On the 19th February 2008, nine-year-old Shannon Matthews went missing in Dewsbury in West Yorkshire. She had just been dropped off by a coach at her school which was just half a mile from her home. Shannon’s best friend said her brother was supposed to be collecting her but he never turned up.

Shannon’s mum Karen reported her missing later that evening. The Police moved quickly for fear that she had been abducted. Emotional TV appeals by her mother, Karen, soon followed. At one stage, up to 250 officers and 60 detectives and half the UK’s Police sniffer dogs were involved in the search – making it at one time, one of the largest investigations since the Yorkshire Ripper case 30 years earlier.

As the search grew more frantic, suspicion started to fall on her family. First on Karen’s boyfriend and then on Karen herself. In this episode, Julia and Sofie talk about the disappearance of Shannon Matthews, the issue of social class and victimhood and research by Dr Leanne ten Brinke on analysing videos of pleaders to see if it is possible to detect high-stakes lies.

Warning: This episode contains strong language and references to murder, child abduction and suicide.

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Academic Consultants for The Open University:

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

On the 22nd of April 1972, the police in the southeast London borough of Lewisham were alerted to a house fire on Doggett Road. On the second floor of the building, they discovered the body of 26-year-old Maxwell Confait.

Three boys later confessed to the murder. In this episode of Bad People, Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen examine what went wrong in the police interviewing process, the major legal reforms that followed and their implications for police practices in the UK today.

Warning: This episode contains strong language and references to murder and suicide.

Academic Consultants for The Open University:

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

The former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was implicated in the killing of between 50,000 and 100,000 people.

Warning: This episode contains strong language and descriptions of violence

Academic Consultants for The Open University:

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

Popstar Nadja Benaissa was convicted of recklessly transmitting HIV. She was blackmailed and attacked by the press. Did she deserve the hatred she received?

This episode includes citations from The Guardian Interview with Nadja Benaissa, ‘I knew I was HIV positive’.

Academic Consultants for The Open University:

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland

Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

Murderers. Dictators. Sex offenders. Why do people do bad things? Bad People is back for another series.

Archive credits: This episode contains audio from House of Saddam, a BBC Television and HBO Films production, and Shannon: The Mother of All Lies, a BBC Panorama production.

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Academic Consultants for Open University:

Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland

The new series of Bad People is produced in partnership with the Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

Charles Sobhraj is a convicted killer and the inspiration for the new BBC One drama, The Serpent.

Find out how he once tunnelled a hole through the ceiling of a jewellery shop, faked the symptoms of appendicitis, and threw a birthday party for the Tihar Jail’s prison guards – and even why there is a statue of him in a restaurant in Goa, India.

Warning: This episode contains strong language and references to violence and murder.

Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose

Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

Charles Sobhraj is a convicted killer and the inspiration for the new BBC One drama, The Serpent.

Julia and Sofie speak with Julie Clark, journalist and author of On the Trail of the Serpent: The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj. Julie and her late husband Richard Neville met Sobhraj. What is he really like?

And we hear from Sobhraj himself as Julie shares a secret recording from his cell.

And do Julie’s observations suggest that Sobhraj is a psychopath?

Warning: This episode contains strong language and references to violence and murder.

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose

Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

What happens when a man serving multiple life sentences keeps killing in prison?

In July 1996, while in solitary confinement, Craig Bjork wrote to the warden of Stillwater prison in Minnesota threatening to commit mass murder against his fellow inmates. One year later he kills his first victim.

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose

Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

Early one morning in July 2019, Brandon Clark used his online platform to share graphic photos with his followers, including a photo that appeared to show a woman’s bloodied torso, captioned “I’m sorry Bianca”.

Not long after this, police found Brandon lying on top of a green tarp. He had spray-painted the words “May you never forget me” on the ground. He had killed 17-year-old ‘micro-influencer’ Bianca Devins.

Warning: Contains strong language and references to violence and murder.

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose

Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC

Charles Sobhraj is a convicted killer and the inspiration for the new BBC One drama, The Serpent.

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose

Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC