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Murdering his Newlywed Wife to Hide his Affairs _ Click For Murder · History Dark

0:03
Speaker 1: The internet has changed the way we live. It has
0:08
Speaker 1: changed the way we work, the way we shop, and
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Speaker 1: even the way we date. It has also changed the
0:15
Speaker 1: way we kill. I'm Donald McIntyre, and I'm on a
0:20
Speaker 1: quest to explore the dark side of our online world,
0:24
Speaker 1: where one click can lead to murder.
0:27
Speaker 2: The internet and social media has been a godsend to
0:30
Speaker 2: online predators.
0:31
Speaker 3: Why?
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Speaker 2: Because of the speed in which they can, one, create
0:34
Speaker 2: fake profiles, but two, access victims.
0:37
Speaker 1: I'll be investigating some of the most disturbing crimes in
0:40
Speaker 1: recent history, where the internet and social media have been
0:44
Speaker 1: used to trick, torture and kill innocent victims, lured into
0:48
Speaker 1: a virtual world where nothing is as it seems.
0:52
Speaker 4: Clearly, she did not realise the person she was talking
0:55
Speaker 4: to online was the man who was going to kill her.
0:59
Speaker 1: In this programme, when Vicky Roberts married her husband Michael,
1:04
Speaker 1: she thought he was the man of her dreams. But
1:07
Speaker 1: beneath the veneer of domestic bliss, Michael Roberts was a
1:10
Speaker 1: serial adulterer. And when Vicky found out and confronted him,
1:15
Speaker 1: he strangled her to death. Was Michael Roberts a sex
1:21
Speaker 1: addict who couldn't care less about the emotional distress he
1:25
Speaker 1: caused the woman who loved him? And was he always
1:27
Speaker 1: a killer in waiting, destined to descend into murderous violence
1:32
Speaker 1: the moment his wife confronted him?
1:54
Speaker 5: Almost half of British men admit to straying from their
1:57
Speaker 5: partners at least once. 32% of women admit the same.
2:24
Speaker 1: Thanks to social media, it's never been easier to find
2:27
Speaker 1: a partner to have a secret affair with. Fortunately, very
2:31
Speaker 1: few end in murder. But that's exactly what happened here
2:34
Speaker 1: in Cheshire in 2009. In November that year, when 25-year-old
2:48
Speaker 1: Vicky Roberts checked her husband Michael's text and Facebook messages...
2:53
Speaker 1: She quickly realized he was being unfaithful and not for
2:56
Speaker 1: the first time. When she confronted him with the evidence,
3:03
Speaker 1: he flew into a rage and strangled her to death.
3:20
Speaker 1: I've come to Runcorn where Vicky lived and where she died.
3:24
Speaker 1: And I'm here to discover the role social media played
3:27
Speaker 1: in destroying her marriage and to find out how it led.
3:31
Speaker 6: To her murder.
3:34
Speaker 1: Vicky Roberts was a carefree, church-going girl with lots of
3:37
Speaker 1: friends who remember her as having a vibrant and caring personality.
3:43
Speaker 1: She grew up in Cheshire with her brother and two sisters.
3:49
Speaker 1: Vicky worked at this IKEA store and it was here
3:51
Speaker 1: in 2006 where she first met Michael Roberts. The son
3:55
Speaker 1: of a chemical engineer, Roberts had left school at 16.
3:59
Speaker 1: Described as lanky and slightly awkward, he was also said
4:02
Speaker 1: he could be very self-assured, funny and confident, particularly around women.
4:06
Speaker 1: He was also said to be extremely flirtatious.
4:13
Speaker 7: It was clear from his Facebook profile that he enjoyed
4:16
Speaker 7: the company of women. There was scores of photographs on
4:19
Speaker 7: there with him smiling, wearing sunglasses, looking like quite a cocky,
4:26
Speaker 7: confident young man.
4:29
Speaker 3: He was a bit of a ladies' man, or he
4:31
Speaker 3: at least thought he was. He sounded like he had
4:34
Speaker 3: quite a few admirers where he worked, for a start.
4:37
Speaker 8: If I'm honest, when I first met Mike, I wasn't
4:39
Speaker 8: too sure about him. He seemed very loud and a
4:41
Speaker 8: bit full of himself. But I got to know him
4:45
Speaker 8: and I thought he was a pretty decent guy. He
4:47
Speaker 8: was nice, he was funny. But he was very flirtatious
4:51
Speaker 8: with all the women he came across.
4:54
Speaker 1: To the people who met him, Robert seemed like an
4:57
Speaker 1: average outgoing guy. But was there more to his personality
5:01
Speaker 1: than met the eye?
5:03
Speaker 2: Robert, in my opinion, was very insecure. He relied on company.
5:08
Speaker 2: He couldn't be independent. He had to have somebody with
5:11
Speaker 2: him the whole time, somebody on his arm.
5:15
Speaker 1: Vicky quickly fell for Roberts and they soon embarked on
5:18
Speaker 1: a passionate relationship. It seems that Roberts had an insatiable
5:22
Speaker 1: sexual appetite and clearly felt the need to brag about
5:25
Speaker 1: the physical side of his and Vicky's relationship. Apparently, he
5:30
Speaker 1: told people they were having sex up to five times
5:33
Speaker 1: a day.
5:35
Speaker 2: Anybody that has such an insatiable appetite for sex, five, six,
5:42
Speaker 2: perhaps even seven, eight times a day, becomes a bit
5:45
Speaker 2: of a sign, an indicator that says, what's this person
5:49
Speaker 2: up to? What does this person want from the relationship?
5:53
Speaker 2: Roberts treated sex a bit like a drug. He couldn't
5:57
Speaker 2: do without it.
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Speaker 4: He wasn't driven by love or care. He was just
6:00
Speaker 4: driven by sex and domination and somebody who really just
6:04
Speaker 4: wanted to have his own way with somebody.
6:07
Speaker 9: With Roberts, the root of his sexual need is the
6:10
Speaker 9: same as the root of his psychological need. It's about
6:12
Speaker 9: serving himself. He was making love to his ego. He's
6:17
Speaker 9: got all the traits of a narcissist.
6:20
Speaker 1: Sex was clearly important to Robert's self-image, as were people's
6:24
Speaker 1: expectations of his relationship with Vicky. But very early on,
6:28
Speaker 1: it seems that something may have happened that severely impacted
6:31
Speaker 1: their sex life. Roberts claimed that in the early stages
6:35
Speaker 1: of their relationship, Vicky fell pregnant and had a termination,
6:38
Speaker 1: resulting in a drop in their sexual activity. For a
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Speaker 1: man with a voracious sexual appetite like Roberts, this was
6:44
Speaker 1: always bound to be an issue. I imagine for Vicky,
6:49
Speaker 1: the decision to terminate a pregnancy would have been a
6:52
Speaker 1: terribly upsetting one to have to make. But it seems
6:55
Speaker 1: all Roberts cared about was how it affected their sex life.
7:01
Speaker 1: And later he claimed that he tried to rekindle things
7:03
Speaker 1: with Vicky in the bedroom by getting her to agree
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Speaker 1: to engage in kinky, rough sex.
7:09
Speaker 4: It would have become very much an S & M activity,
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Speaker 4: a sadomasochistic activity, which may or may not have actually
7:18
Speaker 4: entertained Vicky to some degree, but certainly would have stimulated
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Speaker 4: Roberts' appetite for more.
7:30
Speaker 1: Not long after Vicky and Roberts got together, he left
7:33
Speaker 1: his job at IKEA to take up a position at
7:36
Speaker 1: a shop called Phones For You. His new colleagues regarded
7:40
Speaker 1: him as a bit of a flash Harry. Soon after
7:43
Speaker 1: he started his new job, he went on a training
7:46
Speaker 1: day and there he met a woman called Kerry. Roberts
7:49
Speaker 1: was instantly attracted to her.
7:52
Speaker 7: Roberts engaged in an affair with a woman he met
7:55
Speaker 7: at Phones For You who had been enlisted to train him.
8:00
Speaker 7: this woman called Kerry described how they had an intense
8:04
Speaker 7: sexual relationship. She was a single mother, but he often
8:08
Speaker 7: visited her at home, and they enjoyed gymnastic sex.
8:13
Speaker 9: I think Roberts would be attracted to Kerry because she
8:18
Speaker 9: was sexually confident, because, again, if he can get her, again,
8:21
Speaker 9: it's feeding his ego. And he likes that. He's got
8:25
Speaker 9: a very caring, loving woman at home... And he's going
8:28
Speaker 9: out for this kind of sexual woman who is almost
8:33
Speaker 9: like himself in many ways. And he would have enjoyed
8:36
Speaker 9: that conquest. He would have enjoyed the fact that he
8:38
Speaker 9: could get somebody like that.
8:46
Speaker 1: Just a few months after, one of her friends spotted
8:49
Speaker 1: a love bite on Kerry's neck. Kerry confided it was
8:53
Speaker 1: from Michael Roberts. She told her friend that sex was
8:56
Speaker 1: amazing and that they'd tried out things she'd never tried before.
9:00
Speaker 1: She said Roberts liked rough sex. Ominously, she confided in
9:04
Speaker 1: her friend that he also tried to throck her. It
9:09
Speaker 1: was clear early on that Roberts had a predilection for
9:12
Speaker 1: unconventional sex. should the throttling incident with Kerry have rung
9:16
Speaker 1: any early alarm bells.
9:18
Speaker 9: In domestic abuse risk assessments, there's a risk factor which
9:22
Speaker 9: is strangulation or even placing the hands around the neck.
9:25
Speaker 9: And the reason why that's a risk factor is that
9:28
Speaker 9: if you're doing that, it means that the escalation is there,
9:32
Speaker 9: that you can go from placing your hands around to squeezing.
9:35
Speaker 9: And that's very, very indicative of an underlying risk.
9:40
Speaker 1: Despite Robert taking every opportunity to indulge in his extramarital affair,
9:45
Speaker 1: he and Vicky set a date of June 2009 to
9:48
Speaker 1: get married. But it wasn't long before Vicky would discover
9:52
Speaker 1: that the man of her dreams wasn't everything he seemed.
10:02
Speaker 1: Vicky Roberts was murdered by her husband, Michael, in November 2009.
10:08
Speaker 1: From the moment they met, they enjoyed a whirlwind romance.
10:11
Speaker 1: And before too long, they were engaged to be married.
10:19
Speaker 1: But in the months leading up to their wedding, Vicky
10:22
Speaker 1: became more and more suspicious of her husband-to-be. Unable to
10:33
Speaker 1: control her doubts, she checked his messages and was distraught
10:37
Speaker 1: to find proof that he'd been cheating on her. Although
10:42
Speaker 1: she was devastated, Vicky still wanted to give their relationship
10:46
Speaker 1: another chance. So before they were due to be married,
10:49
Speaker 1: she wrote Roberts a letter pleading with him to change
10:53
Speaker 1: his ways.
10:55
Speaker 10: Roberts was a man who could talk his way out
10:57
Speaker 10: of any situation and tell people what they wanted to hear. Vicky,
11:02
Speaker 10: I think, was so desperate that she resorted to writing
11:05
Speaker 10: to Roberts because she knew that a face-to-face conversation would
11:09
Speaker 10: just result in him talking his way out of the
11:11
Speaker 10: situation and telling her what she wanted to hear. She
11:14
Speaker 10: needed him to take her seriously The only way she
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Speaker 10: could do that was to write it down for him
11:20
Speaker 10: to consider it.
11:21
Speaker 1: Vicky wrote in the letter how much she was looking
11:23
Speaker 1: forward to their wedding day. Clearly, she wanted to spend
11:27
Speaker 1: the rest of her life married to Roberts. But this
11:31
Speaker 1: wasn't a story that was destined to end happily ever after.
11:37
Speaker 7: The letter talked about how she was desperate to forgive
11:40
Speaker 7: him and desperate for the marriage to work. It talks
11:43
Speaker 7: about how much she loved him. but that she wasn't
11:46
Speaker 7: willing to share him with another woman. She was obviously
11:51
Speaker 7: head over heels for him. It's clear from the letter
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Speaker 7: that she was desperately in love with him and desperately
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Speaker 7: wanted them to be together.
12:06
Speaker 1: After Vicky found out about the affair, Roberts promised his
12:09
Speaker 1: bride-to-be that he'd change his ways, but he lied. He
12:13
Speaker 1: didn't end his affair with his mistress, Kerry, and he
12:16
Speaker 1: didn't lose his interest in other women either.
12:19
Speaker 8: There were rumours that Mike was seeing other women, but
12:23
Speaker 8: I didn't find that out until much later on. But
12:25
Speaker 8: the phone to you was, we were all like a family.
12:29
Speaker 8: We did go out for drinks and meals together and events.
12:33
Speaker 8: Mike was very flirtatious with a lot of women.
12:37
Speaker 1: Despite Vicky's misgivings, she and Roberts were married in June 2009.
12:44
Speaker 1: Their wedding photos show them as the very picture of happiness.
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Speaker 1: But the smiles in the pictures masked a more sinister reality.
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Speaker 1: And within weeks of their wedding day, Roberts was back
12:56
Speaker 1: on the prowl. Not long after he got married, Roberts
13:01
Speaker 1: tired of his affair with Kerry. He cooled off the
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Speaker 1: relationship and set aside on his next conquest, Karen. Karen
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Speaker 1: was a fellow Phones For You employee who Roberts had
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Speaker 1: met when he visited a branch of the shop in Branger.
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Speaker 7: Karen had a fiancé at the time and confided in
13:19
Speaker 7: Roberts that she was unhappy in her relationship. He reciprocated
13:24
Speaker 7: by saying he was unhappy in his marriage and told
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Speaker 7: her that he wished he'd never actually got married to
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Speaker 7: Vicky and that it was all a mess.
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Speaker 1: Michael looked Karen up on Facebook and it turned out
13:38
Speaker 1: they had mutual friends. They began an online conversation which
13:43
Speaker 1: soon progressed to flirty text messages, dozens and then hundreds
13:47
Speaker 1: a day.
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Speaker 4: It's interesting that Roberts actually got rid of Kerry, who
13:53
Speaker 4: was a more feisty person, but took up Karen, who
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Speaker 4: was far more submissive, somebody who would feed his ego
14:00
Speaker 4: very much.
14:02
Speaker 1: Over the next few weeks, the pair met regularly. And
14:05
Speaker 1: in November, they embarked on a sexual relationship, meeting in
14:08
Speaker 1: hotels and having sex in Robert's sports car. And his
14:13
Speaker 1: new affair quickly began to have an impact on his marriage.
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Speaker 10: In just over one month, he sent Karen over 5,000 messages.
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Speaker 10: He's sending her illicit messages whilst he's having nights in
14:28
Speaker 10: with his own wife, while he's having dinner with his parents-in-law.
14:34
Speaker 10: It allows the pervasive presence of the third person in
14:38
Speaker 10: the relationship into the home.
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Speaker 2: It's probably stimulating him, the fact that he can talk
14:43
Speaker 2: sexually and talk to these mistresses while his wife is
14:46
Speaker 2: sitting there. This would have been a turn-on for him.
14:50
Speaker 1: To most people, this kind of behaviour would seem unthinkable.
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Speaker 1: Was there perhaps something in Robert's personality that facilitated this
14:57
Speaker 1: level of duplicity?
14:59
Speaker 10: Serial adulterers like Robert's often... come up with psychological mechanisms
15:06
Speaker 10: for why they can do what they do. Often, they
15:10
Speaker 10: convince themselves that they deserve it. Why shouldn't they be happy?
15:15
Speaker 10: Why shouldn't they have their cake and eat it? And
15:17
Speaker 10: they will come up with these strange reasons that they
15:20
Speaker 10: use to justify the hurt and the upset that they
15:24
Speaker 10: could cause. Ultimately, of course, what we're looking at is
15:27
Speaker 10: someone who's selfish.
15:29
Speaker 1: So soon after their wedding day, Roberts was deceiving Vicky
15:33
Speaker 1: once again. And once again, he was going to be
15:37
Speaker 1: found out. Michael Roberts had a voracious appetite for regular
15:47
Speaker 1: sex with numerous partners. He also had a craving for
15:51
Speaker 1: rough sex, including throttling his partners. Was he a sex addict?
15:55
Speaker 1: Was this simply about pure hedonism or about controlling the
16:00
Speaker 1: opposite sex? I've come to meet criminologist Dr Elizabeth Yardley
16:08
Speaker 1: and psychologist Mike Berry to find out what they make
16:12
Speaker 1: of Robert's extramarital affairs. Was Robert a sex addict?
16:17
Speaker 6: There was some argument about whether such a thing as
16:21
Speaker 6: sex addiction exists or not. But what we can say
16:24
Speaker 6: in this case is he certainly liked to chase. He
16:27
Speaker 6: seemed to enjoy chasing after women, going from one to another,
16:31
Speaker 6: quickly moving on. I think he found that exciting. As
16:34
Speaker 6: do a lot of men, apparently.
16:36
Speaker 11: And I think we've got to take a step back
16:37
Speaker 11: from it and say, well, what does sex represent? It
16:39
Speaker 11: represents power. It represents kind of status for him, essentially.
16:44
Speaker 11: And he's a man who wants to have his cake
16:46
Speaker 11: and eat it. He wants to have his wife at
16:48
Speaker 11: home looking after his needs there, cooking his dinner, doing
16:53
Speaker 11: those types of things. And then he wants to go
16:54
Speaker 11: out and have fun on the side as well.
16:56
Speaker 1: It is about fun.
16:57
Speaker 2: It's about hedonism.
16:58
Speaker 1: I mean, is this... About control? Is it not simply about, listen,
17:02
Speaker 1: I want to have a lot of fun and sex
17:04
Speaker 1: is a recreation and if my wife doesn't like it, well,
17:07
Speaker 1: I'll just see if I can get away with it.
17:08
Speaker 11: Essentially what it's about for me is his priority is
17:12
Speaker 11: his own wants and needs and desires. It doesn't matter
17:15
Speaker 11: about anybody else as long as he's fulfilling the things
17:17
Speaker 11: that he wants, he's achieving the outcomes that he's pursuing,
17:21
Speaker 11: then to hell with everyone else.
17:23
Speaker 1: Vicky stayed with him throughout. She knew he was being unfaithful.
17:27
Speaker 1: She thought she resolved it. Why did she continue to
17:30
Speaker 1: stay with him?
17:31
Speaker 11: Well, when she first met him, he wouldn't have been
17:35
Speaker 11: off having affairs with other women. He would have been very,
17:38
Speaker 11: very charming towards her. He would have been her knight
17:41
Speaker 11: in shining armor. And she'll want to be recreating that.
17:45
Speaker 11: So she wants him. She just doesn't want the cheating
17:48
Speaker 11: part of him. And she's hoping that that that Michael
17:51
Speaker 11: that she met is going to one day come back.
17:53
Speaker 1: Mike, she clearly was prepared to forgive him as long
17:56
Speaker 1: as he could forget his past affairs and his past
18:00
Speaker 1: and current girlfriend.
18:01
Speaker 6: But the history shows that he would continue. Once he's
18:04
Speaker 6: had a number of affairs, being married I don't think
18:06
Speaker 6: would have made the slightest bit of difference. Plus, he
18:08
Speaker 6: likes the excitement. This is clearly a guy who loves
18:12
Speaker 6: juggling all the balls up in the air and doesn't
18:14
Speaker 6: care about the consequences to other people.
18:16
Speaker 11: He is right at the centre of a number of
18:19
Speaker 11: women's lives and that's where he loves being in the spotlight.
18:26
Speaker 1: Vicky Roberts was murdered by her husband Michael in November 2009.
18:31
Speaker 1: The couple had been married for just five months and
18:34
Speaker 1: the wedding had gone ahead despite Vicky finding out he'd
18:37
Speaker 1: been having an affair. He promised to change his ways.
18:43
Speaker 1: But within weeks of their big day, Roberts was cheating
18:46
Speaker 1: on Vicky again with a colleague called Karen. On November 21st,
18:57
Speaker 1: eight days before Vicky's death, Karen texted Roberts to say...
19:01
Speaker 1: She had ended her relationship with her partner so she
19:04
Speaker 1: could be with him. Roberts replied to say he had
19:12
Speaker 1: also ended his relationship with Vicky and that he was
19:14
Speaker 1: now living at his parents' house.
19:17
Speaker 4: Roberts clearly told Karen that he was leaving Vicky, leaving
19:22
Speaker 4: her for good. Her marriage was finished. In order to
19:25
Speaker 4: keep things going with Karen, in order to keep her
19:28
Speaker 4: on board, because she is someone who is giving up
19:31
Speaker 4: a relationship herself would expect the same from him.
19:35
Speaker 1: Roberts clearly wanted to have his cake and eat it
19:38
Speaker 1: by keeping both Karen and Vicky on side. But his
19:42
Speaker 1: behaviour at home soon began to arouse Vicky's suspicions once again.
19:46
Speaker 1: He was spending an unusual amount of time on or
19:50
Speaker 1: texting other people and would fly into a rage if
19:53
Speaker 1: Vicky challenged him. Close friends remember that around this time
19:57
Speaker 1: she grew increasingly unhappy.
20:00
Speaker 9: She almost became obsessed with finding out information and you
20:04
Speaker 9: can feel what an awful dark place she would have
20:07
Speaker 9: been in. And the more she doubted him, the more
20:10
Speaker 9: her self-esteem and the more darker place she would have entered,
20:15
Speaker 9: which led to her trying to find out as much
20:18
Speaker 9: as she could of what he was up to.
20:21
Speaker 1: With her doubts mounting, Vicky decided to read her husband's
20:24
Speaker 1: Facebook messages. And she soon found clear-cut evidence of his
20:29
Speaker 1: affair with Karen.
20:31
Speaker 7: She was distraught and heartbroken to think that despite just
20:35
Speaker 7: a few months of marriage and him promising to be
20:38
Speaker 7: faithful to her that Roberts had begun an affair with
20:42
Speaker 7: another woman at work.
20:52
Speaker 1: Vicky began to print out page upon page of Roberts'
20:55
Speaker 1: secret correspondence. She told her friends that she was going
20:58
Speaker 1: to spy on him at work in order to catch
21:00
Speaker 1: a glimpse of his mistress. She was clearly distraught, though
21:04
Speaker 1: still keen to save her marriage.
21:06
Speaker 2: In any relationship you're in, if you still love your partner,
21:10
Speaker 2: whatever that partner's going to do, you stand by them.
21:13
Speaker 2: You may confront them. Now, it's very easy for us
21:15
Speaker 2: to say, why didn't she just get out? She knew
21:17
Speaker 2: he was having affairs, but she loved him. And this
21:22
Speaker 2: was true love. And of course, true love can make
21:24
Speaker 2: us all blind at some stage.
21:30
Speaker 9: When you look at her actions and how she's starting
21:33
Speaker 9: to look at his Facebook messages and his social media accounts,
21:36
Speaker 9: you can almost feel the desperation in her. She was
21:40
Speaker 9: so wanting her husband not to cheat on her, and
21:44
Speaker 9: she was devastated when she found out he was still
21:47
Speaker 9: doing that.
21:48
Speaker 1: As well as making printouts of Robert's Facebook chats with
21:51
Speaker 1: other women, Vicky went through his wallet and found receipts
21:55
Speaker 1: from a hotel where he'd been spending time with his mistress, Karen.
21:59
Speaker 1: Vicky now felt she had conclusive proof of Roberts' new
22:02
Speaker 1: infidelities and the situation was now about to reach a
22:06
Speaker 1: critical point.
22:08
Speaker 10: For Roberts, things would have been coming to a head
22:11
Speaker 10: because he was trying to live too many lives in
22:16
Speaker 10: the days of electronic recording, social media, photographs and Facebook evidence.
22:23
Speaker 1: Roberts repeatedly told Vicky that his extramarital affairs were over
22:28
Speaker 1: and done with. But at the very same time, he
22:31
Speaker 1: was also telling his mistress, Karen, that his marriage was over.
22:37
Speaker 1: If he really wanted to be with Karen, why didn't
22:39
Speaker 1: he just end things with Vicky?
22:44
Speaker 2: Vicky gave him stability. Vicky gave him a sense of normality.
22:51
Speaker 10: This is my wife.
22:52
Speaker 3: This is my home.
22:53
Speaker 2: I finish work. I go home. Everybody likes to have
22:57
Speaker 2: an element of normality in their life.
23:01
Speaker 1: Roberts had become trapped in his own web of lies
23:04
Speaker 1: and must have felt that he risked losing both Vicky
23:06
Speaker 1: and Karen and that his whole world could come crashing down.
23:17
Speaker 1: On the night before she died, Vicky and Roberts went
23:19
Speaker 1: to dinner at his parents' house before returning back to
23:23
Speaker 1: their flat here in Runcorn to watch TV. All the while,
23:26
Speaker 1: Roberts was texting his lover, Karen, making arrangements to meet
23:30
Speaker 1: the following day. At the same time, Vicky was contemplating
23:33
Speaker 1: the receipt she had in her bag, which proved her
23:36
Speaker 1: husband's infidelity, including a bar bill from a hotel where
23:39
Speaker 1: he had taken his lover, Karen. It seems she had
23:43
Speaker 1: decided to confront him about his affairs once and for all.
23:47
Speaker 1: On the morning of her murder, Vicky used her laptop
23:50
Speaker 1: to look up the hotel that Roberts had stayed in
23:52
Speaker 1: with Karen. It seems that finally she had decided to
23:56
Speaker 1: take action.
23:57
Speaker 3: Vicky confronted him with some printouts of Facebook messages between
24:03
Speaker 3: him and Karen and also some receipts from a hotel
24:08
Speaker 3: where they both stayed.
24:08
Speaker 5: What did you get?
24:14
Speaker 1: What did you get?
24:18
Speaker 7: They argued and it's thought that she threatened to tell
24:22
Speaker 7: his parents that he'd been cheating on his new wife.
24:27
Speaker 7: That appears to have been the tipping point.
24:29
Speaker 4: I think at that point he began to see no
24:32
Speaker 4: particular way out. He began to see this as a
24:35
Speaker 4: brick wall, as something whereby he was going to lose
24:39
Speaker 4: Vicky anyway, he was going to lose face. I think
24:45
Speaker 4: there was probably... a rush of sadistic violence within him
24:49
Speaker 4: that came to the fore.
24:54
Speaker 1: It seems that when confronted by Vicky, Roberts flew into
25:00
Speaker 1: a rage and overpowered her. And in a fit of anger,
25:04
Speaker 1: he put his hands around her neck. She resisted, but
25:09
Speaker 1: he was much too strong. Within a few minutes, Roberts
25:14
Speaker 1: had strangled Vicky to death. For the vast majority of people,
25:25
Speaker 1: taking the life of another human being is something they'd
25:28
Speaker 1: never contemplate. But what Roberts did after he killed Vicky
25:32
Speaker 1: suggests he wasn't like most people.
25:36
Speaker 9: When we look at murder cases, the behaviour of the
25:39
Speaker 9: perpetrator after the murder is always really significant. That tells
25:44
Speaker 9: us a lot about what thought processes are going through
25:48
Speaker 9: their mind. It also tells us a lot about their personality.
25:51
Speaker 3: Anybody.
25:52
Speaker 9: who has a kind of normal functioning personality, when they've
25:55
Speaker 9: done something like that, is going to be in a
25:58
Speaker 9: state of stress. They're going to be elated in some way.
26:02
Speaker 9: They're going to be nervous. They're going to be talking
26:04
Speaker 9: in a way that's not normal.
26:06
Speaker 4: Hey, Karen. How are you?
26:10
Speaker 1: Robert's actions after he killed Vicky showed a shockingly callous
26:13
Speaker 1: side to his character.
26:15
Speaker 3: Oh, you watched the exit?
26:17
Speaker 11: Really?
26:18
Speaker 3: One bizarre thing that happened on that night is he
26:20
Speaker 3: phoned his lover, Karen, And they spoke for over two hours,
26:24
Speaker 3: I think, about relatively mundane things, such as the X factor,
26:29
Speaker 3: which kind of struck me as bizarre, really, because it's
26:32
Speaker 3: not the kind of thing that you talk about when
26:34
Speaker 3: you've just killed somebody.
26:36
Speaker 9: For him to speak in such a normal way shows
26:38
Speaker 9: that he's got no remorse, he's got very little emotion,
26:42
Speaker 9: which is actually very significant and very indicative of psychopathic traits.
26:46
Speaker 8: Thanks, bye.
26:47
Speaker 4: Roberts clearly showed his lack of empathy and the fact
26:50
Speaker 4: that Vicky didn't really mean that much to him.
26:54
Speaker 1: Could it be that Michael Roberts had been a psychopath
26:57
Speaker 1: all along? Roberts had killed Vicky in a fit of
27:08
Speaker 1: rage after she confronted him about his affair with Karen.
27:13
Speaker 1: But far from showing any remorse, he decided to carry
27:16
Speaker 1: on with his life as if nothing had happened. The
27:20
Speaker 1: day after Roberts killed Vicky, he spent the afternoon shopping
27:24
Speaker 1: in Chester with his mistress, Karen. He then headed off
27:27
Speaker 1: to a travel lodge in Bangor where they had sex.
27:30
Speaker 1: The next day, he arrived at work late and looking
27:33
Speaker 1: very tired, and he told a colleague that he was
27:35
Speaker 1: late because Vicky had left him for someone else. That afternoon,
27:39
Speaker 1: he sent a bogus text to Vicky. Hey, honey, how's
27:43
Speaker 1: your day going? Roberts appeared to be a very accomplished liar.
27:48
Speaker 4: Roberts sent text messages and other messages to family and
27:54
Speaker 4: friends of Vicky and used her own phone to try
27:59
Speaker 4: and establish that she was still alive and responding to stuff.
28:04
Speaker 4: He probably thought this was a pretty good way of
28:07
Speaker 4: covering up her disappearance.
28:09
Speaker 9: His behaviour's really interesting. He's trying to create a situation
28:13
Speaker 9: where it's looking like he's not involved. by sending messages
28:17
Speaker 9: to himself that makes it look like she's still alive.
28:20
Speaker 4: I think, in fact, he probably saw this as some
28:23
Speaker 4: kind of success. So he probably began to enjoy this
28:28
Speaker 4: process because it's a process of manipulation and control over others,
28:33
Speaker 4: which he would have enjoyed.
28:38
Speaker 1: It wasn't until December 1st, two days after he killed Vicky,
28:41
Speaker 1: that Robert set about disposing of her body. he visited
28:48
Speaker 1: a local supermarket where he bought refuse sacks and sponges.
28:52
Speaker 1: CCTV captured him casually eating crisps as he left the store.
28:56
Speaker 3: It was just an everyday thing for him. It's as
29:02
Speaker 3: if he was shopping for oranges and apples.
29:04
Speaker 9: The way that he's doing it is very calm. He's
29:08
Speaker 9: not hurried, he's not nervous. All of his behaviours... are
29:13
Speaker 9: so indicative of a man that is not feeling anything.
29:15
Speaker 9: He's not feeling any emotion. He's not feeling upset, but
29:19
Speaker 9: he's also not feeling scared. Scared that he's going to
29:21
Speaker 9: get caught out. At this point, he really believes that
29:24
Speaker 9: he is going to get.
29:25
Speaker 11: Away with it.
29:26
Speaker 4: Clearly, this shows that there was no empathy. There was
29:29
Speaker 4: no base care. Roberts was quite psychopathic in his nature.
29:37
Speaker 1: Roberts' actions seem to display the mind of a calculating,
29:41
Speaker 1: cold-blooded killer. But do psychologist Mike Berry and criminologist Dr
29:47
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Yardley agree that Michael Roberts was a psychopath?
29:52
Speaker 6: I find it horrifying that He actually kills her and
29:55
Speaker 6: then he's on the phone as if nothing had happened.
29:58
Speaker 6: It seems to be very psychopathic in the way he's
30:00
Speaker 6: dealt with her.
30:01
Speaker 11: There's a real callousness and a complete lack of empathy.
30:05
Speaker 11: And it's not in the way that we would see it. Oh,
30:09
Speaker 11: my goodness, I've just killed my partner. He's not thinking
30:11
Speaker 11: that way. He's thinking, well, I've just solved a problem.
30:14
Speaker 11: And then he goes about his daily business covering up
30:17
Speaker 11: that problem.
30:18
Speaker 1: Was Roberts planning to kill Vicky for some time?
30:20
Speaker 6: I don't see any indication of this being a planned
30:24
Speaker 6: killing at all. It just doesn't have the planning that
30:27
Speaker 6: you would expect.
30:29
Speaker 1: So you think it was still an impulsive act and
30:30
Speaker 1: not a planned act?
30:31
Speaker 6: Yes, I think it was impulsive. I don't think he
30:33
Speaker 6: planned to kill her. I think the I'm going to
30:35
Speaker 6: leave her or it's all going to be over, it's
30:37
Speaker 6: just merely a way of keeping the mistress on the hook.
30:40
Speaker 1: It might have been impulsive, but it was still murder.
30:43
Speaker 11: Well, premeditation doesn't have to be days or hours or
30:47
Speaker 11: even minutes in the planning. It can be seconds. If
30:49
Speaker 11: you make a decision to end someone's life, that's murder,
30:53
Speaker 11: that's not manslaughter.
30:54
Speaker 6: And he intended, it's a whole issue of intent. If
30:56
Speaker 6: he intended to harm her and knew the consequences of
31:00
Speaker 6: what his intentions were, then it's murder.
31:05
Speaker 1: In June 2009, Vicky and Michael Roberts were married in
31:10
Speaker 1: what seemed like a dream wedding. But just five months later,
31:14
Speaker 1: their marriage would come to a deadly end. When Vicky
31:20
Speaker 1: discovered evidence of his serial adultery, she confronted him and
31:24
Speaker 1: he brutally murdered her in cold blood. In the days
31:29
Speaker 1: after the murder, Roberts launched a diabolical campaign of deceit.
31:34
Speaker 1: Using Vicky's phone, he tried to cover his tracks and
31:37
Speaker 1: throw her friends, family and even the police off the trails.
31:42
Speaker 3: He sent himself a text from her mobile phone saying that,
31:46
Speaker 3: I love you, but I can't keep this up anymore.
31:49
Speaker 3: I'm going to leave you. And I think he hoped
31:52
Speaker 3: that people would simply believe that he'd ran off and
31:55
Speaker 3: that would explain why she'd disappeared.
31:57
Speaker 4: Robert's psychopathic ability to manipulate others came to the fore
32:01
Speaker 4: when he began to sort of give the illusion that
32:04
Speaker 4: Vicky was still around, that she'd actually gone off with
32:07
Speaker 4: somebody else. And he was devastated, of course. And he
32:10
Speaker 4: just fluently said, made up a story and followed it
32:14
Speaker 4: through with friends and her relations and used her own
32:18
Speaker 4: phone to actually text family and friends to give the
32:23
Speaker 4: illusion that Vicky was still alive.
32:27
Speaker 1: Roberts was clearly planning to get away with murder. While
32:31
Speaker 1: he weaved his web of lies on social media, he
32:34
Speaker 1: also set about trying to dispose of the evidence of
32:36
Speaker 1: his crime. He carefully wrapped up Vicky's body... and then
32:41
Speaker 1: dragged her corpse out of the flat so he could
32:43
Speaker 1: hide it in their garage. With Vicky's body stowed away,
32:48
Speaker 1: Roberts then went about his everyday life as though nothing
32:52
Speaker 1: unusual had happened. Roberts was so convinced that he would
32:55
Speaker 1: get away with killing Vicky that almost immediately he began
32:58
Speaker 1: to prepare his flat to entertain his mistress, even to
33:02
Speaker 1: the extent of buying silk sheets for the bed, all
33:04
Speaker 1: the while Vicky's body was secreted in the garage. Well,
33:08
Speaker 1: Vicky's parents got very worried. On December 2nd, her dad
33:12
Speaker 1: contacted Roberts to ask about her whereabouts. Roberts maintained the
33:16
Speaker 1: subterfuge and said, haven't you heard? She's left me.
33:20
Speaker 7: Her parents were demented with worry. It was so unusual
33:24
Speaker 7: for her not to call or text. They just couldn't
33:27
Speaker 7: believe that she would have run off with someone else
33:31
Speaker 7: and made no contact with them.
33:33
Speaker 1: Roberts continued the ruse of texting from Vicky's phone to
33:37
Speaker 1: give the impression that she was still alive and that
33:40
Speaker 1: she'd just left him. He texted her mother and wrote,
33:44
Speaker 1: Hey Mama, I assume by now Mike has shown you
33:46
Speaker 1: the message I sent. I'm really sorry for all of
33:49
Speaker 1: this and I'm okay. I didn't mean to worry you.
33:52
Speaker 1: Please don't be upset with me. I know it's all
33:55
Speaker 1: a huge shock, but I couldn't lie anymore. I will
33:58
Speaker 1: call you soon. I just need to sort my head
34:00
Speaker 1: out first. Please, please don't be upset with me. Roberts
34:05
Speaker 1: must have thought he had the mind of a criminal genius.
34:10
Speaker 1: But little did he know that it wasn't going to
34:12
Speaker 1: be that easy to deceive Vicky's loved ones.
34:16
Speaker 10: Roberts believed he could get away with it. He was
34:18
Speaker 10: a man who's been able to talk people around his
34:22
Speaker 10: entire adult life. All he needed to do was get
34:26
Speaker 10: access to Vicky's phone, tell a few lies to the
34:29
Speaker 10: people that mattered, act that he was the injured party,
34:33
Speaker 10: and it was going to be easy. He's been lying
34:35
Speaker 10: to Vicky all this time about his relationships and had
34:38
Speaker 10: got away with it. Why would lying now not be
34:40
Speaker 10: any different for him?
34:41
Speaker 3: He didn't even seem to take care in how he
34:44
Speaker 3: worded the text. It was obvious to Vicky's mum and dad,
34:47
Speaker 3: for instance, that he was using language that he wouldn't
34:51
Speaker 3: normally use.
34:53
Speaker 7: After four days, they became so suspicious that they decided
34:56
Speaker 7: to report her missing to police.
35:00
Speaker 1: Within hours, the police were on the phone to Robert's. Hello?
35:05
Speaker 9: Hello, is that Michael?
35:06
Speaker 1: It is.
35:08
Speaker 5: Hi, Michael, it's the police here at Runcorn.
35:11
Speaker 1: OK.
35:11
Speaker 3: We've had a phone call off your wife's dad.
35:15
Speaker 4: Right.
35:16
Speaker 3: Saying that she's missing at the moment.
35:18
Speaker 6: Right.
35:18
Speaker 3: Obviously, we're a little bit concerned at the moment.
35:23
Speaker 7: Is there anything else that you can tell.
35:24
Speaker 2: Us as to why she's gone?
35:27
Speaker 3: Basically, I got a message yesterday saying that she's left
35:33
Speaker 3: me for someone else.
35:34
Speaker 4: Oh, right.
35:35
Speaker 5: Right.
35:35
Speaker 1: Right.
35:57
Speaker 11: With the police now involved, Roberts was rapidly losing.
36:00
Speaker 2: Control of the situation.
36:02
Speaker 3: And just a few hours after he first heard from
36:04
Speaker 3: the police, he received another call.
36:26
Speaker 8: Hello, Mike Roberts speaking.
36:27
Speaker 4: Hi, Mike.
36:27
Speaker 6: It's Sergeant Pilgrim speaking from Cheshire Police.
36:30
Speaker 8: What would you like to do?
36:32
Speaker 3: Mike, he's a reporter missing from home.
36:34
Speaker 1: Right.
36:35
Speaker 4: I spoke to your colleague this morning. Technically not, because she.
36:39
Speaker 6: Kind of said what she's done.
36:40
Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
36:41
Speaker 2: It's not true in person.
36:43
Speaker 10: What I need you to do, it might be difficult.
36:45
Speaker 10: I need you to go home and meet a police
36:46
Speaker 10: officer at your home address.
36:49
Speaker 6: Right.
36:50
Speaker 5: Can you leave now?
36:51
Speaker 3: Because there's a police officer being assigned.
36:54
Speaker 1: At 2.40pm, officers visited the couple's home and did a
36:57
Speaker 1: quick search of the flat and the garage, but they
36:59
Speaker 1: never saw Vicky's body.
37:00
Speaker 3: They did notice, however, that Roberts appeared agitated.
37:03
Speaker 7: The officers left, and Roberts may have thought he'd gotten
37:04
Speaker 7: away with his crimes.
37:23
Speaker 1: But the police were intrigued by his anxious behaviour and
37:26
Speaker 1: decided to question him further. They arrived back at the
37:29
Speaker 1: address that evening and they noticed a laptop bag full
37:33
Speaker 1: of printouts of Robert's online conversations. They asked him if
37:38
Speaker 1: he'd had an affair. He denied it. Suspicions raised, they
37:42
Speaker 1: decided to search the garage again. This time they noticed
37:45
Speaker 1: a large wrapped up object. They opened one end and
37:48
Speaker 1: it revealed Vicky's bloodstained hair and.
37:51
Speaker 10: Part of her head.
37:53
Speaker 1: As the police officers were making their gruesome discovery, Roberts
37:56
Speaker 1: realised the game was up and made a break for
37:59
Speaker 1: it while they were in his garage. He sprinted off
38:03
Speaker 1: and managed to escape. Roberts remained at large for three days,
38:08
Speaker 1: staying at hotels and using a variety of aliases. The
38:13
Speaker 1: whole time his movements were being recorded on CCTV. While
38:21
Speaker 1: he was on the run, Roberts was even captured buying
38:23
Speaker 1: new clothes to try and throw the police off the scent.
38:37
Speaker 1: He then went to Wrexham and waited for a female
38:40
Speaker 1: colleague to leave work. He then ushered her down an
38:42
Speaker 1: alleyway and begged her to believe that Vicky had died
38:45
Speaker 1: as a result of a sex game gone wrong. He
38:48
Speaker 1: claimed she'd choked on a dressing gown cord that Vicky
38:51
Speaker 1: had asked him to tie around her neck. His colleague
38:54
Speaker 1: didn't believe him and the police were called. Roberts knew
38:59
Speaker 1: the game was up. From the moment they were alerted
39:02
Speaker 1: to his location, the police tracked him using CCTV. His
39:09
Speaker 1: erratic movements show a man who had realised there was
39:12
Speaker 1: now no way out. As they finally apprehended him, Roberts
39:19
Speaker 1: told the police he'd been waiting for them. He stuck
39:25
Speaker 1: to his story that Vicky had died in a sex
39:27
Speaker 1: game gone wrong. And given Roberts' liking for rough sex,
39:31
Speaker 1: he must have thought it was an entirely credible story.
39:35
Speaker 1: So was he about to get away with murder? Michael
39:42
Speaker 1: Roberts went on trial for Vicky's murder in September 2010.
39:45
Speaker 1: When he was in the dock, he thought he'd be
39:49
Speaker 1: able to convince the jury that he was innocent.
39:53
Speaker 4: Roberts was very adept at producing stories, plausible stories. He
39:58
Speaker 4: was a salesman, and he approached the court case basically
40:02
Speaker 4: along the same lines.
40:04
Speaker 7: He continued to maintain that he was innocent. He said
40:09
Speaker 7: that he admitted to police that he had killed her,
40:12
Speaker 7: but claimed it was all an accident and part of
40:15
Speaker 7: this sex game that had gone wrong.
40:16
Speaker 4: He had the obvious... thing that yes he indulges in
40:21
Speaker 4: sadistic sex that involves that kind of strangulation and that
40:26
Speaker 4: unfortunately he did make up the idea that he was
40:30
Speaker 4: using a gown cord to strangle Vicky whereas in fact
40:35
Speaker 4: the labs would very definitely prove it was definitely not
40:40
Speaker 4: a gown cord and really just undermine his story entirely.
40:47
Speaker 1: How could Robert's continued to protest his innocence in the
40:51
Speaker 1: face of such overwhelming evidence.
40:56
Speaker 4: Roberts had no empathy. In his own mind, he was innocent.
41:00
Speaker 4: And in his own mind, he had concocted this story
41:03
Speaker 4: and he wasn't going to give way on that. He
41:06
Speaker 4: wasn't going to, you know, let his ego, his narcissism
41:09
Speaker 4: dissolve through the floor of the court.
41:13
Speaker 1: The prosecution easily proved that Roberts' version of events just
41:17
Speaker 1: couldn't be true. and his defence fell apart. After a
41:21
Speaker 1: three-week trial, Roberts was found guilty of murder. He was
41:25
Speaker 1: jailed for a minimum of 17 years.
41:29
Speaker 3: When the sentence was handed down, he cried quite a lot.
41:33
Speaker 3: He had been sobbing throughout most of the trial, but
41:35
Speaker 3: he certainly seemed to go to pieces. It's impossible to
41:40
Speaker 3: say why he reacted in that way. Obviously, nobody wants
41:43
Speaker 3: to go to prison, but I think part of him
41:46
Speaker 3: did genuinely think he would have gotten away with this
41:48
Speaker 3: crime When he found out that that wasn't going to happen,
41:50
Speaker 3: I think a lot of his expectations came crashing down
41:53
Speaker 3: around him.
41:56
Speaker 1: It's important for criminologists to categorise social media murderers to
42:00
Speaker 1: try to prevent similar cases happening in the future. What
42:06
Speaker 1: kind of murderer do Dr Elizabeth Yardley and Mike Berry
42:09
Speaker 1: think Roberts was? Liz, how does this tap into the
42:13
Speaker 1: wider phenomenon of murders through social media?
42:16
Speaker 11: Well, when we look at the function that social media
42:19
Speaker 11: played in relation to this murder, we've got the case
42:22
Speaker 11: of an imposter here. So this is somebody who uses
42:25
Speaker 11: social media to maintain the illusion that the victim's still
42:28
Speaker 11: alive to buy themselves a little bit more time. But
42:32
Speaker 11: it's not just the murder that social media is playing
42:35
Speaker 11: a role here. He was using it to conduct his
42:37
Speaker 11: affairs at the same time. So It is in every
42:40
Speaker 11: corner of this case. It runs right throughout it.
42:42
Speaker 1: And, of course, Vicky used it to catch him out,
42:45
Speaker 1: to put him under surveillance, Mike.
42:47
Speaker 6: Yes, I mean, she was very good in the sense
42:49
Speaker 6: that she actually got the evidence. Rather than do the
42:53
Speaker 6: usual emotional argument, I think you're with somebody, she actually
42:56
Speaker 6: was able to use the internet to show he had
42:59
Speaker 6: been playing away from home. And I think that was
43:01
Speaker 6: a very good.
43:02
Speaker 10: Use of the internet.
43:04
Speaker 1: Is there any way this murder could have been avoided.
43:07
Speaker 11: Well, I think we've got to look at the bigger
43:09
Speaker 11: picture here. We've got to look at not just the
43:13
Speaker 11: use of social media, but controlling and abusive relationships. So
43:17
Speaker 11: when you've got men like Roberts who are having affairs,
43:21
Speaker 11: who aren't changing their behavior, everything is about them. They're
43:24
Speaker 11: incredibly narcissistic. When we start to hear reports from women
43:28
Speaker 11: that he slept with, that he's into strangulation and throttling,
43:31
Speaker 11: that's sending off some alarm bells. Those are significant red flags.
43:35
Speaker 1: But what surprises you about this case?
43:38
Speaker 11: Well, what surprises me about this case is something that
43:41
Speaker 11: we see all the time in relation to intimate partner homicides.
43:45
Speaker 11: But it's something that I continue to be surprised and
43:48
Speaker 11: annoyed by. And that's the kind of language that we
43:51
Speaker 11: use when we're talking about it. So often we'll focus
43:54
Speaker 11: on the victim's behaviour. So a lot of the media
43:57
Speaker 11: reports I've read around this case are saying things like,
43:59
Speaker 11: why did she stay with him? You know, why was
44:02
Speaker 11: she giving him second chances?
44:03
Speaker 2: It's not her.
44:04
Speaker 11: Behaviour that's the problem, it's his. He's the one who
44:07
Speaker 11: decided to do this. So I think we should be
44:09
Speaker 11: focusing quite heavily on him.
44:12
Speaker 1: Michael Roberts used social media to conduct his extramarital affairs
44:17
Speaker 1: and Vicky used it to uncover his betrayal. No one
44:21
Speaker 1: guessed Roberts had the potential for such murderous violence. But
44:25
Speaker 1: when the truth came out, those who knew him as
44:27
Speaker 1: a cocky phone salesman found out all about his dark side.
44:32
Speaker 8: I was absolutely gobsmacked. At first I didn't believe that
44:37
Speaker 8: he'd done it. I thought there must have been some mistake.
44:40
Speaker 8: My heart goes out to Vicky's family, totally. To think
44:43
Speaker 8: what Vicky's mum must have gone through. It's heartbreaking. And
44:48
Speaker 8: the saddest thing is when Mike gets out He's still
44:51
Speaker 8: got his life ahead of him. She's got nothing, and
44:54
Speaker 8: he's took that away from her.
44:57
Speaker 5: MUSIC PLAYS