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Join Rachel and Hannah on the Sinister South Podcast as they explore the shadowy corners of South London. Each episode digs into the gritty true crime stories that have left their mark on the local streets of South London. They’ll introduce you to the victims and dissect the mysteries while giving you a taste of the places these dramas unfolded. It’s not all doom and gloom; Rach and Han also have plenty of nonsense to chat about! So whether you're a true crime buff or just curious about the darker tales from their neck of the woods, pull up a chair, tune in and join the mischief!
Want to get in touch with us, or request an episode? You can email us here: sinistersouthpodcast@gmail.com
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This week we’re diving into one of South London’s darkest and most infamous stories. The rise and fall of the Richardson Gang. A firm built on scrap metal, long-firm frauds, fruit machines, corrupt officers, brutal punishments and a level of violence that made even seasoned detectives say the Richardsons were far worse than the Krays. We take you all the way from wartime Camberwell and the brothers’ chaotic childhood, through their early crimes, the building of the firm, the feud with the twi...
A plausible-looking PhD student at University College London, living the student life — until the mask slipped. Zhenhao Zou invited women to his flat under the guise of study or drinks, used drugs to incapacitate them, then filmed the assaults. In this episode, we trace how the investigation unfolded — dating apps, his flat in London, hidden cameras, SD cards full of footage. We dig into how trust was weaponised, how the predator hid in plain sight, and what that means for us who never expect...
This week, we kick things off with talk of fireworks, chaotic bonfire night crowds, and Hannah dropping some insanely awesome news (the kind that actually makes us both a bit emotional). But after that burst of brightness, we take a sharp turn — back to South London in the summer of 1986. When a neighbour forced open the door to a flat on St Alphonsus Road, she walked straight into a scene of horror. Inside were the bodies of Susan Tetrault and Brian Price, brutally murdered as they slept. Wh...
The Halloween Compendium Four Halloween nights. Four South London stories. None with a happy ending. This episode brings together the cases of Scotty Kouebitra, Rocky Djelal, Ben Gardner, and Richard Price, four men whose lives ended in acts of violence that should never have happened. From Croydon to Southwark, pubs to parks, we look at how ordinary nights — fireworks, parties, and quick pints — turned fatal. Ben, beaten to death after three men stole his girlfriend’s hat. Scotty, chased dow...
We start this one with a bit of chaos, as usual, a catch-up about gigs, half term, the price of fireworks and the ongoing trauma of David Walliams audiobooks (because honestly, why is he everywhere?). But once we’ve had our rant, we’re heading back to South London for a story that’s as shocking as it is tragic. In December 1969, Wimbledon was the picture of quiet suburbia, Christmas lights, family dinners, and that post-holiday haze where no one quite knows what day it is. But on Arthur Road,...
After a chaotic catch-up involving friendship break-ups, ignored WhatsApp messages, and the glamour of eating Super Noodles in the bath, we take a sharp turn into the gas-lit streets of Victorian Lambeth. This week, we’re heading back to 1891 to meet Thomas Neill Cream – a doctor with a taste for power, poison, and blackmail. Known to history as The Lambeth Poisoner, Cream left a trail of women dead across three continents, fuelled by arrogance and strychnine. From letters to MPs and absurd r...
On Boxing Day 1988, a 57-year-old woman returned home to her Bermondsey flat after spending Christmas with family. Inside, someone was waiting. Over the next 18 months, four elderly women across Southwark and Rotherhithe would be brutally attacked in their own homes by the same man — Michael John Roberts. The press called him the Praying Rapist and the Beast of Bermondsey, a violent predator who stalked South London’s most vulnerable residents for nearly two years before vanishing without tra...
In this week's episode, we cover the devastating case of three-year-old Daniel Evbuomwan, who was murdered in a house in Downham by his own uncle, Ben Igbinedion. It's a case that shocked the local community, not only because of Daniel's young age but because of the disturbing circumstances behind his death. We talk through who Daniel was, what happened in the lead up to that terrible day, and how the investigation unfolded. Trigger warning right off the bat... this ones desperately ups...
In October 2009, two men were brutally murdered inside a flat in West Norwood, South London. Donald MacPherson, a Scottish chef and grandfather, and Luciano Schiano, a familiar face on Streatham High Street where he sold The Big Issue, were attacked with a level of violence detectives later said “beggared description.” Before we get into the grim detail though, there’s the usual warm-up: Han having to tense herself up all over again after our trip to what can only be described as a home for t...
In the summer of 1998, 30-year-old mother and DJ Avril “Miss Irie” Johnson was brutally murdered in her own home in Tulse Hill. Armed men forced their way in, tied up her family, and executed Avril in front of her husband and two young daughters. Her death became part of a wider spree of violence that shook London and helped shape the launch of Operation Trident. In this episode, we walk through Avril’s life, her love of music, the terrifying events of that night, and the trial that fol...
We're back in Victorian South London with a case so grim it became known as the Barnes mystery. In March 1879, widow Julia Martha Thomas hired a new servant, Kate Webster - a decision that would prove fatal. Within weeks Julia was dead, dismembered in her own kitchen copper, and Kate was strutting around Richmond in her employer's clothes, even trying to sell off the furniture. In this episode we unravel the murder, the cover-up, and the sensational Old Bailey trial that made Kate infam...
We're back! Season 3 is a go... what does season 3 do differently from season 2 you ask? Well... nothing really! HOWEVER... We're back with a big ol’ case – the brutal murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013. In this episode we cover the events of that shocking day, the life of Lee Rigby, and the aftermath that rippled far beyond South London. From the horrific attack in broad daylight, to the courage of bystanders, the trial of his killers, and the way far-right groups tried to hija...
We start this week chatting about Hannah’s all-consuming new farming obsession (no, not in real life – in a mobile game) and Rachel’s daughter delivering the line of the year to a would-be eight-year-old suitor. But soon we turn to the devastating story of Lakanal House. In July 2009, a fire tore through the Camberwell tower block, claiming the lives of Catherine Hickman, Dayana Francisquini, her children Thais and Felipe, and Helen Udoka with her newborn daughter Michelle. It exposed f...
Camberwell, South London. A quiet flat just off the main road. Nothing about it stood out—least of all the man inside. But for over a decade, Frederick Diji was running a romance scam so insidious, one victim sent him money for 14 years. Using fake names, false promises, and a soft voice on the other end of the phone, Diji—and his accomplice Raquel Johnson—manipulated over 80 victims into handing over more than £400,000. Their targets? Mostly older gay men. People less likely to report it. Le...
A teenage boy. A knock at the door. And a mother who made a devastating choice. In this episode, we tell the story of 17-year-old Levi Ernest-Morrison — a kind, funny, and thoughtful boy from Sydenham with a love of motorbikes, dreams of building a home in St Lucia, and a future ahead of him. Until the evening of 10th April 2021, when he was hunted down in the street by a group of teenagers wielding machetes — and never made it home. This story was featured in the BBC series The Met: Policing...
On a quiet summer night in Tooting, five litres of petrol were poured through a family's letterbox and lit. By morning sisters Nabiha and Maleha Masud were dying in hospital. The attack came without warning, leaving detectives and the girls grieving mother, desperate to understand why. Join Hannah and Rachel as they unpick a case of shocking entitlement and the devastating consequences of unchecked obsession. We also explore the legal aftermath, including rare appeals and how 'life' sen...
In this week’s episode of Sinister South, we revisit one of the most harrowing chapters in modern British policing – the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. On 22nd July 2005, just two weeks after the 7/7 London bombings, Jean Charles, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, was followed, misidentified, and shot seven times in the head by armed police at Stockwell Tube station. They believed he was a suicide bomber. He wasn't. We trace Jean Charles’ life before unpacking the chain of cata...
In the winter of 1988, 22-year-old Lorraine Benson left a work Christmas party in Clapham Junction and never made it home. Her murder shocked South London – not just because of its brutality, but because it exposed the serious failings in how violent offenders were being managed. In this episode, we look at the pioneering role of DNA in solving Lorraine’s case, the disturbing history of her killer John Dunn, and the wider questions her death raised about justice, parole, and whose lives are p...
In February 2011, 21-year-old Gagandip Singh was found in the boot of his burning car on a residential road in Blackheath. At first, police thought it might’ve been a stolen vehicle, torched for the hell of it, but what they uncovered was a calculated, deeply personal murder. Gagandip was a rising star in the Sikh community, running his own TV channel and trying to carry on his father’s legacy after a devastating loss. But behind the smiles of those around him, darker motives were at play, an...
In this episode, recorded amid cat flap dramas, church hall trauma, and a frankly terrifying inflatable dinosaur, we dive into one of the most disturbing and under-reported cases in South London’s history: the murder of Bulic Forsythe. In February 1993, Bulic a civil servant working in Lambeth Council’s social services department was found bludgeoned to death in his Brixton flat. The flat had been set on fire, the gas tampered with, and key documents were missing. Officially, the case remains...
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