Crimewatch on the Streets - 2009 - Episode 1

Thanks to our unique relationship with the UK police, we have been granted exclusive behind the scenes access to several major investigations and specialist operations designed to target serious crime and dangerous criminals. In this first hour-long episode, to be followed by two further programmes later in the year, we join the officers of CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, in their battle against predatory paedophiles. Our cameras travelled halfway around the world, to join CEOP's hunt for four western men, two of them British, suspected of abusing homeless street children in Thailand, some of them as young as 10. We were on hand for the entire investigation, from its inception right through to the final arrests. We also profile the police's new tool in the fight against gun crime, and tell the remarkable story of Grant Wilkinson, the man responsible for one of the biggest gun factories converting replica MAC 10 sub machine guns ever found in the UK. Police have been able to link Wilkinson to a staggering 51 gun crimes, of which eight were murders. We tell the story of how the police used the unique forensic marks left on the bullets fired by his guns to catch him. And we travel to Calais to follow the UK Border Agency’s struggle to protect our borders from illegal immigrants trying to smuggle themselves into Britain. In one night, we see the discovery of 35 illegal stowaways hidden in the back of freight lorries from countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran and Iraq.