Show notes
Agent 47695: The Manchester Teen Who Incited A Murder
In June 2003, a 14-year-old boy known as John was stabbed twice in an alley behind a row of shops in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, and his 16-year-old friend Mark told detectives a hooded stranger had attacked them. The investigation that followed took police through CCTV footage and tens of thousands of lines of internet chatroom messages, and it ended in a conviction no British court had ever handed down before. This one starts in a Manchester teen chatroom back in the MSN Messenger days, with a gifted grammar school kid who kept disappearing into his bedroom, a college boy with a part-time restaurant job, and a married MI5 spymistress who typed in all caps and had very big plans for both of them. It's a story about loneliness and a secret so elaborate that the judge said skilled fiction writers would struggle to invent it, and the whole thing comes down to 1 misspelled word.
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In June 2003, a 14-year-old boy known as John was stabbed twice in an alley behind a row of shops in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, and his 16-year-old friend Mark told detectives a hooded stranger had attacked them. The investigation that followed took police through CCTV footage and tens of thousands of lines of internet chatroom messages, and it ended in a conviction no British court had ever handed down before. This one starts in a Manchester teen chatroom back in the MSN Messenger days, with a gifted grammar school kid who kept disappearing into his bedroom, a college boy with a part-time restaurant job, and a married MI5 spymistress who typed in all caps and had very big plans for both of them. It's a story about loneliness and a secret so elaborate that the judge said skilled fiction writers would struggle to invent it, and the whole thing comes down to 1 misspelled word.
🔔 Subscribe for True Crime Cases multiple times a week
Never miss a story. Subscribe to 10 Minute Murder for bite-sized true crime episodes delivered fresh every week.
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Check out True Crime Blueprint, also created and hosted by Joe.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43zuDpH01HtdIrH0ShCAid?si=86b2281063334139
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-blueprint/id1877878404
iHeartRadio: https://iheart.com/podcast/323307878
Amazon Music/Audible: