Angela Gallop
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2012
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jim al-Khalili talks to Angela Gallop, the scientist who provided the vital forensic evidence in the recent re-trial for the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Angela describes the painstaking scientific detective work that led her team to find a tiny blood clot on Gary Dobson's jacket, that was not identified during the original trial in 1995; and how they proved that this evidence was not the result of contamination during the handling and storage of the clothing exhibits.
Never before in the history of criminal justice have so many cases relied so heavily on scientific evidence. Forensic scientists have ever more sophisticated and powerful techniques at their disposal but, as long as these techniques rely on human judgement (and a surprising number still do) there will be limits to their reliability. Much as we would like to believe the opposite, forensic science is fallible.
Further, even when the science is accurate, there's ample scope in a court of law for good science to be made to look bad and bad science, good. Lawyers locked into an adversarial system can all too easily cast doubt on excellent scientific evidence. Equally, Angela warns of the dangers of putting science on a pedestal .
After a brief spell studying sea slugs on the Isle of Wight, she joined the Forensic Science Service, later switched to working for the defence and is now probably the most sought after forensic scientist in the UK, involved in countless high profile cases, including the Cardiff Three, the coastal path murders as well as both the trial and retrial of Stephen Lawrence.
Producer: Anna Buckley.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the |
| 0:03.8 | podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC. |
| 0:08.6 | It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world. |
| 0:15.0 | What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism |
| 0:20.0 | and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines. |
| 0:23.7 | And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject |
| 0:28.3 | you might not even have thought you were interested in. |
| 0:30.2 | Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment, |
| 0:36.1 | you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:39.8 | Thank you for downloading the Life Scientific from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:44.0 | Many physicists like me seek to reduce the universe to a few fundamental principles. |
| 0:50.0 | But my guest today uses science to access a different kind of truth. |
| 0:55.0 | Two men have been found guilty of murdering the black teenager Stephen Lawrence, |
| 0:59.0 | nearly 19 years after he was stabbed to death in a London street. |
| 1:03.0 | Well, the Stephen Lawrence trial was extraordinary not only in terms of race and policing, |
| 1:09.0 | but also in terms of forensic science. |
| 1:12.0 | Dr. Angela Gallop was the lead forensic science, Dr. Angela Gallup was the lead forensic scientist in the case. |
| 1:16.3 | Dr. Angela Gallup is probably the most sought after forensic scientist in Britain today. |
| 1:21.3 | Involved in countless high-profile criminal cases, including many so-called |
| 1:26.7 | cold case reviews, the Cardiff 3, the case of Damolola Taylor, the Coastal Path Murders in Pembrokeshire to name a few. |
| 1:35.0 | Never before has the British justice system relied so heavily on scientific testimony. |
| 1:41.0 | Once upon a time it was police inspectors who cracked the crime. |
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