Broadchurch Suspect Profile No. 5 - Mark Latimer



We're running through the chief suspects ahead of  Monday's climactic episode of Broadchurch. Today it's the turn of murder victim Danny's dad, Mark Latimer.





Mark Latimer is the murder victim Danny’s father. He is married to Beth, his childhood sweetheart, with whom he started a relationship when she was just 15. The couple married young and they also have a teenage daughter, Chloe. Mark runs a successful plumbing business and employs his best friend Nige Carter. Mark also plays five-a-side football; the team also includes Reverend Paul Coates. He has a close network of friends, including Nige and the Millers – he and Joe will go out together with the boys, and Mark was part of the paintballing trip when a gang of them went out together in Olly Stevens’ boat.




Mark has a reputation for a hot temper – he chased paparazzi photographers away from his house and there seem to have been challenges with both of his children Chloe alludes to him having seen off previous boyfriends, and his reaction to the discovery of Dean is no less calm and considered. Some of Danny’s social media updates suggested that he and Mark could have a sometimes fraught relationship, and during his interview with DI Hardy, Tom Miller claimed that Danny had told him that Mark had hit him on at least one occasion.

Early on in the investigation evidence was stacking up against Mark. His fingerprints were found at the murder scene and CCTV footage revealed him lurking in a car park. He was unwilling to explain his whereabouts on the night in question as his excuse that he had been out on a job until 3am quickly fell apart. Even getting Nige to tell the police that they had been out together was shown to be a lie. Finally Chloe intervened and implored hotelier Becca Fisher to tell the truth – that she and Mark were together on the night that Danny was killed. Also, evidence showed that Mark had a legitimate professional reason for being at the hut and that Susan was either lying or mistaken




Mark seems to have been eaten up with guilt since Danny’s murder. He has also spoken of his sorrow over what he has done to Beth,that he has destroyed the beautiful teenage girl that she once was. Is this guilt over his failure to his family, being elsewhere when he should have been protecting his son? Guilt towards Beth for taking their relationship for granted? Or is Mark showing remorse for a far more terrible deed that he has committed?

Mark was also genuinely shocked to discover that, unbeknownst to him and Beth, Danny had been accompanying him on late night hunting trips.

It would be difficult to give a motive to Mark for killing Danny. Possibly his temper got the better of him. Maybe Danny discovered his liaison with Becca. Maybe Mark is mixed up with something else that Danny uncovered. However, motive or not, there still remain two hours where Mark’s whereabouts is unconfirmed on the night of Danny’s death.

Read our other suspect profiles here:






The final episode of Broadchurch will be shown on Monday 22nd April at 9pm on ITV




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