Samantha Renke, an actress and activist, has revealed that her proposed documentary on the abuse and killing of disabled people was not commissioned because TV producers deemed it “too depressing”. She made the comments at London true crime convention CrimeCon on October 4th, where she appeared on a panel about the abuse of disabled people, focusing on filicide.
Rejection and public reluctance
Renke, known for starring in the Maltesers advert and appearing on shows like Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, BBC Morning Live and The Jeremy Vine Show, now wants to make a full-scale television documentary on the topic. However, she confessed exclusively to Express.co.uk that even at a true crime convention, it is hard to get people to face the difficult subject.
She explained: “I’ve had people at CrimeCon today – and it is full of people who are very crime obsessed – who came up to me and said, ‘I won’t be attending your session because I don’t want to hear about disabled people being abused’. I get it, but actually, you need to hear it!
“I think that proves our message. I said, ‘Are you coming?’ And what they’re saying is, ‘That’s really challenging’, and it is. It’s like cognitive dissonance. It’s the same as when I preach about veganism and send people videos of animal mutilation.”
Case studies and legal outcomes
Renke is the first to admit the case studies are troubling to hear. One example is the story of 79-year-old June Knight, who was pushed off the fire escape of her Essex care home by her own son.
Samantha said: “She had Alzheimer’s, she was having end-of-life care in a nursing home. Her son, one day, threw her out of a window of the care home. The way that was depicted was, Judge Samantha Lee actually said, ‘You are someone who acted out of love’.”
Robert Knight threw his mother 13ft 6inches to the ground, and June died at the scene after suffering “catastrophic” brain injuries. Robert said he had not wanted to see his mother in pain after she contracted a winter virus, and had already been given a week to live. He was later found not guilty of murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Robert got a suspended sentence of 24 months.
There are more horrific examples. Samantha explained: “One woman basically got a slap on the wrist for ending her child’s life, but actually when they got deeper, she came out with a comment like, ‘He started having problems swallowing, and I just couldn’t stand the sound of him gulping’.
“That’s the danger. Are we masking this by saying we’re doing people a favour [with assisted dying]?”
Broader impact and next steps
Samantha, who was born with Osteogenesis imperfecta and is a full-time wheelchair user, went on: “The bottom line is, people do suffer, but it’s not up to us. The least we can do is give them agency and autonomy in their lives. It might not be ideal – this might not have been the way we wanted to say goodbye to grandma or whoever, but this is where we are.
“I’ve had people say to me, ‘If I was you, I’d rather be dead’, and what the judge [in Knight’s case] is saying to me is, ‘That really resonates with me’.”
In the last five years, 548 disabled people are thought to have died by filicide – although Samantha points out that is only the number that gets reported, and likely only a “drop in the ocean”.
She said: “Looking at the case studies, what became incredibly apparent from reading about either how media reported these killings or how the general public responded on Reddit forums etcetera, I never saw outrage. Every conversation was, ‘Well, that’s horrible, but…’
“Everything came with a but. ‘But it must be difficult having a non-verbal child’. ‘But it must be difficult to be a single parent with disabled children’. We’re not disputing that. Life is hard! Is that an excuse, is that carte blanche to murder someone? No!”
Together with her business partner and producer Max Barber, Samantha has established her own production company, Born This Way Media, which could hopefully fulfil her dream of making a feature documentary on the topic.
She said: “I want this to be a jumping off point. We’ve been hammering this message for decades.
“What’s been a bit bittersweet is even though I love being in these spaces, the feedback is overwhelming, but it’s often, ‘I didn’t know that’. It feels like ‘You need to know this by now’.”
Tickets for CrimeCon 2027 are on sale now.
