Professor David Wilson, the UK's leading criminologist, presents the third series of the crime talk show Crime Files. This season David is focusing primarily on Scotland's Cold Cases. In episode 5, he and his guests try to get to the bottom of Scotland's record number of unsolved murdered sex worker cases.
David travels to the epicentre of the once booming red light distract of Leith. Here he examines the catastrophic murder of mother of two Sheila Anderson. Sheila was a tragic example of the heroin epidemic of the 80s and how many women turned to the streets to support their habit. And on a dark April night in 1983 a suspected client ran Sheila over with his car multiple times and left her for dead.
In the studio, David speaks with former Deputy Chief Constable Tom Wood. He was the lead detective on Sheila's case back in 1983. He will speak on the initial investigation and the ways in which he and his team tried to uncover Sheila's killer. He will touch on the many roadblocks preventing them from getting answers, from the police themselves to finding witnesses that would cooperate. He will speak on the culture at the time, how police were prepared to deal with the heroin epidemic and how it changed the atmosphere on Edinburgh's streets.
David, this series, is joined in studio by our resident Forensic Scientist Helen Meadows. This week Helen will dissect both Sheila's case and also inform David on the tragic murder of Tracey Wylde. Tracey was a sex worker from Glasgow, who in 1997 was murdered in her flat. Tracey's case, like many sex workers before her, went cold but Helen will look at the crucial DNA evidence left behind that eventually lead to her killer's arrest, over 20 years after her death.
David's final guest is charity worker and activist Ruth Morgan Thomas. As a former sex worker, she has expert knowledge on the situation many women face on the streets. She will talk about the lack of action taken by politicians to bring in real change to the industry. Ruth will also speak on the current legislation surrounding sex work and whether it is actually protecting the women involved.