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Fingerprinting Techniques for

Fabric

Joanna Fraser BSc, PGCert

Fellow 2010

Teaching Fellow and PhD student at the University of Abertay

Dundee

Report for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

July to September 2010

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Acknowledgements

I would firstly like to thank the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for awarding me a

fellowship, which has allowed me to travel to America, Canada and Australia and meet with

many interesting and informative individuals. Truly a life changing experience – a phrase

echoed by many fellows I have met, past and present.

I would also like to mention all my hosts who gave generously both in time and knowledge -

Robert Ramotowski and all the staff I met at the U.S. Secret Service; Brain Yamashita, Della

Wilkinson and colleagues met from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP); Mike Illes,

Steve Howard and co-workers from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP); Calvin Knaggs of

Linde Canada Limited; Michael Bell, Jennifer Raymond and all the other staff from the New

South Wales Police Forensic Sciences Services; Chris Lennard of University of Canberra, the

staff at the Australian Federal Police (AFP) lab in Canberra & Milutin Stoilovic; Paul Tys and

the staff at the WCMT Canberra Office.

Finally, I have a special thank you for Jennie Nelson, an Australian WCMT Fellow, who was

my inspiration to apply for a fellowship from the WCMT and who was so kind as to allow me

to stay at her home during my final week in Australia.

Aims of Fellowship

My PhD involves determining whether Vacuum metal deposition (VMD) or cyanoacrylate

fuming (CAF) is the most effective way of enhancing fingerprints from fabrics, which I hope

will then be incorporated into police techniques and protocols utilised during crime

investigations. Therefore the main aim of this fellowship was to learn more about, and ways

of improving, fingerprint enhancement on fabrics using both these techniques. Additionally, I

wished to enhance my overall knowledge of fingerprinting and perhaps incorporate new

techniques into the UK.

Another aim is related to my teaching at the University of Abertay – to use the knowledge

gained from this fellowship to enhance my teaching skills in the area of forensic science and

pass on new knowledge to the students I will teach. This in turn will positively enhance the

students’ learning experience and lead to graduates who in turn can benefit society by

utilising the skills they have learned.

My final aim, though no less important, is to encourage school pupils, both Primary and High

school, to study science at school and later in further education. I wish to enthuse them

through knowledge and skills learnt at the police departments, laboratories and educational

establishments that I visited on the fellowship.

Thus the knowledge and experiences gained from this fellowship will help to build contacts

that will continue to advance my knowledge and research in the field of forensic science.

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This in turn will benefit the country as a whole by leading to changes in fingerprint

investigation as well as hopefully more individuals studying science and entering further

education.

Introduction

My Background

I work at the University of Abertay Dundee (UAD) as a Teaching Fellow and am in the

process of studying for a PhD. My job involves me teaching students from all years of the

Forensic Science diploma and Honours degree courses, as well as students from other

courses taking Forensic modules. I lecture, as well as run practical and tutorial classes

ranging from analytical chemistry to entomology to crime scene investigation. I feel that in

this job I have found my final vocation as I enjoy teaching, working with students and

carrying out important relevant research. I am able to pass on my own knowledge and

experiences to enhance the students’ understanding and hopefully enhance their university

experience.

As well as teaching at Abertay I am also a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics) Ambassador, which involves me visiting schools to perform science shows and

organising and being involved in school visits, as well as demonstrations attended by the

public. These activities are all designed to encourage individuals, from very young children to

adults, to become interested in science and to encourage them to study science - at school

and later in further and higher education.

My PhD work (The recovery of DNA from fingerprints visualised on fabrics utilising vacuum

metal deposition and cyanoacrylate fuming) will hopefully lead to advances UK police

department’s techniques and protocols of fingerprint recovery on fabrics, thus helping in the

solving of crimes. This, in turn, will lead to an increase in convictions of the guilty and a

decrease in miscarriages of justice by the aiding the visualisation of fingerprints on a

substrate, fabric, from which it is notoriously hard to recover fingerprints. The visualisation

of fingerprints on clothing could also help identify areas to target for DNA, thus further aiding

in the identification of those involved.

I really enjoy my PhD research and when I have completed my research programme I will

definitely continue with research into the acquisition of fingerprints. I feel this is a fascinating

area to which I can contribute by the development of new techniques and processes.

Organising my Fellowship

As my Fellowship involves all aspects of my work life (PhD, teaching at Abertay and the

outreach work I do) I wanted the places and the people that I visited to reflect and enhance

all these areas. Additionally, I really wished to gain some insight, into the lives and cultures

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of people overseas, thus benefiting me personally and enabling me to grow as a person.

Therefore my choice of people to visit would need to be beneficial in one or all of these

areas. Consequently, I began by carrying out a literature searches on experts in

fingerprinting and this helped with my choice of countries to visit as the same names and

countries kept coming up. Therefore after consultation with my supervisors I came up with a

list of individuals in America, Canada and Australia to contact. I was lucky enough to be

invited to all the countries and places I had originally looked into and was given several other

individuals to contact by my original contacts.

When it came to teaching and outreach some of the individuals I was planning to visit in

relation to my PhD also work at universities or have connections to universities. Therefore

visiting their universities and observing classes could help with my own teaching. Again it

was contact with these individuals that I hoped would also aid with outreach projects as most

universities have school pupils visit and/or go out to schools to encourage pupils to attend

courses at university.

I thought the final element of immersing myself in the culture would be easy as I would be in

a different country meeting new people and experiencing different foods, ways of life and

cultures. My planning of this element involved buying several travel books for Washington,

Ontario and Sydney (even though Canberra is the capital of Australia I could not find a travel

book for this city!), lots of internet searching and asking advice of friends, family and

colleagues who had visited or lived in these countries.

Therefore after months of emails to and fro between all my contacts, internet searches,

conversations, buying of tickets, booking of hotels and sorting of visas I had my itinerary

sorted and the count down to the start of my trip started.

Fellowship Itinerary

Phase I USA Washington DC - 13th – 19th July 2010 Robert Ramotowski (US Secret Service) Canada Ottawa - 19th - 23rd July Brian Yamashita (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Peterborough - 23rd – 24th July Mike Illes (Ontario Provincial Police) Orillia - 24th – 30th July Steve Howard (Ontario Provincial Police) Mississauga - 30th July – 4th August Calvin Knaggs (Linde Canada Ltd) Phase II Australia Sydney - 25th – 29th August

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Michael Bell & Jennifer Raymond (New South Wales Police) Canberra - 29th August – 4th September Chris Lennard (University of Canberra), Milutin Stoilovic, Australian Federal Police, Greg Carnell (Canberra Institute of Technology) & WCMT Canberra Office Sydney - 4th – 10th September The 20th International Symposium on the Forensic Sciences Richmond/Windsor - 10th – 15th September Jennie Nelson (Australian WCMT Fellow 2009 & University of Western Sydney)

Map of my travels

Fellowship diary

Due to the nature of the work carried out by some of the individuals and facilities I visited I

was unable to take photographs, therefore the majority of the photographs included are of

the tourist variety, such as museums, tourist attractions and views.

Washington, DC

First day in Washington, DC and I decided to scout out the location of my first meeting and

check out some of the tourist attractions. It was raining pretty hard, so I decided to take the

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Metro but only to find the down escalator was not working (took me 5 minutes to climb

down). It seems that several subway escalators had broken down that day!

Figure 1 – The Dupont Circle escalator, all 120 steps

I visited several museums including the International Spy Museum, the Museum of Crime &

Punishment (Figure 2), several of the Smithsonian museums (Figure 3), the aquarium along

with the White House (Figure 4), Lincoln Memorial, reflecting pool, War Memorials (Figure 5)

and the Washington Monument. I even saw the President while walking down Connecticut

Ave. - was stopped in tracks by police motorbike sirens, followed by blacked out 4x4 cars and

a massive town car containing the President of the United States of America.

Figure 2 - Drawing using prison issue stab-proof pen by Fredrick Benjamin

Thompson (Serving life sentence for murder at South Woods State Prison) &

Theodore “Ted” Bundy’s ink fingerprint impressions

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Figure 3 – One of the halls of the Natural History Museum, a skull demonstrating damage to the teeth caused by long-term pipe use and a familiar face from the

Portrait Gallery - Sir Winston Churchill by Douglas Chandor.

Figure 4 – the White House

Figure 5 – Reflecting Pool, the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam War Memorial

The first day of meetings started with me waking at 5am – I thought this was just nerves

until I turned on the TV and find out there had been a 3.6 magnitude earthquake in

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Germantown. Unusual start to the day and a first for me, as I have never felt an earthquake

before and still not sure if it was the earthquake that woke me or if it was my nervousness

about the meeting ahead.

As Robert Ramotowski had to attend a conference in Spokane he had arranged for me to

meet with a colleague – Troy Regis. Therefore it was Troy and Kim Smith who showed me

round the fingerprint laboratory. Their VMD machine had a much larger capacity than the one

I am used to and I was shown some samples (Gold + Zinc and Silver on plastics) and Kim

explained its use in one of her cases. They were both interested to hear about the research

I was carrying out on VMD use with fingerprint recovery from fabrics. Troy then showed me

the other pieces of equipment they use - superglue, crime scopes, ninhydrin cabinet etc, as

well as his favourite piece of equipment, the RUVIS, which uses UV light and camera to

visualise prints and details.

I was introduced to Joe Stephens who gave me a tour of the documents labs, from the ink

library to the different analytical equipment used there, such as the four different VSC, ESDA

and SEM. I also met with Nancy Olds who takes photographs of crime scenes, equipment,

promotional, historical (funerals, enorgoration) and staff ids etc. in the photography lab. It

was really fascinating listening to explanations of the photos on all walls and amazing looking

at them. I was really impressed with the size of the printers used to produce A2 to A0 sized

photos.

I had meeting with Robert on Sunday and was informed by Robert that he nearly didn’t make

it back from Spokane and hadn’t gone to sleep – so I was even more grateful for him coming

into work to meet me on the weekend. We had an in-depth conversation about the research

I was doing and Robert gave me several suggestions as to future directions to take my

research as well as copying articles and memos that he thought would be useful to me.

Canada

Ottawa

Early start of trip to Canada - up at 3am to make sure I was ready & checked out. Small

plane for flight (only 30 passengers) and woman sitting next to me told me loads about

Canada and Ottawa (museums etc) and I told her about WCMT, the trip and me. She then

proceeded to take me under her wing through immigration, customs etc. Immigration guard

was very interested in PhD research & whom I was going to visit.

After checking in went for wander round area to familiarise myself then met up with Brian

Yamashita, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), for dinner – where we had a good

chat about my PhD interests, Brian’s work and more.

The next day I had an early start (7.45am) and Brian kindly picked me up from my hotel.

Once at HQ I was introduced to Diane Cockle, Ron Lester from Sensors and Software Inc.

and the rest of the team. We went over the theory of the ground penetrating radar (GPR)

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equipment, and then headed out to the training complex, which contains Diane Cockle’s

research site – like a smaller pig version of the Tennessee “body farm”. Here we used the

GPR over two different sites – an open field and a smaller wooded area (Figure 6), both

containing pigs of different ages and lengths in ground. It was nice to do some hands on

work and learn about a piece of equipment I have never used before. Marking grids with

flags for the GPR passes, till whole area is covered, then analysing the data to determine

where and if there are any targets.

Figure 6 – Wooded area and open field surveyed by GPR

Brian also arranged a visit to the RCMP College – this is where police officers come for extra

training after they have been working officers for a few years, not for new recruits. This is

where I met Trevor Beach, a Forensic Identification Training officer who showed us round the

facility and explained how different subjects were taught. For example, identification of ridge

detail where the ridges are coloured to show matches rather than marked or circling single

minutiae points. I felt this was a great way of teaching students the importance of minutiae

and how to “match” fingerprints – something that could be introduced into my own teaching.

I was also shown “the hanger” building that contains the rooms used for blood spatter

analysis, collection etc, such as offices, bedroom, kitchen etc - used for crime scene training.

The College also has a museum, which covers all areas of RCMP and its history, here you can

also watch the RCMP horses being trained and meet a “Mountie”.

Figure 7 – “Mountie” and close up of maple leaf design on horse’s rump

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Back at HQ I was shown round the fingerprint department by Donald Harrison – really

interesting gentleman who has been at the RCMP as a civilian for 40 years. Went over

fingerprinting, RCMP background and shown how LiveScan works.

On my final day I spent time with A Division – Rolanda Lam and Mike Merritt. Mike is the

head of the department and a police officer whereas Rolanda is a civilian forensic

identification assistant. She has done some research with Della Wilkinson on comparing DFO

and indandione. Was shown round their lab – have an Edwards 500 (bench top) VMD, then

discussed the work I am doing and showed them some of my sample photographs.

As I had not had any time to do touristy things while in Ottawa, Mike and Rolanda decided to

take a detour on the way back to the RCMP HQ – drove past tourist attractions such as a

massive sculpture in the shape of a spider and Parliament House (Figure 8) – here we got to

drive up to door as I was with a Police officer! Also meant I couldn’t fit whole building into

photos.

Figure 8 – Parliament House

Peterborough

Up at 4am to be up & out in time to check out and get taxi to train station for 5.45am train to

Cobourg. Picked up at Cobourg by Keith, an OPP officer who took me to HQ to meet Mike

and see round their facility including the crime scene vans – one so big you can stand up in it

and is automated for the engine to start and heat up to correct temperature e.g. so water for

footwear impressions does not freeze etc. After chat with Mike went to Trent University –

toured round DNA, chemistry, research and undergraduate labs & teaching rooms. Amazing

equipment and loads of it – all DNA equipment needed, 4 sequencers, PCR etc. Meet Shera

Birnbaum, a Masters student who is studying fingerprint recovery after fires - she is also

presenting her work at the Symposium in Australia.

Mike dropped me off at my hotel in Peterborough, where after checking in I had a wander

round Peterborough and bought bus ticket to Orillia via Toronto and tried to buy ticket from

Orillia to Mississauga only to be told they can’t sell me one as their company doesn’t go there

so gave me number of other company. When in Toronto I thought I would be able to buy

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my next ticket there – only to be told I could get back to Toronto but they couldn’t get me to

Mississauga!

Orillia

As I arrived at the weekend it allowed me to investigate Mississauga - ended up “downtown”.

Lots of different shops – clothes, candle and dollar shops, pharmacy and a fantastic café/gift

shop called Mariposa - it sold fantastic looking cakes, pies, sweets.

At OPP HQ Steve introduced me to rest of staff and shown round, unfortunately their VMD

(Edwards 750) was waiting to be assembled. Steve was hoping to have it up and running so

we could work on some samples, so just discussed what I have been doing and will keep in

touch to update each other on progress and ask advice.

In photography section the change over to digital was evident - all images stored on disc in

file cabinets which takes up a lot less space than all the negatives, photos etc. Also shown

the video section and was explained the differences between video and digital as well as

different evidence types – CCTV etc. I was shown lots of video clips to explain different

techniques, processes and artefacts on the videos, such as mosquitoing where artefacts on

video causes blurring or little marks (mosquitoes) round objects.

Another interesting person I spoke to was Peter Brench (AFIS technician) who knew a lot

about fingerprint examination and explained how AFIS works – old and new systems.

Figure 9 – Vintage OPP car and the equipment “sniffer” dogs sometimes were

required to wear

I was also supposed to meet with the guys that deal with blood spatter, however they were

called out to a job. Did manage to have a quick chat with one of them, Dave, when he had

nipped back to collect more equipment and supplies. He is originally from the Belfast area

and is a big fan of Churchill – has been to Churchill’s home and read many books on

Churchill. Informed me that there is a road in Orillia named after Churchill! Another Churchill

link.

After all the research and explanation of crime work Steve showed me the type of exhibition

stuff they would use to demonstrate/illustrate different aspects of his job to school

pupils/students etc. which of course is another of my aims, so I found this extremely

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interesting and gave me a few ideas. He used items to demonstrate different fingerprint

processing techniques, such as superglue & basic yellow 40; a headlamp physical fit, which I

managed to fit and able to explain why I thought it was a “match” (got an A!!); as well as

examples of blood spatter patterns to see if pupils could explain differences and how they

were formed (high velocity, pooling, transfer, passive etc).

Next day went into town – looked round Opera House, Lakehead University and the Orillia

Museum of art and history in Sir Sam Steele Memorial Building (which used to be the police

station, court house & jail). This museum consisted of paintings by local artists & historical

artefacts – minerals, fossils and native Canadian (Inuit) artwork, hunting equipment etc

(Figure 10). Went for lunch back to Mariposa market – after discussion with local in queue

was told I had to try a “beaver tail” (basically a large oval shaped doughnut covered with

chocolate and maple icing, filled with custard) – massive and very filling.

Figure 10 – Display of trader and Inuit artefacts, along with some skulls of

animals from the area

Mississauga

Have been finding Canada quite awkward to get round – told you need to buy a specific

ticket from the company, but can’t buy at all stations! So once bus arrived at station in

Toronto used PATH (underground walkway system) to get to tube station and got tube to

Union Station, where I bought a GO Transit bus ticket to Mississauga, then got a taxi to the

hotel.

After the journey had a bit of a day off and just wandered around the area of the hotel, sent

some emails, sorted a few work issues & looked up how to get to museums etc. Then next

day went into Mississauga centre on bus, then tried to find the art gallery on City Centre

Drive – found street pretty easily, but lots of building works and seemed to be shut. Walked

all way round, but no access to gallery or Civic Centre! On the plus side there was a Muslim

Festival on the street next to building housing gallery in the Living Arts Centre, so all was not

lost. Festival had lots of great stalls with clothing, food etc. and entertainment on stage area.

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Even though art gallery was shut still managed to find some art – skate ramp/park had

graffiti art on its walls – skating, graffiti art & women in saris.

Figure 11 – The skate park with graffiti artwork

Went to Square One shopping centre to find some little presents, listed as biggest in Canada

– “360 stores & 40-plus places to eat”, took me 2 hours to walk round. Found a great shop

(Green Earth Stores) selling Inuit artwork & artefacts along with general Canadian tourist

stuff – maple syrup, biscuits etc. Had long conversation with shop assistant about accents

(differences between her accent and mine), as well as WCMT & Churchill. As a native

Canadian it was very interesting to hear about her culture and background.

At my meeting with Calvin he gave me copies of a couple of journals he thought I would find

of use, then we talked about our research. Calvin has used aluminium as a VMD metal; saw

great images of aluminium fingerprints on different substrates – CD, paper, plastic, bullets,

condoms etc. Gave me lots to think about in relation to my research.

That evening Calvin took me into Toronto for dinner and a trip up the CN Tower (Figure 12) –

amazing, very high, but coped quite well, until “glass floor”. At first only managed to put

camera over to take photo, but then managed to work at edge and had photo taken (bit dark

as flash didn’t work). Next went up even higher to sky pod level and also went out onto

viewing deck that was open with wire mesh.

On last day in Canada I arrived so early my flight was not even on the display board,

however when checking in I couldn’t believe it - I got an upgrade again. Up until WCMT

fellowship I have never been upgraded and now I have been upgraded on the train back to

Dundee after the interview and on 2 out of the 3 flights of phase 1 of trip.

Flight was good and even managed to sleep on way to London – another first, as I usually

never sleep on planes. Terminal 5 however is a bit of a rabbit warren – up and down

escalators to get to next gate, even though I was still in same terminal and it took forever.

Only 1 more flight (to Glasgow), then 2 buses and a train and I’ll be home. Found Phase 1 to

be tremendous, met lots of interesting and knowledgeable individuals, but didn’t realise how

big Canada was and therefore how much travelling would take out of me. Lots of new

experiences and getting over of some fears – heights still bit funny with, but really enjoyed

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CN Tower. I was very impressed that I managed to cope by myself and to organise and

navigate all travel and travel systems.

Figure 12 – CN Tower views

Australia

Sydney

Once checked into hostel went to Central Station and bought tickets for journey to Canberra

and wandered round Surry Hills, then got myself ready for meeting tomorrow.

I was collected at the Seven Hills railway station by Jen & Paul, (Jen is one of only two people

I had meet before - last year at a conference in Glasgow). At the lab we discussed my work

and I showed the team some images of my research samples. I also had a chance to process

some VMD samples on different substrates including some fabrics on their automated system.

We also used different dyes on the CAF fabric swatches we had processed to see if they

would cause less background staining then the dye I use at the moment. The results seemed

to validate the results achieved by myself and I think Jen and Paul were quite impressed.

The lab also takes foreign students on placement to carry out different projects and I had a

chance to see some of their work – fingerprint recovery from body wrappings (plastic

wrapping pig carcases, which are then rinsed to remove the decomp and then processed with

CAF or VMD). Interesting if a bit smelly!

I was then taken to FOB (Fingerprint Operation Branch) in Parramatta, where I was shown

how they carry out on-screen comparisons using a split screen. On the tour round the facility

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saw their LiveScan equipment and some great historical stuff – old 10 print cards and

fingerprint kits.

Figure 13 – Police fingerprint expert demonstrating fingerprint system & artefacts from the archive display

On my last day before heading off to Canberra I decided to go to the zoo - took free bus

(555) to Central quay where I go the ferry to the cable car up to the zoo. Spent about 6

hours in total wandering round all the exhibits – some great views along the way, interesting

animals and writing in the sky! The animals and exhibits were superb and well thought out –

think some of the animals viewed the humans as the exhibits while others just like to pose!

Figure 14 – view form the top of Taronga zoo, some unfinished sky writing (still

trying to find out what it should have spelt), along with a Tasmanian Devil,

Meerkat, Lion and Koala.

After I got back to Central quay went for a walk around the Opera House, which is an

amazing structure and much bigger than it looks in films, TV and in pictures.

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Figure 15 – The Sydney Opera House

Canberra

Train journey to Canberra was a real delight as the train was spacious and the seats were

really comfortable, much more room than British trains. The train even had a kitchen and

sold hot freshly cooked meals.

My accommodation in Canberra was University House, which was built in 1950s as

accommodation for staff and students, but is now used as a hotel. It was comfortable as well

as lovely and warm considering it was only about 5°C by the time I arrived.

Figure 16 – University House in Canberra

At my meeting with Chris Lennard at Canberra University I was shown round the Forensic

facility, which contains everything you would need to teach Forensic science - a search lab,

chemistry lab with analytical equipment (GCMS, GLC etc), evidence storeroom and DNA lab.

Also met with Milutin Stiolovic as Chris thought my research and I would benefit from his

knowledge due to Milutin having carried out lots of VMD research and other areas of

fingerprint recovery. We discussed donors, fabric type, problems with CAF dyeing and what I

am planning to do next. Milutin had plenty of suggestions and left me with lots of things to

think about and areas I need to look into.

My next stop was the Australian Federal Police (AFP) lab building where I met with Bruce

Coburn and a VMD technician who showed me how their VMD was run – again automated

and uses “recipes” for each run.

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On the way back to University House Chris took me on a little tour round Canberra to

familiarise me with the area – went past Parliament buildings (old and new), war monument

and some of the museums.

Figure 17 – The new Parliament building

Back at hotel checked emails and then headed into town to see what was in walking distance

and found a familiar face across the road (Figure 18)! Seems to be a Churchill connection in

every place I go. Had arranged a meeting with Paul Tys and Meg Gilmartin at WCMT

Canberra office, but didn’t realise when I booked my accommodation the offices were just

across the road from University House.

Figure 18 – The Winston Churchill and the Canberra WCMT offices

While in Canberra I visited the National Museum of Australia which is massive and even

though two sections closed for renovations it still took me about 6 hours to go round it all.

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Figure 19 - Amazing Aboriginal artwork and what the paintings mean

As well as history of Australia both aboriginal and white settler – I knew some of the history

such as rabbit proof fence and the taking of aboriginal children, but not how the aboriginals

were treated by the farmers and drovers (fascinating, but quite upsetting at times).

Also found some Rolf Harris artwork and the sculptures in the garden outside, along with

some amazing native birds (far more colourful than British birds).

Figure 20 – Rolf Harris artwork & examples of the birds in and around Canberra

While at the museum tried an Australian delicacy, a Lamington - basically a vanilla sponge

cake with jam and buttercream filling covered in chocolate and coconut. Then to keep up

with trying new things and immersing myself in different cultures I decided to treat myself to

dinner at the hotel restaurant – Boffins, where I had a kangaroo steak. The texture was

similar to beef but with a stronger flavour and unusual after taste. Quite enjoyed it and

suppose now can say I have tasted kangaroo, but not sure if I would have it again.

Figure 21 – A Lamington, an example of a “traditional” Australian teatime treat

& my first taste of Kangaroo

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Also went to the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery – a small building that has a mix of

historical artefacts and modern art, using found objects.

Figure 22 – Examples of the artwork in the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery

On way back to University House went to the Canberra Centre to buy some supplies and

came across and display produced by florist student – The Mad Hatter Tea Party.

Figure 23 – The Mad Hatter’s tea party

The National Film and Sound Archive was another good find – filled with lots of costumes,

stills and puppets from different Australian films and TV shows – some I knew (Priscilla

Queen of the desert) while others (Blinky Bill’s) I didn’t.

Figure 24 – Priscilla Queen of the Desert costumes

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Museum also had a cinema, so decided I should experience an Australian cinema and saw

“Love in a puff” a Hong Kong film about a couple who meet while on a cigarette break from

work - a RomCom that was quite funny while at the same time quite touching.

Greg Carnell was my last visit in Canberra and on the way there discovered what a small

world it is that I live in - the bus driver, Roy, turned out to be from Glasgow, and he

holidayed in Inverness as a child, so had a good talk all the way to Canberra Institute of

Technology (CIT). Once at CIT, I found that Greg was in the middle of his talk to visiting

High School pupils, so I waited to introduce myself during a break. He discussed fingerprints,

university courses, IEDs and got the pupils to develop latent prints with magna powder and

sort through an exploded IED. During the break between groups Greg showed me around

their crime scene house, which comprised of 6 rooms (living room, dining room, kitchen,

bedroom, nursery and bathroom) and an open roof with a walkway to allow lecturers to view

students without them being disturbed by the lecturer’s presence. This is a great idea as it

will allow he students to concentrate on their work, but the lecturers can still see what is

going on.

Figure 25 – Views of the Crime Scene House form the walkway

Greg then suggested that I go and meet Jodie Ward who is responsible for the building of the

degree curriculum. We discussed areas such as student numbers on our courses, what they

are required to do on the course, what jobs or further study they can do upon completion.

Then went back to crime scene house to catch up with Greg and go for lunch – had a chat

about our teaching and background (Greg 20 years in scene of crime as a police officer); our

universities, the courses and facilities; what are students go on to do. Both feel it is

important to have individuals that have industrial experience teaching on the courses.

Then with the final two groups of school pupils Greg asked me to explain about fingerprints –

covered class and individual characteristics, types of fingerprints and how they could be

collected and used to identify an individual. The pupils also asked loads of questions on all

different aspects of forensics – how to determine time since death, can you get fingerprints

from inside gloves, will a clone have the same fingerprints as the original person etc. Really

enjoyed my day and seeing an excellent crime scene house.

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Sydney

Woke up to the sound of rain hitting the window – looked outside to find it was pouring

down, so not a bad day to be stuck on a train!

Figure 26 – Proof that it does rain in Australia

For whole of train journey weather shifted between rain, fog and dry all way to Sydney.

Countryside looks a lot like the Highlands of Scotland – lots of sheep and cows, but also

kangaroos, which we don’t have rooming in Scotland.

Figure 27 - Wild kangaroos & views from train

Once back in Sydney checked back into Big Hostel then headed off to meet Fiona (another

WCMT Fellow from Dundee) for dinner. We discussed our trips – Fiona the camping,

canoeing, being bitten by a spider, cuddling a koala. It sounded like she had a great time

and after weeks in the outback was managing to get some sightseeing done. I told Fiona all

about my experiences from the earthquake and spotting the president in Washington to the

Mounties in Canada and the universities I have visited here in Australia.

The next day before the Welcome reception for the Symposium I decided to fit in another

museum - the Justice and Police museum. While there had a good talk with one of the staff

members about fingerprints, forensic in general, as well as the museum displays,

photographs and the background to the two case studies - pyjama girl and the Graeme

Thorne kidnapping case (first kidnapping in Australia).

At the Symposium Welcome Reception, bumped into a familiar face - Sarah Creswell, who

used to work at Strathclyde University, now she is living and working in Australia. Again

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showing what a small world we live in. Also caught up with Jen Raymond, who had a disc for

me of the samples we had processed the week before. She had done some work on the

images with John Smith, from the University of Westminster who was visiting the lab the

week after me, to see if they could improve the ridge detail visible.

The symposium had some interesting talks that gave me a lot to think about, including the

Public lectures in the evening, DNA evidence in sexual assault cases – Crime victim Debbie

Smith’s story - which was extremely interesting and moving, where Debbie explained what

had happened to her and how her campaigning led to a bill in USA and changes in how DNA

evidence is treated, collected and processed. The second included an extremely interesting

lecture from Dr Tony Raymond who was involved in the Chamberlain case.

Second day seemed to be a day of presentations from people I have met on my travels –

Shera Birnbaum also gave presentation on her work on the chemical analysis of latent

fingerprint damaged by arson or explosions; John Smith’s photography sessions gave me

some insight into digital photography and how cameras and printers see images; as well as

Michael Bell & Paul Weldon, who both mentioned me in their talks! Also managed to finally

catch up with Della Wilkinson and had a chat about my visit and work I am doing (nice to put

a face to the emails). On the day of my presentation, everyone form Pemulwuy lab, as well

as John Smith and Greg Carnell came and I gave them all a mention during lecture. Had a

few people asking questions after & met up with Della Wilkinson and Val Bowman from

HOSDB (both enjoyed my talk). Also given a few email addresses, so will need to contact

when back at work.

Richmond

My next visit was to Jennie Nelson, who had visited UAD last year and who was my

inspiration to apply for a WCMT Fellowship.

Jennie picked me up from Richmond station and we went straight to University of Western

Sydney (UWS) for a tour of the campus and meeting of staff and students. Lots of great

equipment, such as GRIM and birefringence microscopes as well as an old crime scene house

that they have grown out of, and shown round the new crime scene house facility, which will

have drugs labs (hydroponics and meths), rooms with mezzanine above, blood spatter wall

section and vehicle area. Also saw a class in action carrying out footwear impressions work

and bumped into a student who had been at my talk at the Symposium and had told other

members of staff about me (recognised me from my voice!!) and my talk.

Witnessed students and staff in action during a digital photography class - which involved

infrared, macro & brightfield photography, along with use of Polylight and recording images

on microscopes (macroscope and polarising). It was interesting to see how photography was

taught and differences - things that could be introduced to UAD course. Even helped out

with the microscopy part explaining how to label and record the hair samples the students

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were examining. Good fun and felt good when Jennie said I did a good job and was a quick

learner.

Figure 28 – Examples of the microscopes used in the Forensic course at UWS

As I had been keeping in touch with Jennie during my trip and she knew how busy I had

been she organised some tourist day trips. First we went to the Blue Mountains (called this

because of the colour caused by the eucalyptus volatiles). There we had lunch at the

Carrington Hotel and took in the fantastic views at Echo Point and even though we were

extremely high up my vertigo didn’t playing up too much!

Figure 29 – Carrington House & views form Echo Point of the Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains

Next we had a relaxing day walking round Windsor with Jennie giving me the background

history. We visited the Art Gallery, where there were some fantastic sculptures, especially

loved the book carvings of bonsai by Kylie Stillman. Then we visited the Museum where

Jennie also works – old and new artifacts along with some Windsor mysteries the Flabbit and

a Nessie like creature.

Final was to Woy Woy and Jennie’s friend Vince came along with us. Woy Woy was originally

a tourist area and many people used to have holiday homes there, however, now as it is

more accessible people now live in Woy Woy full time. We went on a boat cruise, seeing lots

of different birds, including pelicans as well as some dolphins. When we returned to Woy

Woy we had a wonderful lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf, which specialised in seafood – we all

had a hot platter, which consisted on prawn cutlets, fish pieces and chips. I tried one of

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Roy’s oysters (another first), but don’t think I will have them raw again. We all then had a

pudding and Jennie thought I should have a Pavlova, so I knew what it really should taste

like, seeing as it was invented in Australia.

Figure 30 – The Flabbit

Figure 31 – Views from the boat of holiday homes and dolphins

Figure 32 – The pelicans gathering for lunch outside the Fisherman’s Wharf

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On last day in Australia went to UWS first thing, then Jennie dropped me at Richmond train

station, where I got train to Central and then to the airport. Easy flight to Singapore, even

though sat in wrong seat to begin with (that’s what happens when the gate is 34 and your

seat number is 35!!). Once in Singapore offloaded from plane only to go straight through

security and into lounge to sit for half hour. Much easier than Bangkok! Once back in

Dundee unpacked and could not believe my trip is over – it has been fantastic, I have learnt

loads and feel I have grown both emotionally as well as professionally.

Conclusions and Summary

The aims of my Fellowship were three fold – to learn more about fingerprint enhancement on

fabrics, to enhance my teaching skills and find new ways of enthusing individuals to science.

I feel that I have succeeded in exceeding all of my original aims – I met many people who

have increased my knowledge in all aspects of fingerprinting and forensic work, which is

going to help in both my PhD as well as my teaching. I have already included some

suggested additions to my research, which I feel will enhance it overall and have helped

resolve some problems I had encountered during my studies. I have incorporated some of

my new skills and ideas into some of the modules I teach on as well as passing on ideas to

some of my colleagues. I have also formed a couple of collaborations in relation to my

research as well as teaching and outreach work.

I have learnt many things on this Fellowship such as the differences between SOCOs in

Canada and Britain, different techniques for teaching fingerprint identification and the cultural

differences between Britain and the countries visited and people I met. I have also

experienced many personal firsts on my trips from the oral presentation at the conference in

Sydney, being woken up by an earthquake in Washington, eating Kangaroo in Canberra and

standing on a glass floor hundreds of feet above the ground in the CN Tower in Toronto.

Many things I would never have a chance to do if I had not been granted this wonderful and

life changing Fellowship. I feel I have also grown emotionally in confidence and in my

organisational skills. From most people that know me I am told I come across as confident,

but have always felt unsure and shy about new situations. I would never have thought that I

would be travelling around the world and have the confidence to meet with so many new

people who I have only ever had contact with through email. So this Fellowship has enabled

me to travel to countries I may never had gone to on my own and meet new people I may

never have met. Both of which have not only helped me achieve the aims of my Fellowship,

but also allowed me to grow as a person. The Fellowship has also developed my

organisational skills - my job does involve organisation, but this Fellowship has involved me

increasing them further due to the researching as well as booking travel and hotels, changing

of plans and meetings en route when necessary.

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The final stage of my Fellowship is to disseminate what I have learnt. With that in mind I

must say that some of the places I visited have requested that some details are not passed

on or did not allow me to take photographs. My actual dissemination started before my

Fellowship, I have been telling everyone from friends, to colleagues, students and new

people I meet about the work the Trust does and how it could benefit them. As for my

newly learnt skills and knowledge I will and have been incorporating them into my PhD

research, teaching and outreach work, to allow students and the public to learn more about

Forensic Science and how enjoyable science can be. With my PhD work I hope this will

benefit Britain by the inclusion of new and different techniques into the operational manual of

fingerprinting, thus helping in the convictions of the guilty and the prevention of conviction of

innocent individuals. To spread the word further I have given a few newspaper and

magazine interviews and plan to do more in the future as well as plans to submit an abstract

for an oral presentation to the annual FORREST (Forensic research and teaching) conference.

University staff, students and others in the forensic community attend this conference.

Therefore many people have already heard about the WCMT and how it has enriched my life,

both personally and professionally, as well as many more hearing in the future through my

dissemination plans.

In conclusion I would like to thank the Trust for giving me what I can only describe as a life

changing experience, a much heard phrase in connection to the WCMT, but one which is

true. It has enriched my life both personally and professionally and I hope I can do the Trust

justice by passing on my new knowledge both in terms of my PhD and in contact with the

work I do with the public, both at Abertay, at schools and STEM activities.