Why time of death matters so much - forensic pathologist Richard Shepherd - video Dailymotion

It’s not just the death. It’s the when.

Transcript

00:00good morning my name is phil hewitt group arts editor at sussex newspapers really lovely to

00:06speak to richard shepherd forensic pathologist you are heading out on tour with dates including

00:12winchester fairham and eastbourne and you are looking at time of death now yes in the context

00:19of your career why is time of death so crucial why is it something that we need to know well

00:25the police are always asking this question you know they need the confirmation about when someone

00:31died so that they can focus their own investigations to search for the perpetrators to search for evidence

00:40to search for all of these things and estimating the time of death is one of those crucial questions

00:45that forensic pathologists always get asked how long has he been dead doc and how possible is it

00:51to answer with certainty well i i would have to say that over a 40 year career we've got less and less

00:57certain technology has come along because we know um i think we're prepared to admit that variability

01:04exists much more but we are we are quite good at getting it down to plus or minus about four hours

01:12or so uh with certain variability so that that can in certain circumstances be really really helpful

01:18for the police to let them focus their investigation on that four hour gap will often give the answer

01:25and obviously it's crucial to your work but how do you explain the fact that you're going to have

01:30huge audiences hanging on your every word fascinated by this subject what is it about the subject that

01:36is so interesting to us outside it well i think that there seems to have been a groundswell and change

01:43possibly because of increased television uh use until of the crime scene and the reality of of what's

01:51going on but people really are fascinated by it but then when we think about it there were the old

01:57penny dreadfuls with the the ripper tales that were published black and white things with tremendous

02:03sort of cuts of people in black hats stabbing other people's death so it's all there it's always been

02:12there we now just have this mass media that can distribute it but fundamentally people are

02:18fascinated by things that scare them fascinate them worry them interest them and all of these people

02:26are drawn towards the investigation of crime and is there reassurance in knowing these things do you

02:32think do you think we we want this knowledge to feel safe i think there is the reassurance of knowing

02:39that terrible things happen we all know that terrible things happen but we all like the happy ending the

02:45happy being that someone is caught and convicted and put away once they've done it i'm talking of

02:53happy endings this has given your career the most remarkable second twist hasn't it after a career

02:59of 24 000 autopsies yeah well yeah they are in theaters packing them out in front of hundreds of people

03:05yes and and we have we have some you know things things on stage to talk about crime scenes

03:12and all sorts of how forensic pathologists work how i work uh and some tales perhaps with a little bit of

03:20humor in itself so it's a little bit of leavening in the slightly doer uh bit of the uh investigation of

03:28murders this one's fascinating we're really lucky to speak to you the dates in our area are winchester

03:34ferriman eastbourne it sounds brilliant thank you so much and great to see you thanks phil nice to see you too

03:41you