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00:03I'm Steve Keogh, a former Scotland Yard murder detective inspector.
00:08I'm going to take you deep inside murder investigations.
00:13Opening my contacts book for the first time.
00:17To reveal the secrets of what it really takes to be a murder detective.
00:21On the front line, exposing how we solve the most heinous of crimes.
00:31Welcome to secrets of a murder detective.
00:41The murder of Gavin Clark in August 2011 was one of Leeds' most challenging cases.
00:46I'm going to be meeting the senior investigating officer on the case to reveal what really happened.
00:51The pressures, the setbacks and the methods in the investigation that brought the killer to justice.
00:55I am Lisa Griffin and I was a senior investigating officer with the Homicide and Major Inquiry team within West
01:03Yorkshire Police in 2011.
01:05Hi Lisa. Hello.
01:07Lovely to meet you. And you.
01:10Lisa, the case we're going to talk about today, what were you doing back then? What was your role?
01:14So I would be leading investigations into murders, any suspicious unnatural deaths, kidnaps, stranger rapes or anything that was deemed
01:25to be some major crime and worthy of an SIO led investigation.
01:29So there came a point and a call came in to West Yorkshire Police.
01:33From your perspective, what was the first you heard of it?
01:35So I came on duty at 8am on Tuesday, the 9th of August.
01:41I was aware that there had been shooting in Chapel Town in Leeds, a black male, and that victim was
01:48in need of an ambulance.
01:52It's a residential housing estate. It's a very busy area. It was late afternoon, so there were people out on
02:00the streets, children playing.
02:01It was a sunny, summer's afternoon, and there are lots of eyewitnesses. And what we knew was that the victim
02:09had been shot in Savile Avenue.
02:11But he had been training, doing some physical training in Savile Park immediately before that.
02:17We knew that he'd made an approach to a vehicle in Savile Avenue and the shotgun had been produced from
02:23the vehicle and he'd been shot by it.
02:26That's quite brazen, isn't it, to commit a murder like this in front of people.
02:32In your mind there, what's that telling you about the people that carried out this murder, that they would be
02:38able to and willing to do that in these circumstances?
02:41It tells me that they're really quite callous and have no regard for members of the public.
02:49In any circumstances where a firearm is discharged, the first resource to respond to that would be armed response.
02:56So, trained firearms officers would attend the scene to ensure that the public are safe.
03:04So, when an ambulance call comes in to such an incident, the ambulance would be asked to remain a safe
03:12distance away from Savile Avenue.
03:14To allow the armed response vehicles, the firearms officers, to attend initially and ensure that it was safe for the
03:23ambulance to proceed to the casualty.
03:25Your victim was taken to hospital and sadly died that day.
03:29What information was coming to you about who the victim was?
03:32So, we established from the family liaison officer at the hospital that the victim was Gavin Clark.
03:37He was 34 years old.
03:39He was a local resident in Chapel Town.
03:41Gavin Clark was a very fit and active young man.
03:44He had children.
03:46He had responsibilities.
03:47He did have a job.
03:49And what I did learn was that he was a physically fit man.
03:53He liked to train in Savile Park on the children's equipment, on the bars, doing push-ups and chin-ups
04:00and this kind of thing.
04:01And he would do that regularly in an afternoon when he finished work.
04:04That was part of his routine.
04:06He was an ex-boxer.
04:08He was strong.
04:09He was fit.
04:10And probably a little bit feared amongst the community.
04:14I knew that he had a background of criminal activity.
04:18It was nothing majorly significant, but he was known to the police.
04:24There's a lot of pressure on this early stage, isn't there?
04:27Because you're leading this team and you know that at the very beginning of a murder investigation,
04:32you need to get things right because it's hard to play catch-up, isn't it, once you get it wrong
04:36at the beginning.
04:37It was actually more difficult than a normal investigation would be
04:41because this was happening at a time when there were riots across the country.
04:50The 8th of August 2011 was set against a backdrop of some serious public disorder across the country.
04:57There had been a shooting of a black male by the Metropolitan Police and this had triggered outbursts of public
05:05disorder in London and in other major cities across the UK.
05:09It was unfortunate that we had a shooting in Chapel Town in Leeds on the Monday following a weekend of
05:15rioting across the country.
05:17The community were feeling sensitive to what had happened and felt that this was an example of the police taking
05:26no interest in helping a black man who had been shot.
05:32The ambulance actually arrived quite promptly, but it parked up. It wasn't safe for the ambulance to go forward and
05:39treat the casualty.
05:40And for members of the public, that can be really hard to understand, can't it?
05:43Because their priority, they've got their friend, loved one, whatever is there, they want them to get the medical treatment
05:49that they need.
05:50Whenever there's a firearms discharge, firearms officers need to attend in the first instance to ensure the safety of any
05:57ambulance crew that attend.
05:59The gunman had left the scene, it was safe for the ambulance to come forward and the casualty was taken
06:04to hospital.
06:05But what happened, what followed was a riot essentially.
06:11And what had happened was the crime scene that had been cordoned off had actually been under attack.
06:20Missiles had been thrown bricks and rubble.
06:22No examination had taken place. No forensic had been gathered from the scene.
06:26So we were starting from point zero.
06:29Wow, I've never had this in my career. So you come on to the start of a murder investigation and
06:35you essentially don't have a crime scene.
06:36It looked like a war zone. When I was given this investigation, there was no crime scene.
06:42Because the PCSO had abandoned the cordon and the scenes of crime van had been broken into, the camera had
06:51been stolen and the scene was no longer contained.
06:55That early stage of a murder investigation where we're talking about, if you've got a shooting, you're talking about potential
07:00forensics there.
07:02There could be a bullet, there could be casings, there could be blood, there could be DNA, fingerprints, all at
07:08the crime scene.
07:09And at this stage when you're coming on to the murder investigation, that's all, that's out of the police's control.
07:16Yeah, because I can't send officers into a situation where I'm likely to put them at risk.
07:21So in these sorts of situations, quite often, those people are going to be rioting by eight o'clock in
07:28the morning, they're going to be asleep, aren't they?
07:30So you've got a slight window there in that what was going on the night before would have calmed down,
07:36would that be fair to say?
07:37That's absolutely fair to say. My first priority was to re-establish the crime scene, to put a cordon in
07:44place so that we had control of it and then we could undertake a thorough forensic examination of the crime
07:49scene.
07:50So, to do that, we did a risk assessment and we made sure that officers were safe and were not
07:59at risk of being under attack.
08:02This was a shooting of an individual in that community.
08:07Then there was a very high likelihood that this would generate lots of interest and where there were lots of
08:12people on the street that could, of course, generate public order problems for us.
08:17My name is John Parkinson and in 2011 I was an assistant chief constable in West Yorkshire Police.
08:23And during the time of the disorder in August was the gold commander responsible for the policing response across West
08:29Yorkshire.
08:29My job was to make sure that there was sufficient public order resources to protect the area, to support those
08:36that were holding the cordon and to enable Lisa and her team to be able to go and investigate the
08:42area.
08:43Yeah, I think there's a balance here between not trying to exacerbate the situation by sending lots of extra officers
08:49at the same time as trying to protect that crime scene and protect the officers that were there.
08:55Historically, we've learned from that, that if we immediately flood the area with, you know, police officers who may look
09:02in appearance to be aggressive with wearing riot gear and public order equipment, that sometimes can shift into being aggression
09:08towards the police.
09:11I know this is going to be a very challenging crime scene, not least because of the tensions in the
09:16area, but it's potentially being contaminated by, by the fact that it's been abandoned and people and vehicles are probably
09:24driven through it.
09:25I also want to give consideration to the specialists that are required. So I need a ballistic expert to look
09:33at the scene and make an assessment of it.
09:37When we were asked to get involved in a shooting incident, we would go to the scene and we would
09:44look for some physical evidence, fire definition components, impact marks, bullet holes.
09:52My name is Andre Horne and I am a forensic firearm scientist. In some cases, a gun may even be
09:58left at a scene. And we would look at the directions that bullets had been fired in, the angles that
10:07they'd be fired in.
10:07And then we would interpret that evidence in order to try and assist with what had happened.
10:17A challenge for Lisa and her team in this case would have been the fact it was a shotgun being
10:21used.
10:22When a shotgun is fired, it's pellets that come out from the barrel.
10:27And unlike when a bullet is fired from, say, a handgun, there's no rifling on a pellet.
10:33So it's impossible to match back to identify the gun that was used.
10:38So your forensic teams are down at the crime scene and they're looking for ballistic material.
10:44If it was a bullet that would be fired from a handgun or a rifle, that bullet would then be
10:49able to be uploaded to the national computer to see whether that gun had been used previously, if they can
10:55match it to any kind of gun.
10:56They can't do that with shotguns, can they? Not with the pellets that are found.
11:00No, we're facing quite a challenge here because I can't identify that weapon, like you say, from the shotgun cartridge.
11:08Shotgun cartridges consist of a cartridge case, propellant, some wadding, which separates the shot pellets and the propellant charge, and
11:20then shot pellets.
11:22When shotguns discharge pellets, they spread as they move away from the muzzle of the gun.
11:30Shot pellets are discharged from a shotgun, they start spreading out in a cone shape.
11:35The pattern formed by the pellets increase in size, and the pattern becomes less dense.
11:41That spread can be controlled by having a constriction in the front of the muzzle called a choke.
11:49And for that we've produced charts that were acquired from firing test shots with various chokes.
11:58And that chart comes in very handy when we arrive at a crime scene and we have a test pattern.
12:03So we were able to establish the density of the shot pattern.
12:10Forensics were able to recover the cartridge from the shotgun, the wadding, and also many pellets from the crime scene.
12:19We could see distribution of pellets on the brickwork of a house, which left a circular shape,
12:26which to me suggested that that was the victim's head that had made that impression.
12:37In murders, that very early stage of an investigation is crucial.
12:42There's a principle known as the golden hour.
12:45It's those early hours after a crime has been discovered.
12:49And it's when crime scenes are put in, in order to protect any evidence, particularly forensic evidence.
12:56And when we consider what was going on at the time, the riots, that public order situation,
13:00I think it's a real credit to the professionalism and dedication of Lisa and her colleagues.
13:05They were able to, despite those difficulties, to put in that cordon and retrieve some really quite vital evidence.
13:12The most crucial bit of evidence was the shot pattern on Gavin Clark.
13:20It was only a partial shot pattern, but we were able to use the shot pattern, the size and the
13:27density of the pattern,
13:29to establish approximately how far the shooter had been when the shot was discharged.
13:37We were able to determine that he was approximately seven metres away.
13:46The post-mortem was carried out and the outcome was that Gavin Clark had died from brain trauma.
13:53The 85 pellets that had penetrated his head, some of which had entered the skull and the brain and had
14:00caused death.
14:02I do feel the pressure.
14:03A member of the public said if the police don't find the killer of Gavin Clark, the streets of Leeds
14:09will run with blood.
14:13A massive concern for Lisa and her colleagues is the fact they're outstanding suspects for this murder.
14:20And the danger they pose to not only the public, but police as well.
14:25If someone's willing to use deadly violence in broad daylight like this, will they do it again?
14:31And what would they do if they're cornered by the police?
14:35I did feel the pressure to undertake the best investigation that I could.
14:40I was acutely aware that any lack of action on the part of the police was just going to exacerbate
14:46the situation.
14:47My investigation strategies were obviously tailored to this particular incident, but they were comprehensive and as bold as I could
14:56make them to gather the evidence that I needed to identify the suspect and make an arrest at the earliest
15:02opportunity.
15:08You're now going to be leading an investigation into a shooting.
15:12What's going through your mind now? What kind of priorities are you starting to formulate in your mind?
15:17We were able to trace witnesses.
15:20Yeah, so we have a key witness who is a friend of Gavin Clark and he was quite adamant that
15:25the vehicle used for the shooting was a Vauxhall Vectra.
15:28The friend of Gavin Clark who was with him saw him approach the Vauxhall Vectra, but did not see the
15:36discharge of the firearm.
15:38We did feel that it was premeditated and we did feel that the offender was known to the victim because
15:45when the Vauxhall Vectra pulled up alongside the park, Gavin Clark punched into his hand and immediately went to approach
15:53the vehicle.
15:54He knew who was in that vehicle. And from his physical demeanour, it looked like there was there was tension
16:01between the two parties.
16:02So what you've described to me is killer or killers sat in a car.
16:08So this car was now going to be key to your investigation, wasn't it? What colour was a car? Can
16:12you remember?
16:13Silver.
16:16In any modern day murder investigation, CCTV is going to play a part. Everywhere we move nowadays, there are cameras.
16:23There are cameras on cars and buildings, on our doorbells.
16:26So one of the strands of inquiry your team are going to be doing is CCTV.
16:32It is a huge task because as results come in, it takes us down different geographical areas.
16:39CCTV is really time critical because a lot of the systems that companies have, private business, overwrite every month.
16:47It might be that it's going to overwrite within the next few days. So you've really got to act quickly.
16:53It's a huge piece of work and it requires a lot of staff to do it.
16:58So officers will literally walk down the street looking for cameras and going into premises to ask, do you have
17:03a CCTV system?
17:04Which direction do your cameras face? And then asking to download the data and physically taking it away.
17:11How many detectives would you say roughly that you had with you that day?
17:15I would say that initially, I will have had 30 detectives assigned to the investigation.
17:22What sort of CCTV were you getting back at the early stage?
17:24At the early stage, it was actually quite disappointing. We weren't getting good images of the Vauxhall Vectra.
17:34Victimology is hugely important in a case like this, and you're starting to build up a picture of Gavin's life.
17:40What you're specifically going to be looking for is if there's anyone within it that might have a motive for
17:46killing him.
17:47Was anything like that starting to come through?
17:48What we were able to establish was that Gavin Clark had a criminal record.
17:53And that was of interest to us.
17:55Because often, if they're mixing within the criminal world, they are going to potentially have enemies.
18:02So we needed to explore that in detail.
18:05So that was really important to us.
18:08There were two family liaison officers deployed.
18:11They came back to me with a suggestion from the family that a man called Afzal Arif was someone that
18:21Gavin Clark had some hostility with.
18:24Afzal Arif had been in a relationship with Gavin Clark's cousin, and the suggestion was that there had been some
18:31domestic violence shown toward her.
18:33So Gavin Clark had warned off Afzal Arif, and it may be that he has retaliated in this way, and
18:40it could be him that's responsible for the shooting.
18:43So what was your decision around that?
18:45My decision around Afzal Arif was to nominate him as a suspect for the murder, for the shooting of Gavin
18:51Clark, and to make arrest inquiries to trace and locate him.
18:55So you've nominated Arif now as a suspect.
18:59What was that evidential picture that you were building up?
19:02For example, Vauxhall Vectra has been in the area prior to the shooting, so we need to look for previous
19:08visits by that Vectra.
19:09And we could establish that that was only two days earlier.
19:14On the Saturday, Afzal Arif had been to Sheffield and had purchased a Vauxhall Astra.
19:20The Vauxhall Astra, when we looked at ANPR and its movements, had travelled from Sheffield back to Leeds.
19:26Travelling with it in tandem, triggering the ANPR cameras at the same time, was a Vauxhall Vectra.
19:33The ANPR enquiries identified a Vauxhall Astra making regular trips around Savile Park.
19:43And it became apparent that whoever was driving the Vauxhall Astra was scouting out Savile Park and looking for, we
19:52would say as a prosecution, looking for Gavin Clark.
19:55Once he was identified within the park, the Astra left and the Vauxhall Vectra returned.
20:07I asked that he be arrested at the earliest opportunity.
20:15There's a lot of challenges for an SIO.
20:18She's required to give briefings to the victim's family about what's happening at the same time.
20:23She's trying to catch the person that's responsible.
20:25Lisa's role as the senior investigating officer is crucial in ensuring joined-up working.
20:32In a way, it's a bit like being the conductor of an orchestra.
20:35If all the individual parts aren't working in unison, the outcome isn't going to be a good one.
20:41But what's really important, and I can't reiterate this enough, is to make sure that the public and the community
20:48leaders that they trust are as briefed as fully as possible.
20:52So they can have that kind of engagement with them, and that kind of, you know, single truth can be
20:57explained about what's happening and why it's happening.
21:00They wanted to understand why things were taking so long, whether the person that had been responsible had been arrested
21:06yet, what was happening to them.
21:07Local police commanders were incredibly well-versed with this kind of tactic and had built very long-standing relationships with
21:16local community leaders,
21:17who were more than happy to try and help and to intervene and prevent any kind of disorder overspilling.
21:26So you're dealing with a murder that involves a sawing off shotgun.
21:32The type of people that are going to use that as a murder weapon tend to come from criminal organisations
21:40or people with a criminal background.
21:42Yes, it was always a concern for me that I needed to get the gunman under control.
21:50Annual leave was cancelled force-wide for everybody. Uniform staff, CID staff, everybody had their leave cancelled.
21:57Everybody was drafted in to help and support, not only with the public order, but also with my investigation.
22:03Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful with those arrest enquiries because Afzal Arif, he had taken himself away to Harrogate on the
22:13evening of the shooting and had remained away from Chapel Town to avoid that very eventuality, to avoid being arrested.
22:20In 2011, when Gavin Clark was shot and killed, I'd been a barrister for about 17 years.
22:30Over the course of my career as a barrister and now King's Council, I've prosecuted a large number of murder
22:37cases and defended in a large number of murder cases.
22:41In the aftermath of the killing, Afzal Arif travelled to Harrogate and went for an Indian meal.
22:49What he did at the end of the meal was to ask for a receipt in circumstances in which the
22:53evidence demonstrated he had never done that before.
22:57What he was trying to do was to set up a false alibi.
23:00And he volunteered himself at a police station some days later because he knew we were looking for him and
23:10he came in at his convenience with a solicitor in readiness for suspect interviews.
23:20Murder investigations use four main areas of evidence, their witness testimony, CCTV, forensics and the use of telephones.
23:30In Lisa's case, they used all of these.
23:33But what is interesting is that on their own, none of them would have been enough to convict the killer.
23:38What they needed to do was build each of them on top of each other to build a compelling case.
23:49Afzal Arif was in his early 20s at the time of the murder.
23:55He was of Bangladeshi heritage and he lived in part of Chapel Town where many people who held from the
24:01same place lived.
24:03He was a drug dealer. He was a criminal. Of that there was no doubt.
24:10Afzal Arif was interviewed by the police over many hours.
24:17In answer to each and every question that he was asked, he answered no comments.
24:25Someone in custody for a murder can only be held for 24 hours and at that point a superintendent can
24:33extend the detention period for a further 12 hours.
24:37We sought and obtained that 12 hour extension.
24:41When a gun is fired, particularly something like a shotgun, it's going to produce a huge cloud of material included
24:49in that gunshot residue.
24:51Now, criminals today know this too, don't they?
24:54That's right. Afzal Arif was very forensically aware.
24:57And we know this because what we found as the days progressed, the interviewing officers noticed that the hair was
25:04growing back on his arms.
25:06And what he'd done is he'd shaven his head, he'd shaven all his facial hair off and he'd also shaven
25:11his arms.
25:12Afzal Arif did not want to be taken into custody with forensic material on him, gunshot residue, whether amongst his
25:19hair or on his arms.
25:21And we know that to be the case because we found photographs of him prior to the incident, police photographs,
25:28but also personal photographs.
25:30Where he's got a full head of hair, he's got a moustache, a beard, and he's obviously got his arm
25:35hair.
25:36And then you're talking about a suspect that's forensically aware and he's actively doing things to prevent you finding evidence
25:43on him.
25:43It's going to make it more challenging, isn't it?
25:45Absolutely. This was very much a pre-planned shooting of Gavin Clark.
25:53So two cars have come into your inquiry. You've got the Vauxhall Vectra that the shooting was done from, but
25:59your CCTV showed a Vauxhall Astra in the area.
26:03Did you manage to find that car?
26:05Yes, we did. So we recovered the Astra from an address that is his uncle's dress.
26:11And when we found it, there was water beneath it and it appeared to have been washed.
26:16That was obviously in an attempt to get rid of any forensic evidence.
26:21Our theory, my rationale was that he had purchased the Vauxhall Astra so that he could do a recce around
26:29the Savile Park area looking for Gavin Clark.
26:32It was a vehicle that was not known by Gavin Clark to be used by Afzal Arif, so he could
26:37do it in anonymity, if you like.
26:40He probably assumed that the police would take no interest in that Vauxhall Astra because that's not the one that
26:45was used in the shooting.
26:46That Astra was recovered and examined extensively and what was of interest to us was underneath the passenger seat was
26:54a mobile phone, which we were able to link to Afzal Arif because it had his DNA on it.
27:00What was the evidential picture you were getting back from your telephone inquiries?
27:06What was interesting about the mobile phone was that he had used this to recruit associates to help him with
27:13the disposal of evidence.
27:14And the phone data, the information we were able to piece together from the phone calls between all these parties
27:21played a crucial role in the prosecution case.
27:27You can look at the data, incoming calls and outgoing calls, and what we found with Afzal Arif is his
27:35phone was used extensively prior to and after the shooting.
27:41And this gave us a whole host of other suspects who clearly were involved in a conspiracy to destroy the
27:50evidence after the event.
27:57He had recruited a number of helpers to recover the Vauxhall Vectra and dispose of it.
28:07He had used family and friends to dispose of the clothing he was wearing.
28:12And what we found when we did the telephone analysis is there was a key individual who Afzal Arif spoke
28:19to immediately before the shooting.
28:22That person was his eyes and ears on the ground. That was Sahail Mahmood.
28:26He was in the park playing football and he was looking out for Gavin Clark.
28:31He rang Afzal Arif immediately before the shooting.
28:35And Afzal Arif, he was the first person that Afzal Arif spoke to after the shooting.
28:41So Sahail Mahmood was someone who was quite active in the community and he was quite well regarded by the
28:51police and was helpful to the police in a lot of respects.
28:54But in this instance, he arrived at the local police station making representations that we'd arrested the wrong people.
29:04This person, Afzal Arif, our lines of inquiry were quite misdirected and we should look elsewhere for the offenders.
29:12He was trying to circumvent the investigation by speaking to his police contacts and using his position as a community
29:20leader.
29:21He wasn't hands on with the murder, but he had planned and assisted Afzal Arif to such an extent that
29:28he should be charged with murder as well.
29:35Was there any other evidence that suggested, yes, I'm on the right track here, he's the shooter?
29:40We were able to trace two juvenile witnesses who were eyewitnesses.
29:46They were in the street when the Vauxhall Vectra parked and they saw the firearm come out of the vehicle
29:56and shot Gavin Clark.
29:59They were so close that they felt the blast of the gun.
30:03These kids that have just witnessed someone shot in front of them causing horrific injuries, that's going to be really
30:11traumatic for them, isn't it?
30:13It is really traumatic and it's a challenge for anyone to give evidence and what we wanted to do was
30:19to treat them very delicately and sensitively to get the best evidence from them and we did.
30:25They gave us a really good description of the suspect and of the vehicle, but we needed to protect them
30:31so their names were never introduced into the investigation.
30:34We treated them as what we call anonymous witnesses.
30:37This was undoubtedly a traumatic incident to witness for anyone, for an adult, but particularly for a child.
30:45But that family were very much in support of the police investigation and wanted to help where possible.
30:56Shortly after I was instructed in the case, I had a meeting with the other members of the prosecution team
31:02and also with the key members of the police team.
31:05That included, of course, the senior investigating officer, Lisa Griffin.
31:11And what struck me from the outset was that she had had an extremely clear vision for how the case
31:17was going to be investigated and that she had an equally clear vision for what she thought was the appropriate
31:23way to prosecute the case.
31:24She was an extremely impressive individual.
31:28I spent years on murder investigation teams and I think it's fair to say it's quite a male dominated world.
31:35There are fewer female detectives, certainly when you get to higher ranks.
31:41What was your journey, Lisa, to becoming a murder detective?
31:45When I joined the police, it was never my intention to get promoted or to look for specialisation within CID.
31:53But I quickly learnt that there was a lot of reward in dealing with crime investigations.
31:59And as time progressed, I actually felt compelled to work with the most vulnerable victims.
32:05And I worked in the child and sexual abuse unit and I dealt with rape victims and felt a huge
32:13sense of reward in getting justice for them and being their voice, if you like.
32:18Do you feel that you had to overcome any barriers or any prejudices that possibly your male colleagues didn't?
32:25I do feel that women during the era that I was doing major crime investigations were not given due credibility.
32:37I think that our competence was not assumed. We had to prove it.
32:41We had to prove that we were competent in our role.
32:44Whereas a male colleague, it was a given.
32:47The police force was a very male dominated organisation when I joined.
32:53You can't put women in senior positions until they've accrued the experience.
32:58So the transition from an all-male organisation to a balanced organisation does take time.
33:05And I do feel there's been a huge amount of progress in that.
33:09And women are better represented across the board.
33:14Your investigation, although you've got the main person in custody for murder,
33:20and then you've got Mahmood for murder too, for assisting him in that,
33:26you had others in custody too for the conspiracy and around it.
33:31And how many in total did you have in custody at one time?
33:35At one stage of the investigation, we had ten people in custody,
33:39ten people to manage in terms of interviews and potential reviews for charging decisions.
33:46I would make early contact with CPS as we get to the point,
33:51the end point of the custody time.
33:54We have to go to court and apply for what's called a warrant of further detention.
33:58And that was secured against not just Afzal Arif,
34:02but his associates who we believed were guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice
34:07because they had disposed of evidence.
34:09There's a volume of evidence that we need CPS to review in making their decision.
34:14So the officer that was responsible for the telephone analysis
34:19gave the lawyer access to that data.
34:22And likewise, the CCTV officer gave an account of what evidence we had in terms of CCTV.
34:31Afzal Arif was the gunman.
34:35He was charged with the murder of Gavin Clark.
34:39And he was also charged, together with a number of others, with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
34:44Because what he had done was to engage many people who were close to him
34:50in a plot that was designed to put the police off his scent.
34:55I think seven who were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
35:03The reviewing lawyer then authorised charge for murder for Sahail Mahmood
35:09and also conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
35:14All stages during a murder investigation, you are updating the family,
35:18you're making sure they're aware of significant developments.
35:22Yes, the first people that are notified when charges are made are the family.
35:27Through the family liaison officers, they will explain who has been charged,
35:31with what offences, and will explain what the next steps will be
35:35and the process of the trial at Crown Court.
35:39The second point of contact will be the media office to put that message out to the public.
35:47Gavin Clark had a reputation of someone not to be messed with.
35:51He was an ex-boxer, he was fit, he was strong, he was healthy.
35:55Afzal Arif was no match for Gavin Clark,
35:58which is why, I believe, he took a shotgun with him
36:01as his only option in deterring Gavin Clark.
36:05Afzal Arif, he went out searching for,
36:09you might say hunting for Gavin Clark, intending to kill him.
36:15He located Gavin Clark in a park within Chapel Town.
36:20When Gavin Clark was about seven metres away from the car
36:24that Afzal Arif was seated in the driver's seat of,
36:28Afzal Arif wound down the window.
36:31He pointed the shotgun out of the window
36:34and he shot Gavin Clark in the face.
36:40The pre-trial period had a number of twists and turns.
36:45Initially, Afzal Arif indicated that he would plead guilty to manslaughter,
36:51but not murder, on the basis that he had indeed been the gunman.
36:55Then we received news that he had changed his mind
36:58and intended to deny that he was the gunman.
37:02He changed his mind again,
37:04admit once more that he had pulled the trigger
37:07and plead guilty to the offence of manslaughter.
37:10So, essentially, he's playing games with you at this stage, isn't he?
37:12Absolutely, yes.
37:13He's looking at risk management and trying to get a reduced sentence
37:18because, as you say, it's significantly less of a sentence for manslaughter
37:22than it is for murder, but we rejected that.
37:25What specialisms, what experts did you bring in to this investigation
37:29to help you and your team build that picture of the case
37:32that was going to go to court?
37:33An expert that we did bring in that proved to be invaluable
37:36in proving the case was the ballistic expert.
37:40A defence statement was submitted by Afzal Arif
37:43to the effect that he didn't intend to kill Gavin Clark.
37:47He had intended to scare him
37:49and that he hadn't shot directly at his head,
37:53that he had aimed above his head, so we needed a ballistic expert.
38:02When it comes to premeditated murders,
38:04one of the issues for investigators is that the killers
38:07will be thinking about ways not to get caught.
38:10But the thing is, they don't think of everything.
38:13And more often than not, they aren't as clever as they think they are.
38:21I think this is one of the cases where we had some difficulties
38:24because the gun was never recovered.
38:26And I think the most important thing was why we think the evidence offered by Mr. Afzal was not plausible.
38:35In this case, the defendant, he claimed that he didn't know that it was loaded.
38:40He admits that he had his finger on the trigger and that he inadvertently pulled the trigger
38:46whilst aiming above the head of the victim.
38:48We know that the shooter was in his vehicle and as the victim approached, he discharged a shot and that
38:59shot fatally wounded the victim.
39:03We did make some calculations and what we did was provided a detailed diagrams and a short video to explain
39:14that
39:15if you pointed the gun in the direction that Mr. Afzal was pointing it,
39:22that it was only slightly above the head of Gavin Clark.
39:27And through trigonometry, we determined that it was approximately a one degree difference between shooting him in the face and
39:36shooting him where he actually pointed.
39:39One degree, when it is calculated, shows that the muzzle of the firearm had moved only between 7 and 22
39:49millimeters from where it was to where it would have hit Mr. Clark in the face.
39:57So that is hardly a defense to say that I had no intention of shooting him and that I was
40:04aiming over his head.
40:08So defense case statements essentially in this country, prior to trial, the defense should put on notice the prosecution of
40:15what their defense is going to be.
40:17And in this case, he said, yeah, I did, I did carry out the shooting, but I didn't have the
40:22intent that would make it murder.
40:23It was a complete accident.
40:30Day one of the trial, and we're there now with you now. How are you feeling on that day?
40:35So the trial had its ups and downs. Some of the witnesses were unwilling and the defendants themselves were challenging
40:45in terms of their evidence.
40:48One of them refused to take the stand and give any evidence whatsoever.
40:56I always describe this as a journey. You've been there from the journey from that crime scene through to the
41:00trial.
41:01But it's a journey the family are on with you too.
41:03It is and it's really unpleasant to hear the graphic details as well of how their loved one has died,
41:09but we give them their support.
41:11How long was the trial?
41:13The trial ran for six weeks.
41:15What was helpful was having a digital court presentation which showed the reconstruction of the shooting, which the ballistic expert
41:26was able to explain.
41:28There were clips of the CCTV footage given so that the jury could understand the movements of the vehicle, the
41:35suspect, and all the associates.
41:37The shotgun has never been recovered. The Vauxhall Vectra has never been recovered. But there is other evidence that tied
41:45him to the murder that he couldn't negate.
41:48The BlackBerry device that was recovered from the Vauxhall Astra proved to be an important source of evidence.
41:54It demonstrated, for example, that Afzal Arif had made internet searches in respect of Kevin Clark.
42:02And it also showed important connections at relevant times between Afzal Arif and others who were believed to be involved
42:11in what had happened.
42:13One of the most incredible aspects of Afzal Arif's account at trial was that he believed that shotguns fired bullets,
42:21not projectiles from cartridges.
42:26He lived in a world of criminality, serious, organised criminality.
42:32The idea that he would not have known about the operation of a shotgun was laughable.
42:40I was confident that we would get the verdict that we were hoping for.
42:44But these things are never guaranteed.
42:46And it's very tense at the time the jury returned to give their verdict.
42:53And fortunately in this case, he was found guilty.
42:57The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum term to serve of 33 years.
43:09There were strong reactions within the public gallery.
43:13The friends and family of Gavin Clark, of course, were pleased with that outcome.
43:18The friends and family of Afzal Arif plainly not pleased.
43:23And I remember that there were some difficulties in the public gallery and then outside of the courtroom that the
43:30police had to manage.
43:31Of those charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, as I recall it, four of the seven pleaded
43:39guilty.
43:40Three of the seven pleaded not guilty and had a trial.
43:44And what those involved in that conspiracy had done was each to play their own part in Afzal Arif's attempts,
43:53unsuccessful as it turned out, to evade justice.
43:57Sir Hale Mahmood was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
44:02And for that, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
44:13Having been through the trial, seen the convictions, how do you now feel about those two, about Arif and Mahmood?
44:22In terms of Afzal Arif, I'm more than satisfied with the sentence that he received.
44:29And in terms of Sir Hale Mahmood, I was disappointed that he wasn't convicted of murder
44:33because I consider him to be a principal offender in that.
44:38The case was undoubtedly a complex one.
44:42It depended upon many different strands of evidence.
44:47It involved delving into the background of Afzal Arif and the background of Gavin Clark.
44:53All of those strands had to be drawn together by the police investigation
44:59under the supervision and management of Lisa Griffin.
45:04And then, ultimately, it was the job of the police and the prosecution team at trial
45:08to ensure that the jury understood the whole, not the individual parts.
45:15I feel immensely proud that we achieved the result that we did,
45:18and I'm very pleased for the family of Gavin Clark, but they did get justice.
45:23This particular case was very challenging in terms of the backdrop of the public disorder
45:29and the pressure that I was under.
45:31The fact that I began with absolutely nothing in terms of evidence.
45:36So it was an uphill challenge, and I'm immensely proud of the work that the team did
45:42in support of the investigation to get the result that we did.
45:45Lisa was a very experienced and highly qualified senior investigating officer
45:50and was able to bring the offenders to justice
45:52and, to some degree, you know, bring justice to the family of Gavin Clark.
46:02My conversation with Lisa, for me, highlighted the importance of teamwork
46:06in the murder investigation.
46:08Sometimes, if you watch police dramas, you may be mistaken for thinking
46:11it's one or two people running around solving a crime.
46:14But that couldn't be further from the truth.
46:17The reality is it's lots of people, all pulling in the same direction,
46:22trying to achieve justice for the victim and their families.
46:25Let's see.
46:26everywhere.
46:52To somewhat become aản extremist.