• Notice of 2002 AGM
• Repeat Request to All Members
• Meritorious Service Awards
• Death, Maggots and Gunshot Rresidues
• Human Genetic information
• Bear Alert in Montana USA
• Details of Next Branch Meeting .... October 15, 2002
• Trends in violence in England and Wales 1995–2000: An accident and emergency perspective
• President's Report
• View of Perth and Swan River

NOTICE OF 2002 AGM

Notice is hereby given of our next Annual General Meeting, which will commence at 1730 hrs on Tuesday November 19, 2002, at Central TAFE, Moore Street, East Perth (see map below).   PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE.

"8. (1) The affairs of the Association shall be managed exclusively by a Committee of Management consisting of -

 a. President,

   b. Vice-President;

   c. Secretary;

   d. Treasurer; and

   e. of no less than four other persons, as committee members, all of whom shall be members of the Association elected to membership of that Committee at an annual general meeting or appointed under subrule (8).

  (2) All positions of the Committee of management are elected annually; a serving member is considered a nominee for re-election unless the member communicates otherwise to the Secretary. The President and Vice-President shall not serve for more than two consecutive years.

  (3) Subject to subrule (4), a person is not eligible for election to membership of the Committee unless a member has nominated him for election by delivering notice in writing of that nomination, signed by -

  a. two nominators; and

b. the nominee to signify his or her willingness to stand for election, to the Secretary not less than 28 days before the day on which the annual general meeting concerned is to be held.

  (4) Subrules (3) and (6) do not apply to or in relation to a person who is eligible for re-election under subrule (2).

  (5) A person who is eligible for re-election may at the annual general meeting concerned -

     a. propose or second himself or herself for re-election: and

     b. vote for himself or herself.

  (6) The Secretary shall ensure that notice of all persons seeking election to membership of the Committee is given to all members when notice is given to those members of the calling of the annual general meeting at which that election is to be held.

  (7) If the number of persons nominated for election to membership of the Committee does not exceed the number of Vacancies in that membership to be filled -

      a. the Secretary shall report accordingly to; and

      b. the President shall declare those persons to be duly elected as members of the Committee at, the annual general meeting concerned.

  (8) When a casual vacancy within the meaning of rule 12 occurs in the membership of the Committee -

     a. the Committee may appoint a member to fill that vacancy, and

     b. a member appointed under this subrule shall -

        (i) hold office until the commencement of; and

        (ii) be eligible for election to membership of the Committee at the next following annual general meeting."

In conjunction with the AGM a lecture will be given by Dr Alannah Buck about research she has conducted into the mysterious series of events involving "Jack the Ripper". This promises to be an entertaining evening.

In the interests of efficiency and economy, as well as to enable us to bring you a more reliable and timely service, would each member please provide an up to date email address where notices and other information can be sent. Details should be forwarded to our Vice President, Suellen Blackaby, at:

Meritorius Service Awards
( Awarded to Les Thomas & Vin McLinden )

The long and distinguished careers of two of our WA Branch founding members were recognised by the national body of the ANZFSS recently. Sen. Sgt Les Thomas and former deputy director of the WA Chemistry Centre, Vin McLinden, were presented with the prestigious ’Meritorious Service Award’ by State President Stephen Knott at the August 20, F.J. Clarke Lecture Theatre meeting.

The awards were the first ever to be given to any member of our branch, demonstrating the standing of both men in the Australian forensic community.

Les is currently OIC of the WA Police DNA Exhibits Coordination Unit, while Vin is enjoying a life of retirement, soaking up as many games of golf as he can muster. The WA Branch offers Sincere congratulations to both Les and Vin on this well deserved honour.

The use of insect larvae as alternative specimens for toxicological analysis in forensic investigations has gained considerable momentum in recent years as the many applications of this technique are being realised. Establishing a cause of death in homicide cases remains one of the most important aspects of the investigation as this can reveal several important pieces of information relating to the circumstances surrounding the death of the individual and may provide crucial information regarding possible assailants. Due to the nature of homicide deaths, it is not uncommon for deceased persons to remain undiscovered for a considerable period of time. This represents a problem for the forensic investigators, as determination of the cause of death by visual means alone becomes almost impossible with increased decomposition. Even following only a few days post-mortem, visual determination of cause of death becomes a very difficult task and the chances of misdiagnosis becomes more prevalent.

Occasionally shooting victims are discovered, in which the traditional methods of bullet wound identification are not present, including traces of the projectile remaining within the corpse or tool marks from the passage of the projectile on bones. In addition to this, the opportunity for gunshot residue sampling around the entrance wound is often not possible as the decomposition process advances. The basic scope of this research looks at the use of blowfly larvae as an alternative means of gunshot residue analysis and the stages in the larval lifecycle at which these residues can be extracted. Due to the fact that blowflies have a propensity to lay their eggs or larvae in existing body orifices or flesh wounds, if gunshot wound(s) are present then these are likely to become infested with larvae relatively quickly. The theory is that the larvae will inadvertently consume the particles of gunshot residues whilst feeding on the surrounding tissue of the corpse.

Gunshot residues are formed as a result of the incomplete combustion of the priming compound and propellant and exit the spaces of a firearm in the process of firing. These residues may be deposited on the person firing the weapon, the target and on nearby objects. The composition of gunshot residues is generally made up of three major elements, those being lead (Pb), barium (Ba) and antimony (Sb). Due to the relatively low levels of these elements that are likely to be encountered within the larvae, the extremely sensitive detection limits of an inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) has been employed for the analysis of these larvae. This technique essentially measures elemental abundance within a sample and hence has been used to establish the levels of lead, barium and antimony contained within larvae feeding on shot substrates compared with those encountered within larvae feeding on non-shot substrates.

Experiments have revealed significantly higher levels of lead, barium and antimony within larvae feeding on a gunshot substrate compared with those feeding on control substrates. The levels of lead, barium and antimony detected within the larvae have also showed a ratio of 1:1:0.1 respectively, which is highly indicative of those encountered with gunshot residues. It appears that gunshot residues can be detected within larvae feeding on a shot substrate throughout all the developmental stages, including pupae and within the empty puparium. However, refinement of the technique is required in order to obtain accurate measurements of the levels encountered within the very early larvae stages and the empty puparium, due to the extremely low weights of these specimens.

The latest discussion paper on the Protection of Human Genetic Information was released in August 2002. This is the most current document in a series of papers by the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Australian Health Ethics Committee of the Medical Research Council, for inquiry and report pursuant to subsection 20 (1) of the Australian Law Reform Commission Act 1996 and paragraph 35 (3) (c) of the National Health and Medical Research Act 1992 respectively. The public are invited to comment on this paper.

The Montana State Dept of Fish and Wildlife is advising hikers, hunters, and golfers to take extra precautions and be on the alert for bears while in Gallatin and Lewis and Clark National Forests. They advise people to wear noise-producing devices such as little bells on their clothing to alert, but not startle the bears unexpectedly. They also advise you to carry pepper spray in case of an encounter with a bear. It is also a good idea to watch for signs of bear activity.

People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain berries. Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray.

Reprinted by kind permission of Jonathon P Shepherd, Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Department of Oral Surgery, Medicine and Pathology, University of Wales College of Medicine Dental School, Heath Park, Cardiff, Wales CF14 4XY

Prevention of violence-related injury has become an important public health issue but national, regional and local data are lacking. The aims of this study were to determine trends, seasonality and rates of violence-related injury according to Accident and Emergency (A & E) recorded data in England and Wales over a 5 year period, 1995–2000.

A stratified sample of 58 major A & E departments in England and Wales were recruited for the study. Electronic data on age, gender and date of attendance of all those reporting violence-related injury over a 5 year period, May 1995 to April 2000, were retrieved. Injury rates (number of injured per 100 resident population) were computed and ordinary least-squares regression analysis was used to evaluate linear and non-linear trends in these time series data.

A total of 353 442 (258 719 males: 73 per cent) violence-related attendances were identified. Overall annual violence-related attendance did not change significantly (p >0.05) but attendance of females aged 11–17 years increased steadily and significantly (p <0.05) over the 5 year period. Health-region, gender- and age-specific increases in violence-related attendance slowed (p <0.05). Compared with spring there were significantly lower levels of violence in autumn and winter for both males and females (p <0.05). Violence affecting males aged 18–30 years was not subject to seasonality. Males, those aged 18–30 years and those living in the northern and western regions in England and Wales were at highest risk of violence-related injury.

This national study from the perspective of health services suggests that violence did not increase over the period 1995–2000. Slowing of age-, gender- and health-region-specific increases in violence-related injury suggests that violence is coming under control. The reasons for significant trends in individual urban centres deserve further study, and could provide important new directions for violence prevention.

The ANZFSS meeting in Canberra in May provided a blend of stimulating forensic science and pleasant social networking. The organisers are to be congratulated on their efforts. Presentations from WA’s four scholarship winners, Peter Collins , Bianca Stevens, Francois Oosthozen, Evan Roeterdink and others ensured our state was well represented.

Branch members were given the opportunity to hear these scholarship recipients present at the August 20th meeting. The meeting appreciated the extra effort by three presenters in converting their Canberra presentation into a lecture format.

A special vote of thanks was extended to retiring national president Dr. David Griffiths and his committee for their hard work in guiding the national body over the past 6 years. Paul Stewart from the Queensland police service was elected as the society’s new President with the new executive also mainly from that state.

The National body of the society and NIFS feel one of the most effective methods of stimulating research in Forensic Science in Australia is to provide funding for scholarships at the bi-annual symposia. Start planning now; you have 18 months before the close of scholarship applications for the 2004 conference in Wellington, New Zealand.

At the National AGM, Western Australia was formally awarded the right to hold the 2006 Symposium- a challenging and exciting time for Forensic Science in WA. A working party has been formed and my thanks to Dr Clive Cooke from Forensic Pathology for agreeing to chair the committee.

Also at the national meeting, I was privileged to receive on behalf of Les Thomas and Vin McLinden, their Meritorious Service Award. It was the first time that any member of our branch had been the recipient of this award. Both Les and Vin are pioneers of forensic science in this state and founding fathers in establishing our state branch. The awards were formally presented at the August meeting where members congratulated Les and Vin on their well-deserved recognition. Both, in their thanks, gave a brief background of the development of the society in this state.

In conjunction with the AGM to be held in November, will be an entertaining lecture by Dr Alannah Buck on the infamous “Jack the Ripper”. The meeting will include the election of a new executive and general committee. Also the meeting provides the opportunity for members to put forward notices of motion and discussion on the society’s future direction. I encourage all members to attend.