File on 4 Investigates
Episodes
Probation in peril
04 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Probation Service is meant to protect the public by monitoring released prisoners and offenders on community sentences - helping them to stay out...
Rental Health: The Social Housing Perfect Storm?
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Social housing providers say they are under more financial pressure than ever before. The sector has warned long-term Government funding cuts and the...
Punished for being mentally ill
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Suicide or attempted suicide is not a criminal offence. But, as Adrian Goldberg discovers, mentally ill people are still being punished for attempts t...
Missing Migrant Children
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
200 children have gone missing from hotels used by the Home Office to temporarily house lone asylum seekers. File on 4 investigates what’s being do...
Looking for Levi
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Levi Davis - a 24-year-old rugby player and X-Factor star went missing in Barcelona at the end of October last year. He’s not been seen or heard fro...
Firefighters on Trial
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A damning report into the culture of London Fire Brigade found a toxic mix of racism, sexism, misogyny and bullying. Launched after a young firefighte...
Three Friends
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
They were born in the same month of the same year: Emily, Nadia, and Christie. The three young women who lived close to each other in the North East ...
Living with Andrew Tate
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A British woman tells File on 4 about her relationship with controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate, claiming that he pressurised her to wor...
Learning to survive: The School Fighting the Cost of Living Crisis
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode tells the story of a primary school on the frontline of the cost of living crisis, a school doing more than most to make sure children ar...
Catastrophe at the Academy
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
File on 4 investigates events that led to the death of two people at London's Brixton O2 Academy in December. The venue was shut down after the fatal ...
Abandoned in Afghanistan
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
18 months after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, File on 4 hears from people still stuck in hiding; their names blacklisted because of the work th...
How did my child die? The crisis in paediatric pathology
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The death of a child causes parents’ unimaginable grief, but this is being exacerbated by long delays to post mortem reports due to a shortage of pa...
Cost of Living Forcing Children into Care
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The cost of living crisis is placing huge pressure on families across the country, many of whom were already living in poverty and struggling to make ...
Albanian Exodus
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Their country is not at war and it's not ruled by an authoritarian regime, yet thousands of young Albanians are making the dangerous journey across th...
High Anxiety: The Deadly Trade in Street Valium
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
They’re cheap – but they’re also deadly. Illegal pills costing as little as 50p each are contributing to the deaths of hundreds of people each y...
Roblox: A Dangerous Game?
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before Covid the US gaming platform Roblox was one of many online games children played. Following lockdown and millions of children isolating at home...
Is the Patient Breathing?
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From the harrowing 999 calls of people waiting for an ambulance to the paramedics stretched to breaking point, File on 4 goes on the frontline of the ...
The Brain Drain
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Kenyon investigates the ‘brain drain’ of doctors from developing countries to work in the UK. The large scale recruitment of foreign doctors ...
Leicester: Behind the Divide
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Leicester is one of the most diverse cities in England – often presented as a shining example multi-cultural Britain. But tensions between some fact...
Isobel's Story
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There are concerns that British victims of trafficking are less likely than foreign nationals to receive Home Office support to escape exploitation. M...
Justice on Trial
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It was to be one of the most ambitious just reform programmes in the world – a ‘common platform’ that would share information between the courts...
Assaulted by my massage therapist
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The massage industry has bounced back since covid, but File on 4 investigates the darker side of this industry. Hannah Price speaks to women who were ...
Ukraine War Stories: What Happened Next?
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2022, File on 4 told the stories of six people whose lives were changed forever by war in Ukraine. They were not soldiers, activists or polit...
Children’s Homes: Profits Before Care?
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Last month an independent children’s social care review concluded that providing care for children in residential homes 'should not be based on prof...
Dementia: The Final Indignity
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Around 800,000 people have dementia in the UK. For those suffering from the illness, incontinence can often be seen an inevitable consequence - but th...
Sibling Sexual Abuse: The Last Taboo?
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With exclusive access to research – the first of its kind – reporter Livvy Haydock investigates what could be the most common form of sexual abuse...
Gambling on Justice
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gambling is a multi-billion pound industry which is facing change. For years there has been mounting concern that in the digital era betting companie...
Ukraine: The Disinformation War
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia’s response to accusations of war crimes in Ukraine has been to blame the Ukrainians of bombing their own side. Some people here in the UK hav...
Searching Questions
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why are a disproportionate number of black children being strip searched? File on 4 hears from teenagers taken in for a ‘strippy’ so often, it’s...
Ukraine: Taking in the Trauma
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
More than 150 thousand people have signed up to the UK’s ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme - hoping to open their doors to those desperately fleeing th...
Locking Up the Sick
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Almost half of all the seriously mentally ill people in prison assessed as needing hospital treatment are being refused the help they need. In this ep...
Ukraine: War Stories
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Day by day, hour by hour, people all over Ukraine tell the story of the Russian invasion. We hear from people packing up and leaving with their childr...
Controlling My Birth Control
08 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Reproductive coercion: a form of abuse you've probably never heard of.From deliberately sabotaging contraceptives to forcing someone to have an aborti...
The Paedophile Preacher
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
File on 4 tells the story of a charismatic preacher on the run from British police for child sex offences. Three years ago, File on 4 tracked him down...
Subscription Scams
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From pills that resolve chronic pain issues overnight to diet supplements which promise to help shed pounds in days, the internet is awash with advert...
A First Class Scandal
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two years ago File on 4 investigated how a computer system, called Horizon, was behind what has now become one of the biggest miscarriages of justice ...
Drink spiking
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After an alarming rise in complaints of drink spiking last year, and reports of people being injected with syringes, Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to w...
Missing Evidence
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Cowan investigates the consequences for victims of crime and those accused of offences when crucial evidence goes missing or is lost by police...
Deadly Delays: The Ambulance Crisis
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Record ambulance delays are leaving patients waiting hours for emergency care to arrive with waiting times increasing every month. Some patients wait ...
Mental health rehab - the forgotten patients
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The NHS is sending patients with the most complex mental health needs to spend months or even years in specialist rehabilitation units, with the promi...
Hunting the Darknet Dealers
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The high stakes cat and mouse game between police and darknet drug dealers Police say they are finally turning the tide on drug dealers selling on th...
Am I in a Cult?
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How do you know if you’ve been recruited by a cult? Rachel Stonehouse investigates claims there are up to 2,000 cults currently operating in the UK....
Who is policing the police?
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With the murder of Sarah Everard shining a light on police vetting procedures, File on 4 reveals that thousands of officers have still not been re-vet...
Furlough Fraud
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An estimated £66 billion was spent by the government during the pandemic on paying towards the wages of people who couldn’t work, or whose employer...
Controlled, Abused and Criminalised
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Livvy Haydock investigates whether women are being unfairly treated by the criminal justice system when coercive and controlling behaviour by a partne...
For Richer, For Poorer
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With an ageing population, it’s estimated that over one million people in the UK will be living with dementia by 2025. But what happens when someo...
Pandora Papers: From Bribery to the British High Street
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Amongst the millions of documents released in the ‘Pandora Papers’ leak of offshore financial information are a number of documents that one famil...
Occupational Hazard: The bus drivers who died from Covid
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
During the pandemic, it’s been one of the most dangerous occupations in the land, with a death rate similar to that of frontline nurses. Sixty Londo...
Mental Health Profiteers
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mental health profiteers: The dark world of online anxiety ‘cures’. Jane Deith and Jordan Dunbar investigate the rogue operators exploiting the lo...
Hush Money: the Rise and Fall of an International Fraudster
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
File on 4 reveals the inside story of Ramon Abbas, one of a new breed of prolific global cyber fraudsters. As Abbas awaits sentencing in the US for mo...
Tackling Online Abuse in Football
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When three black England footballers missed penalties in the Euro 2020 football final they were bombarded with online racist abuse. The Football Assoc...
Held to Ransom
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The extraordinary story of a UK schools group which took on a cyber ransomware gang. The Harris Federation seems an unlikely target for ransomware cri...
Acts of Abuse
06 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Allegations of bullying and sexual harassment against the actor and film maker Noel Clarke have led to an industry-wide examination of the culture wit...
A Death Sentence?
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A death sentence? The inmates dying after poor prison healthcare. More prisoners are dying in jail – even after you account for the growing - and ...
Contracts of Interest
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an urgent need for a range of new government contracts which resulted in billions of pounds of public money being spent u...
Above the law?
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Since reporting on a story about police abuses earlier this year reporter Anna Adams has been inundated with calls and messages from women all telling...
The Cost of Care
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
File on 4 investigates the new challenges of providing home care during the Covid-19 pandemic - with some recipients seeing their care costs increased...
Leaseholder Losses
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The government recently introduced new laws to protect leaseholders from large ground rent increases. But campaigners say more widespread changes are ...
Sexual Abuse in Schools
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2016 the House of Common’s Women and Equalities Committee published a report into sexual harassment and abuse between pupils in British schools. ...
The Cost of Long Covid
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Latest figures show more than a million people in Britain are suffering from long Covid. For many the condition is completely debilitating. The extrem...
Britain's Ghost Companies
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tens of thousands of men and women in some of the poorest parts of the Philippines are being recruited to be directors of companies based in the UK. C...
The Asylum Business - the UK's hidden housing crisis
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The multi-billion pound AASC contract is the Government's ten-year blueprint for how those seeking asylum in the UK are treated while they await a yes...
The Disinformation Dragon
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Prior to the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s presence on international social media was largely to promote a pos...
Shipping’s Dirty Secret
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The shipping industry is worth millions to the British economy and we depend on it for most of our goods. File on 4 lifts the lid on the dangerous and...
The Dangers of Dating Apps
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of us each year pick up our phone and swipe right in the hope of finding ‘the one’, and with the pandemic limiting even the most basic of...
Surviving Self-Harm
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah (not her real name) first deliberately hurt herself at the age of 11 and continued for more than six years, twice ending up in hospital. Now 18 ...
Unmasked: Stories from the PPE Frontline
09 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, reserves of personal protective equipment quickly dried up. Stories about frontline staff lacking the kit they needed...
Covid 19: Doctors and Deniers
02 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Prime Minister Boris Johnson said three households would be allowed to mix for 5 days over Christmas, experts and NHS bosses warned the health se...
A Year of Covid
26 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A year ago this week, the first reported case of Covid-19 was recorded in the UK. Within weeks frontline medics faced their toughest ever test. Doctor...
Women Who Abuse
19 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Women are seen as the caring, nurturing sex, safe to be left in charge of children.But stigma and stereotyping around female perpetrated abuse means i...
Undue Influence
12 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the age of social media and the selfie, the perfect look is everything. That's what influencers tell their followers. Some are also happy to provid...
Transforming Care?
10 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2018, File on 4 revealed the story of Bethany – an autistic teenager who had been locked in a hospital room alone for two years, her only co...
Reynhard Sinaga: Britain’s most prolific rapist
03 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In January, Reynhard Sinaga was convicted of 159 sexual offences against 48 different men over the course of four trials. But according to police, th...
Locked Up in Lockdown
27 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Are court backlogs creating miscarriages of justice? When the UK locked down, so did its court system, adding to a backlog that’s left defendants, w...
Taxing Situations
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For decades there was a boom in tax avoidance where people were paid using loans – and lowered their tax bills in the process. The boom went bust wh...
All Sewn Up
13 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An investigation into a network of companies involved in VAT fraud within Leicester's garment manufacturing industry. After questions were raised in t...
Me and my Trolls
06 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
During the pandemic, more and more of our lives have been lived online. But that has also led to a sharp rise in the number of people being targeted b...
Fit for football
29 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
MPs and supporters are calling for an overhaul of the way English football is governed after a series of clubs were hit by financial problems. Bolton ...
Expecting alone: The isolation of pregnancy during Covid
22 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Six months since Britain was instructed to ‘stay at home’, File on 4 examines the decisions that affect new mothers and their babies and asks if t...
Mental health killings – a crisis in care?
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last month Alex Sartain took a homemade gun and shot his neighbour James Nash dead in his front garden. The 34 year old then fled on his motorbike be...
Covid 19: The Long Road to Recovery
08 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After Coronavirus, the survivors left with life-changing and long term conditions. The physical and psychological aftermath of Covid 19 and the pressu...
Groomed, abused and put in prison: Rochdale’s untold story
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How does an abused teenager get a criminal record while her abusers walk free? This is untold story of the Rochdale grooming scandal - how one young w...
Mental Health: The Next Pandemic?
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Lockdown is easing now as worries about physical ill-health recede. But could the stress and anxiety of the last few months lead to a second wave of t...
Racism in the Police
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With the words ‘I can’t breathe’ reverberating around the world, the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK has put the issue of racial justice a...
The Neo-Nazi Network
23 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, a 16-year-old boy from Durham became the youngest person ever convicted of planning a terrorist attack in the UK, spurring reporter Daniel ...
The 5G con that could make you sick
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since the UK went into coronavirus lockdown something strange has been happening –attacks on telephone masts and telecom workers are being reported ...
The Perfect Storm
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
While Britain and France were brought to a standstill during the coronavirus lockdown, record numbers of migrants in Calais were on the move, boarding...
Covid Crime
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The covid-19 pandemic continues to have a profound effect on society - including the world of serious organised crime. The closure of internation...
Game Changer: How the UK played on during coronavirus
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From the Olympics to Euro 2020, the world’s biggest sporting events have fallen like dominoes because of coronavirus. But as the global pandemic was...
Coronavirus: The care homes catastrophe
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The awful impact of Covid-19 on the lives of care home residents and staff is now well understood. But many in the industry believe the authorities, b...
Coronavirus: Stories from behind the mask
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
They’re the intensive care staff we see on the TV news. In their protective equipment, we can’t see their expressions – even their own colleague...
Critical Condition: Allegations of failings at Great Ormond Street
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has a global reputation for providing outstanding care to children with the most complex medical conditions who...
Extreme measures: Can extremists be de-radicalised?
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Usman Khan was released from prison in 2018 for plotting a terror attack. He'd undertaken two de-radicalisation programmes designed to turn him away f...
Taking the Rap
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When a video of one of the UK's biggest rap stars being attacked went viral, it marked the start of a series of events that left three young people de...
Something in the Air?
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2020, a British Airways flight from Athens to London issued a "Mayday" emergency call when the pilot flying the plane became incapacitated ...
Fair game? The secrets of football betting
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, betting companies have invested millions in Britain’s professional football leagues through sponsorship deals and blanket advertisi...
Sewage Sludge
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For decades sewage sludge from waste treatment works has been used as a fertiliser on agricultural land. But File on 4 hears serious concerns over whe...
Facial Recognition
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
File on 4 has been tracking the roll-out of facial recognition tech across Britain’s streets, shopping centres and football grounds. The Metropolita...
After The Flood
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Few who saw the pictures of the devastating floods which hit the Yorkshire village of Fishlake will forget those images of houses and fields sunk bene...
Separated Siblings
14 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Sophia was growing up, she had an imaginary friend. It was only later she learned that the little girl she played with in her mind was not imagin...