[keyboard clacking]
[tense music playing]
Everything that was confusing suddenly all made sense at once.
His name's Robert Freegard,
and he's a convicted conman.
[tense music continues]
My mum had been living with this conman, this man that was controlling our lives.
[man] Once I'd found out who David Hendy truly was,
I spoke to the police
and told them that my ex-wife is with this serial conman.
Unfortunately, whilst they listened to me,
they had no interest in pursuing the case at all.
We don't know where she is. We've not seen her in years.
[tense music continues]
[Mark] I tried again and again.
Finally, we managed to get the police to investigate Sandra as a missing person.
[Mark] In 2015, they located Sandra, who was with Freegard,
and they arranged to meet her to discuss things.
[woman] I had a sense of relief.
The police have seen her.
So the police told my mum, "Please be aware the person you're with
is a convicted conman."
[tense music continues]
They said to her, "Do you know who this man is?"
And she said, "Yes."
[man] For almost a year, my daughter Sarah has gone missing.
I was worried. I was trying to trace Sarah.
The main thing, I was after information.
I couldn't prove that a crime had been committed,
but I think she is being controlled in some way.
[dramatic music playing]
I'd been on the run from the IRA, staying in a collection of safe houses.
Rob said that he worked for MI5,
therefore, you follow the rules,
whether you like it or not.
[dramatic music continues]
[Peter Smith] I called up on John's parents.
John had told them about the IRA and why they all had to run.
They needed to pay money for their protection.
Right. Now we've got trouble.
Finally, I understand what's going on here.
He's after the money.
But I didn't know half of what was coming.
[tense music playing]
Rob informed me that, um, his bosses had allocated a target amount for me
to provide a new identity and a new life.
I had an inheritance.
It was over £200,000.
Rob's bosses needed me to withdraw that money.
I had to have proof of ID,
and my passport was at home.
He told me, "You have this many minutes to get in and out."
[tense music continues]
I knew that my parents were away, but the secretary was there.
I was very nervous.
Walking into your parents' house and behaving like a thief is not good.
[tense music continues]
I walked in to where the safe is.
Opened it up.
I'd got her passport,
and she wasn't gonna have that at any price.
I probably had a hunch, and that's probably why we had two safes.
One under the floor.
And she never noticed it.
-[engine turns over] -Rob is really angry.
[man] Sarah came out, and she was crying.
Rob told me, "Do you see what state Sarah's in?"
"That fucking bastard is fucking everything up."
"Get on the phone and tell him to fuck off."
[phone rings]
[John] "You fucking wanker, you're fucking destroying everything."
"Why can't you do what Sarah says? You're a fucking bastard."
The air was so charged.
It felt as if the whole bloody room was shaking.
-[siren wailing] -I told John…
[over phone] Freegard's a fraud.
He didn't believe a word of it, and he threatened to kill me.
[dramatic music playing]
I haven't recorded how many hours I spent talking to the police.
I can't prove it.
I had to produce some evidence that she was coerced.
I employed a private investigator
to see if he could find me more information than I had.
But it was awfully difficult because Sarah just couldn't be found.
[tense droning]
[unsettling music playing]
There was no contact with my parents for the best part of four years.
The group ceased to exist.
We were told that Rob's bosses were gonna separate us.
And Rob just basically said,
"You have no choice. That is the only option."
He didn't tell me anything about John and Maria.
I wasn't allowed contact.
It was like being on an island
where you're separated from everybody else.
He controlled everything in my life,
where I went, what I did, what I wore, everything.
All the money that I earned went to Rob to pay for the witness protection program.
-Rob said that it wasn't enough. -[dialing]
I needed to get hold of the inheritance.
[phone ringing]
[phone beeps]
Life springs eternal.
Once Sarah's made contact, there is hope. One, we know she's alive.
And I was made to demand this money.
I told Sarah not to trust Freegard.
[over phone] Get out. Leave.
Rob puts the phone down. Chop.
Chop. Chop.
[dial tone]
And he made me keep phoning back.
[ringing tone]
[phone rings]
[Peter Smith] When we asked her why she wouldn't come home,
she said she couldn't.
And she'd got to have this money.
"I need the money, the money, the money, the money."
Calls came day or night.
[phone rings]
-Weeks on end. -[phone rings]
[phones ringing]
Even if you don't answer the phone, the phone still rings.
And it'll ring for a bit, and then it stops.
And then they'd ring again.
And that in itself is like a hammer going at you.
[phone ringing]
Unfortunately, the business, uh, got problems.
We had debts in the millions.
[ringing tone]
-[Sarah] And so, my father said… -[ringing tone]
…they were having to tell all the staff that they were being made redundant.
[distant phones ringing]
[sniffs]
-You knew he wouldn't stop. -[distant phone ringing]
[phone ringing]
And Jill was suffering.
And as a mother, it rocked her life very badly.
If they could get Jill, they'd keep on hammering away.
-Bang, bang, bang, bang. -[ringing tone]
[distant phone rings]
[phone rings]
[tense music playing]
-[distant phone rings] -[phone rings]
[phone rings]
That was it.
Jill decided she was going to pay it.
I would never have given that money if I could have had any other option.
But with Jill persuaded, worried…
made ill…
that had to come first. That was first consideration.
I thought to myself, "I don't give a damn what else happens."
"I'm going to live my life."
[sobs]
[sniffs]
[sobs]
[exhales, sniffs]
That was the end of it.
My parents paid it up.
[sniffs]
And they…
They said, "I don't think you should call back."
[shaky inhale] And I truly, truly believed that was the end of it,
that I'd never speak to them again.
[sniffs]
[tense music playing]
[Mark] When the police found Sandra,
they said, "Do you know what Robert Freegard's done?"
Which she said she did.
Sandra was told, "If you want to,
we can take you into protective custody now."
Um, and which she said, "I don't want to go.
I want to be with David."
As an adult saying she wanted to be with him,
the police couldn't make her leave him.
There was nothing more the police could do.
[melancholy string music playing]
How could you know this information about someone and stay with them?
My mum was an only child.
She was very close with her parents.
[Jake] My nan and granddad both sadly passed away,
and my mum didn't turn up to the funerals.
[Sophie] It was so out of character.
But, deep down, I knew she wasn't gonna come.
[sniffs]
[Jake] I haven't seen my mum in seven years.
There has been some contact, normally on a withheld number.
If I want to call her, they don't pick up.
And, in my belief, the conversations, they've all been scripted.
It just feels like I'm speaking to a robot.
To this day, I don't actually know where she is.
I mean…
she's never once allowed me to know where she lives.
What's that?
-What's that there? -[Jake] My mum is a loving, caring woman,
and it just seems that there's someone there,
pulling the strings.
I believe the person behind all of this is Freegard.
[tense music playing]
[unsettling music playing]
[horn honks]
[siren wailing]
My name's Bob Brandon.
For 30 years, I was a Metro Police officer,
and I spent the majority of my career at Scotland Yard on the fraud squad.
[phone rings]
I first heard about the case when a woman called Hammersmith Police
to report that her ex-fiancé, Robert Freegard,
had deceived her in the tune of approximately £30,000.
[dramatic music playing
And it was felt proportionate just to call Freegard
and invite him to the station for an interview.
But he never turned up, and from that moment on,
his SIM card was never, ever used again.
Freegard suddenly disappeared.
The only lead we really had was the fact the victim met Freegard
at a car showroom in West London.
[man] When the police came to speak to me,
I told them of all the car salesman I ever met,
Robert Freegard was definitely one of the best.
He could move metal.
He was tall. He was handsome. He looked a successful guy.
He was the sort I'd think to myself, "I'd like to look like that."
He was a charmer and a ladies' man.
He was dismissed from the car showroom
for persistently hitting on female customers.
Apparently, he never stopped.
The story that the car salesman told the officers was amazing.
[Peter Glossop] One day, he said to me, "I've got something to tell you."
"I work for MI5."
"I'm an MI5 agent."
He told me he was working undercover, yes, as a car salesman,
but that he's a secret agent in real life,
tracking IRA suspects.
My reaction was, "Really?"
But he did make a real point of being quite secretive
about who he was on the phone with.
And he changed his SIM card. Why do you need two SIM cards?
And I suddenly started to think, actually, you know, maybe he was.
[suspenseful music plays]
Some of the stuff we did, it felt like we were undercover policemen.
All stations, Peter, out now and off towards Tottenham Court Road.
Peter One, roger.
[suspenseful music playing]
He'd go into a meeting, into a hotel. He'd have to see somebody in there.
He'd disappear, and then all of a sudden, half an hour or an hour later perhaps,
he'd suddenly reappear and like, "Come on, let's go."
So we were into the car and were off.
Peter One. He's on the number one bus, heading north.
[suspenseful music continues]
I was always the getaway driver in the car outside.
I never went in and I was never involved
in any of these clandestine meetings and so forth that was happening.
Roger. Out.
[Peter Glossop] There was no real explanation as to what he was doing,
but there was always a sense of urgency when we left.
It was quite exciting.
Peter Two to Control. Peter Two to Control.
Now, it could have been true, but I thought it was highly unlikely,
because if he was an MI5 spy, he wouldn't tell everybody that.
So, we checked with MI5,
who confirmed that he was not one of their operatives.
We knew that we were dealing with an impostor.
[dramatic instrumental music plays]
[keyboard clacking]
He was circulated as wanted on the police national computer.
And then the officers began looking into his history,
looking into his background, in an attempt to trace him.
Freegard wasn't a spy, but he actually tried to act like a spy.
He made himself very difficult to trace.
He'd switched off his phones, moved out of his address,
and he was on the run.
The average person will go to the local shop and buy some milk,
and go to the local train station to buy a ticket.
They might take cash out at the local cashpoint.
So when you look at the spend,
you can generally work out where someone lives and works.
This wasn't the case here.
It was like chasing a ghost.
[tense music playing]
[Sarah] Nobody knew where I was.
Rob left me in a safe house in London
to wait while he had gone off on some mission for weeks.
I was told that if anybody comes to the door, just pretend you're not in.
[melancholy string music playing]
When I told Sarah not to call, I was angry.
But there are no limits of love.
You keep going on, and you hope for a lead.
And if it is going to take ten years,
you still go for it.
You don't want to lose your daughter,
in spite of everything.
[interviewer] What were your worst fears?
I don't know. There were a good many.
Um…
Never seeing Sarah again might have been one.
Her getting abandoned, starved…
and, um, left to die.
I wasn't going to let that happen.
I needed more evidence to get the police to help me.
I was trying to grab every loose end that I could follow.
And then, out of the blue, we had this letter turn up.
"Dear Mr. Smith, I feel I need to explain further…"
[man] "…how it was for Sarah and I."
"Rob told us that the only way to protect our loved ones
was to tell them nothing."
"You were a loose cannon who could lead the IRA to us."
"Our bank accounts were emptied."
"He was very convincing."
[dramatic music playing]
[John] I went back to my family's farm,
and I explained to the family that we were on the run from the IRA
so they would pay the next payment for Rob's protection.
[dramatic music continues]
Over three or four years, I handed over £400,000.
[dramatic music continues]
[ding]
[John] As time went on, I was spending more and more time back on the farm.
[sheep bleating]
It was clearer to me that if anybody was looking for me,
they would look for me at the farm,
and I was clearly there.
And nobody had come to kill me.
-[cow lowing] -Rob stopped calling.
The doubt really took hold.
[John, echoing] All of this is a sham.
[reporter] The Irish Republican Army is taking credit…
I'm an MI5 agent.
[echoing] "Jim's one of them."
I realized this really could just be Rob doing all this.
I'd just lost a fortune, had put my family through hell.
I'd dragged two innocent girls from college into a web of lies.
And the self-loathing was immense.
[tense droning]
I wanted to die.
I didn't want to exist.
I'd got out of the situation, and Sarah hadn't.
I felt a wave of guilt.
So, I wrote a letter to Mr. Smith.
"I do not know where Sarah is. I'm sorry."
This was direct from one of the group.
It was a vital piece of evidence.
I phoned the police again.
I was told, "You need to speak to Bob Brandon."
[dramatic music playing]
Peter told this amazing story
of what had happened to his daughter over the past ten years.
The fact that she would believe she was on the run from the IRA…
[reporter] A bomb exploded without warning.
…that Freegard pretended to be a spy,
that he had taken hundreds of thousands of pounds off his victims.
It went from a £30,000 fraud to something beyond belief.
As a father of three daughters myself,
I understood just how worried he must have been.
I told him we would find Sarah.
Peter had done everything he possibly could to find his daughter.
Every lead, every piece of information, he just held on to it.
Like a dog with a bone.
So, we knew about the three original students,
uh, John, and Sarah, and Maria.
We also knew that Freegard had been working
in a car showroom in West London.
As time went on, it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
Freegard needed to be found, and he needed to be found quickly.
We did some good old-fashioned policing, and we found Freegard's mother's house.
There was a car parked near his house
that was actually registered to West London,
maybe 200 miles south of where his mother's house was.
Not only that, but it also been sold by the garage where Freegard had worked.
We went to the address.
[dramatic music playing]
Freegard wasn't there. The door was opened by a guy called Simon Proctor.
And Simon told a story about his ex-girlfriend, Kim Adams,
an American who had been renting his house.
Kim had suddenly disappeared,
telling her work colleagues that she was terminally ill.
Rob said that we're in grave danger and we had to leave.
I told them that I had liver cancer.
[Bob] It was just too similar
to what had happened all those years ago with the students.
We went back to the car showroom.
Kim Adams bought a car from Freegard.
Kim went onto our list as a potential victim.
First was Sarah, now Kim.
I was gonna need help to get them back.
[siren wails]
[phone rings]
[woman] I got a call from Bob Brandon from Scotland Yard.
Bob's first words to me were, "Are you sitting down?"
Bob told me a crazy story about the IRA,
espionage,
and people being on the run for ten years.
There was a potential new victim, an American woman named Kim Adams.
So who better to start with than Kim's parents?
[dramatic music playing]
I sent out a team of agents to Arizona to find out if they had heard from her.
They told the agents Kim was planning to marry Robert Freegard.
[unsettling music playing]
That he had told them that he was a security agent for MI5.
It seemed that Kim had been completely swept off her feet.
Freegard bought Kim a Cartier engagement ring,
a Rolex wristwatch,
trips abroad.
[unsettling music continues]
Kim's parents thought Kim had a bright future with Robert.
Then that's when we learned
that Kim's stepfather was a large lottery winner.
[man] I'll definitely have some fun.
The golf game's gonna get better, I can tell you that. [laughs]
[Jaclyn] And after that, she had gone missing.
So, the agents had to break the news to both parents
that Freegard certainly was not an MI5 agent.
[dramatic music playing]
No one knew where Kim was,
but Kim's parents did hear from her sporadically
when she wanted money.
As far as the FBI was concerned, Kim was kidnapped.
I came up with a plan…
[dial tone]
to start recording the telephone conversations
between Freegard, Kim, and her parents.
First, we got Kim's parents to call Kim and leave messages.
[phone beeps]
After that, we just keep trying.
[ringing tone]
Finally, Freegard picks up the phone.
[ringing tone]
[tense music playing]
[dramatic instrumental music playing]