Investigative interviewing, studied across law, psychology, neuroscience and technology

Gearóidín McEvoy is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University (Ireland) under the JUSTICE project. Gearóidín pursued an undergraduate degree in Law and Irish at University College Cork, in Cork, Ireland, a Master’s in International Human Rights Law from Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, and a PhD in law from Dublin City University. She has a background in legal translation and minority language rights, but Gearóidín’s research interests also cover human rights law, the right to a fair trial, policing, criminal law, and Deaf legal studies. In 2021 she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship and she completed research at the University of Birmingham on the Legal Recognition of Signed Languages in Ireland, Finland and across the United Kingdom. She is the author of Access to Justice for Minority Language Communities: experiences of Irish Speakers and Irish Sign Language Users (Multilingual Matters, 2026).

Benedetta Arrighini is a qualified Italian lawyer and early-career researcher specialising in EU criminal law, transnational criminal cooperation, and fundamental rights. She has joined Dublin City University (DCU) as a Postdoctoral Researcher on the JUSTICE Project, focusing on investigative interviewing and fair trial rights. Benedetta Arrighini holds a joint doctorate in International and European Law from ULB Brussels, FGV Rio de Janeiro, and LUISS Rome (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Fellow), and an LLM from the College of Europe. She holds a Master’s in Law from the University of Trento. Her research interests include international and European criminal law, transitional justice and criminal justice mechanisms, with a strong focus on protecting the rights of suspects and the accused.

Riccardo Loconte works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Methodology and Statistics at Tilburg University. His research spans computational methods, psychology and neuroscience. Within JUSTICE, Riccardo works on MRQ4, where the team develop computational approaches for investigative interviewing and experimentally evaluate these in human-computer interaction tasks. He obtained his PhD in a joint PhD programme at IMT Lucca (Italy) and Tilburg University (Netherlands), and obtained an MSc from the University of Padova and a BSc from the University of Bari.

Jari Zegers is a PhD candidate at the Department of Methodology and Statistics at Tilburg University. Within JUSTICE, Jari works on MRQ4, where he develops computational self-play and reinforcement learning approaches for training language models to conduct ethical and effective investigative interviews. Jari obtained both an MSc in Individual Differences and Assessment and a BSc in Psychology from Tilburg University.

Lucca Pfründer is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Methodology and Statistics at Tilburg University. Within JUSTICE, Lucca works on MRQ4, using adversarial machine learning and, more widely, computational approaches from natural language processing to study and understand complex psychological research questions such as deception and investigative interviewing. He obtained an MSc and BSc in Psychology from the University of Amsterdam.

Manila Kodali is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She received her PhD (2026) and MSc (2021) from Aalto University, Finland, and her B.Tech. (2018) in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad, India. Her research interests include speech processing and analysis, speech synthesis, paralinguistics, voice pathologies, machine learning, and multimodal analysis. During her doctoral work, she focused on speech-based biomarking, with an emphasis on vocal intensity and Parkinson’s disease. This work highlighted the challenges of deploying models in real-world, non-controlled environments, which led her to explore approaches that improve interpretability and robustness, such as predicting sound pressure level from amplitude-normalized signals. Dr Kodali was awarded a Nokia Foundation Grant for her doctoral degree and received a 100% tuition fee waiver scholarship for her master’s degree.

Jaimy Hannah is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. She obtained an Honour’s BSc in Psychology (minor in Physics) and an MSc in Psychology from the University of Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and a PhD in Psychology — Cognitive, Developmental, and Brain Sciences from Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. Before joining the JUSTICE Project, Jaimy worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin. Jaimy’s research focuses on the neural basis of speech perception, combining a range of neuroimaging techniques to explore how speech is processed and tracked across different features, timescales, and brain regions, and how this processing changes across different challenges and contexts. Within the JUSTICE Project, she applies this expertise to investigate the neural mechanisms associated with individuals’ decisions to adopt or resist coercive practices in group settings.

Kieran Mohr is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). He holds a BA in Psychology and Mathematics from Trinity, an MSc in Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics from the University of Birmingham (UK), and a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College Dublin (Ireland). His work combines brain imaging technology, computational modelling and cognitive behavioural tasks to uncover the neural and cognitive underpinnings of human decision making. Within the JUSTICE project, he is investigating the social and psychological factors that influence decisions to use, or not use, coercive methods in investigative interviews. A key focus of this research is on determining when and why information that has been obtained coercively is deemed to be trustworthy by investigators.

Ed Thompson is an organisational behaviour researcher at De Montfort University whose work examines how practices emerge, become established and endure. His previous research applied actor-network theory to collaboration between the police, local authorities and other agencies in the delivery of resilience and emergency planning policy, and he has since written on urban governance under austerity, sensemaking in the context of organised crime, and the way inherited traditions continue to shape action in a crisis. Running through this is a concern with why some ways of working persist long after the conditions that produced them have gone, a question that sits at the centre of the JUSTICE project’s interest in coercive investigative practice. Ed is the Academic Coordinator of the De Montfort University JUSTICE team. He line manages the project’s Research Fellows, deputises for the Principal Investigator on financial and administrative management, and coordinates ethical and governance processes. He also contributes to the project’s research.

Andrzej Uhl is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at De Montfort University and is about to complete his PhD in Criminology at the University of Cambridge, which he attended as a Gates Scholar. A law graduate by background, he worked as a Compliance & Investigation consultant at EY before moving into research. His work applies experimental and quantitative methods to decision-making in crime and criminal justice contexts and has appeared in flagship journals including Criminology and Political Psychology. Within the JUSTICE project, Andrzej will contribute to the design of surveys and behavioural experiments.

Richard Kempshall is a Doctoral Researcher on the JUSTICE programme working with Prof Dave Walsh and Dr Ed Thompson. He is also Head of Investigative Interview Practice at Davidhorn, following a 25-year career with the Metropolitan Police, where he served as a Detective Inspector and Senior Investigating Officer leading complex homicide, terrorism and major crime investigations. He was the Metropolitan Police force lead for investigative interviewing and UK Counter Terrorism practitioner lead for suspect interviewing. Richard has extensive experience in ethical, evidence-based interviewing, interview strategy and PEACE implementation. He holds a First-Class BA (Hons) in Applied Investigation, alongside qualifications in interview management, human rights, terrorism studies, forensic interviewing and ORBIT. He has delivered training internationally and worked with UNODC, CTI and the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights.

Ana Cristancho is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on JUSTICE at De Montfort University. Her research focuses on coercion and violence as mechanisms of governance, seeking to explain why extreme forms of coercion sometimes backfire and under what circumstances policing becomes criminogenic. Her earlier work examined violence and governance by armed and criminal groups in civil war contexts, while her current research focuses on state violence, militarisation, and their unintended consequences for legitimacy and democratic governance. Her doctoral research at University College London examines the militarisation of law enforcement. Empirically, she works with cross-national country–year and survey data, applying structural equation modelling, causal inference techniques, and panel data analysis to study relationships between militarisation, state violence, and human rights violations. Her methodological interests also include experimental and quasi-experimental designs, observational data, matching methods, measurement modelling, and data quality issues in cross-national research. She has a particular interest in measurement and data construction, alongside experience in qualitative and computational methods. Her academic training spans several related disciplines. She holds an MSc in Countering Organised Crime and Terrorism, an MA in Political Science, and a BA in Sociology, which together have shaped her interdisciplinary approach to studying political violence and coercive institutions. Within JUSTICE, Ana contributes to research on coercive and abusive investigative interviewing, bringing her expertise in coercion, policing, and quantitative methods, as well as a Global South perspective.

Monty Mountford is endlessly fascinated by how human beings endeavour to understand their world(s) — reflected in his PhD, which explored social inclusion in sense-making about serious and organised crime. Monty’s academic career was preceded by over three decades of military service, specialising in communications and intelligence. His contribution to the JUSTICE project spans leadership, analysis, operating in complex environments, scenario and simulation design, national and international engagement, and experience of working alongside law enforcement agencies from multiple nations. Monty is also a member of the COST Action CA22128 ImpleMendez and a working group co-lead.