When The Lies Unravel: The Case Of Jessica Patel

on monday the 14th of may 2018 at 8 20 p.m a 999 call was made please emergency i think we've been burgled and my wife's we're on number 35 the avenue in middlesbrough right is that where your wife is now yeah well i've just come home i was just out i went to get like something to eat and see the lads go work and get my laptop come on the house is run back and she's just on the floor she's got duct tape all over her and she's like unconscious right now can she breathe yeah i am i am i am i am can i tell your name please okay i can't get it off i'm gonna get someone straight out okay how long will it be i'm gonna get them traveling on blue lights and we're gonna get an ambulance straight out as well okay you said your wife's is your wife breathing can you feel the pulse i can't feel anything my hands are really cold how long have you been out the house about an hour what's your wife called please listen we've got police traveling down now okay we've got police traveling down now yeah i've got the duct tape it was it was on the legs right by her and called him but on her arms and tied like she'd been tied up but how hungry is it cold are there any are there any um marks on her at all well i can see that from the neck like really dark neck she's been tied up by her hands and also tape around her legs yeah and marks around her neck yeah she's got like blood on the nose and like stop dripping out onto the floor and and she's not she's non-responsive no jess come on baby we've got mitesh mitesh listen to me please we've got we've got an ambulance coming they're traveling on blue lights as well okay and we've got we've got there's no there's nobody on scene there's a mitesh no there's nobody here okay what what ruby okay listen listen the police are outside can you let your police officers in jessica i'll leave her with you okay mitesh i'll leave you with the police officers okay [Music] the caller was 37 year old matesh patel he had come home and found his wife jessica had been brutally attacked cleveland police and paramedics rushed to the scene where jessica was found on the living room floor the community of linthorpe would be rocked as a disturbing case would begin to unfold jessica born in leeds in 1983 was the eldest of six children and her father described her as a calm and happy child who never caused any bother or trouble she was close to her family her sister manal was just 18 months apart from her and she described jessica as a fun and happy person she said i was always really close with jessica growing up she wasn't very loud but she was very nurturing in nature and she was definitely romantic she loved bollywood films and dreamed of having her own love story one day jessica had a deep desire to help other people and so wanted to be a pharmacist she attended de montfort university in the early 2000s and then manchester university after whilst at de montfort she had started a relationship with matash patel so when she had first met as a child the relationship ended shortly after but was later rekindled they both had similar backgrounds and came from large hindu families when they first started dating jessica's mother was unwell and matesh was there to support his partner thrivet showering her with gifts in july 2009 matesh and jessica were married after living with his family following the wedding the couple moved to lynnthorpe middlesbrough and bought the pharmacy on roman road although it was a busier area locals described it as safe and happy as they own the local pharmacy the patel soon became a big part of their community they also bought a house on the avenue which they did up and started their new life together the pair were well liked but also private with everything seemingly falling into place for them the next step was to start their own family as jessica was the oldest sibling she had strong maternal instincts and wanted to become a mother however this did not come easily to them they had fertility problems following several rounds of ivf they had frozen embryos at a darlington clinic monday the 14th of may 2018 began as normal mates and jessica went to work with her father stopping by the pharmacy he remembered seeing his daughter smiling and they agreed he would stop by again the following week bates took the earlier shift before heading to the gym later in the day at 8 20 pm the 999 call was made [Music] despite the best efforts of the emergency services at just 34 years old jessica was gone police have launched a murder investigation after a woman was found dead at her home in middlesbrough officers were called to a house on the avenue in linthorpe at 20 past eight on monday evening thirty-four-year-old jessica patel originally from the leeds area was found with serious injuries at an address in linthorpe and was pronounced dead at the scene manal said she received a call from her younger sister saying that something had happened in middlesbrough and that their father was on his way there as morning rolled around she woke up and her husband was sat on their bed and she immediately knew something was wrong he told her her beloved sister had died in the night she called her father who confirmed the heartbreaking news police quickly sealed off the crime scene to preserve any evidence and minimise any potential risk of cross-contamination matasha explained that jessica had been at work until around 7 pm and that evening he had gone to the pharmacy as he needed to collect his laptop after this he went to pick up some food a pizza from his local takeaway around half an hour after he left he was back at their house when he went inside jessica was on the floor in the living room by the window her hands and feet have been bound with duct tape she was cold and wasn't responding tape had been used to tie her feet and hands together the house had been ransacked three ambulances alongside police were on scene trying to ascertain exactly what had happened mitesh told police that he had only been gone for around half an hour leaving at 7 44 p.m the family was shattered they came together to support each other they travelled to be with matesh and manal said when she saw him he buried his head into her shoulder and began to sob it appeared that there was no sexual motive for the killing meaning police needed to try and find a motive who would want jessica dead and why the street woke up to a heavy police presence word began to spread that there had been a murder on the street the community could not believe it jessica was well known and well liked she was a big part of her community and people were incredibly fond of her as there was no sign of a forced entry police concluded she must have known her attacker and let them in so started to look at jessica's inner circle to rule people out the cctv from the pizza shop helped to establish a timeline it showed when matash was out giving them a time frame for jessica's murder a postmortem was conducted it revealed her cause of death was asphyxiation pressure had been applied to her neck and had also suggested that a ligature of some kind had been used on the thursday jessica's family was still with matash when they got a call from the family liaison officers who asked them to go home as they needed to speak to them they explained that they were arresting a suspect on suspicion of murder may 17 2018 a man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a woman in middlesbrough yesterday afternoon police arrested a 37 year old man in the west yorkshire police area on suspicion of murder following the death of 34 year old jessica patel in middlesbrough on monday the man remains in police custody mitesh patel was arrested jessica's family in the local community was stunned how could this seemingly loving husband and pillar of the community commit such a brutal offence during a search of the home police have found a hard drive in the bedroom the link to the house's cctv system something matesh had failed to mention the hard drive that stored the footage from the cameras was safely secured away in a cupboard so if someone were to break in they wouldn't be able to find the hard drive and destroy the footage but of course it wasn't there it was up in the bedroom officers checked the footage at 3 30 pm matesh arrived home from the gym and didn't leave the house jessica arrived home at 7 pm [Music] he left the house at 7 44 pm and returned at 8 15. however nobody else was seen on the footage going into or coming out of the house six minutes before he called emergency services the cctv had been disconnected a suitcase full of clothes was also found under the bed [Music] when police had conducted a search of the pharmacy they found jewellery 25 000 pounds and gold bars hidden in a safe they also found a plastic bag with 2 000 pounds in it police decided to delve deeper into his phone to try and build their case one of the things they looked at was the iphone health app that both he and jessica had used one feature of the iphone health app is that it can track a user's steps and heart rate it showed that in the minutes following the murder matesh's phone tracked him racing throughout the house from 7 04 pm jessica's didn't move 40 minutes later it showed that her phone moved 14 steps to outside mateship moved her phone so that it appeared it had been dropped by a burglar following the break-in when he returned home the health app showed that he had climbed the stairs before calling the emergency services a couple of minutes later it is believed that during this time he was hiding the cctv hard drive matash patel was subsequently charged with the murder of his wife he would plead not guilty mr justice goss would preside over the trial her sister manal would say that 95 of what came out in court her family were completely unprepared for as the trial of matash patel began the true nature of what had transpired would be laid bare and his web of lies would begin to unravel matesh confessed that he had been using the app grinder and other apps to meet men he told the court that in his culture using such apps was considered shameful he said i cannot explain how i felt it was the fear of being exposed as an asian gay man and i was going to let jess down one thing is the truth i have not anything to do with killing jessica [Music] but amongst those who worked at the pharmacy his use of grinder was an open secret they thought jessica was unaware but he was often seen on the app and was even captured on cctv in an embrace with a man he had met on there however jessica was aware of his extramarital affairs with men not long after their wedding he had began an affair with a male doctor dr amit patel the affair would continue for eight years with him repeatedly telling her that it was over amit had moved thousands of miles away to australia and despite his protestations it was over jessica would find mitesh on the phone with him she had confided in a family member about it explaining that matesh would be on the phone for hours with this man and that hers and matesh's sexual relationship was now non-existent several weeks before her death jessica found out he was back on grinder and other apps every day and meeting men and a few days before the murder he had met with a man and they had exchanged phone numbers mitesh said however he did not have sexual contact with this man the data from his phone also showed that he had been using the apps the day jessica had died after learning of the extent of his unfaithfulness and that he had brought men back to the marital home jessica didn't want to try another round of ivf nicholas campbell qc led the prosecution it was argued that this was a planned out and callous murder with mitesh researching for years how to sage a fake crime scene and how to commit the perfect murder when what had actually happened to jessica that night was laid bare it left the courtroom horrified she had been injected with insulin rendering her unable to fight back after this he began going around the house to stage the fake break-in it is believed that jessica likely stirred at this point as she was still alive matesh then suffocated her with a plastic bag the bag had been ripped indicating that jessica had desperately tried to rip it off her face during the attack matesh denied this saying they were happy and content together i didn't need other mates she was my best mate she was my wife i could tell her everything despite what he had said more damning evidence would emerge the court heard how he had changed his story first telling police he hadn't seen jessica since lunchtime then admitting to being in the house with her for around 42 minutes after she got back at 7 pm when data from his computer was analyzed it showed that over the past few years he had searched for how to hire a hitman in the uk plot to kill my wife and also insulin overdose these searches dated back to 2013. various life insurance policies have been taken out at different times totaling around 2 million pounds with the first one being made after he had made the computer searches it was his plan to murder his wife obtain the money from the life insurance policy take the embryo she had frozen and go to australia to be with amit there they would raise the child as their own when talking about the insurance policy nicholas campbell said he was planning to use the money to start a new life in australia and that life would be shared with the one person he really loved one who he regarded as his soul mates another man during a search of the house police found a list it detailed items that matesh wanted to take with him when he fled to australia the court heard how the staff at the pharmacy were perplexed with metasha's behavior following the murder when he went to the pharmacy on the night of the murder to pick up his laptop police believe jessica was already dead by this point and staff noticed three scratches on his neck he was seen by workers going into the pharmacy storeroom which wasn't a part of the building he would usually go into one of the workers said it was odd that he and matesh usually shook hands when seeing each other and on this occasion matesh did not a neighbor had had a conversation with matesh a week before jessica's murder they were talking about safety in the local area and matesh called his wife stupid saying she would open the door to anybody adding she'll end up being murdered in courts matasha's lies continued to be exposed it emerged that he had lied to his trainer and said that he and jessica shed baby twins together he said that after them being unable to start a family having three rounds of ivf was a source of shame for him in december 2012 her younger sister had seen messages between matesh and amit saying how much they loved each other menel said when we told jessica about the message from amit matesh blamed her for meddling and not trusting him [Music] jessica told her family to leave it and by the next year the couple had moved away to linthorpe minal said jessica was voicing concerns that matesh was spending a lot of time on his phone and would walk out of the room if she came in while he was on it she knew it wasn't right but he took his phone everywhere with him even into the toilet and she didn't know his passcode to check who he was talking to a teenager who worked at the pharmacy said that a few months prior to jessica's death he had shown the dark web to matesh drugs weapons and hitmen were all for sale matesh began taking notes he wanted to be able to get back to the sights they had seen the second time the pair went on the dark web matesh conducted searches for insulin and suicide in court he admitted he had seen a video detailing how long somebody would take to die from being strangled but he said he had watched it with jessica calling it ironic that they had seen it together he was still adamant that he hadn't been the one who had murdered jessica throughout the investigation police had uncovered more about this apparently happy couple ivf was an incredibly difficult and physically exhausting experience the investigation revealed that matash had secretly taken a drug that would suppress the sperm count making it improbable that jessica would conceive naturally her father later found out that matasha threatened to end the marriage if she did not continue with the ivf treatment in april 2016 she had confided in her gp that she felt pressure to conceive and subsequently had cognitive therapy she would later be prescribed medication for her depression and anxiety the truth about their relationship continued to come out not long after they had married jessica's grandfather had become ill and was nearing the end of his life jessica wanted to be with him and her family mitesh refused as they were driving one night jessica was begging him to let her be with her grandfather in response matesh hit her he'd also thrown a mobile phone at her and she was seen limping by pharmacy staff staff members in the pharmacy had also seen him shout at her and reduce her to tears by throwing and kicking things in the dispensary she had confided in a family member three months before her death the mateship put his hands around her neck as the abuse and control continued she became more and more withdrawn and isolated she was also losing weight nicola taylor a forensic scientist testified at the trial when the police arrived on scene they too had seen the scratch marks on his neck something he had attributed to his session at the gym dna from jessica's fingernails came back as a match to matesh showing that she had been the one to scratch him this wasn't the only dna evidence shown to the court his dna was also found on the plastic bag used to kill her and her blood and saliva was on the inside not only that his dna was also found on the tape that abound jessica's hands and feet despite the argument that it had got there when he pulled the tape off no other dna was found on it tape was found in the pharmacy and police believe that he had hidden it there when he had gone to collect his laptop nicholas campbell qc would later say in a documentary that when the tape that had been used to bind jessica was laid flat and compared to the tape found in the pharmacy it fit together like a jigsaw puzzle he had wrapped her hands and feet a minimum of four times the jury was shown his police interview in the interview he was asked about his movements that evening matesh didn't cooperate and offered no information he simply said there's nothing to tell after 12 days of trial it was time for the jury to deliberate and consider their verdict the jury would deliberate for just under three hours mitesh patel was found guilty jessica's sister divia read a statement on behalf of the family to the courts the one thing we hope and prayed for above anything else was that in her final moments she did not suffer the cruel reality is that she did in fact suffer she knew exactly who her killer was and he mercilessly ignored her attempts to fight for her own life as he ended it we can only imagine the fear and panic she must have felt knowing herself this was it thinking of that moment makes our hearts so heavy he received a sentence of life in prison with a minimum term of 30 years for his crime mr justice goss told him you are a selfish man business driven wanting a very successful life and wishing to retire at 40 you were also wanting to commit to a life with another man on your own terms and knew well knew that insurance policies would realize 2 million pounds on jessica's death mr justice goss explained that a 30-year minimum term was only used in cases where the crime was particularly severe adding this is such a case following his sentencing her family gave a statement since that tragic day of the 14th of may we have tied our brains into knots agonizing may have happened going through every scenario trying to put together a puzzle for which we had none of the pieces what we have learned over the last few weeks has been truly shocking and beyond even our worst nightmares it is still incomprehensible that this has happened and that she has gone a life sentence will never be enough we will never get jessica back and her dreams and wishes will remain unfulfilled however we as a family take some solace in that an element of justice has been served and that the right person has been convicted and will remain behind bars for decades to come we would like to thank everyone associated with this case who have worked tirelessly in aiding our fight to get justice for jessica the senior investigating officer family liaison officers and the team at cleveland police the cps the leading council mr campbell qc and junior council mr perks a huge amount of work has been undertaken to ensure the right outcome and we cannot find the words to express how immensely grateful we are for all their efforts we would also like to thank all our family and friends who have supported us through this extremely difficult time it is clearly it is clear just how loved jessica was by everyone that knew her jessica will never be forgotten and we hope and pray that she is at peace now we will always be a part of her as she will always be a part of us manal spoke of his crocodile tears after jessica's death i sat down on the sofa next to him and went to hug him and he immediately buried his head into my shoulder he held my dad's hand with the hands that had strangled and murdered his own daughter how could someone do that the case of matesh patel was a legal first in the united kingdom using an app to show someone's movements at the time a crime was committed following the trial a 74-page domestic homicide review was published in july 2020 by middlesbrough community safety partnership it gave further insight into the relationship and what could be done to stop cases like this from happening in the future it detailed how jessica had told her sister that she had been verbally abused by matashi's mother and that she was often being put down and degraded by matesh the report said this became repetitive and destroyed jessica's confidence the report stated that the move to lenthvop was likely another attempt by matesh to isolate her further from her family following the texts that had been found by divya from amit manal would second this saying when they moved to middlesbrough i saw less and less of jessica to me looking at it now it was a strategic move on his part so she didn't really have anyone at all near her it's now clear jessica was facing domestic abuse she was being emotionally abused and her mental state wasn't as well as it should have been the review also found that the gp jessica had spoken to had not probed about potential domestic abuse calling it a missed opportunity the homicide review stated her death was an honour killing divorce on the grounds that matesh was gay could never have been a reason for him to end his marriage consequently the only way matesh may have felt able to leave the marriage with honor was by killing jessica jessica did nothing that was or might be perceived as dishonorable however her death at the hands of matesh should be considered an honour killing because matesh killed her to try and protect his own honor a minimum of seven recommendations were made following the review including how reporting worries as a colleague might be improved how people could spot the signs of abuse and how professionals could better spot these signs too after the domestic homicide review was published jessica's family issued a statement we hope this review will help other victims those closest to them and the wider public to recognize the various forms and signs of abuse and will remove any barriers be it cultural or otherwise to seeking help and getting support they need as a family this review was an extremely painful process but we recognize the importance of highlighting jessica's story to try and provide a voice for her and others that may be suffering in silence so that this act of evil is not repeated we encourage everyone to open their eyes to ask questions and never assume everything is okay [Music] the murder of jessica patel was shocking and brutal she died in an appalling way at the hands of the man she had dedicated her life to [Music] she was a kind and giving person who cared deeply for other people her family said jessica was a rarity she was beautiful on the outside and even more so on the inside she had a truly selfless soul and afforded everyone she met with a kindness and generosity that was second to none jessica rest peacefully and know that we miss you and will love you always and forever [Music] if you've been affected by any of the issues raised in today's episode we have left links to further resources in the description box below [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Truly Criminal

Views: 1,558,337

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Id: 4bt3NfCSyT0

Length: 33min 33sec (2013 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 11 2022