00:38:19
which is Britain's Premier courtroom um
00:38:23
but what made this particularly strange
00:38:25
was that William being a recluse really
00:38:28
didn't have anyone known to him uh at
00:38:31
the trial it was reporters it was
00:38:33
detectives it was Lawyers and of course
00:38:35
the suspects but there were no close
00:38:37
family or friends there which I found
00:38:39
quite sad we were never able to identify
00:38:42
what instrument was used to attack the
00:38:45
[Music]
00:38:47
victim despite the not guilty pleas the
00:38:50
evidence was strong the mobile phone
00:38:53
technology traced all three of the
00:38:55
suspects fleeing to Paris and then onto
00:38:57
Poland
00:38:58
they had to get away for a reason and
00:39:00
the only reason that they wanted to get
00:39:02
away is because they were the people who
00:39:04
were
00:39:05
involved if police are trying to show a
00:39:08
conspiracy and a joint Enterprise the
00:39:11
communications before a crime has taken
00:39:14
place the coming together of people's
00:39:16
mobile phones and then us going off in
00:39:19
different directions afterwards can be
00:39:21
really powerful evidence when put in
00:39:23
front of a jury it also became known
00:39:25
during the trial that buad was suffering
00:39:28
from severe financial problems and it
00:39:31
doesn't take a genius to kind of put two
00:39:33
and two together when you have a
00:39:35
multi-millionaire reclusive uh employer
00:39:39
who's keeping large sacks of cash around
00:39:40
the property and a down aill polish
00:39:44
builder in desperate need of cash to
00:39:47
potentially come up with quite a strong
00:39:48
motive for the
00:39:50
crime by the end of the trial and it's
00:39:52
only 3 to four weeks uh that it lasted
00:39:55
uh I don't think any of uh uh my
00:39:57
colleagues in the Press had any doubt at
00:39:59
all that all three men would be uh
00:40:02
convicted despite having committed what
00:40:04
really was one of the most Savage crimes
00:40:06
I've ever come across in my 10-year
00:40:08
career as a journalist they genuinely
00:40:11
thought that they were going to get away
00:40:12
with it but as far as I was concerned
00:40:15
the evidence was watertight and the jury
00:40:17
thought so too after what actually
00:40:20
seemed like an eternity but was actually
00:40:22
only I think 3 and a half hours of
00:40:24
deliberation the jury unanimously found
00:40:26
them guilty and they were each sent down
00:40:29
to prison for a minimum of 30
00:40:34
years it was a 4-week trial and
00:40:37
ultimately they were convicted but it
00:40:40
was a challenging case but at the end of
00:40:43
the day I think the team would have
00:40:44
taken huge credit from the fact that
00:40:47
from the position where we started and
00:40:49
to ultimately get the three people who
00:40:51
we know were involved um to court and
00:40:55
that the jury was satisfied with the
00:40:58
evidence that we um put together so we
00:41:01
were satisfied and we felt that we were
00:41:03
giving the victim's family some
00:41:06
closure um and some sort of feeling that
00:41:08
Justice was
00:41:11
served it was a feeling of Justice being
00:41:14
done it was very satisfying and probably
00:41:18
one of the the highlights of my career
00:41:20
to see those three brutal Killers sent
00:41:24
to
00:41:26
Justice what what's quite sad when we
00:41:29
look at William in relation to why he is
00:41:35
murdered many people who have wealth of
00:41:38
course are a person of interest to
00:41:40
people who seek to take wealth of people
00:41:43
during the attack they probably got at
00:41:45
least £22,000 each when they went into
00:41:48
their addess in the early hours of the
00:41:49
morning which is absolutely nothing
00:41:52
compared to what was actually lying
00:41:53
around in the attic and other parts of
00:41:55
their dress when you add to the fact
00:41:57
that he was a multi-millionaire murdered
00:42:00
in his own home uh you add the fact of
00:42:03
this intriguing character with this uh
00:42:05
extraordinary backstory back life and
00:42:09
lifestyle uh then this was definitely a
00:42:11
major story in
00:42:13
London my belief is that earlier on in
00:42:17
the day because we know that there was
00:42:18
CCTV footage that showed the victim who
00:42:21
was leaving the address at a particular
00:42:22
time in the evening and he went to a
00:42:24
Timber yard to get some items
00:42:29
and that those three individuals were
00:42:31
actually at the address doing some work
00:42:32
for him we believe that they got him to
00:42:36
leave the address the victim because
00:42:37
they wanted to leave they had obviously
00:42:40
found money at that point and I believe
00:42:42
that when the victim had left the
00:42:44
address to go to the timber yard it was
00:42:46
their opportunity to leave with a bag of
00:42:48
money and that they then thought to
00:42:50
themselves well if we found that there's
00:42:52
probably more here hence the reason why
00:42:54
they came back later on in the night and
00:42:56
was D around you know casing The
00:43:00
Joint once they've entered the address
00:43:02
they were probably spooked by the victim
00:43:04
who was in his attic bedroom they
00:43:06
probably didn't expect him to come down
00:43:08
more than likely he would have realized
00:43:10
who they
00:43:11
were and thought to thems well he's
00:43:14
going to identify us either they
00:43:16
couldn't find any money and then then
00:43:18
threatened him to say you need to tell
00:43:20
us where the money is because we found
00:43:21
some already and we know you got some
00:43:23
more stashed that was my basic inter
00:43:27
interpretation of what happened when we
00:43:28
look at
00:43:29
homicide one theory of homicide is that
00:43:33
people commit expressive homicides so
00:43:36
the actual Act of homicide itself is
00:43:39
their motivator this is people who enjoy
00:43:42
the ACT maybe it's got a sexual
00:43:44
motivation then there's instrumental
00:43:47
homicide where it's purely about doing
00:43:51
the homicide to get something this case
00:43:54
Falls very much into instrumental
00:43:56
homicide
00:43:59
side people normally say You're only as
00:44:01
good as your last job and you're only as
00:44:03
good as the people that you have around
00:44:04
you and those things are are
00:44:06
significantly true but when you consider
00:44:08
from where we started with little to no
00:44:10
evidence about um what happened little
00:44:14
little to no information about the the
00:44:16
victim we went from Zero to Hero in a
00:44:21
matter of five weeks so you know it's
00:44:23
it's it's good detective work
00:44:28
[Music]
00:44:40
with the trial now over and the suspects
00:44:42
in prison the main question now was who
00:44:44
would be the rightful heir to William's
00:44:46
huge Fortune a genealogist was brought
00:44:49
in and they were able to identify a
00:44:52
cousin that ultimately received the
00:44:54
wealth that Mr serson Smith had
00:44:57
part of the money was taken by hmrc for
00:45:00
unpaid tax it's really quite sad that
00:45:03
they have to search for months and
00:45:06
eventually find a distant
00:45:08
relative for who they can leave all the
00:45:11
money that William has made over the
00:45:15
years whilst the main motivating factor
00:45:19
for these murderers was money I think
00:45:23
something that made it easier for them
00:45:25
was the fact that he was such a
00:45:27
reuse this wasn't a man that was going
00:45:30
to be all over the TV when his body was
00:45:32
found and that's a really sad ending for
00:45:35
anybody to have when they're taken in
00:45:38
such a cruel way
00:45:50
[Music]
00:46:08
[Music]
