00:00:04
NARRATOR: Monday,
June, the 18th, 2001, East Tilbury, Essex, England. Every morning,
15-year-old Danielle Jones
00:00:14
gave her mom a kiss
and wave goodbye to her little brother
Mitchell as she left home to go to school.
00:00:22
He used to sit and
watch her go out the door, and then he said
that she turned left,
00:00:27
which was her normal way to go. NARRATOR: Only one
member of the family would ever see
Danielle alive again--
00:00:34
her 43-year-old uncle,
Stuart Campbell, the man who killed her. He's detailed every
phone call they've had,
00:00:42
every text message
that they've exchanged, and that really does reveal
the degree of his fixation
00:00:48
and his obsession with her. NARRATOR: Campbell
was a con artist, who preyed on teenage girls.
00:00:55
In serial killer mode,
this guy had a type, and that was his type. This was what he would
target over and over again.
00:01:02
He portrayed himself to
be a glamor photographer, and he carried a
small business card
00:01:08
with the title of Cinderella's. NARRATOR: At the time, it was
the largest investigation ever
00:01:13
conducted by Essex
Police, creating intense nationwide
media coverage. Although I knew
it was happening,
00:01:20
I can remember watching
it on the news. And I just completely
lost it because that
00:01:24
was the first time I realized
they were looking for a body. NARRATOR: Stuart Campbell was
a predator, posing as a fun,
00:01:31
loving, caring uncle. He abused his position
of trust and Stole his 15-year-old niece from
the family who trusted him.
00:01:40
And he never gave
her back, making Stuart Campbell one of the
world's most evil killers.
00:01:47
[music playing] 18th of June 2001, East
Tilbury, Essex, England. It was a normal
hectic Monday morning
00:02:17
in the Jones' household. Dad Tony had left for work at
their dry cleaning business
00:02:22
and mom Linda was seeing
15-year-old Danielle and her two younger
brothers off to school.
00:02:29
It was Danielle's first
day back after returning from a school geography trip. She wasn't a lover of school
because, academically, she
00:02:37
found it quite hard. She always tried a best,
and that was all we ever asked of all of our children.
00:02:42
But she did find school
a bit of a struggle. NARRATOR: Over the weekend,
Danielle had been oddly quiet
00:02:48
and preoccupied, texting
furiously on her phone. It was actually Father's Day. She didn't get Tony a card,
which was very unlike her.
00:02:58
We were going to see my Nan
who had turned 100 that year, and we were going to see her.
00:03:04
And she didn't
want to come, which was really not like her at all. She seemed a little
bit agitated.
00:03:09
NARRATOR: What Linda didn't know
was that Danielle had returned home from the school
trip to find two love
00:03:16
notes hidden in her bedroom. And we know now
that she was very, very, very upset about this.
00:03:21
She felt that this was a real
infringement of her privacy that he had dared to
come into her bedroom
00:03:26
and leave two notes for her. And I think, clearly,
this was the rod that broke the camel's back.
00:03:31
And from that point, Danielle
made it very clear that they weren't going to be
friends, and there wasn't
00:03:35
going to be a relationship. NARRATOR: The man
who left the notes was Danielle's 43-year-old
uncle, Stuart Campbell.
00:03:45
He came into our
family very similar time to when I came into the family. He has gone out
with Tony's sister.
00:03:54
He was welcomed into
the family the same as I was, very
character full of life, like to be the
center of attention,
00:04:00
but that sort of just
day, we took him. And that was Harry was, so we
didn't think anything of that.
00:04:07
Just a very full
of life character. NARRATOR: As Danielle
grew into adolescence,
00:04:13
Uncle Stuart began to pay
more attention to her. He was a member of this
family for nearly 20 years.
00:04:19
They accepted him
as one of their own, and he completely
violated all of that trust
00:04:25
and all of that acceptance to
basically get what he wanted. That relationship
initially it just
00:04:32
seemed like a friendly uncle. But again, it's one of
those things in hindsight, they were able to look at it and
go, this wasn't friendly uncle.
00:04:38
This was grooming uncle. And that was how he
was able to get access. NARRATOR: The Jones
family had no knowledge
00:04:45
of Campbell's deviant past. No one knew about the
gold held hostage in 1989. No one knew about the
four-year prison sentence
00:04:55
for robbing a 16-year-old. As far as anyone was concerned,
it was just Stuart, Uncle Stu.
00:05:02
I don't think I
wanted to believe it, to be honest with you. But obviously, the
more we were told,
00:05:07
I then realized that it was him. I think the initial
thing was shock because this was a member of
my family, who, I thought,
00:05:14
loved our children and wouldn't
do anything to hurt them. NARRATOR: When
Danielle Jones left
00:05:19
home that fateful
Monday morning, she didn't catch
the bus to school. Had she agreed
to see Uncle Stu?
00:05:30
Or had she changed her mind? Or were they in the
midst of an argument? We really don't know.
00:05:38
We do know that she
changed her route. We do know that she was talking
to a man in a transit van,
00:05:44
and that was almost without
question, Stuart Campbell. NARRATOR: Linda never
saw Danielle again.
00:05:51
And the man who took
her, Stuart Campbell, would never reveal what he
did to her or where she was.
00:05:59
My biggest wish
at the moment is that he does one decent
thing in his life, and that is to give
us our daughter back.
00:06:05
Supposedly loving her
as much as he did, why does he not want to
do the right thing for her
00:06:11
and give her back to the family? NARRATOR: This
killer's story begins on the 21st of February 1958.
00:06:20
Stuart Campbell was born
in Malden, Essex, England. We know that he
worked as a builder,
00:06:27
and that he was quite
heavily into bodybuilding. But we don't know very
much about his early years,
00:06:32
his childhood. That seems to be
a bit of a blank. As a self-employed
builder, Stuart Campbell
00:06:38
was well-known in and
around the County of Essex. Local journalist, Karl Eve,
has spent most of his career
00:06:46
as a crime reporter in the area. He was described as
pretty much a poser. He liked going to the gym.
00:06:53
He was big at the gym. He would quite literally
pump himself up. He would wear clothes
that were very
00:06:58
revealing, shockingly revealing,
according to some women. Frankly, one of these guys
who really loved himself.
00:07:04
And he would come in
tight fitting muscle tops, and he would always be very
flash or try and be very flash.
00:07:11
So he was a guy who wanted
to be liked by women. That became very obvious. We often find in people,
like Campbell, they
00:07:19
have these whole chapters
of their lives, which do continue to be a mystery. Because, time and again,
they reinvent themselves.
00:07:27
They wipe the slate clean. They start again, and they
leave behind any, kind of,
00:07:32
chaos that's in their wake. What we do know about Stuart
is that from a very early age,
00:07:39
really, from
adolescence onwards, he becomes fixated
on teenage girls. They are his obsession.
00:07:53
Many people would describe
him as a pedophile. I would be tempted to. NARRATOR: In 1977,
at the age of 19,
00:08:01
Campbell accosted a
16-year-old girl in the street in broad daylight. He was sentenced to four
years in prison for robbery.
00:08:09
When we look back at
his offending, when we see these property
offenses, like robbery,
00:08:14
we tend to think that they're
completely separate from any, sort of, sexual offending,
but they're not Because?
00:08:19
They're all underpinned
by entitlement a feeling that I have a
right to take what I want.
00:08:23
So they are part and parcel of
his offending profile, which is underpinned by misogyny.
00:08:30
NARRATOR: When Campbell
was released from prison, he found another way to approach
impressionable teenage girls.
00:08:36
Campbell starts up a
so-called photography business, where he is there to take
photos of young girls,
00:08:44
and he claims that
he's going to help them get into the modeling industry. And also, by setting
this up in his home,
00:08:51
he is in control of
that environment. When girls come
into his home, he's the one who holds the power.
00:09:01
In 1989, he encounters
the police again. This time, for effectively
abducting a 14-year-old
00:09:09
and keeping a hostage on the
pretext of photographing her. He doesn't get away with it.
00:09:17
But equally, he doesn't
get a prison sentence. He's simply given
12 months suspended.
00:09:23
Now, a suspended
sentence is, essentially, he's walked away from court. He's got a bit of a
slap on the wrist.
00:09:30
And this simply validates
and legitimizes his behavior. NARRATOR: Campbell
met his first wife
00:09:36
Jennifer in 1975 when
she was just 15 years old and he was 17. They married a year later
when Jennifer was six months
00:09:45
pregnant with their daughter. But he's always grooming, and
it's a word that particularly
00:09:52
applies to Stuart Campbell. And he identifies another
15-year-old while he's still married to Jennifer.
00:10:01
And this one is called Debbie. NARRATOR: Debbie Jones
and Stuart Campbell were together for 13 years
before marrying in 1996.
00:10:11
Debbie had a brother called
Tony, who was married to Linda, and they had three young
children-- two boys,
00:10:17
Ryan and Mitchell, and
their big sister, Danielle. 12-year-old Danielle
was a beaming bridesmaid
00:10:25
at Debbie and Stuart's wedding. He appears to be, I
think, quite a cool uncle. He's into bodybuilding.
00:10:32
He's quite a good looking guy. And I think he's somebody that
Danielle probably looked up to
00:10:37
in the beginning as a father,
straight uncle figure, as an authority figure, and
someone who she probably
00:10:43
had quite a lot of respect for. NARRATOR: Campbell was a
regular visitor at Tony
00:10:48
and Linda's home in
East Tilbury, Essex. They trusted him. He was, after all,
a father himself.
00:10:54
Their children thought
he was the perfect uncle, always happy to
play with the kids,
00:10:59
especially Ryan and Mitchell. When the children
were young, he showed less interest in Danielle.
00:11:08
It was only when she started
to reach the age 14 to 15, which was effectively the
age of the girls he liked,
00:11:14
that he would turn up more,
and he would spend more time and find more
excuses to turn up.
00:11:19
And he would come around and
play video games with the two younger brothers. That really was how he
kept the contact constant.
00:11:26
It's a grooming process. I don't think the
parents saw anything odd in him turning up because,
in effect, he's family.
00:11:33
NARRATOR: Little
did the family know that the loving, caring
uncle that Campbell portrayed
00:11:38
was merely a cover-up. His true intentions
would soon be revealed. 2001, East Tilbury,
Essex, England.
00:11:50
Stuart Campbell was spending
more time than usual with the Jones family, finding
every opportunity to pop
00:11:57
into their home for a visit. He even had his own key. He was also paying
a lot more attention
00:12:03
to his niece, Danielle. When Danielle gets
to around about age 15, Campbell's interest in
her seems to ramp up.
00:12:13
And we know that Campbell
met both of his wives when they were 15. So he has this, kind of,
fixation with young girls,
00:12:22
who are ever so
slightly under age. So history seems to
be repeating itself. NARRATOR: Tony and Linda had no
reason to suspect that Campbell
00:12:33
had any ulterior motive. I felt we were
quite a loving family. She liked to boss the
boys around to a degree.
00:12:41
Yeah, I felt we were just a
fairly normal loving family. NARRATOR: And Danielle
was a normal teenage girl.
00:12:50
The older he gets,
the more he preys on the unexpecting naive young
girl who is just blossoming.
00:12:58
I mean, in essence,
that's the element. He likes to choose girls
who are on the cusp
00:13:03
of blossoming into adulthood. NARRATOR: Campbell often
picked Danielle up at school
00:13:09
in his blue transit van. He'd take her shopping,
buy her gifts, and they'd go to
the cinema together.
00:13:17
It was perfect because
he had that access. He could always excuse it. And he could keep
on approaching her.
00:13:23
Whereas, anyone else's
parents would say, what are you doing
around my house? What are you doing
with this girl?
00:13:29
With her, he could always
say, this is my niece. Danielle had a
passion for animals,
00:13:38
especially dolphins
were her favorite, and she did get to stroke
a dolphin in Florida.
00:13:42
And she loved children, and she
was doing a course at school, like a nursery
nurse-type course.
00:13:48
And I'm sure that
she would have gone on to work with young
children-- young children,
00:13:52
especially with her,
things she liked the best, preschool, probably. NARRATOR: Danielle's
love for children
00:13:59
gave Campbell an
opportunity to exploit. He and Tom's sister
were expecting a baby,
00:14:10
which, obviously,
Daniel was thrilled about, the fact of having a
little niece on their view.
00:14:14
He would show her
things he'd bought. He'd wait from the school
bus and then say he'd
00:14:19
got things to do on this day. Come with me, I'll show
you what I've built. And he was taking in a fair
amount of interest in her.
00:14:26
But then, it's really
hard hindsight now we can say things weren't right. But at the time, it was just--
00:14:33
he's shown everything
with the baby. She's so excited about the baby. And we didn't particularly think
anything of it at the time.
00:14:40
Campbell really had
started to cross the line. He's gone from being a
helpful uncle, who picks Danny
00:14:46
out up from school to being
somebody who is spending rather too much time with her.
00:14:52
So they are literally
hanging out together. And I'm not putting any blame
for one moment on Danielle
00:14:57
here. The perpetrator of this dreadful
crime is Stuart Campbell. He's the adult. But it's
clear that there was
00:15:05
a connection between the two. It was quite vivid. It wasn't fluffy. It was quite strong.
00:15:12
I think Stuart was
biding his time, waiting for a moment in
which he could, well,
00:15:18
I'm afraid, do what he
wanted with Danielle. NARRATOR: East
Tilbury, May 2001. The Jones family went
on holiday to France.
00:15:31
And when they got
back, Danielle went on a school geography trip. She'd been separated from
Campbell for some time.
00:15:39
But Campbell still had
access to the family's home and Danielle's bedroom. The whole family's
gone away on holiday,
00:15:47
and that's when he'd
gone into the house and left all these
notes, handwritten notes.
00:15:51
Hope you're great. I really miss you. I miss your smile. Very creepy. Hi, princess.
00:15:59
Hope you have a lovely holiday. Text me when you get back. Love, Stuart. And then, there's
a kiss underneath.
00:16:05
So this would be one
of the ones that he dropped off at the house
whilst they were away.
00:16:10
Another one. Hi, princess. In case you missed
my last note, I just thought I'd pop
in another to let
00:16:16
you know I do miss your smile. And then it's got XX. Now, this is incredibly
intrusive, incredibly invasive,
00:16:25
and it's evidence
of a real obsession, a real fixation on Danielle. And rightly, she starts to feel
incredibly frightened by this
00:16:34
and incredibly rattled by it. NARRATOR: On the 16th of
June, when Danielle returned
00:16:41
from the school
trip, her mom Linda noticed something was wrong. She came home on
the Friday night.
00:16:49
And over that weekend,
she wasn't quite herself. There was lots of texting and
that things weren't quite right
00:16:56
that whole weekend. She kept popping
out around the shop. I've got to go around the shop
and a lot of texting going on.
00:17:02
But we just thought,
oh, perhaps, she's had a fall out with a friend. And so, it was a bit
of a strange weekend.
00:17:08
We look back now at
it, you know, yeah, she wasn't her normal
self that weekend at all.
00:17:14
And I think her friends, in
particular, would have been more aware than her family
of the communication that
00:17:20
was going on between
the two of them. And I think the reaction
of Danielle's friends
00:17:25
was, perhaps, something
of a wake up call for her, which she realized,
actually, this is something
00:17:30
that is out of the ordinary. This is something that is
quite intrusive and invasive,
00:17:35
and it's making me
feel uncomfortable. Eventually, she, kind
of, woke up to reality,
00:17:40
woke up to how creepy is. And her friends
were saying things like, yeah, he's come around.
00:17:44
She's like, oh, God, not him. Oh, God. And started to spurn him. So we know that the
spurning process
00:17:50
was happening at the
same time in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. NARRATOR: On Monday, June
the 18th, 2001, Danielle
00:17:58
left for school as normal. Well, it was her first day
back after her trip away. She seemed perfectly
normal that morning.
00:18:06
She got up as usual. Kissed me goodbye. Ryan was already
at senior school. Mitchell was still
in junior school,
00:18:12
so he would wait
until she'd gone, and then go and get ready. She went out as normal.
00:18:17
He used to sit and watch
her go out of the door. And then he said
that she turned left,
00:18:22
which was her normal way to go. And then she turned back
around and walked back past the house the other way.
00:18:28
I didn't think anything of it. I thought, perhaps,
she'd had a text from a friend who was waiting
around the other corner.
00:18:33
Didn't think anything unusual
about that, to be honest. The question that haunts me
is why that particular June day?
00:18:45
Was it a crime of opportunity? Or was it a crime
of premeditation? What was it about that
day in June 2000 that made
00:18:56
Campbell act the way he did? What was it that provoked
him on that particular day?
00:19:03
Was it an argument
with Danielle? Was it Danielle refusing
to do what he wanted?
00:19:08
Or was it more sinister even
than that, that he'd persuaded her somehow to do something.
00:19:14
I simply don't know. When the victim decides
to step away and say they've had enough and distance
themselves from the abuser,
00:19:24
the abuser decides to
take the control back, to say to the victim, you
don't get to decide this.
00:19:30
I get to decide this. And this is a very
dangerous time. When there is that separation,
the risk of homicide
00:19:37
increases exponentially. NARRATOR: At 2.30 PM,
on the 18th of June, Linda received a phone call.
00:19:48
I got a phone
call from the school to say that Danielle hadn't
been at school, which wasn't
00:19:53
something Danielle would do. She would be a bit of a scaredy
cat not going to school.
00:19:58
They then said, well,
we're quite surprised. Give us five minutes. We'll go and double check this.
00:20:03
They phoned me
back and said, no, she's definitely not at school. NARRATOR: 15-year-old
Danielle Jones had vanished.
00:20:10
Only the man in the blue
transit van knew where she was. East Tilbury, Essex, England,
Monday, the 18th of June, 2001.
00:20:21
15-year-old Danielle Jones
hadn't turned up for school. Something that was totally
out of character for her.
00:20:29
I waited for Brian
to come home to see if he'd seen her at school. He said he hadn't, but
that wasn't unusual.
00:20:35
She didn't come home. I probably left it a little
while, thinking, well, if she has done
something, she'll
00:20:41
come home as though she's
just got off the bus. Time was going on,
so I started phoning
00:20:46
her friends who then
all confirmed she hadn't turned up for school. NARRATOR: Danielle had
vanished into thin air.
00:20:52
No one knew where she was. What was in her mind? What had been
agreed between them?
00:20:58
Had there been a falling out? Had he said, you've
got to talk to me? Or had she said, I don't
want to see you again?
00:21:05
Linda called her husband Tony
and asked him to come home. She also called the missing
persons hotline who told
00:21:13
her to call the local police. For some reason,
Tony, on his way home, decided to call at
his sister's house.
00:21:19
She was at work. But he looked through the
window because he felt-- that when knocking on the door,
he felt someone was there,
00:21:25
but they didn't answer the door. So he looked through
the window and laid out on the lounge floor was a
load of camera equipment.
00:21:32
NARRATOR: On the same day,
Detective Sergeant Keith Davis from Grays Police
Station in Thurrock
00:21:39
responded to Linda's call. In the very beginning, when
Daniel went missing from East
00:21:47
Tilbury, obviously, there was
an awful lot of house-to-house inquiries taking place,
to see if there's been
00:21:52
any sightings of Danielle. And the young man, who, I
think, was only five years old
00:21:56
had reported seeing
someone he thought was Danielle, arguing with the
man with a blue transit van.
00:22:02
And having spoken to
Danielle's friends, they identified that her
uncle Stuart Campbell
00:22:08
had a blue transit van. So he became a
person of interest fairly early on in the inquiry.
00:22:16
I think, at the
time, obviously, I didn't dream in
a million years that anything, as it
turns out, would happen.
00:22:21
I just thought she'd had
a fall out with someone or had gone off to
sort a problem out.
00:22:28
Then when we started
looking into Stuart Campbell, we realized that he'd been
involved in various offenses
00:22:34
over the past 20 years,
starting off with burglaries in and around the local
area, very quickly moving on
00:22:40
to taking indecent
images of young girls, generally around
13, 14 years of age. NARRATOR: The Jones family
knew nothing about Campbell's
00:22:49
sordid history of offenses. We discovered, when
we started to look into his past and
his background,
00:22:56
he portrayed himself to
be a glamor photographer. And he carried a
small business card
00:23:03
with the title of Cinderella's. He never was, officially,
a photographer at all.
00:23:10
When Campbell met
Debbie, his wife, he essentially wanted
to leave his past behind
00:23:16
because his
offending history was completely inconsistent with the
character that he was creating.
00:23:22
He was trying to
create this figure of the trustworthy regular guy,
the family man, the father.
00:23:29
His past really identified
to us that he was an extremely confident individual. He was able to gain the trust
of these young girls very,
00:23:37
very quickly, so much
so that he would-- when he did take
photographs of them, he would be confident
enough to take them
00:23:43
back to his own home address. So very quickly, he would have
emerged on the police's radar
00:23:49
as the prime suspect. And they would want
to know exactly what he'd been doing on the
day that she disappeared.
00:23:56
He had a previous
conviction for taking a child without
consent, which ended up being a much lower charge.
00:24:03
But eventually,
when we got to talk to the victim of that crime, it
was a great deal more than that
00:24:07
and actually involved
in indecent assault and indecent photographs
being taken of that person.
00:24:15
NARRATOR: 21st of June, 2001. After the extent of Stewart
Campbell's past was revealed,
00:24:22
the case was referred to
Detective Chief Superintendent Steven Reynolds, Head of the
Major Investigations Section
00:24:29
of the Crime Division in Essex. Usually, when children go
missing, they are found very,
00:24:36
very quickly. That said, as a
detective, you're always told that every missing
person has the potential
00:24:45
of being a murder victim. And you should never
discount that until there is evidence to the contrary.
00:24:52
NARRATOR: As police
continued their inquiries, the tight-knit community
of East Tilbury
00:24:57
and the local Essex
media did everything they could to help find Danielle. It's a fair-sized
state where we live.
00:25:04
And obviously, some
people know who she was. Some people didn't, so
we did a leaflet drop.
00:25:08
We were still searching. Family we're still searching. Friends were still searching.
00:25:13
On the way to
school, some children would look to see if they
could see any signs of it.
00:25:17
The community were really good
in trying to help as well. I think we got a photo
very soon afterwards.
00:25:23
So it would have been in about
two or three days, that's the, sort of, point where
a person going missing,
00:25:28
it gets from we're a
bit concerned to we need to let the media know. We need to do wider appeal.
00:25:33
There's something a bit
more worrying about this. And the picture of
Danielle with her long hair
00:25:39
and her school uniform and a
blazer is imprinted on my mind and will ever be. You can't forget it.
00:25:48
It's vivid. Everyone was out
searching except him. He actually came round
through that first week
00:26:00
and came in with a
magazine on family trees, doing family trees,
because that's what I was doing at the time.
00:26:06
And I was like, what
am I interested in this for at the moment? His just whole behavior
was not like someone
00:26:12
that loved his niece and
was desperate to find out what happened to her,
just bizarre behavior.
00:26:18
Campbell didn't actually
join in the search. He didn't help look for her,
and I think this was a very
00:26:24
deliberate move on his part. I think he's smart enough to
realize that the people close
00:26:29
to Danielle are going to be
under a lot of scrutiny. , Because in most cases,
when a child comes to harm,
00:26:35
it's at the hands of
somebody within their family. So this is a very
cunning move on his part.
00:26:41
He just removes himself from
the limelight altogether. But in doing so,
he makes himself
00:26:47
all that much more suspicious. NARRATOR: Investigators had
to be sure that Danielle
00:26:52
hadn't planned to leave home. When Daniel was
first reported missing, Grays Police conducted
some initial inquiries,
00:27:01
and these inquiries included
searching Danielle's home and also her bedroom. It was ascertained very
quickly that she hadn't taken
00:27:12
any clothes and
items, which one would have thought she really needed. Like, a mobile phone charger
was still present in the house.
00:27:23
And the feeling now was that
she was either being held against her will
or that, sadly, she
00:27:30
may have already been murdered. NARRATOR: On the
22nd of June, 2001, Steven Reynolds
and his team made
00:27:38
a decision to arrest Campbell. There was no
identified offenses. We had no evidence to
charge him with any offense,
00:27:45
but he hadn't really said much
about Danielle's whereabouts. NARRATOR: Campbell
showed the police
00:27:50
a text message he claimed
was from Danielle, sent after her disappearance. Hi, Stu.
00:27:57
Thanks for being so nice. You are the best uncle ever. Tell mom I'm so sorry. Love you loads.
00:28:04
Dan. He gave an account that on
the morning that Danielle went missing, he had to
drive to the Wix
00:28:10
DIY store, which was
just along the A13, to buy some spare parts. And then when he
returned, he started
00:28:17
working on his
neighbor's decking that he was planning to do. NARRATOR: With
Campbell in custody,
00:28:23
the police were able
to search his house for any sign of Danielle. Campbell is still,
at this point,
00:28:31
maintaining his innocence. Because Campbell is
a very confident man. Underneath all that
exterior, he doesn't believe,
00:28:41
for one second, that they
will be able to convict him without a body. He's utterly certain, in his
own mind, because he's a builder
00:28:50
and because he knows
what he's doing that he's concealed
the body so effectively
00:28:54
that they'll never find it. So they can say what they like. Where's the body? NARRATOR: Investigators
found nothing
00:29:02
to justify, detaining
Campbell further, and he was released
on police bail. Whilst Campbell was on bail,
the investigation continued
00:29:13
at a pace to try and gather
evidence sufficient to charge him, but also, we still
didn't know for sure
00:29:22
that Danielle was dead. There was still a
remote possibility that she could be alive.
00:29:32
NARRATOR: East
Tilbury, June 2001. With insufficient
evidence to hold him, Stuart Campbell was
released on police bail.
00:29:41
But the police were
convinced that Campbell was responsible for
Danielle's disappearance,
00:29:46
and he was their only
person of interest. Initially, Campbell was
put under surveillance
00:29:53
to see if there was
anything in his movements that would assist us
in locating Danielle,
00:30:01
be it, hopefully, alive or,
sadly, if a body was found. But regretfully, that
wasn't successful.
00:30:09
So then, the inquiry went off
in a number of directions. We looked at his alibi, and
it was clear that the alibi
00:30:18
was a false alibi. NARRATOR: In 2001, mobile phone
technology was in its infancy,
00:30:25
and triangulating mobile signals
were still a specialist field. Campbell had claimed to be
at a DIY store in Raleigh
00:30:33
on that Monday morning. Yet, his phone was in East
Tilbury and so was Danielle. Both phones were picked
up by the same mast.
00:30:42
Meaning, they were within
a mile of each other. But in the very early stages,
we had a considerable search
00:30:49
for Danielle for
obvious reasons, and that was really
responding to any sightings
00:30:53
that members of the public
would letting us know about. And this was predominantly ran
in the East Tilbury area, which
00:30:59
is vast in relation
to open land, railway tracks, and very heavy growth. But they were actually
searching all of those areas,
00:31:06
including waterborne
environments, rivers, and lakes. East Tilbury is, kind of,
like a square of concrete.
00:31:13
And around it, you have
the Essex marshes, really. It's the stuff out of
Charles Dickens period,
00:31:19
where it's just
marshland and wetland, and you're very, very
close to the estuary,
00:31:25
so it's silt and mud. There are industrial works,
abandoned industrial works. There's the remnants
of duckland type areas.
00:31:35
So it's a vast area. It's a really large
area to cover. And it was broken up into bits.
00:31:41
And the search is
from what I understand went from the day she
went missing up to the day
00:31:46
before the trial. And they were
methodically planned. I think it was
cut up into areas.
00:31:51
We're going to search this
area, this area, and this area. NARRATOR: The extensive
search attracted
00:31:56
intense media attention. By the Saturday, they asked
us to do a press conference.
00:32:03
And they took us to our
local police station, and we were, sort of,
told what would happen.
00:32:08
But I don't think
anything quite prepared me for what was to happen. It was quite a frightening
experience, really.
00:32:15
And on the way there, we were
told that very few couples survive anything like this,
which, at the time, I thought,
00:32:21
you know. But that happens to be one
of the best bits of advice they ever gave us because
we then decided to, well,
00:32:27
we are going to stay
together and fight this. But the press conference
was very daunting.
00:32:33
I think I broke down
and blew my nose, and the cameras just went
absolutely berserk at the fact
00:32:38
that I'd broken down, I think. It was quite a frightening
experience, really. NARRATOR: The investigation
was called Operation Spinnaker,
00:32:47
and the Essex police invested
over 1.7 million pounds into trying to find Danielle.
00:32:54
It was, at the time, the
largest investigation ever conducted by them. As the search for
Danielle continued,
00:33:02
the investigation into Stuart
Campbell gained momentum. The police looked back
at the suspended sentence
00:33:09
Campbell had received in
1989 for the abduction of a 14-year-old girl. We also managed to identify
a number of other victims,
00:33:18
female victims of various
ages, where he'd either inappropriately taken
photographs of them
00:33:27
or, in some cases, committed
sexual offenses on those women. NARRATOR: On the 17th of August,
2001, evidence from Campbell's
00:33:38
past behavior was
enough to convince the Crown Prosecution Service
that he should be rearrested.
00:33:45
He was charged with possessing
a rather large amount of drugs with a couple of
assaults on other people.
00:33:52
They basically gathered loads
of evidence from other places as part of their investigation.
00:33:56
And it was like, right, we'll
throw everything at you. So initially, he was charged
with the whole load of things.
00:34:02
That was important for
us because, at least, he was off the streets,
and we could then
00:34:08
continue our investigation
and try and gain that additional evidence to
satisfy the Crown Prosecution
00:34:14
Service that there was
sufficient evidence to charge him with murder and abduction.
00:34:21
The day that they charged him
was awful, really, because that was the day we actually had to
sit our two boys down and tell
00:34:28
them that, I think, they picked
up that he was a suspect, but to actually then
tell them that he
00:34:35
has been charged with the
murder of their sister. It was quite horrific. NARRATOR: The police
now had the opportunity
00:34:43
to conduct an in-depth
search of Campbell's home. During that second search
of Stuart Campbell's house,
00:34:53
the one that are most
predominant findings was a bag that was found in
the loft of his home address.
00:34:58
And inside this bag, there were
a number of pieces of lingerie, some handcuffs, and
it was quite clear
00:35:04
that this was a bag of
clothing that he utilized when he brought young
girls back to his home
00:35:10
to take photographs of. In Campbell's house, a
range of different evidence is discovered by the police.
00:35:16
There are some physical
forensic evidence. So there's a pair of stockings
with Danielle's blood on them.
00:35:22
There's also a lip gloss
that belonged to Danielle. So those things, in themselves,
are quite incriminating.
00:35:29
But the police also
find Campbell's diary. There was a diary found in
Stuart Campbell's home address
00:35:37
that, in many respects, got
referred to as the Danielle diary, not because
Daniel wrote it,
00:35:42
but it was exclusively about
his relationship with Danielle, and how she had behaved
on a particular day.
00:35:48
And it went to show really his
obsessiveness, his obsession with Danielle Jones.
00:35:54
As the investigation
progressed, we were finding lots
of things out of bounds in that which were quite
shocking that girls were coming
00:36:02
forward to say that he'd
posed as a photographer and vary in different things. And that was very
unnerving, the fact
00:36:10
that he almost led
this secret life, which we had no idea about. And that was not nice to think
that we'd had him in our home,
00:36:18
had him around our
children, trusted him, and the biggest betrayal of
all is that he appears to have
00:36:24
done something to our daughter. NARRATOR: It's one of
the most complicated cases for any police force to
prove murder without a body.
00:36:37
It is very complicated
indeed and presents the Crown Prosecution Service
and, eventually,
00:36:44
the prosecution at trial
with enormous number of difficulties. We didn't really feel
without sufficient evidence
00:36:51
because this was a
very unusual case that it was a body-less murder. So we had to prove, not only
that Danielle been murdered,
00:36:58
and that she'd not simply run
away, but also that Stuart Campbell was responsible.
00:37:02
NARRATOR: The evidence
was presented to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS, initially,
did not feel
00:37:10
that we had sufficient evidence
to bring a charge of murder and kidnap against
Stuart Campbell.
00:37:17
We continued with piecing
the case together. And eventually, one of the
senior Crown Prosecutors
00:37:24
in Essex took a week off
away from his normal work to actually review all of the
evidence that we had gathered.
00:37:34
And at the end of that, he
was satisfied that there was sufficient evidence to put
Campbell before a court,
00:37:42
charged with murder and kidnap. NARRATOR: The 14th
of October 2002, Chelmsford Crown
Court, Essex, England.
00:37:54
After 11 months on remand and
still pleading his innocence, Stuart Campbell went on
trial for the abduction
00:38:01
and murder of his 15-year-old
niece, Danielle Jones. The last thing you want
to do is open the case high
00:38:10
and then close it low. So it's best to open
it in a very level way without any emotion, simply
pointing out the questions
00:38:21
that the jury might wish to ask. Stuart Campbell's defense,
effectively, it wasn't me,
00:38:26
and I wasn't there. That Danielle has
upped and run away, and I have nothing
to do with it.
00:38:33
The evidence was
circumstantial, which, I'm sure, everybody
knows means that there
00:38:37
was no direct evidence. Nobody had seen the killing. There was no admission
from Stuart Campbell
00:38:44
that he was
responsible, and there wasn't that much
by way of direct forensic scientific evidence.
00:38:51
Taking the stand was not
a nice experience at all. I think I was on there
for about three days.
00:38:57
Not a nice experience at
all with him sitting there. I tried not to look,
but it was very
00:39:04
uncomfortable with him sitting
there, very uncomfortable. NARRATOR: Throughout the
trial, the prosecution team
00:39:10
continued building their case. Somewhere in the region of
between 50 and 60 additional
00:39:18
statements were taken
during their 11-week trial in an effort to make what we
thought was our strong case,
00:39:27
even stronger. NARRATOR: Albeit
circumstantial, the prosecution had gathered some powerful
evidence against Campbell.
00:39:36
Some lip gloss was
found in his attic. And on the brush, or whatever
you call it, of the applicator,
00:39:46
her DNA was found or there was
a fairly significant match. But I think the
thing that helped
00:39:54
convict him was this significant
cell site data, the telephone evidence, which showed
that he had lied
00:40:01
on the day in question, and
there have been a very strong relationship between these two
phones in the very early days
00:40:07
after Danielle went missing. NARRATOR: Further forensic
authorship analysis of the text
00:40:13
message, Campbell had
claimed was from Danielle, revealed it was not
from Danielle, as she
00:40:19
always texted in lower case. The text had been sent by
Campbell from her phone to his.
00:40:27
That was one of
those killer moments, you thought, the
technology has stuffed you.
00:40:31
Nothing else has been
out for you the same. Nothing else has been out
and know you as a liar
00:40:37
as much as this technology. And so put all of that
together-- opportunity, motive,
00:40:46
and a little bit of scientific
evidence, plus the blue van, and the fact that
she disappeared
00:40:52
made quite a compelling case. I think, to be honest,
I had a glimmer of hope. Right up until
the trial, I think
00:41:02
there was always that minuscule
of hope that it was wrong. NARRATOR: The 19th of December
2002, Chelmsford Crown Court.
00:41:17
Stuart Campbell was found
guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment for
murder and a further 10
00:41:24
years for abduction. It was ruled that
Campbell should serve a minimum of
20 years before being
00:41:31
considered for parole. Stuart Campbell's demeanor
through the entire court case and even at the end, when he was
sentenced, was just stone cold.
00:41:41
There was nothing there. I think what makes this
case exceptional, for me, is the fact that the
police were able to gather
00:41:48
sufficient evidence to stand up
in court, to convince a jury. I think they did an
incredibly good job here
00:41:54
because gaining a
conviction without a body is a very difficult thing to do I think from the police's
point of view jubilation,
00:42:02
that they got the
result they wanted. So it's a very strange
feeling, really. Yes, we've got the
result we wanted,
00:42:11
but the thing we wanted most
of all was Danielle back. And to this day, still
haven't got that.
00:42:16
So a mixed blessing. Yes, someone's going
to pay you for this, but we want Danielle back.
00:42:25
NARRATOR: Stuart Campbell
will only be 63 years of age when he's eligible for parole.
00:42:31
Linda Jones has become an
advocate and campaigner to create a legal precedence for
a no body, no parole directive.
00:42:41
On the 9th of February 1988,
22-year-old insurance clerk, Helen McCourt, from
St. Helens Merseyside
00:42:48
disappeared less than
500 yards from her home. Her killer, Ian Simms, was
paroled without ever revealing
00:42:57
the location of her body. Marie McCourt, her mother,
spent years lobbying for laws
00:43:03
to help other families find
closure by denying parole to murderers who
fail to disclose
00:43:09
the location of their victims. The prisoner's
disclosure of information about Victims Act or
Helen's law finally
00:43:18
came into effect in 2021. There are hope is that
Helen's law will make it so much
00:43:26
harder for him to come
out, and that the fact that the parole
board have to take
00:43:29
into consideration
the fact that he's not disclosed where the body is. So we're just hoping that
it makes a big difference
00:43:36
to him getting parole. Unfortunately, Mary's
daughter's murderer came out before the law came into force.
00:43:44
But fingers-crossed, we probably
will be the first people that, hopefully, it will help.
00:43:51
Personally, I think it gets
harder the years go on. Her friends have
all got children.
00:43:56
Our sons have got children. We know she would
have had children. And it's just a
constant they are
00:44:02
that there's so much of her
life that we never got to share. NARRATOR: Stuart Campbell
was a serial abuser
00:44:11
who immersed himself into a
loving family who trusted him. He callously violated that
trust to get what he wanted
00:44:20
and continued to torture
the family by denying them the peace of laying their
beloved daughter to rest,
00:44:28
making Stuart Campbell one of
the world's most evil killers. [music playing]