One mother was faced with an impossible choice when she realised her son was a killer.
After watching Crimewatch, Margaret Anderson realised her son could be responsible for the murder of Javaid Ali, 48, and sent an email to the show with her son’s name and her suspicions.
In an exclusive interview with the Mirror, she claimed the pair are now trying to rebuild their relationship.
Her son Lee had previously told her about a robbery that had gone wrong, and she realised he could well be the man police were looking for.
Anderson claimed:
I contacted Crimewatch because I thought it was the right thing to do. He is my son – but the man who was killed deserved justice.
The first I knew about the killing was a piece in the local newspaper looking for witnesses. A lot of people were talking about it then someone said it had been on Crimewatch.
I watched the episode and as soon as I saw the reconstruction I froze.
I recognised the clothing. It was the kind of thing Lee would wear and the man had the same kind of physical features.
She carried on:
I thought should I? Should I not? I was fighting with myself. I wondered was it the right thing to do or not? But in the end I decided, yes, this is right thing to do.
It was not just the clothes – the incident happened in an area Lee hung around in.
When I sent the email, I was so apprehensive. I didn’t know how to word it. I basically sent it to rule him out.
I wrote that I wasn’t sure that it was him. Afterwards different thoughts were going through my head. What will people think of me? Lee will probably hate me. I never spoke to anyone about it.
I just sat in the house for a couple of days. I never told anybody, not even my fiance. Then, when I heard nothing back, I thought that was it.
I was shocked. I know I did the right thing within the law, but my own conscience is torn. That shopkeeper was an innocent man though, and he deserved justice. I just wish it hadn’t been my son who was the perpetrator.
Her son, 33, was charged with murder and despite initially denying it, was eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison for culpable homicide, back in September 2013.
She added that Lee had been in and out of custody since he was 13, and that she does not play the ‘blame game’ with him, and that they speak on the phone regularly.
