Who dunnit? Hopwood students investigate a murder

Date published: 14/09/2006

On 14 September over one hundred students from the Sixth Form Centre at Hopwood Hall College had the unique opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of detectives, forensics and police officers to form a Murder Squad team, when their classroom was turned into a crime scene investigation by The Crime Training Team. The Team, retired Police Officers with a wealth of expertise working on high profile murder investigations, re-constructed a crime scene, complete with body (a willing student), evidence, information about possible suspects and the scenario which was all based on real life cases. The interpretations and outcome of the investigation depended on the students’ ability to gather the evidence and make judgements based on relevant details. The students were able to see forensic equipment and techniques being used and were privy to the results of the post mortem. 

The event aimed to focus on problem solving techniques, science, citizenship, decision making, teamwork and psychology and taught the students what the Crime Training Team call the "ABC’ of murder investigation – Assume nothing, Believe no one and Confirm everything.            

The Investigating Murder activity was developed in collaboration with the Centre for Continuing Education at The University of Manchester and was funded through the AimHigher initiative. The day proved to be an excellent example of how this fund benefits young people, giving them the chance to access interesting educational experiences and think about what they might like to do when they take the next step after college. 

Kenny from the Crime Training Team said: "We always enjoy coming to work with the young people here at Hopwood Hall and have had some brilliant, intelligent discussions with them about the murder case. This activity is designed to get the students thinking logically and the Team challenge their ideas every step of the way. We encourage them to make ethical decisions based on human rights and to take ownership of the case, detaching their emotions so they can be objective. We have being on the road with this activity for over two years and over two thousand people have participated so far. We have been to many colleges and schools and recently went to Cardiff Law School to work with the next generation of legal minds. We also work with businesses – the day is really challenging and not just aimed at young people, it is suitable for all."  

Rachael Ward is studying for a BTEC National Diploma in Medical Science and said of the day: "It has been so interesting and completely different to anything else I have done. We had to piece together the evidence to come up with a profile of the killer and it is amazing how many details you have to sift through to decide what is useful and what’s not. We got to watch CCTV footage of the victim before the murder was committed and I thought that they whole day was really true to life. I’m not sure if I could wear one of the forensic outfits all day though, we were far too hot!"