Court cases to be reviewed over DNA concerns

London, Feb 22: A number of serious criminal cases will be reviewed by police after it was discovered that some DNA samples which could have identified the culprit might not have been properly examined.

The Association of Chief Police Officers said it would be contacting all 43 police forces in England and Wales to review cases involving Low Copy Number (LCN) samples, where only tiny traces of DNA were available.

The ability to detect LCN samples usually involved in the most serious crimes such as murder and rape has been available since 2001.

However ACPO said it had been realised at the end of last year that DNA profilers at the Home Office agency, the Forensic Science Service (FSS), had been using a different technique from scientists at other laboratories.

''We reopened a case which we had previously sent to the FSS and hadn't got a result,'' an ACPO spokeswoman said.

''When we sent it to one of the other suppliers we did get a result from the same sample which obviously set alarm bells ringing.'' Police forces will now look at all relevant cases submitted to the FSS between 2000 and 2005.

The ACPO spokeswoman said it was unclear how many cases were likely to be affected by the review.

Conservative home affairs spokesman David Davis said the problem was another example of the ''shambles'' at the Home Office.

''DNA is so central to criminal justice that this is a central failure of the criminal justice system,'' he said.

''It is also possible that dangerous offenders who were guilty could have got off, meaning they are on the streets and a risk to the public.'' It is not the first time that the work of the FSS has come in for criticism.

At the trial of two brothers found guilty of killing schoolboy Damilola Taylor last year, it emerged that crucial forensic evidence had been missed by the FSS.

Scientists missed bloodstains, one of which was clearly visible to the human eye, on the brothers' clothing during the initial police investigation and the error was only uncovered years later when the clothes were re-examined.

Reuters