
Man who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio dies
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
10 minutes ago
- BBC News
Five charged after investigation into double murder in Coventry
Four people have been charged with conspiracy to murder following a police investigation into the deaths of two men in Coventry seven years Robbins, aged 33, disappeared on 21 March 2018, and it is alleged he was tortured before being murdered. His body has never been death has been linked by detectives to the murder of Daniel Shaw, aged 28, who was found with gunshot injuries to his chest in Copland Place in the Tile Hill area, four days after Mr Robbins was last Midlands Police said the charges only relate to the death of Mr Robbins - with a fifth person charged with kidnap and false imprisonment. A spokesperson said detectives have so far not been able to gather sufficient evidence to charge anyone in relation to the death of Mr ShawThe five people were arrested in an early morning police operation at addresses in Coventry and Warwickshire on Jones, 26, and Ben Whyley, 36, have both been charged with kidnap, false imprisonment, wounding with intent and conspiracy to Doswell, 29, and Junior Makosso, 28, have both been charged with false imprisonment, wounding with intent and conspiracy to Young, 29, has been charged with kidnap and false five will appear at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on other people who were arrested or voluntarily interviewed last year as part of the investigation will face no further Investigating Officer Jenny Birch said: "This is a really significant development in our investigation into the deaths of Johnny and Daniel."We have said from the outset that we were absolutely committed to establishing the truth behind what happened to them, and that has been true throughout the many years we have been investigating."We have spoken to Johnny and Daniel's families today to update them on the latest developments and will continue to support them."Seven years have passed, and allegiances change. We still need people with information about what happened to do the right thing - pick up the phone and tell us what you know."Detectives are still appealing for information about the whereabouts of Ryan Hobday, from Coventry, who was 28 in 2018. He is wanted in connection with the murders, although officers believe he may also have been murdered. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.


Daily Mail
10 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
More Ted Bundy than Elliot Rodger - forensic psychologist and expert on serial killers unpacks the perverse fantasies of 'evil' Idaho killer Bryan Kohberger
Bryan Kohberger was driven by an extreme desire for control and notoriety rather than a blind hatred of women, forensic psychologist Dr Gary Brucato has told a new Mail podcast. Speaking to journalist and host Laura Collins, the violent crime expert saw shades of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy in Kohberger's murder of four college students in their rental home in Moscow, Idaho. Dr Brucato contrasted Kohberger's 'evil' psychosexual fantasies with the extreme misogyny that drove infamous incel murderer Elliot Rodger. Kohberger, 30, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary for the November 2022 killings but controversially accepted a plea deal in July 2025 to avoid the death penalty. Asked whether the victims' families' heartfelt statements at the sentencing would have any effect on Kohberger, Dr Brucato said he feared that for killers like him, such public grief becomes part of their fantasy. What dark fantasies drove a criminology student to butcher four college students? Find out on the Mail's On The Case: The Idaho Murders Speaking to journalist and host Laura Collins, the violent crime expert saw shades of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy in Kohberger's murder of four college students 'The families' approach was to try and get under his skin,' Dr Brucato said. 'That's because they had a sense that for a budding serial killer like Kohberger, the motive is to compensate for feelings of inadequacy. 'Those killers want to level the playing field through domination, control and manipulation of other people, usually in a psychosexual way, or in the playing out of some sort of fantasy. 'The idea is to tear them apart: to show that nothing that was done did that. That in the end, no one cares about you. That they've achieved no degree of notoriety beyond kind of a flash. I think that's terrific. 'But we must think about the kind of person this is, and I am afraid to say, he was like an automaton during those statements. 'Like a calculating machine – I wondered while he was sitting there he wasn't reliving in his mind what he had done, fantasising.' Brucato went on to describe Kohberger as a 'textbook serial killer' whose motivations, like Ted Bundy's, centred on control interwoven with sexual desire. Both killers were educated and superficially charming, the forensic psychologist observed, using their intelligence to carefully plan attacks on young women driven by fantasies of domination rather than obvious rage. Kohberger's interest in Bundy was well-documented - court documents reveal he had undertaken several Google searches on the serial killer before the murders took place. 'Control is really what this story is all about', Dr Brucato argued. 'Everything, even including this plea deal, seems to be about control. That's precisely why we feel so dissatisfied. 'Here's somebody who was arbitrating who lives and who dies, and ultimately managed to live himself, that's depressing. 'Kohberger is quite easy to figure out. His motives, as demonstrated in what was on the ground, are fairly classic. 'There are clues that this was psychosexual. Kohberger was viewing deeply disturbing pornography – and he clearly idolised sexually motivated serial killers. 'The greatest clue was that he purchased the knife months before there was even a victim selected. 'That means you have a fantasy, then you go out like a casting agent to find a person you can cast in your fantasy. 'A representative of the group he felt rejected by. Attractive young women – he homed in on a specific victim who was representative of that whole group.' Brucato said that the lack of personal relationship between Kohberger and his victims is particularly reminiscent of Bundy. 'A serial killer doesn't want a direct connection with his victim', the forensic psychologist said. 'There's a story about Ted Bundy that he once picked up a potential victim and she started talking too much about her life, her identity – that he dumped her because it was too difficult to project onto her.' Some media outlets initially compared Kohberger to incel killer Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who murdered six people in California in 2014 out of hatred toward women who rejected him. But asked by host Collins whether he sees validity in the comparison, Dr Brucato said Kohberger was more 'imitating Bundy' and doesn't meet the 'definition of an incel'. 'Bundy is much more of what Kohberger aspired to be', he told the podcast. 'The in-control person who knows how to use empathy to manipulate people. 'What you see in Kohberger was more that, when women would get near him, he wouldn't know what to do. 'If he ever got in an intimate moment, he would shut the woman down or condescend them or say something weird. 'He told a woman he went on a date with that he would like to tickle her, that she had great birthing hips. 'That's very different to an incel. An incel doesn't even get the opportunity.'


Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
UK-bound migrant is blasted to death 'by people smuggler who shot him seven times' in Dunkirk camp
A murder enquiry was launched in northern France today after a UK-bound migrant was shot seven times by suspected people smugglers. The deceased – a man in his late teens or early 20s – is the latest victim of a surge of shootings around a camp at Loon-Plage, on the outskirts of Dunkirk. 'He was hit by seven bullets,' said an investigating source on Monday. 'The camp was full of people hoping to get to Britain, when he was confronted by gunmen. 'Around twenty bullets were fired in all, and seven entered the man's body. Emergency service workers attended the scene, but they could not save him.' The Dunkirk prosecutor visited the crime scene, which on Monday was blocked off, and surrounded by armed police. The hunt was meanwhile launched for the 'suspected people smugglers' responsible for murder, said the source. It was the latest in a long list of shootings around Loon-Plage beach, from where small inflatable boats packed with migrants regularly set off for Britain. In June, a Sudanese man was shot dead and a mother-and-child wounded by suspected people smugglers the same camp. French anti-riot police officers stand guard as a migrant carries away his belongings before the destruction of buildings including a makeshift mosque and Evangelist Church, in the so-called 'Jungle' migrant cap in Calais, on February 1, 2016 The bloodbath unfolded when a gang opened fire on specific targets, while hitting passers-by. Two males – a man and a 17-year-old minor connected to a people smuggling gang – were then arrested, and face charges of 'murder by an organised gang' and 'attempted murder by an organised gang.' There were also charges related to possession of a range of weapons, believed to include pistols and rifles. Beyond the dead Sudanese man, three other men were seriously wounded and taken to hospital in Dunkirk. All of the violence is said to be linked to people smugglers 'settling scores' against those who do not pay them. The cost of a single voyage to Britain in a small boat is now as much as £1500 cash. In December, a gun enthusiast was charged with the murders of five men including UK-bound migrants around Loon Plage. Frenchman Paul Domis, 22, was remanded in custody after confessing to a lethal shooting spree in the area. During less than an hour of intense violence, Domis allegedly targeted three former colleagues, and two Iraqi-Kurds who had intended to get to Britain on small boats. Charlotte Huet, the Dunkirk prosecutor, said Domis faced 'life in prison' for 'three targetted assassinations' of men he knew, and two further charges of 'murder' of the migrants. Domis will be remanded in custody until a quintuple murder trial is held later this year, or in 2026. The Loon-Plage camp is an illegal one, but growing everyday as migrants from all over the world arrive. In the first half of this year, some 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK, up almost 50 per cent on the corresponding period last year. Numbers of what the British government calls 'irregular migrants' keep rising, with 638 arriving on the coast of England in the seven days to last Friday. Bruno Retailleau, France's Interior Minister, regularly pledges tougher action against the highly organised smuggling guns operating in northern France. He said: 'Our government will intensify the fight against these mafias who are getting rich by organising these crossings of death.'