John Sweetman

I just wasn't getting the buzz out of it as I had been.

And I knew there was a vacancy coming up in the handwriting end of it.

And I knew that that would be what I'd get into, you know.

But I had to train for it, you know.

So I went for that and like that got into it.

But I started off then on document examination, like looking at tax discs and NCT discs and Ogie money and stuff like that.

Passports, driving licenses, all that sort of stuff.

And then we also had to do an awful lot of

as the examination is what it was called when you say you write on a writing pad and indentations from that might go through onto the next several pages so you're examining the pages for indentations that wouldn't be visible you know not like when you if you were really lean and i'm talking about you wouldn't be able to see these but there's a certain process with you're using an electrical charge and you're putting a toner across and all that that might you

develop the indentation.

So I did a lot of that as well as getting me eye in for the handwriting.

And then I was sent on training for that.

I did six weeks over in Birmingham, just purely handwriting, you know.

And it was a bit like fingerprints because every time you're looking at handwriting, you're still learning.

Your eye is getting in there.

You're like, you know, you're starting to figure out what's unique, what characteristics of somebody's writing carry more kind of evidential weight than others and stuff like that.

And I found it very interesting because unlike fingerprints, it's not a standalone bit of evidence.

Like with fingerprints and DNA, you can give that evidence as identification without having any other backup evidence.

You know what I mean?

Whereas handwriting is supportive evidence.