Cold case work 'in a graveyard spiral' despite rare success with Louisa Dunne

Fewer cold cases such as the 1967 murder of the Bristol woman Louisa Dunne are likely to be solved because of police budget cuts, "haphazard" investigations and loss of scientific knowhow, experts have warned.

- Steven Morris

While praising Avon and Somerset police for catching 92-year-old Ryland Headley 58 years after he raped and murdered Dunne, specialists in scientific evidence, law and criminology expressed concern at challenges ranging from the storage of evidence to the skill of DNA analysts and the modest size of cold case teams.

Prof Angela Gallop, a forensic scientist nicknamed the Queen of crime-solving, said: "It's great when they solve these crimes, it always means something to the families of the victims.

"But police budgets are so tight, they have enough problems funding current investigations, never mind these old ones. There are lots of cases waiting to be unlocked."

Days before the Headley trial began, a commission on forensic science chaired by Gallop concluded that the sector in England and Wales was in a "graveyard spiral" leading to an increase in unsolved crimes.

The commission said the two countries had lost their national forensic science service and the commercial market that followed had "collapsed".

Police forces were taking more testing in-house or moving away from "traditional" forensic science, because they perceived commercial provision to be slow and expensive, the commission concluded.

Gallop said: "At the moment, forensic science isn't working for anyone. There aren't the scientists to help the police. A lot of them have been deskilled or become disenchanted because it's all about quick, cheap tests, not scientific investigation... We're in a sorry state."