Why time of death matters so much - forensic pathologist

Richard Shepherd, the UK’s most distinguished forensic pathologist, is back in theatres with his new show Time of Death, following on from his hugely popular Unnatural Causes tour a year or two back.

New dates include Sunday, November 8 at Guildford’s GLive.

As Richard says, in the realm of forensic pathology, time is crucial. It holds the key to understanding the truth behind accidents, murders and unexplained deaths – whether it’s the exact moment of death needed to help solve a crime or how long it would take someone to die in a particularly situation. Equally, it could be about an understanding of what happens in the minutes, days and weeks after death. All these different times help us interpret the truths only a body can give us.

“When I retired one of the things that I decided I wanted to spend some time doing was mending clocks. Some people hate the tick of a clock but I absolutely love it and having spent a lifetime taking things apart and never being able to put them back together again, certainly never being able to make them work again, I wanted to explore my fascination with clocks. But when I was thinking about it, I realised that so much of my life as a forensic pathologist was also about time. It was one of the first questions you got asked ‘What time did he die, doc?’ You would get asked whether a sudden injury was caused before death or after and you would get asked how long could someone have lived with the injuries that they had, how long it would have taken them to bleed to death. Time is the link between all of these things.”

And inevitably so many factors come into the answer: “One of the things that you realise is that it is a lot easier to say ‘No, it was not last Tuesday’ than it is to say ‘Yes, it definitely was last Wednesday’. But excluding things can be really useful as well for the police. It can really allow them to focus where they need to be looking. It allows them to narrow down witnesses and possible suspects. If there's a stabbing right in the middle of the street in front of 40 people at exactly 15.15 then the timing is not important but there are cases where the time can be absolutely crucial.”

And over a long career, our understanding of it has certainly changed: “I think we accept now that we can give areas. You can be more certain about the midpoints but maybe you can't be more specific about the side points…”

There is certainly going to be a lot to discuss on the tour – all part of the fun of the stage show which emerged on the back of the success of Richard's first book.

“I had never thought about doing something like this. I had never done any amateur dramatics. I used to enjoy doing lectures and I used to enjoy, as much as you can, giving evidence in court which is something that has certainly got a theatrical element to it in the sense that you are giving information to a group of people. But I suppose there has to be a showman in you just to go into court and just to put yourself in that position. And I do enjoy talking. I'm never fazed at the thought of 600 people out there waiting for me to speak. I just think that's great. And I am never spooked by it. Touch wood! But I would still say that deep down I'm quite a shy person that normally prefers one to one!”

As for the fascination that his audience brings to the show: “There seems to be such a lot of interest now in true crime. I suppose they used to have the penny dreadfuls about Jack the Ripper, the single sheet publications always with a line drawing with a lot of fog and a man in dark clothes and a black hat and with a single light. I guess that was always there but I think with the increase in TV channels and social media and the easy distribution of podcasts, I think it has allowed it all to flourish.”

The interest that people bring to the show is multifaceted: “There are some people that are really there for the ghoul and for the shock horror but a lot of people I think are really genuinely interested in the sociological and psychological aspects of crime. There is also an element of people thinking ‘What if it were me?’ There is definitely a ‘What if?’ element. But do you remember the Hammer House of Horror films? We liked to be scared because we knew that at the end we would fundamentally be safe. It's the human challenge of fear but it's also about knowing that the baddies are going to be caught and that the baddies are going to be punished.”