Drama based on Narborough murders will air on TV

Pitchfork was the first killer to be convicted using DNA

Double child killer Colin Pitchfork is the subject of a television drama that tells of the first killer to be caught by the DNA fingerprinting technique pioneered by the University of Leicester’s Professor Alec Jeffreys.

The film, being made by ITV and due to air next year, is reportedly being called “Code of a Killer”, and will begin filming in the area of Enderby and Narborough along with the University of Leicester campus later this year. The DNA evidence famously led to Colin Pitchfork being jailed for murdering two 15yr old schoolgirls in the 1980s.

Lynda Mann from Narborough, was sexually assaulted and strangled with her own scarf and left in the open near Carlton Hayes Hospital, near Narborough, in 1983. Dawn Ashworth, of Enderby, was murdered in similar fashion, also in Narborough, in July 1986.

Pitchfork, who lived in Littlethorpe, was uncovered after more than 5,000 local men were required to give DNA samples to the police. He was convicted and jailed for life for the murder of both girls.

ITV say the programme would “tell the story sensitively and respectfully”.

Actors John Simm, Lorcan Cranitch, Robert Glenister and Siobhan Redmond are reported to be included in the cast line-up.

The drama is still being cast but it is believed that film and television actor/director David Threlfall, best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4’s series Shameless, has been cast as Detective Chief Superintendent David Baker who led the hunt for the killer. Superintendent Baker ordered the mass DNA testing, which became known as ‘The Blooding’.