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

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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

When far-right terrorist Anders Breivik murdered 77 people, many of whom were children, court-appointed psychiatrists declared him insane. Many Norwegian members of the public were angry that a diagnosis of a psychotic disorder would mean he would not be held accountable for his crimes and might even be freed early. He told doctors that he was the leader of a military group at war with Norway, committed to racist, anti-Muslim ideas.

Breivik himself rejected the "insanity defence", insistent that he committed the mass murders with the aim of achieving high-profile media coverage at his trial. This episode of Bad People wrestles with the problem of giving media platforms to terrorists, radicalised by the internet

A second evaluation found him to be sane. This time psychiatrists said that his symptoms were due to a severe narcissistic personality disorder combined with pathological lying and therefore he was accountable for his actions.

22 July 2011 forever changed Norway's relationship with homegrown extremism and it's hoped that the knowledge gained by psychiatrists about such terrorists will help to prevent future attacks.

Warning: This episode contains descriptions terrorism, extreme violence and death, including the death of children.

Archive credits: This episode includes audio from the United Nations, TEDx Talks and BBC News

Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen

Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose

Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds

#BadPeople_BBC