Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC explore a notorious case of a house servant accused of murdering his upper-class employer. \n\nDevon, 1884. In the early hours of a cold November morning, in picturesque Babbacombe Bay, servants at the Glen manor house awoke to the smell of smoke. They found their villa engulfed by flames and realised that their upper-class employer Emma Keyse was missing. \n\nThey desperately searched the house and discovered the mutilated body of Miss Keyse in the dining room. She had been viciously beaten, had her throat cut and her body set on fire in what looked like a crude attempt to conceal the cause of death. \n\nThe police quickly arrested 20-year-old servant John Lee. He was the only man in the house and, despite Emma Keyse being Lee’s benefactor, witnesses spoke of him having a grievance against his employer. Within days he was charged with murder. \n\nThe shocking murder of a wealthy upper-class lady by one of her employees outraged the local community and made headline news around the world. At trial, John Lee vehemently protested his innocence, but it took the jury just 40 minutes to find him guilty, and he was sentenced to death. However, when led to the gallows on 23 February 1885, John Lee would make history as ‘The Man They Could Not Hang’. \n\nNow, over a century later, John Lee’s relative Wendy has enlisted the help of the barristers to re-examine this infamous murder. The case against John Lee relied on circumstantial evidence, and Sasha and Jeremy analyse motive, means and opportunity to establish whether Lee’s conviction might have been unsafe. \n\nWill the barristers be able to uncover new evidence to provide yet another twist in this infamous tale?
Source: BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 9
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate the fatal poisoning of a 49-year-old wealthy lodger at a family mansion.\n\nLondon, 1911. Insurance salesman F ...
08-03-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 8
Barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate whether the murder of a gentleman farmer in the late Victorian era was really carried out by a 19-year-old rabbit poacher.\n\nS ...
07-03-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 3
The barristers explore the case of a poultry farmer who buried the body of his fiancé under a chicken run but claimed to be innocent of her murder.\n\nCrowborough, East S ...
06-03-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 2
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate a toxic love triangle which culminated in the murder of a Yorkshire farm owner, who died in mysterious circums ...
05-03-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 1
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate their oldest case yet, the murder of a female canal boat passenger 180 years ago, for which boatmen were convi ...
04-03-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 8. Dainton
Leading barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC examine the drowning of a wife and mother in Victorian Bath, re-evaluating the chain of evidence that led to the conviction o ...
01-03-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 9. Brown
Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine an infamous case of a housewife accused of murdering her young husband. She became the last woman to be publi ...
29-02-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 7. Read
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC re-examine their oldest case yet - the murder of a military veteran by his estranged wife nearly 200 years ago.\n\nLeice ...
28-02-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 10. Shaw
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC investigate their first Scottish case, the murder of a reclusive pensioner nearly 70 years ago. Two men stood trial, ...
27-02-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 6. Staunton
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC re-examine the complex case against a Victorian auctioneer accused, alongside his brother and two others, of murdering h ...
26-02-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 1
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate their oldest case yet, the murder of a female canal boat passenger 180 years ago, for which boatmen were convi ...
04-03-2024
BBC 1
Series 5: 5. Lefley
Criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC investigate a murder case from rural Lincolnshire in which a wife was accused of murdering her husband with arsenic. \n\nWr ...
05-10-2023
BBC 1
Series 4: 8. Dainton
Leading barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC examine the drowning of a wife and mother in Victorian Bath, re-evaluating the chain of evidence that led to the conviction o ...
01-03-2024
BBC 1
Case Closed?: Episode 5
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein and Sasha Wass look back at their investigation of a rural case of murder and moonlighting in Ireland in 1894.\n\nCounty Cork, Ireland, 1894. ...
16-06-2023
BBC 1
Series 4: 7. Read
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC re-examine their oldest case yet - the murder of a military veteran by his estranged wife nearly 200 years ago.\n\nLeice ...
28-02-2024
BBC 1
Series 2: Episode 2
Barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein reinvestigate the brutal killing of a young German woman at the hands of her Cypriot mother-in-law.\n\nHampstead, July 1954. In the middle ...
16-03-2022
BBC 1
Series 1: Episode 10
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein and Sasha Wass investigate a rural case of murder in County Cork, Ireland, in 1894.\n\nA man is dragged from his bed and beaten by two men. W ...
14-03-2022
BBC 1
Series 4: 3. Fg Browne
Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine a notorious murder of a policeman that led to the execution of two known criminals. \n\nEssex, 1927. On a qui ...
21-02-2024
BBC 1
Case Closed?: Episode 1
Barristers Jeremy Dein and Sasha Wass look back at their examination of a tragic case of love, infidelity, and murder - the conviction and execution of Edith Thompson.\n\nIlford ...
12-06-2023
BBC 1
Series 2: Episode 3
Leading Criminal Barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate a curious case of poisoning in Croydon in 1907 that caused the demise of an innocent family.\n\nIn South Croyd ...
17-03-2022
BBC 1