All language subtitles for Britains Countryside Killers S02E06 720p HDTV H264-JFF[EZTVx.to]

10th of May, 2010,

Nutfield Village, Surrey.

Police are called to a flat after
reports of a violent incident.

There was blood everywhere.

Sarah had bled profusely from her
injuries.

The murderer had stabbed to death a
resident who had lived there for some

in the safety of her own home.

Officers quickly identify a suspect, but
he has already disappeared.

commit the murder in a very dangerous
manner. They didn't know what he was

capable of.

There's no question he's one of the most
dangerous people I've ever seen.

A man who would almost certainly kill
again given the opportunity.

And what's more, he would enjoy doing
it.

With help from the public, detectives
begin tracing his escape route.

He ran across fields.

At one point he was spotted running
across all six lanes of the M23 motorway

he was just fleeing, running as fast as
he could.

But the suspect remains one step ahead
of detectives.

At this point it's an international
model, we just can't put him down.

Nutfield is a small village tucked away
in the Surrey countryside, set among the

gentle rolling hills beneath the North
Downs Ridge.

It's got a very village feel to it.
There's lots of pubs, lots of access to

green space.

It's one of several villages that appear
along the A25, so it's got a strong

arterial road which runs through the
middle of it.

People want to be close to...

towns and potentially have links to
london but also want to have that

countryside life the community in
nutfield is closeness it's a quiet

area so it's a nice kind of villagey
feel and it's a really beautiful

countryside vibe nutfield isn't really
known for crime it tends to be kind of

low -level things like a bit vandalism
or maybe antisocial behavior it's not

somewhere that you'd expect serious or
organized crime to take place

Among its residents is 38 -year -old
Sarah Thomas.

She was the mum of three young children.

She had good relationships with her
family, her mum and dad. Her mum and dad

would quite often look after the
children.

Sarah was sometimes a vulnerable
individual and she did struggle with

aspects of her life in terms of...

regularity and keeping to activities
that would be conducive to having three

young children.

She did like to hang out with a group of
people in Redhill Town Centre.

They were her friends, but that was also
a group that was subject to drinking

and some antisocial behaviour.

She was quite close with a group of
people who used to meet during the day.

and they'd quite often meet in a little
park that's in the centre of Redhill

called Memorial Park.

They'd quite often do a lot of their
drinking there and would hang out for

and then either go to somebody's flat or
go their separate ways and go back to

their own home.

She got on very well with them.

It was a chaotic lifestyle. I think
sometimes that particular group could be

involved in antisocial behaviour.

Sarah had an on -off boyfriend called
David. They were together, but there

several periods in the years running up
to it where they'd had arguments and

split up, so it was really an on -off
relationship.

On the afternoon of 10 May 2010,
emergency services receive an urgent 999

call.

Sarah's boyfriend, David, was confronted
with a really horrific scene. There was

clearly blood everywhere. Sarah had bled
quite profusely from her injuries.

He did go up to her. He touched her. He
could tell that she was alive, but only

barely. So he made a 999 call and the
ambulance turned up and they tried

valiantly to save Sarah's life.

Unfortunately, they couldn't.

Forensic teams arrive and secure the
scene.

We were deployed as a major crime team
because there were signs of violence in

the flat.

The flat itself was a very small
contained flat with a single bedroom

above the main living area.

In a case like this, anything that has
come into contact with a victim and

offender that we feel fairly sure has
come into contact with both those

It's going to get seized and it's going
to get checked for forensic evidence. So

that includes everything from the
attending ambulance crew, their

their footwear, their kit that they use
to try and save Sarah. Everything just

gets left to the scene and it gets
seized as part of the investigation.

It's quite a chaotic scene and quite
bloody, sadly.

As soon as we walk into that sort of
scenario and we've recorded and

photographed... the scene as we find it.
The key point there is to then take

stock and think, right, do we work from
the victim out or do we work to the

victim and then back out again to make
sure that we recover the maximum amount

of forensic evidence that's available to
us.

I think when you look at a crime scene,
each of them are very, very different.

There's a lot of things that can play
part in how challenging recovery of the

victim is around making sure that you're
protecting each piece of evidence as

you go.

The small crime scene team that go in is
usually at least two crime officers.

This case had a photographer as well and
a crime scene manager in a very small

flat.

So you're trying to protect evidence
while trying to manoeuvre around each

and get as much as you can to make sure
that you can put that offender in the

crime scene.

There are moments of the crime scene
investigator where you almost have to

yourself in the position of the
offender. From the positioning of the

although she had been moved by emergency
services a little,

looked as if either the offender had
steadied himself over her while

the offence or steadied himself as
getting up from the offence.

As the person who first discovered her
body, Sarah's boyfriend, David, is a key

witness. But detectives must also rule
him out as a potential perpetrator.

David was outside the address of the
ambulance.

Crew had to ask him to leave so they
could do what they needed to do, Sarah,

try and save her life.

He was in a distressed state outside,
but he did speak to the uniformed

and said that he'd seen a male leaving
the address and was able to give a

quite good description of him.

When Sarah's boyfriend saw this man
fleeing from the sort of area when he

going towards Sarah's flat, he saw that
he wasn't wearing a jacket and he was

carrying a plastic bag.

We've got a boyfriend in the mix.

We need to get that boyfriend. He's the
person who found her.

We need to make sure that evidentially
he's excluded from being an offender.

He hasn't come in, found them together
and started an argument. And then that

then led to her death. And then he's
made a call and is trying to move that

scenario into, well, then a man ran off.

We managed to very, very quickly verify
everything that he was saying. So he was

very cooperative. He handed his phone
over that we were able to look at and we

could see numerous missed calls and
messages to Sarah asking her if she was

We very quickly were able to track his
movements and know that he did get to

flat when he said he did.

And also we were able to corroborate
that other people had seen someone

for that flat.

From speaking to the people who were in
the flat of the observatory walk, no one

really knew who this guy was. He'd kind
of appeared on the scene maybe a few

weeks earlier and semi -joined the
drinking buddies that were there.

But one person gave us a vital piece of
information and they said, oh, his

name's David.

Initially, when that came in, we were
very confused because that obviously

matched the boyfriend that Sarah had.

And we were thinking, have they confused
this? Is it the same person? And

actually, David, her boyfriend, isn't
being truthful with it.

Sarah's flat was opposite Queenshead
Pub, which was a really popular pub.

and popular with people that were
stopping for a drink from work on their

home. That pub was particularly busy
that night, so people that were entering

and leaving the pub had also seen a male
running from the property.

So we've already got a lot of witnesses
that have seen somebody who doesn't

match the description of Sarah's
boyfriend but matches the description of

unknown male to police running away from
that property.

A witness then comes forward with
crucial information about a suspect.

Someone else gave us advice, police
information, saying, yeah, he missed his

probation appointment this afternoon.

And the minute we had that information,
we were able to go to probation and say,

did you have someone who was meant to
shut up this afternoon?

And they said, yes, we did.

It was a guy called David Baxendale.

So we now had his name that we could put
into the police computer.

So the PNC, which obviously logs all of
anyone who's got a criminal record, we

could see everything that they've been
arrested for previously.

What detectives learn next drastically
changes the urgency of the

The probation officer gave us a very
chilling warning, saying there is

that you need to know about this male,
and that is that he's just been released

from prison for murder.

He's got somebody who...

has very violently murdered somebody and
not only that they've got a previous

for murder we didn't know where that
individual was so in terms of manhunts

every resource possible was given to us
and we were working at a very rapid pace

to try and chase this individual the
identification of david baxendale shifts

the priority from investigation to
containment as every available officer

to locate him before he can harm anyone
else.

Nutfield, Surrey. A community is in
shock following the murder of 38 -year

Sarah Thomas on the 10th of May 2010.

The prime suspect David Baxendale is on
the run, and police race to find him

before he can strike again.

But as detectives examine his
background, the case takes a darker

This is not Baxendale's first killing.

His history of violence stretches back
years, and even across borders.

He came from a very respectable middle
-class family. He was the eldest of

sons brought up in Croydon.

And those who knew the family in Croydon
said, yeah, they were perfectly nice

people. They did have, even at an early
age, concerns about the eldest, David,

because he was spoiled by his mother,
which gave him a sense of entitlement

demands that everything he wanted he
could get.

And he quickly went off the rails at a
very young age.

He was described as someone who had a
dual personality. As in when he was

he was cool, calm and collected.

But when he was under the influence of
drink and or drugs, he was a completely

different character. He was prone to
violent rages and he was drug dealing at

the age of 14.

He was arrested in 1990 at a young age
for stabbing a teenager and causing

grievous bodily harm.

That is a very serious charge and he
spent a lot of years in custody.

which is very unusual because he was at
a young age, but this was very serious

injuries he had inflicted.

Probation officers who had to look after
him were astounded, really, because he

had come from such a respectable
background, and yet he'd completely gone

the rails and was now inside the drug
underworld and was carrying knives

and was capable of really volcanic
outbreaks of violence.

This is not usual, even in Croydon.

After he left that environment was the
time that he then started to use knives

in his offending.

So whether something had happened to
David in that institution or that he'd

mingling with people that had led him
even further down a road of violence and

offending, it's hard to say. But from
that point on, he did start to employ

knives when he was offending.

By the year 2000, Baxendale's options in
the UK are running out, and he decides

to leave the country.

He had committed a stabbing in early
2000 in Southern Ireland, and as a

of that, he fled.

So he headed off to Spain, to the
customs, which was full of Brits, and

particularly British criminals, old
cronies who were known in and around

where... Accommodation is cheap.

Booze is cheap.

The drug trade is really thriving.

And, of course, the most beautiful
weather you can imagine.

This was suddenly now a new career, a
new opportunity to make his mark.

He would supplement his income whilst
living in Spain by handing out flyers

local nightclubs, by doing bar work, any
kind of casual odd jobs that he could

do to have some money. But he was living
a very unhealthy lifestyle. He was

constantly drinking, constantly taking
drugs and hanging around with criminal

elements.

He settles on the Costa del Sol for a
year and stays under the radar.

But the calm doesn't last long as
Baxendale's violence takes a new deadly

That part of Spain, the Costa del Sol,
is very popular with a lot of British

people. And coincidentally, David
Baxendale runs into an old acquaintance

back in England, a man called David
Martin.

And they become reacquainted. They begin
to hang out together and begin to take

drink and drugs together.

David Baxendale and David Martin go to a
party in the Tormelinas area.

They have drink, they take drugs, and an
argument ensues, and as a result of

which, David Martin is stabbed by David
Baxendale 14 times, and he dies.

It is quite alarming that you have an
individual who has an argument with

someone that they know over something so
trivial, as a result of which takes a

knife out and stabs him 14 times.

shows the level of aggression and
violence that he was capable of whilst,

rather, especially under the influence
of alcohol and or drugs.

In Spanish prison, he was his same self.

He was really volatile.

The guards and the inmates alike quite
quickly realised that he would be kind

hyperactive in one moment and then angry
and miserable in another.

And he was also still very aggressive.
He attacked a prison guard at one point.

He was relying heavily on his mother for
financial assistance because he was

sending her money. And he was using that
money to buy drugs.

But eventually, he wasn't just using the
drugs for himself.

He was dealing drugs within the prison.

But he also upset all the local Spanish
drug lords as well because he tried to

get in on their trade.

And there's one thing that Spanish drug
lords do not appreciate, and that's

Brits coming over to their country and
trying to pinch their trade.

So the years he spent in the Spanish
jail, much of it was spent on the

wing, having been beaten up repeatedly
on the orders of Spanish drug lords.

While incarcerated, Baxendale confides
in a fellow British inmate.

He bragged to his cellmate about how he
much preferred using a knife to a gun

because he could, when he stabbed
someone, he could hear the pop of an

almost exploding inside a victim's body.
He told his cellmate that...

He always aimed at a knife fight for the
heart and the lungs, the major organs,

rather than trying to wound someone,
clearly showing that if he got into a

fight, he wanted to kill. He didn't want
to disable or to just merely injure his

rival. He wanted to kill him.

He didn't serve all of his sentences. He
became quite problematic in the Spanish

prison system.

And by that point, they had the
opportunity to transfer him back to the

finish his sentence.

So he spent the last couple of years in
a UK prison before he got probation.

After he was released from prison, he
spent time in a halfway house, and this

was a supervised halfway house, so
somewhere that people can spend time

ready to be back out in the community
after they've been incarcerated.

When he got to the halfway house in
Redhill, he was determined to continue

violent bullying behaviour.

He didn't take it as an opportunity to
turn over a new leaf and start again.

He threatened fellow residents with a
hammer. He would attack their door when

the door was closed. The police had to
intervene.

Basically, he was treating it with
contempt, the second chance that he had

given.

On one occasion, he grabbed a gun from
his room and threatened the other

residents with it, which absolutely
terrified them because this was a

murderer and a very dangerous man. They
didn't know what he was capable of.

David Baxendale then also threatened to
kill a woman that he'd met on probation,

so the pair had exchanged numbers and
they were talking, but then she rejected

his advances, and he hated rejection,
absolutely couldn't deal with that, so

then sent her some really explicit
messages and basically threatened to

her.

When he saw his probation officer the
next time, it was probably clear to

that he was going to be recalled to
prison, so the...

The day that Sarah was murdered was
potentially his last time when he was

to be able to be at liberty to drink.

I think he took it one step further that
day.

He went on a binge in Memorial Park,
which is a local park, where he knew

of the people he could drink with, and
he went and met with them.

And his behavior there was really,
really unusual. Even for people who knew

and knew what he was like, this was very
unusual behavior.

He was karate chopping the air. He was
threatening to cut people's faces.

He was incredibly volatile at that
point.

Tenth of May, 2010.

Nuttfield, Surrey.

Detectives are on the hunt for David
Baxendale, in connection with the murder

38 -year -old mother of three, Sarah
Thomas, after he was spotted fleeing the

scene.

Records reveal a previous murder
conviction in Spain and a recent release

parole to a halfway house in nearby
Redhill.

Now, investigators begin reconstructing
the timeline of Sarah's final day.

Sarah and her boyfriend David had done
what they usually do and decided to meet

their group of friends in Memorial Park.

Sarah and David had become involved in
an argument and David had left the park

and she decided to go back to a flat
very close to Redfield Town Centre.

A mutual friend had a phone call at
Sarah Thomas, overheard Baxendale's

and quite innocently said, oh, well,
that's an attractive voice, to which

Baxendale thought this...

Game on. That means she really fancies
me. So he arranged to meet her, that had

an off -licence, bringing a friend
along.

It was very easy to pick out on CCTV
when we trawled the town CCTV because he

was wearing a very light -coloured
jacket.

The three of them decide to go off to a
party and...

When that party comes to an end, Sarah
suggests going back to her flat to

continue the party, and they get a taxi.

But before they all get into the taxi,
David Baxendale pictures his friend with

what he calls an evil eye stare, as if
to say, don't get in the taxi.

It will only be me and Sarah getting in
the taxi.

So the friend, obviously feeling
intimidated, does not get in the taxi.

Police interview the taxi driver who
describes Baxendale's behaviour towards

Sarah as unsettling.

The taxi driver that took them back to
the address, which was literally a

of miles, so it would have taken five,
ten minutes, he was quite disturbed by

the conversation that was taking place.
He felt uncomfortable about it.

It was a sexually charged conversation,
very much on David Baxendale's part, and

it was clear that Sarah had been made to
feel uncomfortable by this conversation

as well.

At one point, David Baxendale had tried
to lean over and kiss Sarah, and he had

been pushed away by Sarah, and the taxi
driver had seen that in the rear -view

mirror.

He drops the pair just opposite the
Queen's Head pub, which is a major pub

Nutfield, and they enter into the front
door of the address.

The pair headed up to her flat, which
was on the second level of that

Sarah's own boyfriend, David, was trying
to call her, probably in order to make

up. I think it took place quite
regularly amongst the pair, and it was

a pattern that one of them would
apologise and then they'd make up.

He'd called her after that argument and
by the time he'd called her he could

hear someone in the background.

He obviously wasn't happy that she was
now at home and potentially with someone

that she didn't know. Whether there was
something in the tone that Sarah was

using to suggest that she was frightened
or it was just the fact that she was

alone with another man in her flat and
he didn't know who that person was.

He decided to make his way towards that
property.

As he approaches the property, a male
comes out of the driveway to the

and David gets a really good look at
him. He probably assumes it's the person

that's in the flat upstairs and I think
he thinks about potentially confronting

them but decides not to.

The male that he sees leaving is
carrying a bag with something in it. He

know what.

and then the doors will be left open and
David enters the flat and goes upstairs

and is confronted with a horrific scene.

With the evidence they have so far,
detectives are convinced Baxendale is

responsible.

But they'll need to race to catch him
before he disappears.

We started to then look at the command
and control system. So that is the

where all the 999 calls come in to
Surrey Police and we're able as analysts

researchers to access that and see that
in live time.

And it was clear that calls were coming
in so we'd obviously geographically look

at the Nuttfield area to see if
suspicious activity had been reported.

and it became obvious very quickly that
lots of people were reporting that a man

had been seen that appeared quite
flustered running from the property.

The minute something happened in a very
small village, obviously you've got blue

lights, there would have been a massive
police presence there.

Also, you've got the local press turning
up. That happened very quickly because

the offices of the newspapers were
literally just down the road. So the

cordoned off and the minute you put a
cordon up, people automatically start to

talk and chat and see what's gone on.

As we start to piece things together, we
see a call coming from a lady who

runs a ballet class for toddlers, and
she's running that class in Nuffield

Village Hall, which is about 200 yards
away from Sarah's flat.

She reports a male person in the middle
of the lesson where the children are

being taught ballet.

and asked if there's a telephone and she
said no there's no telephone here but

she can see that his hands are red now
bearing in mind she's got a class full

very young children she she's
immediately alerted to the fact that

something's very wrong here so he then
goes to the toilet area in knuckle

village hall and goes and washes his
hands so we knew the route that he

potentially started to take

You've got limited options when you go
down the A25.

There aren't that many side roads that
you can then take. So the options then

are the potential cross fields and
expansive fields. It is quite a rural

We have essentially the eyes of the
public.

We had a helicopter out, and it was
starting to get dark, so the visibility

wasn't great, but obviously helicopters
have heat -seeking equipment on it, so

if he was hiding in a wooded area or
outside of a field, he would have been

fairly easy to spot.

And the amazing tracking dogs, which
took him to a field, and then he had

obviously gone across the field.

trawling through all the information
that came in to see if we can trace

routes that he's taken and we get quite
a disturbing call from the motorway

camera operators.

who said to us they knew that the
incident had taken place because we'd

very large with the publicity we were
very open about the fact of who we were

listening to and they said we don't know
if this links but we caught someone

running across the motorway the M22
motorway so that's the motorway that

from Surrey essentially down to the
south coast towards Brighton somebody

run through all six lanes of the
motorway and We scaled a really high

is meant to keep people off the
motorway, climbed over that fence and

the field.

So that is how desperate he was to get
away from that scene and get as far away

as he possibly could. So we knew he was
a massive flight risk to us.

When we crossed the route, that was the
field that led to the scout hut.

We obviously had a live feed to the
controller command system when we see a

come in from a scout leader who had a
group of Boy Scouts in a hall.

He'd seen the press release saying that
this mail was wanted and that slightly

earlier in that evening a mail had come
in looking really dishevelled. He was

carrying a bag with him and he had grass
stains and he was very hot and sweaty.

and he gave a story that he'd made a bet
with a friend that he could beat him in

a race. He was on foot, the friend was
in the car, and it didn't quite ring

to Scoutmaster. He felt that something
was slightly off here.

He asked if they could call a taxi to
help him in his race, which they did for

him, and he got into a taxi.

So we now have two more scenes.

We have the scene at the Scout hut
because he did use the telephone there,

then we've got the taxi that he used.

We had to work hard for some of the
information.

Sometimes we were always two hours
behind him, three hours behind him. It

that constant chase. So by the time we'd
traced the taxi driver who'd left, you

know, he'd finished his shift at that
time, so we'd had to locate his home

address and then speak to him. It was
quite a while before we got the

information as to where he dropped him
off to.

That taxi, when we chased the driver,
was also, the taxi driver, very

uncomfortable with the mail that got
into the car. It felt quite chilled by

He knew that something was off.

But he dropped him up to Chequers Lane,
which is a road in Walton -on -Hill.

He could only get the rough ferry of
Chequers Lane.

When we checked... policing systems and
both systems what we found is that david

baxendale's mother lived um lived in
checkers lane by the time we realized

he'd been dropped up up that area it was
the following day so we were constantly

chasing one particular member of the
public had called in to say

that they'd seen an intruder in their
garden the garden was quite large

When they went out to go and check that
everything was in order and everything

was where it should be, underneath a
bench they found a bag that had been

stuffed with clothing and they quite
rightly left it where it was, thankfully

for us, because in terms of
contamination it had been left where it

The pulses, which are the search team,
went to that property and seized that

and in that bag they found...

The very distinctive jacket that David
Baxendale had been wearing, that jacket

was in that bag and it was covered with
blood.

The Pulse team quite unbelievably then
found a large kitchen knife in a tree.

When that knife was forensically
examined, it had both David Baxendale's

Sarah Thomas' blood on it.

Usually when you have a case... In a
murder that's extremely violent, quite

often the perpetrator will injure
themselves and in this particular case

very likely that the hilt of the knife
had caught David Baxendale's hand as he

stabbed Sarah.

Investigators fear time is running out,
believing he might attempt to flee the

country.

We felt that he would probably try to
gravitate back to an area that he knew.

He was essentially estranged from his
family here, had very few friends or

associates, because obviously we were
tracing all of those to see if there was

any chance that he was stopping with
somebody or if someone was helping him

or giving him a lift.

When a case like this happens and you
think that somebody is going to be a

flight rich from the UK, you can put out
something called an all ports warning.

So we knew who he was. We knew what his
passport details were.

So we essentially put a block on all
ports leaving the UK. So that would be

ferry terminals and airports. So had he
tried to use his passport, he would have

flagged up on the system.

Detective suspect Baxendale is heading
toward Portsmouth, where he may attempt

to escape by sea.

Soon, police receive reports of a man
matching his description at a nearby

shopping centre.

A very street security guard down in
Portsmouth.

had spotted a male. He initially thought
he might be shoplifting, but followed

him into the men's toilet at Scum Wolf
Quay and he could see that he was

all of his hair off, which obviously is
a particularly unusual activity to be

taking place in a shopping centre.

He did call the police and the police
questioned him and he said, oh no, I

fancied a change. He gave some story to
the police. The police obviously weren't

happy because they did escort him off
the property.

But before they did that, they asked him
what his name was. He gave the details

of Robert Baxendale and here's my
passport to show it.

His brother's name was Robert, and he
and one particular brother looked very

similar to the point where they could
pass for being each other, and David

clearly, clearly knew this.

He didn't have a passport of his own,
obviously, because he was an offender in

this country, but he could quite easily
have passed for his brother, and in this

case, that is what he did.

Carrying his brother's passport,
Baxendale continues to evade capture.

Delays in information slow the pursuit,
and time is running out to stop him

boarding a ship to France.

11 May 2010

Detectives investigating the murder of
Sarah Thomas are closing in on their

suspect, David Baxendale, a convicted
killer already on the run.

Sightings place him near Portsmouth
Harbour, where police believe he's

attempting to flee the country by sea.

Delays in intelligence mean police are
always several hours behind, and

fear time is running out.

investigations are moving at a fast
pace. I can't overestimate how much

information the police are sifting
through and what they're having to

to. All of a sudden we had a very fast
-paced investigation and

we knew that we had a very dangerous
individual at liberty.

We initially felt like he was probably
going to stow away.

There was CCTV in and around Dunwolf
Quays where he was clearly approaching

people that he felt were lorry drivers.

So we thought he's going to stow away
until we realised that this police

had taken details of Robert Baxendale
and everything started to fall into

We were like, that's what he's gone back
to walking on the hill. We felt like it

was possible to take a mobile phone and
money and get a change of clothes.

He did all of those things.

But unbeknown to us, he had also taken
his brother's passport.

So we checked to see if anyone was
applied to be a foot passenger on a

and we find David Baxendale checking in
using his brother's passport.

And once again, Baxendale flips through
their graph, boarding a ferry for Saint

-Malo, France.

So when we thought the ferry was still
in transit, all sorts of conversations

were taking place of, can we put out a
tannoy to see if there's any police

officers on that? You know, would
someone arrest him for insufficient of

on the ferry?

What jurisdiction is that? If there's a
boat out, you know, is the boat a French

boat or is it an English boat? What's
the jury? You know, we were having all

those conversations and then we realised
that the ferry had docked and he was

away. It was the most galling thing to
think that we have missed him. We were

constantly chasing and, oh my goodness,
the team was so deflated.

Despite the setback, detectives continue
gathering intelligence about his

movements.

Whilst on the ferry to France, he
befriends a number of lorry drivers and

them is able to give him a lift to
Flingerola in Spain.

When he makes his way back to Spain to
Fingarola, he once again starts working,

giving out flyers for nightclubs.

But this time he seems determined to
stay and stay out of trouble.

He goes back to taking alcohol, taking
drugs, but he also starts to boast to

people that he is on the run, and that
is his biggest downfall, because...

This is an international manhunt. The
police have been tracking him and the

police are fully aware that he used to
be in the Costa del Sol, that he has

connections there.

The police knew who the suspect was and
his past behaviour.

They had enough pictures of him from
custody to be able to mount a big media

campaign, find this man, if you see him,
don't approach him, but report to

police immediately.

And they circulated it through Interpol.

Of course, the Costa is not just full of
ex -British crims working in the drug

trade, it's also full of absolute rams
of British tourists.

And one person remembered the picture,
put it together with a loudmouth he'd

seen in the bar the previous day, and
went to the Spanish police and said,

is the man he wants.

After 42 days, he was arrested by the
Spanish police.

We got the notification that David
Baxendale was in custody.

which we were absolutely ecstatic at. We
were thinking that tracing him and then

getting him exudated was going to take
years, but actually it was really a

course of under two months that we had
him in custody.

You're never entirely sure that you've
got absolutely the right person,

obviously. It's not a unique name, so
had they arrested another British

maker called David Baxendale, when his
DNA was taken, that's when we knew we

the right man.

Baxendale is extradited back to the
United Kingdom as investigators prepare

their case for trial.

The actual preparation of the case
material had to be speeded up a bit

he came into custody faster than we
anticipated.

Luckily, we secured everything like the
CCTV evidence.

A lot of the material that was intrinsic
to ensuring a conviction had been fast

-tracked and we had that all locked
down.

Trial proceedings begin at Guildford
Crown Court on 28 February 2011.

He initially came up with this
absolutely ludicrous defence that

he was in the flat with Sarah and a
random man came in and badly assaulted

of them.

Sarah died and he panicked and decided
to flee and he said that Sarah's

got on him because she had fallen on
him. It was a ludicrous attempt to

themselves from Sarah's murder.

His demeanour through the trial was
initially really calm and collected and

seemed quite polite and well behaved and
then when he was challenged his true

colours were shown and quite quickly he
showed his true colours and he became

argumentative and angry and aggressive.

Jurors took just three and a half hours
to consider their verdict and they came

back with a guilty verdict.

For a trial that had taken three weeks,
that is an incredibly short time for a

jury to be deliberating. So such was the
evidence that was put to them and it

was clear that David Baxendale was the
type of character that he was.

Judge Critchlow sentenced immediately,
which is also quite unusual.

The judge quite rightly imposed not just
a life sentence, but a full life order,

meaning life means life. You will spend
the rest of your years behind bars. You

will die in prison. And this is the most
supreme punishment that can be handed

out in a British court.

At the moment, there's only... between
50 and 60 of people who are serving full

life terms, the worst serial killers,
the worst murderers. It's only handed

to the most dangerous people.

One of the positive aspects was around
the sentencing and that realisation that

this is a really very dangerous man and
that he'd already been known to

have committed a number of serious
offences.

And that clearly the best sentencing in
this case would be

a full life term because he'd been in
prison a number of times before and

not been rehabilitated.

I think David Baxendale is what we call
a potential serial killer or rather an

emerging serial killer.

He had killed two innocent people, and
if he hadn't have been caught and

convicted for the murder of Sarah, I
believe he easily could have killed

perhaps in Spain and Fingalola, and it
easily could have been over something as

trivial as before.

I think part of what makes him dangerous
is he has that superficial charm, the

gift of the gab.

But underneath that exterior lay this
really manipulative, angry, violent man

who couldn't take rejection and, as soon
as he was rejected, would just flip.

It's that dangerous Jekyll and Hyde type
Jill personality that he had.

Personally, Sarah Thomas was let down by
the probation service and the prison

service and the police. Should have
whipped Batchelor back into prison long

before he met Sarah Thomas.

The fact then is that he would have
completed his sentence and would have

released, and I think almost certainly
would have killed again.

But it would have been someone
different.

Sarah Thomas would have been alive today
if it hadn't been for, I think, the

mistakes made at that time.

For those who work the case, the impact
never truly disappears, even after the

investigation comes to an end.

My main takeaway, of course, is that you
have somebody who has so tragically

lost their life who...

in fact was a mother of children that
now will never know their mother and

that's always something that you know
you take away with you this case

always sticks out to me due to the
extremely violent um ends

that sarah met which is so tragic that
he was able to isolate Sarah

from a group of friends who probably
would have protected her, that within

of being in her company that he had
violently assaulted her. He is the

type of human and he deserves to spend
the rest of his life in prison.

When you search this case up using open
source it's really difficult to find a

photo of Sarah.

There's only one that is publicly
available, and it was the one that was

all of the press information.

What's really important to remember
about Sarah is, yes, she had a chaotic

She adored her children, she adored her
family, and she was trying her very best

to make a go at her life.