I found this article (www.sew.org.uk) but it has no date on it or author.  It’s an interesting application of pattern matching.  As a Defence Expert I would be bound to ask about the validity of the interpretation – what is the database of freckle patterns?  However, logically it seems that if the pattern matches there’s a very good chance of the match being correct, borne out, in this case, by the guilty plea!

“MAN CONVICTED USING PIONEERING ‘FRECKLE’ PATTERN ANALYSIS

Pioneering analysis by a forensic anthropologist has led to the ground-breaking conviction of a man on charges of sexually abusing young girls during a trip to Thailand.

Southwark Crown Court heard that 50 year old Dean Hardy from Orpington in Kent had been careful to keep his face out of photographs that he had taken on a business trip to the country.  But, the jury heard, police had noticed a man’s hand touching the girls in some of the pictures.

The, as yet unnamed, expert compared the freckles and blemishes on the hand in the photographs with those of Hardy’s left hand and found them to be identical.

During proceedings, Peter Zinner for the Prosecution told the Court that the marks were ‘striking’ and that that had led to the decision to commission an expert investigation.

He described the case as “the first of its kind because Mr Hardy was subsequently identified”

Hardy pleaded guilty to a number of charges including indecent assault, taking and possessing indecent photographs.”