00:00:03
[Music]
00:00:11
thank you
00:00:15
remember when that saw that store and
00:00:18
he's going to come out come out come out
00:00:20
it's just there's a red star
00:00:24
and we'll all run out of the Caravan to
00:00:26
have a look at this Redstone and it was
00:00:28
a pylon
00:00:32
well anytime we would go out and if
00:00:34
there's any stores anywhere open tonight
00:00:35
Robin
00:00:41
that's how I remember
00:00:43
just like that
00:00:45
um
00:00:47
yeah or a smile
00:00:52
you look very in love
00:00:55
I've told you away
00:01:03
this is the Metro that my dad got off
00:01:06
after he'd been out to Newcastle
00:01:09
and start to make his way home
00:01:13
but never made it
00:01:18
tonight I come home
00:01:21
and Robin wasn't there
00:01:23
[Music]
00:01:28
Earth could he be
00:01:32
about 20 yards behind Robin with two men
00:01:38
looked as if they were following him
00:01:40
from underneath the underpass
00:01:44
the checkout operator and I can remember
00:01:47
them being in and can remember seeing
00:01:49
that they had some blood staining on his
00:01:51
clothing
00:01:54
within 15 minutes are spending the money
00:01:58
from a man who just murdered and robbed
00:02:01
the total strangers that were they
00:02:04
didn't even live
00:02:06
well near where we lived
00:02:10
there shouldn't even have been off at
00:02:12
that train station
00:02:14
you just wanted to hurt someone in fact
00:02:16
I think they wanted to kill someone
00:02:18
I think that was their intention
00:02:21
they were looked for trouble all night
00:02:23
long that night
00:02:25
and they didn't find trouble they found
00:02:27
my dad
00:02:29
and I heard him
00:02:31
and I killed him
00:02:32
[Music]
00:02:42
[Music]
00:02:51
the weather on the 23rd of April 2004
00:02:54
was very fine
00:02:55
[Music]
00:02:58
it was an unusually nice day
00:03:01
[Music]
00:03:03
I was at the flat but it was an
00:03:05
electrician coming
00:03:07
I forgot to take the money to place by
00:03:09
the electrician so Robin popped in
00:03:13
I'm so grateful for this but he popped
00:03:16
in with the money and he was all about
00:03:18
his suit on and his tie on and he was
00:03:20
just dead handsome just gorgeous
00:03:23
I hooked him still wearing me marigolds
00:03:26
let's just sticks in my house for some
00:03:27
reason
00:03:28
and uh well a kiss now he gives the
00:03:31
money and us is right I'll see you later
00:03:34
he went by to work after he saw me there
00:03:39
was teacher training at the time so I'd
00:03:42
been to school that day teaching a class
00:03:44
and I always remember as I left one of
00:03:47
the teachers said have a nice weekend as
00:03:49
you do then I went home
00:03:53
and I remember watching a Dolly Parton
00:03:55
documentary and I went to bed just like
00:03:58
any normal night
00:04:01
on the Friday Night of the 23rd I went
00:04:04
to Stockton to do a gig because I'm a
00:04:06
performer I'm a singer and it was a
00:04:09
working man's club and I used to do them
00:04:11
quite regularly
00:04:15
I went down really well
00:04:17
and like I said it was a good night
00:04:23
dad had gone out quite late I think it
00:04:26
was maybe nine o'clock you know just as
00:04:28
a last minute thing because his friend
00:04:31
had called him up
00:04:34
this night I come home
00:04:37
and uh Robin wasn't there
00:04:41
and I thought he might have been in bed
00:04:43
you know he wasn't in the living room so
00:04:45
I thought I must be in bed
00:04:48
I think I put the television on I did
00:04:50
shout of him and I thought well he's
00:04:52
either not answering me or he may not be
00:04:54
one top and he wasn't bad and I thought
00:04:57
strange for him not to be home
00:05:01
well
00:05:03
Earth could he be
00:05:06
now come back in the living room not to
00:05:08
stop there was a message on the answer
00:05:09
machine on the phone
00:05:11
so I flew the message and it was his
00:05:13
friend us and him if he wanted to go for
00:05:15
a couple of paints I thought he'd
00:05:17
obviously gone out
00:05:20
I ran his friend and so it's Robin with
00:05:23
you
00:05:25
and he said no no we should have should
00:05:28
be home now definitely he said he's
00:05:31
definitely coming home that's as well
00:05:33
he's not home don't know what's happened
00:05:34
to him
00:05:42
a round Robin's form
00:05:45
that says Robin
00:05:47
the male voice he says no it's not no
00:05:50
it's not Robin or something like that
00:05:54
and I says hey I'm sorry I must have the
00:05:56
wrong number
00:05:58
maybe so I've hit I don't know I just
00:06:00
was quite shocked so I hung up and I
00:06:04
rang again and the phone was off
00:06:07
I'll run up to my sister's house who
00:06:09
lived about uh three doors away from me
00:06:11
and uh she come down
00:06:14
and I was saying I don't know where he
00:06:15
is I don't know there's some Something's
00:06:17
Happened I feel like something's
00:06:18
happened to him
00:06:19
and I said look I'm gonna
00:06:31
I'm gonna walk up to the metro station
00:06:33
because he might have had a fall on the
00:06:35
way home
00:06:37
I put my coat on I said you stay here
00:06:41
I'd rang the police at that time
00:06:49
it was around about 5 a.m on the morning
00:06:53
of the 24th of April
00:06:58
the wife of the victim Angela chard
00:07:01
had rung the control room to report at
00:07:05
her husband Robin child had been missing
00:07:08
from home
00:07:10
she said that it was out of character
00:07:12
for Robin to be missing
00:07:17
you can imagine 47 year old guy no real
00:07:21
reason to think anything suspicious had
00:07:22
happened at that particular stage
00:07:27
I think the time was around about six
00:07:29
o'clock-ish I remember just getting late
00:07:33
and I thought I'm gonna have a walk
00:07:37
alone and see if I can find Robin
00:07:40
I remember walking up here frantic and
00:07:43
just wondering where Robin was so I'm
00:07:46
looking all over obviously
00:07:48
and just shouting his name Robin Robin
00:07:51
as long as I could
00:07:55
on the 24th of April
00:07:58
7 30 in the morning the phone rang and
00:08:01
obviously walk me off
00:08:03
and straight away I thought that's
00:08:07
unusual I went to the phone and Mom said
00:08:11
Juan I don't mean a Warrior but is your
00:08:15
dad there
00:08:18
it was really wrong and I said no what's
00:08:21
wrong what's what's the matter which one
00:08:23
you didn't come home
00:08:25
I said right I'm coming over
00:08:29
I got into the house started asking mum
00:08:31
questions if he was getting the Metro
00:08:33
home which he would do he'd walk down
00:08:35
what we call a black path
00:08:37
I said have you been up to the back path
00:08:39
and she said I've been he's not there
00:08:43
I just had this picture in my mind of a
00:08:45
way like if some Wasteland just off this
00:08:48
bypass that I thought you might be there
00:08:50
I don't know why I sort of went there
00:08:53
and I was actually looking for him
00:08:55
beaten up that's what I thought had
00:08:58
happened
00:08:59
but I thought I'd find him alive
00:09:04
[Music]
00:09:06
around about 8 A.M on the morning of
00:09:09
Saturday the 24th of April
00:09:11
the control room in Northern Brad police
00:09:14
received a telephone call from a
00:09:16
gentleman
00:09:22
he had came across a body in a ditched
00:09:26
area near to where the mission person
00:09:28
lived
00:09:31
when uniform bosses attended they
00:09:34
initially found that the male had some
00:09:38
clothing missing
00:09:40
they could also see blood staining
00:09:42
around the head area and the guy's shirt
00:09:45
had been pulled up
00:09:47
and there were some marks on his back
00:09:51
and to all intents and purposes it
00:09:53
looked as if the death was suspicious at
00:09:56
that stage
00:10:01
next thing I remember was a bit of a
00:10:03
blue
00:10:04
I just remember being outside in the
00:10:06
street a man who lives a few doors or
00:10:09
held me at Arms of said Juan I found
00:10:12
your dad's glasses on the black path
00:10:16
it was like phoned your dad
00:10:21
I don't know if she said he was I don't
00:10:24
think she said he was dead
00:10:26
just remember like I knew something was
00:10:28
wrong I just remembered my knees buckled
00:10:30
and I sort of went down under the ground
00:10:33
there was an ambulance there that was
00:10:36
there for ages and I was like why aren't
00:10:37
they taking the hospital
00:10:41
said there was a body
00:10:43
they'd found a body
00:10:45
[Music]
00:10:46
I wanted to know if it was definitely
00:10:48
Robin
00:10:50
so my sister reckons that she went along
00:10:52
first
00:10:54
and when she come back she she said to
00:10:56
me that I was like a wild woman
00:11:01
the brother-in-law was standing there
00:11:03
George
00:11:04
and he's going you're not getting
00:11:05
through you're not getting drunk I
00:11:06
remember trying to dive past him but he
00:11:08
was big loud and he grabbed us and and I
00:11:11
didn't get through
00:11:12
[Music]
00:11:14
it wasn't totally that I sort of got the
00:11:16
news when I was in mum and Dad's bedroom
00:11:19
with me brother
00:11:21
his wife was there
00:11:24
I remember her getting told he was dead
00:11:27
and
00:11:28
his shirt was still hanging on one
00:11:31
he should was still hanging up on the
00:11:33
back of the door
00:11:35
for the sleeves rolled up as he left her
00:11:38
when he'd taken it off here so if he was
00:11:40
sore still there
00:11:41
[Music]
00:11:51
I didn't find Robin
00:11:52
thankfully first
00:11:54
I don't know what I would have done
00:11:56
about it actually just discovered
00:11:59
his body
00:12:08
it was a grass area
00:12:10
just off a foot path it was probably
00:12:12
within about 25-30 meters from the
00:12:15
footpath
00:12:17
he had been assaulted near to where his
00:12:20
body had been found
00:12:22
the perpetrators have stamped on Robin
00:12:25
and dragged him into that ditch
00:12:28
it actually remarkably when you on the
00:12:31
day I was actually standing on the
00:12:32
footpath here and if you were looking
00:12:35
across you couldn't see because the body
00:12:37
was concealed in this hollow
00:12:40
we obviously do all the forensic work
00:12:43
around the recovery of the body
00:12:47
means taking job that took several hours
00:12:49
to do
00:12:51
at that stage where then in a position
00:12:52
to turn Robin over
00:12:55
because he was lying face down
00:12:58
um we then put them awful but we then
00:13:01
put them in a body bag
00:13:02
we then take them to the local hospital
00:13:04
for a post-mortem examination
00:13:08
my Uncle George
00:13:10
and my Uncle Kenny identified my dad's
00:13:14
body
00:13:15
um
00:13:17
and I'm really grateful for fun for
00:13:19
doing that because I think that must
00:13:21
have just been a very very traumatic
00:13:25
experience and something that
00:13:27
you know you can't get that image out of
00:13:30
your head could you really
00:13:34
the postmortem took considerable length
00:13:36
of time four or five hours after the
00:13:39
postmortem when we had the cause of
00:13:40
death
00:13:42
um the cause of death being asphyxiation
00:13:43
and there will be injuries and things
00:13:46
um I then went to visit
00:13:49
um the family
00:13:51
we told Angela that in our opinion on
00:13:55
the opinion more importantly of the home
00:13:56
office pathologist but um Robin had been
00:13:59
murdered
00:14:03
[Music]
00:14:06
the Metro that my dad got off
00:14:10
I've started being out to Newcastle
00:14:13
and started to make his way home
00:14:17
but never made it
00:14:20
it's hard to come back
00:14:22
because I think the last time
00:14:25
he was here he was alive
00:14:28
and
00:14:30
those are the last steps that he took
00:14:33
[Music]
00:14:43
when I first met Robin he worked at
00:14:46
osram GCE on the team of valley of
00:14:48
making light bulbs and we always used to
00:14:51
joke about it being you know meeting
00:14:52
then yeah so I used to say oh yeah the
00:14:55
light of my life
00:14:56
you know just things like that
00:15:02
mom and dad
00:15:04
just just the love teacher there were
00:15:07
friends they were always laughing
00:15:09
together it was lovely it's what a
00:15:12
relationship should be like
00:15:14
foreign
00:15:15
aged on the 1st of November 1975.
00:15:20
and got married on the 20th of February
00:15:23
1976.
00:15:27
I got pregnant so we brought the wedding
00:15:30
forward
00:15:32
I was 18 and so was Robin Robin was 19
00:15:35
two weeks later
00:15:37
so he was a bit older than me not much
00:15:41
I couldn't have wished for a better dad
00:15:43
than him
00:15:46
yeah he was my best friend
00:15:51
and I loved him and he loved me
00:16:03
as I was traveling to the scene I
00:16:05
received a telephone call to tell me
00:16:07
that I'm two young men were in custody
00:16:10
that came completely out of the blue to
00:16:13
me I didn't know anything about that
00:16:16
as I was at the crime scene I was asking
00:16:19
some detectives to find out who was in
00:16:21
custody why have they been arrested why
00:16:24
are they in custody and what's the
00:16:25
circumstances surrounding that
00:16:28
police received information that two
00:16:31
teenagers have been trying to rob
00:16:33
vehicles in and around the metro station
00:16:37
the teenagers have been picked up
00:16:39
because of the element of robbery so if
00:16:43
they'd been stealing from Cars would
00:16:44
they be willing to steal from a man
00:16:50
they were arrested and to be honest I
00:16:52
was worried that it was them because
00:16:54
being teenagers there wouldn't have been
00:16:56
punished properly they wouldn't have
00:16:58
been named and I don't think they would
00:17:00
have gone to a normal prison
00:17:04
as it turned out they had nothing
00:17:06
whatsoever to do with it we very quickly
00:17:08
eliminated them from the inquiries
00:17:11
most homicides happen as a result of
00:17:14
close association between the victim and
00:17:17
the perpetrators in a lot of the
00:17:19
instances they are family members
00:17:22
um or they are friends and all the rest
00:17:23
of it so the starting point inevitably
00:17:26
in that is to try and find out where the
00:17:29
people who had been closest to Robin on
00:17:31
that particular night were essentially
00:17:35
it might sound colors but you've got to
00:17:37
clear the ground under your feet first
00:17:38
to just basically say where was Angela
00:17:41
where were the children
00:17:44
typically when police will see any type
00:17:46
of murder they're looking for somebody
00:17:48
who knows that victim so police will
00:17:51
start with the most likely and work
00:17:53
outwards the last thing is thinking that
00:17:55
a stranger committed a crime like this
00:17:58
that's probably the least likely thing
00:18:00
but it's also the thing that police are
00:18:02
most afraid of because that means that
00:18:04
anyone could be a suspect and their
00:18:06
investigation is that much harder to
00:18:08
complete
00:18:10
I was never interrogated I think I was
00:18:13
just felt like I was casually asked
00:18:15
where I was and it never felt like an
00:18:17
interrogation but obviously probably
00:18:19
later on I thought I'll have been a
00:18:21
suspect
00:18:24
having spoken to the people who we've
00:18:26
been with and Angela and all that were
00:18:27
quickly made an assessment that this
00:18:29
looked like
00:18:31
stranger attack
00:18:33
that's very rare So based on that you
00:18:37
then begin to think okay where do we
00:18:40
start
00:18:41
and that's when
00:18:43
you start hypothesizing and that's when
00:18:45
you start to put
00:18:46
strategies in place as to how we can try
00:18:49
and identify the perpetrators this
00:18:51
horrendous attack
00:18:55
what struck me immediately was how close
00:18:59
it was to the footpath just here there
00:19:02
were some drag marks in the grass you
00:19:04
could see but it looked like as if his
00:19:06
body had been dragged into this like
00:19:08
shallow ditched area
00:19:10
in a bit of an attempt to conceal the
00:19:13
body
00:19:15
I didn't know how many people had been
00:19:17
involved at a particular stage
00:19:20
but what I did know is whoever had done
00:19:22
this was dangerous
00:19:25
it's fairly obvious as well that the
00:19:28
police need to try and catch whoever it
00:19:30
is as quickly as possible to minimize
00:19:32
the risk to the public
00:19:35
there was no obvious lines of inquiry at
00:19:38
the scene it wasn't surrounded by houses
00:19:40
there was nobody immediately knocked on
00:19:43
a detective's door or approached a
00:19:46
detective in any of the cordons and said
00:19:47
we know who's done this there was no
00:19:50
telephone calling so the incident room
00:19:52
saying XYZ has committed this particular
00:19:55
murder there was nothing there was
00:19:58
nothing at all at this particular crime
00:20:00
scene to suggest who had done it but
00:20:03
very quickly um the Press were on scene
00:20:05
and by that it was the local press
00:20:07
merely in the local TV stations
00:20:12
we watched every single news report
00:20:16
about Dad
00:20:19
would all sit around the Telly every
00:20:21
night almost hoping for some for some
00:20:24
news even though we knew everything
00:20:26
there was to know at that point
00:20:30
still seemed like
00:20:32
a nightmare like that it can't be real
00:20:35
that it can't possibly be my dad they're
00:20:38
talking about
00:20:40
[Music]
00:20:47
Saturday the 24th of April 2004.
00:20:50
not when we start the inquiries to try
00:20:54
and establish what has happened
00:20:57
the first thing we did was we sent
00:20:59
officers to where Robin had been the
00:21:02
night before and the goose in the
00:21:04
Gardens public house we made the
00:21:05
inquiries there
00:21:07
we tracked Robin's movements from there
00:21:09
and we managed to through a lot of
00:21:11
painstaking work truck Robin getting on
00:21:13
the Metro
00:21:15
we had him going down the Escalade us we
00:21:17
had him boarding the train
00:21:19
then we track him coming out of with
00:21:22
Metro Station
00:21:23
and his root would have taken him from
00:21:25
he was Metro station down a foot path to
00:21:28
an underpass
00:21:30
and he would have walked across there to
00:21:32
take the shortcut to his home address
00:21:35
he was found murdered not far from there
00:21:40
ultimately for us there was some cameras
00:21:43
the ones outside of here with Metro
00:21:45
station actually were really poor they
00:21:47
were grainy they were just weren't good
00:21:49
you could identify Robin a tiny little
00:21:52
dot but you couldn't really identify
00:21:54
anything else
00:21:55
but as he made his way to the underpass
00:21:57
there was some underpass CCTV footage
00:22:01
and that proved to be Dynamite really
00:22:04
important
00:22:05
because it showed Robin entered the
00:22:07
underpass and walking through it
00:22:10
and then about 20 yards behind it with
00:22:13
two men wearing quite distinctive
00:22:16
clothing and it looked as if they were
00:22:18
following him from underneath you
00:22:20
underpass
00:22:21
this was probably only
00:22:24
200 yards from where he was murdered
00:22:29
as police are piecing together the CCTV
00:22:33
footage they see the moment where Robin
00:22:35
Chard is still alive
00:22:39
even for trained investigators watching
00:22:41
this footage they know what happens to
00:22:45
Robin they know how horrific and awful
00:22:47
it must have been for him and know
00:22:49
ultimately what happened to him and now
00:22:51
they know they have to watch this and
00:22:53
there's nothing they can do to stop it
00:22:55
but they have to see it all occurring in
00:22:57
order to help solve this crime
00:23:00
we had the footage of two men in the
00:23:03
underpass
00:23:05
we backtracked from that onto the Metro
00:23:07
System
00:23:08
that sounds as if it's an instantaneous
00:23:11
thing that can be done immediately the
00:23:13
click of a fingers there's actually
00:23:14
hundreds of cameras on the Metro system
00:23:17
and it takes time probably two three
00:23:21
days of painstaking CCTV work
00:23:25
well we're in a state of limbo
00:23:28
the days were long
00:23:30
and it was like a waiting game
00:23:34
it was a week after that had been
00:23:37
murdered
00:23:39
I remember my uncle Philip had really
00:23:42
sort of Taken on the role of you know
00:23:45
looking after everybody and I had a trip
00:23:47
out to Asda
00:23:50
I remember I went over to the newspapers
00:23:53
and I saw him on the front cover and I
00:23:55
just started to cry and sob and I
00:23:58
remember people looking at us and I
00:24:00
thought you don't realize that's my dad
00:24:02
on there
00:24:04
[Music]
00:24:08
we were confident we could probably
00:24:10
identify the two individuals
00:24:14
the difficulty I had was do I go public
00:24:17
with
00:24:18
um producing those two images
00:24:21
you're balancing that against the
00:24:22
dangers to the public obviously of
00:24:24
getting them arrested
00:24:26
so what we did was we started to show
00:24:29
the images in the police station to
00:24:31
offer us to at least that particular
00:24:33
area
00:24:34
and lo and behold
00:24:36
um one of the officers that was shown
00:24:38
the picture immediately recognized the
00:24:41
two men one was called Christopher Smith
00:24:45
and the other one was called Joseph
00:24:47
Scott May
00:24:55
it was nine days after Dad was found
00:24:59
dead but they found the people that had
00:25:01
killed him
00:25:03
Christopher Smith who's 24 and Joseph
00:25:06
May was 27 at the time
00:25:09
that particular day the Friday of the
00:25:11
23rd of April pride of Robin's murder
00:25:16
he had been involved in anti-social
00:25:18
Behavior being a nuisance to be frank
00:25:21
with you
00:25:22
there was one particular footage called
00:25:24
Christopher Smith and he was trying to
00:25:26
Cork somebody into assault he was making
00:25:28
stamping actions on the ground and it's
00:25:31
all caught on CCTV footage
00:25:34
laughs
00:25:36
I'll bear in mind
00:25:38
how Robin had died in these foot marks
00:25:41
it was almost scary
00:25:44
this has to be very ominous and menacing
00:25:47
for the police because they knew if
00:25:49
somebody had potentially seen this
00:25:51
stopped him reported this done something
00:25:54
maybe this crime wouldn't have been
00:25:56
committed
00:25:58
is this something that happens leading
00:26:01
up to this crime that instigated this
00:26:03
was there some motivation between this
00:26:05
person who knew Robin would be coming
00:26:07
through and it was personal between them
00:26:09
police could not at that point rule
00:26:12
anything out but they knew this is a man
00:26:13
who was very angry
00:26:15
[Music]
00:26:16
having identified them we were then on
00:26:19
to a Manhunt really and how we go about
00:26:22
the rest of the two of them
00:26:28
we're actually now entering whitemere
00:26:30
Gardens this is where Joseph and me
00:26:32
lived and as you can see just around
00:26:35
where it's an extremely difficult place
00:26:37
to conduct surveillance operations in a
00:26:41
car parked on a street here for any
00:26:44
length of time which it would have to be
00:26:45
they'll stand out like a sore thumb
00:26:49
[Music]
00:26:50
I decided that I want to get the two of
00:26:52
them arrested at the same time
00:26:54
and I wanted to do that obviously you've
00:26:56
got to make sure that they're in the
00:26:58
house at the same time and your trust in
00:27:01
the surveillance teams who are experts
00:27:03
at these sorts of things
00:27:06
the reason for this thinking
00:27:11
and then go to ground and they wanted to
00:27:14
get both of these men they didn't want
00:27:17
one to suddenly disappear and they
00:27:20
didn't want to go knocking on doors not
00:27:22
knowing whether they were there or not
00:27:23
because again the risk of them taking
00:27:26
flight and disappearing somewhere was
00:27:28
really high
00:27:31
I was probably after two years of
00:27:33
surveillance work to work could
00:27:35
guarantee that they were in both
00:27:37
aggressors and we entered them by force
00:27:40
enforcement lend me through the front
00:27:42
doors and arrested the two of them
00:27:50
are arrested
00:27:53
they are taken from the address and
00:27:56
taken to a police station they were kept
00:27:58
separate for obvious reasons and having
00:28:01
arrested them that gives us the power to
00:28:03
search the addresses
00:28:06
there wasn't really any doubt that it
00:28:08
was there because the police informed us
00:28:11
that they had a lot of evidence
00:28:13
transpired that they'd cleaned the house
00:28:17
such as the bits that were touched one
00:28:19
that came in after killing them like the
00:28:22
light switches door handles
00:28:24
and also a knife was used
00:28:28
to clean one of the nails
00:28:31
trying to get rid of DNA and blood
00:28:33
underneath the nails and that had been
00:28:36
put under the sink
00:28:37
with the evidence still on there
00:28:43
when we were speaking to Angela just
00:28:46
after Robin's body had been found Angela
00:28:49
said she'd rang Robin's number to find
00:28:52
out where he was
00:28:54
somebody answered the phone it was a
00:28:56
male's voice
00:28:58
and it clearly wasn't Robin
00:29:01
but it was answered for a period of time
00:29:04
from that information you can try and
00:29:07
draw up where that telephone call was
00:29:10
received and that telephone call was
00:29:12
made in from Angela into Robin's mobile
00:29:15
phone the mass that that head off was
00:29:18
very close to Christopher Smith and
00:29:19
Joseph May's home addresses
00:29:22
foreign
00:29:24
[Music]
00:29:25
Smith and Joseph May around about 8 P.M
00:29:29
9 P.M
00:29:31
and the first thing I did was I went to
00:29:33
see Angela
00:29:34
uh and I explained that we'd charged two
00:29:38
men in connection with murder
00:29:40
I told her who they were at that stage
00:29:43
because it was going to become public
00:29:44
knowledge
00:29:47
I'd never heard their names in my life
00:29:50
didn't know them
00:29:52
never seen them in my life before were
00:29:55
total strangers that were they were they
00:29:57
didn't even live
00:29:59
well near where we lived
00:30:03
there shouldn't even have gonna off at
00:30:04
that train station
00:30:09
dad left Newcastle around about 11-ish
00:30:13
got a Metro home and sadly that was the
00:30:17
Metro that Smith and me also got on into
00:30:20
a different courage
00:30:22
and um he got off and he stopped you
00:30:26
with
00:30:27
and walk tall as you'd normally would
00:30:30
down a path that I've walked down
00:30:32
thousands of times late at night on my
00:30:35
own as well and felt safe
00:30:38
there's definitely a sense of relief but
00:30:40
whoever had done this wasn't on the
00:30:43
streets anymore
00:30:44
but when I did find out that one of them
00:30:47
had been was on bail
00:30:50
at the time
00:30:52
I remember I think
00:30:54
like
00:30:56
I couldn't
00:30:57
understand why someone had who had done
00:31:01
what he'd done
00:31:02
to be out on bail
00:31:06
you know he's just walking the streets
00:31:09
if he hadn't been out on bail
00:31:12
my husband would still be alive
00:31:15
[Music]
00:31:22
this was a 24-hour garage it certainly
00:31:24
was back in 2004.
00:31:26
Smith and me following the murder had
00:31:29
come to where we are now with this
00:31:31
garage and they came into this garage
00:31:33
and they bought some cigarettes some
00:31:36
drinks and some confectionary sweets and
00:31:39
they used the 30 pounds that they'd
00:31:42
robbed from Robin chard
00:31:46
the checkout Arbor area and I can
00:31:48
remember them being in and can remember
00:31:50
seeing Smith had some blood staining on
00:31:52
his clothing at the time that was really
00:31:55
important evidence and I would suggest
00:31:57
quite callous evidence as well because
00:32:00
within 15 minutes they're spending the
00:32:04
money from a man that just murdered and
00:32:06
robbed
00:32:11
that didn't show any Mercy
00:32:16
there couldn't have been any more cruel
00:32:19
than there were
00:32:21
in a cowardly act on a defenseless man
00:32:25
if you are doing nothing wrong
00:32:27
it's just walking home to his wife
00:32:35
I was told Smith hit him on the back of
00:32:37
the head
00:32:38
and he went down
00:32:41
what I knew initially was that he'd be
00:32:44
knocked out beaten
00:32:46
put into a ditch and died there
00:32:50
Ali I found out it was much worse than
00:32:53
that
00:32:55
I hate the fact that they were the last
00:32:57
people to be with him when he was alive
00:32:59
I hate the fact that he died alone in a
00:33:02
field with his face down in the mud
00:33:07
I'm so
00:33:21
this 16 year old boy walked into the
00:33:23
police station at gateshead and he asked
00:33:25
to speak to Detectives
00:33:28
he then went on to explain
00:33:31
that he had been with Christopher Smith
00:33:33
and Joseph May on the day of Friday the
00:33:36
23rd of April 2004.
00:33:39
he'd been with him all day
00:33:40
and Smith and me were boasting but they
00:33:44
just
00:33:46
violently assaulted somebody and um and
00:33:49
stolen from them as well
00:33:52
he then went on to see that he started
00:33:55
playing Bohemian Rhapsody the queen
00:33:57
track
00:33:58
and there's a line in that that says
00:33:59
mama just killed the man
00:34:02
um and they played that over and over
00:34:04
and over again and they kept singing a
00:34:06
song to that thing and he remembers that
00:34:08
very distinctly
00:34:16
me and Christopher Smith showed after
00:34:18
committing this crime it's very
00:34:20
indicative of almost a euphoric manic
00:34:24
feeling that they had they clearly were
00:34:27
not concerned that they were going to be
00:34:29
caught while they were doing the
00:34:31
behaviors to try to cover up their
00:34:33
crimes
00:34:34
[Music]
00:34:36
Robin's phone was in Christopher Smith's
00:34:39
possession and he left the house for a
00:34:42
very short period of time with the
00:34:43
mobile phone in his hand and he came
00:34:46
back and he said probably around a
00:34:47
minute and he came back and he didn't
00:34:49
have the mobile phone
00:34:54
just in front of the car here there's a
00:34:57
drain and I think we put a gully sucker
00:35:00
into this strain and we recovered
00:35:03
obviously sludge and slurry at the
00:35:05
bottom of the drain
00:35:06
but when we went through that and
00:35:08
shifted through that we found
00:35:10
um Robin Chad's mobile phone which was a
00:35:13
real break
00:35:15
When We examined the chip in the phone
00:35:17
we also found that they'd been making
00:35:20
telephone calls from Robin's handset to
00:35:23
some Associates of theirs which were
00:35:25
able to trace through
00:35:27
um Telephone billing so it was quite a
00:35:30
well a very important piece of evidence
00:35:33
we had a very compelling case against
00:35:36
the two of them very compelling
00:35:39
awful lot of work to be done after that
00:35:41
you know and and innocent until proven
00:35:43
guilty and then you've got to go through
00:35:45
a court case and a trial process you've
00:35:47
got to build the evidence you've got to
00:35:49
prove the evidence
00:35:57
[Music]
00:36:01
Dad's Body wasn't released for at least
00:36:03
a month
00:36:05
because obviously you'd have to have an
00:36:06
autopsy
00:36:08
and he was taken at the chapel of rest
00:36:11
and that was when I got a little bit of
00:36:12
time
00:36:14
to be on my own with a coffin and I just
00:36:18
spoke to him and
00:36:22
I told him that I would
00:36:23
get on with me life
00:36:26
I thought
00:36:28
what would he say to me if he could if
00:36:32
he could speak to us now
00:36:35
I think you would say I'm really sorry
00:36:38
this has happened I didn't want it to
00:36:40
happen I wanted to leave I wanted to
00:36:43
come home here all
00:36:44
well I can't
00:36:46
so this has happened
00:36:49
I want you to get on with your life
00:36:55
it's a relief for the family to know
00:36:57
that the two perpetrators are in custody
00:37:01
but even so it must change your entire
00:37:04
world view the world which was a safe
00:37:07
and pleasant place to live suddenly
00:37:09
becomes
00:37:11
far more frightening
00:37:19
[Music]
00:37:23
what I remember about dad's funeral is
00:37:25
that there was so many people there
00:37:30
was a sad service
00:37:34
everyone was just devastated
00:37:41
foreign
00:37:42
[Music]
00:37:50
[Music]
00:37:55
even harder again because
00:37:59
you knew he wasn't coming back
00:38:02
insane and being married
00:38:04
with horrendous
00:38:07
[Music]
00:38:09
I couldn't really stand up
00:38:11
because I was so destroyed
00:38:17
we played some bird song it might sound
00:38:19
a bit
00:38:21
cheesy to some people but he loved
00:38:23
Nature's we had some nice tunes that I'd
00:38:27
chosen one was Tomorrow Never Comes so I
00:38:29
decided that it would be a nice song to
00:38:32
play
00:38:41
we had expected that there would be a
00:38:43
murder trial
00:38:46
which was another thing that we had to
00:38:50
deal with
00:38:51
thankfully
00:38:52
because there was so much evidence
00:38:54
against them they were advised to plead
00:38:57
guilty and they did so
00:39:00
not long before the trial was due to
00:39:02
take place that was actually a relief
00:39:05
not to have to go through trial and
00:39:08
wonder if on a technicality they might
00:39:11
get away with it it was a relief
00:39:16
the sentence indeed was given for the
00:39:18
23rd of December for them to be
00:39:20
sentenced
00:39:21
and they were taken down clearly guilty
00:39:23
away ago when they were pushed off the
00:39:25
prison awaiting the sentence no trial
00:39:36
the sentencing I remember just
00:39:40
being in an absolute state
00:39:44
as I knew that I was going to have to
00:39:45
come face to face with them
00:39:48
I don't know why I looked at Christopher
00:39:50
Smith just wanting them to look at me in
00:39:52
the eye look at me and all I wanted to
00:39:54
do was launch at them well at the both
00:39:58
you know I just
00:39:59
I just wanted to give them what they had
00:40:01
done to my husband you know
00:40:03
[Music]
00:40:06
Smith just looked straight ahead with
00:40:08
her face like
00:40:11
you know like totally unbothered
00:40:15
when they were talking about it when the
00:40:17
judge was taught about what had happened
00:40:19
and uh what Robin had been through and
00:40:22
you know what they've done to him
00:40:24
the other one had his head down
00:40:26
but uh Smith just stood there
00:40:30
include the CCTV footage of dad walking
00:40:33
under the underpass
00:40:35
and that was the last
00:40:37
Satan of him alive
00:40:40
[Music]
00:40:41
was just too much out I wasn't expecting
00:40:44
to see that
00:40:45
and I ran out of the room
00:40:48
[Music]
00:40:50
the guilty pleas were accepted
00:40:53
Christopher Smith caught
00:40:55
life with a minimum wreck ideation of 17
00:40:58
years Joseph May got life with a minimum
00:41:00
recommendation of 15 years
00:41:04
but the reality of the situation is the
00:41:07
reality is when this in their sentences
00:41:09
they will come out and they will still
00:41:10
be relatively young men
00:41:14
they asked us if we wanted to appeal
00:41:18
it was three days before Christmas
00:41:21
the thought of
00:41:23
peeling at that point
00:41:27
just felt like too much stress and too
00:41:30
much pain to go through again
00:41:35
as the years gradually ticked by
00:41:38
I realized it wasn't long enough
00:41:42
Joseph me is out of prison now
00:41:45
and Smith is coming for parole
00:41:52
I believe that the fourth should have
00:41:54
been
00:41:55
sentenced for a lot longer
00:42:03
Robin chard was killed in 2004 and now
00:42:08
one of his attackers is out he served
00:42:10
his 15-year tariff
00:42:13
that's the thing about the justice
00:42:15
system I don't think that you can ever
00:42:18
really achieve Justice for a family they
00:42:22
will be thinking well Robin doesn't get
00:42:25
another crack at life
00:42:29
we've never been given an explanation of
00:42:32
why he killed my dad
00:42:35
except that it was gratuitous violence
00:42:38
that they did it for fun that wanted to
00:42:40
hurt someone the judge said that when
00:42:42
they when they sentenced them he said
00:42:45
you looked for someone to hurt that
00:42:46
night and you found a peaceful man
00:42:49
walking home to his wife
00:42:52
and you chose him
00:42:54
they just wanted to hurt someone in fact
00:42:57
I think they wanted to kill someone
00:42:59
I think that was their intention they
00:43:01
were looked for trouble all night long
00:43:03
that night
00:43:04
they didn't find trouble they found my
00:43:06
dad
00:43:07
and I heard him
00:43:10
I killed him
00:43:12
Robin was my world
00:43:16
so that we could remember him
00:43:19
in a nice way
00:43:20
we decided that there would plant trees
00:43:25
in his memory
00:43:26
which is only at Drew Ridge Bay
00:43:28
and we've planted lots of little
00:43:30
seedlings I think that was about 16
00:43:33
years ago now and they're absolutely
00:43:35
huge now
00:43:37
the last time I went there and I saw the
00:43:40
trees had grown you know taller than me
00:43:42
it was a nice feeling to think that we'd
00:43:46
done that as friends and family and
00:43:48
dad's name and that it had made a
00:43:51
difference and that was treated a little
00:43:53
sort of mini Forest
00:43:56
and it's a bit of a legacy to leave
00:44:01
when Dad was out that night on the 23rd
00:44:04
of April
00:44:05
I said to his friend that night
00:44:08
and the happiest I've ever been in my
00:44:10
life
00:44:11
and I'm glad he was the happiest he'd
00:44:13
ever been I'm glad he got to that stage
00:44:15
of feeling that happy
00:44:18
um but it just saw a bitter sweet to
00:44:20
hear that and
00:44:22
then
00:44:23
think about what happened you didn't get
00:44:26
to enjoy that happiness
00:44:28
you didn't get in that you didn't get
00:44:30
another day
00:44:32
I haven't remembered about that
00:44:38
it's all right Daisy
00:44:44
oh
00:44:49
I'll never be okay
00:44:55
let's go and pretend
00:44:56
like I always do
00:45:00
carry on in your life as best I can
00:45:08
[Music]
00:45:27
thank you
