- 6 weeks ago
Last Night Out (2025) Season 1 Episode 7- Sarah Henshaw
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00:0031-year-old Sarah Henshaw from Derbyshire, England is enjoying a night out with a friend
00:06after finally breaking free from an abusive relationship.
00:13Sarah is coming back to life. She's getting on with her life.
00:17She'd come home and Darren was already there. He'd let himself in.
00:23It triggered his sense of complete inadequacy, his sense of rejection.
00:31He wanted Sarah to do what he wanted and when she said no, he beat her up.
00:37What should have been an enjoyable evening out becomes a fight for her life.
00:43She says, anything happens to me, don't let them children go to him.
00:49That was the night where we knew it was life or death.
00:53If she didn't get out, she was never going to.
00:58Sarah would never have known that that was her last night out.
01:23It's been over six months since Sarah Henshaw broke up with her ex-partner Darren Hall.
01:32Here she is having a nice meal out with her friend.
01:36The pair are catching up as Sarah continues her recovery from an abusive relationship with Darren Hall.
01:50The contrast in the way Sarah and Darren are feeling and the emotions that are driving them at this stage
01:55couldn't be more stark.
01:57We know that Sarah is coming back to life.
01:59She's left the relationship in the past.
02:02Meanwhile, Darren is submerged in fury and hostility and anger.
02:09Darren is becoming aware that she is genuinely moving away, moving on.
02:16Sarah and Sarah perspective.
02:24And that's the end of the day.
02:25Darren was on the part.
02:26And that Facebook continues to watch us.
02:28To share with a shared experience withetherworlds.
02:30And that she's like the scene, that she is being said,
02:30she can Emmett Mosby's to right now, and she's looking for some men to her.
02:32You've never been on.
02:34But I am feeling my mother's secretary.
02:35Jan is in a moment.
02:35So I take my dad's beauly and wife.
02:36I'm hoping for this one of my life.
02:37Sarah is now to come back to us and be when my my mother was on.
02:38We know Thomas's side to my son on me.
02:40And I am a horse and I think that she is lying.
02:40It sounds very bad and all I卡 goo.
02:41いて it's happening next tomorrow.
02:41Sarah and her friend returned to her home
02:48to find Darren Hall inside.
02:51Darren was already there. He'd let himself in.
02:55Using a key he hasn't given back, Darren is in her home.
02:59It must have been horrifying.
03:02Her and her friend were like, get out, we don't want you here.
03:05Please just go. And he just wasn't.
03:08He just was adamant that he wouldn't leave.
03:11I think Darren was shocked when he saw a happy Sarah,
03:17a Sarah who crucially didn't need him.
03:21It will have triggered his sense of complete inadequacy,
03:25his sense of rejection.
03:29She just wanted him to go and he wouldn't go.
03:34This is my family. I'm just not going nowhere.
03:38Her mate had to go home and that was the last time a friend's seen her.
03:51Sarah Henshaw continues to remonstrate with Darren Hall,
03:54who refuses to leave.
03:57Sarah, who needs to get food for her children, heads out.
04:01She's trying in typical Sarah fashion
04:05to manage and keep things under control with Darren.
04:11The beginning of the end of this relationship
04:22began six months earlier.
04:3131-year-old Sarah is excited by the possibility
04:34that she could be pregnant with her third child.
04:38She and Darren plan a romantic getaway,
04:43heading off to see their favourite group, N-Dubs, in concert.
04:46Before leaving, they arranged for Sarah's two daughters
04:52to stay with their grandmother.
05:06This will have been a really big night for them,
05:09something that both of them had really built up their expectations for.
05:14They were both very excited.
05:24This huge concert surrounded by people.
05:28They've looked forward to this for so long.
05:32The emotional temperature will have been very high because of that.
05:37Sarah is out with her long-time partner, Darren Hall,
05:45a 35-year-old carpet fitter.
05:49Darren will have realised that he had hit the jackpot
05:53when he had managed to secure a relationship
05:57with someone as vivacious, as intelligent, as attractive as Sarah was.
06:04This sense of imbalance actually set up the relationship
06:09so he was always going to be feeling defensive
06:12because he felt that he was punching.
06:15As the concert draws to a close,
06:28Sarah begins to feel exhausted and decides to head back to the hotel.
06:33As the concert finishes, I think inevitably
06:35there might have been some kind of almost sense of disappointment.
06:39They'd gone back to the hotel and Darren wanted to go out drinking
06:44and he wanted to carry the night on
06:46and Sarah said, no, I've had enough.
06:48We think I might be pregnant.
06:50I don't want to go out getting bladdered.
06:52That's not what I want to do.
06:53He didn't like that.
06:56His hostility comes to the surface.
06:59He starts to blame somebody else for what he's feeling
07:02and that somebody is Sarah.
07:07He wants Sarah to do what he wanted
07:09and when she said no, he beat her up.
07:14We see him attacking Sarah.
07:19He decided he was going to kick the living hell out of her.
07:24But Sarah does one thing in the midst of this physical
07:33and emotional attack on her
07:35and that's to reach out to her parents.
07:38She sends a text message to tell them what's happened.
07:41This provides some degree of safety
07:44because Darren knows that her parents know.
07:52After the Manchester attack,
07:53all insists on a late-night, three-hour drive
07:57back to their hometown of Ilkeston.
08:02On the way, Sarah discreetly messages a friend
08:05who hurries to meet her at her mum's.
08:08She ran to her mum's house in the middle of the night,
08:11crying her eyes out, banging on her mum's door
08:14because she didn't know what to do.
08:15She didn't know if she was going to lose a baby.
08:18She didn't want her kids to see her like that.
08:20She didn't want to explain to her kids,
08:22oh, daddy's hit mummy, daddy's done this.
08:26Obviously, I was in bed
08:28because I was looking after the girls
08:30and they were in bed.
08:31And that's when she come in with all bruises on her.
08:35A friend was already there.
08:38She told her to take photos.
08:40This attack was so severe
08:47that it will have destroyed
08:51any residual romantic feelings
08:53that Sarah may have still harboured for Darren.
08:57It meant the end of the relationship.
08:59That night, it did something to my mum.
09:04It made her terrified.
09:06She says, anything happens to me,
09:08don't let them children go to him.
09:11I said, don't be so silly.
09:13I'll be gone before you.
09:16If I'm being completely honest,
09:18that was the night where we knew it was life or death.
09:22If she didn't get out,
09:23she was never going to.
09:25I'm urging from a night out in Manchester
09:42at an N-dubs concert,
09:4331-year-old Sarah Henshaw
09:45has been severely beaten
09:47by her boyfriend, Darren Hall.
09:50Her mother urges her to go to the police,
09:53but Sarah, prioritising her two children perhaps,
09:57chooses not to take it further.
10:00It wasn't long after the night
10:02of the N-dubs concert
10:03where she was like,
10:05I'm not doing this anymore.
10:06This isn't right, this isn't fair
10:08and I deserve better
10:09and she just broke it off with him.
10:16He didn't like that she was setting boundaries.
10:19You can have the kids on your days
10:21but don't come to my house
10:22if it's not your day with the kids.
10:28She must have known deep down for a while
10:32this was not a healthy relationship
10:35that she needed to end.
10:39Her emotionally ending it
10:41is also a very dangerous moment.
10:43This is when he has been totally rejected.
10:46It's when there's no longer the protection
10:49of the pretense of the romance between them
10:52to in any way curtail
10:54what he is capable of doing.
10:59She'd done everything right.
11:01She'd said to him,
11:02I'm not happy.
11:03She gave him very clear boundaries
11:05of what he can and can't do involving her
11:07and it just still wasn't good enough.
11:09The eldest of six siblings,
11:27Sarah Henshaw grows up in a busy household.
11:30She takes on responsibilities from an early age.
11:33As an adult,
11:35she dedicates herself to caring for the elderly
11:37in Ilkeston,
11:38a job displaying compassion and support
11:41to those who need it most.
11:43She made friends everywhere she went.
11:46If she saw someone struggling,
11:47she would help no matter what.
11:49She would open her home and her heart
11:51to anyone that was willing.
11:53She'd go to the shop
11:56and someone wouldn't be able to pay
11:57for the nappies or some food
12:00and she'd pay for them.
12:02She'd help you
12:03and she'd expect nothing back.
12:05The amount of times I called her
12:06and said,
12:07I've got no food in.
12:08Right, come and remove my freezer.
12:10You know,
12:10she was just always giving
12:11and that's why so many people loved her.
12:17At 19,
12:18Sarah welcomes her first child,
12:21stepping into motherhood on her own
12:22as a single mum,
12:24relying on her mother
12:25and stepfather for support.
12:28I was so excited.
12:30She was.
12:30We went out buying everything.
12:34She was the most wonderful
12:35and brilliant mum.
12:39Very bubbly, fun.
12:41Great with her kids.
12:43Do anything for her kids.
12:45At first,
12:45we were just friends.
12:47Then when it comes to helping her
12:48with things,
12:49then she started seeing me as a dad
12:51and starts calling me pops or dad.
12:54I've got no kids of my own.
12:55For someone to take me on as a dad
12:57and seeing me as a dad,
12:58that got me, yeah.
13:08After years of being single,
13:10Sarah Henshaw meets Darren Hall,
13:12then a 27-year-old carpet fitter
13:15who lives locally.
13:16She'd mentioned a few times
13:19that she was just seeing someone,
13:22but I didn't know it was serious
13:23until I went up to see her
13:25and that's when I first met him.
13:29She can't really say anything
13:31when you first meet someone,
13:33but as I got to know him,
13:34I just thought,
13:35there's something not right about him.
13:38He weren't really chatty,
13:40bubbly like me and Sarah.
13:42Sarah always goes for the loud bubbly,
13:44jokers and like she was.
13:50Sarah had been coping on her own
13:53as a single mum.
13:54She was the eldest child in the family.
13:57So she's somebody who,
13:59her whole life,
14:00had a lot of responsibility
14:02on her shoulders.
14:03To her,
14:05somebody like Darren Hall
14:08would have appeared very strong,
14:11very robust,
14:12exactly what she needed.
14:14To everybody else,
14:16that strength
14:17could clearly be seen
14:18as control and destructive.
14:21I remember the first time I met him
14:24and he walked into my mum's
14:26front room with Sarah
14:27and he just made me feel sick.
14:30He made my skin crawl.
14:32No one liked him,
14:33not a person,
14:34not the cats,
14:35not the dogs,
14:36not even the hamsters.
14:37That should have really been like
14:39big red flag number one.
14:41But Sarah is smitten.
14:48She loved him,
14:49you know,
14:50it was one of them.
14:51She fell in love with him,
14:53so I just left to do it.
14:57When you have a relationship
14:58that has this destructive theme to it,
15:01it doesn't mean that at the same time
15:03there's not also
15:04some kind of genuine bond
15:06and I think that there was here.
15:08I think to start off with,
15:12his personality appealed to her
15:14because, like with all narcissistic abusers,
15:17they start off as his Prince Charming
15:18who's going to save her.
15:20I mean, she was a single mum
15:21and he came in and was like,
15:23I'll look after you.
15:24I'll do you good.
15:26And it really didn't take long
15:27for those rose-coloured glasses
15:29to then switch.
15:30In the months that follow,
15:39Sarah's family begins to pick up
15:41on warning signs.
15:43Subtle but unsettling clues
15:45that her new partner
15:46might not be who he seems.
15:48I thought they got on at first,
15:51but then she confided in me,
15:54like, oh, he's saying this,
15:56he's saying that.
15:57You know, just sarky comments
16:01and I said,
16:02you need to tell him straight.
16:04You don't need to be hearing
16:06horrible things about yourself.
16:09They definitely did think
16:10he was better than everyone else.
16:17Sarah's family grows increasingly concerned,
16:20noticing how he isolates her,
16:23making it clear he wants her all to himself.
16:25Quite often, I'd go and look after her cats
16:28and clean a house for her
16:30and Darren had an issue with that.
16:32He didn't like that I had a key.
16:34He didn't like that I could just see Sarah
16:36when I wanted.
16:37He was used to having her on a short leash
16:39and from then on,
16:41we didn't see much of Sarah.
16:45Sarah was able to interpret
16:47the possessiveness and the jealousy
16:49as an indication of his passion for her
16:52and that's not an entirely invalid interpretation.
16:56The distinction comes
16:57where you get some indication
16:59of a hatred of the partner
17:00or the partner's family
17:02alongside the passion.
17:04That's where it's a warning sign.
17:06You never sort of knew where you stood with him.
17:11One minute he's smiling and laughing with you,
17:13the next minute it's like
17:15someone's really, really twigged and erving him
17:18and you've got no idea what it is
17:19and he won't say anything,
17:21he'll just give you the looks.
17:24That was when I was sort of like,
17:25no, don't want to be around that, thanks.
17:27Despite growing concerns
17:37about their troubled relationship,
17:39Sarah decides to move in with Darren Hall.
17:43Darren has a real cunning instinct.
17:46He knows that Sarah's family
17:49are her stronghold.
17:50He knows that if he wants to have Sarah to himself,
17:55then he has to isolate her
17:58from all that emotional support
18:00that she clearly gets from her family.
18:03Sarah's mother has doubts and takes action.
18:06I thought, I'm going to move,
18:08I'm going to get closer.
18:10So he was all close
18:11and that's when I really got to know him.
18:16With her mother now nearby,
18:18Sarah finally confides in her,
18:21revealing the tangled emotions
18:22that make her relationship with Darren
18:24so difficult to walk away from.
18:28She kept coming to me
18:30and just saying,
18:31I've had enough,
18:32but I want to be with him,
18:34I love him
18:34and I've got a baby on the way.
18:40Unaware at this stage
18:41that Sarah is pregnant,
18:43Darren had attacked her.
18:46He pushed her
18:48or did something to her stomach
18:50and she'd not felt a baby move,
18:53so I said,
18:53let's go and get a check-up.
18:56So she told the hospital
18:59that she'd banged into someone
19:01or fell.
19:03I wasn't happy,
19:05but they was living together by then.
19:08The baby is unharmed.
19:12Despite the attack,
19:13Sarah decides to stay with Darren.
19:16I think that Sarah was incredibly resilient
19:20psychologically, emotionally.
19:23The sad thing is
19:25that that very resilience
19:27meant that she tried and tried
19:30in this relationship,
19:32even when he was treating her so badly.
19:35A few months later,
19:56Sarah gives birth to a daughter.
19:58Darren Hall is the father.
20:01She's so proud of a second daughter.
20:04She was a full-on mum
20:09and she was so proud and excited.
20:18Things were looking up.
20:23Darren Hall adores their newborn daughter,
20:26but his role as a stepfather
20:27leaves a lot to be desired.
20:29When you look at how Darren treated
20:35his own biological daughter
20:37compared to the daughter
20:39from Sarah's previous relationship,
20:42he was two different people.
20:45His daughter had everything she wanted.
20:49If she wanted to go on a day out,
20:50the whole family was going on that day out.
20:52Whereas, when it came to Sarah's other daughter,
20:56there was such a clear absence of love.
21:02Having a child will have really cemented
21:06his sense of having made it in life.
21:09Not only does it support his sense of acceptability,
21:12but also the child will have accepted him
21:15in a way that he probably isn't used to
21:17being accepted by the world.
21:22But Darren Hall puts all of that in jeopardy.
21:26Not long after the birth of her daughter,
21:28Sarah is shocked at a discovery.
21:30She found out he had an affair
21:34and that's when things were going really downhill.
21:39He didn't get what he needed at home,
21:41so he went out elsewhere to get it.
21:42That broke Sarah inside.
21:44Soon after, Sarah finds out
22:01that Darren has been cheating on her.
22:03Her family then notice a change in her.
22:06As much as it hurt her and it broke her,
22:09it gave her a lot of strength.
22:10It lit a fire inside of her that said,
22:13no, why am I letting myself be treated like this?
22:18Why do I let my girls be around this person?
22:22It was like the light switch had finally turned on.
22:26This person is capable of a lot worse
22:29than what I thought he was
22:31because he's hurting me this way
22:32and I'm supposed to be the love of his life.
22:36After three years, Sarah makes the difficult decision
22:39to walk away from her relationship with Darren Hall.
22:43To everyone sort of locally,
22:48this is Granby Park.
22:52I can't come back here.
22:53It's too many memories for me.
22:57Sarah would bring us down here,
23:00you know, me and my siblings,
23:01along with her kids and, like, we'd all just play together.
23:07It's to the credit of both Sarah and Sarah's family, frankly,
23:11that even in the midst of all this emotional turmoil and trauma
23:15that we know she was going through,
23:17that she was able to still hold on to a bit of herself.
23:21I remember we'd gone out for a family picnic
23:25and he wasn't there
23:27and I've never seen Sarah's eyes sparkle so much.
23:31To this day, when I think of Sarah,
23:35that's the day I try and remember.
23:37That was the last day I can remember where she was truly happy.
23:41Sorry.
23:41She loved her family
23:51and the best years of her life
23:53was when he didn't have control over that
23:55and when she could just love us freely.
23:58She could share her children with us
24:02and she shared memories with us
24:04and that's what I choose to remember
24:06because that's when he wasn't there to cloud her
24:09and cloud her judgement
24:10and she was just Sarah.
24:16For over three years,
24:17Sarah keeps her distance from Darren,
24:20resisting his repeated attempts to win her back.
24:22Yet, cutting him out of her life entirely proves hard.
24:32Although Sarah has managed to extricate herself
24:34from this emotional trap that she's been in,
24:37she's struggling with two young children on her own,
24:41which means that she still needs
24:44some degree of support from Darren.
24:47The fact that they had a little girl together
24:49means he always had a way
24:53to get his claws back into her.
24:55There was always a reason to talk to her.
24:58There was always a reason to need to see her.
25:01Even when they weren't in a relationship,
25:03he would use his daughter
25:05to create boundaries and restrictions
25:09that benefited him and did harm to Sarah.
25:19Three years after walking away from Darren,
25:22Sarah is hit with heartbreaking news.
25:25Her beloved grandfather passes away.
25:29At her most vulnerable,
25:31Darren seizes the moment to reconnect.
25:34As we got back to the wake,
25:36he was sat there and I said,
25:38Sarah, what's he doing here?
25:44She was vulnerable.
25:45She was at her weakest moment
25:48and that was when he decided
25:51she's upset, she's vulnerable,
25:54she's lost her favourite person in the whole world.
25:58This is the right time.
26:01He instinctively knows his moment
26:03because this family that's always been
26:06her source of strength,
26:08to some degree her source of protection from Darren,
26:10is injured, is damaged.
26:12He'd check up on her.
26:15How are you and the girls doing?
26:17He'd act very concerned,
26:18like he genuinely cared.
26:21And he could slowly work on her every week
26:24or every day if he wanted to
26:26and she wouldn't notice it
26:28because she's so overwhelmed with grief.
26:32What other way can you view a situation like this
26:36other than a predator and their prey?
26:38He's saying he'll do this for her,
26:42do that for her.
26:43Then she's actually saying to me in the car,
26:45I think he's changed nearly.
26:46He wants to help me with this.
26:47He wants to help me for that.
26:50Sarah came around to my eye not long after that
26:53and said, Mum, I want to be with him.
26:55I love him and I'm doing it for the girls.
26:59And I said she was doing so well on your own.
27:03Sarah tells her mother that he's changed,
27:08that he loves her, that she loves him.
27:10Unfortunately, this rarely pans out.
27:14I tolerated it,
27:16but then things started going downhill
27:19and that's when it all happened.
27:21Almost four years after Sarah had left Darren,
27:37the couple get back together.
27:40They continue living in separate houses,
27:43but her family remains worried.
27:45It really became obvious
27:47when he'd got her under his spell again completely
27:51because she'd smile less.
27:53She just wasn't as happy.
27:58Soon enough, Sarah will have begun to realise
28:01that actually things really hadn't changed.
28:06She was saying things to me
28:07after about a month or two of being back with him.
28:10She's like, I don't think he has changed.
28:12He's done this and done that,
28:14bought me this and bought me that,
28:15but I think it's just to try and keep me here.
28:21It wasn't until Sarah had dealt with some of her grief
28:25that she realised what was happening.
28:28That was when she started voicing it to us.
28:31You know, she'd tell us,
28:32Mum, Megan, it makes my skin crawl.
28:35I don't want to be around him.
28:36I don't want to be near him,
28:37but the girls want to stay there.
28:39They want us to be a family.
28:40And she was almost sort of weighing up.
28:43Does she let herself get hurt
28:45or does she break her kids' hearts?
28:49Sarah's family grows increasingly concerned,
28:52fearing she has fallen back into an abusive relationship.
28:56No matter what happens to her,
28:58she was always concentrating on the kids more than anything.
29:00As long as they were happy,
29:01she wasn't bothered that she was having all this trouble with him.
29:05She put up with it for the kids.
29:07As a mum, you never want to keep your children away from the parents
29:12and you never want to take away your child's innocence
29:15by explaining that their parent is a bad person.
29:18And I think that was his hold.
29:19Concern grows as it emerges that Sarah hasn't been seen for three days,
29:44while Darren has continued the school run as if nothing is amiss.
29:49Someone rung me up to say that Darren had been to the school
29:58to pick one of her daughters up,
30:00which they don't even know who Darren is.
30:03They don't know of him.
30:06That's when they contacted me
30:08to say that he'd been in and said that she'd gone missing.
30:13They already had concerns from not seeing Sarah at pick-ups and drop-offs.
30:27So then, obviously, the school ran the police.
30:30I went running up to her house because I was worried.
30:36A car was still there, that's a sign.
30:38Wherever she goes, a car goes.
30:41The police was changing the locks.
30:44They asked who I was because I weren't allowed in.
30:47And I said, I'm worried.
30:49I need to find her.
30:51I think he's done something to her.
30:53She's hurt somewhere.
30:56A social worker arrives at Darren's home.
30:59Hall claims that Sarah needed a break
31:01and has gone to stay with a friend.
31:04Yet no-one is able to reach her.
31:07The police searched some of her friends' houses as well.
31:11No sign of her.
31:21Three days since Sarah was last seen,
31:24police question her partner, Darren Hall.
31:30My name's Michelle Healy Casey
31:31and I was the prosecution barrister
31:33for the case against the defendant, Darren Hall.
31:38Even when the police went and spoke to Darren,
31:40they said, you know, what's happened?
31:42And he still maintained that she had simply left him
31:45and gone to her friends.
31:46He even said, oh, she has mental health difficulties
31:49and she's done this before.
31:51However, they became suspicious
31:53because there'd been no activity for a number of days
31:55then on her mobile phone or on her bank accounts.
31:59So they arrested him.
32:01They then took his phone
32:02and it was after analysis of his phone
32:04that they were able to show just exactly what had happened.
32:10Phone records reveal that on the night Sarah vanished,
32:16Darren Hall left her two daughters alone at home.
32:21He drove 20 miles to a lay-by near Chesterfield
32:24where for nine minutes
32:27his phone's torch lit up the darkness.
32:33Then he drove back.
32:38Police attend the area where Hall's phone
32:40was pinging for nine minutes.
32:43They search the area
32:44and find Sarah's body.
32:49Sorry.
33:03I was just shell-shocked.
33:06We were all heartbroken.
33:11The next me and my grandkid come in
33:14and just said,
33:15my mum's never, ever coming back, is she?
33:17Sarah's body had been dumped in undergrowth
33:23just a few metres from the lay-by.
33:28When the police finally found Sarah's body,
33:30it had been left exposed for a number of days
33:32and this was a very, very hot summer.
33:35What that meant was that unfortunately
33:36the body had already started to decompose.
33:39That was very difficult
33:39because it proved very difficult
33:41to find what the actual cause of death was.
33:43What we suspected was that Sarah had been strangled
33:47but normally you'd be looking for
33:49particular evidence to show that.
33:51For example, ligature marks around the neck
33:53or petechiae,
33:54which are more commonly known as
33:56pinpoint bruises
33:57that appear on the eyeballs
33:58or on the surface of the skin.
34:00And because of the number of days
34:02and the decomposition,
34:03unfortunately we didn't have
34:04any of that evidence to show
34:06just exactly how it was
34:07that Sarah had died.
34:08Meanwhile, detectives speak
34:14to multiple witnesses
34:15uncovering new details
34:17about the night that Sarah disappeared.
34:20Arguing was heard by different people.
34:23One of the witnesses heard
34:24actual voices and arguing.
34:26Later on, another witness
34:27heard the sound of banging.
34:29When a concerned neighbour
34:31texts Sarah to see if she's all right,
34:33she gets a reply.
34:35Yes, all OK.
34:37Detectives believe that Sarah
34:40didn't send that final message.
34:42Her killer did.
34:46By now, Darren Hall
34:47is their prime suspect.
34:51Continuing to analyse data
34:52from his phone,
34:54investigators begin tracking
34:55his movements from the moment
34:56that Sarah vanished.
34:58When the police looked at the home,
35:00they were able to see
35:00that a number of items were missing,
35:03including an overnight bag
35:04and a number of items of clothing.
35:08He hatches a plan.
35:09He takes some of her clothes
35:11to a recycling centre
35:13in order that he can
35:14construct a story
35:16that Sarah has gone away
35:18for a few days.
35:21He'd gone to a skip,
35:23which is one that he used for work,
35:24and he disposed of several items
35:26in the skip.
35:26The police were able to go to that,
35:28and when they searched it,
35:29they found Sarah's dressing gown
35:30and a dressing gown cord.
35:34So what he had actually done
35:36is he'd got rid of the items
35:37that Sarah had been wearing
35:38that night
35:39and put those into the skip,
35:41and then he'd gone
35:42and taken other items
35:43to make it look
35:44as if Sarah
35:45had run away from home.
35:46When detectives confront Darren Hall
35:51with this new evidence,
35:52he refuses to talk.
35:59Just eight days
36:00after Sarah Henshaw's disappearance,
36:03police charge Darren Hall
36:04with her murder.
36:07Literally, the police came round
36:08and said it is a murder investigation.
36:11It was horrible.
36:12Despite the weight of evidence
36:22against Darren Hall,
36:24prosecutors are worried
36:25they may not be able
36:26to secure a murder conviction.
36:29One of the difficulties in this case
36:30was the pathology evidence.
36:32Because of the state of Sarah's body,
36:34we couldn't definitively say
36:35what the cause of death was,
36:37and there's always a concern
36:39when you've got that question mark
36:40hanging over pathology evidence.
36:42And you just don't know
36:43what the jury will make of that.
36:50Nine years after Sarah Henshaw
36:52first dated Darren Hall,
36:54he stands trial for her murder.
36:57I looked straight at him every day
37:00and I thought,
37:01you need to know what you've done
37:03and what you've done
37:04to all my family.
37:05I felt like I was in a bubble,
37:10like it wasn't real,
37:13like somebody to watch on TV.
37:17In court, Darren Hall changes his story.
37:21Having initially told police
37:22that Sarah had gone missing,
37:24he now admits that he watched her die
37:26and dumped her body.
37:27But he claims her death was an accident.
37:32During the trial, Darren was very emotional.
37:36And when it came to him giving evidence,
37:37it was punctuated frequently by him crying
37:40and his voice being very low and very soft.
37:43Not ashamed of what he'd done,
37:45but like he couldn't believe that it had come to this.
37:48His defence was that he and Sarah had been arguing
37:55and that she had accidentally fallen down the stairs.
37:58Thereafter, he said that he had just panicked
38:00and therefore disposed of the body,
38:02but he maintained he'd played no part in her actual death.
38:07The fact that he pled not guilty is just...
38:10It's laughable, really.
38:11If you've killed someone by accident,
38:12your first thought is,
38:13I'm going to call the police or an ambulance
38:15to see if they're even still alive.
38:17You wouldn't just dump them by the side of the road
38:19in their pyjamas for insects and animals to get at.
38:23I personally will never, ever get the image
38:26of maggots and bugs coming out of my sister's face.
38:32The fact that she was found with no eyes
38:34and her clothing was torn and half-eaten.
38:39He said that he had accidentally killed Sarah,
38:43but that thereafter he was panicking.
38:45It was important, therefore, for us to show
38:46that these weren't the actions of a man who was panicking.
38:49If anything, he was the complete opposite of that.
38:51He had thought very carefully about what he was going to do.
38:54The time frame at which we heard the screams
38:56and then the body was moved was several hours.
38:58It was clear time for him to think about
39:00how he was going to dispose of the body
39:01and where he was going to dispose of the body.
39:03After a two-week trial, the prosecution makes a final plea to the jury.
39:15This was the closing paragraph from my closing speech
39:18to the jury at the end of the trial.
39:19This was an unlawful assault.
39:23It was prolonged.
39:24It was not self-defence.
39:26And it continued, despite the screaming and the pleading.
39:31I do not know exactly how Sarah died.
39:34The one man who does has chosen to lie to you
39:37and he couldn't look you in the eye
39:39in the face of what he has done.
39:43She died during a violent assault
39:45at the hands of a man who was trying to seriously hurt her.
39:52And that is why this defendant is guilty of murder.
39:55After four hours of deliberation,
40:01the jury returns with a verdict.
40:04Guilty.
40:09When he was found guilty,
40:10the overwhelming reaction was one of relief.
40:14I jumped up in the air and went,
40:16yeah, me and my sister did.
40:18So we sat next to each other.
40:20But I wasn't so happy on the sentence
40:23because obviously life should mean life.
40:28He stole my sister.
40:30And 17 years just isn't enough.
40:32We all have to live with this pain
40:33for the rest of our lives.
40:35So why shouldn't he live in pain
40:36for the rest of his life?
40:45In court, Sarah's family finally heard the truth
40:48about her murder.
40:49The fact that he had just left her there
40:53and continued as if everything was normal,
40:57knowing that he's robbed us
40:58of any happiness we had left with her,
41:01that is the thing I really can't get my head around.
41:05Monster.
41:07I'll never forgive him.
41:10He took part of me away.
41:12My heart is broken
41:14and it won't be repaired
41:16because one of my children
41:17have been took away.
41:19He deserves to rot.
41:23I think it's disgusting.
41:25I think it's despicable
41:26and I think it shows he is the true lowest of the low.
41:29If anyone's out there and suffering,
41:34don't.
41:35Go to family.
41:37Go to the police.
41:39Just don't let this happen again.
41:42I'm sorry.
41:44I had to tell them two girls
41:47that mum's never, ever coming back
41:50and that's the worst thing
41:52I've had to do in my life
41:54and I wouldn't like anybody else
41:57to go through that, ever.
42:00Being here,
42:24it's difficult
42:26because when Sarah was here,
42:29she was happy and smiley.
42:34It was just pure happiness.
42:35She got to watch her kids
42:36do all the things they enjoyed to do.
42:42He stole that light that was inside of her.
42:44She had such a bright fire in her
42:47and it's almost like
42:49he just kept putting drops of water on it
42:51until it went out.
42:56We won't ever get to experience
42:58Sarah sitting here
43:00and cackling at us
43:01for trying to fit in the baby swing
43:02or falling off of the roof,
43:04you know?
43:08It's hard.
43:10I'll never be able to bring my son here
43:12because
43:14it will always feel like a piece is missing.
43:17sorry, I just need a minute.
43:21I'm sorry, I just need a minute.
43:29In 2023, Darren Hall was convicted
43:32of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Henshaw.
43:35She escaped their abusive relationship
43:37for a second time,
43:39breaking free from a cycle of control and violence.
43:42But months later,
43:44Sarah simply vanished.
43:46She was never seen alive again,
43:49condemned to her last night out.
43:51So,
43:53I don't know what happened to her last night,
43:56but it was that Duet hall
43:56who was angry and lord.
43:57I wanted to find her
43:57what happened to her last night,
43:59when she saw her last night.
43:59extrapolate
44:01And then that came,
44:01and it's open posición
44:02that I thought happened to her last night.
44:04wouldn't like her last night,
44:05and you're that大家
44:05could be able to make a point
44:08seriously?
44:09Even if she had found her last night,
44:10and she was the one 때문
44:13oneever
44:14and I thought what happened to her last night,
44:15so after that,
44:16I had charged her last night,
44:17while I was never the last night
44:17and I was having had.
44:18了
44:21Transcription by CastingWords
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