Maria Pearson | World’s Most Evil Killers | Forensic Files

[audio logo] narrator: On the 18th of October 1986, Janet Newton left her home to meet fiance Malcolm Pearson
for a night out in Hartlepool. - They just got engaged so they were going to celebrate.
narrator: Watching Janet as she set off on the five-minute walk was Malcolm's ex, Maria.
- She runs across the road brandishing a large sheath knife, and she stabs Janet no less than 17 times
and leaves her lying in a pool of blood. narrator: The hunt for Maria Pearson involved
forces from all over Britain. - Well, you know there's a dangerous murderer on the loose.
You don't know what else she's going to do or who else she's going to come for. narrator: Janet's murder was a highly
unusual crime perpetrated by a ruthless killer. - To never let this woman out-- she is deadly.
narrator: For a crime that rocked a quiet seaside town, Maria Pearson was proven to be one of the world's
most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪ When 31-year-old Maria Pearson was found guilty
of murdering Janet Newton, no one realized the case would make history. - Maria Pearson has become the longest-serving
female prisoner in Britain. narrator: Pearson has repeatedly appealed for her freedom, something
that Janet Newton's sister, Lynn, who wanted to remain anonymous, is strongly against.
Lynn: Every time she appealed, it would be in the papers again, and my mum would pick the Mail up from the doormat
and say Janet's face all over the front of the Mail again. And it wasn't very nice.
narrator: With parole refused nine times, Maria Pearson continues in her campaign
to be released, something her victims, friends, and family live in fear of. - And there are people still alive.
Malcolm Pearson, for one. And who's to say that she wouldn't want to vent revenge on the likes of him?
- I wouldn't like to be Malcolm if she got out. narrator: This killer's story begins on the 12th of March,
1956. - Maria Pearson was born in Hartlepool on the Northeast Coast of England. Jane Monckton-Smith: Her childhood
was not particularly stable. She had problems with her behavior. She was in care for a while.
- She was very, very unsettled. And indeed, she developed something of a violent temper.
Lynn: There were so many people who said, oh, I went to school with her. She was terrible at school.
What a nasty person she is. narrator: Maria grew into a woman who struggled with relationships.
By her mid-20s, she had two failed marriages behind her and was living in the center of Hartlepool.
A few streets away, 22-year-old Janet Newton lived with her parents and siblings.
- Janet Newton came from a large family. She was the eldest of four children. She had two brothers and a younger sister, Lynn.
Lynn: She was the most wonderful big sister you could ever wish for. She loved school.
She was very studious. She left senior school with really brilliant grades. Then she applied for the job at the Abbey National
and she beat off hundreds of applicants. When she got her first wage, she bought us all a present, my mum and dad and me and my brothers.
And then she started donating to charities and she sponsored a child abroad. She just had a really giving nature.
narrator: In 1986, aged 22, Janet began dating local welder Malcolm Pearson. The confident 31-year-old was a departure from her usual type.
Lynn: She had a couple of boyfriends before Malcolm, really nice, quiet people. She got engaged to one of them, but it didn't work out
and they went their separate ways. And it was just after that when she met Malcolm.
So, you know, we weren't sure she was quite ready to start another relationship.
narrator: Janet's new boyfriend had a checkered history, one which had in the past put him
on the wrong side of the law. Jane Monckton-Smith: Malcolm Pearson was a problematic individual.
By his own description, he was a bit of a brawler, a nightclub brawler. - She felt as though she was deeply in love with Malcolm.
The last thing you want to hear is people saying you shouldn't be with him because you
don't want to hear that. The problem is when you've fallen in love with somebody,
nothing else matters, does it? narrator: Recently separated from his wife, Malcolm spent much of his time with his family.
Malcolm's niece, Andrea, who also wanted to remain anonymous, remembers her uncle fondly.
Andrea: He's my dad's younger brother. There's three brothers, and Malcolm's the youngest.
Malcolm and my dad were very close. Malcolm confided in my dad a lot. I found out that Malcolm had met somebody new.
And she was quite a bit younger than him, but they seemed to be madly in love. He couldn't stop talking about her.
He really, really felt like he'd met the one. narrator: Malcolm's new relationship with Janet
was a world away from what he'd had with his ex-wife, Maria, which was highly volatile.
Geoffrey Wansell: He was at one point fined 100 pounds for attacking her. At another point, she claimed he'd
raped her, only to go back to his house and go to bed with him again. narrator: Pearson later admitted
the rape claim had been false. - It was that kind of a volatile, stormy, extraordinary relationship.
narrator: On Thursday, the 16th of October, 1986, Janet turned 23 and Malcolm had an extra special
gift for his girlfriend. Lynn: Janet got engaged to Malcolm. She wasn't with Malcolm long.
Everything was just happening so quickly. narrator: Two days later, on the Saturday night,
the happy couple planned to go out to celebrate. Wearing her best red dress, Janet set off on foot
to meet Malcolm at his home. Lynn: It was only about a five-minute walk just round the corner down the main road, Grange Road.
And then you should have turned right at the bottom of there, within a few minutes she'd have been at Malcolm's street.
And so she was just walking down Grange Road. Andrea: She didn't arrive so he'd phoned her mum's.
He said, has she set off and her mum said, well, she should be there by now. And he said, oh, well she hasn't arrived.
I'll go and see if I can see her. I'll go and meet her. narrator: As Malcolm was preparing
to leave the house in search of Janet, police officer Mick Coverdale picked up a troubling message.
Mick Coverdale: But at the time I was on road traffic duties, received a radio message
to attend a road traffic accident, which they believed was a hit and run. narrator: As the traffic officer
sped towards Grange Road, Malcolm Pearson was already there, as was the bloodied form of a young woman.
Andrea: He realized that it was Janet. He knew by her coat and the red dress that she was wearing.
narrator: Emergency services were soon on the scene. Janet was taken by ambulance to Hartlepool General Hospital.
When the police learnt of Malcolm's connection to the injured woman, they were keen to speak to him.
Andrea: The police came and they must have thought, well, why is he here? They just didn't seem to know what had gone on,
and they took him to the police station. narrator: In the meantime, traffic cop Mick Coverdale
began searching for clues. Mick Coverdale: I arrived at the scene and started to investigate, looking for a hit and run car.
And I checked at least 20 cars on both sides of the road, none had damage. Then, while looking underneath the cars,
I found a lady's shoe. Now, the lady's shoe was a high-heeled type, which are the shiny ones, but had no scuff marks on.
Normally, when somebody is hit by a car, the shoes come off, and they bounce along the pavement of the road
and get scratches. narrator: The findings were inconsistent with a road traffic accident.
Mick Coverdale: I've been on road traffic since '74, so I've seen the different types of accidents
and what to look for. When I checked the cars, I found a hand print in red on the back of a car, as if somebody
had pressed their hand against the car and there was something not right. I've radioed control to say, I'm going
to find out what's going on. I will update you when I find out what the story is if you like.
narrator: At Hartlepool General Hospital, the traffic officer made his way to the area
where medics were losing the fight for Janet's life. Mick Coverdale: That's when I walk in through them double
doors and there was the specialist, five nurses around a body which had no blood on it.
She was being stripped of all clothing. She had 15, 20 stab wounds. I had to get my control to radio back in.
Sorry, you need CID down here. It appears to be a murder. narrator: Just two days after her 23rd birthday,
newly-engaged Janet Newton was declared dead, killed in what now seems certain to have not been
a road traffic accident, but in fact, a brutally violent attack. On Saturday, the 18th of October 1986,
Janet Newton's younger sister, Lynn, was spending the evening at a friend's house.
Lynn had seen 23-year-old Janet at the family home just a few hours earlier. Lynn: I always remember that night,
being really thankful to my mum for tea and saying thanks for that tea, Mum. It was lovely.
And then I said bye because I was going out. And so then she was going to get ready to go
to Malcolm's house. narrator: The two sisters had a special bond. Lynn: I shared a bedroom with her.
And I really missed her when she wasn't there, because we didn't have things in our bedroom in them days,
apart from talking to each other. narrator: That Saturday night, Lynn learned that her happy family life
would never be the same again. Lynn: When my brother came to the house, he said, our Janet's dead.
They think it's been a hit-and-run accident. I couldn't believe it. It was just such a shock and a blur.
And it's just the last thing you ever expect anyone to knock on a door and say to you,
your sister's dead. When we got to Mum and Dad's house, that's when they told us what really happened.
And they explained it as best they could that Janet had been murdered. I don't think at that stage, we got all the details of just how
vicious the attack had been. narrator: At the local police station, Janet's fiance, Malcolm Pearson,
had been questioned extensively. Andrea: The police let him go. They knew that he didn't know anything.
But he did say to them straight away she's been getting stalked off Maria Travers.
narrator: It was a name that acting Detective Chief Inspector Doug Smith was familiar with.
Doug Smith: I always call her Maria Travers because that was her previous name. She was married to a man called Travers
and then she got involved with Malcolm. I'd heard of her. I'd never met her. But quite often, there was a lot
of domestic trouble going on between her and Malcolm Pearson. You would class them as minor assaults.
Just large arguments that got out of hand, and people would ring in because they
were afraid that somebody was going to get hurt. narrator: Together for three years,
the couple had a daughter in 1985 and had married one year later. Andrea: He was a good looking fella.
She was a really pretty woman, believe it or not. She was really attractive. He married her because of the daughter.
And he wanted them to be a family. I don't think she was bothered about the baby.
I think she wanted the baby as a way to keep bringing him back. She didn't look after her properly.
She got reported and that's when the daughter was taken into care. So she was living with foster parents.
narrator: 30-year-old Maria Pearson was a woman with many secrets. One was that she'd never divorced her previous husband.
- She obviously hadn't told Malcolm she was already married. And they went through a marriage ceremony,
and he was living with her in the belief that he was actually legally married to her.
narrator: Within six months of their wedding, their daughter had been taken into care.
Pearson had moved out, and Malcolm had begun annulment proceedings for the bigamous marriage.
He wanted to move on with his new partner, Janet. Lynn: She met Malcolm, after they'd split up.
Stories went about that they were still together. They weren't still together. He hadn't been with her for ages.
narrator: In spite of the illegality of the marriage, Pearson continued to use Malcolm's surname.
She also began to infiltrate his family, beginning with his niece, Andrea. Andrea: I was out drinking with my friends
and she approached me as if she knew me, really. And she just seemed really nice.
She kind of tagged along with me and my friends. She didn't tell me that she was with Malcolm or ex
with Malcolm or anything like that. Geoffrey Wansell: Maria becomes literally obsessed.
She launches into a campaign of stalking and abuse that is literally terrifying.
Andrea: She used to still turn up at Malcolm's house when she knew he was on his own.
She'd be banging on the door and screaming, but he wouldn't let her in the house anymore.
He had no reason to speak to her anymore and she just couldn't stand it. narrator: Maria Pearson began to focus
her attentions on Malcolm's new girlfriend, Janet. Lynn: Maria started following them about and
watching for them walking down the street, following them, harassing them, shouting things at them.
Geoffrey Wansell: Maria writes to Janet's mother, saying that she's a slut and she's
only after Malcolm's money. Lynn: She was making a lot of phone calls to my mum's house,
just not saying anything. The phone was just constantly ringing. She used to get the fire brigade to turn up ringing,
saying there'd been a fire. narrator: Though at first oblivious to her new friend's
connection with Malcolm, his niece Andrea soon began to see signs of Pearson's jealous and
volatile personality. Andrea: There was always some little flashes of, well, that's a bit odd.
This particular night she was acting quite strange. She was really angry all the time.
She would go up to what I would consider a complete stranger in a bar and start having a go at them,
accusing the girl of being with Malcolm Pearson. And she was a bit crazy and I didn't really know
what was going on with her. She'd got us all to go to a nightclub called the Gemini.
So we all went in and our Malcolm was in there. And when he saw that she was with me,
he was absolutely livid. He kind of frogmarched me out of the nightclub, and he put me in a taxi, and he sent me home.
And he just said to me, she's dangerous. You need to stay away from her. Jane Monckton-Smith: It's overt behavior.
It's right out there in the open. Everyone can see it. She wants everyone to know how angry she is.
At the heart of this is a massive sense of injustice, that she has somehow been severely wronged by Malcolm.
narrator: In a move that horrified Malcolm's family, Pearson rented a house across the road from his mother.
Andrea: Malcolm was still very close to my Nan, his mum, so he would often visit.
And then when she moved to that house, it was, like, over the road and she'd just stand on her doorstep staring at my mum's house.
And it was intimidating and it was a bit spooky. And like, what on Earth is she doing?
narrator: Very soon, Pearson's stalking and verbal abuse became even harder to ignore when she attacked Janet's neighbor's home.
- She put next door but one's window through because she got the wrong house. She went into the Abbey National, where Janet works,
and she threatened to kill her. narrator: Maria Pearson was obsessively stalking Janet and Malcolm.
Her behavior was escalating and on a dangerous trajectory. Jane Monckton-Smith: She's following her.
She's making threats to kill. All of these things, we can see we are getting closer
to a serious physical attack. Lynn: Janet and Malcolm had gone out one night and she must have followed them and been hiding somewhere.
So when Janet went to the toilet, she appeared in the toilet. And she attacked Janet and banged her head off
the hand dryer in the toilet. And Malcolm realized she'd been in there too long,
and he went in and sort of rescued her from Maria. When my dad went to report the incidents,
they said, oh, not her again. So yeah, they were well aware of who she was. narrator: In 1986, stalking was not a crime.
It was not recognized as a stepping stone to something more serious. Jane Monckton-Smith: You can see
the stalker going from one tactic to the next to the next as the danger is ramping up, the very real
danger she posed to Janet. narrator: Janet Newton had certainly begun to feel afraid for her own safety.
Lynn: She asked me if I would go to self-defense classes in the Grand Hotel with her,
and I said, no, I'm not interested in going to anything like that. And that is a massive regret of mine.
narrator: On the 16th of October came the event that is believed to have prompted Pearson to take her campaign
of hate to a whole new level. Geoffrey Wansell: The trigger for what was to come
was when Malcolm and Janet announced their engagement. Jane Monckton-Smith: Maria was, in her mind,
suffering some kind of awful injustice. He'd made promises, and yet he's waltzed off
and he's with this new girl, and he seems fine. Left her life an absolute wreck.
If somebody feels their suffering an injustice, they also feel they have a right to right the injustice.
narrator: Nobody believed that Maria Pearson would ever follow through with her threats to kill Janet.
But two days after hearing about the engagement, Pearson escalated her obsessive behavior
and continued to stalk Janet Newton, this time with fatal consequences. On Sunday, the 19th of October 1986,
the investigation into the murder of 23-year-old Janet Newton was underway. A post-mortem revealed the brutality she'd suffered.
Doug Smith: There were 17 stab wounds so it was quite a vicious, nasty attack, violent attack.
Her face was slashed, which showed a lot of malice. One of the wounds nicked her heart valve,
and that's what killed her. Jane Monckton-Smith: 17 stab wounds. That's rage and hatred.
It's what we call overkill. So that's way more violence than is necessary to merely
kill someone. Lynn: They went to see her at the funeral home. That's where my dad saw her with Malcolm because Malcolm
didn't want to go on his own. And my dad cried. My dad was really upset when he got back because he said,
I've never seen anything like it in my life. And she said it was absolutely horrific.
narrator: Evidence was collected from the site of the attack at Grange Road. Doug Smith: Forensic officers were drafted
in to examine the scene. The one thing that we were looking for was a weapon. And there was a search started for the weapon,
but nothing was found at that time. We took on board the help of the local authority
with their gully sucker. They stick a rod down into the drain and suck any debris that's been collected there to ensure
a free flow of water. And it found a knife which had been stuck on one of the drains.
narrator: With no immediate clues as to who the attacker was, the police reached out to Janet's new fiance,
31-year-old Malcolm Pearson, for information. - He transferred from being a person
of interest, in terms of a suspect, to a major witness. narrator: Malcolm Pearson suspected
the killer was the woman who duped him into a bigamous marriage. Doug Smith: He put the finger on Maria
and said that she'd been very jealous about the fact that he'd found a new girlfriend.
narrator: If local rumors were true, Maria Pearson was no stranger to carrying a knife.
Lynn: It wasn't the first time she'd tortured Malcolm over his new girlfriend. He met another girl and she tortured her
as well before Janet and apparently had threatened her with a knife. - She did attack somebody else with a knife.
It was her ex-husband. Doug Smith: Obviously, she was a person of interest, and we had to try and trace her to establish whether or
not she was involved. narrator: But when detectives went to question Pearson, they hit an immediate problem.
- The police had gone to arrest her, and she'd gone. Doug Smith: We went to her place of residence.
She wasn't there. Then we went to tried checking around with family and other places where she would have gone,
and it was established she wasn't in any of those places. Andrea: It was a bit scary and I was nervous.
But I lived with my partner and we were made aware to be careful and just keep a lookout.
narrator: Among those racking their brains for a lead on Maria Pearson's location
was a neighborhood beat officer who'd met her the previous year. - I was weekend off when it happened.
So when I came back to work on the Monday and I found out what had happened, I thought, oh, my God, I know who she is.
I was introduced to her at a New Year's Eve party. It was a relation of mine that was involved
in a women's refuge in Hartlepool at the time, and I think she must have got to know Maria, maybe
as a resident of the refuge. I just thought there was something off about her. I just wasn't-- didn't like being around her.
narrator: By the 20th of October, detectives knew three things about 30-year-old Pearson.
She was jealous, violent, and missing. - She was on the run and she was trying to evade capture.
Andrea: We didn't know where she was. Everybody was really worried and frightened because she
was a lunatic. Sharon Beha: I thought, well, I might have an idea where she might have gone.
narrator: Sharon's aunt, who'd introduced her to Pearson, had a friend who lived in Oxford.
This friend had also visited the refuge in Hartlepool, where she'd met the 30-year-old.
Sharon Beha: And I just thought she'd be wanting to get out of the town so maybe that's where she's gone.
So I told my inspector, who obviously then said, right, straight upstairs, go to the incident room,
and speak to them up there. narrator: It was a long shot. But with a suspected killer on the loose and no other leads,
the team could not ignore it. Lynn: When you know there's a dangerous murderer on the loose, you don't know what else she's going to do
or else she's going to come for. Sharon Beha: Once I'd spoken to the incident team
and told the boss there, and they said, right, get on the phone and find out. I rang my auntie first.
She gave me the number for a friend. And lo and behold, when I spoke to her, she said, yeah, she's been on the phone
and she wants to come and stay with me. narrator: Pearson was desperate, dangerous,
and about to be welcomed into the home of the unsuspecting woman. Doug Smith: When people are unpredictable like this,
you just don't know what they're going to do. And it's quite possible, if you got cornered
or if somebody upset her, that she may well have resorted to violence again. Sharon Beha: I couldn't tell her what had gone on.
I just said, well, we do need to speak to her. Can you tell me when she rang? And basically, she'd asked if she could
come and stay with this lady. And she was told, yeah, you can come. And she said, she's going to come down some time today.
narrator: Time was of the essence. With Pearson's destination a five-hour drive south,
the team in Hartlepool contacted the local constabulary in Oxford. Doug Smith: Thames Valley Police
sent officers round to the address where we thought she would be visiting. And she had, in fact, been there, but she'd left.
And it was believed that she was going to head off to London. The railway station, the bus station
was checked and without any trace of her. narrator: Officers were put on alert,
looking out for a woman who was known to be extremely dangerous. In the nearby town of Reading, a Thames Valley Police officer
had a lucky break. Doug Smith: The late-night bus to London was leaving the outskirts of the town
when a bright-eyed, young policeman decided to stop the bus. And fortunately for us, she was on there.
- Maria is therefore taken into custody. Doug Smith: She was heading to London, then down to Dover,
and was going to leave the country. So had she succeeded in doing that, it would have made
our inquiries a little more difficult. narrator: While the hunt was underway, detectives had worked to piece together
the events of the evening of Janet's murder. They believe Pearson had been driven
to and from the crime scene. Geoffrey Wansell: On the 17th of October, the day after,
Maria is out with friends. - She picked up this young lad in the town and pretended to be a girlfriend to him.
- She can be very convincing and she can act. Jesus, she can act. Doug Smith: She had no real attachment
to this young student. She just manipulated him, which is a classic trait of Maria.
narrator: Pearson had arranged to meet the young man the following evening, the 18th of October.
When they met up, she asked him to drive her to a street close to Janet Newton's home.
- Maria had decided that Janet had to be dispensed with. Doug Smith: She got him to park his car
on the opposite side of the road to where Janet lived. And she would therefore be able to see her leaving home,
walk down the road towards Grange Road. narrator: At 7:30 that evening Pearson was
lying in wait when Janet Newton left her home on Thornville Road. - Janet is on her way to see Malcolm.
Lynn: And she was walking down to Malcolm's house. It was only about a five-minute walk.
Doug Smith: Maria got out of the car, left her friend in the car, and followed Janet into Grange Road.
Lynn: She'd been left our house approximately three minutes to get where she got to.
narrator: All of the jealousy and hatred Maria Pearson had been harboring towards Janet Newton
was about to be unleashed in a frantic, frenzied assault. - She wants to vent her rage on Janet,
and that's exactly what she does. Geoffrey Wansell: And she stabs Janet no less than 17 times,
twice through the heart, and leaves her lying in a pool of blood on the pavement.
She rushes back across the road, jumps into the car, and the car takes off. narrator: After two days on the run,
Maria Pearson had been captured. But she was not a woman to come quietly. What followed would make history.
On the 20th of October 1986, in the seaside town of Hartlepool, news of the arrest in Berkshire of suspected killer Maria
Pearson was met with relief. Doug Smith: I was delighted to find out we'd nabbed her.
Then we arranged for her to be brought back to Hartlepool for interview. narrator: Safely in custody back in her home town,
30-year-old Pearson was kept under strict surveillance. Sharon Beha: Somebody who was being arrested
for such a serious offense used to be classed as suicide watch and you had to watch them with an open door.
And I was one of the policewomen that my charge-- you've got to go and sit there.
Lynn: I can remember my mum and dad saying they've got her. You know, they've got her.
And then it does put your mind at rest then. Sharon Beha: I knew she recognized me because she
smiled at me and I sat down. And she actually mentioned about, oh, it's nice at this time of year in Oxford.
I remember things like that. God, if that was me, I'd be a nervous wreck. And she was just, you know, as if she
was in for shoplifting or something, not the heinous crime that she, alleged at the time, committed.
And I just thought, just an evil woman. Just she just made me feel uncomfortable.
narrator: Three days after 23-year-old Janet Newton's murder, detectives had the opportunity to speak
to their prime suspect. Doug Smith: She was interviewed under caution. She didn't admit anything in interview,
and simply the fact that she wasn't involved in the murder. She pointed the finger at Malcolm.
- It rapidly became apparent that, in fact, that wasn't the case, and that Maria herself was the person
who had killed Janet Newton. And she was the person who was charged with Janet's murder.
narrator: Maria Pearson was charged on the 23rd of October, 1986 and remanded in custody to await trial.
Lynn: It was really hard. It's all sinking in. And every single day you wake up and your heart breaks once again.
You know, for a split second, you wake up and go, oh, it's Monday. Oh, just a normal day.
And then it all hits you again, over and over again. And it's so traumatic. narrator: In the run up to the trial,
the case attracted a lot of media attention. Mick Coverdale: In them days, murder was news.
It was more a rare thing. Jane Monckton-Smith: This was highly unusual because we've got a woman rage filled,
acting in a homicidal way with a planned homicide. Highly unusual. - The next hurdle for us was the sitting through the caucus.
Geoffrey Wansell: In July 1987, Maria Pearson goes on trial for the murder of Janet Newton.
It's in Teesside Crown Court. narrator: Inside the courtroom, Pearson showed no signs of remorse.
- She had one expression on her face. She never changed her expression. She just looked like she didn't care.
She just told lie after lie after lie. - Maria's defense is possibly predictable.
She insists that she didn't do it, but that Malcolm Pearson killed Janet. Indeed, she even insists that she saw him kill her.
Andrea: She said Malcolm did it because he wanted to be with her. Jane Monckton-Smith: Where is her remorse, shame, guilt?
There isn't any. Because if there was any, she would not be trying to pin it on somebody else.
She's quite happy for somebody else to go to prison for what she did. Lynn: She wasn't even legally married to Malcolm,
but she wouldn't answer in court to Travers. She refused, stood there stubborn. No, I'll only answer to Pearson.
narrator: The prosecution presented a picture of an angry, jilted woman who plotted
to get revenge with the brutal murder of Janet. - It was obviously premeditated in the fact
that she'd gone out, bought a weapon, and obviously made use of it. Andrea: They had evidence of her buying the knife.
She'd bought it in a hardware store that was owned by my brother's friend. Doug Smith: There was a lot of evidence--
the fact that she was taken to the scene by the driver. She was there when it happened.
She was seen by the driver to follow Janet into Grange Road. And a few minutes later, we've got a dead body.
So there was some pretty conclusive evidence. Lynn: It was really hard, you're listening to it.
When you think how such a gentle person she was could have came to such a brutal end.
You know, it's-- she just didn't deserve it at all. - It was a particularly horrendous crime in my eyes,
and I think in the majority of most people, you know, what she did to this young girl because she had the temerity
to go out with her ex. Just shocking. narrator: After two weeks, the barristers brought
their arguments to a close. It was a tense moment for Doug Smith. Doug Smith: You you've got a very strong case.
You still have that little bit of niggle in the back of your mind that I hope this goes OK.
You want to do your best for the family, for the community, and get the right result.
- On the 24th of July, 1987, the jury of seven men and five women returned a verdict of guilty.
The judge called Maria full of jealousy and bitterness and also deeply hostile and resentful.
The judge sentences Maria to a life imprisonment with a minimum of 12 years. Lynn: It still didn't bring Janet back,
but it was such a relief that she was going to pay for what she'd done to Janet.
narrator: But this was not the end of the ordeal for Janet's loved ones. - She appealed pretty soon after the sentence.
narrator: And in 1990 came a shock admission. Lynn: She did admit what she'd done in the end.
She appealed on the grounds of PMT and post-natal depression. narrator: Maria Pearson claimed to have been mentally
unstable at the time of the murder, having had a miscarriage six days before. Finally admitting to killing Janet,
she used the defense of provocation and self-defense, blaming Malcolm for her mental state.
- This is very self-motivated. It's very selfish. It's not a sudden realization of remorse,
again, shame or guilt. And she throws everything at this. So it's her pre-menstrual tension, post-natal depression,
diminished responsibility using whatever trick in the book that she can find to try and get away from it.
narrator: Another application to appeal cited a personality disorder and battered woman syndrome.
All of Maria Pearson's applications to appeal her conviction were denied. Despite the initial 12-year sentence, Maria Pearson has now
spent four decades in prison. Geoffrey Wansell: Maria has appeared on numerous occasions
before the parole board. And each time, her parole has been denied. Because in the prison authorities' view,
she does represent a danger to society. Lynn: She's evil, and she'll probably always will be.
I think she really would be a danger to society if she was let out. It's a lot of years to still not show any remorse
or to not behave yourself. Geoffrey Wansell: In 2023, she applied for parole for the ninth time and was again refused.
narrator: At the time of her 2023 appeal, Maria Pearson was Britain's longest serving female prisoner.
The press have nicknamed her the Forgotten Prisoner. Andrea: They were trying to say that she'd
been in all them years because they just forgot about her. [chuckle] Nobody's forgot about her, believe me.
I think she was very precise in what she did. I know that it looks like a crazed frenzy,
and she lost the plot for a minute. I think everything she did was specifically done because she
wanted to hurt Malcolm. narrator: It's been almost four decades since Janet Newton's murder, but time has not diminished
the impact of her loss. Andrea: Malcolm just couldn't get over it, you know. He just stayed on his own.
He's always been a bit of a loner, and none of us really see him anymore. Lynn: It's just with you all the time so it doesn't matter
what comes up in your life. So whether it's having babies, getting married, Christmases are a nightmare.
You feel guilty for enjoying occasions without her there. The grief is just so deep-rooted inside.
It never goes away. But you just learn how to push it back, put a smile on your face, and try to get on with your life as best you can
because that's all you can do. You've got no choice. narrator: Maria Pearson could not have the man she wanted,
and she could not accept that he wanted someone else. She wreaked her revenge by stabbing
an innocent young woman 17 times, leaving her devastated loved ones to pick up the pieces,
making Maria Pearson one of the world's most evil killers. [surging music] ♪ ♪
[audio logo]

Maria's marriage crumbled when Malcolm discovered her bigamy. As he moved on and found new love, Maria's jealousy erupted into dangerous rage, leading to a confrontation that exposed how far she was willing to go.

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

Janet Newton was murdered by Maria Pearson, a jilted ex, in 1986, leading to a notorious trial and ongoing appeals for release by Pearson.

Key points

The Hunt for Maria Pearson. Following Janet's murder, a nationwide manhunt ensued for Maria Pearson, who was deemed extremely dangerous.
Janet's Tragic Murder. On October 18, 1986, Janet Newton was brutally murdered by Maria Pearson, a crime that shocked a quiet town.
The Aftermath of Janet's Death. Lynn recalls the devastating moment she learned of her sister's death, forever changing her family.
Maria's Obsession. Maria Pearson's stalking of Janet escalated, leading to a violent confrontation that ended in murder.
The Brutality of the Attack. Janet was found with 17 stab wounds, indicating a vicious and personal attack.
Maria Pearson's Capture. After a tense manhunt, Maria Pearson is arrested on a bus to London.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I wouldn't like to be Malcolm if she got out.

Concern about Maria's potential revenge on Malcolm.

2:36WatchJun 24, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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