John Sweetman

Because, you know, when the baby is forming, you can think like the hands and the feet are almost like little paws.

So all these little pads on them and the friction skin, which is the stuff the fingerprints is made out of, that forms around these pads and then that forms the patterns.

And it's just like it's a rant.

And it's right down to like each fingerprint is made up of all these friction ridges and the friction ridges are made up of each individual pattern.

like a sweat pore and a sweat gland or whatever it is, and a piece of friction skin.

And there's just so much of that to form.

And it can't be replicated twice.

You can come close.

We've all seen fingerprints where they're quite close, but they're never right, because there's always something that won't agree if it's not the same person.

And the whole thing about it is that

They're permanent from the time you're born till after you die and you decompose, unless you got a big deep cut or a burn or something like that.

They'll stay the same throughout life.

And so if you've got a mark from, say, that glass there and a set of fingerprints, right thumb or something like that, all the characteristics that you can see on that developed fingerprint that you've powdered should agree with what's on the set of fingerprints, if it's the same person.

Yeah.

It's very important when you're making identifications.

that they're verified by other experts independently you know so you'd give them a mark and you'd give them a set of fingerprints and then you know you don't tell them what fingerprint or what finger to look at stuff like that so they'll verify it and stuff like that because when you give evidence on a fingerprint any type of identification person given evidence on dna or blood or anything like that every time a person is given that kind of identification evidence

not only is the evidence in relation to that particular case important you're also backing up the whole history of it before you you know so like and there's always going to be there has been cases over the years where people have made wrong identifications and it's usually down to peer pressure or you know lack of training stuff like this that but it brings down the whole system the whole shebang when you do that and it calls it into doubt just a little

Yeah, well, it wasn't a big leap, you know, it was only one floor down, the same building, stuff like that.

I'd done The Fingerprints for 10 years, I liked it, but I was still young enough, you know, and, you know, I had two kids by that stage, and, you know, I was just fancy to change, really.

It wasn't that I didn't like what I was doing, I just...