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As well as the Colette Aram case, LGC Forensics has helped to solve other high-profile murders including Damilola Taylor, Rachel Nickell and Chantel Taylor. They helped to identify the bodies of victims of the London Underground bombings of 7 July 2005, and to exonerate the Cardiff Three. With improvements in technology and the growth of the national DNA database – it now contains the profiles of more than 5 million people – DNA analysis is becoming an ever more important tool in solving crime. It's even possible, according to Liberty, that "police may drop investigations if DNA evidence is not found at the crime scene". It's possible, too, that the database, which was set up by the FSS in 1995 and is now run by the National Policing Improvement Agency, is larger than it should be. Following a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, legislation currently going through parliament will place (fairly modest) new limits on whose profiles can be stored and for how long. Yet the mere existence of the database raises questions about the fundamental relationship between citizens and the state – and the opening up of the forensic science market to competition between private providers raises more about whether it's appropriate for the private sector to have any kind of a role in law enforcement.
LGC's headquarters are in Teddington, south-west London, at the north-east corner of Bushy Park. It was overcast and drizzling when I visited last month, but inside all was light. Television shows such as CSI, which is where many people's preconceptions about forensic work (including mine) must come from, have scientists working in moody pools of light in otherwise darkened labs. But as James Walker, who leads LGC's specialised forensic DNA team, points out, the "right examination tools", when you're looking for very small stains on objects recovered from crime scenes, include "good lighting" and "magnifying glasses". There's no place for chiaroscuro effects in a real lab. Walker doesn't watch CSI, but "other people say it is actually quite good".