Manhunt

CLOCK TICKING

Bulbs in the sink?

I've never seen that before.

You don't get this good without practice.

The minute he sets foot on these properties,

he's in control. It's his house.

It's outrageous.

Not with just what he's done, but how long he's got away with it.

Nathan, that possible Minstead case the borough sent over -

when was that? Last night.

Colbridge Road in Bromley.

And what ruled it out, the victimology? Yeah.

We could do worse than give it a second look.

This is Gavin Forbes, son of the homeowner.

When I got back from the hospital,

I went to get a glass of orange from the fridge.

The carton was almost empty.

What, and you think the intruder might've helped himself?

It's the only explanation.

It's not that bloke attacking old ladies?

Yes, it is, I'm afraid. Oh, Jesus.

What is it, Gavin?

Mum's room is downstairs.

Let's figure out how he got in.

Any luck? We've got him on camera.

Coming and going.

DNA on the orange carton is a 100% match for Minstead Man.

We're gonna need to widen our screening criteria.

That means more offences.

Well, so be it. But you haven't got the manpower.

Not when you're treating every offence like a murder.

Yeah.

Then something's got to change.

What are you thinking?

It's too much. It's too late.

Good work, Nathan.

Taking a closer look.

Er, no, that was all Mr Sutton, boss.

Oh, well, the DNA from the juice carton

would've linked them soon enough. Yes, it would.

What does needs a look at is the screening criteria,

cos if it's as flawed as this offence suggests,

we could be missing scores of Minstead crimes.

Such as?

Burglaries with, er, no sexual assault.

Burglaries with no attempt to engage with the homeowner.

Well, I'm confident we're not missing scores of crimes, Colin.

He's one man, but, of course...

the criteria will be reviewed.

OK.

Can I have a word, Nathan?

Yes, guv.

With all respect, sir, we're not the bloody burglary squad.

They're acting like a murder squad,

but they're dealing with four times the cases

on half the resources.

Any manpower left over gets pissed up the wall

swabbing for DNA.

As an analyst, I can tell you,

if they're screening out legitimate Minstead cases,

that's chronic.

Maybe they ought to be a bloody burglary squad.

They're trying to find a bloody burglar, after all.

Did you hear what I said?

Incomplete data is bad data,

and bad data is diesel in a petrol car.

It's worse than nothing. Yeah, I get it.

They want to preserve and gather evidence,

but what's their underlying objective?

They don't need to prove new offences.

Once he's caught, the DNA from the historic offences

guarantees he goes down for life.

Yeah. Yeah. We just need to find him,

and anything that doesn't serve that has got to stop.

Call it Minstead Lite.

That's good. SHE LAUGHS

Actually, that's brilliant, I'm having that.

That's gonna be my pitch to Hamish - Minstead Lite.

Copyright Surrey Police, please.

Is that gonna be enough, though? How d'you mean?

Well, it might free up some manpower and time,

but what are they gonna do with it? More bloody swabbing?

DISTANT SIRENS

Come in.

Richard?

Hello, Colin. Richard, when you get a moment,

could you trawl through all the recent burglaries in the area...

That took place at night,

involved elderly occupiers,

which we sent back to Borough?

Yes.

I can run you off a copy, if you like.

How d'you know I was gonna ask for that?

Well, truth is, a few of us have been worried

about the screening process for a while.

What, incomplete data is bad data?

Hmm.

I call that the longlist.

OK.

Well, limited resources means

we can only focus on a limited number of cases.

That means burglaries without sufficient Minstead signatures

get returned to Borough.

But that could be him? Yes.

And could potentially be the one where he slips up.

Which is why I keep my own expanded tally

alongside the official one.

But if even half of these are Minstead...

He's offending on a scale that nobody's publicly acknowledged.

Yeah, I will have a copy of that.

Sure, but...

Yeah, I didn't get it from you.

Thanks, Richard.

DCI Colin Sutton for Hamish Campbell.

You can go through. Thank you.

Current screening processes are excluding

genuine Minstead cases. How many are we talking?

Course, they might not all be him,

but there's no doubt the majority are.

Bloody hell.

What makes you so sure?

Cos there's nowhere else in the country

where burglaries with these specific hallmarks are occurring.

Nowhere. They check every morning,

so it's very hard to believe that there's two blokes out there

committing identical crimes in South-East London.

What do you propose?

To cope with the scale of his offending,

our response needs to change.

We need to be more, er, nimble, fleet-footed.

Sounds easier said than done.

Well, if it's a choice between depth and breadth,

then it has to be breadth.

Meaning?

New offences aren't treated as crimes to be fully investigated,

but as intelligence opportunities.

We make sure that we're caring for the victims,

but we focus our attention on aspects of the case

that could help us ID Minstead Man.

No need to generate all the actions the murder squad approach requires?

Reducing that workload will free them up

to assess all potential Minstead cases,

and it'll accelerate the DNA swabbing.

Call it Minstead Lite.

I like the sound of that.

One way or the other, I'll see it's implemented.

But we're still reliant on him making a mistake,

which so far he's shown no sign of doing.

Despite the depravity of his acts, his planning is meticulous.

You're not convinced this is the best way forward?

Well, I think it's better than what we have.

What do you really think?

If you were starting from scratch, what would you do?

Ah, well, it's frustrating, really.

I haven't been able to devise a proper plan, not in ten days.

It's just too complex for quick fixes.

It's like, erm, do you remember that old joke

about a tourist going up to a farmer and saying,

"what's the best way to Dingle?"

and he gets the reply, "Ah, well, now,

"if I was you, I wouldn't be starting from here."

That's pretty much where I think we are with it.

Where would you start from?

I wrote this down at the very first meeting that I attended.

It's all about the DNA.

The DNA has slanted every avenue of enquiry that they have followed.

You and I both know that a mass swabbing programme

is very hard to pull off.

It's a tactic of last resort.

But they've got so much invested in the DNA,

that change has become unthinkable.

As an outsider looking in, I think there must be another way.

I just don't know what it is yet.

Will you hang around and give this some more thought, Colin?

If there is a change of direction, it can't come from me.

Simon's got so much invested in Minstead.

I can't walk in there and tell him it's all got to change.

It's awkward, I agree.

No, it's not awkward, it's untenable.

I'll make sure we look after Simon if you tell me now

that you'll stick around and devise a workable alternative plan?

And by "stick around,"

I mean past your retirement date if necessary.

Yes, course I will.

All right.

See anything you like, Diamanda?

Yeah.

The lighter.

Can I take a look?

What?

I think you're losing your touch.

Always coming in here empty-handed.

You're just like a fucking window shopper these days.

Suit yourself.

All right, all right, all right.

GROANS

Morning, sir. All right?

Guv - he hit Colbridge Road again last night.

What? Come on.

Colin.