Detectives have detailed the ‘gold mine’ of evidence found in the home of a killer who murdered a taxi driver in a meticulously planned execution.
Colin Cheetham attacked father-of-three Stuart Ludlam, 44, at Cromford railway station, just south of Matlock in Derbyshire, on 17 September 2010.
He lured Mr Ludlam to the isolated stop before firing at him through the rear windscreen, hitting him in the head and injuring him.
After having a disturbing interest in guns, Cheetham then forced the victim to kneel in the trunk of the car and shot him in the head execution-style behind the cab.
The murderer left his disposable mobile phone in the car with the victim, which helped the police locate Cheetham, who passed away in 2020. This led them to obtain a search warrant for his residence in Ripley.
In an ITV documentary called Murder: First on the Scene, Tony Blockley, Senior Investigating Officer, and Paul Callum, Detective Inspector, shared how their initial visit to Cheetham’s house swiftly made him the main suspect.
Blockley explained: ‘Colin Cheetham was a 61-year-old man. He was a retired garment technician, who was registered disabled, it didn’t necessarily fit the profile of a murderer.’
However, opinions changed when entering Cheetham’s house. ‘We had a whole search team there with us and a forensic team and little did we know at that time that it was going to become a gold mine… of evidence,’ Detective Callum said.
Police discovered more than 500 bottles of urine on the property and objects linking Cheetham to the crime, such as ammunition.
Callum said: ‘It was a very strange property; the house was a complete mess. We certainly found evidence of his OCD.
‘We recovered something like five or six hundred bottles of urine, which was really strange behaviour.’
Blockley added details about the murderer’s wife, who had not left the property for 20 years.
‘Him and his wife, they lived primarily in the front room of the house,’ he said, adding, ‘his wife had not left the house for 20 years. He was described as a bully towards his family, and he had compulsive behaviours.’
‘One of his compulsive behaviours was mobile phones and when we looked in his car, he had six mobile phones.’
‘We recovered a number of cameras and on those cameras had photographs of railway stations, including Cromford railway station, and photographs of timetables, presumably for him to figure out which station he wanted to commit the murder at.’
Callum added: ‘On his mobile phones we found a whole series of taxi numbers that had been put into the phones, which effectively started us thinking that he picked his victim at random.’
‘We found some really significant evidence, a coat that he’d adapted for a… weapon, we found all sorts of ammunition at the scene.’
He added: ‘At this point, Cheetham was looking very significant to the murder enquiry, and potentially, he was the murderer.’
Mr Ludlam’s body was found by horrified holidaymakers who saw his lifeless arm hanging out of the car with the engine still running.
The court heard the attack was over in minutes. The victim’s family and members of the jury wept as Nottingham Crown Court heard how Cheetham had spent weeks plotting the murder.
The former gun club member compiled a photo scrapbook of four potential murder sites – all isolated railway stations – and train timetables to work out the best time and place to commit his crime.
Cheetham, who held a firearms licence, had even photographed an advert for the taxi firm he would pick his victim from.
He then bought a pay-as-you-go mobile phone to order Mr Ludlam’s cab from Cromford station, near Matlock, Derbyshire.
Police were initially baffled by the killing but they eventually caught Cheetham after they traced the mobile phone that was used to call Mr Ludlam’s taxi.
Cheetham had paid for the phone in cash in an attempt to cover his tracks but bought a top-up card for the phone with his credit card allowing police to find him.
He maintained that he was innocent, claiming that an acquaintance had killed Mr Ludlam.
However, a jury found him guilty of murder and he was given a life sentence.
When Mr Justice Alistair MacDuff sentenced him to 30 years in jail, he branded Cheetham ‘evil’.
He said: ‘You decided to execute a man for your own pleasure and gratification.
‘Any man. There was no motive except your own enjoyment. How chilling that you were prepared to put to death a person you had never met.’
Peter Joyce QC, prosecuting, said: ‘He had no knowledge of Mr Ludlam but he had a fascination with taxis and a fascination with guns and Mr Ludlam was just the unlucky man with whom this fascination ended.’
He said Cheetham appeared to have no motive other than the desire to shoot a ‘complete stranger’.
Neighbours described Cheetham as a ‘loner’ and said his wife Jennifer had not been seen in 20 years.
Their house in Ripley, Derbyshire was so cluttered, they both had to live in rooms downstairs.
Cheetham took photographs of himself carrying his guns at his shooting club.
Blockley said: ‘He had almost committed the perfect murder because he had covered his tracks and there were no links back to him and no witnesses.
‘We have no idea why he did it. The only person who knows the answer is Cheetham, but it looks like it was just the thrill of killing somebody.’
At the time, Mr Ludlam had two sons Jonathan, 15, and Matthew, 12, and a two-year-old daughter Aimee with his wife Paula to whom he had been married 17 years.
After the verdict, Mr Ludlam’s mother, Sheila Ludlam, said: ‘Nothing will bring Stuart back, but it shows justice has been done.
‘He loved his children with all his heart and all he ever wanted was a little girl.
‘He got his little girl but now she has no daddy. It’s just so sad that now he won’t be able to see her grow up or get the chance to walk her down the aisle.
‘I’ve got so many memories of him and those will never leave me. Since his death it has been horrible, such a struggle for all of us.’
Cheetham, who has no previous convictions, claimed he went to the station to loan a loaded gun to a man named Geoff who wanted to teach a drug dealer a lesson.
The incident sent shockwaves through the community and a two-minute silence was held in Matlock just over a week after Mr Ludlam’s killing, with the quiet broken only by the passionate sound of taxi horns by the hundreds of drivers who attended.
Murder: First on the Scene is available to watch on ITVXÂ
