ITV is releasing a new docuseries about a killer who beat his wife to death.
Robert Brown fatally beat his 46-year-old wife Joanna Simpson with a claw hammer in their family home in October 2010, as their two young children cowered in a playroom. Just a week before the finalisation of their divorce, Brown dumped Joanna’s body in a makeshift coffin in Windsor Great Park.
In 2011, the former British Airways pilot was cleared of murder after a trial, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, with a psychiatric report saying he suffered from an “adjustment disorder”, PA reports.
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He was sentenced to 26 years in prison and has since served 13 years of his sentence. He was due to be freed last November but Joanna’s family started a campaign against his release, the Mirror reported.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain last year, mum Diana said: “I worry about women that he might get involved with. The public. He’s going to seek revenge. He’s going to blame everybody else but himself.
“He shows no remorse whatsoever. He said he would tell the children why he killed their mother. It is just unbelievable how foul he is.”
Last October, Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk used new powers to have Brown’s case reviewed by the parole board, meaning he would not automatically be released on licence. But Brown’s lawyers argued that he had been “subjected to a high-profile campaign through the media and with politicians that has sought to block his release”.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) rejected his allegations, arguing that Mr Chalk “in no way seeks to ‘go behind’ or ‘disapply’ or ‘fail to respect’ the sentencing court’s decision”. According to PA, a final ruling on the appeal is expected at a later date.
ITV: The British Airways Killer
ITV previously announced a new two-part documentary that will explore the death of Joanna Simpson, a wealthy heiress who was killed by her husband, a British Airways pilot. With access to unseen police interview tapes, the programme tracks the Thames Valley Police Major Crime Unit’s complex investigation and speaks to her friends and family to paint a vivid picture of the crime and its aftermath.
The description reads: “When the mother-of-two disappeared from their house in an affluent area of Ascot on Halloween night in 2010, Brown called police the next morning to report a domestic issue.
“Yet when he handed himself in, he refused to help police with their missing persons investigation, despite having brutally bludgeoned her to death with her children listening in their playroom. Eventually he confessed that he had killed her and told the police where to find the body.
“This documentary tracks the case from that first phone call to the tragic discovery of her remains in a shallow grave in Windsor Great Park, to his conviction and the consequences – taking in an acrimonious divorce and the pre-nuptial agreement of a wealthy heiress that was to change British legal history.”
There will be two episodes starting on February 26 at 9pm on ITV1.
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