Preview clip: Crime scene of Danny’s assault:
“It's going to kick off,” predicts Smithy. “It always does when the weather's nice.” Sun Hill's new Inspector is right as usual, but he fails to forecast a brutal fight that leaves a teenager in hospital – and their chief suspect dead.
It's 9pm when officers are asked to attend the scene of two men reportedly engaged in a violent fight. And by the time Stone and Gayle arrive, teenager Danny Sissoulu is laid out on the floor with blood pouring from a wound to his scalp. According to Danny's friend Mo, who is either too shocked or too scared to offer a full description, the perpetrator was “this white guy” who “came out of nowhere”. And this lack of crucial detail leaves Sergeant Stone in serious doubt.
“The description is so bloody vague I wouldn't even put money on him being white”, he mutters to Banksy. And sure enough, as soon as mixed-race teenager Ollie Readshaw sees the coppers and flees, Stone gives chase – as does a throng of nearby youths – until, courtesy of a darkened dual carriageway and a speeding truck, Ollie runs no more.
Preview clip: It matters if you’re black or white…
Even though officers high in the Met state that the force is no longer institutionally racist, it appears that prevailing bad attitudes at Sun Hill could have indirectly resulted in Ollie's death. “Danny's brother and his friend both say that Danny was attacked by a white guy”, Banksy complains. “Ollie's black, guv, believe me”. However, as Stone believes that witnesses Mo and Kip could be too scared to tell the truth about what happened, Ollie remains their number one focus.
With their prime suspect no longer able to answer any questions, Manson attempts to eke evidence from the boy's grieving mother. Debbie Readshaw, a woman known to have pushed the law to its limits in the past, resolutely stands by her son's side – and is unwavering in her the belief that the only person with blood on his hands is the policeman who pursued her son under a set of tyres. “Someone runs, and you chase them”, she hisses. “If you chase someone, they run.” Left with one person insisting that they can provide Ollie with an alibi, and two more unwilling or unable to provide information that could lead to a conviction, Manson and Banksy are left struggling.
Preview clip: Drunken dad…
Later, Stone accosts a friend of Danny's who claims to have seen Ollie hovering outside a local off licence not long before the attack. CCTV footage from the premises suggests that he was hassling another customer, offie regular Craig Middleton, who wastes little time in identifying Ollie as the man that the cops would have liked to convict.
This, considered along with a previous sighting of Ollie from earlier that afternoon, proves that Debbie has been providing a false alibi all along. But does this really mean that Ollie was present at the scene of the crime? Can the white male barely identified but blamed by Mo and Kip really exist? Or are the two of them trying to throw the police off the scent, in a bid to stop Manson and Banksy investigating the parts they themselves played in this violent and tragic crime?
Don't miss 'Live By The Sword' on ITV1 at 9pm Thursday 23rd July and the concluding episode the next day on Friday 24th July 09