Our first case concerns a young man, Dolton Powell, fatally stabbed by an armed gang after a party. A group of suspects are arrested and questioned, but they remain tight-lipped and give nothing away to investigators. In a bid to uncover the truth about the horrific crime, police secretly record the young men as they huddle together and discuss the events of the night. However, they speak in a secret language that was hard to understand. They needed expert help and turned to forensic linguist Nicci MacLeod, who had to crack their code, decipher the true meaning of what they were saying and eventually prove their guilt. With powerful testimony from Dolton’s sister Andrea who recalls the devastation the gang caused and a step-by-step account of the case from investigating officer Sophie Ferguson. \n\nExpert witnesses can help solve all types of crime - not just violent ones.\n\nIn the second investigation in this programme, police received reports about suspicious activity at a business premises in Kent and discovered a large-scale cannabis farm run by an organised crime gang. Detectives soon realised that this particular site was a drop in the ocean, and the drug traffickers were in fact running a country-wide operation. However, to bring about charges, they needed to know exactly how much of the illegal drug this huge factory could churn out, so they called on the help of drug expert Adrian Parsons to calculate the financial value of the cannabis the gang were producing. His evidence helped convict the gang, and their custodial sentences totalled over 90 years. It was one of the biggest cannabis operations ever discovered in the UK.
Source: BBC 1
Series 4: 4. Cracking The Killer's Code
Our first case concerns a young man, Dolton Powell, fatally stabbed by an armed gang after a party. A group of suspects are arrested and questioned, but they remain tight-lipped ...
31-10-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 3. The Wheelie Bin Killer
In our first case, father of four, Pat McCormick, goes missing in Comber, Northern Ireland, leaving his family desperate for answers. Police suspected he’d come to harm bu ...
30-10-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 2. The Body In The Suitcase
An expert witness uses scanning technology developed for the manufacturing industry to find vital evidence that convicts a killer. \n\nIn a Birmingham canal, a truly shocking di ...
29-10-2024
BBC 1
Series 4: 1. The Murder Of Sarah Payne: Fields Of Evidence
True crime documentary series that reveals how expert witnesses helped solve some of the UK's most complex major crime cases. \n\nThis programme travels to Sussex to investiga ...
28-10-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: 5. Written In Blood And The End Of The Line
When two men are wrongly convicted of murder, a forensic blood spatter analyst helps to prove their innocence. And an expert witness uses mobile phone analysis to help police br ...
26-07-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: 4. Corrosive Truth And A Field Of Evidence
When a woman is the victim of an acid attack in Brighton, an expert pieces together hours of CCTV footage to identify the suspect. And through pollen analysis, an expert witness ...
25-07-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: 3. Body Of Evidence And Shallow Grave
When a 21-year-old student is murdered and dumped in the Humber Estuary, a forensic biologist helps police bring her killer to justice. And an expert witness analyses soil at a ...
24-07-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: 2. A Watery Grave And The Dangerous Date
When the body of a farmer is found in a lake, a bioarchaeologist helps police reveal how he got there. Meanwhile, when a man is accused of intentionally spreading the HIV virus, ...
23-07-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: 1. Body In The Woods And Supermarket Killers
When a dismembered body is discovered, police turn to a facial reconstruction expert to help identify the victim. And when a man is murdered in Northern Ireland, a cell site exp ...
22-07-2024
BBC 1
Series 2: 13. A Scottish Murder And Artful Deceit
An expert in mobile phone technology tracks the movements of a murder suspect, and an expert in art fraud determines whether a very expensive painting is genuine or fake.
07-06-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: 2. A Watery Grave And The Dangerous Date
When the body of a farmer is found in a lake, a bioarchaeologist helps police reveal how he got there. Meanwhile, when a man is accused of intentionally spreading the HIV virus, ...
23-07-2024
BBC 1
Series 1: 3. Forensic Imaging And Msn Chat
This episode uncovers the forensic imaging expertise behind the eventual capture of Michael Hardacre, the 'Rochdale ripper'.\n\nIn the summer of 2000, a series of attacks in Roc ...
26-07-2022
BBC 1
Series 1: 9. Cerium And Cctv
We reveal how the power of forensic science not only found a killer, but also freed an innocent man. Forensic evidence is a powerful tool. So powerful, that if it’s misint ...
05-08-2022
BBC 1
Series 1: 4. Fibre Trails And Diamonds
With so many forensic techniques available, detectives and expert witnesses can sometimes disagree on how best to search for evidence. In 2006, a team investigating three notori ...
26-07-2022
BBC 1
Series 2: 11. Sole Of A Killer And Stolen Treasure
Police turn to a footprint analyst and a pollen expert to help solve a murder in Manchester, and a soil expert unearths the evidence needed to arrest a gang of treasure thieves.
03-06-2024
BBC 1
Series 2: 12. Murder In The Car Park And Cold Call Fraud
Blood spatter analysis helps identify the killer of a body found in a suitcase, and an expert helps in a serious case of financial fraud that cost some victims their life savings.
04-06-2024
BBC 1
Series 3: 12. Red Light Killer And A Rural Rampage
Detectives hunting the killer of a young woman from Bolton require the help of a fibre and DNA specialist to arrest their suspect. And police seek the help of a body fluids expe ...
14-11-2023
BBC 1
Series 3: 5. Written In Blood And The End Of The Line
When two men are wrongly convicted of murder, a forensic blood spatter analyst helps to prove their innocence. And an expert witness uses mobile phone analysis to help police br ...
26-07-2024
BBC 1
Series 1: 6. Dna, Fibres And Bones
In this episode, we reveal how the tenacity of a team of forensic scientists helped finally catch the killer of two children in Brighton. Also, when bones were discovered on moo ...
03-08-2022
BBC 1
Series 1 (extended Versions): 9. Paint, Blood And Fingerprints
A forensic art expert proves paintings by a well-known artist are fake, blood spatter patterns in a hotel help catch the killer of a father of three, and there's a fingerprintin ...
15-12-2022
BBC 1