Fingerprint test that reveals a criminal's lifestyle to be used in court 'in months'

There's a lot of scientific work going on, with Sheffield Hallam University and West Yorkshire Police visiting crime scenes looking at how this technique could fit in with the work flow of collecting conventional forensic evidence and other types of evidence, such as DNA and fibres,” the Home Office’s senior technical specialist, Stephen Bleay, told the BBC.

“I think it's fairly close to bottoming out all the questions that could be raised in court. It's possible this is only months away from being used on casework
The researchers say it can provide “an insight into the criminal's state of mind at the time of committing the offence”, and “crucial background information” about their activities ahead of the crime taking place.

"Mapping such 'story telling' substances directly onto the identifying fingerprint ridges will potentially generate circumstantial, associative or even corroborative evidence on the suspect’s lifestyle and activities, allowing more informed criminal investigations and judicial debates," they wrote in a research paper published earlier this year.

"Importantly, detecting drug metabolites would indicate drug 'abuse' rather than 'handling', which pertain to two very different forensic scenarios."