Case 330: David Birkett

*** Content warnings: Animal cruelty *** After respected dermatologist Dr David Birkett was found bludgeoned to death in his Middlesbrough home, police struggled to uncover a motive or identify a suspect for what appeared to be a targeted attack. As the months passed by with no arrests, it began to look like the assailant had succeeded in his plan to pull off the perfect murder. But then the cracks began to show. --- Narration – Anonymous Host https://www.instagram.com/caseys.snaps/ Research & writing – Elsha McGill Creative direction – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas http://mikemigas.com/ Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/casefile-true-crime/id998568017?ign-itscg=30200S&ign-itsct=casefile_podcastsSpotify Premium https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/9gSwcv7USsbPatreon https://www.patreon.com/casefileFor all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-330-david-birkett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• 2:15Speaker 00

  It was just after six o'clock on the evening of Saturday, February 3, 1990, when married couple Frank and Audrey Roberts realised they still hadn't heard from their friend, Dr David Birkett. David lived next door to them in Lynthorpe, a small neighbourhood in the industrial portside town of Middlesbrough in England's North East. The trio, along with some other neighbours, often got together to socialise on Saturday nights. They had discussed attending the Middlesbrough Little Theatre Club later that evening, but the minutes continued to tick by without David contacting the couple to confirm their plans. Audrey called David's home phone at around 6:30pm, but there was no answer.

• 3:01Speaker 00

  When they still hadn't heard from David by 7:50, Audrey decided to duck over to his house and leave a note asking him to get in touch with them by nine o'clock. Fifty-six-year-old David Birkett was a recently divorced father of three who lived alone in a large, two-storey home on Cornfield Road, a tree-lined residential street in an affluent part of town. As Audrey approached, she noticed that the curtains to David's bay windows, which were typically kept open, were closed. She knocked on the door. There was no answer.

• 3:40Speaker 00

  Audrey slipped the note under David's front door and then turned down the lame way that ran alongside his house. She caught a glimpse of his kitchen and noticed that the windows were fogged up and it smelt like burnt potatoes. Thinking David might be busy cooking dinner, Audrey returned home to await his call.

• 4:02Speaker 00

  But nine o'clock came and went with no word, so the group decided to go to the theatre without him.

• 4:10Speaker 00

  By four o'clock the next afternoon, there was still no word from David and his curtains remained closed. His pet cats were also waiting by the front door, eager to be fed. Concerned for David's welfare, Audrey Roberts decided to call his youngest daughter, sixteen-year-old Laura, who lived with her mother nearby. David's other two children, aged twenty-three and twenty-six, no longer lived at home. Ever since their parents divorced two years earlier, Laura had felt sorry for her father, living all alone in that big house. She made every effort to visit him as often as possible.

• 4:51Speaker 00

  As soon as Laura received Audrey's call, she immediately felt that something was wrong. She rushed over to Cornfield Road, where some of David's neighbours had gathered outside. Fearful of what Laura might find inside, they tried to stop her from entering. But Laura pushed her way through and unlocked the front door.

• 5:15Speaker 00

  The scene she found would haunt her for years to come. David was lying face down in the hallway, the walls and carpet covered in blood. As Laura later recalled to the telegraph: "It was as if I could see myself going into the house. I was on the outside, looking in. Someone called the police and an ambulance, and then the nightmare of it all began."

• 6:08Speaker 00

  Although Middlesbrough had its fair share of crime, Dr David Birkett's house on Cornfield Road was not the kind of place police expected to find a murder. The brutal scene inside the six-bedroom semi-detached home was at complete odds with the dignified reputation of the neighbourhood and with David himself.

• 6:30Speaker 00

  David was an eminent and highly respected dermatologist, who primarily worked at the Carter-Pequest Hospital in Middlesbrough. He also had a deep fascination with bones and worked as a consultant paleopathologist for the government, helping to identify ancient diseases. So prized were his skills, that people sent him bones to examine from all over the world.

• 6:56Speaker 00

  Despite his incredible intellect, David was a modest man, who took quiet pride in his talents, never talking about himself unless asked. He was described by one acquaintance as "a gentleman in every sense of the word."

• 7:13Speaker 00

  This made it all the more shocking for police as they entered the home and found what had clearly been a savage and brazen attack. Crime scene examiners determined that the killer had most likely struck as David answered the front door.

• 7:29Speaker 00

  David had an alarm system, and there were no signs of forced entry, meaning that he had likely willingly let them inside, and maybe even knew them.

• 7:40Speaker 00

  As David opened the door, the killer had hit him multiple times in the head with a blunt object, probably a hammer. A lack of defensive injuries indicated David hadn't seen the attack coming. Two pieces of green cord had been tied around his arms and used to drag him further down the hallway towards his study, where the assailant launched a second assault. In total, David had sustained approximately seventeen ferocious and fatal blows to the front, sides, and back of his head. In his kitchen, the oven was still on, and there were two pots of burnt vegetables inside, suggesting the killer had attacked while David was in the middle of cooking.

• 8:27Speaker 00

  The initial assumption was that the murder must have been motivated by theft. David's wallet and a small fob watch were missing from the inside pocket of his jacket, while some drawers and cupboard doors had been left open throughout the house. The police wondered whether the assailant could have been looking for cash, drugs, or jewellery, but it didn't really look like David's things had been ransacked or rifled through. Nothing else appeared to be missing, and overall, everything was neat and tidy.

• 9:00Speaker 00

  With the burglary angle not quite checking out, police turned to David's friends and colleagues, seeking information about who could have possibly wanted him dead. But, nobody had a bad word to say about him. By all accounts, David Birkett was well-liked. He had always been a private and reserved person, who was most often at work, but he'd recently made an effort to spend more time with his neighbours. They all knew him to be nothing but kind and friendly, often stopping to chat with townsfolk whom others wouldn't give the time of day. He frequented the Middlesbrough Bowling Club, which was just across the street from his home, testing his general knowledge skills in the weekly quiz night.

• 9:47Speaker 00

  Fellow members described him as an unassuming and polite gentleman. They couldn't fathom who would want to hurt him.

• 9:58Speaker 00

  With David's murder starting to look more like a random attack, fears were high that the killer could strike again. Pressure was on for the police to make a quick arrest. Seventy officers were assigned to the case, led by Detective Chief Inspector Brian Leonard. They door-knocked houses in the area, distributed posters about the crime around town, and set up a police caravan at the end of Cornfield Road, where potential witnesses could provide information.

• 10:30Speaker 00

  They were particularly eager to speak to anyone who might have seen David Birkett on Saturday, February 3, 1990, and could help piece together a timeline of his movements.

• 10:42Speaker 00

  A travel agent who worked in Lynthorpe Village recognised the David from one of the police posters, and recalled that he had come into the travel agency at around 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. He had picked up a brochure for an upcoming trip to the United States that he was planning with his daughter. The travel agent knew David, as he was a regular customer, and noted nothing out of the ordinary about his behaviour. Later that evening, at 5:20pm, a Lindthorpe resident had been cycling down the laneway that ran alongside David's house when he noticed that David was sitting alone at his kitchen table. As David had failed to answer phone calls from around 6:30 on,

• 11:26Speaker 00

  and Audrey Roberts visited the house at 7:50 to find the curtains drawn, police deduced that the murder must have been committed sometime between that last sighting of David and when Audrey stopped by. This was confirmed by a post-mortem examination, which found that David had died between 6 and 7 o'clock on Saturday evening. DCI Brian Lannard told reporters: "We can't rule out the possibility that the murderer may have been in the house when the neighbour called, and might have left sometime later. So, we would still like to appeal to witnesses from Saturday afternoon until Sunday afternoon at 4pm."

• 12:10Speaker 00

  Cornfield Road was a quiet place, and there was little reason to be in the area unless you lived there or were visiting someone who did. However, a football game between Middlesbrough and Aston Villa had taken place that evening, and spectators were known to park their cars around the neighbourhood. An evening mass had also been held at the Holy Name of Mary church, located at the top of Cornfield Road.

• 12:37Speaker 00

  Police appealed for anyone who might have parked or passed through the area to think back and remember if they had seen anything at all that could help with the investigation. It had been a very messy crime scene, and whoever was responsible had likely been covered in blood.

• 12:55Speaker 00

  David's house was protected from the road by a high fence and large trees. It was also positioned in a slight curve, placing it just out of sight of the bowling club.

• 13:08Speaker 00

  While no one had seen anything suspicious on David's property, it was reported that a scruffily dressed man with long, straggly black hair had been seen in the Lindthorpe area earlier that day, asking for directions to Cornfield Road.

• 13:23Speaker 00

  At around the same time that David was spotted through his kitchen window, witnesses reported seeing two young men standing on the street outside his home. They were both white and aged around eighteen to twenty years old. One was approximately five foot nine with fair hair, and the other was around five foot eleven with longish dark hair. DCI Leonard appealed for the men to come forward, even if they had no information to share, to eliminate themselves from the inquiry. He also sought further information about two men who reportedly ran out onto the dark street in front of a car at around 7:20pm.

• 14:08Speaker 00

  When emergency services operator Pauline Collins heard about David Birkett's murder, she recalled a strange phone call that she'd received on the night of Saturday, February 3. Pauline was just about to knock off work for the evening when a call had come through to 999 just before 9pm.

• 14:29Speaker 00

  "Police", said an unidentified man, "26 Cornfield Road", he then hung up.

• 14:38Speaker 00

  The connection had been poor, but the man's voice came through clearly enough for Pauline to notice that he sounded odd. Most people who called 999 were obviously panicked and anxious, but this man sounded calm and steady.

• 14:55Speaker 00

  Pauline patched the call through to the police. As the man hadn't said which town he was calling from, the police asked Pauline to get a trace on the call. It came back as having been made from a payphone on the corner of Union Street and Parliament Road in central Middlesbrough, roughly 1.4 miles from David Birkett's home. Because the man hadn't provided any further information or mentioned any type of crime, the call had ultimately been brushed off as a hoax.

• 15:28Speaker 00

  It was only in the wake of David's murder that police realised its importance. Because the call was made no more than three hours after David had been killed and 12 hours before his body was discovered, they wondered if the caller knew the killer. Or perhaps, he was the killer and had been trying to direct police to the crime.

• 15:52Speaker 00

  Officers went to the payphone on Union Street and conducted a forensic examination, but found nothing of use to the investigation. They appealed for the caller, or anyone else who had been in the vicinity of the payphone at the time of the call, to come forward. David's eldest son, Simon, also made an emotional plea for the caller to phone again. DCI Leonard told reporters: "I am convinced now that the caller has knowledge of the murder and knows the identity of the killer. We have not ruled out the possibility that he may have even been the killer. I believe the man has a conscience, and is shocked and disturbed by the brutality

• 16:36Speaker 00

  of this vicious killing."

• 16:44Speaker 00

  With no immediate suspects coming to light, police focused on three potential clues found at the crime scene. The first was a handwritten note found on David's hallway table, which appeared to have come from a 24-hour motorcycle courier service called Demon Dispatches. "Mr Birkett," it read, "a dispatch rider called today with a parcel. Phone the above number as soon as possible to arrange a convenient time for delivery."

• 17:15Speaker 00

  David often received parcels from courier services, so there was nothing overtly unusual about this note. However, police considered the possibility that someone could have used this as a guise to lure David to his front door before launching an attack. The phone number on the dispatch note wasn't connected to an office, but to the payphone on Union Street, where the 999 call had been placed on the night of David's murder.

• 17:45Speaker 00

  Police were unable to determine whether or not David had called the number, but their theory gained traction when they discovered a motorcycle tyre track in David's driveway. Furthermore, they looked into Demon Dispatches and discovered that the company had actually ceased operations two years prior.

• 18:06Speaker 00

  Investigators tracked down the company's former director, a man named Alan Thompson.

• 18:13Speaker 00

  Alan couldn't shed any light on the situation, but he willingly handed over all of the company's old files, including employment records and delivery receipts. All up, Demon Dispatches had forty-nine former employees on its books. Police were able to track down about half of them with relative ease.

• 18:35Speaker 00

  It turned out that only one of them had used a motorcycle for their deliveries, and it just so happened that he lived less than a five-minute walk from David Birkett's home.

• 18:47Speaker 00

  Police paid a visit to the man, whose name was Jim Lee. Asked for his whereabouts on Saturday, February 3, Lee said he couldn't recall. A recording of his voice was sent to a local expert to be analysed against the 999 call made on the night of David's murder. They determined it wasn't the same person. Lee also provided a handwriting sample, which was compared to the note pretending to be from Demon Dispatches. That wasn't a match either. Jim Lee eventually provided an alibi, which was checked out and confirmed by police, putting them back at square one.

• 19:31Speaker 00

  Their next step was to sort through all of Demon Dispatches' delivery receipts, of which there were about 250,000. They were on the lookout for anything that had been sent to David Birkett's home and the name of the courier who delivered it. The police believed that David's murder hadn't been random after all, but a targeted and carefully orchestrated attack. They just had to figure out who would want to hurt him, and why.

• 20:01Speaker 00

  After two arduous weeks, they finished sorting through the receipts, but didn't find a single record that led them back to David or to Cornfield Road.

• 20:13Speaker 00

  Alan Thompson, the former director of Demon Dispatches, also recalled that his house had been broken into about a year before David Birkett's murder and some papers featuring the company's letterhead were stolen. It was therefore possible that the killer wasn't connected to the company in any way, but perhaps had a history of breaking and entering. The note was sent to a handwriting expert who determined that the author was right-handed and hadn't tried to mask their natural handwriting. They noted distinct characteristics to the letters B, P and D, which could be helpful to compare against any further samples.

• 20:55Speaker 00

  The second clue found at the scene of David Birkett's murder was a white plastic bag that was lying in the hallway not far from his body. David's cleaner said she'd never seen the bag in the house before, leading police to believe that the killer had brought it with him. It had come from a co-op supermarket and was marked with a distinctive red and blue print advertising a tea promotion. Police made inquiries with the supermarket chain and discovered that the bag had been distributed by all stores in the region two years prior. With multiple outlets, there was no way of determining which location it had come from, but there was no doubt about its significance.

• 21:39Speaker 00

  Bloodstains on the outside of the bag, coupled with small tears at the bottom, indicated that the killer might have used it to conceal the murder weapon during the attack. Its handles were also stretched, as though they'd been wrapped around something. Police appealed to anyone who recognised the bag or had noticed a similar one missing from their home to come forward, while the bag itself was sent for forensic analysis. Scientists conducted numerous experiments by placing a hammer inside a similar plastic bag and wrapping the top of the bag around the handle of the hammer before using it to bash a test object.

• 22:23Speaker 00

  When using a cross peen hammer, one with a wedged-shaped blade that runs perpendicular to the handle, the bag tore in exactly the same way as the co-op bag found in David's house. They then tested the cross peen hammer against the damage to a patch of carpet at the crime scene, which had a semicircle-shaped cut on it. It was a perfect match. Because the co-op bag was made of plastic, it couldn't be tested for fingerprints using the standard powdering technique. Instead, forensic scientists used an advanced method that required the bag to be placed inside a heated cabinet along with a container of super glue.

• 23:07Speaker 00

  If any fingerprints were present, the fumes from the glue would create white chalky deposits along their ridges, which would then become visible after the bag was placed in a tub of yellow dye. The scientists completed this process and then placed the bag inside a special machine that acted as a high-energy light source. They viewed the bag through a series of filters that aimed to highlight any fingerprint ridges present. Near the handle of the bag, there it was, a partial right-hand thumbprint. Although this was a solid lead, the plastic bag could have changed hands many times over

• 23:48Speaker 00

  the years, and police couldn't be sure that the print had come from the killer. They sent it off to be checked, while turning their focus to the third and final clue.

• 24:10Speaker 00

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  The two pieces of thin green cord that had been tied around David Burkett's arms didn't appear to have come from inside his home. This not only suggested that the killer had brought the cord with him, but that he also knew a thing or two about forensic procedures. The assailant had used the cord to drag David down the hallway, presumably to avoid touching him and transferring any identifiable fibers in the process. If police could identify where the cord came from, it could put them one step closer to finding the killer. The problem was, they couldn't even be sure what type of cord it was.

• 28:27Speaker 00

  Upon initial inspection, it looked as though it could have come from an item of sportswear, such as a snow jacket or something similar. Inquiries were made with numerous sports stores, but no one recognized the cord. Police sought help from various rope and cord manufacturers, making inquiries with companies as far away as Pakistan, but nothing brought them any closer to locating the green cord's origin.

• 28:56Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, checking the partial thumbprint found on the plastic bag was proving to be a slow and painstaking process. Back in 1990, there was no national fingerprint database, with searches only done regionally and by hand. The job was assigned to a senior fingerprint expert named Judith Kirby. She spent the first two weeks of the investigation manually comparing the partial thumbprint to the 20,000 files of active criminals in Middlesbrough.

• 29:31Speaker 00

  There were no matches. Her next task was to compare the print to every criminal file in England's North East. There were about 300,000 all up, and it could take Judith months, with no guarantee of an outcome.

• 29:49Speaker 00

  Police were growing frustrated with the lack of progress in the investigation. It took three weeks alone just to conclude their meticulous search of the crime scene, during which family members realised that something else was missing from David's house after all.

• 30:06Speaker 00

  In one of his back bedrooms, he'd kept an ancient skull. It had come from a monk who had been beaten to death several hundred years prior, and David used it when conducting lectures on the study of ancient man. The skull was no longer there. David's son Simon provided a sketch of the skull that he'd drawn years earlier for a school assignment. Interestingly enough, the injuries the monk had sustained bore some resemblance to David's head injuries. Police wondered whether there was any significance to this, or if it was merely a coincidence.

• 30:46Speaker 00

  While it was possible that David's killer had taken the skull, it was just as possible that David had lent it to a colleague or one of his pupils.

• 30:56Speaker 00

  Police initially withheld the details about the skull from the public, while appealing for people to be on the lookout for David's missing fob watch or wallet.

• 31:06Speaker 00

  They said the wallet would likely have been discarded under a bush or in a bin, while the watch might have made its way to a jewellery store or second-hand dealer.

• 31:17Speaker 00

  David's funeral was held in his hometown and more than 250 mourners attended to pay their respects. The service was led by a reverend who'd known David personally and commended his humbleness. He told those gathered: "David wasn't one to talk about himself. He didn't speak about his profession or his achievements. One thing he did talk about was taking part in the London Marathon, which he ran and finished and raised money for his favourite charity. It was worth more to him than any of his medical qualifications."

• 31:57Speaker 00

  Police who attended the funeral became more eager than ever to make an arrest. DCI Leonard told reporters: "Someone knows the killer and is shielding him. It may be a wife, mother, girlfriend, relative or friend. He may have spoken to them about what happened. He was bound to have had bloodstained clothing and they may have washed the clothes. He would have been in a very shaken and shocked condition when he came home. I would urge them to contact me."

• 32:39Speaker 00

  With 100 officers still working the case, the investigation was bogged down as letters trickled in from people claiming to be responsible for David's murder. The inaccurate details they provided proved these confessions were false, but it was a waste of valuable police time and resources nonetheless. DCI Leonard and his team were disgusted. From the outset of the investigation, they'd been disappointed by what they felt was a general lack of concern from the public. Despite their extensive public inquiries, they realised that people weren't coming forward with information that later came to light through different means.

• 33:22Speaker 00

  The head of the county's criminal investigation department told reporters: "The death of any human being other than by natural causes should be of great concern to us." Detectives investigating these offences often come to the conclusion that "very few people care."

• 33:43Speaker 00

  Using David Birkett's murder as an example, he said: "When Detective Chief Inspector Leonard appeals for anyone who was in the vicinity of Cornfield Road at a particular time, he means everyone." Many people conclude that because they cannot recall anything from, say, driving down Cornfield Road, they have nothing to offer. That is totally wrong. It is important to identify every person who was in the vicinity of the scene between the material times, because one thing is certain: Dr Birkett's killer was there.

• 34:23Speaker 00

  Appealing to the public directly, he said: "When you read, see, or hear on television a policeman asking for help in an investigation of a serious crime, please take notice: he is talking to you. He isn't Taggart, or Bergerac, or Sherlock Holmes. He is working for you, and with your help, he can be successful."

• 34:50Speaker 00

  By March, almost a month had passed since David Birkett's death, and police still hadn't identified a prime suspect. Then, they received a call from a local man, Ray Benson, not his real name. Ray had cast his mind back to the night of Saturday, February 3, and recalled that he'd been waiting for a bus on the corner of Union Street and Parliament Road at about 9pm. He'd glanced over at the nearby payphone and noticed that an agitated man was loitering around it. The man walked up to the phone a couple of times and picked up the receiver before hanging it up without making a call.

• 35:34Speaker 00

  He walked across the street and stood in the doorway of a bedding shop, muttering to himself, before crossing back over to the payphone. This time, he picked up the receiver and placed a call before walking off down Parliament Road.

• 35:51Speaker 00

  For the police, this was a significant breakthrough. The timing of Ray's reported sighting matched perfectly with the suspicious call made to 999 on the night of David Birkett's murder. Ray was also able to provide a clear description of the man. He was white, between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five, and six feet tall with a medium build. He had a round face with a high forehead and short sandy-coloured hair that was receding at the sides. A sketch of the man was drawn and distributed, with DCI Leonard telling reporters:

• 36:32Speaker 00

  "He may be our man, but if not, we want to eliminate him from our enquiries."

• 36:40Speaker 00

  Around thirty people called in to report the names of individuals they believed matched the sketch, but all of these leads went nowhere.

• 36:50Speaker 00

  Then, an envelope arrived at the police station.

• 36:58Speaker 00

  Addressed to Detective Chief Inspector Brian Leonard and marked as "urgent", the envelope contained a slightly disjointed and fragmented letter that had been neatly written using a stencil. It read: "Hello chums. Pigshit Leonard, you have me wrong. I have no conscience." Smashing his head in gave me a buzz better than smack. Could get addicted to it. If I did, you'd soon know. Believe me, this is no wind-up. I'd done the business on his head. He was a skin expert, eh?

• 37:37Speaker 00

  When I'd finished, he didn't have much skin, not on his head, anyway. That was a little test I set myself. Passed with flying colours, wouldn't you say?

• 37:49Speaker 00

  I'm writing this 'cause you won't get any nearer to me to talk and walk away.

• 37:55Speaker 00

  Know what I've done. I'm facing life. Who gives a shit? Not me. Letting you know I've nought to lose. Know the way I like it. Tread carefully, pig and Joe Public. Get too warm and you burn."

• 38:15Speaker 00

  Phone to the pigs for fun so I could laugh at you. Know your every move, pig. You're barking up the wrong tree with theft. More like fun. Do I sicken you, pig? You ain't seen nothing yet.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  At the bottom of the letter, the writer had stopped using the stencil and had written in regular handwriting the words, "One has to live by the chosen way, or not at all."

• 38:46Speaker 00

  This was followed by what looked like a Japanese symbol and the words, "Death is release."

• 38:54Speaker 00

  The second page of the letter was also handwritten and contained what appeared to be a poem.

• 39:01Speaker 00

  It read in part: "If my karma is to conquer, I shall conquer. If my karma is to be conquered, I shall be conquered. What difference does it make? Heaven and earth are my parents. Psychotandem is my home. Stoicism is my body. Flash of lightning, my eyes. I can throw my life away at an instant. Can you?"

• 39:31Speaker 00

  While the police had already received their fair share of bogus letters in relation to David Birkett's murder, this one was different. The others had all been filled with obvious falsities and incorrect details, but this one contained something that made investigators freeze in their tracks. In the stenciled portion of the letter, the author had written: "Who else would know about the hamster cage in the back bedroom?"

• 40:02Speaker 00

  During the search of David's home, the police had indeed found an empty hamster cage in the back bedroom. The hamster belonged to David's daughter, Laura. She explained that the hamster had been eating things in her room, so David had moved it into the back room. This had happened just a few days before he was killed, either on the Thursday or the Friday. The only people who knew about it were David, Laura, and David's house cleaner. The police had never released this detail to the public, meaning that whoever wrote the letter had to have been in the house around the time that David died.

• 40:47Speaker 00

  The letter provoked mixed reactions for investigators. On the plus side, they now had a solid clue, as well as something to compare to the handwriting from the demon dispatcher's note. But the letter also confirmed what they'd feared all along: that the killer was a dangerous, sadistic man who had targeted David with no logical motive, and that he intended to strike again.

• 41:18Speaker 00

  The letter was analyzed by a forensic psychologist, who concluded that David's killer likely felt powerless in his day-to-day life. He might have been abused or rejected, and fantasizing about violence was a way for him to escape.

• 41:34Speaker 00

  Acting on that violence had restored a sense of power for him, and that feeling became addictive. The forensic psychologist had seen similar traits in serial killers, and he believed there was a high chance that the killer would strike again if not caught.

• 41:52Speaker 00

  The fact that the killer had singled out Detective Chief Inspector Brian Leonard specifically, coupled with his clear hatred of police, sparked fears that the detective could be his next target. DCI Leonard was on edge. He had a family of his own and worried about their safety. He began checking outside his house at night to make sure nobody was there, while keeping his fears to himself so that his family didn't worry.

• 42:22Speaker 00

  Not wanting to take any chances, DCI Leonard decided that anyone who was arrested in Middlesbrough from that point on would have their fingerprint compared to the one found on the plastic bag in David Birkett's home, regardless of the crime they were being arrested for.

• 42:39Speaker 00

  Police also expanded their search countrywide. Because David Birkett had attended conferences all over England, a questionnaire was created and sent out to hundreds of his business associates. Investigators hoped that one of them might know something about his lifestyle, or provide some kind of clue that could propel the investigation forward.

• 43:04Speaker 00

  By early May, leads continued to crop up locally, but the police still hadn't identified any prime suspects. Wanting to draw national attention to the case, they sought help from BBC's Crime Watch, a television programme that produced reconstructions of unsolved crimes in the hopes of generating leads from the public.

• 43:27Speaker 00

  An episode about David Birkett's murder aired on Thursday, May 10, 1990, with a focus on key aspects of the case, including the stolen skull, the plastic bag, the strange man seen at the phone box, and the partially stencilled letter.

• 43:45Speaker 00

  DCI Leonard believed there was a high possibility that the killer would call into the programme.

• 43:52Speaker 00

  He told viewers: "It would appear the letter was written by an intelligent person, who possibly has some knowledge of both the murder of Dr Birkett and also the house where he lived. I am anxious to speak to anyone who can give me information about the anonymous letter."

• 44:12Speaker 00

  The host looked directly into the camera and said: "Remember, this killing is a very brutal and very weird one, and the killer might strike again. Please help if you can."

• 44:29Speaker 00

  The segment generated roughly 50 leads, with several people calling in to say they recognised the poetry in the letter. It was from "The Miko", a novel by American author Eric van Lasbada that told a tale of revenge and deadly games amongst Japan samurai.

• 44:49Speaker 00

  As police followed up these new lines of inquiry, fingerprint expert Judith Kirby continued the painstaking job of comparing the partial thumbprint against every print on record, as well as those of recent arrestees.

• 45:04Speaker 00

  After 18 fruitless weeks, Judith went on leave. Her colleague, John Bainbridge, took over the task in her absence.

• 45:15Speaker 00

  John was in his first day of the laborious job when he came upon the file of a man who had recently been arrested in Middlesbrough for the suspected theft of a motorcycle. He had prior convictions too, having only recently been released from a youth correction facility after serving five years for robbery, wounding with intent, and a breach of probation. John compared the man's print to the one from David Birkett's murder. There was no mistaking it. It was a match.

• 45:50Speaker 00

  John felt conflicted. On one hand, he was over the moon to have finally made a major breakthrough in the case. On the other, he felt bad for Judith, later telling Crime Watch. After all this hard work, she had actually missed this moment which comes once in a lifetime.

• 46:20Speaker 00

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• 48:22Speaker 00

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• 48:40Speaker 00

  Detective Chief Inspector Brian Leonard and his team immediately got to work learning everything they could about the motorcycle thief.

• 48:49Speaker 00

  It turned out that on the same night that the Crime Watch episode aired, two Middlesbrough police officers had been patrolling Oxford Street when they drove past a dark alleyway and noticed a man loitering on a motorcycle.

• 49:03Speaker 00

  Suspicions aroused, they went to question him, but as soon as the man noticed them, he sped off down the narrow laneway. The officers chased him on foot and came across his abandoned motorcycle in the middle of the alley. It looked like the driver had accidentally crashed into the wall before fleeing the scene. The officers gave chase, but because of how quickly everything happened, they hadn't had time to grab their torches and could barely see anything through the dark.

• 49:35Speaker 00

  The officers called for backup and within minutes the area was swarming with police. Officers jumped the alley's fence, which took them to a residential area. They searched the surrounding gardens until eventually they found a man hiding in the bushes. He reeked of petrol. The man, who was white with a shaved head and facial tattoos, was placed under arrest for suspicion of stealing the motorcycle and taken to the police station to be formally charged. He was identified as Reginald Wilson, a 25-year-old with a proclivity for violence and priors for theft, robbery and burglary.

• 50:18Speaker 00

  On the right side of his face was a large tattoo of a serpent and on his forehead were the words "psychopath" and "chaos". Wilson had his fingerprints and mugshot taken as a matter of routine and was then released on bail, with none of the officers giving it any more thought.

• 50:38Speaker 00

  With the discovery of the matching print, Reginald Wilson was propelled into the position of prime suspect in the murder of David Birkett. While he'd never worked for demon dispatches, he was known to ride a motorcycle and was clearly no stranger to breaking and entering. But police couldn't find any connection between the suspect and victim.

• 51:02Speaker 00

  Back in the early 1980s, Wilson had been a drug user and he'd sometimes frequented the laneway that ran alongside David's house. Investigators theorized that David could have once chased Wilson away and he'd held a grudge ever since. But there was nothing to support this theory.

• 51:26Speaker 00

  A background check revealed that Reginald Wilson's problems with authorities started when he was a teenager. Issues at home led to poor attendance and bad conduct at high school. He was removed from his family on a place of safety order, then placed in a boarding school for boys run by social services. A full care order was made for Wilson in 1977 and from that point on, he moved between various residential institutions and had numerous run-ins with the law. At the age of nineteen, Wilson entered a general store wearing a black mask and attacked the shop owner with a blunt object.

• 52:09Speaker 00

  The owner's wife heard the commotion and tried to intervene, but she too was attacked. The husband and wife were treated for head injuries, and Wilson was eventually identified after bloodstains on his clothes were matched to his victims. He spent five years in youth custody, where he was denied parole due to disruptive behaviour. He was released in August 1988, eighteen months before David Birkett's murder.

• 52:40Speaker 00

  A police surveillance team was tasked with watching Reginald Wilson around the clock to learn more about him. They discovered that he lived with his girlfriend Sharon in a two-story, two-bedroom home in the Winnie Banks area of Middlesbrough, just a mile west from David Birkett.

• 52:59Speaker 00

  Sharon went to work as a cleaner at a local restaurant each day, while Wilson himself appeared to be unemployed. He mostly spent his time wandering around alone, dressed in a camouflage-printed jacket and listening to what looked like a Walkman. They soon discovered it wasn't a Walkman at all, but a police radio scanner.

• 53:23Speaker 00

  At one point, the surveillance team watched Wilson as he stole a motorcycle off the street in broad daylight. On another occasion, he made his way down Union Street and entered what appeared to be an abandoned building. It was located right on the main street and just around the corner from the phone booth used to make the 999 call on the night of David Birkett's murder.

• 53:48Speaker 00

  After Wilson left, the team went inside to check the building out. It looked like he'd been using it as some kind of hideout. Graffitied across the walls was a picture of a skull, along with the words "Up yours", and "Thirteen years of hell, now it's my turn, pig, soon."

• 54:11Speaker 00

  The police had no doubt that Reginald Wilson was a dangerous man. After surveilling him for three days, they decided it was time to make their move. But they needed to be smart about it. They didn't know what kind of weapons Wilson might have, and given his clear hatred for police, it was far too dangerous to try and arrest him at home. Instead, on Friday, June 22, 1990, four and a half months after David Birkett's murder, a team of undercover officers watched Wilson as he rode his bike along the street. When he stopped to use a payphone, the officers barricaded him in and arrested him on suspicion of murder.

• 54:59Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, a search warrant was executed at Wilson's house. It was clear that he'd worked hard to cultivate a macho image for himself. In the backyard were four guard dogs, an Alsatian, two pitbull terriers, and a Rottweiler. Police searched Wilson's bedroom and found walkie-talkies turned to the police radio frequency, as well as an axe and a small notebook. In the notebook was stenciled writing that looked just like the stencil used in the taunting letter sent to police.

• 55:36Speaker 00

  Wilson also kept what appeared to be a hit list, featuring the names of several senior police officers. In his attic were torn-up pieces of paper with passages of writing similar in tone to the letter. The handwriting was an exact match to the writing on the fake demon dispatcher's note found at David Birkett's home.

• 55:59Speaker 00

  Because of Wilson's previous convictions, he'd been banned from owning firearms. The search team used a telescopic sensor to check the walls behind the stairs. Hidden inside the plasterboard, they found a lethal cache of weapons, including a sawn-off shotgun, a premier shotgun, a combat 8mm handgun, 73 shotgun cartridges, a crossbow, hammers, a collection of knives, knuckle dusters, and even a rocket launcher.

• 56:32Speaker 00

  There was also a pair of black woolen gloves that had a hole in the right thumb, the same thumb that had left a partial print on the plastic bag found in David Birkett's hallway.

• 56:45Speaker 00

  Although Wilson didn't have a telephone, he did own a phone book. Investigators flipped through it and found that the names and addresses of several people had been circled. One was David Birkett. Another was Alan Thompson, the former director of Demon Dispatches whose house had been broken into the year before David's murder. Thirdly, was the home address of Detective Chief Inspector Brian Lannard.

• 57:20Speaker 00

  At the police station, Reginald Wilson denied having anything to do with the David Birkett's murder. He also denied writing the taunting letter to the police and said he'd never even owned a stencil. When shown the stenciled writing found in his notebook, Wilson said he'd penned that freehand. Police searched his parents' home and found a Helix brand stencil that was an exact match to the writing in his notebook, as well as the letter sent to the police.

• 57:52Speaker 00

  In another room, police questioned Wilson's girlfriend Sharon. She was reluctant to answer any questions, saying that Wilson had threatened to kill her if she ever spoke out against him. Sharon was clearly scared of Wilson, but she said it hadn't always been that way. The two had met through mutual friends and began dating in November 1988. At first, Wilson was caring and attentive, taking Sharon out for drinks and celebrating special occasions like her birthday and Valentine's Day.

• 58:27Speaker 00

  But after they moved into their house in Winnie Banks, he started to change.

• 58:33Speaker 00

  Sharon said Wilson became obsessed with motorbikes, dogs and guns, and complained that he was having severe headaches. He became increasingly withdrawn, spending weeks at a time practically living in their attic, reading obscure books and writing dark prose. He developed a deep interest in physical fitness and survival techniques. He often spent time on the Yorkshire Moors, fending for himself.

• 59:03Speaker 00

  While Sharon said that Wilson could be extremely violent, she insisted he'd never physically assaulted her. She also claimed to know nothing about David Birkett's murder. It was only when the police showed her the evidence they'd collated that she began to let her guard down. Sharon recalled that Wilson had acted strangely on the night that the Crime Watch segment about David's case had aired.

• 59:29Speaker 00

  While he had never shown any interest in the show before, he had asked Sharon to tape the segment before going out for the night.

• 59:38Speaker 00

  Sharon admitted that Wilson's behaviour had been increasingly bizarre of late. She said he had recently acquired two Doberman puppies, but he became so enraged by their constant whining that he had smashed both of their heads against the back wall.

• 59:55Speaker 00

  The police searched the dog run in the backyard and found pieces of green cord that resembled the cord that had been used to drag David Birkett's body. Sharon said she'd never seen the cord before because she was too scared to go into the backyard, but she thought it looked like part of a stretchy dog leash that Wilson owned. Sharon said that Wilson had recently sold one of his pit bulls, but had obtained the home address of the woman he'd sold it to. He'd sneaked over to her house a few weeks later and stole the dog back, along with the green leash.

• 1:00:33Speaker 00

  The green cord found at the crime scene was microscopically compared to the cord found at Wilson's home. Both of them had been made using a distinct type of nylon with the same unique colour signature, proving they were a match. Blank pieces of paper seized from Wilson's home were also examined using electrostatic detection apparatus, a forensic technique that reveals writing impressions left when one piece of paper is placed on top of another. Clear indentations from the stencilled letter that had been sent to the police proved that Reginald Wilson was the author. Further indentations also confirmed that law enforcement's suspicions about further

• 1:01:18Speaker 00

  attacks were correct. Written in Wilson's handwriting was a note that read: "Plan to kill as many pigs as I can before they kill me. Idea is to put as much fear into the police as possible. Kill one, frighten a hundred." He wrote that he would call 999 and to say he'd just come home from work to find his rear window had been forced open, or that the window to the garage had been broken. He could say that property was damaged, or someone had been assaulted, or that his child was missing. Wilson continued:

• 1:01:59Speaker 00

  "Nine times out of ten, when someone phones the police with a complaint or report similar to the above, only one copper comes to take notes. If more than one comes, depending on the escape route and place of ambush," he wrote, "if good, still go ahead with plan. If not 100% sure, abort."

• 1:02:25Speaker 00

  Sharon told the police that a few weeks earlier, Wilson had left the house with a gun, telling her he was going out to kill a policeman. Police checked their incident books from the night in question and discovered that someone had called 999 to report a domestic dispute. The address they gave was the abandoned building on Union Street that Reginald Wilson had been using as a hideout. Two officers had attended the address and then left without incident. Based on Wilson's writings, police believed that Wilson had lured the police there, then lay in wait intending to ambush an officer.

• 1:03:06Speaker 00

  He had aborted his plan when two officers arrived instead of one. DCI Leonard later remarked: "They will probably never know just how lucky they were. If one had gone, Wilson would almost certainly have killed him."

• 1:03:25Speaker 00

  The police had amassed concrete evidence placing Reginald Wilson at the scene of David Birkett's murder, but they still didn't have a motive or anything that connected the two men to one another. It emerged that the previous December, David had placed his prized ancient skull in the front window of his home with a sprig of holly coming out of it, as a bit of a Christmas joke. The police believed that the skull might have caught Wilson's eye as he was passing by, inadvertently putting a target on the unsuspecting David's back. As one detective who worked the case later remarked to UK True Crime Show Murder Town: "To murder without motive.

• 1:04:08Speaker 00

  If he hadn't have dropped that carrier bag, we would probably have never traced him, ever." He was trying to commit, obviously, the perfect murder.

• 1:04:23Speaker 00

  Reginald Wilson pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Birkett and was held in custody awaiting trial, while also facing other, smaller charges, including possession of a shotgun. In July 1990, he was being transferred to the magistrate's court via a prison bus when he attacked a prison officer with a homemade knife, slashing the side of his face and neck. Three guards managed to fight Wilson off, and the officer survived the attack, leaving Wilson with additional charges for attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm.

• 1:05:01Speaker 00

  A forensic psychiatrist assessed Wilson, finding that while he was suffering from a psychiatric disorder, he was still fit to stand trial. Based on Wilson's history of offending, the psychiatrist concluded that he had considerable potential to cause harm to others, stating: "He is less impulsive and more calculating than most psychopaths", rendering him more of a liability.

• 1:05:30Speaker 00

  Wilson's murder trial went ahead in July 1991. The prosecution case was that Wilson had been motivated by nothing more than his desire to kill and to see if he could outsmart the police. He'd planned the attack against David carefully, disguising himself as a motorcycle courier, not only because it would give him easy access to David, but also because wearing a helmet allowed him to hide his distinctive facial features. Once David let him inside, Wilson bludgeoned him to death with a hammer wrapped in a plastic bag. It was possible that the phone calls from David's neighbours checking if he'd be joining them at the theatre had temporarily interrupted Wilson.

• 1:06:15Speaker 00

  He then searched the house for the ancient skull, staging a ransacking, before attacking David a second time.

• 1:06:25Speaker 00

  Wilson took the stand in his own defence, but this did nothing to help his case, with reports deeming his behaviour on the stand as psychopathic. After eighteen days of hearings, it didn't take the jury long to declare Reginald Wilson guilty.

• 1:06:43Speaker 00

  The judge praised the work of detectives, stating: "The quality of the investigation, in my view, could not have been better. It reflects highly on the officer in charge and his whole team." The investigation itself was one of complexity and difficulty. It required cooperation from a number of different arms, both at police level and the level of forensic scientists. "Since this man's arrest, it is clear that the case has been prepared with the utmost skill and presented to the court in the same fashion. I wish to commend all those officers, especially the senior officer, in the highest terms."

• 1:07:26Speaker 00

  Turning his attention to the killer, the judge said: "Reginald James Wilson, you have been convicted on what in my view is clear evidence of a most appalling murder. I regard you as a result of what I've heard during the course of this trial as an exceptionally dangerous man.

• 1:07:47Speaker 00

  The sentence of the court is one of life imprisonment. I propose to recommend to the Home Secretary that in your case, a sentence of life imprisonment will be one that should be served in its entirety. Life, I will recommend, should mean life."

• 1:08:08Speaker 00

  At the time, very few prisoners in England had been given a whole life sentence. Reginald Wilson became one of them. Before being let out in handcuffs attached to police officers flanking him, Wilson shouted: "You may contain me, but you'll never control me."

• 1:08:34Speaker 00

  The life sentence came as a relief to the investigators who had worked on the case. One detective told reporters: “He set out to kill, and he did it. If he ever gets out, I’m sure he will kill again.” DCI Leonard said that Reginald Wilson was the most evil, dangerous and cunning criminal he’d encountered in his 27-year career. He praised the painstaking detective work that brought Wilson to justice, telling reporters: “We are just relieved he is behind bars. He was so confident he would never be caught, but he made mistakes.” No one was more relieved than David Birkett's loved ones.

• 1:09:20Speaker 00

  Reginald Wilson unsuccessfully appealed his conviction, with the Home Secretary declaring that in his case: “Life would mean life.” In 1996, Wilson was caught attempting to break out of prison after he cut through the bars of his cell and tried to escape over the jail wall via a makeshift ladder he’d fashioned out of old furniture. Three years later, he tried to stab a prison officer for the second time, and was transferred to the prison’s Close Supervision Centre unit, where he was deemed an exceptional risk.

• 1:09:57Speaker 00

  For David Birkett's family, the fact that Wilson would be behind bars for the rest of his natural life was the only thing that gave them some sense of solace. However, they received a terrible shock 17 years after Wilson’s conviction, in 2008. An officer who had worked on the case knocked on the door of David’s ex-wife to let her know that Wilson had been granted a hearing to apply for a review of his whole life sentence. David’s family learned that in 2003, changes had been made to the UK’s Criminal Justice Act that allowed convicted murderers to apply for judicial reviews of their sentences.

• 1:10:40Speaker 00

  While the power of this decision had previously gone to the Home Secretary, the responsibility had shifted to the High Court and the Parole Board.

• 1:10:50Speaker 00

  The officer assured David's family they had nothing to worry about. But, two days later, it was announced that Wilson's sentence had been reduced to a minimum of just eighteen years.

• 1:11:04Speaker 00

  David's family were horrified. They objected to the decision in a letter to the Attorney General, writing: “How can a life-meaning-life sentence, which could be anything up to seventy years considering Wilson's age at the time of the murder, be so dramatically and inexplicably reduced? Is our father's life worth less now than it was then?”

• 1:11:29Speaker 00

  The Attorney General immediately referred the case to the Court of Appeal, where a panel of judges found the eighteen-year sentence to be manifestly lenient for a crime of such a serious and sadistic nature. It turned out that the judge who'd been tasked with reviewing Wilson's sentence had not been given adequate paperwork, nor had David's loved ones been invited to submit representations. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice apologized for this oversight and said changes would be made to the process to ensure the same thing didn't happen to another family. The Court of Appeal overturned the reviewed ruling,

• 1:12:11Speaker 00

  resentencing Reginald Wilson to a minimum term of thirty years, making him eligible for parole in 2020. After the decision, David's daughter Laura spoke to The Telegraph about how distressing the process had been for her family. “Wilson was twenty-five when he murdered Dad. If he is out in another twelve years, he'll still be younger than Dad when he was killed. No one can ever fully comprehend what this man has done to us. Although we took comfort from the decision, it has been horrendous to drag up all these awful memories again.”

• 1:12:53Speaker 00

  The criminal justice system was criticised again in November 2022 after it was publicly revealed that the parole board had approved Reginald Wilson's request to be transferred to an open prison. An open prison is a minimum-security prison where inmates are permitted greater freedom to work, study, or visit family to help them reintegrate into society. There are no walls, bars, or guards in the traditional sense. The board stated that there had been a major improvement in Wilson's behaviour since 1999. He had taken therapeutic and behaviour-offending courses in which he had “developed exceptional

• 1:13:35Speaker 00

  levels of personal responsibility, life skills, resilience, and maturity”.

• 1:13:42Speaker 00

  Wilson said an open prison would allow him to work with professionals to develop release plans.

• 1:13:49Speaker 00

  The parole board's recommendation was sent to the Secretary of State for approval, but in February 2023, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab denied the transfer. Wilson, now going by the name of Reginald Zan Chen, disputed the rejection in the High Court later that year, arguing that Raab's decision had been unlawful. As he had served his minimum sentence of 30 years, the High Court judge clarified that Wilson had completed the punishment portion of his sentence, and therefore the only question that remained was whether he continued to pose any risk to the public. While acknowledging the severity of Wilson's crime, the judge stated:

• 1:14:35Speaker 00

  “The fact is that the claimant is not serving a whole life term, and thus the prospect remains of his being released into the community at some point. Transfer to open conditions allows the testing of compliance and the efficacy of relapse prevention strategies, along with an informed assessment of how best to manage the individual in the community.” Thus, the parole board recommendation in this case was nothing to do with being soft on a person convicted of murder. It was a difficult and responsible decision made by a properly constituted statutory body based on the unanimous evidence of experts and professionals with a view to maximally protecting the public going forward.

• 1:15:21Speaker 00

  Explaining his decision in a detailed 26-page judgement, the judge concluded that Rab had acted unlawfully in his rejection and ordered that he remake his decision in accordance with the law. As of 2025, Reginald Wilson remains in high-security prison.

• 1:15:45Speaker 00

  For David Birkett's loved ones, one of the hardest things to reconcile was that someone as kind and harmless as David could be the target of such a horrific and senseless crime. Still baffled by the case decades later, a fellow member of the Middlesbrough Bowling Club told Murder Town: "David was one of ours. He was part of our community. He was such a nice person for it to happen to. It was brutal, and it was utterly pointless."

• 1:16:16Speaker 00

  David's murder had a long and lasting effect on his daughter Laura. She had always planned to follow in her father's footsteps by becoming a doctor, but after the discovery of his body, she took a year off from her studies to recover from the trauma. If David's murder had taught her one thing, it was that anything could happen behind closed doors without anyone else realising what was going on. Because of that, Laura no longer felt safe being home alone. She couldn't even go into an empty room of a house. In 2008, Laura told The Telegraph: "I couldn't even go to the bathroom on my own.

• 1:16:59Speaker 00

  I would sit outside my home in the car, waiting for hours until someone came to accompany me inside. I couldn't go out after dark by myself, or sleep by myself. I lost all the friends I'd grown up with because they couldn't cope with the horror of the situation. That was hard for me because I am a social person. It took years and years to build any kind of normality."

• 1:17:28Speaker 00

  Laura said that her father's murder impacted her family in different ways. Her dreams of becoming a doctor were quashed and she fell heavily into debt after buying a house with her father's inheritance when she was too young to properly manage her finances. She told The Telegraph: "The murder damaged our ability to flourish and be happy. There was no counselling at the time, no victim support scheme. Over the years, I've had therapy of every kind."

• 1:18:02Speaker 00

  After being plagued by nightmares and flashbacks for over a decade, Laura was just beginning to heal when Reginald Wilson's sentence was unexpectedly reduced and she felt herself reliving the trauma all over again. Her saving grace was how quickly the courts had acted to overturn that decision. Laura found a moment of solace during one of the High Court hearings when the presiding judge made the unprecedented request of asking the court to pause for a moment to remember David Birkett. Finding comfort in that small act of humanity, Laura said: "It was lovely to have that little bit of silence for Dad."

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