2022 Mid Wales Diary

Mid Wales Diary

David Holland

BSc(Hons) Pod-Med, CBiol, CSci, FFPM-RCPS(Glasg).

This year we wondered where our badgers were coming from. Badger burrows, or setts, are large, untidy, and quite recognisable, and we have none locally on this side of the river, apart from the sett beside the rugby club half a mile away. To reach our path the badgers from there would have to climb steps, negotiate a secure metal gate, and walk down a pavement, which seemed unlikely. Did they swim the river? They can swim, but don’t if they don’t have to.

The answer came when I saw, at night, what I thought was a badger on a walkway on top of a pipe which crossed the river. Alan, a neighbour, put up a wildlife camera, and sure enough - the badgers were using it as a thoroughfare. One video sequence showed a badger with a vixen about 15 feet behind waiting her turn to cross! Various neighbours leave peanuts out for the badgers, or have bird feeders which attract them. We don’t. We moved our bird feeders after badgers insisted on digging up plants under it - night after night.

Nice though the badgers are (in late Spring they bring the cubs to visit) for the sake of the garden we prefer that they stay on the other side of the hedge.

Haydn Kelly is a Podiatric Surgeon and Forensic Podiatrist. His creation - forensic gait analysis - first became admissible as expert evidence in the UK Courts at the Old Bailey in the year 2000. His book - Forensic Gait Analysis - is well worth a read. Forensic Podiatry, which includes gait analysis but also footprint analysis, is usually applied to Criminal Law, in the identification of suspects.

I’m a Forensic Podiatrist, but in Civil Law (Clinical Negligence, Personal Injury, and HCPC Hearings), where the application of forensic analysis is less obvious, but nevertheless useful in some cases, and vital in others. The Forensic Podiatrist can identify features of gait dysfunction on CCTV. Do they match with the recorded injury? In clinical examination the Forensic Podiatrist has the opportunity to see, at close hand, if the symptomology matches the pathology on which the case is based.

Also, is the Claimant being completely honest? Some years ago, Haydn and I worked on an unusual Civil Law case together - he was instructed by the Defence, I by the Claimant. The case was Personal Injury-a Road traffic accident affecting both legs.

The Claimant was in his 20s, and could not walk far. I examined him. His gait and endurance-level fitted with the injuries sustained in the accident. Poor chap seemed in a bad way. Haydn had reason to believe he was lying, and covert CCTV footage was ordered by the Defence. I reviewed the CCTV footage. It showed the Claimant, after coming out of his house, looking right and left, and proceeding to walk absolutely normally, twirling his walking stick as he did so. No special training in forensic gait analysis needed to identify blatant fraud! I imagine, although I don’t know, that he was prosecuted for Contempt of Court.

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