Directed by Shaun James Grant and Jim Loach, Criminal Record made a promising start and made us privy to the life of DS June Lenker, who found herself entangled in a system that had its own vices. DS June Lenker’s life was going very smoothly until the day she got a case, which changed everything. She always knew that corruption, racism, and bureaucracy were inevitable parts of the entire setup, and at times, one had to just give in to survive, but she still didn’t bow down as she got personally attached to the case. So, let’s find out what kind of challenges June had to encounter and if she was able to make a breakthrough in the case.
Spoiler Alert
What did June find about the caller?
DCI June Lenker got to know that there was a call made by a probable victim who wanted the police to come and save her from her boyfriend. This girl was so scared that she didn’t give her or her boyfriend’s name to Jasmine, the emergency call responder who picked up her call that night. This anonymous girl abruptly left the phone booth from where she was calling and went away, as someone probably came there. Now, the first thought that came to June’s mind was whether it was a fake call or that girl was actually in trouble. In such cases, where there was so little evidence to prove what the girl was saying was true or not, the police generally did not proceed with the investigation. That’s what June’s boss also told her, but that girl said something that hooked June, and she just couldn’t leave the case hanging. The anonymous caller said that her boyfriend, who was threatening to kill her, had murdered his ex-girlfriend, and the police had framed another guy for the crime, who was at that moment in prison serving a sentence of 24 years.
Now, the reason June felt even more compelled to investigate the case was because Jasmine told her with a lot of conviction that the caller wasn’t doing any prank. Jasmine said that for 18 years, she had been working in the system, and she could differentiate a prank call from a proper one.
June Lenker took out the list of all the prisoners who matched the information given to her by the caller, and she found a guy named Errol Mathis, whom she believed to be the person who was framed. June found out that DCI Daniel Hegarty was the one who was in charge of the case, and she asked her boss if she could have a quick word with him and find out more about the case. The moment June took Daniel’s name, there was a weird look on Roy’s face, and that’s where it became evident that there was something that he knew that he didn’t tell June about. He asked June not to go and meet him personally but to drop an email and wait for his response. But June didn’t listen to him, and she went to meet Daniel Hegarty with the hope of finding out the truth.
Was Daniel Hegarty hiding something?
At the beginning of Criminal Record Episode 1, we saw Daniel Hegarty driving an elite couple to a party. He told them that he worked with the police department, and how back in the day, he had witnessed all sorts of horrifying things. Daniel looked like a dangerous man from that very moment, and this perception proved to be right the moment June Lenker went to meet him in his office. Daniel denied any foul play, and he said that he was very sure that Errol Mathis had committed the crime in cold blood. He told June that Errol was serving a 24-year sentence because the boy of the woman he killed, named Patrick, who was 6 years old at the time, saw him doing the act. Daniel was quite rude to June, and he made sure that she felt that. He called her an amateur and asked her to stop meandering in places where she shouldn’t be. He also told her that he knew that she had been there without telling her boss and that from now on, she should listen to him and drop an email before coming to his office unannounced.
June Lenker, at that moment in Criminal Record episode 1, knew that Daniel was not the savior and humanitarian he was pretending to be, and there was something that he was hiding. The very next day, Diane Markham from the Professionals Standards department arrived at June’s department and informed her that her login details had been blocked as they randomly conducted a check on police officers, and they found her trying to access some database, which she wasn’t authorized to do. June knew that it was Daniel’s way to threaten her and tell her that he could sabotage her career if she crossed the line. But June had dealt with such bullies before, and she was not going to get intimidated by him.
Was Errol Mathis not guilty?
June Lenker found out about the lawyer named Sonya Singh, who handled Errol’s case from the very beginning, and through her, she got to know about certain things that happened during the trial. Sonya told her that during the trial, the prosecution called for a star witness named Dr. Haushke, who confirmed that the bite marks on the victim’s body matched Errol’s dental structure, and it could be said beyond any doubt that he was responsible for it. But later, Sonya did some crowdfunding and approached another expert, who told her that it was absolutely false and that a conviction on the basis of that evidence was not right. But Errol did confess to his crimes, which once again made things a bit complicated for June. She heard his confession time and again in the hope of finding out something that the defense council missed back then, but unfortunately, she couldn’t.
In Criminal Record episode 1, we saw that Errol tried to talk to Patrick, but the latter just didn’t want to talk to him. It felt like Errol was grieving, and I am personally very sure that he was framed by Daniel and others who conspired with him. Sonya told June that Daniel, together with Tony Gilfoyle and Kim Cardwell, had a group called the Crew, and they were infamously known for doing certain acts that branded them as white supremacists. Everybody knew about it, but nobody talked since Daniel was not the kind of man one wanted to mess with. Sonya told June that she always thought that Daniel had some vendetta, which is why he framed Errol. June had met Daniel only once, but it was enough to prove that he was a racist man. The problem was that she didn’t have evidence to prove her point.
Was June able to find Maria?
At the end of Criminal Record episode 1, Jasmin told June that the anonymous woman had called her again, and she was on the line. The woman’s name was Maria Dsouza, and she told June that she was very frightened and that she had locked herself in the washroom since her boyfriend was outside threatening to kill her. June told Maria to just be there for a few more minutes as she was reaching the specified location. But Maria told her that she wouldn’t be able to hold out for long, and that’s when June advised her to take a key or any such object, hit her boyfriend on the face, and then run from there. But the poor girl wasn’t able to defend herself. In front of June Lenker, she was pushed from her apartment, and she couldn’t survive the fall. June felt distraught, and she rushed upstairs to find the guy and take him into custody. The first episode ends on this cliffhanger, not revealing if June was able to catch him or not. June was now entangled in the mess, and in the upcoming episodes, we would get to know if she was able to find evidence against Daniel and prove Errol’s innocence or not.
