Real Crime

Examination of the police investigation into the murder of Rachel Nickell, who was stabbed to death on Wimbledon Common in 1992. A crime for which, at the time of this programme, no one had ever been convicted. Former Detective Inspector Keith Pedder, who has since left the force, discusses his controversial and widely criticised handling of the case, and one-time suspect Colin Stagg reveals how it affected his life

In July 1996, 13-year-old Caroline Dickinson was on a school trip to France, staying at a youth hostel where she was raped and murdered - the killer escaped without anyone raising the alarm. The police arrested a homeless man who confessed to the crime, but by the time DNA tests had eliminated him, the trail had gone cold. This is the story of how Caroline's parents refused to let the case rest, and how a US Customs officer helped track down Francisco Montes, their daughter's killer

Walking home from football practice in Liverpool in August 2007, 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead. The incident caused an outpouring of sympathy and re-ignited fears that gun crime and gang-related violence were blighting Britain's streets. But behind the headlines lay a human tragedy as Rhys's parents Melanie and Stephen struggled with bafflement and grief. Real Crime's Mark Austin interviews the couple, whose decency shines amid the depressing details of the feckless lives led by Rhys's murderer Sean Mercer and his fellow gang-members and protectors. Melanie Jones recalls a blase Mercer and his cocky little group in the dock in court during their trial: "You'd think they were up for shoplifting." Mercer, 18, was jailed for 22 years. His co-accused were convicted of helping him to evade justice. They whooped with delight as they were sent down, says Stephen Jones, and his wife still cannot get to grips with their lives: "Why don't they aspire to be someone?"

As Peter Tobin faces sentencing for the murder of Dinah McNicol, Mark Austin speaks to criminologists, psychologists and those who have come face-to-face with the man to deduce whether Tobin is Britain's worst serial killer. The programme examines Tobin's past to see what drove the man to become a monster, talking to his two ex-wives and the women he befriended in the months before he killed Angelika Kluk. It also explores the first crime he was convicted of - the double rape of two young girls in 1993.

Peter and Gwenda Dixon were enjoying a hilltop walk in Pembrokeshire in 1989 when they were accosted, tied up and executed at point-blank range with a shotgun. In May this year their killer, John William Cooper, was found guilty of their murders and the 1985 slaying of siblings Richard and Helen Thomas. Real Crime looks at the forensic work that finally brought Cooper to justice. There are so many victims. Cooper had tried to shift blame for the Dixonsí murders on to his brutalised son, who says: ìOf all the things that he ever did to me, that was the lowest.î About this programme New series. The documentary returns, beginning with the case of John William Cooper, who murdered four people in Pembrokeshire in the 1980s. The crimes remained unsolved for more than 20 years, but Cooper was convicted in May following painstaking research and forensic analysis, which included the use of footage from his 1989 appearance on game show Bullseye.

The case of `jigsaw killer' Stephen Marshall, who murdered businessman Jeffrey Howe in March 2009 and scattered his body parts in locations around Hertfordshire and Leicestershire. Featuring interviews with police officers involved, the programme reveals how the grisly case was solved, with Marshall sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2010 and his girlfriend Sarah Bush jailed for three years and nine months for perverting the course of justice.