Writing Wrongs

*Warning: This episode contains discussion of coercive communication and fraud including romance and investmentfraud. Listener discretion is advised.* This special episode was recorded live with audience participation in the very atmospheric venue of West Midlands Police Museum at the Old Steelhouse Lane Lockup on 28th October 2026, as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. Tim and Nicci are joined by two distinguished guests, Dr Elisabeth Carter from Kingston University London and Dr Rasha Kassem from Aston University, to examine three cases of romance and investment fraud. They discuss how linguistic expertise sheds light on the manipulative strategies employed by fraudsters, give advice on protecting ourselves and others from this threat, and answer insightful questions from our fantastic live audience. If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to our previous conversation with Dr Elisabeth Carter (S1 E4 Romance Fraud: The Linguistic Crime Scene), and last year’s live podcast episode (S2 E4 Writing Wrongs Live!). 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 thisweek’s episode, please contact one of these free sources: Report Fraud: ⁠https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/⁠ City of London Police resources on ⁠romance fraud⁠ and ⁠investment fraud⁠ https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ https://www.helpguide.org/find-help Production Team: Jordan Robertson, NeusAlberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta, Noorin Iqbal, Amy Brown, Laurence Romain, Michaela Wolf, Maddie Clark, Daisy Etell, Ella Harman Sound: Dave Ison, Premier Production Editing: Angela Walker Visual design: George Grant Additional Voices: Kirsty Benson, Maddie Clark,Madison Hunter, Daisy Etell, Dana Roemling, Lauren Morgan, Helen Gilfoyle, Sophie Jones, Jon Darling. Photo credits: Noorin Iqbal, Elisabeth Carter, TimGrant, Jordan Robertson, Amy Brown, Ella Harman, Daisy Etell, Laurence Romain. With special thanks to the West Midlands Police Museum. Dr Elisabeth Carter’s home page: ElisabethCarter – Kingston University London Dr Rasha Kassem’s home page: Rasha Kassem –Aston Research Explorer Professor Tim Grant’s home page: TimGrant – Aston Research Explorer Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod –Aston Research Explorer

* 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

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* 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