David Wilson

David Wilson (born 23 April 1957) is a Scottish emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University.

While at HMP Woodhill, Wilson helped design and managed the two units for the 12 most disruptive prisoners in the country. This experience brought him into contact with some of the most notorious offenders of the last 30 years, including Charles Bronson and Dennis Nilsen.

Wilson has written about these experiences in his memoir, My Life with Murderers.

Professor of Criminology Following a short time with the Prison Reform Trust, Wilson joined University of Central England in Birmingham (now Birmingham City University), was given a professorship in 2000 and made emeritus Professor in 2017. A member of the British Society of Criminology, his research covers aspects of prisons and imprisonment, murder and serial murder.

Wilson has advised various police forces as a criminologist, and in 2006 was also involved in the Ipswich serial murder case, as an advisor to Sky News. Subsequently, Steve Wright was arrested and prosecuted for this series of murders.

Wilson acted as: Vice-chair of the Howard League for Penal Reform (1998–2014); Vice-president of New Bridge; and Chair of the Forum on Prisoner Education (2000–2006). He is a former Chair of the Commission on English Prisons Today, whose president was Cherie Blair, and is the current Chair of the Friends of Grendon Prison. In 2012, he was made a National Teaching Fellow of England and Wales. He is a regular contributor to the press and writes mostly for The Guardian and the Daily Mail. He writes a regular column in The Herald (Glasgow). On television he presented four series of The Crime Squad for BBC1, and also Leave No Trace and Too Young to Die? about the plight of young people on death row in the USA. On BBC2 he presented Who Killed Ivan the Terrible? and was an expert on the game show Identity. On Channel 5 he co-presented Banged Up, which was nominated for a Royal Television Society award. Wilson developed and presented two series of Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story, which was developed initially from the standpoint of an academic look at criminal profiling to counter that shown in fictional series such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He co-presents Channel 4's In the Footsteps of Killers and is a regular on ITV's This Morning.

Wilson appeared on BBC Radio 4's Ramblings series on 1 October 2020, walking with Clare Balding from Wicken, Northamptonshire to Leckhampstead, Buckinghamshire whilst discussing his life and the murder of Margaret McLaughlin in Carluke, Lanarkshire.

Wilson gives public lectures and delivers lectures for schools through the company Ecademi. He has made several theatre tours – most recently in 2024 with the novelist Marcel Theroux. In 2016 the TV drama Dark Angel attributed his book Mary Ann Cotton: Britain's First Female Serial Killer as its inspiration.

Personal life Wilson is married to Anne, a practising lawyer. The couple live in Buckinghamshire and have two children. He played and still enjoys watching rugby and supports Northampton Saints and Glasgow Warriors.

Publications (books)

David Wilson & John Ashton (2001) What Everyone in Britain Should Know About Crime & Punishment, Oxford University Press. . David Wilson, John Ashton & Douglas Sharp (2002) What Everyone in Britain Should Know About the Police, Oxford University Press. .

– This co-author is the Sky broadcast journalist and not the former Police Officer of the same name. – This co-author is the Sky broadcast journalist and not the former Police Officer of the same name.

David Wilson (2020) Signs of Murder: A Small Town in Scotland, a Miscarriage of Justice and the Search for the Truth. Sphere. . About the murder of Margaret McLaughlin in Carluke, Lanarkshire, in 1973. David Wilson (2021) A Plot to Kill. Sphere. . About the murder of Peter Farquhar. David, Wilson (2023). Murder At Home: How our safest space is where we're most in danger. Hachette UK. Hardback Published 23 March 2023