The scariest thing about this true crime documentary is that he is still out there.

Robert Freegard is a man that has known to con many people in his life, starting at only 20-something years old where he was able to convince another man that he worked for MI5 and was working against the IRA. With this man and his girlfriend he was able to convince them to give him thousands of pounds in cash to be able to keep up the secret, however the truth of the matter was that he never worked for MI5, he never was a secret agent, and really he was one of the most terrifying conmen to ever live with the amount he stole from his victims.

Move forward to the 2000s when a lovely family of four get broken up by their parents’ divorce and the mother tries her hand at online dating to find someone new. She stumbles upon Robert and soon Robert has his hands clasped around this woman and her two children, and to this day it is not known where her whereabouts are or his. In fact he is still at large out there presumably conning more and more people, and this is the most terrifying part of this whole documentary because, usually when you talk about these criminals they are behind bars or dead, whereas this one could literally walk past you on the street and you would know no different.

This is a fantastic true crime documentary if you want to move away from the usual murderers or abusers. Robert is a calculated man who is very smart and very charismatic to be able to keep up the lies that he has created for his victims. You often think: how could you be so stupid to believe someone when they tell you something like this? But I’m sure plenty of us have heard stories of people and automatically believed them because you either think they’re a good, honest person or you believe they could be that dark and calculating to do something like this. It’s a fantastic story that is encapsulated in three episodes that keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way through.

At the end we see that the children of the missing woman are obviously using this documentary to talk about what is happening to her and hoping that they are able to get in contact with her because they miss her, and the production company is sent a letter supposedly from her herself saying that she is happy and in love with Robert and her kids could contact her any time and there is no issue, which to me is bone chilling because you can just picture Robert sitting at a desk writing that or forcing her to write it to try and put a shadow of doubt on these kids who just want the best for their mum. It’s absolutely terrifying and so engaging, and because it’s ongoing you want to know what happens in the end but there is no answer for that and may not be for many years.

I highly recommend this true crime documentary. For a while now I’ve been saying that I’ve been getting bored of the same sort of stories being put into true crime and how they always follow the same sort of glamorised serial killers that we already know. To go down a path like this with something that is so eerie and terrifying and could easily happen to any of us is fascinating to watch and I loved every second of it, even if it has left me reeling.

What do you think of the documentary?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding