Crimewatch — Season 11

A gang robbed a jeweller's shop in Rugby town centre on Friday 22 October. Crimewatch UK has descriptions of the men, who stabbed several people as they made their getaway. Can you help find them?In Ipswich a month before Christmas a young mother was murdered. Karen Hales was at home with her 18-month-old baby when something or someone disturbed her. Two boys walking near the house saw smoke and a man wearing distinctive clothing. Maybe you'll recognise him.

Your help is needed to find an armed gang who robbed a post office van in Burnley, Lancashire, and then shot a policeman in the leg. The villains drove off and hijacked two cars, forcing the occupants out at gunpoint, before finally escaping in a Ford XR3i.

A young woman was murdered in Ipswich a month before Christmas. Karen Hales was at home with her 18-month-old baby when something or someone disturbed her. Two boys walking near her home saw smoke, and locals saw a man running quickly across the road. Maybe you recognise him?In Kent a family were held hostage throughout the night after robbers forced their way in at gunpoint. The two men, one posing as a postman, guarded them for 12 hours before taking the father, a jeweller, to his shop. He was forced to hand over the contents of the safe. As one of the robbers escaped he was seen by a local man. Can you help catch them?

This month viewers are asked to help identify the person who killed pensioner Shirley Leach on Thursday 6 January this year. Shirley was on her way home after visiting her daughter in hospital when she was attacked. She'd caught the bus to Bury Interchange and was waiting for her connection at about 9:20pm when she visited the ladies toilet. Her body was found a few hours later. A man wearing a flat cap, around 40-50 years old was seen near the toilets several times that evening.

When Crimewatch first started in 1984 only three programmes were planned. But tonight it celebrates its 100th edition. Originally the police were sceptical about the idea but, as Superintendant David Hatcher explains, "the programme quickly gained credibility among the police service to a degree no other programme had done".Producer Liz Mills adds that now the police often come to the programme with their biggest cases: "But the big cases create the most tension. Often vital facts are not given to us until the last minute". Among the most famous cases the programme has publicised are the James Bulger murder and the Stephanie Slater kidnap.In this month's programme Sue Cook and Nick Ross present some more real cases that they hope the public can help solve. They include a robbery at a jewellers in Harrogate on 28 March, and the murder of a 56-year-old man who was found in East London on 26 February.

This month viewers are asked for their help in solving two brutal murders. The body of prostitute Tracy Turner was dumped in a country lane in Lutterworth, Leicestershire in the early hours of Thursday 3 March. Police are anxious to talk to anyone who saw her alive around midnight at the Hilton Park Service Station on the M6, where she regularly picked up clients. Officers will also be appealing for help in solving the murder of 53-year-old Trevor Bradley, whose body was found 40 miles from his Ludlow home.

Featured tonight is a reconstruction of an attack by a gang of armed robbers on staff at a jewellers in Stratford-upon-Avon. A police officer on routine patrol tried to foil their escape but they made their getaway in a stolen car.

This month on the programme, viewers are asked to help west London Police solve a terrible rape. In the early hours of Sunday 29 May, a young woman was abducted in Covent Garden by six men who all had strong cockney accents and skinhead haircuts. During her ordeal she was tortured and raped. Shortly afterwards the victim, who is an epileptic believes she went into seizure because she can remember nothing of the route she was driven or of being dumped in a street in Putney.

This month help is needed to find whoever killed businessman Ken Brown, who was shot on his doorstep in the north east of England on the evening of Thursday 25 August, and the killer of 38-year-old Julie Pacey from Grantham, whose body was found by her daughter when she came home from school on Monday 26 September.

Tonight, the programme examines a baffling murder case: pensioner Ron Cousins had lived in the same Chelmsford house since he was born and was well known by everyone in the area. On 15 April this year, the day he died, he had been seen several times, shopping and having lunch at the local church. He was last seen alive at 6 o'clock watering his garden. The police want to hear from anyone who can add any more details to the case. In particular they are anxious to trace the young man with long blonde hair who was spotted close to Ron's house earlier that day.