00:00:04
in April 2003 the Emergency Services
00:00:08
were called to a Strang looking fire on
00:00:11
Wigan halt common in West Sussex police
00:00:14
found the burning body of missing
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31-year-old special educational needs
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teacher and musician Jane Longhurst
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she's been found naked with a scarf
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covering her face and a pair of tights
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tied round her
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neck Jane had been strangled by her best
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friend's boyfriend greme Coots I don't
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know what snapped I don't know what was
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going on in his mind where he's made the
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leap from Pure Fantasy to living out his
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fantasy and taking somebody's life in
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the most horrific
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way as evidence piled up against Coots
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he claimed to have killed Jane by
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accident in a sex game gone wrong
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keeping her body in a storage unit for 5
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weeks he was a necrophiliac he found
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sexual pleasure in the thought of dead
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women as the police investigation
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against him gathered momentum Graham
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Coots proved himself to be one of the
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world's most evil killers
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[Music]
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[Music]
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on Friday the 14th of March 2003 Jane
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Longhurst left the home she shared with
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her boyfriend Malcolm in Brighton East
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Sussex she telephoned her best friend
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Lisa but it was Lisa's boyfriend Graham
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CS who
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answered in fact her friend was working
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that
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day uh CS answered the phone and
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suggested that they went swimming
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together that was a very common thing
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between the young
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couples I can only believe that Jane
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never saw Graham Coots her friend Lisa's
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boyfriend is anything
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of a threat why should she they were
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friends what Jane Longhurst didn't
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know was the
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psychiatric background of her friend
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Graham
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CS Jane never made it to the swimming
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pool she went with Coots to the ho flat
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he and his girlfriend shared unaware of
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what he was planning to do
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this killer Story begins in Scotland
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only child Graham Coots was born on the
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23rd of April 1968 in Le
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F CS went to a local school and then in
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fact the family moved South he was not a
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particularly Bright Child his passion if
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there was one was to become a guitarist
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I think he saw himself as a sort of rock
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star
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from his early teens Graham CS displayed
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worrying signs of a dysfunctional sexual
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appetite there's quite a strong history
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with graham Coots of problems with his
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sexual behaviors we can see that it
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started very young he knows what is
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turning him on and he is using
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pornography a very very young age the
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earlier in age that these things start
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to manifest the more likely that it's
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going to become a much bigger problem
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further down the line it appears that
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grae CS actually was addicted to extreme
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pornography death bias fix all this
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stuff and he I think since the age of 15
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had a real real thing about those forms
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of sexual
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fantasy in 1991 at the age of 23 Graham
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Coots confided in his GP that he was
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having elaborate sexual fantasies about
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killing women Dr Larry culliford was the
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psychiatrist who saw Coots in hve where
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he was then
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living I seem to remember being perhaps
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surprised that this was a person who
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didn't necessarily want to
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change you know he was having troubling
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thoughts but was he really un
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comfortable with them or actually did he
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entertain them that's a question I
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didn't know the answer to and and still
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don't he investigated sexual pornography
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of the type that he was interested in
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and there you sort of
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feeding the impulses rather than seeking
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to reduce the strength of
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them Dr culford concluded that Graham CS
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needed specialist help but Coots was
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never seen by anybody
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else I think if Graham CS had been seen
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by a forensic psychologist he would have
00:05:42
probably been invited to undertake a
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battery of psychological tests and some
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formal risk assessment whether to
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consider him a risk to others the mental
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health legislation is such that you
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can't lock everybody up who might commit
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crime
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so the probability is that he would have
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been free to go at that
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point instead of getting treatment
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Graham CS took his fantasies to the next
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level acting them out on a string of
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local women he was going about meeting
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women trying to get them involved he
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basically would get turned on by
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pressing his hand round women's necks
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one of his ex-girlfriends said that he
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had pages and pages of pornographic
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material with a handdrawn noose on on
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the women's neck so clearly there was
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something very wrong in his psyche the
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warning signs were clearly
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there Graham cs's dark impulses had
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reached a turning point when you think
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about whether he might have taken a
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different journey through life I think
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it's unlikely he wasn't steering himself
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from that path he was
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intensifying whatever it was that was
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going on in his head with his
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pornography use by actually indulging in
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those fantasies with his
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girlfriends and for somebody who's doing
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that and in actually
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enjoying distress I don't see how that
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can't be a red
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flag in
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1997 cs's sexual dysfunction escal ated
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further when he was charged with spying
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on a woman in a swimming pool changing
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room in East grinstead Sussex we do have
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him being caught filming somebody in a
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swimming pool so he's being covert he's
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being predatory he's being
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inappropriately sexual in a public place
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now it's highly unlikely that was the
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first time that he'd done
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that the case went to magistrates but
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Coots was able to persuade the
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magistrates that he had done nothing
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wrong the victim of this kind of
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unwanted attention was so concerned that
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she she contacted the um justices of the
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peace but he was never brought to
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account for
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this this was the man who came into the
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life of special educational needs
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teacher and talented musician Jane
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Longhurst in
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2001 Graham Coots was living in move
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with his girlfriend Lisa when he met
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31-year-old Jane and her boyfriend
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Malcolm Lisa and Jane were
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friends the four of them Lisa and Jane
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and Graham and Malcolm would socialize
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they would play tennis Jane and Graham
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would go swimming
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together Jane Longhurst was an
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accomplished Viola player and teacher
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living with her boyfriend of four years
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in Brighton East
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Sussex Jane Longhurst was really
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everyone's ideal daughter she was
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hardworking she was talented she was
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very close to her mom she taught her
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school in Cambridge before moving to
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Brighton she was in every sense the best
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of the best originally from reing Jane
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was close to her mother Liz and her
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sister Sue who still live there
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I think Liz was full of admiration for
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her daughter she was deeply
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loved Jane Longhurst was kind and
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thoughtful person who was well liked had
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lots of friends and she was happy and
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content she had a lovely life she was
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planning to start a family so you know
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she had everything to live
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[Music]
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for Graham Cs on the other hand was not
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having the success he'd imaged for
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himself so gra CS was a bit of a loser a
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Drifter who'd gone through life wanted
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to be a professional musician but failed
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at it he had to work as a doorto door
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salesman for a a cleaning company he
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just wanted to be in a band but he
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wasn't up to it he wasn't a great
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success in life Jane never saw Graham
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Coots just anything of a threat she had
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no reason to suspect him she didn't know
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did he had a history of addiction to
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pornography that he'd been fascinated
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since the age of 15 in strangling young
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women how could she and yet he was the
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most Dreadful threat to
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her on the morning of Friday the 14th of
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March 2003 Jane left her flat on shury
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Road in Brighton on her day
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off her boyfriend and Malcolm was the
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first person to raise the alarm to
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Jane's mother Liz when she failed to
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return
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home he phoned her mother to see she'd
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heard from Jane phoned the orchestra
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that they both played with no sign of
00:11:19
her it was most unusual this wasn't
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something that Jane did she was you know
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very upright very orderly
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young
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woman this was absolutely out of
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character Malcolm looked for her himself
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in Brighton places they might have
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visited together didn't find
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her with still no sign of Jane into the
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early hours of the following day worried
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boyfriend Malcolm reported her missing
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to Sussex police like any police
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investigation they're looking to find
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out what has happened to the missing
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person
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and their lines of inquiry will
00:12:02
immediately fall upon the people who are
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closest to Jane lur because you know
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most murders are carried out by people
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who are
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known it's a boyfriend is interrogated
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at length it's pretty
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intimidating you know the girl you
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clearly are very fond of has gone
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missing and you're suddenly in the frame
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for having
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done something to her or but no one
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including Malcolm who come up with any
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explanation about why Jane had gone
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missing you know there was nothing in
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her background which suggested that she
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wanted to vanish from her life that she
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clearly loved so obviously the police
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were immediately suspicious that
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something was very a
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Miss 48 hours after Jane's Last contact
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her missing person's case was referred
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to the criminal investigation department
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investigators analyzed Jane's bank and
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phone records looking for Clues as to
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her
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whereabouts no money had been withdrawn
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from her account over the weekend and no
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phone calls had been made since the
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morning of her
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disappearance this raised further
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concerns over Jane's safety the last
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call from Jane's phone on Friday at
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10:05 a.m. was to the home of her friend
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Lisa and Lisa's boyfriend Graham
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Coots Graham told police Jane had called
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looking for Lisa he denied having seen
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Jane that
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morning the police made extensive
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inquiries and they couldn't find
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anything and they spoke to Coots and
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they spoke to his
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partner nothing and there were no signs
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of had happened to her and it's a
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difficult job there for the police
00:14:02
because they don't know whether this is
00:14:04
simply somebody who maybe wandered off
00:14:06
as a missing person or whether it's more
00:14:08
serious than that because they didn't
00:14:10
have a body or any scientific evidence
00:14:14
that would show that she'd come to
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harm with still no sign of Jane 5 days
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after her disappearance on Wednesday the
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19th of March Sussex police launched
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operation Keen to find her they draft in
00:14:30
extra offices they go house to house
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they start a careful search it doesn't
00:14:37
reveal
00:14:39
anything and after two
00:14:42
weeks they are forced to conclude that
00:14:45
this may not be simply a missing person
00:14:48
investigation that it may actually be a
00:14:50
murder
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investigation for five agonizing weeks
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Jane remained missing
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then on Saturday the 19th of April a
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motorist made a horrifying discovery on
00:15:07
Wigan halt common in West Sussex 20 M
00:15:10
from Jane's Brighton home a local man
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sees a fire in the brush and it's got
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strange color flames and in De calls the
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fire brigade they discover that the
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source of
00:15:25
this fire is a body
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it is sadly the body of Jane
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Longhurst she's been found naked with a
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scarf covering her face and a pair of
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tights tied round her neck there is no
00:15:48
doubt in anyone's mind Jane Longhurst
00:15:50
has been
00:15:52
murdered so far police have no motive
00:15:54
for this murder they don't know whether
00:15:57
or not Jane knew her killer but they are
00:16:00
determined to hunt down the person who
00:16:02
carried out this brutal crime the police
00:16:04
believe she was murdered some weeks
00:16:06
before and a body preserved somewhere
00:16:08
cold the police say however much the
00:16:11
killer tried to hide Jane's body it
00:16:13
would have been difficult to disguise as
00:16:14
he brought it here they want people to
00:16:16
cast their minds back to anything
00:16:20
suspicious there's very few cases where
00:16:23
an individual has done what he's done
00:16:25
and then deposited the body and set far
00:16:28
it without some body close to that
00:16:30
person knowing that something's not
00:16:32
quite
00:16:36
right the discovery of Jane's body was
00:16:39
the worst possible end to her family's
00:16:42
hellish weight this longer is only just
00:16:46
a
00:16:47
widow getting over the death of a much
00:16:50
loved husband from Alzheimer's so you
00:16:52
know it's absolute body blow for the
00:16:54
family really to have this beloved
00:16:57
daughter who she so close to going
00:16:59
missing in such appalling circumstances
00:17:02
and for so long before the body was
00:17:04
found that must have been just Dreadful
00:17:07
state of
00:17:07
[Music]
00:17:09
limbo no one can prepare you for
00:17:12
something so terrible to lose a l one in
00:17:15
such a way cannot Ever Be Imagined and
00:17:18
we would not wish what we are going
00:17:20
through on anyone we have lost someone
00:17:24
who was very loved and so
00:17:27
special pleas please if you think you
00:17:30
know something then find in your
00:17:33
conscious to call the
00:17:42
police with no suspects in what was now
00:17:45
a murder investigation the forensics
00:17:48
team would tasked with uncovering what
00:17:50
had happened burning a body isn't very
00:17:53
common but when it does occur it's
00:17:54
usually in an attempt to try and
00:17:56
disguise identity and try and dispose of
00:17:58
the body body now identification of
00:18:00
burning remains can be tricky but there
00:18:03
are several things which we can use in
00:18:06
Jane Long her's case the body was
00:18:09
identified through dental records that
00:18:11
would be using the expertise of a
00:18:13
forensic
00:18:14
odontologist comparing her the tee of
00:18:17
the deceased with any dental records
00:18:19
which were H in her
00:18:21
name having confirmed Jane's identity
00:18:25
the next question for forensic analysis
00:18:28
was the cause of death when the body was
00:18:30
discovered there was a pair of tights
00:18:32
around the neck now as a pathologist
00:18:34
that would be very supportive of the use
00:18:37
of a ligature strangulation so using an
00:18:39
item such as a rope or a bout or in this
00:18:42
case a pair of tights putting those
00:18:44
around the neck and then pulling them
00:18:45
tightly the ligature that causes the
00:18:47
blood to cease going to the
00:18:50
brain with the forensic investigation
00:18:53
underway the police Revisited the people
00:18:56
closest to Jane to eliminate the from
00:19:02
suspicion on April 24th a detective
00:19:06
Constable interviewing Coots at his home
00:19:08
for a second time noticed a crucial
00:19:11
detail that turned the investigation on
00:19:14
its head they saw some boxes there which
00:19:17
were for the from the cleaning products
00:19:21
company and those were similar to the
00:19:24
boxes that her body was found in it was
00:19:27
an important discover y for
00:19:29
investigators Graham Coots was suddenly
00:19:32
the prime suspect in the brutal murder
00:19:35
of Jane
00:19:36
Longhurst with no solid Alibi for the
00:19:39
night in question Sussex police were
00:19:42
confident they'd found their man as the
00:19:45
eyes of the nation watched on the police
00:19:48
investigators focused their efforts on
00:19:51
their Prime Suspect Graham Coots
00:19:54
detectives had grown suspicious of Coots
00:19:56
when they found cardboard boxes that
00:19:59
match ones from the crime scene at his
00:20:03
flat and because he couldn't provide a
00:20:05
solid Alibi for the night in question CS
00:20:09
was arrested on April the 24th 2003 but
00:20:13
in police custody he refused to admit to
00:20:16
any wrongdoing how would you describe
00:20:19
your relationship with
00:20:21
J um
00:20:24
friend anything more no when did you
00:20:28
last see
00:20:30
before the came
00:20:35
over and the last time you spoke to
00:20:42
Jane without a confession or more
00:20:45
evidence to support their suspicions the
00:20:47
police could only hold Coots for 24
00:20:50
hours and he was released the following
00:20:53
day turning to the public for help
00:20:56
detectives ramped up their search for
00:20:58
evidence that might link Coots to Jane's
00:21:01
murder one week after Jane's body was
00:21:04
found police are hoping these drivers
00:21:06
will give them the vital clue they need
00:21:08
their motorists who may have been using
00:21:10
this road last week they may have seen
00:21:12
something which could lead police to
00:21:14
Jane's killer early evening on a
00:21:16
Saturday at the same time as last week
00:21:19
when police beli Jane Longhurst body was
00:21:21
brought to this West susi's Beauty Spot
00:21:23
where it was dumped and set a light it
00:21:26
was a light evening on the bank holiday
00:21:28
weekend police are convinced someone
00:21:30
would have seen what happened here all
00:21:32
these motorists will be stopped and
00:21:34
questioned as to whether they were here
00:21:35
last week um just to try and Jog their
00:21:37
memories to anything at all that that is
00:21:39
out of the ordinary anything they may
00:21:40
have noted that may give us just that
00:21:43
significant
00:21:44
lead on the 28th of April Sussex police
00:21:48
received the call they'd been waiting
00:21:50
for the manager of a local storage
00:21:52
company reported a strange smell coming
00:21:55
from a unit and a man calling himself
00:21:57
Paul Kelly acting suspiciously so when
00:22:01
the manager of the storage company saw
00:22:04
reports in the media about Jane
00:22:07
Longhurst being missing he kind of put
00:22:10
two and two together initially he
00:22:12
thought it was a smell of a dead pigeon
00:22:14
or some other dead animal but the fact
00:22:17
that they have got a missing woman and
00:22:20
there's a foul smell coming from a
00:22:22
storage unit I think he thought the
00:22:24
information was significantly important
00:22:26
and that the police should at least
00:22:28
check check it
00:22:29
out when Sussex police came to check the
00:22:33
CCTV footage they saw Paul Kelly was in
00:22:37
fact their main suspect Graham
00:22:43
Coots it turns out to have been none
00:22:45
other than Graham Coots using a false
00:22:48
name and he's had the storage facility
00:22:51
for about 28
00:22:52
days CPS acquired the storage unit with
00:22:56
through a very simple process of using
00:22:59
false information somebody turns up with
00:23:01
a utility bill another
00:23:06
identification uh they accepted at face
00:23:09
value gaining entry to cs's storage unit
00:23:13
the police made a shocking
00:23:17
Discovery the police open the storage
00:23:21
facility hard by Paul Kelly stroke
00:23:24
Graham cots and discover Jane's clothing
00:23:28
a male shirt with blood and seamen on it
00:23:32
and a
00:23:33
condom they also found Jane's swimming
00:23:36
costume her cell phone purse and a gas
00:23:40
can forensic analysis revealed Jane's
00:23:43
DNA on both the bloodstained top and the
00:23:46
used condom which also contain cs's
00:23:51
seen CCTV footage showed CS had made
00:23:55
multiple visits to the unit when Jane
00:23:57
was missing the evidence was
00:23:59
overwhelming police finally had the
00:24:01
proof they needed to arrest cots for a
00:24:04
second time the 35-year old was arrested
00:24:07
here just after 9:00 last night without
00:24:10
a struggle the police say he was one of
00:24:12
the men they had already questioned when
00:24:14
Jane
00:24:15
disappeared and it Dawns on the
00:24:19
police that it's entirely
00:24:22
possible that Coots has kept Jane's
00:24:26
body in that story St facility for up to
00:24:31
5
00:24:32
weeks the day before Jane's body was
00:24:36
discovered in the woods CCTV footage
00:24:38
showed Coots had moved a large cardboard
00:24:41
box from his unit into a van he had just
00:24:45
had a very large box with him you
00:24:47
couldn't tell what was in it there was
00:24:52
evidence at the storage
00:24:55
unit to suggest that what was in the box
00:24:59
had been a
00:25:01
corpse on April the 30th Graham CS was
00:25:05
charged with murder at Brighton
00:25:07
magistrates court and put on
00:25:11
remand with Coots in custody detectiv
00:25:15
seized his home computer and uncovered
00:25:17
the disturbing truth about him not only
00:25:21
did he appear to be kind of porn
00:25:23
addicted he was obsessed with women's
00:25:27
neck and he was obsessed with
00:25:30
strangulation when the police were able
00:25:33
to obtain the details of the websites
00:25:37
that he was paying for access to the
00:25:41
contents of his computer filled the Gap
00:25:43
as it were as to why this happened in
00:25:46
the way that it
00:25:47
did because he was looking at all this
00:25:52
necrophilia Graham
00:25:55
Coots had found sexual pleasure in the
00:25:58
thought of dead
00:26:01
women and he was
00:26:03
paying to subscribe to websites which
00:26:07
contain that sort of material so his
00:26:10
girlfriend didn't know
00:26:12
that nobody knew that and that only came
00:26:15
to light once he was arrested and of
00:26:17
course his computer was
00:26:19
seized and then that material was
00:26:25
found it was a shocking development in
00:26:28
the case but despite the mounting
00:26:30
evidence against him CS refused to admit
00:26:33
to any crime then several weeks after
00:26:36
Coots was arrested there was a
00:26:38
breakthrough to everyone's
00:26:41
surprise CS actually admits that he
00:26:44
killed
00:26:45
her and
00:26:47
says and here is the
00:26:51
most heinous part of it
00:26:54
all it was only a matter of con sensual
00:26:58
sex that had gone
00:27:08
wrong Coots claimed that Jane Longhurst
00:27:11
had died at his flat on the 14th of
00:27:14
March 2003 the date of her disappearance
00:27:18
he said they'd stop by his home on their
00:27:20
way to go swimming together they were
00:27:22
driving to the Leisure Center and he
00:27:25
said I just need to pop into the flat
00:27:27
the only that we have of what went on in
00:27:29
the flat is his
00:27:32
account where he said they started
00:27:34
kissing they went to the
00:27:37
bedroom and they started having
00:27:39
consensual sex without a word being said
00:27:43
between
00:27:45
them and he said
00:27:48
that just by a nod she agreed
00:27:52
to breath control play during the course
00:27:55
of the sexual intercourse
00:27:58
and um he used a ligature around her
00:28:01
neck accidentally she died in that
00:28:04
process was his
00:28:06
account I don't believe for one minute
00:28:10
that there was consensual sex that went
00:28:13
wrong going on between Jane and Graham
00:28:16
Coots not given his history not given
00:28:20
the way that he was
00:28:25
escalating after Jane's death C had
00:28:28
stored her body in his shed before
00:28:30
moving it to the storage facility on the
00:28:33
25th of March just days after his first
00:28:36
interview with the police it was a
00:28:39
storage facility where people typically
00:28:41
will store their belongings if they're
00:28:43
moving house or if they need to clear
00:28:45
out a property so he' basically put a
00:28:48
body in a box um which had fragile
00:28:52
written on
00:28:53
it he kept a number of her belongings as
00:28:57
a trophy
00:28:59
and he also kept a
00:29:01
condom that contained material that
00:29:06
would be consistent with him having
00:29:08
had sex with her but he put everything
00:29:11
in there including all her effects he
00:29:13
then visited her regularly there for
00:29:16
about a period of 6 weeks but
00:29:19
sickeningly Coots wasn't just visiting
00:29:21
the storage facility to make sure Jane's
00:29:24
body was still there the detectives had
00:29:27
evidence to show that Graham cson
00:29:29
visited the body of Jay Longhurst in in
00:29:32
in the Yellow Box Storage Unit 10 or 11
00:29:35
times initially he just had ordinary
00:29:39
daytime access to
00:29:41
it and clearly he then changed to 24hour
00:29:46
access so that he could be there when
00:29:48
there were no staff there he was
00:29:51
recorded visiting these extreme
00:29:53
pornography sites shortly after visiting
00:29:56
the body U so it was quite clear that
00:29:58
this this man was acting out a a
00:30:01
perverse and deeply sickening sexual
00:30:04
fantasy not only in in real time but
00:30:06
long after Jane had been so brutally
00:30:09
murdered it is the most chilling thought
00:30:12
of all he's paid for out of hours access
00:30:17
so that he doesn't have to always be
00:30:18
seen when he's visiting Jane's
00:30:22
remains it it's truly
00:30:25
horrifying eventually after storing
00:30:28
Jane's body for 5 weeks Coots knew he
00:30:31
had to try and hide the truth of what
00:30:34
had happened to
00:30:35
her and
00:30:37
then because of the state of the body he
00:30:42
went in late at
00:30:43
night and there there was a very good
00:30:46
CCTV of him with a pallet truck taking a
00:30:50
large box out putting it in the back of
00:30:51
his car and he drove to West
00:30:54
Sussex and set a light to her body there
00:30:58
Graham cs's confession to strangling
00:31:01
Jane and hiding her body was a pivotal
00:31:04
moment in the
00:31:06
investigation but despite the evidence
00:31:08
against him CS was going to plead not
00:31:11
guilty the detectives had to prove that
00:31:14
this was no accident there was no sex
00:31:18
game that had gone wrong prosecutors
00:31:21
would need to show to a jury that there
00:31:23
was a motive for
00:31:25
murder it seemed to me to to be a
00:31:29
compelling case where he was the person
00:31:31
who had not only murdered her but kept
00:31:35
her body for his own
00:31:37
purposes thereafter and then disposed of
00:31:40
it during the 11-day trial the defense
00:31:44
argued that Jane's death had been an
00:31:46
accident but the prosecution
00:31:49
contradicted cs's version of events with
00:31:52
forensic evidence that they claimed
00:31:54
proved otherwise a key part of the
00:31:57
evidence came down to understanding the
00:32:00
nature of the act that had caused her
00:32:02
death the defense would argue that the
00:32:06
Brief Encounter of the pressure being
00:32:08
applied to the neck has caused death
00:32:10
rapidly however in reality that's very
00:32:13
unlikely death doesn't occur quickly it
00:32:16
occurs over several minutes with
00:32:18
sustained pressure to the neck and the
00:32:21
victim would certainly be showing signs
00:32:23
they're
00:32:24
struggling now if it was a consensual
00:32:26
act you'd expect the person in
00:32:27
inflicting that act to then realize that
00:32:30
oh this isn't right and I should stop
00:32:33
but obviously in this case that didn't
00:32:34
occur he my sister's reputation being
00:32:37
slurred as a form of
00:32:40
Defense totally unacceptable and very
00:32:44
difficult to endure journalist Helen
00:32:46
Carter covered the trial he claimed that
00:32:50
it was consensual sex that had gone
00:32:51
wrong and that she was a willing
00:32:54
participant in this sort of asphixiation
00:32:58
which was a complete lie it was pure
00:33:01
gaslighting they weren't involved in a
00:33:03
relationship she was planning her life
00:33:06
with her boyfriend away from Sussex and
00:33:09
she was hoping to become a
00:33:11
mother while the facts of his actions
00:33:13
were presented in court CS showed little
00:33:17
emotion CS pleaded not guilty throughout
00:33:20
he was a remarkably
00:33:23
calm man as I recall I think always
00:33:27
believed that he was going to be found
00:33:29
not guilty Graham
00:33:32
CS would like to convince the jury that
00:33:36
he was a miscarriage of Justice he was
00:33:40
at at pains to deny any responsibility
00:33:43
for her death and it must have been so
00:33:46
hard for Jane's partner Malcolm to sit
00:33:49
there at listen to this person deny any
00:33:52
responsibility for murdering his beloved
00:33:55
partner who he was planning the rest of
00:33:57
his life
00:33:59
with cs's defense that the strangulation
00:34:02
was consensual and Jane's death was an
00:34:05
accident was not believed by the jury
00:34:08
after 9 hours of deliberation at Louis
00:34:11
Crown Court they unanimously found him
00:34:14
guilty of
00:34:17
[Music]
00:34:20
murder on the 4th of February 2004 CS
00:34:25
was sentenced to 30 years later reduced
00:34:28
to 26 years on appeal and was sent to
00:34:31
hmp
00:34:33
Wakefield but the agony for Jane's loved
00:34:36
ones was far from over in the months
00:34:39
that followed Coots launched a number of
00:34:42
appeals around a very specific legal
00:34:47
ground that the jury had not been
00:34:49
offered the alternative
00:34:52
explanation that CS had indeed killed
00:34:55
her accidentally during consensual sex
00:34:59
in other words that it was
00:35:01
manslaughter rather than murder 2 and a
00:35:04
half years later the House of Lords
00:35:07
granted cs's appeal his conviction was
00:35:10
quashed on the 19th of October 2006 and
00:35:14
a retrial ordered he would remain in
00:35:18
custody the friends and family of Jane
00:35:21
Longhurst they had the indignity of her
00:35:23
being murdered in such horrific
00:35:25
circumstances than the denials of false
00:35:27
Stories the lies the smears that he
00:35:30
spread but they they have to go through
00:35:32
one trial the stress of that and then
00:35:34
for him to appeal it and they be a
00:35:35
retrial it's reliving that most
00:35:39
traumatic horrific part of their
00:35:42
life in June 2007 a second trial began
00:35:48
this time with manslaughter as a
00:35:50
possibility ballister Richard Barton
00:35:53
once again acted for the prosecution
00:35:56
retrials are always is more of a
00:36:00
challenge
00:36:02
but I never had any doubt and I'm sure
00:36:05
that the police and the CPS never had
00:36:07
any doubt of his guilt on Wednesday the
00:36:11
4th of July 2007 after jurors had
00:36:15
deliberated for 13 hours CS was once
00:36:18
again found guilty of murder by a
00:36:21
majority verdict and sentenced to life
00:36:24
in
00:36:25
prison Crown courts um dignified places
00:36:29
where High drama is not permitted by
00:36:32
judges but following the verdict in the
00:36:35
retrial there were cheers from the
00:36:38
public gallery from the from the friends
00:36:40
and family of Jane Longhurst and I can
00:36:42
hardly blame them judge Richard Brown
00:36:46
told him at the second trial and I quote
00:36:50
in seeking perverted sexual
00:36:53
gratification by way of your sworded and
00:36:56
evil fantasies
00:36:58
you've taken her life and devastated the
00:37:01
lives of those she loved and those who
00:37:04
loved her and he concluded by saying you
00:37:07
have shown not one jot of remorse as he
00:37:11
was driven away the prosecution
00:37:13
described this murder as a Despicable
00:37:16
crime compounded by a Despicable
00:37:20
defense despite C's being behind bars
00:37:23
for the rest of his life for Jane's
00:37:25
mother Liz and her sister SU
00:37:28
the fight for justice wasn't over it's
00:37:31
been a horrendous year for my
00:37:34
family with the murder of my sister the
00:37:39
violent murder of my sister Jane lur by
00:37:42
the
00:37:44
strangulation and uh
00:37:46
rape gra CS who has now got life
00:37:49
imprisonment um for this murder was
00:37:52
fueled by the internet downloading
00:37:55
images from websites do you pay by using
00:38:00
your credit card following the
00:38:02
conviction of Graham CS Liz campaigned
00:38:07
to get the law changed because he was
00:38:09
found to have um pornography which you
00:38:12
know sparked his interest in the in the
00:38:14
1990s and nothing was done about
00:38:17
it Martin Suter labor MP for reading at
00:38:21
the time worked on a campaign with Liz
00:38:25
Longhurst she felt desperately sad
00:38:28
obviously as to what happened to her
00:38:29
daughter and desperately sad that other
00:38:32
young people could easily be put at risk
00:38:35
she wasn't ever seeking to Outlaw
00:38:37
pornography what she was concerned about
00:38:40
was those extreme imagery that would tip
00:38:43
and I think it was her words tip an
00:38:44
unbalanced mind into acting out their
00:38:48
fantasies I think when we started we
00:38:51
couldn't get our heads around the fact
00:38:53
that it was perfectly legal
00:38:58
to broadcast images of young women being
00:39:03
murdered and raped some cases in real
00:39:05
time for those images to be available
00:39:08
and able to be
00:39:10
disseminated right away across the
00:39:12
United
00:39:13
Kingdom even though the UK's obscene
00:39:17
Publications act banned offensive
00:39:19
material being published in Britain it
00:39:22
was no match for the millions of illicit
00:39:24
images being posted on the internet from
00:39:27
all all over the world as much as they
00:39:29
would have liked to the Metropolitan
00:39:31
Police vice squad or or or the law
00:39:33
enforcement agencies in this country
00:39:35
can't go after internet sites that are
00:39:37
hosted in South America or somewhere
00:39:40
else in the globe after 18 months of Liz
00:39:43
loners campaigning the UK's obscenity
00:39:46
laws were changed making it illegal to
00:39:49
possess pornography that features rape
00:39:52
or torture Jane's mother
00:39:55
Elizabeth was an extraord ordinary
00:39:58
woman who was very dignified throughout
00:40:02
and the worst nightmare for any parent
00:40:06
that she went through but she campaigned
00:40:10
tirelessly thereafter along with
00:40:13
others and they achieved a change in the
00:40:16
law and I regularly prosecute people who
00:40:19
have extreme pornography similar to much
00:40:22
that
00:40:23
CS at the time was looking at legally
00:40:27
I think bringing about this changeing
00:40:29
the law meant everything to Liz it's
00:40:32
what she strove for I was privileged to
00:40:35
be part of that exercise to help her on
00:40:37
that journey and whilst it meant
00:40:39
everything clearly didn't mean as much
00:40:43
as having a daughter
00:40:49
back the laws that Liz Longhurst
00:40:52
campaign helped change are still keeping
00:40:55
people like Graham Coots off the streets
00:40:58
and protecting other families from the
00:41:00
living nightmare that Jane's loved ones
00:41:03
went through Graham Coots will always
00:41:06
present a danger to women he's presented
00:41:08
a danger to women since he was a
00:41:11
teenager and that really is by his own
00:41:14
admission he wasn't saying I'm a
00:41:17
potential rapist he was saying I'm a
00:41:19
potential killer he was saying that
00:41:21
right from the beginning he is never
00:41:24
going to be safe to be around
00:41:28
women he was
00:41:31
a young man with a very dark
00:41:34
side that he hid from everybody very
00:41:38
well what he did was
00:41:41
evil he could have saved her had he
00:41:45
stopped strangling her but he
00:41:47
didn't he could have told the police
00:41:50
where she was but he
00:41:52
didn't he endeavored to keep his
00:41:56
perverted f fantasy alive for as long as
00:41:59
he possibly could before he dumped her
00:42:03
naked body and set fire to
00:42:10
it Graham Coots was a man obsessed with
00:42:14
satisfying his darkest sexual fantasies
00:42:17
fueled by violent pornography he
00:42:20
strangled Jane Longhurst a young woman
00:42:23
in the prime of her life and then kept
00:42:25
her body in a storage un for his own
00:42:28
Twisted gratification his coldblooded
00:42:31
and depraved Behavior sent shock waves
00:42:33
around the country cou showed no remorse
00:42:36
for his horrific actions content to
00:42:39
destroy the victim's reputation to
00:42:41
escape Justice Graham CS will be
00:42:44
remembered as one of Britain's most evil
00:42:47
killers
00:42:49
[Music]
00:43:05
for
