Birmingham Six
Definition
Six men wrongly convicted in 1975 of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings; their convictions were quashed in 1991 partly on the basis of ESDA evidence showing that interview record pages were inconsistent with the claimed writing sequence.
- Convicted
- 1975, for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings
- Convictions quashed
- 1991
- Key evidence type
- ESDA indented-writing analysis
- Field
- Questioned document examination, wrongful conviction case
Common questions
What did the ESDA evidence actually show in the Birmingham Six case?+
ESDA analysis of the police interview notes revealed indentations inconsistent with the order in which the pages were claimed to have been written, indicating the notes had been altered or rewritten after the fact rather than recorded contemporaneously as claimed.
Why is the Birmingham Six case still cited in forensic document examination?+
It is a widely referenced example of ESDA being used to detect after-the-fact document manipulation in a real miscarriage-of-justice case, and it is often taught alongside the technique itself to illustrate its evidentiary impact.
Related terms
- 3D Optical Scanning
- Non-contact surface topography measurement using structured light or white-light interferometry to produce a nanometre-resolution height map of the document surface; an alternative...
- Corona Wire
- A high-voltage wire in the ESDA instrument that deposits electrostatic charge uniformly over the Mylar surface; charge density is higher at points...
- ESDA (Electrostatic Detection Apparatus)
- A non-destructive technique for detecting indented impressions on paper caused by writing pressure. A physical ink signature on paper produces detectable ESDA...
- ESDA Lift
- The permanent transparent Mylar sheet carrying the toner-developed image of the indented writing, produced by ESDA processing; suitable for court exhibition and...
- Foster+Freeman ESDA 2
- The current-generation commercial ESDA instrument (Foster+Freeman Ltd, Worcestershire, UK), used by the FBI Laboratory, DSTL (UK), Australian Federal Police, CFSL (India), and...
- Indented Writing
- Latent impressions produced in paper sheets beneath the writing sheet by the pressure of the pen tip; invisible under normal illumination but...
- Mylar Film
- A thin (approximately 6 micrometre) polyester film stretched over the document under vacuum in the ESDA process; it conforms to the document...
- PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984)
- UK legislation governing police investigative powers, including the code of practice requiring audio (and later video) recording of police interviews, a reform...
- Sequence Evidence
- In ESDA casework, the determination of the relative order in which pages in a notepad were written, based on which impressions appear...