The show is based on Ming’s own memoir, For the Love of Julie, and was produced with her input, straying from the truth far less than many other similar stories.
So, here’s the full true story of I Fought the Law.
I Fought the Law true story: What happened to William Dunlop?
After struggling to get hold of Julie one morning in November 1989 (and learning that she’d missed a court hearing in which she was set to apply for a leave of separation from estranged husband Andrew), Ann reported her as a missing person.
Initially believing that she’d simply left of her own accord, even putting forward the theory she’d abandoned her young son Kevin to move to London, police took several days to properly investigate further. Despite spending nearly a week searching Julie’s house, they failed to find any evidence of her whereabouts and the case ultimately went cold.
Eighty days after she disappeared, Andrew decided to return to the family home where he discovered a strange odour. Thanks to her medical background, Ann instantly recognised the smell and on removing a bath panel, made the horrifying discovery of her daughter’s naked body wrapped in a blanket. A post-mortem concluded that she’d been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Who was William Dunlop?
After ruling out Andrew, police honed in on and later charged William Dunlop, a builder’s labourer who’d been visiting a friend that lived next door to Julie on the night she disappeared: he’d also violently assaulted a man while at a rugby club just hours beforehand.
The prosecution argued that Dunlop, who’d allegedly had previous relations with the victim, had called in with the hope of having sex. But when she spurned his advances, he subjected her to a “premeditated and truly horrendous” attack.
Despite what Ann believed to be an overwhelming amount of evidence linking him to the crime, including the fact that Julie’s house keys were found under his floorboards, a jury failed to reach a majority verdict in Dunlop’s first 1991 trial. And the Mings’ anguish was compounded later that same year when the same prosecution team failed to convince another jury of his guilt, resulting in his acquittal.
What happened next?
Dunlop was, however, convicted of another crime in 1997 – stabbing his pregnant girlfriend with a toaster fork and beating up her lover – and sentenced to seven years in jail. While incarcerated, he confessed to a prison officer that he’d been responsible for Julie’s murder. “She just started taking the mickey out of me and ridiculing me because I had a black eye and my eye was split open,” he later said in a taped police interview. “I just lost it and got up and strangled her.”
Dunlop, who had a history of violence, believed that he was protected by double jeopardy, an 800-year-old British law which prevented anyone from being tried for the same offence twice. But he underestimated a grieving mother, who’d been awarded £20,000 in damages from the Cleveland police force for its handling of the case, determined to seek justice for her beloved daughter.
How was justice eventually served?
Although he was convicted of perjury thanks to a recording of his confession in 2003, Dunlop wasn’t able to be tried for the actual murder until a change in the double jeopardy law was made in 2005. After pleading guilty to killing Julie, he was given a life sentence and ordered to serve at least 17 more years behind bars.
How did Ann Ming change the law?
Of course, having taken on the Crown Prosecution Service, met with then-Home Secretary Jack Straw, and given an impassioned speech at the House of Lords, Ann was hugely instrumental in the amendment.
“A lot of people did think I had a team of lawyers doing it on my behalf and this wasn’t the case,” she recently explained to the BBC. Ann’s tireless efforts have also resulted in at least a dozen other convictions, including one of the men responsible for the killing of Stephen Lawrence.
Where is William Dunlop now?
In 2025, Dunlop was denied the opportunity to move to an open prison despite a Parole Board recommendation assessing him as “presenting a low risk of absconding”. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood was responsible for the blocking with a spokesperson stating: “Public protection is our number one priority.”
During his hearing, Dunlop had admitted to being a “violent, hideous, uncaring person” likely to have committed similar horrific offences had he not been imprisoned. But he also claimed that he was now a changed man who was deeply regretful of his past. The Ming family revealed they were “elated” at the decision and thanked Mahmood for putting “victims at the heart of the system”.
Where is Ann Ming now?
In 2007, Ann was awarded an MBE for her services to the criminal justice system. Sadly, her husband Charles Ming, who’d been by her side throughout her quest to overturn the law, died in 2013 having suffered from Parkinson’s and dementia for many years.
Despite soon turning 80, Ann has insisted she’ll continue to do what she can to ensure Dunlop never gets released, telling the BBC: “I wouldn’t want him to put another family through what he has put us through.”
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All four episodes of I Fought the Law are available to stream on ITVX from Sunday 31st August – check out our Drama hub for all the latest news. If you’re looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide.
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