A Glass Case
| Author | William Spence |
| Published date | 01 October 1949 |
| Date | 01 October 1949 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4902200409 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
A Glass Case
By
DETECTIVE-CONSTABLE
WILLIAM
SPENCE
Aberdeen
City
Police
Noclaim is made for any originality on the
part
of members of
Aberdeen City Police Fingerprint Department nor is any claim
made on behalf of the perpetrators of this theft for devising yet another
way of getting intoxicated without paying for the condition;
but
rather
is an attempt being made to show once again that with ordinary equip-
ment, care and perseverance, an ordinary article like broken glass, one
of the most common articles examined at breakings-in, can, on occasion,
form the only evidence which will clearly and demonstratively prove the
guilt of a person. Such broken glass may be found about asuspect's
clothing, in his flesh if he is cut, in his footwear, in unidentified articles
in his possession, and so
forth-or,
as
the
following case shows, in a pail.
In
the early hours of Friday, April
joth,
the Aberdeen Steam
Trawler, Terrier, A936,
under
the
command of
Skipper"
Doddie "
Pirie, tied up at
The
Fishmarket, Aberdeen, after a fourteen-day fishing
trip in Northern waters. Later in
the
day, the vessel was taken to the
Graving Dock where it was coaled and hosed down, and it then returned
to
The
Fishmarket for discharge of the catch.
This
operation was
carried out on Saturday, May rst, and during the afternoon the vessel
was taken to Albert Quay and berthed. Skipper Pirie and
the
crew
then
left; everything on board being shipshape.
At 8 a.m, on Tuesday, May 4th, the Skipper returned to the
trawler to prepare for a further trip to sea and found the glass in the
ship's spare compass, which for security was screwed to
the
roof of the
cabin,
had
been broken and that the compass mixture (in which the card
bearing
the
compass pointsfloats)had been drained from the instrument.
Search revealed no moisture on the table underneath the broken
compass,
nor
was there any on
the
floor.
It
was also discovered
that
an ordinary galvanised pail was missing from the galley.
To
the Skipper
this was something of a mystery and he telephoned the Police who, on
their arrival, took possession of the compass and later handed it over to
the Fingerprint Department for examination.
The
compass measured I I in. in diameter and the top glass was
l7J:
in. in thickness. All the metal parts, including
the
flange
retaining the glass, were covered with many coats of white paint.
The
glass had been broken near the flange (see Fig. I)
and
a small piece of
white paint had been dislodged from the latter.
The
glass was con-
siderably shattered though still in position, and the compass mixture
had
run over it while the compass was being drained. Afingerprint
293
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