Latest / History Dark / Her killer was egged on by his friends _ Murder of Rebecca Aylward _ Click for Murder

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Her killer was egged on by his friends _ Murder of Rebecca Aylward _ Click for Murder · History Dark

0:03
Speaker 1: The internet has changed the way we live. It has
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Speaker 1: changed the way we work, the way we shop, and
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Speaker 1: even the way we date.
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Speaker 2: It has also changed the way we kill.
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Speaker 1: I'm Donald McIntyre, and I'm on a quest to explore
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Speaker 1: the dark side of our online world, where one click
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Speaker 1: can lead to murder.
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Speaker 3: The internet and social media has been a godsend to
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Speaker 3: online predators.
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Speaker 2: Why?
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Speaker 3: Because of the speed in which they can, one, create
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Speaker 3: fake profiles, but two, access victims.
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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.
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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 program, 15-year-old A-star student Joshua Davies seemed the
1:04
Speaker 1: perfect boyfriend for 14-year-old Rebecca Aylward. But when they broke up,
1:09
Speaker 1: he waged a 10-month online war, which ended with him
1:12
Speaker 1: brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend. When Davies told his friends online
1:20
Speaker 1: that he was going to kill Rebecca... they didn't think
1:23
Speaker 1: he was serious. They even egged him on. Are we
1:26
Speaker 1: now in a world where teenagers can't draw a line
1:28
Speaker 1: between fiction and reality? A world where social media can
1:32
Speaker 1: help a youngster talk himself into committing a brutal murder.
2:14
Speaker 1: These days, when teenagers meet and get together at school, Increasingly,
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Speaker 1: they're conducting their relationships online, with sites like Facebook being
2:23
Speaker 1: used to keep their peers updated about how the relationship
2:27
Speaker 1: is going 24-7. This was the case with Year 10
2:32
Speaker 1: students Joshua Davies and Rebecca Aylward. They had an intense
2:37
Speaker 1: but brief relationship, and when they broke up, Davies was
2:40
Speaker 1: determined to save face. He made no secret of his
2:44
Speaker 1: hatred for Rebecca... And nearly 14 months after they started dating,
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Speaker 1: on October 23rd, 2010, he took her to a forest
2:54
Speaker 1: and murdered her.
2:55
Speaker 2: MUSIC PLAYS.
3:20
Speaker 1: I'm on my way to Abercanvig near Bridgend in Wales,
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Speaker 1: where Joshua Davies lived and where Rebecca Aylward was murdered
3:28
Speaker 1: in 2010. And I want to discover the role social
3:32
Speaker 1: media played in transforming a seemingly model student into a
3:37
Speaker 1: brutal and callous killer.
3:48
Speaker 2: Like most teenage girls, Rebecca.
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Speaker 1: known as Becca to her friends and family, was into
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Speaker 1: social media and boys.
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Speaker 5: She was a.
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Speaker 1: Bright girl with a wide circle of friends and dreamed
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Speaker 1: of becoming a lawyer.
4:02
Speaker 6: To me, Becca was my best friend. When I first
4:04
Speaker 6: met Becca, I thought she was really confident, I thought.
4:09
Speaker 6: Definitely seemed far smarter than the rest of understanding themselves
4:14
Speaker 6: and what they want in life and things like that.
4:16
Speaker 6: She already had goals of where she wanted to be
4:18
Speaker 6: in life and I was enamoured of her, which was awesome.
4:21
Speaker 1: Author Lynn Barrett-Lee co-wrote a book about Becca with Becca's mother, Sonia.
4:27
Speaker 7: From everything I've read about Becca, she's just come across
4:32
Speaker 7: throughout as being just a fabulous older sister. Very maternal,
4:37
Speaker 7: like a little mum. She worked hard at school. She
4:40
Speaker 7: had big ambitions. She wanted to be a lawyer. So
4:43
Speaker 7: just a lovely daughter.
4:45
Speaker 6: She was great, like really protective of her friends. Really
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Speaker 6: like a loving person. Yeah, she was something special.
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Speaker 1: Rebecca and Joshua met at this secondary school here where
5:01
Speaker 1: they enjoyed the same large group of friends, but they
5:04
Speaker 1: didn't start dating until their GCSE year.
5:07
Speaker 2: Now, Joshua was.
5:07
Speaker 1: Regarded as academically gifted and a charming boy. Even Rebecca's
5:11
Speaker 1: mother thought highly of him. She said of him that
5:14
Speaker 1: even though he towered above her and Rebecca, he had
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Speaker 1: a round baby face and was soft-natured.
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Speaker 6: Mark Becker told me of him. Yeah, great student, normal
5:31
Speaker 6: 15-year-old kid. Everyone just thought he was cool. He seemed
5:33
Speaker 6: like a really genuinely nice guy.
5:35
Speaker 3: He was the life and soul of many parties or
5:38
Speaker 3: even the classroom. It wasn't difficult for him to make friends.
5:42
Speaker 3: He played rugby. He was thought of as the charming
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Speaker 3: young man that every girl would want to go out with.
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Speaker 7: Good-looking, by all accounts very charismatic. The sort of boy
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Speaker 7: who had a sort of coterie of other boys around him.
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Speaker 7: that sort of gathered people to him, very much top dog.
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Speaker 7: I mean, I think he called himself that once. I'm
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Speaker 7: top dog. That was his big thing.
6:08
Speaker 1: When Becca and Davey started dating in September 2009, Becca's
6:13
Speaker 1: family were delighted that she'd found such a nice young
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Speaker 1: man who seemed to make her happy. According to friends
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Speaker 1: and family, they were besotted with each other.
6:23
Speaker 3: Rebecca and Davis had the classic teenager relationship for the time.
6:27
Speaker 3: The fact that they would see each other at school,
6:30
Speaker 3: see each other a bit after school, and then want
6:32
Speaker 3: to talk the minute they got home on social media.
6:34
Speaker 3: So they would have 24-7 contact with each other. But
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Speaker 3: at the time, and even today, that is something that
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Speaker 3: teenagers do.
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Speaker 7: Clearly, he made her happy. And she was very, very,
6:47
Speaker 7: I would say, very much in love.
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Speaker 8: He'd spend evenings having dinner at their house, weekends with them.
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Speaker 8: He made comments to Rebecca's mum that he would look
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Speaker 8: after her and take care of her and that she
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Speaker 8: was safe with him. For all intents and purposes, it
7:02
Speaker 8: seemed quite a healthy, normal, loving relationship. However, I think
7:09
Speaker 8: there's some slight indications of his controlling nature. The fact
7:14
Speaker 8: that he said things like, I will take care of her,
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Speaker 8: she's safe with me, almost like he.
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Speaker 5: Was the one in power.
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Speaker 1: There was more to Joshua Davies than met the eye.
7:26
Speaker 1: His friends spoke of his need to be the leader,
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Speaker 1: the one that everyone followed. He would quickly turn on
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Speaker 1: those who said anything negative about him, happily voicing his
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Speaker 1: aggression on social media or here at school, face to face.
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Speaker 9: Joshua was... A lad who found it very, very difficult
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Speaker 9: to accept any kind of challenge. And he certainly didn't
7:55
Speaker 9: like any kind of rejection at all. And his friends
7:59
Speaker 9: said this kind of thing about him. He was all right,
8:01
Speaker 9: he was fine, until you somehow annoyed him. And then
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Speaker 9: he would just, you know, change into a different person.
8:09
Speaker 9: People like Joshua aren't necessarily routinely violent. But what does
8:15
Speaker 9: tend to happen, especially when they have some kind of rejection...
8:19
Speaker 9: is that a rage or a sense of entitlement builds
8:24
Speaker 9: up inside them, and it's that that can make them
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Speaker 9: become violent.
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Speaker 10: It was very similar to many narcissists. They don't take
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Speaker 10: personal criticism very well. They will ice people who they
8:37
Speaker 10: think have belittled them and cut them out of their lives,
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Speaker 10: and they will often bear grudges and vendettas against people
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Speaker 10: for the most innocuous of perceived slights.
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Speaker 1: Ominously for Becca, she would soon become the focus of
8:54
Speaker 1: Davies' anger. Three months into their relationship, during the Christmas
9:00
Speaker 1: holidays of 2009, Davies broke up with Becca unexpectedly.
9:05
Speaker 2: She was devastated.
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Speaker 7: Becca was shocked beyond belief. She did not have any
9:11
Speaker 7: idea why he'd finished with her. Everything had been going
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Speaker 7: well as far as she was concerned. They were happy together.
9:22
Speaker 7: And then suddenly, out of the blue, he didn't want
9:24
Speaker 7: to be with her anymore. You know, it's bad enough
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Speaker 7: when somebody finishes with you when you know things are
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Speaker 7: going wrong, but it just came out of the blue
9:31
Speaker 7: and she didn't understand.
9:32
Speaker 5: It was also a difficult time.
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Speaker 8: Her parents had recently divorced, so she would have been
9:38
Speaker 8: feeling particularly vulnerable. Every teenager, when they have that first relationship,
9:42
Speaker 8: it's really overpowering. They spent all their time together.
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Speaker 5: He was her best friend.
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Speaker 8: as well as her boyfriend.
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Speaker 7: From that moment on, it was almost as if she
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Speaker 7: became public enemy number one. You know, as far as
9:56
Speaker 7: Davis and his friends were concerned, she'd suddenly gone. from
10:00
Speaker 7: being his girlfriend to being in some sort of enemy camp.
10:07
Speaker 3: This is where the other side of social media really
10:09
Speaker 3: hits because if you break up this situation rebecca would
10:13
Speaker 3: not only see him at school but see him in
10:16
Speaker 3: the the small town that they lived in, but also
10:18
Speaker 3: see activity online, to know what he's doing, what he's posting,
10:21
Speaker 3: what he's saying. Now, whether that's nasty or not, you'll
10:24
Speaker 3: be able.
10:25
Speaker 5: To see that. And that just adds to the pain.
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Speaker 1: Josh's cruel and vindictive streak began to surface soon after
10:38
Speaker 1: the breakup. He announced here at school and on social
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Speaker 1: media that he broke up with Rebecca... because she was
10:44
Speaker 1: a slag, in his words, and was trying to get
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Speaker 1: pregnant with his kid.
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Speaker 2: But Rebecca would have none of it.
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Speaker 1: She defended herself robustly from his bullying and refused to
10:54
Speaker 1: let him have the last word.
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Speaker 2: And he hated her for it.
11:10
Speaker 1: I've come to Abercanvig in Wales to investigate why, in 2010,
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Speaker 1: Joshua Davies lured his ex-girlfriend Becca into a forest and
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Speaker 1: then brutally killed her. I want to find out the
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Speaker 1: role social media played in this horrific murder. This is
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Speaker 1: a photograph of 15-year-old Becca Aylward and her boyfriend Joshua
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Speaker 1: Davies before they broke up in Christmas 2009.
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Speaker 2: And few could have anticipated... the.
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Speaker 1: Anger and resentment that this breakup would generate. Josh, though,
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Speaker 1: was always determined to have the last word and took
11:45
Speaker 1: to social media to vent his feelings about Becca. Tragically, though,
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Speaker 1: his actions would not be confined just to the online world.
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Speaker 11: There were many issues surrounding social media and the risks
12:08
Speaker 11: and dangers it poses, one of which we always know
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Speaker 11: is cyberbullying or online bullying.
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Speaker 3: Now, Davis knows what he can say on social media.
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Speaker 3: He can turn people against Rebecca. Maybe that deep down
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Speaker 3: he wanted Rebecca back, so he thought, well, if I
12:21
Speaker 3: upset her, she's got to come to me.
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Speaker 5: I'm the only person that's going to talk to her.
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Speaker 3: That is control, and this is your classic bully tactics
12:28
Speaker 3: by using social media, because social media affords this 24-7.
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Speaker 7: He was trying to make it as difficult as he
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Speaker 7: could for Becca and would make up things about her
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Speaker 7: and try and spread rumours about her so that other
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Speaker 7: people would turn against her. It wasn't enough that he
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Speaker 7: hated her, he had to make sure everybody else hated
12:46
Speaker 7: her as well.
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Speaker 6: Rumours about Becca that I knew of were related to
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Speaker 6: pregnancy and also it was made up that she'd had
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Speaker 6: loads and loads of partners, her friendships with people as well.
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Speaker 6: By saying she said different things about people that she
13:02
Speaker 6: hadn't said, really, like, just to talk her away from
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Speaker 6: her friends.
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Speaker 1: When they went back to school after the Christmas holidays,
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Speaker 1: Davies continued to try and persuade other students not to
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Speaker 1: speak to Becca. But after school, he used private messages
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Speaker 1: online to be friendly towards her. It was a masterclass
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Speaker 1: in manipulations.
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Speaker 6: They would talk a lot on MSN. She'd send me
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Speaker 6: screenshots of their conversations and a lot of the time
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Speaker 6: they'd come up and actually have a genuinely really nice conversation.
13:39
Speaker 6: He was so on and off with her and she
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Speaker 6: always did quite like him.
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Speaker 7: It seems that they had an ongoing relationship even though
13:47
Speaker 7: they weren't in a relationship.
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Speaker 8: We have something called the push-pull effect in psychology and
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Speaker 8: it's used very much in domestic abuse and also grooming
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Speaker 8: of people that you pull them in with lots of
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Speaker 8: emotion and love and adoration, and then you push them
14:04
Speaker 8: away with some cruel words or ending the relationship, and
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Speaker 8: then you pull them back again. And the more you
14:09
Speaker 8: do that, the more you're messing with their head, and
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Speaker 8: the more you're actually tying them in with you, you're
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Speaker 8: emotionally attaching them to you, because they're so confused by
14:18
Speaker 8: it that they're actually wanting you more. And I think
14:20
Speaker 8: because she was so young and this was her first relationship,
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Speaker 8: and of course she doesn't have any experience with relationships,
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Speaker 8: I think that actually made her want him more.
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Speaker 1: In spring 2010, despite being friendly to Becca in private,
14:39
Speaker 1: in public, Davies continued his war of words. And his
14:44
Speaker 1: barrage of hatred started to become even more extreme. So
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Speaker 1: Becca stood up to Davies and defended her name. It
14:53
Speaker 1: led to a furious response.
14:57
Speaker 10: For Davies, that was probably something quite new, this person
15:00
Speaker 10: challenging him, this person publicly challenging his version of events,
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Speaker 10: his truth that he wanted everyone to believe. And because
15:08
Speaker 10: of his narcissistic temperament, he could not cope with people
15:12
Speaker 10: publicly contradicting him.
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Speaker 5: That would not do.
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Speaker 1: During the summer term, Davies intensified his efforts to demoralise
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Speaker 1: Becca on social media. And soon he advanced from insults
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Speaker 1: to explicit threats to physically harm her.
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Speaker 10: That shows that he was having to escalate things because
15:31
Speaker 10: he could no longer contain Rebecca and the risk to
15:35
Speaker 10: his reputation that she posed online and he had to
15:38
Speaker 10: take those threats into the real world.
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Speaker 1: Well, we know from the online chat histories and statements
16:00
Speaker 1: revealed by the police that far from fizzling out, the
16:04
Speaker 1: anger and resentment between the pair began to escalate, and
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Speaker 1: in Josh's case, to disturbing levels.
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Speaker 5: Clearly, what was going.
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Speaker 7: On online between them was one thing, but there was
16:21
Speaker 7: obviously at the same time, or very soon after... a
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Speaker 7: much darker thing emerging, and that's what we now know
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Speaker 7: was going on between him and his friends, that he'd
16:31
Speaker 7: started thinking about ways he could kill her.
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Speaker 10: He occasionally would pepper his continual dialogue of I'm going
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Speaker 10: to kill her with methods and how it.
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Speaker 2: Would be done.
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Speaker 7: He talked about pushing her off the edge of a
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Speaker 7: quarry so she'd drown. He talked about poisoning her at
16:56
Speaker 7: some length.
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Speaker 10: And these seem so fanciful and outrageous that I think
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Speaker 10: his peer group didn't pay them any notice, because surely
17:06
Speaker 10: if you're going to kill someone, you don't keep talking
17:09
Speaker 10: about and incriminating yourself.
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Speaker 9: He's got the idea in his head that he is
17:15
Speaker 9: going to kill her, And the fact that he's talking
17:18
Speaker 9: about different methods of killing her indicate that it's the
17:22
Speaker 9: killing her that is the important thing. He wants to
17:25
Speaker 9: enjoy doing it. He doesn't want her to be killed
17:28
Speaker 9: by somebody else. He wants to be there. He wants
17:31
Speaker 9: to be master of that. The fantasy really begins to
17:36
Speaker 9: be something that he thinks, I could do this.
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Speaker 6: For everyone else apart from him, it genuinely was a
17:43
Speaker 6: joke because I know the other guys.
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Speaker 2: They did actually really like Becca. They thought he was joking.
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Speaker 6: That's why it was so funny, because it's never going
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Speaker 6: to happen, because it's impossible, because we all like her.
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Speaker 1: Some of Davy's online threats were veiled in text speak
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Speaker 1: and accompanied by emojis. Perhaps in case an adult read
18:04
Speaker 1: them and decided to intervene.
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Speaker 9: Online conversations are very different to face-to-face conversations.
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Speaker 1: If you say.
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Speaker 9: I'm going to kill someone, lol, or smiley face, that
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Speaker 9: takes some of the sting out of what's being said,
18:23
Speaker 9: especially as the person reading that can't hear your tone
18:27
Speaker 9: of voice, can't see your body language, doesn't know what
18:30
Speaker 9: you're doing with your face. It completely takes any menace
18:34
Speaker 9: out of that sentence at all.
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Speaker 3: But he also had that serious side to it that
18:39
Speaker 3: he was actually planning this.
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Speaker 5: Without a doubt, this was planned. We know that from
18:43
Speaker 5: what happened.
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Speaker 3: This is a psychopath, but able to convince his friends
18:50
Speaker 3: he's just a bit of a bully and having a laugh.
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Speaker 5: Quite incredible.
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Speaker 8: We could say that they thought he was joking, but
18:58
Speaker 8: even joking, it shows that we've become so desensitized by
19:02
Speaker 8: social media that these conversations take place and it's almost
19:07
Speaker 8: like they're living this kind of fantasy life that's not real.
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Speaker 8: But what they didn't realise is that Joshua wasn't living
19:13
Speaker 8: a fantasy life. He was planning to do this in reality.
19:21
Speaker 1: After the school year ended, the feud between Josh and
19:24
Speaker 1: Rebecca appeared to die down. They even hung out together
19:28
Speaker 1: over the summer and rekindled their relationship. He may have
19:32
Speaker 1: been telling his friends online that he wanted to kill Rebecca,
19:35
Speaker 1: but how does that square with the fact they were getting.
19:37
Speaker 2: On so well?
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Speaker 1: I'm meeting criminologist Dr Elizabeth Yardley and forensic clinical psychologist
19:47
Speaker 1: Mike Berry to find out what they make of Davy's behaviour.
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Speaker 2: He was making a threat to kill.
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Speaker 1: Kids these days, 14, 15, they know what a threat
19:59
Speaker 1: to kill is and what that means. They've seen enough
20:02
Speaker 1: television programmes about that.
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Speaker 5: No, I disagree with you.
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Speaker 4: They don't understand the consequences of making a threat.
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Speaker 1: So this was make-believe for Joshua's friend.
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Speaker 2: I think they would.
20:12
Speaker 12: Have been reading these comments and chipping in and contributing,
20:16
Speaker 12: just with absolutely no idea of the consequences.
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Speaker 1: Is he different online to the person he is in
20:24
Speaker 1: real life?
20:25
Speaker 7: Yes.
20:26
Speaker 4: One thing about the internet is it allows you to
20:28
Speaker 4: be much more yourself.
20:30
Speaker 5: It disinhibits.
20:31
Speaker 4: It's the effect of alcohol on the frontal lobes. When
20:35
Speaker 4: you put somebody in front of a computer, they.
20:37
Speaker 5: Can start being what they want to be. They can
20:39
Speaker 5: talk about their fantasies.
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Speaker 12: The thing that he really wanted more than anything was control,
20:44
Speaker 12: and particularly control over Rebecca. And when they lose that control,
20:48
Speaker 12: they change the project, essentially, and they don't seek to
20:52
Speaker 12: control them anymore, they seek to destroy them.
20:55
Speaker 1: I've come to Wales to find out the role social
20:58
Speaker 1: media played in the brutal murder of 15-year-old Becca Aylward
21:03
Speaker 1: by her ex-boyfriend Joshua Davies in October 2010. It was
21:11
Speaker 1: the culmination of a cruel online hate campaign by Davies,
21:15
Speaker 1: which began when their three-month romance ended acrimoniously. From that
21:23
Speaker 1: moment on, he was determined she would never get the
21:25
Speaker 1: better of him, and he retaliated by making up lurid
21:28
Speaker 1: rumours online, including the fact that he claimed she'd had
21:32
Speaker 1: an abortion. When that didn't quieten her down, he then
21:35
Speaker 1: started talking more and more about murdering her and trying
21:39
Speaker 1: to rid her from his life.
21:41
Speaker 2: Once and for all.
21:44
Speaker 1: By the start of the 2010 summer holidays, Becca had
21:48
Speaker 1: endured a seven-month hate campaign by Davies. But then, over
21:52
Speaker 1: the break, Davies revived their relationship. Perhaps Becca hoped they
21:57
Speaker 1: could put all the animosity behind them. But in reality,
22:00
Speaker 1: for Davies, this was all about regaining control.
22:05
Speaker 7: Obviously, they had rekindled something over the summer, but clearly
22:09
Speaker 7: all wasn't well. because she was certainly nervous about going
22:13
Speaker 7: back to school and everything that implied and her complicated
22:17
Speaker 7: relationship with him, which wasn't a relationship, but he was
22:20
Speaker 7: clearly very much on her mind. We know that she
22:23
Speaker 7: was hoping that they might be able to rekindle it,
22:25
Speaker 7: but clearly had reservations because she'd said to a school
22:28
Speaker 7: friend that she was nervous about going back.
22:36
Speaker 6: Becca mentioned once or twice her worries about going back
22:38
Speaker 6: into Year 11. I could say maybe she had more
22:41
Speaker 6: enemies going into school. She was a bit nervous about it.
22:47
Speaker 6: One of the last couple of times I spoke to.
22:48
Speaker 2: Her, she just said... She.
22:53
Speaker 6: Just said she didn't think she was going to be alive.
22:56
Speaker 2: For too long. She always felt threatened. I feel like
23:05
Speaker 2: it was related to Josh. In my mind, 100%.
23:07
Speaker 5: She hadn't felt like that.
23:10
Speaker 2: Like a year ago. He was chilling at the time
23:14
Speaker 2: and still is.
23:19
Speaker 1: And after the holidays, following their return to school, Davies
23:23
Speaker 1: continued his constant dialogue with his friends on social media
23:27
Speaker 1: about killing Becca.
23:29
Speaker 2: Josh's mates admitted.
23:30
Speaker 1: They were getting quite bored and tired about how much
23:33
Speaker 1: Josh was going on, about how much he hated and
23:36
Speaker 1: wanted to kill Rebecca. One of his best mates, Dan,
23:40
Speaker 1: told the court, you just ignored it.
23:43
Speaker 2: It was getting boring, he said.
23:45
Speaker 1: Perhaps this is why, when Josh returned to the subject
23:48
Speaker 1: in science class, some of his mates egged him on,
23:51
Speaker 1: and one went so far as to make a silly
23:53
Speaker 1: bet with him about what he would do if Josh
23:56
Speaker 1: went ahead with the murder.
24:05
Speaker 6: Josh Davidson's friends meet at a cafe regularly for breakfast. Now,
24:10
Speaker 6: in one of their conversations where they were talking about,
24:12
Speaker 6: once again, killing Becca, Josh Davis said to one of them,
24:17
Speaker 6: what would you do if I actually did do it?
24:21
Speaker 6: And he said, oh, I'd buy you breakfast.
24:28
Speaker 9: It's banal. What are you going to do if I
24:30
Speaker 9: really do kill her? I'll buy you breakfast. That is
24:34
Speaker 9: not menacing. That's bringing it back into the real world.
24:39
Speaker 9: turns it into a joke almost for them, but not
24:42
Speaker 9: for him.
24:46
Speaker 10: I think that shows what element of boredom his peer
24:50
Speaker 10: group had with Davis and his continual vendetta against Rebecca.
24:55
Speaker 10: It clearly wasn't a serious monetary amount.
24:58
Speaker 2: It wasn't an.
24:59
Speaker 10: Impossible bet, such as I would bet you a million dollars,
25:02
Speaker 10: which of course is impossible. This just showed the boredom
25:05
Speaker 10: and disdain I think his peer group had for this
25:09
Speaker 10: constant vendetta.
25:22
Speaker 1: Just two days before the murder, Josh texted a friend.
25:27
Speaker 1: And don't say anything, but you may just owe me breakfast,
25:29
Speaker 1: he said, referring to a bet he'd made with Liam
25:32
Speaker 1: that Liam would have to pay for breakfast at this
25:35
Speaker 1: cafe if he went ahead with the murder.
25:38
Speaker 2: Liam responded, best.
25:39
Speaker 1: Text I've ever had, mate. If it's true, I'm happy
25:43
Speaker 1: to pay for your breakfast. Josh responded, well, hopefully by
25:46
Speaker 1: Friday it will all be done and dusted. Revving him up,
25:50
Speaker 1: Liam responded, I'll hear all the details Saturday, sadistic bastard. Well,
25:56
Speaker 1: it seems that Josh's plans to murder Rebecca were well
25:59
Speaker 1: in motion. But why was his friend playing on with it?
26:02
Speaker 1: Did he not realise he was encouraging him?
26:08
Speaker 3: The state of mind that Davis is now in is
26:11
Speaker 3: that the plan to murder Rebecca has started.
26:16
Speaker 5: The message was part of the process.
26:18
Speaker 3: It is an awful shame that the friend didn't just
26:22
Speaker 3: suddenly realise what a dangerous person Davis was.
26:43
Speaker 1: On the 23rd of October 2010, on the first weekend
26:46
Speaker 1: of the school half-term, Davies invited Rebecca to meet him here,
26:51
Speaker 1: close to his home. And given her soft spot for him,
26:55
Speaker 1: despite all the rumours he'd spread about her, Rebecca agreed.
27:03
Speaker 1: After a ten-month war of words with Davies, Becca must
27:07
Speaker 1: have felt relieved that her nightmare seemed finally to be over.
27:12
Speaker 7: Having spoken to him the night before and made all
27:14
Speaker 7: the arrangements, Becca was obviously really excited. Up very early
27:18
Speaker 7: in the morning, she'd chosen her clothes really carefully, she'd
27:22
Speaker 7: painted her nails, she'd done her hair really carefully, put
27:26
Speaker 7: on a bit of makeup. Basically done everything she could
27:30
Speaker 7: to make herself beautiful for him. Hoping, hoping this was
27:36
Speaker 7: the moment when they were gonna get back together, when
27:38
Speaker 7: everything was gonna be okay.
27:47
Speaker 13: There was romance in the air as far as she
27:49
Speaker 13: was concerned, not violence and certainly not murder.
28:07
Speaker 1: For Joshua Davies, this was to be the climax of
28:10
Speaker 1: his deadly battle for control over Becca. While Josh hung
28:14
Speaker 1: out with his friends Liam and Daniel here at Daniel's house,
28:17
Speaker 1: Rebecca called to say she was ready and would be
28:20
Speaker 1: there soon. As soon as Josh hung up the phone,
28:23
Speaker 1: in a sing-along voice, he started singing, He explicitly told
28:28
Speaker 1: his friends he was going to meet Rebecca and then
28:31
Speaker 1: he was going to kill her. He said he'd be
28:33
Speaker 1: back soon because he didn't think it.
28:35
Speaker 2: Would take too long.
28:37
Speaker 1: Why on earth didn't Liam and Daniel take him seriously?
28:41
Speaker 1: Why didn't they take him at his word?
28:50
Speaker 9: Clearly, he's getting very excited about what he's going to
28:53
Speaker 9: do because this is something that he has been looking
28:57
Speaker 9: forward to. I think his friends must have suspected he
29:03
Speaker 9: was going to hurt her and he was going to
29:06
Speaker 9: bully her, but I don't think they thought he was
29:08
Speaker 9: going to kill her.
29:24
Speaker 1: Becca arrived at the meeting point as arranged, but with
29:27
Speaker 1: no sign of Davies and worried he'd stood her up,
29:30
Speaker 1: she called.
29:30
Speaker 2: Her mother Sonia.
29:31
Speaker 1: But then Becca spotted Davies coming to meet her and
29:35
Speaker 1: ended the call, saying goodbye to her mother for the
29:38
Speaker 1: very last time.
29:40
Speaker 7: He takes her up to Pennsylvania Woods, which is a
29:43
Speaker 7: spot where a lot of the local kids would go
29:45
Speaker 7: and hang out. Though, as Sonia said, not a place
29:49
Speaker 7: Becca would have ever hung out. She wasn't the sort
29:54
Speaker 7: of girl who'd go tramping through the woods. It remains
29:57
Speaker 7: a mystery why she went up with him willingly. We'll
30:03
Speaker 7: never know.
30:21
Speaker 1: Soon after entering the woods, Davies turned on Becca. First,
30:33
Speaker 1: he tried to break her neck. But when that failed,
30:43
Speaker 1: he grabbed a large rock. And bludgeoned Becca to death.
31:15
Speaker 9: The murder was brutal, far more violent than was necessary
31:21
Speaker 9: to just kill Rebecca. I think that he enjoyed hurting her.
31:33
Speaker 8: That would have been the most distressing and horrific sight
31:37
Speaker 8: to see, and yet he coolly does it, and then, so,
31:44
Speaker 8: so calculating, when his friend says, are you with Rebecca?
31:50
Speaker 8: He replies, define with. That comment makes the hearse stand
31:56
Speaker 8: up on the back.
31:57
Speaker 5: Of your neck.
31:59
Speaker 9: She had no idea it was coming, which... probably in
32:02
Speaker 9: a lot of ways is a blessing. It would be
32:04
Speaker 9: worse if she had lots of defensive wounds and knew
32:08
Speaker 9: exactly what was happening to her. So we can take
32:10
Speaker 9: maybe some blessing from the fact that she probably died
32:14
Speaker 9: quite quickly not knowing what was happening.
32:26
Speaker 1: I wonder if Davies had planned to murder Becca from
32:29
Speaker 1: the moment his social media vendetta began. Criminologist Dr Liz
32:33
Speaker 1: Yardley and psychologist Mike Berry might have the answer.
32:37
Speaker 2: Is Joshua a psychopath?
32:40
Speaker 12: Well, he's somebody who does display some psychopathic traits and behaviours,
32:44
Speaker 12: I think. So there's a lack of remorse, there's a
32:46
Speaker 12: lack of empathy, there's a failure to accept responsibility for
32:50
Speaker 12: his own actions. There's a manipulativeness about him.
32:53
Speaker 5: I disagree with you.
32:55
Speaker 4: I don't think there's anything in his history to suggest
32:58
Speaker 4: that he was psychopathic.
32:59
Speaker 1: Control, narcissism, lack of remorse, manipulation, kind of bullying, humiliations
33:05
Speaker 1: upon his friends.
33:06
Speaker 4: No history of any antisocial behaviour, no history of criminality
33:10
Speaker 4: that we would expect to see in a 16-year-old psychopath.
33:15
Speaker 12: I suppose I think of psychopathy as a spectrum. At
33:18
Speaker 12: one extreme end, you have got people who are undoubtedly psychopaths,
33:22
Speaker 12: at the other end, people who absolutely aren't. And I
33:24
Speaker 12: do think he is kind of occupying this middle ground here.
33:28
Speaker 12: But what we really need to remember here is that
33:30
Speaker 12: he knew exactly what he was doing when he killed her.
33:33
Speaker 12: He knew what he was doing was wrong. So let's
33:35
Speaker 12: not kind of labour under the impression that he was
33:38
Speaker 12: out of his mind or that he wasn't responsible for this.
33:41
Speaker 12: When we look at the fact that he doesn't have
33:42
Speaker 12: a history of violence, many people think, well, that's really shocking.
33:46
Speaker 12: He literally turns overnight from this average schoolboy into this killer.
33:49
Speaker 12: But actually what he has got a history of is
33:51
Speaker 12: controlling and jealous and possessive behaviour. That is the biggest
33:56
Speaker 12: risk factor.
33:59
Speaker 1: In 2010, the village of Aberkenwig in Wales was shocked
34:04
Speaker 1: by the brutal murder of a teenage girl by her
34:07
Speaker 1: ex-boyfriend following months of vicious threats on social media. This
34:12
Speaker 1: is where 15-year-old Rebecca Aylward took her final stand. She
34:17
Speaker 1: was invited up here by her ex-boyfriend, Joshua Davies.
34:22
Speaker 2: She thought he was going to ask her out again.
34:24
Speaker 1: Instead, he battered her head in with a stone and
34:27
Speaker 1: left her lying face down in the ground. Joshua then
34:31
Speaker 1: texted his friends, Liam and Daniel, and asked them to
34:34
Speaker 1: meet him up here in the forest. But Liam had
34:36
Speaker 1: a bad leg and was left behind. But when Daniel
34:39
Speaker 1: arrived here and connected with Joshua, he saw Rebecca lying
34:43
Speaker 1: on the ground and immediately realised what had happened.
34:48
Speaker 2: Joshua had done what he said he'd do.
35:00
Speaker 9: He called his friends up to see the body because
35:03
Speaker 9: he was proud of what he'd done. He'd actually gone
35:07
Speaker 9: through with what he said he was going to do
35:09
Speaker 9: and he thought that when his friends saw that, he'd.
35:11
Speaker 5: Be the hero.
35:15
Speaker 10: Daniel claimed that when he saw Rebecca's body lying on
35:18
Speaker 10: the floor, he said it felt like he'd walked into
35:20
Speaker 10: a cold shower. He suddenly felt numb, he felt very
35:24
Speaker 10: dizzy and shuddery, and it didn't seem real. And he
35:28
Speaker 10: immediately wanted to get away from there. Davies was completely different.
35:34
Speaker 10: He seemed to be more concerned that he didn't have
35:36
Speaker 10: any blood on himself. So already he was thinking about
35:40
Speaker 10: getting his way out of this situation.
35:43
Speaker 7: Davis then tells him that he's killed her by hitting
35:46
Speaker 7: her with a rock and that he had to kill
35:48
Speaker 7: her with a rock because she wouldn't stop screaming.
35:51
Speaker 5: He says that.
35:53
Speaker 7: He's tried to kill her by strangling her and also
35:56
Speaker 7: getting her in a neck hold, as he put it,
35:59
Speaker 7: but that it was too difficult. And apparently he relates
36:03
Speaker 7: all this to Daniel with absolutely no emotion, no remorse, nothing.
36:12
Speaker 1: Davies and Daniel left the forest, met up with Liam
36:16
Speaker 1: and went to Daniel's house. Davies told Liam to delete
36:20
Speaker 1: all his messages from that day and said, if anyone asks,
36:24
Speaker 1: I've been here with you all the time.
36:28
Speaker 2: Liam agreed to keep his secret.
36:31
Speaker 3: Davies does what most offenders will try and do, which
36:34
Speaker 3: is to cover their tracks. This is suddenly the classic
36:38
Speaker 3: case of not understanding technology and messaging. thinking if you
36:42
Speaker 3: delete them, they've gone. We know that they haven't gone.
36:45
Speaker 1: Davies' friends agreed to be his alibi. He then went
36:49
Speaker 1: online to back up his story, saying on Facebook, Joshua
36:53
Speaker 1: D is still chilling with Liam and Daniel. Davies even
36:57
Speaker 1: referred obliquely to a playful bet from one of his friends,
37:00
Speaker 1: offering him a free breakfast if he killed Becca.
37:05
Speaker 10: The next behaviours we see from Davies are him laying
37:08
Speaker 10: the groundwork of his alibis. posting on social media that
37:12
Speaker 10: he'd been relaxing all day watching videos, providing this very
37:16
Speaker 10: dark joke about having had a great breakfast that day. Again,
37:20
Speaker 10: this just shows the amount of disregard he had for
37:23
Speaker 10: human life by making that very sick joke.
37:28
Speaker 1: Later that day, when Becca didn't return home, her mom
37:31
Speaker 1: rang Davies and asked him where she was. He said
37:35
Speaker 1: they hadn't met up in the end and he thought
37:37
Speaker 1: she'd gone to see a different Josh instead. Becca couldn't
37:43
Speaker 1: be located and as news of her disappearance spread, her
37:47
Speaker 1: friends started messaging each other online. Chillingly, the person who
37:52
Speaker 1: knew exactly where she was joined in.
37:55
Speaker 7: He is just basically calmly going through the process of
38:07
Speaker 7: covering his tracks, making sure that everybody is looking elsewhere.
38:17
Speaker 5: He probably wants to run.
38:19
Speaker 3: He probably wants to get as far away as possible,
38:20
Speaker 3: but he can't do that because that shows guilt.
38:23
Speaker 5: So he's in a quandary.
38:24
Speaker 3: So you've got a bit of chaotic behaviour going on
38:26
Speaker 3: here that he's doing bits of everything. He's trying to
38:29
Speaker 3: control his friends, he's trying to control evidence, but he's
38:31
Speaker 3: also trying to be this wonderful person that school and
38:35
Speaker 3: friends think he is, this wonderful, great guy.
38:37
Speaker 5: But he can't be both.
38:39
Speaker 9: And he probably thought he was being quite clever, and
38:42
Speaker 9: with the kind of narcissistic personality that he had, He
38:46
Speaker 9: wouldn't even have considered that he wasn't cleverer than everybody else.
38:53
Speaker 3: There will always be an element of naivety in most
38:57
Speaker 3: offended behaviour.
38:58
Speaker 5: Did he really believe he could get away with murder?
39:03
Speaker 3: He's trying to get rid of his digital footprint, but
39:06
Speaker 3: he's actually shown and admitted murder to a friend by
39:08
Speaker 3: showing them the body.
39:11
Speaker 5: How does that work?
39:13
Speaker 2: So.
39:14
Speaker 5: In many ways, it's this control.
39:16
Speaker 3: He was proud of what he did, but in the
39:19
Speaker 3: other aspect, naive in that he felt he wanted to
39:22
Speaker 3: get away with it, but he couldn't. So there is naivety,
39:26
Speaker 3: but there's also pride in what he actually achieved.
39:28
Speaker 5: That's very dangerous.
39:34
Speaker 1: Despite Davey's attempts to cover his tracks online and delete
39:37
Speaker 1: various text messages, the net was already closing in. By 7.45am,
39:43
Speaker 1: Liam had already cracked, telling his parents everything he knew
39:47
Speaker 1: about the murder. Shortly after, the police arrested Josh, Liam
39:51
Speaker 1: and Daniel and brought them here to Cardiff Bay Police Station.
39:55
Speaker 1: But Davies still brazened it out. He told the police that, yes,
39:59
Speaker 1: Rebecca was murdered, but he didn't do it.
40:02
Speaker 2: He blamed his best friend, Daniel.
40:10
Speaker 7: One of the other things I find really, really shocking
40:13
Speaker 7: is the... with which he apparently decided he'd fit up
40:18
Speaker 7: his supposed best friend. It almost beggars belief that he
40:22
Speaker 7: thought that anybody would possibly believe him.
40:27
Speaker 9: He wouldn't have thought twice about blaming somebody else, and
40:31
Speaker 9: he would have been very happy to see that person
40:34
Speaker 9: go to prison, probably, for it, with no remorse whatsoever.
40:42
Speaker 1: Throughout the trial, Davies protested his innocence and constantly blamed
40:47
Speaker 1: his best friend Daniel for Becca's murder. But the jury
40:51
Speaker 1: found Davies guilty and he was jailed for life with
40:55
Speaker 1: a minimum of 14 years.
40:57
Speaker 13: A trial, he appeared to be distant. as if he
41:12
Speaker 13: had no interest in his own trial, in his own future.
41:15
Speaker 13: I think at that age, it should be terrifying to
41:19
Speaker 13: be told that if you're found guilty, the sentence will
41:22
Speaker 13: have to be one of life imprisonment. To a boy
41:25
Speaker 13: of that age, no more girlfriends, no university, no freedom,
41:29
Speaker 13: for who knows how.
41:30
Speaker 5: Many years, but he showed no reaction.
41:34
Speaker 1: As a criminologist, I know it's possible to group online
41:37
Speaker 1: killers into different categories, such as predator, imposter.
41:42
Speaker 2: or reactor.
41:43
Speaker 1: I'm meeting experts Dr Liz Yardley and psychologist Mike Berry
41:47
Speaker 1: to find out what sort of social media murderer Davies was.
41:52
Speaker 2: Liz, what kind of killer was Davies?
41:54
Speaker 12: Well, I'd describe Davies as an informer type of killer
41:58
Speaker 12: who uses social media. And this is the type of
42:00
Speaker 12: person who will use social media to communicate an intention
42:04
Speaker 12: to kill somebody, to inform their social media followers that
42:08
Speaker 12: they have just killed someone, or both. So they're using
42:11
Speaker 12: it as a communicative tool around murder.
42:13
Speaker 1: Why was he so keen to tell everybody what he
42:16
Speaker 1: was going to do if he didn't care what they thought?
42:18
Speaker 12: Well, I think for him it was a performance, essentially.
42:21
Speaker 12: It was asserting power, because... he felt that he'd lost
42:25
Speaker 12: quite a lot of control in that relationship with Rebecca.
42:29
Speaker 12: But here was a way of having a new kind
42:31
Speaker 12: of status, a new identity. So I think that was
42:34
Speaker 12: something that he gained quite a lot of pleasure from.
42:36
Speaker 1: Without social media, do you think Rebecca would still be
42:39
Speaker 1: alive today?
42:40
Speaker 4: I think there's a possibility without it that after a
42:43
Speaker 4: couple of months, they would have broken up from school
42:46
Speaker 4: and they would have gone their separate ways. So in
42:48
Speaker 4: many ways, the internet kept the fire going and sped
42:52
Speaker 4: up the whole process.
42:54
Speaker 2: What caused these murderous thoughts in the first place?
42:58
Speaker 4: I think he didn't like being out of control. I
43:02
Speaker 4: think he didn't like the threat that had to his
43:05
Speaker 4: ego to have somebody in control of things when he
43:09
Speaker 4: wanted to be in control.
43:10
Speaker 2: Liz, how could this tragedy have been avoided?
43:13
Speaker 12: I think the key thing that we need to be
43:15
Speaker 12: looking at here isn't necessarily social media, but young people's
43:18
Speaker 12: relationships and the nature of those relationships. Now, teenagers do
43:22
Speaker 12: tend to be quite intense in terms of their emotions.
43:26
Speaker 12: But when you see the kind of controlling and jealous
43:28
Speaker 12: and possessive behavior that Dave has exhibited towards Rebecca, that's
43:32
Speaker 12: a cause for concern for me. And that's where we
43:34
Speaker 12: need to educate young people. But it's that intensity, that
43:37
Speaker 12: pressure cooker that social media can sometimes become has played
43:41
Speaker 12: quite a large role in this case.
43:46
Speaker 1: The unreal world of social media created an environment where
43:50
Speaker 1: a bright young teenager literally talked himself.
43:53
Speaker 2: Into the act of murder.
43:55
Speaker 1: Online threats are no less real than the spoken word,
43:59
Speaker 1: and in this instance, led to a needless and tragic murder.
44:40
Speaker 10: Thank you.