All language subtitles for murder.uk.s03e06.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

(soft dramatic music)

I'm David Wilson,
emeritus professor of criminology.

And for over 30 years,
I've investigated

the phenomenon of murder
and what it is that might

motivate someone to kill.

Every murder case is different,
but time and again,

a deadly pattern emerges
of warning signs and red flags.

In this new series, I investigate
some of the UK's most

harrowing murder cases
to understand how and why

these terrible crimes occur.

This is Murder UK.

(whirring)

(clicking)

(gentle ambient music)

It's 2014, and James Fairweather

was no ordinary teenager.

After school, he retreated
behind his bedroom door,

choosing dark, violent websites
and video games over friends.

For an isolated young man, the
internet had become his world.

It was certainly apparent that
he was becoming increasingly

obsessed with the material
that he was viewing

and accessing on the internet.

(David Wilson) Investigative
psychologist Donna Youngs,

whose work helped define
21st-century

criminal investigation,
had a unique perspective.

She believed Fairweather
didn't fit the classic profile

of a psychopath.

In fact, the presence of empathy
may have made him a greater threat.

James Fairweather is
actually a highly sensitive,

highly reactive,
highly responsive,

and, in fact,
highly empathetic individual.

He actually was
particularly suggestible,

prone to becoming affected by the
material in the way that he was.

(gentle ambient music)

(David) His parents
hoped for the best,

but the signs were concerning.

Excluded from school,
alone in his room,

15-year-old James nurtured
a secret fixation,

learning the methods
used by serial killers.

It was a very unhealthy interest
that he had developed

and grew from an unhealthy
interest into an obsession.

(David)
James Fairweather was living

in a world of online
make-believe, a world that

was shaping a dangerous teenager.

(Peter Bleksley)
Millions of people

play video games quite happily.

It has little or no
effect on them at all.

But Fairweather was
obsessed with them.

And rather surprisingly, I think,
for a 15-year-old,

he was obsessed
with violent pornography.

(tense music)

Just the sheer number of hours
that he spent looking at this

horrific material...
violent sexual material,

glorifying details
of... of serial killer cases.

And it was also immersive in
the sense that it was prolonged,

so both the number
of hours and these

over a prolonged period of time.

(David) You know,
the word "obsession"

or "obsessive" gets thrown
around a lot in our culture.

And that does seem to me to capture
a little of James Fairweather

but not the totality
of his identity.

Because I think his obsession
is almost akin to an affliction.

He forms his identity by
totally immersing himself

in an online world, an online world
that's characterised by violence,

by murder, and by serial murder.

No one knew the extent
to which James

was immersed in the violent
world of the video games

and websites he visited.

An awful lot of it
was done in secret.

I don't imagine his parents
fully knew quite how much

time he was spending
viewing material like this.

(gunfire on TV)

(David) The crucial element
in all of this is Fairweather's

prolonged immersion and exposure
to an online world of violence,

murder, and serial murder.

Now, that prolonged
immersion involves him

wearing headphones,
sitting in a darkened room,

staring at a screen
for hours on end.

He's almost in a sensory cocoon.

And that sensory cocoon
provides for him

a way of internalising
a way of being,

internalising how to be
James Fairweather.

And that involves him assuming
an identity from those things

that he's consuming about
how to hurt, about how to kill,

about how to become notorious.

And in that world,
killers and serial murderers

become aspirational figures.

They don't become someone to fear.

They become someone to be.

Prolonged exposure
to screen violence

was warping Fairweather's mind.

While his peers lived
normal teenage lives,

he was plotting to kill,
learning his trade

from the most horrific
platforms of the new century.

Even at school,
the friendless teenager

exhibited odd, violent behaviour in
a desperate bid to win popularity.

He searched out friendships
by punching other kids

and getting a high five
for doing so.

He was a bit of a stooge.

He would do things
for other older boys

in order to try and
win their friendship,

but nothing really worked.

(David) Fairweather
was now gripped

by a cocktail of obsessions...

brutal internet pornography,
violent video games,

and the faces of serial killers.

These three fixations combined to
form his macabre career ambition.

There was a part of him
that wanted to present

as this serial killer
seeking fame.

Growing up, Fairweather had
been reading about his heroes.

He'd been reading
about these murderers

who'd committed heinous crimes.

(Peter) Ted Bundy,
the notorious killer in America,

and Peter Sutcliffe,
the Yorkshire Ripper,

that's who he idolised.

He pored over every word
written about them,

every documentary, every book.

He wanted to emulate them.

At 15 years of age,
the extent of his ambition

was to be a serial killer.

(David) Ironically,
those who would later

examine the workings
of Fairweather's mind

found a complex,
deeply troubled young man.

James was a very odd young man.

He had convictions.

He'd criminally damaged a house.

He'd beaten up another
pupil at school.

Over the following year,
his violent behaviour escalated.

One evening,
the wannabe serial killer

armed himself with
a knife, stealing

30 pounds from a shop cashier.

The violence that defined
his online obsessions

had spilled into
the very real world.

Despite this twisted development,
no one knew

about James Fairweather's
serial killer fantasies.

But a man named James Attfield
was about to find out.

(ominous music)

Living a few miles away
in Colchester,

James Attfield,
known as Jim, was rebuilding

his life after a difficult period.

At 33, Jim was a father of four,
cherished by his family,

but his life was
irrevocably changed

following a catastrophic accident.

He'd been involved in an accident
some years previously, which had

left him with some brain damage.

It just completely
changed his life.

And he was never fully
functional again.

(keyboard clacking)

(David)
The lives of Jim Attfield

and the serial-killer-obsessed
teenager, James Fairweather,

were destined to intersect.

By 2014, Jim Attfield lived
in sheltered accommodation

and enjoyed a local pint.

On the evening of
March the 29th, 2014,

James Fairweather was doing
what he always did,

staring at a screen
watching virtual violence.

(weapons blasting on TV)

While Jim Attfield
was out having a beer,

James Fairweather slipped out,
climbing from his bedroom window

so his parents wouldn't know he had
left so he could stalk the town.

(Donna Youngs) You see him
moving across a landscape,

and then he comes across James
Attfield lying drunk, disabled.

And he's easy prey.

It's as if he's part
of a video game.

(soft dramatic music)

(gunfire on TV)

Cos my voices were talking to me,
you need to make a sacrifice

or we're going to come
and get you.

You need to do it.

(David)
Was James Fairweather

about to turn his digital fantasies
into a deadly reality?

(screaming and gunfire on TV)

(whirring)

(clicking)

(ticking)

(David) It was the early hours,
mild and misty,

as Jim Attfield walked home along
this deserted riverside path

in Colchester.

That time of the morning,

time of the morning
that Jim was killed,

the path would have been deserted.

During the day, it was
somewhere where people would

walk dogs or take a shortcut.

But after dark and
after midnight, it would

just be a deserted park path.

And you can imagine that Jim
felt quite safe lying on a bench

or even lying on the floor there,
because there was nobody about

and there was no danger to him.

(unsettling music)

I mean, Jim was really vulnerable,
absolutely defenceless, really.

(David)
James Fairweather was intent

on moving his online passions
into the real world,

copying the avatars he controlled
to make his obsessions come true.

He'd later claim that voices in his
head dictated what happened next.

And I saw him.

He was already
lying on the grass, like,

sort of going like that,
just like that,

just very... just fast asleep,
swear he was drunk.

And then it goes...
you're the one.

He's the one.
He's the one.

Do it. Do it.
So I went up to him.

-Can I stand up?
-(Detective) Yes.

Went up to him,
stood over like that.

He wasn't moving or nothing.

I stabbed him first here.

And I done it a few times.

When I was doing that, my voices
were laughing and laughing

and laughing louder and louder.

With the exception
of one individual,

I've never interviewed
a serial killer who

wanted to talk about their crimes.

In fact, I've characterised them
as being silent and uncommunicative.

Now, compare that with someone
who's desperate to talk

about what he has done.

He's desperate to talk about
what he's done because he needs

to tell everybody,
look at how dangerous I am.

Look at how evil I am.

He's been following a script,
and he wants all of us

to know about that script.

He wants all of us to be
afraid of James Fairweather.

(birds chirping)

(gentle music)

Shortly before 6:00
that morning,

a passerby discovered Jim's body.

The police were quickly
on the bloody scene,

where they found something both
gruesome and highly unusual.

He'd received in excess
of 100 stab wounds.

Most victims of
murder who are stabbed

tend to suffer one or
possibly two wounds.

In this case, Jim suffered
over 100 separate stab wounds.

That's a really frenzied attack.

(dramatic music)

(David) Criminologists
use the term "overkill"

to describe what we see here.

You know, stabbing
someone 100 times

is using much greater violence
than would be necessary

to achieve
the death of the victim.

So the fact
that there's overkill present

means that we're dealing with some
unexpressed psychological need

to use that many stab wounds.

And in relation to what's
happening with Fairweather,

we see some of those
stab wounds aimed directly

at the eyes of the victim.

And that brings us into
the territory of that immersive

behaviour that we know that
Fairweather engaged in, where he

had become obsessed with the crimes
committed by the Yorkshire Ripper

and, therefore, how this can be
seen as emulating one of those

people that he saw as heroic, one
of those people that he aspired to.

(Donna) There's almost something
of the avatar

about the way in which
James Fairweather

is conducting himself.

It's almost as if he is
imagining himself in a game.

(David) An autopsy
revealed a highly distinctive,

savage style of stabbing.

Not all these wounds
were life-threatening.

Some of them were superficial,
almost like little jabbing wounds.

(David) It was too early
to make the link,

but had detectives known
about Fairweather's obsession

with serial killers, the style of
the attack might have rung a bell.

Fairweather had picked this up
from Peter Sutcliffe,

the notorious Yorkshire Ripper,

because he'd done
exactly the same.

Sutcliffe also stabbed
his victims in the eyes.

And guess what.

Fairweather did exactly the same.

(water running)

The manner of the killing

was horrific.

And in particular, the
pathologist who gave evidence

remarked that it was highly
unusual for the eyes themselves

to be made the
subject of stabbings.

He was carrying out things
that he'd copied from things

he'd read on the internet
or in books.

You know, he was a
wannabe serial killer,

and he was acting out
that fantasy.

(David) For investigative
psychologist Donna Youngs,

the nature of the attack itself
revealed the inner workings

of the mind of the killer.

It doesn't suggest somebody
dealing with another person

in the way that we're used to,
trying to understand

murderous interactions.

It doesn't suggest a real
interpersonal encounter.

What it suggests to me is somebody
acting out a role themselves,

as if they are in a virtual
reality, acting out a role,

almost irrespective of the victim.

(David)
Early signs indicated

this was going to be a profoundly
difficult investigation

for the Essex Police.

This type of attack,
this type of murder

where it's obvious
it's a stranger attack

and there's no reason for it,
they're the very difficult ones.

They're the most difficult ones
for detectives to solve.

And you have to gather in every
possible piece of evidence

and take your time
and go through it.

You know, the detectives would
have been horrified and shocked

by the severity of the attack, but
that doesn't tell you who did it.

(David) There was simply
insufficient evidence from the body

found near the bench.

This was a crime like no other.

It's a psychological style
of murder from somebody

who's learnt to murder
on the internet.

They are seeing themselves
as some kind of avatar,

rather than the regular
murders that the police

are probably used to.

(David) Aside from the
brutal method of the murder,

police had little to go on.

The killer had worn gloves,
leaving no fingerprints.

There were no immediate
suspects in the frame.

When you get an investigation
like this, the adage is,

show me how he lived and
I'll tell you how he died.

You have to look into
the victim's contacts,

friends, acquaintances,
enemies, you know,

see if anybody had some
reason to kill him.

And if that draws a blank, you
start looking at things like,

you know, was it a robbery?

Well, here, there was no evidence
of Jim being robbed.

Was he involved in drugs at all?

There was no evidence of that.

You start looking for
a motive and find none.

And you realise you've
just got a random killing

with this immense savagery.

And you know it's going
to be a really long haul

and it's going to be a really
difficult job to investigate.

The first one remained unsolved
but was a single murder.

And as somebody in my line
of work, that's not uncommon.

(Peter)
It's fair to say that

in the early days of
the investigation,

the police were struggling a bit.

They had no murder weapon.

They didn't have a suspect
in mind.

You know, they were... they
were really up against it.

(David) Fairweather had, in fact,
left a scene often associated

with an experienced killer.

He was using the forensic
awareness skills he

had meticulously learned online.

Some of the things that he's
done, the forensic awareness,

some of the... the ways in which
he's used the knife are things

which we would have taken
as indications

of somebody much older,

somebody with much, much more
criminal experience.

(Peter) The police
interviewed a number of witnesses.

In fact, three people drew up
E-FITs of a potential suspect.

(soft dramatic music)

(David)
The E-FITs were accurate

portrayals of men seen nearby,
but none were the killer.

Fairweather had learned
all too well from the internet

how to avoid detection.

He'd clearly spent
a long time thinking

about when was the
right time to go out,

how he was going to
carry out the killing,

and how he was going to
cover his tracks afterwards.

And the fact that he was able
to avoid detection for so long

does show how carefully
he'd thought it through...

disposing of weapons, disposing
of clothing, and so forth.

(Peter) So the police
made a public appeal.

They've recovered 38 knives.

They've taken 106 statements.

They've visited over 300 houses.

The reward was taken
up to 10,000 pounds.

And still, they
didn't have their man.

(tense music)

(David) As the investigation
intensified, Fairweather

tracked the police's progress
from the comfort of his bedroom,

using the internet and TV.

The released E-FITs,
looking nothing like him,

offered him comfort.

He was free to kill again,

and that was his plan.

Just two miles from
the first murder scene,

students from across the globe
attended Essex University.

It was here that 31-year-old
science graduate Nahid Almanea

was completing her PhD in 2014.

She was a highly intelligent
and caring young woman.

She had high hopes and ambitions
for her life, both back at home

in Saudi Arabia, but had come
to England, loved it in England,

and come here to
complete her studies.

Nahid had been in
England for six months.

She'd been at the
university for six months.

She'd found it the welcoming
and friendly and relaxing place

that university campuses
often are.

And she felt absolutely
at home there.

And she was popular
with her other students

and fellow students and friends
and was enjoying life there.

(tense music)

(ticking)

(David) It was
a drab, grey day when

Nahid set off for her lectures.

At half past 10:00 in the
morning, in broad daylight,

she is on her way to her lectures.

Nahid Almanea wasn't
even 5 foot tall.

She was wearing sunglasses
and had a headscarf on.

She was tiny.

(David) Her diminutive
size may have made

her appear vulnerable,
an easy target.

The other thing that strikes me...

and again, it's a subtle
psychological aspect...

is that the victims that
James Fairweather picks on

are very vulnerable.

Fairweather had these ideas
to be a serial killer,

but he wasn't brave about it.

He chose people that
he knew he could

easily overpower... the
disabled, the small in stature.

You know, he didn't want to fight.

He just wanted to kill.

(David) So what he's
seeking are victims who

are not going to put up a fight.

He wants to dominate.
He wants to control.

He doesn't want somebody to
challenge what he's doing.

Because remember, he's been
a victim himself at school.

He himself knows what it's like
to have been bullied, so he wants

to choose people he feels he'll
be able to overcome

without them putting up
much resistance.

As she studied for a
career in health care,

Nahid had only known
kindness in Essex.

She was oblivious to
the threat lurking

adjacent to the riverside walk...

James Fairweather, who had
now begun his chosen career

as a serial killer and
who needed another victim

for his resume of violence.

My voices were laughing and laughing
and laughing louder and louder.

(suspenseful music)

(whirring)

(clicking)

(David)
James Fairweather had decided

he would kill
the next person who walked

along the Salary Brook trail.

He was skulking in broad daylight
adjacent to the riverside path.

Hiding in the bushes as if
it's a game, a hunting game...

I think he'd been empowered by
murdering Attfield and thinking

that he'd got away with it.

That attack was at night.

This attack was in the day.

He was getting bolder.

..equipped with his gloves...

(Colin Sutton) This was
around 10:30 in the morning.

Nahid was in her
traditional Islamic dress.

And she's just making her
way towards

her lectures and just going about

her everyday business
as a student,

not knowing that Fairweather
is lying in wait for her.

... and ready to pounce.

Fairweather was wearing
gloves, latex gloves.

He came up behind Nahid silently

and attacked her.

And he spun her round.

As he did that,
her sunglasses fell off

and he stabbed her
through the eye.

She went to the ground.

He stabbed her again
through the other eye.

And she actually suffered a
fracture of the base of her skull.

I mean, this is a
terrible, cowardly attack

on a defenceless person,
resulting in horrible injuries

but also injuries that were
just there for sadism, I guess.

(soft dramatic music)

(sombre music)

Nahid was found
with 16 stab wounds,

a lot less
than he'd inflicted on Attfield.

Maybe he'd spent longer stabbing
Attfield because it was dark

and he felt he was unlikely to be
seen, whereas his attack on Nahid

was in broad daylight.

Perhaps he had to act more quickly
in order to do what he wanted

to do and then make his escape.

These stab wounds were just as
lethal as the fractured skull.

His initial stabbing
went through the liver,

just separated Nahid's liver.

He stabbed her in the
breast with such force

that it broke the ribs
beneath her chest.

And the stab wounds he
inflicted on her eyes

were so deep that
the knife actually

penetrated through to her brain.

I mean, this was an attack of,

you know,
unusual and shocking savagery.

(water running)

(David) Fairweather
disposed of the weapon

in the fast-flowing stream

and binned his bloody clothing,
copying his behaviour

from the first murder.

Fairweather's home contained the
book "The World's Worst Crimes,"

which detailed Peter Sutcliffe,
the Yorkshire Ripper,

stabbing a victim in the eye.

In his pursuit of
infamy, Fairweather had

again copied one of his heroes.

We wouldn't have seen that,
that style.

That subtle psychological style,

we wouldn't have seen
a few years ago.

To my mind, there's something
about this

which suggests somebody acting

not from a visceral, angry,
internal drive

but somebody slightly tentatively

trying out things
that they've seen,

that they've learnt about
for the first time,

and therefore they pick
an easy... easy target.

(David) We can see an
escalation between Fairweather's

first and second murders.

You know, he kills Jim Attfield at
night, but in his second murder,

he's going to kill Nahid Almanea
during the day.

Now, that, in itself,
is an escalation,

because the risks of committing
a crime during the day

are quite clearly greater
than the risks of committing

a crime at nighttime.

Why does he engage
in that risky behaviour?

Well, it gives
a greater sense of thrill.

It gives to him
a greater sense that he

really is the
frightening serial killer

that he's always aspired to be.

The danger, though, is,
with that kind of escalation,

it won't simply stop.

It will continue.

And therefore, there might
be a third, a fourth,

or, indeed, a fifth murder.

Though separate teams
initially dealt with each murder,

the commonality of features
and the methods used

meant that they had to be linked.

This was now a hunt
for a double murderer.

The first issue that Essex Police
would have thought about

is, has he stopped?

Is there going to be another one?

You know, we've had these two
horrific murders in the same area

with a commonality of method
and, you know, features

that make you think, yes,
it's probably the same person.

Is there literally a
killer on the loose?

How long have we got?

Can we stop him before
he strikes again?

When you're looking at this
situation and worrying about,

is there going to be
another offence,

it's kind of, will we get a lead?

Will we get something
that will take us to him

before he does strike again?

Has he made a mistake?

How much planning has he done?

Is there a chink in his armour?

Can we get there?

And one thing that the officer
in charge will be thinking is,

do I need to put more
resources into this?

Is this such a danger... is such
a danger posed to the public

that I need to put
as many resources as I can

possibly lay my hands on to
to make sure we catch this man

before somebody else is murdered?

140 knives were submitted
for forensic examination.

550 hours of CCTV footage

was pored over and examined.

Over 1,500 police officers
and 180 police staff

worked on those inquiries
in the search for truth.

There were significant
searches in parks,

waterways, and open public spaces.

The inquiry that was carried out
into those two murders

was the largest type of inquiry
carried out by Essex Police

for over a decade.

(David) Yet another E-FIT
was produced from witnesses.

Police then initiated an
operation to interview anyone

with a history of
knife crime in the area

over the previous two years.

The police scooped up
70 people, all of whom

had a history of committing
offences with knives.

(David)
Two weeks after the murder,

James Fairweather was interviewed
as part of the operation.

He told police he'd been
at home all day playing video games

and trawling the internet.

He was not arrested.

(Peter) The police
interviewed Fairweather,

so there they had him, a double
killer sitting in front of them.

(unsettling music)

They didn't have the evidence.

And they let him go.

You need some evidence.
You need fingerprints.

You need DNA.
You need eyewitness sightings.

They had none of that.

(David) With Fairweather,
we see this almost autodidactic,

self-taught forensic awareness.

He knows how to ensure
that the forensic evidence

won't connect him to the crime.

He knows about putting
various materials in water

to flush away forensic evidence.

He's immersed himself not just
in the world of serial killers.

He's immersed himself
in an online world that

would tell him how to avoid
being caught for any crime

that he'd like to commit.

11 agonising months followed.

Fairweather's obsessions
continued to dictate his life.

Meanwhile, police
issued appeals for help,

releasing a photograph of a
distinctive Italian-made jacket

described by a witness as
worn by a man in the area

after the second murder.

Now, here's a great
lesson in the value

of public appeals by the police.

About a year later,
a woman is out walking

and she sees somebody
wearing a jacket.

And she thinks, there's that
distinctive Italian jacket.

I've heard about that.

She picks up the phone
and she calls the police.

(Witness) Hi, I wonder
if you can help me.

I'm actually on Salary Brook,
the Longbridge end of the trail

where that murder was last year.

And there's a very suspicious
guy down there

who's just standing there.

And it's like, obviously a dog
trail, and he's just on his own.

And it's quite a secluded area.

I don't think there's
anyone around to have a look.

And he's got, like, a...

I don't know, I could
be wrong... but he's got

a jacket that looks
very similar to what was

all over the paper and everything.

And it's on the same trail
as what happened almost a year ago.

(David) The caller stayed on
the line, bravely observing the man

she suspected of being the killer.

(Witness) Well, to be honest
with you, he's on the bridge,

yeah, not a footpath.

He was stood behind some of the
trees, and there it's obviously...

it's only, like, a dog place.

I saw him sort of hiding.

And it made me freeze.

(David) Concerned
it was the killer,

she walked away,
found a friend with a large dog,

and cautiously
walked back towards the spot.

The man she was describing
was standing yards

from the scene of the two murders.

(Witness)
Now, actually, he's hiding.

He's practically... he's on
a bridge, just practically...

yeah.

He's in a secluded area.

It's the Longbridge end
of the Salary Brook trail.

Yeah, so it's a
little bridge that goes

across into the Bowman's Ford.

(David)
It was James Fairweather,

and he was looking
for his third kill.

(whirring)

(clicking)

(David) The caller
who recognised the distinctive

jacket left the scene.

Police arrived quickly, located
Fairweather, and arrested him.

Fairweather is searched.

He's got a lock knife.

He's got latex gloves.

He's prepared.

He's plotting.
He's planning.

He's lying in wait.

That woman who made that
phone call is a hero.

Almost a year after his second
victim and on the very day

he planned a third kill,
Fairweather was finally in custody.

The screen-violence obsessive
seemed eager to claim

his moment of fame, to be
acknowledged, like his heroes,

as a serial killer.

(Peter) When Fairweather
was interviewed,

he admitted both murders,
and he claimed

he was going to kill
and kill and kill again.

He wanted to claim the
lives of another 15 people.

Fortunately, he was
denied that opportunity.

(David) Fairweather's claim
that he wanted to kill another 15

people is part of his fantasy.

Frankly, he's a wannabe.

Serial killers themselves
are not these incredible,

sophisticated predators.

Serial killers are
often what I call betas

desperate to become alphas.

They desperately want to
have power and control

in a culture in which they feel
they have been rendered powerless.

With Fairweather, we've just got
somebody who's desperate for fame.

And murder, the use
of lethal violence,

is the way that he believes
he can become famous.

Fairweather would
have murdered again.

It excited him.

He loved doing it.

He wanted to go on and on
until he was caught.

If Fairweather
hadn't been caught,

he would have gone on
to kill again,

probably on that very same day.

When the police searched
Fairweather's home,

they found all the books and
DVDs about serial killers,

all the evidence of his obsession.

They found Nahid's DNA.

They found a knife
and a latex glove.

And they also found a
file which contained

all the newspaper cuttings about
the murders that he'd committed.

(David) Fairweather had
achieved fame through infamy,

but there was a twist to his story.

After admitting to the
killings, he returned

to his web world,
this time for inspiration

in seeking legal defence.

We know that James Fairweather
looked online for a potential

defence for his crimes.

We know that he researched the
case of the Stockwell Strangler,

who pleaded diminished
responsibility in court

and got his murder charges
reduced to manslaughter.

(David) The man tasked
with Fairweather's defence

was Simon Spence.

His job was clear...

argue for a reduction from murder
to manslaughter on the grounds

of diminished responsibility.

My first involvement
with James Fairweather's case

was shortly after
he'd been arrested.

He was arrested
on the 26th of May of 2015

and had a solicitor present
in his interviews.

And the solicitor
then instructed me

to represent James at his trial.

He was clearly a very troubled
young man when I first met him.

(James) When I was doing that,
my voices were laughing

and laughing louder and louder.

He accepted the killings.

He'd given
a very detailed account.

And he'd also said
in his interviews

that he was hearing
voices in his head,

and they were telling him to
go out and make sacrifices.

The issue was whether those
claims were genuine or not

and, if they were, whether
that amounted to the defence

of diminished responsibility.

According to his defence,
Fairweather's isolated lifestyle...

friendless, obsessive... and his
autism diagnosis were key factors.

To Simon Spence,
that condition amplified

the dangerous obsessions,
suggesting a case

for diminished responsibility.

(keyboard clacking)

(Simon Spence) And of course,
obsession is a very recognised

characteristic of somebody
suffering from autism,

and the obsession
was clearly growing.

We had provided to us by
the prosecution a schedule

of the websites he'd accessed,
how long he'd been on them,

when he'd accessed them.

And you could see a growing trend
of this material being accessed.

Somebody being autistic
does not make them violent.

The difficulty is that
somebody suffering from autism

can be more obsessive
than somebody who is not.

And if the thing they become
obsessed with is extreme violence,

then that is what can put their
obsession with extreme violence

and make it a reality.

And that's the role that I felt
James' autism had to play.

(David) Four psychiatrists
accepted Fairweather was autistic,

but critically, this is neither a
defence nor an excuse for murder.

Most autistic people manage
perfectly well without committing

acts of violence.

The consensus was that the voices
in the head were a charade.

(Donna) I don't subscribe to
the view that killing is

motivated by voices in the head.

Clearly, there's no
direct relationship

between autism and violence.

But I think, in this case,
his autistic challenges

put him in a position where
he fell into a lifestyle

of being immersed
in this material,

which was highly dangerous.

(gunfire on TV)

He was convicted of murder
and sent to prison for life.

(David)
On being told he would

serve a minimum of
27 years in prison,

Fairweather showed no emotion.

He was a very unemotional
individual.

Anybody who saw the
way he described what

was happening
in his police interviews

could see how unemotional he was.

'Cause my voices were talking to
me, you need to make a sacrifice

or we're going to come
and get you.

You need to do it.

That was what he
was actually like.

Until I saw him after
he'd been sentenced,

I'd never seen him frightened
or shed a tear or anything.

He was remarkably matter-of-fact
about what had happened.

Now, whether that was part
of his mental problems

or whether he was
just cold and callous...

and that's what led
the prosecution expert

to say he was an
emergent psychopath...

perhaps only time will tell.

But he was remarkably
unemotional and detached

from the whole proceedings
all of the times that I saw him.

(David) James Fairweather
was born in 1999,

the eve of the new millennium.

He craved notoriety, sought it
through becoming a serial killer,

and learned his trade
on the internet.

His mind was warped by the violent
pornography and video games

that he played in his room.

With James Fairweather,
I'm not sure

that he had those
very early experiences

which we would normally expect
to see in somebody

that became a serial killer.

So actually, what made him
a serial killer, I am convinced,

was the material that
he was exposed to

rather than anything
about his predisposition

or his very early life.

(David) Fairweather's story
tells us how some people will react

when we elevate
the serial killer into becoming

an aspirational figure, when we
begin to see the serial killer

as somebody who possesses
incredible intelligence,

somebody who we can admire.

That's the problem
about how our media

sometimes reacts to the
phenomenon of serial murder

and serial killers.

Now, that having been said,
we've got to remember,

a serial killer is still
defined as somebody

who will kill three or
more people in a period

of greater than 30 days.

But I've got no doubt that if
Fairweather hadn't been stopped,

he would have continued
to have killed,

because that was his dream.

That was his aspiration.

That's who he wanted to be.

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