Crimewatch axed after three decades
LANDMARK crime-busting show BBC’s Crimewatch, which featured the Colin Pitchfork murders before his arrest, is being axed after 33 years.
The programme, currently hosted by Jeremy Vine and Tina Daheley, has featured many high profile cases, including Pitchfork’s slaying of Leicestershire teenagers Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth.
A reconstruction of 15-year-old Dawn’s last moments was filmed and screened in December 1986 following her death in July that year.
She had been raped and strangled and her body dumped in a field off Ten Pound Lane in Enderby. Similarities to the murder of Lynda Mann in 1983 meant the two incidents were immediately linked.
Leicestershire Police hoped the segment on the relatively new Crimewatch format might jolt memories. A suspect arrested in the investigation, Richard Buckland, had just been released after the pioneering work of DNA expert Sir Alec Jeffreys revealed he had no connection with the schoolgirls’ deaths, despite his confession.
And it was to be DNA, not the Crimewatch episode, which eventually snared the real killer, Newbold Verdon native Colin Pitchfork.
With little in the way of clues the force decided to persevere with the new DNA techniques to try and uncover the killer.
Almost 5,000 men across the county were required to give blood samples which were then tested against DNA samples taken from the victims.
Pitchfork attempted to evade capture by persuading a gullible work colleague to take the test for him.
It was only when this colleague was overheard talking about the deception in a pub and police alerted that Pitchfork was arrested. He was the first person to be jailed on DNA evidence and was told he would serve a minimum term of 30 years, later reduced on appeal to 28 years.
The 56-year-old was allowed out of prison with an escort in June but is now eligible for unsupervised day release, a move attacked by some experts and the schoolgirls’ families.
The BBC said in a statement: “We are incredibly proud of Crimewatch and the great work it has done over the years.
“This move will also allow us to create room for new innovative programmes in peak time on BBC One.
Three Crimewatch episodes have aired this year - in February and March - watched by an average of almost three million viewers.
That is down from 14 million who watched at its peak.