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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.
00:48This case is really all about an innocent woman asking for her freedom,
00:55asking to move on with her life and being killed off for making that choice.
01:02A female that had obviously been tricked to go to India, 5,500 miles away.
01:09At the heart of this was a young woman whose life had been cruelly taken by people who felt they had the right to do that.
01:16Well, there's a phrase which I find chilling to this day,
01:22which was every day I felt terror and fear for my life.
01:28I was asked by my SIO, Clive Driscoll, to accompany him to meet a family.
01:38I would eventually become the family liaison officer working with their daughter, Subjit Athwal.
01:48My name is Angie Barton.
01:50In 2005, I was a police family liaison officer, often referred to as a FLO, deployed on the case of Surjit Athwal.
02:00It's so important to have that connection with the family, to work with them, because a lot of families, that is the very first time they're having any contact with police.
02:11They don't understand the court system or, you know, post-mortems or forensics or anything like that.
02:17It really is a minefield. Our role is to help them understand what's been done, why it's been done, to understand how an investigation unfolds.
02:27And for me, it's about if I was in the position of the family, what do I want the police to do?
02:34Surjit's sister-in-law, Subjit, was absolutely petrified that she had been got rid of, murdered.
02:41From that moment, I became her point of contact in the murder investigation.
02:47PHONE RINGS
02:54Hello, dear Sandy Barton. Oh, hi Clive, how are you doing?
02:59Yep, yep. Yeah, I know about that case. Shall I pop up and see you?
03:04Yep, I'll be there in a minute.
03:08My name is Clive Driscoll. I was appointed the senior investigating officer attached to the racial and violent crime task force
03:16within the Metropolitan Police Service.
03:19The task force was really set up around crimes of a racial nature that maybe we hadn't investigated to the standards that were required.
03:29Originally, the briefing was that Serjean Athwell said at the time that she was going to go out to India to three weddings, five and a half thousand miles away.
03:42After leaving on the 4th of December 1998 and due to come home on the 18th, she never actually came home.
03:55There'd been absolutely nothing heard about her for over seven years.
03:59When somebody's reported missing, if there's no movement for them, after seven years they can be officially declared dead.
04:07It was a case well worthy of an investigation.
04:10Clive's an amazing SIO. He pointed to the picture of Serjean and he said,
04:16Angie, that's what I'm after. That's what I'm looking for. I'm making sure that we're doing the right thing for Serjean.
04:22Clive said, could you come with me to meet this family? It's a missing persons.
04:26It might be a murder, but we're going to go and speak to father of a potential witness.
04:32Meeting sub's parents for the first time, you know, you're being respectful, you're going into somebody's home.
04:37They invited us to come and sit down and they provided us with drinks. It became pretty obvious to me that the father was really, really worried about his daughter.
04:46She wanted to talk about what she knew about what had happened to her sister-in-law, Serjean.
04:55I just remember thinking he looks really worried, looks really, really worried, scared.
05:02I do remember him saying, please, Mr. Clive, protect my daughter, please protect her.
05:07To the best of my ability, I said, yes, we will guarantee her.
05:11Looking at Serjean's mum, her English isn't very good and I'm not very conversant in her language, but there are some things that transcend language.
05:20Mayor held her hand and said, we're going to do everything we can to protect your daughter.
05:24We talked about how we were going to make contact with their daughter to have the conversation about what she needed to tell us.
05:32about what she knew.
05:40So I was married into the Atrol family.
05:43My name is Sabja Atrol.
05:45I was a key witness in the investigation of the disappearance of my sister-in-law, Serjean Atrol.
05:52So it's quite a big family.
05:54We're all living in the same house.
05:55It's a three-bedroom house.
05:57And my father-in-law is really nice, really sweet,
06:00caring and supporting.
06:02When he was alive, everybody just got on with each other.
06:06And there's no frictions, no arguments.
06:10It was my father-in-law,
06:12my mother-in-law, Bachchan.
06:14They had all daughters.
06:16And the man I married, his name was Hardave.
06:20Sukhdev was his brother.
06:21Serjean was married to Sukhdev.
06:25When I moved into that house, Serjean was already there.
06:28She got married a year and a half before I did.
06:31She was a young woman when she met and married Sukhdev.
06:34She was about 16, I think.
06:35It was an arranged marriage.
06:36My father-in-law became quite seriously ill.
06:40He passed away.
06:41My mother-in-law announced that she was going to be the head of the family.
06:44And everything had to be her way.
06:47She had certain rules put in place.
06:49And she did rule the family.
06:51Everybody had to look up to her.
06:52My name is Rajbeer Dhillon, and I am the niece of Serjean Atwal.
07:02My father, Jagdish Singh, was Sajid's oldest brother.
07:07When it comes to marriage, having children,
07:12it's not acceptable for somebody to marry out of culture.
07:16I accept some of those traditional values, but not all of them,
07:20because I feel like it does restrict a human being from totally being free.
07:28My father and Sajid had a very close relationship right from a young age.
07:34They would have a lot of banter together.
07:37And at the same time, there was a lot of pure love.
07:40They were just there for each other.
07:43He was just so concerned and so distraught when he knew she hadn't returned from India.
07:50When Serjean didn't come back, her brother, Jazz Singh, he was instrumental in keeping
08:01the pressure for an inquiry to be commenced.
08:06He was desperate to explain to the police that this is unusual.
08:11My father wanted to get to the bottom of, where is she?
08:15We need to find my sister.
08:17He had a gut feeling that something wasn't right.
08:20He actually did go over to the household of Sajid's.
08:24But him would just brush off and just not take the responsibility of her whereabouts and say,
08:31oh, I think she's just ran off.
08:33He went into sort of a panic mode.
08:35OK, we need to do something right now.
08:37So we need to contact the police right now.
08:40When Jagdish Singh and Mr. Dillon, Sajid's father, went into the police station,
08:46the case started as a missing persons inquiry.
08:49The police went to do door-to-door inquiries.
08:52They spoke to local neighbors to find out where Sajid was.
08:55And Sajid's brother put out posters and all sorts of different things.
08:58So I started sort of being proactive with my father, going with him to go and speak to the local
09:06community of West London and actually ask them if anybody has heard or seen anything.
09:12But his own personal drive is unmatched to anybody that I know.
09:19He just chose never to give up.
09:22So when we did put missing photos up, they would just get ripped off.
09:26The local community were not helpful.
09:28The committees of the Gudra would actually say to my father to not put any of those missing
09:34photos up and not to speak about the issue.
09:38It just felt like we were being rejected and nobody wanted to come forward and help.
09:43It was fairly obvious he hadn't come home in the new year.
09:57That's when he went over to the murder teams.
10:00And then obviously they conducted a murder inquiry.
10:04When the police came to our house, they would speak to Sukhdev and Bachchan at the door.
10:11I could sense that the atmosphere in the house was like, they were quite concerned when the
10:16police came, what the questions were going to be asked and making sure they all stuck together.
10:22And Sukhdev was more like playing a game with them.
10:27He would say that, you know, she's left on her own accord.
10:30She's left two kids behind. I'm too busy looking after the kids.
10:34I don't, you know, I can't really do much.
10:36They didn't come into the house at all.
10:38And I think that's one of the mistakes they made.
10:41There was an investigation going on in India as well for the disappearance of murder of Sir Gene
10:52Athwell.
10:53My father at that time, he sent emails to the Indian embassy and to parliament and to the prime minister.
11:02We started to receive anonymous calls, which were coming from back home in Punjab.
11:07They would say, we can't, we can't tell you who we are.
11:11But what we can tell you is that she's been murdered.
11:19The Indian police certainly did inquiries as a murder.
11:22There was two suspects in India.
11:25One was the brother of back and core Athwell.
11:37So after some time, me and Sergio fell pregnant, kind of the same time.
11:42She was three weeks ahead of me.
11:45And then we supported each other on that.
11:48Sukhdev and Sergio gave birth to their first daughter.
11:51And they were happy.
11:54Between Sergio and Sukhdev, things seemed okay.
11:57Mother-in-law was over the moon that my sons had a daughter.
12:02She was just fine.
12:03After some time, Sergio and Sukhdev moved into the house on the right-hand side.
12:08So we were living next door to each other.
12:09So it was Sergio and Sukhdev in one house, me and Harday in the other house.
12:14But the mother-in-law, Bachchan, she had the option to be in whichever house she wanted to be in.
12:20Sergio got a job back here through the airport as a customer's officer.
12:24She loved that job.
12:25It made her gain a bit of freedom.
12:29She was able to go out and be herself.
12:31She was learning more skills.
12:33She was becoming more experienced in the outer world.
12:36You know, she was still being that loving person at home.
12:39She was still doing the cooking, the caring for her kids, the housework.
12:45All of that she still carried on doing.
12:47The only difference was that she was going to work, making new friends,
12:51and socialising and becoming her own person.
12:55And Sukhdev wasn't happy about that.
12:57He would just say, when you finish your work, can you make sure you come straight home?
13:00And it was that freedom that they didn't like.
13:02There was obviously a lot of pressure on Sergio.
13:04She would dress in the way she wanted to dress.
13:07It was nothing outrageous at all.
13:09She would dress in modern clothing, wear make-up.
13:13But she once said to Sergio, we want you to leave work.
13:18We want you to stay at home and look after the kids.
13:20And Sergio disagreed.
13:24As time went by, Sukhdev became more and more angry towards her.
13:31Because he said that she wasn't listening.
13:33Sajit was a very sort of free thinker, very liberated herself.
13:37And very confident in sort of speaking about her values and her opinions.
13:43She wouldn't shy away from sort of explaining how she felt.
13:48That was part of Sajit's personality.
13:50And you can't fit her into a box.
13:52And Bachchan said that I can't let her carry on like this.
13:58Becoming honest at stake.
14:00It's bringing a lot of shame to the family household.
14:05Bachchan was very cold.
14:08Very controlling.
14:10Bachchan would sometimes actually say to my auntie, Sajit,
14:14oh, do this in the kitchen.
14:15Or you haven't cooked this right.
14:17Or you need to redo this.
14:19It was very transactional, very, very much one-sided.
14:24You can only be a good wife if you abide by these rules.
14:29Whatever she said that had to be done, we couldn't question it.
14:32If I wanted to go and see my parents, if I wanted to see my siblings,
14:36I had to get permission from her.
14:37If she said I was allowed to go, I could.
14:39But otherwise, I wasn't allowed to go.
14:42I had to pick up the phone and call my parents,
14:44make some excuse up so they wouldn't feel let down.
14:48The treatment between her daughters and us,
14:51myself and Sajit, was completely different.
14:53They didn't have any rights in that household at all
14:57because they were daughters-in-law.
14:58We had to maintain a certain image within that family.
15:02They could do whatever they wanted to do.
15:04They could go out, meet people.
15:07But with us, it was completely different.
15:09It's more control, more pressure,
15:12that you can't do this, you can't go there,
15:14you can't wear this, not to do anything that was shameful or dishonorable.
15:18I think in our culture, shame is such a huge thing
15:22that whatever you're reading in our life,
15:24whether we're communicating with people,
15:25dressing in a certain way and living in a certain way,
15:28the standards are really, really high.
15:31I think Butchen wanted to make sure those standards were
15:34maintained at the highest at all levels.
15:37But by doing that, she didn't really care what happened to anybody.
15:43They lived within a Sikh household.
15:46But I think that the Athwolds took that to a new level.
15:50They took it to a level which I'm not so sure
15:52even Sikh families would agree with.
15:55It was a real rod of iron.
15:57So it was struggling with her marriage with Sukhdev.
16:03Her marriage started to destroy her personality over time.
16:09She was no longer able to express herself anymore.
16:13She was no longer that bubbly person anymore.
16:15She was no longer the person that would reach out to you.
16:18Sukhdev Athwell was 10 years senior to Surjit,
16:24but he was also someone who somehow felt he owned Surjit,
16:28other than a partnership in a marriage.
16:31There were domestic abuse situations between them.
16:35Surjit was really unhappy in her marriage,
16:37and she did try applying for divorce.
16:39I think she had started the application.
16:41But as far as she was concerned, and nobody knew about this,
16:45but somehow Sukhdev found out,
16:47and that information was passed on to Butchen.
16:50Within our culture, having a divorce is such a big, big issue.
16:54Even talking about disagreements within the family is a complete taboo.
17:00She wanted a divorce.
17:02And at that moment there, I think that that was unacceptable,
17:06certainly at the back and core Athwell,
17:07but it was unacceptable,
17:09back and core Athwell's vision of what the family should be.
17:14This family felt that her leaving,
17:16it would have offended their honor.
17:18That was the straw that broke the camel's back.
17:23So I felt, well, there is a motive for murder.
17:27I was at where I lived, and mother-in-law came over,
17:42and she said to me, can you put some tea on?
17:44So I started putting the tea on,
17:45and Hardev came downstairs.
17:49Then soon after, Sukhdev came,
17:51and one of their daughters came over as well.
17:54I was quite surprised thinking what's happening,
17:56why are these people coming over?
17:57And they're all sitting at the table, and Butchen said,
18:00can you just turn the tea off and come inside?
18:02So I came inside and joined them at the table.
18:06Butchen had said that Serge's behavior is getting out of control.
18:10We can't allow her to carry on like this.
18:13She made a plan to take her to India,
18:14and said that she was going to get rid of her.
18:17In our culture, in our language,
18:19that means that you literally are going to get rid of that person.
18:23She had spoken to her brother in India,
18:26who said that he can take care of everything.
18:29When I heard those words that they were going to get rid of Serge,
18:32I felt so anxious, I felt sick, I felt numb at the same time.
18:36She's the daughter-in-law of this family.
18:38She's your son's wife.
18:40She's got two kids, your grandkids.
18:43There's no way you can do this.
18:45Her sons appeared not to have, dare I say, a bit of a backbone.
18:49You know, why are you allowing your mother to tell you
18:52what you're going to do with your lives and your wife?
18:58I couldn't understand how a family could be so cold.
19:02I knew I had to do something.
19:03I couldn't just sit back and just ignore the whole situation.
19:09I wrote a letter to my local police station.
19:13Any moment I got on my own at home and everybody was at work,
19:18I put pen to paper and I started writing a letter
19:20outlining everything I needed to know.
19:24I didn't put my name on it at all.
19:27I put the house address on it.
19:29I put everything about the meeting.
19:31Every single little detail the police would have wanted to know.
19:34When I was writing that letter, I was really, really scared,
19:37and frightened for my own life,
19:39thinking if anybody found out, God knows what will happen.
19:41And for me, that letter was a massive thing.
19:46And now it was down to the police to act on that letter.
19:50To act on it in the right time,
19:52so Sergio could have still been alive.
19:57I heard Bachchan speaking to Sukhdev and Hadev
20:02about Sergio's behaviour.
20:04And she seemed really upset and angry.
20:07At the same time, she started talking to Sergio,
20:10and she said, let's go to India.
20:12We'll see two weddings out there.
20:14Show yourself out there.
20:15They haven't seen you.
20:17Be the dutiful daughter-in-law you can be.
20:19When you come back, we won't stand in your way.
20:21You can have your own life.
20:23In other words, if you come to India with us,
20:26if you attend the family weddings,
20:28looking like you're part of the family,
20:31that protects our honour.
20:33And then we will give you your divorce.
20:36And that made her really excited and happy.
20:38She kind of went along with the plans,
20:39booking the tickets and speaking to Bachchan
20:43about the dates and getting holidays off work.
20:46On the 4th of December, 1998,
20:50her brother-in-law, Hadev, drove her to Heathrow Airport.
20:53And she took that, I think it was about a 13-hour flight,
20:56with you to go to these weddings.
20:59The footage of Sajid going to the wedding.
21:03In that moment, she may look happy,
21:06but more than likely, she's been told to pull that face
21:10or look happy because it's now going to be evidence
21:14for Bachchan to show, yes, we took her to the wedding
21:18and she's had a great time.
21:26She's actually come back.
21:28She never knew what was going on behind the scenes.
21:35As a result of that investigation going on in India,
21:38as well, British police officers arrested
21:41Back and Call Athwell, Sukhadev Athwell,
21:44Hardave Athwell, who was Sarbjit Aswell's husband,
21:46and Sarbjit.
21:48And I told the police everything in that interview,
21:51what her intentions were, what she said,
21:53that they were going to get rid of her and take her to India.
21:55And I felt like the police didn't believe me at the time.
21:58I remember them sitting in front of me and said that,
22:01we haven't received any letter that you're talking about.
22:03They puzzled me again and again and again about the letter.
22:06Then one of the officers, he said to me,
22:08I think you've got mental health issues
22:10and you should go and see your doctor and get some help.
22:13I was really shocked, really shocked thinking that,
22:16here's me putting myself at risk.
22:19And you're literally, you're just dismissing the whole situation.
22:23The case didn't really go anywhere
22:25because there was lack of evidence.
22:26The police believed Back and Call Athwell
22:28and Sukhadev had not Sarbjit.
22:30And after that, I realised actually,
22:32I had lost complete trust in the police.
22:34I had no hope they were going to help me or support me
22:37or guide me or listen to me or even believe me.
22:39But I had no choice and I had to go back home with the family.
22:44I had to live with them for a further seven years.
22:53Before I'd met with Sarbjit to have her interview,
22:56we had already started looking at the information
23:00around the family, what they'd said previously,
23:03gathering together to have the evidence to arrest again,
23:07Bachchan and Sukhadev and Hardev.
23:10One of the blood daughters of Back and Call had kept a diary
23:15where she put it, Mum's a murderer.
23:17And that's when we gained other information.
23:19Sukhadev said that his wife had left him.
23:22They'd abandoned him and his children and was living in India.
23:25But he'd made an application to a Department of Work and Pensions
23:29to help him pay the mortgage now that he was a single parent
23:32and his wife had died.
23:33So the question is, how did he know his wife had died?
23:36Sukhadev said that he'd been into Terminal 1
23:41and Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport.
23:45He said he was approached by this woman he'd never met before,
23:47whose name was Kate, who said,
23:50I used Surjit's husband and she got her mobile phone out apparently,
23:55rang Surjit and gave the phone to Sukhadev,
23:58who apparently heard from Surjit that she was never coming back,
24:04that she's happy and so on.
24:06Is that true? Or can we show that it isn't true?
24:09We found this Kate through inquiries who said,
24:13I've never met Sukhadev, don't know what he looks like.
24:17But I was really worried that he might come back to say,
24:21we got the wrong Kate.
24:22So I spent a few weeks at Heathrow going through their systems,
24:26looking for any other Kate, Katerina, Catherine,
24:29spelt different ways who could be the other Kate
24:33and couldn't find anybody that matched the description
24:36that he was saying.
24:37We could show that it wasn't true.
24:41We started to look at what did we need to do to try and prove
24:45that this missing person, Surjit, was potentially a victim of murder.
24:50The fact that Savjit was sister-in-law,
24:53was willing to speak to police.
24:55I was worried for her, how was this going to work out,
24:58especially since she's living with the family
25:01who are suspected of being part of Surjit's murder or disappearance.
25:07Clive asked me if I could do the interview with her.
25:09We knew from Surjit's father that if Surjit was known
25:17to be speaking to the police, that would put her in grave danger.
25:21So we couldn't just go in and, like, normally ask if you'd come and do an interview.
25:26We were thinking about the safest way for her to get to a venue
25:31so that we could interview her.
25:33And we worked with the family to arrange for Savjit to be brought
25:37to a police station in West London.
25:39Made the arrangements about that interview through her father.
25:42We had to really prepare it, get the video suite ready at a particular time.
25:47And we managed to arrange a date on the 27th of October, 2005, for her to meet me.
25:54You are relying on a little bit of other people's actions because, you know,
26:00we realised that her husband was still at home and she was making his dinner.
26:04And so we didn't know, is he going to go to work, is he not going to go to work?
26:07He did go to work, thank the Lord.
26:10And literally then we managed to get her out.
26:12We did it between two o'clock and four o'clock in the afternoon.
26:15When I entered the police station, I was barely able to walk off shaking
26:19and my legs were trembling because I was thinking that if anybody saw me
26:22walked into the police station, I would have been really, really big trouble.
26:26I was experiencing video interviewing of vulnerable victims.
26:30I was just struck by how frightened she was.
26:34And I felt at the time incredibly brave because she'd only recently had a small child.
26:39And there she was about to talk to us and tell us about what she knew had happened to Sergio.
26:45Angie was really lovely. She's really caring and approachable.
26:51I've always felt that the family liaison officer was extremely crucial.
26:55It's a bridge between the senior investigating officer that's in charge of their investigation
27:00and the family. In this case, the family had lost a bit of confidence in the police.
27:05And so building up that confidence, building up that trust, that is a crucial role.
27:13The FLO played a major part.
27:14Your family need to know that they can trust you, that you're going to do what you say you're going to do.
27:21We didn't have much time, but I just kept reassuring her, explaining the process about how we were going to do the video interview,
27:30and for her just to, don't make anything up, don't leave anything out, just tell us what you remember.
27:38I knew that we needed to get the most important parts of what she had to say captured in that interview.
27:44They went to pick the mum up from the airport, and she came on her own.
27:52I still couldn't believe that she actually went ahead and did it, so I just wanted to find out.
27:57Everybody was at work one day.
27:58Butcham came over from the house next door into the house, and she sat down, and she said that
28:06everything's been taken care of now.
28:09And I just wanted to be clear that I was understanding it correctly.
28:12So I said to her, and I said, where's Sergi?
28:15She goes, Sergi, it's been taken care of.
28:19And she just said that she's not going to come back.
28:22Butcham's brother and another friend drove Sergi far away somewhere in a jeep.
28:29And the way they drugged her, they strangled her, and they threw her body in the river.
28:37I was really, really shocked.
28:42I couldn't understand how Butcham confessed to this openly.
28:50She said, you're not going to speak to anybody about this.
28:53We're going to close the conversations around this now.
28:56Nobody's going to mention anything to anybody.
28:59Nobody's going to talk about any kind of dishonor towards our family.
29:03No more shame.
29:04And from that moment onwards, I just looked at Butcham in a completely different way.
29:12She wasn't a mother-in-law.
29:13I just didn't think she was a really evil person.
29:21I felt I wasn't safe in that house.
29:25She was the murderer, and I was living with her every single day.
29:28Back in 2000, Subject would have been treated as a suspect.
29:34I took a different view.
29:35I thought, well, actually, your truth is the only truth that makes any sense.
29:41One of the decisions I made was to go and obtain all of the papers which were being kept
29:46at Barnes Police Station.
29:49There were 13 boxes, and I can remember taking them home for the weekend and reading them.
29:53And so a considerable amount of paperwork.
29:56And lo and behold, what I found was the letter.
30:00So it was there.
30:02So what we had was that person's evidence now.
30:05What you always do is almost give continuity to evidence.
30:11He goes, can you recognize this piece of paper?
30:15I said, this is the letter I wrote to them where the officers accused me of having mental
30:18health issues and said that I just made it all up.
30:22When she wrote that, she tried her hardest.
30:24She did everything in her power to make us, the Metropolitan Police Service,
30:29sit up and understand what was happening.
30:32For Clive to go back and find that letter,
30:35it just really meant a lot to me for him to come in and acknowledge that he had it.
30:39After Subject had given the video interview, she felt that the family were thinking.
30:46She was their weak link.
30:48And there was a feeling that they might have known she was talking to the police and that
30:54they were plotting and planning something, which would have ended badly for Mrs. Subject Athwell.
31:00She actually said that she would stay that night and sleep in the same bed as Subject.
31:12She said to me, you're going to sleep with me in the same bed.
31:15And something didn't seem right at all. I felt trapped.
31:18I couldn't find a way out. I was scared if I fell asleep. God knows what would happen.
31:22Subject Athwell said she never had a wink sleep because she thought she was going to be murdered in her bed.
31:28After that morning, when we came downstairs and Bachin said that,
31:32since you've been married in this family, she goes, we've never had a trip together, have we?
31:36And instantly, I knew straight away what she meant.
31:39She said, I think now's the time for you to go to India.
31:42Nah, enough's enough.
31:52Now, I had a meeting with the Crown Prosecution Service.
31:55I went through the evidence we now had in our possession.
31:58The letters, the video interview, the information that she was murdered
32:05by being taken to the Lima Navi, strangled and then thrown in the river,
32:11their indication was that we were certainly going in the right way.
32:17As a result, we arrested everybody connected with this case.
32:20Back and call Athwell, Sookdev Athwell, Hardave Athwell, and we also arrested Mrs. Subject Athwell,
32:26who will remain to this day the only person I've ever met who was happy to be arrested.
32:31That was to make it look like she was part of our operation and a suspect.
32:36Sookdev and Bachin were charged with murder and they were kept in custody.
32:43Hardave and Subject were released.
32:47After we'd arrested and charged Back and call Athwell and Sookdev Athwell, that's when the pressure really went on.
32:54So Subject was back at home with her husband, Hardave, and their children.
32:59I think she still in her mind felt she could save her marriage. Maybe her husband would do the honorable thing. That's what she hoped.
33:10The subject always wanted to give evidence, but she said she was being threatened, which extended to threats towards her children.
33:17The messages that were being flying left, right and center from her husband was just dreadful, truly dreadful.
33:24She said she was assaulted, pushed down the stairs, and then I think she felt, am I ever going to be safe?
33:31Bear in mind that then Hardave Athwell hadn't been charged.
33:35We could not prevent him from seeing Mrs. Athwell. We didn't have the power to prevent it. We rather he didn't, but we couldn't prevent it, that's for sure.
33:44Between Christmas and New Year, Subject contacted me to say, Angie, what I said in that interview was all made up.
33:50I was struggling with my mental health, having just had a baby, and I want to withdraw it.
33:54You know, we had no body, we had no CCTV, we had no forensic. If Subject's voice is removed, or that her account is removed,
34:04it makes it more difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Surject did leave under the pretext of getting a divorce when she came back to be murdered in India.
34:14I remember having a conversation with Clive, and we immediately arranged to meet her, and we took her to a police place that we've got in West London,
34:23and we had a conversation, just the three of us. And she was adamant that, no, I needed to know that what I said was all made up.
34:28Along those lines, I want to withdraw my statement. What I told you wasn't true. And Clive was asking her, you know,
34:35have you been put under pressure? And she was saying, no, no, I'm fine, I just don't want my statement to be used.
34:42And we realized she couldn't stay in the family. She knew that she wanted to be away in case she was going to get the same treatment,
34:47because that's what Batchen had effectively told her. So she was under a lot of pressure.
34:51We arranged with her and her parents for her to leave the family with her children,
34:56and come to temporary accommodation and be together. What she wanted was protection,
35:01quite rightly. And so Kingston Council gave us a property, and we moved her in.
35:07For which I'll remain forever grateful. There was never a formal withdrawing of a statement,
35:13ever, because we acted reasonably quickly. We'd put Mrs Athwell somewhere safe.
35:18My name is Alan Goodley. I'm a retired detective sergeant from the Metropolitan Police.
35:25In April 2007, I was deployed as a family liaison officer to Sarbjit Athwell.
35:35My SIO, Clive Driscoll, asked me to establish a relationship with her, whereby we could contact
35:43each other freely. Well, Alan was like a first reserve. He's worked on murder squads, flying squad.
35:49The most unlikely bloke you'd ever think in a million years to be an FLO, but he was blinded.
35:54When you're moving someone, you don't want that address known to anybody, other than maybe close
36:00family members, trying to make sure that the bad guys and girls don't find out where they are.
36:06Having had previous experience within the witness protection program, then you will take anti-surveillance
36:14methods and techniques. Passing the address, not looking about yourself, not doing U-turns at the
36:22top of the road and coming back and parking. I know Angela and Alan did all sorts of things
36:27to make her feel safe, because that's what you're trying to do, is protect your witness. It's very
36:33difficult to understand when somebody has had to ask permission to do everything, that you suddenly
36:40take them out of an environment where they do have to make all of their decisions themselves.
36:47There was an occasion where she was in Kingston Town Centre and she rang me and she said she didn't
36:56know what to do. All these thoughts were flashing through her mind and would I come and see her?
37:03We had to drive around and then took her home. To suddenly be independent and having to make
37:08decisions for herself, I think she found that really overwhelming. I remember walking into this warehouse
37:14and looking at all these beds and I remember turning to her and saying along the lines of,
37:19if I'm not going to sleep on a mattress, you're not sleeping on a mattress. It's not so much being a
37:25flow. It's just one human helping another human at that moment when they need it. It's not written
37:32in a book, you know, go and help a victim find a mattress. But if they need help, you do the right
37:39thing by them. I don't think she believed the day would ever come that Bachchan and Sooksev would be
37:50charged with the murder of Sergit. It had been so many years. Her trying to tell the police, living with
37:58the family and then finally telling us her account that had led to them being charged. She was in shock.
38:07The role of a flow at the trial is crucial to make that as stress less as possible.
38:12Sooksev was really, really scared. Um, but I did everything I could to explain it to her,
38:17to deal with any concerns that she had. Angie literally just talked me through the whole process.
38:24She supported me. When the trial date was coming up, I took her to the Old Bailey to show her the
38:31building so that on the day that she would turn up, it wouldn't be a complete and utter shock because
38:36there's so much to take in that gave me some reassurance that when I come into the day,
38:41when I come into giving my evidence of the day, this is what I'm going to expect.
38:49The trial eventually started on the 25th of April, 2007. The most unique thing about this case is that
38:58nobody was ever recovered. Uh, normally in a case like this, uh, we'd have to be in a position to prove
39:06death. The evidence was circumstantial. There is always that element of doubt in the back of your mind,
39:16that that wouldn't have been sufficient enough for a conviction of murder. What Sarjit had to say in
39:25her statement and the evidence that she was going to give was crucial. My role was to pick her up,
39:34bring her to the court, be with her during the day, look after her, and then take her home. When it
39:42came to going into the courtroom, I just remember saying, your most important role is just to explain
39:49to the jury and the judge what happened. Direct your answers and responses to the jury because
39:56they're the ones that need to hear your account.
40:03We arranged that I would go in with her and sit to one side so that if she was feeling a bit anxious
40:09or nervous, she could look at me just to let her know, I'm really nervous. Could you help me, please?
40:15And I remember she was absolutely petrified and it was my job to reassure her that actually the worst
40:22of it has already happened. I think it must have been my faith in God that helped me through going
40:28into the box and giving evidence. She spent three and a half days in the witness box giving her evidence
40:34and being cross-examined and that was tough. That was really tough. I was able to give my evidence,
40:40tell the jury exactly what happened, everything they did, how they did it, all the threats that was
40:47put towards me and my children. She stuck to what she knew and although it was stressful for her,
40:53she did a fantastic job explaining what had happened. In court, she was very truthful.
40:59She didn't hide from it. She was petrified. No, very brave, incredibly brave.
41:06At the heart of this was a young woman whose life had been cruelly taken by people who felt they had
41:12the right to do that and Sarbjit was putting that wrong right by making sure people understood what
41:19had happened. She was the voice for Sarjit. Seeing Bachchan and Sook Dave in that courtroom was really,
41:28really hard for me. At times I tried avoiding it, angling myself towards the judge.
41:33Neither Bachchan core or Sook Dave Athwal appeared to show any emotion whilst they were in the dark at
41:43the Old Bailey. It was very unnerving. Bachchan core and it is Sook Dave Athwal did suggest
41:50that she'd run off with another man to Mumbai in India and there was certainly no evidence to
41:56suggest that. Sook Dave gave evidence. He just came across sort of like he was lying.
42:02At the conclusion of the trial Bachchan core was found guilty of murder of
42:13Sook Dave Athwal was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment for the murder of his wife Sarjit.
42:26Bachchan core has never shown any remorse for her part in the murder of her daughter-in-law.
42:31Sook Dave has not made any comment, apology, acknowledgement that he played
42:38a major part in the murder of his wife.
42:42I phoned Mrs Athwal to tell her what had happened. They'd been found guilty and then the phone went dead.
42:51And I was, are you all right? And then the phone was, was her sister. Said she's fainted.
42:57She'd fainted. I told her and she'd crashed down.
42:59I just felt a dizzy spell and I sat on the floor.
43:02I think she was in shock that actually the jury and, and everyone had heard her story and,
43:08and, and believed what she'd explained, what had happened. It was almost as if it was confirming that
43:12what she'd done, it was the right thing to do. I was relieved that they were found guilty
43:18and finally we were able to get justice for surgery. That was the biggest thing that
43:21made me really, really happy. I kept in contact with, with Saab after the trial just to make sure that she
43:28was still okay. She was moved from another property to a new home. By then she was more confident.
43:35She had the courage to, um, stand up for what was right and to live her life.
43:42Angie's coming over today. I'm really excited to see her. It's been, it's been quite a while
43:50actually when I saw her last. Um, just looking forward to seeing her, yeah. I know the case has
43:55ended now, but the friendship we've made throughout the, um, court case, um, that still remains.
44:01You look amazing. Very feeling. I'm all right. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. It's so lovely to see you.
44:18It's so lovely to see you, girl. You okay? I like it. Yeah. Good. Good. Well,
44:24love must be treating you well at the minute because you look amazing. It is. Thank you so much.
44:27The woman that I first met at that interview in October, 2005 is a completely different person
44:36to who I see today. She's blossomed. She's, she's free. And she has such a lovely, warm,
44:43loving family who are all so proud of her for doing the right thing. And she's gone on to do
44:50incredible things, supporting others who are in a similar situation. After the trial, I joined the
44:55police because I wanted to give something back. Officers came up to me and said that we could do
45:02with people like you in the police force. I think Clive encouraged me again and again. He goes,
45:07just apply for it. I think he saw the potential that I had. I applied for it, um, did all my training,
45:14did all my tests. And that was one of the proudest moments of my life.
45:18And to hear about the charity as well. It's going well. That's incredible. Yeah. Yeah.
45:26We've formed a charity called True Honour in her memory. And we support victims who
45:32go through similar situations. And we support survivors. I think she's just an incredible
45:39person. And I can't thank Angie and Helen for all the support they gave me.
45:43I mean, they were absolutely amazing. That was the biggest thing that made me really,
45:48really happy. We finally got justice for surgery.
45:57I appreciate you.
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