A chilling murder that took place in a quiet Lancashire village in 2019 is revisited in the brand-new true crime series ‘Britain’s Countryside Killers’.
Alex Davies, 18, suffered 128 stab wounds and a total of 146 separate injuries when Brian Healless, also 18, murdered him on Parbold Hill in West Lancashire after they agreed to meet up on a dating app.
Mancunian Matters sat down with former Scotland Yard murder detective Steve Keogh – who features on the television series as an expert analyst – to discuss Alex’s murder case as well as his career in the Metropolitan Police.
He said: “The attack on Alex and the injuries he received were horrendous.
“In the hundred-plus murders I’ve investigated, I can only think of two that come close to that.
“The overkill and mutilation of Alex’s body is chilling, especially by someone so young.”
Alex – from the Lancashire town Skelmersdale – was regarded a generous and kind person by those close to him and was known to volunteer at the British Heart Foundation.
Alex met Healless on the dating app Grindr and was coerced into meeting him in a discreet location under the guise that Healless was too shy to meet a romantic partner in public.
Police believed that Healless threatened to kill again after he repeated the same ploy with other dating app matches in the days following Alex’s murder.
Steve commented: “What stands out about Alex’s murder is that you have such a young killer who is displaying all the signs of a predatory killer.
“I have no doubt in my mind that he would have gone on to become a serial killer.
“That to me – along with the injuries – is the thing that stands out to me more than anything.”
Steve retired from the Metropolitan Police in 2021 and has since shared his expertise in his book ‘Murder Investigation Team’ and featured on multiple television series.
Across a 30-year career in the force Steve developed his own theory about why people kill.
Steve said: “We make choices based on how we feel, how we want to feel, or the benefit you get. And it is exactly the same for murders.
“I think that Healless killed Alex, because of how he wanted to feel.
“And that is why most serial killers kill. They kill because they have this inner drive to feel some kind of emotion.
Steve further argued that emotion is central to a lot of the most ruthless and premeditated murder cases where the injuries are the most severe.
He said: “To me, serial killers are the most frightening killers.
“From Jack the Ripper to the Yorkshire Ripper, every serial killer is doing it because of an inner desire to feel something, to feel power, control, sexual gratification, enjoyment.
“They are killing because they need to feel that and there was something in Healless that he had to feel.”
Healless was sentenced to 24 years in 2020 but was transferred to a psychiatric hospital instead of prison due to an untreated paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis.
Steve said: “I don’t think there ever is closure.
“If you lose someone when they’ve got their whole life ahead of them, that will always be there for Alex’s mum.
“What would Alex be doing right now? What life would he have? Who would he have met? As a parent, to have that snatched away from you – how can you ever get over that?
“As long as you’re alive you will always have that at the back of your mind.”
Steve added: “I was always humbled by the dignity that families showed through the process.
“From the bits that I’ve seen from Alex’s family, they carried themselves with the same dignity they carry themselves with.”
Steve insisted that, in spite of the haunting subject matter, a career in murder investigation can be incredibly rewarding.
He said: “You can never get their loved one back. But the next best thing you can do is find justice for them.
“It is that passion to get that justice for victims that I saw in so many of my colleagues and I found that once people are on a murder team, they never wanted to go and do anything else.
“You could never replicate that job satisfaction of being able to give that gift of justice to a family.”
Britain’s Countryside Killers premieres on Monday 24th March at 10 pm on the TRUE CRIME channel with the second episode airing on Tuesday 25th March. The series airs on Mondays and Tuesdays and will be available to stream via TRUE CRIME’s free catch-up app, WATCH FREE UK.
Feature image provided by Substance Global.
Join the discussion