Our Judges

Kerry Daynes is the UK’s best-known and most trusted Forensic Psychologist. With nearly 30 years spent as one of the most sought-after professionals in the business, her work has taken her from police interview rooms and the witness box to the cells of maximum-security prisons and wards of secure hospitals.

She is also the go-to psychology expert for true crime audiences around the globe. Kerry is perhaps most recognised as 'The Profiler' on the UK and USA Discovery channels but appears and presents regularly on British and international television networks.

Not only does she bring knowledge and experience gained throughout a truly remarkable frontline career, but she also has a passion for telling sensitive, nuanced, scientifically accurate yet accessible real-life stories. Her best-selling memoirs, ‘The Dark Side Of The Mind’ and the Golden Dagger nominated ‘What Lies Buried’ received widespread acclaim, are currently being adapted for TV drama and have inspired a brand new generation of aspiring forensic psychologists.

Mike heads up Audioboom's UK Content team, managing partnerships with some of the biggest podcasts in the country, from Redhanded and F1: Beyond the Grid to UK True Crime and No Such Thing As A Fish. He's also responsible for the output of the Audioboom Studios team, who create original podcast concepts including Devils in the Dark and Killers, Cults & Queens.

David Collins is one of the UK’s most respected investigative reporters. In 2011, he became the youngest journalist in the history of the British Press Awards to win 'News Reporter of the Year' for helping police convict the serial killer Levi Bellfield for the murder of Milly Dowler. He joined The Sunday Times as an investigative reporter in 2015, joining the Insight team. In 2022 he won the Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism for his work on the murder of Agnes Wanjiru by a British soldier, and the George Orwell Special Prize for the same story. He is currently northern editor for The Sunday Times based in Manchester.

Dr Honor Doro Townshend is a presenter, researcher and lecturer in all thing’s true crime and Criminology. Her recent research projects have looked into illicit substance use, gender identities and crime, the darkweb, and deviant subcultures, but she has a background in the study of all elements of Criminology, from theory to criminal justice. She has multiple papers and book chapters published across a variety of topic areas, and has worked as an expert Criminologist for programmes across Channel 4, Vice World News, BBC3, and Amazon Prime.

Kate is the UK’s leading True Crime TV producer (World’s Most Evil Killers now into its 7th season, How I Caught the Killer & Surviving a Serial Killer to name a few), and internationally recognised producer who under her company Woodcut Media also focuses on specialist factual series, premium & talent led docs, and factual entertainment, working with a multitude of broadcasters such as C4, Channel 5, Sky, Nat Geo, CI, Smithsonian Channel and more.

She is a published author with "The Krays: The Prison Years", a member of the British Screen Forum, and sits on the PACT council.

Ronke Phillips is a multi-award winning journalist. She is currently Senior Correspondent at ITV News London working on big investigations and breaking news stories including, the murders of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, of Stephen Lawrence and Victoria Climbie, the July 7th bombings of London in 2007, the murder of Lee Rigby, the recent terrorist attacks at London and Westminster bridges, and the murder of Baby P.

Her career as a journalist includes stints in print, radio and television, as a presenter and reporter in both national and regional media, in the UK and abroad. In May 2022, she was appointed as ITN’s first Editorial Diversity Partner. A new role working across ITN’s three newsrooms – ITV News, Channel 4 News and 5 News - and ITN Productions to support ITN’s commitment to developing the careers of journalists from underrepresented groups into middle and senior editorial roles in news and production.

Vicky Etchells is Head of News and Factual Podcasts for Global. She oversees a slate of original, ambitious factual podcasts with high profile presenters and wide audience reach. She’s spent the last 10 years as part of the senior leadership team at LBC, the UK’s largest commercial news talk radio station covering some of the biggest stories of our time including several general elections, the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis.

She has won dozens of top industry awards for documentaries and factual content including a special recognition award from the UN for an investigation into modern day slavery.

Kate Ansell is a Commissioning Editor for Channel 5. She is responsible for a range of factual series and single films, including Casualty 24/7, Secrets of the Forest and Depp vs Heard: The Winners and Losers. Her slate also includes a number of true crime films.

Senior media professional with over 20 years experience working across radio, streaming, digital audio and podcasts with a proven track record delivering compelling, award winning content and impressive results in terms of customer and revenue growth, product development and team success both nationally and globally.

Marcel Theroux is a reporter, producer and the award-winning author of seven novels, most recently 'The Sorcerer of Pyongyang'. As a producer working in true crime, he has made two feature length programmes: Navalny: The Man Who Putin Couldn't Kill (Channel Four, 2021), which won a Golden Nymph in 2022, and Falklands: Island of Secrets (ITV, 2022), which he also presented.

Alexander Gardiner is CEO of Rare Television, a company that makes popular documentaries for broadcasters in the US, UK and Ireland. Comfortable in all areas from modern aviation to true crime, key Rare TV titles include Ice Airport Alaska for the Smithsonian Channel, Digging for Britain for the BBC and a crime slate for six different channels. As well as heading a variety of production companies over the past 20 years, Alex has executive produced a wide range of programmes ranging from I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! to the exposure of British TV legend Jimmy Savile as a sexual predator.

Andrew Wilkie has worked in prisons for over 15 years. He is Deputy Chief Executive of the Prison Radio Association, the charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first national radio station for people in prison. He set up he radio station from scratch in 2007 and has overseen its development into a multi award-winning national broadcaster. Prior to that Andrew was the launch producer for Dermot O’Leary's BBC Radio 2 Show and a Breakfast Show producer for Global Radio. His credits also include the creation and production of Behind the Crime, a returning series for BBC Radio 4.

Ian Rumsey is the MD of ITN Productions, one of Britain's most respected production companies, making a vast range of programmes for broadcasters and streaming platforms in the UK and America. He is a BAFTA and RTS-winning programme maker with a TV career spanning more than 25 years in news, documentaries and live programmes.

Under Ian's leadership, ITN Productions has become one of the world's leading producers of true crime - making documentaries for Amazon, Netflix, ITV, Channel 4, Peacock, Channel 5, Discovery and the BBC.

After my studies, I worked for over 10 years in a film production as a producer and director scout. Since the beginning of 2021, I have switched to the podcast industry as part of the content team at Podimo Germany and now finally get to work even closer on content and help create new formats. I have two children, still very much enjoy listening to many podcasts in my private life and sing in a choir in my free time.

David Prest has been an audio producer for over twenty years. He is the founder, and Managing Director, of leading audio indie producers Whistledown which makes programmes and podcasts for a range of clients. Recent credits include: White Smoke (Audible US), The Great Post Office Trial and Please Protect Abraham (Radio 4), Our Broken Planet (Natural History Museum) and The Search for MH370 (Audible Australia). He is also the series producer of Radio 4's The Reunion.

Kevin created the CrimeCon brand in 2016 and has helped grow the U.S. installment into the largest true crime event in the world. In addition to the U.S. and UK events, CrimeCon has also expanded to include an annual CrimeCruise, a digital community called crimeHQ, the CLUE Awards, and a variety of smaller events.

Ruth Barnes is the co-founder of Chalk + Blade, an award winning podcast production company founded in 2017 and the first podcast specialist production company in the UK. Ruth leads a team of award winning ex-BBC producers, making shows ranging from investigative true crime narratives to some of the BBC's best loved entertainment formats. Hunting Ghislaine with John Sweeney for Global, about Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, was a breakout hit topping the charts in the UK and garnering critical acclaim across the broadsheets - a film version has been optioned by Eleventh Hour Films.

Diana Carter is Commissioning Editor and Head of Talent across the A+E Networks UK. She was appointed to the role of Commissioning Editor in 2015, having joined the company the previous year as Executive Producer on a local version of Dance Mums with Jennifer Ellison, A+E Networks UK’s first localization of an A+E US franchise. Diana has consistently Executive Produced high rating local content. Most recently, Diana Executive Produced Murdertown, the highest rated local commission ever for Crime + Investigation in the UK. Previously, Diana headed up the Production & Development team at MTV Networks Europe and International, responsible for helping to commission consistently top rating local content - from Award Programming to Executive Producing the first MTV global commission of Super Sweet 16. Prior to MTV, Diana spent 10 years in the Indie sector, with the occasional hop across to Network, covering off multiple seasons of Big Brother live programming both for channel and Endemol, T4 regular and special programming.

Lisa Howells has been a journalist in consumer media for over two decades, working on some of the biggest-selling magazines in the UK. In 2019, she was part of the creation and launch team for Crime Monthly, a new kind of true-crime magazine, focussing on news, investigations, campaigns for change and survivors’ stories. As Assistant Editor, she has since helped it grow into one of the most respected crime titles in the country with a truly dedicated readership. Lisa is also a regular chair at industry events, and the co-host of CrimeCon UK’s Book Club.

Isla Traquair is a journalist, writer, producer, editor, speaker and presenter. From newspapers, radio and podcasts to international TV networks including the Oprah Winfrey Network, AMC, BBC, ITV, Channel Five and more, Isla’s stories, TV and radio shows, documentaries and podcast series have been read, watched and listened to by millions worldwide during her career spanning 27 years. She’s best known for her work in true crime having reported on countless murders and diving deep for documentaries and her self-produced Number 1 true crime podcast series The Storyteller: Naked Villainy, which made history broadcasting the first UK murder trial. She’s currently a regular on ITV’s This Morning where she was brought in to report on the death of Queen Elizabeth II as well as commentating on daily news round ups and recently filmed a series of crime features.

Emily-Jayne Wilde is the Head of Programme Strategy for Sky Witness and Sky Crime working across the channels’ long-term planning strategy and content selection.  Since the launch of Sky Crime in 2019, Emily has worked across a number of true crime series including Forensics: Catching The Killer, Britain’s Most Evil Killers and The Real Manhunter. Her most recent exec credits include, the BAFTA winning Libby, Are You Home Yet? and David Fuller: Monster in the Morgue.

Sam Rowden is Vice President, Content Group at leading international broadcaster AMC Networks International – UK. Sam drives the company’s content strategy for their channel portfolio and streaming services, including TRUE CRIME (formerly known as CBS Reality), the #1 factual entertainment channel in the UK amongst adult women, and a top 10 most watched non-PSB channel amongst all adults, owned by a joint venture between AMC Networks International - UK and Paramount Global. A key part of her role is commissioning true crime originals, and her latest commissions include ‘”Wrongly Accused” and “Killers: Caught on Camera”.

Nazir Afzal OBE, was Chief Crown Prosecutor for NW England and formerly Director in London. He was Chief Executive of the country’s Police & Crime Commissioners and most recently, National Adviser to the Welsh Government. During a 30 year career, has prosecuted the most high profile cases in the country & advised on many others and led nationally on several legal topics including Violence against Women & Girls, child sexual abuse, and honour based violence. He had responsibility for more than 100,000 prosecutions each year. His prosecutions of the so called Rochdale grooming gang and hundreds of others were groundbreaking and changed the landscape of child protection.

Darrell is the co-founder and MD of What’s The Story – one of the UK’s most successful Podcast Production Companies. Their shows include 2023 True Crime Award winner ‘The Missing’, telling the stories of long-term missing people. They also make the forensic science show ‘Smoking Gun’ and tracked down the worlds most elusive con-man, in the hit show ‘Con Juan’. Prior to audio, Darrell produced multiple true-crime television documentary series in the UK and the US.

Stuart is an Executive Producer at Arrow Media, one of the largest true crime producers in television. From crafting talent led singles, to producing true crime podcasts and creating successful returning series, Stuart has worked with major broadcasters in both the UK and US and has extensive experience across the true crime genre.

Danny Tipping is an award-winning producer with over 25 years’ experience in Specialist Factual television. Having spent time with broadcasters; Channel 4, Discovery and Sky, Tipping joined the independent sector before launching prod co Transistor Films in 2021. A leading producer of true-crime documentaries, Danny has overseen the development and production of over 150 hours of high-rating crime content for international broadcasters including Netflix, A&E, Discovery, Oxygen, Sky, Foxtel and ABC. Transistor produce the highly acclaimed Netflix Original series I Am A Killer and its ‘spin-off’ I Am A Stalker. In 2022, Pan McMillan published the I Am A Killer book, co-authored by Tipping and Transistor Exec Ned Parker.