More than thirty years on, the killing of Lambeth Council worker Bulic Forsythe remains one of the UK’s most high profile unsolved crimes.
His murder in 1993 triggered a major police inquiry, an appeal on the BBC’s Crimewatch UK and a succession of media investigations.
The latest is by Channel 4’s series In the Footsteps of Killers, which looks again at the brutal murder in Clapham, London in the first episode on Tuesday 17 June.
Presenters Silent Witness star Emilia Fox and criminologist Professor David Wilson will attempt to get the answers which have eluded those who have investigated previously – who killed him and why?
Emilia Fox and Professor David Wilson examine the murder of Bulic Forsythe in the Channel 4 series ‘In the Footsteps of Killers’ (Photo: Channel 4)Bulic Forsythe was last seen leaving his office at Lambeth Council on the evening of Wednesday 24 February 1993.
The 42-year-old was a manager in the housing department at the London local authority and among his roles at the council was management of premises used by social services across the borough.
He lived in a flat in Clapham, south London, and was about to become a parent with his wife Dawn.
On Thursday 25 February, Mr Forsythe failed to turn up for work.
In the early hours of Friday, witnesses reported hearing shouts and footsteps running away from the block of flats where he lived.
Soon afterwards, a fire was discovered spreading through his flat and his battered body was found in the bedroom.
He had been bludgeoned about the head. His cause of death was found to have been a fractured skull.
His murder resulted in an appeal for more information on Crimewatch UK in June the same year, using an artist’s impressions of two men seen with him.
But 32 years later, the crime remains unsolved.
What do we know about why Bulic Forsythe was killed?
Theories surrounding his death focused on a suspicion he may have been about to blow the whistle on an alleged paedophile ring operating on council premises.
In the 1993 Crimewatch appeal, it was revealed that three official-looking men were seen by a neighbour carrying files away from Mr Forsythe’s flat on the Thursday before his death.
And two more men were seen in a car behind the property in the afternoon.
In an interview with Sky News in 2015, Mr Forsythe’s daughter Kiddist, who was born three months after his death, said : “There are some faxes which point to him knowing something that was going on at work and he was getting ready to blow the whistle.”
There have been a string of investigations into allegations of abuse at Lambeth Council’s former children’s homes.
Met Police inquiry Operation Middleton in the 1990s and Operation Trinity from 2012-2015 investigated alleged offences of abuse committed against children in the care of Lambeth Council resulting in the convictions of several former employees including Leslie Paul in 2016. He was jailed in 2016 for 13 years for sexual offences against children in his care.
Then in July 2021 an Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), carried out by Justice Lowell Goddard, published a report on Children in the Care of Lambeth Council.
As part of the wide-ranging inquiry covering institutions across the UK, she looked at what had gone on at Lambeth Council from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Her executive summary stated: “It is hard to comprehend the cruelty and sexual abuse inflicted on children in the care of Lambeth Council over many years, by staff, by foster carers and their families, and by volunteers in residential settings.”
Lambeth Council said at the time that it wished to “re-state our sincere and heartfelt apology to all victims and survivors of abuse and neglect whilst in Lambeth’s care.”
It added: “The Council, which was responsible for their care and protection, failed to do so with profound consequences.
“The council is deeply sorry for their experiences.”
As part of the IICSA’s 2021 report, it was also revealed that the Met Police had carried out a recent review of Mr Forsythe’s death because of concerns that there was a connection between his employment at Lambeth Council and his murder.
No evidence of a connection was found in the review and the murder has remained unsolved.
The i Paper has approached Lambeth Council for comment in relation to Mr Forsythe’s employment at the local authority and his death.
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