Professor will deliver RGU lecture

A FORENSICS expert whose high-profile cases have included the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and the World’s End murders in Edinburgh will give a lecture in Aberdeen next week.

Professor Dave Barclay, former head of physical evidence for the UK National Crime and Operations Faculty, will give a presentation to potential forensic science students at an open day at the Robert Gordon University (RGU) next Saturday.

Prof Barclay, who has been a lecturer at RGU for about three years, has been involved in reviewing more than 200 murder investigations.

His lecture, entitled Scientist or Psychopath, will take place at the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences on the university’s St Andrew Street campus. Prof Barclay will discuss forensic science in crime investigations and use graphic case histories and photographs which some people may find disturbing.

He said: “I have been involved in a number of cases, mainly child abductions and several murder cases.

“Part of my job was to review old cases to see if we could find any new forensic evidence, such as DNA.”

One of the most high-profile cases he has worked on was the World’s End murders in which Helen Scott and her friend Christine Eadie, both 17, were beaten, raped and strangled in Edinburgh in 1977. A man was charged almost 30 years later but was cleared of the killings.

Prof Barclay said: “With the changing of forensic evidence and DNA over the years, we would look into cases to see if there was anything to link the murderers to the scene of the crime or to the place where a body had been dumped.

“In the World’s End case, we discovered male DNA on the bindings used to tie the two girls. This had been preserved for over 30 years.”

He was also sent to Portugal in 2007 to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann for a Channel 4 documentary.