The Dying Art of Court Reporting

Beyond Depravity: The Death of Preston Davey

Last week Jamie Varley was given a whole life sentence for the murder of Preston Davey, a 13-month-old boy he was in the process of adopting with his boyfriend John McGowan-Fazakerley. I covered the trial, which heard shocking evidence that the little boy was sexually abused for weeks or months prior to his death. In this episode I tell you the full story, including the moving words of Preston's biological mother, but I have deliberately omitted the most obscene and disturbing evidence.

The Suiciders

This is an exclusive interview with Zac Law, from Yorkshire, who tells me how he discovered one day that one of his American friends on the app Discord, Travis Dyer (pictured), had killed himself and then later found out that three other people he knew on the app - including "Jimmy" - had played an active part in encouraging Travis to shoot himself and had even watched it on a videocall. Dylan Phelan - who was "Jimmy" - was jailed for six years on Friday (12 June) at Leeds Crown Court for encouraging Travis's suicide.

The Turks of London

I have been following the machinations of the Turkish and Kurdish underworld in London for almost a quarter of a century and this seems like the perfect time to tell the story. The reason I am doing this episode now is because of the conviction (on Friday 5 June) of Beytullah Gunduz, one of the leaders of the Hackney Turks - one of two violent feuding gangs in London. The other being the Tottenham Turks. So come with me as I explain the bitter history behind this feud and tell you about the recent extortion trial which ended with a guilty verdict for Gunduz.

Groomed: The Murder of Katie Simpson

Nicola Tallant, top Irish crime journalist and author of Groomed: Coercion, Control and a Cold-blooded Murder, joins me to discuss the horrific murder of Katie Simpson, a 21-year-old showjumper in Northern Ireland who fell into the clutches of Jonathan Cresswell, a horse trainer (pictured) who was also her brother-in-law. This is the government review she mentions in the episode: https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/publications/katie-simpson-review

The Dying Art of Court Reporting

Polly Rippon, a former court reporter with the Sheffield Star who now teaches journalism at Sheffield University, joins me to discuss the art of court reporting and why it is so important. We talk about why trials are covered differently than they were in the past, why it can be dangerous for untrained people to cover cases, and some of the social issues which have only been unearthed by court reporting. This, by the way, is the Sheffield case I mention during the first part of our talk. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1190207.stm