‘Thanks for putting me at my ease,’ she laughed.
‘Don’t worry, they’ve all had their lunch, so they should go easy on you.’
‘Can I upload my file here?’ Kate pointed to the laptop connected to the overhead screen.
‘I’ll load it for you – it’s being temperamental today.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Whenever you’re ready, Kate, I’ll do the intro.’
Kate handed Niall her memory stick, and removed her notes from her briefcase. She took her seat, still avoiding eye contact with the audience, and waited for Niall to begin his introduction.
‘Well, everyone, we are in for a treat this afternoon. I’m delighted to introduce Dr Kate Pearson, a lady whom I admire greatly. As some of you might be aware, along with my keen interest in studying criminology, like many of you here, I’m a firm believer in examining and questioning the social, economic and cultural aspects of Ireland today. It was through this interest that I met Kate, who is currently working with the Counselling and Young Offenders Reintegration Programme at Ocean House. However, it is not her work with probation services that she will speak about today, but rather her extensive experience of criminal profiling from her time in the UK. Kate holds a first-class honours degree in Psychology from Trinity College, a Master’s in Criminology from University College London and a Doctorate in Forensic Psychology from the University of Nottingham. She has vast experience in the area of criminal profiling, having worked with Professor Henry Bloom, one of the leading psychologists in the UK. Since her return to Ireland, she has also given some help to An Garda Síochána. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Dr Kate Pearson.’
As Niall stood back, Kate took her position at the podium, looking directly at the audience.
‘First, I would like to thank Niall for organising this event and to thank you all for coming here today to listen to my talk on the truth behind profiling. Let’s begin by exposing some of the myths behind criminal profiling. Many people think of profiling as conforming to what they have seen on television, showing an entire crime solved within an hour-long programme. Sadly, the reality is very far from this, not just in the length of time it takes to apply profiling correctly but also regarding some of the methods used by profilers. The first question we must ask, therefore, is: what exactly is criminal profiling?’
Turning away from the audience, Kate looked up at the screen and read the definition written there.
‘“Criminal Profiling is the process of identifying personality traits, behavioural tendencies, possible biographical maps, or even geographical locations of an offender based on characteristics and evidence found at the crime scene, whether that crime scene is a primary or secondary one.” I will explain the difference between primary and secondary crime scenes later in our discussion. For now, crime scene characteristics are a good place to start.’
As the dark clouds started to shift and the long windows of Renehan Hall admitted thin streams of afternoon sunlight, Kate could tell she already had most of the audience’s undivided attention.
‘Let’s look at how we would pull together the various factors from a crime scene.’ Kate flicked onto the next slide. ‘The three key things we must look at are the important behavioural aspects of the crime, what inferences or probabilities we can deduce about the perpetrator based on these and, finally, what other crimes the offender is likely to have committed.’
Kate was glad she had chosen the Dunmore case to discuss. It displayed all the aspects of what is typically described as a disorganised crime scene, where often an offender has committed a crime spontaneously. One of the important factors that Kate wanted to stress about spontaneous crimes was that although they can happen from a spur of the moment decision, they do not necessarily occur out of the blue.
‘Okay, now I’d like to move to discuss one case in particular, where we can see the work of the profiler on the ground. The case I’ve chosen is the Dunmore case, in which I was personally involved. I worked with members of An Garda Síochána to piece together a profile of the attacker who committed his crime in a frenzied manner.