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3 April 2019

Listening to crime: working as a forensic speech analyst

Jessica Wormald

Those investigating, prosecuting and defending crimes often recruit phoneticians and acousticians as expert witnesses in criminal trials.  When audio or video recordings are produced as evidence, these experts might be asked to consider a range of issues:

  • does the voice in this 999 call recording belong to the suspect?
  • what are the people in this bugged car recording saying, and who said what?
  • can you tell me where the speakers in this abuse video come from, based on their accent?
  • is this interview recording an authentic record of the conversation, or has it been tampered with?
  • is this sound a gunshot?

Using examples from criminal cases, I will discuss how forensic recordings are analysed to answer some of these questions, and explore the practical issues involved with producing evidence for the criminal justice system and presenting conclusions in court. I will also discuss ongoing developments in the field, including the introduction of the UK Forensic Regulator and the progress of automatic speaker recognition systems.