All language subtitles for Episode 03 The Murder of Chris donovan

He was by all accounts
an ordinary,

nice, sensible young lad of 18,

growing up ready to make
his way into the world.

Chris had been working
at the shop at Tolworth

and his brother and a friend
had met him there

and they were just walking home,
in high spirits,

they were singing

and talking to each other,
they weren't drunk.

They were just
walking home together.

And then for some reason,
nobody knows exactly why,

an incident sparks
where a group attacked them.

When I opened the door
instead of Chris and Phil,

there was two policemen,
"Chris had been involved

"in a fight, he's seriously injured,

"we need to get you
to Epsom hospital straight away."

I remember thinking
this is not happening to us,

it's somebody else,
they've got the wrong one.

It's not Chris.

What we needed to do
was identify who was responsible.

It was a crime
of almost breathtaking cases...

The man who tried to kill her
will never be free to harm again.

The life sentence
may provide some closure

for his victims' families.

..targeted young women
unable to defend themselves.

Colin Sutton

was a detective chief inspector
and senior investigating officer

at the Metropolitan Police.

He led the investigations
into some of the most complex

and high-profile cases ever,

bringing dangerous criminals
to justice.

He showed his...

Then heard screaming...

..another 146 victims.

In this series, we will take you
inside those cases

and show you how he caught
these criminals using nothing

but pure detective work.

This is The Real Manhunter.

Now been found guilty
on all offensive...

..place charges...

The oldest victim...

The officer in charge
described it as a senseless tragedy.

The life sentence
may provide some closure

for his victims' families.

I found out about
the case the morning after

it had happened,
it was a weekend in May

and I actually had
the following week

booked off for leave
and I was meant to be

going on holiday for a week but,

you know, needs must

and they didn't have anybody else
who could run the investigation.

I was asked by
the assistant chief constable

to be the SIO for this murder

and he told me
that an 18-year-old lad

had been murdered
on the Ewell bypass

on the previous night
and that at first the incident room

was at Epsom Police Station,
so could I go along there

and meet the people
who would be on my team

and of course in Surrey
at that time,

there wasn't a permanent
murder squad, if you like.

My name is Jack Regan.

I was a Detective Sergeant
with Surrey Police.

I first met Colin Sutton
as a result of this investigation.

Colin had recently transferred

from West Yorkshire
to Surrey Police.

What happened
was that you were appointed SIO

and then you
were given sufficient staff

that were kind of selected
from the various divisions,

so I didn't know...

But I hadn't been there
very long anyway,

so I didn't really know anybody.

On the Saturday,
I was up in the north-east

on a family do and I was contacted

and asked if I would
travel back and assist

and manage the investigation
into his murder.

I turned up in Epsom
and found that the acting DI,

the DS who was going
to be my number two,

and it was a fellow
called Jack Regan,

and I'd never met him before,
but he was one of these people

I just instantly took to really

and he was a very

different sort of character to me,

probably a bit more sort of sparky

and a bit more sort of expressive.

And then obviously
on the Sunday morning,

I met with Colin

and I was updated
on the investigation

and what had happened up
until that point

and from then on,
I was Colin's deputy

running the day to day management
of the investigation for him.

This was the first occasion that
I had met and worked with Colin,

and to be honest,
I found him very open to ideas,

to new ideas,
to suggestions both from myself

and from others of the team
who were working this investigation.

I think it was one
of those situations

where we had two people
whose qualities kind of complemented

each other, and together,

we made quite a good team,

and it was great working with him.

Chris Donovan
was a 18-year-old lad

unknown to the system,

the police had no knowledge
of him previously.

Chris came from a family
that were...

his mother and father, Ray and Vi,
were very committed Christians

and regular church goers,
and they had a daughter as well

as two boys
and it was quite a close family.

There was something about
Chris that was special, he was,

out of the four children we had,

there was something different

about him right from the start,

and he was very loving,

very kind to people,

very loyal to his friends.

Christopher had been a model son

really, and he had this ambition

after he got a little bit older
that he thought he was gonna join

the police force, he was interested
in becoming a policeman.

He wanted to join the army,
I took him to Black Heath barracks,

he'd signed all the papers

and they found
he had terrible asthma,

in fact they advised him to join
the police, would you believe?

They said, "Join the police,
do a few years in the police

"and when your asthma goes,
we will take you on."

And he was looking forward to that,

he was really thinking
about joining the police.

He was by all accounts
an ordinary, nice,

sensible young lad of 18,

growing up ready to make

his way in the world.

Sometimes murder
is like a lottery

and there is a chain
of circumstances

where each individual circumstances
by themselves

won't particularly
lead to any damage or harm,

but when they all add up,
those millions to one,

the coincidence, chance,
they can result

in the most horrific events
which destroy lives

and destroy the lives of those
who love the victims.

The night of the murder
was one of those situations

where you reflect on it
and you think,

"This was so senseless."

At that stage he was working
for a pizza company

and had been delivering pizzas
and was managing a shop,

and to all intents and purposes,
he was a genuine nice guy.

He was a hard worker as well,
he'd work for 14 hours a day,

he worked
for a local pizza company.

And one day he went in
and found out there was a record

for the most deliveries in the day
and he went,

"I'm gonna break that,"
and he broke it.

Chris had been working
at the shop at Tolworth

and his brother and a friend
had met him there

and they were just
walking home in high spirits,

they were singing
and talking to each other,

they weren't drunk

and they were just
walking home together.

I asked him,
"What happened, Philip?"

And he said, "We were
walking along singing songs,

two boys stopped us and told us,

"You're singing the song wrong."

We had a laugh
and a joke he said,

and they walked on, we walked on.

And then for some reason,
nobody knows exactly what,

an incident sparks
where a group attacks them.

And there's a hill,
coming the opposite way on this hill

were 14 boys and girls,
and they were drunk

and everything else
and they opened up, he said,

to let us through,
Phil walked through first

and the youngest one wanted to get
respect from his friends punched him

so hard in the face,
his nose ended up in his cheek.

This murder really was all about
two groups of young people.

You had one group which came

from a party above the shops
in this parade here.

They crossed the road
and started to walk down

that side of the road.

The other group which included

Chris Donovan, his brother,

and their friend was walking down
the road this way,

and it was when they were
just about on that hill going up

the road there that they met.

And as they met,
there was some sort of argument,

there was some sort
of argument broke out,

it might have been
about singing the words

to a song wrong,
something as simple as that.

But of course,
what you had is the group

that had come from the party,
had all been taking drugs,

taking amphetamines,

they'd been drinking.

Sadly, events intervened
in the form of this gang

of hooligans really, thugs,
who were looking for trouble,

there was no reason
to do what they did.

Whether there was a remark made,
but it resulted

in what appears to be an assault
on Chris and the other two.

Chris obviously
tried to defend himself,

he was knocked to the ground
and the witnesses describe

seeing him lying on the ground,

being kicked in a foetal position
in the road on the Ewell bypass.

And you've got this fight going on,

it's midnight-ish on a Friday night,
and it goes on for so long

that people in their houses hear it

and they come
to their bedroom windows

and they're looking out.

That was very helpful for us
as the investigation went on.

And all they see is this group
of young people milling

about fighting each other.

And during that fight Chris Donovan

gets knocked unconscious,

he falls on the ground,

and while he was on the ground,

somebody kicks him in the head hard.

At that stage, it would appear

that the traffic lights

that are approximately 200 yards

down the road were red,

so there is no traffic travelling,
they obviously changed,

went through the phase to green
and then vehicles moved up the road,

the group dispersed
that had attacked them,

leaving Christopher
unable to defend himself

and in the road,
and sadly he was then struck

by a passing vehicle.

He's unconscious at the roadway
and there's a poor woman at

these traffic lights,
she pulls away,

she drives up that hill
and she sees what she thinks

is a bin bag or a bundle of rags
in the road

and because there's another vehicle
close to her,

she tries to straddle it
with her wheels

and she drives over it
and it's Chris Donovan.

And part of his clothing
gets caught on part of the car

and she drags him along
the road for 70 or 80ft

before she realises
and stops and of course

that's caused him terrible injuries

in addition to the injuries
he suffered from the assault.

The impact
on the female driver was huge.

1:20 in the morning,
our doorbell rings and I'm thinking,

"How can two boys forget
their door keys?"

When I opened the door,

I was gonna give them
a right mouthful

as you can imagine
having to get out of bed,

opened the door
and instead of Chris and Phil,

there's two policemen, they asked
if I was Chris and Phil's dad

and I said yes, they said,

"We need to speak to you
and your wife urgently,"

and I said, "What's it about?"

And they wouldn't tell us.

Vi got out of bed and they said

that Chris had been
involved in a fight,

he is seriously injured,
and we need to get you

to Epsom hospital straight away.

I remember thinking,
"This is not happening to us,

"it's someone else, they've got
the wrong one, this is not Chris."

We live about 13 miles
from the hospital.

When we got there,
Philip and his friend Richard

were in forensic clothing,
Philip's face was all blooded,

as I'm talking to Phil,
another policeman came up

and said, "You can't see Chris.
We're operating on him."

And we just sat in that room,
with Philip, holding him

and he was crying
and shivering and shaking,

and it was like your whole world
has just crashed in around you.

Then at 4:20 in the morning,
we'd seen the doctors, the police,

the hospital chaplain,
they didn't have to tell us,

their face told us,
Christopher died that morning

because one 15-year-old coward
wanted respect from his friends.

I ran out the door
and I ran down the corridor

and I can remember a huge policeman
coming towards me

and holding his arms out
and he hugged me,

and he looked down
and at me and said,

"We're gonna get them,"
and I remember thinking

"No, you're not."

We all felt that
we needed to do the best job

that we could for Chris,
his family and his parents,

Ray and Vi, who had
obviously suffered immensely

as a result of what had happened.

Chris became what is known
as property of the coroner.

He's not a crime scene,
he's our son,

but we couldn't touch him,
and I remember the policeman saying,

"I don't know how to ask you this,
but is this your son?"

And I know a lot of young people
disrespect the police,

but that man hugged me
like a father that night

and cuddled me and cared for me,
there is a human being behind

that uniform that
we had to show people

that the police are not animals,

I have the utmost respect
for them from that day on.

Two hours later,
in walks another policeman,

his name is Colin Sutton,

as he walked in the room,
the atmosphere changed.

I know that's hard to believe,
the atmosphere changed,

and he just sits down on the chair,
he didn't ask us to sit down,

he just sits down,
looked me in the eyes,

didn't call me Mr Donovan, he went,
"Ray, I will never lie to you,"

and the minute he said
that he got my respect.

He then said,
"I've put up an accident sign."

I said, "Why did you put up accident
when its murder?"

And he said, "If I put up murder,

"no-one will come forward,
trust me,"

and from that day to this,
I trust that man.

So do you, don't you?
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Something about him,

his personality, he's caring,

permeates a room when he walks in
and it was the only thing

that we had that was strong,

we all felt so out of control
at that time,

everything was taken away,
everything you know

and hold dear is gone,

but this one person comes in

and they are strong
and that is so amazing.

Being able to talk
to Chris's brother and friend,

what became clear was that

these two groups
didn't know each other,

there was nothing pre-arranged,

there was no history
between the groups,

it was just something that happened

on the spur of the moment

as they bumped
into each other on the street.

As soon as I was updated
on what had happened

and the descriptions
that had been given

by various members of the public

who looked out of their,
mainly, bedroom, windows

because it was late at night
to see what was happening.

It was clear that
we had a group of assailants,

some of whom were responsible
for the assault on Chris,

others who were merely standing by.

The fight happened
and the place where it happened

was bordered on both sides
of the road,

it's a dual carriageway,
but there were houses

on both sides of the road.

And because the fight
went on for some minutes

and there was shouting and noises,

quite a few of the local residents

were alerted by it.

What we needed
to do was identify

who was responsible.

Quite unusually, I suppose
we had a number of eyewitnesses,

people who could tell us
exactly what was happening,

what they'd seen,
and who was doing what

and that has become
very, very helpful for us

as the investigation went on.

Another witness that we had
was a very unfortunate lady

who'd been driving her car.

She was driving her BMW
from Epsom towards Tolworth

and she left
the traffic lights close

to where the murder happened,
and by this time Chris Donovan

was unconscious
and lying in the roadway.

This lady didn't realise
it was a person,

she thought it was a bin bag
or some rags or something,

and because there was
another vehicle on her outside,

she decided that she would
just sort of straddle it

with her wheels and drove over it.

And of course this inflicted
horrible injuries on him

and this poor woman

was absolutely distraught,

and it completely wasn't her fault,

you know, it could have
happened to anybody.

But that was another factor we had,

we had this lady who we were
treating as a witness of course

rather than any sort of suspect.

It's a really unusual incident
for that part of the world.

You don't get murders
in Ewell really,

and people in the community
wanted to help

and it didn't take
very long for people

from the Watersedge Estate
to be phoning in

and giving us
the names of the youths

that were in this assailant gang.

And we had a range of youths
from 15 years old up to early 20s,

it was one of those situations
where the names were repeated,

different people phoning in
had given us the same names

and so we were confronted

with the fact that
the overnight team

had gone out and arrested them.

We had some people
who had been arrested

on that Saturday morning as a result

of information
coming into the police,

but what we didn't have

was clear descriptions
of the clothing

that the offenders were wearing,
and without having that clothing,

it would be virtually impossible
to prove who was responsible

for the assault on Chris.

We had varying descriptions of tops,
trouser bottoms,

we had baseball caps
and we had descriptions

of at least one of them
kicking Christopher

as if he was taking a penalty
whilst he was on the ground.

We had all these people there,
we could interview them

and try and get
an account from them,

if they so desired

and if they were going
to talk to us,

but ultimately, they were
gonna have to be released on bail

and we were going to have to

have to carry on the investigation

until we found proper evidence

to justify their arrest again.

One of the difficulties
as a result of Chris being struck

by the vehicle was that
it was important

to identify to the court
what killed Chris,

was it the actions of the people
who assaulted him

or was it as a result
of being struck

by the motor vehicle.

As a result, it meant that,
unfortunately, further inquiries

and research had to be
made into Chris' brain

to ascertain the seriousness
of the injury inflicted.

While were outside,
the coroner went,

"I've got bad news," and I said,
"What could be worse than that?"

She said, "Because of the kicking
and the car,

"I had to prove what killed Chris.

"To do that, I had
to remove his brain,

"wait for an enzyme to come out,
this takes 16 weeks,

"and you can't bury Chris
for 16 weeks."

The injuries that Christopher
suffered were quite extensive

and the pathologist was a guy

called Ashley Fagan-Earl,

he was very helpful in the sense
that he was quite categorical about

what he said 'cause he looked

and examined every inch
of Christopher's body

and he was able to say
quite definitely

that the injuries he'd suffered
from the neck upwards

were from the assault
and the injuries from the neck down

were the abrasion injuries
from being dragged under the car.

And crucially, he said,

"It's these ones,

"the assault injuries
that killed him."

This therefore put
the whole case on a murder footing.

One of the things
that came out of the post-mortem

was that Chris had
quite short hair anyway,

and they shave the head so that
we can see more clearly any injuries

and on the top of his scalp,

there was a quite

a well-defined pattern of bruising

and it looked for the world

as if it were a print
from the sole of a training shoe

or some sort of ridged sole
from some footwear.

So, it looked like something

is stamped on his head

and we were little bit
kind of confused by this

because if you imagine because
it was right on top of his head

the circumstance
in where somebody could

get to that position to stamp
on his head would be

a bit difficult
to envisage, you know,

if he was climbing out

of a manhole then you could do it.

But in the fight that's gone on,

we weren't quite sure

how that could have happened.

A lattice type of shape,
or a shape, had been identified,

which the police initially thought

on scientific advice,
forensic advice,

was from the sole
of a training shoe.

And when we got the clothing
and training shoes

from all the people
that have been arrested

and started looking at them,
there wasn't a pair of shoes

or pair of trainers that

just by observing it looking at it

matched this mark on Chris' head.

They arrested six suspects

quite shortly
after Christopher's murder

and they took, obviously,
the clothing

and shoes
of the most paramount importance,

but none seemingly matched
the imprint on Christopher's head

from the fatal injury.

It troubled me for a few days
because I thought,

well, it's obviously that mark,
that bruising is obviously something

to do with the assault,
but it doesn't look like,

we thought, the stamp,
and what I did was I went back

with Jack Regan two or three days

after the post-mortem

back to the mortuary,

and asked the mortuary attendant

just to let us have
another look at Chris' head

because in my experience

sometimes bruising can come out more

and be more distinctive

after a few days have passed.

And then he lowered himself,

so he was looking at Christopher
sideways almost face to face.

Pretty horrible thing to do
unless you are that detective

who is looking for the opportunity
to find that person's killers.

And in this instance,
Colin got his moment of inspiration.

And it became obvious
what this mark was,

it wasn't from
the sole of a trainer.

It was from the in step.

It was the mark of
where the laces have been

inter-crossed
across the instep of the shoe.

Of course, that tied in perfectly
with one of the witnesses

who described seeing
somebody kick Christopher

"like a penalty kick,"

like they were taking a penalty,
and of course,

it makes much more sense
that if he's laying on the floor

then a kick like that
would be easily land

on the scalp on the top of his head.

The difficulty with it was of course
the way that your trainers

are laced up can vary each time
and depends on

whether there's a foot
in there or not

or the thickness
of the socks you're wearing.

It wasn't possible conclusively

to compare the mark

on Christopher's head

with any one of the shoes we had.

It was then imperative that
we identified the items of clothing.

One of the features
of this investigation

was just the sheer
amount of information

we were getting from the public,
the public around here,

on the nearby estate,
they wanted to help us.

And one of these snippets
of information was that

two of the suspects had gone,
before they went to the party,

by train to Clapham junction
to score some drugs.

So, we came here
to Stoneleigh railway station,

had a look through the CCTV
and we had the two of them going out

towards Clapham Junction
and then coming back later

just before the party.

Crucially they were wearing
the same clothes, same colour,

same design as described
by the witnesses of the scene.

So, that CCTV
was added to the material

we were getting to try
and work out who was who.

So, by working back from the time
that we thought the assailant group

had gone to the party, we just kept
going backwards and backwards

and backwards on the CCTV
and eventually we find them,

all together in a group,
walking towards the party.

One of the most important things

was trying to work out

who did what

and we had all these
eye witness accounts

describing clothing and sometimes
hair colour and saying,

"This person wearing these clothes

and with this colour hair
punched somebody"

or "This person kicked somebody,"
but of course

none of the witnesses knew
the identity of who that person was.

We trawled the local CCTV
which gave us images both

in black and white
and also in colour.

In particular one of the assailants
was wearing a hooped top

which the definition
in black and white was different

to the picture you got in colour,

so it clearly showed
an additional line

on that polo shirt
which the colour one

didn't pick up as clearly.

And we were able to really work out
exactly what everybody was wearing

because they were all different,

people who had
the similar colour shirts

on had different colour trousers on
or something like that,

so they are all quite distinctive.

So, we then were in the position

where once we got
all this information together,

we were then able
to execute further warrants

on the people that
we wanted to arrest

in relation to this
and looking for specific items

of clothing and fortunately for us,

those items of clothing
had not been disposed of.

When we had the CCTV evidence,
they were re-arrested

and they started
talking to us to a degree,

but each of them was doing that,

"Yes, I was there,
but I wasn't involved,

"I didn't throw any punches,
I didn't throw any kicks,"

what we had was like a matrix,
like a spreadsheet

of all the witnesses
across the top

and then down this side,
the clothing they'd seen

and what they saw that person
wearing that clothing doing.

And so they'd say,
"pink shirt punched somebody,

"blue hooped shirt kicked somebody,

"plain blue shirt kicked
and punched somebody."

We also had the situation
where we had some accounts

being given in relation to certainly
one of the offenders

wearing somebody else's top,

that it simply could
not have been the case

because of the descriptions
that we got

and subsequently we also
got blood from Chris' brother

on a jacket
which belonged to that assailant.

But the problem that I foresaw
was that trying to express

that to a jury in terms
of just giving them a spreadsheet

with Xs and ticks and things
was just gonna be dry

and it was going to be
difficult to convince them.

And we first had to be
sure ourselves that we knew

who was wearing what

and what they did.

The issues we had were that
this had happened late at night,

under sodium street lighting,
so therefore that in itself created

some ambiguities
in respect of light tops,

some people
were describing a cream top

and some people
were describing a white top,

it was obviously dependant on

where they observed it from
in relation to the street lighting.

And I was just sitting down
with Jack and we were just talking

it over like you do sometimes,
just to how we'd do it,

and Jack made this throwaway comment
where he said,

"What we try to do here is
dress five tailors' dummies."

It became obvious that the best way
to do this was to obtain

some mannequins,
dress them in the clothing

that we had and take them back
to all the various scenes

of the CCTV together
with the scene on the night.

I discussed this with Colin,
we looked at it and we thought

about it and Colin was in agreement
that this was the best way forward,

it would give us a good visual image
that we could use at court

that could be shown to the defence
and would clearly discount

some of the minor ambiguities
we had in witnesses statements.

So, what we did is we went
to a local well-known store in Epsom

and they lent us six
of their best brand-new mannequins.

We then got the clothing
that we'd seized from the suspects

and we dressed
each of the mannequins

in what we believed
from the witnesses

that the suspects
were wearing that night.

We didn't want to take
anything for granted,

so although it was in September

as against the incident
that happened in May,

we chose to make sure
we had the right weather,

we had the same phase of the moon,
we closed the Ewell bypass

and used the hydraulic equipment
the fire brigade had,

so we were able to both video
from the ground and from the air,

and at the same time,
we then used video in evidence

from each of the witnesses' windows
that they had viewed the scene

from to show that they had
clear uninterrupted view

of what they had
described they had seen.

This garage had, at the time,

a CCTV camera just above

where the cash machine
is over there,

it may still be there
or another one may still be there.

But it pointed out directly

across the forecourt

and effectively
just across the road here.

And what we've then got is the group
who ended up as the assailants

are walking towards the party
on that side of the road

in that direction there.

And so we had that CCTV still,
we brought the mannequins

with their clothes on,
and we put the mannequins over there

and posed them in the exactly
the same position as the CCTV still,

had still photographs taken
and that gave us the two things

for the jury to compare.

Likewise, up in the shops up
near where the party was,

there was a Thresher's off license
and that's where the assailant group

had gone in to buy their drink
before they went to the party.

Again, there was good CCTV there
because it was indoors,

and it was well lit
and it was in colour.

And again, we went back there
with the mannequins

and posed the mannequins
in the exact same position.

You know, we could literally
have the still from the CCTV

in one hand and pose the mannequins

so they were in exactly
the same position

and by doing it at night
with similar lighting conditions,

it came out as something that
could be compared quite easily.

What we did was have
a police photographer

take still photographs
of the mannequins

with the clothing
on before we started

and we labelled them and said
that these are clothes taken

from each of the defendants
and put their names in,

but then after that,
what we did was took further stills

from the same CCTV camera.

So, we were trying to recreate
the conditions as best we could,

so the photographs
were all taken in exactly

similar conditions, and it worked.

We didn't do this exercise
with the mannequins

before we sent the clothing away
to be examined

because obviously
it was more important

to preserve any fibres or blood
or any other evidence

that might be on these clothes.

And the only thing that came up

was there was a black jacket

which actually belonged

to one young man,

but he lent it to another young man

who was wearing it at the time,
and they admitted this.

And there was a speck
of blood on the sleeve.

And the lad that was wearing
the jacket admitted

that he punched someone,

but he said he punched Phillip,

Chris' brother and during the melee,

he said he punched Christopher,
the man who died.

He'd admitted
to assaulting Chris' brother

because he felt
that would put him away

from the assault on Chris,
but clearly by doing that

he showed he was wearing the jacket
which was then been described by

numerous members of the public
and he was therefore at the scene

and involved
in the assault on Chris.

Then he said to us,
"If I arrest everybody in the gang,

"we could lose the case,

"let's just concentrate
on the three boys

"that killed Chris,
what the witnesses saw."

We went to a conference
with the QC

that was going to be
presenting the case

and he was of the view
that the speck of blood

on the sleeve of the jacket,

because it related to the brother

of the victim and not the victim,

that we shouldn't proceed

against that individual.

And Jack was a little bit
exorcised and excited by this

and he bubbled up and

was making an impassioned plea

to the lawyer and saying,

"You know, no, we've got them,

"we've got them," and it was

all very dramatic in some ways.

And then Jack subsided
and I took the more considered view

and I just tried to take it

logically to the lawyer and said,

"We can prove he was there
and we can prove

"that the blood means
he punched somebody,

"it's a joint enterprise
in the fight,

"he punches somebody
and somebody he dies,

"even if it's somebody else,

he's still a murderer"

and as the best lawyers do,
he saw my arguments right away

and said, "Yep, OK, I'm with you,
Mr Sutton, we will leave him in."

We went to court a year later.

So, were there in
witness protection,

Colin is there, liaison officers
and Jack Regan is there,

everybody is there, and again

he's helping us
through the situation.

And as we walked in, sitting
with their parents in front of us

were the boys who murdered Chris

in this foyer,
sitting right opposite us.

We had our friend from the church
and one of the policemen,

one of the team holding us
and they said,

"Don't move because he knew
what we were thinking,

"you know, you just want to go up
and smack them to be honest."

The eldest hadn't
really come into much contact

with the police, he obviously
had a difficult upbringing,

he lived with his mother
and his siblings

and his mother tried her best.

In relation to the 16-year-old,
he was someone who had started

recently come into contact
with the police,

certainly he came from a good home,

his parents cared for him,
they were concerned about him,

but it seemed at that time
it was impossible

to divert him away from the group

that he was getting
himself involved with.

And the story they had given
was that they had gone

to purchase some cannabis,

but in fact
what came out in the trial

was that they had gone
to Clapham Junction

to purchase crack cocaine.

So, certainly, both of them
that night had taken crack cocaine

and had also drunk alcohol

which is probably a good reason
as to how this situation arose.

It was a stupid fight, weren't it?

Well, it wasn't a fight,
it was an attack,

as two people fight,
this was an attack.

It shouldn't have even happened.

It was just a senseless murder.

The trial was at the Old Bailey
and it was in March/April 2002,

so it was 10 months afterwards.

The judge had applications

from the youngest of the suspects

of the defendants saying that

because he was so young,

could he be allowed to sit

in well of the court

rather than the dock

so that he could have access

to his lawyer at all times

and understand

the nature of proceedings,

and we thought

this was probably
a ruse to try to separate him

from the older men
who were in the dock.

The youngest, who was 15,
he persisted

throughout the interview saying
that he was not wearing his jacket,

which was the jacket that
had the forensic evidence on it,

he insisted that
he was wearing another member

of the group's jacket, that simply
couldn't have been the case.

So, throughout the trial,
the youths,

the defendants were kind of
saying it was nothing to do

with them individually,

and while they weren't
exactly pointing

their fingers at their friends,

that was kind of in the background,
they were kind of like,

"I was there,
but I didn't do anything,

"it was other people,"
it didn't matter ultimately,

it was a joint enterprise.

None of them accepted responsibility

in relation to this
which is why we had a full trial,

each of them blamed each other
and merely said they were present.

It was tough to sit and look
at the boys who killed your son

and then lie for 6 weeks and lie
and lie and you have to sit there

and just take that and say nothing.

The jury couldn't make
their mind up, the end of the case,

it was a Friday, we were
all sent away for the weekend.

We came back Monday

and they still couldn't
make their mind up by lunchtime

and the judge said,
"Get them out I a week."

They mumble in court a lot.

Then I think he said "I give

"2 out of 10 to two" went outside

and said "Should we go out
and get a cup of tea, Colin?'

And he said, "No,
they will be back in ten minutes

"and it will be a guilty verdict."

No-one was able to say
who delivered the fatal kick,

but there was a cutthroat defence

with people blaming each other,

and three of the suspects
were convicted of murder

under grounds of joint enterprise

and went to prison
for a very long time.

They were all convicted
duly of murder.

I think the judge
in sentencing them,

certainly the youngest
of the defendants

was given a recommendation
of only six years

of his life sentence,
I think the part he played,

the minor role he played
in it was reflected in the amount

of...the recommendation
given by the judge.

The sentence they got was,
they got 15-year-old

who was 16 and he got
life imprisonment 6 years.

The 16-year-old who's 17 in court
got life imprisonment, 9 years,

and the 19-year-old got
life imprisonment, 10 years.

No doubt that those thugs

probably never intended

to take his life,
but their errant actions,

thuggery, and bullying really

because there were more of them
as well,

ended up taking Christopher's life.

I think undoubtedly,
on reflection,

the combination of alcohol and drugs

was probably the reason for this
because none of them

had a history of violence as such
and previously been involved

in this type of incident.

It really underlined
the tragedy of this whole case

that it wasn't just one young life,
Christopher Donovan, who was killed,

but three more young lives
were touched by having

a conviction of murder

and it was all such
a senseless tragedy

that it happened in the first place.

When you reflect on it,
nobody wins.

We have a family that lost a son,
we have three young men

who have blighted possibly
the rest of their lives

and certainly spent a period of time

in custody
as a result of their actions.

A lot of other people
who had been touched

by this were members of the public

who woke up or looked out
of the window to see what happened.

There was the poor lady

who was driving the car
that struck Chris.

In court, I said to Vi,
"Look at the families,

"take one look at them,
there's no winners,

"we have all lost a kid today."

Ryan Seymour's dad came up
and we were crying, we were crying.

It was so emotional,
we didn't cheer, did we?

Like I said to Vi, no-one won here,
we all lost a kid, we were crying.

And this man, this father walked up
and he said, "I'm sorry"

and I just walked up
and we hugged each other.

I think me and him had

the first restorative
justice meeting

in this country with murder,
and we talked and I said to him,

"Don't worry, no-one is gonna
come up to your boy in prison,

"he knew we did prison work,"

I said, "No-one is gonna
come up to your boy in prison.

"I just got what I wanted today,
justice, that's all I wanted."

And Colin said afterwards,
"I've never seen so much compassion

"in my life between two fathers."

Coming home that night in the car,

"I turned to Vi and said,

"You know what, we need
to forgive the boys that did this."

I didn't want to forgive them,
I didn't want to.

But what I did realise was actually

if you hold onto un-forgiveness,

it will just destroy you,
it won't destroy them

'cause they won't care,
they won't know.

So, I realised probably later on
that it's about...

not about how you feel,
it's just doing it,

it's a choice and you just do it
and you keep doing it

and even today
all these years later,

we're still doing that.

Christopher's family
went on to use his death to try

and improve the lot of prisoners

and try to make
the world a better place,

to try and make something positive
come out of the negative,

which is a remarkable thing to do.

The remarkable thing
about the Donovan family,

Ray and Vi Donovan,
is how they reacted

to their son's death is that
they are both committed Christians

and I think they have
looked at the tragedy,

looked at the terrible situation
they are in and thought

"How can we make the best of this,

"how can we turn this
into a force for good?"

And with the Christopher
Donovan Trust,

that's what they've done.

They go around to prisons,
they go around to schools,

they talk about restorative justice,

they talk to people,
to young people about their lives

and how they shouldn't waste them,
and I've met people,

young men that they have spoken
to who told me,

"If it weren't for Ray
and Vi Donovan and their work,

"I would either be in prison
or I would be dead."

They really have made
a force for good out of the tragedy

that was the murder of their son.

The most important thing
for us was that we felt

that we had done
the best job we could

with the resources
and the information we had

and that we were able,
as best we could,

to show to Ray and Vi exactly
what had happened on that night

and how Chris had died.

I think the fact that
he allowed us to be kept in the loop

on everything as much as he could
was really helpful to us,

you don't really realise,
but when you look back,

you realise how helpful that
was that we knew what was going on,

that they were doing this,
doing that,

and it was so important to us,
it was the one thing

we had to hold on to,
knowing that we would eventually

get some justice for Chris.

Wherever we go around
the country or around the world,

wherever we go, he's our story.

If it weren't for him, we wouldn't
have got justice, I know that.

To put your whole life
and your trust in that one person

is quite something
when everything is out of control,

I can tell you, to know
that they have got your back.

He really cared.

He wasn't a policeman
"This is my job,"

he was a man who cares about
the people he's working for.

It's an unusual gift, isn't it?

It's a wonderful gift, isn't it?

We don't know how grateful and lucky

we really, really are to have him,

you know, and goodness knows
how many people

he has treated like that.

He's just always there, isn't he?

Absolutely, I think
he will always be there,

he's part of our life.