The Big Cases
Season 12022
The biggest crime stories and court cases in the UK. The fights for justice, the investigations, and the stories of those affected by the crimes.
The biggest crime stories and court cases in the UK. The fights for justice, the investigations, and the stories of those affected by the crimes.
47 Episodes
Primary school teacher Sabina Nessa was killed at random by a man with a history of violence.
April 9, 2022
Sir David Amess MP was murdered by an IS fanatic, at a meeting in a church in Southend-On-Sea in Essex, UK.
April 15, 2022
This is the story of a dangerous MI5 agent, which the government tried to keep secret.
May 21, 2022
Rikki Neave left for school but never came home. Decades on his killer has been jailed.
June 25, 2022
Logan Mwangi was five years old when he was murdered by the people he trusted.
July 2, 2022
How a lorry driver, looking at dating sites while driving, went on to kill three.
July 29, 2022
Leiland-James was taken from his mother in hospital and placed in care. He went on to be killed by the woman who wanted to adopt him.
August 7, 2022
It's one of Scotland's longest unsolved murder cases. Alistair Wilson was shot on his doorstep almost 20 years ago. Are police any closer to finding who killed him and why?
September 30, 2022
Revealing the killer who decapitated her friend and dumped her body.
October 28, 2022
Jacqueline Kirk was badly disfigured after being set alight in 1998 by her ex-boyfriend Steven Craig. She then died in 2019 from complications relating to the injuries she suffered.
November 10, 2022
Sarah Sands stabbed to death a convicted paedophile who was accused of abusing three more young boys. BBC News can reveal, for the first time, that they were all her children. Now all three boys have become adults, they speak, alongside their mum about the killing, and subsequent events.
November 23, 2022Zara Aleena was killed walking back from a night out by a sexual predator, only recently released from prison, labelled a "danger to any woman".
December 14, 2022The schoolgirl charged with terrorism, but found to have been exploited. Rhianan Rudd, 15, was the youngest girl to be charged with terrorism offences in the UK. She took her own life in 2022. Her mum says investigators should have seen her daughter as "a victim rather than a terrorist".
January 3, 2023The story of Bennylyn and Jellica who were murdered after starting a new life in the UK.
February 7, 2023A gunman kills five people within minutes. Could the shootings have been prevented?
February 24, 2023How was Salman Abedi from Manchester radicalised to the point where he could kill, and could the Manchester Arena bombing have been stopped?
March 11, 2023The story of false accusations about being the victim of a grooming gang and how it sent shockwaves through a small town in the North of England.
March 17, 2023Nine year old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was killed when shots were fired into her family home
April 3, 2023Nikki Allan's murder shocked Sunderland. Why did it take so long to catch her killer?
April 10, 2023This BBC News investigation by reporter Daniel De Simone identifies a new suspect in the Stephen Lawrence murder. Stephen’s killing in 1993 changed policing and race relations in Britain forever, and its shadow hangs over the Metropolitan Police to this day. For decades, five men have been suspected of the attack, and in 2012 two of them were found guilty. Daniel De Simone has seen secret evidence and spoken to dozens of witnesses to publicly identify a sixth suspect for the first time. Evidence uncovered in this investigation also further implicates other suspects in the attack, and raises serious question of the police handling of the case over many years.
June 26, 2023Lyne Barlow is a bogus travel agent from County Durham, conning hundreds of holidaymakers and her family in a £2.6 million scam, which also saw her lie about a cancer diagnosis.
June 27, 2023Elle Edwards was shot dead as she celebrated Christmas Eve, in a murder that shocked the UK. We follow her dad Tim as he deals with the devastation of his daughter’s death.
July 4, 2023Lilia Valutyte died from a single stab wound in her chest. Her killer was found unfit to plead, but a jury determined in a trial of the facts he killed the nine-year-old.
July 12, 2023Sgt Matt Ratana was shot and killed on duty by a handcuffed prisoner just three months before he had been due to retire.
July 19, 2023The story of Nicholas Rossi - the US fugitive who came to the UK with a new identity after faking his own death. He claims he is called Arthur Knight and is a victim of mistaken identity, but a sheriff in Scotland is sending him back to Utah to face rape charges. We speak to the people who knew Nicholas Rossi in his previous life in America and chart his story from there to his discovery by police in a hospital bed in Glasgow.
August 2, 2023
The story of a social media influencer, her mum and a murder plot.
September 1, 2023This is the story of Linda Razzell who vanished on her way to work more than 20 years ago. Her husband was found guilty of her murder. Now, in 2023, will he reveal where her body is in order to be released on parole?
September 28, 2023The MP who rose from obscurity to being imprisoned for fraud. The story of Jared O'Mara.
October 13, 2023The story of a young mum killed by her boyfriend of eight weeks. When Christopher McGowan was released on bail from a prison in Scotland, a court ordered he should stay at the home of his new girlfriend, Claire Inglis. He was a known criminal with a string of previous convictions and within weeks Claire was dead.
October 25, 2023The hospital unit where patients were drugged to keep them "quiet and compliant".
December 19, 2023Kidnapped and murdered in France while on a university placement. Is it finally time for justice for 20 year old Joanna Parrish?
December 21, 2023Brianna Ghey was stabbed to death - two teenagers tried to get away with murder.
February 2, 2024Shakira Spencer was 35 years old when her body was found by the police. She had been tortured and starved by people she considered friends.
March 1, 2024Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates were killed in a series of stabbings by one man on the streets of Nottingham in the summer of 2023.
March 7, 2024The quiet Irishman behind the high hedge had a history his neighbours could have never guessed: the man they knew as 'Frank' was really Freddie Scappaticci, a man with many secrets. Not only had he been an Irish Republican Army killer, he was at the same time an agent for the Army – perhaps their most important source inside the IRA, with access to their most sensitive secrets.
March 8, 2024The story of footballer Cody Fisher who was stabbed to death in a nightclub in Birmingham.
April 8, 2024When Michael Riddiough-Allen is stabbed to death outside a nightclub in Cornwall, armed police track down his killer to a nearby house where he was found hiding in the attic.
April 12, 2024How a house party turned into a murder scene - the fatal stabbing of Mikey Roynon.
May 3, 2024Monika had moved to the UK from Poland for a better life. She had work, a new place to stay but then was hit by a drink driver. He served time for injuring her so badly she could never walk or talk again. Six years later, Monika died. It was time for justice, again.
June 12, 2024North Wales headteacher Neil Foden abused children over a four-year period, but could he have been stopped?
July 1, 2024
The case of a plot to kidnap, rape, and murder TV presenter Holly Willoughby.
July 12, 2024The shocking story of how a teenage relationship ended in murder. 15-year-old Holly Newton was stalked and murdered by her 'jealous' ex-boyfriend in Hexham in Northumberland. We speak to Holly's family and the police who pieced together what happened, and hear calls for a change to the law.
November 1, 2024The story of Gisele Pelicot has shocked the world. She's a wife and a mother who was drugged and then raped by strangers. All were invited to do so by her husband at their home in Avignon, France. The trial of Dominique Pelicot and fifty other men has led to a huge outpouring of support across France and beyond as Gisele refused to hide away as her life unfolded in court and in public.
December 1, 2024The tragic story of Sara Sharif, who was just 10 years old when she was burned and beaten by her father and stepmother. Her body was found with dozens of injuries at the family home in Surrey.
December 17, 2024What happens when kids become killers? The shocking story of two 12 year old school boys who brutally murdered Shawn Seesahai with a machete.
December 19, 2024A shocking story of two teenage boys from Bristol, Max and Mason, who went out for pizza and never came home. They were killed in a case of mistaken identity. We hear from the families who have faced unimaginable loss and see the consequences of children carrying weapons on the street.
December 19, 2024Wendy Buckney knew about her neighbour Brian Whitelock's past and wanted to give him a second chance. But were opportunities missed to protect the public from this triple-killer?
December 20, 2024