All language subtitles for Cold Case Killers S01 E06_track3_[eng]

When a murder
is left unsolved...

No weapons, no eyewitnesses,

no forensic evidence at all.

There was nothing.

..And a killer is
on the loose...

These people
are still out there.

Who's going to be next?

..Britain's cold case
detectives will never give up.

The best way to solve a
cold case is to keep it warm.

No matter how long it takes...

This case dominated my life.

..They'll investigate
every angle

and follow every hunch...

Searching through
thousands of people.

They think they got
away with it. They haven't.

..Until justice is finally done.

We all leave a trace.

We'd finally identified
that golden nugget.

Bingo. We've got 'em.

It was the early hours of
the 25th of February 1994

when 21-year-old Jason comerford

was stabbed in the neck after a
night out in Manchester city centre.

A very distressed female
called the emergency services

she could see a man
lying down in the road.

He was bleeding heavily and
she thought he was going to die.

By the time the
ambulance arrived,

he was dead.

Detective chief
inspector Martin bottomley

knew this was no
ordinary incident.

In 1994, murder
was a rare occurrence

and a stranger murder
was exceptionally rare.

The types of crimes that
would've been committed

on a lively evening
in Manchester in '94

would have been
domestic assaults,

the odd fight outside
a pub or a club,

just angry young men or men who
had too much to drink at the time

getting into trouble.

Kevin Moore was a
detective constable

on greater Manchester's
force at the time of the attack.

Jason comerford was a
young man who was single.

He lived alone in his own flats

in the back end of ancoats,

and on the night
of being killed,

he'd gone out into
Manchester city centre

to meet up with colleagues from
his works at discotheque royale.

He worked for a textile firm.

He was also an amateur artist.

He was the fourth child of five,

and he was... Ordinary
kid just out socialising.

He asked his brother if
he wanted to go with him.

His brother didn't really want to
go out that night, but Jason did.

He was a very sociable man.

So, he went to a
number of bars and clubs

and ended up going to
the chip shop afterwards,

buying some chips and walking
along great ancoats street.

And at one point, he went into
the alleyway on George Leigh street,

which is where the
fatal attack took place.

When officers reached the scene,

they made a gruesome discovery.

We were left with a series
of spots and pools of blood,

which showed where Jason had staggered
from the point where he was stabbed

across a major road junction
to collapse in the road.

Following the trail of blood,

police pinpointed where
the attack had started.

A search of the scene close to where
Jason had been stabbed was made

and officers soon found a knife.

It was bloodstained.

A ten-inch knife was
recovered by detectives.

It looked like police
had their murder weapon.

That knife was very distinctive.

It had the words
"the hunter" on it.

It was locked knife that
had been folded back,

so the blade had been
put back inside the handle,

and it had just been
dropped on the ground.

The knife was photographed

and immediately sent
for forensic examination

as investigators pieced
together Jason's final moments.

The officers at the scene
immediately got the sense

that this was a random, unmotivated
attack by a stranger on a stranger.

There was no reason for
this attack to have taken place.

It was senseless.

Most acts of violence
of this severe nature

take place between a
known offender and a victim,

but random killings
of this type do occur.

It may be that somebody
bumps into somebody else

and has an altercation,

and it escalates into very
serious violence as a result.

The pathologists' report
did not suggest a fight

that had got out of hand.

It was much more chilling.

The home office
registered pathologist

conducted a
postmortem examination

and established
that Jason had died

from a single stab
wound to the neck.

But there was a crucial witness.

Before the fatal encounter,

Jason had met someone
on his way home.

The female witness
who'd dialled 999

had been spotted
with the victim.

She was very distressed,
she was shocked

and she was in a confused state,

and what she was telling
the police at that time

probably made it a bit
more difficult to establish

exactly what had happened.

She spoke to the police
officers at the scene,

where she gave the account that
she'd met him, the victim, Jason,

so they treated her as
a vulnerable witness.

Despite her muddled state,

this female witness was able to
offer the police something valuable.

What the witness did do, though,
was give us a description of the killer.

The distinguishing
features of the killer

was that he was a
white male, slim build.

He was in his late
40s or early 50s,

had long grey hair,

he was carrying a bag.

The other witnesses on great ancoats street
were a taxi driver and a lorry driver,

and they were also able to
give a description of the killer,

or the man they'd seen
running away from Jason,

who was now lying
fatally wounded.

They described him
as about five foot nine,

and also, crucially, carrying a
black holdall over his shoulder.

They said he was a scruffy appearance
and wearing a dark overcoat as well.

Armed with
eyewitness descriptions,

police immediately
scoured the area.

Within hours, they
had a breakthrough.

Police found a suspect,

and he was sleeping
rough nearby,

and his description matched
that given by the female witness

and the two male witnesses who
had seen Jason dying in the road.

That suspect was a man who had come
to Manchester from liverpool that night.

He was seen around
the streets of Manchester

in the same area as Jason,

visiting some of the same
clubs and pubs as Jason,

and had eventually got drunk
and fallen asleep in a doorway

near piccadilly train station,

where he was found about two
hours after Jason was actually stabbed

and ultimately arrested.

Had investigators caught a lucky
break and found Jason's killer?

Manchester, February 1994.

Witnesses to the fatal
stabbing of Jason comerford

had quickly led
police to a suspect.

He fitted the
description broadly

of the offender that had
been seen running away,

and he was thoroughly interviewed,
he was put on identification parade

so that the people who had
seen the offender run away,

to see if they could
identify him as that man.

But none of the
witnesses could confirm

that he was the man they'd
seen leaving the crime scene.

He was later released without
charge when he was eliminated.

The police's best lead
had come to nothing,

and other potential suspects
proved equally frustrating.

The suspects had alibis and
didn't match the description.

They were quickly eliminated

and the team came to a dead end.

Now, back at square one,

greater Manchester police comb
through Jason's last known movements,

hoping for a clue.

Investigators did a cctv trawl

to try to establish
where Jason had been

in the hours before his murder.

Of course, in 1994,

Manchester city centre didn't have
many cctv cameras as it does now.

The images that were obtained
were low-quality and grainy

and didn't exactly show as
much as we might have wanted.

All we had was a view of Jason
entering the original nightclub

he'd gone into that night.

It showed what he was
wearing, what he looked like

and how he walked in.

And that was just as he
went past the doorman

as part of a group of
people in a line going in.

And images from the streets
outside were even less conclusive.

The investigation team looked
at all possible cctv in the area,

but came up with nothing that covered
where the offence actually occurred

or the likely routes that the
offender had taken to the scene

or away from the scene.

Cctv proved another dead end
in the search for Jason's killer,

so detectives
turned their attention

to the only physical
evidence they had.

The knife was
examined and processed

using conventional
blood grouping tests

and also slp, or
single locus probe,

DNA profiling tests,

which showed that the blood on
the blade matched Jason comerford.

Everything that was
done with that knife

confirmed it as
the murder weapon.

But we got nowhere as regards
to trying to find fingerprints,

dismantling the knife to see
if we could see fingerprints

or other evidence within
the handle construction of it.

Apart from the
blood on the knife,

no other evidential material
was recovered at that time.

They may have had
the murder weapon,

but forensic scientists
could not find any trace

of who had used the
knife to stab Jason,

so it was forensically archived.

The investigation
had hit a brick wall.

Everybody involved in this case was
incredibly frustrated and disappointed,

and of course, there was still the
threat of a stranger on the loose

going around Manchester,
attacking people randomly,

and that was the
greatest threat at that time.

When Jason comerford
was killed in such a fashion,

it shocked the city
centre and beyond, really,

because of the nature of
the way in which he died.

It was motiveless,
it was a stranger,

it was just chilling, really.

By may 1994,

three months on
from Jason's murder,

all leads had dried up,

so greater Manchester police put out
an appeal on the BBC's crimewatch,

hoping it would be the push
needed for a witness to come forward.

Jason comerford was 21 when he
was killed this year in Manchester.

He lived alone and worked
locally at a textile company.

At around 2.45am on
Friday the 25th of February,

Jason was stabbed near the
corner of George Leigh street

and great ancoats street.

A short time earlier, he was seen talking
to a man near the daily express building.

If that was you,
please come forward.

The knife used in the
attack is distinctive.

It has a black
teflon coated blade

with the words "the hunter"
printed on the handle.

We'd like to talk to anyone in the
Manchester area who recognises it.

Hopes were raised by
one caller who responded.

The crimewatch appeal did
apparently trigger a phone call to police

with a name of someone who was
regarded as either a prime suspect

or their name was
given as the killer.

But as the name given
was very common,

investigators could not identify
who the caller was talking about.

We tried to get back to
that caller and trace them,

but we could never do it.

Despite the media appeals,

the lack of forensic evidence
turned the case stone cold.

Unfortunately, at that time,

there were no real suspects
who could be attributed

to being Jason's murderer.

For nearly 16 years after
Jason was brutally killed,

nothing moved on the case...

..Until 2010, when
Martin bottomley,

now head of greater
Manchester police's cold case unit,

decided to reopen the files.

We will always try our very best

to bring justice to the
victim and the family.

So, we wanted to
take a fresh look at it

and there were some new
forensic techniques available.

Forensic techniques
had advanced since 1994,

but re-examining
the archive materials

taken from Jason's murder
scene was not straightforward.

You've always got to be aware

that there may be something
more sensitive coming in the future,

whether it be DNA techniques
or examination techniques,

so you've not to use
all that retained material

because, in a lot of cases,
once that material has been used,

we can't then go
back and re-examine it.

16 years on,

the DNA forensic breakthrough
Martin was hoping for

was still just out of reach.

What sue said in 2010 was that,
"if you'd wait two or three years,

"with the advances that I
can see are coming on stream,

"we can probably get a good
result for you on that occasion."

So, her advice was don't do
too much with these swabs now.

"Let's leave it a bit. Let's try
again in a couple of years."

The risk of destroying
crucial forensic evidence

before science caught
up was too great.

All Martin's team
could do was to sit tight.

We had to put the
case on the back burner.

Cold case work is very slow, very
methodical and takes a lot of time,

and it's very detailed.

But we just had to wait.

Sadly, for some of
Jason comerford's family,

it proved too long a wait.

Many members of his family died.

Jason's relatives, including
his mum, dad, brother,

didn't get to see the outcome.

Not learning why
Jason was killed

or by whom

compounded the suffering
for the comerford family.

It may have prevented
them from going through

the conventional stages of grief

and it's likely to have significant
negative consequences

for a long time.

Martin was determined to get
Jason's remaining family some closure,

but without anything substantial
enough to revive the case,

the hunt for Jason's
killer hit another brick wall.

Five more years passed
with the case still unsolved...

..Until forensic scientist
sue cherry's earlier prediction

finally came good.

In 2015, a new DNA
technique became available

which we refer to as DNA 17,

which looks at
further areas of DNA,

but also has the added
advantage that the technique itself

is more sensitive than
previous DNA techniques.

DNA 17 meant
accurate DNA profiling

could be carried out
on microscopic samples

collected from the crime
scene for the very first time,

including the archived samples from
the most crucial piece of evidence -

the murder weapon.

Part of the forensics
team since 1994,

sue cherry returned
to help crack the case.

In 2016, the decision was
made to revisit the material

that had been retained
at the forensic archive

in relation to the knife.

Small pieces of fabric
which had been used in 1994

to sample blood staining
and cellular material

from the knife blade and from
inside the handle of the knife,

and to attempt DNA profiling
on some very small samples.

The minute size of
these forensic samples

was no longer an obstacle
for sue and her team.

The techniques available
enabled us to yield DNA profiles

from very small
amounts of material.

So we could obtain DNA
still from blood, saliva,

and also very small
amounts of cellular material

that might have
been transferred,

in this case we presume
from the handler of the knife.

This fresh analysis of the
carefully preserved samples

opened up a whole new
Avenue for the detectives.

We obtained a mixture
of DNA of a major profile,

which matched the deceased.

I was also able to resolve
the profile of a second,

lower level contributor of DNA.

It wasn't a complete profile,
but what it did allow us

to do under DNA 17 was to load
the profile onto the DNA database,

and that came up with a
list of 19 potential persons

who could be associated
to having handled the knife.

Martin bottomley and the cold
case review team could then apply

other search criteria,
such as location and age,

to sift that information and
decide if any particular person

of interest could be identified.

19 potential matches was a
daunting starting point for Martin.

But one name quickly
drew his attention.

Only two people lived in the area
near where Jason was stabbed.

And of those two, one
person in particular stood out

like a sore thumb because of
the number of his convictions

related to knife crime
and offensive weapons.

So he was a prime candidate
for us to look at really closely.

That person was Geoffrey strike.

After more than 20 years
of disappointing dead ends,

Martin finally had
a prime suspect.

Investigators now did a full
background check on Geoffrey strike.

Geoffrey strike fit the
description of the offender,

so we had to look at his criminal
history, what we knew about him.

Did he live near the area of the
offence? Did they know each other?

The more police
looked into strike,

the more disturbing
the picture became.

Geoffrey strike had a long
history of criminal offences.

He had 16 convictions for possession
of offensive weapons, mainly knives,

but on one occasion he
had attacked police officers

with a samurai sword.

He didn't injure
them, fortunately,

but he damaged the
police car they were in.

Quite chillingly,
in October 1996,

when he was arrested for one
of his offences of possession

of a blade, he threatened
a police officer and said,

"f you, you little b,
or I'll cut your throat."

There were a large number of
convictions between 1994 and 1997.

And in particular
five offences in 1994

within half a mile radius
of the murder scene.

Geoffrey strike's dangerous
convictions placed him

in central
Manchester in the '90s.

But police didn't stop there.

We were able to establish that he
lived within approximately 400 yards

to the scene of the murder.

He lived in the direction that the
offender had walked away from

after stabbing Jason
and dropped the knife.

The address he kept on giving
the police was Victoria square

in Manchester, one
of the flats there.

And it was an acquaintance's flat.
So he was, in essence, sofa surfing.

Detectives were desperate
to track down strike.

They first tried the lady who'd
owned the flat back in 1994.

Unfortunately, she
had passed away.

So we couldn't go to her.

We went on to do house to
house enquiries in that location

to see if there was any residents
who went back that far in time

and could remember him
or remember the people

that lived there at that time.

They had aged. So that
became unsuccessful, as such.

Geoffrey strike seemed
to have vanished,

and police were
running out of leads

until cold case officers
made a startling discovery.

Geoffrey strike was
in a psychiatric unit

within a Manchester hospital

and had been for two decades.

24 years after the brutal
murder of young Jason comerford

in central Manchester, huge
advancements in DNA profiling

had finally given cold case
detectives a prime suspect.

Now 73 years old, Geoffrey strike
was a man with an extensive history

of mental health issues
and criminal convictions.

After attacking a police
officer with a samurai sword

and damaging the police vehicle,
he was sentenced for six months.

While he was
serving that sentence,

he was diagnosed with
paranoid schizophrenia

and he was transferred to a mental
health unit in greater Manchester.

There are various
forms of schizophrenia.

So, those who suffer may
experience delusions, hallucinations,

they may hear voices, they
may have paranoid beliefs,

and they may suffer
from a general mismatch

between their
mind-set and reality.

In rare instances, this may
escalate into very serious violence.

Strike's last known address
and history of knife crime

made him a prime
suspect as Jason's killer.

But the evidence
was circumstantial.

Martin needed hard proof.

Whilst Geoffrey strike was on
the list of 19 persons identified

from the DNA database,
that in itself did not tell us

precisely that his profile
matched the killer's profile.

The only referenced profile
available from Geoffrey strike

only examined six areas of DNA,

whereas the DNA test that I had
performed looked at 17 areas of DNA.

So I requested a further
reference sample from mr strike

so that I could compare a complete
reference DNA profile from him

to the DNA results that
i'd obtained previously.

With permission from
strike's psychiatrist,

Martin's team paid him a
visit at the mental health unit.

Strike's new DNA sample
was submitted for analysis.

It gave us the answer
we were looking for.

It was a match.

This forensic match showed
decisively strike had handled

the knife used to murder Jason.

Martin's cold case
had been revived.

In June 2018, Martin's team
conducted an official interview

with Geoffrey strike in the presence
of a lawyer and welfare support.

He made no comment to most
questions put to him during his interview.

Probing for any detail,

detectives questioned
strike about the ten inch knife.

Even when confronted
with the key evidence,

strike's reaction
remained the same.

He denied ever seeing or
possessing or touching the knife.

Not simply saying he couldn't
remember, he denied it.

Since a person diagnosed
with schizophrenia is likely to be

suffering a mismatch
between their mind and reality,

things that they say have to
be approached with caution

and they may be unreliable.

But the scientific
evidence was indisputable.

He denied all knowledge
of the murder at that point.

Strike also made his feelings
clear about the cold case

investigation being
brought to his door.

The evidence that strike had
handled the murder weapon was solid,

but DNA data alone
would not be enough.

Martin needed more to
build a watertight case

if he wanted to
get strike convicted.

We had the match, but there's
still a heck of a lot of work to do

so that we'd eventually be
able to present a case file

to the cps to allow them
to authorise a charge

against Geoffrey strike
for Jason's murder.

And we still had
a long way to go.

Now an investigation officer
in the major incident unit,

Kevin Moore assisted Martin's
team with preparing their case.

We had to review the
initial murder investigation

from then 24 years
earlier, put a case together,

and also at the same time
investigate Geoffrey strike.

You needed that type of
corroboration to support

the contention that he was
the offender and take it forward.

Detectives' first task was
to prove any other suspects

who'd come up in 1994 had
been successfully discounted.

I had to highlight and explain how
other suspects had been eliminated

from that initial investigation.

Some of that was people who were
on the run, who'd escaped from prison.

They'd been in the area.

Others were people giving
us the name of the offender

who actually was in prison
at the time of the offence.

That then showed the
investigation had been done properly

and thoroughly, and it took
away any argument from a defence

point of view that we'd
got the wrong man.

This process meant detectives
had to revisit their very first suspect,

the one they'd arrested on
the night of Jason's murder.

We had to go back to interview
him and get evidence off him

about what he'd
done on that night.

To say, "I didn't do this and I
was looked at by the police wrongly.

"I was just on a night out
and became the worse for wear

"from alcohol and
ended up falling asleep

"on the streets of Manchester."

We went back to him and explained
that the man who had actually

killed Jason had now been
identified and was being prosecuted.

The sense of relief that this
man showed was incredible.

He was just so relieved,
explaining he'd lived with this,

this fear, for 24 years that
the police would still come back

to him cos he knew how
strongly he was suspected

at the time as the killer.

As well as initial suspects,

the original witnesses from
1994 also had to be tracked down.

The key witnesses in this case
were a taxi driver who was passing

the scene at the time of Jason
staggering out into the street,

two men in a truck
on the way to work,

and a lady who
had been with Jason.

We interviewed this lady,
who'd made the original 999 call,

who'd met up with Jason.

And there were
many other witnesses

we had to trace and
interview, as well.

Without the evidence
they provided,

we wouldn't have had that supporting
evidence to take the case forward.

Their eye witness accounts
were key to this prosecution.

The corroborating evidence
against strike was stacking up,

but Martin and Kevin knew which
piece should deliver a conviction.

The key piece of evidence in
this case was always the knife.

Having the murder
weapon found at the scene,

it's like manna from heaven.

You don't get it in many cases.

And to then have that
murder weapon fully identifiable

as the weapon
used to kill Jason,

with his blood and DNA on it,

the offender's blood
and DNA within that knife

to show that he'd handled
it, was just key evidence.

It was evident from the very start
that forensics would be the key

to opening this
investigation, taking it forward,

and leading it to a conclusion.
It was absolutely critical.

Martin and Kevin's
teams diligently built

a comprehensive
case against strike.

We had the DNA evidence,

we had the previous convictions
which were highly convincing

in terms of strike's ability to
carry out this type of crime,

we had the contextual information
in terms of the witnesses at the scene

describing strike
and his backpack.

I was convinced that this
case was extremely strong

and would proceed very smoothly
through the cps to the court

in a short space of time.

In November 2018, my unit
submitted the prosecution file

to the cps for a
charging decision.

A few months later,

the crown prosecution service
gave their verdict on the submission.

That was rejected
in February of 2019,

saying there was no case to
proceed with on legal grounds.

Unbelievably, the cps
in the north west said,

"no, not enough evidence."

So, as is their right, greater
Manchester police appealed.

Again, that appeal
was turned down.

We went higher.

It went through the hierarchy
of greater Manchester police,

going to the highest level that the
police could appeal the decision.

We took it to an
assistant chief constable,

who also appealed
the cps decision.

That appeal was
also turned down.

It was a series of devastating
blows for Martin and Kevin.

The cps even questioned
their key exhibit.

I was convinced we had more
than enough evidence to take this

case to court, but the cps were
concerned that a knife is a moveable

object and someone else other
than the killer could have touched it.

I appreciate the cps think about
these things in a different way

to investigators, but it
was incredibly frustrating

and I could not
understand the approach

they were taking at that time.

I felt quite incensed
by that decision.

Because...

..You just don't get the kind of
evidence we had in this case.

When you think it was an
innocent man, 21 years old,

going home, attacked
by a stranger for no reason

in the street in the middle of the
night, a horrendous act of violence,

and to not be willing to
give a chance of prosecution

of that case I found just a really,
really bad and wrong decision.

25 years on from
Jason's murder...

..Martin and Kevin were
so close to a conviction.

I knew the police had
exhausted all the options,

but I also knew about
the victim's right to review.

The right to review scheme
allows victims and families

to request a review where
a decision not to proceed

with a criminal case
has been made.

So we spoke to Jason's
brother and asked him

if he would like to appeal
that decision, as well.

It helped that Darren
comerford was a qualified lawyer.

He knew the
circumstances of the case,

he knew the strength
of the evidence,

he has a legal mind himself,
so he knew where this should go.

Darren comerford, as
the family representative,

submitted that appeal, and
that was the final appeal process.

Decades of investigation
and the pursuit of justice

now depended on
this one last review.

The case was transferred to
an independent qc in London,

and in very short order
the decision came back.

A quarter of a century after
Jason comerford was murdered,

detectives' attempts to
charge his alleged killer,

Geoffrey strike, had been
repeatedly knocked back.

The fate of the case now
hung on a last ditch appeal

made by Jason's brother, Darren.

Chief inspector Martin bottomley
anxiously awaited the decision.

When Darren appealed to
the cps, the decision came back

that Geoffrey strike should
be charged with murder.

That decision was
critical, it was crucial,

and it was the right decision.

I think there was surprise...

..And shock, really,

in Manchester that finally
there'd been a breakthrough.

I felt impressed by what
the police had achieved.

I felt pleased for the family.

Because when we broke the
story saying that Geoffrey strike,

who was 75 at the
time, had been charged,

there was quite
a reaction online,

including members
of Jason's family,

who were expressing their relief
that finally they might see justice.

After formally charging
Geoffrey strike with murder,

detectives were granted full
access to his medical records

to help prepare
the case for trial.

His psychiatric medical
notes dated back to the '60s.

That involved us reviewing over
80,000 pages of medical notes

and accounts,
both physical paper

and I think it was something like
18,000 pages of digital records.

Investigating officer Kevin Moore
was staggered by what they found.

We found in those records

three occasions that after he was
interviewed for the murder in 2018

that he had actually spoken
about the murder to three people

within the
psychiatric profession.

In those conversations, he
freely admitted his involvement

in the killing, claimed to have
been acting in self-defence.

But crucially he admitted
the incident had occurred.

And that he had
actually killed the man.

That became further
corroboration to our case.

So we obtained statements
from those three medical staff.

Strike speaking out about his
crime came as no surprise to Martin.

Everyone involved
in the investigation

was satisfied at this point.

The case was going to
move forward to crown court,

but with the overwhelming
evidence, we always suspected that

Geoffrey strike would
eventually admit his offence.

The deep dive into
strike's medical records

also revealed more
disturbing information.

Incredibly, Geoffrey strike
was due to be released

from the mental health
unit in November 2019,

as he was deemed no
longer a threat to the public.

It was cold case officers' hard
work that had quickly changed

that evaluation.

Geoffrey strike was deemed to
pose a moderate risk of harm to self

or to others and he was housed at
a medium security psychiatric unit,

but when he became a suspect
in the murder investigation,

he was transferred to a
high security psychiatric unit.

Strike's extensive medical
records offered no clue why

he had killed Jason comerford,
but they did give a Fuller picture

of Geoffrey's state of
mind 25 years earlier.

Those mental health notes
showed that he was suffering

from paranoid
schizophrenia before 1994.

He'd come out of prison, and
when he returned to prison in 1996,

he was still suffering from
paranoid schizophrenia.

But there was no treatment,
there was no medication

that had been provided
to him within that time.

He'd not magically become well.

And therefore, in 1994, he'd clearly
been a paranoid schizophrenic.

Geoffrey strike's murder trial
was scheduled for December 2020.

In the months leading up,

a full review of his psychiatric
history was undertaken.

That led to the correct
view that in 1994,

when he committed
this act of violence,

he was suffering from
paranoid schizophrenia.

It was agreed by all
professionals involved -

the crown prosecution
service, the forensic psychiatrist,

the defence psychiatrist - that
the most appropriate outcome to the

trial would be that Geoffrey strike
should plead guilty to manslaughter.

Geoffrey strike was able to
claim that it wasn't murder,

it was manslaughter due
to diminished responsibility

due to his psychiatric illness,

and ultimately that's
what he pleaded guilty to

in December of 2020 at
Manchester crown court.

The manslaughter plea took
strike's schizophrenia into account.

But the court still had to
decide an appropriate sentence.

The ruling came almost
27 years after Geoffrey strike

took Jason comerford's life.

After a Manchester
crown court hearing,

Geoffrey strike was sentenced
to an indefinite hospital order

and the judge commented that
he may never be released at all.

An indefinite hospital
order is the equivalent

of a prison life sentence
but in a secure unit setting.

Given his age, he's
unlikely to ever be released.

The court finally
delivered the justice

that Martin and Kevin's
teams had fought so hard for

and Jason's surviving
family deserved.

Darren has shouldered a
lot of this for many years.

He's had the burden of missing
his brother every single day.

He visits his grave regularly, where
his mum and dad also lie at peace.

He actually missed the
final words of the judge

when strike was sentenced.

He left the courtroom early
to lay flowers at Jason's grave

before darkness set in.

But he now knows he's
got justice for all his family.

It's one of the few times I think
I've actually seen full closure

for the bereaved family members.

The brother, Darren, on the
day of sentencing for this case,

in my view, there was
true closure for him.

The police investigation and
prosecution brought that closure.

This was the right result, but
it took far too long for Jason

and his family to get justice.

Convicting a killer
after nearly 30 years

didn't go unnoticed across
the city of Manchester.

There was genuine
surprise that after so long

the police had not given
up and had got a result.

The fact that they
were successful in this

gives hope to many
families in greater Manchester

whose lives have been overshadowed
by tragedy and unanswered questions.

And tells them that
there still is a possibility

that that darkness
might be lifted one day.

Jason comerford's murder case
spanned almost three decades,

but detectives'
perseverance paid off.

It's a case that Martin
and Kevin will never forget.

This was a very unique case
because of its age, the ups and downs,

but we got there in the end.

It's a job well done.

This case is an
exceptional one, really,

because the perpetrator,
Geoffrey strike,

killed Jason randomly.
Completely unmotivated attack.

And it went
unresolved for so long.

If somebody is brought to
justice 20, 30, even 40 years later,

it's a fantastic feeling,
and that's a great result.