Day by day, hour by hour, people all over Ukraine tell the story of the Russian invasion. We hear from people packing up and leaving with their children and those who remain in the eye of the storm, some fighting for survival amidst food shortages and shelling and others taking up arms to defend their country. Since the war began, many of those affected have been recording their daily struggles for File on 4 - keeping audio diaries, sharing their innermost thoughts at their most vulnerable. Amon...
Mar 15, 2022•37 min
Reproductive coercion: a form of abuse you've probably never heard of. From deliberately sabotaging contraceptives to forcing someone to have an abortion, it is used to gain power and control - and can have devastating consequences. But with links to domestic violence and even homicide, is enough being done to spot the signs? Rachel Stonehouse investigates. Producer: Alys Harte Editor: Maggie Latham Details of organisations that can provide help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline ...
Mar 08, 2022•37 min
File on 4 tells the story of a charismatic preacher on the run from British police for child sex offences. Three years ago, File on 4 tracked him down to an impoverished Roma community in Bulgaria where he was sexually abusing boys as young as 10. Daniel Erickson-Hull was arrested and charged by the Bulgarian authorities after he was confronted by File on 4 but has since been released and continues to offend. Yet despite overwhelming evidence, the self-styled preacher from London has been left a...
Mar 01, 2022•37 min
From pills that resolve chronic pain issues overnight to diet supplements which promise to help shed pounds in days, the internet is awash with adverts making bold claims. Some come with a celebrity endorsement, where household names appear to give their personal stamp of approval to a product. But many of these are scams, with customers tricked into parting with more money than they realise ever intended. File on 4 investigates the growth of online subscription scams, where customers are unwitt...
Feb 22, 2022•37 min
Two years ago File on 4 investigated how a computer system, called Horizon, was behind what has now become one of the biggest miscarriages of justice this country has ever seen. Hundreds of innocent postal workers wrongly accused of stealing money from their branches by the Post Office itself. Many faced financial ruin, some even went to prison. Since that programme, dozens have had their convictions overturned, and the Post Office has pledged to provide ‘full, fair and final’ compensation to th...
Feb 16, 2022•36 min
After an alarming rise in complaints of drink spiking last year, and reports of people being injected with syringes, Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to women who say they have been “spiked” and finds out what the police are doing to tackle it. Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam Producer: Nicola Dowling Editor: Nicola Addyman
Feb 08, 2022•36 min
Michael Cowan investigates the consequences for victims of crime and those accused of offences when crucial evidence goes missing or is lost by police forces. He speaks to a man who says he is trying to clear his name but vital evidence has been lost. Reporter: Michael Cowan Producer: Jim Booth Editor: Nicola Addyman Additional research: Wil Crisp and Sophie Eastaugh If you have been affected by sexual abuse or violence, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line. https://www.bbc.co.u...
Feb 01, 2022•37 min
Record ambulance delays are leaving patients waiting hours for emergency care to arrive with waiting times increasing every month. Some patients wait hours at home, many wait outside the hospitals for a bed to become available, but for a small number, ambulances are arriving too late and patients are dying while waiting for help to arrive. In this episode of File on 4 we hear how the crisis is impacting both patients and ambulance staff. In a series of six devastating 999 calls over one hour we ...
Jan 25, 2022•37 min
The NHS is sending patients with the most complex mental health needs to spend months or even years in specialist rehabilitation units, with the promise of helping them to recover. Adam Eley speaks to some patients who say they were sent to units sometimes hours from home, where poor care meant their condition got worse. Some experts say there is not enough oversight of the care provided. Credits: Reporter: Adam Eley Producer: Emma Forde Editor: Nicola Addyman
Jan 18, 2022•37 min
The high stakes cat and mouse game between police and darknet drug dealers Police say they are finally turning the tide on drug dealers selling on the darknet – a secretive part of the internet which has been described as like “online shopping for drugs.” The UK’s National Crime Agency says recent international takedowns of so called dark markets and arrests in multiple countries are a result of new techniques in cyber policing that is giving them the upper hand. However, BBC research suggests t...
Jan 11, 2022•37 min
How do you know if you’ve been recruited by a cult? Rachel Stonehouse investigates claims there are up to 2,000 cults currently operating in the UK. We talk to young people who say they were recruited on campus and a father who went to court to free his daughter from the influence of a harmful cult. Reporter: Rachel Stonehouse Producer: Michael Cowan Editor: Maggie Latham Researcher: Natasha Fernandes
Nov 23, 2021•37 min
With the murder of Sarah Everard shining a light on police vetting procedures, File on 4 reveals that thousands of officers have still not been re-vetted to standards brought in in 2006. As a public inquiry tries to establish what’s going wrong with our policing, Melanie Abbott talks to the women who say they’ve been betrayed by police officers who should have kept them safe and to officers who say sexism and harassment are part of the job. Reporter: Melanie Abbott Producer: Mick Tucker Editor: ...
Nov 16, 2021•37 min
An estimated £66 billion was spent by the government during the pandemic on paying towards the wages of people who couldn’t work, or whose employers could no longer afford to pay them. That’s around one fifth of the money the government spent on the response to Covid. It says 11.6 million jobs were supported by the furlough scheme. But the scheme also exposed the government to fraud and is expected to result in billions of pounds of additional losses to the tax payer. In September of last year, ...
Nov 09, 2021•37 min
Livvy Haydock investigates whether women are being unfairly treated by the criminal justice system when coercive and controlling behaviour by a partner is behind their offences. Six years ago, the UK led the world in making coercive and controlling behaviour a crime. In a 2019 landmark judgement, Sally Challen’s murder conviction was quashed when the Court of Appeal ruled that years of abuse had contributed to her murdering her husband. But has the criminal justice system really evolved enough t...
Nov 02, 2021•37 min
With an ageing population, it’s estimated that over one million people in the UK will be living with dementia by 2025. But what happens when someone with the condition is deliberately targeted and led into marriage for the financial gain of the partner? Unlike in Scotland, marriage in England and Wales revokes any previous will that may have been made. For those who target someone with dementia and secretly wed them without the knowledge of their family, matrimony can prove to be extremely lucra...
Oct 26, 2021•37 min
Amongst the millions of documents released in the ‘Pandora Papers’ leak of offshore financial information are a number of documents that one family business would rather have remained hidden. Together with The Guardian newspaper, File on 4 follows the trail of millions of pounds tainted by bribery and corruption. Piecing together key documents from the leak reveals how earnings from Unaoil – a company involved in the ‘world’s biggest bribery scandal’ - were invested into UK property on high stre...
Oct 05, 2021•37 min
During the pandemic, it’s been one of the most dangerous occupations in the land, with a death rate similar to that of frontline nurses. Sixty London bus drivers have died of Covid-19, and yet the authorities still have little explanation as to why the disease spread among them in such deadly fashion. Families of the deceased say it was due to poor safety standards and the slow introduction of protective measures. Transport for London say they were just following government guidance. But with bu...
Sep 28, 2021•37 min
Mental health profiteers: The dark world of online anxiety ‘cures’. Jane Deith and Jordan Dunbar investigate the rogue operators exploiting the long wait for mental health services on the NHS. The explosion in unregulated online recovery programmes has led to claims of people paying thousands of pounds for treatment by unqualified practitioners which has made their anxiety worse – not better. File on 4 investigates one company guaranteeing to cure anxiety in children. And we ask – why isn’t the ...
Sep 21, 2021•37 min
File on 4 reveals the inside story of Ramon Abbas, one of a new breed of prolific global cyber fraudsters. As Abbas awaits sentencing in the US for money-laundering, File on 4 asks if enough is being done to protect us from online criminals operating across international borders. Snared by the FBI in 2020, Abbas is better known as Instagram influencer Hushpuppi, who flaunted a life of designer clothes, private jets and penthouse apartments to millions of followers. Little did they know that his ...
Sep 14, 2021•36 min
When three black England footballers missed penalties in the Euro 2020 football final they were bombarded with online racist abuse. The Football Association condemned the ‘offensive and racist’ messages saying it was ‘appalled’ and would do everything it could to assist Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. File on 4 examines what many describe as institutional racism within the game and amongst supporters and asks what, if anything, is being done to stop it from happening? With access ...
Sep 07, 2021•36 min
The extraordinary story of a UK schools group which took on a cyber ransomware gang. The Harris Federation seems an unlikely target for ransomware criminals but it found itself at the centre of a cyber attack by anonymous hackers. With its servers down and a ransom demand of nearly £3 million, school leaders had to decide quickly whether to pay or suffer the consequences. File on 4 has unique access to the extraordinary negotiations that took place behind the scenes, involving an Israeli securit...
Jul 13, 2021•37 min
Allegations of bullying and sexual harassment against the actor and film maker Noel Clarke have led to an industry-wide examination of the culture within the film and television business. Industry insiders describe an environment where those in power can be bullying and demanding, where sexual harassment is commonplace and where victims are afraid to speak up because they fear losing work. File on 4 has heard from hundreds of people who work in the industry who paint a disturbing picture of the ...
Jul 06, 2021•37 min
A death sentence? The inmates dying after poor prison healthcare. More prisoners are dying in jail – even after you account for the growing - and ageing -prison population. Many of those found to be so-called ‘natural cause deaths’ are relatively young: more than a third are aged between 35 and 54. Those who’ve been behind bars a short time are at greatest risk…with health records often not consulted and vital medication delayed, sometimes for months. File on 4 investigates cases where failings ...
Jun 29, 2021•37 min
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an urgent need for a range of new government contracts which resulted in billions of pounds of public money being spent under emergency powers which suspended usual procurement rules around competition. This new regime created an unprecedented situation where commercial firms were able to secure large contracts quickly. But did this mean that money was spent without due diligence, regard for transparency - and potentially value for the taxpayer? In a joint investigat...
Jun 22, 2021•37 min
Since reporting on a story about police abuses earlier this year reporter Anna Adams has been inundated with calls and messages from women all telling her the same thing; they were a victim at the hands of a police officer. For File on 4 Anna investigates the failures of police forces to properly manage and investigate accused officers within their own ranks. Many of the women she speaks to are police officers themselves Reporter: Anna Adams Producer: Kate West & Mick Tucker Editor: Gail Cha...
Jun 15, 2021•37 min
File on 4 investigates the new challenges of providing home care during the Covid-19 pandemic - with some recipients seeing their care costs increased while their hours are reduced. Exploring reports of financial assessments being neglected, and allegations that people's basic needs are not being met, we ask if some of society’s most vulnerable are being made to shoulder the cost of local council funding gaps. Producer: Michael Cowan Reporter: Claire Bolderson Editor: Maggie Latham...
Jun 08, 2021•37 min
The government recently introduced new laws to protect leaseholders from large ground rent increases. But campaigners say more widespread changes are needed to properly protect the millions of leaseholders in England and Wales. The cladding scandal has highlighted just how few rights leaseholders have when it comes to what happens to the buildings they live in. Felicity Hannah discovers there are many other issues they face. A change in planning law means freeholders can now build extra apartmen...
Jun 01, 2021•37 min
In 2016 the House of Common’s Women and Equalities Committee published a report into sexual harassment and abuse between pupils in British schools. In concluded that the scale and impact was such that urgent action was needed by the government. Five years on, more than 16,000 young people - mostly women - have posted harrowing accounts of their experiences on the Everyone’s Invited website. It's prompted the government to instruct Ofcom to carry out a review of peer on peer sexual abuse in our s...
May 25, 2021•37 min
Latest figures show more than a million people in Britain are suffering from long Covid. For many the condition is completely debilitating. The extreme fatigue, breathing difficulties, brain-fog is forcing hundreds of thousands of previously fit, working people on to long term sick. File on 4 hears from the hero frontline workers who kept Britain going through the pandemic but now feel abandoned. Others reveal how they’ve felt pressurised to return to work even though they’re very ill. So who’s ...
May 18, 2021•37 min
Tens of thousands of men and women in some of the poorest parts of the Philippines are being recruited to be directors of companies based in the UK. Companies which have no offices or full time staff, they don’t buy or sell anything, in fact they only exist on paper. But as Angus Crawford has discovered they form part of a complex web which may be costing Britain tens of millions of pounds in lost tax. A web designed by experts in order to shield firms from the full costs of employing their work...
May 11, 2021•37 min
