Bible John: A New Suspect by Jill Bavin-Mizzi

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hello Darryl,

I am going off tack a bit but its interesting that you mention that the McInnes family had a family pathologist. Surely a waste of money if McInnes was not BJ as they insisted. Its a defensive move. Some will not see it as that but there are no reasons that neutral scientists would doctor the evidence. Anyway a firm positive resulted can not be manufactured. Seems to me there are three outcomes in truth, Positive enough to say it was him, Completely negative and unable to be him and inconclusive.

Of course if there is doubt in the result then 'inconclusive' does not prove guilt and therefore any suspect remains innocent.

I am assuming a pathologist was employed by the family to challenge or defend any accusations. It could be suggested by some that this would indicate that there was uncertainty within the family at the time of the exhumation as to whether McInnes was responsible. Otherwise why would you prepare for a defence at I would imagine at some expense.

NW

I’m unsure about the term ‘family pathologist’ NW but I know that at the exhumation two pathologists were involved. Mary Cassidy on behalf of The Crown and Tony Bassutil on behalf of the McInnes’s family.

[cobalt]

When DNA first emerged as a forensic tool it was dubbed 'the genetic fingerprint.' This had the (intended ) effect of convincing the general public of its scientific certainty. Juries remain convinced to this day.

But the reality is slightly different. Both fingerprint and DNA evidence has to be collected without contamination. Even when this is done it is quite likely there will be a smudged partial print or in the case of DNA a mixture with other persons. Finally, the forensic evidence has to be matched by persons expert in the field.

Most of us on this site will be aware of cases where the forensic evidence has been faulty for one of the above reasons. The Shirley McKie case in Scotland in the late 1990s was never fully investigated since it undermined the entire credibility of the fingerprint experts employed by the crown. I recall a rapist convicted by DNA who claimed, correctly as it turned out, that he had never visited the Midlands area where the crime took place. From memory, this was put down to a contamination error inside the laboratory, or perhaps his factory work left his DNA profile on objects sold across the country. Neither fingerprints nor DNA are scientifically infallible.