Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine a brutal murder of a policeman. Three men were tried for the crime, but only one was hanged. \n\nButterknowle, County Durham, 1884. On a dark and rainy Saturday night, following a pigeon-shooting competition, Police Sergeant William Smith was out on his rounds at pub closing time. Suddenly, a group of three men emerged from the darkness and brutally attacked him. The assault was so severe that his skull was fractured, and he was left for dead in the road. Two passing doctors went to the wounded sergeant’s aid, and he was carried to his house. But a couple of hours later, Sergeant Smith died from his injuries.\n\nSuspicion fell on three local miners who had been drinking in Butterknowle that evening. Among them was 25-year-old Joseph Lowson. Lowson’s brother-in-law William Siddle had previously been charged with assaulting Sergeant Smith, and the two of them were arrested along with friend Joseph Hodgson.\n\nThe three men stood trial together at the Durham Assizes, all desperately professing their innocence. The two doctors identified the three miners, and Lowson was linked to the crime by a button that was missing from his shirt and found at the scene. \n \nHodgson was acquitted by the jury, but Lowson and Siddle were both found guilty and sentenced to death. At the last minute, Siddle was reprieved and on 27 May 1884, Joseph Lowson, alone, was hanged.\n\nNow, over 100 years later, Joseph Lowson’s great-great-nephew Peter is looking to reassess the case and has enlisted the help of the barristers. Jeremy and Sasha meet an identification expert and a forensic scientist to re-evaluate the evidence against Lowson that proved so damning at trial. In a case where three men stood trial and only one was executed, will they find anything to cast doubt on the original verdict?
Source: BBC 1
Series 3: Episode 9
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Series 3: Episode 3
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Series 3: Episode 2
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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 ...
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BBC 1
Series 4: 8. Dainton
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BBC 1
Series 4: 9. Brown
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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 ...
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BBC 1
Series 4: 10. Shaw
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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 ...
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BBC 1
Case Closed? Series 4: 5. Lowson
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC revisit their investigation into the brutal murder of a policeman. Three men were tried for the crime, but only one ...
24-02-2023
BBC 1
Series 4: 4. Lowson
Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine a brutal murder of a policeman. Three men were tried for the crime, but only one was hanged. \n\nButterkn ...
22-02-2024
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 5: 4. Yarham
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC reinvestigate a complex case from Victorian Britain that featured four prime suspects, two trials and ultimately just on ...
04-10-2023
BBC 1
Series 1: Episode 2
Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein reinvestigate the notorious case of Devlin and Burns, two thieves sentenced to death for murder.\n\nWhen Beatrice Rimmer was f ...
01-03-2022
BBC 1
Series 2: Episode 4
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein and Sasha Wass investigate the 1962 armed robbery of a Co-op depot in South London, which resulted in an employee being shot dead.\n\nMitcham ...
03-05-2022
BBC 1
Case Closed?: Episode 2
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13-06-2023
BBC 1
Series 5: 10. Poff/barrett
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13-10-2023
BBC 1
Series 2: Episode 5
Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein investigate the murder of a young lady found partially naked, lying in an alley known as a local ‘lovers lane’.\n\ ...
04-05-2022
BBC 1
Series 4: 5. Dumbleton
Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC re-examine the case against a young farm labourer convicted of the brutal murder of a travelling watch repairman in 1880 ...
23-02-2024
BBC 1