RAIDING the home of murder suspect Colin Cheetham, cops discovered a “gold mine of evidence”, chilling gun pose snaps and up to 600 large fizzy drink bottles filled with urine.
It was the sordid but brilliant breakthrough Derbyshire Police needed to finally nail the wannabe serial killer, who murdered a “complete stranger” to discover “the pleasure of killing someone”.
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Gun-obsessed Colin Cheetham posed with weapons and attended firing clubCredit: Caters
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His compulsions led the home to be filled with rubbish including 600 bottles of urineCredit: Caters News Agency
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Father of three Stuart Ludlam, 61, was a complete stranger to CheethamCredit: Handout
Weeks earlier, they discovered taxi driver Stuart Ludlam, 43, in the boot of his cab, which was left with the engine running in the middle of a quiet country road next to Cromford train station.
The slaying in September 2009 was immediately identified as “an execution” by cops after they found two pools of blood by the vehicle and two bullet casings.
But with no suspect, a range of theories emerged including Stuart’s death being “a targeted hit”, a “revenge attack” or the result of a “taxi wars” row over a parking space.
Eventually, monster Cheetham, then 61, was caught due to his unusual compulsive behaviours, which put an end to what psychologists feared could have been the start of a serial killer murder spree.
Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Blockley said: “He had almost committed the perfect murder because he had covered his tracks and there were no links back to him and no witnesses.
“We have no idea why he did it. The only person who knows the answer is Cheetham, but it looks like it was just the thrill of killing somebody.”
The investigation that secured the conviction of the gun fanatic – who died in HMP Wakefield in 2020 while serving a 30-year sentence – is now being revisited in tonight’s episode of True Crime Presents: Murder Without Motive on ITV1.
In September 2009, police were initially baffled when visiting the crime scene – there was no suspect, no witnesses and nothing that would link the killing to Cheetham.
Stuart was found a short distance away from Cromford train station after a witness spotted “an arm sticking out the back of the taxi” and pools of blood.
DCS Brockley said he had “never seen a crime scene like this” in his entire career, especially due to the way the car had been abandoned with the engine still running and the boot open, allowing the victim’s body to be seen.
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It was originally believed Stuart Ludlam could have been killed in a ‘taxi war’Credit: Facebook
He told the documentary: “There’s been no thought about disposing or hiding the body, if somebody’s going to kill somebody why would you leave the car in the middle of the road?”
There were two pools of blood, one by the driver’s door and one by the boot, and a trail of blood between them, suggesting Stuart may have walked or been dragged.
There were two bullet casings by the boot and two bullet wounds, which led officers to believe it was “an execution”.
DCS Brockley knew they needed to “solve this quickly” because there was “panic amongst the community, thinking there’s a killer on the loose”.
‘Taxi wars’ & burner phones
Without a suspect, cops investigated whether Stuart may have been killed as part of a “revenge attack gone wrong” because he’d fallen out with another cabbie, which was labelled part of a “taxi war”.
They interviewed multiple drivers, performed forensic checks on all of their cars and discovered the row turned out to be “nothing more than an argument”, leading to the theory being canned.
From the recovered bullets, analysis revealed striation marks – parallel lines imprinted from when a gun is fired – that “are the equivalent of the fingerprint of a firearm”.
It allowed them to identify the weapon as a .22 Rimfire Rifle, which they believed had been adapted due to the marks on the bullet, but there were “thousands [licenced] in and around Derbyshire”.
He wanted to find the pleasure of killing someone and it turned out to be [Stuart Ludlam]
Prosecutor Peter Joyce QC
Police were able to track down the phone number that called the cab rank that unknowingly summoned father-of-three Stuart to his death. The killer used a pay-as-you-go sim card on a burner phone.
They narrowed down where it was bought through triangulation – a process that allows triangle-shaped areas to be identified where a phone was switched on, using multiple cell towers.
It revealed that the burner phone had been bought in a Morrisons supermarket nearby and that Cheetham had attempted a ‘dummy run’ of the killing by calling the cab number from the murder scene weeks earlier.
The phone had been activated in the car park “shortly after it was purchased” but CCTV in the store didn’t cover the till where the transaction took place.
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Cheetham had converted a gun, which in part, led to his convictionCredit: Caters
DCI Brockley said: “The mobile phone cost £9.99 and it came with £10 worth of credit on it but somebody had also topped up that mobile phone with a further £10 worth of credit.”
It was the decision to top-up that helped to incriminate Cheetham because of his compulsion to pay for anything under a tenner in cash and over on his card.
Police discovered the £10 of credit was put on the phone at a Morrisons petrol station.
It was a transaction that cost £35 alongside fuel and because he used a credit card it gave them the killer’s name and a photo from CCTV, which matched his image on cop databases due to him being a gun owner.
Cruel ‘bully’
Cheetham was their prime suspect but police had nothing linking him to Stuart and details about his lifestyle to outsiders made him an unlikely murderer.
He was a garment technician, who was forced to retire early due to disability. He was 20 stone and had high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis.
But it emerged that Cheetham was a “bully towards his family” with “compulsive behaviours”. The OCD was so bad that he lived primarily in the front of his house due to his unusual hoarding and his wife hadn’t left the home in 20 years.
Behavioural psychologists described his behaviour as that of a serial killer and that may have been his first offence
DCI Tony Brockley
Detective Inspector Paul Callum said: “It was a very strange property, the house was a complete mess. We certainly found evidence of his OCD, we recovered five to six hundred bottles of urine which was really strange behaviour.”
One of his compulsive behaviours was collecting mobile phones. He had six in his car, which had multiple cabbie numbers on them, but there were more incriminating compulsions too.
“Each day of the week he’d do certain activities in a certain colour, when he went shooting he wore a certain kind of jumper,” DI Callum explained.
“With money anything over £10 he’d pay on a card, anything under £10 he’d always pay in cash.”
Knowing his compulsions allowed them to trap Cheetham, as he could tell them the shirt, jumper and jacket he wore on the day of the killing.
The latter had a blood smear on the upper left shoulder that correlated to blood on the door frame of Stuart’s taxi and was a match to his DNA profile.
Police described his home as a “gold mine of evidence” that would help to convict Cheetham. Despite this, he arrogantly believed he could use elaborate and constantly changing stories to exonerate himself.
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Cheetham cruelly took Stuart’s life near to Cromford StationCredit: Alamy
One of them was a collection of photographs of railway stations and timetables, which formed part of a ‘murder scrapbook’. One snap captured Cheetham’s reflection.
He excused it all as being his hobby but in reality, he was choosing the best murder location where would not be interrupted – he aligned the killing to a time when no trains passed through Cromford station for two hours.
Incriminating arrogance
Having researched Cheetham, police were advised by a behavioural psychologist to have him interviewed by a female officer and never confront him directly.
They knew his “historical behaviour” could be better exploited if he was to “feel in control” and his “arrogance” would trip him up as he believed he could talk his way out of anything.
DCI Brockley said: “We were told there’s no point directly challenging him, like ‘We know you’re lying’ because that will clam him up. Let him feel he’s in control because he will talk more.”
Who are the UK’s worst serial killers?
THE UK’s most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
- British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
- After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
- Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
- Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
- William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
- Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
- Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
- Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
They noted that he constantly “changed his story to fit the evidence” in police interviews but cops were closing in, due to compiling a mountain of proof that pointed to Cheetham’s guilt.
This included a coat that had been adapted to carry a longer weapon, photos of the gun nut posing with his weapons that showed his obsession and bullet casings that matched those found at the scene.
Wannabe serial killer
Cops were also able to retrieve CCTV evidence of Cheetham going into Cromford and back out again to his home in Ripley, around 10 miles away, thanks to his eagerness to explain his route on the day of the killing.
His story changed multiple times including once claiming he had taken a gun to the remote spot for a pal who wanted to ‘teach a drug dealer a lesson’, which was debunked.
Prosecutor Peter Joyce QC said Chettham “helped us build the case himself” but even in court spun lies and chose to speak on the stand, which for guilty parties is an unusual move.
DCI Brockley said: “That was a demonstration of his arrogance, he thought he could stand up there, spin a story and the jury would believe him and he’d be found not guilty.”
Noting cockiness was Cheetham’s undoing, Mr Joyce said: “He wasn’t bothered about covering it up, he wanted to commit a murder and say, ‘Look you can’t catch me.’
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Tributes left for taxi driver Stuart Ludlam at Cromford StationCredit: Alamy
It transpired that the killer fired at Stuart through the rear windscreen of his cab, hitting him in the head. He was then forced to walk to the back of the car and kneel on the boot, where he was fatally shot in the skull.
Mr Joyce added: “He wanted to find the pleasure of killing someone and it turned out to be [Stuart Ludlam].”
In 2010, Cheetham was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum 30-year term, but it ended 10 years later when he passed away behind bars.
The family of Stuart were relieved the monster was locked away for life, as were Derbyshire Police after receiving chilling analysis from experts.
DCI Brockley said: “Behavioural psychologists described his behaviour as that of a serial killer and that may have been his first offence.”
True Crime Presents: Murder Without Motive airs at 9pm tonight on ITV1. You can watch all 10 episodes of the series, titled Murder: First on the Scene online, on ITVX.