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Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 51 - Farquharson - Full Episode

June 08, 2022 / 41:57

This episode discusses the case of Keith Farquharson, a former police inspector accused of murdering his wife, Alice Farquharson, in 2019. Key topics include domestic abuse, infidelity, and the legal proceedings surrounding the murder trial.

Keith Farquharson, known for his narcissistic and misogynistic behavior, was married to Alice for 33 years. Despite her dedication to their family and community, Alice endured years of emotional abuse and infidelity from Keith, who had a history of sexual misconduct during his police career.

In February 2020, after a violent confrontation, Alice was found dead in their home. Initially, Keith claimed her death was an accident, but a post-mortem revealed she had been strangled. The investigation revealed his manipulative behavior and history of infidelity.

During the trial, Keith maintained that he did not intend to kill Alice, arguing for a lesser charge of culpable homicide. However, the jury found him guilty of murder, leading to a life sentence.

The episode highlights the tragic end of Alice's life and the impact of domestic abuse, as well as the systemic issues within the police force that allowed Keith's behavior to persist.

TLDR

Keith Farquharson murdered his wife Alice after years of abuse, leading to a controversial trial and conviction for murder.

Episode

41:57
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[Music] keith farquharson a man who could be trusted he was a retired police inspector
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and he had a part-time job i think driving kids on a school bus but not everybody saw him as a solid
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citizen he should never have been in the role of police officer he's narcissistic he's misogynistic and
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he's abusive some said he was a man with a one-track mind i think farquharson really did enjoy
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having sex with strangers i think he enjoyed affairs i think he enjoyed the whole power play sexually
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in 2019 a jury was asked if keith farquharson had used his power to murder his wife
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it's not a quick process strangling someone was this all a ghastly mistake his contention was that he hadn't
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deliberately killed his wife that there had been a terrible accident is a policeman
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innocent or guilty of the murder of his wife [Music] in 2019 ian duggard a senior scottish
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legal counsel took a call which would place him at the heart of legal proceedings against a one-time senior
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policeman i was instructed by the solicitor in aberdeen to represent keith what farkerson
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duggard and others would learn was a story of love deceit marriage and murder [Music]
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keith and alice farquharson were married in 1986. to neighbors and friends they were the sort of people anyone would
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want to live near keith for carson was a cop in aberdeen started his career in the 80s
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neil lancaster also a one-time cop now lives in scotland and recognises farquharson's career trajectory
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he held various positions in the police and rose to the rank of inspector so managerial
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rank a man who would have to be good at his job to get there and helping him the
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woman he married he'd been married to alice for 33 years alice is lovely she's just one of those
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humans that you're drawn to he had a house where he lived with his wife he had three grown-up children between 1986
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and 2000 alice appears devoted to the children indeed children are at the center of her life alice is reported to
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be a loving mother and dedicated professional working in the classrooms with small children she
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works at a school and all the little children there just adore her she's a very warm caring empathic human she gave
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up so much of her time to create the local school library apparently the school library was non-existent when she
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joined and she from a volunteer basis made it happen on the surface alice and keith appeared to
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be a good match both working to better their family and community but their personalities couldn't be more
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different alice parquason was the antithesis of her husband people said that he thought he was god's gift to
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women alice was the complete opposite alice was the kind of person who was anything but narcissistic she was giving
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and she was kind and she was generous and she was so giving she was willing to hero
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worship farkasan and that's what he really needed from a partner around 2007 farquharson was discovered
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by alice to be having an affair she thought it was not the first and not one he ever fully walked away from
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the liaison which he had said had broken off and which i think he explained had broken off had in
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some way resumed or to some extent had resumed throughout the 33 married years heath
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appeared to focus on keith specifically his love of policing fast cars and motorbikes
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and other women as for farguson's choice of profession farcason that that personality that
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i'm in charge i'm wonderful i'm arrogant he was always going to go into a role
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that probably had a uniform and probably put him in charge or control of people so the police was a
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natural choice for somebody like him human rights lawyer harriet wistrich who campaigns for women's rights within the
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criminal justice system believes that policing can attract men with a certain sense of entitlement there's no doubt
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that policing attracts some men who are attracted by having power having the power and also the status of a police
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officer and also to some degree the impunity of a police officer in the early 1980s police forces across the uk
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were being changed renewed reformed farquharson became a cop in the newly established grampian police force which
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brought together smaller forces from across aberdeenshire initially he was very successful
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keith for carson is a man who shot up the ranks in the aberdeen police force in the
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police force in aberdeen you have to be motivated you have to be single-minded and you have to be very very determined
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to achieve those ranks he was famous for his sexual behavior people especially women i think referred to him
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as a bit of a pervert actually he probably didn't see himself in that way at all he probably thought that he was
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some kind of casanova but people like farkasen often don't realize how their
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behavior is being received constantly making lewd remarks constantly allegedly engaging in lewd behaviour suggestive he
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wouldn't last five minutes in today's police force for women working in the police and i can
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say this because i am a former police officer feel under an awful lot of pressure to
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take that abuse to be one of the lads to prove they're good enough to do the job
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somebody like him is gonna get away with his misogyny in the police at that time
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30 years ago the sort of disciplinary consequences for police officers for certain
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misbehavior is is alarmingly inconsequential in the background at home alice farquharson was doing her best to raise
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her children and keep her family together she's going to remain happy about that in within the relationship
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and happy that her husband going around sexually harassing his colleagues what it what it suggests to me is he had
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complete control over that woman he could do what he wanted he'd go where he
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wanted he could have a relationship after a relationship and she simply had to quote unquote grin and bear it but in
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1998 farquharson finally took things too far he was in his late 40s by this point
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he was an inspector his senior position in the police in aberdeenshire he wrote a really disgusting
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poem to a female member of staff now this cd poem that he sent to this police officer was called gasping for it
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she didn't take it well at all and reported it was not a poem to a lover it was a poem to a young
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impressionable and intimidated female police officer the woman police officer would tell a court
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that she was frightened about the implication of the poem and the intention of the author the poem was
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sexually explicit she feared farquissen could find out when her husband was to be on duty and might arrive at their
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home looking for sex it was an act that spoke volumes about how farcan saw himself if that behavior
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happens uh by a police officer within the police it's it's it's clear that he
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he he feels uh entitled and immune to some degree from being held accountable but on this occasion held accountable he
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was farcerson claimed it had been a joke and apologized but was convicted of breaching the peace by causing his
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female colleague fear and alarm he was fined 500 pounds and stripped of his inspector's badge and then demoted back
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down to constable so you can imagine how serious it must have been deemed to have that there are
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other ranks in between all the way down to constable it was deemed that serious ex-policeman neil lancaster knows the
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ramifications of a demotion now this would have caused him a lot of problems and cost him a significant amount of
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money demoted but not dismissed and still alice stayed loyal where was this mismatch of a marriage
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headed like everybody else he would he was quite anxious um but he was looking for
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advice he was looking for advice on what the legal criteria are for murder what other alternatives there might be what
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defense he might have between 1998 and 2010 and despite keith's sexist and unfaithful behavior
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the marriage of alice and keith ferguson was still going but it would be blighted
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by deception infidelity and lies in 2008 alice discovers he's having an affair with women that he spends time
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with at work so she's kind of trapped in this awful situation where day in day out she must
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have spent her time wondering what he was doing and who he was with alice is humiliated she had been married to a
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police inspector she once thought a pillar of the community now she was married to an adulterer who sexually
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harassed junior colleagues but to alice there was very little she could do to change her situation
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i think that women don't leave relationships like the quests and analysis because they can't see that
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there would be an alternative they've been brought up in a way that suggests
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marriages for life to work hard to try harder if it goes wrong and once you have children to remain married in spite
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of the pain that you're caused this tends to be what a lot of women end up doing sacrificing their happiness
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sacrificing their own lives to some degree because they believe marriage is something that you remain in for the
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rest of your life feeling unable to leave alice may have hoped that the damage to a career her
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husband had worked incredibly hard to build might be enough to change his behavior but farcason doesn't change
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despite having been demoted to constable he's often in trouble at work for pestering women or inappropriate
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relationships he somehow managed to avoid further reprimand for being one of a number of officers
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who have been involved all together in a sexual encounter it's about seeing a
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woman as something to be used and even though she's consenting to this you can
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see there's just no respect for her there is a childishness to for questions
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behavior as well we know that he's engaged in a sexual liaison she's actually sleeping with several of his
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colleagues tells us everything we need to know about keith farquharson and his attitudes to not only the opposite sex
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but to the woman to whom he swore marriage vows again alice stands by her husband he's the father of their three
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children she wants the marriage to work but rather than being shamed into good behavior
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farquissen becomes increasingly cruel he is abusive emotionally he rejects her constantly he's very cold towards her
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there are incidences where she says that she loves him he just groans he has affairs with other people this is a man
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that was meant to protect and love her but actually it seems that all the work is done on her side
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emotionally abusive at home engaging in high-risk behavior at work why did alice
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not complain to her husband's bosses former top prosecutor nazia afzal has seen such cases before
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i know this from experience just imagine being a victim of a police officers who
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would be abusing you do you ring 999 or 111 or whatever it is do if you ring them up do you think that
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that person on the end of the phone will keep this confidential or will they go and have a word with mr fox and say to
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him your wife has just reported you so she would have been really reluctant to report anything that was happening to
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her because she couldn't trust the system they don't have confidence that
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police will investigate it properly because of the culture within policing and because
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because police officers are more likely to be believed so there's less less effective investigation quite often
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throughout this time keith appears to have learned nothing from his demotion and fine indeed the former inspector
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demoted to constable starts climbing the career ladder again after the reprimand
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when he's coming back up the ranks he's still doing this and his poor wife who
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is trying to live her life at home and make things work around them and i guess trying to make a life for herself given
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how often a husband must not be home meanwhile at work more women begin to complain about his sexual misconduct a
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motorcycle policewoman complains of him pestering her and says she's determined
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to take legal action by 2009 fortunately things have started to change in the police force and sexual harassment is
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certainly not tolerated and women are now being taken seriously about allegations so when a motorcycle police
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officer tells people that he's harassing her this is obviously escalated the
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result of that complaint is suspension on full pay a second complaint and ultimately this ends his career so
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finally all of those years later after all that he has done his career as a cop comes to
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an end after more than 20 years in the police force keith farquharson is finally
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suspended for sexual harassment he's forced to take early retirement foxton is a really
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problem person he should never have been in the role of police officer he's narcissistic he's misogynistic and he's
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abusive and not only that he is very willing and time and time again does it crosses the
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line breaks the rules maybe even breaks the law this is not the kind of person who
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should be given the powers that a police officer has so what next for the farquissens alice
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continues her work at the local primary school her children are grown up now in marriages of their own
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she hopes keith's retirement with a full police pension will allow the couple to
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rekindle any romance they once had no longer tempted at work surely keith will choose to spend more time with her
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keith has other ideas i think farquharson really did enjoy having sex with strangers i think he
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enjoyed affairs i think he enjoyed the whole power play sexually and i think that comes down to the fact that he
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maybe as he got older realized that he wasn't the powerful human being that he
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thought he was as a young man and suddenly wanted to prove that more and more so i do think that for him sex is
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incredibly important seemingly confident that alice won't leave him he continues to seek out
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adulation from others for all all of his bluster and bluff farkason was a windbag of a man he was
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just full of falsity and full of drama and charade he's lost his power he's
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lost his position where he could take advantage of the of the young wpcs or the traffic wardens or whoever else
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however the problem we now have of course is that keith requires isn't going to change
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still only in his 50s keith takes work to get him out of the house having left the police in 2010 he
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started in a new job he was driving a school bus some time after that he became a taxi
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driver where he used his own mercedes to take fares he actually has a mercedes with a personalized number plate and
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that just shows you what the attitude of him is you know he wants everyone to know that he's a taxi
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driver but he doesn't really need to be he can afford a really beautiful car and
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a personalised registration but also gives him perfect access to women this is an opportunity to be around lots of
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other women and that's something that we know is his trait keith continues to cheat
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again alice has been this long-suffering loyal wife the entire time it must have been
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another slap in the face because after we left the force i imagine she had hopes that they might retire and have a
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life together one that she'd earned but no he abuses her trust once again and when
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she finds out she still stays in 2016 alice texts her husband she says i love you just want you to love me too
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but keith has no interest in changing and we know that he continues to grasp every opportunity he can for
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infidelity we also know that he embarks upon an old affair or re-embarks upon an old affair
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so a serious relationship he'd had back in the early 2000s in 2018 keith farquharson was watching
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the rugby in a pub when he bumped into the woman that he had a relationship with 10 years earlier
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they rekindle their romance keith burleigh tries to hide it even his children knew of his infidelity the
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evidence had indicated that his wife had come across on his own phone some contact between himself and
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someone with whom he'd started an affair something like 11 or 12 years earlier
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and which had then resumed i think perhaps earlier in 2019 alice is devastated she starts searching
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the internet for information about her husband's girlfriend after years of putting up with his controlling behavior
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his abuse his affairs it all starts to come to a head for alice it all ends in the bedroom
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and it ends with alice asking a question that one assumes she's asked many times
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his version of events was that his wife had asked him whether um he still loved her
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and i think he was a bit dismissive of the question just such a small question to get a small answer that meant so much
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we know because he tells us this himself that for question his response is not yes i
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love you or even you know what no i don't i'm going to release you from this
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hell of a marriage all he does is groan it appeared from her investigations that
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she'd come across the information that perhaps the liaison which he had said had broken off and which i
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think he explained had broken off had in some way um resumed or to some extent had resumed
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and his um idea was that she had come by that information and perhaps that was the reason for
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her question can you imagine how humiliating that is after all those years all those
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indiscretions and the reality for her is that she's just enraged understandably
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alice was a little bit upset about this and it's reported that she slapped him
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this is then started off a sequence of events that will lead to her death after 33 years of humiliation and abuse
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alice stands up for herself and because she slaps him his response is violent and he covers her mouth and she starts
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to scream he is quite tall i think um and he used to attend the gym so i would imagine he's quite physically fit it
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ended with him putting two hands around her throat and choking the life out of her after
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all those years that he put it through hell whilst this looks like a moment of madness
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there are many options in those moments that he has an opportunity to stop doing
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what he's doing it's not a quick process strangling someone it's clearly going to
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involve a struggle and he doesn't choose to stop the action it's a process focus and denies happened
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to this day yes the couple got into a fight but there was a good reason for him putting his hands to her mouth
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he had been in an argument with his wife which had developed a physical element about it in other
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words he had tried to physically stop her from screaming or shouting i'm sure the
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record of the evidence is that he was doing that because he didn't want the neighbors to be alerted
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by a noise from inside their house the noise inside the house ended in the death of alice farkerson
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the report to the authorities comes from farkasen himself farcan called the emergency services
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after he killed alice now he didn't have a lot of time to think about what he was
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going to say to them he did think that perhaps the officers that turned up would be
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people that he knew and he would have thought that perhaps he could talk them into
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not looking where he knew they should look that they would perhaps believe him but he also had an intricate knowledge
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of crime scene processing and crime scene management and how the whole process works so
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he in fact was in a very good position to try and manipulate the situation as alice lies dead in the bedroom for keith
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the question is now can he get away with murder by using the knowledge he had gained when a police officer as a police
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officer expertise officer he would have known what the officers will look for when they arrive at a crime scene
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and so when he was there presenting the story to them he did so knowing what the
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questions they would ask because those are the questions he was trying to ask himself so he was clearly in a very
00:23:03
prime position to be able to try and pull the wall over their eyes and that i think
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clearly enabled him initially uh to fool them into thinking this was just an accident when ambulance teams arrive
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they find alice farquharson in her night dress lying on the floor of their bedroom
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she is pronounced dead at the scene despite their life-saving efforts to paramedics farquharson appears irate
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agitated he's hyperventilating farkson concocted a story he said that there'd been a bit of a struggle now he
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claims he pulled her off the bed in order to give her cpr but as she did she banged her head on the floor and he's
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probably quite plausible at that time he is a manipulative person so he will be behaving in a way that he thinks is
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going to get the best result from the people he's standing in front of him and he knows how they think he knows who
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they are he's worked he's worked with them and at first he was believed could the korea policeman put his 33
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years in the force and the knowledge of what to say in such a situation to use could he get away with murder
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in the immediate hours after emergency services had found alice farquharson dead in her bedroom it appeared as if
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keith farquharson might get away with murder after all despite his faults this was an
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ex-cop but he's not going to do this surely as a police officer he's not
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going to kill anybody police officers at the scene initially thought this was a non-suspicious
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accident as a police officer expedience officer ferguson would have had experience
00:24:47
not necessarily of his own cases but of hundreds of cases involving domestic abuse potentially homicides he'd have
00:24:53
read about them he'd have been trained about them he would have known what the
00:24:56
officers will look for when they arrive at a crime scene and so when he was there presenting the story
00:25:02
to them about a shower accident he did so knowing what the questions they would ask because those are the questions he
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was trained to ask himself they released the house back into the family which really shouldn't have happened
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between 6 30 in the morning and nine o'clock farquharson was intent on manipulating
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the inquiry if the police had thought that alice had been killed and had not fallen they
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would have done something that's called locking down the crime scene that means that
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straight away the scene is preserved in exactly the way it was found he would have been
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removed he wouldn't have been allowed to touch anything at all they would have filmed
00:25:49
it they would have photographed it they'd have got the forensics teams in if they believed it was an accident none
00:25:55
of that would have happened and crucial evidence may have been lost and he would know that
00:26:02
so he was clearly in a very prime position to be able to try and pull the wall over
00:26:08
their eyes and that i think clearly enabled him initially to fool them into thinking this was just
00:26:16
an accident his was not a deceit that would take long to uncover he must have known that they would find
00:26:25
out that she'd been strangled but by saying it was an accident he bought himself a lot of time and he saved a lot
00:26:35
of evidence being collected it's immensely troubling that um when the police attended um
00:26:43
what we now know is a murder scene they quickly accepted his story and were prepared to put it down to
00:26:52
accident rather than what it was when a senior inspector arrived on the scene he
00:26:56
realized something was amiss i think some suspicions had been expressed by one of the attending police inspectors
00:27:03
and then the involvement of um criminal investigation department officers despite farkerson's insistence that his
00:27:11
wife fell out of the bed the inspectors realize that nothing keith is saying matches up with the evidence and demands
00:27:17
an immediate postmortem this was a post-mortem examination which necessarily involved
00:27:23
two doctors because there was a suspicion of a crime having been committed the pathologist said well hang
00:27:28
on a second it's all well and good saying she's banged her head but there's
00:27:32
no sign of that what there is a sign of however is strangulation big hand marks around her throat so it
00:27:40
took the pathologist to step in and say hang on a minute investigate this please because there's
00:27:46
a crime here well anybody who's even watched a crime film knows that the first thing that any pathologist is
00:27:52
going to do is to look for the cause or injury and that's going to be to do with
00:27:56
her windpipe being crushed and also there'll be injuries and bruising around
00:28:01
her neck gradually police realized what had happened to alice in the last few moments of her life
00:28:06
this was no accident the post mortem showed that the version of events that farkerson had said was
00:28:12
not correct they found that she died by mechanical asphyxiation of her neck there were bruises on the face that
00:28:20
indicated that she was possibly strangled until she passed out and then ferguson held her nose and put his hand
00:28:27
over her mouth thereby suffocating her to death the death of alice farquharson after 30
00:28:32
years of marriage was now a murder investigation and one keith farquharson was not going to help with
00:28:39
as part of the inquiries ferguson's phone was seized by police they wanted to download it using a piece
00:28:45
of software so they could look at the contents however he refused to give them the pin initially and i think that that
00:28:51
presents enormous difficulties to investigators because the security of smartphones is so high farquison would
00:28:58
later claim that he was not trying to be obstructive there was i think a contention that he
00:29:04
couldn't provide the password for his telephone my recollection of his instruction on that was it wasn't a
00:29:14
deliberate obstruction on his part he had a number of different passwords for a number of different devices
00:29:20
um i'm sure he just had either given a single wrong digit or might have given
00:29:29
some information which turned out to be the wrong information others would perhaps see it differently
00:29:35
though i understand that the police were suspicious about that matter when police eventually got into the
00:29:42
phone and were able to examine the contents they found a huge number of highly sexual texts between ferguson and
00:29:51
other women now to me this is just another piece of evidence as to his character
00:29:57
the messages also reveal just how hard alice was working to keep her marriage alive they found messages from alice
00:30:06
which were along the lines of i just want you to love me messages from this poor
00:30:11
deprived emotionally starved woman just desperate for something back from her husband and those messages they came
00:30:19
in between a host of sexually depraved text messages sent by farquharson to various
00:30:28
women so while his wife was asking him to love her he was asking other women to do some
00:30:34
very sorted things to him despite his best efforts to get away with murder keith farquharson is arrested charged
00:30:41
the first time i met him was in um the prison where he was detained i knew about the um
00:30:49
outcome of the post-mortem examination i had already received a draft of the report
00:30:56
by the pathologist and so by the time i spoke to him the cause of death was known his
00:31:04
contention was that he hadn't deliberately killed his wife that there had been a
00:31:12
terrible accident charged keith farquharson now stood accused of her murder on the day of the
00:31:18
of the offence itself he became involved in an argument which became physical between the two of them
00:31:25
and that her death was i think the consequence of his actions but his actions were never either
00:31:36
intended to kill or of a type which would have been so wickedly reckless that he didn't care whether she lived or
00:31:44
died keith farquharson was not giving up he argued he was not guilty of murder rather he was ready to admit to a lesser
00:31:52
plea he offered to plead guilty to culpable homicide which would probably equate to manslaughter
00:32:00
and his contention was that he was guilty of an assault on his wife in the course of the argument which had
00:32:08
taken place but culpable homicide is a lesser crime than murder so he defended the case on the
00:32:16
basis that the jury should convict him of culpable homicide because he didn't have the
00:32:23
requisite intention that you'd need to be convicted of murder there is a crucial difference between intending to
00:32:29
kill someone and doing something which might lead to their death without intending to kill someone
00:32:35
the former leads to a life sentence the latter offers sentencing discretion offenders can be out in a handful of
00:32:42
years and this was a suspect with a ready-made explanation for everything put to him by
00:32:48
the time i became involved in the case it was obvious that he had not told the truth to the various persons who'd come
00:32:55
around to his house in the first place a jury would soon be asked was keith ferguson a liar and a killer
00:33:08
keith farquharson went for trial at glasgow height court in april 2020. he was asking a jury to believe that he had
00:33:15
no intention of killing alice he stuck to the story he'd given into the police station this was an accident
00:33:22
was his story now this meant that his children had to come to court to give evidence can we imagine how difficult
00:33:29
that would be for them farquharson was also asking the jury to believe that this was a strong marriage
00:33:35
he and alice had got along fine i don't think he ever suggested it was an unhappy marriage
00:33:43
he gave evidence about his marriage when he was um in the witness box he i think he described it as a happy
00:33:51
marriage um the suggestion that he'd been unfaithful i suppose is is a feature but on the
00:33:59
other hand i think he explained that he had no intention of leaving his wife or divorcing her and he
00:34:06
was perfectly happy with his lifestyle during the trial focusing repeatedly broke down in tears telling the jury
00:34:13
that his attack on alice was totally accidental i thought she would calm down and then we could talk about it he told
00:34:20
them when he was giving evidence on his own behalf in the court proceedings that he burst into tears and
00:34:28
i've no doubt that he fully appreciated that what he had been responsible for
00:34:34
in other words he admitted a responsibility of some nature for his wife's death
00:34:41
he had torn apart his family really he had three children and um i suspect that the bond that
00:34:50
existed between them is or was never going to be repaired as for the reason that he wanted the
00:34:58
jury to find him not guilty of murder his argument was in general terms that he never intended to kill her that
00:35:06
whatever he did and the physical attack which he perpetrated by putting his hand
00:35:11
over her mouth which was trying to stop her screaming and the consequence of that
00:35:19
had brought about her death so in many ways it was the fact that he didn't have the
00:35:26
necessary intent or the wicked intention to kill her or was acting with such wicked recklessness
00:35:34
that he didn't care whether she lived or died but the case put forward by the
00:35:38
prosecution was that he knew exactly what he was doing this was no accidental death he
00:35:45
strangled her but he also smothered her so he made sure in every way that alice couldn't breathe he was
00:35:52
making sure she was gonna die he wasn't in the moment of passion just grabbed
00:35:57
her around the throat and accidentally she died takes quite a long time to strangle somebody
00:36:02
and he and he wanted her dead because he used two methods put his hand over her face and he
00:36:09
strangled her that's what the pathologist says on the 18th of february 2020 following a
00:36:15
five-day trial the jury had to weigh up the two arguments alice had died after an appalling
00:36:21
accident or she had been killed by her husband the jury returned their verdict in this
00:36:26
case he was found guilty of murder by a majority verdict so we have 15 members of the jury
00:36:35
and eight eight people voting for guilty would be a majority nobody ever finds out what the majority was on the 23rd of
00:36:42
march 2020 at the high court in glasgow he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years he
00:36:51
showed no emotion when handcuffed and he didn't look at his children if i remember correctly i went down to the
00:36:58
cells to see him afterwards and just explain what procedures could take place thereafter but
00:37:05
yeah he was very upset he was narcissistic he was self-focused he was misogynistic
00:37:15
and when he was in court and finally all his power had been taken away all his status had been taken away and
00:37:27
even alice who hero worshipped him she wasn't even there anymore either oh he would have cried
00:37:34
tears of self-pity when sentencing keith farkerson lady stacy the judge commented on how far he
00:37:41
had fallen she told him you had been a police officer for many years it is distressing that a man who held
00:37:48
such a position could behave like this and commit such a serious crime what you did has destroyed your family
00:37:56
and taken away the trust children should have in their father farquharson appealed the verdict in 2021
00:38:05
if he was successful in appealing his conviction and the charge of murder was reduced to a
00:38:12
conviction for culpable homicide his sentence would not have been a life sentence with
00:38:19
the fixing of a number of years that he has to serve before becoming eligible for the parole board
00:38:26
so the nature of the sentence would change it wouldn't be a life sentence at the heart of the appeal case medical
00:38:35
evidence alice had not died due to being strangled but from a heart attack there was a possibility that she could
00:38:43
have suffered something called a reflex cardiac arrest and that was really what was the foundation of his argument that
00:38:52
he never intended to kill her so he had placed his hand over her mouth to restrict her breathing
00:38:59
i think it's fair to say his arm had gone across her neck at some point she had internal bruising or she had
00:39:06
bruising which wasn't visible on the surface of her neck but was discernible from an internal
00:39:11
examination suggestion was that the bruising wasn't of a type of such severity that it would
00:39:19
have been enough to compress and restrict her breathing the appeal was rejected parkerson's grown up children have no
00:39:27
mother and a father who will spend many years in prison it was a sad end to a case i have to say
00:39:38
he is the type of individual who fully appreciates i think what he had done wrong
00:39:46
keith fargerson will likely be released when he is 75 years old after 30 years as a serving police
00:39:53
officer 30 years where he routinely harassed female colleagues 30 years that ended with him murdering
00:39:59
his wife he will still receive his full police pension a fact which angers some campaigners for awareness of the dangers
00:40:07
of escalating abuse in the home it's a disgrace that someone like farkasan who has used people his entire life who
00:40:17
has been disgraced himself his entire life is going to come out of prison with hundreds of thousands of pounds of
00:40:26
police pension and probably live quite a comfortable retirement alice farquharson died aged just 56
00:40:37
strangled in her own home in her marriage bed by the person she trusted most the hardest thing about this case is
00:40:46
that alice deserved so much better not just at the end throughout her whole life with him you
00:40:53
think that she was holding out for the man that she loved to change to just give her back just a little bit of the
00:41:00
loyalty that she'd shown him and instead he killed her [Music] [Music] so [Music]
00:41:56
you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most shocking
  • 85
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Biggest twist
  • 80
    Most dramatic

Episode Highlights

  • The Rise of Keith Farquharson
    Keith Farquharson, a retired police inspector, had a troubling character marked by narcissism and abuse.
    “He’s narcissistic, he’s misogynistic, and he’s abusive.”
    @ 00m 32s
    June 08, 2022
  • Alice's Devotion
    Alice Farquharson dedicated her life to her family, despite her husband's infidelity and abuse.
    “Alice is reported to be a loving mother and dedicated professional.”
    @ 03m 08s
    June 08, 2022
  • The Fatal Confrontation
    After years of humiliation, Alice confronts Keith, leading to a tragic outcome.
    “Alice stands up for herself.”
    @ 20m 26s
    June 08, 2022
  • The Manipulation of the Crime Scene
    Keith Farquharson attempted to manipulate the crime scene to avoid suspicion.
    “He was clearly in a very prime position to try and pull the wool over their eyes.”
    @ 22m 39s
    June 08, 2022
  • The Jury's Verdict
    After weighing the evidence, the jury found Keith Farquharson guilty of murder.
    “The jury returned their verdict: he was found guilty of murder by a majority verdict.”
    @ 36m 29s
    June 08, 2022
  • The Death of Alice Farquharson
    Alice Farquharson was found dead in her home, leading to a murder investigation.
    “Alice Farquharson died aged just 56, strangled in her own home.”
    @ 40m 37s
    June 08, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • He’s narcissistic, he’s misogynistic, and he’s abusive.
    Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 51 - Farquharson - Full Episode
  • It’s not a quick process strangling someone.
    Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 51 - Farquharson - Full Episode
  • Can you imagine how humiliating that is?
    Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 51 - Farquharson - Full Episode
  • Alice stands up for herself.
    Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 51 - Farquharson - Full Episode
  • It’s a process focus and denies happened to this day.
    Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 51 - Farquharson - Full Episode
  • Alice deserved so much better, not just at the end, but throughout her whole life.
    Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 51 - Farquharson - Full Episode

Key Moments

  • A Troubling Character00:32
  • Alice's Loyalty03:08
  • Confrontation20:26
  • Tragic Outcome21:46
  • Emergency Call21:53
  • Manipulating the Scene22:37
  • Murder Investigation28:30
  • Guilty Verdict36:29

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

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