Things have moved on since the time of Inspector Morse. Commit a crime these days and as surely as night follows day, you will leave tiny traces at the scene - and the chances are that forensics expert Tiernan Coyle will soon be there to find them.

Mr Coyle, 34, who found the evidence that eventually convicted brothers Danny and Ricky Preddie of the manslaughter of Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor in November 1999, has set up Contact Traces at Begbroke Science Park.

Currently fitting out a laboratory at the science park, it is the only independent company in the UK providing a specialist service in the field of forensic fibre examination, and the only one with experience of a technique called fibre mapping'.

Mr Coyle, who worked until November for Culham company Forensic Alliance, said: "I anticipate that about 85-90 per cent of my work will come from the police, or from defence or prosecution counsels, with the rest coming from private customers, such as large pharmaceutical companies."

He reckons the total market for forensic services (including work with DNA) in England and Wales is worth about £225m a year, with his own field of fibre tracing alone worth about £16m - of which he hopes to take about ten per cent within the first three years of operating.

The forensic analysis market has grown fast during the past decade, thanks to Home Office regulation changes, the growth of the DNA database - the largest in the EU, thanks to UK law allowing police to keep DNA records of anyone arrested for a recordable offence, whether or not they are subsequently convicted - and the astonishing advances in forensic techniques.

Mr Coyle, who says he had set his heart on becoming a forensics expert from an early age, took a post-graduate degree in 1994, in analytical science from the University of Strathclyde - then one of only a few universities offering such a course.

After a spell in Singapore working for a major pharmaceutical company, he joined Forensic Alliance in Culham - now called LGC Forensics.

While working with Forensic Alliance, he became involved with the Damilola case as an expert witness for the prosecution.

After the first trial of the Preddie brothers, in which the jury failed to agree a manslaughter verdict, it emerged that state-owned Forensic Science Services, which handles the majority of forensic work in England and Wales, had missed a blood stain on a shoe belonging to one of the defendants.

Mr Coyle was called in to re-analyse the police evidence while working for LGC Forensics. He found microscopic fibres in the stain that connected the brothers to the crime scene.

He coolly and systematically dismisses any suggestion that the police, as his future major customer, could ever, even in theory, lean' on him to produce the forensic result they want by threatening to withdraw their custom.

He said: "In court, expert witnesses, whether for the prosecution or for the defence, are subjected to closer examination of their evidence than probably anywhere else in the country. They pay for a service, not a result."

He added: "In any case, one of my reasons for setting up Contact Traces is that I want to be sure of quality and to maintain complete control".

One unforeseen difficulty, potentially both frustrating and expensive, that has hit Mr Coyle even before his new business gets properly under way, comes courtesy of the Government - which has delayed indefinitely the date on which it will issue licences to professionals such as him.

Without the licence, he cannot become fully casework operational, but he is philosophical about the delay.

He said: "I have no regrets. In fact there are a lot of positive aspects to the delay. It means I can prepare even better."

Among the services that he is preparing to offer is Fibre Mapping. This is a time-saving system which he has helped to develop, together with former employer LGC Forensics.

It enables him to identify a particular type of fibre under the microscope, and then carry out a computer search for similar fibres.

Before setting up his laboratory at Begbroke, Mr Coyle thought long and hard about where to locate his new business.

He was swayed by the fact that Begbroke Nano, a firm with which he had already co-operated when working for LGC Forensics, was already there.

He said: "There were many reasons why Contact Traces chose the Centre for Innovation and Enterprise as its base for operations.

"Foremost was having access to the unparalleled levels of expertise and instrumentation available within Begbroke Nano and other departments of Oxford University."

Begbroke Nano is part of Oxford Materials Characterisation Services (OMCS), established in October 2002 as a point of contact for those wishing to access facilities and expertise within Oxford University's Department of Materials.

It is a nanotechnology centre of excellence, funded by the Government's Department of Trade and Industry.

All in all, the speed with which the business of fibre analysis is developing, coupled with the growth of the DNA database, is making life ever harder for criminals.

And even those criminals who committed crimes long ago can no longer rest in peace. Police are trawling through old evidence, using the new methods, to catch them.

n Contact: Contact Traces, 01865 854880, www.contacttraces.com