The Profiler with Kerry Daynes

How To Spot a Liar

In this special episode, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes sits down with Dr Cliff Lansley, the body language expert often called the “Human Lie Detector,” to unpack the real science of spotting deception. A former motor mechanic turned behavioural analyst, Cliff spent a decade working alongside the late Dr Paul Ekman, the world's foremost expert on facial expression, before developing SCAnS, the Six Channels Analysis System now used by police, lawyers and intelligence services. Kerry and Cliff pick apart real police interview footage from three of Britain's most notorious killers — Harold Shipman, Ian Huntley and Wayne Couzens — to reveal how a micro head shake, a dropped shoulder or a change in breathing rate can betray a lie the words are trying to hide.Key psychological themesThis episode explores: deception detection and body language • micro-expressions and subconscious “leakage” • psychophysiology and the polygraph vs SCAnS • cognitive load and lying • myths about gender and lie detection • forensic use of behavioural analysis in courtContributors featured in this episode• Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.• Dr Cliff Lansley — Body language expert, founder of the Emotional Intelligence Academy, and author of Getting to the Truth.What you'll learn in this episode• Why Cliff prefers the term “truth detector” to “lie detector”, and how the subconscious mind leaks the truth even when the words are lying• Why two popular myths about lie detection — that women read liars better than men, and that everyone has a Pinocchio-style “tell” — don't hold up• How SCAnS analyses six channels of behaviour, from facial expression to word choice, and why Cliff needs a cluster of at least three indicators before he trusts a signal• How Ian Huntley leaked seven separate signs of deception in a three-word denial about his contact with Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman• Why Wayne Couzens's relaxed phone call to a vet, compared with his stumbling police interview, exposed the mental strain of fabricating a story on the fly• How Cliff tracked Harold Shipman's breathing rate through his shirt collar, even with his back turned, to pinpoint the moment a victim's name became “a problem” for him• Why SCAnS is now being used as expert evidence in UK and US courts, and what that could mean for the justice systemRelevant links and further reading• Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)• Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)• Dr Cliff Lansley — Getting to the Truth (available on Amazon)• Emotional Intelligence Academy (https://www.emotionintell.com/ )• Faking It: Tears of a Crime — streaming on Discovery+ and HBO MaxSubscribe & followIf you're gripped by The Profiler with Kerry Daynes, follow the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A rating or review takes thirty seconds and genuinely helps new listeners find us.Visit theprofiler.co.ukFor further updates and to receive Kerry's weekly newsletter, visit theprofiler.co.uk.Credits• Presented by Kerry Daynes, with guest Dr Cliff Lansley• Produced by Shearwater Media• Executive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson• Editing and Music: Rob WarnerContent noteThis episode references the crimes of convicted killers Harold Shipman, Ian Huntley and Wayne Couzens, and also includes profanity. Listener discretion is advised. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain's Last Hanging: How Capital Punishment Ended

In a special summer episode, Kerry Daynes is joined by journalist and TV documentary maker Jeff Anderson as she revisits one of Britain’s most obscure legal landmarks: the 1964 execution of Gwyn Owen Evans and Peter Allen, the last two men ever hanged in Britain. The pair were convicted of the brutal murder of 53-year-old delivery driver Jack West in Workington, Cumbria, a robbery that spiralled into violence. Kerry and Jeff trace the chaotic trail of evidence that led police straight to the killers within 48 hours, and Kerry offers her psychological assessment of Evans — a compulsive fantasist whose lies extended even to his own identity — and asks whether either man deserved to hang.Key psychological themesThis episode explores: pathological lying and fantasist personality disorder • joint enterprise and criminal responsibility • the psychology of criminal incompetence • diminished responsibility as a legal defence • capital punishment and its abolition in BritainContributors featured in this episode● Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.● Jeff Anderson — Journalist, TV documentary maker, and producer of The Profiler.What you’ll learn in this episode● Why the murder of Jack West, and not Ruth Ellis, technically marks the end of capital punishment in Britain, and how a change of government spared hundreds of other killers from the gallows that same year● How a raincoat left behind at the crime scene, containing a medallion and a scrap of paper with a name and address, led detectives to their suspect within two days● Why Gwyn Owen Evans, a self-invented fantasist born John Robson Walby, was already known to psychiatrists for pathological lying long before the murder● How Evans and Peter Allen’s chaotic escape — a stolen car, missed petrol stops, a rescued lamb — exposed them at every turn● Why a letter from Peter Allen’s wife, Mary, describing her alleged affair with Evans, became decisive evidence at trial● What newly released government papers reveal about Evans’s diagnosed psychopathic personality, and the abandoned defence that might have saved his life● Kerry’s own view on whether either man should have faced executionRelevant links and further reading● Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)● Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)● The National Archives — released case papers on the trial and execution of Gwyn Evans and Peter AllenSubscribe & followIf you’re gripped by The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes, follow the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A rating or review takes thirty seconds and genuinely helps new listeners find us.Visit theprofiler.co.ukFor further updates and to receive Kerry’s weekly email, visit theprofiler.co.uk.Credits● Presented by Kerry Daynes, with Jeff Anderson● Produced by Shearwater Media● Executive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson● Music & Editing: Rob WarnerContent noteThis episode discusses murder, capital punishment, and execution. Listener discretion advised. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ask me anything: Kerry Answers Your Questions

While the team spends August preparing fresh cases for the autumn run, hosts this special ‘Ask Me Anything’ episode of The Profiler. The questions, posed by producer Jeff Anderson, come from listeners who signed up to Kerry's weekly email, covering stories already featured on the podcast, live news events, and Kerry's own career and life.Topics covered:The UK government's plan to release thousands of prisoners early to ease overcrowding, and why Kerry believes it shouldn't go ahead in its current form — she makes the case for deporting foreign nationals eligible for removal and clearing the remand backlog instead of releasing unassessed offenders.Whether Rachel McLean's killer, John Tanner, could ever be rehabilitated, given he committed a chillingly similar assault on a later partner almost three decades after murdering Rachel in 1991.The extraordinary manipulation of bus driver and child killer Darren Vickers, who moved in with the family of his victim, ten-year-old Jamie Labes, posing as a concerned neighbour throughout the search for him.The murder of fifteen-year-old Kayleigh Haywood, and whether the internet is driving a genuine rise in sexual offences — including Kerry's view on the proposed ban on under-16s using social media.The transfer of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana to Broadmoor secure hospital, and whether he is "gaming the system" by appearing to have mental health problems.The calculated cruelty of Luke D’Wit, who engineered events so his victims' daughter would discover their bodies — and why Kerry stops short of calling him a clinical psychopath, despite the callousness of what he did.New developments in the forty-year-old Suzy Lamplugh case: Kerry reveals she has offered her services, and those of colleagues, to help review the CPS file on prime suspect John Cannan.A run of personal questions: how Kerry got into forensic psychology and what the training involves, the case that has affected her more than any other — the 2013 murder of five-year-old April Jones — and living with profound deafness caused by Ménière's disease, including how she lip-reads and why context matters so much in conversation.Plus, the story behind the show's closing music, courtesy of editor and composer Rob Warner.Kerry and Jeff thank everyone who sent in questions, with apologies that not all could be answered on air. Normal service resumes in September with new cases from Britain's most notorious crimes and criminals.If you enjoyed this episode, please follow or subscribe to The Profiler wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a five-star rating or review. For regular updates, and to subscribe to Kerry’s weekly email go to www.theprofiler.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Murder of Jessica Patel

On 14 May 2018, pharmacist Mitesh Patel called 999 from his home in Middlesbrough, telling the operator his wife Jessica had been attacked during a burglary. But as forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes reveals in this Season One finale of The Profiler, the true story was one of coercive control, a secret gay double life, and a chillingly calculated murder plot. Drawing on 999 recordings, CCTV footage, and interviews with detectives and journalists, Kerry unpicks how a ‘loving husband’s’ carefully staged crime scene unravelled — exposing a hidden relationship, a plan to start a new life in Australia, and a motive rooted in greed and betrayal.Key psychological themesThis episode explores: coercive control and domestic abuse as a predictor of lethal violence • staged crime scenes and offender behaviour • the psychology of a ‘double life’ • victimology and how investigators build a motive • so-called ‘honour killings’ • warning signs missed by professionalsContributors featured in this episode● Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.● Tom Wilkinson — Press Association journalist who covered the Mitesh Patel trial.● Gary Cunningham — Former homicide detective.● Tracy Alexander — Forensics lecturer and crime scene management expert.What you’ll learn in this episode● What Mitesh Patel told the 999 operator when he ‘discovered’ his wife Jessica bound, gagged and dying at their Middlesbrough home — and why detectives suspected him from the start● Why the lack of forced entry immediately pointed detectives towards someone Jessica knew● The pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour Jessica’s family described to police, and why it should have been treated as more than a ‘red flag’● How CCTV footage, a health-tracking app, and a hidden roll of duct tape unravelled Mitesh Patel’s carefully constructed alibi● The secret life detectives uncovered on his laptop — including a relationship with a GP living in Australia — and the plan police believe lay behind Jessica’s murder● Why a Homicide Review, published two years after Patel’s conviction, concluded that critical warning signs were presentRelevant links and further reading● Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)● Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)● BBC News: Mitesh Patel jailed for murdering wife Jessica — bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-53389877● Domestic Homicide Review into the murder of Jessica Patel — homicide-review.homeoffice.gov.uk● The Halo Project: Jessica Patel’s story — haloproject.org.uk● Domestic abuse support — Refuge (0808 2000 247) • National Domestic Abuse Helpline • Men’s Advice LineSubscribe & followIf you’re gripped by The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes, follow the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A rating or review takes a matter of seconds and genuinely helps new listeners find us.Visit theprofiler.co.ukFor updates on the podcast, an exclusive filmed interview with Kerry, and to join her mailing list visit theprofiler.co.uk.Credits● Presented by Kerry Daynes● Produced by Shearwater Media● Executive Producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson● Editing and Music by Rob Warner● Assistant Editor: Kay HomanContent noteThis episode contains descriptions of domestic abuse, coercive control, and murder. Listener discretion is advised. If you have been affected by the issues raised, support is available from Refuge (0808 2000 247), the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, and the Samaritans (116 123). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who Killed Suzy Lamplugh (Part 2)

By April 1989, John Cannan had been convicted of kidnapping and murdering Bristol newlywed Shirley Banks, raping another woman, and attempting to abduct a third at gunpoint — crimes that led one psychiatrist to conclude he could “dispose of a human life with as much emotion as you and I throw away a toffee wrapper.” But was Cannan also responsible for the 1986 disappearance of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh, missing three years before his trial? In Part 2, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes examines the number plate that almost gave Cannan away, revisits a 2000 police re-interview in which his meticulous alibi collapses hour by hour, and asks why — despite compelling circumstantial evidence — he was never charged before his death in prison in November 2024.Key psychological themesThis episode explores: performative charm masking predatory violence • narcissistic slips of the tongue • fabricated alibis unravelling under interrogation • third-person distancing as a psychological defence • the limits of circumstantial evidence • grief, campaigning and unfinished justiceContributors featured in this episodeKerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.Rod Chaytor — Veteran crime correspondent (Daily Mirror) who covered the Cannan trial and the Lamplugh case.Michael Barley — Former Detective Sergeant, Metropolitan Police; interviewed Cannan after his arrest and again during the 2000 review.Jim Dickie — Former Detective Superintendent, Metropolitan Police; led the 2000 review into Suzy Lamplugh’s disappearance.What you'll learn in this episodeHow John Cannan’s 1989 trial for the murder of Shirley Banks and other offences ended in three life sentences, and what the judge’s sentencing remarks revealed about his psychologyWhy the number plate on Shirley Banks’s car, found in Cannan’s garage — SLP 386 S — became one of the case’s most chilling detailsWhat happened when Detective Sergeant Mike Barley asked Cannan, ‘Is that man you, John?’ — and why the answer still divides investigatorsHow Cannan’s detailed alibi for the weekend Suzy disappeared — the Euston train, a cinema date, lunch with his mother — fell apart inside a recorded 2000 police interviewWhy the CPS found insufficient evidence to charge Cannan, and what happened when he died in prison in November 2024Relevant links and further readingKerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)Faking It: Tears of a Crime (Warner Bros. Discovery) — some interviews in this episode were originally featured in the series. Watch on discoveryplus.comsuzylamplugh.org — The Suzy Lamplugh Trust: Suzy’s story and the Trust’s safety campaigningSupport for families of missing or murdered people — Missing People (UK) • Victim SupportSubscribe & followIf you’re gripped by The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes, follow the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A rating or review takes thirty seconds and genuinely helps new listeners find us.Visit theprofiler.co.ukFor an exclusive filmed interview with Kerry Daynes on the cases behind the series — and to join Kerry’s weekly email list - visit theprofiler.co.uk. CreditsPresented by Kerry DaynesProduced by Shearwater MediaExecutive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve AndersonEditor: Jeanette SmedleyMusic: Rob WarnerContent noteThis episode contains descriptions of kidnap, rape and murder, and discussion of a presumed murder victim whose body has never been found. Listener discretion is advised. If you have been affected by the issues raised, support is available from Victim Support (0808 168 9111) and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust (020 7091 0014). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.