00:00:00
[audio logo] narrator: On the 18th
of October 1986, Janet Newton left her home
to meet fiance Malcolm Pearson
00:00:16
for a night out in Hartlepool. - They just got engaged so they
were going to celebrate.
00:00:23
narrator: Watching Janet as she
set off on the five-minute walk was Malcolm's ex, Maria.
00:00:30
- She runs across the road
brandishing a large sheath knife, and she stabs Janet
no less than 17 times
00:00:38
and leaves her lying
in a pool of blood. narrator: The hunt
for Maria Pearson involved
00:00:44
forces from all over Britain. - Well, you know there's
a dangerous murderer on the loose.
00:00:50
You don't know what
else she's going to do or who else she's
going to come for. narrator: Janet's
murder was a highly
00:00:55
unusual crime perpetrated
by a ruthless killer. - To never let this woman
out-- she is deadly.
00:01:02
narrator: For a crime that
rocked a quiet seaside town, Maria Pearson was proven
to be one of the world's
00:01:09
most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪ When 31-year-old Maria
Pearson was found guilty
00:01:39
of murdering Janet
Newton, no one realized the case would make history. - Maria Pearson has
become the longest-serving
00:01:48
female prisoner in Britain. narrator: Pearson
has repeatedly appealed for her
freedom, something
00:01:56
that Janet Newton's
sister, Lynn, who wanted to remain
anonymous, is strongly against.
00:02:02
Lynn: Every time she appealed,
it would be in the papers again, and my mum would pick
the Mail up from the doormat
00:02:08
and say Janet's face all over
the front of the Mail again. And it wasn't very nice.
00:02:13
narrator: With parole
refused nine times, Maria Pearson continues
in her campaign
00:02:19
to be released, something
her victims, friends, and family live in fear of. - And there are
people still alive.
00:02:27
Malcolm Pearson, for one. And who's to say that
she wouldn't want to vent revenge on the likes of him?
00:02:36
- I wouldn't like to be
Malcolm if she got out. narrator: This killer's story
begins on the 12th of March,
00:02:49
1956. - Maria Pearson was
born in Hartlepool on the Northeast
Coast of England. Jane Monckton-Smith:
Her childhood
00:03:03
was not particularly stable. She had problems
with her behavior. She was in care for a while.
00:03:14
- She was very, very unsettled. And indeed, she developed
something of a violent temper.
00:03:20
Lynn: There were
so many people who said, oh, I went to school with her. She was terrible at school.
00:03:25
What a nasty person she is. narrator: Maria grew
into a woman who struggled with relationships.
00:03:32
By her mid-20s, she had two
failed marriages behind her and was living
in the center of Hartlepool.
00:03:43
A few streets away,
22-year-old Janet Newton lived with her parents and siblings.
00:03:52
- Janet Newton came
from a large family. She was the eldest
of four children. She had two brothers
and a younger sister, Lynn.
00:03:59
Lynn: She was the most
wonderful big sister you could ever wish for. She loved school.
00:04:04
She was very studious. She left senior school with
really brilliant grades. Then she applied for the job
at the Abbey National
00:04:12
and she beat off
hundreds of applicants. When she got her
first wage, she bought us all a present, my mum
and dad and me and my brothers.
00:04:19
And then she started
donating to charities and she sponsored
a child abroad. She just had a really
giving nature.
00:04:26
narrator: In 1986, aged
22, Janet began dating local welder Malcolm Pearson. The confident 31-year-old was a
departure from her usual type.
00:04:42
Lynn: She had a couple
of boyfriends before Malcolm, really nice, quiet people. She got engaged to one
of them, but it didn't work out
00:04:50
and they went
their separate ways. And it was just after
that when she met Malcolm.
00:04:55
So, you know, we weren't sure
she was quite ready to start another relationship.
00:05:00
narrator: Janet's new boyfriend
had a checkered history, one which had
in the past put him
00:05:06
on the wrong side of the law. Jane Monckton-Smith:
Malcolm Pearson was a problematic individual.
00:05:13
By his own description,
he was a bit of a brawler, a nightclub brawler. - She felt as though she was
deeply in love with Malcolm.
00:05:25
The last thing you
want to hear is people saying you shouldn't
be with him because you
00:05:30
don't want to hear that. The problem is when you've
fallen in love with somebody,
00:05:35
nothing else matters, does it? narrator: Recently
separated from his wife, Malcolm spent much of his
time with his family.
00:05:45
Malcolm's niece,
Andrea, who also wanted to remain anonymous,
remembers her uncle fondly.
00:05:52
Andrea: He's my dad's
younger brother. There's three brothers,
and Malcolm's the youngest.
00:05:57
Malcolm and my dad
were very close. Malcolm confided
in my dad a lot. I found out that Malcolm
had met somebody new.
00:06:05
And she was quite
a bit younger than him, but they seemed
to be madly in love. He couldn't stop
talking about her.
00:06:12
He really, really felt
like he'd met the one. narrator: Malcolm's new
relationship with Janet
00:06:20
was a world away from what he'd
had with his ex-wife, Maria, which was highly volatile.
00:06:27
Geoffrey Wansell:
He was at one point fined 100 pounds
for attacking her. At another point,
she claimed he'd
00:06:32
raped her, only to go
back to his house and go to bed with him again. narrator: Pearson
later admitted
00:06:38
the rape claim had been false. - It was that kind
of a volatile, stormy, extraordinary relationship.
00:06:53
narrator: On Thursday,
the 16th of October, 1986, Janet turned 23 and Malcolm
had an extra special
00:07:01
gift for his girlfriend. Lynn: Janet got
engaged to Malcolm. She wasn't with Malcolm long.
00:07:07
Everything was just
happening so quickly. narrator: Two days later,
on the Saturday night,
00:07:15
the happy couple planned
to go out to celebrate. Wearing her best red dress,
Janet set off on foot
00:07:24
to meet Malcolm at his home. Lynn: It was only about
a five-minute walk just round the corner down
the main road, Grange Road.
00:07:32
And then you should have turned
right at the bottom of there, within a few minutes she'd
have been at Malcolm's street.
00:07:39
And so she was just
walking down Grange Road. Andrea: She didn't arrive
so he'd phoned her mum's.
00:07:44
He said, has she set off
and her mum said, well, she should be there by now. And he said, oh, well
she hasn't arrived.
00:07:50
I'll go and see
if I can see her. I'll go and meet her. narrator: As Malcolm
was preparing
00:07:56
to leave the house
in search of Janet, police officer Mick Coverdale
picked up a troubling message.
00:08:05
Mick Coverdale:
But at the time I was on road traffic duties,
received a radio message
00:08:10
to attend a road traffic
accident, which they believed was a hit and run. narrator:
As the traffic officer
00:08:16
sped towards Grange
Road, Malcolm Pearson was already there, as was the
bloodied form of a young woman.
00:08:26
Andrea: He realized
that it was Janet. He knew by her coat and the red
dress that she was wearing.
00:08:33
narrator: Emergency services
were soon on the scene. Janet was taken by ambulance
to Hartlepool General Hospital.
00:08:40
When the police learnt
of Malcolm's connection to the injured woman, they
were keen to speak to him.
00:08:46
Andrea: The police
came and they must have thought, well, why is he here? They just didn't seem
to know what had gone on,
00:08:51
and they took him
to the police station. narrator: In the meantime,
traffic cop Mick Coverdale
00:09:01
began searching for clues. Mick Coverdale: I
arrived at the scene and started to investigate,
looking for a hit and run car.
00:09:09
And I checked at least 20 cars
on both sides of the road, none had damage. Then, while looking
underneath the cars,
00:09:15
I found a lady's shoe. Now, the lady's shoe
was a high-heeled type, which are the shiny ones,
but had no scuff marks on.
00:09:22
Normally, when somebody is hit
by a car, the shoes come off, and they bounce along
the pavement of the road
00:09:26
and get scratches. narrator: The findings were
inconsistent with a road traffic accident.
00:09:33
Mick Coverdale: I've been
on road traffic since '74, so I've seen the different
types of accidents
00:09:37
and what to look for. When I checked the cars, I
found a hand print in red on the back of a car,
as if somebody
00:09:44
had pressed their hand
against the car and there was
something not right. I've radioed control
to say, I'm going
00:09:49
to find out what's going on. I will update you
when I find out what the story is if you like.
00:09:56
narrator: At Hartlepool
General Hospital, the traffic officer
made his way to the area
00:10:01
where medics were losing
the fight for Janet's life. Mick Coverdale: That's when
I walk in through them double
00:10:07
doors and there
was the specialist, five nurses around a body
which had no blood on it.
00:10:15
She was being stripped
of all clothing. She had 15, 20 stab wounds. I had to get my control
to radio back in.
00:10:24
Sorry, you need CID down here. It appears to be a murder. narrator: Just two days
after her 23rd birthday,
00:10:32
newly-engaged Janet
Newton was declared dead, killed in what now seems
certain to have not been
00:10:39
a road traffic
accident, but in fact, a brutally violent attack. On Saturday, the 18th
of October 1986,
00:10:55
Janet Newton's
younger sister, Lynn, was spending the evening
at a friend's house.
00:11:01
Lynn had seen 23-year-old
Janet at the family home just a few hours earlier. Lynn: I always
remember that night,
00:11:15
being really thankful
to my mum for tea and saying thanks
for that tea, Mum. It was lovely.
00:11:20
And then I said bye
because I was going out. And so then she was
going to get ready to go
00:11:26
to Malcolm's house. narrator: The two sisters
had a special bond. Lynn: I shared
a bedroom with her.
00:11:33
And I really missed her
when she wasn't there, because we didn't have things
in our bedroom in them days,
00:11:39
apart from talking
to each other. narrator: That
Saturday night, Lynn learned that her
happy family life
00:11:47
would never be the same again. Lynn: When my brother
came to the house, he said, our Janet's dead.
00:11:55
They think it's been
a hit-and-run accident. I couldn't believe it. It was just such
a shock and a blur.
00:12:04
And it's just the last
thing you ever expect anyone to knock
on a door and say to you,
00:12:10
your sister's dead. When we got to Mum
and Dad's house, that's when they told
us what really happened.
00:12:16
And they explained
it as best they could that Janet had been murdered. I don't think at that stage, we
got all the details of just how
00:12:25
vicious the attack had been. narrator: At the local
police station, Janet's fiance,
Malcolm Pearson,
00:12:36
had been questioned
extensively. Andrea: The police let him go. They knew that he
didn't know anything.
00:12:42
But he did say
to them straight away she's been getting
stalked off Maria Travers.
00:12:48
narrator: It was a name
that acting Detective Chief Inspector Doug
Smith was familiar with.
00:12:54
Doug Smith: I always call her
Maria Travers because that was her previous name. She was married
to a man called Travers
00:13:02
and then she got
involved with Malcolm. I'd heard of her. I'd never met her. But quite often,
there was a lot
00:13:10
of domestic trouble
going on between her and Malcolm Pearson. You would class them
as minor assaults.
00:13:18
Just large arguments
that got out of hand, and people would
ring in because they
00:13:23
were afraid that somebody
was going to get hurt. narrator: Together
for three years,
00:13:31
the couple had
a daughter in 1985 and had married one year later. Andrea: He was
a good looking fella.
00:13:40
She was a really pretty
woman, believe it or not. She was really attractive. He married her
because of the daughter.
00:13:48
And he wanted them
to be a family. I don't think she was
bothered about the baby.
00:13:53
I think she wanted
the baby as a way to keep bringing him back. She didn't look
after her properly.
00:13:58
She got reported and that's
when the daughter was taken into care. So she was living
with foster parents.
00:14:05
narrator: 30-year-old
Maria Pearson was a woman with many secrets. One was that she'd never
divorced her previous husband.
00:14:17
- She obviously
hadn't told Malcolm she was already married. And they went through
a marriage ceremony,
00:14:23
and he was living
with her in the belief that he was actually
legally married to her.
00:14:33
narrator: Within six
months of their wedding, their daughter had
been taken into care.
00:14:38
Pearson had moved
out, and Malcolm had begun annulment proceedings
for the bigamous marriage.
00:14:46
He wanted to move on with
his new partner, Janet. Lynn: She met Malcolm,
after they'd split up.
00:14:54
Stories went about that
they were still together. They weren't still together. He hadn't been
with her for ages.
00:15:00
narrator: In spite of the
illegality of the marriage, Pearson continued to use
Malcolm's surname.
00:15:06
She also began
to infiltrate his family, beginning with
his niece, Andrea. Andrea: I was out
drinking with my friends
00:15:15
and she approached me
as if she knew me, really. And she just
seemed really nice.
00:15:21
She kind of tagged along
with me and my friends. She didn't tell me that
she was with Malcolm or ex
00:15:27
with Malcolm
or anything like that. Geoffrey Wansell: Maria
becomes literally obsessed.
00:15:33
She launches into a campaign
of stalking and abuse that is literally terrifying.
00:15:42
Andrea: She used to still
turn up at Malcolm's house when she knew he
was on his own.
00:15:45
She'd be banging
on the door and screaming, but he wouldn't let her
in the house anymore.
00:15:50
He had no reason
to speak to her anymore and she just couldn't stand it. narrator: Maria
Pearson began to focus
00:15:57
her attentions on Malcolm's
new girlfriend, Janet. Lynn: Maria started
following them about and
00:16:05
watching for them
walking down the street, following them, harassing
them, shouting things at them.
00:16:11
Geoffrey Wansell: Maria
writes to Janet's mother, saying that she's
a slut and she's
00:16:15
only after Malcolm's money. Lynn: She was making a lot of
phone calls to my mum's house,
00:16:22
just not saying anything. The phone was just
constantly ringing. She used to get the fire
brigade to turn up ringing,
00:16:29
saying there'd been a fire. narrator: Though at first
oblivious to her new friend's
00:16:38
connection with Malcolm,
his niece Andrea soon began to see signs
of Pearson's jealous and
00:16:44
volatile personality. Andrea: There was always
some little flashes of, well, that's a bit odd.
00:16:51
This particular night she
was acting quite strange. She was really
angry all the time.
00:16:57
She would go up to what I would
consider a complete stranger in a bar and start
having a go at them,
00:17:04
accusing the girl of being
with Malcolm Pearson. And she was a bit crazy
and I didn't really know
00:17:10
what was going on with her. She'd got us all to go to a
nightclub called the Gemini.
00:17:16
So we all went in and
our Malcolm was in there. And when he saw that
she was with me,
00:17:23
he was absolutely livid. He kind of frogmarched
me out of the nightclub, and he put me in a taxi,
and he sent me home.
00:17:33
And he just said
to me, she's dangerous. You need to stay away from her. Jane Monckton-Smith:
It's overt behavior.
00:17:40
It's right out
there in the open. Everyone can see it. She wants everyone
to know how angry she is.
00:17:48
At the heart of this
is a massive sense of injustice, that
she has somehow been severely wronged by Malcolm.
00:18:04
narrator: In a move that
horrified Malcolm's family, Pearson rented a house across
the road from his mother.
00:18:13
Andrea: Malcolm was still
very close to my Nan, his mum, so he would often visit.
00:18:18
And then when she
moved to that house, it was, like, over
the road and she'd just stand on her doorstep
staring at my mum's house.
00:18:26
And it was intimidating
and it was a bit spooky. And like, what
on Earth is she doing?
00:18:34
narrator: Very soon,
Pearson's stalking and verbal abuse
became even harder to ignore when she attacked
Janet's neighbor's home.
00:18:43
- She put next door
but one's window through because she
got the wrong house. She went into the Abbey
National, where Janet works,
00:18:52
and she threatened to kill her. narrator: Maria
Pearson was obsessively stalking Janet and Malcolm.
00:18:58
Her behavior was escalating
and on a dangerous trajectory. Jane Monckton-Smith:
She's following her.
00:19:05
She's making threats to kill. All of these things, we can
see we are getting closer
00:19:11
to a serious physical attack. Lynn: Janet and Malcolm
had gone out one night and she must have followed
them and been hiding somewhere.
00:19:21
So when Janet went
to the toilet, she appeared in the toilet. And she attacked Janet
and banged her head off
00:19:27
the hand dryer in the toilet. And Malcolm realized she'd
been in there too long,
00:19:33
and he went in and sort
of rescued her from Maria. When my dad went
to report the incidents,
00:19:40
they said, oh, not her again. So yeah, they were well
aware of who she was. narrator: In 1986,
stalking was not a crime.
00:19:51
It was not recognized
as a stepping stone to something more serious. Jane Monckton-Smith:
You can see
00:19:58
the stalker going from one
tactic to the next to the next as the danger is ramping
up, the very real
00:20:07
danger she posed to Janet. narrator: Janet Newton had
certainly begun to feel afraid for her own safety.
00:20:17
Lynn: She asked
me if I would go to self-defense classes
in the Grand Hotel with her,
00:20:22
and I said, no, I'm
not interested in going to anything like that. And that is a massive
regret of mine.
00:20:33
narrator: On the 16th of
October came the event that is believed to have prompted
Pearson to take her campaign
00:20:40
of hate to a whole new level. Geoffrey Wansell: The trigger
for what was to come
00:20:48
was when Malcolm and Janet
announced their engagement. Jane Monckton-Smith:
Maria was, in her mind,
00:20:55
suffering some kind
of awful injustice. He'd made promises,
and yet he's waltzed off
00:21:00
and he's with this new
girl, and he seems fine. Left her life
an absolute wreck.
00:21:08
If somebody feels
their suffering an injustice, they also feel they have
a right to right the injustice.
00:21:21
narrator: Nobody believed
that Maria Pearson would ever follow through with
her threats to kill Janet.
00:21:28
But two days after hearing
about the engagement, Pearson escalated her
obsessive behavior
00:21:34
and continued to stalk
Janet Newton, this time with fatal consequences. On Sunday, the 19th
of October 1986,
00:21:51
the investigation
into the murder of 23-year-old Janet Newton was underway. A post-mortem revealed
the brutality she'd suffered.
00:22:05
Doug Smith: There
were 17 stab wounds so it was quite a vicious,
nasty attack, violent attack.
00:22:15
Her face was slashed, which
showed a lot of malice. One of the wounds
nicked her heart valve,
00:22:23
and that's what killed her. Jane Monckton-Smith:
17 stab wounds. That's rage and hatred.
00:22:34
It's what we call overkill. So that's way more violence
than is necessary to merely
00:22:40
kill someone. Lynn: They went to see
her at the funeral home. That's where my dad saw her
with Malcolm because Malcolm
00:22:48
didn't want to go on his own. And my dad cried. My dad was really upset when
he got back because he said,
00:22:56
I've never seen anything
like it in my life. And she said it was
absolutely horrific.
00:23:10
narrator: Evidence was
collected from the site of the attack at Grange Road. Doug Smith: Forensic
officers were drafted
00:23:17
in to examine the scene. The one thing that we were
looking for was a weapon. And there was a search
started for the weapon,
00:23:24
but nothing was
found at that time. We took on board the help
of the local authority
00:23:30
with their gully sucker. They stick a rod
down into the drain and suck any debris that's
been collected there to ensure
00:23:40
a free flow of water. And it found a knife
which had been stuck on one of the drains.
00:23:48
narrator: With no immediate
clues as to who the attacker was, the police reached
out to Janet's new fiance,
00:23:55
31-year-old Malcolm
Pearson, for information. - He transferred
from being a person
00:24:01
of interest, in terms of a
suspect, to a major witness. narrator: Malcolm
Pearson suspected
00:24:09
the killer was
the woman who duped him into a bigamous marriage. Doug Smith: He put
the finger on Maria
00:24:17
and said that she'd been
very jealous about the fact that he'd found
a new girlfriend.
00:24:24
narrator: If local
rumors were true, Maria Pearson was no
stranger to carrying a knife.
00:24:31
Lynn: It wasn't the first
time she'd tortured Malcolm over his new girlfriend. He met another girl
and she tortured her
00:24:38
as well before Janet
and apparently had threatened her with a knife. - She did attack somebody
else with a knife.
00:24:46
It was her ex-husband. Doug Smith: Obviously, she
was a person of interest, and we had to try and trace
her to establish whether or
00:24:55
not she was involved. narrator: But when detectives
went to question Pearson, they hit an immediate problem.
00:25:04
- The police had gone
to arrest her, and she'd gone. Doug Smith: We went
to her place of residence.
00:25:16
She wasn't there. Then we went to tried checking
around with family and other places where
she would have gone,
00:25:25
and it was established she
wasn't in any of those places. Andrea: It was a bit
scary and I was nervous.
00:25:32
But I lived with
my partner and we were made aware to be careful
and just keep a lookout.
00:25:39
narrator: Among those
racking their brains for a lead on Maria
Pearson's location
00:25:45
was a neighborhood
beat officer who'd met her the previous year. - I was weekend off
when it happened.
00:25:52
So when I came back
to work on the Monday and I found out
what had happened, I thought, oh, my God,
I know who she is.
00:25:59
I was introduced to her
at a New Year's Eve party. It was a relation
of mine that was involved
00:26:04
in a women's refuge
in Hartlepool at the time, and I think she must have
got to know Maria, maybe
00:26:09
as a resident of the refuge. I just thought there was
something off about her. I just wasn't-- didn't
like being around her.
00:26:18
narrator: By the 20th
of October, detectives knew three things
about 30-year-old Pearson.
00:26:25
She was jealous,
violent, and missing. - She was on the run and she
was trying to evade capture.
00:26:35
Andrea: We didn't
know where she was. Everybody was really worried
and frightened because she
00:26:40
was a lunatic. Sharon Beha: I thought,
well, I might have an idea where she might have gone.
00:26:46
narrator: Sharon's aunt, who'd
introduced her to Pearson, had a friend who
lived in Oxford.
00:26:51
This friend had also visited
the refuge in Hartlepool, where she'd met the 30-year-old.
00:26:57
Sharon Beha: And I
just thought she'd be wanting to get
out of the town so maybe that's
where she's gone.
00:27:03
So I told my inspector, who
obviously then said, right, straight upstairs, go
to the incident room,
00:27:08
and speak to them up there. narrator: It was a long shot. But with a suspected killer on
the loose and no other leads,
00:27:22
the team could not ignore it. Lynn: When you know there's
a dangerous murderer on the loose, you don't know
what else she's going to do
00:27:30
or else she's
going to come for. Sharon Beha: Once I'd
spoken to the incident team
00:27:38
and told the boss there,
and they said, right, get on the phone and find out. I rang my auntie first.
00:27:44
She gave me the number
for a friend. And lo and behold,
when I spoke to her, she said, yeah, she's
been on the phone
00:27:50
and she wants to come
and stay with me. narrator: Pearson was
desperate, dangerous,
00:27:59
and about to be
welcomed into the home of the unsuspecting woman. Doug Smith: When people are
unpredictable like this,
00:28:07
you just don't know what
they're going to do. And it's quite possible,
if you got cornered
00:28:12
or if somebody upset her,
that she may well have resorted to violence again. Sharon Beha: I couldn't
tell her what had gone on.
00:28:20
I just said, well, we
do need to speak to her. Can you tell me when she rang? And basically, she'd
asked if she could
00:28:25
come and stay with this lady. And she was told,
yeah, you can come. And she said, she's going
to come down some time today.
00:28:34
narrator: Time was
of the essence. With Pearson's destination
a five-hour drive south,
00:28:40
the team in Hartlepool
contacted the local constabulary
in Oxford. Doug Smith: Thames
Valley Police
00:28:47
sent officers round
to the address where we thought she would be visiting. And she had, in fact, been
there, but she'd left.
00:28:55
And it was believed
that she was going to head off to London. The railway station,
the bus station
00:29:01
was checked and without
any trace of her. narrator: Officers
were put on alert,
00:29:07
looking out for a woman
who was known to be extremely dangerous. In the nearby town of Reading,
a Thames Valley Police officer
00:29:18
had a lucky break. Doug Smith: The late-night
bus to London was leaving
the outskirts of the town
00:29:26
when a bright-eyed,
young policeman decided to stop the bus. And fortunately for us,
she was on there.
00:29:34
- Maria is therefore
taken into custody. Doug Smith: She was heading
to London, then down to Dover,
00:29:42
and was going
to leave the country. So had she succeeded in doing
that, it would have made
00:29:48
our inquiries a little
more difficult. narrator: While
the hunt was underway, detectives had worked
to piece together
00:29:55
the events of the evening
of Janet's murder. They believe Pearson
had been driven
00:30:01
to and from the crime scene. Geoffrey Wansell: On the 17th
of October, the day after,
00:30:07
Maria is out with friends. - She picked up this
young lad in the town and pretended to be
a girlfriend to him.
00:30:17
- She can be very
convincing and she can act. Jesus, she can act. Doug Smith: She had
no real attachment
00:30:27
to this young student. She just manipulated him, which
is a classic trait of Maria.
00:30:33
narrator: Pearson
had arranged to meet the young man the following
evening, the 18th of October.
00:30:39
When they met up, she asked him
to drive her to a street close to Janet Newton's home.
00:30:46
- Maria had decided that Janet
had to be dispensed with. Doug Smith: She got
him to park his car
00:30:53
on the opposite side of the
road to where Janet lived. And she would therefore be
able to see her leaving home,
00:31:00
walk down the road
towards Grange Road. narrator: At 7:30 that
evening Pearson was
00:31:06
lying in wait when
Janet Newton left her home on Thornville Road. - Janet is on her
way to see Malcolm.
00:31:15
Lynn: And she was walking
down to Malcolm's house. It was only about
a five-minute walk.
00:31:19
Doug Smith: Maria
got out of the car, left her friend
in the car, and followed Janet into Grange Road.
00:31:26
Lynn: She'd been left our house
approximately three minutes to get where she got to.
00:31:32
narrator: All of the jealousy
and hatred Maria Pearson had been harboring
towards Janet Newton
00:31:39
was about to be unleashed
in a frantic, frenzied assault. - She wants to vent
her rage on Janet,
00:31:48
and that's exactly
what she does. Geoffrey Wansell: And she stabs
Janet no less than 17 times,
00:31:55
twice through the heart,
and leaves her lying in a pool of blood on the pavement.
00:32:03
She rushes back across
the road, jumps into the car, and the car takes off. narrator: After two
days on the run,
00:32:11
Maria Pearson had
been captured. But she was not a woman
to come quietly. What followed
would make history.
00:32:30
On the 20th of October 1986, in
the seaside town of Hartlepool, news of the arrest in Berkshire
of suspected killer Maria
00:32:40
Pearson was met with relief. Doug Smith: I was delighted
to find out we'd nabbed her.
00:32:55
Then we arranged for her
to be brought back to Hartlepool for interview. narrator: Safely in custody
back in her home town,
00:33:04
30-year-old Pearson was kept
under strict surveillance. Sharon Beha: Somebody
who was being arrested
00:33:10
for such a serious offense used
to be classed as suicide watch and you had to watch
them with an open door.
00:33:16
And I was one
of the policewomen that my charge-- you've
got to go and sit there.
00:33:20
Lynn: I can remember my mum
and dad saying they've got her. You know, they've got her.
00:33:25
And then it does put
your mind at rest then. Sharon Beha: I knew she
recognized me because she
00:33:30
smiled at me and I sat down. And she actually
mentioned about, oh, it's nice at this time
of year in Oxford.
00:33:36
I remember things like that. God, if that was me,
I'd be a nervous wreck. And she was just,
you know, as if she
00:33:42
was in for shoplifting
or something, not the heinous crime that she,
alleged at the time, committed.
00:33:49
And I just thought,
just an evil woman. Just she just made me
feel uncomfortable.
00:33:58
narrator: Three days
after 23-year-old Janet Newton's murder, detectives
had the opportunity to speak
00:34:05
to their prime suspect. Doug Smith: She was
interviewed under caution. She didn't admit
anything in interview,
00:34:13
and simply the fact that she
wasn't involved in the murder. She pointed
the finger at Malcolm.
00:34:20
- It rapidly became
apparent that, in fact, that wasn't the case, and that
Maria herself was the person
00:34:25
who had killed Janet Newton. And she was the person who was
charged with Janet's murder.
00:34:37
narrator: Maria
Pearson was charged on the 23rd of October,
1986 and remanded in custody to await trial.
00:34:49
Lynn: It was really hard. It's all sinking in. And every single
day you wake up and your heart
breaks once again.
00:34:56
You know, for a split
second, you wake up and go, oh, it's Monday. Oh, just a normal day.
00:35:02
And then it all hits you
again, over and over again. And it's so traumatic. narrator: In the run
up to the trial,
00:35:16
the case attracted a lot
of media attention. Mick Coverdale: In them
days, murder was news.
00:35:23
It was more a rare thing. Jane Monckton-Smith:
This was highly unusual because we've got
a woman rage filled,
00:35:31
acting in a homicidal way
with a planned homicide. Highly unusual. - The next hurdle for us was
the sitting through the caucus.
00:35:49
Geoffrey Wansell: In July
1987, Maria Pearson goes on trial for the murder
of Janet Newton.
00:35:55
It's in Teesside Crown Court. narrator: Inside
the courtroom, Pearson showed no signs of remorse.
00:36:04
- She had one
expression on her face. She never changed
her expression. She just looked like
she didn't care.
00:36:11
She just told lie
after lie after lie. - Maria's defense is
possibly predictable.
00:36:20
She insists that
she didn't do it, but that Malcolm
Pearson killed Janet. Indeed, she even insists
that she saw him kill her.
00:36:32
Andrea: She said Malcolm
did it because he wanted to be with her. Jane Monckton-Smith: Where
is her remorse, shame, guilt?
00:36:41
There isn't any. Because if there was any,
she would not be trying to pin it on somebody else.
00:36:48
She's quite happy
for somebody else to go to prison
for what she did. Lynn: She wasn't even
legally married to Malcolm,
00:36:56
but she wouldn't answer
in court to Travers. She refused, stood
there stubborn. No, I'll only
answer to Pearson.
00:37:07
narrator: The prosecution
presented a picture of an angry, jilted
woman who plotted
00:37:12
to get revenge with
the brutal murder of Janet. - It was obviously
premeditated in the fact
00:37:22
that she'd gone out,
bought a weapon, and obviously made use of it. Andrea: They had evidence
of her buying the knife.
00:37:29
She'd bought it
in a hardware store that was owned by my brother's friend. Doug Smith: There was
a lot of evidence--
00:37:36
the fact that she was taken
to the scene by the driver. She was there when it happened.
00:37:42
She was seen by the driver to
follow Janet into Grange Road. And a few minutes later,
we've got a dead body.
00:37:50
So there was some pretty
conclusive evidence. Lynn: It was really hard,
you're listening to it.
00:37:56
When you think how such
a gentle person she was could have came
to such a brutal end.
00:38:01
You know, it's-- she just
didn't deserve it at all. - It was a particularly
horrendous crime in my eyes,
00:38:10
and I think in the majority
of most people, you know, what she did to this young girl
because she had the temerity
00:38:16
to go out with her ex. Just shocking. narrator: After two weeks,
the barristers brought
00:38:25
their arguments to a close. It was a tense moment
for Doug Smith. Doug Smith: You you've
got a very strong case.
00:38:35
You still have that
little bit of niggle in the back of your mind
that I hope this goes OK.
00:38:40
You want to do your best for
the family, for the community, and get the right result.
00:38:50
- On the 24th of July,
1987, the jury of seven men and five women
returned a verdict of guilty.
00:39:02
The judge called Maria full
of jealousy and bitterness and also deeply
hostile and resentful.
00:39:10
The judge sentences Maria
to a life imprisonment with a minimum of 12 years. Lynn: It still didn't
bring Janet back,
00:39:20
but it was such a relief
that she was going to pay for what she'd done to Janet.
00:39:26
narrator: But this was
not the end of the ordeal for Janet's loved ones. - She appealed pretty
soon after the sentence.
00:39:38
narrator: And in 1990
came a shock admission. Lynn: She did admit what
she'd done in the end.
00:39:47
She appealed on the grounds of
PMT and post-natal depression. narrator: Maria Pearson
claimed to have been mentally
00:39:56
unstable at the time
of the murder, having had a miscarriage
six days before. Finally admitting
to killing Janet,
00:40:08
she used the defense of
provocation and self-defense, blaming Malcolm
for her mental state.
00:40:21
- This is very self-motivated. It's very selfish. It's not a sudden
realization of remorse,
00:40:28
again, shame or guilt. And she
throws everything at this. So it's her pre-menstrual
tension, post-natal depression,
00:40:38
diminished responsibility using
whatever trick in the book that she can find to try
and get away from it.
00:40:46
narrator: Another
application to appeal cited a personality disorder
and battered woman syndrome.
00:40:54
All of Maria Pearson's
applications to appeal her conviction were denied. Despite the initial 12-year
sentence, Maria Pearson has now
00:41:04
spent four decades in prison. Geoffrey Wansell: Maria has
appeared on numerous occasions
00:41:10
before the parole board. And each time, her
parole has been denied. Because in the prison
authorities' view,
00:41:18
she does represent
a danger to society. Lynn: She's evil, and she'll
probably always will be.
00:41:26
I think she really
would be a danger to society if she was let out. It's a lot of years to still
not show any remorse
00:41:31
or to not behave yourself. Geoffrey Wansell:
In 2023, she applied for parole for the ninth
time and was again refused.
00:41:46
narrator: At the time
of her 2023 appeal, Maria Pearson was
Britain's longest serving female prisoner.
00:41:55
The press have nicknamed
her the Forgotten Prisoner. Andrea: They were
trying to say that she'd
00:42:02
been in all them years because
they just forgot about her. [chuckle] Nobody's forgot about
her, believe me.
00:42:09
I think she was very
precise in what she did. I know that it looks
like a crazed frenzy,
00:42:14
and she lost the plot
for a minute. I think everything she did was
specifically done because she
00:42:20
wanted to hurt Malcolm. narrator: It's been
almost four decades since Janet Newton's murder,
but time has not diminished
00:42:32
the impact of her loss. Andrea: Malcolm just couldn't
get over it, you know. He just stayed on his own.
00:42:40
He's always been a bit
of a loner, and none of us really see him anymore. Lynn: It's just with you all
the time so it doesn't matter
00:42:47
what comes up in your life. So whether it's having
babies, getting married, Christmases are a nightmare.
00:42:54
You feel guilty for enjoying
occasions without her there. The grief is just
so deep-rooted inside.
00:43:03
It never goes away. But you just learn how
to push it back, put a smile on your face, and try to get on
with your life as best you can
00:43:12
because that's all you can do. You've got no choice. narrator: Maria Pearson could
not have the man she wanted,
00:43:24
and she could not accept
that he wanted someone else. She wreaked her
revenge by stabbing
00:43:30
an innocent young
woman 17 times, leaving her devastated loved
ones to pick up the pieces,
00:43:38
making Maria Pearson one of
the world's most evil killers. [surging music] ♪ ♪
00:44:12
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