2. Unloved

Complete story — includes the ending

When a 13-year-old boy is found kicked to death at Euston Station, first the detectives have to identify him. Their initial assumption is that he is a runaway but the autopsy reveals that he was well fed and in good health. DI Chandler holds a press conference which leads to identifying the victim as Danny Jackson who was in foster care as his mother, Mandy ( Nicola Stephenson ) is a former drug addict and currently in a rehab facility. She recently left her live-in boyfriend, Stevie Agnew (Neal Barry), who is already suspected of physical abuse towards the victim but he denies ever touching the child and claims not to have seen him since he left his mother. Brooks and Devlin become emotionally affected by the case which seems to involve child abuse and gang violence. The trail leads to the arrest of another young boy, Jono Blake ( Richard Wisker ), who was also in care at the same house as Danny. Steel and Phillips face an "old flame" from Steel's past in defence barrister Beatrice McArdle ( Dervla Kirwan ), who attempts a bizarre and audacious line of defence of genetic predisposition towards violence: the suggestion that genes could be responsible for aggressive behaviour. This could upset the whole British legal system since other defendants could claim that genes means that they are not responsible for their actions.