[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: In the early morning
hours of the 15th of August 2017, a fire-and-rescue service
in the Northeast of England responded to a 999 call
reporting a car on fire. Inside the car, the body of
28-year-old mother of two, Quyen Ngoc Nguyen from Vietnam. ROBIN PERRIE: The flames
are so intense that her body had been fused into the
back seat of the car. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
This was an act that was premeditated and planned. NARRATOR: Her killers
were 50-year-old William McFall and 39-year-old Stephen
Unwin, two convicted murderers. It was the evil of all evils. They're just evil people. NARRATOR: The killers had
met in prison where they struck up a deadly friendship. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When Unwin
and McFall joined forces, they really amplified their
level of dangerousness and violence because it's
not just about committing crime and hurting
people now, it's about doing that
and performing it in front of another individual. NARRATOR: In her final
hour, their victim suffered unimaginable
pain and cruelty at the hands of Stephen
Unwin and William McFall, two of the world's
most evil killers. [theme music] In April 2018, Stephen
Unwin and William McFall were on trial in the Crown
Court at Newcastle, England for the brutal murder
of Quyen Nguyen. Unwin was also
charged with raping the 28-year-old from Vietnam. Covering the day-to-day
court proceedings was Northeast reporter for "The
Sun" newspaper, Robin Perrie. ROBIN PERRIE:
Quyen was subjected to a horrific assault. She was
attacked, beaten, strangled with a ligature, and
then quite horrifically, William McFall injected her
with a syringe full of whiskey. As she was incapacitated and
far too badly injured to escape, Unwin then subjected to her
a series of sexual assaults and raped her. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
This poor woman has lost her
innocence and her life eventually to these
two mindless thugs. And this wasn't just
an act of opportunism. NARRATOR: On the
25th of April 2018, Mr. Justice Morris sentenced
40-year-old Stephen Unwin and 51-year-old William
McFall to life in prison. ROBIN PERRIE: Both men
were given not just life terms but full life terms. They're two of only
approximately 60 people in the country who have
full life terms, which means they will never be released. They will die behind bars. WILLIAM MCFALL: Loving cheese! STEPHEN UNWIN:
[sinister laughter] Real cheese!
STEPHEN UNWIN: Aah! ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
They are considered among the most dangerous
criminals in the country. They are highly
likely to kill someone else, to harm someone else,
if they were ever released. NARRATOR: This was not the
first time Stephen Unwin and William McFall had killed. Both men were already
convicted murderers before they attacked Quyen. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think we
do need to take a step back and say, why on Earth
were these two men released in the first place? They took people's lives away. And the circumstances in which
those first murders happened were particularly heinous. NARRATOR: William McFall's story
begins in Northern Ireland. He was born in 1967 and
grew up in the small town of Greenisland near
Carrickfergus in County Antrim. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
These were quite turbulent times in
Northern Ireland so things weren't
particularly stable. There was always a
kind of fear in the air about what might happen next. And he's a child
who didn't really seem to have very much in
the way of sort of guidance, and direction, and discipline. So right from the word
go, he was kind of left to his own devices really. NARRATOR: Jimmy Smyth
knew McFall as a child. JIMMY SMYTH: My early
memories of McFall was just on the
boat in the estate with a pair of Wellington
boots on, a pair of shorts, and just-- just
like a feral child. He didn't seem to have
any friends at all, but everyone knew him. People did really avoid
him because he was just-- there was something not right. NARRATOR: McFall grew up with
two sisters and a brother. JIMMY SMYTH: McFall
and his older siblings seemed to have no discipline
in the house at all. You know, they just-- they
just ran wild, all of them. McFall always had a
weapon in his hand, whether it be a stick,
or a hammer, or a knife. Most bizarre one was a chainsaw. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: This really
does tell us that he wants to be seen as threatening. He attaches a value to violence. He wants other
people to fear him. JIMMY SMYTH: He wasn't really a
violent man with-- with anybody that could challenge him. But if it was someone weaker,
then yes, it would be violent. He would be very, very nasty,
very vindictive, you know. NARRATOR: There were early signs
that McFall was a troubled boy with tendencies to cruelty. JIMMY SMYTH: McFall
had an altercation with one of the teachers in
Silverstream Primary School. And later on that evening,
he broke into the school, went to the teacher's place,
toppling off fish tank, and killed all the
fish, and put them under desks, and between books,
and the old blackboard as well. Just really bizarre behavior. GEOFFREY WANSELL: There's
also a story that he killed 40 mice by beheading them. He was a brutal little boy,
a boy who set himself apart from the crowd by his ferocity. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
We do see this quite often in cases
of people who go on to commit horrendous murders. We look back at
their childhoods, and they do seem to have
animal cruelty within them. We know that he is using
animals to exercise power, to exercise control. When you are a small
child, you don't have really much physical
control over other people. JIMMY SMYTH: His
actual nickname was "Mad John" when he was a kid. That just stuck with him. NARRATOR: As a young
adult William "Mad John" McFall had several
convictions for violence and firearms offenses. GEOFFREY WANSELL: McFall
did what he wanted. But then, as he grew towards
the second half of his 20s, again in jail, he brags
to a fellow cellmate that he's gonna plot to rob
an elderly lady who lives, basically, a hundred yards from
his house whom he's convinced has loads of cash under a bed. NARRATOR: William McFall
lived on Station Road, not far from 86-year-old
Martha Gilmore. Martha was a frail woman
who had bad arthritis and struggled with movement. She relied on carers for help. And one of the carers
to visit her regularly was community nurse, Ann Scott. ANN SCOTT: She was
just a lady that-- I just hit it off with
her from the word go. And she was a lady that
I was very, very fond of. She did go out using
her two sticks, but she would have been very
slow, and she was very fragile. But fiercely independent and
always made me very welcome. NARRATOR: In the
early hours of Sunday, the 5th of May 1996,
McFall, armed with a hammer, went to Martha Gilmore's
semi-detached bungalow on Station Road with the
intention of burgling her. He hoped to find loads
of cash under her bed. He rang the doorbell. [doorbell dings] Nobody answered. ANN SCOTT: She'd
obviously been in bed. Because she was slow, because
of her reduced mobility, she was taken too long
to come to the door. GEOFFREY WANSELL: But of
course, McFall doesn't factor any of this into his thinking. Nobody comes to the door because
she can't get up very quickly. She's simply an old
lady who finds movement extremely difficult.
He rings the doorbell again, no response. So McFall breaks in. By this point, Martha
Gilmore has got up and gone into the hallway. Now McFall realizes that
the house isn't empty. He's convinced she
can identify him. After all, they live
about a hundred yards apart, so it's pretty
likely she could. So without hesitation,
he kills her. He hits her over the
head with a hammer. NARRATOR: McFall battered the
frail old woman three times on the back of the head. GEOFFREY WANSELL: This
is a violent young man who acts on instinct and
also has a vengeful temper. So rather than risk leaving
Martha alive, he kills her. But not only that. He then drags her
along the hallway so that he can get back
out of the door again. And on the way,
breaks her sternum. NARRATOR: McFall fled
the scene, leaving Martha dead in the hallway,
in a pool of her own blood. ANN SCOTT: The news
came on, and it said, an elderly lady
had been murdered. She lived in the Station
Road in Greenisland. And I know this
sounds ridiculous, but I just knew in my
heart that it was Martha. NARRATOR: McFall was arrested
within hours of the murder after police
discovered fingerprints on Martha's front door,
which matched those held on file for William McFall. JIMMY SMYTH: When
his name came up, I wasn't surprised that
McFall had killed her. It was obvious. The most striking thing
was the violence behind it. It's out of order,
killing an old woman. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: We often
find this in cases of killers like this individual. They-- they begin
by targeting very vulnerable people because
they are easier to control. It's almost like a
testing out, essentially, of a particular offense,
of a particular crime, to see if they can do it. ANN SCOTT: This lady who
was kind, who was gentle, who did nobody any harm,
who should have been safe in the sanctuary of her own
home, but no, it was invaded, and she was horribly
and brutally attacked. He didn't need to use a
hammer on a wee frail lady like Martha. He could have pushed
her out of his way. No one deserves to be
attacked like that, but Martha was particularly
defenseless, not only her age but her frailty as well, against
a young man wielding a hammer. It's despicable. NARRATOR: On the
11th of April 1997, William McFall was
sentenced to life in prison at Belfast Crown Court for
the murder of Martha Gilmore. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
This is a violent man truly given his just desserts,
a life sentence for murder. NARRATOR: McFall was sent to
HMS Swaleside in Kent, England, where he was housed with
like-minded individuals. During his time behind
bars, he shared a cell with Stephen Unwin. The two convicted killers
struck up a close friendship. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
Friendships within prison are an interesting thing. Because for some
people, they will not want to continue those
friendships when they get out because they want a
turn over a new leaf, they want to start again. But on the other hand,
prison friendships can often be the most
meaningful, the deepest attachment that somebody has
felt to another individual in their entire lives. And I think,
potentially, that's what we're looking at in this case. NARRATOR: Stephen Unwin's
story begins in 1978. He was born on the 16th
of February in Durham. He grew up with an older
sister in Fencehouses, a working-class village
near Sunderland, in the Northeast of England. Like McFall, he was a troubled
boy from an early age. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Unwin
is a face, if you like, in that local
criminal community. At 13, there was arson
on a heavy-goods vehicle. There's theft. There's another brush
with the law at 17. More burglary, more theft. Out of control would
be the contemporary way of describing him, bouncing
in and out of juvenile care. In the mid-1990s, when
Unwin was a teenager, he burgled the house
of an amputee of 72. COLIN DOBSON: Unwin
broke into his house. He forced a panel
on the front door. He went in downstairs. The chap was asleep
upstairs, obviously, taking his false leg off. Unwin stole some benefit books. But most remarkable
about this offense was that, all he had to do
was just leave the house. He hadn't been disturbed. What he then did, he
set five separate seats of fire downstairs. GEOFFREY WANSELL: It was
a crime of opportunity, but it also indicated
that he was prepared to try and cover his tracks
because the certain amount of arson was involved. And that became one of
Unwin's fingerprints. NARRATOR: Luckily, neighbors
were able to rescue the old man in time. Later that day,
Unwin was caught when he tried to cash in the books. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He is
engaging in quite lawless behavior from a very early age. These incidents happened
before he was 18 years old. So this shows
somebody who doesn't have respect for the law,
who likes to create chaos, essentially. GEOFFREY WANSELL: But the most
horrifying part of this story of the young life
of Stephen Unwin comes when he apparently
befriends an aged pharmacist called John Greenwell. COLIN DOBSON: He was 73 years
of age, a retired pharmacist. He was well respected
in the community. He knew one or
two young lads who used to run messages for him. Really, really nice
man from all accounts. NARRATOR: In the summer of 1998,
one of the neighborhood boys introduced 20-year-old
Stephen Unwin to the retired pharmacist. John had terminal cancer
and was often bedridden. He lived very close to
Unwin, who decided one day, he'd steal a few items
from the old man's house. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Unwin
burgles Greenwell, and steals, among other things,
a Zenit camera. A friend remonstrates with him
and says, you can't do that. You must return the
goods that you've stolen. And so a very
unrepentant, and in fact, I would say, probably
furious Unwin leaves what's he
stolen on the doorstep, including the Zenit camera. But now, Unwin's got a grudge. You're going to teach
Greenwell a lesson. NARRATOR: On the 25th
of December 1998, two uniformed police
officers on patrol spotted John Greenwell's
bungalow on fire. COLIN DOBSON: They
notified the fire brigade who attended
and after several hours, extinguished the blaze. And once they gained entry,
they realized that there was a body in the back room. He was lying on a
bed face up, and it was the body of Mr. Greenwell. NARRATOR: Colin Dobson was the
senior investigating officer on call that Christmas
bank holiday weekend. I knew that we were dealing
with a murder investigation once we saw the scene. Mr. Greenwell's body was
desecrated, badly burned. When the pathologist
carried out the post-mortem, it was quite evident
that he received several blows to the head. We think that he attacked
Mr. Greenwell as he lay in bed, using the Zenit camera. We also realized that he'd been
stabbed to the chest-- once to the chest. So the cause of
death was actually a fractured skull
and brain damage, as well as the stab wound. NARRATOR: Unwin set fire to
several parts of the house, including John's body. He stole a television
set and a VHS recorder. Shortly after Unwin had
set fire to John's home, the two police
officers on patrol had seen him pushing a
wheelie bin down the road and had stopped him. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
Where are you going? What you got there? He said, oh, I'm just returning
the VHS recorder for something. Well, that's suspicious,
to put it politely, and they watched what
house he goes into. NARRATOR: As the
officers walked on, they spotted John
Greenwell's bungalow on fire. It didn't take Colin
Dobson and his team long to connect the dots
between the fire and Unwin. They arrested him the same day. COLIN DOBSON: Once he was
arrested, and we did a check and we realized that he
had previous convictions, and indeed, he had two
previous convictions of arson. There's no doubt that
he was setting fire to the different
scenes to destroy evidence-- evidence
of contact, any DNA evidence, anything at all. No one had been arrested. We had no eyewitnesses. We had no forensic evidence. There was no CCTV in the area. Although he was a prime suspect,
we had to build up a case, you know. NARRATOR: But Unwin
made one vital mistake. He'd wrapped the VHS
recorder in a bin bag and taped it with sticky tape. COLIN DOBSON: The
beauty about this one was that our own scenes
of crime officers, they have found amongst the
debris a roll of Sellotape. The forensic science
service was able to see that the roll of Sellotape
was a physical match to the tape used on
the recovered bin line as we got back off Unwin. Not only that, there
was a fingerprint on the Sellotape wall which
was Unwin's fingerprint. When we got that
evidence, obviously, we placed Unwin in the property. There was no doubt
he was the person responsible for Mr.
Greenwell's savage murder, and we charged him with murder. NARRATOR: Stephen Unwin
pleaded guilty to the murder of 73-year-old pensioner
John Greenwell. On the 29th of October
1999, the 21-year-old was sentenced to life in prison
at Newcastle Crown Court. COLIN DOBSON: I was
watching Unwin at the time, and in my eyes, he showed
no remorse, whatsoever. At the end of Mr. Greenwell's
case, I was interviewed, and I remember saying quite
clearly that I thought Unwin was a very, very dangerous man. And I didn't say that lightly. NARRATOR: Stephen Unwin
and William McFall were both in their 20s when they
killed frail and defenseless pensioners. GEOFFREY WANSELL: One
question must always remain-- McFall and Unwin both
burgled elderly, very vulnerable people, why didn't
they just leave it at burglary? Why did they proceed to
kill Martha and John? What was it in their
nature, in their character, that drove them to kill? I would argue that it's
a propensity to violence and a propensity to murder
that exists in both men, which is why when you
add them together, they become even more dangerous. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
I think burglary's are a bit of a sideshow. It's what these crimes
are really about. They are about dominating
and controlling other people. And their victims were elderly. They were vulnerable. This really does add to the
gravity of their crimes. They're never going to go
after some muscle-bound man who is more than a match for them. They will always target
those who can't fight back. NARRATOR: William McFall
and Stephen Unwin, two convicted
killers, would meet and become friends in prison. Both men were released on
license after serving just 14 years of their life sentences. While Unwin was
still in prison, he got back in touch with a
girl he'd met as a teenager. To protect her identity,
Rachel is not her real name and her image has
been concealed. When I first met Stephen,
he was quite charming. You know, the typical
teenage charm and lot. Bit of joked a
lot, made us laugh, and we started dating
for a little bit. It's like a teenage sort of
summer romance kind of thing. And then, just end up
losing touch after that. When I first started talking
to Stephen back in prison, I didn't really
think much of it. A mutual friend got us
talking again through phone calls, and letters, and stuff. He had the charm when I was
speaking to him on the phone, made everything
seem like it was OK. NARRATOR: In December
2012, 34-year-old Stephen Unwin was
released on license to serve the remaining
years of his life sentence supervised by probation. RACHEL: When Stephen was
released from prison, he convinced everyone he
was a changed man, even his probation officer. Even she believed
that he was remorseful for what he'd done, that he was
never going to re-offend again. ROBIN PERRIE: He moved back
to his native Northeast and lived and worked in the
Sunderland area and the hotel and spring area where
he worked as a handyman carrying out maintenance
on properties. NARRATOR: By 2014, Rachel
and Unwin lived together and were expecting a daughter. RACHEL: When I first told
Stephen I was pregnant, he was quite excited. He was there through
the pregnancy, and he was there at
the birth as well. It was-- it was quite
good at the birth. NARRATOR: Family life
was great at first. RACHEL: Absolutely
doting dad, to be honest. He was a good dad, too. It's one thing I can see. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
Many men who engage in criminal and violent
behavior are fathers. And I would say that none
of them are good fathers. What they are very good
at is performing the role of the good father,
the doting father, because they're aware that that
is going to distract attention. NARRATOR: And Unwin
struggled to keep up the charade of the caring,
loving partner and dad. RACHEL: He was a
very jealous man. Stephen was abusive
a couple of times. Once, he got all of
us by the throat. Never hit us, but more
sort of mental abuse. Convinced I wasn't good
enough for anybody else, that I was his and his only. He was an angry man. He had lots of issues. Especially when he was drinking,
he become very, very angry just at everything and everyone. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I look at
Unwin's behavior and what I see is somebody who is a misogynist. Men like Unwin are
possessive and jealous in their relationships
with women because they see women
as their possessions, who are there to meet their needs. NARRATOR: While Unwin
was living with Rachel, he kept in touch with
his old cellmate William McFall, who'd moved to
Blackpool after his release from prison in 2010. RACHEL: Stephen used to
talk about McFall a lot. My first impression
of McFall was that he was just bonkers, basically. He liked to have a good laugh. He Like his drugs. He smoke cannabis. NARRATOR: But Rachael
soon realized, there was something about
McFall that didn't feel right. RACHEL: McFall was very scary. Just the way he looked,
that he had a lot of anger inside him, which
was really scary. I never felt safe around him. NARRATOR: The relationship
between Rachel and Unwin was becoming
increasingly strained. The couple eventually
broke up in December 2016. RACHEL: Final
separation from Stephen, I just had enough
of feeling the way I felt. I was never happy for
all he did on our little one, I wasn't happy with him. And I just said enough's enough. Rachel's departure from her
relationship with Stephen Unwin is significant. I think it unsettles
Unwin, and he doesn't quite know where to turn. The obvious person, of course,
is McFall, his close friend. And indeed, McFall cements
that by leaving Blackpool and moving to stay with Unwin. NARRATOR: By the summer
of 2017, McFall and Unwin, the two convicted killers
released on license, were living together
at St. Oswald's terrace in the
Houghton-le-Spring area near Sunderland. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When Unwin
and McFall joined forces, they really amplified the level
of dangerousness and violence because it's not just about
committing crime and hurting people now, it's about
doing that and performing it in front of another individual. So you have that competitive
element that's going on. NARRATOR: Unwin's and
McFall's behavior escalated. They stole substantial
cannabis crops and tried to get hold of guns. They were like a ticking
time bomb about to explode. In the early hours of
the 15th of August 2017, Tyne and Wear Fire
Service in England received what seemed to
be a routine 999 call. A car had been
spotted ablaze down a quiet lane near the
allotments behind Shiney Row in Houghton-le-Spring. But the inferno was
concealing a horrific secret. GEOFFREY WANSELL: When the fire
brigade finally extinguished the blaze, they do discover
what they think is the body of a child in the back. In fact, it's just
a very small woman. And it rapidly turns into
a murder investigation. ROBIN PERRIE: The flames are
so intense that horrific damage had been caused to her body. And when investigators were
able to get close to the car, they discovered
that her body had been fused into the back seat. NARRATOR: The car had been
burning for over an hour, and the dead body inside
was unidentifiable. ROBIN PERRIE: Initial
information came out from the police in
the normal fashion that journalists get to hear
about breaking news stories, but there was very little
detail to start with. It was a curious case. Not much information
was given initially. NARRATOR: A passport
and other documentation were recovered from
the burnt-out car, but police needed
more to identify the body on the back
seat of the black Audi. Later that morning,
Quynh Ngoc Nguyen woke up and realized
her sister Quyen had not come home the night before. ROBIN PERRIE: She tried to
contact her by mobile phone without success. And she alerted the
authorities and went out looking for her herself
without any success. And later in the day, she
was told the terrible news that Quyen's car had
been found burnt out and that there was
a body inside it. NARRATOR: Only dental
records could confirm that the body found
in the burnt-out car was that of her sister,
28-year-old mother of two, Quyen Ngoc Nguyen. Quyen was originally
from Vietnam. Little is known about her
life before she relocated to Birtley near Gateshead. ROBIN PERRIE: She arrived
in Britain in 2010 when she moved to London to
study business at a university. Following her studies, she moved
to the Northeast of England where she worked with
her sister in a nail bar. She also was involved
in the management of residential properties,
looking after them and sourcing tenants
for those properties. She was a caring, loving,
devoted, hard-working mother of two. All her working
hours, really, was spent providing for her family. NARRATOR: Thanks
to CCTV footage, police were quickly able to
retrace Quyen's final steps. ROBIN PERRIE: CCTV footage
was crucial to this case. And the first relevant
footage was at 6:12 PM when Quyen was seen
leaving Glitter Nails, the nail bar that she ran
with her sister in Gateshead. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
And then there's some more CCTV that shows
her outside the back of Unwin's house. NARRATOR: Quyen
had driven to St. Oswald's Terrace for a business
meeting with Stephen Unwin. ROBIN PERRIE: Quyen came
into contact with Unwin because she managed a number
of residential properties, and Unwin would
work as a handyman doing minor maintenance
jobs on these properties. McFall would work
for 50 pounds a day, helping Unwin in his job. Quyen and her sister spoke at
7:00 when her sister asked her when she would be
home that night, and Quyen explained
she would be late because she had some business to
attend to at a rental property. NARRATOR: At 7:24 PM, Quyen
arrived at St. Oswald's Terrace and was greeted
by Stephen Unwin. ROBIN PERRIE: This
is the last moment that Quyen is ever seen
alive by anyone other than Unwin and McFall. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
Unwin invites are in, having told McFall
to hide to conceal his existence in the house. ROBIN PERRIE: Once Quyen
entered the property, it isn't exactly known, apart
from by Unwin and McFall exactly what happened. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
Now precisely what happens next, and in
precisely what order, is a matter of conjecture. But we can be sure that Quyen,
this tiny, little Vietnamese woman, is subdued very quickly. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The
attack on Quyen happened over a number of hours. And at any point during
this time, either or both of these men could
have decided not to go any further, to
call it a day, to say, no, we're not doing
any more here. But they didn't. They followed it through. And I think they fed
off each other's energy when they were doing that. NARRATOR: Quyen was forced
to hand over her bank cards and reveal the PIN numbers. GEOFFREY WANSELL: So she's
been in their hands for hours, and she's been subjected to
the worst imaginable treatment. She's been just about allowed
to live so they can make sure they've got the right
PIN number so that she can, in a sense, give them money. NARRATOR: At 9:51 PM, Unwin
was seen getting into his van at St. Oswald's Terrace. ROBIN PERRIE: The CCTV camera at
the back of the house captured Unwin leaving the property and
then driving to a nearby Co-op where he used her bank
card to withdraw cash and then to go and buy
a bottle of spirits. Unwin when withdrew 500
pounds using Quyen's card. The PIN number she'd
given them was correct. GEOFFREY WANSELL: But then
the most horrific element of all emerges. NARRATOR: At 11:35 PM, the
CCTV at the back of the house captured more movement. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Shortly after
11:30 that evening in August 2017, the two men are
seen, again on CCTV, carrying Quyen's body
wrapped in a sheet to the back of
her car, her Audi. ROBIN PERRIE: Quyen
was very petite. She was only 5 foot
tall and 7 stones, and Unwin was clearly capable
of carrying her out McFall walked behind him, making sure
the sheet completely covered her body. GEOFFREY WANSELL: They
put her in the back seat and drive it not
terribly far away. ROBIN PERRIE: She was
still alive at this point, but only just. They then drove a short
distance around a mile away to a deserted
remote lane where they set fire to the car in an
attempt to cover their tracks. NARRATOR: While the fire
was taking hold of the car with Quyen lying gravely
injured in the back seat, Unwin and McFall
walked back home as if nothing had happened. Several CCTV cameras
picked up their whereabouts as they returned on
foot to St. Oswald's terrace to pick up Unwin's car. ROBIN PERRIE: 30 minutes after
killing Quyen and disposing of her body by setting
her car alight, they were in Unwin's Audi,
driving around the local area. NARRATOR: The men drove
to a local post office to use Quyen's
bank card once more and withdrew another 500 pounds. They returned to
St. Oswald's Terrace around the same time the
burning car was spotted and the fire service
was called at 12:34 AM. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The details
of how McFall and Unwin took Quyen in her own car to a
deserted road where they would then set fire to her body,
there are so many elements here of control, of possession. We have taken what
we wanted from you. We've had our fun with you. We're now going to destroy you. And we're going to
destroy something that's important to you as well. Your car is a symbol
of your success, and your independence,
and your accomplishments, so we're going to
get rid of that, too. NARRATOR: The next day,
Quyen's ruthless killers casually went shopping
and to the pub with no apparent fear of
being caught for their crimes. The CCTV images captured on the
evening of the 14th of August were the last time Quyen
Ngoc Nguyen was seen alive. Four hours later, her
dead body was discovered inside a burned-out car. ROBIN PERRIE: During the
four-hour ordeal in the house, when Quyen was
lying on the floor after being severely beaten and
when she was close to death, quite unbelievably, McFall
and Unwin then cooked a curry and casually ate it. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think
this shows us the absolute lack of empathy, the absolute
lack of attachment, of understanding of
other people's emotions and suffering that
these men have. They are just about fulfilling
their own basic needs. They cooked the curry
because they were hungry, they wanted something to eat. And the fact that somebody is
dying on the floor next to them is immaterial to them. NARRATOR: Thanks to CCTV,
the killers' whereabouts on the night of the murder
and the following day could be quickly retraced. The footage was damning. ROBIN PERRIE: The police
were onto them very quickly. Early investigations
led them to his door. He'd used Quyen's bank card to
withdraw money from her account and had bought some
spirits with it. And he'd been caught on
very CCTV in the area. GEOFFREY WANSELL: They
have left so much evidence, there is so much CCTV,
that it beg us to believe they haven't even thought
out any explanation for any of this action. Within 24 hours of
the attack on Quyen, the police arrested Unwin. McFall was actually
pulled into the inquiry early on as a
witness, initially, but he was very quickly
arrested as a suspect, as well. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Looking
at the evidence against them, it was incredibly compelling,
and it shows us how stupid these two were, as well. They're very brutish, they're
very primitive in a way because they're so
focused on the violence, they're so fixated
on that, that they're not really doing very much to-- to think about how they're
gonna get away with it. And that's why they don't. NARRATOR: Police also
analyzed the data on the men's mobile phones. The content was
highly incriminating. ROBIN PERRIE: Evidence was found
on the phones of them chatting to each other,
plotting the attack, going back a number of
weeks, and also of them communicating with each and
other people in the hours after Quyen had been murdered. Approximately half an hour after
they set fire to Quyen's car, and McFall took a selfie
of both of them in the car. McFall was smiling
on the selfie, seemingly without a
care in the world, and he sent that to a friend. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The fact
that this guy wanted to document this in a photograph, he wanted
to take a picture of himself at this time, this is
really significant. This is a sort of
decisive moment for him that he wants to
capture in a picture. It's almost a celebratory mood. Both men are charged
with the murder of Quyen. NARRATOR: News of
the murder spread through the local community. Unwin's ex-partner and mother
to his daughter was shocked. RACHEL: It was on
the local news. His picture got brought up,
and I just burst into tears. Just the thought that he'd
been in my life, really. NARRATOR: Only the day
before killing Quyen, Unwin's daughter had stayed with
him at St. Oswald's Terrace, as she did so on many weekends. RACHEL: Just before
the murder, Stephen had my daughter on the
Saturday night overnight. He came, dropped her
back off on the Sunday sort of late morning,
just seemed normal. Mr. McFall was also
sitting in the car, but hadn't gotten
out of the car. NARRATOR: Thanks to
overwhelming evidence, police were able
to shed some light on the horrific
events that took place on the night of the murder. It emerged that Quyen had
been sexually assaulted. Furthermore, she was
dragged through the house, beaten, and asphyxiated. ROBIN PERRIE: They obtained a
DNA sample using her toothbrush and a face mask that she had
previously used at the nail bar that she ran with her sister. And using that DNA
profile, they were then able to piece together what
had happened at the crime scene in Unwin's house. GEOFFREY WANSELL: As if there
could be the slightest doubt of Unwin and McFall's
guilt. Quyen's DNA is found on Unwin's tracksuit bottoms. It was the evidence
investigators needed to charge Stephen Unwin
with rape, as well as murder. ROBIN PERRIE: Police were
also able to prove that she'd been sexually abused
with a number of items, including a gas gun. NARRATOR: The forensics team
found Quyen's DNA on the barrel of McFall's gas
gun, and chillingly, on a toy light saber belonging
to Unwin's young daughter. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think
parents feel a particular kind of attachment to objects
that their children play with because these objects
represent innocence. But those parents are people
who have an emotional attachment to their children. I don't think that Unwin does. I don't think he has an
emotional attachment to anyone. So I think he would have
assaulted Quyen with whatever was there, essentially. NARRATOR: Six months
after the murder of Quyen, the trial began on the
20th of February 2018 at Newcastle Crown Court. The most striking thing
about their court case was their behavior in
court, especially McFall. He made a series of outbursts
throughout the trial. On one occasion, he made
a throat-cutting gesture towards the press bench. Unwin was a lot different. He seemed to be this quiet,
smoldering individual. He was clearly
capable of incredibly violent, dangerous acts. But he just seemed to sit there
with his very calm demeanor throughout the trial, as if he
was on trial for an incredibly minor offense. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
Behavior in the courtroom is always really revealing,
and this case is no exception. So Unwin was quite cool,
and calm, and collected. And I think that tells us
about his coldness, about how unaffected he is by things. McFall, on the other
hand, was the opposite end of the spectrum. He would write down,
and freak out, and make a scene on multiple occasions. And I think this tells us
a lot about the dynamic between these two-- Unwin is the puppet master,
McFall is the puppet. NARRATOR: The killers
were convinced they'd found a legal
loophole by which they could escape justice. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
They're both going to claim that the other one
did it to confuse the jury. ROBIN PERRIE: McFall's
version of events is that he walked
into the property and discovered Unwin raping
Quyen, and then strangling her. Unwin claimed the
polar opposite. He claimed he walked
into the property to find McFall strangling Quyen. GEOFFREY WANSELL: It's
an absolute cacophony of silliness, except it's
so awful, so serious. It demands to be treated as
it was, which is barbarism. NARRATOR: The jury
didn't fall for it and decided both
men were equally responsible for Quyen's murder. On the 25th of
April 2018, William McFall and Stephen
Unwin were given whole life prison sentences. This time, they will
never be released. ROBIN PERRIE: Anyone
connected with this case will remember it for many years
because the horrific degree of cruelty they both exhibited
towards Quyen and the way that they disposed of her body. There are no happy endings in
this case for Quyen's family at all, but one tiny
degree of comfort is them knowing that
they will never, ever be released from prison. GEOFFREY WANSELL: This meeting
of two murderous men, who meet by coincidence
in a jail cell, meant that they
were more dangerous together than they were apart. The treatment of Quyen,
literally, is heartbreaking. What she had to suffer
was all but unimaginable. NARRATOR: Stephen Unwin
and William McFall are ruthless killers
in their own right. They preyed on the
most vulnerable when they viciously
killed elderly pensioners. And when they joined
forces, the sadistic nature of their wicked
ways knew no bounds. They brutally murdered an
innocent young mother and set fire to her car while she
was still alive inside, all for their own
twisted gratification, making Stephen Unwin and William
McFall two of the world's most evil killers. [theme music] [audio logo]
