News
18-Dec-2008 - LGC Forensics helps solve Rachel Nickell
killing
LGC Forensics plays a critical role in
helping the Metropolitan Police solve the death of Rachel
Nickell
LGC Forensics
has played a critical role in helping to solve the Rachel Nickell
killing, which concluded at court today. The Metropolitan Police
referred the unsolved case for reinvestigation to LGC Forensics,
one of the world’s leading independent providers of forensic
services.
LGC Forensics, with six laboratories across
the UK and two in Germany, has built up a formidable reputation
across all areas of forensic science and has worked for all 43
major police forces in England and Wales, as well as in other
countries. The work of our scientists was recently
highlighted after the Metropolitan Police called us in to help
re-investigate the death of Damilola Taylor, which occurred several
years ago. This led to the discovery of fresh forensic evidence
leading to the successful conviction of the Preddie brothers.
LGC Forensics has assisted in many high
profile and cold case re-investigations, including the Paget
investigation into Princess Diana’s fatal car crash; the death of
the UN weapons inspector, David Kelly; and the Alexander Litvinenko
investigation.
Dr Angela
Gallop, LGC Forensics Director of Science and Innovation, said:
“The LGC Forensics team is pleased to have helped the
Metropolitan Police achieve justice for Rachel Nickell’s family
after 15 years. The major breakthrough was the discovery by
our team of scientists led by Roy Green of DNA matching
Robert Napper’s on a taping* taken from the victim’s body.
The link to Napper was supported by some paint flakes found on
samples from the victim’s son which matched the paint on Napper’s
tool box, and by a footwear mark at the scene which could have been
made by one of his shoes”.
Explaining the DNA breakthrough, Dr Gallop
added: “Initial tests did not show any DNA in a sample from the
taping. When LGC Forensics was asked to re-investigate, we decided
to re-test this taping and original samples taken from it.
This revealed the victim’s DNA along with traces of DNA from an
unknown male. Further work on the unknown DNA established
that the result was more than 1.4 million times more likely if the
DNA had come from Robert Napper than someone else unrelated to
him. The DNA results combined with the paint and footwear
evidence provided compelling scientific evidence of Robert Napper’s
involvement in Rachel Nickell’s killing”.
The forensic work on the Rachel Nickell case
was undertaken at LGC’s laboratories at Culham, Oxford by a team of
over 20 scientists working under Roy Green and including colleagues
from Cellmark.
Dr Gallop said: “The case proves once
again how powerful an imaginative scientific approach, combined
with diligent execution of the testing, can be in revealing
evidence which had hitherto lain dormant. We have
some of the very best forensic scientists in the world in LGC and
credit must go to all members of our team for their sheer
dedication and consistently meticulous work over a long period of
time”.
LGC Forensics is currently involved in over 50
other cold case reinvestigations.
* Tapings are strips of adhesive tape used to
recover potentially significant traces from the surfaces of a wide
variety of items including clothing and exposed parts of the
body.
Notes to Editors