CSI Portsmouth 2012 where crime fiction met crime fact

Over a hundred and sixty people attended the one day event held at the John Pounds Centre, Portsmouth. The audience also had the chance to put their questions to the panel and to talk to the team from the fingerprint bureau and students from the Forensic Science course from South Downs College who provided a crime scene.
On the morning panel Carolyn Lovell, Crime Scene Manager/Coordinator for Hampshire Police, gave a fascinating insight into her role of managing crime scenes and spoke of how the advances in science were assisting the conviction of criminals but in turn adding to the amount of paperwork the police increasingly have to complete in order to bring a case to court.

Alongside Watch Manager Andy Earl from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services, DC Terry Fitzjohn spoke of how Hampshire Police and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services had combined to provide an Arson Task Force that was so successful in not only reducing arson attacks but also in securing convictions that other police forces across the UK were now consulting them over, wishing to emulate their success.


Stephen Booth, author of DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry series set in the Peak District spoke of the challenges of writing a continuing series and at the same time keeping it fresh for the reader, a sentiment that was echoed by Pauline Rowson author of the DI Andy Horton series set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England.

The afternoon panel guests at CSI Portsmouth 2012 were crime authors Ann Cleeves and Pauline Rowson and crime experts from Hampshire Police, the University of Portsmouth and the University of Surrey.
During the afternoon the audience were whisked away from gruesome crime scenes of the morning panel debate to cybercrime, fraud and stalking.

Dr Mark Button, Director of the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies, and Associate Head Curriculum at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth has written extensively on counter fraud and private policing issues. He relayed a harrowing tale of one individual whose bank account had been hacked into and using this and personal details stolen from the Internet the criminal had purchased and downloaded obscene images resulting in the innocent man’s arrest. Eventually the criminal was apprehended and the innocent man’s name cleared but his reputation and life had been left permanently scarred.

When asked by Cheryl Buggy whether his research into Stalking had made him more cynical Professor Bran Nicol said that it had made him more aware of the fine line between what is perceived as normal banter and acceptable behaviour and what could potentially be construed as stalking and lead to more dangerous behaviour.
Professor of English Literature at the University of Surrey, Professor Nicol’s book, Stalking, was shortlisted for the 2007 Times Higher Young Academic Author of the Year award, and has been translated into Italian, Korean, and Japanese. He has appeared on many radio programmes and featured in the documentary Stalked - to Death, for the Irish channel, TV 3. He spoke of how the Internet is changing the nature of stalking and how the accessibility of the Internet and the increasing amount of personal information on it had the potential to expose individuals to more crime, a sentiment that was echoed by both Dr Button and Adrian Fretter.






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