upfront
JONATHAN HILL AND
‘THE BULLSEYE KILLER’
Award-winning ITV journalist Jonathan Hill talks to Alice Hart about his
new book The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching The Bullseye Killer
O
ver the last two decades Jonathan Hill
has enjoyed a successful career. With two
BAFTAs and the 2001 BT ‘Welsh Journalist
of the Year’ award under his belt, Jonathan
has now turned his interests to the literary field.
Hill’s new project, The Pembrokeshire Murders:
Catching The Bullseye Killer, is an amalgamation of
work between himself and Detective Steve Wilkins. Both
these men have dedicated seven years of their careers
to the case of John Cooper who, in 2011, was found
guilty of murdering four people 17 years ago. Jonathan
describes the case as having “a special place in his
heart.” When he was presenting the real-life crime
show Crime Secrets Hill successfully brokered a deal
with Pembrokeshire police whilst investigating the, then
unsolved, murder case.
“I went down to see them and said look we’d really
like you to take part, and we don’t think we’ve got
enough [information] to do it without you,” he
recalls. “At that point they closed the door, and said
‘look, we’re going to trust you here. We’re going
to reveal to you that the cases are actually under
reinvestigation as part of a major review, and we
don’t want any publicity about these cases at the
moment, as it would really damage them. However, if
you keep quiet, then you will have a scoop’.”
When they re-opened the case the Pembrokeshire
police were unable to charge suspect John Cooper,
BUZZ 24
who had a history of violent crime, because he
no longer matched the artist’s impression of the
murderer – which was drawn in at the time of the
crimes 15 years prior.
“They didn’t have an image of him at the time. They
had lots of him a long time ago and lots of him recently,
but nothing at the time of the murders,” explains Hill.
Knowing Cooper had starred as a contestant on the
popular gameshow Bullseye, Hill and his team trawled
through ITV’s archives to find the episode.
It soon became apparent that Cooper had filmed
the episode only a few months before the murders.
“How he looked then in the television programme
“...we actually had
crime evidence
which helped
secure his
conviction.”
was exactly how he looked at the time,” says Hill.
“Then you’re tasked to compare John Cooper at the
time with the artist’s impression of who was probably
the killer. When they put them side by side, and we
helped them do that with our graphic artist, it was
compelling. Suddenly we went from being drawn into
the case and having the sort of scoop, to discovering
that we actually had evidence which helped secure
his conviction.”
Steve Wilkins, with whom Jonathan co-wrote The
Pembrokeshire Murders, admits that the two of
them eventually formed a very close but professional
working relationship.
“Steve and I sort of said you ought to write the story
of this case,” states Hill. “It was interesting for me
writing the book with him because I thought I knew
the story inside out, and yet I was still learning new
things and thinking ‘go Y ] ?X[ H\ [???&x?'B??']8?&\?H ?\?H?\?X???[? [?H [?? [?H ?[?B??\? ?\?Y?H H?[?? ?Y\?Y??? ] H ?X?B???X?\??H ?X[ X[K ][? ? ?H[??]? \??^K??^H ?[??^[? H?[? ] K???\? ?\?[?B?[??[?K]?Y?]?K?] ?\??&]?H? \?H?\? ?\?B?^H ??? ?\??YH?] ?[? ??Y[??H?]?H [B?H[???\??[? [?] H\?Z[?]H ^H?? \???XZ? ??Y? ?X? ?\? HX?[??? H?Z?K??'B?H[X????\?\?H]\?\???]?[??H?[ ?^YH?[\?????][?? ??]\???\??\?Y?? \?? ??? ?[??????˜?\?[????????B??