The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast

Concluding the sad tale of 13 year old Southampton girl Lucy McHugh - and would Stephen Nicholson be convicted of her rape and murder? We look at this, and developments in the case following here.

One of the saddest tales I have covered.

The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, involving a child and including descriptions of a sexual nature, that some listeners may find disturbing or distressing, so...

Continuing the opening Series 10 tale of The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast with the tragic case of 13 year old Southampton teenager Lucy McHugh, killed most brutally one July morning back in 2018. Police soon had a suspect, an arrest, and the investigation ultimately led to murder, rape and unlawful sexual conduct charges being raised against 24 year old Stephen Alan Nicholson, a lodger at Lucy's home.

So, lets hear about his tr...

The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast returns for Series 10 with a tale from back in 2018, a dive into the tragic case of 13 year old Southampton teenager Lucy McHugh, who set out to keep an appointment one warm July morning - and never returned.

The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, involving a child and including descriptions of injury detail, that some listeners may find disturbing or distressing...

Back in the early 1980's, Peter Alan Fell was several things: Falklands and Northern Ireland war hero, Army Boxing champion - so how then did he, in July 1984, come to be stood in the dock of Winchester Crown Court charged with the brutal murders of Hampshire women 42 year old Ann Lee, and 66 year old Margaret Johnson?

Brilliant detective work - or not? Find out in the second and concluding part of a two part story.

The episo...

On a cold spring day in May 1982, two friends, Ann Lee and Margaret Johnson, set off for what would be their final dogwalk together around a familiar area of common land to them in the town of Aldershot, in Hampshire.

Their final walk, because during it, Ann and Margaret met a crazed killer.

Yet, within hours of the murder, had their killer called police and given his name and address? And when this wasn't acted upon, had...

Cruelty is never far away from some homes - some people suffer largely in silence, and when that cruelty begins to show, they will come out with allsorts of reasoning. 'I fell. I bumped into this or that'.

It's a very real thing is domestic violence, and the tale I bring this time around shows it isn't always the archetypal abuser that is commonly perceived. Sometimes, sadly, it ends in utter horror and tragedy.

The e...

The Lost Girls multi-parter comes full circle this time around on The True Crime Enthusiast, as for the final part I housekeep the tale of Susan, Caroline, Sarah, Theresa and Jennifer. We look at the years following Black’s crimes for their families, at all developments in the tale overall, and ask the question:

How many more Lost Girls are there out there?

The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, i...

The new red bicycle had fast become her pride and joy, all of her friends had seen it, and one sunny afternoon in August 1981, nine year old Jennifer Cardy set off from her home in Ballinderry to cycle the short distance to show the first friend she had it again, so excited was she.

As a small Datsun van passed her as she did, Jennifer had no idea that a predator, a monster, was waiting for her. It would take thirty years, but t...

In April 1994, Robert Black, laid bare in all of his foulness, was to face trial charged with the abductions of Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg, Sarah Harper and Teresa Thornhill, and the murders of the former three.

Was justice in sight for the Lost Girls whose haunting stories we have heard throughout this tale?

Well, this time around on The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, I shall tell you.

The episode contains details and d...

On 1st April 1992, ten court summonses for crimes including multiple murder, abduction, prevention of a proper and lawful burial and kidnap were served on a 43 year old prisoner serving life at HMP Peterhead in Aberdeenshire - a prisoner serving life for the abduction and sexual assault of a six year old girl in July 1990.

His name? Robert Black.

Continuing with The Lost Girls multi episode tale then this time around on The ...

'That's our man. I'd bet my life on it'

These are the words of Assistant Chief Constable Hector Clark back in July 1990, moments after the initial, briefest of meetings with the man he was describing here, who just over a month later, was serving a sentence of life imprisonment for an almost carbon copy crime to the series he and his team had been investigating for eight years by then.

Continuing with The Lost Girls multi ...

It was a simple, quick detour to avoid prying eyes - and it was fortunate that it was just that too, a quick detour, for if it wasn't, then perhaps Teresa Thornhill wouldn't be here today.

That evening in Nottingham in April 1988, she very certainly only narrowly escaped the clutches of death, thanks in part to the survivor she was. Because she was the survivor, her evidence would later be crucial in bringing to a very definite ...

The corner shop was just 150 yards away from her home, and the journey was one that ten year old Sarah Harper had made countless times before - just two minutes walk away. Yet, on a cold and wet evening in March 1986, on that two minute walk back, Sarah was to disappear.....

This is Sarah's story.

The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, including descriptions of a sexual nature and involving a chi...

Continuing with The Lost Girls series arc, and in the summer of 1983, almost a year to the day, the fear that Susan Maxwell's at large killer could strike again was suddenly realised, when on a warm Friday evening in July, a five year old girl didn't come back in from the final five minutes play she had been allowed before bedtime.

This is Caroline's story.

The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, i...

Continuing The Lost Girls Arc on The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, we now go back to Northumbria in 1982, and a chance walk home for a young girl after a game of tennis...

The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, including descriptions of a sexual nature, that some listeners may find disturbing or distressing, so discretion is advised whilst listening in.

Music used in this episode: "The Descent" ...

The 9th Series multi episode arc begins this time around on The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, through which we shall timejump over a long period, and in which I bring you the full, in depth tale of who is/was very likely, Britain's most prolific child killer, one who if the cases he is suspected of are laid at his feet, will dwarf those of Brady and Hindley, perhaps even Cotton and Dyer.

This is a true monster here, who we will...

Completing the two part tale concerning the murder in September 1994 of 38 year old Carol Wardell - abducted from home by a gang of raiders, who, after beating and drugging her husband Gordon, forced her to open the building society in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where she was deputy manager, emptied the safe, and then suffocated Carol, dumping her body in a layby.

At least, that was Gordon's account, anyway....

The episode c...

The discovery of a woman's body in a rural Warwickshire layby in September 1994 was the start of what would become to detectives one of the most complex investigations in Warwickshire Police history, and would ultimately lead them to a cold and calculating killer.

This time and next on The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, I shall bring you the story.

The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events that so...

"I have just murdered my wife in her bed. I have just stabbed them, and slit their throats. His name is Martin Griffiths. There is blood everywhere. This has just happened. My children are safe at my mother's house"

This was the context of a call to an emergency services operator in the early hours of New Year's Day, 2020, the implications of which were to rock the village of Duffield, in Derbyshire, to the core - and leave thre...