A former police officer who worked on the case of Stephanie Slater's kidnap has given the reason he thinks killer Michael Sams let Stephanie go despite murdering Leeds teen Julie Dart.
But the officer's explanation about the killing of Julie, 18, was dubbed 'victim blaming' by a viewer of the second part of Channel 5's documentary The Girl In The Box: The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater on Wednesday night.
During the second part of the documentary, viewers heard how kidnapped Stephanie had possibly saved her own life due to the strategy she adopted with her kidnapper.
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He strung her arms up all night so that she couldn't feel her arms, and he left her with blood draining.
He also told her there were live electrics so she couldn't touch anything or she'd be electrocuted and raped her.
Viewers were told: "Every minute she must have feared for her life. In response, her only way was to keep appeasing the man who was a major threat to her."
"She did as she was told, she didn't try and fight, she didn't argue. I think that's what saved her life, that she didn't try and fight."
A recording was then played of Stephanie's voice: "I was chatting to him, making him see me as another human being rather than see me as just another person he could lock up or kill or whatever, and I would say something and he would laugh and I would think 'yes, I'm getting on with him and he's not gonna kill me'.
John Plimmer, Head of Intelligence at West Midlands Police, then said: "Julie Dart was totally different, I should imagine. She would have argued, and that was probably the difference between the two girls that resulted in Julie's death and Stephanie's survival."
A mix of narration and former police detectives explained how Stephanie had tried to 'joke' with him and connect with her kidnapper and had said she was thinking 'great, I've made him laugh, maybe he won't kill me'.
Viewers were told her attempts to connect to him to appear as a human rather than someone he could kill could have saved her, while others may have argued back.
Of course, Sims was found guilty of the murder of Julie Dart and viewers thought the description of how Stephanie avoided being killed was 'victim blaming' of murdered Julie.
@debsnape said: "Victim blaming AGAIN on the doc about Stephanie Slater. Apparently Stephanie survived because she was complicit with her kidnapper. Julie Dart died because she argued with him. Nowt to do with the murdering psychopath who kidnapped them both then".
But others said they had found the two-part documentary insightful.
@wistfulcass said: "Incredible two-parter: #TheGirlInTheBox about #Police investigation into kidnapping of #StephanieSlater on @channel5_tv Back in the day when #Police cared & went to ends of earth to find missing people. Acknowledged their errors & tried to correct them."
Stephanie, aged 25, had been lured to a property in Turnberry Road, Great Barr, abducted and taken to a warehouse where Keighley-born Sams handcuffed and blindfolded her before locking her inside a makeshift coffin. Slater later told police Sams had threatened to electrocute her if she tried to move.
She was held for eight days and allowed out of the coffin for food. Hoping to increase her chances of survival by "humanising" herself, she would use those breaks to chat to Sams.
Speaking in a later interview, Stephanie said: "Don't get me wrong, I was terrified every single time I spoke to him. I thought 'I hope I don't say the wrong thing and make him angry'."
Little did Stephanie know at the time, she was Sams' second victim. The Keighley heating engineer had previously kidnapped and murdered Julie Dart, an 18-year-old sex worker from Leeds.
In 2017, Stephanie sadly died from cancer aged just 50. Her kidnapper, Michael Sams, remains behind bars to this day.
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