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Cold Case Season 01 Episode 03
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00:00She thought she'd be okay and they just decided to walk home along the town
00:05path. He was sitting there. I mean, I just was like, please God, please God, please
00:13God, please don't let me die.
00:19The police in this case were pretty convinced this can't have been his first
00:24of offence. So therefore his DNA is going to be in the database. Weeks went by and they couldn't get
00:31their suspect. Months turned to years and Wiltshire police run out of Leeds.
00:39I lived in fear. I couldn't be in the house on my own.
00:44To think he's going to come back and kill me was quite scary.
00:49I'm really passionate about cold cases because that trauma they must have been through.
00:54That never went away for Steph and Adam. We're looking for any suspects. And so get a list
00:58of thousands of names that could be linked. You're really looking at those that are at
01:02the top. And one name particularly stood out.
01:06They know where he lives. They decide, you know, we're going to get in Dawn Raid.
01:12Was he onto them when they turned up to arrest him? He wasn't there.
01:24Salisbury is a lovely place. It's a cathedral city. It's quiet. There's not a lot of crime.
01:33It's normally a safe place to live. Not much going on.
01:36I dare say it's quite, like, sort of posh-ish because it's got a cathedral. I would class it
01:42as quite a safe place to live. Not much going on.
01:46I dare say it's quite, like, posh-ish because it's got a cathedral. I would class it as quite
01:52a safe place to live.
01:59You would expect to get sort of low-level burglary, car theft, you know, drink-related incidents
02:07on a Friday, Saturday night, occasional punch-up. But sort of serious sex assaults would be relatively rare.
02:13On the cold night of Sunday, October 7th, 2001, in the shadows of the cathedral, a horrific incident occurs.
02:34As you leave Salisbury City Centre and you head towards East Harnham, it's a suburb about two or three miles away,
02:40there is a path that cuts across which saves you about 30 minutes of walking.
02:45It's quite a famous path because halfway along, John Constable famously painted the picture of Salisbury Cathedral.
02:54The town path starts in Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury. It's actually a really lovely place.
03:01It's a beautiful walk. Quite open. It's a path in the middle of all the fields.
03:07So that's why it's, you know, so nice to walk down there, because it's quite remote but quite pretty as well.
03:18During the day, perfectly well-lit.
03:21Lots of parents, mothers pushing babies, cyclists, runners.
03:26Really nice place to walk.
03:28At night, it's a little bit more sinister, I guess. It's not that well-lit.
03:35There's nowhere to go once you're on that path. There's no turnings left or right. It's one long path.
03:42That night, a pair of local teenagers were on their way home from a night out.
03:47That particular night, I was with my best friend, and she was with her boyfriend at the time.
03:56We were together, two so Adam and I and her, and her partner.
04:03So we were in this pub together. Adam and I decided we wanted to go home.
04:08It was quite late. It was sort of getting sort of half once or quarter to two in the morning.
04:13And she decided to stay out.
04:18We were gonna all walk home together, two couples, like, safety numbers and all that.
04:23And she lived along the road from me as well.
04:27But, yeah, Adam and I, we left first.
04:35Rather than get a taxi, because obviously they're teenagers that don't have a lot of money,
04:38they just thought they'd walk it, which, you know, she's got her boyfriend to protect her.
04:43She thought she'd be okay.
04:45And they just decided to walk home along the town path.
04:56So I'd been working evenings in Salisbury CID.
04:59We'd finished at 10 o'clock.
05:00I'd probably had a couple of pints in the bar.
05:02We used to have a police bar.
05:03And then I'd cycled back across that path.
05:06It was absolutely pouring rain.
05:10So I just kept my head down, cycled home, because I lived at the end of the path.
05:14And I do remember when I cycled along there, there was a shadow in the bushes,
05:18but I'm just trying to get home, so I'm not really thinking much about what's going on.
05:23The following day, I was on early turn, so I was back in at 8 o'clock in the morning.
05:27And that's when I first heard there had been a horrific attack that evening
05:30in the early hours on that town path.
05:32I went by there about 11 o'clock, and I think the attack took place at sort of 2 in the morning.
05:38So he'd been there for some considerable time waiting to attack someone.
05:42It was a very dark night, but also a very wet and cold night.
05:52And they were, you know, making their way along when the rain got sort of heavier and heavier.
05:57And they were forced to take shelter under a tree about halfway down the path.
06:05Adam and I went to stand under the trees to shelter.
06:09We saw this man. He was still there.
06:14He didn't even have a dog.
06:15Like, who does that? I know you're a little bit weird.
06:17Like, people just don't do stuff like that.
06:20So immediately, I knew that it was uneasy immediately.
06:27I sort of panicked, and I said to Adam,
06:37we better go, Adam, because my dad's meeting us halfway along here in a minute.
06:43Remember? So I sort of said it loud enough so he would hear,
06:48but sort of said it, sort of told like a lie.
06:52So he would think if he was going to attack us,
06:55I sort of would have thrown him off the scent
06:58because he thought, actually, my dad's coming along here.
07:01My dad didn't even live with me.
07:04We turned away to walk off, and he grabbed me,
07:11hit Adam over the head and knocked him out,
07:15and put a gun to my head.
07:17I was made to perform oral sex on him with a gun to my head.
07:23Adam was told to climb into the field.
07:25He was told not to watch.
07:27He was told that if he did anything stupid
07:29that they'd be seriously injured or shot.
07:32So Adam had to listen to his partner being sexually assaulted.
07:36She's so terrified. She's got a gun at her head.
07:39She has absolutely no choice about what she has to do.
07:42The couple must have thought, you know,
07:44he's going to kill us after this.
07:46They can't, you know, he's going to let us live.
07:48Terrifying.
07:50I remember the cold, because it was a cold night,
07:56the gun to my head and pressing really, really hard against my forehead.
08:00I mean, it's metal, it's cold.
08:03And I just remember thinking, shit.
08:06Like, I just did what he said.
08:10Adam was absolutely helpless.
08:12He got told he would get killed, too.
08:14And he was saying, please don't hurt my girlfriend.
08:18Please don't hurt my girlfriend.
08:19But he was just led there petrified,
08:21because he was 16 as well.
08:23He was young.
08:24Of course, he didn't want him to hurt and attack me.
08:27I don't think Adam knew, really, what was happening
08:30or what his intentions were.
08:31He wasn't allowed to get up.
08:33He was told he should lay face down eagle spread.
08:38Salisbury, Wiltshire, 2001.
08:56Whilst on their way home from a night out,
08:5816-year-old schoolgirl Stephanie Rudd
09:01and her boyfriend Adam Underwood
09:04have been apprehended on a deserted footpath
09:06by a man with a gun.
09:08Adam is made to lie down and look away,
09:12whilst the unknown assailant forces Stephanie
09:15to perform oral sex on him.
09:19Do you know what?
09:20He was actually quite calm.
09:22He wasn't shouting.
09:23He was sort of keeping his voice down a bit,
09:26but aggressively calm.
09:29So, with anger and you do what I say in his voice.
09:33Yeah, he was scary.
09:35Very scary indeed.
09:37Adam was obviously struck with fear.
09:44And he, you know, he just led there.
09:47He was just too scared to get up.
09:49As a young girl, to do something like that
09:52is obviously pretty disgusting.
09:55And, yeah, I remember spitting out his semen in my hand
10:02and wiping it down my trousers.
10:07But I don't think he knew that's what I had done,
10:11because he said, would you like a tissue?
10:14Would you like a tissue?
10:15Would you like a tissue?
10:16Would you like a handkerchief?
10:20She wipes them on her leg to preserve evidence.
10:23This shows that even in a really distressing situation,
10:26Stephanie was thinking, she was thinking she wanted justice.
10:29Afterwards, he made me feel like he didn't know where he was.
10:39And I remember trying to be really helpful to him,
10:41trying to give him directions.
10:43Um, because he was lost or not from around here.
10:46I based him to be Scottish,
10:48because at that time,
10:49I honestly thought that was where he was from.
10:52He spoke in a slight accent.
10:55They'd both been brought up in Salisbury,
10:57so they're not that familiar with the other accents in the country.
11:03And he also asked for directions.
11:05He asked for directions to Wilton Road,
11:07which is one of the main roads leading out of Salisbury
11:12towards sort of Bristol and Bath.
11:17He continued to grope me,
11:20put all his hands down my top and everything,
11:22probably getting his last kicks in.
11:26He's let them live,
11:27but he tells them not to move until he's gone.
11:32And he sort of slowly disappears into the darkness.
11:38And I eventually did lift my head up really, really slowly,
11:41because it had gone really quiet.
11:43And I remember looking up to the cathedral,
11:45looking up to the cross.
11:47And I just was like,
11:50please God, please God, please God,
11:52please don't let me die,
11:53please don't let me die.
11:54But I so meant it when I was doing it.
11:57Like, I was so...
11:58I had such a moment.
12:04He did say,
12:05if you tell anybody,
12:07I will come back and kill you.
12:09If you tell the police or tell anyone about this,
12:11I will come back and kill you.
12:17We led there for about five, about ten minutes,
12:19and we eventually got up.
12:22And then I was sick everywhere.
12:26I could hardly walk.
12:27I remember my legs being so scared and jellified,
12:33walking back, literally struggling
12:35to put one foot in front of the other.
12:41You know, I think he could be hiding in the trees,
12:42he could be hiding in the bushes.
12:44If I've got my phone out and we try to ring the police,
12:47he's gonna kill us.
12:48So we didn't do anything.
12:50We just made it back to my mum's house.
12:52But yeah, then my mum rang the police from there.
12:59This is a huge incident, you know,
13:01it's in a very low crime city.
13:03The report of such a crime gets a huge police response.
13:07So there's, you know,
13:08there's half a dozen police officers turn up immediately.
13:13They blocked off the town path,
13:15which obviously is the crime scene.
13:17You don't want any contamination of that crime scene
13:19if there's any evidence there.
13:25The weather that night was not our friend
13:26because anything that could have been there
13:28almost certainly would have been washed away.
13:30It was torrential rain
13:32and was probably talking one or two hours after the attack.
13:35So there's no way really of keeping that scene dry.
13:40This attacker had brought a gun to the scene.
13:42It seems he was prepared to use violence.
13:44He sexually assaulted a female child, a 16-year-old,
13:47but he didn't even approach a lone 16-year-old.
13:50He had the audacity to try to do this
13:52when someone else was present.
13:54Real risk-taking behaviour.
13:56The first thing you want to do is find out the story from the victims,
14:05their account.
14:06Do they know the attacker?
14:08If this is a stranger attack, this is going to be really serious
14:11and really going to affect the people of Salisbury.
14:13So the sooner you can catch someone, the safer you can make people feel.
14:20They're only 16 years old,
14:22so you want to see whether you can pick them up on CCTV.
14:25Can you see whether they've been followed?
14:28Have they bumped into someone in town that has taken a liking to them?
14:31Could the suspect already be known to them?
14:33Or was he placed him under some sort of surveillance and followed them?
14:37So it's really key that you get such a detailed account of their movements that day.
14:43Wiltshire police need to act quickly to secure any evidence
14:46that might help identify the attacker.
14:50Steph provided her clothes, which were seized, bagged up safely.
14:54So if there was any forensic evidence attached to that clothing,
14:57we'd have a good chance of recovering it.
15:02They obviously fast-tracked this DNA test
15:05on Steph's genes and it comes back quite significantly.
15:09It comes back with a single sperm head.
15:16So we were surprised because we knew a little bit about DNA and semen
15:20and normally there's sort of a million-plus sperm heads that are released.
15:23So to find one single one, we wanted to ask those questions
15:26as to what did that tell us about this individual?
15:29And it could be one or two or probably three things.
15:32One is he was a frequent masturbator
15:34and his body wasn't able to recover quickly enough to produce sperm.
15:38Two is he could have had a vasectomy
15:40and what he'd released was a post-vasectomy sperm.
15:44Or three, he wasn't able to produce sperm naturally anyway,
15:48so he probably wouldn't have had children and things like that.
15:52You're looking for someone that maybe fits into that, you know,
15:56as part of your sort of overriding profile.
16:02The police in this case were pretty convinced
16:04this can't have been his first offence.
16:06He must have committed other sexual offences,
16:09so therefore his DNA is going to be in the database.
16:11So DNA is made up of sort of 20 strands and we had 17 strands,
16:15so we were very close to a full profile,
16:17which was able to be searched on the national DNA database.
16:20So you're very excited thinking,
16:22once they run this through, the chances are
16:24it's going to print out a suspect on the end of it
16:26and this case will be solved really quickly.
16:28There was no direct eyewitness, there was no CCTV of the crime scene or nearby.
16:43The police knew that they needed a lot of help from the public,
16:47so they immediately went to the local press and local TV as well
16:52to get, you know, appeal out, to get that photo fit out there.
16:56We wanted this person caught as soon as possible.
17:02This was a really dangerous man
17:04and committing this type of brazen attack,
17:06what would stop him doing it again or, you know,
17:08even something more sinister?
17:10So the media were definitely keen to be involved.
17:13And also for Salisbury, this is something that doesn't happen.
17:16So this crime, you know, sort of struck at the heart of the community
17:20and everybody was talking about it,
17:22everybody was guessing who it could be, you know,
17:25we were getting names thrown into the incident room.
17:29And the police were hitting it as hard as they could.
17:31They were doing regular swabs of young men or all men in Salisbury,
17:36which is quite a small town,
17:37so you're eventually going to get a large percentage of those.
17:41They thought they must be able to get him by doing that.
17:45But, you know, the weeks went by and whether he deliberately was evading those swabs
17:53and those, you know, knew what was going on,
17:55but they couldn't get their suspect.
17:57The police launched a massive inquiry.
18:00Over 1,500 people were questioned
18:02in relation to gathering information to help the police.
18:06We stood in the marketplace in Salisbury
18:08and swabbed bald men on a Tuesday at the market,
18:11just really clutching at straws,
18:13seeing where we could go with this investigation.
18:15You didn't have to have suspicion.
18:16If you just said, my next door neighbour's odd,
18:18we'd go and swab them.
18:19And we could really quickly eliminate people.
18:25The police would say,
18:26Oh, we've had a couple of leads, you know,
18:28but they wouldn't sort of get out our hopes up.
18:30But those leads never turned into anything.
18:32And then sort of six months went on, a year went on,
18:35and everyone would always say,
18:37Did they catch that guy?
18:38Did they catch that guy?
18:39Is he still out there?
18:41Disappointingly but naturally, after about sort of a year,
18:51you run out of lines of inquiry.
18:53And so you have to go and see the victims then and say,
18:56Look, as much as we've done, we haven't caught anybody.
19:01We won't forget about this
19:02because that DNA profile will remain on the database.
19:05So at any given time, we could have a suspect thrown up.
19:10Or there'll be advances in science that allows us to revisit it
19:13and do something more clever.
19:15So, you know, it was always in the back of our minds
19:18that we would one day solve this case.
19:22The police put out flyers.
19:24They went round to...
19:26This is old school, like back in the...
19:28It's like 24 years ago now.
19:29So everyone had something through their door.
19:32It went on Crimewatch twice in 10 years.
19:36And nothing.
19:37Nothing at all.
19:40The case against the unidentified sexual attacker in Salisbury
19:44goes cold.
19:45But Detective Superintendent Sean Memory
19:47couldn't give up on the case.
19:49Not only that, but advancements in familial DNA testing
19:54were about to blow the case wide open.
19:57Police in Salisbury Wiltshire are still searching for the perpetrator of an aggravated sexual assault that took place on the night of October 7th, 2001.
20:12During the attack, a teenage schoolgirl, Stephanie Rudd, was sexually assaulted, while her then boyfriend Adam Underwood watched helplessly.
20:31Despite their tireless efforts over the years, investigators have yet to identify a suspect.
20:40Sadly, not much happened in the intervening years. There wasn't a lead particularly.
20:45Every so often someone would come forward and say,
20:48I think it could be my ex-partner.
20:50And we would swab them.
20:51You know, you'd get a bit excited, but quite quickly it would come back from the laboratory.
20:54Sorry, this isn't your person.
20:56Steph and Adam went about their lives.
20:59They were given contact numbers should they wish to stay in touch, but naturally they tried to move on.
21:08I suffered from really bad anxiety, which is weird, really.
21:14I've done some therapy for the last, sort of, six months, because I'm getting to that age in my life, you know,
21:20where I want to know how I work and why I am the way I am, why I'm wired the way I am,
21:25why I get anxious, why I still get like this when I'm supposed to know it all at 40.
21:29And my therapist has said to me that I've got PTSD from that attack.
21:38The psychological impact of any violence and sexual violence in particular is huge,
21:42but living in uncertainty added to that.
21:45So with somebody not being caught, somebody there at large to harm other people
21:49or even the same victims again, you can just imagine how that perpetuated the trauma
21:54for both victims.
21:56Over the years, the police did continue to try to publicise the case
21:59to try and keep the story going so that people were on the lookout for their suspect.
22:04But unfortunately, nothing was revealed.
22:07Almost a decade after the attack, Detective Sean Memory hears of a technique
22:12that could potentially break this cold case.
22:15Every time you're arrested in the UK, you'll have your DNA taken.
22:19If you're convicted, it will remain on there.
22:21So any crime from low-level shoplifting up to murder, you will appear on that database.
22:26You know, so it's a fantastic database which continually grows month on month.
22:30But it's obviously difficult if your suspect has never committed a crime
22:34or has committed his crimes pre-DNA.
22:37I was very fortunate to watch a presentation on familial DNA,
22:44which is a really clever new piece of science.
22:47So you know that the suspect isn't on the database,
22:50but you're looking for family members, whether that's siblings or parents,
22:55that could be closely matched.
22:57Because we all share DNA and share some similarities,
23:01but siblings and parents will share much more.
23:04So you can look at the database and see whether it throws up anybody
23:08that looks fairly similar and that will narrow down your search
23:11and then you can do family trees and then go and swab some of the right people.
23:19We'd visited rapists, sex offenders.
23:22Each time you raise your hopes thinking,
23:25this is going to be the one, you know, this could be our hit.
23:28You have to let the science do the talking.
23:32But I get that response and I'm ever so sorry it's not him.
23:37I lived in fear.
23:39I couldn't be in the house on my own.
23:41Even I would get in my car at night, check the boot, check the back of the seats,
23:46to make sure no one was there.
23:47I knew no one was there, because I checked it myself.
23:50But I would still drive, petrified, of the dark, of people behind me.
23:55So to live for ten years like that,
23:58to think I'm going to come back and kill me, was quite scary.
24:02I then managed to secure one last round of funding,
24:11because each time you run the database,
24:14costs, you know, £10,000 or more,
24:17because each month several hundred or a thousand people
24:20are added to the database across the country.
24:23So you rerun the search,
24:25because they then have checked against whether they could be related.
24:29With the budget running low, and possibly on their final search,
24:33investigators received the name of a potential relative of the suspected attacker.
24:39And one name particularly stood out, and it was the surname Henderson.
24:42So you start doing some family research,
24:45and the name Keith Henderson came up.
24:49The son of Keith Henderson had been swabbed for a minor offence in Salisbury.
24:54He'd been added to the database,
24:55and he was a fairly close match to our crime scene.
24:58So it was at this point, it was the first point that they actually get the name Keith Henderson,
25:07through that familial DNA test.
25:11And they need to find out who he is, where he is.
25:15Is he still alive? Is he in prison?
25:18They need to find this guy.
25:20He was not known. He wasn't any previous convictions.
25:27But when we start digging into his history, he had in fact come to notice,
25:32living fairly close to Salisbury, for an incident where he was found peering into a young couple's bedroom.
25:39He immediately phoned up and said that there was a domestic incident going on,
25:42obviously to prevent himself being reported for being a peeping Tom.
25:46So he had appeared on our system, but only for that.
25:48But probably more critical to us at that point was when we started looking at his employment history,
25:53at the time of the attack on the town path, he was actually working in the cathedral in the grounds as a close constable,
26:01which was an honorary position, but basically responsible for security,
26:05locking the gates at night and then patrolling to make sure everybody that lived within that gated community were safe.
26:11Eventually, they track down where Keith Henderson is now, and they need a DNA swab off him.
26:25They obviously can't go up to him and ask him for it.
26:28They don't want to spook him out. They don't want him to sort of go on the run.
26:32So they sort of take more covert measures.
26:36You know, if he's a smoker and he's smoking a cigarette and discarding it, bingo.
26:40I have a couple of operational decisions to make now.
26:47Keith Henderson also has a brother, so I can't rule out necessarily that it's not his brother.
26:52So do I arrest him and bring him in, swab him lawfully in custody,
26:57and then find out it's not him, but it could be a brother,
27:00and therefore I've let out that I know it's in the Henderson family?
27:03Or do I try and be a bit more clever and do something covertly?
27:06So what I did was I sought permission to carry out some surveillance on Keith Henderson.
27:15We were going to follow him for a few days and either recover a cigarette if he smoked or swab a coffee cup if he went into town.
27:23And about day two or three of the surveillance, he was acting a bit odd around females,
27:28and the team were reporting back that he's odd.
27:30You know, he stares at women.
27:32But he went into a coffee shop in town and had two coffees.
27:36When he left, they put a swab around the cup without him knowing.
27:40We then quickly send that off to the lab whilst he's still under surveillance.
27:45And within 24 hours, I get the response back that firstly they've managed to obtain a full profile from the coffee cup,
27:51but secondly that it matches the crime scene for the attack on Steph and Adam.
27:55So it's that eureka moment for the police.
28:00They get that call from the forensic lab.
28:03You've got a match. It's an absolute 100% match.
28:07Keith Henderson is your man.
28:09And they know we've just got to go and arrest him and bring this guy to justice.
28:14Although they are almost certain they will secure the conviction of Henderson with the DNA evidence,
28:23Detective Superintendent Sean Memory and his team must proceed with caution.
28:31Do I go and tell Adam and Steph now or do I wait to the point of arrest?
28:36That's a really difficult decision because the excitement in me is I need to tell them.
28:41But at this point, I don't know where Keith Henderson is and I don't want to overexcite Adam and Steph
28:48if for some reason he's gone abroad for a month or...
28:51So I decide not to say anything at that point but to plan his arrest.
29:01So the investigation is going well. They know where he lives.
29:05They've been following him. They know what his vehicle is.
29:08They trail him. They decide, you know, we're going to get him, you know, sort of dawn raid, knock on the door.
29:15If you don't answer, burst in, get him.
29:17And they're 100% sure, you know, he's there because his vehicle is outside.
29:23The night before the arrest, we checked and the car was there.
29:25So it was all ready to go the next morning.
29:27And the reason why we wanted to arrest him in the morning was to take his swab six o'clock in the morning,
29:33put it on a motorcycle straight to the lab and have them process it in daylight rather than sit overnight.
29:39So whilst he's in custody, I would get a phone call back and say, yes, you've got a complete match, you know,
29:45on the lawful sample that you've taken.
29:48The police carefully planned the arrest as they would do in a very serious case like this.
29:53However, when they turned up to arrest him, he wasn't there.
29:56Was he onto them? Had he escaped in that way? Or was it an innocuous trip elsewhere?
30:01The wife was fairly indignant because we also had a warrant to search the house.
30:08So she wasn't that pleased that we were there. She was in her dressing gown.
30:14I had his number. So whilst they were searching it, I made the decision.
30:18Actually, it better be on my shoulders. I'll ring him.
30:22I'll try not to say what it's about, but I'll see when he's coming back from Scotland
30:26and if I can get him back sooner.
30:31He says, you know, we need to speak to you, but he's quite cagey about what it's about.
30:36And it appears that Keith Henderson thinks it's to do with a peeping Tom incident
30:41or an incident where he was accused of being a peeping Tom.
30:46It was actually, sort of, where it may have been a misunderstanding with his neighbours
30:50where they saw him looking in and he had actually contacted the police and said,
30:56I thought there was a domestic incident next door.
30:58So that's clearly what he thought it was rather than the actual sexual assault from all those years ago.
31:08Henderson has used this technique to get away with previous reports of sexual deviancy.
31:13And he clearly thinks he can do it again.
31:19I call him and he answers, very polite, said it was nice to hear from me.
31:24We'd never met.
31:25And I was polite to him and I said, look, I need you to come back as soon as possible.
31:29We need to discuss some serious matters.
31:31He didn't ask what it was, which was a bit strange.
31:34And he said, well, I'm in Scotland.
31:35I said, well, could you get yourself to the train station today?
31:38When I came off the phone, most of my colleagues were, he's just having you along.
31:42He's clearly not going to get on a train.
31:44He's going to be on a flight from Edinburgh to Timbuktu or somewhere similar.
31:48It was a risky move on the part of the detectives.
31:55And the question remained, would Keith Henderson arrive back in Salisbury as promised?
32:00Or were the team about to lose their prime suspect?
32:03On the 4th of October, 2011, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, police are preparing to arrest a man named Keith Henderson for the sexual assault on a then 16-year-old Stephanie Rudd that had occurred in Salisbury 10 years previously.
32:31Myself and two colleagues attended the train station at 6 o'clock that evening.
32:39I guess, deep down, I fully expected him not to be on that train because everything had gone so well in the investigation.
32:45I thought this was just the final bit of a hassle in terms of finding him.
32:52But to everyone's surprise, prime suspect 56-year-old Keith Henderson did appear on the train platform as promised.
33:01Rather than do it in front of everybody on the train station, we took him outside and my colleague then arrested him for what had happened to Steph and Adam.
33:08Now, clearly, he had no idea that that's what he was being brought back for because he went ashen and barely breathed for about two minutes to a point where I said, Keith, you're going to have to breathe.
33:20And we were quite worried about him.
33:22So we drove the half a mile to Salisbury Police Station and we immediately had to get a doctor out to him because he'd lost all the colour in his face and it clearly completely knocked him.
33:32So when they get to the police station, they start the police interview, they straight away say, you know, we have DNA, we've got a clear match between you and the perpetrator.
33:43They obviously hoping he's going to confess, say, OK, maybe try to give us some story, maybe try to claim it as consensual or something.
33:51But no, he's in complete denial.
33:53He looks clearly sort of worried or concerned that they mentioned DNA.
33:59And he's probably thinking, how did that happen? I got this tissue, I took it away.
34:08He genuinely believed he hadn't left his DNA at the scene.
34:11He'd not been on the DNA database himself.
34:13So why on earth could we have picked him up 11 or 12 years later?
34:18It just didn't compute in his mind.
34:20Perhaps understandably for someone who wants to get away with a crime, Henderson denied everything.
34:25He denied everything at interview and he pleaded not guilty.
34:29When we searched the house, we found a replica 9mm pistol, Italian, which subsequently through inquiries, we were able to age as being purchased on and around the right sort of time for the attack on Steph and Adam.
34:45Now, I can't say for certain that that was the gun he used, but it was a strong inference to use at trial to say, this is the gun that he probably used.
34:54He asked for a solicitor, um, and then, um, gave some account initially and then didn't finish off by answering anymore.
35:03But the whole time he clearly was racking his brain as to, that's all very interesting, but I have had a vasectomy and I'm not on the DNA database.
35:13So how have you made that leap from there to there?
35:18And we never disclosed that it was through his son being arrested because we didn't need to because we had a profile taken from him whilst in custody.
35:25So the trial gets underway and it's not a terribly long trial.
35:32There's not a lot to it.
35:34There's the DNA.
35:36The victims, Steph and Adam both give their evidence and then it's over to the defence.
35:43Just before the trial started and the jury was sworn in, the judge was quite clear to him saying,
35:48have you received proper advice because the police are sat on a very strong case here
35:53and if you make the victims give evidence, which you're entitled to do in terms of sentencing, I will take a dim view of that course of action.
36:03He's sort of adamant, no, it's not, you know, it might be my DNA, but, you know, maybe there's some innocent reason.
36:09Maybe they brushed across me, you know, maybe I touched her at some point during the evening.
36:14The jury were never going to buy that, you know, the DNA could only have come from one place.
36:21During the trial, Henderson continued to maintain his innocence, showing no remorse whatsoever,
36:26but the jury only took two hours to decide that he was guilty
36:30and it seemed that it all hinged on this crucial DNA evidence.
36:34People often ask me, why do people plead not guilty when there is overwhelming evidence?
36:39The answer's complex. For some people, it could be that they want to save face.
36:42There might be shame associated with it, letting their family down.
36:45What will their loved ones think of them?
36:47But also, if you think about it, people want to get away with crimes quite often.
36:51Henderson pleaded not guilty. He'd got away with this for years.
36:55So, potentially, he held out some hope that he was going to get found not guilty.
37:03For all intents and purposes, he had to accept it was his DNA as one in a billion.
37:07And our barrister cleverly broke that down by saying,
37:10when we say one in a billion, you take away women from that,
37:14you take away children from that.
37:16So, of a population of 56 million in this country, him being one in a billion,
37:21there's almost certainly not another match in the world.
37:24Henderson was found guilty of assault, possession of an imitation firearm,
37:28sexual assault and false imprisonment.
37:31He received a 12 and a half year sentence
37:33and is required to sign the sex offender register for life.
37:39This case, it sticks with me because it was local to where I live.
37:42It was almost personal. I'd been across that town path that day.
37:46And so, I had a pang of guilt a little bit, I think, that I'd possibly seen the offender,
37:51but not knowing he was just sheltering under a tree.
37:56I had children of my own and I'm sort of thinking to myself,
37:59how does that feel for two 16-year-olds to lose their innocence?
38:02You know, they were just starting off on life, starting to have fun.
38:07All the sort of things that we all did as kids,
38:09and all of that was taken away by Keith Henderson.
38:11He was callous. He showed no remorse.
38:16In the time he spent in prison, for the vast majority of it,
38:19he didn't admit it until finally he did accept it.
38:23He had no care for Steph and Adam.
38:26He had a desire to commit a sexual offence,
38:28and sadly, Steph and Adam were the wrong people
38:30at the wrong place at the wrong time.
38:33It was, like, too good to be true.
38:35Like, the relief and the, oh my God, like...
38:41Cos I spent there were some people who probably, I don't know,
38:45not didn't believe me, but because he never got caught
38:47or nothing ever happened about it.
38:50You know, people make their own assumptions and stuff in life.
38:53And I remember one person saying to my mum,
38:57Is there any chance Stephanie could be making this up at all?
39:01Do you know what I mean?
39:02I was thinking, do you actually think that I would do that?
39:05But I guess if they've not caught anyone, you know, where is he?
39:09Where's this man who attacked her?
39:11So the relief was, yeah, it was a massive relief.
39:15It was pretty amazing. We were very, very happy.
39:18I mean, I'm really passionate about cold cases
39:22because that never went away for Steph and Adam,
39:25and if it had not been solved, they'd still be sat there today
39:28with different feelings than perhaps they are now.
39:30So it's really important to me to, with the advances of science,
39:34why not go back and try and help these people?
39:37You know, this has lived with them, and it's not closure
39:40because what happened, happened, and they'll never be able
39:42to get rid of that.
39:43But they deserve some justice.
39:45And to see the look on their faces made all that effort and hard work.
39:50You know, we'd worked on it almost solidly for 18 months,
39:54a very small team with highs and lows of suspects coming forward
39:58and then being eliminated and, you know, leads that don't go anywhere.
40:02So to reach that point, it was just so satisfying
40:05to see the look on Steph and Adams. You can't bottle that.
40:08The key thing about cold cases is that, you know,
40:12a determined detective will, a lot of the times,
40:17get their perpetrator because time goes by,
40:21people's affiliations change.
40:24So, you know, some people who might be protecting somebody
40:27will give them up.
40:29Or DNA, DNA sort of advances will come along,
40:33not just DNA but then familial DNA.
40:36So in a cold case, any detective taking over that file
40:41has to be sort of confident, has to be determined.
40:45And hopefully, in a lot of cases, and thankfully in this case,
40:50they get them out.
40:51Without familial DNA, I'm not convinced this case would have ever been solved.
41:00It would really have just relied on Keith Henderson slipping up somewhere,
41:05committing anything minor, probably a drink driving offence
41:09or something similar, or a domestic incident,
41:12and being swabbed and then the hit coming through.
41:14But without that, he'd gone 10 or 12 years with that not happening.
41:18So without familial DNA and a reinvestigation,
41:21I'm fairly certain that this case would never have been solved.
41:28My experience with the police, especially with Sean,
41:32he was an amazing man.
41:33He didn't stop.
41:34And he never gave up on me and Adam.
41:37And when he got caught and when it went to trial,
41:41after he got found guilty, he turned around
41:44and he had tears in his eyes,
41:46that you could see how much it really, really meant to him.
41:49It was amazing, amazing police work.
41:52Amazing police work.
41:54I talked a lot about this for kids.
41:55I didn't go against a doctor went against a doctor.
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