Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Cardiff University, and a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist with Swansea Bay University Health Board and Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.
He has worked as a psychiatrist in prisons and other criminal justice settings for 25 years, and written over 1000 reports to the Courts, mainly in criminal proceedings. Professor Forrester’s clinical and research interests relate to mental health conditions as they present in the criminal justice system, including prisons, courts, police custody, probation, and other places of detention, with a focus on vulnerability and marginalisation.
Professor Forrester is also forensic lead at the National Centre for Mental Health, Director of the Offender Health Research Network Cymru, and chair of the Criminal Justice Steering Group Traumatic Stress Wales.
He chairs the Quality Network for Prison Mental Health Services, Royal College of Psychiatrists, and am Academic Secretary to the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry, Royal College of Psychiatrists. Professor Forrester is Editor-in-Chief of the BJPsych Bulletin, Editor in Chief of the SAGE journal Medicine, Science and the Law, and sits on the editorial board for the journal Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health. He also sits on the executive committees of the Forensic Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the British Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the charity Crime in Mind.
Professor Forrester chairs the World Psychiatric Association’s prison mental health task-force, is a member of the Howard League’s advisory board for sentencing principles for young adults a member of the Society of Expert Witnesses, the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, and the Royal Society of Medicine.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an honorary member of the World Psychiatric Association, and a former member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Working Group on the Mental Health of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.