A former Chief of Police has warned true crime fans against watching crime documentaries because “it’s an instruction manual” for the next killer on how to get away with murder as twisted Welsh crime is revisited.
Back in December 1984, Presbyterian minister Emyr Owen was arrested for mutilating corpses of three men in his chapel of rest in Tywyn prior to burial. When police searched his property, officers discovered stash of gay pornography, books on cannibalism and human sacrifice, handcuffs, dental extractors and ropes as well as photographs of severed genitalia.
The clergyman pleaded guilty to the horrific crime and was sentenced four years behind bars, after which he lived out the rest of his days in Llandudno before he died in 2001 at the age of 78. Now, more than forty years on, documentary maker Rhys Evans has taken a deep dive inside the chilling case in his new documentary produced with Docshed in association with S4C.
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In an exclusive interview with Daily Star as the horrific crime, the filmmaker has reassured fans that terrifying crime will not happen again in the future. When asked if he feared there could be any copycat crimes could come from the film, Rhys said: “I would certainly hope not.
“We’re doing another documentary – I'd better not say what it is actually – but it’s another documentary about a murder and we invited the chief detective on the case. He said he doesn’t like documentaries about murders going out because it’s like an instruction manual for the next murderer on how to get away with it.
“So he’s not very keen on taking part in documentaries, but this is totally different.” However, documentary contributor and former minister John Sam Jones isn’t convinced, after he warned viewers that the gruelling crime “could happen again” if society didn’t change its ways.
He told us: “I think there are documented cases of very religious people who realise that they are gay or transgender which has led to genital self-mutilation. And what I think we had with Emyr Owen was that he transferred those feelings of hate towards his own genitals to the genitals of a dead body.”
When the former minister was asked if he thinks the horrific crime could happen again, he immediately said yes. He insisted: “Yes. I think it could happen again because whilst society has moved on and it’s far more accepting to be gay and lesbian, we’ve seen how negative the British community can be where trans issues are concerned in these last few years.
“The vindictiveness of the hate seems to be flowing around transitions. So yes, I think a disturbed person could in fact, sometime in the future, do something similar again.
“But I think it might be responded to differently the next time,” he added. The director pointed out that up until now, there was only one documentary made at the time that explored his case, which Rhys argues was filmed through a “homophobic lens.”
He argued: “We knew that some people would be upset by this story being resurrected. The only justification for this is that we were looking at it with fresh eyes and with non-homophobic eyes.
“There was a programme made in 1992 about him, but I think it was quite homophobic, it was filmed through a homophobic lens. So, I think we’re the first people to actually look at his story with modern eyes.
“Our aim is to try to find out why Emyr Owen did what he did. We look at the cause and his upbringing through a modern lens and lift a mirror to the less tolerant chapel society of Wales of the last century."
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The producer went on to add that his biggest worry was that the film would let the late minister “off the hook too easily”. He went on: “I think my biggest worry that I had was that we weren’t letting him off the hook too easily because what he did was absolutely terrible, abhorrent even.
“There are still lots of very, very upset families around the Tywyn area. What was worse is that they didn’t let the families know.
“So there’s an entire generation of people in Tywyn now that aren’t quite sure if it was one of their relatives that was mutilated. So we were careful not to let him off the hook too easily, but then we were also sympathetic because once you know the history, it’s a very, very sad story.”
The Rev premieres exclusively on the Icon Film Channel from 9 October. Followed by all major UK digital platforms from 8 January 2024.
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