The Murder of Childhood

Ray Wyre (1951-2008) was a nationally acknowledged expert in the sexual crime field. He began working with sex-offenders as a member of the Probation Service in the 1970s. From 1981 to 1986 he established a groupwork programme for sex-offenders in a top-security prison. On leaving the Probation Service he established the Clinic for Sexual Counselling, a hospital-based programme, until he founded the Gracewell Clinic and Institute in Birmingham in 1988. Ray Wyre was made a Churchill Fellow for his research in America into the treatment of both sex-offenders and their victims. He became an independent sexual crime consultant working closely with police services in profiling investigations and training police officers in interview techniques. He often appeared in court as an independent expert witness for either prosecution or defence and appeared in and acted as a consultant for many TV programmes and commentaries. He published numerous articles on sex-offenders and sex abuse and was the author of Women, Men and Rape: Working with Sex Abuse; Sexual Crime Analysis Report; and Murder Squad. He died, after suffering a stroke, in June 2008.