Judges approve 'discriminatory' DNA retention

The country's most senior judge found himself at odds with the scientist who invented genetic fingerprinting when he ruled yesterday that police can retain DNA samples taken from people cleared during criminal investigations.

Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, said it was in the public interest for the police to have as large a database as possible in its fight against crime.

The Court of Appeal ruling was in marked contrast to comments made yesterday by the scientist credited with developing DNA fingerprinting who said police should not keep samples from suspects who are never charged in connection with an offence. Sir Alec Jeffreys, professor of genetics at Leicester University, told the British Association's Science Festival that he was "very uncomfortable" by the inclusion of this material in the police DNA database.

"That is discriminatory," said Sir Alec, "because you only have to think of the sort of people who will be arriving as suspects on such a database, with a significant over-representation of certain ethnic groups."

Lord Woolf, sitting with two other Court of Appeal judges, said the retention of DNA from unconvicted suspects was justified because it was done with the intention of preventing crime. The judges rejected appeals from a 12-year-old Sheffield boy arrested for attempted robbery, who was acquitted, and Michael Marper, 39, also from Sheffield, who had harassment charges against him dropped.The boy, who had no previous convictions, cautions or warnings, was arrested in January 2001 when his fingerprints and DNA samples were taken. After his acquittal, South Yorkshire Police wrote to his solicitors saying the Criminal Justice and Police Act gave them the right to retain fingerprints and samples to aid the fight against crime.

Mr Marper, 39, was arrested in March 2001 and when the Crown Prosecution Service decided to drop the case, his solicitors asked for the destruction of his DNA samples and fingerprints. The Chief Constable replied that it was his policy to retain the information in all cases.

Lord Woolf said the Police and Criminal Evidence Act had been amended to allow the retention of samples even though the donor had been acquitted. He said that if everyone was required to provide genetic information it would make a "dramatic contribution" to the detection of crime, but Parliament has not allowed this blanket approach.

Sir Alec said he would be in favour of a genetic database of every citizen, with "very strong" safeguards. But he warned that it should be used only as a detection tool and not for prosecution "because no database is error-free".