00:00:06
Fred Dinenage: In 2020,
pregnant Nicole McGregor disappeared from
Leamington Spa.
00:00:12
Her frantic boyfriend,
Chris, searched for her, helped by a new friend. He had no idea that
his friend was stone
00:00:21
cold killer Anthony Russell. Jim Mahon: Chris
saw a newspaper and realized that
Anthony was the person
00:00:27
that the police were looking
for in connection with the two murders in Coventry.
00:00:32
Fred Dinenage: The last
person to see Nicole alive was wanted for the brutal
murders of Julie Williams
00:00:38
and her son, David. And now, Anthony Russell
had killed a third victim. Jane Monckton-Smith:
He was saying things
00:00:47
to Nicole's boyfriend like,
oh, he must be really looking forward to becoming a father.
00:00:52
He knew that Nicole was dead. Fred Dinenage: Anthony
Russell went on the run, sparking a huge manhunt.
00:01:02
Geoffrey Wansell: This
wasn't an act of madness. It was calculated. And that calculation had cost
three people their lives.
00:01:09
[indistinct yelling] Fred Dinenage: Russell
murdered three innocent people and destroyed the lives
of those left behind.
00:01:19
- Daniel didn't want
to live without his mum or without his brother. Fred Dinenage: His week
long murderous rampage
00:01:25
left a trail of death
and destruction, making twisted Anthony
Russell one of the world's
00:01:31
most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪ The search
for 39-year-old Anthony Russell was one
of the largest in West
00:02:00
Midlands Police history. Jim Mahon: We launched
a huge manhunt. I think we had 200 officers
that were working on it.
00:02:08
We've got a responsibility
to protect the public. That's our number
one responsibility.
00:02:13
And you've got someone
who's already been prepared to kill who's on the loose. Carol Scrivens: The police
put in the papers
00:02:19
a photograph of him. And it came on the radio
every half hour, this man is dangerous.
00:02:24
Do not approach him. So the police already
knew what he'd done, and they were frightened
for the public.
00:02:31
Fred Dinenage: Over
the course of a week, Anthony Russell
killed three people.
00:02:36
This was a murderer
without mercy. Jane Monckton-Smith: This
wasn't just enough violence
00:02:44
to kill somebody. This is what we call overkill. So that's way more
violence than is
00:02:50
needed to kill that person. Fred Dinenage: The carnage
that Anthony Russell left behind will stay with his
victims' loved ones forever.
00:03:01
Carol Scrivens:
You never expect something like that ever
to happen to your family, ever.
00:03:05
You might watch it
on the television or read about it
in a book, but to actually
00:03:09
have it happen
to you absolutely ripped our families apart. Fred Dinenage:
This killer's story
00:03:18
begins in the West
Midlands city of Coventry. Jim Mahon: Anthony was born
on the 16th of April, 1982.
00:03:26
He'd got a number of siblings,
had a difficult childhood, and he grew up mainly in care.
00:03:32
He used to regularly go
missing when he was in care, and he was often
difficult to find.
00:03:37
So he would be reported
missing on a regular basis, and it would take quite
a long time to find him.
00:03:44
Fred Dinenage: As he
entered adulthood, bad behavior became
criminal behavior.
00:03:50
- Anthony Russell had a track
record of low level crime-- theft, burglary,
possessing weapons.
00:04:00
Jim Mahon: There was a bit
of violence in there. I think he was convicted
of a robbery, crimes
00:04:04
that are often
associated with people that have substance issues. Geoffrey Wansell: It's pretty
clear that Anthony Russell had
00:04:12
a very big heroin addiction. Fred Dinenage: In 2020,
Russell was 38 years old and
00:04:21
living in a flat in Riley
Square in the Bell Green area of Coventry. Jim Mahon: It was
a 1960s development.
00:04:29
It's sort of a precinct
type design. It was built
in a quadrant, so you have shops all around
the bottom of the quadrant.
00:04:37
And then I think there's
about four or five stories above that which
contains flats, so a very
00:04:43
urban area with local shops. So it was quite
a close knit community. Fred Dinenage:
On that same estate,
00:04:52
living in a one bedroom flat
was 58-year-old Julie Williams. Widowed young, she'd
raised her sons alone.
00:05:02
Carol Scrivens: Julie
was my brother's partner, the love of my brother's life. My brother, unfortunately,
passed away when he was 39.
00:05:12
Fred Dinenage: Julie
and her eldest son, David, shared a close bond. Carol Scrivens:
David is my nephew.
00:05:19
David didn't have long
with my brother, which was a great shame because his
dad absolutely adored him,
00:05:25
him and his brother, Daniel. He absolutely adored his mum. They lived together,
and they went out together.
00:05:34
He lived for his mum. He was very family orientated. He had lots of cousins that
he got on with everywhere.
00:05:42
Everybody absolutely
loved him because he was such a happy chappie. Fred Dinenage:
On Wednesday, the 21st
00:05:48
of October 2020,
32-year-old David did not come home as planned. Three days later, Julie
still hadn't managed
00:05:57
to get in touch with David. Carol Scrivens: My daughter
phoned me up and she said,
00:06:02
there's something
on the internet. She says that Julie's
looking for David. [tense music]
00:06:10
♪ ♪ She put out on the local
radio, has anybody seen David. But we just thought,
oh, he's crashed
00:06:19
out at one of his
friend's houses, and he'll be back in touch. Jim Mahon: He first
came to the attention
00:06:26
of police on Saturday,
the 24th of October, 2020. And that was a report made
by Julie to say that her son
00:06:33
David had gone missing. Jane Monckton-Smith:
Police will always do a victimology when they
get a missing person report,
00:06:42
and that will be largely
around vulnerabilities and how unusual it was
for this person to go missing.
00:06:51
Jim Mahon: His daily
routine involved him being in the local area and
associating with friends and
00:06:58
spending time with his mother. So it was really unusual
for him not to be in contact
00:07:03
with her or to come back home. We have a dedicated team that
deal with missing persons.
00:07:10
Inquiries were started to be
made around house to house inquiries, looking
at CCTV to see when they
00:07:16
could see his last sighting. Fred Dinenage: West
Midlands Police identified David as a man
struggling with addiction.
00:07:26
Carol Scrivens: He
didn't want to do drugs but all those around him were. And unfortunately, David
got into that way of living,
00:07:32
which changed him as a person. And I think that's why his
mum always kept an eye out
00:07:39
for him all the time. - He'd been using
drugs, it seems, for some considerable time.
00:07:46
And all his connections
were in the world of people who had similar addictions. Jim Mahon: We knew
he regularly visited
00:07:53
the chemist for medication. So they started
to look and see when the last time it was that
he picked up his medication,
00:08:01
do work around his phone to see
when that was last active. Fred Dinenage: The police
obtained David's phone records.
00:08:09
Amongst the people
that he called friends, there were some that
worried his mother.
00:08:14
Jim Mahon: She
mentioned one person, that she was concerned that
he owed some money for drugs.
00:08:19
And she'd also received
a text from David that said he was potentially
having to get out of the area
00:08:25
because he owed
money for drugs. I think she thought
that was unusual because David could often
owe money for drugs,
00:08:32
but that wouldn't cause
him to go missing. Fred Dinenage:
The circumstances surrounding David's
disappearance were unclear.
00:08:41
Police kept an open mind
about what may have happened. But on the afternoon
of Sunday, October the 25th,
00:08:48
just 24 hours after Julie
Williams reported David missing, there was
an unbelievable
00:08:54
twist in the investigation. - Julie herself is reported
missing by one of her sisters.
00:09:03
Carol Scrivens: Julie kept
in touch with her sisters and her brothers
every single day.
00:09:07
So when she wasn't
around, that's why her sister then
reported it to the police,
00:09:12
because she knew that
that was out of character. Jim Mahon: Once we'd
done all the background
00:09:17
checks into the fact
that David was missing, then it became a real concern. So at this point, they went
to Julie and David's address,
00:09:26
and they couldn't
get a response there. Geoffrey Wansell:
The police, at 11 o'clock that Sunday evening,
break into Julie's flat,
00:09:36
and they find her dead. Fred Dinenage: The scene that
met them was one of carnage.
00:09:44
In the center lay
Julie's bloodied body. - Julie had been
subjected to this episode
00:09:50
of prolonged beating,
essentially, punching and blunt force injury. Jane Monckton-Smith: Julie
had an enormous number
00:10:00
of injuries, something like
113 injuries to her body. So that suggests
a rage fueled attack.
00:10:09
- The final act which
caused her death was the application of a ligature. The ligature which was
used in Julie's case
00:10:17
was an electric flex
from an electric fan. Fred Dinenage: The case was
allocated to the homicide team,
00:10:25
with Detective Inspector
Jim Mahon put in charge. Jim Mahon: I am a senior
investigating officer,
00:10:31
which means that I am
the lead investigator for any serious crime. I went there in the middle
of the night.
00:10:39
It's dark, it's gloomy. So just even
the inquiries around just trying to establish who was
going in and out at the time
00:10:46
was going to be really,
really challenging. Fred Dinenage: Julie's family
woke to the news of her murder.
00:10:57
Carol Scrivens: We
heard about Julie, and that was from the papers
telling us that they'd
00:11:02
found a woman's body. It was so final. It was so traumatic. It was so evil, frightening
that somebody could do
00:11:12
that to another human being. And straight away then, I think
that's when we felt something
00:11:17
bad's happened to David. Jim Mahon: We obviously
then had immediate concerns about the welfare
of David because he
00:11:25
was still a missing person. But now, Julie had been killed. So it just really ramped
up in terms of, one, trying
00:11:33
to identify who the killer
was, and secondly, to try and find where David was. Fred Dinenage: There were
many questions and no answers
00:11:41
to what may have happened. Investigators needed
to find David Williams fast. [tense music]
00:11:52
♪ ♪ On the 26th of October,
2020, the investigation into the murder
of 58-year-old Julie Williams
00:12:05
in Coventry had just begun. Jim Mahon: At this point,
we were in the evidence gathering stage.
00:12:12
There was some blood and what
looked like a fingerprint in blood on the radiator.
00:12:18
There was only a bedroom
and a living room in the flat. David would sleep on a bed
in the living room,
00:12:25
and Julie would sleep in her
bedroom and watch telly there. Julie was dead on the floor in
the room that David occupied.
00:12:35
Her telly was still
on in the bedroom. The neighbors had heard someone
approach Julie's flat the night
00:12:42
before, but they
couldn't really hear what was being said. The person that had killed
Julie had taken the keys
00:12:50
and had locked the door
behind them, so was probably known
to Julie for her to have let him into the house.
00:12:57
Fred Dinenage:
For the family, not only the horror of Julie's
death, the worry of David's
00:13:02
whereabouts, but also the
rumors surrounding the murder. - People were saying,
David's done that.
00:13:11
He's gone, disappearing,
and David's gone and killed his mother. And I said, no, he
wouldn't do that.
00:13:15
He loves her too much. He definitely wouldn't do that. And he hasn't got
a bad bone in his body.
00:13:21
Jim Mahon: We didn't
have a suspect at all. The main focus then was
on this fingerprint in blood.
00:13:28
Now, that might have
been Julie's fingerprint. But if it wasn't, then it's
most likely to be the killer.
00:13:36
That became the priority
submission, to take a photo and then see if we could match
it to the fingerprint database
00:13:43
to somebody on it. Fred Dinenage: Whilst
the forensic investigations were underway, the search
for David intensified.
00:13:52
Accessing his phone
records provided police with vital information. Jim Mahon: When we
examined David's phone,
00:14:01
we saw that he was in regular
contact, quite a lot of contact with an individual
that, when we checked
00:14:06
him out on our police systems,
was known to supply class A drugs. That phone activity
dropped off at the point
00:14:13
where David had been
reported missing. So there was
an assumption there that that person knew
that David was no longer
00:14:20
going to be using his phone. On the Sunday night,
we had that individual identified, located,
and arrested
00:14:27
and brought into custody. And he protested his
innocence straight away and provided an alibi.
00:14:33
Fred Dinenage: Part
of David's routine included regular visits
to the Riley Square Pharmacy,
00:14:38
where he collected his
methadone prescription. - What we found out,
as our enquiries went through
00:14:43
on the Monday,
was that David had been seen going in and out of
the chemist with an individual
00:14:49
called Anthony Russell. They were both drug users. They lived near each other. They used to beg
in the area for money,
00:14:56
so we were quite keen
to trace Anthony. He was the last person,
other than Julie,
00:15:00
that had seen David alive. Fred Dinenage: Five days
after David Williams had been reported missing,
police had a name--
00:15:08
38-year-old local
man Anthony Russell. Jim Mahon: We realized that he
was a close associate of David
00:15:16
and he lived in the area. He would hang
around Riley Square or around the local
supermarkets that
00:15:23
surrounded the area and would
beg for money with other people in that community.
00:15:28
And then once they'd
got enough money, they'd tended to head
towards each other's flats
00:15:33
and use drugs. Fred Dinenage: He was
a well-known figure in the area and one with
a reputation for trouble.
00:15:43
Carol Scrivens:
He was unhinged. He wasn't normal, you know. His behavior wasn't normal.
00:15:48
But people were always
frightened of him. So he got moved on, but nobody
ever did anything about it.
00:15:55
He used to go up
to the hospital and annoy them. My daughter works
at the hospital,
00:16:00
and she said that
the security had had to move him on several times. [police sirens blare]
00:16:07
Jim Mahon: We tried
to locate him. We went to his flat, couldn't
get any response from the flat.
00:16:15
We forced entry
into his flat to try and search for Anthony and David. Fred Dinenage: Anthony
Russell's sparsely furnished
00:16:22
flat was spattered with blood. A brief search
uncovered the source. Jim Mahon: On that
Monday evening,
00:16:30
we found David's body hidden
underneath Anthony's bed. What was evident was that he'd
been quite savagely beaten,
00:16:40
so there'd been quite a lot
of brute force used on David. Jane Monckton-Smith:
Either those injuries
00:16:47
were defensive and came
as a result of a full out fight with his attacker
or, again, they
00:16:55
could have been about the rage
that the attacker was feeling. Carol Scrivens:
My daughter phoned me up,
00:17:03
and she was screaming
down the phone at me. She says they found David. We was devastated.
00:17:13
I couldn't eat or sleep. And every time I
closed my eyes, I kept thinking about what
David must have gone through.
00:17:21
He must have been so scared
because he probably wouldn't have believed it. If somebody went to attack
him, he'd probably just
00:17:27
laugh thinking it's a joke. He wouldn't have realized
until it was too late. Fred Dinenage:
David's death meant
00:17:34
the police faced an entirely
different investigation. - It had gone from a missing
person on Saturday,
00:17:42
a murder and a missing
person on Sunday, we've now got two murders. This now is where
the investigation
00:17:50
really, really ramped up. David had suffered from
81 external injuries, some including a knife.
00:17:59
So he'd been stabbed. He'd got some severe wounds
and bangs to his head. Brett Lockyer: Also, there
was a lanyard around his neck,
00:18:09
which was causing neck
compression, which would be very similar to Julie. Fred Dinenage: The lanyard
ordinarily held David's keys,
00:18:19
but they were not
with his body. Detectives believed and his
mother's deaths were linked.
00:18:26
Brett Lockyer: The fact that
I could see similarities between Julie's body
and David's body
00:18:31
supported the notion
that it was likely to be just one person. And I could see that
the changes in which
00:18:38
were present in David's
body would suggest that he was, in fact,
the first victim, with Julie
00:18:44
following on afterwards. [tense music] Jim Mahon: We've
got two crime scenes that we're working through,
working through all the phone
00:18:54
evidence, working
through who were the last people
to see everyone alive and understanding
their background.
00:19:00
But the main priority
is we've got someone who's killed two
people on the loose and is a real danger
to the public.
00:19:07
Fred Dinenage: The double
murder investigation was codenamed Operation Inshore.
00:19:12
And detectives had one person
at the top of their list, Anthony Russell. Geoffrey Wansell:
Anthony Russell
00:19:22
is a person of considerable
interest in the killing of David and Julie Williams.
00:19:26
Jim Mahon: When we
spoke to his family, we found that he
had left the area. But he never had a phone.
00:19:33
He never had his
own mobile phone, so we had no way
of tracking his phone or understanding who
he was in contact with.
00:19:39
And he just disappeared
from Coventry. So we'd got a big
manhunt on the go, but we had no idea where
he was at this point.
00:19:47
Fred Dinenage: With a suspected
double murderer at large, every precaution
had to be taken.
00:19:53
The alert on Russell
was put out nationwide. Carol Scrivens: They
put it on the internet
00:20:00
and in the Coventry
Evening Telegraph. They were showing you photos
of this Anthony Russell,
00:20:06
saying do not approach him. He's very, very dangerous. Jim Mahon: We were getting
sightings all over the country,
00:20:12
and we couldn't
ignore these sightings because we had no way to
confirm whether that sighting
00:20:16
was correct or not. So we had to link in with
all the different police forces to try and do
those enquiries.
00:20:23
Jane Monckton-Smith: He didn't
have a vehicle of his own, so they weren't
using the usual ANPR
00:20:27
tracking, that kind of thing. But they would
have been looking at all public transport.
00:20:35
Jim Mahon: What we did find, as
we moved through the tracking on the CCTV, so we'd got
some points where people who
00:20:41
knew him had last seen him. He'd certainly been
to a supermarket, which allowed us then to track him
from the supermarket, which
00:20:48
captured him getting on a bus. Now, this bus then,
we were able to track him going into Coventry
city center,
00:20:55
but then we lost him within
the bus station area, which wasn't covered by CCTV. So we assumed he'd gone
into the city center
00:21:03
to then travel onwards,
but we had no idea where he would have gone. Fred Dinenage: Anthony
Russell had been
00:21:09
running away since childhood. By 2020, he was a man skilled
in staying under the radar.
00:21:18
- Anthony Russell
took it upon himself to adopt various disguises. He was a man who
hadn't lost his senses.
00:21:25
He was extremely aware that
he was the focus of interest by the police. - All the CCTV, when you
put together each still
00:21:34
of what he looked
like, he was changing his appearance all the time. He was stealing glasses.
00:21:38
He'd wear different
hats, he'd wear hoods. His clothing was
changed quite regularly.
00:21:45
Fred Dinenage: Russell was
as organized as he was brutal. On Monday, 26th of October,
just hours since Julie's body
00:21:53
was discovered
and David still lay dead in his flat,
Anthony Russell was already thinking ahead.
00:22:02
Jane Monckton-Smith: He needed
cash, and he needed a phone. Geoffrey Wansell: He
attacks a 78-year-old man,
00:22:09
stealing his mobile phone. He goes to Kenilworth
where, believe it or not, Russell attacks a 71-year-old
woman and steals 200 pounds.
00:22:23
He drags the poor lady along
the ground, injuring her. Once again, the act
of a man who
00:22:29
has absolutely no concern
for anyone but himself. - Anybody coming into this
man's path at this time
00:22:38
is in danger. Fred Dinenage: On the run
from the police, wanted for two murders, Anthony
Russell was a desperate man
00:22:48
with nothing to lose. And his murderous rampage
was far from over. [tense music]
00:22:58
♪ ♪ By the 27th of October 2020,
Coventry double murder suspect, Anthony Russell, had been
on the run for two days.
00:23:12
12 miles away in the town
of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire Police received
a missing person alert.
00:23:20
Jim Mahon: A man reported
that his girlfriend had gone missing. They were begging
in Leamington Spa.
00:23:26
They had a different spot in
the town where they would beg. And when he went to see where
she was when he finished
00:23:32
begging, she'd just gone. He made that report
on the Tuesday, so Warwickshire Police started
a missing person inquiry
00:23:40
into a girl called Nicole. Geoffrey Wansell: Nicole
McGregor, at this point, is five months pregnant
and extremely proud of it.
00:23:51
Jim Mahon: She got
a boyfriend called Chris. They lived in a flat
in Leamington.
00:23:55
They were both drug
users, but they were trying to get off drugs. Fred Dinenage:
Nicole had not been
00:24:01
seen since
the previous day, when she'd spent the morning with
her partner and a new friend.
00:24:08
By Tuesday afternoon, Chris
was frantic with worry. Jim Mahon: Chris wasn't
the sort of person really
00:24:14
to interact with the police. I don't think he
was particularly fond of the police.
00:24:19
But he got so worried
by that evening, that he actually approached
a uniformed police officer
00:24:23
and said, I'm really concerned
that my girlfriend is missing. When the police started to get
the information from Chris,
00:24:31
he started to disclose that the
day before, they'd befriended a person called Anthony.
00:24:36
He was from Coventry. It was at that point when the
realization came in that this
00:24:41
might be Anthony Russell. Fred Dinenage: That same
evening, the investigation into the double murder of Julie
and David got a result.
00:24:50
The bloodied fingerprint
from Julie's flat found a match
on the national database.
00:24:56
It belonged to Anthony Russell. Jim Mahon: The fingerprint
was the confirmation that Anthony was the suspect
that we were looking for.
00:25:04
Fred Dinenage:
The chilling revelation that Nicole McGregor
had been in the company
00:25:08
of a man suspected of murdering
two people in cold blood was one police took
very seriously.
00:25:16
They knew that time
was of the essence. Jim Mahon: We scoured
Leamington for CCTV
00:25:23
and seized all the CCTV
of the town center. We were able then, with
the information from Chris,
00:25:29
to piece together
where Nicole was. Geoffrey Wansell:
Then the story, dark, although it already is,
begets gets even darker
00:25:40
because, for some reason known
only really to Anthony Russell, he targets Nicole McGregor.
00:25:47
Jim Mahon: What we saw was
that Anthony Russell had approached her. He had been begging over
the other side of the road,
00:25:53
and they'd walked
away together. Geoffrey Wansell:
Anthony Russell invites Nicole McGregor
to join him in a place
00:26:01
called Newbold Comyn, a wooded
area in Leamington Spa. Quite quiet, quite secluded.
00:26:11
It was suggested
that she'd taken up the invitation because she
thought that he could supply more drugs.
00:26:20
Fred Dinenage: CCTV showed
Nicole and Anthony Russell entering the woods together.
00:26:25
40 minutes later,
Russell emerged alone. Jim Mahon: That gave us
then, the last sighting
00:26:32
of Nicole McGregor. And we were able to go
through the woodland in the area where he
could have got to on foot
00:26:39
in that 40-minute period. Fred Dinenage: The CCTV
cameras captured Russell walking
the short journey
00:26:45
back to the town center. Geoffrey Wansell:
He goes to seek out Nicole's boyfriend,
the father of her unborn child.
00:26:53
Jim Mahon: What
we were able to do then was track Anthony Russell. And what we found was
that he spent the Tuesday
00:26:59
with Chris, Nicole's
boyfriend, going round Leamington looking for her. Jane Monckton-Smith: He was
like sympathetic to him,
00:27:08
and he was inserting himself
into an investigation as a good guy. He was saying things
to Nicole's boyfriend
00:27:17
like, oh, you must
be really looking forward to becoming a father. Fred Dinenage:
On the 29th of October,
00:27:24
three days after
Nicole was last seen, police searched Newbold Comyn. Jim Mahon: We knew Anthony
had already killed two people.
00:27:32
We've got a girl going
missing with Anthony, so our biggest fear
was that she was dead.
00:27:40
[grim music] On the Thursday, there was
a specialist police teams that are trained to search
wooded, difficult areas, do
00:27:51
a methodical
search to make sure that they search every area and
they take it piece by piece.
00:27:57
Storm Barbara was
hitting the UK. The river was
riding quite high, so the terrain was
really, really difficult.
00:28:06
Her body was found
in some bushes, and she had been strangled
with her own leggings.
00:28:14
Brett Lockyer: I received
another phone call from the police
to inform me that they
00:28:19
had found another victim. And this victim was
Nicole McGregor. Nicole's body was found
with her face down.
00:28:28
And what I could see was
that there was vegetation within Nicole's mouth,
which is likely to have
00:28:34
been when she was face down
on the floor, but alive. Geoffrey Wansell:
The sheer terror
00:28:41
that she must
have felt when she was being attacked by this
man she thought she trusted.
00:28:48
Brett Lockyer: The position
in which she was found was very suggestive
that she was
00:28:52
likely to have been the subject
of a sexual assault as well. Fred Dinenage: Both
Nicole and the baby
00:28:58
she'd look forward to bringing
into the world were dead. Brett Lockyer: It can be
a very sobering experience
00:29:05
when you perform
a post-mortem examination on an expectant
mother, when you find the unborn child
lying peacefully
00:29:13
inside the mum's womb. This woman, who was
excited about the prospect of being a mum, has had
that taken away from her.
00:29:26
Fred Dinenage: The death
of Nicole McGregor meant police suspected
Anthony Russell
00:29:31
of killing three innocent
people in a period of less than a week. Their biggest concern was
what he would do next.
00:29:41
Jane Monckton-Smith:
Russell is becoming more and more dangerous. So he's committed murders.
00:29:49
He then is attacking
people, taking their money, taking their phones. But again, there's a kind of a
logical reason for doing that,
00:29:58
even if the methods
are brutal and awful. But now, he's escalated
to killing for the sake of it
00:30:05
because it pleases him. So at the end
of this seven days, he's about as dangerous
as he can possibly get.
00:30:14
Fred Dinenage: Once again,
Russell went on the run. A wanted man, he was
prepared to do whatever
00:30:20
it took to make his escape. Jim Mahon: He left Leamington. He'd walked away on foot.
00:30:26
We saw that on CCTV
and lost the tracking of him as he disappeared. We then found that there'd
been a robbery just
00:30:34
outside Leamington. An old man called Roy,
he'd had a brick smashed over the top of his head.
00:30:40
Fred Dinenage: The attacker
was a man with a plan, a man without mercy. Geoffrey Wansell:
He steals the car.
00:30:48
He leaves the 78-year-old
with a fractured skull in his own front door,
takes the car, and leaves.
00:30:56
Jim Mahon: He only
survived because there were some people that were
doing gardening that had turned
00:31:01
up to help with his garden,
that actually found him there, and were able to get
paramedics there and do
00:31:07
first aid to keep him alive. Fred Dinenage: Police
suspected the attacker was Anthony Russell, a fugitive
hell bent at getting
00:31:16
away no matter what the cost. Jane Monckton-Smith:
Russell is what I would call on a spree,
one emotional event.
00:31:25
He's not coming down. He's gone up
into that rage when he's killed the first person,
and he kind of stayed there.
00:31:32
Spree killers don't stop
until they're stopped. Fred Dinenage: Preventing
Russell from killing again
00:31:40
was the police's
number one priority. - We're working closely
with Warwickshire Police
00:31:47
to locate Anthony Russell
as soon as possible. But I'd appeal to the public
if they've got any information
00:31:53
as to where he might be,
if they see him at all, make sure that they call us on 999.
00:32:01
Fred Dinenage: They put out
alerts on the red Ford C-Max he'd stolen. - It was picked up
on some ANPR cameras,
00:32:09
and it's headed towards
the Staffordshire Police area. But it had pretty
much disappeared
00:32:14
into the countryside,
and it hadn't been hitting any ANPR
cameras from that point.
00:32:20
Fred Dinenage:
In October 2020, there was a large police presence
in rural Staffordshire
00:32:26
due to a recent
spike in theft there. In the early hours of the 30th
of October, one of the patrol
00:32:34
cars made an unexpected find. Jim Mahon: They came
across the vehicle. And when they did
the check on the vehicle,
00:32:42
they realized that it had been
stolen in a violent robbery. It might have been linked
to our murder suspect.
00:32:46
police officer:
There's the car. Strike, strike, strike. Jim Mahon: They
approached the car.
00:32:52
[rustling] police officer: Police! Jim Mahon: Found
Anthony asleep. [indistinct yelling]
00:33:02
- That's where he was arrested. police officer:
Anthony Russell, you're under arrest
for the murder of three people.
00:33:09
You do not have
to say anything, but it may harm your defense. If you do not mention,
when questioned,
00:33:13
something which you later
relay on in court as you do say may be given in evidence.
00:33:16
Fred Dinenage: At 4:17 AM
on Friday, 30th of October, the man suspected
of killing three
00:33:23
people was taken to Perry Barr
Police Station in Birmingham. Jim Mahon: He refused
to be interviewed.
00:33:30
He wouldn't leave his cell,
so he was eventually asked the questions at his cell.
00:33:34
And he just put
a blanket over his head and ignored all
the questions and refused to make any comment.
00:33:41
Fred Dinenage: Having
caught their fugitive, the police would now need
to use all their skills
00:33:46
to link Russell
to all three murders and make sure
a suspected triple killer didn't escape justice.
00:33:54
[tense music] ♪ ♪ On Monday, the 2nd
of November, 2020, Anthony Russell appeared via
video link from Birmingham
00:34:08
Magistrates' Court charged with
the murders of David Williams, Julie Williams,
and Nicole McGregor.
00:34:16
Nicole's unborn baby
was too young to be classed as a victim. - He killed Julie, he killed
David, he killed Nicola.
00:34:25
But they didn't say
he killed the baby because she wasn't born. I don't understand
how that baby was
00:34:34
not even classified as a body. Fred Dinenage:
The violent robberies Russell had carried
out whilst on the run
00:34:44
were added to the list
of offenses. Jim Mahon: The team that
worked on it were brilliant.
00:34:51
The real fear there is that
you can find him within a week, but if you've not got
the evidence to hand,
00:34:56
he could be back
out the door again. So it was really,
really key that the team worked as hard as they
did to make sure
00:35:02
that they got that evidence. Fred Dinenage: Whilst
Russell awaited trial, another charge was
brought against him.
00:35:10
Jim Mahon: We also charged
him with rape of Nicole because we found
evidence that he'd had
00:35:15
sexual intercourse with her. We knew that Nicole
wouldn't have willingly gone with
him to have sex,
00:35:22
so we charged him
with the rape. Fred Dinenage:
In the lead up to trial, the Williams family
suffered further heartbreak.
00:35:31
For Julie's son,
David's brother Daniel, the loss was too great to bear. Carol Scrivens: Daniel didn't
want to live without his mum
00:35:39
or without his brother,
which is why he decided to hang himself, which
is heartbreaking to think
00:35:47
that he's in that much
pain that he thought that was the best outcome. [grim music]
00:35:54
♪ ♪ As far as I'm concerned,
Anthony Russell should be charged with
Daniel's murder as well.
00:36:03
Fred Dinenage: As the team
prepared for the court case, investigators put together
an account of that fateful week
00:36:11
in October. Jim Mahon: We did
piece together some things from
Anthony's associates and
00:36:17
David's associates. And we realized
that Anthony thought that David had slept
with his girlfriend,
00:36:23
so we think that was
the motive for killing David. Carol Scrivens:
It was all lies.
00:36:28
But all this was
going on Facebook, saying Anthony Russell's
looking for David because he's
00:36:33
been seeing his girlfriend. Fred Dinenage: Police believe
that Julie's murder was
00:36:39
directly related to her son's. Jim Mahon: Anthony's never
really given us a full account
00:36:45
as to exactly what happened. So we've never understood
the real motives, but we think Julie
reporting David missing
00:36:53
was the potential motive
for killing Julie. Geoffrey Wansell:
Russell calculated
00:36:59
that he couldn't keep
up the charade of David having disappeared
and decided, in a cold blooded,
00:37:07
premeditated manner, to kill
David's mother, Julie. - The police said that
Anthony Russell probably
00:37:16
knocked on Julie's door
because she wasn't shutting up, and she weren't going away.
00:37:22
My heart breaks thinking she's
just been told that her son is dead and now, you're next.
00:37:28
Fred Dinenage: In the case
of Nicole McGregor, the evidence suggested Russell
had raped her, then killed
00:37:34
her to cover his tracks. The team put
together a case which the Crown Prosecution Service
felt confident of winning.
00:37:43
Jim Mahon: It was really,
really challenging because we're used
to dealing with one
00:37:47
murder, one crime scene. And suddenly, we were
finding murder, murder, murder, scene, scene, scene.
00:37:56
Fred Dinenage: The
investigation gathered almost 9,000 hours of CCTV footage and
put together a timeline which
00:38:05
shone light
on the message Julie had received from David about
leaving town due to drug debts.
00:38:13
Jim Mahon: We believe that
that text message has actually been sent by Anthony, after
David had been killed,
00:38:18
to Julie to try and put her
off the scent of it being Anthony that had killed him.
00:38:26
Fred Dinenage: It was 14
months after the murders before Anthony Russell
was tried for his crimes.
00:38:33
On the 14th of February,
2022, his trial began at Warwick Crown Court. Jim Mahon: Everyone
was there, and it was
00:38:42
before the jury was sworn in. So we were expecting
quite a lengthy trial, but then he pleaded
guilty on the first day.
00:38:50
He pleaded guilty
to everything, apart from the rape. - That's not unusual, actually,
because murdering somebody
00:38:57
has some kind
of machismo to it. You can hold your head
up in the prison when you get your sentence.
00:39:03
You're much more likely to get
sympathy because you can say, oh, I thought this
and I thought that,
00:39:08
and I was being treated badly. He can't say anything
like that about a rape. Jim Mahon: So that
left us with a decision
00:39:15
then whether we were
going to proceed just with the rape or not,
and we decided we would try him for the rape.
00:39:22
[grim music] Carol Scrivens: Julie's
sister went to the court every single day. I couldn't go because I
kept thinking,
00:39:31
if I go and I see something,
I won't be able to unsee it. The things she's seen
and the photos she's seen,
00:39:38
and what she heard that
never come out in the papers, I think people would be
very, very shocked if they'd
00:39:46
known just how bad he was. Fred Dinenage: The jury
heard the testimonies of those involved in the case.
00:39:54
Brett Lockyer:
The focus of the trial was whether or not
Anthony Russell had raped
00:40:00
Nicole prior to her death. The fact that she was found
in a state of undress, the position in which
her body was found,
00:40:09
would suggest to me
that she had been subject to a sexual assault. Fred Dinenage: Called to give
evidence for the prosecution
00:40:18
was Nicole's
boyfriend, Chris, who had searched for Nicole with
the very man who'd killed her.
00:40:24
Jim Mahon: It was
the first time he'd seen Anthony since
Anthony had been with him.
00:40:28
He was unable to give any
evidence in a calm way because he reacted
so badly to seeing
00:40:34
Anthony in the courtroom. And that resulted in a jury
failing to reach a verdict.
00:40:40
Fred Dinenage:
A new trial date was set for the following month. And on the 7th of March,
2022, at Warwick Crown Court,
00:40:48
Russell returned
to face the charge of raping Nicole McGregor. Jim Mahon: We ran
exactly the same trial.
00:40:55
And the second
time round, I think because Chris had actually
seen Anthony, he'd faced him,
00:41:01
he was able to stand
and give evidence. Chris's evidence was
quite compelling. Geoffrey Wansell: When
the jury came back,
00:41:09
they found him
guilty after only deliberating for 83 minutes
of the rape of Nicole McGregor.
00:41:17
Fred Dinenage: At his
arrest and during the trial, Russell had remained
relatively silent.
00:41:24
When the time came
for sentencing, he declined to leave his cell. Geoffrey Wansell: Russell
is so uncooperative,
00:41:32
he isn't even prepared
to leave his jail cell to go to court to hear his sentence.
00:41:39
Jim Mahon: A whole life
term, which means he will never, ever be released. And that is reserved
for the most serious offenders.
00:41:46
I think there's
less than 100 people that have received that
sort of sentence in the UK.
00:41:53
Fred Dinenage: It was the
result everyone had hoped for, but there was little
cause for jubilation.
00:42:00
Carol Scrivens: The families
are the ones that are doing the sentence, not Russell.
00:42:03
He's got the easy
bit to do, but the people that have
to live with what he's done
00:42:08
is unbearable. Jim Mahon: It's
really difficult to feel any good
feeling from it
00:42:16
because it just is so horrific. But the only satisfaction you
get is that he's in prison now.
00:42:22
He won't come out, and he
won't hurt anybody else. Carol Scrivens: The bodies
weren't released
00:42:28
until after the court cases. David and Julie had
a funeral together at the Canley Crematorium.
00:42:36
And they also had
a picture of Daniel. And his ashes were
there so that they could
00:42:43
include the three of them. And we're all sat
there, all looking at each other like
everything's surreal
00:42:51
because you might see
it on the television, you might read about
in the newspaper.
00:42:54
But that doesn't happen
to people like us, just ordinary people. If only Julie hadn't opened
the door to Anthony Russell,
00:43:03
if David had realized what
an evil, evil person his friend was, the story would be
completely different.
00:43:13
Fred Dinenage:
Anthony Russell was a man who took what he
wanted and gave nothing back
00:43:19
in return, a man motivated
only by serving his own needs, who terrified the elderly
victims he brutalized and stole
00:43:28
from, who subjected
three people who trusted him to sadistic
and torturous murders.
00:43:35
To this day, he's refused
to explain or apologize for his actions, making Anthony
Russell one of the world's
00:43:43
most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪ [audio logo]