What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
Lucy Letby, a former neonatal nurse, reportedly murdered seven newborns and attempted to murder six others in her care between June 2015 and June 2016. She was finally arrested in 2020 following a lengthy investigation and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2023.
During the night of August 6-7, 1985, three generations of Jeremy Bamber's family were killed. Police initially believed it was a murder-suicide committed by Sheila Caffell, Bamber's sister, who suffered from schizophrenia.
Dennis Nilsen was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile who murdered up to 15 young men in his London home between 1978 and 1983. His crimes were only uncovered when a drain outside his home became blocked by the human remains he had tried to dispose of.
Beverley Allitt, nicknamed the "Angel of Death," was a nurse convicted of murdering four babies in her care at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in 1993. She is serving 13 life sentences for her horrific crimes.
Jimmy Savile, a former radio DJ and TV personality, is one of the most notorious pedophiles in British history. Saville preyed on around 500 vulnerable victims over approximately 60 years. It wasn't until after his death that a police investigation uncovered his crimes, and the extent of his offending finally became public knowledge.
On August 6, relatives and local residents marched to Tottenham Police Station and requested information from police about the circumstances of Duggan's death. Not a single senior officer came out to talk with the family. As crowds gathered, conflict with the police ensued, resulting in riots in cities across the UK.
On the evening of March 3, 2021, Sarah Everard was abducted, assaulted, and murdered by Wayne Couzens, a serving Metropolitan Police officer who used his warrant card to kidnap her. Eight incidents of indecent exposure were reported to the police before Couzens killed Sarah, but they were overlooked.
On the evening of May 22, 2017, as people were leaving an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, Salman Abedi detonated an improvised explosive device, killing 22 concert-goers and parents who were waiting at the entrance to pick up their children after the show.
The London bombings on July 7, 2005, or 7/7 bombings, involved four coordinated suicide attacks carried out by terrorists. The bombers targeted London's transport network, killing 52 people and injuring over 770 others. Three of the blasts happened on the London Underground.
On July 1, 2000, eight-year-old Sarah Payne went missing after playing with her siblings. A desperate search ensued for 16 days before Sarah's body was discovered in a shallow grave. Roy Whiting, a convicted pedophile, was found guilty of Sarah's abduction and murder.
On April 22, 1993, Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack by a gang of white men while he was waiting for the bus. Although some suspects were charged with Stephen's murder, charges were dropped before trial. An inquiry into Stephen's killing and the police investigation found the Metropolitan Police were institutionally racist.
On February 12, 1993, two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in Merseyside, North West England. Thompson and Venables were found guilty, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history.
British serial killer Harold Shipman worked as a general practitioner (family physician) from 1970 until his arrest in 1998. While practicing as a doctor, he killed between 215 and 260 of his patients, injecting them with lethal doses of painkillers.
Over three weekends between April 17 and 30, 1999, 22-year-old Neo-Nazi militant David Copeland detonated homemade nail bombs in Brixton in South London, culminating in four deaths, including an unborn baby. The bombings targeted Black, Bangladeshi, and LGBTQ+ communities.
On August 19, 1987, 16 people were killed, and 15 more were injured by 27-year-old Michael Ryan in what was the UK's worst mass shooting to date. He turned the gun on himself after the massacre and no firm motive for the killings has ever been established.
Couple Fred and Rose West were responsible for some of the most horrific killings in the UK. Between them, they were responsible for the torture and murder of 12 women and young girls, including two members of their own family.
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 left London's Heathrow Airport and headed for New York City. Just north of the England-Scotland border, a planted terrorist bomb exploded, killing everyone on board (259 passengers and crew) and 11 residents of Lockerbie, Scotland.
Mary Bell was just 10 years of age when she became a serial killer, strangling four-year-old Martin Brown to death. Two months later, she brutally killed three-year-old Brian Howe. She is Britain's youngest female killer.
Between July 1963 and October 1965, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley tortured and killed five children in what came to be known as the Moors Murders, due to the couple's practice of burying their victims on the desolate Saddleworth Moor in North West England.
On March 13, 1996, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton opened fire in Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, near Stirling, Scotland. Hamilton murdered 16 pupils and one teacher and injured 15 others before killing himself. The event remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history.
Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, killed at least 13 women in the North of England between 1975 and 1980. Despite a project involving thousands of police officers, the investigators missed vital clues, ignored crucial evidence, chased false leads, and failed to catch Sutcliffe for almost six years.
Airey Neave was a Conservative MP and shadow cabinet minister. He was assassinated as he drove his car out of the car park under the House of Commons on March 30, 1979. A bomb planted under his vehicle was detonated as he went up the exit ramp.
On the night of July 9, 1982, Michael Fagan climbed a Buckingham Palace drainpipe and broke into the bedroom of Queen Elizabeth II. He later confessed it was the second time he had broken into the supposedly ‘impregnable’ palace.
The Great Train Robbery was the hijack of a London-bound mail train and the theft of millions of pounds. Those responsible for the train robbery were a 15-strong gang of thieves and conspirers. The most famous member is Ronnie Biggs, who escaped from London's Wandsworth prison in 1965.
The incident was the only murder of a politician ever to occur inside the Houses of Parliament. Although the Irish National Liberation Army, a breakaway group from the Provisional IRA, claimed responsibility, no one has ever been convicted of the murder.
Suspicions grew around Bamber after he told obscene jokes at the funeral, eventually leading to his arrest a month after the murders.
On August 4, 2011, 29-year-old Mark Duggan, who was believed to be in possession of a gun, was shot dead by a police officer. Pathologists concluded Duggan, who was black, must have thrown the gun before being shot, yet police claim he fired first.
On July 29, 2024, 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana stabbed Bebe King, aged 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged 7, and 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar to death while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport. The incident sparked racist far-right riots across the UK.
Sources: (The Mirror) (BBC) (The Standard)
Jack the Ripper, also known as the Whitechapel Murderer, was an unidentified serial killer who committed eleven brutal murders in the Whitechapel district of East London. The case is one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in English history.
This gallery offers a chilling look at some of the most shocking crimes in British history. Click through now to discover more.
While walking home from soccer practice on August 22, 2007, eleven-year-old Rhys Jones was tragically killed in the crossfire of a gangland shooting. After months of investigations and arrests, 18-year-old Sean Mercer was found guilty of murder.
On August 4, 2002, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing after they left a family barbecue. The girls were lured into caretaker Ian Huntley's home, who murdered them in cold blood. Huntley became heavily involved in the search for the pair, even claiming in a television interview to be holding on to a "glimmer of hope" that the girls would be found safe.
Southport stabbings to 7/7: The crimes that shook Britain
Do you remember these shocking events?
LIFESTYLE True crime
From terror attacks and political assassinations to child murders, some of the worst crimes imaginable have sent shockwaves through Britain over the decades. News of the harrowing details rippled through millions of homes and workplaces across the country. Some of these heinous crimes date back to 1888, while the most recent occurred in the summer of 2024.
This gallery offers a chilling look at some of the most shocking crimes in British history. Click through now to discover more.