A Fatal Fantasy- The Case of Georgia Williams

Royal Family

Transcript

00:00 The 17-year-old, who's a former head girl and the daughter of an officer of the West

00:13 Mercia force, was last seen at 7.30 on Sunday evening, leaving her family home here in Wellington.

00:20 Her parents thought she was going to spend the night with friends.

00:23 I'd like to speak directly to Georgie if I can. Georgie, if you're listening to us at

00:27 this moment in time, you're not in trouble. Please contact the police or your parents.

00:32 We're extremely concerned. We want to make sure you're safe and well.

00:36 [Music]

00:43 [Music]

01:11 Georgia Williams was born in Shropshire, England on the 7th of September 1995.

01:17 She was an intelligent, caring and bubbly girl. She had a loving and tight-knit home

01:21 life and was incredibly close to her family. She lived with her father Stephen, a police

01:26 officer, her mother Lynette and her older sister Scarlett. Georgia was a straight-A

01:30 student, head girl at her school and was a cadet in the Air Training Corps, hoping one

01:35 day to become a Royal Air Force paramedic. She loved playing sports and being outside

01:40 and there was nothing she wouldn't try. Described as having an infectious personality and smile,

01:44 she was a very popular 17-year-old who was adored by those who knew her. As soon as she

01:49 became old enough to work, Georgia took on a part-time job at a local petrol station

01:54 and quickly made friends with her colleagues. Among this group of friends was 23-year-old

01:58 Jamie Reynolds. He had been in her sister Scarlett's year at school and was a little

02:02 older than Georgia. Her family had met him on an occasion working at the petrol station

02:07 and described him as quiet and polite. Reynolds would develop a liking for Georgia, making

02:12 his feelings very apparent. Although Georgia didn't share the same feelings and rejected

02:17 his advances, it didn't deter her from spending time with him. She remained polite and friendly.

02:22 Georgia, being the person she was, continued to spend time with Reynolds and always made

02:26 sure he was included. Having been bullied as a young girl, she knew the feeling of being

02:31 an outcast all too well and being the empath she was, never wanted to cause someone the

02:35 same pain by ignoring them. Reynolds worked full-time at the petrol station and told Georgia

02:41 he had a keen interest in photography and wanted to try and pursue it as a career, instead

02:45 of what he was currently doing. Georgia encouraged him, as did all her friends, and offered to

02:49 help wherever she could. He asked her if she wouldn't mind modelling for some photographs

02:53 with the intent of using them in his portfolio, which she gladly agreed to do. They made a

02:59 plan for her and some of her friends to go to Jamie's parents' house on May 26th,

03:03 2013 for a photoshoot. At around 7.30pm, Georgia left the family barbecue and headed out to

03:09 meet Jamie and her friends, telling her family she would be back later. Always responsible

03:14 and reliable, Anna's Jamie's house was only a few minutes away on foot. Her parents

03:18 agreed. A few hours later, and with no sign of Georgia, her mother Lynette sent her a

03:23 text message asking her how everything was going and when they could be expecting her

03:27 home. She got a message back, saying that although the photoshoot had finished, she

03:31 would be staying with her friends for a while longer and didn't know when she would be

03:34 home. She put her usual three kisses at the end of the message. Lynette woke up at around

03:39 6am on Monday morning and went to check on her daughter, but upon seeing her bed untouched,

03:44 she was concerned as to why she hadn't come home. She sent another message asking where

03:48 she was, to which she received a response a few hours later, saying that she had lost

03:52 track of time, stayed at her friends' and forgot to message to let her know. The message

03:57 ended by saying "My battery is dying too." This was not a common thing for Georgia to

04:02 do. She didn't ever want to cause people to worry and never failed to let her family

04:06 know where she was. She was due to go to a music festival and take her first driving

04:11 lesson and her parents knew that missing those two things was a concerning sign.

04:16 As it got to Tuesday morning, no one had heard anything from Georgia in almost two days.

04:21 It was at this point that her parents really started to panic. They began to ring around

04:25 her friends to see if she had stayed at their house overnight, but none of her friends had

04:29 seen or heard from her. Her phone was now going straight to voicemail. Her boyfriend

04:36 Matthew made a desperate appeal on Facebook and word quickly began to spread that she

04:40 was missing. Her parents went straight to the police. The only information they had

04:45 was that she had spent her evening with Jamie Reynolds. When the police ran a quick routine

04:50 background check on Reynolds, they immediately became concerned. In 2008, when he was 17

04:56 years old, Reynolds was given a final warning for attempting to strangle a 16-year-old girl

05:01 he had lured into false pretenses of helping her with a project. The youth offending team

05:05 and mental health services made visits to Reynolds to assess the situation further.

05:10 His parents had told the team he had an obsession with violent pornography and snuff films depicting

05:15 rape and asphyxiation. They also said they had found several disturbing pictures of girls

05:19 in school uniforms. He had drawn over them and put nooses around their necks. The teams

05:24 individually determined that he posed a significant risk, but unfortunately the police took no

05:29 further action, believing the case had been, in their words, "suitably resolved".

05:35 A few years later in 2011, Reynolds was put on the police radar once again when he purposely

05:40 ran into a colleague's car after she rejected him romantically, but as no checks were made

05:44 at the time, the link to the 2008 case was not made. Using CCTV and number plate recognition,

05:51 Reynolds and his van were spotted at a cheap hotel almost 300 miles away in Glasgow, Scotland.

05:57 Worryingly, there was no sign of Georgia Williams. He was spotted in a car park making a quick

06:02 change of clothes next to his van.

06:12 Shropshire Police contacted Police Scotland and he was taken in for questioning. He maintained

06:17 he knew nothing of Georgia's whereabouts, but the police were not satisfied with this.

06:22 With knowledge of his background, he was arrested and brought back to Shropshire for further

06:26 questioning, but Reynolds was still saying nothing and denying all the allegations.

06:33 The next morning at around 5.30am, senior police officers knocked on the Williams'

06:37 front door. Her parents said that they instantly knew that their beautiful daughter was no

06:42 longer alive.

06:43 The team headed back to her last known location, the Reynolds' house, to do a thorough and

06:49 in-depth search. What they stumbled upon horrified even the most experienced and tenured of officers.

06:57 They found Reynolds' camera in the house that contained a memory card. It was clear

07:01 that someone had tried to wipe what was on it. Fortunately for the officers, they hadn't

07:06 been spotted. But with this, the horrific, sickening picture of what had happened to

07:10 Georgia Williams began to unfold.

07:15 The picture showed that Georgia had been forced onto a box with a noose around her neck. Reynolds

07:20 had kicked the box from under her and hanged her. She was photographed like this all over

07:26 the house, and after he was done, he raped her dead body, which she also photographed.

07:32 With this, Reynolds was charged, but he refused to tell them where Georgia's body was. Detective

07:38 Sergeant Hopwood, who was assigned to assist in the case, described him as someone playing

07:42 games. The police began to formulate a timeline of Reynolds' movements in the days after

07:47 Georgia's disappearance, and CCTV would play a vital role in adding to their case.

07:53 A day after Georgia went missing, he was spotted on camera filling up his van with fuel. Little

07:58 did anyone know at the time, but Georgia was already dead, and her body was in the back

08:03 of the van.

08:27 After he killed her, he drove 60 miles to Wrexham in Wales, where he stopped to watch

08:31 a film at a cinema. He watched one of the Fast and Furious films, the same movie he

08:35 had been trying to persuade Georgia to go and watch with him.

08:38 The film was released in 1999. It was a film that was about a man who had been trying to

08:54 save his life.

09:09 With Reynolds already in custody, the police asked the public for their help.

09:13 Police say they urgently need information about a vehicle driven by the suspect.

09:17 I'd like to concentrate the public's mind, please, on a vehicle, which is the vehicle

09:23 I have to my left here. It's the Hiace van CX06ASV. The last time we identified that

09:31 vehicle was at five o'clock in Wrexham, in North Wales. Following that, we identified

09:38 the vehicle at 10.30pm that evening. It's a gap of about five and a half hours in Queensferry,

09:45 Cheshire, heading north. And we're obviously very keen from the public, or from anyone

09:50 who has information, to identify where that vehicle may have been in that five and a half

09:54 hour gap.

09:55 A number of people came forward to tell police they had in fact helped Reynolds at the side

10:00 of the road when his van had gotten stuck. As soon as the police heard the location,

10:05 they knew that they would soon find Georgia. On the 31st of May, five days after she had

10:10 gone missing, they found the body of Georgia Williams. She was naked and barely hidden

10:16 in a woodland area near Wrexham. Jamie Reynolds was officially charged with murder, however

10:24 it was uncertain as to how he would plead in court. On December 2nd, 2013, he appeared

10:31 at Stafford Crown Court. Georgia's father, Stephen, said he watched Reynolds before he

10:36 entered the courtroom as he laughed and joked, showing no remorse or care for the destruction

10:40 he had caused. But before he entered the courtroom, his demeanour quickly changed to almost me

10:46 and childlike. Jamie Reynolds pled guilty to murder, much to the relief of Georgia's

10:52 family. On December 19th, he was given the harshest sentence possible under British criminal

10:58 law - a whole life order, meaning he would never be released from prison. He became one

11:03 of the youngest people in British criminal history to receive this sentence. Mr Justice

11:08 Wilkes said, "The sentence I pass on is one of life imprisonment. The early release

11:13 provisions are not to apply to you. I make a whole life order." Reynolds appealed his

11:19 sentence in 2014, but the court of appeal said there was no possible way a whole life

11:24 order could be argued against, and the sentence was just. His appeal was flatly denied. An

11:30 investigation into how Jamie Reynolds' previous attacks on women were handled by the police

11:34 was carried out, and subsequently six police officers from the West Mercia Police were

11:38 served with misconduct notices regarding the 2008 case. The memory of Georgia Williams

11:44 was honoured by the local community, as they raised more than £2,000 for a memorial bench

11:49 to be made for her. Her family also started the Georgia Williams Trust, a charity which

11:54 helps young people pursue their passions and dreams with the help of grants and partnerships.

11:59 A fitting tribute for the passionate, vibrant and spirited Georgia Williams.

12:04 [Music]

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