Donald Blake: I was in the park this morning to do it again. I wanted to do it again.
Sergeant Tom Penny: Do what, Donald?
Donald Blake: Take a child. Oh I know it's wrong. That's partly the reason why I do it. Because it's wrong. Because it's beyond anything normal people do. And I've always been very normal. That's partly what makes it exciting. My special thing that nobody would ever dream of. That's very exciting.
Sergeant Tom Penny: Do what, Donald?
Donald Blake: Take a child. Oh I know it's wrong. That's partly the reason why I do it. Because it's wrong. Because it's beyond anything normal people do. And I've always been very normal. That's partly what makes it exciting. My special thing that nobody would ever dream of. That's very exciting.
— "What Kind of Man?"
The police officers of Sunhill Station, from 1983 to 2010, faced thousands of criminals of all kinds, from robbers and petty thieves to murderers and drug barons. A select few, however, proved particularly monstrous.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Series 1-10
- "Guessing Game": Ian Kessel is a sexually sadistic elderly man with a fetish for non-consensual confinement and restraint. From the year 1947, Ian falsely befriended and then abducted a string of women and hid them away in dark rooms bound up with rope in a hangman's noose, with the restraints deliberately designed to torture them in as degrading manner as possible over a period of days, his victims only surviving after being discovered by the police. In the present day, Ian groomed another potential victim and was on the verge of abducting her, before dying of a heart attack.
- "What Kind of Man?": Donald Blake poses as a kindly family man and charity worker, but is actually a Serial Killer and child molester. Finding the abuse of children thrilling, Blake exploited his access to schools to sexually assault dozens of children under his care. Coming across a boy called Graham one night, Blake took him to a secluded location and raped him, before strangling him to death when Graham grew hysterical and tried to escape. Finding the experience intensely pleasurable, Blake then abducted a girl called Jenny and raped and killed her as well before going on to murder another two children while using his job as a cover. Arrested while looking for a new victim, Blake treated the whole thing as a game and remorselessly confessed to all of his crimes, boasting about the infamy he would achieve.
- "Living It Down": Martin Welsh is the head of a local child pornography ring. Grooming vulnerable children and teenagers across Sun Hill, Welsh would lure them to his house and rape them while filming the ordeal, afterwards selling each film to his local clients and making hundreds from each one. When a 13-year-old girl called Debbie stayed at his house along with two runaways, Welsh orchestrated her violent gang rape and participated himself for fun, his operation only being stopped when Debbie reported him, resulting in his arrest.
Series 11-20
- "Bad Pictures": Tony Collier, while seeming an unassuming chef, is truthfully a dangerous paedophile. Secretly converting his spare room into his own private film studio, for years Tony produced tapes and photos of his own homemade child pornography, personally forcing each victim to participate in extremely graphic and abusive material, all for his own pleasure. By the time he was caught, Tony collection was prolific enough to consist of multiple tapes and an entire album of photographs.
- "Worst Fears" & "One Night With You": Peter Renshaw is a serial child rapist. Running a horrific child pornography enterprise, where over 100 children are raped on camera and the footage sold onto other pedophiles, Renshaw abducted a boy called Tommy Laker and attempted to give him the same fate, only being stopped when Tommy was discovered in the company of a fellow pedophile and rescued. Taken into custody, Renshaw played sadistic mind games with the police and even bragged about all of his other victims that the detectives didn't know about.
- "A Little Help": Simon Higgins is a slimy sales executive who, frustrated at not being able to get laid, decides to serially drug and rape women and then pretend afterwards that they had fully consensual sex. Obtaining the date rape drug from his friend Adam, Higgins made Adam's girlfriend his first victim, and went on to do the same to over 9 others, only being stopped when Adam testified against him. When caught, Higgins attempted to blame Adam for everything.
- "Age Of Chivalry": Craig Sutton is an animalistic Serial Rapist. Terrifying even his own mother with his vicious misogyny, Craig grew to hate women at a young age to due to perceived social rejection. Befriending a man named Murray Watkins at a restaurant the two work at, Craig manipulated the latter into aiding him in brutally raping a woman. Making Murray his driver, Craig went onto rape a further three women at knifepoint, with his brutality even disgusting hardened officers and causing one of his victims to commit suicide. When the police began to suspect him after a victim identifies him, Craig bludgeoned Murray to death in order to cover up his tracks. Despite his low victim count, Craig stood out as one of the most brutal rapists in the entire show.
- "Smoking Demons": Charles Mawdsley is a prolific child murderer and pornographer, described by a fellow convict "as close to pure evil as a man can get". Already a child molester since his early adulthood, Mawdsley actively instigated and lead the protracted torture and murder of two children. Convicted of separate child sex offences and sent to prison, Mawdsley continued to run a child pornography ring from inside where dozens of children were raped, and then attempting to murder DC Terry Perkins via a hangman's noose when Perkins went undercover to expose him.
Series 21-26
- "When Justice Isn't Enough" three-parter: Michael Keenan is a voyeuristic Serial Killer. A psychopath since childhood, Keenan deliberately let a boy drown in front of him just to see how it would feel. Becoming psychologically addicted to the memory after realizing how powerful he felt, Keenan manipulated his friend John Lord into strangling people to death while Keenan looked on, all while secretly setting him up to take the fall for the killings. Picking gay men due to his job at a gay bar, Keenan had Lord kill three people, making sure to prolong their deaths for as long as possible so he could hear them beg for mercy. Frustrated at not being the focus of police attention, Keenan targeted and murdered PC Lance Powell solely to spite the investigating team and, upon being taken in for questioning, mocked the officers over the death of their friend. Angered when one of the investigating officers says Lord was the mastermind and not him, Keenan confessed everything solely so he could live in infamy.
- "Closing the Net" two-parter: Peter Williams masquerades as a reformed pedophile while secretly running a horrific online child pornography site called Sunshine in Our Lives, where child rape is broadcast every day to over a hundred depraved members. After the police began to investigate, Williams sold out one of the websites members while doing everything in his power to keep the website up and running and assisted in the kidnapping of a ten-year-old boy, promising that the child would be raped on camera for the ring's entertainment. After his arrest, Williams taunted the police at every opportunity, telling them that there was nothing they could do to prevent it.
- "Forgotten Child" two-parter:
- Jake Clegg is one of the heads of a national child prostitution ring that spans the whole of the UK. Ruling over the girls with an iron fist, Clegg killed via lethal injection any who stepped out of line, as well as administering regular torture and beatings as punishment. Using his own cousin, Donnelly, to lure in more victims, Clegg would get them hooked on drugs and then sell them off into a life of sexual slavery. When Donnelly began to grow conflicted about the operation, Clegg killed his girlfriend via overdose and brutally beat him into unconsciousness, all while taunting the police.
- Kenton Farmer and Logan Hunter are the other heads of the child prostitution ring and every bit as depraved as their boss. Farmer directly ensures that the girls are raped by the ring's depraved clients, as well as administering brutal punishments to any girl who attempts to resist. Hunter oversees the ring's Glasgow operations and regularly trafficks girls to London. Upon the police investigating, Farmer decided to take the fall purely for the monetary reward the other members would give him, while Hunter attempted to deliver another shipment of girls to Clegg.
