Staff Profiles
Full-Time Consultants
Prof Peter French (Director) is President of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics, a Fellow of the International Society for Phonetic Sciences, a Member of the International Association of Forensic Linguists and a Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics. He is Honorary Professor in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. As one of the world's most experienced experts in the field of forensic speech, language and audio analysis, he carries out work on forensic phonetics, linguistics, sound enhancement and the authentication of recordings.
Download Prof French's summary CV in pdf format.
Philip Harrison (Director) has ten years experience at J P French Associates in forensic voice comparison, transcription, authentication, enhancement and other related areas, having worked on over 1000 cases. He holds a first class honours degree (B.Eng) in Acoustic Engineering from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton and an MA with Distinction in Phonetics and Phonology from the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. He is actively involved in academic research in the field of forensic speech analysis (download MA dissertation titled 'Variability of Formant Measurements') and regularly delivers lectures and presentations to universities in the UK and abroad. He has given expert evidence in both criminal and civil cases.
Download Philip Harrison's summary CV in pdf format.
Louisa Cawley has worked on over 250 cases in the areas of forensic speaker comparison, transcription and disputed utterance analysis as well as many miscellaneous cases. She holds an honours degree (BA) in Languages and Linguistics and a master degree (MA) in Linguistics from the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. She has appeared as an expert witness in a multi-handed drugs importation conspiracy case at Winchester Crown Court.
Download Louisa Cawley's summary CV in pdf format.
Asfa Bhagdin is a native speaker of Urdu/Panjabi and works on cases involving these languages. She holds a BA (Hons) degree from the University of Leeds in Language Studies with Psychology and an MA in Language and Linguistic Science from the University of York. She has given expert evidence to the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) and the High Court of the Sindh.
Download Asfa Bhagdin's summary CV in pdf format.
Part-Time Consultants
Please note that our part-time consultants work exclusively for J P French Associates in forensic cases. Any independent enquiries will be re-directed to the main office.
Dr Paul Foulkes works on forensic voice comparison, speaker profiling and transcription cases on a part-time basis in addition to being a Reader in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. He has a distinguished academic career having held positions at the University of Cambridge, the University of Newcastle and the University of Leeds. He has published widely in the areas of socio-linguistics and forensic phonetics.
Download Dr Foulkes' summary CV in pdf format.
Dr Dominic Watt is Lecturer in Forensic Speech Science at the University of York, and undertakes forensic phonetic casework on a part-time basis. He has degrees in linguistics and phonetics from the Universities of Edinburgh and Newcastle, and has held teaching and research positions in the speech sciences at institutions throughout the UK and in Germany. He has published numerous articles on sociophonetics and phonological variation in British English.
Download Dr Watt's summary CV in pdf format.
Dr Ghada Khattab is a Lecturer in phonetics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and as a native speaker of Arabic undertakes casework involving recordings in Arabic and Arabic accented English. She holds qualifications from the American University of Beirut and the University of Leeds, and has published widely on English-Arabic bilingualism.
Download Dr Khattab's summary CV in pdf format.
Research Staff
Dr Frantz Clermont is a visiting speech scientist at J P French Associates where he is currently conducting research in three major areas of speech science and technology: (1) forensic-phonetic characterisation of speaker variability; (2) acoustic-phonetic parameterisation and modelling of vowels and diphthongs; and (3) vocal-tract shape estimation from speech signals. Dr Clermont has held engineering posts in America and Canada and, more recently, senior academic posts in Australia, Japan, France and Sweden. He has published over 50 refereed articles in the field of speech science and technology, which have appeared in international journals and conference proceedings. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a foundation member of the Australian Speech Science and Technology Association (ASSTA), a member of the National Review Board for ASSTA, and both a member of and a reviewer for the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Administrative Staff
Lindy Rescorle is the practice manager of J P French Associates and has worked for the company for over 10 years. She is the initial point of contact within the company and provides advice and information relating to all aspects of the cases undertaken.