TUESDAY 06 SEPTEMBER
Documentary
Foetus Snatcher
10:00pm - 11:05pm
Channel 4
VIDEO Plus+: 1063612
Subtitled
It's a pity the titles of the programmes in this solidly made Psycho series are so offputting, because the stories are riveting. Tonight's in particular, featuring unspeakable acts known as "foetal kidnap", when near full-term mothers-to-be are murdered for their unborn children, is an uncomfortable mix of appalling and compelling. All murders are dreadful, but the thought of a woman being killed before her baby is cut from her womb is a stage beyond unimaginable. The children are then "raised" by women who've spent months pretending to be pregnant (even, bizarrely, fooling their husbands) before they claim to have given birth. But the pretence can't be kept up for long. In a series of stories (all from America), we learn how the murderers singled out their victims, committed their awful acts and attempted to be mothers, while the child's real families were kept in a fearful kind of limbo.
Alison Graham