ABSTRACT
All evidence, without exception, is hazardous because it is inherently liable to mislead. There are several reasons for this. The first is that all evidence emerges as a result of some kind of selection. One kind may be loosely described as ‘natural selection’. Not all the evidence that is relevant to a particular inquiry will have survived. Witnesses may have died; documents may have been destroyed; the physical features of a building may have been altered. Another kind of selection is human selection. In any investigation someone has to gather the evidence that has survived; but to gather effectively, you have to be intelligent enough to recognise what may be significant, and honest enough to do the job without preconceived ideas of what the outcome of the investigation should be. Natural selection and human frailty between them ensure that no court ever sees more than a part of the whole picture, and that part may be a very small, misleading one.1
