by Dave King | Nov 27, 2015 | Professor Angela Gallop
On 3 November, Forensic Access’s Chief Executive, Professor Angela Gallop was invited to address the annual SIOs conference, organised by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, in Leeds. The title of her presentation was ‘Complex Case Forensics – lessons learned the hard way’. First she talked about common misconceptions about forensics in these sorts of cases and then she took her audience through five high profile case examples – including Lynette White (The Cardiff Three), Damilola Taylor, Rachel Nickell, Stephen Lawrence and the Coastal Path murders and explained in each case how the critical forensic evidence had been unearthed and the lessons that had been learned in the process. At the end, she summarised the learning in a series of critical success factors and then finished with some advice for investigators in how to make sure that they are working with the right kind of forensic team for this particular purpose. If they are not, then there is clearly a great risk that the critical evidence may never be revealed. For more information about Forensic Access and how it can support the criminal justice system, please see: www.forensic-access.co.uk... read more
by admin | Jun 13, 2015 | Professor Angela Gallop
Professor Angela Gallop has been awarded a CBE for services to forensic science in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours published today (Saturday). Angela, chief executive of Axiom International and Forensic Access, is regarded as one of the world’s most eminent forensic scientists, having driven change and transformation within the service over many years, helping to establish the UK at the very pinnacle of forensic science. A specialist in cold case investigations, through her expertise and tenacity, she led the forensic teams to find the vital forensic evidence in many of the UK’s most challenging investigations, including Stephen Lawrence, Damilola Taylor and Rachel Nickell. She began her career 41 years ago working for the Home Office Forensic Science Service, before branching out on her own and setting up a string of independent forensic science companies, helping defence and prosecution teams alike to make forensic science as powerful and ‘safe’ as possible. Her work has also directly contributed to solving a large number of so-called “cold cases,” in addition to those mentioned, the Cardiff Three and the Coastal Path Murders. Commenting on the announcement, Angela said: ‘‘I count myself very lucky to have discovered a lifelong passion – in my case for forensic science, to have been able to indulge this passion through my career, and now to be honoured for it in this most wonderful way. Looking back, I was always going to be a scientist but forensic science gave me the opportunity to use science to answer real and immediate questions and to contribute to something as fundamentally important to society as criminal justice. Of course, whatever I have been able to achieve has been due in no small part... read more
by admin | Apr 10, 2015 | Professor Angela Gallop
Forensic Access’ Dr Angela Gallop was asked to participate in this event, as part of The Wellcome Collection’s new exhibition “Forensics – -the anatomy of crime“. This article contains the content that Angela presented at this excellent event. Introduction Angela Gallop was asked by the Wellcome Collection to present a short lecture on ‘What counts as ‘evidence’ in a courtroom? Do forensic scientists, lawyers and the public all have the same understanding of truth and reasonable doubt? Does our notion of ‘evidence’ change over time? Join us for a conversation on how objects, witnesses and science fit into the legal process.’ ‘What Is Evidence?” Forensic science evidence is all about the physical traces that can be used to link people with other people, places and vehicles and so on reflecting the principle advanced in 1910 by the French criminologist, Edmund Locard, now commonly expressed as ‘every contact leaves a trace’. What Locard was saying is that anyone entering a crime scene will leave something of themselves behind there, and will take away something of the crime scene with them. And the more cases I do, the more true I know this to be. Often it’s just a question of finding it and having appropriate techniques to be able to analyse and compare it. These traces come in a wide variety of different types. The main biological ones include blood and other body fluids, and body tissues such as skin flakes, hair and nail fragments. The patterns body fluids make – particularly blood, can provide important information about what has gone on at a crime scene and the sequence... read more
by admin | Apr 10, 2015 | Professor Angela Gallop
The inaugural Human IDentification Solutions (HIDS) conference took place in Madrid, March 3-4, 2015. This conference focused on advancing and extending the forensics workflow and brought together leading international forensic experts who presented their experiences of using the latest technology.” Forensic Access’ Dr Angela Gallop, representing our sister company, Axiom International Ltd, gave a presentation titled “Needles in Haystacks—finding DNA traces to test in complex, historic cases” Angela’s presentation focussed on: Historic cases and additional challenges they present Five of the UK’s most complex and high profile cases and how they were solved Lessons learned from each for the future Particularly in relation to finding DNA traces to test And ensuring quality and relevance of the results The HIDS web page is hosting the contents of the presentations and will, shortly, be publishing videos of them as... read more
