The Crime Agents

A crime scene with nothing in it. A community that wouldn't talk. A suspect who turned out to be the wrong man. And a seven-year-old girl lying dead beside her father. The murders of Tony Byfield and his daughter Toni-Ann were Neil's first case as a Senior Investigating Officer. More than two decades on, he still describes it as the most famous of his career. In this episode, he takes Andy through it from the moment the phone rang: what he walked into, why the early breakthrough collapsed, and what it felt like to lead an investigation that a lot of people had quietly written off. Neil also reveals the parts of this story that never made the headlines. Why Crimewatch turned the appeal down. What a serious case review later concluded about the state's failure to protect Toni-Ann. And the moment the silence finally broke: a march through Kensal Rise, an anniversary appeal, and a single phone call that changed everything. Then Andy and Neil turn to Operation Trident, the unit this investigation fell under. What was Trident actually set up to do? Why did the killing of a child become so important to it? And if community trust is what cracked this case, what could the police still learn from it today? Follow us on social media: @thecrimeagents The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Why did a few hundred masked men appear to be treated more leniently than protesters from groups such as Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil? Were the police scared of the mobs in Dover & Portsmouth? Or was their 'light touch' approach justifiable given the lack of notice for law enforcement? Andy & Neil debate whether this was a case of 'two-tier' policing. They also explain why arrests at public order events often come later rather than on the day, and what officers can and can't do when protesters cover their faces. Is there already a power that could be used to stop it, or does the law need to change? They also look at whether the intelligence services will be assessing the threat from groups run by far-right agitators such as Tommy Robinson and Danny Tommo; where is the line between public disorder and a national security concern? Plus Andy & Neil give their reactions to yet another heist in France after millions of pounds of Renoir paintings were stolen from a gallery. Why does this keep happening? Have a question for a future Q&A? Send it via email to [email protected] or follow us on social media: @thecrimeagents The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Within hours of 97 Liverpool fans being crushed to death at an FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, a story was already circulating: that the fans had done it to themselves. Four days later, The Sun printed an infamous front page - "The Truth" - and a lie that would last 27 years was set in stone. So where did that story come from, and how did it survive decade after decade of official scrutiny? Andy and Neil are joined by LBC presenter Shelagh Fogarty, who was a journalistic apprentice in Liverpool in April 1989. She describes the day itself: the hundreds of Liverpool families who set off across the Pennines with no way of knowing whether the people they loved were alive or dead, and the furious supporters who made it home and went on the airwaves in an attempt to stop the smear campaign against them. Together they unpick how the cover-up began almost immediately, who gained from it, and the role the media played in carrying it. They examine the case of David Duckenfield, the newly promoted Chief Superintendent commanding his first big match, and why families believe the system failed to hold anyone to account. They also ask what the disaster changed in football, in policing, and in how the British state behaves when it's caught in a lie. Ninety-seven people were unlawfully killed. Nobody has ever been convicted. Was this the biggest police cover-up in British history? Follow us on social media: @thecrimeagents The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

When MPs talk about the death threats they face online, are they making a genuine plea for protection or building the case for something bigger? Andy and Neil take on the question of whether the abuse politicians face is being used to push the digital ID agenda, and where that leaves free speech. Would digital ID actually stop the threats? And what does Neil - a former head of UK Counter-Terrorism Policing - make of the idea that online anonymity is the real problem? Then to something that decides whether justice gets done at all: the relationship between the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. How closely do the two work during an investigation, when does the CPS actually get involved, and what happens when detectives are convinced they have enough to charge and the CPS disagrees? Are the CPS a friend to the police - or a foe? Plus: Sir Mark Rowley wants the 43 police forces of England and Wales merged into fewer, larger regional ones. Is that a serious fix, or asking turkeys to vote for Christmas when Chief Constables would be voting themselves out of a job? And last but not least: is 30 too old to become a police officer? And can a career as a detective ever fit around raising a family? Have a question for a future Q&A? Send it via email to [email protected] or follow us on social media: @thecrimeagents The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

PC David Carrick was one of the most prolific sex offenders in British history and for nearly two decades, he abused women while carrying a warrant card and a gun. Complaints were made about him before he joined the police, and again and again during his career, but he was only stopped after he had assaulted dozens of victims. So how did a man like this pass vetting and then stay on the police payroll for so long? Neil - who for several years ran the firearms command that both Carrick and Wayne Couzens served in - reveals the cultural problems in a unit described as a 'dark corner' of the Met. He and Andy explain the vetting failures that allowed Carrick into the police in the first place, and the subsequent failings which meant his crimes were never properly investigated until it was far too late. Andy also tells the story of his exclusive interview with one of Carrick's victims, who described the reality of his abuse: being locked inside the house, cameras installed to monitor her, being denied food, and being told she wasn't allowed to speak on one of the rare occasions he let her meet his fellow officers socially. They explain how Carrick was finally caught and debate whether policing is doing enough to address the cultural issues laid bare by this case and the murder of Sarah Everard. Follow us on social media: @thecrimeagents The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.