Memorial Funds

This information has been prepared on behalf of the Administrators of the W G Johnston Memorial Fund and the David Jenkins Memorial Fund to provide assistance and specific guidance to FFLM Fellows, Members and Affiliates who might wish to seek financial support from the funds; in particular from the W G Johnston Fund.

W G Johnston Memorial Trust Fund

In 1963 the first President of The Association of Police Surgeons of Great Britain, Dr William George Johnston died.

Following his death it was decided by the Council of the Association to perpetuate his memory by creating a Trust Fund to be called the W. G. Johnston Memorial Trust Fund.

The Trust Fund was inaugurated with a trust deed dated 4th September 1963 by Dr James Alexander Imrie of Glasgow, Dr Robert Hunt-Cooke of London and Dr Ralph Donald Summers of London, who all became the first Trustees of the Fund.

The objectives of the Trust Fund were clearly outlined within the Trust Deed and were in the main the advancement of learning in Medical Jurisprudence amongst Registered Medical Practitioners and the public generally by any one or more of the following means:

Payment of a prize for the purpose and in accordance with the provisions set out in the deed.
Payment of the costs of the preparation of a text book or text books on medical jurisprudence, to be published for sale to the medical profession and/or the public in general, the profits from the sale of which are to be paid into the Trust Fund.
Payment of grants to members of The Association to assist them in undertaking original research in the science of Medical Jurisprudence.
Payment to support any education or research project for charitable purposes, that the Trustees may determine, in the fields of Forensic Medicine.

Under the auspices of the Association of Police Surgeons, which became the Association of Forensic Physicians, the Trust Fund was administered by three trustees appointed by the Council of the Association:

Dr Alistair Irvine
Prof Ian Wall
Professor Anthony Busuttil

With the establishment of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine by the Royal College of Physicians of London, and the winding down of the Association of Forensic Physicians, the funds from the W G Johnston Memorial Trust Fund were transferred to the FFLM in order to establish the W G Johnston Memorial Fund with the same proposed objectives as the original fund.

Prior to the inception of the FFLM, all applications for financial support from the Fund were made directly to the Trustees through Dr Alistair Irvine who acted as lead Trustee, and he continues to co-ordinate and represent the present Administrators appointed by the FFLM Board.

The Administrators remain in this role and applications should be directed initially to the Board via the FFLM Office and then submitted to the Administrators for consideration and decision-making.

As far as applications for the support of research projects are concerned the Administrators are of the view that all such application should be critically scrutinised before being funded in order to encourage and maintain the highest possible standards of research.

As a result, the Administrators of this Fund have made the requirements that:

Submissions are submitted at least three months before the project is due to commence.
Ethical approval must be sought, when relevant, from the appropriate Medical Ethics Committee and confirmation of this in writing appended to the application.
Submissions should be related to projects that can be shown to have some direct relevance to Forensic Physicians or other Practitioners of Forensic and Legal Medicine or which have a direct practical application to them.
Methods for the statistical analysis of the results should be included and costed within the project submission.
The submission should include a full CV of the applicant[s] with any previous publications and research activities listed in full.
The submission itself should commence with a title and an abstract which lists the questions being specifically asked by the proposed study.
There should be a detailed description of the manner in which the data will be collected and analysed.
It should describe how the proposed project will advance previous research on the subject and it should include all relevant references.
Audit projects will be funded exceptionally but only if it can be shown they are meaningful, that other local applications for funding have been unsuccessful and that excessive sums that would deplete the fund are not requested.
It should give a full breakdown of how the funding being asked for is going to be used.

Following consideration of all applications, partial funding may be considered.

The Administrators would make decisions and recommendations in respect of the appropriateness and nature of any financial support.

The responsibility for ratifying these decisions has been delegated to the Administrators by the FFLM Board but the Administrators would for information purposes notify the Board of the details and nature of such decisions.

All recommendations for payment from the fund would ultimately be intimated to the FFLM Treasurer who will be responsible for making payment to successful applicants on completion of the project.

David Jenkins Memorial Fund

The David Jenkins Memorial Fund was established as a result of a generous bequest by the late Dr David Jenkins’ widow, Mrs Lucette Jenkins.

The same three Administrators have been appointed by the FFLM Board to administer the David Jenkins Memorial Fund and have two specific roles to play in respect of this;

To recommend on an annual basis an appropriate candidate for appointment to the David Jenkins Memorial Chair in Forensic and Legal Medicine.
To consider applications from the current holder of the Chair for appropriate financial support or grants relevant to the post.

In respect of the appointment of candidates to the David Jenkins Memorial Chair, the administrators will continue to seek the best and most appropriate person available, who need not necessarily be a Member or Fellow of the FFLM, and make recommendations to the Board for their ratification.

FFLM Fellows, Members, Affiliates, and others are encouraged to make recommendations or proposals in respect of suitable candidates.

The Registrar will inform the successful candidate after ratification by the Board.

The David Jenkins Chair is awarded on an annual basis to a person of eminence.

The award is for one year and there is a precondition that the recipient undertakes some form of research linked to forensic and legal medicine and present that work at the FFLM Annual Conference.

There is a limited amount of potential funding available for the research and use of these funds should be discussed with Dr Irvine.

In addition, it is our normal practice to co-opt the David Jenkins Chair to the FFLM Academic Committee for the ensuing year where reasonable expenses (in keeping with FFLM guidance along with vouching) to attend the meetings will be reimbursed.

The award permits the entitlement of Professor during the year of the award and this is something we would encourage in order to raise awareness of the FFLM.

David Jenkins Chair

Dr Cath White	2023/
Prof Jonathan Harris	2022/23
Dr Maria Nittis	2021/22
Prof Philip Lumb	2020/21
COVID Pandemic	2019/20
Prof Suzy Lishman	2018/19
Dr Priya Singh	2017/18
HH Judge Paul Matthews	2016/17
Prof Guy Rutty MBE	2015/16
Prof Cristina Cattaneo	2014/15
HH Judge Peter Thornton QC	2013/14
Dr Miranda Horvath	2012/13
Dr Margaret Stark	2011/12
Dr Jacqui Mok	2010/11
Dr Guy Norfolk	2009/10
Prof Jason Payne-James	2008/09
Prof Ian Wall	2007/08

Biographies

Dr Catherine White is the Medical Director of the newly established Institute for Addressing Strangulation, UK (October 2022).

Dr White was the Clinical Director of the St Mary’s SARC, Manchester, UK for 19 years from 2003 until March 2022, having started as one of the forensic physicians in 1995 specialising in the examination of women, men, and children where there has been an allegation of rape or sexual assault. She continues undertaking clinical forensic medical examinations.

She is the Sexual Offence Medicine lead for the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, UK & a member of the Academic Committee and the Forensic Science Committee.

Dr White has been heavily involved in raising awareness of the dangers of non-fatal strangulation. Her research in this area was used as evidence for a successful call to change the law regarding strangulation.

She has been a regular guest lecturer on the Judicial Studies Board, Serious Sexual Offences seminars and the Family Courts.

She has been a UN Consultant on Sexual Violence and has been involved in a UNODC Project involving the establishment of sexual assault services in Palestine, 2012 –2018 and as of 2016 was also involved with a similar UN project in Egypt.

In 2006, 2008 and 2010 she was sponsored by UNICEF and CEOP (Child Exploitation Online Protection) to provide training in Cambodia. She has provided similar training in Moldova in 2008.

Dr White was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in The Queen’s 2014 New Year’s Honours List for services to Vulnerable People.

Jonathan is a consultant radiologist at Northern Care Alliance, Salford Royal Foundation Trust and honorary professor in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Salford. He has been involved in postmortem imaging for over 15 years working with local communities and coroners. He co-authored one of the earliest studies comparing CT and MR postmortem imaging with conventional autopsy. In addition to lecturing and teaching on postmortem imaging, he was a member of the postmortem, forensic and disaster imaging group which published a nationwide postmortem imaging strategy.

Dr Maria Nittis has a 10 year background in General Practice (primary health care) and as a surgical assistant (Gynaecology and Urology). She started her forensic career at South Western Sydney Local Health District in 2001 providing adult and paediatric sexual assault forensic services, shortly followed by 2 years working in Drug Health.

Maria provided contracted services to the Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit (NSW Police Force) for 12 months, part time, and has provided police training in areas relating to sexual assault, domestic violence and fitness to interview.

She has worked as a Senior Staff Specialist and Head of Department at the Forensic Medical Unit since 2008. The Unit is situated within the Western Sydney Local Health District and services a population of 945,000. The Unit also provides services for the adjacent Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District (population 375,000). The range of service provision includes adult sexual assault, paediatric sexual assault and domestic violence forensic assessments.

Throughout her career she has been at the forefront of several state wide initiatives which have included sexual assault proforma development, return of forensic results to examiners, forensic photography, utilisation of AVL (audiovisual linkup) for Expert evidence, DNA free forensic evidence collection kits and Domestic Violence forensic medical services.

Maria has a Master of Forensic Medicine (Monash University), Masters of Legal Medicine (Griffith University) and a Diploma of Frontline Management. She is a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Forensic Medicine – Royal College of Pathologists Australasia (FCFM – RCPA); Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine – Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom (FFLM); Member of the National Academy of Forensic Science; Fellow of the Australasian College of Biomedical Scientists (FACBS); Fellow of the Australasian College of Legal Medicine (FACLM) and a past president of FAMSACA (Forensic and Medical Sexual Assault Clinicians of Australia) from 2010 to 2015.

Maria has authored 2 book chapters (Chapter 3 – Sexual Assault Examinations in Clinical Forensic Medicine – A Physician’s Guide 4th Edition / Evidence Collection in Cases of Sexual Assault in Beran RG. Ed. Legal and Forensic Medicine, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013). She co-authored a chapter on injury assessment, documentation and interpretation (Clinical Forensic Medicine – A Physician’s Guide 4th Edition). She has authored and co-authored papers on a range of subjects which include review of illicit injecting sites, interpersonal violence, forensic evidence collection kits, forensic results, medical student education, forensic photography as well as case reports. She has been an occasional reviewer for both the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine as well as Forensic Science International. She has worked as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine since April 2020.

Philip Lumb has been a Home Office Pathologist since 2003 and now works within the Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and South Yorkshire areas, providing a forensic pathology service to the local police forces. He is the current President of the British Association in Forensic Medicine and was previously the Chair of the Association of Clinical Pathologists’ Forensic and Autopsy Pathology Specialty Group. Over the years, he has conducted a large number of autopsies on suspicious deaths and has developed interests in mass fatalities and the high risk autopsy.

Professor Suzy Lishman is a histopathologist at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (NWAFT), where she has been a consultant for twenty years. She trained at Girton College, Cambridge and The London Hospital Medical School, and completed her pathology training at University College London. Suzy has an interest in colorectal pathology and is specialty lead for the local bowel cancer screening programme. She has been involved in the development of the medical examiner system for several years, working with the medical royal colleges, Department of Health and Social Care, Chief Coroner, patient and faith groups to help shape implementation and training. She is currently Medical Examiner Training Lead and Interim Chair of the Royal College of Pathologists’ Medical Examiners Committee. She is also Lead Medical Examiner at NWAFT. Suzy served as president of the Royal College of Pathologists form 2014-17, after nine years as an officer. She was awarded a CBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours for services to pathology.

Dr Singh’s medical career began in general practice, following which she specialised in legal medicine as Medical Director and subsequently Executive Director at the Medical Protection Society. She joined the London Policing Ethics Panel in 2017, an independent panel providing the Mayor of London with ethics advice. The panel complements existing structures in place to oversee the way London is policed and provides in-depth consideration of ethical issues around current and future policing practice and on policing issues that may impact on public confidence. Priya is also a Non-Executive Director with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and President of the Society for Assistance of Medical families, a mutual provident fund with charity status.

Educated UCL and St Edmund Hall Oxford; degrees of LLB, BCL, LLD; former practising solicitor and professor at King’s College London (now visiting professor), specialising in trusts, property and succession, author of various books; deputy coroner (1994-2002) and coroner (2002-2016) for the City of London; editor of Jervis on Coroners 10th ed (1986) to 13th ed (2014); recorder of the county court (2010-2017); chancery master (2015-2017); specialist civil circuit judge (chancery) 2017, assigned to the western circuit, based at Bristol.

I am a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery and have a Medical Doctorate. I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and hold the Royal College of Pathologists Diploma in Forensic Pathology. I am a Founding Fellow of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. I am a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and have held (2015-2016) the David Jenkins Chair of the Faculty. I hold the Foundation Chair in Forensic Pathology at the University of Leicester where I am Chief Forensic Pathologist to the East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit. I am an Honorary Consultant in Histopathology to the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and I am a Home Office Registered Forensic Pathologist, having been placed on the Home Office Accredited Register in 1996.

Prof Cristina Cattaneo is forensic pathologist and anthropologist, and currently full professor of Legal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy) and founder and director of LABANOF (Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense) at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute.

Cristina also teaches Anthropology at the Faculty of Sciences and Arts of the same University and is associate editor for the journal Forensic Science International and a member of the Swiss DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) team.

His Honour Judge Peter Thornton QC was appointed the first Chief Coroner of England and Wales in May 2012 and took up his appointment in September 2012.

He is a Senior Circuit Judge sitting in serious criminal cases at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey). He also sits as a judge of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and in the Administrative Court of the High Court on inquest cases. In 2011, as Assistant Deputy Coroner for the City of London, he conducted the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson who died at the time of the G20 protests in 2009.

Before becoming a full time judge he was a barrister in private practice and was head of chambers at Doughty Street Chambers.

Dr Miranda Horvath is an Associate Professor in Forensic Psychology at Middlesex University. She was previously a Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the University of Surrey and prior to that a Research Fellow in the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit at London Metropolitan University.

Dr Horvath has extensive research experience having conducted national and local multi-site/team/strand evaluation and research projects in a range of forensic and community settings. Projects have focused on women and children who have experienced sexual and domestic violence and practitioners who work with them. Also research on the cultural context in which sexual violence occurs with an emphasis on the influences of sexualised media (e.g. lads mags) and pornography on children and young people. All of Miranda’s work comes from an applied feminist social psychological perspective.

Margaret Stark has been a forensic physician since 1989, mainly working with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), also in Surrey, Sussex, and with British Transport Police. She was the first Medical Director of the Forensic Healthcare Service in London and the Director of the Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit for NSW Police, based in Sydney, from 2011 – 2014.

She was the Founding Academic Dean for the FFLM. She was awarded the David Jenkins Professorship in Forensic and Legal Medicine in 2011/12 and was an Adjunct Professor at Sydney University from 2012-2015. She is a Responsible Officer, Appraisal Lead, and a Crematorium Referee.

From 1994 to 2011, Dr Mok was the Lead Paediatrician for Child Protection for the city of Edinburgh and the NHS Lothian University Hospitals Division. She is the outgoing chair of the RCPCH Scotland Child Protection Committee.

From November 2004 to April 2009, she was the paediatrician on the Scottish Government multi-agency joint inspection team, to evaluate the quality of practice in all 32 local authority areas in Scotland; how agencies work together in their response to a concern about a child or young person, and how well the needs of the child / young person are met.

Dr Mok has published widely on various aspects of child maltreatment and appeared as an Expert Witness in Court for the Prosecution as well as the Defence in cases involving child abuse, both physical and sexual. She was a member of the RCPCH project boards which produced the evidence-based review and guidance for best practice (The Physical Signs of Child Sexual Abuse. March 2008 and May 2015).

Dr Guy Norfolk was the founding President of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of London and formerly Consultant Forensic Physician to Avon and Somerset Constabulary. He chaired the Education and Research Committee of the Association of Forensic Physicians and was for several years forensic medical advisor to the Police Complaints Authority.

In addition to publishing various articles in peer reviewed journals, he has co-authored a textbook on clinical forensic medicine as well as contributing chapters to a number of other textbooks on related topics. He was the David Jenkins Professor of Forensic Medicine in 2009.

He retired from active clinical forensic medical practice in 2010.

Jason Payne-James is a Specialist in Forensic and Legal Medicine. He has been a forensic physician for 30 years. He qualified in medicine in 1980 at the London Hospital Medical College and undertook additional postgraduate education to higher degree level at Cardiff Law School, the Department of Forensic Medicine & Science at the University of Glasgow and with the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. He is Director of Forensic Healthcare Services Ltd and he was President of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians from 2015-2017 and of the World Police Medical Officers from 2011-2014. He is
Honorary Professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia. He is Honorary Clinical Professor at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, UK. He is Lead Medical Examiner at the Norfolk and Norwich University
Hospitals NHS Trust and with others is developing the NNUH Medical Examiner Service. He is expert adviser to the National Crime Agency, He is an Independent Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal weapons.

He is an independent researcher, an author and an editor and initiates, leads or has collaborated in research projects with a number of organisations including the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the Metropolitan Police Service, the Home Office Centre for Applied
Science & Technology and the National Crime Agency. He is an advisor to governmental and other agencies in the UK and abroad. He is co-author of Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine documents including those related to medication management in custody, management after exposure to Taser® and irritant spray, head injury and choking.

Jason has developed, co-edited, co-authored and contributed to a number of books including the Encyclopedia of Forensic & Legal Medicine; Forensic Medicine: Clinical & Pathological Aspects; Symptoms and Signs of Substance Misuse (1st & 2nd and 3rd editions with Margaret
Stark and Mike Scott-Ham); Artificial Nutrition Support in Clinical Practice; Symptoms and Early Warning Signs; Medicolegal Essentials of Healthcare (1st and 2nd editions); Colour Atlas of Forensic Medicine. He is co-author of the 13th and 14th Editions of Simpson’s Forensic Medicine; he co-authored the Oxford Handbook of Forensic Medicine and co-edited both Age Estimation in the Living with Professor Dame Sue Black and Anil Aggrawal and Current Practice in Forensic Medicine (a third volume co-edited with John Gall is underway). Together with Joe Beynon and Duarte Nuno Vieira, their book Monitoring Detention, Custody, Torture and Ill-treatment was highly commended in the BMA Medical Book Awards.

He provides expert opinion and advice for defence solicitors, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Service Prosecuting Authority, HM Coroners and other agencies in the UK and overseas. He is frequently asked to act as an expert witness in a range of settings. He has been involved in many high profile and sensitive cases including miscarriages of justice. He provides pro-bono support in a number of cases for individuals and campaigning
bodies.

Professor Wall has been a GP for 40 years and a Forensic Physician for over 30 years working part time in both disciplines for the past 20 years. He is one of only four doctors on the Specialist Register for Forensic and Legal Medicine obtaining this via the GMC Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) route in 2017.

Ian deals with the full range of clinical forensic medicine and has served as President and Academic Dean of the FFLM and is currently a member of the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board Specialist Advisory Committee in Forensic and Legal Medicine. He was the first David Jenkins Professor of Forensic and Legal Medicine and has an academic honorary appointment as Visiting Professor at Teesside University.