Assume Nothing

Eighteen-year-old Caoimhin Cassidy Crossan from Creggan in Derry died when the stolen car he was travelling in crashed into a lamppost and went on fire in June 2019. Police say he wasn’t dead when the car started burning, and they think he wasn’t alone. How did Caoimhin end up here and why was he left inside? Una Kelly attempts to find out. To understand the path leading up to his tragic death, we hear from those closest to Caoimhin, revealing the story of a much loved yet troubled young man. The events of that terrible night have left his family struggling with many unanswered questions, and murder opens as a line of inquiry as police attempt to uncover the truth.

18 year old Caoimhin Cassidy Crossan from Creggan in Derry died when the stolen car he was travelling in crashed into a lamppost and went on fire in June 2019. Police say he wasn’t dead when the car started burning, and they think he wasn’t alone. How did Caoimhin end up here and why was he left inside? Una Kelly attempts to find out. To understand the path leading up to his tragic death, we hear from those closest to Caoimhin, revealing the story of a much loved yet troubled young man. The events of that terrible night have left his family struggling with many unanswered questions, and murder opens as a line of inquiry as police attempt to uncover the truth.

April 1933. Belfast Gaol. Prisoner 1192, Harold Courtney, is executed for the brutal murder of Minnie Reid. Or was he? Did the right man hang?Digging deep, journalist Gordon Adair attempts to find out*, because locally, he’s heard a strange tale. Of plots, threats, deceit and cover-up. It’s a trail that takes the investigation across the globe – and of people who, 90 years on, still believe this is a case that shouldn’t be talked about.Was there a miscarriage of justice? Was justice not done for the young Minnie Reid? And how much of this tale is true? To unravel it takes Gordon back almost a century, and from rural Northern Ireland to urban melting-pot Australia. Tracking down witnesses like the children who found Minnie’s body in a lonely Armagh lane, and uncovering secret records, maps and letters not seen since 1933, Gordon also consults police, pathology, and capital punishment experts.The results surprise him. Shining a light on a ‘lost decade’ in Northern Ireland, they uncover a shadowy taboo history that’s rarely explored. Assume Nothing, BBC Northern Ireland’s new podcast strand goes to air before this increasingly unpredictable investigation is concluded.PRONI documents in the series featured by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. (PRONI)

2/6 April 1933. Belfast Gaol. Prisoner 1192, Harold Courtney, is executed for the brutal murder of Minnie Reid. Or was he? Did the right man hang? Digging deep, journalist Gordon Adair attempts to find out*, because locally, he’s heard a strange tale. Of plots, threats, deceit and cover-up. It’s a trail that takes the investigation across the globe – and of people who, 90 years on, still believe this is a case that shouldn’t be talked about. Was there a miscarriage of justice? Was justice not done for the young Minnie Reid? And how much of this tale is true? To unravel it takes Gordon back almost a century, and from rural Northern Ireland to urban melting-pot Australia. Tracking down witnesses like the children who found Minnie’s body in a lonely Armagh lane, and uncovering secret records, maps and letters not seen since 1933, Gordon also consults police, pathology, and capital punishment experts. The results surprise him. Shining a light on a ‘lost decade’ in Northern Ireland, they uncover a shadowy taboo history that’s rarely explored. Assume Nothing, BBC Northern Ireland’s new podcast strand goes to air before this increasingly unpredictable investigation is concluded.PRONI documents in the series featured by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. (PRONI)

3/6 April 1933. Belfast Gaol. Prisoner 1192, Harold Courtney, is executed for the brutal murder of Minnie Reid. Or was he? Did the right man hang? Digging deep, journalist Gordon Adair attempts to find out*, because locally, he’s heard a strange tale. Of plots, threats, deceit and cover-up. It’s a trail that takes the investigation across the globe – and of people who, 90 years on, still believe this is a case that shouldn’t be talked about. Was there a miscarriage of justice? Was justice not done for the young Minnie Reid? And how much of this tale is true? To unravel it takes Gordon back almost a century, and from rural Northern Ireland to urban melting-pot Australia. Tracking down witnesses like the children who found Minnie’s body in a lonely Armagh lane, and uncovering secret records, maps and letters not seen since 1933, Gordon also consults police, pathology, and capital punishment experts. The results surprise him. Shining a light on a ‘lost decade’ in Northern Ireland, they uncover a shadowy taboo history that’s rarely explored. Assume Nothing, BBC Northern Ireland’s new podcast strand goes to air before this increasingly unpredictable investigation is concluded.PRONI documents in the series featured by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. (PRONI)

April 1933. Belfast Gaol. Prisoner 1192, Harold Courtney, is executed for the brutal murder of Minnie Reid. Or was he? Did the right man hang? Digging deep, journalist Gordon Adair attempts to find out*, because locally, he’s heard a strange tale. Of plots, threats, deceit and cover-up. It’s a trail that takes the investigation across the globe – and of people who, 90 years on, still believe this is a case that shouldn’t be talked about. Was there a miscarriage of justice? Was justice not done for the young Minnie Reid? And how much of this tale is true? To unravel it takes Gordon back almost a century, and from rural Northern Ireland to urban melting-pot Australia. Tracking down witnesses like the children who found Minnie’s body in a lonely Armagh lane, and uncovering secret records, maps and letters not seen since 1933, Gordon also consults police, pathology, and capital punishment experts. The results surprise him. Shining a light on a ‘lost decade’ in Northern Ireland, they uncover a shadowy taboo history that’s rarely explored. Assume Nothing, BBC Northern Ireland’s new podcast strand goes to air before this increasingly unpredictable investigation is concluded. PRONI documents in the series featured by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. (PRONI)

April 1933. Belfast Gaol. Prisoner 1192, Harold Courtney, is executed for the brutal murder of Minnie Reid. Or was he? Did the right man hang? Digging deep, journalist Gordon Adair attempts to find out*, because locally, he’s heard a strange tale. Of plots, threats, deceit and cover-up. It’s a trail that takes the investigation across the globe – and of people who, 90 years on, still believe this is a case that shouldn’t be talked about. Was there a miscarriage of justice? Was justice not done for the young Minnie Reid? And how much of this tale is true? To unravel it takes Gordon back almost a century, and from rural Northern Ireland to urban melting-pot Australia. Tracking down witnesses like the children who found Minnie’s body in a lonely Armagh lane, and uncovering secret records, maps and letters not seen since 1933, Gordon also consults police, pathology, and capital punishment experts. The results surprise him. Shining a light on a ‘lost decade’ in Northern Ireland, they uncover a shadowy taboo history that’s rarely explored. Assume Nothing, BBC Northern Ireland’s new podcast strand goes to air before this increasingly unpredictable investigation is concluded. PRONI documents in the series featured by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. (PRONI)

April 1933. Belfast Gaol. Prisoner 1192, Harold Courtney, is executed for the brutal murder of Minnie Reid. Or was he? Did the right man hang? Digging deep, journalist Gordon Adair attempts to find out*, because locally, he’s heard a strange tale. Of plots, threats, deceit and cover-up. It’s a trail that takes the investigation across the globe – and of people who, 90 years on, still believe this is a case that shouldn’t be talked about. Was there a miscarriage of justice? Was justice not done for the young Minnie Reid? And how much of this tale is true? To unravel it takes Gordon back almost a century, and from rural Northern Ireland to urban melting-pot Australia. Tracking down witnesses like the children who found Minnie’s body in a lonely Armagh lane, and uncovering secret records, maps and letters not seen since 1933, Gordon also consults police, pathology, and capital punishment experts. The results surprise him. Shining a light on a ‘lost decade’ in Northern Ireland, they uncover a shadowy taboo history that’s rarely explored. Assume Nothing, BBC Northern Ireland’s new podcast strand goes to air before this increasingly unpredictable investigation is concluded. PRONI documents in the series featured by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. (PRONI)

April 1933. Belfast Gaol. Prisoner 1192, Harold Courtney, is executed for the brutal murder of Minnie Reid. Or was he? Did the right man hang? Digging deep, journalist Gordon Adair attempts to find out*, because locally, he’s heard a strange tale. Of plots, threats, deceit and cover-up. It’s a trail that takes the investigation across the globe – and of people who, 90 years on, still believe this is a case that shouldn’t be talked about. Was there a miscarriage of justice? Was justice not done for the young Minnie Reid? And how much of this tale is true? To unravel it takes Gordon back almost a century, and from rural Northern Ireland to urban melting-pot Australia. Tracking down witnesses like the children who found Minnie’s body in a lonely Armagh lane, and uncovering secret records, maps and letters not seen since 1933, Gordon also consults police, pathology, and capital punishment experts. The results surprise him. Shining a light on a ‘lost decade’ in Northern Ireland, they uncover a shadowy taboo history that’s rarely explored. Assume Nothing, BBC Northern Ireland’s new podcast strand goes to air before this increasingly unpredictable investigation is concluded. PRONI documents in the series featured by kind permission of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. (PRONI)

1933: Harold Courtney is convicted of murdering a young woman, assumed to be pregnant with his child. He is hanged and buried in the grounds of Belfast’s Crumlin Road Gaol. Nearly 90 years later, journalist Gordon Adair investigates a story he was told as a young reporter, about a conspiracy. Turning up files that have been closed for decades he asks, did the right man hang?