Dr Richard Taylor

Literary Agent: Eugenie Furniss

Dr Richard Taylor is the National Clinical Lead Forensic Psychiatrist for the Clinical Consultancy Service based at the Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre.

He is retiring in 2027 after a 36-year medical career spanning accident and emergency medicine, humanitarian relief operations in Sudan and Somalia and forensic psychiatry in prisons, secure hospitals, the courts and since 2017 with metropolitan police special operations.

He is the UK’s leading expert on information sharing between mental health professionals and law enforcement. He co-authored the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ guidelines on information sharing with MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) and the national guidance on information sharing between mental health professionals and counter-terrorism policing.

For five years, Dr Taylor worked at the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC), the specialist mental health team attached to Royalty and Specialist Protection police. In this role he conducted threat assessments on individuals who sent fixated or threatening communications to members of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, and government ministers. He was involved in security planning for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the Coronation of King Charles III.

He holds two police commendations for his counter-terrorism work and is an associate member of the Leadership in Counter Terrorism Alumni Association (LinCT), where he regularly lectures on counter-terrorism and mental health.

He is currently involved in a research project with the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science analysing over 4,000 cases referred to the CCS, which will represent the largest dataset of its kind and further establish his authority in this field.

Dr Taylor’s non-fiction book The Mind of a Murderer has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide. Language editions include English, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese. The book received a four-star review from Jake Kerridge in The Telegraph and a highly positive review from Alisdair Williamson MP in the Times Literary Supplement. It was serialised in The Sunday Times in 2021. Dr Taylor’s second book The Mind of a Terrorist will be published in 2027

(Photo credit -Jon Attenborough)