News
18-May-2007 - Home Office Review welcome but remit ‘too narrow’
says leading forensics company
LGC Forensics responds to Independent Review of the Forensic
Science Service by the Home Office
LGC Forensics welcomes the Review’s finding that the failure of
the Forensic Science Service (FSS) to find the critical evidence in
the Damilola Taylor case was not as a result of systemic failure
within that organisation.
Whilst appreciating the distress to the Taylor family caused by
this lengthy process, the decision represents a vote of confidence
for forensic science generally and will help to preserve its
reputation with investigators, the courts and the wider public.
However, LGC Forensics believes that the interpretation of the
Review´s remit was too narrow, limited to a consideration only of
missed blood and did not encompass any of the many other kinds of
evidence that routinely form part of forensic investigations.
Dr Angela Gallop, Director of LGC Forensics, the firm that is
commended in the Report for finding the crucial missed evidence,
said: "Modern crime detection requires highly trained,
innovative-minded scientists with a wide range of different
methodologies and techniques available to them. Our experience in
helping to solve many recent high profile crimes is that it is the
quality of the scientists, and the nature of the framework within
which they work, that are the most essential in preventing failure
to spot critical evidence in serious cases."
The Review also highlights the value of having access to second
opinions in forensic science - a relatively new phenomenon since
LGC Forensics became the only full forensic service alternative to
the Forensic Science Service in England and Wales.
While most of LGC Forensics work involves assisting the police
in their initial investigations, notable cases where the firm has
discovered critical evidence years after the event include:
- The murder of Alice Rye - where revisiting clothing found in
the suspect’s premises resulted in the discovery of a DNA profile
matching the victim’s, and some powerful textile fibre and paint
links with her.
- The murder of Cynthia Bolshaw - where, again, revisiting
clothing provided a full DNA profile which became subject of a
press release, prompting the identification of the suspect who was
later convicted.
- The murder of Cheryl Lewis - where the use of more powerful
analytical techniques on a broader range of body samples confirmed
that she had been poisoned and implicated her boyfriend, who was
then charged and convicted.
- The murder of Philip Lee - where textile fibres recovered from
inside his car four years after the event provided a critical link
with the suspect’s vehicle.
- The murder of Lynette White - where innovative search
techniques revealed the suspect’s blood underneath new paintwork at
the crime scene 14 years after the event, and familial searching
using the National DNA Database was used for the first time to
identify and convict a murderer. This evidence also finally
exonerated the three original suspects - the so-called ‘Cardiff
Three’, who had been convicted originally. Although later
acquitted, they had had to live with the stigma of continuing
suspicion.
In the above cases, LGC Forensics believes that its use of a
broad scientific base in support of the Criminal Justice System
played a critical part in helping to secure convictions of the
guilty and exonerating the innocent.
With six forensic laboratories across the UK, 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, DNA analysis, forensic drugs, toxicology,
ecology, questioned documents, digital crime and other teams in
support of modern policing. LGC Forensics was created after LGC´s
acquisition of Forensic Alliance Limited in 2005 and its subsequent
integration with LGC´s pre-existing forensic services division.
LGC Forensics laboratories are located in Teddington
(Middlesex), Culham (Oxfordshire), Runcorn and Risley (Cheshire),
Tamworth (Staffordshire), with a specialist firearms facility in
Leeds. LGC Forensics has access to a wide range of other specialist
teams across the LGC Group.
Notes to Editors