User:Hillbillyholiday/Articles/Paul Britton

Paul Britton (born May 1946, Leamington Spa) is a retired(?) clinical consultant and forensic psychologist, dubbed "the real-life Cracker" Degrees in psychology Warwick University and Sheffield University. Britton worked as adviser to the Association of Chief Police Officer's Crime Committee on offender profiling. "He has been involved numerous high-profile criminal investigations including that of serial-killers Fred and Rose West, and the murder of Rachel Nickell. He is the author of two books.  The Jigsaw Man which details his involvement with many high-profile cases, and his clinical casebook Picking Up The Pieces (2000).  The Jigsaw Man won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction.

''Britton came to psychology late. took a series of jobs before studying psychology in his late 20s. While working at a psychiatric hospital in Leicestershire, ''Police requested his assistance in a murder inquiry. His reputation grew and he became head of the regional forensic psychology service."

Jigsaw Man was a bestseller.

His books have helped popularize the field.

Police cadet at Leamington, left after a year.

"Called in on over one hundred cases" Colin Ireland, James Bulger, Wests cases.

Many years at Broadmoor

Helped treat patients suffering from lycanthropy (i.e. The belief that one is a werewolf).

Britton studied Sigmund Freud, B. F. Skinner and Erik Erickson. Theory of behaiviour.

UK "Bottom up" approach

Unaware of FBI involvement in the field stretched back to.

Canter / Britton squabbling re approach :Diffs between approaches, psychologist specializing in sexual dysfunction.

Canter's first (unsuccessful) use of pscyhological profiling in UK, Britton's later use.

Pioneering use of psychological profiling. First successful conviction in UK 1984. Britton's work led to the arrest of Paul Bostock for the murders of Angela Weedon and Caroline Osborne.

Black magic described as "belief dysfunction".

1993 murder of Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine, as well as a series of rapes and sex crimes known as the "Green Chain Walk attacks", that dated back to the 1980s.

Colin Ireland.

Colin Pitchfork "flasher" suggestion.

Stephanie Slater kidnapped.


 * Gritton "is a real-life version of Fitz, the criminal psychologist played by Robbie Coltrane in Cracker."
 * Inspired Cracker but not similar personality.
 * Robin Cook (author) argues that in fact the insiprations for "Fitz" were academic psychologist Dr. Julian Boon, and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Richard Badcock.

25 Cromwell Street
Requested by Detective Superintendent John Bennett Gloucestershire police. after discovering the decapitated and dismembered remains of three bodies (provisionally identified as young females) at 25 Cromwell Street. Fred West Rosemary West.

"Predatory and sadistic sexual psychopathy"

Britton's metaphors of "playing" and "art collector".

James Bulger
John Venables CCTV Britton assisted in profiling and explanation as to the motives of the young killers. Britton recommended that the police make further inquiries nearer to the scene of the murder, a suggestion which led to an interview of a local woman who believed that she recognized one of the children that had been caught on the CCTV footage at the shopping-centre. Both ten years old; John Venables and Robert Thompson were arrested for the murder of James Bulger; Britton's profile closely matched the two killers. Though not present at the intterrogation; Britton prepared a series of pointers to help those detectives who conducted the interview.

Rachel Nickell
''In July 1992, Rachel Nickell, a 23-year-old model, was sexually assaulted and battered to death while walking her dog with her two-year-old son on Wimbledon Common. The case horrified the nation and police came under immense pressure to find the killer. Their prime suspect was man named Colin Stagg but they had little evidence. They turned to Britton, whose reputation was at its height, to draw up a profile of the killer. Then they went further, asking him to help design a covert operation - based on what he knew of the killer from the profile - aimed at testing whether the suspect would eliminate or implicate himself. An undercover policewoman known as Lizzie James - not her real name - began exchanging letters with Stagg. She won his confidence and drew out his violent fantasies. He did not confess to the murder but detectives believed he had revealed details which could lead to his conviction. Stagg was arrested and charged. During the committal Britton was called on to explain the operation. He claimed it was designed to present the subject with a series of "ladders" he would have to climb rather than a "slippery slope" down which a vulnerable person would slide if pushed. The defence argued that Britton's evidence was speculative and supported only by his intuition.

Nickell case UK's "most publicized of that year".

''When the case reached the Old Bailey the judge agreed. He said that the police had shown "excessive zeal" and had tried to incriminate a suspect by "deceptive conduct of the grossest kind". Britton's evidence was thrown out and the prosecution withdrew its case against Stagg. Stagg was acquitted and Nickell's killer has not been brought to justice''

Paul Britton said Robert Napper, who last week admitted killing the former  model on Wimbledon Common in 1992, would have been arrested "within   half an hour" if officers had reacted to clues he provided them into   earlier offences committed by the killer.

Regional Head of Forensic Psychology, Leicester at time of Nickell, problems with approach

Stagg fallout
''He has been blamed by some for the decision to wrongly pursue Colin Stagg, who lived near Wimbledon Common, over the killing, as he matched an offender  profile provided by Mr Britton. However, the psychologist insisted that after the murder he had urged police to look for links with the Green Chain Walk attacks but that police had ordered him to concentrate on Mr Stagg.''

"before a British Psychological Society disciplinary hearing in 2001." "It will be the first time a psychologist of Britton's standing has been called to a public hearing - until now the society has held hearings behind closed doors."

In a newspaper interview last month, which coincided with the launch of his new book, based on his clinical casebook Picking Up The Pieces'', Britton said that the hearing was a "matter of puzzlement and concern. I am absolutely certain there is no basis of complaint and that my role in the investigation - as in all others - was characterised by complete professional and personal integrity". He added: "I don't manage investigations ... I advise the police. What they do with the information is up to them."''

Scotland Yard's Detective Chief Inspector Tony Nash, who led the latest inquiry, said there was "no evidence" that Mr Britton had urged officers to broaden the scope of their 1992 investigation.

''Britton said police prevented him from keeping his own records of the case due to security concerns, and urged Scotland Yard to search its files properly for confirmation of his version of events.

His account contradicts a book he wrote 10 years ago, The Jigsaw Man, in which he said there was no link between Miss Nickell's murder and Green Chain Walk attacks, but he now insists he was guided away from his original views at the insistence of senior detectives. "The hearing is important to the society. It is campaigning to be given statutory status - a psychologist cannot be compelled to attend a disciplinary hearing or to swear on oath - and for the title of psychologist to be protected. At present anyone can say they are a psychologist. One respected practitioner, who prefers not to be named, says: "I'm appalled it's taken so long but it's of enormous importance that the British Psychological Society looks at the details of this case and takes a clear view."

Mr Britton denied any wrongdoing. Charge dropped ''after a two-day hearing, the British Psychological Society disciplinary committee concluded Mr Britton's work on the 1992 murder inquiry could not be properly investigated. The committee ruled he could not get a fair hearing. Britton commented that: "Here today is a good day for me, but every day is still a bad day for the Nickell family...I can move forward from this. I'm not sure the Nickell family can. Nothing can put right what happened to them." ''

Stagg profile based on speculation and intuition.

Problems with approach in Stagg case in court of law examined.

Judge refused to hear Stagg case :Stagg controversy

Stagg hearing