There is an expectation that the criminal justice system is there to protect society and to punish offenders for the crimes they have committed. But what about when their crimes are so horrendous, so damaging and so perverse that you can barely stand to hear about them.

“I remember when they were younger, they would always say they were scared of monsters, and I would say there’s ‘no such thing’. How wrong I was.”

These are the haunting words of Angela Smith, the grandmother of Lacey and John Paul Bennet and mother of Terri Harris, three of the victims in today’s harrowing case.

Banaz Mahmod was a young woman living in the UK whilst simultaneously imprisoned by the strict beliefs of her culture. After a childhood spent in a war-torn country, her family escaped for a safer life in the UK. But western culture clashed deeply with her community, and she was torn between honouring her family and honouring herself.

In broad daylight on a warm summer afternoon in 2016, British politician and MP for Batley and Spen, Jo Cox, was murdered in cold blood. Horrified witnesses at the scene scrambled at the sound of gunshots and the sight of an unknown attacker with a sawn-off rifle and knife in hand. Jo Cox’s death stunned the nation and sent shockwaves through Britain’s political circle.

“Hello there, this is the gunman from Birtley last night, er, my name is Raoul Moat…um, what I’m phoning about is to tell you exactly why I have done what I have done right? Now my girlfriend has been having an affair behind my back with one of your officers, this gentleman that I shot last night…I am hunting for officers now.”

When 31-year-old Gareth Williams began to miss work, his colleagues and family became concerned. Gareth had always been reliable and kept to his routines. But on August 23, 2010, when the police were asked to do a welfare check, they entered Gareth’s London flat and made a shocking discovery.

We all know the justice system exists to protect the public against criminals and their heinous crimes. But what if these laws and regulations suddenly contradict their purpose and work in favour of the offender?

In the early morning hours of the 29th of March 2014, a person walking through Castle Park in Colchester noticed a man lying unusually still in the grass to the side of the path. They could hear gurgling and as they approached, they were horrified to discover the man was completely covered in blood from the top of his head to the bottom of his legs.

A naked body of 6-year-old Rikki Neave was found near his Peterborough, Cambridgeshire home on November 29, 1994. His abusive mother was initially seen as a suspect, but the case quickly went cold after she was acquitted.

Just before Christmas in 2000, a horrific discovery was made by the edge of the river Thames in London—a severed torso of a woman. It did not take long for the police to identify the victim as 24-year-old Zoe Parker,