All language subtitles for Britains.Most.Evil.Killers.S02E07.WEBRip.en

-On December the 1st, 1996,

Tracie Andrews
and her fiancé, Lee Harvey,

were driving home
after a night out,

when suddenly, they began
to be pursued by another car.

It was a chase that would end
in Lee's murder.

-He was stabbed
in the throat, back, front

repeatedly, viciously,
and continuously.

-Just two days later,
27-year-old Tracie

gave a heart-wrenching
press conference,

appealing for the public's help
to find her partner's killer.

But all was not what it seemed.

-When you get behind the wheel
of a car,

sometimes you change
personality.

-And we all kind of looked
at each other and thought,

"You know, this enormous story
just got 10 times bigger again

if she is the killer."

-There had been no car chase.

There had been no random attack.

Tracie Andrews had stabbed
her own fiancé to death

and was trying to
get away with murder.

-This is a woman of cunning,

of deceit,

and with a vicious temper.

-Tracie Andrews
had deceived a nation

and become one of
the world's most evil killers.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It was a press conference
that shocked Britain,

when 27-year-old Tracie Andrews

defiantly appeared
in front of the world's media

on December the 3rd, 1996.

She wept over the murder
of her fiancé, Lee Harvey.

She claimed a stranger had
stopped the couple in their car

before stabbing
her 25-year-old partner to death

in a savage attack.

-I just tried to stop
the bleeding, really,

and comfort him
as much as I could.

-But it was all a lie.

In reality,
Andrews had killed Lee

in the most brutal of manners.

At her trial, Andrews continued

to try and sell
her fabricated story.

The media were
fascinated by her.

Daily Mirrorjournalist
Rod Chaytor

managed to interview
the wannabe model

at Birmingham Crown Court
on the day of her conviction.

-I'm sat next to Tracie.

I didn't feel threatened,
obviously.

She's a killer, but we're not
in any kind of environment

in which she's likely to
suddenly launch an attack on me.

So I said, "Well, you know,
do you stick to your story?"

"Yes, I stick to my story."

"Did you kill him?"
"No. I didn't."

-Just minutes later,

Tracie Andrews was given
a life sentence

for the murder
of her own fiancé.

-I worked as a national
newspaper journalist

for many years.

I covered thousands of stories,
dozens of murders.

Some stories just stay with you,

and this is one of the ones
that stays with me.

♪♪

-It's a story that begins
over 45 years ago.

Tracie Andrews was born
on the 9th of April, 1969,

in the West Midlands.

-Well, Tracie was brought up
just outside Birmingham

in Redditch and Alvechurch,

and she was the middle child.

She had an older sibling
and a younger sibling

and several half siblings.

And her parents broke up when
she was around about 6 years old

because they'd had quite
a volatile relationship.

-The separation
of her parents in 1975

had a lasting effect
on young Tracie.

-Well, Tracie's parents
split up,

and her mother got married
to another man.

And when we look
at our parents' relationships,

they are quite important,
because they inform

our expectations
of other people,

our expectations of
the relationships

that we go on to have.

-Kids need attention, you know?

They need to be loved
and cuddled and everything,

and a lot of kids that come from
those kinds of broken homes,

and the case of Tracie,

they want to be loved by mother,
father, or somebody.

So that is definitely,
in my opinion,

one of the things
that pushed her

into always wanting
the attention of other men.

-Tracie left school in 1986,

and age 21,
she had a baby daughter.

But the relationship with her
partner lasted barely a year,

and they soon went
their separate ways.

-What we've got here is a woman
who doesn't like

her partners having a life
that doesn't involve her.

She doesn't like her partners
going out without her.

She gets very jealous.
She's very possessive.

-She certainly had a temper.

Everybody who knew her
said she had a temper,

and when she lost her temper,
everybody knew about it.

She would shout
at the top of her voice.

The whole street would hear.

-By 1994, 25-year-old Tracie

was living in a council flat
in Alvechurch

and working as a barmaid.

But her aspirations went
far beyond pouring pints.

-She had visions.

She had dreams
of becoming a model,

and, you know,
she was very photogenic.

She looked good on camera,
and she knew it.

And she had some pictures taken

and a photo album put together,

but that never really
took off, either.

-Well, she became a barmaid
working in a pub,

but she still
dress provocatively,

and she still loved talking
to men and chatting to men,

again, seeking the attention

that she wanted to get
as a model,

'cause, obviously, when you're
that pretty and you're a model,

you do get a lot of attention.

-Living nearby to Tracie
was 23-year-old Lee Harvey.

He also had a daughter
from a previous relationship.

-Lee Harvey was a young man
from a very close family,

and he worked as a bus driver
for the West Midlands Travel.

So this was a job
that involved, you know,

meeting many people
on a daily basis.

He was very outgoing.

He was interested in cars and
was always very well turned out,

so he was your typical young
Birmingham lad, essentially.

Very close to his mum,
very close to his sister.

-The paths of the two young,
single parents would soon cross.

-Well, Lee and Tracie
met in October 1994,

in Ritzy's nightclub
in Birmingham,

and this relationship really
did develop at a lightning pace.

They had moved in
with one another

only around three months
into the relationship.

So this was going
very, very fast,

and their relationship
was quite a volatile one.

They were both quite possessive,
quite jealous

when it came
to the other's relationships

with the opposite sex.
You often find this

in relationships
that develop very quickly.

You haven't got that foundation
of trust that's been built.

You're always a little bit
kind of suspicious

as to what
the other person's up to

'cause you don't
really know them.

-And they would row,

and they would fight
like cat and dog,

and neighbors would report
how voices would be raised

at all hours
of the day and night

and would go on and on for hours

and then stop
and then start again.

-The couple got engaged
after just six months.

But their volatile relationship
would often see them break up,

only to get back together
again soon after.

-It was maybe almost
a carbon copy

of what Tracie grew up with
in her house.

She had a very explosive temper,

and Lee Harvey also, in a way,

wouldn't, like, just bow down
to her screaming,

so he would scream back.

-She was forever throwing
him out into the street,

and she would throw his clothes
out of the window

or in a black bin bag and
chuck him out the front door,

change the locks.

And then they would have
reconciliations.

Lee would go back.

More violence, Lee would leave.

Lee would go back,
more violence.

♪♪

This went on for a period
of about two years.

-Their explosive relationship
finally came to a head

on December the 1st, 1996.

-So, they'd been rowing all day.

Lee tended to be the peacemaker,

and it was probably
Lee's suggestion --

"Why don't we go for a drink?
Why don't we just get

a change of scene,
a breath of fresh air?

Let's get out of here. Let's
just go and, you know, relax

and have a drink,"
and that's what they did.

-But Lee Harvey would
never make it home again.

By 11:00 p.m., he would be dead.

The only witness to the fatal
altercation was his fiancée,

Tracie Andrews, and her version
of events would soon make it

one of the most talked-about
murders of the decade.

♪♪

On December the 1st, 1996,
27-year-old Tracie Andrews

and her 25-year-old
fiancé, Lee Harvey,

were at a pub in Bromsgrove
in the West Midlands.

After arguing all day,

the couple were trying
to patch things up.

But their night
was about to turn deadly.

-Tracie claimed that,
after they'd left the pub

and that Lee was driving,
that they'd become involved

in a road-rage
incident essentially,

that a man
in a dark Ford Sierra --

There'd been some
kind of altercation,

and he'd started following them.

-And she's suddenly aware
that this car is behind,

lights flashing,
right on their tail.

Lee starts to accelerate.

They're snaking together
through the lanes.

The other car then effectively
draws Lee to a halt.

-Tracie later told detectives

that the man following the
couple along rural Coopers Hill

got out of his car,
and Lee did the same.

A confrontation was inevitable.

-The driver then has said what
he wants to say, apparently.

He gets back in the car.

Lee is still outside of his car.

And then the passenger gets out,

a fat man with staring eyes,

and he goes up to Lee
and attacks Lee

in a way that Tracie
doesn't quite see.

♪♪

Then she piles in, she says,
to go to Lee's defense,

because she says
she's not the kind of girl

to just sit there
and see her man being attacked,

at which point she gets smacked
by the fat man in the eyes

and repeatedly gets up
and is knocked down.

And then she says, "It all gets
a bit hazy from that point,"

and then she kind of
comes to almost,

and Lee is there,

and he's covered in blood,
and she's cradling him,

and it all goes very vague.

-Lee's car had ended up

right outside a house
called Keepers Cottage.

The commotion in the road

had alerted
one of the residents.

-The guy made his way
down the little path to the road

and there sees,

in poor light, just shown
by the security light,

but there's a woman standing
there with her back to the car.

There's a body, prone body
on the floor.

He instantly runs back
into the house saying,

"Call the police. Call
the police. Call the ambulance."

-The case was immediately given

to Detective Superintendent
Ian Johnston.

-I received a call
from West Mercia Constabulary

Operations Room,

which directed me to the scene
at Coopers Hill

where I met with
divisional representatives.

Present at that time
was Lee's car, Lee's body,

and Tracie Andrews
was inside Keepers Cottage,

having been found
in the road outside.

I could see Lee's vehicle.

It was pulled in
on the near side of the road,

traveling towards Alvechurch,

and it didn't appear to have
been stopped in any great hurry.

It looked as though it had been
fairly neatly parked

to the side.

-Detectives at the scene
spoke to Tracie

to find out exactly
what had happened.

-The incident appeared
to have started

from the Marlbrook Public House.

There'd been a road situation
down the A38

towards the N42 motorway.

Lee's car had been stopped,

and then an altercation
had taken place

between a member
of that chasing vehicle and Lee.

Lee collapsed,

and then the other vehicle
made its escape.

-Lee Harvey died at the scene.

It was clear
that he'd been the victim

of a savage and frenzied attack.

-This is a severe, sustained,

brutal attack with a penknife.

Now, the estimates of how
many wounds Lee suffered vary.

Some local reports said 42.

What is clear --
He was stabbed in the throat,

back, front,

repeatedly, viciously,
and continuously.

-To produce 42 stab wounds,
it's a sustained assault.

It's 42 movements of your hand.

This is not something
that you can do in a second

or two seconds
in a moment of madness.

You have to keep going,
and it is not easy.

In Lee Harvey's case,
the fatal stab wound

was a stab wound
to the carotid artery.

That is a large artery
in the neck.

And a stab wound
to an artery of that size

is going to cause very rapid,
very heavy bleeding.

Without prompt
medical attention,

it's most likely to be
a fatal injury.

-With an initial
statement taken,

a bruised and bloodied
Tracie Andrews

was whisked away
in an ambulance.

-And she's treated
for those injuries

and for shock in hospital

and cared for and tended for

while police launch
a massive murder hunt

for whoever has done
this terrible thing to Lee.

-Tracie had told us
that the following vehicle,

which had followed them
from the Marlbrook,

was a dark-colored
Ford Sierra, F-registered.

And obviously, we started
a vehicle inquiry with the DVLA

for the owner details

of any vehicle
that might fit that description.

-As reports of
the apparent road-rage murder

reached news desks
across the country,

journalists immediately headed
to the West Midlands.

-From the very first moment,
it was clear

that this was going to be a huge
story, an absolutely huge story.

Just the idea
of a road-rage murder

made it already a big story.

And as the first
morning progressed,

everything we discovered
made it a bigger story.

Photographs began
to emerge of Tracie.

She looked an attractive
young woman.

Photographs began
to emerge of Lee, the victim --

handsome young man.

And so more and more

of the elements
that make a big story --

young, attractive,

bizarre, unimaginable
circumstances --

all started slotting into place.

-Detectives knew
that the best way to try

and find the killer was to make
an appeal through the media.

A press conference was arranged
for Tuesday, December the 3rd,

two days after the fatal attack.

-I met Tracie somewhere 'round
about 10:00 a.m., I believe,

just before we were going
to do the press conference.

I asked her if she was content
to do the press conference,

if it was something
that she wanted to do.

She said that she was.

She said she really
wanted to do it.

-This hugely hiked up
the media interest,

because we were going to have
put in front of us,

it was said, thekey witness

and someone -- We'd all seen
the pictures by this time,

an attractive blond,
and she was going to sit there

in front of us
and answer our questions.

There was massive
media interest in this.

-As the press conference began,
all the focus

was on 27-year-old Tracie.

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

-The noise of the cameras,

the motor drives going off
as Tracie walked in the room,

was absolutely deafening.

And appearing in front of us --

I don't think we'd all thought
what would appear, really,

but we'd all seen
these glamorous shots.

Here was a woman, red-eyed,

haggard, completely unmade up,

two black eyes, cut on her nose.

-And Tracie did look
like a victim.

She had the injuries
to her face.

She looked incredibly distressed
and incredibly upset.

-But Tracie seemed
very comfortable

when faced with
all the camera flashes

and questions
from the journalists.

-The press really wanted
to hear from Tracie,

and so, you know,

I became a bit of a sideline
really, which was fine.

You know,
it was about the story.

It was about the situation.

And the press
were interested in Tracie,

and she was quite happy
to deal with the press.

-Both Lee
and the other person were...

like, playing cat and mouse
with each other for a while.

When they overtook us,

I was shouting at Lee to,
you know, "Slow down.

Just ignore them. Stop the car,"
but he --

I don't know. I don't know
if a lot of men are like it,

and a lot of women like it,

but when you get behind
the wheel of a car,

You know, sometimes,
you change personality.

-During the press conference

when talking about
the alleged killer,

there was a moment
when, suddenly,

her eyes came up.

And she was mostly downcast
throughout the press conference,

but her eyes came up,
and they flashed fiercely.

And her mouth dropped open a bit

with that famous
slightly jutting jaw,

and she looked really angry.

And at that point, again,
all the motor drives went off.

Every press photographer
reacted to that.

It was a crash of noise
as every camera was hit.

-It was just the way he looked,
his eyes.

He had staring eyes.

He just didn't seem normal.

I saw the man hit Lee.

I don't know what with.

I didn't see anything.

-And suddenly
she starts appealing

to the driver of the car,

saying,
"You're not in any trouble.

You know, come forward and tell
the police what it's all about."

-And whoever this person is
that was with you,

you obviously know him,

but he's ruined my life.

Please just tell us who he is.

You won't get
in any trouble at all.

It was not your fault.

-And I'm thinking, "Well,
that's not strictly true, is it?

You've driven your friend
to a murder scene.

He's killed someone,
and you've driven him away,

so you arein trouble,"
but...okay.

-And as the questioning
progressed,

Tracie seemed to contradict
her original statement.

-I said, "Tracie, sorry,

but I clearly understood
the police to say

that it was about 10 past10:00
when you left the pub."

And she kind of looked at me,

sort of head
down under her lashes,

and said, "No. It was 10 to10."

And sat on her left

was Superintendent Johnston.

And I just saw him react

to that answer from Tracie.

And very slowly,
his head turned to the right,

and he just looked at her
in a kind of assessing way,

a kind of appraising way.

And at that moment, I thought,

"Wow. There's something
going on here."

-I just tried to stop
the bleeding, really,

and comfort him
as much as I could.

-The inconsistency
in Tracie's story

surprised a majority
of reporters in the room.

-The press conference finished,

and the national newspaper
journalists scattered outside

in a bit of a pack,
as we would tend to do,

or friends or know each other,
work against each other.

And somebody said,
"What do you think?"

And I said,
"I think she did it."

And we all kind of looked
at each other and thought,

"You know, this enormous story
just got 10 times bigger again

if she is the killer."

-Was it really conceivable

that Tracie Andrews
had been lying all along?

As the investigation continued,
new evidence suggested

that maybe there was
no road-rage incident at all.

Andrews would go
from the only witness

to the number-one suspect
in the murder of Lee Harvey.

♪♪

On December the 3rd, 1996,
27-year-old Tracie Andrews

appeared at an emotionally
charged press conference

in an appeal to find
the passenger of a Ford Sierra

who she claimed
had stabbed her fiancé,

Lee Harvey, to death.

But unbeknownst to Andrews,

the police were beginning
to work out the truth --

that shehad been
the one responsible

for the murder
of 25-year-old Lee.

-It's self-preservation.

That's what's driving her
behavior at this point in time.

She's got absolutely no empathy
whatsoever for Lee

or for Lee's family
or indeed for her own family,

who were also going to be
really badly affected by this.

So she's thinking,
"How do I best preserve myself?

I'm going to take
that role of the victim,

and I'm going
to put myself in it."

-Andrews claim that she and Lee
had been the victim

of a road-rage incident
didn't seem to add up.

A witness statement from a child

staying in a house
on Coopers Hill

put her version
of events in doubt.

-It was December.

The windows were closed,

but she could clearly hear
a row going on.

What she remembered was that

one was a distinctly male,
baritone voice.

The other voice was much softer,

and she said it was

much more like a woman's voice.

-Forensic searches of the road
had discovered more clues

into what really happened.

-We couldn't get anywhere
near the scene

on the first morning or indeed
for a few days afterwards.

The police completely
sealed it off.

They drafted in officers

to carry out
a fingertip search of the area.

What they found,
we later discovered,

were a couple
of bits and pieces,

including a tiny spring
and another element

from a multifunction penknife.

What police didn't find
was any trace

of a car overtaking another car

on the soft December
winter verges

of this pretty narrow road.

-Police had also found a black
beanie hat in the hedgerow

next to where Lee's car
had been parked.

-So our assumption was,

"Well, this has maybe fallen out
of the assailant's pocket,

and he's not realized it."

So, of course,
that went to the laboratory

fairly quickly
with a view towards DNA

and from hair samples,
that sort of thing.

And we had the report back
by the Wednesday

that this was animal hair,

and it was cat hair,
black-and-white cat hair.

Well, there's a black-and-white
cat at Tracie's.

And so we went down and took
a sample of hair from the cat,

and it was the cat hair.

And then,
as I understand it later on,

it was accepted
that this was Lee's hat

that had been in Tracie's pocket

prior to the events taken place.

-Andrews' lie about the hat

was just one of many
inconsistencies in her story.

-In Lee's hand, they found

between 80 and 100 strands
of Tracie's hair

that have been pulled
from Tracie's head

as Lee has tried
to defend himself.

Now, if Lee had been murdered by
this fat man with staring eyes,

why would he have
Tracie's hair in his hand?

-Well, the pathologist's
evidence was that

this was more than
just a death-grasp stroking,

that it was a reasonable clump
that did have a good pull.

But, of course,
Tracie's view was,

"Well, this must have been
when he was going,

and he got his hand
in my hair, you know?"

So it came as a sort of --
As Lee was passing away,

he pulled some hair
from her head.

-It was beginning to look
more and more likely

that Andrews had killed Lee
in a fit of rage.

-I mean, if you attack somebody

that you're supposed
to be in love with

and stab them 42 times,

then that's pretty
out of control.

-She wasn't thinking to herself

as she set off
from the pub that evening,

"Oh, tonight's the night
I think I'm going to kill Lee."

She just exploded
like a volcano.

Over a matter
of minutes, literally,

she went from mildly angry
to obsessively angry,

and that, therefore,
he had to die.

-When we talk about
premeditated murder,

we tend to assume that
it's something that's days,

weeks, or months
in the planning,

but actually, premeditation
only takes seconds.

You only need to have
a few seconds to decide

that you are going
to end somebody's life,

and she made that decision
on this evening.

-And it seemed that Andrews'
guilty conscience

was beginning
to get the better of her.

On Wednesday, December the 4th,

the day after the telltale
press conference,

she tried to kill herself.

-Tracie takes an overdose.

And I think this is
a very deliberate,

a very determined act
on her part.

I think she was absolutely set
on ending her own life,

because, over the past few days,

the situation has spiraled
completely out of her control.

She's trying to keep
the story together.

She's trying to present
this face as the victim,

and it's all getting
a bit too much,

'cause it's starting to unravel.

So I think this is an attempt
to take back control, to say,

"Actually, I'm going to decide
to do something now

that I'm fully in control of,"
and that's what this was.

-On the same evening,

detectives were given
their biggest steer yet.

Two people had seen Lee's
distinctive white Ford Escort

on the night of his murder.

-Two witnesses who said,

"We've seen it
in the local paper.

I know I've seen this white car.

We were driving from Alvechurch
in the opposite direction.

We came through Coopers Hill
past Keepers Cottage.

We came down the hill,

and as we came to the junction
at the bottom,

I saw this car go past."

And he said, "It's a white
Escort, G-reg,

spoked wheels,"
everything that it was,

and he said that, you know,

there is no doubt
that was the car.

He said, "And from that point
to when we got into Bromsgrove,

we saw no car
that fits any description

of what you've been told,

and there certainly wasn't
any car chasing that car

in the vicinity
of Coopers Hill."

So we'd got the confirmation
that we were looking for,

that the road-rage incident
had not occurred,

and so that changed the way that
we looked at the investigation.

-Her story really
was starting to crumble

at that point in time,

and combined with
her suicide attempt,

I think the police decided,
"That's enough evidence.

We can now move in
and arrest her."

-On Saturday,
December the 7th, 1996,

six days after Lee's murder,

Tracie Andrews
was arrested in hospital

and taken into custody.

-The 27-year-old woman
was arrested at 11:00 today,

but so far, detectives have
released no further details.

Until this development,

the police had been
looking for two men

who they believed may
have escaped from the scene

in a dark Ford Sierra.

-The evidence
from the two witnesses

who'd seen Lee Harvey's vehicle

through the junction that night
was extremely impactive.

And realistically,

without a following vehicle,

without a dark-colored
Ford Sierra chasing that car,

then the whole being
of that explanation from Tracie

just didn't stand up.

-Further evidence pointed
towards Andrews being the killer

after the clothes
she was wearing

on the night of the murder
were forensically tested.

-The forensic scientist

who had examined
one of Tracie's zip-up boots --

She had a pair
of ankle boots on.

And within that, he'd found
a mark in the leather

which had a rounded top on it

and seemed to bear
all the impression

of the outside shape
of the knife.

And that's the hypothesis --

that she carried the knife away
from the scene in her boot

and that, as soon as she got
to the hospital,

she was able to dispose of it.

-She could've easily
just, like,

thrown the knife into the grass
or into the forest,

whatever it was, and hoped
the police wouldn't find it.

But she even thought, "No. These
guys are going to bring dogs.

They're going
to search the whole area.

They will probably
find something."

-Tracie Andrews was
officially charged

with the murder of Lee Harvey

on December the 19th, 1996.

Her trial was set for July,

and she was going to plead
not guilty.

Andrews was sticking
to her story.

The prosecution would have
to prove that she was a liar,

or she could walk away free.

♪♪

On July the 1st, 1997,
the trial of Tracie Andrews

began at Birmingham
Crown Court.

The 28-year-old
was pleading not guilty

to the murder of her fiancé,
Lee Harvey,

exactly seven months earlier.

The media attention
surrounding Andrews

and the trial was huge.

♪♪

-I was at the trial every day
at Birmingham Crown Court.

It was compelling, unmissable,

and was being widely reported
in all the media every day

and every evening
on the TV news bulletins.

-The prosecution team,
led by David Crigman,

were confident that they had
a strong case against Andrews.

As well as
the two witness statements

that contradicted
her road-rage story,

the blood-pattern analysis
of her orange jumper was key.

-She was covered in blood,

which she claimed
had come onto her clothing

when she was comforting him
as he died,

as she held him in the road.

But a lot of this blood
was sprayed blood.

It was arterial blood

that had come out of the carotid
in a fountain

and sprayed like a waterfall

down the front of her clothing.

-In a lot of cases of stabbing,

particularly to the chest
or the abdomen,

a lot of the bleeding
is internal,

because the large organs
and blood vessels

are deep within the body.

The carotid artery is very close
to the surface,

so if it's breached,

it will spray blood
under pressure from the heart

out of that wound,
out into the air,

and it will land
on things next to it --

in particular, in this case,
Tracie Andrews, the assailant.

-The evidence may have appeared
to be compelling,

but Andrews herself
had already proved

to be extremely convincing

when under intense scrutiny.

-I thought she'd done it.
I thought she was the killer.

But bearing in mind how she'd
handled the press conference

a couple of days
after the murder,

I thought that she stood a good
chance of getting away with it.

But as ever,
as is always the case,

everything would hinge
on the cross-examination

of Tracie in the witness box

should she choose
to give evidence

once the defense began.

-On Monday, July the 14th,

Tracie Andrews took the stand
to give her testimony.

-There was genuine apprehension
in the prosecution camp

that a jury may be persuaded
by not only the story

but the skill, I would say,
the skill with which

she was able to advance
what she had to say.

-Tracie stood
in the witness box now,

having moved from the dock,
and gave her account,

which largely followed
the account

that she'd been giving
to the police all along

through her statements --

the road-rage story,
the chase through the lanes,

and the stabbing
and the road-rage attack.

And she gave it calmly

and, in some senses,
convincingly.

-Prosecutors knew that the
cross-examination of Andrews

would be their best chance

at cracking her veneer of lies.

-And it went on and on and on.

It went on for hours.

It not only took
the whole of that afternoon,

it took the whole of the
next day and into a third day.

And in that time,

the highly intellectual
David Crigman

just took her story apart.

He just deconstructed it
around her.

She was left there
effectively naked

in the middle of her story
in shreds on the floor.

-I came to the view

that the only way
you could dissect her story

was piece by little piece

by little piece,
detail by detail.

It was the accumulation
of a large number of details

where she could shown
not to be telling the truth

that could break her down.

It was only within
the finest of detail,

as one mounted
on top of the next,

that you began to see the story
as a pack of lies.

-And she was reduced
to standing there saying,

"I don't know. I can't remember.

I don't know.
I can't remember."

And at every point,

her credibility diminished.

And at that point, I thought,

"Okay. I think she's going
to get found guilty."

-On July the 29th
in an unprecedented move,

Andrews agreed to be interviewed
by a newspaper journalist

as the jury retired
to make a decision on her fate.

She met with Rod Chaytor
in a private room at the court.

-And there was Tracie,
sat there, made up,

composed, sat at a table,
her lawyers.

And I sat down,
and I interviewed her.

It was absolutely bizarre.

Never in 35 years
on Fleet Street,

never did it before,
never did it again,

interview the accused
while the jury's out.

Extraordinary.

So, I started
to ask her questions.

-Rod had to work fast to get
all the information he could.

-The basic message
that she was giving was,

"I didn't do it, I'm innocent,

and I'll love him
till the day I die."

And that was the message

from the exclusive
Mirrorinterview that I did.

And I'd been there
about 20 minutes

and was just beginning to come
to the end of the story,

just beginning to kind of think,
"Okay.

Well, what's the next question?"

and the Tannoy went.

And the Tannoy went,
"All parties to Court Nine.

All parties to Court Nine."

You just felt, "Wow.

The jury are back.
There's a verdict."

-Rod headed back to his seat
in the press box.

-We kind of went
our separate ways

and ended up a few feet
from each other in court.

And the judge came in.
Everyone stood up.

The foreman of the jury,
"Will you please stand?

Do you have a verdict
on which you are all agreed?"

"Yes, we do."
"What is that verdict?"

"Guilty."

-Despite the strain that
Tracie Andrews must have felt

during four weeks in the dock,
she didn't even flinch

as the jury foreman told her
that she was guilty.

Even though
she kept her head bowed,

her face remained impassive
even as the judge said to her,

"Only you know precisely
what happened that night,

but we all saw
the awful consequences."

He said he had no option but
to send her to prison for life.

♪♪

-She showed almost no emotion.

She shook her head once,

like that, just as in, "No,"

or, "I don't agree," whatever,
but that was the only reaction.

♪♪

And she was then led
down the steps from the dock

into the cell area below.

She saw her family briefly
before she was taken away.

They were allowed
brief access to her.

At that point,
she did break down in tears.

At that time,
she was completely tearful

and terrified about what was
going to happen to her

and what awaited her
in prison from other inmates.

In public, she had maintained

her composure
to the last, really.

In private, she was terrified.

-On the 29th of July, 1997,

Judge Mr. Justice Broccoli
sentenced Tracie Andrews

to life in prison
for the murder of Lee Harvey.

She was ordered to serve
a minimum of 14 years.

-Well, when we ask
the question,

"Why do we think Tracie Andrews
stabbed Lee Harvey?"

it was because she felt
that Lee was hers.

He was her possession.

This wasn't a relationship
that was about love.

It was a relationship that was
about control and ownership.

And in ending somebody's life,

you are completely
possessing them,

and that was what was going on
on that evening

when she chose
to take Lee's life.

-In April 1999,
Andrews finally admitted

that her story about
a mysterious road-rage killer

had been completely made up.

-21 months after her conviction

in a letter to her solicitor,

Tracie Andrews confessed
for the first time

that she had indeed
killed Lee Harvey

but that it was entirely
in self-defense.

Now, how she could maintain that

given that he had stab wounds
in his back

and he was bigger than she was,

I find that very difficult
to believe.

But nevertheless,
that's what she insisted.

-Tracie Andrews had gone
from a wannabe model

to a model prisoner.

In July 2011,
after serving her 14 years,

she was released
back into society

and ordered not to go
within 25 miles

of Lee Harvey's family.

-I think it is
absolutely possible

for Tracie Andrews
to live a normal life.

I think if she's come to terms
with her offense,

if she's addressed those
underlying behavioral traits

and characteristics,

if she's prepared
to just keep her head down

and get on with her life, then,
yes, very much, she can do that.

And I think she should
appreciate the fact

that she's able to do that,

because murder
casts a long shadow,

and there are many people

who have been affected
by this crime,

who continue
to be affected by it.

But she has the opportunity now

to ensure that she doesn't cause
any more harm to people

and that she can make
a contribution to society.

-It's been over 20 years

since Tracie Andrews
took away the life of her fiancé

in a brutal and vicious attack.

It remains one of the most
infamous murders

of the 1990s.

-Violence on this occasion
was not the first occasion

she had used violence.

This is a woman of cunning,

of deceit,

and with a vicious temper.

-It's often described
as a crime of passion,

and I tend not to use that term,

because I think
what we're implying there

is that she wasn't in control
of her actions.

She didn't know
what she was doing.

This rage came over her,
and she couldn't help herself.

I think she knew exactly
what she was doing.

When you stab somebody 42 times,

you are deciding
to continue doing this.

Your arm is going to be tired.

There are going to be
opportunities for you to stop,

and you decide to keep going.

-That is prolonged ferocity.

That's going on and on
and on and on.

That's not a momentary
flash of anger.

That's uncontrollable rage

lasting a significant
period of time.

It's a shocking,
shocking thought,

and the fact
that a woman has done it

makes it twice as shocking.

-Tracie Andrews' case

will always remain
in the public psyche

due to her persistent lying,
first to the police,

then the world's media,
and finally in a court of law.

But although she'll forever
be remembered

for her crocodile tears,

it should never be forgotten
that she killed Lee Harvey

in a horrific
and frenzied attack

without a shred of remorse,

which undoubtedly makes her

one of the world's
most evil killers.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪