True Crime Forensic Book

Bite-sized Story of Life and Death

BEV CREAGH (Bedfordshire Herald & Post) gets her teeth into a remarkable double act whose happy marriage involved mouths, mirth and murder.

One of his celebrated cases involved a slater’s hammer, which thriller writer Patricia Cornwell subsequently used on the cover of her novel Black Notice. His evidence helped incarcerate the killers of child victim Victoria Climbie. And the digital imaging system he pioneered has revolutionised forensic science.

Now Persephone Lewin, wife of dentist and forensic odontologist David Lewin, has documented her husband’s pioneering research with ‘mark matching’ in a riveting new book Bite to Byte, the Story of Injury Analysis – not nearly as stuffy as it sounds and full of gallows humour.

Home office pathologist Dr Nat Cary describes it as: “fascinating stuff, written in an eloquent style illustrating the development of objective bite analysis in a criminal context – a must for anyone with an interest in forensics.”

David developed his technique initially for use in odontology cases, but the man who once claimed “Bites are my business” went on to create a foolproof system of ‘mark matching’ which has changed the face of forensics. It is now used extensively on virtually all ‘patterned’ injuries where an unknown weapon has been used.

Lutonians with long memories will be riveted by chapter 8 – The Kiss Of Death’, in which a Spanish murder suspect had the charges against him dropped in 1994 after David deduced that bite marks on the man’s back matched the teeth of his alleged victim.

 

    WORKING TOGETHER: Persephone and
David take on another case

 

 

 

It was equally compelling for Persephone, accompanying her husband for the first time and masquerading as his dental surgery assistant. She wanted to see for herself what his work involved - and found herself mixing impression material in the Luton and Dunstable Hospital mortuary while her husband prised open the mouth of the murdered man, closely watched by the local constabulary. Unfortunately she made the mix too soon and it had set like a rock by the time she handed it to him.

“For heaven’s sake!” he complained. “This stuff is very expensive. Mix up some more.”

She didn’t make the same mistake again. And the couple are now unique on the court circuit – a husband – and – wife team presenting irrefutable evidence, based on photographic analysis, for the prosecution.

They met at the Little Ship yacht club in the City and held a romantic wedding reception there 15 months later. David devoted himself to dentistry and Persephone, whose mother was Greek, wrote for Practical Boat Owner while raising their son and daughter Alexander and Juliet.

When the children left home, David decided to do a course in forensic dentistry which covered identification from dental records and ageing of burnt, mutilated and skeletonised remains.
 

   It also included bitemark analysis in criminal cases. He started taking photographs of bitemarks and designed a lightweight self adhesive scale with enhanced lines for making photographic enlargement much easier. In time David transferred his idea to new technology and pioneered a digital imaging application for forensic use, which took three years experimenting with the relevant software.

The couple, who live in East Anglia, are keen sailors and have been very involved with the RNLI – David as Director of Operations and Persephone as honorary press officer for a fast response inshore lifeboat.

She also has a hilarious new career as a stand-up comedienne – Madame Fifi, who has a penguin, a trumpet and a piece of hosepipe. This time it’s David who’s her assistant, taking care of all the sound effects.