News
17-July-2007 - LGC Forensics - Examination of Daily Telegraph
documents relating to George Galloway MP
Oliver Thorne, forensic document examiner at LGC Forensics,
Europe’s leading independent forensics company, was instructed by
Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards at
the House of Commons to examine documents in relation to an ongoing
inquiry regarding the conduct of Mr George Galloway MP, the Sixth
Report of which was published today (17 July 2007)
The extensive forensic document examination at LGC Forensics
included documents published in the Daily Telegraph over the period
22-24 April 2003. Mr Thorne provided written and oral evidence to
the inquiry regarding the authenticity of these and other related
documents. His report is published in full at Volume II, PCS
Written Evidence 32, of the Report. His conclusions are published
in Appendix 1, Memorandum from the Parliamentary Commissioner for
Standards as detailed below (relevant paragraph given in
brackets).
Mr Thorne was asked to comment on the authenticity, not on the
veracity of the Telegraph documents (Para 111).
On the authenticity of the documents as a whole, Mr Thorne
stated: "In my opinion the evidence found fully supports that
the vast majority of the submitted documents are authentic. In my
opinion the submitted documents are not all forgeries created at a
later time. Whilst I cannot totally exclude the theoretical
possibility that all the submitted documents were created during
the time that they state but by a non-authentic source such as a
´shadow office´, I consider that this is extremely unlikely."
(Para 112)
As to the authenticity of the key documents at the heart of the
complaint against Mr Galloway, Mr Thorne said: "Given that the
vast majority of the submitted documents are authentic then, in my
opinion, there is a high probability that all the disputed
Telegraph documents are also authentic. I find no evidence that any
are forgeries or altered and I consider this possibility to be
extremely unlikely." (Para 113)
Furthermore, as stated in the report, Mr Thorne found no
evidence to suggest that any of the disputed Telegraph documents
were found at a different time/place to the others.
Regarding the assertion by George Galloway that a ‘ghost office’
had produced the documents, Mr Thorne commented: "Not only
would a ´shadow office´ operating in Arabic have to be set up
operating over the period of time covered by the documents (approx.
1998 to 2001) and producing at least 2500 documents of wide ranging
appearance but it would also have to obtain the reference documents
and other verifiable documents to the files without arousing any
suspicion. Whilst this possibility remains theoretically present I
consider it to be extremely unlikely." (Para 117)
Mr Thorne’s findings are based on a robust examination of the
documents, which involved detailed scrutiny of handwriting,
indented impressions and, using sophisticated analytical
techniques, a comparison of paper, printing, inks, hand-stamps and
stamp impressions, typefaces and the output from fax machines,
typewriters, photocopiers and printers.
Prior to acting independently for the Office of the
Parliamentary Commissioner in 2006, LGC had previously carried out
a separate preliminary visual inspection for Mr Galloway´s
representatives at the Daily Telegraph´s offices in June 2003.
LGC Forensics undertakes forensic examinations for a wide range
of government departments, police forces and lawyers, amongst other
clients. It is the division of LGC with specific expertise in a
broad range of forensic services addressing the simplest to the
most complex of cases, in major crime, DNA analysis, forensic
drugs, toxicology, ecology, questioned documents, digital crime and
other specialist areas in support of modern policing.
LGC Forensics laboratories are located in Teddington
(Middlesex), Culham (Oxfordshire), Runcorn and Risley (Cheshire),
Tamworth (Staffordshire), with a specialist firearms facility in
Leeds.
Notes to
Editors