Murder, Mystery and My Family

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Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein reinvestigate historical cases.

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Sasha Wass

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Murder, Mystery and My Family: Series 5: Yarham

Yarham

BBC One - Murder, Mystery and My Family, Series 5, Yarham

The barristers assess whether a case from Victorian Britain was a miscarriage of justice.

Jeremy and Sasha revisit a complex case from Victorian Britain that featured four suspects, two trials and ultimately just one man hanged for murder.

Top criminal barristers Jeremy Dein QC and Sasha Wass QC reinvestigate a complex case from Victorian Britain that featured four prime suspects, two trials and ultimately just one man hanged for the murder of his neighbour.  

Norfolk, 1882. During the early hours of 19 November, in the narrow rows of Great Yarmouth, police on the beat noticed the door of one of the street’s shops ajar. They searched the property and made a shocking discovery: the dead body of 43-year-old shopkeeper, Harriet Candler. She had been brutally attacked, her throat cut and the property ransacked.  

What followed was an intense investigation that featured two trials and four potential perpetrators. However, based on the sensational evidence of a single witness, it was Harriet Candler’s upstairs neighbour, Samuel Yarham, a local shoemaker, who was charged with her murder. 

Despite pleading his innocence, after a one-day trial at the Shirehall in Norwich, Yarham was found guilty. And on 11 April 1846 at Norwich Castle, he was hanged. 

Now, over 150 years later, Samuel Yarham’s relative Emmaline has questions about his conviction, and she has enlisted the help of the barristers to reassess the case. The prosecution case against Samuel Yarham rested mainly on the evidence of a witness who claimed that on two occasions Yarham confessed to her. Sasha and Jeremy look at the reliability of the witness statements and see whether a modern-day pathological interpretation of what was said at trial can offer any clues as to Samuel Yarham’s innocence.  

Will the barristers be able to prove Emmaline’s suspicion that Yarham’s case might have been a miscarriage of justice?

Murder, Mystery and My Family: Series 5

BBC One

Barristers Jeremy Dein and Sasha Wass re-examine historic murder cases.

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