I am a Bachelor of Science (Tasmania 1973, Chemistry). In 1973 I joined the Victoria Police Forensic Science Laboratory as a Scientific Officer of the Victorian Public Service. There I received three years' training in Forensic Document Examination. The person responsible for my training was the late Chief Inspector L. W. Timewell of the Victoria Police. The training included reading books, studying and classifying some few thousands of collected handwriting specimens, studying typewriters, the photocopiers of the era and other devices, participating in casework document examinations, studying methods of identifying inks and papers, and studying special document preservation problems to do with charred and ashed documents, and the application of well-known chemistry theory and laboratory techniques to questioned document problems.
In late 1977 I departed from the Forensic Science Laboratory and set up a private practice in Forensic Document Examination, operating from premises in South Yarra, Victoria.
In 1987 I joined the Forensic Science Centre, Adelaide, as its first permanent forensic document examiner. I occupied the position of Senior Forensic Scientist from that time until June 2004, but took a break from forensic document examination between 1991 and early 1998.
I now operate a company which offers services in forensic document examination. I personally conduct most such examinations.
I am the person who made no errors in the 2003 ``La Trobe Handwriting Trial''.
As well as participating in the ``La Trobe Trials'' I have, for many years, participated in the document examination proficiency tests administered by Collaborative Testing Services Inc. of Sterling, Virginia. I have enrolled in the CTS Forensics Program of proficiency testing for 2005, and in the ``La Trobe Trials'' for 2005.
Over many years I have associated with forensic document examiners in a number of States, having participated with others in the foundation of the Australian Society of Forensic Document Examiners, now the Australasian Society of Forensic Document Examiners Incorporated (ASFDE), in 1980. The ASFDE is an ethics-based society which has expelled a member in consideration of evidence he gave in a court of law. It has provided a means of exchange of technical information and advancement of expertise through biennial conferences.
I have presented technical papers on matters of forensic document examination at a number of those conferences and also at biennial symposia of the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society, of which I am also a South Australian Branch member.
I have read many learned journals in the field of Forensic Document Examination over many years and have current subscriptions to several of the most important. I have contributed a paper on an aspect of handwriting examination which was published in a refereed journal.
In one case in which my evidence was accepted and decisive the judge wrote as follows: ``Mr Talbot-Wilson impressed me as a careful and objective witness, competent in his field of expertise and conscious of its limitations, with no propensity to make or express unfounded or exaggerated claims or opinions.'' (Green v. Mestnick, Supreme Court of N.S.W., 1981.)