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Britain's Most Evil Killers S08E02 (Sep 21 2023)
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00:00In April 2003, the emergency services were called to a strange-looking fire
00:06on Wiggenholt Common in West Sussex.
00:09Police found the burning body of missing 31-year-old
00:13special educational needs teacher and musician Jane Longhurst.
00:18She's been found naked with a scarf covering her face
00:24and a pair of tights tied around her neck.
00:28Jane had been strangled by her best friend's boyfriend, Graham Coutts.
00:34I don't know what snapped, I don't know what was going on in his mind
00:38where he's made the leap from pure fantasy to living out his fantasy
00:42and taking somebody's life in the most horrific way.
00:46As evidence piled up against Coutts,
00:49he claimed to have killed Jane by accident in a sex game gone wrong,
00:54keeping her body in a storage unit for five weeks.
00:59He was a necrophiliac.
01:01He found sexual pleasure in the thought of dead women.
01:07As the police investigation against him gathered momentum,
01:11Graham Coutts proved himself to be one of Britain's most evil killers.
01:42On Friday the 14th of March 2003,
01:46Jane Longhurst left the home she shared with her boyfriend Malcolm
01:51in Brighton, East Sussex.
01:55She telephoned her best friend Lisa,
01:57but it was Lisa's boyfriend, Graham Coutts, who answered.
02:02In fact, her friend was working that day.
02:06Coutts answered the phone and suggested that they went swimming together.
02:12That was a very common thing between the young couples.
02:16I can only believe that Jane never saw Graham Coutts,
02:23her friend Lisa's boyfriend, as anything of a threat.
02:27Why should she?
02:29They were friends.
02:30What Jane Longhurst didn't know was the psychiatric background
02:37of her friend Graham Coutts.
02:40Jane never made it to the swimming pool.
02:42She went with Coutts to the whole flat he and his girlfriend shared,
02:47unaware of what he was planning to do.
02:57This killer's story begins in Scotland.
03:00Only child Graham Coutts was born on the 23rd of April 1968
03:06in Leaven, Fife.
03:09Coutts went to a local school,
03:12and then, in fact, the family moved south.
03:13He was not a particularly bright child.
03:18His passion, if there was one, was to become a guitarist.
03:22I think he saw himself as a sort of rock star.
03:27From his early teens,
03:29Graham Coutts displayed worrying signs
03:32of a dysfunctional sexual appetite.
03:35There's quite a strong history with Graham Coutts
03:38of problems with his sexual behaviors.
03:40We can see that it started very young.
03:43He knows what is turning him on,
03:46and he is using pornography at a very, very young age.
03:51The earlier in age that these things start to manifest,
03:55the more likely that it's going to become
03:57a much bigger problem further down the line.
04:01It appears that Graham Coutts
04:02actually was addicted to extreme pornography.
04:08Death by his fix it, all this stuff.
04:10And he, I think, since the age of 15,
04:12had a real thing about those forms of sexual fantasy.
04:18In 1991, at the age of 23,
04:22Graham Coutts confided in his GP
04:25that he was having elaborate sexual fantasies
04:28about killing women.
04:29Dr. Larry Culliford was the psychiatrist
04:33who saw Coutts in Hove,
04:35where he was then living.
04:38I seem to remember being perhaps surprised
04:43that this was a person
04:46who didn't necessarily want to change.
04:49You know, he was having troubling thoughts,
04:51but was he really uncomfortable with them
04:56or actually did he entertain them?
04:59That's a question I didn't know the answer to
05:01and still don't.
05:04He investigated sexual pornography
05:07of the type that he was interested in,
05:10and there you're sort of feeding the impulses
05:15rather than seeking to reduce the strength of them.
05:23Dr. Culliford concluded
05:25that Graham Coutts needed specialist help,
05:28but Coutts was never seen by anybody else.
05:33I think if Graham Coutts had been seen
05:35by a forensic psychologist,
05:37he would have probably been invited
05:40to undertake a battery of psychological tests
05:42and some formal risk assessment,
05:46whether to consider him a risk to others.
05:49The mental health legislation is such
05:51that you can't lock everybody up
05:54who might commit crime,
05:56so the probability is that he would have been
05:58free to go at that point.
06:01Instead of getting treatment,
06:04Graham Coutts took his fantasies to the next level,
06:07acting them out on a string of local women.
06:10He was going about meeting women,
06:14trying to get them involved.
06:15He basically would get turned on
06:17by pressing his hand round women's necks.
06:21One of his ex-girlfriends said
06:23that he had pages and pages of pornographic material
06:27with a hand-drawn noose on the women's necks,
06:31so clearly there was something very wrong in his psyche.
06:35The warning signs were clearly there.
06:38Graham Coutts' dark impulses
06:41had reached a turning point.
06:43When you think about whether he might have taken
06:46a different journey through life,
06:48I think it's unlikely.
06:50He wasn't steering himself from that path.
06:53He was intensifying whatever it was
06:56that was going on in his head
06:57with his pornography use
06:59by actually indulging in those fantasies
07:02with his girlfriends.
07:04And for somebody who's doing that
07:07and in actually enjoying distress,
07:11I don't see how that can't be a red flag.
07:21In 1997,
07:23Coutts' sexual dysfunction escalated further
07:26when he was charged with spying on a woman
07:29in a swimming pool changing room
07:31in East Grinstead, Sussex.
07:33We do have him being caught
07:35filming somebody in a swimming pool,
07:37so he's being covert,
07:38he's being predatory,
07:40he's being inappropriately sexual
07:43in a public place.
07:46Now, it's highly unlikely
07:48that was the first time
07:49that he'd done that.
07:51The case went to magistrates,
07:53but Coutts was able to persuade the magistrates
07:56that he had done nothing wrong.
07:59The victim of this kind of unwanted attention
08:01was so concerned that she contacted
08:04the justices of the piece.
08:06But he was never brought to account for this.
08:12This was the man who came into the life
08:15of special educational needs teacher
08:18and talented musician Jane Longhurst in 2001.
08:23Graham Coutts was living in Hove
08:25with his girlfriend Lisa
08:27when he met 31-year-old Jane
08:29and her boyfriend Malcolm.
08:31Lisa and Jane were friends.
08:33The four of them,
08:36Lisa and Jane and Graham and Malcolm,
08:40would socialise,
08:41they would play tennis.
08:42Jane and Graham would go swimming together.
08:47Jane Longhurst was an accomplished viola player
08:51and teacher living with her boyfriend
08:54of four years in Brighton, East Sussex.
08:57Jane Longhurst was really everyone's ideal daughter.
09:03She was hard-working, she was talented.
09:08She was very close to her mum.
09:09She taught at school in Cambridge
09:11before moving to Brighton.
09:13She was in every sense the best of the best.
09:18Originally from Reading,
09:20Jane was close to her mother Liz
09:21and her sister Sue, who still lived there.
09:25I think Liz was full of admiration for her daughter.
09:28She was deeply loved.
09:30Jane Longhurst was a kind and thoughtful person
09:34who was well-liked, had lots of friends,
09:36and she was happy and content.
09:39She had a lovely life.
09:40She was planning to start a family.
09:44So, you know, she had everything to live for.
09:50Graham Coutts, on the other hand,
09:52was not having the success he'd imagined for himself.
09:56So Graham Coutts was a bit of a loser, a drifter,
09:59who'd gone through life wanting to be a professional musician,
10:03but failed at it.
10:05He had to work as a door-to-door salesman
10:08for a cleaning company.
10:09He just wanted to be in a band, but he wasn't up to it.
10:12He wasn't a great success in life.
10:15Jane never saw Graham Coutts as anything of a threat.
10:22She had no reason to suspect him.
10:24She didn't know that he had a history of addiction to pornography,
10:27that he'd been fascinated since the age of 15
10:30in strangling young women.
10:32How could she?
10:33And yet, he was the most dreadful threat to her.
10:43On the morning of Friday, the 14th of March, 2003,
10:48Jane left her flat on Shaftesbury Road in Brighton
10:51on her day off.
10:53After making a telephone call to her best friend Lisa,
10:57Jane Longhurst was never seen alive again.
11:11On Friday, the 14th of March, 2003,
11:15music teacher Jane Longhurst vanished without a trace
11:19from her flat in Brighton in East Sussex.
11:23Her boyfriend Malcolm was the first person
11:25to raise the alarm to Jane's mother Liz
11:28when she failed to return home.
11:35He phoned her mother to see if she'd heard from Jane,
11:40phoned the orchestra that they both played with,
11:42no sign of her.
11:45It was most unusual.
11:47This wasn't something that Jane did.
11:49She was, you know, very upright,
11:51very orderly young woman.
11:56This was absolutely out of character.
12:01Malcolm looked for her himself in Brighton,
12:03places they might have visited together,
12:06and didn't find her.
12:09With still no sign of Jane into the early hours
12:12of the following day,
12:14worried boyfriend Malcolm reported her missing
12:17to Sussex Police.
12:19Like any police investigation,
12:21they're looking to find out what has happened
12:23to the missing person,
12:24and their lines of inquiry will immediately fall upon
12:28the people who are closest to Jane Longhurst,
12:31because, you know,
12:33most murders are carried out by people who are known.
12:38The boyfriend is interrogated at length.
12:42It's pretty intimidating.
12:45You know, the girl you clearly are very fond of
12:50has gone missing,
12:51and you're suddenly in the frame
12:53for having done something to her.
12:56But no one, including Malcolm,
13:00who come up with any explanation
13:01about why Jane had gone missing.
13:04You know, there was nothing in her background
13:06which suggested that she wanted to vanish
13:10from her life that she clearly loved.
13:12So obviously the police were immediately suspicious
13:15that something was very amiss.
13:2148 hours after Jane's last contact,
13:25her missing person's case was referred
13:27to the Criminal Investigation Department.
13:31Investigators analysed Jane's bank and phone records,
13:34looking for clues as to her whereabouts.
13:37No money had been withdrawn from her account
13:40over the weekend,
13:41and no phone calls had been made
13:43since the morning of her disappearance.
13:46This raised further concerns over Jane's safety.
13:50The last call from Jane's phone on Friday at 10.05am
13:54was to the home of her friend Lisa
13:57and Lisa's boyfriend, Graham Coutts.
14:00Graham told police Jane had called looking for Lisa.
14:04He denied having seen Jane that morning.
14:08The police made extensive inquiries
14:11and they couldn't find anything.
14:15And they spoke to Coutts
14:17and they spoke to his partner.
14:20Nothing.
14:21And there were no signs of what had happened to her.
14:25And it's a difficult job there for the police
14:27because they don't know whether this is simply somebody
14:30who maybe wandered off as a missing person
14:32or whether it's more serious than that
14:34because they didn't have a body
14:36or any scientific evidence
14:39that would show that she'd come to harm.
14:42With still no sign of Jane,
14:45five days after her disappearance,
14:47on Wednesday the 19th of March,
14:50Sussex police launched Operation Keane to find her.
14:54They draft in extra officers.
14:57They go house to house.
14:59They start a careful search.
15:01It doesn't reveal anything.
15:04And after two weeks,
15:08they are forced to conclude
15:10that this may not be simply a missing person investigation,
15:14that it may actually be a murder investigation.
15:18For five agonizing weeks,
15:21Jane remained missing.
15:25Then, on Saturday the 19th of April,
15:29a motorist made a horrifying discovery
15:31on Wiggenholt Common in West Sussex,
15:3520 miles from Jane's Brighton home.
15:38A local man sees a fire in the brush
15:42and it's got strange color flames
15:45and indeed calls the Fire Brigade.
15:47They discover that the source of this fire
15:52is a body.
15:55It is, sadly, the body of Jane Longhurst.
16:02She's been found naked
16:03with a scarf covering her face
16:07and a pair of tights tied round her neck.
16:12There is no doubt in anyone's mind
16:14that Jane Longhurst has been murdered.
16:18So far, police have no motive for this murder.
16:21They don't know whether or not Jane knew her killer.
16:24But they are determined to hunt down
16:26the person who carried out this brutal crime.
16:29The police believe she was murdered some weeks before
16:32and her body preserved somewhere cold.
16:34The police say however much the killer
16:36tried to hide Jane's body,
16:38it would have been difficult to disguise
16:40as he brought it here.
16:41They want people to cast their minds back
16:43to anything suspicious.
16:46There's very few cases where an individual
16:49has done what he's done
16:50and then deposited the body and set fire to it
16:53without somebody close to that person
16:55knowing that something's not quite right.
17:02The discovery of Jane's body was the worst possible end
17:06to her family's hellish weight.
17:09Liz Longhurst is only just a widow
17:13getting over the death of her much-loved husband
17:16from Alzheimer's.
17:17So, you know, it's absolute body blow for the family really
17:20to have this beloved daughter
17:23who she's so close to going missing
17:25in such appalling circumstances.
17:27And for so long before the body was found,
17:30that must have been just dreadful state of limbo.
17:35No-one can prepare you for something so terrible.
17:39To lose a loved one in such a way
17:41cannot ever be imagined
17:43and we would not wish what we are going through on anyone.
17:47We have lost someone who was very loved
17:51and so special.
17:53Please, if you think you know something,
17:57then find in your conscience to call the police.
18:08With no suspects in what was now a murder investigation,
18:12the forensics team were tasked
18:14with uncovering what had happened.
18:16Burning a body isn't very common,
18:18but when it does occur,
18:20it's usually in an attempt to try and disguise identity
18:22and to try and dispose of the body.
18:24Now, identification of burning remains can be tricky,
18:27but there are several things which we can use.
18:30In Jane Longhurst's case,
18:33the body was identified through dental records.
18:36That would be using the expertise
18:38of a forensic odontologist,
18:40comparing the teeth of the deceased
18:43with any dental records which were held in her name.
18:47Having confirmed Jane's identity,
18:50the next question for forensic analysis
18:53was the cause of death.
18:55When the body was discovered,
18:56there was a pair of tights around the neck.
18:58Now, as a pathologist,
19:00that would be very supportive
19:01of the use of a ligature strangulation.
19:04So using an item such as a rope or a belt,
19:07or in this case, a pair of tights,
19:09putting those around the neck
19:10and then pulling them tightly,
19:11the ligature that causes the blood
19:13to cease going to the brain.
19:16With the forensic investigation underway,
19:19the police revisited the people closest to Jane
19:23to eliminate them from suspicion.
19:28On April 24th,
19:30a detective constable interviewing Cootes
19:33at his home for a second time
19:35noticed a crucial detail
19:37that turned the investigation on its head.
19:40They saw some boxes there
19:42which were from the cleaning products company
19:46and those were similar to the boxes
19:49that her body was found in.
19:53It was a stunning discovery for investigators.
19:57Graham Cootes was suddenly the prime suspect
20:00in the brutal murder of Jane Longhurst.
20:03Sussex police were confident
20:04they'd found their man
20:06and were ready to swoop.
20:18The discovery of Jane Longhurst's body
20:21in woodlands in West Sussex
20:23sent shockwaves through the UK.
20:25As the eyes of the nation watched on,
20:28the police investigators focused their efforts
20:31on their prime suspect, Graham Cootes.
20:35Detectives had grown suspicious of Cootes
20:37when they found cardboard boxes
20:39that matched ones from the crime scene
20:42at his flat.
20:44And because he couldn't provide a solid alibi
20:47for the night in question.
20:49Cootes was arrested on April the 24th, 2003,
20:54but in police custody,
20:55he refused to admit to any wrongdoing.
20:58How would you describe your relationship with Jane?
21:02Erm, friends.
21:05Anything more?
21:07No.
21:08When did you last see Jane Longhurst?
21:11It was suddenly before when the bus came over.
21:17And the last time you spoke to Jane
21:20was the phone call in the front of you.
21:23Without a confession or more evidence
21:26to support their suspicions,
21:28the police could only hold Cootes for 24 hours,
21:31and he was released the following day.
21:35Turning to the public for help,
21:37detectives ramped up their search for evidence
21:39that might link Cootes to Jane's murder.
21:43One week after Jane's body was found,
21:45police are hoping these drivers
21:47will give them the vital clue they need.
21:49Their motorists,
21:50who may have been using this road last week,
21:52they may have seen something
21:53which could lead police to Jane's killer.
21:56Early evening on a Saturday,
21:58at the same time as last week,
22:00when police believe Jane Longhurst's body
22:02was brought to this West Sussex beauty spot
22:04where it was dumped and set alight.
22:06It was a light evening on the bank holiday weekend.
22:09Police are convinced someone
22:11would have seen what happened here.
22:13All these motorists will be stopped
22:15and questioned as to whether they were here last week,
22:17just to try and jog their memories
22:19to anything at all that is out of the ordinary,
22:21anything they may have noted
22:22that may give us just that significant lead.
22:26On the 28th of April,
22:28Sussex police received the call
22:30they'd been waiting for.
22:31The manager of a local storage company
22:34reported a strange smell
22:35coming from a unit
22:37and a man calling himself Paul Kelly
22:39acting suspiciously.
22:41So when the manager of the storage company
22:44saw reports in the media
22:47about Jane Longhurst being missing,
22:50he kind of put two and two together.
22:52Initially he thought it was the smell
22:54of a dead pigeon or some other dead animal,
22:57but the fact that they have got a missing woman
23:01and there's a foul smell coming from a storage unit,
23:04I think he thought the information
23:06was significantly important
23:07and that the police should at least check it out.
23:11When Sussex police came to check the CCTV footage,
23:15they saw Paul Kelly was in fact their main suspect,
23:20Graham Coutts.
23:24It turns out to have been none other than Graham Coutts
23:28using a false name
23:29and he's had the storage facility for about 28 days.
23:34Coutts acquired the storage unit
23:36through a very simple process of using false information.
23:41Somebody turns up with a utility bill
23:45and other identification they accepted at face value.
23:51Gaining entry to Coutts' storage unit,
23:54the police made a shocking discovery.
23:58The police open the storage facility,
24:03hired by Paul Kelly, stroke Graham Coutts,
24:06and discover Jane's clothing,
24:09a male shirt with blood and semen on it,
24:12and a condom.
24:14They also found Jane's swimming costume,
24:18her mobile phone, purse, and a petrol can.
24:21Forensic analysis revealed Jane's DNA
24:24on both the bloodstained top and the used condom,
24:28which also contained Coutts' semen.
24:33CCTV footage showed Coutts had made multiple visits
24:37to the unit when Jane was missing.
24:39The evidence was overwhelming.
24:41Police finally had the proof they needed
24:43to arrest Coutts for a second time.
24:46The 35-year-old was arrested here
24:48just after 9 o'clock last night without a struggle.
24:52The police say he was one of the men
24:54they had already questioned when Jane disappeared.
24:57And it dawns on the police
25:00that it's entirely possible
25:03that Coutts has kept Jane's body
25:07in that storage facility
25:10for up to five weeks.
25:14The day before Jane's body was discovered in the woods,
25:18CCTV footage showed Coutts had moved a large cardboard box
25:22from his unit into a van.
25:25He had just had a very large box with him.
25:28You couldn't tell what was in it.
25:31There was evidence at the storage unit
25:37to suggest that what was in the box
25:40had been a corpse.
25:43On April 30th, Graham Coutts was charged with murder
25:47at Brighton Magistrate's Court and put on remand.
25:52With Coutts in custody,
25:55detectives seized his home computer
25:57and uncovered the disturbing truth about him.
26:01Not only did he appear to be kind of porn addicted,
26:05he was obsessed with women's necks
26:09and he was obsessed with strangulation.
26:12When the police were able to obtain
26:15the details of the websites
26:18that he was paying for access to,
26:21the contents of his computer
26:23filled the gap, as it were,
26:25as to why this happened in the way that it did.
26:29Because he was looking at all this necrophilia.
26:33Graham Coutts had found sexual pleasure
26:38in the thought of dead women
26:42and he was paying to subscribe to websites
26:47which contained that sort of material.
26:50So his girlfriend didn't know that.
26:53Nobody knew that.
26:55And that only came to light once he was arrested
26:58or, of course, his computer was seized
27:00and then that material was found.
27:06It was a shocking development in the case,
27:10but despite the mounting evidence against him,
27:13Coutts refused to admit to any crime.
27:15Then, several weeks after Coutts was arrested,
27:18there was a breakthrough.
27:20To everyone's surprise,
27:23Coutts actually admits that he killed her
27:27and says,
27:29and here is the most
27:33heinous part of it all,
27:36it was only a matter of consensual sex
27:40that had gone wrong.
27:50Coutts claimed that Jane Longhurst
27:52had died at his flat on the 14th of March, 2003,
27:57the date of her disappearance.
27:58He said they'd stopped by his home
28:00on their way to go swimming together.
28:03They were driving to the leisure center
28:05and he said,
28:06I just need to pop into the flat.
28:08The only account that we have
28:10of what went on in the flat
28:11is his account,
28:13where he said they started kissing,
28:16they went to the bedroom
28:18and they started having consensual sex
28:22without a word being said between them.
28:26And he said that
28:30just by a nod,
28:31she agreed to
28:33breath control play
28:35during the course of the sexual intercourse
28:39and he used a ligature around her neck.
28:43Accidentally, she died in that process
28:45was his account.
28:47I don't believe for one minute
28:50that there was consensual sex
28:54that went wrong going on
28:55between Jane and Graham Coutts,
28:58not given his history,
29:00not given the way that he was escalating.
29:06After Jane's death,
29:09Coutts had stored her body in his shed
29:11before moving it to the storage facility
29:13on the 25th of March,
29:15just days after his first interview
29:18with the police.
29:19It was a storage facility
29:20where people typically
29:22will store their belongings
29:24if they're moving house
29:25or if they need to clear out a property.
29:28So he basically put a body in a box
29:30which had fragile written on it.
29:35He kept a number of her belongings,
29:38a trophy,
29:39and he also kept a condom
29:43that contained material
29:46that would be consistent
29:47with him having had sex with her.
29:51But he put everything in there,
29:53including all her effects.
29:54He then visited her regularly there
29:56for about a period of six weeks.
29:59But sickeningly,
30:01Coutts wasn't just visiting
30:02the storage facility
30:03to make sure Jane's body was still there.
30:06The detectives had evidence
30:08to show that Graham Coutts
30:10had visited the body
30:12of Jane Longcurt
30:13in the Yellow Box storage unit
30:1510 or 11 times.
30:17Initially,
30:18he just had ordinary daytime access to it.
30:23And clearly,
30:24he then changed to 24-hour access
30:27so that he could be there
30:29when there were no staff there.
30:31He was recorded
30:33visiting these extreme pornography sites
30:35shortly after visiting the body.
30:38So it was quite clear
30:39that this man was acting out
30:41a perverse
30:42and deeply sickening sexual fantasy,
30:45not only in real time,
30:47but long after Jane
30:48had been so brutally murdered.
30:51It is the most chilling thought of all.
30:55He's paid for out-of-hours access
30:57so that he doesn't have to always be seen
31:00when he's visiting Jane's remains.
31:03It is truly horrifying.
31:07Eventually,
31:08after storing Jane's body
31:10for five weeks,
31:12Coutts knew he had to try
31:13and hide the truth
31:14of what had happened to her.
31:17And then,
31:20because of the state of the body,
31:22he went in late at night
31:26and there was a very good CCTV of him
31:28with a pallet truck
31:30taking a large box out,
31:32putting it in the back of his car
31:33and he drove to West Sussex
31:35and set a light to her body there.
31:42Graham Coutts's confession
31:44to strangling Jane
31:45and hiding her body
31:47was a pivotal moment
31:48in the investigation.
31:49But now detectives had to prove
31:51that this was no accident.
31:53There was no sex game
31:55that had gone wrong.
31:57Prosecutors would need to show to a jury
31:59that there was a motive
32:00for murder.
32:12On January the 12th, 2004,
32:16Graham Coutts appeared
32:17at Lewis Crown Court
32:19charged with murder.
32:21The 35-year-old from East Sussex
32:23was accused of strangling music teacher
32:26Jane Longhurst
32:27and hiding her body
32:28in a storage unit
32:30before setting it alight
32:31in local woodlands.
32:33Despite the evidence against him,
32:36Coutts was going to plead
32:37not guilty.
32:39It seemed to me
32:40to be a compelling case
32:43where he was the person
32:45who had not only murdered her
32:47but kept her body
32:49for his own purposes thereafter
32:52and then disposed of it.
32:54During the 11-day trial,
32:57the defence argued
32:58that Jane's death
32:59had been an accident.
33:01But the prosecution
33:02contradicted Coutts's version
33:04of events
33:05with forensic evidence
33:06evidence that they claimed
33:08proved otherwise.
33:09A key part of the evidence
33:11came down to understanding
33:13the nature of the act
33:14that had caused her death.
33:16The defence would argue
33:18that the brief encounter
33:20of the pressure
33:21being applied to the neck
33:22has caused death rapidly.
33:24However, in reality,
33:26that's very unlikely.
33:27Death doesn't occur quickly.
33:29It occurs over several minutes
33:31with sustained pressure
33:33to the neck.
33:33and the victim
33:34would certainly
33:35be showing signs
33:36that they're struggling.
33:38Now, if it was a consensual act,
33:39you'd expect the person
33:41inflicting that act
33:42to then realise
33:43that, oh, this isn't right
33:45and I should stop.
33:46But obviously,
33:46in this case,
33:47that didn't occur.
33:48Hearing my sister's reputation
33:50being slurred
33:51as a form of defence,
33:55socially unacceptable
33:56were very difficult
33:57to endure.
33:59Journalist Helen Carter
34:00covered the trial.
34:02He claimed that it was
34:03consensual sex
34:04that had gone wrong
34:05and that she was
34:06a willing participant
34:08in this sort of
34:09asphyxiation,
34:11which was a complete lie.
34:13It was pure gaslighting.
34:15They weren't involved
34:16in a relationship.
34:17She was planning her life
34:19with her boyfriend
34:20away from Sussex
34:21and she was hoping
34:23to become a mother.
34:25While the facts
34:26of his actions
34:27were presented in court,
34:29Cootes showed
34:29little emotion.
34:31Cootes pleaded
34:32not guilty throughout.
34:33He was a remarkably
34:35calm man,
34:38as I recall.
34:39I think always believed
34:40that he was going
34:41to be found not guilty.
34:44Graham Cootes
34:46would like to convince
34:48the jury
34:49that he was
34:51a miscarriage
34:52of justice.
34:53He was at pains
34:54to deny any responsibility
34:57for her death
34:58and it must have been
34:59so hard for
35:00Jane's partner, Malcolm,
35:02to sit there
35:03and listen to this person
35:04deny any responsibility
35:06for murdering
35:07his beloved partner
35:09who he was planning
35:10the rest of his life with.
35:13Cootes' defence
35:15that the strangulation
35:16was consensual
35:17and Jane's death
35:18was an accident
35:19was not believed.
35:21by the jury.
35:21After nine hours
35:23of deliberation
35:24at Lewis Crown Court,
35:25they unanimously
35:26found him guilty
35:27of murder.
35:34On the 4th of February,
35:362004,
35:38Cootes was sentenced
35:39to 30 years,
35:40later reduced
35:41to 26 years
35:42on appeal,
35:43and was sent
35:44to HMP Wakefield.
35:47But the agony
35:48for Jane's loved ones
35:50was far from over.
35:51In the months
35:53that followed,
35:54Cootes launched
35:55a number of appeals
35:56around a very specific
35:58legal ground
36:01that the jury
36:02had not been offered
36:03the alternative explanation,
36:06that Cootes had
36:08that Cootes had indeed
36:08killed her accidentally
36:10during consensual sex.
36:12In other words,
36:13that it was manslaughter
36:14rather than murder.
36:17Two and a half years later,
36:19the House of Lords
36:20granted Cootes' appeal.
36:22His conviction
36:23was quashed
36:24on the 19th of October,
36:252006,
36:27and a retrial
36:28ordered
36:28he would remain
36:30in custody.
36:32The friends and family
36:34of Jane Longhurst,
36:35they had the indignity
36:36of her being murdered
36:37in such horrific circumstances,
36:39then the denials,
36:40the false stories,
36:41the lies,
36:42the smears
36:42that he's spread,
36:44but they have to go
36:45through one trial,
36:46the stress of that,
36:47and then for him
36:48to appeal it
36:48and there'd be a retrial.
36:50It's reliving
36:51that most traumatic,
36:53horrific part
36:54of their life.
36:56In June 2007,
36:58a second trial began,
37:01this time with manslaughter
37:02as a possibility.
37:04Barrister Richard Barton
37:06once again acted
37:08for the prosecution.
37:09Retrials are always
37:11more of a challenge,
37:15but I never had any doubt,
37:18and I'm sure that the police
37:19and the CPS
37:20never had any doubt
37:21of his guilt.
37:23On Wednesday,
37:24the 4th of July 2007,
37:27after jurors
37:28had deliberated
37:29for 13 hours,
37:31Coutts was once again
37:32found guilty of murder
37:33by a majority verdict
37:35and sentenced
37:36to life in prison.
37:39Crown courts
37:40are dignified places
37:42where high drama
37:44is not permitted
37:45by judges,
37:46but following the verdict
37:48in the retrial,
37:49there were cheers
37:50from the public gallery,
37:52from the friends
37:53and family of Jane Longhurst,
37:55and I can hardly blame them.
37:57Judge Richard Brown
37:59told him
38:00at the second trial,
38:02and I quote,
38:04in seeking perverted
38:05sexual gratification
38:07by way of your sordid
38:09and evil fantasies,
38:11you've taken her life
38:12and devastated the lives
38:15of those she loved
38:16and those who loved her.
38:18And he concluded
38:19by saying,
38:20you have shown
38:21not one jot
38:22of remorse.
38:24As he was driven away,
38:26the prosecution
38:26described this murder
38:28as a despicable crime
38:29compounded
38:30by a despicable defence.
38:34Despite Coutts
38:35being behind bars
38:36for the rest of his life,
38:38for Jane's mother Liz
38:39and her sister Sue,
38:41the fight for justice
38:42wasn't over.
38:44It's been a horrendous year
38:46for my family
38:48with the murder
38:50of my sister,
38:52the violent murder
38:53of my sister Jane Longhurst,
38:55by the strangulation
38:57and rape.
39:00Graham Coutts,
39:01who has now
39:02got life imprisonment
39:03for this murder
39:05was fuelled
39:06by the internet
39:08downloading images
39:09from websites.
39:12Do you pay
39:13by using your credit card?
39:15Following the conviction
39:16of Graham Coutts,
39:18Liz campaigned
39:20to get the law changed
39:21because he was found
39:22to have pornography
39:25which sparked his interest
39:26in the 1990s
39:28and nothing was done about it.
39:31Martin Salter,
39:33Labour MP for Reading
39:34at the time,
39:35worked on a campaign
39:36with Liz Longhurst.
39:39She felt desperately sad,
39:41obviously,
39:42as to what happened
39:42to her daughter
39:43and desperately sad
39:44that other young people
39:46could easily be put at risk.
39:48She wasn't ever seeking
39:49to outlaw all pornography.
39:52What she was concerned about
39:53was those extreme imagery
39:55that would tip,
39:56and I think it was her words,
39:57tip an unbalanced mind
39:59into acting out
40:00their fantasies.
40:02I think when we started,
40:04we couldn't get our heads
40:06around the fact
40:07that it was perfectly legal
40:12to broadcast images
40:14of young women
40:16being murdered and raped,
40:18some cases in real time,
40:19for those images
40:21to be available
40:22and able to be disseminated
40:24right away
40:25across the United Kingdom.
40:27Even though
40:28the UK's obscene
40:30Publications Act
40:31banned offensive material
40:33being published in Britain,
40:34it was no match
40:36for the millions
40:37of illicit images
40:38being posted
40:39on the internet
40:40from all over the world.
40:42Much as they would have liked
40:43to,
40:44the Metropolitan Police
40:45Vice Squad
40:45or the law enforcement agencies
40:47in this country
40:48can't go after
40:49internet sites
40:50that are hosted
40:51in South America
40:52or somewhere else
40:53in the globe.
40:55After 18 months
40:56of Liz Longhurst campaigning,
40:59the UK's obscenity laws
41:00were changed,
41:01making it illegal
41:02to possess pornography
41:04that features rape
41:05or torture.
41:06Jane's mother, Elizabeth,
41:09was an extraordinary woman
41:12who was very dignified
41:14throughout
41:14and the worst nightmare
41:17for any parent
41:18that she went through.
41:21But she campaigned
41:23tirelessly thereafter
41:25along with others
41:26and they achieved
41:28a change in the law.
41:30And I regularly prosecute
41:32people who have
41:33extreme pornography
41:34similar to much
41:35that Cootes
41:37at the time
41:38was looking at legally.
41:40I think bringing about
41:41this change in the law
41:43meant everything to Liz.
41:46It's what she strode for.
41:47I was privileged
41:48to be part of that exercise,
41:50to help her on that journey.
41:52And whilst it meant everything,
41:54clearly didn't mean as much
41:56as having her daughter back.
42:03The laws that Liz Longhurst's campaign
42:06helped change
42:07are still keeping people
42:09like Graham Cootes
42:10off the streets
42:11and protecting other families
42:13from the living nightmare
42:15that Jane's loved ones
42:16went through.
42:17Graham Cootes will always
42:19present a danger to women.
42:21He's presented a danger to women
42:23since he was a teenager.
42:25And that really is
42:27by his own admission.
42:28He wasn't saying,
42:30I'm a potential rapist.
42:31He was saying,
42:32I'm a potential killer.
42:33He was saying that
42:34right from the beginning.
42:36He is never going to be safe
42:39to be around women.
42:42He was a young man
42:46with a very dark side
42:48that he hid from everybody
42:51very well.
42:52What he did was evil.
42:55He could have saved her
42:57had he stopped strangling her,
42:59but he didn't.
43:01He could have told the police
43:03where she was,
43:04but he didn't.
43:06He'd endeavoured to keep
43:08his perverted fantasy alive
43:11for as long as he possibly could
43:14before he dumped
43:16her naked body
43:17and set fire to it.
43:24Graham Cootes was a man
43:26obsessed with satisfying
43:28his darkest sexual fantasies.
43:31Fueled by violent pornography,
43:33he strangled Jane Longhurst,
43:35a young woman
43:36in the prime of her life,
43:38and then kept her body
43:39in a storage unit
43:40for his own
43:41twisted gratification.
43:43His cold-blooded
43:44and depraved behaviour
43:45sent shockwaves
43:47around the country.
43:48Cootes showed no remorse
43:49for his horrific actions,
43:51content to destroy
43:52the victim's reputation
43:54to escape justice.
43:56Graham Cootes
43:57will be remembered
43:58as one of Britain's
43:59most evil killers.
44:01the desirable ghost.
44:13For a boxing
44:13and a halft
44:25for others,
44:25let's pray and see.
44:25You can do it.
44:31as one
44:31You