Jerome Nelson

Jerome Nelson is a major character in In A Lonely Place. He is the son and co-worker of strip-club owner Stella Nelson, and is later revealed to be a serial killer primarily targeting vulnerable young women. He is portrayed by James Harkness.

Background
Jerome was the product of an affair between Stella and local policeman, DI Simon Laing. Jerome's father was out of the picture for most of his life and he had a difficult relationship with his mother. Jerome grew up to be a very angry and hate-filled young man, resenting his mother for being a 'whore' and his father for his absence. His hatred of his mother in particular later developed into full-blown misogyny. When Jerome was in his teens, he reconnected with his father, who took him hunting with him. However, Simon felt he couldn't cope with Jerome's unstable and anger-fuelled behaviour and decided to cut ties with him. He took him out for one last hunting trip, but this proved to be a terrible mistake. Whilst hunting in Macroom Forest, Jerome spotted a local man named Peter Wallace and, purely out of curiosity, shot him in the leg and watched him run through the forest - he later died of blood loss.

Simon witnessed Jerome shoot Peter, but hushed it up, as he didn't want his wife to find out about his son. Jerome hung this over his father's head, forcing Simon to help cover for other crimes he committed. A few years later, Jerome killed a young prostitute and her pimp - Simon made it seem as though it was a murder-suicide and hoped that it was a one-off occurrence. Unbeknownst to his father, however, Jerome began abducting, raping and murdering numerous women, primarily strippers, prostitutes or other vulnerable women. He worked as a bartender in his mother's strip-club, the Manhattan, where he put on a friendly, protective act. Five years before the main events of In A Lonely Place, one of Jerome's victims, Sarah O'Keefe, managed to escape from him, becoming the only victim to do so.

In A Lonely Place
Jerome is first seen at the Manhatten, where he kicks out a punter who grabs a stripper and helps her down. He later gets into an argument with DS MacNeil when he refuses to pay for drinks. He also speaks with Jack Hodgson when he comes to the club trying to identify Jerome's latest victim, Caitlin. He is presumably the unnamed man who comes to Sarah's flat asking after her. He breaks into her car and hides in the backseat, abducting her a second time when she climbs in and forcing her into his van.

When Jack and Nikki Alexander come to the club asking more questions, Jerome is irritated with them, saying they should get off their "high horses" in regards to stripping and saying its the male customers who are being exploited, paying a lot of money to simply look at half-naked girls. Jerome later returns to the meat processing plant where he keeps all his victims and recaptures Sarah after she manages to break free. Jerome discovers he's been followed by MacNeil and fatally shoots him, before dragging Sarah back to his van and driving her out to Macroom Forest. On the road up there, he tauntingly tells Sarah he didn't take her because he thought she might identify him; he took her because she was the only one who got away. Sarah manages to loosen her bonds and rolls out of the van. Jerome stops the vehicle and chases her, shooting at her and ordering her to run. Sarah, however, refuses to be terrorised by him any longer, telling him "Screw you" before jumping off a cliff into the stream at the side of the road. She is apparently killed by the fall (though she is later revealed to have survived) and an enraged Jerome drives back to town.

He goes to the Manhatten to confront his mother, threatening Stella with a gun and revealing he's responsible for the murdered women recently uncovered and claiming he fantasised he was actually killing her, horrifying her. Before Jerome can harm Stella, his father, Nikki and DS Ross arrive. Simon tries to talk to Jerome, saying he knows he did it to get back at Simon and promising to be there for him. This appears to get to Jerome, who hands over the gun. Simon then attempts to shoot Jerome at Stella's urging, but he is tackled to the ground by Ross. Jerome is then arrested and presumably incarcerated for murder.

Modus Operandi
Jerome primarily targeted 'high risk' women such as prostitutes, strippers, runaways etc. - those who wouldn't be missed. He would abduct the women with his van and drive them to his uncle's abandoned meat processing plant, where he would gag and blindfold them, bind their wrists with wire above their heads and strip them. He would then rape them, before forcing them back into his van and driving to Macroom Forest. There, he would order them to run and would stalk them like an animal through the forest, shooting at them with a hunting rifle. He would usually kill them with a single shot to the chest. He would then redress them and bury them in a clearing. He would keep their jewellery as trophies.

When Jerome made his first kill, he merely shot his victim in the leg and let him bleed out. He shot one of his early victims in the leg too, presumably experimenting with different ways of killing. He also didn't bury Caitlin, his latest victim, presumably because he was interrupted, and he left her body out in the open.

Victims

 * Peter Wallace - shot in the leg; died from blood loss
 * Prostitute - shot in the back
 * Pimp - shot in the head
 * Sarah O'Keefe - abducted, raped and attempted to shoot, but she escaped; later abducted and attempted to kill a second time; she was rescued after appearing to commit suicide
 * Magda Borit - abducted, raped and shot
 * Barbara Chung - abducted, raped and shot
 * Five unnamed women - abducted, raped and shot
 * Caitlin - abducted, raped and shot
 * DS MacNeil - shot in the head
 * Stella Nelson - assaulted and attempted to shoot; was interrupted
 * DI Simon Laing - pointed a gun at, may have intended to shoot, was talked down