Inside the Criminal Mind - To Catch a Killer

A killer is on the loose. There are already 6 victims. There are no clues, no hard evidence. So how will he be caught to prevent a 7th death?

In many serious murder cases profilers, expert psychologists help the police to build a profile of the killer. Is he male? Is he a loner? Was he abused as a child? Did he know his victim? Profiling is a tool which is used to get inside the mind of the murderer in order to catch him.

In this programme we tell the story of a successful case where profiling has lead to an arrest. We also examine the case of Colin Stagg, charged with the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common. A massive undercover police operation which lasted for 7 months led to his arrest. Paul Britton the psychologist who worked with the police has been accused of using profiling in a most dangerous way. Stagg’s conviction was quashed because of the way profiling was used to catch him and he is now a free man. No one has ever been arrested for the murder of Rachel Nickell.

Amongst the list of experts we speak to is Robert Ressler a retired FBI profiler who was one of a team of people responsible for the creating the technique of profiling.