00:00:05
-July 1975, Manchester, England. A young woman's body
is found buried in rubble,
00:00:12
her face shattered
beyond recognition. 18-year-old Wanda Skala's
injuries shocked even the most
experienced detectives.
00:00:23
-I probably haven't seen
injuries to that extent on anybody in my total service.
00:00:31
-Her killer, later dubbed
"The Beast of Manchester," sparked fear across the city.
00:00:37
-His mother was afraid of him.
His father was afraid of him. Most of the community
was afraid of him.
00:00:41
This is a complete sociopath
who's out of control. -This beast was 30-year-old
Trevor Hardy.
00:00:48
He got kicks from killing, then return to mutilate
his victims over and over again.
00:00:56
-There was no other word
for that than evil. It's depravity at
the highest possible level.
00:01:02
-He slaughtered three teenage
girls for his own gratification and was one of the U.K.'s
longest-serving prisoners
00:01:10
for his depraved crimes. For that reason, Trevor Hardy
became known as one of the world's
most evil killers.
00:01:19
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Manchester. Between 1974 and 1976, Trevor Hardy terrorized
the city's northern suburbs.
00:01:51
Not only did he stalk
the streets as a prolific
and violent housebreaker, he brutally killed
three teenage girls
00:01:59
in the prime of their lives. -He doesn't seem affected
by the fact that he's just taken
somebody else's life.
00:02:07
He just goes about his business
as usual. -The community lived in fear of the volatile
and unpredictable Hardy.
00:02:15
-Hardy was branded
"The Beast of Manchester," and that's because
of the ferocity of his attacks.
00:02:22
And the impact on the local
community was immense. These were these young women out
having fun with their friends,
00:02:29
with their boyfriends. One day they're here.
One day they're not. These women were mercilessly
plucked off the streets.
00:02:36
-Ian Kirkpatrick was a young
detective working for Greater Manchester Police
in the early '70s.
00:02:43
He investigated some
of Hardy's brutal killings. -I feel he was an extremely
dangerous human being.
00:02:53
He was an animal,
very cruel, manipulative man. He was notorious, violent. He was not one to be liked,
not one to be trusted.
00:03:06
-People didn't feel safe
in their own homes. This is a situation of a person who fits almost a stereotype
of a sociopath.
00:03:15
He wants everything
that he wants now. He's willing to use
any level of violence
00:03:20
possible in order to get
what he wants now, and he has no remorse or concern
about the consequences
00:03:27
of what he does to
get what he wants. -He was simply a monster. He was the most awful,
terrifying man to deal with.
00:03:38
-This killer's story began towards the end
of the second world war. Trevor Joseph Hardy was born
on the 11th of June, 1945,
00:03:50
in the working-class suburb of
Newton Heath, North Manchester. It was the beginning of a
troubled childhood for Trevor.
00:04:03
-Hardy's father was
quite strict. He has some quite rigid rules
around morality and that kind of thing.
00:04:10
And if you look
at Hardy's behavior, he starts misbehaving
quite early on. He starts rebelling against
those rules,
00:04:16
against those boundaries. -It is in that background --
poverty. He got a reputation.
00:04:25
He was -- although he was short, he was nevertheless afraid of
no one and would fight anyone.
00:04:33
-At the age of just 8,
young Hardy first started getting into trouble at school.
00:04:39
His teachers wrote
damning reports to his mother about him
bullying his fellow classmates.
00:04:46
Even at home,
Hardy was an unruly child. He often escaped the family
house to roam the streets.
00:04:54
-So, he's bullying. He's intimidating
other children. He's being violent
towards others,
00:05:00
so right from the outset,
from a really early age, he is breaking the rules. So here was somebody who was
pretty feral, to be honest.
00:05:10
-This was a kid who,
from the earliest moments, was showing signs of
a complete lack of connection
00:05:16
with other human beings and
a complete lack of connection with the concept of social right
and social wrong.
00:05:22
-Hardy's mother believed she had
an explanation for her son's violence
and aggression.
00:05:28
In his early years, he suffered a life-changing
blow to the head. -A sliver of bone was broken off
from his skull
00:05:37
and moved nearer
to the brain itself. And she suggested, and other people
have suggested over the years,
00:05:45
that that could have had
an impact on his violence and his violent temper. -His family certainly thought
that when that sliver of bone
00:05:52
from his skull
had pressed on his brain, it altered his behavior. It made him more aggressive.
00:05:59
Certainly damage to the brain
can alter behavior, often quite radically. -By his teens, wild child
Trevor Hardy
00:06:08
was racking up
an extensive criminal record. At the age of 15, he was
arrested for theft and burglary
00:06:16
and convicted for a string
of more than 20 offenses. The judge who presided
over his case ruled that,
00:06:23
despite his age, he should receive
a 12-month jail term in a bid to protect the public.
00:06:31
-He was the youngest person
ever to be sent to prison. He was estranged
when he was at 15.
00:06:38
That is a kind of unruly,
uncontrollable young man he was. Violent man. Worrying, really that he could
get through the system
00:06:51
and up it like he did. -Well, it's no question
that Hardy as a young man terrorized
his local neighborhood
00:06:59
by simply the weight of
burglaries that were going on, and they all knew it was him.
00:07:04
So when he went into jail, they could open
their doors again because he was just
a prolific burglar,
00:07:09
and everybody knew who he was. -But Hardy, the teenaged
tearaway and housebreaker,
00:07:15
would soon tread
a more sinister path of crime. -One of the characteristics
of many serial killers
00:07:22
is they begin by a petty crime,
and it escalates. I think he was set on murder
from an early age.
00:07:29
-After spells in
juvenile-detention centers, approved schools
and then prison, Trevor Hardy returned
home to North Manchester.
00:07:38
His passion for extreme violence
was to be fueled by a love of alcohol. As a regular in local pubs
and working-men's clubs,
00:07:47
he was feared for his capacity
to drink and fight. -The quantity of alcohol
that Hardy drank
00:07:55
is only consistent
with alcoholism. -Boy, oh, boy, did Trevor Hardy
have an appetite for alcohol.
00:08:03
And at one point, his younger
brother, Colin, tried to suggest that it was only when he drank
too much that his brain expanded
00:08:13
to hit the sliver in his skull,
which made him aggressive. -He was not a large person,
00:08:19
and yet, he would get in a fight
with somebody who was manifestly stronger
and larger than him.
00:08:25
And of course, his capacity
to win those fights arose from one simple fact. He was a beast.
00:08:33
-Hardy's behavior had been
escalating for quite some time. He was seen as a bit
of a tough character,
00:08:40
and often, when we see men
in these circumstances, these situations, it's what
we call honor contest violence.
00:08:48
So any kind of slight,
any kind of insult will result in a violent confrontation.
00:08:55
-In 1972, a volatile 26-year-old
Trevor Hardy got into an argument
with his friend,
00:09:03
Stanley O'Brien, over who would buy
the next round of drinks. Onlookers were shocked to see
what he did next.
00:09:13
-And he'd actually ended up
attacking a friend of his with a pickaxe,
so here's somebody
00:09:18
who is using violence
as a way to get control, as a way to get even,
as a way to maintain his honor
00:09:24
and a sense of respect
from other people. -Hardy hammered O'Brien
over the head repeatedly.
00:09:34
Well, not exactly one-sided,
but pretty nearly. O'Brien never worked again. Well, if there was anything
that could be said
00:09:47
to have started Hardy's descent
into a serial killer, it was probably that. -On February 7, 1972,
Trevor Hardy was convicted
00:10:00
and sent down for five years
for the brutal pickaxe attack. But instead of mending his ways,
00:10:08
it whetted his appetite
for killing. -He said he sat
in his prison cell, and all he wanted to do
was kill the man
00:10:17
who he'd received
the conviction for. Unfortunately,
and to his annoyance, the victim of his attack
with the pickaxe died
00:10:27
before he was released. -Soon, the Beast of Manchester
would be released on bail
00:10:33
and out once again
onto the streets. 18th of November, 1974. An angry and vengeful
29-year-old Trevor Hardy
00:10:44
was released on parole
from a 5-year jail sentence. This followed a frenzied attack
with a pickaxe
00:10:52
on his so-called friend,
Stanley O'Brien. Hardy wanted revenge, as he'd
ended up doing time for it.
00:11:00
-O'Brien, he thought, had
stiffed him one way or another, and he should have
finished the job.
00:11:05
You can almost see Hardy
thinking to himself, "I should have killed him.
I should have killed him."
00:11:09
-While in jail, he also became
increasingly obsessed with a girl he and O'Brien knew,
14-year-old Beverley Driver.
00:11:18
He'd been hoping that
when he was released, he could take
their relationship further.
00:11:25
-While he's in jail,
she makes the mistake, or perhaps she does the right
thing, and writes to him saying,
00:11:30
"I don't want anything
more to do with you. I don't want to be
with anyone like you."
00:11:34
Now he's fixated on taking
his revenge on her as well as Stanley O'Brien. -On the train home to Manchester
00:11:41
from prison
on the Isle of Wight, Hardy was muttering two names
over and over again
00:11:48
to himself --
O'Brien and Beverley. -He formulates a plan
to kill her so intense
00:11:56
that all he can think
about on the train home from prison is killing her. -Back on his home turf
of Manchester, Hardy finds out
00:12:06
that he won't be able
to confront O'Brien. -He discovers that O'Brien
has died of his injuries.
00:12:14
I would have thought that would
have brought a smile to Hardy's face,
a positive glow.
00:12:22
What about Beverley? Well, he goes 'round
to her house and throws an axe
through the window.
00:12:33
-With Beverley not at home,
Hardy then prowled the streets, looking for his teenaged target.
00:12:41
-He then went and decide
to trace and kill this girl. He says he went out
on New Year's Eve.
00:12:51
He took a large knife. Whilst walking,
he saw a young girl. -Now, she's getting out
of the car,
00:13:04
and she's in good spirits. She's chatting to the driver, and she's making her way
towards her destination.
00:13:11
-Half-drunk and armed with his
knife, Hardy grabbed his victim, whom he believed
was the girl who spurned him.
00:13:21
-And at that point, Hardy cuts
her throat effectively and then proceeds to attack her,
and he killed her.
00:13:28
She never arrived at the party, and her parents
reported her missing. Agony for them.
00:13:35
Disappears into thin air
walking through Manchester. -Even more tragically, she wasn't even his intended
target, Beverley Driver.
00:13:46
Hardy's first killing was,
in fact, a local Rose Queen,
Janet Lesley Stewart. Her friends called her Lesley.
00:13:54
Hardy had mistaken this
innocent 15-year-old for the girl who'd rejected him. Police at the time
were mystified
00:14:02
by Lesley's disappearance. -She had no problems at home. There was nothing to suggest
that she was
00:14:09
any way mentally disturbed
or anything along those lines. It was just a nice, young lady
00:14:14
who disappeared
off the face of the Earth. -Despite desperate pleas
from Lesley's parents
00:14:20
for information,
inquiries hit a dead end. -She went missing for months, and I know that
the divisional police,
00:14:28
detectives dealt with it
as a murder. She wasn't expected
to be found alive, and the extensive inquiries
went on.
00:14:36
I can remember the posters
being in shop windows. The press covered it
to no avail.
00:14:44
-Only Hardy knew
his dark secret. He'd had his first taste
of murder, and he seemed to relish in it.
00:14:52
He buried Lesley's body
in a shallow grave at a nearby clay pit. Then, over the next few months,
00:14:59
he embarked on
a grotesque ritual. -Well, essentially, he returns
to the body after the murder.
00:15:07
He decapitates the body,
throws the head, I believe,
in a lake, mutilates the body.
00:15:12
Contrary to the people
who examined it at the time, it's not my sense that he got
sexual pleasure out of this.
00:15:17
I think he was
destroying evidence. -He pulled his victim apart,
limb by limb. The sadistic Trevor Hardy
had descended
00:15:27
into new depths of depravity. -Decomposition
is physically unpleasant. The body feels damaged.
00:15:38
It smells appalling. It's something that,
as a pathologist, we have to deal with.
00:15:44
But to choose to go back
to a body like that and immerse yourself
in that smell and that feel
00:15:51
and then further mutilate it
is such a perverse decision as to show something about the
mind of the person who does it.
00:16:01
-But the depravity
didn't stop there. By now, Hardy had found new love with a woman 10 years
his senior -- Sheilagh Farrow.
00:16:10
He adorned her with trophies he took from his victim's
decomposed corpse. -Trevor Hardy took some
of his victim's jewelry
00:16:18
and gave it to his girlfriend. This is a behavior that we quite
often seen in serial killers
00:16:24
because this is something that is going to be
reminding them of their crimes. He hasn't just killed
this young woman.
00:16:30
He owns her.
He possesses her. He can do with her
what he wants. -Now Hardy had enjoyed
his first blood, he wanted more.
00:16:40
His time would come again seven
months after his first killing. 20th of July, 1975,
18-year-old Wanda Skala
00:16:50
was making the short walk
back to her house in Moston after finishing
her evening shift
00:16:56
as a barmaid
in the local Lightbowne Hotel. Hardy sprung his surprise attack
barely a mile from Wanda's home,
00:17:06
but his method was different
from his first victim. -This time, it wasn't a knife.
00:17:13
This time, Hardy hit her,
I suspect, from behind, with a brick. -She'd been hit with a brick.
It was awful.
00:17:23
Somebody took pleasure
in inflicting that kind of -- totally unnecessary, really.
00:17:29
Hardy said that it was
a robbery, but no. That was more than a robbery. It was a horrendous,
brutal attack on a young female.
00:17:38
-After strangling Wanda,
Hardy subjected his victim to yet more gratuitous violence.
00:17:47
-He began to mutilate her body. In particular, he bit off
her right nipple before he dragged her
onto a building site.
00:17:55
-Biting is often
another act of cruelty. It's not related to the death. I think it suggests
a degree of rage.
00:18:06
It's purely orientated towards
the sexual aspects of the body. And to actually bite
someone's nipple off,
00:18:14
the amount of force you have to
put on your teeth is incredible. This is a huge amount
of violence for violence sake.
00:18:24
-Hardy had now joined the ranks
of other sadistic killers throughout history,
including Neville Heath --
00:18:31
a 1940s murderer he'd read
about in prison. He, too, had bitten off
the nipples of his victims.
00:18:39
Police were alerted early
next morning to Wanda's body, half-buried
on the building site.
00:18:46
They were baffled by the
depraved nature of her injuries. -We knew that she had had her
right nipple bitten off,
00:18:56
which was, most certainly,
an unusual form of injury for any kind of murder. -He hadn't just done that.
00:19:04
He hadn't just hit her once
with a brick and strangled her, 'cause he'd also then proceeded
to absolutely
00:19:09
to destroy her face,
to crush it, so that her jaw
was dropping off. She was utterly destroyed.
00:19:15
-Police felt this was the work
of a monster. Not only had she been
sexually assaulted,
00:19:21
the frenzied blows to Wanda's
head had shattered her skull. Even experienced murder
detectives were shocked
00:19:29
by the brutal nature
of her injuries. -Horrific head injuries
on Wanda Skala. She was -- her private parts
had been kicked.
00:19:41
She had horrendous injuries. I've seen photographs. Just beyond belief, really. -The community was shocked
and horrified
00:19:50
by Wanda's brutal death. Many young women
were now living in fear. In the days that followed, the
police ran appeals in the press
00:20:00
for information
to help catch the killer. Details of the crime scene
were reported in newspapers.
00:20:09
Wanda's handbag had been taken. Police revealed that one
of her shoes was missing,
00:20:15
believed stolen
by her murderer. Hardy began to enjoy
his newfound status as a killer
00:20:22
and decided to get involved
in the investigation in his own sick way. -Hardy actually takes one
of Wanda Skala's shoes back
00:20:31
to the crime scene. Now, he's having fun here. He's playing with the police. And you often find this
with individuals
00:20:39
who have psychopathic
traits and behaviors. They like messing with people. -This is play.
This is taunting the police.
00:20:46
This is -- this is saying
to the police, "I'm in control
of this situation. You'll get and see what I choose
that you will see."
00:20:53
Bizarre. -As Wanda's killing became
the talk of the town, her killer, Trevor Hardy,
00:21:00
found it hard to keep
his sordid secret to himself. -At this point, Hardy
and his brother, Colin,
00:21:09
go for a drink together. Shortly after the body's
been discovered, and there's a lot of --
it's big news in Manchester.
00:21:16
A lot of people talking about it
in the pub. A few drinks are had,
and Hardy makes the mistake
00:21:22
of saying to his brother, Colin,
"I did it." More vanity, you know, as if,
"I could do what I like.
00:21:31
I can get away with it,
no trouble." -And as calmly as telling him
he had a bunion on his foot,
00:21:38
he says he killed this woman. -Mm, well. Now, Colin is clearly
taken aback by this.
00:21:47
-Shocked by his wild
brother's revelation, Colin made his excuses
and walked home.
00:21:54
Trevor made sure
he walked with him. -I don't think this was so much
a confession.
00:22:00
It was more of a boast. He was saying, "Hey, look at me.
Look what I can do." And I think he -- he got
a little bit beyond himself.
00:22:07
He went a little bit too far
in his showing off and realizes, "Wow, my brother knows
about this,
00:22:14
so I need to do
some damage limitation here." -When they arrived at
Colin's door,
00:22:19
Hardy decides he has no choice
but to take immediate action. -He absolutely batters
his brother, Colin,
00:22:30
in the wake of the confession. He batters him relentlessly
and then leaves him, prostrate on the floor.
00:22:42
Goes out for two minutes,
comes back, and tells his girlfriend
to cook him baked beans.
00:22:46
-After calmly eating his beans,
Trevor Hardy finally left. In shock, Colin's girlfriend
tended to his injuries.
00:22:56
Next morning, Colin
went straight to the police. -He reported the assault and reported
that his brother had confessed.
00:23:07
That should have triggered,
given the gravity of the crimes that he'd committed,
an investigation
00:23:13
that most certainly
would have stopped him. -Following the violent assault
on his brother
00:23:18
and the reported confession, Trevor Hardy
was finally arrested. Now safely under lock and key,
00:23:26
Colin was certain his monster
brother could do no more harm. Three months
after the brutal killing
00:23:34
of 18-year-old Wanda Skala,
serial killer Trevor Hardy was finally in custody
on suspicion of murder
00:23:42
and assault
on his brother, Colin. Colin Hardy was relieved
that his dangerous brother
00:23:48
was safely off the streets, but Trevor had cunning plans
to stay ahead of the police.
00:23:55
Forensics had taken a swab
of the killer's saliva on Wanda's body. This was found
near the right nipple,
00:24:03
which had been
savagely bitten off. Hardy was ordered to provide a sample of his saliva
for comparison.
00:24:11
He went to extreme lengths
to eliminate himself from becoming prime suspect. -It is rumored that whilst
waiting to give
00:24:20
the sample of saliva,
he ate half a raw onion, which he had been told brought
down the enzymes in the saliva
00:24:29
to prevent it being traced. -Despite this attempt to foil
the scientists, it was later proven
Hardy's saliva sample did,
00:24:38
indeed, match
the killer's blood group. But Hardy had another ploy to
throw the police off the scent.
00:24:47
-What Hardy does next
is pretty shocking. He's well aware that
there is going to be
00:24:52
some evidence in this case. He's bitten off the nipple
of his victim, and there is a bite mark
on her breast,
00:24:59
which the police
are able to match up if they have a forensic
odontologist involved.
00:25:05
-With plans afoot for police to take a dental impression
of Hardy's teeth, the cunning killer managed
to get a nail file
00:25:13
smuggled into his cell. He began to file
his teeth down in order
to change his bite imprint.
00:25:21
-To actually file your own teeth
is both painful and, in many ways,
incredibly foolish.
00:25:28
It's simply making your mouth
more noticeable. It's making the fact that your teeth
are abnormal a characteristic.
00:25:38
-After taking an imprint
of Hardy's teeth, experts could not make
a conclusive match
00:25:44
when comparing Hardy's
dental impression and the victim's bite mark. Police believed they did
not have
00:25:51
enough evidence
for a murder charge. Once again,
Hardy had evaded justice. The only charges he now faced
were for the assault
00:26:00
on brother Colin. -Trevor went to court and was given a suspended
prison sentence.
00:26:06
Albeit, at that stage,
the saliva test had proved that his blood group was the
same as the one on Wanda Skala.
00:26:15
The fact that, when interviewed
regarding the Skala murder, Trevor had said
he'd been at home,
00:26:23
and his girlfriend,
Sheilagh Farrow, corroborated his story
and gave him a complete alibi.
00:26:31
-So now Hardy has an alibi, and all you really have
is Colin's confession or reported confession that
Hardy made "while he was drunk."
00:26:41
-Well, what makes this
an especially sad story is the police essentially took
his confession as insufficient.
00:26:50
-To Colin's horror,
Hardy was released from custody, and the Beast of Manchester was,
once again,
00:26:56
free to rove the streets. Five months after battering
his younger brother, Trevor's addiction to violence
would rear its head again.
00:27:07
On the 5th of March, 1976, Hardy accosted a 21-year-old
woman in a pub toilet. -He tried his hand with her.
He put his arm between her legs.
00:27:19
She resisted, and then he put
his arms around her throat and began to throttle her.
00:27:26
-He grabs her around the throat
so viciously that she bites part
of her tongue off.
00:27:31
But he's clearly intent
on killing her but is disturbed
and runs off, flees. -Police now had an accurate
description of the attacker
00:27:42
from fellow pubgoers and
wanted posters were circulated. Although they were trying
to establish his identity,
00:27:49
it seemed the net
was now closing in on Hardy. But not in time for 17-year-old
Sharon Mosoph.
00:27:57
On the 9th of March, 1976, she was walking home
after an office party. -She'd asked her mum and dad,
"Which night bus should
00:28:07
I get from Manchester
to nearby?" They said, you get the 98. So she gets off the 98
and encounters Hardy.
00:28:16
-She's walking past her
workplace, Marlborough Mill, when she notices Hardy
trying to break in,
00:28:23
and he has a screwdriver on him. And he turns around and attacks
Sharon with this screwdriver.
00:28:30
-After stabbing 17-year-old
Sharon, Hardy then strangled her
with her own tights.
00:28:38
-It's heartbreaking. It's absolutely tragic. An entirely innocent young woman
walking home from a works party
00:28:45
comes across a monster
in Manchester who kills her, takes her clothes, and then
dumps her in the Rochdale Canal.
00:28:53
-It's brutal.
Again, he bites off a nipple. It seems to be done on impulse. It's hard to believe that anyone
would perpetrate a crime
00:29:03
like this who doesn't at
their core hate women. There are just too
many women victims
00:29:07
to conclude anything else. But what we don't know is we don't know
why he would hate women.
00:29:13
-Hardy raced home from
the murder scene to his lover, Sheilagh Farrow, and persuaded
her to cover for him once again.
00:29:22
-He then went home
to his girlfriend, and it is said
that his clothing was wet, and that she actually dried them
by ironing the jeans.
00:29:34
Subsequently, when the iron
was examined, there was algae from the -- same as that in the canal
found on the iron.
00:29:43
-I think he has somebody
who is quite dependent upon him. He has somebody whose identity
he's probably chipped away at
00:29:51
until she feels
absolutely worthless, so he's able to manipulate her
in this way
00:29:57
because she's useful to him. -Concerned about another
bite mark that could be used
in evidence against him,
00:30:04
Hardy went back to the
Rochdale Canal a second time. He dived into its icy waters,
00:30:11
then scratched over Sharon's
bite mark 64 times, using a rivet from his jacket to obliterate
all proof of his guilt.
00:30:23
-So, here's an offender
that is learning, that's learning the things
that he needs to do to cover up
00:30:29
after his crimes,
and he's not appalled. He's not disgusted by
the mutilation of a dead body.
00:30:34
This is a very,
very dangerous man. -Hardy then went on the run
and lay low, sleeping rough.
00:30:42
When Sharon's body was found
next morning by a passerby, police opened a murder inquiry.
00:30:49
-Sharon was found in the canal
completely naked, but a ligature around her neck
of her own tights.
00:30:56
Her clothing had been placed
in her topcoat and folded and thrown into the canal.
00:31:02
The water was
at a freezing point. The body was frozen, hard,
at least extremely cold,
00:31:09
and had to be recovered
by the diving team. So I think he must have been
rather chilled
00:31:17
by the time he dived in there to mutilate the wounds
he's caused to Sharon's breast.
00:31:24
-Sharon's funeral was held
on the 14th of April, 1976. Detectives investigating her
murder had begun to make links
00:31:34
between her death
and Hardy's other victims. The discovery that his victim
had her nipple bitten off,
00:31:41
just like the previous killing, meant Hardy was now becoming
a prime suspect. To add to that, he'd also now
been identified
00:31:50
as the man wanted in connection with the violent sex attack
in the pub. -Well, now Manchester police
have a much clearer idea
00:31:59
of what's going on. Now this puts Hardy firmly
in the frame for the murder, and Hardy disappears.
00:32:06
He takes off, realizing that this is gonna be
the police's view. -With Hardy now on the run,
police made desperate efforts
00:32:15
to track him down,
but he had vanished. Weeks later, though, there was a breakthrough
in the hunt for Hardy.
00:32:24
Detectives had a tipoff that
his girlfriend, Sheilagh Farrow, was signing on for welfare
benefits at a job center
00:32:31
near Hardy's home. By tracing his lover, police hoped
she'd lead them to the killer.
00:32:40
-Sheilagh Farrow signed on
at the social at Failsworth. I think it was Thursday.
00:32:49
After we learned --
it was actually the following day
she was signed on, so a rather rushed surveillance
operation was put together.
00:32:56
And we phoned and traced
Sheilagh to the place. -Hoping to follow her to Hardy,
police kept a close watch
00:33:05
on Sheilagh
and tracked her every move. -We then followed her
to Stockport. And she went into a house
on Wellington Road.
00:33:17
And we surrounded it. -Believing they'd finally found
his hiding place, it was now or never
for Ian Kirkpatrick
00:33:27
and his team of detectives. Trevor Hardy had brutally
killed three young woman, and he was wanted for
the violent attack on another.
00:33:37
Police had to make their move
and fast before the Beast of Manchester
broke loose once again.
00:33:46
With no time to lose,
police entered the building. They had a surprising
helping hand from the woman
00:33:53
who'd been protecting him. -Sheilagh Farrow --
when questioned, "Have you seen Trevor?"
00:34:02
She's saying,
"No, he's not here." But she was, in fact,
pointing to the -- the hole in the roof,
basically, the loft,
00:34:12
and she kept saying,
"No, he's not here," but pointing upwards
at the loft. And we went up, and the loft was
opened, and up there was Trevor.
00:34:23
-As police blocked the attic,
he had nowhere left to run. Trevor Hardy was finally
once again within their grasp.
00:34:32
-That is probably the highlight
of my career was we looked at the trap door,
and somebody shouted,
00:34:39
"Come down, Trevor,"
and he said, "I'll come down
if you don't hit me." For somebody who was so violent
towards females, beyond belief.
00:34:49
-With Hardy safely back in jail, his lover seemed happy
to tell all. -Hardy's story begins to unravel
when Sheilagh Farrow,
00:34:58
his girlfriend,
tells the police that actually, he wasn't in bed with her
when Wanda was killed,
00:35:06
nor could she give him
an alibi for the night that Sharon Mosoph
was murdered, the girl that's
just been killed.
00:35:13
So effectively, Hardy now,
he's clearly looking at a very long period
of imprisonment.
00:35:22
-Trevor Hardy was charged
for the murders of Wanda Skala
and Sharon Mosoph, though he denied
any involvement.
00:35:31
But in August 1976, whilst on
remand in Strangeways Prison, he dropped a bombshell.
00:35:38
He confessed to the killings. Hardy also had another
surprise up his sleeve. He admitted to murdering
another girl two years earlier.
00:35:49
15-year-old Janet Lesley Stewart had been an unsolved
missing person case that police had never
been able to crack.
00:35:58
-He told the officer
where she was buried, which resulted in the skeleton or what was left of
the skeleton being found.
00:36:08
-And Lesley's body, of course,
is in parts. Her head in the lake,
feet one place,
00:36:13
feet another, hands another. Astonished, the police realize
that they really do have a beast on their hands,
00:36:23
which leads the local paper to
dub him the Beast of Manchester. -Detectives were puzzled
00:36:29
at Hardy's additional
murder confession. -He's already got two
murder charges that he's facing.
00:36:35
Why add a third one? Well, to be perfectly honest,
he's getting bored. He's been inside prison
for some time now.
00:36:43
He's missing having control,
having power over people. He's missing pulling
people's strings,
00:36:49
and he wants a bit of excitement
in his life, and it really
is as simple as that.
00:36:53
-Trevor Hardy finally faced
justice on the 20th of April, 1977,
at Manchester Crown Court.
00:37:02
In a packed courtroom filled
with victims' families, police, and the press, he was up on three charges
of murder for the killing
00:37:11
of Janet Lesley Stewart,
Wanda Skala, and Sharon Mosoph. Even though he had
previously confessed,
00:37:19
a manipulative Trevor Hardy taunted the authorities
once again. -Trevor Hardy pleads not guilty,
00:37:27
and this is because he wants
to have people running around. He wants to see people
inconvenienced.
00:37:33
He wants to be
the puppet master, pulling everybody's strings. -Five days into his
long-awaited trial,
00:37:41
Hardy had more surprises
in store. He decided to change his plea. -He was pleading guilty
to manslaughter on the grounds
00:37:49
that he was insane. He then sacked his counsel and said
he would do his own defense.
00:37:58
-A so-called
"friend of the court" was appointed to advise Hardy
on the finer points of law.
00:38:05
-There are a few cases
of serial murder where the defendant has sacked
their legal team
00:38:10
and decided
to defend themselves, and I think that this shows the utter arrogance
of these individuals.
00:38:17
That actually, my legal team
is not good enough for me. Move over, everybody,
and let me get on with this.
00:38:23
It's commonly said that those
who represent themselves have a fool for a client,
00:38:28
and that is very true
in the case of Trevor Hardy. -Despite his pleas of insanity,
00:38:34
the evidence from three
different psychiatrists refuse to back it up. They concluded that even though
he had psychopathic tendencies,
00:38:44
Trevor Hardy
was just plain evil. -This was a case that, I think,
many people struggled to make sense of.
00:38:51
Because if you look at some
of his offending behavior, biting off the nipples
of his victims,
00:38:56
revisiting their dead bodies, surely,
people thought at the time, this could only be
the work of a madman.
00:39:03
But he wasn't mad. -With his insanity pleas
rejected, time had run out
for Trevor Hardy.
00:39:10
On the 2nd of May, 1977, after 70 minutes
of deliberations, the jury of six women
and six men reached a verdict
00:39:20
at Manchester Crown Court. They found him guilty
on three counts of murder. He was given three life
sentences
00:39:28
and five years for the attack
on the young woman in the pub. For the relatives of victims
00:39:35
such as Lesley Stewart's mother,
Margaret, it was some relief for the grief
Hardy had wreaked on them.
00:39:53
-I think there was a sense
of relief, definitely around Failsworth,
Newton Heath areas.
00:39:58
I am sure a lot
of the population suspected Trevor. He was notorious, violent. -Despite the depravity and
extreme violence of his crimes,
00:40:14
Hardy became known as
the "forgotten serial killer." He was overshadowed by the likes
of Peter Sutcliffe,
00:40:22
the Yorkshire Ripper, who grabbed the media spotlight
around the same time. -Part of the reason why Trevor's
case is not more memorable
00:40:32
to a lot of people is because the number
of actual murder victims compared to other serial killers
is relatively small.
00:40:43
So, in the statistics book, he doesn't look
as evil as he really was. -But the barbaric nature of his
killings still deemed him wicked
00:40:53
in the eyes of the authorities. When Hardy tried to appeal
his sentence after 30 years behind bars,
00:41:00
the judges ruled there
could only be one sentence -- a whole life term. -That was exactly what it was
to prove
00:41:09
because in September 2012, Hardy had a heart attack
in prison in Wakefield and died two days later.
00:41:19
He was 67. For the last 15 years
of his life in prison, he did not receive
one single visitor.
00:41:28
Everyone had realized
just what a beast he was. His brother,
his former girlfriend,
00:41:35
and certainly everyone else. -After becoming one of Britain's longest-serving
prisoners in history,
00:41:42
no one mourned the death
of the Beast of Manchester. In fact, some of the local
community and victims' families
00:41:49
even celebrated his passing. -I think he shattered that
innocence of the early 1970s.
00:41:58
These were the years where -- where women did feel safe out
on the street. Stranger danger
really wasn't a thing,
00:42:04
and I think this was
the beginning of that starting to crumble apart. -He preyed on the young.
00:42:11
He preyed on those who couldn't
fight back very easily. And his acts were calculated.
00:42:18
He deliberately mutilated bodies
after death for his own gratification. -There was something
about his eyes, I would say,
00:42:27
he was definitely different,
definitely evil-looking. To pluck a young girl off
the street who he didn't know,
00:42:33
to kill her, bury her, say it was a mistake,
and then dismember a body? That is just one evil person.
00:42:42
-Hardy brutally slayed
and mutilated three young women with their whole lives
ahead of them,
00:42:49
and those who knew him suspect
there could be more. He reigned terror on the streets
of Manchester,
00:42:55
attacking anyone
who crossed his path, including a girl of just 15
who he barbarically dismembered.
00:43:03
And that makes Trevor Hardy one of the world's
most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪