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June Anne Devaney (1944 – 15 May 1948) was a girl from Blackburn, Lancashire, who was murdered on 15 May 1948, aged 3 years 11 months. Devaney was an inpatient at Queen's Park Hospital when she was abducted from her hospital cot, removed to the grounds of the hospital, sexually assaulted, and murdered by Peter Griffiths. To solve the crime, the police fingerprinted every male over the age of 16 who was in Blackburn on the night of the murder. It was the first time that a mass fingerprinting operation had been undertaken. ==Murder and investigation== June Anne Devaney was recovering from pneumonia in ward CH3 at Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn. Shortly after midnight on 15 May 1948, nurse Gwendolyn Humphreys (who was in the ward's kitchen) heard a cry coming from the ward. She checked the ward and found nothing wrong, and returned to her duties. At 1:20 am she felt a draught and noticed an open door at the end of the ward. She closed it, and saw that June Anne's cot was empty. Nurse Humphreys made a quick search of the ward and, finding no trace of June Anne, contacted the local police. They arrived at 1:55 am and fully searched the hospital and its grounds, finding the body at approximately 3:15 am next to a boundary wall some from the ward. As the body had injuries consistent with a beating, the hospital became a crime scene, and the ward was secured and searched. A subsequent post mortem showed that June Anne had been raped and had multiple fractures to the skull, probably from being swung into the wall whilst held by the legs.〔 Under Devaney's cot, a glass water bottle was found along with dirty footmarks which were clearly visible on the highly polished hospital floor. The bottle was examined for fingerprints and was found to have several sets on it. After the hospital staff had been checked against those fingerprints, visitors who had been in the ward were sought for elimination. After everybody who had a legitimate reason for their fingerprints to be on the bottle was accounted for, a set remained that were unidentified. The area where the body was discovered, and knowing that a taxi driver had picked up a man with a local accent close to the hospital on the night of the crime, led Blackburn Police to believe that the crime must have been carried out by a local person.〔〔 Chief Inspector Capstick, in charge of the investigation, proposed that every male over the age of 16 who was in Blackburn between 14 and 15 May 1948 be fingerprinted. The operation began, and a special card was developed so that prints of the left forefinger, middle finger and ring finger (those that were on the bottle) could be recorded swiftly. The card also recorded the individual's name, address and National Identity Registration Number.〔〔 The task-force was led by Inspector W. Barton and comprised a team of 20 officers who, armed with details from the Electoral Register, set about the districts collecting fingerprints and checking them against the samples. Over 40,000 sets of prints were taken without a match being found. After that, the police concentrated on people who had not been readily available. On 12 August 1948, after taking 46,253 sets of prints, a match was made with Peter Griffiths, a 22-year-old ex-serviceman who lived in Blackburn〔〔 and who worked as a packer at a flour-mill.〔("Peter Griffiths" at murderpedia.org )〕 The investigation was a milestone in the history of forensic science, the first time mass fingerprinting had been used to solve a crime. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Death of June Anne Devaney」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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