Latest / The Mind of a Man / The Plymouth Incel Murderer Who Shocked the UK _ The Jake Davison Case
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You know, I try, and I always keep trying. But
- 0:04Speaker 1: it's like, I'm at the point now where it's like,
- 0:07Speaker 1: why do I even bother?
- 0:08Speaker 2: Like, for what?
- 0:12Speaker 3: You know? Five victims, the oldest 66, the youngest just
- 0:25Speaker 3: three years old.
- 0:27Speaker 2: I like to think sometimes, you know, I'm a terminator
- 0:29Speaker 2: or something.
- 0:32Speaker 3: This is Jake Davison, a self-proclaimed incel who broadcast his
- 0:36Speaker 3: hatred of himself, women, and the world online for all
- 0:40Speaker 3: to see. Yet, in spite of this and multiple violent
- 0:44Speaker 3: encounters with strangers, he was given access to a gun.
- 0:48Speaker 3: In 2021, he took that gun to the streets, causing
- 0:51Speaker 3: the most deadly massacre by firearms that the United Kingdom
- 0:54Speaker 3: had seen in over a decade.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Several people have been killed and injured in what police
- 1:00Speaker 2: are calling a serious firearms incident in Plymouth.
- 1:04Speaker 3: Can't get over it.
- 1:05Speaker 1: It just seems like a bad dream.
- 1:10Speaker 3: The Shetland Islands are known as one of the most
- 1:12Speaker 3: beautiful places in the United Kingdom. Remote and isolated with
- 1:15Speaker 3: a population of just around 20,000 people, it's a safe,
- 1:18Speaker 3: vibrant place to raise a family and sow some roots.
- 1:22Speaker 3: In 1998, that's precisely what Maxine Davison intended to do
- 1:25Speaker 3: on the lush, rocky coastline. She had grown up on
- 1:28Speaker 3: the island and was incredibly fond of it. But soon,
- 1:31Speaker 3: into her adulthood, the idyllic life she pictured had begun
- 1:35Speaker 3: to crumble. Her husband, Mark Davison, was a local fisherman
- 1:38Speaker 3: with a rather shadowy reputation. He was most known in
- 1:42Speaker 3: the small community for allegedly being a drunkard who frequently
- 1:44Speaker 3: got into bar fights. Regardless, Maxine fell head over heels
- 1:48Speaker 3: for him. By the summer of 1998, she had already
- 1:51Speaker 3: had twins with him, and was pregnant with her son,
- 1:53Speaker 3: whom she would name Jake Davison. But Jake would never
- 1:57Speaker 3: know a life in a happy home with his brother, sister,
- 2:00Speaker 3: and two parents, because before his birth, his mother grew
- 2:04Speaker 3: tired of her toxic relationship with Mark. She allegedly felt
- 2:07Speaker 3: he drank too much, partied too late, and spent too
- 2:09Speaker 3: much of their money on frivolous things. Wanting a better
- 2:12Speaker 3: life for herself and her son, she fled to Keom,
- 2:15Speaker 3: located in the lush county of Devon. Her two twins,
- 2:18Speaker 3: Zoe and Jake, remained on the island with their father,
- 2:20Speaker 3: who had the means to support them. From the get-go,
- 2:23Speaker 3: things were challenging for Maxine and Jake. As a single mother,
- 2:26Speaker 3: she struggled to make ends meet, and the two settled
- 2:28Speaker 3: in a government-funded housing on Biddick Drive in Plymouth. Financially,
- 2:33Speaker 3: they weren't in a good place, but they were safe, fed,
- 2:36Speaker 3: and comfortable. As Jake grew, however, more problems arose. On
- 2:41Speaker 3: their frequent trips back to the island to visit Maxine's
- 2:44Speaker 3: parents and his father, they voiced their concerns about Jake's
- 2:47Speaker 3: unusual behavior. He was prone to throwing tantrums, but they
- 2:50Speaker 3: were nothing like the usual temper tantrums of a child.
- 2:53Speaker 3: Nearly everything seemed to set him off into a rage,
- 2:56Speaker 3: and he seemed to be overwhelmed at nearly all times.
- 3:00Speaker 3: He took to hitting, screaming, and sobbing, and little his
- 3:03Speaker 3: mother or anyone else did could comfort him. Maxine took
- 3:06Speaker 3: her son to a specialist where he was diagnosed with
- 3:08Speaker 3: autism before he started primary school. Maxine did her best
- 3:12Speaker 3: to study what an autism diagnosis meant for her son
- 3:15Speaker 3: and how she could help him flourish despite the challenges
- 3:18Speaker 3: that came along with it. When Jake was six, Maxine
- 3:20Speaker 3: decided to enroll him at Mount Tamar, a school that
- 3:23Speaker 3: focused on educating kids with autism, spectrum disorder, and other
- 3:26Speaker 3: special needs. Ideally, it would have been an environment where
- 3:29Speaker 3: someone like Jake could flourish, find his voice, and feel accepted. Unfortunately,
- 3:34Speaker 3: that wasn't the case. Online, Jake went on to claim
- 3:38Speaker 3: that he had never had real friends and that he
- 3:39Speaker 3: felt entirely isolated and alone throughout his schooling experience. He
- 3:43Speaker 3: was a quiet boy who struggled to socialize with others
- 3:46Speaker 3: in spite of his environment. By the time he entered
- 3:49Speaker 3: his teens and preteens, his mind was in a dark place.
- 3:53Speaker 3: He was watching his classmates go to parties, form friendships,
- 3:56Speaker 3: and perhaps most troubling, begin romantic relationships. Jake never had
- 4:01Speaker 3: a girlfriend in high school, and he felt that he
- 4:03Speaker 3: deserved one. At the very least, he wanted to have friends. So,
- 4:08Speaker 3: Jake turned to the internet for comfort and understanding. But
- 4:12Speaker 3: once he was there, he started to travel down dark
- 4:14Speaker 3: rabbit holes. He clung to misogynistic communities that posted about
- 4:18Speaker 3: how women only wanted money and the top 10% of men.
- 4:22Speaker 3: Jake's frustration about not getting a girlfriend was only intensified
- 4:25Speaker 3: by the echo chamber of misery and self-loathing that he
- 4:28Speaker 3: found himself in. For the first time in years, he
- 4:32Speaker 3: felt understood. Yet, at the same time, he was being
- 4:36Speaker 3: rapidly radicalized by increasingly negative content. Often, he posted on
- 4:40Speaker 3: Rate Me subreddits, asking for opinions on how to attract
- 4:43Speaker 3: women and how to be more of a man. From
- 4:46Speaker 3: the outside looking in, these posts are tragic. Objectively, Jake
- 4:51Speaker 3: was a normal-looking guy. Some would even argue that he
- 4:54Speaker 3: was attractive. Yet the comments on these forums tore him
- 4:57Speaker 3: to bits. One of these posts, a video where he
- 5:00Speaker 3: showed his face, teeth, and body... garnered dozens of responses.
- 5:05Speaker 3: One person responded, You're a fat, ugly disaster. Sorry bro,
- 5:09Speaker 3: but you ain't gonna get anything anytime soon until you
- 5:11Speaker 3: drop the fat. Hit the gym and run and start
- 5:14Speaker 3: eating healthily. What most people don't realize is that you're
- 5:17Speaker 3: ugly for several reasons. One is that you're fat. Two
- 5:20Speaker 3: is because you lack normal amount of muscle due to
- 5:22Speaker 3: lack of weight training or exercise. It is so critical
- 5:25Speaker 3: to do these things. Everyone could have the potential to
- 5:28Speaker 3: be super attractive if they cut the shit out of
- 5:30Speaker 3: their diet, take care of their skin, lose weight, and
- 5:32Speaker 3: have essential weight training and cardio. These really aren't hard,
- 5:36Speaker 3: and if you really are concerned with the way you look,
- 5:38Speaker 3: then you should do these things. Honestly, if you have
- 5:41Speaker 3: to ask if you're good looking, then you're not. Sometimes
- 5:44Speaker 3: there's an exception, but you really are not good looking
- 5:46Speaker 3: if you have to ask. Seriously, cut the shit, exercise,
- 5:50Speaker 3: and take care of your damn skin. Know you will
- 5:52Speaker 3: be good. Another person posted... Three out of ten, considering
- 5:56Speaker 3: you're fat. There are several instances of him posting and
- 6:00Speaker 3: asking whether he's attractive or not beyond this, many of
- 6:03Speaker 3: which have negative comments. In addition, he posted videos on
- 6:07Speaker 3: his now-deleted YouTube channel, Professor Waffles, where he posted content
- 6:10Speaker 3: about his thoughts on society, women, and himself. The video
- 6:14Speaker 3: you're about to see snippets from was posted just weeks
- 6:16Speaker 3: before he orchestrated the deadly mass shooting.
- 6:19Speaker 1: You know, I try, and I always keep trying. But
- 6:25Speaker 1: it's like, I'm at the point now where it's like,
- 6:27Speaker 1: why do I even bother?
- 6:29Speaker 2: Like, for what? You know? I'm still in the same house,
- 6:36Speaker 2: same situation, same position. Still, everything's still the same. For
- 6:42Speaker 2: the most part, it's just been me against the world.
- 6:46Speaker 2: It's just been me fighting an uphill battle with a big.
- 6:50Speaker 1: F * * * ing rock on my back, you know,
- 6:53Speaker 1: while I'm seeing that don't deserve half of anything, now
- 6:59Speaker 1: they're getting a free rod to the top.
- 7:02Speaker 2: The whole premise of the Terminator.
- 7:03Speaker 1: Movies is that, you know, everything's rigged against you, there's
- 7:07Speaker 1: no hope for humanity, you know, we're on the brink
- 7:09Speaker 1: of extinction, you know, these machines are unstoppable killing machines
- 7:16Speaker 1: that can't be beaten, can't be outsmarted, but yet humanity
- 7:22Speaker 1: still tries to fight to the end. In line with
- 7:25Speaker 1: the rhetoric of the video he posted on his YouTube,
- 7:27Speaker 1: he began to post in incel forums and forums for virgins,
- 7:29Speaker 1: where he reportedly voiced his frustration that he hadn't lost
- 7:33Speaker 1: his virginity or even talked to a girl in several years.
- 7:53Speaker 3: On multiple occasions, he blamed his mother, writing at one
- 7:56Speaker 3: point in the now-deleted incel exit subreddit, I feel like
- 8:00Speaker 3: my mom has played a role in me being a
- 8:01Speaker 3: male virgin. Like, for example, all her female friends are
- 8:04Speaker 3: much uglier than her because she's too insecure. That's just
- 8:07Speaker 3: one small example of many, many negative traits. Truly a
- 8:10Speaker 3: vile creature, and I mean this objectively. Don't get me wrong,
- 8:14Speaker 3: I don't hate women because of her, I just feel
- 8:17Speaker 3: she played a subconscious role in my inability to ask
- 8:19Speaker 3: a girl out for her number, etc., It's worth noting
- 8:23Speaker 3: that everyone who knew Maxine and Jake felt that she
- 8:25Speaker 3: was a phenomenal mother to him. From the time he
- 8:28Speaker 3: was a young boy, she put in as much effort
- 8:30Speaker 3: as possible to support him, meet his needs, and get
- 8:33Speaker 3: him the mental health assistance she felt he needed. Leading
- 8:36Speaker 3: up to the mass shooting he masterminded, Maxine was vocal
- 8:39Speaker 3: with law enforcement, friends, and the community about her desire
- 8:42Speaker 3: to get Jake help. But as you'll soon see, that
- 8:46Speaker 3: help never came. In 2016, law enforcement had their first
- 8:50Speaker 3: real encounter with Jake. and their first exposure to the
- 8:52Speaker 3: danger that he posed to the community. And yet, nothing
- 8:56Speaker 3: was done. In 2016, Sherry and Scott Homs were shopping
- 8:59Speaker 3: at Tesco, a local grocery store less than a mile
- 9:02Speaker 3: from where the mass shooting would occur five years later.
- 9:05Speaker 3: The two were walking on air because Sherry had recently
- 9:07Speaker 3: discovered that she was pregnant. At 12 weeks along, she
- 9:11Speaker 3: was about to enter her second trimester. But on that
- 9:14Speaker 3: unusual shopping trip, something horrific happened. Scott heard a clatter
- 9:19Speaker 3: and yelling behind him. When he turned around, he saw
- 9:21Speaker 3: a fist flying towards his face. He was punched and
- 9:25Speaker 3: thrown to the ground where Jake pinned him down against
- 9:27Speaker 3: the asphalt. He claimed that Jake was using his weight
- 9:29Speaker 3: to pin him down, making it impossible for him to
- 9:32Speaker 3: fight back or do anything as Jake pummeled him with
- 9:34Speaker 3: his fists again and again and again. Neither Scott nor
- 9:39Speaker 3: Sherry had any idea what had provoked the attack. Sherry
- 9:43Speaker 3: was lying on the ground behind Scott as he was
- 9:45Speaker 3: beat over and over by Jake. She was terrified, having
- 9:48Speaker 3: landed hard on her stomach at such a fragile point
- 9:51Speaker 3: in her pregnancy. Jake reportedly hit Scott between 15 and
- 9:54Speaker 3: 20 times before Sherry managed to crawl into the Tesco
- 9:57Speaker 3: and flag down security. At the sight of the guard
- 10:00Speaker 3: coming to help, Jake ran to his pushbike and rode off,
- 10:03Speaker 3: leaving Scott bleeding on the pavement. Scott was badly hurt
- 10:07Speaker 3: and could barely stand following the attack. He and Sherry
- 10:10Speaker 3: rushed to the ER, where they were treated, and fortunately,
- 10:13Speaker 3: Sherry learned that their unborn child was okay. Law enforcement
- 10:17Speaker 3: spoke to Scott at the hospital, but He claims they
- 10:19Speaker 3: didn't take his case very seriously. The following day, Scott
- 10:22Speaker 3: saw Jake again outside of Tesco. Jake reportedly approached him,
- 10:26Speaker 3: motioning shooting him with a gun and said, I'm going
- 10:28Speaker 3: to get a gun on you. Scott quickly called law enforcement,
- 10:32Speaker 3: who arrived and took Jake aside for questioning. Jake claimed
- 10:35Speaker 3: that he had no role in beating Scott and that
- 10:37Speaker 3: it must be a case of mistaken identity. To be sure,
- 10:40Speaker 3: law enforcement looked at the cameras in the parking lot
- 10:43Speaker 3: from the previous day. Unfortunately, the CCTV didn't cover the
- 10:46Speaker 3: area where Jake beat Scott. Instead, it covered the bike rack,
- 10:50Speaker 3: showing Jake walking from the scene of the crime to
- 10:52Speaker 3: the bike. Still, law enforcement claimed that this wasn't enough
- 10:56Speaker 3: evidence to arrest Jake or charge him with anything, especially
- 11:00Speaker 3: since Jake was just 17 years old at the time.
- 11:03Speaker 3: Scott and Sherry told the media that they caught Jake
- 11:04Speaker 3: following them and glaring at them on more than one occasion.
- 11:08Speaker 3: They allegedly saw him standing outside of their house more
- 11:10Speaker 3: than once, and it was his behavior that was a
- 11:13Speaker 3: main driving force in them moving to a different neighborhood
- 11:15Speaker 3: in 2018. not long after the incident and the birth
- 11:18Speaker 3: of their child. Jake's threat to get a gun may
- 11:22Speaker 3: seem a bit absurd, considering he lives in a country
- 11:24Speaker 3: with what many believe at the time were some of
- 11:26Speaker 3: the strictest gun laws in the world. However, in 2017,
- 11:31Speaker 3: Jake did just that. In June, he applied for a shotgun.
- 11:35Speaker 3: In the UK, you're examined to determine whether you're a
- 11:38Speaker 3: potential threat to society or to others. Since law enforcement
- 11:42Speaker 3: failed to pursue Jake attacking Sherry and Scott, there was
- 11:45Speaker 3: nothing concerning on his record. Secondly, people applying for a
- 11:49Speaker 3: gun must have a specific understandable reason for doing so. Generally,
- 11:53Speaker 3: people who apply for guns are working on farms or
- 11:56Speaker 3: shooting clay pigeons. Jake, on the other hand, had no
- 11:59Speaker 3: interest in clay pigeons, and he lived in the center
- 12:02Speaker 3: of the city. To this day, it's unknown why exactly
- 12:06Speaker 3: he was approved to get a pump-action shotgun. By the
- 12:09Speaker 3: time he was 18, he was a furious teenager with
- 12:12Speaker 3: a gun and growing problems with his mother. His mother
- 12:15Speaker 3: urged him to get a job as soon as he
- 12:17Speaker 3: graduated from school, and Jake was resistant, writing frequently about
- 12:20Speaker 3: his frustration with her forcing him to work. Online, people
- 12:24Speaker 3: in the negative communities he had joined only added fuel
- 12:26Speaker 3: to the fire. When he called his mom a vile, dysfunctional,
- 12:30Speaker 3: chaotic mother, people happily agreed with him, contributing even worse
- 12:34Speaker 3: things to say about her. It was around this time
- 12:36Speaker 3: that his mother stepped up, trying to get Jake mental
- 12:39Speaker 3: health treatment. She was concerned with his obsession with guns,
- 12:42Speaker 3: his hate-filled rhetoric, and the self-loathing that seemed to have
- 12:45Speaker 3: taken over his life. At one point, she even called
- 12:48Speaker 3: the police to have a welfare check done on Jake
- 12:50Speaker 3: because his behavior was so concerning. Partially, she did this
- 12:54Speaker 3: because she was so desperate for law enforcement to be
- 12:56Speaker 3: aware of the threat that Jake posed. Once more, nothing
- 13:00Speaker 3: was done. In 2020, it looked like things were finally
- 13:04Speaker 3: going to catch up with him. Details on the incident
- 13:06Speaker 3: are scarce, but Jake got into a violent altercation with
- 13:09Speaker 3: a group of teenage boys. Jake's gun license was revoked
- 13:12Speaker 3: because of his violence. However, because there were no criminal charges,
- 13:16Speaker 3: Jake was allowed to have his license back as long
- 13:19Speaker 3: as he agreed to attend an anger management course. By July,
- 13:22Speaker 3: a few months after his gun was taken from him,
- 13:25Speaker 3: it was returned. And a month later, Jake used that
- 13:28Speaker 3: very same gun to claim the lives of five innocent people.
- 13:34Speaker 3: Around 6 p.m., Maxine called her sister in a panic.
- 13:37Speaker 3: Her voice was raggedy, her tone hushed and horrified. Maxine
- 13:41Speaker 3: was locked in her bedroom. She told her sister that
- 13:44Speaker 3: Jake had attacked her and grabbed her by her throat.
- 13:47Speaker 3: She was terrified for her life. Her sister dialed 999,
- 13:51Speaker 3: urging police to report to the address as quickly as
- 13:53Speaker 3: they could. Jake's behavior had been escalating for quite some time,
- 13:57Speaker 3: and his arguments with his mother had become a nearly
- 14:00Speaker 3: daily occurrence. Jake's views on women, that all women were
- 14:03Speaker 3: simple-minded and selfish, was frequently pushed back on by his mother.
- 14:07Speaker 3: He degraded single mothers and women on welfare, yet he
- 14:10Speaker 3: had been raised thanks to both of those things. In
- 14:13Speaker 3: multiple forums, Jake posted that he believed that he, quote,
- 14:17Speaker 3: It's not clear what his fight with his mother was
- 14:23Speaker 3: about on August 12th, but for several months, the arguments
- 14:26Speaker 3: had been about Jake's twisted negative views. In addition, the
- 14:30Speaker 3: previous night, his Reddit account had been suspended for inappropriate
- 14:33Speaker 3: comments he made regarding a 16-year-old girl. It's likely that
- 14:36Speaker 3: this heightened his hatred towards women, which he, in turn,
- 14:40Speaker 3: took out on his own mother. Soon after law enforcement
- 14:43Speaker 3: was called, Jake picked up his shotgun and fired two
- 14:46Speaker 3: shots at the woman who had sacrificed her entire life
- 14:48Speaker 3: for him. Maxine was dead only moments after she hit
- 14:52Speaker 3: the floor. From there, it seemed that Jake felt he
- 14:55Speaker 3: had nothing left to lose. He exited his house and
- 14:58Speaker 3: came upon a father and daughter walking down the street,
- 15:00Speaker 3: enjoying the warm summer afternoon. Lee Martin, the father, watched
- 15:04Speaker 3: on with pride as his three-year-old ray of sunshine, Sophie,
- 15:07Speaker 3: pushed a toy pram. When he noticed Jake aiming the
- 15:11Speaker 3: gun in their direction, he threw himself in front of
- 15:13Speaker 3: his young daughter. Unfortunately, neither he nor his daughter survived.
- 15:18Speaker 3: Both were killed in a barrage of gunfire. Jake continued
- 15:22Speaker 3: on his rampage, shooting through a front window where he
- 15:24Speaker 3: hit a 53-year-old woman and her 33-year-old son who ducked
- 15:27Speaker 3: for cover in the back of the house and frantically
- 15:29Speaker 3: dialed law enforcement. In fact, By that point, nearly the
- 15:33Speaker 3: entire street of the close-knit neighborhood had called the police,
- 15:36Speaker 3: but they had yet to arrive. Jake continued on his
- 15:39Speaker 3: path of violence. Upon reaching a park, he filed mercilessly
- 15:43Speaker 3: at 59-year-old Stephen Washington, who was simply walking his dog.
- 15:47Speaker 3: Footage captured Jake's journey along the peaceful street of Henderson Place.
- 15:51Speaker 3: It was soon after this footage that he came upon
- 15:53Speaker 3: 66-year-old Kate Shepard, who was standing in the doorway of
- 15:56Speaker 3: a hair salon. As Kate lay on the pavement slowly
- 15:59Speaker 3: bleeding out, Jake calmly walked away, Nothing had happened at all. Yet,
- 16:05Speaker 3: he had left a trail of trauma and carnage in
- 16:07Speaker 3: his path. Kate's husband was expecting her home from work
- 16:10Speaker 3: to visit with their newborn grandchildren. It was unlike her
- 16:14Speaker 3: to not respond, so he walked toward her job to
- 16:17Speaker 3: check on her. It was there that he discovered the
- 16:19Speaker 3: horrific scene. Cops raced around, and paramedics desperately tried to
- 16:23Speaker 3: tend to his dying wife. Unfortunately, at the hospital, Kate
- 16:28Speaker 3: was pronounced dead. As soon as Jake heard the police sirens,
- 16:31Speaker 3: he turned his gun on himself and ended his life.
- 16:35Speaker 3: Plymouth was in mourning and in total disbelief of what
- 16:38Speaker 3: had happened. The community held several candlelight vigils for the victims.
- 16:43Speaker 3: Out of tragedy, however, can come change. The Devon and
- 16:47Speaker 3: Cornwall police who allowed Jake to get his firearm back
- 16:49Speaker 3: were discovered to not have had any firearms training in
- 16:52Speaker 3: 20 years. The two officers who allowed Jake to have
- 16:55Speaker 3: possession of a gun were fired and the regulations regarding
- 16:58Speaker 3: gun ownership were changed. New guidelines forcing law enforcement to
- 17:02Speaker 3: thoroughly investigate the social media profiles of potential gun owners
- 17:05Speaker 3: before issuing them a license went into place in 2024.