VOTE FOR US IN THE TRUE CRIME AWARDS 2026!
*Warning: this episode contains descriptions of terrorist mass-casualty events, and torture *
NOTE: This is Part 2 of a double episode. Please make sure you have listened to Part 1 before proceeding.
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These two episodes are dedicated to the memory of Dr Janet Cotterill (1968-2022) who contributed significantly to this case and to forensic linguistics more generally. Her obituary can be found here https://iafll.org/2022/11/11/remembering-dr-janet-cotterill-1968-2022/
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August 2004. Dhiren Barot, a high-value terrorist, has been arrested in London, and police need to charge or release him within four days. To charge Barot, the police needed to prove to a criminal standard that he had indeed written the Gas Limos project, a document that contained the plot to attack underground carparks of landmark tourist destinations across London with multiple limousines filled with gas cylinders containing explosive gases.
In this second part we are joined by Professor Jessica Woodhams from the University of Birmingham who, alongside Tim Grant, Janet Cotterill, and Janet’s PhD student, was rushed to New Scotland Yard in the summer of 2004 to carry out an analysis of The Gas Limos project.
For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs
Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at
[email protected] and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!
Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog
If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
https://www.helpguide.org/find-help
Production
Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta
Sound: Mark Round
Visual design: George Grant
Editing: Nicci MacLeod
Additional voices: Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, George Grant, Stephany Grant, Dr Graeme Hayes, Greg Fraser McLaren
Resources
Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer
Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer
Professor Jessica Woodham’s home page: Professor Jessica Woodhams - School of Psychology - University of Birmingham
Research Resources
Academic Sources
- Andrew, C. (2012). The defence of the realm: The authorized history of MI5. Penguin UK.
- Carlisle, D. (2007) Dhiren Barot: Was He an Al Qaeda Mastermind or Merely a Hapless Plotter? Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 30:1057–1071 DOI: 10.1080/10576100701670979
- Grant, T.D. (2022) The Idea of Progress in Forensic Authorship Analysis CUP
- Sean O’Neill and Daniel McGrory, The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque(London: Harper Perennial, 2006)
News sources
- Guardian 2006 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/07/usa.terrorism
- Times of India 2006 - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/articleshow/2168783.cms
Other Web sources
- US Government 9/11 Commission Report https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-911REPORT/pdf/GPO-911REPORT.pdf
- House of Commons library on pretrial detention of terrorists - https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05634/
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