Unforgotten (2015–…): Season 2, Episode 6 - Episode #2.6 - full transcript
With each of the suspects having a motive, opportunity or connection to David Walker, Cassie and Sunny try to join the dots to discover who actually killed him 25 years earlier.
♪ All we do is hide away
♪ All we do is, all we do is hide away
♪ All we do is lie and wait
♪ All we do is,
all we do is lie and wait
♪ I've been upside down
♪ I don't wanna be the right way 'round
♪ Can't find paradise on the ground ♪
So... What did he tell you? My dad?
Enough for me to know if you
never want to talk about this again,
then that's fine.
Or if you want to talk about it
every day
for the rest of your life,
that's fine, too.
- I'm doing it properly.
- I see you are.
He was just very shocked
when I introduced myself,
and scared.
And he was babbling
and kept repeating that it,
didn't mean anything.
He kept on apologising,
but I wasn't interested in apologies.
I didn't want contrition.
What I wanted was...
To understand.
And the only person who could
help me do that
was dead.
Does it ever cross your mind, Cass,
we have a very limited pot of money
and if we spend too much
on an incredibly expensive
and time consuming investigation
in to 40-year-old abuse,
then we've got nothing to spend on
a child that got abused last week.
Yes, of course.
And?
Would you like to come through?
And in terms of the bigger
investigation,
the murder investigation,
where are you with that?
I don't know.
They questioned me again yesterday,
but I have a watertight alibi.
And this was that you were sectioned
in the Maudsley.
Twenty-six years ago, yes.
And for what it's worth,
I did not kill David Walker.
Okay.
I just hope I have all the facts now.
I just need to, er,
consider how best to proceed.
Yeah, of course.
- How long do you think it will be...
- I don't know.
I've never had to deal with anything
remotely like this.
I'm sorry for snapping, but I'm...
I'm cross. And disappointed.
And Flo?
Erm, Simon, could you could pick her up
from school today?
- Yeah.
- Okay, thank you and, Colin,
until I decide what to do, I need you to
find somewhere else to stay, please.
Sure. Sure.
And if the investigation goes away
then maybe, we can get through this.
If it drags on, if, God forbid,
you were charged and it went to trial,
we could obviously never let you
parent Flo.
You'd either have to move out
permanently,
and we'd have to consider Simon
as a single parent,
or if you both felt
you couldn't do that,
then we'd have to take her back.
You know I would actually
get the boys DNA tested
if I thought it would help you.
But I know you know it's nonsense.
You just wanted him gone.
Like me and Mum.
So that he couldn't ask you any more
questions you didn't want to answer.
But Mum and I are not going anywhere.
I'm sorry.
Anyway, come on,
do you want another cup of tea?
So for over two weeks now,
we've all wrestled with this case.
Following one dead end after another,
with the final nail in the coffin
of the idea
of Sara Mahmoud's possible guilt,
coming last night,
when her husband turned up
out of the blue, with this.
Evidence she was in Italy at the time
of Walker's death.
Which, er, was a blow.
Because we know that Sara knew Walker,
and I reckon if we hunted hard enough,
we could conclusively place her
at a gathering Walker was at.
Given also we know what Walker
liked to do to young girls,
when he turns up at her flat,
as a client, eight years later,
she has the perfect motive
for a revenge murder.
- Except the alibi is good.
- More than good.
It's watertight. There's no way
she could have killed him.
Question is,
is it too good?
- You think it's faked somehow?
- No.
I think it's real,
but what it feels like to me is,
is a bunch of information collected
by a woman
who knew she'd need an alibi.
Which would mean,
she'd have had to know that Walker
was going to die?
Yes.
Okay, here goes, and, erm,
stop me when it gets too mental.
So, we have three suspects
who actually all have dysfunction
consistent with abusive childhoods.
Drink issues, mental-health issues,
relationship issues.
We have three people who, for my money,
just tried too hard to look like
they didn't know each other.
And then we have an idea.
That Sara Mahmoud was abused
by David Walker,
but that Colin and Marion were abused
by people we've not yet identified.
And that, at some point in early 1990,
after Sara realises the client
is the same man who'd raped her
at a gathering eight years before,
the three of them,
already, I believe,
known to each other, somehow,
came together and hatched a plan
to murder all three of their abusers.
Now they knew if they murdered
their own abuser,
there'd almost certainly be an easily
traceable link back to them.
So they agreed to kill each other's.
S-Sorry, Guv, if I'm being
dim here, but, erm,
if you've created the perfect alibi,
why did Sara wait two weeks
before she gave it to us?
'Cause offering it up immediately
could also arouse suspicion.
How much more credible
for her husband to find it?
And you think Walker
was the first victim?
I think him turning up
as a punter at Sara's flat
was what kicked it all off.
- And he was killed by?
- Has to be Marion, doesn't it?
I think so.
Osborne was in the Maudsley,
Sara was in Italy.
And Walker's body was found
less than eight miles
from Marion's parents' house.
So why did Osborne spend so much time
with Walker, then?
I think he was trying to confirm
that Walker was who Sara thought he was.
So then that has to mean that Sara
would have had to kill
Colin Osborne's abuser,
and Osborne, Marion's?
Yes.
And if we're right,
to prove this theory,
we'd need to find three things.
We'd need to find evidence
of that historic connection,
we'd need to find evidence of
who those other abusers might have been.
And we'd need to find two more bodies.
It won't be forever. It's fine.
Give her a big kiss from me.
Tell her I love her
and I'll be back very soon.
Murray and Jake. We need to find out
where our three suspects might have met,
but we know that two of them weren't
even in London till 1985.
So we're looking at a meeting
that happened
sometime between then and 1990.
Where might that have occurred?
Was it through a job,
a party, a flat-share,
group counselling, I don't know.
Think laterally. We will be focusing
on the suspects' families.
DCI Stuart will go to Glasgow to talk
to Colin Osborne's father.
Fran will visit Sara Mahmoud's husband.
I will visit Marion Kelsey's sister.
We don't think they'll know a lot about
what's been going on
the last few weeks,
and if our suspects were abused,
then their families are our most likely
source of information.
And how much do we actually tell them?
We stop short of actually lying,
but not by much, or we'll get nothing.
We don't need these interviews
to be admissible.
Right now, we just need to know
that we're on the right lines.
So no appointments,
no warnings we're coming.
We need to catch them on the back foot.
- You don't need to say anything.
- Look. I...
I just hope this doesn't affect
our work. Or our friendship.
It won't. It hasn't, all right?
I promise.
Now piss off.
They're trying to trace more
of the victims of the activities
inside this Brentwood House
and if they do,
they think they could support
the allegation you were present there
on at least one occasion.
You're gonna be suspended
from all duties,
whilst a full investigation takes place.
I have to ask,
if you did know what he was doing,
how could you have not said anything?
It sounds so inadequate, doesn't it?
When you hear it on the news, people
saying they were different times.
But they were.
There were times when a rock star
could go on telly,
being interviewed about his underage
girlfriend and no one got arrested.
We all just shrugged it off.
Thought it was sort of
cheeky and amusing.
We all bought into that,
until we didn't.
So that time I followed him,
and it was just once.
He told me she was 16.
And willing.
And he begged me to forgive him.
And I wanted to.
Both forgive him and believe him.
Because, otherwise,
it was the end of our marriage
and everything we'd built up together.
And so I did.
And for that,
I am truly ashamed.
Well, Colin was a, a lively lad,
you know, when he was a little boy.
He was full of mischief and fun.
And then, when he was about...
Nine, he just,
slowly started to change.
Became quieter, you know,
more introverted.
Staying in his room more and
not seeing his pals so much, you know.
And his, his school work suffered.
And he stopped being affectionate.
Got angry at the slightest thing
and, er, he just,
became a different child.
And I presume
you asked him what was wrong?
Over and over, for years.
- He would always just say "Nothing".
- Say "I'm fine".
So, in the end we just thought,
well, that's how it is. That's...
That's how he was, that, er...
Children change.
And what you're talking about,
sexual abuse,
wasn't something that you considered
back in the '70s.
It wasn't one of the options for
why a child isn't themselves.
But if we consider it
as a possibility now,
do you have any idea where something
like that could have happened to Colin?
Were there ever any issues
in his primary school?
No.
I never heard nothing like that there.
- Any friends or family?
- No.
Was he a member of a church,
or a football team
or a scout group or...
Mr Osborne?
There was one bloke, a pal from work,
Len Paxton.
He ran the local platoon of
Club Rangers.
I don't know why she seems to hate me.
Or hate our mum.
Like I said, she's troubled.
- Was it always like that?
- Absolutely not. No.
We adored each other
when we were growing up.
Do you remember when it changed?
Was it overnight or...
No, I remember it exactly
when it changed.
I was 14 and Marion was 11,
and we'd moved to Cork.
Our dad had got a job
as a lecturer there.
You know we had a great house,
a lovely garden.
We even got our own rooms,
for the first time.
But Marion just seemed to hate it.
Overnight, she became
- distant, sullen, aggressive.
- Towards you?
Towards me, towards our mum,
at school, everyone.
Including your dad?
Actually, no, not Dad.
But then him and Marion were
always stupidly close.
So, no, Dad was the only one
who escaped her ire.
When did your dad pass away?
Er, 1991.
- How old was he?
- 57.
That sounds pretty young. Was he ill?
- Why do you ask?
- Just trying to fill in the gaps.
Well, no, he wasn't ill,
well, not physically, anyway.
He, erm, took his own life.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Do you mind if I ask how?
He hanged himself. Highgate Woods.
So did he have a history of depression
or mental illness?
What are you suggesting?
Did he?
No.
Right.
Do you know if your mum's at home?
Paxton?
Don't recall a Len Paxton,
before my time probably.
Really?
Sorry?
Well, no, it's just, erm...
Well, I found him with a simple
Google search, so.
What you asking me about him for then?
Because I wanna know what happened
to him after he left prison in 1988.
For assaulting two boys from a platoon
in Dumfries.
Look, this is all ancient history.
Do you know what?
I, I am getting
really pissed off with that expression
because it's just not.
The sort of things people
like Len Paxton did,
they're still affecting people today.
Catastrophically. It
fucks up whole lives. Okay?
So, unless you want me to come back
tonight when all the parents are here,
I'd start trying a little harder
to remember, if I were you.
He's dead.
When?
'92.
How?
He topped himself, everyone reckoned.
"Reckoned"?
He had this little yacht,
he used to take some of the lads out on.
It was found a few days
after he went missing,
drifting in open water
off Greenock Harbour.
They never found his body.
Although, I'm not sure
anyone looked too hard.
It's changed. We've changed.
People like him don't slip
through the nets anymore.
Well, I really hope so.
But they were saying that 30 years ago.
And 20. And 10.
And I just pray
that they won't be saying it 20 years
from now, about today.
Her father told me
what he'd found out
in the months after she ran away.
This was while she was still 13?
And being taken to parties
organised by men like Walker,
and raped.
Did he not report this?
Did he not go to the police?
Yes.
And, apparently, your lot told him
you couldn't do anything,
because it'd been her choice
to become a child prostitute.
A phrase it should be fucking illegal
to even use.
Oh, Jesus.
- You knew.
- No.
She told you. You knew.
I did not know.
She was always making things up, Elise.
Exaggerating everything.
Your father would never have done
the things that she said.
How old was she when she told you?
You tell me now
or I swear I'll...
Elise.
12.
My...
And you decided not to believe her
because... What?
You didn't wanna lose the house?
Or the research trips abroad?
Or because... What?
You're an evil fucking witch!
And we have wondered all our lives
why she is so angry?
I need you to tell me exactly
what Marion told you.
Please.
- What sort of a mother does that?
- I'm struggling to be charitable.
Well, Osborne's dad clearly had no idea.
Yeah, nor did Marion's sister.
I guess we've lost our element
of surprise.
I'm pretty sure all three of them
will know
the questions we've been asking now.
Which is why I want to get in front
of Colin and Marion today
while they're still on the back foot.
And ask them what?
Where they were
when their own abusers died.
Because if we're right, they'll have
absolutely watertight alibis.
Which both proves the theory,
and sort of screws us, evidentially.
What have we got from Murray?
So, he's spent all day trawling
NHS records.
Turns out that at various points in '87
and early 1988,
both Colin and Sara were under the care
of Ealing Hospital psychiatric unit.
- As in-patients?
- Yeah.
What about Marion?
We haven't located her
records yet, but here's a thing,
before she lived at her Smoke Lane flat,
from early '86 to late '87,
she lived in a flat in South Ealing.
So that's the link,
they met in Ealing Psychiatric Unit.
Well, this could be hard to prove,
but, yeah, it's gotta be a possibility,
isn't it?
Yeah.
You track down Colin.
I'll speak to Marion. Thanks, Sunny.
The train now
approaching platform four
does not stop here.
Stand back from the edge
of platform four.
The next train is not scheduled
to stop.
Jason?
How are you doing?
Fancy a cuppa?
Yes.
Look, I know it's really annoying
when people give you trite bits
of advice on how to be happy,
but you don't have to be defined
by your past.
I had a horrible relationship split
a couple of years ago.
Then my mum died. And then my cat.
And I was really struggling.
And then I met this bloke.
I thought, "God, he's nice,
he's not like other blokes,
"I'd love to get to know him better."
And it showed me
that there was possibility. Ahead.
- Do you see?
- Yeah.
That life goes on, Jase.
Right. Yeah, well, thanks for that.
And good luck with the bloke.
No, Jase, the bloke's you.
- You what?
- It's you.
I like you.
- Really?
- Don't look so surprised.
It's just, erm...
No one's ever said that to me.
So what I wanted to say was,
shall we get that date in the diary?
- Marion, please. Don't go out now.
- I am fine. Honestly.
Please don't say anything
to Tony just yet,
'cause I need to speak
to him myself, okay?
- I'll be back in a couple of hours.
- I love you.
- I love you, too.
- And I am so, so, sorry.
- Sunny.
- Guv, Colin's not at his house.
His husband said he'd moved out for
a bit and was staying at a Holiday Inn,
but he's not there either.
- Right.
- You at Marion's yet?
Er, no, no. Not, not yet.
I'll call you.
They have no proof of anything, Marion,
and they never will have.
But they know.
But knowing something
and proving it in a court of law
are two very different things.
Yeah, they are.
Very different.
Marion.
Where are you running to? It's over.
So, I want to speak
to my husband now. Okay?
Now I want to explain.
Well, I was in Goa when Paxton
went missing.
Er, I have hotel and flights receipts.
I can prove I wasn't here.
I'm sure.
And when Marion's father died?
Can you prove you weren't
in Highgate Woods?
And did you meet them both
in Ealing Psychiatric Unit,
or just Sara?
I've read, er, people who've been abused
can always recognise other victims.
Something in the way
they carry themselves.
Was it that?
That drew you to each other?
So I guess now you pull
what you have together,
and present it to the CPS
and they may go for it
and you may be able to charge us.
But before you do, maybe I could just
give you some other facts?
Please do.
So...
He used to come 'round to our house
on Sunday nights,
mainly, for a roast dinner.
And he'd always find time
to play with me.
He'd pretend to be a horse
and I'd climb on his back
and then he'd buck and twist and turn,
and I was a cowboy at a bucking bronco
contest and I fucking loved him.
And when my dad found out that he ran
the local Club Rangers Platoon
and suggested that I join,
I could not have been happier.
And for six months it was the best time
of my life.
We played football and kick the can
and made fires in the woods
and bows and arrows, it was
Enid Blyton for real.
The first time it happened was when
we went camping for the weekend.
My tent was an old army
one of my granddad's
and when we started to put it up,
he said it wouldn't be any good
because it wasn't waterproof anymore
and it was gonna rain.
But that was okay he said,
because he had room in his tent.
That night he only gave me a massage
to help with the day's hike.
Er, the next night he touched me
and asked me to touch him.
It didn't rain that night, either.
I can spend a lifetime talking to you
about the shame
and guilt.
And how I thought I must have
actually wanted him
to do it because sometimes
I got an erection.
And how I couldn't tell Mum and Dad
because he was their friend
and I didn't want to upset them
or embarrass anyone.
And how I couldn't tell anyone else
because he said I'd be sent away
if I did.
But I do still ask myself,
every single day,
why didn't I tell someone?
Then over the next
six months,
on visits to our house
when my parents were out,
he did... He did things
which actually physically
damaged me for life.
Because a 48-year-old man is not meant
to put himself inside a 9-year-old boy.
But much worse than the physical damage
is the damage he did to me as a person.
Because that first time, he changed me,
instantly and forever.
The drinking, the rage,
the suicide attempts, the fighting,
the manic working.
The endless exhausting visceral rage
that I feel every day of my life,
that I feel right at this moment,
having to explain this to you.
That is all because of him.
So you might put me in prison.
But let me tell you this,
you can't judge me
unless you've had it done to you.
I won't ever, ever, let any one judge me
for what I did.
And just so you know,
what happened to Sara and Marion,
was much worse.
Hiya. You okay?
I need to tell you something.
For a while I wondered if he only took
the job in Cork because of the house.
Which meant that Elise and I
had our own rooms, finally.
First time, my mum was just downstairs,
she was watching The Onedin Line.
I could hear the theme music.
And he came in when my lights were out
and he knelt by my bedside.
And he said that I was growing up now,
becoming a young woman,
and that soon I'd have boyfriends.
And he wanted me
to be prepared for that.
He wanted to help me
so I knew how to enjoy it.
And then he put his hand
under the covers
and he did what a boyfriend might do.
And he did that
pretty much every Saturday night
when he was home, for about a year?
And then one day,
when I was having my tea,
I finally told my mum
that he did things to me
while she was downstairs.
And I remember she was...
She was peeling potatoes at the sink.
And she never even stopped.
She never turned to me,
she never said anything.
And five minutes later,
she told me to go back upstairs
and finish my homework.
And I wondered, at first,
if she hadn't been listening.
But then, that night,
she came upstairs and stayed there,
folding clothes and, and tidying
for an hour after I went to bed.
And, of course, he never came near me.
And she did that for about six months,
and then one day she just stopped.
And then when she
and my sister were out at the cinema,
a few weeks later,
he raped me for the first time.
And I remember I said to him, erm...
If he did the same to Elise
and he said no, no, it just me,
because I was special.
I was special.
And the anger, Tony, the anger
that I felt for so many years
and I still do...
In the end, it made me do
a terrible thing.
Hey.
Hiya.
How are you?
He sent me that.
Who did?
Him. Your mother's lover.
It's the letter she wrote telling him
why she was finishing with him.
How she realised that what we had
was what she wanted.
How terrible she felt
about what she'd done,
and how the affair made her realise
how much she loved me.
It's a good letter.
To read, Cass. For me.
It's very good for me to know that.
Mmm.
And you wouldn't have got it
if you hadn't have gone to see him, Dad.
- So you know, you were right.
- You.
Oh...
Listen, I've gotta make a quick call.
I love you, Dad.
Just, er...
I'll be quick.
- Sunny?
- Hey.
Can you meet me?
This case rests or falls on them
knowing each other.
Without conclusive proof of that,
it is just a theory.
And they're not gonna confess.
And without any bodies,
it's gonna be very hard
to connect any of them to the deaths.
So I can't see the CPS being delirious
to press charges.
But we do have proof now.
You've just told me
you saw them together.
I saw them.
On my own.
CCTV? Or...
And they arrived separately.
Fuck.
Yeah. Fuck.
Well...
I guess, in the end, you have to
ask yourself the old question.
Why do we send people to prison?
And do Colin, Sara and Marion...
...need to be deterred
from committing murder again?
- No.
- No. I don't think so.
So, do they need to be rehabilitated?
I mean, for the last 20 years, at least,
I mean, they've all been very valuable
members of society.
All three of them.
I mean, helping the most vulnerable.
Which means,
in the end, it pretty much
comes down to punishment.
Do Colin, Sara and Marion
need to be punished?
And that's it, you see.
Because for me,
I think their whole lives have been one,
long, indescribably brutal punishment.
And I just can't see
why we would punish them further.
I can't see who would benefit.
No. No. Nor can I.
Okay.
So...
This is
significant, Sunny. This is a pretty
fucking huge thing I would do here.
- Yeah? You?
- Mmm, yeah.
To be absolutely clear, this is just me.
You would never be implicated
in any decision I make.
But if you have a single shred of doubt,
please, you tell me now.
Tell me to go to Andrews
first thing tomorrow morning,
report everything,
tell him I saw them all, together.
I don't believe they could be charged,
and I see no point in disrupting
their lives further. So, no.
I won't tell you to do that.
You're all right, do you know that?
You're not so bad yourself.
I'm gonna leave now,
before you try and snog me.
Smart move.
Night-night, Sunny.
Night, Guv.
Ripped & Corrected By mstoll
March 2017
♪ All we do is, all we do is hide away
♪ All we do is lie and wait
♪ All we do is,
all we do is lie and wait
♪ I've been upside down
♪ I don't wanna be the right way 'round
♪ Can't find paradise on the ground ♪
So... What did he tell you? My dad?
Enough for me to know if you
never want to talk about this again,
then that's fine.
Or if you want to talk about it
every day
for the rest of your life,
that's fine, too.
- I'm doing it properly.
- I see you are.
He was just very shocked
when I introduced myself,
and scared.
And he was babbling
and kept repeating that it,
didn't mean anything.
He kept on apologising,
but I wasn't interested in apologies.
I didn't want contrition.
What I wanted was...
To understand.
And the only person who could
help me do that
was dead.
Does it ever cross your mind, Cass,
we have a very limited pot of money
and if we spend too much
on an incredibly expensive
and time consuming investigation
in to 40-year-old abuse,
then we've got nothing to spend on
a child that got abused last week.
Yes, of course.
And?
Would you like to come through?
And in terms of the bigger
investigation,
the murder investigation,
where are you with that?
I don't know.
They questioned me again yesterday,
but I have a watertight alibi.
And this was that you were sectioned
in the Maudsley.
Twenty-six years ago, yes.
And for what it's worth,
I did not kill David Walker.
Okay.
I just hope I have all the facts now.
I just need to, er,
consider how best to proceed.
Yeah, of course.
- How long do you think it will be...
- I don't know.
I've never had to deal with anything
remotely like this.
I'm sorry for snapping, but I'm...
I'm cross. And disappointed.
And Flo?
Erm, Simon, could you could pick her up
from school today?
- Yeah.
- Okay, thank you and, Colin,
until I decide what to do, I need you to
find somewhere else to stay, please.
Sure. Sure.
And if the investigation goes away
then maybe, we can get through this.
If it drags on, if, God forbid,
you were charged and it went to trial,
we could obviously never let you
parent Flo.
You'd either have to move out
permanently,
and we'd have to consider Simon
as a single parent,
or if you both felt
you couldn't do that,
then we'd have to take her back.
You know I would actually
get the boys DNA tested
if I thought it would help you.
But I know you know it's nonsense.
You just wanted him gone.
Like me and Mum.
So that he couldn't ask you any more
questions you didn't want to answer.
But Mum and I are not going anywhere.
I'm sorry.
Anyway, come on,
do you want another cup of tea?
So for over two weeks now,
we've all wrestled with this case.
Following one dead end after another,
with the final nail in the coffin
of the idea
of Sara Mahmoud's possible guilt,
coming last night,
when her husband turned up
out of the blue, with this.
Evidence she was in Italy at the time
of Walker's death.
Which, er, was a blow.
Because we know that Sara knew Walker,
and I reckon if we hunted hard enough,
we could conclusively place her
at a gathering Walker was at.
Given also we know what Walker
liked to do to young girls,
when he turns up at her flat,
as a client, eight years later,
she has the perfect motive
for a revenge murder.
- Except the alibi is good.
- More than good.
It's watertight. There's no way
she could have killed him.
Question is,
is it too good?
- You think it's faked somehow?
- No.
I think it's real,
but what it feels like to me is,
is a bunch of information collected
by a woman
who knew she'd need an alibi.
Which would mean,
she'd have had to know that Walker
was going to die?
Yes.
Okay, here goes, and, erm,
stop me when it gets too mental.
So, we have three suspects
who actually all have dysfunction
consistent with abusive childhoods.
Drink issues, mental-health issues,
relationship issues.
We have three people who, for my money,
just tried too hard to look like
they didn't know each other.
And then we have an idea.
That Sara Mahmoud was abused
by David Walker,
but that Colin and Marion were abused
by people we've not yet identified.
And that, at some point in early 1990,
after Sara realises the client
is the same man who'd raped her
at a gathering eight years before,
the three of them,
already, I believe,
known to each other, somehow,
came together and hatched a plan
to murder all three of their abusers.
Now they knew if they murdered
their own abuser,
there'd almost certainly be an easily
traceable link back to them.
So they agreed to kill each other's.
S-Sorry, Guv, if I'm being
dim here, but, erm,
if you've created the perfect alibi,
why did Sara wait two weeks
before she gave it to us?
'Cause offering it up immediately
could also arouse suspicion.
How much more credible
for her husband to find it?
And you think Walker
was the first victim?
I think him turning up
as a punter at Sara's flat
was what kicked it all off.
- And he was killed by?
- Has to be Marion, doesn't it?
I think so.
Osborne was in the Maudsley,
Sara was in Italy.
And Walker's body was found
less than eight miles
from Marion's parents' house.
So why did Osborne spend so much time
with Walker, then?
I think he was trying to confirm
that Walker was who Sara thought he was.
So then that has to mean that Sara
would have had to kill
Colin Osborne's abuser,
and Osborne, Marion's?
Yes.
And if we're right,
to prove this theory,
we'd need to find three things.
We'd need to find evidence
of that historic connection,
we'd need to find evidence of
who those other abusers might have been.
And we'd need to find two more bodies.
It won't be forever. It's fine.
Give her a big kiss from me.
Tell her I love her
and I'll be back very soon.
Murray and Jake. We need to find out
where our three suspects might have met,
but we know that two of them weren't
even in London till 1985.
So we're looking at a meeting
that happened
sometime between then and 1990.
Where might that have occurred?
Was it through a job,
a party, a flat-share,
group counselling, I don't know.
Think laterally. We will be focusing
on the suspects' families.
DCI Stuart will go to Glasgow to talk
to Colin Osborne's father.
Fran will visit Sara Mahmoud's husband.
I will visit Marion Kelsey's sister.
We don't think they'll know a lot about
what's been going on
the last few weeks,
and if our suspects were abused,
then their families are our most likely
source of information.
And how much do we actually tell them?
We stop short of actually lying,
but not by much, or we'll get nothing.
We don't need these interviews
to be admissible.
Right now, we just need to know
that we're on the right lines.
So no appointments,
no warnings we're coming.
We need to catch them on the back foot.
- You don't need to say anything.
- Look. I...
I just hope this doesn't affect
our work. Or our friendship.
It won't. It hasn't, all right?
I promise.
Now piss off.
They're trying to trace more
of the victims of the activities
inside this Brentwood House
and if they do,
they think they could support
the allegation you were present there
on at least one occasion.
You're gonna be suspended
from all duties,
whilst a full investigation takes place.
I have to ask,
if you did know what he was doing,
how could you have not said anything?
It sounds so inadequate, doesn't it?
When you hear it on the news, people
saying they were different times.
But they were.
There were times when a rock star
could go on telly,
being interviewed about his underage
girlfriend and no one got arrested.
We all just shrugged it off.
Thought it was sort of
cheeky and amusing.
We all bought into that,
until we didn't.
So that time I followed him,
and it was just once.
He told me she was 16.
And willing.
And he begged me to forgive him.
And I wanted to.
Both forgive him and believe him.
Because, otherwise,
it was the end of our marriage
and everything we'd built up together.
And so I did.
And for that,
I am truly ashamed.
Well, Colin was a, a lively lad,
you know, when he was a little boy.
He was full of mischief and fun.
And then, when he was about...
Nine, he just,
slowly started to change.
Became quieter, you know,
more introverted.
Staying in his room more and
not seeing his pals so much, you know.
And his, his school work suffered.
And he stopped being affectionate.
Got angry at the slightest thing
and, er, he just,
became a different child.
And I presume
you asked him what was wrong?
Over and over, for years.
- He would always just say "Nothing".
- Say "I'm fine".
So, in the end we just thought,
well, that's how it is. That's...
That's how he was, that, er...
Children change.
And what you're talking about,
sexual abuse,
wasn't something that you considered
back in the '70s.
It wasn't one of the options for
why a child isn't themselves.
But if we consider it
as a possibility now,
do you have any idea where something
like that could have happened to Colin?
Were there ever any issues
in his primary school?
No.
I never heard nothing like that there.
- Any friends or family?
- No.
Was he a member of a church,
or a football team
or a scout group or...
Mr Osborne?
There was one bloke, a pal from work,
Len Paxton.
He ran the local platoon of
Club Rangers.
I don't know why she seems to hate me.
Or hate our mum.
Like I said, she's troubled.
- Was it always like that?
- Absolutely not. No.
We adored each other
when we were growing up.
Do you remember when it changed?
Was it overnight or...
No, I remember it exactly
when it changed.
I was 14 and Marion was 11,
and we'd moved to Cork.
Our dad had got a job
as a lecturer there.
You know we had a great house,
a lovely garden.
We even got our own rooms,
for the first time.
But Marion just seemed to hate it.
Overnight, she became
- distant, sullen, aggressive.
- Towards you?
Towards me, towards our mum,
at school, everyone.
Including your dad?
Actually, no, not Dad.
But then him and Marion were
always stupidly close.
So, no, Dad was the only one
who escaped her ire.
When did your dad pass away?
Er, 1991.
- How old was he?
- 57.
That sounds pretty young. Was he ill?
- Why do you ask?
- Just trying to fill in the gaps.
Well, no, he wasn't ill,
well, not physically, anyway.
He, erm, took his own life.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Do you mind if I ask how?
He hanged himself. Highgate Woods.
So did he have a history of depression
or mental illness?
What are you suggesting?
Did he?
No.
Right.
Do you know if your mum's at home?
Paxton?
Don't recall a Len Paxton,
before my time probably.
Really?
Sorry?
Well, no, it's just, erm...
Well, I found him with a simple
Google search, so.
What you asking me about him for then?
Because I wanna know what happened
to him after he left prison in 1988.
For assaulting two boys from a platoon
in Dumfries.
Look, this is all ancient history.
Do you know what?
I, I am getting
really pissed off with that expression
because it's just not.
The sort of things people
like Len Paxton did,
they're still affecting people today.
Catastrophically. It
fucks up whole lives. Okay?
So, unless you want me to come back
tonight when all the parents are here,
I'd start trying a little harder
to remember, if I were you.
He's dead.
When?
'92.
How?
He topped himself, everyone reckoned.
"Reckoned"?
He had this little yacht,
he used to take some of the lads out on.
It was found a few days
after he went missing,
drifting in open water
off Greenock Harbour.
They never found his body.
Although, I'm not sure
anyone looked too hard.
It's changed. We've changed.
People like him don't slip
through the nets anymore.
Well, I really hope so.
But they were saying that 30 years ago.
And 20. And 10.
And I just pray
that they won't be saying it 20 years
from now, about today.
Her father told me
what he'd found out
in the months after she ran away.
This was while she was still 13?
And being taken to parties
organised by men like Walker,
and raped.
Did he not report this?
Did he not go to the police?
Yes.
And, apparently, your lot told him
you couldn't do anything,
because it'd been her choice
to become a child prostitute.
A phrase it should be fucking illegal
to even use.
Oh, Jesus.
- You knew.
- No.
She told you. You knew.
I did not know.
She was always making things up, Elise.
Exaggerating everything.
Your father would never have done
the things that she said.
How old was she when she told you?
You tell me now
or I swear I'll...
Elise.
12.
My...
And you decided not to believe her
because... What?
You didn't wanna lose the house?
Or the research trips abroad?
Or because... What?
You're an evil fucking witch!
And we have wondered all our lives
why she is so angry?
I need you to tell me exactly
what Marion told you.
Please.
- What sort of a mother does that?
- I'm struggling to be charitable.
Well, Osborne's dad clearly had no idea.
Yeah, nor did Marion's sister.
I guess we've lost our element
of surprise.
I'm pretty sure all three of them
will know
the questions we've been asking now.
Which is why I want to get in front
of Colin and Marion today
while they're still on the back foot.
And ask them what?
Where they were
when their own abusers died.
Because if we're right, they'll have
absolutely watertight alibis.
Which both proves the theory,
and sort of screws us, evidentially.
What have we got from Murray?
So, he's spent all day trawling
NHS records.
Turns out that at various points in '87
and early 1988,
both Colin and Sara were under the care
of Ealing Hospital psychiatric unit.
- As in-patients?
- Yeah.
What about Marion?
We haven't located her
records yet, but here's a thing,
before she lived at her Smoke Lane flat,
from early '86 to late '87,
she lived in a flat in South Ealing.
So that's the link,
they met in Ealing Psychiatric Unit.
Well, this could be hard to prove,
but, yeah, it's gotta be a possibility,
isn't it?
Yeah.
You track down Colin.
I'll speak to Marion. Thanks, Sunny.
The train now
approaching platform four
does not stop here.
Stand back from the edge
of platform four.
The next train is not scheduled
to stop.
Jason?
How are you doing?
Fancy a cuppa?
Yes.
Look, I know it's really annoying
when people give you trite bits
of advice on how to be happy,
but you don't have to be defined
by your past.
I had a horrible relationship split
a couple of years ago.
Then my mum died. And then my cat.
And I was really struggling.
And then I met this bloke.
I thought, "God, he's nice,
he's not like other blokes,
"I'd love to get to know him better."
And it showed me
that there was possibility. Ahead.
- Do you see?
- Yeah.
That life goes on, Jase.
Right. Yeah, well, thanks for that.
And good luck with the bloke.
No, Jase, the bloke's you.
- You what?
- It's you.
I like you.
- Really?
- Don't look so surprised.
It's just, erm...
No one's ever said that to me.
So what I wanted to say was,
shall we get that date in the diary?
- Marion, please. Don't go out now.
- I am fine. Honestly.
Please don't say anything
to Tony just yet,
'cause I need to speak
to him myself, okay?
- I'll be back in a couple of hours.
- I love you.
- I love you, too.
- And I am so, so, sorry.
- Sunny.
- Guv, Colin's not at his house.
His husband said he'd moved out for
a bit and was staying at a Holiday Inn,
but he's not there either.
- Right.
- You at Marion's yet?
Er, no, no. Not, not yet.
I'll call you.
They have no proof of anything, Marion,
and they never will have.
But they know.
But knowing something
and proving it in a court of law
are two very different things.
Yeah, they are.
Very different.
Marion.
Where are you running to? It's over.
So, I want to speak
to my husband now. Okay?
Now I want to explain.
Well, I was in Goa when Paxton
went missing.
Er, I have hotel and flights receipts.
I can prove I wasn't here.
I'm sure.
And when Marion's father died?
Can you prove you weren't
in Highgate Woods?
And did you meet them both
in Ealing Psychiatric Unit,
or just Sara?
I've read, er, people who've been abused
can always recognise other victims.
Something in the way
they carry themselves.
Was it that?
That drew you to each other?
So I guess now you pull
what you have together,
and present it to the CPS
and they may go for it
and you may be able to charge us.
But before you do, maybe I could just
give you some other facts?
Please do.
So...
He used to come 'round to our house
on Sunday nights,
mainly, for a roast dinner.
And he'd always find time
to play with me.
He'd pretend to be a horse
and I'd climb on his back
and then he'd buck and twist and turn,
and I was a cowboy at a bucking bronco
contest and I fucking loved him.
And when my dad found out that he ran
the local Club Rangers Platoon
and suggested that I join,
I could not have been happier.
And for six months it was the best time
of my life.
We played football and kick the can
and made fires in the woods
and bows and arrows, it was
Enid Blyton for real.
The first time it happened was when
we went camping for the weekend.
My tent was an old army
one of my granddad's
and when we started to put it up,
he said it wouldn't be any good
because it wasn't waterproof anymore
and it was gonna rain.
But that was okay he said,
because he had room in his tent.
That night he only gave me a massage
to help with the day's hike.
Er, the next night he touched me
and asked me to touch him.
It didn't rain that night, either.
I can spend a lifetime talking to you
about the shame
and guilt.
And how I thought I must have
actually wanted him
to do it because sometimes
I got an erection.
And how I couldn't tell Mum and Dad
because he was their friend
and I didn't want to upset them
or embarrass anyone.
And how I couldn't tell anyone else
because he said I'd be sent away
if I did.
But I do still ask myself,
every single day,
why didn't I tell someone?
Then over the next
six months,
on visits to our house
when my parents were out,
he did... He did things
which actually physically
damaged me for life.
Because a 48-year-old man is not meant
to put himself inside a 9-year-old boy.
But much worse than the physical damage
is the damage he did to me as a person.
Because that first time, he changed me,
instantly and forever.
The drinking, the rage,
the suicide attempts, the fighting,
the manic working.
The endless exhausting visceral rage
that I feel every day of my life,
that I feel right at this moment,
having to explain this to you.
That is all because of him.
So you might put me in prison.
But let me tell you this,
you can't judge me
unless you've had it done to you.
I won't ever, ever, let any one judge me
for what I did.
And just so you know,
what happened to Sara and Marion,
was much worse.
Hiya. You okay?
I need to tell you something.
For a while I wondered if he only took
the job in Cork because of the house.
Which meant that Elise and I
had our own rooms, finally.
First time, my mum was just downstairs,
she was watching The Onedin Line.
I could hear the theme music.
And he came in when my lights were out
and he knelt by my bedside.
And he said that I was growing up now,
becoming a young woman,
and that soon I'd have boyfriends.
And he wanted me
to be prepared for that.
He wanted to help me
so I knew how to enjoy it.
And then he put his hand
under the covers
and he did what a boyfriend might do.
And he did that
pretty much every Saturday night
when he was home, for about a year?
And then one day,
when I was having my tea,
I finally told my mum
that he did things to me
while she was downstairs.
And I remember she was...
She was peeling potatoes at the sink.
And she never even stopped.
She never turned to me,
she never said anything.
And five minutes later,
she told me to go back upstairs
and finish my homework.
And I wondered, at first,
if she hadn't been listening.
But then, that night,
she came upstairs and stayed there,
folding clothes and, and tidying
for an hour after I went to bed.
And, of course, he never came near me.
And she did that for about six months,
and then one day she just stopped.
And then when she
and my sister were out at the cinema,
a few weeks later,
he raped me for the first time.
And I remember I said to him, erm...
If he did the same to Elise
and he said no, no, it just me,
because I was special.
I was special.
And the anger, Tony, the anger
that I felt for so many years
and I still do...
In the end, it made me do
a terrible thing.
Hey.
Hiya.
How are you?
He sent me that.
Who did?
Him. Your mother's lover.
It's the letter she wrote telling him
why she was finishing with him.
How she realised that what we had
was what she wanted.
How terrible she felt
about what she'd done,
and how the affair made her realise
how much she loved me.
It's a good letter.
To read, Cass. For me.
It's very good for me to know that.
Mmm.
And you wouldn't have got it
if you hadn't have gone to see him, Dad.
- So you know, you were right.
- You.
Oh...
Listen, I've gotta make a quick call.
I love you, Dad.
Just, er...
I'll be quick.
- Sunny?
- Hey.
Can you meet me?
This case rests or falls on them
knowing each other.
Without conclusive proof of that,
it is just a theory.
And they're not gonna confess.
And without any bodies,
it's gonna be very hard
to connect any of them to the deaths.
So I can't see the CPS being delirious
to press charges.
But we do have proof now.
You've just told me
you saw them together.
I saw them.
On my own.
CCTV? Or...
And they arrived separately.
Fuck.
Yeah. Fuck.
Well...
I guess, in the end, you have to
ask yourself the old question.
Why do we send people to prison?
And do Colin, Sara and Marion...
...need to be deterred
from committing murder again?
- No.
- No. I don't think so.
So, do they need to be rehabilitated?
I mean, for the last 20 years, at least,
I mean, they've all been very valuable
members of society.
All three of them.
I mean, helping the most vulnerable.
Which means,
in the end, it pretty much
comes down to punishment.
Do Colin, Sara and Marion
need to be punished?
And that's it, you see.
Because for me,
I think their whole lives have been one,
long, indescribably brutal punishment.
And I just can't see
why we would punish them further.
I can't see who would benefit.
No. No. Nor can I.
Okay.
So...
This is
significant, Sunny. This is a pretty
fucking huge thing I would do here.
- Yeah? You?
- Mmm, yeah.
To be absolutely clear, this is just me.
You would never be implicated
in any decision I make.
But if you have a single shred of doubt,
please, you tell me now.
Tell me to go to Andrews
first thing tomorrow morning,
report everything,
tell him I saw them all, together.
I don't believe they could be charged,
and I see no point in disrupting
their lives further. So, no.
I won't tell you to do that.
You're all right, do you know that?
You're not so bad yourself.
I'm gonna leave now,
before you try and snog me.
Smart move.
Night-night, Sunny.
Night, Guv.
Ripped & Corrected By mstoll
March 2017