Investigating Miscarriages of Justice Thoroughly – Part Four

Predictions:

It had been predicted without exception that Lynette’s killer was a vicious thug with a history of brutality, probably starting with cruelty to animals that graduated to violence against humans, culminating in what was then the most savage murder of its type in Welsh history. This would not be a killer that would just stop once he had developed the blood lust required to commit such a heinous crime.

Surely there would be more to follow and a trail of previous offences. This was certainly what conventional wisdom suggested, but Jeffrey Gafoor was a totally different type of killer – frighteningly unique. Gafoor was impossible to predict. He was shocked by what he did and coped by blotting it out. He also shut out friends and family – prefering to limit human interaction to the absolute minimum needed to exist. He was determined to prevent repetition by preventing the opportunity for social contact.

After one conviction for assault in 1992, Gafoor severed contacts – preferring to drive three miles to post his rent rather than drop it in to his landlord, who was also a neighbour. He lived as a virtual recluse, limiting human interaction to the bare minimum. This made him very hard to detect.

The reputation of former Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Jones, 63, is in tatters. The former Head of South Wales Police’s CID began an eighteen month jail sentence yesterday. Jones pleaded guilty to wilful misconduct in public office and conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in December 2008. He was sentenced yesterday because his partner in crime, former Detective Constable David Lloyd, insisted on a trial. Lloyd was jailed for four years after £200,000 was found in his attic. It belonged to his friend Robert Morgan – a known drugs dealer.

After his retirement in 2003 Lloyd was hired as a civilian casework director for the Investigative Support Unit. He had previously worked at Police Headquarters in Bridgend. Lloyd had access to information from police databases, which he passed on to Jones. Lloyd used the Police National Computer, Niche system and Quick Address Search system to give Jones information on addresses, criminal records and other material that Jones found useful in his investigations. The corrupt arrangement began in 2005 and continued until the Anti Corruption Police caught them out in a sting operation that included taped conversations in January 2008.

Jones retired on December 28th 1997. He set up an investigation agency and recruited Lloyd and Christopher Barnett to pose as a client to obtain information. Barnett was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment that was suspended for two years. His Honour Judge Darwall-Smith told Jones that the public would be justifiably outraged if he was not sent to prison.

"This chapter is the unabridged version of the author's original manuscript and has been revised since publication by Mr Sekar, the author of it. It is published on this website by kind permission of the publishers Palgrave. The definitive edited version of this chapter appears as The Failure of the Review of the Possible Wrongful Convictions Caused by Michael Heath in The Criminal Cases Review Commission - Hope for the Innocent? edited by Michael Naughton which can be purchased from www.palgrave.com We recommend the book highly to our readers and support the work of the Innocence Network UK. http://www.innocencenetwork.org.uk/ is their website address. "

Next Time The Fire – The Expertise of Michael Heath

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar March 2007

Introduction:

Forensic pathology is undoubtedly a very important science, but one that is surrounded by misunderstanding of its limitations and significance. It cannot, for example, say precisely when a murder took place. There are far too many variables to enable anything more than a range of times within which death occurred. There are however, several indicators that should be established and not just the obvious ones such as body weight: body temperature, ambient temperature and the progress of rigour mortis. Analysis of stomach contents and the rate of dissipation of alcohol content in the body can all assist in establishing a likely range for when death occurred. However, despite ongoing research no science can give a precise time of death – yet. Normally the time of death is established not by pathology but by investigative circumstances ranging from collection of newspapers, reading of mail, usage of electricity in a house to the metabolism of alcohol. Doing an alcohol back calculation is really the only factor related to the body which is accurate and can give a time of death accurate within an hour – provided the victim has consumed alcohol of course.

In homicide cases the forensic pathologist will be the first to perform scientific examinations on the body. They will also take samples from it – some of which will be used by other forensic scientists. Consequently, the integrity and competence of forensic pathologists can also affect the ability of other experts to obtain and interpret scientific evidence. When a body is too decomposed for other methods forensic entomology – the study of the life cycles of insects recovered from crime scenes – is a science that can offer useful evidence, enabling investigators to establish the post-mortem-interval. It cannot say precisely when a murder occurred either, but it can often give investigators a range of a few days to work with.