Episode 1 The Met: Policing London

Keep your hands on your head! Do NOT move!

London...

SIREN WAILS

Get out of the way!

..home to over 8.5 million people.

This Taser is capable of delivering 50,000 volts!

The task of protecting them falls to the country's biggest police force.

You're under arrest, all right?

Hello, Metropolitan Police - how can I help?

Police, show me your hands! I've got a Taser, show me your hands!

In a single year, they're called to 90,000 robberies and burglaries...

Oh, my goodness gracious me.

-Chasing suspects...

-INDISTINCT

..100 murders...

You've been identified as being responsible

for the murder of David McKenna.

..and make more than 190,000 arrests.

There you go. John!

You unlawfully and maliciously caused grievous bodily harm.

Can you think of a reason now

why I should give you bail for this matter?

It's my birthday tomorrow.

It's a force seen by some as the enemy...

Black people growing up around here

feel that the police is against them.

My driver has come under attack with a glass bottle,

he's had his head split open,

and another officer has been stabbed in the back of the head.

As they deal with life...

You're 13, what are you doing using language like that? Come on, man.

..death...

Welcome to Paradise.

..crime and its victims...

We lock up the bad people

so that people like you can sleep safe and sound.

..24 hours a day.

This programme contains some strong language.

SIREN WAILS

4am, Central London.

PCs Oz and Laura are halfway through a night shift.

Oz has been in the police force for seven years

and recently qualified as a response driver.

New recruit Laura moved down from Hull two years ago to join the Met.

Both of us are from the States and don't have international data plans,

so we don't have Wi-Fi here.

Is there any way... I don't know, we could get a ride home or something?

Sorry, mate.

I just know that the Tube stops at midnight,

-so is there another police car or anything?

-No,

we don't do lifts. There's plenty of buses around and whatnot.

-Cheers.

-Take care.

-TYRES SCREECH

-What's he doing?

MP, MP.

Got a black BMW making off, no lights.

Is he not going to stop?

INDISTINCT RADIO MESSAGE: ..man with a head injury.

BLEEP!

Vehicle failed to stop.

TYRES SCREECH

Vehicle failing to stop. T Square, swerving all over the road.

Gone through a red red, T Square.

I'll do it, I'll do it.

Going down Whitehall.

Whitehall towards Parliament Square, all units.

MP receiving, Charlie Whiskey 219.

Got a vehicle failed to stop, making off towards Parliament Square,

going down towards Vauxhall Bridge Road.

It's a black BMW 3 Series.

Failed to stop on police request.

No lights, erratic driving, dangerous driving.

Permission to pursue.

Left, left off the Lambeth Bridge.

Got a level-one driver behind.

Level driver three and there is a level-one driver behind.

Vehicle's now turned left, left.

As the chase heads into South London,

a specialist traffic unit with an advanced driver

in a faster car takes the lead.

He's all over the place.

-You all right?

-Whoo!

Right.

MP 036.

INDISTINCT RADIO EXCHANGE

Where is he?

This is the thing when it's not your area, you've literally got no clue.

I don't know where they're going. Where are they going?

BLEEP!

MP, can I get a talk-through

with the units that have the male detained

so we can come and liaise with them,

as we were the one that put up the pursuit.

-How you doing, are you all right?

-Hell, yeah.

-First one?

-Yeah!

Same! It was obvious, weren't it?!

Flipping 'ell.

I kept up with him! Kept up with him, that's the main thing.

-You bedded the brakes in, anyway!

-Yeah, the brakes work, now(!)

Has he been arrested?

Right.

By the time Oz and Laura get to the scene,

the driver is already in custody.

Yeah, we've stopped him, but you're more than welcome to take him.

It's up to you. Honestly.

Well, you did all the hard work!

He doesn't want him back!

Yeah, first ever pursuit, that's, um...

Yeah. It was OK. Bit of adrenaline rushing through the system, but...

It's nice, we got him - finally.

-Good little spot.

-Yeah, very. Yeah, happy.

Happy with it. I think Oz is, as well!

It's what we joined up for, isn't it?!

As well as helping people, obviously!

-Well done. You did well!

-HE EXHALES

-Dream team!

-Phew!

-Come on.

-MAN PROTESTS

Come on.

Walk, then.

The driver is a 17-year-old boy from Peckham

who is already known to the police.

He's got no licence,

and it's not the first time he's stolen his mum's car.

Found...that much cannabis.

Which is two... There's two bags of those ones in his jeans pocket.

The offences that he's been arrested for in total

will be dangerous driving, fail to stop,

assault on police,

driving not in compliance with a licence,

no insurance,

possession of cannabis, erm...

I think that's it, which is quite a lot for a 17-year-old.

Since hosting the Olympics, Stratford in East London

has undergone rapid development,

bringing thousands of jobs to the area -

but the large, transient population has given rise to social problems.

The nearby Romford Road

has become one of London's prostitution hotspots,

with street sex workers,

massage parlours and budget hotels,

some of which the police suspect are operating as brothels.

I come out of my front door

-and I smell...

-Yeah, marijuana.

That they're smoking.

And it's so heavy at times,

I'm thinking I'm going to walk around stoned.

-Yeah.

-On the streets, it is so strong.

-It is the perfume of Stratford.

-I know.

Moving on to prostitution.

OK, so... As you know, I talk about this at every meeting,

it's something I feel very strongly about and I know you all do too,

being residents, and having to have this on your doorstep every day.

Leading the borough's efforts to tackle prostitution

is Sergeant Vicky Kneale from the Neighbourhoods Team.

There are building sites everywhere,

there's lots of regeneration going on,

workers come to this area, there's Crossrail.

That's bringing in a lot of people to the area, as well...

It's not big enough.

In the morning, on my way to work,

I have prostitutes knocking on the window of my car...

Wow.

-And this is another thing.

-They're quite aggressive themselves.

-It's intimidating.

-Groups of guys.

And it's getting more and more.

I know sometimes it can feel like we might not be doing everything

you WANT us to do, but the strategy that we're currently working towards

at the minute is targeting the drug dealers,

if we take the kerb crawlers out of the equation,

and we try and safeguard the girls

as opposed to trying to prosecute them,

because unfortunately, we've found from previous,

prosecution of these girls doesn't work,

because all that happens is you arrest them,

put them through the court,

give them a fine and the only way they can pay the fine

is the same way that they get their money to buy the drugs,

which is to go back out again.

Tonight, Vicky's out on patrol with PC Becky Garner.

On their patch is the Romford Road.

Romford Road's a main arterial route with loads of little side roads.

So what they tend to do, they'll pull up on the corner,

pick them up, then turn down the side roads

and then either just cut into car parks or, in summer...

in summer, they don't even bother going that far.

They tend to just go in gardens and, um...

Gardens, bin sheds, disused cars. Anything.

-Is someone in there?

-I don't think so, no.

-It's all locked up.

-What is it?

-It's a car. Somebody's house.

Got a used condom there, condom packet over there.

You know, people live here with kids, and...

Is this really what you want to wake up to in the morning?

Used condoms, cars now that have been left there for a couple of days

and all of a sudden, someone's moved in there,

bringing people back there, having sex there -

and this is where they'll sleep until we then get it removed.

This isn't King's Cross in the '80s,

it's not everywhere you look there are girls swarming around -

and, actually, if you didn't know who they were and what they were,

you'd probably think

they were just waiting on the street corner for a mate.

They're not short-skirted, standing there chewing gum,

you know, with their thumb out or anything.

They're just really inconspicuous girls in normal jeans and trainers

and big jackets in winter. What's that?

Control VL, please.

Can we just speak to her, see what they said?

You all right? You're not in any trouble, don't worry.

-You know those guys that just stopped you?

-Yeah.

How many were there in the car?

What did they ask you for?

-And what did you say?

-No.

Is that because there was two of them in there?

Really?

Right, thanks. See you later.

Stay off the Romford Road for me, will you, love? Please. Thank you.

You know, these girls feel so shit about themselves anyway, you know?

I mean, the blokes treat them not very nice,

they don't make them feel very good about themselves,

the job that they're doing

doesn't make them feel very good about themselves.

They do not need me standing there,

preaching to them about being a prostitute

and how disgusting that is.

For me, it doesn't achieve anything at all.

-All right?

-Where are your shoes?

Here, but they're killing me!

Oh, my goodness.

-Are you working?

-Am I going to get arrested?

-No!

-All right.

Yeah, trying to learn a few quid.

-Have you had anybody yet, or not?

-Eh?

-Have you had anybody yet?

-No, I'm seeing still.

-Just out of interest, how much are you charging at the minute?

-30 quid.

-For?

-A blow job.

-30 quid for a blow job?

-Yeah.

'As a woman, I couldn't think of anything worse than the only way

'that you can feed and clothe and house yourself overnight'

is to put yourself on these streets

and do what some of these girls are having to do.

I mean, I physically don't know how they do it.

-Have you been on drugs now, have you taken drugs tonight?

-No, no, no.

-Nothing?

-No.

-Anything?

I'm going to the doctor's on Monday, but I have got my medication

-left from what they gave me at the prison.

-Yeah.

You've got to go back, you've got to go back.

'I see them very much as victims

'as much as any other victim on the streets,

'so I think what I'm trying to do really is just'

pick off individuals and try and rehabilitate them.

-Look after yourself, mate, all right?

-I will.

And put your shoes on! Are they wedding shoes?

'What we're doing here is not indicative of what is

'happening across the Met,

'it's just something that I feel we've got to try and give a go,

'because I want to be able to give these girls an option.'

Vicky suspects that some of the women selling sex

are controlled by organised criminals.

No, I'm going to pull up here.

For the last few months, she's been gathering intelligence

about a budget hotel called the Travel Inn.

So, the hotel in the distance, we're doing a little bit of work on

at the minute because we believe

that it's potentially being run as a brothel.

Quite a lot of intel at the minute around Romanian girls

being brought in,

working from the rooms in there and bringing clients in

off websites and the owner is taking a cut of their profits

by letting them stay in those rooms.

The issue that we have with that, obviously,

is the fact that it's being run as a brothel,

but also that, the owner, this isn't the only one that he's running,

so it's an ongoing piece of work we're looking at

to try and see if we can get it closed down

and look to be prosecuting the owner

for controlling prostitution for gain.

BAGPIPES AND DRUMBEATS

-Do you reckon them hats are really heavy?

-RADIO:

-'Receiving?'

-Eh?

-Do you reckon them hats are really heavy?

-Yeah.

It's the hottest day of the year and in Westminster, Oz and Laura

are beginning a nine-hour shift.

I love good weather.

I'm not sure that I would choose this outfit

if I was to go abroad, where it was going to be 35 Celsius.

-It's the hot legs and hot trotters that get me.

-Mm.

A police officer has been attacked in Hyde Park.

A helicopter and all local units are scrambled to the scene.

Er, I dunno.

An impromptu summer party has drawn thousands of teenagers

and young people to the park...

So just all of that area you can see just north of the boathouse.

We're here.

..but when the police intervened to stop the music,

they've come under attack.

Fuck.

By the time Oz and Laura arrive,

it's clear a major incident is developing.

This has been arranged over the internet using social media.

Several thousand people have attended.

My driver has had...

Has come under attack with a glass bottle,

he's had his head split open,

and another officer has been stabbed in the back of the head.

Luckily, it didn't go through to his skull, so he's all right.

Clearly a lot of alcohol has been had,

the amount of bottles that have come towards us.

And laughing gas, as well. Loads of canisters.

It's not really been established as to why,

but they just suddenly started lashing out at the police.

It's just people being in the park, having a drink,

and if you draw your attention to that...

It's a full moon!

Which probably has a contributing factor!

Outnumbered, the police wait for riot-trained reinforcements

as the park descends into chaos.

I don't know if you can see,

there's mass migration in all directions.

There's several sporadic fights breaking out,

they are just laying into each other, big-time.

As night falls,

a man is stabbed in the arm and comes forward looking for treatment.

Chief Inspector of the Royal Park, Stephen Manger, makes the decision

to clear the park using a tactic known as a clearance sweep.

The suggestion would be perhaps use the carriers on the side

so that you can then move forward and see what happens to the crowd,

go forwards sort of 20 feet to start with.

Hold it there,

hopefully that might encourage people to start leaving the park.

OK? Happy with that plan?

-Get back!

-Get back over there, mate.

-Get back!

SHOUTING

With the riot vans flanking them,

the police line up and slowly push the crowd north across the park.

-Missiles!

-Missiles!

-Missile.

Missile.

-It's getting hard to see them, now.

-I ain't got a shield!

-Missile.

People think it's part and parcel,

you become a police officer and you can expect to get injured

and it's true, unfortunately - you can expect to get injured.

-Black eye is probably the worst I've had.

-Leave the park, now!

CROWD CHANT

They want us to react.

We're obviously more professional than that,

we're not going to react just like that.

We've not retaliated, we've just asked them to leave the park.

They're leaving on their own accord, so they've got what they wanted.

They've had their five minutes on their social media sites

and now they're probably going to go home

and put it on their post on the internet.

Having a look at Marble Arch, busiest areas

appear to be the roundabout, underneath the arch,

with a load of people dancing.

The majority of the other people are outside McDonald's.

The police have pushed the crowd out of Hyde Park,

but on the streets nearby, more trouble erupts.

Just confirm your exact location, we have a male stabbed in the heart.

Confirm your exact location, over.

A male stabbed in the heart.

'They're not stopping...'

'They're walking down Park Lane.'

They're walking off, he's been stabbed.

'Please can we have...

'..Park Lane...'

He could die if the ambulance don't get there.

Just confirm this is a male that's been stabbed,

walking towards the ambulance.

He's being carried in a crowd down to the ambulance.

Can I make a recommendation that we close Park Lane

where the ambulance is treating the male?

Probably make life easier in the long run if we do it now.

-Come on, Oz.

-Got it.

After 12 hours on duty, Oz and Laura

are stood down for the night.

All you could hear on the radio was, "stabbing, stabbing, stabbing".

I've lost count of how many stabbings there are,

there's scenes everywhere.

There are scenes just being set up all over,

and even when that's happening,

still, people are being anti towards you,

and people just don't seem to care, do they?

They've got too much alcohol on board.

Time to go home, girls, please. Off you go, please.

-So, yeah. It's kind of...a bit of a come-down right now.

-Mm-hm.

We had a mobilisation of the force last night.

There was a fast and furious and effective response.

By 3am, London was calm.

After a night of disturbances in Hyde Park

and at two other sites across London,

senior officers, led by Commander BJ Harrington,

meet to plan the Met's response.

We saw spontaneous and serious disorder

which saw officers injured, one stabbed, one hit with a bottle,

three members of the public stabbed, and then ongoing disorder and fights

which we then had to mobilise in order to do a clearance,

but, fortunately for all,

none of the injuries are believed life-threatening.

We have taken the very serious decision of going to 12-hour shifts

for, certainly, the next seven days, until we understand the issues

and we can be sure that we can deliver a safe response for London.

'BJ, can I just clarify,

'the 12-hours only applies to uniform officers,

'is that correct?'

No, it's all officers, 12-hour shifts.

-'For CID?'

-Yes, CID as well.

-'OK.'

-'Boss, can Intel come in on the op name?'

-You can.

-'We've got an op name already.'

-That's good.

'San Marino. Op San Marino, as in the country, or whatever it is.'

OK. I've got no objection to San Marino.

One of the only football teams that England can actually beat,

I think, is that not right?

OK. Anyway, Op San Marino, we'll work with that.

'May I just ask that the operation name is reconsidered?

'San Marino was an area of Los Angeles

'where there were riots 20 years ago - Rodney King.'

OK, that is a very good point why it's not.

There you go, we will rethink on the operation name.

Who does operation names?

Intel, you usually issue those, don't you?

Can you give me a call afterwards with something...best guess,

that doesn't have any implications for anything else

or inadvertent associations with elsewhere?

With the heat wave set to continue, the renamed Op Sanmar

will provide an extra thousand riot-trained officers

for the next seven days.

We saw what happened last night,

and our theory is that this similar sort of thing happens again,

whether that's because it's still a hot night,

because we're still going to have groups gathering,

because people decide that that looked like good fun,

let's try and do that again.

So we've mobilised sufficient resources to tackle those incidents,

whatever they might be, reassuring Londoners

that we've got a grip of this, because if WE haven't, then who has?

Mobile phone footage from the disorder last night

is circulating on the internet, including the attack on Park Lane.

He's getting dipped! He's going to get dipped!

He got dipped! He got dipped! He got dipped! He got dipped!

SCREAMING

The Park Lane victim suffered multiple lacerations

and a 4cm stab wound,

which just missed his heart.

Leading the hunt for his attacker is Detective Inspector Dave Bolton

from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command.

This bit of footage is the clip that is widely seen on social media.

So this is the full speed attack footage.

The victim trying to get away from the blade,

they're chasing him through traffic.

We then come onto a second piece of mobile phone footage.

Our suspect is the purple arrow, the victim is on the floor,

he's been repeatedly stabbed and sits up.

First stab, second stab,

third, fourth...

fifth, sixth,

and there's a slash wound as he runs away.

More attack footage - there's our suspect again,

armed with a very large knife.

It's probably a foot long.

As it progresses, you can see it glinting.

That's a horrendous knife.

That's not a kitchen knife, that's a hunting knife.

These type of knives, unfortunately...are...

..fairly commonplace among gang members.

One of the suspects does a flying kick and knocks him to the floor.

Bang, he's knocked over by one suspect,

who cowardly runs away,

and then others come in, armed with knives,

chasing him through the traffic.

And our victim, you can see,

he's desperately trying to get away from the knife,

he's trying to keep his body as far away from the knife as possible.

The victim has told police that he was attacked

by a stranger wearing a mask.

Although we have the social media footage of the attack...

..um...it doesn't show us anything that's useful for us

to actually identify our attackers from.

He's hoping that if we can't identify him from the attack,

that he'll just merge into the crowd and be undetected.

To try and trace the masked man after the attack,

detectives turn to CCTV from the surrounding streets.

Our challenge is that we've got

a significant quantity of CCTV footage

and thousands of people milling around,

so trying to sort out which ones are involved

in any form of criminality is becoming a real challenge.

It's a needle in a haystack.

Friday night. 1am.

So, we'll go down and see the new sauna that's come up.

We'll just knock on the door and see what's there,

and then I'll actually have a quick drive past the hotel

on Romford Road, as well, see if there's anything happening there.

-See who's about. Right?

-Yep. Yeah, yeah.

For the last five months,

Vicky Kneale has been investigating a local hotel - the Travel Inn.

She suspects it to be a brothel,

whose owner has links to Romanian criminals.

-Eastern European?

-Yeah.

All right?

Police.

Yes, you do.

Are you working?

Where are you from?

Are you? Perfect.

Get her on the radio.

We're on Romford Road, just stopped a young female, Romanian.

Any chance you can have a word with her?

-Yes.

-Perfect.

Romanian.

'What do you want me to ask her?'

Name and where she is staying.

SHE SPEAKS IN ROMANIAN

Let me look. Key ring.

3-2.

IN ROMANIAN:

Brilliant.

Just ask her, why the Travel Inn?

Why the Travel Inn?

'She says because she likes the hotel.'

OK.

First girl we stop, started chatting to her, Romanian.

Guess what she's got in her hand.

'What?'

A Travel Inn key fob. Honestly!

I was just like, "You can't make this shit up!"

The Travel Inn is just one of a number of properties

all owned by the same man.

So, this is Mr David Archer, previously known as David Grant.

He is in his mid-50s, born in Scotland,

lived down here for quite a long time,

owns quite a lot of property.

Very controlling, very manipulative man

who we believe is running multiple brothels

across this borough, other boroughs, and also, potentially, overseas.

Despite being suspected of running a major criminal enterprise,

Archer only has a couple of minor convictions for assault.

He has been pretty much under the radar.

I think he sees himself very much as untouchable by the police.

What we do need is evidence from the girls

that he is, in fact, controlling them as prostitutes for gain,

and taking money from them for that purpose.

Our plan of attack is as follows.

We will have one day of activity,

we have got floor plans of all the premises, which is great...

A decision has been made to raid four of Archer's properties.

Vicky is meeting financial investigators, Immigration,

and a Met Police sexual exploitation unit to plan the raids.

Archer got notified to us

last year some time for, just, some basic common assault.

Archer was also linked to the Travel Inn -

girls reporting assault,

but also that it was being used as a brothel.

We had a prostitute

who took an overdose and was found dead in there.

I just think, for the risk thing, we can't really take any more time,

and we'll just keep going,

so we're just going to go and get the warrant

to try and get all of the premises closed -

because I think everybody has got their own agenda on this.

I know, obviously, Gaynor wants to take him for everything he's got,

which is great, but also, our main thing, for us,

especially, is the neighbourhoods,

is to get the places closed down, because they are crime generators

and we've got a lot of vulnerable girls

that are potentially frequenting in and out of there,

and we need to be able to get those closed down.

One of the strongest weapons against Archer

will be his business records and financial affairs.

We deal with the girls, get the girls out of the equation,

and then you do the searches for whatever it is,

cos we're not looking for anything

-other than just girls, really.

-Exactly.

-Yeah.

-But you will be doing those searches.

We will do the searches around the business records,

-and accounts and stuff like that.

-Perfect.

If there's cash in the addresses, we'll deal with that.

Might want to think about whether we need a cash dog

to have a quick sniff round,

because it is much quicker with the dog to find cash.

That side of things, we will be working hand-in-hand with HMRC.

They want to deal with him for tax offences.

So, really, we just want to hit him with everything -

all angles that we possibly can.

You will deal with the finance, HMRC will deal with their bit,

and then, obviously, Immigration,

if there's any offences that come out,

we can deal with that nearer the time.

Does that sort of make sense?

48 hours after the Hyde Park disorder,

Central London is quiet

but the Met Police remain on 12-hour shifts,

with thousands of riot-trained officers held on stand-by

across the capital,

ready to deploy within 15 minutes.

It's been a little bit slow today,

so we are just enjoying a little bit of downtime.

Having a lovely time.

We are practising our team-building skills,

how we all work together as a team, which is, as you can see, well.

No-one's injured, so, you know, that's always a bonus.

We have been on shift for coming up nine hours...

..but if you're on with a good team, you know,

it's all right, it's bearable.

-Catch it!

-Catch it!

-Yay!

Deployment of riot police around Westminster

means some boroughs are short of numbers,

so Oz and Laura are sent five miles east to Hackney for a night shift.

MUSIC PLAYS FROM PHONE

What the hell is this?

-That's Spice Girls, isn't it?

-No!

-No!

-Don't be ridiculous.

INTERVIEWER: What's Oz like?

He's lovely.

He's eager, energetic, he's good to work with, he's good fun.

You're sitting in a car with someone for eight or nine hours,

you get to know them quite quickly.

You know about each other's families,

you know what each other likes,

you get to know each other's habits.

My work husband.

Try that door out.

Oh, gosh!

Laura is... She's very good to work with, very funny.

We have quite a laugh, you know, working together.

She's quite a bubbly character.

I take the mickey out of her accent, so it's quite nice.

Has Mummy been out to see if anything's been taken?

'I've always wanted to be a police officer.'

Second floor. Residential...

'I was a proper little geek. I lived in a small village in Hull'

and my mum and dad were in the Neighbourhood Watch

and we used to do the crime prevention talks

and I used to trot along.

It was ever since then, really,

I've kind of geared everything up towards joining,

so it's good, it is good to finally be one.

RADIO CHATTER

-HE YAWNS

-I'm tired now.

-Yeah.

Where?

As dawn breaks, a call comes in about a large fight nearby.

Several crews respond.

Van unit?

But with officers from other parts of London helping out in Hackney,

local knowledge is in short supply.

Where are they going?

SIRENS WAIL

What are you going to?

-We don't know where we're going.

-No, we don't!

-We were following you.

-We were going to follow you!

THEY LAUGH

-Where the fuck is it?

-System works(!)

-RADIO:

-'Got about three in the van with us.'

-Where is it?

What's that knife for, then?

-Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

-What's that for?

Please, I don't know what that is, I swear.

You don't know what it is? You just pulled it out your fucking back!

By the time they arrive at the scene,

a suspect matching the description is being searched.

You don't know how that knife has got in your waistband?

I swear! Oh, my God.

Whilst he's been searched,

a knife was found concealed in his waistband.

He didn't seem to know how the knife got there, funnily enough.

Lucky he didn't fall over and hurt himself, to be honest.

Why don't we see if we can get...?

Why don't we see if we can get back to our borough?

Yeah. OK, we'll do that.

Across London, Dave Bolton and his team have spent a week

sifting through hundreds of hours of CCTV,

looking for the suspect from the Park Lane stabbing.

Immediately after the attack, an eyewitness has informed us

that the suspect ran underneath Marble Arch

towards the direction of McDonald's.

Now, we've managed to pick up our suspect coming into McDonald's.

The reason why we can say that is that the description is so unique.

There is this mask, coloured with camouflage,

which must have been pretty horrifying.

It would appear that he's looking for his other friends

because he walks around, he doesn't buy anything...

..and then, a short time later, he walks out.

Having left McDonald's,

we then get direction of travel towards Queensway,

and we've then got a series of clips

where he's walking down the street wearing his mask,

and then he takes his mask off.

And you've got some good facial images of our suspect.

When the image is circulated across the Met,

a gangs unit officer from west London

identifies the suspect as Joshua Clements.

We've now backtracked and found that Mr Clements was involved

in a previous incident a few hours before on the White City estate,

so we've gone and got the CCTV from the White City estate, as well,

and he's carrying the camouflage mask

that he wears during the attacks.

-See you at the address.

-Yeah.

-Hammersmith, yeah?

-Yes, please, mate.

This chap is from a fairly prolific criminal background.

He's been involved in drugs and violence for a long time.

He has been in and out of prison.

He isn't long released from prison

so he's certainly known to us, unfortunately.

SHOUTING AND BANGING

I wonder whether we could have a local unit to assist us

with securing the scene, please.

With the suspect in custody, the forensic search team moves in.

We've got the evidence he was supplying drugs in here, look,

you've got rocks of crack cocaine.

The white is the crack cocaine and the black is the heroin.

Morning. Sorry about the early call.

One suspect has left detained.

They've seen that there is a very large hunting knife in a rucksack,

which is likely to be our attack weapon,

and there's 50 rocks found in the bedroom with the suspect,

so...all good.

Cheers, boss.

Seaforth Place. That's 66.

-There's the Boris bikes.

-Ah, there it is!

-Oh, yeah.

Fella, can you stand up, please, and move on?

You can go and sleep somewhere else in the shade,

but if you could just move on from this location, it'd be appreciated.

Thank you.

We've got a lot of vagrants and a lot of homeless

in the centre of Westminster,

and quite often they've had something terrible happen to them.

They've had an experience they've not necessarily dealt with -

it's led to an addiction, it's led to them losing their job.

I feel sorry for the people in those situations,

but then, at the same time, we're getting phone calls saying,

"There is a homeless person that refuses to move."

It really is a cycle of frustration, I think, on all parties.

I know you're in a difficult situation

where you haven't got anywhere to reside on an evening,

but if someone asks you to leave

from outside of their shop, then you have to.

It's not a personal thing, pal.

We can't, can we? We've got a job to do.

-You can fuck off, as well.

-That's not very nice.

I'm getting arrested for nothing!

-Mind your head as you go in, it's a bit...

-Yeah...fucking...

In you get.

At Charing Cross station, a homeless man has been arrested

after behaving aggressively towards staff.

RADIO CHATTER

HE SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY

He's been taking a form of synthetic cannabis called Spice.

SHOUTING CONTINUES

Sit down.

-No, fucking get off me.

-All right.

-Don't touch me!

-All right.

-Don't!

-Stay still, then.

-Fucking! If you touch me...

-No-one's touching you.

-Right, that's an assault charge, that's assault...

-Use that.

-Give me your numbers. Right, what's your number?

-1158.

That's an assault charge. You touched me. You touched me.

Go on, then.

If you want to play the game, we can play the game, mate.

I'm not going to play any games, yeah.

-Do you want me to do it?

-No.

-Just calm down.

We want you to turn round and face that way, please.

Do you want me to do it or not?

Not.

He's an idiot. I could take him, and them.

I'll get out of these handcuffs and beat you up.

That's what I'm going to do.

Have you ever been homeless? No.

Ever been homeless? No.

You ever been homeless? No.

You ever been homeless? No. You ever been homeless? No.

You ever been homeless? No. No!

-No!

-Just trying to...

Stop moving your head around in people's faces then.

You ain't never been homeless, you're all coppers.

That's all you are, coppers.

At the same time...

At the same time, I wouldn't trust anyone with my safety

apart from you lot. Do you get that?

-Do you get it?

-Yeah.

No, you don't get it.

I hate you lot, but at the same time, I fucking love you lot.

Do you get me?

I can't do what you do.

I respect you loads, but I fucking hate you

cos you've always got it in for me and I don't know what I've done.

Very up and down, quite unpredictable.

But...

at least he's no bother for the members of the public this evening.

Just for our staff, instead.

With the suspect for the Park Lane stabbing in custody,

the hunting knife and sheath found in his bedroom

are being examined by forensic scientists.

Joshua, because you've been involved in a violent incident...

Or that's what the allegation is, anyway, OK?

..we're going to be asking to take nail clippings and scrapings, OK?

What that means is we're going to clip your nails

and you know when you get the rubbish from underneath your nails

when they're dirty? We're just going to do that, OK?

-Mm-hm.

-We're also going to ask you to see a doctor,

and we'd ask that the doctor note any injuries that you've got,

any fresh ones, OK?

The suspect name is Joshua Clements.

He is the suspect for the potential murder.

He also matches the description for one of the other GBHs

and he has stolen property from one of the robberies.

The important thing is actually...

The only important thing, really, is getting DNA off the blade

-because it's in his house, it's in his room.

-Yeah.

Does it match what's seen on CCTV?

-Yes.

-So we've probably got the right knife rather than a...

CCTV is of a very large knife.

And the victim drew a picture of the knife,

and it's a serrated end.

Right at the top near the handle, there's some...

He even got the right number of serrations, it's four.

What we were considering was not necessarily the blade

but actually the sheath.

So our thinking is that he uses the weapon during the assault,

he has got the sheath with him, it would appear,

so the most likely thing is that he's used the knife

and he's immediately put it into the sheath,

so he probably even hasn't had a chance to wipe it,

so we might get blood from inside the sheath.

It looks like blood.

There is some further back here.

That's a strong positive.

It's indicative of blood.

Blood is found on both the knife and the sheath.

Samples are sent off for DNA comparison to the victim.

-Have you got a close-up of that?

-Yes.

-Cool.

The Crown Prosecution Service authorised the police

to charge Joshua Clements with attempted murder.

OK, so this operation concerns four addresses

owned and/or controlled by Archer,

and two vehicles where warrants will be executed simultaneously tonight.

In Stratford, Vicky Neil is leading over 100 officers

in a series of raids on suspected brothels owned by David Archer.

There are going to be both sex workers and punters

at each location.

Neither of these are to be treated criminally

because we need them to give us evidence that these places

are being run as brothels, all right?

We are not there to nick them. Please note.

You all right, mate?

That's just us now making our way down so we should be with you

in about figures ten.

David Archer both owns and controls a significant property portfolio

with approximately £15 million in assets.

The offences that we're looking at on for him are human trafficking

for the purposes of sexual exploitation,

controlling prostitution for gain, false accounting,

fraudulent evasion of tax,

and sexual assault by penetration.

This guy thinks he's untouchable -

tonight is going to be a little bit different.

Yes, yes, all received. Venue three, venue one,

what's your current location? Over.

All venues, all venues, that's go-go, all venues.

Right, I've got keys for all rooms here.

Do you understand English?

-Yes.

-Yeah?

-Ah, yeah.

Says a few people have been detained.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

Hello. Police.

At the Travel Inn, police go from room to room

checking IDs of the guests.

Are you friends?

Ah, OK.

We have quite a lot of girls in the premises

and there are also a lot of Romanian males

at the back of the premises, as well.

What's happening is it would appear that they are saying

that they are partners, that the males, the Romanian males

are the partners to the girls that are in there

and they're not particularly forthcoming at the minute,

so not sure we are going to get many victims on board at this address.

Is she a prostitute here at the hotel?

SHE SPEAKS HER OWN LANGUAGE

I think I got that. Is that a no?

Yeah. All right, OK. Cheers.

Directly opposite the Travel Inn is another of Archer's properties...

..a private house

that Vicky suspects may be operating as a brothel.

-Do you live here?

-No.

-Do you work here?

-Yes.

And what do you work, what do you do?

-Hmm?

-What work?

-Sex.

Sex, OK.

How many girls operate here?

How many girls are in here now?

-There's five.

-There's five girls, OK.

Money amounts to £20,000,

so it really links, and we might even find places

that we are not even aware of. Like, are you aware of that?

-No.

-See, so it's a much wider picture

about what's actually happening here.

The girls who are here hire the room,

they see a couple of punters, and they go,

so they don't, in fact, live here.

They just use the rooms for prostitution.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Those are been covered with statements at the moment.

All right, no worries.

Eight women found working at the house

agree to attend a reception centre for vulnerable sex workers.

The council lads reckon all of this section has been built

in the last three weeks, so, no planning permission.

There's two flats there,

there's three under there, two on top.

They think that there's 24 rooms in here

that are being used for prostitution.

You just can't have this.

This used to be probably a three or four-bedroom house

that's now been turned into a 24-bedroom brothel.

At the top of the house are two locked doors.

I can't hear anybody but we'll have to get entry.

We'll see if we can get some keys.

With the premises secure, every room is opened.

Financial investigators and a search team with cash dogs

move in to look for evidence.

The residential premises is very clearly being run as a brothel.

We suspected that it was going to be similar.

I had no idea it was going to be on this scale.

You've got CCTV of most of the rooms.

Drawers, I mean you can see there, you've got condoms...

..a vast array of lubrication.

Business cards.

It says, "Open 12 to 2am, seven days a week in Stratford."

That's not nice.

Two secs. Yes?

Oh, shit. Is it in the safe, Barry?

-No, it's in the shower.

-Oh, it's in the shower!

Let's go and have a look. Right, stay with me.

Oh, have the dogs found it?

Good girls!

The locked rooms at the top of the house have been opened.

One of them is Archer's bedroom.

Holy shit!

Oh, my goodness gracious me.

We have just found a whole load of money in Archer's room.

OK, yeah.

One...two... 20 wraps of 50s and 20s.

Oh! I couldn't even tell you, Gaynor,

I wouldn't even like to hazard a guess, would you, Dave?

Hidden in the bathroom are bags containing over £100,000 in cash.

This is obviously someone that probably instils fear

in the girls, that runs the girls,

and he's quite happy to obviously leave this money,

thinking they're never going to touch it, you know?

It's like a massive criminal enterprise, you know,

in the millions, and this is probably just the tip of the iceberg

in relation to what this person is worth.

David Archer has been arrested by a team of detectives

and taken into custody.

-Mr Archer.

-Hi, are you all right?

David, come this way, come and speak to me.

The Crown Prosecution Service have authorised two charges.

You have intentionally controlled activities of other persons

in relation to their prostitution

in expectation of gain for yourself.

The second offence, you concealed, disguised, converted,

transferred or removed criminal property,

namely approximately £120,000 cash.

That is an offence contrary to section 327 (1) and 334

for the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

You don't need to be looking at the camera,

all you need to do is sign in that box there.

I've read the charge to you. Are you willing to sign the charge?

Thank you.

It is really, really satisfying.

We have been working on this case now for the last six months,

and, you know, as the investigation unravels,

you learn more and more about these people, and especially

now seeing him in custody, that, for me, is really satisfying.

I mean, yeah, that's good.

A lot of work gone into it but, yeah, it's brilliant.

You couldn't have asked for a better result, really.

Two months on from the Hyde Park disorder,

DNA results have confirmed that the knife from Joshua Clements' bedroom

was the weapon used in the Park Lane stabbing...

..but the discovery of a second victim's blood on the knife

also links him to an earlier stabbing inside Hyde Park.

What's happened is Mr Clements has used the knife on our first victim,

put it into the sheath, and in doing so

he's partially wiped some of the blood from the blade

into the leather sheath.

He's then used it on another victim and put it back into the sheath,

so we've ended up with two samples of blood going into the same sheath.

The weight of evidence is so compelling,

it's a mini crimewave by one individual.