True story of ITV’s A Confession which lays bare the double life of ‘family man’ Chris Halliwell who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed young girls – then had sex with his girlfriend
TO the outside world, cheery taxi driver Chris Halliwell appeared to be a loving husband and dad to his three kids.
But in reality he was leading a depraved double life and was actually a vicious killer who kidnapped young women in his minicab – then raped and stabbed them to death before dumping their bodies in shallow graves.
Now, his chilling crimes are the focus of new ITV drama A Confession, which follows DS Steve Fulcher, played by Martin Freeman, and the murder investigations into the deaths of 22-year-old personal assistant Sian O’Callaghan and sex worker Becky Godden, 21, in 2011.
Sickeningly, before Halliwell was arrested for Sian’s murder, he tried to keep his cover by displaying her missing person’s poster in the back window of the same car he’d used to kidnap her.
Just hours after her murder, the sick killer had even had sex with his unsuspecting girlfriend, and police believe he could be rresponsible for the rape and murders of dozens more victims, finding a secret ‘trophy’ collection of 60 pieces of women’s clothing near a lake.
Torturing spiders and Myra Hindley obsession
While to most he came across as a decent family man, there were signs that pointed to the fact Halliwell had a dark side, even as a child.
According to The Swindon Advertiser, his sister Sarah Halliwell said: “He was not just a normal child.
“I have witnessed things he did first hand and it was very unpleasant.
“He loved trapping spiders and butterflies and taking his time to pull off their legs and wings one by one.
“It was like a hobby to him and he showed no emotion while he did it.”
Former cellmate Ernest Springer also previously revealed he had an obsession with serial killers, in particular Myra Hindley, saying: “He used to ask me about killing. He said, ‘How many people do you need to kill before you become a serial killer?’
“His favourite book was about the Moors Murders with a picture of Myra Hindley on the front.”
‘Prostitutes were a sensible escape rather than an affair’
Halliwell – who had a fascination with hardcore porn – had met his wife when she was 16, and he was 23, and he eventually began seeing sex workers after the birth of his third child, in 1996.
According to the book The Grinning Killer, written by Nigel Crowthorne, he told police: “After Lisa had Shane in 1996 she went completely off sex, I didn’t.
“I’m not going to say I was out there every single night trying to get it. I didn’t want an affair, I didn’t want a relationship.
“Occasionally, I would use a call girl. They work in a certain area around Swindon. There’s no emotional involvement.
“Obviously, with an affair there’s a danger you get too emotionally involved and it would ruin your marriage.
“It was a sensible escape rather than getting into an affair.”
‘I’m a sick f****r’
But Halliwell’s dark and secretive life didn’t stop at his infidelities.
Sian was just 22 when she disappeared after leaving Swindon nightclub Suju’s at 2:52am in March 2011.
When she failed to return home – just a fifteen minute walk from the club – concerned boyfriend Kevin Reape raised the alarm and called the police to report her missing.
Police identified Halliwell as a suspect after spotting his green Toyota Avensis pulling up next to Sian as she made her way home, and secretly kept him under surveillance in the days that followed in the hope he would lead them to Sian.
However they swooped when they witnessed him buying enough paracetamol to take his own life, and arrested and charged him for kidnap initially.
He was arrested In Asda and admitted to both murders, admitting “I’m a sick f****r. I need help.” and even leading officers to their bodies.
He admitted he’d stabbed Sian in the back of the head in the sexually motivated attack.
Analysis on her phone later revealed a text he’d sent to her at 3:24am showed her phone had been in the Savernake forest area, 12 miles away.
‘We had sex hours after murder’
It was much earlier than Sian’s murder that Halliwell’s family man facade began to crumble, with Halliwell leaving his wife for another woman, neighbour Heather Widdowson, in 2005.
She later revealed they had sex just hours after he murdered Sian, telling The Sun at the time: “I don’t know how he managed to keep his feelings to himself but I remember he was laughing and joking.
“He was completely normal. It felt like any other time we’d had sex. How could he do that?
“I’m repulsed to hear what he did to Sian. He took me to bed that afternoon just hours after he killed her.”
Recalling the night that Sian disappeared, Heather said: “Chris went to work early. It was a Friday.
“About 1.30am I sent him a text to see how he was doing.
“He said business was good and I got ready for bed. Then he texted me again at 1.45am saying, ‘I love you’.”
Halliwell was sentenced to life in prison for Sian’s murder in 2012, with a minimum 25 years.
After his conviction, it emerged that a second murder charge had previously been dropped because of police errors.
Sex before strangling and dumping Becky’s headless body
Halliwell was already serving life for Sian’s murder when he was finally sentenced for killing Becky in September 2016.
Becky Godden-Edwards was just 21 when she met Halliwell at some point between 2002-2003.
She’d recently developed a heroin addiction and was working as a prostitute, so her mum Karen Edwards believed she’d runaway – something she had done before – when she didn’t hear from her for a few weeks.
However, unbeknown to her, Halliwell had become besotted with Becky while working as a taxi driver in the red-light district.
He claims he had sex with her, before strangling her and burying her body in a field.
Her head and arms may have been removed after her body was buried in a shallow grave 40cm deep, with a number of her teeth found in her chest cavity.
His crimes were left unsolved until he struck again and was arrested in 2011.
In a heartbreaking victim impact statement, Becky’s mum Karen Edwards said: “I never had a body to kiss goodbye before she was buried. But of course she had already been buried, in a lonely field in the middle of nowhere, for years. Just left to rot.
“She was brought back home in that coffin. I was told not to open it and the reason for that was because all that was in it was just my daughter’s bones, and part of Becky’s skeleton.
“Where was her head? I stayed with her coffin for three weeks until the day of her funeral.”
Hoarding women’s clothing
The discovery of a secret trophy store of 60 items of women’s clothing in 2014 chillingly suggests there may have been more victims.
Only two items have been identified – Becky’s cardigan, and a high-heeled boot Sian was wearing the night she was abducted.
Writing in his book Catching A Serial Killer, Detective Steve Fulcher said: “At the bottom of a pond that was 8ft deep they found Sian O’Callaghan’s distinctive boot.
“Yet that wasn’t all. Halliwell had been busy. Buried around the pond were more items of women’s clothing.
“There were 60. Halliwell might have been far more prolific than even I had feared.”
Watch A Confession on ITV, Monday 2 September, at 9pm.