In this episode hosts Mark and Lindsay have a wide-ranging conversation with Professor Jason Payne-James where they explore his career in forensic and legal medicine, from his early surgical training to his pivotal role as a medical examiner. He discusses the importance of post-mortem CT, tackling miscarriages of justice, and the emotional and ethical challenges of working in the "death space."

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Jason Payne-James is a Specialist in Forensic & Legal Medicine and a Consultant Forensic Physician. Interests are broad-ranging include documentation and interpretation of injury; evidential sampling; wound and scar interpretation; complaints against healthcare professionals; sexual assault; non-accidental injury; intimate partner violence; non-fatal strangulation; restraint and less-lethal systems; miscarriages of justice; healthcare in detention; cause of death; death investigation; medical negligence; death and harm in custody; substance use; human rights abuses and torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

He is Honorary Clinical Professor, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London; Chair of the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal weapons (SACMILL); member of the Specialist Advisory Committee of the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board on forensic & legal medicine; President of the European Council of Legal & Forensic Medicine. He is director of Forensic Healthcare Services Ltd.

He is past-President of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine and past-President of the International Association of Clinical Forensic Medicine. He was founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Forensic & Legal Medicine. He was Lead Medical Examiner at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospitals University NHS Trust.

He has co-authored or co-edited (amongst others) the Encyclopedia of Forensic & Legal Medicine (1st, 2nd and 3rd editions); the 13th, 14th and 15th editions of Simpson’s Forensic Medicine, Current Practice in Forensic Medicine (1st, 2nd and 3rd editions); The Medical Examiner System in England & Wales: A Practical Guide; Symptoms & Signs of Substance Use (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions) and Forensic & Legal Medicine: Clinical & Pathological Aspects. His medicolegal practice extends across the UK and internationally.