FORMER Surrey police inspector turned TV presenter Mark Williams-Thomas hit the headlines a year ago when he was the first to expose Jimmy Savile as a predatory paedophile.

His landmark ITV documentary – Exposure: The other side of Jimmy Savile – based on eight months of detailed investigation, dared to go where the BBC had notoriously failed to venture and was the trigger for a full-scale police investigation, Operation Yewtree, which is still under way.

Its findings to date are truly shocking. Jimmy Savile is charged with 450 offences of sexual assault, including victims as young as eight, and 34 rape or penetration offences over a period of 50 years, but two police forces dropped inquiries into his conduct during his lifetime.

Since then, Mark, who lives in Haslemere, has been much in demand as an expert criminologist to help make sense of a string of high-profile cases, which have shocked the nation.

His single-minded commitment to bringing lawbreakers to justice, has just received its most direct expression in the ITV documentary On the Run, screened on Tuesday night, in which he teamed up with newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky to locate two wanted men – one a sex offender, the other a violent, international fugitive – and apprehend them with the help of police officers, undercover stings and subterfuge.

Speaking to The Herald, Mark shared his in-depth knowledge of and thoughts about four riveting recent cases he has been most closely involved with including Jimmy Savile, Madeleine McCann, the Alps murders and the Tia Sharp murder.

For full story, see this week's Haslemere Herald.