Forensic Science Case Study Assignment

FORENSIC SCIENCE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART-A...........................................................................................................................................1
CASE: DENNIS MALCOLM GILL VS. THE QUEEN (2019) VSCA 92, 30 APRIL 20191
PART-B ..........................................................................................................................................2
EVIDENCE CLAUSES.........................................................................................................3
(a) Electrical cord from the neck of the deceased with what appears to be blood ................3
(b) Paper towel with what appears to be blood from kitchen bin ..........................................3
(c) Mr Anderson’s fluorescent safety vest..............................................................................4
(d) Mr Anderson’s woollen work jersey ...............................................................................4
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF EVIDENCE..............................................................................4
PART-C ..........................................................................................................................................5
1. (a) thin layer chromatography in technical terms...............................................................5
(b) thin layer chromatography in general meaning.............................................................5
2. (a) explain DNA in technical terms....................................................................................5
(b) explain DNA in simple terms........................................................................................5
3.Literature and referencing of different topics and their articles..........................................6
(a) discusses testing inks........................................................................................................6
(b) comparing several swabs used in collecting DNA. .........................................................6
(c) discusses visualising fingerprints on ammunition. ..........................................................6
(d) discusses the analysis of smartphones in forensics. .........................................................7
(e) discusses using statistical analysis in a forensic discipline ..............................................7
4. Abstract of “ chemical analysis of gunshot residual”.........................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
.......................................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
This file is a brief study of forensic science case study revolving around a murder
mystery scenario which will explain several division of it. Their are several branches in this field
which will help and guide the reader through a well explained series of explanation and guide
towards explaining this topic deeply (Buckleton, Bright and Taylor, 2016).
PART-A
CASE: DENNIS MALCOLM GILL VS. THE QUEEN (2019) VSCA 92, 30 APRIL 2019
The application was stood in trail court of county which is based on two different
indictment such as being a historic sex offender for boys living in Sutherland homes. Entering
court for first time that too for a criminal proceeding was very exciting experience the judges
their staffs were really into explaining things and procedural commands of court. The court
proceeding had this very interesting case on trail run of Dennis Malcolm gill who is been
declared to be a sex offender since early 70's finally he was convicted and charged with several
crimes (Zapf and Dror, 2017).
As we move further the accused were presented in court and charges were disclosed. The
number of offences included buggery & its attempt plus the offence on which the whole case
revolves was to attempt various types of indecent penetrative assault. The accused was misusing
his post of being an welfare officer aged under 28-27 and his victim's were aged between 8 to 13
at present moment. Its horrible to see such scenarios of children getting assaulted by a well
reputed officer. Their were several indictments in which first one included three charges to
which he was liable to all, second he was charged with 18 new charges to which he was
convicted only for 14 charges and in last the final verdict of punishment decided by court was for
15 years & 10 months also, he was not allowed for parole ever. All this was the brief history of
Mr. gill's offence history. In present day, the court of appeal under bench of justice Kyrou, kaye
and Weinberg denied to accept appeal of leave for both sides of conviction as well as the
sentence punishment set for him (Kukucka and et. al., 2017). The basic principle of appeal
against conviction is to challenge the jurisdiction given by lower court in higher bench. Accused
in the case was very inconsistent to accept any such charges and claimed all such charges are
illogical and baseless. He claimed that their were no solid grounds on which all such crimes were
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charged upon him but judges behaviour towards all members was totally unbiased and within the
area of jurisdiction by law (Maitre and et. al., 2017).
The judges and witnesses who were their to confess statements in support of victim's and against
accused, cleared out several things like the charges which were from 1-5 in second statements
were said to be done over a single person within a very short spam of time. Several other charges
were performed in his facility block. Also, several other offences were performed on citizens
living near to Mr gill. The lawyers behaviour was all debates and arguments clashes against each
other statements and after every verdict cross examinations were performed with all witnesses,
accused and victim's who could attend on appeal day. The court made a final decision that jury
was having an aquittal opinion for which a understandable explanation was given. It said from
charges 1-3 and 4-5 had inconvenience in giving certain evidences which could prove such
crimes over accused. Also, certain charges which were evidence of location of crime scene and
after several cross admissibility it was proven to be an tendency evidence.
The ultimate application of leave which was filled by accused was disposed off stating
that such criminal shall be declared for life imprisonment and more particularly the over all
criminality of accused matched all principles which put him under the light of sex offender. He
was stated to be mentally ill and declared with an unstable mind. The court was processing and
noting down each and every detail to not escape any such evidence for any sides of parties. It
was declared a serious offence crime case which destroyed lives of many vulnerable boys. In the
end the bench decided to convict him for life imprisonment and his application for appeal was
crushed out forever in his life spam.
According to judgement I created by my basic understanding was that their might be a
chance that several charges were actually bases less he is surely a criminal but in gravity of this
case one can commence that things were not cross checked and examined properly and this could
revive a new angle to such story. This experience has left a very remarkable mark over me and
has changed several things and basic understanding of court proceedings, procedures, code and
ethics to follow and most importantly to properly define and provide justice to any victims.
PART-B
In this part four section of evidence are to be discussed and analysed on which could
figure out the murder mystery of Elizabeth Jones (Ewing and Kazarian, 2017). Their are
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primarily four factorial evidences which shall be examined and discussed to figure out this
murder case. The following are mentioned below:
EVIDENCE CLAUSES
(a) Electrical cord from the neck of the deceased with what appears to be blood .
In the circumstance provided in this case scenario this is indefinitely case of choking
wind pipe of Elizabeth Jones (the victim). This looks like the case of a known person who was
known to the several entrances towards house. She already had carried a reputation of being very
cranky old lady with a lot of wealth and most of her neighbours where aware of this fact. She did
not trust in keeping her money in banks and used to keep the daily usage money in different
compartments of her kitchen. The strangling has caused her having issues in breathing plus being
a lady living alone at the age of 70 does not gives much strength to resist a heavy strangling. The
blood on the wire is supposedly of the murderer because according the forensic reports their
were no marks of cuts on Elizabeth's body. This blood will be of the person to be accused of her
nuder since while shattering the glass of window caused the accused to bleed and leave blood
mark on the wire. Their were blood remaining on the window which would match the blood stain
on wire, this will indicate proof towards the murderer (Dror, 2015) .
(b) Paper towel with what appears to be blood from kitchen bin
The stains of blood found in the bin over the paper towels will be murderer trying to
remove his marks and blood stains from places to remove all evidence of finger prints and DNA
blood samples. Here in this case Elizabeth was found lying on floor with her facing the ground
the struggle of escaping the murderer were shown in the reports by MCSU. Swabbing the
investigating evidence of blood stain from the wire and blood paper towel will accumulate to
point towards several people who knew ms Jones. The evidence were recoded but were pointed
for no value because no links were made directly towards any person. A similar hint of evidence
were towards Mr Anderson but he was declared clean as with investigation he was found to be in
bail. This investigation is reaching to certain dead end since no circumstantial evidence can be
recovered from this mystery but the questioning part is that if it was work of an known person
why would one break into the house and perform such crime or this person could be a very
known person to her who knew all prominent ways and methods to perform this task
(Muehlethaler Leona and Lombardi, 2015).
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(c) Mr Anderson’s fluorescent safety vest.
This a very prominent evidence to capture in this case since this murder mystery case.
Here, next to Elizabeth body their were pieces found near dead body of florescent fabric which
can be accumulated from only a person who is a workman and works in dangerous or remote
places or does work which involves wearing such vests to protect them in such cases. Here there
is only one person who ears such vests that is Mr Anderson because he used to perform certain
activities like he fixed the roof of Elizabeth a month also due to which he knew all the main and
certain entrances through which one could enter and execute such plans. In this scenario it was
mentioned that she struggled to escape he hands of murder and might have tried to grab him by
his vet or shirt which was the safety vest and due to constant friction between two people some
bit and pieces might have torn off from it and was found next to her body. Plus murder weapon
was kettle wire generally, if we look in murders the weapon is a personal object of the murder
and while fixing the roof of Elizabeth one month ago Anderson used to enter kitchen to prepare
tea and lunch from him every day while working for her, so it was easy for him to locate it and
use it as a weapon (Ogden and Linacre, 2015).
(d) Mr Anderson’s woollen work jersey
This jersey could be used to figure out several things like DNA evidence or something if
Mr. Anderson can be proven guilty but until then there is no point to take his jersey into
investigation. Since nothing prominent evidence can be attracted from these.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF EVIDENCE.
(a) Alice William can be in scope of accusation's: she was the person who found the body and
she was the only friend and she knew all the major entrance and exits of the house.
(b) Mr Anderson can also be accused briefly and he cannot be out of picture just because he
proved himself out of time, most of the prominent evidences are pointing towards him.
(c) a local burglar can also be behind this murder since she was very popular in the society and
everyone knew that she does not trust banks with her money and keeps all the assets in her
house(Robertson, Vignaux and Berger, 2016).
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PART-C
1. (a) thin layer chromatography in technical terms
Thin layer chromatography is liquid in nature which is used by several researchers on a
daily basis in different fields for example biochemistry &phytochemicals. This test is done to
identify certain mixtures of compounds like amino acids and alkaloids. Its a method of analysing
these liquids and identifying different number of compounds used in them. Its basic principle
works on separation of mixtures to mobile and stationary phase. Once this process ends all
compounds can be seen as different colour spots, later their identification ids done through
specific technical methods.
(b) thin layer chromatography in general meaning.
In general and layman's terms this process is a technique in which an amalgam of
compounds is separated into specific category. This experiment is performed on a plate(TLC)
which have a layer of silica and a glass sheet. A small drop of solution is placed with a
solvent(mobile phase). As both things start reacting together various results are figured out. All
elements start to get separate from mixture, all of them will be seen in different colour
categorisation each being a different element. This process forces compounds to appear
distinctively and majorly with their properties (Robertson, Roux and Wiggins, 2017) .
2. (a) explain DNA in technical terms.
It is molecule compound consisting two chain like structure which coils around each
other to generate a double loop which consists of several genetic coding's. These describe the
functioning, reproduction & growth, development and reproduction, this is found in all living
and dead organisms. These molecules are known as nucleotides, which have base of phosphate,
nitrogen and sugar grouping. It consists of 9 billion elements in which almost all of them are
similar in al human beings. This is used by several researches to accommodate and accumulate
several base groups of DNA. It specifically is to discover chromosomes and genes.
(b) explain DNA in simple terms.
In layman's terms its a long chain which is entangled with each other, all consisting parts
of genes which is present in all organisms. It has stored all information of all data which is used
to sole many mysteries of evolution and development of a human being and other creatures. The
study of DNA is very complicated and is been done since decades. Scientist have not discover
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all the elements of chromosomes. The mixing of chromosomes can define chain links of
evolution of certain creatures and their original base line. Doing a DNA test can identify a person
specifically, the elements present in it categorize every person distinctively (Rosenblatt, 2015) .
3.Literature and referencing of different topics and their articles.
(a) discusses testing inks
Scientific Examination of Documents, 2018, Author: David Ellen, Stephen Day,
Christopher Davies <https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429491917>
In this research, dynamic changes in the area of forensic examination where the method
used is analytical technique to approach towards changing the technology used in several offices
their inks and printing methods. It discusses drastic changes in new era of handwriting
interpretation. The key features discussed in this theory regarding printed, photocopied and
handwritten injects in comparison to digital technology to print. Also advancement in various
divisions and assurance of authentic method used while examining for scientific purpose. Adding
to that even the verification of finger prints over evidence or documents to examine, collect and
utilize in any case. (Siegel and Mirakovits, 2015).
(b) comparing several swabs used in collecting DNA.
A Comparison of DNA Collection and Retrieval from Two Swab Types (Cotton and
Nylon Flocked Swab) when Processed Using Three QIAGEN Extraction Methods, 2011,
Author: Robert J. Brownlow Ph.D. Kathryn E. Dagnall M.Sc. Carole E. Ames Ph.D.
<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.02022.x>
The metropolitan police services generally uses such method of cotton swabs to collect
DNA for examination in the forensic laboratories. These flocks of swabs are an important
attribute to generate information and retrieve evidence from these swabs. This study discusses 2
platforms of extracting evidence, results shows that both are very well efficient in taking
information but he spine column extraction works best in any type or environment of collecting
info. This whole study revolves around seeking most best method of extracting DNA.
(c) discusses visualising fingerprints on ammunition.
A comparative evaluation of the disulfur dinitride process for the visualisation of fingermarks on
metal surfaces, 2019, S.M.Bleay.
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The evolution of this technology was registered a decade ago but was commenced in this
current year. The best accompanied results were gained after obtaining results from several
material such as metals. Many issues have been recoded to compile results after comparing
several results and experiments. The understanding of various other metals in generating
equipments and chemicals to get a basic knowledge about working of disulfur dinitride and its
comparison with different finger-mark visualisation. Retrieving such information will provide
more lead in treating metal elements in proper usage. This area also helps in approving metal
capacity in violence crime and encompassing weapons (Woodall and et. al., 2015).
(d) discusses the analysis of smartphones in forensics.
Internet of things forensics: Recent advances, taxonomy, requirements, and open
challenges, 2019, Ibrar Yaqoob. <>
The explosive results in providing smart object and in dependability over the
technologies which are wireless, which help in communication making the internet vert
vulnerable for cyber hackers. This article provides several aspects of macro and micro elements
in attacks through easy access in mechanism and weak structural architecture of systems. Their
were several studies discussed in this project towards clear perspective in forensic models,
layers, tools and data processing method. Also several experiments to secure this lane in future
perspective as mostly all things today is digitally connected which makes this area more
vulnerable and attractive to several hackers.
(e) discusses using statistical analysis in a forensic discipline
Forensic Gait Analysis and Recognition: Standards of Evidence Admissibility, 2019,
Ioana Macoveciuc. <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1556-4029.14036>
It has influenced and attracted several strong research towards growing interest in
potential in human identification. Its almost several years have passed in forensic gait experts in
accumulating methods and current change in paradigm shift towards acquired information and
databases and various tested variable in this context. Due to this justice courts should provide
giant evidence great importance in solving mysteries and resolving issues. (Zbieć-Piekarska and
et. al., 2015).
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4. Abstract of “ chemical analysis of gunshot residual”.
From the following study the basic things which can be distracted is that these are dust
powders of guns found while someone shoots a bullet towards something. The material used to
produce this powder is organic and inorganic in nature since, which is very different from
residuals from gunshot. These two things are very different from each other. This material is sold
loose and can be destroyed easily which makes the basic principle that it can be found on a
person or place where their were no gunshots or anything. This could also be found where a
gunshot might have happened and could be found on person standing close to this action. The
mixture of gunshot residual is amalgam of lead, barium and antimony. The presence of such
particles together is enough to figure out a medical examination to figure out the mixture and
prominent mixture of such materials. A current study has provided that the material found in
such places also includes metallic particles of primer, the projectile and other prominent parts of
the weapon. Several experiments and studies have found many evidences where explosive
molecules were collected with the help of GSR kits. These are stored in laboratories to examine
it and these can be re examined anytime. The most prominent results which are found in these
cases are, people who are present in such accuse scenarios will not be explodes to such residues.
Finding this particle or its compound on any person or their belongings does not accuse that
person of discharging the firearm.
CONCLUSION
Forensic science has developed in several departments to help out prominent evidence to
solve several crime mysteries and accumulate many illegal malpractices. This technological
growth in the field of science has helped society in various sectors to develop and procreate as
according to the changing environment. This file is a correct blend of describing all sectors of
science and forensic department and through the help of this murder case scenario will explain
the basic branches and prominent divisions of this field.
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REFERENCES
Online
case law find though 2018 <https://www.countycourt.vic.gov.au/court-decisions/summary-
cases/dpp-v-rubinic-2016-vcc-1037>
Books and journals
Buckleton, J. S., Bright, J. A. and Taylor, D. eds., 2016. Forensic DNA evidence interpretation.
CRC press.
Dror, I. E., 2015. Cognitive neuroscience in forensic science: understanding and utilizing the
human element. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological
Sciences. 370(1674). p.20140255.
Ewing, A. V. and Kazarian, S. G., 2017. Infrared spectroscopy and spectroscopic imaging in
forensic science. Analyst. 142(2). pp.257-272.
Kukucka, J and et. al., 2017. Cognitive bias and blindness: A global survey of forensic science
examiners. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. 6(4). pp.452-459.
Maitre, M and et. al., 2017. Current perspectives in the interpretation of gunshot residues in
forensic science: a review. Forensic science international. 270. pp.1-11.
Muehlethaler, C., Leona, M. and Lombardi, J. R., 2015. Review of surface enhanced Raman
scattering applications in forensic science. Analytical chemistry. 88(1). pp.152-169.
Ogden, R. and Linacre, A., 2015. Wildlife forensic science: a review of genetic geographic origin
assignment. Forensic Science International: Genetics. 18. pp.152-159.
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Robertson, B., Vignaux, G. A. and Berger, C. E., 2016. Interpreting evidence: evaluating
forensic science in the courtroom. John Wiley & Sons.
Robertson, J., Roux, C. and Wiggins, K.G., 2017. Forensic examination of fibres. CRC press.
Rosenblatt, A., 2015. Digging for the disappeared: Forensic science after atrocity. Stanford
University Press.
Siegel, J. A. and Mirakovits, K., 2015. Forensic science: the basics. CRC Press.
Woodall, L. C., and et. al., 2015. Using a forensic science approach to minimize
environmental contamination and to identify microfibres in marine sediments. Marine
pollution bulletin. 95(1), pp.40-46.
Zapf, P. A. and Dror, I. E., 2017. Understanding and mitigating bias in forensic evaluation:
Lessons from forensic science. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health. 16(3).
pp.227-238.
Zbieć-Piekarska, R., and et. al., 2015. Examination of DNA methylation status of the ELOVL2
marker may be useful for human age prediction in forensic science. Forensic Science
International: Genetics. 14. pp.161-167.
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