The True Crime Sessions (Birmingham)
About this Event
Are you serious about true crime?
Do you follow true crime through the latest documentaries, podcasts and books, and want to go further - to hear directly from the people investigating, reporting on and analysing these cases?
Then this brand new true crime event is for you.
A day of true crime coming to Birmingham in November 2026:
- New speakers - featuring brand new speakers who’ve never spoken at a true crime event before.
- World leading experts - Our speakers represent the best in their fields. People at the top of their game in solving, investigating, analysing and reporting on crime.
- Learn from leading criminologists, law enforcement, journalists and authors who explore some of the most intriguing UK cases
- Hear from victims/survivors of crime and understand why crimes occur and how we can stop them happening.
This is true crime handled with care. We value education, discussion and respect over sensationalism.
Be part of this exciting new approach to True Crime.
Agenda
🕑: 09:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Arrival and Check-In
Info: Doors open from 09:00. Collect your badge, grab a refreshment and settle in ahead of the first session at 10:00.
🕑: 10:00 AM - 10:10 AM
Opening and Welcome
Host: Melissa Mayne
Info: A brief welcome to introduce the day and what's ahead before the first session begins.
🕑: 10:10 AM - 11:10 AM
Session One: "M**der Daddy"
Host: Emeritus Professor David Wilson
Info: When Emeritus Professor David Wilson was referred to as “M**der Daddy” by an attendee at a recent speaking event, it prompted him to explore our obsession with true crime and ask: why are we fascinated by it? And how healthy is it?
In this keynote session, Britain’s leading public criminologist draws upon his extensive career to trace our appetite for crime stories through history and into the present-day true crime boom, where that same instinct that makes us want to understand violence has also opened the door to fraudulent experts, grieving families turned into online targets and, most chillingly, students of criminology who went on to K*ll.
As TV presenter, podcast host and author, Professor Wilson has a ringside seat within the true crime industry and he maps its outputs on a continuum. At one end: low-grade, sensationalised content that commercialises tragedy. At the other: valuable storytelling with real impact, sharp enough to hold up a mirror to society and help change lives
🕑: 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM
Morning Break
Info: Time between sessions to grab a drink, explore the exhibition, and meet people who share your interest in true crime.
🕑: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Session Two: Inside the Mind of Child Predators
Host: Dr Graham Hill
Info: He caught them. He interviewed them. He studied them. Now he's telling you everything.
Few have studied the behaviour of men who commit the gravest crimes against children as closely as Dr Graham Hill. Former Senior Detective, criminologist and founder of CEOP, the UK's first Behavioural Analysis Unit for crimes against children, he'll discuss investigations including the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the Milly Dowler case and schoolboy murderer Brian Field.
He takes you inside the investigative and psychological reality of these crimes: how offenders think, and how uniquely challenging they are. Why do they offend? Are they born this way? How do we stop them?
Drawing on decades of frontline policing, interviews with convicted killers and academic expertise, he offers insight into why perpetrators abduct, sexually abuse and M**der children, and why stopping them starts with understanding who they are.
A candid, evidence-based session on the darkest edge of criminal behaviour.
🕑: 12:30 PM - 01:30 PM
Lunch Break
Info: Lunch and refreshments provided. A chance to eat, explore the exhibition and continue conversations before the afternoon sessions.
🕑: 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Session Three: Murderland - Can the Environment Create Serial Killers?
Host: Dr Kerry Hadley-Pryce
Info: Between 1965 and 1967, one of the biggest manhunts in British criminal history unfolded as three little girls - Christine Darby, 7, Margaret Reynolds, 6, and Diana Tift, 5 - vanished from the Black Country and were found murdered on Cannock Chase. Raymond Leslie Morris was convicted of Christine's M**der and remains the prime suspect in the other two, one of the UK's most notorious child killers.
But what turned him into a murderer?
Author and academic Kerry Hadley-Pryce re-opens the nature vs nurture debate, putting his case under a new lens inspired by one of this year's biggest true crime books: Murderland by Caroline Fraser.
Fraser argues that the cluster of serial killers who emerged from the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s and 80s - Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway, Charles Manson - was shaped in part by exposure to industrial lead and arsenic pollution.
If pollution helped create America's most infamous killers, could the Black Country's toxic landscape have done the same to Morris?
🕑: 02:30 PM - 02:50 PM
Afternoon Break (1)
Info: Time between sessions to grab a drink, explore the exhibition, and meet people who share your interest in true crime.
🕑: 02:50 PM - 03:50 PM
Session Four: "I Stopped the London Bridge Terror Attack"
Host: Steve Gallant QGM
Info: Steve Gallant is one of the few individuals who has experienced both sides of the true crime narrative. Convicted of M**der in 2005, he spent 14 years serving a life sentence. In 2019, on his very first day of temporary release to attend a rehabilitation conference at Fishmongers' Hall, he found himself confronting terrorist Usman Khan during the London Bridge attack. Armed with a narwhal tusk torn from the wall, Gallant helped stop an armed attacker who had already killed two people.
His actions resulted in a Royal Pardon and the Queen's Gallantry Medal.
In this session, Gallant addresses the complex moral questions his story raises: Can an act of controlled, redirected violence prove someone has changed? Does a convicted killer deserve to be called a hero? What does true rehabilitation mean, and is it actually possible?
Speaking candidly about his own crime, his 14 years of self-enforced non-violence in Pr*son, and the psychological impact of the “Learning Together” program, Galla
🕑: 03:50 PM - 04:10 PM
Afternoon Break (2)
Info: Time between sessions to grab a drink, explore the exhibition, and meet people who share your interest in true crime.
🕑: 04:10 PM - 05:10 PM
Session Five: Invisible Shackles - The Truth about Coercive Control
Host: Nick Gazzard OBE
Info: On 15 February 2014, Nick Gazzard's daughter Hollie was murdered by her ex-partner in the hairdressing salon where she worked. Not a sudden snap — the final act in months of control, monitoring and possessiveness that Nick can now trace with devastating clarity.
Since then, Nick has founded the Hollie Gazzard Trust in Hollie's memory, built the Hollie Guard safety app so others can reach for help, and created the “Working Without Fear” programme — work that earned him an OBE.
In this session he's joined by forensic psychologist Dr Vicky Thakordas-Desai, who has spent 20+ years inside the minds of violent and sexual offenders. Having worked with both perpetrators and victims of coercive control, she brings a rare, dual perspective to one of the most misunderstood forms of abuse.
Why do controllers control? When does it turn into stalking and violence — and how do you spot the early red flags?
🕑: 05:10 PM - 05:30 PM
Closing and Thanks
Host: Melissa Mayne
Info: Closing remarks and thanks to our speakers and attendees, drawing the day to a close.
Where is it happening?
GBP 106.47 to GBP 159.95
