Rotary Lecture 2025 'How to investigate a Murder'

Our first Rotary Lecture was held at St Mary's Church Watton at the end of February. Steve Gaskin is an ex-Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector and Criminal Psychologist. He is also an advisor on the TV  programme ,Silent Witness'.  

His talk was on the subject of 'How to Investigate a Murder' and was delivered to a near capacity audience at the church. Not only does he have an encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject, but a very engaging style of putting it across to an audience.

Steve gave us insights into the psychology behind why people commit murders, and illustrated the talk with details of how some of the UK's most notorious serial killers were apprehended. 

He also described the personalities of psychopaths, and explained that most of us can exhibit some psychopathic tendencies, although it is highly unlikely this would lead to murder. He invited audience members to complete a questionnaire which would give them a score for their level of psychopathy, but didn't want us to share the resullts with him!

In a wide-ranging talk, Steve touched on the cases of some of our worst serial killers, such as Harold Shipman, Fred West, and of course Jack the Ripper. He also gave details of an ongoing investigation by himself into a so-called 'cold case', the 'Playboy Bunny Club Murders' of the 1970's. A cold case is one which has not been fully resolved and is no longer the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. 

At the end of a most interesting talk, Rotary Club President Francis Ulrych delivered  a Vote of Thanks to Steve for his spell-binding talk on the workings of a serial killer's mind.