1
00:00:06,716 --> 00:00:09,969
[keyboard clacking]

2
00:00:10,053 --> 00:00:11,763
[tense music playing]

3
00:00:12,388 --> 00:00:16,851
Everything that was confusing
suddenly all made sense at once.

4
00:00:16,934 --> 00:00:19,020
His name's Robert Freegard,

5
00:00:19,604 --> 00:00:21,481
and he's a convicted conman.

6
00:00:22,148 --> 00:00:23,858
[tense music continues]

7
00:00:25,276 --> 00:00:30,031
My mum had been living with this conman,
this man that was controlling our lives.

8
00:00:32,533 --> 00:00:35,912
[man] Once I'd found out
who David Hendy truly was,

9
00:00:35,995 --> 00:00:37,622
I spoke to the police

10
00:00:37,705 --> 00:00:41,084
and told them that my ex-wife
is with this serial conman.

11
00:00:42,502 --> 00:00:45,588
Unfortunately, whilst they listened to me,

12
00:00:45,671 --> 00:00:48,841
they had no interest
in pursuing the case at all.

13
00:00:50,343 --> 00:00:53,679
We don't know where she is.
We've not seen her in years.

14
00:00:53,763 --> 00:00:55,348
[tense music continues]

15
00:00:57,975 --> 00:01:00,603
[Mark] I tried again and again.

16
00:01:02,355 --> 00:01:07,985
Finally, we managed to get the police
to investigate Sandra as a missing person.

17
00:01:13,825 --> 00:01:18,496
[Mark] In 2015, they located Sandra,
who was with Freegard,

18
00:01:18,579 --> 00:01:21,165
and they arranged to meet her
to discuss things.

19
00:01:22,291 --> 00:01:24,669
[woman] I had a sense of relief.

20
00:01:24,752 --> 00:01:27,547
The police have seen her.

21
00:01:28,714 --> 00:01:33,219
So the police told my mum,
"Please be aware the person you're with

22
00:01:33,302 --> 00:01:34,762
is a convicted conman."

23
00:01:34,846 --> 00:01:36,848
[tense music continues]

24
00:01:38,266 --> 00:01:42,645
They said to her,
"Do you know who this man is?"

25
00:01:44,730 --> 00:01:46,607
And she said, "Yes."

26
00:02:00,913 --> 00:02:04,208
[man] For almost a year,
my daughter Sarah has gone missing.

27
00:02:05,209 --> 00:02:08,629
I was worried.
I was trying to trace Sarah.

28
00:02:10,381 --> 00:02:12,717
The main thing, I was after information.

29
00:02:13,467 --> 00:02:16,596
I couldn't prove that a crime
had been committed,

30
00:02:17,763 --> 00:02:21,893
but I think she is being controlled
in some way.

31
00:02:21,976 --> 00:02:23,811
[dramatic music playing]

32
00:02:26,314 --> 00:02:30,818
I'd been on the run from the IRA,
staying in a collection of safe houses.

33
00:02:30,902 --> 00:02:33,487
Rob said that he worked for MI5,

34
00:02:33,571 --> 00:02:35,907
therefore, you follow the rules,

35
00:02:37,283 --> 00:02:38,659
whether you like it or not.

36
00:02:38,743 --> 00:02:40,870
[dramatic music continues]

37
00:02:41,537 --> 00:02:43,664
[Peter Smith]
I called up on John's parents.

38
00:02:44,248 --> 00:02:48,961
John had told them about the IRA
and why they all had to run.

39
00:02:49,545 --> 00:02:52,215
They needed to pay money
for their protection.

40
00:02:55,092 --> 00:02:57,470
Right. Now we've got trouble.

41
00:02:58,054 --> 00:03:01,849
Finally, I understand
what's going on here.

42
00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:03,935
He's after the money.

43
00:03:05,895 --> 00:03:08,272
But I didn't know half of what was coming.

44
00:03:08,356 --> 00:03:09,774
[tense music playing]

45
00:03:13,194 --> 00:03:19,116
Rob informed me that, um, his bosses
had allocated a target amount for me

46
00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:22,119
to provide a new identity and a new life.

47
00:03:23,246 --> 00:03:24,830
I had an inheritance.

48
00:03:24,914 --> 00:03:26,832
It was over £200,000.

49
00:03:28,501 --> 00:03:32,171
Rob's bosses needed me
to withdraw that money.

50
00:03:33,923 --> 00:03:35,883
I had to have proof of ID,

51
00:03:36,842 --> 00:03:40,596
and my passport was at home.

52
00:03:42,515 --> 00:03:48,729
He told me, "You have this many minutes
to get in and out."

53
00:03:49,313 --> 00:03:50,690
[tense music continues]

54
00:03:55,611 --> 00:03:59,615
I knew that my parents were away,
but the secretary was there.

55
00:04:03,536 --> 00:04:04,745
I was very nervous.

56
00:04:06,455 --> 00:04:10,793
Walking into your parents' house
and behaving like a thief is not good.

57
00:04:10,876 --> 00:04:12,545
[tense music continues]

58
00:04:15,923 --> 00:04:18,801
I walked in to where the safe is.

59
00:04:20,928 --> 00:04:22,096
Opened it up.

60
00:04:33,399 --> 00:04:34,483
I'd got her passport,

61
00:04:34,567 --> 00:04:37,236
and she wasn't gonna have that
at any price.

62
00:04:37,820 --> 00:04:42,867
I probably had a hunch,
and that's probably why we had two safes.

63
00:04:44,118 --> 00:04:45,578
One under the floor.

64
00:04:50,791 --> 00:04:52,251
And she never noticed it.

65
00:04:56,505 --> 00:04:58,466
-[engine turns over]
-Rob is really angry.

66
00:04:59,342 --> 00:05:01,427
[man] Sarah came out, and she was crying.

67
00:05:01,510 --> 00:05:03,888
Rob told me,
"Do you see what state Sarah's in?"

68
00:05:03,971 --> 00:05:06,349
"That fucking bastard
is fucking everything up."

69
00:05:07,183 --> 00:05:09,810
"Get on the phone
and tell him to fuck off."

70
00:05:09,894 --> 00:05:12,313
[phone rings]

71
00:05:13,481 --> 00:05:16,317
[John] "You fucking wanker,
you're fucking destroying everything."

72
00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:19,195
"Why can't you do what Sarah says?
You're a fucking bastard."

73
00:05:19,278 --> 00:05:20,696
The air was so charged.

74
00:05:20,780 --> 00:05:23,949
It felt as if the whole bloody room
was shaking.

75
00:05:24,033 --> 00:05:25,785
-[siren wailing]
-I told John…

76
00:05:25,868 --> 00:05:28,537
[over phone] Freegard's a fraud.

77
00:05:29,288 --> 00:05:32,875
He didn't believe a word of it,
and he threatened to kill me.

78
00:05:38,172 --> 00:05:40,049
[dramatic music playing]

79
00:05:42,551 --> 00:05:46,472
I haven't recorded how many hours
I spent talking to the police.

80
00:05:49,725 --> 00:05:51,060
I can't prove it.

81
00:05:51,143 --> 00:05:56,232
I had to produce some evidence
that she was coerced.

82
00:05:58,526 --> 00:06:01,028
I employed a private investigator

83
00:06:01,112 --> 00:06:05,825
to see if he could find me
more information than I had.

84
00:06:13,541 --> 00:06:18,379
But it was awfully difficult
because Sarah just couldn't be found.

85
00:06:18,462 --> 00:06:20,131
[tense droning]

86
00:06:27,346 --> 00:06:29,056
[unsettling music playing]

87
00:06:36,981 --> 00:06:41,694
There was no contact with my parents
for the best part of four years.

88
00:06:43,154 --> 00:06:45,322
The group ceased to exist.

89
00:06:46,073 --> 00:06:49,243
We were told that Rob's bosses
were gonna separate us.

90
00:06:49,910 --> 00:06:51,912
And Rob just basically said,

91
00:06:51,996 --> 00:06:56,000
"You have no choice.
That is the only option."

92
00:06:57,001 --> 00:07:00,087
He didn't tell me anything
about John and Maria.

93
00:07:01,797 --> 00:07:03,716
I wasn't allowed contact.

94
00:07:06,802 --> 00:07:08,387
It was like being on an island

95
00:07:08,471 --> 00:07:11,098
where you're separated
from everybody else.

96
00:07:13,434 --> 00:07:15,519
He controlled everything in my life,

97
00:07:16,228 --> 00:07:20,274
where I went, what I did,
what I wore, everything.

98
00:07:21,609 --> 00:07:27,490
All the money that I earned went to Rob
to pay for the witness protection program.

99
00:07:28,741 --> 00:07:31,994
-Rob said that it wasn't enough.
-[dialing]

100
00:07:32,077 --> 00:07:35,164
I needed to get hold of the inheritance.

101
00:07:35,247 --> 00:07:37,875
[phone ringing]

102
00:07:37,958 --> 00:07:38,792
[phone beeps]

103
00:07:39,877 --> 00:07:41,670
Life springs eternal.

104
00:07:41,754 --> 00:07:47,426
Once Sarah's made contact, there is hope.
One, we know she's alive.

105
00:07:48,636 --> 00:07:51,805
And I was made to demand this money.

106
00:07:52,806 --> 00:07:56,727
I told Sarah not to trust Freegard.

107
00:07:56,810 --> 00:07:58,604
[over phone] Get out. Leave.

108
00:07:58,687 --> 00:08:00,814
Rob puts the phone down. Chop.

109
00:08:01,565 --> 00:08:03,526
Chop. Chop.

110
00:08:03,609 --> 00:08:06,028
[dial tone]

111
00:08:07,571 --> 00:08:09,698
And he made me keep phoning back.

112
00:08:12,076 --> 00:08:14,161
[ringing tone]

113
00:08:14,245 --> 00:08:15,621
[phone rings]

114
00:08:16,413 --> 00:08:19,250
[Peter Smith] When we asked her
why she wouldn't come home,

115
00:08:21,126 --> 00:08:22,503
she said she couldn't.

116
00:08:22,586 --> 00:08:24,672
And she'd got to have this money.

117
00:08:24,755 --> 00:08:27,758
"I need the money, the money,
the money, the money."

118
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Calls came day or night.

119
00:08:30,219 --> 00:08:31,720
[phone rings]

120
00:08:33,472 --> 00:08:36,183
-Weeks on end.
-[phone rings]

121
00:08:36,267 --> 00:08:37,601
[phones ringing]

122
00:08:37,685 --> 00:08:41,939
Even if you don't answer the phone,
the phone still rings.

123
00:08:43,857 --> 00:08:45,818
And it'll ring for a bit,
and then it stops.

124
00:08:45,901 --> 00:08:47,319
And then they'd ring again.

125
00:08:47,403 --> 00:08:50,948
And that in itself
is like a hammer going at you.

126
00:08:51,031 --> 00:08:53,576
[phone ringing]

127
00:08:55,202 --> 00:08:59,748
Unfortunately, the business,
uh, got problems.

128
00:09:00,416 --> 00:09:03,919
We had debts in the millions.

129
00:09:04,461 --> 00:09:06,755
[ringing tone]

130
00:09:06,839 --> 00:09:09,133
-[Sarah] And so, my father said…
-[ringing tone]

131
00:09:09,216 --> 00:09:13,137
…they were having to tell all the staff
that they were being made redundant.

132
00:09:13,220 --> 00:09:16,056
[distant phones ringing]

133
00:09:16,140 --> 00:09:16,974
[sniffs]

134
00:09:17,057 --> 00:09:20,686
-You knew he wouldn't stop.
-[distant phone ringing]

135
00:09:22,271 --> 00:09:24,648
[phone ringing]

136
00:09:26,442 --> 00:09:29,278
And Jill was suffering.

137
00:09:31,196 --> 00:09:35,284
And as a mother,
it rocked her life very badly.

138
00:09:36,327 --> 00:09:38,912
If they could get Jill,
they'd keep on hammering away.

139
00:09:38,996 --> 00:09:41,540
-Bang, bang, bang, bang.
-[ringing tone]

140
00:09:41,624 --> 00:09:42,708
[distant phone rings]

141
00:09:42,791 --> 00:09:43,959
[phone rings]

142
00:09:44,043 --> 00:09:45,336
[tense music playing]

143
00:09:45,419 --> 00:09:47,546
-[distant phone rings]
-[phone rings]

144
00:09:49,173 --> 00:09:51,091
-[distant phone rings]
-[phone rings]

145
00:09:52,843 --> 00:09:54,762
-[distant phone rings]
-[phone rings]

146
00:09:56,347 --> 00:09:57,598
[phone rings]

147
00:10:01,852 --> 00:10:02,936
That was it.

148
00:10:05,481 --> 00:10:07,983
Jill decided she was going to pay it.

149
00:10:10,653 --> 00:10:16,200
I would never have given that money
if I could have had any other option.

150
00:10:16,700 --> 00:10:20,162
But with Jill persuaded, worried…

151
00:10:21,497 --> 00:10:22,373
made ill…

152
00:10:24,625 --> 00:10:27,461
that had to come first.
That was first consideration.

153
00:10:35,844 --> 00:10:38,931
I thought to myself,
"I don't give a damn what else happens."

154
00:10:39,807 --> 00:10:41,225
"I'm going to live my life."

155
00:10:45,354 --> 00:10:46,230
[sobs]

156
00:10:48,565 --> 00:10:49,400
[sniffs]

157
00:10:50,484 --> 00:10:51,443
[sobs]

158
00:10:53,028 --> 00:10:54,196
[exhales, sniffs]

159
00:10:55,781 --> 00:10:57,032
That was the end of it.

160
00:10:58,701 --> 00:11:00,160
My parents paid it up.

161
00:11:00,744 --> 00:11:01,578
[sniffs]

162
00:11:03,122 --> 00:11:04,123
And they…

163
00:11:05,541 --> 00:11:07,918
They said,
"I don't think you should call back."

164
00:11:10,546 --> 00:11:14,466
[shaky inhale] And I truly, truly believed
that was the end of it,

165
00:11:14,550 --> 00:11:16,301
that I'd never speak to them again.

166
00:11:18,846 --> 00:11:19,680
[sniffs]

167
00:11:23,142 --> 00:11:25,144
[tense music playing]

168
00:11:35,821 --> 00:11:37,656
[Mark] When the police found Sandra,

169
00:11:37,740 --> 00:11:40,868
they said, "Do you know
what Robert Freegard's done?"

170
00:11:41,910 --> 00:11:43,078
Which she said she did.

171
00:11:43,954 --> 00:11:46,331
Sandra was told, "If you want to,

172
00:11:46,415 --> 00:11:48,792
we can take you
into protective custody now."

173
00:11:48,876 --> 00:11:51,712
Um, and which she said,
"I don't want to go.

174
00:11:51,795 --> 00:11:53,964
I want to be with David."

175
00:11:54,882 --> 00:11:57,092
As an adult saying
she wanted to be with him,

176
00:11:57,176 --> 00:11:59,386
the police couldn't make her leave him.

177
00:11:59,470 --> 00:12:01,597
There was nothing more
the police could do.

178
00:12:01,680 --> 00:12:04,057
[melancholy string music playing]

179
00:12:05,768 --> 00:12:11,064
How could you know this information
about someone and stay with them?

180
00:12:17,780 --> 00:12:19,281
My mum was an only child.

181
00:12:20,449 --> 00:12:22,951
She was very close with her parents.

182
00:12:25,162 --> 00:12:28,499
[Jake] My nan and granddad
both sadly passed away,

183
00:12:28,582 --> 00:12:32,044
and my mum didn't turn up to the funerals.

184
00:12:32,961 --> 00:12:35,339
[Sophie] It was so out of character.

185
00:12:35,422 --> 00:12:38,091
But, deep down,
I knew she wasn't gonna come.

186
00:12:38,717 --> 00:12:39,551
[sniffs]

187
00:12:47,184 --> 00:12:49,436
[Jake] I haven't seen my mum
in seven years.

188
00:12:52,523 --> 00:12:56,318
There has been some contact,
normally on a withheld number.

189
00:12:56,401 --> 00:12:59,488
If I want to call her, they don't pick up.

190
00:12:59,571 --> 00:13:03,242
And, in my belief, the conversations,
they've all been scripted.

191
00:13:04,243 --> 00:13:07,746
It just feels like
I'm speaking to a robot.

192
00:13:08,956 --> 00:13:12,251
To this day,
I don't actually know where she is.

193
00:13:12,835 --> 00:13:13,710
I mean…

194
00:13:14,628 --> 00:13:17,798
she's never once allowed me
to know where she lives.

195
00:13:17,881 --> 00:13:18,841
What's that?

196
00:13:19,424 --> 00:13:22,052
-What's that there?
-[Jake] My mum is a loving, caring woman,

197
00:13:22,761 --> 00:13:25,722
and it just seems
that there's someone there,

198
00:13:25,806 --> 00:13:26,890
pulling the strings.

199
00:13:27,558 --> 00:13:30,769
I believe the person
behind all of this is Freegard.

200
00:13:30,853 --> 00:13:32,521
[tense music playing]

201
00:13:37,526 --> 00:13:39,778
[unsettling music playing]

202
00:13:41,947 --> 00:13:42,823
[horn honks]

203
00:13:43,699 --> 00:13:47,077
[siren wailing]

204
00:13:59,923 --> 00:14:01,550
My name's Bob Brandon.

205
00:14:01,633 --> 00:14:03,886
For 30 years,
I was a Metro Police officer,

206
00:14:03,969 --> 00:14:07,431
and I spent the majority of my career
at Scotland Yard on the fraud squad.

207
00:14:07,514 --> 00:14:08,807
[phone rings]

208
00:14:08,891 --> 00:14:12,019
I first heard about the case
when a woman called Hammersmith Police

209
00:14:12,102 --> 00:14:14,980
to report that her ex-fiancé,
Robert Freegard,

210
00:14:15,063 --> 00:14:18,692
had deceived her
in the tune of approximately £30,000.

211
00:14:19,276 --> 00:14:21,528
[dramatic music playing

212
00:14:21,612 --> 00:14:24,948
And it was felt proportionate
just to call Freegard

213
00:14:25,032 --> 00:14:26,825
and invite him to the station
for an interview.

214
00:14:28,911 --> 00:14:31,288
But he never turned up,
and from that moment on,

215
00:14:31,371 --> 00:14:33,290
his SIM card was never, ever used again.

216
00:14:34,249 --> 00:14:36,084
Freegard suddenly disappeared.

217
00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:41,590
The only lead we really had
was the fact the victim met Freegard

218
00:14:41,673 --> 00:14:43,634
at a car showroom in West London.

219
00:14:47,721 --> 00:14:49,806
[man] When the police
came to speak to me,

220
00:14:49,890 --> 00:14:52,100
I told them of all the car salesman
I ever met,

221
00:14:52,184 --> 00:14:55,270
Robert Freegard was definitely
one of the best.

222
00:14:55,354 --> 00:14:56,521
He could move metal.

223
00:14:57,940 --> 00:15:02,069
He was tall. He was handsome.
He looked a successful guy.

224
00:15:02,152 --> 00:15:05,280
He was the sort I'd think to myself,
"I'd like to look like that."

225
00:15:07,532 --> 00:15:09,201
He was a charmer and a ladies' man.

226
00:15:09,284 --> 00:15:11,119
He was dismissed from the car showroom

227
00:15:11,203 --> 00:15:13,622
for persistently
hitting on female customers.

228
00:15:14,331 --> 00:15:15,958
Apparently, he never stopped.

229
00:15:16,667 --> 00:15:21,380
The story that the car salesman
told the officers was amazing.

230
00:15:22,381 --> 00:15:25,175
[Peter Glossop] One day, he said to me,
"I've got something to tell you."

231
00:15:25,258 --> 00:15:27,010
"I work for MI5."

232
00:15:28,762 --> 00:15:30,347
"I'm an MI5 agent."

233
00:15:30,430 --> 00:15:34,101
He told me he was working undercover,
yes, as a car salesman,

234
00:15:34,184 --> 00:15:36,645
but that he's a secret agent in real life,

235
00:15:36,728 --> 00:15:39,314
tracking IRA suspects.

236
00:15:39,398 --> 00:15:42,067
My reaction was, "Really?"

237
00:15:43,568 --> 00:15:46,321
But he did make a real point
of being quite secretive

238
00:15:46,405 --> 00:15:48,031
about who he was on the phone with.

239
00:15:48,115 --> 00:15:51,868
And he changed his SIM card.
Why do you need two SIM cards?

240
00:15:53,286 --> 00:15:58,000
And I suddenly started to think,
actually, you know, maybe he was.

241
00:15:58,667 --> 00:16:01,086
[suspenseful music plays]

242
00:16:05,507 --> 00:16:08,969
Some of the stuff we did,
it felt like we were undercover policemen.

243
00:16:09,052 --> 00:16:12,556
All stations, Peter, out now
and off towards Tottenham Court Road.

244
00:16:12,639 --> 00:16:14,224
Peter One, roger.

245
00:16:14,307 --> 00:16:16,059
[suspenseful music playing]

246
00:16:21,398 --> 00:16:24,735
He'd go into a meeting, into a hotel.
He'd have to see somebody in there.

247
00:16:24,818 --> 00:16:29,197
He'd disappear, and then all of a sudden,
half an hour or an hour later perhaps,

248
00:16:29,281 --> 00:16:31,742
he'd suddenly reappear
and like, "Come on, let's go."

249
00:16:31,825 --> 00:16:33,493
So we were into the car and were off.

250
00:16:34,453 --> 00:16:38,331
Peter One. He's on the number one bus,
heading north.

251
00:16:38,415 --> 00:16:40,250
[suspenseful music continues]

252
00:16:41,376 --> 00:16:44,296
I was always the getaway driver
in the car outside.

253
00:16:44,379 --> 00:16:47,049
I never went in and I was never involved

254
00:16:47,132 --> 00:16:51,553
in any of these clandestine meetings
and so forth that was happening.

255
00:16:51,636 --> 00:16:53,555
Roger. Out.

256
00:16:53,638 --> 00:16:56,725
[Peter Glossop] There was no real
explanation as to what he was doing,

257
00:16:56,808 --> 00:16:59,436
but there was always a sense of urgency
when we left.

258
00:17:00,771 --> 00:17:01,980
It was quite exciting.

259
00:17:02,606 --> 00:17:04,733
Peter Two to Control.
Peter Two to Control.

260
00:17:05,442 --> 00:17:09,029
Now, it could have been true,
but I thought it was highly unlikely,

261
00:17:09,112 --> 00:17:12,115
because if he was an MI5 spy,
he wouldn't tell everybody that.

262
00:17:15,285 --> 00:17:16,745
So, we checked with MI5,

263
00:17:18,413 --> 00:17:21,333
who confirmed that he was not
one of their operatives.

264
00:17:21,416 --> 00:17:23,752
We knew that we were dealing
with an impostor.

265
00:17:23,835 --> 00:17:26,088
[dramatic instrumental music plays]

266
00:17:28,757 --> 00:17:31,551
[keyboard clacking]

267
00:17:31,635 --> 00:17:34,596
He was circulated as wanted
on the police national computer.

268
00:17:35,138 --> 00:17:37,557
And then the officers
began looking into his history,

269
00:17:37,641 --> 00:17:40,268
looking into his background,
in an attempt to trace him.

270
00:17:40,352 --> 00:17:43,855
Freegard wasn't a spy,
but he actually tried to act like a spy.

271
00:17:44,856 --> 00:17:46,942
He made himself very difficult to trace.

272
00:17:47,025 --> 00:17:50,070
He'd switched off his phones,
moved out of his address,

273
00:17:50,153 --> 00:17:51,446
and he was on the run.

274
00:17:53,406 --> 00:17:56,701
The average person will go
to the local shop and buy some milk,

275
00:17:56,785 --> 00:17:59,955
and go to the local train station
to buy a ticket.

276
00:18:00,831 --> 00:18:02,916
They might take cash out
at the local cashpoint.

277
00:18:02,999 --> 00:18:04,960
So when you look at the spend,

278
00:18:05,043 --> 00:18:07,671
you can generally work out
where someone lives and works.

279
00:18:07,754 --> 00:18:09,464
This wasn't the case here.

280
00:18:11,049 --> 00:18:12,801
It was like chasing a ghost.

281
00:18:16,471 --> 00:18:18,265
[tense music playing]

282
00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:23,186
[Sarah] Nobody knew where I was.

283
00:18:24,020 --> 00:18:26,773
Rob left me in a safe house in London

284
00:18:27,941 --> 00:18:33,196
to wait while he had gone off
on some mission for weeks.

285
00:18:36,533 --> 00:18:41,538
I was told that if anybody comes
to the door, just pretend you're not in.

286
00:18:42,873 --> 00:18:45,250
[melancholy string music playing]

287
00:18:48,211 --> 00:18:52,215
When I told Sarah not to call,
I was angry.

288
00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:55,218
But there are no limits of love.

289
00:18:56,344 --> 00:18:59,181
You keep going on,
and you hope for a lead.

290
00:19:00,348 --> 00:19:02,934
And if it is going to take ten years,

291
00:19:04,227 --> 00:19:05,896
you still go for it.

292
00:19:07,063 --> 00:19:09,232
You don't want to lose your daughter,

293
00:19:10,817 --> 00:19:12,027
in spite of everything.

294
00:19:14,070 --> 00:19:15,739
[interviewer] What were your worst fears?

295
00:19:18,450 --> 00:19:20,410
I don't know. There were a good many.

296
00:19:21,036 --> 00:19:22,078
Um…

297
00:19:22,162 --> 00:19:24,789
Never seeing Sarah again
might have been one.

298
00:19:25,624 --> 00:19:29,336
Her getting abandoned, starved…

299
00:19:32,130 --> 00:19:34,382
and, um, left to die.

300
00:19:35,050 --> 00:19:36,760
I wasn't going to let that happen.

301
00:19:39,387 --> 00:19:42,766
I needed more evidence
to get the police to help me.

302
00:19:44,017 --> 00:19:50,440
I was trying to grab every loose end
that I could follow.

303
00:19:51,775 --> 00:19:55,070
And then, out of the blue,
we had this letter turn up.

304
00:19:57,155 --> 00:20:00,575
"Dear Mr. Smith,
I feel I need to explain further…"

305
00:20:00,659 --> 00:20:02,702
[man] "…how it was for Sarah and I."

306
00:20:03,620 --> 00:20:06,456
"Rob told us that the only way
to protect our loved ones

307
00:20:06,998 --> 00:20:08,333
was to tell them nothing."

308
00:20:09,501 --> 00:20:13,588
"You were a loose cannon
who could lead the IRA to us."

309
00:20:15,006 --> 00:20:16,675
"Our bank accounts were emptied."

310
00:20:18,051 --> 00:20:19,511
"He was very convincing."

311
00:20:20,178 --> 00:20:21,972
[dramatic music playing]

312
00:20:22,055 --> 00:20:24,599
[John] I went back to my family's farm,

313
00:20:24,683 --> 00:20:28,937
and I explained to the family
that we were on the run from the IRA

314
00:20:29,604 --> 00:20:32,983
so they would pay the next payment
for Rob's protection.

315
00:20:33,066 --> 00:20:34,943
[dramatic music continues]

316
00:20:35,026 --> 00:20:39,281
Over three or four years,
I handed over £400,000.

317
00:20:39,990 --> 00:20:41,992
[dramatic music continues]

318
00:20:43,994 --> 00:20:44,828
[ding]

319
00:20:51,001 --> 00:20:54,713
[John] As time went on, I was spending
more and more time back on the farm.

320
00:20:54,796 --> 00:20:56,715
[sheep bleating]

321
00:20:56,798 --> 00:21:00,135
It was clearer to me
that if anybody was looking for me,

322
00:21:00,218 --> 00:21:01,970
they would look for me at the farm,

323
00:21:02,053 --> 00:21:03,513
and I was clearly there.

324
00:21:04,514 --> 00:21:06,141
And nobody had come to kill me.

325
00:21:07,559 --> 00:21:09,394
-[cow lowing]
-Rob stopped calling.

326
00:21:10,103 --> 00:21:12,397
The doubt really took hold.

327
00:21:16,985 --> 00:21:19,321
[John, echoing] All of this is a sham.

328
00:21:19,404 --> 00:21:21,990
[reporter] The Irish Republican Army
is taking credit…

329
00:21:22,073 --> 00:21:23,908
I'm an MI5 agent.

330
00:21:24,492 --> 00:21:26,369
[echoing] "Jim's one of them."

331
00:21:27,370 --> 00:21:31,875
I realized this really could just be Rob
doing all this.

332
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:37,964
I'd just lost a fortune,
had put my family through hell.

333
00:21:38,548 --> 00:21:43,219
I'd dragged two innocent girls
from college into a web of lies.

334
00:21:44,721 --> 00:21:48,850
And the self-loathing was immense.

335
00:21:48,933 --> 00:21:50,935
[tense droning]

336
00:21:51,019 --> 00:21:52,020
I wanted to die.

337
00:21:53,521 --> 00:21:55,565
I didn't want to exist.

338
00:22:02,530 --> 00:22:06,076
I'd got out of the situation,
and Sarah hadn't.

339
00:22:06,576 --> 00:22:08,745
I felt a wave of guilt.

340
00:22:08,828 --> 00:22:11,081
So, I wrote a letter to Mr. Smith.

341
00:22:12,207 --> 00:22:16,002
"I do not know where Sarah is. I'm sorry."

342
00:22:18,588 --> 00:22:22,050
This was direct from one of the group.

343
00:22:23,093 --> 00:22:25,178
It was a vital piece of evidence.

344
00:22:26,137 --> 00:22:27,680
I phoned the police again.

345
00:22:28,973 --> 00:22:32,143
I was told,
"You need to speak to Bob Brandon."

346
00:22:32,227 --> 00:22:33,728
[dramatic music playing]

347
00:22:35,563 --> 00:22:38,024
Peter told this amazing story

348
00:22:38,108 --> 00:22:40,819
of what had happened to his daughter
over the past ten years.

349
00:22:40,902 --> 00:22:44,531
The fact that she would believe
she was on the run from the IRA…

350
00:22:44,614 --> 00:22:47,075
[reporter] A bomb exploded
without warning.

351
00:22:47,158 --> 00:22:49,828
…that Freegard pretended to be a spy,

352
00:22:49,911 --> 00:22:53,415
that he had taken hundreds of thousands
of pounds off his victims.

353
00:22:54,916 --> 00:23:00,296
It went from a £30,000 fraud
to something beyond belief.

354
00:23:01,506 --> 00:23:03,800
As a father of three daughters myself,

355
00:23:03,883 --> 00:23:06,469
I understood just how worried
he must have been.

356
00:23:08,179 --> 00:23:09,973
I told him we would find Sarah.

357
00:23:11,891 --> 00:23:15,478
Peter had done everything
he possibly could to find his daughter.

358
00:23:16,729 --> 00:23:20,400
Every lead, every piece of information,
he just held on to it.

359
00:23:22,068 --> 00:23:23,361
Like a dog with a bone.

360
00:23:25,405 --> 00:23:28,199
So, we knew
about the three original students,

361
00:23:28,283 --> 00:23:30,702
uh, John, and Sarah, and Maria.

362
00:23:30,785 --> 00:23:32,954
We also knew
that Freegard had been working

363
00:23:33,037 --> 00:23:34,706
in a car showroom in West London.

364
00:23:35,790 --> 00:23:38,501
As time went on,
it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

365
00:23:40,587 --> 00:23:43,465
Freegard needed to be found,
and he needed to be found quickly.

366
00:23:45,467 --> 00:23:49,304
We did some good old-fashioned policing,
and we found Freegard's mother's house.

367
00:23:50,013 --> 00:23:51,973
There was a car parked near his house

368
00:23:52,056 --> 00:23:54,476
that was actually registered
to West London,

369
00:23:54,559 --> 00:23:57,437
maybe 200 miles south
of where his mother's house was.

370
00:23:59,981 --> 00:24:03,443
Not only that, but it also been sold
by the garage where Freegard had worked.

371
00:24:05,069 --> 00:24:06,237
We went to the address.

372
00:24:06,321 --> 00:24:07,864
[dramatic music playing]

373
00:24:10,992 --> 00:24:14,787
Freegard wasn't there. The door was opened
by a guy called Simon Proctor.

374
00:24:15,705 --> 00:24:18,958
And Simon told a story
about his ex-girlfriend, Kim Adams,

375
00:24:19,042 --> 00:24:22,545
an American
who had been renting his house.

376
00:24:22,629 --> 00:24:24,631
Kim had suddenly disappeared,

377
00:24:24,714 --> 00:24:27,217
telling her work colleagues
that she was terminally ill.

378
00:24:28,134 --> 00:24:30,803
Rob said that we're in grave danger
and we had to leave.

379
00:24:31,387 --> 00:24:33,181
I told them that I had liver cancer.

380
00:24:34,098 --> 00:24:35,558
[Bob] It was just too similar

381
00:24:35,642 --> 00:24:38,561
to what had happened
all those years ago with the students.

382
00:24:39,103 --> 00:24:40,647
We went back to the car showroom.

383
00:24:40,730 --> 00:24:43,066
Kim Adams bought a car from Freegard.

384
00:24:44,234 --> 00:24:46,611
Kim went onto our list
as a potential victim.

385
00:24:48,112 --> 00:24:50,281
First was Sarah, now Kim.

386
00:24:51,157 --> 00:24:53,201
I was gonna need help to get them back.

387
00:24:56,788 --> 00:24:58,748
[siren wails]

388
00:24:58,831 --> 00:25:00,542
[phone rings]

389
00:25:03,336 --> 00:25:06,798
[woman] I got a call from Bob Brandon
from Scotland Yard.

390
00:25:07,298 --> 00:25:11,761
Bob's first words to me were,
"Are you sitting down?"

391
00:25:12,470 --> 00:25:16,641
Bob told me a crazy story about the IRA,

392
00:25:17,267 --> 00:25:18,685
espionage,

393
00:25:18,768 --> 00:25:21,104
and people being on the run for ten years.

394
00:25:23,106 --> 00:25:28,403
There was a potential new victim,
an American woman named Kim Adams.

395
00:25:29,112 --> 00:25:31,614
So who better to start with
than Kim's parents?

396
00:25:31,698 --> 00:25:33,908
[dramatic music playing]

397
00:25:35,577 --> 00:25:40,999
I sent out a team of agents to Arizona
to find out if they had heard from her.

398
00:25:42,917 --> 00:25:47,839
They told the agents
Kim was planning to marry Robert Freegard.

399
00:25:47,922 --> 00:25:49,382
[unsettling music playing]

400
00:25:50,425 --> 00:25:57,307
That he had told them
that he was a security agent for MI5.

401
00:25:58,516 --> 00:26:02,020
It seemed that Kim had been
completely swept off her feet.

402
00:26:03,062 --> 00:26:07,066
Freegard bought Kim
a Cartier engagement ring,

403
00:26:07,150 --> 00:26:08,860
a Rolex wristwatch,

404
00:26:08,943 --> 00:26:10,153
trips abroad.

405
00:26:10,653 --> 00:26:12,864
[unsettling music continues]

406
00:26:12,947 --> 00:26:16,701
Kim's parents thought
Kim had a bright future with Robert.

407
00:26:18,286 --> 00:26:19,662
Then that's when we learned

408
00:26:19,746 --> 00:26:24,626
that Kim's stepfather
was a large lottery winner.

409
00:26:25,501 --> 00:26:27,128
[man] I'll definitely have some fun.

410
00:26:27,211 --> 00:26:30,548
The golf game's gonna get better,
I can tell you that. [laughs]

411
00:26:30,632 --> 00:26:33,217
[Jaclyn] And after that,
she had gone missing.

412
00:26:34,927 --> 00:26:38,514
So, the agents had to break the news
to both parents

413
00:26:38,598 --> 00:26:42,101
that Freegard certainly was not
an MI5 agent.

414
00:26:42,185 --> 00:26:44,187
[dramatic music playing]

415
00:26:45,772 --> 00:26:47,815
No one knew where Kim was,

416
00:26:47,899 --> 00:26:50,526
but Kim's parents
did hear from her sporadically

417
00:26:50,610 --> 00:26:52,195
when she wanted money.

418
00:26:54,489 --> 00:26:59,702
As far as the FBI was concerned,
Kim was kidnapped.

419
00:27:02,038 --> 00:27:03,414
I came up with a plan…

420
00:27:04,499 --> 00:27:05,917
[dial tone]

421
00:27:07,126 --> 00:27:09,921
to start recording
the telephone conversations

422
00:27:10,004 --> 00:27:13,091
between Freegard, Kim, and her parents.

423
00:27:14,676 --> 00:27:19,472
First, we got Kim's parents
to call Kim and leave messages.

424
00:27:29,774 --> 00:27:30,608
[phone beeps]

425
00:27:30,692 --> 00:27:32,902
After that, we just keep trying.

426
00:27:33,986 --> 00:27:35,405
[ringing tone]

427
00:27:36,989 --> 00:27:38,324
[ringing tone]

428
00:27:38,408 --> 00:27:40,618
Finally, Freegard picks up the phone.

429
00:27:40,702 --> 00:27:41,786
[ringing tone]

430
00:27:50,378 --> 00:27:52,296
[tense music playing]

431
00:27:52,380 --> 00:27:54,590
[dramatic instrumental music playing]