Mark Williams-Thomas

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Mark Williams-Thomas
Mark Williams-Thomas (cropped).jpg
Williams-Thomas in 2013
Born
Mark Alan Williams-Thomas

(1970-01-09) 9 January 1970 (age 55)
Billericay, Essex, England
Education Birmingham City University
Occupation Investigative reporter
Awards
Mark Williams-Thomas's voice
recorded November 2013

Mark Alan Williams-Thomas (born 9 January 1970) [1] is an English investigative journalist, documentary maker, television presenter, podcaster and private investigator. [2] [3] [4] Before becoming an investigative reporter, he worked as a policeman and family liaison officer with Surrey Police. [5]

Contents

Williams-Thomas presented the documentary which is credited with helping expose Jimmy Savile as a paedophile in The Other Side of Jimmy Savile , which led to the Operation Yewtree police investigation against Savile and others including Rolf Harris. [5] He previously worked on a successful investigation against Jonathan King. [6]

Williams-Thomas has also either been involved in or publicly commented on several other high-profile cases, including the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the Death of Nicola Bulley, the Death of Jay Slater and the PPE Medpro scandal surrounding Michelle Mone and Douglas Barrowman. [7] [8] [4] [9]

Police career

Williams-Thomas was a policeman and family liaison officer with Surrey Police from 1989 to 2000 becoming a detective constable for only a year before leaving due to unspecified circumstances. [5] In August 1997 Williams-Thomas was part of an investigation into child abuse material found in the possession of school teacher Adrian Stark, the director of music at St John's School, Leatherhead, Surrey, who committed suicide shortly after his arrest. [10] [11] Williams-Thomas was one of mulitple police offers who worked on an investigation into child abuse by Jonathan King, which led to King's successful conviction. [12]

Between 2001 and 2002, Williams-Thomas was the marketing manager and a director of GumFighters, a "national chewing gum removal specialist". The company were hired by various councils to clean their streets. [13] [14] [15] In 2003, 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 subsequently acquitted. [16] In 2005, Williams-Thomas set up WT Associates, an independent child protection consultancy firm. [5] In 2007, Williams-Thomas was awarded an MA in criminology from Birmingham City University. [17]

Media career

2003-2015

From 2003 on, drawing on his experience in the police force, Williams-Thomas began script advising for various television crime dramas which included BBC series Waking The Dead (2007–2011), BBC series Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2007), Channel 5 series Murder Prevention (2004), ITV series Identity and BBC series The Silence . [18] In August 2012, 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 alive. Hazell then went missing the day after this interview and was arrested later the same day on suspicion of Sharp's murder. He would go on to be charged with Sharp's murder, with a judge ordering that he serve a minimum of 38 years. [19]

Jimmy Savile investigation

Williams-Thomas began working on an investigation into child abuse by Jimmy Savile in late 2011, after being informed that Savile was investigated by Surrey police amid the 2007 Jersey child abuse investigation. On 3 October 2012, Williams-Thomas presented the Exposure documentary The Other Side of Jimmy Savile on ITV, in which five women stated that they had been sexually abused by Savile as teenagers. [5] By late October 2012, the scandal had resulted in inquiries or reviews at the BBC, within the National Health Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Department of Health. [20] [21] [22]

The exposure of Savile as a paedophile led to extensive media coverage, including 41 days on the front pages. [23] In June 2014, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that the investigations into Savile's activities at 28 NHS hospitals, including Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, concluded that he had sexually assaulted staff and patients aged between 5 and 75 over several decades. [24] In response to the documentary, the Metropolitan police launched the Operation Yewtree police investigation, which led to the convictions of high-profile celebrities (including Rolf Harris, Max Clifford, and Gary Glitter). The victims of Harris and Clifford credited the exposure of Savile as giving them the confidence to come forward. [25]

Williams-Thomas presented the follow-up documentary The Jimmy Savile Investigation later that year. [26] [27] The Other Side of Jimmy Savile and Exposure: Banaz: An Honour Killing won the 2012 Peabody Award which was broadcast on 3 October 2012. [28] [5] In 2013, Williams-Thomas won two Royal Television Society awards and the London Press Awards Scoop of the Year for the film. [29] [30] [31] In September 2013, MP Tim Loughton made a statement to Parliament in which he praised Williams-Thomas for his "modest but game-changing ITV documentary that exposed Jimmy Savile". [32]

Williams-Thomas presented two further Exposure documentaries; Exposure: Predators Abroad [33] and Exposure: Inside the Diplomatic Bag. [34] His undercover work in Cambodia led to the 2013 arrest of a person suspected of offering underage girls for sex and the rescue of two girls, aged 13 and 14. [35] Also in 2013 year, Williams-Thomas presented an ITV program called On the Run, in which Williams-Thomas and his team pursued a convicted child sex offender on the run in Spain. [36]

In 2014, Williams-Thomas covered the verdict of Oscar Pistorius, being the only British journalist to meet with Pistorius during his trial. Pistorius publicly stated his belief that Pistorius was innocent of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. [37] On 24 June 2016, ITV broadcast Oscar Pistorius: The Interview in which the former Paralympian spoke in a world exclusive to Williams-Thomas, in his first television interview about the night he shot and killed his girlfriend. [38] [39] 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 . [40]

2016-

From 2016 to 2020, Williams-Thomas was the reporter for ITV's crime series The Investigator: A British Crime Story, produced by Simon Cowell's Syco. [41] Among other cases, the series re-examined a 30 year old previously 'closed' murder case, the murder of Carole Packman, and the case of murdered student Jessie Earl, who disappeared from Eastbourne in 1980, her remains being found in 1989. [42] [43] From 2020 on, Williams-Thomas has presented his own podcast, The Detective, in which he has continued to investigate cold cases and contemporary cases. [44] In September 2020 following the arrest of Charles and Doris Clark on suspicion of the murder of their 23-year-old son Steven, who disappeared in December 1992, Williams-Thomas was given exclusive access to follow the family for a TV documentary while they were under police investigation. [45] [46]

In April 2022, in an interview discussing the Netflix documentary Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story , Williams-Thomas revealed concern about it, saying that the series might be harmful to Savile's victims due to his face being featured throughout, stating that, "I do worry as far as victims go, it's one of the things that strongly gets criticised now when the story's talked about, seeing his face - his picture on the front page. For those victims to see his face consistently over and over again, that is very traumatic for them." [47] Williams-Thomas made similar remarks in October 2023 about the crime drama series The Reckoning, which recounted Savile's crimes, in particular in the portrayal of an incident based on Claire McAlpine, who committed suicide aged 15 and left behind a note making allegations against several disc jockeys. Williams-Thomas criticised the casting of the character's race from white to Asian, and was criticised for his comments about the character's race. [48] [49]

On the 10th February 2023, Williams-Thomas publicly criticised police handling of the disappearance of Nicola Bulley, and their theory that Bulley had drowned in the river, telling media that it was more likely Bulley had 'disappeared' herself, or been 'taken by force', and urging police to conclude their search of the river 'as soon as possible' in order to focus on other areas. [7] [50] However, on the 19th February, two walkers found Bulley's body in the river, about one mile (1.5 kilometres) downstream of St Michael's on Wyre, with the inquest, which concluded in June 2023, determining that Bulley's death had been due to accidental drowning. [51] In contract to Williams-Thomas' criticisms, the official report, published in November 2023, praised the police investigation, describing it as "very well conducted and resourced". [52]

In June 2024, Williams-Thomas reached out to offer the family of Jay Slater assistance, going out to Tenerife to join the search for the teenager, and taking a high media profile in the case. [53] Williams-Thomas initially indicated that a “criminal network” with “links to drugs, theft and violent crime” was being considered as a motive for Slater's disappearance, however would later claim that he had always believed it to be a 'tragic accident'. [54] [55] Despite claiming his involvement in the Jay Slater case was to help the family, Slater's mum Debbie Duncan would go on to strongly criticise Williams-Thomas for his part, accusing him of using it as a 'PR stunt', withholding information, and saying that Williams-Thomas' actions had "knocked her back a million steps". In October 2024 Duncan asked Williams-Thomas to step back from the case. [56]

In December 2023, Williams-Thomas released a YouTube documentary, The Interview: Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal, described by Williams-Thomas on his social media as a “WORLD EXCLUSIVE PROGRAMME”. [9] Although the documentary was purportedly to investigate the government's controversial "VIP Lane" at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was entirely funded by PPE Medpro, and featured a series of sympathetic interviews with Michelle Mone and Douglas Barrowman, both of whom were facing allegations of fraud and bribery and received significant public backlash for their association with PPE Medpro. [9] [57] Williams-Thomas faced criticism for allegedly 'duping' experts into taking part in his documentary, not having declared who was funding it, and producing a documentary intended to 'salvage the reputation' of Mone and Barrowman. [9] [58] Williams-Thomas defended his PPE Medpro documentary, admitting that it was fully funded by PPE Medpro, but claiming that he had 'full editorial control' over the content. A strapline stating that PPE Medpro fully funded the documentary is inserted into the documentary, around 1 hour and 11 minutes in. [59] The Guardian revealed that in addition to producing a documentary for Mone and Barrowman's company, Williams Thomas had been working as a private investigator for the couple, raising issues of conflict of interest. [4]

Williams-Thomas continues to be active on social media, commenting on cases and giving details of his own projects. In September 2025 he posted his latest video stating his belief that Christian Brückner is innocent in the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann. [60] [61]

Filmography

Publications

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Check Company". Check Company. 12 June 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "The Investigator: A British Crime Story is Simon Cowell's answer to 'Making a Murderer'". Independent.co.uk . 28 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "Police to review murder of Carole Packman after ITV's The Investigator".
  4. 1 2 3 "Revealed: journalist behind Michelle Mone film also worked as private investigator on her behalf". Guardian. 19 December 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Halliday, Josh (24 February 2013). "Mark Williams-Thomas: I ran the Savile film like a criminal investigation". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  6. ↑ Keogh, Kat (12 January 2013). "The Brum lecturer who unmasked twisted Jimmy Savile". Birmingham Mail . Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  7. 1 2 "The police couldn't have got it more wrong on Nicola Bulley". 17 February 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
  8. ↑ Chantler-Hicks, Lydia (25 June 2024). "Jay Slater search: Ex-Nicola Bulley police officer joins hunt for missing teenager in Tenerife". The Standard. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Latchem, Tom; Evans, Dan (16 December 2023). "Respected Health Professionals Feel 'Duped' into Appearing in Michelle Mone PPE Documentary". Byline Times. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  10. ↑ School takes action on child porn. BBC, 22 November 1997. Retrieved: 19 December 2023.
  11. ↑ "Police reassure school over porn scandal teacher". Surrey Live. 7 August 1997. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  12. ↑ "Family sex abusers 'opportunists'". BBC News. 24 June 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  13. ↑ "Gumfighters Uk Limited". OpenCorporates. 13 December 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Cleaning blitz to rid city streets of gum". Yorkshire Post. 19 March 2002. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "By Gum - We'll Beat It". News Guardian. 22 March 2001. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "Man cleared of blackmail". BBC News. 4 June 2003. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "School of Social Sciences : Mark Williams-Thomas". Bcu.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "Mark Williams-Thomas MA at". Thespeakersagency.com. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  19. ↑ "Tia Sharp murder trial: Stuart Hazell jailed for 38 years". BBC News. 14 May 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  20. ↑ Mendick, Robert; Donnelly, Laura (20 October 2012). "Jimmy Savile: Questions for Edwina Currie and the BBC". The Daily Telegraph . London. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  21. ↑ "Jimmy Savile scandal: DPP to review abuse claims ('Q&A' and 'DPP to review' sections)". BBC News. 24 October 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  22. ↑ Furness, Hannah (24 October 2012). "Jimmy Savile: Director of Public Prosecutions to review why CPS did not prosecute". The Daily Telegraph . London. Archived from the original on 29 October 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  23. ↑ Turvill, William (26 August 2014). "Without Savile exposure, Harris and Clifford victims would never have come forward". Press Gazette. London. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  24. ↑ "Savile: 'Reports reveal a terrible picture' – Jeremy Hunt". BBC News. 26 June 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  25. ↑ "About Mark". Mark Williams-Thomas. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  26. 1 2 Exposure Update: The Jimmy Savile Investigation , retrieved 15 November 2018[ unreliable source? ]
  27. ↑ "Currie: Savile 'suggested himself' for Broadmoor role". ITV. 21 November 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  28. ↑ "'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.
  29. ↑ Deans, Jason (22 May 2013). "BBC Newsnight journalists win award for spiked Jimmy Savile investigation". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  30. ↑ Gover, Dominic (29 July 2013). "Jimmy Savile Sex Crimes Investigator Mark Williams-Thomas Probes Cover-up Claims". International Business Times. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  31. ↑ Turvill, William (21 February 2013). "Double RTS win for Savile documentary maker". Press Gazette. London. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  32. ↑ "Child Protection - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  33. 1 2 Predators Abroad , retrieved 15 November 2018[ unreliable source? ]
  34. 1 2 Inside the Diplomatic Bag , retrieved 15 November 2018[ unreliable source? ]
  35. ↑ Hamilton, Mike (10 November 2013). "TV investigation leads to arrest of child traffickers supplying children to British paedophiles". Daily Mirror . Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  36. ↑ "ITV tracks down sex offender On The Run in Portugal". ITV News. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  37. ↑ "Mark Williams-Thomas: Why I believe Oscar Pistorius is no murderer and Reeva's death was a tragic accident - Mark Williams-Thomas". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  38. ↑ "Oscar Pistorius: The Interview Episode 1". ITV. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  39. ↑ Travis, Ben (24 June 2016). "Oscar Pistorius, The Interview, ITV: the Paralympian talks about Reeva Steenkamp's killing with journalist Mark Williams-Thomas". London Evening Standard . Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  40. ↑ "Jill Dando was shot dead because of her work on BBC Crimewatch, claims top investigator". Bristol Post . 2 April 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  41. ↑ Jefferies, Mark; Methven, Nicola (3 August 2016). "The Investigator real-life murder story finishes with 'jaw-dropping' revelations - and clues point to second series". Daily Mirror . Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  42. ↑ Cooper, John (2 October 2020). "Heartbreaking unsolved murder of the young woman found on Beachy Head". sussexlive. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  43. ↑ Field, AnneMarie (30 June 2020). "Update on fresh inquest into Eastbourne student's murder". Eastbourne Herald. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  44. ↑ Hartley, Laura; Rodger, James (18 December 2019). "Missing Nicola Payne to be centre of new TV crime show and podcast". birminghammail. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  45. ↑ "Steven Clark: Parents arrested on suspicion of son's murder in 1992". BBC News. 16 September 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  46. ↑ Armstrong, Jeremy (14 December 2020). "TV detective joins hunt for man missing for 28 years after walking into toilet". Daily Mirror. London. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  47. ↑ "Man Who Exposed Jimmy Savile Reveals Concern About Netflix Documentary". www.ladbible.com. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  48. ↑ Copson, Josie (13 October 2023). "Jimmy Savile investigator blasts The Reckoning for missing key BBC story" . Retrieved 4 October 2025.
  49. ↑ Lawes, Ruth (11 October 2023). "Jimmy Savile investigator blasted over remarks on The Reckoning" . Retrieved 4 October 2025.
  50. ↑ "Nicola Bulley police theory questioned by former detective who exposed Jimmy Savile". 10 February 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
  51. ↑ "Nicola Bulley: Body found by dog walkers just a mile from where mother went missing". 19 February 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
  52. ↑ "Nicola Bulley review: Key report findings at a glance". 21 November 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
  53. ↑ Chantler-Hicks, Lydia (25 June 2024). "Jay Slater search: Ex-Nicola Bulley police officer joins hunt for missing teenager in Tenerife". The Standard. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  54. ↑ "Jay Slater: Detective says 'criminal network' being considered". 8 July 2024. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  55. ↑ "Williams-Thomas video about Jay Slater". 5 October 2025. Retrieved 18 June 2025.
  56. ↑ "Jay Slater's mother slams TV detective who flew out to Tenerife after his latest post on her son". Manchester Evening News. 18 October 2024. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  57. ↑ Corderoy, Jenna; Williams, Martin (13 August 2021). "UK politicians who referred PPE firms to 'VIP lane' to be named". Open Deomocracy. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  58. ↑ Davies, Caroline; Conn, David (17 December 2023). "How the Michelle Mone scandal unfolded: £200m of PPE contracts, denials and a government lawsuit". Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  59. ↑ "Reader response to tweet by Lady Michelle Mone". Twitter/X. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  60. ↑ "Williams-Thomas video about Christian Brückner". 17 September 2025. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  61. ↑ "Williams-Thomas project update". 12 September 2025. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  62. ↑ "To Catch A Paedophile". Broadcast. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  63. ↑ "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  64. ↑ On the Run , retrieved 15 November 2018[ unreliable source? ]
  65. ↑ On the Run 2 , retrieved 15 November 2018[ unreliable source? ]
  66. ↑ The Other Side of Jimmy Savile , retrieved 15 November 2018[ unreliable source? ]
  67. ↑ Missing Without Trace , retrieved 15 November 2018[ unreliable source? ]
  68. ↑ Bamber - The New Evidence, 5 April 2012, retrieved 15 November 2018
  69. ↑ "Tonight: Living With a Killer". ITV News. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  70. ↑ "Oscar Pistorius: The Interview Episode 1". Press Centre. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  71. ↑ "How to watch The Investigator: a British Crime Story - who's in it and what's it about?". Radio Times. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  72. ↑ "The Investigator: A British Crime Story". www.itvstudios.com. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  73. ↑ "Michelle Mone 'breaks silence' over PPE scandal". Manx Radio. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
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