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Leeds artist used blurry photos to sketch unknown victims
A Leeds-based artist used decaying blurry photographs and even a CCTV grab to "bring to life" 20 unidentified bodies for a public appeal.
Police facial imaging specialist Sharon McDonagh said she used mortuary photographs to create her sketches.
Ms McDonagh said many of the photographs were of poor quality and in a bad condition, particularly those from files that are now up to 35 years old.
She said her sketches were created in the style of modern e-fit suspect photographs because these have a good record of being recognised by the public.
In one case, that of a man struck by a train at Harpenden, Hertfordshire, in 2004, the artist used an image from CCTV footage as no mortuary photograph was available.
Ms McDonagh said: "I was given mortuary photographs of the deceased. What I normally try and do is combine an e-fit with free hand drawing.
"The public are quite good at identifying images from e-fits so I try to make the drawings look like them.
"Some of the photographs were from 1975 so they were quite blurry images.
"I am confident these images are good representations of these people and hopefully someone will come forward and identify them."
Peter Neyroud, head of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), said he was confident someone will recognise the sketches.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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