'I found it sizzling in the frying pan': Expert forensic scientist reveals her four worst ever crime scenes

When forensic scientist Jo Millington was called to a north London flat following reports of a murder in February 2004, no amount of training or experience could have possibly prepared her for the sheer horror of the scene.The blood-stained body of victim Brian Cherry was lying sprawled across the living room floor of the grubby property in Walthamstow. He had been stabbed with such ferocity, by his friend and cannibal killer Peter Bryan, that loved ones were later unable to identify parts of his corpse.But it was a discovery made in the kitchen, not Mr Cherry's dismembered body, that still haunts Ms Millington, one of Britain's most distinguished blood spatter experts, more than 20 years later. At first glance she suspected the victim had simply left 'washing up' on the stove. It was only on closer inspection that the stomach-churning reality of the murder came into full focus. Pieces of human brain tissue were sizzling in a frying pan.'When you enter into a space where someone has dismembered another human being and then taken their brain and fried it up in a frying pan, it is hard to grasp how absolutely horrific that is,' she told The Crime Desk.'At first, I didn't fully recognise it myself because I was just assuming they hadn't done the washing up. There wasn't any reason to think otherwise.'Then when I looked in the pan, I thought "gosh that looks a bit weird", something doesn't look quite right about that particular bit of food. And then you start to realise that it's because it's brain.' Brian Cherry was brutally attacked in his home in Walthamstow in 2004 by his friend Peter Bryan, who had entered armed with a hammer, Stanley knife and screwdriver Cannibalistic killer Bryan was on afternoon release from a psychiatric ward after beating a 20-year-old shopkeeper to death in 1993Bryan, later known as 'the real-life Hannibal Lecter', was on afternoon release from Topaz psychiatric ward in Newham after beating a 20-year-old shopkeeper to death nine years earlier.The killer, who called himself Peckish Pete and was later labelled by psychiatrists as the most dangerous man they had ever treated, had entered Mr Cherry's flat armed with a hammer, Stanley knife and screwdriver before killing him in a devastating attack.Just hours later, an unassuming female acquaintance arrived at the property where she found Bryan clutching a knife. He whispered to her: 'Brian Cherry is dead.' I know why Jack the Ripper was protected for so longHi, I'm Alex Matthews, Editor of The Crime Desk.In 2014, we revealed the bombshell evidence identifying Aaron Kosminski as the fabled Jack the Ripper. Now, we can reveal his astonishing connection to the Freemasons and claims this motivated his killings and protected him from life in prison. Sign up here to get our exclusive piece for free. He later admitted to psychiatrists 'I ate his brains with butter, it was really nice', adding that the 'voodoo ritual' of eating human flesh had given him a 'quickening' feeling.As a specialist in blood pattern analysis, Ms Millington was tasked with constructing a narrative of the murder by carefully analysing the patterns and distribution of blood at the scene.She explained that analysing both the 'distribution and features' of the bloodstains at the scene helped her understand how Bryan may have moved and acted during the frenzied attack. Mr Cherry's dried blood meant that it was 'easier to examine without the fear of it being further transferred'. She added: 'If it's wet then we use stepping plates so that we don't have to travel through that wet blood, but if it's dry then it removes that risk of crime scene investigators moving it around which is easier.'The detail of the bloodstains are the key to the puzzle. If a force is applied to liquid blood it causes blood spatter, which are tiny droplets of blood to be projected into a space.'If someone has been beaten with a hammer then that in itself is likely to create impact patterns from the bludgeoning or potentially flick bloodstains from the hammer as it has been swung through that space. 'The cast-off blood that comes from the hammer as it's been drawn back leaves these kind of tracks of bloodstains. Those tracks are essentially road-mapping the path that the weapon took.'Bryan's string of murders began 11 years earlier, when, aged 23, he beat 20-year-old shop assistant Nisha Sheth to death with a claw hammer at her family's store in Chelsea, west London. In March 1994, he was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and sent to a secure psychiatric hospital.Doctors initially labelled him as 'a schizophrenic with violent tendencies', yet by the early 2000s Bryan was considered 'low risk' and permitted to re-enter back into the community under supervision. It was a decision that ultimately would prove fatal. Following Mr Cherry's murder, Bryan was sent to Broadmoor psychiatric hospital – home to some of Britain's most notorious killers including Robert Napper, who murdered mother-of-one Rachel Nickell, and a number of al-Qaeda jihadis. Just ten days after his arrival, he attacked and killed 60-year-old Richard Loudwell with a trouser cord in a dining room, despite nine members of staff being on duty. During a trial at the Old Bailey in March 2005, Bryan pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility for the murder of Mr Cherry and Mr Loudwell. In light of the vast amount of psychiatric evidence presented, the prosecution accepted not guilty pleas to murder charges. Jo Millington, 52, is one of Britain's most distinguished forensic scientists who has worked on some of Britain's most notorious cases - including the 7/7 bombings, the murder of 17-year-old Terry Edmonds and the infamous 'body in the freezer' Bryan's first victim, 20-year-old shop assistant Nisha Sheth, who he beat to death with a claw hammer at her family's store in Chelsea, west LondonSentencing him to two life terms, Judge Forrester told Bryan: 'You killed on these last two occasions because it gave you a thrill and a feeling of power when you ate flesh.'Following the sentencing, the family of Mr Cherry said that they believed Bryan's 'prison terms should be life, until the day he dies in a high security installation'. Mr Cherry's niece Emma, 41, described him as her 'favourite uncle' who was a 'totally kind and gentle man'. 'Both his hands were broken when he tried to defend himself. Parts of his body were not even identifiable,' she said. 'He obviously didn't stand a chance. He would never have hurt a flea. It's like something out of a horror film.'7/7 bombingsOn a busy summer's morning in London 2005, four terrorists carrying rucksacks packed with explosives unleashed hell on the capital, blowing up three Tube trains and a double-decker bus.The 7/7 bombings were the deadliest Islamist terror attack in British history and claimed the lives of 52 people, while hundreds more were left injured. But while the nation mourned, hundreds of individuals were working tirelessly behind the scenes to track down the identities of those responsible. Ms Millington was given the task of analysing the Nissan Micra that three of the four bombers had used to travel to Luton train station in, before making their final journey into London. The vehicle was believed to hold crucial DNA evidence for identifying those responsible for the deadly attacks. However, a controlled explosion was initially required to ensure it was no longer a risk. 'I didn't know that when I went into the area where the car had been brought to that the police had to do some kind of controlled explosions on it,' Ms Millington recalled. 'The explosions had blown all of the central locking and a lot of the windows out, but we knew it could contain evidence that could help to identify who had been in it, so there was no way we were going to be waiting for an engineer to unpick the central locking system. 'We just had to get on with it, so I got some paper sheets and placed them over the broken edge of the glass so that I could lean in and take all the swabs that I needed.' Four terrorists, each carrying a rucksack packed with explosives, unleashed hell on the capital, blowing up three Tube trains and a double-decker bus in the deadliest Islamist terror attack on British soil Left to right: Hasib Hussain, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Mohammad Sidique Khan, which were shown at the inquest into the bombingsDuring her examination, Ms Millington took swabs from the gear stick, car wheel, seats, indicator stick and mirrors for DNA, but there was one particular item that would finally provide a breakthrough. She added: 'Just as I was swabbing the car, I saw a little bit of rubbish in the pocket of the driver's door and that turned out to be an empty peanut packet.'Around the edge of the top it looked really chewed, as though someone had torn the packed open with their mouth while driving. 'As soon as I found it, I absolutely knew that it was going to have DNA on it. I had no doubt in my mind. None whatsoever.'One week after the tragic events of July 7, 2005, the names of the four bombers were released to the public: Hasib Hussain, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay and Mohammad Sidique Khan.Ms Millington noted that while it may have seemed small, the peanut packet left by one of the perpetrators in the car highlighted just how even the most minuscule of evidence, such as saliva, can be the ultimate 'gold mine' in securing vital DNA.Terry EdmondsIn 2006 Terry Edmonds, 17, vanished on her way to meet her boyfriend. Her body was discovered 12 days later hidden inside of a green suitcase dumped at the entrance to a car park in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.The case left investigators stunned, and Ms Millington got to work on attempting to uncover any evidence that could help reveal Terry's killer. 'I can't even put into words the impact that case had on me,' Ms Millington said. However, while Ms Millington had initially assumed that it was going to be 'simple' to obtain DNA from the suitcase, the examination proved more complex than she had hoped. She explained: 'The suitcase had a little locking mechanism on the handle, so I swabbed that and sent it off for DNA and thought to myself, that's surely going to be the perpetrator's DNA.'But it came back with a name of an individual who had donated their suitcase to a charity shop, so it wasn't them after all.'Ms Millington explained that investigators were eventually able to track down Terry's killer as the charity shop had been used by several homeless members of the community who lived in the car park, including Philip Bell.However, it would take almost three years and two failed trials before Bell was eventually brought to justice. In 2006 Terry Edmonds, 17, vanished on the way to meeting her boyfriend. Her body was discovered 12 days later inside of a green suitcase dumped at the entrance to a car park'His story changed a little bit during the context of the first and second trial, but ultimately a tiny little blood stain was found on his sweatshirt and it matched Terry's blood,' explained Ms Millington.'So I did a load of experiments on how blood transfers from one situation to another to try to recreate the bloodstain and demonstrated that the blood must have transferred really quickly which therefore put him in contact with Terry at the time she was injured.'On February 13, 2009, Bell was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years following a trial at Maidstone Crown Court.Bell, who had strangled Terry with her pink scarf during a 'lost hour' before April 17 2006 was described by Judge Andrew Patience as an 'evil man who seems to have no conscience'. Paul Dalton When Tae Hui, 38, failed to collect her six-year-old daughter from school in Kingston-upon-Thames in May 2004, friends and family initially assumed she was simply running late. But when she had still failed to make contact that evening, her concerned father-in-law let himself into the £500,000 property she lived at with her husband, Paul Dalton, a local teacher.There, he made a grim and virtually inconceivable discovery: Tae's dismembered body was inside of the kitchen freezer. And Dalton was nowhere to be seen.While a police manhunt was launched to try to find Dalton, Ms Millington went to the crime scene to try to uncover how the horrific tragedy had unfolded. 'The house was almost spotless,' Ms Millington recalled. 'It was absolutely, to the naked eye, devoid of any blood and as someone trained in bloodstains I questioned why am I here?'But it turned out that we were trying to understand whether or not this house had been the site of the original attack, and or whether it had been the site where she had been dismembered.'Ms Millington explained that while most killers 'think they can clean up blood', the reality is that it is 'very, very difficult' to leave a crime scene spotless. In 2005, teacher Paul Dalton was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife Tae Hui. Her dismembered body was discovered inside the kitchen freezer at their home To undertake a sufficient analysis of the crime scene, Ms Millington sprayed the home with leucomalachite green, a chemical presumptive test for blood which turns green when in the presence of blood. 'It generated reactions that indicated that blood had been present in the crime scene and had been cleaned up,' she explained. 'That told us that either she'd been injured there, or had been dismembered there, and that there had been this massive attempt to clean up any blood staining.'The expert noted that while Dalton had undertaken a meticulous clean of the home, a mop left near the home contained a fingerprint of blood that matched his DNA. In 2005, Dalton was cleared of murder but convicted of the manslaughter of Tae at the Old Bailey on the grounds of lack of intent to murder.The former teacher was sentenced to five years imprisonment. Jo Millington's book The Devil Is in the Detail: A Life at the Forefront of Forensic Science is available for Pre-Order here on December 25.