Diane Ivory: Former Scotland Yard Fingerprint Expert and CSI

We put a lot of thought into keeping our guests entertained on board and we find the most interesting people we can to share their experiences. Diane Ivory is a former Scotland Yard Fingerprint Expert and CSI. After 30 years helping to convict criminals, she’s now teaching our guests the basics of fingerprinting and forensics gathering.

“Life takes you on a journey doesn’t it!”

“I went to an all-girls grammar school in South London where we were encouraged to go to university or maybe become a teacher, a nurse, or work for the Government – in the eighties there wasn’t much choice for women, and I didn’t want to go to university but I did need a job. In the same week, I went for two job interviews: One to be a cook in a hospital and the other to be a school lab technician. Life takes you on a journey doesn’t it and I ended up qualifying as a lab technician.

“The only TV shows were The Professionals, The Sweeney and The Bill and it wasn’t like that!”

One day I saw an ad in the Daily Mail asking for trainee fingerprint officers to work for the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard which I thought sounded really exciting, but I didn’t really know what a Fingerprint Officer was – at the time, the only TV shows around policing were The Professionals, The Sweeney and The Bill where there was nothing was about forensics. I was really attracted to the idea of Scotland Yard – it sounded exciting. I applied and after a long process I got the job. There were 12 of us “new recruits” and soon we were let loose in the fingerprinting bureau which set up in 1901 when the fingerprint system of identification was first adopted by police forces in England and Wales. The first British conviction based on fingerprint evidence was in 1902 at the Old Bailey. I trained and became a Fingerprint expert - being an expert means you can stand up in court and give an opinion so can really make a difference. Crime scene examination changed so much in my time – changes in science and technology had a huge impact.

“I’d like to think we changed things and made a difference.”

The Met saw a need for change all those years ago so good on them - back then, there weren’t many women and some of the attitudes were a bit old school, but I’d like to think we changed things and made a difference. We were such a good group of colleagues and friends. It was a subtle shift bringing in more women, but it definitely changed things and over the years it felt much more equal.

I started working on “volume crimes" – car crimes, thefts, burglaries etc but moved on to serious crimes. I’ve worked on some very high-profile cases, but I don’t talk about them – I don’t want to glorify something that caused someone else terrible trauma.

“They can’t hurt someone else the way you’ve been hurt, that is why we do it”

Any time you get a fingerprint match is a wow moment – I’ve got a match; I’ve got the thief’s marks! It’s a lovely moment. Fibres on broken glass, a muddy shoe print on the windowsill, a finger mark at the point of entry – you’ve got everything you need to catch someone. I’ve been burgled, it’s a horrible feeling – being a victim of crime is so awful – so if I catch someone and take them out of the community so that they can’t hurt someone else the way you’ve been hurt, that is why we do it.

“The cocktail waiter did it!”

I worked for 30 years and was ready to go but I do miss it which is why I love teaching my workshops. I encourage the guests to wear the CSI suits – they can keep them afterwards, they’re great for decorating! I show them how to lift prints from my cruise ship “crime scene”, how to identify them and how to use that to find the culprit - I choose crew members to be the baddies. The cocktail waiter did it! Sometimes guests tell me their plan to get away with murder and I always tell them their plans are flawed, and forensics will catch them out – we have a lot of fun.”