David Shipley, Instructor at Anglia Ruskin University, joins the Forensic Focus Podcast to talk about the human cost of online safeguarding work and his fight to close a gap in UK law. Drawing on 16 years investigating abusive imagery and online child sexual offending, David reflects on what the work actually involves — from the scale of the problem and the relentless build-up of warrants and digital forensic backlogs, to the difficult triage decisions investigators must make when no team can examine every device. He's candid about what "safeguarding" really means in practice, and about the mental toll the role takes on the people who do it.

The conversation then turns to David's final year in policing, when his work on the David Fuller case led him to discover that much of the sexual abuse of corpses he was cataloguing was not actually illegal. David explains how he took that discovery from a Ministry of Justice rejection through a lost bill and a change of government to eventual Royal Assent — a four-year campaign that introduced a new offence and raised the maximum sentence for sexual penetration of a corpse from two to seven years. He closes with frank advice for the next generation of investigators on protecting their own well-being and holding onto an investigative mindset.

#OnlineSafeguarding #InvestigatorWellbeing #LawReform #Policing #MentalHealth #DigitalForensics #DFIR

00:00 Introducing David Shipley

01:20 An Unusual Route Into Safeguarding

03:23 The Scale Of The Problem

06:55 Warrants, Workload And Backlogs

08:40 Triage: You Can't Examine Everything

11:52 What Safeguarding Really Means

14:46 The Hidden Mental Toll

18:21 How Welfare Support Evolved

22:27 Questionnaires And Team Culture

24:58 The Session That Changed My Mind

26:15 The David Fuller Case

29:27 Retiring, Then Returning To Finish The Job

31:51 Continuity And Limiting Exposure

33:50 Discovering The Gap In The Law

36:38 Shock, Duty And Dignity In Death

38:24 Launching The Campaign

41:11 The Ministry Of Justice Says No

44:05 Setbacks, A Lost Bill And A Second Chance

47:00 Royal Assent And Mixed Emotions

50:31 What The New Law Actually Changes

55:32 Advice For The Next Generation

58:08 Closing Reflections

👉 Visit Forensic Focus: https://www.forensicfocus.com

🎧 Video/Transcript: https://www.forensicfocus.com/podcast/david-shipley-investigating-the-darkest-corners-of-digital-evidence/

👉 Follow Forensic Focus

RSS | https://www.forensicfocus.com/feed

YouTube | https://youtube.com/@ForensicFocus

Podcast | https://forensicfocus.com/podcast

LinkedIn Page | https://linkedin.com/company/forensicfocus

LinkedIn Group | https://linkedin.com/groups/693917

X (Twitter) | https://x.com/ForensicFocus

Facebook | https://facebook.com/forensicfocus

Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/forensicfocus.bsky.social

Instagram | https://instagram.com/forensicfocus

TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@forensicfocus Mastodon | https://dfir.social/@forensicfocus

Marcus Rowe, Business Director – Public Safety & Forensics at Leica Geosystems, joins the Forensic Focus Podcast to talk about 3D laser scanning, forensic digital twins, and the role of LiDAR in modern crime and collision investigation. Marcus shares his path from military and civilian policing — including a career in forensic collision investigation with Devon & Cornwall Police — into industry, and explains how Leica Geosystems (part of Hexagon) is empowering investigators with tools that capture entire scenes for analysis, courtroom presentation, and cold case review.

Marcus and Si also discuss the upcoming Forensics Europe Expo at Olympia on 1–2 July, which is set to bring together senior leaders, practitioners and solution providers from across the forensic community. To learn more and secure a free visitor pass, visit: https://www.forensicseuropeexpo.com.

The conversation also turns to Marcus's involvement in the world's largest crash test, featured in the Channel 4 documentary Pile Up. Working blind to the staged scenario, Marcus reconstructed the multi-vehicle collision from post-event scene capture and 3D modelling — at times surfacing detail that the 90 cameras filming the event had missed.

#LiDAR #3DScanning #CrashInvestigation #ForensicDigitalTwins #LeicaGeosystems #DigitalForensics #DFIR

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 Welcome Marcus Rowe

02:44 From Policing to Leica Geosystems

05:35 Leica Conference Highlights

08:43 Forensic Digital Twins Talk

17:55 What to Expect at FEE

22:29 Students and Career Pathways

26:08 World's Largest Crash Test

31:07 LiDAR Explained Simply

34:36 Courtroom Storytelling in 3D

36:02 Real Cases and Proof Standards

38:40 TV Production

41:20 Micron Accuracy Use Cases

42:25 Footprints Without Contact

46:56 From Microns to Kilometers

50:35 VR for Juries and Trust

52:04 Holistic Capture Beats Bias

56:02 FEE Event Invitation

01:00:36 Wrap Up

👉 Visit Forensic Focus: https://www.forensicfocus.com

🎧 Video/Transcript: https://www.forensicfocus.com/podcast/leicas-marcus-rowe-on-investigating-the-worlds-largest-crash-test-plus-what-to-expect-at-fee-2026/

📝 Show Notes

Leica Geosystems – https://leica-geosystems.com

Hexagon – https://hexagon.com

Leica DISTO – https://shop.leica-geosystems.com/disto

Forensics Europe Expo (FEE) – https://www.forensicseuropeexpo.com

Channel 4 "Pile Up" documentary – https://www.channel4.com/programmes/pile-up-worlds-biggest-crash-test

👉 Follow Forensic Focus

RSS | https://www.forensicfocus.com/feed

YouTube | https://youtube.com/@ForensicFocus

Podcast | https://forensicfocus.com/podcast

LinkedIn Page | https://linkedin.com/company/forensicfocus

LinkedIn Group | https://linkedin.com/groups/693917

X (Twitter) | https://x.com/ForensicFocus

Facebook | https://facebook.com/forensicfocus

Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/forensicfocus.bsky.social

Instagram | https://instagram.com/forensicfocus

TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@forensicfocus

Mastodon | https://dfir.social/@forensicfocus

Phil Anderson, Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University, joins the Forensic Focus Podcast to talk about the Forensic Focus International Well-Being Study. Phil and host Paul Gullon-Scott unpack the findings from a survey of 179 digital forensic investigators across the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany, South Africa, India, and beyond. The study used validated psychometric instruments to put hard numbers behind what the profession has been hearing anecdotally for years.

Paul and Phil dig into the emerging impact of AI-generated CSAM, where 60% of respondents reported finding it slightly more distressing than real material — and where victim identification is beginning to break down as the realism of generated imagery improves. They also examine the most clinically significant finding in the study: 20% of digital forensic investigators reported active suicidal or self-harm ideation at a clinically significant frequency, roughly four times the general population rate. Set against 61% of respondents lacking access to good-quality support services, alongside hypervigilance, sleep disturbance, retention risk, and physical health symptoms, the picture is one Forensic Focus is taking directly to the UK Home Office.

#DigitalForensics #DFIR #MentalHealth #InvestigatorWellbeing #CSAM #AIGeneratedCSAM #LawEnforcement

00:00 Welcome and Study Intro

00:38 Meet Phil and Motivation

03:23 Survey Scope and Global Reach

07:53 Who Responded and Why It Matters

09:38 Methodology and Validated Measures

11:38 Workload Pressures and AI Factor

15:21 Top Stressors and Management Levers

20:29 Burnout Risk and Retention Crisis

25:56 AI Generated CSAM Findings

31:36 AI Victim Misidentification

32:42 Investigator Stress Burden

33:27 Tech Outpacing Regulation

36:28 PTSD Symptom Findings

38:06 Judgment Under Trauma

40:14 Suicidal Ideation Data

45:16 Support Services Crisis

46:42 Physical Health Impacts

50:03 Report Next Steps

👉 Visit Forensic Focus: https://www.forensicfocus.com

🎧 Video/Transcript: https://www.forensicfocus.com/podcast/burnout-ptsd-suicidal-thoughts-the-dfir-well-being-study-results-are-in/

📝 Show Notes

Northumbria University – https://www.northumbria.ac.uk

Paul Gullon-Scott on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-g-0090605/

Phil Anderson on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-anderson-a555377/

👉 Follow Forensic Focus

RSS | https://www.forensicfocus.com/feed

YouTube | https://youtube.com/@ForensicFocus

Podcast | https://forensicfocus.com/podcast

LinkedIn Page | https://linkedin.com/company/forensicfocus

LinkedIn Group | https://linkedin.com/groups/693917

X (Twitter) | https://x.com/ForensicFocus

Facebook | https://facebook.com/forensicfocus

Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/forensicfocus.bsky.social

Instagram | https://instagram.com/forensicfocus

TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@forensicfocus

Mastodon | https://dfir.social/@forensicfocus