ABSTRACT
In the days following the 1989 Marchioness disaster, the hands of 25 victims were removed for fingerprinting but fingerprints were only used to identify four of those bodies (Clarke LJ, 2001, p 21, para 5.20). LJ Clarke concluded that the hands were removed because ‘Dr Knapman authorised their removal in order for fingerprints to be taken. He, in effect, confirmed that authority on 22 August [1989]’ (Clarke LJ, 2001, p 31). Since the coroner had to ‘be satisfied as to the identity of each of the deceased’ LJ Clarke considered that when the fingerprint officers took the view that it was necessary to remove the hands, the police ‘permitted the removal of the hands in accordance with that authority’, which they regarded as ‘amounting to an instruction’ (Clarke LJ, 2001, p 31, para 6.27).
