World's Most Evil Killers - Season 6, Episode 4 - Stuart Campbell - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: Monday, June, the 18th, 2001, East Tilbury, Essex, England. Every morning, 15-year-old Danielle Jones
gave her mom a kiss and wave goodbye to her little brother Mitchell as she left home to go to school.
He used to sit and watch her go out the door, and then he said that she turned left,
which was her normal way to go. NARRATOR: Only one member of the family would ever see Danielle alive again--
her 43-year-old uncle, Stuart Campbell, the man who killed her. He's detailed every phone call they've had,
every text message that they've exchanged, and that really does reveal the degree of his fixation
and his obsession with her. NARRATOR: Campbell was a con artist, who preyed on teenage girls.
In serial killer mode, this guy had a type, and that was his type. This was what he would target over and over again.
He portrayed himself to be a glamor photographer, and he carried a small business card
with the title of Cinderella's. NARRATOR: At the time, it was the largest investigation ever
conducted by Essex Police, creating intense nationwide media coverage. Although I knew it was happening,
I can remember watching it on the news. And I just completely lost it because that
was the first time I realized they were looking for a body. NARRATOR: Stuart Campbell was a predator, posing as a fun,
loving, caring uncle. He abused his position of trust and Stole his 15-year-old niece from the family who trusted him.
And he never gave her back, making Stuart Campbell one of the world's most evil killers.
[music playing] 18th of June 2001, East Tilbury, Essex, England. It was a normal hectic Monday morning
in the Jones' household. Dad Tony had left for work at their dry cleaning business
and mom Linda was seeing 15-year-old Danielle and her two younger brothers off to school.
It was Danielle's first day back after returning from a school geography trip. She wasn't a lover of school because, academically, she
found it quite hard. She always tried a best, and that was all we ever asked of all of our children.
But she did find school a bit of a struggle. NARRATOR: Over the weekend, Danielle had been oddly quiet
and preoccupied, texting furiously on her phone. It was actually Father's Day. She didn't get Tony a card, which was very unlike her.
We were going to see my Nan who had turned 100 that year, and we were going to see her.
And she didn't want to come, which was really not like her at all. She seemed a little bit agitated.
NARRATOR: What Linda didn't know was that Danielle had returned home from the school trip to find two love
notes hidden in her bedroom. And we know now that she was very, very, very upset about this.
She felt that this was a real infringement of her privacy that he had dared to come into her bedroom
and leave two notes for her. And I think, clearly, this was the rod that broke the camel's back.
And from that point, Danielle made it very clear that they weren't going to be friends, and there wasn't
going to be a relationship. NARRATOR: The man who left the notes was Danielle's 43-year-old uncle, Stuart Campbell.
He came into our family very similar time to when I came into the family. He has gone out with Tony's sister.
He was welcomed into the family the same as I was, very character full of life, like to be the center of attention,
but that sort of just day, we took him. And that was Harry was, so we didn't think anything of that.
Just a very full of life character. NARRATOR: As Danielle grew into adolescence,
Uncle Stuart began to pay more attention to her. He was a member of this family for nearly 20 years.
They accepted him as one of their own, and he completely violated all of that trust
and all of that acceptance to basically get what he wanted. That relationship initially it just
seemed like a friendly uncle. But again, it's one of those things in hindsight, they were able to look at it and go, this wasn't friendly uncle.
This was grooming uncle. And that was how he was able to get access. NARRATOR: The Jones family had no knowledge
of Campbell's deviant past. No one knew about the gold held hostage in 1989. No one knew about the four-year prison sentence
for robbing a 16-year-old. As far as anyone was concerned, it was just Stuart, Uncle Stu.
I don't think I wanted to believe it, to be honest with you. But obviously, the more we were told,
I then realized that it was him. I think the initial thing was shock because this was a member of my family, who, I thought,
loved our children and wouldn't do anything to hurt them. NARRATOR: When Danielle Jones left
home that fateful Monday morning, she didn't catch the bus to school. Had she agreed to see Uncle Stu?
Or had she changed her mind? Or were they in the midst of an argument? We really don't know.
We do know that she changed her route. We do know that she was talking to a man in a transit van,
and that was almost without question, Stuart Campbell. NARRATOR: Linda never saw Danielle again.
And the man who took her, Stuart Campbell, would never reveal what he did to her or where she was.
My biggest wish at the moment is that he does one decent thing in his life, and that is to give us our daughter back.
Supposedly loving her as much as he did, why does he not want to do the right thing for her
and give her back to the family? NARRATOR: This killer's story begins on the 21st of February 1958.
Stuart Campbell was born in Malden, Essex, England. We know that he worked as a builder,
and that he was quite heavily into bodybuilding. But we don't know very much about his early years,
his childhood. That seems to be a bit of a blank. As a self-employed builder, Stuart Campbell
was well-known in and around the County of Essex. Local journalist, Karl Eve, has spent most of his career
as a crime reporter in the area. He was described as pretty much a poser. He liked going to the gym.
He was big at the gym. He would quite literally pump himself up. He would wear clothes that were very
revealing, shockingly revealing, according to some women. Frankly, one of these guys who really loved himself.
And he would come in tight fitting muscle tops, and he would always be very flash or try and be very flash.
So he was a guy who wanted to be liked by women. That became very obvious. We often find in people, like Campbell, they
have these whole chapters of their lives, which do continue to be a mystery. Because, time and again, they reinvent themselves.
They wipe the slate clean. They start again, and they leave behind any, kind of,
chaos that's in their wake. What we do know about Stuart is that from a very early age,
really, from adolescence onwards, he becomes fixated on teenage girls. They are his obsession.
Many people would describe him as a pedophile. I would be tempted to. NARRATOR: In 1977, at the age of 19,
Campbell accosted a 16-year-old girl in the street in broad daylight. He was sentenced to four years in prison for robbery.
When we look back at his offending, when we see these property offenses, like robbery,
we tend to think that they're completely separate from any, sort of, sexual offending, but they're not Because?
They're all underpinned by entitlement a feeling that I have a right to take what I want.
So they are part and parcel of his offending profile, which is underpinned by misogyny.
NARRATOR: When Campbell was released from prison, he found another way to approach impressionable teenage girls.
Campbell starts up a so-called photography business, where he is there to take photos of young girls,
and he claims that he's going to help them get into the modeling industry. And also, by setting this up in his home,
he is in control of that environment. When girls come into his home, he's the one who holds the power.
In 1989, he encounters the police again. This time, for effectively abducting a 14-year-old
and keeping a hostage on the pretext of photographing her. He doesn't get away with it.
But equally, he doesn't get a prison sentence. He's simply given 12 months suspended.
Now, a suspended sentence is, essentially, he's walked away from court. He's got a bit of a slap on the wrist.
And this simply validates and legitimizes his behavior. NARRATOR: Campbell met his first wife
Jennifer in 1975 when she was just 15 years old and he was 17. They married a year later when Jennifer was six months
pregnant with their daughter. But he's always grooming, and it's a word that particularly
applies to Stuart Campbell. And he identifies another 15-year-old while he's still married to Jennifer.
And this one is called Debbie. NARRATOR: Debbie Jones and Stuart Campbell were together for 13 years before marrying in 1996.
Debbie had a brother called Tony, who was married to Linda, and they had three young children-- two boys,
Ryan and Mitchell, and their big sister, Danielle. 12-year-old Danielle was a beaming bridesmaid
at Debbie and Stuart's wedding. He appears to be, I think, quite a cool uncle. He's into bodybuilding.
He's quite a good looking guy. And I think he's somebody that Danielle probably looked up to
in the beginning as a father, straight uncle figure, as an authority figure, and someone who she probably
had quite a lot of respect for. NARRATOR: Campbell was a regular visitor at Tony
and Linda's home in East Tilbury, Essex. They trusted him. He was, after all, a father himself.
Their children thought he was the perfect uncle, always happy to play with the kids,
especially Ryan and Mitchell. When the children were young, he showed less interest in Danielle.
It was only when she started to reach the age 14 to 15, which was effectively the age of the girls he liked,
that he would turn up more, and he would spend more time and find more excuses to turn up.
And he would come around and play video games with the two younger brothers. That really was how he kept the contact constant.
It's a grooming process. I don't think the parents saw anything odd in him turning up because, in effect, he's family.
NARRATOR: Little did the family know that the loving, caring uncle that Campbell portrayed
was merely a cover-up. His true intentions would soon be revealed. 2001, East Tilbury, Essex, England.
Stuart Campbell was spending more time than usual with the Jones family, finding every opportunity to pop
into their home for a visit. He even had his own key. He was also paying a lot more attention
to his niece, Danielle. When Danielle gets to around about age 15, Campbell's interest in her seems to ramp up.
And we know that Campbell met both of his wives when they were 15. So he has this, kind of, fixation with young girls,
who are ever so slightly under age. So history seems to be repeating itself. NARRATOR: Tony and Linda had no reason to suspect that Campbell
had any ulterior motive. I felt we were quite a loving family. She liked to boss the boys around to a degree.
Yeah, I felt we were just a fairly normal loving family. NARRATOR: And Danielle was a normal teenage girl.
The older he gets, the more he preys on the unexpecting naive young girl who is just blossoming.
I mean, in essence, that's the element. He likes to choose girls who are on the cusp
of blossoming into adulthood. NARRATOR: Campbell often picked Danielle up at school
in his blue transit van. He'd take her shopping, buy her gifts, and they'd go to the cinema together.
It was perfect because he had that access. He could always excuse it. And he could keep on approaching her.
Whereas, anyone else's parents would say, what are you doing around my house? What are you doing with this girl?
With her, he could always say, this is my niece. Danielle had a passion for animals,
especially dolphins were her favorite, and she did get to stroke a dolphin in Florida.
And she loved children, and she was doing a course at school, like a nursery nurse-type course.
And I'm sure that she would have gone on to work with young children-- young children,
especially with her, things she liked the best, preschool, probably. NARRATOR: Danielle's love for children
gave Campbell an opportunity to exploit. He and Tom's sister were expecting a baby,
which, obviously, Daniel was thrilled about, the fact of having a little niece on their view.
He would show her things he'd bought. He'd wait from the school bus and then say he'd
got things to do on this day. Come with me, I'll show you what I've built. And he was taking in a fair amount of interest in her.
But then, it's really hard hindsight now we can say things weren't right. But at the time, it was just--
he's shown everything with the baby. She's so excited about the baby. And we didn't particularly think anything of it at the time.
Campbell really had started to cross the line. He's gone from being a helpful uncle, who picks Danny
out up from school to being somebody who is spending rather too much time with her.
So they are literally hanging out together. And I'm not putting any blame for one moment on Danielle
here. The perpetrator of this dreadful crime is Stuart Campbell. He's the adult. But it's clear that there was
a connection between the two. It was quite vivid. It wasn't fluffy. It was quite strong.
I think Stuart was biding his time, waiting for a moment in which he could, well,
I'm afraid, do what he wanted with Danielle. NARRATOR: East Tilbury, May 2001. The Jones family went on holiday to France.
And when they got back, Danielle went on a school geography trip. She'd been separated from Campbell for some time.
But Campbell still had access to the family's home and Danielle's bedroom. The whole family's gone away on holiday,
and that's when he'd gone into the house and left all these notes, handwritten notes.
Hope you're great. I really miss you. I miss your smile. Very creepy. Hi, princess.
Hope you have a lovely holiday. Text me when you get back. Love, Stuart. And then, there's a kiss underneath.
So this would be one of the ones that he dropped off at the house whilst they were away.
Another one. Hi, princess. In case you missed my last note, I just thought I'd pop in another to let
you know I do miss your smile. And then it's got XX. Now, this is incredibly intrusive, incredibly invasive,
and it's evidence of a real obsession, a real fixation on Danielle. And rightly, she starts to feel incredibly frightened by this
and incredibly rattled by it. NARRATOR: On the 16th of June, when Danielle returned
from the school trip, her mom Linda noticed something was wrong. She came home on the Friday night.
And over that weekend, she wasn't quite herself. There was lots of texting and that things weren't quite right
that whole weekend. She kept popping out around the shop. I've got to go around the shop and a lot of texting going on.
But we just thought, oh, perhaps, she's had a fall out with a friend. And so, it was a bit of a strange weekend.
We look back now at it, you know, yeah, she wasn't her normal self that weekend at all.
And I think her friends, in particular, would have been more aware than her family of the communication that
was going on between the two of them. And I think the reaction of Danielle's friends
was, perhaps, something of a wake up call for her, which she realized, actually, this is something
that is out of the ordinary. This is something that is quite intrusive and invasive,
and it's making me feel uncomfortable. Eventually, she, kind of, woke up to reality,
woke up to how creepy is. And her friends were saying things like, yeah, he's come around.
She's like, oh, God, not him. Oh, God. And started to spurn him. So we know that the spurning process
was happening at the same time in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. NARRATOR: On Monday, June the 18th, 2001, Danielle
left for school as normal. Well, it was her first day back after her trip away. She seemed perfectly normal that morning.
She got up as usual. Kissed me goodbye. Ryan was already at senior school. Mitchell was still in junior school,
so he would wait until she'd gone, and then go and get ready. She went out as normal.
He used to sit and watch her go out of the door. And then he said that she turned left,
which was her normal way to go. And then she turned back around and walked back past the house the other way.
I didn't think anything of it. I thought, perhaps, she'd had a text from a friend who was waiting around the other corner.
Didn't think anything unusual about that, to be honest. The question that haunts me is why that particular June day?
Was it a crime of opportunity? Or was it a crime of premeditation? What was it about that day in June 2000 that made
Campbell act the way he did? What was it that provoked him on that particular day?
Was it an argument with Danielle? Was it Danielle refusing to do what he wanted?
Or was it more sinister even than that, that he'd persuaded her somehow to do something.
I simply don't know. When the victim decides to step away and say they've had enough and distance themselves from the abuser,
the abuser decides to take the control back, to say to the victim, you don't get to decide this.
I get to decide this. And this is a very dangerous time. When there is that separation, the risk of homicide
increases exponentially. NARRATOR: At 2.30 PM, on the 18th of June, Linda received a phone call.
I got a phone call from the school to say that Danielle hadn't been at school, which wasn't
something Danielle would do. She would be a bit of a scaredy cat not going to school.
They then said, well, we're quite surprised. Give us five minutes. We'll go and double check this.
They phoned me back and said, no, she's definitely not at school. NARRATOR: 15-year-old Danielle Jones had vanished.
Only the man in the blue transit van knew where she was. East Tilbury, Essex, England, Monday, the 18th of June, 2001.
15-year-old Danielle Jones hadn't turned up for school. Something that was totally out of character for her.
I waited for Brian to come home to see if he'd seen her at school. He said he hadn't, but that wasn't unusual.
She didn't come home. I probably left it a little while, thinking, well, if she has done something, she'll
come home as though she's just got off the bus. Time was going on, so I started phoning
her friends who then all confirmed she hadn't turned up for school. NARRATOR: Danielle had vanished into thin air.
No one knew where she was. What was in her mind? What had been agreed between them?
Had there been a falling out? Had he said, you've got to talk to me? Or had she said, I don't want to see you again?
Linda called her husband Tony and asked him to come home. She also called the missing persons hotline who told
her to call the local police. For some reason, Tony, on his way home, decided to call at his sister's house.
She was at work. But he looked through the window because he felt-- that when knocking on the door, he felt someone was there,
but they didn't answer the door. So he looked through the window and laid out on the lounge floor was a load of camera equipment.
NARRATOR: On the same day, Detective Sergeant Keith Davis from Grays Police Station in Thurrock
responded to Linda's call. In the very beginning, when Daniel went missing from East
Tilbury, obviously, there was an awful lot of house-to-house inquiries taking place, to see if there's been
any sightings of Danielle. And the young man, who, I think, was only five years old
had reported seeing someone he thought was Danielle, arguing with the man with a blue transit van.
And having spoken to Danielle's friends, they identified that her uncle Stuart Campbell
had a blue transit van. So he became a person of interest fairly early on in the inquiry.
I think, at the time, obviously, I didn't dream in a million years that anything, as it turns out, would happen.
I just thought she'd had a fall out with someone or had gone off to sort a problem out.
Then when we started looking into Stuart Campbell, we realized that he'd been involved in various offenses
over the past 20 years, starting off with burglaries in and around the local area, very quickly moving on
to taking indecent images of young girls, generally around 13, 14 years of age. NARRATOR: The Jones family knew nothing about Campbell's
sordid history of offenses. We discovered, when we started to look into his past and his background,
he portrayed himself to be a glamor photographer. And he carried a small business card
with the title of Cinderella's. He never was, officially, a photographer at all.
When Campbell met Debbie, his wife, he essentially wanted to leave his past behind
because his offending history was completely inconsistent with the character that he was creating.
He was trying to create this figure of the trustworthy regular guy, the family man, the father.
His past really identified to us that he was an extremely confident individual. He was able to gain the trust of these young girls very,
very quickly, so much so that he would-- when he did take photographs of them, he would be confident enough to take them
back to his own home address. So very quickly, he would have emerged on the police's radar
as the prime suspect. And they would want to know exactly what he'd been doing on the day that she disappeared.
He had a previous conviction for taking a child without consent, which ended up being a much lower charge.
But eventually, when we got to talk to the victim of that crime, it was a great deal more than that
and actually involved in indecent assault and indecent photographs being taken of that person.
NARRATOR: 21st of June, 2001. After the extent of Stewart Campbell's past was revealed,
the case was referred to Detective Chief Superintendent Steven Reynolds, Head of the Major Investigations Section
of the Crime Division in Essex. Usually, when children go missing, they are found very,
very quickly. That said, as a detective, you're always told that every missing person has the potential
of being a murder victim. And you should never discount that until there is evidence to the contrary.
NARRATOR: As police continued their inquiries, the tight-knit community of East Tilbury
and the local Essex media did everything they could to help find Danielle. It's a fair-sized state where we live.
And obviously, some people know who she was. Some people didn't, so we did a leaflet drop.
We were still searching. Family we're still searching. Friends were still searching.
On the way to school, some children would look to see if they could see any signs of it.
The community were really good in trying to help as well. I think we got a photo very soon afterwards.
So it would have been in about two or three days, that's the, sort of, point where a person going missing,
it gets from we're a bit concerned to we need to let the media know. We need to do wider appeal.
There's something a bit more worrying about this. And the picture of Danielle with her long hair
and her school uniform and a blazer is imprinted on my mind and will ever be. You can't forget it.
It's vivid. Everyone was out searching except him. He actually came round through that first week
and came in with a magazine on family trees, doing family trees, because that's what I was doing at the time.
And I was like, what am I interested in this for at the moment? His just whole behavior was not like someone
that loved his niece and was desperate to find out what happened to her, just bizarre behavior.
Campbell didn't actually join in the search. He didn't help look for her, and I think this was a very
deliberate move on his part. I think he's smart enough to realize that the people close
to Danielle are going to be under a lot of scrutiny. , Because in most cases, when a child comes to harm,
it's at the hands of somebody within their family. So this is a very cunning move on his part.
He just removes himself from the limelight altogether. But in doing so, he makes himself
all that much more suspicious. NARRATOR: Investigators had to be sure that Danielle
hadn't planned to leave home. When Daniel was first reported missing, Grays Police conducted some initial inquiries,
and these inquiries included searching Danielle's home and also her bedroom. It was ascertained very quickly that she hadn't taken
any clothes and items, which one would have thought she really needed. Like, a mobile phone charger was still present in the house.
And the feeling now was that she was either being held against her will or that, sadly, she
may have already been murdered. NARRATOR: On the 22nd of June, 2001, Steven Reynolds and his team made
a decision to arrest Campbell. There was no identified offenses. We had no evidence to charge him with any offense,
but he hadn't really said much about Danielle's whereabouts. NARRATOR: Campbell showed the police
a text message he claimed was from Danielle, sent after her disappearance. Hi, Stu.
Thanks for being so nice. You are the best uncle ever. Tell mom I'm so sorry. Love you loads.
Dan. He gave an account that on the morning that Danielle went missing, he had to drive to the Wix
DIY store, which was just along the A13, to buy some spare parts. And then when he returned, he started
working on his neighbor's decking that he was planning to do. NARRATOR: With Campbell in custody,
the police were able to search his house for any sign of Danielle. Campbell is still, at this point,
maintaining his innocence. Because Campbell is a very confident man. Underneath all that exterior, he doesn't believe,
for one second, that they will be able to convict him without a body. He's utterly certain, in his own mind, because he's a builder
and because he knows what he's doing that he's concealed the body so effectively
that they'll never find it. So they can say what they like. Where's the body? NARRATOR: Investigators found nothing
to justify, detaining Campbell further, and he was released on police bail. Whilst Campbell was on bail, the investigation continued
at a pace to try and gather evidence sufficient to charge him, but also, we still didn't know for sure
that Danielle was dead. There was still a remote possibility that she could be alive.
NARRATOR: East Tilbury, June 2001. With insufficient evidence to hold him, Stuart Campbell was released on police bail.
But the police were convinced that Campbell was responsible for Danielle's disappearance,
and he was their only person of interest. Initially, Campbell was put under surveillance
to see if there was anything in his movements that would assist us in locating Danielle,
be it, hopefully, alive or, sadly, if a body was found. But regretfully, that wasn't successful.
So then, the inquiry went off in a number of directions. We looked at his alibi, and it was clear that the alibi
was a false alibi. NARRATOR: In 2001, mobile phone technology was in its infancy,
and triangulating mobile signals were still a specialist field. Campbell had claimed to be at a DIY store in Raleigh
on that Monday morning. Yet, his phone was in East Tilbury and so was Danielle. Both phones were picked up by the same mast.
Meaning, they were within a mile of each other. But in the very early stages, we had a considerable search
for Danielle for obvious reasons, and that was really responding to any sightings
that members of the public would letting us know about. And this was predominantly ran in the East Tilbury area, which
is vast in relation to open land, railway tracks, and very heavy growth. But they were actually searching all of those areas,
including waterborne environments, rivers, and lakes. East Tilbury is, kind of, like a square of concrete.
And around it, you have the Essex marshes, really. It's the stuff out of Charles Dickens period,
where it's just marshland and wetland, and you're very, very close to the estuary,
so it's silt and mud. There are industrial works, abandoned industrial works. There's the remnants of duckland type areas.
So it's a vast area. It's a really large area to cover. And it was broken up into bits.
And the search is from what I understand went from the day she went missing up to the day
before the trial. And they were methodically planned. I think it was cut up into areas.
We're going to search this area, this area, and this area. NARRATOR: The extensive search attracted
intense media attention. By the Saturday, they asked us to do a press conference.
And they took us to our local police station, and we were, sort of, told what would happen.
But I don't think anything quite prepared me for what was to happen. It was quite a frightening experience, really.
And on the way there, we were told that very few couples survive anything like this, which, at the time, I thought,
you know. But that happens to be one of the best bits of advice they ever gave us because we then decided to, well,
we are going to stay together and fight this. But the press conference was very daunting.
I think I broke down and blew my nose, and the cameras just went absolutely berserk at the fact
that I'd broken down, I think. It was quite a frightening experience, really. NARRATOR: The investigation was called Operation Spinnaker,
and the Essex police invested over 1.7 million pounds into trying to find Danielle.
It was, at the time, the largest investigation ever conducted by them. As the search for Danielle continued,
the investigation into Stuart Campbell gained momentum. The police looked back at the suspended sentence
Campbell had received in 1989 for the abduction of a 14-year-old girl. We also managed to identify a number of other victims,
female victims of various ages, where he'd either inappropriately taken photographs of them
or, in some cases, committed sexual offenses on those women. NARRATOR: On the 17th of August, 2001, evidence from Campbell's
past behavior was enough to convince the Crown Prosecution Service that he should be rearrested.
He was charged with possessing a rather large amount of drugs with a couple of assaults on other people.
They basically gathered loads of evidence from other places as part of their investigation.
And it was like, right, we'll throw everything at you. So initially, he was charged with the whole load of things.
That was important for us because, at least, he was off the streets, and we could then
continue our investigation and try and gain that additional evidence to satisfy the Crown Prosecution
Service that there was sufficient evidence to charge him with murder and abduction.
The day that they charged him was awful, really, because that was the day we actually had to sit our two boys down and tell
them that, I think, they picked up that he was a suspect, but to actually then tell them that he
has been charged with the murder of their sister. It was quite horrific. NARRATOR: The police now had the opportunity
to conduct an in-depth search of Campbell's home. During that second search of Stuart Campbell's house,
the one that are most predominant findings was a bag that was found in the loft of his home address.
And inside this bag, there were a number of pieces of lingerie, some handcuffs, and it was quite clear
that this was a bag of clothing that he utilized when he brought young girls back to his home
to take photographs of. In Campbell's house, a range of different evidence is discovered by the police.
There are some physical forensic evidence. So there's a pair of stockings with Danielle's blood on them.
There's also a lip gloss that belonged to Danielle. So those things, in themselves, are quite incriminating.
But the police also find Campbell's diary. There was a diary found in Stuart Campbell's home address
that, in many respects, got referred to as the Danielle diary, not because Daniel wrote it,
but it was exclusively about his relationship with Danielle, and how she had behaved on a particular day.
And it went to show really his obsessiveness, his obsession with Danielle Jones.
As the investigation progressed, we were finding lots of things out of bounds in that which were quite shocking that girls were coming
forward to say that he'd posed as a photographer and vary in different things. And that was very unnerving, the fact
that he almost led this secret life, which we had no idea about. And that was not nice to think that we'd had him in our home,
had him around our children, trusted him, and the biggest betrayal of all is that he appears to have
done something to our daughter. NARRATOR: It's one of the most complicated cases for any police force to prove murder without a body.
It is very complicated indeed and presents the Crown Prosecution Service and, eventually,
the prosecution at trial with enormous number of difficulties. We didn't really feel without sufficient evidence
because this was a very unusual case that it was a body-less murder. So we had to prove, not only that Danielle been murdered,
and that she'd not simply run away, but also that Stuart Campbell was responsible.
NARRATOR: The evidence was presented to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS, initially, did not feel
that we had sufficient evidence to bring a charge of murder and kidnap against Stuart Campbell.
We continued with piecing the case together. And eventually, one of the senior Crown Prosecutors
in Essex took a week off away from his normal work to actually review all of the evidence that we had gathered.
And at the end of that, he was satisfied that there was sufficient evidence to put Campbell before a court,
charged with murder and kidnap. NARRATOR: The 14th of October 2002, Chelmsford Crown Court, Essex, England.
After 11 months on remand and still pleading his innocence, Stuart Campbell went on trial for the abduction
and murder of his 15-year-old niece, Danielle Jones. The last thing you want to do is open the case high
and then close it low. So it's best to open it in a very level way without any emotion, simply pointing out the questions
that the jury might wish to ask. Stuart Campbell's defense, effectively, it wasn't me,
and I wasn't there. That Danielle has upped and run away, and I have nothing to do with it.
The evidence was circumstantial, which, I'm sure, everybody knows means that there
was no direct evidence. Nobody had seen the killing. There was no admission from Stuart Campbell
that he was responsible, and there wasn't that much by way of direct forensic scientific evidence.
Taking the stand was not a nice experience at all. I think I was on there for about three days.
Not a nice experience at all with him sitting there. I tried not to look, but it was very
uncomfortable with him sitting there, very uncomfortable. NARRATOR: Throughout the trial, the prosecution team
continued building their case. Somewhere in the region of between 50 and 60 additional
statements were taken during their 11-week trial in an effort to make what we thought was our strong case,
even stronger. NARRATOR: Albeit circumstantial, the prosecution had gathered some powerful evidence against Campbell.
Some lip gloss was found in his attic. And on the brush, or whatever you call it, of the applicator,
her DNA was found or there was a fairly significant match. But I think the thing that helped
convict him was this significant cell site data, the telephone evidence, which showed that he had lied
on the day in question, and there have been a very strong relationship between these two phones in the very early days
after Danielle went missing. NARRATOR: Further forensic authorship analysis of the text
message, Campbell had claimed was from Danielle, revealed it was not from Danielle, as she
always texted in lower case. The text had been sent by Campbell from her phone to his.
That was one of those killer moments, you thought, the technology has stuffed you.
Nothing else has been out for you the same. Nothing else has been out and know you as a liar
as much as this technology. And so put all of that together-- opportunity, motive,
and a little bit of scientific evidence, plus the blue van, and the fact that she disappeared
made quite a compelling case. I think, to be honest, I had a glimmer of hope. Right up until the trial, I think
there was always that minuscule of hope that it was wrong. NARRATOR: The 19th of December 2002, Chelmsford Crown Court.
Stuart Campbell was found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and a further 10
years for abduction. It was ruled that Campbell should serve a minimum of 20 years before being
considered for parole. Stuart Campbell's demeanor through the entire court case and even at the end, when he was sentenced, was just stone cold.
There was nothing there. I think what makes this case exceptional, for me, is the fact that the police were able to gather
sufficient evidence to stand up in court, to convince a jury. I think they did an incredibly good job here
because gaining a conviction without a body is a very difficult thing to do I think from the police's point of view jubilation,
that they got the result they wanted. So it's a very strange feeling, really. Yes, we've got the result we wanted,
but the thing we wanted most of all was Danielle back. And to this day, still haven't got that.
So a mixed blessing. Yes, someone's going to pay you for this, but we want Danielle back.
NARRATOR: Stuart Campbell will only be 63 years of age when he's eligible for parole.
Linda Jones has become an advocate and campaigner to create a legal precedence for a no body, no parole directive.
On the 9th of February 1988, 22-year-old insurance clerk, Helen McCourt, from St. Helens Merseyside
disappeared less than 500 yards from her home. Her killer, Ian Simms, was paroled without ever revealing
the location of her body. Marie McCourt, her mother, spent years lobbying for laws
to help other families find closure by denying parole to murderers who fail to disclose
the location of their victims. The prisoner's disclosure of information about Victims Act or Helen's law finally
came into effect in 2021. There are hope is that Helen's law will make it so much
harder for him to come out, and that the fact that the parole board have to take
into consideration the fact that he's not disclosed where the body is. So we're just hoping that it makes a big difference
to him getting parole. Unfortunately, Mary's daughter's murderer came out before the law came into force.
But fingers-crossed, we probably will be the first people that, hopefully, it will help.
Personally, I think it gets harder the years go on. Her friends have all got children.
Our sons have got children. We know she would have had children. And it's just a constant they are
that there's so much of her life that we never got to share. NARRATOR: Stuart Campbell was a serial abuser
who immersed himself into a loving family who trusted him. He callously violated that trust to get what he wanted
and continued to torture the family by denying them the peace of laying their beloved daughter to rest,
making Stuart Campbell one of the world's most evil killers. [music playing]

Stuart Campbell was convicted of the murder of his 15-year-old niece in 2002, even though her body has never been found.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers. New episodes including Lee Ford, Pawel Relowicz, John Shaw, John Allen Muhammad, Derrick Todd Lee and more.

Brief Summary

Danielle Jones was murdered by her uncle Stuart Campbell, who exploited family trust and was later convicted in a high-profile case.

Key points

Stuart Campbell's True Nature. Campbell, a trusted uncle, was revealed to be a predator with a history of obsession.
The Family's Trust Betrayed. The Jones family welcomed Campbell into their lives, unaware of his dark past.
Creepy Love Notes. Danielle discovers unsettling notes from Campbell, signaling his obsession.
The Day of Disappearance. On June 18, 2001, Danielle's normal routine takes a dark turn as she vanishes.
The Disappearance of Danielle Jones. 15-year-old Danielle Jones vanishes on her way to school, leading to a massive investigation.
Stuart Campbell: A Dark Past. Stuart Campbell, a person of interest, had a history of offenses against young girls.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think the initial thing was shock because this was a member of my family.

NARRATOR: Reflecting on the family's reaction to Campbell's actions.

5:10WatchAug 10, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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