- 5 hours ago
Britains Countryside Killers - Season 2 - Episode 01: A Fatal Friend Request
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:01November 2015.
00:03A 15-year-old girl from Leicestershire
00:06stops replying to her parents at a sleepover.
00:09Very tight, small community.
00:11Not a lot happens in Meesham.
00:13Rarely serious violent crime, such as homicide.
00:17Kayleigh doesn't call in as she normally would,
00:19so then her parents are starting to get worried.
00:23Then a phone call raises serious alarm bells.
00:27Kayleigh's friend calls and asks if she's there.
00:30The parents thought that Kayleigh was with her.
00:34Kayleigh's disappearance is reported to the police,
00:37who look through her social media for clues.
00:40She's exchanged over 2,500 messages with somebody.
00:43She didn't know him. He was a stranger to Kayleigh.
00:46He just popped up in her inbox saying, hey, how's it going?
00:49Didn't want Kayleigh to tell anybody else.
00:51It was their secret.
00:53So she didn't. She kept it to herself.
00:56This just lured her into his trap.
01:00Hey!
01:27See you then!
01:27This is pipeline of The Bagلip.
01:27This episode 81126738256048.
01:28Have aść?
01:46Ibstock is a former coal mining village,
01:49nestled in the countryside of northwest Leicestershire.
01:54Ibstock is a small village that grew somewhat as a result of its business in making tiles,
02:02making brick.
02:03Ibstock is a nice place in Leicester, it's semi-rural.
02:09Small, scenic, it's got that rustic charm to it, lots of beautiful wooded areas, lots
02:17of beautiful places to walk, and it still has only a population of 10,000.
02:22So all of the amenities that you would want, but with this rustic charm.
02:29In towns similar to Ibstock, you will get burglaries, you'll get shoplifting, you'll
02:34get auto crime, stolen vehicles, rarely serious violent crime, such as homicide.
02:41Just a 10-minute drive from Ibstock is the rural village of Meesham.
02:46Meesham is another small community, it's only a few miles away from Ibstock.
02:50It's in the National Forest and it's another rural community.
02:54Very tight, small community, quite a remote place, very popular place to live.
02:59Not a lot happens in Meesham.
03:02It's not an area where there's a huge amount of crime, it's quite low crime rate.
03:09Living in Meesham is 15-year-old Kayleigh Hayward.
03:14Now, she came from a very large family.
03:16She had six brothers and sisters, but it was a very stable, very loving home.
03:21She lived with her parents at the family home.
03:23She often played a part looking after the younger ones.
03:27Family was really important to her.
03:30She'd had a little bit of trauma early on because she was bullied at school.
03:36That made Kayleigh withdraw into herself and she spent a lot of time at home on the social media sites,
03:42talking to friends, but not personally with them.
03:46Sad to see, but she sort of retreated to her bedroom and passed her time with her friends on the
03:52social media sites.
03:56She did move to a new school and that was a new beginning for her really.
04:00She started to come out of her shell a little bit and put the bullying behind her.
04:07She was really thriving there.
04:08She'd made friends and her family were just delighted that she'd got out of this situation of being bullied.
04:16And she was really enjoying life.
04:20Now, a lot of her time, if it wasn't spent with her friends,
04:23it was spent contacting her friends or sharing posts, photographs, selfies, that kind of thing online.
04:31As most 15 year olds are, she was very much attached to her phone.
04:40After Kayleigh had changed school and things were getting better,
04:44and she got this group of social media friends, if you will,
04:48she did tell her parents that she was actually going to go and stay with one of those friends.
04:57She was a new friend. She was somebody that she had met at the new school,
05:02and her mum and dad were pleased that she was getting out a little bit and doing what 15 year
05:06old girls do.
05:10It showed to them that she was making good, solid friendships,
05:16that she was out there in the world, confident, going out,
05:21so they had no concerns and no suspicions,
05:24because they really had no reason to question it.
05:27Most 15 year olds will go and spend time with their friends from school.
05:32The plan is set. Kayleigh and her friend are going to have a sleepover
05:36on Friday the 13th of November 2015.
05:41Kayleigh's dad gives her a lift out to meet up with her friend.
05:45He drops her off at about six o'clock.
05:49She wanted to be dropped off at a college in Ibstock,
05:53and quite understandably given the fact that Kayleigh had been bullied at her first school,
05:58and parents now thought she was getting a real social group of real people
06:03and actually meeting them in person as opposed to just communicating over the internet.
06:09Kayleigh's dad took her and dropped her off at the school,
06:12with a view to picking her up after she'd stayed over with the friend.
06:17Quite happy that she's going off to her house for the evening.
06:21And over the course of the evening, Kayleigh's posting pictures on Facebook,
06:25she's taking selfies and just, it all looks like a standard teenage night out with a friend.
06:32They're quite reassured really.
06:35Her family, her parents, look at these selfies, these posts,
06:38and thinks, well, she's having a great time.
06:41She's having a good time, there's no need to worry about her.
06:44Kayleigh calls in the following morning.
06:47She says, I'm having a good time.
06:49Can I stay over for an extra night?
06:51And of course there's no reason, no reason at all, to say anything other than yes.
06:57Kayleigh doesn't call in as she normally would.
07:01Now, the posts and the contact with her family stop on that morning,
07:07but there's no real reason to worry here,
07:10because you would just hope that she was out there doing something
07:14that is more fun than posting on social media.
07:17So again, another reason for Kayleigh's family to really be quite happy with the situation.
07:22It wouldn't have crossed their mind that there was anything wrong.
07:27But as it gets later in the day, Kayleigh is not replying to her parents.
07:33What is this all about?
07:35Normally would have heard from her.
07:37Benefit of the doubt.
07:38But then Kayleigh's friend calls and asks if she's there.
07:43Well, hang on a minute.
07:44The parents thought that Kayleigh was with her.
07:48So clearly, at this point, they realise that Kayleigh hasn't been truthful
07:53about where she's been staying, and now alarm bells are ringing.
07:57And alarm bells start to ring even louder when a builder finds Kayleigh's phone.
08:03It's smashed on the ground and it calls the last number that she appears to have called
08:09in order to try and reunite the phone with its owner.
08:12At this point, Kayleigh's family know that there's something very, very amiss.
08:18With Kayleigh's location unknown, and now her phone found broken and discarded,
08:23even more questions are being raised about what really happened that night.
08:27A stranger's found Kayleigh's phone on the street in Ibstock
08:30and got in touch with her new friend.
08:33And she's phoned Stephanie to say, is Kayleigh with you? Is she alright?
08:37Somebody's found her phone.
08:39Stephanie's surprised to receive this call because, as far as she's concerned,
08:42they are together.
08:43So she starts questioning her then.
08:45Is she covering for her? What's the story here?
08:47The two of them go backwards and forwards just until it becomes apparent
08:51that neither of them is any the wiser as to where Kayleigh might be.
08:55In amongst this conversation, she tells Stephanie that she hasn't seen Kayleigh since Thursday,
08:59that there was never any plan for Kayleigh to spend the night or the weekend at her house,
09:04and that she just hasn't been there. This wasn't part of the plan.
09:08So at that point, Stephanie starts really getting quite worried,
09:11and she starts contacting the extended family to see, has anybody heard from her?
09:15Does anybody know where she is and what's going on?
09:19I think that any parent who has lost their child or doesn't know where their child is,
09:27whether that is for five minutes in a supermarket or, in this case,
09:34doesn't know where she's been all over the weekend,
09:36hasn't heard from her now for 24 hours,
09:39they will understand that feeling of panic and just sickness in the pit of the stomach.
09:47Kayleigh's family were incredibly worried.
09:49They were calling anybody and everybody that they knew.
09:53Nobody knew where Kayleigh was,
09:55and it was apparent that they really needed to call the police at this point,
09:59and that's exactly what they did.
10:05Kayleigh's disappearance is now a high-risk missing persons case,
10:10with police first trying to trace where she went instead of the sleepover.
10:32On Friday, 13 November 2015,
10:3615-year-old Kayleigh Hayward is dropped off by her parents in Ibstock, Leicestershire,
10:41for a sleepover with a friend.
10:43But by the following day, she stops responding to messages,
10:46and when her parents discover she never went to the friend's house,
10:50they call the police.
10:53Kayleigh is only 15, she's a child,
10:56so the police immediately started investigating,
10:58and one of the first people they spoke to was her friend,
11:01where she was supposed to be for the last couple of nights.
11:04The police are instantly concerned about Kayleigh
11:08because this is out of character for her.
11:11The fact that she's not called in in the morning,
11:14as is her habit to do,
11:16the fact that she's not posting on social media anymore,
11:19and clearly there's a mystery surrounding,
11:22well, who has she been with?
11:23And why has she lied to her parents?
11:26Because that's just not typical of her.
11:30And the worry starts to intensify
11:33when they reach out to Kayleigh's friends,
11:36and one of her friends says,
11:38well, she has been talking to somebody,
11:41she's been talking to a boy over the internet.
11:45It's someone that we don't know,
11:47she's only been speaking to him for a matter of weeks.
11:50Now, at this point, the police are very, very keen
11:53to find out who this person is.
11:55And so they're given access
11:57to Kayleigh's social media accounts by her parents.
12:01So the police go straight to Kayleigh's social media
12:04to try and find out who it is that she's been meeting,
12:07and they find on Facebook in her messenger
12:10that over the two weeks previously,
12:12she's exchanged over 2,500 messages with somebody
12:15who went by the name of Luke Funtimes Harlow.
12:20Police discover that Kayleigh had been messaging
12:22a man named Luke Harlow constantly for the past two weeks.
12:28So Luke Harlow is a 28-year-old man who lived locally.
12:31He'd previously worked in bars and warehouses,
12:34but at the time of Kayleigh's disappearance,
12:37he was unemployed.
12:38He'd reached out to her on social media.
12:40She didn't know him.
12:41He was a stranger to Kayleigh.
12:43He'd just popped up in her inbox saying,
12:45hey, how's it going?
12:46And when Kayleigh's asked, does she know him,
12:48he's introduced himself as a friend of a friend
12:50and really launched a charm offensive from the start.
12:55Initially, Kayleigh had told Harlow that she was 19,
12:59but very quickly, she changed that to the truth
13:02and told him that she was actually 15.
13:05Now, that would normally, on any right-minded person,
13:09stop any further communication.
13:11But with Harlow, it didn't.
13:13He just wasn't bothered.
13:14He just saw it as an opportunity.
13:17The messages seemed light-hearted at first,
13:19but soon turned flirtatious.
13:21It was apparent that they then turned into what we now
13:24would more obviously call grooming,
13:26telling Kayleigh she was special and that she was beautiful.
13:29Now, we can only imagine the impact that that had on a child,
13:32a girl who'd been bullied previously
13:34and who might have wanted affection from somebody else.
13:38She may have wrongly felt that here was somebody
13:40who really understood her and cared for her,
13:43when really, their intent was very malicious, as we now know.
13:46What they find is two and a half thousand messages
13:52that have been exchanged over a period of just two weeks
13:56between Kayleigh and a man called Luke Harlow.
14:00Now, what these messages are, are a masterclass,
14:03a masterclass in grooming.
14:05So that process of manipulation
14:08that an offender will go through with their victim
14:12in order to be able to isolate them, gain access to them
14:16and ultimately get away with offending against them.
14:21Grooming can be threats,
14:23but more often than not, it's compliments.
14:27And what we see here is two and a half thousand
14:30highly manipulative messages
14:33that are lover boy technique, that's what I would call it.
14:38It starts out quite innocently with, hi, how are you?
14:45And then it's, I'm a friend of a friend
14:47and I just wanted to reach out to you
14:49because, well, you're so lovely, you're so attractive.
14:52And then it moves on to, can we take this somewhere more private?
14:57So even more private than direct messaging on Facebook,
15:01can we now text each other?
15:03And then from there, Kayleigh's love-bombed.
15:06You're gorgeous, I want to see you.
15:08Oh, by the way, I'm a bit older than you
15:11and so people wouldn't necessarily understand our relationship,
15:14so keep it to yourself.
15:16Keep it private.
15:18He didn't want Kayleigh to tell anybody else.
15:20It was their secret.
15:21So she didn't.
15:23She kept it to herself.
15:25She thought she was going to meet someone special
15:27but didn't tell her parents.
15:29And this just lured her into his trap.
15:32Soon Harlow is pressuring Kayleigh to meet him.
15:34He's offering her treats, he's offering her a lovely evening,
15:38putting that pressure on,
15:39but in a way that might not be obvious to a child.
15:43You can drink alcohol at my place
15:45because I understand that even though you're 15,
15:48you are older in your maturity than in your years.
15:55Again, other people won't understand that,
15:57so don't let them know.
15:58Well, come over.
16:00We can eat chocolate together.
16:01We can cuddle on the sofa together.
16:04You can drink vodka at my house.
16:06That's no problem.
16:08And we'll just have a really nice time.
16:10You're my princess.
16:11You know, this could be the start of a beautiful relationship.
16:15Just a beautiful relationship that you need to keep secret.
16:18To Kayleigh, this is the older, more sophisticated boyfriend
16:23who treats her like an adult
16:25and seems to be really, really into her.
16:28That's intoxicating for a 15-year-old.
16:31The police immediately wanted to question Harlow.
16:34So the police made their way to Harlow's house
16:37and put him under arrest.
16:39Back at the police station,
16:41Luke Harlow tells detectives his version of events.
16:45He quite readily admitted that he'd been with Kayleigh
16:48and he'd spent time with her,
16:50that there'd been sexual activity between the two of them,
16:52even though she was 15.
16:55The Friday night passes
16:56and Kayleigh contacts her parents on the Saturday
16:58asking to stay another night.
17:00But as the Saturday rolls on
17:02and it gets into the Saturday evening,
17:03they run out of alcohol.
17:06Harlow goes to speak to his neighbour, Stephen Biedman,
17:09to see, has he got any alcohol?
17:11Has he got any vodka or anything else?
17:13But he doesn't,
17:14so the two of them set off together to go to the off-licence.
17:17While they're walking to the off-licence,
17:21Harlow mentions to Biedman
17:22that he's got a bird back at his house, in his words,
17:26and that once they've been to the shop
17:28he's more than welcome to come back
17:29and carry on drinking with the two of them
17:31back at the flat.
17:32And Biedman says that he'll come round
17:35to have a look at this bird.
17:37Now, as far as I'm concerned,
17:40this was a sexual predator bragging about
17:45who he'd managed to ensnare,
17:47and Stephen Biedman went round to his house
17:51in the knowledge that Kayleigh shouldn't have been there
17:55in the first place
17:56and fully with the intent of having some form of sexual contact with her.
18:00We don't know a great deal about Stephen Biedman.
18:03Of course, he was the next-door neighbour and friend of Harlow.
18:07He was a landscape gardener,
18:10and you might think that he's fairly unremarkable.
18:13Harlow's claim is that after Biedman came back to the house
18:16and was drinking with them,
18:18Harlow went to bed, woke up in the morning,
18:20so this is now Sunday morning, the house was empty.
18:23No sign of either Biedman or Kayleigh.
18:27Biedman's obviously somebody that the police really need to speak to,
18:30so they start looking for him,
18:31and they find him at a relative's house in Colville
18:34and bring him in for questioning.
18:37Now police have both men in custody.
18:40Will either of them reveal what's happened to Kayleigh?
18:45The police were immediately aware, just from looking at Biedman,
18:48that something wasn't right.
18:50He had visible injuries all over his face.
18:52They were particularly concerned as to where they came from.
18:56So Biedman, at first he says that he's never met Kayleigh,
18:59and then later he says that he has met her.
19:02He'd met her on the night of the 14th
19:04after he'd been invited back by Harlow,
19:06that he'd gone back and that he'd joined them for a drink
19:08and stayed for a few hours,
19:10but that he'd gone home about midnight
19:11and left Harlow and Kayleigh together.
19:14So when the police interviewed Biedman,
19:16what he did say was that when he drinks
19:19he becomes a different person, he becomes very violent,
19:22and he was probably putting that forward
19:24as some kind of mitigation or defence
19:27that he might choose to rely on later on.
19:30We've got a case of, well, nothing to do with
19:34with me, there's nothing to see here,
19:36because we've got, on one hand, Biedman says
19:38he'd left at midnight, all was well,
19:40and Harlow says he was in bed by midnight.
19:43He'd left Biedman and Kayleigh together.
19:46He heard nothing, saw nothing, slept through it all,
19:50and as far as he's concerned, nothing to do with him.
19:54They're not quite pointing the finger at one another,
19:56but each one of them's got a story of how they are not involved.
20:02Now, it seems that midnight is a significant time,
20:05because we've got Biedman saying that he left at midnight,
20:09we've got Harlow saying that he was sound asleep at midnight,
20:14and neither of them know what happened after that.
20:17But prior to this, around 10 o'clock at night,
20:20neighbours had heard banging, consistent, loud banging,
20:25as though somebody was having some sort of fight,
20:28or something was going on.
20:31So what happened before midnight?
20:34This magic time when seemingly both parties say
20:38they were asleep or at their own home,
20:40and everything was calm.
20:42Harlow and Biedman's stories do not add up,
20:45suggesting they are hiding what really happened that night.
20:48Police believe Kayleigh has been harmed,
20:51and their priority is to uncover the truth
20:53so they can find her.
21:14Who is not being heard of?
21:14Luke Harlow and Stephen Biedman, both in police custody,
21:18are linked to the disappearance of 15-year-old Kayleigh Hayward,
21:22who has not been heard of since Saturday, November 14th.
21:26Their stories conflict,
21:27and investigators suspect they are withholding crucial information.
21:31Their top priority is to uncover the truth and locate Kayleigh.
21:37There's a huge search for Kayleigh.
21:40So over 300 police were involved,
21:43and a huge number of the community turned out
21:47to see if they could help
21:48because they were just shocked by her disappearance.
21:51And, of course, they were really concerned
21:53about what was known at that point,
21:55about where she'd spent her last nights.
21:58So everybody's looking for her.
22:00There's drones all over the place.
22:03One of the local community find a bra on a piece of land.
22:08It's not where you would expect to find a bra.
22:10And, of course, knowing about this case,
22:12they do the sensible thing and they contact police.
22:16When police show Kayleigh's mum a photograph,
22:19it matches a bra.
22:21It's the same size as a bra that Kayleigh had
22:25and that's no longer in the home.
22:26Well, I can't imagine what must have been going through Kayleigh's mum's mind.
22:31No doubt at that point she had thought
22:34that some sort of foul play has taken place.
22:37So that is a horrific moment for Kayleigh's family,
22:40but it's quite a breakthrough in the investigation for the police.
22:46Police suspect Beatman's injuries could have been sustained from defensive wounds
22:50and follow that line of inquiry.
22:53The police searched this flat to see had Kayleigh been there
22:56and they found no evidence that she had.
22:58But something that was a noticeable feature
23:00was that he had some facial injuries
23:02which he said he'd sustained working on a farm in Belton.
23:05The police went to look at this farm
23:07and they found Beatman's lock-up.
23:09When they went and had a look inside,
23:11they found some blood-stained clothing.
23:13When they looked at the CCTV from the off-licence,
23:16where Beatman and Harlow had been to buy more alcohol,
23:19they realised that the clothing that was in the lock-up,
23:22the blood-stained clothing,
23:24matched the clothing that he'd been wearing
23:25when he went to the shop that night.
23:28And it is placed onto what appears to be a bonfire
23:32that is just ready to be lit.
23:35Now, when that clothing is analysed,
23:38the blood comes back.
23:40It's not Beatman's, it's not Harlow's,
23:43but it does match Kayleigh's.
23:47So when the police were searching the lock-up,
23:50they found in their nearby skit a purse
23:53and then in bin bags they found a cardigan and a bag.
23:57They were later confirmed to be Kayleigh's.
24:00With that evidence there,
24:02Beatman admitted that, yes, he had killed Kayleigh,
24:06and he took the police to the place that Kayleigh's body was.
24:09So on the 18th of November,
24:12Beatman gave the information about Kayleigh's body
24:15and the police went and found her buried in the undergrowth.
24:19She only had a sock on, she was otherwise naked.
24:28This is a moment of closure, to some degree, for the family,
24:36in that she's found, she's no longer lost to them.
24:42But she's not found alive.
24:44And they have to deal with the fact that this fear
24:48that they've held for the last five days is actually, is real.
24:54They're not going to see their daughter again.
24:58So after Beatman's admitted that he has killed Kayleigh,
25:01he tells the police that Kayleigh had tried to escape,
25:04she'd tried to run out of the flat at about three o'clock in the morning.
25:07And he's run after her.
25:09She's, at this point she's naked from the waist down,
25:11but he runs after her to try and stop her from, from getting away.
25:16Beatman described a scuffle outside on the street.
25:19Now, what he didn't know was that neighbours had observed this.
25:22They'd actually seen this scuffle,
25:23but because Beatman was wearing some sort of high-vis clothing,
25:26you know, the yellow that you might see on a policeman or a workman,
25:30they thought that something untoward wasn't going on
25:32and that it could have been a policeman arresting somebody.
25:35So, unfortunately, they didn't act.
25:38Around the same time, another witness came forward
25:41and said that they'd heard somebody screaming,
25:42Mummy, which in hindsight was probably Kayleigh in her last moments.
25:49While they were still observing this scuffle outside,
25:53the neighbours saw both people stand up and walk off together.
25:56So, they quickly thought that actually
25:58this might not be a police incident,
25:59but it seems to be two people, it had a bit of an argument
26:02and now everything was okay.
26:04So, again, they didn't act.
26:07What was actually happening there
26:09was that Beatman was dragging Kayleigh off where he raped her.
26:12Kayleigh was putting up a good fight.
26:14She picked up a rock and she hit him with it,
26:17which explained the injuries to his face.
26:19But, enraged by this,
26:22Beatman then took the rock and beat Kayleigh so badly that he killed her.
26:27So, after killing Kayleigh, he took her to some woodland
26:31by the side of the A447 and disposed of Kayleigh's body.
26:35She's so badly beaten around the face and neck
26:40that she has to be identified via dental records.
26:46Kayleigh's family are warned that Kayleigh doesn't look like Kayleigh.
26:52She's been so badly beaten.
26:54She's got so many facial and neck injuries.
26:57And, of course, she's been dead for five days now.
27:01That maybe they might not want to go and view her body,
27:04but they do decide that they do want to do that.
27:08And so they go and they spend their final moments with Kayleigh,
27:12holding her hand.
27:13Those few moments are so precious.
27:17They really are.
27:19But the fact that all they could do is hold her hand
27:24is...is...
27:25..is so tragic. So tragic.
27:29After Kayleigh's body is found,
27:31it is time for 29-year-old Stephen Beatman
27:34and 28-year-old Luke Harlow
27:36to be officially charged with their crimes.
27:39I was telephoned by somebody from the CPS,
27:44which is the Crown Prosecution Service,
27:46about the case
27:47because they wanted my advice on charging.
27:51Now, that's not unusual,
27:53but some charges had already been laid
27:55and they wanted my advice in conference
27:58as to whether there should be additional charges.
28:01What you need to understand
28:03when you have a serious case like this is
28:05what other offences might be disclosed
28:08on the papers.
28:09So we all know what a murder is.
28:11One person kills another,
28:12they intend to do it,
28:14or they intend to cause really serious harm.
28:16That's pretty much standard.
28:18In this case, we didn't just have a murder.
28:21We had a rape.
28:22We had what we call grooming.
28:25We had sexual activity with a child.
28:28But we also had one of the perpetrators
28:30who had done more than that.
28:32And the question for me was
28:34what else should we charge him with
28:37and whether we should charge the murderer
28:40with anything additional to what he was already charged with.
28:45Harlow was the chap that groomed Kayleigh online
28:49and got her to meet him.
28:51Bedman was his neighbour
28:53who was the man that actually raped and killed her.
28:56But although we thought that Bedman would plead guilty to the murder,
29:01the circumstances of what happened to Kayleigh were quite important.
29:05And I was very keen that the defendants, the two of them,
29:10didn't concoct a scenario which benefited them
29:14and wasn't telling the truth about what really happened to Kayleigh.
29:17And that was a very unusual thing to do,
29:19to look at a murder case and say,
29:21well, are we going to charge him with something else?
29:23And if so, what and why?
29:26And is it in the public interest to do so?
29:28And finally, what did the family think about this?
29:32Do they want to go through a trial where we never know,
29:35where Kayleigh's name could have been dragged through the mud?
29:39Or do they just want to take, if you like, the easy win
29:42and make it all go away?
29:44So there's all sorts of considerations
29:46which I have to take on board as lead counsel.
29:50The prosecutor considers how Harlow's grooming
29:53set off the sequence of events that led to her murder.
29:58The grooming in this case was fast.
30:01It went from, you're very pretty, have you got a boyfriend?
30:05Oh, well, a girl like you should have a boyfriend
30:07in the first couple of days to, within a week,
30:11I want to take you to bed, I want to get you drunk.
30:13I know you're only 15, but, you know,
30:15all the things he wanted to do with her.
30:17And, of course, I've got to stand up in court
30:18and read all this horrible stuff out,
30:21right up to him basically saying, before he met her,
30:25as soon as she gets through the door of his flat,
30:27he's going to have all her clothes off.
30:29And, yeah, I don't need to explain what he said after that.
30:32It's pretty graphic.
30:33I'm used to reading that sort of thing out.
30:35I do this sort of thing all the time.
30:37But you've got jurors who are sitting there listening
30:40to what he was saying to a girl he knew was underage.
30:45But his eventual story was that she was happy to be with him.
30:49She wanted to meet him.
30:51She was happy to engage in sexual encounters with him.
30:54She was happy when Biedman came round.
30:57He brought some more drinks.
30:58And she was all quite happy with all of that.
31:01And Harlow's account was all happy, happy, happy.
31:04Sexual encounter with her, all consensual.
31:07He then fell asleep and had no idea what happened thereafter.
31:11That was our line in the sand.
31:16Prosecution case was that there came a point where she wanted to go.
31:20And the two of them kept her there.
31:23And we had what we called ear witnesses.
31:27They heard a kerfuffle going on in the flat,
31:31furniture being tipped over, that sort of thing.
31:33And, indeed, there were some elements of a struggle still visible
31:36when the police turned up.
31:38Hollow's flat was found to be in a state of disarray.
31:42Now, this is not to do with his housekeeping skills.
31:45This looks like there's clearly been a struggle.
31:48There's been some sort of fracas here.
31:50Now, bearing in mind what the neighbours have heard,
31:53there are speakers on the floor,
31:54which might account for the banging and crashing.
31:57There's been some almighty row here.
32:01And it appears that what is happening
32:05is that Kayleigh is trying to get out of the house,
32:08and she's been prevented from doing that
32:11by not one but two adult-grown men.
32:16And our case was that she tried to make a break for it.
32:19The flat that she was staying in was a sort of funny sort of up and down.
32:25It had a bathroom downstairs, but the main living was upstairs.
32:28And what we think happened, this was our theory,
32:32was that she asked to go to the loo.
32:34And when she went downstairs to go to the loo,
32:36she bolted, she made a run for it.
32:38Not dressed properly.
32:39Bear in mind this is mid-November.
32:41It was wet and it was horrible.
32:44Bra, T-shirt.
32:46And she made a bolt for it out of the flat
32:48and along the roadway by the side of the flats.
32:54The initial charges, as I've said, were murder, rape,
32:58and sexual offences for Beedman,
33:00and sexual offences for Harlow.
33:01When we had the large conference,
33:04by then I'd been provided with the downloads
33:07of Beedman's phone, Harlow's phone,
33:10and Kayleigh's laptop.
33:13And what we discovered, myself and the police,
33:16going through Harlow's electronic devices
33:19was that Kayleigh wasn't the only girl he had been grooming.
33:23We found two, possibly three more.
33:26Certainly two of the quality of messages
33:30that I would be able to use in evidence.
33:33One of them we actually charged him with.
33:35The other one was what I would call preparatory.
33:39So it was the introducing of himself,
33:41pretending to be younger, to another young girl.
33:43But he didn't do anything which we could hook onto an offence.
33:49It was insidious and it was nasty,
33:51and I was prepared to tell the jury about it,
33:53and the judge allowed me to tell the jury about it,
33:55but it didn't meet that standard
33:57of actually getting to offending.
34:00However, we contacted the girls and their parents,
34:04and one of them cooperated,
34:07the other one still thought that he was her boyfriend
34:09and wanted to support him,
34:11and indeed came to court to support him.
34:13And I had to have quite a difficult conversation with her
34:16and her parent,
34:19explaining that she would not be allowed to speak to him,
34:22and he was in fact somebody who had participated
34:25in a very awful offence.
34:26We had a big team meeting.
34:29I had the consent of the parents
34:31to charge anything that I felt was appropriate.
34:34We, as a team, decided that we would charge the men
34:39with false imprisonment,
34:40which is the offence of keeping somebody
34:42where they don't want to be.
34:44We couldn't prove that both sexually assaulted her together
34:47in the flat,
34:48but we felt false imprisonment was made out
34:50by the state of the flat,
34:53the ear witnesses,
34:54and the escape.
34:56We felt that was solid.
34:58That was the thing that we added to the charge,
35:01which they fought at court.
35:05Luke Harlow is charged with grooming,
35:08sexual activity with a child,
35:10and false imprisonment.
35:11Stephen Biedman is charged with rape,
35:14false imprisonment,
35:15and murder.
35:16How will they plead?
35:32In the early hours of Sunday,
35:34the 15th of November, 2015,
35:3715-year-old Kaylee Hayward was raped and murdered
35:40before her body was dumped in a woodland area
35:42near Ibstock, Leicestershire.
35:45Two men, Stephen Biedman and Luke Harlow,
35:48faced serious charges in relation to her death,
35:50and appear in court to enter their pleas in April 2016.
35:56Harlow admitted that he'd had sexual contact with Kaylee,
36:01when, of course, she's underage,
36:03but what he wasn't prepared to admit to was kidnap
36:07and holding her in his home against her will.
36:12When we got to court, Harlow admitted the grooming
36:17and the sexual offences in relation to Kaylee.
36:20Beedman admitted the murder and the rape.
36:22They both disputed the false imprisonment.
36:25And the barristers on the other side,
36:27when we had our preliminary hearing, said,
36:29Oh, well, you won't be going ahead with that, will you?
36:31You've got enough.
36:33And I basically said to them,
36:35No, I have the full support of the family.
36:37We will try you.
36:38Either you plead or we try you.
36:41And that's what we did.
36:42It was an emotional trial.
36:44You can't get away from that.
36:45But you don't bring emotion into your job
36:49if you can possibly help it.
36:50So you simply tell the jury,
36:53This is our case.
36:54This is how we present it.
36:55This is what we're going to prove to you.
36:57We presented the case in a very logical progression.
37:02We told the story.
37:04We have audio visual aids these days.
37:06We have maps.
37:07We have drone presentations,
37:10moving clips as much as we can.
37:12To try and bring it alive to the jury.
37:15Obviously, it was very much alive to me
37:17because I had walked the walk that Kayleigh had done with Biedman.
37:22So I knew what it was like.
37:23I knew how far it was.
37:25I knew how cold it was.
37:26I knew what the field was like.
37:28It was a ploughed field.
37:29It was muddy.
37:30It was nasty.
37:31So I was able to, if you like, tell the story better
37:35because I'd been there.
37:38The defendants were pretty good.
37:42They were pretty deadpan.
37:43I try not to look at them when I'm in court.
37:46I don't think it does anybody any good.
37:48Harlow was, I wouldn't say cocky, but he wasn't...
37:52He was...
37:53I think he thought he'd get off.
37:56Biedman was troubled.
37:58And then, eventually, he refused to come altogether.
38:01I would have been hugely surprised if either of them had been acquitted.
38:05The trial lasts a few weeks, during which neither of the men showed signs of remorse.
38:11Throughout the trial for the false imprisonment, the pair were just emotionless.
38:16There was no sign of any remorse or anything from them.
38:20Harlow, when he was convicted of false imprisonment, glared at the jury in quite a hard, hardened way.
38:30Both defendants admitted their part in what happened to Cayley.
38:37Harlow admitted sexual activity with a minor and grooming,
38:41and he denied but was convicted of false imprisonment as well after a trial.
38:46Biedman admitted that he'd murdered Cayley.
38:49They were both handed down custodial sentences.
38:53Harlow was sentenced to 12 years,
38:55and Biedman was sentenced to life with a minimum of 35 years.
38:59That means that Biedman would have to spend 35 years in prison
39:03before eligible for the parole board to consider his case,
39:06and he would only be reviewed if they were satisfied
39:09that the public were not at risk from him.
39:12However, Biedman didn't serve much of that sentence
39:15because in 2021 he killed himself in custody.
39:20Biedman's account of what happened indicates to me someone who's impulsive,
39:25someone who can't manage their own anger
39:27and has negative attitudes about women and girls.
39:30Through a combination of these factors and poor emotion management
39:33and possibly sexual arousal,
39:35he was able to overcome any inhibitors to assaulting a child,
39:39a vulnerable child, and murdering her.
39:41For me, Biedman is a coward.
39:45He's someone that monopolises the vulnerability of a child.
39:50He's someone that can't control his temper,
39:52probably doesn't like being challenged.
39:54I would just describe him as a despicable individual.
40:00Harlow is a predatory, concerted groomer.
40:05I think he's somebody who had very little going on in his life,
40:10and he's somebody who had decided that he was going to make friends
40:15with girls maybe as young as 13 over the internet.
40:19He was going to bring them over to his home
40:23where he would ply them with alcohol
40:26so that they're not able to resist him,
40:29and he was going to sexually abuse them
40:32and keep them there until he felt that he was satisfied.
40:37Though both men are behind bars,
40:39nothing can ease the pain of Kayleigh's loss,
40:42and her community has forever changed.
40:46When a crime of this magnitude occurs in a really small town
40:51or a small village,
40:52it has a significant impact on the sense of safety of the community.
40:59People behave differently.
41:01They stop going about their normal routines,
41:04their lives change.
41:06Possibly not forever,
41:07but certainly in that interim, that short period of time,
41:11people behave differently,
41:13less willing to go out late at night.
41:15They certainly keep an eye on the children.
41:17They chaperone them more.
41:19They're probably more guarded.
41:21Everything changes when a murder happens in a small place,
41:25and only time can heal that
41:28when they can get back to some sense of normality.
41:31I've been involved in law enforcement for 36 years
41:34and I've seen a steady decline in willingness of people
41:38to get involved in supporting police
41:42or even reporting incidents to police
41:45that, on the face of it, are really out of the ordinary.
41:49So, whilst there are still people who will get involved
41:53and will stand up and become even witnesses in a trial,
41:58it is getting increasingly so, and very frustratingly so,
42:01that there are more people that won't get involved
42:04and won't pick the phone up.
42:06And I've seen that growing over the years.
42:12Kayleigh was a child.
42:15She was a 15-year-old girl,
42:18and so there is absolutely no blame to be placed on Kayleigh.
42:26She did what I think many, many 15-year-old girls would do.
42:32You could say that she's naive,
42:34but that was probably part of her charm and beauty.
42:39She was a 15-year-old girl who had been brought up well
42:43and had no reason to believe that such hideous predators
42:49with such nefarious intentions should exist in the world.
42:57She had everything to give,
43:00and all of that has been taken from her
43:03because two men wanted to indulge their sexual fantasy
43:10and proclivities for having an underage girl at their disposal.
43:18With the support of Kayleigh's family,
43:21Leicestershire police decide to use her story to spread awareness.
43:27The case really highlights how quickly online grooming can escalate,
43:33and Kayleigh's story was actually made into a short film,
43:37Kayleigh's Love Story, to really show people
43:40how things can go from a quick hi-how-you're-doing message
43:45to within weeks things have gone very intense,
43:49and tragically you've got a 15-year-old girl who's lost her life.
43:54The very first time it was shown in a school,
43:58two children went up to a teacher afterwards
44:01and made reports which led to inquiries being started.
44:05And that was just the first time,
44:06and I know it's been shown countless times since,
44:10and I just hope that with the rollover of children
44:13it continues to be shown in secondary schools.
44:17This case, unfortunately, is a really sad reminder
44:20of the vulnerability that young people have online
44:22to people who are trying to prey on them.
44:24This tells us more about violence against women and girls.
44:28It takes a different form online,
44:29but ultimately results in violence and significant harm.
44:33This could happen to any child.
44:35Somebody could approach them, try to get them to meet,
44:37and they might have sexual or even violent motivations, as in this case.
44:42So it really reminds us, as parents, as people who've got relatives,
44:47friends, people who, you know, have young people in their lives,
44:50we really need to look out for them
44:51and ensure that people are aware of the dangers.
44:55Talk to your children about which sites they're on,
44:58what conversations they are having, who with,
45:02and generally that conversation can open doors.
45:05But it's really important to understand what they're doing.
45:10Have that communication with your child,
45:12and you can read on the internet things to look for.
45:16But for me, it's that dialogue.
45:18Social media is taking over so many young people's lives.
45:22They don't do anything without posting it on whichever site it might be.
45:27But just try and understand what the motivators are for your children
45:32and seek the advice.
45:36It's really sad that a girl from a loving family
45:40fell prey to somebody like this.
45:42She wasn't an outsider.
45:43She was a family girl with friends and a life and a future.
45:49And by listening to what somebody said, who was a liar and a paedophile,
45:57she ended up in a situation that she really tried to get herself out of
46:01but wasn't able to.
46:02And that's what's so sad about this.
46:04She really did try and escape.
46:08But just be so careful with who you speak to online.
46:44You
Comments