Murder, Mystery and My Family

Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein re-examine historic murder cases, which may have been miscarriages of justice, to provide answers for the family of the convicted.

Jeanette Pratt has called upon leading criminal barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein to investigate the historical case of a canal boat murder in which her ancestor George Thomas was implicated. One hundred and eighty years ago, George Thomas and another boatman were convicted and publicly hanged in front of 10,000 spectators.

Rugely, Staffordshire, 1839. At dawn, laborers pull the lifeless body of 37 year-old Christina Collins from Trent and Mersey Canal. Within an hour, a crew of narrowboat men were in custody, most of them still drunk from the whisky they had stolen from their cargo hold. They claimed Christina, the sole passenger on their boat, had committed suicide.

Before a murder charge could be considered, the prosecution at the time revealed a key witness and proceedings were halted until this prisoner could receive a pardon and testify. At a second trial eight months later, three men were convicted of Christina’s murder and sentenced to death. One was pardoned at the last minute, but George Thomas and another boatman were hanged.

Nearly two centuries later, George Thomas’s descendants are convinced of his innocence. Exploring questions of character, the unusual situation of two trials and legal history, can barristers Jeremy and Sasha find enough new evidence to convince the judge that George Thomas was wrongly convicted?

Pictured L-R: Patricia Smith, canal expert Wendy Freer and Jeanette Pratt at the Black Country Living Museum

Publicity contact: PD