Blueline Jobs

As featured in Wales Today, Abi Carter has played a key role in revealing the truth behind big criminal cases, including the Raoul Moat killings and Joanne Yeates murder in Bristol.

Abi, now 27, is busy running her business she set up when she was just 24, a company which has provided scientific expertise for high profile criminal cases.

In the case of gunman Moat, it was Abi’s company that re-examined the ballistic and audio evidence, and with the Joanne Yeates case, it was her experts who looked once again at the DNA evidence.

Abi spotted a niche market for providing case-management expertise for defence teams in criminal cases, in dozens of disciplines such as DNA analysis, toxicology and fingerprint development.

And through sheer drive and determination she set up her company – which she combines with a consultancy role for Kenyon International as a forensic archaeologist in natural disaster emergency response.

Forensic archaeology

Abi said, “CSI portrays forensics as being very easy and fast with information getting spat out of a computer but that is not how it happens in real life – it’s not glitzy and glamorous – it’s hard work with lots of administration.

“I do think that it is encouraging more people to go into forensics but I’m not sure that is such a good thing if it’s for the wrong reasons. It’s not like what you see on the television, it is a tough industry.”

It was while studying at Cardiff that a chance visit to a facial reconstruction exhibition at a museum led Abi on to her masters course in forensic archaeology at Bournemouth.

“I looked at the application of forensics to archaeology and how this could be used in the field of international human rights.

“I had always been interested in criminology but I didn’t just want to look at the theory side, I wanted to look at the practical side which is why I went into archaeology.

“Forensic archaeology actually has nothing to do with history as it only deals with the last 70 years – it uses archaeological techniques to look at homicides and genocides. It has nothing to do with the Iron Age or mummies.

“After doing my masters I returned to Cardiff looking for work and during this time I did some work in the university lab helping the students before getting my first job training as a DNA analyst.”

After that job came to an end, Abi was once again left looking for work.

“I didn’t know what to do then for a while because I didn’t want to leave Cardiff and that is what I would have had to do if I wanted to work as a forensic archaeologist… so I set up a company that allowed me to stay in forensics, making it a business at the same time. I was just 24 when I set up the company and it was definitely the most frightening experience of my life but I did it through sheer brute stubbornness.

Forensic Resources 

“I knew that there were companies out there that needed the service that I could provide." And after 18 months she was able to employ two full-time members of staff supported by a team of experts that can be called upon at short notice.

“I love the fact that every day is different – we never know what cases we are going to get – some can be quite similar but others quite quirky. What we do know is that we never get two days the same in a row.

The work is primarily with defence lawyers, solicitors and barristers and we will be instructed to re-analyse prosecution evidence.

“Once a crime has been committed all the evidence will go somewhere like the Forensic Science Service and could include things like hair, saliva and DNA.

“These reports will then be disclosed to the prosecution and defence but in favour of the prosecution and that is where we come in – to re-examine the evidence for the defence.

“We might find some loophole in the report or it may simply need greater explanation or it may all be correct and there is nothing for us to retest.

“An example might be that someone comes to us saying they have been told that a substance is cocaine but they are not sure and so they give it to us to retest.

“We deal with lots of DNA and also fingerprints, CCTV and computer work. We also do work for insurance companies looking at things like documents that might be forged or fraudulent.

“We can look at watermarks on documents and our handwriting experts can look at the loops in certain letters to see if they are forged as well as using scientific equipment to study the documents.

“One case might involve hand writing analysis and the next might be a life insurance case when someone has been killed.

International aspirations

“My aim is to take my company international – I think that as long as people are committing crime then we are going to be needed.

“We are trying to find justice for those who have been wronged or for the families left behind.

Outside of the company, Abi is also passionate about her role in Kenyon International, which is a mass disaster emergency service which deploys teams of experts to go out and deal with airline crashes.

“My role would be getting the bodies out if they are buried under the wreckage or submerged in the water and conserving that body. Other experts such as pathologists and fingerprint experts have their own roles to fill and the overall aim is to repatriate the bodies of their loved ones.

“Since setting up the company I haven’t been able to go on deployment with Kenyon International but it is something that I hope to do in the future.

“My work is very important to me because forensics is all about helping people who have lost loved ones and trying to find justice whatever it might be.

“I also want to do more work with forensic archaeology in the future as genocide work and human rights violations are very important to me.”

As well as running her company Abi is on the board of Young Enterprise, is a judge for the Welsh Baccalaureate, on the committee of Women in Management and works for Dynamo, the Welsh Government programme where they ask entrepreneurs to speak in schools, colleges and universities.