World's Most Evil Killers - Season 6, Episode 9 - Mark Martin - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[music playing] NARRATOR: In late January 2005, 25-year-old Ellen Frith, a vulnerable and transient person,
was with friends at a squat in Nottingham City Center in England. She's gone to a disused block of flats called Marple Square
to take drugs, basically. It's a safe-ish place, but she's not alone. NARRATOR: The last people to see her alive
were Mark Martin, John Ashley, and Dean Carr. The three men were known and feared amongst the city's
homeless community. They were also the men that callously killed her. Martin strangled her, and then Ashley
finished her off to use-- his own terminology. NARRATOR: Mark Martin, the leader of the pack
was a violent, aggressive bully, who was hungry for power and fame. You've got that scenario, someone who brazenly wanted
to be Nottingham's first serial killer, and then goes and does it. NARRATOR: The investigation into Ellen's murder
led police to discover two further bodies, that, of Katie Baxter and Zoe Pennick,
both had been strangled. There are lots of words that I could use to describe Mark Martin, but I would say that he is--
he's very definitely evil. There's no doubt in my mind that had Martin not been caught
by the police, he would have continued killing for as long as he could, if only to burnish his own reputation
as a serial killer. NARRATOR: Mark Martin was a volatile man with an explosive temper.
He terrorized Nottingham's homeless community and preyed on vulnerable young women
to satisfy his ultimate ambition to become a notorious murderer, making Mark Martin one of the world's most evil killers.
[music playing] January the 25th, 2005, Marple Square, Nottingham, England. The burnt body of 26-year-old Ellen Frith
was found by firefighters after putting out a blaze at a squat in a housing estate
in the center of Nottingham. Court reporter Rebecca Sherdley covered the story. I first heard about the case, and as the body of Ellen Frith
was found and the flats at Marple Square in St. Helens were sealed off with police tape.
And there'd been a fire there. So a woman's body was found. Obviously, there was forensics and police investigation.
NARRATOR: The post-mortem quickly confirmed Ellen's identity. It also confirmed her death was no accident.
So Ellen was murdered in a squat. She was strangled. She was set on fire. It really was a horrendous crime.
NARRATOR: Ellen's barbaric death sent shockwaves amongst the homeless community and witnesses willingly
gave information to the police. They gave them the names of three men-- Mark Martin, also known as Reds, John Ashley, nicknamed
Cockney John, and Dean Carr. What we'd start to learn from very early on in the investigation into the murder of Ellen
was that Mark Martin had been talking fairly openly about what he'd done. He'd been bragging about it for want of a better expression.
He'd been talking about how he'd killed and that he'd set the fire. NARRATOR: But Ellen's murder was only the beginning
of a much darker tale. The police investigation revealed the ringleader of the three--
Reds Mark Martin-- had a much bigger plan. Martin wanted to become Nottingham's first serial
killer. That was in his mind from the very beginning. Long before the eventual killings,
that was his ambition, and that just underlines how evil a man he was. NARRATOR: Martin had callously strangled to death not one,
but three young local women-- Katie Baxter, Zoe Pennick, and Ellen Frith in just under a month--
and became known as The Sneinton Strangler. He targeted vulnerable victims. He targeted women who had some issues
in their lives, some difficulties, some troubles, and some trauma. He didn't have any alcohol or drugs
issues, which can be a catalyst for offenses like that. And he just became this person that he had boasted that he
wanted to become, and it happened in such a short space of time and involved three
completely innocent victims. NARRATOR: The bodies of 18-year-old Katie and 26-year-old Zoe were found shortly
after his arrest, buried at the Great Northern Warehouse, an abandoned 19th century packing
factory in Nottingham, England. I think the reason that Martin dumps the bodies in the place
that he does is because he is so brazen. He actually wants to say something to the homeless.
It's a, look what I can do. Look at how powerful I am. Look at how dangerous I am.
This is all about his status, all about his control of this community. NARRATOR: This killer's story begins
on the 18th of October 1979. Mark Martin was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England.
He was an only child, and he was very temperamental. NARRATOR: Martin had a relatively normal upbringing
and lived with his mother, but he found it hard to fit in at school as a result of his appearance.
Mark Martin was somebody who experienced quite a lot of bullying at school. He had a birthmark under his eye, and the kids at school
would call him Reds because of the color of that birthmark. So from a relatively early age, he's
got these feelings of shame, these feelings of inadequacy, and I think, within him, this builds up a, kind of,
resentments and a desire for revenge, essentially. And he's also come to learn through that experience
of being bullied that fear is something that is helpful if you're trying to obtain power and control over other people.
NARRATOR: By the time Martin reached his mid-teens, he was no longer the victim.
He was the aggressor. He also turned to petty crime. We know that until about the age of 16,
his life had been relatively uneventful. But around that time, he started to get involved in lower level
criminality, so he started with shoplifting, some disorderly behavior. And it's seemingly escalated.
There was violence. There was aggressive behavior, threatening behavior. He was literally a volcano of anger.
There was no sense of calm about him. There was no sense of him being someone with whom you could
have a rational conversation. This is quite revealing about the person that he's turning into.
So he's come to learn that being violent is a way of getting things done. It's a way of achieving the outcomes
that you want to achieve. It's a form of communicating your will and your power over other people.
So he has internalized violence of something that is integral to his everyday life.
Violence isn't the exception. It's the rule. NARRATOR: Despite his volatile nature,
Martin finds love and gets married. But the couple's happiness was short-lived. In 2002, Martin lashed out at his wife.
He was abusive to her throughout their relationship. His wife was pregnant when he first attacked her.
He was then very early 20s. He attempted to strangle her. He threatened her with a Stanley knife.
NARRATOR: The offense wasn't reported to the police. But that same year, he wrote a letter to his probation officer
about the incident. He admitted to probation officer that had been violent towards his wife.
He loved her, and he didn't want to lose her. NARRATOR: But in the same correspondence,
Martin's manipulative character is revealed. So lots of things are going on in this letter.
He's basically trying to remove the responsibility from himself for the things that he does.
He's saying that when his father died, it turned him into this evil person. So it's almost as if he's saying,
I have no control over my behavior. I am inherently evil. But he's also saying to the probation officer,
I'm a person who might kill. So he's reversing that power dynamic between him and the probation officer, and he's
trying to get the probation officer to fear him. NARRATOR: However, Martin's words
failed to get him the recognition that he desired. Instead, he continued to violently abuse his wife.
By 2004, Martin's marriage had broken down, and the couple separated. Separation is a period, where there
is a very high risk of the escalation of further violence. Because by leaving him, she would have compromised
his feelings of control. That would have resulted in him wanting to take back control.
So when a perpetrator of domestic abuse can't control their partner by keeping them
in the relationship, they will seek to control them by destroying them for leaving the relationship.
NARRATOR: In October 2004, Martin savagely attacked his wife again. When Martin attacked his wife, she was left with red marks
around her neck. So there was clearly an attempted strangulation, a non-fatal strangulation here.
NARRATOR: Martin was arrested and held overnight. After he was released from custody the following morning,
he made a disturbing phone call. He rang the police himself and said, I was locked up last night, and I'm
afraid I might kill somebody. Martin may, at that point, simply have been bragging,
but there's no doubt whatsoever that he was capable of the most extreme violence
in an unexpected setting. Also, there's a sense in which he is quite surprised that there haven't been more serious consequences
for the attack on his wife. And the fact that there weren't those consequences, kind of,
invalidates his behavior a little bit. He wants the recognition for his violence.
So this is a very, very significant red flag. It's a real warning sign, firstly, for his wife
and also for other women. Because non-fatal strangulation, especially of intimate partners, is a way of saying to somebody,
I could kill you if I wanted to. If I chose to do this, I could carry out. NARRATOR: Unbeknownst to the authorities, Martin's threats
were real. And before long, he would have the notoriety he desperately wanted. Winter 2004, Nottingham City, England.
Shortly after attacking his wife, 25-year-old Mark Martin had left his home in Derbyshire
and relocated to the neighboring County of Nottinghamshire, where he was sleeping rough.
So Mark Martin had a home in Ilkeston and then started to mix with the homeless community
in Nottingham. What was unusual about that, really, was that he was very smartly dressed
and had a home, which a lot of the people who was mixing with had the misfortune of not having.
And he pitched up a tent on the edge of Nottingham City Center near a place called the Great Northern
Warehouse, which is named after the Great Northern Railway. It's an old packing factory.
And then, it was ravaged by fire. And the homeless people knew they could go there and take drugs and drink,
out of the sight of the people. NARRATOR: Martin, often referred to by his nickname,
Reds, immersed himself in the homeless community. He clearly stood out. Martin was quite an intimidating presence.
He's very largely built, quite tall, rough shaven, short coast hair. But yeah, I would say that he's got an air about him.
He's really quite airy and quite intimidating even without saying anything. NARRATOR: He quickly gained a fearsome reputation.
Martin was part of a community, which he terrorized. He would steal their money.
He would steal their benefits. He preyed upon them. And indeed, before very long and towards the end of 2004,
the homeless community were aware that they had someone very dangerous in their midst.
So they are very, very wary, and they think, well, who is this, this guy, who's just
literally turned up and inserted himself into our lives? He's somebody they were very, very fearful of.
A homeless person, at the time, said that if Reds was in the area and he knew you had money,
he'd come looking for you. And so, they would stay on the other side of town because of the type of person that he was.
So he was building up this bravado, and he also was building up this brazen reputation.
NARRATOR: Martin used the vulnerabilities of the homeless to his advantage. Martin didn't have any problems with drugs or alcohol,
in terms of substance abuse or dependency. But a lot of the people within the homeless community,
that he associated with, did. So they have a vulnerability that he doesn't have,
and that enables him to wield significant power over them. So they are people, who are living
a very dangerous and very precarious existence, but he isn't really. He knows that he has the option of going and living in a house
if he wants to. He knows that he has more than them. So this is a way in which he elevates his status.
He feels better than these people. He feels superior to them. NARRATOR: Martin also made no secret of his ambitions.
Martin was a deranged man, and he had boasted about being Nottingham's his first serial killer.
And this really is testament to his narcissism. He wanted to be somebody by killing other people.
NARRATOR: Despite his violent and aggressive nature, Martin wasn't a lone wolf. He formed firm friendships with two other men also associated
with the homeless community. One was a man called John Ashley, known locally as Cockney John because of his London accent,
who was a good deal older, almost 10 years older than Martin. And another one was Dean Carr, again, from Nottingham.
So the three of them became a sort of triumvirate. But Martin, even though he was the youngest,
was always the most aggressive and the most violent. The other two more peripheral.
But he was the driving force in this trio of men, who were to prey on the homeless community
in Nottingham. NARRATOR: The formation of this trio, Martin, Ashley, and Carr, proved to be deadly.
On the night of the 24th of January 2005, all three were at a squat in Nottingham City Center
with 25-year-old Ellen Frith. Ellen Frith was itinerant. She'd started on drugs young.
She'd moved around the Midlands. She didn't have a proper home in that sense by the time
she encountered Martin, and Ashley, and Carr. Mark Martin, and Ellen Frith, and John Ashley
had all gone back to a flat in Marple Square to smoke drugs, had all been hanging out together.
And during that time, Ellen had bitten into an apple. And for some reason, he'd actually grabbed her
by the throat as she had the apple in her mouth and stuck two fingers there and began to strangle her.
And it was John Ashley, who'd finished her off. To try and throw the authorities off the scent,
Martin stuck a hypodermic needle into the leg of Ellen Frith. They load her onto a sofa bed in the squat and set fire to her.
NARRATOR: Once the fire was alight, Martin, Ashley, and Carr fled the scene. In the early hours of the 25th of January,
the fire brigade and the police were called to the flat on 55 Marple Square. Detective Chief Inspector Robert Griffin
was a member of the Nottinghamshire Police Major Crime Unit, who worked on the case.
They'd obviously been a really, really serious blaze. It took a good while to put the fire out.
And when the fire was eventually out and the scene examination started, we found a body.
Obviously, the circumstances were overtly suspicious. And so, a criminal investigation started on that morning.
NARRATOR: Senior Crime Scene Investigator John Betts was called in to coordinate the forensic evidence
at Marple Square. In this case, we've got to clear areas of work. We've got the fire scene with the body inside it.
And we've got the materials that could well have been used by people involved in it.
So you do a sequential examination. Fire would take precedence, and the recovery of the body.
Because if there were signs of assault, the only way we would establish it is through a post-mortem examination carried
by a home office pathologist. So that's basically what happened. NARRATOR: The body was recovered and was immediately
sent for a post-mortem. Whilst police waited for results, local enquiries provided them with some vital information.
We were able to locate a council worker, who, by coincidence, had been out to Marple Square
to do some checks the night before. And whilst there, he'd actually spoken to a man standing
at the doorway to number 55. Perhaps more significantly was that council worker spoke
to another man, who was living in another squat just across the way. What he told us was that a man who was known locally as Reds
was the man who was living in 55 Marple Square. And that he, the witness, had indeed
been in the flat on the night before the fire and was able to tell us that a lady called Ellen was there
and a man called Cockney John, who we now to be John Ashley, and indeed, Reds, who is Mark Martin.
So we started immediately to search for Mark Martin and John Ashley. We found John Ashley first.
NARRATOR: On the afternoon of the 25th of January, police arrested John Ashley and brought him in to be
questioned. He was interviewed at length and actually spoke to us throughout. So he was interviewed for hours by detectives,
and he was the first person, really, who told us the first version of what had happened.
He tried to put himself up as a witness, saying that he had been present on that night in the flat,
where Mark Martin alone had strangled Ellen, and then set fire to the bedding around Ellen.
And in turn, the flat. But what John Ashley did was confirm for us the man that we
were looking for, who would known until that point as Reds, was indeed Mark Martin.
And so, from that time on, we then went in search of Mark Martin. NARRATOR: On the 27th of January 2005,
less than two days into their search, Martin made a surprising move. Martin, ever bragging, rings the police and says,
I think you want me for murder. NARRATOR: Mark Martin had finally got the authorities'
attention, but his hunger for fame wouldn't be satisfied until the true extent of his murderous actions were uncovered.
Nottingham, January 27, 2005, 25-year-old Mark Martin surrendered himself to Nottinghamshire Police
and was held in custody on suspicion of the murder of 25-year-old Ellen Frith. So having surrendered himself, and calling the police,
and telling us that he thought he was wanted for murder, he attended the police station.
We interviewed him over several days. So he was at the police station for three days
and into countless times. And all of the evidence that we'd gathered was put to him, put throughout that.
He elected to answer, no comment. Martin was somebody who kept very quiet in his police interviews.
When he gets into the criminal justice system, there are a lot of issues that he can't control.
He loses quite a bit of his power. And by holding onto all of that knowledge about the murders,
that is the way of maintaining that power and that control. He wants to appear to be this mystery
character, who we're trying to get inside the mind of. So by just revealing absolutely everything in interviews,
he destroys that mystery, and that's what he wants. He wants to present as this enigma,
as this, kind of, genius killer. And that's what he's trying to achieve here. NARRATOR: Within days, police receive confirmation
from the forensics team that the body in the fire was indeed that of 25-year-old Ellen Frith.
But scientists weren't able to find any forensic evidence at the scene or on Ellen's body that
directly linked Mark Martin and John Ashley to her death. Forensic scientist Craig Davis, who specializes
in the interpretation of bodily fluids and DNA, analyzed the evidence. DNA can persist for decades if it's
left in the right conditions. Lots of conditions aren't very good for DNA, and they can break down into great DNA quickly.
So things like environmental factors, humidity, and bacteria will break down DNA.
And extreme heat will break down DNA really rapidly. So if a body is exposed to a fire,
a lot of the DNA on the body can be broken down and deteriorate, such that we may not be able to obtain
any DNA profiles at all. Because of the way that Ellen Frith died, it would be very difficult to find
any trace evidence in and around where she was because of the fire. So it'd be very difficult to find
something that was substantial and said, yes, this person did this. So that's why the postmortem was important.
During the post-mortem examination, one of the key areas to look at is the lungs.
If there's smoke in the lungs, then someone is alive and inhaled in smoke during the fire.
If there's no smoke in the lungs, it tells the tale. NARRATOR: Ellen's post-mortem examination was inconclusive.
But her death was believed to be consistent with compression to the neck, which indicated she had been manually strangled.
The autopsy results also indicated that the fire at 55 Marple Square had been started after Ellen's death.
I think this was a very deliberate ploy on their part because fire is a very effective way of destroying quite
a lot of forensic evidence and muddying the waters as to who is responsible for this particular
murder. NARRATOR: Despite the lack of forensics, the mounting evidence against Martin and Ashley was strong.
The autopsy report, the fact the fire had been started deliberately, Ashley's accounts, and the numerous witness
statements provided by associates of the two men confirmed to the police that both Martin and Ashley were
responsible for Ellen's death. On the 29th of January 2005, just days after their arrest,
Mark Martin and John Ashley were charged with Ellen Frith's murder. So from the moment that Mark Martin
was arrested for the murder of Ellen, he is never from that moment being outside of custody.
So he arrived at the police station, was then charged, went before the court, was remanded into prison custody,
and has never been out of prison custody since then. NARRATOR: Martin was behind bars,
but the investigation wasn't over. The investigation almost worked in reverse. Ellen is killed.
And then because of the discovery of Ellen, things start to unravel, and we realize that there
are two other murders. Martin start to indicate that to, quote, "there were others."
And he started to talk about his involvement in the killing of other girls. And witnesses were able to give the first names of those girls,
and we very quickly were able to work out that there were indeed two girls from the homeless community--
Zoe Pennick and Katie Baxter-- that were indeed missing. And we start to get the sense that these
were the girls that Martin had been talking about. NARRATOR: Katie Baxter, aged 18, and Zoe Pennick, age 26,
were both known to associate with the homeless community. Both had been missing since the end of December 2004.
So Katie was 18, and her family came from Cotgrave, and she grew up in the area.
And then she started to sleep rough and stay in the YMCA in Nottingham, and her friends had
said that she was doing that because of other friends were doing that. But she was from a good background
and had a good family. She was a very young woman, but she was somebody who saw the good in everybody.
And she got involved in a lot of different community projects to help people who were less fortunate.
And this is how she comes onto the radar of Martin and Ashley. NARRATOR: Katie was said to have been
in a tumultuous romantic relationship with Ashley. Shortly after Christmas 2004, Ashley attacked Katie so badly
that she needed medical help. She went to the local medical center and had cuts in her mouth and nose stitched up.
Katie Baxter's parents saw her. They went to the medical center. And indeed, she went home with them
and slept that night on the sofa in their house. She loved him very much. It was a close relationship.
But Martin, probably seizing the opportunity and knowing that Ashley and she had fallen out,
has now targeted her. NARRATOR: Despite her itinerant lifestyle, Katie was always in regular contact with her family.
She'd started to come a little bit more distant from her family as she got closer to John
Ashley and his associates. But what she'd always done was continue to go to the ice hockey, which was one of her loves and one
of her family's loves. And they used to go there together. They last actually saw her on the 29th of December,
so just after Christmas when she left the family house on that day. But over the course of the next couple of weeks,
she didn't turn up with the ice hockey anymore, and it was that that caused them to be concerned.
And so in early January, they did actually report Katie missing. NARRATOR: During the course of Ellen Frith's investigation
in late January 2005, members of Nottingham's homeless community expressed their concerns to the police
that Katie and Zoe had also been murdered by Martin. So the police were obviously speaking quite extensively
with the homeless community. And there were different rumors on the street due to what Mark Martin had been saying,
snippets of information. And it was that ring of the homeless community and the different rumors running that helped
them to piece it together. NARRATOR: Court reporter Rebecca Sherdley recounts what happened the night Katie Baxter was murdered.
Mark Martin decided to live, and frequent, and hang around with different individuals.
It got chatting to her in town, and then invited her back into the tent, and just snapped and strangled
her, and buried her body under some debris in the old warehouse, and left it there in the shallow grave
by an old wall heater. When somebody commits a murder like this, they do it because they make a decision to do it.
They choose to do it. And taking somebody to an abandoned site like this, where there aren't a lot of people around,
that suggests, to me, that there is a degree of premeditation. There's a degree of planning.
There is an intention to do harm to her. And I think almost the relationship with Ashley
is something that he uses to get to her, to access her because she knows him. She feels, I think, a degree of trust around him.
So he has access to the victim. He has opportunity to harm her, and this is all very sinister indeed.
NARRATOR: It was believed that Martin sought out his next victim, 26-year-old mother of two,
Zoe Pennick, just days later. Zoe Pennick, she had been described by a family as being really bright and bubbly person.
And then, I think, drugs changed her. She had a son, so that stabilized things. And she did actually have a flat of her own.
But she started to mix with the homeless community. And then, she'd seen her father around the Christmas time
in 2004, and that's when he started to get quite concerned about her whereabouts.
He hadn't heard from her for a while. And then, he reported her missing. NARRATOR: The last reported sighting of Zoe Pennick
was on the 31st of December 2004. She was never seen alive again. Martin encountered Zoe Pennick,
who is 26, and this time, tempts her to come to the tent. Because he tells her, I've got 2,000 cigarettes
that you can sell on. And you can take a bit of the profit, and I'll take a bit of the profit.
She duly goes to the tent. And again, Martin, for reasons that we do not know, he strangles her.
And again, buries her or, at least, covers her body with this rubble, and debris, and foliage, not that
very far from Katie Baxter's. Martin was very deliberate in the victims that he targeted because he wanted
to go after vulnerable women, because he had access to them. He had the opportunity to kill them,
and he knew that he could get away with it, I think, for longer than had he targeted
another group of victims. He knows that people who have issues with homelessness
tend to go off the radar. They tend to go missing for a few days and then turn up again.
And he knows that that, kind of, thing buys him time. It allows him to accumulate more victims.
NARRATOR: In February 2005, from witness statements, police knew that Martin's tent was pitched
at a disused packing factory called the Great Northern Warehouse on the outskirts
of Nottingham City Center. That's really where we start to focus our search, given
that we knew that Katie was missing and given that Mark Martin had been openly talking
about killing other the girls. We knew that Katie was the girlfriend of John Ashley.
And so, in effect, we were searching for Katie Baxter. Zoe Pennick, at the same time, but there
was this obvious association with this area. NARRATOR: 11th of February 2005, police were confident they
had the correct location. But with such a large area to cover, they needed to pinpoint an exact area to search.
Just part of that examination strategy, we brought in the body dogs. Body dogs, specially trained dogs,
that pick up on the scent of human decay, for want a bit of the phrase. So the dogs came in, thinking they got little booties on,
and they were put in through the first clear area, which enabled them to get further down.
And I think, after a period of time, one gave a positive result. And through the use of those dogs,
we identified the warehouse, which was at the side of the disused land, where Martin tend to be.
And inside that warehouse and under some rubble, we found the body of Katie Baxter.
What they didn't know, at that stage, was that Zoe Pennick's body lay 2 meters away.
NARRATOR: Nottingham, February 11, 2005, with information provided by witnesses and the help of cadaver dogs, Nottinghamshire Police
made a grim discovery-- the remains of 18-year-old Katie Baxter, another of Mark Martin's victims.
When we'd found Katie we needed to ensure that we gathered all the forensic evidence.
We took Katie away, dealt with that as a scene forensically. And then only after that was complete
did we continue with the search. NARRATOR: On February the 16th, the cadaver dogs
were deployed once again. A dog came in, gave a positive response about 2 meters away.
So I did a little bit of excavation, and he was quite clear. And unfortunately, Zoe was under some rubble.
Closed the scene down again and go through the same process the next day of body recovery.
NARRATOR: The discovery of all three victims-- first, Ellen, then Katie and Zoe--
in such a short space of time attracted intense media attention. This one was a huge case for the city.
One of the first serial killings to happen here, a massive shock to the community.
It sent shock waves amongst the homeless people. It was obviously feared that there
was a serial killer on the loose, and that this man had finally been caught. And people wanted answers for why he'd killed
all these women so needlessly. NARRATOR: The bodies of Katie and Zoe were immediately sent for post-mortem examinations.
Due to the level of decomposition of the remains, the precise cause of death of both women
could not be ascertained. However, the results were believed to be consistent with manual strangulation.
And by using forensic entomology, they could determine when they were killed. When the bodies' found, the biological evidence
that's there, the insects and the different stages of the life cycle that are there can be recovered and preserved.
And this information can be used by an entomologist to interpret what's there and use data from things,
like weather conditions and temperatures, to make a calculation as to when those flies are
likely to have landed on the body in the first place. And they're pretty accurate in establishing
when that person died. NARRATOR: The results prove that Katie and Zoe were killed
between December 30, 2004 and January the 6th 2005, approximately three weeks before Martin's
third victim, Ellen Frith. Pathologists also discovered that Katie Baxter's fingertips had been burnt.
With Katie Baxter, because she'd fought back and he was conscious of that forensic evidence,
he burnt her fingers. So not only if the demoralizing and being strangled, he then had burned her fingers to destroy
any forensic evidence. NARRATOR: In light of this evidence and the strong witness statements
of all three murders, the police filed further charges. On February 19, 2005, Dean Carr was
also arrested and charged in connection with Ellen Frith's murder. Dean Carr was charged with Ellen's murder only,
and the evidence indicated that he had been there, too, and that he had been involved in her strangulation as well.
And that's something that he had admitted, so confessed to witnesses who came forward and spoke
about what he had said. NARRATOR: March 10, 2005, while still remanded in custody
for the murder of Ellen Frith, Mark Martin and John Ashley were jointly charged with the murders of both Katie and Zoe.
It was an unusual investigation because, you know, we rely so heavily on things like CCTV, and phone, and forensic evidence,
and none of that was really available in this case. This was a witness case. And in that respect, we were fortunate
that Mark Martin wanted to tell the world about what he'd done, and also, the witnesses, the vast majority
of whom, much of them were from the homeless community, wanted to come forward and talk to us.
I think Martin wanted recognition for the crimes that he'd committed, and I think that the way in which he went
about the killings themselves and the disposal of the bodies was a way of trying to achieve that.
It's all about getting that validation as a serial killer. This idea of people going missing,
of the being a serial killer on the loose, it all adds to the drama, and that's exactly what Martin wanted.
NARRATOR: On January 16, 2006, Martin Ashley and Carr were tried together at Nottingham Crown Court.
All three men were tried for the murder of Ellen Frith, but only Martin and Ashley are tried for the murders of Katie
Baxter and Zoe Pennick. All three plead not guilty, presumably banking on the fact
that the homeless community won't turn up as witnesses. NARRATOR: But they were mistaken.
Lots and lots of witnesses came to give evidence, essentially about confessions that would be made
by each of these defendants. Now, the vast majority of those witnesses were from the homeless community, and many of them
had issues and challenges associated with drug use and with alcohol. And I honestly think that Mark Martin, in particular,
probably relied on them being frightened of him, him having intimidated them. And because of those challenges, them
not wanting to come to court and give evidence. But remarkably, every single one of them
did, and every single one of them came up to proof, by which, I mean, what they said in their witness statements
is the evidence that they gave when they went in the witness box. And despite challenge, as is expected
in a cross-examination, they all absolutely told their stories. And because of the result, as we now know it to be,
the jury were really convinced by it. NARRATOR: On February 24, 2006, all three were found guilty as charged.
Carr is sentenced to life with a minimum of 14 years and is only convicted of the murder of Ellen Frith.
Ashley is sentenced to a life with a minimum of 25 years, but is only convicted for the murders of Katie
Baxter and Ellen Frith. Martin is given a whole life term of imprisonment, and he's convicted of all three murders.
Ironically, thereby confirming him as a serial killer. The police, after the verdicts, called Martin
a very dangerous man indeed. And also, add that he was highly likely to kill again if he were ever to be released from prison.
In fact, he never will be. NARRATOR: Martin will never be released, but the city of Nottingham hasn't forgotten
how he terrorized and callously killed vulnerable members of their community. You've got that scenario, someone who brazenly wanted
to be Nottingham's first serial killer, and then goes and does it at the time that had been this fear.
And I think it must have been a huge relief for the people who did give evidence and the people in the streets
that they knew that this danger really was off the streets, and he was going to be locked up for the rest of his life.
What makes Martin one of Britain's most evil killers is that, here, we have a man who is a nobody, essentially,
and he's trying to become somebody. And the only way he thinks that he could achieve
that is through killing other people, is through violence and fear and intimidation.
What we mustn't forget about this case, because they are at the center of it, are the three victims.
Ellen, Katie, and Zoe, three really young girls. Katie was 18 years old. And they all became involved in this community,
a community in which they were all really liked. Everybody talks really fondly about them.
They were each from really nice families, and all three girls are described as really
bubbly and really friendly. And to think that they had their life snatched away from them
by this evil man, Mark Martin, because they had the misfortune to bump into him during their young lives
is absolutely tragic. NARRATOR: Mark Martin was a power hungry narcissist who inserted himself into the homeless community
to control them by using fear. He ruthlessly preyed on their vulnerabilities to satisfy his need for recognition
and went on to take the lives of three unsuspecting young women, making Mark Martin one of the world's most evil killers.
[music playing]

The chilling story of Mark Martin, who murdered three homeless women in his quest to become Nottingham's first serial killer.

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

Mark Martin and his accomplices murdered three women in Nottingham, revealing a chilling ambition to become a serial killer.

Key points

The Rise of Mark Martin. Mark Martin, a violent bully, aspired to be Nottingham's first serial killer.
Ellen Frith's Murder. Ellen Frith was brutally murdered by Mark Martin and his accomplices.
Martin's Disturbing Confession. Mark Martin called the police, claiming he might kill someone.
Post-Mortem Examination Insights. The post-mortem revealed critical evidence about Ellen's death and its implications.
Discovery of Victims. The police uncover the bodies of Katie Baxter and Zoe Pennick in a warehouse.
Trial and Sentencing. Mark Martin and his accomplices are found guilty of multiple murders, confirming him as a serial killer.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Look what I can do. Look at how powerful I am.

Martin's brazen attitude towards his crimes.

5:42WatchAug 10, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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