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New True Crime ‘Britain’s Deadliest Kids’ Investigates UK’s Youngest Serial Killer James Fairweather

Ciara Sheppard

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New True Crime ‘Britain’s Deadliest Kids’ Investigates UK’s Youngest Serial Killer James Fairweather

Featured Image Credit: Essex Police

A new true crime documentary will delve into the sickening crimes of the UK's youngest serial killer, James Fairweather.

Britain's Deadliest Kids, which will premiere on Quest Red on Saturday 25th May, follows the crimes of some of the nation's youngest murder convicts.

Episode three investigates James Fairweather, who committed two murders in 2014, when he was just 15 years old.

Credit: Essex Police
Credit: Essex Police
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His first known victim was 33-year-old James Attfield, who had a brain injury after a car accident, and was brutally stabbed to death by Fairweather in Colchester, Essex.

Just three months later, Fairweather killed Nahid Almanea, a 31-year-old Saudi student, who he targeted for wearing an Islamic veil.

The teenager was apprehended in May 2015, when he was planning his third murder, and pleaded guilty to the murders in April 2016.

In the episode, filmmakers interview James Attfield's sister Jo Spraggan, who claims her brother's murder could have been prevented had Fairweather been given a harsher sentence for holding up a local shop at knifepoint, a crime he committed just three days before carrying out the killing.

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Dr Keri Nixon analyses James' police tapes in the documentary. Credit: Discovery
Dr Keri Nixon analyses James' police tapes in the documentary. Credit: Discovery

As a first-time offender, Fairweather was not sentenced for the crime and instead given a sentence of 12 months of youth supervision.

Spraggan says: "I was quite angry when I heard that he had already caused upset by holding up a shop at knifepoint. And to find out that he only got a slap on the wrist and was then allowed to walk free, and just a few months later to then go on and kill.

"It's despicable, really. I think Jim's death could have been prevented. Because if James Fairweather had been given a harsher sentence for carrying a weapon in the first place, then he may not have been out there to commit the crimes that he committed."

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The documentary also exposes new details of his crimes, including the enormous police operation it took to catch Fairweather, costing upwards of £2.6 million, and the scrapbook Fairweather kept of the newspaper clippings covering his murders.

Speaking in the documentary, Forensic Psychology Dr Keri Nixon says that Fairweather would have killed again if he hadn't been caught.

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Analysis footage of Fairweather's police interview, she says: "He's describing what he did with no emotion. There's nothing there. There's almost a complete detachment from what he's saying, almost like he's revelling in it."

She adds: "What that says to me is that he's dangerous. If he wasn't arrested, he would have absolutely gone on to kill again."

Britain's Deadliest Kids airs Saturdays at 10pm on Quest Red

Topics: Entertainment News, True Crime, TV & Film

Ciara Sheppard
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