Always True Crime

Today I look back at the Cameron House fire, a devastating incident at one of Scotland’s best-known hotels that had tragic consequences. I explore the events of that night, the emergency response and the investigation that followed, examining how such a beautiful place associated with relaxation and celebration became the scene of such a terrible tragedy.

I release new episodes of the UK True Crime Podcast every Tuesday and Friday, so please do join me for the next story on Tuesday.

Find out more about me, Adam Lloyd, & UK True Crime

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It's arguably the UK's most famous, and certainly one of the world's most famous lakes, where for more than 1600 years, legends have abounded of a creature inhabiting the depths of Loch Ness that is affectionately known as Nessie, who has tantalisingly played a game of hide and seek with scientists and hunters ever since. This time around on The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, in a break from the norm, I bring you the story of the Loch, the various points of note connected with it, and of course, it's world famous inhabitant, and how Nessie has for many years...

On Sunday the 25th of June 1995, chronic alcoholic Lawrence Bierton of Nottingham brutally and sadistically murdered two elderly ladies in their own home. Being released after a life sentence and seeking a safe place to house him, the council put him in the one place they shouldn’t have - a cul-de-sac full of pensioners. This is the horrific case of a triple killer who – being sentenced to a whole life tariff - will never be released.

In April 1998, 33-year-old Arlene Fraser disappeared from her home in Elgin, Scotland. A mum of two who was trying to rebuild her life after a troubled marriage, Arlene had been looking towards a new beginning. But she vanished without a trace, leaving her family desperate for answers. What followed was a complex murder investigation that would span years and leave one crucial question unanswered: where was Arlene Fraser?

As detectives investigated Arlene’s disappearance, the circumstances surrounding her marriage and the events leading up to her final known movements became central to the case. The investigation wo...

When Jonathan Catchpole’s five-year relationship with his partner came to an end, he could hardly have imagined what would follow. Later, Jonathan was the victim of a shocking shotgun attack that left him seriously injured. As investigators pieced together the evidence, a complex story emerged involving allegations of a conspiracy to murder. But who was behind the attack, and what had led to such violence?

I release new episodes of the UK True Crime Podcast every Tuesday and Friday, so please do join me for the next story on Friday.

Find out mo...

In June 1967, 75-year-old Louisa Dunne was found murdered in her home in Easton, Bristol. The widowed grandmother had spent the previous evening with a friend and appeared to be in good spirits, but sometime during the night, someone had entered her home and subjected her to a horrific attack. Despite an extensive police investigation, Louisa’s killer remained unidentified, and her murder became one of Britain’s long-running unsolved cases.

Detectives carried out thousands of enquiries and collected forensic evidence from the scene, but the investigation eventually stalled. As the years passed, the witnesses who might have...

This episode takes us to Birmingham, where the Clothes Show Live was taking place at the NEC.

Michelle Gunshon was working in security at the event alongside a couple of colleagues. They had travelled up from London, and when their original accommodation was flooded, they found somewhere else to stay: The Dubliner, a lively pub and hotel. But by the Sunday of the show, Michelle had disappeared. There was no sign of her, and her car was missing too. Just what had happened to Michelle Gunshon?

Note: This episode was originally released in...

Shaun Walmsley was serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of Anthony Duffy when he managed to escape from custody during a hospital visit. In this episode of the UK True Crime Podcast, I look at the murder which led to Walmsley being sent to prison, and the remarkable circumstances surrounding his escape. How did a convicted murderer manage to get out of custody, and what happened next?

I release new episodes of the UK True Crime Podcast every Tuesday and Friday, so please do join me for the next story on Tuesday.

Death can be a very strange thing indeed - from death by doughnut to the bus driver who couldn't tell an antelope from a human being, via ghastly tales of the occult, cannibalism and extreme reasons for murder - from The Cosby Show to using too much toilet roll - for this time around on the Enthusiast, I have curated a good hour plus worth of accounts of these from around this strange globe of ours.

You'll never look at a block of Parmesan cheese the same again...

The episode contains details and...

On the 14th of November 2002. 14-year-old Adam Morrell of Loughborough in Leicestershire told his dad he was going to stay at his friends’ house, something that boys do every day in every city. But with the group growing bored, it said, that his death was decided by a childish game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and after two days of torture, his body was scattered across the canal and fields, with no all of it found. But what kind of animals would do this to a child?

In March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard disappeared while walking home from a friend’s house in south London. Her disappearance sparked a desperate search by her family and friends, as detectives worked to establish what had happened during the short journey she should have been able to make safely. But as the investigation unfolded, it uncovered a deeply disturbing case that would shock the country and raise serious questions about trust, power and the safety of women.

Sarah’s murder prompted an outpouring of grief and anger, with people across the UK demanding answers about how such a cr...

Two teenage girls were snatched from the roadside in Berkshire. One managed to escape, but the other was subjected to a violent and terrifying attack. The cases remained unsolved, and the man responsible escaped justice. But years later, a horrific murder would reveal a chilling connection and begin to unravel the secrets of a killer. In this episode of the UK True Crime Podcast, I look at the crimes of Ronald Cheshire, the lives he devastated, and how a terrible murder would eventually shed light on attacks that had remained unsolved for years.

I release new...

Today I’m joined by Matt Foot, a criminal defence solicitor and Co-Director of APPEAL a legal charity that fights wrongful convictions as we discuss some of the cases that have raised serious questions about our criminal justice system. We begin with Sam Hallam, who was just seventeen when he was convicted of murder. He spent seven years in prison before his conviction was quashed, and Matt represented him in the fight to clear his name. We also talk about other major cases Matt has been involved in, including that of Andy Malkinson, who spent seventeen years in prison fo...

In almost ten years of making the UK True Crime Podcast, I’ve only covered male victims of domestic abuse once before. The vast majority of domestic abuse victims are women abused by men, and that reality should never be overlooked. But in this episode I wanted to tell the stories of two men who suffered horrific abuse at the hands of their female partners. Both cases are deeply upsetting, and both men faced enormous difficulties in speaking out and being believed. I think it’s important to recognise that domestic abuse can happen to anyone, and that every vict...

Concluding Series 11's opening tale, and in November 2021, David Fuller stood in the dock of Maidstone Crown Court to face trial for the murders of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce back in 1987, the Tunbridge Wells 'Bedsit' murders, as well as charges relating to the harrowing, disturbing offences that he had catalogued himself committing against the bodies of women and children in the mortuaries of two hospitals he had worked at - at least over a 15 year period.

How would Fuller plead? And what would develop, questions and actions, from the emergence of one of, perhaps THE...

On Friday the 3rd of August 1951, 49-year-old housewife, Mabel Tattershaw went out on a date with 19-year-old Herbert Mills. She was smitten with him, but as a chronic gambler who was obsessed with making an easy fortune, smashing the authorities and beating the odds, she had no idea that she would be the part of his plan to place the biggest gamble of his life.

Eight time nominated at...

In February 2019, three men were murdered in their homes in Exeter, Devon, in a series of attacks that appeared to have no obvious motive. Eighty-year-old Anthony Payne and 84-year-old twin brothers Dick and Roger Carter had lived ordinary lives, with no known connection to one another. So why had these three men been targeted, and what linked their deaths?

As detectives investigated the Exeter murders, they uncovered a disturbing chain of events involving 27-year-old Alexander Lewis-Ranwell, whose mental health had deteriorated significantly in the days leading up to the killings. He'd already been arrested twice within...

In this episode from Sunderland, I tell the story of Barry Sewell, a man whose life became caught up in a rumour with devastating consequences. The case raises important questions about the dangers of unsubstantiated allegations, how quickly rumours can spread, and what happens when people decide to take the law into their own hands. When does suspicion turn into vigilantism, and what happens when people decide they can act as judge and jury?

I release new episodes of the UK True Crime Podcast every Tuesday and Friday, so please do join me for the next...

In October 2006, 77-year-old widow Tilly Campbell was found dead in her home in Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland. The fire brigade had been called to her property, but it soon became clear that Tilly’s death was not the result of a fire. She had been murdered, and what initially appeared to be a tragic accident would soon become a murder investigation, with her next-door neighbour emerging as the prime suspect.

In this anniversary episode of British Murders with Stuart Blues, I revisit the life and murder of Tilly Campbell, looking at the circumstances surrounding her de...

In this episode, I’m joined by one of my real true crime heroes in Tom Wood, a retired senior police officer who spent almost 40 years in policing, working on some of Scotland’s most significant murder investigations.

Tom has worked on some of Scotland’s most infamous murders and was Officer in Overall Command of a national investigation into the murders of five young Scottish women in the 1970s, including the deaths of Edinburgh girls Helen Scott and Christine Eadie, the notorious ‘Worlds End Murders’, which he wrote about in his book that was published in 2024.<...

A gang of armed robbers terrorised Bristol for more than a year, targeting banks, building societies and post offices with shotguns and other weapons.

But how did they operate, and how did police finally bring them down? In this episode, I look at the robberies, the victims and the remarkable covert operation that eventually led to the gang's arrest and imprisonment - it is quite a story.

I release brand new episodes of the UK True Crime Podcast every Tuesday and Friday, so please do join me for the next story on Tuesday.<...

Continuing the opening story of Series 11, and by 2007, the then 20 year cold cases of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce, the Tunbridge Wells 'Bedsit' murders, had been definitively linked by DNA as being the work of the same killer. But - he wasn't on the National DNA database.

Skip forward 13 years, and by then, with the advancements in Familial DNA, it was to lead investigators to a very strong person of interest, and in December 2020, an early morning knock on the door at a home in a quiet cul de sac in Heathfield, East Sussex - which...

On Saturday the 28th of August 2010, 30-year-old Izabela Zablocka telephoned her mother and 9-year-old daughter, Kasia, as she did every few days without fail. That day, she vanished without a trace and would never be seen or heard from again. And although her killer thought they had got away with murder, after 15 years fighting to find the answers, Iza's body was finally unearthed, and the truth slowly began to emerge. 

Seven time nom...

Very occasionally, I recommend a podcast series to you and this is a show I have found really interesting and I hope you will too. This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new true crime series from Always True Crime.

NOTE: I haven't been paid to promote this podcast

It starts in the 1960s when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso diamond. It’s the world’s largest uncut diamond and one of the Natural History Museum’s most importan...

In September 1965, six-year-old Margaret Reynolds disappeared while walking to school in Birmingham. Just a few months later, five-year-old Diane Tift vanished while making the short journey home from her grandma’s house in Walsall. Both disappearances sparked major searches, but neither girl was found until their bodies were discovered together on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

The discovery transformed two missing-child investigations into one of the most notorious murder cases in the West Midlands. Police began looking for a dangerous offender who appeared to be targeting young girls, while families across Walsall, Birmingham and the surrounding areas we...

Today’s story takes us to Plymouth, where we look at the tragic story of Callum Hill and the events surrounding his death.

At the heart of the story is a personal dispute between two men and the seemingly futile idea that problems can be settled by arranging a fight. What begins as an argument driven by pride, ego and a refusal to back down ultimately has consequences far beyond the people involved in the original grievance. It is also a story about friendship, trust and how easily someone can become caught up in a situation th...

What does nearly 40 years of investigating serious crime teach you about murder? Tom Wood has spent almost four decades on the inside of Scottish policing, working as a detective on some of the country's most notorious cases before eventually becoming a senior-ranking police officer. Now a bestselling true crime writer, Tom joins me on British Murders to talk about the investigations, people and experiences that have shaped his extraordinary career.

We discuss Tom's involvement in the hunt for serial child killer Robert Black, including the huge investigation that spanned multiple police forces and eventually became the...

A building project that went badly wrong would lead to a lengthy and costly legal dispute between builder Michael Chudley and his customer, Christopher Sear. As the court case dragged on for years, the consequences for Chudley and his partner became increasingly serious, with both of them losing their homes.

As the financial and personal pressures mounted, Chudley began looking for someone to blame for what had happened. But where would that search for answers lead, and what would happen next?

Note: This episode was originally released in February 2022.

I...

This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new investigative series from Always True Crime. It starts in the 1960s when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso diamond. It’s the world’s largest uncut diamond and one of the Natural History Museum’s most important pieces. When a young window cleaner is arrested a few months after the theft, his family is thrown into turmoil. David Knight will protest his innocence until the day he dies, but it’s the start of a much bigger story. You can li...

True Crime Catch Up is back!

I'm delighted to say that True Crime Catch Up is back with a brand-new episode, as I sit down with Stuart Blues, for episode one of our new monthly series.

If you haven't listened before, it's a chance for the two of us to get together and chat about different aspects of true crime, from individual cases to our own experiences of researching and presenting them.

In this episode, we each talk about three cases we've covered on our podcasts that have stayed with us...

Some true crime cases stay with you long after you've finished researching them. Maybe it's the unanswered questions, the sheer brutality of what happened, the mistakes made during an investigation, or simply the feeling that there’s something about the case you just can't shake.

In this returning episode of True Crime Catch Up, Stuart Blues of British Murders and Adam Lloyd of UK True Crime get together to talk about the cases they can't stop thinking about. We're revisiting some of the most memorable and disturbing cases we've covered over the years, looking beyond the he...

Sixteen-year-old Ruth Wilson disappeared after travelling by taxi to Box Hill in Surrey. She had skipped school and, after being dropped off, was last seen standing alone in the rain on a quiet bridleway as darkness was falling.

Ruth had been experiencing difficulties in her personal life, having recently discovered the truth about her biological mother's death, something that reportedly had a significant impact on her. Friends also described her as someone who had talked about running away and starting a new life. But what actually happened to Ruth remains unknown. Did she deliberately disappear, hoping...

It is great to be back for a brand new series of The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, and I begin Series 11 with at first, a case that I covered before the podcast was even a podcast, when it was a simple blog.

Back in 1987, the Kent town of Tunbridge Wells was gripped by fear, with the murders of two young women, five months apart. They were crimes that for many years remained cold cases, until forensic technology had advanced such that, by 2020, that perpetrator was just within the grasp of investigating officers, and it led to...

On Monday the 26th of April 2021 at 12:15pm, 63-year-old retired Police Constable, Clive Porter approached Lock 14 at Broughton on the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union Canal. As a License Enforcement Officer, he placed a notice on an unlicensed boat... and then was brutally murdered by NOT the owner of that boat. But why? And what secrets was his killer hiding? 

Seven time nominated at the True Crime Awards, Indep...

In March 2014, 33-year-old James Attfield was found brutally murdered in Castle Park in Colchester, Essex. Just a few months later, 31-year-old Saudi Arabian student Nahid Almanea was attacked and killed while walking along a secluded footpath on her way to the University of Essex. The two murders appeared to have little in common, but detectives soon began asking whether they could have be committed by the same perpetrator.

For the people of Colchester, the possibility that a killer was randomly targeting strangers was deeply unsettling. Major police investigations were launched, hundreds of potential witnesses were spoken...

This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new investigative series from Always True Crime. It starts in the 1960s, when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso diamond - the world’s largest uncut diamond,

and one of the Natural History Museum’s most important pieces. When a young window cleaner is arrested a few months after the theft, his family is thrown into turmoil. David Knight will protest his innocence until the day he dies, but it’s the start of a much bigger s...

Carol Jarvis was a woman whose life was shaped by her family and, later, by a degenerative illness which left her increasingly dependent on others. As her health deteriorated, her husband took on the role of her carer, looking after her at home as she became less able to care for herself. But behind the closed doors of the family home, things were not quite as they appeared.

Carol’s children began to notice differences in their mum's condition, particularly when comparing the times she was cared for by her husband with those when they looked af...

In January 1993, 37-year-old Madallin Jones was found dead beside a stream near Hawarden, North Wales, after what initially appeared to be a terrible road accident. But as detectives examined the scene and began looking more closely at the circumstances surrounding her death, they quickly realised that something wasn't quite right.

Madallin's husband, Steven Jones, was a serving police sergeant with North Wales Police who had spent years investigating crime and training other officers. He was a respected member of his community and had even been praised for an act of bravery just days before Madallin's death...

Note: This epiosde was originally released in February 2022.

High Wycombe isn't somewhere you would necessarily associate with violent crime, but in this case an apparently ordinary churchyard became the setting for a brutal and completely unnecessary murder.

Lee Gillespie found himself caught up in a complicated situation involving jealousy, relationships and misplaced loyalty. What began as tension between people who knew each other would eventually escalate into violence, leaving Lee dead and several people facing the consequences of what happened. This is a story about relationships that had become increasingly complicated, decisions that...

A weekend of music, mountain biking and entertainment at the impressive surroundings of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire..

But for one 20-year-old man with everything to live for, the weekend would end in tragedy. What happened during those final hours, and how did a celebration turn into a devastating event. This is the story of Alex Pilkington.

I release new episodes of the UK True Crime Podcast every Tuesday and Friday, so please do join me for the next story on Tuesday.

Writing Credit: Chris Wood

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