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[Music]
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keith farquharson
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a man who could be trusted
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he was a retired police inspector
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and he had a part-time job
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i think driving kids on a school bus
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but not everybody saw him as a solid
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citizen
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he should never have been in the role of
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police officer
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he's narcissistic he's misogynistic and
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he's abusive
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some said he was a man with a one-track
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mind
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i think farquharson really did enjoy
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having sex with strangers i think he
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enjoyed affairs i think he enjoyed the
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whole power play sexually
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in 2019 a jury was asked if keith
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farquharson had used his power
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to murder his wife
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it's not a quick process strangling
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someone
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was this all a ghastly mistake
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his contention was that he hadn't
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deliberately killed his wife that there
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had been a
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terrible accident is a policeman
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innocent
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or guilty of the murder of his wife
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[Music]
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in 2019 ian duggard a senior scottish
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legal counsel took a call which would
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place him at the heart of legal
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proceedings against a one-time senior
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policeman
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i was instructed by the solicitor in
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aberdeen to
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represent keith
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what farkerson
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duggard and others would learn was a
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story of love
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deceit
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marriage and murder
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[Music]
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keith and alice farquharson were married
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in 1986. to neighbors and friends they
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were the sort of people anyone would
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want to live near
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keith for carson was a cop in aberdeen
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started his career in the 80s
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neil lancaster also a one-time cop now
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lives in scotland and recognises
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farquharson's career trajectory
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he held
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various positions in the police and rose
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to the rank of inspector so managerial
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rank
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a man who would have to be good at his
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job to get there and helping him the
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woman he married
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he'd been married to alice for 33 years
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alice is lovely she's just one of those
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humans that you're drawn to he had a
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house where he lived with his wife he
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had three grown-up children between 1986
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and 2000 alice appears devoted to the
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children indeed children are at the
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center of her life alice is reported to
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be a loving mother
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and dedicated professional working in
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the classrooms with small children she
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works at a school and all the little
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children there just adore her she's a
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very warm caring empathic human she gave
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up so much of her time to create the
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local school library apparently the
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school library was non-existent when she
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joined and she
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from a volunteer basis made it happen on
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the surface alice and keith appeared to
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be a good match both working to better
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their family and community
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but their personalities couldn't be more
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different
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alice parquason was the antithesis of
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her husband people said
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that he thought he was god's gift to
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women alice
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was the complete opposite alice was the
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kind of person who was
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anything but narcissistic she was giving
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and she was kind and she was generous
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and she was
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so giving she was willing to hero
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worship farkasan and that's what he
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really needed from a partner
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around 2007 farquharson was discovered
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by alice to be having an affair
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she thought it was not the first and not
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one he ever fully walked away from
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the liaison which
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he had said had broken off and which i
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think he explained had broken off had in
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some way
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resumed or to some extent had resumed
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throughout the 33 married years heath
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appeared to focus on keith specifically
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his love of policing fast cars and
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motorbikes
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and other women
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as for farguson's choice of profession
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farcason that that personality that
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i'm in charge i'm wonderful i'm arrogant
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he was always going to go into a role
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that probably had a uniform
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and probably put him in charge or
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control of people so the police was a
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natural choice for somebody like him
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human rights lawyer harriet wistrich who
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campaigns for women's rights within the
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criminal justice system believes that
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policing can attract men with a certain
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sense of entitlement there's no doubt
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that policing attracts
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some men who are
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attracted by having power having the
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power and also the status of a police
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officer and also to some degree the
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impunity of a police officer in the
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early 1980s police forces across the uk
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were being changed renewed reformed
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farquharson became a cop in the newly
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established grampian police force which
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brought together smaller forces from
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across aberdeenshire
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initially he was very successful
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keith for carson is a man who
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shot up the ranks
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in the aberdeen police force in the
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police force in aberdeen you have to be
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motivated you have to be single-minded
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and you have to be very very determined
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to achieve those ranks he was famous for
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his
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sexual
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behavior people
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especially women i think referred to him
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as a bit of a pervert actually he
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probably didn't see himself in that way
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at all he probably thought that he was
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some kind of casanova but people like
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farkasen often don't realize how their
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behavior is being received constantly
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making lewd remarks constantly allegedly
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engaging in lewd behaviour suggestive he
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wouldn't last five minutes in today's
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police force for
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women working in the police and i can
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say this because i am a former police
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officer
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feel under an awful lot of pressure to
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take that
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abuse to be one of the lads to prove
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they're good enough
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to do the job
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somebody like him is gonna get away with
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his misogyny in the police at that time
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30 years ago
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the sort of disciplinary consequences
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for police officers for certain
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misbehavior
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is is alarmingly inconsequential
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in the background at home alice
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farquharson was doing her best to raise
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her children and keep her family
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together she's going to remain happy
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about that in within the relationship
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and happy that her husband going around
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sexually harassing his colleagues what
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it what it suggests to me is he had
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complete control over that woman he
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could do what he wanted he'd go where he
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wanted he could have a relationship
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after a relationship and she simply had
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to
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quote unquote grin and bear it but in
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1998
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farquharson finally took things too far
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he was in his late 40s by this point
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he
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was an inspector his senior position in
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the police in aberdeenshire he wrote
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a really disgusting
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poem to a
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female
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member of staff
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now this cd poem that he sent to this
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police officer was called gasping for it
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she didn't take it well at all and
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reported it was not a poem to a lover
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it was a poem to a young
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impressionable
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and
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intimidated female police officer the
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woman police officer would tell a court
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that she was frightened about the
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implication of the poem and the
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intention of the author the poem was
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sexually explicit she feared farquissen
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could find out when her husband was to
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be on duty and might arrive at their
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home looking for sex
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it was an act that spoke volumes about
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how farcan saw himself if that behavior
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happens uh by a police officer within
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the police it's it's it's clear that he
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he he feels uh entitled and immune to
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some degree from being held accountable
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but on this occasion held accountable he
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was farcerson claimed it had been a joke
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and apologized but was convicted of
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breaching the peace by causing his
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female colleague fear and alarm he was
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fined 500 pounds and stripped of his
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inspector's badge and then demoted back
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down to constable
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so you can imagine how serious it must
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have been deemed to have that there are
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other ranks in between
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all the way down to constable it was
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deemed that serious
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ex-policeman neil lancaster knows the
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ramifications of a demotion now this
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would have caused him a lot of problems
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and cost him a significant amount of
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money
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demoted but not dismissed
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and still alice stayed loyal
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where was this mismatch of a marriage
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headed
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like everybody else he would he was
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quite anxious
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um but he was looking for
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advice he was looking for advice on what
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the legal criteria are for murder what
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other alternatives there might be what
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defense he
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might have
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between 1998 and 2010 and despite
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keith's sexist and unfaithful behavior
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the marriage of alice and keith ferguson
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was still going but it would be blighted
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by deception infidelity and lies
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in 2008 alice discovers he's having an
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affair with women that he spends time
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with at work
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so she's kind of trapped in this awful
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situation where day in day out she must
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have spent her time wondering what he
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was doing and who he was with alice is
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humiliated she had been married to a
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police inspector she once thought a
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pillar of the community now she was
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married to an adulterer who sexually
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harassed junior colleagues
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but to alice there was very little she
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could do to change her situation
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i think that women don't leave
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relationships like the quests and
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analysis because they can't see that
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there would be an alternative they've
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been brought up in a way that suggests
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marriages for life to work hard to try
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harder if it goes wrong and once you
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have children to remain married in spite
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of the pain that you're caused this
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tends to be what a lot of women end up
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doing sacrificing their happiness
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sacrificing their own lives to some
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degree
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because they believe marriage is
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something that you remain in for the
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rest of your life
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feeling unable to leave alice may have
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hoped that the damage to a career her
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husband had worked incredibly hard to
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build might be enough to change his
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behavior but farcason doesn't change
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despite having been demoted to constable
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he's often in trouble at work for
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pestering women or inappropriate
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relationships
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he somehow managed to avoid further
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reprimand
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for being one of a number of officers
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who have been involved all together in a
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sexual encounter it's about seeing a
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woman as something to be used and even
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though she's consenting to this you can
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see there's just no respect for her
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there is a childishness to for questions
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behavior as well we know that he's
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engaged in a sexual liaison she's
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actually sleeping with several of his
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colleagues tells us everything we need
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to know about keith farquharson and his
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attitudes to not only the opposite sex
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but to the woman to whom he swore
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marriage vows again alice stands by her
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husband he's the father of their three
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children she wants the marriage to work
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but rather than being shamed into good
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behavior
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farquissen becomes increasingly cruel
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he is abusive emotionally he rejects her
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constantly he's very cold towards her
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there are incidences where she says that
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she loves him he just groans he has
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affairs with other people this is a man
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that was meant to protect and love her
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but actually it seems that all the work
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is done on her side
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emotionally abusive at home engaging in
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high-risk behavior at work why did alice
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not complain to her husband's bosses
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former top prosecutor nazia afzal has
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seen such cases before
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i know this from experience just imagine
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being a victim of a police officers who
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would be abusing you
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do you ring 999 or 111 or whatever it is
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do if you ring them up do you think that
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that person on the end of the phone will
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keep this confidential or will they go
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and have a word with mr fox and say to
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him your wife has just reported you so
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she would have been really reluctant to
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report anything that was happening to
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her because she couldn't trust the
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system they don't have confidence that
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police will investigate it properly
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because of the culture within policing
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and because
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because police officers are more likely
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to be believed so there's less
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less
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effective investigation quite often
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throughout this time keith appears to
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have learned nothing from his demotion
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and fine indeed the former inspector
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demoted to constable starts climbing the
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career ladder again after the reprimand
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when he's coming back up the ranks he's
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still doing this and his poor wife who
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is trying to live her life at home and
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make things work around them and i guess
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trying to make a life for herself given
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how often a husband must not be home
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meanwhile at work more women begin to
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complain about his sexual misconduct a
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motorcycle policewoman complains of him
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pestering her and says she's determined
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to take legal action by 2009 fortunately
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things have started to change in the
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police force and sexual harassment is
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certainly not tolerated and women are
00:14:16
now being taken seriously about
00:14:18
allegations so when a motorcycle police
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officer tells people that he's harassing
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her this is obviously escalated the
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result of that complaint is suspension
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on full pay a second complaint and
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ultimately this ends his career so
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finally
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all of those years later after all that
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he has done his career as a cop comes to
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an end
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after more than 20 years in the police
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force keith farquharson is finally
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suspended for sexual harassment he's
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forced to take early retirement
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foxton
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is a really
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problem person he should never have been
00:14:57
in the role of police officer he's
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narcissistic he's misogynistic and he's
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abusive
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and
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not only that he is very willing and
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time and time again does it crosses the
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line
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breaks the rules
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maybe even breaks the law
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this is not the kind of person who
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should be given the powers that a police
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officer has
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so what next for the farquissens alice
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continues her work at the local primary
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school her children are grown up now in
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marriages of their own
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she hopes keith's retirement with a full
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police pension will allow the couple to
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rekindle any romance they once had no
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longer tempted at work surely keith will
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choose to spend more time with her
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keith has other ideas
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i think farquharson really did enjoy
00:15:49
having sex with strangers i think he
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enjoyed affairs i think he enjoyed the
00:15:54
whole power play sexually and i think
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that comes down to the fact that he
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maybe as he got older realized that he
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wasn't the powerful human being that he
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thought he was as a young man and
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suddenly wanted to prove that more and
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more
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so i do think that for him sex is
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incredibly important
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seemingly confident that alice won't
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leave him he continues to seek out
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adulation from others
00:16:17
for all all of his bluster and bluff
00:16:20
farkason was a windbag of a man he was
00:16:24
just full of falsity and full of drama
00:16:28
and charade he's lost his power he's
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lost his position where he could take
00:16:32
advantage of the of the young wpcs or
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the traffic wardens or whoever else
00:16:38
however the problem we now have of
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course is that
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keith requires isn't going to change
00:16:43
still only in his 50s keith takes work
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to get him out of the house
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having left the police in 2010 he
00:16:50
started in a new job he was driving a
00:16:52
school bus
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some time after that he became a taxi
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driver where he used his own mercedes to
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take fares he actually has a mercedes
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with a personalized number plate and
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that just shows you
00:17:04
what the attitude of him is you know he
00:17:06
wants everyone to know that he's a taxi
00:17:08
driver but he doesn't really need to be
00:17:10
he can afford a really beautiful car and
00:17:12
a personalised registration but also
00:17:14
gives him perfect access to women this
00:17:16
is an opportunity to be around lots of
00:17:19
other women and that's something that we
00:17:21
know is his trait
00:17:23
keith continues to cheat
00:17:25
again
00:17:26
alice has been this long-suffering loyal
00:17:29
wife the entire time it must have been
00:17:31
another slap in the face because after
00:17:33
we left the force i imagine she had
00:17:34
hopes that they might retire and have a
00:17:36
life together one that she'd earned but
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no
00:17:40
he abuses her trust once again and when
00:17:42
she finds out she still stays
00:17:45
in 2016 alice texts her husband she says
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i love you just want you to love me too
00:17:52
but keith has no interest in changing
00:17:54
and we know that he continues
00:17:57
to grasp every opportunity he can for
00:18:00
infidelity
00:18:01
we also know that he embarks upon an old
00:18:04
affair or re-embarks upon an old affair
00:18:07
so a serious relationship he'd had back
00:18:09
in the early 2000s
00:18:11
in 2018 keith farquharson was watching
00:18:14
the rugby in a pub when he bumped into
00:18:16
the woman that he had a relationship
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with 10 years earlier
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they rekindle their romance keith
00:18:22
burleigh tries to hide it even his
00:18:24
children knew of his infidelity the
00:18:26
evidence had indicated that his wife had
00:18:29
come across on his own phone
00:18:32
some contact between himself and
00:18:35
someone with whom he'd started an affair
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something like 11 or 12 years earlier
00:18:42
and which had then
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resumed
00:18:45
i think perhaps earlier in 2019
00:18:48
alice is devastated she starts searching
00:18:51
the internet for information about her
00:18:53
husband's girlfriend after years of
00:18:55
putting up with his controlling behavior
00:18:57
his abuse his affairs it all starts to
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come to a head for alice
00:19:01
it all ends in the bedroom
00:19:04
and it ends with alice asking a question
00:19:07
that one assumes she's asked many times
00:19:09
his version of events was that his wife
00:19:12
had asked him whether
00:19:14
um he still loved her
00:19:16
and i think he was a bit dismissive of
00:19:18
the question just such a small question
00:19:21
to get a small answer that meant so much
00:19:24
we know
00:19:25
because he tells us this himself that
00:19:27
for question his response is not yes i
00:19:29
love you or even you know what no i
00:19:32
don't i'm going to release you from this
00:19:33
hell of a marriage all he does is groan
00:19:37
it appeared from her investigations that
00:19:40
she'd come across the information that
00:19:42
perhaps the liaison which
00:19:45
he had said had broken off and which i
00:19:48
think he explained had broken off had in
00:19:50
some way um resumed or to some extent
00:19:54
had resumed
00:19:55
and his
00:19:56
um
00:19:57
idea was that she had
00:19:59
come by that information and perhaps
00:20:02
that was the reason for
00:20:04
her question
00:20:05
can you imagine how humiliating that is
00:20:07
after all those years all those
00:20:09
indiscretions and the reality for her is
00:20:11
that she's just enraged understandably
00:20:13
alice was a little bit upset about this
00:20:16
and it's reported that she slapped him
00:20:18
this is then started off a sequence of
00:20:20
events that will lead to her death
00:20:22
after 33 years of humiliation and abuse
00:20:26
alice stands up for herself
00:20:28
and because she slaps him his response
00:20:30
is violent
00:20:32
and he covers her mouth and she starts
00:20:34
to scream he is quite tall i think um
00:20:38
and he
00:20:39
used to attend the gym so i would
00:20:41
imagine he's quite physically fit it
00:20:43
ended with him putting two hands around
00:20:45
her throat
00:20:46
and choking the life out of her after
00:20:48
all those years that he put it through
00:20:50
hell whilst this looks like a moment of
00:20:52
madness
00:20:54
there are many options in those moments
00:20:57
that he has an opportunity to stop doing
00:20:59
what he's doing it's not a quick process
00:21:02
strangling someone it's clearly going to
00:21:05
involve a struggle and he doesn't choose
00:21:08
to stop the action
00:21:10
it's a process focus and denies happened
00:21:13
to this day yes the couple got into a
00:21:15
fight but there was a good reason for
00:21:17
him putting his hands to her mouth
00:21:20
he had been in an argument with his wife
00:21:22
which had developed
00:21:23
a physical element about it in other
00:21:25
words he had tried to physically stop
00:21:28
her
00:21:29
from screaming or shouting
00:21:32
i'm sure the
00:21:34
record of the evidence
00:21:36
is that he was doing that because he
00:21:39
didn't want the neighbors to be alerted
00:21:41
by
00:21:42
a noise from inside their house
00:21:44
the noise inside the house ended in the
00:21:46
death of alice farkerson
00:21:48
the report to the authorities comes from
00:21:51
farkasen himself
00:21:53
farcan called the emergency services
00:21:55
after he killed alice now he didn't have
00:21:58
a lot of time to think about what he was
00:22:00
going to say to them
00:22:03
he did think
00:22:04
that perhaps
00:22:06
the officers that turned up would be
00:22:07
people that he knew and he would have
00:22:10
thought that perhaps he could talk them
00:22:13
into
00:22:15
not looking where he knew they should
00:22:17
look that they would perhaps believe him
00:22:20
but he also had an intricate knowledge
00:22:23
of crime scene processing and crime
00:22:26
scene management and how the whole
00:22:28
process works so
00:22:30
he
00:22:31
in fact was in a very good position
00:22:34
to try and manipulate the situation as
00:22:37
alice lies dead in the bedroom for keith
00:22:39
the question is now can he get away with
00:22:41
murder by using the knowledge he had
00:22:43
gained when a police officer as a police
00:22:46
officer expertise officer he would have
00:22:47
known what the officers will look for
00:22:50
when they arrive at a crime scene
00:22:52
and so when he was there presenting the
00:22:54
story to them he did so knowing what the
00:22:56
questions they would ask because those
00:22:58
are the questions he was trying to ask
00:23:00
himself so he was clearly in a very
00:23:03
prime
00:23:04
position
00:23:06
to be able to try and pull the wall over
00:23:07
their eyes
00:23:08
and that i think
00:23:10
clearly enabled him initially uh to fool
00:23:14
them into thinking this was just an
00:23:15
accident when ambulance teams arrive
00:23:18
they find alice farquharson in her night
00:23:19
dress lying on the floor of their
00:23:21
bedroom
00:23:22
she is pronounced dead at the scene
00:23:24
despite their life-saving efforts
00:23:26
to paramedics farquharson appears irate
00:23:30
agitated he's hyperventilating
00:23:33
farkson concocted a story he said that
00:23:36
there'd been a bit of a struggle now he
00:23:38
claims he pulled her off the bed in
00:23:39
order to give her cpr but as she did she
00:23:42
banged her head on the floor and he's
00:23:44
probably quite plausible at that time he
00:23:48
is a manipulative person so he will be
00:23:50
behaving in a way that he thinks is
00:23:52
going to get the best result from
00:23:55
the people he's standing in front of him
00:23:57
and he knows how they think he knows who
00:23:59
they are he's worked he's worked with
00:24:01
them and at first he was believed
00:24:05
could the korea policeman put his 33
00:24:07
years in the force and the knowledge of
00:24:09
what to say in such a situation to use
00:24:12
could he get away with murder
00:24:20
in the immediate hours after emergency
00:24:22
services had found alice farquharson
00:24:24
dead in her bedroom it appeared as if
00:24:27
keith farquharson might get away with
00:24:29
murder
00:24:30
after all despite his faults this was an
00:24:33
ex-cop but he's not going to do this
00:24:35
surely as a police officer he's not
00:24:36
going to kill anybody
00:24:38
police officers at the scene initially
00:24:40
thought this was a non-suspicious
00:24:41
accident as a police officer expedience
00:24:44
officer ferguson would have had
00:24:45
experience
00:24:47
not necessarily of his own cases but of
00:24:49
hundreds of cases involving domestic
00:24:50
abuse potentially homicides he'd have
00:24:53
read about them he'd have been trained
00:24:54
about them he would have known what the
00:24:56
officers will look for
00:24:58
when they arrive at a crime scene and so
00:25:00
when he was there presenting the story
00:25:02
to them about a shower accident he did
00:25:04
so knowing what the questions they would
00:25:06
ask because those are the questions he
00:25:08
was trained to ask himself they released
00:25:10
the house back into the family which
00:25:12
really shouldn't have happened
00:25:14
between 6 30 in the morning and nine
00:25:16
o'clock
00:25:17
farquharson was intent on manipulating
00:25:20
the inquiry
00:25:22
if the police had thought that alice had
00:25:24
been killed and had not fallen they
00:25:27
would have done something that's called
00:25:29
locking down the crime scene
00:25:32
that means that
00:25:34
straight away the scene
00:25:36
is preserved in exactly
00:25:40
the way it was found he would have been
00:25:43
removed he wouldn't have been allowed to
00:25:45
touch
00:25:46
anything at all they would have filmed
00:25:49
it they would have photographed it
00:25:50
they'd have got the forensics teams in
00:25:53
if they believed it was an accident none
00:25:55
of that would have happened and
00:25:58
crucial evidence may have been lost and
00:26:01
he would know that
00:26:02
so he was clearly in a very prime
00:26:06
position
00:26:07
to be able to try and pull the wall over
00:26:08
their eyes and that i think
00:26:12
clearly enabled him initially
00:26:14
to fool them into thinking this was just
00:26:16
an accident
00:26:18
his was not a deceit that would take
00:26:20
long to uncover
00:26:22
he must have known that they would find
00:26:25
out that she'd been
00:26:26
strangled
00:26:29
but
00:26:29
by saying it was an accident he bought
00:26:32
himself a lot of time and he saved a lot
00:26:35
of
00:26:35
evidence being collected it's immensely
00:26:38
troubling that um
00:26:40
when the police attended um
00:26:43
what we now know is a murder scene
00:26:46
they quickly accepted his story and were
00:26:49
prepared to put it down to
00:26:52
accident rather than what it was when a
00:26:54
senior inspector arrived on the scene he
00:26:56
realized something was amiss
00:26:58
i think some suspicions had been
00:26:59
expressed by
00:27:01
one of the attending police inspectors
00:27:03
and then the involvement of um
00:27:06
criminal investigation department
00:27:08
officers
00:27:09
despite farkerson's insistence that his
00:27:11
wife fell out of the bed the inspectors
00:27:13
realize that nothing keith is saying
00:27:15
matches up with the evidence and demands
00:27:17
an immediate postmortem this was a
00:27:19
post-mortem examination which
00:27:21
necessarily involved
00:27:23
two doctors because there was a
00:27:25
suspicion of a crime having been
00:27:26
committed the pathologist said well hang
00:27:28
on a second it's all well and good
00:27:30
saying she's banged her head but there's
00:27:32
no sign of that what there is a sign of
00:27:34
however is strangulation
00:27:37
big hand marks around her throat so it
00:27:40
took the pathologist to step in and say
00:27:43
hang on a minute
00:27:44
investigate this please because there's
00:27:46
a crime here well anybody who's even
00:27:48
watched a crime film knows that the
00:27:50
first thing that any pathologist is
00:27:52
going to do is to look for the cause or
00:27:54
injury and that's going to be to do with
00:27:56
her windpipe being crushed and also
00:27:59
there'll be injuries and bruising around
00:28:01
her neck gradually police realized what
00:28:03
had happened to alice in the last few
00:28:05
moments of her life
00:28:06
this was no accident
00:28:08
the post mortem showed that the version
00:28:10
of events that farkerson had said was
00:28:12
not correct they found that she died by
00:28:15
mechanical asphyxiation of her neck
00:28:18
there were bruises on the face that
00:28:20
indicated that she was possibly
00:28:22
strangled until she passed out and then
00:28:25
ferguson held her nose and put his hand
00:28:27
over her mouth thereby suffocating her
00:28:29
to death
00:28:30
the death of alice farquharson after 30
00:28:32
years of marriage was now a murder
00:28:34
investigation and one keith farquharson
00:28:37
was not going to help with
00:28:39
as part of the inquiries ferguson's
00:28:41
phone was seized by police
00:28:43
they wanted to download it using a piece
00:28:45
of software so they could look at the
00:28:46
contents however he refused to give them
00:28:49
the pin initially and i think that that
00:28:51
presents enormous difficulties to
00:28:53
investigators because the security of
00:28:55
smartphones is so high farquison would
00:28:58
later claim that he was not trying to be
00:29:00
obstructive
00:29:02
there was i think a contention that he
00:29:04
couldn't provide the password for his
00:29:07
telephone
00:29:10
my recollection of his
00:29:12
instruction on that was it wasn't a
00:29:14
deliberate obstruction on his part he
00:29:16
had a number of different passwords for
00:29:18
a number of different devices
00:29:20
um
00:29:21
i'm sure he just had either given a
00:29:25
single wrong digit or might have given
00:29:29
some information which turned out to be
00:29:31
the wrong information
00:29:33
others would perhaps see it differently
00:29:35
though i understand that the police
00:29:39
were suspicious about that matter
00:29:41
when police eventually got into the
00:29:42
phone and were able to examine the
00:29:44
contents they found a huge number of
00:29:48
highly sexual texts between ferguson and
00:29:51
other women now to me this is just
00:29:53
another piece of evidence as to his
00:29:56
character
00:29:57
the messages also reveal just how hard
00:30:00
alice was working to keep her marriage
00:30:01
alive they found messages from alice
00:30:06
which were along the lines of i just
00:30:07
want you to love me
00:30:09
messages from this poor
00:30:11
deprived
00:30:13
emotionally starved woman
00:30:15
just desperate for something back from
00:30:17
her husband and those messages they came
00:30:19
in between
00:30:21
a host of sexually depraved text
00:30:24
messages sent by farquharson to various
00:30:28
women
00:30:28
so while his wife was asking him to love
00:30:31
her
00:30:32
he was asking other women to do some
00:30:34
very sorted things to him despite his
00:30:36
best efforts to get away with murder
00:30:38
keith farquharson is arrested charged
00:30:41
the first time i met him was in
00:30:43
um the prison where he was
00:30:46
detained i knew about the um
00:30:49
outcome of the post-mortem examination i
00:30:52
had already received a draft of the
00:30:55
report
00:30:56
by the pathologist
00:30:58
and so
00:30:59
by the time i spoke to him
00:31:01
the cause of death was known his
00:31:04
contention was that he hadn't
00:31:07
deliberately killed his wife that there
00:31:09
had been a
00:31:12
terrible accident
00:31:13
charged keith farquharson now stood
00:31:15
accused of her murder on the day of the
00:31:18
of the offence itself he became involved
00:31:21
in an argument which became physical
00:31:24
between the two of them
00:31:25
and that her death was
00:31:28
i think
00:31:30
the consequence of
00:31:32
his actions
00:31:34
but his actions were never either
00:31:36
intended to kill or
00:31:38
of a type which
00:31:39
would have been so wickedly reckless
00:31:42
that he didn't care whether she lived or
00:31:44
died
00:31:45
keith farquharson was not giving up he
00:31:48
argued he was not guilty of murder
00:31:50
rather he was ready to admit to a lesser
00:31:52
plea he offered to plead guilty to
00:31:55
culpable homicide which would probably
00:31:57
equate to manslaughter
00:32:00
and
00:32:01
his contention was that he was guilty of
00:32:04
an assault on his wife
00:32:06
in the course of the argument which had
00:32:08
taken place but
00:32:11
culpable homicide is a lesser crime than
00:32:13
murder so he defended the case on the
00:32:16
basis that
00:32:18
the jury should convict him of culpable
00:32:19
homicide because he didn't have the
00:32:23
requisite intention that you'd need to
00:32:25
be convicted of murder there is a
00:32:27
crucial difference between intending to
00:32:29
kill someone and doing something which
00:32:31
might lead to their death without
00:32:33
intending to kill someone
00:32:35
the former leads to a life sentence the
00:32:37
latter offers sentencing discretion
00:32:40
offenders can be out in a handful of
00:32:42
years
00:32:43
and this was a suspect with a ready-made
00:32:45
explanation for everything put to him by
00:32:48
the time i became involved in the case
00:32:50
it was obvious that he had not told the
00:32:53
truth to the various persons who'd come
00:32:55
around to his house in the first place
00:32:57
a jury would soon be asked was keith
00:33:00
ferguson a liar and a killer
00:33:08
keith farquharson went for trial at
00:33:10
glasgow height court in april 2020. he
00:33:13
was asking a jury to believe that he had
00:33:15
no intention of killing alice
00:33:18
he stuck to the story he'd given into
00:33:20
the police station this was an accident
00:33:22
was his story now this meant that his
00:33:25
children had to come to court to give
00:33:27
evidence can we imagine how difficult
00:33:29
that would be for them
00:33:31
farquharson was also asking the jury to
00:33:33
believe that this was a strong marriage
00:33:35
he and alice had got along fine
00:33:38
i
00:33:40
don't think he ever suggested it was an
00:33:42
unhappy marriage
00:33:43
he gave evidence about his marriage when
00:33:45
he was um
00:33:47
in the witness box
00:33:48
he
00:33:49
i think he described it as a happy
00:33:51
marriage um
00:33:53
the suggestion that he'd been unfaithful
00:33:56
i suppose is is a feature but on the
00:33:59
other hand i think he explained that he
00:34:01
had no intention of
00:34:03
leaving his wife or divorcing her and he
00:34:06
was perfectly happy with his lifestyle
00:34:09
during the trial focusing repeatedly
00:34:11
broke down in tears telling the jury
00:34:13
that his attack on alice was totally
00:34:16
accidental i thought she would calm down
00:34:18
and then we could talk about it he told
00:34:20
them when he was giving evidence
00:34:24
on his own behalf in the court
00:34:25
proceedings that he burst into tears and
00:34:28
i've no doubt that he fully appreciated
00:34:31
that
00:34:32
what he had been responsible for
00:34:34
in other words he admitted a
00:34:36
responsibility of some nature for his
00:34:39
wife's death
00:34:41
he had torn apart his family really he
00:34:44
had
00:34:45
three children and
00:34:47
um i suspect that the bond that
00:34:50
existed between them
00:34:53
is or was never going to be
00:34:55
repaired
00:34:57
as for the reason that he wanted the
00:34:58
jury to find him not guilty of murder
00:35:00
his argument was in general terms that
00:35:03
he never intended to kill her that
00:35:06
whatever he did and the physical attack
00:35:09
which he perpetrated by putting his hand
00:35:11
over her mouth
00:35:13
which was trying to stop her screaming
00:35:16
and the consequence of that
00:35:19
had brought about her death so
00:35:22
in many ways it was
00:35:24
the fact that he didn't have the
00:35:26
necessary intent or the wicked intention
00:35:29
to kill her or
00:35:31
was acting with such wicked recklessness
00:35:34
that he didn't care whether she lived or
00:35:35
died
00:35:36
but the case put forward by the
00:35:38
prosecution was that he knew exactly
00:35:40
what he was doing this was no accidental
00:35:43
death he
00:35:45
strangled her but he also
00:35:47
smothered her so he made sure in every
00:35:50
way that alice couldn't breathe he was
00:35:52
making sure she was gonna die he wasn't
00:35:56
in the moment of passion just grabbed
00:35:57
her around the throat and accidentally
00:35:59
she died takes quite a long time to
00:36:01
strangle somebody
00:36:02
and he and he wanted her dead because he
00:36:05
used two methods
00:36:07
put his hand over her face and he
00:36:09
strangled her that's what the
00:36:10
pathologist says
00:36:13
on the 18th of february 2020 following a
00:36:15
five-day trial the jury had to weigh up
00:36:17
the two arguments
00:36:19
alice had died after an appalling
00:36:21
accident or she had been killed by her
00:36:23
husband
00:36:24
the jury returned their verdict in this
00:36:26
case he was found guilty of murder by a
00:36:29
majority verdict so we have 15
00:36:32
members of the jury
00:36:35
and eight eight people voting for guilty
00:36:37
would be a majority nobody ever finds
00:36:40
out what the majority was on the 23rd of
00:36:42
march 2020 at the high court in glasgow
00:36:46
he was sentenced to life imprisonment
00:36:48
with a minimum term of 15 years he
00:36:51
showed no emotion when handcuffed and he
00:36:54
didn't look at his children
00:36:55
if i
00:36:56
remember correctly i went down to the
00:36:58
cells to see him afterwards
00:37:00
and just explain what procedures could
00:37:03
take place thereafter but
00:37:05
yeah he was
00:37:07
very upset
00:37:09
he was narcissistic
00:37:11
he was self-focused he was misogynistic
00:37:15
and when he was in court
00:37:17
and finally
00:37:19
all
00:37:20
his power had been taken away
00:37:23
all his status had been taken away and
00:37:27
even alice who hero worshipped him she
00:37:30
wasn't even there anymore either
00:37:32
oh he would have cried
00:37:34
tears of self-pity
00:37:37
when sentencing keith farkerson lady
00:37:39
stacy the judge commented on how far he
00:37:41
had fallen
00:37:43
she told him you had been a police
00:37:45
officer for many years
00:37:46
it is distressing that a man who held
00:37:48
such a position could behave like this
00:37:51
and commit such a serious crime
00:37:54
what you did has destroyed your family
00:37:56
and taken away the trust children should
00:37:58
have in their father
00:38:01
farquharson appealed the verdict in 2021
00:38:05
if he was successful in appealing his
00:38:07
conviction and the
00:38:09
charge of murder was reduced to a
00:38:12
conviction for culpable homicide his
00:38:15
sentence would not have been
00:38:17
a life sentence with
00:38:19
the fixing of a
00:38:21
number of years that he has to serve
00:38:23
before becoming eligible
00:38:25
for the parole board
00:38:26
so the nature of the sentence would
00:38:28
change it wouldn't be a life sentence
00:38:32
at the heart of the appeal case medical
00:38:35
evidence alice had not died due to being
00:38:38
strangled
00:38:39
but from a heart attack
00:38:41
there was a possibility that she could
00:38:43
have suffered something called a reflex
00:38:45
cardiac arrest
00:38:47
and that was really
00:38:49
what
00:38:50
was the foundation of his argument that
00:38:52
he never intended to kill her so
00:38:55
he had placed his hand over her mouth to
00:38:57
restrict her breathing
00:38:59
i think it's fair to say his arm had
00:39:01
gone across her neck at some point
00:39:03
she had internal bruising or she had
00:39:06
bruising which wasn't visible on the
00:39:08
surface of her neck
00:39:09
but was discernible from an internal
00:39:11
examination
00:39:13
suggestion was that the bruising wasn't
00:39:16
of a type of such severity that it would
00:39:19
have been enough to
00:39:21
compress and restrict her breathing the
00:39:23
appeal was rejected
00:39:25
parkerson's grown up children have no
00:39:27
mother
00:39:28
and a father who will spend many years
00:39:30
in prison
00:39:32
it was a sad
00:39:34
end to a case i have to say
00:39:38
he
00:39:39
is the type of individual who
00:39:42
fully appreciates i think what he had
00:39:45
done wrong
00:39:46
keith fargerson will likely be released
00:39:48
when he is 75 years old
00:39:51
after 30 years as a serving police
00:39:53
officer
00:39:54
30 years where he routinely harassed
00:39:56
female colleagues
00:39:58
30 years that ended with him murdering
00:39:59
his wife
00:40:00
he will still receive his full police
00:40:03
pension a fact which angers some
00:40:05
campaigners for awareness of the dangers
00:40:07
of escalating abuse in the home
00:40:10
it's a disgrace that someone like
00:40:13
farkasan
00:40:14
who has used people his entire life who
00:40:17
has been
00:40:19
disgraced himself his entire life is
00:40:22
going to come out of prison with
00:40:24
hundreds of thousands of pounds of
00:40:26
police
00:40:28
pension and probably
00:40:30
live quite a comfortable retirement
00:40:33
alice farquharson died aged just 56
00:40:37
strangled in her own home
00:40:39
in her marriage bed by the person she
00:40:42
trusted most
00:40:43
the hardest thing about this case is
00:40:46
that alice deserved so much better not
00:40:48
just at the end
00:40:50
throughout her whole life with him you
00:40:53
think that she was holding out for the
00:40:56
man that she loved to change to just
00:40:58
give her back just a little bit of the
00:41:00
loyalty that she'd shown him and instead
00:41:03
he killed her
00:41:05
[Music]
00:41:11
[Music]
00:41:21
so
00:41:25
[Music]
00:41:56
you
