00:00:03
[music playing] NARRATOR: In late January
2005, 25-year-old Ellen Frith, a vulnerable and
transient person,
00:00:12
was with friends at
a squat in Nottingham City Center in England. She's gone to a disused block
of flats called Marple Square
00:00:23
to take drugs, basically. It's a safe-ish place,
but she's not alone. NARRATOR: The last
people to see her alive
00:00:33
were Mark Martin, John
Ashley, and Dean Carr. The three men were known and
feared amongst the city's
00:00:40
homeless community. They were also the men
that callously killed her. Martin strangled
her, and then Ashley
00:00:49
finished her off to use-- his own terminology. NARRATOR: Mark Martin,
the leader of the pack
00:00:56
was a violent,
aggressive bully, who was hungry for power and fame. You've got that scenario,
someone who brazenly wanted
00:01:07
to be Nottingham's
first serial killer, and then goes and does it. NARRATOR: The investigation
into Ellen's murder
00:01:14
led police to discover
two further bodies, that, of Katie Baxter
and Zoe Pennick,
00:01:20
both had been strangled. There are lots of
words that I could use to describe Mark Martin,
but I would say that he is--
00:01:29
he's very definitely evil. There's no doubt in my mind
that had Martin not been caught
00:01:35
by the police, he would
have continued killing for as long as he could, if only
to burnish his own reputation
00:01:44
as a serial killer. NARRATOR: Mark Martin
was a volatile man with an explosive temper.
00:01:50
He terrorized Nottingham's
homeless community and preyed on
vulnerable young women
00:01:55
to satisfy his ultimate ambition
to become a notorious murderer, making Mark Martin one of the
world's most evil killers.
00:02:06
[music playing] January the 25th, 2005, Marple
Square, Nottingham, England. The burnt body of
26-year-old Ellen Frith
00:02:37
was found by firefighters
after putting out a blaze at a squat
in a housing estate
00:02:43
in the center of Nottingham. Court reporter Rebecca
Sherdley covered the story. I first heard about the case,
and as the body of Ellen Frith
00:02:53
was found and the flats at
Marple Square in St. Helens were sealed off
with police tape.
00:02:59
And there'd been a fire there. So a woman's body was found. Obviously, there was forensics
and police investigation.
00:03:08
NARRATOR: The
post-mortem quickly confirmed Ellen's identity. It also confirmed her
death was no accident.
00:03:15
So Ellen was
murdered in a squat. She was strangled. She was set on fire. It really was a
horrendous crime.
00:03:24
NARRATOR: Ellen's barbaric
death sent shockwaves amongst the homeless community
and witnesses willingly
00:03:31
gave information to the police. They gave them the
names of three men-- Mark Martin, also known as
Reds, John Ashley, nicknamed
00:03:41
Cockney John, and Dean Carr. What we'd start
to learn from very early on in the investigation
into the murder of Ellen
00:03:49
was that Mark Martin
had been talking fairly openly about what he'd done. He'd been bragging about it for
want of a better expression.
00:03:57
He'd been talking
about how he'd killed and that he'd set the fire. NARRATOR: But Ellen's murder
was only the beginning
00:04:03
of a much darker tale. The police
investigation revealed the ringleader of the three--
00:04:09
Reds Mark Martin-- had
a much bigger plan. Martin wanted to become
Nottingham's first serial
00:04:19
killer. That was in his mind
from the very beginning. Long before the
eventual killings,
00:04:27
that was his ambition, and that
just underlines how evil a man he was. NARRATOR: Martin had callously
strangled to death not one,
00:04:37
but three young local women-- Katie Baxter, Zoe
Pennick, and Ellen Frith in just under a month--
00:04:44
and became known as
The Sneinton Strangler. He targeted
vulnerable victims. He targeted women
who had some issues
00:04:54
in their lives,
some difficulties, some troubles, and some trauma. He didn't have
any alcohol or drugs
00:05:00
issues, which can be a catalyst
for offenses like that. And he just became this person
that he had boasted that he
00:05:12
wanted to become,
and it happened in such a short space of
time and involved three
00:05:19
completely innocent victims. NARRATOR: The bodies
of 18-year-old Katie and 26-year-old Zoe
were found shortly
00:05:26
after his arrest, buried at
the Great Northern Warehouse, an abandoned 19th
century packing
00:05:32
factory in Nottingham, England. I think the reason that Martin
dumps the bodies in the place
00:05:40
that he does is because
he is so brazen. He actually wants to say
something to the homeless.
00:05:46
It's a, look what I can do. Look at how powerful I am. Look at how dangerous I am.
00:05:51
This is all about his
status, all about his control of this community. NARRATOR: This
killer's story begins
00:06:02
on the 18th of October 1979. Mark Martin was born in
Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England.
00:06:10
He was an only child, and
he was very temperamental. NARRATOR: Martin had a
relatively normal upbringing
00:06:19
and lived with
his mother, but he found it hard to
fit in at school as a result of his appearance.
00:06:26
Mark Martin was somebody
who experienced quite a lot of bullying at school. He had a birthmark under his
eye, and the kids at school
00:06:33
would call him Reds because of
the color of that birthmark. So from a relatively
early age, he's
00:06:40
got these feelings of shame,
these feelings of inadequacy, and I think, within him,
this builds up a, kind of,
00:06:46
resentments and a desire
for revenge, essentially. And he's also come to learn
through that experience
00:06:53
of being bullied that fear
is something that is helpful if you're trying to obtain power
and control over other people.
00:07:01
NARRATOR: By the time Martin
reached his mid-teens, he was no longer the victim.
00:07:06
He was the aggressor. He also turned to petty crime. We know that until
about the age of 16,
00:07:12
his life had been
relatively uneventful. But around that time, he started
to get involved in lower level
00:07:18
criminality, so he
started with shoplifting, some disorderly behavior. And it's seemingly escalated.
00:07:23
There was violence. There was aggressive behavior,
threatening behavior. He was literally a
volcano of anger.
00:07:33
There was no sense
of calm about him. There was no sense of him being
someone with whom you could
00:07:40
have a rational conversation. This is quite revealing
about the person that he's turning into.
00:07:46
So he's come to learn
that being violent is a way of getting things done. It's a way of
achieving the outcomes
00:07:52
that you want to achieve. It's a form of
communicating your will and your power
over other people.
00:07:58
So he has internalized
violence of something that is integral to his everyday life.
00:08:04
Violence isn't the exception. It's the rule. NARRATOR: Despite
his volatile nature,
00:08:10
Martin finds love
and gets married. But the couple's
happiness was short-lived. In 2002, Martin lashed
out at his wife.
00:08:22
He was abusive to her
throughout their relationship. His wife was pregnant when
he first attacked her.
00:08:32
He was then very early 20s. He attempted to strangle her. He threatened her
with a Stanley knife.
00:08:40
NARRATOR: The offense wasn't
reported to the police. But that same year, he wrote a
letter to his probation officer
00:08:49
about the incident. He admitted to
probation officer that had been violent towards his wife.
00:08:55
He loved her, and he
didn't want to lose her. NARRATOR: But in the
same correspondence,
00:09:01
Martin's manipulative
character is revealed. So lots of things are
going on in this letter.
00:09:07
He's basically trying to remove
the responsibility from himself for the things that he does.
00:09:13
He's saying that
when his father died, it turned him into
this evil person. So it's almost as
if he's saying,
00:09:19
I have no control
over my behavior. I am inherently evil. But he's also saying to
the probation officer,
00:09:25
I'm a person who might kill. So he's reversing that
power dynamic between him and the probation
officer, and he's
00:09:32
trying to get the probation
officer to fear him. NARRATOR: However,
Martin's words
00:09:37
failed to get him the
recognition that he desired. Instead, he continued to
violently abuse his wife.
00:09:45
By 2004, Martin's
marriage had broken down, and the couple separated. Separation is a
period, where there
00:09:55
is a very high risk of the
escalation of further violence. Because by leaving him,
she would have compromised
00:10:01
his feelings of control. That would have resulted in him
wanting to take back control.
00:10:06
So when a perpetrator
of domestic abuse can't control their
partner by keeping them
00:10:11
in the relationship,
they will seek to control them
by destroying them for leaving the relationship.
00:10:17
NARRATOR: In October
2004, Martin savagely attacked his wife again. When Martin attacked his wife,
she was left with red marks
00:10:27
around her neck. So there was clearly an
attempted strangulation, a non-fatal strangulation here.
00:10:34
NARRATOR: Martin was
arrested and held overnight. After he was released from
custody the following morning,
00:10:41
he made a disturbing phone call. He rang the police
himself and said, I was locked up
last night, and I'm
00:10:51
afraid I might kill somebody. Martin may, at that point,
simply have been bragging,
00:11:01
but there's no doubt
whatsoever that he was capable of the
most extreme violence
00:11:06
in an unexpected setting. Also, there's a sense in
which he is quite surprised that there haven't been
more serious consequences
00:11:15
for the attack on his wife. And the fact that there weren't
those consequences, kind of,
00:11:21
invalidates his
behavior a little bit. He wants the recognition
for his violence.
00:11:26
So this is a very, very
significant red flag. It's a real warning sign,
firstly, for his wife
00:11:33
and also for other women. Because non-fatal
strangulation, especially of intimate partners, is a
way of saying to somebody,
00:11:42
I could kill you if I wanted to. If I chose to do this,
I could carry out. NARRATOR: Unbeknownst to the
authorities, Martin's threats
00:11:51
were real. And before long, he
would have the notoriety he desperately wanted. Winter 2004, Nottingham
City, England.
00:12:05
Shortly after
attacking his wife, 25-year-old Mark Martin had
left his home in Derbyshire
00:12:11
and relocated to the neighboring
County of Nottinghamshire, where he was sleeping rough.
00:12:21
So Mark Martin had
a home in Ilkeston and then started to mix
with the homeless community
00:12:26
in Nottingham. What was unusual
about that, really, was that he was
very smartly dressed
00:12:30
and had a home, which a lot of
the people who was mixing with had the misfortune
of not having.
00:12:37
And he pitched up a tent on the
edge of Nottingham City Center near a place called
the Great Northern
00:12:46
Warehouse, which is named after
the Great Northern Railway. It's an old packing factory.
00:12:52
And then, it was
ravaged by fire. And the homeless
people knew they could go there and take
drugs and drink,
00:12:58
out of the sight of the people. NARRATOR: Martin, often
referred to by his nickname,
00:13:05
Reds, immersed himself in
the homeless community. He clearly stood out. Martin was quite an
intimidating presence.
00:13:15
He's very largely
built, quite tall, rough shaven, short coast hair. But yeah, I would say that
he's got an air about him.
00:13:30
He's really quite airy
and quite intimidating even without saying anything. NARRATOR: He quickly gained
a fearsome reputation.
00:13:40
Martin was part of a
community, which he terrorized. He would steal their money.
00:13:44
He would steal their benefits. He preyed upon them. And indeed, before very long
and towards the end of 2004,
00:13:55
the homeless community were
aware that they had someone very dangerous in their midst.
00:14:01
So they are very, very
wary, and they think, well, who is this, this
guy, who's just
00:14:08
literally turned up and
inserted himself into our lives? He's somebody they were
very, very fearful of.
00:14:15
A homeless
person, at the time, said that if Reds was in the
area and he knew you had money,
00:14:21
he'd come looking for you. And so, they would
stay on the other side of town because of the
type of person that he was.
00:14:29
So he was building
up this bravado, and he also was building
up this brazen reputation.
00:14:38
NARRATOR: Martin used the
vulnerabilities of the homeless to his advantage. Martin didn't have any
problems with drugs or alcohol,
00:14:47
in terms of substance
abuse or dependency. But a lot of the people
within the homeless community,
00:14:52
that he associated with, did. So they have a vulnerability
that he doesn't have,
00:14:58
and that enables him to wield
significant power over them. So they are people,
who are living
00:15:05
a very dangerous and very
precarious existence, but he isn't really. He knows that he has the option
of going and living in a house
00:15:13
if he wants to. He knows that he
has more than them. So this is a way in which
he elevates his status.
00:15:20
He feels better
than these people. He feels superior to them. NARRATOR: Martin also made
no secret of his ambitions.
00:15:28
Martin was a
deranged man, and he had boasted about
being Nottingham's his first serial killer.
00:15:36
And this really is
testament to his narcissism. He wanted to be somebody
by killing other people.
00:15:44
NARRATOR: Despite his violent
and aggressive nature, Martin wasn't a lone wolf. He formed firm friendships with
two other men also associated
00:15:54
with the homeless community. One was a man called
John Ashley, known locally as Cockney John because
of his London accent,
00:16:02
who was a good
deal older, almost 10 years older than Martin. And another one was Dean
Carr, again, from Nottingham.
00:16:12
So the three of them became
a sort of triumvirate. But Martin, even though
he was the youngest,
00:16:19
was always the most aggressive
and the most violent. The other two more peripheral.
00:16:25
But he was the driving
force in this trio of men, who were to prey
on the homeless community
00:16:33
in Nottingham. NARRATOR: The formation of this
trio, Martin, Ashley, and Carr, proved to be deadly.
00:16:44
On the night of the
24th of January 2005, all three were at a squat
in Nottingham City Center
00:16:51
with 25-year-old Ellen Frith. Ellen Frith was itinerant. She'd started on drugs young.
00:16:58
She'd moved around the Midlands. She didn't have a proper home
in that sense by the time
00:17:04
she encountered Martin,
and Ashley, and Carr. Mark Martin, and Ellen
Frith, and John Ashley
00:17:11
had all gone back to a flat in
Marple Square to smoke drugs, had all been hanging
out together.
00:17:19
And during that time, Ellen
had bitten into an apple. And for some reason,
he'd actually grabbed her
00:17:28
by the throat as she had
the apple in her mouth and stuck two fingers there
and began to strangle her.
00:17:35
And it was John Ashley,
who'd finished her off. To try and throw the
authorities off the scent,
00:17:41
Martin stuck a hypodermic needle
into the leg of Ellen Frith. They load her onto a sofa bed in
the squat and set fire to her.
00:17:54
NARRATOR: Once the
fire was alight, Martin, Ashley, and
Carr fled the scene. In the early hours of
the 25th of January,
00:18:03
the fire brigade and the police
were called to the flat on 55 Marple Square. Detective Chief
Inspector Robert Griffin
00:18:12
was a member of the
Nottinghamshire Police Major Crime Unit, who
worked on the case.
00:18:17
They'd obviously been a
really, really serious blaze. It took a good while
to put the fire out.
00:18:22
And when the fire
was eventually out and the scene examination
started, we found a body.
00:18:27
Obviously, the circumstances
were overtly suspicious. And so, a criminal investigation
started on that morning.
00:18:35
NARRATOR: Senior Crime Scene
Investigator John Betts was called in to coordinate
the forensic evidence
00:18:41
at Marple Square. In this case, we've got
to clear areas of work. We've got the fire scene
with the body inside it.
00:18:48
And we've got the materials
that could well have been used by people involved in it.
00:18:54
So you do a sequential
examination. Fire would take precedence,
and the recovery of the body.
00:19:00
Because if there were
signs of assault, the only way we
would establish it is through a post-mortem
examination carried
00:19:06
by a home office pathologist. So that's basically
what happened. NARRATOR: The body was
recovered and was immediately
00:19:13
sent for a post-mortem. Whilst police
waited for results, local enquiries provided them
with some vital information.
00:19:21
We were able to locate
a council worker, who, by coincidence, had been
out to Marple Square
00:19:26
to do some checks
the night before. And whilst there, he'd actually
spoken to a man standing
00:19:33
at the doorway to number 55. Perhaps more significantly
was that council worker spoke
00:19:38
to another man, who was
living in another squat just across the way. What he told us was that a man
who was known locally as Reds
00:19:46
was the man who was living
in 55 Marple Square. And that he, the
witness, had indeed
00:19:52
been in the flat on the
night before the fire and was able to tell us that
a lady called Ellen was there
00:19:58
and a man called Cockney John,
who we now to be John Ashley, and indeed, Reds,
who is Mark Martin.
00:20:05
So we started immediately
to search for Mark Martin and John Ashley. We found John Ashley first.
00:20:12
NARRATOR: On the afternoon
of the 25th of January, police arrested John Ashley
and brought him in to be
00:20:19
questioned. He was interviewed
at length and actually spoke to us throughout. So he was interviewed
for hours by detectives,
00:20:26
and he was the first
person, really, who told us the first
version of what had happened.
00:20:32
He tried to put himself
up as a witness, saying that he had been present
on that night in the flat,
00:20:38
where Mark Martin alone
had strangled Ellen, and then set fire to the
bedding around Ellen.
00:20:45
And in turn, the flat. But what John Ashley did was
confirm for us the man that we
00:20:52
were looking for, who would
known until that point as Reds, was indeed Mark Martin.
00:20:57
And so, from that
time on, we then went in search of Mark Martin. NARRATOR: On the
27th of January 2005,
00:21:04
less than two days
into their search, Martin made a surprising move. Martin, ever bragging,
rings the police and says,
00:21:15
I think you want me for murder. NARRATOR: Mark Martin had
finally got the authorities'
00:21:19
attention, but his
hunger for fame wouldn't be satisfied
until the true extent of his murderous
actions were uncovered.
00:21:32
Nottingham, January 27,
2005, 25-year-old Mark Martin surrendered himself to
Nottinghamshire Police
00:21:42
and was held in custody
on suspicion of the murder of 25-year-old Ellen Frith. So having surrendered
himself, and calling the police,
00:21:52
and telling us that he thought
he was wanted for murder, he attended the police station.
00:21:57
We interviewed him
over several days. So he was at the police
station for three days
00:22:02
and into countless times. And all of the evidence
that we'd gathered was put to him, put
throughout that.
00:22:07
He elected to
answer, no comment. Martin was somebody
who kept very quiet in his police interviews.
00:22:13
When he gets into the
criminal justice system, there are a lot of issues
that he can't control.
00:22:19
He loses quite a
bit of his power. And by holding onto all of that
knowledge about the murders,
00:22:25
that is the way of maintaining
that power and that control. He wants to appear
to be this mystery
00:22:31
character, who we're trying
to get inside the mind of. So by just revealing absolutely
everything in interviews,
00:22:38
he destroys that mystery,
and that's what he wants. He wants to present
as this enigma,
00:22:44
as this, kind of, genius killer. And that's what he's
trying to achieve here. NARRATOR: Within days,
police receive confirmation
00:22:52
from the forensics team
that the body in the fire was indeed that of
25-year-old Ellen Frith.
00:22:59
But scientists weren't able
to find any forensic evidence at the scene or on
Ellen's body that
00:23:05
directly linked Mark Martin
and John Ashley to her death. Forensic scientist Craig
Davis, who specializes
00:23:13
in the interpretation of
bodily fluids and DNA, analyzed the evidence. DNA can persist
for decades if it's
00:23:21
left in the right conditions. Lots of conditions
aren't very good for DNA, and they can break down
into great DNA quickly.
00:23:29
So things like environmental
factors, humidity, and bacteria will break down DNA.
00:23:37
And extreme heat will break
down DNA really rapidly. So if a body is
exposed to a fire,
00:23:44
a lot of the DNA on the
body can be broken down and deteriorate, such that
we may not be able to obtain
00:23:51
any DNA profiles at all. Because of the way
that Ellen Frith died, it would be very
difficult to find
00:23:59
any trace evidence
in and around where she was because of the fire. So it'd be very
difficult to find
00:24:05
something that was
substantial and said, yes, this person did this. So that's why the
postmortem was important.
00:24:14
During the post-mortem
examination, one of the key areas to
look at is the lungs.
00:24:18
If there's smoke in
the lungs, then someone is alive and inhaled in
smoke during the fire.
00:24:24
If there's no smoke in the
lungs, it tells the tale. NARRATOR: Ellen's post-mortem
examination was inconclusive.
00:24:35
But her death was believed to
be consistent with compression to the neck, which indicated
she had been manually strangled.
00:24:44
The autopsy results
also indicated that the fire at
55 Marple Square had been started
after Ellen's death.
00:24:55
I think this was a very
deliberate ploy on their part because fire is a very effective
way of destroying quite
00:25:01
a lot of forensic
evidence and muddying the waters as to who is
responsible for this particular
00:25:09
murder. NARRATOR: Despite the
lack of forensics, the mounting evidence against
Martin and Ashley was strong.
00:25:17
The autopsy report, the fact
the fire had been started deliberately, Ashley's accounts,
and the numerous witness
00:25:24
statements provided by
associates of the two men confirmed to the police that
both Martin and Ashley were
00:25:31
responsible for Ellen's death. On the 29th of January 2005,
just days after their arrest,
00:25:40
Mark Martin and John
Ashley were charged with Ellen Frith's murder. So from the moment
that Mark Martin
00:25:48
was arrested for
the murder of Ellen, he is never from that moment
being outside of custody.
00:25:54
So he arrived at
the police station, was then charged,
went before the court, was remanded into
prison custody,
00:26:01
and has never been out of
prison custody since then. NARRATOR: Martin
was behind bars,
00:26:07
but the investigation
wasn't over. The investigation
almost worked in reverse. Ellen is killed.
00:26:14
And then because of
the discovery of Ellen, things start to unravel,
and we realize that there
00:26:17
are two other murders. Martin start to indicate that
to, quote, "there were others."
00:26:23
And he started to talk
about his involvement in the killing of other girls. And witnesses were able to give
the first names of those girls,
00:26:31
and we very quickly
were able to work out that there were
indeed two girls from the homeless community--
00:26:38
Zoe Pennick and Katie Baxter-- that were indeed missing. And we start to get
the sense that these
00:26:43
were the girls that Martin
had been talking about. NARRATOR: Katie Baxter, aged
18, and Zoe Pennick, age 26,
00:26:54
were both known to associate
with the homeless community. Both had been missing since
the end of December 2004.
00:27:03
So Katie was 18, and her
family came from Cotgrave, and she grew up in the area.
00:27:10
And then she started to sleep
rough and stay in the YMCA in Nottingham, and
her friends had
00:27:17
said that she was doing that
because of other friends were doing that. But she was from
a good background
00:27:23
and had a good family. She was a very young
woman, but she was somebody who saw the good in everybody.
00:27:30
And she got involved in a lot
of different community projects to help people who
were less fortunate.
00:27:35
And this is how she comes onto
the radar of Martin and Ashley. NARRATOR: Katie was
said to have been
00:27:44
in a tumultuous romantic
relationship with Ashley. Shortly after Christmas 2004,
Ashley attacked Katie so badly
00:27:58
that she needed medical help. She went to the
local medical center and had cuts in her mouth
and nose stitched up.
00:28:06
Katie Baxter's parents saw her. They went to the medical center. And indeed, she
went home with them
00:28:13
and slept that night on
the sofa in their house. She loved him very much. It was a close relationship.
00:28:22
But Martin, probably
seizing the opportunity and knowing that Ashley
and she had fallen out,
00:28:29
has now targeted her. NARRATOR: Despite her
itinerant lifestyle, Katie was always in regular
contact with her family.
00:28:39
She'd started to come
a little bit more distant from her family as
she got closer to John
00:28:44
Ashley and his associates. But what she'd always
done was continue to go to the ice hockey, which
was one of her loves and one
00:28:52
of her family's loves. And they used to
go there together. They last actually saw her
on the 29th of December,
00:28:57
so just after
Christmas when she left the family house on that day. But over the course of
the next couple of weeks,
00:29:03
she didn't turn up with
the ice hockey anymore, and it was that that caused
them to be concerned.
00:29:08
And so in early
January, they did actually report Katie missing. NARRATOR: During the course
of Ellen Frith's investigation
00:29:15
in late January 2005, members of
Nottingham's homeless community expressed their
concerns to the police
00:29:23
that Katie and Zoe had also
been murdered by Martin. So the police were obviously
speaking quite extensively
00:29:32
with the homeless community. And there were different
rumors on the street due to what Mark
Martin had been saying,
00:29:38
snippets of information. And it was that ring of
the homeless community and the different rumors
running that helped
00:29:46
them to piece it together. NARRATOR: Court reporter
Rebecca Sherdley recounts what happened the
night Katie Baxter was murdered.
00:29:54
Mark Martin decided to live,
and frequent, and hang around with different individuals.
00:30:04
It got chatting to
her in town, and then invited her back into the tent,
and just snapped and strangled
00:30:14
her, and buried her
body under some debris in the old warehouse, and left
it there in the shallow grave
00:30:25
by an old wall heater. When somebody commits
a murder like this, they do it because they
make a decision to do it.
00:30:33
They choose to do it. And taking somebody to an
abandoned site like this, where there aren't a lot
of people around,
00:30:39
that suggests, to me, that there
is a degree of premeditation. There's a degree of planning.
00:30:44
There is an intention
to do harm to her. And I think almost the
relationship with Ashley
00:30:50
is something that he
uses to get to her, to access her because
she knows him. She feels, I think, a
degree of trust around him.
00:30:58
So he has access to the victim. He has opportunity
to harm her, and this is all very sinister indeed.
00:31:06
NARRATOR: It was believed
that Martin sought out his next victim,
26-year-old mother of two,
00:31:12
Zoe Pennick, just days later. Zoe Pennick, she had
been described by a family as being really bright
and bubbly person.
00:31:23
And then, I think,
drugs changed her. She had a son, so that
stabilized things. And she did actually
have a flat of her own.
00:31:34
But she started to mix with
the homeless community. And then, she'd seen her father
around the Christmas time
00:31:42
in 2004, and that's when he
started to get quite concerned about her whereabouts.
00:31:48
He hadn't heard from
her for a while. And then, he
reported her missing. NARRATOR: The last reported
sighting of Zoe Pennick
00:31:57
was on the 31st
of December 2004. She was never seen alive again. Martin encountered
Zoe Pennick,
00:32:05
who is 26, and this time,
tempts her to come to the tent. Because he tells her,
I've got 2,000 cigarettes
00:32:13
that you can sell on. And you can take a
bit of the profit, and I'll take a
bit of the profit.
00:32:18
She duly goes to the tent. And again, Martin, for
reasons that we do not know, he strangles her.
00:32:25
And again, buries
her or, at least, covers her body
with this rubble, and debris, and
foliage, not that
00:32:33
very far from Katie Baxter's. Martin was very
deliberate in the victims that he targeted
because he wanted
00:32:40
to go after vulnerable women,
because he had access to them. He had the opportunity
to kill them,
00:32:47
and he knew that he
could get away with it, I think, for longer
than had he targeted
00:32:52
another group of victims. He knows that people who
have issues with homelessness
00:32:57
tend to go off the radar. They tend to go
missing for a few days and then turn up again.
00:33:03
And he knows that that, kind
of, thing buys him time. It allows him to
accumulate more victims.
00:33:10
NARRATOR: In February 2005,
from witness statements, police knew that
Martin's tent was pitched
00:33:17
at a disused packing
factory called the Great Northern
Warehouse on the outskirts
00:33:22
of Nottingham City Center. That's really where we start
to focus our search, given
00:33:27
that we knew that
Katie was missing and given that Mark Martin
had been openly talking
00:33:33
about killing other the girls. We knew that Katie was the
girlfriend of John Ashley.
00:33:38
And so, in effect, we were
searching for Katie Baxter. Zoe Pennick, at the
same time, but there
00:33:44
was this obvious
association with this area. NARRATOR: 11th of February
2005, police were confident they
00:33:53
had the correct location. But with such a
large area to cover, they needed to pinpoint
an exact area to search.
00:34:01
Just part of that
examination strategy, we brought in the body dogs. Body dogs, specially
trained dogs,
00:34:08
that pick up on the
scent of human decay, for want a bit of the phrase. So the dogs came in, thinking
they got little booties on,
00:34:16
and they were put in through the
first clear area, which enabled them to get further down.
00:34:23
And I think, after
a period of time, one gave a positive result. And through the
use of those dogs,
00:34:30
we identified the
warehouse, which was at the side of the disused
land, where Martin tend to be.
00:34:36
And inside that warehouse
and under some rubble, we found the body
of Katie Baxter.
00:34:42
What they didn't
know, at that stage, was that Zoe Pennick's
body lay 2 meters away.
00:34:52
NARRATOR: Nottingham,
February 11, 2005, with information
provided by witnesses and the help of cadaver
dogs, Nottinghamshire Police
00:35:02
made a grim discovery-- the remains of
18-year-old Katie Baxter, another of Mark
Martin's victims.
00:35:11
When we'd found
Katie we needed to ensure that we gathered
all the forensic evidence.
00:35:18
We took Katie away, dealt with
that as a scene forensically. And then only after
that was complete
00:35:26
did we continue with the search. NARRATOR: On February the
16th, the cadaver dogs
00:35:30
were deployed once again. A dog came in, gave a positive
response about 2 meters away.
00:35:36
So I did a little
bit of excavation, and he was quite clear. And unfortunately, Zoe
was under some rubble.
00:35:45
Closed the scene down again
and go through the same process the next day of body recovery.
00:35:53
NARRATOR: The discovery
of all three victims-- first, Ellen, then
Katie and Zoe--
00:35:57
in such a short space of
time attracted intense media attention. This one was a huge
case for the city.
00:36:07
One of the first serial killings
to happen here, a massive shock to the community.
00:36:14
It sent shock waves amongst
the homeless people. It was obviously
feared that there
00:36:21
was a serial killer
on the loose, and that this man had
finally been caught. And people wanted answers
for why he'd killed
00:36:27
all these women so needlessly. NARRATOR: The bodies
of Katie and Zoe were immediately sent for
post-mortem examinations.
00:36:35
Due to the level of
decomposition of the remains, the precise cause of
death of both women
00:36:41
could not be ascertained. However, the results
were believed to be consistent with
manual strangulation.
00:36:48
And by using
forensic entomology, they could determine
when they were killed. When the bodies' found,
the biological evidence
00:36:57
that's there, the insects
and the different stages of the life cycle that are there
can be recovered and preserved.
00:37:03
And this information can
be used by an entomologist to interpret what's there
and use data from things,
00:37:12
like weather conditions
and temperatures, to make a calculation as
to when those flies are
00:37:17
likely to have landed on
the body in the first place. And they're pretty
accurate in establishing
00:37:25
when that person died. NARRATOR: The results prove
that Katie and Zoe were killed
00:37:31
between December 30, 2004
and January the 6th 2005, approximately three
weeks before Martin's
00:37:40
third victim, Ellen Frith. Pathologists also discovered
that Katie Baxter's fingertips had been burnt.
00:37:49
With Katie Baxter,
because she'd fought back and he was conscious of
that forensic evidence,
00:37:56
he burnt her fingers. So not only if the demoralizing
and being strangled, he then had burned
her fingers to destroy
00:38:09
any forensic evidence. NARRATOR: In light
of this evidence and the strong
witness statements
00:38:14
of all three murders, the
police filed further charges. On February 19,
2005, Dean Carr was
00:38:23
also arrested and
charged in connection with Ellen Frith's murder. Dean Carr was charged
with Ellen's murder only,
00:38:33
and the evidence indicated
that he had been there, too, and that he had been involved
in her strangulation as well.
00:38:42
And that's something
that he had admitted, so confessed to witnesses
who came forward and spoke
00:38:47
about what he had said. NARRATOR: March 10, 2005,
while still remanded in custody
00:38:53
for the murder of Ellen Frith,
Mark Martin and John Ashley were jointly charged with the
murders of both Katie and Zoe.
00:39:01
It was an unusual
investigation because, you know,
we rely so heavily on things like CCTV, and
phone, and forensic evidence,
00:39:08
and none of that was really
available in this case. This was a witness case. And in that respect,
we were fortunate
00:39:17
that Mark Martin wanted to tell
the world about what he'd done, and also, the witnesses,
the vast majority
00:39:24
of whom, much of them were
from the homeless community, wanted to come forward
and talk to us.
00:39:29
I think Martin wanted
recognition for the crimes that he'd committed, and I think
that the way in which he went
00:39:36
about the killings themselves
and the disposal of the bodies was a way of trying
to achieve that.
00:39:42
It's all about getting that
validation as a serial killer. This idea of people
going missing,
00:39:48
of the being a serial
killer on the loose, it all adds to the
drama, and that's exactly what Martin wanted.
00:39:55
NARRATOR: On January
16, 2006, Martin Ashley and Carr
were tried together at Nottingham Crown Court.
00:40:04
All three men were tried for
the murder of Ellen Frith, but only Martin and Ashley are
tried for the murders of Katie
00:40:11
Baxter and Zoe Pennick. All three plead not guilty,
presumably banking on the fact
00:40:20
that the homeless community
won't turn up as witnesses. NARRATOR: But they
were mistaken.
00:40:27
Lots and lots of witnesses
came to give evidence, essentially about confessions
that would be made
00:40:34
by each of these defendants. Now, the vast majority
of those witnesses were from the homeless
community, and many of them
00:40:42
had issues and challenges
associated with drug use and with alcohol. And I honestly think that
Mark Martin, in particular,
00:40:51
probably relied on them
being frightened of him, him having intimidated them. And because of those
challenges, them
00:41:02
not wanting to come to
court and give evidence. But remarkably, every
single one of them
00:41:07
did, and every
single one of them came up to proof,
by which, I mean, what they said in their
witness statements
00:41:14
is the evidence
that they gave when they went in the witness box. And despite challenge,
as is expected
00:41:21
in a cross-examination, they all
absolutely told their stories. And because of the result,
as we now know it to be,
00:41:29
the jury were really
convinced by it. NARRATOR: On February
24, 2006, all three were found guilty as charged.
00:41:39
Carr is sentenced to life
with a minimum of 14 years and is only convicted of
the murder of Ellen Frith.
00:41:49
Ashley is sentenced to a life
with a minimum of 25 years, but is only convicted
for the murders of Katie
00:41:57
Baxter and Ellen Frith. Martin is given a whole
life term of imprisonment, and he's convicted
of all three murders.
00:42:07
Ironically, thereby confirming
him as a serial killer. The police, after the
verdicts, called Martin
00:42:16
a very dangerous man indeed. And also, add that he
was highly likely to kill again if he were ever to
be released from prison.
00:42:27
In fact, he never will be. NARRATOR: Martin will
never be released, but the city of Nottingham
hasn't forgotten
00:42:35
how he terrorized and callously
killed vulnerable members of their community. You've got that scenario,
someone who brazenly wanted
00:42:46
to be Nottingham's
first serial killer, and then goes and does it at the
time that had been this fear.
00:42:52
And I think it must have been a
huge relief for the people who did give evidence and
the people in the streets
00:42:59
that they knew that this danger
really was off the streets, and he was going to be locked
up for the rest of his life.
00:43:06
What makes Martin one of
Britain's most evil killers is that, here, we have a man
who is a nobody, essentially,
00:43:13
and he's trying to
become somebody. And the only way he thinks
that he could achieve
00:43:17
that is through
killing other people, is through violence and
fear and intimidation.
00:43:24
What we mustn't
forget about this case, because they are at the center
of it, are the three victims.
00:43:31
Ellen, Katie, and Zoe,
three really young girls. Katie was 18 years old. And they all became
involved in this community,
00:43:42
a community in which they
were all really liked. Everybody talks really
fondly about them.
00:43:47
They were each from
really nice families, and all three girls
are described as really
00:43:53
bubbly and really friendly. And to think that they had their
life snatched away from them
00:44:00
by this evil man, Mark Martin,
because they had the misfortune to bump into him during
their young lives
00:44:10
is absolutely tragic. NARRATOR: Mark Martin was a
power hungry narcissist who inserted himself into
the homeless community
00:44:20
to control them by using fear. He ruthlessly preyed on
their vulnerabilities to satisfy his need
for recognition
00:44:29
and went on to take the lives of
three unsuspecting young women, making Mark Martin one of the
world's most evil killers.
00:44:38
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