News
02-Feb 2010 –
LGC Forensics helps solve
Crimewatch’s first-ever murder case
appeal
LGC
Forensics used modern DNA forensic techniques to help
Nottinghamshire Police solve the 1983 murder of Colette
Aram
LGC Forensics, the
UK’s leading independent forensic science provider, has
successfully helped solve the first-ever murder case appeal by the
BBC television programme Crimewatch. In June 1984,
Crimewatch appealed to the public for information that
might help Nottinghamshire Police solve the murder of 16-year-old,
Colette Aram. A reconstruction of the investigation that led to the
conviction this month of Colette’s killer was shown on BBC One’s
Crimewatch programme on Wednesday 27 January at 9.00
pm.
In November 2007, LGC Forensics was approached
by Nottinghamshire Police to assist them with their
re-investigation of this case. In particular, LGC was asked to
extend the analysis of cellular material (blood and semen) found on
a paper tissue thought to be associated with the murder. An earlier
investigation by scientists from another provider had established
that the material analysed did not match the DNA profile of anyone
on the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD).
The first step was to determine whether there
were any ‘near misses’ on the NDNAD which might indicate the
presence of a family member. LGC Forensics used a powerful new
familial searching technique, developed in its research
laboratories, which provided a list of people - identified from the
‘near misses’ on the NDNAD and prioritised according to how similar
their DNA profiles were to the one from the material analysed.
The LGC scientists then used another advanced
DNA technique known as Y-STRs*, to provide more information. Y-STRs
are passed down the male line, from father to son, and they
therefore provide powerful links between males in the same family.
The top 300 names on the prioritised list from the NDNAD were then
also tested for Y-STRs, but there were no matches with the Y-STRs
in the material on the tissue. As more samples were added to the
Database so more individuals were prioritised and tested for
Y-STRs.
Eventually, after samples from approximately
600 males had been analysed, one of them was found to match the
Y-STR profile from the tissue. This immediately threw the spotlight
onto this person’s family and, on 7 April 2009, reference samples
were taken from his father - Paul Hutchinson - and two of his
uncles, Hutchinson’s brothers.
Time was of the essence because clearly only
one of the three men could have been responsible for the material
on the tissue. The samples were delivered by helicopter to LGC’s
Runcorn laboratory in Cheshire where DNA reference samples such as
these are analysed in a dedicated facility. The DNA team rapidly
processed them and interpreted, confirmed and reported the results
to Nottinghamshire Police all within nine hours. In January 2010,
Paul Hutchinson was found guilty of the murder of Colette Aram and
sentenced to a minimum jail term of 25 years.
Steve Allen,
Managing Director of LGC Forensics, commented: “The Colette
Aram case demonstrates yet again how imaginative combinations of
modern forensic science techniques and sheer tenacity can be
extremely effective in helping to solve crime, no matter how long
ago it might have been committed. This case joins a long list of
other cold cases of which we are very proud to have been able to
make a critical contribution including, the murders of Damilola
Taylor and Rachel Nickell”.
*Y chromosome short tandem repeats
- Ends -
Notes to
editors:
About LGC
Forensics
LGC Forensics (www.lgcforensics.com) is the
division of LGC with specific expertise in a broad range of
forensic services, to address the simplest to the most complex of
cases, in major crime. We provide casework and analytical services
in DNA techniques, controlled drugs, toxicology, ecology,
questioned documents, digital crime, firearms and ballistics and
forensic pathology in support of modern policing.
With eight forensic laboratories across the
UK and two in Germany, LGC Forensics is able to provide a range of
bespoke services at a local level, therefore attracting a wide
variety of customers drawn from police forces and other law
enforcement agencies, HM Coroners, government departments, defence
lawyers, as well as private corporations and individuals.
LGC Forensics has access to a wide range of
other specialist teams across the LGC Group including a close
working relationship with the largest group of Home Office
Pathologists, Forensic Pathology Services and a unique Victim
Identification and Mass Fatalities Team. LGC Forensics laboratories
are located in Teddington (Middlesex), Bromsgrove (Worcestershire),
Culham (Oxfordshire), St. Neots (Cambridgeshire) Runcorn and Risley
(Cheshire), Tamworth (Staffordshire), with a specialist firearms
facility in Leeds. German operations are located in Cologne and
Berlin.