RedHanded - Episode 111 - Tortured to Death: Kelly Anne Bates

Episode Date: September 12, 2019

On the 16th of April 1996 James Patterson Smith walked into Gorton police station and told officers that his 17 year old girlfriend had drowned in the bath. This was of course a lie; Kelly Anne had sustained weeks of torture at the hands of Smith - and her story left even seasoned detectives and pathologists lost for words. So brutal was the crime that it was the first time in Manchester Crown Court that jurors were offered counselling, every single one accepted. This week’s episode is not for the faint of heart.  Sources: Britain's Darkest Taboos doc on Kelly Anne's case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SRFU2mMQg8&t=2553s   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, quick announcement before we kick off today's show. As you all definitely know by now, we're on our first ever UK tour. And to celebrate this, we're launching brand new merch. So for those of you who didn't get the chance to come see us on the road, or of course for those of you who did but prefer your shopping online,

the new merch store opens on Monday the 16th of September. But you can head over to the store now at redhandedshop.com and register your interest. So not only will you be the first to know when the store goes live, but you'll also get an exclusive 10% discount off your first order. and register your interest. So not only will you be the first to know when the store goes live, but you'll also get an exclusive 10% discount off your first order. We'll leave a link to the shop in the episode description.

Now on with the show. I'm Saruti. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed. So, usual message. Guys, this is, what, one week now before we're on tour? Well, when this comes out, it'll be like four days or something equally terrifying. The first show.

This is the Thursday. The first show is on the monday deep breaths i mean i assume i'm fine by then future saruti is fine she's fine it's like what exactly 14 days today so i'm like that's fine holy shit yeah it is that's two weeks away that's a whole fortnight away oh my god we. Fuck. We're doing all right. We've had notes. We have. Our Australian expert came in and gave us some... Top tips. Gave us some top tips, which was great to have another set of eyes on it because we've

just been in a dark room. Absolutely. Talking at each other. And you guys are buying tickets all over the place. It's great. It's so good. Buy some more though. That would be great.

If you haven't already, you should definitely buy them. We're also, we're going on the radio this week we are so that's a right stay tuned for that yeah thank you very much so that's it buy your tour tickets we'd love to see you there and with that we've got a pretty big tonal shift i'm gonna say yeah just just a wee one just a little one because um we're off to Manchester today for I'd say what is possibly the most brutal crime in at least modern English history I would say so you know I was thinking about that this morning and I was like I can't think of a more brutal one I just can't it's the murder of Kellyanne Bates you can obviously see that in the copy but just so we're all on the same page that's the one we're doing today I guess some of you might be thinking well this case of Suzanne Capper that we covered way back at the start um was pretty bloody brutal it's

definitely up there too you know I don't think you can really be like, well, this one's worse than that one. But let's just say we covered that a long time ago. And we honestly felt like we had to leave like a two year gap before we could even take this one on. We talked about this one before and we were like, it feels too soon. Let's wait. Because it's a lot. So fair warning. This case is horrific. And we will be discussing some unbelievably brutal examples of domestic abuse and violence. So just a fair warning that that is what's coming up today. Laura Richards, the psychologist and criminal behaviour analyst, described this case in quite a fitting way, I thought. She said that this was a horrific murder, but one that happened in slow motion. Kelly was born on the 18th of May 1978 in Hattersley,

which is a small town in Thameside, which is a borough of Greater Manchester in the north of England. Kelly's parents, Tommy and Margaret, were thrilled to have a baby girl. She was tiny when she was born, having arrived two weeks early, but her mum Margaret remembers her having a full head of thick, dark hair, even as a newborn. And Kelly, as a baby, was no trouble at all. Her parents felt blessed that she was the kind of kid that you had to wake up to feed. She just never cried. As the years passed, Kelly grew into a confident and independent girl.

At the local school, her maturity made her stand out and she came across as much older than she was. She was unbelievably confident. Kelly really wanted to play in the local hockey team, so she tried out and she got it. As a 13-year-old, Kelly was playing hockey with fully grown women. So everything seemed perfect. Kelly had fantastically supportive and loving parents.

She was doing well at school and she excelled in sport. But in 1992, the Bates family bliss was about to come crashing down. Because at just 14 years old, Kelly told her family that she had a boyfriend called Dave Smith. And at first, Kelly's mum Margaret didn't really ask too much about this. She said that she just presumed that this boy, Dave Smith, was just someone Kelly knew from school. So just like another kid that's the same age as her. But then the problems started. Kelly started staying out all night and disappearing for days at a time. At just 14, this would, of course, have been terrifying.

Like, at 14, I was like, just always in the house or at school. Oh, yeah. I wasn't allowed to do anything. No, I wasn't allowed to do anything. I think I was, like, that's maybe when I was first allowed to go to the town centre with my friends on my own, probably. I don't know what I was allowed to do at 14. Not much. I was definitely allowed to, like like take myself off to ballet and like

do that sort of stuff but I wasn't allowed to go because I went to school like three towns over from where I actually lived so for me in order for me to go and like hang out in town with everyone was like this whole rigmarole thing and I wasn't really allowed to do it my mum was like no you're not just going to go and stand on the street in Berkhamstead. No. Whatever it is that you and I were doing at 14, it definitely wasn't sort of disappearing for days at a time. My parents would have locked me in my room had I done that. But I'm not suggesting that's what Kelly's parents should have done. I'm just saying that's what my parents definitely would have done.

I think the thing as well for Kelly's mum, that not only is it terrifying that her 14-year-old is staying out for days at a time, but it's because it is so out of character for Kelly's mum that not only is it terrifying that her 14 year old is staying out for days at a time but it's because it's so out of character for Kelly. Up until then they'd never had any problems and suddenly this starts to happen as soon as this guy Dave Smith is on the scene and her parents also knew that while they had raised Kelly to be confident and independent she wasn't particularly street smart a lot of people say that about her like you do get that feeling I think she's had a very sheltered upbringing and I don't think she quote unquote would know how to like handle herself in a street environment does that make sense I suppose it does make sense. She wouldn't know

how to necessarily handle herself in a situation where she may have been unsafe. Yes. I think what people are trying to say when they say that is she's very independent, she's very confident, but maybe a little bit naive. Right. Yeah. She might not have been particularly good at spotting the warning signs of a dangerous situation. And she's 14. Like, I think I was naive until I was like, probably 25. So I think that's a fair point. But at this point, if Kelly's parents were worried that maybe this guy Dave Smith had something to do with her disappearing acts, Dave Smith started phoning the house and asking Margaret, Kelly's mum, about her daughter.

He would ask her things like, where was she? Was she okay? Had she come home? And you've got to remember that this is the first contact that Margaret had with Kelly's mystery boyfriend. And to her, initially these phone calls comforted her. Okay, so this guy isn't part of the problem. And here's a boy who really cared about Kelly. He was phoning home to check if she was okay. And it actually put Margaret at ease. And from this

point on, it would be another three months before Kelly's parents finally met Dave Smith. And good God, were they in for a shock when Kelly did bring him home. Dave was actually a lot older than Kelly. Kelly told Mr and Mrs Bates that Dave was 32. Kelly is 14 years old and also at this point I think on the phone there is quite a big difference between a 14 year old boy's voice and a 32 year old man's voice. I'm not really sure how they missed that one, honestly. I thought the same thing because, yeah, they don't meet him for like quite a while into their relationship, like months and months. But yeah, he was phoning home and Margaret didn't notice that

he didn't sound like a 14 yearyear-old boy? Like, 32? I guess you could put on a childlike voice, but I don't know. They weren't ever trying to lie to her and tell her that he was 14. I don't really think we need to give Margaret a hard time about anything, but it just seemed like an odd thing to not mention. To notice, I think.

Yes, right. And of course of course mr and mrs bates were not very happy with this at all and margaret recalls the first time she saw him standing there in her kitchen and she said the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she had an overwhelming urge to grab a knife and stab him she says now that the thought had really made her feel weird because she'd never thought that with anybody before she wasn't a violent person. Perhaps you could say it was mother's intuition for what was to come. But then you could also say it was just a sudden snap of internal rage at seeing this much older man romantically engaged with your 14 year old child. And I i think you know

as adults as people who've i mean obviously they're they're married so they've had romantic relationships at least once you know so they know what's coming next much more than kelly would do because if you're looking at this situation from the outside you're going to say he's 32 what the fuck is wrong with him that he wants to be around a 14 year old girl something is off here but kelly would not like see it that way if you see what i mean absolutely kelly just sees this as this older man who is um interested in her he's kind he's loving all of the good stuff but obviously kelly's parents are like what the fuck i would be a bit if you're a 32 year old man and you're going out with a 14 year old girlold girl, there is something wrong with you.

Oh, absolutely. And it gets so much worse. But whatever Kelly's parents initially thought, Kelly was able to convince them that everything was OK. I guess some people will find this shocking because she's 14. They are adults. They are her parents. She's able to convince them that her relationship with as much older man is okay. But she's always been so well behaved. She's always been, you know, so close to her family. I just think that she would have come across as happy. And I think her parents trust her so they believe her. And at first, maybe they think they think yes he's a lot older but she does seem to be happy about her choice and I think it's the classic thing of like raging teenagers where

raising teenagers where like they do become very very different people I remember my mum saying to me when I was at school she was like the difference between a kid who starts in year seven to year nine is terrifying because it's just three years but it's a completely different person and I think they probably would have been quite scared of pushing her away that is the general vibe you get throughout this entire case is that her family feel like we know that this isn't right we know that we don't want this to happen but what is our choice if we drag her away if we tell her not to do it, we're just going to lose her? That's what they say again and again. So they don't intervene, and Kelly continued to see this Dave Smith.

And as time went on, more and more of who this man really was started to emerge. And it eventually came out that he wasn't in fact 32, but he was 48. So he was a year older than Kelly's dad. That's unbelievable. If you're going to lie about your age, don't pick 32. Like, I mean, maybe he obviously couldn't pull off being like 20. Yeah, I think it was like the youngest age that they thought he could pass for. And they're like, well, say you're 32. And then later down down the line once you've sort of like got your feet under the table we'll

then reveal the fact that you're really 48 once they've met you and they like you they'll forgive you for it he's a year older than her dad that just makes my skin crawl but it didn't end there if you think that's bad enough because mr dave Dave Smith hadn't just been lying about his age, he'd been lying about his name, too. Because his real name was James Patterson Smith, or Jimmy Smith. And things started to make a bit more sense now for Margaret and Tommy. They had been asking around town if people knew a 32-year-old man named Dave Smith,

and everyone had said no, because that person doesn't exist. It's not his real name. What they should have been doing is asking around town if they knew a 48 year old man named James Patterson Smith and then they might have found out who this man really was. The worst thing for the Bates family though was that all along Kelly had known the truth and tragically by lying to her parents to protect James Smith she was isolating herself from them. Her parents had always trusted her and now thanks to this man that trust was being eroded and you can completely imagine the joy this would have given James Smith. Kelly keeping secrets from her family is the perfect wedge to drive her apart

from them. If there's anything we know about domestic abusers, the first step is to plan, then to separate, and then to isolate the victim from their family, friends and loved ones so you can maintain total control. And Smith knew that Kelly was lying to her parents about him, so he immediately knows that he can control Kelly. And this control escalated over the next weeks and months as he became more and more possessive. Kelly would start to spend all of her weekends with Smith.

She'd go after school on a Friday and wouldn't come home until Sunday. And when Kelly left his on a Sunday, he'd go with her to the bus stop and put her on a bus home. Then Smith would go straight home and call Kelly's mum, saying that he'd just put her on a bus home. Then Smith would go straight home and call Kelly's mum, saying that he'd just put her on a bus. Then he'd call again the second Kelly got in. And Margaret, in interviews with her, says as Kelly would walk through the door, the phone would ring. He knew exactly how long it should take Kelly to get home from his. And if she wasn't there when he called, he'd know that she'd gone somewhere else I think this is quite like from Kelly's mum's perspective it's probably like oh

well you know at least he's making sure she gets home okay it's not that he just wants to know where she is every second of every day he can have her for the weekends because she's at school that's when his control so like on the Sunday night when he sends her back that's when he doesn't have her anymore and he's trying to keep on top of that as much as he can. Absolutely. And I think you can see in these interviews that Margaret says at the time, just like you said, Hannah, that it made her feel comforted and a bit safe because here was this guy. Yes, he's a lot, lot older, but he does seem to protect her. But now when she looks back at it with hindsight, she feels just nothing but rage because they had raised her to be this independent confident young girl they didn't even keep tracks on her like this but here was this man

essentially a stranger doing that to her so margaret i think does start to eventually see this for what it is that he's controlling her but perhaps to kelly i think it's safe to say it could have seemed very romantic here's this man who just always wants to know where I am and just really, really cares about me. And also she's 14. She doesn't know anything else. No, exactly. Because the other thing that classic abusers do is to be hyper charming and super attentive towards their victims at the start. That kind of idea of like love bombing them to get them to just be totally consumed into this relationship.

And like you said, Hannah, to Kelly, for whom this would be her very first relationship, it would have felt like here's a man who's so interested, he cares about me, he wants to be with me all the time. I don't think we can underestimate just how flattering that would be. And we'll go more into the MO of domestic abusers as this story unfolds, but I do think that that is an important starting point for this case. By the time Kelly was 16, she and Smith were spending all of their time together, but things weren't looking so happy anymore. Kelly started to change. She stopped washing, her hair was greasy, she'd always walk bent over with her head down. And even her clothes changed.

She started to wear dark, baggy outfits. The bright and bubbly Kelly, who was sporty and wanted to grow up to be a teacher, was gone. And this kind of dissemination of self-esteem is a classic indicator of abuse. If you feel like you're worthless, you're less likely to leave your abuser because they've convinced you that you are nothing. Worse than nothing, but they are willing to put up with you, so you should be grateful, if anything. With Kelly's behaviour worsening, she'd stay out for days and not even contact her parents. Margaret told her that she'd had enough. She couldn't stand the worry anymore.

And to try and get Kelly to see the error of her ways, Margaret told her, as long as you're under my roof, you'll follow my rules, and that means no more disappearing. Which seems fair enough, honestly. If you're eating someone's food and using their electric, sorry, sorry teenagers out there, but you do have to follow the rules, I'm afraid. Obviously, Margaret doesn't want Kelly to go.

She doesn't want her to leave. She doesn't even really mean that she can't disappear and she has to follow the rules. She's just at the end of her tether and doesn't know what to do. I think what she means is she doesn't really mean that she'll kick her out, but she's just trying anything end of her tether and doesn't know what to do. I think what she means is she doesn't really mean that she'll kick her out, but she's just trying anything she can to scare Kelly or to just get her to see how much she's hurt by Kelly's actions.

And it must be so terrifying to just have completely lost control of your kids. Absolutely. Like to have no, they have no, I can't even think of the right word. She's always been so well behaved and then suddenly she's not coming home for days at a time. To have absolutely no insight into what's going on with her must be terrifying because they were so close before and i think that's the biggest shift and um margaret and tommy honestly they just seem like the most loving parents and i really really do think that people can be critical of them for not acting sooner, but they really just didn't

have a clue what to do. And Kelly is so convincing. I think that's the thing. Kelly ignored her mum and would still vanish even after this conversation. She would still go missing for days at a time. So a few days later, after her next stint of being missing, Kelly came home and started packing her bags. She was in her room stuffing her bags full of clothes and her belongings when Margaret got home from work and went up to see what Kelly was doing. Her mum told her to stop when she saw that she was packing up all her stuff, saying that she hadn't really meant for Kelly to move out. But when Kelly stopped packing and turned around to face Margaret, her mum was floored. One half of Kelly's face was entirely black with bruises. Margaret said that she'd never seen anything like it. But Kelly had a story for what happened.

She told her that she'd been jumped by some girls in the street and that this couple had found her and that she was unconscious but they'd taken her back to their house. This story didn't make any sense though to Margaret. Why would they take Kelly home? Why didn't they take her to a hospital or call the police or call her? But Kelly couldn't give her a straight answer. And after this incident, things began escalating to a frightening new level. Kelly moved in with Smith at his two-bedroom, semi-detached house in Fernaval Road in nearby Gorton in November 1995. After the move,

whenever Kelly would come home to see her parents, her mum would notice that she was often covered in injuries. Kelly had fingerprint bruising on her arms and neck, which is such a classic sign of abuse. And when we say that things are classic signs of abuse, we aren't trying to belittle Kelly's parents by saying, well, they should have known better, they should have seen it coming. They had no idea what to do or what was going on and Kelly was lying to them. She told them that she was getting the injuries in other ways like tripping over or walking into a wall or the classic walking into a door. Again, covering up for an abuser is typical in domestic abuse cases.

He's totally eroding her sense of self. He would have been telling her that it was because of her that he's having to hurt her. She's making him do it. It's the classic, like, look what you made me do. I hit you because I care about you. And when listening to such cases, we have to ask ourselves why people in violent, abusive relationships don't leave. And the reasons are very, very complex. Abusers know what they're doing.

They start off charming. They love-bomb their victims with so much love and affection that their partner is blown away. And then the mask starts to slip off. And then when they get angry, the victim will think that this is out-of-character behaviour and it's because of them. They're doing something wrong to bring out the worst in a normally lovely person. It's kind of like Stockholm Syndrome. And this can be a form of what's known as trauma bonding. And so alongside the fear and

control and the breakdown of a person's self-esteem, because alongside the fear and control, the breakdown of a person's self-esteem makes them feel unable to leave because surely no one else will love them. If you're spending your entire time in this relationship being told that you're worthless, that you're ugly, that you're fat, that you're disgusting, and that it's okay because I'll still put up with you even though you're all of these things, you're not going to feel confident enough to leave that situation because you'll never find anybody else. And this person makes you feel that way. But what's interesting is there is also a biological and chemical aspect to why some

victims of abuse don't leave. And again, this isn't all of the reasons for why people don't leave abusive relationships. It's incredibly, incredibly complicated, incredibly complex, which is going into a few different reasons that we have come across and read about. According to an article that we read in The Independent, and we'll leave a link to this in the show notes, being in an abusive relationship can be a bit like becoming addicted to a drug. It's a roller coaster with punishment and intermittent reinforcement of kindness. So the victim's body is going through turmoil. And we don't just mean because of the physical abuse, we mean internally due to their own chemicals and hormones. So one minute when there is a high stress situation,

when there's violence, when there's anger, their body is being flooded with high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, then paired with dopamine when affection is doled out as a reward. Apparently, when you have this back and forth and up and down, the body becomes addicted to it. But the stress takes its toll on the body and the abuser knows this. And at some point, the abuser will no longer get any benefit from being with that victim. They may have totally sucked them clean or destroyed their confidence or worse.

And then at this point, they'll move on to their next target. So let's get back to Kelly and Margaret for a second. Margaret felt that unless Kelly told her what was happening, she didn't really feel like there was anything that she could do. But that didn't stop her trying. Margaret contacted a local domestic abuse unit. The unit told her to make an appointment at her GP. That means general practitioner, like a family doctor. Your first point of call if something's wrong with you.

So they told Margaret to go to her GP and make an appointment in kelly's name but then go herself and tell the doctor that she had her suspicions that kelly was being abused so what would happen next is if that kelly herself went to the doctor with injuries they would be able to document it without kelly having to say anything short of going down to gorton and dragging Kelly out, Margaret didn't really feel like there's anything else she could have done. And if she did, she thought that she'd just lose Kelly and push her even closer to Smith. After all, isolation is what Smith wanted and Margaret wasn't going to give him a reason. But despite Margaret's best efforts, things just got worse. When Kelly turned 16, social services became basically unable to help anymore, so she couldn't

have even had them to turn to. But it's not like they were doing much before that anyway, because whatever we think of like how much Margaret and Tommy were able to do, I do find it amazing that a 14 slash 15 year old was able to go and live with a 48-year-old man and social services didn't get involved? Do you think it's because if any questions were asked, Kelly would have said that she had her parents' permission? I think it's incredibly complicated. I think a lot of people really don't want social services anywhere near them because once they're in, it can be quite difficult to get rid of them.

In some cases, I'm not saying that's the case all the time. Obviously, social services do amazing work and also social service units are incredibly overworked and who would have been reporting it kelly's obviously not going to smith isn't going to i just i don't know whether her parents would have felt like that was the best thing to do and also obviously yes she is a, but she is very nearly not a child. So I imagine they have higher, well, fucking quote unquote, like higher pressure cases that involve like babies and toddlers that may have been more to the top of the list than someone who was Kelly's age. Possibly. I don't know. I agree. And maybe even if Margaret and Tommy had wanted to report it, either they may have felt like they would have come and taken Kelly into care, which is not what they would have wanted because then they could have completely lost her into the system.

Or they would have felt like if we report this, Kelly and Smith are going to know it was us. And then it will be another wedge to drive between Kelly and them. So it's so complicated. It's so complicated. So as Kelly got older, she's now 16, Margaret felt even more helpless. She felt like there was even less that she could do now. She knows it's abuse and she knows it's him that's abusing her because of all the injuries she's seeing. But Margaret had no proof that it was him.

So unless Kelly was going to report him, there was just nothing that Margaret could do at this stage. And maybe that's the other thing. Like, maybe she felt that even if she did go to social services, they would say, so your daughter has given an alarmingly older boyfriend, but she just goes and stays at his house sometimes, and that's what you're reporting. You don't have any evidence of anything else. Then, a few weeks later, Margaret yet again spotted something troubling kelly had a bite mark on her

hand but again kelly was ready with an explanation she told margaret that she'd been running for a bus when she fell on a fence and cut her hand but it was clearly a bite mark and because the wound was so deep it must have been a pretty savage attack. At this point, Margaret begs Kelly to stop seeing Smith, but Kelly refuses and told her mum that she was going to see less of her because she'd just got a new job at a factory, so from now on, she was going to be very busy. Probably too busy to visit. And so Kelly's visits to her parents' house stopped,

and it was just phone calls after that. And this is all part of Smith's plan to isolate Kelly. And he knows that if people see her injuries, it will get out. So now we're in early 1996 and at just 16 years old, Kellyanne Bates was isolated and alone at the mercy of a violent abuser. Kelly's parents at this point are obviously worried sick, but again they are at a loss as to what to do. On Mother's Day that year their suspicions grew again. Margaret got a card from Kelly, but she knew right away that it wasn't her daughter's handwriting.

And she thought that it was really weird that Kelly would only send a card and that she wouldn't phone or she wouldn't visit. She knew she was busy, but it was Mother's Day. So after this card, there was nothing for weeks from Kelly. and that she wouldn't phone or she wouldn't visit. She knew she was busy, but it was Mother's Day. So after this card, there was nothing for weeks from Kelly. But then it was Tommy's birthday and their anniversary. At this point, two more cards arrived at the house. Again, though, neither looked like they were in Kelly's handwriting.

Margaret describes it as, The card is like someone had written it and then gone over and over and over and over it with a pen to the point that the handwriting was completely, like you couldn't tell the handwriting anymore. But why would Kelly do that? It's obviously somebody else doing it. I think we can all take a guess as to who that is. It's Smith. He's sending these to try avoid raising the alarm with the family that something is wrong. And Margaret at this point realizes this and begs Tommy to drive her to Gorton and to Smith's house, telling him, we have to go get her. She's not okay, I know it. But Tommy said that if they just turned up and kicked off and tried to drag Kelly away,

that it would just make everything worse. I think that they really believed that Kelly would eventually realize what a bad situation she was in and just come home. But she won't. And by this point, she can't. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up.

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space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall,

that was no protection. Claudian Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media. To listen, subscribe to On The Media wherever you get your podcasts. And that's because on April the 16th, 1996, Smith walked into Gorton's police station and calmly told officers there that his girlfriend Kelly had drowned in the bath.

Officers quickly made their way to Smith's house where they found Kelly's dead body, naked, in the bedroom. The state she was in made it instantly clear that Smith had been lying. And honestly, how he was planning to make this look like an accident is absolutely beyond me and you'll see why when we tell you the extent of Kelly's suffering. It was all of Tommy and Margaret's nightmares come true. When the police came to their house to tell them that Kelly was dead, Margaret told them that Smith had killed her, and that she knew that he would. But Tommy was still quite naive. He said no one would kill someone they loved.

He's clearly just a good man who cannot imagine killing someone. I don't think he could wrap his head around it. That's the thing that's so heartbreaking is that the fact that still at this point, Tommy isn't offending Smith, but that he says, how could someone kill someone that they loved? Like, oh God. And maybe that plays into it as well. Like maybe Margaret is saying, we we need to go we need to do

something and Tommy's saying we'll just make it worse nothing that bad is going to happen possibly definitely I think that Margaret knew things were bad because she was the one who was home when Kelly would come there she's the one that saw the injuries but I genuinely think Tommy just thought this isn't going to go anywhere. They'll eventually break up or nothing that bad is going to happen. So it's like, yeah, just the most heartbreaking thing when Kelly's found dead. It's everything Margaret always worried about and what Tommy was never even able to conceive of. So Kelly's parents were taken to Manchester Royal to see their daughter and it's now that they fully realised what had actually happened to

her. Kelly had been around eight and a half stone when she was last at Margaret's house. Now, she was just five stone. For weeks, Kelly had been held captive by Smith and been systematically tortured. When Kelly died, she had over 150 separate injuries all over her body, in varying states of healing. So it was clear that the torture had been prolonged. We're going to go into what actually happened to Kelly, and it's pretty savage, so yeah, fair warning. Kelly's hands and feet had been crushed, and her arm was fractured.

Her knees had been kicked in so Kelly wouldn't have been able to walk. There was a scalding burn on her buttocks and her left leg and significant burns on her thigh caused by the application of a hot iron. Her body was covered in multiple stab wounds caused by knives, forks and scissors. Kelly even had stab wounds inside her mouth. There was mutilation of her ears, nose, eyebrows, mouth, lips and genital Kelly even had stab wounds inside her mouth. There was mutilation of her ears, nose, eyebrows, mouth, lips and genitalia that had been caused by a spade and pruning shears. Kelly had also been partially scalped and her eyes had been gouged out. Pathologists later discovered that this had happened whilst Kelly was still alive and they were able to determine that her eyes had been removed, quote, not less than five days and not more than three

weeks before her death. It's also believed that Smith had gouged Kelly's eyes out with his hands and unbelievably there were also stab wounds to the empty eye sockets. Kelly was 17 years old. And the stab wounds that were there in the eye socket had been applied after the gouging had healed or past started to heal. So he's gouged her eyes out maybe up to three weeks before she died and then she survived for all that time with no eyes and then he stabbed her and what i don't understand about it is like yes smith lived in a detached house however he did live on a very suburban street he's not living in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere no how did no one hear it or like in a city where no one can hear anything kelly was killed in

suburbia so i don't understand how no one could hear it. But then maybe they did hear it and it was just the, what's that lady's name? Kitty something? Oh, Kitty Genovese. Yeah, exactly. Where everyone heard the screams, no one does anything about it

because they think someone else is going to do it. It's classic. It's a social phenomenon. It is, but it's unbelievable because this was going on for a minimum of three weeks. Yeah, it's true. But I used to live, when I lived in the house I used to live in before um i met you it was quite quite uh well it was on a very rough

it was very rough area of town and the flat next door to me i could hear there's no two ways about i could hear abuse basically through the walls at all hours of the day, especially at night. And I knew there was a baby living there. But it took me weeks before I put a call into social services. As an outsider, you feel like you don't know these people and also when is the right moment to step in. Completely, completely. I just think it's an interesting point because they live in a really small town, they live in a small community, everyone knows each other, and still nobody's like, quote, I have been in the police force for 15 years and have never seen a case as horrific as this. And William Lawler, the pathologist who

examined Kelly's body, described her injuries as, quote, the worst I've seen on a murder victim. And by this point, William Lawler had conducted over 600 post-mortems on murder victims. So, yeah, I think we're safe in saying this is absolutely one of the most brutal crimes that we've ever come across. During the autopsy, it was also clear to see that Kelly had been starved. I mean, seems pretty obvious given that she went from eight stone, eight and a half stone to five stone. Five stone is like a child. It is. I mean, it's unbelievable. So not only was she being starved of food, though, it also became clear that she hadn't been given water for several days before her death. And when police went and

examined the house and compared it to the wounds that Kelly had on her body, it became clear that in the four weeks leading up to her death, Kelly had been kept a prisoner, tied by her hair to a radiator in an upstairs bedroom. Despite all of the evidence in the world, Smith maintained that Kelly's death was an accident. But as Laura Richards put it, her body was the crime scene and there were multiple fresh and historic injuries.

Evidence of sustained torture was very clear and it was also clear that this was absolutely no accident. It's heartbreaking to watch interviews with Margaret and Tommy because not only do they have to deal with the fact that Kelly is dead, but the fact that she was tortured to death. Tommy tells himself that after so much pain, hopefully Kelly had just stopped feeling it. Several weeks after the murder, Kelly's family were finally allowed to bury her. They decided to have the funeral the day before what would have been her 18th birthday. The Bates really wanted the funeral director to fix Kelly

and make it so that they could hug her one last time. And the funeral director told fix Kelly and make it so that they could hug her one last time. And the funeral director told them that he was hugely experienced and that he would be able to work on Kelly and make her look just right. But he spoke too soon. He picked Kelly up on a Monday and the very next day he came straight to the Bates' house

and said that he'd never seen anything like it. Kelly's injuries were so great that there wasn't going to be much that he could do after all. And as the funeral procession went through town, the Bates were shocked to see so many people turned up, so many people that they didn't even know. I think the coverage that this got in the papers, and it got a lot more than Suzanne Capper, and I think people knew about it. They were really just completely heartbroken. He was this young girl who had been killed by this quote-unquote monster. People came from all over the country to her funeral. And at the funeral in the church, it was standing room only. And Margaret

told the vicar before the funeral began, and she was clear about this, I don't want the word forgiveness mentioned even once during this ceremony. And I think that's fair enough. Like they're not in a place to even contemplate moving forward or forgiving or forgetting anything at this point. And Kelly was buried in a beautiful cemetery with the best view of the moors that you could ever want. I saw a picture of it in the documentary that we'll share the link to in the show notes as well so you can see it. She's surrounded by countryside everywhere. She's up on this hill and most importantly she's close to her family. In November 1997 the trial of 49 year old James

Patterson Smith began at the Manchester Crown Court. Quickly a picture emerged of a Jekyll and Hyde character. Smith was described by acquaintances as, quote, house-proud and well-groomed. He was a teetotaler and a non-smoker. To the outside world, he was a nice, church-going guy. But behind closed doors, Smith was a horrifying abuser, one with a long past. And it was in court that the Bates family first realised his true story and what he'd been doing to women for the past 30 years. He was an abuser, a stalker and a dangerously violent man. Everything he had done to Kelly, he had already started with other women.

Other women came forward to paint Smith as a misogynistic man who was obsessively jealous and turned to violence to control them. Smith had been married once, but his marriage ended after 10 years in 1980 due to his violence towards his wife. He had then commenced an affair between 1980 and 1982 with a 20-year-old woman named Tina Watson, whom he, quote, used as a punchbag, even subjecting her to severe beatings while she was pregnant with his child.

Tina managed to escape from the relationship, during which Smith had also attempted to drown her while she was bathing. So he's got form for this whole trying to drown women in the bath. In 1982, Smith had begun another relationship, this time with a child, a 15-year-old named Wendy Motteshead, and she also obviously became a victim of his violence. In one attack, he held her head underwater in the kitchen sink in an attempt, again, to drown her. After his divorce, it's clear to see that the women that he got involved with became younger and younger. They went from 20 to 15 to 14 with Kelly. He's looking clearly

for victims that he can totally and completely control. But despite all of these women coming forward and him having a severely tortured girlfriend that he was on trial for, Smith claimed that it was him who was the victim. And I mean, it's really unbelievable that he can stand up there at his trial and say that he was the victim in all of this. Oh, pull her own eyes out, did she? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. Because he goes on to say that Kelly and all of these other women and girls

had been asking for it. Kelly had driven him to kill her by taunting him. Quote, She put me through hell winding me up. He also claimed that Kelly had taunted him about his dead mother, Make it look worse. So I was only doing little abuse and then she made it look way worse than it was and totally blew it out of proportion. She took those pruning shears to her own face, did she? When Smith was asked to explain why he had blinded, stabbed and battered Kellyanne, he said she had dared him to do it, challenging him to hurt her.

After what he did, the fact that he tried to make himself the victim is truly unbelievable. But the prosecution weren't going to let anyone forget what Kelly had been through. Peter Openshaw, the lead prosecutor in Smith's trial, said this, It was as if he deliberately disfigured her, causing her the utmost pain, distress and degradation. The injuries were not the result of one sudden eruption of violence. They must have been caused over a long period, and they were so

extensive and so terrible that the defendant must have deliberately and systematically tortured the girl. Her death must have been a merciful end to her torment because the mental pain would have been intense, causing anguish and torment, no doubt to the point of mental breakdown and collapse. The jury took just one hour to find Smith guilty of Kelly's murder. He was sentenced to life in prison and the judge, Mr Justice Sachs, recommended that Smith should serve a minimum term of 20 years. I'm surprised that he got a minimum term of 20 years. I feel like I'm surprised.

I am too. I know. I'm so shocked that he wasn't just given life with no chance of parole. There is a long list of women who, those were the women who came forward and said that he had done that. Imagine how many women didn't even come forward. Oh, absolutely. But they can't use that and they can't like retrospectively convict him of other crimes because he's only on trial for Kelly's, if that makes sense. It's like a character witness, essentially. No, definitely. I also think it is the severity of Kellyanne's murder, because it's like the

prosecutor says, this wasn't a crime of passion. This wasn't an explosion of rage that happened one day. Systematically, over weeks and months, he tortured her to death. That is what they decided was apparently appropriate. And unsurprisingly, it was also the first time the Manchester Crown Court offered professional counselling to the members of the jury to help them deal with the distress of seeing the photographs of Kelly's injuries. And due to the brutality of the case, every single member of the jury accepted the counselling. I'm not surprised. No, I haven't seen any photos.

There are photos out there. And when I was looking for pictures of Kelly, just to put her face to the work we were doing, you can see them and I just, I couldn't. I could just absolutely not. I just immediately closed them. It's not for me and it's not something we'll be sharing on social media if you are so inclined.

You can find them. Good luck with that. And we just wanted to end today's case on a note from a therapist called Shannon Thomas, who is author of the book Healing from Hidden Abuse. Because we feel like too often it's assumed that abusers pick and choose victims to target because they're weak. But it's actually quite the opposite, according to Shannon Thomas. She says in her book, quote, they were targeted not because they were weak, but because they had so much to give.

And that's really what you can see with the women that Smith abuses and the way that he treats Kelly. He went from woman to woman, almost like, you know, when we were saying that they suck them dry and then once they're not getting anything else from them, they move on to the next victim or they kill them and then they move on to the next victim. It's almost like, I was just imagining like a dementor. Yeah, that's exactly. You have to pick the person that's got the most happiness, the most energy to give so that you can suck off it and feed off it like a vampire. And then once it's

completely destroyed, then you can move on to your next one. So yeah, that is the very horrifying case of Kellyanne Bates. There is a good documentary out there. It's called Britain's Darkest Taboos. On this case, we'll leave the link. We'll also leave the article around domestic abuse that we read for this. So yeah, have a let us know what you think don't go google those pictures i'd just say it's not not something you need to see tone or shift buy tour tickets it'll be fun i promise despite how how absolutely soul-crushing that episode was i know i feel really like i feel really upset and sad and i just want to go like i'm like drained that was a lot but you guys had a a nicer one last week.

So, you know, swings and roundabouts. Swings and roundabouts. And you can follow us on social media at Red Handed The Pod. We'll let you know when we're on the radio. Listen out for that. If you would like to support the show and also get your hands on some exclusive goodies, you can do that at patreon.com forward slash red handed. And here are some people who have done

that recently we've got carrie ann charlie brightman rabbits watching maya mason lisa jane wells kelly francis rosie josie rosie lisa ryan neve arland alice showfield sasha b reflect genevieve robertalia oh dear genevieve i'm so sorry c Caitlin, Crystal Atkinson, Maria Rogers, Kelsey H., Dolly Boliver, Rachel Smith, Lakshmi Cohen, Casey McCorkle, Megan is Rick, are you, Megan? Jackie O'Connor, Alex, Madison Carraway, Olivia, and over to you. Connor Finnegan, Blair, Heather Martin, Jordan D.,

Katie Hogan, Kashti, Olivia Christian, Claire Hugh, Natalie Fleming, Nicole Persh, yeah, sorry Nicole, Anthea Grace, Charlie Gordham, Corey Barilla, Hannah Marsh,

Coppano Gelman, Kate Harrison, Emily Rich, Katie Lilly, Fiona Taylor, Tiffany Bocut, Jeffrey Rocket, Chanel Williams, Kenela, Georgia Nichols, Miranda, Trey Robinson, Kim Bernard, Candice Rivera, Nadia Parker, Mercedes Schneider, Bailey Proudly, Liz Schrainer. Schrainer, that's the one.

Oh, I can't. My brain hurts after today. So close. Liz Schwartz, Emma Jones and Jack. Thank you guys so much. All right. Thank you. See you next week.

Bye, guys. Bye. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry.

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