Latest / History Dark / A Race-Hate Murder_ The Horrific Case of 15-Year-Old Kriss Donald _ True Crime Central
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: The body of a schoolboy has been discovered in Scotland.
- 0:06Speaker 2: This is probably one of their most difficult scenes to examine.
- 0:10Speaker 2: It can be incredibly emotional, but as a suicide, you've
- 0:13Speaker 2: got a job to do.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Detectives believe he'd been abducted.
- 0:16Speaker 3: I imagine how long that journey would have felt if
- 0:19Speaker 3: you thought at any moment you.
- 0:21Speaker 4: Were going to die.
- 0:22Speaker 1: An international manhunt is launched.
- 0:25Speaker 4: One of the most demanding murder investigations Scotland's ever seen.
- 0:30Speaker 1: The forensic team must act fast. to find evidence of
- 0:33Speaker 1: the killer at the crime scene.
- 0:36Speaker 2: No matter how careful offenders think they've been, we will
- 0:38Speaker 2: always find a trace at a crime scene.
- 0:42Speaker 1: MUSIC The body of a young boy has been discovered
- 1:04Speaker 1: on an isolated pathway in the early hours of the morning.
- 1:11Speaker 1: He has suffered multiple stab wounds and his clothes have
- 1:14Speaker 1: been burned from his body. The entire area is cordoned
- 1:19Speaker 1: off and senior investigating officer Elliot McKenzie is called to
- 1:24Speaker 1: the scene.
- 1:24Speaker 4: When I got down here, it was a young boy.
- 1:28Speaker 4: His body was lying almost exactly where the bench that
- 1:31Speaker 4: you see there is. He'd suffered considerable burns. I don't
- 1:39Speaker 4: think there's a word to put. He's describing how I felt.
- 1:44Speaker 2: A murder of a child can be one of the
- 1:45Speaker 2: most horrendous crimes known. It can be potentially quite an
- 1:49Speaker 2: emotional experience for the suicide investigators investigating them, particularly if
- 1:54Speaker 2: they've got children of their own. It can be very disturbing.
- 1:58Speaker 1: The previous afternoon, a boy was reported to have been
- 2:01Speaker 1: violently abducted in broad daylight from the other side of
- 2:04Speaker 1: the city.
- 2:05Speaker 4: We put people around about, stopped people in the streets.
- 2:09Speaker 4: We were trying to find out what happened to the
- 2:11Speaker 4: young boy.
- 2:12Speaker 5: An operation involving 40 officers is underway after a crime
- 2:16Speaker 5: to horrify even this city.
- 2:19Speaker 1: The missing child was named as 15-year-old Chris Donald.
- 2:24Speaker 4: A totally innocent boy, 15 years of age. No previous
- 2:32Speaker 4: background of trouble. I can't imagine what Chris was going
- 2:37Speaker 4: through at that point in time. It's unimaginable. Unimaginable.
- 2:43Speaker 3: A brazen abduction in broad daylight of a young boy,
- 2:47Speaker 3: you know, a 15-year-old. A particularly brutal murder. It's horrible.
- 2:55Speaker 1: A team of officers investigate who abducted Chris Donald whilst
- 2:59Speaker 1: Elliot and his team begin to search the crime scene
- 3:01Speaker 1: for any forensic evidence.
- 3:03Speaker 2: You have to remember that you're not there as a
- 3:05Speaker 2: family member or a relative. You're there as a professional
- 3:08Speaker 2: to almost try and detach yourself from the emotional side.
- 3:11Speaker 2: You've got a job to do.
- 3:14Speaker 1: Crime scene expert Sarah Thirkle has over 25 years' experience
- 3:18Speaker 1: in the field.
- 3:20Speaker 2: Where the body was found was an outdoor scene, and
- 3:22Speaker 2: this is probably one of the most difficult scenes to examine.
- 3:26Speaker 2: It was on a public footpath next to a river,
- 3:30Speaker 2: so it needs to be protected from the elements, it
- 3:33Speaker 2: needs to be protected from members of the public. We
- 3:35Speaker 2: really are working against the clock to recover as much
- 3:38Speaker 2: forensic evidence as you can in case anything's lost.
- 3:42Speaker 1: In order to develop a forensic strategy, the investigation need
- 3:45Speaker 1: to ascertain what happened at the scene.
- 3:46Speaker 4: Do we think that this body was killed here or
- 3:50Speaker 4: killed elsewhere and then dumped here? Because that makes a
- 3:54Speaker 4: difference into... Our investigative command.
- 3:58Speaker 2: A body that's been injured so badly and also burnt
- 4:01Speaker 2: is incredibly fragile. A pathologist is called to examine the
- 4:04Speaker 2: body in situ. This is to try and process any
- 4:07Speaker 2: trace evidence on the victim as soon as possible. And
- 4:11Speaker 2: they would take swabs from skin surfaces or any swabs
- 4:14Speaker 2: from injuries that they could see whilst trying not to
- 4:18Speaker 2: disturb the body any further.
- 4:19Speaker 1: The CSIs begin their search at the body and fan
- 4:24Speaker 1: out across the scene.
- 4:25Speaker 4: I found some blood staining in the grass. Followed that
- 4:31Speaker 4: staining up. Bits of blood could easily be traced back
- 4:36Speaker 4: to this area here, where the undergrowth's up, where there
- 4:40Speaker 4: were 20 or 30 logs, maybe 10 feet in length,
- 4:45Speaker 4: here piled up. There was evidence of charring and a
- 4:49Speaker 4: strong smell of accelerant. The churning would indicate this young
- 4:55Speaker 4: person sat down on those logs and possibly exhaled and
- 5:00Speaker 4: poured over them and set alight.
- 5:06Speaker 3: At the crime scene, there was a range of forensic evidence. Firstly,
- 5:10Speaker 3: there was clear evidence that a burning had taken place
- 5:13Speaker 3: in the logs, which the scientists who attended interpreted as
- 5:16Speaker 3: being a site of attack. But the body wasn't found there.
- 5:19Speaker 3: The body was found some short distance away The obvious
- 5:24Speaker 3: inference in putting this together is that the victim had
- 5:28Speaker 3: moved to where his body was found and he had
- 5:31Speaker 3: died there.
- 5:33Speaker 4: He had possibly ran maybe towards the river. I had
- 5:38Speaker 4: found water there. And it looked to me that perhaps
- 5:43Speaker 4: he lay down in that puddle and was trying to
- 5:45Speaker 4: put the fire out. And that's really the position that
- 5:48Speaker 4: we found him in. Clothes had more or less melted.
- 5:52Speaker 4: And he was lying in a kind of fetal position.
- 5:59Speaker 1: Clyde Walkway is declared the scene of the murder. Chris's
- 6:04Speaker 1: body is sent for a post-mortem examination while detectives look
- 6:07Speaker 1: for investigative leads.
- 6:10Speaker 4: The normal strategies would be house to house. Let's get
- 6:14Speaker 4: some witnesses. And clearly, in a place like that, there
- 6:17Speaker 4: were no witnesses. No lighting. There was no CCTV. So
- 6:22Speaker 4: what was in front of us was all we were
- 6:24Speaker 4: going to get from that scene. And it was key
- 6:26Speaker 4: that we did that meticulously.
- 6:29Speaker 2: Obviously, at the time of any investigation, you're not sure
- 6:31Speaker 2: what evidence is relevant and what isn't relevant. So it's
- 6:35Speaker 2: our objective to take as much forensic evidence from that
- 6:38Speaker 2: scene because we don't know what may be important later
- 6:41Speaker 2: on in the investigation.
- 6:43Speaker 3: Also found at the crime scene were some tire tracks.
- 6:46Speaker 3: It was obviously important they were sampled speedily because again
- 6:49Speaker 3: if the weather comes in and changes them then evidence
- 6:53Speaker 3: might be lost.
- 6:53Speaker 2: It's possible to ascertain what vehicle has made that tyre
- 6:58Speaker 2: track mark because you could measure the distance between the
- 7:02Speaker 2: tyres and therefore measure the potential size of the chassis
- 7:06Speaker 2: of the vehicle and work out what actual vehicles made
- 7:10Speaker 2: the tyre track marks at a crime scene. They will
- 7:13Speaker 2: cast them with casting materials which is a little bit
- 7:16Speaker 2: like plaster of Paris. So the casting material is mixed
- 7:20Speaker 2: up at the scene and then it's poured very carefully
- 7:22Speaker 2: into the tyre track. This actually takes an impression of
- 7:27Speaker 2: the tyre track mark, which can then be examined by
- 7:30Speaker 2: a forensic scientist.
- 7:34Speaker 3: Tyre marks are a bit like shoe marks. Although they're
- 7:36Speaker 3: mass produced and they're in standard patterns, they also wear
- 7:40Speaker 3: and change as they are used. And many view this
- 7:45Speaker 3: combination of original pattern and pattern of wear as unique characteristics.
- 7:51Speaker 1: The CSIs continue the forensic harvest and the results are
- 7:54Speaker 1: in from the post-mortem examination.
- 7:57Speaker 2: The samples that were taken from the body at the
- 7:59Speaker 2: side of the river revealed no trace evidence and no DNA.
- 8:02Speaker 2: This is probably because that evidence has been destroyed by
- 8:05Speaker 2: the fire. A pathologist is able to ascertain if someone's
- 8:10Speaker 2: been alive while they've been burning. Then there'd be soot
- 8:14Speaker 2: in the lungs and also in the air passages going
- 8:17Speaker 2: down to the lungs. In this case, the young boy
- 8:20Speaker 2: was alive when he was set on fire. It's quite
- 8:25Speaker 2: disturbing that human beings could actually do that to somebody.
- 8:29Speaker 2: It begs belief that there are individuals that can do
- 8:32Speaker 2: that to people.
- 8:34Speaker 4: The post-mortem revealed that he had suffered 13 stab wounds,
- 8:39Speaker 4: seven to the chest and abdomen. five to the back
- 8:42Speaker 4: and one through the arm. But two of those stab
- 8:45Speaker 4: wounds would have been fatal. Had he survived the fire,
- 8:50Speaker 4: he still probably had no chance, no chance whatsoever. It's unimaginable.
- 8:58Speaker 4: According to the pathologist, there was a total lack of
- 9:02Speaker 4: defence wounds, which troubled me greatly.
- 9:10Speaker 2: Defence injuries are where someone's tried to defend themselves, so
- 9:13Speaker 2: if they know they're going to be attacked, they'll put
- 9:15Speaker 2: their arms up or their hands up, and quite often
- 9:18Speaker 2: you'll find defence injuries on their wrists or on the
- 9:21Speaker 2: side of their hands. If there are no defence injuries,
- 9:25Speaker 2: they've been restrained by a second individual or third individual,
- 9:29Speaker 2: so they've not been able to defend themselves.
- 9:34Speaker 1: The report implies there may be multiple suspects. and with
- 9:37Speaker 1: just a tyre track cast recovered from the crime scene,
- 9:41Speaker 1: the detectives are hoping the abduction site may provide some
- 9:44Speaker 1: new leads.
- 9:49Speaker 4: I saw my responsibility in being dedicated and leave no
- 9:53Speaker 4: stone unturned to resolve this.
- 10:00Speaker 6: This.
- 10:01Speaker 1: On 15 March 2004, schoolboy Chris Donald was abducted. His
- 10:06Speaker 1: body was later discovered on an isolated walkway on the
- 10:10Speaker 1: other side of the city.
- 10:11Speaker 7: The terrified teenager bringing him here to this deserted pathway
- 10:15Speaker 7: to the east of the city. They then stabbed Chris.
- 10:18Speaker 7: and set him alight whilst he was still alive.
- 10:21Speaker 1: The CSIs managed to recover a tyre track impression from
- 10:24Speaker 1: the crime scene. But with a lack of witnesses and CCTV,
- 10:28Speaker 1: the detectives hoped to get some fresh leads from the
- 10:30Speaker 1: scene of the abduction.
- 10:32Speaker 3: An abduction of that type, it's unlikely to yield very
- 10:35Speaker 3: much because it's a very quick event. The key focus
- 10:40Speaker 3: would be who else had witnessed this? Had anyone else
- 10:43Speaker 3: seen it? A friend of the victim, Jamie Wallace... who
- 10:48Speaker 3: saw a car containing five Asian men pulled up beside
- 10:53Speaker 3: him and his friend.
- 10:55Speaker 6: Jamie Wallace was left standing in Kenmuir Street, concerned the
- 10:59Speaker 6: men who took his friend would come back for him.
- 11:01Speaker 4: They were saying, do you know what pain is?
- 11:03Speaker 2: You're next.
- 11:04Speaker 4: They were saying I was next. A very traumatic incident
- 11:06Speaker 4: of an abduction in broad daylight of a young boy
- 11:08Speaker 4: had been grabbed in the street, punched, kicked, leaving poor
- 11:13Speaker 4: Chris clinging to the railings of the bowling green. Screaming,
- 11:17Speaker 4: I'm 15 years old, what have I done? Why me?
- 11:19Speaker 4: That's appalling.
- 11:23Speaker 5: In this working-class and strongly Asian quarter of Glasgow, which
- 11:27Speaker 5: has seen more than its share of gang and drug-related violence.
- 11:31Speaker 4: When the abduction happened, the shops nearby all slammed their
- 11:35Speaker 4: shutters and wanted nothing to do with it. All of
- 11:40Speaker 4: a sudden, CCTV wasn't working in that area. To say
- 11:44Speaker 4: we were met with... Blanket of uncooperation was probably an understatement.
- 11:51Speaker 1: In the early 2000s, Glasgow was considered the murder capital
- 11:54Speaker 1: of Europe.
- 11:56Speaker 4: Glasgow in 2004 hit a peak. There were three times
- 11:59Speaker 4: more murders in Glasgow than there were in London. And
- 12:03Speaker 4: that was generally due to organised criminal gangs. So their
- 12:07Speaker 4: feuds then became, from the violent attacks, the brutal beatings,
- 12:12Speaker 4: stabbings to shootings.
- 12:15Speaker 3: Where you have gangs and organised crime, each crime is
- 12:19Speaker 3: related to some other crime. Drug supplies is related to
- 12:23Speaker 3: drugs importation and you get turf wars over drugs.
- 12:27Speaker 4: I mean violence is a way.
- 12:28Speaker 3: Of life to them, it's an occupational hazard. They are
- 12:31Speaker 3: running rackets, they are threatening people and attacking people and
- 12:35Speaker 3: injuring them. So it means that things can happen and
- 12:38Speaker 3: they can rely on the fact that no one will
- 12:40Speaker 3: come forward to identify them or be witnesses.
- 12:45Speaker 1: With the lack of witnesses willing to speak on record,
- 12:49Speaker 1: the detectives must work with the information they have to
- 12:51Speaker 1: try and identify any suspects.
- 12:55Speaker 2: At this stage of the inquiry, we have two separate
- 12:57Speaker 2: crime scenes. We have the deposition site, so where some
- 13:00Speaker 2: tire track marks. And then we also have the abduction site,
- 13:05Speaker 2: where there's been a sighting of a silver vehicle. So
- 13:08Speaker 2: it's really the silver vehicle that potentially is going to
- 13:11Speaker 2: tie these two scenes together.
- 13:14Speaker 3: Vehicles are generally registered, so you can quite quickly find
- 13:17Speaker 3: out who owns this vehicle. They can put out bulletins
- 13:20Speaker 3: to watch out for particular vehicles, which means it's an
- 13:23Speaker 3: important line of inquiry in the case.
- 13:26Speaker 1: By checking recent reports, the police have identified a silver
- 13:30Speaker 1: car stolen three months ago. They lean on a notorious
- 13:36Speaker 1: car thief for information that may help them identify a suspect.
- 13:43Speaker 4: Went to prison and spoke to an individual who admitted
- 13:47Speaker 4: stealing the car. So we now knew that we were
- 13:50Speaker 4: looking for this Mercedes car.
- 13:55Speaker 1: The convicted car thief tells detectives that he sold the
- 13:58Speaker 1: Mercedes to a well-known gang leader from the south side
- 14:01Speaker 1: of Glasgow called Imran Shahid.
- 14:06Speaker 4: He's a 27-year-old man, a bodybuilder. He abused steroids. which
- 14:12Speaker 4: added to his mood swings, his propensity to violence. A
- 14:15Speaker 4: powerful figure who saw himself as a godfather of the gang.
- 14:21Speaker 3: Another broader line of inquiry will be, who is Imran
- 14:24Speaker 3: Shahid associated with? Because that's who the other four men
- 14:28Speaker 3: are likely to be. So they want to know their
- 14:30Speaker 3: identities and then take the case from there.
- 14:34Speaker 1: The team steps up its search for Imran Shahid and
- 14:37Speaker 1: the silver Mercedes. and several 999 calls come in that
- 14:41Speaker 1: could be linked to Chris's murder.
- 14:45Speaker 4: Monday 15th of March 2004, ten past eight at night,
- 14:52Speaker 4: a number of 999 calls were received about a Mercedes motorcar,
- 14:58Speaker 4: silver in colour, a blaze. My forensic team arrived. with
- 15:10Speaker 4: a face with a burnt-out car.
- 15:13Speaker 2: CSIs will quite often spend a long time examining a
- 15:15Speaker 2: burnt-out vehicle. It's quite difficult for us to retrieve any
- 15:19Speaker 2: forensic evidence because it's been doused in water.
- 15:23Speaker 1: Despite the car having been ablaze, the CSIs may have
- 15:27Speaker 1: a potential lead.
- 15:29Speaker 2: The tyres had survived, which is an excellent piece of evidence.
- 15:32Speaker 2: This was then recovered and sent off for further forensic examination.
- 15:38Speaker 1: The forensics continue to examine the burnt-out car, whilst Elliot
- 15:42Speaker 1: receives a call from the Organised Crime Intelligence Unit.
- 15:45Speaker 4: Some very experienced detectives came from the south side of
- 15:48Speaker 4: Glasgow and gave us the full intelligence picture on the
- 15:53Speaker 4: Asian gangs and their likely candidates.
- 15:57Speaker 1: They have identified Imran Shahid's four criminal associates. Imran's younger brother,
- 16:03Speaker 1: 25-year-old Jishan Shahid, also known as Crazy, Mohammed Faizal Mushtaq,
- 16:10Speaker 1: who was known as Beck, Danish Zahid, and also Zahid Mohammed,
- 16:15Speaker 1: known as Ziggy, who was on early release from prison
- 16:18Speaker 1: and wearing a security tag.
- 16:21Speaker 4: We believe these were the five individuals involved, which is great,
- 16:26Speaker 4: but they then have to build the case against them.
- 16:28Speaker 4: The five individuals I'm talking about here are part of
- 16:31Speaker 4: a gang, an organised criminal gang.
- 16:35Speaker 8: Gangs often serve as a pseudo-family and work in a
- 16:38Speaker 8: hierarchical system with a gang leader in place. If a
- 16:42Speaker 8: gang member has the intention to harm somebody else, then
- 16:46Speaker 8: it's likely that other group members may follow and take
- 16:50Speaker 8: part in the commission of the act of crime.
- 16:52Speaker 3: What was unusual about this case was it wasn't clear
- 16:56Speaker 3: why this gang of men abducted a 15-year-old white boy.
- 17:02Speaker 4: Because he just kept himself to himself. Not involved in
- 17:05Speaker 4: the gang culture. Just a totally innocent boy. With, I think,
- 17:10Speaker 4: a big heart. He was a keen football player and
- 17:13Speaker 4: had aspirations, but never got the chance to fulfil that.
- 17:19Speaker 1: Whilst the police search for the five suspects, the intelligence
- 17:23Speaker 1: unit have news of a recent altercation outside a nightclub
- 17:27Speaker 1: between Imran's gang and another rival gang.
- 17:34Speaker 4: We believe a bottle had been thrown, which perhaps hit
- 17:38Speaker 4: Imran Shaheed. He tried to chase them, to grab one
- 17:42Speaker 4: of them. And they got away and they were taunting him.
- 17:47Speaker 4: That could negatively impact on his criminal street credibility.
- 17:52Speaker 8: Gang rivalry often involves a continual cycle of retaliated violence.
- 17:58Speaker 8: And in this case, it's saving the reputation that appeared
- 18:02Speaker 8: to be of paramount importance, regardless of the way in
- 18:06Speaker 8: which it was carried out. It may be that he
- 18:08Speaker 8: needed to act fast to show to the community and
- 18:12Speaker 8: the gangs that he could assert his power.
- 18:15Speaker 4: He spent the whole night articulating his rage and planning
- 18:21Speaker 4: his revenge to re-establish his street credibility. And that is
- 18:26Speaker 4: the sole motivation. and to go and look for their
- 18:31Speaker 4: ideal target. But this was a 15-year-old boy, not some
- 18:35Speaker 4: other gangster who had been involved in criminality all his day.
- 18:40Speaker 4: And Chris just happened to be walking with Jamie. And
- 18:42Speaker 4: that's how he was targeted. He wasn't targeted, he was
- 18:45Speaker 4: just there. You've heard it expressed many times, wrong place,
- 18:48Speaker 4: wrong time. That sums up poor Chris's demise.
- 18:54Speaker 1: The detectives now have a motive for the murder. As
- 18:58Speaker 1: Elliot's team prepares to simultaneously arrest the five suspects, there
- 19:03Speaker 1: is some positive news from the forensics lab.
- 19:07Speaker 2: On this occasion, one of the tyres on the vehicle
- 19:09Speaker 2: did match the tyre cast that was taken from the
- 19:12Speaker 2: crime scene. So a forensic scientist was able to say
- 19:16Speaker 2: that that tyre had made that mark at the crime scene.
- 19:20Speaker 1: The police have linked the vehicle to the murder scene
- 19:23Speaker 1: and despite it being set on fire, the scientists have
- 19:26Speaker 1: managed to salvage some crucial evidence.
- 19:30Speaker 2: When the car was examined, Cramsey investigators were able to
- 19:34Speaker 2: find blood spots across the bonnet of the vehicle, which
- 19:39Speaker 2: hadn't been destroyed by the fire. It appeared to be
- 19:42Speaker 2: arterial blood. It looked like it may well have been
- 19:45Speaker 2: from a knife wound because of the spatter and distribution
- 19:48Speaker 2: on the bonnet of the vehicle. This would indicate that
- 19:51Speaker 2: someone has been stabbed very close to the front of
- 19:55Speaker 2: that vehicle. It was possible to be able to examine
- 20:00Speaker 2: this blood and swab it and try and get a
- 20:02Speaker 2: DNA profile from the blood.
- 20:05Speaker 1: The blood is a match to Chris Donald.
- 20:09Speaker 4: This blood splatter went right across the bonnet of the
- 20:12Speaker 4: car or at the side of the car. So if
- 20:16Speaker 4: you remember, two of the wounds were fatal. That could
- 20:20Speaker 4: have been where those fatal wounds were applied.
- 20:25Speaker 1: The scientists continue to process the car in a bid
- 20:29Speaker 1: to find trace evidence of the suspects.
- 20:35Speaker 2: Although someone's burnt a vehicle out, Once you stop moving
- 20:38Speaker 2: items around within the vehicle, then sometimes you will find
- 20:41Speaker 2: evidence under the surface. It's almost like a layer of protection.
- 20:45Speaker 2: There was some melted green plastic on the back seat
- 20:47Speaker 2: of the car. And this looked like it was probably
- 20:52Speaker 2: a petrol can. Inside the boot of the car, there
- 20:55Speaker 2: was a leather jacket, which was quite badly burnt. This
- 20:59Speaker 2: was then recovered and sent off for further forensic examination.
- 21:05Speaker 1: To add to the urgency... Far-right political groups are using
- 21:09Speaker 1: the murder as propaganda.
- 21:12Speaker 3: I knew there was something odd about it and something
- 21:14Speaker 3: distinctive about it. I remember it being talked about as
- 21:19Speaker 3: racially motivated, which of course was very unusual.
- 21:24Speaker 2: They were shouting white bastards.
- 21:27Speaker 6: That's what the Asians were shouting.
- 21:28Speaker 4: They were saying, do you know what pain is? Trust me,
- 21:32Speaker 4: there was a bad feeling in that part of Glasgow.
- 21:35Speaker 4: And it could have got very violent, very violent. So
- 21:39Speaker 4: it was challenging for me as an individual, it was
- 21:42Speaker 4: challenging as a force to respond to this. And something
- 21:46Speaker 4: had to be done, quite frankly, to ease that pressure.
- 21:51Speaker 1: As the pressure mounts, there's another forensic discovery that could
- 21:55Speaker 1: be crucial to the entire case.
- 21:57Speaker 2: Inside the boot of the vehicle, there was a leather jacket.
- 22:00Speaker 2: Despite the fact it was burnt, there was an area
- 22:03Speaker 2: that was protected inside the jacket because it was folded over.
- 22:07Speaker 2: When a forensic scientist is looking at an item for
- 22:09Speaker 2: wearer's DNA, they would concentrate their examination around the neck
- 22:13Speaker 2: area and around the cuffs and maybe on the inside
- 22:17Speaker 2: of the pockets. You'd get quite a lot of skin
- 22:19Speaker 2: cells that are deposited inside jacket pockets. It was possible
- 22:23Speaker 2: to be able to obtain wearer's DNA from this jacket,
- 22:27Speaker 2: so they're able to link a jacket back to an individual.
- 22:32Speaker 1: By its nature, leather is extremely fire-resistant, and despite the
- 22:36Speaker 1: jacket being left inside the burning car, scientists have a
- 22:40Speaker 1: positive DNA match.
- 22:43Speaker 3: They found DNA matching Imran Shahid. So what this evidence
- 22:51Speaker 3: does is it links together the prime suspect, Imran Shahid,
- 22:56Speaker 3: who has left his jacket in the car, the car
- 22:59Speaker 3: that is known to have abducted Chris Donald, it is
- 23:03Speaker 3: very powerful, mutually corroborating evidence that would be very compelling
- 23:09Speaker 3: if put before a jury in court.
- 23:11Speaker 4: When we were told, we were almost in disbelief in
- 23:13Speaker 4: eminent sign kin, we were jubilant. That's all I'm going
- 23:17Speaker 4: to say. After hundreds of thousands of gallons of water
- 23:22Speaker 4: had been poured on this vehicle to extinguish it by
- 23:24Speaker 4: the fire service, how the DNA survived, we don't know.
- 23:31Speaker 3: They've got a very strong link, so the police then
- 23:34Speaker 3: can go public to try and trace Shahid as at
- 23:39Speaker 3: the very least a witness, if not a suspect in
- 23:42Speaker 3: this crime.
- 23:44Speaker 1: This breakthrough is key to the investigation. The police can
- 23:48Speaker 1: now link Imran Shahid to the crime scene. They're still
- 23:52Speaker 1: looking to link Jishan Shahid, Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, Danish Zahid
- 23:57Speaker 1: and Zahid Mohammed to the murder of Chris Donald. For Elliot,
- 24:02Speaker 1: the case was rapidly becoming the most complex of his career.
- 24:05Speaker 4: I knew it was going to be a big challenge.
- 24:07Speaker 4: I think that's probably... It was a big realisation that
- 24:10Speaker 4: this was just the beginning of a massive challenge.
- 24:19Speaker 1: In Glasgow, 15-year-old Chris Donald was abducted in broad daylight
- 24:24Speaker 1: before being murdered. The police have identified five suspects... And
- 24:30Speaker 1: the forensics have linked the gang leader, Imran Shahid, to
- 24:34Speaker 1: the car used for the crime.
- 24:39Speaker 2: This was the crucial link that linked an offender to
- 24:43Speaker 2: the jacket, to the vehicle, and therefore that vehicle to
- 24:46Speaker 2: the two scenes. But it's important to remain focused because
- 24:51Speaker 2: they would then need to build on this to find
- 24:54Speaker 2: further evidence.
- 24:55Speaker 1: Imran Shahid and the other men have yet to be located.
- 24:59Speaker 1: Detectives are still working to find evidence that links the
- 25:01Speaker 1: four other suspects.
- 25:06Speaker 2: The term forensic evidence covers a multitude of different disciplines.
- 25:14Speaker 2: A lot of people just think it's fingerprints and DNA,
- 25:17Speaker 2: but also there's digital forensics. Digital forensics is becoming a
- 25:21Speaker 2: lot more important in more recent years because everybody leaves
- 25:25Speaker 2: a digital footprint somewhere.
- 25:28Speaker 3: When you switch on a mobile phone, it logs on
- 25:31Speaker 3: to the nearest base station antenna. We usually call it
- 25:34Speaker 3: a cell site. There are cell sites, base stations all
- 25:38Speaker 3: around the country. If you move with a phone, if
- 25:40Speaker 3: you travel with a phone, you move from one base
- 25:43Speaker 3: station to another. So you can track mobile phones if
- 25:48Speaker 3: they're travelling. That cell site registers the phone's metadata. So
- 25:53Speaker 3: the phone number, transactions between that phone and any other
- 25:57Speaker 3: phone and it records the number of the phone that
- 26:00Speaker 3: is called. So what you could achieve using this kind
- 26:04Speaker 3: of evidence is that you can establish where someone is
- 26:07Speaker 3: at a particular time and perhaps where they went next.
- 26:12Speaker 3: Because every time the phone logs on to the cell site,
- 26:17Speaker 3: the time is registered. So it's a very powerful tool
- 26:22Speaker 3: for monitoring the movements of individuals, but also linking people together.
- 26:29Speaker 1: The digital forensic team have managed to track the phone
- 26:32Speaker 1: data of all five suspects.
- 26:35Speaker 4: Their phone usage and their lack of phone usage in
- 26:39Speaker 4: particular told the story. It painted the picture. Looking at
- 26:43Speaker 4: the actual connectivity, there was hundreds of calls, busy calls, texts,
- 26:50Speaker 4: And the significance was nobody was calling or texting at
- 26:53Speaker 4: the time of the abduction.
- 26:56Speaker 1: The data shows all five phones travelling from Glasgow to
- 27:00Speaker 1: Strathclyde Park, where just after half past three, one phone
- 27:04Speaker 1: leaves the pack. The other four phones continue travelling all
- 27:08Speaker 1: the way to Dundee.
- 27:11Speaker 4: This remained in the car. We're unsure about position, but
- 27:15Speaker 4: more than likely in between them and the seat well
- 27:17Speaker 4: in the rear. There may have been some tentative stab wounds,
- 27:21Speaker 4: scratches and things like that where they were probably trying
- 27:24Speaker 4: to psychologically torture Chris.
- 27:29Speaker 3: I imagine how long that journey would have felt if
- 27:32Speaker 3: you thought at any moment you were going to die,
- 27:35Speaker 3: which is probably what he was told and probably what
- 27:38Speaker 3: he believed. So effectively, the drive to Dundee, he was
- 27:43Speaker 3: being psychologically tortured.
- 27:45Speaker 4: Throughout that period.
- 27:48Speaker 3: He was in the executioner's waiting room and that's how
- 27:51Speaker 3: it was going to end. What he didn't know was
- 27:54Speaker 3: just how horribly it was going to end.
- 27:58Speaker 1: The telephone data reveals disturbing details of what the gang
- 28:02Speaker 1: wanted to do to Chris.
- 28:04Speaker 4: During the journey, they had committed a number of calls
- 28:08Speaker 4: to criminal associates. We were able to take statements which said,
- 28:12Speaker 4: oh yes, Imran Shahid phoned me. He had a a
- 28:17Speaker 4: young boy he wanted to take somewhere. They wanted to
- 28:24Speaker 4: seriously assault. And that journey took over five hours, up
- 28:30Speaker 4: to Dundee and back with one stop, where we assume
- 28:33Speaker 4: they bought the petrol which they used in the murder.
- 28:37Speaker 1: Having failed to find a location where they could torture
- 28:40Speaker 1: their victim, the data shows the four men's phones travelling
- 28:44Speaker 1: back down to Glasgow.
- 28:47Speaker 4: So it was about the key moments, which were the abduction,
- 28:51Speaker 4: the journey, and the murder site, and then the burning
- 28:55Speaker 4: of the car. The most significant one was around about 7.20pm,
- 29:07Speaker 4: where there was a 20-minute silence and calls. That silence,
- 29:14Speaker 4: we believe, was indicative of the fact that In those
- 29:18Speaker 4: 20 to 30 minutes, they were killing Chris. In that timeline,
- 29:24Speaker 4: that was the killing zone. It was kind of.
- 29:31Speaker 3: It's the level of spite and hate involved, it's the determination.
- 29:34Speaker 3: You can imagine somebody abducting. I'm going to sell a school.
- 29:37Speaker 3: We drive in, get him in the car, beat him up,
- 29:40Speaker 3: drive around for half an hour, think I'll be able
- 29:41Speaker 3: to chuck him out of the car.
- 29:42Speaker 4: Do you know what I mean?
- 29:44Speaker 3: But no, there's so much determination here that they are
- 29:49Speaker 3: willing to drive all the way to Dundee and not
- 29:51Speaker 3: find somewhere, drive all the way back. They're still full
- 29:56Speaker 3: of spite and hate and they want him to suffer
- 30:01Speaker 3: It is quite a difficult crime to think about, if
- 30:05Speaker 3: you think about the detail.
- 30:09Speaker 8: By travelling over 200 miles to Dundee and back, the
- 30:13Speaker 8: offenders have plenty of time to discuss and plan the attack.
- 30:18Speaker 8: This removes the idea that this may have been an adrenaline-fuelled,
- 30:23Speaker 8: spur-of-the-moment crime of passion, but rather... that there was a
- 30:28Speaker 8: considerable amount of time for them to think about what
- 30:31Speaker 8: they were about to do.
- 30:34Speaker 1: Having built up an incriminating timeline, detectives set off to
- 30:38Speaker 1: simultaneously arrest the five suspects.
- 30:41Speaker 4: They were all equally guilty. All of them had committed
- 30:46Speaker 4: a barbaric crime. We wanted them all at the one
- 30:49Speaker 4: time and we didn't want to go down the line
- 30:51Speaker 4: early doors of arresting two and not getting three And
- 30:57Speaker 4: as we went to search for them, we obviously tried
- 31:01Speaker 4: every known address of their criminal associates. We covered a
- 31:05Speaker 4: whole host of other things and disrupted a whole host
- 31:07Speaker 4: of other crimes. We recovered quantities of drugs, firearms, all sorts,
- 31:13Speaker 4: with people jumping out of windows, running away. With bags
- 31:17Speaker 4: of drugs, it was a real... We disrupted the hornet's nest.
- 31:23Speaker 1: News of the raids spread across Glasgow.
- 31:26Speaker 4: From community intelligence, we found out that Imran Shahidi's brother
- 31:31Speaker 4: and Bex were not in that area. We continued to search.
- 31:40Speaker 1: After a huge coordinated effort, police could only detect two
- 31:43Speaker 1: of their suspects.
- 31:45Speaker 4: It's a calculated risk, but there came a point where
- 31:48Speaker 4: we had to go for Danish and for his pal Ziggy.
- 31:53Speaker 1: With two in custody, police continue to search for the
- 31:56Speaker 1: three outstanding suspects.
- 31:59Speaker 4: We'd run the course of looking for them locally, and
- 32:01Speaker 4: there came a time where, you know, we assured that
- 32:05Speaker 4: they were gone, but this time to make good their
- 32:08Speaker 4: escape from the UK. Obviously devastated, absolutely devastated.
- 32:15Speaker 3: When a suspect or someone who is a person of
- 32:19Speaker 3: significance in a crime is being traced and flees the country...
- 32:24Speaker 3: With some countries there is an extradition process by which
- 32:27Speaker 3: the police can apply to have that person detained and
- 32:31Speaker 3: then brought back to, in this case, Scotland to be
- 32:35Speaker 3: interviewed and possibly tried. Not every country would have an
- 32:40Speaker 3: extradition agreement.
- 32:43Speaker 4: I knew of people who ran to Spain and, you know,
- 32:46Speaker 4: through time and effort you can get them back. I
- 32:50Speaker 4: just hoped that they weren't in a place where I
- 32:52Speaker 4: couldn't access them.
- 32:55Speaker 1: The detectives turn their attention to the suspect's international connections.
- 33:00Speaker 3: When a suspect is being traced and flees the country,
- 33:04Speaker 3: there will be intelligence work getting carried out in the background.
- 33:07Speaker 3: Who are the people that might be connected with these guys?
- 33:10Speaker 4: The first person we got information on, Faisal Mushlak, had
- 33:16Speaker 4: fled the country. We got brilliant CCTV footage of him
- 33:21Speaker 4: arriving at Manchester Airport The other two, we believe one
- 33:28Speaker 4: got the Eurotunnel to Paris and one took the ferry
- 33:31Speaker 4: and they had their relative in Paris who arranged for
- 33:33Speaker 4: them to get to Pakistan.
- 33:38Speaker 1: The three outstanding suspects have successfully fled the country. But
- 33:43Speaker 1: for Danish Zahid and Zahid Mohammed, the trial begins, nine
- 33:47Speaker 1: months after the murder of Chris Donald.
- 33:50Speaker 4: So they go to trial and they just blame the
- 33:52Speaker 4: other three, who by this time are in another country.
- 33:56Speaker 1: The prosecution has a strong forensic case against both Danish
- 34:00Speaker 1: Zahid and Zahid Mohammed. Their digital footprints show all five
- 34:04Speaker 1: suspects together from before 3pm on the afternoon of the abduction.
- 34:10Speaker 1: But then at Strathclyde Park, Zahid's phone separates from the pack.
- 34:14Speaker 1: He had to return home to adhere to his security
- 34:16Speaker 1: tag curfew.
- 34:18Speaker 4: He had to be in the house, I believe, by
- 34:20Speaker 4: 7 o'clock. And if he didn't, then that would set
- 34:24Speaker 4: off alarms. and their defence could prove it wasn't there
- 34:27Speaker 4: when the murder was committed.
- 34:29Speaker 9: Saheed Mohammed admitted abducting Chris Donald. He was in the
- 34:33Speaker 9: car on the night that they set out to find
- 34:35Speaker 9: and kill a white boy.
- 34:36Speaker 1: The evidence against Danish Saheed is heard.
- 34:39Speaker 4: Danish tried to say that when the murder was taking
- 34:42Speaker 4: place he was sitting in the car and he saw nothing.
- 34:45Speaker 4: He just saw a big flash of flame and he
- 34:47Speaker 4: didn't get out of the car.
- 34:49Speaker 1: Danish admitted he was in the passenger seat and forensic
- 34:53Speaker 1: evidence implies that the fatal wounds to Chris happened within
- 34:56Speaker 1: his eyeline, indicating that Danish was privy to the crime.
- 35:04Speaker 1: The jury found Danish Zahid guilty of racially motivated murder.
- 35:09Speaker 1: He was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
- 35:11Speaker 4: It is in Scottish legal history now that it was
- 35:15Speaker 4: the first conviction for a racially motivated murder. I remember
- 35:21Speaker 4: being congratulated by a member of the media... I refused
- 35:25Speaker 4: their congratulations because that was the job just half done
- 35:30Speaker 4: because the other three were flaunting Scottish justice.
- 35:34Speaker 1: In order to get justice for Chris Donald's family, Elliot
- 35:38Speaker 1: would have to rewrite Scottish history and extradite the three
- 35:41Speaker 1: remaining suspects from Pakistan.
- 35:46Speaker 4: I started this massive dynamic intelligence operation trying to work
- 35:51Speaker 4: out where they were in a country of in excess
- 35:55Speaker 4: of 165 million people. We were looking for three. One
- 35:59Speaker 4: of the most demanding murder investigations Scotland's ever seen.
- 36:07Speaker 1: Strathclyde Police are investigating the murder of Chris Donald. He
- 36:13Speaker 1: was abducted by five Asian men in a gangland retaliation.
- 36:19Speaker 1: Two men have been convicted for their involvement, but three
- 36:22Speaker 1: suspects have fled to Pakistan.
- 36:25Speaker 3: If there is no extradition agreement in place in a country,
- 36:28Speaker 3: you are relying on diplomacy, convincing politicians in the other
- 36:33Speaker 3: country that it is in their interests for this person
- 36:38Speaker 3: to be essentially, forcibly extradited.
- 36:45Speaker 4: We had applied to Pakistan. We had a big meeting
- 36:48Speaker 4: with Interpol, the head of intelligence, the head of investigations,
- 36:53Speaker 4: outlined what evidence we had and why it was so
- 36:57Speaker 4: important to get these three individuals back from Pakistan to
- 37:01Speaker 4: face UK and Scottish justice and convince them that we
- 37:06Speaker 4: could help them to find three people in a country
- 37:11Speaker 4: of 165 million. It was the first time it was
- 37:13Speaker 4: agreed then Scotland was going to crack on with this
- 37:17Speaker 4: What was going to be key to this inquiry was
- 37:19Speaker 4: going to be mobile telephones.
- 37:22Speaker 1: The suspects are using new phones in Pakistan. So the
- 37:27Speaker 1: police turn to the men's associates in Scotland to help
- 37:30Speaker 1: establish their digital footprints.
- 37:32Speaker 10: One of the things we were doing in Scotland was
- 37:36Speaker 10: obviously opening up, having news in terms of people who
- 37:39Speaker 10: were willing to speak to us, on the record or
- 37:42Speaker 10: off the record, what they tell us, and to evidence that.
- 37:47Speaker 8: Either no may be seen as a breach of the loyalty.
- 37:51Speaker 8: Korea criminals did give evidence to assist the police authorities,
- 37:55Speaker 8: and that may have been because of the gravity and
- 37:58Speaker 8: the severity of the violence. The characteristics of the victim,
- 38:02Speaker 8: being a young, small schoolboy, may have also encouraged people
- 38:07Speaker 8: to want to give evidence since it was against the
- 38:11Speaker 8: code of the gangs.
- 38:12Speaker 4: I remember one of the witnesses telling me that He
- 38:16Speaker 4: couldn't live with himself because what they did to that
- 38:18Speaker 4: boy stepped out of their code, way out of their code.
- 38:25Speaker 4: And with the cooperation of the people who'd received the calls,
- 38:28Speaker 4: they gave the vital evidence of the timeline that we needed.
- 38:33Speaker 1: The more communications that the police can verify with the
- 38:35Speaker 1: suspects' associates, the closer they're getting to locating them.
- 38:41Speaker 4: They did eventually trace him. He was told he was
- 38:43Speaker 4: a remote village in the Punjab. One or two were there,
- 38:47Speaker 4: and we confirmed it was Imran Shahid. We'd been warned
- 38:52Speaker 4: that there was a chance that they might escape, and
- 38:58Speaker 4: that came from Pakistani authorities. They had found out he
- 39:03Speaker 4: was going to a meeting somewhere, and it was then
- 39:06Speaker 4: a case of biding our time and waiting to see
- 39:09Speaker 4: what was going to happen.
- 39:18Speaker 9: A landmark day for Scottish police. Pakistani authorities have arrested
- 39:23Speaker 9: the three remaining suspects in the murder of Chris Donald.
- 39:28Speaker 4: Delighted, I have to say. There was a realisation that
- 39:32Speaker 4: the mammoth tasks that lay in front of us not
- 39:36Speaker 4: all went to plan. It was quite stressful.
- 39:39Speaker 3: There was a complicated extradition process. Trying to convince them
- 39:45Speaker 3: in what might be a politically difficult situation that this
- 39:51Speaker 3: merits the effectively enforced extradition.
- 39:54Speaker 1: Three months after the arrest, Strathclyde Police finally received the
- 39:58Speaker 1: monumental confirmation.
- 40:01Speaker 4: Eventually, the extradition was granted. The words were something like,
- 40:06Speaker 4: we feel we should surrender these people to the UK
- 40:10Speaker 4: and hand them over to the representative of the Scottish Police,
- 40:15Speaker 4: which was myself. And it was very tense at the airport,
- 40:21Speaker 4: bringing them out as well, the exchange of prisoners and
- 40:25Speaker 4: the exchange of some of the evidence that was there.
- 40:35Speaker 1: The long-awaited trial finally begins at the High Court in Edinburgh.
- 40:49Speaker 4: That was the first time I was allowed myself into
- 40:51Speaker 4: the court, was to see the sentences and I was
- 40:55Speaker 4: staring at the jury looking for some form of connection
- 40:59Speaker 4: and I just couldn't get it. I have to say
- 41:01Speaker 4: I was as nervous as I've ever been in my
- 41:03Speaker 4: life because for me, one not proven out of those
- 41:08Speaker 4: three would have been disaster.
- 41:11Speaker 1: The case is heard and the jury has reached a verdict.
- 41:16Speaker 7: Guilty and jailed for 25 years, Imran Shahid, a sadistic
- 41:20Speaker 7: thug and bully, defiant to the end. He was the
- 41:26Speaker 7: ringleader who sought out a white victim to attack, the
- 41:28Speaker 7: man who chose Chris Donald. Guilty too, his brother Zeeshan,
- 41:33Speaker 7: his arrogance undiminished by a 23-year sentence. To the end,
- 41:37Speaker 7: laughing in the face of his victim's family, who watched
- 41:40Speaker 7: from above. And for their accomplice Faisal Mustak, 22 years,
- 41:48Speaker 7: his violent nature on display still to the baying crowd.
- 41:53Speaker 6: Chris's mother and his sister wept in the gallery as
- 41:56Speaker 6: the jury delivered its three guilty verdicts.
- 42:00Speaker 4: Very emotional. It was just time to reflect. But that
- 42:05Speaker 4: job was done. Definitely no feeling of elation, just justice
- 42:11Speaker 4: has been done. And a very warm glow that it had.
- 42:14Speaker 11: Been done We would like to offer our sincere appreciation
- 42:18Speaker 11: for the dedication that has been shown by Detective Superintendent
- 42:21Speaker 11: Ellie McKenzie and all of the officers who worked on
- 42:24Speaker 11: the inquiry into the hellish murder of my son Chris.
- 42:29Speaker 11: Justice has been done. Thank you. It is over.
- 42:36Speaker 3: Some cases stick in the memory. Any professional, any forensic
- 42:42Speaker 3: scientist will have a a small number of cases that
- 42:46Speaker 3: they will have very powerful memories about. And it was
- 42:52Speaker 3: over two and a half years before the five men
- 42:55Speaker 3: were ultimately convicted of four of them of murder and
- 42:58Speaker 3: one of racially motivated abduction. In terms of the kind
- 43:04Speaker 3: of murders that goes on in Scotland, this is a
- 43:08Speaker 3: canonical offence. It's an offence that will always have some place...
- 43:15Speaker 3: in the history of murder in Scotland.
- 43:21Speaker 4: That there is no greater responsibility given to man than
- 43:25Speaker 4: to investigate the murder of another human being. We're still
- 43:30Speaker 4: talking about Chris 17 years later. We're approaching the 20th
- 43:35Speaker 4: year anniversary of Chris's death. It has to be something
- 43:40Speaker 4: really powerful, really, really powerful for that to happen.