Channel 4 Documentary Sheds New Light on Carl Bridgewater Murder

11 June 2016

Channel will broadcast a one-off 90 minute documentary this Sunday featuring important brand new testimony regarding the horrific murder of 13-year-old Carl Bridgewater in 1978. This includes the first ever interview with the woman married to Bert at the time of the murder – who speaks out about her suspicions that he killed Carl nearly 40 years ago.

In Interview with a Murderer, leading criminologist Professor David Wilson conducts a series of revealing interviews with convicted murderer Bert Spencer, the man never charged with, yet widely suspected of killing paperboy Carl Bridgewater in 1978 – a crime he has always vociferously denied.

Bert Spencer approached Professor Wilson via his biographer. He asked Professor Wilson to challenge him on his account via a series of no-holds barred interviews in order to set the record straight. Spencer willingly agreed for these interviews to be filmed.

 

Whilst making the film a number of important revelations have come to light which raise new questions about this tragic and unsolved child murder case:

 

• During the course of filming, Professor Wilson is introduced, by Spencer, to Barbara Riebold, his former secretary, and close friend - who had originally provided Bert with what he termed a 'cast iron' alibi. She admits in this film that she cannot verify his whereabouts for the entire day on which Carl was brutally shot at point-blank range.

 

• For the first time in almost 40 years, Spencer's first wife, Janet Spencer, has come forward to speak out on the record. She tells Professor Wilson she suspects Bert is guilty and believes that the police should re-open the case – and she discloses damning new allegations about Bert’s behaviour on the day Carl died (see below).

 

• Spencer's daughter, who was friends with Carl as a child, says she believes her father is innocent but that he may have inadvertently stumbled across the crime scene at Yew Tree Farm

 

Bert and Janet Spencer married as teenagers and had one daughter together; they were married for 16 years. Speaking publically for the first time, Janet claims that Spencer disposed of a shotgun he legally owned the day after Carl Bridgewater died. She tells Professor Wilson that she found a green sweater hanging on the clothes line which Bert had uncharacteristically washed himself on the day Carl died - and that she never saw the sweater again after that day.

When she heard about Carl’s murder on the news, Janet says she asked Spencer if he killed Carl, she says he replied: "No I didn’t, but don’t you think they'll be after me? It’s on my patch." And she says he told her he was worried because he was not at work all day on 19th September – that he was in the toilets for a long time suffering from a stomach complaint.

The police believed Carl was killed when he disturbed a burglary at Yew Tree Farm.

Janet says Spencer told her he buried a bag of stolen antiques somewhere around the Prestwood area. She says she suspects her ex-husband may have killed Carl and she believes the police's only course of action must be to re-open the case.

Professor Wilson spent more than 20 hours in the company of Bert Spencer and suspected he may have been displaying some of the classic symptoms of psychopathy. He carried out a P-scan which is not a clinical diagnosis but a recognised method for evaluating the criminal mind, widely used by law enforcement. Professor Wilson shares his findings with Spencer in the film – he tells him his total score is in the high range which Professor Wilson says is a cause for serious concern.

Bert Spencer's response

All the new allegations and testimony are put to Bert Spencer for a response in the film - he rejects them all. He accepts he no longer has a cast iron alibi but denies going for lunch on the day Carl died and insists others saw him at the ambulance station.

He denies all of Janet Spencer's allegations. He says he has no recollection of the missing green sweater and describes her account of events on the night Carl's murder was first reported on TV as, "nonsense". He said he did have a shotgun but it was sold two months before  Carl's murder. He denies ever hiding or burying stolen antiques or discussing them with Janet.

He comments: "Regardless of all the allegations that keep coming my way. Hear this. I will never ever be the scapegoat for the murder of Carl Bridgewater. For you or any other of the idiots with alleged accusations, I feel sure there will be many more in the future. I will cope with them."

He rejects Professor Wilson's P-scan findings and says he was not at Yew Tree Farm the day Carl died – as suggested by his daughter.

Interview with a Murderer airs on Channel 4 this Sunday, 12th June at 9pm.

Channel 4 Commissioning Editor Rob Coldstream says: "The murder of Carl Bridgewater remains one of the most horrifying crimes to go unsolved. Carl's family, the family of Hubert Wilkes and the men who were wrongly imprisoned for more than 20 years have suffered unimaginable grief so when Bert Spencer, who has been continuously accused of the crime, offered to speak on the record for the first time in more than two decades, we felt it was an important opportunity to potentially shed new light on this case".

"The film was commissioned as a documentary capturing a series of encounters between the man widely suspected of child murder and one of Britain's leading criminologists – it did not set out to exonerate or incriminate Bert Spencer. We could not have foreseen the startling new revelations which have unfolded in the course of making it."

The film has been made by ITN Productions in association with Monster Films. It was produced and directed by David Howard and Rik Hall with Chris Shaw as executive producer.

Ends

Press Contact: Channel 4 Group Publicity Manager Marion Bentley – 020 7306 3747; mjbentley@channel4.co.uk

Pictures: Channel 4 Picture Publicist Jamie Fry – 020 7306 8251; jfry@channel4.co.uk

 

Notes to Editors

The Murder of Carl Bridgewater

Carl was shot in the head at point-blank range on September 19th 1978 whilst visiting a farm on his round. The biggest police manhunt for a child killer seen since the Moors Murders ensued. The police’s suspicions were quickly aroused by local ambulance driver Bert Spencer - who fitted the description of a person seen in a car near the property where Carl was murdered. Despite being their initial prime suspect and a growing body of circumstantial evidence pointing to Spencer he was never charged. Just ten weeks after the murder, the police had a new lead and set of suspects – four armed robbers who been known to operate in the area.

The crime is one of Britain’s most infamous unsolved murder cases, not only because it involved the brutal cold-blooded killing of a young boy but because the case became embroiled in controversy when men who had been sent to prison for Carl’s murder, the 'Bridgewater Four' had their convictions overturned some twenty years later when it was proven that their confession had been forged. The defence lawyers also repeatedly named Bert Spencer as the alternative suspect.

Just a month after the Bridgewater Four were convicted for Carl's murder, Bert Spencer shot dead his friend Hubert Wilkes at point-blank range at a neighbouring farm to the one at which Carl was murdered. This incident had several striking similarities to the murder of Carl and for the first time, Bert Spencer gives a detailed account of what happened that night.

Spencer was released from prison in 1995 after serving 15 years for Wilkes’ murder but has always vociferously maintained his innocence in connection to Carl's death