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Lab split scuppers police
by Annaliza Borg

The Police corps has no capability of undertaking scientific investigations following the split in the forensic laboratory in 2001, Forensic Laboratory director Anthony Abela Medici told The Malta Independent.

Subsequently, capabilities of the Police Forensic Laboratory were severely impaired and results on specific cases involved in police investigations could no longer be immediately available to investigating officers. While police forces worldwide have their own laboratories to compile information, analyse exhibits and carry out research work, the Malta Police Corps now has to seek assistance of the Malta National Laboratory, which takes time and has its own priorities.

Furthermore, Malta no longer has access to the latest research results of foreign police laboratories since Law Enforcement Agencies do not share information with private laboratories.
The Police Forensic Laboratory as a unified entity started to be set up in May 1981 when Dr Abela Medici was appointed its first director, with the precise assignment to set up a functional Forensic Laboratory for the Malta Police Force and for the courts of law.

However in October 2001, the Interior and Home Affairs Ministry decided to separate the scientific from the technical sections of the Police Forensic Laboratory and transfer the scientific section, including staff and equipment, to the Malta National Laboratory.

“Since 2001 when the Police Force lost the scientific sections of the forensic laboratory, the capability of the Police Forensic Laboratory was severely impaired,” Police Forensic Laboratory Director Anthony Abela Medici said in an interview with The Malta Independent.

The forensic laboratory was split up in the wake of evidence in court when a fingerprint officer admitted in 1990 that five years earlier, in 1985, he was forced to falsify evidence. The officer was not a member of the Forensic Science Laboratory in 1985 but was so when he gave evidence in 1990.

Results on specific cases involved in police investigations could no longer be immediately available to investigating officers. While police forces worldwide have their own laboratories to compile information, analyse exhibits and carry out research work, the Malta Police Force now has to seek assistance of the Malta National Laboratory, which takes time and has its own priorities.

Furthermore, Malta no longer has access to the latest research results of foreign police laboratories since Law Enforcement Agencies do not share information with private laboratories.

Dr Abela Medici explained that prior to the split, the Police Forensic Science Laboratory, housed at the Police Headquarters in Floriana, shared very good relations with foreign police entities, often being invited to give lectures, talks and holding discussions on specific fields, while foreign specialists came to Malta to visit, work at the Forensic Laboratory and give expert evidence at the courts of law.

Preliminary work on this project had started in 1978 when the then Police Assistant Commissioner, Lawrence Pullicino, sent a delegation to the UK to evaluate possibilities of having a forensic laboratory in Malta.

Various police officers were then sent for training in various courses in photography, fingerprints, scene of crime, ballistics and explosives in the UK, Italy, and Yugoslavia. Anglu Farrugia, now Labour Party Deputy Leader, was one of these first police officers to train as a scene of crime officer, Dr Abela Medici said.

When first set up, the Police Forensic Laboratory only investigated scientific and medical aspects, including blood analysis, drug and toxicology examinations, analysis of gunshot residue, analysis of explosives, examinations on wood, fibres, glass and all other aspects associated with forensic science.

As more specialised units were set up new staff was trained in their applications and were eventually declared competent to give evidence in court. In late 1985 the technical sections, comprising fingerprints, photography and ballistics were amalgamated with the Forensic Laboratory to form one coherent and unified scientific and technical forensic entity for the Malta Police Force. A few months earlier a new section was set up as a Scene of Crime Unit, trained professionally to handle all aspects of scenes of crime.

However in October 2001, the Interior and Home Affairs Ministry decided to separate the scientific from the technical sections of the Police Forensic Laboratory and transfer the scientific section, including staff and equipment, to the Malta National Laboratory.

During our meeting, Dr Abela Medici went into details of crime scene investigations and the important, at times even imperative evidence that forensic experts come up with as the truth is unveiled.

In his assessment though, Dr Abela Medici said he feels more satisfied when evidence confirms a person’s innocence rather than his guilt as this shows that the checks and balances in the preservation and examination of evidence are impartial and fair, despite the fact that the laboratory is part of the Police Department. The Laboratory has proved time and again its impartial approach to the preservation and examination of evidence. It was unfortunate that the 1985 incident – when a fingerprint officer in 1990 admitted in court that he was forced to falsify evidence – was wrongly attributed to the Forensic Laboratory.

“People may be very careful, but they invariably make mistakes and it is up to the Forensic Laboratory to find those mistakes,” he explained.

In Malta, the first blood group examinations were carried out in 1915 and the first training of medical students in forensic medicine started in 1918. Fingerprint examinations started in 1935 but it was only in 1956 when forensic science was first applied.

By late 1984, forensic officers were attending every major scene of crime in Malta and Gozo. The 1980s saw increased levels of crime and there was a definite need for the setting up of a full scene of crime unit trained to attend each scene of crime on a roster basis.

Scene of crime officers saw 27 bombing incidents in the last three months of 1984, practically all of which happened at night, Dr Abela Medici said. A small core scene of crime unit composed of two police officers and Dr Abela Medici was set up.

The first cases it dealt with were the major heroin haul of 13 kilogrammes found in five different hotels in Malta, and the gruesome find of the dismembered body of Lino Cauchi, an accountant who had been missing for three years, in a well at il-Bosk, situated close to Verdala Castle in Buskett, in November 1985.

Dr Abela Medici and his forensic team also led the scientific and technical investigations in the Egypt Air hijack of November 1985, which was described as the most notorious airplane hijacking of the 1980s.

A total of 60 bodies had to be identified on which post-mortem investigations followed.

After the amalgamation of the scientific and technical sections within one unified Forensic Laboratory, under the command of Dr Abela Medici in 1986, the laboratory continued to expand and was substantially enhanced when former President Guido de Marco was Justice and Interior Minister.

Dr Abela Medici explained that the lab was very much to Prof. de Marco’s heart and he made every possible effort to allocate funds for the purchasing of scientific and technical equipment as well as the training of staff in foreign institutions.

“This was the golden period for the lab,” he said.

Dr Abela Medici and his team had also assisted in tracking down thieves of Caravaggio’s St Jerome painting. The thieves had started to tear up small pieces of the painting and sending them together with threatening letters to force payment of the ransom, he explained. When the painting was finally recovered, Dr Abela Medici was appointed as its Curator for about 10 months and was kept at the Forensic Laboratory throughout this period until court proceedings were finalised.

However, following events of the Martin Gaffarena jury in 1990, when a fingerprints officer declared in court that he had faked a fingerprint of the accused, various court decisions started requesting independent expert investigations leading to the decision to separate the scientific sections of the forensic lab and transferring them under the auspices of the Malta National Laboratory.

When the forensic lab lost its scientific section, including staff and all equipment, the police were left with no capacity to carry out scientific investigations.

Dr Abela Medici explained that earlier on the same morning we met, a crew from the Administrative Law Enforcement police had found all four tyres of their parked vehicle slashed upon returning to it while on duty. Although they had brought in various instruments which could have caused the slashing and which could have helped to identify the persons causing damage, the lab was unable to carry out investigations and identify the source, for lack of equipment and staff.

The Drug Squad too used to have immediate analysis of drugs under investigation looking into the origins of drugs and giving much needed answers for investigations.

Prof. Guido de Marco, being fully aware of the incident of the police officer who tampered with evidence, had wanted to house both the scientific and technical units of the forensic laboratory outside the police headquarters and decided on Lower Fort St Elmo. This manoeuvre would have maintained the unified forensic laboratory as a law enforcement agency linked to the police and the courts of law.

In Dr Abela Medici’s opinion, this would have been the best solution, however fate had planned otherwise.

Since the decision to separate the two sections of the laboratory was taken in October 2001, the Malta Police Forensic Laboratory was left with only scene of crime duties, finger print and photography departments and ballistics. Later on this expanded to include video enhancements, finger print enhancements and the national documentation centre which mainly deals with examination of counterfeit documents and false travel documents.

§ 9.1-1104. Rights of accused person or his attorney to results of investigation or to investigation.

Upon the request of any person accused of a crime or upon the request of an accused person's attorney, the Department or the Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services shall furnish to the accused or his attorney the results of any investigation that has been conducted by it and that is related in any way to a crime for which the person is accused.