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25 year old Timothy Evans from Merthyr Tydfil was hanged in March 1950 after being falsely convicted of the murder of his daughter at their flat in Rillington Place in London's Notting Hill district. Three years after his execution, his downstairs neighbour John Christie was found to be a serial killer who had killed six women in the same house.

 

Criminologist Harriet Pierpoint looks back at the life, trial and execution of Timothy Evans and its subsequent impact. The case generated much controversy and debate and along with that of Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis, played a major role in the abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom for murder in 1965.

 

The documentary includes the dramatic reconstruction of elements of the trial and hears from historians, crime writers and Harold Evans, the former Sunday Times editor who raised the Evans case and campaigned for his conviction to be overturned alongside broadcaster and human rights campaigner Ludovic Kennedy. This programme assesses the case's significance, its role in the abolition of the death penalty and Timothy Evans's place in history.

 

The actors are Dyfan Rees (Timothy Evans), Rowe David McClelland (John Christie), Stephanie Turner (Ethel Christie), Christopher Strauli (Mr Justice Lewis), Andy Hill (Clerk of the court) and Jonathan Kydd (Malcolm Morris KC and Christmas Humphreys). An MIM Production for BBC Radio Wales.