Episode 5: Bertie

Season three of Inside the Crime is coming soon, but the team behind it are currently working on a daily podcast from the Central Criminal Court. It follows the trial of Jozef Puska, the man charged with the murder of Ashling Murphy who died along the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore in January 2022. This daily podcast is a factual, balanced and accurate account of what's heard by the jury each day, available after 6pm. It's called All Rise: The Ashling Murphy Murder Trial, and you can follow and subscribe on all platforms.

To mark the end of this season of Inside the Crime, we held a very special event with a live audience of listeners to The Charles Self Murder. We wanted to bring the series to a close by going deeper inside the crime, so we invited a panel of guests to join Frank on stage at Bartley’s lounge at the Grafton Hotel in Dublin. From the confusing elements of the crime scene to the social injustices that coincided with the murder, there was so much to dig into. Gay rights activist Tonie Walsh, criminologist Trina O'Connor, and architect Hugh Wallace who was a contemporary of Charles', joined Frank on stage with our host for the evening, Andrea Gilligan. We recorded it and wanted to share it with those of you who couldn’t make it.

In the weeks following Charles' murder, there seemed to be more questions than answers surrounding the killing. Hundreds of gay men were being interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted, but gardaí seemed no closer to finding the perpetrator. Then, in the early Autumn, two more gay men were killed. In this episode, we'll dig a little deeper into the unanswered questions that emerged out of the crime scene, as well as the allegations that a gay dossier was being compiled. Subscribe now to make sure you don't miss a moment of this Irish true crime podcast.

In this episode, we delve deep into the garda investigation which was following a number of leads. Could the killer have been a male prostitute? Who was the man who went home with Charles that night? There was an unidentified finger print and bloodied shoeprint found at the scene - could these hold the key to the murderer? Meanwhile, concerns grew within the gay community at the number of men brought in for questioning, as well as the manner in which they were questioned. Did gardaí have ulterior motives for their investigation? Subscribe now to make sure you don't miss a moment of this Irish true crime podcast.

In the last episode, we got to know Charles Self through the memories of his friends and colleagues. They spoke of a man who was generous, charming, talented and with a zest for life. However, just a few weeks shy of his 33rd birthday, Charles was murdered in his own home. Stabbed and strangled, left to die at the bottom of the stairs. He had brought someone home that night, but who? And there was another person asleep upstairs, could they have heard anything? In this episode, we'll bring you into the crime scene, exploring what gardaí from Dun Laoghaire Garda Station were confronted with when they responded to the 999 call. We'll also track Charles' last known movements, hour by hour, leading up to the last person to see him alive. Could this person hold the key to solving his murder? Subscribe now to make sure you don't miss a moment of this Irish true crime podcast.