Serial Killer Documentary - Stephen Seddon

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6th of July, 2012, sale near Manchester, England. Pensioners Robert
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and Patricia Seddon were found shot dead. At first glance,
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the police thought Robert had killed his wife, then committed suicide,
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but forensic evidence revealed a more sinister plot.
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Bob could not have shot himself. He was not self-inflicted.
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Somebody else had been there who was responsible.
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The real killer was their son, 45-year-old Stephen Seddon. He
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mercilessly murdered his parents for money.
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Stephen was basically a parasite on his parents. Whatever they
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gave him, it was never enough. He had an unsearchable
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thirst for their money.
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He'd also tried to kill his parents and nephew in
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a car crash three and a half months earlier. But
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when they survived, Seddon even boasted about saving them on
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local news.
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I said, I'm going down here, Dad. He went, no!
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And he grabbed me, nailed onto me, nailed onto the car,
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and I got my second breath back.
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They love Sutton unconditionally.
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What makes him despicable is this determination that he wasn't
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going to stop until he'd killed his parents.
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He was a convicted fraudster who conned people out of
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thousands of pounds. He thought nothing of murdering his family
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for pure greed. That makes Stephen Seddon one of the
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world's most evil killers. MUSIC PLAYS When 68-year-old Robert Setton
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and his 65-year-old wife Patricia were found dead in their home,
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it sent shockwaves throughout the community. The quiet tree-lined suburbs
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of Sale in Greater Manchester had never seen anything like it.
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Patrick Hurst was one of the first reporters on the scene.
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The neighbours were just in shock, really. There was a
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lot of elderly neighbours on that road. They all knew
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each other. Bob and Pat had lived there for more
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than 20 years. and the neighbors just couldn't believe that
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this had happened and that they were both dead.
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Even more shocking was the news that came six days later.
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Their son, Stephen, had been arrested for their killing. Only
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three and a half months before their murders, he'd been
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held a local hero for saving his parents' lives, but
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it was an accident that he'd staged.
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At that point then, I decided the only way out
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of here is me smashing my way out.
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Painting himself as this kind of heroic figure who put
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all his own cares to the side so that he
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could act as the guardian angel to his parents and
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his nephew.
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People felt that they were taken in by Seddon because
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he was hailed as this hero. Everybody believed this story
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about him having saved his family.
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From a car that was submerged in a canal.
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And then to find out that was all an elaborate plan,
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people feel really, really deceived by this evil killer.
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Seddon had murdered the loving mother and father who'd raised him.
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What's so unique about this case is the fact that
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it's a parasite. And this refers to the killing of
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your parents. And this is one of the rarest forms
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of homicide.
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Stephen Seddon's a wicked and evil man who'd like to
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portray himself as a beloved son and a caring individual.
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But in fact, he'd actually murdered his parents in a
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really violent, brutal way just to get his hands on
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their money.
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This killer story begins on the 31st of August, 1966,
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in the village of Templey near Manchester. Seven months after
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Robert and Patricia Seddon got married, they brought a son, Stephen,
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into the world.
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They were reasonably middle-class type people. They wanted the best
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for their son, and there was really nothing extraordinary about
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Seddon's background or childhood.
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His dad worked as an engineer from one of the
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great British institutions, British Airways.
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His mum was a stay-at-home mum.
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This was, for all intents and purposes, a normal family,
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a traditional nuclear family.
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There's nothing untoward here going on whatsoever.
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His mother and father were a loving, unassuming, quiet couple
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who had given him as much as they can throughout
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his life.
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On 19th November 1967, young Stephen was joined by a
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baby sister, Leslie.
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I think they were a perfect, upright little family. In 1975,
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Leslie got ill. She started to have convulsions and she
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was diagnosed as an epileptic. That skewed the balance of
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the family quite radically. Suddenly, all the attention, both from Bob,
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the father, and Pat, the mother, was focused on Leslie.
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She required a lot of care and support from her
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mum and dad. I think that Seddon really didn't like
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that because he felt that that detracted from him.
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At the age of 13, young Seddon became difficult at
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home and out on the streets, he was a petty thief.
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When Seddon enters his teenage years, he starts engaging in
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some low-level crime. He gets involved with a rough gang
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of kids.
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And I think what he's.
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Doing there is saying, hey, look at me. You know,
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I can do whatever the hell I like. And I
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think part of it was attention-seeking.
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Stephen felt that he wanted to get his father Bob's attention.
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And one way of getting it was to have the
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police turn up at the door or to get called
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to the police station. So we have the first of
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a string of brushes with the law as a juvenile.
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Every kind of bad boy behavior, he was up to anything.
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The petty crimes escalated until in 1989 at Bolton Crown Court,
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Seddon was jailed for obtaining goods by deception and theft.
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When he was released, he made the decision to turn
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his life around, starting a career in sales.
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Seddon had, without question, the gift of the gap. He
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could put on a suit, he could smile a smile,
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certainly walk the walk and definitely talk the talk. He
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went in with a partner and started a company which
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was essentially offering small businesses a guarantee that they would
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get funding from international European bodies in exchange for a
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one-off fee of £ 300. What happened was that Stephen Seddon
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and his partner pocketed the £ 300 and didn't approach anybody.
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Seddon's sales skills were so impressive that more and more
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businesses fell for his scam, and unbelievably, within two years,
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the company was worth £ 5 million.
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This enabled Seddon to enjoy this high-flying lifestyle. He drove
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a Bentley, he stayed at very expensive hotels. So that
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gave him a taste for the high life. And this
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is an individual who's always had a sense of entitlement,
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always felt like he deserves particular things in life.
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Seddon, at this point, is flashing the cash. He's got
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what he'd always wanted. Draw attention to me. Look at me.
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Haven't I done well?
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What comes to mind is narcissism. He seemed to have
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an incredible need to be admired by other people. He
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wanted to be a big shot.
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He wanted the.
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Other people to look at him and say, whoa, he
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drives a Bentley. He has a boat. He couldn't go
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through life as an ordinary person or even a mildly
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successful person.
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He had to be extraordinary.
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And he'd do anything to achieve that goal.
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Robert and Patricia were proud that their son had made
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it as a multimillionaire. In 1996, he married and settled
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down to have a family.
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Seddon is the master of performance. He's very good at
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painting a particular picture. You have to crack beneath that
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veneer and see what's going on underneath it because people
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like Seddon are incredibly manipulative.
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They are incredibly charming. They give the appearance of.
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Being a likable individual. But underneath it, there's something incredibly toxic.
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Seddon's house of cards was about to collapse. A trading
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standards investigation exposed his company as a sham, and in
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March 2000, the 33-year-old was sentenced to one year in
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prison for fraud.
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The wheels have come off Stephen Seddon's contract. The great
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edifice that has been created is crumbling in front of
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his eyes. He goes to jail, but now his desire
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to recapture the high life really does kick in in
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every conceivable way.
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2002, Seaham in the northeast of England. Stephen Seddon had
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served a 12-month sentence for fraud and had lost his millions.
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His wife had just given birth to their third child,
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a son, so he had another mouth to feed.
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Saturn.
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Did have a massive slide very, very quickly downhill. He's
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gone from having millions in the bank and driving sports
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cars to having literally nothing. So he comes out of
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prison and he's unable to really ever hold down a
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job properly after that point because This is an individual
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who isn't just going to settle. He isn't just going
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to take a job in a supermarket. He's someone who
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thinks he deserves that life that he once had.
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On 7th September 2008, Robert and Patricia were hit with
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the most devastating news. Their epileptic daughter, Leslie, had suffered
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an extremely severe seizure.
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Unfortunately, at the age of 40, she died at the
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family home. and she had a son who had learning
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difficulties who Bob and Pat basically became the parents of.
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Bob and Pat were two very loving, giving individuals.
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They cared for Leslie's son, their grandson, and did the
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best by him.
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They would make sacrifices for their family.
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Their son, Stephen, had tried a string of jobs. even
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using his experience in the hard sell as a car salesman.
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But by 2011, the cash-strapped Seddon was unemployed, so he
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turned to his parents for help.
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Seddon is not capable of holding down a job now.
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In his mind, he's been hard done by. Bob and
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Pat are really generous to their son, Stephen. They help
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him buy a home, in the north-east of England to
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help him with a mortgage. They give him cash. They
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could not have been more generous.
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Robert and Patricia even dug into the equity of their
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own home to give their son nearly £ 46, 000 worth of loans.
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But you know what?
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It's never enough for him. It's not what he deserves.
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It's not what he's entitled to.
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He always wants more.
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A year after Leslie's death, Robert and Patricia changed their will.
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Seddon was made the sole beneficiary of his parents' £ 230, 000 property.
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He eventually would have gotten the money through inheritance, but
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he wasn't going to wait 10, 15, 20 years till
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his parents die. He wasn't going to do that.
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He wanted the money now.
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He wanted to be a big shot now.
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He's going to get that inheritance any way he can,
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by hook or by crook. Perhaps typically for a con man,
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he decides on the most ludicrous plan. He's going to
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kill Bob and Pat, and he comes up with the
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most extraordinary scheme.
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After carefully studying a TV survival show on how to
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escape from a car submerged in water, Seddon hatched a
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cunning plan. On 20th March 2012, he'd stage a tragic
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accident that would kill both parents and his 17-year-old nephew.
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Then he would claim his inheritance.
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Under the guise of saying thank you to his parents
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for giving him money and having a belated Mother's Day celebration,
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he invites everybody out for a meal and he picks
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them up in a car that he's hired.
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In the car, Seddon had tools on standby to make
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good his own escape.
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Not only has he brought with him a sharp knife
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to cut his seatbelt so that he can get out
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of the car's window, but he's also brought a crook lock.
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This car's new. BMW doesn't need a crook lock. It's
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all sorts of automatic safety devices. He's brought the crook
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lock to break the window so that he can get
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out of the car while the others drowned.
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Seddon drove alongside Timperley's Bridgewater Canal with his mum, dad
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and nephew. When he reached a stretch of water with
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no crash barrier, he suddenly put his plan into action.
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During this drive, he's driving a bit erratically, he's saying
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that he's got chest pains and this ends up in
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him driving the car into a canal. He used that
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crook lock to smash his way out of the vehicle
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when it was sinking in the canal.
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Stephen was able to get out, but he got on
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top of the car and he was actually trying to
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sink the car, but then the crowd appeared on the
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canal side.
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Despite Seddon's best attempts, things were not going according to plan.
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People had started to notice that he wasn't doing anything
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to help his family inside the car.
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Many of the witnesses to this said, get off the roof,
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it's making the car sink quicker.
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It really does start to look very, very concerning.
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With witnesses on the riverbank now watching his every move,
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he had to abort his murderous plan.
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He accepts what is now inevitable, that they've called the
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ambulance and the fire brigade because there's a car in
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the canal. So now he's got to live out this fantasy.
246
00:15:16.389 --> 00:15:20.090
He breaks the window, rescues his nephew from the front seat,
247
00:15:20.509 --> 00:15:24.590
who plunges into the canal, not able to swim. Stephen
248
00:15:24.610 --> 00:15:28.360
Seddon is able to swim, finally gets his nephew out
249
00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:32.460
of the canal onto the bank. He also manages to
250
00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.759
get his father, Bob, out of the back seat of
251
00:15:34.779 --> 00:15:40.440
the car. By now, this car is progressively sinking into
252
00:15:40.460 --> 00:15:40.720
the canal.
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00:15:41.649 --> 00:15:46.500
With the car now underwater, 65-year-old Patricia was still stuck
254
00:15:46.549 --> 00:15:49.539
in the back seat and had run out of air.
255
00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:53.919
Her heart had stopped beating. The fire brigade arrived just
256
00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:54.500
in time.
257
00:15:55.259 --> 00:16:00.110
Miraculously, and it is truly miraculous, they managed to extract
258
00:16:00.210 --> 00:16:03.250
Pat from the back of the BMW, get her onto
259
00:16:03.289 --> 00:16:06.590
the bank and they give her CPR. They bring her
260
00:16:06.610 --> 00:16:10.289
back to life, literally. She had stopped breathing. It was
261
00:16:10.309 --> 00:16:16.100
a an extraordinary rescue, of which, of course, Stephen then
262
00:16:16.139 --> 00:16:18.299
decides to paint himself as hero.
263
00:16:19.539 --> 00:16:23.269
To avoid any blame for the crash, Seddon indulged in
264
00:16:23.309 --> 00:16:25.230
some more amateur dramatics.
265
00:16:26.230 --> 00:16:29.529
When the police turned up, he feigned some sort of
266
00:16:30.009 --> 00:16:34.009
cardiac event again. He started clutching at his chest and collapsed.
267
00:16:35.590 --> 00:16:38.230
So he was sent to hospital and tests were carried out,
268
00:16:38.509 --> 00:16:42.460
and those tests came back There was no issues detected whatsoever.
269
00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:47.350
So he's playing this role as a victim himself, essentially,
270
00:16:47.629 --> 00:16:49.230
and it works, unfortunately.
271
00:16:49.250 --> 00:16:52.169
I went to the scene of the canal crash, and
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00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:55.370
it was apparent that it was the only part of
273
00:16:55.409 --> 00:16:56.950
the road, the only stretch of the road where there
274
00:16:56.970 --> 00:16:59.309
wasn't a crash barrier on the side of the canal.
275
00:16:59.629 --> 00:17:02.909
But at the time, no one thought it was suspicious.
276
00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:08.000
Seddon hadn't achieved the outcome that he wanted. His parents
277
00:17:08.039 --> 00:17:10.940
were still alive. He didn't have access to their money.
278
00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:14.380
But he did have an awful lot of attention, and
279
00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:18.339
the narcissistic element of his personality was really enjoying that.
280
00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:22.900
The press hailed the man who saved his family's lives
281
00:17:23.009 --> 00:17:28.269
a local hero. Stephen Seddon also appeared on BBC TV News.
282
00:17:28.769 --> 00:17:33.410
Reporter Stuart Flinders interviewed him two days after the crash.
283
00:17:34.259 --> 00:17:37.559
On the face of it, this was a dramatic rescue story.
284
00:17:38.019 --> 00:17:42.240
A couple drowning in their car. Their son hauls them out,
285
00:17:42.289 --> 00:17:44.130
drags them to safety. He's the hero.
286
00:17:45.369 --> 00:17:49.450
Seddon seemed keen to put his fake heroics on the record.
287
00:17:50.210 --> 00:17:53.329
I said to Dad, wait, and I swam back. I
288
00:17:53.349 --> 00:17:55.650
got back to him then, but then I'd run out
289
00:17:55.670 --> 00:17:59.170
of steam. It was like a 200-yard swim in cold water,
290
00:17:59.910 --> 00:18:02.039
doing what you had to do with the exertion. And
291
00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:03.839
I just looked at his face like that and I said,
292
00:18:03.859 --> 00:18:04.700
I'm going down here, Dad.
293
00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:06.460
And he went, no!
294
00:18:06.849 --> 00:18:09.029
And he grabbed me, nailed onto me, nailed onto the
295
00:18:09.069 --> 00:18:10.950
car and I got my second breath back.
296
00:18:11.269 --> 00:18:13.250
He was a good talker from our point of view.
297
00:18:13.289 --> 00:18:15.849
He was very animated. He told a very dramatic story
298
00:18:16.329 --> 00:18:18.829
about how the whole car had tumbled into the water
299
00:18:18.849 --> 00:18:20.910
and as it was sinking, he managed to get on
300
00:18:20.930 --> 00:18:23.309
the roof and he hauled his parents out. He got
301
00:18:23.329 --> 00:18:24.390
them to safety.
302
00:18:24.410 --> 00:18:26.910
He was going, please get me out, get me out.
303
00:18:26.970 --> 00:18:28.819
I said, Mummy, you'll be all right, you'll be all right.
304
00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:31.759
He was... very much a sort of Jack the Lad
305
00:18:31.819 --> 00:18:35.039
and very talkative and communicative and perfect for what we
306
00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:38.339
needed as a storyteller, I took it at face value.
307
00:18:38.420 --> 00:18:40.400
I thought the story was genuine and I had no
308
00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:41.660
reason to believe otherwise.
309
00:18:42.930 --> 00:18:45.349
I'm not the hero. I save people who I love,
310
00:18:45.369 --> 00:18:48.109
do you know what I mean? That's what you do,
311
00:18:48.170 --> 00:18:49.730
you know what I mean? But the firefighter dove in
312
00:18:49.789 --> 00:18:51.029
and saved a complete stranger.
313
00:18:51.769 --> 00:18:55.579
Whilst Seddon the salesman told a tall story, his father
314
00:18:55.660 --> 00:18:58.099
Robert reflected on his lucky escape.
315
00:18:58.910 --> 00:19:01.569
Seddon and his father sat side by side on a
316
00:19:01.609 --> 00:19:05.470
sofa opposite me. Seddon's father said very little. Occasionally he
317
00:19:05.529 --> 00:19:08.710
would lean across and pat his son on the knee
318
00:19:08.750 --> 00:19:11.150
and say, if it wasn't for this guy, I wouldn't
319
00:19:11.170 --> 00:19:11.809
be here today.
320
00:19:12.849 --> 00:19:15.289
When we tried the doors, that was not happening. There's
321
00:19:15.329 --> 00:19:17.930
nothing with the doors. At that point then, I decided
322
00:19:18.029 --> 00:19:20.349
the only way out of here is me smashing our
323
00:19:20.369 --> 00:19:20.759
way out.
324
00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:25.880
Once again, that used car salesman ability to spin a
325
00:19:25.940 --> 00:19:29.539
line to... pull the wool over people's eyes, that con
326
00:19:29.579 --> 00:19:32.619
man trick, that gift of the gab, saw him through.
327
00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:37.440
It was never regarded as anything except an accident. It
328
00:19:37.509 --> 00:19:41.690
was one of those things. But it was the first sign,
329
00:19:42.569 --> 00:19:47.430
the first positive sign, that Stephen Seddon was absolutely determined
330
00:19:47.670 --> 00:19:49.950
to lay his hands on his parents' money.
331
00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:55.559
Everyone had hailed Seddon a hero for rescuing his family
332
00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:59.789
from the crash in a canal. But after initially falling
333
00:19:59.930 --> 00:20:04.309
for his son's heroics, Seddon's father, Robert, soon began to
334
00:20:04.369 --> 00:20:06.309
realize the horrifying truth.
335
00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:11.759
He'd found at Seddon's house a saved video of how
336
00:20:11.799 --> 00:20:15.960
to escape a submerged vehicle, which was rather suspicious. So
337
00:20:16.500 --> 00:20:20.660
I think there was that realisation that actually my son
338
00:20:20.700 --> 00:20:22.180
might be trying.
339
00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:22.579
To kill me.
340
00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:27.160
He went to see his local GP and he told
341
00:20:27.420 --> 00:20:31.880
his doctor that he'd become convinced that his son Stephen
342
00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:35.210
had attempted to kill them, had attempted to murder them all.
343
00:20:36.359 --> 00:20:40.240
Robert's worst fears would be realised. Seddon had succeeded in
344
00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:43.579
telling a convincing lie, but he'd failed at getting his
345
00:20:43.619 --> 00:20:47.240
hands on his inheritance. Now Seddon had to go back
346
00:20:47.299 --> 00:20:50.349
to the drawing board and work out a plan B.
347
00:20:51.890 --> 00:20:54.710
When we look at Seddon's motivation, it comes down to
348
00:20:54.809 --> 00:20:58.569
one thing, greed. He wants their money. He doesn't feel
349
00:20:58.609 --> 00:21:00.910
that the money that they've given him is enough. He's
350
00:21:00.950 --> 00:21:02.609
probably burnt through it by now.
351
00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:05.589
And he wants more. He feels that he's entitled to it.
352
00:21:05.740 --> 00:21:07.849
So that's all he sees his parents as.
353
00:21:07.869 --> 00:21:11.230
They are a barrier in between him and the money
354
00:21:11.349 --> 00:21:12.029
that he wants.
355
00:21:12.430 --> 00:21:14.069
And that really is quite cold.
356
00:21:15.259 --> 00:21:20.740
Stephen Seddon puts into practice a premeditated plan to murder,
357
00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:24.069
some might say execute, his mother and father.
358
00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.500
Seddon had already failed once in killing his parents, so
359
00:21:29.779 --> 00:21:32.740
this time he was determined to carry it through by
360
00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:36.279
shooting them dead. He turned to his connections in the
361
00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:38.779
North East's criminal underworld.
362
00:21:39.769 --> 00:21:41.109
He'd been around, and he'd been on the edge of
363
00:21:41.140 --> 00:21:43.349
the law for a very long time now. He knew
364
00:21:43.390 --> 00:21:47.359
enough people. A hot, sawn-off shotgun was supplied to him.
365
00:21:49.690 --> 00:21:53.910
After securing the weapon, Seddon made plans for the perfect murder.
366
00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:56.960
He took his wife and children on holiday to the
367
00:21:57.019 --> 00:21:59.880
family caravan in Fleetwood, Lancashire.
368
00:22:00.660 --> 00:22:04.920
To all intents and purposes, a family week away. Except
369
00:22:05.309 --> 00:22:08.509
he's remembered that he's got to go back to sign
370
00:22:08.609 --> 00:22:11.869
on at the job centre at 10 o'clock the next morning.
371
00:22:13.079 --> 00:22:17.259
The next day, Seddon was up early. At 5.24 a.m.,
372
00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:20.940
he left his sleeping family at the caravan park and
373
00:22:20.980 --> 00:22:23.700
drove two and a half hours back home to see them.
374
00:22:24.420 --> 00:22:29.569
On arriving home, the exhausted Seddon fell fast asleep, purposely
375
00:22:29.609 --> 00:22:32.869
leaving his car behind his electric garage door.
376
00:22:33.809 --> 00:22:36.230
This day, he knows that the power is going to
377
00:22:36.269 --> 00:22:38.529
be out in his house because he's had a letter
378
00:22:38.549 --> 00:22:41.670
from the electric company telling him of this. And so
379
00:22:41.730 --> 00:22:43.910
what he does is he deliberately leaves his car in
380
00:22:43.950 --> 00:22:46.779
the garage. So there's no way on earth that he
381
00:22:46.819 --> 00:22:49.259
could possibly be using his car to drive from his
382
00:22:49.299 --> 00:22:50.480
home to his parents' home.
383
00:22:51.539 --> 00:22:54.440
He leaves his phone, so obviously.
384
00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:57.849
The mobile phone tracking technology that she used can't say
385
00:22:57.880 --> 00:22:58.549
that he was.
386
00:22:58.490 --> 00:23:02.650
Not at home. So he's creating this alibi for himself.
387
00:23:03.710 --> 00:23:09.130
At 9.57am, Seddon appears to only just make his appointment
388
00:23:09.470 --> 00:23:13.519
at the job centre. he arrived seemingly out of breath,
389
00:23:13.819 --> 00:23:17.259
having supposedly run all the way from home because he
390
00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:19.240
didn't have access to his car.
391
00:23:20.220 --> 00:23:22.539
We went to the job centre. He was seen in
392
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:26.980
and around the town. So I hadn't made a point
393
00:23:27.049 --> 00:23:32.230
of being visible on local CCTV in Seaham, so that
394
00:23:32.250 --> 00:23:34.069
gave him an alibi to say that he was in
395
00:23:34.089 --> 00:23:36.509
the northeast, obviously hundreds of miles away from Salem.
396
00:23:38.150 --> 00:23:42.720
In reality, Seddon had borrowed his brother-in-law's BMW to make
397
00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:46.019
his appointment at the job centre. Then he picked up
398
00:23:46.059 --> 00:23:51.490
the sawn-off shotgun from his criminal acquaintance. Next, he hightailed
399
00:23:51.630 --> 00:23:54.970
it 140 miles south from Seaham to his parents' home
400
00:23:55.130 --> 00:23:55.670
in Sales.
401
00:23:56.539 --> 00:23:58.940
I think he thought that this was a foolproof plan.
402
00:23:59.259 --> 00:24:02.180
He had an expectation of impunity. Keep in mind, he
403
00:24:02.220 --> 00:24:04.799
got away with an attempt once. He didn't get caught.
404
00:24:05.259 --> 00:24:07.549
And so he became emboldened. And he thought, what could
405
00:24:07.609 --> 00:24:10.930
go wrong? Who would think that I'm killing my parents
406
00:24:11.009 --> 00:24:14.109
to get their money? What child would kill their parents?
407
00:24:14.869 --> 00:24:17.509
At any point during that drive from his home to
408
00:24:17.529 --> 00:24:19.890
his parents' home, which would have taken him quite some time,
409
00:24:20.210 --> 00:24:22.210
he could have decided not to go through with this.
410
00:24:22.289 --> 00:24:25.589
But he didn't. And he was absolutely determined. It's now.
411
00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:31.049
About 20 to two in the afternoon of the 4th
412
00:24:31.069 --> 00:24:36.190
of July, 2012. Bob has just been quite recently to
413
00:24:36.210 --> 00:24:39.450
the local fish and chip shop and brought lunch for
414
00:24:39.470 --> 00:24:43.480
he and Pat. Lunch is over, Bob's sitting in the
415
00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:46.460
front room and Pat is hoovering upstairs.
416
00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:50.900
With the shotgun at the ready, Seddon snuck in through
417
00:24:50.940 --> 00:24:54.529
the back door. His father, Robert, was sitting on the
418
00:24:54.609 --> 00:24:56.049
sofa watching TV.
419
00:24:57.519 --> 00:24:59.980
He walks into the sitting room. His father must have
420
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.299
been rather surprised to see him. Well, the surprise would
421
00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:06.269
have turned to horror within a matter of seconds because
422
00:25:06.750 --> 00:25:10.509
Stephen was holding a sawn-off shotgun, which he was pointing
423
00:25:10.690 --> 00:25:18.990
down at his father. Pat obviously hears the explosion and
424
00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:21.700
he says, sawn-off shotgun, it's going to be noisy. He
425
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:25.579
rushes downstairs to find her son brandishing a shotgun.
426
00:25:26.750 --> 00:25:30.089
You just can't imagine the terror that his mother must
427
00:25:30.130 --> 00:25:32.930
have been feeling at that time to discover that her
428
00:25:32.990 --> 00:25:36.869
son has shot his father, her husband, and that he
429
00:25:36.910 --> 00:25:38.150
wants to kill her too.
430
00:25:38.250 --> 00:25:41.490
So this was the most horrendous set of circumstances.
431
00:25:42.289 --> 00:25:44.150
She tries to force the gun out of his hand.
432
00:25:44.690 --> 00:25:47.650
In the end, it doesn't work, and he shoots her,
433
00:25:47.869 --> 00:25:55.170
killing her instantly. Football football.
434
00:25:55.609 --> 00:25:58.349
Robert and Pat, their final moments would have been one
435
00:25:58.369 --> 00:26:03.299
of just unimaginable horror that their beloved son had turned
436
00:26:03.339 --> 00:26:06.839
into such a cold-blooded killer and a monster.
437
00:26:08.259 --> 00:26:12.259
Seton then reloaded his weapon with a third cartridge.
438
00:26:13.059 --> 00:26:17.000
I think he kept the third cartridge on the assumption
439
00:26:17.619 --> 00:26:19.779
that they might well have been his nephew to kill
440
00:26:19.839 --> 00:26:23.069
as well. I don't believe that he knew his nephew
441
00:26:23.130 --> 00:26:25.089
wasn't there when he arrived at the house. I think
442
00:26:25.130 --> 00:26:25.829
he thought he was.
443
00:26:27.450 --> 00:26:31.150
Luckily, he was away in respite care on that fateful day.
444
00:26:31.529 --> 00:26:36.069
Bob and Pat had been alone. Seddon, however, still had
445
00:26:36.150 --> 00:26:37.210
work to do.
446
00:26:37.230 --> 00:26:44.119
He put the shotgun, when he'd killed Pat, into his
447
00:26:44.190 --> 00:26:49.839
father's hands, laid it across his lap, effectively. seeking to
448
00:26:49.990 --> 00:26:54.420
persuade the police that this was a murder-suicide, that Bob
449
00:26:54.440 --> 00:26:57.319
had killed Pat and then turned the shotgun on himself.
450
00:26:59.180 --> 00:27:04.089
After carefully staging this murder-suicide scene, Seton then drove the
451
00:27:04.150 --> 00:27:07.849
two-and-a-half-hour journey back home to see him, picked his own
452
00:27:07.930 --> 00:27:11.230
car up from his house, now the electricity was back on,
453
00:27:11.690 --> 00:27:14.319
then went to buy some beers to celebrate.
454
00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:17.680
There you go. He had an alibi of everything. He
455
00:27:17.700 --> 00:27:20.619
had it all planned out. He had exactly where he
456
00:27:20.660 --> 00:27:23.680
would be, at what time, doing what. It was all
457
00:27:23.720 --> 00:27:24.109
an act.
458
00:27:25.390 --> 00:27:29.109
As his parents lay dead at home, Seddon drove back
459
00:27:29.170 --> 00:27:32.869
to join his wife and children on holiday in Fleetwood.
460
00:27:33.470 --> 00:27:35.289
This is really, really appalling.
461
00:27:35.309 --> 00:27:37.740
You know, the people who give you life, the people
462
00:27:37.779 --> 00:27:40.380
who support you and give you their last penny, that
463
00:27:40.420 --> 00:27:43.859
you are prepared to so ruthlessly execute them for your
464
00:27:44.059 --> 00:27:45.940
own greed really is despicable.
465
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:51.839
Robert and Patricia's bodies lay undiscovered for two days until
466
00:27:51.880 --> 00:27:55.880
their grandson's respite carer turned up at the door.
467
00:27:57.000 --> 00:27:58.859
They would always have the front door open or Bob
468
00:27:59.140 --> 00:28:01.799
would be standing in the driveway. They were very particular
469
00:28:01.940 --> 00:28:04.660
because they cared a lot about the boy. And that's
470
00:28:04.700 --> 00:28:07.609
why the carer was amazed that they weren't there to
471
00:28:07.849 --> 00:28:09.289
sweep him up and back into the house.
472
00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:13.519
Concerned that the grandparents had failed to answer the door,
473
00:28:13.819 --> 00:28:16.240
the carer made his way around the back of the
474
00:28:16.279 --> 00:28:19.299
house to see if he could see any sign of them.
475
00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:23.119
He looks through the window to see a body.
476
00:28:25.089 --> 00:28:29.730
Following the shocking discovery, their grandson's carer called the police
477
00:28:29.809 --> 00:28:30.509
straight away.
478
00:28:30.529 --> 00:28:33.410
His grandparents are not answering the door.
479
00:28:33.490 --> 00:28:35.170
I've just been around the back and I've seen his
480
00:28:35.210 --> 00:28:38.670
grandfather and he appears to have a gun in his hand.
481
00:28:39.740 --> 00:28:42.829
the police rushed to the scene and broke in through
482
00:28:42.869 --> 00:28:43.769
the back door.
483
00:28:45.930 --> 00:28:48.430
When the bodies were found, it was clear that both
484
00:28:48.450 --> 00:28:51.950
had died from gunshot wounds. It looked like Robert had
485
00:28:52.529 --> 00:28:56.809
murdered his wife and then killed himself. So the initial
486
00:28:56.849 --> 00:28:59.470
information from the police was that it may have been
487
00:28:59.509 --> 00:29:00.390
a murder-suicide.
488
00:29:01.970 --> 00:29:05.779
When the police first told Stephen Seddon that his parents
489
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:09.119
were dead and they suspected it might be a murder-suicide,
490
00:29:09.789 --> 00:29:12.609
He must have let out an inner cry of delight.
491
00:29:13.890 --> 00:29:16.150
It looked as though he might just have got away
492
00:29:16.170 --> 00:29:18.869
with it. There must have been a moment when he thought,
493
00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:21.539
it's worked and I'm going to have the money.
494
00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:26.799
As news broke of the shootings in a leafy Manchester suburb,
495
00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:31.039
the community was in shock. It even took reporters who'd
496
00:29:31.140 --> 00:29:36.000
followed the canal crash story by surprise. Stuart Flinders had
497
00:29:36.039 --> 00:29:38.519
met Robert a few months earlier.
498
00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:39.829
I was.
499
00:29:40.069 --> 00:29:42.529
about to head to the airport to go on holiday,
500
00:29:42.569 --> 00:29:44.450
and I saw a copy of the Manchester Evening News,
501
00:29:44.470 --> 00:29:47.410
and on the front cover was a photograph of that
502
00:29:47.490 --> 00:29:50.730
house I'd been in and the headline saying that the
503
00:29:50.779 --> 00:29:53.980
couple had been shot. And I was really shocked because
504
00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:56.940
they'd struck me as a very decent family. I particularly
505
00:29:56.980 --> 00:29:59.359
liked the father. He seemed a very nice man. And
506
00:29:59.420 --> 00:30:01.819
as the details came out, it was really quite shocking
507
00:30:01.839 --> 00:30:03.180
to imagine that this could have happened.
508
00:30:04.740 --> 00:30:07.240
In the hours that followed, the press as well as
509
00:30:07.299 --> 00:30:10.920
the police fell for Seddon's staging of the crime scene,
510
00:30:11.460 --> 00:30:16.029
reporting the killings of Robert and Patricia Seddon as a murder-suicide.
511
00:30:16.670 --> 00:30:20.549
But when forensics experts swept through their home, there would
512
00:30:20.589 --> 00:30:26.640
be many questions raised over this accepted theory. Ballistics expert
513
00:30:26.839 --> 00:30:30.200
Andre Horn was called to the scene of crime as
514
00:30:30.269 --> 00:30:32.430
soon as the bodies were discovered.
515
00:30:33.650 --> 00:30:35.950
The information that I was given was that it appears
516
00:30:35.970 --> 00:30:38.509
to be a murder-suicide. Prior to entering the scene, I
517
00:30:38.549 --> 00:30:40.809
had a briefing from the crime scene manager who told
518
00:30:40.890 --> 00:30:43.910
me that the family had gone through a difficult time.
519
00:30:44.569 --> 00:30:48.049
Bob and Patricia were grandparents. They were looking after a
520
00:30:48.329 --> 00:30:52.930
grandson with disabilities because his mama died. They were struggling
521
00:30:53.009 --> 00:30:56.880
to cope with their circumstances. And so I was told
522
00:30:56.900 --> 00:31:01.190
there probably was motivation for them to have taken this action.
523
00:31:02.349 --> 00:31:05.809
Even the press had reported the police's initial belief that
524
00:31:05.890 --> 00:31:10.410
Robert and Patricia's deaths were a murder-suicide. But as Andre
525
00:31:10.470 --> 00:31:14.940
Horn entered the scene, he started having doubts over this theory.
526
00:31:15.619 --> 00:31:18.519
Patricia was lying in the hallway next to the stairs
527
00:31:18.859 --> 00:31:22.579
and there was a devastating gunshot wound to her left temple.
528
00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:25.319
She was lying on her back. And I found the
529
00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:29.920
position or the location where she was quite strange for
530
00:31:29.960 --> 00:31:33.079
a murder-suicide. So I think that's when I started having
531
00:31:33.140 --> 00:31:36.279
some doubts about whether it was in fact a murder-suicide.
532
00:31:36.740 --> 00:31:38.259
Why would she be lying in the hallway?
533
00:31:39.559 --> 00:31:42.980
But when Andre Horn saw Robert sitting on his couch
534
00:31:43.240 --> 00:31:46.740
with the gun in his lap, he had even more concerns.
535
00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:50.400
The way that he was sitting there holding the gun
536
00:31:50.440 --> 00:31:55.039
didn't make sense. Shotguns produce a lot of recoil. when
537
00:31:55.079 --> 00:31:57.650
they are discharged. And if you invert a shotgun and
538
00:31:57.730 --> 00:32:01.769
point the muzzle to yourself, you haven't got any support
539
00:32:01.930 --> 00:32:05.529
for the recoil of the shotgun. It would fly across
540
00:32:05.569 --> 00:32:09.079
the room. So I was not expecting to see a
541
00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:11.660
shorn-off shotgun in the hands of a person who had
542
00:32:12.119 --> 00:32:15.309
shot himself. So that was a massive red flag for me.
543
00:32:16.619 --> 00:32:20.180
When the forensics team opened up the weapon, they found
544
00:32:20.279 --> 00:32:24.710
something even more puzzling, only one fired cartridge case.
545
00:32:25.650 --> 00:32:29.269
We know that two shots had been discharged at the scene,
546
00:32:29.609 --> 00:32:32.910
but there was only one fired cartridge case. Where was
547
00:32:32.970 --> 00:32:37.339
the other cartridge case? The whole house was searched, upstairs, downstairs,
548
00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:41.480
even the workshop, and the other fire cartridge case was
549
00:32:41.519 --> 00:32:42.000
never found.
550
00:32:43.420 --> 00:32:47.779
Later that evening at the post-mortem, Andre Horn examined the
551
00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:53.349
gunshot wound to Robert's neck. There was only one possible conclusion.
552
00:32:54.410 --> 00:32:56.869
After all the blood was cleared away and I could
553
00:32:57.410 --> 00:33:00.450
see the size of the pattern and the size of
554
00:33:00.490 --> 00:33:04.210
the wound, whoever had shot Bob was at least about
555
00:33:04.349 --> 00:33:06.329
one and a half metres from him when the shot
556
00:33:06.369 --> 00:33:10.299
was discharged. I could tell the senior investigating officer that
557
00:33:10.559 --> 00:33:13.319
this had definitely not been a self-inflicted wound.
558
00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:18.470
Now the murder-suicide theory had been blown apart, the case
559
00:33:18.509 --> 00:33:23.009
turned rapidly into a more sinister investigation, a double murder.
560
00:33:23.529 --> 00:33:26.250
The police now knew a killer was on the loose,
561
00:33:26.650 --> 00:33:30.509
but who would want to shoot two caring grandparents? They
562
00:33:30.569 --> 00:33:32.549
started looking for someone.
563
00:33:33.549 --> 00:33:36.480
They wanted to see who stood to.
564
00:33:36.460 --> 00:33:41.859
Benefit from the deaths of Robert and Patricia. So they
565
00:33:41.900 --> 00:33:43.279
start looking at the family.
566
00:33:43.779 --> 00:33:48.509
Obviously, the daughter died back in 2008, which leaves Seddon
567
00:33:48.690 --> 00:33:51.829
as the sole beneficiary of anything that they might leave.
568
00:33:51.869 --> 00:33:56.069
So they begin to investigate his whereabouts on this particular day.
569
00:33:57.130 --> 00:33:59.859
But when he was questioned about his movements on the
570
00:33:59.900 --> 00:34:03.279
day of the shooting, Seddon appeared to have proof that
571
00:34:03.319 --> 00:34:05.079
he was at home in Siam.
572
00:34:06.380 --> 00:34:10.690
Initially, it looks like he's got a fairly watertight alibi,
573
00:34:10.710 --> 00:34:14.449
so they have quite a lot of difficulty placing this together.
574
00:34:15.929 --> 00:34:19.010
The 4th of July was particularly important to Seddon because
575
00:34:19.050 --> 00:34:24.139
he knew that the power was going off in his
576
00:34:24.199 --> 00:34:27.750
local area, and so... He couldn't have used his own car.
577
00:34:27.889 --> 00:34:30.840
It was trapped behind the garage door. He wouldn't have
578
00:34:30.860 --> 00:34:35.380
been able to get it out. Seddon maintains the fantasy throughout.
579
00:34:35.780 --> 00:34:38.380
I was in Fleetwood. I went back to the job centre.
580
00:34:38.420 --> 00:34:40.960
The car was locked in the garage. I could not
581
00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:41.590
be more innocent.
582
00:34:43.389 --> 00:34:48.449
So detectives poured over Seddon's seemingly watertight alibi to see
583
00:34:48.510 --> 00:34:51.489
if they could find any holes in it. After wading
584
00:34:51.550 --> 00:34:56.090
through hours of CCTV, the police hit the jackpot. Seddon
585
00:34:56.139 --> 00:34:58.610
had claimed he didn't have access to a car on
586
00:34:58.639 --> 00:35:01.179
the day of the shooting, but a few frames of
587
00:35:01.219 --> 00:35:03.900
video they found told a different story.
588
00:35:04.280 --> 00:35:08.340
This is good old-fashioned police work. They access the CCTV
589
00:35:08.360 --> 00:35:09.739
from the job centre.
590
00:35:09.920 --> 00:35:10.420
And they see.
591
00:35:11.239 --> 00:35:13.269
entering the job center, and they see in the edge
592
00:35:13.309 --> 00:35:15.869
of the frame that there's a car in the background
593
00:35:15.909 --> 00:35:18.510
that he appears to have come out of. They can't
594
00:35:18.550 --> 00:35:20.630
make out what make the car is, let alone the
595
00:35:20.670 --> 00:35:24.010
registration plate, but they notice a bus go past on
596
00:35:24.050 --> 00:35:25.090
the CCTV.
597
00:35:26.809 --> 00:35:30.230
Next, the police went to painstaking efforts to track the
598
00:35:30.289 --> 00:35:33.130
bus that passed Seddon as he left the car.
599
00:35:33.889 --> 00:35:37.170
They're able to capture the footage that the bus had taken,
600
00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:39.449
And that's when they identify the car.
601
00:35:39.510 --> 00:35:41.760
It's a three-series blue BMW.
602
00:35:42.119 --> 00:35:44.769
And they make some further investigations and find out that
603
00:35:44.889 --> 00:35:49.070
a relative of Sedan's actually owns a three-series BMW. So
604
00:35:49.110 --> 00:35:51.449
now they have the number plate, they can start looking
605
00:35:51.489 --> 00:35:55.469
at the ANPR, the Automatic Number Plate Recognition data, and
606
00:35:55.550 --> 00:35:58.929
they are able to locate him in his parents' area.
607
00:35:58.849 --> 00:35:59.829
On the day that they were killed.
608
00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:05.239
Seddon's alibi continued to unravel when detectives looked at his
609
00:36:05.300 --> 00:36:08.760
mobile phone data. It did show his cell phone was
610
00:36:08.840 --> 00:36:11.599
in Seaham that whole day, as he claimed, but the
611
00:36:11.639 --> 00:36:14.809
police could prove Seddon himself never answered it.
612
00:36:15.559 --> 00:36:18.380
They found a number of missed calls on his mobile
613
00:36:18.420 --> 00:36:22.550
phone from loan companies that Seddon had been trying to
614
00:36:22.570 --> 00:36:25.250
get cash from. One phone call from a loan company
615
00:36:25.289 --> 00:36:27.369
was answered by one of his relations.
616
00:36:28.550 --> 00:36:31.869
Now the police had proved that despite his phone having
617
00:36:31.929 --> 00:36:36.369
remained in Seaham, Seddon wasn't with it. On the 12th
618
00:36:36.409 --> 00:36:40.329
of July 2012, he was charged with the murders of
619
00:36:40.429 --> 00:36:44.769
both his parents, Robert and Patricia. To the shock of
620
00:36:44.869 --> 00:36:49.570
neighbours and the press, not least BBC journalist Stuart Flinders,
621
00:36:49.969 --> 00:36:52.550
who'd spent time with Seddon and his father.
622
00:36:53.469 --> 00:36:56.250
I was surprised because I must say I... I'd have
623
00:36:56.409 --> 00:36:59.730
no suspicions at all. I took the story at face value.
624
00:37:00.190 --> 00:37:02.659
They seemed to be quite a close family. The son
625
00:37:02.699 --> 00:37:05.199
and father seemed to get on very well. I suppose
626
00:37:05.219 --> 00:37:08.079
I was just surprised at how good he'd been at
627
00:37:08.659 --> 00:37:12.280
conning us, as well as his parents. It is very
628
00:37:12.360 --> 00:37:15.510
cold and calculating to even think of killing your parents
629
00:37:16.110 --> 00:37:18.730
and then to devise such an elaborate scheme.
630
00:37:20.059 --> 00:37:23.739
But to convict him, detectives now needed enough evidence to
631
00:37:23.780 --> 00:37:27.280
convince a jury. Next, they turned their attention to the
632
00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:30.590
murder weapon found in Robert's hands to see if they
633
00:37:30.630 --> 00:37:34.510
could somehow link it to the killer. Again, his mobile
634
00:37:34.590 --> 00:37:37.369
phone records yielded more evidence.
635
00:37:37.389 --> 00:37:41.090
On the day of the murders, Stephen Seddon had made
636
00:37:41.110 --> 00:37:46.309
two telephone calls to Robert. a criminal associate in the Northeast,
637
00:37:46.670 --> 00:37:50.670
a man who had previous convictions for firearms offenses, and
638
00:37:50.690 --> 00:37:53.690
the gun that was used had actually been stolen in
639
00:37:53.730 --> 00:37:56.849
a burglary not far from Seddon's house in the Northeast.
640
00:37:57.929 --> 00:38:01.880
The police also discovered new evidence when they reexamined the
641
00:38:01.909 --> 00:38:06.199
suspect crash three and a half months earlier. They learned
642
00:38:06.219 --> 00:38:10.119
that Seddon had taken out additional accident insurance on the
643
00:38:10.179 --> 00:38:13.050
car he'd hired, to take his family out for their
644
00:38:13.110 --> 00:38:17.210
celebratory meal, the car that ended up at the bottom
645
00:38:17.250 --> 00:38:17.869
of the canal.
646
00:38:18.909 --> 00:38:21.050
Two days before, he's hired yet another car, which he
647
00:38:21.090 --> 00:38:24.800
doesn't take out accident insurance. Significant, you might think? Turns
648
00:38:24.860 --> 00:38:26.139
out it's extremely significant.
649
00:38:27.960 --> 00:38:31.380
Detectives found out about the steering wheel lock and knife
650
00:38:31.659 --> 00:38:33.900
that Seddon had taken with him on the night of
651
00:38:33.940 --> 00:38:37.780
the accident to smash his way out of the sinking car.
652
00:38:39.780 --> 00:38:41.980
I suppose it was just seen as fortunate that these
653
00:38:42.059 --> 00:38:44.420
items were in the car, and no one asked any
654
00:38:44.460 --> 00:38:48.300
questions why he chose to take them with him and
655
00:38:48.320 --> 00:38:51.219
have them in the hire car on that night. Obviously,
656
00:38:51.239 --> 00:38:54.139
it's suspicious anyway that he would have those items.
657
00:38:56.679 --> 00:39:00.710
Most damning of all, the police uncovered Robert's conversation with
658
00:39:00.750 --> 00:39:04.590
his GP. He confided in him that he believed his
659
00:39:04.650 --> 00:39:08.219
son was trying to kill him. They also found Seddon
660
00:39:08.280 --> 00:39:11.619
had met a local landlady about buying her pub.
661
00:39:12.820 --> 00:39:15.539
Where was he going to get more than £ 230, 000 to
662
00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:20.550
buy this pub? Our answer was, in that house in Sale.
663
00:39:22.530 --> 00:39:27.210
The irony of this braggart, Stephen Seddon, pretending that he's
664
00:39:27.230 --> 00:39:29.969
got enough money to buy a pub in the north,
665
00:39:30.769 --> 00:39:34.679
is remarkable, because when it was finally discovered how much
666
00:39:34.719 --> 00:39:36.820
he actually had in his bank account, it was five
667
00:39:36.860 --> 00:39:41.039
pounds and 45 pence, he was absolutely broke.
668
00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:44.519
He told people before he carried out the murders and
669
00:39:44.559 --> 00:39:46.460
when his mother and father were still alive that he
670
00:39:46.500 --> 00:39:48.800
was going to come into some money, an inheritance.
671
00:39:49.750 --> 00:39:54.619
On the 20th of February 2013, the case against Stephen
672
00:39:54.719 --> 00:39:59.539
Seddon was finally brought to Manchester Crown Court. Seddon pleaded
673
00:39:59.639 --> 00:40:03.260
not guilty to the murders of his parents, Robert and Patricia,
674
00:40:03.659 --> 00:40:06.429
and their attempted murders in the canal crash.
675
00:40:07.730 --> 00:40:10.710
This is an individual who's always making up these very
676
00:40:10.809 --> 00:40:14.070
tall stories, and I think there was a real concern
677
00:40:14.190 --> 00:40:16.429
on the part of the police and the Crown Prosecution
678
00:40:16.489 --> 00:40:18.730
Service that if you stuck this guy in front of
679
00:40:18.789 --> 00:40:22.469
a jury, he could manipulate them, because this guy was
680
00:40:22.530 --> 00:40:25.650
a con man. I think there was really a level
681
00:40:25.670 --> 00:40:27.750
of fear that he could walk away from this.
682
00:40:29.389 --> 00:40:32.449
Despite the fact that his nephew was also involved in
683
00:40:32.489 --> 00:40:36.050
the crash, Seddon was not charged with his attempted murder.
684
00:40:36.690 --> 00:40:39.889
In court, he claimed that he had nearly died saving
685
00:40:39.949 --> 00:40:45.800
the boy. Throughout the five-week trial, Seddon continuously protested his innocence.
686
00:40:46.469 --> 00:40:49.719
Newspaper reporter Patrick Hurst was in the courtroom.
687
00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:55.400
When he was cross-examined, his demeanour was one of sort
688
00:40:55.440 --> 00:40:58.719
of indignance. How dare you ask me or accuse me
689
00:40:59.719 --> 00:41:02.679
of murdering my own parents? And I think he thought
690
00:41:02.760 --> 00:41:05.420
his sales patter would see him through it and he
691
00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:07.969
would be able to pull the wool over the jury's eyes.
692
00:41:08.869 --> 00:41:14.429
But after 18 hours of deliberation, the jury returned their verdict.
693
00:41:15.289 --> 00:41:18.949
They were confronted with a perfectly obvious conclusion that the
694
00:41:19.110 --> 00:41:22.670
only person who could have killed Bob and Pat Seddon
695
00:41:23.050 --> 00:41:26.570
was their son Stephen, who had the opportunity and the motive.
696
00:41:27.369 --> 00:41:30.889
He shouted, I'm an innocent man, and shook his head,
697
00:41:31.769 --> 00:41:34.320
and again looked indignant and had his hands out, saying,
698
00:41:34.880 --> 00:41:38.099
I'm innocent, and protested that they'd got the wrong person.
699
00:41:39.539 --> 00:41:42.639
Seddon was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
700
00:41:43.610 --> 00:41:46.429
This is akin to a whole life sentence for someone
701
00:41:46.449 --> 00:41:50.380
of Seddon's age. He's very unlikely to ever get released
702
00:41:50.389 --> 00:41:52.860
from prison. And I think this is a sentence which
703
00:41:52.940 --> 00:41:58.159
is wholly deserved. There is absolutely nothing that Robert and
704
00:41:58.219 --> 00:42:01.940
Patricia could have given their son over and above what
705
00:42:01.980 --> 00:42:06.280
they'd already given him. And he so remorselessly killed them
706
00:42:06.530 --> 00:42:08.610
just simply because of his own greed.
707
00:42:09.829 --> 00:42:14.630
At his sentencing, Mr Justice Hamblin remarked, in Greek mythology,
708
00:42:15.030 --> 00:42:18.650
someone who killed a parent would be pursued until death
709
00:42:19.250 --> 00:42:20.269
by the Furies.
710
00:42:21.369 --> 00:42:24.250
The judge went on to say, one can only imagine
711
00:42:24.719 --> 00:42:28.400
the horror of your parents' last moments in this life
712
00:42:28.920 --> 00:42:33.300
when they realised what a monster their son, who they loved.
713
00:42:33.820 --> 00:42:34.360
Had become.
714
00:42:36.039 --> 00:42:40.059
It is a precise description of Steven said.
715
00:42:40.079 --> 00:42:44.800
He wasn't abused. There wasn't a fight. They didn't do
716
00:42:44.920 --> 00:42:48.170
things to hurt him in some way. All they had
717
00:42:48.250 --> 00:42:52.010
was money. He wanted it. This guy was really evil.
718
00:42:53.800 --> 00:42:56.599
He attempted to kill his parents and nephew in a
719
00:42:56.679 --> 00:43:00.460
car crash he staged, then cynically sold himself as the
720
00:43:00.539 --> 00:43:05.420
hero who saved them. He mercilessly executed his elderly parents,
721
00:43:05.719 --> 00:43:09.739
who loved and cherished him throughout his whole life. That
722
00:43:09.860 --> 00:43:14.010
makes Stephen Seddon one of the world's most evil killers.