Famous Pathologist to Visit Glamorgan

March 11, 2010

Famous pathologist and crime novelist Professor Sir Bernard Knight will visit the University of Glamorgan on 16th March, as a building to be used by forensic science students is named after him.

During his visit, Prof Knight will tour the ‘Scenes of Crime House’, which will now be known as the Bernard Knight Building, and take part in a question and answer session with students.

The Bernard Knight Building, part of the Faculty of Health, Sport and Science, will be furnished as a residential property which can be dressed to imitate crime scene scenarios which students can investigate.

Professor Knight, CBE, became a Home Office pathologist in 1965 and has written around 30 books, mainly in the crime fiction genre. He was born and lives in Cardiff and as well as being a forensic scientist, and a doctor, he qualified as a barrister and was awarded the CBE in 1993 for services to forensic medicine

During his 40-year career with the Home Office, he performed over 25,000 autopsies, and was involved in many high profile cases, including that of Fred and Rose West, and the child killer, Mary Bell.

Speaking ahead of his visit Prof Knight said, “It is both an honour and something of a novelty to have a building named after me – if it was a ship, I could smash bottle of champagne against it, but that seems hardly appropriate for bricks and mortar!

“What is appropriate is the function of the building, for the abiding memories of my forty years in forensic pathology seems to be mainly of standing over corpses in muddy ditches or on freezing hillsides at three in morning, anywhere from Devon to Dyfed. Attending a crime scene, however unattractive, is a vital part of the investigation and I am pleased to see a custom-built unit devoted to this important function.”

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