Death Row killer leaves Dan Walker terrified with chilling Strictly Come Dancing comment
Former BBC Breakfast host Dan Walker appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 where he finsihed fifth - but it was not something he expected to be brought up when meeting a Death Row inmate
Dan Walker admitted to 'warming' to a double killer while filming for his latest documentary – despite being spooked when he mentioned Strictly Come Dancing.
The renowned newsreader travelled to Texas to learn more about capital punishment for his Channel 5 show Dead Man Walking: Dan Walker on Death Row. And it was here where he sat face to face with the infamous Charles Thompson.
Television presenter Dan, who spent 13 years on BBC Breakfast and starred in Strictly in 2021, said he had mixed feelings about the killer after the interview – but acknowledged he could have been manipulated.
Thompson shot his ex-girlfriend Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her boyfriend Darrren Cain, 30, in 1998 before escaping prison in 2005 after being sentenced to die - before he was eventually caught and returned to prison.
Sitting opposite Dan in The Allan B. Polunksy Unit in West Livingston, Texas, the killer said through a phone and a screen: 'It's nice to finally meet you. I have heard so much about you.'
Dan, clearly surprised, questioned this before Thompson said: 'Yeah, your reputation precedes you sir.' Asked if this was a good thing, the killer said: 'It's a good thing. I've even heard about Dancing with the Stars (the US version of Strictly Come Dancing) from my mates in England.'
Dan, taken aback, said: 'I didn't expect to turn up and for you to know all about me, Charles.' But Thompson said he always did his 'homework' and spoke to "excited" penpals in England about him. Reflecting on it, Dan said it was a 'bit disconcerting that Charles knows all about me'.
Thompson went on to complain that he spent most of his days in solitary confinement and that he gets just four hours a week outside of his cell.
He fumed: 'I am sure people have pets that get out of their cage more than that.' The criminal then reflected on the day he became a killer, describing it as a 'crime of passion' and 'two men fighting over a woman'.
'It was the worst day of my life,' he said. 'I regret it. I wish I could take it back. When this case happened 27 years ago, I was 27, almost 28, I was an alcoholic, I was strung out on cocaine, using hard drugs. I was still very immature for 27. I had a lot of anger issues and I was wild; I was out of control.'
Killing his former partner, Dennise, meant she left behind her only child, Wade, who was just 13 at the time.
And asked what he would say to her now, Thompson told Dan: 'I hope that she can forgive me for what happened - and I will see her again. And I like to believe that I have the chance at going to heaven too.
'I feel for the families, I feel for her son, I asked him to forgive me and he said he thinks the jury got the sentence right and he is waiting for it to be carried out so I had no choice but to accept that and some people can never move past it.
'And that's all I wanted for him - for him to be able to move past this. The biggest false thing that the criminal justice system sells people is that the death penalty will bring closure - it doesn't.'
Dan explained at the start of the documentary that he undertook the investigation after calls were made in the UK to bring back the death penalty.
This was after Axel Rudakubana was jailed for 52 years for the murder of three girls, Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe in Southport.
Dan went to Texas, the execution capital of America, to find out more, and the documentary saw him go to Huntsville, the country's busiest death chamber.
The last execution in the UK happened in 1964 - and since then 1600 have been killed by this method in America. And immediately after speaking to a death row inmate for the first time, Dan turned to the camera and said: 'He is gone. Back to solitary. That wasn't what I expected it to be.'
He later added: 'It is hard not to feel conflicted after meeting Charles. There is part of me that warmed to him. Is he truly sorry for his crime? It is also hard not to wonder if I was being manipulated by him.'
Trying to get more clarity, he then visited the victim's son, Wade, who was asked whether his mum's killer understood the gravity of what he did and what he had taken from him.
Responding, Wade, who testified in court when he was just 14, said: 'I don't know. I don't get the impression that he did, or does.'
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