When police were called to an ordinary semi-detached home in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, over reports of a murder, all assumed it was a clear-cut case of a burglary gone wrong.
Smashed glass was strewn over the floor, while a sports bag on a table was half-filled with valuables including a gaming console and glassware.
Paul Gault with his wife Lesley and their triplets[/caption]
Jonathan Gault, son of Paul Gault, in The Crime I Can’t Forget[/caption]
Police search the scene of the crime[/caption]
Upstairs in the bedroom lay the blood-covered body of 34-year-old Paul Gault – propped up against the wall with his head smashed in, and a stained hockey stick beside him.
Pushing past the police cordon, his father, Paddy rushed in to cradle his son one final time.
It seemed the murder, in May 2000, was a case of wrong place, wrong time.
But as police delved into the private lives of the victim and wife Lesley, another picture emerged.
Neighbours told police about the mysterious fireman who’d been paying visits to Paul’s wife, Lesley, behind his back – creating an intriguing picture of a love triangle at the heart of the mystery.
But in the midst of this tragedy were three young triplets, aged just five – one of whom, Jonathan, has now spoken out about his ordeal following his father’s murder.
“You always think one day they’ll come back. I think as a child you have that imagination,” he said. “And then as time goes on, you’re told that your father won’t be coming back.
“When you’re young, you think life is going to be normal and perfect for everyone – but as a kid back then, I knew things were very different in my family.
“The thought of people hurting other people, the fact that someone could hurt someone, as a kid that didn’t make any sense to me.”
Now, this dramatic tale of lust and murder is being examined in the BBC documentary The Crime I Can’t Forget, set to air tonight on BBC2.
Horror scene
Police were shocked after discovering Paul’s brutalized body in the bedroom of the family home.
“I made my way upstairs, looked through the bedroom door, and saw a quite horrific scene,” recalls James Speers, the lead forensic scientist on the case.
“There was blood splattered, bits of brain, skull on the floor, almost like a tin of paint exploding in the room.”
It wasn’t long before Detective Inspector Roy McComb started asking questions about how exactly this terrifying struggle had come to pass.
He said: “How does this completely unknown person, with no police history, no criminal record, zero police intelligence about him, suddenly end up beaten to death in the privacy of his own bedroom?.”
The smashed glass and ransacked draws pointed towards a break in – one that Paul was unlucky enough to end up falling victim to – though DNA results from the bloody hockey stick beside him were inconclusive.
By chance, the next door neighbour had been in the bedroom adjoining the semi-detached property and had heard the muffled struggle through the walls, allowing police to pin down the time of the attack to between 9am and 9:09am.
Police then spoke with Lesley, who explained her husband had taken that day off work ahead of them taking a weekend break together, and that in morning they’d dropped off the kids at school then returned home before she headed off alone to see her parents.
But something wasn’t adding up.
Lesley Gault and her five-year-old triplets at her husband Paul’s funeral[/caption]
If this was a robbery gone wrong, why was the bag they’d supposedly filled with valuables left behind?
“When you look at something like that, you think, is this right? Does this feel like how burglaries have taken place?” said DI McComb.
“Instinctively, the idea that we had a burglary that the very items the burglar was supposed to take, who would then carry out a most horrific murder, and would then leave the items, just didn’t seem to square.”
Something else unusual showed up when forensics examined the glass.
“Normally, you would just find the pane has been totally obliterated, perhaps by someone putting a brick through it or an iron bar – but on this occasion, the glass has been scored before the glass was broken,” explained DI McComb.
“So the conclusion we reached, was that the person who had carried out the murder had staged the crime scene.”
Secret lover
Neighbours also informed police about a mysterious fireman who always seemed to be popping round the moment Paul left for work.
They identified him as Gordon Graham – a senior officer in the fire service and a colleague of Lesley’s.
Soon it became apparent that the pair were conducting a sordid affair behind Paul’s back – once even being caught undressed at a work function.
Lesley was once again in line for a questioning.
“She admitted that she had been having an affair,” said DI McComb, “but that the affair had ended on May 1st when Paul became aware of it.”
Paul had overheard a conversation between the pair, leading to a long day of discussion for the couple, ending in an agreement that they were to stay together – and that Gordon was out the picture.
That night, Paul called Gordan with the words: “It’s over, she’s staying with me. I win.”
“If that conversation had happened, it would’ve been like a red flag to a bull,” said DI McComb.
“This couple had had a very tempestuous, very vivid love affair – not only was this the backdrop to the murder, but it was the motivation.”
Gordon Graham had a strong alibi[/caption]
Lesley Gault was branded a femme fatale over the deadly affair[/caption]
When police spoke to Gordon, he came back with a seemingly solid alibi – that he’d left work and walked down the street before turning round – one that was backed up with computer login data and shop receipts.
One part, however, wasn’t quite proven. Where was he between 9am and 9:09am that morning?
If Gordon was to be believed, he was walking down a busy shopping street at this time.
But after detectives scoured CCTV, he was nowhere to be seen.
“There’s suddenly a moment when you’re heartbeat rises,” recalled DI McComb..
“He’s given us an alibi, been very clear and firm in his commitment to this alibi and now we have effectively broken that alibi.”
Gordan’s guilt was sealed when forensics teams found a tiny particle of glass from the kitchen door in his shirt – direct evidence linking him to the crime scene.
Items in the Gaults’ home were also found to be placed on top of blood spatters, a clear sign the break in was staged.
But if this was an ambush, how did Gordan know that Paul would be at home, not at work like he normally was?
Only one person would have been able to make it all come together – Lesley herself.
Detective Inspector Roy McComb speaks in the documentary[/caption]
Paddy Gault hugged his son’s lifeless body[/caption]
She’d arranged for Paul to be off work, had taken him to drop off the kids so Gordan was able to enter to prepare his ambush, and she’d left the house leaving him on his own.
On June 20th, just over a month after Paul was found dead, Lesley and Gordan were arrested.
“She always proclaimed her innocence and we believed her – a lot of people didn’t,” said her son, Jonathan.
“Me and my mum talked about it. She said, if I’m not here to pick you up, your grandparents will be.
“I remember always thinking as a kid, if she goes away, I’ll see her in 15, 18 years.”
The pair were put to a joint trial which began on September 17th, 2002.
Lesley leaving court after she was cleared of any involvement with the murder[/caption]
Gordon Graham leaving Lisburn magistrates court after being charged with the murder of Paul Gault[/caption]
Both pleaded not guilty – but love letters between the pair revealed just how close Lesley and Gordan were.
Gordan frequently spoke not only of how much he hated Paul, but of a future in which Paul would be out of the picture.
“Soon my love, we will escape the things that temporarily trap us. We will never regret the step we’re about to take,” read one passion-filled love letter from Gordon Graham to Lesley Gault.
“I hate, hate, hate him mistreating and abusing someone that I’m so in love with,” Graham also wrote in a notebook.
His fate was sealed when DNA tests showed him to be the owner of the sports bag at the centre of the crime scene – and found guilty.
But the jury couldn’t decide about Lesley. There would have to be a second trial.
“After what happened, she didn’t really leave the house,” remembers Jonathan, still a young boy at the time.
Many times, sitting with my mother, she would just break down and cry
Jonathan Gault
In February 2003, her second trial began. With Gordan now in jail, she told her side of the story – how she hated him, that he’d destroyed her family and that she feels morally guilty for Paul’s death and for getting involved with Gordan in the first place.
But it was to no avail. The jury were convinced she had conspired against Paul – and found her guilty, sentencing her to life.
But she refused to give up her fight, even from behind prison bars, and lodged appeal after appeal.
Eventually, one technical legal point proved to be her lucky break, when it was found the judge had misdirected the jury.
It was September 2004 and Lesley Gault was on trial for a third time for her husband’s murder.
Gordon Graham was caught by DNA evidence after initially getting away with the crime.[/caption]
She was found not guilty – and went home a free woman.
“My mother kept a good attitude, positive about things, but I know deep down that she would’ve been scared,” said Jonathan.
“It wasn’t until I got older that she told me how terrifying prison actually was.
“I remember the headmaster taking me and my two sisters out and saying your mother’s getting released today. That was a good day,” he added.
Lesley was, thankfully, no longer trapped in a jail.
Lesley Gault and new husband Jeremy Burke[/caption]
But now she had to go back and live in a community that for years had seen her face over the front pages, branded a murderer.
For Jonathan, the trauma led him to turning to drink and drugs in his teenage years.
“My mother couldn’t get a job. A lot of places she would try and work at, people would say that they already knew who she was,” he said.
“Growing up, we were very very poor. People made fun of the clothes that I was wearing. I was super depressed as a kid – basically an outcast in my own community.
“I got angry about everything – the situation, the courts, the man who took my father’s life. I felt the world was unfair.
“It really came down on me in my late teenage years – drinking, drugs. My mother would always tell me, ‘I didn’t think I’d see you live to 18’.”
Jonathan eventually got himself sober, still processing the grief and anger he felt growing up.
His mother, Lesley, remarried and moved away from Lisburn with new husband Jeremy Burke, to set up a Pentecostal church in Co Leitrim, while Gordan Graham served an 18-year sentence and was released in 2021.
“I still go and visit his grave regularly. I can’t talk about these things without getting emotional” added Jonathan.
“If my father could speak to me, he’d say these things happen, it’s time to move forward. Life is worth living.
“My father wouldn’t want me sitting in a corner, crying about this every day. My father would want me to live my life.”
The Crime I Can’t Forget airs on BBC2 tonight
