A forensic expert has condemned the UK's failure to establish its first ever human 'body farm' where people donate their corpses for forensic research.
John Cassella, a professor of forensic science at Institute of Technology in Sligo, Ireland, is a passionate advocate for body farms, officially known as 'human taphonomy facilities'.
Body farms are outdoor laboratories where scientific research is carried out on human bodies donated by their owners prior to death.
How exactly the bodies affect surrounding vegetation as they decompose can answer questions such as how long they've been there – possibly providing crucial evidence in murder cases.
Efforts from a group of like-minded forensic experts to establish a body farm in the UK are not 'making any movement at all', Professor Cassella told MailOnline, partly due to opposition from members of government and certain academics.
Having a human body farm in the UK could be the difference between putting a murderer behind bars after a successful conviction in court – or letting them kill again, according to Professor Cassella.
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There are already about 10 human body farms in four countries around the world – one each in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands and the rest in the US. Pictured is the one in Australia, on the outskirts of Sydney
'Body farms' are research facilities where the decomposition of human remains are studied. Pictured is a human skull at the world's original 'body farm' in Knoxville, Tennessee
John Cassella (pictured) is a professor of forensic science at Institute of Technology in Sligo, Ireland. He told MailOnline that 'criminals must be just rubbing their hands with glee' because of the UK's failure to set up a body farm and help murder cases with new research
'It seems to me the criminals must be just rubbing their hands with glee,' Professor Cassella told MailOnline.
'I’ve been banging my head so bloody hard for the last 15 years to say "this is scientific endeavour, it's cutting edge".
'If we could do the research to catch one person and stop them from killing other people – what's one person’s life worth that we save who wasn't raped, wasn't murdered wasn't buried and given no burial of such that their family could grieve?
'It's a bit like we know more about space than we do about the deep sea – we know more about the living than we do about the dead.
'So we're interested in asking those key questions about the dead and death – and not just for forensic reasons, also for humanitarian reasons and the basic biological sciences.'
When he was at the forensics department of Staffordshire University in Stoke-on-Trent, Professor Cassella co-authored a 2019 study entitled 'Why does the UK need a Human Taphonomy Facility?', which argues the benefits of a body farm for the public and the scientific community.
In the same year, a site for a body farm in the UK was reportedly selected, according to documents obtained by Nature under the Freedom of Information Act.
The documents didn't reveal the exact site, but suggested the facility was being developed on land owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) – possibly in Wiltshire.
A researcher walks through the only human taphonomy facility in Australia. The secret bush site outside of Sydney hosts corpses are left to decompose to help police solve murders
Corpses are lined up in the metal pens in the remote Texan field as part of scientific research
An MoD site would potentially host the body farm on behalf of another organisation that owns the facility, such as the forensic department of a local university.
MoD land would be ideal as it would 'readymade', Professor Cassella said, and secure enough to keep out wildlife and 'idiots who want to steal an arm or a head'.
Professor Cassella declined to comment on the MoD's current involvement, but said plans to set up the UK's first body farm are now 'dead in the water'.
MailOnline put in a new Freedom of Information request to MoD for an update, but it said no information in scope of the request was held.
The first body farm, established in 1981, is based at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Pictured is Dr Richard Jantz, director of the University of Tennesse's Forensic Anthropology Center, aka the 'Body Farm', where dead bodies are studied in various states of decay
There are already about 10 human body farms in four countries around the world – one each in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands and the rest in the US.
In these countries, members of the public who want their body to be put to use for research purposes after their death can sign up to carry a donor card, much like for organ donation.
But for the UK, establishing a body farm has been opposed by academics, despite the fact that the 'public had no issue with it', Professor Cassella told