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)

It’s our Christmas crime compendium, and yes, we’re wrapping South London horror in tinsel again.

Before we get into the cases, there’s a bit of festive nonsense. Questionable Christmas cracker jokes, South London takes on classic Christmas films, and the usual gentle chaos as we attempt to bring some cheer to stories that absolutely do not deserve it.

This year’s main case takes us back to Victorian South London, to Christmas Eve 1836. Hannah Brown was fifty, hardworking, and quietly getting on with life. She believed she was days away from a Christmas Day wedding and a new life abroad. Instead, she was walking straight into one of the most disturbing murders of the era.

What followed unfolded across the Twelve Days of Christmas and shocked London. A crime rooted in deception, money, and manipulation, carried out behind closed doors while the rest of the city celebrated.

Then there's the story of Anastasia Voldina at the hands of yet another man (we know not all men), two stories hundreds of years apart but hauntingly similar!

Thank you for spending part of your Christmas with us. We hope you’re warm, fed, slightly tipsy if that’s your thing, and not listening alone on a dark street.

Happy Christmas from us both, and we’ll see you on the other side 🎄

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 tell the story of Destiny Lauren, a woman whose death in Kentish Town in November 2009 was entirely preventable.

After a brief catch-up that takes in missed episodes, pre-Christmas chaos, questionable food choices and the kind of rambling only we can manage, the conversation shifts to a far more serious place.

Destiny was 29 years old. She was a daughter, a sister, and a woman living openly and authentically with the support of her family. She was careful and routine-driven, taking steps to protect herself while working in a world that already carried risk. On the night she was killed, she followed those routines. She did nothing reckless. She did nothing wrong.

Her killer, Leon Anthony File, travelled from Catford to Kentish Town while out on licence, despite a known history of serious violence. What happened that night was not unpredictable or random, but the result of repeated failures to manage a clearly identified risk.

We focus on who Destiny really was, the life she was trying to build, and the systems that failed her. This episode is about dignity, accountability, and a woman who deserved far more than the fate she was given.

Sources include

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)

Three deaths. One family. One quiet corner of South Croydon that suddenly found itself at the centre of a mystery that felt more like a Victorian thriller than the suburbs in the 1920s.

In this episode we dive into the strange chain of events that hit the Sidney and Duff families after three relatives died with the same unexplained symptoms, months apart. Doctors brushed it off, neighbours whispered, and life carried on. But once the Home Office ordered exhumations, everything changed. Each body showed clear signs of arsenic poisoning.

No intruder. No confession. No charges. Almost a century later, the Croydon Poisoning Mystery still sits in a very uncomfortable grey area.

We walk through the family tensions, the red flags and the unanswered questions — all sprinkled with our usual chaos, including the saga of the noise-cancelling headphones that turned Morrisons into sensory deprivation, whether stroking someone’s arm is science or just creepy, a full rant about eight-year-olds with teenage attitudes, and the ongoing diplomatic crisis caused by that comment about cheap suits.

Sources include:

https://beardyhistory.com/2025/08/10/unsolved-arsenic-murders-in-croydon
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/53486769#:~:text=,Croydon%20%28England
https://www.insidehook.com/adventure/hidden-venom-famous-unsolved-poisonings
https://beardyhistory.com/2025/08/10/unsolved-arsenic-murders-in-croydon
https://insidecroydon.com/2022/01/08/did-the-south-croydon-poisoner-really-get-away-with-murder/
https://historywiki.therai.org.uk/index.php?title=Edmund_Creighton_Duff
https://www.everand.com/book/897323633/Poisonous-Lies-The-Croydon-Arsenic-Mystery-Great-Unsolved-Murders-of-the-20th-Century
https://forum.casebook.org/forum/social-chat/other-mysteries/6176-the-croydon-poisonings

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)

This week we’re in Streatham, looking at one of the most significant and most debated cases in recent South London history: the shooting of 24 year old Chris Kaba. An unarmed man, a single police shot, and a city that still hasn’t shaken off the impact. We walk through who Chris was, the world he was moving through, the police intelligence that shaped that night, and the split second decision that changed everything. It’s a case full of contradictions, complexity and questions that don’t sit neatly on either side of a line.

And yes, before we get there, there’s also the usual chaos involving Rachel’s hatred of Sunday nights out, Hannah sniffing her own armpit, and an alarming amount of chat about shepherds. It’s Sinister South, Trevors. You know the drill.

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)

This week we’re diving into one of South London’s darkest and most infamous stories. The rise and fall of the Richardson Gang. A firm built on scrap metal, long-firm frauds, fruit machines, corrupt officers, brutal punishments and a level of violence that made even seasoned detectives say the Richardsons were far worse than the Krays.

We take you all the way from wartime Camberwell and the brothers’ chaotic childhood, through their early crimes, the building of the firm, the feud with the twins, the chaos at Mr Smith’s, the murder of George Cornell, the South Africa connection and the enormous police operation that followed. And of course, we walk through one of the most notorious trials the Old Bailey has ever seen – the Torture Trial – with its pliers, generators, witness protection deals and a judge whose own family history caused controversy for decades.

It’s one of the biggest stories we’ve ever covered. Brutal, complicated, and rooted deep in the real South London we know far too well.

But before all that, we've got the usual nonsense… Business as usual.

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)