I’m super lucky to be able to write for SCOTLAND YARD CONFIDENTIAL a Spotify true crime podcast which is produced by NOISER. My producer will suggest a crime which I research and then write it up as a script. The actor John Hopkins reads them out. You might know him as Sgt. Dan Scott on  Midsomer Murders or Sir Francis Basset in the British TV series Poldark.

It’s really interesting to find out about these crimes and often heart-breaking too. When I’m writing them I am really aware of the victims and what they went through. I wonder how they would feel about being remembered in this way, or indeed not being forgotten.

There’s a team of us writing for NOISER but below are my episodes. I hope you enjoy them.

February 1947 is one of the snowiest months on UK record. As roads and rail are forced to close, in London, a six-man criminal gang organized a robbery targeting the Midland Bank of Kentish Town. Their mark was the unsuspecting bank manager, Mr. Snell. But all good plans are bound to go awry. Before they could act, word reached Scotland Yard’s mysterious undercover intelligence unit – the Ghost Squad. Detective Inspector Len Crawford quickly came up with a cunning but dangerous play to snare the robbers – but it’s a high-risk game that could prove fatal to his men. 

2006 – On a quiet street in Wembley, London, special constable Nisha Patel-Nasri was found bleeding to death on her driveway. With no obvious enemies, police initially struggled to find any suspects. But the investigation lead them through a twisted, shocking tale of lust, deceit and greed. Detectives from Scotland Yard tackled a crime born of age-old motives with 21st century technology. Using CCTV footage and mobile phone data they pieced together a trail of evidence that blew the case wide open.

Four years after the disappearance of Camille Holland, Detective Inspector Elias Bower of Scotland Yard was called upon to see if he could shed any light on the mysterious case. Camille’s husband, Samuel Dougal, was a hard-drinking, womanising fraudster, whom many suspected was involved in her disappearance. But with no body and no weapon, the case seemed impossible to solve. That was, until DI Bower came along, and made a grim discovery on the farmland… Using a gunsmith and ballistic experts, the Scotland Yard Inspector finally found out the chilling truth behind this tragic case.

It’s World War 2 and London is still reeling from the Blitz. Although the blackout gives some protection from German bombers, it also provides the perfect hunting ground for criminals. When a woman is found strangled in an air raid shelter, and soon after another woman is brutally butchered, police suspect a serial killer is at work. The press dub him the Blackout Ripper. Chief Superintendent Fred Cherrill, head of Scotland Yard’s fingerprint department and a pioneer in this area of forensics, joins the case. Armed with his magnifying glass, Cherrill discovers marks left behind on makeshift weapons that show the murderer is left-handed. But with little else to go on, and another woman’s body discovered, police are struggling to crack the case. However, as the sadistic killer becomes more frenzied, he begins to make mistakes and leaves behind two crucial clues to his identity. When the police finally trace him, he does not fit the usual profile of a killer. In the face of lies and cover-ups, Superintendent Cherrill must use his skills to build a case that will see the Blackout Ripper convicted and stopped, once and for all. 

In December 1915 in Highgate, London, a new bride was found drowned in her bath the day after her wedding. At first it appeared to be a tragic accident. But when two similar deaths come to light, Inspector Arthur Neil of Scotland Yard had two mysteries to solve; what was the real identity of the man involved in all three murders and how did he make it look as though his wives deaths were accidents? With the help of the legendary Home Office pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury, Inspector Neil pieced together all the evidence to convict the killer of the Brides in the Bath.

In 1860 Mary Emsley, a well-known landlady in the East End of London, is found brutally murdered in her own home. Police openly admit they don’t know where to start. Emsley was a miserly, merciless business woman and universally disliked. When ex-police officer James Mullins places the blame on a local cobbler, it looks as though the crime has been solved. Inspector Tanner of Scotland Yard uses budding forensic knowledge to build a case but is it enough to convict the right man?

It’s the Swinging Sixties and in Bromley, Kent, a newly married woman is slaughtered after inviting an unexpected guest in for a cup of coffee. But with no murder weapon and no fingerprints, police struggle to find the culprit, until they see a familiar name on a Christmas card written to the victim. We join Margaret Pereira, the first woman on the Scientific staff at the Metropolitan Science lab, as she pieces together the evidence to solve the mystery of the Bromley bride murder