The Body in the Cellar

When detectives discover the body of 27-year-old Shakir Khan at a property in Bradford where Mohammed Ayub was living, he claimed the victim turned up at his door already fatally hurt. Blood spatter inside the property told a different story, and he was arrested.

During the search, investigators noticed that the cellar floor had been crudely covered up with concrete, which appeared unusual. After looking into Ayub’s background, they discovered he had a history of violence and sexual offences. They also discovered that one of the children from the house, 15-year-old Nicola Iqbal, was missing. Her mother had let Ayub move in with them not long after they started a relationship.

Unable to locate Nicola, and after suspecting the floor of the cellar had been recently tampered with, investigators brought in forensic archaeologist John Hunter, who faced a sizeable challenge investigating the confined space. Despite facing issues throughout the dig, John located and removed Nicola’s body. He had finally unearthed the truth, and Ayub was convicted of two murders. The programme includes powerful interviews from Nicola’s sister Bernie Gladwin, PC Mark Plovie and journalist Alun Palmer.

Next, when police raid a family home in Birmingham in 2022, they are stunned to find an arsenal of weapons that included what appeared to be two homemade guns. They also seized digital devices and a 3D printer. The homeowner, David Biddell-Portman, was immediately arrested.

It’s a worrying development in the war against gun crime and investigators needed to know if these handmade firearms were made by Biddell-Portman, why he made them and whether they were viable and therefore, deadly weapons.

Biddell-Portman was uncooperative during questioning, but digital forensic officer Wayne Johnson’s analysis of his computer files revealed he did make the weapons using his own 3D printer. But was it the pastime of a hobbyist or something more sinister or gang-related?

Professor Mark Williams, an expert witness in the field of scanning and visualisation at Warwick University, was brought in to use CT-scanning technology in the quest to identify how the guns were made – were they just plastic, toy-like imitations or capable of expelling bullets.

Noting the amount of metal and sophisticated components, he concluded that the firearms could be fired and checked the barrels to establish if they were cleared for testing.

If the guns could fire live rounds, they would be considered viable weapons, and that would earn Biddell-Portman a conviction. Once tested at the shooting range, the guns fired successfully and Biddell-Portman was charged with the manufacture of a deadly weapon and given a five-year prison sentence.