Derek Brown | World's Most Evil Killers | Forensic Files

[suspenseful music] narrator: In late summer 2007, in the East End of London, Zhao Meiguo and Bonnie Barrett
vanished without trace. - Those two bodies have never been found, nor have there ever been remains found.
narrator: The women had fallen into the clutches of Derek Brown, a man who hunted his victims down and
treated them without mercy. Jane Monckton-Smith: Brown dismembered two bodies in his own home.
You have to be very, very comfortable with that kind of violence to be able to do that.
narrator: When elite murder squad detectives picked up the trail, the predator became the prey and Brown's days
of freedom were numbered. - It was an impeccable investigation and one that will remain, I think, unrivaled
to put away a potential serial killer without a single body. narrator: At his trial, Derek Brown
showed no signs of remorse. - He was found guilty, and he was sentenced. He stood there and laughed.
narrator: Derek Brown brutally murdered two young women and robbed their loved ones of the chance to lay them to rest,
making him one of the world's most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪ [somber music]
In 2007, a missing persons investigation led police to the door of convicted rapist
Derek Brown, a man with dark desires. - Brown had quite a history of using sex workers.
He was always in, you know, what we call the red light district. narrator: He had plans to build a disturbing reputation
for himself. - He said, you will hear about me. I will be famous. Geoffrey Wansell: There was some thought
in Derek Brown's mind that he could become a sort of contemporary Jack the Ripper.
narrator: Indeed, when the police searched his flat, they found evidence the would-be serial killer
had already got started. Paul Cheston: They discovered a bill from a local DIY shop for what can be described as a murder
and dismemberment kit. narrator: This was an investigation to identify a violent and depraved predator.
As long as he was free, no woman was safe. Paul Cheston: It was beyond doubt and certainty
that he would have killed many, many, many more times had he not been caught. Howard Groves: Evil is the only way I can describe Derek Brown.
Evil. [suspenseful music] narrator: This killer's story begins in October 1960 in Preston, Lancashire.
Derek Brown grew up in a large blended family. Brown was his mother's blue-eyed boy,
but in the eyes of the law, he was far from perfect. - From about the age of 16, in 1976,
he had a series of convictions in the North of England. Paul Cheston: He started a whole spate of burglaries
and with some violence. He was an intimidating and frightening man. narrator: Brown's crimes were not confined to theft.
In his 20s, a disturbing predilection for sexual violence became apparent. In 1988, an accusation of raping a 16-year-old girl was
dropped, but the following year, another was made against him. Jane Monckton-Smith: He was convicted of raping a woman and
buggery as well, and he had broken into her house to commit those offenses. Geoffrey Wansell: He keeps a hostage for two hours,
rapes her, sodomized her. It's a heinous crime. narrator: In July 1989, at Preston Crown Court,
28-year-old Derek Brown admitted to his crimes. Paul Cheston: He was charged with rape and
another very serious sexual offense and was jailed for seven years. narrator: Having served four years of his
seven-year sentence, 33-year-old Brown was released from prison. In 1994, he left the North to start a new life
in South East London. Paul Cheston: Derek Brown is a drunk. He's a loner. He settled in Rotherhithe and made
a living as a delivery driver. At that time, he was working mostly at nights, picking up and delivering newspapers from source
to distribute to local shops. narrator: Brown had by this time fathered seven children with four different women.
In late spring 2007, after an argument with an ex-partner over access to their children,
he made a vague and ominous threat. Geoffrey Wansell: He was absolutely infuriated by the fact he wasn't allowed access
to his teenage children. He said, you'll hear of me. [suspenseful music] narrator: In the summer of 2007,
Derek Brown was living in a one-bedroom flat close to Rotherhithe Overground Station.
His relationships with women appear to have, by this time, become purely transactional.
Paul Cheston: The commercial street leading from Whitechapel to Shoreditch is a well-known red light haunt.
It is also a favorite stopping-off point on the tourist trail for the Jack the Ripper history tours.
And Brown was certainly a regular visitor to that area. Jane Monckton-Smith: He's probably
using sex workers because he is aggressive, and he is violent. And anybody who was in a relationship with him
perhaps would be frightened off by-- by that kind of behavior. The sex workers who came into contact
with Brown would say things like, he behaved strangely, made them feel nervous. One said that he would barricade the door.
One felt so concerned that she fled the premises. She left. [gentle music] narrator: In 2006, 28-year-old Xiao Mei Guo traveled from
her native China to England. She hoped to make a better life for her family. Hsiao-Hung: Her husband came with her to work
here from a village called Jiangjing in Fujian province, to-- primarily to improve their situation back home,
to save money for their children, to prepare themselves for retirement. narrator: Xiao Mei and her husband
left their two sons with family in China and came to Britain illegally, brought over
by one of the international people smuggling gangs known as Snakeheads. It was a costly process.
Hsiao-Hung: In those days, probably up to 20,000 pounds each person to be smuggled here.
They would have borrowed already to pay off the Snakeheads back home. So that means they owed money to the moneylenders.
They both had a lot of debts to pay off. narrator: Xiao Mei and her husband of 10 years
rented a room in Whitechapel in London's East End, sharing a house with other Chinese immigrants
from Fujian province. Hsiao-Hung: She immediately went into selling DVDs on the street.
It was quick money, and there was no boss over your shoulders. Geoffrey Wansell: Husband and wife
scrape a living selling counterfeit DVDs literally in the street. Hsiao-Hung: It was very difficult because you
earn a little bit of money. You have to pay this and that. You have to pay for your accommodation.
You have to pay-- pay off the debt back home. They were always worried about the police, just constantly
frightened of being caught. They would really, really fear deportation and always looking.
You know, when you're selling, you're looking to see if there's anybody approaching you
or near you, any plain clothes. Usually when they are caught by a policeman, all their DVDs will be taken away.
[upbeat music] narrator: In July 2007, having been in the country for under a year, Xiao Mei's husband was arrested
for selling counterfeit DVDs. He was sentenced to four months in prison, leaving Xiao Mei alone to honor their debts.
Hsiao-Hung: Her co-workers were saying she was very worried that because the burden
of having to pay off the debt was on her. Jane Monckton-Smith: Xiao Mei was in an incredibly
vulnerable situation. She was having to earn money and support herself and her family through means that would
have brought her into contact with people on the edges of society. Hsiao-Hung: There's always men coming to you
and propositioning, and it's obviously harassment. Sometimes women will be asked to go back to the customer's
house to try out the DVDs. And I've heard of cases where women were raped. narrator: For the weeks that followed her husband's
detention, Xiao Mei's routine was unchanged-- working, cooking, phoning family, and sleeping.
But on the 29th of August 2007, she did not return home. [suspenseful music] Hsiao-Hung: She was sharing a flat
with a lot of people, several cousins and people who came from the same village.
And usually after work, she would come back and cook, but that day she didn't. Jane Monckton-Smith: This has never happened before.
You know, she's dedicated to her children. She has a routine. Geoffrey Wansell: She has the habit
of phoning her sons in China two or three times a week to keep in touch, but that stops.
Hsiao-Hung: So her cousins went looking for her everywhere in the streets in Whitechapel.
They were very, very worried. So they knew straight away something was wrong. Geoffrey Wansell: To all intents and purposes,
Xiao Mei just simply disappears. [suspenseful music] narrator: Unable to locate her and
afraid to contact the authorities, Xiao Mei Guo's housemates were stuck in limbo.
Imagining all the dangers of London's sometimes unfriendly streets, they could not possibly dream of what
had really befallen her. [suspenseful music] In September 2007, van driver Derek Brown
was living in Rotherhithe, Southeast London. Five weeks after the disappearance of Chinese
national Xiao Mei Guo from Whitechapel, Jackie Somerford received a disturbing
call about her 24-year-old daughter, Bonnie Barrett. Jackie Summerford: 24th September,
I got a phone call from a friend of hers to say that she had been missing a week.
Normally we'd be in touch every day, sometimes 10 times a day on the phone. I had a feeling something was wrong because I never
had no phone calls or nothing. And I told him that he had to phone the police and tell them-- report her as missing.
narrator: Bonnie had not been seen since the 18th of September, when she was spotted
in East London's Whitechapel. It had taken seven days for her to be reported missing.
- I think Bonnie was living quite a chaotic life. I don't think there was much stability there.
That can create a situation where it takes longer to recognize that somebody is missing
and to worry that something might have happened to them. narrator: Bonnie's life had started out to be a happy one.
The youngest of three children, she was a much loved little girl. Jackie Summerford: When Bonnie was born,
it just seemed like that was our family complete. Bonnie was a wild child, very popular with people.
She was happy-go-lucky. narrator: As she entered her teenage years, Bonnie's fun-loving personality gave way
to something more destructive. Jackie Summerford: As she got into her teens, me and her dad
divorced, and she rebelled a lot. And then she went to live with her dad in Scotland.
She was drinking up in Scotland and all different wrong things that she shouldn't have been doing.
But I came back and moved to East London. And then she started to run away. I did try my hardest to get her back on the right road,
but Bonnie just didn't wanna listen to anyone. narrator: In her late teens, Bonnie
fell in with a bad crowd. By 18, she was living with an abusive partner. Jackie Summerford: I think he was very controlling over her,
and he used to beat her up a lot. Then one day she came over and she said she had had enough
and couldn't take no more. Then she told us she was pregnant. She was six months gone.
[mysterious music] narrator: Concerned for the safety of her daughter and unborn grandchild, Jackie took steps to get Bonnie away
from her violent boyfriend. - The next step we done was got a solicitor and get her away from him.
And they put her in a refuge at King's Cross. And in the refuge was quite a few working girls.
narrator: In the early 2000s, London's King's Cross was a hotbed of criminal activity,
homelessness, and addiction. With her newborn son living with Jackie, Bonnie was alone at the hostel.
Things went from bad to worse. - She started to run away. She went missing at one time for a few months.
narrator: When news finally came of what Bonnie was up to, it was devastating for her loved ones.
Jackie Summerford: My ex-husband was working over King's Crossway and he see her one day walking down the road.
And that's how we found her. But by then, she was into prostitution. Jane Monckton-Smith: She was addicted to crack cocaine.
She was probably funding her habit through sex work. She was gonna come into contact with some-- some pretty
unsavory people. Jackie Summerford: I used say to my other daughter, Kelly, we're gonna get a knock at the door
one day to either she's murdered or something's really bad. [suspenseful music] narrator: Jackie was well accustomed to worrying
about her youngest daughter. But when she went missing in September 2007, it felt different.
Jackie Summerford: Something inside me was telling me during that week something was wrong.
narrator: Jackie's maternal instincts were right. Her daughter was last seen on Commercial Street
in Whitechapel. She was never seen again. ♪ ♪ In September 2007, friends of missing 29-year-old Xiao Mei
Guo were extremely concerned for the safety of the undocumented Chinese migrant.
Jane Monckton-Smith: Xiao Mei was living in a-- like, a house of multiple occupation.
And I would imagine that a lot of them were in a similar position to her. Hsiao-Hung: They didn't report to the police,
obviously for, you know, for obvious reasons. And-- but they were very, very worried.
narrator: The DVD sellers were shrewd operators and fiercely protective of their client base.
Xiao Mei fellow sellers knew little about the people she sold her stock to. - They all have regular customers who approach them.
They bought DVDs before and they would come back and buy more. They didn't tell each other about their customers, just
this rule of, you know, avoiding competition. So they sort of-- they just kept it, like, secret.
narrator: On the 4th of September, almost a week after Xiao Mei was last seen,
her colleagues notified the police of her disappearance. Geoffrey Wansell: Xiao Mei is reported missing early
in September 2007, and at the start is identified as a sort of medium risk missing person.
Howard Groves: The missing person inquiry would have been dealt with by local officers,
local to that area where she was last seen. [suspenseful music] narrator: 10 days later, on the 14th of September,
Xiao Mei's husband was released from jail, where he'd been detained for selling counterfeit DVDs.
Extremely concerned for his wife's welfare, on the 21st of September, he contacted advocacy
organization the Subtle Monitoring Group to ask for their help. Howard Groves: They look after individuals
who are victims of crime or people who are from minority communities. But they approached them round about, I think,
the 21st of September and said, look, we know that this matter has been reported to police.
It's been shown as a medium risk on their assessment. We believe it should be high risk.
Geoffrey Wansell: And that increases the tension behind the search for Xiao Mei.
She now becomes high risk, and the major incident unit are involved in the search.
[suspenseful music] Howard Groves: But what the murder team did, they said, right, you keep primacy.
But we will have a watching brief on what investigations you are doing. They gave them a wish list of saying,
these are the things we want you to do, which involved, for instance, saying to them,
We want you to go and search the address where Xiao Mei lived. They also said, right, we want you to look at her phone data,
see if you can find a-- a telephone bill showing people that she may have contacted.
They can then do inquiries on that to see if they can work out who she last spoke to,
date and time. 10:30 that morning, she made a phone call to a friend. And then again at 10:41, she had actually spoke to a friend
and said that she was leaving Whitechapel to go three stops to Rotherhithe, because there was a customer who
wanted to buy a lot of DVDs. narrator: Using cell site information, they could identify the time and location of any calls
Xiao Mei made or received. - And the phone records show her in Whitechapel at about
half past 10:00 and then in Rotherhithe at about quarter to 11:00. Narrator: During that final call,
Xiao Mei told her associate her customer had requested to test the DVDs in his home.
Jane Monckton-Smith: Maybe she's gonna make quite a bit of money, and this would have been absolutely crucial to her and
her children's survival. So she made the decision to go back there. Geoffrey Wansell: So now you have a sense
of where she might have been. And then the police look at the CCTV, and they see Xiao Mei on the CCTV
outside Whitechapel Underground Station with a man. She's clear as day, but they obviously
want to know who the man is. narrator: In a bid to move the investigation forward,
on the weekend of September 29, an expert was drafted in to help. Howard Groves: The local officers
decided to get the assistance of a behavioral investigative advisor, somebody who would try and give a theory as to what
may have happened to Xiao Mei, and that individual took the view that the chances were that she
was more than likely dead. And if she wasn't dead, she would certainly still being held against her will.
The decision was taken at that point that they would try and get some information out
to the media. Paul Cheston: The police had an image of a person seen with Xiao Mei on the CCTV
at Whitechapel Station. And they managed to blow this up and then try and circulate to fit a name to this image
of this prime suspect. narrator: The media appeal yielded no response. Nobody identified Xiao Mei nor the man with her.
With the case escalation came a new team. Howard Groves: Because the murder team had an input,
the view was taken, we need to take this investigation on-- "we" being the murder team.
And on the 2nd of October, that was finalized, and it became a murder investigation.
narrator: Four weeks after Xiao Mei was last seen, the team headed to her last known location.
Howard Groves: On the 6th of October, officers were sent out into Rotherhithe with the CCTV image of Xiao Mei and this unknown white male.
And they were asking people in the local area close to the train station if anybody could identify
the female or the male. Paul Cheston: A police officer entered a mini mart. And a very sharp and alert shop assistant
not only recognized the picture as a customer, but also pointed out any shopping over there in aisle 3.
[suspenseful music] - It's a eureka moment for the police officers. Geoffrey Wansell: And they arrest him on the suspicion
of the abduction of Xiao Mei. Narrator: On the 6th of October, 2007, over a month since Xiao Mei was last seen,
police were able to confirm the identity of the person last seen with her on CCTV.
Records told them he was a man with disturbing and entitled attitudes towards sex, a man who'd previously
been imprisoned for rape-- 46-year-old Derek Brown. [suspenseful music] The investigation into the disappearance of Xiao Mei Guo
had turned a corner. Convicted rapist Derek Brown was arrested on suspicion of abduction
and was questioned under caution. ♪ ♪ Howard Groves: The officers are now confident that they have the person who was with Xiao Mei
when she was last seen. - He doesn't deny that he's met Xiao Mei. Narrator: He admitted little else.
But when police asked him about meeting Xiao Mei in Whitechapel, he was keen to tell
them how familiar he was with that part of East London. - He told the officers that he had actually picked up
prostitutes from the Whitechapel area, which the officers thought was a bit strange for him
to say it. narrator: Detectives were sure this was the man Xiao Mei had told her friend of traveling
to Rotherhithe with, so that he could test a large batch of DVDs. Her friends confirmed this.
Hsiao-Hung: When Derek Brown approached her, they saw her. He was a regular customer, but they
didn't think anything about it because he was very plain and ordinary looking. narrator: Police inquiries linked
a travel card to Xiao Mei. Howard Groves: We know that she had an unregistered Oyster card, and
that that day somebody had topped it up and had used it for this journey that she talked about,
which was from Whitechapel to Rotherhithe. But there was no return journey based on that Oyster card.
[mysterious music] narrator: Xiao Mei had used the card to travel to Rotherhithe,
but there was no sign she'd ever got back on the train to leave. Detectives felt Brown knew why.
Geoffrey Wansell: Then the police searched his flat. They would have been looking for, like,
maybe her phone, maybe the Oyster card or anything to indicate that she'd been there.
Jane Monckton-Smith: On that first visit, they didn't see anything that would suggest that anything
untoward had happened in the flat, but they did call in the forensics team. Howard Groves: It appeared at the time
as if he had tried to clean up. To the naked eye, you won't be able to see a speck of blood
on a wall. But with a light sourcing, it will enhance it. If you've tried to wipe something away, like blood,
the luminol will be able to tell. And that gives you a much more forensic opportunities.
- They were astonished to find just a treasure trove of evidence. The forensic science officers found
65 separate sites of blood splattered around the walls and the furniture, mostly in the kitchen and
the corridor and the bathroom. Jane Monckton-Smith: And there was even some on the ceiling,
and there was quite a lot that had seeped into the concrete. Looking at the patterning of that blood,
it seems to me like there was some high-impact assault that had occurred. narrator: The scene of crime officers collected evidence
from Brown's flat, which was sent to the laboratory for analysis. Initial tests confirmed there was not one,
but two people's blood in the flat. [tense music] [suspenseful music] Jane Monckton-Smith: Two people had
been attacked in that kitchen, possibly in the same way, very violently and very brutally.
Howard Groves: They would be expecting to find blood in relation to Xiao Mei, but I'm sure not in a hundred years they were expecting that.
narrator: By the 9th of October, while they waited for DNA results on the blood,
the police had sufficient circumstantial evidence to charge Derek Brown with Xiao Mei Guo's murder, and
he was remanded in custody. As the autumn of 2007 progressed, Jackie Somerford was still hoping for positive news
on her missing daughter, Bonnie. [somber music] - I was trying to find her. She went on the missing persons list.
I got a phone call from the police asking if they could come over and see me, and I said, yeah.
And they arranged to come over, I think it was the next day. And they said, Bonnie is known as a very
serious missing person. narrator: Bonnie's life on the street was a chaotic and violent one, where
people were reluctant to engage with the authorities. Paul Cheston: It's always incredibly difficult for police
to investigate crime in a red light area, because the very people who would be the ones with the most
evidence, or the ones who would be most fearful of the police because they act beyond the law.
Jane Monckton-Smith: Bonnie was in a position where her contact with the police wasn't as a victim.
Bonnie had been arrested numerous times, lots and lots of times in relation to--
to sex work. narrator: Although her unconventional lifestyle and lack of routine made it difficult for police
to build a picture of her habits, there were indicators that all was not well.
Geoffrey Wansell: Bonnie was collecting benefits, and she was supposed to collect her benefits
on the 28th of September 2007. She disappeared on the 24th, and guess what? She never collected her benefits again.
Jackie Summerford: I don't know what it was, but I had a feeling something was wrong because I never had
no phone calls and nothing. [suspenseful music] narrator: The deeper the investigation
looked into Bonnie's lifestyle, the more disturbing a picture emerged. Hers was clearly one in which violence was commonplace.
Jackie Summerford: Bonnie had met a client in Commercial Street that had took her
in a derelict building, beat her up bad, and left her for-- practically for dead.
She managed to crawl out of the building and pass a bystander in the street, and she was taken to hospital.
The police went there, kept asking her to-- would she do a statement. And she wouldn't entertain them at all.
narrator: Bonnie and her colleagues relied on each other over the police. Well aware of the dangers they faced on the streets,
they shared information to help keep themselves safe. Jane Monckton-Smith: Sex workers
are a very tight community. They will sometimes look out for each other, and they know who the dangerous ones are.
They will warn each other. narrator: There was one in particular who stood out as one to be wary of.
Paul Cheston: They may not know his name, but they certainly knew what he looked like and what he liked.
narrator: With Bonnie Barrett, now a high risk missing person, known to frequent Whitechapel like Derek Brown,
detectives began to question if she was the owner of one of the blood profiles in his flat.
The police requested Bonnie's hairbrush and toothbrush for a DNA comparison. And by December 2007, they had a result.
- It came back it was Bonnie's blood. In the kitchen, there was Bonnie's blood. In the front room, it was a bit of Bonnie's blood.
And in the bathroom, on the hot tap, there was a spot of blood diluted, and that was Bonnie's.
[gentle music] That is when I think my world fell apart, really. I was adopted. My real mom, she was a prostitute
back in the '70s, and she was murdered as well. And I'd always told my girls the story of my mom,
and I didn't ever think it would happen to me, but it was like history repeating itself.
[somber music] narrator: By December 2007, forensic analysis had confirmed that the blood in Derek Brown's flat
belonged to both Xiao Mei Guo and Bonnie Barrett. Brown had begun to prepare his excuse
for the presence of Bonnie's DNA back in September. Howard Groves: When he got arrested and he said,
I picked up prostitutes from Whitechapel, he was gearing himself up to say, when you ask me about her,
possibly if you find that her blood is here, well, I always pick up prostitutes from that area,
so that's why she would probably have come to my address. So he was thinking ahead of it.
narrator: But Brown's phone usage indicated he had been in the Whitechapel area
on the exact evening Bonnie had disappeared. Howard Groves: On the 18th of September,
there was phone data which suggested that, certainly on two occasions, about five minutes past 6:00
and at about 19:30 in the evening, his phone is pinging in that area. As a result of those inquiries, officers
were able to find CCTV of him being in the area just before 6 o'clock in the evening.
narrator: Police also questioned Bonnie's colleagues on Commercial Street. - Brown is certainly a regular visitor to that area.
He had a voracious appetite for sex workers. Geoffrey Wansell: A number of Bonnie's co-workers
said, oh, yes, I think she had a client called Derek who lived in Rotherhithe. Paul Cheston: The indications from the police
was that this was a very significant breakthrough. [suspenseful music] narrator: It was the same man women on the street
had reported being afraid of, the man currently being held on suspicion of murdering Xiao Mei Guo.
In December 2007, Derek Brown was also charged with the murder of Bonnie Barrett.
[tense music] As they built a case against suspected double-killer Derek Brown, detectives in London
found evidence suggesting Xiao Mei Guo and Bonnie Barrett had been killed and dismembered in
Brown's Southeast London flat. [suspenseful music] Geoffrey Wansell: The police find a receipt
from a hardware store, which is a receipt for all manner of things. Paul Cheston: It was what can be described as a murder
and dismemberment kit. It involved a very heavy-duty saw, rolls and rolls of industrial strength cling film,
rubble sacks, waterproof sheeting, everything you could imagine. He'd clearly dismembered the bodies, probably in the bath.
- That is not an easy thing to do. It takes quite a bit of time. You have to be very, very comfortable
with that kind of violence to be able to do that. narrator: Neither woman could be found alive or dead.
Paul Cheston: They spent 800 police hours searching for the bodies without any success.
They had police divers in the Thames. And to this day, not a single trace has been found
of either of those bodies. [ominous music] narrator: The next step for investigators
was proof of life inquiries so they could prove neither woman was alive and simply living elsewhere.
Howard Groves: Basically saying someone existed in the first instance, and you do that by different means.
You can go to family members, friends, work colleagues, and they can say, yes, I used to know them.
You get dental records. You get GP records, bank details. All those things prove that we exist,
and that person is now dead. And up until this date she has not been found. [suspenseful music]
narrator: Derek Brown stood trial at London's Old Bailey in September 2008, accused of killing Xiao Mei Guo and Bonnie Barrett.
But with neither woman's body found, prosecutors knew the trial might be an uphill struggle.
- Brown himself utterly refuses to acknowledge that he killed either woman. Paul Cheston: Any murder trial is a big trial.
To have two without a body in either case makes this a real standout trial. [suspenseful music]
narrator: Amid a packed courtroom, Brown was brought into the dock. For the first time, the grieving families
of Xiao Mei and Bonnie laid eyes on the man accused of their loved ones' murder.
Jackie Summerford: Me and my other daughter, Kelly, was there. He was a big-- it was like a day out in the office for him.
He just all the time was smirking, looking around. Paul Cheston: This was a brawny man
who you could see could easily grab, subdue, and batter defenseless women. narrator: The case against Derek Brown was a strong one.
It included CCTV footage, phone records, and more damning witnesses who'd heard
noises in his flat the same evening Xiao Mei disappeared. Howard Groves: There were at least
a couple of residents who heard this, what they described as a shouts or screams
of a female and whimpering. ♪ ♪ narrator: Amongst those called to give evidence
was an ex-partner. Bonnie's mother recalls the testimony Brown's ex gave about her disturbing final encounter
with him at the start of September 2007. Jackie Summerford: This particular day he turned up,
he was acting very strange. He brought all these DVDs down. She was getting a bit worried because the way he was acting.
And she got him a train ticket one way. He said to her, you will hear about me. I will be famous.
narrator: The prosecution painted a picture of Derek Brown as a man who craved fame at any cost.
His library records revealed a macabre fascination with an infamous Whitechapel killer.
- The most fascinating discovery was that Brown was a fan of Jack the Ripper. Just a few weeks before he started his murder spree,
he took out from the library Cawthorn's book on killers. - It was a lot of Sutcliffe and others, what
they had done to other people. Paul Cheston: Obvious preplanning of this is what he was going to do and how he was
gonna dispose of the bodies. [suspenseful music] narrator: When Brown took the stand,
he offered an elaborate defense and provided an incredible account of what had happened
to Xiao Mei and Bonnie. Paul Cheston: Derek Brown entered the witness box with a certain swagger.
Here was a man clearly who had been in court many times before and was not going to be cowed or intimidated
by the surroundings. So he came up with this ridiculous, ludicrous fantasy defense that they had died in his flat, but not at his hand.
- Xiao Mei was kidnapped by triads and Bonnie ran off with a Hell's Angel. Paul Cheston: It was the most ridiculous defense imaginable.
This sort of thing doesn't happen once, let alone twice. [ominous music] narrator: Having given his account,
it was the turn of the opposing barrister to put his case to Brown. Paul Cheston: The prosecution rose to cross-examine.
That was it. Brown said, stop, I'm not answering any more questions. You go and-- and he went back to the dock.
narrator: The trial lasted for four weeks. But on the 3rd of October 2008, the jury reached their verdict
in under three hours. - It took the jury 2 hours and 20 minutes to convict Derek Brown of the murders of both young women.
Jackie Summerford: He was found guilty, and he was sentenced. He stood there and laughed.
Paul Cheston: Judge Martin Stevens sentenced Brown to two life sentences for the two murders,
and set the minimum term before he could apply for parole at 30 years. The chances are very likely that Brown
will die behind bars. It was an impeccable investigation to put away a potential serial killer without a single body.
Unquestionably, this is a man who would have gone on to kill many, many, many times
in the future. [ominous music] narrator: Unmoved and unrepentant, Brown steadfastly refused to give
up the locations of Xiao Mei or Bonnie's remains. Paul Cheston: Judge Martin Stevens made a belated appeal
to him, even at this late stage, to tell the police what he had done with the bodies.
And to this day, he has refused all the attempts of the police to try and persuade
him to reveal the secrets. narrator: The man who plotted and murdered the two young women robbed
their children of the opportunity to grow up with their mothers and will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
For those left behind, the death of the mothers brings its own life sentence. [somber music]
Paul Cheston: Xiao Mei's husband made deeply emotional comments to the media outside court.
He described that their two children, now 10 and 11, would ask him, you know, where's Mommy?
Is she coming home? And he said that he didn't have the courage to tell them just what had happened to their mother.
narrator: After the trial, outside the courtroom, Bonnie's mother, Jackie, spoke of her pain.
- I will never understand Brown's actions. I can only describe him as a total beast.
Paul Cheston: It was moving testimony from a woman who not only would never see her daughter again,
but would have no idea what happened to her or where her remains lie. Jackie Summerford: The police used
to go back every two years to the prison and see if he was going to change his story.
And he used to tell them to eff off. narrator: Jackie's left with memories of her youngest child and her namesake granddaughter, Bonnie.
- Me, Kelly, and Kelly's daughter, Bonnie, and my grandsons, we always let balloons off on her birthday.
And that is how I remember her, because I've got no grave. [gentle music] narrator: Derek Brown saw women as a commodity.
His dark and destructive desires left three children without mothers. He refuses to ease the suffering of his victims'
families and reveal the whereabouts of their remains, leaving little doubt that Derek Brown is one of the world's
most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪

Two young mothers vanished from East London's streets. At first unconnected, the cases came together when evidence found in Derek's home showed both women suffered the same violent fate at his hands.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the murders of Xiao Mei Guo and Bonnie Barrett by Derek Brown, focusing on the investigation and trial without bodies.

Key points

The Disappearance of Two Women. In late summer 2007, Zhao Meiguo and Bonnie Barrett vanished without a trace, leading to a chilling investigation.
Derek Brown's Dark Desires. Derek Brown, a convicted rapist, had a history of violence and a disturbing ambition to become infamous.
Xiao Mei's Vulnerable Situation. Xiao Mei Guo, an undocumented migrant, faced immense pressure and danger in her new life in London.
A Mother's Instinct. Jackie Summerford felt something was wrong when her daughter Bonnie went missing, leading to a frantic search.
The Investigation Escalates. As concerns grew, Xiao Mei's case was elevated to high risk, intensifying the police search.
Forensic Evidence Found. Forensic officers discovered a trove of evidence in Brown's flat, including blood from two victims.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Evil is the only way I can describe Derek Brown.

Howard Groves on Derek Brown's character.

3:05WatchJul 8, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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