Justice for Joanna
Joanna Simpson’s family are fighting to keep her killer husband behind bars…
THE BRITISH AIRWAYS KILLER Mon, 9pm (Wales, Wed, 11.15pm), & Thu, 9pm (Wales, 10.45pm), ITV1 Factual (box set, ITVX)
During the evening of Halloween 2010, Robert Brown bludgeoned his estranged wife Joanna Simpson with a claw hammer at her home in Ascot, Berkshire, while their children, then just 10 and nine, cowered next door.
The British Airways pilot then buried Joanna’s body in a makeshift grave he’d dug weeks earlier. It wasn’t until the following morning that she was reported missing.
‘A friend rang and said, “Have you spoken to Jo this morning?” He was told there was police tape around the house,’ says Joanna’s mum, Diana Parkes. ‘Straight away, I said, “He’s killed her.”’
The couple married in 1999 following a whirlwind romance, but Joanna soon realised she’d made a mistake. She was concerned by Brown’s behaviour and frightened of him, and they split in 2007. Brown killed Joanna a week before their divorce was finalised.
Brown was charged with murder, but at his trial in
2011, he was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and sentenced to 26 years.
Shockingly, Brown was due for automatic release last year after serving half his sentence, but after a campaign by Jo’s loved ones, the decision was blocked by the Lord Chancellor. Instead, Brown’s case will be heard by the parole board.
With access to unseen police interviews, this two-part series relives the brutal crime and hears from Joanna’s family and friends.
‘I still talk to Joanna,’ reveals Diana. ‘As the children have progressed through their lives, I tell her what they’ve been doing and say, “You’d be so proud of them.” She would be.’