Lessons in DVI

The Met found itself at the forefront of disaster victim identification (DVI) following the tsunami and more recently the London bombings on July 7. Director of Forensic Services Gary Pugh talked to Police Professional about the lessons learnt from recent events.

The Met found itself at the forefront of disaster victim identification (DVI) following the tsunami and more recently the London bombings on July 7. Director of Forensic Services Gary Pugh talked to Police Professional about the lessons learnt from recent events.

SO13, the Met’s anti-terrorist branch, have a national responsibility for counter-terror policing. Gary Pugh’s department provide support to counter terrorist operations and since 9/11 have been exchanging forensic data in worldwide intelligence-based operations. The events of July 7 required a very different, reactive response from the department.

The situation facing the forensic team required quick results. The Met, together with other UK experts including West Midlands contributed to the identification of victims in last year’s tsunami, experience that was to prove invaluable in dealing with the aftermath of July 7. The pressure for a fast turnaround and the limited scale of the fatalities in London resulted in processes that would give the investigators and families answers much quicker than those used in Thailand.

Colleagues who had been to Thailand and had worked on the identification of victims in the tsunami were deployed to the London bombings forensic operation, ‘Operation Theseus’. “We also deployed staff normally used in Homicide and other serious crime in London so whether it was crime scene managers, fingerprint experts or photographers, unfortunately, what they had to deal with was all too familiar,” said Mr Pugh.

There was a requirement for a quick result from an investigative aspect as well as identify victims and minimise distress to relatives and friends of the victims, desperate for news. Mr Pugh says: “July 7 involved combined needs for investigation and identification processes that came together in the body recovery and mortuary work.”

Initial criticism of the time taken to identify the victims is now seen as unfounded as all 52 victims, and the four suspected perpetrators, were identified to the satisfaction of the Coroner within just ten days. Fingerprints were taken from the mortuary to the victims’ home addresses or dental records taken to the mortuary where the forensic odontologist would make identification, 24-hours a day. “The fingerprint experts who work in MPS Forensic Services were in home addresses in the early hours of the morning, so we could go back to the Coroner with sufficient evidence to make a formal identification,” said Mr Pugh.

Key to the successful operation were early decisions on the processes to be used and the rapid establishment of sophisticated temporary mortuary facilities. “The mortuary was up and running in 72 hours. We were well prepared and the emergency planning helped bring this into play very quickly. The bombings happened on the Thursday and we were identifying victims in the early hours of Monday morning. The Coroner requires us to go beyond physical identification, say resemblance to a photograph or that someone has ID on them, which many had. We need to have a primary forensic identifier, which would be one of three, dental, fingerprints or DNA,” said Mr Pugh.

“We decided early that, because the bodies were largely intact, we would be able to use fingerprints and dental identification. With current technology and processes, this gave us the most rapid identification.

“The situation demanded an early decision about the approach that was needed. In the tsunami the Thai authorities used all three approaches but 9/11 was predominantly DNA. There will be occasions where you give one technique primacy over another.

“Having got the bodies into a mortuary environment, we were able to satisfy the needs of the investigation in looking for anything that is relevant to the investigation and whether there was evidence as