Briefly, tell us about your background and career/studies up to this point.
I didn’t choose forensic science as a career; rather, I was drawn to the idea of ‘informative evidence’. Following a PhD at Barts and The London on the haematological impact of trypanosomiasis and a postdoc in cardiology, I trained to teach medical statistics and evidence-based medicine. An academic post in forensic haematology then gave me the opportunity to bring these interests together. As forensic pathology teaching moved away from the medical-school curriculum, I took the opportunity in 2012 to apply for an academic post in forensic genetics at King’s, bringing our small unit with us. We have since been fortunate in attracting EU funding that feeds directly into undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. This has enabled us to build a specialist forensic genetics unit that also supports police and forensic science provision across the UK.
Your research has had wide societal impact. Could you talk more about this?
Three areas of work stand out particularly. The first is our work in Kenya supporting individuals, ranging in age from infancy to around 70, who believe their fathers were European and, in many cases, likely to have been British soldiers. We use genetic information from public genetic information to help investigate these relationships. Knowledge of biological origins can be extremely important personally, but there may also be legal implications. Where the individual is still a child and the father is British, it may be possible to seek a declaration of parentage and, subsequently, to apply for British citizenship. These cases are rarely straightforward and, together with a lawyer who works with us in Kenya, we have been helping families navigate the process in the High Court and obtain the evidence needed to establish parentage legally.
A second area concerns children conceived using donated gametes. Our work has uncovered questionable practices in some overseas fertility clinics, including cases in which children were found not to have the genetic origins their parents had been led to expect. People often make very deliberate decisions about how to build their families, including choosing arrangements intended to ensure that a child is genetically related perhaps to other children in the family. Discovering, sometimes many years later, that this is not the case can be deeply distressing for both parents and children.
A third area is our research into forensic genetic databases. We have been developing databases of dogs form the UK that can help the police both to suggest the likely breed of a dog and to identify individual animals involved in attacks on livestock, people or other dogs; this work has already contributed to criminal investigations and convictions. More broadly, forensic DNA interpretation depends on reliable information about how frequently genetic variants occur in relevant populations. As part of our research, we therefore provide a standardised anonymised genetic frequency data derived from samples representing the diverse geographical origins of the UK resident population, helping to underpin robust statistical evaluation of DNA evidence across the whole of the criminal justice system.
What upcoming projects are you working on, and what is their potential impact?
We are currently involved in the EU-funded ForMAT (Forensic Methylation Analysis Toolsets) project, which aims to develop and validate DNA methylation-based methods for practical forensic use. DNA methylation can provide information complementary to conventional DNA profiling, including estimates of biological age, identification of the tissue or body-fluid origin of a sample, and potentially information relating to lifestyle.
Although clinical and forensic geneticists both use DNA to make inferences, the challenges facing forensic genetics are very different. The biological material available for examination may amount to only a few microlitres and contain just a handful of cells. It is also frequently degraded and may comprise DNA from several individuals. Developing methods that can extract reliable additional information from such limited and complex material is therefore particularly challenging, and is an important focus of the ForMAT. An important part of the project is also to consider the ethical implications of the information we seek to infer from DNA, particularly where this may reveal sensitive characteristics about an individual.
What is a typical day like for you?
Extremely varied — and all of these things might happen within a single day. I could be talking to someone navigating the difficulties of bringing family members into the UK, discussing a criminal case with a barrister, meeting a student about their research, completing a genetic analysis for a report, attending an online meeting, lecturing, marking, or writing up research. No two days are quite the same, although non-stop tea provides a constant thread running through all of them.
What do you think people in the School would find most surprising about you?
I don’t have an undergraduate degree.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
Today so much is available to you – follow what interests you, stay open to unexpected opportunities, but always keep one eye on your future and develop a broad range of skills.
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
Not currently, because unfortunately we have not yet been able to secure research funding, but I am very interested in developing genetic databases for parrots. The illegal trade in these birds can form part of much wider international organised-crime networks, with wildlife and drugs sometimes moved by the same criminal groups using overlapping trafficking routes, contacts and money-laundering mechanisms. Following these links can therefore provide valuable intelligence not only about wildlife crime, but also about broader transnational organised crime.
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Probably retired from full time academia but retaining an interest.
What do you do with your time outside work?
I don’t have a great deal of spare time, but family is very important to me. Our son lives with us and our daughter is only a mile away, so keeping in close touch is a part of everyday life. Beyond that, I try to make sure I always have something to read that has absolutely nothing to do with work.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Reviving our rather dried-up gardens — we have two, which is a challenge in itself — and hopefully getting them both looking alive again.
Who inspires you most and why?
Professor Peter Gill. Peter has been, and continues to be, one of the most innovative figures in forensic science. From his early work with Sir Alec Jeffreys in 1985, helping to establish the forensic application of DNA profiling and its subsequent use in the landmark Leicester murder investigation, he has gone on to become an internationally renowned forensic scientist. His work has ranged from developing methods for interpreting complex DNA mixtures to advancing our understanding of the transfer and persistence of DNA at crime scenes. Miscarriages of justice remain an important focus of his work and, perhaps most characteristically, he never seems to stop generating new ideas.
What is something positive that has happened to you in 2026?
Being funded for a new EU research grant. There are very few traditional funding streams dedicated to forensic science in the UK, so the post-Brexit years were particularly fallow for us. Having the opportunity to apply successfully for European funding again has therefore been very positive.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
Editing a major medical textbook, Medical Sciences, which aims to explain the science underpinning much of clinical medicine. I particularly enjoyed being able to contribute chapters on two of my favourite subjects — genetics and clinical epidemiology.
What is your favourite thing about working at King’s?
Being part of an academic environment that is genuinely open to collaboration across disciplines, making it much easier to bring different areas of expertise together.
QUICK-FIRE:
Favourite scientist: David Sackett – Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and widely regarded as the ‘father of evidence-based medicine’; an inspirational teacher during my time at McMaster.
Netflix recommendation: Players (1979) – actually a pretty terrible tennis movie, but my father was a Wimbledon umpire and appeared in the film in that role, alongside many famous tennis players. Hearing that clipped ‘forty-love’ voice brings back years of warm memories.
Coffee order: actually tea - Yorkshire
One thing you could not go a day without: Marmite