Mistakes Most Foul!
Have bodies been found with marks that suggested murder and consequently send innocent people to jail?
Well, it certainly seems possible now after the the latest forensic news claims that some lesions, cuts and marks found on corpses which could have lead pathologists towards murderous conclusion have in fact been caused by insects. Entomology and forensics usually helped determine the timing of death but now it seems that insects have been responsible for many marks which prosecutors have previously suggested were caused by third parties.
A body of evidence ( forgive the pun) gathered by Dr Stefan Vanin from the University of Huddersfield makes the cases the "many of the lesions on a dead body which resemble injuries and wounds left by human perpetrators" were actually caused by tiny insects. One wonders just how many people have been accused of murder and manslaughter on the basis of injuries caused after death by insects. Dr Vanin says that ants scavenging over the face of a dead person can leave tiny 'deposit marks' that can be interpreted as a punch in Forensic Science International.
The world of forensics is not quite as cut and dried as the CSI shows indicate and the advance of technology is introducing as much doubt as certainty and those who covered and witnessed the forensic evidence offered during the trial of the Birmingham Six will always treat forensic evidence as scientific opinion rather than scientific fact.
But it's not just post-mortem injuries caused by insects that get the innocent into trouble - there is one rare childhood illness that leaves bruises and marks on the skin but which has been misdiagnosed as abuse and resulted in children being taken away from their parents. HSP, or Henoch-Schonlein purpura is an auto-immune disease which causes inflammation under the skin, in the bowel and stomach and leaves specific purple bruising from the soles of the feet to the buttocks. Crucially, the marks do not go above the waist.
The marks starts as red blotches and then graduate into purple marks under the skin. The symptoms can come in mixed waves, sometimes just stomach pains are apparent and sometimes just the marks and although most of the sufferers grow out of their symptoms for those who have recurring HSP, death occurs in five per cent of cases.
Doctors often mistake the stomach pains for acute appendicitis and also misdiagnose the bruises for abuse. I became aware of this condition after my little girl, Tiger, became very unwell about two years ago and a diagnosis was very hard to determine until one consultant put the symptoms together. It dawned upon me that there must be a huge number of parents who have been accused of abuse on the basis of this distressing disease. There are specific tests which can confirm the diagnosis but often when social workers, Police and mistaken doctors decide a path it is very hard to get them to change their opinion.
There are a range of other childhood illnesses which mimic abuse and there is no doubt that protecting children is the priority but doctors and professional must be careful not to rush to judgement.
A sober thought for those who give too much credence to scientific and medical expert opinion. I, for one, am just grateful for Great Ormond St Hospital who have the expertise and the skills to treat my little princess. She is well and thankfully now on the road to recovery.
THEY ARE the majestic princes of the sea. But the magnetic appeal of dolphins has now placed them at the centre of an ugly international trade involving tourists, shadowy former Russian military figures and the entertainment industry.
Rogue cowboys of the sea still roam the waters of the Mediterranean and the Aegean, trapping wild dolphins for sale into the tourist and research industries. Turkey has now become caught up in the terrible trade in stolen dolphins, as tourist resorts offer visitors the chance to swim with these intelligent mammals. 
It led to a tense stand-off between workers and campaigners from Dolphin Angels, a local group of expat Irish and English women who first raised concerns. 
"Tom and Misha have survived terrible sickness to get where they are.They have been so traumatised by their captivity that there was only a 50/50 chance of survival," he said.