News
16-Nov 2009 – LGC Forensics appoints expert in facial
comparison analysis
LGC Forensics announces the appointment of facial
comparison analysis expert within its Digital &Document
Forensic services, Culham, UK
LGC Forensics
the UK’s leading independent forensic science provider, is pleased
to announce the appointment of Alison Threlfall as Senior Imagery
Analyst within its Digital &
Document Forensics facility in Culham, Oxfordshire, UK.
Alison is one of the UK’s leading experts in
evidential facial comparison and imagery analysis and joined LGC
Forensics from BSB Forensic Ltd, where she held the position of
Senior Consultant. Working closely with Andy Laws, LGC Forensics’
senior expert at its St. Neots laboratory, Cambridgeshire, Alison
will take the lead in delivering evidential imagery facial
comparison and other imagery analysis services for LGC Forensics.
Bringing a wealth of experience in this highly specialised field,
Alison will work with the Culham forensic team, not only to aid
LGC’s efforts in gaining ISO17025 accreditation for its audio
visual forensic services, but to provide additional impetus to the
ongoing work developing appropriate professional standards in this
relatively new field of expertise.
Steve Allen,
Managing Director of LGC Forensics, commented: “Together with
the LGC Forensics’ established Digital & Document forensic
laboratory at St Neots, the ability to deliver facial comparison
and imagery analysis services from our Culham facility represents a
considerable step forward in LGC Forensics’ capability and
flexibility of service. In addition, as one of the foremost
practitioners in her field, Alison will be pivotal in ensuring that
LGC remains at the forefront of developments in this fast emerging
discipline.”
A recent, high profile example of LGC
Forensics’ use of evidential facial comparison and imagery analysis
was the 2008 Osbaston House murder investigation where CCTV and
mobile phone analysis was instrumental in helping police solve the
case.
Biography: Alison
Threlfall
Alison has a BSc (Hons) in Anatomical Sciences
and a research MSc in Anatomy in which she examined the
quantitative effect of various facial expressions on facial
landmarks in relation to the forensic procedure of facial
comparison. She has taught anatomy to undergraduate medical
students, conducted facial reconstructions for forensic and
archaeological purposes and been involved with ear print
assessments and skull-face comparisons. She has also worked in the
forensic field of facial identification, conducted research and
case work for approximately 10 years and has given evidence in
Crown and Magistrates’ Court on numerous occasions.
During each year over the past seven years,
Alison has produced between 50 and 100 expert witness reports.
Alison has also written and presented various training seminars in
this field to various police and legal entities and co-presented at
the 2006 International Association for Craniofacial Identification
(IACI) seminar in Istanbul, Turkey. She has also assisted in
training two forensic scientists who have since gone on to become
expert witnesses in this specific field. Alison is a founding
member of the Forensic Imagery Analysis Group (FIAG), which is part
of the British Association of Human Identification (BAHID) and
previously held a position on the organising committee.
-Ends-
About LGC Forensics
LGC Forensics 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.
Notes to
editors: