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Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story

30th March 2012 Print

Channel 5 announced a brand new commission, Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story. This ground-breaking 3-part series looks to uncover the true scale of the crimes committed by some of the country’s most notorious serial killers.

In the past 5 years alone the UK has witnessed three serial killers sentenced to over 100 years behind bars for some of the most terrifying crimes this country has ever seen. These programmes follow real-life ‘Cracker’, Professor David Wilson, as he uses the latest in cutting-edge criminology techniquesto link more unsolved murders to these convicted monsters.

With access to the investigating police officers, interview tapes and crime scenes in each case, Professor Wilson examines their known crimes in detail, before building up a detailed profile and Modus Operandi (MO) of each killer.

He then applies the latest techniques to compare them to other unsolved crimes that he believes should also be attributed to these notorious murderers. Meeting some of the country’s leading crime experts along the way he uses the science of criminology to take an intimate look inside the minds of these monsters. With this evidence, he hopes to prove beyond reasonable doubt that their known crimes are simply the tip of the iceberg. The results are often shockingly clear.

He’ll be studying the cases of Peter Tobin, serving three life terms for the murders of 3 women; Robert Black, dubbed ‘Britain’s most prolific child murderer’ serving 5 life terms and most recently, ‘The Suffolk Strangler’ Steve Wright, imprisoned for life for the murder of 5 prostitutes. All have been captured, yetmore than 10 other murders are attributed to these 3 alone, with Tobin once boasting of killing “...at least 48”.

Professor Wilson is the UK’s leading expert on serial killers, author of over 15 books including ‘A History of British Serial Killing’ and Head of Criminology at Birmingham City University.

Producer Rory Wheeler says: “This is an entirely fresh approach to crime that’s found a perfect home on Channel 5. It’s real-life psychological CSI, proving that truth is so much darker than fiction.”

Michelle Chappell, Commissioning Editor of News, Current Affairs and Documentaries added: “This is a new approach to the crime genre which will blow the lid off what we think we know about our killers behind bars.”