Forensic Access Newsletter - "Benchmark"
January 2009
A New Year and a new home, laboratories and services
Message from Roger Robson, Managing Director of Forensic Access.
Firstly, may I thank all of you who sent us work in 2008. Also please accept my best wishes for 2009.
As described in more detail later in this Newsletter, we are now well and truly settled in our new premises. During the past 3 months we have been busy developing and constructing our new laboratories so that we can perform more forensic examinations in-house. We have designed four laboratories, taking the best of the tried and tested designs across Europe and indeed creating some new designs of our own. For all our scientists, access to these labs greatly enhances the forensic services we can offer, ranging from all manner of trace evidence searching and collection to specialist photography, blood spatter and weapon reconstruction. We have further developed our own methods of searching for vital clues that may well challenge the findings put forward previously.
The labs have been specifically designed to allow us to work to the highest levels of anti-contamination, including that of LCN DNA. This leap forward allows us to offer you the opportunities for re-testing and examining exhibits that have never previously been considered. Our experienced forensic scientists are available to advise you on the best course of action and will tailor an examination and scrutiny to suit your clients’ needs.
It is high time the Criminal Defence Services had facilities available to its solicitors and Barristers that match, if not exceed, those on offer in the Prosecution arena; the scrutiny of the forensic work is, after all, paramount in ensuring the science is, at very least, safe and, if need be, is professionally challenged to the point of correction. Without such objective appraisal our judicial process is in danger of increasing the numbers of cases awaiting Appeal. In the current environment of forensic service procurement within the police forces I strongly believe that there has never been such an important time to undertake forensic scrutiny. Furthermore, we always recommend the use of experienced experts who have also worked as Forensic Practitioners for the Prosecution to ensure the forensic approaches are robust and well founded and to guarantee objectivity.
With this in mind, I am now in the process of opening discussions with the Legal Services Commission and the Crown Prosecution Service to encourage them to use our laboratories as an alternative to the current mode of expecting the scrutiny to take place at the original examining laboratory. With our own collection and delivery service we can collect the exhibits from the Prosecution lab or police store and transport them to our facility in Oxfordshire. After undertaking our examination, the exhibits can then be returned to the police ready for the trial date. This method of scrutiny should be well received by both sides of the CJS as it saves on red tape, downtime and cost. As Forensic Access works to equivalent standards as used within the Prosecution arena we are perfectly, if not uniquely, placed to undertake a full and objective appraisal of the Prosecution work and carefully review the interpretation that has been placed on the findings. I will keep you informed of this important development.
< next article >
|
