Silent Witness - Season 18

The sniper plays a macabre game of cat and mouse with police, while Jack forms a friendship with the teenage son of one of the victims, offering sympathy and support. Thomas tries to ensure the safety of his daughter Rosie and estranged wife Julia amidst growing public fear, while fighting his urge to interfere in their lives. Nikki and Jack look closer at the targets to reveal the hidden motive of the killer. The investigation is scaled up by DCI Jane De Freitas, but it's Jack's shocking discovery at one of the victims' homes that leads the team to the perpetrator.

Nikki and Jack investigate a man run down and killed by a train. When a female vicar is then murdered after being followed on the underground, the team faces the difficult prospect of building a case against her distraught husband. Nikki forms a bond with high-flying DI Luke Nelson, impressed by his intelligence and compassion. He asks her to help re-evaluate the details of his father's murder when he was a child. When a young roofer is stalked and brutally killed on his journey home, Nelson and the Lyell team identify a suspect on the tube cameras who links the murders, and a full-scale manhunt is launched.

Tension on the tube network threatens to boil over, and security is stepped up. The accidental verdict in the first death is called into question and the witnesses are brought in for interview. Amongst them is Lana Sutherland, a young hotel worker who has taken in a homeless man, Owen. DI Nelson lets Lana slip through the net before he realizes she may be harboring a dangerous killer. Nikki helps Nelson unearth the mystery of his father's death, allowing him to confront and resolve the childhood memories that haunt him. He refocuses on the case and, with Jack and Nikki, discovers the missing key that links the victims.

When suspected pedophile Dale Barge is found murdered in a children's playground, Nikki and Jack are brought in by inexperienced detective Rory Drennan. It's not long before the team link Barge's death to a missing child, Lizzie Craddock. Jack teams up with Child Protection DI, hard-nosed Gina Conroy. They put pressure on Lizzie's parents, Johnnie and Cheryl, to try to find her. Lizzie's social worker Louise is brought in to help, and Nikki encourages her to stay positive when she blames herself for Lizzie's disappearance.

Daniel Garvey is found dead in his car and social worker Louise fears that he may have been killed by his sixteen-year-old stepson Kevin, who has just come out of care. Nikki, Jack and Thomas focus in on Lizzie Craddock's movements on the night of Barge's murder. Jack and DI Gina Conroy discover Lizzie's last known location, but fear what they may find there. Louise comes under further pressure when she is forced to make a call on whether a sick child, Ricky Mansfield, is being abused by his parents.