1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:04,320 NARRATOR: A sexual predator is prowling the streets of East London. 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:06,520 You have a violent male on the loose. 3 00:00:06,560 --> 00:00:09,080 Detectives believe the same man 4 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:12,600 who attacked and killed Michelle is also responsible 5 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,240 for at least two serious sexual assaults in the same area. 6 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:20,320 These offences have taken place, almost to the day, a month apart. 7 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,160 Are we then expecting another attack? 8 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:27,840 You can see the offender getting more and more confident 9 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:30,200 in the crimes, the crimes becoming even more brutal. 10 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:34,560 You have to use everything in your armoury to try and find that person. 11 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:37,200 The crime scene will unlock the case. 12 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:39,960 The body becomes its own crime scene. 13 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,560 DNA evidence can be very powerful. 14 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:45,760 We don't know who's done this. 15 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,960 Look at your neighbour or somebody you work with and think, you know, 16 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:50,520 could this person be here? 17 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:55,360 I know she's up there, and she's gonna help everyone trace this man. 18 00:00:56,840 --> 00:00:59,200 Science has yet again proved who the killer is. 19 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:03,280 One of the most violent, dangerous people that London has ever seen. 20 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:50,160 East London at dawn. 21 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:54,760 A dog walker calls police to a playground. 22 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,760 The officers who attended discovered that there was a female 23 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,400 in the child's playground, lying on her back, 24 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:05,920 she was mostly naked. 25 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:08,280 And what they could see was a lot of blood, 26 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:09,480 a lot of bruising. 27 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:12,840 It was quite clear that that person had unfortunately deceased. 28 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:16,440 A victim of what would appear to be a very, very brutal attack. 29 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:21,120 The officers, then, their main focus is to get that scene preserved 30 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:25,160 ready for those specialists to come in and start the forensic analysis. 31 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:29,040 The body becomes its own crime scene. 32 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,880 The best method, really, would be to get a pathologist. 33 00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:35,240 I would immediately have been thinking around 34 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:37,400 picking samples from the body in situ, 35 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,040 trying to look at any trace evidence 36 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:41,920 that might be on her body. 37 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:45,960 The team observed injuries to the woman's face and neck. 38 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:50,840 There is significant bruising, scratching, blood on her hands, 39 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:54,640 blood close by. They've been beaten quite severely. 40 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:57,920 And almost, you could see then that within the hands, 41 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,960 that they're trying to scrape away and trying to protect themselves. 42 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:06,680 ID found on the woman leads police to believe 43 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,120 she's 35-year-old Michelle Samaraweera. 44 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:15,720 Cos it was my daughter's birthday the following week, 45 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,800 I was making daisy chains, like, out of coloured bits of paper, 46 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:20,040 like, pastel colours. 47 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:23,360 And I was doing this till the early hours of the morning, 48 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:29,320 and then I went to sleep and then... I got a phone call. 49 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:35,120 On the line is Ann and Michelle's older sister. 50 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,480 It was like, "We need to get to Mum's. 51 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:41,440 "The police want to see us." 52 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:44,000 And I was, like, "Oh, my God, it's Michelle, isn't it? 53 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:45,280 "What's happened?" 54 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:47,880 Then she said, "She's dead, she's been murdered." 55 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:49,080 I was shaking. 56 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,240 It's devastating news to give to a family, 57 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:55,680 you know, it never gets easier, 58 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,040 but you're there to work for that family 59 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:01,880 as hard as you can to... to find justice for that person. 60 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:07,280 At the scene, the body is sent to the mortuary for postmortem. 61 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:11,800 The pathologist indicated there had been some interference 62 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:13,640 with the normal course of breathing. 63 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:17,760 This may well have been done by the offender from behind. 64 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:21,000 Was she trying to remove, maybe, a ligature round her neck, 65 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:22,680 or a pair of hands round her neck? 66 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:26,000 So, is there a mixture of DNA under those fingernails? 67 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,640 One of the things that you must consider straightaway 68 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,640 is that there may have been some sort of sexual assault taking place. 69 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:36,560 Movement of the body could disturb forensic evidence that you have, 70 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,320 and some of this forensic evidence could be very minute 71 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:42,000 and not very visible to the naked eye. 72 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:44,560 If there's been some kind of sexual contact, 73 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:48,280 intimate swabs would be fast-tracked to the forensic service provider 74 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:50,040 who would analyse them for DNA. 75 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,160 Officers go door to door. 76 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:57,920 A number of witnesses had heard maybe three screams 77 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:00,280 around about 1:30 in the morning. 78 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:02,440 And that's very, very significant. 79 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:04,480 Obviously, they might be something else, 80 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:07,160 but based on what you can see at the crime scene, 81 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,000 those things are more than likely linked. 82 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:14,000 And of course, then that starts to help you formulate your timeline. 83 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:19,920 Why has she been attacked in this particular area? 84 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,920 Quite often with offences like this, 85 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:27,840 you might have an area where the offender has been sat 86 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:30,520 crouched in a bush, waiting for someone to come past, 87 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:31,920 so you might have footprints. 88 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:35,200 You'd be looking for any items that have been dropped. 89 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:36,960 In the playground near the body, 90 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:38,880 there was two bags of shopping found. 91 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,200 These shopping bags may well have come from the victim, but also, 92 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:45,720 they could be completely irrelevant, but you have to keep an open mind. 93 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:48,320 Sometimes you can do joint examination on a bag, 94 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:51,440 so you can cut the handles off and submit those for DNA, 95 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:54,080 but also fingerprint the plastic itself. 96 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,200 The bags contain groceries and a receipt from a petrol station 97 00:05:57,240 --> 00:05:59,280 close to the crime scene. 98 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:01,680 The receipt shows a financial transaction, 99 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:06,280 and so there are opportunities there in shops to find CCTV. 100 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:08,600 That is what you call a really quick win, 101 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:10,280 that you can do things straightaway 102 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:14,320 to try and identify that person's movements, 103 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:16,400 and then try and watch them on CCTV. 104 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:19,800 The team pieced together Michelle's final movements. 105 00:06:19,840 --> 00:06:22,320 Widowed young, she's in a new relationship. 106 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:25,360 On the night of the murder, she was staying at her boyfriend's. 107 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:27,800 She had been to see her mother that evening, 108 00:06:27,840 --> 00:06:30,640 and then had gone on to her boyfriend's afterwards. 109 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:32,840 When they got back to his flat, 110 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:35,440 a couple of his friends were just outside, 111 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:37,720 and they said, "Can we stay here tonight?" 112 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:39,760 They had one drink with this couple, 113 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:42,720 and then they went to bed, and Michelle was just like, 114 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:44,320 thinking about this pair, 115 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,360 "I'd better go to the shop to get some stuff for the morning." 116 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:50,080 Michelle was very caring and thoughtful. 117 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:51,960 Her partner had fallen asleep. 118 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,920 She took a lot of her jewellery off and put it on the windowsill, 119 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:56,240 which she did often. 120 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:00,200 Police follow up on the petrol station receipt 121 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:02,720 and recover the CCTV. 122 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:07,240 Fortunately, it has working CCTV, 123 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:09,920 and Michelle can be seen going in at 1:00am. 124 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:12,240 She makes various purchases, nothing stands out, 125 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:14,760 some sweets and other groceries that she needs. 126 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:19,160 She looked very calm, made her purchases and then left. 127 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:22,000 She left the door on the latch, which indicated, you know, 128 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:24,280 she was going back. 129 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:27,080 She never returned. Never returned. 130 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:32,840 Your timeline now is starting to take shape, hearing those screams, 131 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:34,960 you want to know if there's any cameras 132 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:36,960 or any witnesses in that particular area 133 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:38,760 going up towards the park. 134 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:43,960 At the mortuary, Ann is asked to formally identify her sister. 135 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:51,320 It's awful because she was still being forensically examined. 136 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:53,240 You could see that she'd had cuts on her face, 137 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,440 but she just looked so peaceful, but it was like, 138 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:00,240 "That's something I've got to do, I've got to identify her." 139 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:04,280 It's very unusual to be murdered by a stranger. 140 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:07,440 You need to understand who surrounds them in their life, 141 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:09,680 and so you look at the family and-and friends, 142 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:14,000 and you want to naturally eliminate anybody that knows her, 143 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:17,240 in particular looking at boyfriends. 144 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:19,640 He would have to be eliminated from that inquiry, 145 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:22,760 along with the other friends who were staying at that premises. 146 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:26,760 At the lab, swabs from the scene are fast-tracked. 147 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,280 When the internal swabs are examined, 148 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:33,040 they found evidence that Michelle had been raped. 149 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,280 They find a full male profile. 150 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:41,360 We were able then to eliminate a number of people, friends, family, 151 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,120 everybody that you have... had been told about 152 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:46,200 that is part of Michelle's life. 153 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:49,240 The profile was loaded onto the national DNA database, 154 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:51,240 and it didn't fit against a name. 155 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:53,920 You are literally looking at somebody 156 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:56,680 who is a complete stranger to the authorities. 157 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:00,600 That's incredibly hard to take as an investigation team. 158 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:03,640 It's very unusual to see somebody go from nothing 159 00:09:03,680 --> 00:09:05,400 to this level of violence, 160 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:09,280 so officers would be looking at crimes that have taken place 161 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:11,160 in that area. 162 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:15,080 Going back, you know, as many months and even years sometimes... 163 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:17,360 What became apparent straightaway 164 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:20,640 was that there were two other very, very violent sexual assaults 165 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:24,040 that had taken place within a stone's throw of that park. 166 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:26,960 So there's a great worry that would start to surface 167 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,240 within the investigation team that-that we need to be, 168 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:33,760 you know, very, very quick in getting this person off the streets. 169 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,400 Her body was found in this children's play area. 170 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:54,640 Police believe she lay here undiscovered for several hours. 171 00:09:54,680 --> 00:09:57,840 Detectives now strongly believe the same man 172 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:01,360 who attacked and killed Michelle is also responsible 173 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:05,440 for at least two other serious sexual assaults in the same area. 174 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,040 NARRATOR: Police investigating the murder 175 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:10,040 of 35-year-old Michelle Samaraweera 176 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:13,040 fear there is a violent serial rapist 177 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:15,840 attacking lone women in East London. 178 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:20,240 It's a very, very disturbing scenario. 179 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:26,320 There has been two very, very violent rapes, 180 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:29,440 where extreme physical force and beatings have taken place, 181 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:34,560 and, you know, very close to where Michelle was found. 182 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:38,560 And so there are similarities, and that's a great worry for everybody. 183 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:40,240 It starts to give you an indication 184 00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:42,120 of the person you might be looking for. 185 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:44,520 Highly dangerous, doesn't really care. 186 00:10:44,560 --> 00:10:48,560 You have to get more evidence to actually say, 187 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:50,400 "This is the same person." 188 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:54,040 Horrendous crimes have been committed. 189 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:56,120 Those rape scenes would have been fully examined 190 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:57,480 and processed by a CSI. 191 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:00,200 The victim would be taken to a SARC centre, 192 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:04,160 which is a sexual assault referral centre, 193 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:07,600 and the victim would be examined by a force medical examiner. 194 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:12,920 The first attack took place two months before Michelle's murder. 195 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:17,000 A 59-year-old female had been followed from a shop, 196 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:21,560 showing similarities to that of Michelle's movements on that day, 197 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:25,280 and she'd been followed to her home where, you know, 198 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:27,080 a terrible attack took place. 199 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,120 In that offence, that level of violence, 200 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:32,680 and also going to somebody's house, 201 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:34,720 shows that that person is incredibly dangerous. 202 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:37,360 If the offender's forced his way into the house, 203 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:39,440 then there's a huge amount of forensic evidence 204 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:41,240 that might be on the front door. 205 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:43,240 What has he touched inside the bedroom? 206 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:44,880 Or what has he touched inside the house? 207 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:48,040 In this case, the victim's shirt was ripped off, 208 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:51,880 and CSIs were able to find a button on the floor of the bedroom. 209 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:55,920 What became evident then is that person had taken that shirt away. 210 00:11:55,960 --> 00:12:01,320 This person is brazen enough to burst into somebody's home, 211 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:04,080 commit this incredibly serious offence, 212 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:07,400 and then take something away as a trophy. 213 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:10,400 If you're able to find the shirt with the offender, 214 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:12,840 then you're able to link the buttons back to that shirt, 215 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:14,680 then you can obviously identify 216 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:17,360 that that shirt has come from that crime scene. 217 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:22,680 Almost exactly a month later, there's another attack close by. 218 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:26,840 Another incredibly violent attack on a lone female. 219 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:31,520 The person approached her, had a flick knife on them, 220 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:34,960 threatened her and took her to a nearby alleyway, 221 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:38,600 where she was subjected to the most horrific sexual assaults. 222 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:42,240 There is every possibility that the same method was used, 223 00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:45,880 where Michelle could have been threatened with a knife. 224 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:50,040 When it had finished, the offender, having ejaculated, 225 00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:53,960 wiped himself on the victim's knickers and left them there. 226 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:58,480 You know, this is offending of the highest, highest order. 227 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:02,640 Stranger rape is extremely rare, 228 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:06,000 and rape outside in a dark alleyway 229 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:07,720 is even rarer than that - 230 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:11,240 about 9% of rapes occur in those circumstances. 231 00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:17,120 The underwear and swabs taken from both women are fast-tracked. 232 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:22,360 When the swabs are examined, they found a full male profile. 233 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:25,200 The profile was loaded onto the national DNA database, 234 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:27,320 and it didn't hit against a name. 235 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:30,160 The team compares the unknown profile 236 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:32,800 to the DNA recovered from Michelle. 237 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:34,280 It's a hit. 238 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:37,040 What we would call in the police a scene-to-scene hit. 239 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:38,720 You don't know who the offender is, 240 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:41,440 but you've got two or three scenes that are linked, 241 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:44,400 so clearly, looking at the DNA profile, 242 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:47,960 we have a serial rapist, so he's not forensically aware. 243 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:49,560 Either that or he doesn't care. 244 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,080 He wiped himself on her knickers and threw them on the ground, 245 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:54,920 like, he literally is providing evidence there. 246 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:57,560 There's obviously quite a lot of risk-taking behaviour here, 247 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:00,760 feeling that he's potentially not gonna get caught by the police. 248 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:06,120 These offences have taken place, almost to the day, a month apart. 249 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:09,080 And if you are looking at something like this, 250 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:13,600 well, are we then expecting another attack to follow on 251 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:15,440 a month from Michelle's murder? 252 00:14:16,560 --> 00:14:18,880 Having connected the offences by DNA, 253 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:23,200 family liaison officers update Michelle's family. 254 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:25,000 Wow. 255 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:28,520 It's like, what a pig, you don't just suddenly start doing that. 256 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:30,400 Wow. 257 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:32,080 Who is this person? 258 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:37,640 All the attacks have taken place within a half-a-mile radius. 259 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:41,520 They are all very, very close together, 260 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:43,760 and it's well-known within policing, 261 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:46,880 when you look at suspects who do the sorts of things 262 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:50,200 that the safe haven is to get home as quickly as possible, 263 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:54,480 and so offences are often committed quite close to that person's house. 264 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:57,560 You are focusing down into that area 265 00:14:57,600 --> 00:14:59,440 to think they're probably very, very close 266 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:01,200 to where these attacks have taken place. 267 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:05,080 He's looking for his victims late at night 268 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:08,680 or in the early hours of the morning, he's following them, 269 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:13,200 he's clearly worked out that there are places without CCTV, 270 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:16,560 he's looking at an alleyway, he's looking at a playground, 271 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:19,360 all areas that are sort of deserted, are dark, 272 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:22,680 and are kind of slightly out of the way of the public view. 273 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:25,400 Women by themselves in quite a vulnerable way, 274 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:28,440 women who are older than him who are potentially a bit more defenceless. 275 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:37,040 Michelle was in a really bad place after her husband died of cancer. 276 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:40,560 She was a grown woman, but still living in her teenage years. 277 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:45,200 She had posters of old pop stars, 278 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:48,400 she was very innocent and childlike. 279 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:52,840 Michelle and Ann grew up in Woodford, East London, 280 00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:55,240 with their parents and two older sisters. 281 00:15:56,520 --> 00:16:00,000 We were the only Asian family, even at our school, for years, 282 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,640 and it was a very affluent area. 283 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:07,480 Michelle and I were... There was 18 months between us, 284 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:11,080 and we were so close, we were like twins. 285 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,600 My mum used to dress us up in the same clothes all the time. 286 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:19,360 We had a nice life, erm, at home. 287 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:23,480 Erm... Well, what appeared to be a nice life. 288 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,120 We didn't know how other people lived 289 00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:29,000 cos we weren't allowed to go anywhere, 290 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:31,560 or we weren't allowed to have friends over. 291 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:33,280 My mum was really strict. 292 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:35,560 We didn't really talk to other people about it. 293 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:41,000 From a young age, Michelle battled with her mental health. 294 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:44,240 Michelle got married in '89 in Sri Lanka. 295 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:46,000 She got married at 16. 296 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:48,040 She was very young. It was very quick. 297 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:49,800 She'd never even had a boyfriend before. 298 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:54,040 It wasn't an arranged marriage or anything. 299 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:57,160 If you look at the picture of Michelle on her wedding day, 300 00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:58,840 she didn't look particularly happy... 301 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:02,240 to me - not like a woman that's getting married. 302 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,960 Everything changed when she got married. 303 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,760 The marriage is volatile. 304 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:10,920 She became quite introvert, 305 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:14,480 she wasn't the fun girl that she used to be. 306 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:19,840 She never got to live her life, she was still stuck at 16, I'd say. 307 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:23,760 Her story was tragic, her life was tragic. 308 00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,880 Determined Michelle's family will see justice, 309 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:30,880 and fearful of further attacks, police ask the survivors 310 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,680 for detailed descriptions of their attacker. 311 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,320 The biggest source of information you can get about an attack 312 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:38,000 is from the victim themselves, 313 00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:42,440 those that were obviously lucky to survive the attacks that took place. 314 00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:44,840 And they described their attacker 315 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:50,840 as a male of Asian appearance in his 30s, and around about 5'9". 316 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:56,720 Working with the women, police create an e-fit of their suspect. 317 00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:00,720 An e-fit image is done by a specialist officer 318 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:05,280 who is essentially an artist who can then... 319 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:09,240 And is trained in getting that information out of the victim, 320 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,840 and of course, you are looking at that e-fit 321 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:14,840 within the context of the area from where it is. 322 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:18,160 There is such an urgency to get that e-fit out to the public 323 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:19,520 as quickly as possible. 324 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:22,480 The e-fit is released to the media. 325 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:28,600 The e-fit image, unfortunately, is not successful 326 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,560 in terms of identifying the suspect 327 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:34,440 in those early stages of the investigation. 328 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:37,560 It's not unusual because members of the public sometimes can go, 329 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:39,520 "Well, it looks like that person, 330 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:43,000 "but I don't want to cause them any problem by calling the police," 331 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:45,360 and this can put pressure on an SIO and the team 332 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:47,840 because, you know, you want to do the right thing 333 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:49,520 and get this person off the streets. 334 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,160 You have a DNA sample which is unknown one, 335 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:53,240 we don't know who it is, 336 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:56,800 and so there are other things available to an SIO 337 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,000 to decide upon at that stage. 338 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:01,000 One of them is what is called mass screening. 339 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,880 The team decides to try and collect DNA 340 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,480 from all men fitting the attacker's description 341 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:09,880 in a one-mile radius of the crime scenes. 342 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:13,880 Mass screens can be a huge task, 343 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:16,800 and a mass screen is also a voluntary thing, 344 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,520 so you're relying on your Asian males 345 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:23,680 coming forward to provide a DNA sample. 346 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:29,560 There were some 9,000 males fitting that description 347 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:33,160 available to screen and take DNA samples from. 348 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:36,200 This is resource-intensive. 349 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:39,360 Obviously, when you have victims of this nature, you know, 350 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:41,360 all that sort of thing is irrelevant to you. 351 00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:43,600 You have a violent male on the loose, 352 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:48,240 you have to use everything in your armoury to try and find that person. 353 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:51,440 With the mass screen underway, 354 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:55,520 Michelle's loved ones insist on laying her to rest. 355 00:19:55,560 --> 00:19:58,920 Police were saying, "She could be in a freezer or in a mortuary 356 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:00,920 "for months until we catch him," 357 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,280 and I'm like, "Hold on, what if you never do? 358 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,720 "You're gonna have to be able to release her body 359 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,880 "so we can give her a proper Catholic funeral." 360 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:14,640 But her funeral was beautiful. 361 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:18,720 It was a celebration of her life, 362 00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:21,200 and, you know, Michelle had her wedding ring on, 363 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:24,320 and her engagement ring, and she was in her wedding dress. 364 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:29,320 You don't realise how many people, like, it touches. 365 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:32,360 It was really heart-wrenching. 366 00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:42,080 Michelle's family are determined to get justice. 367 00:20:42,120 --> 00:20:46,400 This man was just walking the streets. 368 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:50,560 I thought, "You know what, someone's gotta do something in the family." 369 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:52,880 Because it's often effective. 370 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:56,400 I know she's up there, she's up there 371 00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:00,440 and she's gonna help everyone trace this man, 372 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,160 because that's the sort of thing Michelle would have done. 373 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:07,560 She would have anything to help anyone who was in a situation, 374 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:11,840 and I know she's gonna help put this man behind bars. 375 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:17,840 Two weeks after the appeal, a woman calls police. 376 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:20,600 This female, who was 32 at the time, 377 00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:24,520 had been found by members of the public in a churchyard, 378 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:27,920 unclothed in the lower part of her body, 379 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:32,360 so badly beaten, her jaw was broken in a number of places. 380 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,840 The level of violence was horrendous. 381 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,040 She was unconscious, 382 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:42,120 and people were very fearful for her life at that stage. 383 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:43,720 She was taken into hospital 384 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:45,840 and remained unconscious for quite a long time. 385 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:49,160 The attack took place a month before Michelle's murder, 386 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:53,520 and the woman spent several weeks in hospital recovering. 387 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:56,120 She had no memory of the sexual assault, 388 00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:58,200 or even the beating that took place. 389 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:01,600 That would indicate the level of violence was immediate on her, 390 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:04,800 that he rendered her almost unconscious straightaway. 391 00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:08,240 The only thing she could remember before an attack 392 00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:11,320 was that she was being followed by an Asian man. 393 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:24,360 NARRATOR: After seeing media appeals 394 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,080 about the murder of Michelle Samaraweera, 395 00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:29,160 a woman has bravely contacted the police. 396 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,480 She thinks she's attacked by the same man, 397 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,520 less than 500 metres from the murder scene. 398 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:40,040 The team looks for a forensic link. 399 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,840 There's a window of opportunity for collecting potential evidence 400 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:50,080 from a rape victim. 401 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:54,080 When someone's really been seriously injured 402 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:56,120 and potentially sexually assaulted, 403 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,800 and they're unconscious, you really do need to get their permission 404 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:01,320 to be able to take samples from them. 405 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:06,480 With the woman too injured to consent, CSIs are undeterred. 406 00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,640 They were very quick-thinking and recovered the blanket 407 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:12,840 used to protect her when she was recovered in the ambulance. 408 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,400 The blanket is fast-tracked to the lab. 409 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:20,680 They were able to find a full DNA male profile 410 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:22,640 from some semen that was on the blanket. 411 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,600 The DNA is put through the database. 412 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:31,160 A DNA profile is obtained for one-in-one-billion match 413 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:35,680 to the DNA profile found from the victim Michelle. 414 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:38,280 So this is clearly the same offender, 415 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:40,320 so you've now got four scenes that match, 416 00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:42,360 but you don't know who the offender is. 417 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:44,600 There's a clear escalation of violence, 418 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,400 so a clear indication that this offender is continuing 419 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:50,400 and getting worse and worse. 420 00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:53,800 We can see the offender getting more and more confident in the crimes, 421 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:56,920 the crimes becoming even more brutal than before. 422 00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,880 There's obviously quite a lot of risk-taking behaviour here, 423 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:02,880 feeling that he's potentially not gonna get caught by the police. 424 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:07,040 They're escalating because he's evading justice at this point. 425 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:13,400 The media starts calling the offender the "E17 Night Stalker". 426 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:15,560 These sensational headlines 427 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,200 spark enormous fear in women and girls 428 00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:20,280 to walk around that particular area, 429 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:22,000 knowing this person is still at large. 430 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,560 We don't know who's done this, and therefore, 431 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,120 this could be a person within your community. 432 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:31,120 These attacks have taken place in a very condensed area, 433 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,760 which would indicate quite often in these cases 434 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:35,560 that the person lives locally. 435 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:37,760 And, you know, it's not uncommon, isn't it, 436 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:40,440 to look at your neighbour or somebody you work with and think, 437 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:42,880 you know, "Could this person be here?" 438 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:44,720 And it's terrifying to think that. 439 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,000 This is an extremely rare occurrence, 440 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:51,520 and I think because it's something that's picked up in the media... 441 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:53,720 And of course, this has a really detrimental effect 442 00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:55,480 on women in local communities, 443 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,160 who are worried about walking the streets late at night, 444 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,040 who are worried about being outside, 445 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,080 and worried about men approaching them. 446 00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:07,160 A defiant group of 100 residents take to the streets of Walthamstow. 447 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,880 They walked Michelle's route that she had taken, you know, 448 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:14,880 the last known steps that she had taken in support of her, her family. 449 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:19,120 It was quite nerve-wracking, walking through the streets of Walthamstow 450 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,600 to that final place, and when we got there, I thought, 451 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:23,000 "I'm not alone." 452 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,240 Michelle's memory, Michelle's spirit left the world here. 453 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:30,640 Seeing all these women I'd never met before, it was overwhelming, 454 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:34,160 but it's like... people will always come together. 455 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:39,760 Police advise women to be vigilant as they flood the area. 456 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:45,720 The different things in your toolbox will be an over-presence, 457 00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:47,600 when you can see police officers 458 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:49,640 giving reassurance to members of the public. 459 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,640 The mass screening of people as well, 460 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:53,880 and the publicity that would go around that. 461 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:57,320 But sitting behind that is the covert world of policing, 462 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:01,000 where, in this particular case, the covert officers, 463 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:02,360 ones that you can't see, 464 00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:07,960 ones that are potentially positioned in houses or cars or buildings 465 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:10,480 to try and find this suspect. 466 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,480 Three months on from Michelle's murder, 467 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,400 police have collected DNA from 1,100 local men. 468 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:23,560 None match the unknown one profile. 469 00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,160 But despite fears the attacker could strike at any time, 470 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:29,120 he appears to have vanished. 471 00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:36,840 After the attack and murder of Michelle, the offending stopped. 472 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:42,560 There were no more of these brutal sexual offences on lone females. 473 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:44,840 There was no murders that were linked to it, 474 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,680 and of course, as an SIO and as an investigation team, 475 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,280 you would think, well, potentially that person has gone somewhere, 476 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:54,080 or they're leaving it for a considerable amount of time 477 00:26:54,120 --> 00:26:57,600 until police activity slows down before they start again. 478 00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:01,560 I didn't think he was ever gonna get caught, ever. 479 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:05,320 You just have to get on with it. Get on with it, as hard as it is. 480 00:27:05,360 --> 00:27:07,720 Murders in London, if they're unsolved, 481 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:09,840 are reviewed on a regular basis. 482 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:13,560 Having that review in place is really important 483 00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:16,720 because it helps you have somebody else over your shoulder 484 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,440 looking at things that potentially you might have missed 485 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:21,160 as an investigation team. 486 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:25,400 Or also, looking at things that perhaps you hadn't thought about 487 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:28,800 in terms of forensics or CCTV, 488 00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,360 and this review system goes on forever. 489 00:27:34,360 --> 00:27:36,760 18 months on from the attacks, 490 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:40,880 the team revisit CCTV of Michelle's final movements. 491 00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:47,680 We know that Michelle was inside that petrol station shop at 1:00am, 492 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,200 and we know she left at 1:12am, 493 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:52,520 and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. 494 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:56,120 When that was reviewed, what you could see at 1:06am 495 00:27:56,160 --> 00:28:00,360 is an Asian male enter the shop behind her. 496 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,160 He only stayed there for a matter of minutes, 497 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,800 didn't purchase anything, and then left. 498 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,480 And obviously, that's something which is-is highly significant. 499 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,320 He's seen going into the shop on CCTV, 500 00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:14,600 checking Michelle's whereabouts. 501 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,280 The fact that he's stalking his victim 502 00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:19,680 shows that he has very little respect. 503 00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:21,640 He was watching Michelle. 504 00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:25,040 He was in the petrol station at the same time, 505 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:29,800 but it was archived, and I'm like, "Why was that archived?" 506 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:34,200 The investigation team who were dealing with Michelle's murder 507 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,600 clearly overlooked the fact 508 00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:40,120 that there could be somebody else inside that shop 509 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:42,760 who may be the suspect. 510 00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:45,280 You can't shy away from that, but now, 511 00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:50,280 what you potentially have is your suspect on CCTV. 512 00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:54,280 There is an image of an Asian male who fits the description, 513 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:58,560 so that image is then put out to 60,000 residents. 514 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,760 A call then comes in to the police 515 00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:07,720 from a person that owns a dry cleaning store in that area. 516 00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:13,720 He believes that he can identify the person in the CCTV, 517 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:18,320 wearing quite a distinctive jacket, is one of his ex-employees. 518 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,360 When a call comes in like that to your inquiry, 519 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,560 then you naturally become very excited 520 00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:27,680 in a way that you think, "Well, could we finally get him?" 521 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:31,720 The man names him as 24-year-old Aman Vyas, 522 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,720 a university graduate from Delhi, India. 523 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:38,120 It's then, "Everybody up, and out we go, 524 00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:40,120 "and let's try and find this person." 525 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,920 Using intelligence, they track Vyas's movements. 526 00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:49,560 The investigation team discovered that this person had left the UK 527 00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:54,560 on the 1st of July, 2009, on a one-way ticket to India. 528 00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:57,920 At that particular time, 529 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,200 there was a considerable amount of press interest 530 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:02,640 in this particular case. 531 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,000 There's no coincidence that, you know, 532 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:07,600 days later, that person's fled the country. 533 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,720 Police look up Aman Vyas on the DNA database. 534 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:16,400 Aman Vyas was not on the database, and that would be good news 535 00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:20,320 because there is the potential that he could be unknown one. 536 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,920 And so everything they could do to find him now 537 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:25,360 would be their priority. 538 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:30,320 Police ask the caller to provide a witness statement at the station. 539 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,600 What he does tell the police is this person no longer works for him, 540 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,320 but he still employs the brother of this person. 541 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:42,240 He also seizes an opportunity to help the police, 542 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:46,160 and this is where he sees the brother of the potential suspect 543 00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:49,320 drink out of a bottle in the work premises. 544 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,480 He seizes that bottle and gives it to the police. 545 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,880 And this is such an incredible piece of work by that person 546 00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:00,120 to help the police, and this is sometimes the luck that you need. 547 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:02,920 What that means for an investigation team 548 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,840 is that you have your crime scene sample, 549 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,280 which, as we know, is called unknown one, 550 00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,320 and you need to try and find who unknown one is, 551 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,680 and the route you can take that is through familial DNA. 552 00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:20,440 You take a DNA sample from a person and put it into the DNA database. 553 00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:22,640 This gives you two lists. 554 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:27,440 One list is a potential parent and child of that sample, 555 00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:29,720 and one is a sibling. 556 00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,160 The team gets clearance to test the water bottle 557 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,040 from Aman Vyas's brother's DNA 558 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,000 and compare it to the DNA from the crime scene. 559 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,840 A water bottle can give you a lot of evidence. 560 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,840 You can get fingerprint evidence from where it's been handled, 561 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:47,960 but also, round the lip of the water bottle, 562 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,400 you could get very good DNA evidence. 563 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:52,880 Because especially if the water bottle's got a lid on it, 564 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:55,720 that would protect the DNA around the lip, 565 00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,080 so there is quite a good area, a rough area, 566 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:01,240 that would collect quite good DNA. 567 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:03,240 Also, the fact that it's plastic, 568 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,880 the DNA doesn't get absorbed into the surface, 569 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:07,600 so therefore it's easier to swab. 570 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,960 Scientists recover a full male profile. 571 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,680 It's confirmed as belonging to Vyas's brother. 572 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:20,160 Forensic scientists were able to ascertain 573 00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:22,880 that there is some kind of link 574 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:26,640 between the DNA sample from the water bottle and the DNA, 575 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,360 the full DNA profile that's been obtained from Michelle. 576 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:32,200 It's not a match, but it's very similar. 577 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:36,040 When you're in that position, where you know who your suspect is, 578 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:42,120 you have him named, everything fits for that person being responsible, 579 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,960 you want to get them as quickly as possible. 580 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:46,720 And it's incredibly frustrating 581 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:49,240 when your suspect is not in the country 582 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:51,240 and you cannot get your hands on them. 583 00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:54,080 You know, and in Vyas's case, you know, 584 00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,360 we see that he is travelling all round the world in different places, 585 00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:59,120 New Zealand and Singapore. 586 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,080 How do the victims feel, 587 00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,560 the living victims who've been viciously attacked, 588 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:07,800 and the police know who the offender is, 589 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:10,080 but they can't bring the offender to justice? 590 00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:14,280 They'll be in a position where they just can't move on. 591 00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:17,440 They don't know where he is, 592 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:19,600 they don't know if he's continuing to offend, 593 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:21,320 what type of life he's having. 594 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,600 Meanwhile, we know that these women have had to try 595 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:26,840 and put their lives back together, 596 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:31,080 and at the same time, we have a family who've lost a loved one. 597 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:37,360 I suffered, I started, erm... I started to have anxiety attacks. 598 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:41,160 My kids were so young, and I had to be strong for them. 599 00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,120 My mind was kind of all over the place. 600 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,040 It's like you're up and down. 601 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,080 One minute, you're like, "I wanna fight the world, 602 00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:50,560 "I want to save every..." You know, and then the other times, 603 00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,760 I'm like... "I can't do it." 604 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,920 Police keep Michelle's family and the other women Vyas attacked 605 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:03,040 updated on any sightings. 606 00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:09,800 I said to them, "Please, for my mental health, I don't want updates 607 00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:12,640 "unless you tell me 608 00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:16,600 "that he's gonna be brought back and landed on British soil." 609 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:21,040 And the... Whoever was in charge then gave the order, 610 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:26,840 "I want everyone in his family tree to be put on Interpol red alert." 611 00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:31,760 More than three years after Michelle's murder, 612 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:34,680 Vyas is still on the run. 613 00:34:34,720 --> 00:34:37,640 My dad died on the 21st of June, 614 00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:39,840 and his funeral was the on 4th of July, 615 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:44,440 and the night before, I was like, "God, Dad, please show us a sign." 616 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:48,080 It was hours later I listened to my voicemails, 617 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:53,520 and it was our liaison officer saying, "Ann, we've caught him." 618 00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,800 And I was like, "Oh, my God!" 619 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:08,880 NARRATOR: After two years on the run, 620 00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:12,280 Aman Vyas is taken into custody in Delhi. 621 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,680 He went through passport control, flagged up. 622 00:35:16,720 --> 00:35:19,160 He was sitting at the boarding gates 623 00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:23,600 ready to get on that flight, and that's where he got arrested. 624 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:26,560 And I just think, "Wow," you know, 625 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,640 that's something that you rarely hear of, 626 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,040 but he could have slipped through the net. 627 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,080 Police request a DNA sample from Vyas. 628 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:40,480 You need their sample to directly compare against unknown one, 629 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:44,200 to take that before a jury, before a court. 630 00:35:44,240 --> 00:35:48,640 Well, of course, in India, we can't force him to do that kind of thing, 631 00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:54,640 so it was voluntary, and Aman Vyas did not consent to give his DNA. 632 00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:59,520 The team needs him back in the UK. They apply for an extradition. 633 00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:04,280 There are so many excuses that are given by his defence team 634 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:08,840 and himself to avoid being subject to this extradition, 635 00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:12,280 such as he's insane, somebody's on holiday, 636 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:17,360 the-the legal proceedings within extradition hadn't been followed. 637 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:21,400 And of course, you know, this is extremely frustrating. 638 00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:23,280 Forget about the police for a second, 639 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,040 but how frustrating is that for the victim's family 640 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:28,560 to hear that something which you think 641 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:32,720 would be very, very straightforward has taken such a long time? 642 00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:36,280 I think he had about 50 hearings in the space of that time. 643 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:38,200 People over here, our prime ministers, 644 00:36:38,240 --> 00:36:40,200 I think we'd had three in that time. 645 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:44,320 For years, Vyas evades justice. 646 00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:49,280 Worryingly, and quite upsetting for many people, 647 00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:52,160 was that Aman Vyas, whilst in those eight years, 648 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:53,920 was actually on bail, 649 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,920 so he was allowed to go about his normal business, 650 00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:59,680 when all these families were captured by the grief 651 00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:03,000 that they have over what happened to their loved ones. 652 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,400 Seven years ago, Michelle Samaraweera 653 00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:08,840 was raped and murdered just round the corner, 654 00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:11,840 and her attacker has never been brought to justice. 655 00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:16,960 The community remains determined Michelle will not be forgotten. 656 00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:21,880 You keep faithful, as hard as that is. 657 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:23,080 It's, erm... 658 00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:26,040 I think it's probably how I've always coped with a lot of things. 659 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:30,440 The police never stopped going. 660 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:34,200 No-one was ever gonna stop until they could bring him back to the UK, 661 00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:38,720 and so, eight years later, finally, the extradition was granted. 662 00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:43,680 On the 4th of October, 2019, 663 00:37:43,720 --> 00:37:47,800 ten years after the attacks on those women, 664 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:52,640 Aman Vyas was brought back to the UK and booked in to custody. 665 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:56,840 Now, he's particularly unremarkable-looking. 666 00:37:56,880 --> 00:38:00,440 You might be expecting to see this monster of a person, 667 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:02,680 but what I've learned over the years, 668 00:38:02,720 --> 00:38:04,720 it's what's behind the eyes, not in front of them, 669 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:06,720 and I think that's when you can see evil, 670 00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,040 when you come face-to-face with these people. 671 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,320 This person is beyond evil. 672 00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,840 You know, looks can be very deceiving sometimes. 673 00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:18,720 At the station, Vyas is booked in and his DNA collected. 674 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:24,400 The DNA sample that he provided was loaded onto the DNA database. 675 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:29,000 I can guarantee that people were waiting for that result. 676 00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:31,400 Everyone would have been on standby to match that 677 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,160 against the unknown one profile from ten years before. 678 00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:41,480 This DNA sample that was taken from him 679 00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:44,080 is a one-in-a-billion match. 680 00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:48,760 The reason why scientists give that figure of one in a billion 681 00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:51,960 is because people can't comprehend a number higher. 682 00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:54,920 In fact, it's almost impossible that somebody would share that DNA 683 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:58,320 with you, and it's never happened before, 684 00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:02,560 so when you have that match, you know statistically, legally, 685 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,880 that you have that person in custody, and the right person. 686 00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:10,400 Police charge Vyas for Michelle's rape and murder, 687 00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:12,840 the violent attacks on the woman in her home, 688 00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,080 and the woman in the graveyard. 689 00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:16,400 But police need more 690 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:19,760 to charge him for the assault on the woman in the alleyway. 691 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,680 The fact that his DNA's on her underwear 692 00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:25,560 doesn't necessarily prove the rape. 693 00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:28,160 It's really important to try and get her internal swabs, 694 00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:31,640 her intimate swabs to try and find if there's any DNA on there. 695 00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,800 11 years ago, when the rape took place, 696 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,920 swabs failed to return a DNA profile. 697 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:42,720 The officers will then look at the enhancements in DNA 698 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:45,000 that have taken place during those ten years. 699 00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:47,120 DNA moves very, very quickly, 700 00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:52,000 and the sensitivity that you can employ on DNA now 701 00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:55,160 is vastly different to what it was back then. 702 00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:56,800 When the offences were committed, 703 00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:59,120 we were looking at ten regions of the DNA, 704 00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:03,000 and then, when he was arrested and actually charged, 705 00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:05,720 we were then looking at 17 regions of the DNA profile, 706 00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:07,960 so we were able to rework this sample. 707 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:12,000 And it came back as a much better identification of one in 70,000, 708 00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:18,320 which means one in 70,000 people may have that same DNA profile, 709 00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:20,840 which isn't as good as a one-in-a-billion, 710 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:22,720 but it's good supporting evidence, 711 00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:26,640 particularly when you've got the DNA on her knickers as well. 712 00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:30,920 DNA evidence can be very powerful, especially in a court. 713 00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:35,280 Vyas is charged with a third count of rape. 714 00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:38,120 But despite the forensics, 715 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:41,400 at his hearing, he pleads not guilty on all charges. 716 00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:46,920 He's denying that these crimes were rape. 717 00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:51,520 He's still claiming that these were consensual acts, 718 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:55,480 and he seems to show very limited remorse right through until the end. 719 00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:59,040 Each victim sustained such a beating, you know, 720 00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,480 to a level of violence which, you know, 721 00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,280 for three people, only fell short of killing them, 722 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:07,880 is a very difficult thing for people to believe 723 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:11,720 that anything in these acts was consensual. 724 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:13,920 To look at him, 725 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:17,840 you would not think that he would be capable 726 00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:22,000 of committing those kind of violent crimes. 727 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:23,280 He doesn't care. 728 00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:26,680 He really thought he was gonna get found not guilty. 729 00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:35,240 I seen him at the trial every day. 730 00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:38,040 Seen him on the stand, lying, 731 00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:41,320 heinous lies about these women. 732 00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:44,160 How disgusting. Awful. 733 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:47,560 The jury delivers their verdict. 734 00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:54,240 This is a very emotionally charged time for a family, 735 00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:58,680 and the police also want that more than anything else, 736 00:41:58,720 --> 00:42:00,640 they want the right decision to be made, 737 00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,120 and you want to make sure that, when that time comes, 738 00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:07,120 the jury have gone out, that you have done everything you can. 739 00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:11,480 It was nerve-racking, but I'd had my eyes shut for ages, 740 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:16,640 and I was shaking, and it was guilty, guilty, guilty, 741 00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:19,680 and then I just... I don't know even what happened, 742 00:42:19,720 --> 00:42:21,720 I think I had an out-of-body experience. 743 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,840 Vyas is sentenced to a minimum of 37 years behind bars. 744 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:31,040 It's a real sense of relief. 745 00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:34,640 Science has yet again proved who the killer is in the crime scene. 746 00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:36,400 Michelle has made a difference. 747 00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:40,520 She was the guardian angel for all the other victims. 748 00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:44,280 Cos a lot of rape victims, you know, the conviction rate is so low, 749 00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:46,880 all of the other victims were really brave. 750 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:49,560 The courage they showed when they gave evidence, 751 00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,840 you know, is so admirable. There's no word to describe. 752 00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:58,360 They did it with one common purpose, and that is to put Vyas behind bars, 753 00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:02,960 one of the most violent, dangerous people that London has ever seen. 754 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:06,240 Since the trial, I've been in limbo, cos I'm like... 755 00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:08,240 I'm lost, I feel lost. 756 00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:13,520 The futility of it all, he's sitting in a prison, 757 00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,240 being fed and watered. 758 00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,120 So he's got a privilege, you know, after all the things that he's done. 759 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:22,160 It's the people left behind that suffer. He's not suffering. 760 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:33,040 A lot of the women are angry, 761 00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:35,520 why should a woman not be able to walk down a road, 762 00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:37,160 whether she's vulnerable or not? 763 00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:39,080 It's a crime against women in general 764 00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:40,640 cos it's making women feel 765 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:42,920 that they can't be safe in their communities. 766 00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:47,200 This has come to the forefront in the most recent of years, 767 00:43:47,240 --> 00:43:49,280 but obviously, this shows you in 2009, 768 00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:51,120 the same thing had happened. 769 00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:53,840 This has been going on for such a long time. 770 00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:56,320 Women should be able to walk the streets anywhere. 771 00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:00,400 Michelle was just so innocent. 772 00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:04,960 She was very genuine and caring and loving. 773 00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:07,880 She was like an angel, really. 774 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:10,440 My mum died, I mean, she died in 2018. 775 00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:15,400 I would have liked to have seen him get justice while she was alive, 776 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:19,360 but they're all up there now and they're all together.