“A masked man had attacked them inside their own home. At least, that was the story.”

On a December morning in 2008, emergency services were called to Rowan Hill, an affluent home overlooking Howth in County Dublin. Successful businesswoman Celine Cawley was lying unconscious on the patio, while her husband, Eamonn Lillis, told Gardaí that a masked intruder had attacked them both.

The attacker had supposedly escaped through the garden, leaving police searching the roads around Howth Head for a stranger in a balaclava.

But as Gardaí began examining what had happened inside Rowan Hill, the story they had been given would become increasingly difficult to explain.

This week, the Archive examines the death of Celine Cawley — and the investigation into the story told by the only other person who was there.

There was a killer on the loose in Howth. Or so everyone had been told.

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“Eleven-year-old John Johnston went out with nine newspapers to sell. He never came home.”

In June 1923, John Johnston disappeared from the streets of Coatbridge. His family searched through the night, unaware that only a short distance away, something terrible had already happened.

The following morning, a woman and her six-year-old daughter were making their way towards Glasgow with a broken-down go-cart and a large bundle. When a passing lorry driver offered them a lift, he thought nothing of what they were carrying.

He had no idea what was inside.

This week, the Archive examines the extraordinary case of Susan Newell — a child's disappearance, a deeply strange journey through Glasgow, and the crime that would ultimately make her the last woman ever hanged in Scotland.

It began with nine newspapers and a missing boy. By morning, a woman was heading for Glasgow with a secret.

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“Two men were shot dead. The gunman escaped. And the money he had apparently come to steal was left behind.”

In March 1949, a masked man carrying a pistol entered the manager’s office of the Cameo Cinema in Liverpool. Minutes later, manager Leonard Thomas and his assistant were fatally wounded — while their attacker disappeared into the city without taking the night’s takings.

For months, Liverpool police searched for the masked gunman. Then two witnesses came forward with a story about a robbery supposedly planned inside a local pub — and two names entered the investigation.

This week, the Archive examines the Cameo Cinema Murders — a double killing, a desperate investigation, and a case that would prove far more complicated than anyone could have imagined.

Liverpool wanted to know who pulled the trigger. The answer would haunt the case for decades.

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