Assessment title: Case Study
What would be the potential evidences that could prove or disprove the 3 suspect’s involvement in the robbery and of the stolen vehicle? What evidence may have been available but may not be any more due to the circumstances of the scenario?
Scenario:
In this scenario given, 2 men robbed a bookmakers with another man waiting outside in a getaway car (Red Ford Focus) which had been stolen earlier that day. 2 balaclavas, a sawn off shotgun and 2 pairs of marigold gloves were recovered from the getaway car.
Car Break-in and theft:
For the crime of the theft of the car, there is a large amount of evidence that could/would be collected, if it is available. This could have been damaged or destroyed in the time after either
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This shows that a gun has been fired in close proximity to the clothing recently. Unless the suspect had another reason for being in close proximity to a weapon being discharged, it is good evidence against the suspect.
Evaluation of evidence:
In this scenario, there is a huge amount of evidence that could be collected. The evidence could be only related to one of the crimes (e.g. Shotgun) or it could be related to both of them (e.g. suspects clothing). Although there is many different types of evidence (Fingerprints, Fibres, Hair, DNA etc.) that could have been found at these two crime scenes, the majority of it could be used to provide a conviction, if it could be found.
However, if the evidence is not found, it does not however mean that the suspect did not commit the crime. To quote Carl Sagan, “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” (1996). This means that although evidence that would be expected to be found, that is not, does not mean that the crime was not committed as such, just that the evidence was not found or recovered. This is assumed due to Locards principle in which when two objects touch, each leaves a trace on the other (Erzinclioglu, 1997) which has since become a fundamental law for