ITV crime drama following the murder of Sian O'Callaghan now on Netflix

An ITV crime drama following the investigation into the death of a young woman after a night out in Swindon is now available on Netflix.

It means the murder of two Swindon women by one of the city's worst criminals, Christopher Halliwell, will be examined from several new angles.

'A Confession', starring Martin Freeman and Siobhan Finneran, is a six-part series about the disappearance of 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan, who was killed by Christopher Halliwell, 57, a private driver, after getting into his taxi after she left one in 2011 Nightclub in Swindon.

Her body was found five days later in a shallow grave near the White Horse pub in Uffington, Oxfordshire.

Sian O'Callaghan (Image: PA) Former Sherlock star Martin Freeman plays the role of Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher and the series tells the story of how he broke police policy to catch Halliwell, who was charged with murdering O'Callaghan and the murder of the Swindon woman Becky Godden was jailed for life in 2003.

Fulcher later resigned from his position after it was revealed that he had questioned Halliwell without a lawyer present and had failed to warn him, and although Becky Godden's mother was found guilty of gross misconduct, he publicly supported him in To achieve justice for her daughter.

After Halliwell was sentenced to life in prison in October 2012, police said there was a “distinct possibility” that he was a serial killer, particularly since eight years had passed between the murders.

Christopher Halliwell (Image: PA) Wiltshire Police continued to investigate Halliwell in the years that followed, but ten years after O'Callaghan's death, her mother Elaine Pickford was left with unanswered questions.

Since then, she has been campaigning for the Sian Law, which came into force in 2022 and requires municipalities to carry out more checks on taxi drivers and private hire drivers before issuing a driving license. If they lose their driver's license due to sexual harassment, the information is passed on to all licensing authorities.

In 2021, Elaine told the PA news agency: “Ten years and people say time is a healer, but the passage of time also brings home how long Sian hasn't lived, how much she and we have missed, all of it the experiences she had and where she would be in life now.

“We as a family are dealing with it and moving on and I know that’s what Sian wants for us.”

A Confession is now available to stream on Netflix and the dramatization was written by Jeff Pope (See No Evil: The Moors Murders) and features former Eastenders star Joe Absolom as Halliwell, as well as Imelda Staunton and Peter Wight.