The tragic case of Sean Hodgson, released last week after serving 27 years for the murder of Teresa de Simone, a crime which he did not commit, raises several issues in relation to our judicial system. The one that baffles me, though, is why - when we have such a powerful ‘instrument’ as DNA - are we not doing more to utilise it?
Personally, I do not see why we do not retain a DNA sample of all babies born, from this day forward. Clearly, not all crimes can be solved through DNA but, a significant number can be, making it worthwhile taking these samples at birth.
For one, it will save an enormous amount of taxpayers money through reduced time spent on crime detection but, more importantly, it will help the families of victims of some crimes. This is something that I fear we pay insufficient regard to; instead worrying ourselves that these perpetrators are protected. However, I can hear the Human Rights lobby now, screaming that this would be an excessive and unnecessary retention of data.
Unnecessary? Since when has it been unnecessary to ensure that the correct perpetrator of a crime is brought to justice? Since when has it been unnecessary to ensure that people are not sentenced for crimes that they did not commit? Since when has it been unnecessary to minimise the heartache caused to the families of crime victims?
I’m sorry but, I thought that the Human Rights Act was there to prevent innocent people becoming unnecessary victims of ill-conceived acts by others, not to protect the perpetrators of evil crimes? For me, once you commit crimes of such magnitude you lose your human rights and I would willingly give a DNA sample tomorrow, if asked, as I have nothing to hide.
It goes without saying that Miss de Simone and Mr Hodgson are the real victims in cases such as the one to which I refer but, their families have suffered immeasurably. Using a bank of DNA, as I urged above, would minimise the risk of such a miscarriage happening again. This view is only re-inforced when I hear psychologists claiming that the Josef Fritzl’s of this world are born to commit their crimes! How scary is that?