NEW 24 Hours in Police Custody - tonight 9pm - Channel 4

[teddydaniels]

A TV documentary that follows the work of a police force will show how the investigation into the actions of a teenage killer unfolded.

Nicholas Prosper used a shotgun to kill his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, his brother Kyle, 16, and his 13-year-old sister, Giselle, at their home in Luton on 13 September 2024.
The 19-year-old, who was arrested in the hours after the murders, was jailed for 49 years in March. A trial heard he intended to carry out a shooting at his former primary school.

The Channel Four series 24 Hours in Police Custody, which follows the work of investigators at Bedfordshire Police, will feature the case over two nights on 5 and 6 October.

Came looking for a thread after finishing watching.

I'm confused by the sentencing remarks vs what he presented throughout the episodes. It’s fascinating how potentially police/ we the viewer saw the situation vs how the judge read it (based on the reports she’d been given.)

i thought his behaviour on arrest was so strange it could only really be explained by him being in psychosis. Which would also potentially explain the unfortunate escalation of whatever happened in the flat.

Despite the sounding very much like someone in psychosis (I was surprised and a bit distressed that they’d interviewed him, in the state he was in) as the documentary went on the pre planning and sexual interest in children started to come out and it was clear this was more planned and organised than someone in a psychotic episode would be capable of.

the judge speaks of someone with psychopathic tendencies. Someone who was far from highly intelligent and frustrated, as the police and father had described, instead a typical loser rotting in a dark room on video games 24/7. Searching out worse and worse content. Immature and “at least averagely” intelligent.
Someone who is getting on fine in prison and enjoying the notoriety.
So hard to imagine from what we saw of him in the documentary.

A lot of it is footage from body cams, cctv, etc. The interviews are done later. When they have something interesting then the film crew turn up to film the investigation.

I wondered why he didn't plead diminished responsibility, he was so obviously unwell.
They didn't explain where he got the ammo from did they? Was that from the gun seller or from somewhere else? Would you need to provide the fake license to buy ammo?

Unwell? This was a young man who had just pent the previous evening to the run up to the murders watching hours of snuf films & child pornography, then killed three people, having had a prolonged struggle while killing his brother- did you notice the many cuts on his hands?- then wandering around Luton for hours. He seemed most definitely odd to me. And perhaps dazed. Not unwell. Subsequent investigation found he had been planning it in great detail for at least a year - determined, obsessive. Unwell? Not so much.

He did have an appropriate adult, they did not show them but it was mentioned they were waiting for his Solicitor and the AA to arrive.

I also struggle to understand how concerns were not raised, not blaming anyone for that but he clearly was a very very troubled individual. The lack of emotion or remorse was astounding.

I hope the neighbour who went up is alright. I bet it’s been life changing for her though and also anyone else who also heard.

I’ve nothing to add about the young man that hasn’t already been said.

It was a very sobering watch, and has cemented my conviction that the world would become a better place overnight if we just turned off the fucking internet.

If it hadn't been for that one person phoning the police, he'd have walked into the primary school later that day.

She saved a lot of lives.

I watched this and was astounded that the police seemed so surprised by his lack of remorse. I'm not diagnosing Prosper with anything, but was as if they'd never had any training in autism, mental health or people behaving outside of the 'ordinary'.

The officers did ask him when they went to look for the gun if he had any disabilities I think so they obviously sensed something was a bit off.

Prosper was asked a few times if he had any disabilities or mental health and certainly on one occasion he said ‘not that I’m aware of’

It doesn’t seem like he was displaying much in the way of concerning signs before 13/09 though? Yes sat in his bedroom online 24/7- no one would’ve done a thing about that.

the sentencing remarks said that his parents had got him on a cahms type service waiting list, but nothing had happened prior to his crimes in terms of being seen

sorry not sure if you meant his behaviour after arrest. He would’ve been seen my a psychiatrist and a mental health nurse was the one filmed talking to him whilst he was in his cell. Despite that, I am a little surprised too. Not least because I am not sure if he’d spoken in interview it would’ve made any sense or just been delusions.

@ThisOldThang

Agreed. She did and I hope she has been getting support.

Somebody mentioned about his walk and I immediately thought he walked like this because that’s how Clementine did after she was bitten by a snake.

Totally agree, I hope she's doing ok.

It’s exactly the same gait that DS has. He walks very fast, very stiffly at a forward angle, and can’t adjust his pace to walking with anyone else. It was uncannily similar.

It was the speech that gave it away to me. The tone, the delivery, the slightly odd intonation/emphasis. But yes the gait too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he shouldn't be locked up for life or that ASD/MH problems are any kind of excuse. Not at all. He clearly needs to be in prison for a long time.

But a child with undiagnosed ASD, parented as though they are NT, treated by the world as though they are NT, never getting the understanding of themself and their neurotype that a diagnosis and the right support can bring - that can cause a lot of damage. It can lead to MH problems.

When I say "he is obviously autistic and obviously has associated MH problems" I'm just trying to highlight the importance of early intervention for people like him. Because the right support at the right time can and does change lives. I don't believe, like others on this thread have also said, that he suddenly started displaying these very clear signs after committing this appalling crime. It must have been obvious beforehand and it's devastating that he didn't get any sort of intervention or support in time to prevent this.

He can be autistic and be a psychopath. Personality disorders aren't necessarily a mental illness, he doesn't have to have been "unwell".

She had a lucky escape by the sounds of it. As did the guy who sold the gun. I wonder if he’s rethought his career choices?

The scratches on his hand were from looking for his phone in a thorn bush.

Agree 10000% this needed to be on tv as it also highlights the need to be aware of the type of online gaming that is out there. It was scary to hear the officers say the type of content available that is not even on the dark web. Yes hes autistic but they are showing how what he did is beyond his diagnosis and should be shown as he is just pure evil.

The sort of Web content he was viewing needs to be closed down too, or at least understand the impact of algorithms giving you more of the same for hours and hours. There is very little responsibility taken by these sites, but they are complicit in this.

I would say more than complicit but they're never going to go and make their living stacking shelves when they can have millions of vulnerable and potentially dangerous people lining their pockets by needing more and more escalating content.

What would this boy's life have been like had he been born 50 years ago, before the internet was thought of?

Did I hear someone say in Ep 1 that he was okay until (covid) lockdown? I thought it very interesting that one of the first things we were shown that he said to the police was "Is the school in lockdown?" or words to that effect.

I am shocked that no one flagged anything up, especially those living with him. People were watching his videos online? Following him? Surely they knew his behaviour was dangerous? Or maybe the people watching his videos are just as messed up as he is?

Perhaps there were some people looking at his stuff who may have wanted to flag it up or tried flagging it up but how often have we heard or been told "We can't do anything until he does something?". And where does that leave us. Learning lessons. Again.

That “lockdown” related to school shooting language- not Covid.

they touched on it in the documentary but there is no way to shut down this content. It’s international.

when governments bring in initiatives like ID for adult content people just respond that it won’t “work” (it doesn’t matter things might be plain harder to access- the public are binary that it has to end harmful content or not bother) And they have a point

The government had the ISPs block Pirate Bay. It can be circumvented with a VPN or proxy, but prevents casual normies accessing it.

Removing the extreme sites from search engines combined with ISP blocking would be a good start.

This was so disturbing and I wished I hadn’t watched. All I can think about getting my children ready for primary school this morning.

But totally agree that’s it’s very important to show this and I’m going to get DH to watch it too. Some of the information about him licensing, what can be accessed on the normal web… people need to know thiss