In an era of non-stop frothy, fluffy lifestyle programmes which presume that we viewers are obsessed with re-decorating our houses or digging up our gardens, Nick represents the almost extinct tradition of investigative reporting.

The presenter of Border TV’s current new series, True Crimes, Nick has an in-depth knowledge of his subject.

With a London University degree in criminology and psychology, Nick has spent time working with the FBI.

His fascination with the criminal mind began as a 16-year-old when he volunteered to cover magistrates court cases for his local paper, the Whitley Bay News Guardian.

Eventually, after gaining his string of degrees and qualifications, he returned to the paper for his first job as a reporter – and quickly landed his first major scoop.

“The body of a student called Sara Cameron was found naked in a ditch in my home town. A policeman tipped me off and I was the first reporter on the scene of the crime; a white tarpaulin was being placed over the body as I arrived.

“Whitley Bay is a small town and it turned out that the victim and I had a number of friends in common.

“Getting the trust of the family of a murder victim is incredibly difficult but Sara’s father Roy understood the importance of talking to the media.

“We worked together on ideas to keep the story in people’s minds and by the end of the first year, we had forged an exceptionally strong relationship.

“The public tend to think of hard news reporters as bloodthirsty animals who are only interested in a good story, but the fact is that a good journalist needs to be sensitive, sympathetic and fairly emotional.

“Any reporter who thinks you have to be hard-nosed to get information is wrong. Reporting well means taking other people’s feelings into account. The knack is to get to the heart of the story and tell it movingly without being intrusive.’’

Sara Cameron was murdered in 2000 but just a couple of months ago, Nick attended the trial of her killer.

Sara was the tragic victim of an impulse killer who had suffered a turbulent childhood and who had been morbidly fascinated with life’s fragility since he had started killing cats when he was a youngster.

He had spotted Sara travelling on a train and, on a whim, had decided to rape and kill her. He had followed her before attacking and strangling her. Six hours later, a senior policeman was telephoning Nick with the news.

Nick’s sensitive coverage and relentless investigation of Sara’s murder won him four major awards, including a Royal Television Society award for most promising newcomer, North East weekly newspaper journalist of the year, northern newcomer of the year and at the age of 22 he was the youngest reporter ever to be named UK National Newcomer of the Year in the BT Media awards.

Few journalists have worked with the FBI but Nick’s stint with the organisation during his university years fine-tuned his knowledge of the criminal mind.

He says: “Naively, I thought it was all going to be like Silence of the Lambs but the FBI is a government department which happens to be dedicated to tracking criminals. Certainly, the experience did nothing to deter my fascination with crime.

“When traditional investigation hits a blank, psychology can offer new revelations. It’s like unpacking all the boxes in a loft to discover the one that really matters.

“If we are honest, we are all interested in gruesome crimes and we like to judge criminals. However, we often ignore the circumstances that produce criminals.

“Some are nurtured by bad homes, brutal fathers and over-protective mothers. Impulse killers tend to use murder as a means of control; they need the feeling of total power over their victims.

“Serial killers are usually remarkably similar; they get a high from the suffering of their victims whose death is an anti-climax.

“Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were the classic murderous couple and so were Rose and Fred West. Ian Brady and Rose West were the clever ones, the catalysts who manipulated their partners,’’ he adds.

Nick has come close to being a victim of crime himself. Last year, he was seconded to Yorkshire TV to work on Package Holiday Undercover, a series that turns up the heat on tour operators with secret reports that reveal what the brochures do not.

He says: “It was really hard work living and breathing the story for seven days while crushing cockroaches and eating vile slop dished out by sweaty hotel owners.

“There was a lot of sneaking about trying to film bits and pieces and we were chased out of a hotel in Cyprus when we were caught filming on a balcony.

“We also got threatened by the local heavies in Rhodes for filming the state of rooms which made Beirut look like the Maldives.

Nick says: “The most dangerous moment was in Benidorm where we were investigating an exchange rate scam run by a local cartel where tourists were unknowingly paying 70 per cent commission.

“Unfortunately, one of the gang members had spotted me rigging a microphone and putting a camera in my buttonhole.

“As I went into a booth to change some money, he telephoned someone with a warning. Within minutes a car pulled up with five men who got out and stared at me.

“The cameraman and I went for a coffee and then another car with another five men pulled up. At that point, we jumped in front of a taxi, forced the driver to stop and made our escape.’’

In Nick’s mind, crime and journalism are inextricably linked. “I love telling the complete story. It doesn’t matter whether someone is up at the Old Bailey or a local magistrates court – it is the same process of motivation, victim, perpetrator and outcome.’’

After True Crimes, Nick will be back on the screen with a Channel Five programme. He says: “I have worked on an investigative programme with Donal MacIntyre as assistant producer.

“I am not allowed to say much about it yet but it involved trapping some very nasty criminals who were on the run.’’

TRUE Crimes involves dramatic re-constructions, interviews with experts and archive footage. Most of the actors are Cumbrian, and the programme makers also relied on cuttings from The Cumberland News and the News & Star.

The first two programmes in the series have already been shown. The first story was about Dr Buck Ruxton, a GP from Lancaster who in 1935 murdered his wife and housemaid and dumped their dismembered bodies in one of the wildest parts of the Scottish borders north of Moffat.

The second programme told the story of the Maid of Buttermere; the tale of a beautiful young woman who married a fraudster and a bigamist which ended in tragedy in 1802. Melvyn Bragg wrote the novel of the same name and helped to recount the events.

The third programme in the series, which is screened on Thursday November 18 at 7.30pm, tells the story of the fatal shooting of PC George Russell and the wounding of PC Alec Archibald at Oxenholme Station in the early hours of February 10, 1965.

Both officers were from Carlisle. Alec Archibald, now living in Musselborough, agreed to be interviewed for the first time about what happened to him that night.

Two hundred policemen were issued with arms for the hunt of George Russell’s killer. The programme uses extensive archive footage from the time and cuttings from The Cumberland News.

The fourth programme, on Thursday, November 25, tells the story of one of the 20th century’s worst serial killers.

Archibald Hall and his sidekick Michael Kitton were responsible for the murder of five people in 1977 – two in Newton Arlosh, one in Dumfriesshire and two in Scotland.

Archibald Hall was a jewel thief and a fraudster. He became a butler in order to work for wealthy people and then rob them.

But it wasn’t until he was 53 that he started a trail of murder from London to Invernesshire.

The fifth programme, above, on December 2, recounts the story of three violent criminals, who travelled from the south of England to Longtown to commit a robbery in 1885. Baker, Martin and Rudge burgled Netherby Hall, then the home of Sir Frederick and Lady Hermione Graham, and tried to escape by train back to London, leading to the death of PC Joseph Byrnes from Plumpton.

A lighthouse off the coast of Kirkcudbright is the remote setting for the sixth programme. In 1960, the assistant lighthouse keeper was shot in mysterious circumstances. It is reputed to be Britain’s only lighthouse murder.

The final programme in the series, on December 16, tells the story of the Lady in the Lake.

Margaret Hogg’s body was found at the bottom of Wastwater in 1985.

13 November 2004
News & Star
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/weekendlife/viewarticle.aspx?id=153624&imageindex=1