World's Most Evil Killers - Season 5, Episode 6 - Billy Dunlop - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In February 1990, 22-year-old mother Julie Hogg had been missing from Billingham in the Northeast
of England for over two months. When her mother turned up at the family home to investigate a strong smell coming from the bathroom,
she would make a horrendous discovery. ANN MING: I had really severe post-traumatic stress
for a long, long time. And still, now and again, I still get flashbacks and nightmares about finding her.
NARRATOR: Julie was never missing. Her body had been under the bathtub in her home
for 80 days. Investigators were convinced that her killer was 26-year-old Billy Dunlop, but after two trials,
he was sensationally acquitted of Julie's murder. BILLY DUNLOP: They've been pointing the finger at me
for 20 months, and they've found, now, that it was in the wrong direction. NARRATOR: Despite his protestations,
Dunlop stunned investigators by confessing to the murder 10 years later. But a law dating back eight centuries
prevented authorities from doing anything about it. PETER BARRON: Here we had somebody confessing that he'd
committed a murder, but the criminal justice system couldn't do anything about it
because the law was an ass. NARRATOR: 17 years after Julie Hogg's murder, Billy Dunlop would finally be convicted as one of the world's
most evil killers. [THEME MUSIC PLAYING] In 2006, 43-year-old Billy Dunlop was finally found guilty
of the murder of Julie Hogg. The 22-year-old mother of one had been murdered in November 1989.
Her body was hidden underneath the bathtub of her own home for over two months. Dunlop's case made British legal history,
as he became the first person to have an acquittal for murder overturned in a court of law.
The change in the 800-year-old legislation known as double jeopardy was brought about by a campaign
led by Julie Hogg's mother, Ann Ming. When somebody's been murdered, it's the whole ripple effect.
What's the perpetrator gained? He's lost his freedom. I don't care about that. She's lost her life, and it's just a waste of a life.
It's just senseless. NARRATOR: Julie's son, Kevin, was just three years old when
his mother was murdered. He didn't find out the truth about what happened to her until he was a teenager.
KEVIN HOGG: I was scared to ask any questions. As much as they said, we can be open and as honest as much
as we can. We only can answer what we can answer. And a lot of the time, it was, I don't want to ask the question
in case I upset somebody. Whereas now, I don't have that. NARRATOR: Ann discovered her own daughter's body almost three
months after Julie had apparently disappeared from her home in Billingham near Stockton-on-Tees
in County Durham. The truth of what happened to Julie didn't surface until 1999, ten years after her death.
She was our daughter. She was Kevin's mum. She was a sister. She would have been an auntie.
Her whole life, at 22, was taken away by an evil killer, Dunlop. She didn't deserve to die like that.
He deserves a life behind bars. All his natural life behind bars. NARRATOR: This killer's story begins
in the Northeast of England. Billy Dunlop was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, in March 1963.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Billy Dunlop was one of a family of four, but what distinguished Billy's childhood was
his very strict, authoritarian father, who didn't spare the rod. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He didn't hesitate
to use physical violence to keep his children in order. So he would smack Dunlop quite frequently.
So Dunlop comes to expect violence. It's part and parcel of his childhood. And he also learns that violence has a value.
It's a way of getting something done. It's a way of exerting power and authority.
NARRATOR: As a young man, Dunlop was in and out of trouble with the law. When Dunlop was 18, he was in court
for kicking a man in the face, a really severe act of violence. And this doesn't come out of nowhere.
This is somebody who values violence, and is likely to have been violent before, even though that might not
have been recorded or reported. There is something about Billy Dunlop that is waiting to explode.
It's waiting to go off. You sort of only have to light the blue touch paper, and he goes off like a rocket.
And that makes him a very dangerous individual indeed. NARRATOR: Dunlop was no stranger to confrontation,
both off and on the sports field. Dunlop's rugby team were known as the Crazy Gang
because of what they used to get up to when they all went out together. They were quite rowdy, quite violent.
NARRATOR: It was through friends that Dunlop met a 22-year-old, recently separated pizza
delivery girl named Julie Hogg. Dunlop knew Julie through a friend of his who had had an intimate relationship with her.
And Dunlop viewed Julie how he viewed all women, essentially pieces of meat who were there to serve his needs, and his wants,
and his desires. He didn't see women as his equals. They were his playthings, and they had to do
exactly what he told them. NARRATOR: Julie had married young, and she often returned to the family home
to spend time with her mum. She was one of these girls that were like, although she
was married, she was at home every day, especially when she had Kevin, you know.
So I used to think, oh, she's here again. You know, because she was like that. She'd come over round the morning.
She'd just drop Andrew off at work, and round she'd come with Kevin, you know, when he was a baby.
NARRATOR: By late 1989, Julie was living on Grange Avenue with three-year-old Kevin.
She'd recently split up with her husband, but on the day Julie was supposed to sign a legal separation document,
something went awry. She was due to go to court on the 16th of November, and she had to be at the court for 10 o'clock.
So she said, will you wake me up in the morning, Mum, early? So when I rang the house at half 7:00
got no reply, because I had Kevin with me, I just thought she'd slept in. I rang a couple of times, and then I thought, well, I might
as well just drive down there. NARRATOR: Julie had been working late delivering pizzas into the early hours of the morning.
But it was unlike her to not answer the door when Ann arrived with three-year-old Kevin.
My gut feeling was there was something totally wrong. It was totally out of character for her not to be there.
Has a young child of three crying where was his mummy. So I drove around to where my son worked
and got my son out of work. And he came, and he broke in the back door. It was like a narrow glass panel, and he broke in there
and climbed in. And he came to the front window and opened up the curtains. And don't forget, it was November, so it was quite cold.
And my son opened the window. He said, [INAUDIBLE] Mum. He said, there's no keys anywhere.
NARRATOR: Julie's bed was made, suggesting it had not been slept in at all. Growing increasingly concerned about her daughter,
Ann paid a visit to Julie's boss. Me and my son went down to the pizza shop and went into the shops.
And they said he'd taken her home. And he'd dropped her off at half 1:00 in the morning.
And he'd seen her put the key in the door and go in the house. NARRATOR: Ann and her husband Charlie
headed to the local police station to report their daughter missing. Julie was nowhere to be found.
The 22-year-old mother had seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. On the 20th of November, four days after she'd last
been seen, investigators decided to conduct a forensic search of Julie's home. They went into the house, and there was fingerprint dusts
all over the place. And at one time, we were in the bathroom. And it was me, the head of the forensic team,
and a policewoman. On the window ledge in the bathroom was the makeup bag. She wouldn't go to the end of the street with her makeup on,
I said. I felt, at that time, I was like a neurotic mother. That's what I felt like.
It probably wasn't the case, but I felt like that at the time. There was nothing I could see missing.
I couldn't see anything, anything at all. I can't even see any shoes missing, anything.
I remember starting off just as a mystery. And I think the police, initially, thought that she'd disappeared to London, you know.
Gone to see some friends. And it, gradually, the longer she was missing, the more the mystery grew what had happened.
NARRATOR: Weeks turned into months. Julie remained missing for Ann's birthday. And she wasn't there to celebrate Christmas
with her three-year-old son, Kevin. By that January, I started to feel angry towards her some
of the time, because I thought, if she just took off like the police keep suggesting,
why would she do it? We'd had no argument. There'd been no upset. Nothing. You had a little child crying for his mummy.
And why would she do it? NARRATOR: On the 5th of February 1990, 80 days after Julie had gone missing,
her estranged husband Andrew was in the process of moving back into the family home
on Grange Avenue in Billingham. He could smell something foul coming from the bathroom,
and called Julie's mother, Ann Ming, for some assistance. When I got down to the house, he opened the front door.
And I said, have you got rid of the smell? He says, it's getting worse. So I said, get out the way.
I'll go and look myself. Well, at that point, I'd been working in an operating theater as a theater
nurse for over 20 years. And I went in the house, and inside, I was screaming, please
God, don't let it be Julie. Because I just knew what the smell could be. So I'm going up the stairs.
Inside, I'm screaming. Outside, it was like slow motion. And so I was like, watching myself.
Just a strange feeling. But as I leaned over to smell, my wobbly knees went against the bath panel.
[INAUDIBLE],, and the smell came out stronger. So I bent down and just pulled the top with my hands,
and she was under the bath. I was absolutely hysterical. And I ran down the stairs.
I'm screaming at Andrew, she's under the bath. She's under the bath. He thought I'd cracked up.
And Andrew said, I'll go, I'll get a screwdriver and we'll take the bath panel up.
And I'm screaming, please God, tell me it's not. So he just got a screwdriver and went to open it,
and then all I heard him say was, Jesus Christ, no. And he stood the top of the stairs, I'm picturing now.
And he's screaming, what do I do? What do I do? I said, dial 999. And I just ran out of the house.
And within minutes, the street was full of like police cars and vans and that. And all the street were out.
NARRATOR: For almost three months, Julie Hogg's lifeless body had been laying, wrapped in a blanket, underneath her own bathtub.
All the emotion came pouring out of Ann, and was directed towards the police, who'd
searched the property just four days after Julie's disappearance. And out of one of the cars got the Detective Inspector.
And he was the one person who had kept giving us hope throughout the three months, saying, you know,
she might have just took off. And we had the hope that she was still alive. And I wanted to take him back in the house
and prove to him that he was wrong. But of course, I couldn't do that because the police
were putting the tape across the front of the house. And I was put into a car with the policewoman,
with my grandson and brought home. That was the start of a living nightmare that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.
NARRATOR: After the failures of the missing person's investigation, Cleveland police were determined
not to make any more mistakes. Detective John Matthews was part of the team charged with looking into Julie's suspicious death.
JOHN MATTHEWS: After Julie's body was discovered, a major incident room was set up, and a team of investigators
were lined up to carry out all the actions that were about to unfold. Detectives are confronted with a series of complications.
For one, her body is decomposed, and so it's difficult to establish a cause of death.
It emerges that it could have been asphyxia, or strangulation, but there's no doubt the postmortem
reveals a severe vaginal tear. So the indications are that this has got murder written on it,
that it's almost certainly strangulation, that it's someone she let into the house, because after all, there's
no sign of forced entry and never has been. NARRATOR: As the investigations began,
Ann had to think of what to say to Julie's three-year-old son Kevin, who'd witnessed the shocking events
surrounding the discovery of his mother's body firsthand. He obviously knew something was wrong in the bathroom
because, you know, he was downstairs in the living room when I found her. We told him that his mum had slipped in the bath,
and she'd died and she'd gone to heaven. He didn't seem, then, to have any concept about the months
she'd been missing. To look back now, a three-year-old must have been absolutely terrified with the commotion,
what was going on, and probably about to unfold. When the body was being brought out of the house, where was I?
Because it was the same day that the body was found, where was I? I try to remember, and you just--
the mind just doesn't want to. Is it because it's so traumatic that I've blocked it out?
I don't know, NARRATOR: While the Hogg family were grieving, police inquiries had led them to the local rugby club.
Julie knew some of the team's players. There are quite a big pool of suspects. She was popular.
There's Billy Dunlop. There's a number of other members of the Billingham rugby club, the Crazy Gang,
so to speak, whom she also knew. NARRATOR: After interviewing and eliminating many of the players, there was one man who raised suspicions.
I think we knew from an early stage, with the evidence that was coming in, and his background character, that Billy
Dunlop was certainly number one prime suspect, without a doubt. NARRATOR: The 26-year-old was brought in for questioning.
It's probably the most peculiar interview I've ever done. Billy Dunlop being extremely intelligent, very
intense, thinking on his feet, it was like as soon as you flipped the switch on the tape machine, he was focused.
The moment the machine was switched off, he was like your best buddy. Talking about sport, talking about rugby,
as if, basically, he was in there with a group of mates rather than detectives investigating a murder.
NARRATOR: While Dunlop was being questioned by police, detectives searching the house where he was lodging
made a breakthrough. A full search team went in there, and they found keys hidden under the floorboards,
which was very interesting. They were then quickly identified as belonging to Julie Hogg, and the keys were for that house,
where Julie died. NARRATOR: Two fingerprints on the fob were a match to Dunlop, proving he had
used the keys at some point. Although he continued to deny it, on the 16th of February 1990, Billy Dunlop was charged
with the murder of Julie Hogg. When asked about the fingerprints on the key fob,
you sort of thought, well, people have been convicted on half a thumbprint, never mind more than one fingerprint.
And when the police said they've got 110% evidence, we felt quite confident. NARRATOR: As the forensic evidence from Julie's home
was scrutinized further, the case against Billy Dunlop strengthened. There was semen on the blanket that Julie's body had been
wrapped in, and Dunlop couldn't be ruled out as a contributor to that sample. There were also green fibers on the blanket,
which matched the fibers of the jumpers worn by the rugby team. NARRATOR: Dunlop's trial began on the 7th of May 1991,
at Newcastle Crown Court. Because she had found her own daughter's body, Ann Ming had to testify.
When I got on the witness stand, it was horrible, because the defense barrister,
he was saying, you know, when you went into the bathroom and you went to touch the back panel, which hand did
you put behind the back panel? Which hand, your left or your right? And it was terrible.
I mean, even the judge ordered him to stop questioning me like that, because all I was doing
was getting flashbacks where I could smell her, I could see it. It was horrible.
I can't tell you what it was like in that witness box. It's awful. And all the time, he was sat there,
knowing exactly what he'd done. NARRATOR: Dunlop's defense team attempted to cast Julie in the role of a promiscuous woman,
with many different sexual relationships. During the course of this trial, Julie's reputation was absolutely decimated.
She was portrayed as this nymphomaniac, this woman who had sex with all of these different men.
She was essentially portrayed as somebody who was not doing, you know, the appropriate things that respectable women should
be doing. I thought, my daughter's been murdered. He's the perpetrator. They said she was promiscuous, and they said she'd been
in a relationship with Dunlop. Now I knew nothing about that whatsoever. You've only got his word.
She's not there to defend herself. So the defense can say what they like about her.
NARRATOR: The defense even questioned the validity of the prosecution's primary piece of evidence, the key fob
with Dunlop's fingerprints on it that was found hidden away at his lodgings. Fingerprint experts for the defense
suggested that, yes, the two fingerprints on the fob were Billy Dunlop's, but the third fingerprint
wasn't Dunlop's because it wasn't identified at that time. And he said that that was the fingerprint of the murderer.
And that would have been quite enlightening to a jury to think, well, this expert thinks somebody else
has murdered Julie because there's a fingerprint on there that's unidentified. NARRATOR: The defense were able to cast
enough doubt over the evidence. On the 23rd of May, after 14 hours of deliberation,
the jury failed to reach a majority verdict. A hung jury meant there would have to be a retrial.
Dunlop was remanded in custody. I can't tell you what it felt like. No justice for Julie, no conviction,
just left in a state of limbo. I was hysterical. Absolutely hysterical in the court.
I just couldn't believe it, you know. NARRATOR: Knowing their key piece of evidence
had been scrutinized by the defense during the trial, Cleveland police arranged to meet with fingerprint
expert, Roger Shearn. ROGER SHEARN (VOICEOVER): We produce what we call an actual-size photograph,
an enlarged-size photograph, around five times normal size. ROGER SHEARN: We were in a position
to use specialist equipment to improve and enhance, and as a consequence of that, identified Dunlop
completely on that key fob. So it destroyed the defense concept that there was a third party.
And that was fantastic news. We just thought, well, that's it. That was the only reason the jury couldn't
make the decision last time. NARRATOR: In October 1991, Dunlop was back in the dock
at Newcastle Crown Court. This time, the defense didn't question the fingerprint evidence, but there was still a major issue.
The main problem was that we didn't have a definitive cause of death. And as a consequence, we couldn't actually
say exactly how she'd died. And again, I think that raised a bit of a cloud and an element of doubt.
How can the jury convict when they don't actually know exactly how she died? NARRATOR: It was a devastating blow to the prosecution,
and on the 16th of October, the judge instructed the jury to make a quick and definite decision.
It was deja vu, really, because they couldn't reach a conclusion. There was enough doubt.
The jury was split. And because this was a retrail, that was it. He was acquitted.
NARRATOR: Incredibly, despite all the evidence against him, Billy Dunlop was free.
It was very difficult, yeah. Really annoying to know that a criminal has been acquitted of a crime for which you know he's guilty.
I have no doubt he's guilty. And when it's a capital offense like murder, obviously, much more galling.
But as I say, infinitely worse for the family. You felt deflated, because the evidence was so strong.
It was just unbelievable, you know. You felt like, just a total disbelief. It was like, surreal, actually.
NARRATOR: To rub salt into the wounds, just days after his acquittal, Billy Dunlop
appeared on the local news. BILLY DUNLOP (OVER TELEVISION): And I would like them,
now, to reopen this case and start looking in the right direction. NARRATOR: In October 1991, Billy Dunlop
had been found not guilty of the murder of 22-year-old mother Julie Hogg. Although the evidence strongly suggested he was the killer,
Dunlop was a free man, and he wasn't planning on hiding away from the spotlight.
They've been pointing the finger at me for 20 months, and they've found now that it was in the wrong direction.
And I would like them, now, to reopen this case and start looking in the right direction.
He had a few interviews for local TV stations and suchlike. And he was full of bravado, and saying, I knew.
I told the police had got it wrong. So they've, now, got to reinvestigate and find the real murderer.
And that was basically his act, he was goading. But obviously, we've got to take that sort of thing,
but it must have been pure agony for Ann. We never ever, ever, in all of what's happened,
think that the police had got the wrong man. We knew it was him what killed our daughter.
We knew that. NARRATOR: But Billy Dunlop couldn't suppress his violent nature, and six years after his acquittal,
the 34-year-old was back in police custody. He basically found out that his ex-girlfriend was
seeing a boyfriend, so he decided he wasn't going to have that. Nobody else was going to have his girlfriend.
So he decided to arm himself, I believe, with a baseball bat, broke into the house, and basically
mashed them both to a pulp. It is unwarranted, premeditated, violent, ugly, savage attack, motivated solely by Dunlop's conviction
that he can have any woman he wants and they're going to stay with him. And not going to go off with anybody else.
He is a misogynist. He thinks that women are his property. So how dare you end your relationship with me,
and set up home with somebody else? I'm going to teach you a lesson, is essentially what he was saying.
NARRATOR: News of the brutal attack soon reached Ann. We got to know the next morning,
when the police came to see us, and he said, we've got him. He's charged with attempted murder of two people.
So I thought, thank God. We just want him off the streets. We didn't want him to kill again.
Didn't want to put a family through what we'd been put through. NARRATOR: In May 1998, Dunlop pleaded guilty to the lesser
charge of grievous bodily harm, and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Despite protesting his innocence in the murder of Julie Hogg
for almost a decade, suddenly, whilst behind bars, Billy Dunlop began to admit his role in Julie's death.
He would openly discuss killing the 22-year-old with prison officers, and in letters to friends.
In October 1999, Dunlop was arrested and interviewed by detectives. This time, he decided to tell them
exactly what had happened back in the early hours of the 16th of November 1989. Astonishingly, almost exactly ten years after the event,
Billy Dunlop was confessing to the murder of Julie Hogg. He told detectives that he got into a fight at Billingham
Rugby Club before heading to Julie's, in need of consolation. We didn't know any of this was happening until the police came
to see us. And they said, we've got something to tell you. And they had taped a conversation in which he'd
gone into great detail, how he'd strangled our daughter and concealed her body. NARRATOR: Dunlop's confession didn't include any explanation
for the four-inch vaginal tear inside Julie Hogg's body, apparently disregarding any sexual motive
behind the murder. Well, we've only got Billy Dunlop's version of events, and during that interview, he actually said, explained
that he was forensically aware. He'd stripped Julie. He then wrapped her in a blanket,
and then tried to dispose of the body, I believe, in the loft to start with, but that
would have been awkward, particularly as he's only a small person. So that would have been out of his reach.
So he decided, oh, bath panel. NARRATOR: Unbelievably, despite openly confessing
to the killing, Dunlop could not be charged with Julie Hogg's murder as he had already been
acquitted in a court of law. So they said, with all of that, he couldn't be tried again for murder,
but he could be tried for perjury. NARRATOR: Dunlop's perjury trial was set for April 2000.
Knowing that the press would report on the case, the family felt it was time to tell
a 13-year-old Kevin Hogg the truth about his mother's death. I was numb. It was like an out of body experience.
It was something, as a child, I was shielded from, the word Dunlop. As much as the name did come up, I was oblivious, really,
to the name. And it's a name, probably, what will stick with me and haunt me for a while.
NARRATOR: On the 14th of April 2000, Billy Dunlop pleaded guilty to perjury, admitting to lying under oath at his previous trials.
Ann Ming was in attendance throughout the hearing at Teeside Crown Court. He said the reason why he confessed,
because he felt sorry for Julie's family, and especially Julie's son. The prosecuting barrister said that was a load of rubbish.
He'd confessed because he knew he couldn't be retried for murder, so perjury was a lot lesser sentence,
and he thought he'd play the system. And this remorse was a load of rubbish. NARRATOR: Although he'd brazenly admitted to murder
in the courtroom, Dunlop could only be given a sentence relating to the perjury charge, six years in prison.
I remember the photograph of him being taken out of the courtroom that day. And I remember the grin on his face.
He was laughing at justice, really. NARRATOR: Before Dunlop had left the courtroom,
Ann Ming confronted the man who'd killed her daughter almost 11 years previously.
I got out my seat, and I ran. He was the back of the court, handcuffed to a security officer.
I was that far off him. I said, six years. I said, I'll see you rot in hell. I said, you weren't full of remorse
when you sat for three months knowing where her body was. I didn't care about anything.
I just wanted to have my say, you know. And I came out that court that day. And I said to my husband, I said six years,
and he can't be retrialed. I said, this is not right, because of a ancient judicial law.
The double jeopardy law is an ancient law which was always seen as a cornerstone
of the British criminal justice system. And what it meant was that if you were acquitted of a crime,
you couldn't be retried for that same crime again. And I just thought, at the time, that this is crazy.
This law is out of date. Because it worked the other way, that if you were found guilty
of a crime but new evidence came to light, you could then be found innocent on appeal.
Why couldn't it work the other way? I just didn't understand. Here, we had somebody confessing that he'd committed a murder,
but the criminal justice system couldn't do anything about it because the law was an ass.
Nobody has ever confessed in a court of law before to a killing when they've been acquitted.
It made British legal history. So I came out that court, and I thought, right. We're going to see our MP.
I said, this law has got to be looked into. NARRATOR: Ann Ming was determined to seek justice for her daughter's murder,
but it wouldn't be easy. To make sure Billy Dunlop would finally get what he deserved,
Ann would have to overturn the so-called double jeopardy law that had been in place for over eight centuries.
Her first port of call was the heart of government, the home office. I wrote the letter to Jack Straw, our MP,
got us an appointment to see him fairly quickly. Went into Jack Straw's office at the home office,
and I had a picture of Dunlop and a picture of Julie. And I said, that's our daughter.
That's the evil killer who's killed her. We're not happy with the perjury sentence.
What are you going to do about it? That's what I said to him. NARRATOR: Ann had the backing of both
the local police and press. CHARLES WESTBERG: How anybody can live through that is a mystery to me.
You can't even begin to imagine what was going through her mind and the minds of her family.
She was determined to seek justice for her daughter. And she started a campaign.
And police agreed with her, and did everything they could to bring justice for Julie.
The Northern Echo is a newspaper that always had really proud campaigning traditions.
I just saw this as an opportunity to change a law that was absurd, absolutely absurd,
and it needed to be changed because we had a man, an evil, wicked man who had taken a young woman's
life in the most horrific circumstances, and he was getting away with murder. He was laughing at justice.
This was never going to be an overnight campaign. You don't change the law, you know, by next week.
You've got to keep on going. And we kept on going for years. But we kept on going because Ann was driving it all the time.
And we had a duty to support her. NARRATOR: Ann was granted an appointment with the Law
Commission, but just as it got going, the campaign was almost derailed. While we went to have an appointment,
Dunlop was granted the right to appeal against his six year sentence. Granted the right to appeal against a six year sentence
to counts of perjury, when he'd confessed to murder. NARRATOR: In November 2000, Ann Ming
put forward her case for Dunlop's appeal to be rejected. And these three court appeal judges,
I mean, I've done like an impact statement for them, and they read part of my statement out.
And they threw his appeal out. And I think that was the first time we felt that it
was going like our favor. It felt like a bit overwhelming, actually. Because I've seen where he was for the length of the perjury
sentence, and I thought, I'm definitely going to campaign about this too. [INAUDIBLE] got to carry on with this.
NARRATOR: Supported by her husband, Charlie, Ann's campaign went from strength to strength.
In March 2001, the Law Commission recommended that there should be exceptions to the double jeopardy law, and the following year,
an historic bill to overturn the archaic law was passed by MPs. By 2003, Ann found herself preparing to make
a speech in the House of Lords. The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, he said, are you going to be all right?
I said, I'll be fine. He introduced me, and he talked about the double jeopardy law.
And hopefully, it would get through the House of Lords and the Parliament respectively.
And then I got my chance, and I stood up. I thought, I've got one chance, and one chance only.
I've got the biggest mouth. I need justice for my daughter, and justice for families
to come in the years to come. NARRATOR: After a moving speech, the House ratified
the new criminal justice act. Ann's passionate crusade had succeeded. I got a phone call from our MP.
It was about a couple of weeks after we'd got the House of Lords. And he just said, double jeopardy
will apply retrospectively. And he said, Ann, it's through. And I just absolutely felt, just absolutely overwhelmed,
you know. NARRATOR: The new law came into effect in 2005. Dunlop could now be legally charged with Julie's murder,
but only if the case against him was backed up with new information. It's got to be new evidence, that
wasn't introduced at previous trials, and it's got to be compelling evidence. And obviously, if someone who has been acquitted of murder
subsequently starts bragging about having murdered someone, knowing that you can't be tried for it
ever again, then obviously, this is compelling evidence. NARRATOR: Before the new trial could be heard,
Dunlop's acquittal from October 1991 would have to be quashed. Ann was in attendance at the Court of Appeal in May 2006.
They got up, and they walked out, shut the door. They must have counted to ten, walked back in, sat down,
crushed the acquittal like that. Nobody could believe it. I said, thank you. Thank you.
He said, you don't need to thank. He said, the whole establishment needs to thank
you for what you've done. And I was absolutely dumbfounded. NARRATOR: Finally, Billy Dunlop could
be officially charged with the murder of Julie Hogg for a second time. On September the 11th 2006, in the first case of its kind,
the 43-year-old killer's trial began at the Old Bailey in London. Dunlop was brought up.
From what I remember, he was dressed in black with a black ponytail. Ann was sat there.
Mrs Ming was sat, looking at him all the time. And the case was heard before the Lord Chief Justice.
Dunlop pleaded guilty to the murder. Billy Dunlop showed no emotion whatsoever as he stood
in the dock at the Old Bailey. He'd got away with murder for many years, and finally, the law had caught up with him.
NARRATOR: Nearly 17 years had passed since Ann Ming discovered the lifeless body of her daughter.
Now, finally, justice had been served to Billy Dunlop. I can't tell you what it felt like,
after 17 years of her being killed, to hear him say, guilty. Dunlop. I can't tell you what it felt like.
And he got a life sentence with a 17 year tariff before he can apply for parole.
And I pray that the justice system will see what a cold, evil killer Dunlop is. This man should never, ever be released
back into the public domain. Never. And as long as I'm drawing breath, I'll do everything I can to keep him behind bars for the killing
of our daughter. Sorry. It's 30 years on, and this is [INAUDIBLE].. But I've got to.
I've got to keep him in prison. NARRATOR: This historic case made headlines around the globe.
At one time, I think we had three or four television crews in the street outside the Old Bailey.
It started to pour with rain, and everybody got soaked. But everybody wanted to know about the case.
And it was the lead item on all the news that night. And I think it went all over the world.
ANN MING (OVER TELEVISION): It's taken 17 years to finally hear a judge give Dunlop 17 years
for the murder of our daughter. And I remember getting a phone call from the reporter
saying that he's guilty. And that's when I punched the air. And I remember there was a cheer in the newsroom,
because we'd followed this case for so long. And there was this sense of justice in the newsroom.
And, you know, we were able to publish that front page, which I'd been-- I'd been dreaming of the front page for a while.
You know, murderer, Billy Dunlop, you're a murderer. You're not laughing at justice anymore.
That front page will always stay with me. NARRATOR: Since the double jeopardy law was quashed
in 2003, numerous high profile miscarriages of justice have been overturned in Britain, all thanks
to the determination of Ann Ming. My nan, Ann Ming, has been an influence on my life,
because there was a time where my life went in the wrong direction. And now, you know, I just look forward.
I look at my nan. She comes over for dinner every week, stays over, we chat. And she's not just my gran.
She's my friend. She made British legal history by changing that law, my nan. The MBE was kind of the icing on the cake, but it's my nan.
No one can take that away. Ann Ming is undoubtedly one of the most incredible people I've ever met.
I've met a lot of people in my career. I've been a journalist for nearly 40 years,
but I will always remember her as being an outstanding example of somebody who just refused to give in.
Incredibly determined, incredibly passionate about her family, and I honestly think that she
did the world a great service. This very ordinary Northeast mum rose to the challenge of what had happened,
and changed the world. And, you know, she should be very proud of what she did. NARRATOR: Billy Dunlop remains behind bars.
It took 17 years for justice to catch up with the brutal killer whose actions affected the lives of two
generations of Julie's family. My feelings towards Dunlop is nothing. I have no hatred, I have no anger.
But I'll tell you why, because I have the attitude of, if I think of him, he's taking headspace.
And that means he's won. I don't think of him as an individual, as a person, because he's not a person.
He's not human. He's an animal. Hate. Hate with a capital H. These people who say they forgive
the family member's killer, I don't understand where they're coming from. The hatred I feel for him, the hatred
that I feel for him sitting for three months knowing where her body was. I just absolutely hate him, and I hope he gets
his just desserts, I really do. NARRATOR: Dunlop was a violent individual who killed
Julie Hogg in cold blood. But due to the tireless efforts of Ann Ming, her daughter's killer is now in prison
and an archaic law has been changed for good. We may never know the real reason for the attack,
but there can be no excuse for leaving a three-year-old boy motherless, which makes Billy Dunlop one of the world's
most evil killers. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Billy Dunlop killed Julie Hogg in 1989 but was acquitted after two failed trials. However, due to a change in the UK law in 2005, Dunlop was finally convicted and sentenced to seventeen years in prison.

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

Brief Summary

Julie Hogg's murder led to a historic legal battle and the eventual conviction of Billy Dunlop after Ann Ming changed the double jeopardy law.

Key points

The Horrific Discovery. Julie Hogg's mother finds her body hidden under the bathtub after months of searching.
The Acquittal Shock. Billy Dunlop is acquitted of Julie's murder despite strong evidence against him.
Billy Dunlop's Acquittal. Despite overwhelming evidence, Billy Dunlop was acquitted of murder, shocking the victims' family.
Dunlop's Confession. After years of denial, Dunlop begins to confess to the murder of Julie Hogg.
Ann Ming's Campaign for Justice. Ann Ming fights to change the double jeopardy law after her daughter's murder.
Historic Legal Change. Ann Ming's relentless campaign leads to the overturning of the double jeopardy law.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's just senseless.

Ann Ming expresses her grief over Julie's murder.

2:57WatchAug 19, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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