Halliwell is thought to have killed Becky in 2003, while Sian was killed in 2011. The killer was finally brought to justice by Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who discovered he had murdered a second victim while investigating the disappearance of Sian O'Callaghan. That girl, we now know, was poor Becky Godden, a much loved daughter who had fallen into drug addiction, prostitution and, ultimately, Halliwells evil hands. When Halliwells confession about the location of Beckys body was ruled inadmissible in court, other officers continued the hunt for more evidence and unearthed the trophy stash in 2014. He was crying in the car, saying he was a sick f*cker, recalls Fulcher. But his decision to break police guidelines and drive Halliwell to where he thought Sian might be found alive, instead of taking him to the police station for a formal interview, was to cost him his job. DS Steve Fulcher, played by Martin Freeman in A Confession, resigned from the police after being found guilty of gross misconduct in the Christopher Halliwell case, Get daily headlines and breaking news alerts for FREE by signing up to our newsletter. The following month, he learned he had been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. View our online Press Pack. It was a terrible Catch 22. Since then, the Christopher Halliwell case has remained at the centre of his life. A Confession is based on the true story of Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher and the disappearance of Sian O'Callaghan. It was a fitting tribute for a man who prided himself on putting victims and their families first. Sian was caught on CCTV at 2.52am leaving the nightclub in Swindon, Wiltshire. Natalie Corner For Mailonline, Trophy hunter mother, 41, who has travelled the world to kill more than ONE HUNDRED animals claims her hobby HELPS preserve wild species, Bodyguard creator Jed Mercurio teases that Julia Montague is ALIVE - as he reveals how he manages to keep the show's plot a secret, TIMELINE OF A DOUBLE KILLING: HOW CHRISTOPHER HALLIWELL MURDERED TWO WOMEN THEN THWARTED JUSTICE FOR VICTIM'S FAMILY. Beckys mother, Karen Edwards, began a petition calling for a change to arrest guidelines. As a result of being found guilty of gross misconduct in January 2014, Steve Fulcher was given a final written warning, which could have led to his dismissal if he'd fallen foul of any more. ", GMB's Susanna Reid forced to change outfit after fears it was too 'racy' for morning TV, Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid has revealed she had to make last minute alterations to her dress after bosses and herself feared it was too racy for morning television, Who is Lisa Hogan? Fulcher has lost his career, he works as a security consultant in Africa. With time running out, DS Fulcher then took Halliwell to Barbury Castle, a beauty spot outside Swindon, where he suspected Sian was being held. May 31, 2012 - Halliwell appears at Preston Crown Court and denies murdering Miss O'Callaghan. Two months later, dismayed at Wiltshires Forces disinterest in both reinforcing the charges related to Becky Goddens murder and other potential victims, Fulcher asked to be reassigned to the National Homicide Team. They are someones daughter, sister.. Ultimately, Halliwell confessed to two murders to Fulcher and led the police to the bodies of both Sian and Becky. I couldnt believe it, he says. After joining the Wiltshire force in 2003, Fulcher was promoted to Detective Superintendent. For Fulcher had gone from being Wiltshire Polices man of the hour flavour of the month as he puts it to having his reputation destroyed. "He later decided of his own volition to resign from Wiltshire Police.". We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Her husband Glyn has spent 13 years in jail for her murder but maintains his innocence. There is a fundamental flaw in the law when a detective has to refuse a voluntary confession from a suspect., There remains the question of other possible victims. Instead resources went into investigating me for years.. I made that clear back in 2011.. This investigation damaged Fulcher's career as a senior police officer, and despite keeping his job with a final written warning in January 2014, he resigned from the force in May of that year. However in a new one-off ITV documentary, To Catch a Serial Killer, DS Fulcher insists he did the right thing, saying: 'My view is that I have brought two daughters back to their mothers and I've prevented other victims resulting from Halliwell's continued pursuit of his career as a serial killer. And then, out of the blue, the taxi driver said: "Do you want another one?". He said: If Im right, he had a propensity for killing on average once a year. When do the clocks change in 2023? Four months later, he resigned from the Wiltshire Police force. Fearful that Halliwell might take his own life, he felt he had no choice but to arrest him on suspicion of kidnap the first of a number of difficult dilemmas he would face. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. He was an experienced police officer who knew what he was doing. Steve recalls how a kidnap inquiry was launched after Sian went missing in the early hours of Saturday, March 19, 2011. And he decided this would be treated as a missing person inquiry, rather than a murder. Something went wrong, please try again later. Trying to find Ireland's best burger or best pizza? However, that's not to say he hasn't committed other offences. 11:00 GMT 03 Sep 2019. Quite rightly it gives protection to the innocent. From the point of his suspension in September 2012 to around April 2013 Mr Fulcher was obliged to inform the force if he planned to leave home for more than 24 hours, extended to two nights after a request to take his daughter to look around universities. His story is a true story, and one which . Sians mother Elaine Pickford, who is played by Sobhan Finneran, was grateful to DS Fulcher. He then offered to take the detective to the spot where he'd buried another victim, and procedure dictated that Fulcher should have charged Halliwell and returned him to a police stationwhere he had access to a solicitor - he decided not to. , updated The panel considered independently whether or not the actions of Steve Fulcher had breached the standards of professional behaviour that apply to all police officers in England and Wales. Around the pond were not six other items of womens clothing. He said: "My view is that I have brought two daughters back to their mothers and Ive prevented other victims resulting from Halliwells continued pursuit of his career as a serial killer. "I deliberately and very carefully didn't get into specifics of other victims," writer Jeff Pope said. DS Steve Fulcher resigned from the police force in May 2014, He was played by Martin Freeman in the ITV series, DS Fulcher was found guilty of gross misconduct. If I had followed procedure, then Sian and Beckys bodies may never have been found yet it seems thats what senior authorities wouldve preferred. You can criticise me, but I felt I had no option - there was simply no other way I could have acted that was within the letter of the law. ', But criminal defence barrister Sebastian Gardiner says: 'It wasn't ignorance on his part, it was a conscious decision by him to drive a coach and horses through recognised police procedure.'. In the aftermath of Halliwells arrest, Fulcher was nominated for a Queens Police Medal the highest honour in policing for his work in extracting the brutal killers confession. It is a colossal effort. We might never find out who 'another one' is. A murder trial began, and in 2016, after two hours of deliberation, a jury found Christopher Halliwell guilty of the murder of Becky Godden-Edwards. Steve Fulcher, played by Martin Freeman, lost his career after catching a serial killer Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher resigned from Wiltshire Police in May 2014 ( Image: PA) As. There were 60. The comments below have not been moderated, By Martin Freeman - plays Supt Det Steve Fulcher. Rebecca Godden-Edwards, aged 18, also known as Becky, whose remains were found by police investigating the murder of missing nightclubber Sian O'Callaghan. Martin Freeman plays DS Stephen Fulcher in new ITV drama A Confession. Having guided them to the remote spot where he had dumped her body, Halliwell had suddenly confessed: Im a sick f***er. CCTV taken near the Suju nightclub in Swindon showed her getting into a Toyota taxi owned by Christopher Halliwell, a 47-year-old father of two teenage daughters. For other inquiries, Contact Us. But to get those confessions, Fulcher was accused of breaching the guidelines of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) by failing to caution Halliwell and denying him access to a solicitor at the time the confessions were obtained. He was scrolling through pictures on his phone of other women, leading me to suspect there were other victims. Realising something was seriously wrong when Sian failed to come home or answer his texts, Kevin raised the alarm. "Further to the hearing, Steve Fulcher was found guilty of two counts of gross misconduct (the execution of his duty and inappropriate contact with the media) and received two final written warnings, but remained a member of Wiltshire Police. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. If we mention one of those names a family might think, 'oh, I wonder if' So we very carefully say, 'We believe there are other victims,' and leave it at that. The force arranged for an independent misconduct panel to convene. He had murdered before. Halliwell admitted he had murdered Sian, and directed Det Supt Fulcher and his team to her body near Uffington, Oxfordshire. 'You're going to get rid of good ones as well? We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. The case attracted widespread attention and press coverage, and on Tuesday 22nd March around 400 members of the public were allowed to help the police search the forest. Once more, PACE guidelines state Fulcher should have cautioned Halliwell yet doing so, he maintains, would have meant losing the moment, with Halliwell removed to a police station where he would have been given a solicitor whose role, as he points out, is to stop clients incriminating themselves. What are the real-life events behind ITV's true crime drama A Confession? The worst part, Fulcher says, is none of its surprising. That changed when officers reported Halliwell had visited a chemist and bought what Fulcher calls an overdose quantity of pills. Yet no one was interested.. A search of the forest proved fruitless, but the detective got a breakthrough several days into the investigation after his team spotted an unidentified taxi on CCTV in the area where she disappeared, explains ITV reporter Robert Murphy, who covered the case. It took a jury just two hours to find him guilty. But a judge ruled his confession about Becky Godden inadmissible because DS Fulcher had repeatedly failed to correctly caution the killer and questioned him without a lawyer. However, DS Fulcher, played by Martin Freeman in the ITV drama series, was found guilty of gross misconduct and given a final disciplinary warning. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. As he sentenced him, the judge dismissed Halliwells defence as a cock and bull story and deemed him to be calculating and devious. What is right and what is wrong? Its a race against time. A race against a backdrop of high emotions, too. Yesterday he was sentenced to a full life sentence, a tariff reserved for those, like Moors Murderer Ian Brady, who are considered to be societys most dangerous. The protracted investigations into his conduct, meanwhile, have affected not only his health but that of Yvonne, his 48-year-old wife of 28 years, and their two 20-something daughters investigations which, as Fulcher emphasises in this blistering interview, could have been better used to secure Halliwells conviction for Becky Goddards death years earlier. But only this week, five-and-a-half years after he led Fulcher to her remains, was he convicted of the murder of Becky Godden, at last bringing closure to her anguished family. Deborah Peach from the inquiry team recalls in the programme: 'Steve takes the decision that he will conduct an urgent interview of Halliwell himself and just says "Right, let's go".'. 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