STEVE Fulcher was a detective who uncovered the crimes of a twisted double murderer before resigning from the force.
The cop’s life imploded when he caught depraved killer Christopher Halliwell in 2011.
Steve, 53, from Wiltshire, was a Detective Superintendent and one of the most respected officers in the UK when he managed to catch sadistic taxi driver Halliwell.
Steve now works as a security contractor in Somalia as he has been unable to find work in the UK since the scandal surrounding his dealings with the convicted killer.
He appeared on To Catch a Serial Killer with Trevor McDonald on ITV on September 20.
Steve was investigating the disappearance of Sian O’Callaghan, who vanished after leaving a Swindon nightclub on 20 March 2011.
CCTV footage showed her getting into a cab of local man Halliwell.
“He was in a relationship and had two daughters and a son, so he wasn’t an obvious suspect,” explains Steve, who caught Halliwell behaving oddly.
“He was cleaning the rear of his vehicle with blue fluid, depositing items in bins and burning things in the night.”
Steve arrested Halliwell and took him to Barbury Castle in Wiltshire – where he believed Sian was being held.
Rather than question Halliwell under caution at a police station, Steve decided to grill the cabbie at the Wiltshire beauty spot, without any legal representation and with nothing on tape.
Steve said: “I was following the national kidnap manual to the letter, to prioritise the life of the hostage.
“If she had been alive and I had walked away, my offence would have been grotesque.”
Surprisingly, Halliwell would confess to not only killing Sian, but lead Steve to the body of another victim, former sex worker Becky Godden.
But when Sian’s body was recovered in nearby Uffington, Steve couldn’t get the double murderer to repeat his confession on tape.
“I was surprised and disappointed,” says Steve, who was told the confession would be inadmissible in court.
Then an inquiry found Steve guilty of breaching guidelines so, disgraced, he resigned.
The ITV drama started on Monday, September 2, 2019.
You can watch it on Monday nights at 9pm.
The show will run for six episodes.
After each episode has aired you can watch it on the ITV Hub.
Following on the success of Manhunt, A Confession is another crime drama which deals with a real-life case.
It tells the story of 22-year-old Sian O’Callaghan who went missing in Swindon in 2011 after leaving a nightclub to walk to her boyfriend’s house.
Senior Investigating Officer Steve Fulcher is in charge of handling the case and firmly believes that Sian is still alive.
In the end he links Sian’s case to the disappearance of Becky Godden-Edwards after Halliwell owned up to a second body.
But Fulcher breaches police procedure to ensure that justice prevails.
Fortunately, there was enough forensic evidence — including Sian’s blood being found in the taxi and traces of Halliwell’s DNA was on her body — to convict the killer.
Steve now works as a security contractor in Somalia as he has been unable to find work in the UK since the scandal.
Despite losing his job, Steve has no regrets.
He said: “If it wasn’t for my course of action Christopher Halliwell would still be walking the streets.”
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