Mums of Murderers, a new true-crime video series from Best, explores the consequences and judgments faced by those women whose children have committed terrible crimes.
The series, based on 18 months of research and hosted by Nick Ferrari, interviews four such women whose sons or daughters have been convicted of murder.
The second episode, which launched yesterday, can be seen above. It contains an in-depth interview with Lynn Reeves, whose son, former solder Collin Reeves, stabbed his neighbours to death after a row about parking.
Lynn believes that PTSD, brought about by Collin's 15 years of service in the Army, most recently in Afghanistan, was the reason for the tragic events.
"He hid it so well but he was suffering so much," she said. "He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t stand loud noise. He had trauma and he couldn’t release it. He’d never spoken about it to anybody, and I heard nothing about any of this until the trial. I feel guilty that we should have seen how he was suffering. Some people are evil but Collin’s not evil."
Police recording from the custody suit backs up her claim: Collin is visibly confused, telling officers that he was “just doing my job” and it was “an operation”.
What to Read Next
"I don’t think they [former soldiers] should be given a piece of paper at the end of their service – sign this, tick these points," said Lynn. "They won’t ask for help because they’re a soldier, who has to keep their emotions in and deal with situations."
On being contacted for comment, the Ministry of Defence issued the following statement: "We are committed to the military being a safe and supportive environment for all and we ensure that effective mental healthcare support is available to everyone.
"Veterans should be able to access the support they deserve and individuals can gain access to specialist medical care from the NHS through Op COURAGE in England. Veterans can also access specialist mental health services wherever they live in the UK.
"The MOD provides serving personnel mandatory mental health training, a 24-hour helpline with stress management training after traumatic incidents, and continued access to mental health support after leaving service."
Mums of Murderers is on Best's YouTube channel every Tuesday and is available as a podcast on all the usual platforms.
Editor, Digital Spy Chris has over 25 years' experience as a writer and editor, having worked as a journalist covering TV and movies since the '90s. Starting out as a TV listings editor at the Press Association, he was quickly hired by the nascent Heat magazine, where he rose to become Senior Editor, interviewing the likes of Simon Cowell, Boris Johnson and Paris Hilton. Over the years he has written about entertainment with clarity and wit for Heat, Elle, Q, The Telegraph and of course Digital Spy, and has served many times as a judge in the Royal Television Society awards. He has written and recorded a novelty single with Lord Lloyd-Webber, written scripts for the National TV Awards, made Noel Edmonds cry, accidentally punched an Inbetweener and stolen a small piece of rubble from the Battle of Hogwarts movie set. (They can't have it back.) LinkedIn
