ITV is airing a new two-part documentary on the killing of wealthy heiress Joanna Simpson. The 46-year-old was bludgeoned to death by her husband, British Airways pilot Robert Brown, in Ascot, Berkshire on October 31, 2010.
With access to unseen police interview tapes, the new documentary called The British Airways Killer tracks the Thames Valley Police Major Crime Unit’s complex investigation into the death of the mother of two, while also speaking to her friends and family who give a close insight into the crime and its aftermath. The documentary covers details of the investigation from Brown’s first phone call to the police to his conviction and subsequent legal history.
The documentary is split into two parts running over two nights on ITV1 – Monday, February 26 and Thursday, February 29 at 9pm.
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At the time of her death, Joanna and Brown had been going through a divorce, which was a week away from being finalised. She was running a successful five-star bed and breakfast in Ascot at the time of her murder.
In the new documentary, Joanna’s friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton talks about a moment during their relationship in which the mother said Brown had held a knife to her chest. “She said to me, and I’ve heard it from so many victims subsequently, that ‘His eyes went dark, almost black, cold, dark, black eyes,’ And he said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ So she was saying, you know, ‘What will happen to the children?’ He didn’t care about what would happen to the children.” Brown denied that he had threatened his ex-wife with a knife.
After Joanna told him she could no longer be with him, Ms Barkworth-Nanton says she believed he would kill her: “She genuinely believed that he was going to kill her, she was of no doubt whatsoever.”
On Halloween 2010, Brown visited the family home and battered Joanna to death with a claw hammer while her children, aged nine and 10, were in the playroom nearby. He then took the children to his partner’s house and buried their mother’s body in a pre-dug grave in Windsor Great Park, where it was discovered five days later.
Brown called the police the next morning to report a domestic issue. When he handed himself in, he initially refused to help police with their missing person’s investigation and only later confessed to her killing and told officers where her body was buried.
Joanna’s mother Diana Parkes speaks in the documentary about the moment she was alerted to something amiss at her daughter’s house, saying: “A friend rang and said, ‘Have you spoken to Jo this morning?’ And I said no, and he said, ‘I’ve had a worrying call…’ I was told there’s police tape around the house, and I just said, ‘He’s killed her.’ I just said that straight away, ‘He’s killed her.'”
Brown is currently in prison serving a 26-year sentence. He was cleared of murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
At his trial, the court was told Brown suffered from an adjustment disorder – and he was cleared of murder. He admitted the charge of manslaughter by diminished responsibility.
In interview tapes shown for the first time in the documentary, Brown is played back his initial phone call to police. When DC Melanie Ward asks him if the other person involved in the incident doesn’t need medical attention because they are dead, he replies: “No comment.”
PC Ward says in an interview undertaken for the documentary: “What ‘no comment’ says to me, it’s control. It’s easy to hide behind it but I don’t think Robert was hiding behind no comment, I think he was, that was his element of control.”
Brown was due to be released on licence in November after serving 13 years of the total sentence. However, his automatic release was blocked by the Government last October.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said at the time: “Joanna Simpson was bludgeoned and buried at the hands of Robert Brown, which left two children without a mother and caused irreparable harm to her family and loved ones. I made a commitment to Joanna’s family that I would give this case my closest personal attention.
“Having reviewed all the information available to me, I have blocked Brown’s automatic release and referred this case to the parole board using powers we introduced to protect the public from the most dangerous offenders.”
The British Airways Killer airs on ITV1 and ITVX on Monday, February 26, at 9pm. For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter.
