She has spent more than 20 years working alongside some of the world’s most deadliest criminals.
But Kerry Daynes says she still occasionally gets shocked by the actions of some people against their fellow human beings.
The forensic psychologist, from Bramhall, has worked with offenders in prisons, secure hospitals, courts and police stations, and also out in the community.
She’s crossed paths with rapists, murderers and serial killers, and can be seen showcasing her skills on Quest Red’s Faking It: Tears of a Crime, along with fellow experts Cliff Lansley and Dawn Archer.
But despite the parade of dangerous criminals she encounters in her day job, Kerry says that personally being on the receiving end of a crime is what still keeps her awake at night.
Kerry, 46, was chillingly stalked by someone she did not know- after six years he was finally arrested and ended up in court, but the outcome was not what she expected.
“I was stalked for many years and it was a real nerve shredding experience,” Kerry told the Manchester Evening News.
“I have a very clear boundary for work and home and it got to the stage where I felt very unsafe at home and not at work - which is ironic given that I work with convicted serial killers.”
Kerry’s ordeal began in 2011 when a fan set up a website in her name, escalating to the point where he was suspected of murdering her cat, and being the author of the chilling message ‘Jill Dando’ on the fence outside her home.
The message was a reference to the unsolved murder of BBC newsreader Jill, who was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, London, in April 1999.
“I am sick of hearing about dead women,” said Kerry.
“In my case, my stalker got arrested and was given a harassment warning, which is basically a slap on the wrist. But it took six years to get to this point.
“At that time it was all happening someone wrote ‘Jill Dando’ on my gate and then nearby I found my cat dead. I was devastated. He was arrested at that point.
“Because of all this, the harassment warning felt inadequate to me.”
Bizarrely, Kerry says her stalker attempted to take her to court himself for non-payment of a bill of £26,000 for the work on the website - work which she never commissioned.
Those court proceedings were thrown out, and instead Kerry took him to court - at her own expense - and got a shock when she faced him in the courtroom.
She said: “It cost a lot of money and also gave him a day out with me, in the same room as me, which is what he wanted.
“I didn’t actually know what he looked like but I later found out that when I was sitting in the court canteen he pretty much sat next to me on the next table directly behind me.
“I didn’t realise this until I saw his face in the courtroom.”
Since her experience, Kerry - a patron of the National Centre for Domestic Violence and Talking2Minds - has dedicated herself to raising awareness of crimes that disproportionately harm women and children.
She also campaigns to improve responses to both victims and perpetrators, particularly in cases of stalking.
“Women that have been in a relationship with men who become obsessed with them - there are escalating behaviours and things that can happen leading up to that point," she said.
“I do think that there should be an improved police response to stalking, even if there has not been any physical behaviour or violence.
“It’s nice to be able to highlight this in Faking It. They’re not all killers of course, but they can still have a massive impact on the victims.”
Faking It: Tears of a Crime sees the three experts examine footage of famous criminals who shed crocodile tears on camera - either on national television or in their police interviews - and pinpoint the moments where they give away their guilt.
The new series again draws on the expertise of body language expert Cliff, linguistics professor Dawn and criminal psychologist Kerry, aiming to tell the full, unbridled stories of some of Britain’s most infamous criminal cases.
This time it features Grenfell Tower conman Anh Nhu Nuguyen, White House Farm murderer Jeremy Bamber, Met Police fraudster Carl Beech, and killer taxi driver Christopher Halliwell.
Their deceit is captured in Police CCTV footage during interrogations and TV interviews analysed by our experts, honing in on the micro-gestures and brief moments where the truth slips out, ultimately leading to their downfall.
“People think that because of the way we see forensic psychologists on TV, we must have some kind of magic powers,” laughed Kerry.
“In real life, I am brought in by police as a consultant, I might be helping to link a series of crimes, or how the mental state and personality of someone will drive their behaviour.
“I don’t deliver a ‘profile’ as such, I tend to spend a lot of time looking at crime scene evidence, trying to reconstruct in my mind how it happened. I’m not getting into the mind of the perpetrator but I am trying to put myself into their shoes.”
Kerry says that she has been interested in crime from an early age.
“Back in the early 90s, Cracker was a popular TV show filmed up north and everyone assumed I took my path because of that,” she remembered. “But I never actually saw an episode of it.
“The simple fact is, I am interested in people, extremes of people. If I’m honest I have been drawn to the darker side of life since I can remember.
“I have a fascination with it. I used to read a lot of true crime books as a teen.
“What’s great about Faking It is it’s this real psychological stuff. There are a lot of dodgy experts out there who like to examine a twitch or a gesture and offer up mumbo jumbo information. But we are there to tell it as it is.
“The other great thing about the show is, viewers can play along in the comfort of their own homes.
“Some of the stories are so jaw dropping. You can hardly believe that a fellow human being is behaving in this way.”
Faking It: Tears of a Crime series 4 begins Saturday, September 12 at 10pm on Quest Red.
