5 Filters

Professor Fear

Politics
#1

At last, the supervillain behind it all stands revealed!

H/t Craig Murray (there’s just a brief blog entry today):

One of the two co-directors of the KCHMR, which collaborates with Dr Blackwood’s Forensic Research Group, is Nicola Fear, a professor of epidemiology and a former MOD staffer who is on the study team working on the MOD “wellbeing” project.

According to the Centre, Professor Fear “leads several studies… which have been awarded funding from the UK Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defense”.

1 Like
#2

Jurgen Wullenwever

October 3, 2020 at 15:26

The collaboration between Dr Blackwood’s Forensic Research Group (FRG) and the MoD funded Kings Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) is of fundamental importance for the FRG because it enables FRG researchers, such as Dr Blackwood, to access to an extensive dataset containing information on the nature and prevalence of mental disorders and offending behaviour within current and former members of the military. Access to this dataset affords invaluable research opportunities for Dr Blackwood and his colleagues to investigate the links between psychological trauma, mental disorder and offending.

Expert witnesses are required to provide a dispassionate opinion to the court on matters that fall within their professional expertise. Conflict of interest arises where the testimony of an expert witness may be influenced, or may be perceived to be influenced, in favour of one of the parties to a legal proceeding by any type of personal or financial relationship. Loss of access to the KCMHR dataset would seriously compromise the work of the FRG and Dr Blackwood could not help but be mindful of that. Similarly, an opportunity to foster good relations with the MoD, a principal source of funding for the KCMHR, could help secure further funding for the work of the KCMHR and secure continuing access to its dataset. Dr Blackwood could not help also being mindful of this.

As a former mental health academic with considerable experience in forensic mental health, there is no doubt in my mind that Dr Blackwood did have a conflict of interest arising out of the research collaboration between his department and the KCMHR, that he was fully aware of this conflict, and that he should have declared it to the court.

1 Like
#3

The defence team should have been be 100% all over this…