Sandra Laville, crime correspondent
22 Feb 2007
Over
a five-year period, the Forensic Science Service (FSS) failed to detect
tiny samples of DNA in 2,500 cases involving murders, rapes and serious
assaults. Senior officers believe that in many of those cases DNA
samples could have been found and matched to suspects, had the FSS used
different techniques that were being used by other privately run
laboratories.
They are furious at the failings
and have demanded an explanation from the FSS. The 2,500 cases will be
resubmitted for testing, either at the FSS laboratories or at private
labs. The FSS says it may find DNA in about 200 of the 2,500 cases but
admits this is merely a guess. Hundreds of suspects who have escaped
justice as a result of the mistakes are likely to be rearrested and
charged if the new tests provide DNA results.
Tony
Lake, chief constable of Lincolnshire police and the Association of
Chief Police Officers' spokesman on forensic issues, said the cases in
which the FSS had failed to find tiny specks of DNA involved the most
serious crimes. "This is about not getting results when it might be
expected that there was DNA, rather than getting a result that was
wrong. This type of DNA analysis of tiny amounts of DNA is carried out
normally in the most serious crimes. We were not best pleased. We were
not impressed. We rely on our forensic providers to have the highest
standards."
The failings were uncovered last
year, during a review of the 2001 Nickell murder investigation. Ms
Nickell was stabbed to death on Wimbledon Common in July 1992. Colin
Stagg was acquitted of murder in 1994 after police were criticised for
trapping him into a confession.
During a second
inquiry into the killing in 2001 the FSS re-examined items recovered
from the murder scene. But in a test known as low copy number (LCN),
involving microscopic samples, they missed tiny samples of DNA that had
been taken from her body. When Scotland Yard carried out its review of
the inquiry last year another forensic laboratory using a different
technique discovered the DNA that the FSS had missed.
Mr
Lake was asked to carry out a review to establish the scale of the
failings. He wrote to all chief constables yesterday asking them to
examine their files for any cases between 2000 and 2005 that have not
resulted in a conviction, in which small samples were sent to the FSS
and returned negative, when a positive result might have been expected.
He said yesterday that after 2005 the standards at the FSS raised no concerns as different techniques were being used.
The
Home Office yesterday denied accusations from David Davis, the shadow
home secretary, of a cover-up. A spokeswoman said: "On operational
advice from the police, the initial stage of this operation has been
kept confidential. As soon as ministers became aware of this issue, they
asked Acpo to undertake an operational review to secure the nature and
extent of it and to take remedial action. Acpo is very close to
completing that work and has found no evidence that we should be
concerned about standards being used today."
Kathy
Lee, a spokeswoman for the FSS, said scientists estimated that of the
2,500 cases that needed retesting, around 200 were likely to provide a
positive match with a suspect. But she admitted this was just a guess.
She said the errors had occurred because the rapid advances in
technology meant DNA could now be found on tiny residues. "This happened
when LCN was in its infancy," she said.
