A BBC police documentary showing the painstaking behind-the-scenes detective work that brought Chris Foster’s killer to justice will air next Monday.
The 34-year-old dad was stabbed to death in Borough High Street in a tragic case of mistaken identity, during a bungled revenge attack in 2013.
The hour-long episode of The Met: Policing London will show how, by trawling through 1000 hours of CCTV footage, the police managed to identify and track the gang of men who surrounded Chris outside St Christopher’s Inn that night.
His mother Jean Foster watched the harrowing footage of the moments immediately after her son was stabbed so that she could give permission for it to be aired in the show. She hoped that the graphic video would act as an anti-knife warning for the borough’s youth.
She said: “You could see poor Chris was in agony. A lot of people are under the impression that it was a quick death and he didn’t suffer, but he did. You can see it in his eyes, they’re as big as saucers and he can’t breathe.”
Unfortunately the CCTV footage has since been corrupted and cannot be used in the show.
However, she still hopes that the episode will act as a wake-up call for young people in the borough who carry knives, and launched her own ‘Cut It Out’ campaign to drive home the message.
She said: “My main aim is to try to make people know that the knife is not the answer. All that bravado about carrying knives doesn’t make you any more of a man. Think of the consequences after you’ve used it.”
Chris grew up in Bermondsey, before moving to Walworth just before he was killed and he left behind his treasured daughter Christina, now aged five.
Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said of the show: “I hope that over the coming months, we can reveal the true scale and complexity of the challenges faced by officers and staff across the service as they meet the demands of modern policing. I hope this documentary helps the people of London learn more about policing and be proud of us too.”
Met: Policing London, is being aired on Monday June 15 at 9pm on BBC1.