The Confession

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An engrossing documentary about a case I was not familiar with that unfortunately takes the form of a giant spoiler from the opening frames. The fact that the murderer (yes, I'm choosing my words carefully) conducts his smirking interviews from the comfort of his own home throughout rather gives away the ending. But still, the court case is reconstructed skilfully enough that you still cross your fingers and hope the jury foreperson will say the magic word - guilty. Of course, he is found not guilty because the judge decided recorded evidence of him confessing to the crime was not admissible. (To correct a previous review - this was not the fault of the jury. Although we don't get to find out much about the conduct of court case, apart from the ruling about the recording, all they got to hear was circumstantial evidence). The judge was entitled to make this decision - in fact, I was amazed that the police operation took this form at about the same time as the Rachel Nickell/Colin Stagg case (similarly amazingly, this case is never mentioned, nor is the timeline, so we don't get to find out which honeytrap was played out first). The husband is an obnoxious narcissist. He can't resist being in front of the cameras when a dig for his wife's body is being carried out. After the court case, he revels in a TV appearance - however, the audience tears him to shreds, while his solicitor desperately tries to stem the flow, like the little Dutch boy and the Dyke. The solicitor desperately manages to keep a straight face whilst telling us that this is an example of how wonderfully fair the British justice system is. The killer is completely lacking in self awareness - he chuckles as he brags about getting one over on the police. He says to his "girlfriend" (actually an undercover police officer) "they've been trying to get me to crack for ages, but I'll never crack". Hardly the indignant and outraged reaction of somebody wrongly accused of the killing of his wife. I have to mark it down to 7 because of the format, where a lot of the tension is removed. At almost 2 hours, it's possibly a little overblown as well. But if you want to know that the "fairness" of the British justice system can produce examples of grotesque unfairness as well, then this is a very illuminating documentary.