Our scientific staff consists of full-time experts and part-time consultants who have experience of thousands of cases. Our practice administrator is in charge of case management and forms the principal point of contact for clients. All of our full-time staff have security clearance status: SC.
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.
Scientific staff
Professor Peter French – company chairman and one of the world’s most experienced forensic speech and audio expert witnesses; Prof French is President of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA), a Fellow of the International Society for Phonetic Sciences and of the Institute of Acoustics (IOA)
Dr Philip Harrison – senior forensic consultant and company director with over twenty-two years of forensic experience; Philip Harrison holds degrees in both acoustical engineering and phonetics and is a member of IAFPA, IOA and BAAP.
Dr Richard Rhodes – senior forensic consultant with degrees in linguistics and forensic speech science. Dr Rhodes is a member of IAFPA, CSFS and other organisations, and sits on the IAFPA Executive Committee as treasurer and membership secretary.
Dr Jessica Wormald - forensic consultant with degrees in linguistics and forensic speech science. Dr Wormald is a member of IAFPA and BAAP.
Dr James Tompkinson – forensic caseworker with degrees in linguistics and forensic speech science. Dr Tompkinson is a member of IAFPA.
Katherine Earnshaw – part-time forensic casework assistant with degrees in linguistics and forensic speech science. Katherine Earnshaw is a member of IAFPA and BAAP and other organisations.
Consultants
Dr Shahela Hamid – holds degrees from the Universities of Dhaka, Reading and York; Dr Hamid is a native speaker of Bangla and Urdu and has high level proficiency in Sylheti and other Bangla dialects.
Dr Sam Hellmuth – is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York; she specialises in Arabic dialects spoken in Egypt and Yemen.
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. Dr Khattab is a member of BAAP.
Dr Krzysztof Kredens – is a native speaker of Polish and an experienced forensic linguist; Dr Kredens’ forensic work with J P French Associates involves recordings in Polish and he is the only expert in the UK who analyses spoken Polish.
Ms Burcu Onder – is an expert on spoken Turkish and is a registered forensic expert in the Justice Commission of Ankara. She holds degrees from Hacettepe University and York, including an MSc in Forensic Speech Science.
Dr Dominic Watt – is Senior Lecturer in Forensic Speech Science at the University of York and has held teaching and research positions in the speech sciences at institutions throughout the UK and in Germany. Dr Watt is a member of BAAP and IAFPA and undertakes forensic phonetic casework on a part-time basis.
Management
Sarah Ford - Practice Administrator – Sarah Ford has an academic background in Biology and Computation and has worked as both a forensic scientist and in a number of administrative, financial and client-facing roles.
Research staff
Dr Frantz Clermont – Dr Clermont holds degrees from Australian National University and Polytechnic Institute of New York University and has held academic posts in Australia, Japan, France and Sweden. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a foundation member of the Australian Speech Science and Technology Association (ASSTA), a member of the National Review Board for ASSTA, and a member of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).
Security
Dr Jane French – Security Controller and Company Secretary