Category: Wales
Date: 06.06.2005
Printable version
It's a far cry from his normal day job of safety management
consultancy, garden landscaping and even turkey breeding in the busy
run up to Christmas.
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But retired Chief Superintendent of South Wales Police,
Gerry Toms from Caerphilly, has added another feather
to his cap and is turning his hand to presenting a brand new series
for 91Èȱ¬ Wales: Crimesolver (Wednesday
8 June, 91Èȱ¬ ONE Wales).
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Once one of Cardiff's most senior police officers, Gerry
Toms uses his extensive experience and knowledge as a police officer
to go back in history and re-investigate some of Wales' most notorious
crimes.
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Shining his detective's spotlight on the original investigation,
Toms takes a modern, fresh approach, examining the evidence and giving
his verdict on the original ruling - asking whether justice was done.
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Each week, he travels to different parts of the country
to look at various cases, analysing the information available and putting
the pieces of the puzzle back together.
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With the help of dramatic reconstructions, the series
uses a contemporary policeman with a contemporary mind.
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"Every story was quite complex and involved a lot of
research. Part of the difficulty we had was deciding which cases to
re-investigate," says Toms.
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"We went back and used documentation including coroners'
reports and archive newspapers. What's interesting is how these murders
were reported.
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"The archives we looked at were a great resource
and the detail given in them was quite staggering. It's totally different
from what's printed these days."
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The first programme in this brand new series re-investigates
the murder of Mamie Stuart, who inexplicably disappeared in 1919 - a
macabre tale of love, lust and murder.
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When worried family members contacted the police, all
eyes fell on her husband, George Shotton. At the time of the investigation
there was no body to prove she'd been murdered.
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Her remains were discovered 40 years later in 1961 in
a cave in Brandy Cove, Gower.
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On his path to uncovering the truth Toms meets experts
in the field including retired police officer Elgar Williams, who was
part of the original team that investigated Mamie's disappearance.
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He speaks to criminologist Dr Fiona Brookman about the
case, and examines a letter written by Mamie that says she was being
physically abused by her husband.
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He also visits osteo-archaeologist Krish Settah, and
finds out more about the horrific way in which her body was dismembered.
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George Shotton never stood trial for the murder, having
died by the time the remains were discovered. So having looked at the
evidence, Gerry puts the pieces of the puzzle together and gives his
verdict. Was Shotton guilty or not guilty?
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Forthcoming programmes in the series feature the vicious
stabbing of Dai Lewis on busy St Mary's Street in Cardiff; the suspicious
death of a Kidwelly woman; the massacre of a family of five in Llangibby
near Usk; and the murder of a woman on her front doorstep - which, to
this day, remains unsolved.
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Crimesolver is a Fulmar West production for 91Èȱ¬ Wales.
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Crimesolver, Wednesday 8 June, 91Èȱ¬ ONE Wales at
10.40pm.
