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No plans for compulsory DNA database
The Home Office has no plans to create a compulsory DNA database, despite the high-profile convictions of Mark Dixie and Steve Wright.
- By Caroline Gammell and Richard Edwards /The Telegraph Group Limited
- Published: 01:13 February 24, 2008
London: The Home Office has no plans to create a compulsory DNA database, despite the high-profile convictions of Mark Dixie and Steve Wright.
Wright, who was convicted of murdering five women in Ipswich, and Dixie, who will serve at least 34 years for killing Sally Anne Bowman, were both captured after their DNA was taken after unrelated offences.
A senior police officer called for a new nationwide DNA database after details emerged about how close killer Mark Dixie came to escaping justice for the murder of Bowman.
Detective Superintendent Stuart Cundy, who led the investigation, spoke out as Dixie was sentenced for life.
He said every adult in Britain should be placed on a national register to help fight crime.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) responded by saying the "time was right" for formal discussions on the idea.
Tony Lake, the Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police and chairman of Acpo's forensics panel, said: "It would have clear benefits as a crime-fighting tool. Other considerations involve cost and whether this is something we want as a society."
But the government has said a compulsory database would raise "significant practical and ethical issues".
DNA samples and fingerprints are already taken on a routine basis upon most arrests.
A Home Office spokesman said: "There are no government plans to introduce a universal compulsory, or voluntary, national DNA Database and to do so would raise significant practical and ethical issues."
Dixie, 37, who stabbed the 18-year-old model seven times before having sex with her dying body, started attacking women while still a teenager.
He was deported from Australia in 1999 but, crucially, officials did not pass on any intelligence suggesting he was a danger, although he had been linked to at least two sex offences there.
British police are convinced Dixie has murdered before. Cundy said: "I am all for a DNA register, set up with the appropriate safeguards. If we had one, we could have identified Sally Anne's murderer in 24 hours, which means we could have protected everyone else out there."
The officer stressed this was a personal view, but his plea has the backing of Sally Anne's mother, Linda, who has previously petitioned for the move.
Dixie, a chef, killed Bowman in what a pathologist described as the most "horrific" attack he had seen in his 20-year career. Judge Gerald Gordon said what Dixie had done was "so awful and so repulsive" it was not worth repeating at the Old Bailey as he sentenced him.
Although the evidence against Dixie was overwhelming, senior detectives believe he pleaded not guilty to have the "thrill" of his crime being played out in court.
Bowman's family, including father Paul and sisters Danielle, Nicole and Michelle, cheered as the jury returned their unanimous guilty verdict after three and a half hours of deliberation.
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