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Desert Island Discs

Professor Angela Gallop, forensic scientist

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Professor Angela Gallop is a forensic scientist who has helped solve some of the most notorious violent crimes in recent British history including the killings of Stephen Lawrence, Damilola Taylor and Rachel Nickell. After completing a degree in botany and a doctorate on the biochemistry of sea slugs, Angela joined the Home Office’s Forensic Science Service in 1974, and four years later attended her first crime scene, where 18-year-old Helen Rytka was killed by Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper. Over the years cold cases became her speciality and in 1992 she investigated the death of the Italian banker Roberto Calvi. He was found hanging from scaffolding under Blackfriars Bridge, London, in a suspected suicide ten years before. Angela’s work established that suicide was unlikely and that, in all probability, he’d been murdered. His killers were never found. In 1999 Angela and her team investigated the murder of Lynette White who was killed in her flat in Cardiff in 1988. Five men had been tried for her death and three - known as the ‘the Cardiff Three’ - were sent to prison although their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal two years later. Angela’s investigation made history when the murderer was identified and convicted through his familial DNA. Angela first worked on the Stephen Lawrence case in 1995 – two years after his murder - and returned to it in 2006. The forensic evidence that was found during this investigation helped to convict his killers in 2012. Angela has written a book about her career in forensics and another which outlines the challenges the discipline faces today. Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.9

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.

0:08.6

Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them

0:13.9

if they were cast away to a desert island.

0:16.5

And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:21.2

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:44.4

My cast away this week is Professor Angela Gallup.

0:47.4

She's one of the country's leading forensic scientists, called Cases are her speciality.

0:53.0

She's helped solve some of the most notorious violent crimes in recent British history,

0:57.6

including the killings of Stephen Lawrence, Damolola Taylor and Rachel Nicole.

1:02.4

Over the course of her 50-year career, she's developed a reputation for going the extra mile to

1:07.4

get the evidence she needs. At one point, she reconstructed a murder scene in her back garden

1:12.6

with her husband playing the victim. Later, one of her investigations made history when the murderer

1:17.8

was identified and convicted through his familial DNA, a first in forensic science.

1:23.7

But if you're expecting a hard-bitten cynic of the TV crime drama variety,

1:28.2

you'll be disappointed. She's an optimist and fell in love with science via botany.

1:33.1

She was happily studying the biochemistry of C-slugs when a friend suggested

1:37.4

she applied for a job working for the Home Officers Forensic Science Service.

1:41.8

She got it and found an unexpected passion along with her new career.

1:46.9

She says, when I find that little shred, that tiny little bit of something,

1:51.5

that's when I know I'm onto something. It's that light bulb moment and it feels like the most

1:56.4

exciting thing ever to have happened. That's why I do it. Professor Angela Gallup

...

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