Crime Next Door

What do you do when someone you trust turns out to not exist?  When ‘Chloe’ starts messaging other teenage girls on social media she is friendly. Fun. Interested. Soon she sends explicit photos, and asks her new friends to send some back. That’s when she changes and the blackmail begins. Because ‘Chloe’ isn’t a real girl. She’s a catfish. And her depraved demands have fatal consequences. 

What do you do when someone you trust turns out to not exist?  When ‘Chloe’ starts messaging other teenage girls on social media she is friendly. Fun. Interested. Soon she sends explicit photos, and asks her new friends to send some back. That’s when she changes and the blackmail begins. Because ‘Chloe’ isn’t a real girl. She’s a catfish. And her depraved demands have fatal consequences.This episode features real online messages, read aloud by an AI voice. Find out more about how the BBC uses AI https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/policies/approach-to-ai/

What do you do when someone you trust turns out to not exist?  When ‘Chloe’ starts messaging other teenage girls on social media she is friendly. Fun. Interested. Soon she sends explicit photos, and asks her new friends to send some back. That’s when she changes and the blackmail begins. Because ‘Chloe’ isn’t a real girl. She’s a catfish. And her depraved demands have fatal consequences.  This episode features real online messages, read aloud by an AI voice. Find out more about how the BBC uses AI https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/policies/approach-to-ai/

Journalist Mark McGivern endures a chilling face-to-face encounter with Mags as the Haneys are backed into a corner. With the public’s attention firmly fixed on the crime family, the police are forced to act.Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, Myles Bonnar and Graham Russell Additional Scripting: Jack Kibble-White Producer: Chris Cruickshank Assistant Producer: Marisha Currie Executive Producers: Graham Russell, Susie Crumless Sound Design and Mixing: Fraser Jackson Commissioning Editor: Heather Kane-DarlingA BBC Scotland production for BBC Sounds

The Daily Record launch a high profile campaign. After receiving numerous tip offs, undercover journalists find evidence that may bring matriarch Mags and her empire down. Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, Myles Bonnar and Graham Russell Additional Scripting: Jack Kibble-White Producer: Chris Cruickshank Assistant Producer: Marisha Currie Executive Producers: Graham Russell, Susie Crumless Sound Design and Mixing: Fraser Jackson Commissioning Editor: Heather Kane-DarlingA BBC Scotland production for BBC Sounds

Hounded out, the Haneys struggle to find a new home. In a new town, they can’t escape their past as they face violence and anger on the streets once again. Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, Myles Bonnar and Graham Russell Additional Scripting: Jack Kibble-White Producer: Chris Cruickshank Assistant Producer: Marisha Currie Executive Producers: Graham Russell, Susie Crumless Sound Design and Mixing: Fraser Jackson Commissioning Editor: Heather Kane-DarlingA BBC Scotland production for BBC Sounds

As her public profile rises, Mags falls foul of ‘tall poppy syndrome’. It becomes clear the Haneys have numerous skeletons in their closet and, not for the first time, the community rises up. Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, Myles Bonnar and Graham Russell Additional Scripting: Jack Kibble-White Producer: Chris Cruickshank Assistant Producer: Marisha Currie Executive Producers: Graham Russell, Susie Crumless Sound Design and Mixing: Fraser Jackson Commissioning Editor: Heather Kane-DarlingA BBC Scotland production for BBC Sounds

Mags positions herself as an ‘anti-paedophile campaigner’ and appears on national TV. Back home on the Raploch estate, anger begins to boil as she hogs the headlines. Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, Myles Bonnar and Graham Russell Additional Scripting: Jack Kibble-White Producer: Chris Cruickshank Assistant Producer: Marisha Currie Executive Producers: Graham Russell, Susie Crumless Sound Design and Mixing: Fraser Jackson Commissioning Editor: Heather Kane-DarlingA BBC Scotland production for BBC Sounds

In the midst of a ‘paedophile panic’, residents of a Stirling housing scheme take matters into their own hands and one woman grabs the nation’s attention. Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, Myles Bonnar and Graham Russell Additional Scripting: Jack Kibble-White Producer: Chris Cruickshank Assistant Producer: Marisha Currie Executive Producers: Graham Russell, Susie Crumless Sound Design and Mixing: Fraser Jackson Commissioning Editor: Heather Kane-DarlingA BBC Scotland production for BBC Sounds

It’s the mid 1990s. On the Raploch estate in Stirling, a local community is living in fear. This is a place with many young families, and word is spreading that a convicted paedophile is living among them, placed there anonymously by the local council.Residents worry the streets are no longer safe for their kids, and outraged they weren’t told or consulted.It’s an outrage felt beyond the Raploch estate, and it doesn’t take long for a name and address to find its way into the public domain. Armed with this information, the Raploch rises – as a mob, led by Margaret Haney, known locally as Big Mags. An imposing matriarch, charismatic with a voice like gravel, she’s more than happy to take on the authorities and speak to the media. She becomes a figurehead and spokesperson for a movement devoted to driving the ex-offender out of the area.She succeeds, but for the Big Mags, that that’s just the start, and as her campaign continues, the media become obsessed with this diamond in the rough.She’s on TV. In the papers. Becomes something of a celebrity.Big Mags is always good for a soundbite, and she in turn, seems to enjoy the attention. She doesn’t know it now, but she’s made a huge mistake.As Big Mags has secrets of her own. It’s not that long ago that one of the most serious problems faced by the Raploch Estate were the Haney family themselves.And as Big Mags enjoys the glare of media attention, she will all too soon regret grabbing the limelight. Her 15 minutes of fame will soon become little more than a chapter within in a legacy of infamy. This is the Ballad of Big Mags.Presenter: Myles Bonnar Written by: Chris Cruickshank, Marisha Currie, Myles Bonnar and Graham Russell Additional Scripting: Jack Kibble-White Producer: Chris Cruickshank Assistant Producer: Marisha Currie Executive Producers: Graham Russell, Susie Crumless Sound Design and Mixing: Fraser Jackson Commissioning Editor: Heather Kane-DarlingA BBC Scotland production for BBC Sounds