Cold case author details how DNA caught thief

THE case of an armed robber whose dandruff landed him with a 15-year sentence 11 years after he donned a stocking mask and snatched a payroll is to feature in a new book.

Australian writer Liz Porter’s latest book Cold Case Files’ – which is published next month – examines the case of Andrew Pearson, who was jailed for the 1993 raid on Atlas Caravans after new forensic methods found an exact match between flakes of dandruff found on his discarded stocking mask and his DNA.

Pearson had left just 25 tiny flakes of skin on a woman’s stocking which he wore as a mask then discarded in a stolen getaway car.

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The evidence was re-examined in 2002 and new DNA technology used to test the dandruff – and they pointed towards Pearson, who has 76 convictions dating back to the 1970s, for offences including burglary, robbery and assault.

The case also prompted an advertising campaign by a leading shampoo manufacturer.

Liz Porter said: “UK police have provided me with several spectacular and dramatic cold cases.

“In another case in Cardiff crime scene investigators removed the skirting boards in a renovated and repainted flat and found blood shed during a murder committed there more than a decade earlier.

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“In the Hull case, the robbers had left a crime scene that was almost pristine: just an empty getaway car with a couple of finger prints that couldn’t be processed at that point – and a piece of stocking mask containing fragments of dandruff on it – so tiny that they could not be processed for DNA with 1993’s techniques.

“The Hull police finally got results because they stored this evidence carefully – and waited patiently for the scientific advances to come.”

Detective Sergeant Mike Reed who was in charge of the re-opened case and spoke to the author said: “It is fantastic that Liz has chosen a cold case review carried out by Humberside Police. It will be available across the world and shows that Humberside Police are at the forefront of policing.”

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