the charles smith blog

Thursday, February 19, 2026

February 19: Digital Forensics: UK: Devastating Report: A Committee of the The British House of Lords warns that the “collapsing forensic science system” in the country is a “national scandal waiting to happen” as it highlights failures in digital forensics, "and a failure to respond to new technologies in a fragmented system", Computer Weekly (Management Editor Lis Evenstad) reports, noting that: “Criminal cases are collapsing, often due to missing or damaged evidence,” the report said. “The market meant to provide many forensic services has collapsed. Police provision is patchy, inconsistent and lacking in oversight. “Digital forensics is increasingly important, but a backlog of over 20,000 digital devices to be analysed has not shrunk in years. Ministers admit that the system needs reform.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Giving evidence to the committee, policing and crime minister Sarah Jones said the problems evident now are symptoms of “wider problems we have had in policing”, including a lack of co-ordination. “The thing I found most shocking, as a new minister in this space, is the lack of real understanding of what is actually going on across the country on forensics,” she told the committee. “We do not know how much money is spent, how many delays there are or the balance between the private sector and in-house. If we can have performance data where we have standardisation of what is expected, what is good practice and what all forces should be doing, we can shine a light on forensics in a way that we just cannot at the moment.”

---------------------------------------------------------

SECOND QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Also giving evidence, Carole McCartney, professor of law and criminal justice at the University of Leicester and member of the Westminster Commission, added that there are issues with who takes responsibility for forensic science. “There is a problem with the Home Office but, to be perfectly honest, the Ministry of Justice is even worse,” she said, adding that when the commission would approach them for a meeting, they would be told “there is nobody here to talk to”. “Now we solve everything using digital forensics … it is not particularly well regulated … we will undoubtedly have miscarriages of justice that we will not be able to solve, either because we do not have the expertise or because we do not have the evidence because we did not seize it in the first place,” said McCartney."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "“Since our 2019 report, AI has developed rapidly,” the report said. “Generative AI presents an increasing challenge to the reliability of digital evidence: deepfake images and other data are increasingly difficult to detect. This will be a challenge for investigators, but also for courts: judges, counsel and jurors will all need to be equipped and assisted in understanding the evidential reliability of such material. “AI is also a potential means of analysing huge volumes of data. However, this needs to be done reliably, fairly and in a trusted way, something which current AI models struggle with to the standards the criminal justice system demands. We were unconvinced that the current policing and criminal justice system is sufficiently well-equipped to make the best use of these technologies, nor is the market well-positioned to allow new providers to innovate.”

---------------------------------------------

STORY: "House of Lords committee concerned over digital forensics backlog," by Management Editor Lis Evenstad, published by Computer weekly, on February 18, 2026. "Lis Evenstad is the management editor at Computer Weekly, and joined the site in August 2015. Her beats include public sector and CIOs, and she has a particular interest in healthcare IT. Before joining the team at Computer Weekly, she previously worked as news editor at Digital Health (formerly known as eHealth Insider). She then took a break from IT and spent a year as a financial journalist before deciding to return to IT journalism. Lis studied journalism at City University London."

STORY: "House of Lords committee concerned over digital forensics backlog," by Lis published by 'Computer Weekly' on February 17, 2026. Evenstad,

Lords’ Science and Technology Committee warns policing and justice system is unequipped to make use of technologies such as AI, and calls on government to handle digital forensics backlog.

A report by the House of Lords Science and Technology committee warns that the “collapsing forensic science system” in the country is a “national scandal waiting to happen”.

The report highlights failures in digital forensics and a failure to respond to new technologies in a fragmented system.

“Criminal cases are collapsing, often due to missing or damaged evidence,” the report said. “The market meant to provide many forensic services has collapsed. Police provision is patchy, inconsistent and lacking in oversight.

“Digital forensics is increasingly important, but a backlog of over 20,000 digital devices to be analysed has not shrunk in years. Ministers admit that the system needs reform.”

Giving evidence to the committee, policing and crime minister Sarah Jones said the problems evident now are symptoms of “wider problems we have had in policing”, including a lack of co-ordination.

“The thing I found most shocking, as a new minister in this space, is the lack of real understanding of what is actually going on across the country on forensics,” she told the committee. “We do not know how much money is spent, how many delays there are or the balance between the private sector and in-house.

“If we can have performance data where we have standardisation of what is expected, what is good practice and what all forces should be doing, we can shine a light on forensics in a way that we just cannot at the moment.”

Taking responsibility

Also giving evidence, Carole McCartney, professor of law and criminal justice at the University of Leicester and member of the Westminster Commission, added that there are issues with who takes responsibility for forensic science.

“There is a problem with the Home Office but, to be perfectly honest, the Ministry of Justice is even worse,” she said, adding that when the commission would approach them for a meeting, they would be told “there is nobody here to talk to”.

“Now we solve everything using digital forensics … it is not particularly well regulated … we will undoubtedly have miscarriages of justice that we will not be able to solve, either because we do not have the expertise or because we do not have the evidence because we did not seize it in the first place,” said McCartney.

Little improvement

The committee’s previous enquiry into forensic science in 2019 highlighted that 80% of crimes investigated by the Metropolitan Police involved a digital element, and since then, technology has continued to evolve.

“This has presented problems with storage and analysis of evidence; meanwhile, developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have promised some solutions while also generating other challenges such as deepfakes,” the report said.

Back in 2019, the committee highlighted problems with the large backlog in digital forensics, including volumes of evidence and the sector’s ability to process, analyse and store it.

The increased use of AI both by criminals and by its potential to solve cases also continues to be an issue.

The made-in-Canada 'psychopath test: It doesn't work and has no place in the courts, Toronto Star Court Reporter Betsy Ross reports, quoting a University of Toronto professor who says that it is "outdated, unreliable and a poor predictor of recidivism," - and that, “We should probably consider a complete moratorium on these types of assessments,” says Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen, the lead author of the largest study yet of how psychopathy tests are used in legal settings."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The test — which has been used in Canada, the U.S. and U.K. — measures a list of 20 traits, such as whether someone is glib or has superficial charm, is impulsive, or lacks remorse or empathy. Each trait is ranked 0 (not present), 1 (possibly present), or 2 (definitely present). A score of 30 or more out of 40 indicates psychopathy; scores above 25 indicate “clinically significant levels of psychopathy.” In practice, high scores on the PCR-L have often meant a more severe punishment, with a longer wait for parole. They also attach the label — “psychopath” — which conjures stereotypes of an unfeeling, inhuman and incurable horror-movie monster. But more than 20 years of data shows that PCL-R scoring does not accurately identify individuals at higher risk to reoffend, the study found. Meanwhile, the view that psychopathy is an “untreatable” fact of a person’s identity falls apart in the face of growing evidence that people with high test scores benefit from rehabilitation programs, the same as people with lower scores. “It’s actually quite underwhelming what it can perform, this tool,” Larsen, assistant professor of forensic epistemology and philosophy of science at the University of Toronto Mississauga, told the Star this week."

--------------------------------------------------

STORY: "This made-in-Canada ‘psychopath test’ doesn’t work and has no place in courts, major study finds," by Courts Reporter Betsy Powell, published by The Toronto Star, on February 14, 2026. (Betsy Powell is a reporter with the crime, courts and justice team at the Star. She is the author of Bad Seeds: the True Story of Toronto’s Galloway Boys Street Gang. A truly great author/court reporter I had the pleasure of working with her at The Toronto Star. HL);

SUB-HEADING: “We should probably consider a complete moratorium on these types of assessments,” says U of T researcher Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen

PHOTO CAPTION: "When you hear the word “psychopath,” chances are these are some of the faces that come to mind — from left to right, serial killers Clifford Olson, Paul Bernardo, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson are seen in file photos. In the justice system, that association is part of the problem, a new study says."

-------------------------------------------

GIST: "A made-in-Canada test to detect whether a criminal is a “psychopath” is outdated, unreliable, and a poor predictor of recidivism, says a University of Toronto researcher who is calling for an end to its use in criminal courts.

“We should probably consider a complete moratorium on these types of assessments,” says Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen, the lead author of the largest study yet of how psychopathy tests are used in legal settings.

The study’s findings add to a growing body of research raising concerns about the tests, which have been used to profile some of Canada’s most notorious criminals, help predict their likelihood of reoffending and advise judges on the appropriate sentence.

The most widely used diagnostic test is called the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised, or PCL-R, developed by Dr. Robert Hare, a now-retired Canadian forensic psychologist, in the 1980s.

The test — which has been used in Canada, the U.S. and U.K. — measures a list of 20 traits, such as whether someone is glib or has superficial charm, is impulsive, or lacks remorse or empathy. Each trait is ranked 0 (not present), 1 (possibly present), or 2 (definitely present). A score of 30 or more out of 40 indicates psychopathy; scores above 25 indicate “clinically significant levels of psychopathy.”

In practice, high scores on the PCR-L have often meant a more severe punishment, with a longer wait for parole.

They also attach the label — “psychopath” — which conjures stereotypes of an unfeeling, inhuman and incurable horror-movie monster.

But more than 20 years of data shows that PCL-R scoring does not accurately identify individuals at higher risk to reoffend, the study found. Meanwhile, the view that psychopathy is an “untreatable” fact of a person’s identity falls apart in the face of growing evidence that people with high test scores benefit from rehabilitation programs, the same as people with lower scores.

“It’s actually quite underwhelming what it can perform, this tool,” Larsen, assistant professor of forensic epistemology and philosophy of science at the University of Toronto Mississauga, told the Star this week.

“Assessing complex personality traits is very difficult to do,” he said. Since the PCL-R first gained traction, “we’re much more skeptical about whether you can sit down with a person and talk to them for two hours and then, as a clinician, make a confident statement that actually captures a personality trait,” he added.

“I’m personally very skeptical if that’s something we can do.”

The PCL-R rose to prominence in the legal system in the 1990s and early 2000s, when courts began to routinely admit psychopathy assessments as expert evidence promising an “evidence-based prediction” of future outcomes.

Those with high scores were generally regarded as the “worst of the worst,” untreatable and at a high risk to reoffend, Larsen explained.

Among notable Canadian criminals, B.C. serial killer Clifford Olson scored a 37 out of 40 on the test; Scarborough rapist and killer Paul Bernardo scored a 36.

The new study, published in the journal Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, was based on a review of 3,315 Canadian court cases between 1980 and 2023. The review found that PCL-R testing exploded in Canada between 2000 and its peak of 249 reported cases in 2013. Half of the assessments were used to diagnose psychopathy, or as a tool for risk-assessment — a key step in deciding an offender’s security level in prison, the intensity of their supervision on parole, or even whether they get the dreaded “dangerous offender” designation.

The test’s use has declined from that peak, however, to only 93 reported cases in 2023.

Despite the decline, the PCL-R test results are still being used in Toronto courtrooms, including the high-profile trials of mass murderer Alek Minassian and sex offender Jacob Hoggard. In both of those cases, it was defence lawyers who introduced the expert evidence to show their clients scored low on the psychopathic scale.

That points to one major issue with the test. Looking at the court data, Larsen said his research group has corroborated previous studies that identified “adversarial allegiance” — where psychopathy scores appear to vary “significantly” depending on who hired the person administering the test, the prosecution or defence.

“It’s not necessarily something experts do deliberately … but you feel like you should perform according to who’s hired you,” he said.

When the justice system turns to experts, “we want that information to be informative, and it seems like that’s not the case here.”

Why Larsen says the test doesn’t belong in court

Inside the courts, the key problem is that when a person receives the “psychopathy” label due to a high PCL-R score, judges, juries and parole boards are likely to make assumptions about a person that are not based on reliable evidence.

In one example, the new study references a previous survey of 400 jurors. Respondents rated extreme serial killers, such as Ted Bundy and Charles Manson, as typical examples of psychopathy, and a majority of participants said their main source of information came from movies and TV.

For Larsen’s study, the researchers examined how experts have described the importance of a high PCL-R result in more than 100 Canadian court cases. A majority of the expert opinions advised the court that psychopathy is a “fundamentally untreatable condition,” or even one that gets worse with treatment.

“It is difficult to overstate how misleading and detached these statements are from the empirical research literature,” the study notes. While psychopathy has traditionally been seen as an untreatable condition, the research “has always told a different story.”

Since the early 2000s, dozens of studies have shown that treatment and rehabilitation programs have a positive effect on “psychopathic” patients, the study says. Despite this, the experts in the Canadian court cases testified to a “moderate” chance of treatment success just five per cent of the time.

“The logical conclusion is that such testimonies cannot claim to carry much or any probative value,” the study says. And since these expert testimonies can significantly impact decision-making in court, it concludes, “it can be argued that a judge should view such evidence as prejudicial in nature.”

Larsen, who is the author of the book “Psychopathy Unmasked: The Rise and Fall of a Dangerous Diagnosis,” explains that other risk-assessment tools now “significantly outperform” the PCL-R.

He added that it is his impression in the workshops he holds with correctional psychologists that “enthusiasm about psychopathy in general, but also the PCL-R in particular, is significantly on the decline.”

He predicts the concept of psychopathy will be “the next psychiatric diagnosis that’s going to fall.”

The very simple rule, Larsen said, is that “past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour, and it doesn’t really matter what personality we think you have — it really doesn’t.”"

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/this-made-in-canada-psychopath-test-doesn-t-work-and-has-no-place-in-courts/article_99c16e8d-c892-4d72-bc3b-273f142519be.html

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

—————————————————————————————————

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Former Babysitter Meggin Van Hoof: On-going trial: The mother of a dead toddler was recalled to the witness stand in London, Ont., on Tuesday to provide new information she’d dug up on the colour of a wagon used by the babysitter on trial for manslaughter, The Toronto Star (Reporter Kevin Donovan) reports, noting that the Wagon’s colour has come up frequently in the manslaughter trial, and relates to the credibility of witnesses recalling information from 10 years ago."..."Crown prosecutors allege that babysitter Meggin Van Hoof either caused the 15-month-old’s head trauma, or that she contributed to his death by failing to call 911. Court has heard that Nathaniel became unwell at Van Hoof’s home, where she ran an unlicensed daycare. Van Hoof then called Nathaniel’s mother, and brought him to meet her on the street near where Van De Wiele taught elementary school."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Star earlier profiled Nathaniel’s case in both a written and podcast series, Death in a Small Town. Some witnesses have it is hard to recall certain events from 2015. In one instance, Shanlea Tyler, who had children in the home daycare, could not recall specifics she told police in an interview at the start of the investigation. Carnegie ruled Tuesday that “admissibility requirements have been met."

-------------------------------------------------

STORY: "New information on colour of babysitter’s wagon brought forward in Nathaniel McLellan case," by Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, published by The Toronto Star, on February 17, 2026. (Kevin Donovan is the Toronto Star’s Chief Investigative Reporter. His focus is on journalism that exposes wrongdoing and effects change. Over more than three decades he has reported on the activities of charities, government, police, business among other institutions. Donovan also reported from the battlefields in the Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan following 9/11. He has won three National Newspaper Awards, two Governor General’s Michener Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation award and three Canadian Association of Journalists Awards. As the Star’s editor of investigations for many years, Donovan led many award-winning projects for the paper. He is the author of several books, including “Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation” and the “Dead Times” (a fiction novel);

SUB-HEADING: "Wagon’s colour has come up frequently in the manslaughter trial, and relates to the credibility of witnesses recalling information from 10 years ago."

GIST: "The mother of a dead toddler was recalled to the witness stand in London, Ont., on Tuesday to provide new information she’d dug up on the colour of a wagon used by the babysitter on trial for manslaughter.

Rose-Anne Van De Wiele said she has found proof that she was right when she said the wagon was red. “It was a photo of a red wagon, which appears to be taken in the Van Hoofs’ garage,” Van De Wiele testified. “And they were selling it for $75.”

The picture — a photo of a Facebook posting on a computer screen — was shown in court Tuesday, but Judge Michael Carnegie has not yet ruled whether it will be admitted as evidence.

Van De Wiele’s son, Nathaniel McLellan, died in October 2015 of a massive head injury.

Crown prosecutors allege that babysitter Meggin Van Hoof either caused the 15-month-old’s head trauma, or that she contributed to his death by failing to call 911.

Court has heard that Nathaniel became unwell at Van Hoof’s home, where she ran an unlicensed daycare. Van Hoof then called Nathaniel’s mother, and brought him to meet her on the street near where Van De Wiele taught elementary school.

The colour of the wagon has come up frequently in the lengthy trial, which began in September. It’s a seemingly minor but important issue — it relates to the credibility of witnesses recalling information from 10 years ago.

When Van De Wiele and other witnesses testified earlier, they consistently described the wagon as red.

Van De Wiele said that when she met Van Hoof and took charge of her son (who she has described as stiff and unresponsive) that day more than 10 years ago, Van Hoof was holding Nathaniel in one arm and pulling a “red” wagon with her other hand.

But defence lawyer Geoff Snow repeatedly put to Van De Wiele and other witnesses in cross-examination that the wagon was brown.

Back in September, Snow showed a photo taken by police of the inside of Van Hoof’s garage. A brown wooden wagon can be seen in one section of the garage.

“The wagon is not red,” Snow said in the earlier hearing. “The wagon is sort of a brown, wood colour,” Snow said.

Van De Wiele replied, “I may have gotten that wrong ... in my mind it had red on it.”

Then came what appears to be new information. Tuesday, Crown attorney Meredith Gardiner received permission from Carnegie to recall Van De Wiele to the witness stand.

Carnegie said he was allowing the recall (she had previously testified and been cross-examined for a total of nine days) because the “reliability of witness evidence has implicitly been called into question.”

Carnegie, in his ruling allowing this information into court, referred to it as a “possible post-offence sale of a red wagon.”

Court heard that after completing her testimony, Van De Wiele attended court and heard other witnesses asked about the colour of the wagon. This nagged at her, court heard, and she recalled that back in 2022 — the year after Van Hoof was charged — she and friends had noticed a Facebook posting by Brian Van Hoof, Meggin’s husband, selling a “red wagon.”

Van De Wiele apologized for not raising this earlier when questioned. She told the court how she recalled it, then brought it forward to the court. “Someone had mentioned the red wagon to me, and I just kept seeing a picture of a red wagon come up in my head. So I decided to look, because I knew I had a picture somewhere, and I saw this photo,” Van De Wiele told court.

Carnegie will rule Wednesday morning on whether he will admit the photo of the red wagon into evidence.

The Star earlier profiled Nathaniel’s case in both a written and podcast series, Death in a Small Town.

Some witnesses have it is hard to recall certain events from 2015. In one instance, Shanlea Tyler, who had children in the home daycare, could not recall specifics she told police in an interview at the start of the investigation. Carnegie ruled Tuesday that “admissibility requirements have been met."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/new-information-on-babysitters-wagon-in-mclellan-case/article_12ff8a33-d381-450e-96b0-be51888ccce6.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a01&utm_source=ts_sa&utm_medium=email&utm_email=B06CE11218FAE36A81180C431CF6E0DA&utm_campaign=death_small_town_30838

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;

—————————————————————————————————

Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;

-------------------------------------------------------------------

the charles smith blog

Thursday, February 19, 2026

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Blog Nation Badge

Followers

The Charles smith blog

Blog Archive

About Me

Search This Blog

https://forensicresources.org/

http://www.personal.psu.edu/dhk3/blogs/DoubleHelixLaw/