To: Electronic Telegraph <et.letters@telegraph.co.uk>
Re: The first step towards a universal DNA databank
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001
   
 

Dear Sir/Madam,

In the light of the article in today's Telegraph, in which you report the changed attitude of Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the British pioneer of genetic fingerprinting, towards the creation of a "universal" DNA databank, perhaps you will now consider publishing the letter I sent you a few weeks ago in response to your report on the "partners in rape" case. (DNA tests for all will cut crime, says pioneer, 19 February 2001; 'Wicked' sex killer may have many more victims, 2 February 2001).

Your most recent report on the "partners in rape" case highlights the urgent need for the establishment of a DNA databank for all citizens.

If a universal DNA databank had been in existence, David Mulcahy and John Duffy would both have been caught and sent to prison after their first rape, and with the certainty of being caught, they would not have dared commit another. As it is, they were free to produce a long, horrific trail of incomprehensible suffering, murder and devastated lives.

While at the moment it is not politically possible, or even desirable, to force everyone to provide a sample of their DNA, what the government can do, is to establish a "voluntary" DNA database for those of us who wish to do all they possibly can to help solve and - more importantly - help prevent such horrific crimes from occurring.

Obviously, those who voluntarily offer their DNA are not very likely to be people who will commit serious crimes, but the more people that can be excluded from suspicion the easier it becomes for the police to narrow down their search and catch the culprits.

As the voluntary DNA databank expands over time it will become easier and easier to solve serious crime. Eventually it will evolve into the universal DNA databank that is required, making serial rape and murder a thing of the past, and greatly reducing the incidence of many other horrendous crimes .