On the 19th March, Lindum Scribes were blessed with the presence of a very knowledgeable and interesting speaker. Dr
Dorothy Gennard is a Forensic
Scientist and Principal Lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of
Lincoln. Her
speciality within forensics is entomology. That means she is the Lincolnshire equivalent of Gil Grissom from CSI. Pictured here are myself (in the gloves) Jacquie and Jonathan, preparing to look at the evidence...
Dr Gennard introduced the night by producing a meerkat that seemed to have hung himself. Poor Alexander! All of us were equipped with gloves (most SOCO wear double and replace them regularly) and aprons in order to ensure the scene remained uncontaminated. Fred was up first to secure the crime scene. If there had been any chance that Alexander was still alive, we could have cut him down; being careful to keep any knots in tact as they could provide vital clues. Sad to say however, he didn't make it.
Marjory - with gloves and protective clothing - then read up the 'suicide' note. Removing it from the scene, she placed it into a large A4 evidence bag; all the time using the corner of the paper to handle it. A number of members were then asked to seal packages with the evidence that was found at the scene. Each item is given a crime scene number.
A few interesting tit bits were picked up. A specific Drying Room is used to dry any blood stained items, in order to reduce the bacteria on items. In the case of blood on a T Shirt, an arrow would be used to indicate the direction of the blood splatter. The T shirt would then be folded in such a way that the blood could be seen.
Sealing the evidence bags was harder than it looked and every seal had to be initialled to indicate who had touched the item. However, it was very difficult to ensure that the evidence bags were correctly 'sealed' - even with a double seal on every opening. This is something that could be picked up by a defence team, so it is very important that it is done correctly. As Dr Gennard stated, she works for the court and not for whoever is paying!
In the case of guns or knives, they would be wired into an 'evidence box'. Then taped up and sealed.
In the case of a real crime scene, there would be someone taking photographs, or even a video, of everything; especially the evidence. Today, it was just me!
The members then had a chance to take each others fingerprints for elimination purposes. The photo on the right shows the equipment required. We were given a number of handouts that led us through the Loops, Whorls and Arches that make up the classification.
What was interesting was that there are 900,000 outstanding criminal cases where fingerprints have been taken, but police have yet to find a match.
Scribes members had a great time, but the ink took a lot of getting off! What was nice is that Dr Gennard gave us all a key ring that we could put our own fingerprint into. A lovely reminded of a fascinating evening.
Many Thanks to Dr Gennard.
Dr Gennard introduced the night by producing a meerkat that seemed to have hung himself. Poor Alexander! All of us were equipped with gloves (most SOCO wear double and replace them regularly) and aprons in order to ensure the scene remained uncontaminated. Fred was up first to secure the crime scene. If there had been any chance that Alexander was still alive, we could have cut him down; being careful to keep any knots in tact as they could provide vital clues. Sad to say however, he didn't make it.
Marjory - with gloves and protective clothing - then read up the 'suicide' note. Removing it from the scene, she placed it into a large A4 evidence bag; all the time using the corner of the paper to handle it. A number of members were then asked to seal packages with the evidence that was found at the scene. Each item is given a crime scene number.
A few interesting tit bits were picked up. A specific Drying Room is used to dry any blood stained items, in order to reduce the bacteria on items. In the case of blood on a T Shirt, an arrow would be used to indicate the direction of the blood splatter. The T shirt would then be folded in such a way that the blood could be seen.
Sealing the evidence bags was harder than it looked and every seal had to be initialled to indicate who had touched the item. However, it was very difficult to ensure that the evidence bags were correctly 'sealed' - even with a double seal on every opening. This is something that could be picked up by a defence team, so it is very important that it is done correctly. As Dr Gennard stated, she works for the court and not for whoever is paying!
In the case of guns or knives, they would be wired into an 'evidence box'. Then taped up and sealed.
In the case of a real crime scene, there would be someone taking photographs, or even a video, of everything; especially the evidence. Today, it was just me!
The members then had a chance to take each others fingerprints for elimination purposes. The photo on the right shows the equipment required. We were given a number of handouts that led us through the Loops, Whorls and Arches that make up the classification. What was interesting was that there are 900,000 outstanding criminal cases where fingerprints have been taken, but police have yet to find a match.
Scribes members had a great time, but the ink took a lot of getting off! What was nice is that Dr Gennard gave us all a key ring that we could put our own fingerprint into. A lovely reminded of a fascinating evening.
Many Thanks to Dr Gennard.
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