00:00:04
-North Yorkshire, England,
July the 25th, 2004. After a nationwide manhunt, one of Britain's most wanted
killers was arrested two weeks
00:00:15
after he committed
the first of four murders. He was spotted shopping
at a local garage,
00:00:21
and the owner immediately
alerted the police. -When he's approached
by the police,
00:00:27
he's arrogant, vain,
his ego in full play. He says, "I'm a... murderer, aren't I?"
00:00:34
-Fueled by drugs and alcohol,
34-year-old Mark Hobson had murdered
his girlfriend, Claire,
00:00:40
and, six days later,
her twin sister, Diane. -She was tortured. She was cut with razors,
with scissors.
00:00:48
Those sort of injuries
are sometimes the most upsetting because you can imagine
what they'd feel like.
00:00:57
-The following day,
he killed an elderly couple, James and Joan Britton. -He apparently wasn't able
to even recall
00:01:05
murdering the Brittons. -Despite his so-called
memory loss, the police were able to prove
Hobson was the killer.
00:01:13
-Not only had Hobson
treated them, his two victims,
like disposable rubbish, he'd also mutilated them.
00:01:20
-Every piece of evidence
which linked him to the killing of the two girls and of the Brittons
was in place.
00:01:26
-In May 2005, Mark Hobson
was deemed so dangerous that his final sentence ensured
he would never be free again.
00:01:34
-Nobody had ever been given
a whole-life order before when they'd actually confessed
and they pled guilty to murder.
00:01:42
-The way he meticulously
planned, executed, and then disposed of his victims
makes Mark Hobson
00:01:49
one of the world's
most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Selby, Yorkshire, July 2004. The senseless murder of four
innocent people
00:02:24
in just one week
shocked the nation. The man responsible
was Mark Richard Hobson.
00:02:35
The first two murders
he committed within six days of each other were of his girlfriend,
27-year-old Claire,
00:02:44
and her twin sister, Diane. -What makes Hobson's crimes
especially evil is that they come
without explanation,
00:02:55
because that's a special form
of terrorism all its own, that you cannot know in advance,
00:03:01
not even about
your own relatives, whether it's safe
to be with them. -After murdering his
second victim, Diane,
00:03:08
Hobson went on the run. He made his way to the village
of Strensall, some 20 miles north of Selby.
00:03:16
There, he broke into the home
of an elderly couple, James -- also known as "Jim" --
and Joan Britton,
00:03:22
and attacked them,
leaving them dead. -What makes Mark Hobson one of
Britain's most evil killers
00:03:28
is the amount of trauma
and misery and devastation that he created over the course
of just a few days.
00:03:34
He appeared to be
a runaway train, he appeared to be
out of control, but he knew exactly
what he was doing.
00:03:40
He could've decided
at any point to stop, but he chose to continue
harming people.
00:03:45
This was completely unnecessary. -The gruesome killing spree
sends shock waves across the Yorkshire valley.
00:03:51
Local journalist Mike Laycock has extensively researched
Hobson's story. -In Strensall, the biggest thing
we had to deal with
00:03:59
was teenagers hanging around
on street corners -- suddenly confronted
with the fact
00:04:02
that two people in the village, two elderly, frail pensioners
had been murdered,
00:04:07
so there's a real sense of shock
in a village like Strensall, and the same thing in Selby.
00:04:11
Two young twin sisters have
been murdered in a terrible way. -I think it must have been
terrifying for those
00:04:19
who lived
in the community -- terrifying. -Paul Worsley QC
led the prosecution team.
00:04:26
-They didn't know
if he would strike again, whether he was holding
some grudge to them
00:04:31
and their loves ones. For the Brittons, they were
random victims of this man, so there was no rhyme or reason
for him to attack them.
00:04:43
-But what caused divorcé
and father of three Mark Hobson to embark on such a frenzied
killing spree remains unknown.
00:04:52
-When we look at Hobson,
at first, his life looks
completely normal. He appears to have
a normal family.
00:04:57
There doesn't seem to be
any indications of abuse nor any indications of trauma
from sources
00:05:02
outside of the family. -This killer's story
begins in 1969. Mark Richard Hobson was born
in Wakefield
00:05:13
and grew up in
what appeared to be a happy and stable home
with his two sisters.
00:05:18
-He comes from this traditional
nuclear family, very much working-class. His dad's a coal miner.
00:05:23
His mum's a machinist. There doesn't appear to be any of that significant trauma
or abuse
00:05:29
or neglect that we often see
in the backgrounds of killers. -On the surface, Mark Hobson
had a perfectly ordinary --
00:05:38
in fact, rather respectable
childhood and youth. To all the world and to all
his schoolmates and friends,
00:05:46
he was simply Mark -- nice-enough lad,
nice-enough young man. -But one incident in his teens
was an early warning sign
00:05:55
that evil was brewing
inside 16-year-old Hobson. -He left Selby High School,
and got a job
00:06:02
in a butcher shop in Gowthorpe, and he was quite shy
and quite quiet. But, after about three weeks,
he lost his temper
00:06:10
with a colleague at the shop and threatened to stab him
with a boning knife, and the colleague was terrified,
so he was sacked.
00:06:18
-At the time, Hobson's
violent outburst seemed like
an isolated incident. Five years later, age 21,
00:06:27
he moved in
with his childhood sweetheart. -Mark Hobson is in
his early 20s, and they form a family together,
so he has two stepchildren,
00:06:36
and he has a daughter
of his own, and they appear to be
a normal family unit. -In 1994, two years after
the birth of their daughter,
00:06:46
the couple married. It should've been a happy
and fulfilling time for him. -She was later to refer to Mark
as almost a perfect husband --
00:06:57
did everything right,
worked hard. He was, at that point,
working the Drax power station,
00:07:02
as well as doing
some landscape gardening. There was nothing to indicate
at all that Mark Hobson
00:07:08
would turn into a killer --
in fact, rather the opposite. He seemed
an upright family man --
00:07:15
one child of his own,
two stepchildren. -Out of the blue,
three and a half years
00:07:19
after they were married,
Hobson ended the relationship. -Mark Hobson literally
walks out, says,
00:07:26
"I can't do this anymore -- I'm leaving,"
and literally just ups and goes. Now, there is
a brief reconciliation,
00:07:34
but this doesn't last very long because Hobson has changed
quite a lot and he's started to drink
quite heavily
00:07:41
and she doesn't want him
around the children. So, literally, overnight,
things have changed.
00:07:47
-Hobson's divorce sparked
a swift downward spiral. -Hobson's life did
start unraveling.
00:07:55
He hasn't got
that structure anymore. I think that that structure
and that routine
00:07:58
was something that was
quite important to him. He really is off the rails. -He left the power station
and went to work as a nightclub
00:08:06
bouncer, doorman,
in Selby, in Yorkshire. And, in my mind, it was the move
to becoming a nightclub bouncer
00:08:15
that was to send
Hobson completely off the rails. For the first time in his life,
00:08:21
he came into contact with
industrial quantities of drugs, be it ecstasy, cannabis, cocaine,
and he also started,
00:08:29
for the first time in his life,
to drink -- and not just to drink a little,
but to drink.
00:08:36
-Hobson's drug and alcohol
addictions changed him. -He was developing a rather
"Jekyll and Hyde" personality.
00:08:45
He could be laughing
and joking one moment, and, the next minute,
he could be flying into
00:08:48
a terrible temper,
a really bad rage. -Alcohol reduces inhibitions.
What does that mean?
00:08:58
It's the most dangerous drug
in the world to be taken by somebody who has a murderous impulse
waiting to bubble up,
00:09:07
because alcohol reaches
into the frontal cortex, removes the self-control, and so while alcoholism
doesn't make somebody murderous,
00:09:17
it can enable the murderous part
of a person's soul to emerge. -In 2002, age 32, Hobson was
outside an off-license in Selby
00:09:29
when he lost all control. After a disagreement
about a woman, he viciously attacked
a former friend
00:09:35
with a knife in front
of horrified shoppers. -He attacked somebody who was
supposedly one of his friends.
00:09:42
He stabbed this man five times, and it's been said that he was
something of a love rival,
00:09:48
but this is a wholly
disproportionate reaction to somebody
looking at your girlfriend
00:09:53
or muscling in
on your territory. -Now, that's not small. That's not mild. It is a wild overreaction,
00:10:02
no matter how they may have
fallen out or over what. Nevertheless, it was a very
sustained and brutal attack.
00:10:10
-The father of two was left
fighting for his life. He was rushed into hospital
for emergency surgery.
00:10:17
Incredibly, he survived,
and Hobson admitted to wounding with intent
to cause grievous bodily harm.
00:10:26
Leeds Crown Court, Yorkshire,
February 2003. 33-year-old Mark Hobson
pleaded guilty
00:10:33
to unlawfully wounding
his old friend. -He'd stabbed a man
in the street in Selby called Gowthorpe,
00:10:40
but this man
had been left in intensive care. He got a punctured lung. It could easily
have been a murder.
00:10:44
-At the time,
Hobson was considered a low risk to the public. He avoided a custodial sentence
for the violent crime
00:10:52
and was given
a community-service order. -To this day, I will not
understand how it happened.
00:10:59
He did not receive any kind of
a custodial sentence. He was simply given 100 hours
of community service.
00:11:05
-This was an opportunity
to intervene, to put the brakes
on his behavior, and it was one
that was completely missed.
00:11:12
And one of the other
consequences was that he hasn't been forced to address
or tackle his behavior.
00:11:18
-The following year,
Hobson seemed to be getting his life back together,
and he got a job as a bin man.
00:11:25
In April 2004, he moved into a flat
in the village of Camblesforth, approximately five miles
from Selby city center,
00:11:33
with his girlfriend,
27-year-old Claire. -And she was somebody
who was quite vulnerable.
00:11:39
She'd suffered from anorexia. She had some issues
with drinking, with alcohol, and I think he sensed this
vulnerability, to be honest.
00:11:48
And if you look back
at people's recollections of their relationship,
it was an abusive one.
00:11:54
It was a toxic one. -Hobson's addictions
quickly resurfaced, inflaming his vicious temper.
00:12:01
-He was seen as quite a violent
man in the community, as a bit of a hard man and somebody who would get
into alcohol-fueled brawls,
00:12:08
and you'd suspect that there was
some poor treatment of Claire. -There was an incident in 2003
where people recalled him
00:12:16
dragging her from one side of
the pub to the other by her hair and punching her in the face.
00:12:22
This was an abusive
relationship. It was quite visibly violent. -Hobson and his girlfriend's
violent public
00:12:28
exchanges continued
to escalate, making it difficult for
Camblesforth locals to ignore.
00:12:35
-They both drank heavily -- there's no question
about that -- and got into
a great many fights.
00:12:40
At one point, she was
christened "8 Ball" because she was always
black and blue and he hit her so regularly,
00:12:46
but, equally, when Hobson
went to visit his ex-wife, at one point, he, too,
was covered with bite marks.
00:12:55
So this was not exactly a... calm relationship. It was really quite brutal. And no one can say
that Hobson wasn't,
00:13:06
by this point, a violent man. -Some believe his violent
outbursts towards Claire
00:13:12
were fueled by his obsession
with her twin sister, Diane. -He had boasted to a fellow
refuse collector
00:13:19
that he'd picked
the wrong sister, that he should really have
chosen a relationship with Diane
00:13:25
and not with Claire. Perhaps he just got bored
with Claire, but the dreadful truth was that
Claire was to pay with her life
00:13:36
for Hobson's change
of affection. -In 2004, his lust for Diane
was uncontrollable.
00:13:44
In June, he left his job
and took up casual work. -He'd made himself
a to-do list --
00:13:53
"Things I must do to get rid
of Claire and to have Diane." At one point, it said,
"Buy bin bags and ties
00:14:02
and disinfectant and bleach," all sorts of things
he knew he might need if he fulfilled his plan
to kill Claire.
00:14:12
And it was, in many ways,
a very elaborate plan. -On the 11th of July, 2004,
Hobson and Claire
00:14:21
were seen leaving
the Comus Inn in Camblesforth. It was the last time that Claire
would be seen alive.
00:14:28
When they returned to their flat
on Millfield Drive, Mark Hobson put his murderous
plan into action.
00:14:36
-He had basically decided that he didn't want
her around anymore. He'd developed a fixation
with her sister.
00:14:42
She was simply an obstacle that
he wanted to get out of the way. -With Claire, he struck her on
the head with a hammer 17 times.
00:14:53
That would, at the very least,
render her unconscious, probably would've proved
to be fatal in any case,
00:15:01
but he also strangled her. -Dr. Stuart Hamilton was
a trainee forensic pathologist
00:15:07
who saw the victims'
bodies firsthand. -The Hobson case was probably
one of the first
00:15:14
relatively high-profile multiple
murders that I saw in my career. It does stick with you.
00:15:23
-It was an utterly ruthless
killing, no doubt fueled by considerable
quantities of alcohol.
00:15:33
-After the brutal killing,
Hobson used supplies he'd previously bought
to conceal her body.
00:15:40
He dragged Claire up the stairs and wrapped her body
in bin bags. -So, it's very much a case of
"out of sight, out of mind."
00:15:50
He used some bleach to clean up
one of the areas in the flat because I think he might
have been bothered by there
00:15:55
being some kind of stain,
some kind of smell there, but he stays
in the flat with her body.
00:16:00
Her body is decomposing. This is the summer months. This is gonna be
most unpleasant,
00:16:05
but he simply
doesn't care about that. -The following week,
Claire's decomposing body
00:16:11
remained in the flat
while Hobson moved on with the second phase
of his plan -- Diane.
00:16:17
-Diane was Claire's twin sister, and Hobson had developed
a bit of a fixation with her.
00:16:23
He'd actually said
to a work colleague, "I'm going to have her." Now, that phrase is
very revealing for me.
00:16:29
That shows, for me, that Hobson
is somebody who looks at women as things to be owned,
things to be possessed,
00:16:35
not human beings
with rights and feelings. He's quite misogynistic,
and he's got himself
00:16:41
set on this idea
that he's gonna have Diane. -Hobson contacted Diane
and concocted a story
00:16:48
to get her to his flat. -The attack on Claire
almost pales into insignificance behind the attack
on her twin sister, Diane.
00:16:58
A week after he has
dispatched Claire and leaving her to decompose
in the bedroom of their flat,
00:17:07
he telephones Diane at her home
and says that her sister -- her twin, Claire --
would very much like to see her
00:17:15
and she's been ill
with glandular fever. It was of course a pretense,
no more than a bait
00:17:22
to get the object of
his intentions into his hands. -Diane told her parents
she was going to visit Claire
00:17:31
and then planned to meet
her boyfriend in the pub. She was last seen leaving her
home that evening
00:17:37
and made the journey
to her sister's. -She couldn't have predicted,
is that she fell into the hands
00:17:43
of the man who'd already
murdered her twin sister. Now, there's no doubt whatever
that the objective here
00:17:51
was an entirely sexual one. There'd been no sexual attack
on Claire, but there was
a very distinct sexual motive
00:17:59
in Diane's killing, and the details of it
almost defy description. -Once she set foot in the flat,
her fate was sealed.
00:18:09
Hobson forced his will on Diane
in the most terrifying way. -She was tortured. She was cut with razors,
with scissors.
00:18:20
Those sort of injuries
are sometimes the most upsetting because you can imagine
what they'd feel like.
00:18:29
A fatal stab wound to the heart, most people can't imagine
how that would feel. To be cut on the arm
with a razor,
00:18:38
you can empathize
with what that would feel like. -She must've been
absolutely terrified,
00:18:44
you know, really fearful
of what was going on, and doing everything
she possibly
00:18:48
could to try
and save her own life. But he wanted to own her. He wanted to possess her.
00:18:54
He had her in that flat, and he was going to do
whatever he wanted with her. -But Hobson wasn't satisfied
00:19:00
with just fulfilling
his sadistic sexual desires. -So, while Claire was murdered,
00:19:09
Diane is tortured
and assaulted and murdered. It seems almost like
she's more the focus
00:19:16
of what he wanted to do. Claire just needed to be taken
out of the picture. -I think that the attack
on Diane
00:19:24
was so much more aggressive because this was
Hobson's target. This was what he wanted.
00:19:30
He probably fantasized,
he probably ruminated over this for quite a considerable
period of time.
00:19:35
Claire was simply the obstacle
to get out of the way, and I think he saw Diane
as the prize.
00:19:40
-Eventually, Hobson beat Diane
with the same hammer that he used to murder
her sister, Claire.
00:19:46
He then strangled
and suffocated her. -The thing about these
sort of assaults is that they are
physically difficult to do.
00:19:55
It is not a quick, sudden,
spur-of-the-moment thing. It takes effort. Even if someone
was simply angry,
00:20:05
there's time there to realize
what you're doing and to stop, but Hobson carried on.
00:20:11
-They were treated appallingly,
and that kind of brutality, that kind of callousness,
00:20:18
that kind of depravity leaves
me speechless. -Hobson continued to stay
in the flat
00:20:25
where Claire's body
had been left. -The smell of decomposition is
incredibly distinctive.
00:20:34
It is very strong. It's not the sort of thing
that you could easily cover just with an air freshener
or some simple method.
00:20:43
The smell would grow over time
as the body decomposes, and it will often leak
out of houses.
00:20:52
It can be smelled in the street. It is biologically designed
for you to realize that something
is not safe to be around.
00:21:02
-None of this seemed
to faze Hobson. But he made a big mistake. The night he murdered Diane,
00:21:11
she was due to meet
her boyfriend in a nearby pub. -Diane's boyfriend,
by this time,
00:21:17
is concerned
that she hasn't appeared, so he rings her mobile phone. Hobson answers.
00:21:23
"Where's Diane?"
"Oh, oh, she and Claire have gone 'round
to their father's because he's had
a heart attack."
00:21:31
Absolute, complete invention,
but clever. Hobson doesn't stop there. He says, "But I must come
and talk to you."
00:21:41
So Hobson, leaving the bodies
of the two sisters in the flat, goes to the pub
and meets Diane's boyfriend,
00:21:48
and they proceed
to get drunk together. -And Hobson then invites him
back to the flat.
00:21:54
Now, this, for me, is a really, really significant moment
in this case because I think
00:22:00
Hobson's actually
quite enjoying this. He knows what's going on. He knows exactly where
Claire and Diane are.
00:22:06
They are in that flat. -Now, I can only imagine
the boyfriend, by this point, was pretty drunk.
No matter.
00:22:14
He agrees, goes back to the flat
with Hobson. -When Diane's boyfriend
entered Hobson's flat,
00:22:22
he was met with an overwhelming
stench of decomposing bodies. -He actually comments
on the smell.
00:22:28
He says, "There's a really nasty
smell in here." And Hobson said,
"Oh, that's the drains.
00:22:34
They've been playing up
for a while. -Hobson tries to persuade
the boyfriend to spend the night on the sofa.
00:22:42
"Oh, don't bother to go home. No, it's late.
It's nearly 1:00." Lies down on the sofa,
only to discover blood.
00:22:51
He gets off the sofa and says
to Hobson, "What's this?" "Oh," Hobson says --
nothing if not a quick liar --
00:22:59
"Oh, Claire had
a few women's problems. It's nothing to worry about." -Diane's boyfriend
made his excuses
00:23:06
and left the flat to head home. -I think the fact that Hobson
invited the boyfriend
00:23:12
back to the flat
is incredibly revealing. There was absolutely no purpose
for doing that,
00:23:17
other than feeling
very powerful, feeling very important, feeling incredibly in control
and proud of what he'd done.
00:23:25
-Had he not gone home,
I'm sure the boyfriend would have paid
with his life that night.
00:23:30
But the fact he did
go home saved his life. -In the early hours
of the following morning,
00:23:38
fearing that Diane's boyfriend
was onto him, Hobson decided to leave
Camblesforth
00:23:43
with just the clothes he was
wearing and a kitchen knife. -After the boyfriend's gone home
and in the depths of night,
00:23:52
Hobson persuades his mother to drive him to York,
to the hospital. He tells her that the twins
have been in a car accident
00:24:02
and that they are
in York Hospital -- another complete fabrication. -Now, during this car journey,
00:24:09
he looks quite agitated,
he looks quite concerned, but his mom takes him
and leaves him at the hospital.
00:24:16
-On July the 18th, CCTV cameras
at the hospital in York captured Hobson
at approximately 2:40 a.m.
00:24:27
Later that morning,
Diane's boyfriend awoke, concerned that he still hadn't
heard from his girlfriend
00:24:33
about her father's heart attack
the night before. He decided to pay her a visit
at her parents' house.
00:24:41
When he arrived, Diane's father
answered the door. The two quickly realized
the twins were missing
00:24:47
and headed straight
to Hobson's flat. -At about 8:00 in the morning
of Sunday, the 18th of July,
00:24:54
one week after Claire has been
killed, Diane's boyfriend and the twins' father
arrive at the flat.
00:25:03
To have seen that not only had
Hobson treated them, his two victims,
like disposable rubbish,
00:25:12
he'd also mutilated them... -Hobson had left their bodies
there in the flat, so not only had
he murdered them --
00:25:18
then he just fled
the scene afterwards with absolutely no regard
to the impact of that event
00:25:24
on the people
who were closest to his victims. -As the police were called
to Hobson's flat,
00:25:30
he struck again in the village
of Strensall, approximately 20 miles away. -Perhaps he was on some kind of
spree at this point --
00:25:39
you know, "Now I've done it,
I can get away with it, and, what's more,
I'm gonna do it again --"
00:25:43
a kind of version
of a spree killer but not with a sniper rifle
or a gun, but a man who likes to kill
00:25:50
close up and personal
with a knife. -On the run and in desperate
need of food and shelter,
00:25:57
Hobson had broken into a home
in the village. -He chooses a particularly
frail, elderly couple called
James and Joan Britton.
00:26:07
James is a former Spitfire pilot
from the Second World War. James has got some form
of Parkinson's and is very deaf.
00:26:17
Joan, unfortunately, can't really walk very well
and is pretty blind. -Hobson brutally attacked
the Brittons
00:26:26
and viciously stabbed them
both to death. -Knives are designed
to cut through objects,
00:26:34
and so they are
quite effective tools if you wish to injure
another person. But in Joan Britton's case,
she was stabbed with such force
00:26:46
that the tip of the knife
stuck in bone and broke off. That is way in excess
of the force
00:26:53
that you'd need to use
simply to stab somebody. It is at the severe end
of what we see.
00:27:02
-The police were called
by neighbors who discovered the bodies
of the Brittons shortly after the murders
had been committed.
00:27:09
When officers arrived, they
were met with a shocking sight. They found the body
of Jim Britton
00:27:15
laying in the sitting room and that of Joan Britton
in the hallway. -There is definitely a sense
in which Hobson
00:27:23
was preying on the vulnerable
when he killed the Brittons, so Mr. Britton
was elderly, was infirm,
00:27:30
and he beat him with his own
walking stick several times -- many more times
than he needed to do
00:27:37
to get somebody out of the way so he could escape
from the house. He didn't need to kill this man.
00:27:42
He stabbed him. This was something that was
really, really unnecessary. -In Selby, Yorkshire,
the police had launched
00:27:49
a manhunt
to find the killer of the twins, Claire and Diane, unaware
he'd already killed again.
00:27:56
-The police obviously were
looking for Hobson after the boyfriend of Diane
alerted them to the fact that he
00:28:01
and, indeed,
Diane and Claire's father had gone 'round
and found the bodies. So then there was a manhunt
for Hobson.
00:28:08
He was the obvious suspect. The list there, the items that
the bought, the fact
that it was in his flat,
00:28:15
and that he disappeared
all inevitably pointed to him. -That evening, police release
the story to the local paper,
00:28:22
the Evening Press. -Quite early on, from the moment
of the day after the murders,
00:28:28
the police were
already revealing that they had a suspect in mind, and they said
it was Mark Hobson.
00:28:33
They named him initially
as the suspect and the person they wanted
to speak to in connection
00:28:37
with the murders
of Diane and Claire. -In seven days, Hobson had
savagely murdered four people --
00:28:45
Claire Sanderson,
Diane Sanderson, Jim Britton, and Joan Britton,
but, at this point, the police forces
had not connected the murders.
00:28:54
-At that stage, they weren't
sure the murders of Joan and James Britton was committed
by the same person,
00:29:00
although there were strong
reasons to believe that it was. It would be extraordinary
if it wasn't,
00:29:04
but they couldn't
be sure at first. -With Hobson still on the run,
North Yorkshire
00:29:09
police released
an image of him to the press. -So, quite early on,
descriptions are issued,
00:29:15
photographs are issued. The police are really keen
to get the message out there --
00:29:20
this is the person
they wanted to find. They wanted the picture
out there, the image of Mark Hobson
out there
00:29:24
so that anybody,
a member of the public, who saw him would be able
to come forward
00:29:28
and tell the police
where he was. -News of the killings
quickly grip the country,
00:29:33
and alleged sightings of Hobson
started to appear in Strensall, where the murders of
the Brittons had taken place.
00:29:40
-As the week went on,
evidence emerged that did tie in the two sets of murders,
and it became clear
00:29:45
there was one person
they were looking for, and that was Mark Hobson. -The fact he was in his flat
and that he disappeared
00:29:51
all inevitably pointed to him. And then, when there was
an unexplained killing for what appeared to be
no reason at all 25 miles away,
00:30:01
then the police put two
and two together and said, "We've got one man
who is a out on a rampage --
00:30:06
and a very dangerous man
indeed." -But four days after killing
the Brittons, Hobson was still on the loose.
00:30:13
Police attempted to get Hobson
to come forward by broadcasting
a recording of his mother,
00:30:18
asking him to give himself up. But with still no sign
of the murderer, fear continued to spread
amongst the Yorkshire locals.
00:30:27
-For a whole week, there was
a strange, surreal sense -- particularly in Strensall
and Camblesforth,
00:30:32
but also in the whole
of the York area -- that this man was on the run, possibly still in the area,
living rough,
00:30:37
and people were concerned
that they could be next. -Yorkshire, July the 25th, 2004.
00:30:47
A manhunt was underway to catch
serial killer Mark Hobson, who savagely murdered
four people in one week.
00:30:58
-He knows that it's all
gonna unravel, and he's really, really trying
to pull something together
00:31:04
and make sure
that he gets away with it. -Hobson had been on the run
for a whole week,
00:31:08
and the police mounted an
extraordinarily large operation to try and find him. There were daily
press conferences
00:31:13
on television screens
around the country and, I think,
around the world. Police said, "Do not,
under any circumstances,
00:31:18
approach this man.
He is dangerous. Call us if you see him." -Hobson had successfully
evaded capture for a week
00:31:25
and was believed to be
in the North Yorkshire area. Locals were alarmed
as further details
00:31:30
were revealed
about the brutal killings. -This is North Yorkshire. This is not the mean
city streets.
00:31:37
This is not the kind of place
where this happens. Hobson wasn't even an outsider.
00:31:42
He was actually
from this community. He came from the Yorkshire area,
so this was one of their own,
00:31:48
and I think that that makes it
even more traumatic. -The community in York
and surrounding areas
00:31:53
was obviously terrified. Here was a man who had already
killed two people twice and clearly was capable
of killing at will
00:32:01
and for no particular reason. The desperation of the community
for there to be an arrest
00:32:06
and for this man
to be stopped was extreme. -And their fears were justified, as it became clear that Hobson
planned to kill again.
00:32:16
-He actually had a list
of people that he was intending to kill. He had a list of items
that he would need
00:32:23
to actually carry out
those murders. -The police found,
at his home address, a list with the name
of other people
00:32:31
who appeared to be
potential victims -- the parents of Diane and Claire and indeed the parents
of his ex-wife.
00:32:41
-This was somebody
who was not snapping, who was not out of control. This was very well
thought through.
00:32:48
-After seven days on the run,
Hobson eventually came out of hiding in the village
of Shipton-by-Beningbrough,
00:32:55
approximately 6 miles from York. -One week after the bodies
of Claire and Diane are discovered, the bodies
of Jim and Joan Britton
00:33:04
are discovered --
one week later that he is finally spotted in
a garage not far away from York.
00:33:12
-34-year-old Hobson
didn't realize, but he'd been recognized. -Hobson was finally tracked down
00:33:19
when he went into a petrol
station to buy a few items, and the attendant in there
recognized him from a photo
00:33:26
that had been made public
in a police appeal. -So, within 20 minutes,
huge number of police officers
00:33:32
descended on the scene --
armed police officers -- knowing that he was somewhere
in the vicinity,
00:33:38
and the manhunt
really intensified, and he was found
not long afterwards. -On the 25th of July, 2004,
in Shipton-by-Beningbrough,
00:33:47
Mark Hobson, Britain's most
wanted man, was arrested. His hideout was discovered
just 8 feet from the main road
00:33:54
in the area, the A19. Hobson was found burrowed
in a gap between a thornbush and a septic tank,
behind an upholstery shop.
00:34:04
-And he was clearly
in a disheveled state. He looked very tired, and he was
quite recognizably the person
00:34:10
that had been
on the "wanted" posters that had been around
for the previous week.
00:34:14
-Once caught, Hobson showed
no remorse for what he'd done. -When Hobson was arrested,
he tells the officers,
00:34:22
"Well, I'm a [bleep] murderer,
aren't I?" And I think this is really,
really interesting
00:34:28
because he knows
exactly what he's done. This isn't somebody
who is denying responsibility.
00:34:34
He's fessing up straightaway. -Finally in custody, Hobson's
reign of terror was over.
00:34:41
When questioned about
the four murders, he denied any knowledge
of killing the Brittons.
00:34:47
-Well, Hobson claimed
that he lost a day and a half when he murdered the Brittons,
the elderly couple.
00:34:53
Hobson claims that he was drunk
when he committed these murders. He essentially blamed them
on alcohol.
00:34:59
-There's no doubt in my mind
whatever that, if Hobson had not been caught
on that Sunday,
00:35:06
he'd have killed again and
probably several more times -- one of those killers who, once
the psychotic break had come,
00:35:14
would only be stopped
when someone stopped him. And that someone, of course,
was the police.
00:35:19
-On April the 18th, 2005, Mark Hobson stood trial
at Leeds Crown Court, charged with four counts
of murder for killing
00:35:29
Claire and Diane and Jim
and Joan Britton. -Nine months or so
after the four murders,
00:35:36
he pleads guilty
to all four murders. Mercifully, for the families
of the victims --
00:35:44
the twins' parents
and the Brittons' daughter -- Hobson didn't submit them
to the full detail
00:35:51
of exactly what had happened
to their loved ones. -Paul Worsley was the prosecutor
leading the case against Hobson.
00:36:00
-The case was
very carefully prepared, as you would expect and hope,
by North Yorkshire police.
00:36:06
There was, when the trial
came to take place, nowhere for Hobson to turn. Every avenue of defense
had been blocked.
00:36:14
Every piece of evidence
which linked him to the killing of the two girls and of the Brittons
was in place there.
00:36:21
-Due to the horrific nature
of the crimes, a psychiatric report
was conducted. -Hobson was examined
by a psychiatrist,
00:36:30
obviously to try
and find some reason, some explanation for this
appalling saga of killing
00:36:37
for which he was responsible, but, very surprisingly,
none was found. And therefore he was someone
who was fully responsible
00:36:45
for the killing
of those four people. -All the evidence conclusively
pointed to Hobson
00:36:51
knowingly committing
the murders. -I believe that Hobson admitted
to all of the murders
00:36:56
because he was advised, "If you confess
at the first opportunity, you're perhaps likely to receive
a lighter sentence for that."
00:37:04
So I think there's this
self-interest going on here. He didn't suddenly develop
a conscience overnight.
00:37:09
He was trying to secure
the best outcome for himself. -But the judge,
Mr. Justice Grigson,
00:37:14
could not see any reason
to offer any leniency and stated to Hobson
in open court,
00:37:21
"The enormity of what
you've done is beyond words. The damage you've done
is incalculable.
00:37:27
You not only destroyed the lives
of your victims, but you devastated the lives
of those who love them."
00:37:35
-The judge now asks for guidance
on sentencing, to know what the parameters
of sentencing could be,
00:37:41
and this experienced judge
well knew what they were likely to be. In respect of each
of the murders,
00:37:47
Hobson did receive a sentence
of life imprisonment to run concurrently
in respect of all four murders.
00:37:55
-On the 27th of May, 2005,
at Leeds Crown Court, Mr. Justice Grigson
sentenced Mark Hobson
00:38:02
to a whole-life order, ensuring that life meant life. -Now, this set a complete
legal precedent,
00:38:10
because nobody had ever been
given a whole-life order before
when they'd actually confessed
00:38:15
and they pled guilty
to the murder. -Mrs. Sanderson, the mother,
was there, as was the father.
00:38:22
On hearing the sentence -- and I'm sure it was one
with which they agreed, because that's the heaviest
sentence any court
00:38:28
in this jurisdiction
can impose -- became very upset
and told him to rot in hell.
00:38:34
-But a few months
after entering prison, Hobson's violent
temper struck again, this time at Soham murderer
Ian Huntley.
00:38:43
-When he was in prison,
Hobson attacked Ian Huntley, the murderer of Holly Wells
and Jessica Chapman in Soham.
00:38:50
He actually poured boiling water
over Ian Huntley. Now, this wasn't done to avenge
the harm
00:38:56
that Huntley had done
to his victims or his families. This was very much done
to protect
00:39:01
Hobson's own status
within prison. -You have to look back
at the big picture. Here's a guy who we know
primarily about him
00:39:12
through his two
bizarre homicides, the twin sisters,
but we know that violence lurks.
00:39:19
The interesting thing
is his violence is not limited to that context. We know, from the killing
of the older couple,
00:39:25
that, when it's instrumentally
necessary, he'll kill, but we know something else --
he can be very violent.
00:39:30
He stabbed somebody in a public
place through the lung, and he viciously physically
assaulted somebody in jail.
00:39:39
So this is a person who has
intense aggressive impulses being held in check at all time.
00:39:47
-Despite pleading guilty
and spending the rest of his life
in Wakefield Prison, Hobson's motivation
for committing the murders
00:39:54
remains a mystery. There was no reason known
to the police for Hobson to do as he did.
00:40:02
He took not just one but four
lives for no reason, no motive, no medical condition
that had caused him
00:40:11
to behave in this bizarre
and appalling way. -We all fancy ourselves
being able to see the potential
00:40:19
for evil or for tragedy
by looking at somebody's life and seeing some indications
of that possibility.
00:40:26
What the Hobson case says,
frighteningly, is that maybe anyone
can be a killer. -In just seven days,
he brutally killed four people.
00:40:41
The callous killing
of his girlfriend, Claire, the savage sexual assault
and murder of her sister, Diane,
00:40:47
and the violent deaths
of elderly couple Jim and Joan Britton makes Mark Hobson
one of the world's
00:40:54
most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪