CRIME SCENE HOUSE
Above: The exterior of the house where thousands of crimes have been committed
“Some of the students get quite fazed at crime scene three, because it’s the first time they will have a body in the room,” says Rogers. “The body is a second-year student who poses as a murder victim – we have staff qualified to do makeup for bullet wounds, knife wounds and suchlike. But nobody’s ever fainted on us yet.” After leaving a career in banking to pursue the BSc in Forensic Science at Staffordshire University, Daniel Ward graduated with first-class honours in July 2012. “Walking into the house for my third-year exercise was pretty scary,” he says. “I didn’t know what to expect, and also we were being timed. “We were in a group of four and we found the body of a young woman on the sofa in the living room, lying down with a cut on her neck. It was quite exciting, but the pressure was really on. We had to make sure we didn’t miss any evidence and work together to beat the clock and not mess anything up. The Crime Scene House was an excellent experience and really set me up for dealing with these situations in the real world.” It’s not just forensic science students who benefit from the Crime Scene House. The policing and forensic investigation students also use it. “We integrate our policing students into the process by getting them to go to the scene before the forensic students come in, and they will do the initial officer attending at a death or murder scene,” explains Rogers. “They have to write up that report. Then the forensics students come in and process the crime scene.” Research is also an important function. “It’s like one of our science laboratories,” says Cassella. “In
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