A regional publisher has announced an expansion of its crime coverage with the help of its freshly-appointed investigations chief.

Newsquest announced in June the launch of true crime documentary series ‘Charged – True Crime UK’ to appear via a new YouTube channel, featuring Newsquest reporters who have covered some of Britain’s “most shocking cases”.

Now, under the banner ‘True Crime Newsquest’, the publisher has revealed plans to expand the brand under the supervision of Mark Williams-Thomas, who was appointed group-wide investigations editor in July, and special projects editor Jody Doherty-Cove.

Videos will be split into three distinct content areas – solved cases, unsolved cases and missing people.

Concurrently, Mark will also be launching a weekly ‘CrimeBeat ‘programme featuring a 90-second round-up of stories from Newsquest’s reporters.

The first ‘unsolved’ programme was broadcast today and focuses on the case of York chef Claudia Lawrence, whose 2009 disappearance is being treated as murder.

The case has been covered over the course of the past 13 years by Newsquest York daily The Press, which splashed on the 10th anniversary of her disappearance in March 2019, pictured above.

To mark the episode’s launch, Mark will hold a live question and answer session on TikTok.

Mark said: “We will for the first time, bring you the most definitive timeline and overview of the investigation, bringing you right up to date.

“In addition, we showcase some very interesting information about Claudia’s phone records.”