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[DRAMATIC TUNE]
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NARRATOR: On the 7th of February 1996,
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15-year-old Katie Hoskins arrived
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home from school to discover her mother had vanished.
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Later that night, Katie checked the converted loft
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of their house in Portsmouth, on the South
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Coast of England, where she made a horrifying discovery.
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HELEN WHEELER: I was told, away from the children,
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how Glenda had died.
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How they'd found her.
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But the fact that it was Katie that was involved in that,
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I can't even say how awful it must have been for those two
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children that day.
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And for everybody else involved, it was all a shock.
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NARRATOR: Her killer was Victor Farrant,
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a 46-year-old convicted rapist, who'd attacked another woman
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six weeks earlier.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: There are fractures.
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There are knife wounds.
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There's blunt trauma.
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This woman really did go through a horrendous experience
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with Farrant.
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NARRATOR: Before the police could catch up with him,
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Farrant had fled the country.
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Stealing Glenda's car, and boarding
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a ferry to Belgium, where he disappeared without a trace.
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RICHARD JONES: This was the biggest
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murder hunt in the history of Hampshire police.
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And the biggest manhunt since the hunt for Ronnie Biggs,
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back in the 1970s.
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It was vital for Hampshire police to capture him,
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because they knew just how dangerous he was.
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NARRATOR: The police faced a race against time
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to capture Victor Farrant, one of the world's
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most evil killers.
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[MUSIC PLAYS]
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On the 31st of January 1997, convicted rapist,
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Victor Farrant, was extradited back to the UK,
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after a six month international manhunt discovered
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him hiding out in Nice, France.
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TV reporter, Richard Jones, followed the case
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from the very beginning.
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At the time, I was a news reporter with ITV
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in the South of England, and this case
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happened on our patch.
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In fact, it happened just a few miles from where I worked
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and from where I lived.
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So I covered the initial news angle on the story.
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NARRATOR: During his trial in 1998,
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Farrant remained remorseless, claiming no responsibility
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for the lives he blighted.
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Jeremy Gibbon's QC, was responsible for building
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the case against Farrant.
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The brutality this killer was capable
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of shocked the seasoned prosecutor.
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JEREMY GIBBONS: I've been barristing for 25 years or so.
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And you think you've seen most things,
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but I think this was a cut above just about any other crime
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scene I've seen.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The attack on Anne
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was an incredibly brutal one.
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He attacked her using an iron, he smashed
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the oven door into her head.
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There's misogyny all over this attack.
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I think this is very much an outlet for those feelings.
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NARRATOR: This killer's story begins in Londonderry,
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Northern Ireland.
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Victor Farrant was born on the 18th of November 1949.
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He and his four sisters had a transient life growing up.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Farrant came from a military family.
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His father was a Major in the army,
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so they traveled around a lot.
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And that had a couple of impacts.
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Firstly, he has this model of masculinity,
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which is idealized for him.
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So that is somebody who is tough, and stoic,
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and has a capacity for violence.
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And also, the constant moving around,
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this is an individual who is constantly
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having to reinvent himself and introduce
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himself to new groups of peers.
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So he doesn't have that stability of peer support
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that a lot of us do have.
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It's all rather a conventional childhood,
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with the exception of the conceit, which is
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built into him very early on.
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Together with a fascination with pretending
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to be someone he isn't.
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I think Farrant always wanted to be bigger, better,
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bolder than he really was.
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NARRATOR: In 1969, the family moved back to England,
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and settled in Cambridge.
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Despite his seemingly normal childhood,
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it was here Farrant first came to the attention of the law.
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ANDY BAKER: He's someone that has been on the continuum
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of criminality.
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So when you look at his early life,
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he started off as a thief.
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He was convicted of shoplifting, petty crimes.
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Indecent assault of a teenager, when he was 20.
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NARRATOR: This violent behavior rapidly spurred
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a major deterioration of his family ties.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: By the age of 22,
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he's completely fallen out with his father.
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They have a row, which is never mended.
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He goes to Brussels, he goes to Madeira, and works,
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and he travels.
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But the great advantage of being able to travel
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is, of course, you can reinvent yourself every time
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you go to a new place.
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A new nightclub, a new persona.
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A new city, a new persona.
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A new job, a new persona.
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And there you have the essence of Victor Farrant.
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This man loves to reinvent himself.
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NARRATOR: In 1983, the now 33-year-old Farrant,
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returned to the UK, and settled in Brighton on the South Coast.
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It was here that a dangerous pattern of behavior
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surfaced in this nomadic fantasist.
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RICHARD JONES: He was described as somebody who was charming,
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who was a smooth talker, a bit of a ladies' man.
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But then it also came across that he was a con man,
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a fraud, a liar, with a very unhealthy attitude in the ends
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to women.
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ANDY BAKER: So he was very much this kind of person
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who built himself up and believed in this persona,
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and then acted out the persona.
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This charmer, this womanizer, this man that women loved.
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NARRATOR: In 1984, Farrant even received a local award
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for bravery, after tackled a mugger outside the sandwich
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shop where he worked.
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His story appeared in the local paper.
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So this was evidence of him being charming,
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and chivalrous, and a nice person.
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And I think he would have really enjoyed this kind of attention,
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because that self that he's trying to project,
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it's there in black and white.
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NARRATOR: The seemingly charming 35-year-old
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used this pretense of gallantry to mask his dark desires.
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RICHARD JONES: The way Victor Farrant operated,
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was that he met women in nightclubs.
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And this is where his sort of double personality
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comes in, because he would quite often use a different name.
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He'd quite often pretend that he was
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an airline pilot, for example.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He had a lot of superficial charm.
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And he would use aliases, he would use different names,
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he would put on different accents.
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And I think this was a coping mechanism
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that he'd used as a child.
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But in this instance, it's the way to appear
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exotic and exciting to women.
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NARRATOR: In October 1987, Victor Farrant
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met a 32-year-old woman in the Midnight Blues Nightclub
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in Brighton.
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The young mother was captivated by this handsome stranger.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: And he says to her, perhaps we
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could go out for a meal.
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Well then begins something of a charade, which
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she doesn't quite cotton on to.
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He says, oh, well I've got to go back to my flat.
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To collect his credit card, or his wallet, or whatever it
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would be.
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NARRATOR: Once back at his flat, the Jekyll and Hyde
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like Farrant, revealed his sinister side.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: He becomes brutal.
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He handcuffs her and dumps her on the bed.
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And she gets out of one of the handcuffs,
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and hits him over the head with it.
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It doesn't, unfortunately, render him unconscious.
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And that action makes him lose his temper
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in the most brutal way.
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And this time, he knocks her unconscious.
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And when she wakes up, he is indeed raping her.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: During the time that she is being held
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by Farrant, he asks her to take hold of a wine bottle,
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essentially to put her fingerprints on it.
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So he's trying to create a narrative around this attack,
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that he can explain away.
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He's trying to blame the victim here.
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He's trying to create the impression that she came back
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willingly, she was drinking.
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All of these things that tarnish her image
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as an innocent victim.
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NARRATOR: That morning, Farrant became charming once more,
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and let the young woman go.
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Wrongly convinced that he could escape justice.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: It's a horrifying ordeal.
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The man she thought was perfectly
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respectable and upright, turns out to be anything but.
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NARRATOR: She immediately went to the police.
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And despite his best efforts to cover his crimes,
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in 1988, 39-year-old Farrant received
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an 11 year sentence for rape, false imprisonment, and GBH.
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He also received an additional one year sentence
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for a further attack on another woman, with a bread knife,
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during the same period.
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But Farrant spent his time behind bars
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convincing the authorities that he was a reformed man.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He really does
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portray himself as the suave, sophisticated, charming man.
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But at the time he's in prison, he's
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also learning during this process, what
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a parole board need to hear.
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He's learning the kind of behavior
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that he needs to display to eventually get released.
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NARRATOR: In 1993, Farrant's seemingly good behavior
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was rewarded.
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He was released from prison that week ends, in an attempt
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to integrate him back into society.
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It was during one of these unsupervised home visits,
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that Farrant met another unsuspecting woman.
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RICHARD JONES: Glenda Hoskins was separated
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from her husband, Tony.
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She was living a quite independent, happy life.
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She would go to nightclubs in Southsea with her friends.
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And actually, at one of these nightclubs,
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is where she met Victor Farrant.
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NARRATOR: 43-year-old mother of three,
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Glenda, was initially enamored by
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this tall, charismatic stranger, who set about working
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his way into her life.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He's very charming, he's very attentive.
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He tells her that he has a job working away.
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He's actually on release from prison at this point in time.
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He sends her love letters, he sends her gifts.
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So he appears to be a knight in shining armor.
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ANDY BAKER: We know from Glenda's children
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and other people, just how generous, giving,
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caring person Glenda is.
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The children talk about she would
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always have dinner for them.
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She would always be there.
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She would drop them off, she'll pick them up.
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And she demonstrate this, actually, with Farrant.
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They were friends, they had a relationship,
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but he was so possessive and so controlling of her,
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she tried to end it.
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She tried to call it.
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And in fact told him so.
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NARRATOR: In November 1995, Farrant was permanently
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released from prison, having served eight
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years of his 12 year sentence.
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RICHARD JONES: What we discovered
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was, that although Farrant had been prosecuted, sentenced,
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and sent to jail for attacking one woman
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and for raping another, he was released
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early from his sentence.
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And he wasn't subject to any supervision.
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The sort of supervision that would
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happen now, when people would end up on the sex offenders
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register.
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NARRATOR: Once free, the obstinate Farrant continued
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to pursue Glenda obsessively.
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Taking pity on him, Glenda invited
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Farrant over at Christmas.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: So he goes after her again.
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And he's very attentive, he's very charming,
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he's very loving.
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And he wheedles his way back into her life.
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He came over to her home during the Christmas holidays,
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and her children noticed quite a few really important things
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about him.
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See, he was quite childish.
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He was very determined when he was
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convinced he was in the right.
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GEOFFREY WANSELL: They thought he was a bit false.
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I think one of the memorably called him cringey.
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RICHARD JONES: They described playing board games.
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And he's playing with children, but he always had to win.
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He couldn't be proved to be wrong,
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or to get anything wrong.
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NARRATOR: Despite Glenda trying to distance herself
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from Farrant, the 46-year-old remained
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possessive and envious.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: There was stalking behavior.
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He hung around her house, he made
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several phone calls to her.
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He felt that he had a right to do this.
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He felt entitled to engage in these behaviors,
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because she was his property.
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NARRATOR: Then on the 7th of February 1996,
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Glenda's 15-year-old daughter, Katie, arrived home from school
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to discover the house locked up, and her mother
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nowhere to be found.
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This uncharacteristic behavior immediately set alarm
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bells ringing for her family.
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RICHARD JONES: Concern for Glenda's safety
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arose, because Katie arrived home from school
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and couldn't get into the house, the door was locked.
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Nobody knew where Glenda was.
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And if you remember, this is the time before mobile phones
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were very common.
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So it wasn't a question of ringing mum
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and finding out, where are you.
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ANDY BAKER: Glenda's daughter was waiting outside.
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While she was waiting, a man turned up
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who had an appointment with Glenda to sign some papers.
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He saw that, obviously, Glenda's daughter couldn't get in,
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so he let her sit in the car and warm up.
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He then drove her to a phone box, and she phoned her father.
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NARRATOR: After calling friends, neighbors,
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and the local hospital, Katie, her father,
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and her younger brother, David, went
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to the local police station.
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PC Helen Wheeler was on duty at the time.
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HELEN WHEELER: Katie's first reaction to most of this
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was, something's wrong.
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And she was adamant with that the whole time.
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Even when they came into the police station,
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something's not right.
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My mum would have rung, my mum would have left me a message,
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my mum would have left a note on the door.
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Or something similar to those sort of questions,
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where this just isn't right.
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NARRATOR: Shortly after midnight, police forced entry
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into the family's home through the downstairs window
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of David's bedroom.
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ANDY BAKER: And as I go in, I do a search,
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and find nothing apart from Glenda's clothes
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on the floor in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs.
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Quite disheveled, like in a pile.
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DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Glenda's somebody
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who was very neat and very meticulous,
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so that is completely out of character.
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So it's a mystery.
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And it's a very worrying one, because here is their family
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home, but where is their mum?
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NARRATOR: As the police and family continue
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to search the three story townhouse,
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their feelings of foreboding increased.
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ANDY BAKER: They'd looked in the loft.
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And it had been a converted loft.
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It was a fairly cursory look, because they used a torch,
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they couldn't find a light switch.
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But because Glenda's daughter knew where
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the light switch was, she--
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bearing in mind, she's 15 years of age--
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she decides to go up there.
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Having turned on the light switch for the loft
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room in the office, she saw the rolled
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up carpet and Glenda's legs.
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She said they looked like mannequins legs.
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And she let out a piercing scream.
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NARRATOR: The horrifying discovery spurred the police
00:16:06
into immediate action.
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HELEN WHEELER: The next minute I know,
00:16:10
I'm looking after two children, who've
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had their clothes taken from them,
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and they put them in white suits.
00:16:15
And they were just sat back, to have a little bit more
00:16:18
of a calming, let's look after you.
00:16:20
It was very traumatic.
00:16:23
NARRATOR: Despite her inexperience,
00:16:25
young PC, Helen Wheeler, was given
00:16:27
the role of family liaison officer for the first time.
00:16:31
Honestly, I was a bit scared, myself.
00:16:34
Am I going to say the right thing?
00:16:36
Are they going to talk to me?
00:16:38
Am I going to give the right information back
00:16:40
to the investigation?
00:16:41
I think it's scary the first time you do it.
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NARRATOR: In the small hours of the morning,
00:16:49
Helen and the police started to piece together
00:16:52
information from the family.
00:16:54
HELEN WHEELER: We have a golden hour,
00:16:55
where we have to find as much information
00:16:57
as we can to give us the leads.
00:16:59
It's very much how people work now.
00:17:01
We have to find as much as we can, as quick as we can.
00:17:04
This is day one, hour one, hour two.
00:17:06
With this young lady, Katie, she was together,
00:17:10
she didn't scream and shout.
00:17:12
She didn't want things there and then.
00:17:15
She was happy to ask questions.
00:17:16
She was happy to give information.
00:17:18
I was able to talk to them about things
00:17:20
that people had told me that were things that
00:17:22
may have been in the house.
00:17:24
Was that correct, was it not correct.
00:17:26
And what's interesting is, both the children noticed
00:17:29
that the CDs had been taken, TVs had been taken,
00:17:32
another item had being taken, also her car had gone as well.
00:17:36
NARRATOR: Both children suspected
00:17:38
that one of their mother's friends, known to them as Vic,
00:17:41
might be involved in her death.
00:17:44
The man had spent Christmas with the family,
00:17:46
and his behavior had concerned them.
00:17:50
The police found the mysterious Vic's phone number
00:17:53
in Glenda's address book.
00:17:55
And soon discovered that he was a 46-year-old man named
00:17:59
Victor Farrant.
00:18:01
ANDY BAKER: They had loads of lines of inquiries
00:18:02
around the property, they had a car number to circulate,
00:18:06
and they had Farrant's name.
00:18:08
And once they started digging deeper,
00:18:10
they would have seen Farrant's past as well.
00:18:12
And within hours of Glenda's body being found,
00:18:16
they named him as being involved.
00:18:22
NARRATOR: A team were dispatched to his home address.
00:18:24
And by 5:20 AM, they were staking out Farrant's property.
00:18:29
20 minutes later, police forced entry into his bedsit.
00:18:33
There was no sign of Farrant, but they
00:18:35
did make another remarkable discovery on a notepad.
00:18:39
He didn't know about ESDA tracing,
00:18:41
because he'd written a note-- that
00:18:43
clearly he had handed to her--
00:18:45
and the police were able to reconstruct
00:18:47
what was on the note.
00:18:48
And it was pretty chilling stuff.
00:18:50
NARRATOR: Traced from the notepad,
00:18:51
were two letters Farrant had written to Glenda.
00:18:55
ANDY BAKER: One he immediately showed
00:18:56
to her, which said to her, look don't, make a noise.
00:19:00
I want you to undress.
00:19:01
I want you to stand a certain way.
00:19:03
I want you to say to me--
00:19:04
Look me in the eyes and say to me, use my body as you want.
00:19:08
Also another letter that said, kiss me as you
00:19:10
know I like to be kissed, you know how I like it.
00:19:13
NARRATOR: A disturbing picture surrounding
00:19:15
the events that led to Glenda's murder was starting to emerge.
00:19:23
At 8:00 AM, Havant police opened an incident room to track
00:19:28
Victor Farrant's movements.
00:19:30
We now know that Farrant traveled in Glenda's car
00:19:32
along the South Coast selling CDs, TV
00:19:37
to a person in Brighton, who readily came forward and said
00:19:41
that a guy called Charles Kelly, who is in fact Farrant,
00:19:44
sold them to him.
00:19:46
RICHARD JONES: He carried on driving,
00:19:47
and he'd got to Ashford.
00:19:49
Where again, he'd arranged to get rid of his car,
00:19:52
which was taken to London.
00:19:54
Without his car, he got a train to Ramsgate.
00:19:57
So you've got a pretty clear indication now
00:20:01
of who the prime suspect is.
00:20:04
Inspector Farrant.
00:20:06
NARRATOR: Shortly after 6:00 AM, the police
00:20:08
contacted all local ports to try and stop
00:20:12
Farrant from leaving the country,
00:20:14
but they were too late.
00:20:15
It turned out actually that Farrant
00:20:17
had planned the murder of Glenda Hoskins very carefully.
00:20:21
We found out that he'd studied ferry timetables, so he knew
00:20:24
how, and when, and where he was going
00:20:27
to get out of the country.
00:20:30
NARRATOR: As Farrant slipped through the police's net,
00:20:33
crime scene investigators undertook a thorough search
00:20:36
of Glenda's home.
00:20:38
JEREMY GIBBONS: They dusted absolutely
00:20:39
everything for fingerprints.
00:20:42
And one of the things you realize as the amount of care
00:20:44
they take, is they've got little stands that they put
00:20:46
on the floor, very low, so that they don't disturb anything
00:20:49
on the carpets or the floors.
00:20:51
They were certainly in Glenda Hoskins house for days,
00:20:53
absolutely taking the whole thing apart and looking
00:20:56
at absolutely everything.
00:20:58
ANDY BAKER: We now know that Farrant had
00:20:59
planned to go to Glenda's home.
00:21:02
He knew what property was in the home
00:21:04
and he had planned to steal that.
00:21:06
He took with him items--
00:21:08
we believe-- to control Glenda.
00:21:11
And he went to the house.
00:21:13
There's no sign of forced entry.
00:21:16
But we now know that she was forced,
00:21:18
or she was stripped naked at the foot of the stairs.
00:21:23
GEOFFREY WANSELL: It's very difficult not to feel
00:21:25
a terrible sense of foreboding.
00:21:28
That sense that she must have been in utter fear
00:21:31
for her life.
00:21:32
And that makes the crime even more horrifying,
00:21:35
because it involves an element of torture.
00:21:40
NARRATOR: The post-mortem examination
00:21:42
revealed Glenda had been sexually
00:21:44
assaulted and asphyxiated.
00:21:47
Water was also found in her lungs.
00:21:50
ANDY BAKER: And then we can only speculate on this bit.
00:21:52
He then decided he was going to clean forensically,
00:21:56
and make her take a bath.
00:21:59
JEREMY GIBBONS: It appears, from the marks on the body,
00:22:01
that she got bruises to her ankles.
00:22:04
So clearly they'd been hoisted up in the air.
00:22:06
And she had bruises either side of her nose,
00:22:09
on her cheekbones, where she had clearly
00:22:11
been held under the water and she drowned.
00:22:15
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He is a parasite.
00:22:16
He has taken everything from this woman.
00:22:19
He has used every last inch of her.
00:22:21
And now he's done with her, and he's moving on.
00:22:27
NARRATOR: Farrant's details were circulated
00:22:29
throughout constabularies along the South Coast.
00:22:33
It was then the detectives in Eastleigh,
00:22:35
investigating the brutal attempted
00:22:38
murder of a local woman called Anne Fidler, which had taken
00:22:41
place in December 1995, made a vital breakthrough
00:22:46
in their investigation.
00:22:48
ANDY BAKER: The inquiry team looking
00:22:49
into Anne's attempted murder, checked
00:22:51
Farrant against their database.
00:22:53
They got his palm prints from Cambridgeshire
00:22:55
from the early offenses he had committed.
00:22:58
And they checked that palm print against a palm print
00:23:01
on the iron from Anne's attack, and they were the same.
00:23:05
They therefore joined the two inquiries together,
00:23:08
and we now have a manhunt.
00:23:10
NARRATOR: The horrifying realization
00:23:13
that in the first three months after Farrant was released
00:23:16
from prison, he'd attempted to murder one woman,
00:23:19
and succeeded in murdering another,
00:23:22
revealed just how unrepentant this dangerous criminal was.
00:23:26
Victor Farrant had escaped the country,
00:23:29
and was now on the run from the police.
00:23:33
ANDY BAKER: Looking at Farrant against other criminals,
00:23:35
or murderers, or perpetrators.
00:23:37
Farrant looks to me as if he's someone that is infatuated.
00:23:42
Doesn't like being spurned, and will take that personally.
00:23:45
And then that spurn turns into hate within him.
00:23:49
And then he will plan an evil act against people.
00:23:57
NARRATOR: The attack on Eastleigh resident, Anne,
00:24:00
was one of the most violent local detectives had ever seen.
00:24:04
RICHARD JONES: Anne Fidler was actually
00:24:06
a former civil servant, but strangely she
00:24:09
was working as a prostitute.
00:24:11
She advertised her services in local newspapers,
00:24:15
and she had a string of clients.
00:24:17
And they turned out to actually include Victor Farrant.
00:24:22
NARRATOR: Savvy 43-year-old Anne, met clients at her home.
00:24:27
Not before ingeniously vetting their credentials.
00:24:32
ANDY BAKER: She would go to a phone box near where she lived.
00:24:34
And she could see them in the phone box.
00:24:36
See if they looked presentable, businesslike.
00:24:39
And then let them come to the house.
00:24:41
The husband would always ring the home on his way
00:24:43
back from the gymnasium to see if he
00:24:46
could come into the house, because he
00:24:47
didn't want that confrontation.
00:24:49
Even though he didn't understand it, he knew what she was doing.
00:24:55
NARRATOR: On the 27th of December 1995,
00:24:59
Anne Fidler met Victor Farrant.
00:25:02
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Exactly how Farrant
00:25:04
worked his magic on Fidler, remains a matter of conjecture.
00:25:09
But nevertheless, on that day, Fidler
00:25:11
finds herself in the hands of a man who truly is a beast.
00:25:15
NARRATOR: Anne was subjected to a violent and prolonged attack
00:25:19
at the hands of Farrant, who then
00:25:21
escaped the scene of the crime, leaving her for dead.
00:25:25
The attack took place in the kitchen.
00:25:27
And clearly he'd used considerable force on her,
00:25:30
because the outer glass oven door was shattered and lying
00:25:33
in pieces all over the floor.
00:25:34
And sort of safety glass.
00:25:35
And there was a large pool of vomit.
00:25:38
She was cut and bruised very badly.
00:25:41
And so her husband lets himself in
00:25:43
and discovers Anne, literally a pulp,
00:25:48
on the floor in the kitchen.
00:25:50
ANDY BAKER: She had been bound with duct tape.
00:25:52
There was blood everywhere.
00:25:55
Glass everywhere.
00:25:56
And she was in the middle of it.
00:25:58
And he couldn't recognize his wife's face.
00:26:01
GEOFFREY WANSELL: It's impossible to imagine
00:26:03
the horror that he must have felt at that instant.
00:26:07
And she's almost not breathing, she's barely alive.
00:26:16
NARRATOR: Anne remained in a coma for over a fortnight.
00:26:20
ANDY BAKER: You also have to remember that Anne was
00:26:22
in an awful state from her injuries,
00:26:24
and was unable to say who had committed the crime.
00:26:27
In fact, when she was able to talk,
00:26:30
she was blank up until Christmas.
00:26:33
She couldn't remember beyond Christmas day.
00:26:35
So she couldn't remember how she was attacked, who attacked her,
00:26:38
where, when, et cetera.
00:26:42
NARRATOR: Crime scene investigators
00:26:44
sealed off the house, and began to gather evidence,
00:26:48
in the hope of identifying the person
00:26:50
responsible for this vicious attempted murder.
00:26:53
JEREMY GIBBONS: By the time the police photographer got there,
00:26:55
she'd gone to hospital.
00:26:56
But there was the scene left in the kitchen,
00:26:58
which of course they were very careful not to disturb.
00:27:01
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Farrant is
00:27:02
an offender who learns with every attack
00:27:04
that he carries out.
00:27:05
And when you look at Anne's place,
00:27:08
there were no fingerprints anywhere.
00:27:11
So he's always trying to stay one step ahead.
00:27:14
And in this regard, he's a very organized offender.
00:27:17
It seems clear that Farrant was, to some extent,
00:27:21
forensically aware.
00:27:23
He certainly tries to dispose of evidence,
00:27:26
to clean up after himself, to limit forensic opportunities.
00:27:32
But at the same time, he is foolish enough
00:27:36
to drop an article of clothing as he escapes.
00:27:39
People realize as they're running away--
00:27:41
They kind of realize, oh, I shouldn't have that on me.
00:27:43
Or that's blood stained, or something like that.
00:27:45
The police would start a perimeter search.
00:27:48
And in this case, where Anne was attacked,
00:27:50
they searched and they found panties
00:27:52
just discarded on the road.
00:27:54
NARRATOR: Realizing the killer may have discarded
00:27:57
even more items of evidence, the police
00:28:00
quickly contacted the local counsel,
00:28:02
and had all bin collections stopped.
00:28:05
ANDY BAKER: They searched an industrial bin at Eastleigh
00:28:08
College, and they found part of the iron that was used as one
00:28:11
of the weapons to attack Anne.
00:28:13
They also found a bottle in a bin.
00:28:15
Along that broken part of an iron
00:28:17
was Anne's blood and his palm print.
00:28:24
NARRATOR: Along with the palm print,
00:28:26
they also found blood belonging to someone other than Anne
00:28:30
on her kitchen tap.
00:28:32
The police now had solid forensic evidence.
00:28:35
But without the advantages of modern technology,
00:28:39
identifying the attacker was going to prove difficult.
00:28:43
There's no national database for a great many things,
00:28:46
including the palm print on the iron remnant that they found.
00:28:51
ANDY BAKER: So they made an appeal for local men,
00:28:54
and the people who have been Anne's clients, to come forward
00:28:57
to eliminate them from the blood and the palm print,
00:29:00
which many, many men willingly did.
00:29:04
Nothing was identified.
00:29:06
So they were very much in the dark for a number of weeks,
00:29:11
as to who the perpetrator of this attempted murder was.
00:29:15
NARRATOR: It would be six weeks before the team at Eastleigh
00:29:19
would receive a breakthrough in the case.
00:29:22
Farrant's details were sent to them by the team investigating
00:29:25
the murder of Glenda Hoskins.
00:29:28
Farrant's details were sent over to the inquiry team
00:29:31
to be checked against any database
00:29:33
that they had on the attempted murder of her.
00:29:36
They identified him as a person that had been
00:29:38
arrested in Cambridgeshire.
00:29:41
NARRATOR: Investigators then compared the palm prints
00:29:44
on the iron to the ones held on Victor
00:29:46
Farrant's file in Cambridge.
00:29:49
They found a match.
00:29:51
With the two crimes conclusively linked to the same perpetrator,
00:29:55
the police knew they needed to find Farrant fast.
00:30:03
RICHARD JONES: It was really quite dramatic,
00:30:05
the day after the murder when they'd
00:30:07
obviously found the link.
00:30:09
We were called to something which I'd never been to before,
00:30:12
a late night press conference at Havant police station.
00:30:15
Where they announced what Victor Farrant
00:30:17
was suspected of having done, and they described
00:30:20
just how dangerous he was.
00:30:24
NARRATOR: CCTV tracked Victor Farrant from Ashford
00:30:27
International Station to Ramsgate, where
00:30:30
he boarded a ferry to Belgium.
00:30:33
Once on the continent, Farrant disappeared.
00:30:36
RICHARD JONES: We understood that the likeliest place
00:30:39
for Farrant to have gone once he had arrived in Belgium,
00:30:42
was to go to Brussels.
00:30:44
We understood that he'd worked there in the 1970s as a barman.
00:30:51
So it was a place he knew well.
00:30:52
He knew it was somewhere he could hide.
00:30:56
NARRATOR: An extensive manhunt was launched,
00:30:59
but the master of disguise remained elusive.
00:31:02
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Here's somebody
00:31:03
who's used to moving around.
00:31:05
He's used to taking on new identities.
00:31:07
He's used to blending in in a new environment.
00:31:10
So I think the police have really got their work cut out.
00:31:13
RICHARD JONES: I think just before the Belgium police were
00:31:16
going to pounce and capture him, he
00:31:19
left Brussels and then continued on to other parts of Europe.
00:31:26
NARRATOR: As Farrant continue to play cat and mouse
00:31:29
with the police and the press through Europe,
00:31:32
concern mounted that this deadly charmer would strike again.
00:31:36
ANDY BAKER: And there was a major concern
00:31:38
he was going to then go on a spree of crimes
00:31:41
to satisfy his lust and his sexual desire
00:31:46
before he was caught.
00:31:47
RICHARD JONES: We set out to track Farrant,
00:31:50
as best we could, across Europe, as sightings came in.
00:31:55
The police were also well aware then
00:31:57
of his interest in prostitutes.
00:32:00
And we interviewed a couple of prostitutes
00:32:03
in Belgium, who'd been warned about Farrant by the police.
00:32:07
They'd been circulating photos of him,
00:32:10
so concerned were they about his mental state
00:32:13
and the threats he might pose to women in Brussels.
00:32:21
NARRATOR: Farrant made his way South through France.
00:32:25
RICHARD JONES: Farrant had clearly
00:32:26
been living the high life.
00:32:27
I expect he knew this was going to be
00:32:30
his last taste of freedom.
00:32:32
We heard stories that he'd hold parties
00:32:35
on the beach with young backpackers, many of them
00:32:37
women.
00:32:38
And that he'd encourage women to go skinny dipping with him.
00:32:43
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: It was quite
00:32:44
obvious that during this time, Farrant
00:32:46
was up to his old tricks.
00:32:48
He was the charmer again.
00:32:50
And I think this was a ticking time bomb.
00:32:53
RICHARD JONES: After he left Brussels,
00:32:54
there were sightings of him in various parts of Europe.
00:32:57
We heard that he might have been in Spain.
00:33:00
We also heard that he might have been in France.
00:33:02
There were reports of him being in the French town of Sete.
00:33:08
NARRATOR: Hampshire police were determined to bring
00:33:10
Victor Farrant to justice.
00:33:12
An international manhunt was underway,
00:33:15
but with the whole of Europe to hide out in,
00:33:18
the search for this accomplished liar
00:33:20
was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.
00:33:25
RICHARD JONES: One of the key aspects of this case
00:33:27
is that actually, this was a crime
00:33:29
committed in the analog age.
00:33:31
So the police very much relied on traditional, normal methods.
00:33:36
So posters, and appeals on TV and radio,
00:33:41
and trying to get his picture out as far across Europe
00:33:46
as possible.
00:33:47
Because what they really needed was somebody who'd seen him,
00:33:50
somebody who knew where he was, to get in contact.
00:33:54
And after five months, that finally happened.
00:33:58
NARRATOR: A Canadian backpacker arrived in the UK in July 1996,
00:34:04
and alerted the authorities that the man they were looking for
00:34:08
was working in a hostel in Nice.
00:34:10
As a consequence of that, we contacted
00:34:12
our French counterparts, who visited the premises.
00:34:16
Confirmed the fact that it was Mr Farrant,
00:34:17
and effected the arrest.
00:34:19
GEOFFREY WANSELL: He has been living below the radar.
00:34:21
But on the 5th of July, an international arrest
00:34:24
warrant is executed and Farrant is taken into custody.
00:34:28
Still of course, protesting his innocence.
00:34:30
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He is an offender
00:34:31
who is so sure of himself, that he thought
00:34:34
he could just front it out.
00:34:35
So he was very calm, he was very relaxed.
00:34:38
He thought, I've got this, I can talk my way out of this.
00:34:41
Such was his belief in himself.
00:34:44
NARRATOR: On the 31st of January 1997,
00:34:47
Victor Farrant finally arrived back in the UK
00:34:51
to face justice for his crimes.
00:34:56
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS]
00:34:58
Nearly a year later, on the 17th of January 1998,
00:35:03
his trial finally began at Winchester Crown Court.
00:35:07
Jeremy Gibbons was the lead prosecutor.
00:35:10
JEREMY GIBBONS: And I remember saying, if I lose this case,
00:35:12
I'll probably never work again.
00:35:14
I remember when I went into court with my papers,
00:35:18
to set them out, ready to open the case to the jury.
00:35:21
The-- I remember the courtroom was absolutely huge,
00:35:24
and it was full.
00:35:25
It's certainly a bit nerve wracking.
00:35:27
But it's like so many other things.
00:35:29
Once you get going, your butterflies disappear.
00:35:32
NARRATOR: Farrant pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder
00:35:35
of Anne Fidler, and claimed the death of Glenda Hoskins
00:35:39
was an accident.
00:35:40
JEREMY GIBBONS: It's a matter of explaining
00:35:41
to the jury what the facts are.
00:35:43
I always used to say in cases--
00:35:44
if they were complicated-- that my opening isn't evidence.
00:35:47
It's like the picture on the box of the jigsaw,
00:35:50
it's how we see where the pieces fit as we work
00:35:52
our way through the evidence.
00:35:54
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Gradually, the prosecution reveal the case.
00:35:57
He sold the stuff that's stolen from Glenda.
00:36:01
He's prepared the notes, the cards, in advance
00:36:04
about what she's got to do.
00:36:05
He has a history with Glenda.
00:36:08
It's very difficult for the defense
00:36:11
to argue that she's mysteriously been killed
00:36:14
by some unknown person, while he's
00:36:16
been flogging her belongings.
00:36:22
NARRATOR: In court, Farrant tried to deny he had anything
00:36:26
to do with the attack on Anne.
00:36:28
JEREMY GIBBONS: His account in the witness box
00:36:30
was that he'd been in Anne Fidler's house,
00:36:33
it wasn't him that attacked her.
00:36:35
He saw somebody else coming, and left the house.
00:36:38
Because he's seen this out of the front window,
00:36:41
next to the front door.
00:36:42
But I was able to show a photograph that showed
00:36:45
that the internal shutters were firmly closed, so you
00:36:48
couldn't see out of the window.
00:36:49
And that foxed him a bit.
00:36:56
NARRATOR: Glenda's three children and her former husband
00:36:59
attended the entire trial.
00:37:02
Their family liaison officer, PC Helen Wheeler,
00:37:06
accompanied them.
00:37:07
HELEN WHEELER: I just remember having a phone call to say
00:37:09
that the children would like me to go to court with them,
00:37:11
once it had got to that point.
00:37:14
so I ended up in court for quite a lot of days.
00:37:18
And it was all very genuine.
00:37:21
Genuine feelings.
00:37:22
If they want to cry, they'd cry.
00:37:24
But it's not massive sobbing that everybody could hear.
00:37:27
It was a gentle squeeze on the hand,
00:37:29
and you can see they're getting upset about something.
00:37:31
But it's really hard.
00:37:33
And it's hard for the whole team,
00:37:34
because you've got to relive all of this all over again.
00:37:37
NARRATOR: Farrant's protestations
00:37:39
continued throughout the trial.
00:37:42
JEREMY GIBBONS: Glenda Hoskins drowned in the bath.
00:37:44
And he said, basically, it was an accident.
00:37:45
And that was where the marks on the cheeks and the ankles
00:37:48
came in important.
00:37:50
And he said, this is all consensual up to that.
00:37:52
And then they had a bit of a tiff and she fell in the bath,
00:37:54
and he panicked and put her upstairs.
00:37:57
NARRATOR: The jury were not convinced.
00:37:59
And on the 29th of January 1998, Victor Farrant
00:38:04
was found guilty of murder.
00:38:06
HELEN WHEELER: It was almost like a big (SIGHS)
00:38:09
When he was found guilty.
00:38:11
And I just remember Katie turning to me,
00:38:14
and we had a massive great cuddle.
00:38:16
David cuddled his dad.
00:38:17
And it was just the nearest person
00:38:19
I think we all just grabbed.
00:38:22
Doesn't make it any easier, though.
00:38:25
In the long term, it doesn't make
00:38:26
it any easier for the children.
00:38:28
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: In terms of whether
00:38:29
justice has been served.
00:38:31
I think in a formal sense, yes.
00:38:33
But informally, this man has taken
00:38:36
away the life of somebody who had many, many years to live.
00:38:41
And that decision has affected the lives of her children,
00:38:45
of her wider family, of her colleagues.
00:38:47
So I think that this isn't justice, as such,
00:38:51
it's the closing of a chapter.
00:38:54
NARRATOR: Farrant was also found guilty of the attempted
00:38:57
murder of Anne Fidler.
00:39:00
He was sentenced to 18 years for this brutal crime.
00:39:06
He also received a life sentence for the murder
00:39:09
of Glenda Hoskins.
00:39:13
ANDY BAKER: This man is a danger to women.
00:39:15
This man should not be allowed out.
00:39:17
He's a controlling, dangerous individual, that shouldn't
00:39:21
be allowed near women.
00:39:22
It's as simple as that.
00:39:24
He deserves every day of that life sentence
00:39:26
that he's going to serve.
00:39:28
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When the verdict was handed down,
00:39:30
he kicked the witness box.
00:39:32
In almost a way that a child not getting what they want,
00:39:35
kind of lashes out.
00:39:37
This is very revealing about him,
00:39:40
in terms of his level of emotional immaturity.
00:39:43
And that frustration that actually, the justice system
00:39:47
has got the better of him.
00:39:49
NARRATOR: The Judge, Mr. Justice Butterfield,
00:39:51
stated during sentencing, that these crimes were so terrible,
00:39:56
and Victor Farrant was such a dangerous man,
00:39:59
that in this case, life should mean life
00:40:02
and he should never be released.
00:40:03
DR. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Murder casts
00:40:04
an incredibly long shadow.
00:40:07
And for the families of the victims who have been killed,
00:40:11
this is something that they have to live with for the rest
00:40:13
of their lives.
00:40:15
But I think, if I'm honest, the people
00:40:17
who have survived this kind of violence, this kind of abuse,
00:40:20
they are actually some of the toughest and the strongest
00:40:21
people I know.
00:40:23
And some of the things that they go on to do, very often
00:40:26
helping other victims, very often
00:40:27
campaigning for change, really does leave
00:40:30
a very big mark on society.
00:40:32
A much bigger mark than any killer ever leaves.
00:40:36
HELEN WHEELER: She was this loving mum
00:40:38
that was fun to be with, that listened to them,
00:40:41
that cared for them, that loved them.
00:40:43
All three of them.
00:40:45
And I think that's how they want to remember her,
00:40:47
is just being a mom.
00:40:50
NARRATOR: Despite the trauma Victor Farrant
00:40:52
inflicted on the Hoskins family, they
00:40:55
remain steadfast in their loyalty
00:40:57
to each other throughout.
00:41:04
HELEN WHEELER: They knew something had to be done,
00:41:06
and they knew they had to help.
00:41:07
And, yes, we had tears.
00:41:08
And, yes, we had cuddles.
00:41:09
And, yes, we had shouting matches.
00:41:11
But at the end of the day, I think
00:41:13
they were just three very loyal children to both
00:41:16
their mum and their dad.
00:41:18
NARRATOR: Victor Farrant's conviction
00:41:20
meant he could no longer worm his way
00:41:22
into another unsuspecting woman's life.
00:41:26
RICHARD JONES: From the day that Glenda Hoskins was murdered,
00:41:28
to the day that Victor Farrant was jailed, was two years.
00:41:35
In that two years, I'm sure I did do other stories,
00:41:38
but I really can't remember any of them.
00:41:40
This dominated what I did for those whole two years.
00:41:45
GEOFFREY WANSELL: The one thing that's
00:41:46
important to remember about Victor Farrant,
00:41:48
is his capacity to charm.
00:41:50
Every person who came across him, called him a charmer.
00:41:54
You'd leave your grandmother with him to look after.
00:41:57
That was the one side of Victor Farrant's character.
00:42:01
The other, was the one seen by Anne Fidler and Glenda Hoskins.
00:42:06
JEREMY GIBBONS: Evil is such a strong word,
00:42:08
I'm always reluctant to use it.
00:42:10
And the number of people I've met over 40 years in the law,
00:42:14
who that might be an appropriate term to use,
00:42:16
I could count on the fingers of one hand, and he's one of.
00:42:23
NARRATOR: Controlling and manipulative,
00:42:25
Farrant appeared charming and loving to the women he met.
00:42:29
But below the surface of this Jekyll and Hyde like man,
00:42:33
lurked a violent sadist who attacked
00:42:36
multiple women, murdered one, and attempted to murder
00:42:40
another.
00:42:41
Victor Farrant's selfish desires and ability
00:42:44
to hide in plain sight, makes him one of the world's most
00:42:49
evil killers.
00:42:50
[MUSIC PLAYS]
