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A forensic scientist who has worked with police and given evidence in major court cases says she is “delighted and humbled” to be knighted.
professor lady Lorna Dawson is director of the Center for Forensic Soil Science at the James Hutton Institute, an independent research organization in Scotland.
She has spent more than thirty years studying the interactions of soil and plants, with a particular interest in how this applies to the criminal justice system.
During her career she has advised on over 150 cases in the UK and abroad, written over 100 expert witness reports and given evidence in a number of high profile cases.
She said: “I am honored and delighted to have been appointed DBE in recognition of services to innovation and applications in forensic soil science.
“This honor recognizes scientific innovation, the power of partnerships, and how forensic soil science supports justice nationally and globally.
“I am especially grateful to my family for their support and to the many people in the organizations I work with who have helped establish forensic soil science as a recognized and invaluable discipline throughout the world.”
Her work developing forensic soil science techniques helped the discipline grow from a “cottage industry” around 2005, when just a few scientists worked in front rooms with microscopes, to a recognized tool in the criminal justice system.
She said: “The methods have been tested, peer-reviewed, peer-published, assessed and evaluated, so the evidence is reliable.
“That’s absolutely critical for anything used in the court system.”
Ms Lorna gave evidence in more than 20 cases, including the trial of the late Angus Sinclair, who was convicted in the Supreme Court in 2014. high court Livingston raped and murdered teenagers Christine Eadie and Helen Scott in Edinburgh in 1977 in what became known as the “World’s End Murders”.
It is the first prosecution under changes to Scotland’s double jeopardy law, which means he could be retried for murder after a court case against him failed seven years ago.
Methods developed in recent decades allow scientists to examine cold cases, help bring people to justice and find answers for families.
Speaking about the Sinclair case, Dame Lorna said: “It’s incredible because forensic scientists in the 1970s preserved evidence that we can go back and open that safe jar and it’s untouched and it can still be analysed, which is incredible.”
“It is truly an honor to be asked to work on these cases because you know these families have been waiting for decades to learn what happened to their loved ones.
“I remember Helen Scott’s brother, he wrote to me after the case was heard in court and said thank you very much, we have closure for the family.
“These little things and little letters that you get every once in a while – you’re reminded of why you’re doing these things, but you’re not affected by it at the time, but afterwards it does remind you how important it was.”
She also presented evidence at the trial inverness William MacDowell was found guilty in 2022 of murdering 36-year-old Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son Andrew in November 1976.
The scientist also gave evidence during the trial of Iain Packer at the High Court in Glasgow. Iain Packer, who was convicted in 2024 of the 2005 murder of Emma Caldwell and multiple sex crimes against other women, is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 36 years.
She gave evidence at the Sheku Bayoh inquest, which is looking into the circumstances of his death in May 2015 after being restrained by about six police officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and whether race was a factor.
Ms Lorna, who lives in Aberdeen, helps train police forces in crime scene sampling.
As well as courtrooms and crime scenes, crime writers and television producers also draw on her expertise.
The mother-of-three has worked with writers including Ann Cleeves, Iain Rankin, Alex Gray and Stuart McBride, and contributed to TV shows including David Wilson’s Crime Files and Expert Witness.
In 2017 she received a Special Recognition Award at the Pride of Britain Awards and a year later was awarded european business education association in recognition of her contributions to soils and forensic science.