Peter McMahon | Truth About My Murder | FilmRise True Crime | Forensic Files

[thrilling music] - 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? I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd and I've spent my entire career
as a forensic pathologist performing nearly 23,000 autopsies. I've learned that the dead don't hide the truth
and they never lie. Through me, you'll be hearing directly from the victim. With the aid of a state-of-the-art laboratory
using groundbreaking technology, I'll be investigating a series of intriguing crimes,
where, from the victim's bodies, I'll reveal to you the truth behind these murders.
[camera shutters] [air swooshing] [siren wailing at the distance] [phone dialing]
- [Operator] Emergency, what service? - At the beginning of December 2012, police in Newcastle received a tip off,
telling them that there was a body in a flat in the west end of the city. Neighbors had also been complaining about a terrible smell.
[police siren wailing] And when officers got there, they found something that was truly shocking.
[computer trilling] - Officers are dispatched to that address. [tense music] They go to a block of flats
to a flat on the eighth floor. [elevator bell dings] As the responding officers are actually going up in the lift,
it's obvious that something is not right. [tense music] [responding officer sniffs]
There is an odor, a smell, and it's one of those things that a police officer, once you've smelt that smell,
you will never forget it. [intense music] As they approach the address, they smell decomposition.
- The eighth floor flat was the home of someone called Joe Collins. Collins opened the door.
He pointed to the bedroom and said, "He's in there." [uneasy music] - In the bedroom, there is a chest freezer.
They know that the next thing they've got to do is open up that chest freezer. [uneasy music]
- And when they open it up, there's a body inside. [suspenseful music] - [Dr. Richard] The tenant of the flat,
Joe Collins, was arrested and taken away for questioning. - The officers now have to go
into crime scene preservation mode. The most important time of any forensic evidence
is when it's first found. You're working for the victim. You are the victim's voice.
If you don't get the best forensic retrieval possible, you're losing evidence. You lose evidence, potentially you'll lose the case.
- This would've been a really unusual crime scene for police. Here, you have a body inside a freezer
up in a high tower block flat, but they somehow have to get the body out for examination.
- To get that chest freezer into that apartment would've been an operation, but to get that freezer out of that apartment,
many floors up, with critical evidence contained within it must have been an extremely difficult operation.
- You're on the eighth floor. It's gotta go in the lift. So it's gonna have to go on one end.
And the danger there is, even though the contents are frozen there may be some leakage.
It needs to be taken as quickly as possible to the mortuary so that you are in a controlled, sterile environment
when eventually you remove the victim. [uneasy music] The perpetrators actually helped you.
They have actually frozen your forensic evidence for you. Any blood, any DNA, any fibers,
all fair still and frozen. [uneasy music] - Once the body's been brought to the mortuary,
the pathologist's real work can begin. This means finding out who it was and how they died.
This body had been tightly wrapped in a blanket and crammed into a freezer. And of course, it was frozen solid.
- The challenges for the pathologist in this case was the fact that the body's decomposition was such
that there was fluids frozen to the bottom of the freezer. It was very hard for them to pinpoint exactly when he died.
- It took a long time for the body to thaw out and reveal a white middle aged man in his 60s.
But how had he died? Sometimes the cause of death is immediately obvious, but not in this case.
When I'm working on a case like this, I always work methodically, starting at the head and moving slowly down the body,
looking everywhere for any marks or injuries that might help me understand the cause of death.
And also, if a crime had been committed. There were a number of injuries to the head,
and there was bruising to the central chest and extensive bruising to the muscles of the back.
The question here is, were they caused by an assault or by some kind of fall? One thing is certain though,
is that no single injury was enough to cause death, and that's quite intriguing.
[light music] The grim hunt for clues about the cause of death continued. But in the meantime, detectives had identified the body.
It was local pensioner, Peter McMahon. - The victim was a 68-year-old retired civil servant.
He retired from the civil service when he was 50. - He was a man who had done quite well for himself
and his working life. He had two pensions from his jobs, so he was comfortably off.
- Peter McMahon was just a lovely guy. Anybody who knew him said the same thing,
that he always had time for people. He was very generous. - He would give money to charity.
He was someone that people genuinely did like and I think with good reason. - He was a very friendly Geordie guy
who liked nothing more than a visit to the pub and some banter with his mates. He was just one of those likable guys
that nobody had a bad word to say about. [light music] - Peter had previously been married.
He had two grownup sons who didn't live in the local area. They lived some distance away.
- One had moved to London, one had moved to New Zealand, so he lived alone in Newcastle.
He didn't have any family around. [light music] He didn't really have anyone to rely on,
anyone looking out for him. So he was quite a solitary figure. [light music] So he started to become a regular at the Metropolitan Bar
in the west end of the city. And he very much became one of the locals there. The people in the pub pretty much became like family to him.
[light thrilling music] - [Dr. Richard] It's here detectives discovered that Peter met 44-year-old Sharon Swinhoe.
- He was attracted to her. She was a woman much younger than he was, and she's very quickly seemed to get
some kind of hold over Peter. He was very much drawn to her. - They met one evening
and he was completely entranced by her. They got on, they got on well, and before long they started seeing each other.
- Peter was 20 years her senior. Now, that gap in a relationship is usually associated not just with intimacy,
but with a sense of paternal care, that she expected him to provide like a father would.
To provide money and to have no limits to that, to provide her with good times and good clothes, jewelry.
And that expectation led to a symbolic relationship. He liked to furnish her with good things
and she appreciated it. In the beginning, it was just a friendship and it became more intimate the more he spent money on her.
- A lot of Peter's friends were concerned about this relationship. They didn't think that what Peter believed it to be
was what it actually was. But really, he wanted a future with her and he wanted to make this relationship work.
- Peter loved Swinhoe. He bought her an engagement ring, a very expensive engagement ring.
And he really did sort of, you know, dance to her tune. He would do anything for her.
[tense music] - [Dr. Richard] Meanwhile, detectives were making inquiries about Joe Collins,
the man who'd stored Peter's frozen body in his flat. They made a surprising discovery.
- Joe Collins has been infatuated with Swinhoe for 10 years. He was besotted with her.
He wanted a relationship with her and he would do whatever she asked. [suspenseful music]
[tense music] - In December 2012, the frozen corpse of pensioner Peter McMahon was found in a flat in Newcastle.
He had extensive bruising and injuries to his head, but no confirmed cause of death.
Could his body reveal any more truths about what had happened to him? We need to determine whether the injuries
were the result of an accident or if they were caused by an attack. And to answer that question,
we need to look more closely at the body. And it's the injuries to the face that are most revealing.
In this case, all of the muscles underlying the skin of the deep soft tissues are damaged by blunt force trauma.
And there's extensive bruising all over the face, but it's most prominent to the left-hand side.
But more importantly, as we look deeper into the structure of the face, when we look at the bones
we begin to see the areas that were fractured, indicating severe force. Not only is the nose broken,
but if you look here, you can see the fracture of the jaw. And in the orbital bone around the left eye,
there's another fracture. So what we have here is a number of blows, each with sufficient force to break bone.
This was no accident. Peter suffered multiple injuries to his face, most likely punches and kicks.
But these injuries are clearly very serious ones. But even so, they're not enough to explain
the death of this man. So we still haven't answered the question, what was it that did kill him?
[light music] The extent of Peter's injuries confirmed this was foul play. - The scale of the injuries to Peter
were really severe. He was black and blue. He'd been kicked in his testes, and his body was in a terrible, terrible state.
[light music] - [Dr. Richard] With the cause of death still a mystery, police made a breakthrough in the investigation.
They discovered Joe Collins, the tenant of the flat, knew Peter's girlfriend, Sharon Swinhoe.
- He's known her and had a relationship with her for 10 years. He desperately wants that relationship
to be a sexual relationship, but Swinhoe doesn't allow that. - She always led him on.
She always let him think there might have been a chance. He had learning difficulties, she exploited those.
- He was known to sometimes be on the phone to her for hours on end. He would do anything she asked,
and he was under her control. [suspenseful music] - Once he's under her control,
there's no letting go. - You can only imagine that Joe Collins wouldn't have liked Swinhoe having Peter in her life.
He would've been jealous. This was essentially a love rival to him. - [Dr. Richard] But it was Peter McMahon
Swinhoe had more interest in. - In some ways, Swinhoe probably saw Peter as a sugar daddy.
He was someone much older than her. He had a reasonable amount of money in the bank
and someone that she could easily manipulate to maybe get her hands on that money.
- As the relationship progressed, a few cracks began to develop. Peter was spending lots of money on Swinhoe
to the point that he had very little money left. He spoke to a bank clerk and told the clerk
that his girlfriend was bleeding him dry. You know, he could see it happening, but he somehow couldn't stop it.
- What was not sweetness and light in this relationship, it had periods where it was quite volatile.
They would argue and it was an on-off relationship. They would split up, and then they'd get back together again.
- Peter was totally blind at Swinhoe's real intentions. He was in love with her.
[light music] - The relationship will become violent. Peter told friends of his that at one point
she actually came at him with a knife. But Peter went back to her even after that,
and things started to escalate. - Swinhoe actually made an allegation of rape against Peter,
and he was interviewed by police about this. We can only imagine that Peter would've been devastated
and mortified by this. He was a kind, generous, law-abiding man. You have to wonder why Swinhoe would make
such a serious allegation against Peter. Was this a way to get rid of him? Did she no longer want him around?
Or was this just another way to exert control over him? - [Dr. Richard] No charges were ever brought against Peter,
but the accusation left its mark. - Peter was devastated, and he attempted even to commit suicide as a result
of this allegation, which really was the first sign that she had another side to her
that saw him negatively. - Even after Swinhoe had made this serious allegation of rape against Peter,
he still wanted to get back with her. Again, his friends warned him off, warned him not to stay with her.
One of them actually went as far as to say that, "If you stay with her, you'll end up in a box."
But Peter still wanted to be with her. [uneasy music] - [Dr. Richard] Police still didn't know how Peter died,
but there was a clue to when he died. - One of the items of evidence that police recovered
from Peter's body was his wristwatch. Peter's wristwatch was still set to British summertime.
This means that Peter was dead before the end of the British summertime period, the end of October.
- [Dr. Richard] This tied in with the last known sighting of Peter that detectives could trace.
[suspenseful music] - On the 18th of October, Peter takes a taxi from his home address.
He's dressed up to the nines. He's on his way to meet Swinhoe. - After a short separation, he was invited to her house,
which he must have been really excited and pleased about thinking that it was his chance for reconciliation.
- He even told the taxi driver that he was going to get back together with his much younger girlfriend.
He was clearly excited about this. But after he was dropped off, he was never seen again.
- So what happened to Peter after he reached Swinhoe's address? Could his frozen body, found in Collins's apartment,
yield more clues about where and when he died? The body was surrounded by frozen liquid in the freezer,
which would suggest that decomposition had taken place some days or weeks before.
And this could have suggested that Peter was killed somewhere else, and then taken to the flat
and put into the freezer after death. [climactic music] CCTV around Collins's flat,
filmed in the month after Peter's disappearance, was to give police the breakthrough they needed.
[climactic music] - CCTV shows Swinhoe, Collins, and a third man arriving at the flat with a large suitcase.
[climactic music] - Swinhoe, for some reason, is actually trying to disguise herself by wearing a wig,
but it is so obviously her. - They get in the lift, and they go up to where Collins lived.
Collins holds the door open for them. There's no question at all that these three
are working together. - [Dr. Richard] Detectives identified the third figure in the footage.
A 77-year-old Ronald Douglas, another man romantically linked with Swinhoe. - Their relationship was built around
a sexual relationship that had happened a couple of times previously. Douglas still wanted something to happen.
He wasn't ready to give it up. Swinhoe wasn't remotely interested in picking that up again,
but just like Collin, she kept Douglas hanging around, somebody else to build into her web.
So he was just another pawn in her game. - What we do know about Sharon is she was very skilled at manipulating men,
at getting men to do what she wanted them to do. Now, that manipulativeness is a characteristic that some personality disorders have.
[thrilling music] - You can see on the CCTV that Douglas is dragging the suitcase behind him,
and it clearly contains something heavy. Peter's blood and DNA were later found on the suitcase,
which obviously proved that that's how his body got there. - [Dr. Richard] In the light of this new evidence,
police reconsidered the tip-off that had led them to Peter's body. It came from none other than Sharon Swinhoe.
[phone dialing] - [Operator] Emergency, which service? - On the 1st of December, the police receive a 999 call.
Nothing is said during the call. It's silent. And then the receiver, whoever is making the call,
is put down. - It's normal practice in these situations, where police get a call where no one speaks,
for officers to try and trace the address, find out where the call has come from,
and go to check that there's not someone in danger there. - That call was made by Swinhoe.
When police arrive and speak to Swinhoe, she tells them that she has information
as to where they could find Peter's body. - She tells police that she believes Peter
is in a flat in the West End, but then she says she hasn't seen or heard from him for two months.
- She also tells them that the person that lives there has been harassing her. [tense music]
- She was there and then putting in the groundwork to deflect the blame to Collins,
somebody that she had manipulated for almost a decade and somebody that I think she thought
might also take the blame for this. - What she's actually saying to the police as part of that deflection is,
"I'm a victim here. I'm not a suspect." It will be fair to describe Swinhoe as a female Svengali.
She had this ability to recognize what the men's vulnerabilities were and to actually exploit them.
She had them eating out of her hand. [tense music] - [Dr. Richard] Following the CCTV find,
Swinhoe and Douglas were also arrested and a search started immediately at Swinhoe's home.
Nothing could prepare police for what they would uncover. - You think that you've seen everything,
and then something comes along and you just wonder about man's inhumanity to their fellow men.
It just beggars belief. [suspenseful music] [uneasy music] - In Newcastle, 2012, Peter McMahon's body
revealed injuries to his head and face. Now, his remains were about to give up more gruesome secrets
about his death. We know that Peter's body was found in the freezer and their extensive injuries all over his torso
and his face, but that none of these injuries were severe enough to cause his death.
But we also know something else about what happened in Peter's last hours 'cause someone had attempted to gouge out his eyes.
Now, what we see of the eyes when we look at someone is really only a very small part of it.
In fact, the eyeball itself is about the size of a ping pong ball and it's surrounded by six muscles
that control the movements and the actions of the eye. And then the whole thing is encased
in a boney cavity called the eye socket that provides structure and support to the eye,
as you can see here. And then of course, the whole of the outside of this is then covered by the skin of the face
with the eyelids providing that ultimate outer protection. So removing an eyeball is difficult.
It takes a lot of effort and it must be a deliberate act. What this tells us is that Peter was subject
to a long and sustained attack, and the truth revealed by his broken body is that he was tortured.
[appalling music] - The attack on Peter was absolutely brutal, and no doubt would've been absolutely terrifying.
- It shows a level of callousness, where there's no understanding of what this person
might be suffering, or the pain that they may be suffering. - This wasn't just an attack
where someone was trying to kill someone. It was degrading, it was humiliating. - The sort of person that would premeditate,
plan that, and do that would be someone with a personality disorder, probably of an antisocial kind, antagonistic kind,
where you actually will enjoy sadism or harm or pain of others. - [Dr. Richard] Police were still questioning
Peter's girlfriend, Sharon Swinhoe, about the killing. - To go as far as to try and gouge his eyes out
is particularly callous. If it was Sharon, the basis of her intimacy with him was money.
And I think, possibly, there was some underlying cause that related to her hating him seeing her naked
and she found this distasteful, and therefore one part of the body that she wanted to attack
was that part of the body that saw her. [tense music] - [Dr. Richard] But to build a case against Swinhoe
and her henchmen, Joe Collins and Ronald Douglas, detectives needed to find the murder scene.
- It quickly became clear to police that Joe Collins's flat was not where Peter was attacked
and not where he died. - [Dr. Richard] So scenes of crime officers directed their search to the place
Peter was last seen alive, going into Sharon Swinhoe's house in the east of the city.
- They look for things like blood splashes, very minute details to give them clues
of what might have gone on. - [Dr. Richard] The search drew investigators to the bathroom.
- The curtain rail was damaged and there were blood spatters in the bathtub itself.
- [Dr. Richard] DNA analysis revealed the blood belonged to Peter, proving this was where he died.
And there was more. - There was a catalog of clues that led to police suspecting
that Swinhoe and Collins had been guilty of this. Collins had been in the house at the time,
and after the sustained attack, Collins and Swinhoe then worked together to decide what to do with Peter's body.
[light music] This was Newcastle, and the ground was particularly hard. It had been quite cold, quite frosty.
There was some talk they were trying to dig a grave for him in the back garden, but they couldn't because it was just too difficult
to break the ground. So they put Peter's body in a dog kennel in the backyard. They covered it in blankets
and they put air fresheners around the body. [light music] - His body was just discarded there.
Nevermind the fact that he'd been murdered anyway. They treated him with total disrespect and disregard.
[light music] - Peter's body stayed there for more than a month. [uneasy music] - Because of the passage of time,
decomposition has set in. And with that, as well as the changes of the body, comes an odor.
- A neighbor's dog was scratching the fence next to the kennel for days and days
because all it could smell was the odors coming from that kennel. And Peter McMahon, lay in that dog kennel,
for good knows no how long. [light music] - They now have a problem. They have a dead body on their hands,
and somehow they have to get rid of that body. - At this point, they made the decision to move the body.
And it was stored in a suitcase and taken over to the West End of the city. [uneasy music]
- [Dr. Richard] A taxi driver told police he picked up Swinhoe at her home a month after Peter's disappearance
with an unusually heavy suitcase. She was dropped off to meet Ronald Douglas. - She told them that Peter's body
was inside that suitcase and she needed Douglas to drive her across town to Collins flat.
[climactic music] - In actually taking Peter's body to that flat, all they've actually done is given themselves more problems.
Neighbors start to complain about the smell. It's explained by blocked drains and toilets,
but of course there is also infestation with flies and maggots that are also happening at this point.
Their solution is to go and buy a chest freezer. - Collins bought a freezer secondhand for around 80 pounds.
He asked for it to be delivered to his home. But unusually, once the heavy item had got there,
he didn't allow it to be taken into his flat. He asked for it to be left on the corridor outside.
- They maneuver it in themselves. The freezer is then put into the bedroom, plugged in,
and Peter's body is put in the freezer. - One of the most common ways of disposing a body
is to put it in a freezer and lock the freezer. So it's out of sight, out of mind.
And there is this notion that the freezer will keep the body cold and decomposition will be less and the smell less,
which after time is not true. It will begin to leak through the small spaces of the freezer and begin to fill the room
with the decomposition smell. - Somehow, Swinhoe managed to get such a hold over Collins
that he was willing to have this body stored at his home. - I've seen a lot of strange things
and circumstances in my career, but I've never come across anybody that knows that the end of the day,
they're gonna go into the bedroom to sleep, knowing that next to them is a freezer that contains
a dead body. And I just, I'm at loss for words as to how a human being can reconcile that.
- [Dr. Richard] The search at Swinhoe's home revealed yet more about her deceit.
- They found lots of cash hidden around the house. You know, there were wads of cash in drawers.
Those two and a half thousand pounds in drawers, you know, that's cash that she had drained
from Peter's bank accounts after he had died. - One of the functions of his death
was to access his money, as we know and she was financially driven. But of course, you can only access his money
and take money from his bank accounts without suspicion if it appeared he was still alive.
[uneasy music] - [Dr. Richard] Police even found evidence that Swinhoe had broken into Peter's home.
- Swinhoe needed to cover her tracks. She needed to explain why Peter wasn't around.
So she packed a suitcase full of his clothes to make out that he was about to leave town.
- She even goes to the extent of getting one of her accomplices to collect Peter's medication.
So, nobody's gonna be alarmed, nobody's gonna worry that, why is he not collecting his medication?
[climactic music] - They also found wigs and other things she used to disguise herself as she went about her business
after she had killed Peter. [light music] - When friends called Peter, Swinhoe would answer the phone.
She would make up excuses and tell lies. But she told people that he no longer wanted contact
with his old friends. But this wasn't the Peter that they knew. - And it's all to continue that deception,
her scheming, evil deception that Peter's still here and nothing is wrong, nothing has changed.
It's all just a facade. - [Dr. Richard] But Swinhoe's worst deception was revealed
when detectives interviewed one of Peter's sons. - Peter had been excited about becoming a grandfather.
And when his son in New Zealand rang to tell him that the baby had been born, Swinhoe answered the phone.
She said that Peter was asleep and simply couldn't come to the phone. [phone vibrates]
- [Dr. Richard] Peter's son continued phoning, [phone vibrates and rings] but his calls went unanswered.
- Obviously by this point, he was dead. [uneasy music] - She was what people would say cold-blooded.
Those are the characteristics of callousness and deceitfulness. And she showed those after his death
in the way she manipulated his bank accounts and access them. And the way that she pretended he was still alive
shows a level of just not showing any empathy or concern for this individual at all.
And those four things, hostility, callousness, deceitfulness, and manipulation, would strongly suggest she had
an anti-social personality disorder. - And all of this so that she can start withdrawing money
from his bank accounts so she can fleece him even though he's dead. - [Dr. Richard] With the weight of evidence against them,
Sharon Swinhoe, Joseph Collins, and Ronald Douglas were all charged with Peter's murder.
But his body would reveal the truth when his killers finally faced justice. - It came as no surprise to me that during the trial,
all three defendants turned on each other. [suspenseful music] [light music] - In Newcastle, Sharon Swinhoe and her two accomplices,
Joseph Collins and Ronald Douglas, have been charged with the murder of pensioner, Peter McMahon.
He'd clearly been tortured. He had extensive bruising, broken bones, he'd even had his eyes gouged out.
But that wasn't going to be enough to get a conviction for murder. For a murder charge to stick against Swinhoe and Collins,
police needed the cause of death. We know that the injuries Peter suffered, although horrific, would not obviously have killed him.
The postmortem determined that Peter had suffered a cardiac arrest. But to convict the assailants of murder,
the prosecution had to prove that it was their actions that had caused his heart to stop.
So can torture actually cause a cardiac arrest? The answer lies in the autonomic nervous system,
a series of signals that automatically control the most basic functions of the body.
Here's one part of that system, the vagus nerve that runs directly from the brain to the heart
and it's electrical impulses from that nerve that help the heart beat correctly.
But if someone jumps out and gives you a sudden fright, it's also the autonomic system
that creates that sudden surge of adrenaline that makes your heart beat instantly faster.
But with a sustained level of pain and fear that Peter was experiencing, his body was already flooded with adrenaline.
And so when the attempt was made to gouge out his eyes, the extra terror and fear
were too much for his heart to take and that's what killed him. [tense music] Finally, Peter's killers were brought before a court.
- This was a trial that Newcastle Crown Court I don't think had seen in a number of years.
You know, as such was the severity of what had happened, there was an awful lot of interest in that courtroom.
[tense music] - [Dr. Richard] Swinhoe, Collins, and Douglas pleaded not guilty to murder.
- They didn't flinch. They looked forward, they didn't look at anybody. They didn't look at each other.
It was extremely interesting to see the dynamic because we'd heard stories of this femme fatal
that had power over these two guys, and she was stood in the middle of them in the dock.
There was a real tension. [tense music] - [Dr. Richard] The prosecution outlined
their victim's final hours. [suspenseful music] - The taxi drops Peter off at Swinhoe's house.
Peter's happy. He is under the impression that this is a reconciliation. He's gonna get back together again with his girlfriend,
and nothing could be further from the truth. - [Dr. Richard] The real motive, it seems,
was to demand more money. - When Peter arrived at Swinhoe's home, Swinhoe wasn't alone.
Joe Collins was waiting for him there. - And immediately, Peter must have known that something wasn't right.
- [Dr. Richard] Peter, it's believed, refused to stump up any more cash. - Swinhoe took him to the upstairs bathroom
and launched a tirade of punches and kicks. She gouged his eyes to the point that his eyes
were almost gouged out. It was just an unbelievable assault. - He would've been tearful and emotionally shocked
at what she was doing. And that may have been too much for Sharon because she doesn't understand
the concept of showing emotion, being personality disordered, and therefore, would've reacted in a violent way,
seeing it as a threat to her. [uneasy music] - The evidence in this trial was probably some of the most harrowing evidence
I've ever come up against, I've ever had to report on. - When we heard the extent of Peter's injuries,
it was just sickening. It wasn't something that we'd ever really come across before.
- I don't think I've been in a courtroom before where journalists were crying as they heard evidence,
and that's exactly what happened in this case. Peter's family were in the courtroom every day,
listening to what had happened to him. And on one particular day, as the injuries were described to the jury,
it was just too much for his son and he collapsed in the courtroom and he left. - [Dr. Richard] But Peter's killer, Swinhoe,
kept trying to pull strings from behind bars. - Collins legal team had said that in the prison van
leaving court the previous night, Swinhoe had been having conversations with Collins,
urging him to plead guilty to manslaughter, telling him to take the blame. And I think at that point, Collins knew
that this woman had never, ever had any feelings for him, that he was just a pawn in her game.
And Collins was infuriated by that. - [Dr. Richard] The defendants turned on each other
when they took the stand. - Collins did give evidence against Swinhoe and very much try to tell the story
that he had played no part really in this, and that it was Swinhoe's responsibility.
Swinhoe for her part did exactly the same and blamed it on Collins. It was dog eat dog.
- [Dr. Richard] Swinhoe also tried using her powers of manipulation on the jury.
- Swinhoe alleged that Peter had raped her. And she said that that is the type of abuse
that she had to contend with in this relationship. That this was an act somehow of self-defense in a way,
that this was a woman who'd been driven to it. - What she was saying was, "I'm the victim here.
I've got nothing to do with what happened to Peter." And nothing could be further than the truth.
[tense music] - [Dr. Richard] The eye gouging that triggered Peter's death was finally pinned on Swinhoe,
thanks to evidence from her fellow inmates. - Swinhoe boasted in prison about the blood
that was under her fingernails after she'd gouged out Peter's eyes. She was the main player.
She was the catalyst, undoubtedly. - There are a number of facts that suggest that this was premeditated and planned.
One, that she involved two other men, and they too seemed to have an affection for her
that she manipulated. And their involvement means that this was all a planned activity.
- Swinhoe was someone who had the ability to control and manipulate the people around her,
especially the men around her. For some reason, she managed to attract men, often much older men,
and control them, got them to do things for her. In fact, in court, the judge described her
as being someone who could attract men like magnets, and then she was able to control them once she'd done so.
[uneasy music] - [Dr. Richard] At the end of a grueling six-week trial, the jury delivered their verdict.
Sharon Swinhoe and Joseph Collins were found guilty of Peter's murder. - When the verdicts came back,
there was a sense of relief among the family of Peter, and among the journalists as well,
that this had come to some sort of conclusion because we felt that justice needed to be done in this case.
- [Dr. Richard] Swinhoe, the master manipulator, was jailed for a minimum of 25 years.
Her accomplice, Collins, a minimum of 20 years. - Swinhoe remained the same way that she'd been
throughout the trial. She looked dead ahead. She was expressionless. She showed no reaction and no remorse.
- Swinhoe and Collins received life imprisonment. The judge made comment at the sentencing
that the murder was a brutal, callous, sadistic murder. - The judge said to Swinhoe,
"She loved her rats more than she loved Peter," and that was probably one of the most powerful
summing up statements I've ever heard and he nailed it bang on. - [Dr. Richard] Ronald Douglas though,
was cleared of Peter's killing. - Douglas received 11 years imprisonment for preventing the lawful burial of Peter.
The 11-year sentence was reduced to four years due to his age. He was 77 when he was convicted.
- [Dr. Richard] But justice had at last been served on Peter's killer. - She obviously let him believe that
this might be a relationship. She strung him along, and she'd clearly seen a chance with Peter
to take advantage of him. - She was only interested in people that could serve her ends.
How can this person get me what I want? That's what she was; cunning, manipulative.
Nothing more, nothing less. [light music] - From everyone we've spoken to, Peter just seemed like a lovely man.
He didn't deserve to die and he definitely didn't deserve to die in this way. And Swinhoe's never shown any remorse for that at all.
- [Dr. Richard] Swinhoe didn't live out her sentence. Eight years later, in 2021,
she was struck down by COVID in prison and later died in hospital. But her crimes left their mark on the northeast of England.
- Peter's murder is probably one of the most disturbing cases that we've had in Newcastle,
just the sheer violence. - There's very little, I think, shocks people in Newcastle.
This crime shocked people in Newcastle. It shocked them at the time. It shocks them still to this day,
the brutality that happened here in their city. That this had happened almost in broad daylight
in front of their eyes. It's just beggars belief. [light music] - What Peter endured in the final hours of his life
must have been truly horrific, but his body revealed the truth of what had really happened to him.
How the horrific gouging of Peter's eyes had pushed his heart to breaking point and led to his death.
And from that, prosecutors were able to get justice by securing a murder conviction.
[thrilling music] [thrilling music continues]

Dr Richard Shepherd investigates the murder of Peter McMahon, whose ex-partner killed him for financial gain.

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

Peter McMahon was murdered by Sharon Swinhoe and Joe Collins, who manipulated him financially and emotionally before committing the brutal crime.

Key points

The Race Against Time. When a murder's committed, it's always a race against time to find the truth.
Shocking Discovery. Officers find a body in a chest freezer, leading to a chilling investigation.
A Complicated Relationship. Peter McMahon's relationship with Sharon Swinhoe raises concerns among his friends.
Brutal Attack Revealed. Peter's injuries indicate he was tortured, revealing the brutality of his murder.
A Callous Crime. The nature of Peter's death suggests a premeditated and sadistic attack.
The Brutal Murder of Peter McMahon. Peter McMahon was brutally murdered by Sharon Swinhoe and her accomplices, revealing shocking details of the crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

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

Dr. Richard Shepherd introduces his work as a forensic pathologist.

0:29WatchFeb 13, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.