This week on Sinister South, we do what we do best. There’s midweek chaos, including Rach questioning her own judgement after agreeing to a gig with the kids in tow, celebrating her slow and inevitable demise (also known as her birthday) on release day, and of course the continuing saga of #JenAneatenbyleopards. The truth will come out. Probably. Eventually.

Then we get into the case of Tom “Tommy” Cressman and Jane Andrews. In September 2000, in a flat in Fulham, Tommy rang 999 and said words that still haunt this case: “I’m afraid we might hurt each other… if we don’t have somebody here soon, somebody is going to get hurt.” No one came.

Within days, Tommy was dead. Beaten with a cricket bat and stabbed in his own bed. His partner, Jane Andrews, a former dresser to Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, would later claim she acted in self-defence.

In this episode, we step back and look at who these two people really were. Tommy, a wealthy, well-liked South West London bachelor with a settled life and no desire to marry. Jane, a woman who’d clawed her way out of a difficult childhood into royal circles, only to see that identity collapse years before she met him.

We talk about the relationship, the warning signs, the arguments, the 999 call that went nowhere, and the systems that failed to step in before things turned fatal. We also look carefully at Jane’s psychology without excusing what she did, and why this case still provokes such strong reactions more than twenty years on.

If you or someone you know needs help in a domestic violence/coercive control situation there are many places that can help including:

National Domestic Abuse Helpline - 0808 2000 247

National Centre for Domestic Abuse

and many more in the UK. If you're outside the UK, check local services.

Sources in this episode include:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Andrews
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/23/newsid_4444000/4444991.stm
• https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3kz304
• https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/aug/30/weekend7.weekend1
• https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/my-brother-murdered-royal-aide-28135479
• https://www.murdermiletours.com/blog/murder-mile-uk-true-crime-podcast-148-the-abuse-of-jane-andrews-part-1-janes-story
• https://murderpedia.org/female.A/a/andrews-jane.htm
• https://www.thedarksideoflove.com/post/episode-72-season-4-jane-andrews-and-tom-cressman-i-m-gonna-make-you-love-me
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF25VVb_AFk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHEnU26OFug

Support the show

Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river...

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

In this episode, we head back to Victorian Brixton and into one of the most disturbing cases we’ve ever covered on Sinister South.

Before we get there though, we do what we do best and chat absolute nonsense. There’s an unexpected fifth cat, a house that smells like a crime scene for all the wrong reasons, the slow realisation that our bodies are ageing at an alarming rate, and a surprisingly serious discussion about V pillows, podcasts, and why no one should ever attempt a Scottish accent out loud.

Then we bring things sharply back down to earth.

This episode focuses on Margaret Waters, a woman who ran a baby farming operation in 19th century South London. What began as paid childcare arrangements became something far darker. Infants taken for lump sums, drugged into silence, starved, and left to die once they were no longer profitable.

We look at how Waters was able to operate for years in plain sight, why Brixton’s rapid expansion made the perfect cover, and how poverty, anonymity and a complete lack of regulation allowed unimaginable cruelty to flourish. This is not a story of desperation gone wrong. It is a story about someone who learned exactly how much suffering she could get away with.

Listener discretion is strongly advised. This episode contains discussion of infant death, deliberate neglect and infanticide.

Sources include:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Waters
https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-718109/confession-execution-of-m-waters-the-baby-farmer-at-horsemonger-lane-gaol-on-tuesday-october-11th/
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63114230
https://kar.kent.ac.uk/62866/27/Baby%20Farmers.pdf
https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2013/06/the-tale-of-margaret-waters-brixtons-notorious-1870-baby-farmer-as-retold-through-the-spectators-archives/
https://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/1st-october-1870/11/the-trade-of-murder
https://vocal.media/fyi/london-s-vile-victorian-baby-farmers
https://livingwithdying.leeds.ac.uk/2022/11/01/unloved-and-undisciplined-nineteenth-century-baby-farming-and-the-demonisation-of-working-class-mothers-across-the-ages/
https://southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk/index.php/history/19th-century/a-19th-century-epidemic-of-infanticide/
https://www.nytimes.com/1870/10/15/archives/the-trade-of-murder-review-of-the-case-of-margaret-waters-the.html
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey%27s_Cordial

Support the show

Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river...

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

It's 2026!! Happy Bloody New Year Trevors! This week, after a bit of our usual rambling about poorly dogs (get well soon Ted), questionable New Year resolutions and why Rachel should probably never do another English Literature degree, we turn to one of the most shocking cases to come out of South London in recent years.

In August 2012, 12-year-old Tia Sharp went missing from her grandmother’s home in New Addington. What began as a desperate search, supported by her family, the local community and a nation watching on, would end in the most devastating way imaginable.

In this episode, we tell Tia’s story from the beginning. Who she was, the family who loved her, and the home she trusted. We follow the investigation as it unfolded, the media frenzy that surrounded it, and how suspicion slowly closed in on the man who had been hiding in plain sight all along.

We also examine the police search that failed her, the digital evidence that ultimately exposed the truth, and the trial that forced her family to hear the unthinkable. This is a case about trust, betrayal and the devastating consequences when the people meant to protect a child become the greatest danger.

As always, listener discretion is advised. This episode contains discussion of child harm, sexual violence and murder.

Sources include

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/JCO/Documents/Judgments/r-v-stuart-hazell-sentencing.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23322132
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/13/tia-sharp-body-found-bedsheet-loft
https://www.swlondoner.co.uk/news/16072013-agencies-cleared-of-any-blame-over-murder-of-croydon-schoolgirl-tia-sharp
https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/the-murder-of-tia-sharp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uOe7podWZY
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22513711
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Tia_Sharp
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19128653
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19214964
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tia-sharp-murder-grandmother-christine-1270036
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19223080
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/07/london-missing-tia-sharp-stepfather-speaks?newsfeed=true
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19590027
https://metro.co.uk/2016/03/22/murdered-tia-sharps-mum-accused-of-racist-assault-on-woman-in-lidl-car-park-5768936/
https://metro.co.uk/2016/03/23/tia-sharps-mum-and-gran-found-guilty-of-racism-5771335/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10209375/Tia-Sharp-neighbour-told-police-he-saw-her-leaving-house-when-she-was-already-dead.html

Support the show

Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river...

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)