I met Sians parents and promised them I wouldnt rest until I found her, he recalls. Mr Fulcher believed the man's latest victim might still be alive and feared he might commit suicide without revealing where he'd abandoned her. Only two of the items have ever been identified a cardigan worn by Becky, who disappeared in Swindon in 2003. Later that year, he resigned, his police career over. Steve says: We had a policeman under suspicion of sexual impropriety, who drove the exact kind of vehicle we thought had picked up Sian, took his own life just as the net might be closing in. He drove a car similar to one spotted on CCTV at the time of Sians disappearance. With his name so closely associated with the story he has found it hard to branch out, though in 2017 he was working for a private company in Mogadishu, Somalia. Simone Lee was held captive in her home in Limerick by her former friend Christopher Stokes, who mercilessly beat her, placed bin liner over her head, and also poured boiling water over her before setting the apartment on fire on May 11, 2021. Another potential victim is prostitute Sally Ann John, 24, who vanished from Swindon in 1995. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order, meaning he will not be eligible for parole and is unlikely to ever be released from prison. There is an obsession with procedure at the expense of the bigger picture. The senior investigating officer on the case was Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher (played in A Confession by Martin Freeman) and the events of 24th March would be the defining moment of his career. But a judge ruled his confession about Becky Godden inadmissible because DS Fulcher had repeatedly failed to correctly caution the killer and questioned him without a lawyer. It took four more years of campaigning for it to be allowed, and last September Halliwell was convicted of killing Becky and burying her body in a field at Eastleach, Gloucs. A young woman called Becky Godden-Edwards had gone missing a number of years before, last seen in 2002 or 2003. Fulcher played by Sherlocks Martin Freeman ended up in a difficult ethical position that led him to find the killer, but in an unorthadox manner that ultimately ended his career in the police force. On the day of his arrest, Halliwell spoke to Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, and admitted to murdering two women and dumping their bodies in shallow graves. When Halliwells confession about the location of Beckys body was ruled inadmissible in court, other officers continued the hunt for more evidence and unearthed the trophy stash in 2014. Away from the press, Fulcher and his team had also identified the taxi driver 47-year-old father-of-three Christopher Halliwell (played by Joe Absolom) and were keeping him under surveillance, hoping he would lead them to Sian. There is a significant gap in his offending. Something went wrong, please try again later. Halliwell is serving life for killing Sian OCallaghan, 22, and Becky Godden, 20. The judge said I acted in good faith, he says. He published a book, titled Catching a Serial Killer: My hunt for murderer Christopher Halliwell, and has also spoken many times in the press about his experience of the case. 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Fulcher was disciplined for misconduct and later resigned, losing his 500,000 police pension and selling his house. Around the pond were not six other items of womens clothing. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Meanwhile, Halliwell's father lived a few streets from the home of chef Claudia Lawrence, who has been missing since March 19, 2009 - the same day as Halliwell killed Ms O'Callaghan. You dont sleep, you dont eat, its a 24/7 commitment, says Fulcher. But Halliwell was eventually found guilty of the murder of Godden-Edwards and was given another life sentence. May 31, 2012 - Halliwell appears at Preston Crown Court and denies murdering Miss O'Callaghan. Catching a Serial Killer: My hunt for murderer Christopher Halliwell, spoken many times in the press about his experience of the case, he was working for a private company in Mogadishu, Somalia, the police found "up to 60" items of women's clothing. In fact she was found in a very shallow grave. From the point of his suspension in September 2012 to around April 2013 Mr Fulcher was obliged to inform the force if he planned to leave home for more than 24 hours, extended to two nights after a request to take his daughter to look around universities. Det Supt Fulcher had risen through the ranks at Sussex Police before moving to Wiltshire. He just found it so difficult because youve managed to take him straight back into the most awful events of his life.. That decision cost DS Fulcher his career. What are the real-life events behind ITV's true crime drama A Confession? When OCallaghan was reported missing on 19 March 2011, DS Steve Fulcher of Wiltshire Police was brought in to lead the case. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. She was found in a shallow grave near Uffington in Oxfordshire, stabbed in the head and strangled. On March 19 2011, 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan disappeared from Wiltshire after last being spotted at a nightclub in the area. "Further to the hearing, Steve Fulcher was found guilty of two counts of gross misconduct (the execution of his duty and inappropriate contact with the media) and received two final written warnings, but remained a member of Wiltshire Police. A High Court judge ruled that this breach of police guidelines made Halliwells confessions of killing both women inadmissible, which nearly derailed the cases. The CPS and senior police figures panicked, Fulcher says. Sian O'Callaghan's boyfriend had reported her missing after she failed to return from a night out with friends in Swindon, Wiltshire, in March 2011. Her husband Glyn has spent 13 years in jail for her murder but maintains his innocence, with his lawyer saying he would be 'very surprised' if he had committed the crime. March 26, 2011 - Halliwell is charged with Miss O'Callaghan's murder. 'I'm not specifically looking at any one particular offence, but I do want to try to understand why there's an eight-year gap between his offending behaviour. Enjoy this party classic with an updated RT twist - fun for all the family! He has written a memoir 'Catching A Serial Killer' upon which "A Confession' is partly based. When you suspect someone has been abducted or kidnapped their life remains under threat, and there are very clear procedural rules about that.. It's just not going to happen. In January 2012, at a preliminary hearing, Mrs Justice Cox ruled the confession obtained by Fulcher was inadmissible at trial. The panel considered independently whether or not the actions of Steve Fulcher had breached the standards of professional behaviour that apply to all police officers in England and Wales. He had killed her two minutes after she got in his cab. It isnt and it hasnt been. Fulchers once distinguished career, meanwhile, lies in ruins. By now, the search for Sian centred round the nearby Iron Age fort of Barbary Castle. This is the central thrust of the ITV drama, starring Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton and. The trace on her phone was tracked to the nearby Savernake Forest by Steve's team. Halliwell, 55, had already admitted murdering Sian in Swindon in 2011, but DS Fulcher's intervention saw him confess to killing Becky Godden 20 years earlier as well. That girl, we now know, was poor Becky Godden, a much loved daughter who had fallen into drug addiction, prostitution and, ultimately, Halliwells evil hands. But Fulcher had taken a different course: 'We drove for about 45 minutes trying to keep him in the moment. It should have been less than a 15-minute walk home to the house she shared with her boyfriend Kevin Reape (played by Charlie Cooper). We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. Some claimed the manner in which Steve gained Halliwells confessions was "arrogant and reckless". In 2014, the police found "up to 60" items of women's clothing buried in woodland, close to where a pair of Sian's boots had been found. In an explosive new book, Catching A Serial Killer, Steve tells the inside story of the case and how his quest for justice cost him his job. But to get those confessions, Fulcher was accused of breaching the guidelines of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) by failing to caution Halliwell and denying him access to a solicitor at the time the confessions were obtained. Halliwells father lived a few streets from the home of chef Claudia Lawrence, who has been missing since March 19, 2009. Speaking on To Catch A Serial Killer - With Trevor McDonald, Elaine said: Steve did what I think any family member would want an officer to do for them.. But who was driving the vehicle? It need never have been so. Jeff Pope's new ITV drama A Confession stars Martin Freeman as Detective Steve Fulcher, whose hunt for missing 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan led him into an extraordinary situation in 2011. Can you have a police force that simply ignores a serial killer?, Karen Edwards, the mother of Becky Godden-Edwards, commented: Had he have followed the guidelines, then Becky would never have been found, she would have never have come into the equation.. All I could do was try to keep him talking.. Detective Sergeant Steve Fulcher resigned from the police force in 2014 after he was found guilty of misconduct for not reading Halliwell his rights when he first confessed to killing. I couldnt believe it, he says. ITV's The Confession, tells the story of how Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher breached protocols to catch a killer. March 30, 2015 - Halliwell is charged with Miss Godden's murder. So clear, in fact, that there is a police manual The Kidnap Manual with precise guidelines. The decision almost derailed the case against the killer in court, and ultimately cost the detective his job. But I had my maths wrong. What that manual makes very clear is the primary crucial objective is the preservation of life, says Fulcher. Its taken all this time for Beckys case to come to court, he says. They have been fulsome in their support of a man they believe acted solely in their best interest. During the investigation, Detective Steve Fulcher broke police protocol and extracted not one, but two confessions from the killer. He lost his police pension worth 500,000, had to sell his house and now works training police in war-torn Somalia. Worse was to come: as the year unfolded, Fulcher learned that Halliwells legal team would attempt to get the charges thrown out on the basis that Fulcher had not adequately followed PACE guidelines. Place him under arrest and take him back into custody? Halliwell had been busy. Wiltshire Police have since issued a statement saying, There is no evidence whatsoever to link him to any other murder in this country. Officers arrested Halliwell, but rather than read him his rights, provide him with a lawyer and bring him to a police station, Det Supt Fulcher said he wanted to speak with Halliwell man-to-man.. According to the PACE rules, he should have cautioned the killer and given him access to a solicitor after discovering that Sian was dead. Yesterday he was sentenced to a full life sentence, a tariff reserved for those, like Moors Murderer Ian Brady, who are considered to be societys most dangerous. Common sense did not win the day. Steve Fulcher confronted by killer Christopher Halliwell in A Confession finale teaser. In the aftermath of Halliwells arrest, Fulcher was nominated for a Queens Police Medal the highest honour in policing for his work in extracting the brutal killers confession. I can understand what happened to Fulcher happened to Fulcher. While others insisted it was actually brilliant detective work, with the mothers of the victims praising DS Fulcher for finding their daughters. Steve is no longer working for Wiltshire police, having left the force back in 2014, but his decision to hand in his notice wasn't one he made lightly. This almost derailed the court case against Halliwell and called into question one of the most important principles of the criminal justice system. In September 2013, the Independent Police Complaints Commission found that Fulcher had a case to answer for gross misconduct for breaches of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and for ignoring force orders. Steve explained that Halliwell told him to drive them to a local beauty spot, a chalk white horse at Uffington - which turned out to be where he had dumped Sian O'Callaghan's body. In it, he argues that his actions were to preserve the life of a hostage, as he was working on the assumption OCallaghan could still be alive and that Halliwell could lead him to her. Joe Absolom plays the killer Christopher Halliwell. January 2003 - Becky Godden, then aged 20, is last seen alive after getting into a taxi outside Destiny & Desire nightclub in Swindon. ", GMB's Susanna Reid forced to change outfit after fears it was too 'racy' for morning TV, Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid has revealed she had to make last minute alterations to her dress after bosses and herself feared it was too racy for morning television, Who is Lisa Hogan? The disappearances of Tina Pryer, 39, Thi Hai Nguyen, 20, and Sandra Brewin, 21, have also been linked to the killer. Her boyfriend, Kevin Reape, raised the alarm at 9.45am the following morning when Sian hadn't turned up at . , updated When detective Steve Fulcher broke arrest guidelines to persuade a serial killer to admit murdering two women, his gamble was hailed as brilliant policing. The team found Sian's remains there. In January 2003Becky Godden, then aged 20, is last seen alive after getting into a taxi outside Destiny & Desire nightclub in Swindon. She and Halliwell lived on the same street. But back then it seems the Wiltshire Force was more preoccupied with a crusade against an officer for failing to follow procedure even when obeying that procedure could have prevented two grieving families gaining a terrible, final closure. I offered to give them full and frank disclosure immediately. 'He showed me a list of girls' names that he kept in his phone of those that trusted him as a taxi driver. Four months later, he resigned from the Wiltshire Police force. Look no further! I was desperately trying to keep the lines of communication open, wondering how much else he might tell me.. It was a terrible Catch 22. Thankfully, circumstantial and forensic evidence ensured Halliwell, 52, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 for killing Miss OCallaghan. He was only convicted of Becky's murder in 2016 after a new detective took over the investigation. The worst part, Fulcher says, is none of its surprising. Det Supt Sean Memory, the senior investigating officer in the Godden case, said after he was convicted in 2016 that Halliwell may have killed others. Its a race against time. A race against a backdrop of high emotions, too. If Im right, well I take comfort from the fact that he hasnt been able to do that since 2011. A murder trial began, and in 2016, after two hours of deliberation, a jury found Christopher Halliwell guilty of the murder of Becky Godden-Edwards. 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