Dr Freddie Martin

Saturday 5th March: 11.15-12.00
Dental identification & the importance of accurate record keeping

A brief look at the process of identification concentrating on, but not exclusively on, the dental aspect, and acquainting the delegates with some of the problems faced on a daily basis by the forensic odontologist. Illustrated with Coroner’s & Police cases to demonstrate the various factors influencing procedure, conclusions drawn and outcome of the post mortem examination.

Biography

DR A.W. (Freddie) MARTIN . Forensic Odontologist.
 
Freddie was born during world war two. In fact he was born the same day the mighty German Battleship , the Bismark , was sunk.

To mark the occasion his father wanted to call him Bismark on the grounds that when he was grown up and in business, people could greet him by asking: " How’s Bis" ?
 
Freddie spent a happy adolescence playing poker ,snooker ,and ice hockey in equal measure.

Things then went rapidly downhill and he found himself at Edinburgh University reading dentistry , something of a family tradition. General dental practice followed to pay the mortgage a keep a wife who has, even to this day, never learned the value of money .

Forensics ran in parallel , and Freddie was happy to switch his white coat for his Barber and Wellies and foray into the realm of blood and guts - a practice which has kept him sane (some would say) and staved off the routine and almost statutory national health service heart attack , which caught up with so many of his contemporaries.

It also gave him a taste for vast quantities of Rum & Coke  (-----diet coke !)

His interest in forensics started early , and his first case was in 1964.

He took a formal forensic post graduate diploma under his old friend and colleague , the late and great Professor Taffy Cameron at ' The London Hospital '

Freddie is a past president of the British Association For Forensic Odontology, a member of numerous forensic associations , and lectures on forensic odontology  to several academic institutions.

He has been involved in much case work over the years, and mass disasters - a year or two back the Tsunami & the London Bombs , the Malawi Air Crash,  & more recently, the Farnborough Air Crash & The Ecuador Bus Crash among others.

He has appeared in Coroner’s Courts , Magistrates Courts , County Courts and most of the Crown Courts in the South East over the years,  ( and from time to time further afield ),  including frequently at ‘The Bailey’.

He has also appeared at the Central Registry Family Division,The Royal Courts of Justice, and The Royal Court in Jersey, ( Care Orders) , and has given evidence in murder cases as far away as St Lucia in the West Indies & The Gambia in Africa.

He has two recurring nightmares , the first is sending a highly paid team of detectives off in the wrong direction through mistaken conclusions following his forensic findings , and much, much  more serious , a world shortage of Lambs Navy Rum.