The consequences of true-life murder investigations are examined

The stories of three murder investigations and their extraordinary consequences, which overturned laws, transformed police interrogation and revolutionised forensic detection, are being told in a new three-part OU / BBC collaboration.

The first episode (‘DNA’) of Catching Britain’s Killers: The Crimes That Changed Us is on BBC2 at 21:00 (BBC2 Wales at 23:15) on Wednesday 9 October. It tells of the hunt to find the killer of two teenage girls in 1980s Leicestershire which led to an extraordinary forensic breakthrough – DNA fingerprinting.

The next episode (‘Double Jeopardy’) sees a mother, shocked by the failure to convict her daughter’s killer, fight for justice by taking on the legal establishment and overturning an 800-year-old law. The final episode (‘Interrogation’) is how a 1970s miscarriage of justice, involving three teenage boys, would lead to a radical overhaul of police powers and a brand-new method of investigation.

The academic consultants for the series were Paul Catley, Head of the Law School; Dr Matthew Jones from OUBS, Director of Policing Organisation and Practice; and OU colleague Dr Zoe Walkington who is Deputy Director for Learning in the Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL).

Pictured above, left to right: the OU’s academic consultants for the series – Paul Catley, Dr Zoe Walkington and Dr Matthew Jones.