Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Wives and Knives, a true crime podcast with your hosts Dani & Kelly.
We hope you are all keeping safe & well out there. Apologies for the heavy swears at the beginning of this week’s episode, we recorded the full thing, and it didn’t save; but as the consummate professionals we are we did it all again.
This week Dani takes us through the case of Jan Falkowski & Deborah Pemberton. Hope you enjoy 🖤 xxx D&K.
Please remember that we mean no disrespect to anyone mentioned in this episode, or across any of the wives and knives platforms.
We have an interest in true crime and related topics and whilst we may offer our own personal views on certain items it is meant to be educational and as light-hearted as possible. The information we present is collated from research gathered from the internet and we reference and credit our sources wherever possible.
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(By D)
So let’s get stuck in, today I'm going to tell you the story of Jan Falkowski and Deborah Pemberton.
This is the case of stalking and death threats that left the couple broken and suicidal. This crime wasn’t committed by somebody who you might have suspected, but by somebody very ordinary that you might just pass in the street. This true story was actually made into a TV movie and broadcast on ITV.
It’s on YouTube at the moment. It's not incredible or anything but knowing it’s based on a true case makes it worth the watch and it’s not been changed much at all from what I could fathom was the factual order of events.
So let me start by telling you a little about Jan and Deborah. They met in October 2001 brought together by their shared interest in powerboat racing. Both were clever, well-off professionals with Jan being a psychiatrist, and world record holder in powerboat racing, and Deborah an accountant. Jan was in his early 40s and Deborah her early 30s. They both own their owned property Deborah in Poole and Jan in Epsom, Surry. Jan also owned a boat that was moored in East London. So very well off and seemingly well suited as they both enjoyed a fast-paced life. The couple fell in love quickly and spent their time between their 3 properties.
sound like a nice life.
They soon got engaged and unlike most engagements there was featured in a magazine. This really shows how well-known Jan was, well-known enough to be in this magazine that was distributed hospitals all over the UK. I mean it was a medical magazine but still it show he had some standing in that community. And obviously this magazine was shared in St Clements Hospital where Jan worked so we can assume he was a pretty big deal.
It was a whirl wind romance and pretty fucking idyllic - they met, fell in love, and got engaged, but in October 2002 something would happen that would disrupt the fairy tale completely.
Whilst driving down to Poole they both receive a phone call one after the other but in quick succession. Deborah was first and it seemed to be a man on the other end of the phone, the voice asked Deborah for her initials before hanging up the call. I think most people have had a prank call or at least a call from an unknown number before and really you would probably just ignore it and forget it ever happened but as soon as Deborah had been disconnected from the call it seemed that same unknown number was calling back. This time the voice claimed that he knew where Debra lived. Then the voice said, “we are going to get you.” She hung up this time, only to receive a text message with her full address. Any believe that this was just someone messing around must have vanished at this point - I mean it got sinister and threatening pretty quickly.
Obviously, Deborah must have been shitting herself, she contacted her lodger and told her to secure the property. But it was only a matter of minutes before Jan was being bombarded with texts as well. One of the messages that Jan received said ‘you will never know how much I have loved you in the past four years’
So the couple gets a Poole and report this incident to place police straight away but as it is just a few calls and text messages at this point nothing can be done. Now it doesn't seem like the police didn't care they just didn't have much to go on. In fact the police seem pretty great during this investigation - a sterling example of police work I think, but like I said they don’t have much to go one and I bet that Jan and Debora are hoping it will end just as quickly as it began.
So the police did keep a log of this incident. And it was a good job because the messages just don't stop.
The police try and track the phone number however it is working through a VPN connected to an IP address that has been rerouted through Sweden. Although very little about the identity of the person sending this messages was unknown this sender seemed to identify herself as “her”. Saying that Deborah needed to stay away from Jan because Jan was hers. The seemingly male voice that had made the first phone call to Deborah was never heard again.
The sender seemed to know a lot about Jan mentioning his boat- saying the boat was not for Deborah.
When the couple arrived back in London three days later, they found that the lights on board the boat were turned on. Certain that they wouldn’t have left the lights on themselves; they instantly felt like someone else had been on board the boat and reported it to the police.
The male voice that had made the first phone call to Deborah was never heard again. However a woman with an eastern European accents had been phoning her parents. The fact that this person even knew who her parents where and was able to contact the is scary. And the text messages just got worse Deborah was receiving up to 10 threatening text messages every day. The stalker also managed to contact loads of Deborah and Jan friends asking for details about them.
A few days later when they returned to the boat, they realises the gas from the hob had been left on, and again this wasn't something that either one of them had done so they knew they must be the work of the stalker. However the area that the boat was kept in was private and to get inside he needed to go past somebody at the gate. The person on the gate remembered letting woman inside, this woman had claimed that she had a dinner date with Jan, the woman had orange hair and an Eastern European accent.
This incident cause the police to become more concerned they saw this as a threat to life and became focused on solving the case. But not even the police could deter the stalker from pursuing the couple and after this incident things just got worse, written letters were delivered to the house, and text messages were sent to the couple relaying private information, information they had told only a handful of people or just kept between themselves. It was as if the stalker knew everything even when they were certain that they hadn't relayed the information to anybody else, this must leave you feeling so paranoid as suspicious! So for example the stalker knew about a secret weekend away they had planned and the fact that Deborah was planning to get her teeth whitened.
How did the stalker know all this?
I honestly don't know. I've done loads of research and I still can't be sure how all this information was found out, but Jan and Debra were really scared at the thought that their houses might be bugged or their phones, but they couldn't find any evidence of this or if they did - it has not been spoken about publicly. But things get even more personal when a handwritten letter is the delivered to Jan's house - there is something more personal about a handwritten letter isn’t there?
So the stalker knew they had a secret weekend away plane and they even knew the destination - which was Belgium. The letter was followed up by text messages accusing them of trying to run away.
In a bid to escape the stalker Jan and Deborah moved to a house that had no previous ties to either of them. However they were unable to escape the harassment, this continued every day for months and months. It was clear that the stalker was watching them because some
of the calls came from Waterloo station this was the station that Debra used regularly when catching the train between London and Poole. It seemed like the stalker revealed in them knowing that they were being watched as they were drop little details about things that seen them do during the day.
This was, understandably, really impacting on their day-to-day lives Deborah felt like she was constantly being watched, at the time she was actually working for Debenhams, RIP, in the central London offices and the stalker was well aware of this. Deborah's work actually received a phone call the stalker who accused Deborah of leaking confidential financial information about the company. With every part of their lives being infiltrated the strain was starting to show and affecting Debra and Jan's relationship.
But their wedding was approaching, and they both wanted to make it work but the stalker had other ideas and proceeded to phone the wedding venue and attempted to cancel the entire thing.
The Stalker actually pretended to be Deborah but luckily the venue realise something was not right and contacted the real Deborah and Jan. They had to set up a secret password to use when communicating about the wedding in a bid to try in to keep things secret from stalker. Once again when they thought things couldn’t get any worse things seemed to step up a gear. The stalker began to become fixated on destroying and stopping the wedding, calls and text messages expanded to Debra's friends and family and as the September wedding date approached the threats intensified. I’ve got some quotes from texts sent to Debra two weeks before the wedding:
two weeks until a gunman visits you.
You will be burned down in your wedding dress
two weeks from today you'll be dead prepare for your funeral not your wedding.
She must have been so fucking scared; this person had been stalking them for months they had successfully and completely infiltrated their lives and tried to kill them once before using the gas on the boat. One of the messages read “UB dead” which is where the title of the ITV drama comes from.
The text messages that Jan received varied somewhere begging him to leave Debra saying he could do much better and someone making threats against her life and eventually his Life as well. And the messages got more and more violent as the wedding approached. But like I said the relationship was under strain and they had secretly already decided to cancel the wedding, but they didn't tell anybody, and the stalker thought the wedding was still going to happen.
Now I said they didn't tell anybody, but the police were in on this. They hoped that the wedding would be the perfect way to lure the stalker out of the shadows and using all the surveillance and technology that the police had to hand they would be able to capture the perpetrator.
The police, Jan and Debra just wanted this to be over. They couldn't even tell the guests that the wedding been cancelled. Just days before the, now fake, wedding Jan received Messages saying that an SAS man had been hired to shoot at the wedding. The venue has received threats as well they had been told that if the wedding went ahead people would die people would be poisoned and people would be shot. The stalker had managed to contact the chef that worked at the wedding venue sending him multiple text messages saying that people die.
But Dorset police were ready, and on the day of the pretend wedding the stalkers contact was incessant exactly what the police had hoped for however the phone calls were often not long enough to trace but the ones that were showed the stalker was in Bournemouth and then Poole making their way towards the venue the wedding. They plan was going perfectly and the police were closing in on the stalker. Each phone call made more and more threats even going as far as threatening the life of Jan's children which he had from a previous relationship. As the phone calls got longer the police managed to track it down to a phone box nearby and capture the stalker as they were leaving!
Yay!
The stalker was 55-year-old Maria Markese. a very ordinary looking Woman who would been born in the sixties in Argentina and had moved to the UK is a teenager. She had lived a very normal life up until this point, working on the cheese counter in Selfridges’ department store. Despite catching her in the act when arrested Maria claimed she had absolutely no knowledge of the phone calls or any stalking at all.
However after a brief search of her home the police began to find the evidence that they so desperately needed. She even try to say that she was only in Poole that day because she got up the wrong train station, but like I said when searching her home they found articles about Jan that she had taken from medical magazines along with phone numbers that connected her to the case. They even found diary entries written by Maria where she speaks of her magical love Jan. when Jan and Deborah were told the identity of the person that had been causing them so much damage for the past 11 months Debra had absolutely no idea who Maria whilst, but Jan realised that he knew her. Well sort of.
He had treated her husband at the hospital but that was it.
Obviously after this Jan had to stop treating George who was Maria's husband. With Maria in custody Jan and Deborah decided to separate. The tensions that they had been through where irreparable, and Jan started seeing somebody else. First few months things were quiet as they both tried to rebuild their lives and hoped that Maria would be sent away for a long time.
Then in December the Crown Prosecution Service is said that they were going to take the case no further.
that's fucking ridiculous she seems like such a dangerous woman and surly with all the text messages they would have a lot of evidence against her.
And you would think so wouldn't you? No real reason is given as to why this happened, and you were right she is a dangerous woman and Jan soon starts to receive threatening calls again - and quite rightly he go straight to the police.
December 31st Maria Still hates Deborah despite her not being with Jan anymore, travels to Poole breaks into Deborah's house but takes nothing. Creepy as fuck. imagine how fucking unnerving it would be, Debra got home, and all the things have been moved all the lights where switched on and the windows had been opened.
The police couldn’t-find anything more signs of forced entry and it’s suggested that the perpetrator use the key to get in. Deborah was not doing well, she didn’t feel safe anymore and couldn’t accept that no charges had been brought against Maria, Debra wasn’t eating she was really depressed, she even considered suicide at some point is she just feels like the whole wife has been taken over.
So January rolls around and Maria is brought in for questioning regarding the break in at Deborah's home but rather than addressing the issue at hand Maria stuns everyone with her claims - because Maria claims that Jan has raped her.
She states that this had happened over 18 months ago after Jan spiked her drink whilst Maria's husband Was at a psychiatric hospital. She had never mentioned this before, but she produced a pair of knickers that she stated she had been wearing at the time of the rape.
These knickers are sent for a forensic evaluation. Whilst this is happening Jan is arrested for rape and denies all charges. But just the news of his arrest has a catastrophic fucking effect on his work, he is not allowed to practice or keep in contact with anyone here worked with even though they were all long-standing friends. Whilst there are laws keeping victims of rape anonymous there’s little to protect the identity of those accused.
Jan was claiming that he was innocent, but results came back from the DNA test and his DNA was found on Maria's knickers seemingly proving her claims. Jan is charged.
Now everything until this moment had been moving incredibly quickly it was months until it gets to court. Jan's defence send the knickers of further testing and find a partial DNA sample someone else present - that person is identified as Jan’s new Girlfriend, Bethan. So how did the DNA of Jan's girlfriend end up on Maria Markese knickers - well Jan's bins had been tampered with on several occasions since the stalking had begun and after Maria had been identified. For Jan's girlfriends DNA to be present there is no way the attack could have happened when Maria said that it did. However it was possible that Maria had gone through Jan’s rubbish and taken a used condom. Jan’s defence claim that Maria used this condom to frame Jan by wiping the content of the used condom on a pair of her own knickers, but they didn’t factor in the DNA transfer from the outside of the condom.
Once the evidence of the knickers had been invalidated there was no other evidence against Jan and the charge was dropped.
Now it gets even more wild, Maria is pissed that her case has been dropped and starts taking it out on the court officials - one in particular, harassing her just like she did Jan just like she did Deborah. This woman felt so threatened by Maria and her continual harassment she even had a fireproof letterbox installed, along with the panic button on the advice of the CPS. Given the false accusations and the harassment that was continuing the case against Maria was reopened nearly a year after she was first captured. She is brought to trial facing to charges of harassment, one charge of threats to kill and finally a charge of perverting the course of justice.
And it's so weird because everybody knows it's her, but Maria continues to pretend that she knows nothing about the things that happened, she flat-out denies their she says it wasn't her. Maria's defence tried to say that Jan had raped Maria and was now accusing her stalking as a way of further causing harm but there was no evidence to back this up.
The defence tried to cast doubt on Jan’s character by exposing that he cheated on Debra starting a relationship with Bethan whilst him and Debra were still together. Jan apologised for his behaviour towards Deborah in the latter part of their relationship but blamed the breakdown of their once perfect relationship on the stress he is been put under because of the constant harassment.
As the verdict was being read Maria shouted rapist across the court room. But it was evident that the jury didn't believe her. Maria was found guilty but before sentencing it was advised that a psychiatric evaluation should take place.
Well the assessment concluded that Maria was not suffering from any diagnosable psychiatric conditions.
During this time she actually went on to sack all of her legal team- what a bold move. On January 19, 2007, Marie is sentenced to 9 years with a minimum of six years before being considered for parole. She was also ordered to pay £18,000 in damages Half of which went to Jan with the other half going to Debra. And you might think that Maria would just shut up and stay in prison now, but she really doesn’t. She continues to put forward an appeal after appeal and has various people who she hires and fires even having a go at representing herself.
Maria isn’t stupid - she does find holes in the investigation like the woman identified at the marina the night that gas was turned on at the boat had orange hair and what nothing like Maria. She says that her texts have been misinterpreted. She notes that there was only circumstantial evidence to say that she was the one that broke into Deborah's house, in fact quite a lot of it does come down to circumstantial evidence. But really what else could it be? Obviously, all her appeals are dismissed.
She then tries another tactic appealing the restraining order that will be placed on her when she leaves prison, the restraining order not only keeps are away from people but bands her from going to certain places including areas of London and the hospital at which jam was going to be working. Her appeal was denied.
What do you think of the sentence?
Personally I don't think it's enough I keep going back to the phrase dangerous woman and I think you get the nail on the hat she really is.
There is a lifetime restraining order in place to stop her having any contact with Jan or Deborah, or anyone else that has been involved in the case, but I don't really think that'll do anything. And she really did take a huge chunk of Debra's life yes, the initial stalking lasted 11 months but the impact that that hat is bound to last a lifetime.
Jan in particular suffered financially losing his practice due to the false rape accusations, because during the rape investigation Jan was denied anonymity and Maria had gone to the press, Jan's place of work I'm pretty much anyone who would listen to sell them how awful he was. It wasn't only Falkowski’s reputation that was fucked he had huge legal bills that weren’t covered by the pay out that he received from Maria.
And get this another couple came forward - they actually wrote to Jan to say that they had suffered at the hands of Maria also. They had been stalked by Maria in the early 90s.
Their story was eerily similar to Debra and Jan Maria had become infatuated with the man and hateful towards his wife. When he’s attention was rebuffed Maria claimed that the man had had threatened her with a knife. This case of stalking did go to court but was settled with an agreement and there was no record kept. The couple had then moved to the north of England, but Maria had followed them there. She had even made threats to kidnap the couples young child, a restraining order was then placed on Maria. In total Maria had stalked that couple for nine years. They thought that this would have been on her please record and I agree it should've been. but as she never actually been convicted, she didn't appear on any police database. So when Jan and Debra first made claims, nobody suspected Maria, and when she was arrested by Dorset Police, they thought she had no previous. And that pretty much brings me to the end of the case.
Now you will be pleased to know that Debra is happy she has moved on a began a new relationship and got married in two thousand and ten in France, but she talks of how Maria changed, and she is completely different woman to him she was before the harassment.
Jan returned to work for the NHS and worked hard to rebuild his reputation, he went on to marry Bethan, they are still happily together now. Jan has also continued to participate in speed boating and made the papers for his achievements in the field.
Maria was eligible for parole in 2012 and she could be absolutely fucking anywhere today.
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Sources.
UB Dead is a British TV movie first broadcast in New Zealand in 2009.The film was shown in the United Kingdom on 5 September 2010 on ITV1. Now available on YouTube
They walk among us season 3 episode 15 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-who-was-target-britain-s-worst-stalker-2070105.html
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jan/20/ukcrime.uknews2
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-399250/My-terrifying-ordeal-victim-fiendishly-clever-stalker.html
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