00:00:05
-On December the 1st, 1996, Tracie Andrews
and her fiancé, Lee Harvey, were driving home
after a night out,
00:00:15
when suddenly, they began
to be pursued by another car. It was a chase that would end
in Lee's murder.
00:00:23
-He was stabbed
in the throat, back, front repeatedly, viciously,
and continuously.
00:00:32
-Just two days later,
27-year-old Tracie gave a heart-wrenching
press conference,
00:00:38
appealing for the public's help
to find her partner's killer. But all was not what it seemed.
00:00:46
-When you get behind the wheel
of a car, sometimes you change
personality. -And we all kind of looked
at each other and thought,
00:00:54
"You know, this enormous story
just got 10 times bigger again if she is the killer."
00:01:00
-There had been no car chase. There had been no random attack. Tracie Andrews had stabbed
her own fiancé to death
00:01:08
and was trying to
get away with murder. -This is a woman of cunning, of deceit, and with a vicious temper.
00:01:22
-Tracie Andrews
had deceived a nation and become one of
the world's most evil killers.
00:01:28
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ It was a press conference
that shocked Britain, when 27-year-old Tracie Andrews
00:01:55
defiantly appeared
in front of the world's media on December the 3rd, 1996. She wept over the murder
of her fiancé, Lee Harvey.
00:02:05
She claimed a stranger had
stopped the couple in their car before stabbing
her 25-year-old partner to death
00:02:12
in a savage attack. -I just tried to stop
the bleeding, really, and comfort him
as much as I could.
00:02:23
-But it was all a lie. In reality,
Andrews had killed Lee in the most brutal of manners.
00:02:31
At her trial, Andrews continued to try and sell
her fabricated story. The media were
fascinated by her.
00:02:38
Daily Mirror journalist
Rod Chaytor managed to interview
the wannabe model at Birmingham Crown Court
on the day of her conviction.
00:02:48
-I'm sat next to Tracie. I didn't feel threatened,
obviously. She's a killer, but we're not
in any kind of environment
00:02:54
in which she's likely to
suddenly launch an attack on me. So I said, "Well, you know,
do you stick to your story?"
00:03:02
"Yes, I stick to my story." "Did you kill him?"
"No. I didn't." -Just minutes later,
00:03:09
Tracie Andrews was given
a life sentence for the murder
of her own fiancé. -I worked as a national
newspaper journalist
00:03:19
for many years. I covered thousands of stories,
dozens of murders. Some stories just stay with you,
00:03:29
and this is one of the ones
that stays with me. ♪♪ -It's a story that begins
over 45 years ago.
00:03:39
Tracie Andrews was born
on the 9th of April, 1969, in the West Midlands. -Well, Tracie was brought up
just outside Birmingham
00:03:50
in Redditch and Alvechurch, and she was the middle child. She had an older sibling
and a younger sibling
00:03:57
and several half siblings. And her parents broke up when
she was around about 6 years old
00:04:03
because they'd had quite
a volatile relationship. -The separation
of her parents in 1975
00:04:11
had a lasting effect
on young Tracie. -Well, Tracie's parents
split up, and her mother got married
to another man.
00:04:19
And when we look
at our parents' relationships, they are quite important,
because they inform
00:04:24
our expectations
of other people, our expectations of
the relationships that we go on to have.
00:04:30
-Kids need attention, you know? They need to be loved
and cuddled and everything,
00:04:35
and a lot of kids that come from
those kinds of broken homes, and the case of Tracie,
00:04:39
they want to be loved by mother,
father, or somebody. So that is definitely,
in my opinion,
00:04:46
one of the things
that pushed her into always wanting
the attention of other men.
00:04:51
-Tracie left school in 1986, and age 21,
she had a baby daughter. But the relationship with her
partner lasted barely a year,
00:05:03
and they soon went
their separate ways. -What we've got here is a woman
who doesn't like
00:05:09
her partners having a life
that doesn't involve her. She doesn't like her partners
going out without her.
00:05:15
She gets very jealous.
She's very possessive. -She certainly had a temper. Everybody who knew her
said she had a temper,
00:05:23
and when she lost her temper,
everybody knew about it. She would shout
at the top of her voice.
00:05:29
The whole street would hear. -By 1994, 25-year-old Tracie was living in a council flat
in Alvechurch
00:05:37
and working as a barmaid. But her aspirations went
far beyond pouring pints. -She had visions.
00:05:46
She had dreams
of becoming a model, and, you know,
she was very photogenic. She looked good on camera,
and she knew it.
00:05:55
And she had some pictures taken and a photo album put together, but that never really
took off, either.
00:06:04
-Well, she became a barmaid
working in a pub, but she still
dress provocatively,
00:06:08
and she still loved talking
to men and chatting to men, again, seeking the attention
00:06:14
that she wanted to get
as a model, 'cause, obviously, when you're
that pretty and you're a model,
00:06:18
you do get a lot of attention. -Living nearby to Tracie
was 23-year-old Lee Harvey.
00:06:25
He also had a daughter
from a previous relationship. -Lee Harvey was a young man
from a very close family,
00:06:34
and he worked as a bus driver
for the West Midlands Travel. So this was a job
that involved, you know,
00:06:41
meeting many people
on a daily basis. He was very outgoing. He was interested in cars and
was always very well turned out,
00:06:50
so he was your typical young
Birmingham lad, essentially. Very close to his mum,
very close to his sister.
00:06:57
-The paths of the two young,
single parents would soon cross. -Well, Lee and Tracie
met in October 1994,
00:07:05
in Ritzy's nightclub
in Birmingham, and this relationship really
did develop at a lightning pace.
00:07:12
They had moved in
with one another only around three months
into the relationship.
00:07:17
So this was going
very, very fast, and their relationship
was quite a volatile one.
00:07:22
They were both quite possessive,
quite jealous when it came
to the other's relationships
00:07:28
with the opposite sex.
You often find this in relationships
that develop very quickly.
00:07:33
You haven't got that foundation
of trust that's been built. You're always a little bit
kind of suspicious
00:07:38
as to what
the other person's up to 'cause you don't
really know them. -And they would row,
00:07:43
and they would fight
like cat and dog, and neighbors would report
how voices would be raised
00:07:50
at all hours
of the day and night and would go on and on for hours and then stop
and then start again.
00:07:57
-The couple got engaged
after just six months. But their volatile relationship
would often see them break up,
00:08:05
only to get back together
again soon after. -It was maybe almost
a carbon copy of what Tracie grew up with
in her house.
00:08:16
She had a very explosive temper, and Lee Harvey also, in a way, wouldn't, like, just bow down
to her screaming,
00:08:24
so he would scream back. -She was forever throwing
him out into the street, and she would throw his clothes
out of the window
00:08:31
or in a black bin bag and
chuck him out the front door, change the locks. And then they would have
reconciliations.
00:08:38
Lee would go back. More violence, Lee would leave. Lee would go back,
more violence.
00:08:43
♪♪ This went on for a period
of about two years. -Their explosive relationship
finally came to a head
00:08:53
on December the 1st, 1996. -So, they'd been rowing all day. Lee tended to be the peacemaker,
00:09:02
and it was probably
Lee's suggestion -- "Why don't we go for a drink?
Why don't we just get
00:09:07
a change of scene,
a breath of fresh air? Let's get out of here. Let's
just go and, you know, relax
00:09:14
and have a drink,"
and that's what they did. -But Lee Harvey would
never make it home again.
00:09:21
By 11:00 p.m., he would be dead. The only witness to the fatal
altercation was his fiancée,
00:09:27
Tracie Andrews, and her version
of events would soon make it one of the most talked-about
murders of the decade.
00:09:35
♪♪ On December the 1st, 1996,
27-year-old Tracie Andrews and her 25-year-old
fiancé, Lee Harvey,
00:09:47
were at a pub in Bromsgrove
in the West Midlands. After arguing all day, the couple were trying
to patch things up.
00:09:56
But their night
was about to turn deadly. -Tracie claimed that,
after they'd left the pub
00:10:03
and that Lee was driving,
that they'd become involved in a road-rage
incident essentially,
00:10:09
that a man
in a dark Ford Sierra -- There'd been some
kind of altercation, and he'd started following them.
00:10:16
-And she's suddenly aware
that this car is behind, lights flashing,
right on their tail.
00:10:21
Lee starts to accelerate. They're snaking together
through the lanes. The other car then effectively
draws Lee to a halt.
00:10:31
-Tracie later told detectives that the man following the
couple along rural Coopers Hill
00:10:37
got out of his car,
and Lee did the same. A confrontation was inevitable. -The driver then has said what
he wants to say, apparently.
00:10:48
He gets back in the car. Lee is still outside of his car. And then the passenger gets out,
00:10:55
a fat man with staring eyes, and he goes up to Lee
and attacks Lee in a way that Tracie
doesn't quite see.
00:11:05
♪♪ Then she piles in, she says,
to go to Lee's defense, because she says
she's not the kind of girl
00:11:14
to just sit there
and see her man being attacked, at which point she gets smacked
by the fat man in the eyes
00:11:23
and repeatedly gets up
and is knocked down. And then she says, "It all gets
a bit hazy from that point,"
00:11:30
and then she kind of
comes to almost, and Lee is there, and he's covered in blood,
and she's cradling him,
00:11:39
and it all goes very vague. -Lee's car had ended up right outside a house
called Keepers Cottage.
00:11:48
The commotion in the road had alerted
one of the residents. -The guy made his way
down the little path to the road
00:11:58
and there sees, in poor light, just shown
by the security light, but there's a woman standing
there with her back to the car.
00:12:10
There's a body, prone body
on the floor. He instantly runs back
into the house saying,
00:12:18
"Call the police. Call
the police. Call the ambulance." -The case was immediately given
00:12:23
to Detective Superintendent
Ian Johnston. -I received a call
from West Mercia Constabulary
00:12:30
Operations Room, which directed me to the scene
at Coopers Hill where I met with
divisional representatives.
00:12:37
Present at that time
was Lee's car, Lee's body, and Tracie Andrews
was inside Keepers Cottage,
00:12:45
having been found
in the road outside. I could see Lee's vehicle. It was pulled in
on the near side of the road,
00:12:52
traveling towards Alvechurch, and it didn't appear to have
been stopped in any great hurry.
00:12:57
It looked as though it had been
fairly neatly parked to the side. -Detectives at the scene
spoke to Tracie
00:13:04
to find out exactly
what had happened. -The incident appeared
to have started from the Marlbrook Public House.
00:13:12
There'd been a road situation
down the A38 towards the N42 motorway. Lee's car had been stopped,
00:13:21
and then an altercation
had taken place between a member
of that chasing vehicle and Lee.
00:13:27
Lee collapsed, and then the other vehicle
made its escape. -Lee Harvey died at the scene.
00:13:35
It was clear
that he'd been the victim of a savage and frenzied attack. -This is a severe, sustained,
00:13:44
brutal attack with a penknife. Now, the estimates of how
many wounds Lee suffered vary.
00:13:54
Some local reports said 42. What is clear --
He was stabbed in the throat, back, front,
00:14:01
repeatedly, viciously,
and continuously. -To produce 42 stab wounds,
it's a sustained assault.
00:14:09
It's 42 movements of your hand. This is not something
that you can do in a second
00:14:15
or two seconds
in a moment of madness. You have to keep going,
and it is not easy.
00:14:22
In Lee Harvey's case,
the fatal stab wound was a stab wound
to the carotid artery.
00:14:28
That is a large artery
in the neck. And a stab wound
to an artery of that size is going to cause very rapid,
very heavy bleeding.
00:14:38
Without prompt
medical attention, it's most likely to be
a fatal injury. -With an initial
statement taken,
00:14:46
a bruised and bloodied
Tracie Andrews was whisked away
in an ambulance. -And she's treated
for those injuries
00:14:55
and for shock in hospital and cared for and tended for while police launch
a massive murder hunt
00:15:04
for whoever has done
this terrible thing to Lee. -Tracie had told us
that the following vehicle,
00:15:11
which had followed them
from the Marlbrook, was a dark-colored
Ford Sierra, F-registered.
00:15:18
And obviously, we started
a vehicle inquiry with the DVLA for the owner details of any vehicle
that might fit that description.
00:15:29
-As reports of
the apparent road-rage murder reached news desks
across the country,
00:15:35
journalists immediately headed
to the West Midlands. -From the very first moment,
it was clear
00:15:42
that this was going to be a huge
story, an absolutely huge story. Just the idea
of a road-rage murder
00:15:47
made it already a big story. And as the first
morning progressed, everything we discovered
made it a bigger story.
00:15:57
Photographs began
to emerge of Tracie. She looked an attractive
young woman. Photographs began
to emerge of Lee, the victim --
00:16:06
handsome young man. And so more and more of the elements
that make a big story --
00:16:13
young, attractive, bizarre, unimaginable
circumstances -- all started slotting into place.
00:16:21
-Detectives knew
that the best way to try and find the killer was to make
an appeal through the media.
00:16:27
A press conference was arranged
for Tuesday, December the 3rd, two days after the fatal attack.
00:16:35
-I met Tracie somewhere 'round
about 10:00 a.m., I believe, just before we were going
to do the press conference.
00:16:41
I asked her if she was content
to do the press conference, if it was something
that she wanted to do.
00:16:46
She said that she was. She said she really
wanted to do it. -This hugely hiked up
the media interest,
00:16:54
because we were going to have
put in front of us, it was said, the key witness and someone -- We'd all seen
the pictures by this time,
00:17:03
an attractive blond,
and she was going to sit there in front of us
and answer our questions.
00:17:08
There was massive
media interest in this. -As the press conference began,
all the focus
00:17:14
was on 27-year-old Tracie. [ Camera shutters clicking ] -The noise of the cameras,
00:17:24
the motor drives going off
as Tracie walked in the room, was absolutely deafening.
00:17:31
And appearing in front of us -- I don't think we'd all thought
what would appear, really,
00:17:37
but we'd all seen
these glamorous shots. Here was a woman, red-eyed, haggard, completely unmade up,
00:17:47
two black eyes, cut on her nose. -And Tracie did look
like a victim. She had the injuries
to her face.
00:17:54
She looked incredibly distressed
and incredibly upset. -But Tracie seemed
very comfortable
00:18:00
when faced with
all the camera flashes and questions
from the journalists. -The press really wanted
to hear from Tracie,
00:18:08
and so, you know, I became a bit of a sideline
really, which was fine. You know,
it was about the story.
00:18:14
It was about the situation. And the press
were interested in Tracie, and she was quite happy
to deal with the press.
00:18:22
-Both Lee
and the other person were... like, playing cat and mouse
with each other for a while.
00:18:32
When they overtook us, I was shouting at Lee to,
you know, "Slow down. Just ignore them. Stop the car,"
but he --
00:18:41
I don't know. I don't know
if a lot of men are like it, and a lot of women like it,
00:18:45
but when you get behind
the wheel of a car, You know, sometimes,
you change personality.
00:18:50
-During the press conference when talking about
the alleged killer, there was a moment
when, suddenly,
00:19:00
her eyes came up. And she was mostly downcast
throughout the press conference, but her eyes came up,
and they flashed fiercely.
00:19:11
And her mouth dropped open a bit with that famous
slightly jutting jaw, and she looked really angry.
00:19:20
And at that point, again,
all the motor drives went off. Every press photographer
reacted to that.
00:19:26
It was a crash of noise
as every camera was hit. -It was just the way he looked,
his eyes.
00:19:34
He had staring eyes. He just didn't seem normal. I saw the man hit Lee. I don't know what with.
00:19:45
I didn't see anything. -And suddenly
she starts appealing to the driver of the car,
00:19:51
saying,
"You're not in any trouble. You know, come forward and tell
the police what it's all about."
00:19:58
-And whoever this person is
that was with you, you obviously know him, but he's ruined my life.
00:20:05
Please just tell us who he is. You won't get
in any trouble at all. It was not your fault.
00:20:11
-And I'm thinking, "Well,
that's not strictly true, is it? You've driven your friend
to a murder scene.
00:20:17
He's killed someone,
and you've driven him away, so you are in trouble,"
but...okay.
00:20:24
-And as the questioning
progressed, Tracie seemed to contradict
her original statement.
00:20:30
-I said, "Tracie, sorry, but I clearly understood
the police to say that it was about 10 past 10:00
when you left the pub."
00:20:38
And she kind of looked at me, sort of head
down under her lashes, and said, "No. It was 10 to 10."
00:20:46
And sat on her left was Superintendent Johnston. And I just saw him react to that answer from Tracie.
00:20:59
And very slowly,
his head turned to the right, and he just looked at her
in a kind of assessing way,
00:21:08
a kind of appraising way. And at that moment, I thought, "Wow. There's something
going on here."
00:21:16
-I just tried to stop
the bleeding, really, and comfort him
as much as I could. -The inconsistency
in Tracie's story
00:21:27
surprised a majority
of reporters in the room. -The press conference finished, and the national newspaper
journalists scattered outside
00:21:37
in a bit of a pack,
as we would tend to do, or friends or know each other,
work against each other.
00:21:43
And somebody said,
"What do you think?" And I said,
"I think she did it." And we all kind of looked
at each other and thought,
00:21:56
"You know, this enormous story
just got 10 times bigger again if she is the killer."
00:22:01
-Was it really conceivable that Tracie Andrews
had been lying all along? As the investigation continued,
new evidence suggested
00:22:10
that maybe there was
no road-rage incident at all. Andrews would go
from the only witness
00:22:17
to the number-one suspect
in the murder of Lee Harvey. ♪♪ On December the 3rd, 1996,
27-year-old Tracie Andrews
00:22:30
appeared at an emotionally
charged press conference in an appeal to find
the passenger of a Ford Sierra
00:22:36
who she claimed
had stabbed her fiancé, Lee Harvey, to death. But unbeknownst to Andrews,
00:22:43
the police were beginning
to work out the truth -- that she had been
the one responsible
00:22:48
for the murder
of 25-year-old Lee. -It's self-preservation. That's what's driving her
behavior at this point in time.
00:22:56
She's got absolutely no empathy
whatsoever for Lee or for Lee's family
or indeed for her own family,
00:23:02
who were also going to be
really badly affected by this. So she's thinking,
"How do I best preserve myself?
00:23:08
I'm going to take
that role of the victim, and I'm going
to put myself in it." -Andrews claim that she and Lee
had been the victim
00:23:16
of a road-rage incident
didn't seem to add up. A witness statement from a child staying in a house
on Coopers Hill
00:23:24
put her version
of events in doubt. -It was December. The windows were closed, but she could clearly hear
a row going on.
00:23:35
What she remembered was that one was a distinctly male,
baritone voice. The other voice was much softer,
00:23:46
and she said it was much more like a woman's voice. -Forensic searches of the road
had discovered more clues
00:23:55
into what really happened. -We couldn't get anywhere
near the scene on the first morning or indeed
for a few days afterwards.
00:24:03
The police completely
sealed it off. They drafted in officers to carry out
a fingertip search of the area.
00:24:10
What they found,
we later discovered, were a couple
of bits and pieces, including a tiny spring
and another element
00:24:17
from a multifunction penknife. What police didn't find
was any trace of a car overtaking another car
00:24:29
on the soft December
winter verges of this pretty narrow road. -Police had also found a black
beanie hat in the hedgerow
00:24:40
next to where Lee's car
had been parked. -So our assumption was, "Well, this has maybe fallen out
of the assailant's pocket,
00:24:49
and he's not realized it." So, of course,
that went to the laboratory fairly quickly
with a view towards DNA
00:24:57
and from hair samples,
that sort of thing. And we had the report back
by the Wednesday
00:25:02
that this was animal hair, and it was cat hair,
black-and-white cat hair. Well, there's a black-and-white
cat at Tracie's.
00:25:10
And so we went down and took
a sample of hair from the cat, and it was the cat hair.
00:25:15
And then,
as I understand it later on, it was accepted
that this was Lee's hat that had been in Tracie's pocket
00:25:25
prior to the events taken place. -Andrews' lie about the hat was just one of many
inconsistencies in her story.
00:25:35
-In Lee's hand, they found between 80 and 100 strands
of Tracie's hair that have been pulled
from Tracie's head
00:25:42
as Lee has tried
to defend himself. Now, if Lee had been murdered by
this fat man with staring eyes,
00:25:48
why would he have
Tracie's hair in his hand? -Well, the pathologist's
evidence was that
00:25:53
this was more than
just a death-grasp stroking, that it was a reasonable clump
that did have a good pull.
00:26:02
But, of course,
Tracie's view was, "Well, this must have been
when he was going,
00:26:09
and he got his hand
in my hair, you know?" So it came as a sort of --
As Lee was passing away,
00:26:16
he pulled some hair
from her head. -It was beginning to look
more and more likely
00:26:21
that Andrews had killed Lee
in a fit of rage. -I mean, if you attack somebody that you're supposed
to be in love with
00:26:30
and stab them 42 times, then that's pretty
out of control. -She wasn't thinking to herself
00:26:36
as she set off
from the pub that evening, "Oh, tonight's the night
I think I'm going to kill Lee."
00:26:41
She just exploded
like a volcano. Over a matter
of minutes, literally, she went from mildly angry
to obsessively angry,
00:26:53
and that, therefore,
he had to die. -When we talk about
premeditated murder, we tend to assume that
it's something that's days,
00:27:01
weeks, or months
in the planning, but actually, premeditation
only takes seconds.
00:27:06
You only need to have
a few seconds to decide that you are going
to end somebody's life,
00:27:11
and she made that decision
on this evening. -And it seemed that Andrews'
guilty conscience
00:27:17
was beginning
to get the better of her. On Wednesday, December the 4th, the day after the telltale
press conference,
00:27:24
she tried to kill herself. -Tracie takes an overdose. And I think this is
a very deliberate,
00:27:30
a very determined act
on her part. I think she was absolutely set
on ending her own life,
00:27:36
because, over the past few days, the situation has spiraled
completely out of her control.
00:27:42
She's trying to keep
the story together. She's trying to present
this face as the victim,
00:27:47
and it's all getting
a bit too much, 'cause it's starting to unravel. So I think this is an attempt
to take back control, to say,
00:27:54
"Actually, I'm going to decide
to do something now that I'm fully in control of,"
and that's what this was.
00:28:00
-On the same evening, detectives were given
their biggest steer yet. Two people had seen Lee's
distinctive white Ford Escort
00:28:09
on the night of his murder. -Two witnesses who said, "We've seen it
in the local paper.
00:28:16
I know I've seen this white car. We were driving from Alvechurch
in the opposite direction.
00:28:22
We came through Coopers Hill
past Keepers Cottage. We came down the hill, and as we came to the junction
at the bottom,
00:28:30
I saw this car go past." And he said, "It's a white
Escort, G-reg, spoked wheels,"
everything that it was,
00:28:39
and he said that, you know, there is no doubt
that was the car. He said, "And from that point
to when we got into Bromsgrove,
00:28:47
we saw no car
that fits any description of what you've been told, and there certainly wasn't
any car chasing that car
00:28:54
in the vicinity
of Coopers Hill." So we'd got the confirmation
that we were looking for,
00:29:00
that the road-rage incident
had not occurred, and so that changed the way that
we looked at the investigation.
00:29:09
-Her story really
was starting to crumble at that point in time, and combined with
her suicide attempt,
00:29:15
I think the police decided,
"That's enough evidence. We can now move in
and arrest her."
00:29:20
-On Saturday,
December the 7th, 1996, six days after Lee's murder, Tracie Andrews
was arrested in hospital
00:29:28
and taken into custody. -The 27-year-old woman
was arrested at 11:00 today, but so far, detectives have
released no further details.
00:29:38
Until this development, the police had been
looking for two men who they believed may
have escaped from the scene
00:29:44
in a dark Ford Sierra. -The evidence
from the two witnesses who'd seen Lee Harvey's vehicle
00:29:51
through the junction that night
was extremely impactive. And realistically, without a following vehicle,
00:30:01
without a dark-colored
Ford Sierra chasing that car, then the whole being
of that explanation from Tracie
00:30:08
just didn't stand up. -Further evidence pointed
towards Andrews being the killer
00:30:13
after the clothes
she was wearing on the night of the murder
were forensically tested.
00:30:18
-The forensic scientist who had examined
one of Tracie's zip-up boots -- She had a pair
of ankle boots on.
00:30:26
And within that, he'd found
a mark in the leather which had a rounded top on it and seemed to bear
all the impression
00:30:34
of the outside shape
of the knife. And that's the hypothesis -- that she carried the knife away
from the scene in her boot
00:30:44
and that, as soon as she got
to the hospital, she was able to dispose of it. -She could've easily
just, like,
00:30:50
thrown the knife into the grass
or into the forest, whatever it was, and hoped
the police wouldn't find it.
00:30:56
But she even thought, "No. These
guys are going to bring dogs. They're going
to search the whole area.
00:31:01
They will probably
find something." -Tracie Andrews was
officially charged with the murder of Lee Harvey
00:31:08
on December the 19th, 1996. Her trial was set for July, and she was going to plead
not guilty.
00:31:17
Andrews was sticking
to her story. The prosecution would have
to prove that she was a liar,
00:31:23
or she could walk away free. ♪♪ On July the 1st, 1997,
the trial of Tracie Andrews
00:31:35
began at Birmingham
Crown Court. The 28-year-old
was pleading not guilty to the murder of her fiancé,
Lee Harvey,
00:31:43
exactly seven months earlier. The media attention
surrounding Andrews and the trial was huge.
00:31:51
♪♪ -I was at the trial every day
at Birmingham Crown Court. It was compelling, unmissable,
00:31:59
and was being widely reported
in all the media every day and every evening
on the TV news bulletins.
00:32:07
-The prosecution team,
led by David Crigman, were confident that they had
a strong case against Andrews.
00:32:15
As well as
the two witness statements that contradicted
her road-rage story, the blood-pattern analysis
of her orange jumper was key.
00:32:25
-She was covered in blood, which she claimed
had come onto her clothing when she was comforting him
as he died,
00:32:31
as she held him in the road. But a lot of this blood
was sprayed blood. It was arterial blood
00:32:41
that had come out of the carotid
in a fountain and sprayed like a waterfall down the front of her clothing.
00:32:49
-In a lot of cases of stabbing, particularly to the chest
or the abdomen, a lot of the bleeding
is internal,
00:32:56
because the large organs
and blood vessels are deep within the body. The carotid artery is very close
to the surface,
00:33:03
so if it's breached, it will spray blood
under pressure from the heart out of that wound,
out into the air,
00:33:12
and it will land
on things next to it -- in particular, in this case,
Tracie Andrews, the assailant.
00:33:19
-The evidence may have appeared
to be compelling, but Andrews herself
had already proved
00:33:24
to be extremely convincing when under intense scrutiny. -I thought she'd done it.
I thought she was the killer.
00:33:32
But bearing in mind how she'd
handled the press conference a couple of days
after the murder,
00:33:40
I thought that she stood a good
chance of getting away with it. But as ever,
as is always the case,
00:33:46
everything would hinge
on the cross-examination of Tracie in the witness box should she choose
to give evidence
00:33:55
once the defense began. -On Monday, July the 14th, Tracie Andrews took the stand
to give her testimony.
00:34:04
-There was genuine apprehension
in the prosecution camp that a jury may be persuaded
by not only the story
00:34:13
but the skill, I would say,
the skill with which she was able to advance
what she had to say.
00:34:19
-Tracie stood
in the witness box now, having moved from the dock,
and gave her account,
00:34:25
which largely followed
the account that she'd been giving
to the police all along
00:34:29
through her statements -- the road-rage story,
the chase through the lanes, and the stabbing
and the road-rage attack.
00:34:37
And she gave it calmly and, in some senses,
convincingly. -Prosecutors knew that the
cross-examination of Andrews
00:34:49
would be their best chance at cracking her veneer of lies. -And it went on and on and on.
00:34:59
It went on for hours. It not only took
the whole of that afternoon, it took the whole of the
next day and into a third day.
00:35:06
And in that time, the highly intellectual
David Crigman just took her story apart.
00:35:14
He just deconstructed it
around her. She was left there
effectively naked in the middle of her story
in shreds on the floor.
00:35:26
-I came to the view that the only way
you could dissect her story was piece by little piece
00:35:35
by little piece,
detail by detail. It was the accumulation
of a large number of details
00:35:43
where she could shown
not to be telling the truth that could break her down. It was only within
the finest of detail,
00:35:50
as one mounted
on top of the next, that you began to see the story
as a pack of lies.
00:35:57
-And she was reduced
to standing there saying, "I don't know. I can't remember. I don't know.
I can't remember."
00:36:06
And at every point, her credibility diminished. And at that point, I thought, "Okay. I think she's going
to get found guilty."
00:36:17
-On July the 29th
in an unprecedented move, Andrews agreed to be interviewed
by a newspaper journalist
00:36:25
as the jury retired
to make a decision on her fate. She met with Rod Chaytor
in a private room at the court.
00:36:34
-And there was Tracie,
sat there, made up, composed, sat at a table,
her lawyers.
00:36:41
And I sat down,
and I interviewed her. It was absolutely bizarre. Never in 35 years
on Fleet Street,
00:36:50
never did it before,
never did it again, interview the accused
while the jury's out.
00:36:55
Extraordinary. So, I started
to ask her questions. -Rod had to work fast to get
all the information he could.
00:37:04
-The basic message
that she was giving was, "I didn't do it, I'm innocent, and I'll love him
till the day I die."
00:37:11
And that was the message from the exclusive
Mirror interview that I did. And I'd been there
about 20 minutes
00:37:19
and was just beginning to come
to the end of the story, just beginning to kind of think,
"Okay.
00:37:24
Well, what's the next question?" and the Tannoy went. And the Tannoy went,
"All parties to Court Nine.
00:37:32
All parties to Court Nine." You just felt, "Wow. The jury are back.
There's a verdict."
00:37:38
-Rod headed back to his seat
in the press box. -We kind of went
our separate ways
00:37:43
and ended up a few feet
from each other in court. And the judge came in.
Everyone stood up.
00:37:50
The foreman of the jury,
"Will you please stand? Do you have a verdict
on which you are all agreed?"
00:37:56
"Yes, we do."
"What is that verdict?" "Guilty." -Despite the strain that
Tracie Andrews must have felt
00:38:04
during four weeks in the dock,
she didn't even flinch as the jury foreman told her
that she was guilty.
00:38:10
Even though
she kept her head bowed, her face remained impassive
even as the judge said to her,
00:38:14
"Only you know precisely
what happened that night, but we all saw
the awful consequences."
00:38:19
He said he had no option but
to send her to prison for life. ♪♪ -She showed almost no emotion.
00:38:27
She shook her head once, like that, just as in, "No," or, "I don't agree," whatever,
but that was the only reaction.
00:38:37
♪♪ And she was then led
down the steps from the dock into the cell area below. She saw her family briefly
before she was taken away.
00:38:51
They were allowed
brief access to her. At that point,
she did break down in tears.
00:38:55
At that time,
she was completely tearful and terrified about what was
going to happen to her
00:39:03
and what awaited her
in prison from other inmates. In public, she had maintained
00:39:07
her composure
to the last, really. In private, she was terrified. -On the 29th of July, 1997,
00:39:18
Judge Mr. Justice Broccoli
sentenced Tracie Andrews to life in prison
for the murder of Lee Harvey.
00:39:25
She was ordered to serve
a minimum of 14 years. -Well, when we ask
the question,
00:39:32
"Why do we think Tracie Andrews
stabbed Lee Harvey?" it was because she felt
that Lee was hers.
00:39:38
He was her possession. This wasn't a relationship
that was about love. It was a relationship that was
about control and ownership.
00:39:45
And in ending somebody's life, you are completely
possessing them, and that was what was going on
on that evening
00:39:52
when she chose
to take Lee's life. -In April 1999,
Andrews finally admitted that her story about
a mysterious road-rage killer
00:40:02
had been completely made up. -21 months after her conviction in a letter to her solicitor,
00:40:11
Tracie Andrews confessed
for the first time that she had indeed
killed Lee Harvey
00:40:18
but that it was entirely
in self-defense. Now, how she could maintain that given that he had stab wounds
in his back
00:40:29
and he was bigger than she was, I find that very difficult
to believe. But nevertheless,
that's what she insisted.
00:40:36
-Tracie Andrews had gone
from a wannabe model to a model prisoner. In July 2011,
after serving her 14 years,
00:40:45
she was released
back into society and ordered not to go
within 25 miles of Lee Harvey's family.
00:40:53
-I think it is
absolutely possible for Tracie Andrews
to live a normal life. I think if she's come to terms
with her offense,
00:41:01
if she's addressed those
underlying behavioral traits and characteristics, if she's prepared
to just keep her head down
00:41:07
and get on with her life, then,
yes, very much, she can do that. And I think she should
appreciate the fact
00:41:13
that she's able to do that, because murder
casts a long shadow, and there are many people
00:41:19
who have been affected
by this crime, who continue
to be affected by it. But she has the opportunity now
00:41:25
to ensure that she doesn't cause
any more harm to people and that she can make
a contribution to society.
00:41:32
-It's been over 20 years since Tracie Andrews
took away the life of her fiancé in a brutal and vicious attack.
00:41:41
It remains one of the most
infamous murders of the 1990s. -Violence on this occasion
was not the first occasion
00:41:50
she had used violence. This is a woman of cunning, of deceit, and with a vicious temper.
00:42:02
-It's often described
as a crime of passion, and I tend not to use that term, because I think
what we're implying there
00:42:09
is that she wasn't in control
of her actions. She didn't know
what she was doing.
00:42:13
This rage came over her,
and she couldn't help herself. I think she knew exactly
what she was doing.
00:42:18
When you stab somebody 42 times, you are deciding
to continue doing this. Your arm is going to be tired.
00:42:25
There are going to be
opportunities for you to stop, and you decide to keep going.
00:42:29
-That is prolonged ferocity. That's going on and on
and on and on. That's not a momentary
flash of anger.
00:42:38
That's uncontrollable rage lasting a significant
period of time. It's a shocking,
shocking thought,
00:42:48
and the fact
that a woman has done it makes it twice as shocking. -Tracie Andrews' case
00:42:54
will always remain
in the public psyche due to her persistent lying,
first to the police,
00:43:01
then the world's media,
and finally in a court of law. But although she'll forever
be remembered
00:43:07
for her crocodile tears, it should never be forgotten
that she killed Lee Harvey
00:43:12
in a horrific
and frenzied attack without a shred of remorse, which undoubtedly makes her
00:43:20
one of the world's
most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪