Sky Crime show looks back at Shirley Leach Bury Interchange murder

The Sky Crime programme featured never-before-seen crime scene pictures and footage of the bus station on the cold morning of January 6, 1994, when a body was found.

Bury Interchange (Screenshot from Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer) (Image: Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer)

Shirley Leach was murdered in the toilets at the station while waiting to catch her bus home after visiting her daughter in hospital.

The mum-of-two was found the next day by a girl who was on her way home from clubbing in Bolton.  

She went into a toilet cubicle and found Shirley’s mutilated body.

Andrew Meeks, Greater Manchester Police (Image: Screenshot from Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer)

The RTS award-winning series Forensics: Catching The Killer was broadcast at 9pm on Sky Crime, inviting journalist Steve Panter, Greater Manchester Police's Andrew Meeks and past interchange employees to speak about the horrific crime. 

Crime scene images Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer (Image: Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer)

A woman who worked at the Interchange Café spoke in the documentary, sharing how she found out about the news and the fears workers carried with them after the incident.

Read more: Life for Shirley Leach killer

Paul Clough, who worked at the interchange as a bus station attendant, said he knew something major was happening when he arrived at work and found police searching for evidence.

He told Sky Crime: “You couldn’t imagine anything like this happening in Bury at the time.”

Bury Interchange (Screenshot from Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer) (Image: Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer)

Mrs Leach had been strangled and mutilated and her murderer, Ian O’Callaghan, had gone back to the crime scene to cut off one of her breasts.

The shocking crime brought fear to the residents of Bury as the bus station became a "no-go" area at night and women were warned to stay in well-lit areas.

Read more: Serial sex offender who murdered Shirley Leach sentenced for rape of 11-year-old girl

Police near Bury Interchange (Screenshot from Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer) (Image: Sky Crime, Forensics: How to Catch a Killer)

Detectives launched an extensive hunt for the murder suspect but O’Callaghan was not found until 12 years later when he was stopped for drink driving in Moston.

A DNA check found his to match the crime and he was arrested and charged with her murder and in November 2006 was ordered to serve a minimum term of 28 years in prison.

A passport picture of O'Callaghan in 1994 compared with an e-fit issued as the murder hunt began (Image: GMP)

Read more: Shirley Leach killing 25 years on - the brutal murder that shook a town

O’Callaghan, who lived in Brandlesholme, was called “savage, evil and cruel” by Panter in the documentary.

The killer was later convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl.

O’Callaghan forced the child into a back alley and attacked her in 2001 as an act of “revenge” after the girl told her mother about an earlier incident when he had exposed himself to her.

Shirley Leach and her killer, Ian O'Callaghan (Image: GMP)

The episode, titled "Murder in the Bus Station", discussed how advancements in DNA technology helped identify O’Callaghan.

The episode is available to watch on play-back here via Sky Crime.