Sandbox / Monster: Silent Witness

"You're going to die. How much pain you suffer first is up to you."

Clarissa Mullery: You killed those people!
Conor Flannery: They take up resources. They contribute nothing...They're a condemned building, aren't they? Rotting from the inside. Look at you—useless, no good to anyone. What is the point of you?

—"One Day", before Conor tries to kill Clarissa.

Since 1996, the forensic pathologists of the Lyell Centre have examined a variety of corpses and investigated many criminals. A select few have been particularly monstrous.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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TV Series

Series 12-15

Examples

• "Safe": Keenan Barnes is a viciously cruel gang leader. Grooming vulnerable children, Keenan subjects them to a brutal gang rape as an initiation. After Errol defects upon witnessing Keenan rape a 13-year-old girl, Keenan has his artery cut so that Errol will be conscious and terrified as he dies, with Errol only surviving due to the intervention of Leo. Keenan then shoots a rival dead in front of numerous children and manipulates Errol's 10-year-old brother Levi into joining. When Errol is killed by a rival gang, Keenan forces Levi to knife a man to death in public, getting one of his men to do it when Levi refuses and forcing him to watch. For daring to speak to the police, Keenan has Levi fed alive to a dog, opting to knife him in the stomach so that he will suffer in agony before expiring, and then attempts to rape an underage girl before being arrested.
• "Shadows": Scott Weston is a charismatic university student whose good looks, intelligence and seeming protectiveness of his "friends" hides the fact that he's a sociopathic attention seeker, who takes weaker individuals under his wing to control them and is obsessed with the idea that people are just "shadows of men". Forcing Jason Renfrew to build him chemical bombs, Scott slit his major artery when Jason got cold feet, leaving him to bleed to death. The next day, Scott went on a shooting spree throughout the university, massacring his fellow students, lecturers and Detective Salchs, overjoyed at their futile attempts to run and hide from him. The entire killing spree intended to lure hundreds of people to the campus in the aftermath, including his own loving parents whom he personally invited, so that they would all die when his bombs went off, thus writing Scott's name into the history books with his victims' blood.
• "Home": Adebare is a ruthless Nigerian gangster who founded and runs the Ten Grand, an underground sex club based in Cape Town that forces underage girls into prostitution. To ensure a steady supply of victims, Adebare has a corrupt immigration agent supply him with vulnerable refugees. Keeping the girls in total isolation and playing on their fears to make them dependent on him, Adebare also regularly drugs them to ensure they are submissive while with his clients. Following two girls dying during a session with a client, Adebare covers up their deaths and when two more try to escape, he personally hunts them down. For daring to defy him he murders Nyasha by having her necklaced, while forcing Daya to watch the entire execution.
• "Redhill": James Wade has the distinction of being the least sympathetic victim ever encountered by the Lyell Centre. A pedophile Serial Killer, Wade, when barely in his teens, repeatedly tortured his younger sister Miriam with a knife. As a grown man, Wade, having used Miriam as a template to find out what he enjoyed, took to preying upon little girls. Kidnapping them, in one incident laying a trap then luring his victim away by pretending to help, he would rape and torture the child before finally killing her. Succeeding in murdering nine victims by his grisly MO before his arrest, Wade died despised throughout the entire country, with not a single personal mourning his passing.

Series 16-18

Examples

• "Trust": Piers Christie and Ronnie Hearns are a pair of greedy bioterrorists out to enrich the stock value of a defence company called Solomon Maguire. Deciding to give the government a "little scare", both men abduct the wife and sister of scientists Lucas Ballinger and Petra Smith, blackmailing them into producing a vicious strain of anthrax. Obtaining it, they decide to secretly test the killing potential on their captives, while filming the results to note its effect. Accomplishing this, they opt to execute both victims while falsely telling Lucas and Petra they are still alive, stringing them along so they will produce more Anthrax. When Petra grows suspicious, both men have her abducted and tested on as well, with Hearns filming the results for his own viewing pleasure. Cornered unexpectedly by a vengeful Lucas Ballinger and both Nikki and an investigating DI, Hearns incapacitates Lucas and attempts to trap all three in a burning laboratory while he makes his escape. After Hearns shoots dead a security guard who helped them, they send the Anthrax out to multiple investment banks all over London, resulting in at least 18 deaths. When Hearns is cornered and killed by Ballinger, he smugly gloats that he did all of it for the money and sadism while Piers, upon being confronted by Ballinger, feigns remorse and then sets him up to be killed by the police, resulting in his death and Christie escaping.
• "True Love Waits": Alan Lane is a terrifying domestic abuser who graduates into a fully fledged serial killer. Marrying a young girl called Imogen, Alan isolates her in their home and kills her father by sabotaging his car so that he dies in an accident. Attempting to destroy Imogen's relationship with her mother, Alan forbids the two from seeing each other and threatens to kill Imogen's baby after she falls pregnant. When Imogen, with the assistance of investigating DS Anne Percival, fakes her murder, resulting in Alan being jailed for 6 years, Alan decides to embark on a sadistic serial killing spree to show up the justice system. Spying on men who show signs of abusing their wives, Alan brutally kills the women with whatever is to hand, chops off their pinkie finger to keep as a trophy, and then frames their husbands for it, claiming the lives of nine women and ruining dozens of other lives. When Anne attempts to kill him, Alan tortures her to get information and, upon seeing Imogen call her mobile, forces Imogen to listen. Interrogating her for Imogen's location, Alan opts to boil her alive with water from a kettle after she has told him everything. Abducting Imogen's daughter, Alan guns down an investigating officer and then attempts to kill Jack and Nikki before being stopped.
• "Commodity": Sami Rashid initially appearing a friendly, shy young man is in fact a hate-filled antisemite and a vicious terrorist who funds his cause by targeting the children of wealthy Jews. Having used Eva Liron to grant him access to his targets, Sami then brutally murdered her with a combination of hydrochloric acid and slow suffocation. His attempted abduction accidentally killing the autistic Nathan Freeman, Sami murdered Nathan's mother and began blackmailing Jewish football star Isaac Dreyfus. While collecting the money Sami murdered his loving uncle Mousa for daring to work with a Jew. Discovering Isaac was planning to leave the country, Sami slowly suffocated his co-worker and left a bomb rigged to kill as many as possible to deal with the police, then kidnapped Isaac's eight-year-old daughter Zara. Having no intention of returning the girl, he left Zara locked up unconscious and upon receiving the money crippled Isaac, leaving the latter alive solely to suffer knowing he'd taken everything from him.
• "Sniper's Nest" has this depraved duo who kills for kicks:
  • Adrian Turner is a sadistic former serviceman who, knowing that his army surplus store will be brought out, decides to embark on a killing spree for a laugh. Targeting the man who was attempting to buy him out, Adrian snipes him at a gas station and then attempts to kill everyone there, successfully shooting dead the man's wife and a clerk who attempts to help. Escaping, Adrian pulls up to a car and fatally shoots a woman inside, nearly killing her passenger as well. Assisting his companion Craig Cross with killing his father, Adrian decides to abandon him after Craig botches the kill. Sniping another man at a truck stop, Adrian calls the police to brag about his crimes, and then attempts to target Craig's school. Briefly contemplating killing Craig, Adrian is only deterred by the heavy police presence. Frustrated with his failure, Adrian has Craig go to the police station and set a fire to lure everyone outside, before shooting an investigating officer dead in front of all her horrified colleagues.
  • Craig Cross subverts all his potential sympathetic traits and becomes every bit as monstrous as his partner. Assisting Adrian with every murder, Craig routinely abuses both of his parents, verbally abusing his mother and terrifying his father. Deciding to kill his father when he returns the abuse, Craig shoots him dead while he mows a lawn and then tries to kill a woman who was speaking to him for no reason at all. When the police foil Adrian's attempt at shooting up a school, Craig aids Adrian in luring out the police officers from their station and has a detective shot dead in front of all her friends. Pretending to befriend Jack Hodgson, Craig frames him for assault when Jack sees through his ruse and attempts to destroy his career for a laugh. Knowing that Adrian will abandon him, Craig decides to blow Adrian up in his store and narrowly misses killing the entire investigating team and numerous bystanders. Visited by Jack one final time, Craig spitefully taunts him by saying that he won't even be able to get a job in a supermarket when Craig has finished destroying his life, and smugly grins upon being taken in for questioning, proud of all the crimes he has committed.
• "Protection": Sean Patrick appears to be a jovial family man, but is in reality a horrifying abuser who has preyed on his family for years. As soon as his daughter Niamh turned 13, Sean began raping her for years until she fell pregnant with a boy named Kevin, and attempted to ruin her relationship with her fiancé Daniel after she told him everything. When she gave birth to a daughter called Cathy, Sean also began raping her repeatedly, telling her that she "made him" do it. Falsely telling Kevin that Daniel raped Cathy when he attempts to reconcile the family, Sean slits Daniel's throat with a butcher's knife to prevent the truth from emerging and then attempts to frame Kevin for the crime.

Series 20-24

Examples

• "Identity": Abdul "Al" Wilson is a psychopathic Knight Templar who deems refugees fleeing war-torn areas of Syria to be "filthy Kafirs". Concocting a horrifying scheme to make money for a local religious sect, Abdul manipulates a friend of his into letting him join a people smuggling operation. Being given access to a van full of vulnerable people, Abdul drives it to a completely deserted location and abandons everyone inside to die a horrific, days long death. Abdul then sets about blackmailing the loved ones of everyone in the van, callously ignoring all their pleas and beating up one who tries to protest. Smirking upon hearing that another van will be arriving, Abdul kills one of his partners by slashing his throat and throwing him off a building, clobbering his friend to death with a crowbar when he turns on him in horror at Abdul's operation. Confronted by the head of the people smugglers, Yussef, Abdul decides to kill him when the man calls him an impostor. Hijacking another van and attempting to give the people in it the exact same fate as his previous victims, Abdul attempts to decapitate Yussef when he intervenes.
• "One Day": Conor Flannery and Dr. Kahari are a twisted duo out to get rich by preying upon the most vulnerable. Hiding behind the facade of an attentive caregiver, Conor is a bully who physically and verbally abuses the people in his care using an illegal stun gun to shock them into compliance, repeatedly breaking Kevin McDowd's hands and regularly raping the vulnerable Serena Prentice. Conspiring together, they murder numerous sick, elderly or disabled people in their care for money, subtly poisoning them and then writing off the deaths as natural causes. To prevent Kevin's mother exposing him, Conor drugged her with a lethal combination of drugs, causing her to lose control while driving, barely avoiding killing numerous pedestrians before fatally crashing. Confronted by Clarissa Murry, Conor boasted his contempt for their victims, dismissing the victims as "condemned buildings" before trying to kill her.
• "Lift Up Your Hearts": Ramush is a sociopathic drug dealer who floods the streets of London with a lethal strain of fentanyl. Regularly using the drug to incapacitate and rape female addicts, Ramush forces his sidekick Rudi to target schools, as children and teenagers make the easiest targets. When an addict dies from taking the drug and another female one is nearly rendered permanently brain-damaged, Ramush is not only apathetic but pleased with the potency. Gathering the dealers together at a club, Ramush targets the girlfriend of one and gives her a cigarette with a lethal amount of fentanyl for a laugh, which results in her dying in front of all her friends and family. When the previously mentioned drug addict returns for more, Ramush rapes her, before throttling her to death with his belt for a thrill. Deciding that the three dealers are more trouble than they are worth, Ramush orders Rudi to kill all three of them, resulting in one getting knifed to death in an elevator. When the two gang up on Rudi and kill him, Ramush becomes enraged—only due to losing a valuable resource—and beats one to death in front of terrified diners. Dismissing Rudi's death, Ramush attempts to blackmail a child into selling drugs for him before attempting to knife the final dealer to death, as well as the brother and father of the girl he killed when they attempt to stop him.
• "Deadhead": James "Jim" Bell is an unconventional serial killer driven by feelings of supremacy at ending lives without lifting a finger. His MO is to slowly push vulnerable people deeper into depression all while posing as their friend, until they agree to kill themselves, with his first victim being his own father. Using an unofficial chatroom for people suffering from suicidal thoughts to find victims, Bell manipulated pilot Rowan Cole into killing himself while mid-flight. When Rowan's flight is cancelled and he has to hitch a ride on an ambassador's plane, Bell forced Cole to poison the pilot and crash the plane despite knowing there were other passengers on board, two dying in the crash. When his next victim Peter Sachs got cold feet at the last second, Bell simply shot him and staged it as a suicide. Targeting Kyle Cunningham, Bell preyed on the recent death of his son until a broken Kyle attempted to end his life, convinced everyone was better off without him.
• "Reputations": Professor Adrian Cowley is a grandstanding sociopath aiming to cure cancer to win fame and prestige. Stealing the research of another doctor called Braithwaite and realizing that human stem cells needed to be generated in order for a cure to work, Cowley poisoned the inhabitants of a remote Benin village who were suffering the effects of radiation sickness by lowering their resistance to cancer, claiming dozens of lives and nearly wiping the village itself off the map. Shipping his victims to the UK, Cowley would then murder them in order to harvest their stem cells. When a doctor Cowley had previously tried to bribe was killed in a separate incident, Cowley murdered the patient by injecting them with E. coli to cover his tracks. Knowing the police suspected Braithwaite, Cowley sabotaged the oxygen container of her airtight home, leaving her to suffocate to death. Confronted by Adam one final time, Cowley showed himself to be utterly remorseless and then ran Adam over with his car to try and prevent the truth from emerging.

Dr. Samantha Ryan Mystery novel series, by Nigel McCrery

• The Spider's Web: Eric Chambers is a vicious murderer who has been raping and murdering teenage boys for decades. A psychopath since childhood, Eric murdered his own father and his father's lover when he was only 15, before dumping their bodies in a well and forcing his mother to cover it up. Returning to his village after serving in the army, Eric lured in two homeless teenagers and raped them before strangling them to death. Going on to the internet and assuming the handle of "The Spider", Eric groomed teenagers with an interest in computers by providing them with valuable equipment, before abducting, raping, and strangling them to death, killing at least 14. Targeting Simon Vickers, Eric did the same to him and staged a fake drink driving accident, before drowning Simon’s friend Dominic in a river when he tried to blackmail him. Realizing a local poacher saw him, Eric snapped the man's neck before torching his house. Caught by the police, Eric tried to frame the kindly Reverend Peter Andrews for his crimes, before attempting to murder Sam and her nephew Ricky when their guards were down.

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