ANZFSS SA Branch Newsletter December 2016

Inside this issue Society News

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Presentations at the Pub

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ANZFSS New Zealand Conference

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Jack the Ripper

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End of year Adelaide Gaol Tour

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Upcoming meeting

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Merchandise

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Contact Us

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ANZFSS SA

Society News With plenty happening in between this newsletter and the last, this page could go on and on! But I wont I promise…. Firstly as some of you may or may not know, we have a new Merchandise Officer. Greg Abroe joined us after Lenara Scandrett transitioned into the position of committee member. I'm sure you can all join us in welcoming Greg to the team when you purchase some of our wonderful society merchandise! September was a big month for the society Aus/NZ wide and locally, the biennial Symposium was held in Auckland and as usual was a huge success (as I will elaborate in the coming pages). Of particular interest to us as a society, the AGM was held to elect a new committee and vote on the potential addition of the professional category for society members. You may recall us asking you to vote on this issue and thank you to those who did. The future inclusion of the professional membership category is under way, opening up a new and exciting era for forensic science and our future as a society. We would also like to highlight our own past and present committee members that were elected as part of the new Society Executive. •

Adrian Linacre (President)

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Carolyne Bird (Secretary)

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Kate Grimwood (Treasurer)

Sadly, this means Kate has left the SA Branch Committee while Adrian and Carolyne stepped down at the end of last year. We thank them all for the years of dedication and support they have provided the society and wish them all the very best in the future. While everyone was celebrating and learning about the cutting edge forensic research at the symposium, the US President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report was released. The report highlights contemporary issues within forensic science across all disciplines and encouraged change within the analysis and subjectivity of certain processes. The Society has provided an independent response to the report. If you are interested in reading the response, it can be found on the society home page here. Finally, it is with a heavy heart that we acknowledge the passing of one of our dearest friends and colleagues, Dr Bryan Found. On the 23rd of October Bryan passed away while tendering to his beloved garden. Bryan was the Chief Forensic Scientist at Victoria Police from 2012 and a world expert in handwriting identification. Although Bryan was based in Victoria, throughout his short 55 year lifetime he had a large influence on document examiners within South Australia and the world. He was a dedicated scientist who worked tirelessly to improve the application of scientific methods to the criminal justice system. It was noted that 500 people filled the Police Academy for his memorial service and no doubt there would have been at least that many more that would have loved to have made it. We are all the richer from knowing you, Bryan. Thank you for the light, laughter and everlasting inspiration.

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ANZFSS SA

Presentations at the Pub September the 9th marked 9 days until the 23rd International Symposium on the Forensic Sciences held by the ANZFSS committee in Auckland, NZ. Many of our members were fortunate to receive society-level and state-level travel awards allowing them to attend the Symposium and present their research – the result of plenty of hard work and determination! To get more of an idea of what our members were up to, we held a “Presentations at the Pub” night at the Wakefield Hotel where each Symposium travel award recipient gave a 3 minute presentation about their research. There was plenty of food, a drink or two and a variety of research across all of the forensic science disciplines. From detection of latent DNA using fluorescent dyes to the recovery of severely burnt remains for post mortem identification, you could say we almost heard it all! Particular congratulations goes to Jennifer Young and Dana Michalski for winning the Sandy Congdon Memorial Scholarship and the Ross Vining Memorial Student Scholarship respectively. Jennifer is from the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide. Her research was based on the metagenomic analysis of soils to inform justice. Detection of diverse ranges of biodiversity such as bacteria, plant, fungi and animal can be detected in soils using Massive Parallel Sequencing (MPS) and can act as a sort of “fingerprint” to differentiate areas or soil types – potentially allowing investigators to link suspects to crime scenes.

Dana is from the Defence Science and Technology Group and the University of Adelaide. Her research was focused on the facial image comparisons of children and how age and growth can affect both human and algorithmbased identification method performances. Dana’s results showed that there was a large variance between the two methods when dealing with ageing children and provides critical information to law enforcement when relying on facial recognition of children aged 0-17 years. We would again like to congratulate all the travel award recipients and hope that they managed some time to explore the wonderful scenery NZ has to offer. The recipients were: Pam Fietz Alicia Haines Oliva Handt Thekla Ganiaris Duncan Taylor

Julianne Henry Denise Higgins Josie Nunn John Berketa Eric Teoh

Good luck for your future research and we hope you enjoyed the Symposium!

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Emily Rowe Ted Silenieks Kareana Uern Kelsey Seyfang

ANZFSS SA

ANZFSS Auckland Symposium

What an amazing week! Delegates from all over the world met and exchanged ideas, knowledge and plenty of laughs. The Symposium was held in NZ Sky City and boasted extremely high caliber plenary speakers with the likes of Dr John M. Butler, Dr Itiel Dror and Prof Olivier Ribaux to name a few. Poster presentations and speakers keen to share their research were educated and inspired by each other as the week went on, promoting fresh ideas and developing steps forward for the future of forensic sciences across all disciplines. A common theme among most plenaries was the focus on potential cognitive biases within interpretation of forensic science results. This was in particular in response to the current US President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report that was released during the first few days of the conference suggesting a revamp on the current analysis methods. The social calendar kicked off with a night at the Aviation Museum where we were lucky enough to witness some local NZ festivities, food and wine. The night was filled with singing, some letting down of hair and even some on stage dancing for those lucky enough to be invited (just ask our current Vice President, Luke Volgin) Finally, as per tradition, the last night included a Gala Dinner where guests were once again treated to NZ cuisine and fine wine, and of course an awesome band that had us dancing all night! It was here that the award for best posters and best orals were announced. I have to say, the SA branch was spectacularly successful between poster and oral presentations alike. Special congratulations to the winners below in their respective fields; • • • • • •

Eric Teoh Emily Rowe Thekla Ganiaris Kareana Uern Linda Wurfel Andrew Donnelly

I’m sure you can all agree that the hard work paid off and the Symposium was a huge success once again. We look forward to Perth in 2018.

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ANZFSS SA

Jack the Ripper On Tuesday the 18th of October we were fortunate enough to gather and listen to the fascinating J.J. Hainsworth educate us on the years of experience and wealth of knowledge he has consequently obtained during his study of Jack the Ripper, in particular the Whitechapel murders that occurred in east London. His specific fascination with the Jack the Ripper story began as he was teaching a class of high school students, when one in particular quizzed him on a piece of primary evidence – a police report – relating to the Whitechapel murders and the potential murderer as the police and officials “knew” him to be. The report stating that the murderer was “said to be a Doctor.” So was he? Or was this all a cover up to protect the identity of the real killer all along? J.J. investigated further and delved into the depths of the late 1880’s and early 1890’s to recognize the social structure and interactions between classes throughout London. The horrific Whitechapel murders occurred in 1888 within what was frightfully named the “evil quarter mile.” These murders were otherwise referred to as the ‘Canonical Five’ and can all be directly related to Jack the Ripper by the similar wounds and mutilation. Due to both the horrific nature of these violent crimes and the lack of evidence for an apparent motive, the media and public spotlight was well and truly fixed on the mystery of Jack the Ripper. While there have been many attempts over the years to solve the case and identify exactly who Jack the Ripper was, JJ was able to explain and put forward his idea and evidence as to who he believes to be the murderer, the story of Montague John Druitt.

Druitt was a London Barrister, well known throughout the upper class. His connections included Sir Melville Leslie Macnaghten (Chief Constable of the Police) as well as George R Sims – a hugely socially influential writer of the time. In the case of Druitt being convicted – the social image of the company he kept could become rocky. This in part suggested a basis for covering up Jack the Rippers’ true identity.

In addition, Colonel Sir Vivian Majendie was Chief Inspector of Munitions for the Home Office from 1871. Majendie was also close friends with Macnaghten and Sims, as well as being related by marriage to the Druitt Family (although this was largely unknown at the time.) Once again it is thought that social construct and family image was at play when the decision to cover up the true identity of the murderer was made. Although the link between Druitt and The Ripper was not strong within the general public, the pressure of life and potentially guilt eventually got to Druitt when in late 1889, he jumped into the Thames committing suicide and leaving his legacy behind. Interestingly, in 1903 it was released to the public that Jack the Ripper had also committed suicide in the Thames … coincidence? I’ll leave that for you to decide – I would highly recommend investing in a copy of the book yourselves to understand the depth of this investigation. J.J. is no doubt an expert on the ins and outs of the Ripper story and although I am yet to purchase a copy myself, it will most definitely be on my Christmas List.

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ANZFSS SA

Adelaide Gaol Ghost Tour The South Australian Branch invited its members to a special night to celebrate the end of another successful year. Previous meetings have included Centennial Park’s Crematorium, the National Trust Treasury Tunnel Tour and Dinner at the King’s Head just to name a few. This year members were invited to a guided ghost tour of the Adelaide Gaol on the 4th of November. Surprisingly, 24 very brave members agreed to go on a ghost hunt and walk the haunted halls of one of Australia’s most infamous gaols. We were loaded with torches and the spirit of adventure and headed off on our journey. Our first stop was the women’s quarters. We were told tales of psychic activity and motion sensing security systems being triggered without a soul in sight. We used our flashlights to tour empty cells and learn of the uses of some of the rooms in the gaol, which included class rooms, a turn yard for the horse and carriage and a beautiful rose garden maintained by the inmates. Fortunately (or unfortunately) no ghosts were found on our tour, but what we did find was even more interesting. Our tour guide reminisced on days gone by, telling stories and first hand experiences of supernatural activity within the haunted walls. He did his best to convert our group of sceptics and we all enjoyed hearing of the history of Adelaide in its early settlement. Lead into the hanging chambers of the prison, we were seated and asked to turn off any light sources. We heard of the proceedings surrounding a hanging and the executions that went so horribly wrong. A loud bang on the door made the toughest of our ghost hunters’ jump! Our brave ghost hunters were locked in cells in the very same hall that executions were carried out many years ago. If you listened carefully you could still hear the inmates calling out in desperation, or maybe that was just the wind? Spooky! After five minutes of silence in the darkness, our ghost hunters were set free from their prison cells and asked of their experience. One group witnessed the door of a notorious gaol cell swing open, maybe someone was trying to make an escape, or maybe it was the wind again, coincidence? Our tour ended with some very interesting questions and an invitation to stay longer, of which only a few accepted. All in all, the tour was very successful and all 24 of our ghost hunters made it home safely, hopefully with no extra spirits attached. We learnt a great deal of the history behind our very own gaol, the lives of those who were put there and how some of those lives were lost. Thank you to those brave souls who made the evening so much fun! Who you gonna call? Not us! Lenara Scandrett

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Upcoming meeting

ANZFSS SA

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ANZFSS SA

Contact Us

The Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society, SA Branch Inc GPO Box 194, Adelaide SA 5001 Phone: 82267700, Facsimile: 82267777

Web: www.anzfss.org/sa

ANZFSS South Australia

WARNING: The ANZFSS (SA Branch) Committee wish to advise that the material presented at some ANZFSS meetings can be of graphic or explicit nature. Some of the material presented may disturb or offend some people. Persons attending meetings do so at their own risk. For this reason, we recommend that persons under the age of 17 years do not attend meetings. Views and opinions expressed within this publication are not necessarily those of the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society or the SA Branch. Page 8