The Murder of Jamie Lavis (Part 2)

By the summer of 1997, eight-year-old Jamie Lavis had been
missing for nearly a month — and the Manchester bus driver who
killed him, Darren Vickers, had vanished too. Tracked down to a
North Wales fairground, where he was strapping children in and
out of rides, Vickers was arrested, then released for lack of
evidence, and welcomed back to the Lavis family home with a
celebration party. In Part 2, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes
follows the police hunt for Jamie’s body in Reddish Vale Park,
the trial that exposed Vickers as a grooming predator and child
sexual abuser, and the chilling jailhouse confession he made only
after the verdict was in. This is the story of how detectives
finally broke through one of Britain’s most brazen killers.
Listen now to The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes.


 


Key psychological themes


This episode explores: brazen manipulation • performative empathy
and staged grief • the predator who returns to the scene •
grooming and child sexual abuse • blame-shifting and false
allegations • the psychology of a post-conviction confession


 


Contributors featured in this episode


Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of
Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.


Roy Rainford — Retired Senior Investigating Officer, Greater
Manchester Police; led the Jamie Lavis murder investigation.


Asif Husein — Former Greater Manchester Police Family Liaison
Officer to the Lavis family; arrested Vickers in North Wales.


David Ward — Former Northern Correspondent for The Guardian;
covered the case and the trial.


Jeff Anderson — Former Head of News, ITV Granada, Manchester.


 


What you'll learn in this episode


How Darren Vickers tried to evade arrest by fleeing to a North
Wales fairground job that put him in daily contact with children


Why Vickers kept returning to Reddish Vale Park — and what Kerry
Daynes says that compulsion reveals about him


How a single jaw bone, identified through dental records, finally
gave detectives enough to charge him


What QC Brian Leveson’s courtroom address exposed about the
grooming and sexual abuse of Jamie Lavis


Why Vickers confessed to senior detective Roy Rainford only AFTER
the jury’s guilty verdict


How Karen Lavis went from defending her son’s killer to telling
the press, on the courthouse steps, that justice had been done


 


Relevant links and further reading


Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)


Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)


Faking It: Tears of a Crime (Warner Bros. Discovery) — some
interviews in this episode were originally featured in the
series. Watch on https://www.discoveryplus.com


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/326657.stm — BBC News archive:
contemporary coverage of the Jamie Lavis case


https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/disturbing-picture-shows-how-evil-15392826
— Manchester Evening News: how an evil child killer wormed his
way into his victim’s family


Support for families of missing or murdered children — Missing
People (UK) • Victim Support • NSPCC


 


Subscribe & follow


If you’re gripped by The Profiler, with Kerry Daynes, follow the
show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your
podcasts. A rating or review takes thirty seconds and genuinely
helps new listeners find us.


 


Visit theprofiler.co.uk


For an exclusive filmed interview with Kerry Daynes on the cases
behind the series — including untold detail on the Jamie Lavis
investigation — visit theprofiler.co.uk. Subscribe to the
newsletter for case updates, parole-hearing alerts, and early
access to new episodes.


 


Credits


Presented by Kerry Daynes


Produced by Shearwater Media


Executive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson


Editing & Music by Rob Warner


 


Content note


This episode contains descriptions of the abduction, sexual abuse
and murder of a child, and references to the discovery of human
remains. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you have
been affected by the issues raised, support is available from the
NSPCC (0808 800 5000) and Victim Support (0808 168 9111)


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.