Writing Wrongs

* Warning: Today’s episode contains discussions of threatening communication and blackmail*

Summer, 2011, Leeds, England. Two elderly residents of a housing estate are feeling terrorised after receiving hand delivered typed letters accusing them of wrongdoing and threatening harm unless they comply with a request for large sums of cash. The letters suggest that they are being watched on a daily basis, and warn them not to involve the police. They both do contact the police, who shortly identify and arresta suspect – local woman Judy Dunne.  A warrant is issued to search Dunne’s house, and a number of her writings areseized. She is also asked to produce some writings while in custody. Struggling to find enough evidence to link Dunne to the letters, police turn to newly qualified forensic linguist Dr Nicci MacLeod for help.

This episode discusses how authorship analysis helped in the case.

 Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help

Production Team: Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta, James Cresswell

Sound: James Cresswell

Editing: Angela Walker

Visual design: George Grant

Additional Voices: Amy Booth

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant -Aston Research Explorer

 Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod -Aston Research Explorer

* Warning: Today’s episode contains discussions of threatening communication *

What makes something a threat? In today’s episode, our hosts Dr Nicci MacLeod and Professor Tim Grant are joined by Dr Isabel Picornell, who tells us about a case in which this was the central question.

 May 3rd, 2021, Scotland. Three days before the Scottish Parliament election and amidst fervent jabs being traded from supporters from all sides, a certain tweet stood out. “See you Galloway, we will get you, ye understand??” Twitter (now X) user @KyleHibee07 posted. This was condemned by supporters of the intended recipient, George Galloway, running for a seat at the time, who took this as a threat on the ex-Labour MP’s life. Our hosts and guest explore the issue of identifying threatening communications by examining this tweet.

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we mayanswer it during an upcoming episode!

 Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodieshere: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog

 If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help

Production Team: Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta, James Cresswell

Sound: James Cresswell

Editing: Angela Walker

Visual design: George Grant

Additional Voices: Mike Clarkson, Ian MacArthur, BrynMacArthur, Louise Martin, Ali Murray, David Steele, Paula Steele

 With our thanks to Dr Isabel Picornell

 Artwork image credits

Artwork image of George Galloway: By David Hunt from Warwickshire, UK - Stop The War - 32 - George Galloway, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3002252

Artwork image of Scottish flag: Jawad Ali on Vecteezy https://www.vecteezy.com/free-png/scotland-flag-waving

Artwork of  An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745, an oil on canvas, painting by David Morier is out of copyright and taken from the Wikipedia link below.

 For the painting that was part of the original tweet and to find out more about the battle of Culloden see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden#/media/File:The_Battle_of_Culloden.jpg

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer

 Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

 Dr Isabel Picornell’s webpage: Forensic Linguistics | Qedforensics

Dr Isabel Picornell’s latest book, The Linguistics of Analysing Deception in Written Texts: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/linguistics-of-analysing-deception-in-written-texts/C257606CC51F70AAED702FBBDE7C41EC

Tickets here!

* Warning: Today’s episode contains discussions of murder and racial profiling *

Some time in the 2000s, somewhere in the USA. John Smith, an African American male defendant, has been accused of murder. While in jail awaiting trial, he makes a phone call to his cousin. It was believed John confessed to the murder. The defence disagreed, but needed linguistic assistance to help them. Elsewhere in the country, tragedy has struck. 7-year-old Leona Harris was attending a house party with her father, Robert. While standing in the front garden with some friends, they came under gunfire from a passing car. A number of the group were wounded – Leona and Robert fatally so. The police believed they had identified the gang responsible, and the individual who pulled the trigger, and brought him in to be interrogated. However, they needed more information to charge him with the murders. To obtain this, they approached a former member of the gang, Sidney Brown, to help them gather new evidence to arrest the prime suspect – Marcus Jeffreys. Sidney was provided with a mobile phone and instructed to call Marcus, the conversation being recorded and later transcribed. The prosecution’s case was that the transcript clearly showed Marcus agreeing to the proposition that he had committed the murders. Marcus’s defence disagreed.

In today’s episode, our hosts Dr Nicci MacLeod and Professor Tim Grant are joined by Professor of Linguistics John Baugh. He’s come to talk to us about his type of linguistic profiling, which occurs when someone’s speech triggers discriminatory bias against them. Through a discussion of two cases John has worked on, he explains how his expertise tackled linguistic evidence in the US criminal justice system.

For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help

Production Team: Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta, James Cresswell

Sound: James Cresswell

Editing: Angela Walker

Visual design: George Grant

With our thanks to Professor John Baugh

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Professor John Baugh’s home page: John Baugh | Faculty | The People of Rice | Rice University

Professor John Baugh’s book: Linguistics in Pursuit of Justice

Center for African and African American Studies at Rice University

Academic resources

Baugh, J. (2016). Linguistic profiling and discrimination. The Oxford handbook of language and society, 349-368.

Cotterill, J. (2003). Language and power in court: A linguistic analysis of the OJ Simpson trial. Springer.

Dixon, J. A., Mahoney, B., & Cocks, R. (2002). Accents of guilt? Effects of regional accent, race, and crime type on attributions of guilt. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 21(2), 162-168.

Fraser, H. (2020). Forensic transcription: The case for transcription as a dedicated branch of linguistic science. In The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics (pp. 416-431). Routledge.

OJ Simpson Trial Transcript http://simpson.walraven.org/jul12.html

Other resources

BBC 2016, “Renting while black,” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-35464634.

The Fair Housing Act

Resources

*Warning: this episode contains descriptions of emotional abuse and manipulation* 

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 November 12, 2018, Madrid, Spain. 47-year-old Galician man Rodrigo Nogueira Iglesias is arrested near the Puerta de Atocha railway station. His crimes stretched back more than twenty years. Rodrigo frequented social media platforms and dating websites where he used fake profiles, pretending to be different people with different names and professions, all with the initial goal of attracting the attention of women who could be potential victims.

 We are joined by Dr Sheila Queralt – a friend of the Institute and Spain’s top forensic linguistics expert, having consulted on some 300 cases over the past 15 years and testified as a linguistics expert witness in criminal and civil trials across 10 countries, with cases reaching courts including the ECHR. Her work in forensic linguistics at ForensicLab continues through her Laboratory based in Barcelona, which provides linguisticanalysis of recorded conversations and voice messages, as well as written documents.

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In the episode, we make references to episodes 1.4 Romance Fraud, featuring a conversation with Dr Lis Carter, and 3.2 The Multiple Personas of an Online Child Abuser, featuring DrEmily Chiang.

 Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode! 

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: 

https://medium.com/@AIFLblog  

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources: 

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/  

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help  

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Production Team:  Angela Walker, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta 

Sound: James Cresswell 

Visual design: George Grant 

Editing: Angela Walker 

Additional voices: Salvador Alberich Castelló

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Illustration by Víctor Gomollón García. Reproduced with the illustrator's kind permission. The illustration was originally created for the book Estafas amorosas by Sheila Queralt Estévez (Larousse Editorial, 2022).

More information about the book:

https://www.larousse.es/libro/libros-ilustrados-practicos/estafas-amorosas-sheila-queralt-estevez-9788419250179/ 

Español

Ilustración de Víctor Gomollón García. Reproducida con la amable autorización del ilustrador. La ilustración fue creada originalmente para el libro Estafas amorosas, de Sheila Queralt Estévez (Larousse Editorial, 2022).

Más información sobre el libro:

https://www.larousse.es/libro/libros-ilustrados-practicos/estafas-amorosas-sheila-queralt-estevez-9788419250179/

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Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant- Aston Research Explorer 

 Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: NicciMacLeod - Aston Research Explorer 

 Dr Sheila Queralt’s home page: SQ-Lingüistas Forenses

Decalogue for requesting a linguistics expert report by Sheila Queralt  

 News of the Nogueira Iglesias case in the Spanish press

 A guide to spotting romance fraudsters

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Academic sources

 Carter, E.(2024). The Language of Romance crimes: Interactions of love, money, and threat. Cambridge University Press.

 Chatten, A., Baxter, K., Mas, E., Pena, J., Tabachnick, G., Duncan, D., & MacKenzie, L. (2024). “I’ve Always Spoke Like This, You See”: Preterite-to-Participle Leveling in American and British Englishes. American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage, 99(1), 3-46.

Queralt, S. (2022). Linguistic Profiling: A Spanish Case Study. Methodologies and Challenges in Forensic Linguistic Casework, 44–62.

* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions of child sexual abuse material. *

In today’s episode, Dr Nicci MacLeod and Prof. Tim Grant are joined by Dr Emily Chiang, one of our Research Fellows at AIFL, about her research into identity performance in online child sexual abuse conversations.

By tracing 17 different personas from a single perpetrator, Dr Chiang explored linguistic differences in identity performance and online grooming strategies. Together, Dr Chiang and our hosts go over how her research may help future grooming and child sex abuse cases.

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free resources:

 https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help

Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta

Sound: Mark Round

Editing: Nicci MacLeod

Visual design: George Grant

Additional Voices: Karolina Placzynta

With our thanks to Dr Emily Chiang and Dr Zoe Adams

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer

 Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

 Dr Emily Chiang’s home page: Emily Chiang - Aston Research Explorer

Both Tim and Emily are part of the Europewide Horizon SALVUS project looking at the investigation of online child abuse and exploitation across Europe. You can find out more about the SALVUS project here: https://salvusproject.eu

Research Papers:

Deceptive identity performance: Offender moves and multiple identities in online child abuse conversations

 Online grooming: moves and strategies

 Do Perverted Justice chat logs contain examples of Overt Persuasio⁠n and Sexual Extortion? A research note respondingto Chiang and Grant 2017 and 2018.

VOTE FOR US IN THE TRUE CRIME AWARDS 2026!

*Warning: this episode contains descriptions of terrorist mass-casualty events, and torture *

NOTE: This is Part 2 of a double episode. Please make sure you have listened to Part 1 before proceeding.

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These two episodes are dedicated to the memory of Dr Janet Cotterill (1968-2022) who contributed significantly to this case and to forensic linguistics more generally.  Her obituary can be found here https://iafll.org/2022/11/11/remembering-dr-janet-cotterill-1968-2022/

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August 2004. Dhiren Barot, a high-value terrorist, has been arrested in London, and police need to charge or release him within four days. To charge Barot, the police needed to prove to a criminal standard that he had indeed written the Gas Limos project, a document that contained the plot to attack underground carparks of landmark tourist destinations across London with multiple limousines filled with gas cylinders containing explosive gases.

In this second part we are joined by Professor Jessica Woodhams from the University of Birmingham who, alongside Tim Grant, Janet Cotterill, and Janet’s PhD student, was rushed to New Scotland Yard in the summer of 2004 to carry out an analysis of The Gas Limos project.

For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help

Production

Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta

Sound: Mark Round

Visual design: George Grant

Editing: Nicci MacLeod

Additional voices: Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, George Grant, Stephany Grant, Dr Graeme Hayes,  Greg Fraser McLaren

Resources

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Professor Jessica Woodham’s home page: Professor Jessica Woodhams - School of Psychology - University of Birmingham

Research Resources

Academic Sources

-              Andrew, C. (2012). The defence of the realm: The authorized history of MI5. Penguin UK.

-              Carlisle, D. (2007)  Dhiren Barot: Was He an Al Qaeda Mastermind or Merely a Hapless Plotter? Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 30:1057–1071 DOI: 10.1080/10576100701670979  

-              Grant, T.D. (2022) The Idea of Progress in Forensic Authorship Analysis CUP

-              Sean O’Neill and  Daniel McGrory, The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and  the Finsbury Park Mosque(London: Harper Perennial, 2006) 

News sources 

-              Guardian 2006 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/07/usa.terrorism

-              Times of India 2006 - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/articleshow/2168783.cms

Other Web sources

-              US Government 9/11 Commission Report https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-911REPORT/pdf/GPO-911REPORT.pdf

-              House of Commons library on pretrial detention of terrorists - https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05634/

VOTE FOR US IN THE TRUE CRIME AWARDS 2026!

*Warning: this episode contains descriptions of terrorist mass-casualty events, and torture *

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These two episodes are dedicated to the memory of Dr Janet Cotterill (1968-2022) who contributed significantly to this case and to forensic linguistics more generally.  Her obituary can be found here. 

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August 2004. Dhiren Barot, a high-value terrorist, has been arrested in London, and police need to charge or release him within four days. To charge Barot, the police needed to prove to a criminal standard that he had indeed written the Gas Limos project, a document that contained the plot to attack underground carparks of landmark tourist destinations across London with multiple limousines filled with gas cylinders containing explosive gases.

In this first part, we explore Barot’s story and background. How did he get from an average upbringing in an Indian family in North London to becoming a radical Islamist authoring a plan for mass destruction?

For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help

Production

Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta

Sound: Mark Round

Visual design: George Grant

Editing: Nicci MacLeod

Additional voices: Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, George Grant, Dr Graeme Hayes, Dr Madison Hunter, Aymun Yasin Khan 

Resources

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Professor Jessica Woodham’s home page: Professor Jessica Woodhams - School of Psychology - University of Birmingham

Research Resources

Academic Sources

-              Andrew, C. (2012). The defence of the realm: The authorized history of MI5. Penguin UK.

-              Carlisle, D. (2007)  Dhiren Barot: Was He an Al Qaeda Mastermind or Merely a Hapless Plotter? Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 30:1057–1071 DOI: 10.1080/10576100701670979 

-              Grant, T.D. (2022) The Idea of Progress in Forensic Authorship Analysis CUP

-              Sean O’Neill and  Daniel McGrory, The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and  the Finsbury Park Mosque(London: Harper Perennial, 2006) 

News sources 

-              Guardian 2006 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/07/usa.terrorism

-              Times of India 2006 - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/articleshow/2168783.cms

Other Web sources

-              US Government 9/11 Commission Report https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-911REPORT/pdf/GPO-911REPORT.pdf

-              House of Commons library on pretrial detention of terrorists - https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05634/

Welcome Wrong’uns to this special episode of Writing Wrongs in conjunction with another Aston Originals podcast: CorpusCast with Dr Robbie Love!

Nicci, Tim, and Robbie revisit some of Writing Wrongs’ bestclips involving corpus linguistics. Take a trip down memory lane as our hosts call back to S1E3, S1E7, S2E1&2, and S2E6&7, and grill Dr Love about the ins and outs of the use of corpus tools in forensic linguistics.

Erratum: Robbie's upcoming performance of We Will Rock You is at the Alexandra Theatre, not the Hippodrome as Nicci mistakenly says. Tickets available here.

 VOTE FOR US IN THE TRUE CRIME AWARDS 2026!

For a list of our sources and more informationabout this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs

 Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected]and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help

Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson,Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta

Sound: Mark Round

Visual design: George Grant

Additional Voices: Prof Malcolm Coulthard, Dr Issy Clarke, Dr Andrea Nini

With our thanks to Dr Robbie Love

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant- Aston Research Explorer

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: NicciMacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Dr Robbie Love's home page: Robbie Love - Aston Research Explorer

*Warning: this episode contains potentially distressing discussions*

In the series finale, Nicci and Tim will be answering some of the questions that you have been sending in over the course of Season 2. From general questions about forensic linguistics to a deep dive into past episodes, we will be reviewing what season 2 has been about.

For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at [email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help

Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta

Sound: Mark Round

Visual design: George Grant

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Resources