Innocent people could have DNA records removed

Nearly a million innocent people could have their records removed from the national DNA database after a court ruled that holding them breached their human rights.

The European Court of Human Rights severely criticised police powers to take and hold samples from suspects even if they are released or cleared.

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Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was disappointed with the ruling and would consider it carefully before responding.

Human rights groups welcomed the judgment and called for the Government to follow Scotland where police routinely destroy profiles of those either acquitted or not charged.

In a unanimous ruling, the Strasbourg court condemned the "blanket and indiscriminate nature" of powers given to police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The ruling could have important implications for fingerprint databases as the judges said holding innocent people's print details could also infringe their rights.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty which helped fund the case, urged ministers to let Parliament debate new database rules.

"This is one of the most strongly-worded judgments that Liberty has ever seen from the Court of Human Rights," she said.

"That court has used human rights principles and common sense to deliver the privacy protection of innocent people that the British Government has shamefully failed to deliver."

The court ruled in a case brought by two Sheffield men who asked that their DNA records be destroyed.

Michael Marper, 45, was arrested in March 2001 and charged with harassing his partner, but the case was dropped three months later after the two were reconciled. He had no previous convictions.

In a separate case, a 19-year-old named in court only as "S" was arrested and charged with attempted robbery in January 2001 when he was 12, but he was cleared five months later.

The men asked that their fingerprints, DNA samples and profiles be destroyed.

South Yorkshire Police refused, saying the details would be retained "to aid criminal investigation".

The men lost in the House of Lords, which ruled that keeping the information was not illegal under the Criminal Justice and Police Act, and did not breach human rights.

But earlier this year, when the cases came before the Human Rights Court, lawyers for the two men argued that keeping the DNA of innocent citizens left them under a cloud of suspicion.

The judges said decisions on collecting DNA data needed to balance the benefits with "important private-life interests" and should weigh up the age of the defendant, their alleged offence, and whether or not the records should be held indefinitely.

They said: "The protection afforded by Article 8 (right to a private and family life) would be unacceptably weakened if the use of modern scientific techniques in the criminal justice system were allowed at any cost and without carefully balancing the potential benefits of the extensive use of such techniques against important private-life interests."

Ms Smith said: "DNA and fingerprinting is vital to the fight against crime, providing the police with more than 3,500 matches a month, and I am disappointed by the European Court of Human Rights' decision."

"The Government mounted a robust defence before the Court and I strongly believe DNA and fingerprints play an invaluable role in fighting crime and bringing people to justice.

"The existing law will remain in place while we carefully consider the judgment."

The ruling does not mean police will be forced to delete the 850,000 records of innocent people - including tens of thousands of children - immediately.

But individuals could challenge the holding of their genetic data in the British courts and puts immense pressure on the Government to amend the rules in coming months.

Chief Constable Chris Sims who speaks on forensics for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said the ruling would have a "profound impact" on policing.

A breakdown of 200,000 database samples from people not charged or convicted found they threw up 8,500 matches to evidence found at crime scenes, he said. The records were linked to more than 114 murders, 55 attempted murders and 116 rapes.

Dr Helen Wallace, of campaign group Genewatch called for clear limits on how long DNA could be kept.

"We obviously welcome this judgment and it is clear that the Government has got it wrong.

"They should never have collected the DNA of innocent people in the first place.

"What we need now is legislation that makes it clear there are limits to how long people's DNA should be kept."

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said the verdict reinforced Conservative attacks on DNA data retention.

He said: "This vindicates all that we have been saying about the Government's wrong-headed approach to this issue, which has caused so much resentment amongst the law-abiding majority and done so much to undermine confidence in the criminal justice system.

"The Home Secretary must now come forward and say what steps she will now take, given that the profiles of more than a million innocent people are currently on the UK's DNA database.

"We would have a parliamentary debate about the database and put it on a statutory basis."