CSI Portsmouth 2011 where crime fiction met crime fact

The second CSI Portsmouth event was held on Saturday 5 November 2011 at the John Pounds Centre, Portsmouth, and was voted a great day's entertainment by the people who attended.  Over a hundred and fifteen people packed the halls to listen to the debates.

The morning programme consisted of talks from former Detective Superintendent and crime writer Bob Bridgestock; fingerprint expert Jane Aston from Hampshire Police Fingerprint Bureau; Lucy Wainwright, forensic psychologist from the University of Portsmouth International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology and myself who gave a talk on writing a crime novel.

The afternoon panel debate featured, alongside myself, my fellow crime authors, Michael Ridpath, John Harvey and Mark Billingham who took questions from the moderator, Cheryl Buggy, Station Director of Express FM Radio, and from the audience. This was followed by a book signing.

The crime authors were joined on the panel by crime experts: Dr Claire Nee, Director of the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology at Portsmouth University, Dr Paul Smith, Crime Scene Expert from the University of Portsmouth, DC Nick Bettesworth from the Major Crime Unit Hampshire Police and DS Martin Chudley Crime Scene Manager from Hampshire Police.

We were also joined by the Hampshire Police Fingerprint Bureau who were on hand to take delegates fingerprints and press one into a keep sake key ring to take away.