- 19 hours ago
True Crime Presents Season 2 Episode 4
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00:01on April 29th 2019 a young man disappears without warning he was well respected well
00:09liked and had a wonderful network of friends so he had all his life to live for we weren't looking
00:14at an 18 year old lad who just stayed out too late there was something more to this a rural
00:20community rocked by a gruesome murder the superintendent rang me and said we found a
00:27body they were unable to actually identify not just who it was but whether it was male or female
00:33he had over 146 different injuries to his body in my career I can only think of a couple of
00:40cases
00:40where I've seen injuries have come anywhere close to that a race against time to catch the killer
00:46was he gonna do it again they could have been looking at a serial killer here I need to protect
00:51the public from this monster it seems like a real contradiction to have such a gruesome
00:56awful scene in such a beautiful picturesque location
01:44it's quite an affluent little village just outside Scalmersdale really quiet nice people very rural it is a lovely area
01:57population of about two and a half thousand in a wonderful village setting with its pubs its shops and its
02:04church
02:06there's a little railway station it's very quaint it's what you think of when you think of a village in
02:12the northwest of England
02:17there's a really low crime rate in that area I mean you get the occasional bit that's flown
02:22over from the bigger cities because it's between Manchester and Liverpool but really it's it's quiet
02:28people like it for that reason you don't expect any issues any trouble let alone the murder to happen
02:36it's that one place that you would always see on the television when locals were interviewed and they'd say
02:41well we'd never expect that to happen around here but on April 29th 2019 a young man went missing under
02:49unusual
02:49circumstances the first I heard about this case was when the police put out a missing persons appeal
02:56it seemed a little bit odd because quite often when 18 year olds don't go home they don't reach the
03:03point of media attention because 18 year olds you know it's not that unusual for them to stay out
03:10overnight or whatever but we heard about this case this appeal for Alex and you just get a feeling about
03:17things the missing person was 18 year old Alex Davies from the nearby town of Scalmersdale
03:25Alex worked in home bargains and he was doing really well there and he just recently got promoted he had
03:31a
03:31really good social life he had a lot of close friends and growing up for Alex wasn't easy he stood
03:38out he
03:39realized at an early age he was gay but of course when you're very young the word that comes to
03:44mind is
03:44different I was different in some way where all it was was it was his sexuality children can be cruel
03:51and
03:51they can pick out when children are different in some way now for Alex that was he liked to do
03:56train spotting he would often go with his friend looking at trains he liked ABBA and he was open
04:02about the fact he was gay the sort of things that children can focus in on and he was picked
04:07on for
04:08for standing out Alex however had done really well for himself he'd showed resilience he'd got through
04:13that time in his life he was openly gay as an adult he was working hard and doing really well
04:18Alex was so comfortable in his own skin that he really didn't care if people liked him or not he
04:24was just going to be himself and people could think what they liked very friendly he would approach
04:31people and often you know it was said by some of his friends he didn't have filters you know if
04:36he
04:36liked somebody he would go and ask them for on a date you know carefree life loving lad Alex had
04:43a
04:43great group of friends they described him as lively and happy and he would see them really often like
04:50many boys of his age Alex was into cars so he liked to drive around late at night out listening
04:55to music
04:56he's even known to pull the old doughnut he'd pick his friends up he'd drop them off at home if
05:00they were
05:00on the same shift or you know he'd go and pick them up and they'd have some music on they'd
05:04be singing
05:05and joking and just having a fun time of it he was really there for people and when you hear
05:11people talking about what Alex was like as a person that really comes through that that that
05:16he was there for people everybody said that he was one of the nicest guys that you could ever meet
05:20he was well respected well liked and had a wonderful network of friends so he had all his life to
05:26live
05:26for the last time that Alex met up with his group of friends was on the Friday night they had
05:34drinks
05:34they did what they would usually do but sadly they didn't know that when they said bye to him that
05:38night for many of them that would be the final time on Monday 29th of April 2019 Alex's mother
05:46Beverly returned home from work to find that Alex had not come home the kind of relationship that Alex
05:53had with his mum they were really close and it would have been really unusual for him not to be
05:58in
05:58contact with her when she came home that night nine o'clock and she hadn't heard from him all day
06:03she started to worry she had those mother instincts that it's not quite right because this is out of
06:08the normal I would have heard from him by now there were no secrets so she would know where he'd
06:13be a lot
06:14of relationships like that you can set your watch you you know what's going to happen where people are
06:20going to be so she was very surprised that he wasn't there and he didn't turn up at home and
06:24she was at
06:24home and when you know somebody whatever age they are you know that's out of character so straightaway
06:31um his mother was concerned worried and a bit bamboozled about what has happened to Alex
06:39Beverly grew even more concerned as it drew closer to midnight on Monday and there was still no sign of
06:45Alex Alex's mum was starting to get really worried now and as you would expect she started to phone
06:51around to his friends obviously hoping that there was a really simple explanation that perhaps he
06:56got caught up in things his phone had no battery but as she was ringing through it soon became clear
07:01that none of his friends had seen him since the Friday then one particular friend Leon when he said
07:06he hadn't heard from Alex that really started to worry her because that was unusual Leon had seen
07:12him on the Sunday at work but he'd not seen him at all since then and for both of them
07:16not to have seen
07:16him something was really wrong the following morning when Alex still wasn't home she was more
07:22worried than ever and that was when she decided to phone the police unfortunately perhaps as might be
07:27expected it wasn't treated as high-risk Alex was an adult it was suggested that give it some time see
07:33what happens then it was a case of well he'll come back he may have just been staying at a
07:38friend's
07:39house so please don't sort of take it lightly but they don't take it seriously in the sense so
07:44therefore as a parent you feel that you've been let down that no reports being taken they're not
07:49going to do anything I think it's a mother's instinct you know your children you know your
07:53patterns you know what to expect and when something's not right it's just a feeling and
07:59it's not something you can describe it's just it's powerful Alex's friends and family did not want to
08:06waste any time so they began their own appeals for help his friends took to social media to try and
08:14raise awareness that Alex is missing asking for information that anybody had of him had they seen
08:20him do they know where he is and that included home bargains where he worked they use their own
08:25Facebook page to put an appeal for information as to where Alex might be Alex had previously been
08:30confronted by a group on his way to work so one of his friends was worried that perhaps you know
08:35perhaps
08:36he'd been picked on perhaps he'd been attacked they must have been thinking the worst Beverly
08:41downloaded the CCTV footage from her front door camera and made an interesting discovery in the
08:46recordings from Monday 29th April Alex got a taxi from outside their house and on the CCTV she could
08:55make out the registration number that she could trace back to the cab phone so the next thing you'd
09:00automatically do is anybody let alone a parent is to ring that firm and say look I'm worried about
09:07my son can you please tell me where that taxi actually took my son it turns out that he was
09:12dropped off at the station in parbold which is about 10 miles away from where he lives
09:21there were no indications that Alex was alive moving around doing everyday things and this would
09:28have started to raise the concerns of the police and raise the risk against him police began their
09:34search for Alex by scouring CCTV footage in parbold where he had taken the taxi to on the day he
09:40went
09:40missing there was CCTV in and around parbold train station which showed Alex turning up in the taxi
09:48getting out carrying a rucksack and he went into a shop and he bought a can of pop and bar
09:55of chocolate
10:01they were able to track Alex's route using different CCTV cameras that were available but only to a certain
10:08point because this was now a rural area the camera footage stopped the coverage stopped so some distance
10:15away from parbold station they knew that Alex was walking towards a more rural area from that point on
10:23the trail went cold there seemed to be no more evidence of Alex in the area the police and family
10:29members had reached a dead end in their search for Alex and as the days went on it became more
10:37and
10:37more concerning really that you know that we weren't looking at an 18 year old lad who just stayed out
10:44too late and not gone home when he was expected there was something more to this but everything
10:50changed when the inevitable call came on the evening of May 1st I finished work gone home doing me
10:59thing at home just sat down watching the telly and the superintendent rang me and said are you aware
11:05there's a job at parbold and I said I'm not what is it and he said we've found a body
11:18it's hard to understand that such a brutal thing could happen here the rural community of parbold was
11:26about to be shocked by what had happened in their peaceful village
11:33April 29th 2019 18 year old Alex Davies from Skelmersdale Lancashire has disappeared raising concerns
11:41among his family and friends he was last sighted on CCTV in the village of parbold before vanishing
11:48without a trace but a grim discovery is made on May 1st a body has been found in some nearby
11:55woods
11:57I took responsibility for the investigation on the Thursday morning Alex was found on the
12:03Wednesday evening he was found by a gamekeeper who'd gone to check the traps he spotted an arm
12:09underneath a pile of conifers it was quite clear that there'd been a lot of violence
12:17the body has been so badly mutilated they were unable to actually identify not just who it was but
12:25whether it was male or female so at that point I said to my deputy DI Muller can you open
12:32your
12:32computer and see what missing from homes we've got locally he said I've got a missing from home from
12:37Skelmersdale and he brought up a picture of Alex I said let's have a look at him and I was
12:42looking at
12:42a picture of Alex and I'm looking at the body in front of me and I'm thinking I got they
12:48don't look the
12:49same for the family of course it's terrible that a body's been found but there was still that grain
12:56of hope that maybe it wasn't Alex that maybe Alex was still out there somewhere his mother must have
13:04just been so distressed on the one hand she's hoping it's not Alex but on the other hand she
13:09wants to know what's happened to Alex Beverly's worst nightmare becomes a reality when the identification
13:16of the body is confirmed we had a search team and suddenly I heard a cry of find from one
13:25of the
13:25search officers and they all stopped it was almost military in in in precision really they just stopped
13:31searching and the pulse had then took over and they found what you would call the contents of a
13:37wallet so library card train card other other cards bank cards etc etc and they were in the name of
13:47Alex
13:47Davis Alex had a little tiny birthmark on his cheek well just like a little beauty spot if you will
13:55and in his photograph it was wearing a silver chain so I examined the body in front of me and
14:03I thought I
14:04could just see a little beauty spot and the body did have a silver chain on so at that point
14:11I made the
14:12call I want someone to go around to his mum to who's reported him missing tell her I think we
14:19found him
14:22it must have been terrible for his mum to know firstly that her son had died that he'd been murdered
14:30and that he was in such a state that they needed to identify him through jewelry and that moment when
14:37they showed her that jewelry I just I can't imagine the feeling that must have been in her stomach and
14:43in her heart it's not just losing a son it's losing a son in such horrific circumstances
14:49Alex had multiple stab wounds as well as the stab wounds Alex had injuries to his face he had a
14:56broken nose it looked like he'd been badly beaten as well as being stabbed when I started to look at
15:03Alex I noticed that he had mud up his nostrils and in his mouth it looked like he'd been dragged
15:10face
15:11down and that was awful and I saw this flat area of land I started to sort of just assess
15:19it as a crime
15:19scene is that relevant very quickly established that the grass was flat and there were lots of
15:26bluebells it was May lots of bluebells the loads stick in my mind and a lot of them have been
15:32were
15:33flattened which said to me a lot of activities happened in that area so is that where something's
15:40happened and it's that where where it started and this where Alex was is this where it's ended so I
15:47started to hypothesize what might have happened the post-mortem revealed the horrific nature of Alex's
15:54death he was stabbed 128 times he had over 146 different injuries to his body we know that Alex
16:06was still alive when the stab wounds were being inflicted on him because the post-mortem found
16:12these cause of death to be asphyxiation so he'd felt those injuries in my career I can only think
16:18of a couple of cases where I've seen injuries that come anywhere close to that this is indicating a
16:23horrific sustained violent attack on him and it appeared as if the body had been dragged down a
16:32slope placed next to a tree and had foliage put over it in a most crude attempt to hide the
16:37body
16:39it's hard to fathom the level of force and also the level of rage that must have been involved in
16:45an
16:46attack like that what was going through this killer's mind to be so angry and to be so vicious and
16:52so
16:52violent that kind of crime scene with over a hundred stab wounds suggest to me a perpetrator
16:58who was acting on emotion loss of emotional control that's not to say them didn't have control over
17:03their decision-making and their actions but it's someone who couldn't cope with their emotions
17:08somebody kept going until they were either no longer feeling those emotions in the moment or
17:12they simply tired themselves out we had what we call a welfare van it had equipment so so we could
17:20make a cup of tea or a coffee so the CSI said we've got we're going to go to the
17:25welfare van so they all
17:26went off to do their thing and then I looked at Alex and I thought I can't leave this young
17:31man his mum
17:33wouldn't want me to leave him like this all on his own I don't really know what what the catalyst
17:39for
17:40that was but I just couldn't leave him so I just stood at the side of him um quietly but
17:48during that
17:48time I was thinking look at the injuries that this young man's suffered and I was trying to imagine who
17:54would have done it who would have been responsible what kind of person could have been responsible for
18:00that kind of horrific attack it seems like a real contradiction to have such a gruesome awful scene
18:07such a horrible crime in such a beautiful picturesque location it's night and day
18:21when Alex's body was found there was an outpouring of love for him actually there was a lot of tributes
18:27laid at the scene you know it was clear that he was he was a really loved guy he had
18:35a lot of friends
18:36and a lot of people who were absolutely devastated that this kind friendly young man had been killed
18:43in such an awful way the media were quite keen to understand what was happening but equally for
18:49me as an SIO I wanted to offer as much reassurance to the public of par boulder and the wider
18:56communities
18:56that that we were doing everything that we could sort of understand what had happened and catch the
19:03person responsible for killing Alex I'm honest I wanted to get him in the cells as quickly as so I
19:08couldn't he couldn't do anything else to anybody any other people I had this thing about
19:13I need to protect the public from this monster now the hunt is on for Alex's killer
19:20despite the difficulties of a rural crime scene severe weather wind rain not to mention animals
19:26being present around the crime scene too the police found a crucial piece of evidence in the ground was
19:31a small knife that had been pushed into the dirt just with the handle sticking up and that became
19:38really important because when we had that forensically examined it had Alex's blood on it and then we
19:45showed the pathologist the knife and she could then compare that to the injuries and it all fell into
19:52place so it was a really really good find there's a sign in murder investigation to understand how a
19:57person died you have to understand how they lived and that's because in general there's some link between
20:04someone or something in the victim's life that would indicate why harm has come to them and that's
20:10because most times there's a as a link between a killer and a victim so you need to start to
20:15build up a
20:16picture of the victim's life and that could be by talking to friends looking at their social media posts
20:21and importantly now is looking at people's phones we can build up such a huge picture of someone's life
20:26now from their phones so this is a task that the police were now having to do for Alex to
20:32build up
20:32a picture of those hours and days leading up to his murder as to who he was in contact with
20:37the police
20:39began to look into Alex's call logs had he contacted anybody that was out of the ordinary and they did
20:44see
20:44something different they saw a number that had contacted him on the day of his murder that had never
20:48contacted him before police managed to find out that the number that had called Alex had also called a
20:54landline so they called the landline and asked the people there whose phone it was and this led them
21:00straight to Brian Helis investigators waste no time and go to the home address of Brian Helis I've got
21:09someone who's just brutalized an 18 year old boy and was still at large and my sense of duty to
21:16protect
21:16the public was immense but the person they discovered is not who they expected and he was just a young
21:26fella absolutely unremarkable in every way shape and form physically he had no presence you know you
21:35could almost describe him as gray you would never notice him in a quiet street never mind a busy one
21:41there's just nothing about him police need to establish any previous criminal history most
21:49people who commit murder have some kind of history with the police now it might not necessarily be
21:53violent crime but they'll be known in some way he had no criminal history he wasn't known to the police
22:00so he hadn't been arrested before I hadn't come to notice in any way so if it was Brian Helis
22:06that had
22:06murdered Alex in this brutal way this is going to be really quite unusual the police then understandably
22:14searched Helis's house importantly they found crucial evidence there in the CCTV footage of Alex as he was
22:22walking away from that train station he had a rucksack and the contents of that rucksack were now found in
22:30the police's home investigators now need to uncover the sequence of events that led to Alex's death
22:44on 29th April 2019 18 year old Alex Davies from Skelmersdale disappeared without a trace in a rural part of
22:52Lancashire his mutilated body was discovered in a wooded area of parbold hill a few days later
22:59investigators have been led to the home of 18 year old Brian Helis who they learned had called Alex
23:05on the day he went missing when the police were searching Helis's home they'll be looking for any
23:13clues any evidence that can link him to either the crime scene or to Alex himself and that's what they
23:20found in his home they found earphones mobile phone and wallet belonging to Alex when they
23:28found Alex's headphones at Helis's house they'd also got the serial number of that exact pair of
23:35headphones because Alex had kept the box for them so they were able to match the serial number on the
23:41box to the actual pair of headphones that they found at Helis's house you couldn't say that he had a
23:49pair
23:49that were the same these were the exact headphones we looked at the telephone and we established that
23:55that was his granddad's his granddad had passed so Alex had said to his uncle can I have granddad's phone
24:01that I can keep as a spare in case my battery dies so all of a sudden Brian Helis has
24:07got Alex's spare
24:09phone Alex's headphones and Alex's wallet not only had he got his wallet he'd take everything out of
24:16Alex's and thrown at the scene and he'd put his own ID cards and his own money in it he
24:21was actually
24:21using it we found the knife block with a missing knife we found a bike and we found clothing which
24:30was all seized so the evidence is fairly overwhelming so if there was any doubt as to whether or not
24:38Helis was the person that they were looking for that that had gone now there was no doubt whatsoever
24:44in the officers mind we have our man and now we start the process of gathering evidence from him so
24:52we did the custody procedures we did the hand swaps all that kind of thing and then the interview was
24:58going to be key Brian Helis was taken into custody and he was asked a lot of questions about Alex's
25:06disappearance and about the murder he's been given the same old advice from a solicitor who turns
25:12up to represent him don't say anything make the police prove it first question gets asked and
25:19he's been advised to say no comment what does he say no are you responsible for the murder of Alex
25:26Davies no that tells me he wanted to talk do you recall the advice I gave you in interview yes
25:34we'll start again are you responsible for the murder of Alex Davies no comment that's Alex look at
25:41that picture do you know Alex no comment have you ever seen that person before no comment how do you
25:50know him no comment with no cooperation from Helis investigators need to work hard to build a case
25:57against him it might be easy to think that once somebody's been arrested and there's some evidence
26:02available that it's really easy for the police to prove that they're committed the offence but
26:06that's far from the case they have to prove this beyond reasonable doubt so in the background there
26:11will have been loads of work going on to hone out what the actual evidence was to make things clear
26:16and to see if there was anything else they needed to support a prosecution so then they start to look
26:22at CCTV in and around the areas Alex had been and importantly the route between Helis's home and the
26:31crime scene and what this showed is that he in actual fact on the day that Alex went missing had
26:37cycled from surely to parbold and that footage showed him going there and coming back the first time that
26:47they see Brian Helis in the area he's not got anything with him he's just riding a bike later
26:53on that day they see him again riding the bike but this time he's got a backpack on and that
26:59rucksack
27:00matched the one scene being carried by Alex on the CCTV they had of him so again it's more evidence
27:08linking Helis not only to Alex but linking him to his murder but how had these two young men encountered
27:16each other and how had Alex ended up murdered on parbold hill an important element in any murder
27:22investigation is a building up of a timeline by laying out known facts and when they happened and
27:28that's what they did in this case and it started to build a picture a picture that indicated what
27:34had happened in the lead-up to Alex's murder what they were able to identify is that Helis and Alex
27:41have been communicating on a dating app and those communications have moved from the dating app to
27:47WhatsApp and they started to talk to each other the majority of this was literally the build-up to
27:53the day that we know that Alex was murdered so you've got that initial of how are you do you
27:59fancy
28:00meeting up what should we do etc then a few interests we know that Alex actually was very very much
28:06into
28:06his ABBA music and of course even the Bee Gees he actually says in one of the messages do you
28:11know
28:11the Bee Gees are Brian Helis has no idea what he's talking about so you've got some normal conversations
28:18but a lot of it is flirtatious
28:28it became clear is that Helis was pushing for a meet pushing to meet Alex and he was being what
28:37I
28:37would describe as manipulative he was talking himself as I haven't come out yet as gay so people don't know
28:44meaning that when we meet it needs to be somewhere secluded somewhere we're not going to get seen
28:51and now we know looking back why that was but for Alex himself he probably wanted to see the best
29:00in
29:00the person he was speaking to it's not unusual for young people to try and keep their love lives from
29:08the parents regardless of sexuality but particularly in the situation that perhaps you know the mom and
29:15dad maybe aren't as open-minded so it would be a believable story Alex's character is so trusting you
29:25know he's got this wonderful network of friends he works so much for charity he believes in people and I
29:30think that was picked up straight away there's that question of he just asked what phone have you got
29:35and of course he's got a Samson 9 and of course what does Helis have a Samson 3 automatically you
29:41can think to yourself oh this could be robbery he wants the better phone to me what that's doing is
29:47Helis trying to go for the sympathy oh I've only got a Samson 3 and then you've got because you've
29:52got
29:52this wonderful caring individual and Alex saying oh I can you know I can look after you there and
29:57I've got a Samson 9 I can help you out you're a bit younger than me so I can be
30:01like the older brother
30:02but also in the relationship I can make sure that I can look after you so I think you've already
30:07seen
30:07that Alex even felt that Helis was slightly vulnerable but he wasn't he was being duped he
30:12was being lured into this awful trap he said do you think it'd be upgrade worth upgrading because mine's
30:18so slow that was really important that because you think what you're talking about Jeff but that's so
30:24oh you know the s with a lot of holes I thought that's unusual anyway when we then do the
30:31research
30:31on Ryan Helis's computer we see him after he's had that conversation with Alex he's researching on
30:38eBay how much you can sell Galaxy S9 for and how to reset a scam Samsung Galaxy S9 how to
30:46avoid being
30:47tracked also in the phone messages were the plans of when the two young men would meet
30:52it was scheduled for April 29th the day that Alex went missing and now you start to see the build
31:08-up
31:08and the arrangements for meeting who is in control of this have they both decided that there will be a
31:14meet but of course what's very interesting here is that you've got Brian Helis who's actually turned
31:20around and said I've got a location so he's now in control of the meat he knows where it's going
31:31to
31:31be what time it's going to be I'm in control Alex must have been excited looking forward to a nice
31:43day
31:43out going on a date going to meet this new guy who seemed fawn and flirty it was Helis that
31:59was pushing
31:59for this meat then he was pushing for it in a secluded area he took a knife with him these
32:07were indications
32:08that the second natural fact wasn't a spontaneous event this was a planned and premeditated murder
32:19Alex must have been terrified he'd set out that morning looking forward to a nice day out and
32:25when it turned so badly and so violent he must have been terrified it was exactly what he wasn't expecting
32:33that day
32:51and then obviously they met in the wood
32:55I couldn't speculate but I do know there was a violent episode and Brian Helis battered and then stabbed Alex
33:02to death
33:08when we found Alex he has multiple injuries are you responsible for causing those injuries
33:14no comment are you responsible for murdering Alex Davis no comment
33:22Brian Helis's phone held some other disturbing information in the days after Alex had been murdered
33:30really worryingly what they also find is that after Alex has been killed Helis is back on the dating apps
33:43he was speaking to multiple other young men he was trying to arrange meetups
33:53was he going to do it again there's every chance that they could have been looking at a serial killer
33:58here
34:03on May 3rd 2019 police arrest 18 year old Brian Helis for the brutal murder of Alex Davies in a
34:11secluded area of Parbold Hill
34:14Alex had been stabbed 128 times by Helis whom he met on a dating site
34:20police discovered the details of how Helis lured Alex to the woods in Parbold that day and now they have
34:26incriminating evidence on Helis's phone to suggest that he was planning to kill again
34:33he killed Alex on the Tuesday afternoon and then on the Wednesday and Thursday he'd made contact with a man
34:42in Skelmersdale
34:45about a sexual encounter Brian Helis had sort of indicated that he could stay over at this address
34:51and the other person said not likely you know we'll do what we need to do and then you're away
34:55mate
34:55so that didn't seem to fit the what what Helis wanted but then he made contact with another guy in
35:04the Bolton area
35:05so the other side of Charlie and really unusual because he asked this guy what kind of phone he had
35:13and he said oh I've got how are we P light
35:15and he said I've got rubbish whatever it is is it worth upgrading because mine is so slow
35:26and they arranged to meet and he said as he said with Alex it would be the first time I've
35:30kissed anybody
35:31so I'm a bit shy is there somewhere discreet we can go and the other person had said well there's
35:36a wooded area near mine
35:37we can go there and then we arrested him on a Friday night he was going to meet him the
35:43following day
35:44we'll never know whether that was for the same purpose but it's not exactly a leap is it to go
35:51from
35:51I've just killed one person in this route and now I'm trying to meet another there's a very good chance
35:57that they've prevented him carrying out a second murder
36:00there were other signs that Helis may not have stopped after the murder of Alex
36:05he'd been doing searches on army spades as it were they're the fold up spades so you can carry them
36:12in a rucksack
36:12why would you be doing that when we know those actual items for the army are used to actually dig
36:18very quickly
36:19little troughs or little holes in the ground so is this all this learning curve for this sociopath
36:25psychopath who is now actually living his dream which is gets the anger and he wants to kill
36:31and now he's planning the future well I've got to dispose of the body a lot better so perhaps
36:36it's actually not work that out if I do this what do I do with the body and that's hit
36:40him when it's happened
36:41he's dragged it tried to cover it up it didn't work and now already he's planning for the next one
36:47so when we look at the circumstances of what happened after Alex's murder
36:52can any sort of inference be drawn from the fact that
36:55Helis had taken Alex's property and still had it with him in his bedroom
37:00well it's difficult in all honesty to 100% say one way or the other
37:05but what he would have been able to do he had the opportunity to do is to throw away that
37:10property
37:11to to dump it on his root home put it in a bin throw it in a bush he didn't
37:16do that took it home
37:17why would he do that well one of two reasons really one it's a shiny object I want to keep
37:23it's a phone it's got value or a more sinister it's some kind of trophy a reminder of what he's
37:30done
37:30and if we're talking about an emotional attack where someone's carried it out because of that
37:36what these killers will often do is keep almost like a memento from their crime
37:40to remind them of the attack and almost it sort of to draw out that emotion again at some later
37:46time
37:47they couldn't rule out the fact that they might be looking at somebody with a real vengeance
37:52and having killed one person you could do it again
38:07the trial for the murder of alex davies is held at preston crown court in march 2020
38:19there was quite a lot of press there for the trial it was an intriguing case at that point all
38:25that we knew
38:25was that alex had disappeared his body had been found on parbold hill and the boy had been arrested
38:32at that stage we didn't know the background about the dating app we didn't know the extent of alex's injuries
38:38so when the prosecution opened the case it was really quite a shock to learn what happened that day
38:45when brian helis walked into the dock he just looked like you might see him outside the local sixth form
38:52college
38:53he was very emotionless his face barely moved there was no sign of any sort of remorse or anything
39:00he was an odd character in that regard
39:05by the time the prosecution's finished opening the case it seems fairly cut and dried they had so much evidence
39:13the headphones the backpack all the phone evidence all the cctv evidence
39:19it was difficult to think what helis could possibly say to try and get out of this one
39:27murder investigations teams put a huge amount of effort into gathering the evidence against any killer
39:32and you can go to court and you can feel like we've done everything we've done we've got all the
39:38evidence we have
39:39i'm in absolutely no doubt that a person standing trial has committed this crime
39:44but that does not mean that you go to court confident that the verdict's going to be one of guilty
39:49because it has to go through a jury and you can never take for granted the decision a jury are
39:55going to make
39:55so as confident as you are you can never go into a trial expecting to get a guilty verdict
40:03helis's defense was diminished responsibility there was reports from psychiatrists that backed that up actually
40:10he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and his defense was that he'd committed this offense
40:21while suffering with that condition helis said that he thought that people were after him and that
40:27that was why he was carrying a knife that day and he said that while he was on his way
40:31to meet alex
40:32he thought that there was people trying to knock him off his bike in the cars and yeah he was
40:38he was painting a picture of real paranoia
40:40what happens when a defendant looks to use a defense of diminished responsibility
40:47is that they will be seen by their own psychiatrist appointed by their own legal team
40:52and they will assess them as to whether or not that defense partial defense of diminished responsibility is open to
41:00them
41:00and that's what happened in this case and this psychiatrist said yes in my opinion
41:06helis has a defense of diminished responsibility because he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia
41:13but then what would happen is the prosecution would appoint their own psychiatrist to carry out the same assessment
41:20if they agree with the previous assessment yes the defense is open to them
41:25the likelihood is that the crown prosecution service will accept that
41:29if they disagree then they will go to trial and it wouldn't be on the facts of whether or not
41:34the incident took place
41:35it would be whether what was in the mind of the defendant what was in the mind of helis at
41:41the time it was being committed
41:42it seems that it was agreed that paranoid schizophrenia was a relevant diagnosis for helis
41:47but there's still the question did it cause the murder does it result in diminished responsibility
41:53you've got the days beforehand of the chat you've got the whole thing that's been planned to meet an individual
41:58so he knows he's going to meet an individual and he takes a knife with him
42:02and then immediately goes into the anger and attacks Alex
42:07this is your classic premeditation
42:10the fact that he's planned everything to meet Alex in a secluded spot
42:15even controls the location and kills Alex
42:19so it's not spontaneous where they've had a relationship something's broken down
42:23and he's picked up a weapon and used it and then what do I do
42:26he's actually and to miss responsibilities with me he's got no idea what he's doing
42:30but just look at the chat logs look at the control he's doing
42:33so without a doubt he has thought out the whole thing here
42:39after the trial had concluded the judge had made his comments sent the jury out we were waiting
42:45despite having complex issues like a defence of diminished responsibility to navigate
42:50the jury took only an hour to decide
42:52they knew what the outcome was going to be
42:55and he was found guilty of murder
43:00in the UK there's only one sentence for murder
43:03and that is one of life imprisonment
43:06but in the UK life doesn't always and rarely means life
43:10a judge will set a minimum tariff
43:13meaning the defendant will have to serve this amount of prison time
43:17before they can apply for parole
43:19in this instance the judge passed a sentence of a minimum of 24 years
43:23meaning it would be that long before Helis could apply for parole
43:29but Brian Helis is yet to see the inside of a prison
43:33because of his mental health conditions
43:36he has never actually gone into a prison
43:39he's detained now at a psychiatric unit
43:42a secure psychiatric unit on the outskirts of Preston
43:45I think for Alex's family it's got to be hard to know
43:49that the young man that killed Alex has never been inside a prison cell
43:54they feel that there's a lack of justice there
43:56that for everything that he did
43:59he's never really paid the price
44:06I mean no doubt Helis is
44:09and probably always will be a dangerous individual
44:13to go from no offending history
44:16to an attack of this ferocity
44:18really suggests someone
44:20and I don't use this word lightly
44:22he's evil
44:2324 years would mean he'll be roughly in his early 40s
44:26before he could be released
44:28so still a relatively young person
44:30young enough to start his own family
44:32to start a life
44:34something that Alex will never have
44:39loads of people use dating websites perfectly safely
44:42but the difficulty with that is we can be lulled into a false sense of security
44:45we need to remember that we're messaging someone
44:48who you've no idea in reality who they are
44:50what they like
44:51they might be telling you one thing
44:53but the truth is something else completely
44:55Bev
44:56Alex's mother said
44:57well yes she was aware that her son was using them
44:59even to the extent that they had the conversation
45:03that his mother was aware of some horrendous cases
45:07involving some online sexual predators
45:10who had gone on to murder
45:12Alex said that's okay that will never happen to me
45:16online dating is the world that we live in now isn't it
45:19that's how people meet
45:20you know I think certainly a high number of relationships start online these days
45:24I think there's always advice out there
45:28if you're going to meet somebody
45:29meet them in public
45:30tell a friend where you're going
45:32all of those kind of things
45:33because really until you've met
45:36you can never really be sure that somebody is who they say they are
45:50you know
45:53it
46:07you
46:27Transcription by CastingWords
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