Gerry Standing: So, Ricky Hanson. A mate of yours?
Jack Halford: Biggest murdering, thieving lying piece of morally-bankrupt shite I ever laid eyes upon...We linked him to three seperate murders, including his own brother.
Jack Halford: Biggest murdering, thieving lying piece of morally-bankrupt shite I ever laid eyes upon...We linked him to three seperate murders, including his own brother.
—- On Ricky Hanson, "Congratulations"
In their reinvestigations, the Unsolved Crime and Open Case squad have faced all manner of criminals, from desperate low-level crooks to dangerous gangsters, murderous psychopaths, and corrupt cops. A select few nevertheless manage to standard out in sheer cruelty and viciousness.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Recurring
- Ricky Hanson, the series' only recurring antagonist and Jack Halford's Arch-Enemy, is a cunning yet cruel and thuggish London Gangster. Taking over the "20-4's" in the 80s, Hanson used them as a front for his drug ring. Tipped off that two student activists had infiltrated them, Hanson personally gutted both with a knife, forcing Sarah to watch him murder her boyfriend before killing her; sent his skinheads to beat their friend near to death; and then incriminated his source. In 1996, realising Jack was onto him for three murders, including his brother Jim's, Hanson ran over Jack's wife Mary, laughing as he did; it took two years for her wounds to kill her. Following his teenage son, Luke, being wrongfully convicted, Hanson ensured Luke took the fall to protect himself, leaving Luke to rot in prison and stealing his girlfriend. In "Congratulations", Ricky confesses to Jack he killed Mary, tormenting him with the details of the event. In "Casualty", Ricky tries to slowly run Jack over but is forced to flee. Sneaking into the hospital, Hanson disabled a nurse and then almost suffocated Jack. Interrupted by Brian Lane, Hanson tried to strangle him. In "The Last Laugh", Hanson sets his goons on Gerry's informant, beating Polish senseless and threatening to burn him alive if Gerry didn't return the money he won from Hanson.
Series 4
- "Powerhouse": Sir Edward Chambers, the Chairman of E.C. Mining Ltd., is a wealthy, respected businessman who, while presenting himself as a charming gentleman, is truthfully a smug, callous greedy old man. During his National Service in Kenya, Sir Edward, while only 19, ordered and oversaw the massacre of 15 unarmed Kikuyu civilians, the youngest of whom was only 12 years old. Blackmailed by Fred Tully for this crime, Sir Edward shot Fred dead in an alleyway and then, to protect himself, gave false testimony against Richard Dunne, ensuring the latter was hanged. Using his connections to become a wealthy mining tycoon, decades later, upon Fred's friend Douglas Murray also attempting to blackmail him, Sir Edward had Jason Ferris brutally bludgeon the elderly Murray to death.
Series 7
- "Dark Chocolate": Alex Close was an immoral small-time businessman whose cleaning companies operated through exploiting and overworking illegal immigrants, who Close deliberately kept terrified so that he could squeeze every possible penny out of them. Also secretly a Serial Rapist, Close used his business's contracts to find victims, forcing one of his workers to scope them out for him. In 1999, Close raped Jean Saunders at the chocolate factory where she worked, and then a week later raped Eileen Harrison, permanently traumatizing her. Exposed for his abuse of illegal immigrants in 2001, Close fled the country to Poland, raping an unknown number of women whilst abroad. Returning nine years later, Close started a new business, this time exploiting Polish immigrants, and immediately resumed his spree. Failing to get a bakery contract, the undeterred Close resorted to regularly going as a customer, until he knew the layout well enough to rape Helen Vestry.
- "Where There's Smoke": George Mackie was a talented and respected fire investigator who was privately a serial arsonist, claiming to having started 64 separate fires. He would place homemade firebombs in his targets, then turn up afterwards to bask in the praise he received for his analysis and "insight". In 1996, Mackie burned the Union Club to the ground, killing four people and causing seven hospitalizations. Shortly afterwards, Mackie retired and thus the fires stopped. UCOS's re-investigation into the Union fire inspiring him to come out of retirement, Mackie tracked down a survivor of the Union Club fire who had been left with agonising third-degree burns over half his body and attempted to kill him by setting his home alight. Later, Mackie set another bomb in Stuart Russel's house, nearly killing him along with Jack, Brian, and Gerry. Underneath all his charm and seeming helpfulness, Mackie was nothing more than a shameless Attention Whore, happy to commit wanton destruction and kill innocent people just to stroke his own ego.
- "The Fourth Man": Michael Denby and Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Felsham were secretly partners in the notorious 1980 Heathrow Safety Deposit Robbery. A vicious yet intelligent career criminal, Denby's frequent acts of brutality—such as infamously subjecting his fence to a Colombian Necktie—ensured his reputation as someone "even the proper villains steer clear of". Already a bent Flying Squad sergeant and smug, odious, self-serving weasel, Felsham was contacted by a friend to scare Denby off, but realizing the potential payout, instead struck a deal. Striking Heathrow, Denby gunned down the two security guards and stole ten million in untraceable bearer bonds. Once clear, Denby butchered his own gang of boyhood associates, as he no longer needed them. Realizing his friend wouldn't remain silent, Felsham had Denby murder him and covered it up, shipping Denby out of the country with a stolen identity. Using his ill-gotten wealth to climb the ranks, realizing UCOS reinvestigation into the robbery could expose him, Felsham attempted to permanently shut them down.
Series 9
- "Love Means Nothing in Tennis": Victoria Kemp, whilst presenting herself as a loving, supportive mother, is truthfully an utterly selfish woman who will let nothing stand in the way of her gaining the wealth she believes she deserves. Discovering her young daughter Alice's talent for tennis, Victoria became obsessed with making her a star, seeing Alice as her "ticket out of the gutter". To this end, Victoria happily enabled Nick Hoyle to groom the 14-year-old Alice as long as Nick made her a champion. For two years, Victoria allowed Nick to regularly rape and isolate Alice and even allowed him access to her younger daughter Jess. Accidentally killing Alice after she finds out the truth, Victoria immediately turns her attention to Jess, subtly manipulating her to follow in Alice's footsteps whilst allowing Nick to also groom her, intending to make Jess her replacement Meal Ticket.
- "Glasgow UCOS": Helen Wray, despite presenting herself as a friendly and attentive social worker, is truthfully a weak, weaselly, selfish pimp, whilst Procurator Fiscal Colin Ogilvy and Deputy Chief Constable Roy Fraser, despite presenting themselves as upstanding officers of the law, were really Helen's clients and crucial members of her forced prostitution ring. During the early 90s, Helen abused her position as Head of Child Welfare to target vulnerable teenagers, offering those who got into legal trouble the deal that the charges would be dropped if they agreed to "entertain" her clients, with Ogilvy and Fraser facilitating it. Helen would pimp the girls out to be regularly raped by some of the richest and most influential men in Glasgow, making herself very wealthy, with Ogilvy and Fraser being regular participants, and Fraser disrupting any investigations that could be a problem and protecting other bent cops. In the present, realising Steve and Gerry's investigation could expose them, Ogilvy dispatched his thug to scare them off, and then when that failed, attempted to kill them.
Series 10
- "The Little Brother": Annabel Skinner is a manipulative, vicious sociopath who even described herself as "purely nasty". An associate of the notorious Larry Goftman desiring Florence Epstein's money, Skinner seduced her husband Jonathan, tortured Florence's bank details out of her, and bludgeoned her to death with a hammer. No longer needing him, Skinner turned Jonathan over to the police. However, when Goftman double-crossed her and ran off with the money, Annabel vowed revenge against him and Peter Sale, despite Sale being just the accountant and cheated himself. Skinner brutally murdered Sale's sister Margaret Kirby and stole her identity. Six years later, after finding Goftman but being unable to find Sale, Skinner acquainted herself with Esther Lane. Playing the caring sister, she set Brian on the trail to find Sale then strangled Goftman, leaving his body for Brian to find. Finally finding Sale, Skinner eliminated the Constable on guard and tried to murder the disabled elderly Sale. When Brian interrupted her, she tried to strangle him as well.
- "Wild Justice": Doctor Alistair Caldwell stands out as the least sympathetic victim ever investigated by UCOS. One of the UK's leading child oncologists, Caldwell, whilst beloved and admired throughout the nation for saving hundreds of lives, Caldwell was in truth a selfish paedophile who abused his position to repeatedly rape dozens of vulnerable children within his care, callously dismissing "stealing their innocence" and lifelong trauma as a "small price" for him saving their lives. When his boss tried to stop him, Caldwell threatened to ruin his family's hospital unless he turned a blind eye.
