Who Worked Together?

Who Worked Together?

In order for any investigation to be accurate and efficient everyone in the team should effectively work together by sharing information between each other and carrying procedures out correctly. Thr team usually consists of the First attending officer (FAO), lead detective(s), Police Officers, Scenes Of Crime Officers (SOCO’s), forensic scientists and the exhibit officer, however depending on the case there could be specialists involved such as social services. By the team efficiently working together this will lead to a secure, accurate and fair audit trail. The team must ensure that all evidence collected is secure and handled correctly by the correct people. This team is responsible for the entire investigation and protecting and securing any evidence that is collected as well as analysing and presenting the findings.

Within the Christine Jessop case the team worked in an efficient manner but not to the extent of which they should have due to the fact they did not follow the correct procedures which eventually led Guy Paul Morin to be acquitted of all charges. The people who played the biggest roles within this investigation were:

Constable McGowan FAO

Bernie Fitzpatrick Lead Detective

John Shephard Lead Detective

Forensic Scientists

Exhibits Log Officer

Constable McGowan was the first attending officer at the Jessop house, closely followed by both Detective Bernie Fitzpatrick and John Shepard, as this wasn’t a crime scene they didn’t secure the scene and just used the time to organise a search party and take statements from the neighbours.

The report concerning the body of Christine Jessop being secured haven’t been released nor is there any information concerning the matter we are unable to state who was the FAO and whether they did their job correctly however it is believed the scene of the crime was secured off.

In this case there were 3 pieces of evidence only, these were:

Fibre matching Christine’s Jumper

This fibre was found on the blanket in Guy Paul Morin’s vehicle, when this was collected it was performed by a standard officer and not a SOCO, this meant that no PPE was used and this could have caused contamination as the officer had been in the Jessop house hold previously. There was no reported analysis of this fibre performed as the jumper that it supposedly came she was wearing when she was missing however 2 officers state seeing her before she went missing without a jumper and her body was not found with a jumper.

When her body was eventually found 2 pieces of evidence were found with her body, a hair and semen, however there are no reports that state whether these were correctly collected by the correct people, SOCO’s, there is also no report on the hair analysis just a report from the semen sample showing an error in the analysis and storing.

Describe how various members of the investigation worked as team during the whole process.

Various members worked together throughout the course of the investigation in order to provide an efficient and successful conviction. An example of this is the work relayed between the SOCO to the coroner to the detective which was then relayed within court. As once the body was discovered in the field the police officers were called to the scene accompanied with a scenes of crime officer. We believe the SOCO secured the body to ensure that it would not be contaminated before transportation to the morgue for examination. The coroner then carried out an autopsy on the body to identify the main cause of death, this helped the investigation. It enabled the detectives Bernie Fitzpatrick and John Shepard some insight into the moments that unfortunately lead to her death. Once the autopsy had been carried out, the information was passed onto the detectives. The detectives were then able to write up a report. The information was then used in court by both the prosecutors and defence in order to aid their argument. They were able to receive the information by communicating with the detectives by obtaining the autopsy reports.

Evaluate the contributions of different team members and how they contributed to the security of the audit trail of evidence.

It could be considered that the forensic scientists did not successfully contribute to the security of the audit trail as it was either contaminated or overlooked. This was proven by when the pieces of evidence were in their care and duty, they misused their authority which led to significant faults within the case. They did not preserve the evidence they were handed to analyse, this is clear as several pieces of evidence contained fibres from forensic analysis, this implies that the forensic scientists didnt effectively use their PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). Several pieces of evidence went ‘missing’ when in the responsibility of the forensic scientists, which would have been beneficial for demonstrating Paul Morin’s innocence. 

A small minority of the detectives involved in the investigation did not fully secure the audit trail of evidence in relation to witness statements, Bernie Fitzpatrick and John Shephard. As they convinced the family of Christine Jessop to alter information within their witness statements to contradict what Guy Paul Morin said, in order to prove that he was the individual that abducted and murdered Christine Jessop. This showing that several detectives did not effectively secure the audit trail of evidence as they intentionally tampered with the evidence in order to try and prove the guilt of Guy Paul Morin.

Where some of more use or more value to the investigation process than others?
The members involved within the process contributed a significant amount of value to the investigation, however some members were of more value due to errors made. This meaning that a small minority of the members involved within the investigation process would have played a significant role however due to errors they have made they hindered the investigation process. As several of the individuals who analysed the scene where Christine Jessop’s body was found made mistakes by not wearing personal protection equipment, disposing cigarette buds, dismissing evidence that may have been of some relevance and not conducting their job correctly by not discovering several bones at the scene. Therefore it can be argued that they did not offer value as they did not carry out their roles and responsibilities correctly, thus hindering the experiment. As a result of errors that were made at the site of Christine Jessop body, ultimately an innocent man was convicted of the crime.

Did some make mistakes that may have cost the case?
A very important mistake that was made during the investigation process which may have cost them the case is failing to secure the scene of Christine Jessop’s house immediately after her abduction. As once the parents of Christine’s notified the local police that she was missing, the officers initially treated the case as a young girl who has gone missing on her own account. Thus letting family members and members of the neighbourhood to enter the house in order to give support to the family. This meaning that any evidence contained within the house such as DNA belonging to the individual who abducted Christine’s would have been contaminated. In addition, the police wouldn’t be able to determine whose DNA should and shouldn’t be found within the property as countless people entered the house to support the family. It can be debated that due to the misdoings of the initial responses he case has never been successfully solved.
In conclusion, there were a large amount of errors that occurred during the criminal investigation which ultimately led to the wrongful conviction of Guy Paul Morin, leaving the killer a free individual. As a result of the poor work completed by members of the investigation team the audit trail of evidence was not secure at all times, which in turn led to further complications along the line. For those reasons large amendments within the law and police force were made in order to prevent the errors from occurring again in other cases.