Leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine a brutal murder of a policeman. Three men were tried for the crime, but only one was hanged.

Butterknowle, County Durham, 1884. On a dark and rainy Saturday night, following a pigeon-shooting competition, Police Sergeant William Smith was out on his rounds at pub closing time. Suddenly, a group of three men emerged from the darkness and brutally attacked him. The assault was so severe that his skull was fractured, and he was left for dead in the road. Two passing doctors went to the wounded sergeant’s aid, and he was carried to his house. But a couple of hours later, Sergeant Smith died from his injuries.

Suspicion fell on three local miners who had been drinking in Butterknowle that evening. Among them was 25-year-old Joseph Lowson. Lowson’s brother-in-law William Siddle had previously been charged with assaulting Sergeant Smith, and the two of them were arrested along with friend Joseph Hodgson.

The three men stood trial together at the Durham Assizes, all desperately professing their innocence. The two doctors identified the three miners, and Lowson was linked to the crime by a button that was missing from his shirt and found at the scene.

Hodgson was acquitted by the jury, but Lowson and Siddle were both found guilty and sentenced to death. At the last minute, Siddle was reprieved and on 27 May 1884, Joseph Lowson, alone, was hanged.

Now, over 100 years later, Joseph Lowson’s great-great-nephew Peter is looking to reassess the case and has enlisted the help of the barristers. Jeremy and Sasha meet an identification expert and a forensic scientist to re-evaluate the evidence against Lowson that proved so damning at trial. In a case where three men stood trial and only one was executed, will they find anything to cast doubt on the original verdict? Show less