WEBVTT 1 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:44.600 Sitting on the River Thames in Surrey near Sunbury Lock 2 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:52.840 is Donkey Island, only accessible by a single footbridge. It's 3 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:58.799 a favorite retreat for anglers. Among them forty eight year 4 00:00:58.799 --> 00:00:59.960 old Scott Wilkinson. 5 00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:09.560 Scott Wilkinson was a family man. He had been a 6 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:12.799 truck driver but had had to give that up byly 7 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:16.959 for health reasons. Spent a lot of his time fishing 8 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:23.560 on the River Thames. He'd stay on the island every 9 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:25.519 so often. I think it was a kind of a 10 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:28.359 regular thing for him to go down and fish there 11 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:33.200 and would kind of camp overnight, maybe a day or two. 12 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:39.480 He's actually quite isolated there. Certainly were at a time 13 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:42.519 a few sort of derelict buildings on the island as well. 14 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:49.200 Otherwise it's just kind of overgrown to view trees, bushes, 15 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:53.840 that kind of thing. Scott was engaged to Lisa Lane 16 00:01:55.079 --> 00:01:57.519 and she would bring him some food things like that, 17 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:00.319 and a number of friends who you know, came and 18 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:03.560 visited him while he was fishing, and it was just 19 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:06.400 a sort of quiet place to go and fish and 20 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:07.200 enjoy his hobby. 21 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:14.000 But one July morning, during one of his camping trips 22 00:02:14.039 --> 00:02:18.840 to the island, Scott's fiancee arrived to find him missing 23 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:26.039 in his campsite in disarray. She immediately called the police. 24 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:29.520 When they arrived. 25 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:34.039 There was blood, there was tense There was various items 26 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:38.479 of a fishing missing as well, including a knife. He 27 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:43.400 was chaosic, who had been turned over, Everything had been 28 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:44.240 thrown everywhere. 29 00:02:46.599 --> 00:02:50.759 Locals also told police about a disturbance late the previous night. 30 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:54.240 Witnesses living on the other side of the river reported 31 00:02:54.360 --> 00:03:01.280 hearing ten to fifteen seconds of shouting from the island 32 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:02.479 and that was. 33 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:07.080 It, with no sign of scard at the campsite. Police 34 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:09.360 turn their attention to the Thames. 35 00:03:18.599 --> 00:03:21.319 Through attempts. Is as dangerous as to any other river 36 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:23.520 in the country or in the world for that matter. 37 00:03:25.319 --> 00:03:25.960 Obviously, you have. 38 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.479 The tidal section, the lower parts going through the central 39 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:31.479 of London, which can be quite dangerous because you get 40 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:35.080 very strong flows. But even in the non tidal parts, 41 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:37.840 such as the area around Donkey Island, the flow is 42 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:38.879 still very dangerous. 43 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:40.319 It has eddies, it has. 44 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:43.080 Wells, it's very easy to get caught up in those, 45 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:47.960 and in particular where we have these weirs which bypass 46 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:53.400 the locks, those weirs can be absolutely lethal. The locks 47 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:56.560 themselves and the mechanisms of the locks can suck a 48 00:03:56.599 --> 00:04:00.759 body in as well, so it's a hazardous area for 49 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:01.879 a body in the water. 50 00:04:04.280 --> 00:04:06.919 On average, thirty bodies a year are found in the 51 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:07.599 River Thames. 52 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:12.639 The majority of those, sadly, are due to suicide. Some 53 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.919 will be due to summers getting out of their depths 54 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:19.399 or getting into trouble, particularly colder weather during the winter, 55 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:23.160 and some are murder victims. 56 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:31.800 Fearing the worst, police called in expert teams to search 57 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:33.319 the waters around the island. 58 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:43.439 This particular area is part of the non tidal Thames. 59 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:48.639 This means that the natural flow of the water is 60 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:54.959 only going one way and that never changes. This makes 61 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:59.079 it easier when working out what search patterns to use. 62 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:02.439 If a body is being placed into the water and 63 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:05.800 it's drifting, it's only actually going to flow in one direction, 64 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:07.800 so you're working in that direction. 65 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:12.920 A lack of rainfall that month also improved their chances 66 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:15.560 of finding a body closer to where it might have 67 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:16.399 gone into the water. 68 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:23.160 July twenty sixteen saw a period of drought resilutely low rainfall, 69 00:05:23.639 --> 00:05:25.800 which means that the flow rates at that period would 70 00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:28.399 have been a little lower than one might normally expect 71 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.519 which means that the body wouldn't have traveled very far. 72 00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:35.639 If you add to that, the chances are being caught 73 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:41.000 up on branches, on obstructions in the water, piers, moored 74 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:44.160 boats and things, and actually the chances are the body 75 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:45.560 wouldn't have gone very far atall. 76 00:05:52.439 --> 00:05:56.639 That same afternoon, emergency teams searching the area made a 77 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:59.959 discovery not far from the banks of the island. 78 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.360 They noticed that his rather than tackle box were actually 79 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:09.560 floating just nearby to where the campsite was, and very 80 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:15.920 shortly after the search commenced, a body was located quite 81 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.680 close by at the edge of the river. Even though 82 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:24.480 it was midsummer and the water temperatures would have been warm, 83 00:06:24.839 --> 00:06:28.279 because you're only talking a matter of hours, it would 84 00:06:28.279 --> 00:06:32.959 have been not enough to sort of enhance decomposition in 85 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:35.480 any way, and so the body would have been in 86 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:36.439 very good condition. 87 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:45.399 It was identified as missing fishermen Scott Wilkinson. From evidence 88 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:49.639 both on his body and the island itself. Police suspected 89 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:52.000 he'd been the victim of a frenzied attack. 90 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:56.879 There was a large amount of blood in his tent 91 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:57.759 or near his tent. 92 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:03.000 They believed if they were defensive wounds on the forearms. 93 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:08.600 Mister Wilkinson always had a knife with him. The police 94 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:12.079 believed that mister Wilkinson's injuries through his forearms were caused 95 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:13.439 by the knife. 96 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.360 And although the body was found in the water, pathologists 97 00:07:17.399 --> 00:07:20.079 were keeping an open mind about the cause of death. 98 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:26.600 We don't just jump in and think body in the river, 99 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:30.720 it must be drowning. Everything is looked at, everything is examined. 100 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.759 We also know with Scott Wilkinson that he had a pacemaking, 101 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:40.519 so he has some natural heart disease going on as well. 102 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:43.240 So that all of these possibilities that would have been 103 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:47.040 examined considered, and then the final conclusions reached. 104 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:53.720 Police launched an investigation. Forensic search teams were deployed on 105 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:58.879 land and water. Their task to find evidence. 106 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.480 We are the underwater search team that covers the southeast 107 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:08.000 at the time, and we were mobilized and we were 108 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:12.199 there probably within the hour, on scene and ready to 109 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:13.000 be briefed. 110 00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:14.160 By the senior investigating officer. 111 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:19.519 Crime scene investigators moved in search of bloods, etc. 112 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:23.360 Took DNA and it went on from there. 113 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:27.920 Meanwhile, the press speculated that this was a killing. 114 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:30.959 I think it was pretty clear early on that this 115 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:34.039 was a murder. Just the scale of the investigation, you 116 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:39.879 had police divers cordoned off the area and for longer 117 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:45.039 than they usually would in cases like this. And then, 118 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:49.639 as we learned later, the condition in which the body 119 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:55.440 was found, the injuries he'd sustained, and the chaos at 120 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:59.480 his campsite a pretty clearly indicated that he'd been murdered. 121 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:04.480 But who might have had reason to kill Scott? Police 122 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:08.840 could find no obvious motive, suspect or even murder weapon. 123 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:13.720 There seemed to be a lot of uncertainty about what 124 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:18.159 had happened exactly to him. There is always shocked when 125 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:21.720 somebody's killed, and he didn't seem like the sort of 126 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:22.759 person he would be murdered. 127 00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:44.080 Police in Surrey are investigating after the body of fishermen 128 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:48.159 Scott Wilkinson was found hidden among reeds on the shore 129 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:52.720 of Donkey Island in the River Thames. Police launched an 130 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:57.879 underwater search, believing vital evidence linked to the attack could 131 00:09:57.919 --> 00:09:59.320 have been disposed of in the river. 132 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:10.360 The briefing was initially we were searching for evidence that 133 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:13.919 was missing. There was a large knife that was missing. 134 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:16.240 Whether it was a murder weapon or not, it was 135 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:20.759 just a large knife because mister Wilkinson had quite vast injuries, 136 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:25.480 including cuts to his forearms. Mister Wilkinson always had a 137 00:10:25.559 --> 00:10:28.919 knife with him. He would cut bait up and everything 138 00:10:30.519 --> 00:10:33.120 that was part of his standard fishing equipment. And there 139 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:37.720 was electric drill missing because what he had actually done 140 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:42.679 is drilled a tree stump with a drill with electric drill, 141 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:45.320 and in that he put his rod rests and we 142 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:46.799 couldn't find no sign of that. 143 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:53.200 First, the dive team had to work out where to start. 144 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:57.399 I remember walking around with saying, this is the most 145 00:10:57.639 --> 00:11:02.480 likely areas. Have to put your mind into the killer's mind. 146 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:05.480 My view was that if they're going to get rid 147 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.039 of a knife, if it was going to come out 148 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:12.720 of the camping area where mister Wilkinson was camped, they're 149 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:15.759 very likely to run out and throw it into the 150 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:18.720 water where the boats go by, and that's one of 151 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:23.360 my key focuses. We didn't need to put the equipment 152 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:25.919 on the island because we chose to dive from the 153 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:26.960 outside the pub. 154 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:28.960 It was better for us. 155 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:31.159 There's not covered in lots of undergrowth, so we could 156 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:33.799 actually comfortably set our equipment up on the river bank 157 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:37.879 and the other thing what you've got to think about 158 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:40.679 is when you're doing this sort of search operation, you've 159 00:11:40.679 --> 00:11:42.960 got to have scene guard on because if you're there 160 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:46.600 for two or three days, could the perpetrators come back 161 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:47.879 and retrieve the evidence. 162 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:51.919 But that wasn't the only danger Peter and his team faced. 163 00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:04.320 There are a lot of hazards in the towmins, particularly 164 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:10.039 at this level where we have some huge marinas. A 165 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:12.159 lot of people have their small pleasure boats in this area. 166 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:15.639 This is during July, when everyone's out in the water. 167 00:12:17.639 --> 00:12:20.440 It's very difficult to stop marine traffic going up and 168 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.320 down on a really busy day, so each time a 169 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:27.000 vessel went by, we'd have to pull the diver out. 170 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:30.039 If you imagine being on the bottom, we're on a 171 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:33.080 safety line. When they propeller caught our line, it could 172 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:34.240 drag him to his death. 173 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:40.240 With the hazards assess, Peter was ready to start the dive. 174 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:42.960 And now the pressure is on me now to find 175 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:43.600 this evidence. 176 00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:49.440 Meanwhile, on the island, a full scale fingertip search was underway. 177 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:55.960 They are looking for any blood spatter because the injuries 178 00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:02.600 to mister Wilkinson were substantial. You've got the tent, you've 179 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:06.200 got clothing, you've got everything else. Anything mister Wilkinson or 180 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:10.039 the other people touched. They want their prints, they want 181 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:12.919 their DNA down to a cigarette butt. You know, at 182 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:14.679 the end of the day, if someone's been smoking a 183 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:17.159 cigarette and they've thrown it down, their DNA. 184 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:18.039 Is going to be all over it. 185 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:21.159 So it's vital that every single piece of evidence is 186 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:24.240 looked at, and that is a slow process on anything. 187 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:35.120 So they found a toothbrush and cans cigarette butts on 188 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:38.399 the ground near were Scott had been camping. 189 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:43.639 DNA from the items revealed Scott hadn't been alone on 190 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:48.679 the island. Three other people were camping there too. 191 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:57.720 The DNA evidence linking the three people is really very strong. 192 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:03.120 The toothbrush, a beer can, or a ring pool can 193 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:08.960 all contain sufficient material for a DNA match to be made, 194 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:12.480 and so that evidence puts those people. 195 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:14.519 At the scene. 196 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:18.080 Doesn't say they were involved, but it puts them at 197 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:19.919 the scene of the incident. 198 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:25.279 The forensic results were matched with a national DNA database, 199 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:27.639 giving police three names. 200 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:34.639 The three suspects were already known to the police. Some 201 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:41.399 of them had had minor convictions, nothing terribly serious, but 202 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:46.759 they were known and one of them was a missing person, 203 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:53.080 having absconded from his care home in the North. Lenny 204 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:59.320 Crawt was sixteen at the time. He had grown up 205 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:05.120 in car one of seven children. He had some learning difficulties. 206 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:09.120 He'd fathered a child already. I believe at the age 207 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:13.759 of fifteen he had been living in care in Blackpool 208 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:17.399 and had run away from his home to return to 209 00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:21.799 his family. Shane Crowt was Lenny's older brother. He was 210 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:29.360 seventeen at the time. He was a tall, fairly muscular lad, 211 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:37.000 almost kind of placid, and was seen by people who 212 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:38.600 as the ringleader of that group. 213 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:42.759 The third person was twenty one year old Charlie Smith. 214 00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:49.559 Charlie Smith was Shane and Lenny's cousin. He was a 215 00:15:49.559 --> 00:15:55.960 little bit older at the time, but he was twenty one. 216 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:59.600 The three boys did not have the best start in life. 217 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:04.120 Shane and Lenny, like the siblings, grew up in care 218 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:13.639 due to concerns about parental neglect. So yeah, they'd all 219 00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:17.279 kind of had tough, tough childhoods. 220 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:24.360 I think what that speaks to is a pretty unstable upbringing, 221 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:28.240 a lot of perhaps chaos in the family, lack of 222 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:34.759 ability to care for these boys, and also perhaps an 223 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:39.360 increasing number of behavior problems and criminal activity as they 224 00:16:39.399 --> 00:16:44.120 grew up. What can happen in homes where you don't 225 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:45.639 have a lot of supervision or there's a lot of 226 00:16:45.720 --> 00:16:50.320 chaos or dysfunction, is you oftenhimes have the siblings really 227 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:55.360 bond together and almost become like a unit. There's a 228 00:16:55.399 --> 00:16:59.679 tremendous amount of loyalty between them. 229 00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:04.880 The boys were on the island because they were hiding. Essentially, 230 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:11.240 Lenny had absconded from his facility. They didn't want the 231 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:13.759 police to find him. He was a missing person, so 232 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:17.039 he and his brother and his cousin went to camp 233 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:21.680 on Donkey Island and they did some fishing while they 234 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:33.960 were there, but mainly it was to hide from the police. 235 00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:43.079 At the island, police diver Peter Folding and his team 236 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:46.480 had started the painstaking task of searching for evidence on 237 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:50.920 the riverbed. It was a fifty foot stretch across the 238 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:53.559 Thames from the pub on one side to the island 239 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:54.039 on the other. 240 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:01.759 So now it's a job of we've got a line 241 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:05.960 across the river and the job is to then swim 242 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:10.400 the line slowly, methodically, and you're feeling around. There was 243 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:14.160 very very small growing reeds on the bottom, but not 244 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:18.000 enough to make our life difficult. So I had forensic 245 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:22.400 gloves on, and often what I do if the water's dark. 246 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:25.200 What most about diving is I close my eyes, so 247 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:29.759 I immerse myself into the scene and I just literally swim 248 00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:34.480 along the line extremely slowly. If you're looking for a body, 249 00:18:35.240 --> 00:18:39.039 you can move quickly. If you're looking for evidence, it's 250 00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:40.640 a very very slow operation. 251 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:45.680 And in this case, Peter couldn't use the traditional method 252 00:18:45.799 --> 00:18:47.519 of tread searching on the riverbed. 253 00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:52.319 The trouble is with tread search is when you walk 254 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:55.960 in to do a tread with your feet, if you're 255 00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:58.119 looking for a knife, it's slightly to be pushed into 256 00:18:58.119 --> 00:19:02.200 the mud and never be found again. You've got to 257 00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:04.680 have hands on. And even when we're diving, we're actually 258 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:08.839 laying on the water, floating just off the bottom, and 259 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:12.880 we can feel around so we don't miss anything. So 260 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:17.000 I'm swimming along and I'm feeling around very very slowly 261 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:23.319 and moving forward slowly, and suddenly I felt a handle 262 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:27.240 and I opened my eyes and then I could just 263 00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:31.160 sort of see something glistening, and I'm being very careful, 264 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:34.680 and I could feel the blade, feel the end, and 265 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:38.799 I'm going running my finger just to confirm it's a knife. 266 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:43.160 It wasn't in the middle of the river. He was 267 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:47.640 actually towards the bank. And then I'm asking for assistance 268 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:50.440 to pull me in slowly because what I don't want 269 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:52.519 to do is take the hands off this blade, because 270 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:57.559 I can't risk losing it. It was rather like a 271 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:00.559 kitchen devil knife, and it was I would say, a 272 00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:01.319 carving knife. 273 00:20:01.400 --> 00:20:02.480 What you would meet. 274 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:05.640 With stainless steel blade, black plastic hand or. 275 00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:08.200 An evil looking weapon. 276 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:12.480 Actually like bring my arm out the water and it's 277 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:14.319 like a scaliber coming out the water. 278 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:14.920 With his knife. 279 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:19.480 The trouble is with any water, it's going to potentially 280 00:20:19.640 --> 00:20:25.079 wash evidence away. So what we would do as the 281 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:28.039 knife comes out, he gets put in a tube, an 282 00:20:28.039 --> 00:20:31.759 evidence tube. It gets sealed up and then that gets 283 00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:33.920 labeled and then whisked off to the lab for the 284 00:20:33.960 --> 00:20:38.000 experts the other end, and that where you reduce cross contamination. 285 00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:42.640 Never found the drill. 286 00:20:42.759 --> 00:20:46.039 The key was the knife because they thought that the 287 00:20:46.119 --> 00:20:47.440 knife created. 288 00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:48.359 The wounds on the forearms. 289 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:50.839 And it was a great feeling knowing that now the 290 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:55.039 police have got that fight le evidence and potentially they're 291 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:56.200 going to get a conviction. 292 00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:56.279 Out of this. 293 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:13.480 Police in Surrey, England, strongly believe a knife found by 294 00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:16.400 expert divers in the River Thames is linked to the 295 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:22.359 death of fishermen Scott Wilkinson. The knife is sent to 296 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:25.720 the lab for forensic testing, but when the results come 297 00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:27.359 back it's bad news. 298 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:36.359 Eventually it was found to have no DNA of bloods 299 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:39.680 on it because it got washed off in the river. 300 00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:44.880 But that knife. Someone had thrown that knife into that water. 301 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:51.279 It was a major setback for the investigation. The water 302 00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:58.079 had destroyed any remaining evidence. But by now the post 303 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:00.640 mortem had revealed more detail about how House God had 304 00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:12.839 died and it wasn't the knife wounds that had killed him. 305 00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:16.559 The wounds were interesting. They show the type of weapon used. 306 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:21.920 He had extensive blunt false trauma to his body. 307 00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:22.799 Centered around the head. 308 00:22:24.279 --> 00:22:29.559 There were multiple deep lacerations, some of them running parallel 309 00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:34.160 and were phrase we used to describe those as tramline bruises, 310 00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:37.400 which shows that an object a linear object has been 311 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:42.359 used to cause them. When someone is being attacked, they 312 00:22:42.359 --> 00:22:45.559 will often raise their arm and receive blows to the 313 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:48.559 outer aspect the little finger sides of the arms, as 314 00:22:48.599 --> 00:22:53.839 they've raised them to defend themselves, and they were present, 315 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:58.119 showing that Scott was alive at the start of this incident. 316 00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:01.319 But there were also. 317 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:05.839 Other blows fracturing his ribs and bruising the upper parts 318 00:23:05.880 --> 00:23:09.599 of his body, so this was a sustained beating with 319 00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:17.559 a blunt object of some sort. The crucial bit about 320 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:19.519 the course of death here is the fracturing of the 321 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:25.759 skull and the damage to the brain. Underlying that, injuries 322 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:28.440 to the head are the most important thing that would 323 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:34.279 have been identified and immediately triggered a proper homicide investigation. 324 00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:43.000 Scott's death was now confirmed as a murderer, news that 325 00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:45.640 shucked this usually quiet Surrey community. 326 00:23:53.480 --> 00:23:56.720 I think people are always surprised when they see I 327 00:23:56.759 --> 00:24:00.599 see headlines about people being killed there, not that many 328 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:01.960 people get murdered in sorry. 329 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:08.519 Thankfully police redoubled their efforts to find the actual murder weapon, 330 00:24:09.119 --> 00:24:10.839 but it would be no easy task. 331 00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:16.480 Blunt trauma can be caused by anything that is hard 332 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:20.480 and firm. A brick, a plank, a punch all caused 333 00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:24.720 blunt trauma, which has very similar features on the body, 334 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:31.680 unless the particular weapon sheds slivers of wood, say, or 335 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:36.000 fragments of metal or a fingernail. It's very difficult to 336 00:24:36.119 --> 00:24:38.599 determine exactly what caused it. 337 00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:43.559 Ultimately, despite an extensive search on the river and island, 338 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:47.640 the murder weapon could not be found. It was given 339 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:50.640 up for lust in the river's flow. 340 00:24:56.119 --> 00:25:00.119 With any murder scene, you're keeping your options completely wid 341 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:03.960 open when you're searching, and in this case there was 342 00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:07.640 mentioned of a possible murder weapon being a plank of wood. 343 00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:10.519 They could have thrown it into the middle where there 344 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.319 might well have been a stronger current. Who does tend 345 00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:17.920 to float, It could have been carried quite a long 346 00:25:17.960 --> 00:25:19.839 way in a short length of time. 347 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:28.799 With no murder weapon and just DNA evidence from the 348 00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:33.160 campsite to go on. Police brought the three suspects in 349 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:38.359 for questioning, brother Shane and Lenny Krott, and their cousin 350 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:39.799 Charlie Smith. 351 00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:43.839 And they were arrested really within a couple of days 352 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:46.599 of Scott's body being found. 353 00:25:56.240 --> 00:26:02.440 At the police station, the three were interviewed separately, and also. 354 00:26:02.279 --> 00:26:04.640 It has been video recorded, so you've got the cameras in 355 00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:09.839 the corners to soundproof room. All three boys gave no 356 00:26:09.880 --> 00:26:12.200 comments answers to questions from. 357 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:15.960 Six o'clock in the evening onwards last Wednesday, the twenty 358 00:26:16.039 --> 00:26:18.359 seventh of July, tell me where you were shamed? 359 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:22.319 No comment, Lenny, were you in also upon tens on 360 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:25.720 Wednesday the twenty seventh of July. No comment. 361 00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:28.359 When you look at the interview tapes, you just see 362 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:31.680 this recurring theme of no comment, no comment, no cormet, 363 00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:32.240 no cormet. 364 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:34.839 Have you been there since that time? 365 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:38.839 What was your location? No comment? 366 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:45.200 And I think that's just a very clear example, visual 367 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:49.599 example of the loyalty that these three feel towards each other. 368 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:52.880 I want to talk about the weapon that was used 369 00:26:52.920 --> 00:26:58.319 to assault and kill and murder. Scott, describe that weapon 370 00:26:58.359 --> 00:26:58.680 to me. 371 00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:04.480 All three of these offenders continue to say no comment, 372 00:27:05.319 --> 00:27:07.920 no matter the evidence presented to them. 373 00:27:08.079 --> 00:27:11.799 We believe that you were at the audience with at 374 00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:17.319 least two other people, Shane Cruel and of Charlie Smith. 375 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:18.440 No comment. 376 00:27:19.559 --> 00:27:24.160 It starts making sense in a way because in their 377 00:27:24.279 --> 00:27:30.599 minds we are in the presence of enemies. I also 378 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:34.759 think it may have a practical reason as well. The 379 00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:38.559 worst thing you can do is in stitching on your 380 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:46.319 loved one. We know that when individuals are incarcerated, if 381 00:27:46.359 --> 00:27:51.279 you have told on a fellow offender. If you've told 382 00:27:51.319 --> 00:27:55.839 on somebody in your family, there can be practical consequences 383 00:27:55.880 --> 00:27:56.519 for that as well. 384 00:27:59.240 --> 00:28:04.319 Then, in a written statement, Charlie suddenly broke silence. 385 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:10.039 He essentially threw his attorney, makes a statement that he 386 00:28:10.079 --> 00:28:12.519 had nothing to do with violence, that he had talked 387 00:28:12.519 --> 00:28:15.039 to Scott Wilkinson. They had come back to the island 388 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:17.680 in their tents, and these three tents set up and 389 00:28:17.720 --> 00:28:19.880 they had been kind of turned over and they were 390 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:24.079 in disarray. Their equipment was missing. Scott told them that 391 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:26.400 he had no idea what had happened. He'd been sleeping, 392 00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:31.480 but he actually helped the boys locate and find their 393 00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:35.039 equipment and made a comment about what a nice guy 394 00:28:35.559 --> 00:28:39.960 that Scott Wilkinson was, but absolutely denied that there had 395 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:42.839 been any violence at the time and that they all 396 00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:44.720 just kind of left amicably. 397 00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:52.119 After this point, Charlie Smith had claimed that a group 398 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:56.920 of travelers had appeared and suggested that it might be 399 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:03.440 them who had killed Scott. There was no such group 400 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:05.720 and there was no evidence for that. 401 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:11.799