This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
from the start.
West Midlands Police have been alerted to the suspicious death
of an elderly man in Halesowen, south-west of Birmingham.
Crime Scene Coordinator Jo Ward
is in charge of the forensic investigation.
Our digital imagery and reconstruction team
has carried out 3D scanning at the scene
to get a geography of the actual house itself
and to see what may be important or relevant for the investigation.
So, our deceased is positioned face down on the floor.
There's...ligature marks,
quite deep indentations on the ankles and also on the wrists.
And it looks like he may have had his hands tied behind his back.
Elderly people pass away in their homes every day,
but clearly something violent has taken place.
We need to now find the forensic evidence
to tell us what exactly happened in that room.
There's a chair there that's got
what appears to be telephone cable tied around the legs.
And then you've got a pair of scissors
and then a knife on the floor.
It looks like there's blood on the carpet.
There's a lot of paperwork that has been kind of thrown around
on the floor - bank statements and things like that.
The scene itself suggests to me
it may have been a burglary that's gone wrong.
But what the poor gentleman must have gone through
prior to his death, it doesn't even bear thinking about.
We try and kind of detach ourselves, but sometimes it does upset you.
While the body of the victim is sent for postmortem,
Jo joins homicide detective Tom Lyons for a briefing
with the investigation team.
This is David Varlow. He's 78 years old,
and we found him deceased on the 15th of November
at Manor Lane in Halesowen.
As you can see here, there's an open window.
So the hypothesis at the moment is that our offender has essentially
scaled up this drainpipe and gone into David's house
through his first-floor window.
That's David's lounge on the ground floor,
and this is how he was found,
with his hands in an unusual position behind his back.
Found untied, but the indentations in his wrists and his ankles
seem to suggest he's been tied up for a long time.
It's horrific, what's happened to him.
It looks like a burglary,
but it appears as though he's been tied up and left to die.
So, from the off, we're investigating this as a murder.
We know that his brother spoke to him on the 30th of October,
so that's, you know, 15 days ago.
David was someone who kept himself to himself.
But he did have regular contact with his brother
that lives in the north-east.
When his brother couldn't get hold of him,
he contacted the neighbours, and when they couldn't get hold of him,
it was them that called the police.
So, we've got a really big timeline here
on where our offence could have happened.
So the timeline we've managed to establish at the moment is,
David's body was found on the 15th of November,
his brother spoke to him on the 30th of October,
so we've got a two-week period to identify
when David's death has occurred.
This is interesting.
On the table, there's a half-drunk cup of tea,
there's a half a bowl of cereal, the milk's there that's out of date,
David's glasses and a half-eaten bit of breakfast, essentially.
And we've got a TV guide,
and the date on that TV guide is the 3rd of November.
So that might be a key date, around the 3rd of November.
Narrowing down the timeline is absolutely vital
in figuring out when David has been tied up,
when he's been left and when he was last seen alive.
There's his front door...
The two-week period does make it more problematic.
There's more enquiries we've got to do, more CCTV to view,
but the police's job ultimately is to protect the community.
And for me, what makes this such a horrific crime
is that David was attacked in his own home,
where he's got the absolute right to feel safe.
Thank you, everyone.
We need to catch this person who has done this to David,
so they won't be able to do this to anyone else.
With a murderer at large,
the forensic team focuses on finding any traces
the killer may have left at the scene.
We're concentrating on fingerprints where we think the offender
has climbed in.
So, there was a first-floor window that was open.
And then also items that have clearly been touched,
drawers that have been opened, paperwork has been strewn around.
One of the chairs was found in an unusual position,
so...possibly the perpetrator has left his fingerprints
on the chair itself.
With the forensic operation under way,
Tom Lyons searches police systems
and discovers David recently contacted the police.
DAVID: I came down earlier on when I heard something in here.
OFFICER: Mm-hm? OK.
The incident occurred three weeks before David's body was discovered.
So we've got hold of body-worn video
from the officer who attended David's address
when David reported to the police a burglary at his house
on the 24th of October.
I don't know.
David basically says that the window's smashed,
and he sees a hand coming through.
Looking at David just reminds me of my own grandparents' house, really.
I think that's... They've got to get to the locks, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
To see David alive and well on the bodycam
is just, you know, quite upsetting...
..seeing, essentially, an elderly, vulnerable man
who's soon to be a victim of a horrific crime.
I...I seem to be not very good mentally, you know?
Knowing an offender has targeted David's house a week before
and then clearly someone has targeted him again,
you have to ask the question -
is that the same person who has gone back to a scene of a previous crime
and has essentially re-burgled David...
..which has then turned into a murder?
Extensive checks at the crime scene
have only revealed fingerprints belonging to David.
But the chair which had the cable attached has been removed and sent
for further testing by Fingerprint Development Manager Mia Webb.
Areas of particular interest are where we would expect
the suspect to have handled the chair,
so we're probably looking up here, towards the top of the chair,
as if they've grabbed it like that,
or, again, at the sides of the chair,
as if they've held it along the side of the chair
to move the chair around the scene.
And we'll start by examining with ultraviolet, using a laser.
The lasers will fluoresce any constituents
or any contaminants to the fingerprint.
Leather itself...isn't very good to get fingerprints from,
just because of the textured nature of the surface.
There isn't any sign of any friction ridge detail.
A further process to help detect prints is known as superglue fuming.
The superglue will get heated to the point where it evaporates
and then it will be circulated around the chamber.
The superglue will adhere to any water
that's present in the sweat of a fingerprint.
Ultraviolet light creates a high-resolution image which enhances
any fingerprint marks developed by the superglue treatment.
Again, there are no marks.
It's really disappointing that we've not been able to identify anyone
through fingerprints.
This may possibly suggest that they're forensically aware.
So it may be that the perpetrator put gloves on.
Or if they don't particularly sweat a lot,
they're less likely to leave ridge detail.
In a bid to narrow down when the crime may have taken place,
Tom and CCTV specialist Glenn Manning
focus on enquiries near to the murder scene.
CCTV usually only lasts between 14 and 30 days,
so that really puts us up against it
in terms of time to retrieve that evidence, basically.
Right here? Yeah, it's right here for Manor Lane.
All CCTV is obviously timed and dated,
so if we can find proof of life of David on that CCTV,
then it will really narrow down when this crime has happened.
But we're also looking for suspicious people
going towards or away from David's address.
We'll have to take from the scene here
all the way back down the road because we don't know what
the final route in or route out was.
There's Ring flood cams, doorbell cameras.
Some of these are on motion, but a light will come on.
We have to look at every single opportunity we possibly can
and get those downloaded.
So, cameras over there and there.
Just up in the eves up there as well. Yep.
OK, Jo, can we go through the forensic search documents,
so we can just have a look what submissions you want to get in?
To decide on the next steps of the forensic investigation,
Jo meets with Tom and DI Ranj Sangha.
So, we've carried out fingerprint examination at the scene,
but nothing was found.
But the chair that was found nearby,
it had actually got, like, a telephone cable around it.
There's chances that there'd be some cellular DNA
from whoever has tied that around the legs.
Cellular DNA is what we refer to as touch DNA.
So, if you touch or handle anything,
then you kind of shed skin cells, which then stick to the item,
which then leave your DNA on that particular item.
And then there was found a knife and some scissors.
Now, again, has the offender or offenders used the knife
and the scissors to cut that cable?
Yeah. If they have, obviously they've had to have a firm grip.
You know, could we have cellular DNA on those items as well?
Even if the perpetrator was wearing gloves,
there's still an opportunity to get DNA.
A lot of people are not aware of that.
You know, you have to put the gloves on,
so you're still touching the outside of the gloves.
And you may touch your face or any bare skin.
Obviously, then the DNA testing may identify the perpetrator.
Forensic scientist Phil Field prepares to take DNA swabs
of several items from the crime scene.
It's quite possible that these scissors have been handled
by the offender at some point,
and so we're just considering surface areas which we might be able
to sample in an attempt to obtain some DNA material.
In the past, you needed quite a lot of blood to get
a DNA profile from it, so usually something in the realm
of the size of a 2p piece.
These days, thanks to the increased sensitivity
of DNA profiling techniques, we can obtain a DNA profile
from not much larger than a pinprick.
So, this cable has potentially been used by the offender
to tie up and restrain the victim.
If the defender has had quite forceful contact with the item,
they've gripped it and then pulled it in order to tie the victim up,
that could have the effect of increasing the quantity
of cellular DNA material that has actually been transferred
from them to the item.
While the swabs are sent to a specialist lab
for urgent processing...
..CCTV specialist Glenn and Detective Helen Robbins...
Hi, Helen, are you all right?
..start to forensically examine the hundreds of hours of footage
gathered from near David's house.
So what we're looking for, really, here is to see if we've got David,
to try and find last sign of life. Yep.
We know that David's property itself doesn't have CCTV footage
and we know that we've only got cameras either side of the property,
but not near to or that has sight of his property.
We'll start on the 15th of November,
the day that we discovered David's body,
and we'll work our way back from there towards the 30th of October.
We'll also be looking for someone acting suspicious.
We'll cover the night-time economy times,
because that's more than likely the time that you would have
somebody going out and committing this type of offence.
We're going to prioritise CCTV closest to the scene location.
This is what we call zone one.
But what we're looking at, really,
is whether there's any golden nuggets contained
within that footage. That may then lead us into another zone.
As well as searching for David's last proof of life,
the investigation team has been awaiting a postmortem result
to confirm his cause of death.
Jo has received the pathologist's report.
So, examination of his heart noticed significant disease
to his coronary arteries.
So he's obviously got the background of pre-existing cardiac disease.
So in the pathologist's opinion, the medical cause of death
is considered to be a stress-related cardiac event...
..and that the ligature restraint may well have compounded
the heart disease on a psychological basis.
A cardiac event is basically a heart attack,
and a psychological episode is, you know... He's frightened to death.
For me personally, someone in your home is frightening enough,
but for an elderly gentleman,
he must have really been petrified and in fear of his life.
Someone tied him up and just basically left him there.
While the postmortem confirms David's cause of death,
exactly when he died is still unknown.
Forensic finance specialist Alex Backrath has been authorised
to access his bank records to track when David last used his account.
So the deceased gentleman was found on the 15th,
so going back five days' worth of transactions,
at present, I've got 212 individual transactions
over a five-day period.
£20, £20, £20, lower-limit transactions
where 12, 13 of these are at the same supermarket.
That raises concerns.
If you're doing a transaction, why wouldn't you just do it in one go?
There's a fee paid every time.
Would a reasonable person be doing that
with their own bank account and their own funds?
In my opinion, these aren't the spending habits
of a 78-year-old man.
They are very erratic - transaction after transaction, transaction,
seconds, minutes in between them.
At the crime scene, there is bank statements on the floor,
strewn about the place, so I think that over this period,
that card's been in the offender's hand and the offence itself
happened further back than we originally anticipated.
I'm going to need to go back to the bank and obtain further days',
maybe weeks' worth of transactions.
While Alex needs to look deeper into David's accounts,
it's become clear his bank card has been in the hands of someone else.
Glenn can now refocus the CCTV search.
We've received a number of financial transactions
from different places within Birmingham and also in Halesowen,
so the importance now is that we view the CCTV footage
from each and every one of those locations.
We need to start building up a picture of anybody
we may see on here in relation to those financials.
With David's bank account suggesting the crime took place several days
before the discovery of his body,
Jo and Tom have called in pathologist Brett Lockyer
to see if he can help narrow down when David died.
David was found deceased on the 15th of November.
Can we pinpoint the time of death?
So, he has been deceased for some period of time.
Yeah. There were signs of mummification.
And also when he's found, his hands are still in that unnatural position
behind his back. Yeah. That's because rigor mortis has developed
and his muscles have frozen into that position.
So whilst it's not possible to say exactly when he did die,
the postmortem would indicate that he had been dead for a week,
if not longer.
That's really helpful, thank you.
What I can say is that the act of tying him up
would have happened when he was alive.
The interesting thing, of course, is that had the ligature been removed
immediately after he died,
then you wouldn't necessarily see the blood settling,
which is otherwise known as hypostasis.
That only really occurs after the heart's stopped beating.
So they would indicate that the bindings had been removed
after he's been deceased for a period of time. Yeah.
But from the pathology, are you able to say a period of time
he was tied up for before he was untied?
Well, I can't say exactly when he has been untied,
but he certainly hasn't been untied within hours of being deceased.
That's most likely to have occurred at a later period.
Speaking to the pathologist raises a few more questions.
When was he tied up and when was he untied?
And who's untied him?
Could it be the offender has been in there for some time and untied him?
Has the offender returned and untied him?
Or is there a third party who'd been in David's address, untied him,
but for whatever reason hasn't contacted the police?
Based on the financial analysis of David's bank card,
Glenn and Helen have been searching through multiple cameras
from shops and cashpoints.
Most locations that have an ATM,
or if a card is being used within a shop, for instance,
the till area is going to be covered by CCTV.
So now we've got the exact time
and the location of the suspicious transactions, we would hope to see
on that footage the person that has committed this horrendous crime.
So, in the early hours of the morning,
we had the use of the bank card on the Broadway.
Oh, there's two cameras - camera 14 and camera 28.
What angle does the other one give you?
Glenn moves on to a second suspicious transaction
identified by the financial analysis.
Hmm. Not sure that's the same person.
No, that looks like a woman, doesn't it?
It does look like a woman, exactly.
And the timing of that is perfect for that transaction.
Just appears that we're not just dealing with one person here.
10th of November, 12th, 14th,
and then we've got females using his bank card.
That is very surprising.
I was expecting one person,
but now there's multiple people using David's bank card.
We've got to keep an open mind as to how many people
now are involved in David's murder.
Officers start trying to identify the numerous people
caught on CCTV using the bank card.
It does make the investigation more difficult.
It gives us more lines of inquiry, because we've now got to identify
all these different people fraudulently using David's card.
While the search widens for David's killer, finance specialist Alex
has gained authorisation to look back further into his accounts.
So I've got transactions dating from the 14th of November going back.
If we can identify where the victim's normal account usage ends
and what we believe is the offender's usage starts,
it really narrows down that timeframe
for when the offence happened.
It looks like David's normal spending habits are
trips to his local Asda, presumably to do his weekly shopping.
And he does do ATM transactions,
but they are one-offs at a normal time in daylight hours.
It looks like I've found the final legitimate transaction
carried out by David.
It's a purchase at his local Asda on the 2nd.
Then from the early hours of the 3rd,
the transactions from his account radically change.
And I believe the first suspicious transaction
carried out by the offender and not by David is from the Co-op
at just after 6 o'clock in the morning on the 3rd of November.
I think those early transactions are the offenders that took control
of that card and committed this offence.
The first fraudulent transaction on David's card was committed
12 days before the discovery of his body.
In excess of £8,000 has been stolen fraudulently
in over 300 different transactions.
A CCTV check with Asda confirms Alex's theory.
It's really sad to know that David had gone about his normal day,
minding his own business, buying his groceries,
unaware as to what was to come.
With the financial analysis revealing the time and place
of the very first fraudulent usage of David's card,
detectives can now pinpoint CCTV footage
from the exact time of the transaction.
We're now watching the CCTV from the transaction on the 3rd of November
at about 5.30 in the morning.
And I can see a male at the cash machine.
And this male is not David Varlow.
He's hooded up.
He looks shorter.
He's moving more freely.
So, this is our burglar.
The cash machine is just two minutes' walk from David's house,
but the suspect is as yet unidentified.
To see if they can find a clearer image,
Tom and the team track the suspect as he crosses further CCTV cameras.
He's still got his hood up and he's still got a mask on.
This is the number 9 bus pulling up at a bus stop.
And it looks like there's a male who gets on.
There's no other people walking up Spies Lane at this time.
He's got distinct trainers
and he's got a distinct jacket with white markings on.
And he goes upstairs on the bus.
This is our first really good image.
He's still wearing a mask and his hood up,
but he's got really distinct eyes.
Jo has received the lab report on the items from the crime scene
submitted for DNA analysis.
OK, so a mixed result was obtained from the sample
taken from the knotted area of the cable
which was wrapped around the rear left leg of the chair.
They've examined the knife as well.
And...they sampled an area of the blade.
The DNA profile of David Varlow, the victim, was obtained from blood
that was taken from the blade of the knife.
And then a mixed profile was obtained
from the handle of the knife, which was enough in the partial profile
to then do a search on the national DNA database.
And a match was obtained.
A DNA match is really hard to dispute in court,
as it's incredibly accurate.
And in this particular case, it's one in a billion.
Hiya, Tom. It's Jo.
ON PHONE: I've just had the DNA results come through.
ON PHONE: Ah, excellent. Go on.
Good news. We've got a name.
Adris Mohammed.
Adris Mohammed? OK. Yeah.
So, really, really good news there.
I'll start researching him now.
His nickname on our systems, or his alias, is Eyes.
And his eyes are quite distinct on this CCTV.
And looking at his last custody photo,
comparing that to his image that we've got of him on the bus,
the first image that we've got,
he does have a similar hairline that you can see in our CCTV image.
And he's got the same skin tone.
He's been committing burglaries since he was a juvenile
and he's got 29 theft-related convictions.
And it looks like he's committing burglary
to fund his drug-related lifestyle.
I think it's him.
Officers are dispatched to central Birmingham...
..where they arrest Adris Mohammed close to his home.
Ultimately, we want Adris to explain himself.
We want him to tell us why his DNA is in that house,
what's he doing in the area in the early hours of the morning,
and if he is innocent of that crime but he knows who did do it
and break in and have the bank card, for him to tell us.
Detectives start by putting the CCTV evidence to Adris Mohammed.
One of the problems is that David's house is not caught on CCTV,
so we've had to identify the cameras that are nearest
to his house on Manor Lane.
So, this person goes past this camera on Manor Lane
towards David Varlow's house.
David's house is here.
This person doesn't go past this camera.
And then half an hour later,
we've got him passing the same camera again.
That is the only person that makes that movement.
When you do live in that world and you have that lifestyle,
it's not uncommon for people to sell stolen bank cards.
You know, he owes a debt,
and he's using that card to repay a drugs debt.
Another explanation might be,
did Adris hand that card off to kind of throw us off the scent somewhat,
try and put the blame on someone else?
Adris Mohammed had no phone on him when he was arrested,
but in a bid to link his movements to the CCTV evidence,
digital media investigator Mark Hilton has been searching
for any numbers that may be his.
Police systems and other systems accessible by the police has come up
with a number finishing in 377 that's linked to Adris Mohammed.
Some months prior to this incident, he actually used this phone number
to call police and report some antisocial behaviour,
giving his name and, obviously, that phone number.
When we identify a phone number, we can apply for phone data.
And what can sit within that data is where that phone number was
when it was making and receiving calls,
and incoming/outgoing SMS messages.
If the device is moving,
and therefore connecting to different cell masts
as it's on the move,
then we can successfully map where that A to B point is.
So I want to see the location around the 3rd of November.
And we can see immediately
activations on these cell masts in the early hours.
The blue marker there is Adris's home address.
5.19, there's a ping in Halesowen in the area of the deceased's address,
which is obviously the offence location
and a key time for our victim's murder.
And then from 6.16 onwards,
he slowly makes his way back towards Birmingham
on cell masts moving towards his home address.
So we can see straight away that the Halesowen ping at a significant time
is really key.
Looking further back into Adris Mohammed's phone usage data,
Mark discovers something else.
An attempted break-in was also reported
at our victim's address on the evening of the 24th of October.
So if we look through the data
of the number that's attributed to Adris,
you can see from the activated cell site mast,
23.07, 23.09, there's clear movement to Manor Lane in Halesowen.
We know that that is around the time
of the alleged break-in at Manor Lane.
But then after this time, we can see at 1.19,
the cell sites activated by that phone are moving away from Halesowen
and back towards the Birmingham area.
So, it's planned...
..as it shows that there was a recce of that address on the 24th.
Then on the 3rd,
Adris Mohammed has gone with purpose, with intent on the 3rd.
He knows where he's going.
He's gone specifically straight to that address, to that location
and committed the crime he has on an elderly, vulnerable man.
With Adris Mohammed giving no account
of what happened in David's house in the early hours
of the 3rd of November, detectives turn to the DNA evidence.
He's restrained a vulnerable person
and caused him - you know, no doubt - pain and suffering.
However, whether he's committed murder or not
ultimately hinges on what Adris's intent was
when he tied up David Varlow and left him to die.
Did he know that that was a possible consequence of his actions?
For me, that's part of the intent to commit murder.
The CPS authorises Adris Mohammed to be charged
with the murder of David Varlow, and he is remanded in custody.
But there are still unanswered questions relating to
the timeline around David's death.
David was found on the 15th of November.
2nd of November, David was alive,
cos we've got him using his bank card in Asda in Halesowen.
However, by the 3rd of November, we know that bank card
was in the possession of this man.
From forensic work and phone work, we've identified Adris Mohammed.
I'm absolutely satisfied
that Adris Mohammed is responsible for David's murder,
but we've still got a really big unanswered question.
The pathology indicates that David Varlow was tied up
for some time, but Adris was only in his house for 30 minutes.
So someone must have come back and untied him.
Has the offender returned?
Or could it be different people using David's bank card
have gone to David's house and untied him?
We still don't know who untied him, when and why.
To interrogate Adris Mohammed's movements from the time
the crime was committed until the discovery of David's body,
Mark further analyses his phone data.
We know that he's in and around his home address
from the 4th of November to the 5th of November,
where at 17.57, there's very fast movement from a cell mast
in Birmingham, up towards Wolverhampton,
which is much quicker than you would see on the conventional foot or bike
or even by car at that time.
Rail enquiries reveal CCTV at New Street train station in Birmingham.
And then we can also see 18.30, he arrives in the area of Stafford,
where he continues to use his phone,
connecting to masts in and around his ex-partner's home address.
And then on the 11th of November,
there's movement on cell masts back towards Birmingham.
And then we can see the Halesowen ping,
so there's a confirmed hit in the Halesowen area,
which is the deceased's address.
And the mapping now is overwhelming in terms of the fact
that it shows him moving by train on the 11th back down from Stafford
to the offence location at Halesowen.
There's a number of cameras here,
I'm just trying to find the right one.
Confirmation that Adris Mohammed revisited the scene of the crime
on the 11th of November, eight days after the initial burglary,
prompts Glenn to review CCTV footage from that day.
Oh, this is interesting!
Well, I think Tom would like that.
I think this is Adris Mohammed.
But there's two people at the cash machine.
This is a complete shock because I was only expecting one person.
The one at the cash machine looks like the same height as Adris.
But the one standing behind him,
he looks a lot taller than who we think is Adris.
The fact there's two people, that means potentially,
you know, there was another person involved.
The team can now focus on the pair's movements.
So this is a few doors down from David Varlow's address,
and we can see two males walking away from David's address.
And they haven't appeared in any of the footage
the other side of David's.
So the hypothesis is that they've gone to David's address,
they've come out half an hour later
and walked up the road towards the cash machine.
This means basically that a second person has gone to the address
with Adris, so have they gone inside?
Have they moved the body? Have they untied David?
So we need to identify that person,
cos potentially, you know, he's involved in this murder.
Not only does the CCTV reveal a second person at the cashpoint,
but further financial enquiries reveal that the card they were using
was different to the original one stolen from David.
One of David's expired cards was used on the evening of the 11th,
going into the 12th of November.
We know that card wasn't used before the night of the 11th
and early morning of the 12th.
If it had been stolen in the initial burglary,
then why didn't they use it earlier?
The question for me is,
has Adris confided in someone about this murder?
And has someone returned to the scene with Adris to assist him?
What I'm doing now is going through our intelligence systems,
looking at Adris Mohammed's associates,
to see if any of them match that person that we've got on CCTV.
And we've identified this male, O'Shay Swan.
He's considerably taller than Adris Mohammed,
and looking at his facial features, his height, his broadness,
he matches the person on the CCTV at the cash machine.
Looking at his associates and looking at Adris's associates,
they kind of mix in the same circles
of people with drug-related lifestyles.
So we need to get O'Shay Swan in custody
to understand his involvement.
O'Shay Swan is arrested and his home searched for any evidence
he accompanied Adris Mohammed on the night of the 11th of November.
As well as being suspected of burglary and fraud,
Swan has also been arrested on the more serious crime
of assisting an offender in a murder case.
Looking at all the evidence,
O'Shay Swan has travelled all that way for a reason.
My view is he's travelled all that way to help Adris Mohammed.
Help him do what? We don't know.
But that's when we think either O'Shay or Adris has untied David.
If he died tied and attached to the chair,
one of them must have untied him and moved the chair.
When we found that chair, there was banking documentation
and a cheque book on top of the chair,
so - shockingly - that means that someone must have been going through
that paperwork in front of David's deceased body.
For me, it's beyond horrific.
Tom and Jo meet to decide on the evidence they'll put to the CPS
for a charging decision against O'Shay Swan.
We haven't actually got any forensic evidence for O'Shay,
like, to put him inside the premises. Yeah.
But that's not to say that, you know, he's not been in there.
We're never going to know what O'Shay knew
was going on inside that house.
And ultimately, because we can't place O'Shay in the house
through forensics, witnesses or CCTV,
we can't ask CPS to authorise a charge of assisting offender.
So the plan with O'Shay is that we're going to go
for a charge of burglary and then fraud,
using David's bank card at the cash machine with Adris.
The verdict turns on how the judge and the jury interpret the evidence.
For Adris, was it intentional, a murder?
Or was it manslaughter or a burglary that went wrong?
It's just a real awful and such a sad case.
PHONE RINGS
Hi, Jo, I just wanted to give you the results.
Yeah, I've been waiting for this call.
So, Adris has been sentenced to 33 years in prison minimum.
So he's got a life sentence...
Wow! ..but he's got to serve a minimum of 33 years.
33 - that's a lengthy sentence, isn't it?
It is. It's really good.
It just shows the jury, you know, they...
When they found him guilty, they, you know, believe
that Adris did have intent.
The intent was there to murder David.
There's obviously aggravating features in this case,
in terms of the fact that he's tied up a vulnerable male,
he's left him to die, he's caused him a lot of pain and suffering,
but ultimately Adris Mohammed is off the street for 33 years
and he won't be able to do this to anyone else.
Forensics played a huge part in identifying the offender
in this case, with regards to DNA testing.
And if he did try and put us off the scent by moving the body,
untying him, distributing the bank cards,
he did a real poor job.
And as for Swan, Swan's got six years for burglary and fraud.
We couldn't put him in the scene, could we?
So... I mean, that's also a good sentence, isn't it?
No, it's really good.
Regarding O'Shay, the judge concluded that
when he went with Adris Mohammed to burgle David's house,
O'Shay knew that Adris had killed David Varlow.
And that potentially will add weight to the severity of his sentence.
This particular case has really highlighted to me
that there are bad people out there that will do horrible things
to elderly people.
But the way I kind of think of it is, I can't change what's happened,
but what I certainly can do is get justice for the victim
and their families.
That really kind of drives me on every job -
to get justice for them.