Dear Mike and Janice
I am astonished that from your angle you believe that only 'Home Office
labs' can produce results acceptable in Court. First, do any 'Home Office
labs' still exist? the old Forensic Science Service was dismantled many
years ago. Second, the Royal Berkshire Hospital Clinical Biochemistry
Department has produced many results over the years which even without a
chain of custody document of the sample (although we try to obtain this, it
is not usually possible to obtain it retrospectively) have been used as
evidence in many Court cases, without anyone seriously challenging their
authenticity or the ability of the Department to produce valid results which
were acceptable in a legal case - one of these Cases which I was involved in
led to a change in the law, in that failure to ask for medical assistance in
a methadone toxicity case led to a charge of manslaughter being successfully
brought.
Best wishes
Gordon Challand
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