In 2021, SRi Forensics was approached by Dyfed-Powys Police via the National Crime Agency to undertake a comparison exercise in relation to phone recordings of an offender using Snapchat to offend against an 11-year-old child. We were asked to ascertain if the clothing of the offender was consistent or not, with the clothing of the suspect.
We were able to confirm not only the clothing as the same, but we were able to go further than the original instruction and pointed out that specific facial features were clearly the same between the two. This was possible only due to our experise in facial comparison even from limited material.
Although not a physical abuse case, nonetheless, the actions raised huge concerns in regard to child safeguarding and sexual abuse on social media.
Following a trial and subsequent guilty verdict five years after the first approach, the Officer dealing with the case provided excellent feedback to our services...
"I believe the evidence you presented really did assist the prosecution and put pressure on him to change his initial denials before finally admitting he was the person in the video recording... the trial finally concluded this afternoon and SPALDING was found guilty. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on the 8th September. Thank you for your valuable assistance in this case and the excellent evidential material you were able to produce"
PC Jon Halliday - Offender Management Unit Heddlu Dyfed-Powys Police
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