Silent Witness

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

No! No! No! Where is she?!

Please! Give her back!

Ah, Nikki. This is Detective Inspector Rory Goodchild

and Agent Pia Butler, who's from Immigration Enforcement.

They need our help with an ID.

Is it my mother's?

Hm. You look prosperous.

Don't. You show off your money, looking like this. Hm?

Please! Please! Where is my daughter?

Please! I paid you what you asked for!

PLEASE! We have nothing left!

What was that? He's insane.

He's desperate, not insane. What was it?

I don't know.

I pay you to know.

Loyalty is important to me, Jamal.

If I find out you've put me in danger,

I'll kill you, and your friends.

Why didn't you tell me about the van?!

I'm sorry, Jamal, I should have! I'm sorry!

He does this in public! In public!

I left the van where Kali told me.

You let the new guy do it?!

You should have told me.

Send me the place you left it.

And get another van!

What's this about?

Family members are missing.

Police think it's some sort of extortion racket.

The finger... is proof of life.

Or proof of torture.

X-rays?

Thanks.

Traumatic head injuries consistent with a fall from a great height.

There are multiple comminuted skull fractures

with fracture contusions and lacerations of the brain.

There are fractures to the orbital plates

and associated periorbital haemorrhages.

Right, so the plants blocked the CCTV view from the terrace.

So, no-one one saw him fall? No. We haven't found any witnesses.

And no-one heard screams?

Jumpers don't scream.

You think it's suicide?

We think he went over the barrier there

and he stepped up on the edge of the planter and threw himself over.

Do we have a name yet?

Jamal al Sham.

What do you think?

Well, it's a theory, but I don't see any sign of a footprint.

Right, come on, let's go. Come on!

If you had to choose, would you rather be

looking down at the ground as you fell, or looking up?

Do you really think I'm going to play that game?

I hadn't really developed a view.

Suicide, assisted suicide, I don't believe in it.

I don't think Jamal did either.

Well, according to the police, you're wrong.

Thomas?

He's got subha, Muslim prayer beads, on his personal effects list.

You're sure they're prayer beads?

33 beads.

He uses them to count as he recites the words of the Dhikr.

So it's reasonable to think he was somewhat devout.

What's that mean exactly?

The Prophet said,

"Whoever throws himself down from a mountain and kills himself

"will be in the Fire of Hell,

"throwing himself down therein for ever and ever".

In Islam, suicide is a sin.

Did you notice any blood at the spot where he went over the barrier?

Er... no. No obvious blood or footprints.

Detective Renick thought he was likely to be a jumper.

But you looked? Er...

What did he miss?

I think he was stabbed in the neck.

The wound suggests a narrow symmetrical blade

about 15mm in width.

There was nothing that I found on or around the body

which can account for it,

and I think he was stabbed before he fell.

It's an arterial wound. There should be blood.

I'm on it.

We both walked through here earlier.

Have you found something?

What? I've got an idea.

..fracture contusions and lacerations of the brain.

There are fractures to the orbital plates and associated...

DCI Goodchild, please.

There's an absence of lysosomal enzymes.

The finger was cut from a living person.

The girl Akka's DNA results.

Swab is the column on the left, tissue on the right.

Indicative result here.

Akka is not a blood relative.

Any chance they could be wrong? Unlikely.

But there is always a chance.

Let's go tell her.

I sent her a message on the app she uses, told her we had a result.

She told me where she lives.

Akka's illegal, we contacted Immigration.

It's a joint operation.

Why do you think they're running?

Illegal workers. I thought we were trying to help?

We are.

Everyone deserves to enjoy the full protection of the law.

Protection?

Akka's family paid to smuggle her mother into Britain.

Then they get a message saying they need to pay more

if they want to see her alive.

If you're outside the law, it's easy to be victimised.

We're bringing them to the bosom of justice.

Nice van. Is that what low-key looks like to you?

They ran.

What house is she in? End of the street, on the right.

I know, you wish you parked closer.

So, you didn't tell Akka the outcome of the test?

Not yet. But you told her I was coming? I did.

I figured her need to know would mean she and her family showed up.

You're using me as bait?

Yeah, all right, call it that.

I'm not interested in sending them back where they came from,

that's Butler's party.

I want to stop the criminals exploiting them.

They're coming! They're coming here!

How do they know? We can't run! We have to hide!

It's OK. OK? How is it OK?

I... I-I wanted to know if it was her.

You went to the police?! They did tests!

Did you tell them where we live?! You trusted them?!

I wanted to know if Mama is still alive!

There is no-one you can trust! Don't you want to know?!

She's dead! They're all dead! Everyone is dead!

We don't know that. What does it matter? We cannot pay them!

We have nothing left. They have taken everything!

Let them die in your heart, Akka.

Your mother and brother are the past.

Don't think about them.

They're coming for us!

We do what we have to do.

Akka? He knows you?

Akka, it's me. I've brought Dr Alexander with me.

Back alley.

Akka? It's Dr Alexander.

Hi.

Can we come in?

Argh!

Don't do anything!

I'll cut her throat! Butler! Don't!

The toilet!

Get in!

The toilet, get in! Come on! Now! Get in!

Come on!

Lock it! Quickly, we go!

You're not kidnappers. Shut up!

Are you going to kill me?

Don't do this!

She'll slow us down.

Come on!

Don't! I will cut you and leave you to bleed to death! Please!

We are not the same as them. We are not them.

Let her go. She's slowing us down!

Let's go!

Akka, come on!

Are you all right?

Call an ambulance. Where?

Let me see. Let me see.

Can you stand? (Yeah.)

OK. All right.

He found blood spray on three windows.

Arterial blood. Spurting as he fell, decreasing in volume.

Good look. Cut myself shaving.

DCI Goodchild called, wanted to make sure you're all right.

I'm fine. That's what I told him.

You might have asked me first. Why?

Even if you weren't, you'd say you were. I know you.

He's right.

DI Renick's in reception. Meeting room?

Yep. Come on.

Notice how men always think they know us?

Probably best to leave them in the dark.

He was stabbed before he fell

and was still alive on the way down.

You're sure the lack of blood on the roof doesn't bother you?

When he was stabbed, the natural reaction would be

to grab his neck to try and stop the bleeding.

He succeeded in reducing blood flow, but, with only one free hand,

was vulnerable to being shoved over the barrier.

He didn't jump, he was pushed.

Well, why didn't he scream?

Speckled pattern on the lungs. He inhaled blood.

I looked at the hyoid bone, the knife lacerated his larynx.

You can see the markings of the blade of the knife just here.

I'll finish the postmortem

and look for contact and trace samples of his assailant.

You may need to explain the delay to next of kin.

Well, we haven't identified next of kin.

Jamal was a French national from Marseille.

French police are, er... Yeah, they're struggling.

His personal effects lead us believe he was a practising Muslim.