The British Airways Killer assessment: A sensitive look at a strange and harrowing case

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The case of Robert Brown, a former pilot, is some of the extraordinary in current occasions, and continues to be not but concluded. It is informed with good readability in ITV’s The British Airways Killer, by no means prurient but all the time unblinkingly confronting the viewers with the onerous details of a brutal illegal killing. It is an exemplar of real-life crime storytelling, and performed with such quiet, understated competence.

During the early night of Sunday 31 October 2010, Halloween, Brown killed his estranged spouse Joanna Simpson with a hammer whereas their younger kids hid within the playroom at the household dwelling in Berkshire. His kids then noticed, from their window, their father loading his spouse’s limp physique into the boot of his automobile. From there, he drove to a distant spot within the woods of Windsor Great Park, the place he buried her in a backyard field in a pre-dug grave. (He has by no means disputed these actions befell.) Still extra terribly, he then known as the police and volunteered to be interviewed.

In a additional escalation of strangeness, he talked freely to detectives in regards to the occasions that preceded the illegal killing, together with the breakdown of the wedding, and acknowledged the very fact of his spouse’s disappearance, however, for a very long time, he refused to say something in regards to the killing itself.

The most astonishing twist within the story comes when the trial jury delivers its verdict, accepting that Brown had been affected by “adjustment disorder” and discovering him responsible of manslaughter by means of diminished accountability, quite than homicide. It is one thing that Simpson’s household have been campaigning to reverse ever since.

Using archive footage, CCTV of the police interrogation, dwelling movies and in depth – extremely shifting – contemporary testimony from Simpson’s household, pals and the police, The British Airways Killer explores this harrowing case with sensitivity and a actual sense of dedication to attempt to get to the reality. The result’s a balanced and as dispassionate account as may be achieved, and the absence of any voiceover narration turns what may have develop into one more corny, sensationalist documentary into one thing rather more dramatic and fast – these involved are talking straight about what occurred, quite than by means of any third occasion. We even, for instance, see the assertion written by their daughter, which says, “I heard him killing my mummy.”

The most shifting account comes from Simpson’s mom, Diana Parkes, now 84. She has principally taken on the function of mentioning the kids and has spent years campaigning to reverse what she regards as a miscarriage of justice, and latterly to assist all victims of home abuse. Her braveness and devotion to the reminiscence of her late daughter is quite humbling – grief doesn’t impede her quest for justice however fuels it as an alternative.

She tells us about how her daughter confessed that she’d made a horrible mistake shortly after the wedding to Brown, and of her fears for her security. And she tells us how she insisted on seeing her daughter’s face when she went to determine her, even when Simpson’s head had been caved in by 14 blows with a claw hammer – dropped at Simpson’s home by Brown and hidden in a faculty bag. Now Parkes is fearful and determined to cease Brown getting early launch on parole: “I just wish he’d come and kill me and then he’d definitely be put away and everybody would feel safe.”

Questions about Brown’s behaviour and motives hang-out the programme. His premeditation appears apparent from the grave that had been constructed weeks prematurely – the forensic archaeologist calls it “totally 100 per cent carefully pre-planned”; Brown says in court docket he solely wished to make use of it to bury paperwork and recollections of “the sham of my marriage”.

His “adjustment disorder” that gave him a lowered sentence was argued over by consultants in court docket, and apparently disappeared after the killing. How a lot of Brown’s emotional behaviour in court docket was real, and how a lot was manipulation?

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Under new legal guidelines, the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, has not too long ago used his powers to refer Brown’s early launch from jail on licence, having served 13 years of his 26 12 months sentence, to the parole board. Brown has challenged that call, and these proceedings are persevering with. Even if Brown’s attraction fails, the parole board will nonetheless have to assess Brown and any menace he poses afresh, and, in the event that they hold him incarcerated, his potential launch will come up for periodic assessment.

For all involved, then, the story of the British Airways Killer is way from over – and the results of his actions by no means can be.

‘The British Airways Killer’ is out on ITV and ITVX