What creates a serial killer? Is it possible to predict that someone will become a rapist? Do spree killers share common character traits and childhood experiences? What turns a child into a murderer? And how do they explain their crimes?

To unravel the psychological profile of the world’s most dangerous criminals, consultant forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes, examines some of the most infamous cases and goes in search of in-depth, personal interviews with convicted criminals and killers.

Kerry is not your average forensic psychologist. She’s female, she’s glamorous and she talks in accessible sound bites. She’s passionate about her subject and she’s on a mission to investigate, understand and unravel a psychological blueprint of violent crime.

Each episode of The Making of a Monster will take Kerry on a journey into the minds of violent criminals; serial killers, rapists, fantasists, paedophiles, wife beaters, women who kill, arsonists. It’s a journey with many twists and turns as she builds up a clear psychological profile.

Fred and Rose West - Couples Who Kill

Fred and Rose West are two of the most notorious killers in criminal history. They lived at 25 Cromwell Street. It was an ordinary semi in a quiet street in Gloucester. But this house was at the centre of one of the most gruesome cases of multiple murder in modern British history.

They had nine children between them from various relationships. Heather was the first of the children they had together as a couple and it’s believed that she was Fred’s last victim. It was her very disappearance that was indirectly responsible for bringing them to justice.

It was a family joke that the children were warned that if they didn’t behave they would end up under the patio like Heather. Some of the younger West children were overheard discussing this and the alarm was raised at school.

A warrant was obtained to search the Cromwell Street House. The police began to excavate the garden and cellars and they soon discovered what appeared to be the remains of at least nine bodies. Finally arrested in 1994, the Wests were charged with the rape, torture and murder of 12 young women.