MR. ROBERT BUTLER – Audio, Video & Imaging Expert
Personal Profile
Robert is the Director and Forensic Audio, Video and Imaging Expert at RJB Forensics, where he specialises in the enhancement, analysis, interpretation and authentication of audio recordings and imagery.
He began his technical career in July 1978 as a civilian technical officer with the Metropolitan Police Service, where he was involved in electronic, communications, audio and video engineering. After more than three years in the Research & Development Department, he spent eleven years in the Evidential Analysis Department. He was involved in the Metropolitan-wide design and development of audio and video tape recorded interview rooms and video recording suites for child witnesses. Sitting on steering committees at both Metropolitan and National levels he contributed to the development of the technical and evidential processes, including setting guidelines for the acquisition and use of video material for evidential purposes. During that time he gave technical evidence at Court and in Police Internal Disciplinary Hearings. His final three years with the Metropolitan Police were spent as Head of the Metropolitan Police Forensic Video Laboratory.
During his 19 years with the Metropolitan Police Service, he received formal and informal technical training relevant to audio and video recordings used in investigations and as evidence, as well as training in the role of an expert and the presentation of expert evidence. He gained academic qualifications including a TEC Certificate in Telecommunications Engineering and TEC Higher Certificate in Communications Engineering.
He is a member of various relevant professional bodies, including the British Association for Human Identification (Forensic Imagery Analysis Group).
Operating as an independent Expert since leaving the Metropolitan Police Service in 1997, he has assisted in numerous cases for the Defence and the Prosecution countrywide where audio and imagery evidence has been crucial. These cases have included offences of terrorism, murder, drug trafficking, abduction, sex offences, armed robbery, robbery, vehicle crime and traffic offences, and have involved the enhancement of CCTV images, the comparison of vehicles, clothing and other objects from images, images of people for the purposes of identification by any appropriate means such as facial mapping, body proportions, height, posture and gait comparison, the interpretation of actions and events from images, the calculation of vehicle speeds from CCTV recordings, the enhancement and transcription of audio recordings and also the examination and authentication of audio and video recordings for originality, continuity and evidence of editing or tampering. Many of these cases have been subject to local and/or national news coverage, and some have been very high profile cases, such as the attempted robbery of the Millennium Jewels on display at the London Millennium Dome in 2000, the Securitas depot robbery in Tonbridge, Kent, which was the largest cash robbery in British history, and more recently he has been instructed by The Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
He has produced thousands of Expert reports for both Prosecution and Defence in Criminal cases (on occasion reporting independently on behalf of the Court to both Prosecution and Defence), as a Single Joint Expert in Civil cases, and attended Court on hundreds of occasions to advise Counsel and give Expert testimony, in: the Central Criminal Court, The Royal Courts of Justice, and many other Courts in England, Scotland and Wales, including Basildon, Birmingham, Blackfriars, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Canterbury, Cardiff, Chelmsford, Chichester, Croydon, Derby, Exeter, Glasgow High, Glasgow Sheriff’s, Gloucester, Guildford, Harrow, Hull, Inner London, Ipswich, Isleworth, Kingston, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Lewes, Lincoln, Liverpool, Luton, Maidstone, Manchester Crown Square and Manchester Minshull Street, Middlesex Guildhall, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Preston, Reading, Shrewsbury, Snaresbrook, Southwark, Stafford, Swansea, Swindon, Teesside, Truro, Warwick, Winchester, Wood Green, Woolwich, Wolverhampton and Worcester Crown Courts, Cardiff Coroner’s Court, Guernsey Royal Court, and numerous Magistrates’ and Youth Courts, where he has been accepted as an Expert.
