Leslie Potter | Truth About My Murder | FilmRise True Crime | Forensic Files

[tense orchestral music] [gun firing] - When a murder's committed, it's always a race against time
to find the truth, to separate fact from fiction, to catch the killer, and to make sure that justice is served,
but what happens when the truth vanishes with the victim? [tense orchestral music]
I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd, and I've spent my entire career as a forensic pathologist
performing nearly 23,000 autopsies, including on some of the most high-profile cases of recent times.
I've learned that the dead don't hide the truth and they never lie. [tense orchestral music]
Through me, you'll be hearing directly from the victim. From a state-of-the-art laboratory
with groundbreaking technology that uses digitally-scanned sample bodies, I'll be investigating a series of intriguing murders where,
from the victim's bodies, I'll be revealing to you the truth behind those horrific crimes.
[camera snapping] [tense piano music] The small historic fishing village of Mumbles
sits on the outskirts of Swansea in South Wales. [tense piano music] Its idyllic seaside setting is popular with tourists
and is the gateway to the beautiful Gower Peninsula. [tense piano music] Lesley and Derek Potter, happily married
and expecting their next grandchild, were at the heart of that close-knit community,
yet on the 7th of April, 2018, Derek found Lesley dead. She'd apparently hung herself from a beam in their home,
but had Lesley committed suicide or had something more sinister occurred, and could her body help reveal the truth?
[tense piano music] Lesley and Derek Potter lived together on a quiet street rising up behind the sea front.
[tense piano music] - Mumbles is definitely an aspirational place to live, there's...
The house prices here are quite sky-high, lots of people have second homes here it's quite quiet, idyllic.
[tense piano music] [tense piano music continues] - [Richard] On the evening of Friday, 6th of April, 2018,
the Potter family were all out enjoying a meal at the George Pub in Mumbles. [tense piano music]
- Lesley and Derek liked visiting different pubs in Mumbles that were quite close to their home.
They visited the George Pub with their children and grandchildren, had a family meal together.
[tense piano music] According to staff, everything seemed normal. [dramatic booming]
[tense orchestral music] - [Richard] But the next morning, this happy family was torn apart.
[tense orchestral music] Derek got up earlier and made Lesley a cup of tea before heading out to run some errands.
[tense orchestral music] When he returned, his wife was not in bed, so he searched the house and found her in the back bedroom,
hanging in an apparent suicide. - Derek said that morning he went out to go and collect some money that he was owed from a roofing job,
and was stuck in traffic in Mumbles for around 20 minutes, and came back to find his wife hanging naked
in the back room, which he referred to as his workshop. [tense orchestral music]
[phone ringing] He called his daughter Nicole at 11:22 AM. [tense orchestral music]
Two minutes later, she called for an ambulance. [siren blaring] After Derek hung up on his daughter,
he called the emergency services, and when they asked him if he needed an ambulance,
he said, "No, the person is dead." [tense orchestral music] - Only about half of the people who commit suicide
actually leave a suicide note, probably a way of revealing their inner turmoil and their desire to make the ultimate decision.
In Lesley's case, no note was found, and when the police examined the scene, they found no suspicious circumstances
and nothing to contradict Derek's story, so Lesley's body was taken to the local mortuary
for a routine postmortem examination. When she was examined, a noose was found on the body,
and that would explain the marks that were found, which I can show you on this sample body,
which are described as a five-millimeter deep furrow to the front of the neck, but which also extended up the sides of the neck
up behind the ears on both sides, and these are typical of the marks caused by a ligature in hanging.
Hanging causes death in a very particular way, it causes death by resulting in pressure
to the nerves in the neck, particularly a nerve called a vagus nerve, which travels down and affects the heart,
and stimulation of the vagus nerve by pressure causes the heart to stop, and so, death can occur very quickly indeed in hanging.
The pathologist who examined Lesley found no evidence to contradict Derek's account,
and so, her body was released to the funeral directors for cremation. [gentle piano music]
Lesley's suicide stunned the family, who to the outside world had seemed to be so regular.
- Lesley and Derek Potter married in 1992 and had been together for 26 years, they had three children, five grandchildren
and one on the way. - And this was their second marriage, I think Lesley came originally from Bristol
or the West Country, but we don't really know much about her background or about his background, to be honest.
- They had run a cafe together in Mumbles, and then, in their later years together,
Derek became a carpenter/tradesman doing odd jobs, and roofing, and things like that.
- [Richard] Their daughter, Nicole, who was four months pregnant, had recently become friends
with a woman who'd lived locally. - I met Nicole in the pub, she started chatting to me first
and I make friends with everyone, I started talking to her, and ever since, we became friends, quite good friends.
We went out together a lot, we went partying, you know, we went to friend's house, having parties there,
so yeah, we went out quite a lot together. [gentle piano music] - [Richard] Shortly after meeting Nicole,
Natalia met her parents. - Lesley was really happy person, she was kind, genuine person,
I mean, she took me, one day, home and drove me all the way home, and she was really nice, we had a lovely chat
and she was looking forward to having another grandkid. [gentle piano music] I met Derek, first time, in Nicole's house.
I was sitting on the sofa chatting to Nicole, just playing with Nicole's son, and then, Derek walks in through the door
and Derek sits down, has a cup of tea, has a cigarette, let's just say he... Derek seemed interested in me, if you know what I mean.
He seemed nice, but he was always, at that point, staring at me and looking at me,
so I was a bit awkward at that time and I was really quite wary about him, you know, just was interested in another young woman,
if you know what I mean. [gentle piano music] - [Richard] When her mother was found dead,
Nicole called Natalia. - Nicole was the first person that told me that Lesley committed suicide.
- Nicole, Lesley's daughter, received that phone call from Derek. She must have been in a complete state of shock.
- Then Nicole was crying on the phone and all I could say to her, anything at all, I'll be there for her.
[gentle piano music] - How devastating it must have been for her to find out that her mother's died from suicide
and she was four months pregnant at the time. Terrible. - For Nicole, it was devastating.
You know, Nicole was... She was really, really sad. - [Richard] Their shock was compounded
by the fact there was no suicide note left by Lesley explaining why she would take her own life.
- When the emergency services arrived, Derek claimed that he'd tried to revive her,
but Leslie was found dead, naked, lying on a cabinet with the noose still around her neck.
[indistinct] Police were there and questioned Derek initially. - When police got there, they found Derek Potter upset,
although it was noted, perhaps not as upset as you might expect, he wasn't crying.
- Paramedics straight away noted something odd. Leslie Potter was found naked, laying on a table in the workshop,
and the paramedic who first responded said he'd been, sadly, to many hangings over the years
and he'd never seen a naked person hang themself, but the scene was photographed, his account was taken,
and then, the body was taken away. There were no suspicious circumstances. - It just shows you never really know
what's going on behind closed doors. [dramatic booming] [gentle piano music] - On the 7th of April, 2018, Lesley Potter was found
hanged at home in Mumbles, South Wales. She was found by her husband Derek, and her death seemed to come out of the blue.
Derek appeared quite calm when speaking with the police officers. - [Officer] How long were you married to Lesley for?
- 25 years, 26 years. - But the authorities had no reason to suspect that anything was amiss.
However, Lesley's body would have its own story to tell. [ethereal electronic music]
Derek Potter had a troubled past. He had previous convictions, including violent offenses.
[ethereal electronic music] - People who were friends with Derek have reported in local press that after a few drinks,
that he became quite erratic and confrontational. In the years leading up to Lesley's death,
Derek had actually given up drinking and had tried to control that behavior, but just before Leslie's death, according to her friends,
he had started drinking again and was often seen frequenting the George Pub with Leslie.
[tense orchestral music] - [Richard] But by all accounts, Lesley seemed to be enjoying life.
- Lesley was in a really good place, she was a really happy woman, and she was over the moon
that she was gonna have another grandkid. Everything was normal with the family as far as I know.
Nicole never ever said that, you know, she argued with her family or anything like that.
- [Richard] Lesley did have some physical health issues. - She wasn't very well,
she had massive arthritis on her fingers, she couldn't move her fingers really well,
I think she had problems with her legs. [ethereal electronic music] - [Richard] But three days before her death,
she was out shopping and moving around without too much difficulty. [ethereal electronic music]
[dramatic booming] The morning Lesley was found dead, Derek said she had come home from the shops upset.
- He said that she had been to a pharmacy to get her pain medication, but had been denied the usual strong medication
and was quite upset about this. [tense orchestral music] - [Richard] The pharmacy had no recollection of this,
and Derek's accounts of his movements that morning appeared to have some holes in it.
[tense orchestral music] - Derek had said that on that morning, he had been collecting money from a job
and that he'd been stuck in traffic for 20 minutes in Mumbles. The CCTV from the area showed free-moving traffic.
He was not stuck in traffic, no way. - Was there more to this death than suicide?
Only Lesley's body could give any clues. Derek told police he'd found Lesley hanging
and he'd cut her down and laid her on the cabinet. He also said he'd performed CPR.
When injuries from CPR are present, they're usually pretty obvious, and you find them in the muscles on the front of the chest,
but also, when CPR has been performed with some force, you can find fractures of the breastbone and of the ribs,
but it's all in the front of the chest, but sometimes, no injuries are present at all,
even though we know resuscitation has been performed. To see if any further injuries were present,
a more detailed examination would've been necessary, but the routine examination raised no issues.
They'd established a cause of death, asphyxiation by hanging, and so, no further questions were asked.
[waves rushing] Still in a state of shock, Nicole and the family started preparing for the funeral.
Nicole's friend Natalia was a huge support. - After Lesley died, Natalia offered her condolences
to the family and offered her help in any way that she could, so she started doing some cleaning for the family,
and eventually, she helped Derek. - I was gonna clean Derek's house, so I offered to clean,
I said to Derek, "You don't have to owe money 'cause of..." "Because of your daughter, Nicole,
I will just do anything I can to help." Derek started showing me around the house
and he took me to the room and he literally said, "This is where she hanged herself."
[gentle piano music] I went out of the room because I felt I didn't wanna stay in the room
where a, you know, woman, Lesley, committed suicide, I got a bit freaked out about it, so I just left the room,
I said, "I'm going." There was something not right with Derek, but I didn't know what it was.
[gentle piano music] - [Richard] Natalia also helped Derek with some roofing work
in the days leading up to the funeral. - I worked with Derek on the roof because Nicole said to me,
"Can you please help my father to do a couple of jobs?" And I wasn't scared to work on the roof
because I've done roofing before, so I said, "Yes, I'll help out." [dramatic booming]
[tense orchestral music] - [Richard] 18 days after Lesley's body was found, they started the roofing work together.
- We were on top of the roof and Derek was already making kind of weird sayings to me,
like I told Derek I broke up with my boyfriend, and he was, like, using a hammer and a nail and saying,
"Oh, you should do this to your boyfriend." You know, I was a bit scared then, but I didn't think a lot of it.
[tense orchestral music] - [Richard] After work, Derek invited Natalia for a drink.
[tense orchestral music] - Derek said, "Oh, you know, normal workers, we'll go to the pub
and we'll have, you know, one or two pints," I said, "Okay, no problem," so... And he wasn't supposed to be drinking,
I didn't know he was an alcoholic. [tense orchestral music] He bought the first round, we drank it,
I went to the bathroom, came back, and he already got me another one. - Several witnesses reported him and her in the pub...
And this bear in mind was a fews after his wife had committed su, and you see him with a woman, laughing and joking,
an attractive young woman, perhaps there's an element of flirting, he's... Whether he's trying to impress in some way,
in the middle of the pub, amongst people who knew him and knew... And had known his wife.
[tense orchestral music] - [Richard] And this is where the evening took a dark turn.
- We were just sitting, drinking our drinks, Derek looked in my eyes and said to me,
"I need to tell you something." [tense orchestral music] [ethereal orchestral music]
- Over two weeks had passed since Derek Potter's wife had allegedly committed suicide at home.
The postmortem hadn't raised any issues, but had the right questions been asked of Lesley's body?
[ethereal orchestral music] The funeral was a week away, and Derek was out having a drink
with a work colleague, Natalia, when they had a conversation that she would never forget.
[ethereal orchestral music] - We were sitting together, me and Derek, Derek looked in my eyes and said to me,
"I need to tell you something," I said, "What is it?" He says, "I strangled my wife."
[tense orchestral music] - After a few pints, two or three pints, not a huge amount, you would think,
he confessed to murdering his wife, he said, "I love my wife, but she was," as he said,
"Doing my head in and I strangled her," and I think, initially, she thought, "He's joking, he's had a pint or two, he's joking."
- He was calm, he was... He just looked straight in the eyes to me and Derek was really calm, he...
It's like he thought that he didn't do nothing wrong, it's fine, you know? - [Richard] Derek also asked Natalia
not to mention anything to Nicole. - To me, it's clear that Derek Potter suffers from not just one, not even just two,
but in fact, three distinct personality disorders, I see signs of borderline personality,
antisocial personality and narcissistic personality here, but I think with Derek Potter, it's the way
that his destructive components of his personality magnify each other and feed into each other,
so the lack of emotional regulation feeds into the sense of superiority and feeds into the disregard for other people.
[tense electronic music] - It was a shock for me, literally, I didn't know what to do,
I didn't know whether to run, whether to sit there, I didn't believe it at first, I really didn't believe it,
but he also... But Derek also said to me, "I've done this for you," as to say, "I've done this for you so you can move in
'cause I wanna help you with everything," as that's what Derek words were. [tense electronic music]
- The only thing that drives him, the base that he operates from, is what is in his best interests in that moment.
[tense electronic music] - Goodness knows what must have been going through Natalia's mind,
because on one hand, he's just confessed a murder, and the next minute, he's asking her to move in with him.
- At that point, I thought that he was lying. I said to Derek, "I got my own place, I don't need help,"
so I was stressed out, I didn't know what to think, and I thought, "If I was a stupid girl,
and I went and lived with him, what would happen to me?" [tense electronic music]
- He completely misjudged the situation with Natalia, he thought from his narcissistic perspective
that she would understand why he had to do what he did, that she would understand that and be on his side,
completely misreading the situation. [tense electronic music] - At the time that Derek and Natalia were at the pub,
Lesley's body was at a chapel of rest. This confession to Natalia came at a really poignant time,
it was the week before Lesley's funeral, so Natalia had a really big dilemma on her hands.
If the family went ahead with the cremation, all possible evidence would be completely destroyed.
[tense orchestral music] - [Natalia] I said to Derek, "Look, I gotta go home," so I went home, I sat there for a while,
didn't know what to do, whether to report it to the police. - [Richard] Natalia was in a state of panic.
[tense orchestral music] - I think two days, 48 hours, I didn't sleep, my mind was going out, I was lost, I was,
so I contacted my best friend, who's a lawyer, and she said to me, "Natalia, you..."
"It's best you report it," so it was something like four o'clock in the morning,
and I phoned the police then, and obviously, they came, they took me and they interviewed me.
[dramatic booming] - [Richard] Five days after Derek confessed to Natalia, police arrested him for the murder
of his wife, Lesley Potter. [gentle piano music] So once the allegations had been put to the police
about Potter's confession, he was arrested, and straight away, he began to change his story,
even in the police car, on the way to the police station, he made comments about how he'd helped his wife,
how he'd typed knots in the rope and helped her to end her own life. [gentle piano music]
- [Richard] The arresting officers pulled the car over and made a note of his remarks,
which Potter signed three times. [gentle piano music] - I was relieved when Derek was arrested
because to be honest, if he did what Derek told me, it's not fair for a woman like Lesley
to go and get cremated, and then, he's living a normal life knowing that he can do it to someone else.
- I think he will have been surprised that Natalia reported his confession to her in the pub.
He will have been shocked, because for him, he thought he was entitled to do what he was doing,
and he was just explaining that to a woman that he was interested in and that he assumed, from his narcissistic perspective,
was interested in him, it wouldn't have occurred to him that she would tell what he'd confessed to her.
[gentle piano music] - [Richard] But Natalia's actions did ultimately mean the end of her friendship
with Lesley's daughter, Nicole. - At first, when I told Nicole I had to report her father to the police, she...
Nicole was not happy, but I think Nicole and the family didn't wanna think it was Derek,
you know, they didn't look that way, maybe because Derek was so convincing, but I say to myself, "The family's gonna have to cope
because if it's the truth, they have to know who Derek was," you know, and it's justice for Lesley, as well.
- [Richard] The police now had a murder investigation on their hands. [dramatic booming]
- On the 1st of May, which was only three days before Lesley's funeral was due to take place,
the police intervened and her body was taken for a second postmortem, a more detailed postmortem in Cardiff.
- Derek claimed that when he'd found Lesley, she was already dead, she'd hanged herself,
but given what he's just told Natalia, which story would be supported by the second postmortem examination?
Hanging leaves a particular mark across the skin of the neck, and ligature strangulation leaves a horizontal band
on the skin and in the muscles underneath, but manual strangulation can produce bruising
all over the muscles of the neck and even deeper, and the second postmortem showed
marks of bruising to the muscles of the neck, it showed evidence of bruising to the base of the tongue,
and it showed evidence of bruising around the carotid artery to the sides of the neck,
and even deeper than that, it was found that the larynx was fractured. This pattern of injuries is not consistent
with ligature strangulation or hanging, but it is consistent with manual pressure to the neck,
and so, the second pathologist concluded that Lesley had been manually strangled, and then, hanged.
[tense orchestral music] Lesley's body had finally been given the opportunity to reveal the truth,
and going back over the reports of the crime scene with a critical eye, some things were looking out of place.
- Her body wasn't found directly below the noose, it was found on the other side of the room
on top of a cabinet, and it was found that the noose was around her neck, but her hair was still tucked inside of the noose,
which really struck a chord with the pathologist. [tense orchestral music] - [Richard] Natural instinct when putting anything
around your neck, like a necklace for instance, is to tuck it under your hair. Also, Leslie had been found naked,
which is almost unheard of in suicide cases. These are all significant red flags,
and while none of them on its own is critical, the three together strongly support
the postmortem findings, but during police interviews, Derek stuck to his story that Lesley had committed suicide.
- Derek was, in fact, interviewed 12 times by police after his arrest, and many a story started being spun.
At first, Derek talked about their sex life, he said that him and Lesley were very much into sadomasochism
and that she had liked being strangled, he claimed that he'd strangled her 15 times
in their relationship, some of them sexual, and then, some of them out of malice.
- He tells the police that when he first sees her body hanging there, his first thought is, "You bitch,"
we know that he talks about her body as being like a sack of spuds, all of these give us just a glimpse
into the depths of depravity of this man's personality, into the degree of damage that is deep within.
[tense orchestral music] - [Richard] But Derek Potter was adamant that his wife had committed suicide,
and that he hadn't strangled her this time. [tense orchestral music] - Derek also claimed
that Lesley had often talked about suicide, he said that he'd offered to buy her heroin
to make the process easier for her, that she was often in so much pain that that's why she wanted to go.
- It's this seething combination of personality dysfunctions that produce somebody for whom remorse, and guilt,
and any kind of finer feelings have almost been obliterated. [tense orchestral music]
- Derek was coming up with lots of excuses, but none of this really added up. [dramatic booming]
[waves rushing] [gentle piano music] - When Lesley Potter was found hanged at home,
her husband Derek initially claimed that she'd committed suicide. Now, he was charged with murder,
and a full forensic postmortem had allowed her body to tell the truth. She had been brutally murdered by strangulation.
Everything he told the police was a lie, and the lies just kept on coming. - He initially told police that his wife had been depressed
and also suffering with severe arthritis, she was in pain and couldn't take any more,
reached the end of her tether, and straight away, he began to change his story, and over the course of several interviews,
he just spun story after story after story, claiming his wife had taken her own life,
and then, had died in some kind of autoerotic sex game. - Derek was coming up with lots of excuses
and lots of different stories of where he was that day and how Lesley was feeling,
but something wasn't quite adding up. All these stories didn't make sense. - It was clear that Lesley hadn't hanged herself
as Derek had claimed, but that something far more malicious had occurred. In addition to the revelation
that Lesley had been manually strangled, and then, hanged, other injuries showed that a substantial struggle
had also taken place. The home office pathologist identified over 30 areas of bruising and grazing externally
on her arms, and on her neck, and on her legs, and on her back. He also found that there were 30 fractures of her ribs,
two of them to the back, and some ribs have been fractured more than once, and these injuries were not consistent
with simple resuscitation. Furthermore, he found evidence of bruising deep within the abdominal cavity,
and this type of bruising is consistent with severe force being applied to the abdomen,
such as stamps and kicks. He described these injuries as extreme, and he said they were consistent
with having been caused at about the time of death. It was concluded that there was no evidence
that Derek had ever attempted to resuscitate his wife, instead, he'd spent the time trying to stage the cover-up.
This was clearly a very violent death with widespread and severe injuries, injuries that were not of the sort
that could have been caused during a suicide attempt. [dramatic booming] On Monday, the 22nd of October, 2018,
Derek appeared at Swansea Crown Court charged with murder. Natalia gave evidence against him.
- It was very nerve-wracking when Derek was there, because I had to obviously see him
through the glass, and I... The police did say to me, "Do you want him to be, like...?"
You know, "Do you want a board in front of you so you don't have to see Derek?" And I said, "No, why shall I hide myself from him?
Why shall I?" But no, I was... I just... I looked in his eyes, I did, every time I answered the question to the judge,
I just looked in Derek's eyes. [gentle piano music] Derek was looking at me as well
as to probably say, "Why did you do this to me?" You know, I felt like he was angry, his face was very angry,
but I just kept on staring at him and answering the questions. [gentle piano music]
- [Richard] Then it was Derek's turn to take the stand. - He gave a very strange performance in the witness box
throughout his three days of giving evidence. He was boastful, he talked about his sexual prowess
and his crazy sex life, number of sexual partners, number of marriages he's had,
how strong he was, he seemed to want to... He seemed to enjoy being in the witness box.
- One of Derek's claims of why Lesley had maybe killed herself was that it was a sex game gone wrong,
that they were both into strangulation and she was trying to strangle herself and surprise him
when he came back from collecting money, but it had gone wrong. - He came out with some bizarre claims,
he claimed he had healing powers in his hands, it was a strange performance in the box,
not what you typically see of somebody facing such a grave charge. He seemed to want to take on the barristers
and to prove himself, I think he thought he was really clever, and he wanted to take them on and beat them,
and that rarely, rarely ends well for a defendant. [ethereal electronic music] - The way Potter behaves in trial
is really quite hard to understand, I mean, this apparently reasonably intelligent man
is spinning all sorts of implausible stories. - Part of the story, or part of the stories
which Potter told involved a lodger that he and Lesley had had in their Mumbles home by the name of Paul,
and he claimed both he and Lesley had been in love with Paul and had been involved in a three-way sexual relationship
involving role-playing and all kinds of sexual games. He claimed that his wife was depressed
after the death of Paul, and that was part of the suicide, we don't know anything about that, whether that's...
Whether Paul even existed, it's all... It could well just be another story spun by him,
his own barrister called him a fantasist. - What we've got here is somebody who's really not a very good liar, if you will,
which may be surprising, but actually, to be a good liar, you have to be aware of other people
in order to present your story in an effective way, and you have to care what other people think, he didn't.
[ethereal electronic music] - You can only imagine how hard it was for the family
to have to sit in court and to hear his lies... Lie after lie after lie that Potter told,
spinning these outrageous lies about her, some outlandish stories, it must have been heartbreaking,
heartbreak upon heartbreak. [somber orchestral music] - [Richard] As well as insisting
Lesley had committed suicide, Derek Potter pointed the finger at other people as well.
[somber orchestral music] - He also tried to blame Lesley's murder on his son-in-law,
on the Masons, and on drug-dealers. The stories were getting quite out of hand. - There's all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories
he's drawing in, it reminds me of a child caught out lying, and I think that if you understand
that this is a man who, his entire life, has never justified himself to anybody,
that's not his personality, and now, here he is suddenly finding himself realizing that actually, he is having to answer
for his actions, so we see him reacting, to my mind, like a young child, with these unsophisticated, frankly ridiculous lies.
[somber orchestral music] - But Lesley's body had told the truth and revealed the facts.
[somber orchestral music] - The trial turned on the forensic postmortem evidence,
which was vital for the prosecution case 'cause there was no witness evidence, no CCTV,
it all came down to the postmortem, the detailed forensic evidence from that which was laid out to the jury
in great detail during the trial. [somber orchestral music] - [Richard] No explanation of a motive
was ever proven in court. [somber orchestral music] - We hear quite a bit of evidence
in the trial about Derek Potter's temper, and we heard from a number of colleagues,
former colleagues who testified to outbursts of temper, and even the witness box,
Potter himself talked about his temper, he recounted one bizarre story where he said he'd strangled a man on holiday
who'd annoyed him almost in a boastful way, how he turned on this man and strangled him,
'cause he'd said something, or something had been done which annoyed him, which for a man accused of a loss of temper
and strangling his wife, was a strange thing to say. [somber orchestral music] - To the extent that there was a trigger,
I think it was this. Lesley was becoming increasingly arthritic, and suffering, and aging.
For Derek, he resented the way that this impacted on him and reflected on him in a bad light,
and I think to the extent that there was a trigger, that was it. [somber orchestral music]
- [Richard] The trial lasted two weeks, and throughout, Derek Potter took no responsibility
for what had happened to Lesley. - Potter maintained his innocence right to the end,
showed no remorse at all for what he'd done and sought to blame others, it was a shameless performance in the box
and not a hint of remorse from him for the death of his wife of 26 years. - Remorse is not a big part
of Derek Potter's personality, he will have had moments of grief, for sure, but this is a man who has, for years,
thought and felt in ways that are all about himself, that are all about hatred, that are all about disregard for other people,
so yes, there will have been moments, but moments is all it will have been. [somber orchestral music]
- [Richard] On Tuesday, the 6th of November, the jury delivered their verdict. - Throughout the trial,
Potter maintained his innocence to the end, he denied murdering his wife and just put forward the series of lies and tall tales
to try and cover his tracks, but I think the jury saw through it straight away and the prosecution case was so strong,
particularly the postmortem medical evidence, that told a very different story. [somber orchestral music]
- So when it came to the jury's deliberations, they unanimously decided that Derek was guilty
in just over an hour, in one hour, seven minutes, to be precise, the jury of eight men, four women
all decided that he was guilty of murder. [somber orchestral music] - [Richard] Two days later,
the honorable Mr. Justice Saul sentenced him. - When passing his sentence, the judge described the attack on Lesley Potter
as a ferocious attack and said that what Potter did next with the lies he told was a despicable and shameful charade,
and that claim had caused the family even more distress. - [Richard] The judge stated
that Potter had strangled his wife without premeditation in a sudden and furious burst of temper.
- I think the judge accepted, and it was argued in the case, that it wasn't a planned murder,
as it was a spontaneous outburst of anger, but while the murder wasn't planned, what happened next clearly was,
and he'd gone to the trouble of staging his wife's suicide. - He's not somebody who gives
a great deal of thought to other people, so he won't have given a great deal of thought
to whether or not he was going to get away with it, he's just acting from his own immediate selfish impulses.
What he does is an instinctive product of his disordered personality, of his dysfunctional personality.
- [Richard] Derek Potter was sentenced to life in prison, and will have to spend at least 17 years in jail.
- When they sentenced Derek, I was so chaffed, I was so chaffed, and I went out of the court
and just prayed for Lesley and say, "You know, I've done a good job, I've done it for you."
[gentle piano music] - [Richard] After the hearing, the police family liaison officer
made a statement on behalf of the family. - "Not only have we had to come to terms
with the fact that he so cruelly killed our mother, but we have had to listen to him tarnishing her name
throughout the investigation and the court case." - The family, they didn't really want to speak publicly,
but I thought that that was a really touching sentiment, and they felt... Their mother had gone
and her memory was now being tarnished by what her husband of 26 years was now saying about her
and the lies he was saying about her. I think two things really stood out for me from this case,
one was the strength of the medical evidence, which told the true story of what happened that day,
not the lies which Potter told, and also, the pub confession, without which, there would've been no detailed postmortem,
so together, I think they made for an unusual case, quite unlike any case I've covered before.
- The only thing that I'm struck by is the way that somehow, Lesley Potter managed to be married to this man for 26 years
without something like this happening before, and I think that speaks of the patience, resilience,
adaptability and humbleness of this woman that she managed to manage somebody as destructive and damaged as Derek Potter
through a 26-year marriage. [ethereal piano music] - With the trial over, Lesley's family
could finally grieve for their loss. If Natalia had not plucked up the courage to report what Derek said to her in that pub that day,
this could so nearly have been the story of a man who got away with murder, but Lesley's body showed
that she had been subjected to a violent attack, strangled to death, and then, hanged,
so it's a prime example of the fact that the body always tells the truth, but you do have to ask the right question.
[dramatic orchestral music] [dramatic orchestral music continues] [dramatic orchestral music continues]
[no audio]

Forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd investigates the murder of Leslie Potter in Mumbles, Wales. Leslie was strangled by her husband Derek, who then hanged her to make it look like death by suicide.

In The Truth About My Murder, Dr. Richard Shepherd showcases a state-of-the-art digital autopsy table featuring digitally scanned sample bodies to investigate a series of intriguing murders where the victims' bodies help reveal the truth behind horrific crimes.

For More FilmRise Check Out Our Other Channels: FilmRise Television: https://www.youtube.com/⁨@FilmRiseTelevision⁩ FilmRise Movies: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseMovies Highway to Heaven - Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@HighwaytoHeavenFullEpisodes

Brief Summary

Lesley Potter's death was ruled a murder after her husband Derek confessed to strangling her, leading to his conviction.

Key points

The Race Against Time. When a murder's committed, it's always a race against time to find the truth.
Lesley Potter's Tragic Death. Lesley Potter was found dead in her home, raising questions about suicide or foul play.
Derek's Confession. Derek confessed to Natalia that he strangled his wife, shocking her to the core.
The Arrest. Five days after confessing, Derek was arrested for the murder of Lesley Potter.
Derek Potter's Lies Unraveled. Derek's multiple inconsistent stories about Lesley's death raise suspicion and reveal his deceit.
The Forensic Revelation. The postmortem findings reveal that Lesley was manually strangled before being hanged.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The dead don't hide the truth and they never lie.

Dr. Richard Shepherd on the nature of forensic pathology.

0:31WatchFeb 7, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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