Andrea Troupe: The Girl in Warwick Gardens

This week, after a truly chaotic opening involving a pork pie-related road traffic incident, pocket hummus at the Palladium, Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Mondays, and the questionable social etiquette of bringing a meze board into a theatre, we turn to the heart breaking unsolved murder of 16-year-old Andrea Troupe.

In May 1983, Andrea was found dead in Warwick Gardens, Peckham. She had been stabbed more than 12 times and was later revealed to have been pregnant, something her family had not known. More than 40 years later, nobody has ever been charged with her murder.

Andrea’s case sits against the backdrop of 1980s South London, a time of deep mistrust between Black communities and the police, following the New Cross house fire and the Brixton uprising. It also becomes tangled in the disturbing story of convicted double murderer Michelle Smithyman, whose reported confessions raised even more questions than they answered.

This is a story about a young girl whose life was brutally taken, a family left without answers, and a case that still deserves attention.

Sources include: 

https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/brother-pleads-for-help-to-find-killer-of-sister-37-years-ago/

http://www.blackkalendar.nl/c/4016/John%20Michael%20Smithyman

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34712868

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/murderer-confesses-part-fire-killed-22027197

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/double-murderer-confessed-killing-girl-25561274

https://crimeimmemorial.com/2024/09/11/andrea-troupe/

http://www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=8371&termRef=Andrea+Troupe

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/13944316.michael-smithyman-who-murdered-the-mother-of-his-child-in-meopham-may-have-killed-13-others-according-to-bbc-report/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/panorama/transcripts/transcript_03_03_97.txt

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-13324293/Double-murderer-hold-key-solving-1981-New-Cross-fire-Killer-serving-life-told-cops-mystery-teen-started-house-blaze-killed-13-black-partygoers-Britains-notorious-unsolved-mass-murder.html

https://www.meopham-pc.gov.uk/content/meopham-chronology-0

http://www.tmg-uk.org/did-met-police-halt-new-cross-fire-investigation/

https://www.voice-online.co.uk/news/uk-news/2017/03/01/new-cross-fire-victims-cousin-demands-new-enquiry/

https://www.newsdons.com/2021/10/31/double-murderer-confesses-part-in-unsolved-new-cross-fire/

Transcript

Ep 02 - Andrea Troupe
Hello. Hi. I'm Rachel.
I'm Hannah and welcome to Sinister South, the podcast dedicated to the dark side of South
London, proof that behind every lovely Victorian terrace is at least one truly unhinged story. I like
that. It was either that or between the overpriced pints and the endless roadworks, somebody
always ends up dead.
I mean, I quite like that one as well. There you go. Two for the price of one.
We'll recycle that one. We can do that one the next time I do this. Oh, hello.
Hello. How are you? I'm good. I'm seemingly running on a series of embarrassing events.
So, this is good. There's only one of which I can really tell the podcast about. But I'm going to dive
straight in because I need to unburden myself.
Okay, I'm ready. It's not even that... You will find this as funny as Richard did. I now can laugh
about it.
At the time, I was like, Oh, dear Lord. Okay, so I was walking, I came out mine to start one of my
walks. And in two, it was completely my fault.
I had my headphones in with noise cancellation on. Right. I was still looking at my phone because
I couldn't decide what podcast to listen to.
I also was starting my watch to thingy, recording my walk. And I was holding a pork pie. A mini
pork pie that I was eating.
Okay. Anyway, one of my neighbours was backing out of their drive. And I got nudged by their
car.
I got run over, Rach, and I haven't told you about it. Oh my God, you haven't told me about it. I
was in a road traffic accident.
Oh my God, when did this happen? Like, Friday? You've kept this from me for the entire
weekend. Could have been Thursday or Friday. I can't remember which one it was.
Anyway, I like she slammed on her brakes. I was like, Oh my God. Yeah.
And she's got out. Oh my God. I didn't fall over.
And then she tapped me. And I was like, I was I am so sorry. And she was like, No, I'm so sorry.
I'm in a rush for the school run. I didn't even look. I wasn't looking.
I'm really sorry. I had my headphones in. Oh my God.
Okay, well, you're right. Yeah, you're right. She's like, Yeah, yeah, fine.
Oh my God. I was like, I'm so sorry. She's like, No, I'm sorry.
Anyway. And then that could have been it. Right? Right.
No. As she went to get in her car, just at the point where she couldn't hear me anymore. I said,
I've got a pork pie.
And she had to get back out of her car. Pardon? I was just saying it's my fault because I was too
busy concentrating on eating. I've got a pork pie.
She went, Okay. Then she got back in her car. And now I have to move.
I've been desperate to tell you because I knew how much you would fucking love that. And I was
like, all weekend I've been like, don't tell her. Don't tell her.
Don't tell her. I told Richard, Richard was crying. And then all day on Saturday, we spent the day
together all day on Saturday.
He just kept going to me. And you've got a pork pie. I've got a pork pie.
But just as she was closing her car door, she couldn't hear him. And I've got a pork pie. What is
wrong with us? You're telling people about your pork pies.
I'm shouting at people dislike of chicken thighs. Pork pies and chicken thighs. Another name for
our album.
Oh, I love it. That's going on a t-shirt. Oh, mate.
Are you definitely okay? No. Obviously, I suffered a catastrophic brain injury in this car accident.
Fucking hell.
Oh, I think also this will be the first time my mum's heard about it. Mum, I promise I'm fine. She
did walk here.
She's okay. It's almost like the same as when you messaged me, you Instagrammed me on
Saturday. Just pick me up.
Oh, yeah. What? I was trying to send you a meme that said something like, it was something
about you win if the person you're if you if the next person you ring is drinking a glass of wine, like
you win 20 grand or something like that. And I was like, and I meant to send it to you and be like,
always pick me.
Yeah, but I didn't say that. I just put pick me up. Pick me up.
I'm actually nowhere near where you are right now. Well, I like just as it goes. Obviously, I've
been on one my notes.
I love it. I'll read you the whole thing because I sent you a screenshot of any part of it. Okay.
I don't know what this means. And I wasn't even drunk. I know when I wrote this.
I woke up. I think I woke up from a dream. Okay.
photo series with or without the layer photo of me with dad, me in the sand. It's not funny, but it's
art. It's a good idea.
Back yourself. What the fuck am I talking about? I love it. I love it so much.
It's just I also don't know what this is. Gone. I've also put every now and again the world reminds
me that quote pledge.meet free Mondays.com. I remember what that is.
It was just I don't know if you've ever seen it. Have you ever seen Paul McCartney loses shit. So
it's basically like I've literally actually linked to the website rather than the YouTube of it.
Or is that it? I've done it there. Can we play it? Hey, hi there. Paul speaking.
Listen, I need your help. All I want you to do is just log in on pledge.meet free Mondays.com and
pledge your support to the idea of meet free Mondays. All you need to do.
I need your help. Please do it. We'll send all these pledges to the politicians and then they'll do
something about it.
So I need your help. Please just log in pledge.meet free Mondays or one word.com pledge.meet
free Mondays.com pledge.meet free Mondays.com pledge.meet free Mondays.com. You can do
it right now, please. I saw it again the other day and I thought I bet Rachel's never seen that.
Oh, you can do it. Oh, Paul. Right now, please.
Sit down, mate. Sit down. Oh, brilliant.
I was looking back at my notes app the other day. And it's like the stuff that we were chatting
about on holiday. And it's just like the two that keep come of the three.
There's Avasoup. I don't know. And I've literally spelt it apostrophe AV.
Yeah, Avasoup. Rachel, I can't shimmy and it's ruining my life. I know what that one was about.
I mean, it's not funny now. We're not drunk and not on holiday. I hurt my shoulder, didn't I? And
then when we were at the bar and the entertainment was on, I couldn't shimmy.
I just looked at you and went Rachel, I can't shimmy and it's ruining my life. It's very upsetting,
actually. And then Gemma ADHD.
Oh, no, we can't talk. We tried to talk about it, but I'm just There's no way without us just sounding
like complete bullies. No, exactly.
But then the next bit I've just put is ADHD made me buy four shih tzus, sleepy bastards. That's
Gemma. I know.
Gemma, make me a candle. Fuck off. I'm making soap now.
Again, hilarious. When you're in an Irish bar in Port Aventura. Yeah.
Being asked if you were a member. Not funny. On a podcast weeks later.
When you were being asked if you were a member of Bewitched. Meat free Mondays. You can
do it right now, please.
Have you gone on to pledge.meatfreemondays? I actually do quite regularly have meat free days,
but I've never pledged my meat free Monday. No, fair. I mean, I keep trying to get Will to do a
meat free day, but his whole idea is if one animal hasn't died, it's not a meal.
Paul McCartney hates you, Will. He does. Uh, take that.
No, they're not in it. The Beatles. Fair.
Well, I'm glad you're alive and haven't been seriously maimed. I am. I did also.
Now, I'm going to have to be careful. We might cut this out. OK.
I'm going to attempt to tell it, but if it makes me look like a really horrible person, we're going to
have to cut it out. All right. Fine.
I'm waiting. Richard and I were in the pub together. Yes.
And we'd purposefully chosen a table that we could see from the smoking area because we're
both dirty smokers. Yes, fair. So, but we couldn't take our drinks out with us.
Right. So we had kind of left my coat. He left some, you know, left stuff there and our drinks, but I
still have my handbag and everything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fair. Anyway, the pub we were in wasn't particularly glamorous or full of
beautiful clientele.
Which one was it? This will, we will beep out. Oh, OK, fine. What do you mean? What do you
mean was not full of beautiful people? I don't know, but it's made me uncomfortable.
So I've taken my socks off. Oh, fair. No, I mean, I mean.
I've got a pork pie. I worked in that pub for so many years. Anyhow, we were on quite a small
table.
Yes. Of two. And then there were quite big groups.
And like, they all knew each other. And like, kind of, there were people sitting on tables rather
than on chairs. Right, yeah.
Over talking to each other. There were youths, and they were young people, and they were
probably completely, you know, whatever. Yes.
But they were all quite loud and very shouty with each other. And like, it wasn't the world's most
relaxing environment. No.
When you're a stereotypical middle class bitch. Yeah, fair, fair. Anyway, one, I think the first time
we went, I'm like, finish the cigarette quickly.
We need to go back inside. I don't like it. I don't like it.
And there's too many different types of people in here. They're all different. Everybody looks
scary.
Anyway, fine. We go back. Everything's fine.
Second time we go out. A bit later, I've obviously You've loosened up. partaken a few more drinks
from this point.
And anyway, as I was talking to Richard, and then as I turned around, there was a boy doing
something with a packet, a tiny square, kind of cellophane-y looking packet. Right. And it was
right by my drink.
And I was like, Richard! And he was like, I'm sure it's fine. And then the boy took his hat off, and
he was fiddling around. I was like, what the fuck? So anyway, I immediately was like, well, I'm
going back in if you're not going to save me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was like, I'm sure it's fine. Anyway, my big bad villain in this story looked at
me as I walked back to the table and went, Oh, God, I'm not on my table.
I'm so sorry. And I went, it's all right. And he went, Oh, no, it's just I was putting this charity badge
on my hat.
I felt like the worst human. I had completely just assumed that this young man can't possibly be
up to anything other than nefarious goings on. I mean, to be fair, we do this podcast.
And also, like, it wasn't like, it was a completely normal thing. Yeah, no. You know, he was it from
where I was standing.
He had a tiny cellophane bag and it was right next to my drink. And I was like, okay, it doesn't
look great from the outside. So I have kind of forgiven myself slightly.
Yeah, I feel like that is entirely fine. But it was just when Richard came in, he was like, it wasn't far
behind me. He's not that bad.
He's, he does protect me, mum, I promise. But I, he came in, he was like, you're right. What
happened? What was it? And I was like, I don't want to tell you.
To be fair, as someone who has worked in that pub, and we will bleep out which one it was, but
as someone who has worked in that pub, like, I think fair. Yeah, right. It's not wild that I was
concerned.
No, no, no, no. But it was just how I had to eat shit to just be like, yeah, that young, that young
boy in his tracksuit with his cap on was putting a charity badge that he'd just bought at the bar on
his hat. On his hat.
And just being a very lovely, upstanding member of society. A charity supporting, you know,
really engaged in his local community. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Doing good. Fair. And there's me.
Send him to prison! Straight to jail! Oh, I love it. Just these things accumulated. I have not seen
Richard laugh at me that much since that time we went out and I forgot the word children.
I just, no, I forgot, I forgot the terms boy and girl. And I kept saying male children and female
children. And he was like, you mean boys and girls? And he was crying laughing at me.
So what's wrong with your brain? I don't know. Male children and female children. I do love it
when our brains just occasionally just give up.
Like, the amount of words that I have just completely forgotten. Like, I was having a phone call
today with work, like, really boring, but and it was just like, I just sort of went, um, bleh. Absolutely
no idea what the fuck I'm talking about.
But there we go. Oh, well, again, I'm glad that you weren't drunk or run over. Thank you.
It's dangerous out here. Oh, bless you. I was in Greenwich on Sunday.
It was my little sister's birthday. We took her out for brunch, which was lovely. I've also, we won't
have told this on the podcast yet.
I went out with my sister the day after we got back from our holiday. Because apparently I like to
do. Oh, yeah.
Really late night, the night before we leave. And then late night, the night after we get back. But
no, I took my sister to see Laura Ramoso.
She does Italian Dad and German Mum. She does lots of skits on Instagram and TikTok and
stuff. I think it was interesting.
It was interesting. A couple of times I turned to my sister and went, what is happening? Well, like,
am I in a fever dream? Where are we? How have we got here? How do we make it stop? But no,
so she doesn't, she does like, it was an entire one woman show of sketches. And like, for a lot of
her characters and stuff.
And I really, I did genuinely have a very good time. But there were moments where I was just like,
oh, this is wild. She does a lot of crowd work.
So it was like pulling people out of the crowd and getting them on stage. And we're at the
Palladium. Can you imagine if someone tried to pull me out of the fucking crowd? Well, to be fair,
it's also a bit like, she did make a joke about it.
It's like, she's only going to pick on the people in the first two roads, which are the people who
have the money. So it's fine. Everyone else got left alone.
But she at one point pulled a bloke out of the audience and made him propose to her. And when
she shoved the microphone in his mouth, like to say, like, ask me something romantic and ask
me to marry you. He just went, my boyfriend's in the second row.
Which is quite funny. Yeah, it was just, there was lots of it where I was just like, okay, this is fine.
But no, we had a very nice time.
At one point, she was being Italian dad, and she made someone pretend to be on the phone and
be his best friend. And he spoke fluent Italian. So they just had a nice little chat in Italian.
The bit before that was that I realised just how ridiculous me and my sister are. So she'd come to
me, so my sister's a teacher. She came straight to me from school.
She'd had a really crap day. And she was just like, no, yeah, I'm not about it. We're gonna get
drunk.
Okay, fine. So we go into London Bridge. And I was like, ah, you have not seen the new
Wetherspoons at London Bridge.
I sold it to her by going, it's the old London Dungeons, you know. There you go. I don't know why.
It's actually an alright spoons. It's an alright spoons. It's a lovely little labyrinth and all of the rest of
it.
But I love the fact that in my head, I was just like, aha, it's the old London Dungeons. Looks
nothing like it anymore. Like this.
We'll go there. Went there, had a drink and got chatting. And then we decided we didn't really
fancy a spoons meal.
So we're like, right, we'll go and get some dinner somewhere else. Bearing in mind, like, this is
probably about six o'clock. Right.
Quarter past six. You're rapidly running out of time. Rapidly running out of time.
The show started at eight. So we leave there, get on the tube. And as is our want, miss our stop
because we're jibber jabbering at each other.
Just imagine this. Using the term jibber jabber constantly between each other. It's sufferable.
Well, but also the thing is. Oh, did you have a nice time on your holly bubs? Fuck off. No, but for
the Trevors, so they understand.
Imagine me, make it slightly more high pitched and very ADHD. And that's my sister. So the two
of us together is just a lot.
It's an experience. It really is. I know I talk a lot and then I'm next to my sister and I might as well
be a mute.
So but anyway, we were chatting. Missed our stop. Great.
Get off. Go back again. Go to this very lovely Lebanese restaurant.
And we walk in and we're like, yes, table for two. That'd be great. Thank you.
Sit down. Look at the time. Realize we do not have time for a whole meal, but order one anyway.
OK, and then have to go. Actually, can't have that. Can we cancel the mains and just have the
starters, please? My god.
Forced a disgusting amount of whipped feta into my body, as is my want, to be fair. It's my
favorite of the dips. And then when we still don't have enough time and they came back over and
said, would you like a doggy bag? And because I am me, I can't say no to something that's free.
It's not free, Reggie. You've already paid for it. But I must I must take it with me.
So took it fully assuming that the Palladium is the sort of theater that will let you take your own
food in. What? What is wrong with you? Well, it's happened before where I've taken. What are
you talking about? Don't do this again.
Do not do this. You do this all the time where you say things like they are matter of fact, like every
bucket is a universal experience. I'm not trying to take hummus into a theater.
I'm not. Well, I don't know why. Because it's not the done thing, right? It's not normal human
behavior.
Well, I have been to theaters before where admittedly most of the time with my children, but I
have been to theaters before where I've had food in my bag and they have allowed you to like
keep it, not take it into the theater with you, but like they'll put your name on a little post-it note
and then that makes sense. If you've got kids and like you need to have snacks on hand, so they
probably would have been in your bag. That's very different to I've brought this my meal from the
restaurant.
I didn't have time to consume. I've just got a load of whipped fetter in my pocket. Can I come in?
Hummus in one, whipped fetter in the other.
What do you mean, Usher? This is obviously my hummus pocket. Would you like to partake in a
little bit of pocket hummus? But no, the ushers were very kind because the guy said to us, well,
you have got there's someone who's on as a warm up, then you got 15 minutes and then it's
Laura. So you could stand here and eat and you'd be fine.
And then we'll still let you in. It's okay. And then he said to me, he said, but it is very civilized food
that you've tried to bring in.
I've bought a meze board in my pockets. Don't worry about it. But yeah, so then we stood outside
for a little while with the other reprobates who tried to bring food in again.
No, there have been people at the bar finishing their drinks and stuff. There's not people that just
had full meals that they brought from a nearby restaurant of the Palladium. There were people
stood with us.
We were not the only people with food. You sure you just weren't standing near a food truck? We
weren't. And I wasn't standing opposite a mirror.
Like it was genuinely people eating hummus. No one else was eating hummus because we were
the only civilized people you see. But yeah, I just love it when you do that.
It's like you just say things like they're completely. This is Portuguese ghost all over again.
Portuguese bull goat.
Yeah. Like you just say things like they've happened to everyone. Nope.
Although I am realizing the hypocrisy sat here as a woman who does take a pork pie and a walk
with her. Exactly. I was hungry.
So was I. Hence the pocket hummus. I wasn't trying to take it in someone. I was trying to be run
over.
She's got her pork pie. I've got a pork pie. Pork pie and pocket hummus.
That's another one. Pork pie and pocket hummus. And my cat lick pasta from last week.
Cat lick pasta. The chicken thighs. We're on a roll.
On a roll. Cat lick pasta is a brilliant name for a punk band. Hello.
We are Cat lick pasta. It would be a great title for my autobiography. If you knew me before
publication and buying it.
You'd be like, yeah, of course. That's what that is. Absolutely.
What Hannah's autobiography should be called. Cat lick pasta. It sums up my entire life.
Doesn't it? Cat lick pasta. What would mine be? Portuguese pool ghost. It doesn't have the same
ring to it.
This happened to me. I'm assuming it happened to you too. The story of Rachel.
Dumb. So any publishing travellers who'd like to get in touch. It would be the most boring book.
Yeah, I'm not fucking reading it. You can proof that one yourself. And then I got up and I didn't
really do much.
Helped myself to some pocket almost. Have you had wicks better? It's delightful. Have I told you
about our Lord and Saviour Brevo? Which will make no sense to anyone other than you.
Come round children, I must impart the wisdom of wicks. You're not on wicks, you must be on
wicks. You simply have to be on wicks.
Everybody's on the wicks. You must be on the wicks. On the wicks and the Brevo and the
Hubspot.
Oh dear. Yeah, so I took my sister to the theatre. Lovely stuff.
Oh, dearie me. Would you like me to tell you a story? No, in to season four. Season four.
New World. Yes. I'm going to do all the nice bits first.
Yay! So, Trevz, as I'm sure you all already bloody know, we have an email address which is
SinisterSouthPodcast at gmail.com and you can come there and you can chat the majority of the
time to me. Yep, fair. And I will sporadically reply.
We have the website which may or may not be updated given Rachel's moods. Another universal
issue. We all face.
She's so relatable, guys. So relatable. Hummus in my pocket.
I've got two degrees. My hummus is in my pocket. I'd love to know where the second degree
came from.
I don't know, I just assumed you've had one. You've had another one since I last looked. No,
that's children.
Jesus Christ. So that is SinisterSouthPod.co.uk. We have the Facebook group which I might post
in soon because there's a bit of inactivity, Trevz. Come and say hello.
I was thinking I should probably do some kind of cross-pollination with, good link, the Instagram.
Because there will be some Facebook people that do not have Instu. Instu, good, that's what I
call it.
The Instagrams are SinisterSouthPodcast. Yes. And then there's Hand.orRach.SinisterSouth
which is our more personalised and curated profiles that just basically are our lives but don't
feature pictures of Rachel's children.
Or mine, because they don't exist. Or your fur babies. I thought your fur babies are on there a
little bit.
I don't protect their identity. No fur. Good luck to them.
No one try and find our cats because honestly if one of them goes missing I'll never hear the
fucking end of it. I don't know if we've ever told the story about one of the times one of your cats
went missing and I did the world's most sympathetic thing but that's not for today. We will save
that for next week.
So yeah, you can come and get in touch with us in a myriad of ways which I've terribly advertised
in this section. There is of course the Patreon which is patreon.com forward slash SinisterSouth
and there's going to be upheaval and newness and a dedicated response to our inadequacy over
there very soon. Very soon, very soon.
So I think that's it. Do communicate with us and if you haven't already and you are able to, I think
mainly on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, give us a little review. It goes a very long way.
It does. You can just hit the five stars really easily. It's actually easier than trying to hit four or
three or two on one.
So just hit the five. Just hit the five. And you'll have my pork pie one day.
Pork pies for everyone. Pork pies for them all. You do have to be hit by a moving vehicle or have
a pocket full of hummus.
Also, just tell a friend as well. Yeah, that would be nice. That always helps.
Yeah, there you go. Thanks. Right, would you like a horrible story? I guess so.
Okay, are you sitting comfortably? Never, but don't let that stop you. Okay, fair. Trigger warning
for just generally horrible stuff.
There are some quite, they're brief, but there are some quite gruesome murders spoken about in
this case. I will be brief mainly because there isn't a huge amount about them for me not to be
brief on, but they are quite graphic. There's also just lots of other stuff, but I think it is mainly the
gruesomeness of it in this case rather than anything else.
Yeah, trigger warning for anyone who needs it. Also, as usual, all of the sources that I've used will
be in the show notes and we'll crack on. There we go.
There we go, darling. I've completely forgotten what I was meant to do then. It was just like, have
I said everything? Tell us a story, babes.
Tell you a story. Okay, here we go. On the morning of Tuesday, the 3rd of May, 1983, a
commuter was travelling through Peckham on a train when they looked out of the window and
saw something in the park below that stopped them cold.
The body of a small girl lying on the ground in Warwick Gardens. When the commuter reached
their destination, they reported it. Police were called and a murder hunt began.
That evening, a family in Pencraig Way, less than a mile away from the park, watched a news
report about a body found in a Peckham park, but they didn't connect it to their daughter. Not yet.
10 minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
Her name was Andrea Troop. She was 16 years old and six months pregnant, and she had been
stabbed more than 12 times. Oh my God.
Nobody has ever been charged with her murder. More than 40 years on, her family are still
waiting for answers. And what sits at the heart of this case is not just an unsolved murder, but it's
the question of whether the people who could have provided those answers were told in no
uncertain terms to stop looking for them.
This is her story. But before I tell you about Andrea, I want to give you just a little bit of context
about the world that she was living in. Now, we covered a lot of this in a previous episode, The
New Cross House Fire, which is season one, episode 22.
So I won't spend a long time on this because if you want to go and listen to the proper... Well, it
was expertly done. You did an insane job. Thank you very much.
But if you want to go and listen to like, there's a lot about the society at the time, then in that
episode. So I won't dwell on it for too long here, but it's important that we have a little reminder.
So Andrea Troop was a young black girl growing up in Peckham in the early 1980s.
And Peckham, like Brixton, like Lewisham, and like much of South London at that time, was a
community that was living under enormous pressures. The Brixton Uprising had happened, and
we will cover that at some point, I promise, in 1981 in April, just two years before Andrea was
killed. And then 13 young people had died in the New Cross house fire three months before that.
Both events were direct expressions of the same underlying reality, a black community in South
London that was over-policed, but under-protected and largely ignored by the institutions that
were supposed to serve them. The SUS law, which gave police the power to stop and search and
arrest anyone they suspected of loitering with intent without needing any actual evidence,
because why would we need that, had been disproportionately and repeatedly used against
young black people for years. In some London boroughs, black people made up close to half of
all SUS arrests, despite being a small fraction of the population.
The law was repealed in August of 1981, but the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act
effectively replaced it with new stop and search powers that continued the exact same pattern.
The Scarman Report, published in November 1981, acknowledged racial disadvantage as a fact
of British life, but it stopped short of finding the Metropolitan Police as institutionally racist. That
conclusion would not come until the Macpherson Report 18 years later, and I promise we've got a
lot on that coming up in future episodes.
In 1983, the year that Andrea died, the relationship between the black community in South
London and the police was one of deep and earned mistrust. I say all of this not to make
assumptions about how that context affected the investigation into Andrea's murder. I don't have
the evidence to say that there was any of that, but what I can say is that it's this world that Andrea
grew up in, and it's this world that her family were living in when they knocked on police doors
asking for answers and found them largely closed.
So, with all of that said, now to Andrea. Andrea Troop was born on the 15th of February 1967.
She lived with her family on Pencraig Way in Peckham, the southeast of London.
Her mum was Theresa Dunn, and she had an older brother called Paul Birchall, who was nearly
four years older, and she also had a sister named Audrey. I couldn't tell if Audrey was older or
younger. Okay.
Pardon me. Some sources describe Andrea as 15, but based on her date of birth, she was
definitely 16. Okay.
So, and I mentioned this because there's quite a lot of sources, including the South London
Press, who go on to speak directly to her family in later years, and they say that she hadn't turned
16. Oh, okay. But she definitely had.
If the reported date of birth is right. Yeah. So, the math says that she was 16 years and two and a
half months old at the time of her death.
So, I'm going to go with that because that's what the numbers actually say. Right, okay. But yeah.
Andrea went to Silverthorne School on Albany Road in Woolworth, and in May of 1983, she was
in her final few weeks before the end of the school year. By every account from the people who
knew her, she was a happy, sociable girl. Her mum described her to a television reporter as,
happy-go-lucky sort, friendly and someone who loved life.
At the time, she had a boyfriend whose name was Stephen, and he was known to the family, and
Theresa said that the two of them had a very good relationship. There were no red flags. There
was nothing to suggest that Andrea was anything other than an ordinary teenager.
Monday the 2nd of May 1983 was a bank holiday. The day passed without incident. Andrea had
spent the day at home, behaving normally, and there was nothing to suggest what was about to
happen to the family.
Sometimes in the early hours of Tuesday morning, it's believed that Andrea snuck out of her
house. Now we think, well, we know that it was, she snuck out and no one knew, because her
mum, Theresa, was incredibly strict about not allowing her children to leave the house after dark.
And Paul remembers this very, very clearly, and he states that Andrea knew that it would have
been risky to leave the house, otherwise her mum would have been absolutely fuming.
So whatever it was that drew Andrea out that night must have been important. The family home
on Pencraig Way and Warwick Gardens Park off Lyndhurst Way are about a mile apart. Paul,
Andrea's brother, has always said that he believes someone must have come to pick Andrea up
in a car rather than her having walked there alone in the middle of the night.
Now that's not been confirmed, it's just an assumption, and it is quite a widely accepted view
because, and we'll get into this in a minute, she was pregnant and some reports say she was six
months pregnant, some reports said eight months pregnant, either way... She's probably not
walking a mile. She's not walking a mile, absolutely not. Now, being completely transparent with
the Trevors, there is not a huge amount about this case at all, and so a lot of it's going to be like,
we don't know this, we don't know that.
But genuinely, we don't know the answers to this. Nobody has publicly identified who Andrea
intended to meet that night. We don't know if anyone other than the person that she was meeting
knew that she was meeting them.
Nobody has publicly explained why she left the house at all. And because no one has ever been
convicted, that short journey from Pencraig Way to Warwick Gardens remains one of the most
haunting gaps in this case. We just have no idea what she was doing, who she was doing it with,
or why she was doing it.
The next morning, Tuesday the 3rd of May, a friend came to the house to walk to school with
Andrea, and apparently this was quite a common occurrence. She was a well-known friend, very
obviously recognised by the family. And when she arrives, Andrea's sister, Audrey, goes to check
her bedroom to say that her friend is here.
She's not seen her all morning, but she sees that Andrea's not in her bedroom. Now, at this point,
the family said that they were a little bit surprised because no one had seen her, but it wasn't that
unusual. So she might have just got up early.
She could have just gotten up early, and she could have just headed off to school herself. So
there was no kind of real sense of alarm or unease at the point that they find her room empty.
They just assumed she had left for school, and that was it, really.
So the friend then takes herself off to school, assuming that she'll see her when she gets there.
But then Andrea doesn't come home after school either, and the family are starting to get a bit
concerned, but it's still not been that long. She might just be running late from school.
She might have stopped to chat to a friend. It's not that late into the evening that they're starting
to be concerned. She's just not back at her usual time.
And then her mum and her brother, I believe, are sitting and watching the early evening news,
and they saw a report. And the report stated that a body had been found in Warwick Gardens
Park. They announced that it was a young girl, but that was all that the report said.
The family watched it, and they didn't connect it to Andrea at all, until the police came knocking to
confirm that the body in the park had been identified as Andrea Troop. I can't imagine that. That
poor family.
Like, you don't even realise that she's missing. It's not like... It's not that unusual. No.
It's not that out of the... Yeah. And then for it to just be like, oh no. Bang.
She's gone. Fuck. Yeah, it's horrible.
Police sealed off Warwick Gardens and launched a murder investigation. They released to the
public what Andrea had been wearing, described as a wind cheetah jacket over a red tracksuit,
and she also had on green and white trainers. A post-mortem examination was performed on
Andrea's body, which gave the full picture of what had been done to her.
Her family had been told she was stabbed, but it wasn't until the inquest into her death that they
heard the full story. She had been stabbed more than 12 times. The wounds were concentrated
around her neck and chest, including injuries to her heart.
There were also cuts to her hands and fingers, and those injuries were understood to have been
defensive wounds. In plain terms, Andrea had fought back and fought back hard. And then, to the
family's shock, the inquest also revealed that Andrea was pregnant at the time of her death.
Now, her family say that they had absolutely zero idea that she was pregnant. Okay. There was
no indication of it towards them whatsoever, and they only found out at the inquest.
Oh, shit. Yeah. Oh, no.
As someone who's been pregnant, I'm always marvel at the people who are able to hide it from
the people nearest them. But, you know, it's sad. The South London Press, which spoke to
Andrea's family in 2020, reported that they were told she'd been up to six months pregnant at the
time of her death.
But then, as I mentioned earlier, some other accounts put the figure higher at eight months, and
the figure hasn't ever really been corroborated. Either way, Andrea had managed to hide her
condition completely. It's said that no one knew.
That's... It's like not even friends. That's mad. She'd kept it from friends and family entirely, and
who the father was has never been publicly established.
The family learned all of this in the same room at the same time. They were grieving Andrea's
murder, and they were also in that moment grieving a grandchild, a niece, a great grandchild that
none of them had known was coming. Three days after the murder, Andrea's mum, Teresa, gave
a brief interview to a television news reporter outside the family home, and this is what she said.
Quote, "'She's got friends, you know, just an ordinary girl, really. Loves life, you know.' When the
reporter asked if she had any idea who could have done it, she said, "'No idea at all, no.' When
asked how she was feeling, she replied, "'Oh, shattered. You know, shattered.
I can't think of anyone who would want to do such a thing to her.' And when asked if she had
anything she wanted to say to the killer, she said, quote, "'Yes, I would ask, you know, whoever it
is to come forward so that my mind can be at rest.'" These are the words that she said in 1983,
and sadly, her mind would never be put to rest. Police did launch a full murder investigation, as I
mentioned, and at the time, they publicly stated that they had ruled out any connection between
Andrea's death and any other killings in South London. There was nothing to indicate that it was a
pattern of violence.
There was nothing to kind of link it to any other unsolved murders in the area. There was literally
very little to go on, and no arrest has ever been made in her murder. In practical terms, the
investigation did also face problems that would be difficult to overcome.
In 1983, there was no modern DNA profiling in criminal investigations, as we've spoken about on
this podcast many times before. There were no mobile phone data for people to go through.
There was no large CCTV network that was tracking people across London.
There were no digital messages, social media accounts, or location records to reconstruct
Andrea's final hours. The investigation depended solely on witness statements, physical
evidence, local knowledge, and somebody essentially coming forward to say that they'd seen
something. And if those things didn't produce a suspect quickly, the chances of a breakthrough
became much, much harder.
And unfortunately, that is what happened in this case. Now, obviously, this doesn't mean that it's
impossible. Cold cases can and have been solved years later.
But Andrea's family would eventually be told that forensic opportunities were limited because of
what had and had not been retained from the original investigation. Andrea's boyfriend, Stephen,
was questioned because, of course, he was. Police assumed that he was the father of Andrea's
child, but this has never been publicly announced.
But as in all murders, police go to the significant other first. Andrea's family have consistently said
over the years that they have no belief that Stephen was responsible. OK.
In any way. However, there's one detail that kind of sits a bit uneasily in the record, which is that
when police first went to speak to Stephen, his mum point blank refused to allow him to be
interviewed. Now, while I agree this feels a little bit weird for the mother of an innocent child to
refuse to allow her son to speak to the police in order to rule him out of the murder of his
girlfriend.
We also have to remember that this is 1983. And at the time, and let's be honest, even now in
2026, black men and boys were not always treated in the best way by police. And yes, this is
likely the biggest understatement we've made in this podcast.
Yes. So do I really blame his mum? Not really. I get it.
It's not ideal, but I get it. Yeah. I mean, this is a time when the police were openly racist.
Yeah. So I can understand her trepidation. Eventually, though, Stephen did speak to police.
Right. And he was eliminated as a suspect entirely. There you go.
Beyond that, the family have said that they heard virtually nothing about the progress of the
investigation after Andrea's funeral, which took place in 1983. What lines of inquiry were
pursued? What was examined? What was ruled out? And why was never communicated to the
family? Wow. One theory that they themselves have raised is that Andrea potentially may have
been seeing an older man.
Right. Who was possibly a married man. OK.
Who may have been the father, which is why he didn't want to come forward. And it's all
speculation. None of it has ever even been a confirmed line of police inquiry.
But, you know, I think this is kind of how the family are giving themselves answers to the
questions. Yeah, you would be looking around. Exactly.
Like, why was she out in the middle of the night? Who was she going to meet? And why was it
something that she couldn't tell anyone about? Yeah. And because so little has ever been
explained, Andrea's family were left with the cruelty of having to imagine every possibility. Now,
this is where the story takes a very different turn, and to understand it, you need to know about a
person called Michelle Smithyman.
Right. Now, some people, not many, I would hazard a guess, but that's OK, may remember that
name from a mention of it in season one, episode 22 and the New Cross House Fire. Michelle,
who used to go by Michael Smithyman.
Right. Comes up in that episode. Now, before I go any further, I want to address the fact that I
have just deadnamed Michelle, and usually I would avoid this.
However, as the cases I'm going to talk about were committed during the time when she referred
to herself as Michael, the court records all refer to her under that name. The convictions are
under that name. OK.
I feel like I had to reference it. Yeah. But I will use she, her pronouns and I am going to refer to
her as Michelle or Smithyman throughout the episode.
Going forward. Fine, fine, fine. That makes sense.
And the she, her pronouns have been used in correspondence that she has made. So that is
what she wants to be known as. Fine.
And in public statements since 2021. So I feel like I'm being incredibly fair because actually she's
a complete and utter monster. Right, OK, fine.
So I don't know that she deserves me to be fair, but I'm going to be because that's what we do on
this podcast. Exactly. Anyway, she comes up again today and I'll explain why.
John Michael Smithyman, who is now Michelle, is a convicted double murderer. She's currently
held at HMP Whitemore in Cambridge. And at the time of this record, she's around 61 years old.
Smithyman was convicted of two murders, both of which were committed in January of 1990 and
were both just a week apart from each other. Now, before I explain why Smithyman is important
in Andrea's case, I wanted to tell you about the two people that she has been convicted of killing.
Because they're horrible and I don't want their names to just disappear.
Yes. So April Sheridan was 22 years old and she was from Catford. And at the time of her
murder, she was the mother of Smithyman's child.
OK. Now, it's said that they were in an active relationship at the time. Right.
They were still together. But again, there is not a lot out there about April in the public record. In
fact, this paragraph I'm about to tell you is basically everything I could find on her.
Right. OK. Like there's not even enough to have done.
Because at one point I did go, oh, I could do this as a case. There is not enough even for a
Patreon episode. So core records and press coverage of that have anything to say about April
very much focus almost entirely on what was done to her and not who she was.
And I just couldn't find anything else out about her family. So I apologize. But what April was like,
who she was to the people who loved her, what her life looked like beyond her relationship with
Smithyman is not in the public record in a way I can access and verify.
And that in itself says something. She was a 22 year old woman from Catford with a young child.
And the record reduces her entirely to her relationship with the person who killed her.
Right. So what happened to April? On the 5th of January 1990, Smithyman and a man named
Salih Salih, Salih, S-A-L-I-H broke into a flat in the building where April lived in Catford.
Smithyman convinced herself wrongly that April had gone to the police and told them about this
burglary and about other criminal activities that could be linked to Smithyman.
Now, there is absolutely no evidence anywhere that April had done any such thing. We don't
know where Smithyman got this from, but she latches onto it and that's all that's going on. There
was also some reference, but again, it's all conjecture that potentially there was drugs involved,
whether she was under the influence at the time causing paranoia.
We don't know, but that's kind of the assumed discussion around it. Now, as I say, this wasn't
true, but Smithyman decides that April, the mother of Smithyman's child, needed to be silenced.
The following day, so the burglary happens on the 5th and somehow they think that by the 6th,
April's managed to leave the flat, go and tell the police, cover it all up, and Smithyman's then
somehow got on hold of the fact that this has happened.
The following day, the 6th of January 1990, Smithyman, Sallier, and a third unnamed man drove
April by car to Mepham in Kent to a field and then into a wood. So they were purposely avoiding
busy streets and public places and instead they took her to somewhere that was incredibly
isolated, away from home and away from help. At some point during that journey, April must have
understood that something was wrong.
We don't know exactly what was said in the car. We don't know what she was told to get her
there. We do not know whether she thought she could talk her way out of it.
But what the court heard next was horrific. Once they reached the location, April was forced to
dig her own grave. Oh my God.
And then Smithyman shot her in the back of the head at point blank range with a sawn-off
shotgun. Oh my God. Her body, or what was left of it, was later found buried in the place where
she'd dug the grave.
She was executed? Yeah, she was. April Sheridan was 22 years old. She was the mother of her
killer's child and she was pregnant with the second.
Oh my God. She was killed because a person with no evidence who was supposed to love her
decided she was a threat and that that was more important than their connection. One week later,
on the 12th of January 1990, Smithyman kills again.
Terrence Gale was 30 years old and he worked in a restaurant in London. And again, if we
thought there was little to say about April, there's even less about Terrence. It's everything about
him in the public record is incredibly thin and again, just links to what happened to him.
But it was said that yeah, he worked in a restaurant. We don't have like the reasonings behind his
death. We just have how he died.
So the restaurant where Terrence worked was owned by a man who was referred throughout the
court case only as G. Right. Now, I don't know who this person is. I couldn't find anything else
about them.
But what we do know is that G was a known drug dealer. Right. And he, a bit like Smithyman had
done with April, had managed to convince himself and again, wrongly, that Terrence had found
out enough about his side operation to be a liability.
He is said to have believed that and without evidence, again, that Terrence had been stealing
drugs from him. Right. I don't know whether Terrence was involved in the side operation as a
drug dealer or not.
I don't know whether he was just a waiter at this bloke's restaurant. Somehow, they've got it into
his head that he is not to be trusted. So G then hires Smithyman to kill Terrence.
The agreed price was £3,000 in cash and drugs. Again, I don't know how Smithyman knew G. I
don't know whether they were working together in some capacity at the time or whether
Smithyman was a hit person for hire. But they were hired and given the job.
Smithyman kidnapped Terrence Gale. She tortured him. She killed him.
And the court record states that the body was then disposed of. But where and whether it was
ever found is not in the public record. Oh, my God.
Some people suggested that they might have taken him to the same place that he took April. She
took April, sorry. But we don't know.
When Smithyman went to collect payment for this job, she brought with her grisly evidence that it
had been completed. She brought one of Terrence Gale's hands. Oh, my God.
Terrence was 30. He worked in a restaurant and he was killed because someone in a criminal
chain decided wrongly that he knew too much. Smithyman was arrested and convicted of both
murders in two separate court cases in 1993 and received life sentences.
And she has been denied parole multiple times. So as gruesome as those were, how do these
murders link to Andrea Troop? So while Smithyman was serving her sentences for April and
Terrence, a tip off came to police from a former criminal associate of Smithyman's, a man called
Paul Smith, who is now, interestingly, a property developer based in Clacton in Essex. On the
basis of that tip off, an elite unit of metropolitan police detectives went in and began interviewing
Smithyman about the tip off and about the things that had been said.
And between 1991 and 1993, they conducted approximately 40 taped interviews. Okay, so they
were taking it seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now, in these interviews, Smithyman confesses to involvement in scores of serious violent
crimes. The BBC, which later investigated the story, reported that she spoke about direct
involvement in a dozen murders. Whoa.
She detailed the weapons used. She described how bodies were disposed of. And some of those
murders, the BBC noted, were very high profile unsolved killings.
Now, frustratingly, I cannot tell you what ones they were. Ones they were. The only ones I can
talk about are the two that have come out since in inquiries and all the rest of it.
One of them was Andrea. Right. A source who had listened to the confessions told the BBC,
quote, Smithyman was talking about murder on more than one occasion.
These are still listed as crimes that have never been solved and there must be a lot of people
who will be looking for justice. In 1993, a senior metropolitan police officer produced an eight
page briefing document for the Home Office, which was based on the interviews that they had
conducted with Smithyman. Right.
And setting out what Smithyman had confessed to. And this document did go to the Home Office,
but Smithyman was never formally questioned about the murders that they confessed to, that she
confessed to. So never questioned about the murder of Andrea Troop, despite the fact that it's in
the report and it went to the Home Office.
The Home Office decided not to pursue it. OK. But Andrea's family were never even told that a
confession had been made.
Oh, shit. They were completely in the dark. So that means that by 1993, 10 years after Andrea
was murdered, there was a document sitting with the Home Office that included a confession to
her rape and murder.
Oh, fuck. Now, it's stated in all of the reporting I could read about this, very clearly that
Smithyman went on about the fact that there was a rape involved. Nothing from the police record
correlates that.
But that's not to say it didn't happen, but there's no mention of it in the inquest that I could find on
public forums. There's no mention of it when the police talk about what happened to Andrea. So
whether that was just because they were keeping that information back to try and see if someone
would come forward with it, whether Smithyman has just made it up and made an assumption,
we don't know.
But I just found it quite interesting that it was referenced to be a rape and murder. Yeah. Rather
than just a plain old murder, you know.
Yeah. So while this document is with the Home Office, her family were not told and she was not
named in any public investigation. Nobody came back to knock on the door of Penn Cragway.
Now, Smithyman's confessions were not limited to Andrea's murder, as I've said. She also told
police that she'd been present when the New Cross fire started on the 18th of January in 1981.
The fire at 439 New Cross Road in Lewisham that killed 13 young black people.
And we covered this in full in season one, episode 22. So I'm going to keep this very brief.
Smithyman told police that she had been 14 years old at the time and had tried to gatecrash the
party with a male teenage acquaintance.
They were said to have been turned away at the door. And according to sources close to the
inquiry, after they were refused entry, the other boy returned and started the fire. Now, as you'll
hear when you listen to that episode, the party was a birthday party for a group of friends.
So it was not... Private event. Yeah. It wasn't open to anyone.
It was in a public... It was in a private residence. Yeah. So they had every right to turn people
they didn't know away.
Also, these boys were described as being involved with the far right. Right. Okay.
Probably not the sorts of people that... Yeah. It's not who you want at your birthday party. No.
Regardless of your race, I would argue. Yes. Regardless of anything.
Especially in this scenario. Especially when it's mainly teenage children from the West Indies
backgrounds. Especially in 1983.
Yeah. And also, there's not actually any real evidence. And even the survivors of the house fire
have now said that they question whether there was even... If it was started deliberately or if it
was an accidental fire.
Yeah. So there's lots of stuff that came out about that. But I think what we're trying to say is that if
Smithyman and a male acquaintance did knock on the door and they were told to do one, I don't
think that the response that they say they gave was justified.
They say that... So Smithyman says that this other person is the one who actually started the fire.
But Smithyman then said that she went to a nearby adventure playground and then came back to
find the house ablaze. Okay.
The eight-page briefing note that was sent to the Home Office in 1993 stated, it is suspected that
Smithyman was the other person with... And then the name was removed for legal reasons.
Yeah. When the fire started and it is our belief she will admit her full complicity in this matter.
Okay. A source close to the inquiry told the press and I use that term loosely as we were
referencing the mail on Sunday, that Smithyman claimed she watched the fire from a flat roof
opposite. Jesus.
Now, if she did have anything to do with this, that callousness at the age of 14... Is wild. Is fucking
terrifying. Yeah.
Now, the big question here is not just whether Smithyman confessed, but it's what she said.
Because anyone, really, can claim responsibility for a notorious crime. That happens more often
than people might think, especially in prison.
Some people do it for attention. Sometimes it's done to manipulate the police. Sometimes it's
done because the person who's saying they've done the crimes wants status.
Sometimes they do it because they know enough from newspapers to sound convincing. And
they want to put themselves back in the spotlight. Yeah.
But sometimes people confess because they know things only the offender would know. And that
was what police were having to assess with Smithyman. Did she give details about Andrea's
murder that were already public? Or did she say something that matched information only police
and the killer would have known? Did she know where Andrea had been found? Did she know
what she was wearing? Did she know the nature of her injuries? Did she mention the pregnancy?
Did she give a root, a motive, a name, or a location that could be checked? Publicly, we don't
know.
Any of that. No. And we don't know if it was in the home office notes either.
And that's one of the most frustrating parts of this case. The existence of these interviews has
been reported. Yeah.
They've been put in this briefing document. The home office has it. And the fact that Andrea's
case was part of those interviews has also been reported, but the exact content of what
Smithyman said has never been made fully public.
So Andrea's family and anyone else looking at this case from the outside are left in a very difficult
position. There was apparently a confession, but we don't know how detailed it was. There was
apparently an investigation, but we don't know exactly what it proved or failed to prove.
There was apparently material passed upwards, but we don't know what conclusions were drawn
from that. And that means that the confession itself is not bringing any closure. It's just bringing
more questions.
The briefing was written by a senior metropolitan police officer, and that is all I could find about
them, in 1993. And then everything stopped. In November of 2015... Bloody hell.
Yeah. BBC South East's Inside Out programme investigated what had happened to Smithyman's
confessions, and what they found was quite worrying. A source who was said to have had direct
knowledge of the investigation told the BBC that the team of metropolitan police detectives
working through Smithyman's confessions had been abruptly ordered to stop their inquiries.
All of them. And that the senior investigating officer had been threatened if this wasn't done.
Okay.
So the source told the BBC, I had occasion to be in another police station and to come across the
officer, and he was very, very upset. And he told me that he'd had a row with whoever it was and
been told that his career was in jeopardy unless he did exactly what he was told. Wow.
The BBC also, at the time of this report, obtained footage of Smithyman speaking to psychiatrists
in 1994. The year after the 40 interviews ended. And in that footage, Smithyman says, I'll take
you to some big major issue to kill someone.
And separately, see what they're saying? I can kill as many people as I want. I'm not going
anywhere. Now, we don't know why they're seeing a psychiatrist.
We don't know whether this is around gender identity, whether it's around any other mental health
issues. There's so many question marks around all of this. So we've just got these snippets that
have been completely taken out of context.
So we kind of have to take them with a pinch of salt, but it has been put out there that these are
things that are being said. So the concern here is whether or not, and the question is, are we
being led to believe that Smithyman, a bit like Levi Belfield, when we spoke about him in the last
season, was just confessing because she can. Which I genuinely think is what Belfield has done.
I don't believe that Belfield has done any of the things that he's confessed to. Or is somebody
stopping the police from finding out, or from actually releasing that Smithyman is the culprit of
some of these other cases? In which case, why? Yeah. Or is all of it just completely made up
nonsense? Yeah.
Like we just don't know. And it's so frustrating. Now, again, I need to be careful because the
allegation that these inquiries were just halted outright has come from one source.
And that source has been made anonymous. Right. I would hope, she says, with everything
crossed, that somewhere like the BBC would have done some fact-checking.
Oh, you would assume. Yeah, that's a safe assumption. But none of this has been independently
confirmed.
No formal police inquiry has been held. And the Metropolitan Police's position is that the retired
officer who oversaw the investigation states that all of them were closed after a thorough
investigation and that reviews were conducted, but no evidence was found. And that any new
information would be thoroughly assessed if it came to light.
Now, the Mail on Sunday returned to the story in 2021 and reported that a number of serving and
former officers were deeply unhappy about how the whole thing had been handled with
Smithyman. And the feeling among some of them was that everything had been swept under the
rug. Nobody has ever been publicly identified as having given the order to stop and nobody has
ever been held accountable for it if it did happen.
Now, considering what we said at the start about the relationship between Black communities in
South London and the Met Police in the 1980s, we're once again dealing with a situation where
on the surface, it looks as though the crimes are being ignored. A document said to detail
confessions to the murders of multiple people, including a young pregnant Black girl from
Peckham, went to the home office and yet nothing was done. The investigating team were
allegedly ordered to stop and the families of Andrea and the others in that file were never told.
And I think we can all draw the same conclusions here when you think about policing in the 80s.
In 2015, the details of this case took another shift. Smithyman was up for parole and because of
this, she retracted everything she had previously said in the interviews with police and
psychiatrists.
Oh, there we go. In correspondence, she denied involvement in four of the murders she had
previously confessed to. She stated that she was not present when the New Cross house fire
started.
And on the remaining confessions, she said either that she had, quote, already been in prison
already at the time of the alleged offences. Right. Why they couldn't cooperate that at the time, I
don't know.
You think that'd be the easiest thing to fucking cooperate. That she had already served sentences
relating to them, again, or that she had no recollection of the 1991 interviews ever having taken
place. Oh.
Despite the fact that they have videos. Okay. She's got no memory of it.
Okay. Smithyman has been denied parole multiple times. Yeah.
As I said, she remains at HMP Whitemore. And whether she retracted because the confessions
were never true or because she knew that they were the thing standing between her and a parole
board, nobody can say with any certainty. The Troop family have never stopped fighting for
answers in Andrea's case.
Of course. In 2012, Andrea's niece, Audrey's daughter, wrote to the police asking for the case to
be reopened and reinvestigated. The response she received was that in 1983, DNA analysis as
we know it today did not exist, but that no samples had been retained that could now be retested
in Andrea's case.
In 2020, Paul Birchall, Andrea's brother, also contacted the police and the South London Press.
And he asked them to run a renewed appeal for information on Andrea's death. Paul at the time
was 59 and his mum was then a 76-year-old widow who was still living in Peckham, not far from
where her daughter was found.
Paul said, quote, mum used to do everything in the house. She worked as a secretary and an
administrator at Freeman's Mail Order in Kennington. She used to be so strong, but now she
cries a lot of the time when she looks at Andrea's picture.
She's deteriorating. She can't even go out to the shops and it's torturing her. She sits alone and
cries.
We just want to find something about what happened before she goes to her grave. He also said,
quote, you think of all the scenarios that might have happened and it's just terrible not knowing.
Paul also raised the question of genetic material testing, a bit like Andrea's niece.
Wondering if any biological samples from Andrea or from the unborn child she was carrying were
retained at the time of the postmortem to allow modern DNA technology to potentially identify
who the father of the child was. Or just anything. Yeah, which could be a significant new lead for
the cold case team.
We're not saying that the father of the child is definitely who did it. We have literally no idea, but it
could put a new name in the frame. The Metropolitan Police have not publicly confirmed whether
any such material exists, but the fact that nothing has been done with it makes me believe it's not.
When asked about Smithyman and the confession, Paul told the Mirror, again, really great,
reputable sources here, but this is literally the only places that spoke about this case. Paul told
the Mirror, quote, it's heartbreaking. I don't know how she would have gotten hold of my sister,
but I would want Scotland Yard to question her about it for sure.
The Metropolitan Police's public statement to the family and the wider public in 2020 was as
follows, quote, no case, especially a murder investigation, is ever closed. Officers will review
cases where new information comes to light and we retest forensic evidence as science
develops. We will continue to seek justice for victims and their families, regardless of the length of
time that has passed.
If anybody has any information about Andrea's death, please get in touch with police by calling
101. No one has ever been charged or tried in connection with the murder of Andrea Troop or her
unborn child, and the case is officially unsolved. Andrea was 16 years old.
She was pregnant and she had kept that secret from everyone who loved her. She snuck out of
the house in the middle of the night and was stabbed more than 12 times in a park a mile from
her home. A young black girl from Peckham murdered in 1983 in the same two years as the
Newcross house fire and the Brixton uprising.
A family who went to the police and to the press and got almost nothing back. A set of
confessions that apparently went to the home office and then disappeared. More than 40 years
later, nobody has ever been held accountable for what was done to her.
And if anyone listening to this episode in any wild way has any information at all about the murder
of Andrea Troop, please contact the Metropolitan Police on 101. No detail is too small and if we
can give Teresa and her family the peace that they deserve, that would be amazing. May the
end.
Oh, it's really frustrating. It's a very frustrating case. Yeah.
Thank you. Well done as always. Thank you.
Thank you. And I know how like infuriating these ones can be. I mean, if we think we're infuriated,
Jesus Christ, the poor family.
But like, not, yeah, not to equate in any way. But I do know what it's like to try and research these
cases, and it's just brick wall after brick wall after brick wall and empty Google search. You're
literally down to, I'm feeling lucky.
Yeah, exactly. And you fucking come on, something. Give me something.
It's just so like, there's just, and I don't know whether or not, I don't know in America if potentially
there's like different reporting laws or different data access or whatever. But it just feels like
there's even trying to search for her on like ancestry.com or nothing came up to try and figure out.
Like, I was even just trying to find out who her father was, because it's not mentioned.
I don't believe he was with the family at the time. But like, no mention of him whatsoever. All I
could find out about Stephen, fair enough, he was a minor at the time.
But the fact that his name was Stephen, you know, there's so little about it. And yet it's such a
horrific, unsolved case. The, you know, I just, it really frightens me to think that there could be
something like this could just happen.
And there's somebody out there for 40 years who knows what they've done. And it might not be
Smithyman. No.
And that's terrifying. Because has that person gone on to kill other people? Yeah. Has that
person just, was it just this mad thing that happened and they've never done anything like it
again? Just, it opens a lot of boxes that then have no answers.
I suppose like, so it just stick, I don't know, like from what you were saying, the Smithyman
confessions, it's a, it's a quagmire. Yeah. But for your first murder.
Yeah. To be such a curated execution. Yeah.
Okay, you didn't get away with it. No. But that feels, that feels like a wild, especially in the
circumstances in like, if, if, if she believed that April was a rat.
Yeah. And had, had done all of this. That could indicate like crime of passion like that.
So you'd think a first murder on those bases would be like, not as, not as curated. Yeah, not as
thought through. It's just like, it's a moment of like, what the fuck have you done? Yeah, exactly.
And it's, it's that initialness. I don't know what I'm trying to say there. You know what I mean? I do
not agree.
It just feels, yeah, it feels very unrealistic. Yeah. That the first time you kill someone is you have
accomplices.
Yep. You coerce or trick someone into a car. You make them dig their own fucking grave.
Yeah. And you know, they're pregnant with your child. Yeah.
And you have absolutely zero. And they are the mother of your child. Yeah, the existing child.
The existing child. And you just, that's the first time you kill. Yeah, no.
That doesn't feel very realistic to me. I would agree with you. I think, and even with the, cause
that was the other thing.
It was like, there was lots of kind of talk about potentially, the, the reason why I mentioned drugs
was because they were kind of saying that they thought the paranoia had been brought on by
Smithyman being high at the time. But then. Even so then, so you've got another reason to have
been out of control.
Exactly. But yet you're, you're so paranoid that you've persuaded yourself within 24 hours that.
And persuaded two other people.
That the woman who has already given you a child and is pregnant with your second one. Yeah.
Has dobbed you in, you've got no evidence whatsoever.
And then you're going to like fashion it the way that it was fashioned. Like it just, it's, there's more
to that story. There must be.
And then the fact that it's linked to Terrence's murder a week later and being mentioned as a kind
of like hit person for hire. Yeah. I say that because hit woman just sounds weird.
But. Like. It's, you've got to have had a reputation.
So I mean, I mean, do you. I don't know. Do you have to have a reputation to be asked to kill
people? I mean, I've listened to enough Dateline to know that there's a lot of people who are
stupid enough to just say, yeah, fine, 500 quid.
But I don't know that that feels like this. If this G, whoever that is. And again, the fact that that's
not come out.
Like what is going on? Is G an informant? Wow. Is G somebody that the police are trying to
protect for whatever reason, despite the fact that they have solicited a murder that has
happened? Like. I don't feel like if you're an organized.
And I know what we were saying in last week's episode, when you were talking about the fact
that that police officer had said hit men are usually the bottom rung. And the. They take orders.
Exactly. So I suppose they don't have to be particularly well respected. But I just.
Why, why ask Smithyman if it's. If it's completely. Yeah, no.
And also you're. This G is high up in a criminal network. Like always is high enough to have.
These levels of concern about keeping their operations safe. Yeah. So then just be like, hey, you.
Yeah, exactly. Just random person on the street. Come here.
I've got a job for you. Then if you go back and like. I don't think that Smithyman was involved in
the New Cross house fire.
OK. I think when I was researching it. There was.
Enough. There was enough to kind of point to it as a very tragic accident, rather than. A an arson
attack.
But I can. So I don't know that I believe that even if the police are saying in that home office
report that like, oh, she'll admit culpability if questioned about it. I don't know that the police even
believed or they definitely didn't at the time.
Nothing's happened. I don't know if they believed it, but if that was true, as I say, to be 14. And to
then sit and watch the devastation that happened.
Yeah, it's wild. Like you are. There's something wrong with you.
So do do I think that if. If Smithyman did do or was involved in the New Cross house fire, would
she have been responsible? Like, could she have been responsible for Andrea? Yeah, I think she
could have been. Do I think she was? But I think it's like.
There's the initial school of thought, which is like, oh, hang on a minute. You've had no problem
killing a pregnant woman. Yes.
So it wouldn't be outside of. Logical thinking that you do it. Yeah.
Then is it for whoever the father might have been? Is it a bought hit? Because you're a hit person.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or.
Well, you were you the father? Because again, we know because you have no. Yeah, I'm sorry. I
know because we also know he goes on to not give a shit that.
Yeah. When the baby is is. Yeah.
Still happily kill the woman who's carrying it. Like there's form there. It's yeah, there's just it's.
Yeah, if we're sitting here this exasperated and. Yeah, I'm sure the Trevor's are too. Like that
poor, poor family.
Yeah, it's desperately sad. That poor family. And I couldn't find any.
Again, I couldn't find any information on whether Teresa is still alive, whether she's sort of still
looking for answers. I do know that the most recent. I think if she's alive, she's still looking for.
Of course she is. But I think the most recent thing that came out has been 2021. So if we're
thinking 1983 is when this happened.
Yeah, 2021 was the last time there was any real sort of discussion about it. We're now in 2026.
There's still nothing.
It's it's horrific. So, yeah. But there you go.
One of the more annoying. Yeah. Frustrating cases.
It's so sad. It's desperately sad. And yeah, I just don't know.
It's also really sad that there's not a lot about Andrea and who she was apart from her murder.
Yeah, you know, we have what her mum described her as and stuff like that. But there's nothing.
I don't feel like I have a full picture of her, which, you know, I don't deserve a full picture of her. I'm
not entitled to a full picture of her. That's that's for her family to have.
But it just makes me sad that I can't tell you more about who she was and the things she liked
and what was what was important to her and all the rest of it. I just don't have that information.
And that's that's sad.
But yeah. Well, mate, like I say, very well done, as always. Thank you.
Thank you. Oh, well, there we go. I think that's the end.
I think that's the end. So this is why we keep the nice bits for the end. It's true, it is, it is.
But I think we need some more followers. Yeah, we need to get some. I need to get some ads
done.
Yes, let's do that. Let's not turn the end into a to do list. OK, Trevor's.
Have a good week. Keep yourself safe. Look after each other.
Yes. All of that. All of the above.
We'll see you next week. Shall indeed. OK, we love you.
Bye bye. I have a pork pie. Almost in my pocket.