Serious Crime Investigation (Cold Cases and Case Review)

Expert Profile

Bob is currently Reader in Forensic Science and the Director of Student Engagement within the School of Physical Sciences at the University of Kent, UK as well as teaching extensively on the forensic science program within the school. Prior to joining the University he worked within Research and Service Development at the Forensic Science Service and latterly leading the Science and Technology Unit within the Police Standards Unit at the UK Home Office. Most notably he was responsible for initiating the Home Office work on performance improvements, using computer simulation to ensure the most effective business processes are adopted across the forensic science services. He is well known for developing and leading the national program of cold case rape investigation – Operation Advance as well as being a national and international speaker on the development of DNA and other biometric databases. Throughout his career he has managed a number of national and international projects namely, CCTV, street crime and homicide reduction initiatives in order to ensure the most effective use of technology both to combat crime. He was made an OBE in the Queen & Birthday Honours list of 2008 for his services to forensic science. Over 34 years he has led a large number of consultancies both in the UK and abroad, dealing with science, technology and how we maximize our business processes to get the best from the investment in science. He is keynote speaker at 2021, International Association of Scientists and Researchers on the forensic applications of DNA.

Foreground

“A life might end, but sometimes their case lives forever”- Chief Johnson.

with the above-mentioned quote, we have been discussed and learned in this expert talk session that Sometimes pendency of cases and deliverance of justice is delayed to an extent that the victims of the same serious crime of sexual assault might not live due to the traumatic experience or physical incapability and therefore, are somehow denied of justice.

In the dialogue, Serious Crime Investigation by Dr. Robert Green, Bob discusses the crimes that have been unsolved and have been pending with time where the related evidence is only been stored as an antique without a purpose to solve. The stored evidence becomes a matter of concern as every entity has a lie to serve, evidence is collected and preserved to be examined thoroughly to derive a conclusion, and therefore, evidence preserved for long gives a possibility of not being able to deliver the results. Therefore, he and his team took account of the preserved evidence, which was going to be destroyed, and decided to analyze those to deliver justice to the victims. 

Forensic has aided criminal investigation via its multidisciplinary notions of putting facts and science together and serving justice to one in need. The continuum of serving justice takes into the role of multiple entities and minds, be it evidence to legal and to the execution system. Crime, with due course of time, has been increasing and justice has been delayed in every part of the world. The scenario not only is applicable to any one country or region, but human nature does also prevails in every part of the world with rational thinking. 

Unlocking the Cold Cases

The search into the cold cases and examination of their evidence taken up by his team was first of its kind by being funded by the central government in 2004. The investigation of cold cases has three-dimensional considerations of victims, forensics, and police officials. Victims and relatives generally do not always appreciate the re-investigation because of the reoccurrence of their emotional attachments and delay in justice must not have stopped the perpetrator to follow the path of crime. Moreover, as per his mentioning, most of the convicted offenders of cold cases have a timeline of a crime, before conviction, even before and after the serious crime they had committed.  

Scientific Aids and Techniques

Forensic experts do take account of the evidence and try to deliver justice but are restricted with the availability and condition of the evidence to be examined. Examination of evidence at that time of the project also restricted the team with the availability of scientific aid and techniques as some of the samples with the low quantity required advanced techniques to be analyzed. At that point of time in 1987 methods used were Multi Locus Profiling, followed with Single locus Profiling in 1990, Short Tandem Repeat (STR) DNA Profiling with QUAD in 1994, National DNA Database SET in 1995 and STR DNA Profiling with SGM (Second Generation Multiplex) in 1995.  

 DNA Profiling of Unsolved Cold Cases

Dr. Robert and his team got DNA samples for profiling of 215 unsolved cold cases amongst which 148 stands identified, 67 dropped due to no exhibit, low availability of DNA evidence, and already solved with other scientific, and legal aid. Some of the identified DNA evidence led to results of conclusive profiles, partial profiles, and mixed profiles. Some of the convicted offenders of his solved cases include of Paul Collings, Mark Henson, David Kirby, Brian Keen, Andrew Russell, Darren Jennings, Tahir Mahmood, Andrian Fleurs, Donald Thomas, Mohammad Riaz, Andrew McMullen, and Stephan Benham. 

Benefits of the Operation

The benefits of the operation conducted gave closure to the victims with the improved service and gave a strong message to the public reassuring them that justice is served, although delayed. The profiling of the criminals not only led to their conviction but also solved other unsolved cases of them and decreased pendency. It also added to the Database of the criminals, the National DNA Database.

Conclusion

Undeveloped technology and unavailability of resources has led to delay or denial of justice during old times. The number of crime has not dropped since then and the pendency of cases has been increasing due to less resources and unskilled labor. The world has grown into a better place but it has also become a home for more dangerous and technology aided crimes harming enormous groups of population around the globe. An effort it takes with the support of central to become the torchbearer for serving justice to those in need and serving as an example for future generations to come. 

Personal note

The session was more than amazing. Knowing about the scene in cold case examination is like a heart-pounding experience. The outcome of this session brings some important concluding remarks that an old offense can’t be taken as equal to the old offending, and justice delayed is always laid toward the justice denied and hence as a forensic person we can’t afford not to act or being cold while examining the cold cases. The session was amazingly discussed and detailed by the speaker and the case studies were nail-biting. I suggest my reader to surely look into this session once on the YouTube channel Forensic 365 to get the deeper insights

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For more details of the session visit our YouTube channel Forensic 365.