A Firing Squad Execution Wall On Alderney

After seeing what appeared to be an intensely
bullet damaged wall inside Fort Platte Saline on the north shore of Alderney in
2019, Piers decided to seek consent to make a mould of the wall. Permission was
given by the Board of Directors of Blanchards, the construction materials
company which leases the fort from the States of Alderney.



Part of the way through the moulding process Piers was given a bullet by Haydn
Bateman, a Blanchards employee, who had removed it with his pen knife from the
wall several months earlier. An “Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy” test
was carried out by SureScreen Scientifics (a forensic metallurgical laboratory
in the UK) which compared the bullet lead to WWII

era German and British ammunition. The results showed a clear match with a
German Mauser rifle ammunition from time of the German occupation.



For further understanding of the bullet damage scatter pattern on the wall, two
of the most respected forensic scientists in the United States, Nicholas
Petraco and Peter Diaczuk came to Alderney in late June 2022. Their remit was
to “Ascertain, within a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, the
mechanisms and actions by which the subject wall was damaged” With over 550
legal and court room expert forensic testimonies between them, with
specialisations in gunshot analysis and crime scene recreation, Nicholas and
Peter set about their task.



Eight months later they stated their findings with an impressive degree of
certainty:

In
the opinion of the undersigned, the questioned interior concrete wall
designated SW1 contains a Firing Squad Execution Pattern discussed and revealed
during this study. Thus, SW1 possess the necessary physical evidence to be
designated a Firing Squad Execution Site.