Mark Williams-Thomas

Mark Williams-Thomas

Williams-Thomas in November 2013
Born 1970 (age 44–45)
Billericay, Essex, England
Education Birmingham City University
Occupation Investigative reporter
Awards
Mark Williams-Thomas's voice
recorded November 2013

Mark Williams-Thomas (born 1970)[1] is a British investigative journalist and former police officer. He is best known for exposing Jimmy Savile as a paedophile in The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, a television documentary he presented.[2][3]

Career

Williams-Thomas worked as a detective and family liaison officer with Surrey Police from 1989 to 2000.[1] In July 1997, Williams-Thomas led a paedophile investigation into public school teacher Adrian Stark[4] who a few days after his arrest killed himself. In 1999 Williams-Thomas was involved in the investigation of Anthony Bridger[5] who subsequently pled guilty to 32 serious sexual offences against boys[6] and was jailed at the Central Criminal Court on 8 January 1999 for a minimum of 15-years. In 2000, Williams-Thomas launched the investigation of Jonathan King, resulting in King's conviction for the sexual abuse of under-age boys.[1]

During his time with Surrey Police he was awarded numerous commendations and was a nationally qualified Detective and a specialist in major crime and child abuse.

From 2003 Williams-Thomas started police advising on various television crime dramas which included : BBC series Waking The Dead (2007-2011), BBC series Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2007), Ch5 series Murder Prevention (2004), ITV series Identity and BBC series The Silence.

In 2003 Mark Williams-Thomas was charged with blackmailing a funeral home director, after alleging that there were multiple bodies buried in unmarked graves. An article ran in a national Sunday paper describing the mass burials. He was acquitted.[7]

In 2005, he set up WT Associates, an independent child protection consultancy firm.[1]

On 2 August 2010 ITV News broadcast an exclusive interview Williams-Thomas undertook with Stuart Hazell who was the last person to see missing 12 year old schoolgirl Tia Sharp. Hazell went missing the day after this interview and was arrested later the same day on suspicion of Tia Sharps's murder. He was later charged and on 14 May 2013 was jailed after changing his plea. The judge ordered that he serve a minimum of 38 years.[8]

On 3 October 2012, Williams-Thomas presented documentary 'The Other Side of Jimmy Savile' on ITV. The expose of Jimmy Savile examined claims of child sexual abuse by Savile and led to extensive media coverage, including 41 days on the front pages and the Metropolitan Police launching a criminal investigation into allegations of child sex, Operation Yewtree.

The Other Side of Jimmy Savile and Exposure: Banaz: An Honour Killing won the 2012 Peabody Award[9] which was broadcast on 3 October 2012.[1]

In the Exposure documentary, several women said that, as teenagers, they had been sexually abused by Savile. In 2013, Williams-Thomas won two Royal Television Society awards and the London Press Awards Scoop of the Year for the film.[10][11][12] The episode and another, Exposure: Banaz: An Honour Killing, won a 2012 George Foster Peabody Award.[13]

Williams-Thomas is a regular reporter on This Morning, Channel 4 News, as well as long form current affairs documentaries for ITV.

His undercover work in Cambodia led to the arrest in 2013 of a person suspected of offering under-age girls for sex and the rescue of two girls, aged 13 and 14.[14]

In 2014 Williams-Thomas covered the verdict of Oscar Pistorius and was the only British journalist to meet with Pistorius during his trial - writing an exclusive report for UK national newspaper Daily Mirror.[15]

On 11 November 2014 ITV This Morning programme broadcast an exclusive interview with Jo Westwood,[16] the ex-wife of jailed sex offender Max Clifford.

In 2015 Williams-Thomas investigated the unsolved murder of BBC presenter Jill Dando. Writing in the Daily Mirror he theorized that she was murdered by the London underworld for her work on Crimewatch.[17]

He has an MA in criminology from Birmingham City University.

Programmes

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Halliday, Josh (24 February 2013). "Mark Williams-Thomas: I ran the Savile film like a criminal investigation". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Keogh, Kat (12 January 2013). "The Brum lecturer who unmasked twisted Jimmy Savile". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  3. ↑ Owens, Nick (30 December 2012). "Year of crime: Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas on Jimmy Savile, Tia Sharp, Twitter perverts, and Al-Hilli murder mystery". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  4. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/body-in-sea-thought-to-be-child-porn-teacher-1243446.html
  5. ↑ "Man charged with dozens of child sex offences". Get Surrey. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  6. ↑ "Two decades of abuse against boys". BBC Online. January 7, 1999. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "Man cleared of blackmail", BBC News, 4 June 2003
  8. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22513711
  9. ↑ "'Exposure: Banaz: An Honour Killing' and 'Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile' (ITV1 and ITV)". George Foster Peabody Awards. 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  10. ↑ Deans, Jason (22 May 2013). "BBC Newsnight journalists win award for spiked Jimmy Savile investigation". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  11. ↑ Gover, Dominic (29 July 2013). "Jimmy Savile Sex Crimes Investigator Mark Williams-Thomas Probes Cover-up Claims". International Business Times. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  12. ↑ Turvill, William (21 February 2013). "Double RTS win for Savile documentary maker". Press Gazette. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  13. ↑ 72nd Annual Peabody Awards, May 2013.
  14. ↑ Hamilton, Mike (10 November 2013). "Police in Cambodia seized a suspect and rescued two girls aged 13 and 14 in a sting operation following a TV investigation into child traffickers supplying children to British paedophiles". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  15. ↑ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/mark-williams-thomas-believe-oscar-pistorius-4197593
  16. ↑ http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/max-cliffords-ex-wife-jo-westwood-talks-exclusively-morning
  17. ↑ "Jill Dando was shot dead because of her work on BBC Crimewatch, claims top investigator". Bristol Post. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.

External links