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FG Browne

Barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein reassess the case of a petty criminal who was sentenced to death for murdering a policeman in Essex in 1927.

Top criminal barristers Sasha Wass QC and Jeremy Dein QC re-examine a notorious murder of a policeman that led to the execution of two known criminals.

Essex, 1927. On a quiet country lane on a September morning, local policeman PC George William Gutteridge was found dead, having suffered multiple gunshot wounds. A police investigation was launched, which linked the murder to a stolen car found over 20 miles away in Brixton.

A bullet casing was found in the vehicle and pioneering forensic ballistics evidence connected the killing of PC Gutteridge to Clapham-based mechanic Frederick Guy Browne.

Browne’s birthname was Leo, and he was a man of two sides. To his family, he was a loving husband and caring father. Professionally, he was Frederick, a skilled mechanic and petty criminal.

Four months after the crime, Browne was arrested along with associate William Kennedy, and both men were charged with the murder of PC Gutteridge. Browne protested his innocence, but after a five-day trial was found guilty, and on 31 May 1928 at Pentonville Prison in London, he was hanged.

Today, over 90 years on, the great nieces of Frederick Guy Browne, Una and Barbara, are keen to explore the case against their great uncle. Sasha and Jeremy enlist the help of a psychologist, consider how a statement made by Kennedy to police could have prejudiced the jury, and re-examine the ballistics evidence that proved so damning.

Will they uncover any new material to convince Judge David Radford that Frederick Guy Browne was wrongly convicted?

17 days left to watch

43 minutes

Audio described

Last on

Tue 3 Jun 2025 16:00

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Sasha Wass
Presenter Jeremy Dein
Director James Pearson
Producer Gary Senior
Series Producer James Pearson
Executive Producer Mike Benson
Executive Producer Simon Cooper
Production Manager Johanna Scammell
Production Department Michael Klokkos
Production Company Chalkboard TV

Broadcasts

  • Wed 29 Jul 2020 10:00
  • Thu 30 Jul 2020 06:50
  • Fri 28 Aug 2020 02:30
  • Tue 4 Oct 2022 16:30
  • Tue 4 Oct 2022 16:50
  • Wed 21 Feb 2024 15:30
  • Tue 3 Jun 2025 15:00
  • Tue 3 Jun 2025 16:00