In January, four academics from the Department of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, Dean Northfield, Neil Lamont, Rachel Bolton-King and David Flatman-Fairs successfully completed Advanced Laser Imaging’s 2 day course in virtual reconstruction. After learning about the theory of laser scanning and its application to casework examples, we used the Faro 3D laser scanner to collect accurate data of the University’s Crime Scene House where a shooting incident had occurred. Our first challenge was to ensure that all areas of the house were captured and that no ‘black holes’ existed in our dataset!

To construct our virtual scene, we uploaded and successfully joined together (registered) all individual scan datasets, creating a colour 3D point cloud. Using the software we explored all areas of the house, annotating evidence, measuring objects of interest and creating a navigational journey through the scene, which could be presented to the jury. We were relieved to find that no important areas of our crime scene had been missed!

Using case examples we identified co-ordinate locations of any bullet holes within 3D point clouds for various crime scenes. We constructed accurate 3D models of bullet trajectories and were able to apply these into virtual scenes to establish the location of the firearm at the time of each shooting. To present such models in court, we created a video animation to seamlessly travel through the reconstructed scene, viewing objects at appropriate angles using motions such as dollys, orbits, trucks and pans.

This hands-on course was very interesting and engaging, developing valuable skills for application to both our research and teaching; we are now eager to put them into practice!

This morning saw the start of the introduction to Forensic Practice the first module in the Postgraduate Certificate of Advanced Forensic Practice. This is the only award of its kind in the UK. Previously Health professionals would have had to travelled to the USA, or Canada to undertake this type of qualification.  Nurses and Paramedics who undertake forensic examinations in both custody and sexual assault settings are benefiting from 21^st Century purpose built education environments at Staffordshire University, including a Crime Scene House and life size court-room.  This allows students to experience real life in a safe learning environment.

The award has been recognised by the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM), College of Paramedics and United Kingdom Association of Forensic Nurses (UKAFN) as the minimum qualification for Nurses and paramedics working in Forensic Practice.

The Forensic Team are based in the £31 million purpose built Science Centre in the centre of the City of Stoke-on-Trent . The module team are all experts in their fields and notch up over a 100 yeas of practitioner and academic experience between them.

The award Leader is also the Education Officer for UKAFN, which provides her with a unique insight into the challenges and education needs of these Health Practitioners.  The Postgraduate Certificate of this award also includes the UKAFN ASET Certificate, which certifies this award meets the Advanced Standards in Education and Training as set out by UKAFN.  The FFLM have acknowledged that the ASET Certificate can also bemused in part of the FFLM Licentiate, where successful ASET Students can undertake the FFLM MCQ and OSCE examination to obtain an FFLM Licentiate.

Students are clearly enjoying accessing the learning materials which is bringing together theory and practice, such as this morning where the students were required to identify injuries on a ‘real-life’ artists model who had simulated traumatic injuries to identify and body map.  When asked why are you undertaking this course, one student responded by saying that ‘she wanted to be the best forensic nurse she could be’.

@StaffsFACS_Dept

<A href=“http://www.staffs.ac.uk/course/SSTK-01211.jsp”>Forensic Investigation</a>

<A href=“http://www.staffs.ac.uk/course/SSTK-04128.jsp”>Forensic Investigation</a>