This is a private lecture session for Women in Crime.
If you are not an eligible attendee for this lecture session, but would like to organise an event for your organisation, please contact Dr Ould directly.
An offender’s feet, or the shoes they wear, can incriminate them in many ways, with feet and shoe impression evidence being led in prosecutions around the world.
Alongside DNA and fingerprints, shoe and foot impressions are the most common form of tangible evidence left by an offender at a crime scene. Impression evidence can tell you a lot more about a person than the size of their feet or the footwear which made the impression. Dr Mark Ould, Forensic Podiatrist, can provide expert advice on an offenders’ gait pattern, including stride length, angle of gait, base of gait, and directionality, and he has comprehensive understanding of the human foot, and the development of foot pathologies and how they may affect impressions left at crime scenes.
Dr Ould is one of only a few experts who is able to draw on two fields of expertise, as he is also qualified in the Examination and Comparison of Footwear Evidence, a qualification approved by the Footwear Certification Board of the International Association for Identification. Combining these two areas Dr Ould is able to review characteristics identified in crime scene impressions and determine whether an individual or footwear is associated with a crime scene.
Dr Ould works in both clinical and forensic practice and is trained in the comparative analysis of crime scene impression evidence. Dr Ould can examine foot and footwear related evidence in the context of a criminal investigation, and he has provided expert advice and reports in relation to shoe and footprint impressions, including homicide matters, to both the prosecution and defence in WA and interstate. Dr Ould has been involved in training police and has lectured nationally and internationally in relation to clinical podiatry practice.