Top UK politician is admitted to mortuary

HOME SECRETARY Jacqui Smith has opened a £784,000 high tech mortuary designed to handle up to 600 stiffs a year. Metropolitan Police forensics officers demonstrated the new facilities using a hapless dummy that had been shot and stamped on in an attack.

The morgue is named the Iain West Forensic Suite, after one of Britain's foremost pathologists, and will be used for post-mortem examinations of suspicious deaths while ensuring vital evidence is not contaminated.

The mortuary features a bio-hazard post-mortem room, an equipment and evidence store, together with a CCTV viewing area with a live link [Eh? - Ed] to the post mortem room enabling investigating officers to watch the gory proceedings in comfort. Adding to the fun are mobile X-ray machines, used to track the trajectory of bullets.

Examinations are viewed remotely to minimise the chances of contamination.

"With issues of DNA and fabric transfer, the less people present, the less chance of contamination and the stronger the evidence is. It will make a big difference to us," said a Met spokesman. µ

L'Inq
Channel 4 News