Sherlock will soon be consigned to the history books
THE TECHNICAL armoury now at the disposal of the CID is truly awesome. Fingerprints are old hat but DNA is now so advanced that a trace particle no larger than an atom can be found, enlarged and tagged to the person who left it there without a shred of doubt.
A criminal can swear he was miles from the crime but the inner core of his mobile phone will reveal he was right there, even though it was switched off.
Blurred photos and muffled voice prints can be clarified to give no-mistake identification. And as for CCTV... Cameras are everywhere, soundless and unseen. In every search for every murderer hundreds of hours of CCTV film are scanned and usually, there he is.
Soon there will be no need for Sherlock Holmes, with a warrant card or without. Sherlock will be a boffin with a microscope.
And in the court trial it will be the technology that convinces the jury and the barristers, on both sides, will be largely superfluous.
SHE IS a terrific housekeeper, is Mother Nature. Nothing goes to waste. This week the CO took a grooming comb to our elderly Jack Russell and came up with a fistful of dog hair. Out on to the lawn it went – one of the advantages of living in the country. Within an hour it was gone.
I do not know whether it was the blackbirds, thrushes, robins, warblers or finches that did the tidy-up. What I do know is that quite soon those hairs will be lining a nest and keeping a clutch of chicks snug and warm until their feathers grow.
WATCHING the rogues of Edinburgh facing the screen and delivering one McPorky after another one notices a small placard in front of each bearing the words “Right” and “Honourable”. Whoever devised these adjectives has a greater talent for fiction than I ever did.
AFTER THIS week I promise no more about rugby. Suffice to say the fifth and last match in the Six Nations Tournament last Saturday was yet another disaster for England, crushed by Ireland after playing once again as if they had never touched an oval ball in their lives.
As usual a large component of Ireland’s 32 points stemmed from England’s crazy lack of discipline. Something radical has to be done. The sycophancy of the on-screen commentators simply added to the viewer’s fury.