Warwick experts help West Midlands Police convict killers

Unique collaboration sees cutting edge research used to prove murder cases. Futuristic 3D scanning technology at WMG , University of Warwick is helping West Midlands Police to convict killers thanks to a pioneering new partnership which is providing juries with microscopic evidence previously beyond the reach of forensic testing. Detective Superintendent Mark Payne (left) and Professor Mark Williams (right) at WMG's metrology facility Last month, Lorenzo Simon was sentenced to life in prison for the barbaric murder of a housemate whose body he dissected and stuffed inside suitcases he later hurled into Birmingham Canal, with help from his girlfriend Michelle Bird. Crucially detectives recovered part of the victim's humerus from an oil drum in the couple's garden - used as a furnace to destroy evidence - which experts from WMG, at the University of Warwick, proved was a seamless fit with a limb found in the case. And the same 3D scanning technique - which provides image resolution 43,000 times more detailed that a hospital CT scan - also proved laceration links between a saw recovered from the canal-bed and marks found on other bones. Professor Mark Williams (right) shows Detective Superintendent Mark Payne (left) a 3D printed model of murder victim Michael Spalding's humerus WMG is a leader in 3D technologies , collaborating regularly with partners from industry areas including aerospace and automotive, where atomic material failures can have catastrophic consequences - but this is the first time a police force in the UK has embraced the science to support its investigations.