109. Out of Character Criminal

Bad People

BBC

Society & Culture, True Crime, Unknown

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A law abiding businessman turns criminal after medical treatment. Are hormones to blame?

Richard Davis was a 42 year old asexual with a highly successful business and no criminal record. Then he experienced a sudden change of personality. He became sex-obsessed - buying pornography and hiring escorts. Within two years of this personality change, he had convictions for assault and dishonesty and was banned from being a company director.

Journalist Amber Haque digs into the newspaper and court archives to tell this extraordinary story. Criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw explains why, in this case, the defence "My hormones made me do it," might be more than a lame excuse.

Producer: Maggie Latham with help from Shabnam Grewal and James Shield Researcher: Rhiannon Cobb Executive Producer: Innes Bowen Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Mix Engineer: John Scott Recording Studio: 88Hertz Commissioning Editor: Dylan Haskins Assistant Commissioners: Izzy Lee-Poulton and Sarah Green

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is more than just true crime and amazing twisty turnie cases.
0:06.6	It's psychological insights looking at the assumptions versus the facts.
0:11.3	I'm Dr Julia Shaw criminal psychologist and I'm journalist
0:15.2	I'm a hmber hark in our brand new series of bad people we look at a different crime
0:19.3	each episode to reveal what it tells us about those of us who do terrible things.
0:24.8	Bad people.
0:26.4	Listen on BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:35.0	This is bad people, the podcast about the bad things that people do and why.
0:40.0	Picture this scene with me will you it's 1990 a Bentley pulls up outside the Swiss
0:48.4	middle sex in Hertfordshire country club a popular hang, the local celebs and TV stars, Outsteps a boldin middle-aged
0:57.3	man. So he's around 5'5, he's tanned, he's dripping in flash designer labels complete, of course, with glistening
1:06.8	thick gold chain. He is our focus for this actually Maria Whitaker. So this balding middle-aged man he saunters over to her
1:26.7	thinking that he is God's gift. He starts chatting her up and he goes into full-blown leech mode.
1:34.4	He is not getting the hint that she ain't interested and he is carrying on regardless.
1:40.6	So one of the footballers, Arsenal and England player Paul Merson, who's now a pundit, he starts throwing coins at this guy as you do.
1:50.0	And instead of like backing off, moving on, like a sensible person, this madly persistent
1:57.3	bloke actually confronts Paul Merson.
2:00.9	He's sneering at him and he says after football what's your real job?
2:05.6	Well big mistake within seconds a fight breaks out the night ends badly for our balding man.
2:15.5	And I reckon he's lucky the only thing that's injured is his pride.
2:19.7	But what is very interesting is that this guy will later blame his hormones.
2:28.6	Which I'd be inclined to say is usually a bad excuse, but I've been digging into the science of this and actually I'm surprised by what I found and I now realize that this is a very unusual case, but there's something to it.
	...

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