Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 5 - Searle - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: Police are called to a quiet cul-de-sac in the sleepy Suffolk town of Stowmarket.
It's 10 o'clock, Saturday, December 30. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): Can I just get
you to go and answer the door. I believe we should have officers there. Are you able to just go speak to them?
NARRATOR: A retired couple in their 60s live in the four-bedroom family home, Anne and Stephen Searle.
999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): OK, is it just the two of you in the house? Is there any other sort of issues
that the officers need to be aware of when they come into the house? NARRATOR: Anne and Stephen have three sons
and a number of grandchildren. It's a loving family, but one that's not without its issues.
He embarked on a relationship with his son's partner. Obviously that hit my mom pretty hard.
NARRATOR: After 45 years together, problems in the relationship eventually come to a head.
COLIN SUTTON: It was a big argument and an argument which progressed to physical violence.
STEPHEN SEARLE JR: We watched these documentaries in the past. And oh, you'd never believe.
And the next thing you know, it's actually happening to you in real life. NARRATOR: How had Anne and Stephen Searle's
marriage ended in murder? [music playing] Anne and Stephen Searle were in their teens
when they got together. In 1972, Stephen Searle met and married a Scottish girl called Jessica Anne.
She later just used her second name and was always known as Anne Searle. My mom originally lived in Arbroath
and moved to Glasgow with her parents and her brothers. And my dad was joining the Royal Marines, so he basically-- they
met in Glasgow. They met one night, and the rest is history. He was in the Royal Marines for 30 years,
from 1963 to 1993. NARRATOR: As military families often do, the couple and their children would move around a lot.
Stephen Searle and Ann had three boys. And they were called Gary, Stephen, and Christopher.
NARRATOR: In the early 1990s, Stephen left the military, and the family relocated to Suffolk.
COLIN SUTTON: They took on the Stag Tavern and became publicans And everything appeared well, that it was a happy relationship.
The pub was thriving. Business was good, and Stephen had apparently made the successful transition from being a Royal Marine
into Civvy Street running a pub. NARRATOR: Later, they'd move to a house, but at first, the pub in Stowmarket
seemed like the ideal place to raise a family. So Stowmarket is a small market town
that is very rural in nature. It's surrounded by fields, has a relatively small population,
reasonably affluent, because it's within Suffolk which is not a poor county. It's the sort of town where everybody knows everybody.
And many people are known through relations and family networks. NARRATOR: Stephen Searle Jr. recalls a childhood that
was for the most part happy. His mother Anne, who worked in food manufacturing, was the glue that held the family together.
She lived for her children and grandchildren. STEPHEN SEARLE JR: I was lucky enough
to grow up with both parents. And we was a tight unit. She was a lovely lady. She did care for me.
She did care for my children. She cared for my wife. She looked at my wife as basically a second daughter,
which is cool, which is lovely. But then, obviously, yeah, your mom and dad-- your mom, she's the backbone of the family.
NARRATOR: Stephen Jr. also looked up to his father, remembering him as a man who was there for his loved ones.
He was a really good guy, to be fair. I looked up to him as an idol, so he was my idol.
He was a good granddad to my children. NARRATOR: The happy family's facade was one which revolved around Stephen Searle
and his political ambitions. Steve had had a number of different jobs but was well known locally as a publican
of a number of different pubs. He was also a UKIP Councilor and had been in the years
leading up to this event. I think anecdotally, people had a lot of respect for Stephen Searle.
It doesn't matter about your political opinions. He was a local representative. And people were generally quite complimentary about him.
The leader of the local UKIP group was a good friend of his. He'd met Nigel Farage.
So he was fairly high profile, certainly in Stowmarket. He had a national footprint.
He was pictured with some of the leaders of the UK Independence Party. He was active in his membership, campaigning.
Became quite prominent locally, as you rightly say, because actually, the party as a whole
became prominent at that time. NARRATOR: In his political campaigning, Searle made much of his 30-year career as a commander.
EAMON BRIDGER: From those around them, we know that he was almost obsessive about military matters.
He wanted to talk about the army and the Royal Marines almost constantly. COLIN SUTTON: He was taught unarmed combat, taught
to keep himself fit, enjoyed keeping in shape as a bodybuilder. So we had a powerful man trained in unarmed combat who has spent
the best part of his working life keeping fit and keeping trim and ready to fight.
Searle had grown up in an incredibly macho environment. He was a member of the Marines.
They are renowned as being really tough. They like to see themselves as the toughest of the services.
He was obsessed with bodybuilding. He was obsessed with his own appearance. He'd grown up in this very macho environment.
And when he left, there's every reason to believe that he continued to want to be the man in charge.
Yes, narcissistic, very much self-centered. That came out in all of the work that we did
to understand his lifestyle. It was all centered around him. NARRATOR: Indeed, Searle was a man who likes to be in control
and that included in his relationship with Anne. On one occasion, believing that Anne
was not showing him enough respect, he fired a shotgun over her head. [gunshot] EAMON BRIDGER: There have been previous incidents
between the pair that had been violent, that hadn't been reported. But there had also been one significant incident that
had been reported way back in 1997 where Steve it actually discharged a firearm in their home, which was a pub
in Stowmarket at the time. COLIN SUTTON: Police were called to this incident where--
obviously shots were fired, so somebody called the police to it. But nothing came of that.
They decided that no offenses had been disclosed and nothing really had to be done about it.
NARRATOR: Searle would later taunt his wife about the incident. EAMON BRIDGER: And had gone on to then draw a smiley face
with the gunshot pellet holes in the wall at a later stage, which again, acted as a reminder for Anne for many years
around the potential of what could happen. The fact that he would make light of it,
of what is a really serious matter, must have been an absolutely terrifying incident.
Anyone who's been around gun shots and discharges of firearms, if you're not used to those types of things,
they are very shocking. If that's done in an emotional circumstance during an argument, then clearly it would be easy for people
to interpret and believe that it was going to lead to them being shot or killed.
So the incident itself was horrific. The fact that he reveled in that was, again, another example
of him reminding people of how much in control he was, the fact that he could use violence.
NARRATOR: Was this an isolated incident, something out of character for Stephen Searle?
Detective Chief Superintendent Eamon Bridger doesn't think so. We saw clear patterns of coercion and control,
unreported instances of abuse that Anne had talked to others about, but not the authorities.
And it was obvious, as we went through it, that Mr. Searle himself, Stephen Searle
was a highly manipulative character. She had displayed to colleagues and friends
a number of bruises that were as a result of rough handling, gripping, grabbing, striking.
NARRATOR: On one occasion in 2017, police had been called to the couple's home after Anne accused Steven of trying
to push her down the stairs. Incidents like this tally with Stephen Searle Junior's
recollection of childhood. STEPHEN SEARLE JR: I mean, I remember quite a few bad instances as a child, but it is what it is.
Things weren't too shabby, but weren't the greatest. NARRATOR: For Stevie, whatever problems his parents had
were exacerbated by alcohol abuse. His mom Anne, in particular, struggled to control her drink problem.
STEPHEN SEARLE JR: Well, my mom had a problem in the past. And she'd also went to rehab, rehabilitated.
But obviously, over time, you start to drink again. SARAH JARAVIS: It's well-known that Anne
had a problem with alcohol. But I think there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that Anne was a battered wife, was
a victim of domestic violence. Now, that may have been physical violence. It was undoubtedly emotional abuse.
This was a woman who over the years had shrunk and shrunk and shrunk until she was
a shadow of her former self. She'd resorted to alcohol. NARRATOR: There was more heartache to come
for Anne Searle. Her husband's actions would threaten to tear the entire family apart.
Anne has suspicions. She thinks it's possible that Stephen's having an affair. And she tries to have a look at his mobile phone.
SARAH JARAVIS: This was a man who had absolutely no thought for anybody, least of all
the wife that he had abused. NARRATOR: In 2005, Stephen Searle, whilst working at a bowling alley in Stowmarket,
had set his sights on a younger colleague, Anastasia Pomiateeva. Stephen takes a shine to her.
And I think at first there's no outward sign, she's probably unaware that he is developing
quite an infatuation with her. But while Searle Senior may have had his eye on Anastasia,
she was more interested in his eldest son Gary. Gary also worked at the bowling alley.
He and Anastasia started dating, fell in love, eventually moved in together. They had three children.
They were regulars at extended family events like the wedding of Stephen Jr. Incredibly,
as the years passed, Stephen Searle Sr. did not give up his designs on Anastasia, even when
she became his son's partner. In fact, he became even more determined to have her.
While Anastasia is getting on with her job at the bowling alley and presumably just see Stephen as an older man who
works there, this infatuation almost becomes an obsession for him. And he does some quite bizarre things.
Chiefly, he grafted her head-- photographs of her onto pornographic pictures. This was a man who had absolutely no thought
for anybody, least of all the wife that he had abused, a man who thought it was absolutely
acceptable to pressure his son's girlfriend into having sex, regardless of the consequences.
He comes to a point in his life where he still thinks of himself in that way and thinks he's capable
of anything, and looks at his wife-- and you know, passage of time hits us all-- and suddenly there's this
possibility of exchanging her for a 26-year-old woman who he meets at work. And it kind of feeds into that sort of self-belief
that he had that that was an appropriate way to act and an appropriate direction in which to take his life.
NARRATOR: Finding Anastasia resistant to his charms, Searle pulled out all the stops to talk her into bed.
There was no tactic he wouldn't try. He invited her to the council offices for a coffee,
told her he was lonely, that his and Anne's relationship wasn't what it used to be.
COLIN SUTTON: And he just says, well, you know, I've got feelings for you. And I've not had sex for a very long time.
And it would be very good if you could oblige me in that way and help me out really.
And of course, she's-- rebuffs him. And says Stephen, no, this is ridiculous. You're my partner's father.
But he was clearly quite persistent. NARRATOR: Next, Searle tried to impress the younger woman with photos of himself in his prime.
He kind of changed his tact. He goes away from the pity and sympathy and tries to woo her with photographs of his bodybuilding
days when he was a much younger man and showing her that he's serious and that she
could really do things for him. NARRATOR: Anastasia Pomiateeva would later tell the press that she was shocked and surprised
by his approaches. He was bombarding her with sexualized images. She found him intimidating, powerful,
controlling, manipulative. She described herself as vulnerable because her grandmother was ill.
Eventually, in April 2017, she gave in to his advances. It wasn't very long before, indeed, they
did start a relationship, a sexual relationship. I knew from the start basically that there
was something going on. Explicit texts, photographs, and explicit comments going back and forth.
STEPHEN SEARLE JR: That's my oldest brother's partner. During this time that the affair is going on
and while they're exchanging the text messages, Stephen refers to Anastasia as SBG, which stood for Steve's
beautiful girlfriend. NARRATOR: For months, the two met in secret. Anastasia had a son from a previous relationship
who was a cadet in the troop that's Searle ran. He arranged regular illicit meetings
with Anastasia under the pretense of discussing the boy's progress. Searle thought that he was being clever.
But it didn't take long for his long-suffering wife Anne to realize he was behaving oddly.
Anne has suspicions. She thinks it's possible Stephen's having an affair. She tries to have a look at his mobile phone, which is
got a password protecting it. But she's able to guess the password because he's used a combination which
was relevant to his old Marine unit. And she thought that that might be the password he used.
And she sees a series of explicit texts, photographs, and explicit comments going back and forth.
And she confronts Stephen with this. NARRATOR: Devastated, Anne Searle needed someone to talk to.
Her husband was sleeping with somebody listed only as SBG in his phone. At this point, she had no idea that SBG was one of the family.
My mom called me whilst I was at work saying that either he was having an affair
with a man, which was weird. Yeah, Well this was the lies that was prior to the truth,
yeah. So he basically turned around and said he was having an affair with a man, la la la la and this,
which wasn't true. It actually turned out he was having an affair with another woman called Debbie from Newmarket.
NARRATOR: But it was all a lie. There was no one called Debbie in Stephen Searle's life.
He was playing games with everybody around him. The father and grandfather was sleeping with his son's partner
and telling lie after lie to cover it up. Kind of like didn't sound right. And then I kind of gathered from what he said to me
on that phone that day that he was having an affair with Anastasia. COLIN SUTTON: And he comes clean and explains, yes, I've
been having an affair with our son's partner, the mother of our grandchild. Factually we know that there was
a relationship that happened. Obviously that's a very sensitive area for the family to still come to terms with now
and deal with. It was, I think, a further extension of Steve thinking everything was his.
So the world was here to provide him what he wanted when he wanted it. And it didn't matter that somebody was
in a relationship with his son. It didn't matter that his wife had her own human rights
and her own life to lead. Because at those moments when he wanted what he wanted,
he just took it. NARRATOR: Stephen Jr. confronted his father who offered a very one-sided story.
He told me that day that it actually happened between them two that day. She'd put it on him.
And he basically said no, but he sort of gave in to being seduced, I suppose. NARRATOR: The son struggled to believe
the father's version of events. STEPHEN SEARLE JR: I believe it takes two to tango.
So yeah, there is probably some sort of banter or something between them. And then obviously, something happened in the long run.
But this is only my side of the picture at the end of the day, which is heavy. But it is what it is.
It happened. So this is the worst thing you can think of, something like that to happen.
And obviously, it's a heavy thing to go through to find out that that sort of thing
has happened in your family. Like me and my wife have said before, we've watch these documentaries in the past
and, oh, you'd never believe. And the next thing you know, it's actually happening
to you in real life, which is pretty shady, it's pretty heavy, dark. NARRATOR: It was a bombshell that rocked the family.
Nobody more devastated than Anne. Obviously that hit my mom very hard, which is--
you know, that's very heavy to be told something like that. It's horrible. I wouldn't want that to happen to me.
And I'm sure my mom didn't want that to happen to her. And obviously when it all happened,
it just, well, it's like opening up a can of worms, isn't it? Carnage. Searle was not a good man.
Here we have a classic picture of a man who is completely obsessed with himself.
Nobody else's opinion, nobody else's well-being matters to him in any way, shape, or form.
And I think that was really summed up by the fact that he embarked on a relationship
with his son's partner, and not just any partner, but a partner with whom his son had had a child.
So we know that if this came to light, as Searle must have known it would, that this was not just going to wreck
the life of Searle's wife, it was going to wreck the life of his son, of his son's partner,
and of Searle's own grandchild. And yet, as far as Searle was concerned, none of that mattered, only his own personal gratification
mattered. NARRATOR: The family was shattered. But they did want some close-knit families
do, picked up the pieces, tried to move forward. Anastasia and Stephen Sr. ended their relationship.
Gary forgave his partner, saying the whole affair had brought them closer. But his father wasn't quite ready to let his lover go.
Stephen Searle doesn't really alter his views. He still has the same desire, the same feelings,
even after this is all revealed and out in the open. And while Gary his son and Anastasia have this sort
of boost to their relationship, if you'd like, they're very much in love, and he accepts her apologies,
and they change their phone number, and they try to move on with their lives, Stephen is still trying to engineer ways to see her.
He's trying to be places where she'll be, manages to obtain their new phone number and bombards them,
and things like this. So as far as he's concerned, nothing's changed from his point of view.
NARRATOR: For Anne, everything had changed. But she had nowhere to go. She told colleagues that after 45 years of marriage,
she was too old to start again. She told her daughter-in-law Victoria that she was down, unhappy.
She and her husband argued every night. She confided that he'd threatened to kill her.
Obviously some of those other incidents and unreported assaults and violence obviously acted as even more recent reminders to her
that he was in control and he gave every presentation, and all the background history we could build up,
just really showed that he wanted to be in control of every situation, particularly of his family
and particularly of Anne. This was a woman who was a well-known alcohol abuser and, therefore, who physically was likely to be in very poor
shape, had gone through decades of emotional abuse at the hands of her husband and, therefore, was likely to be
completely under his control. NARRATOR: Anne Searle was trapped in a soul-destroying marriage, living with a man who showed
her little respect, indeed, one who openly showed her how little he respected her.
How far would the man trained to kill go? They've reached a tipping point here. NARRATOR: Christmas 2017, and the affair between Stephen
Searle and the partner of his son was over, the family trying to move forward. Anne Searle's workmates would later
testify that in between Christmas and New Year, Anne had been more optimistic about life.
She'd lost weight, given up smoking, and was hoping to give her marriage another go.
But it was clear to all that Anne's controlling and gun-obsessed husband was doing nothing
to make up for past mistakes. Christmas Day 2017 in the Searle household was clearly not a happy occasion.
One can only imagine the tensions and pressure that were building up over the previous six
or seven months in that house since the news of the affair came out. And Christmas is always that kind of pressure time
when families are forced together in some ways and often see an uptick in violence and people
falling out. Stephen hadn't helped matters by buying Anne a rather insignificant and cheap present from Asda.
He then decided that the Christmas dinner wasn't worth eating and threw it in the bin.
And an argument ensued. And it was a big argument. And that argument was the release of all this tension
maybe after the previous six or seven months had never really come out. He came out that day.
The argument turns into physical violence. And that was in some ways the tipping
point in this relationship. So there's no question in my mind that this was a woman who was absolutely under the thumb
of her deeply abusive husband. Unfortunately, towards the end of that year, she actually
wrote a Facebook message saying, basically, I don't know if I'll be here next year.
Now, of course, we don't know what she meant by that. She's not around to tell us.
But I don't think there's any much doubt that she genuinely feared for her life.
And yet, despite that, this poor woman felt unable to get out. NARRATOR: Was Anne right to fear for her well-being?
She'd recently shown workmates the bruises her husband had left on her arms. And there was the occasion many years before when in a rage
he'd fired a weapon repeatedly over her head. Did Anne Searle know in December 2017
that she was in mortal danger? And although there had been a sort of undercurrent
and suggestions of violence between Stephen and Anne in the past, this is the point of no return.
I think that was a point of escalation. So clearly there's a massive trust break at that stage.
The tremors were felt through the whole family. It wasn't just about Stephen and Anne at that point.
It was about how it affected all the relationships, all the inter-dependencies within the children
and their parents. NARRATOR: The 30th of December 2017 saw the final act in the long, tortured tragedy
that Anne and Stephen Searle's relationship had become. A lot of alcohol had been consumed that night,
nothing unusual in that smart house in a quiet corner of Stowmarket. COLIN SUTTON: Five days after Christmas,
on the 30th of December-- again, who knows what's been going on inside the Searle household.
All this upset that they've had over the preceding months has all come to a head.
Once again, Stephen Searle and Anne are together. On that day, we know they're alone together in the house.
And they've both been drinking. We know through the toxicology work that we did alcohol was a big factor.
It was a factor in the lives of Anne and Steve. They were regular drinkers. And we know that at the time when Anne was murdered,
she was probably somewhere in the region of 2 and 1/2 times the drink drive limit and Steve was
probably something similar also, because of the tests we've conducted. It appears, and by the accounts we've got,
there was some level of argument. We don't know exactly what that was about. NARRATOR: The couple were known to drink every evening.
But as far as their children were aware, it was rarely to excess. And they'd drink to the point where
they'd get to a nice level and then probably go to bed. So it was as simple as that.
It weren't let's stay up till 4:00 in the morning and keep getting trashed. They would just drink until they felt good
and then have some food and go to bed. NARRATOR: But that night was different. COLIN SUTTON: Once again, this argument that they have
five days later becomes heated, it becomes overheated, and becomes violent. And you've got Stephen Searle, a man who despite being
in his 60s, has kept to himself fit, has always been a fitness fanatic really most
of his life, and was trained, highly trained in unarmed combat, and he ends up fighting
with his wife, a woman. EAMON BRIDGER: I believe that he was trained to a degree
to be able to kill people if he needed to, as would be standard training for a Royal Marine.
We were never able to fully understand the exact nature of the training he received.
But we can work reasonably on the assumption that it was standard marine training, which
was hand-to-hand combat, restraint, and the ability to kill when needed. NARRATOR: Anne Searle, a mother of three, doting grandmother,
lay dead on the living room floor. Stephen Searle had killed his wife of 45 years.
Calmly, he then called the police. It was a really sort of underplayed, understated
conversation. There's no drama to it at all. It was almost like he'd sat for some time
and reflected on what he'd done. NARRATOR: At 10:19 PM, a 999 operator at Suffolk Police
received the call. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): Hello, can you hear me? STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Yeah, I can hear you.
Can you hear me? 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): Yep. STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Yeah,
I've, uh, just killed my wife. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): You've just killed your wife?
STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Yeah. Officers were called to the home address, as we said,
by Stephen himself. They arrived whilst actually the call was still connected. So I have listened to, but was not privy to the arrest itself.
He presented as quite calm in demeanor. He showed officers to Anne's body straightaway.
STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): OK. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): Bit different
for you tonight I expect. STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Happy New Year 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): OK,
and how have you killed her? STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Um, suffocation really, I guess.
It's a bit of a bizarre situation, but, you know, never mind. Having replayed it many times, I
think it's the statement of "never mind" and, again, having had that personal interaction
with family and people who have been devastated by his actions on that day, the fact that he ever formed an opinion that it
didn't really matter, which is what came across in that statement to me, was hugely
disrespectful and insensitive to those other family members. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): OK, is it just
the two of you in the house? STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Uh, well, it's just one of us
now. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): Right, OK. STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Well, two, you know.
999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): OK, is there any other sort of issues that the officers need to be aware of when
they come into the house. Is there anything dangerous? STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): No, not really.
Um, you know, I'm not violent. I'm not nothing. COLIN SUTTON: It's was just-- it was one of the most bizarre phone
call I think I've ever heard. He's so relaxed. He's so calm. He's so matter of fact.
He clearly had no more regard for his wife than if she were an item of clothing or a possession of his, because he was able, when he rang
the emergency services, to be so calm and not to be remotely upset. Not just about the fact that he killed her,
I mean that was horrendous, but actually, this was his life partner and suddenly she was dead.
Yet, no emotion at all. STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): I've, uh, just killed my wife.
999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): You've just killed your wife. STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Yeah.
999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): OK. So it was a challenging call to hear. And I remember, as a team, us listening to it together
and being really surprised by the content, but even more surprised by his attitude
and behavior within it. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): Um, Stephen, can I just get you to go and answer the door.
I believe we should have some officers there. Are you able to just go and speak to them?
STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): OK, they're here now, are they? 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): They should be there.
STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): All right, I'm on my way. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): OK.
STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): I'm on my way as we speak. 999 DISPATCHER (999 RECORDING): OK.
POLICE OFFICER (999 RECORDING): Hello. STEPHEN SEARLE (999 RECORDING): Oh hello, buddies.
How are you, all right? NARRATOR: Searle had apparently confessed to murdering his wife.
There are elements of this murder that are almost unique. And so I personally have dealt with a number
of murders over the years. And this is the only occasion where I've actually had the offender making a confession at an early stage
to having killed. NARRATOR: 13 miles away in Ipswich, Stevie Searle, the couple's youngest son,
had enjoyed a night in with his wife. I was actually here. It was prior new year.
So it was like the day before New Year's Eve. Obviously, as you do, start your season in celebration.
You know, we'd had a few drinks that night, me and my wife, as you do. It gets to around about, I don't know , 11:00 or so.
We get a bit tired. Nothing else new on telly. So we go to bed. And my doorbell goes at like 4:00 in the morning.
And I instantly bounced out of bed. I didn't want to wake my children up to my doorbell
going off. And so I answered it. And basically it was like, hi, this is Suffolk police.
NARRATOR: Nothing could have prepared him what the police had to say. He'll actually turn up and basically
wanted to have a chat with me. And I said, well, what's this about? My initial thought was that someone
that had a car crash or something or that there would have been a fight or something
between my mom and dad or something bad had happened, but not to the extreme that you'd feel.
And then when they told me, it was just like an instant punch to the face of numbness.
It was more painful-- I'd broken my bones before. But that broke me. And to find out that my dad actually killed my mother
that night and been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, that sort of makes you think, like, what the heck's going on,
you know? NARRATOR: DCS Eamon Bridger was the officer tasked with unraveling the complicated dynamic
of the Searle family. I think when we speak to the family, there were times of tenderness.
And as a family there were happy times as well. Obviously relationships-- all relationships
go through good and bad times. It was clear there were long periods where this relationship was toxic.
There were periods, certainly towards the end, where it became unmanageable all together.
And obviously we ended up with this spectacular event that happened on that day.
NARRATOR: A post-mortem was carried out the next day, New Year's Eve. It found that Anne had died an hour before the 999 call.
When police began to question him, far from admitting his guilt, Searle put all the blame on his now dead wife.
Searle claims that this was self-defense. NARRATOR: Stephen Searle, an ex-Marine, former bodybuilder,
a man who prided himself on his physical strength, told detectives that his wife Anne
had tried to kill him with a small domestic steak knife. In defending himself against this violent attack,
he had accidentally killed her. Police officers didn't believe his story. But would a jury buy it?
So this was a man who expected to get away with things. He'd pulled a gun on his wife in public,
and nobody had complained. He'd had sex with his son's partner, and nobody had complained.
He expected to get away with things. He undoubtedly figured that he'd get away with this.
Hey, he would claim self-defense. NARRATOR: Stephen Jr. didn't accept what his father was saying.
If his feisty mom had intended to hurt somebody, she'd have done it properly. I don't think my mom would have went for him with a knife.
Let's just say a little, puny steak knife, that's not my mom. If my mom was going to do you, she'd do you
with a proper kitchen knife. And that's how it was. NARRATOR: Stephen Searle may have called the police
to admit killing his wife, but that didn't prove he was guilty of murder. If he could show that he behaved reasonably in defending himself
against his enraged, intoxicated wife, he might find the charge reduced to manslaughter.
We do have cases, and I've been involved in cases myself, where self-defense is actually what's happened.
NARRATOR: The burden was on detectives to prove that it was his intention to kill.
And it was obvious, as we went through it, that Mr. Searle himself, Stephen Searle
was a highly manipulative character. He had a very interesting background, you know, previous military training,
which I think is really an important factor of the case. And it became apparent to me that he
used that military training in the actual murder of his wife. NARRATOR: As the couple's story unfolded before a jury
at Ipswich Crown Court, it would capture the imagination of the entire country. There were a number of elements that gained interest.
One was the political element as someone quite prominent in the community, as a UKIP Councilor who
had some associations with the actual leader of that party, that brought a level of interest.
There were the more salacious elements that really drove that interest even further.
So the fact that he had engaged in a relationship with his daughter-in-law, the two things added together
made it of interest to lots of people. NARRATOR: The post-mortem examination recorded that Mrs. Searle died of compression of the neck.
Pathologists believed that she had been held by the neck in a chokehold for some time
before suffering a fatal cardiac arrest. Searle was adamant he had not deliberately
choked his wife to death. He conceded only that he'd fended Anne off with his hand.
In court, prosecutors were skeptical. This is somebody who had deep-seated aggression and was
violent and was able to take somebody's life without a great deal of effort. Anne was tiny compared to him.
She was comparatively very frail. NARRATOR: The jury heard that this method of killing
was something Searle would have practiced again and again during his three decades in one of the military's
most elite fighting forces. A chokehold is basically where you cut off somebody's method of breathing
in order to subdue them. TOM POTTER: The allegation was that he had got her in a chokehold and suffocated her.
Earlier we knew that she had died by compression of the neck. What's happening here is that you're crushing the windpipe
so somebody can't breathe. That induces complete terror. As the trial progressed, more came out
about Searle's background, that he was trained in those kind of techniques. We know that he demonstrated regularly
certain military chokeholds. And I believe that he then squeezed the life out of Anne.
And that's going to result in unconsciousness very quickly. He absolutely did not need to continue
to press until she died. NARRATOR: If Stephen Searle really had been acting in self-defense, he
could easily have used his training to simply render his wife unconscious. Prosecutors asked the question, why
did he not stop at that point? Why did he continue squeezing his wife's throat for several minutes until she was dead?
I believe this was just another element of control, of him taking his time and telling us when he was ready
that he'd done what he'd done and then trying to then manipulate the criminal justice
system to believe that it happened because of reasons that helped him rather than the truth of it.
NARRATOR: In claiming self-defense, Searle also failed to explain why he'd waited an hour before making that emergency
call to the police. Why hadn't he called an ambulance? Why hadn't he tried to revive her
himself, something he also would have learned in the Marines. My initial reaction was probably one of anger,
because I listened to a man who had clearly been involved in a violent act, had waited best part of an hour
before reporting the fact that someone had been seriously hurt, and then who, once having made those early disclosures,
was immediately trying to backtrack from his blame within it, which was evident for all to see.
And it obviously played out in the trial. NARRATOR: Detectives and prosecutors felt they had enough evidence to persuade a jury of Stephen
Searle's guilt. His son, Stephen Jr. was on standby to give evidence against his father But Was
stood down at the last minute. STEPHEN SEARLE JR: A massive relief, massively. I weren't comfortable enough going in that court,
but could you imagine standing up in front of like 12 random people who you don't even know.
You know, they're there for their job. That's their job. And then obviously, if I looked slightly to my left,
my dad would be sitting there. And he is my dad at the end of day. But it would kill me but curse me at the same time,
which is pretty heavy. NARRATOR: The jury took 3 and 1/2 hours to find Stephen Searle guilty of murdering
his wife Anne. In deciding upon a fitting punishment, the judge, Mr. Justice Green, reflected on the waves of pain
and anguish that Searle's actions had sent crashing through the entire family. I've gained nothing out of this, because things I've lost
is A, my mother and my dad. Like I said, I lost my best mate and my mom. She was also my best friend, you know.
I could tell her anything. But like my wife says to me, you got to remember the good times.
I remember the last time I saw my mom, I left on amazing terms. I gave my mom a massive kiss and a cuddle before that
was the last time I saw here. And she gave me the biggest squeeze known to man. So it was a heavy thing to hold.
But it's a great thing to see that my mom was happy with the last time I saw her.
NARRATOR: Stephen Searle had recently been diagnosed with a prostate cancer, a fact, the judge
considered when sentencing him to life with a minimum tariff of 14 years. [music playing]

To others, Stephen Searle was a politician, veteran and pub landlord. To his wife Anne, he was a violent abuser. Only her death would expose his true nature.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Stephen Searle murdered his wife Anne after years of abuse and infidelity, leading to a shocking trial and family fallout.

Key points

A Loving Family with Dark Secrets. Anne and Stephen Searle seemed like a loving couple, but their marriage hid deep issues.
A Shocking Affair. Stephen Searle's infatuation with his son's partner leads to devastating consequences.
The Family Shattered. The revelation of Stephen's affair leaves the family in turmoil and heartbreak.
The Tipping Point. The argument escalates into physical violence, marking a turning point in their relationship.
A Fatal Call. Stephen Searle calmly confesses to killing his wife during a 999 call.
A Family Torn Apart. Stephen Jr. grapples with the devastating news of his mother's murder by his father.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was a local representative. And people were generally quite complimentary about him.

4:46WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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