All language subtitles for The.Real.Manhunter.S01E05.WEBRip.x264-ION10

He was by all accounts an
ordinary, nice, sensible

young lad of 18, growing up ready
to make his way into the world.

Chris had been working at the shop
at Tolworth and his brother and a friend

met him there and they were just walking
home, in high spirits, they were singing

and talking to each
other, they weren't drunk,

they were just walking home together.

And then for some reason,
nobody knows exactly why,

an incident sparks where
a group attacked them.

When I opened the door instead of
Chris and Phil, there was 2 policemen,

'Chris had been involved in
a fight, he's seriously injured,

we need to get you to
Epsom hospital straight away'.

I remember thinking 'this
is not happening to us,

it's somebody else, they've got
the wrong one, it's not Chris'.

What we needed to do was
identify who was responsible.

Colin Sutton was a
detective chief inspector

and senior investigating
officer at the metropolitan police.

He led the investigations into some of
the most complex, high profile cases ever,

bringing dagerous criminals to justice.

In this series, he will take
you inside those cases,

and show you how he
caught these criminals,

using nothing but
pure detective work.

This is "The Real Manhunter".

I found out about the case the
morning after it had happened,

weekend in May and I actually had
the following week booked off for leave

and I was meant to be going on
holiday for a week, but you know,

needs must, and they didn't have anybody
else who could run the investigation.

I was asked by the assistant
chief constable to be the SIO

for this murder and he told me that an
18-year-old lad had been murdered on the.

Ewell bypass on the previous night
and that at first the incident room was at.

Epsom Police Station so could I
go along there and meet the people

who would be on my team and
of course in Surrey at that time,

there wasn't a permanent
murder squad, if you like.

My name is Jay Regan, I was a
Detective Sergeant with Surrey Police.

I first met Colin Sutton as
a result of this investigation.

Colin had recently transferred
from west Yorkshire to Surrey Police.

What happened was that you were
appointed SIO and then you were given

sufficient staff that were kind of
selected from various divisions, so I

didn't know, but I hadn't been there very
long, so I didn't really know anybody.

On the Saturday, I was up in
the north east on a family do

and I was contacted and asked
if I would travel back and assist

and manage the
investigation into his murder.

I turned up in Epsom and found that the
acting DI, the DS who was going to be my

number two, and it was a fellow called
Jack Regan, I'd never met him before but

he was one of these people I just
instantly took to really and he was a very

different character to me, probably a bit
more sparky and a bit more expressive.

And then obviously on the Sunday morning
I met with Colin and I was updated on

the investigation and what had happened up
until that point and from then on, I was.

Colin's deputy running the day to day
management of the investigation for him.

This was the first occasion that I had
met and worked with Colin and to be honest

I found him very open to ideas and new
ideas and to suggestions both from myself

and from others on the team
who were working this investigation.

I think it was one of those
situations where we had two people

whose qualities complement
each other, and together,

we made a good team, and
it was great working with him.

Chris Donovan was an
18-year-old lad unknown to the system;

The police had no
knowledge of him previously.

Chris came from a family who,
his mother and father, Ray and Vi,

were very committed Christians
and regular church goers,

and they had a daughter as well as two
boys and it was quite a close family.

There was something about Chris
that was special, he was, out of the

four children
we had, there was something

different about him right
from the start, he was very

loving, very kind to people,
very loyal to his friends.

Christopher had been a model
son really and he had this ambition

after he got a little bit
older, he was going to join

the police force, he was
interested in becoming a policeman.

He wanted to join the army, I
took him to Black Heath barracks,

he'd signed all the papers and
they found he had terrible asthma,

in fact they advised him to join
the police, would you believe?

They said join the police, do a few years
in the police and when your asthma goes,

we will take you on. And he
was looking forward to that,

he was really thinking
about joining the police.

He was by all accounts an
ordinary, nice, sensible

young lad of 18, growing up, ready
to make his way in the world.

Sometimes murder is like a lottery and
there is a chain of circumstances where

each individual circumstances by
themselves won't particularly lead to any

damage or harm but when they
all add up, those millions to one,

the coincidence, chance, they
can result in the most horrific events

which destroy lives and destroy
the lives of those who love the victims.

The night of the murder was
one of those situations where

you reflect on it and you
think 'this was so senseless'.

At that stage he was working for a pizza
company and had been delivering pizzas

and was managing a shop and to all intents
and purposes, he was a genuine nice guy.

He was a hard worker as well, he worked
14 hours a day, he worked for a local

pizza company and one day he went
in and found out there was a record for

the most deliveries in the day and he went
'I'm going to break that' and he broke it.

Chris had been working at the shop
at Tolworth and his brother and a friend

had met him there and they were walking
home in high spirits, they were singing

and talking to each
other, they weren't drunk,

they were just walking home together.

I asked him what
happened, Philip,

and he said, 'We were
walking along singing songs,

two boys stopped us and told
us 'you're singing the song wrong'

we had a laugh and a joke he said,
and they walked on, we walked on...'

And then for some reason,
no one knows exactly what,

an incident sparks
where a group attacks them.

And there's a hill, coming the opposite
way on this hill were 14 boys and girls,

they were drunk and everything
else and they opened up, he said,

to let us through, Phil walked through
first and the youngest one wanted

to get respect from
his friends, punched him

so hard in the face, his
nose ended up in his cheek.

This murder really was all about two
groups of young people. You had one group

who came from a party above
the shops in this parade here,

they crossed the road and started
to walk down that side of the road.

The other group which included Chris
Donovan, his brother and their friend

was walking down the road this way
and it was when they were just about

on that hill going up the road
there that they met and as they met,

there was some sort of argument,
some sort of argument broke out,

it might have been about
singing the words to a song wrong,

something as simple as that.
But of course, what you had was

the group that had come from
the party had all been taking drugs,

taking amphetamines, they'd been drinking.

Sadly, events intervened in the form
of this gang of hooligans really, thugs,

who were looking for trouble, there
was no reason to do what they did.

Whether there was a remark made,
but it resulted in what appears to be an

assault on Chris and the other two,
Chris obviously tried to defend himself,

he was knocked to the ground and the
witnesses describe seeing him lying on

the ground being kicked in a foetal
position in the road on the Ewell bypass.

And you've got this fight going
on, its midnight-ish on a Friday night,

and it goes on for so long that
people in their houses hear it

and they come to their bedroom
windows and they're looking out.

That was very helpful for us as the
investigation went on. All they see is

this group of young people milling about
fighting each other. During that fight.

Chris Donovan gets knocked
unconscious, he falls on the ground

and while he was on the ground,
someone kicks him in the head hard.

At that stage it would appear that
the traffic lights that are approximately

200 yards down the road were
red so there is no traffic travelling,

they obviously changed, went
through the phase to green and then

vehicles moved up the road, the
group dispersed that had attacked them,

leaving Christopher unable to
defend himself and in the road,

and sadly he was then
struck by a passing vehicle.

He's unconscious at the roadway and
there's a poor woman at the traffic lights

and she pulls away, she drives up
that hill and she sees what she thinks is

a binbag or a bundle of rags in
the road and because there's another

vehicle close to her, she tries to
straddle it with her wheels and she

drives over it and it's Chris Donovan.
Part of his clothing gets caught

on part the car and she drags him
along the road for 70-80 feet before

she realises and stops and of
course that caused him terrible injuries

in addition to the injuries
he suffered from the assault.

The impact on the female driver was huge.

20 to one in the morning our doorbell
rings and I'm thinking 'how can two

boys forget their door keys' and
when I opened the door I was going to

give them a right mouthful
as you can imagine

opened the door and
instead of Chris and Phil,

and instead of Chris and
Phil, there's two policemen,

they asked if I was Chris
and Phil's dad and I said yes,

they said 'we need to speak
to you and your wife urgently'

and I said what's it about
and they wouldn't tell us.

Vi got out of bed
and they said that Chris had been

involved in a fight,
he is seriously injured,

and we need to get to
Epsom hospital straight away.

I remember thinking 'this
is not happening to us,

it's someone else, they've got
the wrong one, this is not Chris'.

We live about 13 miles from the
hospital. When we got there Philip and his

friend Richard were in forensic
clothing, Philip's face was all blooded,

as I'm talking to Phil,
another policeman came up

and said, 'you can't see
Chris, we're operating on him'.

We just sat in that room, with Philip,
holding him and he was just crying and

shivering and shaking and it was like your
whole world has crashed in around you.

Then at 20 to 4 in the morning,
we'd seen the doctors, the police,

the hospital chaplain, they didn't
have to tell us, their face told us,

Christopher died that morning,

because one 15 year old coward
wanted respect from his friends.

I ran out the door and I ran down
the corridor and I remember a huge

policeman coming towards me and
holding his arms out and he hugged me,

and he looked down and at me
and said 'we're going to get them'

and I remember thinking 'no you're not'.

We all felt that we needed to
do the best job we could for Chris,

his family and his parents,
Ray and Vi who had obviously

suffered immensely as a
result of what had happened.

Chris became what is known
as 'property of the coroner'.

He's not a crime scene, he's
our son, but we couldn't touch him,

and I remember the policeman
saying, 'I don't know how to ask you this

but is this your son?' I know a lot of
young people disrespect the police

but that man hugged me like a father
that night and cuddled and cared for me,

there is a human being behind that
uniform that we had to show people that

the police are not animals, I have the
utmost respect for them from that day on.

Two hours later, in walks another
policeman, his name is Colin Sutton,

as he walked in the room, the atmosphere
changed, I know that's hard to believe

but the atmosphere changed, and he just
sits down on the chair, he didn't ask us

to sit down, he just sits down,
looked me in the eyes, didn't call me.

Mr Donovan, he went, 'Ray, I
will never lie to you' and the minute

he said that he got my respect. He
then said 'I've put up an accident sign'.

I said 'why did you put up
accident when it's murder?'

And he said 'If I put up murder,
no one will come forward, trust me'.

And from that day to this, I trust
that man. So, do you, don't you?

Absolutely. Something
about him, his personality,

he's caring, permeates

a room when he walks in and it was the
only thing that we had

that was strong, we
all felt so out of control

at that time, everything was taken away,

everything you know
and hold dear is gone,

but this one person comes in and
they are strong and that is so amazing.

Being able to talk to Chris's brother
and friend, what became clear was that

these two groups didn't know each
other, there was nothing pre-arranged,

there was no history between the
groups, it was something that happened

on the spur of the moment as they
bumped into each other on the street.

As soon as I was updated on what had
happened and the descriptions that had

been given by various members
of the public who looked out of their,

mainly bedroom, windows, because it was
late at night, to see what was happening.

It was clear that we had a group
of assailants, some of whom were

responsible for the assault on Chris
and others who were merely standing by.

The fight happened and the place
where it happened was bordered on

both sides of the road, it was a dual
carriageway but there were houses

on both sides of the road and because
the fight went on for some minutes and

there was shouting and noises, quite
a few local residents were alerted by it.

What we needed to do was
identify who was responsible.

Quite unusually, I suppose we had a
number of eyewitnesses, people who could

tell us exactly what was happening,
what they'd seen and who was doing what

and that would become very helpful
for us as the investigation went on.

Another witness that we had was
a very unfortunate lady who'd been

driving her car. She was driving her
BMW from Epsom towards Tolworth

and she left the traffic lights close
to where the murder happened

and by this time Chris Donovan was
unconscious and lying in the roadway.

This lady didn't realise it was a
person, she thought it was a binbag or

some rags or something, and because
there was a vehicle on her outside,

she decided she would straddle it
with her wheels and drove over it.

And of course this inflicted horrible
injuries on him and this poor woman

was distraught, and it completely
wasn't her fault it could have happened

to anybody but that was another factor
we had, we had this lady who we were

treating as a witness of course
rather than any sort of suspect.

It's a really unusual incident for that
part of the world. You don't get murders

in Ewell really, and people in the
community wanted to help

and it didn't take long for people in the
Watersedge Estate to be phoning in and

giving us the names of the youths
that were in this assailant gang.

We had a range of youths from 15 to
early 20s, it was one of those situations

where the names were repeated,
different people phoning in had given us

the same names so we were
confronted with the fact that

the overnight team had
gone out and arrested them.

We had some people who had been arrested
on that Saturday morning as a result

of information coming into the police,
but what we didn't have was clear

descriptions of the clothing
that the offenders were wearing

and without having that clothing it
would be virtually impossible to prove

who was responsible for the assault
on Chris. We had varying descriptions

of tops, trouser bottoms, we had
baseball caps and we had descriptions

of at least one of them kicking
Christopher as if he were taking

a penalty whilst he was on the ground.

We had all these people there, we
could interview them and try and get an

account from them, if they so
desired and if were going to talk to us,

but ultimately they'd have to be released
on bail and we were going to have to

have to carry on the
investigation until we found

proper evidence to
justify their arrest again.

One of the difficulties as a result of
Chris being struck by the vehicle was that

it was important to identify
to the court what killed Chris,

was it the actions of the
people who assaulted him

or was it as a result of being
struck by the motor vehicle?

As a result, it meant that unfortunately,
further inquiries and research had to

be made into Chris' brain to ascertain
the seriousness of the injury inflicted.

While were outside, the coroner
went, 'I've got bad news' and I said,

'what could be worse than that?' she
said 'because of the kicking and the car,

I had to prove what killed Chris. To do
that, I had to remove his brain, wait for

an enzyme to come out, it takes 16 weeks,
and you can't bury Chris for 16 weeks.'

The injuries that Christopher suffered
were quite extensive and the pathologist

was a guy called Ashley Fagan-Earl,
he was very helpful in the sense that

he was quite categorical about what he
said. He looked at, examined every inch

of Christopher's body and he was able
to say quite definitely that the injuries

he suffered from the neck upwards
were from the assault and the injuries

from the neck down were from the
abrasion of being dragged under the car.

Crucially, he said, it's these ones,
the assault injuries that killed him.

This therefore put the whole
case on a murder footing.

One of the things that came out of the
post-mortem was that Chris had quite

short hair anyway, and they shave
the head so that we can see more clearly

any injuries and on the top of his scalp,
there was a quite a well-defined pattern

of bruising and it looked for the
world as if it were a print from the sole

of the training shoe or some sort
of ridged sole from some footwear.

So, it looked like something is
stamped on his head and we were little bit

kind of confused by this because if
you imagine because it was right on top

of his head the circumstance in
where somebody could get to that

position to stamp on his head
would be a bit difficult to envisage,

you know, if he was climbing out
of a manhole then you could do it.

But in the fight that's gone on,

we weren't quite sure how
that could have happened.

A lattice type of shape, or a
shape, had been identified,

which the police initially thought,

on scientific advice, forensic advice,

was from the sole of a training shoe.

And when we got the clothing and
training shoes from all the people

that have been arrested and started
looking at them, there wasn't a pair of

shoes or pair of trainers
that just by observing it

it looking at it matches
this mark on Chris's head.

They arrested six suspects shortly
after Christopher's murder and they took,

obviously, the clothing and shoes of
the most paramount importance, but none

seemingly matched the imprint on
Christopher's head from the fatal injury.

It troubled me for a few days because
I thought well, it's obviously that mark

that bruising is obviously something to do
with the assault, but it doesn't look like

we thought, the stamp and what I
did was I went back with Jack Regan

two or three days after the post-mortem
back to the mortuary, and asked

the mortuary attendant just to let us
have another look at Chris's head, because

in my experience
sometimes bruising can come out more

and be more distinctive
after a few days have passed.

Then he lowered himself, so he
was looking at Christopher sideways

almost face to face. Pretty horrible
thing to do unless you are that detective

who is looking for an opportunity
to find that person's killers.

In this instance, Colin got
his moment of inspiration.

And it became obvious what this mark
was. It wasn't from the sole of a trainer.

It was from the in step. It was the mark
of where the laces have been inter-crossed

across the in step of the shoe. Of
course, that tied in perfectly with one of

the witnesses who described seeing
somebody kick Christopher quote

'like a penalty kick', like they
were taking a penalty and of course,

it makes much more sense that if he's
laying on the floor then a kick like that

would be easily land on
the scalp on top of his head.

The difficulty with it was, was of
course the way that your trainers are

laced up can vary each time and
depends on whether there's a foot in there

or not or the thickness of
the socks you're wearing.

It wasn't possible conclusively
to compare the mark on.

Christopher's head with
any one of the shoes we had.

It was then imperative that we
identified the articles of clothing.

One of the features of this
investigation was the sheer amount of

information we were getting from
the public, the public around here on

the nearby estate, they wanted to help
us. One of these snippets of information

was that 2 of the suspects had gone,
before they went to the party, by train

to Clapham junction to score
some drugs. So, we came here to.

Stoneleigh rail station, had a look
through the CCTV and we had the two

of them going out towards Clapham
Junction and then coming back later

just before the party. Crucially they were
wearing the same clothes, same colour,

same design as described
by thewitnesses of the scene.

So that CCTV was added to the
material we was getting to try and

work out who was who.

So, by working back
from the time we thought

the assailant group had gone to the
party, we just kept going backwards

and backwards on the CCTV
and eventually we find them,

all together in a group,
walking towards the party.

One of the most important things
was trying to work out who

did what, and we had all these eye
witness accounts describing clothing and

sometimes hair colour and saying
'this person wearing these clothes and

with this colour hair punched somebody'
or 'this person kicked somebody'

but of course none of the witnesses
knew the identity of who that person was.

We trawled the local CCTV which
gave us images both in black and white

and also in colour. In particular one of
the assailants was wearing a hooped top

which the definition in black
and white was different to

the picture you got in colour, so
it clearly showed an additional line

on that polo shirt which the
colour one didn't pick up so clearly.

We were able to really work out exactly
what everyone was wearing because

they are all different, people who
had similar colour shirts on had different

colour trousers on or something like
that so, they are all quite distinctive.

So, we then were in the position where
once we got all this information together,

we were then able to execute further
warrants on the people that we wanted

to arrest in relation to this and
looking for specific items of clothing

and fortunately for us, those items
of clothing had not been disposed of.

When we had the CCTV evidence,
they were re-arrested and

they started talking to us to a degree
but each of them were doing that,

'yes I was there, but I wasn't
involved, I didn't throw any punches,

I didn't throw any kicks' and what we
had was like a matrix, like a spreadsheet

of all the witnesses across the top and
down this side, the clothing they'd seen

and what they saw that person
wearing that clothing doing.

So, they'd say 'pink shirt punched
somebody, blue hooped shirt

kicked somebody, plain blue shirt
kicked and punched somebody'.

We also had the situation where we
had some accounts being given in relation

to certainly one of the offenders
wearing someone else's top, that it simply

could not have been the case because of
the descriptions we got and subsequently

we also got blood from Chris' brother on
a jacket which belonged to that assailant.

The problem that I foresaw was
that trying to express that to a jury

in terms of giving them a spreadsheet
with x's and ticks and things

was just going to be dry and it was
going to be difficult to convince them.

We first had to be sure
ourselves that we knew

who was wearing what and what they did.

The issues were that this had happened
late at night under sodium street lighting

so therefore that in itself created
some ambiguity in respect of light tops,

some people were describing a cream
top, and some were describing a white top,

it was obviously
dependant on where they

observed it from in
relation to the street lighting.

And I was just sitting down with Jack
and talking it over like you do sometimes,

just to how we'd do it, and Jack
made this throwaway comment

where he said; 'what we try to do
here is dress five tailors dummies'.

It became obvious that the best way to
do this was to obtain some mannequins,

dress them in the clothing we had and
take them back to all the various scenes

of the CCTV together with the scene
on the night. I discussed this with Colin,

we looked at it and thought about it
and Colin was in agreement that this was

the best way forward, it would give a
good visual image that we could use

at court that could be shown
to the defence and would clearly

discount some of the minor ambiguities
we had in witnesses statements.

So, what we did is we went to a local
well-known store in Epsom and they lent us

six of their best brand-new
mannequins. We then got the clothing that

we'd seized from the suspects and
we dressed each of the mannequins in

what we believed from the witnesses,
that the suspects wearing that night.

We didn't want to take anything for
granted so although it was in September

as against the incident that happened
in May, we chose to make sure we

had the right weather, we had the
same phase of the moon, we closed the.

Ewell bypass and used the hydraulic
equipment the fire brigade had so we

were able to both video from the ground
and from the air, and at the same time,

we then used video in the evidence
from each of the witnesses windows

that they had viewed the scene
from to show they had clear

uninterrupted view of what
they describe they had seen.

This garage had, at the time,

a CCTV camera just above
where the cash machine is,

over there, it may still be
there or another one still be there.

But it pointed out directly
across the forecourt and effectively

just across the road here. And
what we've then got is the group that

ended up as the assailants are walking
towards the party on that side of the road

in that direction there. So,
we had that CCTV still, we brought the

mannequins with their clothes on,
and we put the mannequins over there,

posed them in the same positions as the
CCTV stills, had still photographs taken

and that gave us the two
things for the jury to compare.

Likewise, up in the shops up near
where the party was, there was a Threshers

off license and that's where the assailant
group had gone in to buy their drink

before they went to the party. Again,
there was good CCTV there because

it was indoors, it was well lit and it
was in colour. Again, we went back there

with the mannequins and posed the
mannequins in the exact same position.

We could literally have the still from
the CCTV in one hand and the posed

the mannequins so they were in
exactly the same position and doing it on

a night with similar lighting
conditions, it came out as something

that could be compared quite easily.

What we did was have a police photographer
take still photographs of the mannequins

with the clothing on before we
started and we labelled them and said

'these are clothes taken from each of
the defendants' and put their names in

but then after that, what we did was took
further stills from the same CCTV camera.

So, we were trying to recreate the
conditions best we could so that all the

photographs were all taken in
exactly similar conditions, and it worked.

We didn't do this exercise with the
mannequins before we sent the clothing

away to be examined because obviously
it was more important to preserve

any fibres or blood or any other
evidence that might be on these clothes.

The only thing that came up
was there was a black jacket which

belonged to one man, but he
leant it to another young man

who was wearing it at the
time, and they admitted this.

There was a speck of blood on the
sleeve. The lad who was wearing the jacket

admitted he punched someone,
but he said he punched Phillip,

Chris' brother and
during the melee...

he hadn't, he said, punched
Christopher, the man who died.

He'd admitted to assaulting Chris' brother
because he thought that would put him

away from the assault on Chris but
clearly by doing that he showed he was

wearing the jacket which was described
by numerous members of the public

and he was therefore at the scene
and involved in the assault on Chris.

Then he said to us 'if I arrest everybody
in the gang, we could lose the case,

let's just concentrate on

the three boys that killed Chris,
and what the witnesses saw'.

We went to a conference with the QC
that was going to be presenting the case

and he was of the view that the speck
of blood on the sleeve of the jacket,

because it related to the brother
and not the victim, that we shouldn't

proceed against that individual. Jack was
a little bit exorcised and excited by this

and bubbled up and was making
an impassioned plea to the lawyer

like 'no, we've got them' and it
was all very dramatic in some ways.

Then Jack subsided and I took the
more considered view and tried to take it

more logically to the lawyer and said
'we can prove he was there and we can

prove that the blood means
he punched somebody,

it's a joint enterprise in the fight,
he punches someone and he dies,

even if it's someone else, he's still a
murderer' and as the best lawyers do,

he saw my argument
right away and said

'yep ok, I'm with you Mr
Sutton, we will leave him in'.

We went to court a year later.
So, were there in witness protection,

Colin is there, liaison officers and
Jack Regan is there, everyone is there

and again he's helping us through
the situation. And as we walked in,

sitting with their parents in front of
us were the boys who murdered Chris

in the foyer, sitting right opposite
us. We had our friend from the church

and one of the policemen, one of the team
holding us and they said, 'Don't move'.

Because he knew
what we were thinking,

you just want to go up and
smack them to be honest.

The eldest hadn't really come into much
contact with the police, had a difficult

upbringing, he lived with his mother and
siblings and his mother tried her best.

In relation to the 16 year old he was
someone who had started recently come into

contact with the police, certainly he
came from a good home, his parents cared

for him, they were concerned about him but
it seemed at that time it was impossible

to divert him away from the group
that he was getting himself involved with.

The story they had given was that they
and gone to purchase some cannabis,

but in fact what had come out in
the trial was that they had gone to.

Clapham Junction to
purchase crack cocaine.

So certainly, both of them that
night had taken crack cocaine and

had also drunk alcohol
which is probably

a good reason as to
how this situation arose.

It was a stupid fight weren't
it? Well, it wasn't a fight,

it was an attack, as two
people fight, this was an attack.

It shouldn't have even
happened. It was just a...

- Senseless...
- Senseless murder.

The trial at the Old Bailey
and it was in March/April 2002,

so it was 10 months afterwards. The
judge had applications from the youngest

of the suspects of the defendants
saying that because he was so young,

can he be allowed to sit in well
of the court rather than the dock

so he could have access to his
lawyer at all times and understand

the nature of his proceedings and
we thought this was probably a ruse

to try separate him from
the older men in the dock.

The youngest, who was 15, he
persisted throughout the interview saying

he wasn't wearing his jacket,
which was the jacket that had

the forensic evidence on it, he
insisted that he was wearing another

member of the group's jacket, that
simply couldn't have been the case.

Throughout the trial, the youths, the
defendants were kind of saying it was

nothing to do with them individually,
and while they weren't exactly

pointing their fingers at their friends,
that was in the background they were

kind of like 'I was there but I didn't
do anything, it was other people'

it didn't matter ultimately,
it was a joint enterprise.

None of them accepted responsibility
in relation to this which is why we had a

full trial, each of them blamed each
other and merely said they were present.

It was tough to sit and look at the boys
who killed your son then lie for 6 weeks

and lie and lie and you have to sit
there and take that and say nothing.

The jury couldn't make their mind
up, the end of the case, it was a Friday,

we were all sent away for the weekend.
We came back Monday and they still

couldn't make their mind up
by lunchtime and the judge said...

well they mumble in court a lot, I
think he said 'I give 2 out of 10 to two'

went outside and said 'want to go
get a cup of tea Colin?' and he said

'no, they will be back in 10
minutes and it will be a guilty verdict'.

No-one was able to say who
delivered the fatal kick, but there was a

cutthroat defence with people blaming
each other and three of the suspects

were convicted of murder
under grounds of joint enterprise

and went to prison for a very long time.

They were all convicted duly of murder.
I think the judge in sentencing them,

certainly the youngest of the defendants
was given a recommendation of

only 6 years of his life sentence, I
think the part he played, the minor role

was reflected in the amount of.. The
recommendation given by the judge.

The sentence they got was, the
15-year-old who was 16 years in court old

got life imprisonment... 6 Years. The
16-year-old, 17 years old in court got

life imprisonment, 9 years and the 19
year-old got life imprisonment, 10 years.

No doubt that those thugs

probably never intended to take his life

but their errant actions,

thuggery and bullying really,

because there were more of them as
well, ended up taking Christopher's life.

I think undoubtedly, on reflection,
the combination of alcohol and drugs

was probably the reason for this as
none of them had a history of violence

as such and had previously been
involved in this type of incident.

It really underlined the tragedy of this
case that it wasn't just one young life,

Christopher Donovan, who was killed,
but three more young lives were touched

by having a conviction
of murder and it was all

such a senseless tragedy that
it happened in the first place.

When you reflect on it, nobody
wins. We have a family who lost a son,

we have three young men who have
blighted possibly the rest of their lives

and certainly spent a period of time
in custody as a result of their actions.

A lot of other people who had been
touched by this were members of the public

who woke up or looked out of
the window to see what happened.

There was the poor lady who
was driving the car that struck Chris.

In court, I said to Vi 'look at the
families, take one look at them,

there's no winners, we have all lost a
kid today. Ryan Seymour's dad came up

and we were crying, it was
so emotional, we didn't cheer did we?

Like I said to Vi, no one won here,
we all lost a kid, we were crying,

this man walked up and he said
'I'm sorry' and I just walked up

and we hugged each other. I
think me and him had the first

restorative justice meeting in this
country with murder and we talked

and I said don't worry no one is
going to come up to your boy in prison,

he knew we did prison work, I
said no one is going to come up to

your boy in prison. I got what I wanted
today, justice, that's all I wanted.

And Colin said afterwards 'I've never
seen so much compassion in my life

between two fathers'. Coming
home that night in the car I turned to Vi

and said, 'you know what, we
need to forgive the boys that did this'.

I didn't want to forgive them, I didn't
want to. But what I did realise was

actually if you hold onto
un-forgiveness, it will just destroy you

it won't destroy them because they
won't care because they won't know.

So, I realised probably
later on that it's about...

not about how you feel,

it's just about doing it, it's a choice
and you just do it and even today

all these years later
we're still doing that.

Christopher's family went on to
use his death to try and improve

the lot of prisoners and try to make
the world a better place, to try and make

something positive come out of a negative
which is a remarkable thing to do.

The remarkable thing about the
Donovan family, Ray and Vi Donovan,

is how they reacted to their son's death
is that they are both committed Christians

and they have looked at the tragedy,
looked at the terrible situation that

they are in and thought 'how can we
make the best of this, how can we turn

this to a force for good?' and
with the Christopher Donovan Trust,

that's what they've done. They go
around to prisons, they go to schools

and talk about restorative justice,
they talk to people, to young people

about their lives and how
they shouldn't waste them

and I've met people, young men

that they have spoken to who
have told me, 'if it weren't for.

Ray and Vi Donovan's work, I would
either be in prison or I would be dead'.

They really have made
a force for good out of

the tragedy that was
the murder of their son.

The most important thing for us was
that we felt we had done the best job

we could with the resources and
information we had and that we were able,

as best we could, to show to Ray
and Vi exactly what had happened

on that night and how Chris had died.

I think the fact that he allowed us
to be kept in the loop on everything

as much as he could was really
helpful to us, you don't really realise

but when you look back you
realise how helpful that was that

we knew what was going on,
that they were doing this, doing that

and it was so important to us, it
was the one thing we had to hold on to,

knowing we would eventually
get some justice for Chris.

Wherever we go around the country
or around the world, wherever we go,

he's our story. If it weren't for him, we
wouldn't have got justice, I know that.

To put your whole life and your trust in
that one person is quite something when

everything is out of control, I can tell
you, to know they have got your back.

He really cared. He wasn't a
policeman 'this is my job', he was a man

who cares about the people he's working
for, it's an unusual gift isn't it?

It's a wonderful gift isn't it? We don't
know how grateful and lucky we really are

to have him, and goodness knows
how many people he has treated like that.

He's just always there isn't he?

Absolutely, I think he will always
be there, he's part of our life.