Chapter 54 The Williams Case
The Williams Case
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The woman in the basement [Edit]
Upon arrest, the former NHS doctor Simon Williams was discovered to have been holding a woman, Anna Derwent, a former partner of Williams, captive in a purpose-built bunker beneath his home.
Williams had planned to murder and dismember Derwent’s body using implements police found in a room on the property.
Whilst the neighbor’s pet camera footage that initially alerted the police to a potential issue at the property was later declared inadmissible in court, it did lead investigators to raid the Williams residence and to the rescue of Ms. Derwent.
The extended basement of the property, on Lockheath Road, did not appear on structural plans, or surveys, when bought by Williams in 2020.
Around 2021, Williams, according to his own testimony, began uncovering and extending the existing underground space.
By 2023 he began converting the modified space into a self-contained unit, installing a toilet, rudimentary wash facilities, a bed, table, chair, and storage for dry and tinned food.
The room contained no television or radio, with the only connection to the outside world being a thin, partially obscured window. Both the window and the property’s large garden had been obscured from external view by tree and plant coverage, contributing to the late detection of the bunker.
Anna Derwent, the key witness in the trial, gave harrowing testimony of daily life during her yearlong imprisonment: kept in solitary confinement, Ms. Derwent would be visited by Williams multiple times a week.
During these visits he would bring food, and often gifts, in an attempt to uphold the illusion of a consensual relationship.
When the property was finally raided by the police, on July 14, 2025, Ms. Derwent was found, injured, over the unconscious body of Williams, after a near-successful attempt at escape.
Williams, having sustained severe injuries at the hands of Derwent in her bid for freedom, was rushed to hospital and, after a period of recovery, was subsequently able to stand trial for his crimes.
After her liberation, Ms. Derwent disappeared from public life, reappearing only briefly for the trial. It is believed she now lives in a different part of the UK, under another name.
The Murder of Melissa Craig [Edit]
During the investigation of the Williams residence and after statements given by Anna Derwent, police discovered personal items belonging to the 2005 missing sixth former Melissa Craig, linking Williams directly to her murder. [24]
Melissa Craig (born June 4, 1987), had met fellow student Williams whilst both were sixth-form students at Leewood High School. The relationship soured shortly after Craig’s acceptance into university.
Melissa went missing in early 2005, at age eighteen, less than three months after starting a relationship with Williams, and was never seen again. [25]
Her disappearance was initially believed to have taken place sometime between leaving school and returning home, the alarm being raised by Melissa’s mother after she failed to return home after scheduled music practice. [26]
No leads in the investigation into Melissa’s disappearance were found at the time, though an ongoing appeal, spearheaded by Melissa’s parents, Philip and Nicola Craig, eventually brought to light new information five years after Melissa’s disappearance.
It wasn’t until thirteen years after her disappearance that Melissa’s remains were discovered over 545 miles away in the remote Scottish location of Knoydart. [28]
At trial, it was heard that after an argument between Craig and Williams, a scuffle ensued that resulted in Melissa sustaining blunt-force trauma to her skull.
Fearful of consequences, Williams then ended Melissa’s life with repeated and systematic blunt-force trauma.
In order to dispose of the body, Williams drove Craig’s remains over 545 miles toward the coastal peninsula of Knoydart, in the Scottish Highlands.
Knoydart, only accessible via a two-day hike, is where Williams left the remains after burning them in dense woodland off the trail.
Additional cases [Edit]
After the discovery and liberation of Anna Derwent, an investigation was quickly opened into the believed suicide of Anna Derwent’s sixty-five-year-old mother, Cynthia Derwent, during Anna’s captivity.
Mrs. Derwent, a former air stewardess, seemingly died of self-inflicted injuries in her Croydon-based home. Later it emerged that she, too, had been murdered by Williams in an attempt to stop further investigation into her daughter’s disappearance.
Mrs. Derwent had repeatedly demanded the police open an investigation into Anna’s disappearance, citing the existence of an unknown boyfriend who she feared might in some way be involved.
Williams was also tried, and convicted, for the attempted murder of an anonymous woman, Victim B, who maintained her right to anonymity throughout the trial and aftermath.
It was heard that Williams drugged and staged Victim B’s death, after her discovery of the bunker on Williams’s property.
The victim, who narrowly avoided death at Williams’s hands, was saved by an observant neighbor, who managed to rescue Victim B and perform lifesaving measures before emergency services arrived on the scene. [30]
Sentencing [Edit]
On May 22, 2026, Williams was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences with a whole life order, the most robust sentencing possible under UK law.
The judge, Mr. Justice Landsborough, said that Williams’s crimes “show a complete disregard for female life, along with a chilling level of calculation after his crimes and a clear sadistic desire as a medical professional to play God with human lives.” Landsborough concluded that “I, in no way, sensed any remorse in the defendant, only a worrying level of self-perceived victimhood. I have no doubt that Simon Williams would kill again if not placed under whole life order.” [7]