Five time nominated BEST BRITISH TRUE-CRIME PODCAST at the True Crime Awards, Independent Podcast Award and The British Podcast Awards, and voted 4th Best True-Crime Podcast by This Week, iTunes Top 25 Podcast, Podcast Magazine's Hot 50, The Telegraph's Top 5, Crime & Investigation Top 20 True-Crime Podcasts, also seen on BBC Radio, Sky News, The Guardian and TalkRadio's Podcast of the Week.
Salisbury Street, Acton, W3 @Googlemaps2025 Aug2024
EPISODE THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY: Sunday 22nd March 2020, one day before the first Covid lockdown, 29-year-old mother-of-one Rhian Beresford left her flat terrified that her two-year-old daughter was being abused by a paedophile ring. On Salisbury Street, certain that she had found one of the gang, she ran him over in her car and stabbed another. But what let to this tragic incident, and how did it all go so badly wrong?
THE LOCATION:
I've stopped adding the pin to the map, as MapHub are now demanding £8 a month, and I'll be damned if I'm forking out hard earned cash for something probably one person looks at a month. SOURCES: a selection sourced from various archives:
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: What drove an ordinary woman to brutally kill a suspected ‘paedophile’? Find out on Murder Mile. Today, I’m standing on Salisbury Street in Acton, W3; four streets east of the home of the predatory paedophile known as ‘The Beast’, two streets west of the tragic killing of Dylan Freeman by his mum, and a short walk north of the last hiccup by the hungry satanist - coming soon to Murder Mile. Just off Acton’s High Street - where pound shops spawn like bacteria in a petri-dish, vape shops are as common as a cold and the swimming baths probably host a competition for the best verruca - at the back of the Acton Centre sits Salisbury Street, a one-way thoroughfare comprising of a few flats, a bus stop, some sapling trees, two wide paths, and on the corner of Acton Lane, eight tubular bike racks. It looks innocent enough, like the kind of place a drunk may be cautioned for widdling, or an argument may erupt when an officious traffic warden slaps a fine on a car for overstaying by six seconds, yet this was the scene of a truly horrific killing, which was almost forgotten owing to the first Covid lockdown. It was a case fuelled by the fears of a nation as every mother held their babies tight, feeling let down by the law, as sex-pests and grooming gangs stalked every street. As every parent’s nightmare, out of abject fear for the safety of her two-year-old child, a local woman took matters into her own hands, and now, she may never be released. But what drove this ordinary and law-abiding woman to kill? My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 320: The ‘Paedo’ Killer. On the 14th of May 2019, the UK’s National Crime Agency reported that “the number of Britons with a sexual interest in children may be seven times higher than previously thought”, after investigators found 144,000 accounts linked to paedophilia on the dark web connected to British citizens. Some sites which require those accessing it ‘to prove they have raped a child before being allowed to enter’”. The internet is a dangerous place, an unregulated haven of horror where evil ideas are formed, But these sick and twisted predators don’t just exist online, they are real, they are here, and many are anonymous. They could be anyone; a friend, a neighbour, a loved one, a trusted ally or a total stranger. Sunday the 22nd of March 2020 was a Mother’s Day like no other. Having spawned from China owing to a rancid market or a laboratory leak, Covid had swept the globe, and with Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France and Spain already locked down and with new countries falling every day, Britain was in the grip of panic buying, as the silence of isolation loomed every closer. That day, a speech was broadcast by British Prime Minister ‘Boris’ Johnson: “I want to thank everyone who's being forced to do something different today… who didn’t visit their mum for Mother’s Day but Facetimed, Skyped or rang them instead. Thank you for your restraint… thank you for your sacrifice”. After weeks of standing two metres apart, making makeshift masks out of cloth and hunting for hand sanitiser at inflated prices, the greatest struggle was staying in our support bubbles and self-isolating when sick, but what many of us forgot about were those for whom their home was not a safe place. 29-year-old Rhian Amie Beresford was a separated single-mother who lived alone in a tiny council flat at Hope Gardens in Acton; struggling to juggle her university studies in social care with being a full-time mother to her two-year daughter, as her relationship with her mum and sisters was fractured. She had isolated for weeks as her daughter had Covid-like symptoms, but even behind locked doors, she didn’t feel safe, as with the Police at breaking point and an investigation by Ealing Social Services into suspected sexual abuse by her daughter’s father having collapsed, she had no-one to turn to. And as a recent report proved, even though there are adults our children are supposed to trust, can they? (TV News) “…39-year-old Ben Breakwell was charged with 36 sexual offences against girls aged 13 to 16 while working as a music teacher at the West London Free School in Hammersmith. An investigation led by specialist officers also resulted in four offences of taking or making indecent images of children”. This horrific abuse had been going on for 7 years, yet it wasn’t an isolated case, it was one of many. Rightly terrified of being trapped in this 13-storey block of flats surrounded by strangers day and night for weeks or months to come, as the first lockdown loomed, petrified that her child was being abused by a paedophile ring, wearing just her nightdress, Rhian pulled her naked baby from her cot, and fled. Firing up her black Vauxhall Corsa, she had no idea where she was going, she just knew she had to get her somewhere safe, as if she stood still, they would both be a target, but moving, they stood a chance. At 12:40pm, she pulled out of Hope Gardens and onto The Avenue, a quiet residential street where men with puppies congregated too close to schools, and as the car sped, her child cried, only Rhian couldn’t stop as with the streets thronging with panic-buying shoppers, anyone of them could be ‘him’. She knew their faces and knew they may be near, but it wasn’t until she turned up Winchester Street, passing the western edge of Salisbury Street, that she realised how much danger they were in. We can never know if it was there, at that moment, that every fibre of her body and every synapse in her brain told her it was ‘him’, as walking east was a short overweight man in his mid-50s with short fair hair. It was just a passing glance, and being uncertain, it’s the only reason to explain why she double-backed on herself. At the High street, she turned right. At the swimming baths, she turned right again. And as she drove down this one-way street onto Acton Lane, at the corner of Salisbury Street, she saw ‘him’. As clear as day, unobstructed, and with the sun shining brightly, standing directly in front of her car as he looked right to cross the road was ‘him’ - one of the gang; a sex pest, a predator, a paedophile, just a hundred feet away. She hadn’t a violent bone in her body, she was alone and was too small to fight, but as a frantic mother with a parent’s instincts to protect her child, she knew it was either him or her. With a kitchen knife stashed under the driver’s seat, it wasn’t within reach, so with no time to think, but just enough time to react, she attacked with the only weapon she had to hand – her 1-tonne car. (sounds of an accelerator, speeding, a crash). That was just the beginning, as furiously, even though he lay buckled under her wheels, she made sure that he was dead. And as second ‘predator’ ran to his aid, grabbing the knife, even as the Police sped in, she stabbed the other ‘sex-pest’ several times, screaming aloud “I stabbed him, he’s a paedophile”. She risked everything; her life, her home and her future. She killed one man, she nearly killed a second, and she left her daughter without a mother as she may never be released – all to protect her child… …but what horrors happened which drove this ordinary, passive and unassuming woman to kill? (TV News) “…prolific paedophile Richard Huckle was given 22 life sentences after admitting 71 charges from 2006 to 2014 of the sexual abuse of children aged as young as six months old. Investigators found more than 20,000 indecent images and videos of his assaults, as well as a 60-page paedophile manual described as a "truly evil document". Speaking of one of his victims who was vulnerable and poor, he had bragged "I've hit the jackpot, a 3 year old girl as loyal to me as my dog and nobody cares". Rhian Beresford was born on the 17th of July 1991 as one of at least four children to a Ghanaian family who in her lifetime had always lived in London. Whenever asked, she said her childhood was happy, but her lack of trust in men began at an early age, with a psychological report stating “childhood sexual abuse within the family and an incident where she was sexually assaulted by a man outside the family”. It was an unbearable pain she’d kept bottled up for years, only pacifying it with cannabis and alcohol. In May 2008, aged just 16, having struggled at school, she was first referred to Ealing Social Services as it was said “her mother was planning to take her to a boarding school in Ghana and leave her there”. She was young, vulnerable, alone and felt like she was fighting against the world that was against her. Clearly smart and talented, she studied drama at university, but plagued with anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts owing to unresolved trauma, she took a year out to try and rescue her mental health before completing her degree. What she needed was stability; a job, a home, and maybe a family? On the 7th of May 2013, Rhian was rushed to A & E at Ealing Hospital. Having become over-reliant on alcohol and weed to calm her brain, she was intoxicated, aggressive and suicidal. Assessed as “low risk of self-harm, or harm to others”, she wasn’t diagnosed as traumatised or in need of counselling, but with “no evidence of mental illness, the primary trigger was substance misuse” – a deadly mistake. In 2016, following her father’s death, the next three-and-a-half-years in which Rhian should have been under the care of West London Trust was later described by a tribunal as “suffering drift”, as not only did Rhian ignore calls, letters and appointments sent by doctors and psychiatrists to assess her mental state (sometimes for logical reasons like moving house), but follow-ups weren’t chased, her diagnosis was changed and she was batted between departments. No wonder she had no faith in her care givers. On the 24th of September 2016, Police were called to her flat, being suicidal as a friend had taken her life. Again, assessed as ‘low risk’, it was written up as ‘substance abuse’ rather than a ‘childhood trauma’, she was given anti-depressants, a crisis plan was signed off, but again, it all began to ‘drift’. By 2016, aged 25, she had learned to rely on only one person – herself… …but her life was about to change. On the 29th of March 2018, Rhian gave birth to a daughter who was happy and healthy. Being solely responsible for such a tiny fragile life rewired Rhian’s mindset and gave her drive and focus. She sorted out her unstable housing situation with the council, she received counselling through her church, she took St John’s Wort for her mood swings, and having quit the drink and the drugs, she was doing well. Assessed by her GP, although her baby’s father wasn’t part of her life, medical notes state she had ‘no thoughts of self-harm… the baby looks happy and well cared for’. But one side effect was a diagnosis of “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Mixed Personality Disorder due to substances in remission”. Again, a crisis plan was signed off, but again, it all began to ‘drift’ as her new diagnosis led to confusion. As a young single mum from a fractured family stuck in a bureaucratic loop between several mental health facilities, although her baby’s father hadn’t been part of her life since her pregnancy, he finally ‘stepped up’ to take custody of her daughter, giving Rhian a chance to sort out her life and her mind. Two years later, she brutally murdered a man with her car to protect her child. But why? (TV report) “…Damen Scott, a prolific paedophile was jailed for 21 years and put on the Sex Offender’s Register for life for 17 counts of encouraging others to commit sexual assault and rape on children and even a baby. West Midlands Police stated ‘Scott's repulsive library included 1000s of images of pain and suffering inflicted on children… fuelling the demand for even more victims to be abused’”. By the summer of 2019, Rhian’s medical notes state “she is no longer using cannabis or alcohol, there were no thoughts of suicide, her family are supportive”, but with repeated inconsistencies in her care owing to a confusing diagnosis, the crisis plan began to drift, and they were “running out of options”. When asked, Rhian said she was doing well; she was studying full-time for a degree in social work, she was taking Sertraline, a mild anti-depressant solely as ‘a preventative’, she had received counselling at university for extra support, and she no longer had suicidal thoughts. On the 8th of November 2019, a routine referral was made to the Ealing Crisis and Treatment Team, but this got lost in the system. Again, her care had begun to ‘drift’, but by then, Rhian was distracted by a much greater issue. In September 2019, Rhian took her 18-month old daughter to St Mary’s hospital in Paddington, seeking an examination “as she believed she had been sexually abused by her daughter’s biological father”. Across three months, an investigation was conducted by the Police, doctors and Ealing Social Services, with a family assessment undertaken as this was a very serious accusation, but by December “it was concluded that the threshold was not met for a full Child Protection Investigation”. A psychiatrist stated “there was consideration of whether she had transferred her own childhood sexual abuse onto her daughter’s father; that is she might ‘feel worried about her daughter in her father’s care, even if she is completely safe’”. Rhian’s mental deterioration was questioned, as well as her capacity to care for her child, but with this not followed-up, “her social care ended on the 23rd of December 2019”. In short, “some tentative non-specific suggestions in the Local Authority record that her mental health difficulties may have influenced her concerns relating to the allegations of abuse of her daughter”. By Christmas, Rhian’s mental health was at breaking point; with no faith in the care system, no trust in men and an unresolved psychological trauma whose treatment was masked by drugs and alcohol… …she needed help, but as 2020 turned, the world was bracing itself for disaster. (TV report) “…Kenneth Gordon, 68 from Jersey was jailed for 16 years and placed on the sex offenders register for life for indecently assaulting and having unlawful sexual intercourse with his young victims over a decade. He showed no emotion as they read their impact statements in court, with one stating ‘you made me feel worthless, I still suffer with depression and anxiety, I wake up screaming’. It’s likely he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison, and it’s hoped that his victims can begin to rebuild their lives”. The first reports of Covid began on the 12th of December 2019, as a “cluster of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan experienced symptoms described as ‘atypical pneumonia’”. On the 31st of December, the World Health Organisation was informed. By the 11th of January, China confirmed its first death, and two days later, with the first international case identified in Thailand, the pandemic had begun. It’s easy to forget how terrifying it was, as everything we knew was slowly stripped away; our rights, our jobs, our income and our social lives, with access to friends and family restricted, and all flights, ships and cars stopped leaving the world eerily silent, and there was nothing we could do about it. Filled with a fear of the unknown, as the death toll rose and symptoms were said to be ‘flu like’, no-one knew if they had a common cold or the Grim Reaper was circling. On the 11th of March 2020, just 11 days before Rhian committed that murder, Covid was declared a pandemic, and as the world went into shutdown, there was no cure, with essentials like masks and sanitiser nowhere to be found. Everywhere was in chaos; shops were shutting, hospitals were overwhelmed and emergency services were at breaking point. Fearing that society would descend into riots and looting, not only did we all worry “what will I eat?”, “how will I earn?”, “what if I get sick?”, “what if my lights fails?”, “what if I need help?”, even the sanest citizen became more paranoid as everything we knew was taken away… …but it was greater for those in a mental decline. By Saturday the 21st of March 2020, two days before Britain went into lockdown and one day before the murder, Rhian had been isolating for several weeks as her daughter had “Covid like symptoms”. Living alone, with no-one to talk to, in a dirty badly-maintained 13-storey block of council flats, day and night for what may become weeks or even months to come, although it housed vulnerable single mums like herself, many were strangers, and too many were undesirables with criminal convictions. Trapped and alone, she tried to quieten her paranoid mind through cannabis and alcohol, but again, it muddied her thoughts, frayed her nerves and made her mistrust any men or authority figures after the collapse of the investigation into the suspected sexual assaults at the hands of her baby’s father. Rhian was convinced it was true, but there was no evidence. She believed her baby was being abused by a paedophile ring, but the only proof of this she had were the voices in her head. Like the childhood trauma which had plagued her, she’d kept that a secret from her doctors and psychiatrists, and being mis-diagnosed, she didn’t have ‘OCD’ or a ‘personality disorder due to substance withdrawal’, as upon her arrest, she was assessed as a paranoid schizophrenic - a brain disorder managed by medication. It was impossible for her to bury that thought once it had planted a seed in her mind, and the further she descended into the isolation of her tiny flat, the more she became convinced that it was all real. (TV report) “…at least 546 boys from six schools in Afghanistan were abused in a mass paedophile ring ran by its head teacher. One boy recorded his headteacher’s demands for sex sometimes in return for passing grades. Another told of a private room built in the school’s library where boys were molested, with students from poor families singled out because they were vulnerable. The headteacher currently holds a senior position in the Ministry of Education, and denies any of the boy’s statements as true”. Becoming fixated, Rhian believed that paedophilia was everywhere, as the vile deeds of sex-pests filled every news channel; whether new cases like Ben Breakwell, Richard Huckle, Damen Scott and Kenneth Gordon; old cases like Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter, the Moors Murderers, Elm Guest house, Operation Yewtree and the Rochdale paedophile ring; to TV shows like ‘My Dad the Paedophile’ and ‘The Prince & the Paedophile’, and as if to prove that – for those in power - money can always buy silence, even an American President had openly bragged about getting away with sexually assaulting women. The algorithm had her in its grip, as the second she typed ‘paedophile’ into her device, that’s what it fed her, day and night, and as a paranoid unmedicated single-mother, that was all she would ever see. That night she hadn’t slept, as she was terrified that when lockdown happened, the paedophiles would come and steal her daughter, and as that nightmare plagued her, even cannabis couldn’t calm her. Sunday the 22nd of March 2020 was the last day before lockdown, as panic-buying flooded the streets. Exhausted and emotional, crippled by fear, even though she was only partially dressed, Rhian grabbed her two-year-old daughter and haphazardly strapped her into the backseat, wailing and naked, as her deranged mum sped in her Vauxhall Corsa, fleeing from the monsters who only existed in her mind. At 12:40pm, she pulled out of Hope Gardens, onto The Avenue and raced towards Acton High Street, her child crying as she was bounced from side-to-side as the car took a right, then another right. Rhian believed if she stood still, they would both be a target, yet it was as she passed the corner of Salisbury Street that in just a passing glance, she saw ‘him’; a short overweight mid-50s man with short fair hair. Rhian later confessed “I believed I was in danger… the voices said it was him". Only she didn’t know him, she had never met him, they were strangers and he wasn’t a sex-pest or paedophile - far from it. 54-year-old Stefan Melnyk was a good man, who was quiet and decent. As a Londoner born and bred, he was a former bus-driver “who knew London like the back of his hand", and as a trade union rep’ had “spent his life helping others”. But when his father got sick and his 94-year-old aunt suffered a stroke, he sacrificed everything to become their carer. He was the epitome of kind and caring, and that day, he was heading home having picked up some essentials for his loved one’s before lockdown. Rhian believed she was saving her child from a monster, when in truth, he was as innocent as her. And when she saw him, she chose to attack him with the only weapon she had to hand – her 1-tonne car. A team of engineers for Thames Water working nearby witnessed the scene. George Pantazi said “I heard a loud bang and the sound of screaming”, as the black Corsa mounted the wide pavement, and hitting Stefan at speed, his body rolled underneath its wheels. George recalled “I turned around and saw a man under a car screaming. We shouted at the driver 'Stop! Stop! There's someone under the car'”, banging the bonnet to get her attention, “but she didn’t stop, she ignored us”, and revving the engine as plumes of smoke billowed from the exhaust, “she reversed over the man, laughing”. Rhian truly believed she had stopped a paedophile from abducting her baby, “but before accelerating, trying to rev the car… she looked at me smiling and laughing… as she started driving the car forwards and backwards over the man underneath”, as she crushed him under her wheels, again and again. When the car stalled, George tried to give chase as Rhian ran from the driver’s side, but having pulled the kitchen knife from under her seat, she didn’t see a good Samaritan helping a man in distress, but another ‘paedophile’. He ran for his life, but as he fell, with a smirk on her face, she stabbed him in his chest and arms several times - his life only saved owing to the thick work clothes which protected him. A passing Police unit arrived within seconds, and with Rhian still armed, violent, spitting and screaming “I stabbed him, he’s a paedophile”, they had to Taser her to subdue her as she wailed "it was my mum, she told me not to tell anybody, she is a paedophile". Rhian was charged with attempted murder… …but having suffered multiple organ failure, cardiac arrest and traumatic 'crush' asphyxia, when Stefan died the next day in hospital, 29-year-old Rhian Beresford was charged with his murder. (Out) Research by the London Violence Research Unit states that “mental health plays a much greater factor in the UK’s homicide rate than drugs or gangs, with most killings being potentially preventable”. Every week in the UK, another person is murdered by a stranger, a friend or a loved-one, not out of greed or revenge, but simply because they didn’t get the mental health care they were crying out for. Diagnosed with untreated' paranoid schizophrenia, she appeared at Ealing Magistrates Court on the first day of the lockdown, and was held on remand at a secure psychiatric unit. Tried at the Old Bailey, she was said to be deeply remorseful, and via video-link on the 21st of December 2020, she pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to George Pantazi – whose “considerable bravery” was praised in court - and guilty of the manslaughter of Stefan Melnyk by reason of diminished responsibility. Accepted by the Prosecution, on Friday the 19th of February 2021, Rhian Beresford was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order without limit of time. It was unreported who received custody of the child. Doctors stated that while on remand, she was “making good progress, taking her medication and was allowed visits from her daughter”, hence the Judge felt “she would be better served with doctors than being sent to a prison, and monitored by the parole board on her release”, which is where she remains. So, what drove this ordinary woman to brutally kill a stranger she had mistakenly believed was a ‘paedophile’? Paranoia, the media, a pandemic, and a chronically underfunded mental health system, where too many patients are diagnosed according to a textbook default, rather than as individuals. The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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