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Killer in the family podcast
A true crime podcast exploring men who kill their families.
Killer in the family podcast
Episode 39 - Lesley Ford and her children
What happens when systemic failures allow a predator to unleash unimaginable horror on an innocent family? Join us as we confront the chilling case of Lesley Ford and her children, who were brutally murdered by Lee Ford in August 2000. This episode navigates through Leslie's life in Telford, her marriage to Michael Tranter, and the birth of their children: Sarah Jane, Ann-Marie, Craig, and Steven. We examine Ford's need for power and control, which shattered this family's existence, and highlight the emotional toll on those left behind. As we recount this harrowing tale, we also shed light on Ford's potential parole in 2027 and reflect on the emotional scars carried by the victims' loved ones.
This is the story of Lesley Ford and her children – Sarah Jane, Ann-Marie, Craig and Steven Tranter.
Information and support
· Samaritans UK Contact Us | Samaritans
· National Domestic Violence Helpline UK 0808 2000 247
· Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) Home - AAFDA
· Women’s Aid www.womensaid.org.uk
· Mental health support USA I'm looking for mental health help for myself | Mental Health America (mhanational.org)
· Domestic abuse helpline USA 1.800.799.SAFE Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline (thehotline.org)
References
Clare Laxton is fundraising for Women's Aid Federation Of England (justgiving.com)
Supporter comments · Ensure a killer stays inside & never comes out. · Change.org
British murders podcasthttps://youtu.be/S5mR_4ZjBMc?si=v-2hJ6CTv-xPf5RF
Britain’s Darkest Tabooshttps://dai.ly/x5mjvd8
Killer in My Family: How Lee Ford became Britain's most evil step-dad - Manchester Evening News
Murderer Lee Ford who killed family in Carnkie could be released in coming years - Cornwall Live
Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies - The Beltway Briefing
Listen for of-the-moment insider insights, framed by the rapidly changing social and...
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Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. So welcome to episode 39. Oh my gosh. And before we start, thank you so much to everyone who's entered the competition for the Killer in the Family t-shirt and water bottle. I'll announce the winner on Instagram at Killer in the Family pod today. So massive congratulations to the lucky winner and thanks so much again. So today's episode will be the last one before a summer break.
Speaker 1:The podcast will return on Friday, the 30th of August, for the one year anniversary of the pod. I cannot believe it's nearly been a year, and the episode that I have planned for the 30th of August and the one year anniversary is an absolutely unbelievable one. If it wasn't real life, you genuinely would think someone had written it for a film plot. So you won't want to miss it, I promise. Over the summer break you can still continue to suggest cases via at killer in the family pod on Instagram or via the send me a text link in the episode notes. I actually have over 50 cases on my ever-growing list, but I always want to hear about suggestions from listeners. So let's get into this week's episode. So this episode was a suggestion from a listener and was suggested to me a while ago by my lovely friend and amazing supporter of the pod, laura. Thank you so much for the suggestion, laura. It's such a horrific story and I actually hadn't seen it before, so it just goes to show you that you are all seeing cases and stories that I haven't, so please do keep the case suggestions in coming in.
Speaker 1:In August 2000, leslie Ford and her children, sarah Jane, anne-marie Craig and Stephen Tranter, were killed by. With his stepdaughter, ford hid the bodies of his wife and stepchildren until they were found by police over a month later, a horrific murder driven by power and control. Lee Ford could be up for parole from prison as early as 2027. This is the story of Leslie Ford and her children, sarah Jane, anne-marie Craig and Stephen Tranter. This is gonna be a tough listen, I know. I know every episode really is, but this case is just really horrific and the guy is just an unbelievable piece of crap. As usual, there is information on support you can access if you need it in the episode notes, and we are heading to Cornwall for this episode. I don't think I've done one from Cornwall before. Cornwall is in the southwest of the UK, in England, and is a beautiful place to visit and to live and so it's nice that we're doing a story from there.
Speaker 1:I've relied mostly on news stories for this episode. I did also listen to a podcast episode from the pod British Murders, and considering the horrific nature of this case, I was pretty surprised that there weren't more news stories out there. But I did watch an episode of Discovery TV programme Britain's Darkest Taboos, about this case. Actually, another episode of that series covered the story of Chrissie and Shania Chambers, which we talked about in episode 32. And there was an episode of the documentary World's Most Evil Killers about this, this case, but I couldn't access it, unfortunately. I just love all the names of these documentaries, like they're so hyperbolic, but I've linked to all of those the documentaries in the podcast that I listened to as well in the notes too.
Speaker 1:So let's hear more about Leslie and her children. She was born Leslie Wyatt and grew up in Telford, which is a town in Shropshire, just northeast of Birmingham in England, and we were actually in Shropshire for our last episode about the Foster family, but they lived much closer to the Welsh border, near Ourastry Now. Leslie was one of three siblings and has been described as lovely, caring and just a brilliant mother as well, by her ex-husband, michael Tranter. He and Leslie actually met in Telford on the bus to work in 1982 when he was 21 and she was 18. They married soon after and Michael said quote, she had a beautiful white dress on the day, but she wouldn't buy a new one. We even let me buy one. She got it from the charity shop. She believed in giving back and I think that quote really encapsulates Leslie's personality and you know how much she wants to give to others and you know I have that sort of kind nature.
Speaker 1:Now, in 1983, leslie and Michael welcomed their first child, sarah Jane. Michael told the Mirror, quote when I held her in my arms for the first time, I was over the moon. Nothing apart from the day I married Leslie had ever come close. She was a lovely tiny little thing, just six pounds. I took to fatherhood really well and Leslie was a brilliant mum. And apparently Leslie just loved kids and wanted a huge family. And she got one, because Anne-Marie was born very soon after and then she was followed quickly by two boys, stephen and Craig.
Speaker 1:Now I want to mention here that there are a range of different spellings of Leslie, anne-marie and Stephen's names in the news articles, so I've used the spelling which I've seen the most, but just wanted to flag in case you were looking into the cases after you've listened to this episode. So back to the family Now. A signature on an online petition about Lee Ford we'll talk more about that later commented that they knew Sarah Jane and Anne-Marie and that they were just amazing kids, and another signatory was a family member who said that she lives with a pain and loss in her heart every day. Anne-marie was apparently a very quiet girl, sort of kept herself to herself, and her teacher told the documentary that I watched that she was quite difficult to get to know.
Speaker 1:As I'm sure you can imagine, life with four children was busy and chaotic for Leslie and Michael and unfortunately their marriage began to break down and they broke up in 1989. Andrew, michael's brother, said that he was quite shocked when they broke up, as he thought they were just meant to be. Now, very soon after breaking up with Michael, leslie met a man called Lee Ford. He was a sometime builder and labourer. Now I couldn't find loads about Ford's childhood or his personality, but we'll talk a bit about some of it later on. But apparently he was very quick to temper. Now, regardless of this, on June the 22nd in 1990, leslie married Lee Ford and they created a life together, with her four children with Michael, and then her and Lee went on to have another two children together. Now I couldn't find the names of Leslie and Lee's children, but they've probably been kept from the media to protect them.
Speaker 1:Now, leslie and Ford's relationship was not positive one. They apparently broke up and reconciled quite a bit in their first few years together. Quickly into their relationship, ford showed himself to be very controlling, jealous and physically abusive. Apparently. He was particularly jealous of Leslie's relationship with her ex-husband Michael, and did everything he could to stop Leslie and their four children from seeing him. He made it really difficult for Michael to see and co-parent the kids. Michael talks about 1995 being the last time he saw his four kids, as that year Leslie was sick of the violence, control and abuse and left Ford in secret to move to Cornwall to be closer to her family. Now no one knew where she had gone, including Michael, the father of her four eldest children, and, as you can imagine, being left by Leslie and her taking the kids and hiding from him did not go down well with Ford. Like any coercive controller, he wanted them back in his power and he did everything he could to find her. And he did everything he could to find her.
Speaker 1:Now, as you might have guessed or know, women leaving their violent and abusive partners in secret is not uncommon. We have in the UK a network of domestic abuse refuges, which are secret places where women and children can go to live, to be away from their perpetrator and you know, in my experience of Women's Aid, there's lots of amazing Women's Aids and charities across the UK that run these refuges mostly on a shoestring, can I just say. And they, you know, having worked with them when I was at Women's Aid, I know the lengths that perpetrators will go to to try and find their partners. So you know it's not uncommon for a victim, survivor of abuse to leave in secret and take the kids you know as soon as they can and just hide for as long as possible. So, as I said, ford obviously wanted to find them and get them back in his power and he did actually manage to track Leslie down. He called her mum and posed as a solicitor and got Leslie's new address out of her mum. What an absolute piece of crap. Here Again, the lengths that controlling and abusive men go to to track down women who've left them should never surprise us. So Ford went off to find Leslie and managed to persuade her to get back together with him. I have no doubt that he promised everything would be different and that he would be different. Leslie relented and they got back together, making a fresh start and moving to the Hamlet of Cranky in 1998. Now I hope I've pronounced that properly. If not, please let me know, but it's a hamlet sort of near Falmouth in Cornwall.
Speaker 1:Now lots of people might be surprised, slash frustrated by the fact that Leslie got back together with Ford, but it is so common for abuse survivors to stay or get back with their abusers. It is the power of coercive control to trap women in relationships and also take away something called their space for action. This is a term coined by an academic called Professor Liz Kelly, and you know we're making assumptions that women are able to make independent, informed choices and decisions. But the control and abuse reduces their space for action and means that actually they're not able to make those sort of informed choices and decisions. And for some women staying with an abuser is the sort of less risky option because they've. They've done the risk assessment of the danger to her and her children and, as we know, separation and that point of leaving is a really dangerous time for women and children and they're at higher risk of homicide. So for some women, actually staying for them is the safest option and they've done that risk assessment in their head and that's what they've decided. So I think there's lots of complexities around women either stay or get back with an abusive partner and the sort of power of coercive control sort of lays at the root of a lot of those.
Speaker 1:Now for Leslie and Ford, the control and abuse continued. Surprise, surprise, he did not change. He actually controlled what she wore and was also emotionally abusive as well. He continued to physically abuse her too and he hated her relationship with the children. He hated that and he had a lot of anger towards Leslie because she wasn't putting him first. And we see this a lot again with particularly controlling perpetrators who are actually jealous of their children because it takes the woman's attention away from them. And that's why you know, quite a lot of the time domestic abuse can start or escalate when there's a pregnancy and and again it's because the woman's attention is not completely on him but on that child and the baby as well, and inevitably the abuse impacted on the children. They were said to be completely different when Ford was around and more outgoing and happier when he wasn't.
Speaker 1:Now Ford at this this point sort of in the late 90s was also paying particular attention to 17-year-old Sarah Jane, his stepdaughter. He actually followed her and watched her when she went out and was looking at who she was with. Now Leslie actually found Ford, her husband, in bed with Sarah Jane, her daughter. Leslie was so shocked and horrified that Ford was seemingly having sex with his stepdaughter. Now here's so much of the language around Ford and Sarah Jane. In the news articles that I've read was that they were in a relationship or having an affair. But she was 17 years old and had been raised by Ford since she was seven. He was her stepfather and he was clearly grooming and abusing her. This is not a consensual relationship or an affair, and let's just take a moment here to consider what an absolute piece of crap Ford is. Not only is he controlling and abusive towards his wife, he's also jealous of the time and attention she spends on the children, but is also jealous and controlling of his 17 year old stepdaughter who he's also sexually abusing. I, I just can't, I just can't with this guy.
Speaker 1:Now, when she found out what Ford was doing to Sarah Jane, leslie told her brother, peter, and Peter actually decided to tell Michael, although he hadn't been in touch with Michael, the children's father, for a long time. But he thought actually, this is, you know, something he needed to know. Now. Michael actually managed to track Sarah Jane down and called her at the McDonald's in Falmouth where she worked. He tried to talk to her and tell her what a danger Ford was and, you know, if he could help her, but she dismissed him. That was the last time Michael was to talk to any of his children. In a classic perpetrator way, ford convinced Leslie that everything was okay and Michael did not need to be involved in this. He was clearly feeling controlling and jealous here and also worried that his abuse of Sarah Jane was about to be exposed.
Speaker 1:Now, in August 2000,. Finally, of the abuse, control and violence and the abuse of Sarah Jane, leslie contacted a solicitor to start the process of getting a restraining order against Ford and the process of leaving him for good. Now, after hearing about what Ford was doing to Sarah Jane. This solicitor actually reached out to social services to report Ford and to report the abuse. Good on them. It's good to see a bit of proactivity here, seeing a child in danger and, you know, an abusive person in a house with a wife and six children, so you know props to the solicitor.
Speaker 1:But social services said, because Sarah Jane was 17 years old, there was nothing they could do. I mean sorry what I really feel like there could have been something they could have done here. Surely this was a sign of abuse and there were five other children in the home. Did they not want to check on them? I'm super disappointed in the response from social services here. Here we have a family in crisis being subjected to violence, abuse and control from a father, stepfather, husband and a wife who was trying to leave and save her children, old Sarah Jane, who't turn up to her job at McDonald's. Her brothers and sisters also weren't at school, which raised some questions too.
Speaker 1:However, the alarm wasn't raised until a month later, at the end of September, when Leslie and her four children were reported missing. Now, I couldn't find out who exactly reported them missing, but thank God someone did. Why didn't the school raise the alarm earlier? Why didn't someone check on the kids, who had completely disappeared by the 4th of October? So this is, you know, over a month, nearly five weeks after they had all last been seen, the police launched a missing persons inquiry, or MISPA as police colloquially say. They held a press conference highlighting that Leslie and her four children were missing and calling out for anyone who'd seen them. Recently.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously, at this point police had spoken to Lee about where his wife and children were. He said that they'd had an argument. She'd left him and taken his four stepchildren with her. He said he didn't report them missing because he thought they were fine and just had all left. He was playing the role of spurned husband, a role he was born for. I have no doubt. When police spoke to her family about whether they had seen her, they raised questions about her leaving with just her four eldest children. Her brother, peter, said she definitely would have taken her two youngest children, whom she had with Ford as well. She wouldn't have left them with him. So this raised suspicions for police and they said that they were squarely looking at Ford of being involved in the disappearance of Leslie, sarah Ann, anne-marie, stephen and Craig.
Speaker 1:Now, at this point on this day, ford was getting paranoid about something. So he actually took his two children, um, up to the family, in, up to his family in Telford, and on his way back he was arrested by police. Now, according to the British Murders podcast, he was actually arrested for benefit fraud, but that was probably so. The police had a reason to bring him in and question him about Leslie and the kids. So once he was in police custody, the police could start searching the house where the Fords lived and in that search, sadly, they found three bodies buried under the woodshed. They had been there for some time.
Speaker 1:The missing person's inquiry had turned into a murder investigation. Back at the police station, ford relented and told them where they would find the other two bodies In a nearby field, in a shallow grave. Police went out to the field and found two bodies in this grave. So there were five dead bodies altogether two bodies in this grave. So there were five dead bodies all together. Although it's difficult to initially identify the bodies due to decomposition, it turned out that Leslie, craig and Stephen were buried under the woodshed and that Sarah Jane and Anne-Marie were in the field, and it's thought that originally all five bodies were under the woodshed, but that Ford got paranoid and in was in the process of moving all the bodies when he was arrested.
Speaker 1:The post-mortems carried out on Leslie, sarah Jane, anne-marie, craig and Stephen found that they had all been murdered and garrotted by a rope, so sort of strangled around the neck. Now what happened over a couple of days in late August 2000 will never have been completely known. This is what Ford said happens, so please take it with a pinch of salt. He said that Leslie made threats to him in late August. And rather than made threats, I assume Leslie had said she was leaving him and taking the kids. And he said during an argument Leslie had struck him with a rounder's bat. Everyone that grew up in the British school system will know what a rounder's bat is, but basically it's a smaller version of a baseball bat.
Speaker 1:And while cooling off in the garage, lee decided to kill her. He got some rope and killed her from behind in their bedroom. He then decided to kill all four of his stepchildren no-transcript. He called the four children into the kitchen separately and then killed them in the same way, with none of the children knowing what had happened to their sibling before them. So Ford said quote the next thing I remember she's lying on the floor dead.
Speaker 1:Leslie was killed in the bedroom, the four in the kitchen. They were strangled from behind. I do not even understand why I did what I did. I snapped. Now, as you know, I'm always one to believe what a family annihilator has said, not really, um, I just, I actually I just can't with this guy. I just snapped, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:I truly believe that Leslie was probably talking about leaving Ford and taking the children, and so he systematically planned to kill her and his stepchildren. Note here that he didn't kill his biological children, thank God. But it comes back to the jealousy and rage we talked about earlier of Leslie spending time, her time and attention on her children rather than him. To not only kill Leslie without her suspecting, but to kill four children and we're talking about teenagers here as well. They weren't toddlers. So to kill four children without anyone suspecting, that takes planning.
Speaker 1:And notice how, in his quote there, he totally missed out the bit where he buried five teenagers and adults behind the cottage underneath the woodshed. So he's saying he didn't even know why he did what he did and he just snapped. But instead of coming out of that and calling the police and admitting what he'd done. He actually spent loads of time and effort completely lucidly, I assume burying Leslie in the kids and trying to hide what he had done. Convenient how he forgot that.
Speaker 1:So not only did Ford set out to bury his wife and children and four stepchildren who he just brutally murdered, he also set about trying to hide it for as long as possible. So remember, his story was that Leslie had they've had an argument and that she just up and left with four of the children, but not her other two youngest children. He cancelled a job interview he had and said all the family had food poisoning and he had to look after them. Oh now, where have we heard this before? Oh yeah, chris Benoit, after he spent a weekend killing his wife and child, thought oh yeah, chris Benoit, after he spent a weekend killing his wife and child. We talked about him in episodes 27 and 28. He then tried to hide it by saying they both everyone had food poisoning. Oh my gosh. Um, there's just no imagination here. Ford then told the same story when he dropped his two youngest children off at some relatives his children, I mean. They must have wondered what the F was going on and where their mum and brother and sisters were. I just can't imagine the trauma they went through and I really hope that they got the support they need and are still getting the support they need right now. So Ford also called the school and told them that Leslie had left and taken the kids and that they would not be back at school. So once again here, I just feel so frustrated that no one from the school checked on anyone or like double checked that that story was right.
Speaker 1:There are also a couple of things that Fordd did in this time that just shows what an absolute, cold, abusive and calculated piece of shit he really was. He actually contacted an ex-girlfriend and tried to restart their relationship. He said his wife had left him and he was like really sad, boo hoo, I'm not sure how far this got, but still this guy. And lastly, oh, ford went to the McDonald's where Sarah Jane worked, the 17 yearold girl he was sexually abusing and had just murdered to collect her last paycheck. I mean really, oh, what a sick, horrible, cruel man. The shocking murder and cover-up of a mum and her four children really did shock the local community and brought heartbreak to family and friends, especially Michael, who hadn't seen his children in five years and had to hear the devastating news that they'd been murdered by their stepfather. I just I can't imagine and feel such pain for him and the rest of the family.
Speaker 1:In May 2001, lee Ford faced trial for the murders of Leslie, sarah Jane, anne-marie, craig and Stephen at Bristol Crown Court. At the last minute before the trial, he pleaded guilty, which saved Leslie's family the pain of a trial and his one small mercy. And during the sentencing the prosecutor said the murders were absolutely premeditated. They were not a crime of passion. He didn't just snap. They were systematically planned and carried out. The sheer mechanics involved in the killings suggested a massively planned homicide.
Speaker 1:Now ford was sentenced to five life sentences and told that he would serve a minimum of 35 years in prison before being considered for parole. Now the 35 year sentence was appealed and reduced to 27 years. Now I couldn't find how this happened or lots of information about this appeal or how that was reduced, and although he received five life sentences, the 27 years just doesn't seem like long enough to me. It's only just over five years for each murder and it means that Ford would be eligible for parole in 2027, when he's 60 years old. Imagine if he got let out then he would still have quite a lot of life to live, presumably. Yet he murdered five people, including four children. It just seems unbelievable to me. And in England and Wales a life sentence is different from a whole life sentence, so people serving a life sentence on average spend about 16 or 17 years in prison, but a whole life sentence means for the rest of their life. So I don't I still sort of don't really understand why he wasn't giving a whole life sentence. Maybe it didn't exist then. This was 24 years ago. So if anyone's listening and they work in prison or probation, you know, let me know, because I'd be really interested to understand how things like the sentencing works.
Speaker 1:And there have been a few things that have really frustrated me about this case. The first is the missed opportunities for intervention, like when the solicitor reported the sexual abuse of Sarah Jane to social services and they didn't intervene. I genuinely think even a questioning of the family and consideration of the other children who might be at risk in the house as well would have been worth their time. A definite missed opportunity here. And the second thing is that lack of curiosity when Leslie and her four children went missing, in inverted commas.
Speaker 1:Everyone seemed to accept Ford's story and no one sort of looked for them or raised the alarm for a month. I really feel like the school could have been more involved here If they were then and I just haven't read about it. You know, that might be the case and to me it would seem really strange for a mother to take four children, but not her youngest two, and leave them with her abusive husband. It just wouldn't add up, and I've already spoken about how Ford's sexual abuse of Sarah Jane was discussed in the media in particular, like they were in a relationship and having an affair, and that really frustrated me. People can't start can't people sort of start to understand that he held the power in that relationship and maybe it was grooming and abuse. My final frustration was everyone asking what the motive was, because ford has never told anyone why he did it. People are asking and personally I think it's really clear why he did what he did because of power and control. He hated the idea of Leslie leaving him and taking the children. He was already angry and resentful of his stepchildren for taking all of Leslie's attention and he was probably increasingly paranoid that his abuse of Sarah Jane was about to be exposed. If you think about this through the lens of abuse of control, it is clear why Ford did what he did. He's not an evil genius. He's a selfish, narcissistic idiot who just wanted everything his own way.
Speaker 1:Now, before we end this episode, a couple of years ago there was concern from Leslie's family and friends that Ford could soon be eligible for parole Because he's serving a life sentence and not a whole life sentence. Then he will be eligible for parole in 2027. But his friends and family started a petition to try and make sure that he stays behind bars when that time comes. I've linked to the petition in the episode notes if you want to take a look and sign it. And, in clarification, cornwall Live actually contacted the parole board and they confirmed that Lee Ford would not be eligible for parole and must serve in full a minimum of 27 years. So he wouldn't be eligible for parole until October 2027. At that point he will then be referred to the parole board by the Secretary of State for Justice. The board will review his case and decide if he is safe to be released. So, although he's not due to be released soon, thank God, he will be eligible for parole in 2027 and personally I really hope he stays in prison for the rest of his life for the taking of five lives.
Speaker 1:And when asked about the possibility of release Michael Tranter so the four children's father told the Falmouth Packet quote it's been 27 years of torture and it has truly changed me as a person. I feel as if I'm the one with a life sentence After the 20th anniversary of the murders. I've been getting more and more anxious, knowing he could be out in a few years. For what he has done, he deserves to suffer in prison for the rest of his life. I just want someone to tell me the man who killed my children and their mother will never be free again.
Speaker 1:This episode is dedicated to Leslie Ford, sarah Jane, anne-marie Craig and Stephen Tranter For their lives taken way too soon and for the memories that they created with their friends and family. This episode is for all of you. This has been Killer in the Family podcast, written and produced by me, claire Laxton, with music from the brilliant Tom Box and Pixabay. I'll be back in a few weeks, on Friday, the 30th of August, with a new episode, so please subscribe. Wherever you get your podcasts, don't forget to send me any comments or questions to my insta at killer in the family pod, or through a text via the link in the episode notes. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well. Until then, I've been Claire Laxton. This is Killer in the Family podcast. Until next time, take care, thank you, thank you.
