Murdertown - Season 1, Episode 04: Barnsley

When a killer strikes in any community, there’s always a sense of anger, disbelief, and sadness. But in this episode we explore the story of a killer who was able to strike, serve a sentence in prison, and then after his release, was able to do the same thing again. We find out about the murder of Irishman John Gogarty, a man so concerned about his safety that he would never open the door to strangers. And yet, when his body was found inside his home, it seemed that the killer had been invited in. A complex enquiry led police to CCTV, and a sudden realisation that the killer might already be known to them. The crime has extraordinary parallels to another murder, more than 20 years earlier, which saw an elderly man lose his life after apparently inviting someone into his home. But when police began to probe, they discovered that the similarities between the crimes weren’t a coincidence. With contributions from police, local reporters, and even a friend who found himself arrested on suspicion of the murder, this episode shines a light on the darkest chapter in Barnsley’s history.