Warning on child assault forensic tests

Not all doctors working with police services are adequately trained to carry out forensic examinations, which puts child victims of assault at risk because offenders can slip through the net, according to an expert.

One recent advertisement for a forensic physician called for no specialist skills or experience, said Prof Ian Wall, president of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM).

In a speech to a major conference tomorrow he will say that rigorous standards of forensic medical examination must be set to protect children who are the victims of sexual assault.

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Unless doctors who carry out forensic medical examinations – on possible child victims and suspects of sexual assault – are trained to high standards, then signs of sexual or physical abuse could go undetected and assailants walk free, he will tell the UK medical conference on the subject, being held in Manchester. “Ensuring that forensic physicians know what they are doing is the least that the victims of sexual assault can expect.”

The meeting is organised by St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre, the first centre of its kind in the UK.