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00:01A fatal fall from 80 feet off a bridge into an ice-cold river in the middle of the night.
00:09We could see scuff marks on the pipe as if someone had been trying to cling on for their life
00:15before falling to their death.
00:18A young student's life cut short.
00:21You never expect a child to go early. It's like torture.
00:28Was it simply a bizarre accident?
00:30What he witnessed was John almost doing a backflip over the railings and disappearing into the water.
00:40Or murder.
00:42Unless he was punched with the force of someone like Popeye, then he could not go over accidentally.
01:01ORCHESTRAL MUSIC CONTINUES
01:12Our son, John Chip, was born on the 11th of March 1986 in Castletown, which is an area in Sunderland.
01:23He was a lovely baby. He was bright. He walked early at 10 months. He was always fun.
01:30He was very thoughtful, very loving, very friendly with everybody. And he just loved life.
01:39Mine and John's relationship was a really good one. We were very close. Our John was the older one. He
01:46was two years older than me.
01:48He was always there for us. He would always stick up for us. He would always fight me corner. And
01:53we had some great times together.
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01:56Like many young people in Sunderland, John loved football.
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02:00Even before he could walk properly, he was kicking a ball around.
02:05He loved to follow someone in football club. He was a seasoned ticket holder.
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02:10We used to go out and play football together. And he was great at football. So he just used to
02:14take the ball past me all the time.
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02:19John also shared his father's love of racing pigeons.
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02:23He used to love coming down, sitting with the birds, helping his dad basket the birds and train the birds.
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02:32This is the delightful John Chick. He's been at the sea.
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02:37We enjoyed our family holidays and we went to the Dominican Republic as a family.
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02:42The holiday was great. I had a right laugh. I was 15 at the time.
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02:46He would have been 17. And we just bonded. It was great.
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02:50I'd class him as the perfect brother. I don't think I could have asked much more from him.
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02:57He was very loving, very thoughtful. Always tell you he loved you and put his arms around you.
03:03We couldn't have asked for anything better.
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03:06Situated in the north-east of England, John's home city of Sunderland is famous for more than its football club.
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04:10John turned 18 on March 11th, 2004 and a week later, on Thursday, March 18th, another
04:18friend was celebrating their big day.
04:20When John finished work, he called in to see his dad at the pigeon loft.
04:27And he just says, Dad, do you mind if I go out?
04:30I said to him, don't get too much to drink.
04:35Make sure you stick together and make sure you come home together.
04:41Went out with a big smile on his face as he used to, excited to go and have a drink
04:45with
04:46his friends.
04:47I didn't get home until after John had gone out.
04:51We had our evening meal, settled down for the evening, went to bed and John wasn't in.
04:58It wasn't until the following morning that we both realised he hadn't come home.
05:05And that's when alarm bells start to ring.
05:08It was not like him at all.
05:12He hadn't even phoned or left a message to say he was all right.
05:17I had to get to work that Friday morning, but I think during the whole day, both of us
05:24tried his mobile phone numerous times.
05:28He didn't answer.
05:29The day had passed and we just thought he might have been partying at a friend's house
05:33or whatever.
05:35When I came back from work on Friday evening, that's when we reported him missing to the police.
05:46They wanted a photograph of him.
05:50John always played five-a-side football at Nissan Car Factory Sports Club on a Friday.
05:57We went there and he wasn't there.
05:59You get that feeling you know there's something wrong, desperately wrong.
06:06Just a good feeling that you know it's going to turn out bad.
06:14It was just like he disappeared off the earth.
06:17Meanwhile, police were rapidly escalating their inquiries into John's disappearance.
06:23He was reported missing Friday the 19th of March to my colleague, Detective Sergeant Chris Sabenga.
06:31We get many reports of missing from Holmes.
06:34This one was more unusual.
06:36The family were distraught and frantic.
06:41Chris Sabenga contacted the family immediately to seek clues and help from them.
06:46He began inquiries around the mobile phone to see if there was any response from that.
06:53And then began to review CCTV footage from the town centre to see if they could pick up John Chip.
07:02CCTV in its early stages was very grainy and bad quality, but they were able to pick up John Chip
07:10in the town centre at around 11.30.
07:15He'd been out drinking and was very drunk and had been spoken to by police officers in the town centre
07:22who told him to behave and get himself on his way home.
07:28Further CCTV footage was reviewed and he was able to pick up John running home quite fast from the city
07:37centre along towards the Queen Alexandra Bridge.
07:42Another male was seen about two minutes ahead of him going onto the bridge before John ran onto the bridge.
07:50The last movements of John entering the bridge from the south side was just after midnight at about quarter past
07:58midnight.
07:58That takes us into the early hours of Friday the 19th of March.
08:04So we know that he went onto the Queen Alexandra Bridge from the south side, trying to get home on
08:11the north side, but he never came over the other side of the bridge.
08:15He wasn't seen again.
08:17The worst case scenario was that he'd fallen from the bridge somehow, an 80 foot drop.
08:25A fall from the bridge of 80 foot onto the water would certainly knock you out unconscious immediately.
08:34It's similar to hitting concrete.
08:35The weather at the time was rough and a cold water temperature from the North Sea.
08:42The chances of survival from an 80 foot drop onto the river are very slim indeed.
08:57In the days after John Chip went missing on March 18th, 2004, possibly having suffered a fatal fall from the
09:06Queen Alexandra Bridge in Sunderland, police and family grew increasingly concerned for his safety.
09:13You feel powerless. You don't know where to start looking. You don't know what to do. It's awful, absolutely awful.
09:23While police piece together John's last known movements, John's father George continued to do everything he could to find his
09:32son.
09:33I just couldn't sit back and just sit in the house. I just had to be out there looking.
09:39I went down to the river because we used to walk the dog down the river. I searched the allotments
09:46where I've got the pigeons. I never give up. I went out looking every day.
09:54I always had it in my head that he was going to show up. He's somewhere. He's just being an
09:58idiot. Just come home, John.
10:02Investigators, led at this point by Detective Sergeant Chris Sabenga, were desperate for more information.
10:09Chris Sabenga was in close contact with the family and he urged the family to make a press appeal for
10:17further witnesses to come forward.
10:19The Sunland Football Club, they were very happy to put an appeal out at their home game that weekend.
10:26I was asked if I would do a local radio interview. Probably one of the most traumatic ones was doing
10:34the press conference where people's cameras are clicking as you walk in a room.
10:42There are a number of reasons why the police might choose to hold a missing person appeal.
10:47The first one might be that they are looking out for people who might be witnesses without even realizing that
10:53they witnessed anything.
10:55There is the added benefit in a way that doing this appeal is really highlighting to the victim's family that
11:01they are doing as much as they can.
11:03A missing person's appeal can have the added bonus of putting pressure on people who either know information or is
11:12aware of someone else being involved,
11:14because it can start to feel like those walls are closing in. So it can encourage people who know something
11:19to come forward.
11:21Police investigations at this point centered around searching the riverbanks. The marine section of Northumbria police were involved. Underwater search
11:32unit divers were involved.
11:34But it is difficult because of the fast flowing tide and the deep silt.
11:39But almost two weeks since his disappearance, there was still no sign of John.
11:44The police are struggling to find any clues or evidence. The bridge has been searched and analyzed.
11:52There are no signs of any struggle or assault or any blood. So there is no typical crime scene to
11:58start a murder inquiry.
12:01Meanwhile, the local community rallied to support John's family.
12:06I had people knocking on our door with flowers. Some people I didn't even know.
12:13I started to feel like we lived in a flower shop, but you almost feel like your life's not your
12:20own at that time because you just go through motions.
12:25Other than your grief and your frustration of not having anything to do or any news, you function and that's
12:33all.
12:35In late March 2004, two weeks after John went missing from the Queen Alexandra Bridge, police received a call which
12:44was quickly brought to the attention of Detective Superintendent Ian Sharp.
12:48A phone call comes in from a member of the public who happens to be a family friend of a
12:56man named Christopher Weldon.
12:58The witness told us that he'd been out drinking with Christopher Weldon and the wives.
13:04There had been a lot of alcohol consumed.
13:08Weldon's wife took the car keys from Weldon and told him he was not capable of driving.
13:16Weldon objected to that.
13:18There was an argument and he stormed off in a huff stating he was going to go to the Queen
13:22Alexandra Bridge and throw himself off.
13:29The witness told us that he'd been talking to Christopher Weldon and he said, you never guess what's happened.
13:36I went to the Queen Alexandra Bridge and as I was standing there, a young lad came running across and
13:43he's gone over the side of the bridge.
13:49The witness urged Weldon to go to the police, but Weldon refused.
13:54So that witness came to the police and gave us that information and at that point myself and Steve Barron
14:03became involved in a homicide inquiry.
14:10The witness had quite a tale to tell and I think we were all very surprised when he came forward.
14:19Weldon had said this young lad come running towards us and he started to fight with his and during that
14:26fight that young lad has somehow gone over the bridge.
14:31Weldon hadn't done anything.
14:32He hadn't left the bridge and contacted the emergency services.
14:36In actual fact, he'd left the bridge, phoned a friend and got a lift home.
14:40The witness was willing to give that evidence in court.
14:45So now we have what we would refer to as a key and significant witness.
14:49And now we are very much leaning towards the fact that what's happened on the bridge is John has come
14:57across Christopher Weldon.
14:59There's been some form of altercation and as a result of that, John's ended up in the river.
15:09Investigators were grateful that the witness had found the strength to come forward and report one of his own friends.
15:16He knows that if this turns out to be a murder and his friends found guilty of it, that he's
15:24going to go to jail for a long time.
15:28I'm sure he thought long and hard about it, but I'm also sure that he was hugely influenced by those
15:35appeals from John's parents.
15:38Armed with this new information, Detective Superintendent Ian Sharp moved quickly to detain his suspect.
15:46Christopher Weldon was arrested and placed in the cells overnight.
15:49He was originally arrested for an assault case because he'd already confessed to being in a fight on the bridge
16:00with a younger man.
16:02So the arrest for assault was appropriate because we did not have a dead body.
16:10With Christopher Weldon in detention, awaiting interview at Sunderland Police Station, astonishing new information about their suspect quickly came to
16:19light,
16:20regarding an incident that happened just 10 days before John Chip disappeared.
16:26We found out that Christopher Weldon had been a passenger on a ferry.
16:32That ferry travelled from Amsterdam to North Shields.
16:36And what we knew was that Weldon was on that boat with a number of friends.
16:41We also knew that there was a 35-year-old German man called Frank Conrad on the ferry.
16:48We know that on that ferry trip, there'd been an argument between Weldon and Frank Conrad.
16:54And when the ferry docked in North Shields, Mr Conrad was not on board.
17:01Mr Conrad, at some point during that journey, had gone overboard and entered the North Sea.
17:08We know that Weldon was interviewed by police about a week before John Chip went missing.
17:15So when Weldon was arrested in relation to John's disappearance, he's already a part of an investigation in relation to
17:24Frank Conrad's missing episode from the ferry.
17:27Frank Conrad's body was never found.
17:30And although Weldon was never charged, police were struck by the similarities between the cases.
17:36We have two reports of men going into water under circumstances that are not understood and not explained.
17:49And both investigations now involve Christopher Weldon.
17:56It's important to note that Weldon never had any criminal charge associated with the ferry incident.
18:03However, that incident will have meant that Weldon was aware that someone went overboard, was missing, and no criminal charges
18:12were brought.
18:12And that does then pose the question that did that give Weldon a kind of sense of self-assurance, a
18:19confidence,
18:20that he then felt he didn't need to go to the police when he knew that John had gone over
18:24the bridge,
18:25because he knew that no information had been found in relation to the ferry incident, so why would this be
18:31any different?
18:32For Detective Superintendent Ian Sharp, this was a unique and challenging case.
18:38As a detective superintendent and senior investigating officer, I'd investigated many murders, which normally begin with a crime scene, a
18:49dead body,
18:50forensic scientists, pathologists, blood splash patterns, and lots of clues to help you get started.
18:58This was a unique case because we had none of that, and we were pinning our hopes on an interview
19:04strategy to see what clues we could pick up from Christopher Weldon.
19:08So it was important to talk to him and find out exactly what happened on the bridge.
19:21With 18-year-old John Chipps still missing after an altercation on Queen Alexandra Bridge in Sunderland,
19:29police needed to establish whether he had accidentally fallen into the river below or if he had been pushed.
19:36While their number one suspect was in the cells awaiting interview,
19:40police informed John Chipps' family of Christopher Weldon's arrest.
19:46We had a visit from the CID.
19:50But the information, what we got, we didn't really want to hear, because it was all bad.
19:58It was pure shock. We still didn't have John.
20:02We still didn't know the true facts behind what had gone on.
20:06You just want to know where he is and why.
20:11As well as prompting Christopher Weldon's arrest, the call made by his friend also led Detective Superintendent Ian Sharp
20:19to re-examine the scene of John Chipps' suspected fatal fall.
20:24When we got information that an altercation had taken place between Weldon and John Chipp on the bridge, we examined
20:32closely a pipe that ran alongside the barrier of the bridge.
20:37And we could see scuff marks on the pipe, like finger marks being dragged down the pipe as if someone
20:44was trying to hold on before falling.
20:47It was gut-wrenching.
20:49It was gut-wrenching. It was terrible to think that someone had been trying to cling on for their life
20:52before falling to their death.
20:55Seeing those finger marks on that pipe certainly tied in with Weldon's first confession to his friend that an altercation
21:05had took place and a boy had gone over the side of the bridge.
21:10What we now had to try and understand was, was that an accident or was he deliberately thrown over the
21:17bridge?
21:18Ian and his team knew that interviewing Christopher Weldon would be key to understanding what really happened on the bridge.
21:27Weldon's version of events is that he is there because he is contemplating taking his own life.
21:35He says that he sees a young man running towards him and that that young man begins to assault him.
21:44Weldon describes that he somehow stumbles and his arms flail upwards and in doing so he catches John somehow and
21:56John is propelled backwards over the railings and into the water.
22:03Video interviews now are very commonplace but back then they weren't.
22:07It was difficult to picture in your mind exactly what you were saying and to establish was this an accident
22:15or not.
22:16I knew at that point the Crown Prosecution Service would think there was reasonable doubt.
22:21So I decided on a new tactic to go to the gymnasium and set up a volleyball net at the
22:28same height of the bridge barrier.
22:30and to get Weldon to reconstruct and tell us exactly what had happened only this time video recorded to see
22:40if what he was saying was indeed possible.
22:44We set it at the height of four feet two inches which is exactly the same height as the bridge
22:51barrier.
22:52And we essentially said to Weldon, can you show us what this looked like?
22:59And what he described was being knocked back during this attack and lost his balance.
23:06His arm flew in the air, made contact with John and what he witnessed was John almost doing a backflip
23:16over the railings and disappearing into the water.
23:19That's the version he was sticking to, he was defending himself, he was the victim and this young boy had
23:27somehow gone over head first over the side of the bridge and had fallen to his death.
23:33I'm thinking to myself from a common sense perspective, I don't know if that's possible.
23:40The difficulty now was convincing the CPS to charge a murder charge given that we did not have a dead
23:49body.
23:50To help convince the Crown Prosecution Service to charge Weldon with murder, they decided to enlist the help of pathologist
23:58Jim Sunter and explain to him the circumstances of the altercation.
24:02We said, if this young man has gone off the bridge in these circumstances, what's the likelihood of him surviving
24:10an impact with the water?
24:13And what Dr Sunter said was, I'm convinced that that young man would not have survived that fall.
24:20You simply haven't yet recovered his body.
24:23The next thing we asked him about was, what did he think about the account that Christopher Weldon had provided?
24:29He immediately said, no, that's impossible because your centre of gravity is down where your hips are.
24:35The barrier rail is set at four foot two shoulder height for a safety reason.
24:42And unless he was punched with the force of someone like Popeye, then he could not go over accidentally.
24:53We got a very early statement from the pathologist at that point to support the theory that John Chip had
25:00been deliberately pushed over the bridge.
25:03And this was murder, not accident.
25:09Even without a body, the evidence gathered by Ian and Steve was enough to convince the Crown Prosecution Service.
25:17On Thursday, April 1st, 2004, they authorised a charge of murder against Christopher Weldon.
25:24And he was remanded in custody to appear at Houghton the Spring Magistrates Court the following morning.
25:30Meanwhile, Ian and Steve visited John's family to tell them that Weldon was now being charged with their son's murder.
25:39I don't recall exactly what my reaction was.
25:44Because it's not happiness.
25:47You never expect a child to go early.
25:51It's like torture.
25:53We still didn't have John.
25:57All I wanted was to know where my son was so I could lay him to rest.
26:06Often we talk about the significant impact on families when a loved one is murdered.
26:11But it can be worse when there is no body to grieve over.
26:15Because there's this constant back of the mind thought of, what if they're just missing?
26:20What if they turn up?
26:21Because there's no evidence physically yet that that can't happen.
26:27The underlying priority for the family and for us was to recover John Chip's body and give the family some
26:35peace of mind.
26:36And we made a promise that we would do everything humanly possible to recover John's body.
26:43While police frogmen continued to search the River Weir, investigators made another breakthrough in the case.
26:51A witness came forward and she described entering the bridge from the north side.
26:56And she encountered a big man who we now know as Christopher Weldon.
27:01She walked past the big man and as she walked towards the south side, she saw what she says is
27:09a young boy running onto the bridge.
27:12It is important that she places both of them together on the bridge at quarter past midnight.
27:19That was the last sighting of John Chip.
27:22As investigations continued, so did the search for John Chip's body.
27:27It's important because that body will tell us a story.
27:32For example, was John alive when he hit the water or was he killed on the bridge first and then
27:39thrown over?
27:40John could have had a suicide note on his body which would indicate that he'd killed himself rather than being
27:48thrown from the bridge.
27:50The officers from the North and Rear Police Marine Unit undertook hours and hours of searching in the river.
27:58We are in the most arduous of circumstances.
28:02We had a friend that had a small, small boat.
28:07For a couple of days we went up and down the river, the same river as the police.
28:11So they were on the south side, we were on the north side, but we had no joy.
28:18It was nigh on impossible really.
28:23On April 15th, 2004, almost a month after John Chip had fallen from the Queen Alexandra Bridge
28:30and two weeks after Christopher Weldon had been charged with his murder,
28:35the search for John's body came to an end.
28:38A dog walker at Hilton, a couple of miles up the river, saw a body floating in the river and
28:48contacted the police.
28:50The marine section recovered the body from the river and brought it back to the dock at Sunderland where myself
28:59and Steve Barron were waiting.
29:01John's mobile phone and, as I recall, his wallet were still in his pocket.
29:06So that indicated that it was John and you could see that it was John, albeit he was formally identified
29:15through DNA enquiries.
29:20John's body was sent to pathologist Jim Sunder for a post-mortem, while Detective Superintendent Ian Sharp passed on the
29:28news to John's family.
29:30They just gave us that information and made sure we were OK, but I think they knew that we needed
29:36to be on our own.
29:38And I think we just hugged and cried, part in sadness, but also relief that at least we knew where
29:49he was and we could finally have some closure.
29:55I was in school, actually. I was in a lesson.
29:59And the two teachers come in and took me out of the lesson.
30:04I thought I was in trouble.
30:06And they put us in the car, but they didn't say a word, it was just silence.
30:10And then they took us home.
30:13And that's when I got told that the body had been found.
30:18And then when the teachers had gone, I just burst into tears and I just jumped off the stairs and
30:26just give me mum and dad a big cuddle.
30:30While John's family were left to process the news, a post-mortem gave investigators more information about what had happened
30:38to him the night he fell from the bridge.
30:41He had not been stabbed before going over from the side of the bridge.
30:46John had water in his lungs, which means that when John entered the river, he was still breathing.
30:54The pathologist said he would have been knocked unconscious immediately.
30:59And when he went under the water, he took a gulp of breath and water entered his lungs.
31:05The cause of death was given as drowning.
31:09The property was still on the body, so he wasn't robbed on the bridge and nothing else to give us
31:16any indication that something else had happened on the bridge other than an altercation and being bundled over the side
31:24and into the river whilst he was alive.
31:27Trying to put together a motive for John's murder, I think it's clear that Christopher Weldon is standing on that
31:35bridge with serious troubles on his mind.
31:39He'd just been interviewed about a ferry death.
31:43He'd had an argument with his wife.
31:45He was drunk.
31:46He'd gone to the bridge and he told people he was going to kill himself.
31:50He didn't kill himself and killed someone else instead.
31:57After weeks of turmoil, John Chip's parents were finally able to begin preparing for his funeral.
32:04And his father George was determined that John finished the journey he started the night he died.
32:10I was told that they wouldn't be bringing him home, but I demanded he come home.
32:17I says he was on his way home.
32:20He wanted to get home.
32:22I wanted to bring him home.
32:24They brought him to the house.
32:28And we had John in the house overnight, obviously in his coffin.
32:34That was such a relief.
32:36I felt much, much better just having him there for that night.
32:44That was probably the best sleep I'd had for weeks.
32:48Finally, on May 12th, 2004, John Chip was laid to rest.
32:53The funeral was absolutely massive.
32:56Couldn't get everyone in the church, outside the church.
32:58The streets was just packed.
33:00It was, it's the biggest funeral I've ever, like, I've ever seen.
33:03It was unbelievable, the amount of turnout for him.
33:06The street was lined by hundreds of neighbours, friends.
33:12It was very moving.
33:16It was an amazing occasion, but a very sad one.
33:21You can't believe that an 18-year-old that still lived at home could have an effect on so many
33:30people's lives.
33:41On June 15th, 2004, Christopher Weldon appeared in court at a plea hearing for pushing John Chip to his death
33:49from the Queen Alexandra Bridge in Sunderland.
33:52It was the first time John's parents came face to face with the man accused of killing their son.
33:59I remember thinking, bizarrely, he's not a monster.
34:04I don't know whether you think somebody is, that does such a horrific thing to another human being, can look
34:15normal?
34:16I'd just seen him as evil.
34:19I couldn't see him as anything else.
34:22After pleading not guilty, Christopher Weldon was remanded until November 2004, when he went on trial for the murder of
34:31John Chip.
34:32To disprove Weldon's version of events, the prosecution wanted to show the jury a visual interpretation of what must have
34:41happened on the bridge.
34:42In the run-up to the trial, we considered another new tactic of doing a computer reconstruction.
34:50The defence didn't like it because it was prejudicial and because it wasn't admitted in evidence.
34:58That caused the judge to instruct the jury to attend the bridge.
35:03It is very rare that a jury will physically go and visit a crime scene location.
35:08The whole court process is supposed to be very secular, very kept within closed walls.
35:14Now, it can be really helpful for the jury to help contextualise the scene.
35:19Specifically in this case, they need to understand the physicality, the physical possibility of Weldon's claim that John has just
35:27accidentally almost fallen over the side of this bridge.
35:30And so this visit to the bridge is going to have had to be extremely well planned and mapped out
35:37to be able to go ahead.
35:39Over 20 years later, former detective inspector Steve Barron revisited the bridge to retrace the jury's steps.
35:47We wanted the jury to see what this looked like, a four-foot-two railing.
35:53And to get over here, you're going to have to climb over or you're going to have to be manhandled
35:59and thrown over.
36:01And we wanted the jury to understand what an 85-foot drop looks like, because that's what we've got from
36:07here into the river.
36:09Coming here and seeing this footpath made the jury think about the account that Weldon had given.
36:14And ultimately, that just demonstrated that Weldon's account was totally fanciful.
36:23The defence claimed that John's death was an accident and that he had attacked Weldon.
36:29The defence were making John out to be an unpleasant individual, that John was looking for a fight.
36:40And that's hard to listen to as a mother whose son had been murdered.
36:46In his defence, Weldon also came up with an unexpected tactic.
36:52Incredibly, as part of the defence strategy, they introduced evidence about the ferry incident the week before John going missing.
37:03where Frank Conrad had been reported missing, presumed having gone overboard.
37:11And the jury heard that Weldon had been on the ferry when this had happened, that he'd been interviewed by
37:18the police.
37:19It seems extremely unusual that Weldon's defence attorney would decide to bring up a case where Weldon's been questioned
37:26in relation to a potential crime in very similar circumstances to the one that he's now on trial for.
37:33There are a couple of reasons that they might have decided to do this, though.
37:36This is a relatively small local community.
37:39People are going to have heard about Weldon being questioned in relation to this prior case.
37:44So they maybe thought it's better to officially introduce it to record and control the narrative in relation to it.
37:52Additionally, they're trying to use this to paint Weldon as this victim who's being falsely accused and has had these
37:59run-ins a couple of times now.
38:01Ultimately, though, I think it backfires, because actually it just goes to show that this is the type of person
38:07who's at least been suspected of being able to show this level of extreme violence before and not even very
38:15long ago.
38:16On Wednesday, December 1st, 2004, the jury returned their verdict.
38:22The jury came back with a majority of ten to two that Weldon was guilty of John's murder.
38:30But do you know what? We don't win.
38:34We don't have our son back and never will do.
38:38So, yes, there is some happiness and elation on one part.
38:43But equally, that sadness is still there.
38:49Christopher Weldon was given a life sentence with a recommendation of 15 years in prison,
38:54minus the eight months he'd already spent on remand.
38:59In my opinion, it wasn't a fair sentence.
39:03I pictured him as coming out at 42.
39:08He's still got a lot of years to enjoy life.
39:11And I just didn't think the sentence was long enough.
39:16From a professional perspective,
39:18if sentence and guidelines are there for judges to understand and implement,
39:27and on that basis, 15 years was entirely appropriate.
39:34But had John been my boy and somebody murdered him,
39:38I would want them to go to jail for the rest of their life.
39:41After the jury's guilty verdict, the judge acknowledged Ian, Steve,
39:47and Detective Sergeant Chris Sabinga's roles
39:49in what had been a tragic and unique case.
39:53The judge formally commended Ian
39:56and he commended Chris and myself
40:01for our efforts in supporting Ian leading the investigation.
40:06At the end of the trial,
40:09Ruth gave me a thank you card and a bottle of whiskey.
40:13Getting a hug from Ruth was more important than the commendation.
40:18With Weldon serving time in Northumberland prison,
40:22John's family faced the challenge of life without their beloved son and brother.
40:26You just have to try and move on.
40:30I don't think any of us wanted to celebrate Christmas that year, did we?
40:34We actually felt guilty.
40:37Enjoying ourselves.
40:38For trying to enjoy ourselves.
40:40At the time I was very young
40:42and I didn't realise how much
40:44Lewis and my brother had affected us.
40:47I think it changed my life drastically.
40:49For the worst really, because I've grew up without a brother.
40:52I'll never be able to be an uncle.
40:54Stuff like that.
40:56In the spring of 2019,
40:58over 14 years after Christopher Weldon was sentenced
41:01for the murder of John Chip,
41:03he became eligible for parole.
41:06You are given the choice
41:09whether you want to deliver an impact statement
41:12at that parole hearing.
41:15And we decided that's what we wanted to do.
41:18But Weldon refused to attend the family's statement reading.
41:23I thought he was just a coward.
41:25He took our son away from us.
41:27And he couldn't come and face us.
41:30He didn't have the guts.
41:32Despite not being able to talk directly to Weldon,
41:36Ruth read the family's impact statement
41:38in which Ruth described how losing John had affected the family.
41:42John was a much loved son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend.
41:51The anguish that we all feel at his pointless death is indescribable.
41:56And it is very hard to put it into words.
42:01Our son Mark was only 15 years old when John was murdered.
42:06He often speaks of his brother affectionately
42:08and becomes upset and angry that John is no longer with us.
42:14My husband George and I are still haunted by John's death.
42:20No parent should have to experience the tragic death of a child,
42:25especially in such awful circumstances.
42:31John's parents requested the parole board keep Weldon locked up.
42:35But having served his sentence, Weldon's parole was granted
42:39and he was released under licence in December 2019.
42:44I wish he was still behind bars.
42:48However, I won't allow it to eat me up and niggle away in my head.
42:56And I need to fill it with much nicer things than thinking about him.
43:03Over 20 years since John's death,
43:06his memory lives on through his family and friends.
43:09We go out for his memory.
43:11We sometimes get together with the lads, like all his close friends.
43:15At the time, some of them are my best friends now.
43:21In memory of John, we decided to raise money for the Guide Dogs for the Blind.
43:27We have managed to raise over £22,000.
43:32We have named a dog after him.
43:36We had a black Labrador called Chippy.
43:38My oldest son, who was 13, he's actually called John Chip.
43:41I named him after my brother, in memory of him.
43:45John's old comprehensive school,
43:47we decided to set up a subject award in art, in his memory.
43:52We would like John to be remembered as a young, ginger-headed young man who loved life,
44:06loved his sport.
44:08Loved his animals.
44:11I'd like John to be remembered as a fun, outgoing, very kind, polite, lovely, lovely person.
44:18That's exactly who he was.
44:20He was a much-loved child.
44:24And we want his memory to continue.
44:32To be continued.
44:33To be continued.
44:55To be continued.
44:56To be continued.
45:01To be continued.
45:06To be continued.
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