Killer Britain series examines Elliot Turner murder of Emily Longley

Dermot Murnaghan will investigate the killing of 17-year-old Emily Longley in Bournemouth in an episode of television series Killer Britain.

Miss Longley, an aspiring model and Brockenhurst College student, was killed by self-professed playboy Elliot Turner at his parents’ home in Queenswood Avenue, Queens Park, on May 7, 2011.

He strangled her in bed and was jailed for a minimum term of 16 years when he appeared at Winchester Crown Court the following year.

His doting parents Anita and Leigh, whom Turner used for cash to fund his lavish partying, loved their son so much they tried to cover his crime.

• Read more: "All Talk Turner", the cash-rich thug who thought he was a celebrity

Mr Murnaghan said: “It’s the conman aspect of it that sticks out. Elliot Turner, the playboy image that he gave off and so many people took him at face value. Also, the nature of the killing, the location and the parents being involved are standout features.

“It asks a larger question, your children are your children. As a parent, you say ‘I’d do anything for them’.

“How far does that go? What is anything, even when you know something so awful has taken place, where is that line drawn?

Elliot Turner

“It’s about asking people to think about themselves and the society and people who live in that society. When it comes to Elliot Turner, his mates called him ‘All-Talk Turner’, why do you call him that?

“There were parallels with the Sarah Everard case when the police officer who carried out that awful crime was known amongst his colleagues as ‘the rapist’.

“I do think there’s a role to be played by those who may have inclines, doubts, just delve a little deeper, think a little bit harder, talk to your other mates as well.”

The pair met in December 2010 and hit it off immediately. However cracks started to form and Turner snapped over his perceptions of how Miss Longley dressed, on the evening of May 6.

• Read more: Elliot Turner loses appeal over Emily Longley's murder

That night they rowed and Turner used a pillow to smother her, and then used his arms to strangle her.

Mr Murnaghan continued: “Jealousy lies underneath it. There’s that awful, obsessive desire to control another human being.

Dermot Murnaghan hosts television series Killer Britain

“He was hoping to get away with it, he was never going to face up to it which tells us about the character and the nature of the man.

“I would have been privileged to have known someone like Emily, we all would, and she’s been taken away from us and that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“Every time somebody does something awful, we say they should have been supervised.

“But a mate down the pub, talking the talk, is he walking the walk, that is very difficult.”

The programme will appear on Crime+Investigation which is available on Sky 156, Virgin 275 and TalkTalk 328 on March 28.