Anna Knight
After completing her first degree and before starting her Masters Degree, Anna carried out a summer placement with the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). Her role there involved investigating the failure of a diverse range of items from defective aircraft hatches to electronic components. Following her Masters Degree, Anna was employed at the Lothian and Borders Police Forensic Science Laboratory, Edinburgh where she was trained in the examination of items for paint and glass residue and the presentation of scientific evidence for use in Police investigations. Anna’s PhD involved the non-destructive analysis of materials such as hydroxyapatite (used for hip replacements) and cadmium sulphide in order to determine the structure and composition materials with depth. This required the use of a number of mathematical, computing and analytical techniques. Anna joined Hawkins in 2005, specialising as a fire and explosion investigator, although she also investigates other incidents, such as paint spills and other damage incidents. She has carried out numerous forensic investigations, which have varied greatly in scale from relatively small domestic incidents to large warehouse fires. Anna has, as part of her Masters Degree, completed the well renowned Bond Solon course relating to reporting and giving oral evidence in […]
James Kingham
James graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2005 with a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, having completed an industrial placement year working in cryogenics for The Hymatic Engineering Company (now part of Honeywell Aerospace’s Defence & Space business group). After graduating, James returned to Honeywell Aerospace as a development engineer, working on Joule-Thomson coolers and Stirling Cycle Cryocoolers primarily for missile and satellite applications. This included customer driven development projects as well as R&D and investigative projects. In 2010, James took on the role of New Product Development Manager with ITT (later Xylem) Flow Control, overseeing the development of pneumatic and hydraulic valve actuation controls and actuators for use in severe service environments, including the oil & gas and rail industries. James was then promoted to Centre of Excellence Engineering Lead – Valves (Technical Manager) in 2013, becoming the senior technical contact at the Wolverhampton site overseeing product development, project management and product certification activities within the business. James is a Chartered Engineer and as such is a full member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. James also holds a Level 5 diploma in Management & Leadership and is a Six Sigma Black Belt.
Richard Keightley
Richard is a Principal Associate based in our London office. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management, a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager and Chartered Environmentalist. Richard has investigated over 150 cases since he joined Hawkins in 2017, primarily in relation to flooding, drainage and water ingress issues. Examples include: flooding from rivers, sea, surface water and groundwater; defective foul and surface water drainage systems; failure of infrastructure such as pumping stations, reservoirs and canals; the impacts of developments on flood risk to third party properties; and basement water ingress issues. Much of his work involves acting as an expert witness in civil claims, and advising on matters in relation to the requirements of national planning policies, building regulations and relevant design standards. In a recent High Court judgement, the judge favoured Richard’s evidence to that of the other expert witnesses, describing him as an “impressive witness” and “a careful expert witness using language with precision”. Prior to joining Hawkins, Richard was a Principal Consultant at a multi-national water and environmental engineering consultancy, where he delivered projects for the Environment Agency, local authorities and developers. His projects included flooding investigations, flood risk assessments, options appraisal for flood defence […]
Eleanor Jay
Eleanor graduated with a 1st Class Masters Degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London. As part of Eleanor’s first degree, she was employed at Industrial Research Limited in New Zealand (now Callaghan Innovation). Here, she developed specialised ceramic filters for the use in hydrogen cells, assisting in the purification of hydrogen. Following this, her PhD work involved researching ceramic materials for nuclear fuel storage applications (requiring high temperature and pressure resistance). During this time, she worked closely with several nuclear establishments across the globe with whom she collaborated. Eleanor also spent time at Nanyang Technology University in Singapore, where she investigated ceramic systems for a variety of energy applications such as fuel cells, including lithium-ion batteries. After completing her PhD, Eleanor was seconded to the Government Office for Science and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to be part of the Nuclear Energy Research and Development Review Board, chaired by the then Chief Scientist, Sir John Beddington. The work was commissioned after the House of Lords published a critical report on the future of nuclear energy in the UK. She assessed the UK’s nuclear energy landscape, which involved close communication with stakeholders across the nuclear industry […]
Paul Hughes
Paul left Newcastle University in 2007 with a Masters Degree in Civil and Structural Engineering. As part of his course of study he spent a year at the National University of Singapore on a graduate exchange programme. He joined Royal Haskoning, Maritime Division, working from the design office on a wide variety of projects including ports, shipyards, dry docks, terminals and other maritime structures. During this time he was also seconded to BAM Nuttall, working on the London Olympic site overseeing the construction of bridges and retaining walls. In 2011, Paul joined 2H Offshore and over the next five years worked from London, Paris, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur on the design and management of specialist offshore projects. He expanded his engineering knowledge into subsea systems, specialising in the design, structural analysis and integrity management of riser and conductor systems. This included the design and construction of minimal facilities platforms and subsea structures for hybrid risers. Paul joined Hawkins in 2016 in order to further expand the civil engineering capability of the company.
Mike Hopwood
Mike’s civil and highway engineering career began at Parkman where he worked on several major projects, including the St Helens M62 link road and the A570 Ormskirk Bypass. Specialising in preliminary and detailed design work, Mike joined Giffords to work on the structural design of the Second River Dee Crossing. Mike moved to Cheshire County Council in 1994 and rose to the level of Principal Engineer. At the time, Cheshire was one of the largest UK local authorities and was also managing a large motorway network including the M6. During his progression, Mike led teams responsible for safety inspections, winter maintenance, streetworks and third party claims. Mike appeared in Court countless times as a witness for local government. Whilst with local government, Mike was responsible for the design, letting and construction of numerous large and complex civil engineering schemes. During this time, he gained particular expertise in all aspects of design, performance and specification of road building, drainage, construction materials and road and junction layouts including traffic management and road signs. Alongside his Engineering role, Mike was also a local government health and safety officer. He was responsible for workplace safety audits and risk assessments along with enforcement and the […]
Sarah Hooton
Sarah is a specialist in fire engineering and fire safety provisions in buildings – investigating design and construction defects and also where a fire has occurred, how the design or construction of fire safety provisions may have impacted upon fire spread. Sarah graduated with a first class degree in Civil Engineering, specialising in Structural Engineering from the University of Adelaide in 2001. She has since developed a career in design and construction with over 15 years’ experience at Ove Arup & Partners in their London, Birmingham and Hong Kong offices. Commencing as a Bridge Engineer in their Birmingham branch, Sarah worked on the design of a variety of civil engineering projects including the M42 widening scheme and the design of the East London Line Project (now known as part of the London Overground railway). On the East London Line Project, she was seconded as Site Engineer for Transport for London, assisting in the management of health and safety, quality and programme. Upon returning to design consultancy in London, Sarah joined the fire engineering team, following an interest in fire safety design, where she developed fire strategies for low and high-rise residential buildings, commercial, railway stations, bus garages, museums and sports […]
John Holland
An Intel scholar, John graduated with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland in 2000. As part of his degree he developed an automatic moisture sensor for use in the peat industry for which he was awarded the Hewlett Packard national award for innovation in engineering. After a brief period with Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Peru, John returned to Ireland to take up a position with Teradyne Connection Systems, before joining Timoney Technology as a mechanical design engineer, where he specialised in the design and development of Hydropneumatic Suspension Systems for specialty off road vehicles. In this role he also gained considerable experience with computer aided engineering techniques such as Finite Element Analysis and Vehicle Multi-body Dynamic Analysis. John was appointed engineering manager with Timoney Technology and took over full technical responsibility for all engineering projects and products. Projects of note include the DARPA Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle, the USMC Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Vehicle and the Timoney ADT Independent Suspension Axle System manufactured under licence by Terex Equipment Ltd. John was also involved with the Ginaf Rally Power and DeRooy race teams for the 2007 Dakar Rally and has numerous automotive suspension patents filed […]
Callum Hogan
Callum graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in 2017 with a First Class Honours degree in Forensic Computing. He has previously occupied the positions of Digital Forensic Analyst, Senior eDiscovery and Digital Forensic Analyst and Digital Forensic Project Manager at different global companies. Callum specialises in Digital Forensics and eDiscovery. His expertise means he completes each stage of Digital Forensic Investigation (DFI) models and the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) whilst conforming to ACPO guidelines and ISO standards. This requires using various industry standard Digital Forensic acquisition and analysis tools, as well as eDiscovery platforms, so digital devices and their data can be properly identified, preserved, collected, examined, analysed and presented. Callum has been instructed on several high-profile criminal and civil litigations, investigations, and matters, as well as a public inquiry. This has involved the preparation of expert witness reports for use in Criminal, Civil and Family law courts. Callum joined Hawkins in June 2021 and is an Associate based in our Manchester office. He is a Professional Member of the British Computer Society and holds multiple accreditations for Digital Forensic tools and eDiscovery platforms.
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.