|
|
Translate:
              European court threat to British DNA database
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
In his first interview since standing down as chairman of the database, Tony Lake gave warning that serious crimes would go undetected if judges barred police from storing the DNA of people who had been arrested but not subsequently convicted of an offence. Mr Lake, Chief Constable of Lincolnshire, urged ministers to consider all possible options if the court’s ruling went against Britain. “The law is the law. We have signed up to the European principles and I appreciate that it is very difficult for any government, but we must understand the level of risk that is created automatically when you start to filter and purge your DNA database,” he said. Ministers’ options are limited because the case is being heard by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, the rulings of which are binding and impossible to challenge. The case was brought by two men from Sheffield who were arrested in 2001 and had their fingerprints and DNA samples taken. They argue that, because they were not convicted of any crime, the samples should now be destroyed. Their case has been rejected in the British courts but was heard by the European Court of Human Rights in February. A judgment is expected later this year. Mr Lake, 57, who retires next week, said that the case was the most pertinent issue in forensic science and he dismissed the debate about creating a universal DNA database as a red herring. “You could argue that this is a manifesto issue. If there is a debate about expanding the database, then there should be a national debate about the consequences of cutting it. The country must understand that there will be an increased risk to our ability to solve crime. “It would be potentially devastating. Without a doubt, it would prevent the detection of a variety of crimes, including some of the most serious.” More than 8,000 people who were on the database because they had been arrested, but not convicted, have been found guilty of subsequent offences after their DNA was recovered from crime scenes. The cases have involved about 14,000 offences, including 114 murders, 55 attempted murders and 116 rapes. The database holds 4.5 million samples and is by far the largest in Europe. About 60,000 personal samples are added to it every month and further unknown profiles are loaded from crime scenes. DNA samples, which are always supported in court by other corroborating evidence, played a key role in the conviction of Steve Wright, who killed five prostitutes in Ipswich, and Mark Dixie, the killer of the model Sally Anne Bowman. It has also helped police to solve “cold cases” including rape cases dating back decades. Mr Lake said: “There have been spectacular results in cases where lives have been shattered, where women have been afraid to walk out their front doors for fear of bumping into the man who raped them 10, 15 or 20 years before.” The greatest unforeseen benefit of DNA advances, however, has been in solving so-called volume crime, such as burglaries, assaults and car thefts. Mr Lake said: “The public expectation now is that crime will be solved, not by the presence of witnesses, but because there will be DNA. It has stolen the limelight but we get more convictions through finding fingerprints. Other areas of forensic science are opening.” His fear is that an adverse ruling would not only hurt the DNA database but also restrict the use of fingerprints and other intelligence databases. “The question would quickly become. ‘To what extent does the ruling apply to other databases?’.” The key issue for Mr Lake is whether the court will consider the rights of victims properly. “People will accuse me of playing the emotional card. Well, I don’t do emotional blackmail. You have to think the unthinkable. I would not like to be the officer who has to look a parent in the eye and say, ‘We could have prevented this’.” Equal treatment The future of the world’s most sophisticated DNA database is being considered by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, which draws its members from the nations of the Council of Europe. The 17-judge panel trying the DNA case includes some with limited or no experience of DNA technology. The complainants, Michael Marper, 45, and a 19-year-old man from Sheffield referred to only as S, are relying on article 8 (right to private life) and article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the convention. The teenager had his DNA taken when he was arrested in 2001 and charged with attempted robbery. He was acquitted. Mr Marper, 45, was charged with harassing his partner but the case was later dropped. They argue “that as people without convictions who are no longer suspected criminals, they should be treated in the same way as the rest of the unconvicted population of the UK”. Have Your Say: European court threat to British DNA database Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. One Response to “European court threat to British DNA database”
Related News
|
Activists condemn Tories' marriage plan Last post by Unregistered @ 03:02 PM Go to Forum
| Latest Topics
Howard Zinn: “I Don’t Care” If 9/11 Was An Inside Job Last post by Unregistered @ 02:49 PM Hey Ashley! Last post by Maximus V @ 02:33 PM EUROSCROTE (MEPs) Theive TAX money for their own pleasures Last post by Unregistered @ 01:29 PM NAZI Blackwater key suspects in California wldfires Last post by Unregistered @ 01:12 PM NAZI BUSH's Golden State, not so golden now Last post by Unregistered @ 01:05 PM Surprise! Organic Beekeepers Reporting Zero Losses Last post by EnergRecruit @ 01:02 PM Black triangle UFOs 'not piloted by alien beings' Last post by goodshoessale @ 12:56 PM What are the sources for your favorite uncommon things? Last post by Francisco @ 12:29 PM Entire BNP membership list goes online Last post by Unregistered @ 10:50 AM  Email This Page To A Friend Latest Headlines
More World News  Archive |
The views expressed in the RINF news wire and newsletter are the sole responsibility of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster. RINF.COM: Breaking News & Alternative Media is Copyleft - Copy & Distribute Freely. News Forum |
By 
Loading ...
Under Nu-labour we have gone from a society where someone was considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, to a society where every single person of any age is considered guilty. We are bombarded daily with news about ’suspected terrorist plots’ (most of which are probably not real) and how easy it is to catch crooks by using DNA. The police are taking the lazy way out by concentrating on solving crimes which probably would not have happened if the ‘public - police covenant’ of mutual trust had not broken down so completely. Most members of the public will not go out of their way to help the police anymore - they will probably take your DNA if you have any contact with the police at all, no matter how innocent you are.