The Shoe Fetish Murder: Documentary explains in detail how the horrific murder of Wendy Speakes was eventually solved

Mrs Speakes was brutally assaulted and murdered at her Wakefield home in March 1994 with her shoe fetish killer Christopher Farrow evading capture until the new millennium.

Forensics: Catching The Killer will feature Mrs Speakes’ daughter Tracey, who has fought since that fateful day for justice for her mother.

Her heart-breaking interview gives a glimpse into her world, a world that was broken in 1994.

Farrow managed to trick his way into the 51-year-old's home on Balne Lane just an hour after failing to get into the home of a 24-year-old woman it is believed he had stalked for days before.

He was only exposed as the killer six years later through advances in fingerprint technology.

Farrow, then a 33-year-old painter and decorator, made Mrs Speakes take off her slippers and wear a pair of blue mule shoes.

He forced her upstairs to her bedroom, where he gagged her and bound her hands with a pair of black stockings which he had bought that afternoon.

Farrow placed a pair of her black stilletto shoes on a bedside table before carrying out a sexual attack.

At the same time he stabbed Mrs Speakes, a divorcee who lived alone, nine times in the back and shoulders and twice in the neck.

Mrs Speakes was found at the foot of her bed in a pool of blood by two friends who became worried when she did not arrive for work the next morning.

The killer left a pair of black stockings tied in loops beside the bed and part of a candlewick bedspread which he used to gag her.

Farrow was arrested in March 2000 in connection with the murder after his fingerprints were matched to one found on the handle of Mrs Speakes's front door.

Advances in computer technology four years later allowed the comparison to be made to the partial print found at the murder scene.

Once he was identified as the main suspect, bloodstains found at the house were tested and showed there was a one in 30 million chance of it being from someone other than Farrow.

Farrow, of Cookridge, Leeds, was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court in November 2000.

He had been obliged to give his fingerprints after being arrested for drink driving in June, 1996.

The documentary, which airs tonight, Thursday, January 5 at 9pm on Sky Crime – repeated tomorrow night – will explain in detail how the horrific murder was eventually solved, with interviews from the detectives and the forensic scientist who helped solve the case.

Farrow was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court in November 2000 after pleading guilty to the rape and murder of Mrs Speakes and was told he must serve a minimum of 18 years in prison.

The killer’s recent parole board hearing has been postponed to April/May 2023.