Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Eric Locke： The Sickening Truth - Killer Documentary

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Eric Locke： The Sickening Truth - Killer Documentary · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:06
Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, in a suburb of Dublin, a brief
0:10
Speaker 1: romance between Sonya Blunt and Eric lock went sour, setting
0:14
Speaker 1: off a chain of events that would end with Sonia's
0:17
Speaker 1: violent death.
0:19
Speaker 2: This was a brutal, awful murder. It was rage.
0:25
Speaker 1: Fueled furious at being rejected. Locke became obsessed with getting Sonya.
0:30
Speaker 3: Back, and he was going to do that by hook
0:33
Speaker 3: or by cook, whether Sonia wanted or not.
0:36
Speaker 4: He brought cable ties at the Stanley knife duct tape
0:40
Speaker 4: the imitation gone.
0:42
Speaker 1: After taking Sonya's life, Eric Locke threw off all responsibility
0:47
Speaker 1: for his terrible crime.
0:49
Speaker 5: The defense really argued for his mental disorder.
0:53
Speaker 1: It was a momentary insanity.
0:55
Speaker 6: I never meant to do it.
0:56
Speaker 1: Despite his attempts to play the victim, Eric Locke's braved
1:00
Speaker 1: actions mean that he will forever be known as one
1:03
Speaker 1: of the world's most evil killers. In May twenty seventeen,
1:27
Speaker 1: Eric Locke was jailed for the murder of his colleague
1:30
Speaker 1: Sonya Blunt. The thirty five year old had viewered Sonya
1:33
Speaker 1: to a hotel room in Dublin and ended her life
1:36
Speaker 1: after pretending to be someone else online. Locke was a
1:40
Speaker 1: lonely heart's worst nightmare.
1:43
Speaker 4: The person that you're meeting may not be the person
1:45
Speaker 4: that they say that they are, but it could be
1:47
Speaker 4: somebody deceiving you, and then you could end up in
1:49
Speaker 4: a situation where you're murdered or killed. I think that's
1:52
Speaker 4: what's scary about it.
1:53
Speaker 1: Thirty one year old Sonya thought she'd done enough to
1:56
Speaker 1: keep herself safe, but she'd not reckoned on the determination
2:00
Speaker 1: and evil intent of Eric Lock.
2:04
Speaker 3: He has been online. He has changed his identity and
2:07
Speaker 3: your profile and social media.
2:09
Speaker 7: He pretended to be somebody else so that he could
2:14
Speaker 7: have access to her. He had no intention of leaving
2:19
Speaker 7: there that night without having heard her.
2:22
Speaker 2: That was the plan.
2:24
Speaker 1: Sonia Blunt was a single mother simply looking for love.
2:29
Speaker 1: Killer Eric Locke deceived and manipulated her in pursuit of
2:33
Speaker 1: revenge and retribution. This killer story begins in the spring
2:38
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty two, six miles west of Dublin City Center.
2:44
Speaker 3: Eric luck was from Saint Johns Park East in Clondarken
2:47
Speaker 3: in County Dublin.
2:49
Speaker 6: Quite a small community, and he was born to a
2:52
Speaker 6: very good family.
2:54
Speaker 1: Locke grew up with his parents and sister in the
2:56
Speaker 1: working class town it was an ordinary childhood, though Locke's
3:00
Speaker 1: mother and father had concerns from time to time about
3:04
Speaker 1: their son's state of mind.
3:05
Speaker 5: He had been hyperactive as a child, and his parents
3:09
Speaker 5: had sought treatment for him. He was noticed by his
3:13
Speaker 5: family at a young age to be interested in lining
3:17
Speaker 5: up things and making lists, and they were concerned about him,
3:21
Speaker 5: but he was never diagnosed with anything.
3:27
Speaker 7: And he also said that he was subject of ridicule
3:32
Speaker 7: because of a deformity on his penis.
3:35
Speaker 5: When Eric Locke was born, his urethra was on the
3:39
Speaker 5: underside of his penis, and there was a surgical attempt
3:44
Speaker 5: to correct it, but it was unsuccessful, so then he
3:46
Speaker 5: was left with both the deformity itself and the scarring.
3:51
Speaker 5: And he didn't know about this really until he was
3:54
Speaker 5: teased in the showers after a pe class when he
3:57
Speaker 5: was twelve or thirteen years of age, and after that
4:00
Speaker 5: he always felt different.
4:02
Speaker 1: Whether because of his issues in his teenage years or
4:05
Speaker 1: for some other reason. Those who knew Eric Locke in
4:08
Speaker 1: his twenties noticed something a little unusual about the way
4:11
Speaker 1: he interacted with the opposite sex.
4:14
Speaker 6: I think one person said of Eric Locke that he
4:17
Speaker 6: was weird about women.
4:19
Speaker 5: He had no problem getting girls. He was quite a
4:22
Speaker 5: good looking man objectively, but he never could hold on
4:26
Speaker 5: to them, and nobody ever knew much about his relationships.
4:31
Speaker 6: One friend described him as charming but dead behind the eyes.
4:36
Speaker 5: Eric Locke was definitely an odd person, but he didn't
4:40
Speaker 5: seem to be a dangerous person. He had no history
4:42
Speaker 5: of violence or any police history at all.
4:46
Speaker 1: After graduating from college, Locke entered the world of work
4:50
Speaker 1: and enjoyed socializing with friends and colleagues.
4:53
Speaker 6: He was a football player as a young man, at
4:56
Speaker 6: Match to United support. Some people say he did a
4:59
Speaker 6: bit of male modeling. Whether it's true, I'm not sure,
5:03
Speaker 6: but certainly he was upright, and throughout his twenties didn't
5:08
Speaker 6: really make much of an impression on anyone. He'd just
5:11
Speaker 6: had an ordinary life.
5:12
Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, thirty one year old Eric Locke was
5:16
Speaker 1: single and living with his parents in Klondalkin when he
5:19
Speaker 1: got a new job at a gloom manufacturer four miles
5:22
Speaker 1: away in Taller. This is where he met the woman
5:26
Speaker 1: who would soon become the focus of the dark side
5:30
Speaker 1: he'd so far managed to keep under wraps.
5:34
Speaker 3: Luck worked with a number of people in a daily
5:37
Speaker 3: course of his employment, and one such person he worked
5:41
Speaker 3: with was Signing Blunt. She was a thirty one year
5:44
Speaker 3: old lady from the Taler area.
5:48
Speaker 5: They caught each other's eye at work and there were
5:51
Speaker 5: rumorous around work that they fancied each other, and they
5:55
Speaker 5: did go on a few dates.
5:57
Speaker 1: Thirty one year old Sonya had worked at the manufacturing
6:01
Speaker 1: plant for about ten years when she met new employee Locke.
6:05
Speaker 6: Sonia was brought up in Teller at southwest of Dublin Center.
6:10
Speaker 6: One of five was a close family. A parent separated,
6:13
Speaker 6: but it was still amicable.
6:17
Speaker 1: The eldest of five children, Sonya was known as a
6:20
Speaker 1: caring sister and daughter with a strong circle of friends.
6:24
Speaker 1: She'd studied childcare at college before starting her career at
6:29
Speaker 1: the manufacturing plants. Sonia was also a devoted single mother
6:34
Speaker 1: with a toddler son from an unhappy long term relationship
6:37
Speaker 1: that had broken down in the autumn of twenty thirteen.
6:41
Speaker 3: He was stuminering and she had gotten away from us relationship.
6:47
Speaker 5: The man had left the country and she really was
6:50
Speaker 5: beginning to enjoy life again at that stage because she
6:53
Speaker 5: wasn't looking for a serious relationship.
6:55
Speaker 1: In December twenty thirteen, Sonya Blunt and Eric Locke started
7:00
Speaker 1: spending time together outside of work. The romance, however, was
7:05
Speaker 1: short and not particularly sweet.
7:08
Speaker 6: I think Locke was to say later, we were never
7:10
Speaker 6: boyfriend girlfriend, it was just the sort of They went
7:13
Speaker 6: to a number of dates. Early in January twenty fourteen,
7:18
Speaker 6: Sonya and Eric Locke go on a date together. It's
7:22
Speaker 6: a gig, So far, so normal.
7:24
Speaker 4: At some point in the night, Siya decided to go
7:26
Speaker 4: out and have a cigarette. Ultimately, Locke was a bit suspicious.
7:31
Speaker 4: She was gone for twenty minutes and this seemed to
7:33
Speaker 4: upset him.
7:34
Speaker 5: After a while, Locke came out looking for her and
7:38
Speaker 5: she was talking to other people, including males, and he
7:41
Speaker 5: called her a sloss.
7:43
Speaker 1: Furious, Locke berated Sonya for daring to chat with other.
7:46
Speaker 7: Men, basically accusing her of flirting very gendered slurs. So
7:53
Speaker 7: that incident actually is probably the biggest red flag you
7:56
Speaker 7: can have from anyone who's going to become a problem
7:59
Speaker 7: for you in the relationship.
8:01
Speaker 2: And she didn't like it, and she was upset by.
8:04
Speaker 1: It, horrified at the dark turn the date had taken.
8:07
Speaker 1: Sonia left, telling Locke that the romance was over. As
8:12
Speaker 1: he took a taxi home a few hours later, a
8:15
Speaker 1: drunk and apparently remorseful Locke tried to take back his
8:19
Speaker 1: verbal attack.
8:21
Speaker 5: He was just hounding her by text message and just
8:25
Speaker 5: begging her to let him see her and explain it,
8:28
Speaker 5: and she said, there's no need to explain it.
8:31
Speaker 4: Sonya explained to when the messages that she knew he
8:33
Speaker 4: was a nice person. However, she couldn't accept being spoken
8:36
Speaker 4: to in that manner.
8:37
Speaker 1: Over the next couple of days, Eric Locke bombarded Sonya
8:41
Speaker 1: Blunt with dozens of messages demanding a second chance. Sonia
8:46
Speaker 1: asked him repeatedly to stop, but the text kept coming,
8:49
Speaker 1: peppering her with excuses for his jealousy and aggression.
8:53
Speaker 4: He did acknowledge the only reason that he reacted in
8:56
Speaker 4: this way was because he was insecure and that Sonya
8:58
Speaker 4: hadn't told him that he was attractive. This was surprising
9:02
Speaker 4: to Sonya that he would react in this way or
9:04
Speaker 4: seek this type of approval.
9:06
Speaker 7: Sonya had only had a couple of dates with him.
9:10
Speaker 7: This kind of behavior after a relationship breakup is not
9:14
Speaker 7: about love. It's actually about possession and inability to take
9:19
Speaker 7: any kind of rejection at all, and it can become
9:24
Speaker 7: really quite dangerous quite quickly.
9:27
Speaker 1: Sonya found Eric Locke's respond surprising, even alarming, but it
9:32
Speaker 1: was only the beginning. On the thirteenth of January, three
9:36
Speaker 1: days after their disastrous date, he walked out in the
9:40
Speaker 1: middle of his shift. He stopped answering his phone or
9:43
Speaker 1: replying to coworkers' messages about his whereabouts.
9:48
Speaker 3: Sonya, being the caring and kind considered person that you
9:52
Speaker 3: was sentiment a text to say, oh, we're worried about you,
9:57
Speaker 3: as everything okay, But he didn't respond till the following day.
10:01
Speaker 4: And he said that he was in a hotel room
10:03
Speaker 4: and that he had a rope and that he was sorry.
10:05
Speaker 2: It was at this.
10:06
Speaker 4: Time that Sonia decided to contact the Guardian.
10:09
Speaker 1: Sonia was worried sick. She had no idea what this desperate,
10:13
Speaker 1: volatile man might be capable of doing.
10:17
Speaker 4: The GUARDI were able to trace Locke Sung to a
10:19
Speaker 4: hotel room, and when they got there, he said that
10:22
Speaker 4: it was just a joke. However, the GUARDI didn't believe
10:25
Speaker 4: him and weren't convinced, so they arrested him under the
10:27
Speaker 4: Mental Health Act. He was then hospitalized.
10:32
Speaker 5: She discharged himself later that day and she stayed in
10:36
Speaker 5: touch with him. Her text messages to him were more
10:39
Speaker 5: of a caring nature after that, asking him to get help,
10:42
Speaker 5: encouraging him to get help. She was extremely worried and
10:47
Speaker 5: her friend said she wasn't sleeping or eating.
10:52
Speaker 1: Sonia felt terrible about the way things had turned out,
10:56
Speaker 1: which is perhaps exactly what eric Locke.
10:59
Speaker 3: Intended, signing such a gentle and kind soul that she
11:05
Speaker 3: was looking after his best interests and he exploited that
11:08
Speaker 3: instead of appreciating it for what it was.
11:13
Speaker 7: He is looking for anything that will get her back.
11:18
Speaker 7: It's like having a little toolbox, right, Well, I'm going
11:21
Speaker 7: to pull this tool like the begin and cry, let's
11:23
Speaker 7: see if that works. And if that doesn't work, then
11:25
Speaker 7: we'll go to something else.
11:29
Speaker 1: For homicide expert Professor Jane Mounkton Smith, Eric Lock's threats
11:34
Speaker 1: to take his own life were not just a tactic.
11:38
Speaker 1: They were also a warning sign of the risk he
11:41
Speaker 1: posed to Sonya Blunt's life.
11:44
Speaker 7: When I'm training police, we always say if there's a
11:48
Speaker 7: threat to suicide, that should be interpreted as a threat
11:51
Speaker 7: to homicide.
11:53
Speaker 1: Eric Locke's desperate text messages and disappearing tricks were just
11:57
Speaker 1: the beginning his pursuit of Sonia Blood would continue to escalate.
12:03
Speaker 1: But while Locke was planning his next move, Sonya had
12:06
Speaker 1: been online and met someone new.
12:10
Speaker 3: Sonya was contacted on social media by a guy called
12:14
Speaker 3: Shane Cully, and they started messaging, and he.
12:18
Speaker 5: Seemed completely different from Eric Locke, and there was a
12:23
Speaker 5: bit of fun, a bit of banter back and forth,
12:26
Speaker 5: and she just went with it.
12:29
Speaker 6: Sonya wants to find something. Maybe it's friendship, maybe it's romance.
12:36
Speaker 6: One can't be absolutely sure, but I can be incredibly
12:38
Speaker 6: sympathetic because I can understand exactly how she must have felt.
12:43
Speaker 4: They're getting along quite well. He's proposing to go on
12:46
Speaker 4: a date. Initially, Sonia had some concerns. She was worried
12:49
Speaker 4: that this could have been Lock essentially catfishing her, so
12:53
Speaker 4: she asked Shane Kully to send herselfie. She wanted to
12:56
Speaker 4: be completely assured that this wasn't Locke pretending to be
12:59
Speaker 4: somebody else.
13:00
Speaker 1: The young mother ignored her own misgivings and brushed off
13:04
Speaker 1: the fears of those who had witnessed her ordeal with Locke.
13:08
Speaker 5: And even when she was telling the story to her
13:11
Speaker 5: coworker about this guy, she was going to meet. The
13:15
Speaker 5: coworker said, are you sure that's not Eric Locke pretending
13:19
Speaker 5: to be someone else? That's the kind of guy he
13:23
Speaker 5: was that they suspected that of him, and she assured her, well,
13:27
Speaker 5: I thought that, but I actually got a selfie from him.
13:30
Speaker 2: It's not him.
13:32
Speaker 5: And they started to send each other risky messages and
13:36
Speaker 5: eventually they agreed to meet up in a hotel room.
13:40
Speaker 4: It was something unusual for her, but it was after
13:43
Speaker 4: Valentine's Day, perhaps feeling slightly lonely, and decided to spend
13:47
Speaker 4: the night with him.
13:48
Speaker 1: Sonia Blunt had never before arranged a romantic encounter with
13:52
Speaker 1: a stranger in a hotel, but she pushed her nerves
13:56
Speaker 1: aside and set a date to meet Shane Kelly. While
14:00
Speaker 1: Sonya did her best to move on, Eric Locke was
14:04
Speaker 1: persisting in his campaign of emotional blackmail.
14:07
Speaker 5: He accused her of blanking him at work and said
14:12
Speaker 5: that she was spreading rumors that he was stalking her,
14:16
Speaker 5: and she replied, well, I haven't heard those rumors, but
14:20
Speaker 5: I would appreciate it if you'd stop staring at me
14:22
Speaker 5: at work because it is making me feel uncomfortable.
14:26
Speaker 7: Sonya had been through bad breakup before she had seen
14:31
Speaker 7: probably the kind of behaviors that Locke was displaying.
14:35
Speaker 2: You know, that possessiveness, that control.
14:39
Speaker 3: It must have been very difficult for Sonia on a
14:41
Speaker 3: day to day basis, coming in and wondering, how am
14:44
Speaker 3: I going to deal with him today? What farm is
14:46
Speaker 3: he going to be in today? Have to thread the
14:48
Speaker 3: needle and be nice to him, would not give him
14:51
Speaker 3: their art signals.
14:53
Speaker 1: Sonia was so uncomfortable with Locke's behavior that she considered
14:57
Speaker 1: asking to change shifts so that she would know longer
15:00
Speaker 1: cross paths with him. Her former love interest seemed hell
15:04
Speaker 1: bent on pressuring her into submission.
15:07
Speaker 4: Sonya confided in one of her friends. She said that
15:10
Speaker 4: he was freaking her out. It was at this time
15:12
Speaker 4: that Sonya decided it was time to cut all contact
15:14
Speaker 4: with him and blocked him on social media.
15:16
Speaker 7: She wanted him to go away. She was probably quite
15:20
Speaker 7: frightened of him at this point. The trouble is, when
15:24
Speaker 7: you do something like that, it just makes them more angry.
15:30
Speaker 1: The mother of one desperately hoped this would put an
15:33
Speaker 1: end to a situation that had rapidly escalated from awkward
15:38
Speaker 1: to troubling to downright scary. But Sonya couldn't have been
15:42
Speaker 1: more wrong.
15:43
Speaker 6: On the twenty fourth of January, Locke writes Sonia a
15:48
Speaker 6: letter quite long, again pleading for a reconciliation.
15:54
Speaker 5: He was telling her how sorry he was and how
15:56
Speaker 5: ashamed he was of putting her in that position after
16:00
Speaker 5: sending the suicide text, but lower down in the letter
16:04
Speaker 5: he would say things like I thought you might have
16:07
Speaker 5: stood by me when I was suicidal, and I would
16:11
Speaker 5: have stood by you, and I would have waited for
16:14
Speaker 5: you until you got over this.
16:16
Speaker 3: One minute he was spelling her up, next minute, she
16:18
Speaker 3: was knocking her down.
16:21
Speaker 1: Locke ended the long letter by saying that Sonia was
16:24
Speaker 1: an amazing mother who'd everything going for her, and that
16:28
Speaker 1: he hoped they would all find happiness.
16:33
Speaker 7: Lock's behavior was escalating, and in this stage, locks behavior
16:39
Speaker 7: turned to stalking.
16:41
Speaker 5: He contacted his sister to say he'd got back with Sonia,
16:47
Speaker 5: but that he had heard rumors that she was ripping
16:49
Speaker 5: him off, and asked if an acquaintance of his sister
16:55
Speaker 5: could hack into her Facebook page. Then he asked what
16:59
Speaker 5: about hacking into her hotmail email account.
17:03
Speaker 1: Whether or not she believed his tale that he and
17:06
Speaker 1: Sonya were back together. Eric Locke's sister refused to help
17:10
Speaker 1: him access Sonya's private email or social media profiles. Oblivious
17:17
Speaker 1: to Locke's attempt to stalk her, Sonya continued living her life.
17:24
Speaker 1: On Saturday, the fifteenth of February twenty fourteen, she and
17:27
Speaker 1: her family celebrated Sonya's little boy's birthday.
17:32
Speaker 5: Sonya adored her son and loved being a mother, and
17:37
Speaker 5: according to her sister, she went all out for his
17:39
Speaker 5: birthday and had a party with family and his friends.
17:46
Speaker 1: The festivity is over, Sonya got ready for a secret tryst.
17:51
Speaker 4: She had asked her mother to look after her son
17:53
Speaker 4: for the night because she wanted to go meet her
17:55
Speaker 4: friend Susan and was going to go out with her
17:57
Speaker 4: that evening.
17:58
Speaker 5: She canceled the last minute, telling that friend she wanted
18:02
Speaker 5: to stay in and read a book that she was tired.
18:04
Speaker 1: Though she did not admit it to friends and family.
18:07
Speaker 1: Sonya had in fact arranged to meet her Facebook date,
18:11
Speaker 1: Shane Cully, at a hotel in Tala that evening.
18:15
Speaker 6: She gets to the Plaza Hotel about nine o'clock that
18:17
Speaker 6: evening and it takes about twenty minutes for her to
18:20
Speaker 6: check in.
18:20
Speaker 3: She's received messages from Shane said that he was going
18:24
Speaker 3: to slightly later and could she leave the key card
18:27
Speaker 3: for the door at the reception. Sonya was thinking, user,
18:31
Speaker 3: I wait and we can go up together.
18:33
Speaker 5: But he didn't come for hours, and he was texting
18:36
Speaker 5: her through Facebook and most of the text messages, about
18:39
Speaker 5: twelve of the text messages were asking her to leave
18:43
Speaker 5: a key card for him at a reception, and she
18:46
Speaker 5: said there's no need. I'll let you win when you
18:49
Speaker 5: get here.
18:50
Speaker 1: Unaccustomed to arranging sexual liaisons in hotels and embarrassed about
18:55
Speaker 1: facing reception staff again, Sonia initially resisted she Ayane's demand.
19:01
Speaker 4: However, Shane was quite persistent and asked her to leave
19:04
Speaker 4: the key down at the hotel desk, so she did so.
19:07
Speaker 5: She'd been waiting for him for about three hours at
19:09
Speaker 5: that stage, and she said she was going to have
19:11
Speaker 5: a drink to calm her nerves. She would have been tired,
19:14
Speaker 5: but I suppose excited. When he said he was finally
19:18
Speaker 5: on the.
19:18
Speaker 1: Way, armed with his own room key, Sonya's would be
19:23
Speaker 1: lover had no need to knock.
19:27
Speaker 6: When the door opens just before midnight, she immediately recognizes
19:32
Speaker 6: that the man who's just entered a room isn't Shane. Kelly,
19:37
Speaker 6: but it's actually Eric Locke.
19:40
Speaker 1: We will never know exactly what went through Sonya Blunt's
19:44
Speaker 1: head when she realized Eric Locke had tricked her into
19:47
Speaker 1: meeting him, nor will we ever be sure precisely what
19:51
Speaker 1: happened next.
19:53
Speaker 5: Locke himself told Garthy that she was shocked to see him,
19:57
Speaker 5: and that she asked could they leave together? So she
20:01
Speaker 5: did not want to stay there with him, There was
20:03
Speaker 5: no doubt about.
20:04
Speaker 1: It, but Locke did not agree to leave with Sonia.
20:08
Speaker 1: He later said he feared she'd scream as they walked
20:11
Speaker 1: through reception. Almost six hours later, he left the hotel alone.
20:18
Speaker 7: He left the do not disturb sign on the door.
20:20
Speaker 7: He didn't want Sonya to be found. He wanted to
20:24
Speaker 7: buy himself some time.
20:27
Speaker 4: She got into the elevator, he could be seen trying
20:29
Speaker 4: to cover his face. He was wiping it with a tissue.
20:32
Speaker 1: Eric Locke flagged down a taxi to take him home
20:35
Speaker 1: to Klon Dolkin, telling the driver, who commented on injuries
20:39
Speaker 1: to his left cheek, that he'd had an eventful night out.
20:43
Speaker 5: Gave him some story about dancing with a girl on
20:47
Speaker 5: the dance floor and her boyfriend coming up and giving
20:49
Speaker 5: him a few slaps. When the taxi driver said, so,
20:53
Speaker 5: let's have a look at your face. It was very
20:56
Speaker 5: obvious and he said, oh, you'll have a lot of
20:58
Speaker 5: explaining to do about that.
21:01
Speaker 1: While Eric Locke slept off his rough night, Sonya Blunt's
21:05
Speaker 1: family had begun to sense something was amiss.
21:09
Speaker 6: Sonia always called up to check her son was all right.
21:13
Speaker 6: If she'd stayed out at night, first thing in the morning,
21:16
Speaker 6: she'd ring and say is he okay.
21:18
Speaker 4: However, when she didn't call, alarm bell started to ring.
21:21
Speaker 4: Her mother initially called her friend Susan to see what
21:24
Speaker 4: had happened, because she was out with her friend Susan
21:26
Speaker 4: that night, and when Susan told her that she had
21:29
Speaker 4: changed her plans and said she was staying in that night,
21:31
Speaker 4: her mother was very concerned.
21:34
Speaker 5: So her family were looking for her and calling everybody,
21:37
Speaker 5: calling her friends.
21:39
Speaker 4: And it's then that her brother had seen on social
21:41
Speaker 4: media that a murder had occurred in Talent.
21:45
Speaker 6: News travels fast that a body has been discovered now
21:50
Speaker 6: and it's almost impossible to imagine what her parents must
21:54
Speaker 6: have felt.
21:55
Speaker 1: The news of a suspicious death at a Tala hotel
21:59
Speaker 1: came in the late afternoon of that Sunday, the sixteenth
22:02
Speaker 1: of February. Fearing the worst, but hoping they were wrong,
22:06
Speaker 1: Sonya's family needed to find out if she had come
22:09
Speaker 1: to harm.
22:10
Speaker 5: They made their way to the hotel and saw her
22:13
Speaker 5: car there.
22:15
Speaker 4: Her father saw Sonya's car and saw police gathered around,
22:19
Speaker 4: and he said that he just knew. When they approached
22:21
Speaker 4: the GUARDI, the GUARDI told the family you better come inside.
22:25
Speaker 6: The gods ask the family to to describe Sonya to them,
22:32
Speaker 6: and in particular, they asked them about the tattoo that
22:36
Speaker 6: Sonya had because it's very specific. Well, imagine the scene.
22:42
Speaker 6: It is beyond description what they must have felt and
22:46
Speaker 6: how they must have felt it.
22:47
Speaker 1: Sonya blunts. Devastated parents and siblings were told they would
22:52
Speaker 1: have to wait twenty four hours for confirmation that the
22:55
Speaker 1: female victim was indeed their daughter and sister. As the
23:00
Speaker 1: shell shock family returned home. Inside the hotel, the guard
23:04
Speaker 1: they were examining what was clearly the scene of a
23:07
Speaker 1: terrible crime.
23:09
Speaker 5: Her body wasn't discovered until cleaning staff went into the
23:12
Speaker 5: room at three o'clock that afternoon.
23:15
Speaker 1: The young mother was lying on the floor in the
23:17
Speaker 1: recovery position. Sonia had blood on her face and some
23:21
Speaker 1: kind of fabric stuffed into her mouth.
23:23
Speaker 5: They found her with ligature mark around her neck. It
23:27
Speaker 5: was very pronounced.
23:29
Speaker 4: They also saw an imitation gun. They saw duct tape
23:33
Speaker 4: and cable ties. When they went into the bathroom, they
23:35
Speaker 4: saw bloodied tell and bloodied napkins. They also saw her
23:39
Speaker 4: bloodied phone cable charger.
23:43
Speaker 1: Something horrible has happened in that hotel.
23:46
Speaker 4: The post mortem results showed that Sonya died due to
23:48
Speaker 4: assyxiation and lack of oxygen due to compression of the neck.
23:52
Speaker 4: The strangulation was so vicious and prolonged that it actually
23:55
Speaker 4: broke a number of bones in her neck.
23:58
Speaker 1: Sonia's T shirt had been pushed deep into her mouth,
24:01
Speaker 1: exacerbating the effects of the strangulation.
24:05
Speaker 4: The state pathologist, Mary Cassidy noted that due to the
24:08
Speaker 4: bruising around her mouth, that she was undoubtedly alive when
24:11
Speaker 4: her top was put into her mouth and was put
24:14
Speaker 4: in with such force and such ferocity that he broke
24:17
Speaker 4: several of her teeth and the wire retainer at the
24:20
Speaker 4: back of her teeth.
24:22
Speaker 1: Sonia Blunt had been murdered in an act of extreme violence.
24:26
Speaker 1: Detectives asked themselves who could possibly want a hard working,
24:31
Speaker 1: family orientated young mother dead, but they did not have
24:35
Speaker 1: to wonder for long. Six hours after her body was discovered,
24:41
Speaker 1: Eric Locke walked into a Gardas station in the center
24:44
Speaker 1: of Dublin at around half nine last night.
24:48
Speaker 8: A man presented himself to Guardy at Store Street station
24:51
Speaker 8: in the city. He was arrested and taken to Talla
24:54
Speaker 8: gard the station.
24:57
Speaker 4: Eric Locke went into Store Street Gardisation and confessed to
25:00
Speaker 4: killing Sonya blood.
25:04
Speaker 5: He said he had attempted suicide but couldn't do it
25:07
Speaker 5: when he had very real images of his family in
25:11
Speaker 5: his head. He admitted the killing, but said it was
25:13
Speaker 5: an accident. He said that he had just planned to
25:16
Speaker 5: talk to her and explain his situation.
25:19
Speaker 1: Locke told investigating officers he had to use the fake
25:22
Speaker 1: profile to trick Sonya into meeting him because she'd cut
25:26
Speaker 1: all contact and blocked him online. He insisted he had
25:30
Speaker 1: only bought the cable ties and duct tape so that
25:33
Speaker 1: if Sonya refused to hear him out, he could tie
25:35
Speaker 1: her to a chair and force her to listen. The
25:39
Speaker 1: weapons were simply to scare her into compliance. Locke claimed
25:43
Speaker 1: that at first, Sonya had been happy to stay in
25:46
Speaker 1: the room with him.
25:47
Speaker 5: He said they had consensual sex. He was asked by
25:52
Speaker 5: the GUARDI if he had raped her, and he denied that.
25:56
Speaker 5: When she saw what he had brought with him, the
25:58
Speaker 5: pellet gone, the Stanley knife, the masking tape, she started
26:02
Speaker 5: to scream and he said he just wanted to shut
26:05
Speaker 5: her up in case somebody heard her, and he started
26:08
Speaker 5: to strangle her.
26:10
Speaker 1: Detectives found Locke's version of events hard to believe. The
26:14
Speaker 1: killer claims Sonia had willingly stayed in the room with
26:17
Speaker 1: her own stalker, had consented to have sex with him,
26:21
Speaker 1: and had only panicked when she saw the array of
26:24
Speaker 1: sinister items Lock had brought with him.
26:27
Speaker 3: A guarda investigation point of view, Here we have a
26:31
Speaker 3: young woman who strangled, murdered, and we have a guy
26:36
Speaker 3: then coming in and telling us that he did it,
26:40
Speaker 3: but he didn't intend to it. So is it manslaughter
26:44
Speaker 3: or is it murder? Can we prove the intent or
26:47
Speaker 3: can we not prove the intent?
26:51
Speaker 5: He first told the GUARDI that he strangled her with
26:54
Speaker 5: his bare hands only, but then he was shown the
26:57
Speaker 5: cable of her phone charger, which was blood stained, and
27:00
Speaker 5: he admitted that he had used that briefly. He later
27:03
Speaker 5: said he used that first and then he changed to
27:07
Speaker 5: using his hands.
27:10
Speaker 3: That first attempt he made the strangler didn't work, so
27:14
Speaker 3: he strangler with his bare hands then instead. So really
27:17
Speaker 3: his story didn't really stand up.
27:22
Speaker 5: He was medically examined after his arrest and he had
27:26
Speaker 5: very obvious scratch marks on his face, and he also
27:30
Speaker 5: had carpet burns on his arms and legs, and these
27:36
Speaker 5: were found to be consistent with him having carried out
27:40
Speaker 5: a sexual assault. His DNA was found on her forehead,
27:45
Speaker 5: her right breast, on a pillow and bed sheets in
27:49
Speaker 5: the room as well. Sonia's blood was found on the
27:53
Speaker 5: jeans at Eric Locke had been wearing.
27:56
Speaker 1: Locke told the God he wasn't sure if Sonia dead
28:00
Speaker 1: when he left, but that before leaving he dressed the
28:04
Speaker 1: lifeless woman so that she'd have dignity when she was found.
28:10
Speaker 6: It's a very very creepy thing to do.
28:14
Speaker 7: The confession is not about remorse or shame or guilt.
28:19
Speaker 7: He's now trying to say to the police, I'm not
28:21
Speaker 7: really this bad guy that I look like. He is
28:24
Speaker 7: going to start presenting himself as the victim. He claimed
28:29
Speaker 7: that he'd always suffered with depression through his life, but
28:34
Speaker 7: when he met Sonya it seemed to lived and he
28:38
Speaker 7: was happy, and then when she finished with him, it
28:42
Speaker 7: all came crashing down again. Depression does not cause people
28:48
Speaker 7: to commit this type of murder.
28:53
Speaker 1: Just after one am on the seventeenth of February, Eric
28:57
Speaker 1: Locke was charged with Sonya Blunt's murder.
29:00
Speaker 8: Eric Locke was brought by detectives from Tallagarda station to
29:03
Speaker 8: the local District court this morning to face a charge
29:06
Speaker 8: of murder.
29:08
Speaker 1: There was not enough evidence to charge him with raping
29:11
Speaker 1: or sexually assaulting Sonya. Locke was remanded in custody at
29:16
Speaker 1: clover Hill Prison in Kondolken, South Dublin. The task for
29:21
Speaker 1: detectives now was to prove their suspect intended to kill Sonya.
29:26
Speaker 6: The police search Eric Locke's house and discover a positive
29:32
Speaker 6: treasure trove of information, including handcuffs, cable ties, a screwdriver set.
29:44
Speaker 4: And also a list of names of women. A number
29:47
Speaker 4: of them had addresses which he obtained from social media.
29:50
Speaker 1: When Locke's devices were analyzed, guard he found he'd been
29:54
Speaker 1: stalking several women online. They suspected he planned more attacks
29:59
Speaker 1: like the one he'd inflicted upon.
30:01
Speaker 3: Sonya will never know what his other plans were and
30:06
Speaker 3: who else he had taken a dislike to or a
30:10
Speaker 3: set against.
30:12
Speaker 2: He had to kill this.
30:13
Speaker 7: He went with weapons he had got there through coercive means.
30:19
Speaker 7: This guy had been planning this for a while. He
30:22
Speaker 7: was not an innocent he was not a victim of
30:26
Speaker 7: his own temper.
30:27
Speaker 2: That's just not what was going on here.
30:30
Speaker 7: When a man kills a partner who has left him,
30:35
Speaker 7: it is never jealous rage. Most cases have planning, and
30:43
Speaker 7: Locke planned.
30:44
Speaker 1: The fake Facebook profile in the name of Shane Cully
30:48
Speaker 1: had been carefully calculated to deceive Sonya and to win
30:52
Speaker 1: her trust.
30:53
Speaker 5: He had photographs on there, he had friends on there.
30:58
Speaker 5: It looks like a real Facebook profile of someone. At
31:02
Speaker 5: this stage it was mons sense. He had met her
31:05
Speaker 5: and they'd dated, and he knew her likes and her dislikes,
31:09
Speaker 5: and he behaved completely differently to Eric Locke on this
31:13
Speaker 5: Facebook profile, and.
31:16
Speaker 7: He played on that to be able to get access
31:19
Speaker 7: to her. He knew enough about her to know if
31:23
Speaker 7: he came in as a potential boyfriend, what to say
31:28
Speaker 7: and how to say it.
31:30
Speaker 1: When the pathologist examined Sonia's body, she found further evidence
31:35
Speaker 1: that Sonya's death had not occurred in one brief, red
31:38
Speaker 1: mist moment, but had in fact been a prolonged and
31:41
Speaker 1: determined assault.
31:43
Speaker 7: She was really attacked by him. She fought for her life,
31:48
Speaker 7: and she was able to scratch his face, and she
31:51
Speaker 7: actually got his DNA underneath her fingernails. She fought like
31:56
Speaker 7: a tiger, and it would have taken some strength, some determination,
32:01
Speaker 7: and some time. Strangulation Murder doesn't happen in a couple
32:06
Speaker 7: of seconds.
32:09
Speaker 1: Though they were certain Eric Locke had murdered Sonya blood
32:13
Speaker 1: in cold blood, God and prosecutors knew it was down
32:17
Speaker 1: to them to prove it to a jury. On the
32:20
Speaker 1: eighth of May twenty seventeen, Eric Locke went on trial
32:24
Speaker 1: at Dublin's Central Criminal Court. The process of getting justice
32:29
Speaker 1: for Sonya had been beset by legal delays.
32:34
Speaker 5: The trial was supposed to start at least a year
32:36
Speaker 5: and a half earlier, but it was adjourned when the
32:40
Speaker 5: defense applied for a new psychiatric report for him.
32:46
Speaker 1: Eric Locke didn't speak during the brief hearing.
32:48
Speaker 8: He stood in the dock with his head down. He
32:51
Speaker 8: was granted free legal aid and the judge directed that
32:54
Speaker 8: he have access to his medication and be afforded medical
32:57
Speaker 8: attention if required, before amanding him in custody to appear
33:01
Speaker 8: again at clover Hill District Court this day week.
33:05
Speaker 1: Locke, now thirty five years old, maintained his position that
33:09
Speaker 1: while he may have killed the mother of one, he
33:11
Speaker 1: was not a murderer.
33:13
Speaker 5: When the trial did get under way, a jury was
33:16
Speaker 5: sworn in and he pleaded not guilty to murder.
33:20
Speaker 1: Journalist Natasha Reid attended every day of the two week trial.
33:26
Speaker 5: The courtroom was packed both families, friends, but also an
33:30
Speaker 5: awful lot of reporters. There was a lot of interest
33:33
Speaker 5: in the case and there was an atmosphere, a very
33:37
Speaker 5: tense atmosphere that prevailed for the whole trial.
33:40
Speaker 1: One of the challenges for prosecutors would be convincing the
33:44
Speaker 1: jury of eight men and four women that Locke was
33:47
Speaker 1: a callous killer who posed a threat to women.
33:51
Speaker 5: One of the things that stood out about Eric Locke
33:53
Speaker 5: is that he looked like quite a decent person. He
33:57
Speaker 5: looked like someone who didn't belong in a court room,
34:00
Speaker 5: and sure enough, he'd never been in trouble with the
34:02
Speaker 5: Guardian in his life before. He didn't come from that
34:04
Speaker 5: kind of background at all, so he did look out
34:07
Speaker 5: of place there, and he did look kind of innocent
34:10
Speaker 5: as well.
34:12
Speaker 4: As Locke had already admitting to killing Sonya. It really
34:15
Speaker 4: came down to his mental state in this trial. So
34:18
Speaker 4: what the jury needed to establish was his mental state
34:21
Speaker 4: at the time of the offense.
34:23
Speaker 6: You couldn't argue with the forensic evidence, you couldn't argue
34:26
Speaker 6: with the physical evidence. You could only argue about Locke's
34:28
Speaker 6: state of mind.
34:30
Speaker 1: Locke's defense team claimed that at the time of Sonia's death,
34:34
Speaker 1: the killer was suffering from a mental disorder that meant
34:37
Speaker 1: he did not have the ability to form a rational judgment,
34:41
Speaker 1: exercise self control, or understand that what he was doing
34:45
Speaker 1: was wrong.
34:46
Speaker 4: The psychiatrist who evaluated Locke did say that a great
34:49
Speaker 4: deal of planning went into the murder of Sonya. However,
34:53
Speaker 4: he did go on to say that Locke's mental capacity
34:57
Speaker 4: had diminished a lot prior to this killing.
35:01
Speaker 5: There are only specific mental disorders that can qualify a
35:05
Speaker 5: person for this partial defense of diminished responsibility, which reduces
35:10
Speaker 5: murder to manslaughter. So it did come down in the
35:14
Speaker 5: end to the defense psychiatrist saying he had a pervasive
35:17
Speaker 5: personality disorder which would have qualified him for diminished responsibility.
35:22
Speaker 4: When doctor Bunn asked Locke to describe himself, he said
35:25
Speaker 4: he was a genuinely peaceful guy. Whoever, the psychiatrist had
35:29
Speaker 4: noted in these examinations that Locke distinctly lacked empathy. He
35:33
Speaker 4: also added that he has suffered from ADHD and borderline
35:36
Speaker 4: personality disorder.
35:38
Speaker 1: When they cross examine the expert witness, the prosecution questioned
35:42
Speaker 1: the idea that Locke had lost control of himself when
35:45
Speaker 1: he kills Sonya.
35:47
Speaker 4: The doctor did concede that there was an element of
35:50
Speaker 4: control in Locke's actions when he was there, so when
35:52
Speaker 4: he was strangling her, he could change his hands. A
35:55
Speaker 4: person who lacks self control is blinded by their rage
35:58
Speaker 4: and would continue acting in a consistent manner. Whoever, Locke
36:02
Speaker 4: was able to change both of his hands. Not only
36:05
Speaker 4: that he didn't then made the decision to reach for
36:07
Speaker 4: the cable, the phone cable, and then strangle her with that.
36:11
Speaker 1: Not only did Locke show control in the moment, the
36:14
Speaker 1: prosecution pointed out that he'd put a great deal of
36:17
Speaker 1: planning into his crime.
36:20
Speaker 3: What he did was premeditate it, in that he had
36:22
Speaker 3: set up a profile, he had engineered a case whereby
36:28
Speaker 3: Sonya would leave the key cart at the reception. He
36:33
Speaker 3: knew that if Sonya had gone along with her plan
36:36
Speaker 3: to let him in as he knocked at the door,
36:38
Speaker 3: that she would have recognized him through the keyhole and
36:41
Speaker 3: not let him in. He had brought the equipment to
36:44
Speaker 3: tie Sonya up and to gag her, and he had
36:48
Speaker 3: bought the fake firearm.
36:50
Speaker 1: After killing Sonya, Locke had also gone to some lens
36:53
Speaker 1: to cover his tracks, having placed they do not disturb
36:57
Speaker 1: sign on the hotel room door. He'd run from the building,
37:00
Speaker 1: attempting to cover his face so his wounds would not
37:03
Speaker 1: be seen.
37:05
Speaker 5: He went outside and he was caught on camera disposing
37:08
Speaker 5: of his mobile phone.
37:10
Speaker 4: The prosecution argued that Locke may have had a personality disorder,
37:14
Speaker 4: but he did not have a mental disorder that would
37:16
Speaker 4: qualify him for diminished responsibility.
37:19
Speaker 5: The prosecution case was that it was anger and rage
37:23
Speaker 5: that led him to strangle her, but was consistent with
37:28
Speaker 5: retribution and vengeance, and Jettis said, you know that this
37:34
Speaker 5: story about consensual sex was not even slightly believable.
37:40
Speaker 1: The prosecution argued that Locke was motivated by his obsessive
37:44
Speaker 1: fixation on the relationship with Sonya he wanted and believed
37:48
Speaker 1: he deserved to have.
37:51
Speaker 3: Locke had honed in on Sonya. He had picked her out,
37:55
Speaker 3: and then he had decided they were going to live
37:57
Speaker 3: happily ever after, and he was going to dominate or
38:00
Speaker 3: he was going to tell her what you can and
38:02
Speaker 3: what you can't do, and he was going to be
38:04
Speaker 3: in charge, and the relationship was going to go exactly
38:07
Speaker 3: along the lines that he wanted, and there was no
38:10
Speaker 3: room for maneuver.
38:12
Speaker 7: He feels that she has committed to him in some way,
38:15
Speaker 7: which she hasn't, but he thinks she has. Then he
38:20
Speaker 7: feels this is now an injustice. I've had my rights
38:26
Speaker 7: taken away by this person rejecting me and finishing with
38:30
Speaker 7: me when we were in a relationship and I was
38:33
Speaker 7: in charge of that relationship.
38:35
Speaker 1: This was the argument put forward by the prosecution that
38:38
Speaker 1: Eric Lockett kill Sonya Blunt because he was furious that
38:42
Speaker 1: she had rejected him. As the jury retired to deliberate
38:46
Speaker 1: on the twenty second of May twenty seventeen, Eric Locke
38:49
Speaker 1: must have been hoping they empathize with his plight as
38:53
Speaker 1: a love lawn suitor.
38:55
Speaker 7: He thinks that other people will sympathize with him to go,
39:00
Speaker 7: I know what you mean. May that must have been
39:02
Speaker 7: so hard for you. That's what he was expecting.
39:05
Speaker 1: Eric Locke did not have to wait long to find
39:08
Speaker 1: out if he was right.
39:10
Speaker 5: When the jury was called back after only about ninety
39:13
Speaker 5: minutes deliberating, they were asked, as is always the case,
39:18
Speaker 5: have you reached a verdict. There were gaps in the
39:20
Speaker 5: court room when they said they had actually reached a
39:23
Speaker 5: verdict at nineteen minutes and the verdict was unanimous and
39:28
Speaker 5: it was guilty. They didn't believe his story. They didn't
39:32
Speaker 5: believe that he didn't know what he was doing was wrong.
39:36
Speaker 5: They didn't believe he had no intent, They didn't believe
39:39
Speaker 5: there was any mental disorder there.
39:43
Speaker 4: As he was leaving the courtroom, he turned to Sonya's
39:45
Speaker 4: family and apologized and said he was so sorry. This
39:49
Speaker 4: wasn't accepted by her family. They found that it was
39:52
Speaker 4: completely insincere.
39:54
Speaker 6: As I think Sonya's sister Claire was to say later,
39:57
Speaker 6: if he'd been truly sorry, he wouldn't have put the
40:00
Speaker 6: family through the torture of a trial and the description
40:03
Speaker 6: of what happened to her sister. It's an act of
40:07
Speaker 6: savagery that it is impossible to exaggerate. She was an
40:12
Speaker 6: absolutely innocent mother of a three year old boy. There
40:18
Speaker 6: can be no excuse, there can be no hiding from
40:22
Speaker 6: the fact that he was a dreadful, depraved act.
40:25
Speaker 1: On the second of June, Eric Locke appeared again at
40:28
Speaker 1: the Central Criminal Court for sentencing.
40:31
Speaker 3: The mandatory sentence for murder in this jurisdiction is life,
40:37
Speaker 3: and that's exactly what he got.
40:38
Speaker 5: Two of her sisters read out very moving victim impact
40:42
Speaker 5: statements and they talked about not just losing a sister,
40:47
Speaker 5: an aunt, a daughter, but a mother and the fact
40:51
Speaker 5: that Sonia's little boy had lost now had lost both
40:54
Speaker 5: parents because one had moved away and Sonya, who had
41:00
Speaker 5: promised him she would never leave, had now left.
41:03
Speaker 4: Also in the aftermath of locke sentencing, Sonya's family expressed
41:08
Speaker 4: surprise at Sonya's actions that night. Their only explanation for
41:12
Speaker 4: her was that she had been terribly lonely.
41:14
Speaker 6: I mean, she's had a relationship, had a child, the
41:18
Speaker 6: relationship has fallen down, and now she's simply looking for
41:22
Speaker 6: the next bit of happiness for her.
41:25
Speaker 2: They believe it was.
41:26
Speaker 4: Completely out of character for Sonya to meet up with
41:28
Speaker 4: a stranger in a hotel room. It's just not something
41:31
Speaker 4: that she would have done.
41:32
Speaker 1: Eric Locke exploited Sonya Blunt's vulnerability when he tricked her
41:36
Speaker 1: into meeting him, his only intention to punish her for
41:41
Speaker 1: refusing to continue their short lived relationship.
41:46
Speaker 4: He took advantage of her compassion when he threatened to
41:49
Speaker 4: kill himself. She still was there looking out from Even
41:51
Speaker 4: though she was concerned about her his behavior towards her,
41:54
Speaker 4: she still wanted to be a really nice person and
41:57
Speaker 4: be kind and considerate. So it is gary and sad
42:02
Speaker 4: that somebody would take advantage of that to such an
42:04
Speaker 4: extent and to manipulate her with her kindness and to
42:07
Speaker 4: use that against her.
42:09
Speaker 1: Eric Locke could not accept a woman rejecting him. When
42:13
Speaker 1: mother of one, Sonya Blunt, recognized his toxic behavior and
42:18
Speaker 1: made the decision not to keep dating him, Locke responded
42:22
Speaker 1: with every trick in the book, from begging to threats
42:26
Speaker 1: to emotional blackmail. When none of his troubling tactics worked
42:30
Speaker 1: to win her back, he took the ultimate revenge, depriving
42:35
Speaker 1: a caring and beloved young woman of her life and
42:38
Speaker 1: cementing his place as one of the world's most evil
42:42
Speaker 1: careers