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00:10I'm David Wilson, emeritus professor of criminology, and for over 30 years I've
00:17investigated the phenomenon of murder and what it is that might motivate someone to kill.
00:26Every murder case is different but time and again a deadly pattern emerges of warning signs and red flags.
00:40In this new series I investigate some of the UK's most harrowing murder cases to understand how and why
00:50these terrible crimes occur.
00:55This is Murder UK.
01:37Katie was very angelic, very sweet, a lot of fun, very giggly.
01:45Yeah, just a really sweet little girl, baby of family.
01:50Katie and I were very close.
01:53Our older sisters were sort of very outgoing and we were quite shy and reserved and that kind
01:58of built a bond between us that we would stick together.
02:01Katie was very shy as a child but just beautiful.
02:06She always had a smile on her face and as she grew up and became more confident she just
02:11became the life and soul of the party.
02:15Katie had lots and lots of friends.
02:17She was very popular and she was very easy going, very giggly.
02:21She liked to laugh.
02:23She liked to get up to mischief.
02:25Katie left school at 15 and she'd been doing hairdressing on a Saturday as a job and just
02:33absolutely loved it so she decided to become a hairdresser and won many awards as well.
02:37She was a really fantastic hairdresser.
02:50By Spring 2015, Katie Wilding, now aged 19 and having done some travelling, returns home from a trip to Australia.
03:00You can appreciate that after four or five months away, moving back in with the old people
03:06wasn't really what she was looking for so we managed to find her a nice little flat just off the
03:10seafront.
03:12It wasn't a huge flat so it didn't take a lot of tidying.
03:17But I think she enjoyed having her independence.
03:21Katie had had boyfriends but no serious relationships.
03:26She was enjoying her life too much, I think.
03:30Within just a few weeks of her return, Katie meets someone new.
03:36Mitchell Richardson.
03:39Katie told me one day when we met that she had gone for lunch at a sandwich bar with a
03:45friend
03:45and this guy had come over to her and said that he would really like to get to know her.
03:51Mitchell's first words to Katie were, I've been watching you.
03:59Katie was very flattered by that at this point.
04:02When she told me about it, I was a little bit concerned.
04:06Not overly concerned, but it did seem a little intense.
04:10Katie was 19, Mitchell was 31 when they met.
04:16She was very excited when she was describing Mitchell.
04:21She said he was tall, he was dark and he was handsome.
04:24It was the old, oh, the cliché going here.
04:26But she was excited.
04:28She said he was a proper man rather than a boy.
04:30That's what I think she felt quite frustrated with chaps of her own age,
04:34that she felt she was more mature than that.
04:36And so she was very excited.
04:40He had a BMW car.
04:42I think at 19 she was a little bit, oh, this is quite nice to be treated, to be spoiled.
04:47He took her to some very nice restaurants initially.
04:50He bought her a new mobile phone.
04:52He was really spoiling her.
04:54And I don't think that's something she'd had from previous relationships before.
05:07The first time I met Mitchell was around Katie's flat.
05:10And at first he was very pleasurable, but he almost tried too hard.
05:15It was quite intense.
05:17And Katie was learning to drive at the time.
05:19So we went out for a drive to a local car park so she could practice.
05:24And quite quickly I became a little bit uncomfortable because of the way he spoke to her.
05:29He was very controlling.
05:31He put her down quite a lot about the way she drove.
05:34And I just didn't like his attitude towards her at that point.
05:38And he was already displaying controlling behaviour.
05:44What's interesting is that very early on, we see the move from love bombing Katie
05:51to establishing the elements of coercive control.
05:56Richardson's quite clearly beginning to see what the boundaries are,
06:00how dependent he can make Katie.
06:03We see that in particular with the so-called driving lessons in the car park,
06:08where he's not really giving her driving lessons, he's putting her down.
06:13This is a way of belittling her, of establishing her dependence on him.
06:19A few weeks into the relationship, Emma visits Katie again, at the flat the family had helped her find.
06:27I went round to help her build some furniture.
06:30And I realised that throughout the flat there was a lot of things that weren't hers,
06:34and it was very much in a mess, which in some ways was very unlike Katie.
06:40And she told me at that point that Mitchell had moved in with her.
06:45Mitchell came to Katie and said that he was being evicted from his home,
06:50and asked if he could move in with her just as a short term measure until he could find somewhere
06:55else to live.
06:57Katie is now living with a man she's known only for a few weeks.
07:02Her family watch with growing apprehension, feeling that things are moving far too quickly.
07:11We were very concerned. We didn't know who this man was. We knew he was a little bit older.
07:16We didn't know anything about his family or his friends.
07:19So yes, we were quite concerned at this point that we hadn't actually met him.
07:25His words at the time were he was being evicted from his flat for not being able to pay the
07:30rent.
07:30But we soon found out that there was a lot more to it than that.
07:34When he moved in with her, Katie found out that he had violence in his past.
07:40Because he had to tell her that he had a tag on his leg which was given to him by
07:44the courts.
07:46This was for violence against another man which Mitchell had claimed was in self-defence.
07:53But Katie believed that he'd been misrepresented at court, that he'd been misunderstood by the judge,
07:58that nobody had listened to him, and she didn't believe him to be violent. She said she trusted him.
08:11It was a few weeks after they'd been living together that we saw a change in Katie.
08:17Katie was working at my friend's hair salon, and my friend phoned me and said,
08:21Katie has been coming in in the last few mornings in tears.
08:23She's upset about something.
08:26And this particular day, about two to three weeks after they'd been living together,
08:31Mitchell walked into the hair salon
08:35and started shouting at Katie in front of everybody.
08:40And he spat at her.
08:43Mitchell threw a set of keys into Katie's face, which caught her here, and left.
08:50Katie was absolutely devastated.
08:52When my friend, the owner of the salon, was talking to her and calming her down,
08:57she said that it was entirely her fault because she'd drank the last of the milk that morning
09:02and hadn't left him any milk for coffee, and that's why he was angry.
09:10Richardson's very public argument with Katie, he's not ashamed by that,
09:15because it's done very deliberately.
09:17And by doing this deliberately, a number of psychological advantages accrue to him.
09:24Katie is seen as his property.
09:26But it also serves to humiliate Katie in a public setting.
09:31And that humiliation further serves to emphasise the power dynamic within the relationship
09:39and her dependency on Richardson.
09:42It's a subtle form of self-blaming.
09:46It's an acceptance that she must be in the wrong, even when she's not.
09:52I was devastated.
09:53This was my baby.
09:55I wanted to challenge Mitchell, but Katie asked me not to.
09:58She said it was okay.
10:00She dealt with it.
10:00He'd apologised, and they'd moved on.
10:03Katie was signed off work very soon after that with anxiety and depression.
10:20A few weeks later, Mitchell and Katie are spotted by her mum's friend, Sue,
10:26and her husband in Torquay Harbour.
10:31A car pulled into the loading bay, and Katie and Mitchell got out of the car and they started
10:41to walk back towards the bars and the restaurants.
10:44And another car pulled up right behind Mitchell's car and caused his car alarm to start going off, at which
10:54point he completely lost his temper and started screaming and shouting at the gentleman in the car behind.
11:03And Katie tried to calm him down, and then he started shouting at her also, and he got into the
11:16car and sped off.
11:18It was a very shocking incident to see, and it made me feel very uncomfortable and very worried for her.
11:27It was the quickness with which he lost his temper over nothing.
11:32My husband was very shocked by what he saw, and he said to me that if he was talking to
11:39her like this in public,
11:41then what was he talking to her like in private?
11:43How was he treating her behind closed doors?
11:47Sue immediately informed Katie's family about the incident.
11:56This is the point where I started to see the change in my sister, from being that bubbly, happy, sort
12:02of outgoing person to becoming very withdrawn and hiding things from us.
12:08Katie left her job, she went to the doctors and was signed off with anxiety and depression, and that started
12:14her on a spiral.
12:16Very quickly into the relationship, Mitchell cut her off from her friends, and I think that was for control.
12:22Katie would tell us that Mitchell was adamant that her friends were trying to split them up.
12:28He would tell her, your friends don't like me, your friends are telling lies about me, because they don't like
12:34us together, they're jealous of our time, they're jealous of our love, of our mature relationship.
12:39Slowly but gradually, she lost touch with all of her friends.
12:47Richardson can be seen as following almost a classic playbook of coercive control.
12:55She becomes further isolated, she's no longer in touch with her family in the way that she once had been,
13:01and this serves to create a dependency even further on Richardson.
13:06She is totally dependent on the person who is actually abusing her.
13:13A year into the relationship, Katie is completely isolated from her friends living alone with an abusive boyfriend.
13:23And now, she's set to lose the home that she and her mother had found together.
13:30Katie was evicted from her flat.
13:35Because Mitchell had started to smash the flat, neighbours were starting to complain to the landlords that there was screaming,
13:43there was shouting coming from the flat.
13:45So all at the same time, she lost her job, she lost her flat, and she definitely started to withdraw
13:51from us, from her family.
13:53In their increasingly fractious relationship, a worrying new ingredient is spotted in the mix.
14:01I became aware that Mitchell took drugs.
14:04There were drugs all over the house, he quite openly offered me drugs many, many times.
14:10In fact, he would boast about the drugs that he had in the flat, and he would often offer them
14:16to Katie.
14:17Katie would say that she didn't want to take any, but he would then laugh in her face,
14:21and just really humiliate her for not wanting to take them.
14:26The drugs made him extremely paranoid.
14:31So from the beginning of the night, where he would very much be the gracious host, you know, offering drinks,
14:36playing games,
14:37and then as soon as the drugs came out, he would become paranoid, um, and angry, and try and control
14:43everybody in the room.
14:44He would, um, humiliate Katie, he would call her names, he would spit at her, um, and all because she
14:51didn't want to take the drugs with him.
14:52The minute the drink, or the drugs, or the combination started, he would become very aggressive, he'd become very paranoid.
14:59He'd check her phone three, four, five times a day.
15:01He would always say, oh, are you wearing that? What's that for? Who are you going to see?
15:06He accused her of sleeping with his friends. Oh, always. He was paranoid. Absolutely paranoid.
15:13With Mitchell's paranoia intensifying, the family fear his control over Katie's every move is becoming absolute.
15:24Mitchell would control her money, he would control what she was allowed to wear, whether she could shave her legs,
15:31whether she could buy new clothes, whether she was allowed to drive her car.
15:36If she, if she stepped out of line, he would do things like cancel her car insurance, um, or smash
15:41her phone so that she couldn't contact anybody.
15:44And Mitchell insists on knowing his girlfriend's location 24 hours a day.
15:52He put a tracker on her phone and he sold this idea to Katie so that he would know that
15:58she was safe.
16:01Despite the tracker, Mitchell's paranoia persisted.
16:05He continues to suspect Katie is cheating on him.
16:10Mitchell then lost his job because he was coming home to check where she was all of the time.
16:19When Richardson loses his job, Katie actually becomes Richardson's sole priority.
16:28That allows him to dominate and control 24-7.
16:33When a person like Richardson forms this level of controlling obsession,
16:40the relationship with Katie is only ever going to go in one direction.
16:47My husband and I quite often talked about kidnapping her, taking her away,
16:53breaking that mind control, but that would have been, we would have been making her choose.
16:59And to make her choose between him and her, we would have lost.
17:02As hard as this is to say, it was better to allow her to choose to go back to him,
17:08knowing that she'd be back a few days later than to risk saying,
17:13you have to choose Katie. We would never have seen her.
17:17I wanted to keep some form of contact with her.
17:22Just over a year after meeting Mitchell, having suffered months of isolation and abuse,
17:29Katie finally tells her sister the painful reason why she hasn't ended the relationship.
17:37During one night when I was round for a party and he'd flipped out,
17:42I managed to get her on her own for about two minutes and she broke down and she told me
17:45she
17:45was afraid of him and that she didn't know how to get away from him.
17:50And when I asked her why she'd never told me this before,
17:53she said that she was trying to protect me and I told her it was my job to protect her.
18:06Mitchell took Katie to Egypt for her 21st birthday and Katie was very, very excited.
18:11I think she was looking forward to the holiday because she thought he would relax and when he
18:15was relaxed, they got on or, you know, the relationship was easier.
18:19It may have been a change of scene, but it was the same old story.
18:25That evening when they arrived on her 21st birthday, in front of other guests at the hotel,
18:32he punched her in the face and gave her a black eye.
18:35She spent the majority of the holiday with thick makeup on trying to cover a black eye.
18:41Again, she said that she'd moved, he hadn't meant to hit her. That was a usual excuse. He was aiming
18:47for the wall and she got in the way.
18:49And then after that, the violence seemed to get worse and worse.
18:56On the evening of the 8th of October, Mitchell finds a dress in Katie's bag, which he thinks is nightwear,
19:04making him wrongly suspect that she's cheating.
19:08He's angry and his use of alcohol and drugs is about to make for a dangerous cocktail.
19:15He started to drink and he started to take tablets. He took a quantity of Valium, drank a lot of
19:21a bottle of Jack Daniels, threatening to throw himself off the balcony if she left.
19:27Fueled by alcohol and drugs, this dangerous cocktail results in a violent, unprovoked attack on Katie.
19:38It was in the early hours of the morning that the neighbours called the police because they said for the
19:43first time they were frightened for Katie's life and he was arrested and taken into police custody.
19:51My mum actually informed me of what had happened and I was devastated and angry and all of the emotions
20:00really because I felt like, you know, she was my baby sister and I wanted to protect her and I
20:05couldn't.
20:06So, yeah, it was really heartbreaking.
20:10During his police interview, Richardson refuses to cooperate.
20:15Can you tell me where you were last night?
20:17I'm not coming, sir.
20:19OK.
20:20Can you tell me who you were with last night?
20:22No comment.
20:23Can you remember what happened last night?
20:26Well, I was just going to say no comment. I can't really remember, sir, no comment.
20:31Crucial to the police case against Richardson was any evidence Katie could offer.
20:37However, despite the brutality of the attack, she decided not to take the matter any further.
20:45I believe she didn't make any formal complaint against him, mostly out of fear.
20:51At this point, you know, he was almost all she had or that's how she, that's how he made her
20:56believe.
20:57I still believe at this point she loved him and believed that he would change for her.
21:02And I still believe at this point she had hoped he would change.
21:08During his police interview, Richardson refuses to cooperate.
21:15But whilst Richardson is in custody, Katie seizes the opportunity and decides to move out of their shared flat and
21:24into her own place.
21:26I can't begin to tell you how amazing it was to think that she was finally, her decision, not being
21:32forced into it by anybody, she was making the decision to leave.
21:35It was incredible.
21:36And it was going to be fantastic and the start of a whole new life.
21:41So when Katie first moved into her new flat, it was kept a secret so that it was very much
21:47a safe house and a panic alarm was fitted at the flat.
21:51And Katie did seem happier.
21:52She did start seeing friends again.
21:54She started messaging a bit more and she was looking for work and just really looking to the future.
22:03Mitchell Richardson is released on bail with one condition.
22:10He mustn't contact Katie or her family.
22:15But will he comply?
22:17And more importantly, is Katie now safe?
22:21He was released and within hours he was on the phone to Katie demanding to know where she was.
22:31So she blocked his number and he immediately started to phone me.
22:37And he was desperate for information about where she was.
22:40I said to him that I was really quite worried about her.
22:43You know, if he stopped all of this and he got help, then she might come back.
22:46Because I said, she loves you.
22:48She loves you.
22:49But he laughed and he said that she would come back anyway.
22:53I said, I was worried.
22:54You know, I said, I'm frightened for you.
22:56For Katie, of you.
22:59And he laughed and said, well, you're probably right.
23:02It was a horrible conversation.
23:04And one of the last things he said to me before I ended the conversation was, well, you know, I
23:08could easily kill her with drugs and you'd never prove it.
23:15I truly believed he was going to kill her.
23:29Mitchell Richardson has breached his bail conditions by contacting Katie.
23:34Her mother alerts the police and demands they find her daughter.
23:39But neither Katie nor Mitchell can be located.
23:45I tried all morning to get hold of Katie and her phone was switched off.
23:49So eventually I tried Mitchell.
23:52His phone was switched off.
23:54Been to the flat, nobody there.
23:56So I went early to the police station and told them that I was genuinely worried.
24:00I got a call from my mum to say that they were both missing.
24:04And I was actually at uni at the time.
24:05So I left uni and we all went out searching for her.
24:10For 48 gruelling hours, the search continues.
24:15Everybody, the police as well, were out looking for them, couldn't find them.
24:19And I was convinced that something terrible had happened.
24:24Five days after Richardson is released on bail, the police receive shocking information suggesting he's holding Katie hostage in his
24:35flat.
24:37When the police forced the door open, Mitchell had heard them as well, and he just sat in an armchair.
24:42It was a tiny little room, waiting.
24:47Katie was on the bed, on the pillows, sort of all crunched up.
24:52And they arrested him and took him away.
24:56He'd held her there all night, beating her black and blue.
24:58And when I got there, I barely recognised my own child.
25:01Lots of bruises.
25:04So the police officer said to her, Katie, we really need you to give some evidence to stop this.
25:11So that's what we did.
25:12We took her straight to the police station.
25:16I've never, ever been so proud of her as I was on that day.
25:22And she was very brave enough to decide to do a video statement of what had happened the night before.
25:30He called me, saying that he had nowhere to stay.
25:34He said that he was really cold, and I felt sorry for him.
25:37So I said, come back to flying in the end.
25:41She looks so young and vulnerable.
25:43You can tell she's nervous.
25:45But yes, it's emotional.
25:47It's seeing her so vulnerable.
25:52Katie tells the police that once inside her flat,
25:55Richardson began accusing her of cheating and became increasingly angry.
26:02He was spitting on my floor.
26:03He was spitting on me.
26:05And then he actually passed me my phone.
26:07I said, go, call the police officer.
26:09And I was like, okay.
26:11So I was about to do it.
26:13And he was like, well, let's see how fast I can get here.
26:15Because by the time we get here, I'll kill you.
26:18And he said, you have come to the door.
26:20I'll do the same for them.
26:21You and I.
26:23I thought I was going to die basically.
26:27Because obviously him saying that he wants to kill someone and that he hates me.
26:30I thought he could do it.
26:32She thought he could do it.
26:35Sorry, that's really hard to hear.
26:37It went like that and obviously fasted my nose, which made my nose completely poor, poor blood.
26:44And it held me against the bed for quite a while.
26:47He was like, hold, hold, holding me like that.
26:49Okay.
26:49And I couldn't breathe, basically.
26:52It's just really horrible to think that this 33-year-old man could do that to my 21-year-old
26:59child.
27:00I said to her, Mitch, I'm genuinely scared of you now.
27:02Can you please get out of my house?
27:04I couldn't believe someone that I thought a lot of me would do that to me.
27:07It's heartbreaking hearing her little voice telling of this beatings and of how he controlled her
27:14and how he told her he was going to kill her.
27:17And again, she's asking him to go and he's just not listening.
27:24Gosh, to see her.
27:26Sorry.
27:30Richardson's threats don't stop there.
27:33Well, basically, so they said to go around to my mum's and kick the door down and basically, well, her.
27:42And at one point, he said to her, she was like, right?
27:44I just couldn't believe the way he was talking about my mum.
27:48She's always, you know, been civil to him.
27:51I was genuinely scared at one point that he was going to go.
27:54She's scared that he's going to come and hurt me while she's being strangled.
28:03She wasn't still, wasn't thinking of herself, was she?
28:07That's what the police came about to do with relief.
28:11If they hadn't arrived when they had, Katie would have been dead.
28:17During the interview, the police focused their questioning on Katie's relationship with Richardson.
28:25I've almost sort of, like, gone into a little bubble with her, where it's just me and him.
28:30I don't know, that's my normalcy, if that makes sense.
28:33First relationship, first boyfriend, I've never let my guard down to anyone.
28:37And I feel like, I felt like he, you know, he was anyone that understood me.
28:41I still do nothing, really.
28:43He's got, I mean, he's better than a heart ever.
28:46And I love it.
28:47I'm not going to get very sure.
28:49But obviously, he has, he has got a problem.
28:52But when he's on drugs, he's just, he's just a different person.
28:58And when he does take a game, he's so paranoid.
29:02He's, like, psychosis.
29:04He'd hit me, and then he'd step back, and then he'd hit me again.
29:07To teach her a lesson, that's what he always says, teach me a lesson.
29:13Sorry, I have no words for that.
29:22When Richardson states that he's hitting Katie to teach her a lesson, I think you've got the essence of what
29:32their relationship was actually like.
29:35It's about master and servant.
29:38There's a sense of the state of masochism in terms of what their relationship had become.
29:44Because, of course, what he's trying to do is create somebody who's totally obedient to whatever it is that he
29:51would like to happen.
29:52And, of course, that's not about a true relationship.
29:55That's about him exercising total domination, total control.
30:02You know, he says, you know, I'll buy you everything you want, but I don't care about the money.
30:07I, like, sort of think I just want, like, a healthy relationship.
30:10I mean, like, 90% of the time he treats me well, it's just when, it's just, it's just literally
30:15drugs.
30:16That, that's, that's it.
30:18And there's anger problems.
30:20He has got anger issues as well, as well as drug issues.
30:22She's right.
30:23I've seen him switch from towering over me, raging, to, it was almost like a light bulb.
30:30And it would switch off.
30:32He was very much a Jekyll and Hyde.
30:34I knew that even though she loved him, and this was probably the most hardest thing she'd ever done,
30:40but she was so brave to speak out and tell the truth and just be honest about what was really
30:45going on.
30:49Just a few hours later, Richardson was brought in for questioning by detectives.
30:55You've been arrested on suspicion by an assault.
30:58I thought to myself, she's off to go after sleep with someone.
31:02Then I was high and f***ed that fucking time.
31:05Did you say you were stabbed that?
31:07No, I didn't say I was stabbed my girlfriend.
31:09Sure?
31:10I was sure.
31:12And you didn't say you were stabbed anyone in the country?
31:14No, I just wanted to die, mate, to be honest with you.
31:16I'll be honest with you, I wanted to f***ing die.
31:18I wanted to take an overdose and die.
31:19I'd have had another life.
31:22Everything.
31:24I'd still want to die right now.
31:27No, you let me out, I'd be able to f***ing kill myself.
31:31We'd have a perfect relationship if there was no cocaine in my system.
31:34If we're so ill, we're amazing together.
31:40My love for so ill.
31:42He's beaten her, he's held her overnight, he's tortured her, he's strangled her,
31:47he's cut her lip, and there is no remorse.
31:50All he's thinking about there is himself.
31:54I haven't heard one thing where he said,
31:56I'm sorry, I know I've done wrong.
31:59How is she?
32:00There's no concern about Katie whatsoever.
32:09In court, Richardson pleads guilty to criminal damage,
32:13resisting arrest and two counts of assault.
32:17He's due to be sentenced six weeks later.
32:20But despite previously breaching his bail conditions,
32:24he is again released on bail.
32:26I was always worried that Mitchell would have a hold over her,
32:29but he had a sentence hearing not long after,
32:32and he was going to prison.
32:34And so I believed that if we could keep her safe until that point,
32:37then after that we could help her rebuild her life,
32:40and she would be happy again.
32:43Julie was very concerned for Katie, very concerned.
32:47She said to me, I'm so worried he's going to kill her.
32:51And it was one of those throwaway comments,
32:54but you didn't actually think that anything would happen.
33:02I don't think there's any way that this can be sugar-coated.
33:07But the decision to grant Richardson bail
33:11is a major, a catastrophic error of judicial judgment.
33:18When one looks at that film of him talking,
33:23he is just filled with self-pity.
33:25There is absolutely no remorse there.
33:28And rather than think through what we know he had been doing to Katie,
33:34it seemed to me that Richardson was able to convince the authorities
33:39of a narrative that he was carefully constructing.
33:43And, of course, by granting him bail,
33:46it is merely opening the door to him using lethal violence.
33:58After he'd been released on bail from the court,
34:01we believe that there was a time that they weren't in touch,
34:04and Katie was back to her, or building herself back to her usual self.
34:08She was starting to come back to us.
34:12It was absolutely lovely to see that.
34:15But after a few weeks,
34:18Katie suddenly stopped taking her mum's calls.
34:21It's a deeply worrying development for the family.
34:25Had Richardson forced his way back into her life?
34:30I sent her a message to say,
34:32I am starting to get worried.
34:34You know, we haven't heard properly.
34:35I haven't seen you for a few days.
34:37Can we meet?
34:39Yep, yep, we'll definitely meet, definitely meet.
34:42And she cancelled that one.
34:45She kept assuring me she was safe.
34:47So we got to Emma's birthday on the 14th,
34:49and she'd still been in touch,
34:51but just very small, quick text messages.
34:55And I spoke to Emma, and Emma hadn't heard from her.
34:59And that's when, quarter past seven that evening,
35:02the police knocked on the door.
35:05And I don't really remember a great deal after that.
35:10I remember bits,
35:12until Andy picked me up off the floor,
35:13and I remember I could hear this noise,
35:15and I've heard people say it before,
35:16and I thought, stupid.
35:18I could hear this noise.
35:20It was like a howling.
35:21And it was me.
35:24And he picked me up off the floor.
35:33And the policeman left.
35:38All we were told on that night
35:40was that Katie and Mitchell had been found both dead.
35:45So this one police officer,
35:47he put his arm out to stop me from entering the flat,
35:50and I just cried and said,
35:52is it my sister?
35:53Is it my sister?
35:55And his only answer at that point was,
35:58you need to leave,
35:58because we're about to bring their dead bodies out.
36:02Hearing those words just absolutely broke me.
36:05I can't even begin to explain the pain that I felt.
36:10Sorry, I'm going to get emotional now.
36:12But also the guilt that I felt
36:14because she was my baby sister
36:16and I was supposed to protect her.
36:17And I promised her that I would look after her
36:20and that nothing bad would happen to her.
36:22And knowing that I couldn't keep that promise
36:25is always just her.
36:30Katie did leave him.
36:31Eventually she left him.
36:33She did all the right things.
36:35She got her own place.
36:36She said she got her panic alarms.
36:38She did everything that she should have done correctly.
36:42But still, somehow, he managed to get to her.
36:52Very soon afterwards,
36:53we were told that this was,
36:56it was drugs overdose.
36:59And when I asked about,
37:00what about the domestic violence?
37:02What about the threats to kill?
37:03What about all of that?
37:04They said to me,
37:05Julie, it's drugs.
37:08That's it.
37:08That's the end of it.
37:09That's what it is.
37:09It's drugs.
37:11They did an investigation,
37:12but they did an investigation based on the fact
37:15that it was the drugs that killed my daughter.
37:24What was put on social media about Katie and Mitchell
37:27was that it had been a Romeo and Juliet scenario
37:31where they had been told by the police
37:34that they had to stay apart.
37:35Mitchell was on bail.
37:37They weren't allowed to spend time together.
37:39So they decided, in their wisdom,
37:42to take their own lives.
37:44Can you imagine how that felt?
37:46How my daughters felt,
37:48knowing the extent of how much she'd beaten her,
37:52how much she'd hurt her,
37:54how brave it was of her to leave in the first place.
37:58It was heartbreaking.
38:03There's never been one point that I've ever felt
38:06that it was a suicide pact
38:08or that she chose to die with him.
38:11Knowing my sister my whole life,
38:14it's just never something that she would do.
38:19We've got to remember that this young woman
38:21had shown bravery in terms of reporting
38:25what had happened to her
38:27when she was in a relationship with Mitchell.
38:29It denies her agency
38:31in terms of planning for the rest of her life.
38:34It denies the fact
38:36that she had to be moved into a safe house.
38:39So the idea that somehow
38:41she would then take her own life with Mitchell
38:44because of her undying love to him
38:46denies everything that we know about domestic abuse.
38:58Just a few weeks earlier,
39:00he had threatened to kill her with drugs
39:01and we would never prove it.
39:03And a few weeks later,
39:05they're both found side by side
39:07in the exact manner that he told me he would do it.
39:10In Katie's own interview with her own words,
39:13tells how Mitchell has told her he will kill her.
39:16I thought I was going to die based on me.
39:18And I thought I should do it.
39:20I don't believe in coincidences.
39:24The critical piece of evidence here
39:26is Mitchell's specific threat to Julie
39:31that I could kill her by using drugs
39:35and you'd never be able to prove it.
39:38And of course,
39:39that's exactly the circumstances
39:41in which his body
39:44and the body of Katie is found.
39:46So this is him enacting a plan to murder.
39:51This is premeditated.
39:53This is evidence
39:54that this was not some kind of pact
39:57between Romeo and Juliet,
40:00but in fact,
40:01an abuser using lethal violence
40:03to gain control over his victim.
40:09A coroner holds a joint inquest
40:12concluding that both Katie and Mitchell
40:15died from an overdose of cocaine and morphine.
40:19Crucially,
40:21the coroner is unable to determine
40:23how and why they took the drugs.
40:26Katie's family immediately begins a campaign
40:29demanding a domestic homicide review.
40:33So the domestic homicide review
40:35is when agencies come together
40:37to review what happened
40:39up until the point of death
40:40to see whether lessons can be learned
40:43and to see what went wrong
40:45and to make recommendations
40:47for the future.
40:51Such a review can only take place
40:55when a death appears
40:56to have resulted from violence,
40:59abuse or neglect
41:01by someone in an intimate
41:03personal relationship
41:04relationship
41:05with the deceased.
41:07This is part
41:08of the justice system.
41:12Over the next two years,
41:14the family's request
41:15for a domestic homicide review
41:18is rejected
41:19three times.
41:21It was extremely difficult
41:23to get a domestic homicide review
41:24because at the time
41:26they didn't see it
41:26as a murder
41:27and therefore told us
41:29that we didn't fit the criteria.
41:31But in December 2020,
41:33a domestic homicide review
41:35is finally granted.
41:40It just meant
41:42that finally people
41:43were acknowledging
41:44that Katie died
41:45and had been a victim
41:47of domestic abuse.
41:48That might not have caused
41:50her actual physical heart
41:51to stop,
41:52but she was a victim
41:54of domestic abuse.
41:57Katie's family
41:58were left waiting
41:59for the outcome
42:00of the review
42:01into her case.
42:03It was getting somebody,
42:06the authorities,
42:07to recognise
42:07that this hadn't simply
42:09been a drug death,
42:10that there was something
42:12more to this
42:13and that it warranted
42:15being looked into.
42:19My theory on Katie's death
42:21is that Mitchell knew
42:23he had lost control of her.
42:25She'd left him.
42:27And I think that
42:29in the last week or two
42:30before her death,
42:31he started to woo her again
42:34and started to get
42:35to see her again.
42:37And I believe he planned
42:40to take my daughter's life
42:42and to kill himself.
42:45He was due to be sentenced
42:46only a couple of weeks later
42:48and knowing his previous
42:50criminal record
42:51for violence
42:52against both men
42:53and women,
42:54he was going to go to prison
42:55for a long time.
42:56And I believe he decided
42:58that he would rather die
43:00and take her with her
43:01than face prison.
43:10I come back here
43:13because this is the place
43:14that we sent Katie
43:15to the stars.
43:16She was too young
43:17to go into a box
43:18in a dark hole
43:19in the ground.
43:20So we put her ashes
43:22into fireworks
43:22and sent them off
43:24from the headland here
43:25so she'll travel the world
43:27around in the sea.
43:28I bring these flowers
43:30because they're called
43:32baby's breath.
43:33Katie was my baby
43:34so these flowers
43:36are for her.
43:39Katie dying
43:40will never,
43:41there'll never be a reason,
43:43there'll never be a good thing
43:44but if we tell her story
43:46and one woman listens
43:49and gets out,
43:50that's a legacy
43:51and that means
43:52that she'll live on.
43:54There is a pattern
43:55for women out there
43:56and if we can only recognise it,
43:58I think we could intervene
43:59much sooner
44:00and if I had been aware
44:01of this
44:01and been able
44:02to pick up the signs,
44:04then maybe we could
44:05have intervened.
44:06I've said it
44:07over and over,
44:08she was 21,
44:09beautiful,
44:10young,
44:11loved,
44:12good job,
44:13hard working.
44:14If it can happen to Katie,
44:15it can happen to anybody.
44:21I miss everything
44:22about my little sister.
44:24She really was
44:25my best friend.
44:27and I feel like
44:28she lost her life
44:30far too early
44:30and she had so much
44:32to give in this world
44:33and there were so many things
44:34that she still wanted to do
44:36and knowing she'll never
44:38get the chance
44:38to do that
44:39just, yeah,
44:40it's really sad.
44:42she was just on the cusp
44:45of adulthood
44:46and all the things
44:48that, you know,
44:49we've all experienced
44:50and she'll never have that.
44:51She'll never get married.
44:52She'll never have children.
44:54She'll never have that.
44:56It's all just been taken off her.
44:58Do I hate Mitchell?
45:00No,
45:00because I'm not going to waste
45:01an amount of energy on him.
45:04But I do hate
45:05what he did
45:07to my daughter
45:07when she was alive.
45:11Do I think Katie
45:13would still be alive
45:13if she hadn't met Mitchell?
45:15Yes,
45:15absolutely.
45:19I wish
45:20more than anything
45:21that I could turn back time
45:22and stop
45:24that initial meeting
45:26because then I'd still
45:27have my baby sister here.
45:30Katie's family
45:32had to wait
45:33for seven years
45:34before the domestic
45:35homicide review
45:36was completed
45:37in 2023
45:40and that DHR,
45:42domestic homicide review,
45:43was reviewed
45:44by the Home Office
45:45in 2024
45:47and what did it demonstrate?
45:49It demonstrated
45:50that Katie
45:51faced severe
45:53domestic abuse
45:54from Richardson
45:56and that time
45:57after time
45:58the authorities
46:00missed the warning signs
46:02that might have
46:03saved her life.
46:04we are out.
46:07We are out.
46:30We are out.
46:33Lord food
46:34and we are out.
46:34We are out.
46:34We are out.
46:34You
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