HE IS a veteran of hundreds of crime scene investigations.
From the most violent murders to fatal fires and drug deaths, crime scene investigation supervisor Tony Dickinson has seen it all up close.
But after 48 years with Humberside Police, he is now stepping out of his forensic suit and retiring.
"I have seen some things you never expect to see," says Mr Dickinson, 65.
"It becomes your job and you do get used to it in a way, but there are some cases that affect you more than others and that I can still picture now."
Mr Dickinson joined the Hull City Police as a cadet in 1966, when he had just turned 17.
"It was like a baptism of fire," he says.
"I was just a young boy at the time."
It took two years of making tea and fixing the boiler at Gordon Street police station for him to become a constable. Even then, his only duty was to walk his beat off Hessle Road for eight hours a day.
At the time, police did not have radios, homosexuality was a criminal offence and senior officers had guns.
"It has changed a lot, but there are always changes in policing," Mr Dickinson says.
After 20 years working on the streets and in CID, he found his calling when he joined Humberside's crime scene investigation team in the late 1980s.
Since then, he has been sent to the scenes of more than 40 murders and 100 drugs deaths.
The tiny clues found by Mr Dickinson and his team's meticulous examinations have frequently provided the crucial piece of evidence needed to arrest and convict a killer.
Ask which cases he has been involved in and he reels off a list of some of East Yorkshire's most high-profile murders – Rachel Moran, Lynne Barwick, Simon Ash, Joan Charlton.
More recently, he examined the gruesome scene inside antique dealer Peter Battle's home. His body lay undiscovered for weeks after being bludgeoned to death by thief Graham Richardson.
However, Mr Dickinson still remembers the first murder scene he attended – a woman who had been shot dead by her former partner in the East Riding village of Seaton.
"It was daunting, really," he says.
"I was there as a learning curve with another officer, but I didn't know what to do."
CRIME LAB: Tony Dickinson with CSI Kelly Bilsby.Over time, he picked it up and put his detective's mind to good use as he hunted for blood spots, fingerprints, footwear marks and any bodily fluids which could provide DNA.
"I think I have an investigative mind," he says.
"I would sit and think about how it has happened, where they have been, what they have done and how.
"Then I would think about what I was looking for and try to recover things – as well as taking photographs and videos of the scene."
During his career, advances in technology have made the chances of securing DNA much easier.
"We used to need a huge amount of blood to get a DNA profile," he says, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Now, I could probably swab around the edge of this mug and the handle and get a full profile for somebody.
"CCTV has helped a lot as well, as we are able to track where people have been."
Despite admitting he has grown accustomed to the sight of dead bodies, some cases would still leave him reeling.
"After a while, you think you will never be shocked by what one person can do to another," he says.
"But it still does. Some of them have injuries that are so severe. I did one case where the person had 113 stab wounds and another where a man killed his partner in an argument about whose turn it was to make tea.
"You just ask yourself why. They didn't deserve that."
Crucial evidence helped bring murderers to justice
Tony Dickinson has helped to convict several killers by finding crucial evidence.
• In the case of Hull prostitute Lynne Barwick, who was murdered and dumped in Paull by Edward Akester, he found the hook and a tiny piece of fabric from her bra in Akester's bathroom, as well as a spot of her blood on his fireplace.
Akester was convicted of murder and jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 30 years in 2007.
• Elderly Joan Charlton was killed by her neighbour Robert Tozer. Mr Dickinson found tiny spots of her blood on the shattered glass of her back door, showing Tozer had walked through it. He admitted murder in 2009 and was jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 22 years.
• When antiques dealer Peter Battle's body was discovered in his home in Full Sutton, Mr Dickinson and his team found DNA evidence on Mr Battle's trousers which revealed the killer to be Graham Richardson. He was convicted of murder last year and jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 27 years.
• After the death of 13-month-old Alisia Salter, who was hit and stamped on by her mother's partner Oliver Longcake, he matched a mark on her forehead to the print of a television speaker in the bedroom. Longcake admitted murdering her in 2010 and was jailed for life.
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