- 8 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00This was a cold and calculated murder.
00:16There's always a breaking point in an investigation.
00:24The timeline of events didn't add up.
00:30It was crucial we supported our family contact.
00:50When I stood and looked at the house and I saw the flames coming out of the windows of the third floor, I knew my mum was in that room.
00:57Inside the bedroom, it was an inferno.
01:01All the soft furnishings and the carpets and the curtains were ablaze.
01:07The problem with house fires is that fire is a great destroyer of evidence.
01:14I felt as if there was something wrong because how would everybody get out of the fire but not Amanda?
01:20Having one of your children die is just awful.
01:26But to have one of your children murdered is unthinkable.
01:32I first met the Bates family when I was tasked to notify them of the tragic news that their daughter Amanda Burks, age 27, had been found deceased in a house fire.
01:52From that moment, I became their point of contact in a murder investigation.
01:57My name is Ian Mobs and I was a police family liaison officer.
02:03Often referred to as a flow with Staffordshire Police.
02:07The role of a flow is crucial to a murder investigation because you act as a conduit between the family and the senior investigating officer.
02:19I think it's really important.
02:21Delivering death messages is an awful part of that job.
02:26Having to sit somebody down and tell them that a loved one is dead is extremely, extremely difficult.
02:45The role of a family liaison officer is a relatively recent arrival in the criminal justice system.
02:56Hello, DC Mobs? House fire? Okay. Family liaison officer? Yeah, sure.
03:05Certainly, that role did not exist when I started as a young barrister.
03:10I'll get my stuff together and I'll come in.
03:12It's assumed, rightly, much greater prominence as the years have passed by.
03:19I was told that I was going to be the family liaison officer.
03:23My heart sunk a little that this was a fire because I instinctively knew that this could be quite a difficult case to crack.
03:35The problem with house fires is that fire is a great destroyer of evidence.
03:42At a quarter past two on the morning of the 18th of January 2009, a man rang 999 and asked for the fire service.
03:58He said that his house was on fire.
04:01He said his children had escaped from the house with him, but he didn't know if his wife was still in the house upstairs.
04:10My name's Christopher Houghton, and I was, up until the end of 2017, a prosecution barrister.
04:19The neighbors could see flames shooting out of the upstairs windows of Christopher and Amanda Burke's house.
04:30The family consisted of Amanda and Christopher, and they had two children.
04:38They had Jack, who was about ten, and they had little Millie.
04:42She was about two.
04:43When the fire service arrived at about twenty past two, they found the house well ablaze, and so they did what fire officers do.
04:55They put on their breathing apparatus, and at considerable risk to themselves, they entered the house.
05:04They went up the stairs to find that the landing area was completely ablaze.
05:10They were very worried that the fire might have spread into the roof space, and that the ceiling might collapse upon them.
05:18They managed to extinguish the flames on the landing, and they made their way into the bedroom.
05:26Inside the bedroom, it was an inferno.
05:29All the soft furnishings and the carpets and the curtains were ablaze.
05:35The fire service spent two or three minutes putting out the flames.
05:42It was then that they saw the body of Amanda Burke's lying on the remnants of the bed.
05:50They were immediately struck by the peculiar position.
05:57She was lying in a star shape with her legs and arms spread out.
06:02When I arrived at the scene, the fire was out.
06:15Because it's a crime scene, the area was cordoned off.
06:19Well, I wanted to know what the scene looked like, because I knew that at some point, the family will be asking me a lot of very searching questions.
06:29I just thought, I need to get a complete understanding of what has transpired here.
06:38I needed to know the facts.
06:41When I entered the house, you wouldn't have known from the downstairs that there'd been a fire.
06:46There was no smoke damage.
06:48So I went to the first floor.
06:50There was some smoke damage, but not a great deal.
06:53But the third floor was completely gutted.
06:57There was nothing left.
06:58It was just a blackened shell.
07:00I entered the room where the body was found.
07:04It was very, very badly damaged.
07:06It just struck me as very, very unusual that somebody could just simply burn to death without waking up.
07:16When somebody finds themselves caught or trapped in a fire, the natural instinct is to try and flee to a window or to a door.
07:27If they can't get out, the natural instinct is to curl into a ball with one's arms over one's head in a futile attempt to protect yourself from the flames.
07:40Lying on the bed in a star shape immediately aroused very considerable suspicion about the circumstances of this fire.
07:49We treated the case as suspicious from the very off.
07:56We weren't.
07:57We weren't happy with it.
08:13It was quite late.
08:14I can't remember the time.
08:16They come a knock at the door and it was Chrissie's brother.
08:19My name is Beverly Bates and I'm the mother of Amanda Burks.
08:26And they said, the house is on fire.
08:29Amanda's house is on fire.
08:31And I just remember, I just went hysterical.
08:37Because I know, I know I rang me mum, I was hysterical.
08:41And I rang me son and I was hysterical on the phone to them.
08:46Me husband says, I'll go up.
08:48My husband got up to the house.
08:53The road was cordoned off.
08:55He says, I just stood there.
08:56He says, I didn't know what to do.
08:57The police came across and the policeman just turned to him and said, we've got a fatality and it's Amanda.
09:07Nobody told the police as Brian was Amanda's dad and Brian was so much in shock.
09:16He didn't tell the police himself.
09:19He was traumatized.
09:21He just sat and cried.
09:22My mum and my sisters, the husbands and my brothers, they'd all come round and none of us had any answers.
09:33None of us really knew what was going on.
09:36You're in limbo thinking, what do we do?
09:39I was the single point of contact for that family because they must have a million things running through their heads.
09:59We didn't know what was going on.
10:03I'd happened to Amanda and we didn't know where I'd get the answers from.
10:08This family were absolutely distraught when I got there.
10:15Absolutely distraught.
10:17When I first saw the liaison officers, it was a relief.
10:21I introduced myself to the family.
10:24There was Beverly, Amanda's mother.
10:27Brian was Deb's husband.
10:30The liaison officers had told us they would represent us.
10:33And he was informed as what went on with the investigation every step of the way.
10:40Because I was an active part of the investigation as well, I was actually an investigating detective as well as being the family liaison officer.
10:48I was able to go back to this family and give them an accurate picture of everything we knew at that time.
10:59And I said to them, I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through because who can?
11:08And really, I think we sort of started to hit it off right there.
11:15It was clear that Amanda's family, Beverly and Barbara, were just such lovely people.
11:28And so was Brian.
11:29And they were a very, very close-knit family.
11:33On the 17th, I'd been speaking to her during the daytime.
11:37I rang her and she was on the way back.
11:39And she says, Mum, I can't talk to you because I'm driving.
11:42I'm going to have her now and I'll give you a ring later.
11:44Anyway, she never rang me later.
11:47So I thought she was tired or she was busy.
11:50And then it was later on at the nighttime.
11:56I think I come with her.
11:57I tried ringing and I got no answer.
11:58So I texted her.
12:00And I got a message having a nice room of therapy.
12:04Chris just took the kids out.
12:05So I rang Chris and I said, have you took the kids out?
12:10He says, yeah.
12:11So I texted Amanda again and said, do you have an aromatherapy night?
12:15And she said, yeah.
12:16So we were texting backwards and forwards between me and Amanda.
12:20All of a sudden, the taxi stopped.
12:22You need to see if there's anything you've gained forensically from the crime scene.
12:36The fire was in the bedroom.
12:39I actually recovered a piece of carpet from that room.
12:43The scientists examined the carpet and discovered that the carpet was highly fire resistant.
12:53They were sure this had not been a smoldering, slow burning fire.
12:59They were satisfied that this was a fire started with the use of some form of accelerant.
13:06A fire, in other words, that had been deliberately set.
13:11Also, there was a smoke alarm on the second floor landing.
13:17That smoke alarm was found detached from the wall and lying propped against the skirting board and the floor.
13:26It wasn't damaged in any way by fire.
13:31As we all know, smoke rises and it's near the ceiling that it will be first detected.
13:35And the conclusion was that that had been removed either immediately before or at the very early stages of the fire.
13:44So that when the fire brigade did get there, the fire had taken a considerable hold.
13:57My initial briefing was that we didn't know where the children were.
14:02I wanted to see that they were safe and well.
14:04And I wanted to establish if they were witnesses and if they could help us with the inquiry.
14:12I managed to track the children down to Christopher, the husband's mum and dad's house.
14:18Christopher was in the house.
14:20I introduced myself the same as I always would, that I'm the family liaison officer.
14:25Christopher said that Amanda was relaxing and she had some kind of bath, an aromatherapy bath.
14:39And then she retired to bed with candles.
14:42His account was that he had left his wife in the house on her own when he went out in the evening with the children for a meal.
14:54He said he had been texting Amanda throughout the evening.
15:00He'd returned and assumed that she was upstairs but didn't know for certain.
15:06And the next thing he knew, he was awoken by the fire alarm.
15:10The one thing that I took away from that meeting was Christopher's attitude.
15:18If he'd lost his wife in a fire, I would have expected him to be devastated.
15:25But he wasn't.
15:28He just simply wasn't.
15:31I found Christopher's behaviour extremely odd.
15:34I became very uncomfortable with the situation.
15:39I was absolutely convinced that I didn't want these children in this house.
15:45They were numb, quite frankly.
15:50Millie, Amanda's daughter, she was very young.
15:53And I don't think she quite understood what was going on.
15:58But Jack did.
16:00And they came across to me as being just utterly...
16:07Well, Jack was just numb.
16:10It was clear to me that whilst Amanda's family were rightly so devastated,
16:18Christopher wasn't.
16:19And, you know, that's not normal, surely.
16:32In order to identify the victim,
16:36normally you would invite the family to the mortuary
16:41and you'd do a physical identification.
16:44That wasn't possible in this instance
16:47because Amanda was terribly, terribly burnt.
16:55They were going to try to identify Amanda through her dental records
17:01and I gave them the address and the phone number
17:04that the dentist Amanda used.
17:06It was very difficult to support the family through this
17:09because Beverly had an overwhelming desire to see her daughter,
17:14which is understandable.
17:15I was told I couldn't actually go and see her,
17:22but I could go and hold her hand through a blanket,
17:27but we wouldn't be able to see her body.
17:30That was really hard.
17:32I refused to do that, not because I didn't want to do it,
17:36but I knew if I went and touched her hand through a blanket,
17:39I'd want to pull the blanket off.
17:40This was about a relationship between Amanda Burks
17:55and her husband, Christopher.
17:58They met at the end of the 1990s
18:02when Amanda was 18 and Chris was 21.
18:08They met on a night out.
18:10She just says, I've met this lad and he's really nice.
18:14She'd been out with him a few times.
18:16She brought him home.
18:18That first meeting with him, he seemed like a nice lad.
18:21He was polite.
18:23He is a charmer.
18:24It developed quite quick.
18:27Within 12 months of meeting him,
18:28they'd moved in together.
18:29That led in the year 2000 to the birth of their elder child, Jack.
18:42My name is Jack Bates and I'm the son of Amanda Burks.
18:46The night of the 17, Chris picked me up.
18:51We ended up going to 10-pin bowling on some of the arcade machines
18:55and then he took us to McDonald's and then back home
18:57where we sat in our time at McDonald's.
19:00I went up to go to the third floor to see what my mum was doing
19:03and Chris quickly come running to me
19:06and brought me back down before I got to the third floor
19:09and said, no, no, leave your mum.
19:11She's having a relaxing time.
19:13She doesn't want to be bothered by our kids.
19:15She'll come into the bedroom later when you're asleep
19:17and she'll give you a kiss.
19:19After that, we went...
19:20He put us in our dramas and he put us into his bed,
19:23which felt weird to me that night.
19:26Why aren't I going in my own bed?
19:27Why am I going into his bed?
19:32The smoke alarm started going off and I woke up straight away
19:35and Chris was already out of the bed standing up
19:39and the room was filling with black smoke.
19:42He then told us to go and sit in the ensuite of the master bedroom,
19:45which we did, until the smoke was getting a bit too much
19:49and we went out onto the landing.
19:51At that point, he was banging on the door, the bedroom door,
19:55for the third floor, shouting my mother's name.
19:58At that point, the smoke was getting even worse,
20:01so I took Amelia step by step down to the first floor
20:04and we went into the living room
20:06until the smoke started coming through the fireplace
20:08and at that point, I exited the house.
20:12The front door was already unlocked.
20:15The whole street was lit up with an orange glow from the fire.
20:19The flames were coming out of the roof
20:20and the driveway was covered in glass from the windows blowing
20:26and I could see the flames coming out of the roof.
20:30When I stood and looked at the house
20:32and I saw the flames coming out of the windows of the third floor,
20:35I knew my mum was in that room.
20:37I knew by looking at the house that she wouldn't survive.
20:39Despite the fact that Amanda's body was very severely burnt,
20:54the scientists and the pathologists
20:58recovered some very important evidence.
21:01When somebody is trapped in a smoke-filled environment,
21:07what one should discover in the airways and the lungs
21:10are traces of soot.
21:14Amanda's lungs and airways were examined
21:16and no traces of soot were found.
21:20That must mean that she was not breathing
21:23at any time that that fire took place.
21:26The other thing they would have expected to find
21:32were traces of cyanide and carbon monoxide,
21:37which are both by-products of a fire,
21:40but there is no trace of either of those in her blood.
21:44A person who is exposed to the extreme heat of a fire like this
21:50will find that the muscles of their body contract
21:56such that it appears that the body is in a fighting stance,
22:00as though they are crouched and with their arms out in front of them.
22:04Amanda's body was found in this odd star shape,
22:08indicating very strongly that she was not alive
22:11when the fire took place.
22:13As soon as I became aware of what the autopsy results were,
22:26I obviously informed the family,
22:29and this was distressing for them.
22:32Amanda was released from the coroners to the undertakers.
22:36We used to go down in the undertakers
22:39and up until the funeral,
22:41they used to put Amanda's coffee in a room
22:44and I used to go and sit with her there and talk to her there.
22:48She was clearly the brains of the outfit.
22:53She was the go-getter.
22:55She was the worker.
22:57She put the business plans together
22:59and she had helped to set up
23:02all of the businesses that the family had had.
23:07She really, really was such a good, hard-working lady.
23:12I used to say to her about how hard she worked,
23:16and she says,
23:16Mum, doing it for me kids,
23:18just because I want my kids to have a stable future.
23:21When I was growing up,
23:22I always felt the closest to me mum.
23:25She was always loving, compassionate,
23:28always a shoulder to cry on whenever I got upset.
23:31I'm in the kitchen with me mum and me sister making cakes.
23:34Mum would have her music on
23:35and we'd all sit at the table decorating the cakes
23:37and that was good memories.
23:39Jack came across to me
23:41as being a very, very intelligent young man.
23:43He was clearly very articulate for one of his age
23:47and he was able to communicate with me really very well.
23:51He wanted to tell me something on one particular occasion
23:54while I was round the house.
23:56He said,
23:56I've got something to say to you.
23:58And I said,
23:58OK.
23:59So,
24:01he stood there
24:02and I sat on the bottom step of the stairs
24:05so that I was now at exactly his level
24:08because I wanted him to feel comfortable with me.
24:11I wasn't trained to do this.
24:13This is just something that I've picked up over the years,
24:16that children communicate more freely
24:18when the adult they're speaking to
24:22isn't actually towering over them.
24:24He wanted to tell me on that day
24:26that when his father took them out,
24:29he was extremely, extremely anxious
24:32and very, very nervy.
24:35Jack explained to me that at one point
24:37he kicked a football so hard that he burst it
24:41and that he was in a literally
24:44a quite manic state of mind.
24:47He was helping a lot
24:48and I always thanked him for his input.
24:52A family liaison officer
24:54is very important
24:55in ensuring that the victims,
24:59and in this case,
25:00the victims' loved ones,
25:03remain central to the investigation
25:06and are never forgotten or ignored
25:09in the course of an investigation.
25:10An important element of Christopher's story
25:22was obviously that Amanda had been engaged
25:27in an aromatherapy evening.
25:30Her mother was quite clear
25:32that if Amanda was going to have
25:35an aromatherapy evening,
25:37she would change out of her ordinary day clothes
25:40and into her night clothes.
25:43When Amanda's body was examined,
25:48recovered from it
25:49were traces of a green sweater
25:53and part of the underwiring of a bra.
25:58CCTV footage taken at the premises
26:03occupied by the company
26:05that Amanda and Christopher owned
26:08showed that Amanda was wearing
26:11that same green sweater
26:14earlier in the day.
26:16She had not changed her clothing
26:18since the morning of the 17th.
26:22And that really undermined
26:25the suggestion that Amanda
26:27had been involved
26:28in some sort of aromatherapy session.
26:30When they first moved in together
26:39everything seemed fine
26:40but then there seemed to be
26:43a lot of arguments.
26:45It was a stormy relationship.
26:48He was being really horrible.
26:49He was shouting.
26:50He was violent.
26:52Nearly every week she'd ring me up
26:54and we'd have to go up.
26:55She'd come home for a few days
26:56then he'd work his way around
26:58and then she'd go back.
26:59So it was kind of,
27:00it was just like a vicious circle.
27:03On many occasions
27:05the police were called to their home
27:07but generally Amanda would
27:11either refuse to complain
27:12or if she did complain
27:14would be persuaded by Christopher later
27:17to withdraw her complaints.
27:19The violence was just continual.
27:23You used to always go for
27:24bashing her head in the wall
27:25or marking on the body
27:27where you can't see.
27:28You never went for marking a face
27:30so there was never any physical
27:33as anybody else could see.
27:37My mum always used to say to Amanda
27:39you need to get out.
27:41One of these days
27:42it's going to kill you.
27:42She thought the problem was herself.
27:48She didn't think the problem was him
27:49because he'd put it into her mind
27:50as it was her.
27:53With domestic violence
27:54it always makes you
27:55feel as if it's your fault
27:57and you can turn the tables
27:58that if you had to push the buttons
28:01it wouldn't have happened.
28:03So every time anything happened
28:05she just feels as if it was her fault.
28:08It's control, they control you.
28:09Amanda would try and shield
28:14the kids from the domestic violence
28:17but I don't think she could actually
28:18shield them that much.
28:21I can remember lots of rowing
28:22and I can remember him
28:23hitting me mum every day.
28:26It was like walking on eggshells sometimes
28:27and I know me mum was walking
28:29on eggshells too
28:29because you say the wrong thing to him
28:31and he's going to be kicking off.
28:33Whenever there was a row or anything
28:34she didn't want me.
28:35She didn't want me around.
28:36She used to send me
28:37out the room and stuff
28:38but I'd always get back in
28:41because I didn't want him
28:42hitting me mum.
28:43You want to stick up for your mum
28:44but again
28:45you're sticking up against
28:47a fully grown man
28:47when you're only a child yourself
28:49so it's kind of hard.
28:51I noticed sometimes
28:52when I went to friends' houses
28:54that their mum and dad
28:55were always loving with each other
28:56but my dad Chris
28:59was always vile to me mother.
29:02He wanted to control
29:04everything she did
29:05where she went
29:06wanted to control
29:07or what friends she spoke to
29:08whether she went out
29:09or stayed in
29:10if she'd come to my house.
29:12He was constantly on the phone
29:13when he wasn't with her
29:15seeing where she was.
29:24There was one time
29:25she got out of the relationship
29:27but she'd moved back home with us
29:28and then she got her house
29:30and she moved in the house
29:32and she got Amelia
29:33as a baby that time.
29:35So she'd got Jack and Amelia
29:36and she'd moved in this house
29:37and she was quite happy.
29:40The day of Amelia's christening
29:41they decided
29:42we'd be amicable
29:43we'll have the christening together.
29:46So she did the christening
29:48then she went home
29:49and he went
29:50should have gone home.
29:52She'd let him in
29:53and he'd started arguing
29:55whether he'd literally
29:56broke things all in the bedroom.
30:00Jack had gone upstairs
30:01and he was upstairs with Amelia.
30:04He kicked off
30:05and smashed the house up
30:07hit me mum
30:08and the police
30:09who ended up caught coming
30:10and he was arrested.
30:12He wanted to get back together
30:14and she'd said no.
30:15So that's when
30:16he'd lost his temper
30:17and he'd
30:18swacked everything
30:19off the dressing table
30:21in the bedroom
30:21and
30:22throwing stuff around
30:23and Amanda had phoned the police.
30:26She tried to backtrack out of that
30:27but I think the police insisted
30:29as they went through with it
30:30at that time.
30:32This time
30:33the case did go to court
30:35and amongst the penalties
30:37that were imposed upon Christopher
30:39he was required to attend
30:41a domestic abuse programme.
30:45And it was kind of after
30:46she'd been through the court
30:49he was saying
30:50well I've got all this
30:51it's all in place
30:52and that's when
30:54she moved back with him.
30:56They got through Christmas
30:57okay
30:58but Amanda decided
30:59she wanted out of the marriage
31:01and they were living
31:03they were still together
31:04in the house
31:04but living separate
31:05because it was a three story house
31:07and she was sleeping
31:08in the top floor.
31:16Amanda's family
31:19had informed me
31:20that Amanda
31:22had been texting
31:23Beverly
31:24Amanda's mum
31:25on a regular basis
31:26throughout the evening.
31:28Because then
31:28with the last messages
31:29I had
31:30of Amanda
31:31I felt as if
31:32I needed to cherish
31:33their messages
31:34and I'd pick the messages up
31:36when I'm reading through them
31:37and I just said
31:37the messages
31:39don't seem right.
31:41When I was in the house
31:42and Dev
31:42showed me
31:44her mobile phone
31:45I could see
31:46the text messages
31:47were there
31:48and then she showed me
31:49text messages
31:50that she'd had
31:51from Amanda.
31:53Me and Amanda
31:54have always put
31:54three little kisses
31:55and the three little kisses
31:57that aren't there.
32:05A good while ago
32:07I'd sent Amanda
32:08a message
32:09and I'd only put two
32:11and she sent a message
32:12back and asked her
32:13where the other kiss was.
32:15So
32:15it was kind of
32:17a family thing
32:19we'd put three little kisses.
32:21That's something
32:21I obviously passed on
32:22to my scene
32:23investigating officer
32:24straight away.
32:25He brought in
32:25a linguistic expert
32:26to look at the text messages
32:28that were on
32:29Beverly's phone
32:32and they concluded
32:34that these text messages
32:36had not come from Amanda
32:37and that prompted him
32:39to do the phone analysis
32:41they confiscated Chris's phone.
32:44They managed to get
32:44some information
32:45off Amanda's phone.
32:48The telephone records
32:49for Amanda
32:50should show
32:50that phone calls
32:51were being made
32:52from or in the vicinity
32:53of the house.
32:54His records should show
32:55that he was elsewhere
32:56with the children
32:58having a meal.
33:00And it turned out
33:01that no they weren't.
33:02Christopher's mobile phone
33:03and Amanda's mobile phone
33:05were travelling together.
33:07The only conclusion
33:08that could be drawn
33:09from that was
33:10that they were both
33:11in the possession
33:12of Christopher Burks
33:13and that completely destroyed
33:16his assertion
33:17that it was his wife
33:18who was using
33:19her mobile telephone
33:21in the early evening
33:22of the 17th of January.
33:24My senior investigating officer
33:34informed me
33:35that he had
33:37sufficient evidence now
33:39to arrest
33:40and charge
33:42Christopher.
33:44The evidence
33:45was that clearly
33:46Amanda
33:47was dead
33:48before the fire broke out.
33:50And the evidence
33:53of the phones
33:54travelling side by side
33:56Christopher's
33:57and Amanda's
33:57together
33:58was damning.
33:59And then you've got
33:59the linguistic expert
34:00putting absolutely
34:02no doubt
34:03on the validity
34:04of the messages.
34:08Now, this left me
34:09in an awkward position
34:10because the kids
34:11were still with
34:12Chris's family.
34:14As I spent more
34:16and more time
34:16with Amanda's family
34:18it became clear
34:21that these were
34:23by far
34:24the best guardians
34:25for these children.
34:26By far.
34:28I persuaded
34:29the senior investigating officer
34:30to not arrest Christopher
34:32until the kids
34:34were at Amanda's
34:36mum and dad's.
34:37This he agreed to
34:38and thankfully
34:40when Christopher
34:40was arrested
34:41Beverly
34:43had the kids.
34:45The police
34:46arrested him
34:47and charged him
34:48with murder.
34:51I felt vindicated.
34:53I had suspected
34:55from day one
34:56that Christopher
34:57was responsible
34:57for Amanda's murder.
34:59Go!
34:59Go!
35:00Go!
35:00Go!
35:00Go!
35:01Go!
35:01Go!
35:01Go!
35:02Go!
35:02Go!
35:02Go!
35:02Go!
35:03Go!
35:03Go!
35:03Go!
35:03Go!
35:04Go!
35:04Go!
35:05Go!
35:05Go!
35:06Go!
35:06Go!
35:07Go!
35:11We prepared
35:12Amanda's family
35:13for court.
35:14They took us
35:15around the court.
35:16They explained
35:17everything
35:17and what was going
35:18on.
35:18Seeing the courtroom
35:20for the first time
35:21was quite an intimidating
35:22place to be.
35:22I've never seen anything
35:23like that before
35:24and I was only a child
35:25and seeing this big
35:27grand building
35:28was quite daunting.
35:30I said I'd take them there
35:32and I would bring them back
35:35and I would stay with them
35:36all day
35:37through the court proceedings
35:39so that I could still
35:41provide support
35:43and comfort
35:43during the court process.
35:47I told them
35:48that obviously
35:48Christopher was going
35:49to be in court
35:50and that they'd see him.
35:52They understood
35:52that as well.
35:53The evidence
35:55against Christopher Burks
35:57was overwhelming
36:00which is no doubt
36:01why
36:02on the
36:03first day
36:04the case
36:05was listed
36:05for trial
36:06Christopher Burks
36:08changed his plea
36:09from not guilty
36:10to guilty
36:10and acknowledged
36:11for the first time
36:13that he was responsible
36:14for the death
36:15of his wife.
36:17There was no
36:18flicker
36:18of emotion
36:19on that man's face
36:21when he admitted
36:22his guilt.
36:23Christopher Burks
36:24came across to me
36:25as possibly
36:26the most emotionless
36:28soulless man
36:30I've ever met.
36:31He was absolutely
36:32as cold as ice.
36:35The liaison officers
36:36come over to the house
36:37and broke the news
36:39to me
36:39that it was in fact
36:41Chris
36:41that had murdered my mum
36:42and set the house
36:44on fire.
36:45I stormed out the room.
36:47I was a bit in denial
36:47at first
36:48because I just
36:49couldn't believe
36:49that
36:51he would do that.
36:53Jack was just
36:54devastated
36:55because he didn't think
36:56as he'd done it
36:57he couldn't understand
36:58why.
37:00It was hard
37:01to process
37:02because
37:03how do you process
37:04that your dad
37:05killed your mum?
37:07So it's
37:08kind of a hard thing
37:09to get your head around
37:09and then
37:10for him to light
37:11the house on fire
37:12as well
37:12that
37:14it was
37:15very hard
37:16for me to get
37:16my head around.
37:16when he found out
37:19that his father
37:19had admitted
37:20killing his mother
37:22I think that's the day
37:24he lost his dad.
37:26But I was so glad
37:27when Chris pleaded
37:29because
37:30I knew now
37:31that
37:32the kids
37:33were going to be
37:34staying with the man
37:34in this family.
37:36The day
37:37that I found out
37:38that I was going
37:39to live with
37:40my non-Abev
37:40and my granddad Brian
37:41was
37:42one of the best days
37:44ever.
37:44My non-Abev
37:45she's helped me
37:46through the most
37:47hardest times
37:49throughout my life.
37:50She's a guardian angel.
37:58Once Christopher Burks
38:00had pleaded guilty
38:01then
38:01the landscape
38:02of the case
38:04changed completely.
38:06The judge
38:07adjourned
38:09sentence
38:09to a later date
38:11that I came
38:12back to court
38:13and
38:14told the
38:16judge
38:17and the public
38:18at large
38:18about the circumstances
38:20of the case.
38:22The state
38:23of the body
38:24after the fire
38:25was such
38:26that the pathologist
38:28was not able
38:30to establish
38:30a precise
38:32cause of death.
38:33Only Christopher Burks
38:35knows
38:36why
38:37he
38:38murdered his wife.
38:41It's perfectly
38:42possible
38:43and probably
38:45likely
38:45that he killed
38:47her by
38:48strangling her.
38:50Again
38:50Manda's body
38:51was found
38:52in this odd
38:53star shape.
38:54Her muscles
38:55did not contract
38:56because she
38:57had been dead
38:58probably for
39:0015 hours
39:01and so
39:02rigor mortis
39:03would have
39:03set in
39:04and that
39:05would have
39:06prevented
39:06the muscles
39:07contracting
39:07in the way
39:08they would have
39:09done
39:09if she died
39:10in the fire.
39:11The likelihood
39:12is
39:13that at around
39:1511 o'clock
39:16in the morning
39:17there was a
39:19quarrel between
39:20them
39:20over her
39:22decision
39:22to end
39:24the marriage
39:25and that he
39:26lost his temper
39:28and then
39:29strangled her.
39:32During the
39:33afternoon
39:34and evening
39:35of the
39:3617th of
39:37January
39:37Christopher Burks
39:39used Amanda's
39:41mobile telephone
39:42to send
39:44and receive
39:45text messages
39:46trying to create
39:47the impression
39:48that she was
39:48still alive.
39:50I was
39:50devastated.
39:52I clung
39:52onto their
39:53messages
39:53thinking
39:54they were
39:55the last
39:56things
39:56the last
39:57bits of
39:57communication
39:58we had
39:58between
39:59each other
39:59and then
40:01find out
40:01it wasn't
40:02who sent
40:03them
40:03and it
40:04was him.
40:05I was
40:06just
40:06absolutely
40:07devastated.
40:11One of
40:12the things
40:13that he
40:13said
40:14in those
40:15text messages
40:16was that
40:17Amanda
40:18was spending
40:19the evening
40:19in the
40:20house
40:20having
40:21what he
40:22called
40:22and what
40:22she would
40:23have
40:23called
40:23an
40:24aromatherapy
40:25evening
40:26and
40:28he
40:28used
40:29this
40:30to give
40:31the
40:31impression
40:32that she
40:33would have
40:33lit
40:34candles
40:34both
40:35in the
40:36bathroom
40:37and in
40:38her
40:38bedroom.
40:39The object
40:40of this
40:40obviously
40:41was to
40:42create the
40:42impression
40:43the fire
40:43may have
40:44started
40:45as a result
40:46of a candle
40:47toppling over
40:48perhaps when
40:49Amanda had
40:49fallen asleep.
40:50Christopher's
40:52objective
40:52after he
40:54had murdered
40:55his wife
40:55was to
40:56try and
40:56destroy her
40:57body
40:58and in
40:59destroying
41:00it
41:00destroy the
41:01evidence of
41:02how she'd
41:03met her
41:03death.
41:04He
41:05decided the
41:06best way
41:06that he
41:07could do
41:07that
41:08was by
41:09setting a
41:10fire
41:10in the
41:11bedroom
41:11upstairs.
41:13What he
41:13did
41:13was to
41:14detach the
41:16smoke alarm
41:17on the
41:17landing of
41:18the upstairs
41:19floor
41:19from the
41:20wall
41:21and place
41:22it on
41:22the floor
41:23in the
41:24correct belief
41:25that it
41:25would not
41:26go off
41:26until the
41:27fire had
41:28taken a
41:28real hold.
41:30He had
41:31to delay
41:31calling
41:32999
41:33for as
41:34long as
41:34possible.
41:36He
41:36couldn't
41:36have the
41:37police,
41:38the fire
41:38brigade,
41:39the neighbours
41:40arrive too
41:41soon to
41:43find Amanda's
41:43body still
41:45relatively
41:45intact so
41:47that when
41:47the fire
41:48brigade did
41:48get there
41:49the fire
41:51had taken
41:51a considerable
41:52hold.
41:54The fire
41:54service asked
41:55Christopher if
41:56there was
41:56anybody in
41:57the house
41:58and he told
41:59the fire
41:59service his
42:00wife may
42:01well be
42:02inside the
42:02house on
42:03the upper
42:03floor.
42:05He of
42:05course knew
42:06that his
42:07wife was
42:08in the
42:08house but
42:09that she
42:09was dead.
42:18there was
42:20the
42:20judge
42:21went away
42:23to
42:24chambers
42:24where he
42:25clearly
42:26deliberated
42:27over the
42:28sentence
42:29and so it
42:30was actually
42:30quite late
42:31on in the
42:31day when
42:32he actually
42:32read out
42:32the sentence.
42:34The courts
42:35had basically
42:36closed.
42:37Chrissy's legal
42:38team were
42:39arguing that
42:39they could
42:40come back
42:40on Monday
42:41to
42:42sentence
42:44Christopher
42:45and the
42:46judge was
42:46adamant.
42:47He said
42:48that justice
42:50had to be
42:51seen and
42:53justice had
42:53to be seen
42:54to be done
42:54and that he
42:56had no
42:56intention of
42:57delaying this
42:58over the
42:58weekend and
42:59that Christopher
43:00was going to
43:00be sentenced
43:00that night
43:01and so he
43:03did.
43:05Christopher
43:05was sentenced
43:07to life
43:07imprisonment.
43:09The minimum
43:09term was
43:10one of
43:1019 years.
43:27Hi.
43:28Hi.
43:28Hi, sweet dog.
43:30It's warm.
43:30We'll see you.
43:32Oh,
43:33Bert.
43:34It's warm.
43:35I'm trying to see you.
43:36Oh, doc.
43:37I'm extremely
43:38grateful to
43:39Ian for
43:39everything.
43:40I think
43:41the liaison
43:42officers are
43:43important in
43:43any murder
43:44investigation.
43:46Oh, sweet
43:46tell us.
43:47They kept
43:48the family
43:48from falling
43:49apart.
43:50They actually
43:50stopped us
43:51from sinking.
43:53Working with
43:54you was
43:55without doubt
43:55the most
43:56rewarding thing
43:57I ever did
43:59as a police
43:59officer.
44:00I don't think
44:01we could have
44:03got through
44:03as well as we
44:04did without
44:04you.
44:04Yeah.
44:05Definitely
44:06that first
44:07knock at the
44:07door when
44:08you come
44:08to the
44:08door.
44:09Yeah.
44:09It was a
44:10relief.
44:10Yeah.
44:11It was a
44:11relief to have
44:12somebody there
44:13to talk to
44:15because at
44:16that point
44:16we were just
44:17in limber.
44:18Obviously I can
44:19remember you
44:19when I was a
44:20child but now
44:21I'm an adult
44:22it's a pleasure
44:23to meet you.
44:23I have
44:24I've FLO'd
44:25other families
44:26since but
44:28nothing compares
44:29to FLOing
44:30you lot.
44:31Yeah.
44:32You meant the
44:33world to me.
44:34You really
44:34did.
44:35And I'm just
44:35so glad I
44:36could have
44:37helped.
44:38The family
44:39liaison officers
44:39were absolutely
44:40I don't know
44:41where we'd have
44:42been without
44:42them.
44:44This has
44:44been in my
44:45wallet since
44:45the day you
44:46gave it to me.
44:47Do you
44:47remember it?
44:49Yes I can
44:50now.
44:51It's
44:51beautiful.
44:53Thank you
44:55for your
44:56kindness.
44:58Thank you
44:59for showing
45:00can you
45:01really
45:01just get
45:04at me a bit.
45:05Thank you
45:06for your
45:06kindness
45:07and thank
45:08you for
45:08showing that
45:09you care.
45:10It's hard
45:10to find the
45:11right way
45:11to say how
45:12much you
45:13touch my
45:14heart.
45:15I want you
45:15to know
45:16that what
45:17you did
45:17really meant
45:18a lot to
45:18me.
45:19I want to
45:19say a big
45:20thank you
45:21from the
45:21depths of
45:22my heart.
45:22I appreciate
45:23what you've
45:24done and
45:25I truly
45:26truly thank
45:27you.
45:27Oh
45:27beautiful.
45:29You were
45:29a beautiful
45:31person.
45:32God thank
45:32you.
45:34You're making
45:34me go now.
45:36I know.
45:37Me?
45:37Nobody
45:38realises do
45:39they?
45:39Just how
45:40much it
45:41affects your
45:42life.
45:43He served
45:43his sentence.
45:45We'll never
45:46ever finish
45:48our sentence.
45:48No.
45:49Never.
45:50Thank you
45:51for helping
45:52me and
45:52my family.
45:53My nan.
45:54My great
45:54nan, my
45:54gladad, and
45:55the whole
45:55family.
45:56Couldn't
45:56thank you
45:57enough.
45:57That's
45:57all right
45:57mate.
45:58It's been
45:58a privilege.
45:59a church.
Recommended
46:40
|
Up next
1:34:26
46:57
43:11
41:25
41:06
41:20
41:31
41:35
27:18
41:31
1:15:35
41:30
47:28
1:14:37
1:15:08
40:32
1:16:19
41:01
40:16
39:55
46:43
46:37
Be the first to comment