All language subtitles for The Truth About My Murder S01E06 1080p WEB DL H264 BTN_track3_[eng]

When a murder is committed
it's always a race against time

to find the truth,
to separate fact from fiction.

To catch the killer and to make sure
that justice is served.

But what happens when the truth
vanishes with the victim?

I'm Dr Richard Shepherd
and I've spent my entire career

as a forensic pathologist
performing nearly 23,000 autopsies,

including on some of the most
high profile cases of recent times.

I've learnt that the dead don't
hide the truth and they never lie.

Through me you'll be hearing
directly from the victim.

From a state of the art laboratory
with ground-breaking technology

that uses digitally scanned
sample bodies,

I'll be investigating a series
of intriguing murders

where, from the victim's bodies,

I'll be revealing to you the truth
behind those horrific crimes.

(camera shutter clicks)

'The small historic fishing village
of Mumbles

sits on the outskirts of Swansea
in South Wales.'

'Its idyllic seaside setting
is popular with tourists

and is the gateway
to the beautiful Gower peninsula.'

Lesley and Derek Potter,
happily married

and expecting their next grandchild,

were at the heart
of that close-knit community.

Yet on the 7th of April 2018
Derek found Lesley dead.

She'd apparently hung herself
from a beam in their home.

But had Lesley committed suicide

or had something more sinister
occurred?

'And could her body
help reveal the truth?'

'Lesley and Derek Potter lived
together on a quiet street

rising up behind the seafront.'

Mumbles is definitely
an aspirational place to live,

the house prices here
are quite sky high,

lots of people
have second homes here.

It's quite quiet, idyllic.

(Sheppard) 'On the evening
of Friday 6th of April 2018,

the Potter family were all out
enjoying a meal

at The George pub in Mumbles.'

Lesley and Derek liked visiting
different pubs in Mumbles

that were quite close to their home.

They visited The George pub with
their children and grandchildren,

had a family meal together.

According to staff,
everything seemed normal.

'But the next morning,
this happy family was torn apart.'

'Derek got up earlier and made
Lesley a cup of tea

before heading out to run
some errands.'

'When he returned
his wife was not in bed,

so he searched the house
and found her in the back bedroom,

hanging, in an apparent suicide.'

Derek said that morning he went out

to go and collect some money
that he was owed from a roofing job

and was stuck in traffic in Mumbles
for around 20 minutes,

and came back to find his wife
hanging naked in the back room,

which he referred to
as his workshop.

(phone rings)

He called his daughter Nicole
at 11.22am,

two minutes later
she called for an ambulance.

(siren wails)

After Derek hung up on his daughter,
he called the emergency services

and when they asked him
if he needed an ambulance,

he said, "No, the person is dead."

Only about half of the people
who commit suicide

actually leave a suicide note.

Probably a way of revealing
their inner turmoil

and their desire
to make the ultimate decision.

In Lesley's case, no note was found.

And when the police
examined the scene,

they found no suspicious
circumstances

and nothing to contradict
Derek's story.

So Lesley's body was taken
to the local mortuary

for a routine
post-mortem examination.

When she was examined,
a noose was found on the body

and that would explain the
marks that were found

which I can show you
on this sample body,

which was described
as a five millimetre deep furrow

to the front of the neck.

But which also extended
up the sides of the neck,

up behind the ears on both sides,

and these are typical of the marks
caused by a ligature in hanging.

Hanging causes death
in a very particular way,

it causes death by resulting in
pressure to the nerves in the neck,

particularly a nerve
called the vagus nerve,

which travels down
and affects the heart.

And stimulation of the vagus nerve
by pressure causes the heart to stop

and so death can occur very quickly
indeed in hanging.

The pathologist who examined Lesley

found no evidence
to contradict Derek's account

and so her body was released to the
funeral directors for cremation.

'Lesley's suicide stunned the
family,

who to the outside world
had seemed to be so regular.'

Lesley and Derek Potter
married in 1992

and had been together
for 26 years.

They had three children, five
grandchildren and one on the way.

This was their second marriage.

I think Lesley came originally
from Bristol, the West Country,

but we don't really know much
about her background

or about his background,
to be honest.

They had run a cafe together
in Mumbles

and then in their later years
together

Derek became
a carpenter/tradesman,

doing odd jobs and roofing
and things like that.

'Their daughter Nicole,
who was four months pregnant,

had recently become friends
with a woman who lived locally.'

I met Nicole in the pub,
she started chatting to me first

and I make friends with everyone,
I started talking to her

and ever since we became friends,
quite good friends.

We went out together a lot,
we went partying, you know,

we went to a friend's house,
having parties there.

So yeah, we went out
quite a lot together.

'Shortly after meeting Nicole,
Natalia met her parents.'

Lesley was a really happy person.

She was kind, um, genuine person.

I mean she took me one day home
and drove me all the way home,

and she was really nice,
we had a lovely chat.

She was looking forward
to having another grandkid.

I met Derek first time
in Nicole's house.

I was sitting on the sofa chatting
to Nicole,

um, just playing with Nicole's son,

and then Derek walks in
through the door

and Derek sits down, has
a cup of tea, has a cigarette.

Um...

Let's just say he, Derek,
seemed interested in me

if you know what I mean?

He seemed nice but he was always,
at that point,

staring at me and looking at me.

So I was a bit awkward at that time,

and I was really quite wary
about him.

You know, just was interested
in another younger woman

if you know what I mean?

'When her mother was found dead,
Nicole called Natalia.'

Nicole was the first person
that told me

that Lesley committed suicide.

Nicole, Lesley's daughter,
received that phone call from Derek.

She must have been
in a complete state of shock.

Nicole was crying on the phone

and all I could say to her,

anything at all,
I'll be there for her.

How devastating it must have been
for her

to find out that her mother's died
from suicide

and she was four months pregnant
at the time. Terrible.

For Nicole it was devastating,

you know, Nicole was,
she was really, really sad.

'Their shock was compounded by the
fact there was no suicide note

left by Lesley, explaining why
she would take her own life.'

When the emergency services arrived,

Derek claimed that he'd tried
to revive her

but Lesley was found dead, naked,

lying on a cabinet with the noose
still round her neck.

'Police were there and questioned
Derek initially.'

(police officer)

When police got there they found
Derek Potter, upset,

although it was noted perhaps
not as upset as you might expect.

He wasn't crying.

Paramedics straight away
noted something odd,

Lesley Potter was found naked
laying on a table in the workshop,

and the paramedic
who first responded said,

he'd been sadly to many hangings
over the years

and he'd never seen a naked person
hang themselves.

The scene was photographed,

his account was taken and then
the body was taken away.

There were no suspicious
circumstances.

It just shows you never really know
what's going on behind closed doors.

On the 7th of April 2018

Lesley Potter was found hanged
at home in Mumbles, South Wales.

She was found by her husband Derek

and her death seemed to come out
of the blue.

'Derek appeared quite calm
when speaking with police officers.'

(police officer) How long were you
married to Lesley for?

Twenty years.

25 years, 26 years.

But the authorities had no reason
to suspect that anything was amiss.

'However Lesley's body would have
its own story to tell.'

'Derek Potter had a troubled past.'

'He had previous convictions,
including violent offences.'

People who were friends with Derek,
have reported in local press

that after a few drinks

that he became quite erratic
and confrontational.

In the years leading up
to Lesley's death

Derek had actually given up drink

and had tried to control
that behaviour.

But just before Lesley's death,
according to her friends,

he had started drinking again

and was often seen frequenting
The George pub with Lesley.

'But by all accounts, Lesley seemed
to be enjoying life.'

Lesley was in a really good place,
she was a really happy woman,

and she was over the moon that she
was going to have another grandkid.

Everything was normal with
the family, as far as I know.

Nicole never ever said that,
you know,

she argued with her family
or anything like that.

'Lesley did have
some physical health issues.'

She wasn't very well, she had
massive arthritis on her fingers,

she couldn't move her fingers
really well.

I think she had problems
with her legs.

'But three days before her death
she was out shopping

and moving around
without too much difficulty.'

'The morning Lesley was found dead

Derek said she had come home
from the shops upset.'

He said that she had been to a
pharmacy to get her pain medication

but had been denied the usual
strong medication

and was quite upset about this.

'The pharmacy had no recollection
of this

and Derek's accounts of his
movements that morning

appeared to have some holes in it.'

Derek had said that on that morning

he had been collecting money
from a job

and that he'd been stuck in traffic
for 20 minutes in Mumbles.

The CCTV from the area showed
free moving traffic,

he was not stuck in traffic.
No way.

'Was there more to this death
than suicide?'

'Only Lesley's body
could give any clues.'

Derek told police
he'd found Lesley hanging

and he'd cut her down
and laid her on the cabinet.

He also said he'd performed CPR.

When injuries from CPR are present,
they're pretty obvious

and you find them in the muscles
on the front of the chest,

but also when CPR has been performed
with some force

you can find fractures
of the breast bone and of the ribs,

but it's all in the front
of the chest.

But sometimes no injuries
are present at all,

even though we know resuscitation
has been performed.

To see if any further injuries
were present

a more detailed examination
would have been necessary.

But the routine examination
raised no issues.

They'd established a cause of death,

asphyxiation by hanging.

And so no further questions
were asked.

'Still in a state of shock Nicole
and the family

started preparing
for the funeral.'

'Nicole's friend Natalia
was a huge support.'

After Lesley died
Natalia offered her condolences

to the family and offered to help
in any way that she could.

So she started doing some cleaning
for the family

and eventually she helped Derek.

I was going to clean Derek's house,
so I offered to clean.

I said to Derek, I don't want money,
because of...

because of your daughter Nicole,

I will just do anything
I can to help.

Derek started showing me
around the house

and he took me to the room

and he literally said, "This is
where she hanged herself."

I went out of the room
because I felt,

I didn't want to stay
in the room

where a, you know, woman,
Lesley, committed suicide.

I got a bit freaked out about it.

So I just left the room,
I said I'm going.

There was something not right
with Derek,

but I didn't know what it was.

'Natalia also helped Derek
with some roofing work

in the days leading up
to the funeral.'

I worked with Derek on the roof
because Nicole said to me,

"Can you please help my father
to do a couple of jobs?"

and I wasn't scared to work
on the roof

because I've done
roofing before.

So I said, "Yes, I'll help out."

'Eighteen days after Lesley's body
was found

they started
the roofing work together.'

We were on top of the roof

and Derek was already making
kind of weird...

weird sayings to me,

like, I told Derek I broke up
with my boyfriend

and he was like using a hammer
and a nail

and saying, "Oh, you should do this
to your boyfriend."

You know, I was a bit...

I was a bit scared then,
but I didn't think a lot of it.

'After work Derek invited Natalia
for a drink.'

Derek said, "Oh, you know, normal
workers we'll go to the pub

and we'll have, you know,
one or two pints."

I said, "OK, no problem."

So... and he wasn't supposed
to be drinking,

I didn't know he was an alcoholic.

He bought the first round,
we drank it, I went to the bathroom,

came back and he'd already
got me another one.

Several witnesses reported him
and her in the pub.

And bear in mind this was a few days
after his wife

had committed suicide.

And he was seen with a woman
laughing and joking,

an attractive young woman, perhaps
there's an element of flirting,

he was trying to impress
in some way.

In the middle of the pub,

amongst people who knew him
and had known his wife.

'And this is where the evening
took a dark turn.'

We were just sitting
drinking our drinks,

Derek looked in my eyes and said to
me, "I need to tell you something."

Over two weeks had passed
since Derek Potter's wife

had allegedly committed suicide
at home.

The post-mortem hadn't raised
any issues,

but had the right questions
been asked of Lesley's body?

The funeral was a week away

and Derek was out having a drink
with a work colleague, Natalia,

when they had a conversation
that she would never forget.

(Natalia) We were sitting together,
me and Derek.

Derek looked in my eyes and said to
me, "I need to tell you something."

I said, "What is it?"
He says, "I strangled my wife."

After a few pints,
two or three pints,

not a huge amount,
you would think,

he confessed to murdering his wife.

He just said, "I love my wife,"

but she was, as he said, "Doing
my head in and I strangled her."

And I think initially she thought,

he's joking, he's had a pint or two,
he's joking.

He was calm, he was... he just
looked straight in the eyes to me

and Derek was really calm, he was.

It's like he thought
that he didn't do nothing wrong,

it's fine, you know?

'Derek also asked Natalia
not to mention anything to Nicole.'

To me it's clear that Derek Potter
suffers from, not just one,

not even just two, but in fact three
distinct personality disorders.

I see signs of borderline
personality,

anti-social personality
and narcissistic personality here.

But I think with Derek Potter,

it's the way
that his destructive components

of his personality

magnify each other
and feed into each other.

So the lack of emotional regulation

feeds into the sense of superiority

and feeds into the disregard
for other people.

It was a shock for me, literally,
I didn't know what to do.

I didn't know whether to run,
whether to sit there.

I didn't believe it at first,
I really didn't believe it.

But he also, Derek also say to me,

I done it, I done this for, for you.

As to say I done this for you
so you can move in,

because I want to help you
with everything.

That's what Derek's words were.

(Donna) The only thing that drives
him, the base that he operates from,

is what is in his best interests
in that moment.

Goodness knows what must have been
going through Natalia's mind.

Because on one hand
he's just confessed to murder,

and the next minute he's asking her
to move in with him.

At that point I thought
that he wasn't lying.

I said to Derek, "I've got
my own place, I don't need help."

So I was... I was stressed out,
I didn't know what to think.

And I thought if I was a stupid girl
and I went and lived with him,

what would happen to me?

(Donna) He completely misjudged
the situation with Natalia,

he thought, from his narcissistic
perspective,

that she would understand
why he had to do what he did,

that she would understand that
and be on his side.

Completely misreading the situation.

At the time that Derek and Natalia
were at the pub,

Lesley's body
was at a chapel of rest.

This confession to Natalia
came at a really poignant time,

it was the week before
Lesley's funeral.

So Natalia had a really big dilemma
on her hands.

If the family went ahead
with the cremation

all possible evidence
would be completely destroyed.

I say to Derek,
"Look, I've got to go home."

So I went home, I sat there
for a while,

didn't know what to do,
whether to report it to the police.

'Natalia was in a state of panic.'

I think two days, 48 hours,
I didn't sleep, my mind was going...

Oh, I was... I was lost. I was.

So I contacted my best friend,
who's a lawyer, and she said to me,

"Natalia, it's best you report it."

So it was something like
four o'clock in the morning

and I phoned the police then
and obviously they came,

they took me
and they interviewed me.

'Five days after Derek confessed
to Natalia,

police arrested him for the murder
of his wife, Lesley Potter.'

So once the allegations
had been put to the police,

about Potter's confession,

he was arrested and straight away
he began to... to change his story.

Even in the police car on the way
to the police station,

he made comments about
how he'd helped his wife,

how he'd tied knots in the rope and
helped her to end her own life.

'The arresting officers
pulled the car over

and made a note of his remarks,
which Potter signed three times.'

I was relieved
when Derek was arrested,

because to be honest,
if he did what Derek told me,

it's not fair for a woman
like Lesley to go and get cremated

and then he's living a normal life

knowing that he can do it
to someone else.

I think he will have been surprised

that Natalia reported his confession
to her in the pub.

He will have been shocked.

Because for him, he thought he was
entitled to do what he was doing

and he was just explaining that
to a woman that he was interested in

and that he assumed,
from his narcissistic perspective,

was interested in him.

It wouldn't have occurred to him

that she would tell
what he'd confessed to her.

'But Natalia's actions did

ultimately mean the end
of her friendship

with Lesley's daughter, Nicole.'

At first, when I told Nicole

I had to report her father to the
police, she, Nicole, was not happy.

But I think Nicole and the family
didn't want to think it was Derek,

you know, they didn't look that way,

maybe because Derek
was so convincing.

But I said to myself the family
is going to have to cope

because if it's the truth,
they have to know who Derek was.

You know, and it's just justice
for Lesley as well.

'The police now had a murder
investigation on their hands.'

On the 1st of May,
which was only three days before

Lesley's funeral was due
to take place,

the police intervened

and her body was taken
for a second post-mortem,

a more detailed post-mortem
in Cardiff.

Derek claimed that when he'd found
Lesley she was already dead,

she'd hanged herself.

But given what he's just told
Natalia

which story would be supported by
the second post-mortem examination?

Hanging leaves a particular mark
across the skin of the neck,

and ligature strangulation

leaves a horizontal band on the skin
and then the muscles underneath.

But manual strangulation
can produce bruising

all over the muscles of the neck
and even deeper.

And the second post-mortem
showed marks, or bruising,

to the muscles of the neck,

it showed evidence of bruising
to the base of the tongue

and it showed evidence of bruising
around the carotid artery,

to the sides of the neck.

And even deeper than that, it was
found that the larynx was fractured.

This pattern of injuries
is not consistent

with ligature strangulation
or hanging,

but it is consistent
with manual pressure to the neck.

And so the second pathologist
concluded

that Lesley had been
manually strangled.

And then hanged.

Lesley's body had finally been given
the opportunity to reveal the truth.

And going back over the reports of
the crime scene with a critical eye,

some things were looking
out of place.

Her body wasn't found directly below
the noose,

it was found on the other side
of the room on top of a cabinet,

and it was found that the noose
was round her neck

but her hair was still tucked
inside of the noose,

which really struck a chord
with the pathologist.

'Natural instinct when
putting anything around your neck,

like a necklace for instance,
is to tuck it under your hair.'

'Also, Lesley had been found naked,

which is almost unheard of
in suicide cases.'

'These are all significant red flags

and while none of them on its own
is critical,

the three together strongly support
the post-mortem findings.'

'But during police interviews

Derek stuck to his story,
that Lesley had committed suicide.'

Derek was in fact interviewed
12 times by police after his arrest,

and many a story started being spun.

At first Derek talked about
their sex life,

he said that him and Lesley
were very much into sado-masochism

and that she had liked
being strangled.

He claimed that he'd strangled her
15 times in their relationship,

some of them sexual
and then some of them out of malice.

He tells the police that when he
first sees her body hanging there

his first thought is, "You bitch."

We know that he talks about her body
as being like a sack of spuds.

All of these give us just a glimpse
into the depths of depravity

of this man's personality,

into the degree of damage
that is deep within.

'But Derek Potter was adamant
that his wife had committed suicide

and that he hadn't strangled her
this time.'

Derek also claimed that Lesley
had often talked about suicide.

He said that he'd offered buy her
heroin

to make the process easier for her.

That she was often in so much pain
that that's why she wanted to go.

It's this seething combination
of personality dysfunctions

that produce somebody

for whom remorse and guilt,

and any kind of finer feelings,
have almost been obliterated.

Derek was coming up with
lots of excuses,

but none of this really added up.

When Lesley Potter
was found hanged at home

her husband Derek initially claimed
that she'd committed suicide.

Now he was charged with murder
and a full forensic post-mortem

had allowed her body
to tell the truth.

She had been brutally murdered
by strangulation.

Everything he told the police
was a lie,

and the lies just kept on coming.

(Jason) He initially told police
that his wife had been depressed,

suffering with severe arthritis.

Was in pain and couldn't take
any more,

had reached the end of her tether,

and straight away he began
to change his story

and over the course
of several interviews

just span story after story
after story.

Claiming his wife had taken
her own life

and then had died in some
kind of autoerotic sex game.

Derek was coming up with
lots of excuses

and lots of different stories

of where he was that day
and how Lesley was feeling.

But something wasn't quite
adding up.

All these stories didn't make sense.

It was clear that Lesley hadn't
hanged herself as Derek had claimed,

and that something far more
malicious had occurred.

In addition to the revelation

that Lesley had been manually
strangled and then hanged,

other injuries showed

that a substantial struggle
had also taken place.

The Home Office pathologist
identified over 30 areas of bruising

and grazing externally,

on her arms and on her neck
and on her legs and on her back.

He also found that there were
30 fractures of her ribs,

two of them to the back,

and some ribs had been fractured
more than once,

and these injuries were
not consistent

with simple resuscitation.

Furthermore, he found evidence
of bruising

deep within the abdominal cavity,

and this type of bruising
is consistent with severe force

being applied to the abdomen,
such as stamps and kicks.

He described these injuries
as extreme

and he said they were consistent

with having being caused
at about the time of death.

It was concluded that there was
no evidence

that Derek had ever attempted
to resuscitate his wife,

instead he'd spent the time
trying to stage the cover-up.

This was clearly
a very violent death,

with widespread
and severe injuries.

Injuries that were not of the sort

that could have been caused
during a suicide attempt.

'On Monday the 22nd of October 2018

Derek appeared at Swansea Crown
Court charged with murder.'

'Natalia gave evidence against him.'

It was very nerve-wracking
when Derek was there

because I had to obviously see him
through the glass.

Um...

And I, the police did say to me,

do you want him to be,
like, you know,

do you want a board in front of you
so you don't have to see Derek?

And I said, "No, why shall I,
why shall I hide myself from him?

Why shall I?"

But no, I-I just,
I looked in his eyes, I did,

Every time I answered the question
to the judge,

I just...
just looked in Derek's eyes.

Derek was looking at me as well,
as to probably say,

"Why did you do this to me?"

You know, I felt like he-he was
angry, his face was very angry.

But I just kept on staring at him
and answering the questions.

'Then it was Derek's turn
to take the stand.'

He gave a very strange performance
in the witness box,

throughout his three days
of giving evidence.

He was boastful, he talked about
his sexual prowess

and his crazy sex life.

Number of sexual partners,
number of marriages he's had,

uh, how strong he was.

He seemed to want to-to... He seemed
to enjoy being in the witness box.

One of Derek's claims of why
Lesley had maybe killed herself,

was that it was a sex game
gone wrong,

that they were both
into strangulation

and she was trying to strangle
herself and surprise him

when he came back from collecting
money, but it had gone wrong.

He came out with
some bizarre claims.

He claimed he had healing
powers in his hands.

It was a strange performance
in the box,

not what you'd typically see of
somebody facing such a grave charge.

He seemed to want to take on the
barristers and to prove himself,

I think he thought
he was really clever,

and he wanted to take them on
and beat them.

And that rarely ends well
for a defendant.

The way Potter behaves in trial

is really quite hard to understand.

I mean, this apparently
reasonably intelligent man

is spinning all sorts
of implausible stories.

Part of the story, part of the
stories, which Potter told,

involved a lodger that he and Lesley
had had in their Mumbles home,

by the name of Paul.

And he claimed both he and Lesley
had been in love with Paul

and had been involved in
a three-way sexual relationship

involving role playing
and all kinds of sexual games.

He claimed that his wife was
depressed after the death of Paul

and that was part of the suicide.

We don't know anything about that,
whether that's...

whether Paul even existed.

It's all... it could well just be
another-another story span by him.

His own barrister
called him a fantasist.

What we've got here is somebody
who's really not a very good liar,

if you will,

which may be surprising,

but actually to be a good liar

you have to be aware
of other people,

in order to present your story
in an effective way.

You have to care what other people
think. He didn't.

You can only imagine how hard it was
for the family to have to...

to sit in court and to hear lies,

lie after lie after lie
that Potter told.

Spinning these outrageous lies
about her.

Um, some outlandish stories.

It must have been heart-breaking,
heartbreak upon heartbreak.

'As well as insisting
Lesley had committed suicide,

Derek Potter pointed the finger
at other people as well.'

He also tried to blame Lesley's
murder on his son-in-law,

on the Masons, and on drug dealers.

The stories were getting
quite out of hand.

It's all sorts of bizarre conspiracy
theories he's drawing in,

it reminds me of a child
caught out lying.

And I think that if you understand
that this is a man

who his entire life has never
justified himself to anybody,

that's not his personality,

and now here he is
suddenly finding himself

realising actually he is having
to answer for his actions.

So we see him reacting, to my mind
like a... like a young child,

with these unsophisticated,
frankly ridiculous, lies.

'But Lesley's body had told
the truth and revealed the facts.'

The trial turned on
the forensic post-mortem evidence,

which was vital
for the prosecution case,

because there was no witness
evidence, no CCTV.

It all came down to the post-mortem,

the detailed forensic evidence from
that, which was laid out to the jury

in great detail in the trial.

'No explanation of a motive
was ever proven in court.'

We hear quite a bit of evidence
in the trial

about Derek Potter's temper.

And we heard from a number
of colleagues, former colleagues,

who testified
to outbursts of temper,

and even in the witness box Potter
himself talked about his temper.

He recounted one bizarre story

where he said he strangled a man
on holiday,

who'd annoyed him,
almost in a boastful way,

how he turned on this man
and strangled him

because he said something,

or something had been done
which annoyed him,

which for a man accused
of a loss of temper

and strangling his wife
was a strange thing to say.

(Donna) To the extent that there was
a trigger, I think it was this,

Lesley was becoming increasingly
arthritic and suffering and aging.

For Derek, he resented the way

that this impacted on him

and reflected on him in a bad light.

And I think to the extent that
there was a trigger, that was it.

'The trial lasted two weeks

and throughout Derek Potter
took no responsibility

for what had happened to Lesley.'

Potter maintained his innocence,
right to the end.

Showed no remorse at all
for what he'd done,

sought to blame others.

It was a shameless performance
in the box,

and not a hint of remorse from him,

for the death of his wife
of 26 years.

Remorse is not a big part
of Derek Potter's personality.

He will have had moments of grief,
for sure,

but this is a man who has for years

thought and felt in ways
that are all about himself,

that are all about...
That all about hatred,

that are all about disregard
for other people.

So yes, there will
have been moments,

but moments is all
it will have been.

'On Tuesday the 6th of November
the jury delivered their verdict.'

Throughout the trial
Potter maintained his innocence.

To the end, he denied
murdering his wife

and just put forward
the series of lies

and told tales to try
and cover his tracks.

I think the jury saw through it
straight away

and the prosecution case
was so strong,

particularly the post-mortem
medical evidence,

that told a very different story.

So when it came
to the jury's deliberations,

they unanimously decided that Derek
was guilty in just over an hour,

in one hour seven minutes,
to be precise.

The jury of eight men, four women,

all decided that he was guilty
of murder.

'Two days later, the honourable
Mr Justice Soole sentenced him.'

When passing his sentence,

the judge described the attack
on Lesley Potter

as a ferocious attack

and said that what Potter did next,

with the lies he told, was
a despicable and shameful charade,

and clearly caused the family
even more distress.

'The judge stated that Potter
had strangled his wife

without premeditation, in a sudden
and furious burst of temper.'

I think the judge accepted,
and it was argued in the case,

that it wasn't a planned murder.

It was a sort of spontaneous
outburst of anger.

But while the murder wasn't planned,
what happened next clearly was,

and he'd gone to the trouble
of staging his wife's suicide.

He's not somebody who gives a great
deal of thought to other people,

so he won't have given a great deal
of thought

to whether or not he was
going to get away with it,

he's just acting from his own
immediate selfish impulses.

What he does
is an instinctive product

of his disordered personality,

of his dysfunctional personality.

'Derek Potter was sentenced
to life in prison

and will have to spend
at least 17 years in jail.'

When they sentenced Derek,
I was so chuffed,

I was so chuffed and I went out
of the court

and just prayed for Lesley

and said, you know, "I done
a good job, I done it for you."

'After the hearing the police
family liaison officer

made a statement on behalf
of the family.'

Not only have we have to come
to terms with the fact

that he so cruelly
killed our mother,

but we have to had to listen to him
tarnishing her name

throughout the investigation
and the court case.

The family, they didn't really
want to speak publicly,

but I thought that was
a really touching sentiment

and they felt their mother had gone

and her memory
was now being tarnished

by what her husband of 26 years
was now saying about her.

The lies he was saying about her.

I think two things really stood out
for me from this case,

one was the strength
of the medical evidence,

which told the true story
of what happened that day,

not the lies which Potter told.

And also the pub confession,

without which there would have
been no detailed post-mortem.

So together I think they made
for an unusual case,

quite unlike any case
I've covered before.

The only thing
that I'm struck by is,

is the way that somehow

Lesley Potter managed

to be married
to this man for 26 years,

without something
like this happening before.

And I think that speaks of
the patience,

resilience, adaptability
and humbleness of this woman,

that she managed to manage somebody

as destructive and damaged
as Derek Potter

through a 26 year marriage.

'With the trial over,

Lesley's family could finally grieve
for their loss.'

If Natalia had not
plucked up the courage

to report what Derek said to her
in that pub that day,

this could so nearly have been

a story of a man
who got away with murder.

But Lesley's body showed that she
been subjected to a violent attack,

strangled to death and then hanged.

So it's a prime example of the fact

that the body always tells
the truth.

But you do have to ask
the right question.