1 - Who Was The Killer In Criminal Justice Season

Before revealing the killer, let’s revisit the setup. Season 1 follows Ben Coulter (played by Ben Whishaw), a young, aimless man living in London. One night, he borrows his father’s cab to impress a mysterious, beautiful passenger named Lydia Miller (Anne Frank-narrator Saskia Reeves). After a night of sex and drugs, Ben wakes up in Lydia’s bed, covered in blood, with Lydia brutally stabbed to death beside him.

He runs. He panics. He gets caught.

For the next four episodes, the series meticulously builds a case against Ben. His lawyer (Pete Postlethwaite), his barrister, and the audience all begin to suspect that maybe—just maybe—Ben blacked out and committed the murder himself. But Criminal Justice is smarter than that.

The genius of Criminal Justice is that the question “who was the killer?” is a trap. The show argues that in a broken legal system—one driven by prejudice, underfunded defense, and prosecutorial tunnel vision—the truth is often accidental, irrelevant, or discovered too late. who was the killer in criminal justice season 1

In the final minutes of the BBC season, Adil is acquitted not because the real killer is found, but because his lawyer exposes police misconduct and shoddy forensics. The killer’s existence is revealed afterward, in a quiet, anti-climactic scene. There is no chase, no confession. Just a mother’s grief and a private eye’s photo.

The real villain of Criminal Justice Season 1 is not Gary. It’s a justice system that almost sent an innocent man to prison for life while the actual killer walked free.

| Character | Role in the Murder | | --- | --- | | Aditya Sharma | Innocent. Wrongfully accused. | | Sanaya Rath | Victim. Killed by her father. | | Bipin Rath | The Killer (stabs Sanaya in a rage). | | Mandira Rath (Sanaya’s mother) | Knew the truth but stayed silent. | | Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi) | The lawyer who fights to uncover the truth. | Before revealing the killer, let’s revisit the setup

So, if you’re looking for a name: Bipin Rath is the killer in Criminal Justice Season 1.

But the show’s true horror isn’t the murder—it’s how easily an innocent man was nearly sent to the gallows for a crime he didn’t commit, while the real killer sat quietly in the gallery, watching.

Have you watched the series? Did you suspect the father? Let me know in the comments below. | Character | Role in the Murder |

In the final episode (Episode 5: “A New Beginning”), after Ben has been convicted and is facing life in prison, his barrister, Geoffrey Horder (a magnificent Pete Postlethwaite), refuses to give up. He re-interviews a witness from the very first episode: one of Lydia’s students.

The killer is Melanie, a teenage girl who was in Lydia’s adult creative writing class.

Here is how it unfolds: Early in the series, we see a shy, awkward girl named Melanie (played by Naomi Bentley) visiting Lydia’s house for a private tutorial. Lydia dismisses her coldly, telling her she has no talent and should give up writing. The scene seems like a minor character moment—just showing Lydia’s sharp tongue.

But that rejection festered.

After Ben fled the crime scene, Melanie arrived for a previously scheduled meeting. She found Lydia still alive but disoriented from the drugs and the struggle with Ben. In a fit of rage over Lydia’s cruelty, Melanie picked up the knife—the same one Ben had used to cut a line of cocaine—and stabbed her. Not once, but multiple times.