All language subtitles for Britains.Most.Evil.Killers.S04E08.WEBRip.en

- MALE NARRATOR:
23rd of October, 1983,

Dore, South Yorkshire, England,
Basil Laitner, his wife, Avril,

and their children, Richard
and Nicola, had settled in

for the night.

They'd been hosting their
eldest daughter's wedding

earlier that day.

Unbeknownst to them,
a stranger armed with a knife

had broken into their house.

- GEOFFREY: He creeps up
the stairs and mistakenly

thinks that Nicola is in
the room with the

bridesmaid's dress on the door
and goes in.

He discovers that it's not
Nicola, it's Richard.

He wastes no time in killing
Richard Laitner with a series

of vicious knife wounds.

- NARRATOR: The deadly
commotion woke father Basil

who went to investigate,
he too was stabbed to death.

The killer was 42-year-old
Arthur Hutchinson, a violent

criminal and rapist who was
on the run from the police.

After murdering Basil
and Richard he made his way

to mother Avril's bedroom,
where he stabbed her

repeatedly.

- ELIZABETH: She had
26 marks of violence

on her body, it was much more
violence than he needed

to actually end her life.

- NARRATOR: The killer then
made his way to

18-year-old Nicola's bedroom,
he raped the teenager

multiple times before going
on the run once again.

- ALAN: You'd had this
very happy occasion,

this big family wedding,
and then 12 hours later

the world's being turned on its
head and poor Nicky Laitner,

her life changed forever.

- NARRATOR: His history
of violence culminated

in an unthinkable attack,
a sadistic rape of an

18-year-old girl, having just
murdered her parents

and elder brother in cold blood.

This makes Arthur Hutchinson
one of the world's most

evil killers.

- ♪

- NARRATOR: On the morning
of October the 24th, 1983

workmen made their way
to Basil Laitner's house

to dismantle the marquee
in the garden, they made

a startling discovery.

- MICHAEL: They found Nicola
in a most dreadful state,

totally traumatized.

They call the police and they
realize the horrific nature

of the crime.

The major incident team
were called out and I was

part of that.

- He wreaked utter devastation
in a matter of minutes,

he took out three prominent
members of the local

community and raped
a young woman.

- NARRATOR: News of the
Wedding Day Massacre

hit the headlines and spread
fear across the whole

of the nation.

The killer, Arthur Hutchinson,
had been on the run for

26 days and quickly became
Britain's most wanted man.

- It's only a few years after
the arrest of Peter Sutcliffe

for Yorkshire Ripper and you'd
seen a reign of terror.

People remembered very
quickly.

And you've got a knifeman
on the loose, a man who's

been prepared to kill
three people in cold blood.

So, very quickly, people
changing their patterns

of behavior and women
wouldn't go out at night

unaccompanied.

- NARRATOR: As fear gripped
the nation, the brazen killer

who had a history of violent
and sexual offenses,

even taunted the police
whilst on the run

and gave himself the nickname
The Fox.

- He wants to be recognized,
he wants infamy, he wants

to develop a brand, he wants
people to fear him.

- He's sadistic, he's cruel,
he has no empathy for anyone.

- NARRATOR: This killer's
story begins on

the 19th of February, 1941.

Arthur Hutchinson was born
in Hartlepool in the

northeast of England.

- GEOFFREY: Arthur
Hutchinson was born

into an extraordinary family,
in fact it was two families

in the end.

His mother Louise had a
husband called Cuthbert,

with whom she had six
children, but they also had

a lodger called Arthur
Hutchinson, with whom Louise

had two further children,
the first of which was

Arthur Hutchinson,
named after his father.

- NARRATOR: Mother Louise
eventually set up home

with Arthur Hutchinson, senior.

For their son, Arthur, growing
up wasn't easy.

- His siblings didn't like him,
they made fun of him,

he was an illegitimate child
and they were legitimate

children.

So right from the word go,
he was an outsider,

he was excluded, he was
marginalized even within

his own family.

- NARRATOR: But young
Hutchinson was close

to his mother, and would
often seek comfort from her.

- There's not a lot of doubt
in my mind that

Arthur Hutchinson was
Louise Reardon's favorite child.

This was probably exacerbated
by the fact he caught

meningitis as a small boy
and would therefore have been

extremely ill, it was a nasty
disease to catch

as a young child.

And then he rode into
a lampost on his bicycle,

fracturing his skull.

- And he was in a coma
for three days, he had

quite a significant injury
to his head.

- And what happens in things
like head injuries,

in some cases, it weakens
inhibitory controls

and then you act out more
impulsively than you might

otherwise do.

- I don't think that head
injury led him to become

a murderer, I think it might
be a factor in the background.

Because we can see when
we study convicted killers

that there are higher rates
of traumatic brain injury

in them than there are in
the general population,

but it's certainly not
a causative reason

and it's not an excuse.

- NARRATOR: At school,
Hutchinson struggled

academically and was often
teased by his five sisters.

- That type of bullying,
and teasing, and humiliation

as a child stays with people,
and it harbors an enormous

amount of anger.

They just build up so much
resentment of people

that they want to get back at
who hurt them.

- Hutchinson's anger with his
sisters, who were making

his life a misery, was to
display itself very forcefully

at the age of seven, when he
stabbed one of them

with a pair of scissors.

- NARRATOR: As he grew
older, Hutchinson became

disruptive, and his behavior
towards the opposite sex

was disturbing.

- From a very, very early age,
Hutchinson was interested

in sex, and he took the most

profound interest in it.

- At age 11, he finds himself
in juvenile court for

indecent assault, now this is a
really, really serious crime

for an 11-year-old
to be committing.

And these crimes do not
just emerge out of the blue,

there tends to be an
escalation of behavior.

So this suggests to me
that you have a child here

who doesn't care about
harming other people.

- He must have only just
hit puberty, but I think

the moment he did, every
kind of hormone in the young

Hutchinson took off.

- This is an opportunity
to intervene.

And for somebody to be
committing this serious

an offense at this age
tells me that they are capable

of much, much worse.

- NARRATOR: In his late teens,
he got involved in petty crime,

and would steal cars and
switch their license plates.

- He was a classic case of
a bad lad gone worse,

you know, he started out
being a bit of a handful

as a boy, graduated into
petty crime, got involved

with the police, and had an
unhealthy attitude towards

women.

- NARRATOR: Despite his
reputation as a bad boy,

he was popular with women.

- He was obviously very
attractive, he lived in a

comparatively small area,
his reputation must have

preceded him, but he was
one of those ultimate

bad boys that girls want to
change.

- ALAN: I think Arthur's
attitude to women was that

they all fancied him,
it was as simple as that.

He had this unquenchable
belief that women wanted

to be with him,
wanted to be around him,

wanted to sleep with him.

- NARRATOR: Throughout
his teens, Hutchinson had

19 appearances in front of
the magistrates, including

four charges of sexual
intercourse with girls

under the age of 16.

After leaving school,
Hutchinson joined the

National Coal Board as a
trainee miner.

- He's soon sacked from
that job because he

breeches safety regulations.

He's somebody who doesn't
respect rules,

he doesn't think
they apply to him.

- He went into a number
of professions, he'd worked

as a farm laborer,
he traveled with gypsies,

he worked with the circus.

- These are jobs that involve
him kind of going off the grid,

they're not regular jobs,
and I think he's got that

kind of proneness to boredom,
that need for stimulation.

- NARRATOR: Eventually
he did settle down,

and in 1960, aged 18,
he married his neighbor

in Hartlepool, and they had
a child together.

But Hutchinson quickly
went back to his thieving ways,

and he lost his job as
a milkman for stealing wages.

- He was incorrigible,
whatever job he took,

he couldn't keep,
he wanted to break the law,

that's the only thing he really
knew about.

- NARRATOR:
The marriage became strained

and the couple split up.

Not long after, he met a
teenager who quickly

became pregnant,
but again, this relationship

didn't last either, and it
wouldn't be long before

Hutchinson's deviant desires
would surface.

A year later, in 1963,
aged 22, he was jailed

for unlawful sexual intercourse
with an underaged girl.

- There are no filters,
there are no boundaries,

there are no moral brakes
on his behavior

that stand in his way.

He's one of these people,
when he wants to do

something, he will simply
go and do it, when he wants

to attain something,
he will go and take it.

This is somebody who is
potentially very,

very dangerous.

- NARRATOR: With the
charges now mounting

against sexual predator
Hutchinson, he showed

no signs of stopping.

The crimes he would go on
to commit would be more

violent and soon turn deadly.

After his release from prison,
Hutchinson found work

in a chicken factory,
where he met his second wife.

The couple married just
months later, and moved in

with his mother.

- The second wife was only
16, and he was 27.

She was rapidly pregnant,
and he beat her.

She once said anything could
provoke him no matter what.

She also said that at one point,
she saw him knock his mother

halfway across the room
from her chair.

- He felt that he was invincible
and that he could charm

his way to anybody,
and the other side of him,

he was a very savage individual
and could turn very,

very quickly.

He had this sort of split
personality that enabled him

to get through his type
of life.

- This is a person who enjoys
controlling women, he enjoys

having women look after him,
have a roof over his head

and dinner on the table,
and this marriage is one

that is violent, it's one that's
abusive, his wife describes

how he was promiscuous
and controlling.

- NARRATOR: Unsurprisingly
after just three years,

this marriage also failed.

- The day he left her, he
beat her up in the street,

knocked her to the ground,
kicked her.

This was a man of violent
tendency.

- This is a pattern of behavior
with him, this man is a parasite

who feeds off the women
in his life, gets what he wants,

and then discards them.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson's
appetite for sex continued,

and in 1972, he was convicted
of unlawful sexual intercourse

and received another prison
sentence,

this time for three
and a half years.

By 1978, Hutchinson was
being investigated for

suspected Social Security
fraud.

He was adamant that his
half-brother Dino had tipped

the authorities off.

- He set off after his
half-brother with a

sawn-off shotgun determined
to end his life.

Dino, thankfully, escaped,
and Hutchinson was caught

and indeed imprisoned.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
was sentenced to yet more

time behind bars, this time
a five-year sentence

in Leeds Prison for attempted
murder and for carrying

a firearm.

- Hutchinson is somebody
who loves being in control.

Now, when he is sentenced
to a custodial term

that takes away a lot of his
power.

I think he would be feeling
very resentful, he'd be

ruminating, he'd be fantasizing
about what he was going to do

when he was eventually
released.

- NARRATOR: Alone with
his thoughts, Hutchinson's

deviant sexual desires were
once again ignited.

He read in a newspaper about
a woman in the north of Selby

who'd recently come into
money, she quickly became

his next target.

- For some reason,
he became fixated on,

became obsessed with.

She was divorced, she had
a new boyfriend, she had

a lot of money, throughout
the course of his day, he's

looking at different people
to see who he could get

over on, how he could go
about it.

- And she moved to live
somewhere just north of Selby

in a bungalow right on the
edge of a field,

and Hutchinson had read
this story and had made

drawings and sketches
of what this bungalow

would be like in the back
of this paperback book.

And on his release from
Leeds Prison, he was allowed

to take the book with him.

- NARRATOR: In September,
1982, six months after

his release, Hutchinson
made his way to the woman's

bungalow and broke in.

He stole her checkbook
and attempted to withdraw

cash from a local bank,
but was refused.

Penniless, he came up with
another plan.

- And he then decided that
he would follow this lady

and present himself to her,
and she was bound to

fall for his charm and want
to marry him.

He planned very, very
carefully, he set up a hideaway

in a field near to the bungalow,
watching the lady and her

male friend.

- He saw the woman in the
house making love to her

boyfriend, he waits for the
boyfriend to leave.

- When the male friend left
on the second night,

he then presented himself
absolutely naked to this lady.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
made his advances, which were

quickly rebuked by the
horrified woman.

Unable to accept the rejection,
Hutchinson raped her.

- Hutchinson is a misogynist
and he feels entitled to use

and abuse women.

He hasn't had access
to women in the time

that he's been in custody,
so by the time his release

comes around, he feels
entitled to go and take

what he wants.

- There was a struggle,
and he was wearing a

St. Christopher medal
on a chain around his neck,

and that was broken.

The very sensible lady
advised him to take the

medallion to a jeweler's shop
to be repaired, and he did that.

And of course the first thing
she did was to drive to

the police station and report
the horrendous attack.

They dispatched police officers
and caught him just

coming out of the jeweler's
and arrested him.

They took him back to
Selby Police Station

and of course as he walked in,
there she was in the

entrance foyer, and there was
a huge battle with officers.

- NARRATOR: Just months
after his release, Hutchinson

found himself back in
police custody.

He was determined not to be
sent to prison for the rape,

and decided to take action.

- Hutchinson is to have
appeared at Selby Magistrate's

Court, which is actually part
of the police station,

they were joined, so he's
taken to it.

He persuades the two
officers to uncuff him

because he wants to go
to the lavatory.

They make this mistake of
uncuffing him,

he jumps through the window,
cutting himself in the process,

but then lands on a mesh
which is protected by

barbed wire.

He cuts his leg really seriously
on the barbed wire,

but doesn't stop, jumps over
the barbed wire onto the

pavement, and sprints off.

- Here's a potentially
dangerous man, certainly

somebody who should be
under lock and key,

pending investigations,
and he is now roaming

Yorkshire free and
unfettered.

Nobody knows quite where
he is, nobody has the first

clue of how to find him again,
and he goes to ground,

he just disappears.

- The police, not surprisingly,
launch a manhunt,

he's an extremely dangerous
prisoner.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
lived rough for the next

three days.

But with his leg badly cut,
on the 2nd of October,

he decided to seek help.

- He made his way the 19
miles to Doncaster

and was treated at
Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

- He's obviously disheveled,
he's been living on

dandelion roots and whatever
he can forage for the last

three days, mud all over him
because he's had to crawl

along gutters, his trousers
are ripped to shreds,

nobody in A&E thinks to say,
"Well, how did all this

happen?" or if they did,
he had a very clever way

of describing it.

- NARRATOR: Unaware
that he was a wanted man,

medical staff tended to his
wound.

- And they treated it,
dressed it, and gave him

certain instructions that the
dressing needs changing,

and you need antibiotics,
you need to come back.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
returned to the hospital

two days later before going
on the run again.

During this time, he committed
a number of burglaries

to obtain cash.

- Nobody has a clue where
to find him, and he's been

on the run for about
three and a half weeks

before he finally washes up
in Sheffield in Dore,

a suburb just to the south
of the city center.

He would have been getting
a bit desperate by this point.

He's been living, almost
literally, in hedge bottoms.

He's chanced upon this
wedding party in this

prosperous part of Sheffield, a
large, expensive-looking house,

marquee tacked on the side.

- NARRATOR: The owners
of the house were hosting

a wedding reception for their
eldest daughter.

Hutchinson crept onto the
grounds of the property

and hid.

- The house is owned by
a local solicitor,

59-year-old Basil Laitner,
along with his wife

who is 55, Avril,
she's a doctor.

Also attending the wedding
is their son, Richard,

who's 28, and their younger
daughter, Nicola, who is 18

and is a bridesmaid
at the event.

- NARRATOR: Over 200 guests
gathered on the

23rd of October to help
celebrate what should

have been one of the
happiest days of their life.

- A lavish affair in Sheffield,
a lot of champagne,

a lot of food, and a very,
very happy day.

Sort of draws to a close,
it gets past seven,

or thereabouts,
it's getting dark.

Hutchinson is still hiding
in the garden.

Bride and groom depart
for a local hotel.

Basil, Avril, and their son,
Richard, depart for dinner

with a relative not far away,
but Nicola decides to stay.

- And at that time, unknown
to everyone, of course,

Hutchinson had made his
way into the back garden

of the house, and had been
observing what had taken place.

And he stayed like that,
in that area, for quite

some time because the family
had returned home,

probably about 11 o'clock,
and then they retired to bed.

- NARRATOR: Under the cover
of darkness, Hutchinson

broke into the Laitners' house.

Armed with a knife,
he was about to carry out

the next stage in his
sadistic plan.

- The motivation was sexual
in this case.

And in this particular case,
he saw the young girl,

he became fixated on her,
like he has done before,

and his goal was to rape her.

- Hutchinson creeps up
the stairs and mistakenly

thinks that Nicola is in the
room with the bridesmaid's dress

on the door and goes in.

He discovers that it's not
Nicola, it's Richard.

- And Richard's out of bed
in a flash and fights back,

but Hutchinson has the knife,
so he prevails.

- NARRATOR: Richard was
stabbed multiple times

in the chest, the impact
was so brutal that one

stab wound cut through
four of his ribs.

The commotion woke
the rest of the family.

- Mr. Laitner had obviously
gone to investigate,

their bedroom was on
the ground floor

and the guest bedrooms
were upstairs.

And he was actually
climbing up the stairs

when he was attacked.

- GEOFFREY: Now you have
Hutchinson who has already

killed Richard, stabs Basil
in the throat twice,

killing him, and he stabs him
again in the back.

Now he's only got two women
in the house, and he knows it.

- Mrs. Laitner, hearing some
noise, went out of her

bedroom on the ground floor,
and Hutchinson went down

the stairs again
and attacked her.

She tried to put her hands
out to stop the assault

on her and then grabbed
hold of the knife, it was

a huge knife, probably one
of the biggest bowie knives

I've ever seen.

- NARRATOR: Again
Hutchinson overpowered

his victim and killed her.

- There were three dead
bodies in this house,

in Dore in Sheffield, and one
terrified 18-year-old.

- You can't really imagine
how it must have been

in that house for those
awful, awful few minutes.

And within a few minutes,
both Nicky's parents

are dead too.

She's the last person alive
in that house.

- NARRATOR: The merciless
killer then made his way

up the stairs once again.

- He sets his sights on Nicola,
she was what he wanted

to get to, essentially.

He went into her bedroom,
he put the light on,

he threatened to kill her if she
didn't do what he wanted

her to do.

He marched her out
to the marquee in the garden,

where the family had been
celebrating a wedding

earlier on that day,
and he raped her.

- Hutchinson takes her
back upstairs again,

past the body of Basil,
back into the bedroom,

where he proceeds to rape her
not once more, but twice more.

- NARRATOR: With her family
lying dead around her,

Nicola's survival instincts
kicked in.

- She pretended to enjoy it
when Hutchinson

was raping her.

Hutchinson was an incredibly
narcissistic individual.

I think Nicola's behavior
towards him and the

performance that she was
able to put on kind of

pacified him a little bit,
validated him, and actually

saved her own life.

- NARRATOR: The heartless
killer showed no signs

of emotion towards the
deadly and bloody chaos

he'd created.

- After Hutchinson had
murdered the family,

after he'd raped Nicola,
he went and drank some

of the family's champagne
and ate some of their cheese.

Now, this appears to be
completely bizarre behavior,

somebody's gone from
murder and rape one minute

to eating and drinking the
next, but Hutchinson

is somebody who simply
follows his own wants

and his own desires.

He's hungry and he's thirsty,
it is as simple as that.

He is so unaffected by what
he's done.

- NARRATOR: It's almost
dawn, and for some

mysterious reason he ties
Nicola up again, covers her

in the coverlet, there's blood
from his knee on her

bedclothes, and says,
"Don't suffocate", and leaves.

- As the dawn broke,
he made good his escape

and then went on the run.

- NARRATOR: The following
day, workmen arrived

at the Laitners' house to
dismantle the marquee.

- They realized something
was wrong, you know,

they could get no response,
went into the house,

saw signs of disturbance,
came across the bodies.

- And then they discover
Nicola.

Nicola is clearly traumatized,
I mean, it's been the most

terrible, terrible experience,
there can be nothing

that could have prepared
any 18-year-old for that

sort of ordeal at the hands
of a monster.

- NARRATOR:
The workmen call the police

and Michael Burdis was part
of the major incident team.

18-year-old Nicola Laitner
was now their key witness.

- She was extremely
traumatized.

We assigned officers to work
with her, they produced

an artist's impression,
and we used a local artist,

and he produced a picture.

- NARRATOR: The police now
had a good idea

what the killer looked like.

They just didn't know
who he was.

- At this stage, no one had
actually joined the dots

between Selby and Sheffield.

At this point, nobody was
saying the man who escaped

from Selby three and a half
weeks ago is the man

who's committed these
murders.

- NARRATOR: The police
set up an incident room

in the local village hall,
and forensic teams quickly

set about trying to gather
any evidence that might

lead them to the killer.

- We got probably 300
different people that we

needed to identify to see
whether they had seen

or heard anything that might
have given us some clues

as to who was responsible.

We discovered a champagne
bottle on the kitchen table,

and on that bottle, we
discovered a palm print

and some fingerprints.

And we were able to discover
a fairly large piece of cheese

in the refrigerator which had
bite marks in it, and we

managed to get an impression
of the teeth

that had made them.

- NARRATOR: News of the
murders hit the headlines,

and the city of Sheffield
was gripped by fear.

- Not surprisingly, the people
of Yorkshire, and particularly

those around Sheffield,
were devastated that

three people should be killed
on their doorstep

in one night, on the evening
of a wedding.

The tremble that would have
gone through the whole

community, it was literally
extraordinary.

And what's more,
the perpetrator has not

been caught, there is a man
on the loose.

- NARRATOR: Two days
after the murder, the police

had a major breakthrough
with the help of

Nicola Laitner's description
of the murderer.

- We received a call from
North Yorkshire Police,

from Selby, to inform me
that they had experienced

a man escaping from their
police station, and he'd been

arrested and charged
originally with a very serious

case of rape.

And it seemed to be the
same type of crime that had

occurred in our circumstances.

And we were able to compare
the picture with a photograph

taken only a few weeks
earlier by Selby Police Station,

and it was almost
a carbon copy,

it was an amazing likeness.

We were able to get his
fingerprints from the

North Yorkshire Police,
and our fingerprint experts

compared them and
immediately said,

"This is the man."

So, we knew within two days
that we were looking

for Arthur Hutchinson.

- NARRATOR: Desperate
to catch their man,

on the 27th of October,
four days after the attack,

the police took the unusual
steps of releasing information

on their number one suspect
to the press.

- MAN: It was from Selby
Magistrate's Court

a month ago that Arthur
Hutchinson escaped from

police custody.

He got out through a
toilet window.

Hutchinson, said to be a
physical fitness fanatic,

then climbed onto the roof
of a police van which was

parked in the backyard,
climbed over a back wall,

and ran off.

- It's a very rare event
that the police will actually

name who they're looking for.

But on this event, we took
the decision that the

public were at danger,
and at risk from this man

being at large in the
surrounding area.

It was important we should
say to the public,

"Look out for this man,
but if you have seen him,

keep away from him."

- And those posters went up
everywhere, you know,

they made a big, big impact.

- There was a major
front-page story in a

Northeastern newspaper
which announced that

Arthur Hutchinson was our
number one suspect,

and prime suspect, and that's
who we were looking for.

- NARRATOR: The terrified
public were keen to help

the police with their search
for the killer.

- It also brought with it
additional problems.

We had over 3,000 calls,
1,000 calls in the first day,

from members of the public
thinking that they'd seen him,

and some of them probably had,
but a good number hadn't.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
had now fled nearly

40 miles away,
as far as Nottinghamshire.

His name and face was all
over the news, so on the

30th of October, he decided
to call The Yorkshire Post.

- He tried to put people
off the scent, in fact he'd

been traveling a great deal
more than he let on

in the phone call with
The Yorkshire Post.

- And in these calls, this is
just a narcissistic monologue,

this is all "me, me, me"
there is no mention whatsoever

about his victims, if anything,
he's taken the victim role

for himself.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
reveled in the media spotlight.

- ALAN: He started writing
letters to The Yorkshire Post

taunting the police, that's
when he gave himself

the ludicrous nickname
The Fox.

Because he could slip in
and out unseen, and the police

couldn't catch him.

And he boasted of having
been in and out of Doncaster

four times without being
caught.

- LOUIS: When you look at
someone like Jack the Ripper,

for example, Jack the Ripper
didn't give himself the name,

the media gave him the name.

But in this case, Hutchinson
gave himself the name,

he's The Fox, he wants
to present himself in

a certain way to other people,
sly, cunning.

- The police hired in
a behavioral psychologist,

and she put a finger on it
straight away and said,

"This is a man bigging
himself up, this is about him,

"his reputation, and his
self image: the master criminal

"that the police couldn't
possibly catch."

- The context is really
important here, only a few

years prior to this, we'd seen
the conviction of the

Yorkshire Ripper, and we saw
the kind of celebrity status

that was attached to
Peter Sutcliffe.

And I think Arthur Hutchinson
wanted a piece of that,

he felt like he deserved
that kind of recognition.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
had now been on the run

for six days since murdering
three members

of the same family.

The police had deployed
all of their resources

into finding him.

Nine forces joined in the hunt,
spotter planes and helicopters

scanned the Peak District,
but there was no sign

of the deadly fugitive.

- Hutchinson is intent on
evading capture, he starts

to alter his appearance,
starts to use disguises,

he moves around a lot,
mostly on buses.

There were sightings of him
at various points, particularly

at the end of October,
about eight days after

the killings, in a pub.

But nothing happens.

- NARRATOR: The brazen
killer thought he was invincible

but the police were closing in
on him.

- We were fortunate enough
to know that a brooch

had been manufactured
specifically to give to

Avril Laitner, and that brooch
was missing.

And it was quite obvious
that Hutchinson had stolen it,

and so we were able to
circulate pictures into

jewelers in surrounding towns.

And we were able to trace
some of his movements

into Nottinghamshire,
Mansfield, Worksop,

before he then moved further
back north.

- NARRATOR: With the media
frenzy and the killer's

taunting messages,
the pressure was mounting

to catch the killer, and the
police had come up with a plan

to lure Hutchinson in
by leaking information about

the killer to the media.

- Mick Burdis was aware
that Hutchinson had injured

his knee on a piece of barbed
wire when he escaped from

Selby Police Station, and used
this very cleverly by playing

at the injury.

That it might be worse
than Hutchinson suggested,

and that he was highly likely
to find he'd got an infected

wound that might even turn
gangrenous.

And he planted that thought
knowing that Hutchinson

would get to know about it.

- NARRATOR: Michael
and the team also decided

to exploit another of
Hutchinson's weaknesses.

- Well, he was close to his
mother, and eventually

we persuaded his mother
to allow us to broadcast

the fact that she was
seriously ill, which was true,

she did have a heart
condition, and we arranged

for her to be moved from
her house by ambulance.

And that was well publicized,
we thought that that would

attract Hutchinson to the
area, which it did.

- NARRATOR: Concerned
about his mother's health,

Hutchinson made his way
back to Hartlepool.

- He knows the police are
going to be keeping a watch

on his mother's house,
and he makes the mistake

of ringing her, and the police
have tapped the phone.

And he says,
"I'm coming tonight,

I'll be with you at four A.M."

And the police have got
the information, they now

know the time he's going
to arrive at the house,

and they also crucially know
the likely route

that he's going to take.

So they flooded the area
with police and tracker dogs,

and waited, and waited,
and waited.

- NARRATOR: Nearly 400
police officers and dogs

lay in wait for the killer
to appear.

- And they got a lucky break,
a farmer out feeding his stock

late at night came back
in the house, his wife had been

watching him through
the window, and she said,

"Did you see him?"

And the farmer said,
"Did I see who?"

And she said, "Arthur
Hutchinson, I'm sure

that was Arthur Hutchinson."

And of course it was,
so they rang the police.

This draws the net in a little
bit tighter still.

- NARRATOR: Eventually,
on the 5th of November,

Hutchinson was spotted by
police aircraft near a farmhouse

near Dalton Piercy, Cleveland.

Police dog handlers quickly
closed in.

- He sees them, brandishes
a knife, and also wraps

his jacket around his arm
in case the dogs bite him,

and runs.

He's not gonna outrun
two police dogs and two

police officers, he realizes
that and sits down

holding the knife.

Now, some speculated
that Hutchinson was intent

on taking his own life
at that point, he's pointing

the knife towards his stomach,

the reality was
I don't think he was.

I've always believed that that
was bravado, he was a coward.

- NARRATOR:
After 39 days on the run,

across nine counties,
the deadly game was finally up

for Arthur Hutchinson.

- The dog handlers were able
to make that arrest,

it was a long wait.

- NARRATOR: With Hutchinson
now in custody,

further evidence was
discovered from during

his time on the run.

- He made a recording
on a little portable

tape recorder, and he referred
to himself as The Fox there,

and how he would overcome
all the difficulties that he

was experiencing, and it gave
us clues as to how we might

use that knowledge of his
mentality and his state of mind

to our advantage, really.

- NARRATOR: The trial took
place on the 4th of September,

1984 at Durham Crown Court.

Nicola Laitner would have to
face her attacker.

- The judge, Mr. Justice McNeil,
decides that Nicola Laitner

can be identified because
it was local knowledge

that she had been attacked.

Which meant that the
Laitners were also

public knowledge.

- NARRATOR: It was the
first time in British history

that they police used
video footage to show

the crime scene.

- For the first time, here
were the police shooting

a video moving around the
house, piecing together

the story in the order that
they understood from

the forensic evidence
that events had happened.

And the jury was shown it
which was another first.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
took to the stand, but he

denied any role in the murders
or the rape.

- I remember a fairly slight
figure, unkempt, but with

that slightly cocksure--
just the way he held himself.

A man who fancies himself
a bit.

And when he was giving
evidence, almost everything

he said,
he was spinning a yarn.

- NARRATOR: As the delusional
killer continued to deny

any responsibilities for the
murders and the rape,

the overwhelming evidence
was presented.

Blood samples that
Hutchinson had left

at the scene were also
analyzed.

- Now, the police had very
convincing evidence that

he has a very rare blood group,
one of only 50,000 in Britain,

and his blood group is on
Nicola Laitner's bed.

- NARRATOR: The police
also had impressions of

the bite marks from the
cheese left

at the Laitner's house.

- And we were able to link
them to Hutchinson,

because he'd had
dental treatment

whilst he was in prison.

So we were able to match
the dental records with the

teeth marks in the cheese,
which was quite a unique

feature of any inquiry, really.

- It is pretty clear that they
have a lot of evidence,

as the police point out to him,
"Look at this, and how do you

"explain your blood group?

"And how do you explain
these teeth marks?

And how do you explain
this palm print?"

Gradually he turns the story,
he says, "I'd met Nicola

"the night before in a pub,
and she said why don't you

"come round after the
reception and we'll have

consensual sex?"

It was an absolutely bizarre
story.

- It doesn't surprise me at all
that he would come up with this,

a guy like Hutchinson,
and any other type of

career criminal,
all they do is lie,

they don't know
how to tell the truth.

- NARRATOR: As the trial
went on, Hutchinson

continued to fabricate his
version of events

on that fateful night.

- The way he seemed to
operate was that when

caught out in one story,
he just segued

into the next stories.

And when this story began
to unravel, he pointed to

a man called Mike Baron
who reported with the

Sunday Mirror and said,
"He did this, you should

"ask him about these
murders, he's the man

who committed them."

Poor Mike Baron was sitting
there looking absolutely

dropped-on, you know,
gobsmacked.

- He is literally plucking stuff
out of thin air at this point

in time, and obviously this
does not stand up whatsoever.

But what it does do, it creates
a distraction, it creates

a sideshow, it diverts people's
attention away from what

he has actually done.

- NARRATOR: On the 14th
of September, the jury of

six men and six women
took just four hours

to reach their guilty verdicts
for all three murder counts,

the rape charge, and the
charge of aggravated burglary.

He was given three
life sentences for the murders

of Basil, Avril,
and Richard Laitner.

In addition, eight years
for the rape of Nicola Laitner,

and another five years for
aggravated burglary.

- When he was first convicted,
he received a minimum

sentence of 18 years, which
was later upgraded to

a whole life order by the
home secretary, Liam Britain,

now these are not sentences
that are given out

just like that, they are
reserved for the most

dangerous offenders
in society.

So I think this is testament
to the evil things that this

individual did and the desire
to protect the public from him.

- NARRATOR: In 2008,
Hutchinson appealed his

life tariff, claiming it was
a breach of his human rights,

he was the first British
prisoner to do so.

His appeal was rejected,
and subsequent appeals

were also denied in 2015
and 2017.

- I think this determination
to challenge the sentence

really is testament to his
character, he's not taking

responsibility for his actions,
and for me that indicates

that this is an individual
who has not changed.

So, as far as I'm concerned,
Hutchinson is exactly

where he needs to be.

- Hutchinson was so arrogant,
so conceited, that he committed

a crime that never, never
needed to have been committed.

It was a monstrous act
to take the lives of three

completely innocent people,
in what?

In the pursuit of a rape,
it defies belief, it literally

sends a shiver down my spine.

This is a man of the most
deep depravity.

- NARRATOR: Hutchinson
was a sadistic sexual predator

who preyed on the vulnerable
and defenseless, even trying

to kill his half-brother.

His life as a career criminal
culminated in a brutal

triple murder of three
members of the same family,

along with raping the
teenage daughter at knifepoint.

To this day, he has denied
his guilt, and refuses to take

responsibility for his crimes.

Undoubtedly,
that makes Arthur Hutchinson

one of the world's most evil
killers.

- ♪

- [whoosh]