‘My mind was filled with horror': This take on the Moors Murders is true crime at its best
That may well yet prove the case – it's a wonder Netflix didn't go big on Brady and Hindley years ago. However, accusations of sensationalism cannot be levelled at journalist Duncan Staff or his serious-minded and diligently unsettling new two-part series, The Moors Murders: A Search for Justice (BBC Two).
He quite correctly refused to add to the grisly mythology that has accumulated around Brady and Hindley, who murdered five children in and around Manchester between 1963 and 1965. His focus was instead on the victims, in particular 12-year-old Keith Bennett, the only one of the five whose place of burial remains undiscovered.
Staff has dedicated much of his professional life to holding Bray and Hindley to account for their wickedness. He corresponded with Hindley in prison before she died in 2002, hoping she would reveal Bennett's final resting place. He also wrote a book about the subject, The Lost Boy, and made a film with forensic archaeologist John Hunter, in which the two unsuccessfully searched Saddleworth Moor along with Bennett's brother, Alan.
A Search For Justice started with a new discovery – case files belonging to Brady and Hindley's defence team, which could potentially contain clues as to Bennett's ultimate fate. Staff was particularly invested in photographs taken by Brady of Saddleworth Moor that might indicate where he and Hindley had disposed of the body. 'People think, 'Oh, the Moor Murders, it's all in the past. The thing is done and dusted'. If you look at it, the case isn't closed,' he said. 'There have been so many missed opportunities. We can't let this be another one.'
He shared his theories about the Brady photographs with Hunter – likewise haunted by their failure to bring closure to the Bennett family – and called on the expertise of cold case specialist and former police detective Martin Slevin.
If the three shared a bleak bonhomie as they piled into a car and headed off for Saddleworth Moor, Staff was at pains to never portray the investigation as a bit of exciting derring-do. This was joyless work, as he was reminded when visiting the niece of another victim, Pauline Reade. Having presented Staff with a mug of tea, she politely but firmly criticised the lawyers for passing on the new files to a journalist. 'The evidence should come to the families,' she said. Humbled, Staff could only agree.
Part one concluded with an unhappy outing to the moors by the three investigators, who attempted to cross-reference Brady's photographs to uncover Bennett's resting place. 'When I was asked to come back, my mind was filled with horror,' said Hunter. 'This is not a place I like.'
It was a grim business, and the biggest compliment that can be paid A Search for Justice is that it evoked an unbearable dread from the outset. Netflix, take note: this was true crime done correctly, with a moral compass pointed always in the right direction.
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Times
18 minutes ago
- Times
Organised crime is suffocating our high streets
Time was, organised crime was something you only saw on TV. You'd read about drug busts and murders in the paper, but it was always in faraway places. Now, 'OC' as the police call it, is on our local high streets — upfront and in our faces — and it's making us angry. I'm talking, of course, about the surging numbers of shops selling counterfeit tobacco and vapes, Turkish-style barbers and car washes. The extent — the brazenness — of the criminality is shocking, undermining legitimate shops nearby and fuelling anti-immigrant populism. I recently spent a day with trading standards officers in Hull as they hunted for illegal tobacco with sniffer dogs. In all but one of the five shops they raided that day, they seized thousand of pounds-worth of fake fags and vapes. They knew they'd find it because, along with 80 other premises in the city, they'd busted them all before. They also knew that within days — if not hours — of us leaving, the crims would be back in business, plying their corner of the £5 billion-a-year fake tobacco trade. As we travelled in our unmarked cars from one job to the next, men standing outside shops would look startled and pick up their phones. 'Spotters,' the officers explained: they'd recognised our vehicles and were calling through to other shops in the area to warn them. Behind every illegal cigarette and roll-up lies a trail of misery: the trafficked slaves assembling the product in British and European towns; the women workers forced into sex with the bosses; the smuggled migrants toiling for hours under the floorboards of the shops, passing up hidden cigs to the till staff. The gangs pollute neighbourhoods, too. Outside Dodo's Mini Mart in Hull, whose roof was so riddled with hollowed out hidey holes for contraband it looked fit to fall in, rangy looking men gathered. As the officers carried out evidence bags the size of bin liners full of illegal tobacco, some shouted abuse at us, pointing their camera phones at our faces and number plates. Locals, perhaps, employed by the gangs to restock the hidey-holes with fake cigs once we'd left? Or simply smokers who like buying tobacco for a third of the price of the real thing? Contraband shops are antisocial behaviour magnets — be that children buying the cheap cigs and hanging around outside, drug dealing, or even violence. For local businesses, they are a disaster. Legitimate corner shops' tobacco sales vanish once word gets out that a £16 pack of 'Marlboro' is going for £4.50 a few doors down. And, for every regular smoker they lose, that's a string of lost sales of confectionery, crisps or fizzy drinks the customer used to buy with the fags. Illicit shops further damage honest rivals by subsidising price cuts on confectionery and groceries with the thousands of pounds a week they make selling fake baccy. Not to mention the tax, minimum wage and national insurance they avoid. • A tiny town, 14 salons. Why are barbers taking over the high street? Pretty soon, the law-abiding retailer will give up the lease and move on, leaving yet another boarded up shop for the leaching gangs to move into. Before you know it, you're left with a carnage of dodgy minimarts, empty shops and barbers of ill-repute, staffed by a ready supply of migrant workers. As families stay away, the high street asphyxiates. Can't we keep these criminals out of our once-bustling high streets? Of course, we can. We just need the commitment to do it. First off, trading standards officers should be given more powers quickly to shut lawbreaking premises, and for far longer than the three-month orders currently used. A year should do it. 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The Sun
18 minutes ago
- The Sun
We live on ‘Jeremy Kyle' estate plagued by masked yobs, stabbings & mass brawls – you don't want to be here after dark
FED-UP locals on a notorious estate say they are living in fear as masked yobs with knives and mass brawls plague the streets. Five years ago, the suburb was branded the 'Jeremy Kyle estate" for its violent spats and anti-social chaos, and was even previously slapped with a dispersal order by cops. 17 17 17 Residents living in poverty-stricken Firth Park in Sheffield say they have been subjected to feuds between warring gangs, with brawls and blade fights becoming a grim part of daily life. Locals who have dared to stick it out claim little has changed over the years, warning how the streets are now ruled by teen yobs who run riot without care for the law. Philip Jackson, 75, who has called Firth Road home his entire life, said: "Years ago, this used to be a decent place. You could leave your windows open, your keys in the car. Nobody would touch a thing. "People knew each other. We looked out for one another. "Now it's like a different world. You don't come down here after 6pm if you've got any sense. "You've got bikes racing up and down the streets, lads in balaclavas like they're Dick Turpin. "Women and kids don't feel safe. Anyone could be walking behind them carrying a knife. "People used to talk to each other. Now they keep their heads down." Firth Park and neighbouring Page Hall have suffered decades of decline since Sheffield's steel mills shut down in 2015. First Park alone has a crime rate that is 92 per cent higher than the rate for the entire city, according to StreetScan. We live in UK's 'worst' seaside town – tourists say it's rundown and crime is a problem but here's why locals love it And 33 per cent of people living in Firth Park over the age of 16 have no qualifications at all, statistics from the 2021 census showed. The areas have become notorious for gang violence and crime - with locals previously comparing it to the "Wild West". One resident even joked that living in the area was "better than having The Jeremy Kyle Show outside your front door". 17 17 17 MASS BRAWLS ON THE STREET Shocking examples of brutality are not hard to find. In 2023, gang members Andi Alushi and Valdemaras Kasinskas were jailed after holding two victims captive for 10 days in a house on Firth Park Road - forcing them to eat from dog bowls and dance at knifepoint. Three years earlier, dad-of-two Marcus Ramsey, 35, was murdered trying to break up a violent fight. He had tried to intervene in a brawl between his half-brother and two teens after one of them allegedly slashed his cousin. That same year, viral footage emerged of a mass brawl in Hinde House Road showing men and women hurling bricks, chairs and a wooden broom. Crowds were seen fighting and throwing objects near parked cars. While violent crime has fallen in Firth Park, police still logged 380 crimes in March alone - mostly for violent offences. 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South Yorkshire Police Inspector, Alec Gibbons, of Sheffield North East Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: "We regularly carry out high-visibility patrols in and around Firth Park, as well as having a dedicated PC and Police Community Support Officer for the area. "We know the importance of engaging with the local community and hold regular pop-up police stations across the North East NPT area - which provide us an opportunity for residents to raise any issues or concerns. "Work with our partners at Sheffield City Council is also consistently carried out - with the NPT conducting joint patrols with the Firth Park community team. "If you have any concerns, I encourage you to raise them to our officers and to report any crimes to us. Reporting incidents helps us in understanding ongoing issues in the area." 17 17
BreakingNews.ie
18 minutes ago
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Demonstrators detained by police in London during rival protests outside asylum hotel
Several demonstrators have been detained by police after rival groups gathered at a protest against the use of a hotel to accommodate asylum seekers. The Metropolitan Police has imposed conditions on a protest and counter-protest outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in Islington, north London. Advertisement People believed to be migrants earlier watched the protests from the hotel's windows, with some waving and blowing kisses as demonstrators chanted and banged drums in the street below. A group of counter protesters formed up outside the conditioned area and marched to Central Street. Officers prevented opposing groups coming together but those in the junction remain in breach of the conditions. Warnings are being given. Those who don't move will be arrested. — Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) August 2, 2025 A man wearing an England football shirt was detained by police after a confrontation with officers. A group of anti-fascist protesters blocked a junction outside the hotel. Officers then pushed into the crowd to detain several people, dragging them out by their arms and legs. Advertisement The group was then moved from the road and officers told them they were in breach of the conditions put on the demonstration, before forming a circle around the protesters. At about 3.30pm, police said there had been nine arrests, including seven on suspicion of breaching Public Order Act conditions. A protest and counter-protest is also taking place in Newcastle outside The New Bridge Hotel. Anti-immigration protesters outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel(PA) The Metropolitan Police said the protest against the use of the Islington hotel was organised by local residents under the banner 'Thistle Barbican needs to go – locals say no'. Advertisement A counter-protest, organised by Stand Up To Racism and supported by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, as well as other groups including Finsbury Park Mosque and Islington Labour Party, is also taking place. Police said the anti-asylum hotel protest had been 'endorsed by groups from outside the local community which is likely to increase the number of people attending'. Hotel residents watch from the windows (PA) Online groups that have voiced support for the protest include 'Patriots of Britain' and 'Together for the Children'. A counter-protester outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel said he wants migrants to 'feel safe' in the UK. Advertisement Student Pat Prendergast, 21, said: 'I want people to feel safe. I think the (rival protesters) over there are making people feel unsafe. 'I want to stand up in solidarity and say that, you know, we want people here. 'We want migrants. We want asylum seekers.' Police held masked protesters back in a line (PA) A noticeably smaller group of protesters waved union flags and held banners outside the hotel. Advertisement 'Get these scum off our streets', one man chanted in the direction of the hotel. A large group of masked protesters dressed in black chanting 'we are anti-fascist' appeared from a side street and marched towards the rival group outside the hotel. There were brief clashes before police rushed in to separate the two groups. The Metropolitan Police said plans were in place to 'respond to any protest activity in the vicinity of other hotels in London being used to accommodate asylum seekers'. Supporters of local protest group 'Thistle Barbican needs to go – locals say no' took part in the demo (PA) Conditions on the anti-asylum hotel protest include that anyone participating must remain within King Charles Square and that the assembly must not begin before 1pm and must conclude by 4pm. Police said conditions on the counter-protest include that participants must remain in Lever Street, near the junction with Central Street, and that the assembly must not begin before 12pm and must conclude by 4pm. 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About 100 people attended a protest outside the Stanwell Hotel in Spelthorne, Surrey, on Friday evening, during which a packet of lit firelighters was thrown at police, Surrey Police said. A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted arson and inquiries are ongoing to trace another suspect, the force said. Officers also arrested a man on suspicion of conspiracy to commit violent disorder and aggravated trespass following a protest at the same location on Thursday evening.
