Arnold Mears

"You do the post-mortems. I do the pre-mortems."

Arnold Mears was a major character in Paradise Lost. He was a convicted serial killer. Mears is portrayed by James Cosmo.

Biography
Mears' mother was very young and unmarried when she fell pregnant with him; as a result, Arnold was taken from her to be raised by his father, a very strict and possibly abusive man. On one occasion, a young Mears repeatedly slammed his head onto a concrete floor, which may have caused damage to his frontal lobe. As an adult, Mears began murdering teenage girls, abducting them, mutilating and then cutting up their bodies. He was finally arrested and imprisoned for his crimes. At the end of the episode, Mears commits suicide by hanging; he writes the name 'Nikki' on his forehead, in reference to Nikki Alexander, knowing she will likely be the one to perform his autopsy and see once and for all if his impulse to kill was caused by brain damage.

Modus Operandi
Mears would abduct teenage girls and keep them tied up. He would torture them, mutilating and cutting off parts their bodies, often whilst they were still alive, before killing them and disposing of the pieces.