1
This programme contains
very strong language.
For me, as the senior investigating
officer that evening,
I never envisaged that the case
would unfold in such an unusual way.
As I approached the car,
you could see it had been
in a catastrophic collision.
It was overturned,
and on top was a young lad,
sat cross-legged.
I've never had that before.
He was clearly shaken.
He said there was other
people in the vehicle.
He had identified
himself as the driver.
I asked him what his name was,
he told me it was Dannylee.
Danny, stand still, fella.
Stand still, all right?
It's not a problem, mate.
We've just got to make
sure you're OK, OK?
Don't worry, don't worry.
Everything will be good.
We'll make sure everything's OK.
I don't know, mate.
I haven't had a look yet.
You told me you were driving.
You said, it's Dad's car.
You said, it's Dad's car
and you took the keys.
So, how many were in
the car with you, mate?
Two others? You and two.
What were their names?
What are their names, Danny?
I asked Dannylee for the names
of the other persons in the car,
and how many other
people were in there.
And he was flipping
between two and three.
It would be, "It's two. No, three."
Remember your friends' names?
DANNY MUMBLES INCOHERENTLY
And that, for me, is very strange.
It makes me wonder what's
going through his head.
You're provisional.
No, I'm not going to arrest you.
No, no, no.
He was acting in a very
emotional manner.
Stay there a minute.
I can't hug you because I don't
know what injuries you've got.
He couldn't clarify any
accurate detail for me.
All right, buddy. All right.
He came across as being scared.
Danny, I've got everyone
with them, mate.
I've got everyone with them.
As far as we are aware,
the driver's saying that there
were three people within
the vehicle including him.
Including him. Yes. OK.
Looking at the vehicle,
immediately said,
"Right,
I'm going to have to get in there."
I was faced with a casualty
who was pretty much unresponsive,
and I remember seeing
a really large wound to the back
of his head.
That is so bad. Fuck!
Let's go and walk down the road.
So you don't see your mates.
Come on.
I shouted to the rest
of the crew outside,
"Look, he's going
to have to come out now."
I mean, "He will die
in this vehicle, if he doesn't."
Getting the second fellow out,
there was a lot of blood
coming from his head.
I remember it all trickling
down the side of my face.
He was in a really bad way.
I had to deal with him.
I had to get him out.
It's all right. No, no. They're
coming out now, mate.
Look, they're coming out now, so
they'll look after him, won't they?
Stand there for me. I've got to see
him, please.
You can't see him, mate.
They're looking after him.
I haven't attended
a crash scene like that.
You're thinking to yourself,
"Is anyone really going
to survive this?"
They were just young lads.
Can I just stop? Sorry.
They were in the back seat.
Both of them in back seat?
Both of them were in the back seat.
Yeah. I wonder why there was
no-one in the front.
Just for the log, two males
have been brought from the vehicle.
One of them, at this
time, is breathing.
However, the third male
is currently having CPR.
Fuck!
Fuck.
That night, I was at Sonny's
with Sonny's sister.
He was texting me all
night, "Come out, mate.
"Jump in the car." I was
like, "No, mate," you know.
"I'm going to stay in.
Just chill out."
And then he just went quiet.
Didn't hear from him after that.
I spoke to Luke at
half-past eight, Saturday evening.
He said to me that he was
at his friend, Greg's.
And I just thought,
you know, "He's safe."
Sometime while he was out,
Dannylee showed up at the door
asking where Luke was.
I told him Luke had gone out
to hang out with a mate,
then they went on their way.
At three in the morning,
I was still at Sonny's house.
All of a sudden, "Bam, bam, bam."
I looked out the window,
it was the Old Bill.
So, I'm like, "Oh, crap,
what's going on here?"
I shouted upstairs,
called Sonny's mum.
They told me there and then
that Sonny had had a serious crash.
He's in the hospital.
Got to the hospital, and it was then
when it really hit me.
They had to put him in a coma,
and to see all these machines,
bolts in his brain,
couldn't breathe, he was on
a respirator.
He literally had a 50-50
chance of living.
When I got there, I couldn't
really look at Sonny.
I never want to see anyone
like that, and especially one
of my mates. He always wanted
to do something fun,
like, enjoy himself. We just got
along, that was it.
That was probably the worst
night of my life.
Nothing prepares you for children
to die before you.
When a mother loses a child,
or even thinks they're going to lose
their child, it's a despair
that you can't explain.
Danny, you are under investigation
at the moment, all right?
Because you are suspected
of driving whilst unfit to do so
through drink or drugs.
Do you consent to provide a specimen
of blood which will be taken
by a doctor? Yeah.
Come to about three
o'clock in the morning,
I get a knock on the door.
My first thought is, "OK,
Luke is home really late
"and I'm going to kill him."
Put my dressing gown on,
I go downstairs, open the door,
two police officers standing there.
About half-past three,
my phone rang.
I was actually away for the weekend,
and it was my oldest son,
Adam, and he told me
that it was about Luke.
I said to him, "What's he done?"
And he said, "They need
to come and see you."
And it's really strange,
the things that go through your head
in a split second.
It was silly things like,
you know, he'd been caught camping
illegally and was spending
the night in the cells.
In my head, I just went,
"Let him spend the night there,
"he will learn."
I just had to tell her,
over the phone,
I had to tell her that Luke's dead.
That's the hardest
thing I've ever done.
Dannylee, unfortunately,
this is quite serious
and you're going to have
to listen to what I say, OK?
I'm now arresting you on suspicion
of causing death
by dangerous driving, OK?
I'm also further arresting
you on causing death whilst driving
whilst uninsured and unlicensed.
If Dannylee said jump,
Luke would be in the air
saying, "How high?"
Which wasn't often
the case with Luke.
He trusted Dannylee, as I did.
He was welcomed in
as part of the family.
You put your trust in someone,
and then, you know,
it's just the wrong person.
Unfortunately, things
have gone a little bit wrong.
The next day, the investigation's
handed over to our team,
the Serious Collision
Investigation Unit.
For us, it wasn't a unique
investigation, or a unique
set of circumstances.
By far, the highest statistic
for people that are killed
or injured in crashes
is young males.
The more passengers
you have in your car,
the more likelihood is
there's going to be a crash.
This is the one that clearly shows
the tree that's done the damage.
The day after the crash,
we were faced with one fatality,
one seriously injured,
and we had one in custody,
Dannylee Ross-Barringer.
I don't know if there's some
pictures in there when they put
it back on its wheels. I think
they're probably here somewhere.
On the face of it,
it was quite a simple investigation.
However, after he was arrested,
Dannylee changed his account.
He goes from saying
that he was the driver of the car
at the time of the crash to saying
that it was his cousin,
Zax Ross-Harris,
who was driving the car at the time.
However, there was no-one else
at the scene.
It was just two lads in the
back of the car, and Dannylee.
Nevertheless, the cousin was visited
by police in the early hours
of the morning.
The good news is that, Zax,
you're not one of the persons that's
unconscious, so we've
established that.
He was in bed, he had no injuries.
And you were with Dad
tonight after work.
You went to the...
Harbour Lights, OK.
He had an alibi for where
he was at the time.
We were faced with trying to
work out what was going on.
Why Danny changed his
story we don't know.
Whether it was to cover
up for his own wrongdoing,
to get himself out of trouble
or was he just telling the truth?
Whatever reason,
it's a homicide, essentially,
and we need to investigate
that to the fullest.
I found out the next day.
Some of Luke's family came round,
and they said he was gone.
I was sitting there in shock
for about an hour or so.
I posted it to Facebook and let
all of his friends know.
I was out playing football
with Greg's brother.
We got this phone call
from Greg's mum, and she said,
"Get back quick." I was like,
"Why is she saying that?
"There must be something wrong."
So, I was checking
Facebook, saw RIP Luke.
I was like, "What?"
We literally just ran, and ran,
and ran,
until we got to the front door.
It was just devastating.
He was like a brother to us.
I met Luke in school.
There were some kids
who were picking on me.
And Luke stepped in to try and stop
them, but it went downhill
and we both got thrown into a bush.
Luke was one of them people
everyone knew in Paulsgrove,
and everyone got along with him.
His personality was phenomenal.
He wasn't ashamed of who he was.
MUSIC: All Of Me
by Jasmine Thompson
At college, he did
drama and theatre art.
He absolutely loved
expressing himself.
He said that he'd want
to start on the stage,
and then progress to film.
And then he'd giggle and say, "Cos
that's where the money is, Mum."
He just brought everyone to life.
Me, Greg, Danny and
Luke were all close.
We were really shy, and Dannylee,
he had so much confidence.
It did destroy us as a unit.
We obviously lost all
respect for Dannylee.
We trusted him. We never thought
he could do something like that.
OK, your first name, is it Dannylee
as in one name? Yes. OK.
You've obviously been arrested last
night on suspicion of causing death
by dangerous driving.
I was tasked to conduct the first
interview with Dannylee.
You all right?
Whilst Danny had said
his cousin was driving,
there was a big part
of me that thought,
"He'll just admit to it."
He was just going to want to get
this dealt with and off his chest.
So, just start, tell me
all about yesterday
and everything that happened.
It's fair to say he was concerned
about those people that were
involved in the crash.
Yeah, right, we can live with that.
But my feelings at that time was,
"Was this genuine remorse?
"Was it guilt? Was it him trying
to cover up his tracks?"
It was all a bit difficult to work
out where his emotions were at.
In the interview,
he maintained that account.
"It wasn't me driving,
it was Zax driving."
Obviously, there are a number
of times when you admit
to being the driver.
Everyone is different, aren't they?
Everyone deals with
things differently.
I felt that Dannylee was lying.
We had a lot of work to do,
to prove that he was lying.
So, we'll start with the car.
What car is it?
OK. Any concerns with
the steering at all?
He was clearly quite
passionate about his car,
the way he talked about it.
As to whether he would let
his cousin drive it, I don't know.
Any more questions at the moment?
Right, the time when
I'm pressing stop is 19.08,
and we'll turn the recorders off.
Paulsgrove, everyone knows everyone.
Sonny's mum, she was close
to Dannylee's uncle.
Dannylee and Sonny, they considered
each other like family.
Them two were like always
into the same type of stuff,
like, punk rock and things
I would never do.
But I guess that's when Sonny mostly
come out of his shell,
was around Dannylee.
He wanted to
be in with him.
But he seemed all right,
to be honest, Dannylee.
But I think he thought
he was a bit, you know,
"Yeah, I've got a car, mate,"
flashy type of geezer.
Dannylee's car was his
prized possession.
He wouldn't let no-one drive it.
It was like his baby.
It's like any guy, when you first
get your first car,
it's the best thing.
Like, you've got freedom,
you can do what you want.
Everyone wants to take
it out for a spin,
like, "Let me jump in it, mate,"
you know?
Usually, when people do that, it's
like, go up the top of the hill
and have a burger.
The hill is a beautiful place.
A lot of people love
to go up there and see
the view over Portsmouth.
A lot of young people
like to drive along the road
and test their car's speed.
What's the point in getting a car
if you can't rag it about a bit,
you know, have a bit of fun?
It's dangerous, in a way, yeah.
It's dangerous.
But I think people think,
like, "Enjoy yourself.
"This is our time,
we're young," you know?
If Danny's account
was true at that point,
it meant Zax had run
away from the scene,
left two dying boys
in the back of the car,
and left his cousin
Danny to take the rap
for what ultimately he'd done.
If Danny's account was true.
If you could please state
your name and date of birth.
After the interview with Dannylee,
we had a lot of questions
we had to put to Zax.
Whilst he did have some minor
injuries, they were explainable.
The purpose of the first interview
was very much just to get a bit
more detail about where
he had been that evening.
But also, it was quite important
to get his reaction at that early
stage as to what Dannylee had said.
Zax gave the account
that he had been at work all day,
and then after work had gone
to the pub with his dad.
He certainly was the polar
opposite to Danny.
He wasn't upset,
he wasn't emotional.
The fact that he was so chilled,
there's two ways to look at it.
He just doesn't care,
or the other option is,
he knows he's not responsible
and he's got nothing to worry about.
When anyone young loses their life,
it just has ripples
throughout families, communities,
but in a close-knit
community like this,
it really had a massive effect.
Finding out they were out on bail,
it was like, "What the fuck?"
Sonny's still, you know, in a coma.
I heard a lot of gossip
going around on the street,
sort of Danny is getting a lot
of hatred thrown at him,
him being called a murderer.
Zax, people were starting on him.
Everyone likes to get involved in
a bit of drama, I guess.
I couldn't go out and do
my normal shopping.
The fear of bumping into them,
I didn't know what my
reaction would be.
There was loads of
people talking about,
"No, he was driving,
no, he was driving."
It was driving us insane.
You want to blame someone
in that situation.
The whole time, I knew that one
of them's lying,
and one of them's telling the truth.
It was torture.
So, to corroborate Zax's account,
we started off by just going back
where he told us he'd been.
We got statements from two
bar staff at the pub
where Zax had been drinking.
They were able to remember
him being in the pub.
From the receipts,
we could conclusively say
they've consumed at least
seven to eight pints.
It was, in fact, the bar staff
that called the taxi that took them
to the kebab shop.
We found the CCTV evidence of both
Zax and his dad in the kebab shop.
It's apparent that they're both
drunk, but particularly Zax.
And in his account, they went home,
ate the food and went to bed.
There was quite a lot of Zax's story
that was corroborated
by the evidence
that we were gathering.
It was just the timing
wasn't quite right.
In fact, they'd left some time
earlier than he'd said.
The one person that could tell us
what was taking place
inside that car,
without any doubt, was Sonny.
He's the only one that knew
what went down that night.
He knows what...
..what's gone on. And if he doesn't
wake up, how are we going to know?
And if he wakes up,
is he going to remember?
All them things that'll
go through your mind.
When I was sat next to his bed,
I remember stroking his arm
as gently as I could. I said,
"Mummy's here, it's OK, darling.
"I'm right next to you."
He just looked like a little boy.
Just laying there.
Even though he was bigger
than the hospital bed,
he was a fragile little boy.
They were trying to wean Sonny
off the morphine to bring him
out of the coma. They were worried.
No-one really knew how his brain
was going to be after he came
out of the coma.
But he came out the coma,
so I screamed for the nurses.
They didn't panic at all.
They're used to it.
I was the one that was
like, "Oh, my God!"
I stroked his hair,
I told him it was OK.
I just wanted my boy.
As soon as he woke up,
it was about Luke.
As soon as his eyes opened up,
"Mum, where's Laura? Laura's dead."
See, he was so confused.
What could you remember?
Nothing, really. I just...
Yeah... Just Luke. That's just the
main thing that stuck in my head.
Yeah...
Sorry, I was miles away. Miles away.
But as soon as I got up,
that was one of the very first
things I said, was about Laura.
"Make sure that he's OK."
It's all I was concerned about.
Luke is Laura, an alter ego
type thing.
And, apparently, that's
what I just kept saying to my mum.
"Laura, is Laura OK?
Is Laura dead?"
Laura was Luke's female persona.
He was really good at
creating characters
and just diving into them.
Laura was a fun-loving girl.
She just wanted to enjoy herself.
At first it was a bit, "OK."
But you know, he was just,
he was very funny.
I thought so, anyway.
His confidence when he was
Laura was just amazing.
He wasn't afraid of who he was.
We all loved him for it.
On the night of the crash,
we were at Greg's.
Luke was dressed in men's clothes,
but he was wearing the purple wig
and make-up.
We were writing stories online,
and we'd had a few drinks.
We were all having a laugh
until Luke was invited
to go out for a drive.
Danny called him on Facebook.
He asked us all to go
out for a drive.
We all said no.
Luke said yes.
We didn't want him to go, because we
wanted him to stay with us.
I just had a bad feeling.
But he was insistent on going.
In the end, I told Luke to have fun
and I'd see him in the morning.
I think it was about a month
after I come out of hospital,
if not a little bit longer,
I then went and did the interview.
Right, the videos are running. OK.
I told them what I could remember.
My job is to try and get an account
from you about what you witnessed.
Some of the stuff, I'd got answers
to, some of the stuff, I didn't.
Your account, your truthful
account, is important.
It all just gets a bit hazy.
I can't remember what come
before when, or anything like that.
Do you remember seeing
or hearing or feeling anything
that may have been a reason why
the car went out of control?
I don't think I can remember
an occasion when someone
with a significant head injury
has woken up and been able
to remember anything,
so it was a surprise,
what he had to say.
There were some vague parts,
but his account was very much
in line with what one of the other
two lads had already told us.
So, before the crash,
before the accident happened,
how was the driving at that point?
He specifically remembered that Zax
was driving the car at the time
of the crash.
Having said that, there was a big
concern around the evidence
that Sonny provided us.
And the concern being, is Sonny
going to try and protect Danny?
So, Dannylee, how do you know him?
Sonny and Dannylee were close,
the wider families are close.
If we were to talk
about allegiances,
then Sonny had a much greater
allegiance to Danny,
so I was sceptical, could this still
be a fabricated account
Danny has fed to Sonny?
At what point did
you remember what had happened?
OK, so, literally as
soon as you woke up?
If I'm sat there thinking,
this could be an attempt to frame
Zax and get Danny out of trouble,
then at a trial at a later date,
it's certainly something a defence
lawyer may try and suggest.
Brilliant. Nothing else? OK.
At this stage, I genuinely had no
idea who was driving that car.
And that's it. We'll get you home.
During the investigation,
we ended up in total seizing
seven mobile phones.
All seven phones were
submitted for analysis.
What that meant was,
we could read through the text
messages that were sent between both
Zax and Danny on that night.
Text conversation, it starts
off with a text message
from Dannylee's phone
to Zax's phone.
Zax's phone replies.
Then it goes back, saying,
"Do you fancy putting a tenner
"in the car and coming
out for a drive?"
There's a bit of a gap,
and then there's a message
from Dannylee's phone.
It was clear from the evidence
that Zax had agreed
to go out for a drive.
One of the other enquiries
that we made was in relation
to the petrol station.
So, the account given by Dannylee
gave us the petrol station
that they went to.
We then got the CCTV.
What that showed us is that the car
driven by Dannylee arrives
on the forecourt, and then we see
two lads walk up to the petrol pump.
And then a person walks
towards the night kiosk.
Quite clearly, that is Zax.
So, after they filled
up with petrol,
Zax gets into the back of the car.
We now have evidence
that clearly disputes
what we've been told by Zax.
So, we know, at that point,
Zax is in the car with
Dannylee and Sonny.
This was before they picked up Luke,
so it's just the three of them
in the car.
But what the CCTV doesn't show
is anyone other than Dannylee
driving the car.
And we still can't say whether Zax
was even in the car when it crashed.
We now know Zax has lied to us.
You're now at that point
where you think, I am going to prove
which one of these two was driving.
I am going to get
an answer for the family.
We are going to prosecute
someone for this.
We had exhausted witnesses,
we had exhausted CCTV.
I knew that it was going
to come down to forensics.
We had one chance left,
which was around testing the seat
belts for fibre-plastic fusion.
When a vehicle hits something,
it's had an accident,
that energy of somebody
being thrown against the seat belt,
it's a bit like you having a rope
pulled through your hands
and the heat and the rope
burn that you get.
Well, that's what the seat belt
does to the clothing.
The energy transforms into heat,
and then at that split second,
it will melt the clothing.
So, if we can find this melted
material on the seat belts
that could have originated
from the jackets that they were
wearing, we could identify
who was driving that vehicle
at the point of the accident.
I was apprehensive about
these sorts of tests.
It's not something that
has a particularly high success
rate, and with forensic testing,
there's always a long wait.
It took a long time for them
to sort the investigation.
None of my questions seemed
to be being answered.
At the time,
it was really difficult.
Well, I'm his mum, I should know.
You know, I'm allowed to know.
And they were all, "No, you're not."
It's really frustrating,
really frustrating.
And it was a lot of crying.
Luke was the gel that seemed
to make everything work,
and he made our family work.
There you go, sweetie.
I thought it was Dannylee driving.
What young man lets someone
else drive their car?
We were a long way into
the investigation by the time we got
all of the forensic evidence
around the seat belts.
As you're about to open the report,
this is make or break,
really. This is going to solve
the investigation,
or we're going to be in a position
where we still don't know.
Having read the report,
it was a massive relief,
massive relief.
The front passenger seat
had the fibre-plastic fusion -
we could prove who was actually sat
in that seat at the time
of the accident.
Also, we'd found about ten hairs,
all with roots on,
from the driver's seat belt.
The laboratory reported back that,
in their opinion,
those would have been pulled
from the head at the point
of the impact.
They went on to do DNA analysis,
and that came back with
a full profile.
We made the decision to bring both
cousins back in for interview.
We needed to interview both of them,
to challenge their account.
But from the evidence
we had established at that point,
there was only really
one main suspect.
We knew who the driver
was of that car.
But he has to have the opportunity
to see the evidence
and make comment on it.
There's also an element of,
this might be the point he decides,
"I'm going to admit to what
I've done."
The tactic for the interview
was to bring the evidence in,
one piece of evidence at the time.
So, if he lied each time,
we could just disprove
what he was saying.
Just to show, really,
that the account he was giving
was just not plausible.
But you told me that you'd never
been in the car, so...
Eventually we got
to the forensic evidence.
He basically then closed down.
The interview went exactly to plan,
he couldn't explain anything away.
We proved everything
he said was a pack of lies.
It ended with
an aggressive, angry Zax.
We have no idea how he got home
or what route he took to get away
from the scene, but we knew Zax
was the driver on that night
when the car came off the road.
It turned out that Dannylee was
telling the truth, and so was Sonny.
Luke was such a laugh
to have around.
As soon as we got in the car,
everyone was laughing
and having a good time.
Zax was proper, "Come on, cuz,
let me drive.
"Give me a driving lesson."
As soon as they switched,
it was a hell of a lot faster
than what the speed limits were.
Yeah, he was just laughing
and joking around.
"OK, cool, we'll go faster,
we'll go faster."
"No, we don't want to go faster."
I genuinely thought he was either
drunk, or on something
because he was too hectic.
Luke's seat belt didn't work
properly, he was just kind of
holding it in place.
He should have...
he should have slowed down.
At the end of the day, I feel sorry
for everyone in that car.
Even Zax.
You know, he's killed someone.
He's got to live with that.
Dannylee - you know, he's got
to live with the fact
that he's lost his best mate.
He's got to live with the fact
that he was the one who had the car.
Sonny, I feel sorry for like,
he's not the same,
he's never going to be the same.
I don't think I was this paranoid
with people before my accident.
I fly off the handle a hell of
a lot more than I used to.
It's like something small will
happen, or something will slightly
change, and it will just completely
do my head in
and I won't be able to cope with it.
I felt bad towards Dannylee
in the beginning,
I felt that he felt
too guilty over it.
I can't really have that much
of an issue with him
if he's holding his hands
up to what he's done.
But with Zax, I really
could not give a damn.
He wasn't man enough to hold his
hands up and admit what he's done.
I blame Dannylee as much as I blame
Zax for Luke's death.
In some ways a little bit more.
Had it not been for Dannylee,
Luke wouldn't have been in the car.
It just goes through
your head, "Why Luke?"
You know, "Why was it Luke that was
killed, and not the driver or,
"you know, the front
seat passenger, why was it him?"
I know it's selfish, but it does
go through your head.
Luke was innocent...
..and it's not fair.
# You can't cry
# Put your glad rags on
and let's sing along
# To that lonely song
# You're the train that crashed
my heart
# You're the glitter in the dark
# Oh, Laura
# You're more than a superstar. #