The 2016 Asia Pacific Coroners Society Conference will again offer an impressive lineup of international and domestic speakers.
State Coroner Marvin Bay
Marvin Bay is a District Judge in the State Courts, and presently the State Coroner of the Republic of Singapore. He graduated in 1991 from the Law Faculty of the National University of Singapore, and became a District Judge 1997. His key area of specialty was in resolving personal injury and medical negligence claims as a Civil District Judge. He has held the office of State Coroner since April 2014. The Coroner's office handles all manner of medico-legal death investigations mandated by the Coroner's Act (Cap 63A), including medical post-operative, suicide, traffic/industrial/general misadventure and lawful/unlawful killing cases. As State Coroner, he has been especially active in formulating preventative strategies in pool death and youth suicides.
Professor Roger Byard AO PSM
Professor Byard AO PSM holds the George Richard Marks Chair of Pathology at The University of Adelaide and is a Senior Specialist Forensic Pathologist at Forensic Science SA in Adelaide, Australia. He has published a number papers and textbooks on various forensic topics and has been the Editor-in-Chief/Managing Editor of Forensic Science Medicine and Pathology since 2008.
Dr Adam Brett
Dr Adam Brett is a Consultant Psychiatrist with the Perth Mental Health Court. He supplies expert reports to the criminal courts and the Coroners courts.
Ms Bianca Douglas
Ms Douglas has worked in the Forensic Science Laboratory of ChemCentre since 2001 and has held the position of Manager of Forensic Toxicology since September 2015. She manages a portfolio of toxicology programs including Coronial Toxicology, W.A. Police Sobriety and Criminal Toxicology, Racing Chemistry and Community Health Toxicology and leads a team of 25 staff. Bianca is the current Chair of the Toxicology Specialist Advisory Group and a member of specialist consultancy groups such as the Community Program for Opioid Pharmacotherapy Mortality Review Committee and previously the Sexual Assault Specialist Advisory Group where she advised on forensic issues pertaining to sexual assualt investigations.
Dr Pat Dudgeon
Dr Pat Dudgeon is from the Bardi people of the Kimberly area in Western Australia. She is a Psychologist and Research Fellow at the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her area of research includes social and emotional wellbeing and suicide prevention. Amongst her many commitments, she is a Commissioner of the Australian National Mental Health Commission, on the executive board of the Australian Indigenous Psychologist’s Association, and co-chair of the Commonwealth Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advisory Group. She is currently the project leader of the National Empowerment Project: an Indigenous suicide prevention project working with eleven sites in Aboriginal communities across the country and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project. She has many publications in Indigenous mental health in particular, the Working Together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice 2014. She is actively involved with the Aboriginal community and has a commitment to social justice for Indigenous people.
Mr Chris Field
Chris Field is the Western Australian Ombudsman. He concurrently holds the role of Energy and Water Ombudsman. Chris is the Treasurer of the International Ombudsman Institute and a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the Institute. He is also the Chairman of the State Records Commission. Chris is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Australia and co-coordinator of the unit, Government Accountability – Law and Practice. He is also the author of a range of publications on law, economics and public policy. Immediately prior to his appointment as Ombudsman, he was an inaugural Member of the Economic Regulation Authority. Chris holds Arts and Law (Honours) degrees and was articled at Arthur Robinson and Hedderwicks (now Allens Linklaters).
Dr Ian Freckelton QC
Dr Freckelton is a Queen’s Counsel practising nationally from Crockett Chambers in Melbourne. He has been counsel in many of Australia’s best known inquests over the past 20 years including multiple police shooting inquests in the 1990s, the Tyler Cassidy inquest, the Luke Batty inquest, the David Wilson Khmer Rouge inquest, the Kumanji Briscoe inquest in the Northern Territory, and the Lindt Café inquest in NSW, and in significant appellate proceedings in coronial matters. He is the co-editor of Death Investigation and the Coroner’s Inquest, whose 2nd edition is imminent, and many leading articles on coronial law and practice. He is the Editor of the Journal of Law and Medicine and the Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. He is a member of Victoria’s Coronial Council and is a Professorial Fellow of Law and Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne and an Adjunct Professor of Law and Forensic Medicine at Monash University. He is the author of many books, including in 2016 Scholarly Misconduct (OUP) and Expert Evidence and Criminal Jury Trials (OUP).
Dr Adam Griffin
Dr Adam Griffin is Queensland's Director of the Clinical Forensic Medicine Unit, part of Forensic and Scientific Services and the Department of Health. After obtaining a medical degree from The University of Queensland in 1996 he worked extensively in hospital based acute and emergency care before begining work as a Forensic Medical Officer in 2007. He has a Masters in Forensic Medicine, is a Fellow and Censor-In-Chief for the Australian College of Legal Medicine and is a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Forensic Medicine with the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.
Mr Andrew Harris
Andrew has been a paediatrician, GP, medical director, and public health consultant. He qualified in law, gained a LLM in public law with a dissertation on the statutory duty of quality, the legal basis of clinical governance. He has written on health policy, edited books on primary care needs assessment and Health Law and has written on communicable disease law, NHS system failures and anonymisation. He was called to the Bar at The Middle Temple and transferred to practice as a consulting solicitor.
He became a part time assistant deputy coroner in 2007 and was appointed as HM Coroner for London Inner South in 2010. His jurisdiction is a busy one with about 3300 annual death reports, 9% of which lead to inquests. He has 4 prisons and several mental health institutions, which lead to his hearing jury inquests in about 30 weeks each year. Complex medical inquests and rail deaths are common. The jurisdiction covers 4 London boroughs, with a population of about 1.3 million bordering the Thames, so that there are also many drownings. There are no crocodiles.He has researched what is a natural death. He writes about 20 prevention of death reports per year and has had some gratifying results.
Dr Neil Keen
Neil Keen is the Chief Pharmacist with the Western Australian Department of Health. This position has a broad regulatory role that includes administering WA legislation controlling the prescribing and supply of medicines and poisons. Neil has been involved with the national Electronic Recording and Reporting of Controlled Drugs system and is charged with local plans to progress implementation of real time prescription monitoring systems in WA.
Ms Ainslie Kirkegaard
Ainslie Kirkegaard is the inaugural Coronial Registrar of the Coroners Court of Queensland. This is a unique judicial registrar role designed to triage deaths reported daily in South East & South West Queensland. Ainslie has held this role since early 2012 and previously held the positions of Counsel Assisting the Deputy State Coroner and Director, Office of the State Coroner. Ainslie became a part of the Queensland coronial system in 2008, bringing over 15 years experience in policy and legislation development in the health, education and justice portfolios, with specialist expertise in coronial and health regulatory law and policy. Having been appointed as an Acting Magistrate since April 2015, Ainslie now also relieves as coroner when required.
Dr Victoria Kueppers
Dr Kueppers is a Forensic Pathologist at PathWest in Western Australia. She studied medicine in Cardiff, Wales before doing her specialist training in Australia. She has an interest in deaths relating to new psychoactive substances.
Mr Timothy Marney
Mr Timothy Marney was appointed as the West Australian Mental Health Commissioner in February 2014. Following the amalgamation of the Drug and Alcohol office and the Mental Health Commission on 1 July 2015, Mr Marney is responsible for planning and purchasing the State's mental health services, as well as planning, purchasing and delivery of alcohol and other drug services. Mr Marney has been instrumental in the develoment of the Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drug Services Plan 2015-2025, which maps out the optimal mix of contemporary and high quality services for Western Australians over the next 10 years. A graduate of Murdoch University, Mr Marny has more than 20 years of experience in economics and finance with the State and Federal Governments. He joined the Western Australian Department of Treasury in 1993, where he held the position of Under Treasurer of Western Australia from 2005 to 2014. Since 2008 Mr Marney has served on the board of beyondblue, a national depression and anxiety initiative, and has been deputy chair of the board since 2010.
Dr Daniel Moss
Dr Moss is a Consultant Forensic Pathologist in Perth, WA and a Clinical Senior Lecturer with the University of Western Australia. He is a medical graduate of the University of Wales in the UK, where he also started his pathology training. He completed his forensic pathology training in Perth and has been a consultant in WA for 6 years. His special interests include medical education and leading the drive to get an autopsy CT service in WA.
Ms Sue Murray
Sue’s background in education and health promotion has underpinned a career spanning more than 25 years in the community sector where she had responsibility for programs in education, media, communications and fundraising. After 10 years leading the National Breast Cancer Foundation positioning it as a highly recognised organisation and raising $100 million for breast cancer research, Sue built on her experience to establish the George Foundation for Global Health. She has now brought that experience to her leadership role as chief executive of Suicide Prevention Australia. Sue is a director of Charities Aid Foundation, a former Chair of Macquarie Community College and director of Research Australia, a graduate of the AICD and a member of both the Advisory Council for the Centre for Social Impact and Chief Executive Women.
Dr Nicholas Pachter
Dr Nicholas Pachter is a Clinical Geneticist at Genetic Services of Western Australia. His clinical and research interests are in the diagnosis and management of adult-onset genetic disorders, in particular, Inherited Cardiac disorders. He has established a multi-disciplinary Cardiac Genetics Clinic in WA and acts as clinical liaison to the PathWest Diagnostic Genomics Laboratory to aide in the interpretation of cardiac genetic test results. Dr Pachter is an Associate Professor in the faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Western Australia and is Co-ordinator of Advanced Training for the Clinical Genetics Specialist Advisory Committee at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Ms Amy Peden
Amy Peden has extensive experience in the field of drowning prevention research, policy and practice. She commenced her employment in the National Office of the Royal Life Saving Society – Australia in 2007. In her current position as National Manager – Research and Policy she is responsible for a range of research projects including the production of the National Drowning Report annually, as well as maintaining the Royal Life Saving National Fatal Drowning Database, conducting research on a wide range of topics and advocating for the prevention of drowning in the media. She is also part way through a PhD into the epidemiology, risk factors and strategies for the prevention of river drowning deaths.
Dr Allan Quigley
Dr Quigley is the Director of Clinical Services at Next Step in Perth. Next Step is the State Government’s drug and alcohol service provider and is part of the Mental Health Commission. Dr Quigley has worked in the public sector as a drug and alcohol clinician, researcher and policy adviser for over 30 years. He is a past President of the Australasian Professional Society for Alcohol and other Drugs and a Fellow of the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine.
Ms Padma Raman
Padma Raman has a long and established career committed to protecting and advancing human rights.
She is the Executive Director of Australia's national human rights institution, the Australian Human Rights Commission and came to the position after establishing the Victorian Law Reform Commission which she ran for nine years. During that time, Ms Raman was also a member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) for 4 1⁄2 years. Ms Raman was instrumental in assisting the Victorian Government develop and implement the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006. Prior to this, she worked extensively in the community and academic sectors. She holds a Masters of Law by research, specialising in the experiences of immigrant and Indigenous women under the Australian legal system.
Dr Mark Reynolds
Dr Mark Reynolds is employed by the Western Australia Police (WAP) as a Forensic Science Consultant and Manager, Quality Assurance. With more than 28 years of law enforcement experience, Dr Reynolds’s primary role is to ensure that WAP forensic processes are underpinned by ‘good science’. He also provides advice on protracted and/or complex forensic matters and represents WAP at national and international forensic forums. Dr Reynolds is a past IABPA Vice President, Sub-committee Chair with the USDOJ SWGSTAIN group and subject matter expert with NATA’s Field and Identification Sciences Proficiency Review Committee. Currently, he is an adjunct Associate Professor supervising graduate research students at WA’s Murdoch University and a member of SMANZFL, ANZFEC and Standards Australia’s Forensic Science Standards Committee.
Dr Eva Saar
Eva is a pharmacist and a forensic toxicologist currently working as Manager, Research and Engagement, with the National Coronial Information System (NCIS). She holds a PhD from Monash University in Forensic Medicine and her topics of interest include prescription drug abuse and new synthetic drugs amongst others. Eva is passionate about meaningful research and making theoretical concepts applicable to the real world. She believes in the power of data and data sharing in order to create strong evidence bases for subsequent policy and decision making.
Dr Helga Weaving
Helga Weaving is a Senior Clinical Advisor at the Coronial Liaison Unit, Department of Health in Western Australia. The Department annually produces ‘From Death We Learn’ which provides a synopsis of the year’s inquests with a focus on key learnings for clinical education. She has an interest in the interface between medicine and law and in improving patient safety; having studied in the UK, reading Law and then Medicine, followed by a Masters in Forensic Medicine in Australia. She is concurrently working as a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Fiona Stanley Hospital and as a Forensic Physician at the Sexual Assault Resource Centre in Perth.
Dr Jodi White
Dr Jodi White is a Forensic Pathologist at PathWest in Western Australia. Dr White is a local medical graduate from the University of Western Australia (1994). She completed pathology training and received college RCPA fellowship in 2003. After graduating she worked at the Women and Children's Health Service for 2 years and began her current position in Forensic Pathology in 2005. Her interests include SCD, SUDI/SUDC and DUI.