The Crime Agents

Within hours of 97 Liverpool fans being crushed to death at an FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, a story was already circulating: that the fans had done it to themselves. Four days later, The Sun printed an infamous front page - "The Truth" - and a lie that would last 27 years was set in stone. So where did that story come from, and how did it survive decade after decade of official scrutiny?
Andy and Neil are joined by LBC presenter Shelagh Fogarty, who was a journalistic apprentice in Liverpool in April 1989. She describes the day itself: the hundreds of Liverpool families who set off across the Pennines with no way of knowing whether the people they loved were alive or dead, and the furious supporters who made it home and went on the airwaves in an attempt to stop the smear campaign against them.
Together they unpick how the cover-up began almost immediately, who gained from it, and the role the media played in carrying it. They examine the case of David Duckenfield, the newly promoted Chief Superintendent commanding his first big match, and why families believe the system failed to hold anyone to account. They also ask what the disaster changed in football, in policing, and in how the British state behaves when it's caught in a lie. Ninety-seven people were unlawfully killed. Nobody has ever been convicted. Was this the biggest police cover-up in British history?
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When MPs talk about the death threats they face online, are they making a genuine plea for protection or building the case for something bigger? Andy and Neil take on the question of whether the abuse politicians face is being used to push the digital ID agenda, and where that leaves free speech. Would digital ID actually stop the threats? And what does Neil - a former head of UK Counter-Terrorism Policing - make of the idea that online anonymity is the real problem?
Then to something that decides whether justice gets done at all: the relationship between the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. How closely do the two work during an investigation, when does the CPS actually get involved, and what happens when detectives are convinced they have enough to charge and the CPS disagrees? Are the CPS a friend to the police - or a foe?
Plus: Sir Mark Rowley wants the 43 police forces of England and Wales merged into fewer, larger regional ones. Is that a serious fix, or asking turkeys to vote for Christmas when Chief Constables would be voting themselves out of a job? And last but not least: is 30 too old to become a police officer? And can a career as a detective ever fit around raising a family?
Have a question for a future Q&A? Send it via email to thecrimeagents@global.com or follow us on social media: @thecrimeagents
The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

PC David Carrick was one of the most prolific sex offenders in British history and for nearly two decades, he abused women while carrying a warrant card and a gun. Complaints were made about him before he joined the police, and again and again during his career, but he was only stopped after he had assaulted dozens of victims. So how did a man like this pass vetting and then stay on the police payroll for so long?
Neil - who for several years ran the firearms command that both Carrick and Wayne Couzens served in - reveals the cultural problems in a unit described as a 'dark corner' of the Met. He and Andy explain the vetting failures that allowed Carrick into the police in the first place, and the subsequent failings which meant his crimes were never properly investigated until it was far too late.
Andy also tells the story of his exclusive interview with one of Carrick's victims, who described the reality of his abuse: being locked inside the house, cameras installed to monitor her, being denied food, and being told she wasn't allowed to speak on one of the rare occasions he let her meet his fellow officers socially.
They explain how Carrick was finally caught and debate whether policing is doing enough to address the cultural issues laid bare by this case and the murder of Sarah Everard.
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The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle believe their family isn't safe in the UK. So who decides if that's true? And who should pay if the decision is made to give them police protection? Neil ran the Met's Royal Protection unit for several years and in that role was responsible for Harry & Meghan's security before they left Britain for America. Here, Neil reveals how the system really works and details the nature of the threats the Duke & Duchess are likely to face now they're back in Britain.
Then the fatal crash in Middlesbrough. What does justice look like in this case? And is this evidence that dangerous driving has become commonplace on our roads? Andy and Neil also tackle the pace of the investigation: 17 arrests within a few days. Neil explains whether police really do pull out all the stops when their colleagues are killed in the line of duty.
Plus they look at the Lindsay Clancy trial: do American and British justice systems need to deal with cases potentially involving severe post-partum mental illness more sensitively?
Have a question for a future Q&A? Send it via email to thecrimeagents@global.com or follow us on social media: @thecrimeagents
The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.

In March 2021, Sarah Everard walked home from a friend's flat in Clapham. She never arrived. Her face went up on lampposts across south London, her name spread across the country, and within a week police had arrested a suspect: a serving Metropolitan Police officer.
Neil reveals how he felt in the moment that he learned the suspect was an officer serving under his command. Andy was living locally and watched a local missing person appeal become a national story. Drawing on conversations with detectives who worked the case, they explain how investigators identified Wayne Couzens, and what it was like for officers to build a murder case against one of their own.
Together they discuss what it says about police culture that a man nicknamed 'the rapist' by his colleagues had been allowed to stay in uniform, and whether this was the biggest crisis the Met's leadership has ever faced. They examine the Clapham Common vigil and whether the force's handling of it was defensible, why Dame Cressida Dick lost her job, and whether women and girls will ever feel like they can trust the police again.
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The Crime Agents is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.