Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
Anthony John Hardy was an English serial killer who was known as the Camden Ripper for dismembering some of his victims. In November 2003, he was sentenced to three life terms for three murders, but police believe he may have been responsible for up to six more.
10 bags of human body parts have been discovered in public bins in London.
it’s avert sick disturbing thing for someone to do .
metropolitan police have launched a murder inquiry
and believe there’s a serial killer on the lose dismembering people is not a clean business
forensic must act fast to find evience of the killer at the crime scene
every killler leaves a trace.
camden,london 30th december ,2002
while searchinffor food in waste bins a homeless man has discovered butchered body parts concealed in bin liners.the bin and the surrounding area are quickly cordon off as a crime scene.
surching a public bin outside a block of flats is a forensic nightmare, this is probably the worst forensically preserved crime scene that you can have .
because of the location of the bins, the fact that they’re outside everyone’s got accesss to them and people are dumping rubbish in them .
when a homicide happens , that golden hours is all important if it goes wrong in that hour it stays wrong.
inside the bin bags police discover a pear of human muscles and a female torso,SCI meticulousy search the bin and its contents for any clues as to what has happened.
every single one of those bags has tobe opened and every single content has to be assessed.
for this case is that the bins of the dumpsite they’re not going to be the main crime scene the main crime scene is either going to be the area where the body ‘s been cut up but also potentially where the bodies have been murdered
be on the list of items would be looking for saw,knives all sorts of equipment along with black bin bags .
police make inquiries with the residens of the flats who use the communal bins
every crime scene’s is a chalenge ,the chalenge here ,there are hundreds of hundreds of flats one of those flats could be our crime scene.
remember it’s vital that at the earlest opportunity find where the victim was murdered and where the dismemberment took place.
because thee ‘ll be a wealth of forensic evidence there.
day 2 31st december ,2002
with no active leads to the killer and potentially more than one victim the case is declared a category A murder investigation.
there is a sudden increase of activity,the curve goes steeply up
all sorts of things are going on.
special search teams ,the inquiry team is making its way into homicide headquarters
specifics officers for house to house .
CCTV seized at the earliest opportunity
within hours the search team ,make another horrific discovery.
less than 250 m away from the first deposition site
it was in this area here in plenderstreet that the specialist search offices
actually found another bin liner , that also contained body parts
finding who these victims were is of paramount importance, a DNA profile will take 24 hours to 36 hours -minimum.
the body parts are sent awayt for DNA and analysis and pathologist confirms the detectiv suspicions.
at this point it was actually realized that they had mopre than more than one victim
they had the torso of one female amd the limbs from another
the metropolitan police have a serial killer on the loose .
the whole enormity of what had actually been found suddenly hits you , this going to be a momentous investigation.
fearing the killer may strike again the detectives need to act fast and dozens more officers are called in to expedite the house to house inquires
the hose to house was extensive on on the face of it a fairy mandane job knocking on doors knowing what the police know though-it’s quite scary to think that theres’s body part found less than 20 yards away from where you live.
and at the same time you have to find out who lives there making sure that you’re checking that that with what records show so they don’t leve a person off who could be a suspect.
many of the residents suggest a man from the estate the detective shouldspeak to.
it’s obvious from the house to house inquires that a lot of the neigbhors and peoplethat live on the state have misgivings about one of the residents
and his attitudes and sometimes his behavior
the police now have a person of interest on their radar- and the digital forensic team has an update regarding the CCTV.
they had an image of a man in in long dark coat wearing a basball cap with a new york yankeees logo on it opening the bin in plender street where body parts have being found and actually depositing a bin lner.
someone from the local flats had taken the bin bags from his flat and dumped them in the bins outside.
the man is identified as local resident anthony hardy the person brought to the officer’s attention during the house-to house inquiries.
police now have somebody that they can lok at far far closer
police pintpoint hardy’s flat on the estate ,he lives in between both deposition sites.
this is the back of the block were hardy a’ flat is which give him easy access to these bins.
when somebody comes a person of interest and is edging towards being a suspect the intelligence unit on the homicide team would do full background on them.
records revealed that just 11 months ago police where called to anthony hardy’s flat after a neighbor had accused him of criminal damage officers made a disturbing discovery.
there os a bed i against one wall and lying on the bed is a dead naked body of a female.
the women was identified as 38 year old sally rose white
anthony hardy was arrested on suspision of murder
after the postmortem the home office pathologist give a cause of death – of natural causes. the victim had underlying health problmes and health issues one of which was heart problems once pathologist says natural causes,it virtual closes down that as a murder investigation that br0ught detectives their attention .
31st december ,202 ,camden london day 2
the police believe that this is more that a coincidence and they must urgently apprehend hardy
team is assembled they go to the premises and the door is actually open it’s not locked it had had that awfull smell it’ something that you once experience you always recognize .
camden ,london 31 december ,2002
human body parts from two unknown victim had been discovered in public bins on a north london housing estate .
police have identified a suspect 51 year old anthony hardy
a speciallist team has gathered out of sight of hardy’s ground flat floor they are ready to force entry and arrest him of two murders.
what we have i sa man that not 11 months previously had a deadbody in his flat not 15o yards away from this scen where detectives found dismembered body parts
for evidential purposes an officer records the events
they open the door and they greeted with a corridor there are drawings and paintings on the floor and on the hallway walls can only be describe as bizarreand it’s fairly obvious at this point mr hardy is not there.
but there is a distinctive odor within the premises
as you go right into the sitting room you’re greeted with the dining table by the dining table there actually tree televisions connected to three VHS video recorders
and on the table are multitudes of VHS cassettes there was stacks and stacks and stacks of videos a masochistic violent hardcore porn
a devil mask on the wall opposite gave you that kind of shatter when uou look at it
there is a distintive smell coming from the bedroom
the door to the bedroom is open,not only the odor gets stronger but on the floor next to the bed is an object covered by a black local authority bin liner
and lying on top is a hacksaw and number of knives laid neatly,unfortunately underneath there what detectives discover is a torso of a female.
the police now have two torsos but there is still no sign of their prime suspect
hardy is not there , where are they most likely to find him, they are now dealing with a manhunterthe flat is secured as a crime scene and harvesting forensic evidence becomes the priority.
it is a very distrubing scene within there,this is where there’s would be discussion with the criming coordinator and the sio as to what as actuall they wanted to do at the scene wath’s the forensic strategy .
you can spend weeks and weeks proving everything at a vast cost when actually only examining a few items will prov beyond reasonable doubt that this is your offender and this is where he’s commited the crimes.
priorities would be identification of the females identification of the tools and the binbags.
following the forensic te torso is aken for a postmortem examination and the tools are sent for analys.
to prove if a weapon hasbeen used scientists need to find trace evidence of the victim and the suspect ,examin the haxel blade you’d be looking for evidence of DNA on the teeth of the haxel bone or any fragments of blood or tissue to be able to tie this hacksaw to any of the victims in the dismemberment.
to dismemeber a body with a hacksaw needs a lot of force so you would be looking on the frame of the hacksaw for any fingerprint evidence where the hacksaw has being nrrn pushed down.
fingerprints that are recovered from the hax or frame would be submitted to the national fingerprint database to see if there’s any matches on any known offenders
the swap samples are sent to th lab to see if they match a profile on the national DNA data base
the postmortem report confirms tthat torso found in hardy’s bedroom matches to some of the limbs recovered from the first two crime scenes
the pathologist has also made a disovery on the torso, what could provide a breakthrough in confirming the victim’s identity he’s extracted cosmetic implants
the clinic that did the procedure was actually in germany and we know that because the clinic actually on the implants had a unique reference number for each and every implant that they made and inserted so they were abel to actually give us the patients details.
the serial numbers identify 29 year old elisabeth Valad, she was a lady who had fallen upon hard times, had trifted into drugs and alcohol
futher investigation reveals that elisabeth worked as a highclass escort
that she had worked in chelsea in those kind of areas mayfair but sadly her dependency on drugs had really kind of lowered how she living.
now that you have a victim you know have a direction you an go in ,you can look at their lifestyle where she frequents, you can now talk to peope that she knows that know her .
Elisabetht’s vulnerabilities led her to London’s red light district king’s cross.
this is a totally an utterly different neighborhood now to what it was in those days in 2002 , it had a reputation quite rightly for vice for prostitution
unfortunatelu sex workers are vulnerable because of the life they leave and it’s really crucial to get that victimology – the history of that victim could inform you of how they came to sadly meet their death.
there’s variation in the literature looking at why serial offenders commit murders and one possible explanation is that there is a sexual nature.
sex workers are an easy target for anthony hardy, he lived in an area where lots of them work so that he can engage with them without arousing suspicion from others.
whilst the manhunt for hardy continues the results from the hacksaw tests are in the fingerprints found on the fram match back to hardy .
and there’s a mixed DNA profile find on the blade part of the profile matches back to elisabeth Valad
and the other matches to the torso found at the first bin site
this profile is run through the national DNA database…. and there is a match.
detectives identified Brigitte Maclennan she was a mother from central england again sex workeer history.
it’s the team’s job the detectives aren now their voice, it’s a huge responsibility.detectives have confirmed the identity and backgrounds of both victims , they still have to prove that it was hardy that has done this terrible deed to both of them and what they’re looking for now is where those paths crossed
the knowledge of the victims and their circumstances assist the forensic psychiatrists who continue to build a profile of anthony hardy
there appeared to bea STK contrast to his earlier stage of his life compared to his current stage before he appeared to be living a very conventional life he was a graduate, he had a stable full-time job he had a marriage
when the whole family moved to australia in the 1980s his wife first started reporting changes in his behavior
major life events such as moving to anothe location may be precursors or triggers for reacting in different ways and for behaving in different ways
he attacked his wife with a bottle of water that was frozen so effectively was s dolid lump and then dragged her into the bathroom and try to drown her
the frozen bottle of water is an indication of the manipulative cunningness that is emerging within mr hardy ,because once that is done obviously there would perhaps be search for a murder weapon and what you would only have is a bottle of water or even an empty plastic bottle.
hardy returned to the UK folllowing the end of his marriage and his life continued to sprial out of control.
there’s a possibility anthony hardy exhibited a sensitivity towards woman and negative emotionality towards women particularly after the breakup of the marriage
so it was at this stage that there appeared to be a deterioration in his mental heal he was no longer employed h was moving from hostile to hostile he became an alcoholic
hardy’s history reveals a continuum of violence and indicates the high level of danger he poses
in 9181 he was involved in serious assault with the attempted murder of his wife in 1982 the kidnap of his wife and in the late of 1990s violent and intimidating behavior towards others in 1998 indecent assault and sexual assault.
he was arrested and suspected for three rapes of three separate women , they didn’t end up at court for a variety of reasons.
so there are precursors there
hardy’s timeline of violence takes investigators of sally rose white’s body in his flat in january 2002.
what we now have is a violent man that not 11 months previously has a dead body in the flat not 150 yards away from the scene where detectives found dismembered body parts
if sexual offenders are not apprehended and they continue to carry out their crimes they may increase their appetite for certain facets ans aspects of those crimes
it appears from the evidence that anthony hardy felt internally intrinsically compelled to behave in these ways and wasn’t able to stop himself from doing so
the hunt for hardy intensifies while the forensic team continue to look for potential evidence in the flat .
they discover a roll of black bin located on hardy’s desk these are sent to the lab for tests. bin bags are rally interesting because you can link bin bags to rols of bin bags
forensics may be able to prove that the bags found at the flat are from the same role as the bags containing the women’s body parts which would futher implicate hardy
so the bin bags that were used to wrap the body parts in have unique markings on and also they have marks where they’re being pulled off a roll.
if you compare bin bags by looking at the individual perforations and seeing what matches under a microsope you can determine whether they’ve come from the same role so the bin bags that wee used to wrap the body parts in come from the same role
you make those connections from a forensic scientific perspective then that is fact that you can present to the jury .
back at sctoland yard the digital forensic team are also making progress,one of the thing that’s looked at is what they call passive data
we all carry around with us loyalty cards relate to different shops , the nice thing about those from an investigative perspective is it literally gives time and a date of what is actually bought
the digital specialists extract the data from the nectar card found inside hardy’s flat and there lyalty points earned from a purchase of bin liners made 2 weeeks before the body aprts were discovered.
to cooperative this evidence they analyzed the supermarket CCTV
they found where the bin bags have bought ,who’s bying them ?
hardy, great evidence
crucial that detectives get him buying those bin liners
then the bin liners in his hand being put into the bin in plender streetall these different avenues , all these investigation are now starting to come together
to further strengthen the case against hardy .
the forensic team mist confirm their suspicions that the murders and the dismemberments occurred in his flatyou cannot cut a human body up without getting blood everywhere
on that first walk through there were was no blood apparent and detectives decided that they would lean on their forensic experts.
they came up with the state- of – the – art, technology illuminar.
Camden . lodon 31 st december ,2002 day 2
police in london are hunting a serial killer their prime suspect anthony hardy has gone to ground.
and they fear he may strike again
forensics have control of his flat
and continued to harvest evidence that links hardy to the murders
the bing bags cotaining the body parts has been forensically matched to role found in hard’s bedroom
and data extractred from his loyalty card combined with CCTV proved he purchased them
trace evidence of hardy was found on a hacksaw as well as the DNA from the two victims.
elisabeth and birgitte
two days int o the manhunt for manhunt for anthony hardy and there has been no sign sightings.
detectives knew their were looking for a serial killer , they had descriptions of anthony hardy, he was a big man well ove 6 foot,gray hair, beard, glasses ,wore a long black leather coat
was well known in the king’s cross area cafes
the urgency to upprhend hardy drives detectives to utilize the media largest police investigations was lounched as more body parts were found
hardy was dubbed the camden ripper a predd name him as the camden ripperso you’re into jack the ripper kind of status
some offendes strive to achieve the status of other well -known offenders particularly srial kilers murderes it may be they feel validatated when they achive public sttus in terms of their crimes
for hardy to have been compared to someone like jack the ripper may have made him feel that he had accomplished something or done a thorough job in terms of his crime trajectory .
by turning tot he press the investigation is now under futher scrutiny from the public the forensics are working tirelessly to prove that the murders
and dismemberments occured inside hardy’s north london flat .
what detective must realize in the relation to mr hardy the very fact they had one of the victims -actually in the flat.
sounds as if it’s overhelming evidencein reality it’s not
he could have turned around wuite happily said” nothing to do with me,it was a third party i’m not involved in any way shape or form
detectives still have to prove he was involved ,obviously the victims have dismembered but dismembering people is not a clean busines
if the blood hadben cleaned up, and we could find that detectives could present that as evidence.
to detemine if there hadbeen a clean up of blood
the CSIs employ a a breakthrough ,technique called luminol
luminol is used for examining areas for blood traces so if there’s suspicion that an area is being cleaned up luminol will pick up traces of blood on surfaces
luminol works by the mixture of two chemicals sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide , those two chemicals react with the ion that’s in everybody’s blood
luminol is sprayed onto whatever surface you’re looking o find out if it’s had blood on it, there is that chemi luminescence that happens.
any traces of blood will react of with a chemicals and
glow in the dark in a bright blue color.
certainly one of the things in this case you’re looking to find areas that had been cleaned up,sometimes the perpetrators take the victim into the bathroom because that’s a place that can be easily cleaned down.
so obviously the bathroom was an area that was going to be inspected.
by the chemi luminescent glow luminol reveals there had been an excessive ammount in the bath and and the bathroom floor.
also the dooor fram leading into the bathroom the luminol revealed that that blood had been wiped from that location.
which is perhaps an indication that something bearing blood or bleeding had been dragged along the floor into that bathroom.
despite the thorough cleanup the luminol reveals that was a vast amount of blood in both hardy’s bedroom and bathroom.
and all this is evidence, the more evidence you have the bigger that wall of evidence those bricks you can build up which will go towards hopefully a conviction.
the forensics begin to build up a picture of the horrific acts that have happened at the crime scene and they have documented further evidence that illustrates hardy’s sexually deviant interests.
anthony hardy had very much personalized his flat with some quite standout details such as vast amounts of pornographic material
there were images drawn on the walls it’s reported that there are satanic markings and slithers of dried skin and flesh on the wallpaper .
he appears to have satanic masks and devil masks, it may be that he ties thid up with his compulsion for the sexual gratification.
there’s a lot of videos in there pornographic material
from a forensic point of view that’s not really important to find his fingerprints on those videos because it’s his videos and his flats.
it’s good intelligence but it’s not going to prove the murders,it’s going to prove that the man’s a bit weird.
but it’s not going to prove that he’s murdered and dismembered girls
but for forensic psychiatrists this sheds more light under hardy’s mindset and actions all the evidence indicates that anthony hardy is a sadistic killer
serious violent offenders of this kind fantasize and plan for the crime itself and engage in various rituals throughout the commission of the offense.
it appears anthony hardy is very dangerous person and may be pose a further risk to women in the future.
and you begin to build up a picture but then you’re thinking to manhunt is going to harm anyone else with fears mounting that hardy could strike again the pressure is on the detectives to track him down and arrest him.
because they now manhunting mr hardy, his lifestyle,what he does , where he goes is imperative to know every single detail and one of the things tht became apparent is he had some medical condition
police have learned that hardy is a diabetic,and will soon need to obtain more medication.
it was obvious from what wasn’t in the flat that the medication would be running out he would at some point have to go to either a doctor or a hospital to seek further medication
and the medical professional hospitals were all alerted to that fact they’re all supplied with photographs of him and details and contact numbers in case he came in.
in on new years day the mass circulation of hardy’s image provides the police a much needed lead.
UCL hospital contacted detectives and thought that mr hardy may well have visited them to pick up some medication.
officers go down there, look at the CCTV and sure enough, yes it’s mr hardy .
he is shaved off his beard try and change his appearance
well it did no good because the next day the front page of every news paper in london had the unshaven image
mr hardy on their front page
detectves have their suspicionsconfirmed hardy is still in north london
because hardy had been here for some time and knew this area ,it was his hunting ground , he’s not going to stray far from this detectives means that was something they were very very aware off
you still got one eye out one little always on the footfways, always on the pedestrians just in case you come across him in case you see him.
24 hours later another sighting an off-duty officer and his son see a man fitting the description of anthony hardy at great oman street hospital
uniforms officers arrive at the location there is a fight and the police officers that actually go in to make the arrest are actually injured .
he attacked both officers, he fractured one officer’s socket and his cheek,he stabbed another officer in the hand ,by hold on to him
after a 3 -day manhunt the police dinally had their suspect in custody . they have only 24 hours to complie all the evidence and charge him with the murders of elisabet and brigette
as soon as he is taken to a police station the clock under the police and criminal evidence act starts ticking.
what is said and not said by mr hardy is going to have an impact on what’s happening within that crime scene.
and decision -making process the wrong decision mr hardy gets to the end of the clock and he walks out without being charged.
you can get extensions on custody time limits with superintendent’s authoritites but the crime scene can change dramatically
it can speed up quite a space if someone’s in custody because there might be vital evidence that the siio needs to be able to charge an offended.
he had a local representative under under legal aid and he had no comments.
mr hardy doesn’t have to say anything to the detectives and if he doesn’t answer any questions then all you can present to the evidence is what you find.
they dont want to be called for murde
,they want to say it was me could be somebody else my door was open, anybody could have gone into that flat
is that why he left his door unlocked so he could say those are people used to come to my flat .
he did have visitors, so was that how he was building his defense, was he working on an alib ,everything had to be proved
as the cistody time limit approaches the police are abut to unearth a compelling piece of evidence that could secure a murder charge
detectives we’re contacted by a friend of mr hardy who has possession of some photographs, these photograph have been taken by mr hardy and then actuallly given into a photographic studio to be developed.
mr hardy then when he was on the run gave the receipt to this gentleman and asked that they be recovered and held for him to recover.
the digital forenisc team retrieved the CCTV footage from the photo studuio and cooperate that with a date and time stamp on the receipt
it was anthony hardy wearing the long leather coat and the new york yankee hat he ws wearing on his arrest.
what the photographs revealed were a two victims ,they were posed on the bed by the way the limbs were laying
the patholohist came to the opinion that the photographs were taken when the women in them were dead
it’s a vey sick disturbing thing for someone to do to take photographs of dead girls, serial killers often keep momentos of some kind or take photographs of their victims in various positions
having the momentos may serve as a reminder of what they have achieved
normally the offender wants to leave the crime scene as soon as pissible but in crimes such as anthony hardy’s he wasn’t ready to stop or to finish those acts of crimes and he wanted to prolong the enoyment that he received from them
these photographs were able to link firstly the victims to the flat via backgrounds objects
there was a mask involved, this masle had been placed on their face and this agai is tied back to the mask being found at the scene .
there was a also a baceball capthat the offender was seen on the CCTV wearing
detectives then are in a position where they have to prove mr hardy took these photographs
with time running out running out the neagtives are sent to the forensics for analysis ,similarly to bin bags,film negatives can be forensically eximend for unique striation marks
when a film is placed into a camera the cogs i within the camera will make unique markings on those perforations within the film
if you can tie that back to a specific camera then you can do further forensic trace evidence searches on that camera to then look for DNA or fingerprints which will then further link that camera to an offender.
police look through items seized from the flat and one exhibit may prove to be a crucial piece of evidence
scientifically detectives can prove those negatives came from that camera
it’s always fantastic sense of euphoria when you gain that little bit more evidence that eventually detectives began to get a full picture
with confirmation the photographs were taken by hardy’s camera the criminating evidence is put to him
after discovering body parts in bins an extensive forensic investigation ensued leading to the arrest of suspected serial killer anthony hardy .
forensics have built up a wealth of evidence from three crime scenes
luminol revealed areas of blood that have been cleaned up,trace evidence of the suspect and victims was found on the hacksaw
bin bags in the flat matched the bin bags cotaining the body parts
CCTV has shown some of hardy’s movements and now they have hardy’s camera and his photgraphs of the dead victims
this photographs were obviously paramount to the inquiry cuz they were able to tie th girls to the scene to the mask to the bed to the suspect .
anthony hardy is confronted by this new evidence but still refuses to answers questions
the detectives now have another key piece of evidence against hardy
his momentos provide yet another direct link to the crime scene and the police can charge him for the murders of elisabet and birgitte
the team now has 10 monts to prepare for trial
there is still huge mounts of work to do ,detectives looking for similar fact evidence ,is there any evidence in his past that he’s done, similar things before
we had witnesses come forward,other sex workers and several of them actually said that whilst engaging in sex
he had let the whole of his wight bear down on their body and they would found it very difficult to breath
another female came forward and said that she was attacked by anthony hardy and she said i couldn’t speak because i could not breath.
it was like he was pushing me right down into the bed i physically couldn’t move and couldn’t speak
he got a kick knowing i couldn’t breath, the most kick he got was at the pint when i was literally not able to breath and i was crushed in such a position.
i think this indicates that hardy genuinely received gratification from being in control of other women restraining them in this way and having the power their their ability to move.
is a type of positional asfixia in other words the diaphragm is not able to move and therefore you can’t draw oxygen to your lungs and effectively suffocate.
so that is a distrinct possibility as a cause of death for our two victims
this new intelligence brings hardy’s background back into question
detectives went through other sex workers that have been murdered because they had to be put to him
they had to get all the paperwork out of sally rose white’s investigation 18 months previously.
pathologist reviewd what he decided back then and came to the conclusion that sally rose white in fact was asphixiation by pressure
bearing in mind sally rose white was a very small women.this 22 stone man lean just pressing into you
could have been acause of death.
a consultant forensic psychiatrist who assessed hardy in 2003 suggested the following explanation
if a jury accept that the defendant did in fact intend to kill or seriously harm his three victims
then i believe the offending i linked to the defendant’s sadistic personality, his intox intoxiation with alcohol and his rage at his sexual ysfunction.
police were determined to never allow anthony hardy to walk free again.
detectives are working for their victims if they get it wrong now, it stays wrong,it will always to be wrong
and it’ ll still be wrong when they put the person in the dock of central criminal court charged with murder
he appeared at the old bailey, detectives went there with all the witnesses lined up,the neighbor who had dispute with,his history to show his kind of violent tendency
the massive circumstantial and direct evidence against him, this was a really strong case
as the prosecution preparesw to try hardy for the three murders -he finally talks
he pleaded guilty. anthony hardy admitted to being the camden ripper
he receives three life sentence for the murder of elisabeth and birgitte and sally rose white.and is later told he would never be released.
detectives personally think they found all his victims no matter how good you are in investigation no matter how thorough you are sometimes a little bit of luck comes you way
the witness that reported finding the body barts was a homeless guy, if he decided that this was actually a lot of trouble and just walked on then eventually those dust bins would be empty.
and detectives would never ever found those victims.