Series 2 - Episode 6

* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions ofharassment and stalking. We’ll explore themes related to verbal and emotional abuse, intimate partner abuse, highly offensive communications, and fraud.

Listener discretion is strongly advised, as some content may be distressing. *

August 2020, Darlington, North East England. A woman begins to receive vast numbers of abusive messages, which she believes are coming from her ex-partner Stuart Bell. It was not a straightforward matter for the police to establish whether it was Bell who was behind the messages.

Investigating officer Kerris Dawson approached Dr Nicci MacLeod for help.

Join hosts Professor Tim Grant and Dr Nicci MacLeod in unravelling the linguistic features that contributed to determining the authorship of the abusive messages.

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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk and we may answer it duringan 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: Mark Round, Sam Guerin

With special thanks to Robbie Love.

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

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

Series 2 - Episode 5

Terror in the State of Denmark - Conversations from a List of Resolutes

* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions of religious extremism, radicalization and plots of violence or terrorism. *

Joined by Dr Tanya Karoli Christensen, hosts Nicci and Tim discuss a counterterrorism investigation from Denmark. In this case, linguistic analysis proved vital in unraveling implied meanings in text messages between a young man of Kurdish background, suspected of planning to travel to Syria to join ISIS, and another man, suspected of trying to recruit him.

Through an analysis of 192 written chat messages from March 2015 between the two individuals, Tanya shares how themes of money, battle and war, and urgency in planning played a role in advancing a Danish police investigation. Listen to discover more.

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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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: Angela Walker, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera

Sound: Angela Walker

Visual design: George Grant

Additional Voices: Mark Round, Peter Kiddle

With our thanks to Dr Tanya Karoli Christensen

Resources

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

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

Dr Tanya Karoli Christensen’s home page: Dr Tanya Karoli Christensen - Research Profile

* This episode contains no particular contentwarnings, there is however a very brief mention of another case involving sexual abuse *

This episode is about the New York Times, a high reputation paper of record in the Untied States, and how in theearly 2000s they came to publish a series of articles, which turned out to be plagiarised or untrue. Together with Professor Jack Grieve, from the University of Birmingham, our hosts Nicci and Tim take a look at how a linguistic approach to detecting fake news can make a difference.

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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk and we may answer it duringan upcoming episode!

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

Production Team:

Angela Walker, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera

Sound:Angela Walker

Visual design:

George Grant

Additional Voices:

Angela Walker

With our thanks to Professor Jack Grieve

Professor Tim Grant’s home page:

Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page:

Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer

Professor Jack Grieve’s home page:

Professor Jack Grieve - Department ofLinguistics and Communication - University of Birmingham

Link to the book: The Language of Fake News

* Warning: This episode contains descriptions of the killing of a police officer and the death penalty. *

STOP! If you haven’t listened to part one of this case, go back and listen before starting this episode.

Last time, Nicci and Tim explored the language around the custodial status of Derek Bentley, who was one of the last people to be hanged as criminal punishment in the UK in 1953.

In part 2, we welcome Prof Malcolm Coulthard, Professor Emeritus here at Aston University, one of the founders of AIFL (Center for Forensic Linguistics at the time), and granddaddy of forensic linguistics. Prof Coulthard joins Nicci and Tim to further unpack the case, this time focusing on the alleged confession Bentley gave the morning following the crime in question. Like Timothy Evans in series 1, it was unclear whether Derek Bentley had truly penned the written confession later given as evidence in court.

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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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: Sam Cook, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera

Additional Editing: Angela Walker

Sound: Sam Cook

Visual design: George Grant

Additional Voices: Sam Cook

With our thanks to Professor Malcolm Couthard

Resources

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

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

Professor Malcolm Coulthard’s research gate profile: Malcolm Coulthard – Research Gate

* Warning: This episode contains descriptions of gun violence, murder and capital punishment. *

In this first episode of a two-part case, Nicci and Tim discuss Derek Bentley’s story and the miscarriages of justice that occurred when he was found guilty of murder and received the death penalty.

Focusing on two different meaning ambiguities, our hosts explore 1) the alleged statement Derek made (‘Let him have it, Chris’) after which a police officer was shot, and 2) the legal vs. ordinary meaning of ‘to be held’, as it played a role in Derek’s failed appeal.

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 writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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: Sam Cook, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera

Sound: Sam Cook

Visual design: George Grant

Additional Voices: Sam Cook

Resources

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

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

‘Let him have it’ movie on Amazon Prime UK: Watch Let Him Have It | Prime Video

Writing Wrongs Live!

Come and be part of the Writing Wrongs Live! show 4pm- 6pm 22nd October at the Steelhouse Lane Lockup

Free tickets are available from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-wrongs-live-tickets-1520150794949

*Warning: this episode contains potentially distressing discussions*

In the series finale, Nicci and Tim answer some of the questions that you have been sending in over the course of Series 1.

From general questions about forensic linguistics to a deep dive into past episodes, we will be reviewing what Series 1 has been about.

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk 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: Angela Walker, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera

Sound: Angela Walker

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