[DRAMATIC MUSIC] MAN 1: It just
sounds like something bad is happening to her. NARRATOR: I heard her
scream, no, stop it. MAN 2: I heard some gunshots. MAN 3: Drop it! Whatever it is, drop it! MAN 4: That is not true
that I killed my wife. FEMALE 2: We know what
happened because the video tells us what happened. MAN 5: The camera doesn't lie. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NARRATOR: This time on "Killers
Caught on Camera," in Auckland, New Zealand, a
British backpacker is missing after
going on a date. AMBER HAQUE: When they
didn't hear back from her, this was an alarm bell for them. NARRATOR: As the cameras
track the suspect. The story that he's given
us, very plausible as it was, suddenly, it's not what
we've got on camera. And CCTV doesn't lie. NARRATOR: And in
Southampton in the UK, a young girl is the victim
of a predatory murder-- PAUL BARTON: She's got
multiple stab wounds. A number around the neck. NARRATOR: --in an attempt
to cover up a highly inappropriate relationship. PAUL BARTON: He only
had one intention, and that was to silence Lucy. [THEME MUSIC] [POLICE SIRENS WAILING] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NARRATOR: In the UK, close
to Billericay in Essex, lies the small
village of Ramsden Bellhouse, home to recent
graduate, Grace Millane. Amber Haque is a journalist
who covered the case. Grace Millane was a
21-year-old girl from Essex. She had just graduated from uni. She had a marketing
degree in 2018. NARRATOR: Grace had
two brothers and was extremely close to her family. After graduating from the
University of Lincoln, Grace decided to
travel the world. AMBER HAQUE: She
was about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime. Living her dream, traveling the
world, it's what so many of us have done at that age. You know you go
on your gap year. It's like the best feeling. NARRATOR: Grace spent six weeks
in South America traveling around Chile, Patagonia,
and Pearl before flying to Auckland, New Zealand. [SOMBER MUSIC] AMBER HAQUE: Throughout
the whole of the trip, she was constantly updating her
family and friends, pretty much daily check-ins, and it
was quite clear to them that she was having
the time of her life. NARRATOR: Grace was exploring
New Zealand's North Island and was going to spend her
22nd birthday in Auckland. But on her birthday, the
2nd of December 2018, Grace suddenly stopped
responding to messages. AMBER HAQUE: Naturally, her
mom and dad were sending her happy birthday messages. When they didn't
hear back from her, this was an alarm bell for them. They then decided
to alert the police. NARRATOR: Grace's
parents reported their daughter
missing on Wednesday the 5th of December 2018. Detective Inspector Scott
Beard took charge of the case. Grace had been missing
for basically five days. But the fact that she
hadn't contacted anybody on her birthday, and
nobody could contact her, that was a huge red flag. So one of the first things we
have to do is profile Grace. Who is she? You know, where's she from? Where she's staying? [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: It was a
race against time to identify and obtain
footage from any cameras that could lead them to Grace. She'd been staying at Base
Backpackers in Auckland. SCOTT BEARD: The
backpackers was the key. We have to work quickly to
obtain CCTV because some places don't hold it for too long. It gets overwritten
very quickly. So the CCTV phase
became crucial. NARRATOR: Detective
Adam Bicknell took the lead on the forensic
analysis of the recordings. ADAM BICKNELL: From
the CCTV, we're building a timeline of events
and what's happened, where it's happened, what time it is. So what we have is Grace
leaving the Base Backpackers to head up to SkyCity Hotel. She's wearing a black dress. The CCTV showed Grace taking
a picture of a Christmas tree outside the location,
sending it to her parents, and that was the last time
they made contact with her. NARRATOR: Police spoke
with one of Grace's friends in the UK, who told
them that Grace was on a date on the evening
of the 1st of December. AMBER HAQUE: Traveling can be
quite a full-on experience, can be quite lonely sometimes,
and one of the ways that Grace was kind of getting
around and meeting people was on the kind of popular
dating apps that are around. And the night
before her birthday, she had matched with
someone and decided to go out for a drink with him. NARRATOR: At 5:45 PM, on
Saturday the 1st of December, Grace was captured
on CCTV meeting a man at SkyCity,
a casino complex in the center of Auckland. AMBER HAQUE: They recognize
each other immediately. They give each other a hug. It seems a really friendly,
nice initial meeting. This place that they met
was a really public spot. It's the kind of place that
Grace will have felt safe. NARRATOR: Hundreds of hours
of CCTV footage was reviewed. And the police checked Grace's
social media for any clues. SCOTT BEARD: One of the
staff members looked at Grace's Facebook page. The last person to comment
on their Facebook page and on a photo of Grace was
a person named Jesse Shane. NARRATOR: Police contacted Jesse
Shane Kempson via social media and arranged an interview. JESSE SHANE KEMPSON:
We'd matched on Friday. SCOTT BEARD: He was very
comfortable, very polite. And he spoke and was interviewed
by Detective Ewen Settle. NARRATOR: Jesse was filmed by
multiple high-tech CCTV cameras meeting Grace at SkyCity on
Saturday the 1st of December. SCOTT BEARD: The CCTV
footage here from SkyCity is really interesting. They've got 360-degree cameras,
which means when you play it back, you can get
the camera to follow your subject, which is a pretty
cool piece of technology. So they're able to track
Grace and Mr. Kempson throughout the entire time
they were within the SkyCity building and environs. NARRATOR: Police asked
Jesse how the date went. JESSE SHANE KEMPSON: Um-- NARRATOR: After
SkyCity, Grace and Jesse headed to another bar. AMBER HAQUE: At the end of the
drinks at the second location, Jesse pays the bill again. You know, quite charming
behavior, obviously, trying to impress
her and make her feel romanced and kind
of looked after. NARRATOR: After
leaving the restaurant, Grace and Jesse went
to a third venue. AMBER HAQUE: They both
look really relaxed. We see Grace sat. And she's chatting,
talking really rapidly, and really looks quite
immersed in the conversation. NARRATOR: The
recordings show Grace and Jesse hugging and kissing. ADAM BICKNELL: This
is CCTV footage where we believe Grace texts one
of her friends back in England. AMBER HAQUE: And she says
to her from back home that she just can't believe
how well they're getting on. She said we rarely click. And that was the last message
that Grace ever sent anyone. NARRATOR: In his
police interview, Jesse described how his
date with Grace ended. SCOTT BEARD: He said that's
the last he saw of her. And then he went off to
some bar in the city. And he says he got
paralytically drunk. NARRATOR: Jesse told the police
what happened the next morning. At this point, Jesse was
just a person of interest, but the police needed
to check Jesse's DNA to eliminate him as a suspect. While Jesse was in
the interview room, the police made a
major breakthrough. In the first stage
of that interview, he was very plausible,
very believable. And we had nothing
to contradict that. It wasn't until later
in the interview when there was a break. One of the staff
on the CCTV phase had found footage of
Kempson coming down the lift and the
CityLife Hotel at 8:00 AM on that Sunday morning. ADAM BICKNELL: Jesse's seen
entering the lift off his level and exiting out
of CityLife Hotel. From there, he heads
to the warehouse store on Elliott Street. He immediately proceeds
to make his way to where luggage bags are for sale. And we can see
him in the footage perusing through the selection
of luggage bags there. And he selects the
largest bag there and wheels is off to the--
to the counter to pay for it. It identifies him clearly and
identifies what he's doing. NARRATOR: The footage
contradicted Jesse's statement. He said that he was asleep
until 9:00 or 10:00 AM, but he was captured
on camera at 8:00 AM. SCOTT BEARD: Is he lying to us? Is he mistaken? The story that he's given
us, very plausible as it was, suddenly, it's not what
we've got on camera. And CCTV doesn't lie. NARRATOR: Armed with this
critical piece of footage, the police confronted Jesse. Police later
checked Jesse's room and found an empty suitcase
but without any more substantial evidence, the
police had to release Jesse. SCOTT BEARD: At the time,
all we had was Jesse Kempson in that first interview what we
believed was telling us a lie. But that didn't prove
that he had done anything to anyone or to Grace. So in the United Kingdom, they
can hold someone for 48 hours. We don't have that, so we
either have sufficient a charge or we have to release them. So in this case, Jesse
Kempson was released. NARRATOR: Police continued to
sift through the CCTV footage from Jesse's apartment block. SCOTT BEARD: The CCTV phase
in that hotel, CityLife Hotel, becomes more crucial and just
our general investigation. You know, what's the
background of Jesse Kempson? AMBER HAQUE: So
Jesse Kempson was 26. He would tell people
that he had a law degree, and he was a
successful businessman. Jesse's family painted
this picture of him as being a bit of a
complex character. He had fallen out with his
dad two years previously. And he wasn't really talking
to much of his relatives at the time. His grandfather
made this comment. He said, he was a
really nice kid, but he would just constantly
fall out with people. NARRATOR: As the police
uncovered more footage from Jesse's
residents, it showed that he wasn't telling the truth
about how the date had ended. On the 1st of December,
Grace actually went up to Jesse's apartment. SCOTT BEARD: We see them
having left the Bluestone Room, cross over to outside
CityLife Hotel. They're arm-in-arm. Mr. Kempson's got his arm
around Grace's shoulder. She's holding onto his hand. You know, everything
appears to be fine. Grace is going back
over her own volition. This is a key moment in
time, 9:40 PM on Saturday the 1st of December 2018. Grace has entered this
left, exits on level 3. And it's the last
time she's seen alive. NARRATOR: Police continued
their forensic analysis of the footage. They needed to find out what
happened to Grace after she went into Jesse's room. [OMINOUS MUSIC] The recordings from the next
day aroused more suspicion. SCOTT BEARD: He
seen to buy bleach, cleaning gloves, some sponges,
general cleaning material. NARRATOR: A couple
of hours later, Jesse took a taxi
to Apex Car Rental and rented a car for 24 hours. Jesse was seen again at 2:53
PM leaving his apartment block. He was going on another
date with another woman he'd messaged on a dating app. SCOTT BEARD: This is a date that
Jesse goes on in the afternoon of Sunday the 2nd of December. So, you know, he spent the
morning buying a suitcase, getting some cleaning
product, and now he's headed off to another date. AMBER HAQUE: This woman who went
to meet him describes that he was quite intense but calm. He comes out with
this story where he says, oh, I
heard about this guy who got caught up in a case. He'd asked his girlfriend
to have rough sex with him, and it had ended badly. He'd ended up killing her. He came out with this
comment, the girl on the date, where he just said,
it's crazy how a guy can make one wrong
move and end up in jail for the rest of his life. It was quite a strange story to
come out with on a first date. This woman understandably
got very freaked out and didn't want to stay
kind of on the date. She left. But this all happened the
day after he'd been on a date with Grace. NARRATOR: Less than 24
hours after being last filmed with Grace, Jesse was
seen with an industrial carpet cleaner. ADAM BICKNELL: And we can see
Jesse entering into the lift. He's got the carpet cleaning
machine and a couple of different bottles of liquid
to clean up whatever mess he's got going on
in his apartment. He only has the
Rug Doctor up there for just under half an hour. NARRATOR: But as the
evening progressed, Jesse's actions became
even more alarming. He was seen taking an empty
luggage cart up to his room. Minutes later, he
returned to the elevator with it fully loaded. ADAM BICKNELL: It's
got a suitcase on it. And you can see, as he
wheels the luggage trolley into the lift from his apartment
floor, that it's heavy. He's had to physically
pull it around the corner to-- to get it into the lift. And Jesse was a--
he's a big guy. He's like 6 foot 1 or 2
and pretty solidly built, so he was strong, and
he had to maneuver that. I recall the chills
and the goosebumps when I saw that footage
for the first time. NARRATOR: Jesse was brought in
for questioning a second time. And his version of the night's
events completely changed. SCOTT BEARD: He
accepted that they'd gone back to his apartment,
they'd had consensual sex. It was rough sex because
that's what she wanted. And he must have
strangled her to death. And then he says, after the
rough sex and strangling her, he-- not realizing, he'd
gone to have a shower, fell asleep in the shower. The second interview was a
totally different contradictory interview. I saw it as self-serving. Yeah. It wasn't my fault.
She wanted it. And it just was an accident
that I strangled her to death. So in these kinds of
circumstances, what you're-- they're trying to do
is to blame the victim. And say, well, it's
because of her kink, it's because she
didn't know her limits, and I accidentally killed her. Diminishing your own blame
or trying to in the process. Whether or not that's
still an acceptable excuse and whether it
just is an excuse, probably, most of the time. It's conceivable that sometimes
sex games do go wrong. But that is up to you as a
person who's administering the strangulation to make
sure that you are not crossing that line, not
up to the person who's being strangled. Uh-huh. SCOTT BEARD: He panicked,
saw Grace down there, screamed, panicked. He was going to ring 111
but didn't press to call. NARRATOR: Jesse didn't
call anyone to help Grace. And, afterwards, his
online browsing revealed a sinister train of thought. AMBER HAQUE: The police
managed to try and piece together a bit of a timeline. And this was based on
Jesse's Google searches. They figured out that
Grace was probably killed before around 1:29 AM. And after that,
he was looking on hardcore pornographic websites. NARRATOR: Jesse was also
searching for hottest fire, rigor mortis, and the Waitakere
Ranges, a mountainous area west of Auckland. AMBER HAQUE: The police
found these images on Jesse's phone, which he had
taken of Grace's naked body after she was killed. They were described
as grossly indecent. And comprehending that he had
done that after killing her so senselessly and just taking that
last shred of dignity from her. And knowing her
family had to hear that and know that that
had happened to her is just unbelievable. NARRATOR: Jesse's actions didn't
correspond with his statement in the interview. Jesse was recorded
taking the suitcase down in the elevator at 9:30 PM. SCOTT BEARD: On the face
of it, when you see him with a luggage trolley
and the suitcases, it just looks like a suitcase
and a luggage trolley. But when you know
that Grace Millane is dead in one of those
suitcases, it's quite chilling, it's quite cold. NARRATOR: When police
recovered the CCTV footage, it showed a disturbing
sequence of events. Detectives were able to
locate the video footage from the store on Monday
the 3rd of December. ADAM BICKNELL: Here he is
returning to the counter. And he's got these
nuts and bolts. I think he's made that purchase
as a distraction to the fact that he's buying a spade. NARRATOR: After
buying the shovel, Jesse disappeared from
surveillance footage until he was seen at a
car wash four hours later. ADAM BICKNELL: He drives
into one of the wash bays. From here, he's going to get the
mats out, spray them cleaned, get the shovel out
to spray that clean. It's a rental car, you don't
need to clean rental cars. The rental car company
will do that at the end. And you can see him
washing the dirt off here and the brownness coming off. NARRATOR: Later, Jesse
explained exactly what happened between buying
the shovel and washing the car. SCOTT BEARD: He finds a car
layby where he can park. He drags the suitcase
into the bush only about probably 10
meters from the roadside. And he digs a shallow grave. And he brings the suitcase. NARRATOR: The police were
already one step ahead. They had been tracking Jesse's
movements on his cell phone. SCOTT BEARD: We had
found on his phone that that had been polling
up on the Waitakere Ranges. I was already speaking to
our search and rescue experts because it's not the first
time a body has been found buried in the Waitakere Ranges. NARRATOR: Grace's body
was found the next day in the Waitakere Range. SCOTT BEARD: We
were already close. We are about two minutes away. So when he described
the area, we were there before he actually
came out to point to it out. And I've always said that
we would have found Grace. Not as quickly, but we
would have found her. NARRATOR: After
Jesse was charged, the police needed to build a
watertight case against him. They discovered that Jesse
had bought a second suitcase on the 3rd of December. ADAM BICKNELL: We know,
obviously, that he's taken Grace in one suitcase. And he's bought the duplicate
to try and cover up his tracks. NARRATOR: Police also
uncovered another clip of Jesse throwing out a
bag filled with something. ADAM BICKNELL: We believe that
Grace's purse or bag and maybe some personal belongings. NARRATOR: Analysts also found
an alarming piece of footage from Grace and Jesse's date. ADAM BICKNELL: We see
Grace go to the toilet. He's grabbed her bag. He's opened her purse. And he's looking through Grace's
personal items and contents. Is he looking for cash, drugs,
information, identification? I don't know. NARRATOR: As well as the
incriminating footage, police also had evidence
from the scene of the crime. SCOTT BEARD: We'd done
the scene examination. We sprayed a chemical
called luminol, and that reacts with blood,
and the blood will glow. And when we did that
in this apartment, there was a significant
amount of blood. NARRATOR: On the
16th of January 2019, Jesse Kempson pleaded
not guilty to murder at the High Court in Auckland. A character emerged,
opportunistic and emotionally unpredictable. Our investigation
identified that Kempson was prolific on Tinder and
had numerous, numerous dates. We spoke to-- we'd like to think
virtually every single date he'd had on Tinder. You start to get this
pattern of how he operates, of what happens,
how he can switch from a Jekyll/Hyde scenario. He'd be nice,
pleasant one minute. Goes to the bathroom, comes
out, the next, and he's angry, and he's violent. I've always said
if it wasn't Grace, it would have been
someone else that Jesse Kempson would have killed. And, I think, I look at that
simply because of the evidence that we know from propensity
witnesses, who gave evidence, particularly, the
month beforehand where he suffocated
one of his dates and she thought she
was going to die. The defense case was that
this was rough sex gone wrong. It was accidental. The pathologist agreed
that the strangulation had to be for 5 to 10 minutes. It had to be sustained
and with pressure. That's not rough sex. And the jury convicted him
very quickly of murder. And that's what it was. NARRATOR: Jesse Kempson
was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced
to life in prison with a minimum non-parole
period of 17 years. Is he a psychopath? He's not. There's no emotion. He doesn't believe he's
done anything wrong. And that is
disappointing really. The CCTV, in this particular
case, was so crucial. You know, it told us the story. And we could follow
Grace's movements from the moment she
left the backpackers to the moment she got out the
lift up in the CityLife Hotel. But we could also follow
Kempson's movements before and then after. And, of course, that
proved all his lies. That proved that he was lying. We just keep recovering
the CCTV footage that was a gold mine for the inquiries. AMBER HAQUE: I think what kind
of stuck out about the story and just chimed
with so many people is the nature of what
happened to Grace. Like, you know, dating apps
and kind of the freedom that it gives us to sort of meet
people so casually and easily. It's-- I guess, it's
something where you put a lot of trust
in the stranger that you're going there to meet. And this was supposed to
be one of the most exciting chapters of Grace's life. An adventure of a lifetime. And to think she's traveled
halfway across the world so far away from a family. And that trip of a
lifetime ended up being the end of a life. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] NARRATOR: CCTV and
360-degree cameras were vital for the
New Zealand police to track Jesse
Kempson's movements and convict him of
Grace Millane's murder. Public transport is
peppered with cameras, as pervasive, digital
witnesses, like in the case of Lucy McHugh, where a camera
on a bus led to a breakthrough. [SOMBER MUSIC] Southampton, UK, home to
12-year-old Lucy McHugh. Bright, bubbly, and nicknamed
Brains by her grandmother. Paul Barton was a
Detective Superintendent with Hampshire police. PAUL BARTON: Lucy lived
at home with her mother. She was estranged from
her natural father. Mom had a new partner
who was 21 years of age. They had a baby between them. And Lucy had other siblings. So it's probably a bit
of a chaotic household. NARRATOR: In 2017, Lucy's
mother rented out a room to 25-year-old
Stephen Nicholson. Kirsty Bennett is a
criminal psychologist. KIRSTY BENNET: Stephen
was a tattoo artist but also a care worker. He was having a few
financial difficulties and struggling to pay his rent. They allowed him to move in. Stacey had actually got
Nicholson a job as a carer. NARRATOR: Stephen made
an immediate impression on 12-year-old Lucy. KIRSTY BENNET: Stephen likely
paid Lucy a lot of attention. And that was quite flattering. NARRATOR: Their
relationship quickly developed and became sexual. KIRSTY BENNET: At
Lucy's age, she wouldn't have realized that
that's highly inappropriate. And Stephen took full
advantage of that. A few people raised
concerns about Lucy and Stephen's relationship. It can be incredibly hard
for parents to accept the fact that their child is
being groomed because it feels like a parenting failure. So it feels like you
should have known, and so you might be defensive. Most of the time,
it is someone who you have at least some
relationship with, even if it's not a close one. And so you think
that you would have known if that person
was doing something terrible to your child. NARRATOR: But there
was growing tension between Lucy and Stephen. PAUL BARTON: Nicholson could
be quite moody and, you know, kind of would dismiss
Lucy the next minute. And that would
then get Lucy angry and there would be
arguments in the house. NARRATOR: By July 2018,
Stephen was no longer living with Lucy and her family. Lucy confided in her
cousin that she was scared of Stephen, who was violent. She was now 13 years old. PAUL BARTON: She had
actually been grounded. She had her mobile phone taken
away from her by her mother. But it was a school summer
holiday, so she was allowed out during the daytime hours. KIRSTY BENNET: On the
25th of July 2018, Lucy asked her mom if she
could go and visit her friend, which Stacey agreed to. NARRATOR: But as
evening approached, Lucy didn't come home, and
no one had heard from her. KIRSTY BENNET: And
Lucy wasn't picking up messages or phone calls. Stacey then rang
the police to notify them that Lucy was missing. NARRATOR: News spread quickly,
and Stephen texted Stacey. Early the next morning,
there was a grim discovery. Southampton Police Control
Room received a treble 9 call from a member of the
public, an individual who's walking his
dog in the area of Southampton Sports Center. So this is the
footpath that the dog walker used on that morning. He says his dog went off
track and went into the-- the undergrowth here. [SOMBER MUSIC] NARRATOR: Lying face down
was the body of a young girl. She was quickly
identified as Lucy. She had been stabbed 27 times. PAUL BARTON: She's got
multiple stab wounds, a number around the neck. One in her sternum, one on
the back of her shoulder, and then a number of small
wounds on her wrists, which we would say are
defensive injuries. NARRATOR: Detectives
sealed off the area. PAUL BARTON: We could see
there was blood on the leaves and on the trees, but
no obvious weapon. Lucy was wearing a
watch, so tend to rule out the motive of robbery. And she was fully clothed so,
again, you would eliminate a sexual element to the attack. NARRATOR: Investigators
retraced Lucy's steps in an effort to find
out who was responsible. Time is critical in
these investigations. And quite often, CCTV can be
overwritten within 24 hours. NARRATOR: A digital
forensics team was assigned to
process thousands of hours of CCTV footage. 8:59 that morning,
there's a camera just on the end of this house
here for private CCTV that picked up Lucy
entering this road and walking in this direction. So that was our first
sighting of Lucy. And then it's just a question
now just following up from this road to look
at the possible route she may have taken. NARRATOR: The camera had
picked up an important detail. PAUL BARTON: Now because she
didn't have a mobile phone, she asked her younger brother
if she could borrow his watch, which would indicate
that she needed to be somewhere at a particular time. So this first image
was really crucial. What it also gave us
was confirmation of what Lucy was wearing on the day. NARRATOR: As the
investigators continued to search through material,
more details and digital clues emerged. Dr. Vasileios Karagiannopoulos
is a cybercrime expert. VASILEIOS
KARAGIANNOPOULOS: We can see that she's holding a bottle
with some liquid in it that was also found in the crime scene. PAUL BARTON: What that tells me
is that It's likely that Lucy was killed in that location. She wasn't killed elsewhere and
then deposited in that location because the water bottle
was there as well. NARRATOR: Lucy was filmed
multiple times walking towards the Sports Center. It's about a two-mile
journey, I think, from her home address to the Sports Center. She's got her coat
under her arm. She's got a bottle in her hand. But she is walking with purpose. NARRATOR: As well as
examining the CCTV footage, police also searched
Lucy's bedroom for clues. PAUL BARTON: What we
uncovered very quickly is that she did hold a
diary, a private diary, that she was keeping. She made some notes
to indicate that she was potentially in a
sexual relationship with Stephen Nicholson. Some of the entries in there
were really, really concerning. Lucy had written him letters
asking him to buy some condoms, asking him to buy
a pregnancy kit. As far as the law is concerned,
that is statutory rape. NARRATOR: Stephen Nicholson
was brought in for questioning. PAUL BARTON: He acknowledged
that Lucy probably had a bit of a schoolgirl crush on him. But he said, you
know, she was a pain. You know, I-- I
didn't like her, I-- I always fell out with her. NARRATOR: The police wanted
to know Stephen's whereabouts on the day Lucy went missing. PAUL BARTON: He started giving
us an account as to what his movements were that day. He had gone to visit
an elderly gentleman, who lived not too far from
Southampton Sports Center. And he would go and do
his shopping for him. And so he said he went to visit
this chap at around about 9 o'clock that morning. NARRATOR: Detectives visited
the man to corroborate Stephen Nicholson's account. PAUL BARTON: He knew
who Nicholson was, but he would pretty much agree
with anything you put to him. He wasn't a credible
witness in that sense. And we couldn't rely on him. NARRATOR: On the morning
Lucy went missing, Stephen told the police
he'd left his phone in the home of the man
he cared for while he went shopping for him. He said he came back and
stayed there until 11:00 AM. The phone's GPS signal backed
up Stephen's version of events. KIRSTY BENNET: Initially,
Stephen's alibi seemed to check out. So it's really important that
the police are then going back through and trawling
through hours of CCTV to check where Stephen
was, and whether there was any crossing
between him and Lucy on the day she disappeared. NARRATOR: CCTV from
a local supermarket provided the police with the
breakthrough they needed. PAUL BARTON: We got
a small CCTV camera that's just on the outside
of the building looking out. It picked up Lucy at 9:28 in
the morning walking purposefully towards the Sports Center. And we believe that's probably
the last time she was seen alive and caught on camera. NARRATOR: The supermarket
cameras had also captured Stephen 26 minutes earlier. PAUL BARTON: No, I think he was
deliberately trying to catch himself on CCTV, so that
would support his alibi that he was in the area. NARRATOR: The supermarket
CCTV footage was crucial. Not only did it provide
the last sighting of Lucy, it placed Stephen in the area. There was another
recording of Stephen riding a bike at the Sports Center. VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
It's 9:39, and that's 10
minutes after we've seen Lucy walking
past the supermarket CCTV towards the Sports Center. This video is really important
because it places both Stephen and Lucy in the area. PAUL BARTON: What's significant
about this particular location is just in the distance
there where those trees are is the location where Nicholson
had visited this elderly man. It's almost in line of sight
of where Lucy was found, which is just up
there in the woods. NARRATOR: Doorbell
and dashcam footage was recovered, which
captured Stephen cycling home a couple of hours later. VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
Dashcam footage from vehicles, such as buses or
even private cars, is very, very useful
for investigators because it can pick
up movements that might not be evident
using CCTV camera, for example, that's more static. [OMINOUS MUSIC] NARRATOR: The footage
revealed a key detail. VASILEIOS
KARAGIANNOPOULOS: We see Stephen with a bag and
the bag being very full and cycling down the road. But as we kind of
followed those cameras on, there's this gap where we
just don't see him at all. Further on down the road,
we pick him up again. And sure enough, he's
there, he's riding his bike, he's got the Tesco bag. But, actually, when
we look at the bag, the contents look a lot slimmer. He's emptied that bag
of whatever was in it. But, more importantly,
we want to know where he's emptied that. NARRATOR: The digital
forensics team gained access to
Stephen's Google account and made a discovery. KIRSTY BENNET: If we put
the Google password in, we get all of his apps,
sort of, that he's using. And one particular app that
comes up is Google Fit. It operates off of GPS. It then mapped his journey home
and now showing this diversion going down towards a place
called Tanners Brook, which we hadn't picked up on
CCTV, and he hadn't mentioned in his account. NARRATOR: Tanner's
Brook is a wooded area, which borders a river
running through Southampton. It flows close to the other
woods near the Sports Center where Lucy's body was found. PAUL BARTON: We know that
he went into this area with a fairly full bag. And when he reappeared, there
was less items in there. Within the first few hours,
we had a stroke of luck. I had the phone
call from the search team saying they found
a significant find at this location. What they found was
some burnt boxer shorts, a blue, hooded sweater that
had apparent blood on it, and some tracksuit bottoms. NARRATOR: They also found
some blue latex gloves. PAUL BARTON: Nicholson,
being a carer, had access to those
sorts of gloves. They had apparent
blood on them as well. So all these items, we're going
to send off to the forensic lab for analysis. And within a few days,
we had the result that actually that DNA matched
Nicholson and Lucy McHugh. NARRATOR: Police finally
had enough evidence that Stephen had killed Lucy. PAUL BARTON: I think he was
fairly confident that he was going to get away with
this because he had the perfect alibi, you know. He was at an address
for the period of when Lucy was murdered. His phone supported him by
showing it was at this address. And he then gave us
a detailed account as to his movements afterwards. And was so confident
with that account, that he said, you
know, look on CCTV, you'll see me taking that route. But, actually, that
was his downfall because the CCTV didn't
cover all of the route that he said he had taken. The cameras, ultimately,
provide the truth. NARRATOR: On the
19th of July 2019, Stephen was found
guilty of murder at Winchester Crown Court. He was sentenced to a
minimum of 33 years. PAUL BARTON: I think she
had contacted him and said, you know unless you stay with
me or you treat me better, I'm going to tell my family,
and I'm going to tell, you know, the police or whoever that
we've been having sex. He only had one intention,
and that was to silence Lucy. [SOMBER MUSIC] I think we had over 10,000
hours of CCTV footage that needed viewing. That is painstaking,
but people do it because they are so motivated
to get justice for the victim. CCTV is so crucial
in any investigation. They say the camera never lies. KIRSTY BENNET: Lucy's case is
really tragic and upsetting because what we have
is a 12-year-old girl, who was infatuated
with somebody who was taking advantage of her. Lucy's murder is particularly
concerning because it's a child, which we
all have this desire to protect and look after. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
