I have spent 25 years treating serious sexual offenders – this is what I’ve learned | Rebecca Myers

Sexual offenders can be deceitful and cruel. But they may also be ashamed and desperate to change. Helping them is the only way to prevent more victims

I've got a list of questions I'd like to ask you about your sexual offending against children, if that's OK," I say. You might find some of them ... " I pause, unable to find the words, ... a bit detailed and personal." The grizzled old man sitting in front of me nods, but does not make eye contact. I don't know who is dreading the interview most, him or me.

This was the first time I had been left on my own, in a cell, in a maximum-security prison, with a man convicted of serious sexual offences. It would be far from my last. I have spent the 25 years since that day in the mid-90s, when I was just 22 years old and in possession of a shiny new psychology degree, assessing, treating and researching men who commit sexual offences, including sexual murder.

Rebecca Myers is a forensic psychologist who has worked with serious offenders for more than 25 years, and the author of Inside Job: The Life of a Prison Psychologist