Peter Douglas Rees was a resident of Portsmouth, Hampshire, with past connections to Bridport. Little is publicly known about his personal life before the crime, but he became associated with two of the case’s central figures—Kenneth Regan and William Horncy. Rees was not a widely known criminal figure in the public before the Chohan case and was considered less central in media coverage compared to Regan and Horncy. However, investigations later revealed his active role in aiding the burial and concealment of the Chohan family’s bodies.

Rees became entangled in the plot after associating with Regan, a career criminal and former drug dealer, and Horncy, a disgraced accountant.

In February 2003, millionaire businessman Amarjit Chohan, his wife Nancy, their two infant sons, and Nancy’s visiting mother, Charanjit Kaur, all disappeared from Heston, West London. Chohan had unknowingly walked into a deadly trap after being lured by Kenneth Regan under the pretense of a business meeting. Regan, Horncy, and Rees devised a plan to take over Chohan’s shipping company, CIBA Freight, as a front for importing narcotics into the UK. Chohan was held, tortured, and eventually forced to sign over his business before being murdered.

Peter Rees, along with Regan and Horncy, assisted in disposing of the bodies. Initially, the victims were buried at a farm in Devon owned by socialite Belinda Brewin. The burial site was eventually compromised, and the perpetrators decided to exhume the bodies and dump them into the sea off the coast of Dorset.

Amarjit Chohan’s body was discovered floating near Bournemouth Pier on April 22, 2003. In the weeks that followed, the bodies of Nancy Chohan and her mother were recovered, while the two children were never found. The shocking brutality of the crime, especially involving the murder of two very young children, captured national headlines.

Rees was arrested on May 14, 2003, and officially remanded three days later. During the lengthy and costly trial at the Old Bailey—which became the longest in the history of the Metropolitan Police—Rees was charged with one count of murder (Amarjit Chohan), as well as charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, perverting the course of justice, and preventing lawful burial. He was convicted on July 1, 2005, and sentenced to 23 years in prison.