Press release
Minister for Justice publishes 2022 Annual Report of Office of the State Pathologist
Published on
Last updated on
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has published the 2022 Annual Report of the Office of the State Pathologist.
The Office of the State Pathologist (OSP) provides independent expert advice, at a national level, all year round, on matters relating to forensic pathology and performs post mortem examination (PMEs) in criminal, suspicious or unusual deaths. State Pathologists are often required to attend and give evidence in coronial, criminal or civil courts.
The report details the wide range of valuable work conducted by the Office in 2022 during which 417 cases were dealt with, of which 213 were State forensic cases.
Speaking today, Minister McEntee said:
“I would like to thank the Chief State Pathologist, Professor Linda Mulligan, her team of forensic pathologists, and the wider office and laboratory team, for their unwavering commitment and professionalism in the provision of an oftentimes difficult and complex service for deceased people and bereaved loved ones.”
Chief State Pathologist Professor Linda Mulligan was appointed in 2021, as were two new State Pathologists and two Deputy State Pathologists in 2022, strengthening the Office and bringing the team to a full complement.
The Office of the State Pathologist also provides expert forensic advice to various groups and plays an important educational role by providing teaching to government bodies, An Garda Síochána, the Military Police and to medical schools in higher education institutions.
There are also formal research elective agreements in place with the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (masters of forensic science), Royal College of Surgeons (undergraduate medicine) and UCD (undergraduate medicine).
Following the appointment of Professor Mulligan as a clinical professor at the UCD School of Medicine in July 2022, a formal arrangement is now in place for an annual elective UCD medical student attachment and this affiliation paves the way for more potential academic opportunities in forensic pathology.
In addition, the Office of the State Pathologist introduced a very successful application process for all interested elective students in 2021/2022, which resulted in several informative and valuable projects, two of which have been submitted to peer reviewed scientific journals for publication.
Minister McEntee added:
“The OSP’s contribution to higher education in Ireland is particularly valuable as it is preparing our next generation of forensic pathologists, but also is capitalising on opportunities for research and innovation that will no doubt strengthen the national forensic pathology service and criminal justice system into the future.
"Last week, my department hosted a conversation on LinkedIn with the OSP and a post-doctoral research fellow, Dr. Niamh McCullagh, who is being jointly supervised by the OSP and UCD and funded by the Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme.
"Dr. McCullagh’s research will expand and improve the search paradigm for missing persons presumed to be victims of homicide through more extensive data collection and the addition of more recent cases from the Office of the State Pathologist database.
"This interesting research project has the potential to have significant positive impacts for An Garda Síochána in investigating missing persons cases, and of course for the families of missing loved ones and the wider public.”
Professor Linda Mulligan, Chief State Pathologist went on to say:
“The OSP is grateful to the Department of Justice and Minister McEntee for their continued support and governance. Having a full complement of staff has allowed us to expand our capabilities. Research, education, the promotion of forensic pathology as a career and the continued quality improvement at the OSP means that we can deliver a sustainable national service that operates in line with best practice guidelines, while always striving to develop and improve itself.
“We aspire to provide the best service possible to the coroners, An Garda Síochána, the courts and most importantly, to bereaved families and loved ones throughout Ireland.”
State Pathologist Office provides independent expert advice on matters relating to forensic pathology and performing post mortem examinations in criminal, suspicious or unusual deaths.
Forensic pathology is the discipline of medicine that deals with the determination of the cause of death for legal purposes.
State Pathologists are often required to attend and give evidence in coronial, criminal or civil courts.
The Office of State Pathologist also deals with a significant number of other types of cases such as skeletonised remains, which may require the expertise of a forensic anthropologist, cold case reviews and referred cases, which are cases that are referred for a further professional opinion, usually from outside the Irish jurisdiction.
During 2022, 417 cases were dealt with by the Office of the state Pathologist (this figure was 327 in 2021, 345 in 2020, 335 in 2019 and 286 in 2018). The majority of these were state forensic cases (213) comprising 51% of the total caseload.
Attendance at the scene of death was recorded in 26 of 213 cases (12%) in 2022 (this figure was in 30 of 182 cases (16.5%) in 2021.)
The Office, at the direction of the Dublin District Coroner, carried out 172 adult non-suspicious post mortem examinations.
There were 28 cases of skeletonised remains, 16 of which were documented as animal bones, 11 as human bones and 1 that was determined to be wood. This represented a 35% decrease in 2022, (there were 43 in 2021, 11 in 2020 and 27 in 2019).
A Forensic Anthropologist was involved in all 11 cases where the remains were found to be human and five of the cases where the bones were animal.
In eight of the 11 human remains cases, the remains were ancient and were referred to the National Museum of Ireland.
Of the remaining 3 human bones, one was identified as modern, one is awaiting carbon dating and the third is awaiting DNA analysis.
Forensically relevant skeletonised remains (those deemed less than 70 years old) are treated as State forensic cases.