Dr Richard Rhodes
Director
Forensic Specialist in Speech and Audio
Dr Rhodes (BA MSc PhD MCSFS) has over 12 years’ experience and has worked on over a thousand forensic cases including a range of high-profile and international proceedings. He has carried out research into the effects of aging on the voice in forensic contexts, into assessing the strength of non-contemporaneous evidence statistically, and into cognitive bias in relation to forensic speech science. He is Chair of the executive committee of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA), having previously been treasurer and membership secretary.
Dr Katherine Earnshaw
Director
Forensic Specialist in Speech and Audio
Dr Earnshaw (BA MSc PhD MCSFS) has been involved in over four hundred cases since 2019, including transcription and speaker comparison cases. Additionally, she has carried out research on the impact of accommodation on a range of forensic phonetic parameters, and variation in West Yorkshire accents. Dr Earnshaw is a member of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics and the British Association of Academic Phoneticians. She has lectured at the University of Huddersfield, and she is an Industry Associate at the University of York.
Bryony Nuttall
Director
Forensic Specialist in Speech and Audio
Ms Nuttall (BA MSc ACSFS) has been involved in over two hundred cases since 2021. She has conducted research about Automatic Speaker Recognition systems, as well as academic projects in forensic phonetics through her MSc degree. She is a member and affiliate of a number of professional bodies and associations. She produces evidential reports for transcription and enhancement casework, prepares speaker comparison casework for senior analysts, and is responsible for information management and client liaison.
We are assisted by a group of technical advisors who are highly qualified experts in their specialist field. They are not employed by us, but they provide independent advice and auditing, and consult with us on our procedures, analysis methods and security.
Dr Philip Harrison: expert in forensic audio analysis with over 25 years of casework and method-development experience. Dr Harrison has a background in acoustical engineering and now works as a research software engineer at The University of York. Dr Harrison has given evidence in a range of very high-profile cases in the UK and abroad, including at the ICC in the Hague.
Dr Adam Kelly: computer scientist who provides advice and support on our IT and cyber security systems. Dr Kelly has a PhD in biomechanical engineering and works in software engineering for an internationally active company.
Dr Vincent Hughes: senior lecturer in the linguistic science department at The University of York which is a world-leading centre for forensic speech science research. Dr Hughes leads research projects and supervises postgraduate research in forensic interpretation of voice data, and the use of automatic speaker recognition (ASR) systems.
Prof Paul Foulkes: professor in phonetics and linguistics at the University of York’s world-leading forensic speech centre. Prof Foulkes is director of courses for forensic speech science, and has supervised doctoral research from a number of leading figures in forensic phonetics as well as leading on key research projects.
The Forensic Voice Centre 