Fraudulent forensic expert jailed

A bogus forensic psychologist who supplied evidence in hundreds of court cases has been jailed for five years.

Jamaican-born Gene Morrison, 48, was described in court as a charlatan who had tricked judges, lawyers and police.

About 700 cases he worked over 26 years, across the UK, will now have to be re-assessed, Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court was told.

Judge Jeffrey Lewis said Morrison, who was convicted on 20 charges, was an "inveterate and compulsive liar".

The charges included obtaining a money transfer by deception, obtaining property by deception, perverting the course of justice and perjury.

He was cleared of one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception.

The court heard Morrison was paid at least £250,000 (US$487,340) in taxpayers' money for giving apparently expert advice, but had actually bought his qualifications from a sham university.

Morrison's firm, Hyde-based Criminal and Forensic Investigations Bureau (CFIB), had been hired to give evidence in court. Many of his reports were cut and pasted from the internet.

'Compulsive Liar'

Judge Lewis said: "You yourself had no expertise worth speaking of. Your business was built on a whole series of lies.

"My impression of you as an inveterate and compulsive liar is borne out by the verdict of the jury.

Morrison admitted to police he began working as a forensic investigator in 1977 after buying certificates by post for a BSc in Forensic Science, a Masters with excellence in Forensic Investigation and a Doctorate in Criminology.

It "looked easier" than going to a real university, he told the court.

During his four-week trial he insisted on being called Dr Morrison.