Original subtitles

The police are meant to protect us from the worst of society.

We trust them to uphold the law...

...and keep us safe.

But what happens when the protector becomes the predator?

He's performing as a protector of the public.

On the other hand, he's actually a really dark monster.

And the people who are meant to keep us safe become dangerous.

I'm arresting you on suspicion of attempted murder.

Even as a police officer, people feel that they're above the law.

But how do you catch a criminal who thinks like a cop?

He's got a head start on the investigation team.

He's panicking at this point and he's now running.

I've enlisted the help of three experts.

Two officers that have put hundreds of offenders behind bars...

Most people, they know when their back's against the wall

and they're going to get convicted for something.

The horror, he's one of us.

..and a leading psychologist who can analyse the criminal mind.

Underlying that anger is the need to dominate, is the need to control.

In this series I'll discover cops

who put themselves on the wrong side of the law.

He's like a Jekyll and Hyde character

...abuse their power and commit horrific crimes.

He should never have had that badge... ever.

We expect our police to behave with honesty and integrity.

They're the ones we call on in a crisis.

So, what happens when a trusted police officer turns to lying

and cheating, and ultimately to murder?

On the 9th of May 2020,

in the small town of West Parley, just outside Bournemouth,

CCTV cameras at a local pub

capture a man stumbling across the car park.

A 999 call comes in from a member of the public.

They've come across a man who's very, very distressed,

crying, shouting,

with what appears like stab wounds on his arms.

Police and paramedic crews race to the scene.

When the officers turn up, it's a really confusing scene.

They can see that the man who is shouting and distressed

is somebody they know and they work with in the force.

They recognise him to be Timothy Brehmer, a serving police officer.

They can see behind him, a short distance,

a vehicle with a female body slumped half in, half out of the car.

This sunny Saturday afternoon has taken a sinister turn.

What makes this even more stressful and traumatic,

is the paramedics, when they turn up

and start giving the person first aid, they recognise her

as a colleague they work with in emergency services.

It's a nurse called Claire Parry.

Claire is in a critical condition.

As paramedics try to stabilise her,

PC Timothy Brehmer's stab wounds are treated.

Ready, one, two, three.

Up you come.

He starts confessing to everything that's happened up to this point.

That's alright. - Ohh!

Who stabbed PC Brehmer?

What happened to Claire Parry?

And how did the police figure out what happened in that car park?

To help me get to grips with the case,

I'm speaking to former Detective Chief Superintendent Fiona Mallon.

The paramedics are doing everything they can

to keep Claire alive.

She gets taken to the Bournemouth General Hospital

and they manage to restart her heart.

Claire is alive, but barely.

The only one with any answers to what went on is Brehmer.

But his version of events only raises more questions.

What did they know? - At this point in time,

Brehmer's really confused

and he's changing his story every minute or so.

One minute he's saying that Claire stabbed him with a penknife,

then he is saying he might have done it himself.

Now, you can look at this in two ways.

Either Brehmer's in shock.

He can't work out what to say,

or actually he's thinking now that it's time to save himself,

and he needs to start blaming Claire for attacking him,

and he was defending himself.

Who thinks like that?

We'll move him. Yeah, that's fine, yeah.

We'll get him in there. We'll leave the questioning to you guys.

We'll just medically look at it and go from there.

Right, Tim, do you want to stand up a minute?

Yeah.

As Claire clings to life,

Brehmer's police colleagues launch an urgent investigation.

We don't know the set of circumstances that has led up

to what's happened between Timothy and Claire.

All we know is that, as an end result, Claire has been assaulted.

What are these two people doing in this situation

on a Saturday afternoon in a pub car park?

It's alright. - Ohh!

On the 9th of May, 2020,

PC Timothy Brehmer was found sitting in a pub car park

with stab wounds to his arm.

Behind him, nurse Claire Parry was found slumped in a car,

barely alive.

But is Brehmer a victim or the attacker?

So far, his version of events is the only thing police have got to go on.

It soon becomes clear,

Brehmer and Claire were not strangers to one another.

Brehmer's story is of a secret affair gone horrendously wrong,

a jealous rage,

threats of suicide, and his lover, Claire, left for dead.

But who is Timothy Brehmer?

And how did this police officer end up on the wrong side of the law?

What can you tell me about Timothy Brehmer?

Brehmer was 41 years old, serving with Dorset Police.

Married, and they had, on outward appearances,

a normal, healthy relationship.

He was well thought of in the force, did a number of roles.

What would Brehmer's day to day be like as a police officer?

He moved from frontline duties into road traffic policing,

obviously, dealing with road traffic accidents,

anything to do with, sort of, vehicle crime.

And then he took on a specialist course called Family Liaison,

which is a really sensitive role where you work

with bereaved families, or those going through who have lost people

through homicides or other, sort of, road traffic accidents.

He then got in an accident, an altercation with a motorist one day,

and it affected him quite badly,

in that he felt that he couldn't do his job,

and he was moved onto the National Police Air Service.

As a police officer,

and around his colleagues, how was he seen?

He was actually, in the early part of his career,

regarded as a bit of a hero.

Him and a colleague managed to save

a family from a burning building, and their three cats.

They saved them all, saved their lives, phenomenal bravery.

From that he got enormous respect from his colleagues

and management alike.

They thought he was a fantastic officer.

So, how does this decorated police officer,

a pillar of the community

end up being questioned by his colleagues

whilst his lover's life is hanging in the balance?

To help me get to the truth, I need to speak to someone in the know.

I'm just on my way to Dorset

to meet somebody, a journalist,

who knows a lot about this case,

and, hopefully, can fill in exactly what happened.

Local journalist Ben Williets remembers covering this story.

Brehmer was having an affair with Claire Parry.

She was married, and was a nurse for quite a number of years,

and met Bremmer in 2005.

And they then had a relationship,

which Brehmer himself described as sexually flirtatious and infrequent,

until 2010, 2011, where it became more frequent

and very sexually orientated,

where they continued on and off for ten years.

Claire knew he was married.

Was he leading Claire down the path of "I will leave my wife for you?"

Initially, she didn't know he was married.

And then when she found out,

I think that that was certainly an aspect of it,

that they were gonna, you know, leave their husbands and wives

and run off into the sunset, so to speak.

Did either of their partners

become aware that they were having an affair?

Claire's husband had his suspicions.

He found emails from Claire to Brehmer.

He also found a rugby top under her bed, which didn't belong to him,

which is assumed that was Brehmer's,

and also bank statements from their joint account

for Travelodges, and also a phone bill, which had lots of calls

and messages to the same number. So, that really raised his suspicions.

Both Claire and Brehmer were married with young families.

Getting the news she was in hospital, fighting for her life,

whilst he was in custody, accused of attempted murder,

would have come as a huge shock to their partners and families.

Didn't any of Brehmer's police colleagues know

about the double life he was living?

There was also in the background murmurings and whispers

around him being a bit of a charmer.

Flirt a lot with women, would look for women to talk to

and, sort of, be a bit sexual, in terms of flirtation.

On one level, he's this really respected officer

who saved people's lives; on another, he's a womaniser.

Womaniser or not, that doesn't explain

what happened in the car park that day,

or prove who was responsible.

The investigators need evidence.

To help me understand the challenge they faced,

I'm speaking to ex-Met Detective Chief Inspector Howard Groves.

When it comes to Brehmer,

because he has injuries,

do you question them there and then about what's gone on?

The officers would want to establish what happened.

So, they would ask him basic questions.

It wouldn't be a full-blown interview for obvious reasons,

but they'd want to ask him how first he received those injuries.

Did he know who the person in the vehicle was,

whether the vehicle belonged to him?

They would just want to establish the basic facts at the time.

And those officers had body cameras on them.

Initially, he said that he had been stabbed.

So, the officer had to establish whether those facts were true.

The challenge for the investigators is to establish

exactly what happened inside that car

that left Claire with such terrible injuries.

So far, the only person talking is Brehmer.

Brehmer's account of events is that he had met Claire

in the car park. They were both in his vehicle.

She was telling him that she was going to tell his wife

about the affair that they were having.

He, obviously, was not happy with that and wanted to do it himself.

Claire then grabs his phone from him

and sends a text to Brehmer's wife,

basically, saying, "I'm cheating."

And as a result of that, he tried to get her out of the vehicle.

She didn't want to do that, and he was trying to push her out,

and that's when the injuries that she received happened.

Did they hold him responsible for what's happened to Claire?

The first thing the officers would be thinking about

is whether or not the account that he provided,

on the basic information,

whether that fits what they actually come across,

bearing in mind Claire was actually unconscious;

they couldn't ask her any questions.

Brehmer is adamant that Claire was injured

as he was trying to push her out of the passenger seat of his car.

But that doesn't explain the wounds on his arm.

So, how did Brehmer end up getting stabbed?

So, he had his own penknife, which he kept in his car...

...and he stabbed himself.

He claimed he was trying to get Claire's attention

to stop her texting Brehmer's wife.

However, he went and sat at the front of the car park.

He claimed that he was stabbed by Claire.

Let me just get this straight. So, he's saying

that he wanted to get Claire's attention away from texting his wife

to let his wife know that he was cheating on her.

So, he stabbed himself, and then went to the front of the road

and told people that she'd stabbed him.

Yeah, absolutely. Which, again, is a theme of his life.

He's just lying all the way through.

I can't get my head around this.

He's seen on the police body camera saying he didn't know

how he got the stab wounds. Then he's saying

that Claire stabbed him, and then he did them to himself.

Which is it?

Brehmer's changing his story every... every minute or so.

When I've watched the video footage

of Brehmer in the back of the ambulance,

and also the walking about beforehand, the crying,

the hand moving, and everything else, he's trapped.

He's got his colleagues there who recognise him.

For me, this is a classic piece of theatre where he's trying

to make himself look innocent.

He's walking around sobbing and crying.

I think he just looks pathetic.

Brehmer is a well-trained copper and a serial liar.

So, is he just using his skill and experience to put on a performance?

Because if he is... it's pretty convincing.

But would Brehmer's police colleagues believe

what he's telling them?

Is there any evidence to prove it,

or is it just another one of his lies?

The account provided by Brehmer that he was just trying to push her

out the vehicle, the two don't marry up.

Your initial thoughts to that explanation would be,

that's definitely not the circumstances,

but, as a police officer, you know that there are going to be

medical opportunities for you to be able to prove

that those injuries couldn't have been caused

by somebody that's pushing someone out.

Rather than a tragic accident, there's a far darker explanation.

He was annoyed that Claire had used his phone to text his wife.

And I think, in a fit of pique,

he decided that he was going to attack her

because she was somebody who was now going to have an impact

on his relationship with his wife.

He would have probably not been able to see his son.

So, there's a lot going on in his head at the time of that attack.

The fact that Brehmer is a police officer,

when they arrive at the scene,

does that change anything, the way they treat him?

No, him being a police officer

wouldn't be an issue for the police officers.

As far as they were concerned,

here is somebody who has stab wounds, or injuries, to his hand.

We know that there's a female in a car who's unconscious.

So, all they want to do is establish the facts.

And who's injured? How's it happened?

Once they identified Claire's details, it was established

that she had a relationship with Brehmer for at least 11 years.

So, there would be an awful lot of information

that those officers would want to establish

either from him, his colleagues, his wife.

Did his wife know about that relationship?

Did any of his colleagues know about it?

The fast-paced investigation reaches an inevitable conclusion,

that whatever happened to Claire in the car,

Brehmer was responsible,

either directly or indirectly.

What they don't know is why Claire chose that moment

to confront Brehmer and expose their affair to his wife.

She had known he had a wife for over a decade.

So, why now?

There was rumours. These gathered pace.

And Claire Parry started to get suspicious.

She thought she was the other woman,

but, actually, there were many, many more.

May 2020,

and Police Constable Timothy Brehmer of Dorset Police

has been arrested for the attempted murder

of his lover, Claire Parry.

Their decade-long affair had ended with a brutal and violent attack,

leaving Claire fighting for her life.

But as Brehmer's police colleagues dig into his personal life,

they discover a tipping point in the pair's relationship.

So, Brehmer and Claire had been having an on-off relationship

for, sort of, 10, 11 years.

And the latter part, Claire had become suspicious

that she was one of many women,

and that he was cheating on her

as well as his wife, in her mind.

So, she sets up a fake Facebook account,

and she starts to do her own inquiry

around what women Brehmer's been in touch with, who he's going out with,

what photos are available.

And she comes to the conclusion,

he's a serial womaniser, and she feels cheated.

So, Claire wasn't the only woman Brehmer was seeing.

He was even cheating on his mistress with multiple women.

How did Claire react when she found out

that she wasn't the only one?

This is where Claire became incredibly angry.

And she felt that she'd been cheated and lied to and deceived.

And all the time, I think, she was given false promises

by Brehmer, saying, you know, "I love you. I can't leave.

"I love you, I've got family," whatever. So, she stayed.

But, also, during this time, her own marriage broke up,

which was really sad.

So, she's now left with the realisation

that the man she'd been with and spending time with

was actually cheating on her.

What did she have left? And then she became angry,

and she wanted to get her own back.

She wanted to destroy Brehmer's home life too.

What did she do? - She contacted Brehmer.

Brehmer's with his family in the garden,

and he makes an excuse to his wife that he's gonna go out

and get some food for the barbecue.

But, actually, he's arranged to meet with Claire.

I think Brehmer still thinks he can get his own way,

he can influence her, "Everything's alright, don't worry."

You know, "You're the one for me."

But Claire's not having it.

And Claire sends a text to his wife about cheating.

At which point the tension between them escalates,

and then Brehmer attacks Claire.

Brehmer is a pathological liar.

He's been caught out, and he doesn't like it.

For years, he's managed a double life.

He's been with his wife who didn't suspect,

and his family,

and playing the respected police officer.

So, he's playing this big sort of chess board,

and everything's nice and controlled,

and suddenly he's gonna come crashing down

cos Claire's had enough and she wants

to expose him to his wife and ruin his marriage.

Brehmer flipped and brutally attacked Claire,

causing her to lose consciousness

before lying about what happened to the witnesses on the scene,

the police and the paramedics.

When he leaves the car and he starts talking about it,

he delays getting any medical help to her.

So, in those vital minutes, when he's flailing about,

talking about himself,

actually they could have had immediate care to Claire.

Tragically, Claire never regains consciousness

and dies the following day.

In your mind, did you think he actually intended to kill her?

I think he did, yeah.

Brehmer was a police officer,

someone trusted and respected.

And yet he was capable of doing something so terrible

to someone he said he loved.

Just what was going on in his mind?

To help me understand,

I'm speaking to chartered psychologist, Serena Simmons.

I think, ultimately for me, when you look at Brehmer's presentation,

what I see is someone who cannot regulate his emotions

and has no control over his sense of self.

And how he exhibits that

is in his inability to stay faithful to his partner

and his inability to monitor and regulate his own emotions.

He's a compulsive liar.

He's used to having multiple affairs and being with multiple women.

So, you imagine what that's like in reality.

You'll have to tell a lot of stories to a lot of different people

and be able to keep the narrative going

with several different people at the same time. Takes a lot of effort.

So, any sign of that house of cards coming down

is gonna be feel even more threatening.

For any rational person, it would be like,

"I couldn't deal with the stress of it all."

Whereas for him, he probably enjoyed the control of all that,

having all these puppets at the end of the strings.

There's obviously something about this lifestyle

that he got a lot out of.

I think it served him, and it served a purpose for him,

but, obviously, it became more complicated

when there was the threat to this all being taken away from him,

and something that was happening out of his control.

And he wanted to regain that control back.

It was only a matter of time

before all Brehmer's deception caught up with him.

But no-one could have anticipated it catching up

in such a vicious and tragic way.

How was Brehmer seen by his peers, work colleagues?

The fact that he was a serial adulterer was very well known

to people that worked alongside him.

In actual fact, it was so well known

that people chose to call him various different nicknames,

for example, Mr Smooth.

These are very telling signs that people knew

exactly what his character was really like.

I mean that just... it does what it says on the tin.

It's obvious the kind of person he is.

Reputation is one thing,

but if the investigators were going to prove that Brehmer was lying,

they'd need hard evidence.

A lot of analysis would be done in the vehicle.

It would have been fingerprinted

even though we know both of them were in there.

They would have considered that, looked at the seatbelts.

They would look at what position somebody would have to be

to receive the injuries.

He said he was almost on top of her as he was trying to get her out.

And as they dig deeper,

the evidence against Brehmer begins to mount.

The mobile phones of both parties would be significant

because it would have shown, earlier on in the day,

when Brehmer had finished work.

He rang Claire in the early hours of the morning,

There's a conversation between them.

Later on Claire rings him and says, "I want to have a chat with you."

They agree where they're going to meet,

so that timeline would be relevant to the investigation.

We know from the autopsy, it showed

that she had actually received, a significant blow to her mouth,

which caused abrasions and lacerations inside her mouth.

A small bone in her neck was also broken.

She had at least 11 bruises to her right, upper arm.

She had a further ten bruises and abrasions on her left arm.

And she had significant bruising in the area of her chest.

When you think about all of those injuries,

it meant that significant force was used against her.

Obviously, it sounds like he's strangled her,

or, you know, he's choked her.

But with all the other bruises and injuries

and in such a small space in a car,

it sounds like he's completely lost it.

And we know that Claire also put up a fight as well,

but he, obviously, had her in a restrained hold

for long enough for her to be unconscious.

She fought as hard as she could.

But, bearing in mind, he's a police officer, he would know

how to restrain someone, and he would know

what amount of force to use.

So, how long do we think he probably strangled her for?

Between 10 to 30 seconds of continual pressure.

The fact that Brehmer choked Claire for that long

and caused so many injuries to her body,

tells me all I need to know about this cop.

But evidence of what happened after the attack

would prove just as important.

The most telling bit of evidence that they had

was based on the text message

that was sent from Brehmer's phone to his wife.

It was Claire who sent that message at 15:02 to his wife.

And we know that three minutes after that

he then tries to wipe the data from his phone.

So, minutes after the attack,

Brehmer is trying to reset his mobile phone.

In the midst of everything, in all that emotional distress,

Brehmer still thought to reset his phone.

The mere fact that he's doing a factory reset

shows that there's intent on his part

to hide something from the investigators.

So, even though he's distressed about it,

as you can see from the footage,

he still had the mindset to try and minimise any evidence

that the police officers would subsequently be looking to find.

This is truly despicable.

Someone who is supposed to be trustworthy and honest

is not only telling lie after lie,

but he's actively trying to destroy evidence and cover his tracks.

Does he really think he's going to get away with murder?

So, Brehmer would've known, as an experienced police officer,

he knows what he's doing.

He will know...

that the offences that the police are gonna look at him for,

the assault,

he knows that he's gotta show some sort of loss of control,

diminished responsibility,

confused state, to help him get out of this situation.

And that's what it feels like he's doing.

It's cold and calculating and gives a glimpse

of the real Timothy Brehmer.

But how did his true nature go under the radar

with his colleagues in the police,

especially when some of those women he was cheating with

were fellow officers themselves?

Dorset is a relatively small force.

1,500 people, very tight-knit, close.

Everyone would've known each other's business.

Everyone would've been talking.

But if you juxtapose that against the fact

that he's a really respected officer,

who has been recognised for bravery and for saving lives,

perhaps people thought, "Well, if he's having affairs,

"that's down to him. It's his private life."

He's not causing anyone harm, as far as they could see.

And he's a really well-thought-of officer.

Perhaps that, in itself, was enough just to let it go.

It wasn't causing anyone harm

until Brehmer did what he did to Claire.

There was no significant red flags

about his ability to be a professional police officer.

But there were comments raised about him being a womaniser

from an early stage of his career.

So, one could say, was any action taken?

Did any officer make any complaints against him?

To put it bluntly, it doesn't show a good character

if someone is having extramarital affairs,

but is not a sackable offence.

He is a police officer; we have to remember that.

But he's also a very, very good liar.

A manipulator.

Is that someone you want to have in the force?

No, of course not. You don't want dishonest people.

You want people with integrity and ethics,

and people who know the difference between right and wrong.

He was a serial liar.

He lived in a fantasy world.

He thought he was irresistible to women.

And he thought that he could have any woman he wanted,

and it didn't matter, he wouldn't be found out.

I'm so sorry. It's alright.

He was very clever in how he managed his time

and how he manipulated others around him.

So, not only was he lying to his wife,

and to Claire, but also he was manipulating

and lying to supervising officers around him,

so that he could work his shifts,

so that he'd go and see the women he wanted to see.

He was very clever in how he, again, was puppeteering all the time,

controlling everybody

I just can't get Brehmer's wife out of my mind.

She's just found out

her hero husband has been cheating on her for ten years

It's likely his police colleagues knew,

but said nothing,

and now he's in custody,

and his lover is dead.

I'm sure there are many of those colleagues

who will be asking themselves the question,

"Why didn't we say something about it?

"Why didn't we approach him and say,

'Everybody knows what you're doing. Maybe you wanna stop.'"

Or even to the woman he was having those relationships with,

who were police officers, "Really?"

We now know that Claire didn't have any idea about it.

So, he was able to hide

and live this double life.

This horrific attack was carried out by a police officer,

someone who is supposed to protect people and keep them safe,

not lie and deceive

and ultimately to kill.

And when the chips were down, he never thought about Claire,

only what he needed to do to protect himself.

In that moment, what's fascinating

is that he steps into victim mode.

So, instead of doing what would be the right thing in that situation,

aside from not having done it in the first place,

but to call an ambulance to get help for her,

no, he switches into victim.

"Poor me." It's all about him and poor him.

And I think that's just very illustrative

of the fact that he slipped into that little boy,

that very insecure little boy who wants attention

and needs to have his needs met first.

It's taking complete attention off the person

that really is requiring that at that time.

That's quite cold, isn't it?

Straightaway you're thinking about, "Right.

"How do I protect myself in this situation?"

Yeah, he is.

But this is typical of the person

who's managed so many people's lives and controlled them,

and done it clinically, and, clearly, for a number of years.

PC Timothy Brehmer had admitted, on arrest on 9th May 2020,

that there was a struggle in his car

that led to the death of nurse, Claire Parry.

Can you remember what the response was like

from the community, when you heard a local police officer had done this?

Yeah, just... just shock, I think, especially for a respected officer.

Nobody knew what he was like outside of his police work.

Nobody knew his dealings with women.

So, they thought he was quite a well-respected man.

Just really, really surprised and disappointed as well

in the force and in Brehmer himself.

Brehmer met with Claire in this pub car park in Dorset.

While they were in his car, she used his phone to text his wife,

revealing their affair.

He claimed she was then accidentally injured in a kerfuffle

as he tried to push her out of the car, so he could drive away.

Despite Brehmer's claims it was an accident,

investigators have uncovered evidence

that Claire was deliberately killed

But without irrefutable proof or eyewitnesses,

there's still some doubt as to exactly what happened.

Why couldn't we see on CCTV what happened in that car?

So, where they parked, where we're stood now,

CCTV doesn't cover this area.

The only things we can see is them driving in from the entrance,

and then 20 minutes later

Brehmer walks to the front and sits on the pavement just outside.

But then that makes me think, is Brehmer using his police knowledge

to know that this area of the car park isn't on CCTV?

Whether he is that calculated, I don't know.

But he certainly would know that there'd be areas

where CCTV doesn't cover.

Were there other ways in which Brehmer used the skills

he had learnt as a cop to cover his tracks?

He tries to wipe his phone at an early stage.

The method that he's used to restrain her,

and he was thinking ahead of the game.

He gets out of the vehicle. He then tries to give the impression

that he's been attacked, so, he's giving a story.

Although when you think about it, long-term,

that story wouldn't hold for too long.

It's his police knowledge, his police experience.

He knows he's gonna be asked questions,

so, he has to come up with an answer.

Despite his deception and destruction of crucial evidence

Brehmer is arrested and charged with Claire's murder.

But at his pre-trial hearing the police officer pleads not guilty.

So, Brehmer pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

He admitted killing Claire Parry, but denied meaning to.

His story was always that he was trying to get her out the car

and accidentally killed her in the kerfuffle.

Dorset police and the CPS together decided there was enough evidence

to try for murder, which he denied.

So, that was when the trial came in.

Despite admitting killing Claire,

Brehmer maintained his story

that it was unintentional.

I just don't buy it, and neither did the police or the CPS.

Brehmer appeared at Sailsbury Crown Court in October 2020

facing a murder charge.

Local journalist Ben reported on it.

It was during Covid, so we weren't able to be in court in person,

so had to watch it via live link, which made it difficult

because we couldn't see Brehmer's reactions

to other witnesses giving their statements.

Did he say anything in court?

So, in his defence, Brehmer actually gave evidence in court.

And he came across as very eccentric, I thought.

He described his affair with Claire as a bubble of niceness.

He said, when he was with Claire,

he was suspended in the best state of himself.

And he said his relationship with her

was the nice things you get in a relationship,

rather than all the tricky things you might get in a marriage.

And you wouldn't have associated his eccentric personality

with the images you see of him.

When I saw his custody photo, where he looked really rugged,

it really did take me back at how different he was in court.

He claimed that he didn't mean to kill her,

and he was trying to get her out of his car, so he could kill himself.

The prosecution put it to him that, as a trained police officer,

in the road traffic unit, used to dealing with serious incidents,

he would've known what it would take to actually kill someone

by strangling them in the crook of his arm.

This guy has proven himself

to be a serial liar and a cheat.

Why would anyone believe him now?

My reading is that he's cold.

He knows what he's doing, and he's playing the audience,

and he's playing to the people who know him at work.

He's hoping they'll have pity on him,

they'll like him, they'll side with him,

and he's doing everything he can to encourage their favour.

Shockingly, the tactic works.

Brehmer has previously admitted manslaughter.

And after less than three hours the jury at Salisbury Crown Court

agreed he was not guilty of murder.

The jury would've had to be sure beyond reasonable doubt

that he did mean to kill her. The CCTV at the Horns Inn,

you can't see what happened in the car,

so, you've only got their version of events.

But he was then sentenced on the basis that he lost control,

which is a partial defence to murder.

The judge said there was the qualifying trigger,

which was the message sent to his wife.

He said that that message should have come from Tim.

So, a man of a similar build and age would have also lost control,

and in losing control took Claire by the neck and killed her.

Not guilty, after all of that.

So, what happens is then he accepts the manslaughter charge,

and he gets convicted for and sentenced for ten and a half years,

which is later appealed as being too lenient.

And he ends up getting 13 and a half years imprisonment.

It must've been a bitter blow for the investigators

that had so painstakingly built the case against Brehmer.

But for Claire's family,

who had been hoping to see justice done,

it must have been devastating.

Could you just explain

the difference between manslaughter and murder?

Murder is premeditated.

You've planned it, you've set out to kill someone,

and you take those necessary steps.

Manslaughter, you could say it's an accident,

or "I intended to assault them,

"but I didn't intend to kill them."

But he had a chance to stop, and he didn't.

So, in that point, when he didn't stop,

doesn't that become murder then?

The nuances of murder and manslaughters are apparent.

But during the trial, the judge actually made comment

and said that he felt that the defence

had actually met the standards for of loss of control,

and therefore manslaughter was the appropriate conviction.

It just doesn't seem enough.

If that was my daughter in the back of that car that he killed,

13 and a half years doesn't seem nowhere near enough.

As an ex-police officer, I can understand the sentencing guidelines

and why they arrived at that decision.

As a father, I don't think that 13 and a half years is sufficient.

You have to take into account the time that he had already served

when he was on remand.

He's going to get at least a third of that sentence knocked off again.

So, within eight years,

he would be a free man again to go out

and build relationships with other people.

Claire's family will still be grieving over her loss.

So, sometimes you can say that justice doesn't seem to be fair.

PC Timothy Brehmer violently attacked

and ultimately killed Claire

because she exposed him for who he really was.

Do you think Brehmer would be thinking to himself,

"I've just got away with murder?"

The fact is he did get away with it. He's got 13 and a half years.

His marriage is over and, obviously, his family's torn apart.

He'll still be able to live his life. He'll still have a life.

Yes. Claire hasn't, no.

There wasn't just one victim here.

Although they'd separated,

Claire had a husband, a family and friends.

I can't imagine what they must have been through.

Brehmer has lost everything.

He's lost his freedom, he's lost his career,

he's lost having time to be with his family,

his children and his loved ones,

really, as a result of what he's done.

He's literally lost everything.

Do you think there was any remorse from Brehmer?

I think he may have felt remorse that she had gone.

He'd been with her for 11 years.

I think more the remorse would be centred around the fact

that this lifestyle, this house of cards

that he had very carefully built over so many years

had now fallen because he liked the lifestyle that he had.

I think he liked the character that he could portray.

And so any remorse, any true remorse

would really come from losing everything,

not just having killed Claire.

Having worked in institutions myself

and dealt with people who have committed murder,

it's not unusual for people who've committed such an act

to have to work through their own emotions around what they've done.

Believe it or not, some people find it also quite traumatic

that they've done these things, and they have to think about and process

this awful thing that they've done.

I think there are signs here with Brehmer

that he might have to do some of that psychological work himself.

What's your opinion of Brehmer?

I think he's despicable.

He's everything I hate in a person,

in that he's a liar, he's a cheater.

He's weak, he's narcissistic,

and he's looking after himself the whole time.

And to then put a uniform on and say he is about public service

is an insult to policing

and to everybody he loves around him, or who loves him.

As a cop, Brehmer was in a position of trust

and responsibility, and he abused that.

He lied, he cheated and manipulated people.

And when that sense of control was lost, he turned to murder.

In my opinion, he was never fit to wear that uniform.

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