New DNA technique brings sex offender to justice
New DNA technique brings sex offender to justice
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Wednesday, 02, Aug 2006 06:41
A recently developed forensic technique has helped to prosecute a sex offender today after Duncan Turner was sentenced to at least two and a half years in prison for a sexual assault in Birmingham last year.
Developed by the Forensic Science Service (FSS), the pendulum list searching (PLS) method allowed police to apprehend Turner after initial forensic investigations yielded multiple DNA samples.
The Birmingham resident pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman on August 28th last year as she walked alone along a subway between Livery Street and Great Charles Street.
The FSS believe that its new method could benefit four per cent of all criminal cases, especially those involving multiple DNA samples.
West Midlands police investigating the crime originally extracted a DNA sample from a pair of sunglasses, but PLS was able to match the combined DNA to 500 of the most likely individual samples on the National DNA Database, which in turn led police to Turner.
Kate Jones, deputy senior intelligence analyst at FSS's forensic intelligence bureau, said: "We are delighted with the result. It is great to know that we can make such contributions to the criminal justice system through advances in DNA techniques and send a clear message to
offenders that DNA technology is constantly evolving."