MEET THE HUMAN LIE DETECTOR!

Steve van Aperen is peeling back the layers - one fib at a time

- Maisy Rae

We've all been a little creative with the truth, told a white lie to a friend about her lovely (god-awful!) jumper, but just how good are we at getting away with it?

"If somebody's lying, you usually find holes in their stories, they'll contradict themselves and won't put themselves in the narrative," says Steve van Aperen, 59.

The human behavioural expert has helped put away some of the world's most violent criminals and murderers using his powers of detection.

Speaking to Woman's Day from his home in Melbourne's South Yarra, Steve hasn't switched off his inner detective, analysing each and every question he's asked, playfully flipping the script and putting us under the spotlight. It's nerve-racking, despite our innocent chat.

"We're all humans, whether we commit a crime and lie, or we lie about how we feel or to attract a partner or to save face," he says.

Dubbed the "Human Lie Detector" following a stint on US television, Steve regularly faces the toughest questions from his family and friends about their teenage children running rampant, or what it means if their partner has come home late. But when he's not helping solve family frictions, Steve travels the world training CEOs of financial institutions, airlines, government agencies, and even the Attorney-General's office.

It's not bad for a former cop who started out with the Victoria Police in the 1980s.

In 1996, Steve was working as a police detective - he'd been in the force for around 14 years and had mentioned he had always been interested in how criminals operate.

He was then sent over to the Behavioral Sciences unit in Virginia, US.

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