In May 2018, taxi driver Shipu Ahmed from Luton was convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl and a 22-year-old woman in 2007. His DNA profile was traced during Operation Painter, which linked him to the two unsolved cases. Ahmed was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Operation Painter, led by Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Lay is being undertaken by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit. The team is currently reviewing more than 1,600 crimes dating back as far as 1974, across three counties, and two of their investigations featured in the BAFTA-nominated Channel 4 series 24 Hours in Police Custody on 11 March 2019.
The programme showed investigators using Forensic Analytics’ CSAS software to analyse Mr Ahmed’s mobile phone usage and track his geographical movements over several weeks.
Assistant Chief Constable Jackie Sebire said: “It’s really important for us to allow the public to see the kind of work we do and the challenges we face in Bedfordshire. By letting cameras in to the force, we can show how hard our officers work and the challenges they face when dealing with complex investigations.”
