00:00:05
janae and andrew parsons beautiful ambitious the perfect couple she always seemed very happy with andrew
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and he seemed to adore her until their marriage begins to fall apart she was telling her friends
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on the telephone how weak he was how docile he was weak and docile may be but not when he faces rejection
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it's like outrage and humiliation all mixed together in one big angry ball were those ingredients enough to
00:00:39
convince a jury that andrew parsons had not been guilty of the murder of his wife
00:00:43
or would an extraordinary piece of evidence condemn him what he had forgotten was that it was going to record what
00:00:53
happened between them [Music] [Music] meeting in oklahoma in 2002 andrew parsons and janae brady instantly hit it
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off andrew um met jeannie when he went to the united states to coach football a chance meeting between andrew and
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janey leads to a very quick whirlwind romance andrew was working in the small town of
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yukon on the eastern edge of oklahoma city janae also known as janie was a student at the city's university for
00:01:49
englishman andrew parsons janie was the compensation that he needed after a string of disappointments he was
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somebody who was very keen to make it in the football world and when it didn't
00:01:59
work for him here well he took that talent and took it over to america and hope it would work over there
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unfortunately for him it didn't accepting his dream of making it big as a footballer was over 28 year old andro
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was coaching kids soccer in the yukon while seeking a long-term career plan he became qualified in the plumbing
00:02:17
industry as a plumbing engineer and that's where he started building his business and while he was building that
00:02:24
business over in america that's when he met janie the 21 year old oaky native and the
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older brit quickly fell for one another janae was such a warm happy person inside and out she was just genuinely
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kind happy enthusiastic and seemed to just love life she had lots of plans of things that she wanted to do with her
00:02:45
life she was [Music] gorgeous new boyfriend's personality couldn't have been more different from
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her own andrew was one paced he was mr nice guy he was dependable quiet david hislop would one day become a
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trusted confidant of andrew parsons he was known as being docile gentle good-natured
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a likable chap very early on in their relationship the couple spent time in the uk so that janie could pursue a
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dream of her own i first met janae in 2002 when she enrolled to do one of our advanced
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beauty therapy courses heidi sylvester is the director of the oxford international college of beauty
00:03:32
in oxfordshire england so she came to have a look around the college and loved it and then she came signed up to our
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full-time international beauty course janie instantly earned a glowing reputation at college
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janae was an excellent student because she had really fantastic customer skills she was so friendly and welcoming and
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she was excellent at actually performing aesthetic treatments she picked things up very quickly and she was also very
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smart so she did very well in her theory exams so she did pass her course with flying colors
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they'd been together just a few months but andrew parsons was keen to support
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janie brady's and missions he was her rock absolute rock when janae started the course with us
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she was living locally with her boyfriend and his family she commuted into college each day it's something
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that she was passionate about qualifications under her belt it was time for janie and andrew to take the
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next step in their relationship after janae graduated um i believe they went back to america in 2004 they
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married in las vegas a glamorous start to life as mr and mrs parsons they settled in oklahoma where
00:04:44
janie set out to turn her passion and skills into a successful business she opened up a sponge she called it the
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oxford spa after her college and she had a fantastic business and her and andrew
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were both very proactive in running the business at first janie's business was a success
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and as a couple she and andrew seemed to be in perfect harmony andrew and janae did support our work
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experience scheme where we send students to gain two weeks of work experience in a
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spa and so we had our students go over to oklahoma and do their work placements with janae and the oxford spa the couple
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had two children together both boys her career was important to her but so was her family so she really did work well
00:05:28
to get a good balance between looking after her young children and following her passions and
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really did manage to get a great career alongside being a great mother now they moved into a really normal happy family
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life the boys were active they were sporty they were doing martial arts and rugby and it seemed like they were the
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perfect married couple andrew was very supportive with her running her own business and also having young children
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at the time for almost six years the parsons appeared to be living in wedded bliss
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janae had a lovely life and i'm sure she was very happy she had a very close
00:06:07
relationship with andrew and her own children looking in i think you would certainly think that they were the
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perfect family he really enjoyed taking his children out and playing football with them taking
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them to watch games and he was a very good father but in 2009 the first signs of stress and tension began to creep
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into their life janie's beloved business was failing she's put everything into it and it gets
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into financial difficulty so she decides to sell it it was a devastating blow for
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janie but her husband as always was by her side for a long time andrew had been janie's rock
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and when her business failed he was always there he picked the pieces up he built up a
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confidence he was forever praising her [Music] in 2010 andrew suggested a fresh start
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for the family jenny was happy to agree they thought they would come back to the united
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kingdom they thought it was a better life for their boys in the united kingdom janie was full of
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enthusiasm for their new life when she came back to the uk she came in to see us she was very happy very optimistic
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about starting up her business in the uk and seemed to be you know very happy at
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that time in may 2010 the family settled in andrew's hometown of bista renting a
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three-bedroom home on a modern estate the historic market town surrendered by rolling green hills was a million miles
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from the skyscrapers in the urban buzz of oklahoma city it was clear that janae was very happy
00:07:54
to be back in the uk and was raising her family locally six years into their marriage janie and
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andrew parsons were making a new life in oxfordshire england but would it be the perfect dream they
00:08:06
were hoping for instead of being his rock cheney decided to move on [Music] mr and mrs parsons both had big plans
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for making a living in the uk she was moving into more medical aesthetics when she came back to the uk
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it's where you specialize more in facial treatments that may involve things like
00:08:34
injectables any fillers and also chemical peels and more of the advanced treatments that help with
00:08:44
keeping people to look younger and natural beauty andrew started his own business in the
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plumbing industry parsons was more of a job man really a jobbing builder plumber
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those early months living in oxfordshire became a tense time for the couple so they had this lovely family that they
00:09:03
had managed to build they had potential domestic bliss but both of these people were driven by the need to succeed both
00:09:13
of them pumped every resource every penny they had in to trying to make these businesses work
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both janie and andrew put in their all but it was janie's beauty business that
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thrived and she was getting stronger and stronger and sadly at that time um andrew who was a pump engineer
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um his business started to fail it started to fail through no real fault of his own
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it was the recession at the time and his specialist area was swimming balls well there wasn't too much call
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for a pump engineer during those times he was doing a bit of plumbing here and a
00:09:53
bit of building there but i again they got into financial difficulties the parsons relationship
00:10:02
began to crumble under the strain of multitasking and business startups it could be
00:10:08
that that was the start of the the problems in their marriage but it's probably more likely that there were big
00:10:14
personality differences in in these two people and the financial difficulties was more like a straw that broke the
00:10:21
camel's back she was a driven go-getter good mum brilliant businesswoman she was
00:10:28
very very out there in a sort of perhaps an american way but that's because she was
00:10:33
american but that was how she was in contrast i think parsons was seen as a little bit of a
00:10:43
a lazy man who didn't really didn't have a huge amount of ambition and didn't really seem in comparison to
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jamie especially have a huge amount of energy she told him to get his act together he
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would come home from work and instead of doing anything sit on the sofa and watch
00:11:02
telly rather than help whereas she would run the household run a business and look after her two little boys
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for months tensions built in the parsons household by the autumn of 2012 their relationship was at an all-time low
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janie seemed to be desperately unhappy they had children there were constant worries and problems i don't think that
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they got on particularly well and i think janie was very frustrated there came a time when she realized that
00:11:34
the marriage was failing in october 2012 janie told andrew that she wanted a separation
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his reaction she told her friends was unnervingly calm the response of andrew was
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okay if that's what's happening but let's stay in the same house let's stay
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under the same roof so they were going to stay together till christmas get christmas out of the way for the boys
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and then go their separate ways she thought reasonably amicably parsons talks her into staying
00:12:07
living with him and the children all together as a family for the whole of december to cover the christmas period
00:12:15
for the children but it's far more likely that what he was doing was using that to buy himself
00:12:22
some time to try and change what was happening dr moncton smith thinks andrew had an
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ulterior motive in persuading jaini to stay mentally at this stage parsons is probably panicking
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thinking how can i get this all back together how can i pull this back what what can i do what's worked in the
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past what can i try how do i get her back on side it's probably where his head was
00:12:53
in fact from october 2012 onwards andrew showed a sudden escalation of paranoid controlling behavior he started to be
00:13:02
quite cunning and clandestine about the way that he was handling this so what i mean by that is he started
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stalking janie and that that's quite a dangerous behavior he took her laptop or ipad off her and
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wanted to have a look through it he took her phone and wanted to have a look through that
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miranda moore has developed a detailed picture of the deterioration of the parsons marriage in the autumn of 2012.
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he was convinced at the start that there was somebody else towards the middle of
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november janie had a confession for andrew his fears had in fact been realized there was somebody else janae
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had fallen for somebody she'd met called daniel jenny told andrew about daniel
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she didn't tell him everything about daniel she certainly didn't tell him about her
00:14:02
depths of feeling and plans in relation to daniel she wanted to spend the rest of her life
00:14:09
with him but she was a realist and realized that she'd have to do this carefully because
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she had two little boys daniel was a belgian businessman a divorcee with a family of his own he and janie had met
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in a bar they'd known each other just a few weeks but it confirmed in her mind
00:14:25
that she no longer saw a future with andrew she informed andrew that the marriage was coming to an end there was
00:14:32
a future with somebody else she was going to pursue it their marriage was over she wanted to get out and best she
00:14:39
wanted to go to london she had moved on she wanted to go to the next milestone in her life and that
00:14:46
didn't include andrew this time andrew's reaction was much more extreme as soon as she told him that she wanted
00:14:54
a divorce he entered the bank account there is a violent confrontation at the house that she tells a friend about
00:15:00
whereby he drags her out of the bed he pulled her out out of bed by her hair and pulled her downstairs and talked for
00:15:07
hours with her not letting her go she was his jenae she told him she wanted to leave she was quite
00:15:16
upfront she didn't try and hide it she was honest if you like and i think he was
00:15:24
shocked he was shocked that this was happening he was probably panic-stricken that this
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was happening i don't think he wanted this family unit to break down at all had in this moment andrew realized that
00:15:40
the situation was out of his hands his wife was going to divorce him and there seemed to be nothing he could do about
00:15:46
it desperate to maintain some kind of control over what his wife was thinking and doing andrew took an extraordinary
00:15:53
step he decided that he would record her conversations with people on the telephone
00:16:06
the setup when janae and andrew separated but lived in the same house was that janae had her own bedroom i
00:16:12
think it might have been the former matrimonial bedroom where she kept her things
00:16:18
andrew had his own bedroom the boys shared he got a recording device taped it under the marital bed in her
00:16:29
bedroom he had secreted sort of gaffer taped under the bed a voice activated digital recorder
00:16:38
he could then download from that to his computer and listen to any conversations
00:16:44
that this little machine had picked up if andrew was still harboring fantasies of changing his wife's mind the
00:16:50
recordings that he heard of her phone calls with friends made it clear she had no such intentions
00:16:55
miranda moore has also listened to those recordings she set out the way the marriage was deteriorating
00:17:04
she set out the fact that andrew was behaving badly she set out to one of the people that
00:17:10
she thought that one of them might kill the other one she set out the way he was being needy
00:17:17
he was effectively setting up a torture device for himself she was telling her friends
00:17:25
on the telephone how weak he was how docile he was she thought he was hopeless and eventually
00:17:34
those conversations were all recorded through the recordings he heard these things
00:17:40
and one can imagine how hurtful they were he doted on this woman for david hislock the revelation that
00:17:48
his estranged wife despised him was all the more hurtful because andrew had been
00:17:52
in denial he adored her he really his was a case of love was blind and he couldn't see
00:18:02
that gradually that she started to loathe being in the relationship she was with him was shattering from andrew
00:18:10
parsons was devastated desperate and increasingly angry what lengths would he go to to stop his wife leaving him for
00:18:18
another man janae messaged someone saying that things got so bad that he'll probably kill me
00:18:31
though agonizing over janie's relationship with another man andrew parsons eye was also wandering the
00:18:38
picture that andrew parsons was painting which was that he was devastated by the
00:18:42
breakdown of the marriage and hadn't wanted it to happen was somewhat undermined by what we found on his
00:18:48
computer he had been on a chat room with two separate eastern european ladies firstly
00:18:56
chatting to them then there was obviously the exchange of pictures because he'd said oh you're beautiful
00:19:00
are you single are you looking for a new relationship and he'd explain that he
00:19:05
was looking for a new relationship following the breakdown of his marriage he had obviously been in contact with
00:19:12
both of them for some time increasingly at odds with one another living under the same roof as a separate couple
00:19:18
created a toxic atmosphere unsurprisingly this was not a scenario that was healthy for anyone
00:19:24
and unsurprisingly the relationship deteriorated enormously it began with janie complaining to
00:19:30
friends that andrew was picking fights that he seemed to be finding any reason for them to have an argument friends
00:19:36
were worried about janie but she brushed off their concerns after the incident where andrew had dragged her out of the
00:19:42
bed by her janie's friend lee advised her to leave the family home lee had said to janae that you know he's
00:19:50
dangerous and you know you need to be careful and janae had laughed it off i think it was the sort of person she was
00:19:56
i imagine that janey didn't leave the marital home when her relationship had
00:20:00
broken down with her husband because like most homicide victims she didn't imagine for one minute that he was going
00:20:06
to harm her that way there was an element of possessiveness about andrew parsons behaviour she was his janae
00:20:13
and janae messaged someone saying that things got so bad that he'll probably kill me and marry somebody else
00:20:22
and make a janae suit out of my skin in other words he'd want this other person
00:20:26
to be like janae she has a conversation with her her new romantic interest where he says to her
00:20:36
don't be on your own with him i don't trust him janae had said to daniel that
00:20:42
andrew was docile and she could manage him she i recall had told daniel in one of her calls that she'd thrown a
00:20:54
glass at andrew's face during the course of an argument and i remember [Music]
00:21:05
her telling daniel that she could be really tough when it came to it janae was a very confident woman
00:21:14
she told andrew parsons that he needed to get a grip and get on with things and get on with life
00:21:21
this was something andrew parsons was not prepared to do in the last week of november 2012 he tried a new tactic to
00:21:28
win back his wife now despite the deterioration of the relationship it does seem that andrew is
00:21:33
still in some way deluding himself about what can be achieved in this time they have together
00:21:39
forget daniel daniel doesn't matter he can do this and ignoring all of the fights he was having ignoring
00:21:46
all the physicality he still thought he could buy his way back in and he spent what little money
00:21:52
he had left on a very expensive dress for janie days later the dress was to become the flash point that brought all
00:21:58
of andrew's raging jealousy and helplessness to her head on the day of the 1st of december
00:22:06
she was going to london and she told andrew that she was going to london at to an awards event
00:22:18
and she was going to stay with her girlfriend lee that wasn't true and andrew knew that because
00:22:28
um he had heard the recordings of her telephone conversations with daniel henson
00:22:38
setting up the weekend together in london andrew's secret recording device would
00:22:44
become incredibly important when police and prosecutors later pieced together the events of saturday december 1st
00:22:51
2012. she was going to drive down to london spend the night in a hotel attend an awards ceremony for the beauty
00:22:58
industry you could hear her trying to do her nails and the little boys coming in
00:23:02
and her shoeing them out and saying mommy's got to get ready you then hear andrew parsons
00:23:08
sort of fussing and bothering her and keep coming in at this point around 9 30 in
00:23:14
the morning andrew was doing his utmost to hide his true feelings about janie's
00:23:19
weekend away janie and andrew had a conversation that began well andrew told janie that she looked
00:23:25
fabulous the way she was dressed as she was getting ready to go it soon degenerates though he didn't wanted to
00:23:31
take the car even though he had another vehicle he was sort of moaning about things
00:23:36
andrew was trying his best to engage janie in a row she had packed her bag and it seems that
00:23:42
andrew knew what was in that bag the dress that he had bought her in the hope of buying back her affection
00:23:48
soon he was accusing her how could she do this how so soon after finishing their relationship she's going with
00:23:54
someone new andrew is picking this fight despite the fact that there is in the house a very young witness
00:24:01
at this time the five-year-old child was still in the house one of the children has been
00:24:07
gone out for the day there's one child in the house but they start arguing together
00:24:14
about what's happening andrew told janie i can't believe that you're going away i
00:24:20
can't believe that you're going for straight from me to this man to which jenny replied look i am seeing
00:24:25
someone else that get over it and piss off so janae eventually had enough and shut the door on him she sent a text
00:24:33
message to her new man friend saying something along the lines of andrew's starting again or andrew's
00:24:40
starting this was the last text message jenny parsons ever sent to daniel hansen's
00:24:46
she shut the door on him and that appears to be the thing that tipped him over andrew parsons has his own story about
00:24:54
what happened next but the 15 minutes of violence recorded on the device that he
00:24:58
had hidden in janie's bedroom tells its own tale the next thing you hear is the door
00:25:03
opening parsons becomes violent very violent quite quickly he punches her multiple times knocks her to the floor
00:25:15
makes her dizzy she's disorientated and we can tell from the recording that she
00:25:20
was dazed confused and very badly hurt janae as far as we could tell was still lying on the carpet
00:25:28
between the door of the bedroom and the landing on the first floor of the house andrew said something like
00:25:35
i'm going to get something when you listen to the recording we can realize that this is the point at which he makes
00:25:43
the decision to kill the audio of what happens next was too disturbing to be heard outside of a
00:25:48
culture we then heard on the tape andrew parsons going downstairs and we heard the
00:25:54
bum he went downstairs to get a towel but what we then heard was a kitchen drawer
00:26:01
opening and then you hurt him when andrew returns to the first floor landing the recording picks up janie's
00:26:13
terrified reaction he approaches janie who asks him andrew are you going to kill me because what we
00:26:20
know happened is that andrew parsons armed himself with an enormous kitchen knife despite the fact his little boy
00:26:26
was there shouting mummy daddy and don't and janae was shouting don't kill me and
00:26:32
words to that effect he proceeded to stab her numerous times it was a frenzied attack when he stops
00:26:39
janey tells him you're killing me in front of our son then his son asks is mummy dead and andrew says no she'll
00:26:47
be okay he asked whether mummy was going to be taken to hospital and he asked whether mummy was all right
00:26:54
and mr parsons said he wasn't going to take her to hospital and she was fine
00:26:59
andrew parsons did not call the emergency services after stabbing janae had a period and unusually you knew
00:27:08
exactly how long it was because it was on the tape of about seven minutes before andrew parsons left the house he
00:27:16
picked up his heavily bleeding wife he uh i put janae in the bath he then got changed from what he was wearing
00:27:24
because when all this happened he was wearing pajama bottoms and a t-shirt which were heavily blood stained
00:27:31
andrew parsons put on gloves to hide a small wound on his left hand then he and his five-year-old boy left the house
00:27:38
what was so distressing was that when he left the house janae was still alive lying in the bath no water but just in
00:27:46
the bath he takes his son next door and asks his neighbour to look after the child telling the friend that he and
00:27:53
janae had some things to work out and could they mind him for a while these were close friends and they didn't think
00:27:58
anything of it apart from the fact that he looked a little bit flustered even when andrew returned to the house he
00:28:04
still didn't call an ambulance she is still alive at this point and it takes her several minutes to die
00:28:11
when andrew parsons got back to the house after dropping his five-year-old at the friends
00:28:16
we heard him clearing up he spent some time wandering around opening drawers we don't really know what he was doing
00:28:22
moving things about he also rather cruelly sent a text message to daniel who was
00:28:29
the gentleman friend saying something like i'm sorry but of course he sent it from janae's
00:28:37
phone then came the part of the recording the courtroom staff jury members and janie's
00:28:43
family would later find almost too heartbreaking to hear on the tape we hear janie's dying words
00:28:51
she could be heard making her peace with god she was praying she was asking for forgiveness and she knew she was dying
00:28:59
she says dear god forgive me for my sins the tape recording captured janie's
00:29:04
gasps coughs and moans as her life drained away only after her death did janie's husband
00:29:11
make the call ten minutes earlier might have saved her life he did call 999 and said that he'd hurt his wife
00:29:19
real bad or really bad and that's what brought the police when the emergency services arrived at
00:29:32
the parsons home the front door was open the first police officer to enter the home knew immediately what he was
00:29:38
dealing with he said as soon as they walked into the house he could smell that horrible smell of blood
00:29:45
as he came in the police find parsons lying at the top of the stairs his head in his hand wailing my wife my wife
00:29:53
distraught at the terrible thing he's done and then they found her body obviously in the bath and they could see
00:29:58
the blood splatter on the upstairs landing the paramedics attempt cpr but to no avail andrew parsons was arrested
00:30:05
on the spot and charged with the murder of his 31 year old wife janie now at the scene it must have been
00:30:12
entirely clear and there's no doubt as to what had happened it was right in front there for the police officers who
00:30:17
attended here was a man who'd clearly killed his wife and wasn't denying it
00:30:21
quite the opposite he was rushing to admit it he'd called the police it looked like a slam dunk case
00:30:27
however in every murder inquiry you have to cover every single aspect off but just because he's killed his wife it
00:30:33
doesn't mean that he may be found guilty of murder it could be manslaughter scene
00:30:37
of crime officers scoured the house for clues about what had happened so when they did the search they were
00:30:43
looking for weapons blood computers telephones all the things that are going to give you evidence in a
00:30:49
trial now when the officers went there they did not immediately find the tape recording machine that was hidden under
00:30:55
the bed i mean who would expect to find an electronic recording device under a double bed in a normal family home some
00:31:03
days later parson's sister at his request had returned to the house to collect some
00:31:08
things i think he wanted some trainers or something and i think he told her they were
00:31:14
underneath the double bed which actually they couldn't have been she wasn't living there in that room at the
00:31:20
time when she was there she found the recording device she thought by handing it over to the police
00:31:27
she was going to exonerate her brother however she hadn't listened to it all
00:31:34
and so the police listened to it and it was one of those oh my goodness look what we've got moments
00:31:39
five months later parsons stood in court and pleaded guilty to manslaughter it was loss of control so that was the only
00:31:48
defense available to him and the question for the jury was what caused that loss of control
00:31:56
what was the cause now loss of control is a recognized uh partial defense to murder it changes murder to manslaughter
00:32:04
used to be called provocation but we now call it loss of control in other words something janae had said or done
00:32:11
which led to him losing control and would have led to someone in the same position as him losing control that was
00:32:17
andrew parsons claim the prosecution refused to accept his plea you obviously have to look very fairly and carefully
00:32:23
at any plea you're offered to see whether it suits the circumstances but we rejected it because there was nothing
00:32:29
that janae said or dirt did and we know what she said or did because it was on shape
00:32:34
that should or could have led to the ferocity of the attack the method of the attack and what happened thereafter we
00:32:41
were sure this wasn't a loss of control case before the trial began there were
00:32:45
legal wranglings over whether or not a jury should be allowed to hear the tape recording of the attack
00:32:50
it's never easy to get every piece of evidence that you've got before the jury
00:32:55
you need somebody who's got a good legal background has done a lot of these sorts
00:32:59
of cases knows how to phrase an argument and knows how to persuade a judge to allow you to let the jury hear what you
00:33:06
want the jury to hear andrew's defense believed it would be hard for him to get
00:33:10
a third trial once the jury had heard audio of janie's final moments nowadays we
00:33:16
quite often have to defend people who are seen on cctv perhaps attacking another
00:33:26
person but that doesn't hold the same prejudicial effect as hearing a recording of a man
00:33:39
and stabbing his wife and she's screaming at him and he's screaming the child's screaming
00:33:48
um it the prejudicial impact on a jury is extraordinary as both sides anticipated hearing the
00:34:00
tape was tough for the jury to take they heard that recording more than once and the impact upon them
00:34:11
was considerable i think it went from shock to horror and certainly i recall a number of
00:34:22
um the jurors are crying as the tape unfolded um i i think from memory it was seven eight minutes long
00:34:35
and six minutes of that was the knife attack so the horror was extraordinary i personally in 20 years have never
00:34:49
conducted a trial with anything close to this kind of harrowing direct primary material
00:34:55
it's almost unheard of to have this material to be able to listen to what happened
00:35:01
i'm aware that during the trial several jurors broke down several police officers broke down
00:35:08
members of court staff had to leave the room then afterwards one of the ushers said to me goodness miss moore one of
00:35:13
the jurors was sick and two or three of them were obviously very distressed as with the court staff
00:35:19
in the face of this andrew's defence team worked hard to paint a different picture he took the stand to claim that
00:35:25
he had loved his wife but that her infidelity and her abuse had pushed him to the brink barrister david hislop had
00:35:33
first met andrew when he was on remand awaiting trial he was devoted he adored his children
00:35:40
and adored his wife good father good good husband as as best as he was able at trial mr hislop used andrew's own
00:35:51
testimony as well as the evidence of text messages and the conversations that andrew had covertly recorded to show how
00:35:58
he'd felt betrayed by the wife that once he had loved she wanted a better life and the better
00:36:04
life didn't include him in the weeks leading up to janie's death it was clear that
00:36:14
andrew had lapsed into considerable depression he was extremely vulnerable he had started to hear
00:36:27
of her relationship with daniel he'd started to hear because it was the recordings under the bed of what she was
00:36:34
saying about him and a lot of those things weren't very nice for all sorts of reasons his will was
00:36:43
overborn he had no control he lost total control on the morning of the 1st of december andrew said he had
00:36:52
been defending himself from further attack this time not verbal but physical what we do know is that they quarreled
00:37:01
badly on the 1st december about the fact that she was going up to london and it was during that quarrel
00:37:11
that on andrew's account she attacked him and hit him in the face with a mobile
00:37:17
telephone and that ignited i think the violence that followed and caused him the loss of
00:37:28
control andrew said that it was at this point he saw red they grappled on the ground
00:37:36
he hit her as she bled he said he was going downstairs to get a towel and when he returned
00:37:48
there was janie crouched with a knife ready to attack him and he always maintained that she did attack
00:37:56
him and indeed he had a a wound to the outside of his left hand and we called a pathologist to give evidence that
00:38:12
this was what's known as a defensive wound as this happened according to the
00:38:17
defense a switch flipped in andrew's head he took the knife and stabbed his wife to death
00:38:22
miranda moore and her team argued in court that this version of events was a complete fabrication
00:38:29
andrew parsons claimed that the violence started after he opened the bedroom door
00:38:33
when she'd shut him out and that she threw the phone at his face but on no occasion
00:38:40
on the tape do you hear that and on no occasion do you hear him say anything like
00:38:46
don't do that janae put the knife down janae this is stupid a home office pathologist confirmed the
00:38:53
injuries janie had sustained in andrew's initial attack the forensic evidence and the pathology
00:38:59
evidence showed that janae had been hit to the face once possibly twice and had fallen to
00:39:06
the floor she had the facial injuries there was a mark on her head consistent with hitting a part of the
00:39:13
wall and she had abrasion injuries consistent with having landed on the floor that
00:39:20
tape evidence was supported by forensic evidence which is always important in a murder case
00:39:27
jamie's autopsy also confirmed the injuries which had caused her death once andrew had armed himself with the knife
00:39:35
he came back upstairs and stabbed janae a number of times as many as 17 we thought the ferocity of
00:39:43
the attack was such that the tip of the knife broke off and was left behind in janae on the
00:39:51
witness stand andrew parsons claimed to have very little memory of the incident andrew claimed that he couldn't remember
00:39:58
stabbing janie he couldn't remember putting her in the bath to bleed out he didn't know why that he hadn't dialed
00:40:04
the emergency services sooner and when i cross-examined him he had great difficulty in
00:40:10
working out in his own mind at what point he couldn't remember anymore perhaps if you've had a clunk on the
00:40:16
head that could be explicable but when you've done a series of acts at what point does your memory stop and he
00:40:23
floundered rather under questioning to have this evidence and to have somebody fight a case in the
00:40:30
face of this evidence to have a defendant still try to say they're not guilty of this
00:40:35
offence in the face of this evidence it's hard to understand andrew parsons failed to convince the
00:40:42
jury at the conclusion of the trial the jury found parsons guilty of the murder of
00:40:49
his wife the judge selected 20 years as the tariff which means that andrew parsons will have to wait for 20 years
00:40:55
before he is considered for parole the judge at oxford crown court considered aggravating and mitigating factors in
00:41:01
deciding past and sentence that deliberate arming by him when she's on the floor already was an aggravating
00:41:09
feature having a five-year-old present is an aggravating feature handing down sentence on the 24th of may 2013 the
00:41:17
judge told parsons that he had killed in a jealous rage he said nobody could predict the degree of psychological harm
00:41:24
that he had caused to his son who had witnessed the attack the judge also reflected the tributes
00:41:30
that had poured in for janie after her death we choose to remember janae for the
00:41:35
amazing person that she was not the victim that she became when she sadly passed
00:41:41
she was regarded back at home in oklahoma as being i think they have the thing that the one most likely to
00:41:48
succeed she was away for a very long time and yet everyone still remembered her janae
00:41:53
was very charismatic she always brought a lot of laughter and a lot of fun into the room she really did
00:42:00
love life and everybody loved janae [Music] [Music] so [Music] you