Michael
has recently left Document Evidence and so will not be undertaking
any new case work. He will be working as a consultant and will
complete any cases that are outstanding and attend Court when
required. He can be contacted through Document Evidence.
Qualifications
BA (Hons) Physiological Sciences (1981)
Keble College, Oxford University
MSc Forensic Science (1982) University of Strathclyde
Career
Details
Recruited
to the Home Office Forensic Science Service as a Document Examiner
(Scientific Officer) in 1983, Mike resigned in 1992 (Senior Scientific
Officer) to establish Document Evidence Ltd, together with six
other colleagues.
During
the course of his career he has examined thousands of cases involving
tens of thousands of documents. All aspects of Forensic Document
Examination including handwriting, signatures, typescript, photocopies,
counterfeiting, paper, ink and alterations are routinely part
of his job.
He
has given evidence in court on over 200 occasions. The vast majority
of these have been in the Crown and Magistrates' courts in criminal
proceedings. He has given evidence at the Central Criminal Court
(The Old Bailey), the Royal Courts of Justice and at various appeals.
He gave evidence in the trial of Dr. Harold Shipman and in a number
of murder trials, major frauds and so on.
Michael
is currently studying part-time for a PhD at Staffordshire University
on the subject of the developmental aspects of handwriting acquisition.
He
has been involved with the recruitment and training of scientists
for Document Evidence and regularly assesses their work. Also,
he has run short training programmes for overseas Document Examiners.
Publications
Dot-matrix
printers. Allen, M. J. (1987) Forensic Science International 35:
283-295.
The
dating of a will. Allen, M. J. and Rimmer, P. A. (1988) Journal
of the Forensic Science Society 28(3): 199-203.
The distribution of damage defects among characters of printwheel
typing elements. Allen, M. J. and Hardcastle, R. A. (1990) Forensic
Science International 47: 249-259.
A classification scheme for Courier typestyles. Allen, M. J. and
Hardcastle, R. A. (1990) Journal of the Forensic Science Society
30(3): 137-142.
Using
ESDA to sequence highlighter ink and impressions. Allen, M. J.
(1997) International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners 3(1):
49-51.
Other
Details
Member
of the Forensic Science Society
External lecturer on forensic document examination at several
UK universities
Co-supervisor of PhD student
