Killer in my Village S08E01 Kerry Owen
Examining the 2022 murder of doting mother, Kerry Owen
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LearningTranscript
00:00Please be aware that this programme also contains themes of domestic violence.
00:18It's unusual that a murder offence is captured on CCTV.
00:24Very harrowing.
00:26Police boys, there's actually a dead body in the ditch.
00:31I couldn't even recognise her. Black eyes. Everything was just basically swollen and bruised.
00:37He's an animal. Really, he's destroyed my family.
00:41He started kicking me and punching me and I was terrified.
00:46We had to take a dangerous offender off the streets.
00:50He's just evil. He's took a mother away from her five children.
00:54That's the monster.
01:03Ten miles south of Birmingham lies the pretty Worcestershire village of Hopwood.
01:10Hopwood is what I would describe as a rural area. Lots of country lanes.
01:17Very peaceful and tranquil. That's the kind of thing you'd expect from this kind of place.
01:22You've got the canal down there. You've got a couple of nice pubs. It's just lovely.
01:29It's a very sleepy village. There's obviously not much traffic coming round here.
01:35Everyone knows everybody in the village.
01:40They look out for each other. They can go to each other to ask for help.
01:45It's a really tight-knit community.
01:47But the peace of this rural adil is about to be shattered.
01:56Emergency. Which service? Police, please.
02:01It's an emergency. I know, yeah. I'm just walking my dog up the line at the moment.
02:07There's actually a dead body in the ditch.
02:09There's actually a dead body in the ditch.
02:16Just before 6am on that morning, a dog walker was walking his dog in Washed Hills Lane.
02:23And the dog came across a pile of leaves.
02:29And the dog walker then discovered there was blood underneath the leaves.
02:33I just saw a pile of blood on the road, and I thought, where's all that come from?
02:37The dog was going to the ditch, and I thought, somebody's done blubbered something.
02:40I could see a hand and a leg. I thought, oh, f**k's sake.
02:45It is the body of a woman in her 30s.
02:50Obviously, that prompted an emergency response from police and the ambulance service.
02:56To find out what happened to the body,
02:58To find a scene like that is incredibly shocking, especially in this area.
03:03Might have been hit by a car. I'm not sure.
03:06Can you get them as quick as you can?
03:12Medics pronounce the woman dead, and it is deemed as a potential hit and run.
03:18Upon receiving the report, the police attended the location and immediately set up a crime scene.
03:24Preventing others from accessing the road.
03:27So that the investigations can begin into what had happened and how it had happened.
03:34West Mercia's Detective Chief Inspector, Gerry Smith, heads up the investigation.
03:40We're currently standing in Washed Hills Lane, in the actual inner corner of the scene itself.
03:46The pool of blood was located around this area.
03:50And then what you actually had as well, were drag marks in blood leading across the road.
03:57Which was obviously where the body had been dragged to place it in the ditch.
04:01The body was covered in debris and vegetable matter.
04:06When I initially attended the scene, officers thought that it could have been a non-stop fatal road traffic collision.
04:17The grim discovery becomes the top priority of the investigation.
04:22It's the only way to find out what happened to the victim.
04:26It's the only way to find out what happened to the victim.
04:30The grim discovery becomes the talk of the village.
04:34This must have been a huge shock for the local residents.
04:38Finding out that a body had been discovered in their locality.
04:42That kind of, you know, concern, because this is a place where things don't happen very often.
04:47Would have been high, really high level.
04:49Everybody did talk about it.
04:51And we were all going, oh my god, you know, was she walking?
04:55Because we used to walk down that a lot.
04:56We used to go a nice long walk down to the canal.
04:59I was keenly aware that going forward it was highly likely to raise significant concerns within that area.
05:06Particularly at that time because we didn't have an identification of the body.
05:10And we didn't know what type of incident we were actually dealing with.
05:13But investigators have their work cut out trying to establish what actually happened.
05:19And the identity of the motorist who potentially hit her then drove off.
05:23The rural nature of the scene obviously means that we're going to get less likelihood of CCTV evidence and witness evidence.
05:33Because, as you can see, there's nobody around.
05:37Just causing complexities to the investigation.
05:41The police carry out an immediate investigation.
05:45They will have spoken to witnesses at the houses nearby, knocking on doors to see if anyone was there.
05:51Or seen anything at the time.
05:53As well as conducting painstaking CCTV enquiries to try and identify the movements of the deceased.
06:01The next priority in an investigation like this is to identify the body to work out who this woman is.
06:09The police identified a rucksack at the scene.
06:13Inside that rucksack was a mobile phone.
06:16Fingerprints and DNA swabs were taken from the phone.
06:20And then it was opened up and identification details from the handset, from the sim, were taken.
06:28And then by making enquiries with the telecommunications provider, we managed to identify through our intelligence team.
06:34Kerry Owen was a 35-year-old mother of five children.
06:40She was initially from the Peterborough area.
06:45The first Kerry's family hear about her death is via her boyfriend, Alan Edmonds.
06:52He was the first person to know about her death.
06:56The first Kerry's family hear about her death is via her boyfriend, Alan Edney.
07:04It was the 27th of May.
07:11I sat at home and my son received a phone call saying Kerry died in a hit and run in Birmingham.
07:19I was in my grandad's living room and he got the call and then he told me.
07:26He said that your mum has passed away.
07:34Everyone was just upset and shocked.
07:40I got a phone call and he said to me that they were out camping.
07:44I got a phone call and he said to me that they were out camping.
07:49And she ran off and got hit by a car and the car drove off.
07:55And he says, we was running across the farmer's field and there was a gateway.
08:02He says, I think I thought I slipped and went through the gateway and I looked at the side of me and Kerry lay there with a hole in her head.
08:10And I see a black Peugeot 206 in the distance.
08:18Obviously I broke down, I was literally in tears.
08:22One of my sister's mates who I lived with, he broke down.
08:26He just hugged me and he goes, we're going to get justice for her one way.
08:30Obviously I was upset, you know, she's my friend, I've always looked out for her and I felt let down that I couldn't protect her.
08:37Because I've always been there to protect her.
08:40She was a kind hearted person.
08:43You know, she'd do anything for anybody.
08:46She would always look after Kyrie, who's my oldest son.
08:50Buy him new clothes, feed him, change him.
08:54They would always be together.
08:56Everyone really loved her, you know, like she was just like adorable.
09:01While Kerry's family try to come to terms with the devastating news,
09:05investigators are examining the scene to try to establish what actually happened.
09:11In the addresses nearby, some of those addresses had CCTV
09:16and a vehicle had been seen leaving Watt Hills Lane at about 4am.
09:22And relatively quickly, by attending a local address, we were able to work out
09:28that that was highly likely to be somebody that lived at one of those addresses and that was going to work.
09:33We were subsequently able to find that car and just reassure ourselves
09:38there was no damage or blood or anything on that car consistent with a road traffic collision.
09:43DCI Smith also has other concerns when he re-examines the scene.
09:49I found it immediately unusual that anyone would have stopped in those circumstances
09:56and particularly made the effort to cover up blood and deposit the body in a ditch
10:04and then cover the body as well.
10:06The lack of any tyre marks, the lack of any vehicle debris,
10:11to me indicated that it was not the road traffic collision.
10:17And officers speaking to local residents also suspect all is not as it seems.
10:24During some of the initial witness trawling, people had heard voices in the road.
10:34CCTV from a nearby address points towards the area in the lane where the voices are coming from.
10:42It didn't cover the scene, but crucially what it did have was audio.
10:48At approximately five past four that morning, you start to hear voices.
10:59It's difficult to hear, but it's clear there's two people and that someone is distressed
11:04and then gradually those voices turn into screaming.
11:11There's some significant instance of violence occurring at that time in the road
11:15and that lasts for about five minutes.
11:21I wasn't dealing with a road traffic collision and it was highly likely to be a homicide.
11:30In Hopwood, Worcestershire, 35-year-old mother of five, Kerry Owen,
11:36has been found dead by the roadside in mysterious circumstances.
11:41After viewing nearby CCTV just hours before her body is discovered,
11:47police now suspect Kerry was murdered.
11:51As she walked along, what she saw was a woman.
11:55You hear parents screaming and then later on we hear more screaming.
12:04This is particularly significant because of the gap between the screaming that you hear
12:13may indicate two separate attacks.
12:16Forty metres before Kerry's final resting place, police uncover evidence of that first attack.
12:23This is the scene of what I think could have been the initial attack site
12:28where blood was found on the ground and in fact a dislodged tooth was found in the area.
12:34This is the scene of what I think could have been the initial attack site
12:38where blood was found on the ground and in fact a dislodged tooth was found in the area.
12:42And in fact a dislodged tooth was found in this area as well by the fingertip search.
12:49There was also some orange debris in the road.
12:53Officers thought it was a cigarette lighter so straight away it became obvious
12:57they were two separate attack sites, two assaults.
13:00And that is then potentially corroborated by what you hear on the CCTV.
13:06There is a gap between the screaming which may be consistent with an assault in one location
13:12and either Kerry moving herself or being dragged to the second location where she was finally killed.
13:25When the post-mortem results come back, they reveal more about what happened to Kerry.
13:31The pathologist found that Kerry had essentially been subjected to a savage beating.
13:37She had over 80 injuries on her body.
13:40She suffered significant facial injuries.
13:44She had fractures to her nose.
13:47She had a tooth knocked out.
13:50She had a fracture to the hyoid bone in her neck.
13:54The injuries were terrible.
13:56The final conclusion was that Kerry had died from blunt force trauma.
14:02Basically she had been beaten to death.
14:10We obviously had to identify her.
14:13You couldn't even recognise her.
14:15She was all swollen.
14:17She had black eyes.
14:19They had to shave all her hair off.
14:21Everything was just basically swollen and bruised.
14:26She had a hole in her head.
14:30Obviously I wanted to go and see her.
14:33But my niece, she was like, no don't because it's going to scar you for life.
14:37She goes, it's not a nice sight.
14:39I just felt sick.
14:41You know, to think that how could somebody do that to somebody who wouldn't even fight back.
14:45Kerry wouldn't have fought back.
14:47The injuries are more consistent with a sustained attack.
14:51They aren't really consistent with a hit and run.
14:54So that's question marks over Alan Edney's story.
14:58Her boyfriend's claims that she'd been hit by a black Peugeot 206 during their camping trip also don't add up.
15:07If that happened to me, I'd be devastated.
15:11I'd be crying my eyes out.
15:13I'd be absolutely destroyed.
15:15He was so calm.
15:17I thought it was a bit funny because I've known Kerry 21 years.
15:22Kerry doesn't do camping.
15:23You know, so I thought that seemed a bit strange.
15:26I used to buy and sell cars and everything.
15:29I've never seen a Peugeot 206 black one in years.
15:33It must be a proper collector's car.
15:35It was unbelievable.
15:44The last photos taken by Kerry's phone confirms the couple had indeed been camping in nearby woods.
15:50Officers seek out and find their campsite.
15:53But something else about Alan's story doesn't stack up.
15:59Edney's account was that they had come from the campsite and for some reason decided to have a race.
16:07He'd got caught in the gate.
16:09And as that happened, he'd heard the sound of a collision and Kerry being hit by a vehicle, which didn't stop.
16:15And it just doesn't make sense that they would have climbed over this gate and she'd have been hit by a car.
16:21And now hundreds of yards from the location where Kerry's body was found, the road traffic collision just didn't stand any scrutiny.
16:34Alan Edney basically told some of Kerry's family members he had in fact called the police.
16:41And an ambulance. And he then attended a local hospital with Kerry where she was pronounced deceased.
16:48He describes to his grandmother actually that he's had a statement taken by a police officer who had then dropped him back.
16:56We found no evidence of any of that at all.
17:02With Edney now firmly in their sights as a suspect, detectives continue to investigate.
17:07With Edney now firmly in their sights as a suspect, detectives dig deeper into his history with Kerry.
17:14Kerry Owen first met Edney in March 2020 via a dating site.
17:22I remember her saying to me she'd met a man on the internet from Birmingham.
17:28And within a week, she moved to Birmingham with him.
17:32First time we went down, we met him in the town centre and he seemed lovely.
17:38I told her to really come back to Peterborough so she could be with her family.
17:43But she said no, she met the man of her dreams basically.
17:50All Kerry wanted in life was to be loved.
17:53And, you know, if somebody told her they loved her, straight away Kerry would be all for that, if you know what I mean.
17:58So she was sort of a bit vulnerable when it comes around relationships.
18:05But barely a month into the budding romance, cracks begin to show.
18:12She phoned me and told me that he was beating her up.
18:18And that's when I asked her, you know, to come back to Peterborough to her dad's house or come to my house.
18:23But, you know, she obviously stayed there.
18:25She stayed in contact for a couple of months, then all of a sudden the phone calls stopped.
18:32Facebook stopped.
18:34I kept texting her, are you OK, are you OK?
18:38Nothing come back.
18:40We're worrying about her.
18:44Then the next thing, Kerry's text me, she says he's in prison.
18:56In 2021, there was a serious incident where Kerry and Alan, and Alan's mum, had taken a short holiday to Blackpool.
19:08And that resulted in a serious assault, where Alan assaulted Kerry and his mum.
19:17I think she rang me, she FaceTimed me and told me that he was beating her up.
19:25He'd just been arrested and she showed me her face and she had some, I think, some grazes or black eyes.
19:33She had been in the hospital, she told me, she'd been in the hospital, she had marks on her belly because he'd stamped on her belly.
19:40So I went there, that's when she, like, told me as well she was, like, pregnant with his baby.
19:47For a man to assault his own mother and also assault his partner, especially when she's pregnant,
19:53kind of really paints the picture of the kind of man that Edney was with this violent streak that ran through him.
20:01I was obviously really shocked and I was confused as well because he was obviously acting so nice when we went to Birmingham.
20:09But I was confused.
20:11She was still, like, sticking up for him.
20:13When you're in them kind of relationships, it's, like, kind of hard to, like, get out.
20:17Edney is jailed for six months for the assault on Kerry and his mother.
20:23She stayed in contact while he was in prison.
20:26It was like we'd got our niece back and the kids had got their mum back.
20:31Then all of a sudden the contact stopped again.
20:36Unfortunately, Kerry did maintain contact with Alan when he was in prison.
20:41But when Alan was released from prison, he rekindled his relationship with Kerry and they, in fact, lived together.
20:52He assaulted her again and he was, in fact, on bail not to contact her.
20:58Detectives uncover more worrying incidents involving Edney.
21:04I went down there on Bombardier, and I was in a car.
21:07There was just nobody there.
21:10I went down there on a night, and we all went round there, we'd done fireworks, and Alan got very drunk.
21:19And my mum had told him to stop drinking.
21:22He obviously kicked off about it.
21:24And then Alan started screaming at my mum, calling her all different names.
21:29He was emotionally – verbally violent to her.
21:32So, we were like, K, we're going home.
21:37It is the last time Yasmin sees her mum alive.
21:43I feel bad for leaving her,
21:45but I had to put my kid first in that situation.
21:50I can't expect my kid to be around that.
21:55Having delved into Edney's history,
21:58police investigating Kerry's death make a decision.
22:02The police, having conducted their initial investigations,
22:06it became clear that Edney was the person
22:09who they wanted to arrest for this offence.
22:16Once we'd identified a location for him,
22:19an address on the nearby Hawksley Estate
22:22that was within walking distance of the crime scene
22:25was in fact his grandmother's address.
22:31When officers attended Alan's nan's address, Alan was present.
22:37And he was arrested on suspicion of murder.
22:50Police investigating the murder of mother of five Kerry Owen
22:55in Hopwood, Worcestershire, have arrested her partner, Alan Edney.
23:01Edney was arrested on the evening of the 27th of May 2022.
23:08His family were entirely surprised at his arrest,
23:11given that they believed that Kerry Owen had died
23:14in a road traffic collision.
23:18He didn't make any admissions.
23:20He, in fact, made no comment to all questions put to him
23:23during the interview process.
23:25But he did make comments outside of the process,
23:29indicating that he had an alibi
23:31and that he wasn't responsible for the offence.
23:34Word spreads throughout the village
23:36and to Kerry's family back in Peterborough.
23:39Police came round my grandad's and basically said,
23:42Alan Edney has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
23:45It all made sense then.
23:47Like, it all adds up why he was lying,
23:50why people had been told different stories and stuff like that.
23:54And we all had to do our statements.
23:57Meanwhile, police uncover more evidence about Edney's behaviour.
24:04Our investigations into Alan Edney's history
24:07demonstrated that he had a significant history
24:10of domestic abuse on intimate partners
24:15but also on his family members.
24:19There seemed to be a pattern where alcohol
24:21was a significant trigger for that offending behaviour.
24:24And we found a number of incidences in Alan Edney's past
24:27of significant domestic violence.
24:29One of those occurred on New Year's Day 2018.
24:48I was celebrating with friends.
24:51I came back and I heard my friend screaming.
24:57So I've gone all the way up and she's opened up the door,
25:00bright red-faced.
25:05I went, are you all right? She went, yeah, just, like, come in.
25:08And then I was dragged into the bedroom.
25:13They started, like, kicking me and punching me and I was on the floor.
25:21I did not do anything for him to do anything.
25:23It was just automatic kicking and punching.
25:28He was drunk. He'd been strangling her with a broom.
25:34You could physically see the brooms on the bed.
25:37At one stage, I could get up so I could move
25:40because he went after her again.
25:42So I thought, this is my easy way to get out.
25:45But I went the wrong way.
25:48And I went towards the window.
25:52The woman claims Edney then pushed her halfway out of the window
25:57as her friend looked on in horror.
26:01Next minute I know, I'm looking down.
26:05I was literally near enough out the window
26:07and she literally dragged him back to pull me back in.
26:11I'd come back and he started kicking me again,
26:14but he was kicking me in the side, in the stomach, in the legs.
26:17My blood was all over the floor.
26:19My friend helped me try and get away.
26:21She shouted out, she's pregnant.
26:23He went, I don't care, another one can be dead then.
26:28Edney's victim flees for her life.
26:33In March 2018, Edney pleaded guilty to assault
26:37and was jailed for three and a half years.
26:41To carry out an attack of that ferocity suggests a man
26:45with a serious violent tendency
26:48and where really there are no holds barred.
26:51Mentally destroyed me.
26:54Physically destroyed me.
26:57I had to run from where I lived.
27:01Literally, I couldn't stay there.
27:03He was evil.
27:05He was a murderer.
27:07Literally, I couldn't stay there.
27:09He was evil.
27:11Following the attack, his victim posted warnings about Edney online,
27:16prompting his now-girlfriend Kerry Owen to reach out.
27:20Kerry then contacted me and my friend.
27:25We persuaded her. He'd beat her up.
27:28But because she was pregnant with his son...
27:34..she was like, oh, I still love him.
27:36Next thing I know is that she's dead.
27:42And that absolutely killed me.
27:46Because nobody listened.
27:48This could have been prevented.
27:50I swear it could have been prevented.
27:58With Edney in police custody being questioned over Kerry's death,
28:03her family visit the scene of her murder.
28:06So we stopped the car and then we went and laid the flowers,
28:11but you could still see Kerry's blood on the road
28:15and that's what got me.
28:17I had to walk away.
28:19Felt like she was there, kind of thing.
28:24And this man and lady pulled up in a car and I said,
28:29do you know what? I said, whoever fought her must be destroyed.
28:32And this bloke said, I didn't want to tell you,
28:35I'm the man who fought her.
28:38And basically destroyed him.
28:42What kind of person could just leave someone laid in the road?
28:47She's just been left in the middle of nowhere.
28:51This Alan Edney, he's ruined everybody.
28:54You know, from the person who fought her to our family.
28:58Really, he's destroyed my family.
29:02With Edney refusing to answer police questions,
29:05detectives need to build a case against him.
29:08They continue trawling CCTV from local residents
29:12to piece together his movements leading up to the murder.
29:21The CCTV enquiries were able to map the movements
29:24of Edney and Kerry Owen.
29:26It showed that they'd been together in the afternoon of the 26th of May.
29:30For some reason, Alan and Kerry had decided to go camping
29:34in a wooded area near Wast Hills Lane.
29:37They had gone to the wooded area earlier in the daytime
29:40when it was light to set up the campfire.
29:43And there's pictures on Kerry's phone of a makeshift shelter
29:47and a lot of wood stacked up.
29:49They had then gone back to Alan's nan's address,
29:53had a meal, spent some time there,
29:56before then making their way back up Wast Hills Lane to the campsite.
30:01And there's, in fact, some CCTV footage of them
30:04making that journey around 10pm.
30:09They spent 3.5 to 4 hours at the campsite
30:12and there's a number of photographs on Kerry's phone
30:15of Alan at the campsite with a very large fire.
30:20He's likely to have consumed a lot of alcohol on that night.
30:26And there was evidence of alcohol being consumed at that location.
30:39For some reason, unknown, they decided to leave the campsite
30:44in the early hours of the morning.
30:48At around 4am, the sound of an argument breaks out
30:52between the couple on CCTV.
30:58Then Kerry is heard fighting for her life.
31:08It's a sustained attack for several minutes and then it's silence.
31:13Police then make a breakthrough.
31:15Their suspect is spotted on CCTV in broad daylight...
31:21..alone.
31:23Around 50 minutes later, the CCTV captured Edney
31:26leaving the locality of the scene.
31:31Wearing a distinctive T-shirt that he's shown wearing
31:34on Kerry's mobile phone.
31:38He's wiping his hands and he looks a bit anxious.
31:41He looks quite erratic and he walks down the lane and turns off.
31:56A search of Edney's home seals his fate.
32:00When officers searched the address,
32:03there was a particularly significant find.
32:07The clothing that he'd been wearing on the night,
32:10the distinctive T-shirt with the motive on the front,
32:14tracksuit bottoms and trainers, which we could see on the CCTV video
32:20and also on Kerry's mobile phone photograph.
32:24That was found in a bin bag behind a cupboard
32:27in the kitchen area of the address.
32:30The bag of clothes appeared to have blood on them.
32:36The police submitted the clothing that had been hidden by Edney
32:41for DNA analysis and the blood on that clothing
32:45was found to be Kerry Owen's.
32:49Everything is starting to come together
32:51for the police and their investigation.
32:57Three days after Alan Edney was arrested on suspicion
33:00of the murder of Kerry Owen, the Crown Prosecution Service
33:03made the decision to charge him with murder.
33:15In Hopwood, Worcestershire,
33:17Alan Edney has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend,
33:21mother of five, Kerry Owen.
33:23But the hard graft doesn't stop for the investigators.
33:27Even though Alan Edney had been charged with murder,
33:30I'd say the period leading up to a trial
33:33does involve an element of nervousness
33:35on behalf of the investigation team.
33:39There's a lot more detailed work that has to be completed
33:42to get the case ready for trial.
33:46The police will still carry on trying to gather as much evidence.
33:50They're still pursuing anything they can to really kind of seal this case.
33:54We had employed a number of forensic experts in the case.
33:59One of those was an odontologist.
34:01By ensuring a detailed fingertip search of the scene,
34:05we'd managed to find a tooth,
34:07and the odontologist was able to mechanically fit that tooth
34:11into Kerry's jaw to show that her tooth
34:14had been knocked out during the assault.
34:21Linear marks were found on Kerry's face.
34:24I was concerned that could have meant there was a weapon
34:28that had been missing because we were never able to get any support
34:32from a forensic expert that Alan Edney's wear
34:35was what had left those marks on her face.
34:37But ultimately, there was not any evidence of a weapon being used,
34:42and it's likely that he'd used his hands and feet as his weapons.
34:51The CPS and the police think it's built up a really strong case
34:55against Edney, but it's now over to the lawyers
34:58and for the case to go to court.
35:13I was in a really bad way.
35:15My head was, like, all over... I couldn't sleep, yeah,
35:18cos it was like, is he going to get, like...
35:20Is he going to get found, like, guilty?
35:22Is he going to, like... Or is he going to walk?
35:25I didn't know what was going to happen in that.
35:33Kerry's family come face-to-face once again with her killer.
35:39I was nervous, and then obviously during the court case,
35:43I was even more nervous.
35:46He was just sitting there, giving me, like, evil looks.
35:52I just stared at him.
35:54You know, if looks could kill, he'd have been dead.
35:58Just to let him know, like, he might have took my niece's life,
36:02but he's not took the rest of ours, do you know what I mean?
36:06My sister, he was laughing in her face in the court,
36:10like he just didn't care.
36:13There was just no remorse or sadness whatsoever
36:16when this is a woman who's had your baby.
36:18He had no remorse for what he'd done.
36:23The court hears the harrowing evidence of Kerry's last moments.
36:28They did say, we're about to play it,
36:31if you would like to leave the room, then leave.
36:38The last time I ever heard my niece screaming for her life...
36:46..was on that man's CCTV.
36:49So...
36:52..it's horrible, really.
36:55And then you get told in the court he was still kicking her
37:00and beating her after she was dead, basically.
37:04So he must have beat her to a pulp.
37:09A pulp.
37:17His defence at court was, effectively,
37:20that he admitted responsibility for Kerry's death,
37:24but that was on the grounds of provocation
37:28and diminished responsibility.
37:31Edney's defence was, essentially,
37:34that Kerry had brought up on the night
37:37issues around him being abused himself as a child,
37:41and then that had provoked him into acting the way he did.
37:50Edney blames his brutal attack on mental illness
37:54and a loss of control.
37:58The psychiatrist agreed that Edney suffered from a mental abnormality
38:03however, we were able to prove that that abnormality of mind
38:07did not contribute towards his behaviour on that day.
38:14Part of the evidence put forward was the previous assaults
38:18upon both Kerry Owen and other partners.
38:22That helped us prove to the jury
38:25that Edney knew what he was doing when he killed Kerry Owen.
38:31The prosecution also outlines how calm and collected Edney was
38:36in the aftermath of the crime,
38:38and how he spent time covering his tracks.
38:42At that time of year in May,
38:45leaf matter would have been readily available.
38:48He used some of that to cover up a significant pooling of blood
38:53in the middle of the road,
38:55but then he also dragged Kerry's body into a deep ditch nearby,
39:00deposited her in there,
39:02and then covered her with a significant amount of vegetation
39:06which he took from an undergrowth nearby.
39:10It was really important for the prosecution
39:13to paint a detailed picture of the web of lies,
39:16the accounts that he provided to his own family and Kerry's family,
39:23and we didn't find any evidence to show that Kerry was likely
39:28to have provoked him to violence in that way.
39:31In fact, Edney hadn't lost his control.
39:34He knew exactly what he was doing.
39:48It was in the hands of the jury from that point.
39:53I think there's always an element of nervousness.
39:56You do not know how the jury viewed the case,
39:59so naturally there was an apprehension.
40:04The jury unanimously found Edney guilty of murder.
40:11We were all well happy.
40:13We were all jumping up and down on the seating area.
40:16We were all bouncing up and down on there, shouting.
40:19We were all happy.
40:21I think the overwhelming emotion was one of relief
40:24that we had delivered justice for Kerry Owen, her family,
40:29and also helped to protect the wider public from Edney.
40:34Alan Edney is jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years.
40:39He is, in my view, a significant danger to women,
40:44and I think that result protects other women
40:49from potentially becoming similar victims.
40:55It ensures that Edney will be behind bars for a very long time.
40:59Justice was served, but I don't think the sentence was hard enough.
41:05It's basically probably destroyed our family.
41:08The man's evil.
41:10He's took a mother away from her five children.
41:15That's the monster. Hopefully he'll never get out.
41:19The best thing for him to do is die in jail.
41:28The murder is forever etched in the memory of the village of Hopwood.
41:33It will have a lasting impact on this community.
41:36It's such a horrendous crime on their doorstep
41:39in such what is otherwise a lovely place to live,
41:42and that will be with them for a long time.
41:46For the people who live there, you know,
41:48this is kind of a blot on their history
41:51and something that I don't think any of them will forget.
41:57But it's Kerry's family in Peterborough
41:59who are left to pick up the pieces.
42:02When someone's took away from you instantly, so young,
42:06it's so hard, I think, to carry on.
42:10There were some harsh moments, you know, where I tried taking my life.
42:14I just wanted to, like, be with her cos I basically, like, lost her.
42:17Not just like a sister, it's like a best...
42:20You know, like a best friend and, like, I just, like, miss her.
42:24It's sad, really. It's sad for them all.
42:27She's, you know, missed by everyone.
42:31She never got to meet my youngest kids.
42:34My kids can't now grow up the way they were growing up.
42:39Now it all has to change because she can't be there.
42:43Even the grandchildren, they always look at the stars and say,
42:46Nanny, this is heartbreaking, really.