Like so many others who knew him from the nightlife scene in his home county of Cambridgeshire, Bea Walker* thought that Craig France was one of life’s good guys.
Generous and fun-loving, baby-faced France was the life and soul of the party – a party he was happy to continue at home once the clubs had shut, with a regular crowd invited back to his well-appointed three-storey home for free-flowing drinks, often consumed in his hot tub.
If anyone wondered how exactly the purportedly 20-something France – in truth in his early 30s – could afford such a nice place, they didn’t ask.
Speaking for the first time, Bea, now 21, recalls: ‘He was very friendly, just really nice. He’d always buy you drinks. Everyone seemed to know him, he was everyone’s friend. He offered you advice and made you laugh. It made you feel safe.’
Yet Craig France was very far from ‘safe’. In fact he was a sexual predator who groomed a series of young women, plying them with vast quantities of alcohol before recording himself having intercourse or performing sex acts upon them as they lay unconscious.
His heinous secret life only came to light in 2024 when a victim called Abby* heard France had shared a video in which she featured. Tried and sentenced to ten years in prison earlier this year, France could be one of Britain’s most prolific rapists ever.
Just 18 when she met him two years earlier, Abby had long suspected France had raped her, having woken naked in bed to see him washing blood off his penis in his bathroom.
Craig France, 33, who was jailed for raping a woman and secretly filming others in his Peterborough home
France in police custody staring at the camera during the case, which was filmed for Channel 4
Her last memory had been drinking sambuca shots – which she now believes were spiked – in his hot tub.
News that France had apparently recorded their interactions gave Abby the courage to go to the police, who arrested France at his home.
A subsequent search by detectives uncovered time-stamped videos corroborating her account, including footage from an external camera positioned on the hot tub which showed France dragging an unconscious Abby from the tub and across the concrete path by the legs before raping her.
‘You look so beautiful’ he told her.
That, of course, was horrifying enough. Yet the film was just one of thousands of graphic videos and photographs France had recorded on assorted digital devices hidden round his home, featuring largely unconscious women. While he was tried for offences between 2021 and 2023, police acknowledge they have no idea how long he may have been offending.
Among them was Bea, who was devastated to discover that a man she considered a friend had filmed himself having sex with her – as well as other sexual acts – while smirking at the camera.
‘I felt totally violated,’ she says quietly, describing the first time she saw the sickening footage. ‘It was just degrading, a total abuse of trust from someone I considered a friend.’
Her case is one of those featured in a two-part special of 24 Hours in Police Custody, which shows the dogged investigation undertaken by Cambridgeshire Police as they bring France to justice and attempt to identify the women featured in his depraved digital library.
Detectives have been able to identify five, but there are at least 20 different women in the footage.
Craig France during his arrest in a still from 24 Hours in Police Custody
The series takes the viewer to the point in March this year when France, a 34-year-old lorry driver, pleaded guilty to rape, sexual assault, voyeurism and exposure.
His sentence of 18 years and seven months was reduced to ten years and seven months in jail because of his guilty plea.
It is far from enough for Bea, who believes France’s punishment does not reflect the sheer number of possible victims and the extent of his betrayal.
‘When you think how much evidence was on his phone, and the number of secret cameras, I don’t think it’s remotely enough – he will probably be out in five years,’ she says. ‘I just hope that this programme means people will remember his name and his face, because I don’t think a leopard changes its spots.’
Reynhard Sinaga, 42, was given a life sentence after being found guilty of 136 counts of rape of vulnerable male victims
The fact that France may be out within a few years certainly contrasts with the case of Reynhard Sinaga, 42, who preyed on vulnerable male victims, similarly drugging, raping and filming them. Charged with 136 counts of rape, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years in January 2020.
The scale of France’s offending certainly surprised even seasoned detectives, one of whom confides during the series that she believes the footage they found in his home may only be the tip of the iceberg.
‘It’s very difficult to put a number on how many individuals there could still be to come,’ says Detective Chief Inspector Helen Tebbit, who led the investigation for Cambridgeshire Police. She points out as well as befriending young girls locally, France also used dating apps and roamed the country courtesy of his work as a lorry driver.
She confides that it ‘haunts’ her she will never know the full extent of his offending.
‘We can’t just assume the digital evidence we have is everything that could have happened,’ she adds.
What those who have been identified all have in common is that they were all young when they first came into France’s orbit.
Like Abby, Bea had just turned 18 when she was first introduced to France on a night out in Cambridgeshire. She became part of a crowd that went clubbing and then returned back to his home for more drinking.
‘I couldn’t tell you how many times I went, or even where he lived,’ she says. ‘We were always drunk. He took drunk people back to his house and there was always plenty more drink when we got there.’
Officers inspect France’s hot tub following calls he filmed women without their consent
Alcohol bottles found during the police’s search of France’s home
Although she never directly asked him how old he was, Bea assumed France was in his early 20s (on social media, friends would often joke about France’s ‘baby face’).
‘He looked young, although no-one really knew how old he actually was,’ she says. ‘I didn’t think to ask him, because I assumed a fully grown man wouldn’t be hanging around with 18-year-olds.’
Most nights back at France’s went the same way – lots of alcohol and time in the hot tub – although Bea confides she has little in the way of specific memories of them. Nonetheless, she recalls how, on one occasion, at yet another small hours gathering, France made her feel uncomfortable.
‘He started to act a bit weird, like his whole character just changed,’ she recalls. ‘He was walking round totally naked, just talking about sex.’
On another occasion, Bea woke on his sofa with stomach cramps and bleeding. ‘I didn’t know what on earth had happened,’ she says. ‘I didn’t want to say anything.’
Then, a couple of days later, France sent a series of messages in an online group chat that Bea was a member of, in which he referred to videos he had taken of young women.
‘He was making jokes and saying stuff that made me feel really uncomfortable,’ she recalls.
She left the chat, only for another member of the group to contact her to say France had said he had videos of her too. ‘I felt really upset, I didn’t know what these videos were, I literally had no idea what he meant,’ she says.
After hearing that a video was circulating of a girl called Abby, she plucked up the courage to contact police, reporting her fears that France had been filming girls without their consent.
France was then arrested on suspicion of rape, with police cameras capturing the moment he opened the door to them clad in his dressing gown.
A search of his house found restraints under the bed, blacked out windows and secret cameras – containing thousands of recordings of young women – positioned in several rooms and the back yard.
Among them was Bea who, supported by police, was asked to watch footage retrieved from France’s home in which he can be seen smirking as he positions a camera in order to get a better view of himself performing a number of sex acts.
‘Part of me didn’t want to watch, but I also knew I had to confront what had happened,’ she says.
What she saw horrified her. ‘You could tell I was very drunk,’ she recalls, her voice wavering. ‘In one of them he had his phone up on a table, and I was on my back, and I must have caught him and even though I was drunk I asked him to delete it and he just laughed. And obviously he didn’t. He’s doing sexual things and in one he is looking back at the camera and smiling.’
The impact of seeing them was devastating. ‘I felt completely violated, on every level,’ Bea says quietly, wiping her eyes. ‘It’s everything, not just what he’s doing when I was drunk and he knew I was drunk, but the fact that I asked him to stop filming and he didn’t.’
Detective Chief Inspector Helen Tebbit of the Cambridgeshire Constabulary
She was left with feelings of self-loathing that remain to this day. ‘I was just really depressed for a long time, crying all the time because I just felt so much disgust about what he did,’ she says.
‘I thought he was my friend, I thought I could be safe with him, but obviously he wasn’t a friend.’
Bea and Abby were not alone. Two other women identified by police from the videos learned of France’s depraved activities only on being contacted by officers.
‘I felt so much shame, embarrassment and disgust,’ one of the anonymous victims confides on camera.
Detectives also uncovered footage of France – whose only prior conviction was for dangerous driving in 2012 – exposing himself at a roundabout.
After a series of no comment interviews, France was charged with a number of sex and voyeurism offences and remanded in custody after being refused bail.
It meant that Abby, Bea and his other victims faced the dismaying prospect of giving evidence against him in court.
‘I was scared,’ Bea admits. ‘I’d never been in a courtroom before, so I didn’t know how it all worked. And obviously I didn’t want to see his face ever again. At the same time, I wanted to show him that I’m not going to be scared of him and that he didn’t have power over me any more.’
During the trial in March this year France offered to plead guilty to one charge of rape, one of sexual assault and voyeurism, although DCI Tebbit says she does not believe he has shown remorse. ‘I’m not of the view that he’s ever really accepted what he’s done was wrong,’ she says.
Sentencing him at Cambridge Crown Court, the judge described him as a ‘misogynist predator and toxic risk to women’.
News of France’s incarceration has since persuaded others to come forward. A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: ‘Inquiries are ongoing but it’s too early to say if we have any other victims at this stage.’
For Bea, meanwhile, the impact of France’s actions remains devastating. ‘It’s very difficult for me to trust,’ she says. ‘Relationships, friendships – they’ve all been affected. I don’t really go out any more. It’s always there and I don’t think I’ll ever really move on from it.’
There has, at least, been catharsis in allowing her story to be filmed. ‘I worry a lot about him coming out and doing it again,’ she says. ‘I can’t change what happened to me, but I hope that this helps to teach young girls starting out in life and going clubbing to be careful who they befriend.’
- Names have been changed
- 24 Hours in Police Custody: Nightclub Predator is available to stream on Channel 4
