Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Home Office pathologist and Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of London; founded the British Academy of Forensic Sciences.
On the island
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:07What correlation of science does the [British] Academy [of Forensic Sciences] cover?
Well, this the idea of the Academy, which I I was not the only person who founded it … was cross-fertilization of the professions. The average lawyer knows nothing about science. The average doctor knows very little about law, and the average scientist knows even less about both of them.
Presenter asks
2:03Was that day [with eight inquests, one post mortem, an appearance at the Old Bailey, and a 200-mile journey] very much exaggerated?
No, not in those days. The one thing we've tried to do is to slow this down. Yes. And that is the great advantage when you get to my age, that you can do it slower and rather better, I think. Although perhaps you don't think as fast.
Presenter asks
2:57Putting all those [body] bits together [in the Christie trial] must have presented problems.
I think that Christy represented something which is much more interested from the point of view of the future. That's to say we did much more than we needed to, and yet we've been able to use what we did then later. … Well we did the reconstruction of the bodies. And … you may say it wasn't necessary after he'd admitted doing it. But that reconstruction has formed the basis of a lot of future cases, you know.
Presenter asks
4:40Is there such a thing as the rare, indetectable poison we read about in fiction?
Very few. But there are such things. … Well, if I told you, but no, but I think out in Africa and in the Far East and places like that we still have a lot of herbs. But we really don't know how they work.
Presenter asks
6:26As Home Office pathologist you had the opportunity of performing the post mortems on the bodies of executed prisoners. Were you able to form any overall conclusion from that work?
I think the most interesting thing is that none of them lost weight. Once they realize they'd been convicted properly. … they were quite prepared to … suffer the final penalty. This doesn't mean I like it. … my experience, and I've had a lot of experience of these people … is that if they're not guilty they will shout from the housetops. … Whereas if they're guilty and they're convicted on the right evidence, then they will settle down and rationalize and gain weight.
“once you start to get emotionally involved as a scientist, you're lost.”
“The one thing we've tried to do is to slow this down. Yes. And that is the great advantage when you get to my age, that you can do it slower and rather better, I think. Although perhaps you don't think as fast.”
“The thing that terrifies me are the people sitting in prison, and there are a limited number of them, who know that they're innocent and that they have been convicted by, as it were, force of circumstances.”
“I get much more excitement out of History. Yes. Not only that, because it makes me go back and read. For example, we examined the shirt that Charles I wore. When he had his head chopped off.”