00:00:03
[MUSIC PLAYING] LINDA AITCHISON: At the
time that Céline Figard went missing she'd been hitchhiking.
00:00:19
KERRY DAYNES: police are
now thinking foul play. This is a foreign
national who doesn't
00:00:25
know the country that she's in. She doesn't have any friends
here as far as we're aware.
00:00:32
DAVID FARRER QC: For a time,
the police investigation worked on the basis
that she might
00:00:36
still be alive, and possibly
have been kidnapped. NATASHA RIGLER: At the time,
it was obviously headline news.
00:00:43
It was a big story. Her family were in France,
they didn't know where she was. LINDA AITCHISON: A local
businessman was driving past,
00:00:50
and he happened to glance
this way into the ditch. And he could actually see what
later turned out to be a body.
00:01:00
DES THOMAS: But
she'd been bludgeoned with a heavy instrument,
and she's been strangled.
00:01:05
CANON PETER KERR:
How can somebody have left a body in our village? Particularly of a young girl?
00:01:13
LINDA AITCHISON: It was
dreadfully sad, and dreadfully scary to think
that there could be
00:01:18
a serial killer on the loose. [MUSIC PLAYING] [CARS DRIVING] [MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: I just got home
from work about 9:30 at night,
00:01:47
and the phone rang. [PHONE RINGING] It was a Chief Constable. He Basically said
there's a young girl
00:01:54
missing at Fordingbridge, I
think she's been abducted. Over to you, it's
your responsibility.
00:02:00
So OK sir, yes. Get on with it. The missing girl was a French
girl called Céline Figard,
00:02:08
and her cousin, who
was a head waiter at a local Italian Fordingbridge
reported her missing.
00:02:15
DAVID FARRER QC: She came
over just for Christmas on the 18th of December. She'd brought over a couple
of bottles of champagne.
00:02:22
I think a Christmas present
for the cousin with whom she was going to stay. KERRY DAYNES: the
19th of December
00:02:29
Céline hasn't showed up. Now the police are
immediately concerned. Here's a French student who had
very clear and definite plans.
00:02:39
She's not somebody who
would let down her cousin. So, suspicious. But she's gone missing
somewhere between France
00:02:49
and Fordingbridge in Hampshire. So that's a huge distance. Where do you start to look?
00:02:55
[MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: She was an
accountancy student. She'd previously been here,
and worked through the summer,
00:03:06
I think. She was coming to work
over the Christmas period. She actually got a lift
from a friend of the family
00:03:12
to England in a lorry. She subsequently got a lift
with another French driver who was going to South Wales.
00:03:21
He stopped at
Chieveley, and he was going to arrange for her to
have another driver to drop
00:03:26
her off at Fordingbridge. DAVID FARRER QC: The
friendly French lorry driver was going on elsewhere,
and she phoned her cousin.
00:03:39
I think with a view to
getting a lift from him. But she either dialed the
wrong number, or he wasn't in.
00:03:45
Anyway, the call failed, and
she then evidently decided to look for another lift.
00:03:53
She was plainly
ready to hitchhike. LINDA AITCHISON: In those
days for a young woman of 19
00:04:01
to be hitchhiking, it was
something-- in my world, that was something still remarkable.
00:04:08
I don't think that
hitchhiking was particularly a popular pastime,
and I can remember
00:04:13
being struck at how sad it was
that she'd been hitchhiking. [MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: Fordingbridge is
probably the remotest town
00:04:31
in the New Forest. It probably one of the
remotest towns in Hampshire. Once we'd established that
she'd got to Chieveley,
00:04:42
there was no need to
search Fordingbridge. My, if you like, my
intuition told me
00:04:48
that whoever picked her up was
going to South of the docks, because the A34 leads
straight down to Winchester
00:04:54
and the M4 at the
Southampton docks. KERRY DAYNES: we've got at
the moment is a missing girl.
00:05:01
We don't know that any
crime has been committed. But it's very concerning,
because she's somebody
00:05:07
who is incredibly reliable. And she's somebody
who stays in contact with her friends and family.
00:05:12
[MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: We were thinking,
crikey, we've got an abduction. Young girl.
00:05:25
Start spending
some serious money. Get the team together,
and away we go. But you have to remember
when you start an inquiry,
00:05:34
the detectives mantra. Believe nobody, accept
nothing, check everything. So the first person
that you're checking
00:05:41
was of course the person
who reported her missing, her cousin. The cousin was a
bit appalled when he
00:05:47
found he was being checked out. It's very rare, relatively
speaking, to be a stranger.
00:05:52
So you have quite a
difficult task sometimes to actually eliminate
close relatives
00:05:57
before you can move on. The second person would
be the lorry driver. And that he'd go back.
00:06:04
At the same time we had to
get in touch with the family, but they were 200
miles East of Paris.
00:06:10
The only practical way you could
do that is to send people over. KERRY DAYNES: police would
of course want to speak
00:06:16
to Céline's family in France. Now they are not
persons of interest, but what can they tell the
police about Céline's contacts?
00:06:25
Who does she know in the UK? Who would she contact
if she was in trouble? Is there anywhere that
she would stop off?
00:06:32
Would she want to visit
a friend for example? But it just seems that her only
contact, really, is her cousin.
00:06:39
And he's the one who's
reporting her missing. So it's a dead end. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:06:56
DES THOMAS: So we
have a kidnapping. It's time limited. You're trying to get
somebody back alive,
00:07:00
so time is of the essence. We put an appeal out and
we had that achievement. On the face of it, this looks
like a pretty unpromising
00:07:09
place for a scenes of crime. But as things turned
out, it turned out to be an excellent place.
00:07:15
Because lorry parks, lorry
drivers, they know each other, and they were able to give
a very good description.
00:07:21
We had a lorry buff, the
equivalent of a train spotter. What he didn't know about
lorries wasn't worth knowing.
00:07:27
KERRY DAYNES: able to give the
police a description, not only of the driver, who he
says is a man around 35,
00:07:35
he's got short fair
hair and a beard. But also of the vehicle
that he was driving.
00:07:41
So this is a white
Mercedes lorry, and it's pulling a thermo
refrigeration unit.
00:07:46
So pretty specific there. It becomes very important
that we find that man. We're able to identify
him as soon as possible.
00:07:57
LINDA AITCHISON: From early
on in the inquiry when they started to talk about a
lorry driver being a suspect,
00:08:05
there was definitely a
feeling around that time that lorry drivers were
becoming a new sort of bogeyman
00:08:13
if you like. [MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: Where I would
eliminate the cousin, we were able to eliminate
the original lorry driver.
00:08:25
But our first duty
is to preserve life. Until we had a body, we assumed
that she was still alive.
00:08:31
LINDA AITCHISON: Quite early
on police were able to rule out Céline's friends and family.
00:08:36
And sadly they were
able to say that she'd been taken by a stranger. She'd got herself a
lift over to the UK,
00:08:45
and she was out there
many miles from home. It would have just been
absolutely bizarre for any one
00:08:53
of her family of friends to
have gone to those lengths to do anything to harm her.
00:08:59
DES THOMAS: That's
when we decided, OK, the best way of finding
out what's going on here
00:09:02
is to go public with it. And that's where publicity
is really, really important.
00:09:08
[MUSIC PLAYING] LINDA AITCHISON: They kept
Céline's name in the press. And we would have
been on their backs
00:09:20
all the time, pushing
for new angles. And I think they did a
good job of keeping it
00:09:26
in the public eye. It was frustrating for us
to be publishing a paper where we weren't
carrying news of what
00:09:34
was happening in the inquiry. DES THOMAS: We had a number
of sightings of Céline.
00:09:40
We were lucky. We had an independent
sighting I think, by one or two people
who actually were--
00:09:46
who actually described the
person she got in the cab with. You have some pretty good
lines of inquiry to start with,
00:09:52
you're not in the desert. We had information
which identified both the vehicle,
quite precisely,
00:09:59
where it was really precise. It was a Mercedes, and the
paint color was an original.
00:10:04
So it is that amount of detail. And a thermo store
refrigerated trailer. So yes, straight away we were
on firm ground with that.
00:10:18
KERRY DAYNES: police
were able to track down the French lorry driver. And what he tells them
is that she had accepted
00:10:25
a lift from somebody
that he didn't know, and he felt rather
uncomfortable about.
00:10:30
And he's able to give them
a crucial description. DAVID FARRER QC: The French
lorry driver described his own
00:10:38
reaction to the appearance
of the lorry driver with whom Céline accepted a lift.
00:10:45
He saw him as very
sinister in appearance. So sinister, that he
described himself as freezing
00:10:52
at the sight of him. And being so concerned
for Céline's welfare, that I think he prayed when
he returned to his own lawyer
00:11:01
that she would be all right. LINDA AITCHISON: Very quickly
within the investigation,
00:11:07
the police were
able to distribute and show a photo fit. It looked like a very young
man with very bland features,
00:11:17
and fair hair. It didn't seem to
have particularly compelling or detailed
characteristics.
00:11:25
So I can remember there was a
feeling really of bafflement as to how they felt that
particular very rushed,
00:11:32
in our opinion, photo fit
was going to be of any use to the inquiry. DES THOMAS: What you do in
the investigation really,
00:11:40
is start off with
70 million suspects. And you eliminate them. So we eliminated all the
women in the country,
00:11:47
and all the men who weren't
ginger haired with a beard, who were driving a Mercedes lorry.
00:11:53
So you had a narrow band
of people to eliminate. Once we got her at Chieveley,
and we got her in a cab
00:12:00
with a bloke who was
driving a particular lorry, it was him we're after. Because he's the one who could
tell us if she's alive or she's
00:12:08
dead. DAVID FARRER QC: For a time,
the police investigation worked on the basis that
she might still be alive,
00:12:15
and possibly had been kidnapped. But I think within a day or two,
with no signs of any contact
00:12:22
from kidnappers or
anything like that, it turned into a murder inquiry. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:12:37
DES THOMAS: You've
got a girl who appears to be kidnapped from Chieveley. From Chieveley, within two hours
you can be in the Midlands.
00:12:46
You can be at Southampton docks. You could be in the
Kent coast, and you could be in the West Country.
00:12:54
Well we've established
she got into a lorry. My initial reaction was, this
is not going to end well.
00:13:00
We're obviously getting more
pessimistic as each day passes. I mean, experience has
taught us the longer it goes,
00:13:06
the more bad the prognosis. We're also under
pressure at this time to make rational decisions.
00:13:13
So if I say, OK we'll
put a block on the gates of Southampton docks,
people say, well,
00:13:16
how do you justify that? Well, my intuition
wouldn't carry much weight. So one of the reasons
we searched the A34 for
00:13:25
was, he could have taken
her from the docks down to Bournemouth and Poole,
and dropped her off.
00:13:30
Or dropped her off at Ringwood,
where she could have got a lift or a cab up to Fordingbridge.
00:13:34
But Fordingbridge
is not on a road that most lorries would take. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:13:50
KERRY DAYNES: the
21st, the police are now thinking foul play. This is a foreign
national who doesn't
00:13:58
know the country that she's in. She doesn't have any friends
here as far as we're aware,
00:14:04
so it's got to be a
kidnapping, hasn't it? And so the police immediately
instigate their set procedures
00:14:11
for abduction. DES THOMAS: Now this was
a very difficult period. This was Christmas,
so lots of people
00:14:17
on holiday, lots of people
at home watching television. So do people want
to welcome police
00:14:22
officers knocking on their
doors on Christmas Day? KERRY DAYNES: think that
this story had more resonance
00:14:30
with people, because
it took place over the Christmas period. And we all start thinking
about family, don't we?
00:14:36
And our connections. So I think that there was a real
media interest in Céline that
00:14:43
went above and
beyond what maybe we would normally have expected,
because of that season.
00:14:51
NATASHA RIGLER: So being about
12 years old in December 1995, I do remember reports on the
news of a girl going missing.
00:14:59
A French student. She was obviously a
little bit older than me, but it was still a girl,
and it was Christmas time
00:15:05
and nobody knew where she was. CANON PETER KERR: I first heard
of Céline Figard on television,
00:15:15
radio. And so I sort of traced
her across the country. And naturally, with two
daughters of my own,
00:15:23
wondering I just hope that
they find her all right. NATASHA RIGLER: There
was a suggestion
00:15:31
that she'd been kidnapped, so
it was quite scary at the time, really, to think that this
girl was missing somewhere.
00:15:37
At the time it was
obviously headline news, it was a big story. Her family were in France,
they didn't know where she was.
00:15:46
KERRY DAYNES: father came
to the UK on Boxing Day, and he doesn't speak a
great amount of English.
00:15:52
So can you imagine how
difficult this entire situation is for him? He's in this strange country,
he's having to put his trust
00:16:01
and faith in the
British police, and he doesn't know what conversations
are taking place around him.
00:16:08
So it's just a time of
incredible worry for him. [MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: I met Céline's
father and her cousin.
00:16:21
Initially I don't
think he wanted to believe that his
daughter had been abducted.
00:16:25
The reason we asked him to
participate in the appeal was to try and ease
the pain for him,
00:16:31
but also to appeal to the
public that it's a dad here whose daughter's missing. Most of you are fathers or
mothers, you've all got kids.
00:16:40
You know, how would you
feel in this position? Please help us. I think that was his
appeal from his heart,
00:16:47
hoping that she was still alive. KERRY DAYNES: makes
strategic sense to go public with this, because
in appealing for information,
00:16:57
you have got thousands of sets
of eyes looking for information wanting to help you.
00:17:04
And that is a great advantage
to an investigation, but it's a double edged sword.
00:17:09
Because also, what
happens is, you get flooded with information. Well-meaning people come
forward and say, well
00:17:16
I think that I've seen Céline. Or I think that
I've seen this van. Or I've seen somebody
acting suspiciously.
00:17:22
So it can actually overwhelm
an investigation as well. DES THOMAS: And the next
stage is to rattle him.
00:17:31
It is to say, look, we're
coming to get you mate. Return her. I mean, it's not the only
case I've been involved
00:17:36
in where we've done
that, and this has provoked irrational behavior. Because people they want to
say they got away with it,
00:17:42
and the next thing
you know, there's someone on television saying,
we're coming to get you.
00:17:45
And people straight away
report suspicious behavior. So we're actually asking
the public to give
00:17:53
us the information we need. We'll process it, and
we'll then make the world a bit safer than it was before.
00:17:58
For you. [MUSIC PLAYING] KERRY DAYNES: police not only
want to speak to the public,
00:18:09
but they also want
to speak directly to whoever has abducted and
potentially killed Céline.
00:18:17
Now the strategy
that they took, I don't know whether it was the
best strategy, to be honest.
00:18:23
They were saying,
we're coming for you, we're going to find you. They're essentially wanting to
put the wind up this person.
00:18:31
Because they want
him to act in a way that is reckless
because he's anxious. They want him to make a
mistake, or do something
00:18:41
to draw attention to himself. Now, they're taking quite
a gamble there really. DES THOMAS: In this
case, it worked.
00:18:50
People came forward
initially with the photo fit and the lorry. You go and you have
elimination factors.
00:18:57
If he ain't got ginger hair,
and he ain't got a beard, and he ain't driving a Mercedes,
straight away he's eliminated.
00:19:03
KERRY DAYNES: police
sent out over 22,000 questionnaires to haulage
companies and truck drivers
00:19:12
across the UK. They wanted to get as much
information as possible. So the police made an awful
lot of work for themselves.
00:19:20
And I think that it's
indicative of just how desperate they were to find Céline.
00:19:25
This is a big, big
story in the newspaper. They would want to reunite
her with her family,
00:19:32
whether dead or alive. That would be really
important to them. DES THOMAS: We only had
about 100 police officers.
00:19:41
Probability was
she'd be murdered, and that murderers
don't usually carry the bodies of their
victims around with them.
00:19:47
They usually dump
them somewhere. And we researched
all the likely places to preclude the possibility
that the body was there.
00:19:55
[MUSIC PLAYING] I think it was the
27th of December, we had a joint Hampshire, Thames
Valley search team come out.
00:20:12
Helicopters, and they searched
this whole area down the A34 just to preclude the possibility
that if she were murdered
00:20:19
and dumped quite close to here. And the only thing they
found was a cigarette, which was a bit of a relief.
00:20:26
[MUSIC PLAYING] LINDA AITCHISON: Céline's body
was discovered here on the 29th of December 1995 by
a local businessman
00:20:42
who was driving past. And he pulled over
possibly to address an issue with his windscreen.
00:20:49
So he pulled over from here,
from the A449 onto this lay by. Obviously, really in
the middle of nowhere.
00:20:58
And he was doing
what he's doing, and he happened to glance
this way into the ditch.
00:21:03
And he could actually see what
later turned out to be a body. So the police
closed off the road,
00:21:12
so on this side
of the carriageway you just couldn't get past. Now in terms of being a
reporter at that time,
00:21:19
your attention is triggered by.
"what on earth is happening? Why is that road closed?"
00:21:25
But it was very soon,
it was the very next day that the police
were able to tell us
00:21:31
all about what was happening. DES THOMAS: We weren't
sure if it was her body or not, which is a
bit of a problem.
00:21:38
But In the end,
it looked probably it was going to be her. KERRY DAYNES: police
now have a murder
00:21:47
investigation on their hands. And that takes the pressure
off them a little bit,
00:21:51
because they're no
longer racing against time in the hope that Céline
is going to be found alive.
00:21:57
But they want to find this man,
and they want to convict him. DES THOMAS: You need
to get the family
00:22:04
told before you got the news. So I had a couple of chaps in
France, they were on their way
00:22:07
back. They were in Paris, they said,
no problem, we'll do that. Anyway, they did it.
00:22:14
LINDA AITCHISON: It was
December the 30th 1995, between Christmas and New year. And I would have
been in the office
00:22:22
working as a news editor. And one of the reporters
made the usual call. It turned into press
conferences and things,
00:22:31
so that we were able to collate
massive coverage at the time about the murder of Céline.
00:22:39
DES THOMAS: The body was
next to a large oak tree. It's a prominent feature
of the environment.
00:22:44
So I think it had been
placed there deliberately, so whoever had done it
could mark the spot.
00:22:49
And for some time up in
that part of the country, they'd had a number
of girls gone missing.
00:22:54
I think over a number of
years it was 10 or something like that, who
turned up murdered.
00:22:57
And the question initially was,
is this Céline Figard's body, or is it somebody else's.
00:23:03
LINDA AITCHISON: It was
dreadfully sad, and dreadfully scary to think
that there could be
00:23:10
a serial killer on the loose. [POLICE SIRENS] After Céline's body
had been discovered,
00:23:27
the police were able to
establish I think very quickly through their forensic
tests and so on, that
00:23:34
she'd been strangled. And that was a detail
that they shared with us very early on as well.
00:23:43
My heart went out, not
only to Céline's family, but also to the police. I know they're hardened to
what they're working on,
00:23:51
but it just, we
worked in conjunction with them to help them. And having to deal with such
a sad, tragic, horrifying,
00:24:02
set of events, I think was
difficult for everyone. [MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: The killer had
taken all Céline's clothes off.
00:24:14
She was naked, he'd removed
everything which in his mind could possibly be
useful to the police.
00:24:20
The whole area was cordoned off. The forensic officers
and search officers did the standard search for
that sort of crime, which would
00:24:28
have been very, very detailed. And then the body was taken
for a post-mortem examination.
00:24:38
From the post-mortem
examination it indicated that she'd
been bludgeoned with a heavy instrument,
and she'd been strangled.
00:24:45
My personal interpretation
was that she had been trying to escape,
then hit over the head,
00:24:50
and then strangled
to push her off. LINDA AITCHISON: There was a
theory at the time that sadly
00:24:57
Céline could have been another
victim of a suspected serial killer in the West Midlands.
00:25:03
There had been more than one
young woman found murdered. The police at that time, were
calling the Midlands Ripper.
00:25:16
NATASHA RIGLER: I
think there were initial reports of a
serial killer, which was
00:25:20
obviously really frightening. Because there was a lot of
cases that they were kind
00:25:22
of linking it to at the start. And then her body
was obviously found just outside of Worcester.
00:25:29
LINDA AITCHISON:
The headline that we went under wasn't anything
to do with a mystery
00:25:33
or identifying the young woman. It was literally, we're
looking for this man. We're looking for the killer.
00:25:40
And the headline was manhunt. DES THOMAS: Bernard Figard came
across on the 31st of December,
00:25:47
2 days after the body was
found to visit the crime scene and to lay flowers
at the crime scene.
00:25:53
Obviously to make his
peace with the tragedy that overwhelmed him and his family.
00:26:01
REPORTER: In the slush and
the ice beside a road hundreds of miles from home,
Bernard Figard
00:26:06
remembered a daughter who should
have been celebrating New year with her family tonight.
00:26:11
His simple tribute underlining
a fresh plea for help. ANDREW HORN: I was going
down into Worcester
00:26:17
to collect a friend of mine
who'd just traveled up to meet us for Christmas, and
I couldn't go down
00:26:21
the road because the whole
of the dual carriageway was closed off. You just don't expect to hear
about, or find about really.
00:26:28
But to see that Céline Figard's
body was found in our parish, in a sort of a quiet village
community, was a great
00:26:36
shock and surprise to us all. LINDA AITCHISON: The community
in Worcester were deeply
00:26:42
saddened and shocked by the
murder of Céline Figard, and the discovery of her body.
00:26:48
And it was a deep sense of shame
that it was their community that had become her
final resting place,
00:26:54
but in such a traumatic
and violent way. And they very much wanted
to pay their respects.
00:27:00
[MUSIC PLAYING] CANON PETER KERR:
But the feeling I met in this village
is that, "how can
00:27:13
somebody have left a
body in our village? Particularly of a young girl." LINDA AITCHISON: They
were really worried
00:27:25
that things would
never be the same again to be living in that
beautiful countryside,
00:27:30
quiet area. And it was just obviously
a deep sense of shock, and mourning for
a poor young woman
00:27:37
who had been found
so far from home. ANDREW HORN: You drive past the
site every day, pretty well.
00:27:44
I mean it's the main trunk road,
if you like, from Worcester to Kidderminster. And as you drove
by, there was always
00:27:50
flowers by the lay by there. LINDA AITCHISON: They kept
Céline's name in the press.
00:27:57
There was a specific police
spokesman whose job was only to deal with the press.
00:28:03
And we would have
been on their backs all the time, pushing
for new angles. And I think they did a
good job of keeping it
00:28:11
in the public eye. [MUSIC PLAYING] KERRY DAYNES: you've got a
girl who has been abducted
00:28:24
and killed by a complete
stranger to her, you've got to start thinking,
"well is this the work
00:28:31
of a serial killer?" And although the police would
be looking at Céline's case in and of itself, that inquiry
would be just about her murder.
00:28:41
They want to know whether it
is linked to other murders, and whether or not they should
be working in conjunction
00:28:48
with other police forces. [MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: On the
3rd of January, we had a meeting because of this
link with the serial killer.
00:29:00
Because she might have been
murdered by the serial killer, we decided to hand the job
over to West Midlands Police.
00:29:06
And from my perspective,
I was a bit reluctant. But we couldn't really
conduct inquiries up there
00:29:11
from our base in Southampton. [MUSIC PLAYING] KERRY DAYNES: body was found
just off a major roadway,
00:29:19
which certainly fits
in with the theory that the police have got
that Céline has been
00:29:23
abducted by a lorry driver. NATASHA RIGLER:
There was a manhunt after Céline's body was found.
00:29:30
It was in the National
newspapers saying that they were looking for lorry drivers.
00:29:34
They, I think, had
narrowed it down to a specific Mercedes lorry
that they were looking for.
00:29:39
And they were
potentially even gonna DNA test lorry drivers
to try and track down
00:29:44
the person that had done this. LINDA AITCHISON: Now what
you have to bear in mind
00:29:47
is, back in '95, '96, this
wasn't often reported on. I think it was a
relatively new technology.
00:29:57
And we did a full
page on, "Science may hold the key to this murder." And what they said
was, they were
00:30:04
going to get DNA
tests from around 1,200 different truck drivers. And I remember thinking, "My
goodness, that's quite an ask.
00:30:13
That's quite a big task." But they were
determined to do it. [MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: We very quickly had
a phone call from the managing
00:30:26
director of Mercedes, UK,
who said "Our database is available to you." And there's a lot of that,
there were only a limited number
00:30:32
of lorries of that description. And also, you have
the particular mark of a lorry with the thermal
store refrigerated unit.
00:30:39
So it's only a question of time
and working through the details before you can actually pin
it down to a specific driver,
00:30:45
and specific location. DAVID FARRER QC: The obtaining
of DNA samples from I think,
00:30:51
over 1,000 lorry
drivers, none of which in fact produced initially
any connection with Céline.
00:31:01
LINDA AITCHISON: There
was a Crime Watch appeal towards the
end of January 1996.
00:31:06
We watched it to report on it. In early February, after
the Crime Watch program had been shown, not
surprisingly the police
00:31:16
got a steady influx of calls. And very interestingly,
in a major breakthrough, what actually happened
was around I think,
00:31:26
five different people
actually contacted the police to say that there were links
with, or possible connections
00:31:35
with somebody that they knew. A lorry driver called
Stewart Morgan. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:31:45
KERRY DAYNES: at
this point Morgan does make the mistake
that the police were hoping that he would.
00:31:51
Because he's worried,
all of these sets of eyes are looking for him. This is a huge, huge
story in the press.
00:31:58
He tries to change
his appearance. He shaves off his beard. Now his work colleagues were
already suspicious of him,
00:32:05
but this made them even more so. And so they started
ringing the police, and giving them tip offs.
00:32:12
DES THOMAS: Morgan must have
seen himself on television, and he didn't come forward.
00:32:17
And if he'd been
innocent, the first thing he would have done
in my view, was to turn up the
nearest police station
00:32:23
and say, "Look, you're
looking for me." But of course, he
didn't do that. KERRY DAYNES: the
4th of January,
00:32:29
still there are no major leads. And so the police
decide to go public with a piece of information
that could be key.
00:32:36
And that is the fact that Céline
was traveling with two bottles of very rare French champagne.
00:32:44
DAVID FARRER QC: And
in fact, Stuart Morgan gave one of the two bottles
to as I recall, a woman who
00:32:50
worked in the garage
which he frequently filled up at in Southampton. And the lady working
at the garage
00:32:57
calls the police to
pay a call on Morgan. And when they did so, they
found items of her possessions.
00:33:05
And they also uncovered a
bloodstained mattress from I think a garage at the
back of his house.
00:33:12
[MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: Morgan was arrested. I think his name was
already in the database.
00:33:22
It's just a question of
processing all the stuff. And I mean, the evidence
against him was overwhelming,
00:33:27
but he protested innocence. DAVID FARRER QC: He, when
asked about the blood standing
00:33:32
on the mattress, told a story
about a man who'd been involved some considerable time before
in a traffic accident, to whom
00:33:42
Morgan had given
a lift at a time when the man's leg
was badly gashed as a result of the crash.
00:33:50
NATASHA RIGLER: When
Stuart was arrested, it was really, really
frightening to think
00:33:53
that he just lived over there. Just sort of 100 yards
from my sister's house. And we found out about it,
it was in the local paper,
00:34:00
but obviously
everyone around here kind of knew what was going on. This house was
searched by police.
00:34:05
[MUSIC PLAYING] DAVID FARRER QC:
Searching his house revealed evidence that
he'd stolen from her.
00:34:12
Forensic evidence
from the post-mortem revealed DNA, which
connected him to the murder.
00:34:18
It was only some time after
they had arrested Stewart Morgan that they obtained a
DNA sample from him,
00:34:28
which of course created
the critical link between him and her. And in fact, caused him to
change his story completely.
00:34:38
He having begun by
alleging she'd never been anywhere near his lorry. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:34:50
LINDA AITCHISON: Céline was
believed to have been murdered on December the 19, 1995.
00:34:58
And just a month later, as the
police investigation was still getting underway,
her funeral was held
00:35:06
in France in a tiny village. [MUSIC PLAYING] Unsurprisingly, the
streets were just packed
00:35:18
with people wanting
to pay their respects, and wanting to listen. She was only 19 years old.
00:35:25
Of course, all funerals are
sad, and when we lose loved ones we ache for them. But the loss of a
19-year-old daughter
00:35:33
was particularly hard
hitting for people. [MUSIC PLAYING] KERRY DAYNES: police arrest
Stewart Morgan at his home,
00:35:49
and his story is that
he's never met Céline. "No governor, it wasn't me. I wasn't there.
00:35:55
I don't know her." But that story very quickly
began to break down. LINDA AITCHISON: After
Stewart Morgan was arrested,
00:36:02
and under the sort of rules of
what we were allowed to report, because it didn't have
any bearing on the case.
00:36:09
We were able to report with
information from the police about Stewart Morgan, the man.
00:36:15
He did have a criminal
past, but only minor stuff. And certainly nothing
suggesting any sort
00:36:22
of assault or any sexual
element to his crime. So we were able to
include in the newspaper
00:36:29
that he was a lorry driver
from Poole in Dorset. We were able to say
I think, what company
00:36:36
you worked for, and so on. Photos then of course, also
came out of Stuart Morgan.
00:36:46
DES THOMAS: He was
in and out the docks I think, about eight times
over the Christmas period
00:36:50
with Selena's body in the cab. He took the damaged
stuff out of the cab, and put it in his shed.
00:36:55
[MUSIC PLAYING] NATASHA RIGLER:
As news came out, we discovered that
Stewart and we're
00:37:00
going to parked his
cab off on the side road over the Christmas period. And it's the exact same place
we parked our car when we came
00:37:08
on Christmas Day,
completely unaware that his lorry was
also parked there. He'd parked it
there because it was
00:37:14
too big to fit up his driveway,
so it did kind of stand out. But then we later discovered
that poor Céline's body had
00:37:21
been in the cab the entire
time over Christmas Day, and we were totally unaware of it.
00:37:26
It's really, really
sickening, and frightening, and horrible to
think that he'd left
00:37:30
the body of a young woman
parked in the cab of his lorry on Christmas Day. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:37:45
DAVID FARRER QC: The trial
took place at Shire Hall, it was the Crown Court. It began on the 2nd of October.
00:37:54
Céline's parents came over
for the trial with a nun from a local convent who spoke
some English, because neither
00:38:03
of them spoke English. As far as I was
concerned at that time, I had far more contact
with them than I would
00:38:08
normally have
expected to have had with the parents of a victim. And for the only
time in my life,
00:38:15
I translated my
opening into French and provided it to
them in advance, so that they could understand
basically what the prosecution
00:38:23
case was going to be about. KERRY DAYNES: Morgan on
the stand saying, "No, I absolutely deny
that I had anything
00:38:31
to do with Céline's murder." He's decided that he
is pleading not guilty. DAVID FARRER QC: His
defense was going
00:38:38
to be that he'd
given Céline lift, and they'd had consensual sex. And he'd simply dropped
her off in Southampton,
00:38:47
perfectly hale and hearty. The fact that he had
lied consistently about never having met her
until DNA proved the contrary.
00:38:59
The telltale removal of the
fuses from his tachograph. The blood, albeit unidentified
blood, but the presence
00:39:07
of any blood on the mattress. [MUSIC PLAYING] KERRY DAYNES: Farrer,
who is prosecuting,
00:39:17
decides to do something that
is really quite shocking. And I'm sure that he must have
thought about this in great
00:39:22
detail, because members
of Céline's family would have been there. But he decides that
he's going to bring
00:39:28
the blood stained mattress
actually into the court. This is going to be far
more impactful than just
00:39:37
showing a photograph of it. DAVID FARRER QC: I think
probably two others as well.
00:39:42
The production of the mattress
would be a fairly devastating answer to Morgan's claim.
00:39:49
I left the position of Céline's
parents who'd shown throughout this, extraordinary
courage in facing
00:39:56
up to evidence in that case. But I said to them, I
really strongly advise you to stay away from court
while this is done.
00:40:03
It will be very,
very distressing. But her father, perfectly
courteously said, "No,
00:40:11
thank you, but we
shall be there. We'll see it, and we'll see it." And they sat through
it without a sound.
00:40:18
Without any sign of upset
or anything like that. It was quite
extraordinarily stoical.
00:40:26
The jury could see
it very clearly, and you could see the
effect it had upon them.
00:40:31
[MUSIC PLAYING] DES THOMAS: Really
significant things were the people who
identified Morgan
00:40:41
were able to do the photo fits. The lobby expert who knew
the mark of the Mercedes.
00:40:46
Mercedes, UK, who had made
their database available. I mean, from that
moment, we couldn't lose.
00:40:51
We could trace everybody who had
a lorry of that sort in the UK, and eliminate them.
00:40:55
And then the rest,
they say, is history. A completely
meaningless and useless murder, robbing a young girl
of at least 70 years of life.
00:41:06
It's a tragedy if
nothing else, is it? DAVID FARRER QC: Morgan
came across to me
00:41:12
as a very cold individual. He was clearly in a difficult
position, giving evidence.
00:41:18
Because he had some fairly
damaging pieces of evidence to explain away. But I don't think he
did himself any favors
00:41:27
in the way he came across. He seemed to lack any degree
of human warmth, as I remember.
00:41:33
DES THOMAS: I think
the jury, from memory, took three hours to convict him. And he was sent to prison.
00:41:39
For what it's worth, my personal
view is that he murdered her shortly after he kidnapped her.
00:41:43
Because I think he was a
pretty violent individual. [MUSIC PLAYING] NATASHA RIGLER: Stuart had been
sentenced to 20 years in prison
00:41:51
for what he'd done to Céline. Looking back, I mean, he would
have done his time by now.
00:41:57
Thankfully, he's not
been released, yeah. I don't think for what he did
to that poor girl who was just
00:42:04
on our way to spend
Christmas with her family, completely innocent,
I just don't
00:42:09
think that that was really
long enough of a sentence. [MUSIC PLAYING] LINDA AITCHISON:
At the time that
00:42:14
Céline Figard went missing,
she'd been hitchhiking. And a really sad, upsetting,
feature of the case
00:42:22
is that her dad
actually said, had he known that she was
hitchhiking, there is no way
00:42:28
he would have let her go. BERNARD FIGARD: Let us forget
Morgan, but remember Céline.
00:42:34
[MUSIC PLAYING] ANDREW HORN: The people of
Worcester, because everyone was sort of shocked about
what had happened,
00:42:45
decided to raise
some money, raise a fund to support the family. And people just kept
on contributing.
00:42:53
They wanted to raise a Memorial
as much as anything else. Fundraisers and
people of Worcester
00:42:59
eventually decided upon the
site for the Memorial garden here in the church. On the 16th of June in 1997
there was a memorial service
00:43:11
that took place here
in St Andrew's church, and the family were
here, along with some
00:43:18
of the police officers. [MUSIC PLAYING] The church here was
packed to, you know,
00:43:25
it holds about 500 people. And I think every seat
was taken, really. It was nice really
for this garden
00:43:35
to be here for the
Figar family to have something to latch onto. And I know that
Bernard came over
00:43:41
here every year for I think, the
first five years to the garden. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:43:49
The fact that they found who
it was and he's still in prison now, then I think,
"yes, that is justice."
00:43:55
But nothing brings
their daughter back. NATASHA RIGLER: I feel really
sad for Céline's family.
00:44:02
I mean, I was 12 at
the time, she was 19. And her parents have missed
out, they've had their daughter
00:44:07
snatched away from them. And they've missed out
on all those years. It's really tragic to
think that, you know,
00:44:13
I've lived all these years,
and she hasn't been able to. DES THOMAS: She's a young girl
with a whole life ahead of her.
00:44:21
She studied accountancy,
and it's all been robbed. It's all so pointless, isn't it?
00:44:28
I mean the term nonsense
criminal sums it up. It's a crime that
has no profit in it
00:44:34
apart from the gratification
of the individual who did it. You feel angry about it,
but I mean, what can you do?
00:44:41
Unfortunately there
are these people in the world aren't there? [MUSIC PLAYING]