The Sheffield Medico-Legal Centre
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7805100303 |
| Author | R. W. Cozens |
| Published date | 01 July 1978 |
| Date | 01 July 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
R.
W.
COZENS
Deputy
Chief
Constable, Lincolnshire
THE SHEFFIELD
MEDICO-
LEGAL CENTRE
Police Officers are only too familiar with the poor standard of
most public mortuary and post-mortem facilities in this country,
which in many cases can only be described as primitive. A major
advance in this field has recently been achieved in South Yorkshire
with the opening of Britain's first ever purpose-built Medico-Legal
Centre in Sheffield. The building was designed in consultation with
its two main users, Dr. H. H. Pilling, Her Majesty's Coroner for
South Yorkshire (West) and Home Office Pathologist and Police
Surgeon, Dr. Alan Usher.
It
houses a Public Mortuary, Coroner's
Court, Police Surgeons' Suites and the University Department
of
Forensic Pathology and represents the first attempt to place all these
services under one roof.
The centre complements several new major medical and legal
developments in Sheffield such as the Hallamshire Hospital, the
Blood Transfusion Centre, the newly completed Magistrates'
Courts building, the Police Headquarters for South Yorkshire and
the University
of
Sheffield Department of Law building and Centre
of Criminological Studies. Together they create one of the most
advanced concentrations of such facilities in Europe.
Coroner's Court
Accommodation has been provided in the Medico-Legal Centre for
the Coroner, his officers and secretariat. Small private rooms are
available for interviewing relatives and for concerned parties to
consult their legal advisers. The Court itself is fully air-conditioned
and the temperature is thermostatically controlled. Curtains and
panels behind the Coroner's dais slide back to reveal whiteboards
and a screen and the Court can be converted into a lecture theatre
for up to 80 people.
The elderly often have difficulty in hearing proceedings, particu-
larly the quiet voices of distressed witnesses. To overcome this there
is an amplification system which can be controlled from the
Coroner's desk with microphones for the legal representatives, the
witnesses and the Coroner. Video-tape units have been installed so
that accident reconstructions can be shown and lastly there is a
built-in tape-recording unit so that all proceedings can be recorded
and, if necessary, played back through monitors.
July 1978 243
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