Richard Heath
After obtaining a First Class Honours Degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of York in 1996, Richard began his career working for the research and development organisation of Nortel Networks, a manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, investigating methods for improving the capacity, resilience and flexibility of optical transmission networks. During this time his work generated intellectual property and he co-authored several patents. In 2004, Richard joined Hawkins as a Forensic Investigator working on behalf of insurers, utilities providers, local authorities and private companies. He specialises in the investigation of fires, explosions and electrical engineering losses. He has undertaken many forensic investigations of fires in industrial and commercial premises. In addition he investigates domestic and vehicle/machinery fire losses. He also investigates electrical engineering failures leading to electric shocks, electrocutions, failures of alarm systems and electronic control systems, personal injuries and electrical equipment damage. He has given evidence as an expert witness in Civil and Coroner’s Courts.
Christabel Evans
Christabel regularly investigates material failures, escapes of water and oil, system failures, and personal injury claims. She writes CPR compliant court reports and presents at industry awareness days.
Jonathan Emm
Jonathan’s engineering career began at Morganite Thermal Ceramics. Here he ran projects to develop a non-destructive testing technique for their foundry ceramic products, as well as a new product with very high thermal shock resistance. Jonathan joined BAE SYSTEMS in 2000 as an engineer in the Advanced Technology Centre, Stealth Materials Group. He ran development and application engineering projects there, mostly using elastomeric and composite materials as radar absorbent or transparent media. These were applied to military aircraft, ships and vehicles. This work enabled him to develop strong project management skills and in his last year he led a team of engineers and scientists in developing a sprayable, radar absorbent coating for aircrafts. In 2003 Jonathan joined Cytec Engineered Materials, where he ran qualification testing programmes for aerospace composite materials and provided technical advice and assistance to customers, particularly in relation to processing issues. His customers included Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, with whom he worked to incorporate advanced, recently developed materials into their aircraft structures. Jonathan joined Hawkins in January 2007, where he trained in the investigation of fires and explosions to add to his engineering expertise. Jonathan has now been involved with a broad range of forensic engineering […]
Gavin Dunn
Having gained a first-class MEng degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), Gavin started his career by taking on the role of Knowledge Transfer Partnership Associate with QUB and John Huddleston Engineering. During this time, he developed the use of CATIA computer aided design software across the business to manufacture 5-axis precision machined aerospace parts, before accepting a position with John Huddleston Engineering as an Engineer. In this role Gavin programmed 5-axis machining centres, designed tooling and jigs, and ensured a consistent production of complex precision aerospace parts was maintained. In 2010, Gavin joined Forensic Science Northern Ireland as a Forensic Engineer in the Road Traffic Collisions (RTC) team. In this role, Gavin attended serious and fatal road traffic collision scenes across Northern Ireland often in the immediate aftermath while the road remained closed by police. Gavin was responsible for the forensic reconstruction of collisions from the scene through to the court room. He conducted examinations, tests, and analyses to determine the circumstances of each collision as fully as possible, many of which were high profile cases. He routinely advised investigation teams on forensic strategy, provided direction to other scientific staff, and liaised with external technical […]
Chris Dennis
In 2003, after completing his Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, Chris began work as a Design and Project Engineer at a small start-up engineering company. During this time he helped develop a revolutionary form of liquid disinfection equipment that utilised microwave-powered ultraviolet lamps. Due to the small size of the company, Chris was heavily involved in virtually all aspects of the projects, including liaising closely with suppliers and customers that were based both in the UK and overseas. In May 2007, the company was acquired by Severn Trent Services, allowing Chris to gain valuable experience working in a large multi-national engineering company. During this period, Chris continued to work on the ongoing development and testing of the different variants of the core technology. The work involved regular travel abroad, including helping to plan and run large scale field trials in the USA. After almost 7 years working on the same overall project, Chris decided he needed a new challenge, and so in 2010 he joined Hawkins as a Fire and Explosion Investigator. Since then, he has investigated several hundred incidents, ranging in scale from minor domestic fires, to multi-million pound losses involving industrial premises, commercial […]
Graham Cooper
Graham obtained his first degree in Materials Technology from Coventry Polytechnic and his Masters degree in Advanced Materials Technology from the University of Surrey. He has been a Chartered Engineer since 1991 and is a Professional Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining. After graduation, he spent 10 years with British Aerospace where he was primarily involved with materials development, manufacturing support and aircraft defect investigation. He went on to work for British Airways in 1995 as their company metallurgist and defect investigation specialist before joining Burgoynes in 1998. Graham has investigated over 500 mechanical and materials related cases including aircraft accidents and incidents, marine accidents and losses, road traffic accidents, rail accidents, oil and gas production and pipeline incidents, industrial process plant incidents and power generation turbine failures. He has previously worked in Singapore and has undertaken investigations in the UK, Ireland, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Far East and Australia. He has acted as an Expert Witness and Single Joint Expert in litigation cases and has given expert evidence in civil and criminal court cases, arbitrations and mediations. Graham joined our Leeds office as a Principal Associate in August 2014, and is now based in our […]
Ross Clarke
Ross graduated from Loughborough University in 2013 with a master’s degree in Automotive Engineering. During his time at university, Ross worked on a joint venture project with JCB to propose a design for a new vehicle to be included in the JCB range. In his final year, he worked in a team to design the drive train system for the University’s Formula Student 2013/2014 vehicle. Since then he has gained over 5 years of engineering experience. Upon graduating from university, he accepted a role as an Engineer at Millbrook Proving Ground. His work included all aspects of testing from components to full vehicle crash safety. His time at Millbrook gained him valuable experience in vehicle collision investigation, and mechanical failure analysis. He was also trained in the use of 3D metrology equipment. In April 2016, Ross setup his own company to provide crash safety consultancy services to OEM’s. He was in a contract with Nissan from March 2016 until December 2018, where he developed their new and existing vehicles’ crash safety performance. He was based in Bedfordshire, but worked throughout Europe. Ross joined Hawkins in January 2019 and is a Senior Associate based in our London office.
Nick Carey
Nick joined Hawkins in June 2012 after a 27 year career with the London Fire Brigade. During the last 16 years of his fire service career he was a full-time Fire Investigation Officer. In 2009 Nick was awarded a PhD with the University of Strathclyde for his research into the interaction of fire and electrical circuits and the metallic damage to electrical conductors located within fire scenes titled “Developing a reliable systematic analysis for arc fault mapping”. He has undertaken a number of electrical examinations within the UK. This has included multi-agency teams investigating several firefighter fatality incidents and the investigation into the cause of the Cutty Sark fire in Greenwich. Nick has investigated a number of electric shock & electrocution incidents and electrical product failures. He has investigated shipping fire and explosions on behalf of P&I Clubs and cargo interests. He has also investigated a number of fires involving yachts and superyachts overseas. Nick has provided firefighting advice for shipping incidents on a number of occasions. He has given evidence as an expert witness at arbitrations, Coroners’, Crown and Civil courts. He has delivered electrical training to Fire Brigades, Police Forces and Forensic Laboratories and presented at training conferences […]
John Camplin
John started his career in 1992 working as a research technician at the University of York, Chemistry Department where he provided technical support in analytical chemistry, polymer chemistry and surface analysis. In 1998 he was appointed research associate in the Physics Department investigating the optical effects of Giant Magneto Resistant (GMR) devices leading to the design and development of a Scanning Laser Microscope for GMR film mapping. In 2000 he moved to the University of California as a Research Assistant developing Scanning Tunneling Microscopes for the study of nanoscale surface structures. Two years later John moved back to the UK as a Principal Materials Scientist at BAE Systems InfraRed. There he took a key role in developing semi-conductor devices for InfraRed imaging, and computer models for semi-conductor optics. In 2005 John joined Hawkins. Having established himself in the field of fire investigation, he has also been involved in a broad range of forensic engineering investigations including road traffic accidents, mechanical vibration exposure, roller coasters and fairground equipment and semi-conductor engineering. John also has expertise in the areas of cryogenics, process engineering, vacuum engineering, optics and surface chemistry. John is a Principal Associate based in our Leeds Office.
Carl Butler
After his PhD, Carl became a post-doctoral research associate in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge. He studied the chemistry involved with the production of high purity silica and also completed research work for industrial clients using fluidised bed reactors. In 1997, Carl moved to the Process Safety Section of the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), an agency of the Health and Safety Executive. His work there, initially as a Higher Scientific Officer, involved the assessments of hazards associated with industrial chemical reaction processes, including runaway chemical reactions, BLEVEs and LPG vapour cloud fires, for which he was a partner in a European Joint Industry Project. Later, as Senior Scientific Officer, he led a research team investigating hazards associated with a wide range of processes, including high pressure water-jetting, fire-engulfment valves, LPG-storage and pool fires. Carl was also involved in large-scale testing to assess the hazards presented by the use of hydrogen as a fuel. His work at HSL also included the investigation of a number of incidents and he was an incident officer for the Process Safety Section. He also produced industry guidance on prevention of over-pressurisation of storage silos. Carl joined Hawkins in 2004 and […]