Mr Peter Swann

Mr Peter Swann has been engaged in all aspects of fingerprint and crime scene work for five decades and his knowledge and experience result from his working in and leadership of a large fingerprint department where he was responsible for all crime scene examinations, latent fingerprint development and identifications and to his advisory and research role at the Home Office, a post he held for three years.

Mr Swann is an authority on fingerprint legislation, standards of evidence and development techniques. He also maintains a reference library of fingerprint works and technical publications. He has prepared and given expert evidence in many hundreds of cases, both at home and overseas, having been instructed by the judiciary in Australia, Eire, Europe, Middle East, Far East and the USA to examine and report on cases in their courts.

He has been involved in many high-profile cases including the murder of Police Constable Keith Blakelock (London) 1985, the Marchioness/Bowbelle Disaster Inquiry (London) 1989, The Perth Mint Case, Western Australia 1998, McNamee Appeal (London) 1999 and Peter Kenneth Smith Appeal, (London) 2011. More recently he was a Core Participant in the Fingerprint Inquiry Scotland (1998 onwards). He has given expert evidence in all types of proceedings and has been instructed on several occasions by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Mr Swann provides a full independent fingerprint service to the legal profession, industry and other agencies. All fees are in accordance with those laid down by the Legal Services Commission and from the date of examination, reports are usually prepared within the week.

His reports examine the accuracy of evidence submitted, procedures, continuity and methodology, the forging and/or transplanting of fingerprints, the age of fingerprints, fingerprints associated with blood, the significance of the positioning of fingerprints at crime scenes, the relevance of unidentified marks and what may be inferred there from. He has access to the most up to date laboratory facilities for the development of fingerprints on any type of substrate.

Mr Swann undertakes instructions on behalf of either claimant or defendant or as a Single Joint Expert.

Fellow of The Academy of Experts, a Fellow of the Fingerprint Society, Life Acitve Member of the International Association for Identification, Member of the Forensic Science Society and is listed in the UK Register of Expert Witnesses.