THE SERVICES of the Forensic Services Centre will soon be in higher demand in the law courts.

Speaking after a tour of the Culloden Road, St Michael facility yesterday, Attorney-General Freundel Stuart said that paternity issues were occurring more frequently and forensic services would increasingly be required.

"The DNA Procedures and Identification Act actually incorporates, by reference, an amendment to the Status of Children Reform Act that allows the court to call on this centre to do tests for paternity, and the findings made here are treated as final by the courts of law.

"And that is evidence of the confidence which the judicial system places in this centre," he said.

Stuart described the five-year-old facility as a voyage of discovery.
He said he was impressed with every segment of the centre, and especially so by the "articulate and intelligent young scientists making an indispensable contribution to Barbados".

In commending director Cheryl Corbin and her deputy Lorraine Alleyne for their efforts, he said it was reassuring to note that there was a department that could track people down to an environment and the possible commission of offences.

Stuart's hope

Stuart also expressed the hope that the relationship between the Royal Barbados Police Force and the forensic centre should continue.

The minister said he would look to take some of the standards and efficiencies at the forensics department to some of the others under his ministry's watch and would try to "transplant" where they could.

He said the facilities were a "sharp and startling contrast" to other places he had visited, and that the centre appeared to be a place where people enjoyed going to work.

Stuart said his lone regret was that not many people knew about the full capabilities of the forensic centre, and an information drive might be necessary.

"They [the public] need to know that we're not a second rate country when it comes to forensic investigation . . . . They need to know what capacities we have, and the extent to which the country is marching forward and setting a pace for other countries in the Caribbean,"
he stated.

Stuart added that knowledge of the centre's capacity might even act as an "unintended" deterrent to would-be criminals.

Solving serious crimes

In turn, Corbin said her team helped to solve "very serious crimes" in one of the 11 countries in the region, with which the forensics department works. Some of those countries include Guyana, St Lucia, St Vincent, Turks and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands, Belize, Antigua and Grenada.

The local forensic experts also do analysis for clients in Britain and other extra-regional areas.

"It says a lot about our scientific ability and what it means for Barbados," the director said.

Corbin noted that the centre was a multi-disciplinary organisation and provided services for the courts, medical and legal services.

The forensics department was opened in 1997, and moved to the location at Culloden Road in 2003.